In the Name of Procrastination

That's right, I'm stalling... I've been stalling for about 6 hours today. Stalling from what? My Marketing case study that's due by midnight tonight. Have I started it yet? Nope. Here's what I've done in the last 6 hours in order to push off this stupid case study as long as possible:

- Made home-made french fries for the engineers taking up my livingroom
- Folded several loads of laundry
- Researched possible vacation spots that we won't be taking
- Updated the look of my blog
- Picked my nail polish off my fingers
- Organized my purse
- Read 3 of Bobby's Men's Health Magazines
- Sorted my duvet cover so the insert isn't all the way at the foot of the duvet
- Discovered how to shoot photos in RAW (awesome!)
- Ordered pizza for the engineers taking up my livingroom
- Planned my recipes for the week
- Took pictures of the cat (I love Killian's spot on his nose!)


Yup... this case study will now be looming right over my head for the next 3 hours.

Happy {blogger} Anniversary!

...a day late! Yesterday marked the 1 year Anniversary of The Barrick Times!

Thanks to all you readers for your comments from time-to-time and especially for your encouragement on my photography!

10 Things that happened this year:

1) 21 credits closer to graduating
2) New-found sun screen allergy
3) 1 nephew and 1 cousin gained
4) Gained 10 pounds. Next year better say that I lost 10 pounds.
5) Went to see Martha
6) Became the Easter Bunny
7) Enjoyed some ball games
8) Celebrated 1 year with my main squeeze
9) Gained a guest blogger
10) Got a great camera and took a LOT of pictures!

Thanks for spending this year with me! Ya'll come back now, y'hear?!

The Barn

This is my favorite barn.

Bobby and I drive past that barn every Sunday on the way to church. Every time we pass it, I always tell myself I need to take a picture of it. It's got beautiful composition, not only for the position of the structure itself in the middle of the field, the colors of the day and of its surroundings, but because of what it represents. A lone barn in the middle of the field (Melissa's goin' sappy, look out!).

As I'm slowly being given my dose of rural America, I have so enjoyed watching the people around me thrive on what they've built. So many families down here still live on "the family farm" and even if it's not a working farm anymore, their great-grandparents still live in the original house and have slowly sold bits and pieces of land to their eight children. Those pieces of land are rarely sold to outsiders, as this land represents the sweat equity, the American Dream, the family history. The land will probably be passed down to their childrens children, and then to their children. The American Dream lives on and the roots of family grow deeper and deeper. I think that's one of the things that I love most about the South (Maryland? South, you say? Why, yes! We are south of the Mason-Dixon Line!)... people have roots. There's still history down here - pride - and while the landscape of Southern Maryland is rapidly changing along with the people in it, the Tree still stands tall and provides a shelter for those who remain. There are a lot of things that just haven't changed a bit (for instance, the grocery stores. Just kidding).

So I might be over-romanticizing just a little bit... the people down here probably don't even think about those things. And those "locals" I always talk about? They are what make up some of these families. Most of the engineers, rocket scientists, Navy pilots, future astronauts, and circus entertainers migrate down here. Just kidding about the circus entertainers. Although, have you been to the County Fair?!

So when you come down here to Cali to visit us, remember to take in the country scenery, but be sure to avoid being hit by the deer. They like to scare the tourists.

Birthday Boys

Last Wednesday was Bobby's birthday, as you saw in the previous posts. He's been wanting to learn how to play the guitar, so I bought him one to try things out. He's been trying desperately to play Dave Matthew's Band, but he just needs a little more practice :o) It's actually really nice to see him learn how to play! I'm sure we'll be the VonTrappe Family "players" in no time!

As another part of his birthday present, he wanted to get Killian groomed since the cat throws a mild temper tantrum anytime you put him near the bath tub. We took him to the local Petco to have him bathed, "blow-dryed," ears cleaned and nails trimmed. I dropped him off in the morning, felt terrible for leaving him there, got myself a Starbucks to make me feel better, bought the cat a new collar and some treats and picked him up 3 hours later. My poor baby was soaking wet because he was deathly afraid of the blow-dryer after his bath. I toted him home and he's been asleep ever since...

My other baby is now sick and has been sleeping almost all weekend. To give them their "space" and to not make any noise while they are trying to recover, I went to Starbucks to make myself feel better.

Hello, my name is Melissa, and I have a Starbucks problem.

Photoshop!

I've been trying to (unsuccessfully) play around with Photoshop since I started really getting into photography early this summer. I can't seem to do anything except for crop. I've been using another application to edit and enhance my pictures thus far. Thanks to The Pioneer Woman and her wonderful tutorials on different tools in Photoshop, I've since been able to really get some of the results I've been wanting in my pictures. With her action sets, I'm able to change the picture to how I actually see it in my mind. If you have Photoship CS2 or higher, you can download her handy action set for free! So I went to work on some of my previous photos and here are some of the results!

One of the actions has a "vintage" feel to it... I really like it, can you tell?!

(Color Boost, Vintage Action, Texturized Action)

(Vintage with Slight Edge Burn)

(Vintage)
("Troy" action from Totally Rad! and Texturized Action)