Pop had photos of him and Grandma made and then, if you look closely, you can see where he signed his “Love, Walter.”
Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Pop
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Cookout!
Saturday, July 4th, 2009Cookout. Julie Merry in town. Haven’t seen her in ages. Much fun had by all. Adults got sloshy. Kids stayed up til after ten.
p.s. Happy fourth of july. I love that all the people I love are free to be the wonderful people they are.
The Lake
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Todd and I had the opportunity to spend three days at the lake a couple weeks ago, sans kids. Thanks to the bravery and generosity of my in-laws, who took the kids for a week. Sure, they sent them to Vacation Bible School, and Todd and I are “jury is still out” on the whole organized religion question, but let’s be honest: They could take them to Vacation Satanic Verses School, or Vacation Pimps and Hos School, and I would be okay with it, as long as I got my little kid-free vacation.
I was so relaxed, that I didn’t even take any pictures, other than these shots I took when a storm rolled in from across the lake. Love to watch storms from the screened porch.
In the Garden
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009So, haven’t blogged about my garden much lately. I heart my garden – It is the best part of our move to the new house. For the two years that the old house was on the market, I barely grew anything in the garden. What was the point in creating a lot of garden infrastructure if I was going to move?
So, this spring, Todd and Rollie and I built a raised bed frame. So, we then took it out by the road. That is the only really sunny place in our yard, as we have HUGE old trees in the back. I love them. So, shade out back, sun in the front. I hope the neighbors don’t hate my garden right up by the road, but so far, the feedback has been positive.
We had a truckload of good soil dumped into it, and then I planted squash, cucumbers, tomatoes (including some odd ones: Lemon Boy, a yellow tomato; Mr. Stripey, a striped one; and and heirloom called Cherokee Purple), basil, bell peppers, oregano, cilantro, chives and parsley. I was so excited when I started getting blooms on my tomato plants.
And, oh God, the cukes have started coming in. We are eating cucumbers and onions in vinegar. Sliced cucumbers plain with salt, or in salads, or dipped in blue cheese dressing. The kids are loving them! They will eat sliced cucumbers as a snack. Amazing what a kid will eat if they see it growing in their own backyard. (Or front yard, as the case may be.) I even made a cucumber and radish relish. I gave cucumbers to my parents. To my inlaws. To the cool lady down the street named Harriet, who has an old Ford truck that I covet. She gave me Gardenias in exchange. I like that about my neighborhood.
And now the garden is going like gangbusters. Squash is coming in. And a buttload of tomatoes. Cukes. See all those yellow blooms? Each one is a cucumber in the making. I am going to die a sweet, sweet cucumber death!
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- Rollie liked to dance in the raised bed frame.
This was all mid-month: Things have gotten wild out there in the last couple of weeks. I will keep you posted on ultra-important Dogwood Girl garden developments! I know you are on the edge of your seats.
Morning Mayhem
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009So, I’m not getting a ton of my work done this morning, but boy are the kids having fun. Two dogs, two five-year-olds, and three, count them, three, three-year-olds, all over at the house playing.
Funny how my kids are so much more well-behaved when they have friends over.
Flowers, Sculpture, Fountains, Friends
Monday, June 1st, 2009I took the kids to the Atlanta Botanical Garden with some friends on Saturday. It was hot as Hades, although the Savannahians claimed I don’t know what hot is. Whatevs. . . .
Although I had both kids (Todd had a shoot on Saturday), I did get a chance to chat with Jason and Alison about new baby Averil, talk to Donnie, and get to know his awesome girlfriend Lisa. And the kids had a great time, too. I also took the new camera and took some pictures. Fun! Would have been more fun taking pictures sans kids, but it was a good time.
You can mouse over the photos below for captions, or see even more in my Flickr set to the right.
There is something so relaxing and centering about seeing old friends. We all turned out a-okay.
Chicago
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009So lame with the blog updates. . . just now updating on Chicago anniversary trip.
First of all, I hate flying.
We had a hard time ever leaving. Our first plane had mechanical difficulties, so they gave us another one, but we had to have our seats reassigned. Then we got on and sat at the gate for 25 minutes while they took care of a maintenance issue. Then we taxied out on the runway. Then we turned around and went back to the gate because the pilot “didn’t feel comfortable with the mechanical problems we were having.” Very reassuring. By this time, we were already an hour behind, and I was starting to worry about my Xanax lasting through takeoff, much less the landing at Midway. We got off the plane and went to different gate to reboard our third plane. Of course, we had to go through the whole boarding thing again. I popped another Xanax for good measure.
Takeoff and flight were uneventful, but when we got to Midway, we came in for landing, then before we touched down, the pilot pulled back up and said that he apologized, but he “wasn’t comfortable with conditions on the ground.” Awesome. Just let me clean up this puke on the head of the lady in front of me, and then perform surgery on the broken bones in Todd’s hand, and I’ll be ready to go again.
Second landing attempt was fine, but at that point, i was pretty exhausted from all that concentrating that I did to hold the plane up in the air.
At Midway, we got on the train to head out to Tom’s neighborhood. Tom is Todd’s friend from Auburn. I only get to hang out for snippets with Tom, but I love him. He is funny and a little strange. The first time I met him was around the time Todd and I got married, and then he has visited a few times since. We also stayed with him when he lived in San Francisco. So, Tom met us at the station and then we walked back to the apartment
(I love visiting a great walking city and Chicago fits the bill), stopping on the way to grab beer at the liquor store. That was where I first ran into my new favorite beer:
When I saw it, i got all excited, then looked at the price and said, um, no. So, i took a picture of it. But then I ended up having one later. It was great. More on that later.
It was raining that day, and so we decided to drink and grill out, so we wouldn’t have to walk in the rain. Tom lives with his girlfriend Tara, and their apartment is awesome. Kind of a 20s/30s feel, with tons of space, a porch, sunroom, living room with fireplace, bedroom, dining/sitting area, office/closet and a big kitchen and pantry. For some reason it made me yearn for city apartment living. I conveniently blocked out the fact that I have children and it would be a horrible place to live with them. In my daydream, I guess I was 25 and had a fabulous, exciting high-paying job.
We ended up running out of beer (how did that happen?) and so Todd and i offered to go back out to the liquor store. We borrowed raincoats and umbrellas and headed back to the liquor store. Did I mention that the liquor store had a dog? His name is Cosmo.
I know. Sometimes my travel posts are just about my Pet Tourette’s in a different city. . . .
We walked back in the rain. Vacation is great; even the walking in the rain toting wet bags of beer is fun. Here is Todd hiding out under the shelter of an old fire station.
So, Tom and Tara’s friends came over to meet us and grill out. We had yummy grilled meats and homemade salsas and guacamole – Tom is quite a good cook. By the time the friends all got there I was pretty toasty, but these folks, Lucas and Lizzie, still let me hold their baby, Liam.
I talked to them for a long time and really enjoyed it. One of my favorite things about travel is meeting new people. I know a lot of folks who say that their lives are too busy for keeping up with old friends, much less meeting new people, but I guess I kind of crave meeting new people. It always feels like I have been recharged the day after experiencing new people. It just feels healthy to me. I liken it to when the kids have new experiences and it’s like they are sponges that just soak them up. It is like you can see their little synapses firing after a new experience.
The boys did the grilling. I think Todd is cute when he is happy and hanging out with his Auburn boys:
Here are our wonderful hosts, at the dinner table:
Please note pots on shelf in background. Tom has done all this really great pottery, and I forgot to take pictures of it, which is a bummer. I believe he said something about trying to throw 500 pots? I don’t remember exactly, because I was drinking, but there were tons of them. Attempts to sneak one into my luggage failed
Here are Todd and Tom with some more of the guests, nice guys all:
And one more:
Hmm. Perhaps the reason i felt so “recharged” was all the men hanging around! It was definitely not the uncooperative cold and rainy weather.
There was more rain the next morning when we got up. Even though the weather channel was telling us there was not more rain. We had no idea how to dress, so, we ended up with umbrellas and rainjackets and hats and short sleeves underneath. Layers turned out to be the way to go, as it rained off and on all day.
Tom and Tara had other plans that morning, so Todd and I walked around the corner and a few blocks to Big Jones. Tom had told us that they had “good” grits and fried green tomatoes, but Tom is from Chicago, so i was doubtful. But he said fried green tomatoes and then I had to have them, even if they sucked. They didn’t! Totally the right consistency and batter. Just needed a little salt. Todd’s shrimp and grits were pretty good, too. It felt weird to eat “Southen Coastal Cuisine” in Chicago.
We walked back out into the weather to take the train to the Art Institute. I took pictures of cool signs (one of my favorite things to do, especially vintage ones. Chicago had some great ones.) I loved the wedding cake sign on this bakery:
And the handbells on these imprints in the pavement. Why handbells?
And you can never have too many shots of church signs:
The Art Institute of Chicago was by far my favorite part of the trip. I could go back and spend a week there. I will, too, because the Modern stuff was mostly off exhibit due to the new wing construction they are doing. And the Cubs weren’t in town, so i have to go back for a game.
We saw so much amazing stuff that I couldn’t even begin to name them all. It is truly a museum where you turn every corner and find another masterpiece that you doubted that you would ever see in person. One of my highlights was seeing the three Ivan Albrights on display. I could have looked at them all day. (My photos don’t do them justice.)
We saw this:
And this:
And this:
And then Todd and I split up; I wanted to see the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He wanted to see Renaissance stuff. Mine was way better.
I saw this:
And this:
And this:
See that lady with the umbrella? She is a couple feet taller than Todd. This thing is huge in person. You could spend an hour looking at it from afar and another hour staring at each little detail up close. See? Here is the monkey:
Check this out:
And this!
Oooh!
Ah!
I really was pretty blown away. My pictures don’t do justice to the individual works, and they certainly don’t reflect the sheer numbers of awesome things we saw. They have whole rooms of Gaugin and Monet. One of the funniest exhibits was a paperweight collection. Who knew paperweights could be so beautiful and varied?
It was just the best way to spend an afternoon. I didn’t want to leave.
Wooh. I think this is going to be a two-parter. . .
Well, Duh, Mom.
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Tiller girl
Me: “Um, Tiller, what happened to the skirt you were wearing?” She was wearing a pair of jeans.
Tiller: “I didn’t want to wear it anymore.”
Me [wary of possible hazmat incident]: “Why not?”
Tiller [matter of factly]: “Because I was going to be a koala bear and my legs would get hurt.”
Oh, of course!
Eight Years
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009I can’t believe we’ve been married for eight years. The time has just flown by. It really goes warp speed once you have children, too. For our anniversary, we went to visit our friend Tom in Chicago. He lives with his girlfriend Tara (she is awesome!) and it was great to hang out with them. It was also great to spend a couple of days with no kids, just me and Todd on an adventure together.
Todd is my favorite person to travel with – he is easygoing, calm, and organized. He usually plans ahead, figuring out the main sites he wants to see, but is always up for detours and unscheduled adventures. He also always makes sure that I find my way to where i need to go. He gets the tipsy Dogwood Girl in the cab, and he holds the fearful Dogwood Girl’s hand when the plane does funky stuff.
He is my best friend. He is my partner in life. He is a wonderful Dad, patient and fun, and he also kicks ass at Jeopardy and trivia.
Did I mention that he is awesome? Did I mention that I would love him even if he didn’t take me on cool trips and buy me the digital camera that I have wanted for years now?
Because I would. I would totally still love him.
But the return on this weekend and my awesome gift will be pretty damn good. That’s all I’m sayin’ about that.
Took lots of photos of Chicago trip and I’ll post about it later.
Todd. I love you.
Not So Great
Monday, April 27th, 2009At posting in real time when on vacay. We are having a wonderful time, though, and come home tonight. Took a lot of photos, so you might be able to check them out on my Flickr feed (over to the right) if I get around to uploading them before I leave.