Camden Yards

Just a few photos from our tour of Camden Yards on Sunday.

Preakness 2009

What a great weekend! The weather was kinda dreary all weekend, but we had a good time. We had 2 snowballs, crabs, crab cakes, and crab soup! It was also a yummy weekend.

Preakness was just great. Two of the jockeys were actually on our flight to Baltimore. Dave managed to get one of the flight attendants to take one of our Preakness tickets to them for autographs. She was the sweetest flight attendant I've ever come across.

Wanna see some photos….check them out here.

So what was Dave's big present….I told him I'm going to take him to Chicago this August to go Chicago Bears Training Camp!!! He is pretty excited.

We had a really good time. I manged to get some great photos since we were right up along the railing this year.

So here's the weird thing…last night my plane lands at about 8:28…I'm (yes just me - Dave took a different flight to Cincinnati) one of the first people off the plane…apparently a 4.7 magnitude quake hit about 3 miles away from LAX at 8:39pm. I never felt a thing! I heard some things rattling in a shop, but since I didn't feel anything I thought maybe its was plane going by or something, but thought that was kinda unusual too. But no one around me said anything about an earthquake. I get home and see all these Twitters about a strong earthquake. How weird!

We're Heading To Preakness

Well we are off to Maryland this weekend. I'm pretty excited to go back and go to Preakness. Hopefully the rain holds off.

This past weekend I participated in a fantastic Bridal Shoot. It was held up in the hills near Topanga. There were 8 other photographers and we had a fnatastic time. If you want to see photos check out my blog. I'm rather happy with the stuff I catpured. I plan on enlarging some of these for bridal shows.

Nothin to note wrothy going on around here right now. Hopefully we'll be camping and hiking agin real soon. We’re both so ready to pack up the car and go. I relaly want to do a wekeend backpacking trip. I did reserve something for us in Sept up in the high sierras. I can't wait to do that. But there will be plenty more before then I'm sure.

So Dave's birthday is Saturday!!! I can't wait to give him his gift. I hope he'll like it. I'd love to tell you guys but I'm afraid he might see it.

Wish I Could Tell the Future

Ahhh…sometimes I feel like Dave and I are caught in this giant catch 22. We were talking last night about our future and what we want. We both agree that we want to live in the wonderful state of Colorado! Our original plan was Cali for 4-5 years then Colorado…well guess what..July is my 5 year anniversary with LM. Yup…its been 5 years since I packed 2 big suitcases and boarded a plane with a cat in tow!( I still can't believe that is all I came with!) So here's the dilemma... The housing market stinks…so it’s a good time to buy a house, but a bad time to sell one. So do we take a loss (well I guess its not really a loss, just not the equity we had about 2 years ago!) and follow our hearts or do we stick it out a little while longer in Cali. Now don't get me wrong…we do love Cali. I mean how can you not…great hiking, skiing, wine tasting, beautiful scenery, etc… But we know we belong in CO. Sighhh….

So anyway that is our constant battle. For now we deal with the immediate future. It's good to have Dave home again. He was off visiting his parents in FL. I think he totally hated all that humidity. I have one rule regarding going to FL…I will only step foot in FL in Dec, Jan, or Feb. I hate heat and I especially hate humidity. So I stayed at home in our 60 degree weather instead. I'm still itching to go somewhere but I got a good opportunity to go shoot a bridal shoot this Saturday. So we will be at home again this weekend. But the next weekend is our trip to MD. So much for spring at Yosemite….looks like we'll miss it again this year. Oh well. But I do think I see some camping in out very near future. Just got to figure out where is hikable since it just snowed! Yup..it snowed in May! We had a crazy weather weekend. It was windy and in the 60s or so here..but the mountains north of us got snow.

Playin' around

I have lots of free time on my hands this weekend and we have a blue sky today!!! It's been kinda cloudy all weekend. Ok, I have to warn you...I don't look so great in this photo...with my running (red shirt) on..I never wear red!!!!! But it was free shirt and its good for running. But I wasn't about to go change just to test some photos out! This is just in our backyard...hence the California block wall!

So I wanted to try of camera flash with that super blue sky. I exposed to get the sky the way I wanted it then I put my flash on the light stand. Here's what I got. This is straight out of the camera.

Santa Anita

Just thought I'd share this little sideshow...I put this together from when we went to Santa Anita and dodger stadium. No time for editing, so this stuff is pretty much SOOC.

You can also see it here.

Busy Busy

Wow I just realized that I have a pretty busy life the next month or so.

next weekend - Bridal Shoot with OSP
May 16th - In Maryland for Preakness (we have god seats this year!)
May 23td - I think I'm free! Hopefully we can go somewhere though cause I'm ready to get out of town!
May 30th - A photoshoot with TWINS!!! and then I ride my bike the next day for the Tour De Cure.
June 6th - Maybe camping and hiking somewhere
June 13th - I have a maternity session and helping with a wedding all in one day..lots of shooting!
June 20th - A wedding here in Palmdale!

So I just thought I'd post the info...if anyone is interested in donating to the Tour De Cure. All of the money raised goes to the American Diabetes Association. You can doante here, you can buy a print here, or you can auction on my photoshoot here.

Playing Catch Up

This week I managed to catch up on all my photography stuff. I finished the wedding proofs, I finished the baby session proofs, I ordered referral cards, ordered vendor postcards, and I ordered some more sample prints including some thin wraps!! I can't wait til some of this stuff gets here. Anyway if you don't follow my photog blog check this out. When I shoot baby sessions I like to keep a photojournalistic approach. I call this lifestyle sessions. In other words I want to capture the kids doing this they normally do...such as being fed, taking bath, or playing with a toy. This sideshow is my take on the baby session I just did.

Tonight should be nice and relaxing. We bought crab meat at Costco so I'm making Maryland style crab cakes at home. Yummy Yummy! BUt we'll be back in MD in a few weekends and will surly get our fill of crab then. But we were totally craving it.
But here's the thing...Costco switched up the brand of crab meat they carry. It used to be a reputable name that I knew in Maryland. Now it Chicken of the Sea. Well, I opened the can, tasted the crab meat, and it was MUSHY! I know exactly when this happens..the crabs are coked to long and have to much water in them. I was very upset since this stuff is not cheap. So I sent them an email. We'll see what they say. But this stuff never should have passed through quality control! We cooked with it anyway, and it was okay...just not the great crab cakes I'm used to.

Tonight I went for a run! I was so nice out...something like 64 degrees and a light breeze. I wish it would stay like this all the way through summer. I'm dreaking the summer heat. But at least it hasn't hit yet. Hopefully we have another month before the comes.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Another Weekend Come and Gone

Ahh...another weekend at home. We were thinking about going skiing but it warmed up drastically this weekend. So we didn't think skiing was such a great idea. I'm so itching to go somewhere!!!! But I think is going to be a few more weeks with Dave's schedule. We're thinking about going to Yosemite in early May though. Then its off to MD for Preakness. At the end of the month I will be riding my bike 62 miles in the Tour De Cure. I realized this weekend that I need to start raising money for this. As there is a minimum you have to raise to participate. Then I thought well I can use my photography to my benefit. So I'm auctioning off a photoshoot on my blog! I hate sending out emails asking people to donate. So I'm using this as a method instead. I also have a photoshoot lined up with 1 year old twins that same weekend.

I wish I had thought of this auction thing earlier as this weekend was the Relay for Life. I could have done something there as well. I also participate in that every year. This year Dave and I signed up for 3 hours of time to walk/run. I ended up running like 10 miles!!! Soooo makes me want to train for another half marathon. Although I'm worried about the stress fracture thing. I'm really not even that sore today. I did like 46 laps on the track, but I walked a few laps with Dave. So I figure I did 11.5 miles total, but probably walked a mile or so. I was proud of Dave cause he ended up doing 5 miles total and ran about half of that.

It's Nice to Be Well Again

Whoo Hoo..I feel so much better! May even hit up the gym tonight! Still have some sniffles but I can deal with that! The weekend was rather uneventful with me being sick.

The cool thing this weekend was Dave went to the store on Saturday. He walked in told me to close my eyes and said he had an Easter present. I was a bit down cause I was sick and mammoth got fresh powder! I wanted to go skiing! So he said he'd brought skiing to me. We have We Ski for the Wii but have never bought a Wii Fit...now we have one! And you can use it with We Ski. That was a nice surprise!

Sunday I was mostly better, so I edited photos and did taxes! Ughh...taxes suck. And I so hope I did them right! I still have to do the state ones though before Wednesday. Yeah we procrastinated. We were going to pay someone this year, but that just never happened. So now I'm stuck with it.

The awesome thing is so far Dave has not been hit with this flu thing. I'm so glad about that. I told him I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I was in so much pain, between the body aches, sore throat, ears, and headaches.

Sick!

It's been so long since I've been sick that I seriously think I forgot just how awful it can be!I've only been to work 2.5 hours in the last 2 days. I've been in lots of pain between my throat, back, and ears. I hope I am better real soon. But I'm doing better than yesterday since I'm actually on the laptop.

So Far This Weekend...

So this weekend Dave's sister and dad have been out visiting. And its been one of my 3 day weekends. Friday I had a photo shoot with a 3 month old baby. 3 mos is a hard age to do, for sure. I learned some lessons, but I do think I got some good shots. You can see one on my photo blog and more will be coming. The rest of the day on Friday we went bowling and cooked dinner at home. They played some Mario cart on Wii during the evening. Then it was off to bed cause we had to get up at 5:30am!

Yup 5:30 on a Saturday! needed enough time to fuel up and get down to Santa Anita for our annual Derby Day 5K run. Due to lots of circumstances I haven't run very much lately and I knew I wouldn't do well. I did what I qualify as "ok". I typically run at about a 7:30- 7:45 pace for 5 K races...and this one I was at just about the 8 min/mile pace...so much slower for me. Surprisingly I felt good strength and endurance wise, my downfall was that I was severely dehydrated when I started. I immediately had cotton mouth and therefore got a bad cramp in my side...before I even reached mile 1!!! I pushed my way through it, but I was in pain. So I had to slow down. My first mile was at 7:45...but I slowed down a lot after that. This race is hard though cause its kinda hilly, then there is the fact that you finish on a horse track. So I finished 13th in my age group. Which isn't bad when there are over 2000 people running! So not to say I'm disappointed, it just wasn't my best race. My official time isn't my actual time since they don't do chip timing. But My stop watch said I did 24:51. I'm usually in the 23 range...so about a minute off!!! That's a lot in the running world!

The rest of the day spent at Santa Anita then it was off to Pasadena for Spanish Tapas. We completed the day with an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium. This was my first time to dodger stadium...I have to say I was NOT impressed! Being from Baltimore and being used to Camden Yards...this stadium is very out dated and plain. Not what you would expect for LA!

Just A Quick Note

Photog Friends...I love what this photog said in this photo lovecat article!

http://photolovecat.blogspot.com/2009/03/finding-ideal-clients-and-freedom.html

Miscellaneous Thursday Night

10 Misc. Things off the top of my head:

1. No I'm not sad or upset that the terps lost last week
2. I think they did well in the tourney and showed people they belonged, despite some fo the talk.
3. I am glad Memphis lost tonight, as I always thought they were overrated.
4. WOW...Duke lost! By a lot!
5. Dave is taking training in Portland in April - I'm thinking I may go up with him over the weekend
6. I had a wedding last weekend, that went pretty well. Despite some tough leanings about Off camera flash. But that kind of stuff will only make me better. My next wedding is in June
7. I have a baby session next Friday
8. I don't like the fact that spring is here...that means the heat of summer is right around the corner.
9. Winter returned last Sunday...we had rain, hail. and snow flurries!
10. We are going to try and go up to Yosemite this spring.

I'll leave you with one photo from the wedding I shot last Saturday...



One last thought...The F22 crash was just an incredibly sad event. I still can't believe that happened out in our desert.

Terp Love

I'm lovin the fact that people are finally paying attention to this great TERP team!!!

Bracket Buster!

So, how many of you had Cal on your bracket today!!!?

Oh yeah...its nice to upset someone!!! Go Terps. Cal 71 and UMD 84!!!! I love it when the opposing teams fans try and make fun or put down Vasquez cause all it does is fire him up to do better! Hence the steal after the little airball he threw. My Terps rock!!!

This was out of an article written by Dan Wetzel on yahoo sports!

• Maryland defeated Cal 84-71, which means Mike Silver is wrong and Cal isn’t the center of the universe.

The question going forward is which Maryland team will show up? We’ve seen the Maryland team that got blown out by Duke and lost to Virginia in the regular season finale and had people speculating about Gary Williams’ job.

The one that pulled away from Cal, however, had the look of the Terrapin club that beat North Carolina and Michigan State this year. It had great ball movement, played with passion and made shots. It’s obviously capable of beating anyone. In a game with Memphis, the Terps’ Greivis Vasquez, who had 27 against Cal, could be the best player on the court – Tyreke Evans included.

If that’s the case, the Tigers are going to be in for a battle.

I'm hoping for another upset! This time a #2 seed!

Sun Flare

With a wedding coming up this weekend and lots of things I've been learning I have been practicing some photography techniques around the house. I now have the equipment to be able to shoot with off and on camera flash during the reception. Exciting! Feeling very anxious aot my wedding this Saturday. I think its cause I have so many things I want to do that I've never done before. Anyway, today I practiced capturing some sun flare. I'm starting to love two things...sun flare and adding texture in PS.

2 of My Favorite Things: Snow and Bball

So if you haven't seen this on facebook, here is our video from skiing last weekend. I threw this together pretty quickly on the drive home. My first video like this. Keep in mind, I'm not a videographer. :)




_________________________

On a complete side note, I just need to talk a little basketball since I'm a basketball nut. So all those fair weather UMD fans that were putting the team and the coach down earlier this year - sit down and shut up! UMD basketball is just amazing. Yes they put us through our ups and downs emotionally but Gary is a tremendous coach. You just have to believe. Believe in the power of Gary. So let me ask

- Who is the number 10 seed in the west….oh yes, Maryland!
- Who just put a hurting on Wake Forest (#9 ranked) Friday night…yup Maryland.
- And who stuck and held their own against the great Duke team…yup Maryland again.

Seriously people, why do you always feel like you need to blame someone when things aren't going your way. Anyway, Fear the turtle!!! This is a school with basketball history.. You don't go to the NCAA tourney 11 straight years then just quit having that drive. This team wants to be there more than anybody. As a MD fan I do have to admit we are spoiled. We expect our team to be in the NCAA. It's not a hope, its an expectation! We have a great coach on our side and the last few years have been rough as a MD fan. Watching them get squeaked out by other teams. Lets see how it all plays out. Hopefully this is another start to big NCAA run. I'd love to see them back in the championship game in a few years. The terps have a consistency in basketball that not a lot of other schools can say they have (I believe its 13 invitations to the tourney in the last 16 years)…ah and lets not forget the 2002 champions!

Congratulation to the UMD women's as well. Earning a number 1 seed in the tourney is fabulous! It's great having both teams in the tourney this year.

Go Terps!

My Picks… I'm indecisive though.
Memphis (yes I'd love to see MD advance and win this game and I think if they make it there they can, but my gut is saying Memphis, so I'm going with my gut)

North Carolina
Pitt
Louisville

The winner this year: I pick UNC beating Louisville

More from mammoth

First of all I have to say, I'm a big dork on the video camera!!!!

So yesterday was incredible. We skied at mammoth and had a great time. It was windy again, so that stunk, but otherwise nice temps and blue skies. We also did something I never thought we would do for a while. As I stood up on top of the mountain looking over the edge, I got that almost queasy (sp?) feeling in the stomach. My mind was saying..turn back and run, well ski away. Now while you can. I was scared so much. I was afraid of falling and breaking something. I went over the edge and now my mind was saying "now you've done it, now what are you going to do, you have to get down this alive". Then I made my first turn and I was in the clear. I was on my way down a double black diamond at mammoth. Was I crazy!? Let me tell you it was one of the scariest things I've ever skied, but also the most fun! I loved it. I even went back for more! I loved skiing the steep terrain. I loved it even more that I got down and didn't fall!!!! It was such an accomplishment to finally do that. I knew I was a decent enough skier, I was just to scared. We both skied it several times, and we both loved it.

Here is the view heading up to the top. We were going to ski cornice bowl (a not as difficult trail, a single black) at the very top.



This is me after I skied the double black - yes I'm a big dork in the video. Sorry about the wind. What I say in the beginning is "I just skied that".



And one more...Dave on the lift.

Race Style Skiing

Today we tried something new...skiing through the gates. There was a free course open. IT was pretty sweet. I was a bit nervous that I would totally embarass myslef, but it wasn't nearly as bad s I was making it out to be. In fact we went back to do it again and this time I went much faster.

Terps Are Rockin The Georgia Dome

I'm at mammoth at the moment, but I partly wish I had been at the Georgia Dome tonight!!! For those of you that know me, you know I love ACC basketball. Not just love it...I'm pretty much fanactical about it. I live for November to come when b-ball starts...and I'm sad when March is over. So My team ...Maryland has had one of those years...and up and down sort of seasons. Wins against ranked teams and losses against not so good teams. It's been an emotional roller coaster for terps fans. But last night and tonight make up for it all!!! First they beat NC State...ok not such a big deal as we already beat them this year. But tonight we upset another ranked team....#9 Wake Forest. And it was an 11 point win. Seriously go terps. I will be on cloud nine if they can pull off a win against duke tomorrow!!! Who ever thought it would be Duke vs UMD in the semifinals of the ACC tourney!!! GO TERPS!!!

One More (Thailand)

One of these days I'll get through all of my Thailand photos! Really, I will! I think!

Anyway I edited this one tonight...not much, just a light warm up in photoshop. I really like it. I love the sun flare that I caught in this shot.

Which Headshot for My Website?

Which one do you like better...

#1



#2


I think I like #2.

Headshot!!!

It's about time I have a headshot from another pro photog!!!! I've been needing this for about a year now.

Here it is....



and a couple of self portraits from today....





I've finally got back on track...exercised 4out of the last 6 days. And it feels so good! Tomorrow a 5 mile run!

I also taught myself how to use the pro retouch action, finally! I love it...why didn't I figure this out earlier!

Surpirse!

So I saw the B School party video was posted and I decided ok I'll take a peak. Little did I know I was going to make an appearance! I didn't even go to the party, although I wish I had as it looks like a lot of fun. Maybe next year. So there is a clip of Becker doing headshots, and guess whose photo he's taking...yup me. That was a suprise.


http://www.bpartyvegas.come

March Randomness

Some random things for this week. We didn't go anywhere this weekend, although I wanted to go skiing! :)

So I worked all weekend on getting sample stuff together for my photog business. Figure now is the time while I'm so motivated from WPPI. I feel like I need things to show people and I want to do a bridal show either this year or the beginning of next year to help get my name out there. So I ordered print enlargements mounted on styrene board, designed and ordered wedding postcard ads, designed a sample e-session guestbook from finao, ordered another mounted sample print (but I made this one different), and got most of the way through a design for a sample flush mount album. Next are sample save the date cards and a proof box (from finao). Photos of everything coming soon!

Dave and I joined a bowling league with two friends of ours. We missed the start of the league so we went to make up our scores last night. I guess I can still bowl! We did well. I bowled about a 173 average (176, 173, and 169). Dave also did pretty well…he had one game that was 210.

Thirdly - I have to give some props to my Terps! Go Maryland!!!! The Women's bball team placed first in ACC regular season play and are ranked 5th in the country. The Men's team has continued playing better down the stretch and beat NC state. Hopefully there will be men's and women's teams in the NCAA tourney again. I love Maryland bball! Just so awesome and so much emotion. Dave and I totally enjoyed watching the game together last night…its so fun to watch together and I'm glad he's a terps bball fan as well. But how can you not..the ACC is such an amazing bball conference. They say 8 teams form the ACC will probably get into the NCAA tourney!

I ran on Saturday - I felt sluggish though. Due to all the vacations I haven't been as good with my running and now we have a 5K race is about a month. Time to get my but in gear! I feel like I'm not anywhere near my typical fitness level right now.. So I'm running tonight for sure!

I should play the Lottery

Oh boy...am I on a lucky streak. I won something else today. Check out this blog and video. My name was mispronounced, but I'm used to it. Its that whole 1 L Michele thing...people see it as Michael all the time.

http://tinyurl.com/cswo2q

Utah

So after WPPI was over Dave and I drove up into Utah. We spent 3 nights in Brian Head, UT. The first day we skied. It was a very easy place to ski. Not very challenging, but pretty fun still. I mostly skied off trail to make it more challenging. The next day we drove to Bryce Canyon NP. How Beautiful! Now I have another place that I want to hike at. While we were there we did a little bit of snow shoeing.

More Photos From Vegas

Thought I'd share a few more from Las Vegas. Enjoy!

I ended the time in Vegas by having lunch with 6 other people from B School. It was nice to meet people face to face. We sat at rain forest cafe for close to 2 hours, I think, talking about photography. It was a really good time. The cool thing is I will know some people next year. For those of you that don't know what B school is...its a networking and learning site for photographers.

We are currently in southern Utah enjoying some skiing. Tomorrow we go to Bryce Canyon NP.

WPPI..Was it worth it?

Of Course!!! I just look forward to the years when I know more photographers. This has been an amazing experience. I've learned a lot, met cool people, and learned stuff about myself. I Loved WPPI. We are all done except for Joe Photos talk tomorrow morning.

What did I walk away with?
Several gift cards for print orders
A 1 TB hard drive
Mini J Lee album
Large J Lee Album
Itunes gift card
Lots of discount offers
A decision on what album company I prefer...made it so much easier after seeing the products
A notebook chokfull of info and ideas. I'm seriously on info overload. And I'm excited to see where things are going to go from here.
A huge headache from lack of sleep!!!

I am sooooooo ready for next year! It'll be in March 2010.

And if you watch the video at this link...you'll catch some glimpses of me. Red harir, green sweater, brown skirt.

http://vimeo.com/3265198

Vegas Baby

So not much time...gotta get to the reception to meet some other B schoolers.

Just a few photos from this morning and V-Day.

We ate at this resturant cause Dave loves Chinese. It was awesome!






This morning we went to Paris

More Vacation!

Well its Thursday and we are that much closer to another vacation. This Saturday we leave for Vegas. The Photography Convention starts on Sunday, but we figured V-Day in Vegas would be interesting. So we leave Sat morning to drive out there. The weather is supposed to be yucky for a few days out this way…more rain and snow. Speaknig of, it snowed here a little bit the other day, but nothing like our Dec storm. It was nice to walk outside and see it snowing though. Our mountains and hills have been snow covered all week. Its so pretty to look at. I wish I had a photo to share but my work doesn't allow cameras and by the time I get home the sun is setting.

We will be spenindg Saturday enjoying Vegas, going to see the show KA and eating dinner at the MGM. After the convention is over (Thursday) we will be driving to Brain Head, UT. We plan on skiing for a day and also going to Bryce Canyon, NP and hopefully do some snowshoeing. Then drive home on Sunday, with a little stop back in Vegas. It should be a really fun time. I've signed up for 2 parties at WPPI which are supposedly giving away lots of free stuff. I want to go, but I feel a little weird going by myself and not knowing anyone. Hopefully I'll make some photog friends.

So with our cat, Haley, having diabetes we had to hire a pet sittter. Seriosuly….who knew how much those people made! I ws shocked at how much it was going to cost us. But we didn't want to have to trouble a friend with stopping by twice a day. Anyway these ladies seem really nice and they are involved with some dog trainig and shows. So the other night while they are over Dave mentions to them that I do photography. They sounded very interested…so who knows maybe I'll start some sort of pet photography/dog show thing. I'm thinking go and capture action shots, hand out my cards, post the photos for purchase. My time shooting is obviously free, but if I make a bunch of print sales that would be totally cool. Something to think about.

Let It Snow

Just checked our weather and the temp is dropping...now like 34 degrees! And they put out a winter weather advisory. I so hope we get snow today! : )

One Adorable Kid with TONS of Energy

If you don't follow my photog blog and want to see some photos of Foster...check it out here. I love to shoot kids very candidly. Although its tough with Foster because he has soooo much energy.

http://micheleschankerphotography.com/blog/?p=327

I'm a Mac

So as I posted previously Dave got me a mac cinema display for xmas. Well...it turned out that it didn't work with my macbook pro because I didn't hold out for the new one. So we had to return that. In stead I got an iMac. This week everything came together. I wanted a separate work are for just photography stuff. That way I'm more tidy and organized and not confusing stuff with Dave's work at home space and also our home office stuff. So now I have my own little corner right near our family room. I got a compact desk from crate and barrel, It holds everything I need it to.

So here's my new space







And one of my other new toys that I'm still trying to figure out



Its been awfully rainy here, but the sun is out for now. Nice and cool ( but not cold)...50 something. Well, I take that back, out nights have been kinda cold. Just wish it was colder so we could have more snow. Our mountains near our house are getting snow though.

Havin a Good Day

...well, except for my stupid neck, which kept me from exercising really well tonight.

1. Adobe actually sent me my photoshop software and they actually did expedite it, and I think I didn't have to pay for it! But we'll see about that one. I'm now the proud owner of CS4 for Mac. It's about time.

2. I got an invite to the cocktail party thing at WPPI...I think they were inviting 500 people and my name was drawn. Sweet.

Whiplash!

This wekened was great skiing at Mammoth. The snow was fantastic! I totally loved every minute of it. When the snow is good and the weather is great I become a very confident skier and pretty much fly down the mountain. That’s why I wanted a helmet for christmas. I've become a very aggressive skier…I try my best at moguls, ski very streep trails, and I love to go fast. Recipe for disaster if I ever have a bad fall. This weekend was the first time I ever used my helmet. So we're coming down this blue black trail…so nothing to challenging. I decided to cut through the trees, hit a bump, go flying and land on my side. But I hit pretty hard and my head gets thrown against the hard packed snow. Ouch…even with the helmet on! I was so glad I had a helmet. So Sunday night I wake up with a lot of pain in my neck and figure its just the way I'm sleeping. But now that I think about it I think its more like whiplash from my fall. My head got jerked pretty good. It still hurts today! The price I pay for lots of fun on the slopes!

Besides that I skied really well this weekend. Dave says to me at one point…"sometimes I just can't keep up with you". Yeah I can be quite fast on the slopes. But so is Dave. I made myself ski lots of moguls on Sunday. I actually did decent at times. But when the bumps get real big, I have lots of issues. Something to work on. We skied Cornice Bowl (a single black at the top) a few times. I told Dave I remember when I used to be scared to go down that trail. Now its nothing. Its just another trail. I need more of a challenge, but I'm to much of a wuss for the double blacks.

Superbowl Weekend...But No Football for Us

Our weekend got off to a rough start. Our plans were to head up to Mammoth right after work, but we got a bit delayed.

So we get home on Friday and are packing the car to go. We realize our cat Haley is acting kinda crazy. She started throwing up and we knew this wasn't normal behavior. Then she started acting very lethargic. So we decided we needed to take her to the vet to see what was going on. She was immediately diagnosed as diabetic. Oh no! Her blood sugar levels were up over 500. She's doing a lot better now, but needs insulin twice a day. When I think about it, being diabetic explains a lot of her behavior. There's been times where we though she had arthritis because of the difficulties she has with our stairs. But then again, we thought she wasn't old enough for arthritis. I think she was pretty bad off on Friday. If we had left and not noticed, it is very possible she may not have made it through the weekend.

We already had our plans and a condo booked at mammoth. So we really had no choice but to leave her at the vets office for the weekend. So now we're left with other issues to resolve. And that is how to deal with a diabetic cat when you lead a pretty busy and on the go lifestyle, like we do. We leave in a couple of weeks to go to Vegas and Utah. We''ll be gone for about 8 days. And we really have no idea what we're going to do. We can obviously leave her with the vet we just took her to, but they charged us an arm and a leg to board her for those nights. Plus I'm sure she would rather be at home an not in a cage.

We ended up going up to mammoth on Friday night, but didn't get there until 11:30! The skiing this weekend was great. We had great weather. Blue skies the entire time. And the snow was great after the big dumping they got the previous week. Sunday was dead to…no lift lines due to super bowl! Our condo was right near one of the lifts and the condo itself was really nice. Pretty spacious for a one bedroom place. We had free lift tickets from our American express rewards points too. Of course with the $$$ involved with the vet visit that was pretty much a complete wash.

And - the result of the Adobe situation…I finally got to talk to someone who cares. I explained the whole thing and they agreed to approve it and send me my software. Yippee! Only took 4 months to resolve this! I guess I shouldn't be to happy until I actually have photoshop for mac in my hands.