Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 30, 2008

Yesterday we took a trip out to the Everglades. It was only a 35 minute trip from our house. It always amazes me that a short drive to the east or west provides the eyes with a COMPLETELY different nature landscape.

To the east . . . a deep turquoise ocean with soft waves lapping at the pinkish tan edges of the beach. The scent of suntan lotion in the air. Beautiful bodies shining in the sun.

Then to the west . . . a watery highway of sawgrass and critters. These are my images from the "glades."

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 29, 2008

I took a walk before dinner because I felt like being one with the couch was really not the best of ideas for my entire vacation. I am glad that I did because I captured some nice sunset photos.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 28, 2008

This cute fella is Rudolph or Rudy for short! He was sleeping in his kitty condo!



We are at our friends house watching the Dolphin/Jet game . . . go Dolphins . . . and we were planning New Years Eve at this moment in the photo.



Rachel's foot is still healing.



We saw these guys at the fish store . . . Adina needed some fish food and filters. I can never get a clear photo of the fish. Gotta work on that with a faster shutter speed.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 27, 2008

After spending four hours helping my 13 year old clean up her room . . . I snapped this photo of Grace as she was looking at Scooby Doo. I just found it amusing.



In the evening our friend, Richard and his son, Andrew and my cousin Michael came over for dinner. Richard was quizzing us on TV trivia until our eyes were about to slam shut!



And the kids were busy with Guitar Hero in the den!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 25, 2008

After several days of doing a whole lot of nothing, I finally peeled myself off of the couch and took a walk outside . . . camera in tow of course. These are a few of the shots that I took as I wandered through the neighborhood. I love the fact that it is December 25 and it is 80 degrees and sunny!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve. Although it is not my holiday, I have come to embrace the spirit of the season. I love the excitement of flurry of cards in the mail and the phone calls and the holiday parties. I enjoy the colorful lights in the neighborhoods and we decorate our house with lots of trimmings (which the cats love to bat around the house all night while we are fast asleep).

During the day I took the girls to an art exhibit near our house of Ansel Adams photography. Love his work . . . black and white is so timeless. I remember my high school advisor, Mr. Smith, had a calendar on his wall of Ansel Adams work and I asked him about it.



The first photo is at the Sunrise Civic Center after we went through the exhibit and it had just stopped raining. I liked the composition and the grayness of the day in contrast to the colors of the aqua railing.



In the evening we headed down to Hialeah to a Christmas Party complete with a turkey, ham and roast pork, egg nog and a beautiful tree with many tiny children running around in their excitement.



These chairs were so colorful and arty looking. I sat in them most of the evening and they were actually quite comfy. But I had to take a photo of them.



I have been shooting in RAW so that I could further play with the exposures and colors. This photo was almost completely dark and I was able to salvage it in Photoshop.



And here is my bedroom . . . I was in the midst of wrapping the last of the presents.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 23, 2008

We were on the way out the door to the hairdressers and the girls were playing Guitar Hero. They looked like SUCH rockers that I had to snap this photo. I added this photo on January 1st because I forgot that I had changed memory cards in my camera from a 1 gig to a 4 gig.



















I call this one . . . Bubble Head!



The girls and I went for haircuts. Of course I took my camera along. I didn't like any of the other photos. I only liked this one. Just legs. My daughter and her friend were being goofy and bored.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 22, 2008

So two weeks ago I decided to reconnect with some people that I went to school with when I went to private school from 5th through 9th grade. I had recently received a listing of classmates from the alumni association. I decided to Google one of them before I tried to call them. Unfortunately, I found out that he had passed away. But the freaky part is that he had passed away only four days before I Googled him. So I wrote a nice memory on the web page that was set up by the funeral home.

Two days later, I received an email from another classmate. It was surreal to hear his voice after almost 40 years. We talked quite a bit and he sent me photos of himself. Not only is he a musician, but he is a former firefighter and was at Ground Zero, had open heart surgery, is a copy writer AND he was on at reality TV show called The Academy.

About four weeks ago Joel was in the den and watching TV and suddenly he saw another friend of ours on TV for a new reality TV show called Manhunters!!

What is the likelihood of reconnecting with two different friends, from two different parts of your life and both are on reality police TV shows?

Very strange indeed.

Here are the photos of my friend in California.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 14, 2008

Sunday morning we received a phone call from Aunt Marilyn to meet them for breakfast because my cousin, Roni, and her husband, Chris, were here from Clearwater on business, but wanted to see us before they headed home. So we met them at a local bagel restaurant and we talked and we laughed.



This is a photo of Rachel's eyes. These eyes could always melt my heart, from the first moment I set my eyes on her eyes. A psychic (or so she said) told us that Rachel has an old soul in her and you could see that in her eyes.



Now this was just a funny photo. I had to share. Chris had grabbed my camera and took this one of himself!



And here we are, the entire bunch! Of course we are missing Adina who was at her girlfriend's house and Devon, who didn't come over from Clearwater this trip but she will be here during Christmas vacation.

























I snapped this with my mobile phone. We went to pick out a tree. This was the lucky tree for us this year. I liked it better in black and white because it has a timeless quality.



And of course, always have to throw in the silly cat photo. Newton was so excited that there was a tree in his house that he explored every nook and cranny of the tree! Here he is climbing inside the branches of the tree!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - December 7, 2008

Nothing like a litte sewer excitement to get the neighborhood together! Four houses across the street from our house had sewage backing up into their houses. Yucky, yucky, yucky.

So, of course, Joel who has all the connections with the City of Lauderhill, calls the City Manager (on a Sunday) and asks if he can have a sanitation truck sent out. About 15 minutes later, here they are! This was after the neighbors had called the Fire Department . . . don't really know why . . . I really don't think that sewage starts fires?? Well, maybe the gases are a problem, but they didn't do anything. They just looked around and then left.


































This is John with his two kids. They were just observing the whole process.



And there is Joel in the middle of all of the neighbors. We haven't gotten together like this since Hurricane Wilma! Notice that only Ronnie is paying any attention to me and my camera!!



I guess watching this is fascinating to our neighbors. I was more fascinated that they were fascinated!! On the other hand, I just like to have a good subject to take a photo of!