71: Disc Golf

Today Eddie, Ellen and I headed to Newport News Park for a round of disc golf. Ellen kicked our butts biggie style but we all had a good time. I thought it was a good chance for a photo of the day.

70: Jockey's Ridge

Today Eddie, Ellen and I took a field trip to Jockey's Ridge State Park in North Carolina at the Outer Banks. We enjoyed playing around on the dunes and flying a kite (as best as a cheap kite will fly in that wind). It was a really great way to spend part of the day (and good leg exercise!).

69: Sushi

Today after work Eddie, Ellen and I took a field trip to Harris Teeter for some Triple Coupon action. It was a great success thanks to Eddie's coupon clipping and sale hunting skills. Along the way I snapped this shot of the cooler with the sushi in it. I like the patterns and color. Not bad for my little pocket camera.

68: Breaking from tradition...

Thursday usually brings a photo from Trivia. However, today I am featuring a shot of Ellen, my sister-in-law, who is here for a visit. She came just in time to have some softball fun with our staff. (We had a game after work as a "going away" party for a woman who is leaving.) The game was a lot of fun. (I even caught a fly ball in the outfield to make an out!)

P.S. For those keeping track, we did not place at trivia. Sad.

67: Gracie

I went to a softball game of Grace, the daughter of coworkers, this evening after work. She is in 6th grade and has been playing softball for a few years now. It's fun to have watched her over the seasons as she learns the game and gains more coordination and confidence. The game today was not exactly exciting or a nailbiter. When I arrived (20 minutes into the game) Grace's team was in the field after batting just once. The other team was up to bat for almost an hour getting walked around the bases with a handful of stolen bases between. Grace's team went through two pitchers and then she got to pitch. They should have had her in the whole time. She did a great job and got to pitch in the second inning as well. (There were only two innings due to the first inning taking so terribly long!) I took a few pictures at the game, nothing too great. I played in photoshop a little bit with this one.

66: On a Walk

Eddie and I took a walk after work today. While on our walk we saw a cute little boy wearing only his diaper bouncing like mad on a small trampoline. He was pumping his arms up and down, as in victory, while he was jumping. His dog was excited by this and wagged his tail and hopped around a bit. I had my pocket digital camera with me but didn't want to be a creeper by taking pictures of a stranger's small child that was wearing only a diaper. I decided that I would use my wicked artistic skills (That was sarcasm, folks.) to try to recreate the scene for you as my photo of the day. I am pleased with my little rendition.

61, 62, 63, 64 & 65: Catching Up

Back home and refreshed after a great vacation (and bonus Memorial Day BBQ day today!). Time to catch up on the Photos of the Day that I couldn't post while we were away.

#61: Balboa Park: Eddie and I met up with Amy and spent the morning and early afternoon at Balboa Park in San Diego. It was a really amazing place and we had a great time walking around and looking at everything. This picture took me three times throughout our visit to get one without a big white van or truck parked in front of the building so this was a practice in patience and waiting for the shot.

#62: Catalina Island: Our cruise ship went to Catalina Island as its port stop. It was originally supposed to be Ensenada in Mexico but the swine flu popped up and Carnival changed plans. We enjoyed a bus tour of the island and then went walking on our own. I took this from one of the beaches. It was my first time in the Pacific Ocean (well, just my feet....it was a little chilly!) and so I thought it appropriate I choose a photo of the day that featured the ocean a little.

#63: Thar she blows!: We spotted a whale pretty far off the boat during our Day At Sea. I grabbed my camera and ran up on deck. None of my pictures were that great (the whale wasn't doing much and was far away) but I didn't take many other photos of note that day as we were just enjoying the boat and the various activities going on.

#64: Patchwork of America: I was lucky enough to have a window seat as we flew back east from San Diego (Thanks Eddie!). I am quite pleased with many of the photos that I took during the flight. I find it so interesting to watch the landscapes change and try to pick out familiar items (baseball fields, racetracks, farms, etc.) from the air. This photo was taken somewhere not too long into our flight. The plots of fertile fields were randomly in the middle of a large desert area. It was such a stark contrast between the bland tan of the desert with the greens of the fields.

#65: Memorial Day Cook-Out: Today we enjoyed a bonus vacation day by going to a Memorial Day Cook-Out with some close friends. I took a lot of pictures of the activities (including Katie beating Eddie in a game of HORSE!) but couldn't resist this photo of little Hannah.

Back on the East Coast

Eddie and I had a great time away on our vacation. We are back on the East Coast but I'm too tired to edit and post the pictures of the day. I'll probably get that all set and caught up tomorrow between sleeping in and heading to C'peake for a BBQ!

60: San Diego

While this post shows up as late on the East Coast time, I am actually only at 9:45 here in California. Eddie and I got into San Diego at 1:00 their time (4:00 EST) and spent the day exploring the city including a trip to Old Town (Think: Colonial Williamsburg set in Mexico...and mostly pretty lame) and catching a Padres Game. The photo of the day is of some pottery they had for sale at Old Town.Tomorrow we are getting up, having breakfast at the hotel and then meeting AMY McDONALD(!!!) at Balboa Park for adventures before Eddie and I take off on our three day cruise. I find it hilarious that we did not coordinate being in the same city thousands of miles from our homes at the same time...yet here we are! I think tonight's post will be the last until we get back home because of lack of internet on the cruise...though we are going to be so close to mainland USA that maybe we can pick up some crazy WiFi.

59: Executive Bunny

Today Brandi received a new Easter Bunny costume to replace the old one that reportedly smells like Hot Pockets. We, of course, could not turn down a chance for office hilarity so the bunny head was passed around. This picture is of the Executive Bunny, ready to take on the boardroom and dazzle the execs with Powerpoint slides and a laser pointer.

(Sidenote to my devoted readers: Eddie and I are going on vacation tomorrow and will be back on Sunday late. I'm not sure what the status of our internet connections will be so there may be a large update at the end of our trip rather than along the way.)

58: Old Kisses

I just finished up playing the piano for a bit (something I'm trying to get back into) and realized I needed a picture of the day. I took two of roses during a walk that Eddie and I took today but wasn't pleased with the outcome so I looked around the apartment for something to photograph. The Hershey's Kisses featured in this photograph are from my bridal shower in New Jersey in 2006....they still sit in our apartment in the blue glass vase they came in....and we still eat them. (They still taste just fine!)

57: Commencement

The rain came biggie-style this morning and caused the CNU Commencement to be held inside. They ended up taking down the large curtain that had hung for the original rain plan set-up to allow for more seating for families. I had my pocket digital to capture a picture of the action.

56: Rain, Rain, Go Away

This morning I headed down to Hampton to participate in my friend Jacqui's yard sale. The weather did not cooperate with our plans as it rained on and off (including a downpour) most of the prime yard sale time in the morning. We still had an okay number of folks stop by, including some interesting characters, and all got rid of some stuff that has been cluttering up closet space for quite some time.

55: Low Key

I spent the evening at home reading Brainiac by Ken Jennings (hero to nerds and Jeopardy! fans everywhere). It's a really interesting combination of actual trivia, personal anecdotes by Jennings about his Jeopardy experience and information about the history of trivia and quiz games. I enjoyed having some quiet time as it has been busy at work and, as an introvert, I need time to recharge after having to be around people all week. I'm about to head to bed but captured a photo of myself on the couch reading. I'm bothered that I used both hands to take the picture and thus I appear armless in the picture. I'm too tired to care enough to shoot it again.

54: Oh Trivia Night

Yet another enjoyable (and successful...yay first place!) outing to trivia night. The place we go got a new dartboard that caught my eye.

53: To Boldy Go...

Tonight I had the pleasure of having a dinner and movie date with my dad. I met him in Norfolk after work for some food court action and Star Trek. We both really enjoyed the movie. It made my inner-Trekkie heart all warm and fuzzy even though I'm more of a Next Generation kind of girl. I really liked (maybe even loved) the Bones character in the movie.

I managed to get a photograph in the theater during one of the brighter scenes of my dad watching the movie. I chose the 'poster edge' texture to make it less of picture that looks like it was taken in a dim theater.

52: Don't be offended by my frank analysis...

I was at the local Music & Arts getting two new books for my piano student when I saw that they had a sale that would get you 30% off of your purchase if you got three music books. I began to browse a little more and saw a "Piano Duet Play Along" book for Wicked. It's a duet book so if I ever come across another piano player that likes musicals we can rock it out...but in the meantime, I can play along with the included CD. It's pretty cool because the CD has a track for each part so I can learn both parts and play along.

Anyways...it was starting to get late in the day and I needed a shot still (dumb pocket camera had a dead battery today so I missed getting to take pictures of all of the things Eddie and I pulled out of our storage room to sell at a yard sale on Saturday) so I flipped through the book and took a few different pictures. I like this one the most.

(Sidenote: The title of this post is a shout-out to all of you music-reading, Wicked fans.)

51: Success!

With Eddie's recent promotion came the loss of our beloved dining hall meal plan. Therefore, we have now entered the world of having to cook for ourselves. Tonight I made "Crunchy Oriental Chicken Salad" and it was a success! It was easy, tasty and healthy (AND Eddie liked it!). I was so proud that it is my picture of the day. (I'm a little bummed that it is "upside down" because of the way I took the shot. I stood on the other side of the table because of the light, thinking I could just rotate it but it messed up the perspective and just looked funky.)

50...Busch Gardens

Eddie and I headed to Busch Gardens today and ended getting a 3-for-1 special...got to hang out with the Krohn family, Hodgis family AND Ritchey family! We had a great day and really enjoyed being able to spend time with so many great people, even though it had been mostly unplanned!

The photo of the day comes from when I was hanging out with little Ella Ritchey on the bridge by the Escape from Pompeii where you can get watch the boats drop. You can stand on the open part of the bridge and get soaked or you can stand behind a plexiglass wall. (I opted to stand behind the wall so my camera didn't die!) I like this photo because you can see the wall of water coming towards the people.

(Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there!)

49: Hampton Farmers Market

This morning I headed to Hampton with Jacqui to a Farmers Market. It was a delightful little market with fruits, veggies, some handicrafts and even some live bluegrass music! Right down the street from the market was the water, including a seafood market and its boats. I experimented with Photoshop on this one using the layer tool and pulling the color just from the sign. (I wasn't thriled with how much it blended in with the blue sky in the original.)

(Sidenote: I think that I'm going to start experimenting more with the Photoshop features so that I have a better understanding of what I can do with my program. This blog is a good way to keep me learning!)

48: School's Out for Summer...

CNU classes and exams are over, which means many of the students have moved out. Some of our staff members celebrated the start of summer (which is just as busy, if not more, because of summer freshmen orientations) with a cookout. Staff member Lori and her husband hosted us for a fun time with food from the grill, good tunes and some friendly cornhole competition.

47: Labels

Tonight we had a special guest star at Trivia...my dad! While at trivia he got to reminisce about drinking Konig Pilsner in Munich in 1972, while drinking Konig Pilsner in Newport News in 2009! We had a successful outing at trivia, taking first. It was a good night. The photo of the day is a collage of labels from the beers we tried throughout the evening. I rather enjoy it.

46...Holy Rain, Batman!

Eddie and I drove over to Portsmouth to procure a "new" TV from a gentleman off of Craigslist. Despite Jocelyn's concern for our safety, we were not kidnapped and are now proud owners of a 27 inch TV. It's nothing too fancy but it's seven inches more of screen and, best of all, it won't make an annoying buzzing noise when there is a lot of white in whatever we are watching. (Plus it was only 45 bucks!)

We drove through an intense storm on the way back from getting the TV. I wish I had had my "good" camera but my little pocket digital captured some neat shots of the weather of doom. The photo of the day is of the crazy sky over Newport News, as taken from right before entering the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel.

45: Finally...

I finally finished the scrapbook from the cruise we took in January. It has been on the makeshift scrapbooking table in our living room since then. I must admit that the last part of the scrapbook is not as good as the first...I lost motivation. Eddie suggested that a set of pages be my photo of the day so here it is...

44: Amazing Race

I didn't find any particular inspiration today and took my picture of day from the couch where Eddie and I were attempting to watch last night's Amazing Race episode online. We weren't very successful (it kept freezing) but I got my picture of the day.

43: World Market

Today's photo of the day was taken at our local World Market store. Eddie and I popped in to escape the downpour as we were leaving Costco. I only had my pocket digital camera so the two shots I took there weren't spectacular. I did, however, enjoy the end product after playing with some Photoshop special effects. This photo is of one of the large shelves of beer that they have. I could stand and read labels for hours...some of them are so clever (i.e. "He-Brew" the Chosen Beer).

42: Mu Nu

The CNU colonists of Kappa Kappa Psi became the brothers of the Mu Nu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi today. It was a great day for everyone and was a good reminder for me about all of the reasons why I became a brother almost nine years ago. The photo I chose for today is of Jen, one of the new brothers. She is the one whose hand was featured earlier in the week with the brotherhood countdown. She was wearing a great blue dress that she had picked out for the occasion. I was trying to get a closeup of just her brotherhood pin but the dim lighting was not cooperating so I tried some other shots not so close. I used PhotoShop to add the texture to this shot.

Congrats to the new brothers!

41: TGIF

If my photo of the day was supposed to reflect the emotions of the day, it would have been a picture of me taking a hammer to my work phone. But it's the weekend now so...

I enjoyed a little timeout over at the Counseling Services House on Campus where they were having a little BBQ. I had been told by friend/coworker/"Plant Guy" Dave that I should bring my camera over this week to check out the irises they had in their front yard. Sure enough, they were beautiful! I am pleased with many of the shots I was able to take. Thanks, Dave!

(Sidenote: I saw my friend Beryl's Photo365 picture today and it was also of flowers. As she pointed out, "May flowers.")