Sleepless nights . . . .

I have been on vacation from work since Sunday morning. I came home, got 3 hours of sleep and went to a Design Studio class at the LSS. I actually didn't feel too bad but my allergies were driving me crazy that day. That night I took some Benadryl. I ended up sleeping for 12 hours! I woke up on Monday around 11am. I wasn't able to get to bed early Monday night and ended up falling asleep about 5am.

Tuesday I was so tired from not having that much sleep that I ended up falling asleep during the day. I was falling asleep waiting for my comforter to be done in the laundry and decided to find another cover for my bed. I went to bed about 3am and have been laying in bed! I can't seem to get a good nights rest. GRRR!!!! It is currently 0540 and I decided to just get up for a while. Maybe I need more strawberry milk but I don't want to wake the puppy up!!!



Tuesday was a productive day even though I did sleep some of it. I have been having problems with my garage door opener which I thought it was the remote. After taking my remote to the company it came from, I found out it was working okay and giving off a signal. They did adjust the signal and thought that might help. It didn't so I needed to get either a new motor unit that is more up-to-date or get a wireless transmitter. I decided to get the wireless transmitter since it was the cheaper route. He programed it for me and then I just had to install it. He made it sound easy and it actually was! It didn't take me long and everything is working again! I am so glad to have a working garage door remote/opener! I just hope it last!

I decided to take on the Geek Squad today and try to get my money back. I went in with my receipt and explained to them that the laptop is already repaired and they didn't repair it and I would like a refund. He said just a minute and walked away for a few minutes. When he came back he had all these numbers and was typing me in a refund!!!! I was so happy that I didn't have to fight about it! I was ready . . . they should have caught this the first time around anyway.

I have fallen in love with a Mac! I really hope to be able to get a Mac laptop later this year. I need to recooperate from all the home/laptop repairs I have had to do! I am glad that a new iphone is coming out and that I will be able to get one! I was originally supposed to upgrade May 18 but I had cancelled my internet in February after Phoebe chewed up my phone. That moved my upgrade date to August which now is a good thing since I will be able to get the newest model! :-)

I really hope that I can get some sleep. I don't have too much planned for today, just hanging out at the coffee shop and preparing for an all day crop this weekend!

Hopefully, I will catch some Zzzzzzzz's soon.

The rest of the computer story

I am not happy how this story has ended and the money I have spent. I could have put a good down payment on a new computer. GGRRRR!!!!! I am seriously thinking about switching to a mac laptop. I already talked to someone about this and how I can get my windows version of Photoshop CS3 to work!

I love the PC vs. Mac commercials! I can so relate to them having a PC. I think this picture of the PC guy is the shape my laptop is in. I have only heard good things from people that use a Mac!

I dropped my laptop back off to the Computer Hospital the next day of picking it up. It was freezing up still and not letting me do anything. On Tuesday, I got a phone call that they thought that my anti-virus and spy sweeper was using a lot of CPU's to run. They wanted to remove them to see if that helps my situation so I told them to go ahead. I had the programs at home to be able to reload. Then I didn't hear anything.

I was getting concerned and called on Saturday. He was getting ready to call me to tell me I had a bad hard drive. I wasn't happy that Geek Squad didn't catch this as my service plan would have paid for this!!!! I was uncertain what to do but they had already did a ghost image of my old hard drive to a new one. I really thought they would call me first before doing anything like that. I said I wanted to call Best Buy since they should have caught this.

I call The Geek Squad and they told me they would have to run diagnostics to my laptop again. I told them I know what is wrong and they missed it the first time. They still had to run diagnostics. They couldn't guarantee me that they would replace the hard drive if the diagnostics came up negative again. I have been so upset in regards to my service plan this time. I will never buy one again from Best Buy!!!! I was getting the run around.

I decided to wait and call the Computer Hospital back the next day to give all this some thought. I had asked other people about this and what they would do and they weren't sure either. On Sunday, I had decided to let the Computer Hospital to go ahead and install the new hard drive and to forget the Geek Squad since they were giving me the run around. I now have my laptop back with all my old stuff on a new hard drive. It isn't freezing up!!! So nice! I am done with the Geek Squad!!

Since I paid for Geek Squad to repair my laptop and they never did, I feel like I deserve my money back. I have already asked them for my money back the day I picked up my laptop. The guy told me to figure out another way to back up my computer and I could bring it back on the 30 day guarantee for a restore. I didn't push the issue anymore. I am ready to push the issue since all this should have been covered under my service plan. I was too busy today and didn't get to pursue this. If I have to, I will file a complaint with the BBB for the service I received.

A computer story

Long time no blog! I have kept myself a little busy with scrapbooking, photography and work! I have been without my laptop for about 3 weeks. I just got it back and as I typed the first couple of sentences, IE stopped responding. I logged back in using FireFox instead.



On May 10, I had woke up early that morning and was using facebook. I was in one of the apps when I saw how my friends had played this game and to try to beat their scores. Well, it was a trick. I clicked on it and started downloading this game. My antivirus program came up saying it was unsafe so I stopped the download. I had downloaded a virus to my computer!!!!! Trend Micro quarantined it, and then I deleted it. Ever since my computer had been running slow and would just freeze up on me. I was going out of town the next weekend and wanted my laptop. I would get it to work but then it would eventually freeze up.

I took it to Eureka Springs with me and I did get it to work on Saturday but it was the last time. It wouldn't let me back up files are anything. I took it to the Geek Squad on Monday. I have a service plan with them and wanted my DVD drive looked at also as it wants to work all the time!!! Plus I had the new problem with my system freezing up. I was very unhappy with them as they told me that it was going to be $130 just for them to figure out what was wrong with it. I wasn't happy with the new policies they had but if the DVD drive was something my service plan would cover, I went ahead and had them service it.

I waited, waited and waited some more for a phone call. I had stopped in the store a few days after dropping my laptop off and wanted them to also remove some programs I don't use anymore. I found out that my laptop was in the middle of the diagnosis program and that I should be getting a phone call in a day or two. After about 3 days and no phone call, I decided to call. I got told that they were running virus/spyware programs and they would call me in a day to let me know what the outcome was. After 9 days of being told a couple of days each time I was getting frustrated!! I called last Friday and they said my computer was actually ready the day before BUT they couldn't get anything done with it as it kept freezing up on them. I wanted to tell them THAT IS WHY I BROUGHT MY COMPUTER TO YOU FOR!!! The Geek Squad has my laptop for about 2 weeks and I was getting it back in the same state it was in when I dropped it off. So frustrating!!!!!!

The next day I called the Computer Hospital actually to price a backup. Geek Squad wanted $160 for anything over 9GB. My pictures alone are 12GB and I refused to pay that much money for a backup. A couple years before that it was $99 for a backup and I had my whole computer backed up! The other place I called said a back up would be $25 for the first DVD and $5 for each additional DVD. Much better pricing!!

I took it to the Computer Hospital and they were asking me about what my problems were. I ended up letting the repair it. I dropped it off on Saturday and on Sunday got a phone call of the repairs it needed and what it would cost. Very nice people and it only took them 2 hours!! They had found some various virus and spyware that my programs for some reason didn't pick up. They removed them and my laptop wasn't freezing up for them. Awesome!!!!

I actually started this blog post on Sunday and finishing it up on Monday night. My laptop did good for a while but started freezing up again. It was doing much better than before. I attempted to copy files to my desktop but my picture file is so big it eventually would freeze up. I finally gave up and called the Computer Hospital back and they told me to bring it in and it wouldn't cost me anything else since it was repaired just recently. He said that they stand behind there work and want to get it right. I am hoping to get a phone call with some good news Tuesday! I was planning to get a backup of the files I wanted and restore it. If it doesn't work this time, that is what I will do.

I have had a rough last 3 weeks with my laptop! This computer story is still in progress and hope the ending is good!

Vacation week . . . .

Is about over!! I haven't kept up with my blog as I had hoped. I haven't been able to stay awake at night getting up early with the puppy. Then I don't want to be on the computer to long as to waste the day away! Here I am at the end of the week and didn't keep up with my blog as I had hoped.

It has been a good week and a nice break. I actually go back to work for 2 days and then off again for almost a week. I could get used to this!!! My Intermediate Photography class ends this Tuesday which makes me sad. Then I start up with my last photography class on Thursday which is about lighting. I finally have a flash for my camera but haven't really learned how to use it yet. I think this class is going to talk about lighting that I don't have but I am sure it will be useful for me if I do end up getting lights in the future.



I started my vacation out with scrapbooking which is always fun!! I finally got my Project 365 kit from Creating Keepsakes and was getting it caught up. I still need to print some pics and also resize some pics. I might have to get this caught up more at CKC-St. Louis next week. I have quite a few LO's I have done that need pictures. I also have some that I need to ad journaling too. I was hoping to get this done but just haven't. I need to get in a better habit of sending my pics to be printed more often. I find it difficult to go through tons of pictures! I have finally learned how to tag photos in Photoshop so that will help me some. I still have a ton of photos not tagged!



The other highlight of the week was playing with my fisheye lens and doing some photography. I have rented a fisheye lens and it has been soo fun!! It has made me really want one! They are kinda expensive. The one I have rented is cheaper but you have to manual focus the lens. I have some fun pics I took with my nieces!





I have known about a camera club here for a while but earlier in the week decided to search for the web page. I saw that they were having a meeting this week and guest were welcome to join in the meeting. It was great! I was impressed on how many people are involved and the different activities that they have. I am planning to join and hopefully be able to attend some meetings. They also talked about a photography symposium in May and it is my weekend off!!! I am going to go! I am glad to be able to get involved with this club and continue learning from other photographers.



I am going to finish editing some photos and will post them here when I get done!

*I have had this post saved since the end of March to add fisheye photos to and finally sat down and got it done today! I was renting this lens and it was a sad day when I had to return it. I really liked it! It was just fun to play around with!

Busy, Busy!!

I have been a little busy lately working on my photography class and working. It has been crazy at work but I am glad to say I am on vacation at the present time! Phew! I needed a break from work for a while and hopefully I can come back feeling a little more refreshed.

I will hopefully keep things caught up here better while on vacation!

Camera Critters

"What the Pug"



I was having fun today taking pictures of Phoebe and her new t-shirt! I was surprised I got her to pose like this!

Scrapbooking fun!!

I had a great time at the scrapbooking meetup last night! I enjoyed being able to scrapbook and meeting new friends!

I ended up going without any pictures. I was attempted to print some photos before leaving and for some reason it was taking about 10 minutes a photo! My printer has never taken that long before. It makes me wonder if I had a different setting selected that made it so slow. I need to start printing my pictures about once a month so this isn't an issue anymore. I need to go through and find pics for the LO's I did do. I was able to get 3 page kits done that I had brought. One was a Scrapjammies kit and the other two was from Scrapbook Generation. When I got home I added photos to the SJ kit I did but still haven't done the journaling.

This is the Exuberant kit from SJ and I thought it needed pics from Paris! These are all from the Eiffel Tower. I do miss the Eiffel Tower!



This is frustrating!! I cropped this image in photobucket but it keeps showing the original. If I go to photobucket, I can see the cropped image. It is what it is! :-)

I am having a hard time typing as I have a puppy that wants my attention! She keeps digging on my legs wanting me to pick her up. Then she cuddles in my arms and lays her head down. It is a little hard to type like that! I hope the weather will hold up today for a bit so I can take Phoebe out for a walk around the neighborhood.

I am off to get ready for my day!!

Spring . . .

I went outside this morning about 8am to put the trash by the street. The wind was blowing and it felt good. It wasn't to warm but wasn't too cool. It was refreshing!!! After getting the trash out, I was going inside to have some breakfast, check the MB, enjoy a Frappucino that I had in the freezer and then go back outside!! By the time I did all that, the wind had turned cooler and wasn't as refreshing as it was earlier. Clouds had moved in and I realized that it was going to rain as predicted by the weather man. Rats!! I was hoping that it was going to be nice like it was at 8am.



While I was outside, I noticed that with this warmer weather we have been having, my flowers are starting to come up. I know that it is going to get colder and they won't make it. That makes me sad. This happens every year. I made that my POTD! At least some of the flowers wait till it is really warm out and do survive! My fave is my iris. I planted a whole row and only one came up.

A nice surprise when I checked google reader this morning was that Phoebe had a blog post just about her!! I had her pictures done last month at UTurn Studios for pet modeling as she posted some of the pics on her blog. You can check them out here!

Now it is about 4pm and the rain has stopped and the outdoors has a nice welcoming feeling again. I don't have time to enjoy it as I am getting ready to head off to meet some new scrapbooking buddies through meetup.com and do a little scrapbooking. I am really enjoying going to crops and meeting new people! School was sucking the life out of me and I am enjoying doing what I want to do! :-)

Wild chewing puppy!

Yesterday, Phoebe was a wild and crazy puppy! She was in trouble every time I turned around!! The biggest trouble she got in was chewing on my Blackberry Pearl! I had taken my phone with me to my bedroom and had it on my headboard. I had forgotten about it when I got up. When I went into my bedroom later, I found my phone on my bed and when I picked it up it was all chewed up and missing the back cover!! I found the back cover and was able to get it to fit again. Then the phone wouldn't unlock! I kept pushing the keys to unlock it over and over and finally it unlocked!! It appeared to be working. Phew!!

I made this my POTD for February 7.



I made a phone call on it and everything seemed to be working. I went to AT&T to find out what my options were just in case it stopped working. I am unable to change the volume on my phone. It seems to be at a good volume. If the volume gets turned down, then I would be unable to turn it up! In the store, I had opened the back of the phone to show the damage on the inside of the phone and he pointed out to me that it has had water damage. More like slobber damage!! The white sticker was now red. I have no insurance on the phone as they wouldn't let me get insurance on it. I find out yesterday that they allow insurance on my phone now but it is too late for me!! I could have upgraded but only get half the discount or I can wait till mid-May and get my full discount. Since I did get my phone to working again, I decided to wait. If for some reason the phone does quite working, I will have to go back to my old phone.

She was in a chewing mood yesterday. She got ahold of my wireless mouse and chewed on it. Now the scroll wheel seems to get stuck on something but will still turn. She loves her blue nyla bone but I couldn't find it yesterday. I finally found it late last night stuck inbetween my waterbed mattress and frame. She has been happier today with it!

It seems as today she has been making up for yesterday trying to be all cute! She does this funny thing with my covers and gets underneath them. Then she will poke her head through and lay all covered up on my bed! I was able to get a picture of it today!

I made this the POTD for February 8.



She wasn't listening to well to me today when we went to our pet training class though! I also had her nails done after class and she had a fit!!! I took her in December to have them done and she did good. This time she had a fit and they weren't going to do it. It took two of them but they did get it done. I really would like for her to let me use the pedi paws on her to save money. I have slowly been introducing her to tool but haven't worked up to actually using it on her.

I am at the Mudhouse and my allergies have decided to act up. I need to get home, relax and take some allergy medicine! :-)

Lion Kitty!!

Three years ago I took Chloe to get groomed and she had some tangles in her hair. They warned me that day that they may have to shave my cat. I didn't want them to but they said it might be the only way to take care of her tangles. They said that they would try to get the tangles out but they may shave her. They called me before picking her up that they did have to shave her and that I had a lion kitty. I vowed that I was never going to have her shaved again! That was tramatic for me and her!

Well, in December she was ill and I didn't realize it. She had a UTI and eleveated liver enzymes. I had to give her medicines for a month. The antibiotic three times a day for a couple of weeks. She wasn't a very happy kitty but it was to help her. I had taken the time to get her hair all combed out about the time this all happened. In a months time, she had gotten tangled on her belly. When I took Chloe to get her check up to see if the medicine was going to work, I was told that she may have to be shaved. I was determined to get these tangles out!! I realized her tangles were a little too much and decided it was best to get her shaved again. I couldn't believe that in a month's time her hair had gotten that bad of shape. She was mad at me for giving her medicine and she didn't want to be near me. I wasn't able to keep on top of her hair and keep it tangle free.



I took her in to get her shaved - a lion kitty cut! The last time they left her tail all fluffy and forget to tell them to leave it fluffy again this time. I went to pick up my kitty and she was so tiny without all that fur!! She was pretty mad! I didn't notice her tail right away but they shaved her tail all but the very end! It is cut like a lion! I just love petting her as it feels like velvet now!



After I picked her up at the vets, I took her to Petland to get her a sweater. They were still on sale and she was going to need one with the cold weather still upon us! I had Chloe on a leash and I took my lion kitty to Petland! The girl in the boutique loved Chloe and her lion kitty cut! She seemed to be more calm and I even had a cute sweater on her.



She wiggled out of her sweater later and it has warmed up some so I haven't put the sweater back on her. She has been sleeping real close to me some nights. I feel asleep last night and woke up with Chloe on my neck! It was funny and she was just happy! I am going to do my best for this not to happen again as I like my kitty best with all her fur! The groomer did tell me that they could shave her belly as that was were she was tangled the worst and she will stillhave most of her hair. I might consider it when her hair grows back.

Pet Hotel

I never made it back to talk about the Pet Hotel at Petsmart. It was interesting and I enjoying being able to tour it. I got a free overnight stay for touring it. I am going to have to try it out!



I brought Phoebe with me thinking she would get to go through the hotel but they had a room with people watching our dogs while we went through the hotel.

The cats have a room with kennels and a TV. It is a small room and I wasn't able to get a picture of it. I really like a sign they had that said "Cat Diva's". The group was moving to fast! Then we went into another room that the dogs get to stay in. Some are bigger kennels and other are smaller. I am sure Phoebe would get a smaller kennel if she stayed. I thought it was cute the telephone they have inside! They call it the Bone Booth! The picture I have isn't good but it is the best I could get!



They have play areas for them which is the doggie day care. You have to pay for them to have extra playtime. They have some play areas in the front so the people in the store can watch the dogs play. You can also purchase your dog to have a special treat. I couldn't believe the size of these treats! My pup would be in doggie heaven! She would end up being a pudgy pug if she had those treats all the time!



It was a great time touring the hotel. The prices are a little high compared to my vets. If I was to go out of town, I would use my vet. I might have Phoebe involved in doggie day care to some so she can play with other dogs.

What happened?

I have been in a blogging hiatus! I didn't mean to be but it happened. I am also way behind on answering emails. I don't know why these things get behind anymore but they do.

Since the beginning of the year I have taken on the quest of taking a picture everyday (POTD). This has all come from Becky Higgins kit Project 365. I am still waiting on my kit but I am ready!! I have been able to keep up so far but need the kit to be able to scrap them. I had a hard time coming up with a picture yesterday and finally just took a picture of Chloe and had some fun in Photoshop with her pic. Here is the result:



I used Courtney's actions that I got off flickr and they are nostalgia and pink nostalgia. I would like to learn the different steps on how to do this myself. I have a few books on Photoshop and really would like to work through them to see what I can learn. You can also google some things and find online tutorials.

I am taking my pup Phoebe to the grand opening of the Pet Hotel at Petsmart. I am curious what it is going to be like! Phoebe has attended pet training in the new area already. I really like it. I can let Phoebe run around in the area as we are doing the training class. I plan to bring my camera to make this my POTD! I hopefully will have pics later.

I am going to get busy with my day!

A nice, relaxing warm day

Today has been an awesome day! I haven't had a good day like this in a long time. I am so glad that today worked out like it did.

I was woke up early by my darling pup. I really wanted to sleep longer but I took care of the furbabies. I stayed up and was catching up on my fave MB's. I took the time to read two others that I haven't visited in a couple of weeks. It was nice reconnecting with others on those MB's today. Then while I was enjoying my chatty time on the MB's, Phoebe was downstairs destroying another box of tissues. Silly pup!



This box of tissues wasn't shredded as much as what she did a couple of weeks ago! I can't take my eyes off her for to long or she is in some kind of trouble!

I got in the shower earlier than I normally do and was ready to leave the house by 1130. Very unusual for me! I called the LSS to take a class this afternoon and made 3, 2 page LO's. They are so adorable and they always have such create ideas! I can't wait to add photos to them. I had lunch at my favorite resaurant before going scrapping also.

Then after having a relaxing time at the LSS, I went home to get Phoebe and take her to the dog park. I figured there would be someone at the dog park and there were actually lots of little dogs today! Phoebe had a blast! We even saw 3 other pugs! I believe 2 of them Phoebe has meet before. We stayed there for about an hour and went back home.

I am now enjoying frozen coffee at my fave coffee shop while cruising the internet. I am starting to feel a little tired and thinking about doing my grocery shopping and heading home for the evening.

Work has been nuts lately. Last week the census was low because of the holiday but this week we are back to normal. I ended up with a suicide/detox pt that wasn't being very nice and was difficult to deal with. I had about had it with everything! When I went back to work a day later, I had a family member be a little difficult. I have got to have a better night at work!! I really hope that the next time I work, it will be better. I am looking forward to my 4 day weekend that is in a couple of weeks! I really need it!

No sleep . . . . .

Family can be so inconsiderate at times. I have always had them not call me when something is going on as they are afraid to wake me. Today, they weren't afraid to wake me!!! I lost it when they came over to my house and started tapping on my window!!!!

On Christmas Eve, we always have gotten together at my Grandma's. I seem to have to work which I do again this year. I really wanted Dec. 23 off but didn't get it so I could at least spend the afternoon at my Grandma's and then go to work. It wasn't going to happen that way this year as my family was getting together at noon. We had drew names this year and I had my cousin's name. I wasn't able to deliver the gift but just thought I would mail it. No big deal to me but my family thought they needed it . . . . . . so here are the events leading up to no sleep!

I worked all night last night and got off about 0715. I came home and let the pup play and got ready for bed. I also needed to give Chloe her meds but she was hiding. In the meantime, I finally got lights on my tree. Then she finally resurfaced and I could give her antibiotics and head to bed. By this time it was 1030. Way past my bedtime for having to return to work that night!!

Then around noon I was sleeping and the phone rang. I hadn't been alseep that long and didn't realize it was the phone, just an annoying ring!! It stopped. I got up and put my phone upstairs so I couldn't hear it anymore. I had a message but went back to bed not listening to it. About an hour later, I had barely fallen asleep and my doorbell is ringing. I wasn't going to answer it since I was trying to sleep. Then there was tapping on my window!!! I lost it . . . . I opened the door and it was my sister and just went off on how I have to work again that night and that I didn't appreciate being woke up like this. She was coming over to pick up the gift for the person's name I had. I hadn't wrapped it yet since I wasn't going to be able to make it to the gathering. It really made me mad that no one could have talked to me about picking up the gift before hand. I had talked to my Mom a few times the night before and no mention of trying to pick up the gift. They wait till I am asleep and decide to call and then stop by my house.

In the process of all this, the puppy was awake and wanted out of her crate.

I have had 1 1/2 hours of sleep and have to get up in one hour and 10 minutes to get ready for work. This is going to be a long 12 hour shift tonight!

It isn't nice to steal things that aren't yours!!

I have a rude awaking today. It is Sunday and my bank is calling me to verify a charge on my debit card. It was for a large amount through a paypal account. Someone was using my debit card number in a paypal account to make purchases. I was lucky that my bank caught all this before it went through. Everything has been cancelled now. I just wish people wouldn't be mean and do things like this. This had happened to my sister a while back with her credit card. She was lucky also as her bank caught it before they went through. I hope they are able to trace who did this and get them.

Anyways, I am at the Mudhouse and a back door is open when we are having negative wind chills which is making it FREEZING in here!!! They are closing early today so they can have there annual Christmas party. I wish we could close the hospital to have a Christmas party with everyone! That will never happen! :-)

I took my furbabies to see santa at Petsmart this afternoon. It isn't easy to get 3 cats and 1 puppy loaded up and into the pet store! I did it! I got two pictures done this year. One with the cats and one with my pup. I would love to have them all together but didn't think that would work out very well. I saved santa from getting smacked by a cat!



Phoebe enjoyed santa! She instantly gave santa lots of puppy kisses! It took her a while to get calmed down to finally get the pic we got. Then she was finally sitting on santa's lap when they were printing the picture I choose!

After her picture, I took her to the grooming department and had her nails trimmed. I really didn't think she would let them but was going to try. The last time she had her nails trimmed, she acted up quite badly! I was surprised that when I got back to the grooming department after paying for the nail trim, she was done! Her nails are so much better! I need to get me the pedipaw system to learn to do this myself to help save money.




The cats weren't to thrilled about this experience. Chloe is on santa's lap and was just being calm. Pandora (the blonde kitty) was doing pretty good but could tell she wasn't to sure about this. Felix is always the one to act up which he did good but was making these low meow's to let us know he wasn't happy! He kept slipping out of santa's arm and I would have to reposition him. We finally got a pic with all of them looking! That was a task!

I am in love with the art of photography!

I have really been enjoying my photography classes that I have taken so far. I am sad that next week is my last portrait photography class. I have learned so much and looking forward to taking intermediate photography and then the lighting class to learn even more!

I have also started reading Popular Photography & Shutterbug to pick up on other tips. I picked up a Digital PhotoPro magazine today as it was the masters special of great photographers. I have also been saving lots of photographers blogs to watch and learn what they are doing in poses and composition. I got some fun ideas today in class watching a video of a photographer doing a senior portrait session. I wrote down some ideas and want to take my nieces on a photo shoot now! I just wish the weather was warmer. I can't wait for Spring!

After tonights class, I came home and started to google ways to make your own lights. I ended finding not only that but how to make a ghetto photography studio from things you would find at the hardware store. I even added some of this to my Christmas list and looking forward to making my own affordable photography studio. I even have a perfect spot in my living room to set this up. WOOHOO!!!

I learned recently about bokeh. I have the perfect lens to make bokeh and learned something tonight on how be more creative with this. I have a great idea on the use of Bokeh and my puppy! I need to get all my Christmas stuff out and I can give this a try.



Today before class, I finally took time to merge three photos I took of the Diana Memorial Fountain in London, England. It turned out pretty good. I thought one part was to dark but my instructor told me that it actually matched the trees and didn't notice it till I pointed it out. Yeah!! I am glad that I thought about doing this while I was there!! I had found panorama photo paper for $3 at an office supply store just recently! I hope to print out some of my Eiffel Tower photos as panorama's! If you click on the photo, it will take you to my flickr photostream and you can see this pic in panorama. I made the photo fit my post and it is squished now!

I am going to finish watching Grey's Anatomy and then head to bed.

Tagged . . . . .

I have been tagged by a couple of people for the same thing. I am going to be a rebel and just link to something a did a couple of years ago! Instead of 6 interesting facts about me you will get 100!!!!

100 things about me

Friday Fill-in

1. My stomach __aches___.

2. _Stuffing__ is what I ate the most of on Thursday.

3. The yard __is full of leaves___.

4. __The beach____ is where I'd rather be at any given time.

5. The smell of __MK new perfume warm ambers____ reminds me of __sugar cookies_.

6. __To be able to keep fluids down___ is what I need right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _Nothing, working__, tomorrow my plans include _sleeping but woke up and couldn't stop vomiting__ and Sunday, I want to _feel better_!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. The last band I saw live was __a random band on Halloween____.

2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is __taking pictures__. (if you don't celebrate thanksgiving, insert your favorite holiday)

3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is __non-existent____.

4. Thoughts of __student loans___ fill my head.

5. I wish I could wear __Sandals (I miss warm weather!)_.

6. Bagpipes __at the bridge near the London Eye/Big Ben in London__.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _nothing, I am working____, tomorrow my plans include _going to the grand opening celebration of the dog park with my pup Phoebe___ and Sunday, I want to _not go to work___!

Sneaky Mohela

A few months ago I got a letter from Mohela stating what my payments would be with different plans they offer for student loan repayment. The 10 year plan showed that my payment would be about $122. I thought not bad and decided to leave it alone and not do the other plans. I found out last week that my student loan payment is actually going to be almost $400 a month on the 10 year plan. They want the first payment in December. I am not happy with this payment that they want!! I am having to make cuts in things to be able to afford this. I only got a 50 cent raise when I graduated - not enough to compensate for a $400 student loan payment!!!

I am actually still paying for RN school. I am closer to paying that one off but I still have a payment with them. I am hoping to all Mohela tomorrow to see what is up with this and what can be done. I must have misunderstood something in that later I got a few months ago. I still have a copy of it.

I did google loan repayment for RN's and found something that should become available again at the beginning of the year. I could get 60% of my loan paid for if I agree to work where I am for 3 years. I am really considering it! I am going to see what other options are out there to see what I can do. It is time to redo the budget and cut some things that I can do without.

I was going to work on my budget while at the Mudhouse today but can't find my Quicken 2007 disk. I have it on my desktop so I will have to work on that later tonight. Instead I have been working on my photography homework. I got my wireless remote out and did some pics outside this evening. Here is my fav of me:



I was having a hard time figuring out where to stand! There were times that I was out of focus but the background was in focus. Kinda cool but not what I was going for!

Phoebe was having a blast running outside! I was running and playing with her which got her even more wild! I think she loved playing in the leaves on the ground!



Today she was going to be graduating from intermediate class. I had miss one class because of Phoebe's hip surgery and another couple have missed some too. We all decided to work on what is going to be on the test and graduate next week. I need to work with Phoebe on heeling. She does pretty good but yet she likes to take off sometimes! We have homework to do this week!

Next Saturday the dog park opens here!! I plan to go to the grand opening celebration with Phoebe. I am looking forward to see what the dog park will be like!

I am off to go home and work on my budget and things I need to get done.