Lovelihood

I called off my weekly long run today, on account of sickness (more fear of getting really sick than actual sickness) and spent my day off stitching the lining onto the curtain panel (yes, still) and cranking out some Valentine goodies. And I was unreasonably happy to find that there were leftovers in the fridge that would serve nicely as lunch. All in all, a mighty fine day.

Happy Lunar New Year. Or Tet or Chinese New Year or whatever you want to call it. Because, you know, it's not just the Chinese that abide, albeit selectively, by this calendar. Normally, I'd be seething with an intense bitterness everytime I heard mention of "Chinese New Year" (kind of like the whole "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" war, which I also normally gear up for). And there were certainly times today (I'm looking at you, Seattle Facebook page) that set my teeth grinding just a little. But I found that I just don't really care so much this year. Maybe because I haven't really done anything to acknowledge the day. But my mom sent a package with treats and, of course, the little red envelopes, so those were passed around and sampled and tucked into the special new year's treat tray (yes, it exists, usually to hold months-old Halloween candy). And instead of a tirade against the whole "Chinese" thing, I'll just leave you with this funny little tidbit. While you go on merrily wishing each other much happiness in this year of the rabbit, we contrarian Vietnamese will instead hold up the cat as the year's mascot. Fine by me, because I've always thought rabbits were freaky looking. They've got crazy-bit heads.

The sun was out again today, and I wanted to play some more with that toy lens. So we took a little excursion to the park. Unfortunately, it was also a wee bit cold (nothing compared to rolling blackouts and blizzard conditions presented to other parts of the country today, but still a bit chilly to be taking walks to the park), so we only stayed out long enough to tuck a few pinecones and sticks into pockets and have a single go at the merry-go-round contraption they still have at all the local parks. Even Bear was caught up in provision-gathering today, her brother excited to have another set of pockets to store Christmas tree fodder in for next year.

The funny thing about where I work is that it's the same newspaper that employed The Mr. way back when. Back then there was, more or less, an open door policy, and you could actually walk past reception without the assistance of a keycard/hallpass. It's the kind of workplace that movie set designers like to build for their imaginary hipster start-ups, with exposed brick and windows that open and thick wood columns propping up wood-beamed ceilings and piping and ductwork winding through offices and around desks, lending the backdrop that extra industrial-chic panache. So I used to be able to wander right in and admire it all when I came down to meet the Mr. for lunch or whatever. Because at the time my workplace was a Nixon-era tenement sorta construction sandwiched between a working-girls' motel and adult video store, and whose window air conditioning unit spewed building-grit at me in the summertime. Now that I work here, of course, I never leave my desk, save for intermittent jaunts down the remarkably well-lit stairwell to feed the meter, when I might remember to slow down a little and snap a photo with my phone.

For a while there, like a decade ago, The Mr. had this idea that we'd get a bunch of dog-shaped coat hangers. And use them for what? I don't know. It never happened. What we do have is this doggie coat hook, whose lineage neither of us can quite pinpoint. We are pretty sure that it's his and not mine. Whatever the case, it's chunked off many a piece of drywall for lack of proper wall anchors to hold up our adult-sized woolen winter wear. We're hoping the children's outerwear will be a tad kinder.

Sunday is pancake day. And the responsibility falls squarely on me to make it happen. Doesn't matter if it's Mother's day, or 12K race day, or I'm too sick for life day. Pancakes get made by me. Because if I didn't, I fear there would be family-wide revolt. This shot was taken with a new lens, another baddie procured from Photojojo. The adjective used most often to describe the Diana+ lens' effect is "dreamy". Basically, it's what you might expect when shooting with a plastic toy lens, which is what it is. Which, I gotta say, takes a lot of the pressure off of trying to get the perfect shot. More shots here.

When we got home from lunch today and I saw that the mail had come, I lickety-splitted my creaky-kneed self (9 miles this morning, thank you very much) up to the front door to see if my long-awaited order from Photojojo had arrived. It had. Among the spoils was a wide angle/macro lens adapter that simply screws, like a filter, onto my existing lens. Macro! Basically, it's a custom-fitted magnifying glass, lo-tech stuff. But it was a fraction of the cost of a proper macro lens. So I've got no complaints. Now, I've got to wait for the sun to come out in earnest to play some more with this and the other goodies that it shipped with. I've also uploaded some more macro-tastic shots to the good ol' Flickr. In case you're interested.