Domestic Bliss (and a little advice)

My new work schedule looks like Friday and Saturday will be my days off for the next little while. This is a slight shift back from having actual weekends off, which I knew was too good to last. But beggars can't be choosers and two days off in a row is an absolute blessing when you're a waitress.

I did, however, work yesterday - but just the day. I was tempted to pick up the night so I could buy a pair of lulu lemon yoga pants because once Dennis said, "I'm going to start wearing those just so I don't have to look at you in them" referring to my favourite pair of grey jogging pants. But time off seemed more valuable to me so Dennis will just have to grin and bear those jogging pants for now.

When I got home I retreated to the kitchen. Nothing relaxes me and brings me more peace than puttering around in the kitchen. We have a pretty hectic week coming up and I'm trying to keep Dennis well fed so it's one less thing he needs to worry about between working crazy hours (and I mean that literally - 9pm to 5am!) and being a full-time student. I'm also trying to eat out less for both health and financial reasons. So I embraced the mood and made a yummy pasta dish, a pot of soup and macaroni and cheese. I figure we're good 'til Monday at least!

Next I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Well, in actuality it was front to back and you understand if you've ever been here. By the time I went to bed everything was spic and span and I was ready to wake up to a full day off with nothing to do except whatever I wanted to do... and that's always an awesome feeling.

I rolled out of bed around 11 and had some mac 'n cheese for brunch. Um, did I say I'm doing a lot of cooking for health reasons? Hah. Dennis and I watched the first half of Penelope (my new favourite movie! Go rent it if you like whimsical movies!). Then we had a youtube date and I got sucked into looking at Kayne West videos. I know, out of character for me, but I just recently discovered 'American Boy' (how long has it been out, anyway?) and I am in love with it. Youtube that shit, yo! Hahaha! :)

It was a beautiful, sunny day and I have a new photography assignment. This week we learned about aperture and depth of field in class. The aperture refers to how big the hole in your camera is, the hole responsible for letting light through. I know, how very technical of me. Anyway, a small aperture has a big f-stop. So f18 or f22 means it's a tiny hole. A big aperture has a small f-stop - f2.8 or f3.6. I don't know who the aperture genius is, but that's not very intuitive.

The point is though, that if you have a small aperture (f22) then you have more things in focus (think landscapes) and if you have a big aperture (f2.8) then you have less things in focus (think portraits with only the person in focus and everything else blurry).

This was a very exciting revelation for me!! It's one step closer to understanding manual. So today I hit the road with my camera on the A setting and tried to shoot as much as I could with a small aperture because that's my assignment - meaning I want lots of stuff in focus. This is opposite of how I usually shoot so it was definitely a challenge, on many levels. 2.5 hours of rambling and 250 pictures later... behold the results.

this is me outside the military base on gottigen

the marquee

if you ever need a torso...

i absolutely adore the fact that someone took the effort to create this piece of art

cool piece of art outside the north end library

an excellent piece of advice i found on agricola street

we should all be doing more of this!

and this!

a tree on the citadel

two trees on the citadel!

I'm not going to say any of those photos deserve an award, but I am proud of them because it's my first time ever taking my camera off P! Yay for me!

After my photo-walk, I made dinner: salmon, steamed baby potatoes and grilled asparagus. Yum! (Remember the casseroles and stuff are for when I don't have time to cook!). Then we finished Penelope. Then Dennis left for work. Sad. :(

But on the upside, I spent 2 full hours sewing!

After the 2 hour mark I knew my eyes were drooping but I was determined to finish one last square. And this is where the advice makes an appearance... Don't sew when you're tired!

yes, that would be sewed on backwards.