"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so." ~Mahatma Gandhi

So...

Nothing much to report...it's been kind of slow and boring.  I can't wait until it gets warm...and stays warm. 

Here are a few photos from my week...

Mara and I went to see Beauty and the Beast.  Yes!!  This is what the theater looks like...at noon...on a Monday....

Maybe it's best if you don't look too closely at what you are eating.  (This reminded me of the Sarlacc pit from Return of the Jedi....I had my reservations - but it was tasty.)

Failed shopping experience at Staples...but...it netted me this cool shot.  (What is it with customer service - or lack thereof - these days?  The only person who acknowledged me the whole 20 minutes I was in the store was another customer who said, "Good Morning".)

Check out this guy!  Pappy and I were eating breakfast yesterday morning when this dude flew up behind the house and perched right across from the deck.  Of course, I had to run in and get Chuck (with his longest lens) to take his portrait.  Absolutely gorgeous.


.

“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.” ~Edgar Allan Poe

So...

I'm tired and I only have a few photos to post.  (Weird dreams...)

Enjoy.

“I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.” 



~David Benioff, City of Thieves

Through early morning fog I see, visions of the things to be, the pains that are withheld for me, I realize and I can see...

So...

More of the mundane.  I've been trying to take more photos.  "Trying". 

I have completely failed on my mission regarding my recent "health" issues, though.  I didn't want to tote Chuck to the hospital with me for my surgery because Pappy would have had to cart him around while he was waiting for everything to finish.  (We were at the hospital from 7:45am - 1:45pm...for an 18 minute surgery!)  Surgery went great - except for the 2 dingus nurses who couldn't get my IV in place (5 pokes and I still have a huge bruise on my hand - 13 days later!). 

I also had to go to physical therapy a few times.  I'm sure they are expecting me to be there for more than 3 sessions, but hey, I can get the same thing accomplished for $10 a month at Planet Fitness.  AND they wouldn't listen when I told them they were making my leg bones hurt.  The one dude kept saying it hurt because of all of the swelling inside from the surgery.  Uhh...there's nothing left in there to swell....bones?  I don't think they can swell up...they're BONE. 

So...no Planet Fitness (I almost typed Planet Hollywood!! Doh!) but I'm leaning more towards NKU's new Recreation Center.  For alumni it's only $28 a month...and there's a pool! 

Today was my post-op meeting with the doctor.  He said everything looks great and explained all of the photos he took during surgery.  One photo was of a bone spur he removed from the joint.  It was HUGE!  Like the size of a quarter!  No wonder my little leg hurt.  We decided that I'll go back in 2 months and see about having the other knee fixed.  Cross your fingers.  Sadly, I was very remiss in photo-documenting my whole experience - their offices are pretty barren...no fun "doctor-y" stuff sitting around to shoot. 

Maybe the next leg.

Well...here are some totally random (of course) photos from the past few weeks...

Foggy morning.....I promise I just held Chuck up without looking through the viewfinder...  :)

People look at you weird when you are photographing at a red light...
 

The bar at The Leapin Lizard...

This is what my headaches look like...if my brain was a big, mushy glob of chewed Bubblicious and these pods were stuck in the middle...

Uhh...this is a glob of bird poop...shaped like a heart...

And I bought new sheets!  Pretty, soft ones!  (Kohl's has a real racket going on there...you go in, spend $50 bucks or so and they give you $10 more to suck you back in!  It's never-ending!)

For the past 2 weeks I've had two songs jammed in my brain...the theme to Cheers and Suicide is Painless from M*A*S*H (the 1970 movie funeral scene).  Now I need to watch the movie again.



.

"Wait a minute. Bruce Wayne is Batman...'s roommate?" ~The Joker

So...

Mara and I went to see the new Lego Batman movie over the weekend.  It was hilarious!  Of course, seeing all of the Lego figures up close and personal - and so freaking well lit! - I wanted to try it myself.

(I need a nice little (portable?) studio so I can take better photos.  It's frustrating!  I know what to do, but accomplishing it is a whole other story...)

This is my end product.

Meh....

This one is just the ambient light in the room.

This one is lit from the back/side with a little battery powered tea light.

And this one is lit with the tea light and the blue sign-on screen from my phone - but only for a split second.

I get too frustrated trying to take great photos with the limitations I put upon myself.  More planning is needed beforehand.  Well...I DID ask Mara for the tea light before I left for work that night...

Batgirl:  Why did you build this thing with only one seat?
Batman:  Because last I checked I only had one butt.

"Your forced superiority, your azure delusions of grandeur, are gonna cut you free..." ~Van Morrison

Well...

Not to toot my own horn...but...check ME out!!!

I'm somebody!!

I guess if you're going to do SOMEthing, do it right.

Go me!

Good Morning, Mary Sunshine....

So...

I had my surgery on Friday and everything went well...except for the stupid nurses trying to insert my I.V. (poked me 5 freaking times!). 

But...tonight?  I am super crabby.  My leg kind of hurts, my hand hurts, and I have a headache...so...here's a photo of a pretty flower.

Only a few shorts days until Spring.


.

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." ~David Dunham

Ok...

I'm just cleaning house a little bit.  I have a bunch of "what's Anna been up to" photos clogging up my files in Lightroom.  Some of them are more than a few weeks old, so...sorry.

Enjoy!

What's with the birds lately....?

I have a steeple/cupola "thing"...

An empty wasp nest...all up close and personal-like...

One of my favorite types of places to visit....these are headstones from Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in Cincinnati...

Messing with my flash after I finally repaired it...(yay me!)

And a shortbread cookie with hazelnut coffee at Panera...by the fire....

People look at you weird when you whip out your phone and photograph your food...it really takes them aback when I get Chuck out to play...and I shoot everything...nothing is sacred.  :)


“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy.  A man is not very tired, he is exhausted.  Don’t use very sad, use morose.  Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.  It also won’t do in your essays.”

~N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

 
.