...and that's OK.

Hi Gang,

Probably no one comes around here anymore and that's ok, but I'd like to give a brief update on life while I wait to be inspired for a cooler post.

New job is going well. I have been so busy and working long hours that it's pretty much been consuming me since I started in September. And that's ok. I love it, its exciting and fun. For those of you who don't know, it's a full service ad agency in Boise. www.drake-cooper.com.

School is going well. That is the other project that is consuming the rest of my free time and that's ok. Only 6 classes to go and I graduate with an MBA in Marketing-woohoo!

So the rest of my free time has been just trying to stay sane. I have lovely fall pictures I'd like to post. Hopefully I'll get to that soon.

And here is a picture to ponder from www.stuffonmycat.com. I laughed so hard that I just had to share. (Check out the site, there is so much more hilarity there.)

I wonder what he's laughing at?

Just for Cher!

This is a farmer-type dude and his little teeny JRT dog. I took this with my cell phone at the Boise Saturday Market (which incidentilly people are NOT allowed to bring their dogs to anymore thanks to a stuck up sticky-beak city health code officer-this was the last dog weekend) with Cher's mismatched car/driver contest in mind. He was just ambling along with his little friend so I snuck this shot. Very sweet.

Time on my hands

So... since I am currently unemployed I've got time to take more pictures. Here is one of them. I've been too grouchy to post anything for awhile but have gotten some great shots in the last month...

Enjoy.

Local Men's Room Hand Dryer's alternative use discovered:

Finally a convenient way to get bacon while visiting the washroom!

Good Samaritans Do Exist

Saturday I decided to go run a bunch of errands while my husband went to Triangle, ID with his dad to bring a horse trailer up there (it's in the Owyhee Mountains) and visit horses. So I headed out to Target, Home Depot, Winco Groceries and then home.

I was sitting at a stoplight near Winco when I hear all this hollering and whistling behind me, so I poke my head out the window and the guy says "Hey you've got a flat tire!" Oh great, just great. "Thanks for letting me know!" and I turn to pull into the Dairy Queen parking lot to check it out. (That also sucks because right now I can't eat Dairy Queen as I am doing the 6 Week Body Makeover-rar!)

So I hop out and sure as the sun shines there is the flat. Left rear tire on my Jeep Liberty. POOT! What the heck am I going to do??? Jason is 2 hours away out of cell range, my mother-in-law is not home and her cell phone is off, my sister-in-law is MIA, the tire is flat enough that I can't make it to Les Schwab tires, I don't have AAA anymore (dammit!)

So I call my dad in MN "I don't know what to do! I have never changed the tire on the Jeep, I don't know where the jack is, I am pretty sure I can't lift the tire and wheel once it's off... And everyone is staring at me!" (They were!)

Meanwhile my mom is telling me in the background to ask Dairy Queen if I can put my freezer items I just bought in their coolers until I get this sorted out. Um, no.

At that point three gentleman in their 60s come out of Dairy Queen and descend upon my vehicle. I hang up with my dad to sort this mess out. They find the jack, get the tire off and head for the spare. Oh wait, they say, do you have the "key" to get the spare off? "No I don't have the key, I got this Jeep used and the previous owner never turned in the key," says me. "You mean they let you drive off the lot and closed the deal with out getting you a replacement 'key'?!" "Yes, yes they did."

"We can't get the spare off then..." Damn.

They proceeded to try and wrench that lug nut with the "key" off, it won't budge. There is a screw sticking straight down into the flat tire (thanks Home Depot,)I can feel the air rushing out and I can't get anywhere. I live 20 minutes away.

So they load up the flat in their truck, tell me to stay there ("are you sure you don't want me to come?" "No, you stay here and watch the car--don't drive away!" Har-dee-har har) and drive off to Les Schwab to get the tire fixed.

15 minutes later they return with the tire as good as new, information on how to get a replacement "key" for the spare and no intention of letting me pay for the repair on my tire. So even though they just had Dairy Queen I talked them into letting me at least buy them blizzards (2 Banana Cream Pies, 1 Heath, smalls please) and off they drove ("there you go little lady.")

They wouldn't give me names or contact info, they were just happy to help. One of them said "I would just hope that someone would do the same for my wife or daughter. You never know where you could have gotten a flat and who, if anyone, would have stopped to help you. Just pay it forward." I like him.

So, though they probably will never read this blog: thank you good Samaritans! I will forever be grateful.

Jason and I are going to the dealer to get a new "key" for the spare and give them a piece of my mind. I would have been stranded had I been forced to deal with the flat myself. I had no idea I even needed a "key" to get the spare off. Had I been alone in the middle of nowhere.... I don't want to think about that.

Curious

A very curious thing to find out in the middle of the desert at a rustic ranch full of manly things like dirt and machinery and bulls... A pretty magenta car sitting at the entrance to the property. I like it.

Oreana, April 21, 2007 mmr

Oreana

One of the most barren landscapes I've been to, it has taken me three years to find it beautiful. If you stop and look you will find so many things easily over looked and missed in the rush to pass judgement.
This photo was taken on a friend's property out in Oreana, ID. The cross on the hill overlooks the house and marks the spot of a beloved dog. As Jason and I were traipsing about the country side I caught this photo. We also saw lots of wildlife (which for me was unexpected!) such as the Desert Horned Lizard (aka the horny toad, who squirts blood from his eyes...click here for a link to the picture I took) an enormous spider, evidence of coyotes (scat) and their dinner (bleached white jack rabbit bones,) and lone red flowers in a sea of browns and beiges. And not to mention a silence like no other. Stay tuned for more images from this day-trip.

mmr 4/21/07 Owyhee County

Control Freak

Waterfall-a study of control

My subdivision (how convenient)

4.15.07

8:30 PM

I finally figured out how to control light, shutter speed, sensor sensitivity, and depth of field to make my photos do what I want! In this instance anyway.

After being out sick all week (4 days away from work) and having nothing to do all day but feel miserable and wait until Magnum PI came on at 5 PM (true story! Sleuth Channel-Dish Network) I had time to brainstorm and think about how I can create images I want by taking control of my camera. Of course the minute the clock hit 5 it was allllll Magnum alll the way.

Gustafson Trout

On Saturday I woke up to Halloween Kitty hiding in the curtains:

He's my favorite muse.

Locks of Love

Look what I did! Look what I did!

After ten years of below shoulder-length hair (seven of them with really long hair) I've decided to chop my hair! I took of about 12 inches and am donating it to "Locks of Love," a charity that gives real human-hair wigs to needy children with long-term hair loss. It feels good and I am so proud that I can help. Click on the picture to see a slide show of my change!

Oh good Lord what is this?

Sorry to depart to the slightly tacky but... can somebody please explain this to me?

Jason and I were in Cost Plus World Market on Sunday and came across this nice little product. Perhaps it is a direct reference to John Kerry from his Heinz heiress-wife's family?

The best idea of what this is wins. What do you win? My my total admiration of your wit and cleverness and perhaps an autographed print of this lovely picture.

UPDATE:

According to this website Spotted Dick is:
a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit, usually currants. The dessert is especially popular in the United Kingdom, usually served either with custard or with butter and brown sugar. Spotted refers to the currants (which resemble spots), and Dick is a corruption of the word dough.

I still don't want any.

(Photo by Jason, Motorola RAZR, 3/25/07)

Leslie Gulch

I am endlessly fascinated with frontier life and how people lived, survived and ended up in some of the most seemingly desolate areas of the country.

One such place is Leslie Gulch in extreme eastern Oregon. No regular inlets of water, the area was inhabited by pioneers who were mining for silver long ago. My first question is how did they find the area in the first place and secondly how did they survive? Rhetorical questions of course but still fun to wonder about.

This shot is of the only real structure in the main area of Leslie Gulch. It could be a BLM building or it could be privately owned-there was no information.

I took this on March 17th and it was a gorgeous sunny warm day and people were already out for the weekend camping. I love the west.

Leslie Gulch Series, 3/17/2007 MMR

It's just a state of mind--I can show you...

On Tuesday night Jason and I were given the awesome opportunity to go see RAIN: The Beatles Experience live at the Morrison Center in Boise and what a phenomenal show. They absolutely paid every respect and tribute and did justice to the Beatles. I have to back up and explain a few things to make the significance of this post a little easier to understand. I am a HUGE Beatles fan. I have been since I was 10 and have never wavered with them as my favorite group of all time. I have posters, t-shirts, dolls, socks, books, plates, bobble heads, newspaper clippings, old CD boxes from my CD purchases of the early 90's, records, drawings I did myself... the list goes on and on. I have read every book I could get my hands on regarding my Beatles, I've seen Paul McCartney in concert twice (I am so lucky) Ringo at least three times and have all the movies and other videos. I was obsessed. Being so I had taken quite a snooty air about seeing any Beatles cover band, no matter HOW good they were considered to be. My thought was if I couldn't see THE Beatles I was not going to listen to someone play out their interpretations on my most beloved songs.

So RAIN came to town. My mother-in-law (knowing my obsession) bought me two tickets to the show for my birthday and THEN asked me what I thought about seeing a cover band. Of course I was a total stinker and voiced my non-desire to see them (I had no idea she had gotten tickets.) Well she still gave me the tickets for my birthday, I told her I was just being a hard-ass and we went.

THE SHOW WAS FABULOUS. It was so well done and so respectful. They had them mastered. Right down to the accents, their motions and movements on stage, their instruments and attitudes. They started the show with a brief clip of everything that happened up until the Beatles arrived in the US on 2/07 1964 and opened with them on the Ed Sullivan show (set replica and everything) and a pretend Ed Sullivan. The show then goes through the four or five distinct eras of the Beatles reign complete with costumes, video clips, stage sets. And every video clip was of Rain reenacting a significant video that was taken of the Beatles, so the Beatles images were never in the show. Every picture, every video, everything was remade with Rain. It was AWESOME. The place was jumping, the crowd were on their feet, people were dancing. What a fabulous night.

I come to find out that Rain has been around since the mid-seventies and is the longest running tribute band out there. And they are perfect. "Paul" isn't actually left-handed, but that's easy to get over. If you ever get the chance to see them, even if you don't consider yourself a Beatles fan or connoisseur of the Beatles please GO. You will be so glad you did.

Rain's website photos are copy restricted so please visit and check it out. In the meantime enjoy this young shot of the real deal. And also a shot from my cute little pink RAZR phone of us waiting for the show to begin.

YNP

I wish I were here right now.

This is called "God shined down on Slough Creek" taken in Yellowstone National Park. This is the first in the series from "the bears' backyard" and one of the most serene places in Yellowstone that we experienced. We camped out for as long as we could hoping to see bears but none came our way. We only saw footprints. This was a wonderful trip.

Be sure to click "view full size" when looking at the slide show to get the full effect of the pictures.

Slough Creek, Yellowstone National Park, August 2006, MMR

Photo of the Day

First outing of 2007

March 11 2007, 67 degrees

Swan Falls Project

(Not to be confused with the Alan Parsons Project)

Southwest Idaho

Click here for a slideshow from that day.

Just Like Starting Over

Oh blogger, I can hardly express my mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness... Oh Blogger, can you ever forgive me?

I am going to attempt to maintain this blog, though only for my own enjoyment. What have I been up to this past year? Hmmm.... Just life. I'm gong to school for my MBA in Marketing, maintaining home, family, job and life... Been busy doing mundane things.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentines Day, Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Memorial, Fourth of July, Labor, Columbus, Veterans, Presidents day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentines day... And welcome spring!