Tons of pics, part 1

I've received some compliments on my pics over the years, and I'm pretty proud of that. About 95% of the population says that they love taking photos as a hobby, and some even buy those really nice cameras with all sorts of options and lenses and what-have-you. I don't know that much about photography, and I've considered investing in those nice cameras and learning all the shutter speed and lighting stuff, but when it comes down to it, I don't want to have to lug a big camera and all the special lenses around. I like having a small camera I can stuff in my pocket, because if there's something I've learned about picture taking, it's all about being in the right place at the right time. So, luck. There, I've said it.

Heidi asked me to send her a bunch of pictures a couple of weeks ago and so I spent a lot of time sorting through my favorites. I've left them in their full-size so you can steal them if you like. Or spit on them, see if I care.


The Sunday before we got married, Mel and I went down to the National Mall to spend some time together. I've always liked night shots and spend a great deal of effort trying to get the shots to turn out clear. I like how I finally got one of those pictures with the streaking car lights. This is looking across the Potomac from behind the Lincoln Memorial.
This is the same place as the last pic, but from ground level.
We were waiting for a comedy show to start at Berkley College, walking around Back Bay (the area between Fenway and the financial district) when we saw this little scene.
I was touring some old Egyptian palace in Alexandria and all these school kids on a field trip decided to play a little hide and seek with the obvious American tourist. They started chasing me down this corridor, and I took the picture...and ran.
My first Thanksgiving in Boston I wanted to take a trip to Montreal. I made a friend in the ward who said he wanted to go, but he flaked out at the last second, so I went by myself. It was really, really cold, but Montreal was worth it.
As a Varsity Scout, we did a 6-day backpacking trip behind the Tetons that I always wanted to go and do again. I convinced Jason and Sam to do the trail with me, and the scenery was unparalleled. I still want to do it again.
I was sitting on the steps of this Buddhist monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, when I saw all these monks come out for their lunch break or something. I thought it would be a great picture to have one non-monk juxtaposed in a group of monks. So, yes, I did that for a picture. But the monks ate it up, trying to communicate with me, them not speaking a lick of English, me not speaking a lick of monkey. They were fascinated with my arm hair and beard.
This is a guest house at 12,000 feet, perched on a the crest of a mountain pass somewhere in the Himalayas near the Nepal-Tibet border. The night before, I went to bed at like 4 pm, I was so cold. I woke up around midnight, looked outside, and saw flashes of light in the valley below. I wondered why people were trekking at such a ridiculous hour. Then I realized that it was a storm, and I was ABOVE it. The whole week was pretty cloudy, so vistas were few and far between. I woke up and finally had one, so I took a bunch of pictures with the sun coming up. This is one of them.
For the first couple of days on the trek, we would walk through mountain villages that looked like this every few hours. Notice the little kid stepping out of his door doesn't have pants.
Looking at Cascade from the orchard near center street on 8th East. On the day I graduated, I happened to be driving home from the Training Table right at sunset.
Arlington. No stories here.

Foliage trip 2007 took us through St. Johnsbury, Vermont. We went over a bridge, and I'm a sucker for old-timey railroad stuff.

I've got more coming, don't worry.

Worst post ever

It's about time for a post. This one is just a boring catch-up post. No pics, either. Only the dedicated will read this one (thanks, Mom!).

So we last left you right when we got back from Hilton Head a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I've had a couple of Saturdays of service with the scouts.

The first one we had a lady in our ward offer to donate some dough to the scout camp fund if we cleaned up all the crapola in her backyard. She lives just down the street from us, so I willingly obliged, thinking that all I'd have to do is pick up the Brockton boys. Well, it turned out that none of the Taunton contingent could drive. So I had to drive 45 minutes to Taunton, pick up 3 boys, drive back to the service place, drop them off, drive to Brockton, pick up 3 boys, and then drive back to the service place. I left my house at 7:30. I got to the service place at 10. We did an hour's worth of work. Then I drove everybody home, this time, I got Brother Billings to take the Brockton boys. I got home at 1. That's 5 and a half hours of schlepping, people. All for 1 hour of service for 6 boys. Our ward boundaries are way too huge.

The next week we sold candy bars at Wal-Mart. I don't recall doing a lot of fundraising as a scout, we did that flag thing around the neighborhood. That's all I can think of. Well, selling candy bars was a lot easier than I thought. I pulled Reggie and Pierre out of their comfy, cozy beds at 9 am and dragged them over to the Halifax WalMart, also about 30 minutes away. We had the 10 am to noon shift, and we sold 200 candy-bars. Not bad for a couple of runt scouts. Reggie even admitted he had fun. Pierre couldn't keep his filthy paws off the samples we were giving out.

I have a pretty good relationship with Pierre. I pick him up every Tuesday for scouts/mutual, and he usually asks me a ton of questions. His family is pretty poor, but he's always in a great mood and very happy in general, even if he's a bit mischevious. His apartment is a hodge-podge of people and pets. He and his mom live with his uncle, and there are a few other little kids living there, as well as another grown man who's always parked in front of the TV. Only Pierre and his mom are members. Pierre has to share a room with his mom, and I can't imagine there's a whole lot of space in that tiny apartment.

I mowed the lawn for the last time this winter. I didn't want to rake the leaves, so I just kept the bag on the mower and emptied the bag every couple of rows. That took a while, but I think it was more efficient than raking the leaves, although there's a lot of shredded leaves sitting down by the ground in the grass. I guess that's good for the soil.

Wow, that was a boring post. I guess you win some and you lose some.

To Tag or Not to Tag

I am notoriously bad at responding to tags (Sorry Kristin). I rarely forward on chain mail either. However, JoEllen tagged me and since she provided me with her chocolate cream puff recipe and helped me win the love of my husband, I figured I would give the tagging a shot.

The idea here is to list 6 or 7 random facts about yourself, so here goes...

1. I have lived almost my entire life in big fresh seafood markets (Maryland, England, Boston) and I hate seafood. Every now and then I'll try to be brave and try something, but I have to choke it down as I've learned once you turn 18 it's no longer socially acceptable to spit out nasty food. I can't stand the texture of shrimp, lobster, clams, etc. They're too chewy and I don't like it. And the smell...

2. I have some OCD tendencies. I try not to inflict them on others (namely Kent) but they're there. If I start to clean something, I can't leave any spot uncleaned, which may explain some of my procrastination towards cleaning. I already know it's going to be more of a chore than it should be. The same with washing dishes, pots especially. I tend to scrub them three times as long as is necessary. Oh, and I can't stand things to be crooked. Even if something is meant to be at an angle, it has to be evenly at an angle. Think that doesn't make sense? It does to me.

3. I am an accent sponge. I had a legitimate British accent from the age of 3 until around 6, when I started attending American school. I now have a slight midwest accent despite never living anywhere in that region (my college roommate was from Chicago). Occasionally words slip out with a Boston accent. And underneath it all I have a "Maryland" accent, but that alone is pretty faint.

4. My favorite animal is the hippo. I fell in love with them after watching Disney's Fantasia. I loved the hippo ballerinas dancing around in their tutus. I have a decent number of hippos, including a wooden hippo bank from Poland (not from Kent) that has a tail that moves when you drop coins in. Cute, I know. And none of my hippos are named Blab.

5. I have read every Jane Austen novel at least once and seen a movie version of each. My favorite is the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice. Colin Firth plays an excellent Mr. Darcy. I still haven't convinced Kent to watch it with me, but we're getting there. I love that Jane Austen novels end just the way you want them to. I liked "Becoming Jane," but everytime I watch it I'm hoping it ends differently, more like a Jane Austen novel.

6. My favorite souvenir to bring home is artwork. I prefer original artwork over prints, whether the artist is famous or not. Thanks in large part to gifts I currently own art from Italy, Budapest, Prague, Frankfurt, and Annapolis. And I have a few Kent Hansen original photos hanging around the house.

7. I have visited 28 out of the 50 states. The total jumps to 32 if we're counting states I have only driven through. Airports would add a few more, but I don't really count those. An airport is not an appropriate representation of a state, in my humble opinion anyway.

So there you have it. A few fun facts about me. I'll tag Melissa, Kristie (to encourage another post), Susan (you can respond in an email), and Caranine.

And look at that, 2 posts within a month of each other. Bravo to me.

You and You and You

In order to understand what is written on my cake you would have to watch the movie, "Eagle vs. Shark."

For my birthday this year my employer was kind enough to send me on an all-expenses paid trip to Hilton Head, SC.

Okay, so maybe it didn't go exactly like that, but I did fly to Hilton Head on my birthday and work did pay for it so I think that counts.

Since we knew we wouldn't be home on my actual birthday, Kent helped me celebrate the night before. He got home from work before I did so he could run to the store to pick up ingredients for my birthday dinner: crepes. I love crepes. I don't have them very often, but when I do, I'm in heaven. You can put anything in a crepe and eat it. Maybe not anything, but there are a variety of options. One of my favorites is Nutella and strawberries, try it sometime. My mom used to make crepes all the time when I was younger, and usually when I make it home to visit I request them for a meal (Mom, if you're reading this that can be taken as a hint).

Anyway, not only did Kent make me crepes (his first time!) but he also baked me a lovely birthday cake and bought me flowers as well. I can never sing his praises loud enough. Some guys pull out all the stops while you're dating, fresh flowers all the time, romantic dinners and dates, and then it stops when you're married, but not Kent. He rarely bought me flowers while we were dating so when he does those things now they are so much more special. He also wrote me a lovely card - he's getting better and better at that. For my gift I got my standard chick flick DVD (Lars & The Real Girl - I strongly recommend it) and Kent is going to take me to a local play some time this month.

On my birthday morning I woke up, got dressed, packed, and went to work. Since I was going to have my own hotel room in Hilton Head, Kent decided to make the trip down and spend the few days with me. We were expecting sunny afternoons spent on the beach or poolside, but alas the weather did not cooperate. It was a little chillier than we had hoped and it rained - A LOT. However, we wanted to see Charleston while we were there so we made the drive in the pouring rain, drove around the city in the pouring rain, and drove back to Hilton Head in the pouring rain. Needless to say we really want to go back so that we can walk around and really get a good sense of the city.

A view of the beach, just outside the hotel, on the not-so-sunny day. Please don't mind the totally unflattering picture of me...Remember, I was the birthday girl.

Kent, thoroughly enjoying his quick vacation.

Post Man Kent. While in Charleston, we stopped in the Old Custom House. They had all these old Southern stamps, including those used when the south was its own nation.

The Custom House was also where they jailed the pirates as they captured them. This was the code of ethics for one of the pirate gangs/crews.

We visited one of the local plantations on Hilton Head Island and got to watch the sunset over the water.

On the final day we were there the sun finally decided to come out so as we waited to go to the airport we lounged out on the beach and poolside - finally. It was definitely a nice trip. I actually got a lot out of the work conference, it was a beautiful location, in a nice hotel, and I got to share it with my favorite person - Kent, in case you were wondering.


So I would like to say thank you to my boss for allowing me to go and leave her alone in the office to handle all the crazies. And of course most of the thanks goes to my cute husband for helping me celebrate the quarter-century mark of my life in such an awesome way.

How awesome is Kent with his photography skills? He has the patience to hold the camera still. All of my dusk/nighttime pictures end up blurry.

I love my family and friends, I know that DVR is true...

If I asked most of you if you would rather give up your home phone or you cell phone (if you even have a home phone), almost everyone would say home phone. In fact, even in the most dire of financial straits people wouldn't give up their cell phones. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE GREAT. Have you ever forgot your cell phone one day? You feel cold and naked. Vulnerable. Unsafe. Alone. You'd call your mother for comfort but you don't know her number. It's in your cell phone. You wonder how you survived so long without one, and shudder to think of such a dreary existence. Have you ever tried to meet up with someone who doesn't have a cell phone? It's next to impossible! The 2 parties trying to meet up need to give very explicit instructions of where to meet. If anything goes wrong, the meeting doesn't take place and people spend hours trying to find the other person.

In 1998 I got my first cell phone. I was a high school senior, 3 months from graduating, when I saw a fellow pizza-delivery man making a call on a cell. I mocked him--the only people that "needed" cell phones were those jerks who work them on their hip pocket to look important and cool--what the blue tooth is today.

"You don't need a cell phone! How much are you paying for that ridiculous contraption?"

He answered, "10 bucks a month."

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Really? Only 10 bucks? I figured 10 bucks a month was nothing compared to all the time I'd save finding phone booths, calling people's houses if they weren't there to pay for their pizza. So I signed my life away for 10 bucks a month. The plan? 30 minutes. No text. It didn't exist yet.

At the time, 30 minutes was by no stretch a ton. That's like a minute a day. But I didn't want to pay more than that. So I resolved to use it only for pizza delivering. That lasted like 5 minutes.

I got home that day, said hi to my mom and went downstairs. Then I called her from there. "Hi Mom, I'm calling you from downstairs!" She was puzzled and confused. Greatest moment of my life.

I drove over to my girlfriend's house and called her from the doorstep. She was super excited that her BF was one of those jerks with a cell phone. She demanded that I buy one of those hip-holsters and wear it loudly and proudly.

Soon, my bill was over 100 bucks. I went over my quota in one or two days, and it just compounded from there. So I signed up for a $40/month plan for like 200 minutes. Then I left on my mission. When I came home in 2001, most everybody had a cell phone and they were getting more minutes for less and free phones. I figured I didn't need a cell phone, who did I have to call? That lasted about a month. I came crawling back. The number I got in 2001 is my number today. I'm gonna hold onto this number until I die.

Now I have another can't-live-without gadget: DVR. Once you have it, you can't imagine life without it. No more sitting through the annoying low-budget local ads. No more being forced to schedule your life around Thursday's TV line-up. I can get through college football games in an hour, NBA games in 45 minutes.

I watch less TV with DVR than without because I'm so efficient. I like to watch TV at certain times of the day, right when I get home from work and later at night. Before, when I plopped down on the couch, I just surfed to the best possible program on, settling on some dumb show because the only other options were "Next Top Model" and "What Not to Wear", that intolerable show where the annoying gay guy and the condescending woman think that the only acceptable time to wear a t-shirt and pajamas is never.

So instead of watching garbage while waiting for my favorite shows to start, I can skip straight to my favorite shows. Once my favorite shows are over and I still feel like watching the tube, I skip over to my secondary shows, the shows I've recorded for the sole purpose of having something to watch when there's nothing else to watch.

When I was a kid, I was so stoked to stay in a motel for the sole purpose of having ESPN. Now, even at the nicest hotel, I get bummed out because I have to sit through commercials and they only have like 50 channels to choose from. Where is my DIY network? Where are my 15 movie channels and 30 sports channels? You call this living? How did I even watch TV before DVR?

There are a few minor downsides:

1. You never know what new movies are coming out.
2. Everybody's on a different schedule. No more showing up to work/school the next day to discuss "The Office".
3. Along the same lines as number 2, you sometimes have the outcome of your favorite show spoiled by the loud coworker across from you.

I can't think of a better way to spend 10 dollars every month. It's a show organizer, life planner, and a friend. I'd like to take this chance to bear my testimony of DVR. DVR is true. I know it with every fiber of my being, without a shadow of a doubt.