Since I am supposed to know how to use photoshop...

I am making an effort...

Lake of the Isles

I went in search of a good park with scenery, few crowds, and a bench in the sun. And I found one, around a deceptively large but lovely lake surrounded by giant homes. Some of which were listed by Sotheby's (at which point I think they cease to be a house and become a villa or mansion or something).

Laundry

IPA

My preferred method of coping with the warm, painfully humid afternoon.

Upon the celebration of the end of the internet famine.

Now I really live in Minnesota.

Going to a Minnesotan Lutheran church and seeing Garrison Keillor should get me into some exclusive club. Maybe these are just the pre-winter initiation rites...

Hello, my beautiful 90% off darlings.

These ones are related:

Two seemingly unrelated photos (Or, Nora Comes to Visit)

It makes me happy every time I see it... but we opted for the Muddy Pig. Thanks for the drinks Nora!

I should patent this jetlag cocktail... One part creepy monk tea, one part melatonin.

The Best Morning Adventure Yet...

Ax Man Surplus, home of Huggy Jesus.

I must take Quade there.

Meet Frida

When I finally read her label I discovered that she is a desert rose, who needs lots of sun and very little water. And then I felt bad for watering her daily and putting her in the corner of my room. Then I questioned the wisdom of buying a desert rose in Minnesota. Hopefully she meets a better fate than both Chris In the Morning and Benjamin...

For Sam (Or, Minneapolis Is a "Real City")

Sometimes when I am lost I take random photos out my car window to console myself. I spend a significant amount of time half-lost these days. Expect to see more.

This is awesome.

A feminism photo project on flickr.

My current method of time wasting:

Making photo books I will not be able to buy until my student loans are paid off!

I was inspired by Miriam's recent nostalgia and my own pining for Lugano. Instead of spending all day ranting about it here I channeled all of my energy into creating books on iphoto... Which I am now ranting about here. My plan was obviously flawed. STILL, you have no idea the emotional photo spewage you were spared. Anyway, it is great fun and they turned out rather lovely.

Some of the pages are actually nice to look at:

But most of them are mass chaos. Chaos that happens to be close to my heart...

I would also prefer this to regular photo printing because certain photos that you can spare space and provide context for in a book are not necessarily photos you would have printed but are nonetheless important historical relics. For example:

I started at the dawn of the the DSLR and am working my way forward. The post-harem years have yielded some high quality images but not quite as much hilarity :)

Someday I will stop taking photos of my mail.

(Can we take a moment to discuss how an address on THE Fenway is really cool? Almost as cool as via Ponte Tresa)

Thanks, but...

This hurt my soul a little, but I survived.

From Quade's phone: A disturbing finding at the grocery store

Or, Why America Scares Me

Adventures in gnocchi.

I really miss the OK Bar and their soul-restoring gnocchi and salads.

I want to go to grad school more than I want this car.

So far craigslist is failing me. I am going to spend lots of time praying... and cruising like Nancy Drew with a scarf and large sunglasses.

Between 8th and 9th.

Another library treasure:

I noticed that WEARY was used in place of WARY on page 40. My pet misusage.

My kindred spirit started his or her corrections on page 78 and lost it twenty pages later and penned this little tirade:

Apparently this did not deter this individual from finishing the book, because the corrections continued. Unforgivable lack of proofreading aside, it was a rather good book. I read it in one sitting.

I promise someday I will stop posting boring, empty, almost-spring, crooked landscapes.

But this [watching plans that looked like they were about to land into this farm house] was very exciting for an airport enthusiast.

Once upon a time I won concert tickets to see Spoon.

Because I forced my sister to text 'SPOON' to 68255. Great accomplishment. Anyway, It was a really exciting time in my life, in fact, one of the few photo-worthy moments in the past few weeks. Except my camera was not allowed because it was considered professional. It was banished to the car, hence my blatant copyright violation sharing of this photo:

(I actually don't want to be a jerk to this guy because his photos are awesome. I want to be like him when I grow up. Complete with a photopass.)

I would have unobtrusively taken some fine non-professional photos from my general admission standing room only perch with my wimpy lens.

In any case, it was a great night. Katie and I visited the Vine Street Pub beforehand, which was delightful. There was also a high concentration of men at the event. And they were not bad looking.

Never have I ever had options. Crap.

Regarding Easter and Seduction

I realize that is inappropriate. As is the fact that I was in a shoe store on the sacred day of resurrection, but look what I saw:

It reminds me of a certain seducers and easter festivities past:

I am trying to live in the present, but I really could not help myself:

"Sticks & Stars"

The words the four-year-old Acadia used to describe this.

More on this tomorrow

18 eggs

Important life moments often involve quality pizza.

Today was not particularly auspicious and no pizza was consumed. Connection? Perhaps...

Dear Alauna,

I understand you are experiencing technical difficulties, but I am getting bored without you.

Please come back soon.

Love and DSLRs,

Alyssa

Spring, the Colorado edition

This is quite crooked. I decided not to fix it. Ever since we looked at the Marc Jacobs ads in CLCS 110 I decided that sometimes it is better to own the lack of perfectly level ground. More if you are Juergen Teller, revolutionary Marc Jacobs photographer, than me.