The Weekend, the food, the fun, the family... but mostly the food

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a wonderful weekend! Let's do a little bit of recap, shall we?

~Friday.
I got off work at 12, as I always do on Fridays, and I went and got my hair trimmed. Possibly the only part of the weekend that I DIDN'T enjoy. I know most women see the hair salon as a form of pampering themselves, but to me, it is a torture session, every time. While others find it relaxing to lie back in the chair and have someone wash your hair for you, I find it to be condemning. I always feel as though the stylist is washing my hair thinking "this girl does NOT get her scalp clean enough" or "lord, look at the damage that this girl is doing to her hair". And the funny thing is, I take pretty good care of my hair, I don't color it, I rarely blow dry it, but still I find this part of the hair cutting process to be a pronouncement of judgement on my ability to groom myself. Then the actual cutting process.... this involves me standing up behind the chair so that the stylist can trim my hair, because my hair is long enough now that it can't be trimmed while I am sitting down. So yeah, not a pleasant experience, but it needed to be done, and now it is done and out of the way.
After the hair cut, I picked Mike up and we went out to lunch with some friends. The kinds of friends that don't put on airs, they are who they are. And who they are happens to be the simple country folk that believe in honesty and in good times and good food with friends. We had lunch at a little Italian/Mexican restaurant here in our small town, and the food was fantastic, as was the company. I had some supreme nachos that lived up to their name, and sent me home with a belly full of goodness.
Friday evening was full of lounging around the house, playing some World of Warcraft, having a few drinks, and relaxing with my husband.

~Saturday
We had nothing on our agenda at all for Saturday, and that is just the perfect way to spend the day. We lounged around the house, played some Xbox, played some World of Warcraft, and then lounged around some more. In the afternoon, Mike's parents called to find out if we wanted to go to dinner with them (duh!), so that evening, we headed out to Novrozsky's, and Mike and I had a chicken fried steak baked potato. Can I just say YUM! They cut up a chicken fried steak, put it in the baked potato, cover it with the gravy, and top it with cheddar cheese. It is divine, wonderful, and great, all wrapped into one.

~Sunday
We slept in a little later than usual on Sunday morning, and then got up to go to church. After the church service, we went over to his parent's house where his mom had made some homemade chicken gumbo. Dee's gumbo is the reason neither of us will ever order gumbo in a restaurant. It CANNOT be better or even as good as the heaven in a bowl that she serves up. And one of the best things is that we really get along with his parents, and we enjoy sitting around talking to them, so meals never feel like a rushed uncomfortable affair. Good times, good food.
More relaxing was on the schedule for the afternoon, more nerdy games, and then dinner time! For dinner, I pulled out all the stops and made fried chicken, mashed taters, gravy, and rolls. Was I stuffed to the gills after dinner? You betcha! Is that a meal that is worth the time and effort to make? You betcha!

So there you have my weekend in review. Lots of good times relaxing with Mike, lots of good food, and good times with friends. Everything a weekend should be. Everything I needed this one to be.

Capture

I just wanna take purdy piktures!

I have known for a long time that I have the eye of a photographer. I SEE the pictures in the world around me that are just waiting to be captured. I see the gorgeous colors in the sunset, I see the brilliant blue of that bug, I see the adorable way our cat is curled up on my chest.

I have the heart of a photographer too, I think. When my eye captures these pictures in the world, my heart feels what is behind that image. I "hear the symphony in the sunset" as a friend once told me. I want to grab that beauty and capture it and show the world that "SEE! this is the amazing world around me that I see"

I have the camera of a photographer. I don't know exactly the model and all the specs, but I know that is has the capability to capture the pictures I want. Yes, I need more lenses and accesories for it, yes, I need to figure out its features, but it is an amazing camera.

What I do NOT have is the skill of a photographer. I have a basic understanding of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc, but I don't know how to translate that into a good picture. I don't know how to make my camera see the masterpiece that I see. How do I make it translate into a shot that everyone will see, and they will understand what I was feeling when I saw that in real life?

Now I KNOW that Photoshop was a huge tool (heh, tool) in making pictures turn out as beautifully as I see them on some of the blogs and websites I visit. I know it can fine tune the shot to bring out the best in the picture. I plan on getting this software, believe me.

But I also know that you need a good picture first. A good angle, a good exposure, etc.

What I really want, I guess, would be someone to follow me around for a while and tell me that in this situation, if you want to capture that sunset, you need to have your aperture at X and your shutter at X, etc. I need a personal tutor so that I can figure it all out. That isn't too much to ask, now is it?

And while we are at it, I would like to have a personal chauffeur so that I don't have to drive anymore. And a personal maid to clean my house and wash my dishes. Oh! Oh! and a personal chef so that Mike and I don't have to cook anymore... hmm... let me see... I guess that means I need to get to work on winning that lottery (yeah, the one we never, ever buy tickets for).

In other news, our addiction to Fable 2 still goes on strong. We play it in shifts, we stop for meals, and of course sleep, but that is about it. And while it may seem bizarre to you, it makes complete sense for me that I recieve IMs from Mike telling me that "my wife just left me again". Yes, we have a gaming addiction. No, we do not plan to seek help for it. We plan to continue on, each of us being an enabler for the other.

Now if I could just figure out the personal "someone to do all the things in life that I don't like doing" dilemma....