extra instant

so we are running an AP story tomorrow that this year is a leap second year. the universe in its wisdom gives us an extra second tomorrow 12/31 at 7pm EST. supposedly if you look at your cell phone which is basically hooked up to the master swiss clocks, at 6:59 EST, start a stop watch at that moment, it will take 61 seconds to turn to 7pm. so i hereby challenge someone to actually do this and get back to me. happy new year and may you all win the lottery in 2006 and then give your friend that wished the luck in the first place at least 10%.

ho, ho, ho, it's over

hope everyone's holiday was lovely. i got good stuff including a train set for under the tree and a sewing machine. two things i wanted but didn't really ask for. jason is just that good. :O)i worked xmas eve day and christmas day but it was fairly noneventful. mostly cute kid pix. as you can see here. we went to jason's parents' house on xmas eve. it was great. we played games and ate nachos and i made turkey tortilla soup to go with it. i hope everyone had a terrific holiday and let me know what your favorite present was.

holiday self-consciousness

so has anyone else this year felt weird about saying Merry Christmas to people? i have been saying 'happy holidays' instead. i don't know if this is my response to people making such a big stink in washington about merry christmas vs the other religious holidays that fall at this time of year. or if i am just more conscious that not everyone celebrates christmas. and even some of those who do celebrate christmas sure don't celebrate it as a christian holiday. just something else to think about.

the oven, the oven, the oven's on fire...

so i have been told that you can not consider yourself a good cook if you haven't had at least one experience of cooking a turkey and almost burning the house down. now no panic. there were no flames and the bird actually turned out really well in the end. i cooked for jason's family on sunday. my roasting rack seemed to poke a hole in my aluminum pan thus allowing all the juices to drip onto the bottom of the oven which of course burn like crazy. so the whole house fills with smoke and for the first time i understand smoke inhalation. it was pretty thick. plus all of the smoke alarms in the whole building were going off. my worst fear was that the guys across the street at the fire station would hear the alarms and come investigate. that would have been horrible. jason got the burning under control by wiping the bottom of the oven off and also discovered a second aluminum pan that i had squirreled away last year. he really saved the day by finding that because we just set the pan with the hole into the second pan and it worked great. the turkey turned out great. we all joked that it had a great 'smoked' flavor. my stuffing was a little weird to the point where i felt it needed a disclaimer before serving. but got better as leftovers. i have decided that i enjoy having the big dinner the week before xmas. now this week i can just kind of relax a bit and finish last minute baking without the big dinner crescendo to worry about. jason and i have to work xmas day and we are going over to his parent's house for xmas eve. i'm making turkey soup right now from the turkey carcus which smells really good. what little i can smell. i am totally going to try that airborne stuff. i took dayquil yesterday and i swear they must have switched the packaging with the nightquil because i was out after taking it. i had to pull over in the day car to take a nap before i crashed the car. maybe that is why they say not operate heavy machinery.

when coffee tastes like chinese

so, after much battling against the crud that jason picked up somewhere, which included mass amounts of vitamin C, zinc lozengers, and gargling with salt water, i have the disease. yes folks time to face the music. i have really been in denial for days but i admit it, i have a cold. yuck. the zinc is funny though. if you have never taken them before, beware. they do affect your taste buds. i am currently drinking coffee that smells great and yummy but tastes like stale chinese food. hopefully all tastebuds will be restored by tomorrow when i make my feast. i am using purell non-stop to make sure i don't infect anyone else. that stuff is wicked on your hands though. i will keep you posted on how the meal goes. last year's turkey was really good which hopefully wasn't just beginner's luck. i'm going to take notes though this year because for some reason last year i felt like i had a better grip on what i am supposed to be doing.

so busy, nothing new

so i got an email from my aunt yesterday asking if anything was new since i hadn't updated my blog in awhile. yes and no. i've been mucho busy now that the holiday season is in full swing. i'm working 3 days a week at the boutique i worked at last year on top of my full time gig at the day. so monday's now are my only days that i have nothing planned but all of the xmas stuff i want to get done. we are having jason's family over for dinner on sun. because jason and i have to work on xmas day. and his family scatters to in-laws and other family on xmas eve and day. so this way we all get to see each other. should be fun. this will be turkey number 2 for me and i hope that it goes well. last year's turkey wasn't quite done in the dark meat section when we were ready to eat so hopefully that will come together better this year. i bought an oven thermometer so that should help.

sorry post took so long.

it sticks!

here's some pix from our first stickable snow of the winter. i know i will hate this stuff in a few weeks but always love the first flakes. this is the view of our street out the diningroom window, a kitty crossing the backyard and this rose of sharon bush in the backyard with little tufts of snow on each branch. enjoy!

pick a winner!

thought you all might get a kick out of the photo i took tonight. the little gal just could not keep her finger out of her nose. i only have a few frames where everyone's eyes are open and the booger search is not going on. see, my job can be hard from time to time. :O)

rain, rain go away

so today was a totally depressing day. tons of rain although it wasn't cold. i gave myself a dose of mindless shopping to ease the bleh day. I'm not sure why it makes me happy to spend $1.99 on a xmas trinklet at Christmas Tree Shop (great Rhode Island store that has super cheap, probably slave labored items) which does not sell Christmas Trees. But it does make me happy. I just try not to think about the whole slave labor thing. definite downer. i had breakfast and lunch with my friend jacqueline in newport and killed time in between with shopping. hope tomorrow will be clear.

home again, home again, jiggity jig...

sooooo glad to be home! i almost need a vacation after my vacation. here are a couple of pix from our trip to Phoenix. We went to Sedona the day after Thanksgiving. It was wonderful! We also went to my cousin Kayla's bday party. This is my Aunt Connie holding Kayla's younger brother DeShawn. They are all very cute kids. We also went on Sunday to brunch at the Biltmore Resort with my father. We saw lots of friends and family but I didn't always have my camera or the light wasn't suitable. But hey at least I got some photos up!

thanksgiving fly away

Just to let everyone know, my blog will be on hiatus as of Tues Nov. 22. Jason and I are going to phoenix for turkey day. We will be back on Mon. Nov.28
Happy thanksgiving!! gobble. gobble.

paper mache update

so this week i photographed the devouring of the paper mache animals that i spoke of a few weeks ago. to refresh your memory, 3rd graders were making paper mache animals that looked like natural prey , ie. a snow hare, ibex (goat like thing) and a wild boar which were then filled with meat and fed to zoo animals at the roger williams zoo up near providence. so thursday was the day. it was incredible to see these animals at first be a little wary and then pounce and rip the critter to shreds. the best part by far was when the snow leopard in the process of scarfing down the inards of the papermache rabbit, got the damn thing stuck on its head as you see here. also they fed a moon bear named 'gracie'. she was definitely freaked out by the ibex (goat) at first but eventually came around. man, they never had field trips like this when i was a kid. maybe we went to the science museum or the pioneer museum but that was about it.

big time oops!

so here is why (as my lovely newspaper friends can attest to)you never put anything into the system that can't go in print. this posted on the danbury news-times website this week. (danbury is also in connecticut)the first picture is what ran with the cutline at the bottom. the second is the retraction/apology/ass-kissing that had to go on the following day. big time oops!!!

start'em early

in response to the posts about being a kid and using the old voting machines, thought you might enjoy this photo i took on election night.

election day

so i voted today even though i didn't really know any of the candidates. i just got done hanging out though with one of the first selectman that is up for reelection. it did turn out that i voted for him earlier in the day, blindly, but looks like i made the right choice. had to stand around with him on the corner while he waved to people going in to vote. seemed nice enough. i did get a cute kid shot under the curtain though inside the polling station. actually voting here is way more exciting than it is in arizona. they have the old school lever ballot boxes here. you go in, pull the lever, the curtain closes behind you and then you have to move these cute little switches under the name of the person you want to vote for. very cool because i changed my mind about who i was going to vote for after i moved the switch. all i had to do is move it back and push down the other switch. in az, after you punch your hole you are done, no option to second guess or fix a mistake. to record your vote here you pull the big lever that you used when you first walked in to close the curtain, back the other way, recording your vote. although they were out of voting stickers which was a bummer. those are the best part!

update

so update on the robber. seems that the xmas company that he worked for did all the decorations in downtown mystic as well as downtown new london where our building is. my friend that owns the boutique in mystic that i worked at last year called today. she said that she had heard through the grapevine that the 3 of the stores of the maybe 12 or so that they decorated were robbed this week after they hung the decorations. which turned out to be true. so clearly this guy had a track record. the cops hadn't yet made the connection so this guy is obviously a bigger fish than just a purse thief.

karma

so a couple of weeks ago jason and i found a cell phone at a gas station. we called the person and it worked out that he had lost it on his way to the mountains for the weekend and now he was on his way home. jason and i were only 3 exits away from where he was. we met up with the guy (of course after looking at his photo gallery on his phone. nothing juicy) and gave it back.

well the karma came around today.

not only did i get my actual wallet and purse yesterday, but today the owner of the company that was hanging the lights came into the paper today to apologize and reimburse me for the money i lost. so my new cards are in the mail, i have my new license (in and out of the dmv in 10mins!) and i have the cash back that was in my wallet. so all is well.

bastard!!!

so today was a crap day. my purse was stolen out of the photo department at work. there was a maintence crew putting up xmas lights on the roof of the day today. it turns out one of them ganked my purse, took it into the men's room and then stole my cash and credit cards and drivers license. the cop did a background check on the employees of the company that did the work and pulled up a 20 year old kid that had a larceny list a mile long on his record. i cancelled all my cards except the mobile gas card that belongs to the day. all of the people in h.r. had left for the day so i couldn't cancel it. the cops said that maybe that was good. hopefully he will try to use it and then they can catch him on camera. anyway, i got my super cool orange wallet back, my brush, burts bees, my corduroy purse, but i just checked the dmv website and it will be $30 bucks to get my damn license replaced. this state rips you off at every opportunity. so grand total for this jerkie stealing my purse: $70. i actually had $40 in cash in my wallet. very rare for me to have anything more than 2 dollars. i am mostly pissed off at the way the day allows random maintence people stroll through the building. they make a big deal about checking your visitors in and have them escorted at all times but yet they let yahoos with criminal records a mile long walk aimlessly alone through one of the most expensive departments in the building. boggles the mind. anywho i'm hoping they will pay for my reimbursement but i'm not holding my breath.

happy halloween!!

jason and i carved pumpkins tonight for the kiddies. we only had like 4 groups of trick or treaters which means more candy for me!!!

sorry so remiss

hey sorry i haven't posted this week. been very busy with this whole wedding business thing. i signed up with a group called pictage that acts as a storefront online for my business. there is a lot to learn though on how to make the site work for me so i've been doing these online classes. i'm shooting another wedding this weekend for a coworker. it has potential to be a nightmare. the bride's future mother-in-law is insisting on walking down the aisle carrying her infant granddaughter. the baby does not belong to the bride and groom but to the groom's sister. the bride is concerned that it will look like the kid is hers and she is freaking out over it. but can't seem to negotiate the situation with the mother in law. so i've been instructed not to photograph this woman because it will look like it is being condoned by the bride. or something like that. yippee.. the bride had also told me that she didn't want me to take the picture even if the woman asked for me to. i stewed over that for a couple of days because i could really see the potential for a scene on someone's part at the event. so finally i told her that if i'm asked to take the picture i will and just then delete it from the edit and if the mother in law asks about the picture just to say it didn't come out. the bride seemed to be ok with that but we'll see.

Fall, fall, fall...

Hi, this ran in Sunday's paper. There is a section called 'gallery' where each week a photographer has a photo that covers half the back page of the region section. we get to write kind of whatever we want to go with the photo.

Here is what I wrote:

So far this year’s fall colors have been mediocre at best. Fall always has been my favorite season though, not only for long hikes, scarves and hot apple cider, but for capturing that perfect shade of orange or yellow framed by that bluer-than-blue autumn sky. Earlier this week, I was driving down North Main Street in Stonington on my way to an assignment. There is that amazing twiggy tree forest on the east side of the road just after you have turned off Pequot Trail. It has always fascinated me how all the leaves are at the top with the sea of bare trunks below. My eye was drawn to this little sprig shining in a ray of sunlight, so much brighter than the rest of the forest and at eye-level. I had to stop. While the overall leaf-peeping this year may fall short of New England’s norm, simple sights like this still take my breath away.

birdie...the new addition to our family

today jason picked up his new civic hybrid. it is very cute (sorry, MANLY). it is fun and bizarre to drive. when you come to a stop at a traffic light, as long as you have your foot on the brake the gas engine turns off. so when you go to start up again it feels like driving a really big golf cart. totally silent. the first time i started it up, i thought that maybe i didn't do it right because it made zero noise. the steering takes a bit getting used to. it is kind of stiff because it has electric power stearing instead of whatever normal cars have. also when you brake it stores up the friction caused by the brake pads on the wheels to make the electric engine go. crazy... but for 50 mpg i don't care if it had mouse ears on it and played the ice cream truck song as it went down the street. ok, maybe the "do your ears hang low?" song would make me want to go postal but maybe i could live with it.

oh and i've named it birdie. not sure if it will stick with jason but i'm working on him.

here piggy, piggy...

so yesterday i photographed the oddest thing. there is a local private school who's third grade class is working on this art/science project. they are making papermache animals, a pig, rabbit, marmott (like a gopher) then they are going to take the critters to the zoo where they will be stuffed with meat. they then put the animal dummies gorged with carne into a bear and leopard's cages and watch them go nuts. the papermache is all nontoxic, brown paper bag strips with cream of wheat paste. they are going to paint them too with food coloring paint. i get to go with the class when they go to the zoo so i will keep you posted. the photos of them making the papermache are not terribly interesting but i will definitely post the ones from the zoo. the marmott is probably the funniest looking. it looks just like the the gopher in caddyshack. got to love today's educational ventures.

reader feedback

hello people who read my blog. so i need some feedback as to how to respond to your comments. i read them all and love it, but would you like to me to respond in the postings or just email you back? let me know.

jason is car shopping today. he's thinking about getting the civic hybrid because of the 45 mpg mileage, but they have their own drawbacks like having to replace the battery at 80,000 that costs $3,000. and the $120 oil changes. (they take super expensive oil instead of the regular cheap stuff) but probably will end up with some sort of honda. he's just excited because he won't have to visit the gas station 2-3 times a week anymore.

prepare the funeral march

well it is official. jason's jeep is dead.

it has been having a series of problems for months now including needing new barings, oil pump and other major repairs. plus it still didn't have very good oil pressure as in when he was at a stop it would fall to zero. not good. then on thursday he was getting ready to get on i-95 and the jeep went bang then the engine died. for once jason's speedy driving was an asset since he had enough momentum to coast into a parking spot at the mystic marriott. it could have been far worse like if he'd actually gotten on 95 or in the middle of the road. instead he got to hang out in the lobby, out of the rain, until i could pick him up. friday he had it towed to his mechanic where the funeral notice came from today. i guess the crank shaft broke and shoved rods into someplace that sounds scary.

so he is now in the market for a new car. probably a civic so that he could actually get more than 13 miles to the gallon. he's going to hang onto what is left of the jeep until he can scrape the money together to put a new engine it. it will be his fair weather, fun car. no point trading it in. he'd only get a couple hundred bucks for it in the shape it is in.

can't really complain though especially when it could have turned out far worse.

when it rains, it...comes into your basement

so first lesson in new england living: when it rains 8 inches in 4 hours, 4 inches is guaranteed to end up in your basement.

jason and i spent a good chunk of last night moving all the contents of the basement that couldn't get wet (like my downstairs neighbor's treadmill plus other electronic items) to higher ground. we tried bailing just using buckets but were making no headway and decided at 4:45am to call the landlord and turn the mess over to him. he came over to make sure the freezer, boiler and oil tanks were going to be okay. the washers and dryers sit on a concrete slab about 6inches above the rest of the basement so they were ok.

then today i spent the entire day following fire departments and other people pumping out basements. i also was sent to cover a mudslide at which i officially won the dumbshit award of the week. i actually stood at the base of the mudslide and thought "that looks pretty stable" took two steps and was up to my knees in mud. i then proceeded to walk out of my shoes just like the principal in ferris bueller. socks and all. it was gross. the only saving grace was that no one saw me.

but the sun finally came out tonight for a gorgeous sunset which was a blessing since i was about to go mad from 8 straight days of nothing but drip, drip, drip.

knit pick

so today i took my first knitting lesson at the local knitting shop. it was very cool. of course my first project is an orange scarf. big shock i know.
i actually did really well while i was there. when i got home i made a couple of mistakes, so arrogantly i thought i could take it a part and start over. oh how wrong i was!

i got so wrapped up in trying to cast on again that not only did i miss my 3pm chiropractor appointment but chucked the damn thing across the room when i just couldn't take it anymore. i think i shocked jason a bit when suddenly there were pointy brown sticks hurtling through the room too. so back i go tomorrow just so i can put my mind to rest. i tried to look in this knitting book how to do it but who can really follow directions from a two dimensional illustration. unless you are ann of course. :O)

i also thought optimistically that everyone i know was going to get scarves for xmas but i now see that maybe everyone will just get a lump of yarn to place strategically in places to keep warm.

yeah!! a solution

so i've been needing a temporary solution to the problem of not having a website to refer prospective brides to while i figure out that whole concept.

so i've taken a lesson from ye ole blogger and created a "blog-folio". i hear by coin that phrase by the way. so check out my new wedding portfolio whose link i have included to the right in my "links" box.

let me know what you think at this blog because i have it set up not to be able to make comments on the wedding site.

thanks!

sigh of saddness in new england...

sigh....
well the red sox just lost the series against the white sox. at fenway too. in some aspects it is a relief since i won't have to be on pins and needles for the next 2 weeks but sad none the less. the only saving grace is that right now the yankees are getting spanked by the angels. jason and i watched 'fever pitch' last night. totally great date movie. it is a serious chick flick but enough red sox stuff in it to keep the guy entertained. of course now jason wants a wall in our future basement to be painted like the green monster (left field wall of fenway for those that aren't in the know about the sox) like the jimmy fallon character has in his apartment. guess that is all for today. supposed to rain giraffes tomorrow so maybe i'll get some work done at home. still haven't gotten all my summer clothes put away yet.

hell froze over

so here is a photo that proves that hell does freeze from time to time. dad came to visit the week of labor day weekend. it was really wonderful having him here. i think he enjoyed himself, at least in this photo he looks like he's loving it. we were aboard the sabino (sah-BYE-no) (for all the tucson people, i know they pronounce it wrong). it is a steamboat similar to the one in Heart of Darkness. it takes evening cruises down the mystic river and out into long island sound. dad was facinated with the drawbridge in mystic and then the rotating train bridge that we went under.

finally a photo

so took this of jason and i on my birthday at six flags in springfield. i love my camera phone!

wedding craziness

so i've been trying to decide if i really want to be a wedding photographer or not. i'm trying to be an adult and figure out my future. i know that being a staff photographer is not going to be easy while juggling a family. as it is jason and i barely see each other with both eyes open. i wish i was better at this business thing. my friend jacqueline has a wedding biz that seems to flow pretty easy to her. i know trial and error. it is so much easier working for someone else. i also seem to be pretty good at feeding everyone else the "so i think you should" line but can't seem to get my own crap taken care of. my brain hurts. time to turn off the computer for the night. i swear i will get photos up on this soon.

coffee please kick in now...

totally overslept this morning and feel like poop. i made a big pot of coffee but all of my big travel mugs are rolling around on the floor of my car so i had to leave half the pot behind due to my teeny mug.

i've just finished reading a really good book. it is called 'plan b' by anne lammott. i had read a novel by her previously called 'blue shoe'. i loved it and thought that was what i was getting with this book. i didn't really notice that i picked up 'plan b' in the non-fiction section of the library so i was probably 3 chapters in before i figured out this was the author talking. i really loved the book though. she talks about her struggle with faith and george bush. it is kind of amusing how much she hates him and how she knows god would be pissed that she hated someone so much so she tries to see him in better light but fails miserably. all i know is that i wish i could go to the church she goes to. it sounds very open and very spiritual for the right reasons.

vintage baseball

yesterday jason and i made the long trek to long island for an away game of jason's vintage baseball team the Thames Base Ball Club. The team plays by 1869 rules, has old style uniforms and they play with no gloves consistant with the times. they did spell baseball as two words in those days. so far the team has yet to win a game but sure gave the Atlantic Base Ball Club a run for their money yesterday. it is a lot harder than you think without a glove and reprograming yourself to play by old rules. like if you catch it on one bounce it is still an out. or you can't over run first base so sometimes you have to slide. oh and the bases are not attached to the ground so it is totally acceptable to slide and take the base with you making it difficult for the 1st baseman to step on it. oh and outs are called "hands" so two outs equals two hands. took me awhile to figure that out. i just thought they were telling everyone to make sure to use two hands to catch it. they have another home game in two weeks so i will post pix then.

so maybe i'll give it a whirl...

ok, so work tonight was absolutely nuts for the first few hours and now i am sitting around until papers come out. my friends ann and erica have blogs and so to kill some time, i made my own. so hopefully i will keep up with this, but i can't get on the ball enough to have a regular supply of clean underwear let alone keep a blog. we shall see....