I need my photoshop back!!!!!!!

Well my free trial of Photoshop products has expired....boooooooo! Unfortunately it is $1000 to buy the real thing, which is WAY too much. However, there is a student version available for only a couple hundred, so I'm thinking about going that route-- just gotta have someone with a valid student ID submit the order. I thought I'd walk down and snap some pics of the arch and I didn't think I'd be able to get any good shots with my lens....but this one turned out good EXCEPT for those stupid branches up top and I don't have photoshop to remove those now! GRRRRRRRRRRR. I don't think I'll have any good pics without photoshop cause there is always something to fix!

Photography Assignment Week 1

I saw where a few girls from a message board I belong to are also trying to learn how to use their DSLR camera. And they are following a blog's tutorial called Twelve Weeks to Better Photos. Since I pretty much suck at using the camera, I figured I should give it a stab too! The only way to really learn is just keep practicing, so now that the nicer weather is here I'm hoping I'll get loads of practice in!

Our assignment for the first week was to learn about aperture (http://is.twopeasinabucket.com/photocourse/weekone.pdf). Basically I took a picture of this flower clip I had on a tree and set my aperature 3 different ways. The size of the aperture, or f/stop, of a lens determines how much of your photograph is in focus. The smaller the f/stop, the less that is in focus. You'll see in the first picture it had a low f-stop and the background is really blurry. In the next picture, the background is more in focus and in the last picture I kept the whole thing in focus.

Pic 1- f/4.5


Pic 2- f/10


Pic 3- f/24

Money Saving Ideas/Tips

Don't really know what has spurred this post, but lately I have been doing a lot of investigation into our money and savings and am paranoid we'll end up broke some day! Just to add to my paranoia there was a cover story on Yahoo yesterday that $1 million is no longer enough to have saved for retirement for the coming generations and we need over $3 million....that just seems nearly impossible for me to fathom that we can save that much! Here are my latest startegies for us to save some money, so maybe this will help others too:

1) Use Restaurants.com or local tv/radio stations for half-price gift certificates. We go out to eat A LOT, so by using coupons from these places you can save quite a bit. Restaurants.com sells gift certs for a fraction of the price, but there are stipulations on when you can use it and what for, etc. Anyways, if you enter coupon code ZOO, you get 80% off the sale price (valid through 3/31). I got $160 worth of gift certs tonight for $13.80!!!!!!! And with the nice weather, they are all to places that will be going so we can sit outside and enjoy a nice dinner.

2) I use makeup remover towelettes cause are so convenient and seem to go through them like crazy and they seem rather expensive....considering I could just use some soap and water for a fraction of the price! So I started taking the towels and cutting them all in half, so now they last twice as long!

3) We NEVER use coupons when grocery shopping...really the only thing I'll use a coupon for is for clothing stores or Michael's or Bed Bath Beyond. A friend gave me this website that has direct links to some coupons and deals, so I am going to give it a try and see if I find stuff here to save some money on our usual shopping. The site is www.savingmoneyinmissouri.com

4) Take time out to review things you subscribe to and figure out if you really still use it enough to get the value out of it. For example, we have cell phone plans and netflix. With both of these, I looked at some of the cheaper plans offered and based on what we use, I think we could use the cheaper plans and it really wouldn't even affect us. I think a lot of people probably subscribe to higher levels of service than they really use if you take a close look. The hard part on this is convincing dustin though, even though I have numbers to support it!

5) Another website I need to get in the habit of using is www.groupon.com. They will have a cheap deal for your city and if enough people sign up for it, then you all get the deal! Check it out and see if they have in your area! If you decide to create an account, please use my link cause I get referral money after you make a purchase! http://www.groupon.com/r/uu1462625

Anxiety Over!

Today I officially accepted my job offer with Accenture and am very excited! My first day will be 4/18, so it's been a little hectic just trying to sort out all my benefits info and get everything in line for the transition. I'm hoping this will be a good move though and will present more opportunities for growth than what I had at AT&T. I talked to 2 different people today with Accenture and am also excited that most of their staff is around my age...so good opportunity to meet some new friends too! It sounds like they'll have some fun social events, opportunity for travel, training specific to my area, a career counselor.....all stuff we were never exposed to at AT&T. I can't wait....so I just hope my excitement continues!

Good and Bad News

So Thursday ended badly with our team going to happy hour to wash away the sadness! It was confirmed that we would no longer have jobs at AT&T.....but the good news was that on Friday we would be presented with an offer from Accenture, which we were. So, at least we aren't out of a job....but still not completely ideal to be going through this. I think in the end though this could be a good move and a better company to work for....so time will tell! April 18 will officially be my last day with AT&T. Once I start for Accenture, I'll still work in the same cubicle (unfortunately) with the same chair from 1975 that kills my back and I'll work with my same team and boss. It will just be interesting to see how long things just stay the same cause I imagine at some point Accenture will be looking to make improvements or shake things up a bit. I got more bad news today when Illinois didn't even make the tournament this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What's up with that!?!?! Missy and I talked about boycotting the whole tourney if they didn't give IL a spot, but I'm not going to be able to do that since Vandy has a 4 seed. At least I can cheer for them!

Anxiety to the max!!!!!

I NEVER blog from work, but today is an exception. There have been rumors swirling for a while that the system I work on will be outsourced to another company- Accenture. Well, we came to find out they weren't just rumors, it was actually the truth. So we have a meeting at 10:30 this morning with my boss's boss's boss where hopefully we find out the details. I woke up last night like 5 different times with all sorts of nightmares about this. I figure this meeting will go 2 ways-- 1) everyone under him is in the same boat and I guess we are all potentially losing our job doing this role at AT&T or 2) he will explain what is generally happening so everyone hears the same thing, but says that not everyone will be affected the same and that you'll find out more specifics from your boss. I'm hoping it's the latter! I just keep hoping that they outsource the development and testing, but leave the more business functions here with AT&T. I just want to find out!!!!!!!!! And if it does affect me, I'm hoping I'll still have a job somewhere-- just a matter of whether I find a different job at AT&T or transition to Accenture. So, hopefully I'll have a post later today with some good news.....if not, probably at the bar drinking my sorrows away :(

Milk-a-whaaaaaaaat?!

So my FAVORITE commercial that I first saw on the Super Bowl was the talking babies from e-trade. Dustin seriously has to think I'm nuts cause I've walked around for weeks just saying milk-a-whaaaat and everytime the commercial comes on I laugh out loud for minutes. So I see today that Lindsey Lohan is suing e-trade saying that the baby is poking fun at her! She is such a crazy and I'll be so upset if they pull the commercial! If you haven't seen it, take a looksee and laugh for yourself.

Catch-up Time

So much has happened and so little time to blog! First, we've got hit with some awesome spring weather this last weekend! On Saturday, we did the Idiotarod, which I'll post in depth about this week. On Sunday we went to the zoo with Dustin's family. Keenan REALLY wanted some ice cream (along with Dustin), so this is how he looked near the end of his cone- so cute!

The previous weekend we had gone to U of I for another basketball game. Our friend Jimbo here is a Minnesota fan and that's who U of I played...and we lost:( We met up with Carly and Alex though, so it was good to get to see them. Unfortunately I was just really tired and had to force myself to stay out at the bars, so that kinda sucked that I didn't have more energy!


A few weekends ago we did a pub crawl for a friend's bday where you had to wear a wig or mustache. I was planning to wear a mustache, but it hurt so bad cause it clamped into your nose....so I had to be lame and go with nothing.

Blog Improvements- Phase I

Man, I just feel computer retarded anytime I try to do something related to this blog! Anyways, after about an hour of work, I am liking the new header! I have a few other improvements I'd like to make....but will save those for another day!

So I have to say, I was a little off with my AI thoughts, but was not sad with who went home....except for Janell but had a feeling she'd go early. I was shocked that Tyler Grady went home cause thought all the young girls would have been into him....guess not!