The Cat and the Table
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When I saw this today, on ICHC, I just had to laugh.
Our son has a cat. Our son has a sprayer. The cat gets on the table, where he knows he is not supposed to be. Our son yells “Gordon! Get off the table!” and Gordon settles down. Our son jumps up and gets the sprayer, and Gordon watches. Our son sprays. And sprays. And sprays. If you get right up close to Gordon and spray under his tail, he will get up slowly, annoyed, and saunter off the table. He takes his time. He wants you to know you are annoying, but you don’t scare him. He wants you to know that you are NOT the boss of him.
Normally, Gordon is just the nicest cat you could ever hope to meet. He just has a thing about the dining room table.
Touching up Your Photos
Interesting article for the non-professional photographers among us about how to do some quick-and-dirty touch ups to eliminate common causes of less than ideal photos: shiny face, distracting background, and red eye. You can read the entire article at Wired: Touch up your pics
If only your girlfriend didn’t look sweaty and possessed — and the background didn’t resemble the mothership’s control room — this snapshot would be frame-worthy. With Adobe’s consumer-grade image editor Photoshop Elements ($100 for PC, $90 for Mac), you can remedy these common photo spoilers in seconds.
If you’re on a Mac, you can also try using the lightweight photo-editing app Pixelmator ($60). And those of you on Linux can give the free and open-source GIMP a shot. The controls and keyboard shortcuts won’t be exactly the same as the techniques described below, but they’ll be close enough that you should be able to figure out the correct combinations.
So far, I’m kind of low-tech. The MacBook Pro comes with iPhoto, and it takes care of just about everything I need. I crop, every now and then I adjust contrast or give it a little more or less lighting. Once I even straightened a photo that was tilted – wow, that makes me feel so powerful!.
AdventureMan has PhotoShop Elements, which he has explored, but I think maybe he was a little overwhelmed by all the processes. We both like taking photos, but we aren’t going to spend a lot of time trying to make a bad shot into a great shot. We try to do that when we are taking the photo. It’s all fun for us, when we start taking it too seriously, it stops being fun.
I like articles like this, though, that take something step by step and make it easy.
Do you PhotoShop? What’s your favorite tool?
Shiite Mosques?
On the same road as the earlier photo taken in Mubarak Al Kebir, just along the road (I think it is 250) was this mosque. It has writing on it, around the top, but the dome is not green. It has lights at night. Is this a Shiite mosque?
This mosque in Fehaheel doesn’t have writing, so I think it is a Sunni mosque, but it is so PINK and so pretty – and mostly the more delicate mosques are Shiite. Is this one Sunni or Shiia?
Road Work Needed
I had a meeting in Mubarak Al Kebir yesterday, and when I got to the streetlight to turn on exit 209, this is what the road in the lanes next to me looked like:
Four huge slabs of concrete – maybe they used to meet. One big depression, with rebar showing . . . most of the cars seem to know it is there, slow down to go over the bumps. I can only imagine what happens to the youngster who hits it going mach 6.
Think we need a little attention to detail here.
By Popular Demand
. . . your sunrise this morning at 0545. It looks like it will be a gloriously spectacular day, hot, but not killer hot, maybe in the low 100’s (F) (around 38 C). Not a cloud in the sky. Even the haze on the horizon is light, not that icky dark band you sometimes see. The Gulf is flat and glassy, not the tiniest wave. Freighters are tootling by, bringing all good things to Kuwait.
Tonight is date night, and the beginning of the weekend in Kuwait. I wish you all the happiest of weekends.
Dreaming of The “Not-So-Big House”
I’ve been dreaming lately of the house I want in my future. I’ve visited a couple houses in Kuwait lately, houses I liked a lot, with beautiful spaces, intimate dining rooms, a variety of ceiling heights, cozy seating areas that invited conversation and large, light bedrooms that also had seating areas, grown up retreats with Jacuzzi style bathtubs and places to curl up and read, along with a whole lot of closet space.
I told you a while back about a book we were told about, Sarah Susanka’s The Not So Big House Book. The book is about making every part of your house work the way your lifestyle needs it to – cutting out space wasted on impressing other people and maximizing areas of the house where people actually hang out.
As she introduces the book, she talks about how you throw a party and everybody ends up hanging out in the kitchen, that the living rooms we create are not welcoming, and she has good ideas how to make all the spaces in your house more welcoming.
She emphasizes also the use of high quality materials and workmanship.
I know that a little bit of heaven for me is getting up every day and looking out on the Gulf. I know that when I am working, I work facing the same view. It gives me such joy. I might get some of the same satisfaction overlooking a forest with wild animals (I know AdventureMan would love to have that not-so-big house be in Africa! Imagine! You’re sorting through your books and an elephant sticks his trunk in!) or the Puget Sound with the Olympics in the background. I know I am addicted to big windows and watching the weather change.
I need privacy. I don’t want other people looking in my windows.
My best friend has a round dining room table, and my sister, and my Chinese friend tells me those are the best for family “energy.” I want a big round family dining table, in wood, like my sister and like my friend.
I love glass brick, and would love to have it in bathrooms and entries and have walls of it letting light stream into and through my home.
I love glass tile, especially the watery shades of aqua blue and aqua green.
(photo courtesy Bedrock Industries)
I love light wood floors, honey oak, birch, even knotty pine planks I had in an old German house where I once lived. I love the feeling of wood underfoot; it is gentle and forgiving, and so classically good looking.
(Photo courtesy Pennington Hardwoods)
I love second floor loft libraries, overlooking the lower living areas of a house.
Dream along with me.
Think about YOUR house. Now, close your eyes and think about what goes into making a house your very own special hideaway. What makes it special for you? What would you do with your living space if time and energy and money were of no importance?
Traditional Clothing Exposition
Last night I was invited for a very special occasion, the Tarek Rajab family had a private showing of their unparalleled Arab Dress collection for the Kuwait Textile Arts Association. We enjoy their two museums so much – we take our friends and visitors there, sometimes we just visit the calligraphy museum to watch the film on calligraphy one more time! We learn something new with every visit. If you have never visited either of these museums, you are missing one of the rare treats in Kuwait.
On top of their value on traditional items, their foresight in beginning the collection decades ago, their two museums are open to the public, entirely free. Free of charge. Free admission. I never can get over it; the entire country of Kuwait is an honored guest in these museums. Imagine.
Denise Rajab, the museum curator, was on hand to answer questions about the costumes, which were displayed hanging against backgrounds showing photos of the countries and surroundings where these items of dress would be worn. White gloves were available to all present, and people were encouraged to (gently) handle the garb, so that you could see front and back.
There was so much loving attention to detail, so much handwork in these items of clothing!
I encourage you, my friends in Kuwait, to do two things. First, visit the two Tarek Rajab museums (located in Jabriya, near the New English School.) Here is their website: Tarek Rajab Museums
Second, if you want a window on a whole new world, join this group, Kuwait Textile Arts Association. Take their trips (this year the group just got back from South Africa, and are whooping with delight!) and attend their monthly meeting, meet some of the most interesting people in Kuwait, interesting because they have wide-ranging interests – like yours!
Here are some photos from a truly remarkable evening:
I hope I’m in town next year for all the meetings, and . . . I’ll see you there!
Come Back!
Law n’ Order Man! EnviroGirl! Come back! Come to Kuwait! We’ll make it worth your while!
Actually, in Kuwait, “coming soon” does not actually mean coming soon. There was a restaurant “coming soon” at The Palms, and we waited. And waited. The sign was up for months, and the restaurant never came!
We’ve heard there is also a Borders Books coming to The Avenues Mall – but we aren’t holding our breaths!
Clear Skies
Look at the sky! It’s clear! It looks like it is going to be a gorgeous day today. AdventureMan and I were out for dinner last night and chose a restaurant so that we could eat outside, figuring there won’t be many more evenings where it will be cool enough. Even though it was comfortable, the fly level was high enough to tell us we won’t be eating out much more this “spring.”
It is 68°F / 20°C at 0600 this morning, looking at a forecast high of 98°F / 37°C. Even though it is clear, I am sneezing, so something seems to be in the air.
Rolls Royce and Lamborghini Dumped
From today’s Arab Times:
Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini dumped in a desert
Kuwait : Police found two luxurious cars — a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini — worth KD 200,000 dumped in a desert area, reports Al-Anba daily. Reportedly, the cars were stolen from a rental office about 20 days ago. Personnel from the Criminal Evidences Department lifted fingerprints to identify the culprits.
Does anyone else find this funny? I mean funny, hahahaha, not funny strange, or weird. I mean it IS weird, it is so weird, but it makes me laugh.
In a little village in Washington State, there was a huge snowstorm a few years ago, and the roofs in the yacht club collapsed from the weight of the snow, collapsed on all those big fine yachts, and the citizens of the little village gathered and laughed. Boat moorage in their own little village had gotten so expensive, they couldn’t afford it, so these were all other people’s boats. And they just laughed.
200,000 KD worth of car in two cars. Just dumped in the desert. Seems kinda wasteful, doesn’t it?
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