Are you ready?

I know it's been awhile. The computer was smelling like burning stuff, but now it seems to be fine. I've busy, and I took my camera with me so I could document it. Firstly, if you look close, you can see the sign, I hope you can see it, it says 'Dr. Human Taking New Patients Now'. I wonder what his first name is? Super, Lessthan, I bet he got teased in school.

This one is getting ready for Halloween, Sally's all for the candy, Linus likes the fact he can dress up and pretend to be someone else for a night. See, he's being sweet and demure.

We went to see this monstrosity, if you look close, you can see a plane taking off, the size of the one we took to Seattle when we went to Disneyland exactly 2 years ago this week. You can also see the helicopters from Russia coming out from the plane, 3 of them. This is the largest plane in the world, that's what they said on the radio. We went back at 10:45 pm to watch it take off and it didn't take off for about an hour after that and the darn thing took off so fast, we thought that being so big and heavy, it might take a few more seconds but I think it took 3 seconds. We waited for 1.5 hours in the freezing weather for 3 seconds!

And we went and watched Kerry's family's friend coach his son playing football against Kelowna.
We were the only ones from Kelowna not cheering for Kelowna. And that's not a problem but when it turns out 3 of the moms on the other team know me, it made for weird looks.

The Pacific Forest Rally is held in Merritt. Kerry has taken an interest in rally racing, mostly on the Playstation, and he wanted to go. I told him if it was something I could practice photography on, I'd go just about anywhere. I did stipulate that I would not go to a Hawaiian Tropics suntan lotion bathing suit contest. So off we went. We got to the station just as the rally cars were coming back in for servicing. I believe this one was in the lead. The driver's sister is the navigator for the car in second place. Kerry says our next vehicle will be a Subaru, I said whatever just not that blue, everyone has one that blue, but now I realize that's the Subaru blue. Yes, Kerry took this and surprise, I'm kind of smiling, I think the hat and ear warmers are pulling my face into a smile. And yes, I look like the Michelin man. See the car in the back ground, we had to walk to that car, take a right and walk about the same distance to the ridge, over cow poop and critter holes.

This part of the rally was held at the Merritt Mountain Music Festival site. It was cold, it was a bit breezy and it kept trying to rain. Just after most of the cars had finished their 2 go arounds, it started to pour.

You can just see the car in the middle of the shot, turning the corner. We were up on the ridge for safety reasons. This is with my 50mm lens, and I took my 18-200mm lens with me but I am so getting a 70-200mm lens in the next 2 years!

This is the car that I think was in first place. Most of the subies are this blue, they all kind of look alike to me. But the 3.5 yrs. and 5 yrs. old beside us told us that that car is in first place and the next car is in second place, and that this car was driven by their dad and the next car had their aunt in it and Kerry was so funny, he knew this info and had shared it with me earlier. He chatted those kids up, told them that they were pretty lucky that no matter what the outcome, they would have a winner in the family and that it was pretty exciting. I think the kids were kind of shocked that Kerry knew who they were talking about.
Shot taken with my 50mm and cropped afterwards.

Yellow car, shot taken with my 17-200mm lens. In the back ground you can see the camp ground for the music festival.

On the way home we hit rain, snow and fog. It was so foggy we couldn't see much past the nose of the truck.

And then it got clear, but you can see the fog again up the hill a bit. Hard to believe the weather is like this and we were only about an hour away from home at this point.

Here was the garage almost two weeks ago.

And here it is a week ago. We now have downspouts and flashing on the roof, but it just needs to be painted to match the blue trim. Kerry has moved everything in to the garage, the door is on it, the lights are on, and it's neat and tidy!

And last but not least, we got to meet this little guy. Kerry's cousin's newest family member. He's 7 weeks old and just so tiny. I held him for almost 2 hours, putting him down to take a few pictures and he slept the whole time.

I'm working on some classes, I've got a great card set with matching tote on the go. And my baby book class is planned for Sunday, Oct. 25. Stamp-A-Stacks are coming and it's time to start thinking Christmas cards!

Bear with me!

The computer has been smelling like melting burning plastic lately. I've cleaned it out, and it seems to have done the trick. I have all kinds of things to share with you.

Wishful thinking

I wish I had my camera when we went to Princess Auto the other day. They had some garden spikes that they were clearing out for around a dollar each. But the sign said something like "Works great in defeating Zombies and Vampires". Great marketing, made me want to buy a few.

And why is it called Princess Auto? It's so clearly a man's store.

A Garage!

In some parts of Kelowna, this would be considered a finsished garage! But here, it's just half way to a dream, one where there is no snow on my van, one where a bike doesn't have to come in the house, a compressor has a home, and a guy has some tool space.

One of those days!

I'm trying to be positive, I know that negative energy breeds more negativity, I'm really trying...

1. It seems most of my Stamper's group is out of town, but I will still go ahead for the 2 that are coming tonight. It will be nice with a smaller group.
2. I can't order cheques over the phone anymore, I must go to the bank. I need to mail a letter anyways and thank goodness I'm not mailing a 2.01 lb. parcel to Japan, like the guy infront of me, it cost him $80 to mail $20 in clothes that will take 1 week to get there, as opposed to the only other option, cheaper but will take 2 months! I actually thought he was sending it to the moon for that price!
3. I start the van to go to the bank only to have the van sputter and plumes of smoke come from under the hood. Guy across the street gives me the 'look' and I make like I know something and look under the hood, but it's really to make sure there isn't a fire under the hood, and sure enough there wasn't. No biggie, I take Kerry's truck to the bank. I like it better than the van anyways.
4. A lady grabbed the James Patterson book I wanted, after I finished pummelling her, I realized she's my aunt. I don't see her often enough.
5. She tells me to start reading Janet Evanovich, that it's a series, but of course, the library only had #14 and #15, she says "That's okay, read #14", so I take it, it better be good and not confusing. I have to get it, because they didn't have the third No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
6. I order my cheques, I get my big wads of cash to pay for the fence, only to realize a dozen people just saw me stick it in my purse and now they may mug me. And I'm sweating like crazy because I'm NOT getting sick, so they'd probably win.
7. My aunt leaves the library, I run, really run, to catch her so I don't get mugged. She's probably my toughest aunt. Between her scrappiness and my hammer fist, we'd do okay. I also didn't tell her that I'm not feeling well and have my life savings in my purse, you never know...
8. I'm getting kits ready for the baby album class, I cut my palm of my hand. I can't handle my own blood, but if I run outside and say to the guys making my garage "Can you tell me if I need stitches, because I can't look at my hand?" I will probably never hear the end of it. And with me feeling sick already, I was very leery to look at my hand. I did it quickly, it's a gash and it's bleeding, but I already knew that because I got blood on that piece of chipboard for your kit! I doubt it needs stitches but I'm not looking, I put the last of 2 bandages on it. Good thing I have bandages.
9. I know I will need a nap. I won't fight it.
10. I have Stamper's group tonight and I think at least one new show starts tonight. I will get Kerry to tape if I remember. If not, I know it's not the end of the world.
11. The mailman is a dork. He won't put the mail in the box because of the construction. He's been known to put it under a 2x4, which is the stupidest thing I've seen. Oh, well, his wife can deal with him.
12. This list makes it look even worse than it is.

Blood

Bloooodddd. Not Funny!
Sorry kid, but it is!

Justin Timberlake Plasticville

This is my favourite SNL skit, it was on again on the weekend. I think SNL is the best when JT is hosting. He's hilarious.

Hump Day Again

Not much to blog about.
I might be getting that ear thing again, or the "stomach flu" as the walk-in doctor diagnosed it. My ear is filled with fluff and my sinuses are starting to act up, I've also had a headache since last night.
I'm working on classes, but it's slow going. This week I have 4 nights of classes so I have to clean up every afternoon to get ready for the class in the evening. Kind of puts a damper on productivity. And it's wreaking havoc on my tv shows. Good thing most of them start in the next 2 weeks.
I did some sewing yesterday and got quite a bit done. 17 key fobs in 2.5 hours. Then I ran out of cute ribbon.
And that's about it.

Weekend Wanderings

I took my new lens and went for hike with Kerry. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but it's great for close quarters and low light. And I can get up close and personal to my subjects and still maintain focus. As you can see with this fuzz plant.

Crawford is great for taking shots but only because the fire took all the shade bearing trees and now it's pretty wide open, the downside being that I got lots of lens flare, even though I like the look, sometimes I don't want it. It makes for 'fuzzy' photos.

Action shot of Kerry getting air.
See, bright, wide open, with lots of charred trees in the background.

We finally got to see the salmon running, and because it's so early in their travels, there aren't any dead fish on the creek edges yet. We took Linus back to the creek because I had seen this rock formation from the road on the way home from mountain biking.

From above.
Linus is in the middle of the heart. It was super bright out hence the blown out areas on his face and the rocks.

We went down to the swimming hole and saw dozens more salmon, the numbers are down apparently. We also saw lots of osprey looking for an easy dinner. I wonder if Mother Nature thought out the whole turning salmon red thing, I mean, they are trying to repopulate the earth. But being bright red when everything else is green, brown or grey makes you stand out, makes you easy prey for meat eaters!

You can kind of see the salmon in the top left of the creek, I was trying to get the duck more than anything, but should have had my 50mm lens on.

Framing starts this week and so do classes! Actually, this week is super busy with classes and Stamper's group! Can't wait to hear how everyone's summer went.

Evening Reading

I borrowed from Marg the first 2 "No. 1 Woman's Detective Agency" books. I finished them in about 3 days. I really enjoyed them, I haven't been reading much. But now I plan to read my manuals and my lessons.

A group from the Photographers' Workshop decided to start the class again on Facebook so that the lessons are ingrained in our brains. This works perfectly for me, I will do it again with my new camera and lens. I am so impressed with it already. Amazingly fast! But it weighs more than 2 lbs. I'm sure. My poor kitten arms.

So what exactly did I get? I got what I feel was about the best camera deal ever. A Canon 50D that looks brand new, a battery grip, 2 batteries, a charger, and a 28mm f/1.8 lens, all in original boxes, all with manuals. Sweet deal! I didn't even know what the battery grip was for, it adds extra power to your camera, extra gripping for larger hands, looks professional, and when you rotate your camera to take portrait photos it has a shutter button on the side so that you don't have to bend your wrist at an awkward angle. Who thinks of these things? I love it!

Me and my favourite mountain biker will be going out for a test shoot tomorrow. Can't wait to see what I can or can't do!

The dogs were more than willing to pose for some shots in the living room. I have the ISO bumped up, I was playing with how high it could go. I did not make Sally pose like this, but you can see her tiny paws now. She's such a good poser.
Okay, so not all dogs were thrilled to pose for me. This one's big 2 tonne head was breaking my ankles. He's such a plum eating baby jerk.

And the beauty of my new lens is in the details, like the dog hair and dust on the couch. Nice.

The cement is all poured, I could not bring myself to adding our initials to the wet cement. It's so perfectly perfect as it is. Framing starts Monday.

some things

1. I will be getting a Canon 50D and 28mm f/1.8 lens today. I am spoiled. I know it. I try not to abuse it.
2. I will owe Kerry big time, I have promised no more eating out, no more buying groceries until we eat the wads of stuff we have, no more shoes, no more magazines, no more coffees, no more scrapbooking stuff, and no more fun until Christmas.
3. If you look closely at Linus's eyes in the header, you can see me holding a plum above my head.
4. Linus ate more than an icecream pail of plums yesterday, Sally ate just about as many. No poopy bum yet.
5. Cement gets poored today!
6. Classes start next week, yay, someone has to pay for a camera!
7. I'm waking up before my alarm goes off, way too early and then I need a nap. Why can't I just sleep a bit longer and not have a nap?
8. It's Sept. 11. Say a little prayer.
9. Sally got trimmed and washed Wed. and Emily says she stinks now, and she says her legs are funny. Her paws got trimmed up, no more Grinch paws, but her legs are furry so she has what Emily calls Drumstick Legs and then Emily makes "Nom Nom Nom" noises and says she could eat them up. And then we take Sally out of the room to keep her safe!
10. If Amy get's married next Fall, we will seriously discus going to Disneyland then.
11. Kerry got his new Dirt 2 game, I probably won't see him all weekend.

Upgrading {updated}

I might be upgrading my camera.
I might have a 1.5 yr. old Canon Digital Rebel XTI and Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DCOS lens for sale. Together, with 2 batteries, a charger, a filter and hood for the lens, and I believe original boxes for both, with manuals.
I might give you more details if you want them.
I might be crazy.

I'm doing it! I'm getting the camera.
I am selling my other one and the lens. You can find it here... Camera for sale!

Ahhh...Routine!

So the yard is a mess, leaving the house isn't easy. What door do we go out? Do we have keys for the other doors? Whose idea was it to fence the back yard like that and leave the garbage cans and my pots of herbs over there on the other side of the fence? Where do we park? We have to make sure we duck under the railing when going down the temporary stairs or else we get clothes lined. Luckily the dogs seem to have adjusted quite well.

This is the side of the house, and the driveway. It's also the lumber to build the garage. This was this morning, we now have footings. Check out the junk in the background...that's all the stuff we can't easily get to, our bbq, our winter tires, our Little Tykes kitchen set, patio table, chairs, garbage cans, and pots of dying herbs.

We saw the signs and heard that the salmon were spawning, so we decided to go down the first few days before they started dying and smelling up the park. Well, no one told the salmon that they were running, so we only got to see the big freaky salmon on wheels.

We did see a little squirel. He's right in the middle of the photo.

I worked on my kit stuff. Love that Collage Press stuff.

Can't believe we did that!

Shaun offered to take us out to Swiss Chalet for dinner. My mouth was watering just thinking about it.
We were not acknowledged in the 5-10 minutes waiting to be seated. We should have known then.
It was not busy. We got their just after 6 pm. People we knew were seated just before us. We ordered before them. They got their food. Other people we knew came in about 30 minutes later. They ordered, they got their food. We thought that was weird. Our server said our food was next. More people that came in after us got served. We were getting a little angry. Server says we are up next. We say great because those people that ordered after us are finished eating. And then we waited another 15 min. and still no food.
So we say "Hey this is stupid" and we got up and he's like "Oh, it's on it's way" and as we are leaving another server is bringing out food and he asks her "Is that for this table?" and be damned if it wasn't! So we left without paying for our pop, he never refilled it or checked on us ever. We decided that even if she had our food, we would not have accepted it. We waited over an hour.
Then as we are leaving, a whole bunch of people were waiting to be seated and I said "Go somewhere else, we never got our food!" and then we walked out. It was kind of mean, but boy did I feel good when we got in the van and saw at 5 of those people walk out.
Then we went to Triple O's and had the best burgers and sweet potato fries! And Shaun used his discount card and got 25% off!

Day 2

And no I'm not going to count down the days until I can park in the new garage, but I will tell you that it should take less than 3 weeks, but I can't park in it for a whole month. {insert sad face here} Why, you ask? Because the cement needs that long to set or whatever it does. To this you reply "But on Extreme Home Make-Over they build a house, furnish it and live in it in about a weeks time!" To which I'm pretty sure the answer is "They never show you close ups, and come back in a year to see what it looks like." I never understood how that worked.

The above picture shows the 'little' machines that tore out the cement. I love little machines. I think they are cute. I want one. I spent most of the day looking out the side door and front window at these things. And then the dump truck came and I spent time staring at that . Check out how new and shiney the yellow digger is! And then I shed a few tears, and got teased about it. To the left of the photo, you can't see it, but I had rocks, lots of them. I asked Kerry if we should move them to another flower bed, he said no, they'll be fine. As I was watching the digger, I noticed my rocks were GONE! And so was the dump truck. Seriously, I was so sad for my rocks. I need to get out more. Duncan said I will have new rocks, but it's not the same. Those ones didn't do anything wrong and now they are at the dump.

Check this out...I'm 5'4" on a good day. The mail box is now above eye level. I can't see if there are any spiders in my mail. I won't be able to get the mail for a few weeks. Nice.

Today, we have a 'moat' not around the house, but in the driveway. There is an island. We have discussed the things we could do today...fill moat with water, float around it, ride bikes in it, put dogs in it. Nothing that Duncan would like, I'm sure.

This is my side-door, and the drop off into the moat. A safety hazard.

In other parts of our yard, our new fence is not quite finished, but looks beautiful! Smells good too, after it rained a bit the cedar smell was very nice!

My sunflowers are huge! I've never had success growing them but this year the sunflower gods smiled upon my garden and bam! I have 8 ft. tall plants.And I have sunflower seeds. You think 'duh, sunflower plants, sunflower seeds', but you'd be wrong. Some idiot once made and sold sunflower seeds that result in flowers without seeds. And this idiot bought them. But this time, I paid attention. I have seeds and big ones! I ate this one, right from the plant. It's unsalted, and unroasted, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever eaten. No, that's goat cheese. Speaking of which we had a little conversation as to why my mom made me drink fresh from the goat milk when I was a kid, she said Auntie Linda did it, so it was okay. And then she said she wouldn't drink it. Hello, if you wouldn't drink it, should you give it to your kid? The answer is no, because it will traumatize her for the rest of her life.Anyways, here's Linus, check out the reflection in his eyes, that's me holding a plum above my head.

Here's Sally's dramatic "Give me the damn plum" look.

I think some wood comes today and maybe cement forms. I love this construction stuff, not the cost, but the smells of gasoline, wood, and dirt. Which is better than the smell of dying fish, it's salmon spawning time, we might brave the sights and smells to check it out this year. But then again, I can think of 37 better things to do, like pick up dog poop, pluck my eyebrows, clean gutters, etc.

Can you hear that?

It's the sound of a little bobcat with a big jackhammer demolishing my carport cement pad. It's making way for a new one, without cracks and weed growing in it. And then a shiney new garage will be put on top of that new cement pad! In the mean time, Sally is trying to find the deepest darkest hole to crawl in because she is so scared. She's tried the bathtub, she's tried the shoe closest, the linen closet, my lap, under the couch, behind the couch, and is now under the desk.
I'm trying to get my kit stuff done but it's hard to concentrate and I can't watch Y&R because I can't hear what Gloria is saying to Jeffrey. I can make up my own story lines, I'm sure she's telling him that they have that nut tied up because she doesn't look natural with that dayglow blond hair. And that a kitten in a basket is the new black. Everyone has one, Jeffrey, so don't take mine away from me.

I've baked 2 pans of cookie bars. It's stormy, windy, raining and cold, so it was a good baking morning.
I'm thinking I need a graduation gift for finishing my Photographers' Workshop class. I might be aiming too high, a new camera body or a new lens is on my wish list but I probably should settle for a new garage or no divorce.

Did I mention I love little bobcats? And little machinery? Little diggers, too. Not little men, but big men in little machines! Do you think they'd pose for pictures?

Happy Day

I can't take all the credit for how great my photos turned out from Tara and Shawn's wedding. I must first thank Karen Russell for the wealth of knowledge I received in taking her Photographers' Workshop class, I can not say enough good things about this class and how talent she is. And because I knew a bit about how to set my camera up, all photos are SOOC, no Photoshopping!
Secondly, the photographer, Andrea Blair did all the work, set the subjects up, and did her magic, and then I stood behind her and took my shots along with the others in the bridal party. I can't wait to see her photos.
And last but not least, the bride and the groom! They were so cute! Tara's friend brought balloons for a totally different reason, but they made great props for the photos on Knox Mountain.Our bouquets were beautiful.

Shawn's groom's men were great, Nathan is so funny!

They said their vows on the beach at Lake Okanagan Resort. It was a tad hot, but such a great setting.

Kerry took this one. I had only brought the one lens, 50mm f/1.8 and set it on AUTO for him. He got some decent shots. I look a little tense, I don't like wharfs, I don't like deep dark water or sturgeons.

And then we went on a nice little cruise around the lake on a houseboat, had a great meal, danced and I got a little sea sick.

We had a great time. Met some wonderful people. And we wish the couple many, many years of happiness!

Dear Bonnie...

Dear Bonnie,
My mom says you love me.
Can I please come and live with you?
Today I was so embarassed. I had to go, real bad. I went but as you probably know, veggies make poop a little stickier than normal. I love my veggies. So after coming in the house, mom yelled at me and then made me run around the yard, yelling something about "run that turd off your ass". She then took a stick to my bum and removed the very sticky cling-on from my bum. And then she got out the wet wipes, I'm not a baby! I think the neighbours saw and now I don't think I can show my mug in the back yard anymore.
And mom says I smell bad, Emily says I smell bad. I heard mom on the phone, she said something to Kelly-Next-Door about bath, and then I heard trim the back end, and smells bad. I know she was talking about Sally, I wonder what she has planned for her at 3 pm today?
Anyway, I'll be waiting with my box of dog bones, and my blankie.

Sincerely,
Linus Lo Williams

It's great to be missed!

I had an email from one of Linus's biggest fans! She was worried something had happened to me, although I'm sure she was more worried about that big lug.So just for Bonnie, here's what Linus has been up to the last couple of days...

Posing for photo shoots because none of my humans are participating. It's very hard to get the assignments done when no skin toned subjects will sit still. Here's the front shot of Linus. This is the back shot.This is Linus's dad after tearing off most of the tar and gravel from the carport roof. He's so hot. Linus trying not to pay attention to what dad is doing.
Sally, happy that Linus is no where near her!

And the bad thing I taught the dogs to do...Pick their own carrots and radishes. Now they can live self sufficiently in the garden. And I can watch Y&R in peace!