Wednesday, May 28, 2008

School is out for the summer

Joy. Today was the last day of school for the kiddo. Now I get to have her company all day, every day until school starts back up. I hope she doesn't drive me too crazy! And I hope we can manage to get out and do something, even if it's just to the park or outside in the yard. Not complaining about gas prices, complaining about getting our butts away from the computer and actually DOING something! Last summer it was too darn hot all summer. No excuses this year. Things to do, places to go, people to see. Well, ok, not too many people. I generally don't like people. Especially ones in crowds. Must. Stop. Playing. Warcraft. Ugh.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial Day weekend

Here is a run down on what we did on the 3 day weekend.
Saturday...was already explained, Radnor Lake

Sunday...we saw "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". My review? Well, I absolutely adore Harrison, he has been my favorite actor ever since Han Solo strode onto the screen in the first "Star Wars" when I was TEN years old!! That was a loooong time ago. Yes, he looks awesome. Yes, he appeared to do a LOT more of his own stunts that Shia did. The story, well a bit corny. Ok, I wrote out a line and realized I didn't want to give out any spoilers, so let's just leave it at corny! It wasn't as good as "Raiders" or "Last Crusade", but it was definitely better than "Temple"(which we watched when we got home!). IT WAS FUN, that was the best thing to say about it! I enjoyed it! I don't know much about Shia, but I have heard of him before. It was great seeing Ray Winstone again(still love him from "Robin of Sherwood"!). I didn't realize that the bad chick was Galadrial from LotR until I got home and did an IMDB search! So, all in all, I give it a 7 out of 10.

Monday...we cooked out. Wanted to head down to the cemetery but wasn't feeling good and then we got the food grilled just before the rains came, and came, and came. We watched "National Treasure 2" which we had bought the other day. After seeing "Indiana Jones", it felt like an "all archaeology weekend"! I really liked "NT2" also, the history things really get me! AND...this one is about the Lincoln "conspiracy", so they show this 'lost page' from Boothe's diary with names on it of the 'conspirators'. And the third name on the list is SPANGLER....he's a cousin of mine! My 2xgreat-grandma was Regina Spangler(m. Gideon P Wallace). She was the 3xgreat-granddaughter of Hans Rudolph Spangler, the father of several children who immigrated to America from Germany in the early 1700s. One son was Hans Kasper(my line), another was Johann Balthasar(Edman Spangler's line). Edman didn't really have much to do with the assassination of Lincoln, and spent only 6 years in jail and was pardoned by President Johnson. Still it was quite cool seeing that name on the big screen like that!

We've also played a LOT of World of Warcraft this weekend. If you ever wonder when I don't update this page-check the Warcraft blog of mine(link at right) and if that is updated, that is where I am!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Radnor Lake

This morning we woke up good and early and went down to Radnor Lake to go for a walk. Before we even got to the lake, we saw 3 deer. They were far enough off the road, and the woods were dark enough, that most of the photos were either too blurry(no flash) or mostly lit up eyeballs(with flash). Around the road trail along the lake we saw many turtles, but mostly just their heads peeping up. Saw a few more deer in the woods along there too. When we reached the visitor center/dam area we saw one Snapper, right beside the road-but he hid himself well enough in the brush that getting a photo was tough. Then we saw some Canadian Geese, and there were goslings! I took tons of photos of them, they were just so cute! They gathered the group up, Momma, Daddy, and 5 goslings, and headed to the lake. We walked over to the spillway for the small dam and photographed two other Canadian Geese and a Mallard Duck. One of the geese here kept calling, and the Daddy goose from before kept answering. Eventually the little family made it over to the dam and Daddy goose promptly shooed everyone else away so that the babies could breakfast on the moss growing all over the spillway. Again, tons more photos! We watched them for awhile and then headed down the Lake Trail that follows the backside of the lake. Saw three more deer, one large noisy woodpecker(that was tough to photograph), a Pill Millipede and a American Giant Millipede(took pictures of both but can't stand to look at them now!) and lots of noisy people. When we finally got back to the car, we were beat and hit the nearest Shoney's for breakfast buffet!

Unfortunately we did not see what I was hoping to, an American Bald Eagle. I had planned this trip a few weeks in advance, but found out in the past few days that a couple of Eagles had been spotted there. The news last night said they may be gone by now, and we did not see them, but we still had fun! A few photos have been posted on my Flickr page under "Nature"(link is over there on the right).

Also want to say that I have passed down my old digital camera to my nine year old. She took 88 photos at the lake today and I have to say, for her first attempts, some of them turned out pretty dern good! Hooray for her!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Another place to show my photos

Well, I've gone and done it. I started a Flickr account. I suppose it seems like the place *real* photographers show off their work. So I figured what the hey, I'll throw a few on there every now and then. They upload quickly and I don't have to worry about html and all that. The best will eventually go on my website, the way I want them. For now this will work for quantity to show my family recent things we've seen. Just have to decide what to add. I already put a few from the Renaissance Fest and a few random others. Will think more about it next week.

Complain, complain, complain

Dear God,
Grant me the courage to change those things I can
Grant me the patience to accept those things I can't change
Grant me the wisdom to know the difference between the two

I am so sick of people complaining about gas prices. Complaining isn't going to do anything. I wanted to write a much longer post about this, but really I don't feel like complaining about complainers matters much. We are nowhere near rich, but I guarantee you our wallets are not hurting at this time. It's called budgeting. Our food bills are not ANY higher than they were 6 months ago or a year ago. Life goes on, ADJUST.

Isn't there anyone else out there TRYING to have a positive attitude in spite of the situation in America? I LOVE AMERICA! I AM ALWAYS PROUD TO BE AMERICAN! I CAN DO IT(not I could do it, but I'd rather sit here and complain about it instead)! Is there a forum for people who like to have fun and not complain all the time? I wish I could find it, just to have someone to talk to about POSITIVE things.

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia

Just wanted to spotlight the awesome cemetery that is Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. Aside from the mass of bugs that I fought there one summer, it is probably my favorite that I've ever visited and I wish I had more time to visit it again. I've been three times so far, paying my respects to the General and trying to look at as many of the headstones as possible. The first time I was there I attempted to photograph as many of the Confederates as possible-they are marked with the crosses that make them easy to find. And there are hundreds there. I suppose so many wanted to be buried near Jackson. The last time I was there I spent time in the older section of the graveyard. Several Revolutionary War vets are buried here. The photo shows one of the more interesting older marker. Looks to be hieroglyphics near the bottom of the marker, though it probably has something to do with mortality or maybe even Mason symbols. I love the older markers. I love this cemetery.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Still working on the website


Ok, so I goofed off a bit yesterday. I did get the "Architecture" and "Bridges" sections added to the website. Today I will be working on "Statues". This statue is George Washington, it is near the Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia. I took it on the wonderful two-day trip my mom, kiddo and I took in March 2006. That was such a fun trip because basically we just took off for two days and said 'let's see how much of Virginia can we see in 2 days?'. We saw Richmond, Appomattox, Red Hill(Patrick Henry's home), Natural Bridge, Lexington, Guinea Station(where Stonewall Jackson died), Harpers Ferry, and Strasburg(where I have family buried). So much fun. I ache to do that again.

I just wanted to add a little something. I hate attention. It is not something I seek, in fact I almost fear the thought of being the center of attention. All eyes on me is something from my nightmares. That said, "being noticed" is something entirely different, and aside from my wonderful family, I don't think I am ever "noticed" for what I can do. And that hurts. I would love to hear someone tell me my photos are really, really good-but I cannot bring myself to place them somewhere where there are a million eyes yet no one looks. I want respect, not a pat on the head... "oh those are nice...keep trying, you'll get better ones someday" I've considered myself a photographer since the day I plopped down my hard earned cash back in 1983 for a Pentax K1000. I was sixteen years old. I took so many photos with that old Pentax, the shutter inside the long lens was broken and it still took awesome photos. I used it until my hubby bought me my Canon EOS Rebel in 1999. And THAT took awesome photos too! The boxes upon boxes full of 4x6 photos tell me I used these cameras for everything they were worth. Then the digital came, and it was a Fuji Finepix, just a little thing, in 2002. And that was there to save so much money on printing-it definitely paid for itself within a few months! And now I have been lucky enough to upgrade to a truly awesome digital camera. Sure, my subject matter so far isn't nightscapes or the ruins of Italy, but I think the photos are pretty good. I'm just not sure what to do with them aside from posting a few here and adding as many as I can to my website, but I guess that will have to do. I have to go now. I have to go use my camera to take photos of my kid getting an award at school for Academic Excellence.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Must...take...photos!


So I drove around yesterday looking for something to photograph. It isn't easy when you don't want to go to far from home(not for gas reasons, I just prefer to stay closer to home when my kid is in school, just in case). So I checked out each of the boat ramp areas close by on Percy Priest Lake. And at most of them I got weird stares from creepy old men fishing and had to just keep on going. But I did manage to see a few Blue Herons that I could attempt to take pictures of. And it's not easy from a car that is running to take long distance photos-the shaking makes most of the photos out of focus. This one turned out alright though and I wanted to post it here.

I worked quite a bit on the website yesterday, got the "Abandoned Places" done and uploaded. I am almost done with "Interesting Architecture" and then will probably start on "Bridges". For some reason, the pages look really good on my computer, but not quite as good when I check them out on hubby's computer. Could be his settings or something. I just hope they look 'decent' for anyone who might stumble upon the site and check it out. Not that I care, I'm pretty sure nobody ever looks at my website OR this blog. It's just for me anyway, and I think maybe sometimes my mom and sister check it out too. Sometimes. When I remind them. Heh.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Photo(s) of the day...


I really like this photo. It was taken on Saturday, May 17, 2008 at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival in Triune, Tennessee. I used my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi with a 75-300mm Ultrasonic Canon Zoom Lens. This horse was itching to get going! It was a shame that we missed most of the jousting for the day, but at least I did get a few shots in.


This is a shot of the Muse Cemetery here in Rutherford County. It was once hidden far back in the woods somewhere behind John Coleman School and the Square D factory. We attempted to follow the trail behind JCE several years ago, but the weeds and spider webs were far too thick. Then about a year ago, the town of Smyrna extended the Smyrna Greenway around behind the school and lo and behold it went right beside the long forgotten little graveyard. I was thrilled and shamefully it took me quite awhile to get out there to actually photograph it. I did just that this past weekend. The photos and names will be added to my website soon.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Weekend Summary

Saturday we went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. It was very fun, as usual! I think this makes our fourth year in a row to go. And we finally did what I had been wanting to do since I moved to Tennessee 12 years ago...get inside that awesome castle! The previous years we always seemed to forget about the free tour until it was too late. This year we hit it first thing. And it was so worth it! Seeing it up close and on the inside, well it was simply awesome. I can't think of much else to say about it. I will try to post a few photos later. We missed most of the jousting, which stank because I really wanted to give my new camera a good workout. Will have to come up with something else(like a trip to the Smokies in a few weeks?!). We bought a very cool Dragon incense burner, the smokes comes out the mouth-I love it!

We did head over to the Muse Cemetery, now located off the Smyrna Greenway near John Coleman school, to get a few photos. Need to get those fixed up and added to the website. I'm so behind on that. Grr.

Sunday night was the ACM Awards. Brad Paisley won Male Vocalist! Hooray! AND Best Video!! YEAH! (even though they didn't show the awarding of that award, which ticked me off!) He should have won Entertainer of the Year as well. Kenny Chesney won-but Kenny was right, the "fan voting" was a gimmick and it sucked. If all of the other votes were made my ACM members, why shouldn't this one still be? There are other "fan voted" award shows-leave that stuff to them. I'm not saying Kenny wouldn't have won otherwise, or if Brad(who deserved it) would have won, but PLEASE keep the gimmick crap off one of the only "industry" voted awards show. Gah.

Friday, May 16, 2008

And the bees...heh



Ok, I haven't gotten out much this week. Too much rain. Another thing I've been photographing is the flowers near our porch. These Daffodils are nice, and yesterday a bee was busy checking out the insides, then flying off to wherever and coming back. I caught a few shots of him before he finally had had enough and began buzzing around our heads! Figured I had gotten enough shots and went back inside!

Tomorrow is the Ren Fest. Will take LOADS of photos. Hope many of them turn out. I am really trying to learn how to use this camera, but I get so confused! So I just point and shoot, the same way I did with my Canon EOS Rebel 200 and my old Pentax K1000! And I get some not half bad shots, I guess. Just lucky maybe.

Monday, May 12, 2008

More birds...



Hopefully I will get more interesting things photographed in the future to add! I can't wait to get out. :)

Birds and the new camera

So I got a new camera for Mother's Day! Hooray! It is a Canon EOS Rebel XTi Digital. It is so schnazzy that I am almost scared to use it! And the good news is that my old 75-300mm lens off of my old Canon Rebel works with this one!

So since I've had it all of one day so far, the only thing I've really managed to photograph are birds in the front yard(through the window so as not to scare them away). Problem is, I really have no clue what kind of birds they are! I think some are Sparrows. Some perhaps Grackles? Well, ok I recognize Cardinals and Blue Jays and Doves. The rest, no clue and I can't find them after Googling for hours!

Oh well, I want to post a few here. Maybe someone, perhaps, will see this and now!



The two above are the ones I am really curious about. The ones below I am pretty sure are Swallows.


And perhaps I will add the others to a seperate post.