My dog is cooler than yours

It's a chilly Sunday morning here and it looked like Lila was in need of some warmth.  So I broke out the Hello Kitty blanket.  It used to be mine but once it became a little tattered, Lila inherited it. 

I should mention that no dog has ever made me laugh so much out loud like she does.  If you have heard someone say dogs are just people with fur coats it's totally true.  Lila has the neatest quirks and while sometimes she drives me nuts, I would be so lonely without her! 

Back to the blanket....so, I tell her to sit on her bed which she does, and I position the blanket on her.  She will pretty much stay where and when I tell her to and allow me to take a picture.  If I send Christmas cards this year, those on my list will probably open the envelope to see Lila donning some sort of holiday accessory while sitting pretty for my Nikon.

So here she is with a casually draped fleece blanket.  Since I took the photo, she has dragged the blanket to the middle of the living room floor and brought along a few Ugg boots for snuggling purposes.

This.....is why my dog is cooler than yours.

From the window

Taken from my living room window the other day.  The tiny dot at the top of the power line photo is an airplane passing by.  I always wonder where people are traveling to and from when I see planes in the sky.

This is Halloween weekend and the weather forecast has snow in it for tomorrow.  Really, Maryland?  How about let's keep that at a halt for now?  The fall colored leaves are still on the trees.  It's not time yet for the white stuff by any stretch of the imagination.  I didn't really want to be cold in my awesome 80's aerobic instructor costume but I'll manage.

Outtake - wind and long hair. It's not a good combination.

Here's one image from my day trip to OC.  As you can see, not ideal conditions for photo taking.  It's basically a tornado of hair. 

Good times!

More later.

OC in October

Here are a few images from my day trip to Ocean City last Saturday...

Seacrets flag

Boardwalk toward the inlet

Fat Cats - every summer my sister and I sit and watch this guy do airbrushing

Rides

Natty!

Dad observing the Corvettes

Corvette parade

Then and now

I drove to Ocean City, MD yesterday to do some photos for my friend Becky who lives down there.  I may share a few of those later on if she's ok with it but I'm still sifting through them.  So while I was in OC I visited with my dad (who also lives there).  It was a great visit!  We went to lunch at Seacrets and I even got him up on the boardwalk.  This is an extreme rarity for my dad because he is always on the go with his business and never does the 'touristy' things down there.  But I had to fill some containers of Fisher's Popcorn to take back home with me so we went to the location up on the boardwalk and walked around a bit. 

It was Corvette weekend which I was unaware of, but it became very apparent when a line of them started driving up the boardwalk.  I am not a fan of the Corvette, but it was still neat to see the parade of all different kinds.  I'll share a photo or two of that in a later entry.

For today's entry I wanted to do a 'then and now.'  I took a picture of a picture that my dad had in his place, and then took one of us up on the boardwalk.  I guess I'm probably 11 or 12 in that photo?  I have no idea.  We'll just say the difference in photos is roughly 20 years.

I love my dad.

Ladies - please try to contain your jealousy of my awesome Swatch watch and doily-necked dress.

Happy Birthday Michelle

Today is my friend Michelle's birthday.

Michelle loves Phish. 

I started listening to Phish because of Michelle (and CJ, Michelle's other half).  Last summer I went to my first Phish show(s) and wondered how I hadn't been listening to this band all along. 

Phish came back to Merriweather again this summer for 2 nights, same as last year.  It was the weekend just before my birthday.  For night one, Michelle and CJ miracled me.  I thought it was the nicest thing.  It was a great way to start off the summer and celebrate my birthday especially since this summer brought about a lot of changes in my personal life and I needed fun things to look forward to.  Being around people who care is important when you are going through some transitions.  I definitely have an irreplaceable grouping of friends in my life.

Anyway, just as I got home this evening, I thought about what to post for today in the way of a photo.  So I got out the tickets from the shows this summer because I knew Michelle would have an appreciation for the image.

Thanks for being a good friend, Michelle.  You have helped me a lot this year and I'm glad we have gotten to be close. 

......and thanks for the miracle this summer :) 

(and all that stuff I just said goes for CJ too.  you can tell him I said that.  haha)

Neil Young would probably approve

This past Sunday I paid a visit to my parent's house.  They live out in the country where there are barns, livestock, and lots of corn fields everywhere.  You can hear a lot out because the sound really travels.  Here's a good example of what I mean......while outside in their driveway getting something out of the car, I could not only hear faint music from the house all the way across the field - I could identify the musician AND the song.

Ryan Adams - World War 24.  (good song by the way)

Since the sun was starting to set I said to my mom, "I have to go photograph.  I'll be back."  With that, I grabbed my camera and disappeared into the corn field.  I had forgotten how much I miss being out in the country and how many wonderful things there are to look at through the lens. 

Once the moon appeared I thought, huh...Harvest Moon.  So that's what I called this photo. 

Happy October, people.  Carve a pumpkin or something.

Choose your own adventure

Remember those books when you were little?  The books where you can decide what you want to happen next and the character takes a different path?  Well, real life is actually like that.  Except things don't always turn out the way we expect them to even when we think we know what's going to happen down that path we've chosen.

Shit happens.

We may not be able to control what happens in life, but we certainly can control how we react.  Attitude is everything.  Instead of "why me?", the question really should be "what wonderful things are in store for me?" because tough times are the stepping stones in our lives.  You could be reading this thinking, this chick is annoying.  Positivity blah blah blah, get over yourself.  But focusing on the negative (and I've said it before), only spreads more negativity.  Wouldn't you rather be thankful for what you do have instead of wishful for what you don't?  It's tough, but it can be done.  Let this blog entry be a reminder to myself to look back on during the hard days. 

You could be here one day and gone the next.  So live in the moment cause Forrest Gump was spot on.... 

Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get.

I collect these

Dog days

Lila in her element - with a shoe.  It's the simple things.

Circles and circles, got to stop spinning

I don't have much to say about these images, other than this is something that has always caught my eye....and since they were taken at work, this is a sight I see every day.  Some might think, why take a picture of something like this?  Well, I say....why NOT take a picture of something like this?  Shapes and light.  Exactly what can make ordinary things look remarkable.  At least to me!

Anyway, now that I'm being diligent about toting my camera around with me I was able to actually snap the shot rather than think, "that would be an interesting photograph"...

In the words of Olivia Newton John...

Let's get physical.

This is me.  Post workout.  I couldn't choose an image for today so I snapped a few after my 'self created' workout today.  It consisted of this: turn iPod on shuffle, skip through til you get to fast song you want to dance to.  Dance, jumping jacks, kickbox, grab handweights, do shadowboxing with weights, dance some more.  Repeat it all.  Add other stuff too, whatever makes you sweat and feel the burn.  It's actually pretty great.  May I just say that my favorite tracks this time around were the following:

1. Happiness in Slavery - Nine Inch Nails
2. Gold Digger - Kanye West
3. Fat Chance - 311

The only thing that would've made it more fun is if I had someone in my place to have participated in a dance-off with me.  I just noticed that it looks like my left arm has a nodule or something.  Nope.  That is actually my vein.  The American Red Cross people love me.  Yay for sweaty self portrait.  Aren't you glad you clicked my blog link today?

you came in with the breeze on Sunday morning

Sunday morning coffee.  Royal Blue blend from Zeke's Coffee is divine.

and a little No Doubt reference there on the post title, just because it came to me all of a sudden and it is of course, Sunday.