Jason's First Day

So today was Jason's first day. He left for Florida Tues night after work about 1:30am. He stopped in Delaware for a few hours of sleep at a hotel and then drove it the rest of the way. He got to Daytona about 1am Wed. night. Just talked to him and his first day was a whirlwind of nascar mucky mucks, names, faces and departments. he got an office. no window but it has a door. it is 9pm and he said he was going to read his book for a few minutes but would be asleep very soon. i don't think he's been to bed before midnight in a VERY long time.

Big News

So up to this point I have been introducing the upcoming news as "So I have a bit of news". But I've been told that is not "a bit" of news. And no I'm not pregnant.

Jason has been offered a job doing p.r. for Nascar. So as of Feb. 7, 2007 he will be a new resident of Daytona, FL. I'm going to stay here in New London until after the wedding. Then I will also be a new resident of the Sunshine State. None of this will affect the wedding plans. Too much is already rolling with that to change.

The job will be totally great for Jason. I'm so proud of him. Nascar has minor tracks the way baseball has minor leagues. Jason will be overseeing the p.r. for that segment of the organization. So he will be doing a lot of traveling at least in the beginning to familiarize himself the different tracks. Back during the summer he was talking to their head honcho saying that their website for news of the minor tracks sucked and here were 5 easy ways to fix it. They were farely impressed with what he had to say so they asked if he was interested in a job. They flew him down to Fla. the week of Thanksgiving for an interview. And then made the offer last week. We kept it under wraps until everything was official because this was great opportunity for him and didn't want to jinx it!

They are paying to move us so all our furniture will be gone by the end of Feb. I'm hoping to move into this apartment around the corner from us where they are looking for another roommate. Should know by Wed. whether that will work out. Otherwise I may couch surf for a little while. I'll keep everyone posted. Phone number will stay the same. I knew the moment I got that photo wall up this would happen! :O)

See I told you it was big news!

My First Photo Wall

For years I've wanted to build a photo wall in my house. I always admired ann's and wanted one too. however i HATE dealing with frames, mats, prints and hanging things. For some reason on this day I just was in a mood. I just started hanging everything. I just eyeballed it and it turned out pretty good. I'm going to add a few more small ones at the bottom.

as promised

ok so here are the long awaited photos of my ring! enjoy!

cold finally

well it finally feels like winter around here. after many days of temps within a few degrees of phx, yesterday it was only 30. Today my nifty weather station deb gave me for xmas a few years ago says 44. there are daffodils sprouting in my side yard. it seems they got confused. i need to get some mulch to cover them. poor things.

look i've blogged again!

wow this makes two now!

i got pictures today from a friend from college who just hatched a beautiful daughter, nora rose jarrold (yes ann, its adam) it is so weird how we are all at the ages our parents were when we were born. some, i know passed that point a couple of years ago, but times are different. i think people did adult things sooner then. they say 30 is the new 20 or something like that.

Welcome 2007 and more blogging

So once again after much pestering about my lack of participation in my blog, i have returned. i am posting a photo which, hopefully will work better now that i have moved my blog into their new google system. jason and i did the polar bear dive again yesterday. this is our 5th year of our new years dunking. it almost seemed like cheating though. it was 53 degrees out and the tide was in. piece of cake.

p.s. there was a bit of photoshop done on this photo to keep it a p.g. rated blog.

we've moved!

ok so at the risk of the whole world knowing where we live, our new address XXXXXXXXXXX

(i've deleted our address. if you didn't copy it down then call me and i will send it to you.)
figured it would take me ages to actually send out a mass email. this weekend was a bit nuts because jason's brother got married on sat. i shot the wedding and jason was in it. so after 11 hours of shooting, we fell into bed at 3am. jason's mom and aunt knocked on our door at 7:30 which was great because otherwise i don't think we would have gotten our rears out of bed until noon, we were that tired. other members of his family joined us through out the day so we had 8 people helping us move. it made it soooo much easier. the only downside is that i have no idea where anything is. i'll post some pictures soon.

holy cow twice in one week!

it is so wicked hot outside!!! i'm not knocking those living in the desert. but it is SUPPOSED to be that hot there. it doesn't sneak up on you, it doesn't prevent you from sleeping at night, and i swear i never had my eyeballs sweat the way they do here. of course being the good journalist i am, i have to go immerse myself in other people's sweat misery and document people looking like they are melting into their shoes. this is harder to find than you might think. most people don't walk down the street when they feel this way. they hide. so that leaves construction workers! which are oh so fun to shoot. that statement could be considered dripping with sarcasim if i was dripping with sweat!!

turning 30

so friday was my 30th birthday. i had some issues with it as i think i have written about on previous blogs. i stayed up on thursday night until midnight and i know this is going to sound pitiful, but i actually cried when it hit midnight. dumb, i know, especially since i wasn't born until 1:30am on 7/28/76 and that was phx time. but i woke up friday morning, put on my frida khalo t-shirt (since i figured that if anyone didn't give a rat about their 30th birthday, it would be her) and went about my day. i met with a bride first thing, went to the retired ladies home where i have been working on a photo project, had lunch with jason and then went to target, tipsy. yep, i was parked at target and jason dropped me off after i had a bomber sized corona at lunch. i highly recommend. i got to sober up while debating tiki torches or citronella candles. good times. sunday we had a big bbq in the backyard of our current house. which made it kind of a goodbye party as well as b-day party. but now i feel better about 30. i do feel like i've accomplished something and i also feel a slight divide between me and the 20-somethings that work here at the paper. but i guess that is ok. maybe the phrase should be changed to "don't trust anyone UNDER 30!"

thanks to everyone for the calls, emails and cards. it made the day great!

yes i suck

so it has been almost a month since i posted about going to martha's vineyard and yes it was lovely. time got away from me and the longer i put it off the more i felt like i was behind. so quick re-cap.

the vineyard rocked. good photos.
4th of july kind of quiet. watched fireworks from porch.
sailfest was this past weekend in new london. old man drove
car into crowd injuring 30 people. no one died.
jason and i moving to new london august 12.
found great cheap place 2 minute commute instead of 25min.
amazing garden.

whew... now i feel better.

i will send out our address in email so that the whole planet won't
know where we live.

martha's vineyard

i'm shooting a wedding this weekend on martha's vineyard with my friend jacqueline. i've never been there before so it should be lovely. we are taking the ferry over saturday morning and then the wedding is sat. afternoon. we are spending the night and coming back on sunday afternoon. the weather is supposed to be just gorgeous too. i'll post some pics when i get back.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!

so jason has started watching the world cup. but i have discovered that he only likes to watch it on telemundo. at first i thought this was dumb because he doesn't speak spanish and wouldn't know what the announcers are saying. but after watching germany (aleiman) score 3 goals in 18min, and heard the announcer yell GOOOOOOOOOOOL!! it is definitely better in spanish. not to mention that it is pretty funny to hear one of the announcers do a german accent everytime he pronounces the name of a player named von steiger.

Holy Crap!

Wow it has been ages since i posted. mea culpa. jason and i got back from our trip to ohio on tuesday. we went to a wedding, 2 baseball games and a great outlet mall. not to mention lots of forebidden fast food. my body is pissed, but i had a great time. the wedding in new orleans the week before was unbelievable too. there was a voodoo blessing which wedding guests were able to be blessed as well. i actually had voodoo dreams for a week. it was pretty cool actually. i asked this guy at work who is mr. new orleans and he told me (and i quote) "they're just spirits, darlin, go with it." which i did and it was pretty cool.

Busy month

I apologize for being so remiss lately. it has been a whirlwind of a month so far and doesn't look like it will slow down again until mid-june. they have shuffled the beats of all the reporters at work which means a wealth of new story ideas flowing in. this makes for wickedly long days shooting 3,4,and sometimes 5 assignments. i guess its feast or famine though because all winter long we have been just starved for actual stories to work on as opposed to the drive around look for a feature game. which we all hate. i'm getting ready to start a story on home birth which will be interesting. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that a couple i recently met will agree to let me document their pregnancy including their giving birth at home.

this upcoming week will be nuts as i try to work in a session with the couple, and get the ball rolling on a story about the coal industry in conn. there is a power plant nearby that burns coal to generate electricity but also steam to run a nearby paper mill. it has been raining for a solid week and we are not scheduled to see the sun here until next friday which puts a damper on the coal project a bit.

on friday, i am leaving for new orleans for my friend jacqueline's wedding. i can't wait! i am so excited for her. i come back on monday the 22nd and then jason and i leave for a road trip to ohio on the 25th. two of my friends from college are getting married. we are going to also go see a family friend (martha, for those who know) and catch a cincinnatti reds game. the wedding is in cleveland on sunday and we have tickets to catch a cleveland indians game on monday. should be tons fun! i love going to major league games. jason and i saw a reds game with martha the last time we went through ohio. it was awesome! we then head back to conn. on tues.

whew!
i'll update again when i can. i got a new little canon elph digital camera so i hope to put more grab shots up here.

martha and me

so thanks everyone for your awesome comments on the site. now i just need people to HIRE ME!!!

my friends, marcia and heather and myself went to nyc on wed. to see a taping of martha stewart. it was very interesting to say the least. tune in on monday may 1 to see us. it shows here 11am on nbc but for those of you with tivo it won't be hard to find. i'm pretty sure we will be on because of the fabulous head wear they adorned us with. i won't say any more for now. better to leave you in suspense. i'll be sure to blog about it monday. my friends and i all had green on and if you are looking at the audience we are on the far right side, 3 rows up.

•kategardinerphoto.com-wedding photojournalism

thar' she blows!!!

so i got to shoot the coolest thing ever yesterday. they blew up an old bridge in nearby jamestown, ri which made for unbelieveable photos. follow this link and see the gallery:

then click on the News section. you will see Jamestown Bridge Demolition. i would just post the pix here but don't want to run the risk of the paper being irritated by my posting their intellectual property on my own blog.
things we have to think about.

ok so the link is having issues at the moment. i think it is a mac thing. i will fix when i get to work.

may the earth swallow me whole

so funny story, today i went to the mall to return one
pair of flipflops i bought that i thought would go
with a dress and didn't. (one pair looked great so
we have a winner) anyway i stopped into the bathroom
in the food court and then walked to am. eagle
outfitters to return the shoes. i'm standing in line
at the place and this tiny gay guy employee walks up
to me and says "oh honey, you've got a bit of t.p.," i
look down at my shoe and there was a toliet paper
trail of about 10 squares long stuck to the bottom of
my shoe!!!! the guy reaches down to pull it loose but
3 squares remain securely behind. so he grabs again
and one square stays behind.

MORTIFIED!!!!!

finally i say, oh thanks don't worry about it. and
then have to stand there in line for another 10
minutes dying on the inside while waiting to return
the damn shoes with one square attached to my shoe. i
tried to look like i had completely forgotten all
about it the moment the guy walked away, but everyone
in line totally heard our conversation and i swear
they kept looking at my feet!!!

i had to wait until i left the store, hid kind of
behind a pillar and picked the rest of it off.
GROSS!!!

anyway thought you all might be entertained...