What The Duck

This comic strip is HILARIOUS! It's a pretty accurate portrayal of what it's like to be a "real" photographer. I found these on Sweet Jelly's blog. It is drawn by Aaron Johnson, a very talented animator/graphic designer (who is also the bass player in the band Sweet Jelly).

Employee Golf

Today I played employee golf with Stacey & Kelsey.
We played a Modified Pink Lady format. Here are the rules:
1. Each team is provided a pink ball.
2. That ball rotates among players. For example, Player A uses it on the first hole, B on the second, C on the third, D on the fourth, then back to A on the fifth and so on.
3. On each hole, the player who has the pink ball, must use their drive. Therefore, the pink ball is always chosen as the drive ball
4. The player playing the pink ball has to use that ball for their shot in the scramble (in other words, just because you have the pink ball doesn't mean you can skip hitting the ball).
5. Just like in a regular scramble, the team chooses the best shot from all four players and proceeds to finish the hole the same way.
6. The lowest scores will be taken from only those teams returning a completed score card AND their original pink ball.

Mike explains the rules & hands out the pink balls.

Here's our pink ball (photographed somewhere on the course during our first 8 holes).

We played the front nine of the Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass starting on the 7th tee. The battery in one of our golf carts died going up a hill on the way to eight. I was gonna call AAA for a tow, but luckily the drink cart girl noticed we were stranded & radioed to get us a new cart. I'm not sure what's going on in this photo, since Stacey is smiling & waving at the camera. She is normally very camera shy!

Kelsey celebrates a great putt.

Sometimes she gets a little carried away!

Everything was great until the last hole. I didn't realize that it was my turn to hit the pink ball. I hit a white ball that landed right in the middle of the fairway. Then I found out I had to hit the pink ball. I lost it in the woods on the right side of six. We were disqualified. Besides that we did pretty good, considering it was our first time playing nine holes alone. We shot par on the (par 3) fifth hole & 50 in the round. I can't believe I lost the pink ball on the last hole!!!

Beautiful Cupcakes!

Mike brought some homemade cupcakes to our weekly production meeting. Our office was the envy of the other departments in Sawgrass Village. Apparently we're the only ones who have "snack time" at our meetings.

Thursday night golf

After work I went down to the Slammer & Squire to play a few holes with Stacey, Kelsey, & Neil.
Neil gives Kelsey some pointers.

Kelsey lines up her putt "a la Villegas."

self portrait

A day at the beach

Molly & Ashley were blowing up balloons at Catalina. I taught Molly how to make them squeak. She liked that.

They were dancing on the deck of our cabana to the live music on the deck below.

Helaine & Andrea helped them make beaded "Camp Catalina" t-shirts.

Ashley & Molly model their "new" shirts ...

... then go for a swim with Grandpa Larry.

It was a beautiful windy day.

Visiting Adam

Today my mom & I drove to PA to visit Adam. We went out to lunch, did a lot of shopping, then went out to dinner. We had a nice time.

I spotted a rare, endangered "twig deer" in his front yard.

Molly & Ashley

I flew to NY for some meetings and a short visit. Wendy, Andy & 2 of their girls had a weekend sleepover at my mom's house.

Wendy did laundry & there were little bathing suits hanging on the oven & every door knob in the kitchen. It was pretty funny.

Molly takes my picture with Wendy's cell phone.

A calm 4th of July

None of the neighborhood kids were lighting fireworks all day, so Tally was pretty calm. There were a few fireworks at night but it wasn't so bad. I did laundry, ran the dishwasher, turned on all of the bathrooms exhaust fans, and blasted the TV. Tally didn't even notice the fireworks. I got a headache from the TV. It was Tally's BEST 4th of July EVER!

Yikes!!!

Tonight I was sitting in my living room watching tv. All of a sudden I felt like I was watching a 3D Pixar movie. Something swooped down & flew at my head. It seemed to be the size of a 747 (or at least as big as a sparrow)! I jumped out of my chair & tried to see what it was. I couldn't find anything. How could something so big, just disappear?!? I went to get a flyswatter in case it decided to fly again. About 90 minutes later, I spotted it crawling up on the wall. It's a good thing I happened to be testing my heartrate monitor. My rate just rose from 82 to 141 after my epic battle with what turned out to be a GIGANTIC palmetto bug. It was massive & didn't think I could harm it with a mere fly swatter (size-wise, I equate it to smacking a Shaquille O'Neal size human with a number 2 pencil! I wacked it once, it fell then scampered under the chair & tv stand. I moved a tote bag & it came out & started charging aggressively towards my bare feet. I screamed twice (I hope no one called the police). I don't know what scared me more...it charging at me or the thought of it not being dead, but still being in the apt. I NEVER would have been able to sleep, knowing it was a palmetto. I later found out that the maintenance men were working on my patio & must have left my front door open to let it inside.


Odds are, if you live in Florida, you have encountered a Palmetto Bug or two. What are they? Essentially, a cockroach. Not your everyday, average size cockroach; no, we're talking two or three inches long. You may think cockroaches are gross, but the experience is much more vivid when all the gory details are magnified. They have a tough armored shell, so you can't even squish them. And they know it; palmetto bugs generally don't seem to give a damn if you step on them or not, they know it won't hurt them. Step on one and you're lucky if you get its attention. They also aren't afraid of the light like most normal cockroaches. Here's the worst part about palmetto bugs: they can fly. Yes, you heard me. Giant flying cockroaches that you can't easily crush. YIKES!!! (You must be wondering why I didn't take a picture for my blog. I'll take one after it comes back the taxidermist ... just kidding!).

Beach Wedding

Tonight I shot a wedding on the beach.

Airplane Graveyard

Today I went to a clinic at the PGA TOUR Academy that was part of the American Express Women's Golf Week. After the clinic, Stacey, Kelsey, & I went to Caddyshack for lunch, then on to TOUR STOP for a little shopping. After that I went to shoot this airplane graveyard that I had seen about 8 months ago. It was very cool!






After shooting the airplanes, I went to the Ecco store at the outlets in St Augustine to buy this funky pair of golf shoes I had seen a few weeks before. They were having a great sale. The funky ones (see below left) were marked down from $130 to $60. With every golf shoe purchase, you could buy another pair for 50% off. I figured this wouldn't be valid on sale shoes, but it was. I decided on a pair of Gore-Tex all black leather with a black crocodile accent (not pictured, but same style as below right) that were orignally $180 & on sale for $50. I got these for $25 (since they were half off the sale price)! CRAZY! Well the sales lady knew she had a live one...and proceeded to talk me into taking another pair (below right) at 50% off. She said, "you should get another pair, in case anything ever happens to those." After that I was doomed! She hit me in both of my weak spots...I always buy multiple when I like something, and I can't pass up a bargain! So I got $490 worth of Ecco golf shoes, two of which were Gore-Tex, for $110! REALLY CRAZY!!! I guess it's time to buy clubs!

45 foot putt!

Today was my last lesson in level 3 at the PGA TOUR Academy. We played 6 holes on the Slammer & Squire after work. The carts had GPS, so that was very cool. It was my first time hitting a golf ball on a course (instead of just on the range). I didn't drive as straight as I did on the range & my putts were not very good either ... until ... the final hole. We finished up on #9 & I sunk an uphill 45 foot putt! The crowd went wild (okay, that might be a slight embellishment)! It was amazing! Now that I've peaked, I think it's time to give up golf. ;o)

Johnny Mac & the funny interns

Tonight I helped Chris shoot the new interns. I did headshots & he shot the group & reception. At the end of the shoot Stacey, Mary Ann, & Kelsey had a good time imitating Abby. When I got home, while editing for the US Open (tennis) previews, I noticed that I had a shot of John McEnroe also imitating Abby. Too Funny!

Tally strikes a pose

When I saw Tally walk by this big Alphalam, I ran to get a camera. I asked her to pose next to it & even though she's camera shy, she obliged.

last day at the beach

Tally LOVES the beach!

We went frolicking in the surf.

Havin' fun!

Mary said she was NOT shooting a picture of Tally's butt...but I'm not so sure!

Pup reflection

A good time was had by all!

The long walk back.

weekend visitors

Mary & Tally came to PVB yesterday for the holiday weekend. Even though she doesn't have opposable thumbs, Tally seemed to be an expert at sand sculpting ;o)

This Jack Russell Terrier was stalking a fisherman at the beach. He didn't want to eat the fish...just play with it.

Akeelah & the Bee

Tonight I went to see the movie Akeelah & the Bee with Evanne, compliments of Starbucks. Since I had 4 tickets, we were originally gonna have the first annual "Girls Night Out," but Jana's in Europe & Deborah wasn't available. It was GREAT! I highly recommend seeing this first (of hopefully many) movie from Starbucks Entertainment.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are you not to be?

Jax Dinosaur

This dinosaur is all that's left of a miniature golf course on Beach Blvd. I sure hope they don't tear it down.

Jax Beach

May TOUR cake

This month's cake was a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. It looked delicious, but I didn't have any.

sleepyhead

Mary's early birthday gift

I was pretty happy when Mary said she'd open one of her birthday gifts tonight (2 days early). After all, she didn't know what it was, but heard cryptic horror stories from me as I spent weeks working on this project. It started as a simple idea & blossomed into my worst craft nightmare. In the end, it turned out pretty nice.