7 Quick Takes: Just Some Random Thoughts

--1--

Moe is sick and I am home. No work, no Mom's group meeting, no Mass. I hope he's feeling well enough later to take a quick trip to Wal-Mart, but if need be I'll wait until his brothers are home from school. Meanwhile, there are many, many other more productive things I could be doing right now (laundry being the most pressing, I think) but for now I think I'll sit here in front of my computer for just a little longer.

--2--

This morning as we were getting ready for the day, there was a knock at my door. It was my next-door neighbor, in her pajamas, looking distraught. She had locked herself out of her house when she let the dogs out. Her husband recently installed a new storm door, and even though the main door was unlocked, the outside door had latched behind her and she couldn't open it. I insisted that she come into the house and enjoy a cup of coffee while she called her husband at work to come and open up the house for her.

You know how you can live right next to someone and hardly ever see them? That's how it's been lately with this particular neighbor with all the busy-ness of life. When we first moved into our house, Larry was just under a year old, and her kids were in elementary school. As our family grew and her kids got older, we started having their elder daughter babysit from time to time. As her life became more and more busy as she progressed through high school, the younger daughter took over as our sitter. Now one daughter is about to graduate college and the other is halfway through. Their son is already done with college and has moved to North Carolina. It was nice to spend a few minutes catching up before the hustle and bustle of the day.

--3--

We were slightly late leaving for the boys' school this morning, but still within a reasonable time frame. Unfortunately the traffic was backed up and we immediately knew as soon as we got on the main highway that the boys would be late. Turns out there had been an accident a couple of miles down; we passed the scene as the police and the tow truck were arriving, and the cleanup crew was sweeping up the broken glass. (It didn't look serious; I think someone had rear-ended someone else, and may have gotten a third person caught up in it as well.) It made me wonder--if my neighbor hadn't locked herself out of the house, would I have ended up in the middle of that mess?

--4--

It's a beautiful springtime in our neck of the woods.

I think that will be the title of my next blog post, when I share with you some photos of flowers and blossoms ant things that I've been taking these last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll share those with you sometime this weekend.

Here's a preview:

There's lots more where that came from. I've been having fun with my camera lately.

--5--

Recently I heard a horror story about a podcaster who had done a Google image search for just the right picture to go with the content of his podcast, only to receive an email three years later informing him that he was being sued for $600 because the owner of the image didn't give him permission to use it. That got me thinking--yikes, I do that all the time. The fact that I make absolutely no money from this blog doesn't necessarily mean that someone won't sue me for a picture I've found online and posted. So I'm working on deleting some of those images from my posts--and deleting a few posts entirely--and thinking about ways I can use my own photos instead of ones I find online. The other day I briefly looked at some sites that provide royatly-free images, but those come with fees; some with a flat monthly fee and some with a charge for each download.

And so, my fellow bloggers, how do you go about the task of posting pictures from the Internet? Do you use royalty-free sites? If so, which ones? I know some allow you to sell your own images for points that can go toward the download of theirs, and I might think about taking advantage of something like that. How do you go about asking for permission to use someone's image? Or do you do what I've been doing for the last two-plus years and posting whatever images you find, permission be damned?

--6--

I've been pretty much gluten-free for the last month and a half, and while it hasn't been a breeze, it's been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've been slowly making my way through Elizabeth Hasslebeck's book, The G-Free Diet, and it's been very helpful. I've found some gluten-free foods that I like (and some that are positively vile), and I'm learning to adapt some of my recipes to make them gluten-free. Recently a friend gave me a recipe for a gluten-free pie crust that is fantastic, and I made a quiche with it last weekend. Fabulous.

Do I feel the makings of a new series here--"Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking?" Hmmm...

--7--

I finally managed to take a short trip to the abortion clinic in Richmond where the local 40 Days for Life vigils are taking place. (I've posted a few thoughts in the past about other vigils here and here. One of those posts may be disappearing soon--along with the random Google images that go with it.) We saw a few people going in and out of the clinic on this visit; I don't know if any of them were there for an abortion (it didn't seem that way, but who knows?) One friend who came with me said she could really feel the Holy Spirit at work during the hour we prayed there, and I would have to agree with her. There are only a couple of days left for this 40 Days for Life campaign; if you have a chance to go to an abortion clinic and pray today or tomorrow, it's a powerful experience. Click here to find out where there is a vigil location near you.

Moe is begging to get on the computer. I guess I'll let him take over. I've got baskets of clean laundry waiting for me to fold and put away.

Have a great weekend, and be sure to visit Jennifer's Conversion Diary blog for more Quick Takes!