Deep Sea Fishing

Seems like I've been spending a fair bit of time digging around in my smugmug account looking for pictures for odds and ends of things that need pictures. I came across this batch from the summer of 2011 when John and I went to Prince Edward Island with Darren & Jackie, and the girls. The weather wasn't the best for a week on the island but John and I stayed dry in a cabin. Darren and Jackie didn't do a lot of complaining, but they were tenting, and it had to be sort of damp to say the least. The next family trip in the works is to Florida in a rented house with a pool. I doubt that we'll make it. Adam is getting married in early July and this summer's vacation time will revolve around that. I would LOVE to take a few days and return to Newfoundland for a visit. I say that every year, but the last time we went was in 2001. I'd say we are due. Anyway.....since I haven't taken my camera anywhere for a while....I'll post these from a couple of summers ago.

Skills Assessment

Every time a new class begins, the instructors always wants to find out what we already know how to do....hence the "Skills Assessment" is usually the first assignment. And every time I see that first assignment, I swallow hard and think "why don't you just teach me something first".....like maybe a little refresher? Anyway, that never happens and I'm left to muddle through on my own. One good thing, though, I've realized that it doesn't take me as long to get up to speed as it once did. Must be actually assimilating some of this stuff, after all.

For this one we were supposed to create a 4 page brochure about anything we chose. We had to use Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign....packaging the document for print with InDesign. He gave us a list of things he wanted us to do, but beyond that free reign (which to me is check all the things off the list and pass it in). Thank heaven for lynda.com and her online tutorials, the best refresher course ever. I think it was over 2 years ago that I last used InDesign!

Well, here is Project 1 all packaged and ready for the printer.

Onward and upward....Project 2....an interactive travel brochure for the web and the iPad. It looks like this will be the last print document for this class. I'm really excited about being able to design and produce web pages with InDesign....no more coding (at least for some things). Not sure how they are getting around the "Flash" thing for iPads, though....this InDesign for the web thing seems to be based on just that.

Weird Names For Things

Since we don't know the language and can't read the signs and a lot of the labels on things, we've developed a form of communication to describe many of the things we encounter in our daily lives. It's all kind of an organic thing. No big plan in place or anything like that, but I've noticed that we have our own names for things that helps us communicate.

It all started with "Backwards R"....which is what we call orange juice; because Backwards R is the only orange juice worth drinking around here. Finding it can be a challenge since there is one supplier of BR to all of the local grocery stores (big or small), so either they all have it or no one has it. Since we've been back after Christmas we have started stocking up on it when we find it.

We have the statue of "John Travolta"...an important historical figure and landmark.

There is "Flash Flood Market"....the place where we get our produce. We have no idea what it's really called but we know how to get there. Our name, "Flash Flood Market" derives from the fact that if you are in there when a torrential rain happens, you can expect to get caught in a flash flood. That happened to us back in the fall. There were some pretty ominous clouds off in the distance when we were parking but we ignored them. We were at the back end of the stalls meandering slowly to the door to the street when it occurred to me that the drumming sound on the roof was some pretty serious precipitation. It has one of those wavy metal roofs....nice and loud! I figured it was time to vamoose (since this might be "Collapsing Roof" Market for all we knew) but there was no way out into the street.....er....actually....river, since the street was under a good foot of water by the time we got to the front of the building.

We hung around one of the front entrances watching the water in the street rise higher with each passing minute. People inside the market were getting plastic bags from the vendors and tying them around there shoes before wading out into the water filled street. It wasn't long before the water level rose above the curbs and began to encroach upon the doors to the market. We looked behind us and saw that some vendors were now standing on top of their tables because the water was rushing from cracks in the concrete floor.

As we watched the water get higher and higher, we had to make a decision....stay or make a run for it. The car was parked at the corner of the building about 40 feet from the entrance. There was still a band of dry ground extending about a foot from the wall of the building. It might be possible to make it to the car without having to wade through the garbage filled stream in my sandals.

We decided it was now or never, so we bolted for the car. John ran ahead, got soaked halfway up his calves getting into the car which he drove up as far as he could on the sidewalk to let me in. My feet got a little wet but not nearly as bad as his.

The drive home was crazy! Water flowing everywhere. People baling out their basement shops as fast as they could move their buckets. A few well placed storm drains would be nice. If you have them...appreciate them. I was amazed at how fast the streets turned into rivers.

Why I Don't Blog Very Often....

Well, this week got me back in the saddle again.....two classes on the go now. One design one, and one filler...."Exploring World Religions". I guess the college doesn't consider the Humanities requirement 'filler' but being as I'm as well rounded as I ever expect to become, it's filler. The first project we had in Digital Publishing was to prepared a 4 page brochure on anything of our choice, as a skills demo. I think I am FINALLY getting to the point with all of this that I can take months away from my Adobe programs and yet come back to them with relative ease. Used to be, I felt like I was having to relearn everything each time I started another class. Thank goodness! I was beginning to think I was hopeless.

Our next project in this class is to design a web travel brochure for any place we choose. I'm looking forward to this one and have begun to compile some images of my own and some from the web to round them out. Next I'll do an outline of what I want the content to be, and follow that up with some thumbnails. Feels good to be designing again!

John is at the office preparing bonus packets for the guys. He hasn't been paid yet this month....which is not unusual. He gets paid when his boss remembers to do it, and if the end of the month comes and no money has shown up, John feels it's okay to ask about it. Small companies, eh? There is this job I found online that would be perfect for John....it's back in Dubai. But he does like this one....a lot. Hmmm......

No pressure or nuthin'

Winter Vacations Can Be Fun, Too....

December wouldn't seem right somehow without Christmas or a little jaunt into the States for some shopping and Christmas concerts. Most years lately it's been just shopping and no concerts but this year I got lucky again and managed to make it to Clay Aiken's shows in Stamford, CT and Shippensburg, PA. Mom and Lorraine were along for the adventure, and Lorraine even managed to get a little facetime from the best seats she ever had....but sadly no video of the occasion has surfaced as of yet....which is totally weird. There's got to be some out there somewhere....just have to dig harder for it I guess.

I took some photos at the concerts with my outdated equipment (compared to what everyone is shooting with now....I'm about 10 mega pixels and 20X zoom behind) and after fumbling around in the dark with settings because I couldn't remember where the buttons and controls were by touch anymore.....I got some not too bad ones. Though, I didn't take nearly as many as I would normally do. I just kinda wanted to sit back and enjoy it. There was an open camera policy this time around and cameras were plentiful....there would be lots of pics without me squinting all night and adding to my crow's feet.

From Stamford...

From Shippensburg....

Here We Go Again...

The winter semester (though, I think the college calls this the spring semester) started this week and, as usual, I'm just dragging my butt getting back into doing school work again. The winter break is so long! And per usual, I was going to spend all my free time after I got back home brushing up on the software I'm going to have to use....that I haven't touched in many moons. This time it's Advanced Digital Publishing, and we'll be using several Adobe products....but concentrating on InDesign as a way to publish directly to the web and to iPads. According to the syllabus, the final project is going to be writing and publishing an app for the iPad.....okay....

I enrolled in this class last semester, but had to drop it because I didn't want to overtax my little old self by doing two classes and an international move at the same time. Unfortunately, the whole syllabus has been changed, and instead of working on advanced design for print materials.....I'm being dragged into the 21st century where I'm expected to learn how to ePublish. Yep! Who'd a thunk it? I suppose that's a hazard of doing a tech-type degree over a period of years; or perhaps it's a good thing. At least, I'm avoiding obsolescence. Some of the stuff I learned back at the beginning of this no longer applies. You can do websites without coding now! I've already taken two courses in Flash, and Flash is really and truly on the way out....and there is one more Flash course on my degree plan. I think I'll just hold off on that one as long as possible and hope that the college changes the curriculum for that course, too.

So, here I am....first project due on Sunday and I'm messing around with rewrapping my brain and trying to get those creative juices flowing again. You'd think finally having a mac to work on would be inspiration enough! For three days, I was procrastinating, but today I made myself sit here, and at least get started on the busy work of selecting images, and sketching out some ideas.

On a more exciting note, we got to Paul's last night for some absolutely remarkable steaks. The place was packed and it was Wednesday night! I guess good food will always draw a crowd, especially hungry male expat carnivores. Tonight, it's up to me but there's no way I can beat what we ate last night....best just open a couple cans of beans, and settle in to watch American Idol until John has all he can take of Mariah and Nikki, and makes me turn it off.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Tearing myself away from James Patterson for a while....

John went off to work and it's Sunday, but the oil patch has no respect for Sundays. I think I'll start a Project Runway marathon (Season 8). I bought those DVDs for just such an occasion. Season 7 was supposed to be for daily-girl-alone-time but John accidentally caught one episode and was hooked. The rest of that season ended up being last week's prime time fare, and I spent my afternoons with my good friend J.P.

We tried to get reservations for Paul's last night but there wasn't anything available. The expats must all be back in town after the holiday break, so I'm going to make a note in the "Notes" section of this fancy new fangled machine to call them mid-week to get us a spot. So much for the mouth-watering steak I'd envisioned since Thursday....instead we had barely passable food at the Hong Kong restaurant at the top of the street. For some reason, quite a few people who obviously don't have a clue what decent food is were there, too. Maybe, they were there because the management and staff let any children you might happen to bring with you run around like they are in a McDonald's playroom instead of a grown-up  kind of restaurant. The last count I took, there were about 8 little lovelies chasing each other and climbing over the banquettes with not one parent even giving them a second glance. They weren't all locals either....you folks from Norway? I'm looking at you, too. Your kids are horrible little pains in the ass.....

Maybe, I'm a bit grumpy about losing my Sunday to work, and the best thing for me to do today is go back to my serial killer novel and enjoy....

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I saw Keith Urban. August at the Metro Centre in Halifax. I took pics with my wee Canon camera and without flash, and set on auto.....I think they came out pretty well. Our seats were on the floor but we were about 15 rows back; not the greatest but not the worst. I think John wasn't super excited to go, but it turned out he enjoyed a lot more than he expected.....though I am not sure what he was expecting.

Would go see Keith again in a heartbeat. His show was awesome and he plays one mean guitar...seriously! Too bad he has to share those Idol judging duties with Mariah Carey and Nikki What'sHerFace.....I love Keith Urban but unfortunately not enough to sit through an hour or two with that other mess. Guess we just can't have it all, can we?

2013 - Turning Over A New Leaf (Yet Again)

Seventeen days in and I haven't exactly honored my New Year's Resolution of writing at least one paragraph a day for each day of the whole year....still beating myself up quite badly about that, and I can't mobilize myself to do anything about it. That's how bruised I am!

For openers, I'm excited to be typing this on my new MacBook Pro....a Christmas gift from John that surprised the heck out of me. I was kind of expecting an iPad, having gone on and on about how useful one would be for me with all the traveling, etc. Nope, no iPad (not yet, anyway)...but I do have my Mac! And I love it! The transition from PC wasn't hard at all....I only got stuck on how to turn the darn thing off....and Rob was around to show me that there are little secrets hiding beneath that little apple. I'm all ready now for the new semester to begin next week. Bring on Advanced Digital Publishing!

We had a great time in Halifax over Christmas. John managed to get 3 weeks off so we took a detour to Houston, on the way back to Baku, to clean out a storage unit. I knew it would be much easier to work in the storage place when the temperatures outside weren't hitting the 90's, and it was. We managed to get down to one unit without the loss of one single power or hand tool. I sacrificed some Tupperware, some pots & pans, and a few boxes of clothes and coats....including a beautiful Simon Chang chocolate brown wool coat trimmed with brown and turquoise faux fur that I loved....but could never ever wear (not even once because it was too small when I bought it). I hated to part with it! It was such a good deal! I bought it about 12 years ago at 80% off it's $800 regular price. Maybe it was the fabric...the wool was so fine, it was a joy just to touch it. Anyway, it's gone off to Goodwill now....even though John kept telling me to keep the things I really liked (probably since he was doing it).

Renting a townhouse in Halifax for the month of December was the best idea I've had in a long time. Not sure if John would agree with me on this (since it was also my idea to clean out storage in January, and that turned out to be a bang up plan if I do say so myself)...but anyway...it was nice to have the kids and ourselves under one roof for a change. I had lots of room to spread out the wrapping business, and the tree with the dollar store decorations looked just fine. Maybe someone took a picture of it that I can post. I thought I did but a quick check of a couple of memory cards proves that to be wrong. The only bad part of renting was having to spend a whole day cleaning up and putting everything in the house back the way we found it. I think the kids want to do it again because they both pitched in and spent their New Year's Day with us cleaning and "moving out". Rob is now back at Dot and Bonsie's where he is redoing the flooring in his room, and Carolyn is back in frosty Fredericton once again.

My next ticket home is for the 29th of March, and when I booked it I had no clue that day was Good Friday. I'll be home for Easter....unexpected but nice.

Between now and then, I'll work on my classes, try to read all of the paperbacks in the bookcases that have yet to be cracked, and hopefully take in the waist of those new black dress pants I bought in the States. That should keep me out of trouble for a little while. I told myself when all of the books that I've already bought are read, I'll think about getting an eReader. Not going to do make any deals with myself about the pants, though, if I waited to hem them until I lost 10 or 20 odd pounds they would be nothing more than a place holder in my closet. Having a stable weight is a good thing, right?


So far, two books have been moved over to the "read" column, and I'm starting a third. I spent most of last week going through the photos I pulled off John's phone last May. He had a few hundred images on it that had never been viewed on a larger screen and most of which I had never seen. Well, now, they've been seen, edited, and uploaded to my smugmug. Some of them weren't too bad.....

Carolyn and Veda

Rob and his Christmas Shopping

Me and a Tim's in Dubai