Weekend of Jan 24th

Well, I haven't done this in a while…A Schanker weekend recap!

My husband was a complete champ this weekend…I really start to feel stressed when the house is dirty and out of order…yeah a little OCD I guess…I just like a clean house. But I had a lot on my plate. I have hundreds of wedding photos to go through from my last wedding. Thankfully they have been very understanding with the holidays and our big vacation. But now its time to get to work! I got a few hundred done this weekend, but I still have so many more to do. I spent a few hours cleaning and organzing the office. This is the one room of the house that just gets out of control. But cleaning and organizing meant that I didn't edit as many photos as I would have liked. As soon as my new desk arrives…I'll be able to completely separate out the photography stuff from the office. So that should really help. I hope.

So as I was saying…Dave did a great job cleaning up the house this weekend.

Friday - was my day off..I I left like I spent most of it sitting there in awe of my new computer. : ) In other words I spent a lot of tim on the internet becuase I love my new computer.

Saturday night we cooked on the grill…despite the cold weather…then played Olympic Games on the Wii. That was intersting. My best event was running..go figure!

On Sunday..I edited photos in the morning and afternoon. Then we went to visit some friends of ours. We ended up eating dinner there and then played some Wii at their house. We brought over the Olympics Game. It was funny how some of us excelled at differnet things. I think we each set a world record at one some point in the game. I'll give you one guess what I set a world record at…Yup running (100m). I was Yoshi…he can run!

So we are really hoping to be skiing soon. Mammoth recieved about 5 feet of snow in the last few days. And we have free lift tickets to use!

and the Adobe mess continues...

Can you believe…its been like 4 months and I'm still fighting with Adobe over photo shop! Ergghh!

Think its about time to place my official complaint to Adobde and the BBB and just buy Photoshop again…as I need it and Adobe is being nothing but jerks about it. I'm not getting anywhere.I just don't want to sped the $$$.Especially since I only bought CS3 back in March 2008. The frustrating thing is that I keep getting the same form email from them…I can't get someone to write me an actual email. And calling them doesn't help one bit..you just end up wasting about an hour of your day. I really hate horrible customer service!! If you go on their forums site at adobe.com its loaded with CS complaints…I guess I'm not the only one who thinks their CS stinks.

I'm so excited to fully be a Mac now…ever since I got my macbook pro, I have just been so happy. I have learned I really like macs. The exciting thing is to have such a streamlined workspace. No more messy cables everywhere. I will have my mac, wireless keyboard, wireless mighty mouse and my all new Wacom Tablet. Everything isn't all set up yet, but I'm just so excited about it all. Yippee! I love things clean and organized so this will make things very clutter free for me. (I think everyone that has ever been to our house, knows how I hate clutter). I won't even leave our Wii sitting out. (hehehe). I even order the desk I've been wanting so once that comes everything will be ready to go for me.

Can't believe WPPI is less than 4 weeks away…so I get another week off of work soon and I get to play in Vegas while I learn about photography. I'm pretty stoked about all of that. And I’m excited that we are staying at MGM signature for the same price as MGM. The signature is totally awesome anyway.

More Views from Bangkok

Thought I'd share a few more random photos from Bangkok and the surrounding areas.

I think I need a new personal blog, so I can show bigger photos! Something to work on when I get some free time, i guess.

Dave... Cook?

Yeah he does it from time to time, but usually when I am awfully sick or something. Here's the proof he cooked in Thailand.



We had a lot of fun taking this class and I so can't wait to cook some of it on our own at home. I'm especially excited since I just learned there is a small Asian market right near our house!

Brideg over Bangkok

I'm not sure what it was about this bridge, but I fell in love with it. I shot it in several different ways while on a river boat in Bangkok.

When will it all be over?

I have traveled to Europe three times...and the jet lag never makes me this bad. It must be something about getting into double digit time differences or else that stupid date line! I am very ridiculously jet lagged. So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and was wide awake...so I went to work early. I crashed about 9am..which was about midnight in Bangkok. I suffered the rest of the day and left at 3pm. Dave was working from home so we both decided to take a nap...the nap lasted 3 hours! In fact I made us get up, because there would be no way we would sleep tonight. I'm still exhausted and want to go to bed....seriously I just want to be back to normal again.

To Many Hours of Traveling

This is what I looked like when we got to LAX! Like total crap! We woke up at 5am Bangkok time to go to the airport. We arrived at LAX at noon, which was 3 am Bangkok time! Ouch! No wonder I look so bad!

Sunset in Phuket

Yeah I'm not going in order at all!

Anyway, my friend Brenda and I were enjoying some time on the beach in Phuket. We got to watch the sunset. The cool thing was some people decided to play Frisbee right by the water as the sun was setting. Here's a couple of shots.

LopBuri Monkeys

We visited this town on New Years Day called LopBuri. It's known for the monkeys that pretty much run the town. They are all over and they are not afraid of people. Of course they get fed all day by people, so I wouldn't be afraid either. Here's a few shots from LopBuri. The town also has lots of ruins to visit.

Thailand Recap

10 Airplanes
1 train (don't take the train in Thailand)
3 planes either changed or booked at the last minute (very easy to do in Thailand)
6 different hotels
4 Islands
Countless Monkeys and Elephants
Fed one baby tiger
Two Elephant Rides
10 different cities and beaches
Rode 2 Tuk Tuks
Many taxi rides
Met people from Australia, Ireland, Italy, India, Finland, Norway, Sweden, England, and I'm sure many other places as well.
Lots of Buddhas and Temples

Lessons Learned:
1. Don't take the train...and if you do..only take 1st class. The Trains just weren't like European trains at all. In fact we changed our plans to fly instead of taking an overnight train after our first train experience. We were on a 2 hour second class train and it was not a lot of fun. The bathroom was something to avoid!

2. For females...take toilet paper from your hotel room. Seriously its a BYOTP country. Lots of places either don't have toilet paper or they charge for it. Also most of the toilets are basically just a hole in the ground. The bucket of water is for flushing (took me a few toilet visits to figure that one out).

3. It's very easy to change your airline reservations. They don't even charge you as long as they have fares of the same rates available.

4. Don't take the Tuk Tuk!!! It's lots of fun, but they want to take you all over the city for there free gas deal and you spend more time shopping for custom clothes and jewelry.

5. If your going to Chiang Mai and you want some custom clothes...do it here...so much cheaper.

6. Be willing to negotiate..cut there price in half! Tell them its your best offer and walk away...90% of the time they will take it.

My Wonderful Gift From Santa

SO I never got to share what a great husband Dave is. He did something so unselfish and wonderful for me for Christmas. Back in November when I went to New Jersey to shoot a wedding, Dave kept busy by betting the horses through TVG at home. I called him during the day and he tells me how he won big on a race. So I told him to keep the extra money aside to take to Vegas in Feb. And he agreed.

So I have this big box under the tree on Xmas morning and I open it last. To my surprise it is the latest and greatest MAC cinema display that I can hook up to my macbook pro! He decided instead of keeping the money for Vegas that he wanted to do something for me and bought me this Kick A** display!I was pretty darn shocked. Seriously that was a very nice gesture and something he totally didn't have to do. I love him so much!

Krabi - my favorite location

Day 15 - we arrived to our splurge hotel! We each had a room with a spa on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Seriously awesome! The resort was great and so were the rooms. We spent most of the day there, playing in the pool and kayaking in the ocean. Dave and I found this little cave in the ocean and kayaked through it. That night we went into town and had dinner and did some shopping.

Day 16 - Dave and I booked a kayaking tour to some caves. This was really cool. To kayak to and through some caves off of a river was really sweet. After our Thai lunch we went to a fresh water swimming spring. It had a rope swing too, which was a lot of fun. That night we met up with our friends for dinner in town.

Day 17 - The previous day we discovered that our flight time was a lot later then we through. Wish pretty much gave us all day in Krabi. So we hired a long tail boat to island hop in. The captain took us all over the place. We ended up at one beach in the middle of the ocean, it was kind crowded so we asked him to take us somewhere else. We ended back at this really cool island. Its basically two small islands connected by a sand bar. We swam there and fed more fish. I think this was my favorite part of the day. Being out int he middle of the ocean in our own boat was way cool. After island hopping we went back into town to eat some lunch and finish up our shopping. Dave and I bought two elephant paintings for our house. I can't wait to get them framed. Then it was back to the hotel for some pool time before heading to the airport.

Day 18 - Time to come home! We were up at 5am Bangkok time to get to the airport. Our flight left at 8:30, well 9am really since there was a short delay. We got into LAX at noon (PST) which was 3am the next day in Bangkok. We slept on these flights, just not as much as going out there. So right now we are super groggy and I'm hoping the stuff I wrote has made sense. If not, I'm sure I'll fix it tomorrow.

I hope to have a few photos posted tomorrow.

The Island of Phuket

This is a place we were glad we saw, but glad we didn't stay a very long time. The island is just beautiful, but super touristy...especially Patong Beach.

on Day 13 we arrive around 1pmish to the island. Our taxi cab driver was trying to talk us into staying at another hotel. But once we go there, we all through he was just crazy. It was beautiful! Yes it sat up on a cliff, but you had your own villa and there was a path that led to Karon Beach. So we spent the remainder of the day playing on the beach. Brenda and I took sunset photos too. When we finally went back to the hotel, we discovered Dave and Mark jumping off the waterfall into the pool....oh boy...then they talked Brenda and I into it too. I think technically the pool was closed so there was no one around to yell at us.

Day 14 - We took a snorkeling tour to Koh Phi Phi...another beautiful island. The snorkeling was wonderful! Some of the most colorful fish I've ever seen. Much better than Hawaii. They drove us by Jame Bond island (I think this is the area where te movie the beach was filmed)...this is when my day went sour. I was taking photos and my SLR started to read error 99! Oh no! Yup, some failure with my camera and it didn't work for the rest of the trip. Luckily I had a point and shoot with me, but that is just so hard to use when your used to your awesome SLR. The afternoon was spent on an island int eh middle of nowhere. We swam, snorkeled, fed fish, and threw the football around. That night Dave and I went to Patong Beach and ate dinner in the sand again.

DAy 15 - We caught the 8:30am ferry over to Krabi, our last stop of the trip.

The Rest of Chiang Mai

On Day 10 we also hit up the Night Bazaar and did lots of shopping. I'm super excited about some of my purchases. I think I could have shopped forever in Thailand.

Day 11 - This was the day we took an outdoors tour. We hiked through the jungle for a few hours through some Thailand tribal communities. Then took a 1 hour elephant ride. Our elephant wasn't behaving to well. He really wanted to eat...all the time! Next was a trip down the river on a bamboo raft. Quite peaceful, but really neat. That night we returned to Chiang Mai and went to the night safari. Basically a night time zoo. Except the animals are not all caged up. The exciting thing was for 250 baht (about 7 dollars) you could hold and feed a 4month old tiger. It was really cute.

Day 12 - we took another tour - this time to the local national park. We went tot eh highest point in all of Thailand...at a whole whopping 8000 feet! We saw some sights in the park and also visited a hill tribe where we got to watch them spin yarn and make scarfs and other things. That night it was back to the night bazaar, but after Mark and Dave played some ping pong at a local hotel.

Day 13 - We decided instead of staying in Chiang Mai the entire day we'd catch an earlier flight to Phuket to give us some extra time there. So we were off to the airport once again at about 7am.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Day 4 continued - The one thing I had my heart set on while in Thailand was to eat right on the beach with our feet in the sand. So we wet out to Chaweng Beach and walked up the beach. We found this super cute bar. They had bean bag chairs set out on the sand with small little tables, so we enjoyed a drink while watching all the other tourists light off fireworks and Thai Lanterns. The lanterns are basically a form of a hot air balloon...the thought it that it is supposed to bring good luck. After our drink we moved on to a cute resturant with table set up right in the sand! Loved it! I think these are some of my best memories of the entire trip.

Day 5 - New Years! Today we were able to change our flight to an earlier flight. So we got back to Bangkok around noon. We reserved 4 nights at the Sofitel. For some reason we were given corporate check in and our rooms were upgraded to a suite! Not bad, huh. The location was great for new years since there were lots of pubs on the street and a huge new years party was just 2 stops down on the skytrain. So Dave and I had dinner, some drinks, then headed to Central World for new years fireworks. Our friends arrived at 11pm on new years, but we must have missed them by like 5 or 10 minutes at the hotel.

Day 6 - We planned to meet our friends in the lobby. We had breakfast then wandered to the train station. We took a train to Lop Buri. The train was interesting, but I'll write more on that later. Lop Buri is known for the ruins and monkeys that totally run the town. It was insane...3 of us had monekys jump on us while we were there. My firend Branda had 3 monkeys on here at one time! Photo coming soon!

Day 7 - We took a tour to the floating markets (a Thai market done on long tail boats), the death railway bridge, and the Tiger temple. That was awesome as we got to pet tigers. The downfall was they wouldn't let me take my own photos of Dave with my camera. They took my camera and took photos...of course they don't meet me standards at all. I was kinda disappointed in that.

Day 8 - Time to go to the Ancinet Capital of Ayythuya (sp?). This used to be the capital of Bangkok a long time ago...so know there are lots of ruins there. We took a lunchtime boat ride back to the city.

Day 9 - This was a day on our own to explore Bangkok. We saw the Grand Palace and the reclining Buddha, along with some other sights. We also ate dinner at this hotel on the 17th floor overlooking the city. The food was great! That night we were supposed to travel by overnight train to Chiang Mai, but after our Lop Buri train we decided we would rather fly...so we cancelled the train tickets and booked a last minute flight to Chiang Mai for the next morning.

Day 10 - We go up early and flew to Chiang Mai. Lesson learned...ask your taxi driver how much the fare will be before getting in the car...we got charged a very high amount...pretty much double what we paid on other cab trips to and from the airport. We checked into the DeNaga hotel, which was super cute. Then wandered the city to see some sites. Later we hired a cab to take us to some of the handicraft places...silk factory, wood carving, and umbrella making. At the umbrella place, the artists will paint on pretty much anything for you. So I got one of my lens hoods painted with an elephant. We'll see how long it lasts...but its super cute! I also got an umbrella painted to.

Ok, enough for now....I'll post more later.