black and white and light all over

February has been the month of new computers for me.  Until this month I’d only had two computers in my life.  Ever.  One in 1999, which had a huuuuuge 6 gig hard drive.  Then a few years ago it reached its compatibility limits and my mom took pity on my poor self, passing on her old PC when she upgraded to a laptop.  So I’ve been noodling along on a nine year old Dell, previously used by my formerly-teenaged brothers.  Yup, it was sloooow.  I have enjoyed teasing the Kids about finding evidence of *activities*.  They get all blustery and defensive, which is fun.  Though fortunately I have never actually found any such evidence.

Then DJ gave me the little baby netbook for Valentine’s Day.  And today DJ’s brother, our resident computer expert (by trade, too) dropped off my brand new custom built PC, complete with a movie screen for a monitor.  We’ve been planning this for a while, but I feel like I’ve hit the computer lottery!   It’s so very fast!

I’m still trying to find my way around, and I’m lacking a few key things.  Like Photoshop.  As I have said many times, I am not good enough with a camera to do without some strategic fixing and blurring.  Today I used Picnik to blur out some, ummm, dust bunnies hanging from the lampshade in the pic below.  You never see ‘em until you snap a photo.  They’ve probably been there a while, I only had the camera in hand because I’d done some rearranging to improve my view from the sofa. 

I wanted more candles.  Maybe I miss stockpiling candles for my wedding.  Before it looked like this.  I liked it, but it’s kind of bleh.  Not that exciting, and the lamp is all wrong.

And now -  That’s a new lamp, but everything else was stashed away around the house.  My stationery lives in that metal box, but I don’t mind moving a lamp as infrequently as I write letters these days.  The big black frame has been hanging out empty since I smashed the glass a few years ago.  I ripped off the back and hung a smaller frame inside it by a ribbon.  Plus a wedding photo* in a pewter frame, a sculpture of a bathing beauty from my mom a few Christmases ago, and three pillar candles in glass vases I thrifted for arranging wedding flowers.  Can’t do a thing about the thermostat, DJ tells me we need it to keep the house comfortable. 

Too many candles?  Be gentle, this girl has quite a week coming.  Three bosses and a maybe-promotion, I’ll be on wheels!

*A quick print, Kim.  Permanence yet to be decided/ordered.