Sometimes you get sidetracked....

Today I got up for biking at 6:15am. Went out, and saw some sunflowers, lots of them. Must be the season, because I don't remember seeing them not so long ago. My old roommate had asked me to send her pictures of sunflowers a while back, and well, in El Paso, I didn't see any. So this was the time. It was a nice cloudy morning, so when I saw some, I would pull over on my bike and photograph them. Apparently, this side tracked me enough to the point that I didn't bike more than 10 minutes and took pictures the rest of the time until 7am!

Sometimes you don't do much...

Today we just walked to the thrift shop and got sophie a box type thingy for her toys and a few other things. We then went to go get half our groceries at the grocery store across the street, and will get the other half at the co-op later. That and pay bills, make pancakes and potstickers and just be around the apartment is what we did today...

Sometimes you walk a lot...

Today we walked around Portland like if we were tourists. It was awesome. It felt like we were traveling, but we live here. We explored downtown and the saturday market. It was awesome.

We finally came home, and processed the pics(same day! can you believe that?!). So I will first catch up with the pics I owed you.

The springwater corridor bike trail:

The street by the movie theater we went to: 

 And finally, from today. A few pics of cool random things we saw:

Yes, that's a venus fly trap!!

Sometimes you go to the movies...

We decided to go see Mushroom Kingdom today, I mean Moonrise Kingdom haha. I can't help calling it that. Those are the words my brain keeps handing to me when I think of that movie. Anyway, it was at an ooooold looking theater(pics coming!), very cool! And the movie was very enjoyable. The theater was a couple or so miles south of where we live. Very scenic ride on the way there.

We then walked around that neighborhood, since it is very lively and cool looking during the day. But it was kinda dead. Not much going on around there at night. Which was weird, cuz it is a friday night. Tomorrow, we have to take the bikes in for the 30 day tune up. We then plan to find breakfast around there and explore downtown on foot until the bikes are ready! Should be fun!

Also, today Geli has been kinda grumpy and mean to me because she blames her inability to sleep on me for some reason. I tell her I will teach her how to sleep, but she just gets mad at me!

One last thing, please do yourself a favor and check out the song posted here:

Judgement Day - Demon Fire

It is way too awesome. I can't stop listening to it. I can hardly wait until this album comes out. An acoustic album by Judgement Day!

Sometimes you bike along the river...

Today we went to kinko's to print the invoice for the TV we bought. There was a rebate we needed to send, and needed the print out. Nearby, was the Springwater Corridor. A bike bath than runs along the river for about 3.5 miles or so, all the way to the Esplanade downtown. So we biked through it and then home from the esplanade. It was an awesome, very scenic bike ride.

Sadly, I am too tired to process and upload the pics tonight, but I will post them tomorrow. Also, I got up at 6:15 to bike this morning. And I will do the same tomorrow morning! :D

Sometimes you have a normal day...

Today was pretty normal.

- I got up just in time for work.
- I worked. It was a normal work day.
- Ate yogurt with wheaties, granola, and strawberries for breakfast.
- A magnificent tofu sandwich for lunch.
- I ate a fabulous dinner that Geli made(curry stir fry!). I am lucky enough that fabulous meals are a part of my "normal" day.
- We called Sophie to say hi. I really miss her. 15 days to see her again!
- We made popcorn.
- We watched the old/original Bedazzled movie. It was much better than the new one with Brandon Frasier. I really liked it. Lots of social commentary.
- Gonna go to sleep soon.

Tomorrow, I want to start biking before work again. So I want to get up like at 6:15 or so and go bike before work at 7am. I plan to make it a daily thing, before work.

Sometimes you take photos at a show...

So I spent almost a week in Tacoma/Seattle/Bremerton with Paco, Sarah, and the rest of "Says the Snake". It was a lot of fun. On Saturday, we went to one of their shows in their bus. And it was a chance to take some pics there. And here are some of the Says the Snake pics:

There were other bands of course. This is from "Numbers". They were pretty cool, I definitely enjoyed their set.

It was a very poorly and unevenly lit stage. And it also didn't have much color, so that is why most of these are in black and white.  It was a challenge to get good shots...


All in all, it was an awesome and super busy week. The reaction to the photo shoot with the band has been overwhelmingly awesome! So I am glad people are liking it :)

Sometimes you take photos of people...

And it goes surprisingly well...I was summoned by Paco to take some pictures of his band Says the Snake. And since I have been here in Tacoma since Monday night, we finally got everyone together and went out to take the pictures. I was nervous, and didn't know if I was gonna be able to do that. I hate talking to people, and I didn't really know half the band. So there was a chance that my social awkwardness, fear of talking to strangers, and inexperience shooting with people could have ruined the attempts. But after a few minutes of awkwardness and shyness on my behalf, things warmed up and went very well.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the shoot:

Geli helped me, but since I was the one taking the pictures, it felt a bit weird at first, like if I had an assistant. We ended up taking over 400 pics in about 2 hours or so! Then we went home, then out to eat some mexican food that was pretty awesome, and then went home to process the pics. It took about 5 hours to process all the pics. So about 7 hours of work overall. Paco said some other bands might want me to do this for them, so if I end up doing this for someone else, I would have to charge because it is a lot of work. I was thinking I could start for around $150 for a similar session, which if that works out, would be totally awesome. Lens money!!! 

Tonight,  they have a show, which I am totally excited and nervous about for many reasons. I have not seen Paco play since Scenic Drive days! I actually really like this band he's in, and they asked me to take pics and video of them at the show. So I am excited to see him play, but nervous because I don't know what to expect. Since I shoot without flash, I will be at the mercy of the venue's lighting.I mean, if it is really dim and bad, I will be forced to use flash, but I rather not. Also, I have never taken video of a band either, and they are hoping to use some of the footage for a video, so yeah...we'll see how that goes!

Sometimes you work in another state....

Today I am in Washington. Tacoma, visiting my brother! :D I should have tomorrow and Thursday off. But I did have to work today, so I setup camp here, and I will work today and Friday from here :) We plan to stay here through Sunday night. Seattle and Tacoma! w00t! Pics to come!

Sometimes you go to a potluck...

...and it is strange. I gotta tell you, I realize more and more as I get older that I am very socially awkward. I hate meeting new people, mostly because I suck at it. I suck at making conversation, I suck at knowing what to say. I am terrified of talking to strangers. And yet, I need social interaction. I am one weird person.

So today, in an attempt to make some friends here in Portland, we went to a vegan potluck hosted by the Northwest Vegans group. There was lots of people, easily over 50, and if it was close to 100, I would not be surprised. There was lots of food, all vegan, and it was tasty for the most part(although not as tasty as our patented tofu salad! haha jk). But if it wasn't for this one couple that talked to us and pretty much forced us to sit with them, we would not have talked to or met anyone! It was easy to get lost in the crowd, and so I am sure we would have, if not for them. We talked to them for a bit, and exchanged information. We are supposed to meet with them soon. So you could say that went well. As well as a meeting with a room full of strangers can go for us...

Sometimes you go photo hunting...

By that, I mean leaving the house with the sole purpose of taking photos. We decided to go downtown right around sunset to take photos of the Portland Skyline, from the Esplanade. And hang out around there until after the sun went down, and get some shots of the skyline once all the lights are on.

We had never gone out just to take pictures. We were always going somewhere, or had something to do, and we would take pictures while there. So that was cool. The bike was very enjoyable. And we got the pics we wanted, or that I had in mind. Here are a few shots we got:

There are more, of course, but I just processed these really quick since I wasn't gonna talk about the pics we took, and not show you any...

Sometimes you bike up a volcano....

....ad it is awesome!! It was tough getting up, since as expected, it was all uphill. It was intense, but super fun! We went with Paco and Sarah, since they came over since Wednesday to hang out with us.

The view of a snow capped mountain from the top of Mt. Tabor!

 So yeah...I can check "Climb a volcano on a bike" off my "Things to do before I die" list. It really
looks nothing like a volcano, and it isn't the size of a mountain. It is a "mount"(Mt. Tabor). And it looks more like a forest than a volcano. It was beautiful, and we had lots of fun.

Can't wait to do this again! :D

Sometimes you complete your living room...

On the same day, the area rug, TV, and futon arrived. Turns out we needed a screw driver to setup both the TV and the futon...we didn't have one! So I biked to a hardware store nearby to get one, and then to the library to print the tickets for tomorrow's comedy show and the rebate for the TV. Biked home, assembled them with Geli, arranged them, and with the existing TV stand, coffee table, and Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, our living room is complete.

[picture coming soon - imagine living room here]

Also, there are few places where I feel as out of place as I do at a hardware store. I feel so lost. I never know where anything is or what most things are even for! The sales people could make something up about what that device is used for, and I would believe them....

The TV looks amazing too! We tested it out with the PS3 and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland Blu-ray. Didn't watch the whole thing, just wanted to watch the awesome colorful scenes to test out the TV.

Paco is also coming over tonight! We're going to a comedy show tomorrow :D and he's staying until friday night, so totally looking forward to that. I also got Friday off from work and the camera comes in tomorrow! So you could say that this will be an epic week!!

Biking update: The bike has been good now. No flats and I also did get up to go biking early today for about 30 minutes before work. Got up at 6:15am in case you were wondering...

Sometimes you have an addiction...

...and in this case, it is bike riding. I like it. Maybe too much? Get this, I plan to get up extra early tomorrow so I can go for a bike before work. Will I go through with it? We shall see. Right now, I am confident I will.

Also, we finally bought some cumin(comino), so tomorrow hummus sandwiches for lunch!! w00t!

Canon 7D - 2 days away!!!

Random pics of the day:

This one is just awesome!! :D

In Bruges!!!!

Back in Sycorax days! hahaha

Sometimes you organize your library...

...of pictures that is. We have over 100GB of images apparently. And they were a mess. We finally came up with a date structure + special event/location format. No sub-folders, just the dates the images were taken, and any quick info on what it is, if special. Like this:

But we had attempted to organize by locations, and subfolders, and people, and dates, it was a mess!! Like we had a Sophie folder, but within it was sorted by folders in chronological order(1mo, 2mo, 6mo, 2yrs, etc), but then there was pics that went in the family folder, but they were also of sophie, but they were also in London, so yeah, that was not working out and it was chaos...needless to say, it took about 10 hrs of work. And that's not an exaggeration. But at last, all our pics are neatly organized. We also got rid of any doubles(with the previous chaos, there were tons of doubles), lost RAW files, and pics from other cams(Martha's, Lisa's, Mari's). So yeah, it is finally under control. We had been meaning to get that done for at least a year.

Another pressing issue was that we have a working drive(laptop), and 2 external drives, and there was no full backup of anything! We finally got a master copy, and mirrored it on all 3. But then cleared out all the old pics except for the last 3 months from the laptop to clear clutter and not fill up the drive. So yeah, that took up a large part of our weekend. All in preparation for the arrival of our new family member...The Canon 7D!

And just because we looked through tons of pics, here are a few random ones, since we can't take any yet:

Sergio's insatiable love for electronics...the technology changes, his unquenchable thirst does not.

Sophie was apparently this small at one point. And she was angry...

Sophie hugging a goat :D

Old school Mari and Geli! :D