Category Archives: flickr

Our New Norm

Song Lyric of the Day:

Put up your dukes, lets get down to it / Hit me with your best shot / Why dont you hit me with your best shot / Hit me with your best shot / Fire away!

Pat Benatar / “Hit Me With Your Best Shot

A typical evening at home:Behold the action ears.

Soon to be added to my Flickr album, which I finally got around to updating tonight with pictures of Troubadour and another batch of Uruguay pics. Still waiting for Vimeo to finish loading mylatest dog-puppy video.

2 Comments

Filed under flickr, puppy, uruguay, vimeo

Back in the Saddle

Song Lyric of the Day:

These are crazy days but they make me shine / Time keeps rolling by / All around the world, you’ve got to spread the word / Tell them what you heard / We’re gonna make a better day

Oasis / “All Around the World

9:48PM.
The saying is true: You need a vacation from vacation. After just over a week home, we’re all finally getting back in the groove of things. When I say all of us, I’m including the cats and dogs in that. Caleb and Snoops are still recovering from days on end of playing with cousins and chasing cats, respectively, while the cats are thrilled to have us (okay, me) around again.

Rich and I are back on the fitness wagon, doing our best to stay faithful to our individual workout regimens. I’m starting to blog again. I got the first set of vacation photos uploaded to Flickr. I backed my laptop up and finally installed Mac OS X Leopard. I’m gearing up for my annual email blitzes to raise funds for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life (donate here). I finally made Brent his welcome home lasagna. And, to top it off, I went on an organizational bender this weekend the likes of which would’ve made your head spin.

Which is why I’m already looking forward to the weekend. I need to catch up on sleeping in.

Leave a Comment

Filed under flickr, vacation recovery

Wednesday Randomosity

Song Lyric of the Day:

Some may say I’m crazy / I may say that’s true

Chrisette Michele / “Work It Out

9:52PM.
Ctrl-Alt-Del
I know our trip to Uruguay is just around the corner, but, God, it cannot get here soon enough. I need a break. From everything.

I’ll Finish … Someday
I am the queen of the unpublished post. It’s a direct result of working on a computer all day, day in and day out. By the time I get home most nights, I don’t even want to look at a computer, much less log on. So I’ll start a post, get tired, and leave it saved and unpublished. And I don’t even remember the last time I uploaded pics to my Flickr account. Because lord knows, I have a lot of new ones to add.

Walking & Getting Nowhere
Rich and I bought a treadmill last Friday after work. And it’s the most fun piece of exercise equipment we’ve ever owned (built-in fans, stereo to plug the iPod into). Whereas I was ready for a heart attack after 10 minutes on the stationery bike, I can power-walk on this baby for a half hour and barely break a sweat (and burn 130+ calories per session). Of course, the treadmill scares the bejesus out of Caleb. He smiles and then barks his head off as he slowly backs away and runs back upstairs. Snoops could give a rat’s ass, as is her naturally cool disposition. The treadmill is in the Florida room, which is nearing completion thanks to Rich and the invaluable help of his dad, Doug (and a nice assist from Ken the other day). We’re aiming to blow the room out and get everything finished as soon as we get back from our vacation.

Raise What’s Left of the Flag for Me
I’m listening to the Flogging Molly album Whiskey on a Sunday as I blog this. And wishing I were in an Irish pub enjoying a sing-along. Must go back to Irish Times soon… Man, how awesome would that be if Flogging Molly played Knoxville? Hey, I can dream.

Left to His Own Devices
Caleb started his own blog the other day, The Amazing True Tales of Caleb, the Pitiful Bull. And he’s already kicking my ass with updates. Go figure.

Leave a Comment

Filed under blogging, caleb, dog blog, flickr, vacation

Desperately Seeking the Christmas Spirit

Christmas Song Lyric of the Day:

Snowflakes were fallin’ / As she spotted her date for Christmas Eve / She had to move quickly / ‘Cause snow was melting all up in her brand-new weave

The Dan Band / “Ho Ho Ho”*

3:00PM.
Rich and I are both working on starting our respective halves of our Christmas letter for this year. Since we didn’t write one or send any cards out last year, we figure we should make an effort this year. At this rate, though, our success rate will slow to the point where we’re only sending Christmas letters/cards out every other Leap Year. But I digress.

I’m having trouble starting my half of the letter, since, for the 14 (see what I did? I added a person) of you who read this blog on a regular basis know, this year was a really, really bad one. A lot of good things happened this year, too, but deaths, illnesses, and divorces have, unfortunately, outweighed the good for me. Hell, I spent the latter half of January and most of September and October crying, things were so bad. And while I am genuinely looking forward to Christmas, it’s been some work getting excited about it. But I think I’m getting there. Having a funny dog who is essentially acting like a snooping child helps, as does watching my two tabbies have a smack fight under the tree, and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the good one, not the bastardized version) with Rich. And I’m enjoying all the wrapping paper, presents, and Christmas decorations around the house, although I really have to ramp up my gift-wrapping efforts this year, especially since I joined the Gift Wrap Fetish pool on Flickr that Caren founded. Finally, some kindred spirits.

So what’s helping me get into the holiday spirit? The fact that I’m a greedy, greedy person and I want presents. Kidding! Well, partly, anyway. Really, though, I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with my family and friends, watching my kids (all six of them) tear into and enjoy their loot, and treating my hubby to some pretty kick-ass presents. Mostly, though, I’m just happy that we all made it through this year.

*I’m kicking off my 12 days of Christmas Song Lyrics of the Day today.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Christmas, Christmas letters, Christmas song lyrics, flickr

Validation!

Song Lyric of the Day:


Found a photo of you when we were married / Leaning back on a broken
willow tree / That’s one memory that I choose to carry / A weary memory i can always see

Iron & Wine / “Weary Memory


9:24PM.

As a child, I dreamed of growing up and becoming a photographer. Specifically, a photographer who got to take pictures of celebrities (how cool would that be?). My dream was inadvertently squashed when a relative said, “You’ll never make any money doing that.” So while I allowed my ambitious 10-year-old lifelong dreams to die a quiet death, I have remained a die-hard amateur photographer ever since.

Now, thanks to my love (read: obsession) for documenting almost everything I see and do, particularly when I travel, that hobby has paid off. Well, not literally. I haven’t earned any money from my photos (next stop: Etsy shop), but I am happy to say that two of the shots I took on my last trip to New York City were selected for inclusion in Schamp New York‘s online city guide. You can check them out on Schmap’s Restaurants – Lower East Side page; just scroll down to Lucien, and my photos will pop up in the right nav bar (click the arrow to see the second shot if they don’t change automatically). How cool is that? Of course, I would never have taken those photos or enjoyed the best French toast of my life if my Aunt Bea and Uncle Louis hadn’t taken me and Rich there for brunch. So a big thanks to them.

As for how I see myself as a photographer, I think my South Park avatar sums it up pretty well:

Make your own South Park avatar here.

That, and my inherent love of Star Wars (read: childhood dreams of marrying Han Solo).

Leave a Comment

Filed under flickr, new york city, photography

My Latest Distractions

Song Lyric of the Day:

You can’t stop this, feeling / There’s no escape / No sleep tonight / You won’t get / No sleep tonight

The Faders / “No Sleep Tonight

12:14PM.
Flickr
As a die-hard amateur photographer, I’ve been
enjoying uploading and sharing my photos. Hundreds down, hundreds more to go. It’s been interesting to see some of my photos attract the attention of different groups. Which is why I have photos in a Six Feet Under group, a Steve & Barry’s group, and, my favorite, One of a Kind, which has weekly themes.

The Parody Motivator Generator
Create your own motivational or — more fun — your own unmotivational poster. Just upload a photo, name it, and write your copy. I took a holiday photo of Snoops and turned it into a warning:
I predict I’m going to waste lots more time with Despair, Inc.’s application.

Kaboodle
Caren introduced me to this community shopping site. You don’t actually buy items here, but rather organize shopping lists, lists of items you have, get feedback from other users, and, in my case, create visual aids for my perpetual wish list. Now my greediness knows no bounds. You can see all my lists here.

Twitter
I’ve been on the fence about signing up for Twitter for a while. But, after Caren gave me another nudge, I jumped on the bandwagon. The site asks a simple question: What are you doing? So I use it to comment throughout the day about my typically mundane, often inane, whims. Basically, things that I don’t need to write about here. I imagine Twitter will come in very handy when I’m traveling and don’t have Internet access; this is what I would’ve used when I was stuck on that plane if I hadn’t found that Wi-Fi signal.

1 Comment

Filed under flickr