More "Doings"

More things I've been doing (again, apart from "the usual"):

• Enjoying the wind again, last week (even if it was an Ike by-product). Wind is something of a rarity in our summers, except for right before thunderstorms. It's so much more pleasant to breathe when there's a little circulation going! ;o) (Incidentally, our area also had some mild coastal flooding due to Ike. Poor Donald's drives across the Bay were worse for a couple of days because the Causeway was closed.)
  
• Looking at Trixie. She definitely has biscuit cream markings on her face and ears, and behind one ear in particular. I'm not sure if they've "settled", yet. I've tried to photograph them, but so far haven't had much success. (They're just not that distinct from the white fur.) Last week, her left ear was up, while the right continued to flop. It would've been adorable if they were to stay that way, but I think they're both more or less standing up, now. And she's still pretty cute, in my biased opinion. ;o)
  
• Finding out what kind of a nerd I am. ;o) Turns out I'm an Uber Cool Nerd. Don't believe me? I was a bit skeptical, myself. Even I don't honestly think I'm "uber cool", but NerdTests.com does! See?
  
  
  
  A different quiz on the same website ranks me as "Lightly Nerdy". I'm satisfied to leave the "Heavily Nerdy" ranking for those nerdier than I. ;o)
  
  
  
• Playing around with a new Photoshop technique. I'm still a beginner at layering textures and patterns over photos, but so far I'm having fun with it. (I see a texture photo expedition in my near future. It's too much trouble, having to credit sources. And besides, it'd be fun to know that everything in the finished product was originally captured by little ol' me. Yeah, I never was much for team sports, either. . .) I get the feeling that this is another of those things that other people will shrug about (g), but if you're interested, here's a link to my set of textured photos.
• Going on a disc golf outing, last Saturday. One of Donald's coworkers arranged it, and we decided to bring Trixie along so she could meet a few more new people. She's definitely at the "I know no strangers" stage of life! Anyone who showed an ounce of interest in her was an instant best friend. She really wanted to run off and meet the dogs and people who weren't part of our group, too. (g) As for the actual disc golf, Donald participated in the game while I wandered around with Trixie, listening to music and taking some photos. That was our first time in Chickasabogue Park. Interesting spot, but probably a little too far of a drive for us to go very often.
• Counting down the days of Donald's last week at his old job. Only Thursday and Friday are left! I wonder what next week will be like, as we begin adjusting to a totally new set of circumstances. . . Definitely something different!
  
• Getting Donald a new office chair, as I think I mentioned before. It's here now, and we'll/he'll probably assemble it tonight. Though I could probably figure it out on my own, I'm going to wait and let him be the head of that project, seeing as it's going to be his chair and all. . . ;o) Here's what it's supposed to look like when it's all put together:(adopting a fake foreign accent) Ees beautivul, no? ;o)
• Finishing Anne of Windy Poplars. The end had more of a bittersweetness than I'd remembered. It's kind of sad that there could be no references to all those characters in most of her other Anne books, since all but Anne of Ingleside were written prior to AoWP. One of the problems with writing a series "out of order", I guess. (g) As for any references to Katherine Brooke, Rebecca Dew, et al. in AoI. . . There may be some, but I don't remember them. It's been a long time since I read AoI, which isn't one of my favorites and hardly even counts as an Anne book, as far as I'm concerned.
  
• Waiting to see where our (most likely to be) new neighbors will choose to build. Again, as far as I know, the proverbial stone hasn't yet been graven, but it's looking more and more like a certainty!
  
• Hoping not to pick up any ticks. Twice now Mom and Dad have found multiple ticks on themselves after walking over the newly-cleared land (where they may be building). The "newly-cleared" part is what worries me most. You expect that you might find a tick on yourself after you go walking through tall grass or shrubby wilderness-- but to get them just from walking over open land? Gives me the heebie-jeebies! What's particularly annoying is that it's nearly the time of year I most want to go "wandering". I wonder if spraying our shoes and legs with Deep Woods OFF would keep them away? I don't really love bathing myself in large dosages of DEET, but I'll do almost anything to keep mosquitoes and (shudder) ticks at bay. . .
• Throwing-- and rolling"-- the frisbee for Trixie. She enjoys chasing it and (sometimes) barking at it before picking it up and (again, sometimes) bringing it back to us. If only we were all so easily amused.
  
• Writing this entry in dribs and drabs over the course of days. And now I think I've finally collected enough "dribs"-- and maybe even one or two "drabs"-- to post it on my blog.