Long overdue.

Click here to see why I've been on a Randominities sabatical.

And in other news.

I've decided to start cooking more. You don't even want to know about our previous eating habits. I don't even want to think about it. Bring on the chicken breasts and hamburger meat!

Work's going pretty good. Yesterday I was late. (So... every schedule I have, including my phone's, said that I opened... and wah lah! My brain says, hey, you go in at 8:30. Le sigh.) And made a boo-boo. But other than that, good.

Joel's started our "driveway project." Here's some pics for those of you w/o facebook. The day after Joel started.. it rained. For a week. I'm already sick of muddy shoes and climbing up into our place on slippery pallets. The floor of the Buick looks like a mudslide threw up on it. And, hm. I'm from Iowa and new to this "red" dirt, which by the way, is the reason for the basement walls caving in in the first place.













Fun, eh?

Sigh.

*Warning* **Nostalgic memories ahead**

At work, we got to talking about high school the other day. As I was sharing some of my "experience," I realized I came across sounding really bitter, which is not how it was at all.

So yes, it did take until mid-high school for those not in my group of friends to say hi in the hallways to me, but had I ever made eye contact, smiled, and/or said hi in passing to them before? Of course not.

I actually rather enjoyed high school. Choir became my lifeline. Voice lessons were my driving force. Classes were fun and enjoyable. Teachers (mostly) were those to be respected, and ocassionally sparred with. Homework was a priority, but only to get the A. Art was present every semester. I loved my job at the little library where I made just above minimum wage (back when it was $5.15). Trips to Wisconsin, dating Joel, among others from there... ;) My group of friends from school; we did something like once a year.

Riding with Justin. Getting my license. Accidents, losing my license, getting close to Mom as she drove Blair and I every day.

Graduating 2nd in the class. Having a huge gathering of relatives and friends at my graduation party.

Yup. Sure was a good ol' time.

Warm fuzzies.

Just one of those days. Feeling good about life in general, caught a lot of extra snuggle time with the hubby while he was home last night, loving photography, loving early morning retouching with light piano music, and loving my job. Wanted to share that with you all. :)



Btw, this is Toby, my cousin, and Kale, his cousin out on Coronado Beach in CA, near San Diego. Photography complements of Kale's sister, Katie.


Oh and just share an interesting little tidbit from work yesterday. One of the Customer Service Reps (Teller/Banker folks) wanted to put together little Halloween packages to give out to neighboring businesses and wanted a little flyer made up to put in there also. She gave me the job (instead of the marketing guy sitting across office... ??). However, it turned out pretty cool for just using Word (Poo, no Photoshop at work. haha), and was even told by the marketing guy that it looked good. :) Yay. Pretty good for a photo major, eh? :)

I'm in love. :)

First of all, with my adorable husband. I was showing him some of the sessions I've done recently and some of the images were less than perfect. All the while somewhat complaining that my lens is junk. Never was spectacular to begin with, and then the backpack incident didn't help. [At least, I'm hoping that it's just my lens and not the camera. I'm pretty sure it's not though. I brought it to a Canon rep at a photo convention tradeshow, and he said just by zooming my lens in and out, he thought something was wrong. Also, when I would put other lenses on the body, it worked fine.] So. He said: You need a new lens. I hemmed, hawed, and was finally convinced to spend my little life's photo savings in the span of about 30 seconds.

Now I'm also in love with the lens... :)

Canon Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Autofocus Lens


Aint it just beautiful?

Wow.

So many things to say about this comment that was just written on my blog about my political post a ways down.



Here's the comment:

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross".

Read the concerns of the founding fathers of this country. Jefferson. Madison. others.

First dispense with the pejorative labels of "liberal" and "conservative". Then you might begin to see how skillfully the power elite have hijacked the party of Eisenhower, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln. And duped its supporters. Of course, they have equally hijacked the Dems as well.

From a lifelong Republican of 60 years (Until last year)



And here's what I have to say to "WCH":

1. Who are you? Honestly. Mr./Mrs. 60-year Repub turned Dem.
2. Who do you think you are?
3. How dare you insult Christ that way?
4. Fine. You have your opinion, and I have mine. I'm not forcing you to read my blog, and quite frankly, I don't want to be forced to read your comment.
5. Which, by the way, I have the right to my opinion on MY OWN BLOG. Just sayin.
6. Grow a pair and let me get back to your profile, Mr. or Mrs. WCH, so I can be more "informed" on your opinion. Or just to write a comment or two.
7. You want to spar with me? Heh. I looove arguments. Bring it on. [PS. My husband can attest that I'm overtly stubborn.]
8. Pushin' me closer to going private.
9. Your fancy words make me laugh. Hijacked? Duped? Come on. Use real words that aren't made to "hijack" your mind and used to trigger certain emotions. You're worse than the media. That's certain to be a success for you. Why don't you pat yourself on the back?
10. You're saying that the Democratic party hasn't changed as well? If you really take a look at how the parties have morphed throughout history, you'll see that some of the views of each party have completely flipped between the two.
11. Ripping on politics is fine. Ripping on Jesus and God, who deserve the ultimate respect and love from every living soul, is not. If you're so concerned about the founding fathers' ideals, take a look at what they set up: nearly everything they created was based on basic Christian principles. "In God we trust" is on our money. The Pledge of Allegiance mentions we are a nation united under God.

I think that's enough for now.

But btw, this is my blog, and yes, I will keep deleting your comments if you should happen to post again.

And PS: Honestly, I feel sorry for you. More than sixty years of life's experiences and you still need to grow up. However, not sorry enough to let you post slanderous comments on my blog.

Update. [boring title for lack of anything better to say]

Snow. Something about it already being winter (eg, freezing temps and snow) makes me extremely crabby. And I'm already freaking out about driving this winter. Yes, I know. I drive like a mile to work. I'm still scared.

On a lighter note, I had a great time doing a couple senior shoots this weekend, as well as the family of one of the seniors, and a younger cousin of mine. I can't wait to show them to you all, but there's too much other stuff to work on right now.

Hopefully once I get caught up with that, I'll be able to post some stuff on my photo blog, which also is sorely lacking in posts recently.

Work is going great! We had an all day training day today, which consisted of the usual numbers/predictions to begin with. We did this "team-building" activity which wasn't actually lame, but pretty fun. Lunch then some compliance talk (which I suppose was the whole reason for the day??). Then we closed with a really disorganized and unmotivational speaker.

Sorry, but if you're "motivating" me (or speaking/teaching/etc), I need to know where you're going. Have a main theme or point that you come back to over and over, and set up your speech so that everything you say supports that. Or do they teach speech class differently than they did 3 years ago??

Anyway, then they got us free laser-tag tickets, which was a blast!! I found out that I get reaaaaallly competitive with that. Haha. We're talking physical force and bending the rules here. :)

So, I've been busy (we've been busy!), but just normal every-day things and nothing really to post about. Sorry for my absence. :)

No. Not rain.

Love indexed.

Not a lot new

and exciting.

Hence, the lack of blog posts.

Just working, doing a lot of (sub?)contractor work on the computer for photographers, and catching up on the shows. :)

I'm on a late lunch right now, but wanted to tell everybody to have a great weekend! It's cold and rainy up here, but the sun's been peeking out every once in a while. :)

Also, just in case any are interested and haven't seen, here's the blog link for Larisa Hertz, the young lady from KS (?) who was in the accident and severely burned.