Photo Weekend

This past weekend was quite the photo weekend. It started off with a soggy picnic. I guess I really know how to pick the best days for picnics. So far I'm O for 2, but I'm not going to give up . . .

Anyway, on Saturday we had the first ever gathering of the photographers that collaborate on www.digourpics. Seeing as we never all met each other in person I thought it would be fun to finally do so. And it was! The weather even cooperated long enough to allow us to walk around the yard for some picture taking. I uploaded some of the pictures I took here. Thanks for coming everyone and I look forward to another (less wet) one some day.


Luckily the weather improved greatly on Sunday and Karlo and I had a typical day that consisted of hiking, a motorcycle ride (my bike is finally fixed!!!!) , and a kayaking trip. This was the first time I got brave enough to take my 'real' camera in the boat and I had a total ball with it. I can't believe what I've been missing all this time. Here is the link to more pictures from our kayak trip.

Testing Testing

First I tested my skills at molding and forming clay. Then I tested my skills at glazing and kiln firing. Now I'm testing a new way of displaying pictures on my blog. Here are the results of my first ever clay creations.

pottery

Shopping With Karlo - Also Not Recommended

Last week during out lunchtime walk Karlo surprised me with, “I’m going to take you out tonight.” Normally we discuss our nighttime plans during our afternoon walks, but it usually consists of, “Do you want to bike or kayak tonight?” When he offered up a date night, I was just thrilled. So I said, “Where are you taking me?” and he said, “Job Lots.” What a lucky girl I am. I know, you’re jealous.

So in addition to the truly romantic trip to Job Lots, we also went out to dinner to our favorite Asian place at the Eastbrook Mall. And no trip to the Eastbrook Mall is complete without going to Kohls. I didn’t really want or need anything, but I had coupons that I, of course, didn’t want to waste. Karlo and I were each armed with our own separate coupons and we went off on our separate ways.

We met back up at the registers, Karlo with new shoes and me with new jeans, shorts, and an adorable fall sweater. Since this was a big date and all, Karlo offered to pay for all my clothes, but I felt guilty and didn’t want him to. He tried to grab all three hangers from me and I pulled them back, “No, I don’t want you to pay for them all.” I tried to negotiate with him by telling him that he could pay for the jeans. He protested and kept pulling the items out of my hands, but I continued to protest and pulled back. We literally had a tug of war in the middle of the store arguing over who was going to pay for what. I finally told him that he could pay for two out of three items and that was my final offer. This was going on a ridiculously long time and he finally surrendered to taking two of my garments to the register, leaving me with the sweater that was now all bent out of shape from his tugging and pulling. Uuugh

Karlo handed the cashier the items and his coupon and she explained that he could not use the coupon unless he used his Kohls charge card. Of course Karlo couldn’t find his card and tells the cashier he doesn’t have it and forget the coupon. She responds with another explanation of why he could not use the coupon. He understood this and just wanted to check out without the discount. All this commotion caught my attention from the next register over. When I discovered that he wasn’t going to get the discount I swooped in and used my coupon and MY CREDIT CARD to pay for the whole transaction. Karlo just had to laugh at the deal he just got. He went from offering to pay for everything to paying for nothing. This is the last time I shop with him! And my new sweater is still bent all out of shape.

For a Change

Do you ever notice that I rarely take photos of people? People pictures is definitely not my specialty and I rarely have human subjects. The only human (that might be a stretch) that I live with complains whenever a camera gets pointed in his direction. And I even have a dog that refuses to look in the direction of a camera lens.

So when I got elected to be the official event photographer of our annual company picnic I took it as a chance to practice taking pictures of subjects that moved. Lord knows I need practice in this area. Here are some very rare photos for me . . . of humans, and kids. How exciting . . .

This little boy is staring at Karlo, fascinated for some reason.

And I couldn't resist sneaking this one in . . . just to make him mad ;-)

More Lessons Learned

All I could think to talk about today was how much pain I’m still in from Sunday’s stunt. I just can’t believe how sore that made me. Everything hurts, but especially my thighs and back. And to think, my legs are in pretty good biking shape. I don’t even want to know what the recovery would have been like if I hadn’t been in such good shape. Yikes.

But instead of filling an entire blog post complaining about my aches and pains, I decided to complain about my wasted half of a vacation day yesterday. I took a half day off from work yesterday, mostly to meet the exterminator at home, but I was planning on having a crafty and productive afternoon. I had pottery to paint and a website to build, among other things. But it didn’t end up being productive at all.

The exterminator showed up just as I rolled into the driveway. We needed him to fix our carpenter ant, and worse, bee situation. Those darn bees are chomping away at our wood house and needed to be stopped. Well, this whole process took much longer than I wanted. The guy was very talkative and went on and on for what seemed like hours. And to make matters much worse, I was stupid enough to sit outside on the porch while he was doing all his spraying. You would think his warning to keep the dogs inside would have triggered my brain to assume that perhaps I too, should stay inside. But I’m apparently not that smart. I brought my pottery outside to the porch and painted for a while . . . until I started to feel sick. That’s when I gave up and laid down . . . on the swing on the porch. I took a nap and woke up feeling worse. So I moved out to the back deck (where most of the chemicals were sprayed) and lounged around there. By the time Karlo came home I was laying on the bed upstairs moaning and mad that I wasted my half-day off.

Luckily Karlo refused to hear that I didn’t want to kayak because I was sick so he forced me. And low and behold, I felt much better on the lake. I guess that was when it hit me that it must have been the chemicals making me feel bad. Seems like all of our lessons need to be learned the hard way.

Not Recommended

Today I did something that I have to add to the list of things I would not recommend trying. It sounded like a good idea two days ago when Karlo suggested it, but by the time it was about to start I had a bad feeling . . .

Some guys we work with invited Karlo to a 100 mile Adventure Motorcycle Ride, open to anyone that rode an enduro motorycle. For those of you that don't know what an enduro is, it's a bike that can handle both on and off-road rides. Karlo's bike qualifies, and so does mine (when it's running) and since this is something that Karlo has always wanted to do we gave it a shot. I was very concerned and emailed the event organizer in advance to make sure it was OK for me to ride on the back. I received a reply that said it was 'probably doable' and if that didn't scare me enough, the reaction of others who found out that Karlo was attempting the ride with a passenger sealed the deal on my fear. But we took off anyway.

The route was broken into several segments and consisted of about 75% non-paved roads. Of those non-paved roads they had 5 "Hero" sections, where men get to prove they're men (you know, stupid) and take their bikes were full-sized motorcycles should not be taken. I figured this meant trouble considering the 'non-hero' roads looked like this:



You will notice that I am not on the back of the bike, but instead standing on the road wondering how the heck I was going to get across on foot. But still, anything was better than potentially falling into these puddles.

As it turns out, Karlo would have been much better off if I wasn't such a chicken and stayed on the bike. We had no business attempting this ride on Karlo's bike. It's a very capable machine, but our tires were far from suitable. We have road tires on it and off-road nobbies were essential. And this was proven when we attempted our second 'Hero' section and wiped out. We were on the same type of trail that we would mountain bike on and the mud was just too much for our slick tires. The bike went down and I learned why it's important to wear the big, heavy, ugly boots that I do. My foot got pinned under the weight of the bike and I was stuck. Not a big deal. I think the fact that I was laying in mud was more upsetting. The worst part of the scenario was lifting the heavy bike back up, which Karlo (of course) did by himself (and hurt his back). Refer to my statement above regarding men being men . . .

We managed to restart the bike after the spill and stay upright for the rest of that Hero section, but it couldn't end soon enough for me. Then it was time for the more tame dirt roads:

That's Karlo behind all that water. I had these grand ideas of taking pictures along the ride, but while I was on the bike I was holding on for dear life. I think Penni might be able to relate to that part. I wish any one of those guys doing this ride could experience what it was like for me. During many parts of the ride Karlo had to stand up, leaving me completely blinded in the back, bouncing around like a ping pong ball. I had no idea what to expect, when the rocks were coming, nor the big holes. It was a hell ride and I would definitely have been better off on my own bike. Oh and I forget to mention the fact that Karlo's full windshield kept fogging completely up. So now, not only is he riding on technical trails that we never should have been attempting in the first place, but he's doing it without being able to see where he's going.

As I'm writing this I'm still in disbelief that we are both not in the hospital right now . . .

So the good news is that the route meandered it's way to Eastford and coincidentally enough went right by our street. The temptation to call it quits and just come home was too great. I for one, had ENOUGH. And quite honestly, so did Karlo. His back was really hurting by this time and I thought it best to quit while we were ahead - certainly the smarted idea of the day.

We got home and after me showing off the fact that me and the bike got dirty, we scrubbed her down, sat back, and thanked our lucky stars to be home and have all three of us in one piece.

In Reponse to Lisa's Blog

I couldn't think of anything to write about today . . . until I saw Lisa's blog posting where she shows off the lovely harvest from her garden. Karlo has been wanting to take some photos of my garden for days and I kept protesting. But I'm about to break down and show it off myself. I have no shame. So Lisa, you think your tomatoes are sexy. Wait until you see mine . . .

Hmmm, a little reminiscent of my Charlie Brown Christmas tree shot from last winter, no?

And while I'm on the subject of bad harvests, is it just me or is everybody experiencing the worst fruit in decades. I swear, I haven't purchased one piece of fruit (outside of bananas) that were any good. I am so sick and tired of spending a lot of money on fruit every week only to get it home and have it be completely tasteless. So far we've had terrible watermelon, honeydew, blueberries, necterines, apples, and even strawberries. I'm really starting to get MAD . . . at fruit! Last night we bought a bag (peck?) of peaches and they were by far the worst tasting objects that resembled fruit. I am tempted to return them to Big Y and say, "Are ya kidding me?" Am I the only one experiencing this this year? So very frustrating.

Jess & Cory Visit Recap Part 2

I’m still tired from our busy weekend. At least I think I’m tired from all our weekend activities, going out every night, and staying up too late last night. Or maybe I’m tired from our hot mountain bike ride this afternoon. Either way, I’m ready for bed. But I can’t slack on today’s blog posting after I left you hanging . . .

So I saved the best part of the weekend for last. And this just proves that sometimes the best times are the ones that were unplanned. Sunday just sort of fell perfectly into place. The kids were originally planning on driving back to Canada yesterday early afternoon. But they were having so much fun in lovely CT (which by the way they are convinced is NOTHING but trees) that they decided to play hooky from work today and spend another night. This was great news, but I had absolutely nothing planned for another day. I had to think quick and boy did I come up with the best plan (thanks to my family).

As luck would have it, my family just happened to be planning to spend the day in Haddam. And they just happened to have lots of hot dogs and hamburgers left over from previous parties :-) The weather was perfect and we hopped into the Jeep for a cruise to the river. What a ball we had. I think the pictures can tell the rest of the story . . .

Karlo agreed to be John's first victim on the jet ski. The rest of us (smarter) folks rode on the ski boat with Captain Angelo. I debated over bringing my nice camera on board, seeing as I got 60 gallons of the CT River dumped in my lap on my last voyage. But Penni convinced me that nobody wanted to hear all about the pictures that I could have gotten if I had my camera. And boy am I glad I listened to her.

It started out all good and very exciting, but soon got even more exciting (for John & Karlo) and more entertaining for the dry folks on the boat. Suddenly we look back and this is what we see. Ooops . . .

Apparently Angelo cut John off and he had to ditch. Now John had a grand plan the entire time to toss Uncle Karlo from the jet ski (pay back for what he did to Penni on the ATV last year), but what he wasn't planning on was getting thrown off himself. It sure did make for an interesting video that Penni somehow managed to capture.

And who would think that after this episode I would be the next to agree to a ride? Not sure what's gotten into me. I'm still terrified of water, but I must be getting braver in my advanced age. Here's the proof.

My big brother looking after me . . . tightening up my vest.

Here I am . . . on my way!

Jess got to go for two rides: one with Penni and one with John.


Cory, on the other hand, only got one ride . . . after he wrapped both of his legs and arms around John . . . nobody wanted to take him for another ride!

I uploaded all 90 pictures of the weekend to Picasa for Jessica. If you would like to take a peek, click here.

Weekend Recap Part 1

We had another one of those weekends that just won’t fit into one blog posting. Jessica and her boyfriend came to visit for a few days and we packed our days with fun. We started the long weekend on Thursday night with a bonfire and some marshmallow roasting. Jess and Cory had a marshmallow roasting contest. I ate 2 marshmallows, the rest of the gang ate about 4, and then Peanut managed to sneak away and eat the entire rest of the bag. I hope she got a good tummy ache after that move.


On Friday night we did something that I never dreamed I would ever get Karlo to do. We all went to a country line dancing bar in Rhode Island. What a hoot. Karlo got so excited, he even dressed the part. OK, not really, but he had fun stealing and sporting our friend’s cowboy hat.

I know these next pictures are horrendous, but I just HAD to document the fact that Karlo was actually

1. on the dance floor
2. smiling
3. facing the right way

I was so proud of him and the fact that he gave it a shot. It didn’t go so well, but he was a good sport about it. He happily did his favorite Latin dance step and just kept turning with the rest of the crowd. Jess and Cory, on the other hand, did amazingly well for their first time line dancing.


Cory got into the cowboy spirit too, but I still can’t explain the earrings . . .

On Saturday we had a leisurely day filled with some biking and lounging around the house. I think Karlo dreamed of this day for a long time . . . a bike ride with his daughter. It was so nice to bike – just for the fun of it, instead of for the sport of it.


Later that day we went out for ice cream, followed by dinner. I really screwed up with that one and got the order all wrong. Oh well. From dinner we headed to Foxwoods for the most amazing show. For two people that don’t like casinos we’ve been to Foxwoods 3 times in 2 months and had a GREAT time each time. This show was called Legends and it was a group of impersonators doing Garth Brooks, Elton John, Bette Middler, Gwen Stephanie, and Michael Jackson. It was simply outstanding. I still can’t get over the guy that played Michael Jackson. I truly feel like I saw the King of Pop himself. This show is running at Foxwoods for at least a month. I highly recommend going to check it out. We loved it.

Please stay tuned for Part 2 of the Weekend of Fun.

Random Observations

We’ve lived in our ‘new’ digs in Eastford for two years already, but I’m still making interesting observations about the place. For instance, when we contemplating buying the house, Karlo went on and on about the quality of the house construction. He made a big deal over the great insulation. Well, this doesn’t really mean much to me. After all, insulation is not something that I can see and I didn’t really have a good handle on what the numbers meant. I got the notion that this house would be warmer than our previous house and perhaps my hair wouldn’t blow in the wind – indoors. Then this past weekend I learned a little more about insulation. We went to buy some for the Love Shack. We got some R13 pink stuff, mostly because it was the cheapest and came in the smallest bundle. That is when Karlo gave me a lesson on what the different numbers meant and he explained that R13 was pathetic and most houses have insulation in the 20s or 30s. It wasn’t until later in the week when the temps finally hit the balmy upper 80s or even 90. We heard coworkers complaining about not having AC at home and I just assume that I was not affected by the heat because I just plain like the heat. But the next day I made a point to check our digital thermostat at home and after the second day near 90, the house was a bit warmer than the day before, but was still only 78 degrees (likely the number that our AC would be set at if we had it). Suddenly I started to feel the appreciation for our R48 insulation. Now I get it!

Another observation came last night as I was driving to go to my first Salsa Fit class. Well actually, I had two observations. The first one being that it was fun to get out at night. As much as I always say that I hate leaving the house and usually dread it when I have to, I really had fun going out . . . driving my own car and cranking the tunes. I know this sounds very simple, but I almost never get to drive (Karlo likes being in control), I LOVE driving my car, and Karlo and I almost always drive in silence. For some reason he has an aversion to music in the car. So just going out for a drive was a big event for me.

The second observation while on the road was a bit depressing. Last night I headed East of Eastford and you know what it’s like when you’re driving say up in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine . . . when you can’t find any stations that come in without static . . . and then when you do they are either playing country music or oldies? Do you know how annoying that is? Well, that’s exactly what it’s like when you head East of Eastford. My 60 minutes of glory behind the wheel of my MINI all alone and I couldn’t get one song (from this decade) to play through without losing reception. Where was my iPod when I needed it?

Alone Time

My shopping trip to Big Y yesterday was exciting, not only because I won all those coins, but because I went there to stock up for my 'bachelorette week.' I had to buy myself some frozen dinners to get through a few days alone this week. I was actually looking forward to reverting back to the good ole days when I ate those things every night. And after eating dinner tonight I simply can not believe I used to actually like those things. Yuck. I'm thinking that Healthy Choice must have actually got heathy because it tasted terrible. I may have to resort to a different plan for tomorrow. Cereal and ice cream sound much more appetizing.

I amused myself for most of this evening with crafty things. My latest diversion is playing with clay. Since I made the investment in a kiln I figured I should get my money's worth out of it. Last weekend I bought this. Well actually two of these:

The smallest amount the pottery store would sell me was 50 lbs. I figure that should do me for the rest of my life. I never worked with clay before so this has been an interesting couple of days. I very quickly learned what not to do, but I'm still struggling to figure out the proper methods of working clay. So far I made a few pieces that may someday become pendents and earrings. It's a long process. First you cut out, mold, and shape your parts. Then you let them sit for a few days to dry out. The letting sit process has proved to be the hardest part. I can't seem to just let them sit there. I insist on going back to fiddle with them and I've already broken a quarter of the pieces. Grrrrrr. So tonight I made a few more and I'm going to force myself to not touch them until it's time to put them in the kiln for their first firing. The first firing is called the bisque fire and that will harden them up and get them ready for glazing. Then the fun really starts. From there I can decorate them with colors and refire for the final efffect. Hopefully I'll have some before and after pictures for you. Here's the before, but I already broke some of these . . .

Stay tuned next week for the "Afters."

I am Offically Boring

On the ride home from work this afternoon it occurred to me that I forgot to blog again today. I seem to be on a roll where I never find time to think about my blog during the work day. I have to blame my recent video project. It really has me sucked in. So in the car I tried to think about what I could say on my blog and that's when it hit me that I'm starting to lead a boring a life. I never used to run out of stories to tell. In fact I would normally have a back log of stories just waiting to be told. But now I'm officially boring.

And this just seals the deal . . . We stopped at Big Y for a our super exciting grocery shopping trip and at the checkout I won, not one silver coin, but two. And not just two silver coins, but a gold one too. That's right . . . a GOLD coin. In my entire Big Y shopping history I never scored a gold coin! I was so excited, walking out of the store, clicking my chips as if I was in the casino playing a high stakes table. And that is when it really hit me that I need to be shot. This was indeed the highlight of my day. I can't even believe I'm sharing this publicly. Just shoot me now! But please bury me with my precious gold coin.

Numb Tongue

I went to the dentist this afternoon at 4 o'clock to get a filling. I got three shots of Novocaine and the doctor told me that I should be able to eat at 6:30. We timed our dinner to perfectly coincide with my face numbness subsiding and paddled our way out to the middle of Bigelow Hollow with our picnic dinner. Right at 6:30 Karlo declared it 'time to eat.' Well, my mouth wasn't even close to being ready. I was still a mess. My dinner consisted of a series of Golden Grahams inserted into the left side of my mouth, one at a time. I had a nice peanut butter bagel just waiting for me and it was torture not to be able to eat it. To take my mind of the torture I took a few photos while sitting in the kayak.

And at 7:30 I still couldn't eat my bagel so I used the time to muck with the photos. Now it's 8:00 and I think the numbness is finally gone. Yeah. Time for bagel!

I’ve Been Distracted

I just realized that I haven’t been thinking about my blog as often as I normally do. I think this is because I’m distracted at work. I’m actually distracted by my work. I am completely consumed with a new video project and I’m lovin’ every minute of it. I can’t believe how much fun I’m having building and editing videos on the Mac. It’s to the point where I can’t wait to get to work to pick up where I left off the day before. I was actually disappointed last night when I brought my laptop home and realized that I couldn’t play with my video because the files were on an external hard drive still in my office. And here I am complaining that Karlo always has his head on work. Yikes!

To make matters worse I was up most of the night last night not feeling well. My first problem was a mysterious huge ‘thing’ that appeared on my leg after our hike in the woods. I was contemplating taking a picture of this thing last night, but then I realized that if I showed it, it would be highly unlikely that Tina would ever come to the woods of Eastford again. I have no idea what the heck bit me, but this thing hurts like crazy. And the big red swollen ring around the very painful center made me worry about ticks and Lyme disease. But this thing is unlike any tick issue I’ve ever seen.

So when I woke up with a stomach ache at 2 am I started to wonder about this bite and if the suspected poison in my system was causing me to feel sick. My mind was going on and on, making sleep impossible. I decided that thinking about work was better than worrying about my bite so I spent the next several hours laying in bed, editing videos in my mind. I feel like I already worked a full day and I’m now ready for a nap.

Way Back Hair

I was just looking in the mirror in disguest. It just dawned on me what I forgot to do this past weekend . . . dye my hair. Now I'm trying to decide if I can wait until next weekend. I have to say, of all the age-related things I've encountered so far the gray hair is the worst. I guess that's because it's a constant battle that you can never win, nor ever keep up with. So in honor of the days when I never had to think about buying hair color, or when I'd find the time to do the dye job, I'm posting some pictures of me (and some of my peeps) in my glory days of stress-free hair . . . And I still can't believe that I ever had long curly hair!