Where is Charlie Brown and why did you take his tree?

This is the question that was posed to me when Jen saw the Christmas Tree I picked out. We have laughed at this tree since the moment I got it. See, Cathy knew I was going with a big group of people (friends that I have in Redding. Yes I have some!) who were picking out their trees. For a $10 permit fee I too could pick and cut one down. When we got to Castle Crags, I looked around and said, "where are the firs?" I was met with blank stares and was told,"There are only silvertips up here." I had no idea what that meant scientifically but I knew one thing: it meant a scrawny looking tree. So I hurriedly picked one out anyway because I was the last one everyone was waiting on, thinking that I would reimburse the $10 if Cathy hated it. I picked out said tree:

The moment it got put up in the living room, I was rolling on the floor in mortified laughter and Cathy kept saying, "It's great!" My giggles subsided until Jen came home and the whole bout of laughter began again because she was not as nice as Cathy and belied my own thoughts on the tree: "Sticks and stones may break your bones-- and apparently they make a great Christmas tree too," Jen quipped. To my credit, once decorated we have a pretty cool looking tree:

I have a couple blogs rolled into one today cuz its been so long. I finished one class today, and 5 more to go. The class today was not a final, but there was a project due. I took these two photos (one is Shasta, the second is from Castle Crags on Saturday):

I morphed these photos in photoshop, then recreated the entire picture using only words from Psalm 121 (my personal favorite passage). Click on the photo below if you want a bigger picture. I'm quite happy with the result and am pretty sure this solidfies my A in the class.


And before I go and study for finals, I will leave you with a song. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."