My Grandpa

is such a cute old man and was so nice. I will treasure the memories I have of him and I will miss him.And I'm so glad Laura and I were able to see him last year since he'll be leaving us any day now...

On another note, I do not know who scanned these images but the resolution is horrible. But thank you very much for attempt at making the photos electronic so everyone can have easy access to them for their family history files, but we need to redo them. I think I need to make another trek down there to fix this issue. :-)

The University of Life

I have decided just because I have not been able to get back to school like I want, doesn't mean I can't learn about new things.

Welcome to the University of Life.

If I find anything cool that I want to post about while I" study" I will post under this tag.

After all aren't we supposed to learn from life?

Here's a geography lesson:

In northern England between the Ouse and Foss Rivers is a city called York. It's a walled city (isn't that cool!) It was found in 71 AD by the Romans, and it was the capital of the Roman Province of Britannia Inferior. The city has changed hands over the years and by doing so changed names as well.

Now archeologists suggest that Mesolithic peopled settled the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC. When the Romans came to the area it was populated with a tribe that they knew as Brigantes.

I think it would be an amazing place to visit. It's halfway between London and Edinburgh (London is 2 hours by direct rail). But the area is cool too - you have a big city but it's a bordered by the Pennines, the North York Moors, and the Yorkshire Wolds. Can you just imagine the photos you could get!

If you want to visit and expect to just drive through the city you're in for a rude awakening. The city is surrounded on all sides by an outer ring road, which is about 3 miles from the city center. The planning of the streets date back to medieval times and is not suitable for modern traffic. Which means streets inside the city walls are designated as car free during business hours or don't allow cars at all.

I love Wikipedia, I found this information there. Doesn't it sound like a cool place to visit?

Salem Art Fair

Last weekend was the Salem Art Fair. I had a busy weekend but I was able to take a couple hours Saturday morning to go check it out.I love Tahitian dancing and I was able to catch a children's Tahitian dancing group. They were so cute!

Alivia's Swim Meet

Last Saturday I got up EARLY to go to my niece's swim meet. I don't do mornings, but I dragged myself out of bed because I wanted to see her swim, aren't I good aunt? I thought so too.
It ended up being a meet against Anna and Rachel's team (Kim's daughters) and all the kids did amazing! (And no Kim and I did not plan to be matchy matchy.)

Anna is neck and neck with the other swimmer.

Check out Alivia's lead, yep she came in first.

Rachel is so happy, she just came in first.

They all did great. Each of them came in first in one of their heats. (Anna's was VERY close she came in first by a fraction.) And Alivia's relay team also came in first, so she got two firsts which was a...first for her... no pun intended. But they didn't hand out any ribbons, lame!

Here are some of my favorite shots that I did some experimental post production to (I'm really diggin the saturated look in the photos...)
Sarah wanted a shot like this but it was difficult because someone *cough*Kim*cough* kept making Alivia laugh so she'd move. So I just took a head shot and told her I'd photoshop it. But then I thought while I'm in there I could do some post production work. I like.

Bush Park walk part 2

Here's the Something Red photo
Here's a photo I really liked, but not part of the scavenger hunt:

And here's some fun with the playground photos.

Photo taken by Kim

Photo taken by Kim

Photo Walk Week 2

This week we had our second photo walk and this time we went to Bush Park. About an hour before Kim picked me up she said it would be cool to do a scavenger hunt.... so I came up with one.

Framed - there were two that I really liked
Depth of Field - I haven't really ventured too far into manual control yet so I didn't adjust the aperture for the depth of field, I used the macro setting.
Motion Blur - I was trying to get a shot of this flower and the wind picked up and I really like how it turned out even though it wasn't intended to be the motion blur shot.
Airy (your interpretation) - I thought these flowers looked light and delicate which I thought would be good for airy.
Plant - not a flower - grapes are not flowers
Low Perspective - I got on the ground for this one
Something Blue - can't get bluer than the blue sky
High Perspective - I had to really look up to get the these... but they might actually be low perspective...
Something that makes you happy - I love swings...
Shadow - again there were two that I really liked.
Portrait - how could I pass up a reflection portrait?
Something red - I REALLY like this photo but it's uploading the wrong direction and I'm not sure why!! I'll need to figure it out and post it later.

photo walks

In an effort to improve in photography and to do a little more exercising Kim and I have started to do weekly "photo walks" (and seriously anyone is welcome to join us)

A couple of weeks ago we did our first one at Riverfront Park. I didn't have a lot of time to spare so it was a quickie. We walked across the old railroad bridge that has been turned into a walking bridge.
(Honestly whoever thought of that project was a genius! It's so cool.)

Leverage Screening (and praise to Ginger!)

I love Leverage.

I was excited for it to start and have watched it since the beginning.

I was extremely excited when I found out that they were coming to Portland to film, unfortunately I have not been able to Leverage stalk as much as I would like.

When I heard they were coming up here I said, "I'm going to Leverage stalk and get my picture taken with Parker patting my head." (It's from the season finale episode) And we all laughed, because honestly that would never happen.... until now.

I'm going to tell you a little story....

Once upon a time, aka yesterday, our hero was sent a text message from Lindsay that read, "I am going to the Leverage screening tonight." Our hero was shocked (and jealous) that she hasn't been keeping up in the loop and didn't even know there was a screening in Portland. A half an hour later Lindsay was able to locate a way for our hero to find out if there were any more tickets for this wonderful event. Within a half hour two tickets were secured! And of course our hero wants to have some bonding time with her sister.

Luckily our hero's wonderful parents had returned from a trip and were kind enough to watch Laura's wee ones. And they left Laura's sick husband at home to sleep and throw up alone.
Our hero and her sister arrive at the Hotel Deluxe in Portland and notice a line outside, they talk to a very nice valet attendant and were told vouchers were handed out earlier but to look for the gentleman in the yellow tie.

They search out the yellow tie only to find out that our hero's arch nemesis had attacked! Miscommunication between the Turner company giving out tickets online and the event staff giving out vouchers in person meant that there were no vouchers for them. But he encouraged them to stay because they just might be able to get in.

The two slouched down on a couch in the lobby in defeat, was their trek for naught? Were their dreams getting trampled on?

Lindsey and her friends arrive moments later with vouchers for themselves, due to the friends living in the Portland area. As the five of them discussed the issue and confusion over the tickets and vouchers a lovely event coordinator named Ginger comes to the rescue.She explains how the hero's arch nemesis had attacked but we may be able to get in still. Our hero and her sister have a plan - they played the "We drove all the way from Salem" card and the "She left her sick husband at home for Leverage" card. After hearing this Ginger said that they will get in then.

They waited patiently on a nice soft couch in the lobby instead of outside in the line. Thanks to Ginger our hero and friends were:

First in line for the autograph session for the second showing and first in line to enter the screening room. Do you know what this means? Front row baby!!!!

Ginger took the photo

Laura took this photo

Laura took this photo (I got my Parker patting my head picture!!!!)

After that awesome first episode, can't wait to watch it again next week, Timothy Hutton arrived! Yay! There was an fun Q&A and Timothy Hutton was nice enough to stay and do autographs.

Lindsay took this photo

It was an amazing night! And prayers are answered, I'm telling you I had a prayer in my heart that it would work out and we could make it in after we talked to the yellow tie dude, and it was answered!

We got pictures with everyone of the cast members, their autographs and I have a picture of Parker patting my head.

I must admit I felt silly asking her, but I have two new mottos that I'm trying to live by.
1. When opportunities arise take them - live your life without regret.
2.Don't be afraid to look silly.

Beth, who plays Parker, wasn't there at first, she arrived just as Laura and I finished getting autographs, she stood between us. We took that group photo right away, and then I asked her to pat my head - I felt silly asking, she was shocked/surprised (the look on her face was awesome) but she knew what I was referencing to because she said the line. If I didn't ask because I was afraid of looking silly I would have kicked myself all the way home and the for many nights to come. But since I asked, Laura was able to have her head petted too.

Did I mention it was an amazing night?

Sorry, I can't do short and sweet... I don't think that will ever happen.