Photo Challenge Day 23: Sunflare

Enjoying the sunshine in Monterey.

A longer post on our vacation to come!


I'm doing the 30 Day Photography Challenge. View the challenges

Day 22 - Daddy's Hands

Day 22 - Hands

I love watching my boys play together.

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Day 21 - Faceless

Day 21:  Faceless Self-Portrait

This is from when we went to Woody's on the Wharf a few weeks ago.

Can you see my t-strap brown sandals in this picture? I bought them that morning, it was the only time I wore them and now they are missing! So sad!


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Photo Challenge Day 20 and the Fair

So, I'm skipping Day 20 - it's a little too fancy for my non-fancy camera. Instead I'll tell you about the time we went to the County Fair.

Let me begin by saying, I am not a "fair" person. As a matter of fact, I kind of hate the fair. Just the thought of it makes me feel hot and dirty and have flashbacks to my years in small town television when I had spend a lot of time at the fair filming pageant competitions and art shows. You will never look at "scholarship competitions" the same way after you've spent countless hours standing behind a camera watching 6-22 year olds perform (mostly) really bad dance/singing/instrumental/acting (for those who can't sing, play an instrument or dance) routines, all the while connected by headphones to the director's truck hearing rude comments about each girl made by middle aged men while you discreetly tell bratty kids to quit climbing on the 6-foot tall scaffolding you're standing on because it shakes the camera. There were also the years that I stood outside the fair in a parking lot for 5 days helping to park cars as part of a church fundraiser. (Did I mention we usually had to haul trash and dirt out of it a few days before hand.) Yeah, I hate the fair.

That being said, the Alameda County Fair may have changed my opinion of the fair in general. It was clean, held on sprawling grounds, and just generally pleasant.

Luke liked the animals.

There were lots of cute little piglets!

And a momma cow and her calf

We saw a glimpse of Luke's future here...

and here...

And this, as usual, remains the same. :)

Justin's dream is to be a pig farmer.



Double Ferris Wheel - almost as rare as the "double rainbow," but not quite.

Did I mention how enamored I currently am with the "vintage film" polaroid effect on my smart phone? It makes everything look cooler.



Even I look a better in "vintage film." I think it evens out my pasty uneven skin tone.

Not at the fair, but it belongs in the same weekend - we watched fireworks this year in a cute little Lodi neighborhood. The street was blocked off and everyone just pulled their chairs outside and watched. I love small towns!

Oh, and Luke rode a pony. This was taken as the pony ride operator told me "no pictures from inside!"

Photo Challenge Day 19: Orange

Day 19:  Something Orange

I was pretty excited about this photo challenge because I am surrounded by orange on a daily basis.

As you may remember, I recently moved into a brand new building. We have spent the last few years dreaming up, fundraising for, and watching the progress of this new building, so it has been pretty exciting to actually be in the space. Here are my contributions to the orange post and a "tour" of my new work station.

Before the boxes arrived with all of our stuff. AKA the cleanest this place ever has and ever will look again.

I sit on the end, so I get the orange wall. Hooray! Part of it has since been covered by a tag board, which made me a little sad. :(

My view. When school is in session I'll see people walking to and from classes. And the landscape isn't too bad either!

The boxes arrive! I purposefully packed orange and black poms on the top of this box. I thought it would make it more fun to open and subsequently unpack. It worked! :)

Getting all my orange and black/tiger themed knick knacks in order.

More color and more tigers. :)

I took all my pix of Luke home during the move so they wouldn't get broken and haven't brought them back. I miss his little face, so I better get them back over here ASAP!

One of my real life friends just started doing the photo challenge too!

You can check her photos and more about her fun life in Texas over at Kate Eva



Day 18: I love my Toms

Day 18:  Shoes

I'd heard of Tom's Shoes and, in general, thought the concept was pretty neat. For every pair of shoes they sell, they give a pair of shoes to a kid in a third world country who can't afford shoes. Something like that. I love that idea. But...at the same time, the cynic in me was thinking, "Really? You buy $40 shoes just so a kid in another country doesn't have to go bare foot? I'm pretty confident if you were really buying the shoes as a selfless act to help a kid in need it'd probably be better just to send the $40 and they could buy like 100 pairs of shoes."

But...then you wouldn't have a really cool pair of trendy shoes now would you?

I didn't really know I wanted a pair - partly based on principal and the aforementioned cynicism. Then my brother-in-law bought me these for Christmas. And...they make me feel really cool and trendy....and pretty great about myself because a needy kid has a new pair of shoes. How very Machiavellian!

Regardless of my cynicism, they're mine now and I love them.

My goal is to embellish them with some sparkles.

What do your Tom's look like?

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Day 17: The last thing to go

Day 17:  Technology

I'm skipping a couple of days just to keep this show on the road.  Today is our last day in what has been our temporary office building for a year. Everything is boxed up and ready to be moved into our brand spanking new building back on campus. The technology is the last thing to pack up and then we're off!

I'm still doing the 30 day photo challenge.
View the rest of the challenges - including the ones I skipped!

Day 14: The Eyes Have It

Day 14 of the 30 Day Photography Challenge

Eyes

People always comment on Luke's eyes. The comment is usually followed by, "where did he get those eyes?" Since it is obvious that I had nothing to do with them, I always have to defer to Justin. "From his dad..." wah wah (sad trombone).

Luke's eyes may be rad, but not everyone has one of these:

Day 13: Cars Cars Cars

Day 13:  Yourself With 13 Things

I can assure you there are 13 cars buried somewhere in there even if I do only count 10 in the picture. This was a hard one to take myself. My favorite is the red guy on the right. We have matching faces!

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Day 12: Back at it

Day 12:  Sunset

I've been dragging my feet on this particular day of the photography challenge - the sunset post. Partly because we're usually tucked away in our cozy cottage around that time (yes, I realize how early that is) and it just seemed like too much of a hassle. Tonight we were on our way home from meeting the family in Livermore for dinner and I noticed the sun making its final stand after working overtime to bring us near-triple digit temps in the valley today.

This picture says "spontaneous summer evening to me." Kind of like those car commercials that I love where people are driving with their hands sticking out of sunroofs and some quirky indie band provides the soundtrack.

Day 11: in the Blue Room

Day 11:  Something Blue

The wall in Luke's room. In typical "Luke" fashion, he loves pointing out the ball lights every morning. "Mah ball momma. Mah ball."

I'm doing the 30 day photo challenge
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Day 10: College Memories

Day 10:  Childhood Memory

Not exactly a "childhood" memory, but now that I am officially 10 years out of college it might as well be. Along with working all weekend at our big alumni reunion event, I also got to celebrate my 10 year reunion! Yikes!

Here I am with Diana in our sophomore year dorm room. She put up with my messiness and passive aggressive tendencies for 3 years! There should be an award for that. :)

And here is my son about to throw a ball at the head of her unsuspecting 8-month-old. Man, I kind of owe her...

Day 9: I love my boys!

Day 9:  Someone You Love

Here are two of my favorites. We bbq'ed tonight for some friends before leaving an almost-in-bed Luke with Grammy and Grandad so the grownups could go see The Hangover 2. Dirty business, but a nice little respite before the craziness of our 3-day alumni weekend event begins tomorow.

I'll be working 14-16 hour days tomorrow and Saturday, and another 8 on Sunday, so bear with me if I have to play catch up on these posts next week.

Too tired to link to the list of challenges...see previous posts for the 30 day list. Adios!

Day 8: Birthdays and Bad Habits

Day 8:  A Bad Habit

I love Starbucks. I love it. I used to get by on a once a week fix. Now I feel like I need it every. single. day. I breathe a little sigh of complete and total satisfaction when I stab my straw into that beautiful iced grande (Venti on Thursdays) chai tea latte. I hate that I crave the caffeine and the mini emotional high that it gives me, but try as I might I just can't quit this bad habit.

And since today is MY birthday, I shouldn't have to. :)

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Day 7: Low hanging fruit

Day 7:  Fruit


My husband's aunt and uncle own this company. I'm not a huge fan of berries (the seeds gross me out), but these strawberries are amazing! Fun strawberry trick:  dip them in sour cream and then roll in brown sugar. Sounds weird, but it's one of the greatest things I've ever tasted! (And it covers up the seeds.)

I had already planned on the above photo for my fruit post. Then I went in the backyard and saw that this tree was sporting a pair of pears just for me. "Pear for Perry!" as we like to say.

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Day 5: High Angle

Day 5 is "From a High Angle:"

Starting the Nike Women's Fitness Festival 5K run this morning.

I'm doing the 30 Day Photo Challenge
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Day 2: What I Wore Today

Day 2:  What I Wore Today

Necklace:  Shop in Costa Rica

Gray Cami:  Old Navy

White layering tank:  Tilly's

Embellished cardigan:  Old Navy

Black Capris:  Target

Black peep toe wedges:  Target

View the whole list here:
30 Day Photography Challenge