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.

11-10-08

This is my scenery most of the day and evening. See if you can find:

An earplug (for when the Kaos comes over to play)
Fingernail buffer (for that nervous tension)
Cool pen that has a highlighter on one end (that I signed the cover letter to Vanderbilt today with) Reading glasses (borrowed from Professor Wormwood)
Cow Tails wrapper (from Halloween)

You score one point for each!

11-6-08

I find it very hard to believe, but an not disappointed that we have not yet had a frost. My garden containers on the back deck are all still pretty and full of flowers. After the first frost they will look like wilted lettuce. Today I helped out in an engineering class for the second time this week, successfully ran a doubly multivariate repeated measures MANOVA, and worked some more on my chapter 4 outline.

11-5-08

I stayed up till 1am and snapped these photos of the TV set sometime after midnight when Obama was giving his acceptance speech. I paid for this late night all day today as it exhausted me. I took a nap in the afternoon and was able to pull through and get some work done.

11-4-08

I voted today. Did you?

Then I stayed up till 1am watching the election coverage and snapped this photo of the TV at 11:06pm. What a moment in history!

11-3-08

I'm thinking about cutting my hair. What do you think? See this picture for the original source of short hair. Thanks to LSJ for lending me her hair!

11-2-08

Happy Birthday Papa. 100 years ago today you were born. I wish you were still around to celebrate it with me. Today I took a walk in your honor and absorbed the beauty of the day. You would have loved this walk. I'd hoped to feel your presence next to me- but not this year. I hope you are at peace and wish I could pick up the phone and call you or drive on over and sit in my old chair and talk with you and really listen to your stories. Really listen. Perhaps tonight I will do just that in my dreams. Thank you for loving me- it made all the difference.

In memory of my grandfather, David Davis born 11-2-1908 in Brooklyn, NY. Died in Richmond, VA 10-28-88, buried on Gwynn's Island in Mathews County, VA. Fisherman, entrepeneur, chef, devoted husband and father and grandfather and great grandfather. Not to mention, funniest person I ever knew and inspiration my whole life through.

1986 Papa and Jes

11-1-08

Little ceramic pumpkins made by my mother-in-law many years ago, still decorate our front porch for Halloween. I was glad nobody kicked them last night. They had little tea lights inside.

Today I overcame my fear of heights and climbed out onto the roof to tape around windows for Dan to paint. It was very scary.

I hung up a bat on our front porch for last night and today took this interesting photo of it silouetted against the fall colors.