145/365 Thank you, WFMS!

I've been a devoted listener of WFMS since at least second grade.

That's a long time to be a devotee, so it seems fitting that I should be rewarded occasionally, doesn't it?

While I was driving to work on Monday morning, the morning DJs played a game during which they played snippets of three individual celebrities talking, in normal conversation. Each snippet lasted around two seconds. They call it the "Secret Stars."

There are times when I don't have a clue about any of them, or I can only guess one or two. But this time, I knew all three. I waited while caller after caller got the answers wrong, and then I picked up my phone to give it a try, expecting the usual busy signal.

But it rang. It rang about five times, then the lead DJ answered and said, "Hello, WFMS, who's this?"

I gave my name, identified the three celebrities (Adam Sandler, Sharon Osbourne, and Eddie Murphy), and won! I couldn't believe it!

And the best part? I hadn't even really been paying attention to what I was playing for. And it wasn't until Thursday, when I heard them play the game again, that I knew: Two tickets to the Jason Aldean sound-check party before his concert at the State Fair. His new CD.

And, one of the best prizes I could have ever hoped for -- two tickets to Jason Aldean's concert with Keith Urban!

What a fantastic way to start the week!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 12:30 p.m.

144/365 Indiana sweet corn

Mmm, Indiana sweet corn. It's so wonderfully tender, sweet, and juicy. Even the Pioneer Woman was raving about a batch of Indiana sweet corn this week, and she lives all the way in Oklahoma.

I can't say that I've ever had corn in any other state for the sake of comparison, but I do know this is excellent.

Hey, Indiana is known for its corn, so it should be good, right? If we're going to be labeled as rednecks who live surrounded by corn fields, at least let the corn be tasty. Personally, I'd rather be surrounded by corn fields than, say, cotton. Or tobacco. Or Brussels sprouts.

I'll take my fresh-from-the-garden corn on the cob over those any day.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 400 in the light from a window at about 7:00 p.m.

143/365 Handyman

I realize that many daughters think their dads are capable of hanging the moon, but I think in my case, it's especially true.

As the years pass by, as I've grown older, I've become more and more aware of how good Dad is at solving problems around the house. Not only does he have an impressive green thumb, but he's been able to fix and maintain things with latches, screws, motors, levers...

A recent example: my bathroom fan wasn't really working, and its ancient, circular installation meant it was allowing air from the attic to seep directly down into the bathroom (smelly and cold in the winter). When it became apparent that not many bathroom fans are made for circular holes anymore, Dad bought a new fan, switched the motor out of it and into the old fittings, and rigged up a damper that would allow the air to be vented out of the bathroom but not from the attic back into the room.

Brilliant, and it works!

Then, in that process, he realized the attic air wasn't circulating properly, so he figured out the problem and set out to replace the soffit vents on the outside of the house. (Which he's doing in this photo.) And the process continues from one project to the next.

I'm amazed by the ways he thinks to fix something, which often involve thinking outside the box. It makes me very proud to have a dad who does more than go to work, come home, and sit and watch TV.

And Chase seems to have inherited those fix-it genes. They're both handy guys to have around!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 8:00 p.m.

142/365 Evening mammatus clouds

In total contrast with the mood of the previous post, how is this for ominous and foreboding?

On my drive home from work last night, an evening during which scattered thunderstorms popped up all over Indiana, I looked up and saw these mammatus clouds on the northwest edge of a storm. They look a bit like upside-down mashed potatoes in the sky.

Mammatus clouds are one of the earliest odd cloud formations I remember being able to identify. When associated with thunderstorms, they sometimes signify a particularly strong cell, since it takes quite a bit of turbulence to incite their formation.

Yesterday's storms didn't cause any significant damage and weren't noticeably strong, but the atmosphere was obviously rocking!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 looking southeast at about 5:30 p.m.

141/365 Soft summer green

I have no idea what kind of bush these little flower buds belong to, but they're growing in the flower bed in front of my house and are quite cute!

I first noticed the soft, delicate leaves, but then, with my trusty macro lens in hand, I turned my attention to the teeny buds and love the result.

Each bud is about the size of a BB (as in BB gun) or, if you prefer, the plastic head of a sewing pin.

I love the monochromatic, watercolor-like quality of this photo. It looks soft and peaceful. It's the perfect end to a summer day!

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 400 at about 7:00 p.m.

140/365 A veteran's passion

My grandfathers were and are both WWII veterans. My paternal grandfather has been gone since I was in elementary school, so I didn't really get a chance to hear any of his stories. My maternal grandfather, on the other hand, is still here and thriving after nearly 89 years.

But Grandpa is one of those veterans who doesn't relate many war stories. He's not one to boast or take credit for much of anything, whether it's being a decorated veteran or helping to tile a kitchen back-splash.

But when it comes to the American flag, his true patriotic stripes show themselves.

A few years ago, one of his neighbors -- and not one he spoke to on a regular basis -- had a sorry-looking, worn, tattered American flag displayed in front of his house.

This mistreatment of the flag really bothered Grandpa, to the point where he conspired with one of his fellow vets to approach the neighbor and offer to properly dispose of the flag for him. I don't see Grandpa get worked up over many things, but this did it for him.

Ever since then, it's made me more aware of the number of tattered flags forced to hang at their post until long after their shifts should end. While I don't expect everyone to have the amount of passion as my grandfather, we should probably take a little more pride in properly caring for our national symbol.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/1600s, f/2.8 at ISO 100 at about 7:00 p.m.

139/365 The profound beauty of sunflowers

I've been waiting for these sunflowers in my aunt's garden to bloom, and boy, are they ever!

Just walking around the perimeter, photographing them from each direction, I found it interested to see that in each phase of growth, the sunflower heads looked very different -- almost like they were from different varieties of sunflowers.

The top photo is in the most advanced stage of growth among these three photos.

The photo below, of the bud not yet opened, reminds me of a venus flytrap or Audrey, the monster plant in Little Shop of Horrors. Don't you think those fine white hairs look like teeth? A little creepy...
And finally, these heads are fairly young. So pretty!

As I often do, I looked up sunflowers on Wikipedia to learn a little more about them. And if I found them interesting before then, I think they're even more so now.

A couple things in particular grabbed me: (1) in the bud stage, sunflowers are heliotropic -- meaning they move to follow the sun across the sky through the day; and (2) the beautiful pattern of spirals that you can see in the middle calculate as Fibonacci numbers. Apparently this allows the most efficient packing of seeds into the space. (And it makes me think of the DaVinci Code.)

Mother nature is amazing, isn't she?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/500 and 1/640s, f/2.8 at ISO 100 at about 7:00 p.m. in open shade and direct sunlight.

138/365 A lily by any other name

I set out to photograph the surprise lilies that have popped up in the last week, but alas, they were past their prime. So I scooted a foot to the left and focused on these small yellow flowers instead.

Surprise lilies earned their name because they pop up on tall, thin stems, and bloom in pink bunches. What I find really funny is the alternate name they've been given -- Naked Ladies.

Until this last week, I had never heard that name, and I know my eyebrows shot up in surprise when I heard it. I see how the name fits, but for now, I'll just continue to call them Surprise Lilies.

These yellow flowers? I have no idea what they are. And I don't know any funny nicknames.

So we'll just have to appreciate them for being yellow and blooming.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 320 at about 7:30 p.m.

137/365 The things we go through

It doesn't matter how long I've been having my hair highlighted, I always feel silly when the foils are in and the cream is working its magic.

You have to admit it looks funny! It may be all the rage, and I wholeheartedly agree every time Nick Arrojo dyes a person's hair on What Not to Wear, but it still has to be one of the oddest looking beauty practices around.

I sure do like the results, though. I suppose that makes it worth the time spent wearing aluminum foil on my head.

The things we go through for fashion and beauty, right?

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 indoors in incandescent lighting.

136/365 Loving a $5 deal

If there's one thing I can't seem to avoid, it's the $5 DVD bin/rack at Walmart and Target.

When I pass that display in the aisle, all my willpower goes right out the window, even when I'm pinching pennies and being very good about not buying things I just want. It's a powerful force.

I hear the voices in my head: "Five dollars! That's barely more than the cost of one rental! And if I buy it, I can watch it over and over and over -- so really, the cost per viewing is incredibly low! I'd be crazy not to look!"

My hand reaches out, and I have to dig. I have to see every single title on the rack or in the bin, even when it means digging shoulder-deep in piles of DVDs.

And I usually don't like the kind of shopping that involves digging.

To do this well, you have to have a measure of patience. Or a love of delayed gratification, take your pick. Sometimes it takes years for a movie to be discounted to $5. It has to go through the $19.99 new release wall, then the $10 bin and the $7 bin before it's considered lowly enough to just push off the shelf.

I've even started measuring my rating of movies by how much I'd pay for them. Some people use stars, I use sale racks:

Love love love the movie? I'll pay full price right when it's released so I can have it immediately and watch it over and over and over. It doesn't happen often.
Love the movie (with just one love)? It's worth $10.
Really like it? I'll take it for $7
Like it enough to pull out on a rainy day? $5 it is.
Don't like it at all? I won't even buy it at a garage sale for $0.25.

Over the last few years, because of this discount-movie obsession, I've built a great library of DVDs. I can look through the selection and name on one hand the number of DVDs I've bought full-price, when they're first released.

The number of movies I've bought for $5? That will take my fingers, toes, elbows...

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

135/365 One happy Bichon

Doesn't he look just plain happy? You can see him smiling, trotting along with his tail perked up.

Oh, to be a dog, with so few cares in the world. Able to find joy in just venturing out to the mailbox. Alongside Mommy, of course.

Because if Mommy isn't there by your side, the fun venture to the mailbox becomes a sprint on the way back to the house to get back to her.

If anyone speaks through body language, it's Buster. Tail up, tail down, smiling with tongue hanging out, anxious panting... when you've been around a dog long enough, you learn to recognize their emotions through cues like that.

Cats, though? I'm clueless. They seem much harder to read.

I like a smiling dog.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/250s, f/5.6 at ISO 100 at about 6:30 p.m.

134/365 Greener shopping

One of the "green" things I'm trying to do lately is use my own bags for shopping. The hardest part? Remembering to grab them in the car on the way into the store.

I have three random cloth tote bags I'm currently using, and this one was actually a gift in college from a girlfriend. She spent a summer in New York, and I flew out one weekend with another friend to visit. For the following Christmas, she printed a photo of NYC on iron-on paper, affixed it to the bag, and dressed it up a bit.

I've used this tote bag for just about everything under the sun. During college, it was my dedicated bag for transporting bathroom essentials back and forth between home and school. And now it's a grocery bag.

My other two shopping tote bags? A college alumni bag that came in my graduation package, and a small bag from TLC, the laser eye center where I had my corrective PRK surgery last year.

It's not the most cohesive set of bags, but they're free, they're reusable, and they cut down on the number of plastic bags that tend to pile up very quickly! Now I just need to tie a string to my finger so I remember them every time.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/60s, f/2.8 at ISO 400 in incandescent lighting

133/365 Customized embroidery on new aprons

When you get used to having custom-made clothes, quilts, clocks, artwork, etc., it makes it hard to go back to ready-made items.

Take my two new aprons, for example. The foundation is just a plain white pocketed apron bought at Sam's Club. But the personal touch? So much more valuable than anything I'd find in a store.

Mom and I (well, I mainly pointed and observed) embroidered these aprons on Sunday afternoon. On the first, we started with a sunshine-yellow thread.

Then added a cherry red.

And a cool aqua blue.

After that, we spiced it up with purple. You can start to see the final design, can't you?

Added some appropriately shaded latte-colored thread.

And finished it off with more red.

In the end I had a super cute tea cup embroidered onto the front of my new apron, and no one else in the world has one exactly like it.

See how that could be easy to get used to?

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

132/365 Canning green beans

The sounds of summer have been hitting my ears quite often in the last week. Two in particular are cicadas humming in the trees and the pressure cooker rattling on the stove.

Mom's green beans are ready, so she spent the weekend canning them in perfect pints and quarts. It's hard, long work, especially since everything seems to ripen at once, but having garden-fresh vegetables in the dead of winter is worth it.

I helped as much as I could, but I'm usually shooed out of the kitchen when the pressure cooker heats up (for safety reasons). Before that stage, though, I love the bright green color of the beans before they go in the cooker. I swiped this jar for a few minutes to photograph it before it was due to be prepped and sealed.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 800 in natural light by a window.

131/365 Herbs and good debating

On Friday night, I got another chance to spend time with friends, just visiting and being together. They came bearing fresh herbs, coasters, canned beans and jam, and dessert. And loads of good conversation.

We discussed race and disorderly conduct, considered the ethics involved in freelance work, and spent at least 30 minutes debating the merits and meaning of The Biggest Loser. We were so busy talking -- until 11:30 p.m. -- that we never moved from the kitchen table to the living room.

That tells me I definitely need to make my kitchen a cozy space.

It was a great way to end the week. I can't wait for more nights just like it.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/60s, f/2.8 at ISO 800 under incandescent lighting.