Focus

So, today was a good day.
I told myself that, since I was going in to work early and I'd be there for a long time by myself, so no one would know what I was doing anyway, I was also going to bring my camera's manual and learn a new trick. I ended up learning two tricks, actually, but the big one was how to override the auto focus, so I can move the focal point to, say, the side of a photo instead of the middle. Like this little shot of my desk. It's subtle here, but you can see that the middle is definitely not the focal point:

Now you know what my focal point is. All. Day. Long. My lovely desk.
I also learned how to switch film modes from regular to chrome - simulated slide film, essentially. The idea is that the colors are super-saturated. Some of the following photos were taken in chrome, some were not. You can maybe tell the difference, but it's not bowl-you-over different. Just fresh and colorful.
I left work a little early so I could live up to my challenge of wearing an apron in public. I was wearing mostly black today and I just don't have a cute apron to go with it, so I needed to stop at home and change before picking up the kids. Coincidentally, as a dangerous and rather newly-minted brunette wearing black, I ran across - count 'em - three Metallica songs on the radio. And my drive is only, like, 15 minutes long. So, rocking out in the car was only the Right Thing To Do. I pummelled my steering wheel aggressively and made twisted rock faces and caught myself driving a little bit too fast.
My selection for the first Apron Challenge was a sweet little half-apron that Mindy bought for me at Anthropologie a couple of years ago. I was wearing it in car line while waiting for Andrew and noticed that one good thing about having an apron on is that you can clean your sunglasses without stretching out your t-shirt.

Of course, nobody sees you while you wait in car line, so that doesn't count as public apron-wearing. But I did walk up to the sidewalk to pick up Emma from her school. I was going to take some pictures of me wearing the apron at school, but it all happened so fast: the other moms were fondling my apron (literally - several of them touched it) and asking if I'd made it (wow! I'm not that good at sewing yet) and why I was wearing it and they were all smiling and I had my camera poised and ready when my adolescent son thought he'd be funny and untied the apron. It went falling toward the sidewalk and...
It's an odd thing. It almost was embarrassing (in fact, I think I blushed - see my weird things list, item number 2). Even though it's not like my pants fell down, it still felt like accidentally coming undressed in public. Boy did I give it to him when we got back to the car!
Once we had gotten rid of the boys for the weekend (they went to a middle school youth group weekend event), Emma and I went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for dinner and knitting night. And of course, the apron was right at home with all of the food and cooking products.


You would think that people have never seen a woman wearing an apron in the produce department, taking pictures of herself. Although I did get a couple of sly grins from older gents. I like older gents. They flirt outrageously and shamelessly, but usually not in a creepy way.

Emma requested pomegranates for supper.


Oh crimson indulgence!
Oh jeweled delight!

Um. Sorry. I get carried away about pomegranates.
They're so beautiful and tasty. They make me happy.


You would especially think that people had never seen a woman wearing an apron in public, taking pictures of herself and singing the Water Buffalo Song. Our local Catholic radio station plays a Veggie Tales song every morning at 7:45-ish, right when kids are all in the car on their way to school. The Veggie Tune of the Day is often stuck with us throughout the afternoon.

When we got home, we made two pans of delicious pumpkin brownies. It's hard to find stuff to bake when you're allergic to eggs. I've discovered, though, that searching through vegan recipes usually turns up something delicious and egg-free, even if it is usually seasoned with a bit of social activism. The recipe I used can be found here, and I made one pan as dictated and I even made a gluten-free batch for my friend who can't eat any wheat. I just substituted oat flour, which worked fine in this instance.
And then my girls came. Whooo did we have a wild time tonight! We laughed ourselves breathless and got, you know, some knitting done. I played a little bit more with my new focusing tricks.

And I tried to take some pictures of the lovely knitters. Not everybody likes to be photographed all the time.

So, I tried the super-duper, auto focus override function instead.
That way, nobody's face is actually on camera and I get to play with the manual functions in my camera. Everybody wins.


I tucked Emma into my huge bed. Thanks for that idea, Mom.
Since the boys are both gone, we're going to cuddle up and sleep in together. Tomorrow? Who knows! Fueled on leftover dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free (but definitely not yum-free) pumpkin pie brownies, we will be able to take on anything!

DAILY BLISS: My mommy brought me an organic, raw chocolate truffle that was to-die-for