whispers in the dark

okay, so i'm trying to watch all the alan alda movies this year, right? and yesterday netflix sent me whispers in the dark. okay ... i love alan alda. love him. and i've seen him in "murder at 1600", where he's pretty sinister. but "whispers in the dark"? i should not have watched this movie alone. i was seriously thinking about turning it off at several points. i even got up & turned all the lights on as things were getting especially intense towards the end.

i so was not expecting him to be that creepy. creepy, creepy alan alda.

creepy when he cries (ugh) and when he's ... well ... creepy.

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'becca still hearts alan alda ... but she hopes the next movie is a little more light-hearted.

leaf, not dead animal

julie - go back to the after the snow post & look in the upper left corner. it's a dead leaf april brought me this fall (i do love fall leaves) - and apparently it's easily mistaken for a squirrel pelt. :)

having a squirrel pelt at work may keep some of the crazies away. it would not, however, increase my approachability i'm guessing. :)

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'becca plans to curl up with a bowl of popcorn & a movie tonight.

huh, who knew?

gleaned from a mental_floss newsletter today: Apparently Johnny Depp has a collection of various animal skeletons, insects and taxidermy.

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'becca needs to get out & do some yard work.

thunder over lousiville

beth & i went to louisville this weekend to visit dan & malissa - and to see thunder over louisville. we drove down saturday morning, had lunch at bluegrass brewing company, and chilled out at the apartment for awhile before heading into the chaos.

in reality, thunder over louisville is an amazing work of controlled chaos. the official thunder web site says at least 700,000 people attended this year. 700,000 people at a free event along the river with massive amounts of pyrotechnics. yet, the majority of the people are incredibly friendly, polite and conscious of everyone else around them. amazing.




the walk to the river.



the view of the crowd before the fireworks.



and one shot during the fireworks. i made a conscious effort this year to watch the fireworks, instead of just taking photos of them. sure, i still shot off 187 photos, but that's definitely less than years past. :)

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'becca wants to point out that it's neither a dead squirrel nor the otter in that photo - it's a red leaf that has curled & browned over the winter months.

more from the dunes

the stairs leading up mount tom. well, in the photo i suppose they lead down mount tom, but since we'd just climbed UP them, they lead up.



the water was reflecting stunningly that day.






at the bailly homestead.




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'becca, because she's a salaried employee, doesn't technically get "furlough" days to help the company - she gets extra personal days. furlough + personal = fursonal.

fursonal day at the dunes

i spent a day at the dunes, and most of my photos are of trees. is it possible i was a tree in a past life? or maybe a beaver?

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'becca is going to louisville today!

pampered feet

april & i had a photo day today. i love photo days with april. :) we went to the dunes because while i know i've been there before ... i have very few memories and absolutely no photos to prove it. after a hike up mount tom, we went to the beach. i walked barefoot along the edge of the beach - just close enough that the water covered my toes from time to time. sure, it was chilly water ... but it seemed like the right thing to do.

then we went to the bailly homestead & chellberg farm. i kept my shoes on, which was good since several spots in the trails were muddy messes. the mud was deep enough in one spot to get into my shoes.

so my feet were exfoliated by the sand & then bathed in fresh mud. who needs a pedicure?

i should be showing you pictures, but my camera's in the bedroom. my feet may be pampered, but they're tired, too. ;)

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'becca just wants to remind you that her mom rocks.

proving myself wrong

i have a tendency to talk myself out of things. i make a decision and then immediately set about changing my mind. i don't know why i do this, but i apparently enjoy proving myself wrong. along those lines...

after saying life hadn't been very interesting since returning from ireland, i started poking through my photos & realizing life has been interesting since my return to the states. and so i'm posting a few entries (see below) to prove it. :)

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'becca just finished off the easter pie.

dinner & ice cream

on tuesday i went out to dinner with some friends. some good friends who i love very much. we went to max & erma's ... and i just had to try their all-you-can-eat sundae bar. why? because they had miniature chewy sweettarts as an option. i LOVE chewy sweettarts. kid you not, i love them.

so you can imagine my disappointment when they were stale & rock hard.

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'becca won't be ordering the all-you-can-eat sundae at max & erma's again. it's been ruined.

after the snow

apparently since i was in rapid city during their most recent blizzard, it was my fault that the storm proceeded east & dumped a few inches on the chicagoland area, too. :)

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'becca really does have fabulous co-workers.

south dakota

the weekend after we got back from ireland, i took a couple extra days off & headed out to south dakota. i do love south dakota. i love the drive; i love how fast it goes. seriously, 13 hours in a car goes so much faster than 8 hours at work. and that doesn't say anything about my job ... it just says that i really like driving. and the fact that a blizzard was slated to hit rapid city as i was arriving? well, all the more reason to drive with purpose. :)

it took me about 13.5 hours to get to rapid city on friday. i was there in time to freshen up & head to the opening of a photography exhibit, in which my friend lynn has a photo hanging. it started snowing about half an hour before i got to lynn's, but it was warm enough that it was melting as it hit the ground.


saturday morning it was a little more snowy. we were out of the house early, headed to her office to shoot photos of the bird who has nested outside her boss' window. unfortunately, my photos of the bird didn't turn out. but we drove around town a bit while i shot photos.


by the time we were headed back to lynn's, we agreed we probably shouldn't be on the roads anymore. it was pretty hard to see. so strip club was canceled, which put a little damper on the day ... but lynn's friend judi came over & joined us for mimosas and breakfast. the rest of the day was spent watching movies & what not. a good day for being snowed in.




sunday we headed out to the dog park to take photos. what can i say? they have a pretty dog park. :) we tried going to the quilt shop, but they were still closed because of the weather. i think it was today that we decided we should vacation in patagonia.


the roads in town were clear enough i could have driven home on monday, as planned. but it would have put me driving directly into the storm that had just dropped 13" on rapid city. why would i do that? so i hung around on monday - successfully visiting the quilt shop & spending some time reading - and drove home on tuesday. the roads were clean & dry. 14 hours later, i was back home.

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'becca is aware that she should probably explain that strip club is a monthly get together at the quilt shop where they showcase a quilt made with strips of fabric.

welcome home

i was greeted home from ireland with a closet full of balloons, courtesy of my mom & niece. apparently they had all the balloons in my bathtub, and then alicia decided they should be in my closet instead. i think it was a good call.

i had dinner at my parents' house the night we flew home. i had not yet discovered the balloons. we're sitting at dinner & alicia says, "and there's a surprise in your closet, auntie 'becca!" and she's right, there was. :)

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'becca still has balloons in her closet three weeks later.

life since ireland

i think my goal was to post 5x a week this year, right? i haven't been doing very well on that. but i don't feel like there's really a lot to talk about.

work has taken on an interesting flair the past couple of weeks. i spent another weekend out in rapid city. i'm spending this coming weekend in louisville. and, really, that's about it.

disappointing, eh?

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'becca had a late dinner.