Mosquito Eyebrows on Toast: August 2006

A Thorny Issue

I love this one. I threw a duplex monochrome filter on all but the leaves.
I took it at lunch today. I'll tell you more about that later.

Thanks to all of my blogger friends for coming back day after day to comment on my pictures.
I appreciate you all so much! Everyone who looks at this picture, consider yourself hugged!

Yosemite Bridge

The Littlest Fan

This is not my usual type of photo. Heck! I haven't even put up a picture of my granddaughter! But this gorgeous little girl was thrilled to dance to the sounds of my sweetie's bluegrass band on Sunday and I was thrilled to shoot this picture.

It's in the Bag

Okay, so it’s Monday and I knew I’d be spending another day here at work with ab-so-freakin-lutely nothing to do. I found out on Friday that the project I was hired for is not due to start until OCTOBER 15th!!!! Why am I here???? I am being paid a more than decent amount of money to do nothing, but as you know, it doesn’t feel right to me and I hate being bored! I don’t like to be blatantly sitting here working away on art projects on my personal laptop. The only way I can sit in my office has my back and my laptop’s front facing the door, advertising to those who do have work, that I am screwing around and getting paid for it. I did it Friday because I was trying to get my sweetie’s band webpage up and running (And no you can’t see it because it’s STILL NOT UP! Argh!).

So let’s look at the contents of my bag to see what low tech, on the down-low projects I brought to work on today. Here is the list:

Thank You cards – 2 boxes – because I still haven’t sent out cards from my granddaughter’s 1st birthday party 3 weeks ago.

Address Book – To address above listed cards

2 novels – The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg & Living on Air by Anna Shapiro (I am a very fast reader)

A book on hand coloring photos – I have the coolest picture of my Nana on her Harley circa 1915 that I would LOVE to hand color.

A book on making some cool jewelry out of bottle caps – I love making jewelry!

Granola and almonds – I could easily fall into the bored eating habit

It’s 9:26 and I’m already getting sleepy………….

Oh, the picture. I took this on a lovely spring day in one of the last remaining orchards where I live. In Photoshop I put a gaussian blur on it and corrected the levels.

Night Beach

I took this while staying at Esalen on the Big Sur coast. I woke up at about 2am and couldn't go back to sleep so I took out my trusty camera and shot some pictures. It was very dark. No street lights there. The moon was about 1/2 full and that and the stars are the only light.
I really love this picture. What do you think?

Where did I take this picture???

When I worked at the cemetery, I saw so many beautiful, beautiful flowers come through. These were my favorites so I photoshoped out the stand. So believeable this way right?

I was walking through a 'park' minding my own business when I saw this beautiful heart wreath growing up outta the ground. Ya, that's the ticket.....

Blowin' in the Wind

My sweetie pie plays guitar obsessively. Seriously. He gets up at 6:30, plays until 7:30 when he has to get ready for his pesky job. He goes to work then comes home to eat dinner and then he plays his guitar until about 10:30. At 10:30 he generally ambles out to the living room to catch the news. And by the news I mean The Daily Show because these days the only trusted news source is, of course, Comedy Central.
At around 11 he goes to sleep where he no doubt dreams of, and I’m guessing here, playing his guitar. His schedule does vary. It’s not like he’s a machine.
On Tuesday and Thursday evenings he instead goes to rehearsal with his band.

It’s a bluegrass band.

Do you know anything about bluegrass?
They say that if the girl isn’t poisoned or drowned or somehow violently dead by song’s end, well then it just isn’t bluegrass.

Ain’t that bitchin.

All of this wouldn’t really be an issue except for the fact that humans tend to get songs stuck in their head. You know what I mean; the lyrics play over and over and over until you almost lose your mind. Usually it’s something like, “Blinded by the light. Wrapped up like a douche you know the roener in the night…” or whatever those lyrics really are.
And I believe that you are what you think for the most part and so you really don’t want most bluegrass lyrics going through your head all day. Especially at this love fest of a company. I’m cruising to the printer room, feeling pretty good, when I see my nemesis Agatha (or any number of my cheery, effervescent, fanciful, frolicsome (love my thesaurus!) co-workers coming down the hall) and I realize I’m singing a little ditty with lyrics like maybe… “pimps and the gamblers were hanging around to carry Little Sadie to the buryin' ground” or “Little Janie, Little Janie- Your arms are wrapped so tight and Satan leads my fingers as I pull away the knife…”

It’s time like this that I wish my guitar lovin’ sweetie were into maybe… folk music.
Music about peace and love and women who are ALIVE!

This picture is a macro of a dandelion taken just before it blew apart to propagate baby weeds all over my front yard.

Hiking 7 Sacred Pools on Maui

We generally travel to Hawaii every year for our vacation although this year we're thinking Belize. We have had some amazing adventures free diving on (off) Maui. We were so lucky to have had the opportunity to swim with a pod of wild dolphins on our last trip. We had to swim out about 50 yards to join them and spent 90 minutes with them.

I can still close my eyes and see them.
Silent. Blue. Calm.

Another favorite place on Maui is Hana. Most people drive there and back to the west side in one day but we spend a few days there. It is more Hawaiian there. Most tourists are gone by 3:00. Seven Sacred Pools is a beautiful place where you can hike to a waterfall. Typically, most visitors don't get further than 100 yards from their car so the hike is another opportunity to experience Hawaii virtually alone. You have to hike through a bamboo forest to get to the waterfall and it is enchanting! This picture was taken half in and half out of that forest.

Me! Me! Me! Me!

After letting you see this self portrait, that I really, really like even though I don't even look like a girl, I thought I'd give an update on my new job….

I have had work for the last week and a half after 2 weeks of being paid to put together my blog and become part of a little blogger gang. I must say that I enjoy the blogging more than the job, but that’s to be expected.

I don’t understand why people are so cold and unfriendly here. They must know something I don’t and that’s a bit scary. When I smile at people, it’s like my smile is traveling toward them in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n and they actually veer out of the way so it doesn’t ‘get’ them. If said smile actually made contact, they might have to smile back or, horror of horrors, say “Good Morning”. We all know how much that can hurt! Sheesh!

The admin still doesn’t speak to me. I hadn’t seen her enough to know how she treated other people. I told myself that she must be going through something really horrible in her life that makes her so sour. I had the story all worked out in my head…”Poor Agatha” (Names changed to protect the bitchy) “It must be so hard to have cancer of the….uh… buttcheek. She’s probably so sad and scared. I really should go out of my way to be nice to her. That’s it! I’m going to hunt her down and find something to compliment her on! Yeah!” So I headed down the hall, on a MISSION damnit! As I approached the open area where she sits with the rest of her cadre, I saw her from the back, wearing a rather lovely muumuu.
Then, as I got closer, I saw her laughing with someone. Laughing! Uproariously!
As though she didn’t have a care in the world. As though she didn’t even have cancer of the bicuspid. And then it hit me. She doesn’t have cancer of anything!

She shuns me purposely.

A bigger person would have called out “That shade of puce really does a lot for your complexion Agatha”. But not me. I am small, small Puppatina. She’ll get no compliments from this tiny person.

I don’t care how pretty her muumuu is.

Miss Aggie and the Hawthorn Tree

I took the 2 pictures that make up this collage when I worked at a cemetery.
I loved that job because of the history but it was a really small place so it was pretty slow and we know how much I love being bored at work….
They had some great old death certificates and I loved reading through them.
My favorite was a young woman called Aggie McClay. She died in the early 1900s at the age of 28. The death certificate is amazing; gorgeous calligraphy that makes Dysentery look like something you’d want to have. She was an inmate of the California State Insane Asylum. I have often wondered what that said about Aggie. In those days a young woman could end up in an asylum for not wanting to get married! Imagine!

I spent a lot of time just roaming the grounds shooting pictures.
These 2 are of the same Hawthorn tree on a rainy day. This is a pretty old picture and I can’t remember what processes I used on it. I really like it though.

I still think of Miss Aggie.

Doorway to the San Francisco Bay

I took this picture in Alviso. Alviso is a small waterfront community as far south on the San Francisco bay as you can get; very close to San Jose. It’s a little piece of history tucked away out of sight of most Silicon Valley denizens. I love it there because there are miles of trails and (Yah!) derelict buildings.

Observe this!

This is one of the abandoned houses atop Mount Hamilton where the Lick Observatory resides. The land is owned by (I believe) the University of California.
The observatory is in a beautiful location above San Jose but it's a real bear to get to. A long ultra curly road. Not one of the curly roads my race car driving SO likes but a real, can't-drive-over-15-miles-an-hour curly road. It's still worth visiting if you ever get the chance. It's one of the few places to find derelict buildings and lots of historic pictures of the observatory which was founded in 1888! It's hard to drive up there now. They had to drag everything up there by the original horsepower! Very cool story. If you're interested, here's a good link:
http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/history/

I can't load any pictures :-(

Blogger kinda sucks. Are they all this bad?
Should I change my blog before it get's too big?
Who would you, my dear blogging friends recommend?

This one is for Christian.....

Do you like it better in black and white?

In my photography class, we have a tradition that the last homework turned in at the end of the semester must contain Elvis in all of his glory, somewhere in the photo. I put his face in the window of this house. I'll have to look for that one cause it's pretty funny. People have put his face in the clouds or in sunglasses reflection (right up your alley Sam!). Maybe we should do that too....An Elvis contest!

Take a Load off....

I Can See for Miles and Miles and Miles and Miles

I took this from Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton above San Jose.
I think my monitor may be darker than some so I hope you can see it.
I love taking photos at night.

Only 300K

The price of real estate here is just crazy. For about $400K you can get a 200 square foot walk-in closet. Not a house with the closet. Just the closet.
I live in a house without a closet.
You just can’t have it all.

On my way to Yosemite, I passed the abandoned house in this picture. The only way a house can afford to be abandoned around here is to be further than the accepted 6 hour a day round trip commute.
It’s hard to see in the small version of this picture but someone spray painted “Only 300K” on it.

Maybe because everything is so over crowded where I live, I am drawn to this type of scene.

My Little Lovey Girls

This is one of my little pups. Her name is Luna. She's a 5 year old Sheltie. She's a tiny 17 pound little girl. We just found out that she needs liver surgery. Poor baby just had her knee rebuilt in November and now this. It seems she has a duct that bypasses her liver so the blood can't pass through and have the toxins removed. The sucess rate for the surgery is 85%. I'm still scared.

I love my dogs so much. I don't dress them up but I do let them share my pillows at night. :-)
These pups give me unconditional love every day. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to either of them.

This is my other pup, Abby Gayle. She is 4 years old. She is a funny girl who loves, loves, loves to play. We call her our super model cause she's so pretty.

Posin' Posey

Mother May I?

My good friend Simona asked me to take photos of her while she was pregnant.
I don't normally like to shoot people, but when she asked, I immediately saw in my mind what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I get bored easily so I never fixed the background on the top one. Some day I'll do it because it's such a gorgeous picture.
The most important thing I learned about taking pictures of people is to make sure the subject is beautuful! :-)

Ha Ha Tonka - Missouri

The story I heard was that a rich man had this castle built at the turn of the century and before it was completed, he was killed in the first auto accident in the state of Missouri. Years later his family decided to finish it but it burned down before it could be done. Not sure if it's true but I like the sound of it so I don't really care.

Gothic Tower

As a rule I'm not overly fond of out of focus pictures, unless they're mine. Just kidding! This one just seemed to work for me. It was taken at Mission Santa Clara.

I took these in and around Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Some people like having their picture taken....

And some people make you pay...

I had to buy a belt to take their picture. I think it was worth it.

Another Strange (to us) & Cute Animal

This little poser is a Coatimundi. It only looks like he's part pork given his hammy nature! ;-)

Springtime in the Central Valley

Fruit Bats - They're Gorgeously Weird!

This was taken at the Oakland zoo. I have a penchant for bats.
I think they are so interesting and cute. I have helped out a bit with bat rehab.
A wonderfully dedicated woman, Lisa Windflower, helps bats in my home, the SF bay area. Visit her at: http://www.batcrew.com/

These Flying Fox shots are amazing though: http://www.bellingen.com/flyingfoxes/
And the photographer, Vivien, is warm and open and lovely to communicate with.

They eat mosquitos and pollinate the agave plant. What's not to love???

A Miracle?

I have no idea what happened with this picture. It came out of my Canon EOS Elan SLR film camera....just like this!

This photo was taken at a tourist town close to Kansas City airport called Weston. I'm a sucker for historic buildings.

It's a little known fact that there are only 2 cemeteries within the San Francisco city limits; Mission Dolores and The Presidio. This was not always true but when the land became too valuable, they actually exhumed and moved bodies for re-burial to the nearby town of Colma. Colma has the distinction of having a larger population of dead than undead. ;-) This was taken at Mission Dolores. It was my first try at desaturating and then selectively re-coloring. Fun stuff.

A cool trick is to take photos from your airplane window and then fix the levels in Photoshop. It works beautifully. These were taken above Utah.

A Wrinkle in Time

I really thought getting older would be easy for me. Though somewhat cute when I was younger, I wouldn’t have been categorized as gorgeous by anyone who wasn't sleeping with me. Because I was used to residing in the world of mediocre, I thought the transition would be fairly easy. Uh, I was so wrong!

Some mornings I have to wait til I get to work to put on my makeup because it can take hours for my pillow wrinkled face to snap back into position. I guess ‘snap’ is the wrong word. It used to ‘snap’. Now it slowly ambles, whistling show tunes and taking in the view along the way.
When I can finally start troweling on the makeup, which is painful enough because I actually have to look in the mirror to do it, I also have to face the brand spanking new “Wrinkle-of-the-Day”.
I swear.
Every day.
A new wrinkle.

And this is only the beginning! I’m 46. I have a good 30 more years of deterioration and decay to look forward to.

I can’t wait.

Beautiful Beggar

Lower Yosemite Falls

It's a challenge, although a lovely one, to take photographs in Yosemite that haven't been done before. This one has been done many, many times before but I still like it. The one of the bench in the snow (next one down) may be a bit less photographed.

Ice, Ice Lady

Those of you who work in offices will probably agree with me when I say that the admins are usually really, really nice. They go out of their way to make the newcomers at home by loading them up with office supplies and telling them who to watch out for. They throw flower petals and spread happiness wherever they may roam.

Usually.

Not at my new job. At least not with me.

There is an admin syndicate in our building. There are 2 young sweet admins and 1 evil old shrew of an admin. I can call her old cause she may actually be my age but with way more bitch spots and whine lines. It may be that very fact that makes her detest me so.
Oh, plus I have all my hair.....

Most people like me. I'm not beautiful so women don't hate me and I like sports and I bake so guys usually like me. But not Serf-zilla.

Tomorrow I plan on baiting her by being disgustingly nice to her. When she complains to her minions about me, I want them to think, "She seems nice to me". They don't even answer my cheery good morning without checking with her first so I know they will only *think* it!

I'll let you know how it goes.

In a lonely family cemetery in the wilds of Missouri

My brother Fred lives smack in the middle of Missouri half way between Kansas City and St. Louis. I like Missouri because the land is cheap so there are still old decrepit abandoned buildings and cemeteries that no one visits anymore. Here in California that doesn't often happen. We also don't have as much physical history. If something isn't being used, it quickly gets paved over. There aren't even many middle aged or older people here! I'm 46 and I'm scared! Maybe when you hit a certain age you're forced to either get plastic surgery or move to Arizona.

Anyway, knowing of my penchant for cemeteries, Fred takes me to Cemetery Road.
He doesn't know where the cemetery is exactly but we figure with a name like Cemetery Road, there's gotta be one somewhere. After an off road adventure, we finally found it. It was worth the search. This is my favorite picture from that excursion.

And now for something entirely different...

I love this photo. It may be my favorite. I took it in Locke, an old Chinese railroad town on the Sacramento river delta. This guy was passed out drunk and bleeding from the head.
There wasn't enough blood to keep it in color however. ;-)
I love the bikes in the frame.

Missouri Lone Tree

While on a drive with my brother Fred, I snapped this photo. I love trees and this one was so beautiful standing there all alone.

A Hydrangea blossom

Love that macro lens!

Watercolor Love-in-a-Mist

I'm not much of a gardener. I love gardens madly but our backyard is shady and I'm lazy so we have a big lawn. A few years ago my lazy ass threw some wildflower seed in the area where flowers would be if we had them. I didn't cover them up with dirt or anything. I merely tossed the bird seed, er, flower seed out there and hoped for the best. As you may have guessed, the birds ate most of them. A couple of months later, imagine my surprise when a poopload of beautiful blue and white flowers started blooming. They are called Love-in-a-Mist and they are not only gorgeous, they reseed! So every year I get pooploads more! They are the ultimate lazy gardener's friend.

They are also wonderful posers. I really liked the watercolor affect on this one. Let me know what you think.

Monday Morning Angel

This angel is rather famous in angel circles. She hangs her hat in the Mountain View cemetery in Oakland. She presides over the remains of the Crocker family.
Mountain View cemetery is amazing! It's gigantic and has a 'Millionaire Row' with huge pretentious mausoleums as big as my house but it also has some really old crappy areas where people like me end up. The graves are falling down the hillside and the names can barely be read anymore. It's so cool.

Angel Sky

Good Morning...I brought donuts!

A new blogging friend (look at his beautiful travel photos by following the link to the right) told me I should get more pictures up because if people just saw one, they may not visit again. So, I am going to put up some of my favorite pictures and then I'll write a bit about each of them later. I will tell you about this one now. This picture, Angel Sky, is the first digital art I did which really made me happy. It also showed me early on how important those stock photos are. I shoot a sky whenever it moves me and I LOVE angels.
I have had people say, "You go to cemeteries to take pictures of angels? Ick! Why would you do that?" My question back is where else would I find angels?

Today's Intention....

My intention today is to be....um, content.

As a somewhat hyper person, I am having a bit of difficulty with my current employment.
I started last Monday at a large company and have so far done nothing at all to earn my keep.
This is a new breed of strange for me as I am accustomed to small companies where the employees are running so fast they have bugs on their teeth. Here they even smile in slow motion. If they even deign to smile. This is not a good place for a recovering Catholic. The whole day is an opportunity for guilt.

But at least I have the time and opportunity to do some of the things I've been meaning to do, such as google all of my friend's names to see what comes up and do research on Classmates.com to try and find out if my high school best friend really did marry my high school boyfriend (yes).

Until tomorrow I shall remain

Content

About the photo...I love small things and dead things (within reason) so a small dead flower was right up my alley. I kept this grapefruit blossom safe for 2 months until I bought my macro lens and it was the first shot after purchase.
I have a Canon Digital Rebel EOS and I used my lovely new Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens.

Mosquito Eyebrows on Toast

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Thorny Issue

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Yosemite Bridge

Monday, August 28, 2006

The Littlest Fan

Thursday, August 24, 2006

It's in the Bag

Night Beach

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Where did I take this picture???

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Blowin' in the Wind

Hiking 7 Sacred Pools on Maui

Friday, August 18, 2006

Me! Me! Me! Me!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Miss Aggie and the Hawthorn Tree

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Doorway to the San Francisco Bay

Friday, August 11, 2006