New Blog Design

They rolled out a new template designer here at Blogger, so I decided to change the overall look of my blog (I'll change my other one(s) soon.)

If I can't visit the beach, I can at least look at it. *smile*

A Sunny Saturday At Oakland Cemetery

It's been a long time since I've posted to this blog, because most of my posts lately have been predominantly photographs I've taken recently. And that's what this blog post is about, but I probably won't post any pictures right now, because I still have to sort and post process them, and that's going to take a while.

At any rate, Monica and I participated in the I HEART Faces Photo Walk at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta this morning, from 9 - 11 AM (give or take 30-45 minutes each end.) It's amazing how several hours walking around on a hot, HUMID day can just knock you right out (I just woke up about 30 minutes ago from a several hour nap!) It was a lot of fun though, and interesting to meet some other photographers from the area.

After the walk, Monica and I left the rest of the walkers, the majority of whom were meeting up at Six Feet Under for a post-walk lunch, and met up with Amy and Jason at Little Five Points to enjoy our own lunch together at Vortex Bar & Grill. After lunch we walked around Little Five Points, visiting a couple of the local shops, before returning to our respective homes, where Monica and I passed out. We both needed the rest though, Monica especially, who is battling a sinus infection.

All in all it was a good day out, and after I work my magic on the pictures in Photoshop, I will post some of my favorite ones, so stay tuned.

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Anna Ruby Falls

Larger Re-Touches From Watson Mill Bridge State Park

More Random Pictures

Home Sick...Again

Well, today is the 2nd day in a row I've been home sick from work. I feel better than I did yesterday, but after another rough morning, there was no way I was going to go into work today. My ASM called a little while ago and asked if I was coming in tomorrow, and I've already committed myself to doing so, sick or not. Too many important things happen on Friday, most of which I'm responsible for. And while I know others can handle them, more or less, I would rather do them myself. Hopefully I'll be feeling back to normal by then, or tomorrow will be another day like Monday and Tuesday at work. *sigh*

At any rate, it would seem that Monica may be coming down with the same thing that slipped past my defenses (an extremely rare occurrence, since I almost never get sick.) She was feeling rough this morning, and has sent me text messages periodically throughout the day, telling me that she's feeling worse. Hopefully she hasn't caught the same thing I had, but it's starting to look that way. We'll just have to play things by ear, and see how she's feeling tomorrow. Maybe it will be HER turn to take some sick days off work *sigh*

It's been kind of rainy today, and I've had cabin fever from spending the past 2 days indoors, so I tried to take a cheery photo of the outdoors; the view through one of the side windows on our front door. Monica got this "Welcome" statue with cardinals on it the other day at the Dollar General. We both like cardinals, and they always remind her of her mom. So here they are, drenched in winter rain, welcoming all those who darken our doorstep.

NOW The Sun Comes Out

I went to meet Clare and the kids at Memorial Park today, braving the finger numbing temperatures and overcast skies that threatened freezing rain at any moment. It was SUPPOSED to have been bright and sunny, and around 40 degrees in Athens today, but it was nowhere near that this morning! Now of course the sun is shining blindingly bright, and I'm sure the temperature's warming up to above freezing, but it wasn't so when we were wandering through the park with our cameras, kids in tow. We had an enjoyable time though, even if it was brief due to the cold, and we stopped in and had lunch together at Moe's which was nice. I don't get to see Clare and her family as often as I did when I lived just up the road, so it was nice to meet up and spend some time with them.

Anyway, I didn't take many pictures, and they didn't come out as well as I would have liked them too because I'm still getting used to the new camera, but with a bit of retouching in Lightroom and Photoshop, they're not too bad. Here are a few of the better ones. Enjoy.

What I'll Look Like When I'm Bald (And Blue)

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

New Camera...Pictures Coming Soon

I got my new camera today, and I'm itching to try it out. I just need to get some time off when it's not raining! *sigh* I want to go back to Watson Mill Bridge State Park and take some more pictures of the covered bridge, but I would like to find some cool places closer to Athens/Winder to go and take pictures. I'm sure I'll go to Fort Yargo at some point, probably when the weather gets a bit better, but if anyone knows of any good photo locales, please let me know.

Stay tuned, I'll post pictures as soon as I take some new ones! :)

Winter Solstice

So today marks the advent of a couple things. First and foremost, today is the first official day of winter, the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. The season has finally arrived, despite the fact we've been experiencing winter-like temperatures for some time now (interspersed with the spring-like temperatures of course!) At any rate, winter is upon us, and it looks to be a pretty intense one this year, with the weather patterns we've been experiencing very similar to the ones that preceded the "blizzard" of 1993. So stock up on firewood, make sure you have plenty of canned foods to eat, and candles to burn, and set aside a stash of good books to read, because if the rumors and portents are true, this is going to be a winter to be reckoned with.

Today also marked the official 3 year anniversary of my employment with OfficeMax. Now I have mixed emotions about this fact. To be sure, I'm extremely glad to have a steady job in this time of economic uncertainty, but I can't help but wonder if this is as good as it's going to get. I'm currently working for a salary that's less than what I started at 3 years ago, when I knew little about the position, and was completely inexperienced with running a commercial print center. Since then I have run the print centers in 2 different stores, but with my transfer to Athens, budget cuts within the company (i.e. - no raises this year), and my temporary step down from Supervisor to Associate while Stacey was still running the place, I took a salary hit that I still haven't recovered from, and it doesn't look like things will get much better in the new year.

So, do I stay with my present employer, and try to "convince" HR to pay me, if not what I'm worth, at least what I was earning before I transferred (and preferably a bit more, if we actually get raises in the coming year), or do I set out once again in search of a new career and a better lifestyle? Three years is the longest I've ever worked for a single company, and it's been nice to have an employer that seems to care about its employees at least somewhat, but I've got to be moving on if I've hit a fiscal glass ceiling.

I would like to go back to working from home, doing things that I enjoy and working on my own terms. I want to pursue photography as a serious hobby, and possibly a career. I think I could be good at it once I received the proper training, and gained the knowledge to move on from taking "snapshots", to shooting "portraits" (in the overall professional sense, not just shooting portraits of people.) Years ago, my mother gave me a book entitled Do What You Love, And The Money Will Follow, and that's just what I want to do. I love photography, and I want to strive to be better at it. Monica also shares a love for photography, and I think it's something that we could be good at together, and possibly turn into a money making venture.

So as this year comes to a close, it's time to reevaluate my situation, and decide where I want my life to go from here. I'm not getting any younger, and it's time I took back control of my life, and started walking a new path towards a brighter and more enjoyable future. I know I'm destined for more than this. I just need to find the key that unlocks the door...

We're Ba-ack!

Enough said. Woohoo!!!

Mandi Mandibles

My new blog header image is of a large (about 6") preying mantis that was clinging to the outside of our house, beside the window over the front door. It has been given the name of Mandi Mandibles (or just Mandi for short), and is one of our new guardian spirits. It's watching over us and our house, keeping us safe (or at least keeping the bug population to a minimum.)

Anyway, we're getting settled in our new house now, but things are still quite chaotic. The garage is full of boxes (and probably will be for a while), and we have a lot still to do, but we're taking it a day at a time. We still have some stuff at the old place too, but we'll pick that up soon.

We don't have Internet access at the house yet, so we have to come down to Monica's dad's house (14 houses down from ours) to use the Internet. But I hope to get us back online this week some time.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and to those of you who are joining us for the ASL walk, we'll see you next Saturday! Peace.

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

To thee we'll soon draw nigh...

The End Is Near

This whole home buying saga is nearly at an end (or more technically a beginning, I suppose.) After weeks of dragging things out, the lenders (and everyone else involved), have finally locked in a time and date for the closing. As of 4 PM next Thursday (or whenever all the paperwork is finished and everything finalized), Monica and I will officially be home owners. :)

I wish we would have closed this past Tuesday (or last Tuesday) like we were supposed to, because I wanted to be IN the house on Halloween, not MOVING IN, but at least we'll be in by the end of the month (AT the end of the month actually!) It's been a long, stressful process (more so for Monica, because she's been the main one dealing with everything), but it's finally coming to an end.

Once we get settled in the new place, we're going to have a house warming party at some point, so those who want to can come visit us. Stay tuned for more details on that.

That's it for now. I have to get back to my Web coding, but I wanted to update this blog with some good news for a change. Have a great weekend everyone! :)

More Hoops To Jump Through

Today, after I got off work, I had to zip up to HD to pick up Monica, then fly over to Regions Bank to get a print out of an account summary, then take it BACK to HD so Monica could fax it to the FHA people. Earlier today we were informed that we were one of the "lucky ones" that were "chosen at random" to undergo an audit, with regard to our loan. Lucky us! We did find out that we have until the end of NEXT month to take advantage of the $8K new home buyer credit, but the plan was to be out of our current place by the end of THIS month, when our lease runs out. Supposedly this is still possible, but we were supposed to close on the house tomorrow, and it's only been, what, a MONTH since they accepted our offer?!? This whole process is really starting to tick me off.

What's next, jumping through literal rings of fire? I wouldn't be at all surprised.....

Rainy Day Blues

Hello all. I know it's been a long time since I've written on this blog, a fact that I intend to remedy once we get settled in the new place. It might be a little while though, because we still don't have a definite closing date yet. We're still hoping for this coming Tuesday, but that's looking less and less likely as each hour goes by. We HAVE to close before the end of the month, or we lose out on the $8,000 first time home buyer credit. And then we'll probably have to sue someone, because they delayed the process too long, and cost us that money. We're not really the "suing" type, but the offer was accepted in the middle of September, so this is getting a little ridiculous. I think it's about time to start applying thumb screws to certain individuals, to speed this process along. But it's not Tuesday yet, so they still have time to enjoy the use of their thumbs...

On another note, I'm really sick of all this bloody rain! (No, not rains of blood, that would just be messy. "Bloody" as in "This rain bloody well needs to stop!") Yes, I know most of you knew what I was talking about, but I was trying to inject some of my twisted humor into these proceedings, to lighten up the depressing mood said rain has inspired in many of us. *smile* Monica thinks that all this rain will turn to snow this winter, and that we're going to have a severe season of inclement weather. I hope she's right, as long as I don't have to drive in it, and the power stays on in our new home. (At least we'll have a fireplace again, to keep warm if/when we DO lose power. I'm really looking forward to that!)

This week has been an interesting one at work too. We had a shoplifter on Monday or Tuesday (who I'm fairly certain has been in to pinch stuff multiple times in the past), and the individual made the mistake of coming back in yesterday (Friday), and using the same technique to try and steal 2 more 10-packs of blank CDs (he stole 2 of them earlier in the week too.) This time though, we recognized him, knew his method of operation, and were able to catch him before he left the store with any merchandise. The police were called, and they escorted him from the building and took him home to his mother, but no charges were filed this time. He has been banned from our store though, and if he makes the mistake of coming back in, it's off to jail for him.

I've been finding the packaging for all sorts of stolen items around our store lately, so we've obviously had multiple people stealing things. If they would only issue us tasers, we could put a stop to that! hehe I'm just kidding. I'd be happy enough to be given permission to use the telescoping, flexible metal baton I carry with me in my bag. Getting hit would that would definitely deter ME from trying to steal anything, that's for sure! I doubt management would approve though, somehow. lol

Anyway, Monica is in the other room taping up boxes to start packing more stuff in, so I'm going to go see how she's doing. I'll try to write more soon, but in the meantime, have a great weekend, and try to stay dry. And happy belated birthday, Josh! I hope you and Clare had a nice time out last night. :)

Soon...

It looks really weird in this picture, but oh well. :-)

Stormy Night

Well, as most of you know, it's been raining for days, and it looks like it's going to keep on raining for a few more days still, before we get some drier weather. Now while most of this rain has been light to moderate, without any lightning, thunder, wind, etc. (namely dreary and depressing), tonight we've had some decent lightning.

Photographing lightning has always been something I've been interested in, and tonight I got my first shot of some actual lightning bolts. They're not great, and the quality isn't stellar because my camera is not high end (I REALLY want a nice dSLR!), but I still managed to capture a lightning strike by setting a 30 second exposure time with an ISO speed of 80, an aperture value (f-stop) of 2.7, and a focal length length of 5.2 mm. Here is the resulting picture that I captured.

Back In The Saddle Again

Or at least the driver's seat! I got my car back today. (Thanks, Paul!) Monica, Louise and I drove to Alabama to meet up with Paul and Kristi, to drive my car, which Paul so kindly fixed for me, back home. It's good to be behind the wheel again, and even though it was a 3-4 hour drive back home, I didn't mind it one bit (except for all the police that were out and about.)

Paul still has our other Saturn at his shop, and will work on it as time allows, but we're back to 2 cars again, which is good, because the clutch on Monica's truck is about to go out, and I'll probably be driving HER around in the near future! *sigh* At least we work the same shift a few days during the week, so we can carpool and give the truck a bit of a break (and save on gas money too.) So all in all, things have improved.

On the home front, we put a new offer on another house yesterday (since we lost the first one to a cash offer), and should know something one way or another by Friday. This isn't the type of house I thought we'd move into, but it's only a few years old, and it's completely "move in" ready. Nothing, that we know of anyway, requires any work, and we can move in and start living straight away (as soon as we figure out how to get our large, heavy furniture up all of those stairs!)

Anyway, I'll have more information on that front later this week. Have a great Labor Day everyone, and stay safe. Peace.

Wanting To Get Into The Wild

I watched an excellent movie tonight. It's called Into The Wild, and it's based on a true story, and the book written by Jon Krakauer. Sean Penn directs the movie, and it features evocative music by Eddie Vedder, and amazing scenery from Alaska and various other states around the country. It's the kind of movie that really makes you take a close look at your life; where you're heading, and where you've been.

I really want to read the book now, because although the movie was amazing, movies can rarely hold a candle to the written word, and I think there's a lot more to the story that just couldn't be covered in the 2 1/2 hours on the DVD.

But if you're looking for a moving, thought-provoking movie to pass the time, be sure to check out Into The Wild. I think you'll be glad you did.