randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

I haven’t had the chance to do a picture of the week in awhile… so I thought I’d post one and try my damndest to get back into the swing of things.  I took this today, it was Gage’s first time ever to the ocean.  My god he loved it, didn’t want to turn from the view.  I knew he would, to be honest.  He loves water and he loves to play in the sand.  If I let him, he would have made a beeline for the water and splashed his way to hypothermia.  Well, maybe not hypothermia… I don’t think the water was quite THAT cold, but cold nonetheless.  I could have stayed down there on the sand all day myself, to be perfectly honest.  The day included going to a little aquarium and Gage winning a stuffed fish at a fishing boardwalk game.  Maybe I’ll be able to take him to the shore when it’s a little warmer, when he can actually go in the water for a bit.

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I decided to do 3 pictures of the week this week. I’m probably a little late, and I’m sorry about that if you’re keeping score. These are Gage and my niece Kalina playing with the dogs. The dogs are Tonka and Shelby — my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mark’s dogs. Tonka is a Lab/Husky mix and Shelby is a Lab/Doberman mix and they are gorgeous. When they came over, Gage and Kalina went wild. They were in hog heaven, running around chasing the dogs and playing with them. Gage laid down with them several times and just cuddled.  I almost got a picture of the two of them trying to “herd” the dogs out of the foyer one night, but just missed it.  Imagine if you will though… These kids aren’t tall.  2 1/2 to 3 feet or so tall and the dogs are pretty damn tall themselves.  It was a funny site.  Kalina is cuddling with Tonka in the one picture, and the dog in the foreground of one of the others is Shelby.

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It’s been awhile, but I’m back in the saddle.  Now that I have batteries for the regular digital camera, and I have more stuff to take pictures of.  Since we decorated the Christmas tree at mom’s yesterday, I was going to just post a picture of the tree.  But then Gage took notice of the tree.  He spent a couple of hours yesterday just sitting in that chair and looking at the tree.  He hasnt’ tried to take anything off of it, or to pull it down or anything.  He’s just fascinated with looking at it.  It does sparkle oh so prettily.  Everytime we move that chair away from the tree, he puts it right back where it was and climbs up and looks.  I’ve never seen him quite so fascinated with the tree, but then, he’s never seen a tree quite like this.  There are all kinds of ornaments, the few glass ornaments we put on it are at the top so small hands can’t pull them off.  There are also a few moving ornaments on the tree (the kind that plug into the light string).  It’s a cute picture though.  I would have liked a little more light, just enough to help the camera focus on Gage but not wash out the lights.  I used the “available light” setting on the camera.  The only problem with that setting is that the camera and the subject must remain perfectly still.

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I put several of the photos of roses that I took this summer on items at cafepress.com if anyone’s interested. The photos in this post are among the ones I used.  They’re on notecards, greeting cards (blank inside) a journal… it’s a shame they don’t have an address book.  I think most of these pictures would be very pretty on an address book.  So if you’re interested, check them out: http://www.cafepress.com/wiccania

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Ok, I’ve been slacking. I have no batteries for my digital camera at the moment. Gage killed them. And while I can use the video camera to take photos, transferring them can be a pain in the butt. So this week I’m posting an older picture. I don’t believe I’ve used it before for a photo of the week (I hope not, anyway). Anyhoo, this picture was taken before we moved. It was raining one day, about 3 o clock or so. It got really dark and it was POURING. So of course, I went outside to take pictures of the roses. What could be more natural, LOL. I took one with the flash and one without. I liked the one with the flash better — and this is it. Enjoy.

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This week we have a lovely sunset photo of swirly looking clouds and a tree off to the side. You see? Yes. I really liked the way this came out. The colors are really nice and the clouds look like they’re in motion. Interestingly, since the digital camera’s batteries are dead, this was taken with my video camera (which has a photo function on it). A handy device to have as a backup to the regular digital, no?  I also like that there is both light and darkness in this picture.  If the clouds weren’t there, you might be able to see the mountains in the distance.  of course, the clouds kind of look like mountains don’t they?

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i took this about a week ago… i actually managed (for the first time) to get the sunlight streaming through the clouds, not just the backlit clouds. which is nice. i like the brightness and the fact that some of those clouds are a little dark (that’s not a trick of the light). eet ees pretty, no? i think so. this is the kind of picture that i’d love to have made into a 500 piece puzzle for my mom. i think it would be a suitable challenge for her puzzle assembling skills.

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ok, so i’ve been a little lax here and there during the moving process. so we begin again. i’m going to shoot for monday or tuesday for posting of the potw. and here’s this weeks picture. i took this a few days ago while gage was playing outside. he kept stepping into his pool then walking around on the concrete and watching his footprints fade. it was cool. i thought it would be cool to get a picture of one of those footprints. and here it is for your viewing pleasure.

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i took this last week just after sunset from the front porch.  pretty, no?  i love the color of the sky, and the stark blackness of the trees against it.  there are a couple of others i took of the same general area around the same time.  less brightnes in the sky in those.  one of them is mostly the tree with a little of the sky in the background.  i like that this one can be looked at as either a picture of the trees with the sky in the background, or a picture of the sky with some trees framing it.

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many many years ago, a livesized nude portrait of me was drawn in pastels. about 4 years ago i had to take it off of the board that backed it, and roll it up. i decided to re-roll it tonight, for a couple of reasons. since it’s so old, the pastels have dried to a chalky consistency i wanted to make sure that the rolling didn’t ruin it. i also wanted to re-roll it a little tighter and wrapped in better paper. while it was unrolled, i decided to take a few pictures of it. this is the top portion.

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gage loves the camera. he loves taking pictures of all kinds of things. sometimes he takes pictures that make you go “how did he do that?” here’s two pictures he took. they haven’t been altered in any way, except for resizing.

i *think* the one on the left is a picture of tiger, probably shaking. gage probably moved the camera as well. it’s kind of a cool picture. the picture on the right is obviously of the tv, while he was watching mulan… i’m not sure what the blue line is tho, or how he managed to photograph it.

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gage had some leftover fettucine yesterday for lunch. while i was getting him something to drink, he was sitting in the fridge nibbling on it. he was also sharing it with tiger, a la lady and the tramp.  he’s done it before, with spaghetti but the camera wasn’t close enough to get a picture, and he only did it once.  this time he did it several times and the camera was well within reach.  it was so very cute.  gage shares food with tiger all the time, actually.  mostly the crust off of his pb&j and grilled cheese sandwiches.  sometimes bites of mac & cheese.

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i took this earlier this week. it’s a close up of a rose from the yard. we’ve got 4 bushes that are red, 1 that’s pink and 1 that’s yellow in the yard. this was the first rose to bloom out of all the bushes. i got this before the bugs got to it. you can even see beads of moisture on it. it rained a little while before i took the picture.  after i took this picture, i cut this rose off the bush and brought it inside along with a bud that was just starting to open.  they were promptely eaten by ziggy — i forgot that he has a thing for eating household plants (which is why we’ve never gotten a poinsettia around xmas).

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here’s a trio of pictures of the moon that i took and really quite like.
this one, i call “cold moon.” i took this picture in january, thru the bare trees in the back yard. i wanted better focus, but i just couldn’t get it. i need to figure out a good setting on my camera for photographing the moon. i love taking pictures of the moon… as you might have noticed. even if they’re not clear, it’s still fun to take them.

this one i took after sunset. it was a nice night, the sky was lovely and there was the moon. as my friend eric used to say (i believe he was quoting something), “the moon is out and it is daytime… it mocks me.” of course, i could also quote robin williams and say, “the moon, like a testicle, hung low in the sky.” except that this one isn’t really hanging low, is it?

this one i took later in the evening on the same day as the one above. i love the way the lightof the moon shows on the clouds sometimes… that’s what i was trying to catch with this picture.

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this weeks picture was taken… last night. what can i say, i saw the moon and it was just so beautiful i had to get the camera.  i had WANTED to get the shot about 30 seconds before this… the moon was half covered by that cloud.  i wish i had a camera that was really good for getting pictures of the moon.  mine might be… if it is i haven’t figured out the setting for that.  either way, i think this is a great shot.  i’ve got 2 more pictures of the moon that i took yesterday.  one right after this one, and one a couple of hours earlier… when the sun had set, but it wasn’t dark yet.

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