Photo Restoration
I have a huge project in my hands. I have to digitally restore a very old photograph which of course happens to be in very bad conditions. The photograph is slightly larger than a 11x17 so I had to scan it in pieces, losing the edges.
Left side
Right sideI have already started working after joining both images. So far I am only getting rid of scratches. I am working on a scan of 600dpi and it takes like 5 minutes to save each change, with a total file size of 481MB... because of the layers. ~_~ This is going to take a while.
Sing, Sing, Sing
... The name of a Chorale and Jazz ensemble concert that I attended yesterday evening, performed by the South Texas Chorale and the South Texas Jazz Ensemble. My Dad sings in the chorale ^_^ as a tenor. We heard several medleys and other romantic songs arranged to fit the chorale, some purely instrumental such as In The Mood and Little Brown Jug, and then some with soloists. I guess the program lasted about an hour, intermission aside, and it was nice. There will be another concert on December, so come November I shall be buying tickets for that. ^_^
Scrapbooking
Just a little thing that my grandma asked me to fix for her. It is the invitation to the baby shower for one of the little grandchildren. The other Grandma made the shower but sadly months later the lady was murdered. Grandma has kept this one as remembrance of when she was still here and yesterday she got it from within her boxes with all sort of memories.
Had to cut the Invitation to show both sides and the envelope all in one page.
I think it's cute.She said she wanted to frame it and wanted the card’s image and the invitation to both show. She also had the envelope so I used it too. I think it looks nice, now Grandma just needs to put it in its frame.
Jewelry, Denver
Something that looked much better on paper when I first came up with it. I had this design collecting dust in my notebook for a very long time, since last October, actually. Bought all the things I needed, but I simply didn't get into making it until today.
The draft
DenverWell, at least it matches a couple of blouses that I have. May look better with clothes.
Everything hurts
I've been doing a little bit of biking with Hubby and then the typical gym workout. On Friday evening we rode about 10 miles and it wasn't as bad as I feared. I always thought I'd be dying with more than 3 miles. You don't feel it if you ride with someone else.
The next day I went to a step-aerobics class and then stayed for some Yoga. I think that did it. It was like 6 exercises with 3 repetitions each... all nice and slow. Nothing superbly difficult.
Well today I could barely get up!!!
I know it wasn't the biking or the aerobics because I've been doing those. Yoga was the only new thing to my body. Oiiii.
Ahhh. Anyway. I've been working on some jewelry designs. I must not start on coloring stages of the drafts. Aftewards I can probably begin doing a test with base metal and inexpensive beads.
Draft, pre-coloring
Friends' Wedding
I went to a wedding this weekend. Two of our friends were marrying, finally! It was a very cozy, very nice wedding, and this first Muslim wedding I have seen. Hubby says there a whole lot more things involved not just with Muslim weddings but with Bangla Muslim weddings. The groom is Bangladeshi and the bride Greek. It was quite nice.
She looked gorgeous with her long white dress and cute little veil. She is a beautiful, tall slim lady with an everlasting smile. He looked charming wearing a very simple but nice punjabi, showing the humility that grooms should show. A very pretty couple. Their parents were not able to attend, but they were on speaker phone all throughout the ceremony. As I understand, each’s parents are waiting for them to go to their respective countries so that they can re-do ceremonies over there with all the relatives. Woowies. That will be fun. ^_^
After we left the wedding I mentioned to Hubby the fact that she was wearing white. Muslim generally marry in red or reddish tones. “See” I told him, “she converted to Islam and accepts the beliefs and most customs... but a woman that grew up dreaming of a white wedding will always at least keep the white dress. ^_^ You can’t change that!”
We women will compromise in a lot of things... except the dress. Hehehe
Where is the Ball?
Owwwww.
Being a Saturday, we decided to try a different area of the gym. We called my Dad and told him we wanted to try out the racquet ball courts. Dad was all excited about it and we met at 11, got a court and started playing. Well, they started playing while I watched from the outside (glass wall, pretty neato) as I used one of the stationary bikes.
Then they told me to try the court by myself a little. It was sort of weird. Little ball bouncing off walls at high speeds. After a while I 'sort of' got the hang of it and they joined me to actually play some matches.
...
I tripped on my own feet and fell down, got a nice bruise on my knee and even a little blood. I served and the ball bounced back to hit me on the chest, man, I didn't even have time to duck! And to top it off Husband hit me on the back with the ball after he slammed it very hard and the ball just went by speedily all over the place. Darn that thing is fast. My Dad was just laughing his head off. Ha. Ha. We'd see how he liked it if he was the one getting hit.
Hubby wants to go again tomorrow. I think he just enjoyed seeing me get injured. ~_~ >:p
hehe. Nah but it was a fun thing to play. Better than tennis! This is indoors, air conditioner and no scorching sun!
Labor Day 2005
Yesterday I spent the entire day sleeping!
Woke up at 10, sat around in bed staring at the wall and then lay back down. At around noon, Hubby woke me up with breakfast. That was good. I ate in bed a full plate of egg, onions and potatoes with some flour tortillas and juice. That was nice. He ate on the chair next to me and then took the plates and washed them. Wow.
Finally got up, took a shower, put on fresh Pjs and went back to the bedroom to watch TV. Husband washed the toilet and the sink. Double wow.
We took another nap... and then Husband woke me up at around 6pm ‘cause he had already cooked dinner. He made chicken and I ate some watermelon. I went back to bed. I was just feeling so darn lazy.
He came to bed at 8 to watch some RAW and then I got up to finish off a couple of things for my Grandma. From the bedroom Hubby said “Man, this cooking and washing is tough! I am beat. No wonder you get so tired..”
“Heh. And you didn’t do any laundry, didn’t vacuum, or mopped. Did you wash the dishes from dinner?”
He just laughed. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
Riight. Well, he made me a couple of soy dogs too at around 10pm too. I guess he was feeling homey... hmm... or maybe he was feeling guilty for something. *suspicious*
Well it was good while it lasted. I’ve already done everything he missed and will go to clean up the kitchen now. :p Hm... hungry too.
Rains and Others
We finally saw some rain yesterday. We are having a serious drought down here and any rain we can get is awesome. Emily didn’t bring in enough and Katrina’s rains missed us totally. Bad for everyone I suppose. We could have used a bit more water and Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi could have used a lot less too.
Poor people. They really got hit bad. We’re still not sure how we’re gonna donate. The Red Cross is only taking money donations and the Salvation Army is taking as well. I wanted to send food, so we’ll be checking the Salvation Army.
This week has been sort of slow and calm for me, so much that when I was chatting with Lore yesterday I hadn’t realized that today would be Friday. Opps. :p. Well, I am all recuperated from my allergy last week. Had my last detox from the medicine on Sunday. I was still feeling all buzzed that day, but by night I was more awake.
Husband and I enrolled in one of the local gyms. I’ve been trying out a bit of everything and found Spinning (simulated mounting biking) to be the nicest for me. I get cardio and I don’t hurt my aching joints. My seat hurts as heck, though. You know... those two little spots on your butt where the hip join the legs or something. Gonna start using a foam seat and hopefully in a fw weeks I will get used to it. There’s also a salsa class. ^_~ Not bad. I dance salsa but as my feet desire. Now I actually know basic steps.
Going to the gym hasn’t really hurt me much... but the gas that it takes to get there is.
*tsk tsk*
