Settling in...

Well we have had Summer now for a month and she is finally settling in. She is still a bit itchy which we can't figure out, but is eating much better. Getting photos of her is still hit or miss since she is still a bit camera shy, but I was able to grab this one of her today.

Disney World

Jason and I made our first trip to Disney World on Sunday. I have been to Disneyland many times but Jason and not been to either. I got to say that Magic Kingdom was a little less than thrilling. I always assumed it was just like Disneyland only bigger. They only have the major highlights from Disneyland and a few random minor things like the Tiki room (animatronic birds singing) and Country Bear Jamboree. And worst of all... NO MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE!!! We had fun anyway and met up with my friend Deb and her family later in the day.

Traci Iserman and Tony Sartori

I had the honor this weekend of photographing the wedding of Traci Iserman and Tony Sartori at Tavern and Chapel in the Garden in Port Orange, FL. It was a gorgeous day as you can tell and gorgeous people to work with! Enjoy this sneak peek of their event! I wish them the best in their married life!

For those of you who were guests at this wonderful event, the full viewing of pictures is coming soon. Watch your inbox with the announcement from Pictage.com!

I made Google!

Yeah! Now I'm listed in the google map section! Granted on page 2. But hopefully I will get higher rankings soon.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&q=wedding+photographer&near=Saint+Augustine,+FL&fb=1&view=text&cd=20&hl=en&latlng=29908580,-81318354,11636833801572528018&ei=qIUYSOCWEZHMjQPUppj-DA#

Our Love Bug, Summer

Summer came to live with us last week. She is part blue tick hound, part pointer and full of love. We are getting used to each other. So far I think she likes having us be her new humans. She grew up with a brother and is suffering from some separation anxiety issues. But we are working on it. She had a rough night last night. There is something that she has been exposed to, either in our house or out on our walks that has given her hives. So she's super itchy and agitated because of it. It seems the bathtub feels good to her since this is where she is spending most of her time today. I feel so bad for her. I hope she has a better night tonight after the antihistamine the vet gave us kicks in. We also have to give her a bath when Jason gets home tonight in this oatmeal medicated shampoo. I'll try to get some pictures. She is a little camera shy which I'm hoping she'll eventually overcome.

Have you ever wanted to...

yell at someone but instead leave a nasty note on their car?? Today, I'm walking across the library parking lot. I'm looking down because I was walking into the setting sun and forgot my sunglasses. The next thing I know I'm blind sighted with excruciating pain. Some $%^&&*!! had a 12 foot pole sticking out the back of their pickup. No flag or anything hanging off it. It hit me square in the nose. I was so lucky that I didn't ram an eye (occupational hazard) into it or anything. No blood, but my nose hurts like hell. So I went into the library, wrote my nasty note on the scrap paper by the catalog computer and put it on their windshield. So there!!!

New house chaos

So it seems we had serious rain storms here in Florida while we were away. When we got home we found that we put a garbage can in our kitchen in very convenient location. The ceiling had leaked and the bucket had 6-8 inches of water in it with only a few spots that were wet nearby. By yesterday morning the ceiling sheet rock had started to bow a bit. By yesterday afternoon, it was a good thing I had all the cupboard doors open because the ceiling fell down onto the open doors. I was in another part of the kitchen when I heard the crackle and thump, turned around and was shocked to see that it had fallen. By the late afternoon the property management company had sent a handyman over to take a look. He sliced off the other half of the panel and you could see the huge collection of water that had soaked the insulation and puddled in the plastic underneath. Not to mention that all the sheet rock was moldy and bug infested. The house has a flat roof and it seems that the owner had not kept the drains cleared. The roofing guy that was here today confirmed that the drain pipes were filled solid with tree waste and gook. One pipe had even been buried under landscaping. This of course caused "ponding".

So this kind of puts a crimp in our unpacking. I had almost finished unpacking the kitchen. Fortunately I was able to move all the stuff on the counters out before the ceiling panel came all the way down. The place is still a mess though. They estimate that will be a week to 10 days before the whole job is finished. Thank god we are only renting!

Thank you

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers over the last few weeks. They have been truly appreciated. A few have asked about my father's obituary. This ran in last Sunday's Az. Republic.

http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000105291173X

Jason and I are back in St. Augustine now trying to dig out from under all our boxes. Hopefully I can post some photos by the end of the week. I have to use the big camera because my little canon elph met an untimely end when I dropped it on our tile floor with the lens out. :O(

Big hugs to all!

Theodore Alfred Gardiner 1930-2008

My father passed away Saturday morning, March 1. It was very peaceful. He had eaten a big breakfast and was happy as a clam when the big stroke finally came. He was gone very quickly. My love to all that have been so supportive during this time in my life. Thank you for your prayers. He is with my mom now.

Beach Sunday

For the first time since we moved to Florida, Jason and I spent Sunday morning sitting on the beach. I go to the beach almost everyday for exercise, but it was really wonderful to just sit and read. Jason was not as liberal with the sunscreen as maybe he should have. He is kind of lobsterish today in weird patterns from using the spray sunscreen. We have an umbrella somewhere but god knows where, so we went for the full sun. Normally I wouldn't post a photo that has a speck of a person in it. But since Jason felt it necessary to take my picture in my bikini, I am happy with the person-to-sky ratio.

New website up and running!!

So after many laborious weeks my new website is up and fully functional. Thanks to everyone for your input and copy editing. Check it out if you haven't yet and make sure to bookmark it. There will be new galleries from time to time as new events unfold.

http://www.kategardinerphoto.com

I opted to only have music going with the galleries instead of all the time. I personally am the first to shut off music on a site I visit, but I think it does add something to the galleries. Plus don't want to get people busted at work.

My first NASCAR experience

Our friends Rob Brule and Mark Shreve are visiting us this weekend for the Daytona 500. We went to the Craftsman Truck race last night at the track. For as much as racing is not necessarily my favorite sport, I will completely admit that I LOVED IT!!! It was so fascinating to watch the physics involved with getting these cars around the track. I don't think I could do an entire weekend of it but last night was pretty cool. See for yourself.

Kate Gardiner Photography (and Jason) move to St. Augustine!

Here are some photos of our new house and the new home of Kate Gardiner Photography. It is located right in the heart of the old downtown, about 100 yards from the Fountain of Youth monument to Ponce de Leon. We move in Feb. 28. I'll let you know if my wrinkles start to recede!

I decided yesterday to do some exploring. One block over from us is the Fountain of Youth front gate which is lined on either side by these huge trees covered in Spanish moss. At the end of our road is the marshland that extends out for a mile or so to the ocean.

I then headed downtown for some lunch. I ate at this wonderful wine and tappas bar which you can see in in the photo with the stop sign. It is located on the balcony of the building on the left. There is a gorgeous Greek Orthodox shrine on the main shopping street. You would never know it was there if you didn't see the small sign over the door. It is dedicated to St. Photios.

The main shopping area is closed to car traffic which is really nice. In Newport, RI you have to watch all the crazy drivers in the shopping area. This just makes it less congested. Many of the walls that fence off gardens in the downtown area are made of oyster shells as you can see in the last photo here. The sun and rain played tag while I was in town. This blossom was from a nearby bush.

More NYC trip photos

So here are some more photos from our trip to NYC in December for the NASCAR Champions Week. It is such a rarity that sun shines down in the concrete jungle. It was so beautiful.

This is one of the rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria where the modified series had one of its dinners. The whole room smelled divine! I can only imagine the floral budget for this dinner.

The snowflakes were on the side of a building. Can't remember which building.

Here are Jason and I at the Rockefellar Center Christmas tree.


The last photo was us at this "hot" night club called Mystique. It was great people watching. All on NASCAR's tab.

Tony and Traci Engagement

Saturday I spent the late afternoon with Tony and Traci at the Daytona Beach Pier for their engagement session. They are getting married April 26 at this great place called Tavern and Chapel in the Garden in Port Orange, Fl.
Here are some of my favorite images from the afternoon. It is so easy to photograph beautiful people! Plus Traci had these rock'n shoes which you can kind of see off to the side in the last image.

Bocce on the beach

So I think these retired folk are in some sort of league at the beach resort behind them. Jason and I saw them playing bocce a month or so ago. Basically from what I can decipher, they draw lines in the sand about 40 yards apart then they try to get closest to that line without crossing it. But the sand here is really compacted and things roll forever. Looks like fun though.

Tuesday at the beach

Today's video has a bit more sound so turn up your speakers.

New Years Polar Bear Dive

So as many of you know Jason and I have an annual tradition to jump into freezing cold water on New Year's Day, washing away the crud from the year before. Sometimes this is in a sanctioned event for charity or an improvised body of water. This year we were in Phoenix so we substituted the Atlantic for our friend Judy's pool. She took these of us as we dunked our heads three times for good luck and then skeedadalled out.

Monday morning beach

Here are some snippetes from my beach walk this morning. I try to walk as often as possible. It has been cold and rainy most of last week so I didn't get to do much. I'm really going to start making more of an effort to remember my point and shoot. I would have shot more video today but ran out of space on the card.

I like to think of this as God's bubble bath. I did not speed the video up any. The bubbles were just quivering that fast in the wind.



These birds fascinate me. They aren't gulls, I don't think, and they all remind me of the bird version of Grampa Munster.

I do hate it when people feed the gulls as they fly overhead. Mostly because I have been a poop victim. But it made for a nice photo today.

Trying to catch up

So I was cleaning off my desktop today and found this photo. I've been meaning to post it. This is Jason and I with Jimmy Johnson and his crew chief along with the 2007 trophy at the end of the year banquet in NYC. It gets bigger if you click on it. More to come I swear!