photos by iffles!

Every year, work does this month where they try to raise money for Harvest for Hunger (we also have a month later in the year where we raise money for United Way, if you were, for some reason, incredibly interested in our charitable donations as a corporation). There are a few things that always seem to happen: chili cook-off, bake sale, rummage sale, etc. And then there is the silent auction. People donate things (usually themed gift baskets), that are auctioned off all week long. A couple years ago, I donated one of my photos printed and mounted and ready for hanging. This year I decided to donate a one hour photo session. I bought three photo-collage frames - one that held four photos, and two that held two each. 7 of the slots were filled up with photos from some of my favorite sessions from last year and the last slot was a card that "advertised" for "photos by iffles". Which meant I needed a freakin' website! I had started one around Christmas time, I believe, but didn't do much more than create a home page and so in the course of one night I whipped this up! So. If you know of anyone on Northeast Ohio looking for a photographer, feel free to point them my way. Of course, if I get a lot of business, I'm going to have to start getting all professional and get a business license. But I'm hoping to keep it rather casual for now.


Bitty Maia Paw.

Remember in February when I wrote about celebrating the birthday of a friend? Well, here are the photos to prove it happened (Bryan, I promise not to show [too many] embarrassing ones):


We started off at the wine bar, where John and Andrew drank beer.


This wine bar is great, because you don't really order what you want, you just say "I want a white. I like semi-dry", and he'll bring you a bottle of something that he's into at the moment.


I just liked this light


Kitty! And darnit if I always forget this one's name.


Oh! The other one is named Dylon. Dillon. Dyllon? Crap, I should have just stuck with not remembering. I sometimes get annoyed that people can't remember Myles is spelled with a y. Actually, I mostly don't like it when I caption a photo with "Myles" and then people comment on it saying how cute Miles is. I'm sure he is, but I have no idea what he looks like because THAT IS MYLES. Anyway. THIS cat is Java. Right? Oh, jeez, I don't know why I'm so picky about names (mine and Myles') when I can't even remember anyone else's (or any cat for that matter, apparently)


Cats playing music for the cat


I wore new boots


Once back at Bryan and Sharon's place (which is where the cats were), Sharon kept bustling around and putting out more and more food, like these, which were quite yummy.


John, Andrew and Erin (someone else Andrew, Bryan and I work with) laughing at something.


Somehow, we convinced Bryan to do Karaoke at the bar across the street from his house. Not that he had much of a choice, since we put his name in for him.


I think this is the point where he realized I was taking photos of him (Andrew took video!)

I want my bike!

The weather this past week or so has been SO nice! It's making it much harder for me to stay motivated at work, and I can't wait until it really starts to actually look like Spring out there so I can go hike some trails. And to ride bikes again!

Although, who knows when that will happen. See, I took both our bikes in for a yearly tune-up. Mine was free because my bike was newly purchased last year, but we had to pay for John's. They told us John's might need a new part, but they would call us if it did. They never called us until they called to tell me "your bike is ready, you can pick it up" and they kept saying "bike" and "it", so I asked "do you mean BOTH my bikes are ready?" and they didn't even realize I had the second one. Turns out my bike was ready, John's was not, and they were waiting on a part they ordered. To which I asked why I was never called BEFORE the part was ordered. What a mess. Long story short (too late at this point, I'm afraid), my bike is just sitting there taking up room in their shop while we wait for a part that "may come this week, may come next week" (thanks for narrowing it down there, buddy) for John's bike. Sigh.

Of course, as soon as we get both bikes back, winter will return and we won't get a chance to use them.


I made this snack mix for our big poker game a few months ago. It was... interesting.


This is one of those "I don't feel like grocery shopping so I'm making a meal out of things I have in the pantry" meals


There was a night in January where it was warm enough to sit outside by a fire in short-sleeve shirts. It was awesome!










Our friend Joe Garcia (aka Hoseff) just released a new CD!


Have you seen that T-Rex Hates Pushups image going around the web? This is Yoshi Hates Push-ups


I made these Killer Brownies for poker, too. I made them again when Mom and Dad were visiting and sent some with them to E and R. Hopefully they made it there and Mom and Dad didn't eat them all... (btw, this is in the middle stage when the bottom half has been baked, then covered with caramel and choocolate chips. You can see the top half in the background, which gets put on and the whole thing is baked again, then covered with powdered sugar)


More of the fire

St Patty's

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. To John, this is a reason to have friends over for some drinks. To me, this means we're only two weeks away from my year-long project's go-live. We're getting down to the wire at work and it's hard to believe the time is almost here!

Not much else is going on outside of work, other than the reading and Mad Men watching mentioned in previous posts, so I suppose I will just do my best to continue catching up with some of my past photos.


We played a lot of Stone Age at the beginning of the year


Myles being all sleepy and cute


Maia sleeping on my legs as I read a book


I haven't had these in YEARS! We bought them because we thought it would be nice to have them with breakfast when friends were in town, but the friends weren't able to make it and John and I ate all of these ourselves. Oops?


Homemade Garlic Sourdough bread


Tuscan soup (and the garlic sourdough bread)


Going out for Sushi!

Ohai! It's me!


Another shot of that garlic sourdough bread!


This sushi? It's all vegetarian!


Dominion!


I leave you with this photo of Yoshi. John stuck him here next to the sink while I was washing dishes and I didn't even notice. I eventually looked over at one point and it kinda scared me that Yosh was watching me!

Mad Men

My latest obsession has been watching Mad Men on netflix. It's one of those shows that everyone said was good that I never bothered to watch, but once it showed up on netflix, I was all "sure, let me waste entire weekends watching episode after episode". I'm currently in the middle of season 2.

That's not all I did this weekend, though. Our friend Alexis was visiting from Columbus and we had some other people over and we played some games, went to Larry's for some drinks and food, and then just chilled out at home for a while. Good times were had. In the morning, John, Alexis and I went to the Sweet Pea Cafe for breakfast where I had a Mac & Cheese omelet. Yup, you read that right. It had mac & cheese (obviously - and good stuff, too), tomatoes, basil and mushrooms. It also came with sausage, but I got it without, of course. It was very, very good. also good was my mimosa. Couldn't resist!

And now some more misc photos, that are mostly from my 366 project


Meeples from Stone Age


Myles being Myles.


More typical Myles


This Seitan Bourguignon was SO good!


Cuddle buddies!


Myles in your face!


We bought a bunch of books at the Used Bookstore. I've read all the ones that were for me.


My most-used pot: my Dutch Oven. Swallowing a spoon.


The same picture of Myles as above, but in B&W. Couldn't decide which one I liked more...

Reading

I have been reading a lot this year. I entered a goal on goodreads of reading 40 books this year, and I'm already almost done with the 15th! (btw, you can find me on goodreads here).

The problem with reading more is spending more on books. My library doesn't have a huge selection of ebooks, at least not ones that I'm interested in reading, and they ones they do have are always checked out, which can be frustrating. I can put myself on the waiting list, but when mine comes up, I'm in the middle of another book and don't want to drop one book to read another, so it can lead to some frustrations. Plus, for some reason, my library site now says my library card number is invalid, so I have to actually drive to the library to try and figure that out before I can borrow another book, so that's annoying to. I had previously justified buying the ebooks because 1) cheaper than paper books and 2) I wasn't reading that much to make the cost that significant. But if I keep reading at this pace, the money will add up.

Still. It's cheaper than cable. Of course, if I add up all the things I'm justifying buying because it's "cheaper than cable", that might add up to the price of cable. Hmmm.

Oh well.


Saving the world from outbreaks.


Curled up on the sofa with my nook


This is a very good hand - three Highways!


Two cats! (that's Myles up front and Maia behind)


Just Myles. Looking annoyed.


This is my Breville tea kettle that my parents got me for Christmas. In love. LOVE. I use this thing pretty much every day.


Orange ginger tofu


This? Oh my. Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf. SO GOOD. I need to make this again.


The Young Professionals Group went out to eat at Crave - a nice restaurant in downtown Akron - back in January, and they still had their Christmas decorations up.


A common site in my house.


Here's that Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf again (it didn't come out much like a loaf when it was still hot, but when it cooled down it "loafed" more), along with some sauted kale (with toasted sesame seeds)


More Christmas decorations at Crave