Wow, some of the templates designed in that Blogger contest are gorgeous. I was on the phone for about two hours last night, sitting at my computer playing with Photoshop (just what I need, more hours of my life spent staring at the glowing box). Point is that I feel a new design coming on. Something with that craquelature overlay, or mosiac, or plastic wrap. Or paint daubs. Or that nifty diamond fade thing, I like that too. Remember back in the day of the original computer drawing programs? I think ours was called MacPaint, and I loved to draw those perfect expandable circles and fill them with black-and-white patterns. I thought it was the coolest thing ever -- and I probably never realized that program's capabilities, either, which gives you a clue to how far along I am with Photoshop's intricacies. Why is there no tutorial, online or PDF or otherwise? But let's be realistic, here... the 1 percent of what I understand is probably the 1 percent I'll ever use: the let's-play-with-colors-and-textures part. I'm okay with that.

Before I got distracted by the cool Blogger templates, I was going to talk about my new sandals. Yes, this is a topic that has been broached before -- but the search is over, I tell you. I have found the Holy Grail of sandals: Chacos. Go see their wonderfulness for yourself.

Sometimes it's nice when life is rolling along so smoothly that you have nothing more pressing to think about than sandals and Photoshop effects. :)