Silly Putty

When I have treats in my pocket and camera around my neck, these two are almost like Silly Putty in my warm little hands. Well, Sally is, Linus is like that cold hard chunk of Putty that just won't soften up no matter how hard you try. Today, I taught the dogs about backdrops and props. Sally is sporting a very large flower clip from Fabricland. She doesn't seem to mind. She's sitting in front of a table covered with Amy Butler fabric.

Linus said he's sit, but he was not posing. He didn't even wash his face this morning.

I made this scalloped heart garland this morning, I was feeling all Valentinesy. Sally is posing on my bed on duvet. I found that scrolly white iron thingy at Home Sense a few years ago.

Linus is doing as little as possible for his treat. "Momma, my head's too heavy!"

All photos are SOOC. The last two are *gasp* with my flash! I am trying to learn to love it and with Rae's tips, I think it's possible.

Pants On The Ground - Larry Platt - American Idol [LYRICS]

Watch this and read on...

Pants On The Ground

Emily and Illi were doing their homework last night. They had to find a current event out of the news paper, cut it out, and ask a bunch of questions about the current event. Illi found the article about the 17 yr. old girl that let the contractor in his 50s into her house. She left the room only to come back to find him naked from the waist down. We can imagine what it was he planned on doing. After we discussed the situation, and how serious it was, Illi had a little fun with it, she started singing Pants on the Ground. These two girls are hilarious. The also discussed drugs and the number of kids in their school that do them. I asked specifically what kind of drugs are you talking about, Illi started listing them Pot, and that other green stuff, what's it call? Marijuana! To which my street smart kid says pot is marijuana! Ah...mystery solved!

They also discussed an article on the controversial pro-life ad with a hand holding an aborted fetus. It's very interesting to hear teen aged girls' views on these things. Emily might know the difference between pot and marijuana(there isn't any) but she can't say the word rape, instead she uses nicer words like "an accident".

Sometimes I complain that I'm home all day with dogs that don't really talk to me. I can pretend in silly voices that they do talk but really it's nothing compared to what happens when the kids come home. I'm very thankful to be able to hear their chattering, even it it has confirmed that I don't want 4 kids, I'll keep 2 and send the other 2 home. It means they feel comfortable enough with us to share what is going on in their lives during the time they are away from us.

Smokin'!

We have been watching a lot of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives lately. There's a bunch of great looking BBQ places that they visit, and it got us thinking that we should get the bbq/smoker out and try it. It was a perk from Kerry's work and we had it for about 2 yrs. before giving it to my parents, who kept it for a few months and then gave it back. We pulled it out of the box and got it set up. We picked up 2 racks of baby back ribs, and a pork butt roast. And using the 'magic' cookbook, I rubbed, rested,and smoked us some meaty goodies.

I also made Texas Style BBQ sauce from scratch.It took a while to put the smoker together, but it was worth it!

It's a good thing the smoker had this very accurate thermometer. After 4 hours of smoking the ribs were to-die-for! On the bbq shows we've been watching, namely BBQ Pitmasters, they say that good ribs won't pull away from the bone when you bite them. You should be able to leave a perfect bite mark in the meat. I think these were a bit over cooked, but pretty close to what they say you want in a perfect rib. The pork roast became pulled pork, I made sweet and sour coleslaw and served it along with the bbq sauce, on toasted garlic buns. I might just smoke all my meat from now on.

I did a bit of scrapbooking on Friday. Each layout still needs 'something' but I'm not sure what yet. While we were waiting, Kerry took a picture of me in my Yokohama fleece from the contest I won.

Oriental Supermarket Fun

After Emily's orthodontist appointment, she said those 2 words she says every time we go out, "I'm hungry." So we went out of our way to the Oriental Supermarket. She used to declare "It stinks in here!" when we walked in the door, but now she says she likes the smell. We must have been hungry because we bought a bunch of different things. She always wants one of these drinks, it's carbonated, and you have to whack the marble sealing it with the cap, the marble drops into the glass bottle and causes some of the drink to fizz up and out, but we got smart this time and did it all in a bowl so she wouldn't lose half her drink. It's not cheap, $3 for the bottle and it's probably 1/2 the amount that's in a reg. pop can. But she loves the whole Asian/gimmicky thing. These sounded good, how could dried yams not sound good? I must have been very hungry. They are just that, dried yams, not sweetened, not salted. Just dried. Not bad, but not good.

These are good. Some kind of weird potato snack, Italian Gratin flavoured. Everyone loved them.

These are definitely deep fried, but lightly sweetened, maybe even sweet/salty. But the texture will kill your mouth, kind of like crinkle cut fries but 400 times harder.

Emily picked this cup of ramen for her dinner. She boiled the water, followed the directions, for cooking the noodles. Then she drained the water and added the flavour packet and packet of 'oil', which looked like fat mixed with seeds. She said it was good and that she could eat it again, but she didn't actually finished it all, so I question how good it was.

One of the reasons I like taking her to the Oriental Supermarket is because she can read the packaging. She's taught herself to read Japanese, which is more than I can do. She can't read everything, but she can gets the gist of it and can translate for me. So when I saw these, next to something I recognized, I asked her to translate and sure enough it was exactly what I thought. And she knew what it was so we had to buy it. Naruto, swirl fish cakes. It's similar to imitation crab. You slice them thinly and use it to decorate your food.

Like this, our peanut sauce noodles.

Grandpa had a dr.'s appt., the dr. thinks there's a blockage of some sort because his pulse is weaker at his feet than anywhere else. He sent him for bloodwork and he'll be having more tests ASAP. Thank you for all the well wishes!

Today, I must scrapbook. I've got classes to prepare for and nothing to show for it. I hope my mojo shows up today.

Practicing

I've been looking for some funky fabric for a backdrop. I haven't found it yet, but I did find this quilt in the laundry room. My mom made it for Emily and she doesn't use it anymore. I thought it might come in handy for baby photo shoots. Baby Bear posed for me on Emily's mini chair.

Work it, Baby Bear! Linus wanted in on the action when he heard I was handing out treats for good girls and boys.

Sally's such a good sport, she sat on the mini chair for a long time while I fiddled with the shot.

I've just come from getting a cleaning at the dentist...my teeth are so sparkly. Emily has her first orthodontist appointment today, she's not too happy about it. I'm sure I won't be happy about the cost.

Solar Powered.

I know...
2 posts in one day....This one has pictures. Lots of them.

Because we live in a valley, and we pay that nasty sunshine tax, we suffer in the winter. Maybe it's part of that sunshine tax, I don't really know what that tax includes, I've just heard people say we have one, but anyways, it's usually overcast and dismal in the winter. So as soon as I saw the sun shining, I grabbed my camera and that stinky tennis ball and took the dogs outside.

Here the majestic Golden Retriever soaks up the rays. He needs them because he is solar powered and has plans on ripping up the grass with his mighty paws as he catches his prey, the stinky tennis ball. But first he must actually rip up some grass, namely my zebra grass, he then pulled two branches of my forsythia. You can see the stinky tennis ball sneaking up on him.

He sat around like a dope because I told him to stop demolishing the flora and fauna.

He caught the stinky tennis ball, made lots of steam, and had some fun. You can see his assortment of yard toys (and possibly a doggy deposit) in this one, the tree root, and the 2x6s he likes us to throw for him, only problem is I can hardly lift them, so they usually land on him or about 3 feet in front of me.

How can you not love this face? The dog breath, the grass in the teeth, the goobery jowls, the stinky tennis ball.

Then we went inside and ate candies.

I had seen a neat trick with Christmas lights that I wanted to try. I knew there was a reason I still had a box of lights that didn't get put away after Christmas. Linus helped with the set up. He was checking the mug of water to make sure it was okay. He actually drank the whole thing.

After he moved, I was able to get this.

And not to be left out, I had to get a shot or two of Miss Sally. She likes to high tail it when Linus starts his antics.

Questions answered.

1. -2 is cold, it's been above 0 for a long time. Flowers are tricked into starting to bud. Orchardists are worried that the trees might bud and then the real weather will come and wreck everything.

2. Gas is cheap, it was up to $1.17 a liter.

3. Amy, be more specific, asking if that's my mom in the first picture, there's a whole bunch of moms in that picture. Mine is the one on the left, the Japanese one. Funny but true story...Kerry and I were discussing the health of our family members. I said I didn't know of any Asians that had asthma, and I thought and I thought and then I said "Oh, whatever, I don't ever know that many Asians!" Kerry looked at me like the idiot I am. I said "Oh, ya, more than half the people I'm related to are Asian, silly me!" I believe none of them have asthma.

4. If you have a tv that is older than 5 yrs. but more likely 10 yrs. old and your parents gave it to you without a remote control, throw it out, don't try to keep it so the kids can have a tv devoted to Dance Dance Revolution. It's not worth it to drive around town, buying different remotes, returning those remotes, doing research on-line, punching in 3200 codes, making long distance calls because no Universal Remote will work with it. The very helpful Rolly at London Drugs pulled up the local want ads and told me to go and buy a used tv for under $50 WITH a remote and manual. I'm a bit sad for this tv, it's not the best quality but it still works, it would be good for someone that needs exercise, as you have to get up and push the buttons on the tv if you want to change the channel. Oh, wait, maybe will skip the Dance Dance Revolution and just use the tv for exercise. Kids will love it!

5.This is my grandpa, he's an antique, he's 91. He's not doing so well. And not that I expect him to live forever, I know all about the circle of life, I'm not prepared to have him go to the bowling alley in the sky. He's feeling pretty weak lately and probably can't bowl on Friday, mom says if he can't bowl, then what's the point? If I suddenly stop blogging in the next bit, it's because something has happened with grandpa and I'm needed elsewhere.

I went!

Bright and early, okay, more like dismal and early, but I still got out of the house just after 8 am. to catch the excitement of seeing the Olympic torch wind it's way through Kelowna. I choose to go to Fabricland instead of the Emily's school. Standing in -2 degrees with teens was more than I wanted to do today, and besides, you can't 'legally' take pictures of those underaged brats. So I stood with these gals and their meters of maple leaf fabric. Weird thing, only a handful of other people were standing out there too. They stood there like that for about 30 minutes before the torch came. They got lots of honks and cheers. I don't know who the torch bearer was but the whole thing gave me teary eyes. How proud he looks. The funny thing is that his cheering team that might have been his wife and daugthers were funny. The one that we thought was his wife laughed hysterically the whole time as she jogged along the sidewalk with him.

On the way home, which is also the route of the torch relay, hundreds of people were along the highway so I parked and walked over to see it again. Here you can see them lighting the next runner's torch, oh, that's right, you can't really because Darlene's head is in the way. But you can make out that gas is 99.9 cents a liter.

You could actually feel the heat of the flame, which was made me teary too, must have been the heat melting my eyes.

I'm glad I went. I'm cold, but it really was something to see. And I got to wear my prize winning fleece jacket because it's the only red one I have.

Matryosh key

Isn't this just the cutest? I have a pair, the other one is red, they were a little gift from Yolanda. This one matches my key fob. This morning when I went to start the van, I realized she makes my key too fat to fit in the ignition. I don't think the excuse "My Matryosh Key wouldn't fit in my van ignition" was a good reason to miss work. It took me a few minutes to swap her to Kerry's truck key, which is on my key ring, too.

Today the Olympic torch comes to town. Tomorrow it makes the rounds past most of the middle and high schools. This will wreak havoc on the bus schedules and people taking their kids to school as it happenings right around the start of both elementary and then high school. Not sure who is in charge of planning but I think this might make for a chaotic morning. I'm not sure what we will do, part of me says go, participated, but then the other part of me says "Are you crazy?"

Hey!

Look at me! Look at me! It's my birthday!

I'm 3 yrs. old today. My mom says I'm very lucky that I lived to see 3! I don't feel that lucky. I don't know why she would say that. She also said we don't celebrate dog birthday's like we do human birthdays. Whatever! I got 1 1/2 carrots today and I got to go outside and play with the ball, that seems like a party.

I heard her saying that the only reason we are taking note of my big 3 birthday is because everybody has been saying Golden Retrievers mellow out at 3 years of age. Hee, hee, I'm not a Retriever, I'm a Receiver! Fooled them.

Oh, snap!

I have just booked my first job to photograph a wedding. I'm crapping my pants and probably will every day until May 24th, even though the wedding is on the 23th, until I see the photos, I won't be able to handle it.
I am also shooting Karla getting ready for her wedding the day before! 2 weddings in 2 days.
And we are making concrete plans to go to Disneyland in October where we will meet Amy, David and Trevor, and if everything is still a go, I'll be taking pictures of their wedding too. We are also planning this trip with my oldest and dearest friend, Terrell and her family, she's not really my oldest friend, but I can tease her. We've known each other since we were 12 yrs. old.
Very excited!

Monday Afternoon

I was playing around with the new lens and Emily managed to find Linus' 'sweet spot' on his face. When you scratch his cheeks just right, he does this... I took the dogs outside and was playing around a bit more with the lens, when I caught Sally doing this...

Apparently she saw Linus do this...

As far as I can tell he was doing laps around the yard and slipped in the mud and ice that our back yard has become, I did catch him just slidding into a lawn chair and a bush and then he ran to me and I got mud all over my face.

It's a good thing I wasn't wearing this...

My prize fleece from the Yokohama photo contest. It's red, it's black, it's got a logo on it, the sleeves zip off, but I won it for a photo I took! It will most likely be designated 'rally wear'.

Monday Morning

I wish the sun would shine for just a few hours! Although I do have to go to work so maybe it could wait until later to shine. I am thankful for the 'warmer' weather we are having, it's not very January-ish, but I'll take it.
I've been 'suffering' for the last week or so with a bit of a sore throat, although it's not reallly sore so much as it is irritated, and irritating. The glands in my neck are swollen too. Some days it's not bad, and other's it is. I'd like to just get whatever it is, be sick and get better. Is that too much to ask?

A very nice guy sold me his almost brand new 50mm f/1.4 lens yesterday. After much back and forth about whether or not I 'needed' this lens, and yes, I am going to use lots of 'quotation' marks today, I finally decided I did need it. I had been looking at the f/1.2 and reading reviews and it didn't get great ones, and it's way over priced. This nice guy got the f/1.4 mid-October and then his even nicer parents bought him a Nikon for Christmas. Win Win for both of us. This lens will help me take better indoor photos. I'm selling my flash because I've come to the conclussion we don't work well together, I love the natural light and shooting in it, I don't get the same happy results with the flash. Some people do.

I'm sending off our Anime Evolution Convention registration forms today. It's at UBC in Burnaby, in August. I can smell it now, 5000 costumed people, 38 degrees and no deoderant. I can't wait!

Things we are looking forward to in the last few weeks of January...
- more rain, and warmer weather.
- babies, not ours.
- taking pictures of babies.
- Linus's birthday, the big 3!

For Sale!

Canon 50mm f/1.8 EFII lens, with new hood, 1 Tiffen UV filter, and 1 B&W polarizing filter. Great everyday lens, packaging for all except hood. $140 OBO. I'm upgrading so I don't need it any more, but it's been my favourite lens.

Canon Speedlite 430 EX II flash in box with case and small stand. Used maybe 2 dozen times, less than a year old. $225 OBO. I bought this before I realized I am a natural light photographer.

Let me know if you are interested in either of these.

Still workin' it

2 posts with pictures in one day. I know I could have just waited and posted again tomorrow but tomorrow's another day. I've been wanting to make a star album for awhile. And I used the same inspriration as the card I posted earlier. I'm lovin' the colour combo right now.