mommyfish's Xanga

Busted in my bathrobe...again...

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:04:39 GMT

I work out of my home. One of the luxuries of this, is that I often don't have to get out of my jammies and bathrobe until absolutely necessary.

But unfortunately...and you'd think I'd learn...it happened again today. I had made an appointment for a painter to come by and give us an estimate on re-staining the house. At 9 a.m. he showed up (right on time), but was I dressed? Nooooo...there I was in my bathrobe, looking like a dork. I had completely lost track of time while working and totally forgot he was coming. I don't even think I had brushed my hair...egads.

Now, the UPS man is used to it. He just laughs and says he's jealous and wishes he could work in his jammies. Keep in mind, he usually delivers packages in the mid-afternoon. Jeez...you'd think I could at least throw on some sweats by that time.

Our swim coach doesn't usually call before stopping by either. I told him once that we are now officially related, cuz only my relatives see me in my bathrobe as much as he does.

Today I told the painter that we were now best friends. He laughed.

*sigh* I'm in real clothes now...let the doorbell ring.

Got gas?

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:58:31 GMT

We've been paying around $4.45 per gallon for gas these days. I drive a mid-size Honda Accord which costs about $65.00 to fill up. We live out in the country, so just driving to town uses about 1/4 gallon of precious fuel. I figured out the other night that when I drive to the video rental place, it costs me about $3 to pick up and return the dang thing. If I rent an old video, I'm paying twice as much for gas than for the silly video!

Barbara uses Netflix which I've decided is the wisest way to go.

Besides lowering my freeway speed, which I've mentioned before, I've rearranged my errand-running to include as many errands as possible that can done within a circular route, with little or no back-tracking. I write down all the places I need to go, then rearrange them according to location along my route. I only go out once a day, and only when absolutely necessary...thus the real reason why "I don't get out much." I'm an efficiency queen when it comes to this sort of stuff.

George and Barbara both happen to work within a couple of miles of each other and need to be at work at 6 a.m. So George fixed up his electric bike, and carpools with Barbara in the morning with his bike in her car trunk and then he rides it home. Perfect. I have a bike available to me that I could ride to town for short errands, but I haven't done that yet...cuz, well...I need to get a basket for Daisy. I know, that's a lame excuse. I just need to get off my butt and start pedaling.

What I really want is another motorcycle. I used to ride a Honda Nighthawk 450. I loved that bike. Probably not gonna happen. So meanwhile, we're looking at electric scooters...but with a top speed of 45 mph, I dunno...there's no varoom. Barbara is getting one in a couple of months...she's on a wait list right now. The online company is looking for dealers...hmm...something to think about. We're seeing more and more scooters on the road...it could be the transpo of the future here in the states..or at least here in the land of Santa Cruz.

We'd consider a hybrid car, but they're just too darn expensive.

Mail order
Slower highway speeds (under 60 mph)
Efficient errand running
Carpooling
Electric bike, scooter, bike, motorcycle
Hybrid car

What are you doing to save gas? Are you doing anything at all? Why or why not?

Just curious.

Classy Ladies...

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:34:24 GMT

George and I had another photo class last weekend with two lovely ladies who happen to be sisters-in-law. Dawn has loved photography since high school and has a new Canon 40D that she needed help deciphering. Tammy was pretty much just starting out with her new Nikon D300 that her husband gave her last Christmas.

So where do we begin? With the manual of course...

George is forever telling me "Read the manual." Drrr, I'm an auditory learner. Just tell me what to do...

Early on in my photographic learning stage I realized that just about everything with photography is opposite. If the aperture is large, the depth-of-field is small. But if the number is large, the aperture is small. If the shutter speed number is large, you'll get less light, but if the number is small, you'll get more light. It's very confusing to me, so I made an at-a-glance chart that I can reference and get in my head. These ladies really appreciated it...

So, can anyone tell me what the first assignment of the day might have been? That's right! "24" We grabbed our gear and headed off down the road to our favorite truck stop...

Dawn did her best to get as many different angles as she could...

While Tammy aimed for the yellow truck...

George corrected her stance...

...focusing hand under the lens, elbows in tight, one foot slightly in front of the other (optional).

They had a great time and will hopefully be back soon for the second half of the class.

Now, I'd show you their images, but I realized they're on my laptop and I'm just too lazy to transfer them, so you'll have to suffer through mine instead...

What a good ol' truck...so many different ways to look at it.

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I hope y'all have a fantastic weekend.

Those darn kids...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:55:45 GMT

I helped entertain Brittani's little sisters and brother at the birthday party last Monday night.

They have a tent trailer outside the house where the kids can play...

Having a digital camera is a big plus cuz the kids get a HUGE kick out of being able to see the image right away. The girls acted so silly...

But little bro did his best to act nonchalant...

They're pretty adorable though...

We had a good time, me and the kids...

Rolling stones gather no moss...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:35:36 GMT

...but concrete does. We live in the woods, lots of shade, lots of moisture...lots of moss.

A friend lent us his pressure washer recently and since, as many of you know, I don't get out much, I found this to be extremely exciting. And since I don't have anything else to post about, I'll bore you to death with my before and after photos of our back patio.

Before:

The lower left corner had already been cleaned. The rest of the concrete was covered with moss.

And after about six hours of hard-core pressure-washing....ya, baby!

Nice huh?

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Another xanga buddy is visiting...Caitlyn comes all the way from Pennsylvania. She's also buddies with daughter Barb and staying with xanga buddy Brittani. Monday, we celebrated her birthday which is the exact same day as Brittani's...

They had strawberry shortcake with whipped cream in lieu of birthday cake...yummy! Brittani is in the purple sweater and Caitlyn in in the red/white stripes.

Caitlyn, Barbara, Alison, Nicole, Vanessa, Brittani, Noelle, and little Miriam. All sweet girls.

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Okay...back to work...

Hot Diggity Dogs...

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:42:44 GMT

Deco Dog

Bat Dog? Rat Dog? I dunno, Something Really Weird Dog

Hungry Dog

Under (the table) Dog

Bag-o-dog

Wonder (if it's really a) Dog

My dog

Hot dog

Have a great weekend, dawg...

I need a life...

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:01:15 GMT

I woke up with the WORST headache today. Both Tommy and I got a case of sinusitus and boy did it knock me out. I think I'm over the worst of it though. Poor Tommy was in the thick of his case during the Olympic Trials. His coach said Tommy just sat there with his head in his hands...it was very painful for him. Just going a few inches under the water was excruciating.

To make matters worse, he couldn't take any kind of medication due to the potential for random drug testing. Even over-the-counter drugs could have caused him to be disqualified from the competition. But he persevered and did his best in spite of how he felt.

This is his 100 fly event last Friday...he's in lane five, you can see him at the bottom of the screen at the end of the race. (We projected his race up on the big screen at church...this is a picture of the screen) Again, he had the fastest start off the blocks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpa8IyNZ60w

He's home now and seems very relaxed and ready to move on to whatever's next.

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We borrowed a pressure washer from a friend the other day. I've been dying to use it on our aggragate concrete which is actually the greenest thing I have growing around my house. There's 22 years worth of moss out there and I've been having my way...spraying the heck out of it, off my patios. I'd forgotten how pretty the stones are under there.

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I came up with a Time Budget a few weeks ago. It helps me stay on track with my priorities, and allows me an appropriate amount of time for goofing off. I'm not sure if Xanga should fall into my Social Life or Goofing Off category...what do you think?

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Our church handed out over 1000 hot dogs and drinks after our local parade on the Fourth of July. All free. We've become known as the Hot Dog church...how funny is that?

We also had free Bibles available for anyone who wanted one. This pile was almost gone at the end of the day...

Barbara helped draw the crowds by standing on the corner and yelling "FREE HOT DOGS DOWN THIS ROAD!"...

She attributes her yelling technique to being a swim coach. Ya...she can yell. No wonder we served over a 1000 hot dogs.

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I've now exceeded my goofing off time allowance...gotta go.

I hope you're having a great week...

Final Stretch: Swimming with the best...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:03:42 GMT

In case some of you are wondering why I'm "mommyfish", it's simple...I'll tell you. Both my kids have been swimmers most of their lives. They are the little fish...thus, I am the mommy fish.

Barbara is now 23 years old and is one of our swim team's coaches. Tommy is 22, and finishing up his swim career this week...he will start coaching next month. This photo was taken by Barbara of Tommy at a State Junior College meet a couple of years ago. I believe it was at this meet that Tommy broke the National Junior College record in the 200 Fly...twice. He and Barbara were the only swimmers from their college team who made the State cut.

"Final Stretch"

And in case you haven't read my bazillion blogs about Tommy going to Olympic Trials this week...

Here's what went down this morning:

First of all, George and I were frantically driving around town looking for a high-speed connection, knowing Tommy's race was going to start any minute. I was besides myself, thinking we were going to miss his race.

As it turned out, we ended up at my photo lab, where we found the site with live coverage (www.nbcolympics.com) and started watching about half way thru the third heat. At this point we still weren't sure that we hadn't missed his race!

We called Jason who told us Tommy was seeded in the 10th of 11 heats, which meant we had about 12 minutes till he got in the water...we were tuning in right on time. We called Barbara who was frantically trying to load the live-stream at her work, but was being unsuccessful. She did however get to www.omegatiming.com site where she could watch the results as they occurred, but not the actual swimmers. Meanwhile, Jason was quick-thinking enough to videotape the computer screen at his work...too funny! I can't wait to see how it came out.

When the camera showed Tommy stretching before he got up on the blocks, I started crying. I just pointed and said "There's my boy!" I can't even begin to explain how proud I am of him. I still get choked up thinking about it. The entire photo lab crew had gathered around the computer to watch...they all cheered him on.

We know Tommy gave it his all, but his time came up short of making the semi-finals. In the end, there were 20 swimmers and only 2 seconds between himself and the 16th place finisher. I had mentioned before that being sick can take its toll on a training schedule, and this was no exception. Two seconds. Every little bit counts at this level. It absolutely doesn't matter to me...he swam with the fastest swimmers in the world...and held his own beautifully. He knows how proud we are of him.

I spoke with Tommy this afternoon. There's only one word to describe how he's feeling...RELIEVED! I was thrilled to find out that another swimmer from our team and her mom are at the Trials and they took him out for ice cream and to the zoo. Otherwise, as he put it "I would've been alone...in my hotel..." How sad is that? I'm so thankful he had a friend there who knew just what to do.

So now he's relaxed and ready to swim the 100 Fly on Friday...the pressure is off. It's all just a great experience from here on out. Hopefully, he's taking some pictures...haha...he just keeps forgetting to do that! Silly boy.

Thanks for your support and encouragement. This will be an event for us to remember for many, many years.

~Nancy

Hmmm, maybe I should be "mommycoach" from now on...

EDIT: Here's the youtube of Tommy's swim, he's in lane two (he's in the first shot, stretching his arms over his head, he's swimming in lane two, second from the top of the screen):

Silver Anniversary...

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:40:22 GMT

Yesterday was George's and my 25th wedding anniversary. Last fall we made the decision to shoot a wedding on this day inspite of the fact it should be a day of huge celebration just for us..hehe.

Sarah, the bride, is the sister of Liz whose wedding we shot 10 years ago. Sarah joked that she hoped we were enjoying the party they threw for us...and everyone kept wishing us a happy anniversary. It really was great way to spend a special day.

The best part was gathering three couples around us at the reception for a group photo that included the bride and groom, her sister and husband with their two children, and their semi-adopted sister and her husband. We have had the honor of photographing all three weddings over the years...

L-R Kristina & Ricardo; Ben, Thomas, Carolyn & Liz; George & Me; Sarah & Phil

We were treated like family (even though we worked our behinds off), sat and ate with the bride and groom, and got chocolate cake to top it all off!

Congratulations Sarah and Phil. Thanks for making our day special...

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And thanks Jason and Julie for taking us out for a lovely Greek lunch today!

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Tommy will swim his first race on Tuesday morning. I spoke with him this afternoon, and he said he was about 85% feeling his best. He should be at 100% by Tuesday...it's gonna be a great race.

Bikes, rocks and other random stuff...

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:40:47 GMT

Along my Xanga Buddy east cliff walk the other day, we happened upon some beach cruisers and I challenged myself to a "24" shoot out. Hmmm...I couldn't seem to interest anyone else...

The bench everyone sat on while they waited for me had a very, um..colorful...paint job...

I told you about the rock store we visited. No, not rock star...rock store...

They had beautiful displays and cases of crytalized rocks. I didn't write anything down so I don't remember what any of these are, but they were really cool....

The store next door, obviously didn't take itself quite so seriously...

After Charlotte left for Big Sur, Janet and I took a meander through the redwoods at the end of my road. We did more talking than picture taking, but this image makes it look like we went leprachaun hunting...

So, ya, I still have a cold...woe is me.

But the really sad thing is, Tommy came down the same cold first, and he is really feeling awful. He leaves in two days and swims his first event at Trials on Tuesday. We all hope he recovers in time. This cold has totally interfered with his training schedule which is designed to have him in peak condition on the day he swims. Interruptions in the schedule wreak havoc with his conditioning. Shaving off or adding even hundredths of seconds can place him 10-15 spots ahead or behind everyone else...that's how close the times are.

His hope is to get a best time. He wants to end his training career knowing he did the best he ever has. I truly pray he accomplishes this goal. He has worked so hard.

A young teammate sent Tommy a card today telling him how excited he was for him, and that he looked up to Tommy so much. Tom will be coaching on our team after this, and will be such an awesome influence on so many young people. Can you tell I'm a proud mommy?

Psalm 77

11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

12 I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.

13 Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?