12-9-08

This morning I woke up to Dan saying, "They're digging up our front yard!" He hopped out of bed and sure enough the gas company was out there with a huge machine digging up our yard. He convinced them to carefully remove the grass sod first, but still they did a poor job and we have THREE bare patches and tracks from the heavy equipment.

Today was especially hard. Lots of bad news. Too bad to post. I hope I sleep tonight.

12-7-08

Sunday.
This photo is of Sophie the Stinker. She was curled up so cute next to Squirt's foot. Such a cute adorable little furry being. Who would think she could be such a Smelly Cat? Don't worry, Aza, I love her just the same.
Today I got a friend in Ashland to help me with this Maya MySpace account and she took it over and got tons of people added and putting up banners and blogs and volunteering to go on searches and hang flyers. What a town.
Tomorrow is my phone interview with a university about 3 hours from Ashland. Ironic, hu?
Also tomorrow I have a medical test. Not too worried.

12-5-08

Saturday.
I worked on my dissertation.
I worked on finding Maya by establishing a MySpace account and trying to add people in Ashland.
Only got two "friends" that way.
Had pizza for dinner.
Went for a cold walk with Dan and Frizz.
Felt headachy.
Took this picture with my old lens to see how close of a close up I could get. The old lens is shorter than the new one and gets closer. This is a photo of my mom's old lamp that I have now. I'd like a macro lens for Christmas, Santa!

12-4-08

Today was great!
I got a call from a school that wants to interview me by phone on Monday. The school is The University of Louisville.
Then I went to the post office and mailed five huge applications to the last five schools. One application was over an inch thick.
Then I made Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies to celebrate National Cookie Day.
Link here.
Then I sent in a review I did of a book. The review was 35 pages long.
Good day, good day.

12-3-08

OK, I am drinking my decaf special coffee again. The Roastaroma was horrid and I figured the Cow Tails were giving me more migraines than decaf. I'm happy to have it back in my life!

As if one photo blog wasn't enough, I went and signed up for another. If you are ever interested in doing a photo-a-day type thing, this is the way to get started. Only one photo. It's a social networking site and people are really nice and they comment on your photos. It's loads of fun. If you want to see mine, go to www.shuttercal.com and look for chrissysphotoaday.

12-2-08

So we did this workshop today in southwest Virginia. Take a look at this gasoline receipt. They certainly do have good gas prices down there!

The kids loved the workshop and came up with some creative ways to get "Penny People" off an island. It was loads of fun.

12-1-08

Today I drove to southwest Virginia with two engineering professors. We are giving a workshop tomorrow morning. It was snowing like crazy outside as the sun was setting and I tried to get a picture from the car. I got this really cool blurry image that looks like something I would paint. You can't really see the snow, but it's a cool shot. I'm staying in a nice hotel and we had a nice dinner at an old tavern from 1775. I got a migraine on the way down which was a real drag.

11-30-08

23 years ago today Dan and I were married in a little chapel in Auburn, Alabama while Auburn was playing Alabama. They lost that year too... but only by 2 points. No photos today as we spent the whole day in traffic from New Jersey home. But this is a cell phone photo I received from Jess with the text, "Skiing!!!"

What fun.

11-28-08

The kids have really taken to the Wii game Guitar Hero. I think Squirt stayed up half the night practicing on these drums! Today he got the "band" together for a show. Pretty funny. At least they're entertained and it's something more than just video games.


Little nephew discovered his toes this morning while big cousins are rocking and rolling.
We take a trip to a science museum, and what does my eye spy out the window on the drive?
Little nephew rides the gyroscope bike like a pro at the science museum.

I get creative on the ride home from the musem and open up the shutter for a few seconds to create some art work. I call this one "Dancing Lights."

And this one is called, "Whoosh of Light." It was primarily a billboard. Pretty COOL.

Afer we get home we have gumbo for dinner that I made around noon and had simmering on the stove for over 6 hours. My mother in law and sister in law put on the finishing touches (fresh okra and turkey and sausage) while we were driving home.

I like the day after Thanksgiving!!!

11-27-08

Here we are in New Jersey with Dan's family for Thanksgiving. Aza and Dan play one of many games of backgammon played today. Aza is getting quite good and whooping her dad's butt!

11-25-08

Awww.... they are finally snuggling up together! After all the hissing and funny paw batting!

11-24-08

This is my scenery. This and a view out my window.

11-23-08

Today I finished a 48 page paper and submitted it for publication. Dan and I went for a very long walk. I helped paint trim a little bit. I cooked a very strange supper (scrambled omlette). Around midnight I decided to do some photography experiments in the dark bathroom. After some failed match experiments I used incense and wrote my name in light. 13 seconds, f3.5. Quite cool.

11-22-08

Overcast at 5:29pm, I was disappointed that I couldn't get a shot of the International Space Station flying over. So I took a photo of where it would have been. 13 seconds at f22 I got a pretty cool shot of the nighttime sky. Today was monumental.

#1, Freecycle in Boyd County, KY published my post about Maya and I got a very promising reply from a mother of two who says she has fed Maya on her porch along with a dozen other strays- about 1.5 miles from where Maya was lost. She is going to try and find/nab her for me, and get the word out again.

#2, Freecycle moderater in Boyd County, KY lives even closer to where Maya was lost than mother of two- about a mile- and is also going to keep her eyes peeled. What irony is that?!?!

#3 I managed to start writing Chapter 4 today and got 11 pages done. This is good. Very good.

11-21-08

13 second exposure, f4.5, in the bathroom with the lights off I lit a match then blew it out. For fun. Today was two doc appointments and a meeting with a professor and yet another attempt to find Maya through Freecycle of all places, my favorite organization. I contacted the Freecycle chapter in Ashland, Kentucky and tried to get a STILL LOST posting through. I saw flurries today. My first snow fall sighting of the season.

11-20-08

I was 5 minutes too late getting outside to set up because as I was watching the Space Shuttle pass by, my camera still wasn't on the correct settings. After watching the reddish shuttle go behind a large cloud, I managed to take some really cool nighttime photos anyway. I'll be ready on Saturday to shoot the shuttle for real.

Today I got some good results from my qualitative analysis. The D is cookin'!

11-18-08

First snow of the season. Just a smidge but it was beautiful. A job opening was announced at the University of Oklahoma today- where my sister Stay lives. I always wanted to live in the same town as one of my sisters.... and never have as an adult.

11-17-08

So Mittens decided that she wanted to lie on my desk on top of the mouse cord this morning. I was working (trying to) and she kept clicking the mouse and crawling forward and I couldn't move the mouse easily and it was frustrating, but I didn't wanto to move her (she's 19 years old) because she seemed happy.

11-16-08

Today we went on a 5 mile hike up the Monticello Trail- me, Dan, and Aza. It was a beautiful, chilly, windy day and boy, were my legs sore afterwards!

11-15-08

Aza has been so very helpful this weekend. She cleaned all day yesterday. She loves cleaning! She is such a blessing to me. If I hadn't watched her being born with my own two eyes, I'd think she was switched at birth because I hate cleaning. How can a child who looks just like me take after her grandmother so much more than me? Well, today she raked and she painted trim while I was in bed with a migraine all day.

I just figured out that ever since Halloween I've been eating leftover Cow Tails and they contain "modified whey" and I looked it up and it's an MSG alias. Great. No wonder I've been so headachy the last two weeks or more. I really must start exercising again and get these migraines back into remission again.

11-14-08

Today I got a lot of work done. It was a productive day. I took some photos of my collections. This is my rock and shell and pottery collection.

This is Dan's collection of antique toys. We're not sure if they're really antique or not...

And then I took a photo of Frisbee in his chair, and Sophie all puffed up looking like a ghost cat. Aza is here for the weekend and so is Sophie.

11-12-08

Craving coffee, not being able to even drink decaf right now, I went and found a temporary solution. Roastaroma. It's pretty good. I had a hot cup this evening single strength and then another double strength. I'ts hard working at my computer all day (remember- the dissertation-) without a warm yummy drink down here in the cold cave I work in.

11-11-08

You could learn a lot about me from this photo. I like old stuff. I like books. I like to paint. I like chickens. I like Smith Island. I like seashells and rocks and colorful glass bottles. Today 21 years ago, my Nana died. I spent all day thinking about her and miss her still.