358/365 New life

This sight stirs an excitement in me that I've been anticipating for months: the first plants and flowers are venturing into spring.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of spring and summer. I like winter up to a point, which usually happens around January 2, but I definitely favor the warmer months.

Like anyone, I've speculated about where I'd live if I were to leave Indiana. The verdict? Unless I had a compelling reason to move farther north -- like an exodus of family -- I'd go to a warmer climate. I could much more easily face the idea of more spring and summer than more snow and bone-chilling temperatures.

Indiana is a nice compromise, but the winter is still long enough that I'm starving for spring. And here it comes...

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125, f/5.6 at ISO 250 at about 6:00 p.m.

357/365 Drink substitution

About a year ago, I weaned myself off of having a daily Diet Coke. I eased into the change by drinking caffeinated iced tea with lunch instead of the evil soda, and the transition actually wasn't so hard.

I still love an occasional Diet Coke -- with Mexican food, pizza, certain headaches -- but I'll now go weeks without having one. Every once in a while, there's nothing that can measure up to the crisp bite of cold carbonation.

I can't really say that my life has changed without it, since I only had one can per day to start with, but I know the iced tea is better for me.

Man, this makes me thirsty just writing about it...

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 640

356/365 Reluctant greeter

We all feel different after a big haircut, and Buster is no different.

He's always especially cuddly after a grooming appointment, partially because he's relieved to be home, but also because he's now walking around with less fur and it's 35 degrees outside.

Poor guy. But it's so cute on him.

So when I got home from work yesterday, after his quarterly trip to the groomer's, he didn't even want to get out of his bed to greet me. He was curled up in a tight little ball, nose to tail, thought about getting up, hopped out of his bed, then hopped right back in and snuggled down.

He kept his nose buried while I got some photos of him, and he just followed me with his eyes or ignored me altogether.

I don't blame him. If I'd been comfortable in a warm bed by a fire, I wouldn't have wanted to get up, either.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 1600, shot in black and white at about 6:00 p.m.

355/365 Lonely bird's nest

I'm don't necessarily agree with the fact that Indiana observes daylight savings time with New York, not Chicago, but I do love having more evening daylight. With that comes sunsets after I've arrived home from work, instead of while I'm still in my car.

Yesterday's was beautiful. I stepped outside for this shot and found this lonely, small bird's nest as a focal point. I don't know if it has hung on through the winter months or if it's new, but it looks awfully unprotected on this bare tree.

The birds are gradually returning, which is a welcome sound all day long, but especially in the morning. It's so still and quiet when they fly south, so their song upon return makes me appreciate their presence.

And that means spring!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 640 at about 8:00.

354/365 Jelly beans abound

Mmm... jelly beans.

As soon as the Valentine's Day sun set, I started scouting the aisles of various stores in search of Brach's jelly beans.

I don't understand why those marketers insist on making these jelly beans disappear after Easter every year. Yes, they design special packaging for Easter, but nothing beyond that qualifies them as a solely-Easter candy.

After all, you can usually find marshmallow Peeps year-round. Those multiply like rabbits in the spring, but are often reserved a small shelf space in all four seasons.

This jelly-bean scarcity forces me to buy multiple bags at a time and hoard them when they do appear. And then, when they're gone, moan about their disappearance for the other 10 months of the year.

But now beans abound.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 400

353/365 Family pie

I'm generally not a fan of pie.

Except for this one.

It's a secret family recipe that uses a graham-cracker crust and is absolutely wonderful. Last night I realized that one thing I like about it is the fact that it's not too sweet or rich, so I can actually eat the whole piece.

Yes, I'm one of those strange people who does have a limit to her sweet threshold.

Chocolate pie? Forget it, I can't handle it. Fruit pie? No thanks, I'll take a crisp instead. Sugar cream pie, the official state pie of Indiana? Doesn't do anything for me.

This family pie only gets made a few times a year for special occasions, namely my parents' anniversary and Dad's birthday. He gets a pie to himself for each event, which evolved because Chase's idea of a "piece" involves consuming 1/4 of the pie at a time. Twice a day, at lunch and dinner.

So Dad's special pie had a way of disappearing before he could even get to it. Now there's a Dad pie and a community pie. This photo is of the piece sliver that Chase left me of the anniversary pie.

It may not have been much, but it was oh-so good.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 400

352/365 Swaying in the wind

At the end of a gorgeous Indiana weekend that gave us a great taste of Spring, the wind howled on Sunday night.

I guess that's what they mean when they say March comes in like a lion.

I got this photo by shooting through the window on one side of the front door. The shutter speed is long enough that you can see the blurred motion of the smaller limbs in contrast to the stationary trunk of the tree.

Usually, my morning drive on the day following a storm is used for checking out storm damage, but with the Daylight Savings Time switch on Sunday morning, it was too dark to see anything. Luckily, it didn't seem as though we'd had any damage.

Here comes Spring...

Camera: Canon 40D 2.5s, f/29 at ISO 100 at about 7:30 p.m.

351/365 Before and after

[FYI: girlie post ahead.]

It was time for a change.

I've been letting my hair grow out for a couple of years, not knowing how long I'd let it go, but loving the fact that I could get it all into a ponytail.

But after a while you just get sick of it. And once I've made the decision to do something about it, I want to do it now. That day came on Saturday.

I had my hairdresser cut 4-5 inches off my hair, and it feels great. I'd love to be one of those women who grows her hair out and donates 10+ inches of it to Locks of Love or Beautiful Lengths, but I'll never make it. I'll have to make my charitable contributions in other ways.

I ascribe to the theory that once you've known the wonders of short(er) hair, you'll never go back.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 indoors at about 11:00 a.m., and Canon 40D, with on-camera fill flash, 1/250s, f/5.6 at ISO 100 at about 4:00 p.m.

350/365 I'd like s'more, please

I'm admittedly a germophobe, especially at this time of year: cold and flu season. And when you work in an office, in fairly close quarters with lots of people, sickness spreads rather quickly.

So I'm conscious of touching door handles. Copier buttons. Conference-room and lunch tables. Refrigerator doors. You name it, I'm aware of my hand on that object that may have recently been touched by someone carrying seasonal germs.

It's a little obsessive, I know. And my hands, worn raw by washing them dozens of times a day, show it.

But here's something ironic. My parents had a bonfire going on Friday night after dinner, so I grabbed all the s'more fixings -- graham crackers, chocolate bars, and big marshmallows -- and headed out to join them.

I found a dead limb, broke off a five-foot branch, and speared glorious, toasted marshmallows.

Bottom line: it doesn't bother me in the slightest to eat a marshmallow off a stick, which may have a little dirt and bark still stuck to it.

I guess it just proves that I'm a country girl at heart.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 1000 at about 6:45 p.m.

349/365 Solitaire

What is it about playing solitaire on the computer that is so very addicting? Once you start, you have to play until you win, because otherwise you feel incomplete. Or so I've been told.

One aspect that I enjoy about playing electronically instead of by hand is the ease with which I can move stacks of cards. It's so much neater when you can just click, drag, and release.

That doesn't explain the addictive nature of the game, but it's definitely an enjoyable part.

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/15s, f/4 at ISO 800

348/365 Construction project

As a person who knows very little about construction, it's interesting to watch this scene out my window at work every day.

My office window faces a main road, and across the street is a big construction project in-progress. For the last two months, the workers haven't seemed to be doing anything but pushing dirt around. But in the last week or two, they seem to be making some progress.

Take two days ago: a cement mixer came in and spread what I'm guessing was lime. A guy in a different machine followed him and broke up the dirt, distributing the lime into the ground farther.

Then this tanker came in and sprayed water over the whole area. After that, they smoothed out the dirt and started surveying the area.

I still have no idea what they're doing, but it's an interesting process to watch. I have to turn around and check it out every once in a while when a new noise catches my attention.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 11:00 a.m.

347/365 New game

My own personal Blokus has arrived, and I haven't even had time to play it yet. It's sitting on the kitchen table, begging to be broken in, but the week has just been too busy to fit it in yet.

The pieces are shiny, clear, and for the time being have zero fingerprints on them. I don't intend to keep them that way, but it makes for a good photograph.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 400

346/365 Venus blazing

I looked in the sky last week for a glimpse of Comet Lulin with no luck. This pale green comet was supposed to be visible with binoculars, but on the nights I tried looking, either the light pollution or cloud cover obscured my view.

But in the opposite direction on the last two nights, Venus has been absolutely stunning. It looks like a fluorescent bulb in the sky.

In this photo, you can see the fainter star trails near the top of the frame, and Venus is the bright white streak in the middle. You can see it unaided; all you have to do is look directly west after sunset, and you can't miss it.

Camera: Canon 40D, about 15 minutes, f/8 at ISO 100 around 8:30 p.m.

345/365 Fresh grapes

March is here! March is here! March is here!

I know it's often a bad idea to wish for time to pass speedily, but I am so relieved that we're done with January and February. Those two months are some of the most difficult of the entire year, and we've now made it.

March brings its own challenges, from snow or ice storms one week to tornadoes the next, but I can roll with that because it means the times are changing.

Eating fresh grapes made me think of spring, so that had to be my photo of the day.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/160s, f/2.8 at ISO 250

344/365 Cooking spree

I've been in a cooking mood for the last several weeks, and it escalated this weekend.

It started with attempting to replicate Hardee's cinnamon raisin biscuits at home. I googled the phrase, found a few recipes, and chose one to try on Saturday morning. The result? Close but definitely needs tweaking.

The morning's biscuits didn't damper my urge to cook, so I decided to make homemade pizza for dinner. I make the dough in the bread machine, divide it into three sections, and make individual personal pizzas. It's absolutely fantastic. The part that keeps me from making it more often is it takes at least two hours from start to finish, so you really have to have time and plan ahead.

I'd become completely excited for the cinnamon raisin biscuits, and when they didn't turn out as perfectly as I'd hoped, it left my taste for cinnamon and raisin unsatiated. So after lunch, I pulled out a cookie cookbook and made oatmeal raisin cookies, a recipe that included cinnamon. Yum!

What to make next?

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 400