Sorry for the confusion today if you were trying to get to our site. We are making room for a new front page to welliverphotography.com. Currently the welliverphotography.com address redirects to the new location of our blog at welliverphotography.com/blog. Eventually, welliverphotography.com will be linked directly to our gallery. Thank you for your patience as we change our site.
Blog
Welliverphotography.com Changes
Our site is about to undergo a major upgrade. Hopefully, it will be smooth.
We're Published!
So what if I made the book myself. Its out there for the world to see. Our collective best pictures from 2008, as decided by some very stingy judges (okay, yes, we picked them). If you'd like a copy, please go to Blurb or click on the badge on the left-hand side of the screen. And to be serious for a little bit..many of our readers encouraged us and inspired us over the past year (and by many, I mean the five regular readers who drop by here...many is anything over 3). . Now that the book is out there, its a little frighting to think that we've bared our artistic souls for the world to see. This is a step we likely would not have taken without the encouragement, inspiration, and love from our family and friends. Thank you.
And here's to hoping that next year's book kicks this book's ass.
You Found Us
[caption id="attachment_117" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Costume Cross"]
I got frustrated with the old blog and all of its annoyances, so here's the new blog. Its still a work in progress, but the basics are here and I'll try to keep the incredibly fascinating life of TeamWelliver documented here. The link lists will grow and the gallery will improve in the next few weeks...in between soccer games, 'cross races, and thesis writing.
Quick weekend update: we played soccer today in the local league. Terry scored an unbelievable volley from 20-yards out into the upper-90 along with another goal, I actually got an assist...and most importantly, Terry survived and didn't injure himself!
Friday Night at the Welliver’s
Conversation overheard tonight at our table. Beth: Hey cutie, read the e-mail from the ladies about the thing.
Terry: Oh yeah, what did they say?
Beth: Just read it. Its in my e-mail.
Terry: Well can’t you just tell me what it say?
Beth: Dude, its right there in my inbox, just read it.
Terry (sheepishly): But I’m watching MacGyver.
That’s right. Terry was watching the MacGyver pilot on YouTube. And Richard Dean Anderson is still cute.
We Need a Padded Room
Today I volunteered to take Terry’s place on the soccer field in the local league game since I was the one who took him mountain biking and therefore feel slightly responsible for his little ‘kissing of the earth’ incident in Idaho last week. He’s actually just fine, but the cold sores that resulted from hitting his mouth still hurt too much to run. So I told his coach I would play for him. So I went in at outside midfield (i.e. winger, i.e. the position who runs the most), and being the only girl on the field, I’m about 10 years past my prime of playing outside midfield against boys. One guy got the ball and is about to beat me, so I did the one thing I’ve instinctively learned to do very well in 18 years of soccer playing...I pulled his jersey.
Now you would think that in 18 years of my uber-competitiveness on the soccer field and therefore freeeequent jersey pulling, yes, you would think that I should know what I am doing. I thought I was a pro jersey puller. But apparently not. Instead, my poor little pinky finger looks like what you see in the picture above.
I’ll get it checked out tomorrow. Its just a pinky so no big deal. But seriously, I think we do need to start looking for a padded room to live in.
Oh, and we won the game.
Big Idea of the Day
On our Idaho vacation Heather and Justin introduced the “Big Idea of the Day”...each day someone randomly came up with some sort of brilliance, be it entrepreneurial, beneficial to society, something to make life easier, something just silly/funny, etc, etc...it was never planned or staged...someone just thought out loud and it became the BIOTD. Yesterday I was discussing with a Pub outing with a friend and was thinking that instead of beer I should drink wine in order to avoid all those calories and help out with ‘cross fitness. His response:
If you weigh more by drinking more beer the bike will seem lighter comparatively and you will be more “padded” for the bruisings encountered during a ‘cross race.
That’s brilliant! Almost has if he knew that I beat the crap out of myself during a ‘cross race. That extra padding wil help!
So thank you Bryan for yesterday’s Big Idea of the Day.
Passions
I feel like I’m at a crossroads in my life. A self-imposed cross-roads of sorts. What do I want to do with my life? A week in the mountains and spending a lot of time as the slow one in the back of the mountain bike group gives one a lot of time with one’s thoughts. I have a job. I’ll likely be able to keep that job for another 14 years if I want and retire comfortably. I forecast the weather. I’ve wanted to be a meteorologist since I was in 3rd grade. I like weather. I like it a lot. But its not my passion. And I don’t mind my job, but I certainly don’t love my job. Its not my passion either.
Soccer was of course my first passion. I lived it, breathed it. I loved it. I was pretty good at it, too. But then it started to live me. It controlled me. It was pulling me to places that I shouldn’t go. And then it got to be not fun. I had to step away. The passion consumed me and ruined it for me for awhile. Now its fun to go play every once in awhile again, but not seriously.
Then came my love of photography. I love, love, LOVE it. I’m okay at it, but not great. But I’m still learning. I’m growing. My passion is evolving. I wish it could be my job. I have a lot of passion for it. And I can do it with Terry because he shares a similar passion for it.
Then there’s cycling. I love riding, I love training like a little weirdo, I love mountain biking, I love ‘cross, I LOVE racing on the track. They are all fun. I can’t get enough. Its my other passion in my life these days besides photography. I’d love to be great but I’m happy just to be able to do it.
So how do I keep my new passions from consuming my life and tarnishing this shiny passion I have? Is the only reason I don’t mind my job is because its something I like but that I’m not passionate about? If it were up to me, my days would be equally divided between Terry, my camera, and my bike(s). But that seems like a recipe for disaster. How do I keep the balance?
In my mind I know what I want to do with my life. But I am a legend in my own day dreams. Reality is not so dreamy.
The good thing in all this pondering is that Terry and I feel the same way...and the coolest thing in the world is that we share one true passion together - each other.
Cherry-Flavored Tummy Ache
I love cherries. They are normally too expensive to buy, but today they were only $2.99 at the grocery store. I have a fruit-buying price index...nectarines and peaches when they are below $2.00, apples below $1.50, oranges about the same. Bananas are cheap enough that I’ll normally buy them whenever. Below $3.00 is my green light to buy cherries. My price index is limiting at times, but honestly, the nectarines that show up in the grocery store in January are normally pretty nasty anyway - cheap normally means in season and fresh! So now I have 2.5 pounds of cherries. This is where the grocery store tricks you because they put the cherries in those nice pre-loaded bags with a sign that says $2.99 in big letters and “per pound” in dinky little print beneath. So, yeah, I paid more than $2.99 for my cherries. I guess I’m a sucker for fruit sales.
I’m headed out of town on Wednesday afternoon for the weekend and the cherries miiiight not make it through the weekend, so, hmm, I guess I’m forced to eat all of them before I leave. Hopefully I don’t get a tummy ache! I’ll have to pace myself.
As I was sitting here enjoying a few with lunch, I was thinking about all the cherry trees in Japan. They have a gazillion cherry trees in that country that beautifully blossom every spring. Yet I don’t think a single cherry ever grows on those trees. The plum trees bloom around the same time and you can get lots of plums and plum-flavored wines and liquors and candies and nasty pickled plum stuff and other plum crap...but I don’t remember any cherry goodies. Cherries in the Japanese markets weren’t very common, and when they did show up they were something like $6 or $8 for a little tiny bag of them, so we never bought any. So what’s the deal with all those cherry trees throwing their petals around every spring with no fruit? Have they bred the usefulness out of the trees to make them aesthetically-pleasing? That’s sort of sad.
Programming Note: Posts might be on the low side for the next few weeks...working on a new site.
On the short bus
You know that saying “the dumbest smart kid”. That might be me. The past days’ events have led me to eat a lot of my Trader Joe’s Belgian chocolate. That’s right. Its over a pound. Or a “pound plus”...though I think I’m gaining more of the “plus” than just the pound as I eat it.
My thesis research is all about figuring out the height of the bottom of a cloud from space. At this point in my research, that means comparing data from a satellite called Cloudsat to a few lidar ground sites scattered around the world to validate that the satellite is telling us the proper altitude of the bottom of the cloud. (if you want to know more of the geeky science stuff, put your nerd glasses on and e-mail me).
I spent the whole day yesterday downloading data raw satellite data. I spent most of today decoding it so I can play with it and organizing it into nice folders and was quite proud of myself. I even made a spreadsheet that told me exactly what time the satellites flew over my ground sites for an entire two-year period.
Then this afternoon I was looking a bit more closely at my pretty pictures where the satellite flew each day. And realized that the days when the satellite was supposed to fly over the Oklahoma site it was flying over central China. And when it was supposed to fly over the Alaska site it was flying over Siberia.
I forgot a negative sign. So instead of searching for longitude values in the western hemisphere (where Oklahoma and Alaska are), I was looking in the eastern hemisphere (hence China and Siberia).
Darn negative sign!
Hopefully I can get it all downloaded and organized again tomorrow. There is single track to ride this weekend!
I’m It
The picture above is complete irrelevant to the post. I just got done playing around with it so I dropped it in here.
My Aunt Banana tagged me (that’s why I’m It) with one of those blog taggie questionnaires. Normally I ignore these things, but since it was my aunt, I figured I should do it. She is one of the 3 people who comments on my blog. Plus, she’s getting ready to ride the MS150 in South Dakota this weekend and could use a little support, so I’m happy to advertise and support her undertaking!
If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?
Hmm, I’m not all up on fancy bikes, but it would definitely be a mountain bike with cushy travel in the back and disc brakes that didn’t squeak and a drive-train that never had to be adjusted (I’d still lube it!).
Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?
No, my brakes squeak sometimes...but I love my mountain bike and Terry will kill me if I thought of buying another bike. So I’m happy with it.
If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
Demo Forest...I love that single track. The climb is pretty chill and the downhill is oh so nice.
Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrow-minded?
I ride both but I race only one. I prefer my mountain bike. Feels more natural, and I like nature-al things. Maybe I am narrow-minded but I like it. I prefer my track bike and my ‘cross bike to my road bike as well, so that should lessen the narrow-mindedness.
Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.
No, never. I don’t see me ever riding one ever. I think I would tip over. Plus, Lily’s buddy-boy has made me think all recumbent riders are a little sketchy. (See mom and dad, aren’t you glad you got rid of them?? Otherwise I’d have to think you are sketchy, too!)
Have you ever raced a triathlon?
Heehee...yes, I did the IronKids Triathlon when I was in 4th grade I think. Swimming is definitely not my strong suit, and I decided it would good to backstroke the whole swim, but not normal backstroke...nope, I did the elementary back stroke - as in the chicken-airplane-pencil stroke they teach little kids. I was dead last out of the pool.
Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
I would give up bicycles. Riding is supposed to be fun, and if I can’t walk away from it, then it has become too serious. But ice cream is serious business and shall always be treated as such. Which reminds me, I’m almost out!
What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.
Which beer is the best post-ride recovery drinky?
Right now I’m on a Sierra Nevada kick. I really liked the organic wheat brew that New Belgium made last summer, but I haven’t found it around recently and I can’t remember what it was called.
Why is tagging someone legal?
Uh, why would it be illegal?
What is my favorite thing about cycling?
Damn my legs are starting to look good! And it justifies my ice cream habit.
I’m not one to forward chain e-mails, so I won’t tag more people to play in the game. I’m breaking the chain...I suppose spider-monkeys are going to attack me in my sleep tonight...its a risk I’m willing to take.
Good luck with the 150 Aunt B!
Throw Me a Rope
These KT Tunstall lyrics were in my inbox this morning. Always nice to know that the feeling is the same on both sides...
I want you between me and the feeling I get when I miss you But everything here is telling me I should be fine So why is it so, above as below, That I'm missing you every time
I got used to you whispering things to me into the evening We followed the sun and its colours and left this world It seems to me that I'm definitely Hearing the best that I've heard
So throw me a rope to hold me in place Show me a clock for counting my days down Cause everything's easier when you're beside me Come back and find me Cause I feel alone
And whenever you go it's like holding my breath underwater I have to admit that I kind of like it when I do Oh but I've got to be unconditionally Unafraid of my days without you
So throw me a rope to hold me in place Show me a clock for counting my days down Cause everything's easier when you're beside me Come back and find me Whenever I'm falling you're always behind me Come back and find me Cause everything's easier when you're beside me Come back and find me Cause I feel alone
Less than a month to go.
Women’s Sprint World Champion
That’s my new self-claimed title. Or maybe I was the only girl at the track today for the sprint tournament. And maybe it was just good-friendly-fun Hellyer racing and not the world championships. And maybe all the fast chicas were at Alpenrose or racing crits this weekend. Whatever, I was the women’s champion today!
In truth, the only highlight was my vastly improved time trial time. My main goal for today was to break the 14 second mark in the time trial and I went in 13.85. What does that time really mean? Absolutely nothing other than that I can sprint for 200 meters on my bike faster than I could ever run 100 meters on my feet.
The match sprints kicked my little uneducated track booty, but I learned a whole lot, so maybe next time I’ll do a little better with those. I was wearing my newly-acquired skinsuit though, so at least I looked pro.
The rest of my weekend was just as much fun as the track. Yesterday I was to go mountain bike riding at Demo. Demo is my single track sanctuary. I absolutely love it every time (even when I choose to smash my face into the ground). So I headed up north to ride...got the chain lubed, the tires deflated a bit for the trails, and up the road we went. Only my riding partner decided that it would be more fun to climb Mt. Bach instead. On the road. On our mountain bikes. With squishy-knobby tires and full suspension. I was wearing baggy downhiller shorts. Overkill? Three hours later we returned and well, we didn’t have to clean our bikes. And I got some sweet air off a speed bump, so the ride wasn’t completely a waste.
Later on Saturday I stole Terry’s secret fajita recipe for a little Queen Bella party. To be honest it was my first time really grilling anything because I am rather terrified of open gas-powered flames (the family can remember my lawn mower fire), so I was really happy that I didn’t burn the meat, me, their house, or the forest. I also made his jalapeno poppers that were a little warmer than normal. In fact I tried so hard to clean all the seeds and veins out to make them less hot that I think I have now ground jalapeno oils into my skin and under my fingernails because they are still burning today. There was homemade sangria and pies and cakes and gin and tonics and too many laughs. Its so great to have such great friends while my bestest friend is gone. Thanks ladies (and Bella fellas, too).
Hackering
I bet you thought this was another blog about Terry with a title like that. But its not. I spent all morning frustrated with the web-centric trifecta of iWeb, Apple’s new MobileMe thing, and Firefox 3. Finally I found a script that allowed me to fix the “Add a Comment” feature here. So now all three or four people that occasionally leave comments can go back to commenting away and actually see them. Yea!
Its been awhile since I said anything about riding in the blog, so there’s a pic of me riding my track bike. I went to the track on Tuesday for the points races...we did 3 races instead of the usual two since not many people were there. 96 laps of point racing. My sprint was unusually sprinty and helped me win the 2nd points race of the evening. I’m not sure how I placed in the other races, but I learned a lot - very important. And I had a whole lot of fun, which is most important.