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

Thank goodness for cell phones! Adina and I went out to dinner alone tonight because Joel had a Planning and Zoning meeting and Rachel is coming down with a cold so she stayed home. We had a fun dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and then headed over to Target. Adina wanted to buy her friend a birthday present. We ended up browsing the entire store! It was fun. These are some of the photos that I snapped with my cell phone.



I wish that I looked this cute in a hat. Rachel said that Adina looks like Freddy Kruger, but I think it is more a Britney Spears look.



After Target it was off to Baskin and Robbins for Dollar Scoop night! Can't you tell my chocoholic daughter is in heaven??



I just loved these boots at Target (I know I didn't upload in the right order, give me a break it is almost 11:30 and I am sleepy).

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

So today I tried something a bit different. I didn't carry my Nikon to work, instead I had my office Nikon Coolpix camera. I had fun with the camera when I went to Indiana with Rachel in October and I really haven't used it since. I had been carrying it around with me for several days. So I pulled it out while I was waiting for Robert to pick me up. I had gotten out of my meeting early and i didn't want to go up to my office for 15 minutes. So I sat outside and played with the camera. Ok, so the first shot was taken the other day, not today, but I had to put it in my blog. I received flowers from a colleague on my first day as Assistant Director. I thought it was such a sweet gesture and such a beautiful display of spring flowers. They are now wilting terribly, but I enjoyed them all last week!



As for this flower, it is thriving underneath the stairwell that goes up to the second level of the building near the restaurant. Frankly there isn't much light under there and the walls have some rust on them, but it all adds to the urban atmosphere!




As for this shot, I just loved the deep blue color of the late afternoon sky and the color of the buildings against the sky. The building to the right is the City parking garage. There is so much activity in there and on there. On the roof is a heliport and there are helicopters coming and going all day. Inside cars are constantly going in and out. On the ground level there are a series of restaurants that are ALWAYS busy. There were also some sad times too. There have been several suicides off of the roof. There was also a terrible car accident where a woman who worked in my building, somehow stepped onto the gas and drove right through the wall and crashed down right in front of where I was sitting today. Then there are festivals on the street in front of me where there are booth after booth of fabulous and quirky artwork and stages of music.

That's what I love about the urban area, there is always something going on.

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

The morning started out very early . . . 7 a.m. I got the newspaper and sat out in front of the house and read it from cover to cover. It was pretty hot by the time I was finished and I was very hungry. So Joel and I headed over to a bagel place (I know I am still supposed to be eating matzo but I just can't anymore). After breakfast we went shopping for the week at Publix. As we were leaving I looked up and saw these birds and this nest in the letters that spelled "Deli." Joel pulled over so that I could snap this. I didn't have my Nikon but I think the Kodak Easy Share did fairly well. I loved this shot so I decided that this would be all for today!

By the way, for the past few days I have started to save space on this blog by making my photos smaller, so if you have been clicking on them to see them larger, they won't be quite as large as before.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 26, 2008

The day started off to a sleepy start. I love watching them sleep, they look so peaceful and innocent.





I took a photo of these letters because I had forgotten about them. Joel and I bought these once we decided on a name for Adina. Joel had the bright idea of gluing them onto Adina's dressing table where we changed her diaper. It did entertain Adina because the colors were so bright. Well, jump forward several years and now the changing table is long gone and in its place are all of Adina's books that she loves. Mostly ghost stories!!



Later in the day, after Rachel and I got home from the gym, we took Adina out to lunch and she was just finishing her chocolate milk as I snapped this photo. She loves chocolate milk and I figure that at least I am getting some calcium into her even though sugar is getting in there too.






After lunch it was off to the tailor's so that we could get three pairs of pants shortened, however, I had hemmed them very quickly (and badly) so that she could take them with her to Washington, DC. In this photo Joel and Adina are ripping out my stitches.



These two photos were just for fun because I loved the way Elena stores all of her threads on the wall in the shop.




While we were waiting for Adina to have her pants measured we sat onthe floor and played with Snickers, this sweet Silky Yorkshire Terrier. He was so sweet and loving and not scared of us at all. I remember my friend Susan's dog, Rufus. Rufus looked just like this one. Well, at least in my memory!



Adina and her friend, Rachel, had a ball at the pool. It was a picture perfect day (ha ha) and I was right there snapping away with my camera. I must have shot about 300 photos just on the two girls. But I was playing with the shutter speeds so that I could catch them in mid-air. I think I did it!



The girls were just chilling and I loved the brightly colored noodles against the deep blue of the pool.



Here I am playing with my long lens. I could this mockingbird as he (or she) was chirping away on the railing. Right after this one he flew away.



And this photo just cracked me up. On the left is our friend, Gary and on the right is my cousin, Michael. They were taking photos of each other and saving them on their phones as the photo ID. We have known Gary since Junior High. These two are probably the biggest kids I have ever known!

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

Today I didn't take my camera to work. I get so busy now that I can't even think straight. I have to block out an hour here and there just to read emails where before I could spend my entire day just communicating via email. So needless to say, I didn't have much time to take photos so I wandered around our bedroom to look deeper.



This first photo is a close up of my lava lamp. It looks a lot different in person, but I really liked the way it looked after I played with Photoshop!



This photo is very special to me. The bird belonged to my birth father, Harold Schain. He bought this canary for my Mom when they were both first married. That would have been around 1947. When the bird died he had it stuffed and then placed under this glass case. I could have taken the cover off, but this is the way I always remembered it sitting in the hallway in my grandparents house. There was this alcove near the back bedroom which was really more of a den where I watched TV on this HUGE piece of furniture that had a screen the size of a small toaster. Well, the bird now sits on top of my dresser next to my bed. I don't want anything to disturb it because it really is quite fragile.




And there he is again, Newton being cute. He really isn't trying to eat the fish, he is just having a nice long drink of water because the top of the fish tank came off and fell behind the dresser and we haven't reached down behind there yet to pick it up.

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

Today was not very eventful. However, Adina and I decided to wash and dry our hair and I liked this photo of Adina using the hair straightener. It takes so long for girls to make themselves pretty. We sure hope the guys appreciate it!

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

Today was Administrative Professionals Day so we planned a picnic lunch at the historic Bonnet House. The house was built at the turn of the century by Fredrick Bartlett who was a very rich guy from Chicago. He had three wives and the third one, Evelyn, had the foresight to donate the house to the Florida Historic Trust and then this house was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a wonderfully whimsical place that is decorated solely by Frederick and Evelyn Bartlett. Mrs. Bartlett had her summer home in Massachusetts and spent her winters here until she was past 100! She spent that last two years of her life up north and passed away at 109. The estate preserved a bit of Old Fort Lauderdale, right next to the beach. There are 35 acres of land that are beautifully landscaped and there are even swans and monkeys on the property. I couldn't catch the monkeys today, but I did find the swan's babies!!

We took the seven administrative professionals there and fed them sandwiches, salad and cookies and then they got their own private tour of the property. I stayed behind and chatted with my colleague at the Bonnet House!
























In this first photo you can see the beach peeking out between the two palm trees. The foliage used to be a lot thicker but Hurricane Wilma did quite a lot of damage. They are replanting, but it will take years to look like it used to look.





The Bartletts were artists and every square inch of the house is either painted or has animal sculptures. In some cases there is faux marble painted either on the walls or on the floors. I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the house because they just became an accredited museum. But there are found objects that were made into furnishings for the house.






I loved this photos because of the way the light was coming through the window onto the yellow bench and the contrast to the blue wall next to it.











This photo shows the center of the house, it is an atrium open to the elements. This is the way Florida homes used to be built, in a rectangle with all of the rooms opening out onto an open air atrium so that when you open up all of the windows in the house you get a REAL cross breeze. Beyond the fountain you can see the archway that leads (with double doors) into a two-story artist's studio where Fredrick did all of his paintings.

























Fredrick painted the sea life on the ceiling outside of the entrance to their living room.



The Bartletts loved shells and pressed shells into the walls and floors throughout the house. In fact, they have a theater where they used to show movies to their guests and the entrance fee was a shell! The collection of these shells are still all around the house.












Well, Newton HAD to be cute and I had my camera out, so I HAD to shoot this one.














And I was letting Grace have her evening drink out of my bathroom sink and I took this close up of her tongue! I wish that I could have gotten closer because cat tongues are really amazing.

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

Rachel was invited to her awards ceremony but didn't have any idea of what award she would win. So here you can see the contemplation on her face (as well as on Joel's and Adina's). Every time that they would announce the next category we would look in her direction and say . . . is it this one???



This was the program from the ceremony, it was sitting in Rachel's lap. I was getting bored waiting to find out what she won so I started snapping away.



And here she is, shaking hands with her Principal as she received the highest achievement for an underclassman in Newspaper. She is also now that Editor in Chief for the school's newspaper! But I think I mentioned that already.

Can't help being a proud Mom!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 21, 2008

As I said, I have been completely overwhelmed in my new postion, and I really haven't had the time or the energy to concentrate on too many photos. But this sunrise was worth sharing as Robert and I headed off to work in the early dawn!

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 20, 2008

We celebrated Passover this year two days in a row. When I was growing up, we really only celebrated on the first night. But this year Joel was invited to the hotel by the Rabbi. To explain that a bit, the Orthodox Jews come down every Passover and take over the Inverrary Hotel and they Kosherize the entire hotel and they turn one of the ballrooms into a temple and they spend 10 days there. So they invited us to celebrate with them. Well, Saturday night didn't start until 10 pm! And we didn't finish the Sedar by 1 am, but we left at that point and found out that the Sedar continued until almost 3 am!! At our home, we start at 6 p.m. and go through the children's animated book and it is a very quick Sedar, but we get the gist of it and then we get to the food! These are some of the photos I took before the company arrived.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 19, 2008

Saturday was a busy day. I started out early at the gym. Rachel had an AP practice test and Joel dropped me at the gym. I had a very nice workout, although I missed having Rachel with me. Adina, well, she was still sleeping! Later we all met back at the house and re-grouped. I was in the middle of cleaning toilets and sweeping floors and I had just left a few rolls of toilet paper on the stairs so that the next time I went upstairs I would restock the bathrooms. Well, Newton decided that I had left him the best toy in the world! I came up the stairs from the living room to find Newton just about to pounce on an unexpecting Grace. Poor Grace. If I had been able to keep shooting with flash i would have caught Newton ON Grace's back. They made a lot of noise and took off up the stairs.



This was the aftermath!



Rachel and I headed down to my office and we worked for five hours packing up my stuff . . . twenty years of stuff to be exact . . . and moved it into my new office. We were crawling around on the floor unplugging and plugging in electronic equipment. I threw away many, many things that have long been scanned into the computers. I delegated items away. This photo shows me sitting, finally, in my new chair, totally and completely exhausted and sweaty and in desperate need of a shower. To my left is a HUGE cement support in the middle of my office, but it is fine. It separates the work section from the "meeting" area.



This is my conference table. I have two windows since it is a corner office and it does get rather warm in there, but I have lots of fans and there are shades that I can pull down. It is a very different feeling in here than in my other office because it is real office furniture as opposed to the modular stuff that I have lived with for the past 20 years.



And what would my office be without my family photos and plants?

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 18, 2008

Friday, yay! I made it through the week. I am now officially the Acting Assistant Director. Earl's last day was today. I was tired trying to wrap things up in Marketing and figuring out what was going to be delegated and trying to answer as many emails as humanly possibly while trying to pick Earl's brain before he took off. I was wiped out so we went out for dinner, but I wanted a beer and ended up with two. We had a very nice dinner at La Bamba, a Mexican restaurant near our house. We have been going there since before the girls were born!



I liked this photo because Joel and Rachel were deep into a conversation and weren't even paying attention to my camera for a change! Adina was too tired still from her Washington, DC trip to go out so she just got into PJs and watched TV.

Project 365 - Photo of the Day - April 17, 2008

Adina came home today. It was a very, very happy moment. My baby was home safe and sound in my arms. She was so terribly exhausted, but I was so happy to see her and surprisingly, so was Rachel. She couldn't wait to start arguing with Adina! But that is how they show their love for each other.




























After we picked up Adina at the airport, we headed over to Jaxon's Ice Cream for a special coming home treat. Jaxon's has been here since the 1970s and it is so much fun to go there to have way too much home made ice cream and then browse their old fashioned candy, the stuff I remember from when I was a kid and could buy a sackful for a nickel! This photo was fun because Joel was leaning on the kiddie ride and he looked so playful to me.







I liked the furnishings on the walls and the warm glow from the sconce onto the wooden walls.




This guy was sitting at the next table, a huge family gathering and they ordered the "Kitchen Sink," which is literally served in a sink! I took a photo of him having his photo taken. He had no clue that I took this!