Binney & Smith

submitted to Thursday Challenge: Color

Abstract Photo Monday on Wednesday

I was inspired from by a post from Andrea's photo blog where she's showcasing some abstract photos every Monday. She invited anyone to share their own abstract photos so I took her up on the challenge. Thanks Andrea!
I took this first photo in Vancouver. I was on a cruise ship at Canada Place and left the shutter open for a total of 1 second, hand-held as still as possible for about 3/4 sec then moved the camera right till the shutter closed.

This photo was taken in Yosemite, also with a shutter speed of 1 second, driving slowly up a curvy, snow-packed road at 5:20pm in January.

Outlet Malls

I went to the Gilroy Outlet Center the other day to return something I bought online from Eddie Bauer. Figuring it was an outlet store, I assumed the prices would be cheap and the sales would be rampant. Wrong. Maybe most things were a max of $10-$12 off regular price of last season's clothes. There were a couple of racks in the back that had 40% off, but nothing in my style or size. All I want is one simple summer skirt...you'd think that summer stuff would be marked 60-70% off...nope. In fact, there were hardly any summer clothes at all, 98% of the clothes in there were fall.
Last night, Phin and I went to Valley Fair and I found a skirt in the sales rack at Nordstrom, $21. That same skirt would have been $39.99 at the outlet center. That seems to be their magic number. Plus, if I decide against keeping it, Nordstrom is only 4 miles away, whereas the Outlet center is 30ish miles away.
Truthfully, I'm pretty annoyed at shopping. It's more of a chore rather than an event or fun thing to do. Remember in high school and college, or right after you had your first real job out of college and shopping was the best thing to do with all of your free time and money? Not anymore.

Bold squirrel in my MIL's yard.

Butterflies

At the Woodland Park Zoo. It was a cold afternoon, never got above 65 degrees, so the butterflies in the exhibit were conserving their energy and heat by staying very still. The few that were close to the pathway gave us a great opportunity to take closeups of them without worry of them flying away, but most of them hunkered down far, far away from the path.

Where would I lay my eggs?

I never did read the next sign (click on image to enlarge) so I have no idea where.
Sigh.

Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle.

home

It's good to be home and with my husband, but I wish we didn't live so far away from my cousin and her newest little one. The baby was so very precious and just giggled and giggled with me. Melted my heart and broke it at the same time.
I had an amazing time with them. Thanks, V! I love you.

Who said it always rains in Seattle?

Having a great time in Seattle, I'm here till Wednesday evening.

The flight over was easy, simple, breezy...if you may. I had to check a bag, which is unusual for me because I travel very light. But since I had to check my bag (toothpaste, ya know?) I decided to take my laptop. Weeee!! Which, some might think is excessive, but I need to be plugged in. I'm even bringing my laptop to Hawaii, the condo we're staying at has hi-speed DSL, so there. Did a few Su Doku puzzles (thanks Danielle!) and next thing I knew, we were touching down in Seattle.

It's been warm here! 89-90 degrees at the space needle yesterday. At home it was in the mid-70s, my preferred temperature. It'll probably start cooling off here on Wednesday and warming up at home, just in time for my arrival.

Spent today hangin' with my peps. (Phin, I went to Rubber Soul). Walked along Lake Washington a bit and had lunch in Kirkland - the home of Costco.

Missin' the husband a lot. Next time, James, you come along. :)

Seattle

I'm off bright and early tomorrow morning to visit one of my favorite persons and family.
Can't wait! Looking forward to being in another awesome city, too.

Photo from spring 2005.

Summer is all about

...spending as many days on the water as possible.

Phin came to the cabin with us this week and Jimmy's cousin from Bishop joined us, too.
That's Phin hangin' on the tube while Jimmy races the boat at full speed!

The view from where we beached for the day to swim and enjoy the warm sun. Serenity and tranquility at it's best.

The only 'scary' part was the spotting of this water snake. Phin was swimming and saw his little head poking above the water about 10 yards away and quickly decided it best to swim away from the snake! Of course, the guys thought it was cool. I donno...something about the combination of water and snake just doesn't turn me on. Snakes are bad enough on land, but oh so much more scary in the water. However, it was a lot more humorous then frightening. Phin and I aren't phobic of snakes or anything, we just like to keep a healthy distance from them. :)

Hidden waterfall - what an awesome surprise!! Jimmy manuevered the boat into the little cove so we could hop out onto the rocks for a better view. Awesome.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Hey sweety! (I know you're watching, heehee!!)
Love ya so much.

Jimmy and I met in high school. We had classes together since the 9th grade, but it wasn't until our junior year when we sat next to each other in history that our friendship started. One of my most vivid memories from that history class was right before a test. For the life of me, I couldn't (by myself) remember what OPEC stood for, so I was going to cheat and started writing it on the palm of my hand. Jimmy stopped me and somehow got me to remember what it was: Oil Producing Exporting Country. So engrained, I'll never forget till the day I die. ;)

The beginning of our senior year, we were still just friends. But I remember that first day of school, hoping that he'd be in one of my classes. By the 4th period, he still wasn't in any of my classes. 5th period though, English - yay! there he was. We sat next to each other and our friendship continued. We even worked together at Kentucky Fried Chicken (finger lickin' good!). In November 1985, we started doing stuff outside of work and school together and finally started dating in December and we've been together ever since.

I feel very blessed that I found my best friend so early in life and that through all the years, the challenges haven't separated us, they've made us stronger. That I've been able to spend my most joyous occasions with him and share my most grievous ones, too.

I hope you can handle me for at least another 38 more years, sweety. I know I can't wait to see what the next 38 will bring. We'll be 76! Just Imagine.

Tea haiku

Have a spot of tea
Some crustless sandwiches, too
Perfect afternoon

A girlfriend's soiree
Let's talk about everything
Who what where when why

One small simple sip
Gives instant comfort - relief
Smooth satisfaction

Submitted to One Deep Breath Haiku Challenge: Tea/Coffee

Sunday at the Zoo

Went to the San Francisco Zoo with the Bowen's today. Jimmy and I had never been so it was really cool seeing all the animals and spending time with the Bowens. Big ol' gorilla.

Riding the carousel with ABowen.

Cool meerkat. He was perched up high keeping watch over the surrounding zoo of people.

Polar bear trying to keep cool. Luckily it wasn't hot today, probably didn't even get over 70 in the city.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Danielle!!!
I know you and your sis lurk around here every now and then so I just wanted to send a shout-out to my bestest girl.
Hugs and kisses.

There's a party in the sky tonight

Celebrating my dad's birthday. He would have been 102 today.

Peace

Humphrey

I didn't intend on doing a collage of Humphrey Bogart. This was one of those pieces that just ended up 'happening'. Now that I think about it, most of my collages end up just happening. I covered the canvas with strips of masking tape then painted it with acrylic paints. Searched my database of images. When I picked this image (from doctormacro), I may have been swayed towards Bogart since Jimmy and I recently watched one of his movies from 1940 "They Drive By Night". Once I had my main image, I picked out which rubber stamps and ephemeria to use.

Smores

A camp fire lends
The perfect environment
For sticky faced bliss

The boy loves his smores
I taught him the perfect melt
He ate four of them!

Don’t burn them too much
Take your time, roast it slowly
Gooey marshmallow

Take two graham crackers
A roasted marshmallow and
Chocolate – Yum! S’mores!

I'm entering a new art challenge: Mama Says Om. I've been lurking on their blog for a while and love the artists submissions and the inspiration I get from seeing everyones entries. This week's theme is "Camp" and...well...if you've been reading my blog for the past week or so, you know that I spent a wonderful week with my nephews and their parents in the Sierra Nevadas. We weren't really camping, per se, but enjoying nature, summer and family. But we really did roast the marshmallows over a wood burning firepit under the tall pine trees and star-filled sky. Does that count?

Here's one more photo along with a few haiku in honor of that sticky grin of his.

Sweetness

A photo of my girlfriend and her 9 month daughter, taken in February when they were up here visiting.

16 months

Nephew #3. He hung out with me on the shore mostly, but he also loved swimming with his mommy and daddy.

The Scenic Route

Famous Coast Highway.
Winding beauty; sea meets land.
California gem.

submitted to One Deep Breath Haiku Challenge: Scenic Route

St. John the Evangelist

St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC.

Submitted to Moody Monday: Devoted

Aubergine

I've been hankering for veggies. When we were with Jimmy's family, we ate like kings...uh...carnivores, truthfully. Meatballs, chicken cutlets, chili, tri-tip, burgers, really...an obscene amount of meat. Every bite of it was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s, don't get me wrong, but our veggie list was short - limited to corn on the cob, roasted peppers, salads and some fresh fruit.

So today I went to the Campbell Farmers Market and filled my bag with lots of veggies, enjoyed the warm (not hot, yay!) morning and snapped a lot of colorful photos.
Eggplants. I don't like 'em. I had to eat them as a kid and although I've tried them several times as an adult, I still don't like them. Maybe it's a texture issue, I'm not sure. But aubergine is such a cool word.

I may be the only person on earth who prefers carrots cooked. I'll eat a couple of baby carrots raw, but only because I feel like I have to.

mmmm...broccoli. One of my favorite veggies. The stems are my favorite part.

For lunch, I had a Russian blintz filled with cheddar and feta cheese, tomatoes and spinach. Delish!

Synchronized treadmill performance

This

totally cracked me up.

A Solemn Design

Arlington National Cemetery.

Peace.

Submitted to Pxite: Design

The Dude Abides

A fan of The Big Lebowski, my BIL taught my 3 year old nephew the phrase:

"The Dude Abides."

Jimmy, also a huge fan, milked it. All week, our nephew ran around screaming
"Dude abides! Dude abides! Dude abides!"

I may not be a fan of the movie, but who could resist that cute smile?? I'd melt every time.

Rock climbing

To a 3 and 5 year old...
it was almost like climbing half dome. :-)

Beardsley Resevoir

We went to Beardsley Reservoir for the first time last weekend. It's a fairly remote lake in the Sierra Nevadas. It was almost as if we had our own private lake all to ourselves.

Submitted to Photo Friday: Private

The only way to eat olives

Balance

submitted to Tuesdays Photos: Balance

Desert Sky

Las Vegas, sunset.

submitted to Thursday Challenge: Sky

How computers communicate with each other

We were in my car, 2 of my nephews and their mom, driving to the Apple Ranch. We have a GPS (Global Positioning System) and the 5 year was very curious about the map system.

After several minutes of trying to explain in 5 year old vocabulary how a GPS works, it actually seemed like he pretty much understood. The questions continued:

Nephew: What's that triangle on the map?

Me: That's us, in the car. This computer talks to the computers in the sky and it keeps track of where we are on the road.

Nephew: I didn't know that computer had a mouth to talk.

Summertime is family time

Spent a week with Jimmy's brother's family at our hideaway. Went to the lake every day, it was awesome! Love my nephews, they are so cool. 3 of 'em: age 5, 3 and 16 months.
Will update more soon.