Too Much Computer Time

I seem to be waisting away my afternoon on the computer. I've been wanting to learn to edit photos in Photoshop but it's a really complicated program. Mainly what I want to do is to get rid of the background so you just see the item, like this hat or a quilt.
Here is my results after a lot of work. I cropped Kim's face because I made a bit of a mess, some of which you can still see on her chin. But the hat looks good.
Just for comparison, here is the original photo, notice how dark it is, and I corrected that! Maybe I can save some other bad pictures I took.

This picture of Sophie (not Photoshoped) just makes me laugh. I've put it on my desktop and whenever I close all my programs a chuckle escapes.

Kim came home because she wasn't feeling well so I felt compelled to cook her something healthy. I did a quick search on AllRecipies.com for vegetarian soups and stews (Kim is vegetarian) and found 2 great ones. Lentil Soup and Aunt Peg's Chowder. A trip to the store after work and I had all the ingredients for both, I decided to make both of them figuring I'd send the left overs home with her so I'd know she'd have a few more healthy meals. Way too much time cooking, but they both came out great. I started the lentil soup on the stove in my big pot, I cut down the water to only 6 cups since I didn't want that much soup, and used Balsamic Vinegar like one of the commenter's suggested. It sure gave it a distinctive flavor.

At first I wasn't going to do Aunt Peg's Chowder in the oven like the recipe said, but since my big pot was full of lentil soup I decided to follow the directions. I realized the 15 oz can of garbanzo beans I had was twice as much as the 8 oz can of the recipe, so I doubled everything. Although I'm not a big fan of garbanzo beans this was pretty tasty. I used the cheeses I had, which were pepper jack and mozzarella instead of the plain jack and Romano.

Random observation of technology today: The power went out the other night, and at 4 am I was awakened by the beeping of the battery back-up that we have on our electronics. I found a flashlight and scrambled around on the floor until I figured out what button to push to stop the noise. Meanwhile Kim wakes up because there is also a battery back-up on Matt's computer upstairs, so she takes care of that. "Do you need a flashlight?" I ask, "No, I've got my cell phone".