03/19/2010 - EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival

Just a warning...there will be a LOT of pictures here.

I've wanted to visit the Flower and Garden Festival for a while now.  I also have wanted to do the fall food and wine festival at EPCOT.  If all goes as planned, this year I'll get to do both.  I won't bore you with a lot of the details.  Needless to say we had an absolutely WONDERFUL day and experienced some of the best weather I've ever seen at Disney.  It was Spring Break which normally would turn my stomach to visit at that time (entirely too many people for me) but it really wasn't that bad. 

 I took several photos in the rose garden that were actually much better than the one above, however I looked the way the color from the flowers you see in the photo two above this one were "bokeh" in this rose photo.

 I so enjoy a cup of tea and I loved the English "tea" garden outside the Great Britain pavilion.  It was so simple but so cute. 

 As we almost always do when we're in EPCOT we headed over to the Canada pavilion for dinner at our FAVORITE restaurant - Le Cellier.  We had a little extra time so we snapped a few photos of each other...

 Hi - this is me!  I'm wearing my "Honorary VoluntEAR button" since I had participated in the Disney "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion.  Gayle had too, but she's not wearing her button...

 And this is my friend Gayle.

 This was Patrick - our absolutely adorable server in the restaurant.  He saw me taking pictures of the food and decided that something was missing - I think he's right - the photo is so much better with him in it!

All in all, a very fun day.  We headed back to the hotel just after this and rested for a while.  We went back for the fireworks show (Illuminations - Reflections of Earth) as well as Extra Magic Hours where we took in the show at the American Pavilion which was a lot of fun.

03/18/2010 - Off for a two week jaunt...

Greetings from Orlando, FL (okay - so in reality it's two weeks later and I'm posting from Indianapolis, but you'll have to play along).  The scheduling gods were either smiling at me or laughing their heads off when they placed the two conferences  (really the first of three in a row) at which I was presenting almost literally back to back.  So, I'm spending a week in Orlando, Florida, home for 36 hours, and then I fly to Baltimore Maryland, with a one day side trip to Washington DC.  If you know me well, you know I'm a bit in love with my house - I like to spend a lot of time there.  This could, quite possibly, kill me.

We arrived in Orlando to nice, but still kind of cool, weather.  My travel buddy Gayle went along with me to enjoy the resort while I worked.  We scheduled in a day of fun as well.  As always, we started our visit with a good meal which we capped off with the celebration desert which you see here. 

It was an early evening as we have a full day planned at the Epcot flower and garden festival tomorrow.

03/15/2010: I've been counted...

I received, completed, and placed back into the mail my 2010 Census Form today. While I am as sick as everyone else is here in America of the commercials reminding us to complete the forms and the constant calls for additional people to help with the census, I do think it's part of my responsibility as an American citizen to complete and return my US Census Form.

In one of my other, not so favorite, patriotic duties today I took my tax stuff to my guy. I can do my taxes myself and actually enjoy doing them but for the last couple of years have used a professional to do my taxes and generally I've been much happier with the results. It's also nice to have someone to ask simple questions of during the year as another source of information against my own research. I'll still never trust my money or financial decisions to someone else. I want to understand everything that happens - it's just entirely too important.

Well, enough for the civics geekery today. Happy Monday and here's to a better Tuesday.

03/14/2010 - Busy weekend...

I take photos for a lot of reasons: to tell a story, to capture a memory, to frame and hang on the wall, or to show something unique to name just a few.  The photos today capture two memories for me - neither I'll be hanging on the wall.

The first is that this was an incredibly busy weekend.  I took mom home Friday evening, we visited with dad, I chastised them for their poorly behaving pooch (as opposed to my extremely well behaved pooch seen below hanging on her bed), we laughed at the antics of the two dogs together, I did some shopping (and got the sweater dryer you see above - who knew those things were so darn hard to find!! - and I got a new bedding set for the master bedroom which is going to set the stage for an entire room redo that's been two years in the making, I worked (cause five days of slaving just isn't enough anymore), we went to Andrew's play, we went to church (where a friend recommended the book 'The Help' - has anyone read it - I'm thinking about it for an upcoming trip, and we went to see my niece Amanda's "new house" where she'll live after she's married.  After getting home it was laundry (every stitch of clothing except the clothes on my back are now clean) and house cleaning where I finally hung hooks in the pantry for some of my larger skillets and cleaned out the corner cabinet in my kitchen.  It's amazing how such little, little actions can make you feel so much better.  Neither task took more than 20 minutes but I feel loads lighter.

The second photo commemorates this ongoing funny story that has developed in our family and friends.  If you know me well you know that I have very little fashion sense.  I try very, very hard to dress in a stylish manner and look my best, but it doesn't always work for me.  Things I think look good just don't seem to.  There is some sort of disconnect between my eyes, the mirror, and my brain.  We have some pretty firm proof now that it's a genetic disorder.

A few weeks ago I wore the brown shoes you see in the middle above while I was at my folks house.  They are relatively new shoes and I was commenting on my grown up "Mary Janes".  My mom gave me a rather sideways glance and asked what a Mary Jane was.  I believe the very asking of the question should clue you in as to the level of fashion consulting I had while growing up.  Mom's a beautiful lady and always manages to look nice, but fashion has NEVER been her thing.  Put her in a kitchen and she'll give you a true education, but don't take her clothes shopping. 

The story line continued Saturday night at Andrew's play when I was wearing the black shoes shown above and a friend of Mom's commented that she'd been looking for a pair of shoes just like it - how she loved that Mary Janes had come back into style for women.  I recounted the story of the Mary Janes to her and mom got a bit of ribbing the rest of the night.

03/13/2010: Roger's Rump...

My nephew has never been in a play before in his life - and - until Saturday, I didn't even know he could carry a tune. However, I now know he can both sing and dance as well as put on a darn good show as an actor. He starred as Roger in his high school production of Grease. As a straight-A, high school junior he's getting a bit bored with high school so he and his best friend tried out for the musical and got main parts.

I took about 300 pictures of the show - this one isn't particularly fabulous. However, it's right after Andrew mooned the audience (which is the theme of this song and how the character has gotten the nickname "Rump") so I thought it was worth commemorating. For this production I believe the boxers were Sponge Bob in theme. We were encouraging him to go with Red Silk boxers with little hearts for the closing performance today - not sure if he did or not. He ends up mooning the audience four times in total in each performance - each time it gets a LOT of laughs. We figure they gave Andrew this part because he's such a straight laced, never gets in trouble kind of kid so you could trust him each time the boxers would stay on.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and it's less rainy and dreary where you are.

03/12/2010: It was a foggy morning...

I really don't like fog much at all. However, I put Lindsay outside on this foggy morning and was greeted by the surprise of "two" birds on the pond. The reflection - most likely caused by the low hanging fog - was a neat treat. It's a dark photo, but I really liked the way it turned out.

03/11/2010 - Day 070: A day away

Today my staff and I took a day away from the office and did a little planning, training, and work together away from the distractions of email, telephones, and others popping into our offices.  It was a nice day.  When I got home, although it was cloudy, the ducks still were sailing along the pond so I grabbed a few photos.

Looking forward to seeing my dad tomorrow as mom and I head back to their house since she's spent the week with me.  It's been so nice having her here.

The missing days...

Hi all...If you wonder what I was doing on at least some of those missing days from February, you can view the blog my friend and I keep when we travel together - http://bffescapes.blogspot.com/.  I've posted a few of my favorite vacation pics there as well (I took the photos, she narrated the trip - my kind of blog!!)

03/10/2010 - Day 069: Sun, glorious sun!

 It's sunny!!  What a glorious sunny day today.  I left work a little early to get a hair cut this afternoon.  Since I got home a little early we all (mom, Lindsay, and I) headed over to Fort Harrison and took a short walk around the duck pond.  This day and that little bit of time has improved my mood so much.  While I hate the change to daylight savings time, I will enjoy the extra sun and daylight hours. 

After we got home we cooked a delicious dinner together and now we're watching Wheel of Fortune.  In just a minute the computer is going off - this is the way an evening should go.  Hope where you were it was sunny and enjoyable as well.  I for one hope winter stays over!

03/09/2010 - Day 068 - Continuing with our animal theme...

At least the first half of the day was gorgeous!!  This is, on a lovely spring morning like this morning, the view from my back porch.  It is what made me fall in love with this house the moment I walked out the back door on my first visit here.  I tried to get a bit closer to the ducks this morning, but Lindsay decided to "talk" to the ducks continuously so the ducks decided to take to the water well away from the very loud dog.

Dippy is so enjoying having my mom here at the house this week - he's not come near me this week.  He's curled up, right now, in the crook of her knee.  I just couldn't resist grabbing another photo of him.

03/08/2010 - day 067 - Fluffy in the spotlight

I arrived upstairs to find Fluffy hiding underneath her "bunk" - the two-tiered cat bed that is upstairs in my loft.  I tried to snap her photo while she was under the loft but she decided she wanted to come out for a close-up.  Me lying on the floor - her trying to kiss the camera - produces this angle.

What a nice day today was.  Spring break at work so parking isn't a problem.  My mom and my niece were here when I got home so we ate dinner together and got to visit.  And the weather was gorgeous!!  Today isn't supposed to be as nice, but I'm hoping for some outdoor shots today nonetheless AND I'm starting to carry my camera with me everyday again.  Can't take photos if you don't have a camera.

Have a lovely day everyone!

03/07/2010 - Day 066: A kitty and a doggy

Our fabulous dog walker, Bill, is on vacation this week with his wife which presents a problem for my pooch Lindsay.  She either had to go to day care all week or spend another week at Grandma and Grandpa's.  Instead, grandma decided to come and stay with us for the week.  We're just hanging out watching re-runs of NCIS on television tonight and I decided to demonstrate my Eye-Fi card to mom.  To which she declared - "How do people understand all this stuff".  As you can see though, Dippy is quite happy to have Grandma here all week to cuddle with.  And Lindsay is happy that she gets to spend another week at home.

03/06/2010 - Day 065 - I'm back - hopefully for good!

Hello all.  Sorry for such a long break.  I'm really disappointed in myself and I'm committed to picking up my camera every day again.

Tonight's photo stars my Dippy.  His disdainful look in the photo is directed at Lindsay, the dog.  Dippy is "hiding" next to my friend G who is hanging out here at the house tonight before she goes downtown to a meeting tomorrow.  I liked the photo because of the way the light was coming over the back of the chair and putting nice shadows on his face.

Earlier in the day, I snapped the photo below of Dippy.  Normally the blankets are on the backs of the chair. However, I unfortunately had the mother of all migraines yesterday and moved from chair to couch to bed for about an hour before I finally was to sleep off the pain.  Still felt a bit shaky this morning, but generally much better.

Also a fun day since I won a Chili Cook-Off award today at the 2nd Annual Geocaching Chili Cook Off event - I won in the category of Most Original Chili.  For the effort, I won a hand painted Ammo container (you can barely see it in the photo below) that I'll have to make the first cache I hide. 

I hope all is well with you readers.  I'll catch up on reading everyone else's blogs/viewing photos in the next couple of weeks.

02/23/2010 - Day 054 - My Olympic "break"

Well hello again.  I hadn't intended to take such a long break - but Olympics, catching back up at work since my vacation, and of course - I came back from vacation with a terrible cold.  Hopefully this weekend I'll finally get some of the photos from vacation posted.  I'm really excited about a few of them.

Tonight though - my box of Tootsie Pops!  I never really thought about tootsie pops as a favorite candy.  However, on the airplane on the way home  the mom across the aisle from us had all sorts of great stuff for her kinds - including Tootsie Pops and it made me want some.  So, when I went to Costco this weekend I grabbed a box.  I have a couple of different photos of them planned.  This one didn't turn out quite like I planned, but it's okay.  And at least I picked up my camera today.  Hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things now...

02/03/2010 - Day 034: Please mind the gap...

I knew when I started this project that I'd miss at least one day during the year.  I had hoped it wouldn't be quite so soon.  However as it is, I missed yesterday so day 33 was a "fail".  I made up for it today.  Made the return trip to Indiana from Iowa - and I actually slept during the first leg of my flight.  I can't remember the last time I slept on a plane.  It must have been the three days in a row of full days with little sleep.  When I awoke, the sun was setting out the airplane window so I grabbed my camera for a couple of shots.  I'm a sucker for a good sunset.  I wasn't on the right side of the plane to catch the sunset, but I liked the colors nonetheless.  

Our group had a little time to kill in the airport so we enjoyed food and fellowship in a nice restaurant in the Des Moines airport.  We sat next to these beautiful big windows and they had some plants in different containers on the ledge above us.  I grabbed a couple of shots - playing with the white balance setting.  You'll have to tell me in comments which one you like best.

We're supposed to get snow tomorrow into Friday.  I'm going to be off line for a few days - but don't worry - there will be plenty of photos when I get back online.  See ya real soon!

02/01/2010 - Day 032...More things I love...

Still hanging out in Iowa.  Would have loved to have taken photos of the beautiful campus we're on or the gorgeous ice sculpure and beautifully prepared meal by the culinary arts students at this school - but just no time.  So - working with what I had (thanks Diana) I decided to grab a photo of three of my favorite things: My Motorola Droid, my Acer Netbook, and the ability to tether them to get data service anywhere.  The two devices fit beautifully with my camera in my camera bag and I have everything I need to connect on the go, blog, upload pictures, etc.  I don't know how I ever functioned without them.

Happy Tuesday to everyone!!