have you checked my calendar lately?

i've always wanted one of those electronic brains. you know what i mean, the kind that have a phone, camera, calendar, GPS, apps and a bartender.

are you listening AT&T? Sprint?? i could totally use one that maybe has a little spout so i could have a tequila shot when and if i need it.

i'm just saying.

but, since i don't have one of those electronic brains...or real gray matter, for that, i have to rely on paper and pen.

i love paper and pen. i love my calendar, especially when next week looks like this:

Monday: lab work.

Tuesday: spend 15 hours downloading my photo homework to the website and then find that i downloaded them too small. rats.

Wednesday: vacation.

Thursday: vacation.

Friday: vacation.

now i know what you're saying. you're saying, 'hey! valerie!! you JUST CAME BACK FROM VACATION!!!' and you'd be right. but we're heading up to Reno so that we can watch THIS girl

graduate from kindergarten.

(and yes, this is a 3 year old picture. i love it, because i remember that just after i took this, she looked at me with all the disgust a 3YO can muster and said 'you take too many pictures of me.' i replied with, 'if i give you a quarter, will you let me keep taking pictures?' needless to say, she immediately took me up on the offer.)

oh, and so we can also help this guy:

celebrate another birthday.

totally cool.

aaaaaaaaaaaand - while we celebrate the birthday and graduation, the Husband & i will be volunteering at his classes last week of school fun.

cannot wait.

what kind of volunteering, you ask? well, Thursday after graduation, we're off to fill a gajillion water balloons for the water balloon toss (a.k.a. The Fight of the Century. someone's gonna get wet. a LOT of someones are gonna get wet, and i'm gonna do my best to be part of that. some kids are goin' down, that's all i'm saying.)

Friday is the class BBQ. i volunteered the Husband to help man the fire and dawgs on them.

Saturday is the boy's birthday. besides the usual birthday whoopin' that he's gotta get, there will be dirt bike riding (go Dean McQueen!), trampoline jumping, swimming, Rover rides and heaven only knows what.

and i'll probably fill up a memory card on my camera. what a way to go.

cannot wait. can-not.

today, i'm off, with the Husband, to get some photo lovin' on. a 1st birthday party, thrown by a not very nice person for her granddaughter.

it's not that she doesn't love her granddaughter, she just, to me at least, is a very selfish person, who wants all the credit, but doesn't want to do any work. not only does she not want to do any work, she doesn't want anyone else to help, or participate, because then she wouldn't get any of the credit.

selfish? oh youbetcha. matter of fact, at the baby's christening, the not-very-nice person left right after church. because she had tickets for the Long Beach Grand Prix, and didn't want to miss it.

for the party today, she said she was getting a pinata for the party. but she wasn't buying any filling for it.

a class act all the way.

regardless, the birthday girl's auntie (a good friend of mine) and i will make sure it's a fun time today.

and i get to do what i love - have me some photo lovin'

ink me in for your next event, wontcha?

the happiest place on earth.

so after the last post, i believe it's time for something a little happier. don't you?

so here it goes.

after Vegas with Kristie & her family, my sister-in-law, her husband and the Cutest Kids in Reno, came down for a visit. my brother in law had training classes all week, and since they were close, hey! let's go to Disneyland all week.

thus began what i called the DDM. Disneyland Death March.

and who better to go on a march with than people i love? and did i mention i love taking pictures? and did i also mention i love taking pictures of way super-cute kids at Disneyland?

just as good as seeing Donny & Marie.

oh yeah. just.as.good.

the Cutest Kids in Reno with the Cutest Mom in Reno. and the Cutest Husband in Buena Park. (you KNOW i HAD to put that one in)

i always heard about the Golden Hour: an hour before sunrise, the hour after sunset, where the sun casts a golden glow around. but i had never experienced it in any photos i ever took. i'm a believer now.
the Girl was quite excited about meeting the Mouse. the Boy, however, at 8 3/4, is a little too grown up to get his picture taken with them.

i'm cool with that.

they went on every ride we could. the scary ones? not a problem - well...except for the Tower of Terror and the roller coaster California Screamin'. the Girl 'did NOT like that ride.'

and proceeded to tell everyone she met about them. however, she LOVED Space Mountain.

and again, proceeded to tell everyone she met.

this is what it looks like when Auntie buys you a Slurpee.
oh yeah. this does my heart good, seeing the young'un taking pictures. even if it is pictures of funny signs & trash cans.

i love photo rich environments.

and photo rich targets, too.

thanks Maureen, for letting me share in your kids', and your life.

cropping for fun and profit! -or- how you too can learn to stop worrying and enjoy the process.

that has GOT to be the longest blog title i've ever written.

but i digress. and look! a new record for my attention span; i've digressed in the first sentence.
gooooooooooooooooooooooo me!

anyway -
it occurred to me today how cropping a photo can make it go from 'eh', to 'eeeeee gods! what photographic genius took this miraculous snippit of nature?!'

and i do realize that this isn't new to anyone else. nor will it cure the world's ills and set Wall Street back on its merry little cash-making way, but it was just one of those things that the more i thought of it, the more i realized what a difference it can make.

let me demonstrate.

here's our cat. Elvis the Evil Wunderkat. a blah photo. an eeeee-vil gleam in his eyes. but! through the wonders of cropping....

now you can see how evilly his eyes gleam. and how i SO needed to pick up the extension cord from the floor.

let's try another example, shall we? roadside daisies before...and - through the miracle of the crop tool...why look! a bouquet of daisies fit enough to grace a table.

just one more to bore you with. but it never ceases to amaze me how a photo, like this of my niece, while still good....can, with a little time and care, be transformed into something that just takes my breath away.

and hopefully, that of the judges in this year's OC Fair.

yes - with just a little care and experimentation, kids, you too can take photos to another level. amaze your friends! confound your enemies!

just don't expect it to work miracles for things like this:

after all, i am NOT a miracle worker.

guess who's 6 today?

this little minx...this chickie who has both uncle and auntie wrapped around the proverbial little finger...

man - she knows how to work me.

and stab me in the heart.

she was talking to her mom the other day, who asked the birthday girl, "what do you want for your birthday?"

and she replied (with a dramatic sigh, i'm sure) "i just want Auntie Valerie to be at my party."

good going girl. you and your brother both know how to kill me.

happy birthday baby. may it be you're most fun yet.

Christmas '08 is in the books.

and what a Christmas it was.

we drove up Sunday to my brother in law's in northern California and spent the night. the next day we headed over the summit to my sister in law's for the fun.

we had to chain up partway across the summit...THAT was fun and the best damn $40 we spent.
ever.

of course, i could blah, blah, blah for ever, but what you want are photos.
and i believe in giving the public what they want.

yeah, i know. it's a fountain. but it's a frozen fountain. the only thing flowing is the top part. the rest of it is water falling down ice. just before i took it, there was a bird having a drink.

talk about an ice cold soda.

the Boy and i - taken by his sister. see - only two chins this time. i knew i liked that girl.

speaking of...

i don't think i need to explain this...do i?

Christmas lights. in the snow. on the roof of the garage. cool stuff.


i love the insanity of presents with kids.

i love sitting in my sister-in-law's bedroom for three hours wrapping gifts.

i love the view from my niece's bedroom.

i just plain love being there.

tomorrow: the last post of the year and photos of me sledding. for real.

you know what sucks?

this year.
this year totally sucks big (and small) ones.

it started out with B being unemployed. which went on and on and on.

then his truck was totalled out by the insurance company.

then he finally got a job.

then he got a new car.

yesterday he was put on hiatus.

really? i didn't know you could do that to a person. perhaps a crappy TV show for retooling. but a job?

this year sucks.

now, while neither of us are exactly sure what a job hiatus is, we do know this. the company he works for, their largest client cut their advertising with them by half. so, their knee-jerk reaction was to put B on hold for two weeks.

decorum and respect for my husband prevent sharing my opinion here. but if you know me, and most of you do, you've got a pretty dang good idea what i thought.

and what i still think.

so we'll see what happens - they should know if B stays or is voted off the island by end of next week.

in the meantime, i for one will be glad to kiss off 2008.

and it's only August.

happier posts later.




OK - that was long enough.
the Kindergartener and her mom called me today - and believe me, that call made my day.

the Kindergartener lost her first tooth today - it was sideways, and, when she showed her mom, my sister in law told her to pull it out.

which she did.

ohgoodmoogleygoogley. not a chance in hell i could do that.

so the Tooth Fairy is making a stop in Reno tonight, extracting teeth and leaving a fiver. why a fiver? because the Fairy ran out of cash when the Boyo lost his first tooth and it was either a $5 or a $20.

sometimes, the Fairy needs an assistant.

but, they both know now that, while the Tooth Fairy leaves $5 for the first tooth, every subsequent one only nets $1.

i'm hoping for photos of the toothless wonder. hint, hint, Maureen.


here's hoping tomorrow is a better day.