Emotions

Hey!  Start jumping!

It's Leap Day! - Only once every four years. I keep forgetting there's a February 29th to contend with this year. What to do with an extra day!

In honour of this special day, (ha ha), my daughter Kate's boyfriend, Damian Sommer, (independent video game developer), jumped over lilypads at the chance to come up with one in tribute to Kate! In his own words, "It features ukelele playing and giant evil bats!" He stressed to me that it was created in only two hours. If you play this game, you'll hear Kate's songs, singing voice, ukelele strumming AND be able to kill bats, all at the same time. Awesome!
Check it out. (might take a minute or so to load).

Damian made a game for Kate!

I'm amazed by Damian's creativity. He has lots of other games on the go too. As for my OWN creativity, good grief. I love to write, but why is it I can't EVER take good auto-pics, (let alone create online games!) Tried to take some shots today. All horrible.

Either WAY too light,

MUCH too dark,

way too heavy on the devil red-eye,

insanely blurry & over-exposed, - ai carumba! I mean, come ON!  Just ONE decent shot please!!!!!!!!!

I friggin' give up. Books, instructions, tripods, photography, just NOT my forte!

I keep listening to Howard Stern on SIRIUS, talking about his current photography lessons, (when he's not swamped with America's Got Talent),

his Nikon, all his success with celebrity shots,

calendars featuring his gorgeous wife, Beth, you name it. Guess all it takes is money to finance major-league lessons. Not altogether true though. Howard can just do ANYTHING he puts his mind to.

This one was about the best I could do. Oh well. Whatever.

After all these failed attempts, headed off to visit Auntie Ray at Christie Gardens. Has been far too long since she's held court with me. This is the parking lot, on the way up to see her.

Sam loaned me his iPad, (after giving me a crash course lesson on how to use it - no easy feat, as I am severely iPad-challenged), so I could show Auntie Ray the "squirrel/porcupine" videos shot by my sister, Carrie. I had a sh**load of notes jotted down to try & follow to make this happen.

Miraculously, managed to put the contraption in front of Auntie Ray and actually SCREEN Prickles the Porcupine in action! I knew in my heart, she HAD to see the tribute to Uncle Ev, so lovingly and beautifully put together by Carrie. (between the two of us, I think we were Uncle Ev's BIGGEST fans).

 
 I kneeled beside Ray to watch the video "Imagine the Possibilities", (knowing she would be in tears by the end), when Carrie sings the number she composed and performed, in honour of Uncle Ev, and Stella, the squirrel. Yep, Auntie Ray cried. And so did I. Then I hugged her. Haven't even told CARRIE yet that I gave Auntie Ray a private screening! She raved on & on about Carrie's talent, as a singer, composer, puppeteer, voice artist, etc. And I second ALL of that in EVERY way. After the show, I took her down to the dining room, made sure she got seated for dinner, and cried when I left.

Ray Staples is a very special person. I love her.

Shana Tova!

September 28/11.

Going to my parents-in-laws' place tonight to celebrate the new year. Mum always prepares a fantastic feast! Will be nice to see everyone and share all the delectable goodies including apples, hallah and honey for a sweet year!

I didn't get much accomplished except laundry, cleaning the house a bit, visiting Kevio and going grocery shopping. Bought some flowers, just because I needed them.

Later today, will pick up more flowers to take to the celebration as well as some pop. Not much of a contribution to the festivities, but that's all I've been asked to bring! Plus an extra chair! (The condo doesn't have enough seating for such a big crowd)!

I also met a nice couple outside the LCBO while buying Henkell for Kev (and me!) Their names are Juanita and Michael Fast.

We chatted and they explained to me, Juanita is Cree and Michael is Shuswap. They are engaged to be married soon.

They make beautiful native key chains, bracelets, necklaces, dream catchers and other trinkets out of colourful glass and wooden beads and sell them around town.

I bought a key chain with two bright blue feathers for Kate. (this is her fave shade!) So pretty, she might even find a way to wear it in her hair!

Kate has so many different styles and creates new looks every day!

Naturally, I think she's stunning!

And awesome!

And beautiful!

And a terrific model! (unlike her spazzed out Mum - just scroll down for proof of THAT!! LOL) - Our cat, Tru, looks thrilled here. (not!)

Meanwhile, Kate went for a job interview today. Hope she gets it!
Good luck Sweet!

Oh, and the other day, I was back out in front of Riverdale Park on Broadview Avenue, in my continuing quest to get a good portrait at sunset, with backlit hair.

So far, this one is the best I've managed to get, by sticking the camera on top of my car and taking an auto-shot. I'm using it as my Facebook status pic at the moment.

Another auto-shot attempt

At any rate, I met a young photographer named Mark Fung who was carrying a Nikon camera. We started talking and I asked if he would mind taking a photo using my camera. He agreed and then offered to take a few on his Nikon and email them to me! How cool is that!!! I told him about the blog and my ongoing futile pursuit of getting a decent backlit shot. He very kindly took a series of pics and later, emailed several. Mark is a very good photog, but sadly, I'm no model, - especially on a bad hair day!

Photo by Mark Fung

This one is the best of the bunch. Nice golden backlight Mark! Thanks so much for making me feel special at this outdoor "photo shoot" - "Work with me Baby, work with me!!" It was really fun, - (but NEXT time, I'm bringing a hairdresser)!

P.S.

This is the pic I'm always trying to recreate. Taken by my husband, Sam, on a trip to Mexico in 2007. Sunsets there are stunning, so the backlighting is gorgeous! (Oh, and the Margueritas are great!) Cheers!

P.P.S. - Just got alerted in a message that it was my daughter, KATE who took the pic in Mexico, NOT Sam! (sorry about that!)