Rising Sun

The rising sun behind the sunflower.

A Nice Surprise

Saturday when I got home, I found a bouquet of fresh flowers. Shawn had a visitor that afternoon and that person had brought some flowers. Rather than put them all together in one big vase, I separated the flowers out and put them into various cool bottles. And the lilies from the arrangement got to come to work with me.

Sneak Peeks - Kara & JP's Wedding

A few sneak peeks from a great wedding and reception yesterday. The bride is best friends with the matron of honor whose wedding I shot a few weeks ago. Knowing how sweet and fun they were, I knew this was going to be great time. There wasn't one person there who didn't have an absolutely great time.

I was fortunate enough to have two assistants for the day. It was great to have the help and the different perspective. It gave the entire event a feeling of greater depth. Shots from them coming soon.

























































































































We took a few shots in the hotel lobby.





























































Do you think these people were having a good time?






































This dude told me he liked to tear up the dance floor and to be ready with the camera:)























The bride and groom saying farewell.

One Last Look at the Sunflowers

This is it for the sunflowers. I promise. And it's not that they are all that spectacular. They don't even really look like sunflowers. But it was my first attempt at them. And I noticed this morning that I have a patch of them. On our deck. In a pot. That's probably why they're pretty small.

But they're still cool. And that there's a bunch of them in bloom at once and I haven't killed them, well, that makes them even cooler.

What Could This Be?

Still not sure what this will be. I'm thinking squash. Although by now there should be some sort of veggie growing. Even if there is nothing to harvest from this, the flowers have been beautiful. This looks like a yellow moonflower.

Working from Home

Working from home today. It's kind of hard to stay focused.

Glory in the Morning

Mauled

Why a photo of a mauled bun? Why not? Really though, it's because I wanted to share what Mr. Leonard T. Kat did today. Lenny Boy is a counter jumper. Ugh. So now I have to be careful of everything, EVERYTHING, I leave on the kitchen counter. Until I can figure out some way of keeping him off the counters. So, food, dirty dishes (yes, I have to at least rinse off dishes, every day now, not just when I feel like it! No more sink full of dirty dishes.) knives, etc... And I have to be aware of when a burner is on or has been on and make sure the brat isn't jumping up there. He's wearing me out.

Anyway, Shawn's mom brought this bun over thinking Shawn might want it with his lunch or something. He mentioned to her that she better make sure it's not sitting out on the counter otherwise it's fair game. Just like the chicken breasts that were thawing the other day. Shawn calls me while I'm out and asks me to guess what he has sitting on the table in the basement. Not knowing where to begin guessing I assumed something to do with Lenny Boy. A frozen chicken breast he says. In the baggie.

Apparently, Leonard T. Kat pulled the chicken breast off the counter and then took it downstairs. That's where Shawn saw him playing with it and took it away. Well there was two. So when I got home, indeed, the other chicken breast was gone. As I walked back into the living room I see Mr. Leonard T. Kat running from under the chaise to the chair with chicken breast in the baggie in his mouth. Then he proceeds to roll around with the chicken breast under the chair. Luckily, neither baggie was punctured and the breasts were still frozen and unscathed.

However, this poor bun sure did get it. After Shawn told his mom about Lenny Boy's antics, she went to put the bun and the bag of other food it was in away and couldn't find it. Looked all over the house for it. No bun to be found. She started thinking maybe she didn't bring it. Until she found it in the bathroom, behind the sink. He had pulled the bun out of the bag with the other food and ran off with his booty. Where he promptly mauled the bun. Bad, bad kitty. If he wasn't so damn cute and if it wasn't so damn funny seeing him run around with a baggie of food in his mouth ...

One More Sunflower

I just couldn't resist.

Nubs

Those little nubs hopefully will soon be this. I say hopefully because there have been a total of 9 little nubs. But only 3 are left. And I'm sure it has something to do with my lack of attention to them. Come on little nubs, hang in there for us.

Friday Gig Part 2

Hubby playing at Jaxx, Friday evening. While the show was kind of lame for the fellas, very small crowd, it was good for me to take pics. I could get up close and not have to bump into people. Plus it was a night out with hubby. Almost a normal life. We're getting there.

Friday Gig

These guys are Tilt. I would venture to say one of the best local, all original bands in the area.

Fake

The faux flowers that brighten our home.

Today someone told me I am so fake. And that we all get what we deserve and that my chi had it coming. What it had coming I don't know although I can make some assumptions as to what she was referring to. Probably Shawn's paralysis and our now 7 month long ordeal.

Hmmm ... interesting. I'll admit I was a little irked by it but not upset, definitely not hurt. I mean this comment came from an alcoholic train wreck. So the source was considered. But it did get me thinking about being fake or really, not living our truth.

We all walk through our days not being honest. Some of us more than others, some non-truths being more large than others. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the first limb of the 8 Limbs of Yoga is the Yamas, the restraints of our behavior we should abide by. One of those Yamas is truthfulness, Satya. We should be honest with ourselves and others in thoughts, words and actions. Before that Yama though, is Ahimsa, non-violence or loving, kindness and compassion. Ahimsa and Satya go hand in hand.

What if being truthful causes you to be less than compassionate? Do you still tell that truth at the risk of hurting someone else? Some people might do that specifically to hurt another. So, if you aren't truthful are you then fake?

This person that said I was so fake, would she have preferred that after I decided I just didn't like
her that I tell her this? This person most definitely would have wanted to know why after hanging out a few times that I formed this opinion. Would she have wanted to hear that aside from being a loud, obnoxious drunk, I felt that she was overcompensating with a really strong, sometimes rude personality for her total lack of self-esteem. Personally, knowing that I would only see her occasionally, I didn't feel it was worth the drama or potentially hurting someone's feelings. Even though I don't like her, I don't wish her any harm.

So what it boils down to is, if you don't want me to be fake, can you handle the truth?

Rough and Tumble

Lenny Boy engaging Lucy in some playtime. It's been pretty constant. After this moment it turns into rough and tumble, where they roll and grapple with each other. It never really gets vicious. When it does it's time to break it up and take a time out.

More Wildflowers

On Leonard T. Kat

Mr. Leonard T. Kat. You are quite a character. Of course, he is living up to his full potential as a kitten. And something happened the weekend that I was out of town. Since I returned he and Lucy have been play buddies. No more dramatic hissing from Lucy. Perhaps there was some kind of bonding due to my absence. So, there's been lots of wrestlemania, cat style. Including on the bed at 5:44 am! It's fun to watch for sure, although I'd prefer to already be awake for it.

Lenny Boy has learned how to jump on the kitchen counters. Bad kitty! I haven't had a counter jumping cat in almost 20 years. Nellie, Tiki, Mr. and Lucy never jumped on the counters. I definitely need to figure something out about that.

His favorite spot to nap is in the butt gel part of Shawn's wheelchair. He found that spot pretty much right away and still snuggles up on it. Wonder if we will have to keep the seat of the wheelchair as a bed for him once Shawn is done with the wheelchair.

And in spite of his badness, which in the big scheme of things isn't really all that bad, he is such a sweet, sweet little fella. He likes to get love and pets and he likes to snuggle. Lucy had to learn that pets are a good thing. He is very well socialized and isn't scared of people. He'll come right up to you to say hey. So, little Lenny, thank you for brightening our lives.

An Oddity

An odd thing here. The pink rose bush, which usually blooms for about 3 weeks in May and early June, had a bloom, in August. I don't recall this ever happening. So when something this odd happens, do we take it as, eh, how weird, or do we try find out if there is some deeper meaning behind it? What's the message from the universe in this little pink rose?

Sunflowers

This year I decided to try some sunflowers. These are Evening Sun variety, although because of their size they look more like Gerbera Daisies to me. I had some regular yellow sunflowers but only two bloomed and they were tiny. I think the size is all relative to the fact that they are in a pot and don't have a lot of room to grow. Nonetheless, I like these and today they will be cut to come inside and adorn the house.

Rain

Finally, a decent rain.

Cherry On Top

O...M...G...!! I got a little blog award! I'm so excited! It's the little things:)

I'm not quite sure where the Cherry On Top Award originated. It was passed onto me from Leslie in Adams Morgan. And it was passed on to Leslie from Evil Pixie who I had actually started checking out because I saw some comments from her on Leslie's blog.

What's interesting is a few weeks ago as I was logging into my blog I noticed that there was thing "Blogs of Note." I checked out some of them and was like, I wanna be a blog of note. Then a few days later, The Capricious Yogi received a blog award. I was like, I want a blog award. And then I noticed Evil Pixie, etc... And really, I don't care if I get any awards, it would just be, well A Cherry On Top, right? So then what happens, Leslie passed this on to me and I LOVE IT!

So anyway, thank you to Leslie who tagged me on my very first blog award. Here are the rules: talk about three things I love about myself, and then pass the award on to bloggers I love.

1. I love that I am 46 years old and have not once considered getting any kind of plastic surgery, botox, lifts, tucks or anything else that would make me look like the Joker from batman, that I'm constantly startled or that would make me anything else than who and what I am. I love who I am and every wrinkle and sag makes me who I am. Not that I don't workout or want to stay in shape or use moisturizer but I just won't buy into society trying to force me to be anyone else. One of my tricks for having this attitude is to not look too close in the mirror:) I mean really, nobody is going to be looking at me 2 inches from my face.

2. I love that I don't sweat the small stuff. Seriously, I just can't. There's way too many big things that are more sweat worthy than a sink full of dishes, laundry not being done, etc... A sweat worthy thing is a paralyzed husband! And I think I'm pretty good at maintaining that attitude.

3. I love that I can't help but find the positive in almost every situation. Even the worst. Sometimes I even ask myself, how did I find anything positive in that? For example, recently I had to take Old Girl to the vet. It's always a debacle and it's pretty much guaranteed there will be an accident of ultimate grossness in the carrier. This time was no different. So there I am, after she had a bad accident, in the parking lot of strip mall, wishing I had a hazmat suit, gloves and gas mask, holding Old Girl with one hand and wiping nasty poo out of the carrier with the other. Where's the positive in that you ask? The fact that she wasn't covered in poo. Cuz that's happened and that's even worse.

Shawn has even asked me as I rattle off all the positive things in a situation, if he can just complain or do I always have to find the good in something. I'll admit there are days where I just want to say, damnit, I just want to complain and whine and not find the positive in a situation but that doesn't last long because that's just a waste of time and precious energy.

4. Like Leslie, I got on a roll here. I LOVE my name. Mina Jane Habibi. Mina and Habibi are Persian. Mina, per my mom, translates as Little Yellow Flower and per my Aunt, is the word for the flower Aster. Habibi translates at sweetheart or my darling. Jane was my mother, grandmother and I believe my great-grandmother's middle name, so there's a bit of history there. And I like how it balances out the exotic with the simple. A long, long time ago in another life I was married to someone else and I changed my last name to his. Ugh. It never went and I feel like it affected who I was. As soon as we were divorced I changed it back and will never change it again.

There you go:) I'm passing this onto The Capricious Yogi, who nearly every time she writes something I'm like I was just thinking that!

Wildflower

Some wildflowers ... potted:) Does that make them not so wild? I don't know but I love these flowers and I think because their nature is to be wild, they aren't suffering terribly from the heat, although when I do miss a watering they let me know.

This is one of the photos I shot in RAW format. It seems incredibly sharp to me and I don't know if that's because it was shot RAW or if it's because I opened it on the sweet 27" super iMac at work rather than the puny 13" Macbook and I can simply see better. I've heard various things about shooting RAW vs Jpeg and I just need to learn and experiment more.

A View from the Top

Well, almost the top. This was taken from a hike over the weekend. There's this trail that we've been attempting to hike for several years now. The first time, Lisa and I made it about 40 minutes or so into it. We passed through an area at one point that had this weird feel to it. Like we passed into another realm. That kind of spooked us so we turned around. A year or two later Lisa, Mo and I attempted to hike it but it was too hot and we only made it about 30 minutes into it. Last year we were going to hike it and then we had a run in with Jack the night before. Jack Daniels that is and there was no hiking or much of anything for that matter the next day.

This year we were hellbent on finishing that damn hike. Another friend had told us were only like 15 minutes from the top. So we started out and an hour later and few steep inclines, we weren't at the top. We were wondering if there really was a "top" or if maybe the trail just wound back down the other side of the mountain. We also ran out of water so we had to turn back. But we were close. Evidently there is a clearing where you get a great view and then the trail splits into two directions. And apparently we were only about 10 minutes from that. One day we will finish this hike!

A Future Something

Here we've got a future something. What, I'm not sure. A few months ago a friend gave me some seedlings for cucumbers, peas and carrots. I don't think this is cucumber because there is another viney kind of plant that has smaller flowers and I think that is the cucumber. So now I don't know what this is. It looks like it's probably squash. If I'm lucky and the garden doesn't despise and resent me too much for not watering it often enough, maybe I'll find out.

Catching Up 4 - Monday

I'm clearly not as comfortable in front of the camera as I am behind it. Yep, this is me:) One way I kind of convinced my friend to pose for me was that I told her that we could take some pics of me too. So here I am.

Almost caught up too! But really, will I ever be "caught up"? It seems that more and more things are happening and I don't want to miss out on any of it. How do I find a good balance?

Catching Up 3 - Sunday - Goddess

Well, I figured out what I needed to do to open my RAW photos. Just needed an updated plug-in.

Here is a photo from this past weekend. It was Girl's Weekend and I convinced one of my friends to let me do some Goddess photos of her. I'd say this looks pretty Goddessy.

Catching Up 2 - Saturday

So just a few more days to catch up:) I have some great photos from the weekend. I just have to figure some things out. Like how to open them! I tried something new, shooting RAW. And I need some sort of plug-in update or a converter so I can open the photos. And of course, I'm strapped for time already anyway. Hopefully tomorrow. I'm anxious to see the photos!!

Catching Up 1 - Friday

I'm just catching up from a weekend away. As hard as it is to disconnect, it's even harder to reconnect. And in thinking about that I'm thinking about a weekly computer diet. No computer, no blog, no Facebook, no Caring Bridge, nothing online or computer related for one solid day every week. I think it might do me some good:)

Cuteness

Ascending

I haven't posted many photos from the garden this year mostly because the garden has been kind of lame. And I am mostly responsible for it's lameness. Since hubby has been out of commission, the poor garden has relied on me for watering, weeding and general maintenance and upkeep. And I just don't have the time it needs. Sadly, the people must come first, then the cats, then the plants, then the gardens. You don't realize what's involved with something until you actually have to do it. Shawn would water the gardens daily, plant new flowers and maintain everything every year. Luckily, he is able to do this in the back yard with the potted plants and flowers. And of course, that's where things are thriving.

These are the morning glories ascending to well, their glory. Last year our morning glories were slaughtered. But this year, they are safely within our fence. No barbarian weed wacker operators can get to them. In a few weeks, the backyard will be graced with beautiful purple blooms every morning until it frosts.

Dreamy

This image is from a wedding I shot a few weeks ago. While I didn't take it today, I did play with it today. I found these AWESOME overlays and textures from Patti Brown Photography. And now I just want to play. I could seriously spend all day, every day doing this.

Some images just beckon for processing like this. I love the softness and the dream like quality of it. I'll be in the mountains this weekend for a little R&R and plan on doing a Goddess photo shoot of a girlfriend. Can't wait to play with those photos and these overlays.