Colour Balance and Saturation

It's amazing what one can do with a decent photo manipulation software. I was sure that the original photo (taken in low light, with only a fill-in flash) deviated too much from "normal" to be salvaged, but on a whim (call me stubborn) I decided to try and fix it. Surprise, surprise: it doesn't look half bad now!

Original Photo	Colour Adjusted	Saturation Reduced

Light and Shadows

I'm trying to find the perfect balance here, and I've been staring at these for so long I no longer know which way to go... I find the first photo a bit too dark, and the boutonnière too white. So I started playing with Contrast and Brightness, with the following results. The problem is that instead of coming up with the perfect picture, I now have four photos, each of which projects a different mood... Any thoughts?

Rhapsodizing

Tonight's concert was amazing. The appetizer featured a full orchestra (with an impressive brass section) playing Wagner's Die Meistersinger: Prelude.

The pièce de résistance was Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by Lang Lang, a 23 year old piano-playing prodigy from China. After receiving a standing ovation, he returned for an encore, playing Listz's Bohemian Rhapsody, double speed. His hands were a blur, his hair flying madly about, he bouncing around on the piano bench as one posessed.

For dessert, Schubert's sedate Symphony No. 9, played by the VSO minus a few intruments. The french horns outdid themselves. A lovely evening!

As I haven't any video of the event, I am instead sharing Borge's rendition of Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 - one can never tire of Victor Borge!

"Have a great day!" - No thanks, I have other plans...

Here is my "great day":

- arrive later than planned, scramble to write math quiz before the bell

- during kids PE period, get little done on camp paperwork due to frequent interruptions and memory lapses ("What was I doing again?")

- spend half of recess trying to finish SOME of the camp stuff - it's goodies day... but by the time I get my apple sauce, cake and ice cream (we LOVE the teacher-librarian!) the bell rings and I have to get back to class

- reading eval doesn't go quite as planned because a colleague has taken the kit to use it at the same time that I'd planned. Ice cream is melting as I try to multitask teaching and evaluating.

- lunch: more camp stuff waiting for me. The other teacher is as frazzled as I am, but offers to pick me up a sandwich while she gets one for herself. Yay! I'll do her photocopies in exchange.

- lunch is over, I have not eaten the sandwich yet. Copies have yet to be made. Back in class, kids are silent reading (or finishing evaluations) while I put the change from the sandwich purchase back in my purse and get organized for the afternoon.

- 2:00 pm Assembly in the gym . Sandwich-fetching colleague offers to watch my kids while I get the camp letters photocopied and stapled for later release.

- 2:50 pm Assembly's over, back to class we go. The doors are open, though we'd closed them on our way up.

- 2:53 pm A student hands me my purse, telling me a classmate's younger brother found it on the floor in the boys' washroom. My cell phone, cash, and credit cards are all gone.

- 3 pm until now: Call all the credit card companies, cell phone service provider, police, etc. Find out that in less than 20 minutes several (5-10?) charges were made on each of the credit cards for online gambling.... amounts in the $700 per charge, apparently (which the credit card companies will not hold me responsible for, however)

Now I have to go back downstairs to get the 20 lb pile of marking that's been waiting for me for far too long. Geee, great weekend....

Tomorrow I'm going to dinner and the Symphony. Of course, I don't know how I'll pay for it, since my cards have all been stolen / cancelled...

Is today officially over yet?

Google maps + MS Paint = hours of fun!

Of course, the town names are too small to be legible on this version, but lookit how far that is!!! The pink line is the route we took to Peace River, and the mauve is the way back.

In 3.5 days: 2978 km, 33 hrs of driving, 23 hrs of sleep, and 440 photos!

The May long weekend was exhausting, but not unpleasant! The plan? Drive to Peace River, Alberta, for a friend's wedding.

We'd planned to drive as far as Valemont on Friday, sleep there, and do the rest of the route to Peace River on Saturday morning (the wedding being at 4 pm). However, my mom having slept in on Friday to make sure that we could stagger the driving, wasn't tired by our midnight arrival in Valemont, and figured that if she was going to remain wide awake, she might as well keep going. After all, why pay for a room if you're not going to sleep?

We made it as far as Jasper (4 am Mountain time) where we were forced to stop for three hours because the one gas station that was open doesn't sell diesel, and the only one that does sell it doesn't open 'til 7 am (actually the attendant was 7 minutes late!).

Once you leave the Rockies, you have about 500 km of mindnumbingly dull scenery. I mean, it's lovely, but not after 6 hours of the same stuff! It's pancake flat, with nondescript fields on either side, and ruler straight - unless you happen to go though a town with more than one road through it.

We arrived in Grimshaw (about 50 km East of Peace River) well ahead of schedule, happily looking forward to a leisurely couple of hours to unkink our backs, nap, and get ready for the wedding. Such musings were quickly shattered by a cell phone call: the wedding party was frantic. The photographer was a no-show, and we had 15 minutes to meet them at the Tim Horton's in Peace River (they have a Tim Hortons!!) so I could take on the task! I ended up getting dressed in between photo sessions, with hair and make-up getting done only after the ceremony and wedding party /family photos were all done.

I found out later that the "photographer" (also a guest, it seems) did show up, around 3:45 pm, but, seeing someone else doing the job, quietly slinked out and waited in a corner for the show to start. He didn't take out a camera the entire evening, despite the fact that having more than one person recording the event is only common sense.

Late Sunday morning we were back on the road again, headed for a visit with the Johnston family in Prince George. We arrived there around 6 pm (slightly later than expected, due to frequent photo stops), only to find that Kelly (dad) and Wesley (middle son) were the only ones there to greet us. Apparently Kathy forgot that she had planned to visit her sister in Edmonton the same weekend, and so we didn't even get to see her, Jared and Katie. Such a lapse is so totally like her that we could only laugh it off, as Kelly nonchallantly took it all in stride. He and Wesley had only just returned moments before from an overnight stay at some lakeside cabin, and, had they not returned earlier, would simply have called the next door neighbor to let us in the house!

The drive back to the coast following the Fraser Canyon was the loveliest yet. I had no idea that the road between Quesnel and Cache Creek was that beautiful: it's no wonder so many people fall in love with the Cariboo country and end up retiring there.

We were back at my mom's by midnight, but as she wanted to download my photos in her laptop before I left, I didn't get to my own bed until past 2 am. Yesterday was thus a very long day!

Google your name, in quotations, "______ needs"

Here are my "needs":

Genevieve needs to have her Fluffernutter on one slice of Martin's Famous Potato Bread.

Genevieve needs to move out of her apartment.

Genevieve needs our help!

Genevieve needs a good place to stay and this doggy carrier is just the right size.

Genevieve needs to be broken in.

Genevieve needs an au pair for the summer.

Genevieve needs to distance herself from the past.

Genevieve needs to stop you guys from loosing your minds about her.

Genevieve needs to go the J-Lo route and get a little studio help.

Genevieve needs a hug But she did meet a boy. cheers.

They're so funny I decided to find my "wants" too:

Genevieve wants balloons.

Genevieve wants a job which will allow her to help people.

Genevieve wants to travel and make use of her Chinese.

Genevieve wants to escape her own life.

Genevieve wants fire juggling midgets at our wedding reception.

Genevieve wants to get rid of marble-mouthed Jeff.

Genevieve wants a hug... Now... RUN!

Genevieve wants to find her life-mate, the one who will make her complete, but often wonders if such a person exists.

Genevieve wants to takes a break by the West Galway coast.

Genevieve wants to spray her flowers but the spray bottle isn't working.

Genevieve wants to share.

Genevieve wants to find out where the stones are.

Genevieve wants to smell stupidly, unless ...

Genevieve wants you to know that the Futureheads had a roadie, and that she found him to be a good looking fellow.

And, the winner:
Genevieve wants to show all of us that she's got a world class ass.

"busy" just doesn't quite describe it...