You know. . .

. . .it really just isn't the weekend until mom’s gone missing.  :-(

Apparently, she went out for a walk at 1:00pm, I saw her leave on the camera, then when she hadn’t come back yet at 3:00pm, I was going out to look for her.

I found her walking down our street, escorted by a man and 2 women.  Her balance was really bad, and she did not have her cellphone with her.  (go figure)

Anyway, she got in the car and we went home.

She had eaten only a bowl of oatmeal all day!!!

So now I am not only monitoring her meds and water intake, but also her food.

Shoot me!!!

A simple "Thank you"

One of my favorite greeting cards is a Thank You card that I found several years ago.  My friend used to joke about how I sort of look like Martha Stewart.  Her kids think that I sound like her as well. This card that I found is in the voice of Martha, and it is quite a hoot!

It goes like this:

"I wanted to simply thank you. . .So this morning I took 2,500 gorgeous red tulips that I picked up while in Holland and planted them in the likeness of your face, and then embroidered your name in a delightful manner on all 423 throw pillows I have in my living room, then prepared a 12-course dinner in your honor for 800 of your closest, dearest friends complete with an eight foot ice sculpture of you I carved with a chainsaw for the table centerpiece, and then I followed that with a brief 60 minute fireworks display ending with a giant "Thank you" exploding in all your favorite colors in the night sky.  (I just wish I had time to do something more elaborate.)"

Downward Mobility

This article gives us a lot to think about.  I believe that it shows more than an isolated bit of time, but rather a long term trend which we can count on to continue.

NYTimes article

Hobby Lobby. . .NOT

I'm into yarn now, or should I say "back" into yarn.  My friend Gail has gotten me interested in knitting and crochet again, and I've made lots of friends at the local yarn shop so that helped as well.  About 2 months ago I started my first garment, well it was actually my 2nd garment, and now I am finishing up the 2nd sleeve on this new cardi.  Gail went to class the other day and learned how to sew it all together, so in a few days she and I will get together and see if we can put mine together as well.  She did the same sweater in coral, and I did it in a periwinkle blue.  But, I think mine may be a bit small so my mom will get it as a nice birthday present.  . . guess I just blew that surprise!

My partner is busy working on a memorial page for Robbie and his family.   The page is here:
Robbie Cannon memorial page link.

It looks nice and is a good idea so that pictures and stories can be gathered.

So sad for Robbie's family and also for the families of the other men on that plane.

Just reading a bit about an artist who I like, Jacob Cooley.  Seems that a blogger likes Cooley's work however finds it repetitive.  I disagree as I find something new in each piece that Jacob presents.  It was sad to read however that Jacob is having some personal issues.  I wish him well.  He is a talented young painter.  Another favorite of mine is Richard Siegel, a watercolorist who works in an unusually large format.  We have one of his pieces and enjoy it daily.  The piece is from his Yosemite series, and while it does convey a strong sense of light, it also appears to move with the water depicted by the image.  Repetition is certain not an attribute of Siegel's work, as his style seems to evolve with each series of work.  I would love to see more of his recent work so perhaps I will make a trip down to The Center of The Earth gallery in NoDa and take a look with my friend Ruth Lyons.  (no relation)

Wow, this is such a distracting background. . .it must change.  I'm getting a bit frustrated with Godaddy.com about my domain name and the registration of a forwarding address.  They say it could take an hour or more for that type of request to process, but I've still got my eye on it and have my doubts.

Anyway, not to whine, all else is very good and the rain has finally stopped here in the Carolinas on a Tuesday.  Sad news however, our cat Louise is no longer with us.  She got very sick and at age 22 (that's people years) she is now gone.  We love her and miss her, especially since she was my office mate for all of those years.

Miss you, love you . . . Lulu

First Communion time again!  Lovely boys and girls all dressed for the Mass with family and friends.  Steve and I do portrait photography and also live "action" from the Mass.  We have a great time at St. Philip Neri every year and love to see the church grow, one child at a time.  Two more weekends and we will be done with this project.   Thank you to all of the parent and children who come by to see us for a portrait.  Peace.

been a few months. . .

New virtual address, new blog mission.  New mission = food, and maybe fun.  Stay tuned for more action sports fans.

Ok, I haven't posted in a bit. . .

Hello again! Very sorry to have been away, but a lot has been going on for Steve and I.
We're still running www.usphotolab.com and www.fotoop.com is still going strong. Here are a few highlights from the past 8-10 months:

• we bought a new house, and finished the basement for an 1800 square foot studio(still in Tega Cay, just down the street from our old house)
• we just sold our old house to a nice guy from the Czech Republic.
• attended Little Feat concert, that was rock'n!
• had great photo shoot with 2 models, see prom examples on www.fotoop.com
• I made it 1 year working for Steve full time, gave up and got a fun job at Muzak as a voice consultant. I write marketing materials and do some voice work. Nice people and more music than you would ever want!!
• studio will be opening (officially)at the first of May!

I promise to do a better job at posting. . .promise!

I hate people.

Koko enjoying the winter sun. 

First day of class

Thursday night was my first class in SLR Digital Photography at The Light Factory. (Spirit Square) It was really cold out, and I was in day 5 of this flu bug that S and I both have right now, so I wasn't feeling 100%.

Right off I met the woman who is going to be teaching the portraiture class that S will be taking in a few weeks. She was really nice and she found out where our class had been moved. I also met another student, Gary, and he was really nice as well. He recently retired from being an air traffic controller after 30 years, but he didn't really look that old to me. When I told him that I had also retired from MS in October, I thought that the woman sitting next to me who was apparently eaves-dropping was going to swallow her tongue. (serves her right)

Anyway, Gary seems to be really sharp and is doing this as a hobby. The really scary part is that there are 2 or 3 folks in this class who are planning to do this for a living, and one of them is going to photograph a wedding in a few weeks. (keep in mind this is a beginners class) Well, I do hope that they do not charge the wedding people for their work! Once lady didn't even have a camera yet, she is going to borrow one.

Everyone else had their own equipment, but I was the only one who actually had pro level equipment. That's a bit scary as well, since some are going to do pro work apparently.

Ok, Louise is licking my leg, and it is really starting to get on my nerves. Smelly cat had her check up this week as well, and doc says she's in good shape for an old lady. She's even lost a bit of weight, and that's good. He does want to clean her teeth however, so I'll have to save up the $150 and maybe take her back to the vet in February. (she does have bad breath)

Back to class. It started out a bit slow, talking about data disks, using your computer, formatting and deleting files. . . so I took a little nap. Then we got on to the good stuff and talked about f-stop, and white balance. Brian gave us some homework to do with bracketing our exposures, and we got a chance to learn a bit more about our cameras.

Turns out that I know a bit more than I thought that I did about photography. There's another lady in the class that seems to be in the same boat, and I could tell that she was also glad to get to the more interesting topics as well.

There is a helper in the class who helps people with their cameras, but he doesn't know anything about mine, and isn't really a help to me so I just look it up in the book. Besides, he's a smoker and has that fragrance issue if you know what I mean.

Anyway, first class was fine, but it really would have been better if I could have been able to breath better. We were in a nice gallery, and the temperature was good, so I was mostly comfortable and I made a friend or 2 so that's good. They all want me to bring card for them from the lab, so that's good.

Ok, well Louise has started chewing the network cable again so I better go for now. I want to check out that new show tonight after the football, Numb3rs. It looks like it will be good, and kind of goes along with a dream that I had last night. I'll have to fill you in on that one another time, it is a bit complicated and involves calculus.

400 germ buckets

Over 400 basketball players between the ages of 4 and 14. . .so of course we both have the flu now. We both started feeling bad on Sunday, and by Monday we were just staying in bed and comparing our aches and pains.

There is a lot of post production work, but we should have all of that done and in the mail by Wednesday. The pictures came our really nice this time since S added a hair light to each setup. I think that the parents will be pleased. Some of them were disappointed that they didn't know ahead of time that we were doing the pictures this year. Last year we only did the older kids, but this year we did them all. Since some of the parents didn't know in advance, they weren't prepared to spend a lot of money on our photos. (which is what they prefer) Many parents have told us that they no longer buy school photos, since our image quality is so much better. They would rather spend their money with us. That is so good to hear!!

This will be a very busy week. Getting the images ready for the print lab on Wednesday, shipping that out on CD's, and then getting ready for the next shoot. Thursday is Louise's check up, and we hope that comes out ok. Then I start photog school on Thursday night. It was delayed by the light factory due to illness, so we will get started at Spirit Square this week instead.

Friday night there is a gallery crawl, and an opening at our friend's gallery in NoDa. That should be good for a relaxing evening in the art district. This weekend will be a time to catch up on laundry, and sleep. I'd also like to do a bit of experimentation with paint for our bedroom. I have some wallpaper to take down in the bathroom, and am planning to try some paint treatments in the bedroom to see how that looks. I'm thinking about putting beams up on the ceiling in the bedroom as well. S thinks it is a good idea as well, and it should create a cozy feel for such a large room. (26' x 18)

It was good to catch up with the redneck guru the other day at Carmel Baptist. It looks like we are definitely going to participate in the summer program, so that will be exciting for us this year. Our neices and nephews are getting older, and it isn't such a big deal for them to visit their aunt and uncle anymore, so we'll have plenty of time this summer.

Well it's time to do my accounting for the week. Lots of entries to make, and books to balance. I also have to send a few emails to some of our larger accounts and remind them that yes, they do have to pay us! We're not running a charity. . . at least not yet.

Koko's Gone Nuts Cake

She's such a dear little cat. . .right! At least she is until she has a random synapse fire, and she just goes crazy. That's what happened the other night when I tried to put together a "real" cocoanut cake.

For about a month I have been craving coconut cake, the real kind that mom used to make with the cooked 7 minute frosting and all. I've had the cake in restaurants recently, but it just hasn't been the same, so the other night I baked 2 layers and got them ready for the frosting. Mom and I went out to dinner and a movie, and when we got home I started on the frosting. It is quite a complicated process, difficulty level of 10, and it went really well for me that night.

It involves a double boiler, a hand mixer, and some really funky chemistry that involves eggs whites, salt, a lot of sugar, almond extract, orange extract and vanilla.

I had just finished putting in the apricot filling, completed frosting the top and was moving down to the sides when it all started. I needed to move my kitchen stool over to the other side of the counter so that I could frost the sides, and at the same time Koko was stealing a bit of cat food from Thelma's bowl that was under the butcher block table. When Koko saw the stool coming towards her, she freaked.

You know how when there is a tragedy everything goes in slow motion? Well this was nothing like that. It was more like a roadrunner cartoon, with the "woop woop woop" music and all! It went so fast. There was Koko, she ran straight up the side of the kitchen cabinet, landed in the cake and just stood there spinning her legs at 90 miles an hour. Cake, frosting, apricots were flying. Then she just flew across to the other side of the countertop, and the frosting bowl and a large ceramic bread bowl fell from the countertop to the floor. Nothing broke. . .except the cake that is. Not a drop of icing fell from the bowl. It was sort of a miracle. The ceramic bowl was intact but I was a total wreck.

Of course I screamed, 3 cats disappeared for the next 12 hours, and mom just yelled from upstairs, "what did you break now?"

Well, I was able to salvage some of the cake. I just cut off all of the parts that Koko had ruined, and ended up with about half of a cake left, so I frosted it, applied cocoanut and had a slice. I thought about putting the pile of wasted cake in the cat's food bowl for the next 3 days, but thought better of that. Don't want them hyped up any more than they already are on sugar.

It was so like living in a cartoon there for a split second. Much later that night Koko had the nerve to jump up on the bed and "meow" at me. She's got nerve for someone who weighs only 6 pounds. We both curled up and went to sleep.

Cruise Pics

I've posted all of the pictures from the cruise that mom and I took. Some are ok, but most are pretty bad. Almost all of the Key West pictures were taken from inside of the trolley, so you can see that. All of these pictures were taken with my old Olympus Camedia C-2000Z 2.1 megapixel camera that I have had for over 10 years.

Find cruise 2004 pictures at: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?EventFrame?event=09KR0003

this boat's a rock'n

but not in a good way. . .tonight at dinner mom got seasick again, and this boat is moving around a bit as we left Grand Cayman and headed to Mexico. I think that we spend tomorrow at sea, and then spend Thursday in Mexico.

I'm feeling fine, but mom has always gotten motion sickness when we took car trips. Had a great time on shore today. Saw the turtle farm (Los Tortugas), went to Hell (and back), saw 7 mile beach and then did some shopping. While in Hell, I had just enough time to send Steve an actual "Postcard from Hell" with the official post mark and all. I think he'll understand the sentiment behind that jesture. :-)

Tomorrow I will be relaxing on deck, with or without mom. Tonight I am going to try to find that couple that I met last night. They are from Rock Hill and are a lot of fun. Saw them at the pool this afternoon and they came over and said hello. The comedy show should be good and I'm sure they will be there too. Then I may go up to the pool party at 10:30, but that all depends on the weather. Too much wind and they may not have the party.

That's all for now from the Gulf of Mexico.
Adios amigos!

Merchant "services"?

Wow, they really need to think about changing the name of that offering. . .service really doesn't seem to enter into it at all! We've been dealing with a problem between Wells Fargo and Innovative Merchant Solutions, and boy what a mess.

I finally got all of us on the phone today on a con-call and we got it fixed. . .but we'll see when the statements come out. Cross your fingers. Bidness. . .ain't it fun?

Guess I'll never understand

Ok, I just don't get it. The most grotesque person in the world can walk by a child on the street without any reaction from the child. But put someone in a Santa suit, sit back and wait to hear them all scream bloody murder!

I don't get it.

If I never hear Ho Ho Ho again, or see one more running nose, it will be too soon. So glad that Santa session is over. And I swore, on my Martha Stewart cookbook, to never work a Santa shoot ever again. . .unless I get to use real bullets.

I mean it.

There was one couple that just couldn't seem to manage to make a decision about anything! I later found out from Santa. . .who truly does know everything. . .that she is on medication and has special "issues". Go figure!

Made one couple NOT laugh. They were on opposite sides of their child, each yelling "smile" so the child looked confused. All I said was "well it won't be the first time that a child will be confused by its parents." What?? I wasn't trying to be mean. . .just honest.

Oh well, NEVER, mark my words I said NEVER will I do that again. Santa and Steve got together and decided to plan some kind of event for next year, but I'll have no part.

Merry Christmas. . .Bah