Owatonna Girls Day

Every once in awhile the girls I went to high school with get together and hang out. Our most recent get together was in Excelsior and it was extra special because Tammy was in town from Indiana, and Lisa came all the way from Fargo.

We started the day at Maynards on the water, and ended it shopping in the little boutiques in that area.

Allison and Lisa.......

Did you know you can have cocktails at an 11:00 brunch? That it isn't not too early to start? Well, you can. We are living proof.

Stacy and Julie.....

Shelly and Tammy....

Kristin and Stacy (again). Sorry for the blurry.

I highly recommend this area for a girls get-together. There are the cutest little shops and restaurants down there. Reminded me a bit of Stillwater.

We certainly missed Cindy who was packing for a move, and Lisa Sizer and Lisa Peiser who are both near Chicago. We did a few texts back and forth to try to let them know we missed them. But, a great time was had. Can't wait for the next one!

LB 

All-City Track Meet

Connor is finally in third grade and that is the grade where the kids participate in the track meet. He placed in two events, relay and tug-of-war so off to the All-City track meet we went.

I only have a couple of complaints about all-city.

First, it usually takes over 4 hours for the whole thing. That is a long time. I get why it takes so long, but getting home at 8:30 on a school night is tough on wee ones.

Second, it is super hot in the bleachers as the sun beats on you. And squinting for 4 hours is annoying and painful.

Third, I have a lot of patience for children all day long. Once 3:00 hits, I only have patience for my own and sometimes that is stretching it. Dealing with kids running up and down bleachers all night is not my idea of a good time.

Fourth, parking is brutal.

This year, it was a beautiful day/night. Since Connor didn't place in an event I needed to be at the finish line for (hurdles, 50 or 100 meter dash, mile, etc) I decided to try the other side of the bleachers where the sun would be at our backs. 

Talk about perfect.

Not only wasn't it hot, we didn't spend the whole time squinting into the sun. Plus, Connor was the third leg in his relay and pretty much started right in front of us.

And there was NO ONE over there. I parked right by the entrance.

Connor was in the tug-of-war which is always the first event of of the night.

His team ended up taking third.





Then we had a two hour wait. Mike decided to take Noah and run to subway for us. I had packed Connor a supper so he ate and then found his friends and they ran around and played football.

Finally it was time for his relay.

Lots of stretching is required.

I ran out of space on my camera so I didn't get a picture of him actually running past me.

They took second!

A successful night!

Only three more years of track meets.

Why I edit

I got those actions downloaded. It went much better than last time, whew!

See why I edit......

Slight edit, I know (it's hard to take a bad picture of pretty flowers). But, the little tweaks make me happy. It gets rid of all the stuff I CAN'T do with my camera (because I don't know how to use it like I should) and it fixes things. People pride themselves on taking SOOTC (straight out of the camera) pictures that look amazing.....well, I am not ashamed to say I can't do it.

But, I can edit to make them look better.

Peace out,

LB



State of the Union

Well, here is the story. It all starts with the computer crashing (don't all stories start this way) and having to get a whole new computer. The lovely people that sell you computers say they will transfer all your files and programs seamlessly, but they lie.


I sat down to edit some Easter pics only to find that my editing software is gone. Now, downloading Photoshop is easy peasy. But, finding the 4390 different sites that I downloaded various actions from throughout the years.....not so much. The last time I had to do this took me about 6 hours and I have a straight highway to hell due to all the swear words I used. I rarely use the actual photoshop program to edit, I always use these FREE actions. But, you have to have Photoshop in order to have a place for the actions to go.


The bottom line, I don't post any pictures I don't edit. Plain and simple. I am kind-of obsessed with pictures looking better and nicer if I am taking the time to post them. These are the ones I save to my computer and I get rid of the others. I can't blog without an edited picture so I just haven't blogged.


Then on top of that, the program I use to write my blog isn't installed either. No biggie, you say. Just go to the Microsoft website and download it again, right?  Um, no. I can't figure out how to do it without starting a whole new blog.


So, here I am back at Blogger creating a post. Did you know Blogger has changed completely in the last few months? Who knew? As I type I have no idea how I am going to post this. In fact, I should probably just stop here and see what happens.


My goal is to get around to finding the actions, getting Photoshop loaded, and be up and running by the weekend. Lots has been happening and lots is coming up (including a brief visit from my BFF!) so I need to get this figured out.


Until then, stick with me....will ya?