Fairies & Roller Derby & More
My weekends are going to stay busy from now on and this past weekend was no exception! Ack!
Friday night: Christine received a last minute call to attend and photograph the Woodland Heights 100th Anniversary Gala and invited me along. Mayor Bill White showed up briefly and gave a short speech. I was cornered on the patio where he was so I was unable to get a good vantage point but Christine took some lovely photos. The home where the event was held is absolutely stunning and the owners are the most down-to-earth, gracious hosts!
After the gala I headed to a salsa party hosted by my dance instructor. I stopped going to class at the beginning of the summer but have missed dancing so I made a conscious effort to attend and get back into the swing of the things so to speak. I re-registered for classes as well.
Saturday: Kenny and I attend the Texas Renaissance Festival every 2-3 years and decided to head back out this season. We went without a group and I did not dress up for the first time in a while but instead enjoyed simply spending the day together. It also gave me the opportunity to drag my camera around. I took lots of portraits (and a great fairy series) which I am slowly uploading to Flickr. Below is a slideshow of the set:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Saturday night: Exhausted from walking all day at the festival, we headed home and settled in for the night in front of the TV.
Sunday: Thankfully we were able to sleep in and just hang at home for a few hours before meeting friends for a late lunch/early dinner at Baba Yega. We then all headed Downtown to see the final bout of the Houston Roller Derby. We had a lot of fun and watched the Psych Ward Sirens win the title for a second year in a row. We finally made it home around 10 PM!
Do Kenny & I have paranormal powers?
So both Kenny and I have a tendency to turn off street lights (most often those sodium & mercury lights). Yep. It happens often enough that we both comment on it. I have been doing this all my life and Kenny says he has too. It’s weird and we can’t explain it. We simply drive by a light or walk under one and it goes out for no reason. And it doesn’t get burned out – it just turns off. You can go by the same light the next day and it is on. Every now and then a light turns on but this happens much less often so I discount it as coincidence.
In college this happened on a regular basis when I walked around campus – and it wasn’t always the same lights. My friend thought it was purely coincidence and that there was nothing to it. Until he hung out with me a little longer… and saw how often it happened. He tried to see if it happened with him alone and it didn’t. He finally conceded it had to be me. LOL.
We’ve tried to come up with logical solutions – Kenny & I are very pragmatic people. We’ve considered the idea that our car headlights hit the light sensor of some of these lights but that doesn’t explain why it happens even when we just walk by. Plus, car headlights simply don’t shine high enough. If it were simply random bulbs burning out, then why are these lights working the next day (I seriously doubt they get replaced that quickly)? Often the lights that go out start to try to light up again (those sodium lights always take a while to turn completely back on and instead glow for a minute or two first).
The other idea is that we simply are more observant than the average person and that the lights may be going out all around us but not everyone notices. I think this *may* be the probable explanation but it is not as glamorous as the idea that we have some special electrical power…
Some research came across this wonderful Wikipedia entry and gave us a name for what we experience. We seem to be “SLIders”: Street Light Interference. Seems like no one can quite agree what it is either.
What do you think? Have you experienced this? Are we out whacked out crazy people? OK, wait, don’t answer that…
EDITED TO ADD: I know, I know – cycling of the lamps is probably the best explanation but I prefer to think I am just “special”. LOL. 🙂
Halfway through October…
Wow, it is already October 16th. And from the looks of my calendar my weekends will be filling up quickly for the rest of the year with various events. This weekend was relatively unplanned but it was nice…
Thursday: The Museum of Fine Arts is free on Thursdays and also stays open until 9 PM and Kenny & I have found that this is a wonderful time to go. Crowds are much smaller and even the special exhibits are open. I had heard such good things about the Red Hot exhibit that I wanted to make sure to see it before it left. Wow! I am so glad it did! It wasn’t huge but it was really wonderfully organized. Loved every piece.
Friday: Stayed home & watched Memoirs of a Geisha. This is beautiful movie!
Saturday: Kenny and I have not had a chance to spend much time together so I made a point to keep the day open for “us” time. We slept in late then headed out for a little shopping. In between that we got a couple of geocache finds in. I also quickly shot my Barstool Magazine assignment for this month. We were out long enough too that we had both lunch and dinner but had a nice time enjoying the nice weather. After being out all day we stayed in that evening and watched another movie, Inside Man. Wow. That was really over-acted. Denzel Washington has officially lost favor with me. The way he talks and he always plays the same character over and over… ugh.
Sunday: Hanna and I had agreed to get together today. We hoped to get some photos in at the local pumpkin patch but unfortunately, it was overcast and started to rain as we drove up. No worries, we had a nice time catching up at her home, watching her little girl Emma walk (she just started a week or two ago). Her sister-in-law Jamie was also there with her baby girl so I was surrounded by babies! Still got a few good shots of Emma though… Photo to the right of her tiny foot is my favorite. I headed home in the late afternoon and watched yet another movie (this time The Illusionist)…
Now I’ve got a bunch of NetFlix returns and another Monday here at work…
Yay! It’s Thursday!
Well, the temperature is dropping ever so slightly. At least we are out of the 90s for now, hopefully for the rest of the year. Mid 80s is better but I’d still prefer the balmier 70s so I can start wearing the cooler clothing. I’m bored with my summer wardrobe. Time for some long-sleeves!
Things are going well over here… I am trying to pull myself out of my minor doldrums and cross a few things off my to-do list. Slowly but surely. House is at least staying relatively organized so that helps.
I am sure you are dying to know what I have been up to so without further ado…
Thursday & Friday (last week): I took these two days off to take my Mom to her second cataract surgery. She did not require as much care as the first time since she could already see better so she only spent one night with me. I actually just stayed around the house, tidied up, enjoyed the comfort of my couch… at least on Thursday after her surgery. Friday was a different story as I spent all day running around – haircut, lunch with Mom, her follow-up appointment, some shopping afterward…
Friday night: My busy Friday continued into the evening when I met Christine and her wedding client for dinner. Afterward we stopped by Leon’s Lounge to wish the fabulous Monica a Happy Birthday.
Saturday: After missing last month’s market, we were anxious to be back at Yale Street Art Market this market but once again, the weather conspired against us. It was unbearably hot and muggy for the first few hours then the skies opened up and it started to pour. Needless to say the booth got pretty wet and we decided to just pack up around 3 PM when the rains finally stopped. It was disappointing.
Saturday night: I got home, peeled my wet clothes off (wet jeans are so uncomfortable), took a long hot shower and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Sunday: Hanna and I had planned an afternoon together so she and Emma picked me and we headed to 11th Street Café for brunch. Afterward we stopped at M2 Gallery to pick up my prints. Hanna also had the opportunity to see the photos that were still up (it was the 600 sq mi exhibit’s last day). We then tried to head to the Greek Festival but a flat tire and over-heated baby kept us away. No big deal, I actually preferred the time we had chatting over wandering the Festival in the heat.
And that brings us back to Monday… woo-hoo! Now the weekend is upon us once again and I am trying to sort out those plans!! They will hopefully include some much needed time with my husband, some more time with Hanna, some geocaching and some photography!
My horoscope is actually right for once?
So I happened to glance at my horoscope over at my Facebook profile and it says:
Sagittarius: You’re finally going to get what you deserve – payback from all that hard work. But that doesn’t mean you can stop working!
Huh. I guess my recent raise, good review at work and my paid photography gigs could be construed as “payback from all that hard work”. At least I’d like to think it is…
Happy October!
Welcome to October everyone – it’s the 1st and autumn has been here for a couple of weeks but the cooler temps have not made it down to Houston yet. We are staying around the low 90s. The days have not been unpleasant though. It’s better than the high 90s for sure! Also, before I get into the weekend recap, I wanted to send birthday wishes out to my father or as I called him “Papi”. He passed away 14 years ago and is still missed.
On to weekend recaps for the last couple of weekends…
> A big group of us saw the immensely funny & witty Jonathan Coulton at The Mucky Duck a couple of weeks ago. The opening act, Paul & Storm, were equally hilarious and we all can’t wait till they return to Houston.
> This past Friday Kenny had a guy’s night so I headed out to Miller Outdoor Theatre to see the local Taiko drummers. Thanks Kymberlie for the invite. I had a great evening sitting out in the lawn watching the show and catching up with you! I was able to take some decent shots despite being several hundred feet way without a tripod. The image to the right is one of my favorites.
> Christine has had me busy with photography assignments as well. Weekend before last we shot a black-tie birthday party and this weekend I was 2nd photographer for her at a wedding. It was my first full-blown wedding to shoot and boy was it exhausting!! The couple was lovely and a pleasure to work with and despite the outdoor ceremony having to be moved inside as a result of the rain, it all went well. We were on our feet from 1:30 PM to 11:00 PM and not only were my feet tired, so was my wrist from carrying the camera with attached flashed around all those hours. I took about 7 GB of photos (about 700 shots).
I was nervous because I am weak when it comes to flash photography but I was pleased with the results and feel confident that I can only improve. Christine totally rocked it and has been such an amazing support and cheerleader for me. She had confidence in me when I didn’t have it in myself and I would not have been able to step outside of my comfort zone without her faith in my ability and skills. Thank you Christine! To top it off, a wedding guest stopped Christine and told her that we had been very professional and that they looked forward to seeing the photos. Yay us! At the end of this post is a test shot I took to get my light settings. I posted the original on Flickr only to be told that the chandelier by Christine’s head made it look like her camera was on fire. A little Photoshop later and voila – it *is* on fire. Appropriate considering the amount of shots we took! LOL
> And that brings us to Sunday – a day of rest. Kenny and I spent the day together, shopping, hanging out. I vowed to get more comfortable shoes for future wedding assignments and thankfully found some Naturalizer shoes that fit the bill. The evening was spent watching a movie and relaxing some more.
Happy Birthday Christine!
I love L’Engle!
My favorite childhood author, Madeleine L’Engle, passed away earlier this month. I read her Time Quartet when I was in late elementary/early middle school and devoured several more of her books that were not in the series. I had Kenny buy me the series again a couple of years but they had been collecting dust on my shelf. When I heard of her passing I decided to pull them out and re-read them.
Let me back up – I was trying to finish a 2-part novella by J.D. Salinger but that was going nowhere. I read the first novella quickly but could not finish the second one. It was so, so, I don’t know… unentertaining and intellectually loaded in that bad, overdone way. I tried but after several months of wasting my time I waived the white flag and put it away. Now I am happily engrossed in A Wrinkle in Time and look forward to re-living some good childhood memories!
Do you have a favorite childhood book or author? By the way, it should come to no surprise that my favorite book in high school was Aldous Huxley‘s Brave New World. The similarities are not lost on me…
Good friends and laziness…
I couldn’t mention it before since Hanna reads my blog but the surprise party we threw her turned out great and she was truly surprised! She had had no idea!! Tee, hee… That was Saturday night, now for a complete weekend re-cap…
Friday night: Hanna’s best friend Dennon came in Friday night from Dallas for the party and stayed at our house. He was wonderful and helped get the house cleaned up and ready for the party. We did some cleaning that night then headed out to a quick dinner at El Rey and afterward to a new bar for a BarStool assignment. I walked away from the club I was to have photographed though when I was told that I had to pay cover and stand in line. Um, I think not – I am photographing your place for a bar review, it’s free advertising and I refuse to stand in line for half an hour and pay to get in. This was not my idea of a night out, it was a job and I had spoken to the manager a couple of days ago so they knew I was coming and that an article was being written about them. I was irked to say the least. Now I have to head back out Wednesday night to finish this assignment and stay out later than I had hoped because of this bozo manager. Anyway, since I was in a bad mood from the experience, we stopped briefly by Onion Creek for a drink. That was nice and relaxing and it was nice to chat with Dennon.
Saturday: Kenny, Dennon and I headed out to Star Pizza for a Twitter meet-up then bought last minute supplies before heading back home to finish getting ready for the party.
Saturday night: The party was a huge success! At least 25 of Hanna’s friends and family came out to help her celebrate her 30th. There were so many cute kids under five running around. Note to self: buy more balloons for the kids to play with! LOL
Sunday: Lazy day. We slept in then moved to the couch for some TV and intermittent snoozing. I had several invitations for some group events but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone and actually wanted to just spend time with Kenny so we got off of our lazy butts and headed Downtown for a movie at the Angelika. Funny thing is that both group events I skipped out on were in downtown too at the same time we went to the movies, just blocks away.
I’ve got an interesting pet story to tell but I will leave that for its own entry… LOL
So how was your weekend??
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