A Fine Pair

JELL-O!

When it comes to Jell-O I always think of Bill Cosby and those old Jell-O commercials he used to do. Ah, The Cosby Show. One of the greatest shows ever. TV isn't the same these days. A lot of fluff out there...course, what do I know since we no longer own a TV -- haven't had one for months. I miss it sometimes but Jon's crazy addicted. He'll watch for hours.

Gorgeous flower bowls provided by Raylene Ramos. Way to go Raylene! You rock! Thanks for being so accommodating. You've got a ton of great stuff and I appreciate it so much!!!

Parfait

A perk to shooting food? Eating it afterward. And let me tell you, it was good. Real good. Antioxidant good.

Lemon Zest Custard with Blueberries

A little bit of lemon zest goes a long way. The zest was such a treat, permeating the custard with the taste of lemon. And to think I always threw the peel away before. What a waste! I'm going to incorporate lemon zest into my cooking from now on. What a delight a little bit of lemon peel can be.

Pancakes, The Quintessential American Breakfast...besides eggs

Hotcakes, flapjacks, griddlecakes, battercakes, johnnycakes...

Special thanks to Raylene for the awesome glass pitcher.

Sushi

Unlike many of my friends I'm not a fan of sushi, but these plates demanded sushi. And if a plate tells me it wants sushi then sushi it gets. It's interesting to note, though, that as I was shooting these little "delicacies" they actually started to look quite enticing. But I resisted the urge to pop them in my mouth because
1) The wraps taste fishy and I am not about fishy food,
2) I don't like the taste of the wraps, and
3) The seaweed wraps taste like fish!!

Begin Dream Sequence...

Ever get the feeling that someone's....watching you...?

Emily!

Em on her childhood swing. At least I think it's her childhood swing. It was in her backyard...so I just assumed...anyway, her mother likes this one. Or maybe it was the other swing pic...Hm. Clearly, I don't know what's going on.

Oh. LOVE those eyes. Killer stare. Absolutely killer.

These pics are long overdue on posting. I took these in May. Then got busy. Whew! This was the first shoot where I shot nearly all RAW files. And let me tell ya, RAW really is all it's cracked up to be. Much easier to work with and the pics look soooo much better as far as file quality, etc.

Plane Pics Round 2

A couple posts back, I'd posted a pic of an airplane wing. Looks like it might turn into a series. Airplane wings love me. I always get seated near them. But, then again, I always get window seats, too, so I guess that's pretty lucky. I took a few more while on a plane bound for Hawaii last week. Good times. Really good times. I didn't want to come back.
But here I am...
Pics of Kaua'i will be posted one of these days. I have a whole butt load of 'em.

Over (Oahu?)

More Oahu?

The Hills are Alive (more CO pics)

Reminds me of The Sound of Music. I can hear Julie Andrews belting out her tunes right now.

Jon and his Colorado buddies, and Max-ie!

The crew on a lovely hike through lovely trees with lovely gear.

Cottonwood Hot Springs - Colorado

I'm sure he's having a great time..the water's boiling, that's all.

Jon and I went by Cottonwood Hot Springs in Colorado a few months ago and it was such a neat place. I'd never been to anything like that before and it was immensely relaxing and enjoyable. We arrived at about 6 or 7pm, left a while later for dinner, and came back at night to watch the sky and hopefully see some stars. The place was open until midnight which I thought was awesome. We didn't stay late enough at the springs to see a sky full of stars but we did eventually get to see a night sky FILLED with stars at 3am while camping on a mountainside. I'd heard about these so-called night skies filled with glittering stars touching end-to-end but had never witnessed it until then. I'm from the city so I'd never seen such a phenomenon of stars; it was incredible. I wish I'd had all my friends and family around to experience it together. So great.

Yowzers. That really was some of the hottest water I'd ever been in. Maybe it wasn't really water. Maybe it was really fire. Add a couple of carrots and potatoes. I mean, it was cookin'!

Just a long shot so you can see the basic layout of the place. I believe they had a total of 5 pools with temperatures varying from fire-hot to cold (which is why no one's in the front-most pool pictured here. Everyone's in the back getting some heat therapy...)

This is a shot I took from the pool. It's not the most gorgeous shot taken while in Colorado but it is the one taken while at the hot springs and I wanted to use it instead of some other really pretty shots taken elsewhere.

So I was laying on my back against some flat rocks in the medium-hot pool looking up at the sky feeling completely relaxed. Jon was in the fire-hot pool so here I was, alone with my thoughts. It was just me, the sky, and the warm water. It was so peaceful. No cares, no worries about our roadtrip (since at the time we were en-route to our new residence in Washington from Texas), no thoughts of family. Nothing. It was just me...and...God? All of a sudden I felt so close to nature and God. All God. No words to speak. Just...God. My mind tried to make words out of what I was experiencing, tried to give thanks, tried to speak of the world as it was at that moment for me. But there was nothing. Just the sky, and the water, and God revealing His mighty presence to me. Jon's always told me how he feels infinitely close to God in the midst of nature and I never really truly understood what he meant until then. All of a sudden God and nature were real and close, I could've touched the sky and God with my finger, but I just lay there, caught up in the greatness of it all.

I'd seen many beautiful places before, but there was just something about that particular moment. I listened to a sermon this morning about a pastor who'd stayed in a ridiculously gorgeous 5-star hotel next to the ocean with manicured lawns, landscapes, and pools so beautiful it was like paradise on earth. The pastor went on to explain that we were made to experience beauty and enjoy the splendor of the earth. That was the way God intended it to be. He gave us nature to enjoy. I mean, think of Adam and Eve and the paradise that was the Garden of Eden before things went awry. Though we live in a crazy, chaotic world that went down the wrong path, there are still instinctive things within us that recognize what we were originally meant for. That's why moments like the one I experienced at the hot springs are so memorable. Those experiences stick out for a reason. We were made for greater things. And one of these days we'll experience it in heaven.

Black eyes are great.

Alright. So here's the deal. Last Tuesday afternoon (7/31/07) I was standing on the hood of my Altima in the garage trying to hoist myself into the attic in hopes of finding a plastic mattress cover. Why the mattress cover you ask? I'll tell you why. Because I had 2 relatives coming late that night (2am to be exact) and with them came little Lexi who's been known to wet the bed.

I'd found out earlier that the step ladder wasn't going to do it. So after jumping up and down from the hood of my car to no avail and finding myself dangling dangerously from the tiny attic opening several feet above the car hood (a last attempt to hoist myself up into the dark hole proved futile since it required the equivalent to a chin up and my arm strength just isn't there yet) I finally borrowed a ladder from the leasing office since that last "dangling, flailing leg thing" scared me just a bit and made me think, "Hmm...I just might break something. I don't think this is good..."

So where did that sweet undereye bruise come from?...Well, I'll tell you where it came from. The leasing manager lady's last words to me as I left the office with a giant ladder tucked under my arm were, "Don't hurt yourself!"

"I'll try not to!" We both giggled & laughed as I went on my merry way.
Good 'ole Altima was in the way of the ladder so I got in the car, backed it up a bit, and got out of the car, ready to get this show on the road and get that stupid mattress cover.

So. Did I fall off the ladder?
No.
Of course not.
That would be completely typical.

What I did was get out of the car and
BAM!
Rammed my FACE right into Jon's stupid mountain bike hanging upside down from the ceiling right next to the driver's side door.
-Thanks a lot-
Needless to say, my "natural" reflex took over. My right hand instinctively flew to my right eye as it scrunched up complete with an "AH!! S**T!!"
It hurt.
It stung.
It hurt and stung.
The first thing I thought was, "I'm gonna get a black eye."
And if I was gonna get a black eye, it'd better be a good one. What's the use of having one if you're not gonna go all out? I'm talkin' black and green crater all around the eye socket and into the cheek.
But noooo.
So all that for this teeny little football player undereye stripe.
And yes, I got the darn mattress cover.
And yes, Lexi did pee on the bed.
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Above names have been changed