A Tale of 6 Cats. And a Dog.

[This one's for my mom, to see if she's reading :] Everyone posts pictures of their pets on their blogs. I don't have pets. Therefore, I went on a quest to capture all of my mom's pets with my phone camera. I think I was successful, although a couple of them look exactly the same to me.

Ozzy? Osbourne? All I know is that there are two cats named as such, and they look exactly alike, minus the fact that one is fat and one is not. This one is not fat. But I still don't know which is which. Here's the fat one:

Obviously he has earned the affectionate nickname "Fatty." I love calling him that. Can't get enough of it.

This one's my favorite: her name is Precious. But she acts like she doesn't give two craps about me. Maybe that's why I like her so much.

My second favorite: TomTom. He's more affectionate than ANY cat I've ever met. ANY. So affectionate that he gets upset if you're petting him and you make the motion to get up to leave. He shows his displeasure by grabbing you with his paws (claws included). So no quick motions!!

This is the best pictures I have of Bucky (the orange one in the back). That sucker was on a mission to NOT get his pictures taken.

This one's KitKat. Mmmmmm, my favorite candy bar... Alas she wants nothing to do with me either. But I'm OK with that.

And then there's the dog. Bridget. Such a cutie. She's a chatterbox. Talks more than all the people in my family put together. (OK, maybe minus Wayne.) Her voice is high and despite all attempts to understand her, I have no idea what she's talking about. But she still tries.

In full effect with a cat butt in the way. I never thought I would care enough about cats to even take pictures them. It's kind of like how I feel about children. I have a soft spot for them, but I am GRATEFUL that they aren't mine. :)

Will I ever!!!!

I give full credit to Jaime for snapping these tell-all photos of Chris asking for my hand in marriage.

Although at this point it happened 4 months, 2 weeks, 1 hour and 30 minutes ago... it feels like yesterday.

9.18.2010.

[Half] Cross-Country Trip

Lucky Liz moved to Los Angeles in September, and I joined for half of the road trip. One night at mom's, a night in Nashville, 2 nights in New Orleans, and then Liz traded me in for her dad in Houston. The trip started out with Liz picking me up and with the utmost excitement, and we promptly entered a brutal trip around the DC beltway. 2 hours and 30 miles later, our excitement could not be quelled! Finally, after a good night's rest and some amazing mom hospitality in Virginia, we headed to Nashville. With a stop at a vineyard of course to try their wares (Liz has those pictures :).

Our first official activity: a haunted tavern tour in Nashville. Although I don't actually believe in ghosts (I need to see to believe), it was a great way to get a guided bar tour. We were snapping photos every 5 minutes trying to catch "orbs," or indications of ghost presence that can only be captured on camera. Here's a snapshot of Liz at our first stop:

The eccentric tour guide was able to spot this orb in the picture as she zoomed around my photo on my camera:

I pretended to be relatively convinced. Once I got my camera back I realized that it was a nail in the photo hanging on the wall behind Liz. Busted! Later that night as we toiled around the city I got this shot:

Next stop: Jack Daniels distillery!!! Why not? It was somewhere between Nashville and New Orleans. So what if it wasn't EXACTLY on the way?

We got to pose with good old Jack:

We could smell the luscious vanilla-esque aroma of bourbon whiskey throughout your tour of the distillery. In fact, the tourguide waved the lid of a barrel which was actively filtering the fine liquor so that we got strong wafts of the processing liquid... so strong that we could feel the burn of the alcohol in the back of our throats. I've never, ever wanted a glass of Jack on the rocks so badly before in my life...my thirst for it was INCREDIBLE. But the ironic heartbreaking fact is, you cannot purchase alcohol in the town of Lynchburg, TN. You cannot taste the 12-18 years worth of work that you are witnessing, because it is illegal to consume it in the town. It was singularly one of the worst teases I have ever experienced. So what did we do? High-tailed it to New Orleans...the polar opposite of Lynchburg!

Unfortunately I don't have very good photographical documentation of New Orleans, but I LOVE this shot:

Walk? Don't walk? Crap- I'm confused. What the hell am I supposed to do?? :)

My Parking Lot

This is a photo of where I keep my ride. :) It is a breathtaking view that I see every other Sunday evening, as I take the metro home after my trip to Pensacola. Unfortunately, I have relatively sad feelings associated with this view, because it means I'm going home. I would have excited, anxious feelings about the picture if it were daylight. However, that picture will never exist because I only view it when I'm rushing off the metro and into the airport to catch my ride...no time to stop for photos!!

Moving Day!!!

Sunshine hard at work...

Just kiddin'. She was just taking a breather...

motorcycling, chronicle of a self-portrait

Chris's boat has been broken [resisting every urge to use the Pensacola grammar of saying that it's "broke"], so we have been "reduced" to playing with his other toy:


Here are a couple of self-portraits (apparently I can only get one whole head in the shot at a time):




We rode to Cobalt's, a cute spot where you can pull up your boat and dine (if yours isn't broke). Chris's turn to take a self-portrait. We turned the flash off (it was no good), but Chris couldn't tell if the camera was taking pictures. Please note his increasingly confused look as he continues to press the button over and over again:

Baltimore Volleyball

OK, so maybe I kind of have one other place I call "home." Here are a couple of bad pictures from my phone (that I adore :) of my Baltimore crew playing beach volleyball at the Inner Harbor. The slanted building that looks like it's affixed to the light pole is the Baltimore aquarium, for a reference point.




I really suck but everyone on the team pretends like they don't notice.