Florida

So the trip to Florida has been kinda all over the place...to Orlando..back to Edgewater...then to Orlando...Deland...back to Edgewater!!! Oh Boy! Dave says he feels like a gypsy....first some time at his parents house, then time at my parents, then to Dave's sisters, now back to my parents. My folks built a second home in Edgewater (yeah, middle of no where) this year. So they spent turkey down here as well so we could see both sides of the family. But its been a back and forth excursion. Tomorrow its back to the west coast to fly back to LA after some brunch and min golf! So far we've been to 2 UMD basketball games, had multiple dinners, spent several nights in the hot tub, went shopping, and wine tasting. It hasn't been a bad journey.always nice to see family. We just wish we could do it in another location. We both just don't liek the Florida weather...it just should never be this warm in November! I think its supposed to be about 78 tomorrow...but soon we'll be back in our 58/34 degeree weather and I can't wait. As much as its been good to see family, I can't wait to get back to Cali.

Go Terps!

Just returned from Disney Wide World of Sports! Go Terps! They totally romped on #6 ranked Michigan State. Will be there tomorrow to see them play Gonzaga! GO TERPS!!!!

Safe Driving

For anyone reading this....please be safe driving anywhere, even in your own neighborhood! Don't let your guard down.

As most of you know I am a runner and I frequent the roads and sidewalks in my neighborhood. Tonight I was crossing an intersection. The light was green, I was in the crosswalk, and I had a walk signal. Everything that I did was correct, yet I still almost got hit by a car. Thankfully I am very cognizant of this kind of stuff because it has happened way to often. The driver decided to not hit the brakes until she was close to the light and ended up most of the way through the crosswalk. I noticed it in time to stop myself dead in my tracks.

Please, Please....make sure you stay behind the lines and crosswalks. They are there for a reason.

Let it Snow Let it Snow!

The forecast is calling for lots of chances of snow next week at mammoth (Tues - Saturday!) !!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, as I really want to be up there skiing on Dec 6th!!!!!!!!!! Come on snow!!! I can't wait to hit cornice bowl (my favorite single black).I am so itching to be on the slopes!

We will be on a plane Tuesday night heading to Florida. Oh boy! Looks like its going to be right around 70 and 50% humidity….blah!. My coworker said to me the other day "that just seems weird to go to a warm place like that for Thanksgiving". My response "Yup, I wish we could all just meet in Colorado!" . The worst part is its supposed to rain and snow while we're gone. We love it when it rains and snows here, and we're going to miss it. I am looking forward to watching the terps play on Turkey Day though. Both Dave and I will be sporting our Terps gear for the day.

Well, if anyone from Florida actually reads this and you have some free time next weekend and would like to see us, give us a call. Maybe we can meet for dinner or something.

My List of Things To Accomplish

I love Melissa Jill's 101 list, I think its such a good idea to have these type of things written down so you can check them off. So I think I may start my own. But I think I'll edit and let it grow as I think of things. Here's my int ital cut and I'm sure there are lot more things I'll ant to included. Now I am not trying to accomplished this in 1001 days. How nut my lifetime instead. Some of these I know won't be accomplished for a long time! It's not at 101 yet, but I'm sure it will be soon.

1. Travel to Asia
2. Move and settle down for good in Colorado
3. Ski in the French Alps
4. Live in Ireland temporarily (a year or two)
5. Order sample wedding albums
6. Order a sample signature book from Finao
7. Book a destination wedding
8. Travel to all 7 continents (yes, Antarctica too)
7. Run a 5K race in under 23 minutes
8. Complete an Olympic distance triathlon
9. Complete a bike road race
10. Go wine tasting in France
11. Ski a double black diamond at mammoth
12. Install crown molding throughout our house
13. Plant tress in our backyard
14. Learn to cook Thai food in Thailand
15. Hike to the top of Mt Whitney
16. Backpack the John Muir Trail
17. Go dog sledding
18. Get accepted into WPJA
19. Shoot a wedding for a stranger in another state
20. Go on a cruise to Mexico
21. Get some photos posted on a blog or in a wedding magazine
22. Hike to Machu Pichu (sp?)
23. Second shoot at least 3 more weddings for photographers I don't know
24. Complete another half marathon, that isn't Santa Clarita
25. Put molding around all the upstairs windows
26. Get patio furniture and decorate the front porch
27. Order the desk I want from Crate and Barrell
28. Install a recessed lighting fixture in the loft
29. Touch up the paint in the guest bedroom
30. Order prints and gallery wraps to decorate our bedroom
31. Find end tables and a coffee table for the family room
32. Install speakers in the loft.
33. Take Dave to a bears game in Chicago
34. Take Dave to a devil's game in Jersey

Back from Jersey…

and its nice to be back on the West Coast!

I think its pretty cool that my husband decided to randomly post something on the blog while I was gone! Maybe I can get him on here more often!

The wedding was good, check the blog for photos real soon. The rain held off until right before the reception. Although we ran out of daylight for outdoor photos. We tried to capture some with the nighttime scenery. At every wedding I learn something new. Usually something to think about to make sure the next one goes smoothly. It's a big learning process for sure. This weeks weddings lesson….ask your bride if they are having a receiving line!!!! This is the first wedding I've photographed that actually did that, and it took a lot of time away from the photographs. Also make sure you have directions to the correct location. Luckily I found this one out on Friday night. I went to the church for the rehearsal and found that there were no cars and no lights on in the church. This was because they had changed the church.

So I enjoyed Sunday with my mom. We slept in, ate breakfast, and then walked around Philly in the cold weather. We saw the liberty bell and Independence Hall. Then we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Café. We ended the night with some wine in the hotel bar.

When I got home late last night I opened the door to a wonderful surprise! Dave had cleaned up the house. How awesome. Especially since he had told me his plan was to do nothing all weekend long.

The Mysterious Dave

I've never made an entry, and as the title implies, at the very least, I am allowed to contribute, being of sound body and mind and all. (And Michele is away for the weekend, so there).

So I will only say this:

Seriously, T&P Combo is probably the greatest song ever:

"When the going gets weird, you know the weird turn pro"

Dave (Now turned pro)

Update

And the worst customer service award goes to…...…Adobe!!!

Seriosuly I think Dave and I have wasted a combined 3 hours of our life on the phone with these people.

Dave calls me yesterday and the the first thing he said was…"you owe me for dealing with these people".

Gotta love it!

But I'm finally getting The mac version of CS4. Had to pay $100 though, but I guess thast better then regualr upgrade rate.

BTW...check out www.micheleschankerphotogrpahy.com/blog if you want to see more photos from the workshop I was at.

Workshop!

I attended another photography workshop today. This time it was a wedding one. Thought I'd quickly share a photo or two. There will be more coming on my photography blog. Just keep in mind, I was one of 48 people, so I wasn't always in the best position for a great photo. I was trying to capture things, more so I would remember what we were doing throughout the day. But I am totally excited about going to WPPI. Not that I wasn't before, I'm just more excited now!

Faster and Faster

Well I brought my time down again today. I ran another 5K race, the annual City of Palmdale one. This time I finished with a time of 24:10 (about a 7.8 min per mile pace) which is about 40 seconds faster than my last 5K. So that is good. I could have been faster but my shoe lace came untied, not once, but twice. Guess I didn't double knot it like I usually do. Anyway, I'm bringing my time back down do that is good. Hopefully I'll be back into the 23 range soon. I did place second in my age group. I got smoked by the first place runner, she came in at 22 something.

So while I'm talking about exercise I though I'd share a few of my favorite healthy food choices.

1. Carbonara made with fat free evaporated milk and turkey bacon
2. Apples cut up with caramel sauce. I melt a few soft caramels in the microwave and mix in some vanilla soymilk then drizzle it over the apples. Sometimes I put crushed up pecans on top
3. Speaking of soymilk....Vanilla soymilk. It's become a staple around here, I drink it and cook with it.
4. Over fried chicken - ok its not fried, but I dip the chicken in egg beaters then shake it in a bag with breadcrumbs and old bay. Then I bake it. It's really good over salad too.
5. The corn chowder recipe I posted in a previous post - also made with soymilk.
6. My Maryland crab cakes! I mix the crab meat with egg beaters and low fat mayo. Also use some mustard and of course old bay. Can't have crab cakes without old bay.
7. Oh and I can't forget No Pudge Brownie Mix. Seriously, so good! I buy this at Trder Joes. The brownies are made with non fat vanilla yogurt and they are so moist and yummy.

Miscellaneuos Post

What's going on in Lancaster, CA.

1. We're finalizing our Thailand Trip…Yippeee. We can't wait!
2.I'm going to a wedding photography workshop this Sunday. Should be fun.
3. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad the election is over…I'm not the type to get all wrapped up in politics, and I just can not stand the bashing and the horrible ads. Sets such a bad example. I just don't get why people have to be so verbally horrible, just because they don't agree with a persons views. I pretty much never look forward to election years. I definitely wasn't meant to be a politician. Besides I think a lot of our problems reside in congress, but I won't get on that soapbox.
4. The Terps play their first game this weekend!!!! GO TERPS!
5. I fly out to NJ next weekend, then I'm home for 7 days before we both fly out to FL. Then we're home for 3.5 weeks before we go on vacation. The end of the year will be here before we know it.
6. We're taking our skis in this weekend for their yearly tuneups. I'm so excited about being able to ski soon. I wish I could be a ski bum all winter. Seriously how awesome would that be…ski every single day.
7. I decided to join the twitter nation today.
8. Looks like the high speed rail thing passed. I'll believe it when it happens though, as they've been talking about that since before we moved out here. In fact our train station was completed with high speed capability. Although I'm sure our taxes will increase as well.I just wish we could be more like Europe and have trains everywhere. It would be so cool if we could just hop on a train to go to mammoth for the weekend. I just like the way things are done in Europe so much better.
9. I hate the fact that I now have no choice but to run in the dark during weekdays. By the time I get home from work, its pretty much dark (5pm). But I do like the time change, because it means winter is just around the corner.
10. It was 39 degrees this morning when I came into work. Dave though still insists on sleeping with the window open…so our bedroom has been freezing. I swear I'm going to wake up one morning with ice cycles growing off my nose.
11. Oh, and Dave called Adobe. Didn't quite get our way, but a compromise I guess. They are going to give us a discounted upgrade rate.
12. Gee I've been posting a lot lately. Maybe I just like talking to the internet. :)

An Amazing Lady

This was passed around at work today and I thought I'd share it here. If your not familiar with the U-2 and it capabilities, it truly is an amazing plane, even though it s over 50 years old. I'm proud to be a part of what keeps this thing going.

Click below to watch.
U-2: Familiar Sentinel & Useful, Too

Yeah I Voted

...but more for the Props than anything. The nice thing was it took me a whole 20 min!!! Guess my polling place is a good one. And its at the fire station that is seriously about a 1/4 of a mile away from our house. Would have walked but this AV wind in 50 degree weather (wind chill in the 40s) was not to much fun to be in at the time. My first time voting in Cali.

Ready to Ski?

Mammoth is Open!!!!!

Yup one of the best ski resorts in the US is now open!

Wish for more snow!!!!!

WWYD?

So last week I ordered two albums from J Lee. Today I receive two boxes. I was thinking "well , why did they send them separately for". I open the first box and its the 2 albums I ordered. I open the second box and its a bunch of stuff I didn't order. I guess I need to call them or send and email and let them know. I've very sensitive to doing the honest thing lately, especially since we've had 2 incidents of fraud in the last month.