Project 365

2012-01-05T16:05:00.001-05:00

Project 365 - January 5, 2012

Wow, my first blog post of the year. This will be my fifth year. Wow, where does the time go? When I started this photo blog, my oldest daughter was getting ready to graduate from high school and I had just turned 50. Now I am 54 and she is a junior in college and my younger daughter will be graduating from high school soon.

But it is so comforting to look back at this blog to see a slice of my life. What was I doing on June 5, 2009 or September 11, 2010? I may not have blogged every single day, but there is a good bulk of my life documented out here.

These photos were taken in mid-December just prior to Rachel coming home from college. Joel and Adina and I drove up to the Pompano Fashion Square to see the Classic Car Show. It was a very hot and sticky day for December, even though it doesn't look that way from the dark skies. I think it rained later on in the day.

We had a good time wandering around these cars. Some that i remember from my youth and others way older than me! My favorite was the Dodge Dart with the push button transmission. Joel's father had a 1963 Dart and I remember those buttons!!

Adina got a kick out of the cars too. She and Joel took off wandering and that left me to do what I do best, sit on the ground and get into weird positions so that I can get the angles just the way I like them. If I don't end up sweaty and dirty, then I just didn't have a good shoot!

Project 365 - November 5, 2011

2011-12-06T22:20:00.001-05:00

You Never Know What You Will See in Downtown Fort Lauderdale

As I was leaving the parking garage, I was stopped at the light at Broward Blvd. Walking in front of me was a man, fairly young, in a hospital gown and slippers and a cane. It was like he was just having a nice walk in the early afternoon. Clearly he had a hospital bracelet on, but like I said, you never know what you will see in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Photo of the Day - December 4, 2011

2011-12-04T22:43:00.001-05:00

Art Miami

With all day Saturday devoted to resting my sore feet from Friday's adventure in Miami Beach, Adina and I were ready to tackle Art Miami!

Adina had slept at her friend's house so I let her sleep until about 11 a.m. and then I picked her up and (after she changed into her "artsy" clothes, we were off to Miami. I had an idea of where I was going but used my GPS anyway just to be sure! Adina and I caught up during the drive. She had her debate tournament on Saturday and she won first place in the Humerous Interpretation (HI) division! So very proud of my daughter!! She signed up for forensic debate in 9th grade and she has stuck with it ever since and wins trophies from time to time.

We arrived in Miami a mere 25 minutes later, there was no traffic at all, even though there were signs all over the place warning us! There was also a Dolphin game going on at the stadium, but I guess they were all in parking lot by the time I drove by. After paying our overinflated price at the parking garage, off we went!

The building where all the art was located, was actually the most gigantic tent I have ever seen! It was amazing really. We wandered around for hours and hours until our feet ached. But it was all fun. There were works of neon, and sculptures, paintings and photographs. The artwork came from every country you could think of. Also, there were Warhols, Matisse, Calders, Robert Indianas and more. By the time we left at about 4:30 we were on art overload!!

Photo of the Day - December 3, 2011

2011-12-04T11:12:00.001-05:00

Art Basel

After a long day at work, and Adina texting me, begging to go along with Robert and me to Miami Beach, and then driving for almost two hours (thanks to a wrong turn by Mr. Cardenas), we arrived in Miami Beach and parked the car in the New World Symphony's parking garage.

We were hungry, so we started with a walk on Lincoln Road and picked out a restaurant that had a menu the size of a book! Sitting outside underneath large umbrellas, we sat next to a couple from Europe. The husband was from Basel, Swizterland and the wife from Cologne, Germany. We had a wonderfully, interesting conversation with them while we waited for our food. And then the heavens opened up and poured for about five minutes, but then it was fine!

After dinner we made our way up to the New World Symphony to see the art films projected on the outside wall in the park. I was amazed at the numbers of people flopped down on the huge bean bag chairs sprinkled throughout the park. We watched a few films, one was a mixture of two versions of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Very clever!

Then we headed to the Bass Museum, and we explored the sculpture park. It was quite interesting. The really heavy winds made it difficult to walk around, but the temperature was great.

As we made our way up Collins, or was it Washington (?), we explored the hotels that last year had hosted free galleries. Well, we only found two that were free and others that had cover charges. The very last hotel had the most interesting art and artists. We probably spent about an hour walking through each of the rooms there.

In between we wandered into the hotel lobbies, or out by their pools. One was unbelievably decorated like an outdoor living room with couches around a reflecting pool.

All fun! A bit disappointing since we really didn't see as much art as last year. I like the fringe stuff better than the convention center stuff. Sunday I head down to Art Miami. A little more organized than this fringe stuff.

Adina slept in the car all the way home because she had a debate tournament in the morning! Probably not my best mommy judgement, but what the heck, Art Basel is only once a year and Adina IS an artist!

Photo of the Day - November 27, 2011

2011-11-27T19:14:00.001-05:00

Adina's AP Homework Assignment

Adina needed to work on her photography assignment. So we grabbed my cameras and started on a walk around the lake. I really never never know what I will find.

Of course about five minutes into our walk I discovered that I forgot to put the SD card back into my camera. So I did the next best thing (too lazy to go back home), I pulled out my iPhone. If my friend, Andy can publish photography books from his iPhone images, I can shoot with it too.

We found all sorts of interesting bugs and plants. I was more fascinated by the HDR option on my iPhone. I was just aiming at anything to see what kind of quality I would get.

I was pleasantly surprised at these results. Nice and convenient too, except I need my reading glasses to see what the hell I am doing now!! Oh the joys of aging.

A couple of these photos were taken outside of the house that used to belong to Jackie Gleason. I spent a lot of time peeking into the windows and was fascinated by the 70s decor! I remember when he lived here in Inverrary! He would ride around the neighborhood on his golf cart with the Rolls Royce front!

Project 365 - November 21, 2011

2011-11-22T22:26:00.001-05:00

Cookie Monster

My sweet child returned from Chicago tonight after five days of competing in the Glenbrooks Debate Tournament. She was so thoughtful to bring us a present!

A pumpkin cookie for mom and a Superman cookie for dad. Way too current to not share with the world!

Photo of the Day - October 31, 2011

2011-11-20T15:30:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween

This was the first Halloween that we didn't spend with either one of our children. I guess it is a new phase in our lives.

However, Adina was invited to a Halloween Party at her friend's house so she decided that she wanted to be a skeleton. Joel found a costume and make up for her at Party City and Adina did the rest of the magic! She really is an artist.

Working from a photo on a website, Adina created this unbelievable face within about 20 minutes! I snapped away as she applied the make up.

Final results were amazing.

Photo of the Day - November 16 - 17, 2011

2011-11-20T12:50:00.001-05:00

Sycamore for a Day (or two)

Arriving on the Indiana State University campus brought me back to 1975 once again! I loved going to school there. I had the best four years. It was a time to learn, a time to grow up and a time to cut the proverbial umbilical cord. But best of all, we had Larry Bird and Kurt Thomas! World-renowned basketball champion and Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast.

It all rushes back to me the second I see those sycamore trees lining the newly enclosed campus which was all city streets when I was there. Yes, I was cold, but I had my layers on. The wind blowing in my hair felt refreshing. Then I blink and realize this is not my reality anymore, it is my daughter's.

So we headed up to Lincoln Quad to put my suitcase in her suitemate's room. She was extremely gracious and slept at her parent's home for one night so that I could stay in the dorm. We gathered next door in their common room for their sorority. It was a dorm suite without the walls, decorated with fresh paint, couches, comfy chairs and throw pillows. It was study hour and only three of Rachel's sisters were there with their computers looking quite busy, of course checking their Facebook pages in between writing their intensely interesting term papers!

My daughter graciously cooked up a snack for me since I was hungry again. She wouldn't let me clean up the dishes saying, "you are in my home and I don't expect you to clean up after me here," wow, how grown up is that? I smiled. But later that evening when she wasn't looking, I did wash the dishes and put them away.

A few hours later we were dressed and ready to attend the Symphonic Band concert at Tilson Hall with Noah's parents (her boyfriend is in the band). We sat up in the balcony because my daughter, who is not only in Gamma Phi sorority, but also in the professional fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi as a little sister! She said that we had to sit with her "brothers" and besides, the sound was better up there! I was fine wherever we sat. Each piece was a very upbeat, but short piece and the concert was over before we knew it. And then we gathered in the Heritage Ballroom where I suddenly had deja vu because I remembered that I had been award the Alan C. Rankin President's award for community service in that very room in 1978! I do believe there is a photo of me in one of the yearbooks getting that award!

Afterwards we all went out to dinner to a new Chinese buffet (not my style, but it was my daughter's choice). I had to laugh because on buffet of not only Chinese food, were trays of macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and wings!! But it was the company, the conversation and the experience. And of course, once again, we closed out the place and the people was cleaning up around us!! We continued our discussion out in the parking lot next to Vicki and Dave's smart car! I just loved the size of it so I had to take a photo of course. It is sitting next to Noah's "BOAT" and you can see how small it is.

Back at the dorm I was instructed to get into my pajamas, grab my iPad and join the sisters in the common area. We sat there, chatting about life, social issues and what was Rachel like as a child until almost 1 a.m. My eyes hurt at that point and I really needed sleep, so excused myself. I had to take a running leap to get in the bed because it is up on blocks so that there is extra storage space underneath! Yet another giggle!!

I was the first one up in the morning and read email, Facebook and Twitter stuff and made myself tea while I waited for my daughter to get up. She wasn't moving, so I took a shower (quite an experience in the dark, cement floor stall) and got dressed and waited some more!!

Finally, my sleeping beauty got up and we headed over to visit our friend, John Newton. He is an institution at ISU and in Terre Haute too. He was the alumni director for years and years and once he retired last year, came back to work (on his own terms, part time) at the ISU Foundation. He also served as a Councilman for the town for a few years. But now enjoys his time traveling for both pleasure and for the school. I am always amazed at the fountain of knowledge in his brain! He knows every student, where they live, what they major in, when they are going to graduate and he really listens and hears and remembers what you say!

We spent about an hour and a half there. He was even kind enough to print out my airline ticket which was amazing for John because he was so anti-technology a few years ago!

Then it was off to the Lincoln Quad dining hall. Mmmmmmm dorm food. After circling around and around I finally decided on a chicken patty on a bun with lots of salad on the side. For dessert I chose a brownie. So did Rachel. As we took a bite, we both looked at each other with a very funny look on our faces and tried to figure out what we were tasting. It was mint. Who puts mint in brownies?? Well, midwesterners I guess! Blech. Well, I did want something sweet, so I ate a few more bites before I gave up!!

Onward we went to wake up Noah! Yeah, I know, it was about 1 p.m. but he was sound asleep. He had pulled an all-nighter to write a paper, went to class, turned it in and went back to his room and promptly fell asleep. But we were heartless and woke him up and we made him go to Wal-Mart with us. I wanted to buy something for the girls' suite to say thank you.

Of all the things in the store, Rachel wanted cleaning supplies and a rug!! So that is what I got for them!! And they appreciated it.

Then it was off to the airport. It was a very short trip but we packed in a lot of talking and eating and one huge hug at the airport (no tears) and I was headed home.

Photo of the Day - November 16, 2011

2011-11-20T12:11:00.001-05:00

On the Road Again

After I finished my business at the conference, I rented a car at Enterprise and got directions to Terre Haute, Indiana and headed off on my way. I knew that it was at least a three-hour drive, so I decided that I would really, take my time, enjoy the scenery, take smaller country roads and get out and stretch my legs often.

I had my phone plugged into the speaker system, listened to my own music, had the GPS running and called every family member I knew to keep me company along the way.

But nothing in the world is like driving through southern Indiana! You feel as though you just stepped back about forty years or more. The roads are clean and smooth, but only one lane in each direction in most towns. Most towns only have a "flasher light" to define their "downtown" and there are only a couple of buildings clustered here and there that give you any indication of a "town."

But the people are friendly. They smile. They gladly offer directions or want to talk about the crazy weather that blew through Aeoli last night and ruined their town square (I passed through there and did see the damage, but it wasn't anything as bad as their descriptions).

I stopped in this one town, Orleans, Indiana because, well, nature called! And I saw this guy coming out of an antique shop with a deer head complete with antlers. I started a conversation with him and asked permission to take his photo. He was more than happy to pose for me. He was so proud of his new purchase! I was more intrigued with the formation of his facial hair. Not really a beard. Not really a moustache. Not really white. Not really the color of his hair. But it was interesting enough that here I am talking about it!!

Also in this town I walked through their square and shot images of how they decorated for the holidays. I was touched by this veterans memorial. I took one close up of one brick because it honored a WWI veteran. Sense of community is what I felt as I stood in this town that existed before the Civil War!

I passed by signs, giant billboard-sized ones, that said, "Every thirty seconds abortion stops a heartbeat," and "Jesus will save us all." There were huge crosses at the front gate of some of the farms. I tried to snap these as I was driving but unsuccessfully and my daughter was impatient for me to get there!!

I did take this one shot of a boat on a lawn next to an American flag. I loved the sign on the top of the "ark-like" boat which was advertising their Christian Book Store!

I passed by a huge silver building and by the time it was too late to take a photo, I realized that it was a White Castle building. This isn't their corporate office, but it was a very large building. I think it was a packing plant. I know that Joel would have liked that photo!

At one point I stopped at a Wendy's for some lunch. After eating my baked potato and chili, I was about to stand up to leave when I saw exactly what I had just been learning about at the NAMP conference! Being wired, always. Here were two southern Indiana guys, out for lunch, texting away! Something was obviously very important!!

And so, I was on my way again. After getting detoured onto a very, very deserted road (thanks to US 46 being closed for improvements), I was a bit nervous because I was VERY low on fuel and had no idea how far I was from the next flasher light town!! I bet that I was on fumes by the time I pulled into the gas station (that was so generic that the sign only said "GAS" and no brand!!). The guy was teasing me because I had pulled up to the pump with the gas cap on the wrong side. Oh well, it WAS a rental and I didn't look before I got into the car.

About 30 minutes later, I pulled into Terre Haute and was able to wrap my arms around my 20 year old. It was the warmest welcome I ever received.

Photo of the Day - November 12 - 15, 2011

2011-11-20T11:30:00.001-05:00

National Arts Marketing Project Conference

Every year that my office can afford it, I attend the National Arts Marketing Project Conference. NAMP is an offshoot of the Americans for the Arts, our umbrella organization that is in Washington, DC and NYC and goes to bat for us on a daily basis to protect the funding for the arts and any other issue that may negatively affect artists and arts organizations.

So this particular conference focuses on arts marketing. How to attract and retain audiences. We dissect it, slice it and dice it in session after session. There are sessions on the psychology of the "experience" and customer service. Other sessions focus on return on investment. And my favorite sessions focus on technology and social media.

This year I finally understood Twitter! We used social media incessantly throughout the entire conference. In fact they even posted our Tweets on two giant screens in the grand ballrooms during our networking luncheon.

There were unbelievably inspirational speakers at the keynote and plenary luncheons. There were dine arounds where we went out to dinner with about 10 colleagues and continued our conversation on one specific topic. There were round table discussions to focus on issues and challenges.

The absolute best way for me to conduct business is on the fly. We meet in the lobby for two hours and discuss an issue. Or we chat over breakfast as we are preparing to go into a session. Or we Tweet to each other and then retweet the profound statements in 140 characters or less.

Somehow, I really believe that these folks really connected because as I am writing this, I am still receiving Tweets from the conference and it was almost a week ago! That says something about how social media is connect us.

It is about the conversation that can continue no matter where in the world that you live. If I have a marketing question, I can post at tweet, with a hashtag, and within minutes, I will receive a response. It is brilliant. If you care to follow, just use #NAMPC in your Twitter search field. Thee are some great comments (and silly ones too).

Now if I can only communicate that to the cultural organizations here who are resisting the social media highway. It is like a highway, you get on, there is a direction, but you can take a detour and discover something fascinating.

So, yes, I am looking forward to continuing my conversation throughout the year with my national colleagues and then renew it again in Charlotte, NC next November.

2011-11-06T16:34:00.002-05:00

Photo of the Day - November 6, 2011

Once again, our friend, Celia, invited us to attend one of Don King's boxing matches. Joel used to work for them back in the 80s and over the years we have stayed in contact with Celia. She is unbelievable and works so hard for Don, but she has the sweetest and biggest heart you would ever want in a friend.

So we took my dad and Adina to the Hard Rock Cafe. First we ate dinner at the food court, which was okay, but I can't stand the smell of the cigarette smoke. They don't smoke near the restaurants, but they do smoke EVERY other place in the building and outside the buildings. I always forget that we are on the Seminole Indian reservation and their laws are different.

After dinner, I met Celia at the entrance to the hotel where she gave me our tickets. She had two sets, so we were not able to sit together. Adina and I sat with Celia and her friend, Joanne. We were ringside, directly in front of the fight. I had NEVER been that close to a boxing match before.

It is really weird to hear the sounds of the boxing mitts hitting the body. It is a deep, dead, thud! But hey, there is a definite art to boxing. I was amazed at the agility of the footwork and the endurance of these guys. It isn't so much about hitting each other, it is more about the how to avoid getting hit, or how to swing your arm while blocking a punch and moving in constant motion so that you don't get caught in the corner of the ring or in the case of one of the fighters, in between the ropes before the referee comes to separate them.

At first, Celia asked me to put the camera away because Don King Productions owns these images. So I did. But later she just turned the other way and I snapped away.

Right before the Main Event, everyone who was someone (and even a few who just crashed the party) was inside the ring. With all the country's flags, one guy sang the national anthem of Panama (you will see a photo of Robert singing his heart out) and then another guy sang our national anthem and when he got the words wrong, Adina whipped around and looked at me in amazement!

In front of us were the Reverend Al Sharpton and John Walsh. I had met John Walsh at the last boxing match at the BankAtlantic Center. He scared me when he grabbed my hand, put his face in my face and said, "MOM, does your daughter have a Facebook page?" And at that point, I honestly didn't know! Adina was only 14 at the time and I turned to her and asked her if she did. And she said, "yes." Well, that is when John, who was still holding my hand, said, "you better keep your eyes on her!"

After the fight we tried to get everyone into the after party, but there weren't enough wristbands so Robert and I stayed and Adina and my dad went home with Joel. Robert and I stayed until about 2 am but since it was the night we get to turn back the clocks, it was REALLY only 1 am. However it didn't make up for the fact that I was just plain old tired and ready to leave not long after we arrived. But I had a good time. There was food and desserts and Melvin and the Bluenotes entertained the party goers!

The event was in the same place where I saw the Beatlemania show a couple of years ago with Richard and Lynn.

I even got a photo of me! Robert took this from where he was sitting.

To see more photos from this event, click here.

Photo of the Day - October 22, 2011

2011-10-23T13:49:00.000-04:00

Nova Debate

This weekend was the Titan Invitational Debate Tournament at Nova High School. When Nova hosts the tournament, all of the students and parents volunteer to run the event and do not compete. Joel volunteered to judge and I volunteered to be their photographer.

I won't post the other photos because I don't have media releases, but I will post this one of Adina and her friend, Olivia. Olivia is a parade! She (and Adina) talk a mile a minute and come up with THE most creative conversations I have ever heard.

We had to be at school at 7 a..m. Luckily there were bagels and coffee! Although I had to wait until 9 a.m. because they ran out by the time I was ready for my cup! So I tagged along with Joel and watched the four kids competing in the Dramatic Interpretation or DI.

It took me every ounce of effort to not cry during their performances. Each one had a very unique piece and each performed it with such intensity that it was believable and poignant. After the last kid left the room, the tears flowed. They were all great. I could never be a judge. In fact, I would be the Paula Abdul of judging! You have to be able to rate them from 80 to 100 and then rank the in order.

One performance was about a gay teacher in Wyoming and he was the person who found the dead body of Matthew Sheppard -- this was from the Laramie Project.

Another one was about the Amish children gunned down in a schoolhouse. This girl was the wife of the killer.

Then there was a piece about a black girl who was taunted by the students at school because she was black, but she was a natural born daughter of two white parents who happened to have some black relatives in their ancestry.

All very intense. I don't know how they do it, but they are all really good at it. I have only seen Adina's piece one time at home. She does Humorous Interpretation or HI and her piece is from the Great American Trailer Park Musical.

Photo of the Day - September 28, 2011

2011-10-23T13:33:00.002-04:00

Happy New Year

For us Jews, this time of the year is highest of holiest holidays, Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur. The first being the Jewish New Year and the second the day of atonement.

For Rosh Hashona, we always celebrate with friends and family and always have something sweet to eat to bring in a sweet new year.

This year was a little different, but not really. The faces may have been a little different, we have a new set of neighbors and since Richard and Lynn were in Vermont for a three week vacation, we invited his sister and mom to be at our table.

It was a very nice evening complete with fascinating conversation, exquisite food and lots of wine!

Photo of the Day - September 15, 2011

2011-10-23T13:21:00.003-04:00

Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta, FL

I was juried in to the Photo Now art show at the Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta, FL. This is the first time I have exhibited my art work outside of Broward County!

Joel and I drove up there -- little over an hour away -- after work. It was so nice to see Bill Nix who works at the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. He drove up just to support me!

The biggest surprise was to see my former dance teacher! Mr. Russell was my ballet teacher for years and years at the University Center for the Performing Art in Davie. He wasn't there the entire time that I was (about 25 years) but he was there for the bulk of it and always encouraged me to keep going, even though I knew I was too old to do anything with the dancing except have a deep passion for it. We talked for more than an hour catching up to date.

Then my friend, Greta, came to visit and after the art show we went out to eat with her. We went to the coolest place that reminded me of Key West, but a quieter time in Key West history! I had to take these sunset shots because it was a wonderful color palette.

My art show is now over and the art is back at home (sorry to say no sales yet). But it was an exciting experience that I will continue to participate in.

Photo of the Day - October 20, 2011 Part II

2011-10-20T22:40:00.002-04:00

Civic Duty

I know that I have given 30 year of my life to work as a public servant, however, tonight I started my new public service . . . I was appointed to the Code Enforcement Board for the City of Lauderhill.

It is my city. A city I have lived in for almost 32 years, with the exception of a couple of years in Tamarac. Joel has given so much of his time, effort, creativity and expertise on board after board, I decided it was my turn to give a little.

So when my good friend, Mayor Kaplan, asked me to serve on this board, I agreed. It wasn't anything like I thought it would be. I had a little bit of a learning curve, but by the end of the meeting (which really moved fast), I made a motion to fine one of the violators. It wasn't difficult, I just had to learn the ropes a bit.

Joel came with me to lend his support and to play with my iPad! He snapped this photo with my iPad.

Photo of the Day - October 20, 2011

2011-10-20T22:10:00.003-04:00

Changes

Changes, they come in all forms. Some people don't mind change and adapt well, while others, well they just can't deal with change and get very stressed about it.

How about me? How do I deal with change? I have actually changed the way I react to change. Maybe that comes with maturity, and at 54, I would admit that I have definitely reached maturity. The other day I laughed when I realized that next year I could actually move into a retirement condominium, and legally own it. I don't always feel THAT mature!!

So dealing with change with a bit of humor is how I have learned to approach it. Good thing too, since we spend more than one third of our lives at work, and I do love my work, but there are so many changes going on at work.

First of all the building we are in is aging and in need of repair. The repairs will take several years and include replacement of all of the elevators (that has been done and only took two years), replacement of all of the escalators (done and only took 18 months), replacement of each and every window in the building (huge undertaking seeing that there are ceiling to floor windows on EVERY floor (they haven't started to replace them but they have been preparing by building false walls three feet in from the windows).

With all of that activity, eight of the employees in my office have had to move to another floor while the rest of the Cultural Division remains on the 6th floor. The Library staff insists that this is all very temporary, but after working for the County for more than 30 years, I know better! So with that said, these photos illustrate my new office space.

I tried to duplicate my space the best I possibly could, then decorate it with lamps (since there are no windows) and with my art work and plants. I really like my space, but miss my old office. I try not to think about it too much though. It took a few days to feel the new routine. We are creatures of habit and once we repeat a routine a few days in a row, it starts to feel normal. I guess it is a new normal. The outcome of the change.

2011-10-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

Photo of the Day - October 6, 2011
Happy Birthday to Me

It's my birthday, AGAIN! Yeah, I know it happens every year, same day! But I just love my day. I usually take the day off from work (I did) and do whatever I want (I did).

This year, I got up at 6 a.m. and was outside by 7:15 and did my almost 3 mile walk and run (really it is a jog). Then made a bowl of steel cut oatmeal (yum) and then decided to go out to the pool. I haven't treated myself to a day at the pool in a very, very long time. I took my book with me (Unbroken, excellent true story if you were interested).

Later in the day, I decided to do my nails and dry my hair and then much later after Adina came home from school, we went out to dinner at the Old Florida Seafood House in Wilton Manors. I was in the mood for a fish dinner!

Back at the house we had a HUGE homemade chocolate cake, with chocolate pudding frosting and more, very, very rich frosting with cream cheese in it on the top. My presents were perfect this year . . . new running shorts, running socks, an iPad charger for my car, an auxillary cord for my car to listen to my music from either my iPad or my cell phone in the car and then new earphones that won't fall off while I am running!!

Thank you everyone for feeding my new passion for running!!!

Project 365 - September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T17:38:00.003-04:00

Ten Years Later

As I opened my eyes this morning, I remembered the date. Memories flooded back to me. I will never forget where I was the moment that I heard those words from Matt Lauer and Katie Couric that a plane had just hit the World Trade Towers. I was in my car on my way to the Fort Lauderdale Branch Library. Mary and I were meeting our new volunteers there to train them on how to work in our new, not yet opened, Cultural Information Center. The reason I could hear the Today Show in the car is because we used to be able to pick up NBC before radio went completely digital.

At first everyone thought it was just a terrible accident. But when the second plane hit, well that is when the realization hit that something terrible was happening. Then Joel started calling me and describing to me what was happening. I couldn't stand listening to him. I could feel the tension in my body, in my shoulders, in my stomach.

At the library, all the volunteers, most of them former New Yorkers, were all on their cell phones trying desperately to call their family members. There was chaos in the room and in all of our hearts. My parents were in New York and were supposed to be on a plane flying to Fort Lauderdale later that day.

Well, we all know the outcome of that terrible, awful day. Our lives and our way of life is completely changed, forever. No longer are we innocents believing that just because we live in America, that we are safe. But we can't live in fear, we must protect ourselves and our families and our homeland, but we must also live our lives.

So we do. And today, we did.

After watching a few hours of the memorials in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, we got dressed, and went about our lives like any normal Sunday. It is what we do. We remember, we honor and we move on.

This guy caught my attention while we were having lunch in Wendys. He was bouncing his grandson on his knee. Turns out he is from the Bronx and had memories to share with us.

Project 365 - September 4, 2011

2011-09-08T21:52:00.001-04:00

Just Another Sunday

Starting off with a quiet Sunday, I caught this image of Joel reading the newspaper in the den. He does this faithfully every Sunday morning. Usually he is looking for coupons, but this week . . . for some reason there were none! Perhaps because it was Labor Day weekend? Who knows. Maybe they just forgot to place them into our issue.

Then we made Adina get up early (no easy feat) so that we could take her out driving. Yes folks, it is true, my 16-year-old is now out on the South Florida roads, so beware!! She got her permit a few weeks ago and at first we only allowed her to drive within our fairly quiet neighborhood. Once we felt that she understood what she was doing, we ventured out to larger streets like University Drive.

I sat in the backseat while Joel directed Adina. I had to restrain myself several times from being a backseat driver . . . so I decided the best thing would be for me to just look at my phone and surf the net to keep my mind off of what was going on in the front seat. She really did a good job, but needs lots of practice!

Photo of the Day - August 27, 2011

2011-08-29T23:12:00.000-04:00

A Quick Trip to Michigan

My cousin's son Bar Mitzvah was this past Saturday, so I flew up to represent the entire Leshinsky family and my dad.

This was the first time in many, many years that I have been with this side of the family. My mom used to be the glue that kept us all in touch with each other's lives. Since she left us, there has been a communication void. Yes, some of us talk and see each other, but not everyone. That just happens in a big family when they move around and live in different parts of the U.S.

So it was refreshing to be with these people who I used to spend many hours with in New York. It was also a lot of fun to see the "babies" all grown up with children of their own!

However on Saturday afternoon, my cousin asked if we would like to take a walking tour of Cranbrook. This is a private school, but really no ordinary private school It is on about 300 acres of thickly wooded land including tons of paths that roll up and down gentle hills. There are beautiful, architectural details on the school buildings. Some of them look like they were influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. You can click here to read more about the houses and gardens.

These are the images that I took on our three-hour walk. Oh, did I mention that the weather was picture perfect and in the 70s with very little humidity. A dream afternoon for a South Floridian!

Photo of the Day - August 22, 2011

2011-08-22T22:39:00.000-04:00

First Day of School

I feel it. The winding down. Although today was the beginning of a new school year, I know that there is only one more before Joel and I are empty nesters. It is a weird and funny feeling. Sort of sad, but not really.

It was harder to let go of Rachel when she left for college three years ago. Now she is a junior and when she leaves for school, I am used to the routine.

I may not like the fact that my children are growing up and will be leaving home, but on the other hand, I don't want my children to live here forever, but they are welcome to come back as often as they like, this will ALWAYS be their home. I want them to expand their worlds, continue to grow, learn and experience life. I want to see their accomplishments.

So as I took this photo of Adina this morning, although I was a bit sad, I was also extremely proud of her. I have all of the first day of school photos, ones where both Rachel and Adina are standing on or near this rock. When Adina was a toddler and going off to preschool, she could barely climb this rock! Now she towers above it. And so do her accomplishments . . . two AP courses, unbelievable artist and incredible at Interpretive Debate.

So the winds are changing here at home, but all for the better.

Photo of the Day - August 13, 2011

2011-08-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

Gone Fishin'

So . . . my daughter has created an entirely new environment in her fish tank. I feel so very sorry for the poor fish. Although they seem alright, the water is a disgusting color of light brown and you can't even see into the tank to see the fish.

Since my daughter is off in Orlando with her girlfriend . . . Joel and I decided to clean the tank ourselves.

Off we went to the fish emporium on University. I love going there and wandering around looking into the saltwater tanks. The colors of the fish are so unbelievably beautiful. I was trying my best to take photos of a sea horse, but he (or she) wasn't cooperating. It was hiding behind a rock. But I gave it a good try.

Then we were back home funneling half of the gross water out of the fish tank. We had to pour most of it down the toilet. And, I even saved the poor little baby fish that was born about two weeks ago!

Then we poured the clean water into the tank and headed back to the fish store for more stuff . . . filters and filtered water.

The fish are doing fine. Wonder how long this will last?

This is the rusty color of the muck on the filter!

See, you can't even see into the tank to SEE the fish!!

Joel washed off all of the "plants" that decorate the fish tank and we left them in the sink to dry.

More decorative items that live in the tank but got washed up today!

Photo of the Day - August 7, 2011

2011-08-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Gert

Today is Gert's birthday. We ALWAYS celebrate her birthday. Usually we go out to dinner, but it is a bit difficult to get her in and out of cars and restaurants.

So we opted for dinner at home and invited our new neighbors, Lynn and Richard and my Dad. Unfortunately, Elaine was feeling quite poorly today and my Dad took her to the hospital and they wanted to keep her overnight.

So he came alone. But he had a great time with us.

We were all rather loud, but it was all fun and I love these two photos of Adina bringing out the cake and then Gert about to blow the candles out.

I think this was the most peaceful moment of the evening!!

Photo of the Day - August 5, 2011

2011-08-07T22:36:00.003-04:00

Greight Spaces

East Village Uncorked takes place on the first Friday of every month on the eastern portion of Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach. I was invited to exhibit some of my works at Greight Spaces, an interior design house. I have four pieces on exhibit so if you are in the neighborhood, check it out! They will be on exhibit until November.

This photo, is obviously not the best one of me, I always close one or both of my eyes and for some reason, Jeremiah didn't take a few photos (which he ALWAYS does, not not this time!!). And, I wasn't wearing my signature black that evening!! I was all in white. It was fun and so many folks came out to visit me.

Louis Davis (see I didn't forget this time), Pat and Marianne Burns, Madeleine and Hal Axler, Katy and Chris Mullon, Sandy Issac Allen, Jeremiah Jenner, Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Howie and of course, Joel! Thank you so much for your support.

If you do go and visit, say hello to William and Shannon Meleski, they are the owners of Greight Spaces. They are expecting a child this October!! So wish them luck.

Photo of the Day - July 23, 2011 Part II

2011-07-23T20:52:00.000-04:00

Photo of the Day

Heading back out tonight to pick up Adina from Debate Camp, Joel and I had a quick dinner at Lime. I love eating there, I get to sit outside, people watch and chat with people. For some reason the atmosphere lends itself to a cozy, neighborhood feel and the people are relaxed and actually smile and talk to one another from table to table.

While waiting for the food to arrive, I saw this cute puppy and I was lying flat on the floor next to him taking the first shot. The other shot I took while the woman wasn't paying attention to me. Then I played with Photoshop a bit to get that painted effect.

Photo of the Day - July 23, 2011

2011-07-23T18:38:00.000-04:00

Lazy Days of Summer

Well, maybe not that lazy! Adina started Debate Camp on Friday. It is every day, seven days a week for two weeks from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. So this morning Joel and I dropped her off and then headed downtown Fort Lauderdale.

We drove down Old Griffin Road which really feels like old Florida. While we were sitting at the red light, I snapped this shot of the Tropical Acres sign. I adore this sign. Not only is it a symbol of what Fort Lauderdale was, but it is also a very cool neon sign that is a landmark. I have only eaten at this restaurant once but it was fun. It is very old fashioned, but the food is good.

I wanted to see how the Urban Market does in the summer. Well, after we found a nice parking spot near the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center (not there, across the street where we paid!), we found out that there were only three vendors. I felt bad for them. There were absolutely no people visiting them. I suppose it is a bit hot during the summer and we all have places to be and vacations to travel on, but still, the Riverwalk is so pretty early in the morning and it is fairly well shaded so you can stay cool.

I didn't want to leave right away so Joel found a nice picnic table to sit at and I wandered along the New River with my camera. Not really that inspired, but I did snap a few shots.

Then it was off to the West Side School which houses the Broward County Historical Commission. My friend and colleague was working there today and he gave Joel and me a personal tour of the entire facility. I have been there many times, but Joel hasn't. Joel was impressed with all the "old stuff" that they have housed in their archives.

As we were leaving I saw this tree that had such pretty flowers on it. So I stopped to snap a few shots of it. I would LOVE to have this outside my house.

Photo of the Day - July 9, 2011

2011-07-09T16:03:00.002-04:00

Lauderhill's Finest K9 in Training

Today there was a special event in the City of Lauderhill today at all of the parks throughout Lauderhill. Since Mayor Kaplan is out of town this week, Rachel represented him at all of the parks. She also had to make a short speech on his behalf.

We went with Rachel in the morning, but it was raining so they told her to come back in about an hour. So we went to get a bagel and coffee. When we came back, it had stopped raining, but there still were no people there. So I walked over to the baseball field and took photos of the K9 team training for their exhibition later.

I really liked these photo. I wouldn't want this dog coming at me, even with all the protection that they wear. Just a little scary!

Photo of the Day - July 4, 2011

2011-07-09T15:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day

July 4 is a fun day for the Leshinsky family. We always know that we will have a bunch of people at the house, lots of food and a few "fireworks." It is usually a pack that Joel picks up somewhere for about $20 and the most it does is make a lot of noise and smoke, but it is fun until the bugs start to bite!

This year we had Lynn and Richard (back just one day from their trip to Italy), my dad and Elaine, Gert and, of course, Noah!

After dinner and dessert, Joel and Richard set up our "fireworks" on the back patio. Then they decided to move to the grass.

One of my favorite shots is the one with Joel standing on the hill next to the fireworks with a flashlight headband! And of course the other one that looks like we have a superhero in the backyard!!

Later in the evening, Adina and I were playing with my tripod, an open shutter and a sparkler!

Photo of the Day - July 3, 2011

2011-07-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

Sunday Night

Just a peaceful evening. Everyone doing their own thing . . . homework, watching TV, taking showers. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying their space. Noah was doing homework while Rachel watched her "stories" (Law and Order!!). Adina was in the shower and I was just admiring the fact that every square inch of her wall space is filled with her own creations! Joel was sound asleep in bed. And I just had to snap this one photo of the poor fish. Adina has actually created a brand new world in there. It is its own environment. Somehow the fish live on and adjust to whatever it is in there. We know it needs to be cleaned, it is just so overwhelming to think about it.

Photo of the Day - July 2, 2011

2011-07-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

Photo of the Day

Just a brief moment in time . . . drinking time at the Leshinsky sink! First Newton with Grace getting closer than I have ever seen her get to Newton. It was brief because about two seconds later there was a lot of screeching and paws flying!

Photo of the Day - July 1, 2011

2011-07-04T22:55:00.000-04:00

Furlough Day

Thanks to a shrinking budget, County employees have five unpaid furlough days. They usually wrap them around another holiday so we end up with very long weekends. So I had Friday, July 1st off and Joel and I spent it together, just taking our time and doing almost nothing.

We did go down to Nissan to get my second key for the car (that took an hour because they have to program it). Then on the way back we headed over to our new favorite Mediterranean restaurant which happens to be very close to our house. Rachel and Noah met us there for lunch prior to them leaving for Orlando (we sent them to Disney for one day).

And as we were walking into the restaurant, Joel and I saw this guy sitting on a bench wearing this shirt. We just loved what it said!

Photo of the Day - June 19, 2011

2011-07-04T22:47:00.001-04:00

Happy Fathers Day

So, I am catching up again, what else is new? These photos were taken on Fathers Day. We invited Lynn and Richard, my Dad and Elaine and Michael for dinner. Joel loves to cook for family and friends and we much prefer his cooking and the comfort of our home to restaurants on these types of celebrations.

As we were getting ready, I had just set the table and Grace decided to jump up and get comfortable right in the middle of the table. Probably not the most hygienic thing to have on your table, but what the heck? She is like a family member. I did chase her off after I snapped this photo.

Then I peeked behind the couch and found Newton mid-yawn. He looks rather menacing, but it was nothing but a sleepy moment that I froze.

Then I thought the photo of Elaine holding a glass of wine as she was searching for something on the iPad was just very ironic. The others are of presents being opened and enjoyed.

It was a very nice evening and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Photo of the Day - June 1, 2011

2011-06-21T22:56:00.000-04:00

Happy Anniversary Jody and Joel

Okay, so I am writing this all out of order, but that is how my brain functions sometimes. I haven't sit and edited photos in weeks. Not because I am lazy, but because I have been preoccupied with my new toy! I got an ipad on our anniversary. It was partly a present from my dad and the balance from me! My dad got an ipad in February and insisted that I needed one too! I am glad because it has become my new appendage.

But I digress. On June 1, Joel and I celebrated our 31st Anniversary. I took the day off from work so that we could just spend the day together. And we did! We bought sandwiches at La Spada's and then went down to Commercial Blvd and the beach and sat on the benches and ate our yummy food and looked out at the ocean and just sat there like two old people!

Then I ventured onto the sand and then under the pier to take my artsy photos. At that point I was wishing that I had my bathing suit, but I did have shorts on and I was totally enjoying the day.

Then it was off to the Apple store in Boca Raton! I am such a geek. I couldn't wait to get the ipad and then get home and play with it! Which I did.

Later that evening we took the girls out to dinner and then went home and opened up presents. A perfect day was all that I asked for and I got it.

Photo of the Day - June 11, 2011

2011-06-11T14:20:00.000-04:00

A Visit with the Cousins

I had a little surprise last night! For the past two weeks I knew that my cousin Roger, who lives in Detroit, was coming for a visit last night. He comes down to Florida on business and almost always comes over to the east coast to visit my Dad and Elaine and Joel and me. The ritual is to go out to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. So that was all planned.

When Joel and I walked out of the house to get into the car, we were pleasantly surprised to see my cousin, Peggy, in the car with Roger! Peggy lives in Naples. We usually get together once or twice a year. But it was a very nice surprise. I jumped into the car with Roger and Peggy and Joel got into the car with my Dad and Elaine.

We talked a mile a minute on the way to the restaurant trying to catch up!. We all grew up together in the Rockaways. There wasn't a holiday that we didn't spend at one of the aunts or uncle's houses. The big one was Passover. The table usually held about 25 - 30 people and we stretched from the dining room almost into the hallway near the living room of Roger's parent's house.

After our dinner of salad and pizza, oh yeah and some alcohol, we talked until about 9 p.m. and then ended up back at my Dad's house. It was a warm, comfortable evening, surrounded by familiar faces. It is always like no time passes at all.

So today when I heard that they were all heading off to breakfast, we threw on the first thing out of the closet and joined them. That was after I took a walk around the complex with my cameras. We continued our conversations from last night for another couple of hours. That should hold us for a while!

I liked the early morning light coming in through the blinds on my colorful pitchers.
It was about 7 a.m.

Can't start my day without my French Pressed coffee!

Newton was bird watching!

I thought this was an interesting looking medallion
hanging on a set of my neighbor's wind chimes

Photo of the Day - May 25, 2011

2011-05-25T21:32:00.000-04:00

Nothing Ever Happens in Lauderhill

Yeah, right!

So, I am on my way home with Adina . . . we had to go to the chiropractor . . . and about a block away from our house, we see a line of traffic cones blocking most of the traffic. I squeezed through (where someone else had knocked one down) and as I approached my guard gate I see fire engines, police cars, ambulances and people everywhere! There was this one car that looked like it had caught on fire. It was a melted, twisted piece of metal.

I know that we missed whatever caused it. So as we got inside the guard gate, I saw Rachel walking toward the gate. She said that she heard a loud explosion and that Joel was stuck at City Hall because they blocked Inverrary Blvd. near Oakland Park Blvd. So instead of going around Rock Island Road, he just waited there. And he had our Chinese Food dinner.

Oh well.

I parked my car, grabbed my camera and ran out to snap whatever I could! Not my best work, but hey, it is what I saw.

But I made a new friend! He is the Battalion Chief for the City of Lauderhill's Fire Rescue. We started to talk about photography. He is a wealth of knowledge. He used to be a Miami Herald photographer and still contributes to the Getty Images. He was throwing all sorts of information out at me. Way too much for my brain to process all at once, but it will come back as I let it sink in!

Rachel and Adina came out to watch too

I just had to take this girl's photo. Loved the hair!

Photo of the Day - May 17, 2011

2011-05-19T11:01:00.002-04:00

Gallery Night at Nova High School

I am a dedicated mom. I knew on Tuesday at about noon that I was coming down with a terrible cold. I was at work, sneezing and blowing my nose. As the day went on, I felt worse and worse. But I knew that if I went home, I would never want to go out again, and Tuesday night was Gallery Night at Nova High School.

So I stuck it out at work even though everyone was begging me to go home. I kept spraying my office with Lysol and washing my hands with rubbing alcohol so that I wouldn't share my germs. So 4 o'clock FINALLY came around (seemed like the longest day ever) and Jose drove me to my car because he had to put three boxes of brochures in my trunk.

Jose decided that he wanted to follow me there so that he could see Adina's artwork. We arrived a little early and they wouldn't let us in to the Media Center until 5 p.m. When I am sick, ten minutes can feel like hours. But it gave Jose time to meet Matt, Adina's friend, and to tease Adina a lot! I snapped a few photos of him giving Adina a hard time. You can tell that Adina wanted to crawl under a rock!

Finally we were able to go inside. Adina had so much art work on exhibit that she had her own table and then two additional pieces on chairs placed around the room. The weird cartoon drawing with the big mouth and the eight sets of lips are Adina's drawings.

Two of Adina's teachers came over to me and raved about her and what a unique and talented kid she is and a joy to have in their classes. Boy, did that make my day!!

I entertained myself by taking lots of photos and then as I was fading and feeling even worse, I found a nice rocking chair in the corner of the room and sat there until about 7:30 p.m. when I finally texted Adina and said to meet me in the car. I knew I needed to get home and into bed with a bowl of hot soup and medicine, but seeing Adina in her element and hearing all of her friend's and teachers' comments, well that was just outstanding and makes me feel ever so proud of my child.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - May 5, 2011

2011-05-05T21:33:00.000-04:00

Fast Friends

I have been home all week . . . a little under the weather. But it has given me opportunities to catch up on this blog, rest, and clean up Rachel's room for her return next week.

While I was sitting in Rachel's room today, I leaned over and saw these two sleeping next to each other! I thought, there it it . . .the Photo of the Day!

Oh, and by the way, I feel a lot better now.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day -April 30, 2011

2011-05-05T17:54:00.001-04:00

Another Long Day

Thanks to the accident that we had on March 5 . . . we have all been going for treatments at the chiropractor at least three days a week. This week I had to go for an MRI on my neck and spine. They said it would take two hours, so I will be doing this again next week because there is no way that I could possibly stay in that machine for two long hours. And of course, the second they say, don't move, don't even swallow . . . that is the first thing I want to do! This first photo was taken at the MRI place while waiting. Speaking of waiting, why is it that we always have to wait in a doctor's office? What ever happened to keeping appointments?

Well after the MRI I was hungry so we were close to Denny's and since it was still really early in the morning, I really wanted pancakes! Little did I know that there was a bacon festival going on! Did you know that there is a bacon pyramid? And did you know that they actually serve a bacon sundae? Yuk! Sorry, that one doesn't sound appealing to me at all.

While we were at Denny's, I saw a man, clearly inebriated and in need of food. So we called the manager over and asked him to please let us buy the man breakfast. The manager came back a few minutes later with change because he said that he didn't want a full breakfast, only a biscuit and coffee. So this photo is of my change.

Later in the day I went to an artist's studio in Oakland Park because she needed some photos of her working on her art. Adina came with me as my assistant. We spent a couple of hours there and really had a ball.

Afterwards we stopped at the Goodwill store that is on Oakland Park Blvd. We found out that they are moving to a new location. It is sort of sad because this store is a bit of a landmark. Although I found out that the building won't be leveled, it just will not be the store for the public anymore.

When we got home, Joel was hungry so we didn't even stop, we just picked him up and drove to Scutto's -- a favorite place of ours. It is owned by Joey Scutto, a City of Sunrise Commissioner. It is always fun to go there because not only does every single family member work there, they all sound like they just stepped out of Brooklyn. And then you never know who you will run into there. On Saturday night we ran into Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman and her husband, daughter and daughter's fiance. Ilene and Joel have known each other for about 20 years because she used to be a City of Lauderhill Commissioner before she became a County Commissioner. The funny thing is that she almost didn't recognize Joel because Joel lost so much weight!

After dinner we dragged Joel to Tate's Comic Store because upstairs in the Bear and Bird Gallery there was an art exhibit opening and we wanted to see the art. The theme was fairytales and there were some extremely interesting twists on the stories. My favorites were the pen and watercolor. My dream is to learn how to do watercolor. I would like to paint some of the images that I have shot over the years. But I don't want to start this until both girls are out of the house so that I can create an art studio in one of their rooms!

The surprise of the evening was the pot belly pig who came out of her cage but the poor thing was terrified of the people. She did take a liking to me and stuffed her snout into my face while I was trying to take her photo!

The Leshinskys can take an ordinary Saturday and fill it with mundane things but make an event out of it!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day -April 24, 2011

2011-05-05T16:02:00.000-04:00

Visit with a Great Friend

Our former neighbor and really great friend, Ros, called us and said that it had been way, way too long and that we needed to go out to dinner. So we made plans to go to dinner at a nice restaurant in Coral Springs.

First we went to her home which she shares with her mom. We met her puppy, Coco. He is almost a year old and is a Schnoodle ( Schnauzer and Poodle mixed breed).

Coco is the cutest thing. His fur is unbelievably soft and he looks like a teddy bear. I just wanted to cuddle him, however he had other plans for me!! He got a little too friendly with my leg, my arm and any other appendage that he could get near!! It was funny, but enough!!

We had a wonderful time catching up on our lives, our kids and her grandkids!! It is so hard to believe that her son, who I met when he was 11 years old, is married, is a lawyer and has two children! Rachel used to tell everyone that Ronnie was her boyfriend. Of course Rachel was about seven at the time and Ronnie was about 18!!!

Life has a funny way of getting away from you but reality hits when you look at your children. They really do ground us.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day -April 16, 2011 Part II

2011-05-05T15:06:00.000-04:00

April 16, 2011 Part II

It was a busy day, filled with lots of fun activities. After lunch at Joy's Roti, Joel and I went home and our friend, Richard (yes, the Mayor of Lauderhill), came over (with the mid-life crisis car of course . . . with the top down) and the two of us drove up to Delray Beach to attend the Delray Beach Affair (it is an annual festival).

Unfortunately, Lynn couldn't join us since she was up in North Carolina helping a dear friend. Of course this was the day of the TERRIBLE tornados. Here we were driving in a convertible on a beautiful, sunny, South Florida day and poor Lynn was hunkered down with her friend, scared to death and calling Richard, but he didn't always hear the phone ring because the top was down on the car. We started to feel guilty, but we did continue up to Delray Beach.

We walked the entire length of the festival which is on their main road. It is a great festival, lots of art and crafts and food products that we, of course tasted all along the way. From flavored olive oils on slices of bread, to sauces and dips, there was something for everyone. Then Richard and I found the beer tent!!! Okay now we were really in heaven. We had a wonderful beer that was on tap out of the side of a truck and this beer you squeeze a lemon into it. Mmmmmm!

After a couple of hours, we headed back to my house, picked up Joel and Adina and went to this new restaurant called "Lime." It is a chain, but there aren't many in Florida yet. This one is located in the Plantation Fountains Mall. The food is fresh Mexican and there are more chairs outside than inside and I love the atmosphere. It has a hometown feel and then the owner comes over and chats with you to make you feel right at home. His name is Nick. Go and enjoy and tell him that Jody and Joel told you to come there!! We need to support our businesses.

Love Adina's Eyes! Catlike and so blue.

Adina being goofy!

Self-Portrait

Love the dining al fresco

Love what the sign says!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day -April 12, 2011

2011-05-04T22:35:00.001-04:00

A Trip Back in Time

So since Joel is serving on the Housing Authority Board for the City of Lauderhill, he had to make an appearance at a mortgage event at the Lauderhill Mall. These folks came out to learn about their options to buy a home in Lauderhill.

However, Joel and I wandered around the mall and I thought about what this place looked like in 1979 when we first moved here. There was a Jordan Marsh and a Zayre's and a Bagel Nosh (not attached) and all sorts of fancy stores. Now this place is like a ghost town and still has stores but no anchor stores.

There is one place that I love though . . . it is Joy's Roti! If you have never tried Roti . . . you need to. It is yummy and is an island food with many spices in it. I washed my food down with an island beer. You can hear all sorts of island sounds in Joy's . . . the Jamaican accent. . . the beat of Reggae . . . a drum beat that happens to be stored next to the bathrooms. It is an experience.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day -April 12, 2011

2011-05-03T18:17:00.000-04:00

Adina Cooks Dinner!

If anyone has ever had dinner with the Leshinskys . . . you know the phrase that you will hear at each and every meal . . . "Adina, eat."

It is just a fact of life that Adina will never eat her meal. Don't know why. Sometimes she wolfs the food down and other times she will just push it around in her plate until we get frustrated and just dump the food. This is nothing new, it has happened for the past 15 years of her life.

So, Joel's new theory is that if Adina cooks the food, then perhaps she will eat the food! These are a few of the pictures I took while she was preparing an Italian meal for us.

In addition, take a look at what her apron says! She and Joel entered a contest at ForestTrace -- an assisted living facility near our house. It was a matzoh ball contest!! Adina came in third place. Not bad for a 15-year-old, huh?

Hope you like these photos.

Newton was watching as they were cooking .

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 11, 2011

2011-05-02T21:50:00.000-04:00

A Walk in the Neighborhood

I am just playing catch up. I have had the camera in my hands but I haven't uploaded anything recently. Today I was a little under the weather, nothing serious, but enough to keep me in bed most of the day. So tonight I decided to work on my editing and uploading.

This particular day, I came home and was so excited that the sun was still up and it was not too hot out, that I grabbed my camera and walked around the complex looking for whatever caught my attention.

The first photo was just a nice long shadow that I liked. I decided to change the image into black and white to work my magic on the contrasts and exposure.

This second photo is of a street lamp that is completely covered in spiderwebs and leaves and bugs. I loved the contrast with the deep blue sky and somehow the image looks like it came out of a Hitchcock film!

These two kids were riding back and forth on the main street while I was walking around. They must have passed me at least ten times, so I finally decided to take a few shots of them and of course, the hams that they were, they started waving at me! They live down the block from us and I see them everyday.

I liked this one because you can see the muscles bulging on this guy's arm and I followed him with my camera to blur the background. One of the techniques that I learned in my first class with Jeremiah!

And I loved the colors and textures on this rusty chain. I wanted a very shallow depth of field to make the photo more interesting.

This tree is not far from my house. I felt like the leaves were a canopy, yet felt like lacy against the sky. I like the image better in black and white than in color.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 10, 2011

2011-04-16T22:47:00.000-04:00

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 10, 2011

Sunday, April 10 was the last day of the Jazz Picnic in the Park until the fall. It was a beautiful day, a little on the hot side, but we had our chairs with the built in shade! Joel and I packed up our chairs, some food and water and set up in "our" spot. Richard showed up a few minutes later and Joel helped him unpack his car.

Richard and I immediately opened up a bottle of white wine (mind you it is 10:30 a.m.!!!) and continued drinking throughout the concert until every last drop was gone! Between the heat, the wine and me relaxing to the jazz music, I fell asleep during the last 20 minutes or so of the concert. It was a GREAT nap!

My favorite photo of the day was of the pink socks that some guy was wearing. They just totally caught my attention and I had to snap this photo!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 8, 2011

2011-04-16T11:25:00.000-04:00

Photo of the Day
April 8, 2011
South Beach

So I decided to tag along with Jeremiah's Level III Class. They took a field trip to South Beach. I have done this particular walk in the past, but I always like to improve on what I may have done before.

It was a perfect evening, temperatures in the high 70s and practically no humidity (well for South Florida that is!!) and we started at about 7 p.m. just as the sun was dropping.

This gives us the challenge of holding our cameras perfectly still without a tripod and pushing our ISO and apertures so that we get clear shots and well lit and proper depth of field.

These are just a few of my favorites, but there are many more on my Flickr page.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - March 24, 2011

2011-03-25T23:47:00.000-04:00

Photo of the Day

I got to the Tallahassee airport a bit early and I didn't want to just sit in the terminal because it was such a nice peaceful morning and really nice weather. So I pulled out my camera to snap at . . . well at whatever.

I had just finished two grueling days of advocacy in the State Capitol lobbying for arts funding. I was completely exhausted having walked from one side of the Senate to the other side of the House buildings and then up and down the hallways of the Capitol in the middle. I must have walked at least 10 miles a day. My feet hurt, I was tired and cranky, but it was a job that had to be done.

As I turned to walk into the terminal, I saw these two workers doing their job on the roof of the building. I just liked the juxtaposition of them against the morning sky. It was about 8 a.m. and the sun was behind me. Then when I was looking at these photos, I decided to turn it into black and white. I really like the tones of this photo. Sometimes it make a photo timeless.

I had a bunch of others, but I really liked this one the best.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - March 17, 2017

2011-03-20T16:21:00.003-04:00

Photo of the Day

It is Spring Break for Adina and we decided to take her up to Orlando for a few days. Thanks to our friend, Jim, we were going to take her to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. Before we embarked on that adventure, Jim took us for a ride into a neighborhood to show us this incredible house.

This house is in an area where many of the homes are just huge with very large amounts of land as well. This house truly looks like a castle! There are so many whimsical features here and there. I loved the gargoyles.

We didn't get to go inside, but there was enough on the outside to keep us quite interested for almost an hour!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - March 14, 2011

2011-03-14T23:00:00.000-04:00

Daylight Savings Time

I am so at peace with the time change. Every one I spoke to said that they were tired from the time change, but I look forward to it each year because I get an extra hour at night when I get home from work to walk the neighborhood with my camera.

I walked today and had lots of fun. I found weird red bugs that I have no idea what they were, but they were totally interesting to me. I found ibis feeding along the edge of the water and I found that the water table is so unbelievably low that I actually stood in the area that is usually way under water.

Hope that you enjoy my finds in today's Project 365 entry!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - March 11, 2011

2011-03-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

Anniversaries

How do you celebrate your anniversary? Do you go out for a special dinner? Do you have a picnic somewhere surrounded by nature?

Well, Joel and I took Rachel and Adina out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a special dinner the night before Rachel left for school after spending a week at home for spring break. While it was loads of fun to see our girls all dressed up and behaving with ladylike manners, it was also fun to be aware of who else was in the room.

There were couples in their 70s enjoying a steak dinner and a glass of wine. There were young parents with their children in tow trying to keep them quiet in this classy atmosphere. And then there was the couple at the next table.

I noticed them when they first came in. The young man looked a little nervous because he was seated alone. He sprinkled red rose petals all over the table and placed a notecard in the middle of the table. Then the young woman came into the room and sat down.

I didn't want to stare so I went back to my family and eating my delicious Sea Bass and roasted brussel sprouts and sipped my Savignon Blanc.

We did speculate as to whether he was going to ask her to marry him or if they were just celebrating in general. But it seemed too special.

At the end of dinner they brought out these desserts with one candle in each. So I asked them if they would like for me to take their photo. They of course, said yes. That is when we found out that they were celebrating their first year of dating. How sweet!

So I gave them my card and the young woman gave me her card and I promised to email the image to her. I just did. I am not sure of her reaction as yet, but I thought that this was a very sweet moment and I loved the natural light even though it is very dark in the restaurant, the candles glowing help to set the romantic tone.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - March 5, 2011

2011-03-06T16:03:00.001-05:00

Photo of the Day

My daughter, Adina, is extremely particular about what she wants in life and how to do it -- no matter what that might be. In this case, it was getting her ears pierced.

Adina actually had her ears pierced years ago when we went to visit our friend, Nancy, in Hilton Head, SC for Thanksgiving. However, the piercings became infected, she allowed the holes to close and that, was that.

Nothing could convince Adina to try to get them pierced again. So we just figured she would never do it and forgot about it.

Lately, Adina has been asking a lot of questions about how to get ears pierced, what was the best way and where. So Joel did some research and found out that the best place is to go to a tattoo parlor because they are state regulated and everything must be super sterilized and my goodness, there are reams of paperwork needed including notarizing forms, showing original birth certificates, photo IDs of both parents and Adina's too.

Well, Saturday was the day. It was a very long day and we were preparing for a jazz concert by shopping at various markets, then we had to pick up Adina at school because she was helping to build the sets for the Peter Pan show that she is in and then Rachel at the airport because she was coming home for Spring Break. And of course we were on the way home after picing up Adina and BOOM! We were rear ended . . . we were stopped and the person that hit us was going at least 45 mph and that was the end of the back of my car, my beautiful, one-year-old car. Then of course we were pushed into the car in front of us. What a mess it was.

We were all just fine, a little sore, no cuts, but my big toe is either jammed or fractured because I can't move it much. Joel is achy and so is Adina.

However, we still made it to the tattoo parlor and Adina got her ears pierced. It was worth the effort. Just to see my happy kid with tiny surgical steel rings in her ears with a smile on her face and tear-stained eyes. Another rite of passage!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - February 19, 2011

2011-02-20T22:05:00.005-05:00

Auteur Explosion

It was another one of my really long days! I started out my Saturday morning with sleeping just a little bit late but then diving into the shower and getting dressed because I had to get Adina to the African American Research Library so that she could take the practice SAT test.

Once I dropped her off, I really wasn't sure what to do with myself for a couple of hours until I had to be at Jeremiah's apartment for my make up Photoshop class. So I finally decided to drive downtown and go to the Urban Market along Riverwalk.

I parked my car, headed out . . . took this really cool photo of a bird on the railroad tracks and then headed down toward the market.

Well, best laid plans . . . I ran into one of my former employees and his wife. We started to chat and before long . .. I actually had to leave to go to Jeremiah's! We had successfully chatted for over an hour and a half! It was a nice diversion.

So then I was off to learn about colorizing a black and white photo. Jeremiah really has a lot of patience, because I am a slow learner. Once I get it, I get it, but sometimes it just doesn't sink in.

Then at 2 p.m. I drove back to pick up Adina and went home for a few hours. I actually fell asleep on couch for about 15 minutes.

Then it was off to the Auteur Explosion at Cinema Paradiso with Adina. I was exhibiting three photos. The photos at the bottom are of me with my photos, Adina being Adina and them the three photos that I had on exhibit.

Fire and Ice, 16 x 20

Size Matters, 16 x 20

Orchestra, 16 x 20

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - February 13, 2011

2011-02-13T21:15:00.000-05:00

Photo of the Day - February 13, 2011

It was Jazz Picnic in the Park day today at Ilene Lieberman Botanical Garden. Joel and I didn't have to prepare a thing. Lynn wouldn't let us bring anything. She had prepared sandwiches, drinks and of course, the leftover wine from last night's wine tasting party.

As always, it was a fabulous day of relaxation, great conversation and lots of laughter with our friends, Lynn and Richard.

I had my camera, as always, and captured this one photo that I truly loved. This little boy was having so much fun in the park with his mom. I wanted to just capture the innocent moment of him staring off into space and I wanted a very shallow depth of field so that absolutely nothing interfered with my subject. The little boy, however, was in the shade and I did have to play with PhotoShop to fix what I was not happy with. But in the end, I like the result.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - February 12, 2011

2011-02-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

Photo of the Day - February 12, 2011

Today was an EXTREMELY long day. It started out at 6 a.m. I know that is really early for a Saturday but Adina had a Debate Tournament in Coral Springs and she had to be there at 7:30 a.m.

Once we dropped Adina at the high school Joel and I were determined to find a cool place to eat breakfast. Not a simple one or a Dunkin Donuts one, but one where we could sit down, read the paper and feel comfy.

So off we drove. And drove. And drove.

Oh, by the way, I wanted to waste a little time because I wanted to go to the Festival Flea Market because they have a HUGE selection of OPI nail polish colors there and the Market didn't open until 9:30 a.m.

We FINALLY found a great Greek diner in Deerfield Beach. It was absolutely perfect. The weather was a chilly 52 degrees with a chilling rain and a lot of wind. So when we got inside and sat down, we felt right at home. Just like a diner in New York, the Sherwood Diner to be exact if you have ever heard of it on Rockaway Turnpike. It was a warm atmosphere, lots of locals chatting with each other and a very friendly waitress who brought us lots of hot coffee!

After a yummy breakfast we headed off to the Festival Flea Market and wandered around forever, it seemed like! We even ran into our friend, Lynn. She shared coupons with me and I bought myself a hat that I will use all through the hot summer when I am out shooting.

We continued doing errands . . . Office Max and Staples and other stuff too. When we got home, I was so tired, but I sat in my comfy chair in Rachel's room and watched a movie. In the middle of the movie, Grace came into the room and jumped up onto the windowsill to peek outside into the setting sun and to sniff the chilly air (yes the sun finally came out at the end of the afternoon). I grabbed my camera and snapped a bunch of shots, but this is the one and only that I loved and spoke to me.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - February 6, 2011

2011-02-06T17:24:00.001-05:00

Photo of the Day

Joel and I went to the SunTrust Jazz Brunch on Riverwalk. . . now in its 20th season! We went with Richard to help him hand out flyers for the Jazz Concerts here in Lauderhill.

We set ourselves up in a nice shaded spot close to the Broward Center and close to the main stage. After wandering through the crowds, talking to people about our concerts and looking at the vendor's booths. I grabbed my camera and walked up and down the New River.

I wasn't very inspired by much today. However, this one shot caught my attention. This guy was kayaking on the river and seemed so into it. The bright color of his kayak was in contrast to the gray sky and the dark water. I just liked what I saw, so it is my photo of the day!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day

2011-02-02T22:39:00.000-05:00

Photo of the Day

So I grabbed my camera, fully intending to take photos of my cousins who are stranded in Florida due to the snowstorm up north (could be stranded in a worse location!!). But I never got around to taking any photos of my cousins because we ended up drinking wine and talking all night.

However, I did snap these three photos before they arrived. So, they will be my photos of the day. Enjoy!

Project 365 - Long Key Nature Preserve

2011-01-23T22:14:00.001-05:00

Long Key Nature Preserve

It's days like today that I moved to Florida. A few puffy white clouds in the sky, temperatures hovering between 65 and 70 degrees, a light breeze and very little humidity in the air.

I had to drive Adina over to her friend's house for a sleepover since there is no school tomorrow. Another one of those teacher workdays I think?? I have to work so she will be busy instead of sitting in her room with the TV blasting and the computer on her lap.

Instead of going straight home, I took a detour over to Long Key Natural Area and Nature Center in Davie. It is one of the few places in Broward County where you can see the natural land the way it was before there were condominiums and other developments over the past several decades.

There were lots of people out there enjoying the weather, walking on the paths or sitting under the trees enjoying this pristine weather.

These are the images of today. Hope that you enjoy.

Project 365 - Level III Goes to the Orchid Show

2011-01-22T15:41:00.000-05:00

Level III Goes to the Orchid Show

Last Saturday was the last day of class for the Level III Advanced Digital Photography Class taught by Jeremiah Jenner. This class was different than the other two that I took because we never met at school! One week we would go on a field trip and the next week we would meet at Jeremiah's studio to work on PhotoShop.

This last day of class we met at War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale and attended the Orchid Show. The assignment was Macro Photography. I have three magnifying lenses that fit on top of my regular lens, so I was all set and ready to go.

This is one of my most favorite types of photography. I don't have to deal with people and I don't have to be pressured. This was at a very leisurely pace. We had two hours to wander and shoot. I got right into it and in fact, I was crawling all over the floor and bending and stretching. So much so that the little tiny split in the knee of my jeans is now a huge gap! Oh well, it was bound to happen! It is all part of the job.

The very last photo is our teacher and mentor, Jeremiah Jenner using his phone to take a close up shot of an orchid that one of the students bought at the show!

It was fun and I will miss class, but I need time to shoot on my own now.

Project 365 - Rachel's 20th BIrthday

2011-01-03T22:54:00.000-05:00

Rachel's 20th Birthday

So as the holidays wind down, and the New Year begins, I always look forward to celebrating my first born's birthday on January 2. We used to try to get all of the holiday decorations down and put away before her birthday so that she wouldn't get confused with the holidays. However, this year, at 20 years old, I think she can figure it all out for herself!

I always get a bit sentimental, think back to whatever I was doing the day that Rachel was born. We had just moved into this house. I was 9 1/2 months pregnant (yeah, she was three weeks late thank you). There were people working in our house, painting, building, installing things. Yet I was sitting in the den, calmly counting the mintues between contractions.

All of the handymen had young families so as they would pass by the den and look in on me, they would see my face squinched up during a contraction and they would say, "breathe, Jody, breathe!!" It was surreal actually.

Then my office kept calling me because we were about to go to press with our magazine, Cultural Quarterly. They had NEVER published an issue without me. They were a bit freaked out as to what to do, where to find things on my computer and desk. So I had a lot of calls. Yet, I just took it all in stride, contractions and all!

At about 3 p.m. the contractions were so strong that I couldn't talk during them. I still could handle the pain, no big deal, but Joel and I decided to call my doctor and he said come into the office. So we did. Well, he took one look at me and told Joel, "drive her straight to the hospital, don't even think about stopping at a red light!"

And so we went straight to the hospital. My office found out that I was on the way. Kevin made it to the hospital before I did! Then I felt as though I were in a Fellini film. As we got to the hosptial, I was getting contractions closer together and I couldn't walk during them. The hospital guard yelled at Joel to put me in a wheelchair. As he wheeled me into the delivery room I saw face after face of people that I knew, but I couldn't focus on any one of them.

I was in the delivery room at 4:30 p.m. and Rachel was born at 7:27 p.m. Not terrible for a first born!!!

She was the cutest thing. A full head of curly, almost black hair, big blue eyes and a bright red face! She looked like a little Mexican child!

Ok, enough of that! Jump forward 20 years . . . Rachel has grown up to be fine young woman, with strong moral values, is very opinionated and when she makes up her mind, that is that! Very proud of her and the path she is on.

Happy Birthday my sweet daughter!

More photos on my Flickr site

Project 365 - New Years Eve

2011-01-03T00:49:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

So the Leshinskys spent New Years Eve at home. We ate a huge meal of seafood pasta and then had chocolate pudding pie. We finished off the evening with a board game called Loaded Questions. Adina's friend, Rachel, slept over and Noah, Rachel's boyfriend is here visiting from Indiana.

This was a fun evening! We laughed a lot at this game. You roll the dice and read a question and we all had to make up answers. Then the person who reads the question had to guess who wrote each answer. Some of the answers were very creative and others, well the others were typical kid answers!

We finished off the night in the den watching the ball drop in Times Square and then all headed off to bed. Very wholesome evening! But fun.

Project 365 - Christmas Morning

2010-12-30T00:37:00.000-05:00

Christmas Morning

It comes and goes so quickly. There is so much preparation and anticipation. And even for the Leshinskys . . . a very Jewish family . . . we find a way to celebrate a little bit of everything. Beginning with my birthday in October, it is seems like it is non-stop celebration . . . a day off for Veterans Day, then Thanksgiving, then work holiday parties, friends holiday parties and then the girls are off from school and life gets crazy at home.

Then comes the quiet of Christmas morning. With not much sleep, we sit and open presents and I snap away as my children mug for the camera. When all is said and done, I am exhausted and fall into a deep sleep. In fact this year, I slept for a good four and half hours on the couch in the living room with my music . . . mostly Beatles . . . playing from my phone!

It was a really great sleep and after dinner, I ended up going back to sleep. Guess I needed it! But at least I had a fun morning.

More photos are on my Flickr account. Just click here.

Project 365 - It Just Doesn't End

2010-12-29T23:49:00.000-05:00

It Just Doesn't End

So the saga continues. After spending our entire summer with our house turned upside down with the leaks in each of our three bathrooms, ripping out everything from each bathroom and re-doing them, a leak in the air conditioning unit which ruined the Pergo floor which was completely replace in the living room and dining room. . . . we had a little more work done!

We had been able to save some of the Pergo wood from the living room from the center of the floor. We stored that in the garage for a while. A few days before Christmas we had Pat come back and rip out the carpet in the den (it was well over 10 years old and it was really, really gross). Then he installed the Pergo wood.

Of course in the days leading up to when Pat showed up, the girls and Joel had to take EVERYTHING out of the den, except the furniture. We found stuff in that room that we didn't know that we had! Every single vinyl album from my youth is in that room (and I had a lot of music). Not to mention the cassette tapes that Joel acquired when he worked at Record Bar in Terre Haute, Ind. Then we found VHS tapes and other tapes of the girls when they were little (that will be my New Years vacation project to watch it all and label it all.

These photos are of the awful mess in my hallway and of Pat working to put the Pergo down in the den. The final product is really beautiful. I am sitting in the den now as the girls are up in their rooms watching movies and Joel is sound asleep in bed. I find it very cozy in here now.

Project 365 - Just Your Every Day Sunday

2010-12-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

Just Your Every Day Sunday

Today we spent as a family. Starting the day with coffee and the newspaper, then shopping at Costco, Publix and BJs, picking up Adina at her girlfriend's and then eating dinner together in the dining room. It was all very nice and I actually had some time to put our holiday cards together and edit my photos from this weekend.

Oh, I should explain the traffic photos . . . if you look up on the highway (I-595) you will see the bikers that do the "Toy Run" each year. They close the highway for several hours and thousands of bikers ride from the beach all the way west to Markham Park and donate toys for needy children for the holidays. We weren't stuck in the traffic, we only had a red light, but it looks like we were!

I am ready to fall asleep, so I am not going to say very much. But my photos should tell you about our day.

Project 365 - Art Basel

2010-12-05T21:42:00.000-05:00

Art Basel

Art Basel takes place one weekend a year in Miami Beach. It is the premiere art event for artists, art dealers and art buyers. As for me, I am the art enthusiast and I was so excited when my neighbor, Robert, invited me to join him and his friend, Beverly, to go down to Miami Beach to not only see the Julian Lennon photography exhibit at the Adrenne Arsht Performing Arts Center, but to also wander around the various places where artists were showing their artwork.

If anyone knows me at all, they know that not only am I a Beatle freak, but also love photography exhibits, especially black and white photography. So to have all of that rolled into one exhibit was just the best!

After we went to the Arsht Center, we traveled over to Collins Avenue, found a parking spot IMMEDIATELY which is really rare and walked over to La Sandwicherie for a quick bite. It was the same place where I ate with my Level III photography buddies two weeks ago, but that is another story.

Then we walked up Collins and went to the Carlton Hotel where each room on the first floor was transformed into an artist gallery for Art Basel. There were some amazing artists, and there were some that were just okay. But all of them were so interesting and willing to talk to us. We must have spent more than an hour wandering around each gallery and talking and sipping wine.

Then it was on to another gallery in another hotel and then we went into the Delano Hotel which is now owned by Madonna and has been unbelievably revamped and redesigned. There was a very young, hip crowd there and it was a hopping evening.

On the way back to the car we stopped at Espanola Way where we sat outside and had coffee and chai lattes and chatted about our evening, politics and the upcoming holidays before we headed back to Broward!

For more photos, visit my Flickr website.

Project 365 - Holiday Preparation

2010-11-28T17:41:00.000-05:00

Holiday Preparation

In preparation for the holidays, the Leshinsky family always takes a photo that we use in our holiday card. Joel had an idea and wanted to make sure that we took the photo before Rachel left for school so we went out to find this perfect location and I set up my tripod and put the camera on the timer feature and snapped away until we got the perfect shot!

This is NOT the shot. But I liked it a lot. The girls look happy, rested and comfortable with each other and in front of the camera. I like the way the tree is the frame around them.

As we made our way back to the car we saw this branch that was incredibly long and crooked. So I was trying to get the whole thing into the shot while they were yelling at me to hurry up and let's go! But as always, I ignored them to take the photo at the right exposure and angle.

The other shot was of the family getting ready to get into the car, but of course they couldn't because I had the keys!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - November 27, 2010 Part II

2010-11-27T22:24:00.000-05:00

The Leshinsky Girls Get a Haircut

We all needed a haircut so after we spent the afternoon at the Kaplans watching the Michigan/Ohio football game. Needless to say, Michigan lost and it was a very quiet ending to a very loud beginning. But I know that my friend, Leon, was extremely happy! As for me, I am not really into football so it doesn't matter to me who wins as long as someone I know is happy. I am a baseball girl myself.

Well, I digress . . . as soon as the girls sat in the chairs, I HAD to take photos! These are the results of the fruits of my labor. Nothing earth-shattering, but I like them.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - November 27, 2010

2010-11-27T22:05:00.002-05:00

Photo of the Day - November 27, 2010

I am back to my normal routine! I think about photography, see photos with my eyes and carry my camera everywhere that I go so that I can capture, well, capture whatever!

As the Thanksgiving Holiday continues, and I get more rest, I have the energy to roll out of bed, throw on my sneakers and one camera on each shoulder . . . one with my 28 - 55 mm lens and one with my 55 - 200 mm lens.

I was totally uninspired by the drab lighting. However, I like a challenge. So I stayed out there for more than an hour. I wandered around the lake, looking for anything that I could shoot. I found some ducks and these other birds that I don't know their real name, but I call them swamp chickens, and then I found one perfect moment where this bird was perched on the edge of the dock. So, after be uninspired, I found what I was looking for! The photo of the day.

For more visit my Flickr site.

Project 365 - Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving

Our annual tradition on Thanksgiving is for Joel to get up really early and start cooking, he makes me a cup of coffee and then reads the paper. It is a quiet start to the day.

By 9 a.m. Rachel walks in, sleepily, carrying her laptop and blanket and climbs into bed with us . . . usually in the middle! Then in swaggers Adina with her laptop and blanket and at this point, Joel leaves. We turn on NBC so that we can watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Our favorite part is the first hour where we get to see snippets of the newest and hottest Broadway shows. This year . . . American Idiot, Memphis and Elf! Adina and I saw American Idiot this past July and LOVED it.

We are still sitting in the same position and it is more than two hours later, but we don't move until we see Santa Claus! Aren't we good Jews??

Seriously, it is great fun and I wouldn't miss it for the world. This last photo is my view of the morning!

Project 365 - South Beach Photo Shoot

2010-11-25T10:55:00.000-05:00

South Beach Photo Shoot

I am taking the Level III Advanced Photography Course offered by Jeremiah Jenner. We meet every Saturday at a different location. We have gone to the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum and worked on PhotoShop at his studio/gallery/apartment in the Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts. This past Saturday night we went to South Beach in Miami Beach.

I drove to Sailboat Bend and picked up Jeremiah and and Doug (a fellow student) and we got to Lincoln Road at about 5:15 p.m. With the failing light, we were offered MANY challenges to take good photos. Two rules . . . no flash and no tripod. So there is a lot of standing VERY still, elbows tucked in, and holding your breath but letting it out as you squeeze the shutter! We also experimented with using walls and other surfaces to balance our cameras, not to mention our knees as we were sitting on the ground watching traffic fly by.

But South Beach offers an eclectic array of subjects to shoot, from diverse faces to neon in every color on the planet. The colors of South Beach are unlike anywhere else . . . pastels, brilliant pinks and greens . . . remnants of Miami Vice days and art deco architecture.

To see more, simply go to my Flickr account to see them all.

Project 365 - It's Potter Time

2010-11-22T22:29:00.002-05:00

It's Potter Time

Oh to be 15 and carefree again. My daughter and her friend, Amaris, went to extreme lengths to dress up like the characters that attend Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. I think they did a fabulous job!

Then my neighbor, Robert, took them to the midnight showing of the film on Thursday, November 18. I would have taken her but I just got off the plane at 7 p.m. after flying for five hours from San Francisco. There was absolutely no way that my eyes would have stayed open past 10 pm.

I am a Harry Potter geek too, but I am waiting for Rachel to come home and we are all going to go together the day after Thanksgiving! I don't think I will be dressing up though!

Project 365 - Napa Valley Winery Tour

2010-11-17T01:37:00.002-05:00

What a Day!

When in Wine Country what else do you do but take a tour of the wineries! In my head it was going to be like a day in the movie "Sideways.' Nothing was further from that image!!

The day started out with a simple breakfast of yogurt and fruit while we read our emails and uploaded photos. By 10 a.m. we left for the train station. Sitting in the train station was an experience as we listened to Mike Grgich, a local winery owner and Napa pioneer. The man is about 86 and his daughter is now running Grgich Hills Winery. He was charming and spoke lovingly about making wine. His daughter also spoke about the different wines and especially about the two that we were tasting today. One was a Fume Blanc and the other was a Cabernet Sauvignon. The white wine was "spice" a very interesting taste. One I wouldn't normally choose, but I really did like it. The other was very dark and rich and smooth on the tongue.

Then we got onto the train. Oh, I forgot to mention that I am visiting my cousin Rebecca. Our parents were siblings and since she grew up in Brooklyn, we spent a LOT of time together as kids but as adults, we only see each other occasionally, but thanks to Facebook, we talk quite a bit. So Rebecca took a few days off to spend with me and she is treating me to two days of wineries!

So the train took off, headed north and we talked and drank, caught up and then we walked out on the platform of the back of the train and I shot lots of images of this pristine countryside. The colors are so rich. This time of year is after what they call the "crush" but there are still a few grapes still on the vines here and there.

Then we moved to the dining car where we shared our lunches . . . I had chicken with baby carrots and polenta and Rebecca had salmon with baby red potatoes and spinach with a curry avocado sauce. Are you hungry yet? We topped that off with Tiaramisu and Creme Brulee.

Needless to say, we were both so full that we really never ate dinner tonight, but after a trip to downtown Napa and a walk through the Oxbow Public Market, we both selected something extremely simple and continued to talk well into the evening.

Project 365 - Campaigning Photos (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T13:45:00.001-05:00

Thought I might upload a bunch of campaign photos all at one time. These photos were taken in the last few days prior to the Election. The first photo was sent to me by Rachel. We insisted on a photo of her at that ISU seal in a campaign t-shirt. Ok, so we asked for it back in September and she finally got around to it. But hey, she is busy!

The next was the amazing display of signs at the Tamarac Branch Library where both Adina and I worked Early Voting campaigning for Joel! I just couldn't believe the dedication of the volunteers. It was hot as the middle of the summer out there. We all took care of each other, telling each other to sit down, get out of the sun, have a drink, etc.

The next photo was taken during a Jazz Concert near City Hall. The crowd in my living room are all of our volunteers hearing our strategies for Election Day. And Joel is hugging Margaret Bates at a Halloween event at a park.

Definitely a whirlwind of activity. It was fun. It was a lot of work. We found out who are friends are and made new alliances. But no wonder why neither one of us could get out of bed the day after the Election!! Not to mention that I was standing on my feet from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then had to go to our friend's home for a "victory" party, which was actually a victory party for Richard since he ran for Mayor unopposed.

Glad it is over, but glad Joel ran. He got is name out there. He will definitely have good come from all of this.

But I am definitely glad to have my time back. I haven't moved from this spot since 8 a, this morning and it is now almost 2 p.m. I haven't had the luxury of doing this in WAY too long. Very glad to be back!

Project 365 - October 16 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T12:59:00.000-05:00

During the day we campaigned. Then we had to shop for items at Restaurant Depot for a volunteer meeting. We also needed to waste a bit of time because Adina was working at the Nova Titan Invitational Debate. I loved this photo of this guy working the forklift. He was taking his job so seriously but gave me a tiny smile as I walked by him snapping away.

We spent about an hour at the store. There was one area that I refused to walk into, the freezer room. You need to wear a parka in there, they have them hanging on hooks. This sign was on the door and I just thought it was funny.

In between campaigning, I was still able to enter some of my work into two art shows! I had three pieces at Sailboat Bend in Gallerie Jenner and two pieces at the Girls Club art studio in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

This particular night three different venues worked together (something I have been pushing for a long time). The Girls Club, Sailboat Bend and F.A.T. Village all had events the same night and they hired minibuses to transport the attendees to the gallery night from place to place so no one had to worry about parking.

The first photo shows my artwork on exhibit at the Girls Club with Post It notes all around it. The purpose of the notes are to let the judges, artists and the general public make comments. Each was color coded. I ended up saving the comments. Not sure what I will do with them, but something!

I ran into lots of artist friends. This is Onajide. He runs an online Meetup Group where he helps to educate fellow artists about workshops, exhibition opportunities and just ways to get to know each other socially since working as an artist can be isolating. Then we boarded the minibus and headed over to Sailboat Bend. They had exhibitons on each floor of the building and in a lot of the artist live/work spaces.

This photo was taken in one of the lobby gallery spaces. The art was an audio piece mixed with the writing on the wall. So it was an interactive installation piece, or performance art. These two guys were really into it!

After about an hour, we decided that we were hungry. So we headed back to downtown Fort Lauderdale and went to 2nd Street and ate at the Taco place! I had my Avocado salad and fish tacos!! YUMMY.

I took this photo of the train going thorough downtown. I love listening to the train going by. It reminds me of when I was in Terre Haute, IN going to Indiana State University with Joel. That was basically the crossroads of America! there were ALWAYS trains going through and I loved to hear the train whistles. Wasn't fun waiting for them to pass by, but still liked them. Made me wonder where they were coming from and where they were going to.

Project 365 - October 12 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

Another weeknight. . . . another homeowners meeting. We arrived early this time. Too early. We got to know the park staff and some of the residents. This lady told us about her incredibly long nails. She hasn't cut them in years! It was both weird, gross and intriguing. And she allowed me to take photos of her nails.

Unfortunately, when the president of this homeowners meeting arrived, we were told that this was not a Candidates Night and Joel would not be allowed to speak. It was such a stark and cold reception, that we were overwelmed at the response.

So we left, but this was the only meeting . . . which are all public meetings by the way in public facilities . . . where we felt unwelcome. We didn't dwell on it. But I had to mention it to get this out of my system.

Project 365 - October 11 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T10:55:00.000-05:00

In the middle of all of the campaigning craziness, at work we had our arts consultants fly back into town for the launching of our CreativeBROWARD 2020 ten-year community cultural plan that we have been working on for almost two years now.

In addition to planning and organizing this meeting which was to be held originally at the ArtsPark in Hollywood, but then the RSVPs were too many for the room that they had reserved for us, so we moved it to the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood.

Then the equipment wouldn't cooperate, and we had set up and then move the chairs several times because we were in the art gallery and we wanted to make sure that no one would bump into the sculptures.

However, the meeting went very well, and I ended up sitting with my artist friend, Timothy. He was teasing me about my new piece which I had titled, "Size Matters." So right above our heads on the ceiling, was this sculpture. I took a photo of it and showed it to him during the meeting and I had to shut him up because the two of us were giggling so much. I had to walk away from him for a while so that we didn't interfere with the meeting!

Oh well, it is a very nice sculpture, and the other ones in the exhibit are too. I guess the two of us just interpreted this one the same way!

Project 365 - October 6 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

No rest for the weary. Even on my birthday I went to work (which I usually take the day off but I figured that if I did that, I would be working on the campaign anyway).

After work, we had only one meeting, but since it was a "Meet the Candidates Night" we couldn't just leave. The questions from the audience went on for a while and we didn't get to the restaurant until after 9:30 p.m. Both my dad and Adina were with us since it was my birthday and they wanted to celebrate with me!

So my choice was the Korean restaurant near the house. Great food, great sushi, great atmosphere and if you want the stir fry stuff, they cook it right in front of you!

I was really shocked that my dad tried all the different foods. When I was growing up he had a very, very limited food range . . . if it wasn't something that his mother cooked for him, he didn't eat it. Especially if the food was fish!

But I was quite impressed with the fact that he ate EVERYTHING!! I ate the veggies that were a bit too spicy for him. It was all good and I enjoyed my birthday, even if it was a very late meal!

Project 365 - October 5 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T10:31:00.000-05:00

On this evening we actually had THREE homeowners meetings to run to. We were just heading back to the northwestern part of Lauderhill as we were driving up and over the hill that goes over the Florida Turnpike and I captured this image of the sun setting.

I love sunsets and sunrises. The colors are reminiscent of a watercolor painting.

Project 365 - October 3 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T10:02:00.000-05:00

This was one event that I didn't attend, so I sent my camera with Robert. He did a great job! This event was the Caribbean Democrat Club (I think, they are all running together in my memory now).

The first photo is of Joel with Ruth Lynch a community activist. Loved the hat! And the look on her face is priceless. She really, really believed in Joel.

The second photo is of Joel with Mitch Caesar, the Broward County Democratic Chairman. They have known each other for a very long time.

Since I wasn't' there, not much more to say about the event, but just that there was so much support out there for Joel.

Project 365 - October 2 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

I know that I blogged most of these photos in Joel's blog, but I really liked this photo. The City of Lauderhill Firefighters and Police really, really believed in Joel and helped him on a daily basis. They volunteered their time to walk neighborhoods and place door hangers on everyone's doorknobs. They knocked on doors and spoke to the neighbors about Joel (and Margaret too).

They were incredible. This photo was taken at Margaret Bate's campaign headquarters early on a Saturday morning. We were talking about the strategy of which neighborhoods to walk, who would be in which neighborhood and how long we were to do this.

We can't thank them enough. They were out there in FORCE during the two weeks of Early Voting and on Election Day too! Joel made 70 sandwiches and put them into a huge cooler and the guys took turns driving from polling location to polling location to feed all the volunteers!

It really takes a village.

Project 365 - October 1 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T09:25:00.000-05:00

Another weekday night, more meetings to attend, before I fell into bed and put away my campaign materials and my camera, I saw this shot and had to take it. Adina was scratching Newton's head while he sat on her stomach. The two of them looked so peaceful when I took this. Of course, immediately afterwards Newton wanted to play and dove under the covers! So I am glad that I caught this shot!

The second shot of Grace sitting on the edge of my sink is the typical scene that I find when I flip on the light to go in there. Grace will sit there in the dark waiting for me to come in and turn on the bathroom sink, just a tiny stream of water, so that she can drink the water. She thinks she is a lion drinking out of a pond in the middle of the desert! Or that is the story I make up in my head! I just think it is funny that she sits there waiting for me. And she will do this several times a day. When I come in sometimes I forget that she might be there and it always makes me laugh.

I really love the way her eyes look in this shot. Grace has hauntingly beautiful eyes. Sometimes I can't catch the color, but I think I did okay in this shot. Even when Grace was a kitten her eyes were sort of scary looking.

Project 365 - September 30 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

Another weekday evening spent running home from downtown Fort Lauderdale, no changing clothes, but grabbing campaign materials, my campaign notebook and my camera and off we went to another homeowners meeting. After listening to the other candidates do their "blah blah blah" we finally went to dinner at about 9 p.m. This was a typical evening for us for the past two months. Can you understand why I the day after Election Day I just couldn't get out of bed until about noon?

So as we were driving from point A to point B . . . I was sitting in the back seat because Adina wanted to sit with her Dad in the front seat. I was playing with my camera, which I didn't get to do much of, only took campaign-related photos . . . not my favorite photography. I really do NOT enjoy taking photos of people!

I snapped this shot of Checkers as we were approaching the traffic light. I loved the way the puddle reflected the red neon. It looks like the puddle is glowing.

The other photo was taken at the restaurant. Adina and Joel were bored (not to mention very hungry) as we were waiting for the food to arrive. So they were playing that hand-slap game. I made sure to move all of the glasses of liquid far away from them so that I wouldn't be the one wearing their drinks on my lap or worse, on my camera!!

I really liked this photo because it showed the impish look on Adina's face as she was playing this dumb game. She is still a kid and it is nice to see this look on her 15 year old face now and then. Most of the time there is absolutely NO expression on her face . . . that is unless she is with one of her friends. But then again, I remember being like that with my parents too. I don't think I got over that until I was about 30!

Project 365 - September 29 (Still Catching Up)

2010-11-07T08:44:00.000-05:00

On September 29 there was a "Meet the Candidates Night" at Lauderhill City Hall. This was one of the better forums that I attended because it was conducted by the League of Women Voters. They explained how the evening would be handled. In addition, the best thing that they did was to distribute a four page hand-out that explained, in layman's terms, the amendments and resolutions that were to be on our ballots. They didn't tell you "HOW" to vote, they only told you what it meant if you voted yes, or if you voted no. Sometimes the language, no actually, the language ALWAYS is confusing to voters as to which way to actually vote to get the outcome that you actually want.

So, this photo was taking just prior to the event starting. For some unknown reason, there was a roll of toilet paper on the Commission's dais. I thought of the irony and then someone moved it.

And I thought I would just add this in to show that Joel looked very good as he answered the questions posed to him by the League of Women Voters.

As you can see, there were not many folks in the audience, however, it was being videotaped. I have a copy of the event, I just never uploaded it to the website, but I might.

Feels Good to Be Back

2010-11-07T00:52:00.000-04:00

As I am sitting here in my nice clean living room, listening to Bob Dylan, my feet propped up on a pillow on the table in front of me, my family fast asleep upstairs, I am taking advantage of the fact that we have one extra hour of sleep tomorrow morning thanks to Daylight Savings Time. So instead of crawling into my bed, I am busy editing photos.

I edited photos from today's Advanced Photography class which was a blast. We met at the Fort Lauderdale Antique Car Museum, had a tour by a very, very knowledgable docent, and then we were on our own. The only restrictions, we couldn't touch or get into any of the Packard cars.

By the end of the photo shoot, I was not only filthy, but I worked up quite a sweat. And that says something since the temperatures dipped today into the 50s this morning and again this evening.

So these two photos were taken in September when we first started to work on Joel's campaign for City of Lauderhill Commissioner. I found the snail on Joel's car. It was a really big snail and I loved the way it was reflected on the car. I played with the exposure a bit and the levels, but other than that, it is what it is. The other photo was a magnificant sunset over Veterans Park. We were just exiting the building after an appearance at a homeowners meeting. This field is the baseball field. I have many photos of my girls playing at this park so there are great memories here.

Since I am tired, I am only uploading two photos tonight. But there are many more to follow. And I still have to finish editing my NYC photos from July!! My friend, Marc, must think I forgot about him! I have really cool shots from the "Top of the Rock" that I never edited and uploaded.

Catching Up

2010-11-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

It has been more than a month since my last post. Where has the time gone?? Actually, I know. I have been completed consumed with helping Joel with his campaign for commissioner. Now that Election Day is over (he didn't win by the way) and I have rested quite a bit . . . I feel the need to upload photos that I have taken since my last post.

This is a photo of Adina. The two of us went to get haircuts in September. We already need another one, but I just loved the way Adina's hair looked this day.

This afternoon I start my Advanced Photography Class and I can't wait. So this post will only be one photo, but there are more to follow!

Sweet Emotions

2010-09-20T14:08:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday night I was interviewed during the opening of the Sweet Emotions exhibition at Galerie Jenner. I had three photographs in the show and there was a large crowd in attendance. Galerie Jenner is located in Sailboat Bend.

This is a photo of all of the artists in the show. It was quite good and a mixture of photography, painting, sculpture and mixed media.

I hope that you can see the link by clicking here.

Project 365 -- August 21, 2010

2010-08-21T21:35:00.001-04:00

Up in the Air

So this is first for me. Flying and blogging. I decided to write a bit even though I don't have access to my camera to upload any photos at the moment.

I just boarded an AirTran flight from Indianapolis after taking my daughter back to college. We had a whirlwind few days. We flew in on Tuesday, her boyfriend and his parents met us in Indy where we spent a few hours with them and then had dinner. Then we drove 70 miles west to Terre Haute (Riley to be more exact) to stay with our friends.

The next day we loaded up two cars and drove to campus and Rachel and I spent HOURS unpacking and organizing her dorm room. She was able to move in a day earlier than her suitemates, so we were basically all alone which was fine with me.

We reached a point where we realized that we needed to get something to place her TV on so we headed out to Walmart and found a great buy which was a three piece set of matching "furniture" which included a night stand, a shelf unit and an end table which now has her dorm fridge on it.

We did a really great job of putting her room together but EVERY muscle in my body hurt that night. I was so overtired that I really couldn't sleep.

Thursday we headed into Indy again to play! We brought her boyfriend along. We started at the Indianapolis Museum of Art which is QUITE impressive. Four huge floors of exhibits ranging from American and European paintings to Egyptian and Japanese artifacts. Our favorite was the contemporary art including Warhol and Robert Indiana and a line of fashion from the turn of the century to now.

After a nice lunch in the museum cafe, we headed over to the Indianapolis Children's Museum . . . FIVE huge floors of fun exhibits that included a Barbie exhibit AND a rock and roll exhibit. We giggled all the way through the museum!!

I heard a lot of hype about Broad Ripple area which is supposed to be like SoHo (its not) so we drove over there (up Meridian Ave. where EVERY huge brick mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places). After finding a place to park and walking up and down the street we all said, "Eh" so we headed back to Terre Haute for dinner.

Friday was another day of shopping for Rachel. This time little stuff like toiletries and snack items. Again, thank you Sam Walmart!! I treated myself to a Sonic Burger chocolate milkshake thank you very much. And of course I can't forget to mention the fact that we had a lunch appointment with Merv Hendrickson, one of the most inspiring professors I have ever met at Indiana State University. We took him to lunch because it was his last day at ISU. He truly inspired Rachel when she went out to ISU for the high school summer honors program and he continued to inspire her through her Freshman year. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten!!

Friday night was a quiet one with Kim and a long ride on the pontoon boat with the dogs.

Believe me, I have about 400 images of all of these events and I WILL upload some of them once I edit them.

Saturday John and Kim took us to the Terre Haute Farmers Market where we chatted with the local vendors, purchased some items and of course I snapped away with the camera! After a nice long lunch at 5th and Elm (or it might be 6th and Elm) John and Kim left us and I walked Rachel back to her dorm. I stayed there until 2 pm and after an emotional hug good-bye in the parking lot . . . I took off for Indy once again.

So far so good, right??

Well, I turned in the rental car, sailed through security (with the full body scanner -- I hope the TSA agents enjoyed staring at my nakedness) and as I approached my gate I saw the dreaded words . . . DELAYED!!

So, now here I am five hours later, finally on the plane and headed back to Fort Lauderdale. I will be extremely happy to land my head on my pillow at home. Rachel, I miss you dear, but I am really tired and looking forward to my own surroundings. Even if the house construction still isn't completed quiet yet . . . Pergo floor will be installed next week! Woo Hoo!

Signing Off for now (as I look out the window and see lightning bolts in the sky . . . yikes).

Project 365 - July 27, 2010

2010-07-27T23:26:00.000-04:00

Bathroom Number Three

So the saga continues . . . when will it end???? After the last piece of molding was stapled into place in Bathroom Number Two, we found a leak in the ceiling in the living room which was coming from the Master Bathroom.

So as of this morning, our tile and toilet and shower was ripped up so that the floor could be repaired (it was basically rotted away and the ceiling came down in the living room simultaneously).

Here are some of the shots that I took this evening after I came home from a lovely cocktail reception at Pier Sixty Six. It was really nice! The weather was absolutely perfectly clear and sunny and up on the top of the hotel, I was on the balcony staring out at the ocean and the Intracoastal and the sunset. Then I came home to this site.

My favorite was the toilet in the bedroom!!

Project 365 - July 14, 2010

2010-07-26T23:07:00.001-04:00

Adina's 15th Birthday

For Adina's birthday we drove up to Boca to go to a hamburger joint, since that is what Adina loves to eat. She really enjoyed the burger as you can see from the photos!

After dinner we headed home for presents and cake. The real birthday present was a trip to New York City! Those photos are coming shortly!

Hard to believe that my little girls are growing up so fast. They will both be Sophomores in the fall, Adina in high school and Rachel in college, so they will both graduate the same year!

Don't want to think about it right now. I take this day by day.

Project 365 - July 13, 2010

2010-07-25T10:22:00.000-04:00

Nancy Makes a Surprise Visit

So I was on my way to the gym. Joel calls me in the car and tells me to stop at the house for a second because he wanted to show me something. So I stopped, I figured it was something to do with the new bathroom.

He pushes me toward the bathroom door, I open it and see a brand new mirror and said,"wow, it is a pretty mirror." And out of the corner of my eye I see movement and there is my friend, Nancy, standing there with two glasses of red wine!!!

I think I screamed REALLY loud. One because it scared me and two because I haven't seen her in two years!!

What a nice surprise. It was a short visit, but we sat in the living room all night talking and eating ice cream and oh, did I say talking??

Project 365 - July 12, 2010

2010-07-25T09:48:00.000-04:00

The Starving Artists Competition and Exhibition

I entered four of my photographs into this annual competition called the Startving Artists Exhibition. The contest is presented by Kosh. She only goes by one name. She is amazing because she is working on a daily basis creating exhibitions and juried competitions for emerging and established local artists. Kosh has been encouraging me to enter some of these exhibitions.

Recently I exhibited at the Oakland Park Library and that was one of Kosh's exhibitions. This time I decided to go for this exhibition and see how it went.

Well, I actually won a ribbon! Okay, so it was 12th place, but it was a recognition for the work that I have been doing! It was a thrilling moment to hear my name called. I didn't expect it and I was busy munching on fruit dipped in melted chocolate, but thanks to Jeremiah, he grabbed the food from me and pushed me toward the podium to accept my ribbon and certificate!

These are some of the photos from that evening.

The show is still on exhibit at the Broward County Main Library in gallery six if you want to see it. It closes on Friday, July 30, 2010.

Project 365 - July 11, 2010

2010-07-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

The Glades

Broward County is now home to its very own TV show. It is called "the Glades" and it premeiered on Sunday, July 11 at 10 PM on A&E.

Joel and I went to the premiere at Pier Sixty-Six. There were about 1,000 people there mingling and eating and drinking. We saw a few celebrities . . .Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek the Next Generation and a soap star from General Hospital, one that I never watched so I have no idea who he was.

As we walked in there was a "blue carpet" and a photographer to make us feel like we were in Hollywood! It was weird being in front of the camera for a change. I was observing the photographer's skills and now that I see the end result can't figure out for the life of me why he took such a wide shot?? With that backdrop you aren't supposed to see anything else but the people and the backdrop. I had to crop it in, WAY, WAY in!

there were many people there that I knew and got right to work introducing Joel to them!

After feasting on the many different varieties of cheeses, dips, salads and carving station items and then drinking whatever at the many bars set up around the perimeter of the room, we were ushered into a ballroom to watch the premiere of this new television show. Of course they provided us with popcorn, ice cream and other fattening goodies to keep us happy.

But I liked the show. In fact, when we went home, I watched it at it's airing time with Rachel to see her reaction. It isn't overwhelmingly wonderful, but it is written well, filmed well and it is fun to see the South Flroida landscape!

Lets hope the viewing public likes it and the network keeps it in Broward!

Project 365 - July 10, 2010

2010-07-11T15:47:00.003-04:00

Unbelievable

Almost done with the bathrooms. . . NOT!!!

In the first photo, Jimi is installing the fan above the toilet. The walls are all painted, the wood trim is edging the walls, the floor has been sealed. All that is left is furnishings.

Then, we walked out into the hallway and looked up and low and behold . . . the shower and toilet in the master bathroom is leaking!

We couldn't believe it. We have to start all over again with bathroom number three!