2012 Sharon Wilson Center for the Arts

I just finished a 3 week workshop in digital photography sponsored by the Brookfield Wilson Center of the Arts and Mount Mary College.  Following are the final results.  Let me know what you think.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Just exactly what am I doing these days?

What am I doing to keep busy?  Actually I am not busy but I am not bored.  Here are some of the activities I am involved in.

Reading:  I've started and finished nine books since retirement. Most books I read on my Kindle, but a few have been paperbacks too. A couple of weeks ago I renewed my library card so I may begin borrowing either the hard copy or electronically.  My favorite time to read continues to be at the end of the day.  I highly recommend Goodreads.com as an online resource.  Some friends also use that site and we can see what each other is reading and how we rate the books.

Cooking/Baking:  I continue to enjoy kitchen creations and especially love exploring the Cook's Country Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated recipes.  Here are a few of my newest favorites:  Antipasto Pasta Salad; Corned Beef; Country-fried Pork with Gravy; Prime-Rib for two; Reduced-fat Buttermilk Biscuits; and Low-fat Lemon Pound Cake.

Facebook:  Ask to be my friend! I find this an excellent way to keep in touch. My "friend list" is not large and I will remove "friends" when I notice they do not use it. Mostly I enjoy exploring the games - especially those that interact with others.  My newest favorite is Bingo Blitz.  Let me know if you want to be on my team...I need two more people!

Photography:  My new Fuji camera is fun.  I am taking a "Digital Photography Workshop" through Mount Mary College. Three sessions - first one is going over the basics of our cameras and learning some of the terms used;  second one is shooting on location at the Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield; and the third one is at Mount Mary College in their photo lab learning the ins and outs of editing.  I enjoy learning.

Movies:  I enjoy getting lost in a good movie.  Sometimes there are gems on TMC but more typically I'll find something through Netflix that is satisfying.  Going to the movie theater is still the best though.  I saw all of the best picture's nominated for the Academy Awards in February and most recently saw Hunger Games.  I'm planning another theater visit with some friends in May.

SmartPhone:  We just purchased new phones through AT&T.  (Samsung Galexy II Skyrockets)  That is taking up quite a bit of time recently.  A lot to learn - so far I'm very pleased.

So - that's a summary of what I'm up to.  How about you?

I missed my chance!

April fools day and I missed my chance!  I love practical jokes, as long as they don't harm someone.

My sister-in-law told me about how she set up her husband for April 1st.  This is back when husbands went to work and their wife was a stay-at-home mom.  The wife typically made her husband's brown bag lunch to take to work.  (Actually I did made sweetie's lunch every day he worked 1975 to 2008 even though I was not always a stay-at-home mom.)  But back to the story...my sister-in-law started putting a hard boiled egg in her husband's lunch for several days prior to April 1st.  Yes - you guessed it - on April 1st she put an egg in her husband's lunch bag, but it wasn't hard boiled.  Ha Ha!!!

Flower or weed?

The last year or two we've noticed very early in the spring, a purple flower popping up right in the middle of our lawn.  This year is no exception, except due to the warm weather, they have arrived sooner.  I'm wondering if this is truly a "flower" or just a weed that disguises itself as a flower so we don't harm it.  If you know, please share.

London Olympics

If you were wondering what to eat while watching the 2012 London Olympics following are some popular sandwiches from Great Britain.

• Breakfast Roll  The breakfast roll is a bread roll filled with elements of a traditional fry-up, designed to be eaten on the way to school or work. It can be purchased at a wide variety of petrol stations, local newsagents, supermarkets, and eateries throughout the Ireland and United Kingdom.
• Bacon Sandwich Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favourite throughout the United Kingdom. Rarely found on the menus of high class restaurants, they are often served in greasy spoons, and are anecdotally recommended as a hangover cure.
• British Rail Sandwich In British humour, the phrase British Rail sandwich refers to sandwiches sold for consumption on passenger trains of the former British Rail (BR). Its use principally arose in British popular culture through comedic references to the food item as emblematic of the unappetising fare available aboard Great Britain's railway service during the period of nationalisation from 1948 to 1994.
• Chip butty A chip butty, is a sandwich made with bread or a bread roll (usually white and buttered) and hot chips (i.e. French fries), often with some sort of sauce such as tomato sauce (i.e. ketchup) or brown sauce.^[1] The word butty is a contraction of "bread and butter" that came from northern England, perhaps Yorkshire or Liverpool.^[2]
• Crisp Sandwich A crisp sandwich is a sandwich that includes crisps (potato chips) as one of the fillings. In addition to the crisps, the other ingredients may be peanut butter, meat, cheese, tuna, ham, bologna, tomato, pâté, cucumber, or any other common sandwich ingredient. Potato chip sandwiches are sometimes referred to as "trailer park cuisine".
• Cucumber Sandwich The traditional cucumber sandwich is composed of paper-thin slices of cucumber placed between two thin slices of crustless, lightlybuttered white (or wheat in some cases) bread.
• Marmite   Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand. Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing.
• Ploughman's Lunch It is a common menu item in English pubs, where it is served with a pint of beer. It is considered a cultural icon of England.^[2] The familiarity of the ploughman's lunch has led catering companies to describe a sandwich containing Cheddar cheese, pickle and salad as a "ploughman's sandwich".
• Tea Sandwich A tea sandwich is a small prepared sandwich meant to be eaten at afternoon teatime to stave off hunger until the main meal.