My First Photoshoot

A coule weeks ago, Michelle emailed me to see if I was interested in taking some family portraits for her dad’s 60th birthday. At first I didn’t know what to say since I had never done it before but agreed since it would be good experience and there was no real pressure.

So, yesterday, we all went to the park across from her parents’ house in Fountain Valley and took some shots. It was about 3:00 pm in the afternoon (DST) and there were plenty of trees, rocks, hills, and a lake. It was actually pretty fun but a little challenging trying to keep both Ryan and Michelle’s brother, Eric, in line. It was either Ryan making faces or Eric giving us the “Chandler smile” in every photo. We ended up with a few good shots with good lighting but the deciding factor for whether a photo turned out right was the look on Eric’s face. Were his eyes open? Did he have a squint? Does he look like he’s in pain? It was pretty funny.

Here are some for you to see…

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stupid bugs

Apparently my latest theme has some bug that keeps people from commenting.  Brother just told me he tried to post a comment and got a blank page.  It turns out to be the theme I’m using so we’re back to an old one for now until I can resolve the problem.  You should be able to post comments now.

Dog is smart.

In the last two weeks, we’ve had a couple thefts…

THEFT #1:  Last week, we ordered Domino’s Pizza.  It was half pepperoni and mushroom (my half) and half sausage and jalepenos (Jes’ half).  I ate two slices and Jes ate three.  The next morning, I went downstairs to pack a slice for lunch and discovered only one slice of sausage and jalepeno left.  I thought, “D00d, fatty…didn’t even leave me a slice of the pepperoni and mushroom!”  In the afternoon, I came home from work and confronted Jes about his late-night snacking.  Apparently, he had gone downstairs that night for a late-night snack and found the box of cinnamon breadsticks upside-down on the floor and one slice of sausage and jalepeno in the pizza box.  We compared stories with the usual “I didn’t eat it, I thought you did” and realized that neither of us ate the remaining two pepperoni slices.  IT WAS THE DOG!!  He managed to climb up onto the dining table, eat the two slices, leave the one remaining slice in the box, and close the box!  We were duped.  It was obviously too late to punish the sneaky dog and all we could do was shake our fists at him and say, “sneaky dog!!”

THEFT #2:  This evening, Jes prepared the two remaining steaks from our BBQ on Saturday.  We ate only the equivalent of one steak with parts of the remaining steak (fat and scraps) in Koa’s bowl and the other part on the foil, on the plate, on the kitchen island.  Two hours after dinner, I went downstairs for a drink and discovered the foil on the floor completely cleaned off.  There was no steak in sight.  All I found was the foil and a dog under the dining table licking his lips.  HE ATE THE STEAK!  The steak was way too high for him to reach and if he could, we’d expect him to knock the plate down with the steak and foil.  But no, he’s too sneaky for that and now we’re standing around scratching our heads and shaking our fists at the dog once more.

*sigh*  Dog is smart.

That was hard.

I went to my painting class today unsure of what to bring for my third painting. I was hoping to keep with the tropical theme so Jes suggested that I take the pineapple that we had on the dining table. I thought, “uh, that’s going to be really hard.” But I took it anyway and it WAS hard. My instructor tried to help me out all along the way but there’s just so much he can do without painting it for me. It actually started out standing straight up but the instructor decided to tilt it half-way through my painting! So I spent another half hour trying to tip my pineapple over by covering parts up with more paint and fixing the shadow. This piece was certainly the most challenging and tiring but I’m glad that after three hours I ended up with something that pretty much looks like a pineapple. I was just happy to be able to bring it home and feel comfortable enough to say “eh, good enough” and call it a day. Here’s the finished product:

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By the way, I’m SO done with painting fruits. Next week we’re starting on landscapes. Woo Hoo!!

What time is it?

Sunday marked the first day of Daylight Saving Time, which is whole month earlier than usual. My sleep schedule has become so messed up. Yesterday I woke up for work but felt really crappy…sniffles, headache, and sore neck. I got to work a little late, did a little work, and ended up going home at 11 for a nap. I woke up at 12:30 in time for my 1:00 appointment but on the way there my driving was making me really nauseous. So, I turned around, got home, and crawled back into bed. I slept until 4pm and stayed up until about 1:00 am this morning.

Fortunately, I woke up at 7:00, felt much better, and actually got to work on time. The weird thing is that I can’t seem to remember which clocks have been changed and which ones haven’t. So I’m constantly asking, what time is it? Am I early or late? It also doesn’t help that I didn’t wear my watch today, which has the correct time on it. *sigh* I hate DST. Springing forward never works to my advantage. I don’t care if it’s still light out when I’m driving to my painting class. It’s still 6:30.