I'm In The Dog House

August 7th was really my last post? Oops :)

School is finally started again *thank GOD!* I've been threatened with bodily harm if I don't post up some pics of the boy getting on the bus, so here you go family. I really need to get around to taking some studio shots of the kids. Isn't it crazy that I use all my good stuff for everyone else's pictures, but when it comes time to take my own pictures that I grab my point and click (it's ok I guess, but not nearly as capable as even my real back up)?





According to reports, he likes his teacher and is enjoying the work. His homework looks good - mostly review stuff right now, but it appears as if he didn't lose too much brain capacity over the summer. I'm just glad they (Jade and Vincent) have a little time apart. They get along so much better when they aren't around each other 24-7. A little reprieve for parents I guess!

We have our second Brown County trip planned for next weekend. The kids are staying with grandmas and we're out of here Friday morning. Taking the horses and the new trailer camping again... I'm really looking forward to it. Another perk is that we got our primo-favorite camp site, too. And with the new awning on the trailer and the DirecTv satellite ready to go, we should be roughing it in style.

Well, looks like the official number is in... I took 1166 pictures yesterday at the wedding I was at. 14 hours of shooting and I am SORE today. I think this was my longest wedding to date. I started at 10am with the girls at the salon and didn't leave till midnight. The ceremony was at 6pm, so things ran LATE LATE LATE.

In other news, my horse is doing fabulous with his new found ability to pick up his feet. I know that means absolutely nothing if you don't know horses, but it's a big deal for me. He's the epitome of "lazy quarter horse". His favorite thing to do is to stand around with a dumb look on his face. His second favorite thing to do is sleep. So when it's time to actually work (ie: pick his feet up) he's a little bummed. He got into a pattern in which his feet literally DRAGGED the ground as he went, and his gaits meshed in to a distinct shuffle. Anyway, we got him working again - and to reward his new achievements he got a new saddle!



It's a Crosby Hunterdon (which, again, means nothing to most of you) but trust me when I stay it's the BMW of english saddles - not quite a Ferarri - but Pretty. Damn. Nice. And I got a hell of a deal on it.

I'm pretty stoked that football season is upon us. Today is my Super Bowl of sorts. Denver is playing Chicago in Denver - and after Denver's quarterback/coach debacle, it'll be a good game to watch. I think it's pretty funny that a lot (read: all) of my friends think I'm a Bears or Colts fan - nuf said. I'm not expecting greatness, but it'll be fun to watch. I tried to convince Brian to take me to Denver to actually see the game, but he kept saying something about money or something like that.. oh well.

Anyway. I have a ton of stuff to do today from pictures to kids to getting the horse trailer ready... hope you all have a relaxing Sunday!

Insomnia Strikes Again

I don't think I've slept more than 3 or 4 hours in one night in the past week or more.
This is getting seriously old...

How Grown Up...

Vincent: Hallie is having one of our classmates from school over. She's going to come over and try to kiss me.

Me: Cool!

Vincent: This is big time.

*sigh

I Just Can't Motivate

I don't know what the hell my problem is. I just have NOT been motivated to post to this blog! Is anyone even still reading? I post so seldom any more, I'm sure I've just about bored all my faithful followers (yeah, all 2 of them) to death. It's not that I haven't had time. Brian's back to working midnights, so a lot of my evenings are free. Photo business has been busy, but that's not an excuse. I could always post while converting files, processing, uploading, whatever.

Anyway. We braved the county fair tonight (Brian's second trip). I got some fried cheese cubes... hmmm. I remember them being much better tasting last time I didn't suffer guilt from dropping $7 on cheese. Needless to say, maybe it's what I needed. I won't be craving fried cheddar cheese anymore. Actually, it was pretty gross. The elephant ear was good though, and it was nice to let the kids do all the rides "sans parent" now that they're tall enough to handle them alone. Vincent went on the upside down-y one by himself. I was pretty proud of him. He said it was cool. I'm pretty sure I would have puked. He also did the gravitron - the spinny, stick to the wall gyroscope - you remember - by himself and walked out on two feet. Atta' boy!

Tomorrow is Emily Pinkerton's folk concert at Taltree Aboretum. Emily is a long ago friend (high school era) who was brilliant and talented in the early 90's. I can't imagine how awesome she is now. She actually has an album now, too, titled "Emily Pinkerton - Valparaiso." I'm sure I'll get a copy after tomorrows concert. Not only that, but I'm meeting up with some old friends, namely Cate from Alaska who I haven't seen for YEARS, but who I rode with all through high school in 4H and beyond. I'm pretty stoked.

Anyway. My "partner" at work is headed out to Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota tomorrow morning with another good friend of mine. Wishing them a safe trip out, a good time there (BBBOOOOOBBBSSSSS!), and a safe trip home.

Hope everyone is having a good week. BTW, comment if you're still reading me... ;)

Anddddd, We're Back!

It's been so long since I've posted that I actually had to think about my blog log-in. Hmm. It's Sunday night and I think it's the first Sunday night in a long time that I've actually had nothing to do. Kids are in bed. Dogs are fed. House is tidied up. I've had a glass of wine. Perfect time to catch up.

After our fun and exciting Brown County weekend (already a MONTH ago) we headed out to Colorado. It was the kids first time there so it was exciting, at least for the grown ups, to see their reaction to the west and all its grandeur. We started out in Denver the first night. We decided on the brand new Jeep Wrangler for a rental car to get the full experience. We went to Coors shortly after we got there and did the customary tour/complimentary tasting.
US AT COORS - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME


After dropping about $60 in the gift shop (as usual) we found our hotel in Denver. We ate at a disgusting place called "Casa Bonita" that serves cafeteria style mexican. And it tastes about as good as it sounds... but the draw was that there is a "variety show" of sorts going on at all times in the restaurant. There's a big pool, with a big fake cliff that has cliff divers, actors that come out and do a show to include an escaped gorilla that runs through the crowd (a big hit, let me tell you), fire jugglers, mariachi bands... you get the idea. It's definitely more about the entertainment for the little ones than the food. We went back to the hotel and swam in the warm and surprisingly CLEAN hotel pool - I found the SAUNA!! YAY - and we dropped.

The next morning we got up, went to Red Rocks Ampitheatre to let the kids run around for a while. Here's Vincent and Jade in their usual form in the seating area. It just amazes me how the whole mood in Colorado is so much healthier than it is here in the armpit of America. If you've never been there, the ampitheatre is used by the locals as a free outdoor workout area when there's not an event going on. People run the bleachers, do stairs up the many rows of seating, and otherwise take advantage of the natural challenges there. There was a "yoga chick" I'll call her on the stage that was doing some amazing shit. In fact, it's what inspired me to start up with the whole yoga thing again. Here are a few more pics at Red Rocks...

The kids, behaving as usual


Brian, in deep reflection


Jade, practicing to be Hannah Montana on the stage


The stadium to include the amazing yoga chick (bottom right)


After we hung out there for a while we packed up and drove down to Colorado Springs. We thought since we didn't make it to the actual summit last time we were there due to weather that we'd go up Pikes Peak again. This time the road was open all the way to the top. It's an AMAZING drive if you've never done it, I highly suggest you do. The weather was pretty warm (low 90's) at the base but there was still measurable snow at the summit. What's super cool is it makes you an instant cheap date. Just stepping out of the car, you're light headed due to the thin air and altitude. I was walking into stuff and tripping around like I was drunk. Pretty cool. That in mind (cold all the time, no air) I managed somehow to get attacked by a bee. It stung me 3 times right on the chest. I think I'm the only person in history to be attacked by a regular honey bee at 14 thousand feet. If you know of anyone else whose had this experience, please let me know. Trees don't even grow at that elevation. What the hell is a honey bee doing there? Who knows. All I do know is that it hurt. Bad. Oh well. It was still worth the trip. And the donuts were good...

Another one NOT taken by me


Pikes Peak donuts - world famous YUMMM!!!


The view looking down, above the timber line


Kids, not killing eachother for once


That night we had reservations at the Flying W Ranch, a Colorado Springs must do. There's this cool little western town incorporated into the whole experience (where you hang out before dinner) and then they ring the dinner bell and you find your place on the picnic table. It's a chuckwagon style meal, complete with tin plates, tin cups, and the works. BBQ chicken, beans, honey biscuits, lemonade.. again, another slightly better than mediocre meal, but a lot of fun. After dinner a western band plays live (and they're actually really good - plus, they played a Chris LeDoux song - bonus points in my book).

Flying W after dinner


We slept good that night and started out for the Garden of the Gods in the morning. Another "must see" in the Springs. The kids had a good time playing around on the rocks, we burned off a little morning energy, and then headed out to the property.

Self explanatory


Kids holding up "balanced rock"


Purple baby holding up balanced rock - too cute


My favorite people


My favorite boy


It was good to go out to the property again. The sign was still there, which I thought was exceptionally cool. Even cooler was that I was able to put the camera on the hood of the Jeep and get this picture of all of us...


We got to drive to the resevoir for the first time, too. You can actually see it from the property, but we'd never actually gone and looked at it close up. It was really beautiful, and it was a nice enough day to be able to splash around in the clear, cool water for a while before heading out to (beautiful) Vail for the night.


We stayed at a resort/condo which turned out to be super cheap because it is off season. This was the view from our balcony. Note the ski lift in the upper left corner. It looked out to Vail Mountain, Peak One, which was super cool. There was also an amazing river running just behind, which gave off an incredible sound - so relaxing.


We found a great little steak house in Vail Village for dinner. It was exceptional and we got like 20 or 30% off, again because it was off season. I highly recommend going to one of these resorts in the off season. The 2 room condo with a fireplace and balcony, full kitchen... was under $130/night. Quite a deal if you're just going out there for the scenery.

The next morning we got up, took our time, and headed back into Denver. We went to the natural history museum there (not the best part of the trip, but something different) and met up with some old friends for a BBQ and some cocktails at their house. Chad and Katie are friends from YEARS ago. In fact, I'd been out to Colorado with Chad and some other friends back when I was in college... but that's another post. Anyway, they graciously invited us to stay with them the night before we flew out, which was fabulous. We had a great time visiting, catching up, eating, and enjoying wine. The weather was awesome, and I think we sat up drinking and talking on their rear patio till almost 2 am. It really was the perfect ending to an almost perfect vacation (vacation is a term I'll use loosely - with two kids in tow, well, if you have kids you get it). We flew out the next morning and said good bye to the beautiful Rockies for another year!

Hope you enjoyed this vaca-dissertation! Have a good week everyone!

Brown County, Episode 1

 

 

We had a great weekend at Brown County. It was also the maiden voyage for the new horse trailer, which proved to be damn handy during the major down pour at about 4am on Sunday morning. We’d been pretty lucky in years past, as far as rain goes, but our luck ran out this trip. It had rained a ton prior to our arrival so the trails were pretty sloppy and mucky compared to how they’ve been in the past. One thing that made it cool, though, was that the little river beds were pretty full of water so we had some interesting water crossings and some decent scenery.




Things started off a little rough. The new trailer equaled issues getting one of the horses in. He’d never been in a trailer like ours before, which has an area in the back for saddles and stuff, and therefore allows for only a half door in the back. The trailer we used to have had one large back door that went the entire width of the horse area. So Sam the dummy wouldn’t go into the new trailer. It was my *brilliant idea to put Harley in first, so Sam would be more apt to go in if his friend was already in there.

 

*brilliant is used very figuratively here…

 

With a little fuss from even my easy horse though, Harley was in the front spot. A little more fuss and Sam was in, and we were off. About 45 minutes away from home Brian asked me what boots I brought to ride in. I had already realized this but had failed to 1) verbalize it or 2) come to terms with it… I had left home for a weekend of HORSEBACK RIDING with no boots. Zero, none at all. In fact, the only shoes I had were the ones on my feet, and they happened to be probably the worst possible option for a weekend of riding, in the mud. That’s where the new Black Berry came in handy. I googled a nearby Tractor Supply and after getting bad directions and going 8 miles the wrong way, we stopped and got some decent riding boots. It was actually a good thing, because I bought hiking/riding boots so they can serve a dual purpose. And I needed hiking boots anyway.

 

So without further ado, besides the 40 minute traffic jam, we got to Brown County. We got the trailer backed in relatively easily, and it was time to get the horses out (clears throat). Putting Sam in last wasn’t so brilliant after all. You see, besides doing that and forgetting my boots, I apparently left my brain at home with my morning coffee that I never had. I forgot entirely that Sam doesn’t know how to back out of a trailer. Remember that rear tack I was talking about? Yeah, that makes it literally physically impossible to turn a horse around and walk him out forward. It simply wasn’t going to happen. And he clearly was not going to back out.

Needless to say, we got him out… I was nerve racked and drenched in sweat, but he came out. It wasn’t pretty but no one (me or the horse, or Brian) got seriously hurt. Harley was much easier. He just backs out no problem. I think he was a little flustered from the whole experience. The first ride that evening was ok. The horses were a little obnoxious – not as calm and easy going as they usually are there. But it was still ok. Somehow Harley slipped out of his halter after we bedded him down for the night but it was no big deal. We caught him and immediately put the backup halter over the other one.

We had a few beers that night and got a good night sleep on the new matress. The next day went much smoother. The horses were still a little jumpy the first ride out that morning but settled into the regular mo-jo by afternoon. We returned to camp after about a 2 hour morning ride. Had some peanuts, a beer or two. Then we went out for an afternoon ride. Another 2 hours and we were back. We hung out for about another hour or so, and then went back out for an evening ride. When we got back to camp, we got the horses fed and cleaned up. Then we set up camp for the night. The Porterhouses went on the new campfire grill and dinner was on! Aside from the camp breakfast (eggs, sausage and hash browns all mixed up and cooked together), the Porterhouse dinner is another highlight. We had a really relaxing evening, enjoyed eachothers company, hung out by the fire, and went to bed.

At about 4am, we woke up to a tap tap tap on the top of the trailer. I layed there for a minute thinking, “Was that rain?” Just then, I figured it was definitley rain, and it actually started to rain quite hard. We ran outside and moved a few things around at the campsite and made sure the horses weren’t going to freak out. They seemed ok to stand in the rain – I imagine it probably felt good after 7 hours on the trails. So because there wasn’t a lot of lightning or thunder, or hail, or anything but just a lot of damn rain, they stood outside through it. We sure appreciated a dry place to sleep. With the amount of rain and the manner in which it was coming down, we were positively glad we weren’t in a tent at that point.

Sunday morning brought some mud and a little drying out, which was all bettered by our egg/sausage/hashbrown breakfast. We took the horses on quick easy trail ride (which was significantly muddier than the day before) and packed up camp. The ride home went pretty well (with the exception of the 40 minute traffic back up) and we made it back to the barn. This time Sam was in the front spot, which turned out to not really matter because he still couldn’t turn around. He still wouldn’t back up, but now we had more knowledge, more help, better ideas and more weapons. We ended up hooking two long longe lines to each side of his halter and pulling back on him from outside of the trailer, which was decidedly safer than going at it from inside the trailer, with the horse. He came out a little better than the first time. So it’s something we need to work on.

What did we come away with? A new pair of boots, more knowledge than I ever cared to have about how to get a stubborn (read: stupid) horse out of a trailer, a satisfied appetite, and another memory of a *successful trip to Brown County in the books.

*Figuratively speaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I Suck, What Can I Say?

So, really. With the 2 weddings last month and our decision to purchase a horse trailer that lets just say needed a little "reconditioning" we've had our plates full. Is that not the story of my life or what? It seems like I'm complaining, but if you ask anyone who knows me in real life, sitting idle just kills me. That's part of the reason I went from my sometimes idle nursing job to police work, I guess. I'm a bit more idle sometimes that I would have originally thought, somewhat due to the fact that I'm an investigator, but sometimes things get pretty exciting. So, no, I'm not complaining. I just love to be busy.

After hours and hours of online searching, I finally found a trailer that I thought would suit our purposes. We had some money set aside, and definitely did NOT want to go into hock on this purchase. The initial plan was to wait till next year, but the more we (I) thought about camping at Brown County and getting rained out and how bad that would suck and how over Labor Day it sure would be nice to have some A/C and all kinds of other things I started looking. So we (I) decided that if there was any possibility that something was out there that we could do this year, we (I) would. You see where this is going?

So after we (I) found the "perfect" trailer *mind you there are NONE in existence that were between 10 and 15 thousand dollars - it was either 10 or 15 period* we set up a good deal that we (I) could live with and arranged to go pick the thing up in Seymour which is about a 3.5 hour drive. When we got there, we actually saw the thing in person. It was a little rough. Ok, it was a little more rough than we (I) thought. BUT, looking past the fact that they hadn't even tried to clean it up prior to the sale, it was really an ok trailer. But it was empty inside. By that I mean that the "living quarters" concept we (he) had in mind at this juncture was not quite what we had in front of us. After an initial reaction by him of, and I quote, "No way...we're not taking it" we hung around for a few more hours. You see, part of the deal was that they were going to install the needed hitch in the bed of the truck while we waited, so at this point there was already a 3" hole in the bed of our new truck. We had no choice but to stay.

So in the meantime we looked around at all the other trailers, new and used, compared and contrasted. We were most impressed with the $375,000 Sundowner "Luxury Liner" but unfortunately the bank just didn't give us that much money that day. We finally came to the realization that if we weren't going to go into total hock at this point, we'd better stick with what we (I) found. Just put it this way - it was a long ride home.

We spent the entire next day power washing, painting, steam cleaning and otherwise defunking the new trailer. Additionally we sold our "old" trailer in the meantime. We worked our butts off with the help of our amazingly handy neighbor, and finally came out the other side with something quite liveable! Check it out!! So, the new trailer makes its maiden voyage to Brown County bright and early Friday morning...and I can safely say at this point that WE, yes, WE actually are pretty impressed with how nice it turned out.

Vincent

Vincent McDonald, this morning, and I quote:

"I'm tired of playing outside, I'm tired of playing in my room with my toys, I'm tired of playing in the sandbox, I'm tired of riding my bike. I need a vehicle to drive."

Sigh.

.............

Let's just say I officially hate computers.

Busy Isn't The Word

I think I titled my last post as busy, busy, busy. Little did I know! My schedule has been overtaken with work, photography, meetings, and family responsibilities - unfortunately, pretty much in that order...

I just posted a new bit on my photo blog. This is actually only one session of three waiting in line for posting. And I have a wedding and an engagement session still to shoot within the week. Stand by for some frequent posting there!

I have to work the Indy 500 again this year. Gate 1. If any one is gonna be there, feel free to come over to that area and give me a shout out. I've worked that Gate for several years now, and we have a new officer in charge there this year (not me) so I feel I may be giving some advice about how things work (and don't work I suppose) at that VERY busy and complex location. So there's a 20 hour day, roughly. At least we'll get a free turkey sub out of it - and maybe a bottled water or two...

I have an engagemnent session scheduled for Monday (if I survive Sunday) at a very beautiful location that I haven't had the opportunity to shoot at before. Yay. Some new stuff to explore is always fun.

So I guess this is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow is pretty open except for work, and I have to go to the rehearsal for about an hour on Friday, and then it starts. I plan on being non-existent in the life of my friends and family till about noon on Tuesday....

Let's do some kind of dance or something for good weather, for my sake!!!

Me: 1, Washing Machine: 0

Did I mention in a previous post that my washing machine took a crap on me? I thought of a great solution; I'd ask my Grandma if I could buy, at a discount, her barely used front load Maytag set. Since she's soon going to be moving into my aunt's house (which is equipped with a fully functional washer and dryer), I thought maybe I'd luck out. She agreed (and there was much rejoycing...) until my mom told me that she thought the washer had issues. She and my aunt both told me that after the machine is done with its cycle, you can still see several inches of dirty water under the wash tub... and that Maytag said this was "normal" for that model. That model happened to be a Maytag Neptune.

So I googled "maytag neptune" and was unhappy to see that there was actually a recent class action lawsuit settled on this EXACT model for mildew and/or black mold problems. Maytag's solution? Run empty loads of bleach water on a weekly basis. I read a ton of testimonials from people who thought it was just ludicrous that you had to spend so much time washing your washer, just so that your clothes weren't infiltrated with mold spores and mildew. So I then started looking at Neptune alternatives. Like fixing the one we've got, instead. I researched the problem we were having, found some diagrams, took the washer apart last night, sent Brian on a part hunt today, and fixed it tonight.

And it actually works! For a few hours on the internet, an overwhelming desire to have clothes that don't smell like mildew, and $7, our old washer is new again. I just had to replace the "cam dogs." Like, duh?!?

So they say good things come in 3's (or is it pairs...for my sake let's say 3's). I found out as well that I overpaid my Nipsco bill by $125, and my bill this month was a whopping $40, so Nipsco still owes me $80. Guess that means no Nipsco bills this summer! Yay.

I know Good Thing #3 is that there's a check for a million dollars on it's way to me in the mail right now...

Finally!

We finally got our spring landscaping done, despite the fact that I've been just about as sick as I've been in my most recent memorable past. I guess you don't need a voice to landscape...
So here are a few pics and a quick video clip of the final outcome...now it's time for a grilled onion cheeseburger and a glass of red wine...