2009 in review
2009 was, pretty much without a doubt, the best and craziest year of my life. It wasn’t the easiest, but I had ridiculous amounts of fun living it.
Snapshots:
I acquired a number of colorful shirts while playing on several kickball and dodgeball teams in the winter, spring, and summer.
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Early April found me on the slopes, taking pictures of a coworker’s son snowboarding in exchange for a free lift ticket and rental, and also managing to hurt myself pretty badly after doing a faceplant into a mountain. Whoops.
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Later in the month, I headed to the California Auto Museum for a photo workshop, and lots of drooling over lovely classic cars.
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In May, I went to the Gladding, McBean factory with a photo group to take lots of pretty pictures.
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June brought my school’s graduation, which I had a really good time photographing.
Graduation.
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In September, I was a fairly busy bee. Besides the school year gearing up, I went on a number of adventures:
I jumped out of a plane,
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went to the Reno Balloon Races,
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and hit up the Sacramento Zoo a second year in a row for their free zoo day.
Om nom nom nom.
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Travel:
I also got to satisfy my itchy travel feet a bit in 2009! In August I went to London… and I just now realized that I never did write blog posts up on that trip… whoops!
To be fair, I wasn’t really thrilled with most of my pictures. Alas.
Fountain in Trafalgar Square.
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On the same trip, I also went to Amsterdam.
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In November, I went on an absolutely awesome trip to Italy with two of my favorite people.
Colosseum at sunset.
Two weirdos.
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And last but not least, I bought a ticket to fly to Dublin next summer, on the first leg of a trip I’ve wanted to take more or less since I was 16:
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Death and Life:
In June, I had to say goodbye to my kitty, Stein. I miss him tons.
Stein and his pet ferret.
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Because life just isn’t the same without a cat hogging the bed, I decided it’d take two beasties to compensate for Stein. So I adopted two feral kittens–Jem and Scout.
They're considerably larger than this now--that's a one-cat window these days.
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I think that’s more or less it for 2009! In my next post, I’ll post what I felt were my best shots of 2009.
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I caught you a partridge, but I eated it
In case you don’t get the reference in the post title, it’s this internet meme.
A veterinarian friend of mine is holding a 12 Days of Petmas roundup on her blog, and I volunteered to take Day 4 (4 calling birds, in case you don’t remember the song.) So this evening I decided to take some pictures… I’m not sending her this one, but it’s my favorite of the outtakes… The aftermath.
Cat + Christmas Tree = bad news. The white thing he's munching on is a twin of the white bird in the foreground.
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So much for that partridge in a pear tree.
Trying out a new lens on my living room
Because I like to play, I opted to rent a wide-angle lens to take to Rome, as I don’t own one, and I remember feeling frustrated in London with lots of large buildings and things that I couldn’t fit entirely in my lens. You might remember last spring when I rented Canon’s 10-22mm lens, and while I liked that, I thought I’d try something a bit different. So this time I went for my first non-Canon lens — a Tamron 11-16mm. My reasoning for that over the Canon was that the Canon is an f/3.5, whereas the Tamron is f/2.8. If that means nothing to you, don’t worry about it. I’m just getting geeky again. Anyway, I also wanted to try a lens that wasn’t a Canon, just because I never have.
When I got it (again I rented from LensRentals.com, whom I HIGHLY recommend if you’re looking to rent a lens) I of course had to play a bit with it, so I took a few shots of inside my apartment. Here are a couple of my living room I took, and yes, it pretty much always is that clean. I so love my living room. :-)
(Next post will be of Rome pictures!!) :-)
My mishmash living room. Couch and pillows from grandma, chair from Christine, rug and end table (wooden icebox) from Dad, plant from Mom, coffee table from Ikea, bookshelves from Craigslist, entryway ottomans from Target, stools from a yard sale, and lamp table from Overstock.com. It's so cozy and comfy!
Underneath the glass on the coffee table are postcards from trips I've taken and that people (Joel!) have sent me, as well as random foreign coins, also from my trips and from Joel!. (And yes, Joel!'s name must always be written with an exclamation point. That's how I've been writing it since college.) :-)
Leahy concert in Modesto last night
So I should be leaving for work, but I wanted to get this video uploaded. I went to see Leahy in concert last night (second time I’ve seen them!) and it was SUCH a great concert. They really do put on a fun show. :-)
This one is actually the six-year-old son of the fiddler in the blue shirt in the background. What a kid. He had such a serious look on his face. :-)
Such a fun evening. :-)
The best camera is the one you have with you
Leaves: A hundred thousand reasons why I love fall. :-), originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I snapped this picture of a tree outside of my work this morning with my cameraphone. I wanted to just stand there and stare at the tree, to watch the morning light play over it.
Instead, I had to content myself with a couple of pictures and a handful of glowing leaves.
I love autumn.
My crazy-colored cat
Alert kitty is alert, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I had another post all queued up for this blog earlier this week, but it broke my HTML, and until I get around to figuring out WHY, this ridiculously cute cat will have to suffice. :-) She was sitting up on my bed, staring out the window at the birds on the telephone wire outside… So cute. :-)
Oh, and this was taken on my new phone. The color originally wasn’t great (I had to do a bit of tweaking in Flickr) but it’s nice to get something that can focus for a change! :-)
2009 October storm time lapse
Time lapse video shot at 30-second intervals from out my front window of that epic storm we had last week. Unfortunately less interesting than I’d hoped. Only things I found of note were the small tree branch that falls by the white car around 2/3 of the way through, the homeless guy taking shelter across the street, and the steady accretion of leaves on the street as time passes. Oh well. :-)
(Click on the title when the video starts, and it’ll take you to the full-size one on Flickr.) :-)
Om nom nom nom
Senior day pics013 (Custom), originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I took this picture last May at our senior breakfast… OK, so I’m just now getting around to getting them uploaded. My cop-out excuse is that Flickr is blocked at our school. :-) Anyway, I’m not especially thrilled with how any of the student shots came out from the senior breakfast, but I did like the food shots. And now I want strawberries, darn it.
More pictures are here at my gallery for work pictures. :-)
A time-lapse view out my front window
Click here to go to my Flickr, where you can watch the video in a larger format. Next video fun on tap–adventures in slow-mo kitties. :-)
Random walk around my neighborhood
This was one of the last days I had the wide angle lens before I had to send it back, and I was determined to get a few more pictures.
Hi, my name's Kari, and I'm addicted to dogwood trees. They're just so stinking pretty...
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Standing on the railroad bridge looking down at Business 80, the highway next to my house.
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The traintracks and railroad bridge that go over the freeway.
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Looking west down the tracks toward downtown Sacramento.
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Train crossing. I sat here for almost an hour waiting for a train to go by so I could get some fun wide-angle shots... nope. No train. Darn things go by every 30 minutes at night, but apparently they were on hiatus that day or something.
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Sweet pea flowers
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Easter sweets
(Sis, I put these up because I was too tired to finish going through all of the Annie pics. I am *really* backlogged with stuff right now, but I WILL get to them this weekend. Honest.)
Here’s some yummy foodstuffs from Easter. :-)
Peanut M&Ms
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Pineapple cheesecake
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Ok, so they're not really sweets, but they sure are pretty!
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Peeps!! Om nom nom nom
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Chewy sugary goodness
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Monday movie night
On Monday nights in the warmer season, a local group of housemates does a free informal movie night in a vacant lot next to their house. Bring a chair, bring some food to share, wait for it to get dark, and the fun begins. I’ve never been to a drive-in, but I can’t imagine it being more fun than this is. I went a few times last summer/fall, and I’m glad it’s started up again.
Waiting for the show
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The movie man. I have to say that I freaking love my camera (ok, my 50mm lens, actually.) It was actually so dark when I took this that I couldn't have read a book... and I handheld the camera for this shot. Sweet.
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Monday's movie.
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Such a funny movie. :-)
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Wide angle fun, day 2: On my street
A couple fun things from my street:
My neighbor's Kharman Ghia. I'm taking a photo workshop at the Towe Auto Museum at the end of this month, and I SOOO want this lens for that... sigh.
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Stop sign at the end of my street.
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Wide angle fun, day 1: Inside my house
For the next two weeks, I’m renting a Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens from LensRentals.com. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, a friend of mine told me that I need to quit focusing in on details of stuff and try zooming out and looking at the big picture for a change. I retorted that I don’t have a decent wide-angle lens, so that’s why I always go for the details… but he’s right–I was starting to get stuck in a rut there, more or less. Reason #2 is a photo outing that will make itself known after this weekend, but I’ll wait until I have pictures to post before I explain further. :-)
Anyway, so I spent today at work obsessively clicking F5 on the FedEx tracking page, and then I got home to find the lovely lens waiting for me. I immediately popped it on my camera and looked around for a subject. Ok, so my house isn’t all that clean, but these are the best pictures I’ve manged to get thus far (given that my place is tiny and normally everything gets cut off.)
My living room. Ignore the clutter--it's laundry day, and I need to put stuff away.
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My kitchen, with a quite lovely chicken-and-dumplings soup stewing in the crock pot.
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My bedroom--somewhat messy, but cozy nonetheless.
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My favorite place to hang out.
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Last but not least, I tried to get one of those pictures where the animal’s nose looks huge because it’s up close to the lens, but Stein would have none of it, and this is as close as I managed to get. Dumb cat.
Stein the cat.
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Same thing every morning
This is generally the first thing I see when I open my eyes every morning.
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Apple tree
This tree is right across the street from my house, and I often park in front of it. Last summer I discovered that parking in front of (read: underneath it!) it inevitably meant I’d get onto the freeway and hear thunking sounds as the apples that fell off the tree into the bed of my truck would roll around and get bruised. Then, if I forgot to take them out, they’d cook on the bedliner in the hot summer sun, and my truck would smell like apple cider.
There are worse things in life. :-)
Flowering apple tree.
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Cameraphone roundup – working backwards
While I wasn’t all that thrilled about the time change this morning, the fact that it’s sunny makes it so much nicer. This window is right behind my desk at work, and when I got here this morning, I stood for a while with my face turned up to the sun and my eyes closed, just enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on my face, glowing through my eyelids.
Sun through the window at work
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Last night’s trivia round was “moderately hard”, according to the Trivia Master, but the questions led one team to name themselves “Moderately Hard, My Ass”. The questions killed us, and as a result we did uncharacteristically poorly (not helped by the fact that I second-guessed myself on two questions and so we missed them both!) So as a consolation, we decided to stick around and play darts. As a side note, if anyone knows someone in Sacramento who has a strong sports knowledge, we’ll buy ‘em beer if they want to be on our trivia team. We have a major hole in the sports knowledge department… Guess that’s what happens when you get a bunch of geeks together.
My trivia team: "Drinkers With a Trivia Problem"
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Yesterday I went skiing again (I have two more free passes left, and then a coworker is going to give me one for taking senior pictures of her son, so I’m pretty set for what’s left of winter.) It was kind of a lousy skiing day, all things considered – the time change (ok, and a late Friday/Saturday night) left me groggy, I got on the road late, got to the cheap rental place late and they were out of my size skis and poles, I ended up standing in a long line to rent poles at the slope because the ones I had just weren’t going to work, it was a lot colder than I thought it was going to be, and to top it all off, then I decided I’d try something different, and after I got stuck and had to take my skis off to walk out, I ended up getting stuck almost waist-deep in the snow. Bad bad move. However, at least I got to be outside on a very lovely (albeit cold!) day, and I got a change of scenery.
In Spanish, "Sierra Nevada" means "snowy saw". Quite apt, eh?
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A couple of fun things at work yesterday
On my way out the door to work yesterday morning, I was looking around to see if I’d forgotten anything, when my glance fell on my juggling sticks, sitting next to my monopod in the corner of my living room. I shrugged, figured “Why not?” and grabbed them to take with me. This proved to be a good move.
Fun with juggling sticks.
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Concentration.
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Also yesterday, we celebrated birthdays for a couple of students. Cupcakes and ice cream were procured, candles were lit, and fun was had with the rings that decorated said cupcakes.
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Hello Kitty cupcakes
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Spiderman cupcakes
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Blowing out candles
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Fun with rings
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[Click here for more pictures]
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A few of my favorite things
One of my goals in life is to someday have my very own room dedicated just to books. The walls will be lined with shelves, and I will have a library ladder, a window seat, and lots of big, comfy floor cushions so I can sprawl out and read.
In the meantime, I really shouldn’t get any more books until I can move to a place that has more shelf space. But alas, I have no willpower, and just picked up a few more books from the local library’s used book sale. Bad Kari. Think I have a problem?
One side of the room
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The other side of the room.
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Once upon a time, these were organized with fiction on one side of the room, and non-fiction on the other. That lasted a few months, until the quantity of books exceeded my shelves’ carrying capacity. Hey, I’ve only broken a shelf once. And before someone asks, I’ve probably read at least 2/3 of those but I’m not quite sure. One day I’ll do a tally. For what it’s worth, there are over 800 books crammed onto those shelves–a lot are double-layered to maximize space. It’s a far cry from the 2000+ I used to have, but I’ll get back there someday.
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Saturday Skiing
On Saturday I drove with a friend about 85 miles up to Donner Pass to go skiing (cheap lift ticket + $13 rental = fun day!) I took along the $25 wonder camera (hooray for eBay!) since I didn’t want to lug along my good one. The weather was nice, the crowds were light, the snow was good, and the companionship was pleasant–what more can I ask for? It was a lovely day. :-)
View from the top of the mountain
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Remember how I said there weren't many people here? There's NO ONE on this lift!
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Fresh tracks through powder
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And people ask me why I don't want to snowboard--why would I want to spend half the day sitting in the snow? :-)
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Turkeys!
On my way home from work on Friday, I saw a large flock of turkeys. I just happened to have my camera with me (although not the telephoto lens, darn it) so I stopped to take some pictures, of course.
I counted 16 turkeys in this picture (click it to make it larger if you want to disagree with me.)
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"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." ~WKRP in Cincinnati
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Stein cat
This is my brat of a cat. He’s pretty difficult to photograph. Unlike my sister’s cat, who was more than happy to pose for me, he tends to be quite camera-shy, and I had to sneak up on him to get this one.
Whiny Stein.
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