Random Mews

That’s a hard question to answer.  Especially when it comes to a human being.

Andrew and I have started looking further into the beginnings of a family.  We went to a foster-to-adopt session last night, and discovered that it’s not the route we want to take.  For many reasons, straight adoption is the way we want to go.

So, I started investigating adoption paths more seriously.  China’s rules are awfully strict; Guatemala is having legal troubles.  South Korea’s children are generally not adopted before age 3.  I was leaning toward Russia all along, and it seemed feasible when all the websites explained the average cost of adoption was $25-$30k.

Well, someone needs to update those websites.  I jumped on a forum of people currently adopting from Russia.  I read post after post, topic after topic of women whose journey to adoption from that country have averaged over $45k, some upwards of $60k, for a single child.

How can we justify spending that kind of money for a child?  That is about half of what we owe on our house…  That’s way more than I spent on my entire college education (including my Master’s degree).

If I bring a child into this household, I don’t want to be paying off the debt forever instead of saving for her college education.  That just doesn’t seem fair to the child.

Is it really worth it?

I went to see the Hydrogen Road Show with Mom yesterday out at Gateway Community College. It was incredibly hot outside, and of course they held the show in the parking lot so we only stayed for about 20 minutes.  It was easy to tell that the automotive representatives were nearing the end of their roadshow because they really didn’t want to talk to us.  In fact, most of them were just downright rude.  Maybe they just weren’t used to the Arizona heat.

We saw the Toyota Full Cell Hybrid Vehicle (FCHV), BMW Hydrogen-7, Volkswagon Touran HY-MOTION, Nissan X-TRAIL Fuel Cell Vehicle and the Mercedes F-CELL.

The cars were generally neat to see.  I got to sit inside the driver seat on all of them and push some buttons.  :)  In a lot of ways they are exactly like the cars of today, with some minor adjustments.  Most of them had less trunk space due to invasion of extra tanks.  Some of them have warning stickers on the steering wheel that say “OUTDOOR PARKING ONLY.”  The Nissan rep was telling us it’s because they are essentially bombs on wheels!

I was most impressed with the Nissan X-TRAIL SUV.  It had a lot of room, was incredibly quiet when it was turned on, and had a nice clean look.  The Mercedes F-CELL was pretty neat too, although I was certainly crunched in the driver seat.  It was really tiny inside.  My knees were smashed into the steering wheel and it wasn’t really evident how to adjust the seat or the wheel.  I guess that’s why they call them “concept cars!”

I’ve posted the rest of the pictures on Flickr.

I absolutely love icanhascheezburger.com. For those who don’t know, it’s a website that allows users to submit everyday pictures of cats, and caption them for us human types to laugh hysterically at.

This one cracks me up! I laughed for about 10 minutes straight.

A big group of us went indoor skydiving in Eloy, Arizona this past weekend for Amy’s birthday.  Everyone seemed to have a great time in the wind tunnel.  Even my mother-in-law got in!  Andrew said his back was killing him the next day because of how he was arching his body.  Doesn’t sound like fun to me, but hey, to each his own!

I took pictures and my father-in-law took video of the whole thing.  They turned out pretty well considering we were shooting through scratched up 1/2″ plexiglass!  Here is a photo slideshow of the event.  Out of the 1,111 photos I took in the 30-minutes we were there, about 100 of them turned out good.  1 in 11 isn’t bad considering the conditions I was shooting in!

When I need inspiration for creative photography, I always wander over to SplutPhoto.com.  They have awesome photos like the ones seen in their studio setups.

I took a few shots tonight of stuff splashing into some water.  Click on this one for a larger view, or take a look in my Still Life set on Flickr for more.

I used a black fabric backdrop, my high speed Canon 550EX Speed flash and continuous shooting mode to capture a select few decent shots.  Overall there were more than 100 images taken so it was a frustrating experiment!

It is so strange to me to have days where I have no obligations. Sure I have plenty of things that I’d like to work on: photography, PhotoShop, genealogy, family archives, Rock Band world tour, piano… There’s nothing that I *have* to do. It’s a foreign concept to me, having completed my Master’s degree and not having to work 24/7…

I find myself sometimes walking around the house, trying to figure out what to do next.  Top that with absolutely no vacations planned in our future, and it’s a bit overwhelming to have all of this freedom!

So you might ask, what does someone with soooo much free time do with all of it?  Aside from those things I listed above, and traveling as much as possible, I do watch a lot of television.  I enjoy shows like:

• Mythbusters
• Good Eats
• Ace of Cakes
• Beyond Tomorrow
• What You Get for the Money: Homes
• House Hunters
• Dancing with the Stars
• Samantha Brown (any of her shows)
• anything new on Discovery, Food Network or Fine Living

I surf the web briefly every day, but I find it hard to stay occupied doing it for long.  I check out the following websites on a regular basis:

• icanhascheezburger.com
• www.cuteoverload.com
• www.happynews.com
• www.azcentral.com

By the time I finish with these sites, I am usually ready to move on to something else.

So there you have it.  All of my newly found free time is taken up by the above.  I’m just so glad to be done with case briefs and group projects!

On September 2nd I will start a Portrait Photography class at the community college.  I’m sure that will be lots of fun!  I’ll probably purchase my own studio light kit, so if you have any tips on those, please let me know!

I’d like to wish Estella a very happy birthday!

Also in the news today, our friends Mike & KT finally met their new baby, daughter Isabella.  Congratulations to them and big sister Evelyn!

In a shocking turn of events, Andrew has actually decided it is time to update his blog.  Wow!  Check it out at floatingcat.com.

He found this nifty site called Wordle.net which shows a graphical representation of a current RSS feed for a blog or site stream.  Here is what this blog currently looks like.

Click on the image to see a larger view.  Make your own at wordle.net.

That’s how many photos are in my Photos directory on my hard drive.  Yup.  I’ve taken a lot of photos in my day.  I downloaded the latest version of ACDSee Pro 2 and it catalogued the directory.  When that number popped up several hours later, I knew that I must be a snap-a-holic.

My new computer arrived on Tuesday and I’ve almost got all of my files copied onto it.  I picked up a copy of Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 4.0 from Fry’s and I’m going to give that a shot this weekend.  With all those photos to choose from, I think I’ll be busy for a while!

Okay so I decided to get with the program and join flickr.com for photo sharing.  The Gallery software I have been using on this website is mundane and archaic, so it’s onto the next big thing.

Check out my flickr photostream for photos from our trip to the Midwest and Alaska.