Beauty, Butterflies, and a Breadtruck

I definitely feel that I am fitting in even more at EQX, which is a shame because I will be leaving this position soon.  I can’t begin to explain how surprised I am at how much EQX has become a second home to me – and how much I will miss it when I’m gone. 

We all still feel that the Tuesday morning meetings  should be taped for an on air sitcom – our meetings are like when you get too punchy and have had too much caffeine to sit still for as long as we do.   I brought my camera today to try and capture some of the awesomeness before it’s gone.  I wanted to take some snapshots of the office and the people who make it what it is.  I’ve brought my camera to all the events I have helped out at, but I haven’t had a chance to photograph where the real action happens – hopefully I will have more time on Thursday.  

Once I got home, I realized that sitting at a desk and updating a website all day really takes its toll – I was pretty stir crazy, making me also come to the conclusion that when I try selling myself on the job market to a higher power for low pay, I’m going to really hate being at a desk.  However, that’s not for another year, so I spent the rest of the day focusing on all the things that had no basis whatsoever except being outdoors and getting in some stretch-those-legs time before school.  By then, the only stretching I’ll be doing is lugging 20 pounds worth of textbooks up and down flights of stairs and across campus – not quite the same thing. 

I decided that the best way to capture a few last days of summer was to literally capture them with my camera.  It’s been a while since I did some nature photos and experimented with the power of the lens.  I did the best thing I could think of – I took an hour and walked around my yard, up and down my dirt road a little ways, and wondered over to the pond, snapping pictures up close, far away, and using whatever settings I could think of on my camera to change things up a bit.  I’m pretty sucky when it comes to photography, which is why I thank the stars (and my dad and sister) for a camera that can compensate for my effortlessly and eternally flawed sense of beauty.  Don’t get me wrong, once in a while I actually managed to trap down something good between the shutters, but I guarantee it’s sheer luck. 

After that I still had some school work things to take care of and both my sister and dad were home in time for dinner, which is a rare occasion.  Unfortunately, our movie choice didn’t reflect the rest of my well-aimed day.  We watched The Informant, one of my birthday presents…….ech.  That’s all I can say really.  It was a good two hours of agonizing boredom – if you’ve already seen this film, you either have a lot more patience and understanding then me or you were unknowingly conned into watching it – either way, I’m sorry.  If you haven’t seen it – keep it that way.

Thankfully, we had something to make the evening better –  new episodes of Warehouse 13!!!!  This show took a while to get off the ground and I honestly believe that if Allison Scaglotti hadn’t joined the team as Claudia Donovan, this show might never have made it anywhere past a first season.  It’s still got its moments where I doubt, but for the most part I am entertained (again, mostly because of Scaglotti’s sense of humor).  We had missed last week’s episode and caught up, as well as seeing the newest episode.  I have to say, I didn’t like “Around The Bend” that much.  It was annoying how they tried to split up the team and I felt bad for Pete getting the wrong end of the artifact.  On a happier note though, I loved the music that they used while Pete was gearing up to take off on his own.  It fit really well and didn’t dissolve into the background too quickly.  It’s a little slow at the beginning, but I like the girl’s voice when it speeds up – check it out:

The latest episode, “For The Team,” was better because Claudia finally got her shot as a field agent (yay!  Waiting forever for that to happen!), but also disappointing because it looks like the character H.G Wells will be making a lot more appearances and possibly become a team member.  It bugs me because they have the perfect number right now – if they add another female lead character, I think it will significantly unbalance the show.  Oh well, I’m not getting paid the big bucks (or any bucks for that matter).  Alas, another week until the new episode – which looks really fun, so can’t wait!

Birthday Shopping- Oh Snap…SSSHHHHH!

Have you ever found yourself wondering how you could live in or near a place for so long and not know it nearly as well as you think?  For example, I have lived in a small town in Vermont all my life, with the closest city being Rutland, or as we locals like to call it, “Rut-Vegas.”  

Now, there isn’t a lot of mystery to Rutland, or for that matter, much of anything besides drug rings and plenty of sketchy bars.  HOWEVER, my father and I scored big time this past Monday.  See, we ran out of dog food and figured while we were away from the house we could do a little more last chance birthday shopping for my sister.  My sister is an amazing cook and the kitchen is one of her favorite places to be (scary I know, but it’s true).  She loves getting new equipment and fun stuff that she can use to cook and is thrilled whenever we get her anything to feed her inner chef.  Unfortunately, we had believed that the closest kitchen store was in Manchester and we weren’t really sure we wanted to take the drive – that is, until we discovered a gem! 

Long story short, we found a great little place (literally a warehouse in the back streets of Rutland) that mostly does wholesale kitchen items for big companies, but also functions as a store.  My dad and I went in there for a knife sharpening stone and came out with about ten things……and no knife sharpening stone 🙂  Oh well, that will have to be for another time.  Anyways,  after that my father and I got all the guinea hens moved into their new/temporary living space.  Okay, I know nothing is ever easy, especially when it comes to farming, but let me tell you – catching and transporting 14 extremely skittish and flighty birds was a lot harder than we had imagined.  We finally got them all moved after we lost two in the barn and then most of them flew over the fence anyways.  Now they actually seem to have become acclimated to their new spot and can eat all the bugs and clover they want.  It’s amazing how big they are now…. 

Our not-so-little-anymore guinea hens!