I'm back!!!

After an AWESOME week off in sunny California I'm back rejuvenated and ready to get back to work. I'm slowly but surely catching up on e-mails and phone calls and I have TONS of personal images to edit and show off. In the meantime, here are a few from my trip:

Family Portrait on the Beach


My brother doing his best Abercrombie and Fitch pose :-P


My mom's toy poodle, Sam:


My sister's dog, Cooper:


When we arrived, hubby and I rented a Ford Mustang and cruised around Solvang county - wine country! :-)



Firestone Winery - isn't it beautiful?


I have LOTS more so stay tuned! :-)

Out of the Office

May 24 - 30, 2007 - I will be out of the office. All phone calls and e-mails will be returned upon my return. Hopefully, I'll have LOTS of new and exciting images to share. Until then, I've scheduled random articles and pictures to post during my absence. Have a great week! :-)
**************

from msnbc.com:
Commentary by Miki Turner

Joy gets the party started
On Wednesday, it all started with Joy Behar’s Bush-bashing laundry list. You could see the pre-natal veins in Hasselbeck’s head starting to protrude, especially after Behar accused Bush of stealing the election in 2000. The further down the list Behar got, the more agitated Hasselbeck became.

After a short series of soft punches from Hasselbeck — remember her using TiVo as a defense on why she chose to watch “Dancing With the Stars” as opposed to Al Gore on CNN? — it became painfully apparent that Behar was going to win that round. Not one of Hasselback’s jabs landed.

Meanwhile, we have O’Donnell in the opposite corner stewing. Her lips are probably still sore because her pearly whites were obviously clamping down on them. But when Hasselbeck began defending the war, Mt. St. O’Donnell blew.

“The enemy is in Iraq? Did Iraq attack us?”

Honey, get the popcorn! It’s about to go down!

You could kind of see it coming because O’Donnell, who referred to herself as a “big fat loud lesbian” on Wednesday’s show, had been abnormally quiet throughout the entire Behar vs. Hasselbeck undercard. O’Donnell had been on the show long enough to know that it’s lose-lose any time she shares her opinions in that public forum.

Especially when Barbara Walters isn’t there to be the voice of calm and reason.

The problem with O’Donnell is that her self-avowed description of herself alienates a lot of the nice people who prefer more sanitized programming before lunch. They want to hear mindless banter about clothes, nutrition, weight loss, hot guys. But O’Donnell, who wears her gayness proudly and loudly and moderates the discussions on the show’s “Hot Topics” segments, like to discuss issues so flaming that even Walters’ reactions have become increasingly more subjective.

That’s why O’Donnell consistently finds herself vilified in the press when she attacks “innocent pure Christian Elisabeth.” If the two of them were selling soap, it’s probably safe to assume that many Americans would prefer buying it from a pretty blonde whose values are more morally sound.

Grow up, Elizabeth

Yet, at the risk of sounding overtly judgmental, I don’t really care for Hasselbeck. It’s nothing personal because I’ve never met her. I just don’t think she adds anything to the show and she’s a little too whiny for that time of day. She has that kind of voice that brings back memories of fingernails screeching on the chalkboard. I kind of wish she would have triplets and move to that rural area in Ohio that Dave Chappelle calls home.

Like Dave, she’s got some growing to do.

What truly amazes me, however, is that it apparently hasn’t occurred to Hasselbeck that she’s one of the only people in the country — blind, crippled, crazy or Republican — that still defends Bush and the war in Iraq.

You don’t have to ride the current wave, jump on the Al Sharpton bandwagon or be a hater — that certainly won’t get you that coveted invite to the state dinner for Queen Elizabeth — but, dang get a clue already!

Conversely, I’m fairly indifferent when it comes to O’Donnell. I think she must like the taste of her own toes because she puts her foot in her mouth a lot. I think she was wrong for mocking the Chinese language and perhaps should have suffered harsher consequences when she claimed it was all in the name of comedy. And I was over that whole Donald Trump feud the day before it actually started.

The difference between O’Donnell and Hasselbeck is that even though you may not always agree with either of them, at the end of the day you still have some respect for O’Donnell’s convictions. It takes a lot of courage to out yourself on national TV — and I’m not talking about her sexuality.

And, when it comes to politics and friendship, I’m often on the same page with Ms. Ro.

May 24 - 30, 2007

May 24 - 30, 2007 - I will be out of the office. All phone calls and e-mails will be returned upon my return. Hopefully, I'll have LOTS of new and exciting images to share. Until then, I've scheduled random articles and pictures to post during my absence. Have a great week! :-)

**************

FROM THE AP

Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.

“We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered,” he said. “But that’s been a radical departure from all previous administration policies.” Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having “zero peace talks” in Israel. Carter also said the administration “abandoned or directly refuted” every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents. Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive $2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone. “The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion,” Carter said. “As a traditional Baptist, I’ve always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one.” Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter’s comments as unprecedented. “This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president,” Brinkley said. “When you call somebody the worst president, that’s volatile. Those are fighting words.” Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair’s support of Bush, the former president said: “Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient.” “And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world,” Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

May 24 - 30, 2007

May 24 - 30, 2007 - I will be out of the office. All phone calls and e-mails will be returned upon my return. Hopefully, I'll have LOTS of new and exciting images to share. Until next week. . . .

Puerto Rico!

We're headed to Puerto Rico! :-)

I plan to spend my days on this very hammock taking naps with only the sound of the waves crashing on the beach to wake me.

Once in awhile, I may switch locations to:

Besides doing absolutely nothing, :-) we also plan to explore Old San Juan:

Hike the El Yunque Rainforest:

Ever being the scientist, my Hubby wants to go on a road trip to visit this:

because it'd be, "So cool to see one of the largest telescopes in the world!" BTW, it's the Arecibo Observatory. For you movie buffs it was featured in the movies Contact and James Bond Goldeneye.

I think he should do this instead:

I NEED to buy the water housing for my point and shoot digital camera for when we do this:

Cool, huh? The water glows in the dark! :-)

*sigh* July can't get here soon enough!

any guesses?

Which Caribbean island are we headed to?

Seattle 2007

We had a wonderful time in Seattle and I have so much to talk about, but in the meantime here's our video/slideshow from the trip:

Seattle 2007

It's a 24mb quicktime file so make sure you have the plug in and be patient. :-)

We're in SEATTLE!

and we're in love with this city!

I'm in Seattle to attend a photography workshop by the fabulous Me Ra Koh and we took the opportunity to have a little mini-vacation. We're staying at the Westin in Downtown Seattle - home of the heavenly beds, showers, robes. I am in absolute HEAVEN.

The friendly front desk guy upgraded our room so we have an oversized room with an AWESOME view - we can see the space needle!





Our first stop was the Public Market.



Talk about a photographer's paradise - the color and character of this place are amazing! Here are a few from today:




Did I mention I LOVE tulips!





And last but not least, leave it up to my hubby to get into discussions with the local GreenPeace guy:



That's it for now! I have lots more pictures including our visit to the very first Starbucks. Stay tuned!

:-)