experimenting with shutter speeds. . .

just a random shot. . .

artistic approach

took this picture today while heading over to the new building. ah, spring. . .

this is a picture of my ring that i got when i was in cancun. my brother took the shot back in november and i got it from him today. he is using an extension tube instead of a macro lens. i'm wanting to get some extension tubes, but i have to wait a while, until my funds are back to par. . .

the perspective of this shot makes me laugh. i don't know why. it just does. . .

i am peter brady

you're cute, energetic, and a loyal friend to many. and while you may not have super model hair, you hold your own in grooviness.

what brady are you?

*two snaps up with a twist and a kiss. can't touch this*

i was fiddling around with the camera today and came out with this. i know it isn't that great, but i thought it looked kinda cool. . .

yesterday was such a sweet and gorgeous day. rin and i had to go to north spokane for an appointment and on the way back, we went near riverpark square and the temp was 58°f. so great. the weather is finally starting to turn warmer and the days are growing longer. this saturday, we have to turn the clocks forward an hour. yeah, i have to lose an hour of sleep, but i am gaining an extra hour of sunshine. w00t.

after we got home yesterday, i started bringing out the cushions for our patio swing and b wanted to help me with it. after we got that taken care of, i started to knock down old yellowjacket nests. i know that i should have done that in the fall, but i was lazy. i could only get one (and it was a huge one) so i have to get a bigger ladder so get to the higher eaves. i also started shaping a maple tree to a cascade style bonsai. it is still young, but it is really pliable. . .

the newest rock paper scissor game that is taking over the world. ok, maybe not the world, but certain little circles.

monkey destroys alien which in turn quenches fire. fire overcomes cockroach. cockroach kills dragon. dragon gets mad and exterminates snake. snake recovers and saturates sponge. sponge dries out and goes after nuke. nuke annihlates monkey. such a vicious cycle. wanna learn? wanna play?

my mom came across some old pictures of my twin sister and i after my son and neice were born. she wanted to prove to me that he did in fact look like me. looking at him, i don't see myself in him but in pictures, there is a resemblance. it has been said that b and e look like each other. and if so, i guess they look like me.

i want to take a picture of e and my neice like the one above. my neice looks like my sister too, except for the coloring. she has her daddy's coloring.

oh, and by the way, this picture was taken in january of '77. i know, my momma dressed us funny, but it was the 7o's, man.

i finally got one of my junipers that i had from a couple years back. I've been waiting for spring to get here so i can start back up with my bonsai.

It was a very small tree, but it has grown quite a bit. It is 3 years old. It's ok though, since i'll be able to do more shaping of it and see more of it. i don't know what style i am going to do yet. maybe a cascade? i have an idea of a cascade with an upright. i have the image in my head, but let's see if i can actually shape it that way.

i have started a photo journal for my records on the trees for this year. for each tree, i will have:

species, date aquired, contact (how i aquired the tree), propagation and age. below will be a listing of what i want to do with the tree and notes on specific things. for every tree, there will be a page on it, so i can keep track on how old it is and if it was a store bought speicman, a cutting, a seed or a graft.

there are also going to be pictures of the tree when i first get them to changes that are done to them too. mainly, i want to do this to show progression of the tree.

I have my stock in the backyard now, so i have more photos to take and more entrys to write. But what will be nice is when i don't have to guesstimate on a tree. I do know where all of mine have come from, but down the road, i'll be wondering where, when, who and what.

i should be receiving my new stock here soon. it should be sent in the next week (i hope), so that will be more into the book as well.

rin and i played a little guitar and djembe before i had to leave for bible study last night. played a few songs while the girls ate some dinner. it was quite nice. . .

this is stinking cool. . .

happy st. patrick's day. yesh, i am irish, but also italian, so i am continuely fueding with myself and it it quite tiring.

at lunch today, i was told that i looked like a leprechaun. i honestly don't know if that was supposed to be a compliment. maybe a back-handed one at most.

anyway, in honor of all things green, have a great day and stay out of trouble. can't remember who st. patrick was? find out here. . .

i went to the post office today to send a package back to it's original owners and pick up a book of stamps for rin. as i stood in line, i secretly hoped i would get the older lady that usually helps me, since she is a kindly woman. the man she was helping walked away from the counter and i was about to approach when another postal worker said, "i can help you."

i walk on up and tell him what i need. i pull out my card and hand it over to him.

"credit or debit?"

"credit."

he looks at the card and then says to me, "you have to sign this."

"it says, see identification."

"you still have to sign it."

i hold my tongue (a little). "i've never had to sign it and i've used it here before."

he looks at me and says, "you have to sign it or you can't use it here."

he hands it back along with a big fat black marks-a-lot. so i stand there, pen in hand and scribble my signature across the back of the plastic. i hand it back to him and he swipes it. then he hands me the receipt to sign and so i sign. he then takes both card and receipt and inspects each signature to make sure they match.

does anyone else see the irony in this. . . ?

i took this image on my way home from work on friday. i kinda put it on the back burner since i had church that night, and i wound up forgetting about it until i opened up my picture projects.

i was playing around with my continuous function on the camera and wound up with this of samson chasing after his ball. i know it isn't the greatest, but i was experimenting and seeing what i could do.

this picture isn't much. i just like the pattern and perspective of it.

which seinfeld character are you? cosmo kramer cosmo kramer is the next door neighbor of jerry seinfeld that just somehow wiggled his way into jerry's life. kramer borrows everything from jerry, and returns nothing. he has many zany stories and ideas. he is very outgoing and loves to make a big entrance.

Click Here to Take This Quiz brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

walking outside of work last night on my way home and saw this. i love the orange coloring from the sun. i thought it made for an interesting image. . .

we just got a new camera. here is a picture that i took today. i am still learning how to use it, so please bear with me. the guide to it has over 2oo pages and i'm still on page 48. i'm not even out of auto yet. lots to learn. lots to understand. hopefully i will have a lot of this comprehended soon. . .

our daughter, b, has been sick lately. she's had a fever that has been hovering around 1oo°f and has a progressive cough. when we sat down for breakfast, she looked at me with the most sincere face and asked, "daddy, are you going to get rid of me?"

"what? why?"

"because i'm sick."

"no, i am not going to get rid of you."

"why not? i'm sick."

"but you are going to get better. i would never get rid of you."

"ok daddy."

so, after that conversation, rin told me that she set up an appointment for b to see the doctor. so i get to the doctor's office and he tells me that i might be rsv. "great," i think to myself. not only do we have a two year old at home, but a five month old as well. he wants me to go get her tested at the hospital. the last time she went to the hospital, she had tonsilitis, and she remembers well what happened to her. needless to say, she did not want to go.

so we get to the hospital and we have to go to the lab to get tested. first, they were going to try a nasal wash. even the sound of it is wrong. that doesn't work, so they wind up taking a glorified q-tip and tell me the have to swab the back of her nasal passage. "yeah, right..." i think to myself. i have to hold her down too. so i lay across her body with my chest and grab her arms. one nurse holds her head while another nurse starts swabbing. i thought i heard b scream before, but my eardrums were pierced.

i told her that i will get her a slurpee to keep her mind off the discomfort. we got the results back too. she doesn't have rsv. the doctor now says that it is probably a virus that will run its course. today, she is feeling a lot better, but now, rin has it. . .

i've been dealing with online company (letstalk.com) for the last week now. i had to send in my new razr phone due to a faulty screen. it arrived last wednesday at quarter to 11 their time. apparently they have a 24-48 hour turn around time to send out a new phone to me. so i called on friday to make sure everything was going fine with it and when i could expect it at my house. they said that is hasn't been sent yet, but it will be by five o'clock their time and that i would receive an e-mail telling me that it has in fact been sent.

i check my e-mail at three (they are two hours ahead) and no e-mail. i check again at 3:30 and still no e-mail. so i called back and was told that it didn't make the shipment. i was then told that they will ship it out overnight on monday and that i can expect it on tuesday.

i got an e-mail over the weekend saying that my order was processed and in my e-mail, it said that it was sent via fedex overnight.

i called this morning because of some charges i had questions about and they assured me that the charges were not true. it was just a form e-mail. i wanted to make sure that it got sent out ant that it was overnight. "yes" came the response.

i checked status and it wasn't mailed yet, but it wasn't being sent overnight. so back on the phone. i told them that it was supposed to be overnight and they said that they will change that for me. i checked status again and sure enough, i still wasn't sent out. i called back to find out what is going on with my order. they told me that it just got sent out.

"was it overnight?"

"no."

i want to talk to a manager or a supervisor to file a complaint. the respone to that made no sense. "it is our policy that they don't talk to customers."

i don't believe that i did business with them. never again. rin agrees. and i will tell my friends and family the same. it is always harder to win back a customer then it is to get new customers. they are going to have to do something extremely special for me. . .

we just got back from b's first awana grand prix. there were about 25 kids that were there to race their pine cars. b did fairly well. she placed 8th and received a ribbon. she raced fives times and placed second in four of the races and first in one. she had fun and enjoyed herself. i was asked to take pictures, so of course i did.

tomorrow, b is going to her first birthday party that isn't family. the majority of the kids are from her cubbies class in awana. she is excited about that. tonight, we are laying low and just having a quiet evening at home.

rin just reminded me that our receiver is broken. so i have to start looking for a new dts receiver. fun, fun, fun. . .
____

ok...i'm a dork. one of the girls (or both of them) changed the speaker design and wound up turning off the speakers. but now, it works, so i don't have to spend money i don't have on something i don't need.

it's coming today
it's arrived...

°°°

just going through some old pictures. these were taken in cuba. the top image was taken near sanctus spiritus and the one below was taken in marti park, cienfuegos.

sunday, after church, i took b and h to go see "curious george". we got to the movie theater a little earlier then what was expected so we got our tickets and found some seats. it was h's first movie theater experience, but b's fourth. b's first was when she went and saw "shrek II" with rin when i was in india.

h kept looking around at things, but was basically subdued. i think one reason was that it was past her nap time and she was a little sleepy. b kept on asking questions and she and i kept the people behind us laughing.

finally the movie started and as soon as it did, both b and h perked up and just gazed at the screen. jack johnson's "upside down" played in the background while george was curious. i won't ruin the movie for you, but if you have read the stories, you can pretty much figure out what happens. the movie does put in little things here and there to have a plot, but for the most part it follows the books.

i'd have to say that it was a pretty decent movie, especially for being a daddy taking his girls. now, if i was on a date, nah.

when we got home from the movie, i got online and showed b and h the video for "upside down" on jack johnson's site. if you so desire, it is the third video down from here. i had to play it a couple of times for them. they even wanted to watch it again before going to bed that evening. b told me that she wanted to watch "curious george" again, but not until we buy it. she can wait 'til then. i didn't even know we were going to buy it. . .

came across this image today. makes me long for spring/summer more and more. this was taken late august 2oo5.