Terribly disappointed

I'm big into doing my homework. I was the total dork in school and always made sure I did my homework and it was in on time. Even if I had to pull an all night-er (very common by college lemme tell you). It has helped me in the long run. Whenever I am interested in anything or looking to purchase a big ticket item I research the living daylights out of it. Even if it isn't a big ticket item I'll usually have researched it a good bit.

When I went to buy the new lens for my camera (or suggest it as a present from my dad) I looked up all my options, what worked with my limited camera, and where to get it for the least amount of money. I looked for a long time. I don't own a dslr, I have a fancy point and shoot, so I knew my choices were limited. Hence the on line research.

The lens came in, I was happy, then I needed to get the lens adapter. OK fine. Got that in on Friday, sat down to put it all together on Saturday. The result? It doesn't fit. I looked, compared, looked again, and chose the lens and adapter that everyone else had used together with my camera type. Seriously, this should have worked. I still have no idea why this doesn't make sense. I mean I am looking at them now, the lens adapter is 58mm. The lens is 50mm. Obviously this isn't going to work. But I can't find any other adapter. So how the hell did other people do this? I am on Google searching and searching and I am still at a loss.

It would be one thing if I just ordered the wrong products and it was just a matter of exchanging one. But that doesn't seem to be the case. There is no f/1.8 in 58mm and there is no adapter for 50mm. ARGG! Can I tell you what the easiest fix is? Buying a new camera. Really if I had the 'spare cash' I'd already own a Canon Rebel.

So what to do what to do. I don't know. I'm spending a bit more time on the internet researching. I may even end up joining some sort of camera forum and have them make fun of me for being this level of clueless. Either way I'm really disappointed that my present doesn't work. I really really wanted to play with my new lens and reach another step in the play land that photography is.

This is me, feeling all bummer-ed out. Maybe I should have not gotten so excited about it. I wouldn't be so disappointed right? Lower my expectations or some such. Really though, was a new camera lens that worked too much to ask?

House rules

We have them you know. Things like no food upstairs so we don't attract any more ants then we already have (it's the drought cities, ants are our nemesis) and the hubby constantly breaks this one. No toys downstairs, the kid is a repeat offender. OH, and speaking of repeat offenders, no dogs on the couch. Yeah, that one is followed to a tee.










Seriously, I could do this all day. And if they weren't crated when we are gone so would they...





I love this one, great lip action



Now mind you, we have little visitors sometimes and for whatever reason they've been known to find a nice spot for themselves...







Hey we're equal opportunity parents, you prefer a dog crate to a couch, we can oblige.

Oh and let's not forget the "Don't feed the dogs people food rule"





This little beauty was actually appalled that Jaynie had the audacity to take her strawberry out of her hand. She held it in her tight little fist and just stared at him as he proceeded to gently try and lick it out of her hand. Jayne is nutters but he has the softest mouth of any dog I've worked with. I don't think he ended up getting that strawberry, just the juice from the outside of her fist.

I know I don't have any pics of the Roxy offender, she's not normally on the larger couch. She prefers the small chocolate colored armchair. I haven't gotten any pictures of her on it though. Don't worry, she's a law breaker too. Lord forbid we have anyone that follows the house rules, hell would freeze over.

It's our 7th anniversary today

I think. You know it's been so long but I'm pretty sure it's the day after summer solstice. And the kid was like 8 months old at our wedding, if she's turning 8 this year that would make this our 7th anniversary. We met each other when we were 16 you know, that means we've known each other for at least 20 years now. Ya wanna see a pic from back in the day?



That was taken at his mom's dining room table back around 1989-90 or so (check out that retro Pepsi can!). That room still looks the same, we're a bit older. Do you just love the banana curls my hunny has when his hair is long? He never took great care of them but that hair only seems to go to boys that just don't appreciate it. That kind of hair and long curly eyelashes. We women so rarely get those.


It was father's day yesterday and we had another bbq so I didn't get a chance to give my hunny props for the day. My bad! Would you believe he did laundry and dishes all day too? I made him a big breakfast though, and dinner too. I'm only kinda a bad wife. He's a great dad though, a keeper for sure. The kid wasn't with of (of course) but my mother in law let my dad take her for father's day, it was sweet.

I told my hunny we could go and get him whatever he wanted. I suggested an iPhone, he opted for a new par of shoes. Go figure. I'm not counting the shoes though, if he wants something else I'll get that for him too.

Did I forget to show ya'll?

At the kid's elementary school they have year books. It's a cute idea, I like year books. But every year? In elementary school? I find that a bit excessive. So we got her one for her first year, in kinder. She won't get another probably until her last year in elementary, 5th grade. So in the final week of school I had her daddy take the camera when he dropped her of and told him to get a picture of her and her teacher so that she could make a card for her teacher. He was great, he not only took a picture of them together but rounded up all the rest of the kids and took a bunch of pictures of them too. He's such an astute hubby.

So when I got all the pictures downloaded I decided to make a brag book for the teacher instead. I still wanted the kid to write something for the teacher so the first page of the book is a thank you for being her 1st grade teacher with a drawing of the kids on the carpet and her teacher teaching. The only writing I did was the kids' names on the inside so the teacher would be able to remember them. I thought it turned out well and I originally started this blog for scrap booking purposes. That being said, here you go. A $3.00 20 minute whip together brag book that took effort from the whole family and is probably worth just as much, if not more, than the teacher getting the year book for that year. And yes I blocked out all of the kids' names out of respect for them and their parents. I'm only slightly paranoid if you haven't noticed.

I am a doofus

In my zeal to get my new lens for my camera (yeah the one my dad bought for my birthday) that I had been waiting on (it was back ordered of course) I completely forgot to order the adapter. See,
Lens (isn't it just the coolest? I can do bokeh with this puppy)


Lens adapter (duh)


And the 2 together (which would be nice)


So I got the lens last Wednesday and thought, I'm an idiot. I then went and ordered the adapter that day and it doesn't even ship until next Monday. Gah, I am not one for patience but in this case there's really not much else to do but wait. Interesting thing to note, you can buy that lens my dad got me from Amazon. When I was looking for the lens to send a link to my dad so he could buy it for me I looked around for the best price (usually Amazon). I found that lens at Dell (where my dad got it from) for $69 + $6 shipping. When I went back to Dell last week it was going for $99 and I just looked again and now it's $119. What the hey howdy are they doing at Dell? This is over a space of less than a month. Maybe the cost of computers is going down but they are upping the price of every thing else. It was $99 at Amazon and now it's $108.95. I wonder what in the world happened in the last 3 weeks to call for a price increase everywhere. Like we're in a recession people, they should be dropping prices!

OK rant is over, I am just waiting impatiently for my adapter now. Expect fun things to come photography wise out here. I am also getting geared up to install Photoshop Elements. Did you hear that? It's the sound of hell freezing over. It happens. On rare occasion.

And she's gone....

This summer my mother in law has my kid. She came last Tuesday, stayed for a little over a week and this morning flew back to San Diego with my kid. We'll get her back sometime the first week of August. The first week of August. I haven't even counted how many weeks that is. I think the dogs are going to throw a party.

Oh they'll probably miss her. For like a day. Then they'll realize that they'll all get more walks and more rides in the car. None of them have a hard life but they've never been in a family without a kid and have no idea what life is like when they are the 'kids' of the house. I'm going to not let them get a big head because you know, she's coming back. And even worse we're working on a second and none of them have ever lived with a newborn or toddler. They'd best enjoy this summer because lets face it, it's all downhill from here.

So what's on the schedule for the summer sans kid? I have no idea. I suspect we'll be doing a lot of nothing. Maybe get to go to grown up movies more often. The hubby will be able to sleep in on weekends (I don't get up for the kid on weekends, he does, it's in the marriage contract). Really though our kid is 7, she is a very easy keeper by this age. I think if we have another it'll be a shell shock it's been so long since we did the baby/toddler thing.

I give it 1 week before the hubby starts going through serious withdrawl. About the same length of time it takes the dogs to figure out that it's party time. I'm sure the combination will be amusing! We'll be missing her terribly but on the flip side, she's gone to San Diego for the summer. We should all be so lucky right? She's going to have a ball!

I keep this little notepad

It's in my purse but I only really use it in the car. I suppose I could also use the note function on my computer but it's really hard to drive a stick and type on an iPhone. Actually I only write on the notepad while at a stop light. The hubby is much better at multitasking while driving, much to my dismay. I'd yell at him about it but he really is good at it. Call it a battle I choose not to fight, one really should try and pick the ones you know you can win.

On this note pad I have 2 lists, 1 starting from one side of the pad, the other from the backside. The front one is a grocery list (totally invaluable) and the other are songs I hear on the radio that I want to get for my iTunes list. I've never had to write songs down, the hubby has this awesome talent for knowing all the songs if I just tell him a line or 2 from the song or if it has a distinct sound or melody. Sadly he won't touch country music with a 10 ft pole and promises the Jeep that when he gets it full time (fat chance in hell) that he promises to purge the country from it (again, fat chance in hell). So now I've resorted to jotting down the lyrics to the ones I like and then going to Google them later. Country is so nice and straight forward too, you can always find the song you are looking for with just a few words from the chorus.

I've discovered a few things about the songs I like, many of them have a rastafarian flavor to them and normally I hate, absolutely detest Bob Marley-esque music. Really. Hate it. Oddly it doesn't bother me as much in country. I'm willing to bet it'd make my hubby's skin crawl (he's a Marley hater too) but he doesn't listen to any of it so it's no big.

So here's the deal, I've found I love just about all of Brad Paisley's stuff. He's pretty generic, kinda like the pop of country so this does not surprise me. I like a lot of Kenny Chesney's stuff too which does surprise me (again, that Marley thing), and a little bit of Billy Currington's stuff too. I think I also have a Dirks Bently song and a Rodney Atkins along with it. Really, if you pulled the country top 20 I'd probably like them all. I've only run into 1 band that was 'too country' for me and it grew on me, I'm listening to The Zac Brown Band a lot lately. He's pretty hillbilly but it's still do-able.

I like this one a lot...


And the rest of the list looks pretty generic, I'm going to spend the time to download them tonight. The list is looking a bit messy and if I don't look them up quick I won't be able to read what I wrote. Bad handwriting while driving you know...
If you're going through hell by Rodney Atkins
Then and Little moments by Brad Paisley
Sideways by Dirks Bently
People are Crazy by Billy Currington
It's where I'm from by Jason Michael Carroll (I have never even heard of this guy. Not that that means much though right?)

There might be more, I don't know since it's kinda illegible. I think I procrastinated too long. It's alright though, I heard them all on the radio so I'm sure they'll play them again. Sadly, I know I'm not going to be biking to work anytime soon so I suspect I'll hear them again!

Just so's ya knows

How many 'english rules' did I just break with that title? I dunno but it may give my hubby a coronary, poor dear. Anyway I know I haven't posted any pictures. That doesn't mean I haven't been taking them. I took probably 20 last night. Of the exact same thing. I'm working on that whole 'learn to use your damn camera woman' training.

Last night it was aperture. Tonight it's going to be f-stop. I think. It depends on what kind of victims I can find on the other side of my lens and what kind of light is going on outside. If I get home early enough and am not running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (remember the mother in law is still here) maybe my Jaynie will be sweet enough to run around the yard like the deer in dog's clothing that he is. If not then maybe I can get him to do it tomorrow, when it'll be 100 degrees outside + the humidity factor. I do not know how we are going to survive this summer, it's already looking harsh.

I won't be putting a lot of these practice photos up, mostly because they are trash. Seriously if you go through all of your levels of aperture focusing on one thing most of the pictures won't come out. That's why you have the ability to change it, so you can get it to come out. Regardless, for the sake of blogging it's just not all that picture wise. It's an educational thing right?

So what have I learned? I think I may need a tripod. And maybe even an external flash. Seriously, I've never considered owning either of these two items and I've been into photography for decades. Just not practicing. Kinda like most Catholics out there right? Being but not practicing get it? Alright I'll stop now.

Either way my day is kinda in the air because my instrument at work has taken a header and I have to wait until a tech comes out and puts in a new part. So today I may spend some time on the net researching the need for a tripod and/or and external flash. See now just because I don't own a dslr doesn't mean I can't fake it. Or something. We shall see.

I’ve got plans

What I don’t have is time. Such is life I suppose though. I have a ton of subjects I want to blog on, just can’t seem to squeeze enough hours out of my day to get them written. I finished those Twilight books, did I mention that? Maybe not, well there you go. I know I have mentioned I’m an avid reader and have been since I was in elementary school. I have reading habits, I’ll call them that. Sure yeah, habits. Maybe it’s just that as you get older you get set in your ways. Yes that’s probably more like it. Regardless I don't normally have biases against books just because I think their authors are freaks. I used to read Stephan King books and you can't tell me that man is well in the head.

So now that I’ve finished the series I am having issues on what I have to say on it. Did I love it? Sort of? Do I have issues with it is probably more the question that I should be answering. Because I do. After going to the author's website I figured out what it was about these books that bothered me so much. The author is Mormon and you can tell by her writing. (SPOILER ALERT) Seriously, a 110 yr old ‘vegetarian’ virgin vampire? That will not sleep with his fiancé because he wants them to be married first? Oh yeah, totally. I get that. Dude you can’t impose Mormon ideals on to a century old vampire and get it to fly, it just doesn’t work like that. I really liked the 4th book and I know why. By the 4th book she married the two off and then they could just take all the morals and toss them out the window. It was still Mormon-y though. A baby? From a vampire? On their first night together? REACHING peeps reaching. It must read great for a 14 yr old but please people, you just aren’t going to get any hokier than that. You could just read the Mormon ideals oozing from the pages, even the man who didn’t get the girl ended up with another girl. The baby. Oh yeah, that’s totally cool. 2 men in the movie who fell in love with babies. What the hell? They couldn’t do sex before marriage but they could find adult male life mates for a 2 yr old and a newborn. I’m sorry, Mormon much? Not saying they were bad books or that I didn’t enjoy them. There was just something weird going on in the back of my mind for a bit that I couldn’t put my finger on. Until I the word Mormon popped up and slapped me upside the head. There are just some religions I do not get. High up on the list are the ones that support pedophiles and marrying within one’s own family. Ew.

Alright I’m done religion bashing. As for the habits thing? Yes I realize I dropped that train of thought, just picking it up at the next station here. I rarely, if ever, re read books. If I do re read them it’s months, maybe years after reading them the first time. I am going to re read these books soon. Like maybe next week. I think I’m going to look at them differently. Again, odd for me. We’ll see, I may like them better this second time around. If I find the friggin time.
Oh and my gf sent me a funny article...
Sexy vampires are destroying our nation's children

BRILLIANT!

You may notice that I have no photo up today. I got home after dark and was not able to take anything of value inside my home (go figure) but decided instead that I would actually be productive. No I'm serious here. Be productive in respect to photography no less. No I did not install Photoshop, that is not the idea behind this 365 days of shooting photos. The point is to become a better photographer.

I have read P Dub's tutorials on photography and, quite frankly, they did not make sense to me. Flighty women rarely do though so I paid it no heed. Recently Reverand Ryan (linked from P Dub's site, giving props here) decided to do his own set of tutorials and the wonderful man has included the directions to keep us poor folk in the loop. You'll notice that P Dub's are kinda geared towards those who own DSLRs. Ryan's have descriptions and pictures (of the dials on the camera) to include those of us with regular point and shoots.

Tonight I read up on both aperture and shutter speed. Then I went to my camera and figured out where they were and how to change them. I found that I have a separate choice called Manual where I can set both aperture and shutter at the same time rather than only one. This camera is impressing me more and more all the time. Amazing what you can figure out when you read the manual...

So one week in and I have a day without photos but with more knowledge that is going to be put to the test ass soon as I get a free moment! I also have an arrival date for my lens, June 17th. Can't wait!

My camera bag came in! (aka pics 360)

And here is where I try to do some indoor photography (the kind I shouldn't be doing until I figure out how the hell to use my lighting) because it's night when I get home, still has a little light out, and yet...
My camera bag came in from Tracy Joy, I want another one so I think if they still have the Joey in stock by next week I might get one of those too.



I love it. It's not too stiff and it hugs the body. It has some padding in it but truthfully I think I'll add more. I have a ton of velcro so I think I'll be making many more pretty flaps for it too, quite simple really. I can add more padding if I want to. I'm a quilter so I'm sure I can figure out how to add more padding. Have I never shown ya'll the quilts I've made? I may have to do a photo shoot of them this weekend when the sun is out. I can lay them outside and get some pretty shots during the day so I don't have to fight that whole indoor lighting irritation. Oh and the mother in law is arriving tonight for an 8 day stay. You may or may not hear a lot from me for the next week or so.

Writing before the food is done and the pics taken...

AKA pics 361
Today was a productive day even though I was the only one in the house that was bathed and ready before noon. Let me tell ya folks, we take our weekends seriously in this household. I wanted the front yard edged/weedwhacked today so I asked the hubby to take care of that for me (the dang grass had over grown the drive way, I swear I hate burmuda) which he obligingly did. I was out there with him and planted a few of those things from the pot ghetto and before I knew it he was coming around with the lawn mower after finishing with the edging. I was so impressed with him, normally I'm the one doing both these jobs and it hadn't been done since early 2008, no lie.

We then went grocery shopping, the hubby wanted to make hummus from scratch, really! He makes the best salsa (pico really) on the plant (not bad for an irishman eh?) and I was anxious to see how his hummus would turn out. I, of course, pointed him in the direction of the place where I find many of my recipes (don't think I'm not buying her cook book when it comes out in the fall) and he was totally on it. P Dub's classic hummus is now in the act of being formed in my kitchen, by my hubby. I love it when he's doing the cooking, mostly because I don't have to move from the couch. He doesn't know how to cook all that much but I did figure out that he can follow a recipe perfectly and I can even send him vague directions by email and have it turn out right. As he continues on trying and using recipes he's able to branch out and try different things in the recipes that he thinks will taste good. He's good, it normally works. Oh and did I mention he follows recipes? Like the one on the back of the Nestle's semi-sweet morsels bag? If I feel the need for chocolate chip cookies all I have to do is ask, it's real nice.

It's taking a bit longer than I would have thought since he got side tracked and decided to follow her how-to on roasting garlic. The house smells divine right now, plus he threw in a red bell pepper to roast, then he's going to add that to the hummus, yummmm.
The fully roasted bell pepper (note that my camera does not like doing low light photos, going to need to look into how to fix that):



Half of the garbonzo beans (small food processor, had to do it in 2 rounds):



And yes that is an empty thing of store bought hummus he just finished eating in preparation for the good stuff.

The roasted garlic (please note, as much as I love roasted garlic we came to the conclusion that in this recipe it's too mild a taste. We added fresh garlic later):



The tahini (which was a beotch to find in the stores out here, found 1 jar of it in the peanut butter section, finally):



And the ground cumin (yes that is a measuring spoon set for the Easy Bake oven my kid owns, they all stay together and don't get lost so it's the best one to use, trust me):



And this is what it looks like ground together:


I told ya'll it was a small food processor.

The roasted bell pepper he chopped with his fav food chopper and then just stirred it in:





I didn't take pics of the final product, it's a light brown mush in a bowl, totally unexciting.
Notes for the recipe if anyone wants to make it: Don't use roasted garlic unless you don't want a garlic taste at all, use fresh.
Triple (at least) the salt, it really needs salt.

Other things I have learned, lighting, I need to figure out the nuances before doing more indoor pics.

And old teen fascination...(plus pics for 362)

In my youth I was not allowed to have pets. We lived in an apartment where no pets were allowed. This kind of drove me to a liking of the odder pets. Ones you can easily hide in apartments that don't allow pets. At one point I even had parrots (most horrid pets ever) and then there was my chinchilla which was a love that continued on until now. I still have one but he's frail so we keep him in his ENORMOUS cage in the eat in part of the kitchen so he's still part of the family life. No we don't ever use our dining room, we just eat in that part of the kitchen. Sadly it doesn't even matter if we have 15 guests over, we all just prefer it in there. The other fascination I had was with snakes. I had one, little garter snake, but it got lost, found, and eventually died from wounds it got while lost. The neighbor found it in the mouth of a cat.

The love of snakes though, and the belief that they are wonderfully beautiful, has not left me. My new minion at work (I'll get to his story eventually, really) makes reptile enclosures as a hobby. Beautiful things that have moss, running water, bromeliads and ferns molded rock formations and whatnot. So there was a reptile show this weekend that he had a stand at and I wanted to take the kid to go and see it. You know, her and her love of pink snakes right? So we went. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures but I didn't know if some of the vendors had a problem with it so I only took a few on the way out. And to prove just how easy my point and shoot camera is to use (even though I still want a more complex one) the kid took off with it at one point and took some shots too. I think the hubby taught her how to use it because her pics came out perfect. BTW, did you know in Texas you can buy just about any poisonous snake out there? You have to sign waivers before they sell you an entrance ticket. I'm not all that into deadly snakes but man are they pretty. Don't worry, we only took pictures of the things we actually wanted to buy! The above photo is of a tree python. They are normally green but apparently they also come in that lovely yellow and this awesome red. The picture of the red one didn't come out, my camera focused right on through the plexiglass to a woman standing like 10 feet behind the case. Damn over achieving camera. See now this is why I want to be able to focus the camera myself!

The kid wanted a tortoise and the little tiny electric blue geckos, they were tiny tiny!!

Day 264 and 263, A tale of 2 esperanza's the pot ghetto and the shade garden

I hadn't gotten a chance to download the photos for the past 2 days but I did take the photos. Hey at least I haven't fallen off the wagon! Plus I don't just want top plunk photos up on my site for them to speak for themselves. My photography skills are not even remotely there yet so all my photos have a story behind them. In this case 3 stories over 2 days. And in case you are wonder yes, these pics were taken over 2 days (Thursday and Friday) and not just this morning so that I could say I was doing my daily photos. It's 3 days into 365 and I haven't broken the rules. Yet. Give me a few more weeks.

Lets start with a tale of 2 esperanzas, pictures taken yesterday (363). These were 3 plants I bought together, all 1 gallon pots so they were decent sized plants but still easily killed by me. I planted them all in my front garden behind some big bushes and realized after some HEAVY rains that the run off from the roof (houses in San Antonio are not built with gutters) that they were going to be all bare root if I didn't move them. I lagged so long to move them that I was sure they wouldn't survive. Oh me of little faith. I put 2 next to each other on the side of our back window, east facing, morning sun receiving. The other I planted next to a rose bush. I know it doesn't look right at all there but we had dug a hole there (originally for the rose bush) and about 1 foot down we tagged a sprinkler line. So we couldn't put the rose bush in it (5 gallon pot, needed a bigger hole). We couldn't very well waste a good hole either, it takes an hour to dig in this rock quarry, so I shoved this poor bare root esperanza in it. Hey, it needed a hole! We then should have moved the rose bush further away but it needed to be by this particular fence panel (I'll probably explain the method to that madness later when I get around to that project, gah) so there they sit, together, competing shades of yellow flowers and green leaves.



You'll notice the 2 that are on the east side of the house are HUGE. Like well over 6 feet tall. I think the protection from the house makes them flourish. The other one is on the other side of the back yard and against the fence line. That's a 6 ft privacy fence it's next to so you get and idea of how tall it's not. It gets a lot of sun. Neither get on whit of attention from me. No trimming, watering, fertilizing, nothing. They don't seem to mind, my kind of plants.

Now moving on to the day before yesterday (364) that set of pictures is of my pot ghetto and shade garden. Now mind you I have some things in pots that are to stay in pots, ie I don't want them in ground. For example my basil:

I could easily plant this somewhere in my expanse of grassy back yard. The downside? Jayne would pee on it and the taste, well, it just wouldn't be the same ya know?
And then the others of my stay in pots:

That little rosemary is just purchased, he will soon be going into a bigger pot. The climbing pink flower is my daughter's, again, something too frail to leave out in dog pee area. And OK I lied, the rest of the pots are things that actually have earned a spot in ground so technically they are part of the true pot ghetto. Those day lilys are going in the front yard and that one rose was dead, I swear it was dead, but now it's not so I'll find a place for it in ground. It earned it since it's now officially un-dead.

The rest of the pot ghetto is really really sad. The Knock Out rose has been there so long I can't move the pot anymore. It has a 2 inch diameter root that busted through the bottom and has gone deep underground. I'm going to have to cut the pot off and dig the root out to get it to move. I don't think it'll kill the rose, I can't remember the last time I watered that thing. 2008 maybe? Yeah it's earned it's in ground place in my garden. Actually I think it just decided to become in ground with out actually bothering to wait for me to put it in ground.

The rest of the pots are mostly the dead dead stuff, I take those pots to the plant swap so that other people that propagate plants (rather than kill, like me) have more pots to use. There are a few lantanas there that survived, don't know how, and also some lavender. I'll plant both sometime this year because that pot ghetto has just got to go.

The almost in ground Knock Out rose (that is, for whatever crazy reason, blooming today):


The lantana, still live with other dead things around them:



And the lavender, a plant which I really do love, also blooming today:



Oh and I almost completely forgot my 2 special plants from San Diego. These are 2 Jacarunda trees, not supposed to be able to survive our winters in south central Texas. They have been in pots for the past 2 winters and never lost a leaf. These have to go in ground soon, they are over 3 ft tall in these wee little pots, my bad.


And I will post pics of the shade garden tomorrow because this is insanely long. Don't worry, I'm taking other pictures today for day 362. I'm taking the kid to the reptile show, it should have PLENTY of cannon fodder for my Canon right?

365 starts now...

So Stephanie offered up a game of sorts to help out and encourage the art of photography, Project 365. A picture (at least) a day and I'm guessing it's supposed to encourage 'professional growth'. I don't know really, she didn't offer up any rules. I'm a rule breaker any way so it wouldn't matter even if there were any.

Regardless I decided to take her up on the offer since I have a love of photography that goes totally ignored way too often. I had to take my camera to work in order to take pics of the kid at her lunch time awards ceremony. What did I learn? That if I had my camera with me I'd take more pictures. Novel? No. So what is my answer to that realization? I went and bought a bag that would double as a purse/camera bag. See? No excuses left. Well at least once the bag comes in. Until then ya'll get pictures of what I can do after I get home.

I have a few things I've been meaning of photograph so you'll probably be getting those first. I have another experiment too (gawd the scientist in her just won't stop huh?) since I have a new lens coming mid month. I will be taking a few garden shots (close ups mostly) with my camera and it's limited capabilities with the regular standard lens (Canon S3 IS). When the new lens comes in (damn I still need to order the adapter...) and I get the adapter, I don't have a dslr ya know, just a glorified point and shoot, I'm going to compare what I can do with it. Fortunately I don't thing my garden is going anywhere and really am excited to try my hand at bokeh.

I was an avid photographer way back in the day, early 90's to be exact. The time of film, not digital, photography. We used a dark room and processed everything ourselves. I think this may be why I have yet to be enthused about Photoshop, there's nothing really quite like developing a photo in a dark room. My friend Summer (the one who did the Flat Stanley project in Mumbai for us) and I pitched in and bought an enlarger and built a darkroom in her shed out back, it was so cool. Owning a camera that doesn't allow me to focus the lens myself still chaps my hide but I just can not see myself sinking the large $$ for the dslrs that allow one to focus by hand. I have several friends that do own them though and I am very jealous. Just being honest here folks. I took photography in college where it was more about art and content. Very interesting and unconventional though since it was at UC Santa Cruz, a very artsy loose place. Not terribly conventional, man i could not stand that school. I guess not so deep down I'm too conservative for that hippie crap. I like to shave my legs, hairy legs on a woman are just not all that.

Sorry, off track again. This set of photos was something I had been meaning to take for a bit. See the Big elephant ear growing? It disappeared from my shade garden like 8 months ago. I figured it had died and did pay it much more heed than that. Last month it popped up. It popped up that big which just blew my mind. I also had a few in my pot ghetto (pics of that later) that I needed to plant and still hadn't gotten around to. I noticed 2 days ago that a few had survived so they were promoted up yesterday. If something in my garden survives the pot ghetto they get promoted up to in ground space. Nothing in life is free and you have to work to survive my household. So what you see here is my tiny little shade garden, a cute little weeping Japanese maple (it's in another photo, I'll show ya'll later), some fern, and the 3 elephant ears. Big, medium and wee tiny tiny. That wee one is smaller than a quarter and I found it in the pot, under the dirt. Figured I stick it in the ground a see if it could hack it. With all the depth of field I think when my new lens comes in it'll be fun to try the bokeh with this shade garden.

He's not doing it for me

For those of you that have not read Twilight or seen the movie you can ignore this post, it's pretty much a comparison of the men in it.
Tell me, why is it that everyone is so ga-ga over Edward? He's over 100 years old, dead, cold, and feels like marble. I don't care how devoted a guy is, if he's like sleeping next to marble yuck, not my thing. Maybe it's because I am used to sleeping with dogs but given my druthers I'd go for Jacob in a heart beat. Big warm happy dog, there really isn't anything better. On that note I'm not sure I like the guy they chose to cast in the movie. I think I've also seen The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl 1000 too many times so I might be biased. The kid loved that movie and I am sick to death of it. Still Taylor Lautner is just too small. The weres were supposed to be HUGE and go through about a 10 year growth spurt (putting them physically in their mid 20's) when they came into themselves. Taylor? Just not all that. The face is acceptable but in my mind's eye I'm thinking something more out of Last of the Mohicans, call me biased but those guys were hot and rugged. Taylor still looks right out of the Disney Channel to me. Did the character no justice at all. Poor Jacob, always gets the short end of the stick.

It still leaves me with Edward. I do think they picked an attractive actor but Robert Pattinson is just so...retro wanna be grunge? I dunno, he's probably very very popular with the age group the book was actually written for. I'm not feeling it though, he doesn't have the aura of an over 100 yr old vampire.

I am picky about my leading men aren't I? Just not feeling the Edward but I'd be all over a hot American Indian werewolf....