No Longer Using this Blog address at Blogger to post my blogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,

I will continue posting on a Daily Ramblings and Photos blog, but just not here on Blogger.

My new URL address from now on is lindajeffers.com
(All 3 of my websites are accessed from this address.)

Please come by and take a look. Once there, remember to bookmark the new address. And........... let me know what you think. Comments are always welcome. I love getting comments on my blog, AND also on my photo site.

I will no longer be posting here.

See you soon at http://lindajeffers, or www.lindajeffers.com or lindajeffers.com. (any of these addresses get you there.)

Much love,

Linda

A day or two away from using my new blog host, WordPress.

(All of these blog posts have already been imported into WordPress)

I'm having a few techy problems.

First I'm having difficulty with a good internet stream using the VZAccess adapter I have which makes it almost impossible to upload photos right now for some reason.

Second, I am real close to having all 3 of my sites: Gottago's Adventure Site, my blog, and Smugmug, all linked on one home Front Webpage. As soon as this happens, maybe in a day or two, I will post the url address. I believe www.lindajeffers.com will be the address you will use to access this new site. Right now www.lindajeffers is in cyberspace not linked to anything. This web domain name (www.lindajeffers.com) is in the process of being transferred from my old web host server to a new web host server - Erik (the gentleman who is building the insides and outsides for the connected new look and works on my sites).

And now on the brighter side of things................
Guess who came for breakfast this morning, a wee bit earlier than yesterday morning, and a lot more visible and he even stayed for a longer visit.

I got such a high from Mr. Bear's visit I could not hold my camera steady, I used the video vertically rather than horizontally, I asked Ray to use my small camera to get shots of the bear but he said, "You're using the small camera!" Oops. I switched from video on the small camera to photo taking, took a photo through the glass door with the flash on. I made a mess. I certainly lost my cool. Needless to say I didn't get any great shots. But you can see that it's a bear.

I tried opening the door to get to get a shot without glass in front of the bear. The bear eating out of the birdfeeder, noticed the second I opened the sliding glass door just a bit. I stopped opening the door, mind you the bear is less than 3 feet away from me, until the bear starting eating the seed again. Each time I quietly slide the door open an inch the bear stopped eating and looked directly at me. He was afraid of me.

Ray, quietly seated 2 feet from me at the door (probably he was standing in front of his seat) must have thought I was crazy. But he didn't say anything. Finally the bear had enough of me trying to capture a good bear photo and split....down the tree, faster than I could have ever imagined he could have gotten down. I ran out on the wet porch with Ray but the bear was walking away and I lost my opportunity to get a good bear photo.

But I have proof there was a bear coming for breakfast. He was a half an hour later than yesterday morning. Now that I know he is making this visit a regular practice I will make sure I have my large and small cameras ready for that one great bear capture.


This is the shot I took through the glass door with my flash on.

Email sent to Alex this morning.

Hey Alex,

Thanks for stopping by my site. You have no idea how much it means to me that you check out and notice all the work I’ve done on getting the photos photoshopped, re-sized and uploaded. Working on Smugmug (cleaning up the organization) and communicating with Erik over details of the new site, has occupied a lot of my time.

I just got out of bed. I was laying in bed, like I do when I first wake, propped up on my elbow, looking out the window at the scenery. (I do this at home too) From the bedroom window I can see much of the porch railing near the tree and the bird feeder where the birds are always fed. This actual bird feeder on the deck outside isn’t visible from the bedroom but much of the railing, porch and pine tree is.

So I’m staring out the window, through morning unfocused, tear crude filled eyes, when I see a blur of movement that is large and obviously not birds. I lift myself up a little higher on my elbow and blink trying to clear my eyes. The thing I’m trying to focus on is brown. It’s moving away out of my vision, moving down and behind the massive pine tree, out of site. I can’t see the brown anymore. I yell to Ray, who is in the main room in the cabin, “BEAR, BEAR, BEAR”!!!! I jump up out of bed and run into the room where Ray is seated 8 feet away from the bird feeder just outside the floor to ceiling window. “Did you see the bear?”

I no longer can see anything climbing down the porch railing or the pine tree. It’s raining outside. There is sap that has dropped from the pine tree all over the wood slat porch flooring (I hate getting sticky sap on the bottom of my feet or soxs), but I don’t care. I pick up my camera and charge out the sliding glass door into the rain….in my pjs. Photo op. Where is the bear. I do not have my glasses on. I’m moving too fast; I’m way too excited. I can’t see the controls on my small camera. I’m frustrated. I spot the bear down the hillside maybe 20 feet away, his back to me (I think – no glasses) and he’s moving away.

Oh no, I hope I’m on a good enough camera setting to get a shot of the bear. Oh well, I shoot away hoping the dial is set to something that will capture the bear. After one shot, the bear starts walking faster, seemingly aware of my presence I think, away down towards lake’s edge. For a moment I think about getting a video of the bear, but I can’t see the dial settings and now the bear is too far out of sight. What a rush. I walk back through the sliding door ,into the warm living area, and Ray and I excitedly share our “Did you sees……?”

My glasses are on, I’ve taken my once a month Boniva pill to promote good bone density, and I am seated looking at the email I received from last night. I’m hyped up, have the coffee Ray made me, but can’t drink it because I’m not supposed to drink or eat anything for an hour after I take the Boniva pill. What am I supposed to do with all this adrenaline? Write my morning down in this email to you Alex, that’s what I’ll do with the adrenaline rush.

We had been told when we arrived and checked in here at Wood’s Lodge that the bear has visited our cabin and climbed up on our porch over 28 times. We’ve been waiting and hoping to catch a “safe” glimpse of the bear and now we have. We love it.

Hey bear. Hey bear.

Thanks for listening to the reporting of a great start to our day.

Love,

Linda

Here is the bear. The photos were really dark, almost black, so I had to photoshop them a lot.

Never left this position all day!

Today was overcast. Ray was sore from yesterday's hike. I had domain website stuff going on. And the tone was set.

What a glorious day I had after I got email back once the my domain site decided to allow connections again after shutting down for a few hours. It's time for updating my sites. Erik in the UK is working on transferring my stuff from my present web host. We have been in contact daily. He has been working on some really cool Front Pages for my new blog site on WordPress and my photo portfolio on Smugmug. Gottago's Adventure site will keep it's same look and hopefully will stop causing Erik so much trouble moving it to his domain for web hosting. Hopefully soon these 3 sites will be accessed and linked on one URL - www.lindajeffers.com.

I played lots and lots of Word Twist on Facebook. I am totally hooked. Damn Cindy. She topped my high score today by 2 points.

I watched many Adobe Lightroom tutorials online. I'm becoming so much more familiar with this software. Knowing how to use it has saved me lots of time. Time I'll have no trouble quickly filling.

Back to the rest of my evening. Ray is in bed and I figure I have another 45 minutes before I join him.

Insistent little buggers.

Each day this guys get more and more insistent about wanting their food when they want it. Well actually, I get that. It's just that if we don't slide the screen door shut completely they have learned how to use their little hands to slide open the screen door. I guess it doesn't help that I leave the bag of bird seed, within their vision, next to the screen door. Soon I will post a video of their "It's time to eat" behavior.



Ray and I hiked up the Mammoth Crest trail today. I've posted photos on http://gottago.smugmug.com. I was putting captions under the photos when the Smugmug site went down for their routine weekly maintenance. The site will be up after midnight tonight.

Here is a silly photo of Ray at the top of our hike today. The lighting on the photo didn't turn out so I put a solarizing filter on Ray's photo because I like his expression. He probably won't be happy with me.

We are acclimated.

Cyrstal Crag Lake - our dayhike today.

This ground squirrel did not like us being gone for a couple of hours.

Photos of today's hour hike around Lake Mamie may be viewed.....

I've posted the photos of today's hike shots taken with my little Canon Powershot A 650 over on Smugmug.

And, here are a few more photos of early morning shots just after I put out the first feeding of bird seed.

I forgot to post this:

9:16 am Tuesday, August 18th.
Ray just said while sitting in his lounge chair drinking his morning coffee, before his breakfast has been served, and after putting down the book he is reading: “I was just sitting here thinking, I don’t have any resentments against you. Isn’t that marvelous?”
I liked hearing that. This is a miracle. Ray just said that the only resentment he has is getting old. I understand and agree.

Lake Mamie photos on my photo site - Smugmug.

Yesterday I took some photos with a new lens, the Canon 70-200mm 2.8. It's the first time I've used it. I've posted some of the photos on my Smugmug photo site. For easier viewing, there is a Slideshow option in the upper right hand side of the photo gallery page.

I plan on using Smugmug more than I have in the past. The site is a work in progress.

Also in progress, and hopefully not too far in the future, I will have all 3 of my sites - blog, smugmug and gottago's adventure website linked on one Front Page. I'll let you know when this happens.

Enjoy.

Some insight into what occupies my time up here in the cabin while acclimating.

Since I purchased VZAccess ($59 a month!), which affords me internet access on my computer, I now have internet in the cabin. There are about 8 photographers' blogs I normally follow and I continue following them up here. (I also get out and shoot too.)

So.....I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what I read this morning.
When you have time, if you want to read about a special salesman named Derrick and see a very motivational video of him video taped by Zach Aris, read Zach's photographer's blog. Start your reading with Zach's blog entry dated Aug 12th and then continue reading two more blogs about Derrick, dated the 13th and 14th.
Zach continues to be inspirational ever since I first became aware of Zach when he posted a Wednesday guest blog video on Scott Kelby's blog 6 months ago. (If you haven't seen this video of Zach's on Scott's site, this is a must see.


Then, I converted some video of the birds around our cabin.

My kinda day.

I got up early and caught the morning color on Crystal Crag after I put out the first serving of bird seed. The local market is selling a new kind of mixed seed and it is a big hit with the birds, chipmunks and ground squirrels.
So far the only birds we’ve seen are: juncos, stellar jays and a few black birds. One of the black birds has a gimp leg and basically flops in the center of the bowl bird feeder while eating. Each year Ray and I always look for the bully birds. Well I don’t know if this black bird is a bully, but he sure has a way of non verbally communicating with the very loud stellar jays that keeps the jays at a distance until the black bird decides to give up his bowl.

It’s usually the second day we are in Mammoth that Fatso shows up. Fatso fills his jowels with food, runs down the tree, must bury the food, as he comes right back up for more food. All the chipmunks and ground squirrels that feed from the flat plate on the floor of the porch, not so patiently wait their turn at the feeding plate when Fatso is feeding.
Ok, it’s 10:09pm and I am still in my pj’s. Ray is still sore from packing up his Tahoe and then unpacking it in again in Mammoth. Believe it or not, we bought and carried 21 of the quart sized yogurts up here and Ray had them all in an igloo, covered with ice. That makes for a very heavy carry. Here are a few of our reasons for staying inside the cabin all day:

1. We are not yet acclimated to the 9600 feet elevation here at Wood’s Lodge and get dizzy washing dishes. It usually takes until the 3rd day when we start to feel ok with the altitude. I woke up with a pounding headache from being in the altitude and somewhat dehydrated.
2. I wanted to get my “Food” photo assignment completed that’s due Tuesday.
3. I’m addicted to Word Twist on FB.
4. I can’t stop photographing the birds and squirrels.
5. I am so enjoying not having an agenda.
6. Ray’s hips are really bothering him. He’s so worried he’ll need another hip surgery.
7. Ray wants to get into the first of many books he brought up here.
8. And, because we can.

Tuesdays are 2 for One days at the Snow Creek golf course and every day from 12 to 3pm is half price.
Tomorrow I’d like to hike around a bit, take some morning lakeside photos and evening lake photos by lake at Wildyrie Lodge. Except for a newspaper and the mustard I forgot to bring, I see no reason to go into town.

Another great poem by Susan.

Poem by Susan Alvarez
copyright 2009

WINDOWS (NO TALKING)

Looking in and looking out
All I've done is scream and shout
Somebody help me, I can't see
What is right in front of me

The broken glass has fallen inside
I can't run and I can't hide
I only run into myself
and so I'm jumping on God's shelf

Where God can get a hold of me
To squeeze me tight and set me free
it's only there that I can breathe
And look at what's inside of me

God take the tweezers, remove the glass
I'm bloody and bleeding and I can't last
Here alone without your grace
I'll die for sure in a lonely place

Why did you let me out of jail
and give me a key on which to impale?
My fears, my doubts and all my lies
I'm all alone and NOW I cry

It hurts so bad inside my soul
Was I better alone and whole?
The pieces they fit and they are sure mine
God, give me some glue of your design

While pieces lie broken, I can't repair
The things of which I am so unaware
So pick them up into the light
and clean me up and make me right

I want to just walk so deep in this life
with none of the tantrums and none of the strife
the silence seems deafening and I just can't hear
So speak very loudly and speak very clear

Your words like milk, to this lonely calf
who's been sent here to love and just laugh
My heart is not broken, it's beating inside
why was I running and why did I hide?

I felt all alone and lost in deep time
I forgot for a moment where I am divine
with cracks in the glass of this windshield called life
it's all an illusion, and sharp as a knife

I'll put down the glass and I won't impale
I'll listen to him and I will exhale
breathe out the fear, the pain and the doubt
Breathe in the love so God screams and shouts

Clear off the rooftop, I'm tall, I can leap
God's made me fearless and given me feet
His legs I can stand on to walk to the light
out of the darkness for His love is right

He lays me down slowly right by the path
returns me to you so I can just laugh
this life is a journey and it never ends
whether we're lovers, family or friends

God He takes nothing to love me this way
He leads to water when I go astray
When I am just lonely alone in the dark
He lights up the candle, He sends me the spark

My soul is on fire and that's real OK
It's warming and lovely, God made me that way
Not scared of the embers that He leaves inside
I don't like the ego and I hate the pride

I'm giving that up so I can just say
it's not what I wanted, I just want to pray
to open this package and unwrap the gift
walk out of Your light as Your love I live

I know I'll be scared, it should be that way
I'm walking the road, I won't go astray
With You there to guide me I can't loose a thing
I am Your puppet, just pull on the string

God thank you for courage to be by myself
I'm climbing back often to You and this shelf
I thought I was lonely up here all alone
But sometimes I need to just come back home

I hear the laugh, it's calling me now
I'm full of your wonder and now I know how
to stop for a moment and just let You in
It's You that is healing, it's me who can win.

Josh Jeffers and his new girlfriend, Amanda.

I just got off the phone with my stepson, Josh. He is very happy. He's got a girlfriend he met two weeks ago and they're very happy together. Josh told me he had emailed Ray these photos. I stole them from Ray.

It's 3pm. I'm still in my p.j's. I've made breakfast and lunch and the rest of the time I've been shooting photos of food for my next online class assignment or photographing the chipmunks and birds. Ray is reading. This is a true vacation. What constitutes a true vacation? Doing just what I want to do.

Saturday - 1st day in Cabin 18 at Wood's Lodge in Mammoth.

Ray and I finally left home for Mammoth at 8:40am. We arrived in Mammoth around 4:15pm. We'd have arrived in Mammoth sooner but Ray had to stretch his legs in Bishop (my eyes are looking upward in that - yeah right- look) ...and since we were in Bishop why not stop and visit Wilson's Sporting Goods. I had a first in Wilson's. I spent nada. Wilson's is a slip store for me (and Ray apparently....he bought something). It's a bitch when you have everything a store sells and don't need anything. You see I've been directed to ask myself, "Do I need "it" or do I want "it"?

After a small food market stop, we checked in to one of our favorite cabins here at Wood's Lodge, cabin #18. We have never stayed in cabin 19, but have eyed it with envy over the years. This year, our third week in Mammoth we'll move from cabin #18 and stay the last week in cabin #19. Normally these better location cabins are not available as families or families of family members have been renting the same cabins each summer for over 50 years. We decided late to try and get a cabin. We got lucky as people must have canceled.

I quickly shot off some photos with my small Canon Powershot A 650 just before the sun set and right after I'd put out some bird seed. The feeding frenzy took place seconds after I emptied some seed into an outside bird feeder tray on the porch of the cabin.

Friday.

Today is the day we were supposed to get the condo ready to be left while away in Mammoth. HA. Instead it was another day where the day dictates my choices rather than I following my schedule.

It's 7:31pm. I'm exhausted. Ray is exhausted. This morning Ray and I went over to Axis House to 12 step a sponsee of Ray's. That was emotionally draining. Next we spent time figuring out what to do with the Thursday night meeting and the concerns brought to our attention by Diane, the secretary of the Church. Last Thursday members brought children to the meeting and Diane commented on the fact that the children were unattended, disruptive and threw rocks around. She also mentioned we are allowing too many members to attend the meeting. Fire regulations states a max of 120 people are allowed in the room. We had 160!

We've known for a long time we had to find a larger facility. Our rent is so reasonable compared to going rents at other facilities. Now we have to look for another place. We also have to limit the number of chairs that will be set up for next week's meeting. Anyone not seated will have to leave the room. Oh, people are going to be very unhappy. The timing for this awkward change is unfortunate. I wish Ray and I could be there.

Quincy has volunteered to look for other facilities. She found one today already but the rent for one week is more than what we pay for an entire month. Alima has offered to help in her ways and so has Katya who will stand outside the meeting next Thursday and help those who won't be allowed to stay find other local meetings.

Change. I don't like change. Our meeting has changed. We need to change. We will change but I'm in fear and not trusting a change will be for the good of the meeting as I have known it the last 22 years. Ray has gone to this meeting 10 years longer than I have.

To be continued........ I need to get to packing up for Mammoth. I'll think about the Thursday Night meeting tomorrow, or the next day, or.........

Happy Birthday Paula.

While walking from El Rancho to the JTBP meeting tonight I noticed the ball of red in the sky. Too bad I only had my cell phone camera to take this photo.

Paula's parents, Carol and Tom, on each side of Paula.

Ok, I'm home. It's midnight. I'm going to bed.

A quick hello.

I've really been trying to be good spending money. Really LR. So I wasn't happy to see an unknown orange light come on while driving Monday night. I was happy to see the light quickly go away though. I hoped that the light coming on was a fluke.

Yesterday, the light came on again. I couldn't find the book that came with the car to explain what this orange light coming on was all about. Ray found the book and told me it was related to my brakes. Great, cause I was driving to Upland at 5pm. I called the Mercedes mechanic(my car is out of warranty). I was told that once the warning brake light starts to appear I could drive another 100 to 150 miles without a concern, especially since I would be driving on the freeway, not starting and stopping a lot.

Because later last night I'd have 4 other passengers in the car while driving to Upland (1.3 hour drive), Ray let me take his car.

Today I took my car to the Mercedes mechanic. That visit cost me $1050.00.

So much for trying to keep my expenses down.

At the meeting tonight, I quickly shot off a photo of Ray and the two newest ladies in my life.

Cynthia, Ray and Connie at the JTBP meeting in Rancho Mirage.

In to LA tomorrow with Ray, Paula and Connie and then Friday Ray and I pack up for Mammoth and our stay at Wood's Lodge above Lake Mary.

An a.m. walk around the golf course photo.

My photography teacher, Carol Leigh, posted a photo she took of a boy on the beach on her blog dated July 31, 2009. If you follow the link and read what she wrote, you'll see what bothers me with this kinda cool photo below.

In my photo below, I wish I'd changed the angle of capture so that the cactus (see blog amendment below to correct succulent name to agave, not cactus) point on the right didn't blend in with the dark background. Another thing I noticed when I zoomed in is that the front left cactus point isn't in focus and that is where I intended the focus to be rather than where it is on the right rear point.

Hey, I'm happy I notice such things lately.


Another student of Carol Leigh's, Lori, has a wonderful portfolio of cactus photos on her site. I thought of Lori this morning and wished I could have picked her brain on how to shoot this shot.

And I just have to post this way too funny photo of Connie's mode of transportation these days.

Connie driving Tony to her car, 20 yards away, following the woman's meeting last night.

Blog entry amended 8/16/09. I received an email from a friend who helped me see that what I had photographed was not a cactus. I was told.."you called your agaves "cactus"... grrrrrr...... they're both succulents, but agaves aren't cactus, and vice versa! Grrrrr...... you know how protective I am of my agaves, so be careful not to besmirch their reputation! >;-}"

I apologize and stand corrected!

Online photo class assignment #2 Halves - Critique

CRITIQUE: Linda Jeffers

HALVES
1. MEEEEEEEEE
I hope I included the right number of "E's" in the title!
This is a cute photo of you, Linda, and it was a good
idea for this assignment. And just as an aside — isn't it
weird when we examine a photograph of ourselves? If
we stare long enough it's almost as though the
photograph is of a stranger and you begin wondering
about this other person . . . Nah, probably just me . . .
Anyway, I like this photo. I also like how you post processed
it. The black and white treatment is
appropriate and it's flattering. You've also softened the
image, which again is appropriate. And it looks as
though you may have overexposed the shot somewhat,
which is ALSO appropriate. The little I know about
people photography, I know that the black and white
treatment removes some of the distractions that color
can create. And the softening aspect draws our attention
to the eyes, which are the most important part of a
portrait. And slightly overexposing a black and white photograph often removes a lot of the
deeper lines in our faces.
Please note: I am not saying that you are an overly tan wrinkled old hag and my, what a good
job you did disguising it! No, no! I'm saying that we digital photographers have the skill and
tools to become self-portraitists, and we can do exactly what a professional portrait
photographer might do. We can soften lines or we can emphasize lines. We can max out on
color or we can be more subtle. We can selectively soften an image, making the eyes leap out in
sharp focus.
Your lighting is such that the background really blends, providing just enough shadowing and
texture to be interesting, yet being soft enough so that your face really stands out against it,
especially the strands of your hair and the peach fuzz on your cheeks. (It's said that Marilyn
Monroe had this same soft fuzz in her face, which gave her a naturally luminous glow.)
Your glasses blend in well, don't they? We know they're there, but they don't interfere with our
connecting with
you via your eye.
Good shot,
Linda. You look
cute.

2. HALF DISTORTION
Beautiful. What makes this shot (to me) is (1) the bit of
yellow in the reflection and the sharpness of the base.
You filled your frame with 2/3 glass and 1/3 background,
which works great and ties in with the overall Rule of
Thirds in composition.
Your background is completely out of focus but has
strong bits of color in it, making your glass stand out well
against it, but without overpowering the image. Your
glass is darker than the background, which makes it stand
out even more.
My eye goes first to the lower left, focusing on the
yellow. Then it sees the yellow in the reflection, and so
my eye works upward. It then begins looking for
something in focus, and it finds the base of the glass/
vase.
This is important:
Did you notice that my eye concentrated just on the
bottom of your photograph? The yellow, up to the yellow,
then down to the base? Maybe THAT'S where your
picture is. Maybe if you turned this photo into a square, it
would be jam-packed with good stuff, without any
extraneous empty dark stuff on top. Let's take a look. (Carol Leigh posted a square version here on my critique cutting off the upper third of the vase.)
Hmmmm . . . I think I like this version a lot better. I think
we see all of the interesting things at once — yellow/
yellow/base. What do you think? Less is more?

I’m sorry, I just
had to do this.
Here’s how
you’d look as
Yoko Ono! Ha!
This looks
NOTHING like
you! (I couldn’t copy the photo Carol that appeared here to explain this last comment. In the critique she posted a full face photo she’d created of me, by somehow flipping or reversing my face to seamlessly post a full faced photo.)

3. TV SHOT
Very interesting. I'm glad you added descriptive info
— TV and poster edges — that helps me out a lot.
I'm not sure about this photograph, but I'm finding it
intriguing. Let me just sort of ramble on and maybe
something will come of it.
First of all, my initial impression was Obama/
Kennedy. I shan't go into politics, but my thinking
was, "Oh, give me a break!" The important thing
about this little thought bubble is "teeth." My eye
went first and foremost to the teeth and to the guy on
the left rather than the guy on the right, who is much
darker. So to me, you're emphasizing the person on
the left. But what's tying the two together is the bright
white of Obama's shirt. So I go from teeth to shirt and
then up to Obama's eye. All I'm trying to do right now is point out the movement in your photo
and how our eye goes from point to point and why.
I truly like what you did here. It's fresh and different. And the poster edges filter in Photoshop?
I think it worked great! You took what was (I'm assuming) a relatively grainy photograph of a
television image. So your photo is not only of halves, but of grain. How can you enhance the
concept of grain? Poster edges does it beautifully. Ink outline sometimes is a good filter for this
sort of thing, too. And the black and white treatment? Again, it works for a TV image — a sort
of retro TV feeling.
Photoshop filters can look gimmicky and obvious, but they can also enhance a concept that's
already in place. When we use filters for a reason, not just because we can, we add our own
artistic touch and vision to an image. As you did here.
I think you did a great job with this picture. It made me stop, look, and think. Congratulations.
Carol Leigh
August 10, 2009

It's me back.........I'm so sad Carol is no longer going to offer these online classes. Here is a link to her blog where I'm sure other learning possibilites will be offered under her web pages section.

Guilt free down day in bed.

I hoped I was wrong, but last night I knew my glands were sore. This morning something I have sucked all the energy out of me. I don't want to be sick. We're leaving to go to Mammoth for 3 weeks in a few days. Well, maybe whatever I have will go away over night.

Following the second part of the 5th step I heard from 7am to 10am, I got back into bed....with books! What a luxury. I've been wanting to watch the Canon D40 tutorial DVD I'd watched a long time ago, and did. There were some things I didn't know how to work on the camera, but was surprised with how comfortable I am knowing how to use the camera. In the DVD the guy suggests we learn how to use the camera by feel and intuition like we do when driving cars. I don't have to look at the stick shift to know where it is or how to use it, so that's my goal with the camera.....knowing how to use the controls without pulling my eye away from what I shooting.

Where is the time in the day?

A stolen hour at home, trying to create another photo for my online class assignment: Triangles.

It's 10:40pm and I'm tired. Lot's of phone time today plus a 5th step tonight for 3.5 hours. At 7am tomorrow we meet to finish the 5th step.

Off to bed to sleep for 6 hours.

Our very own Cind!

Cindy's first TV interview.



You go girl.

A full moon hike start.

Starting out at 5 am, the full moon was about a half an hour away from dipping beyond our vision. Connie and Mary Kay.

Still not light enough to hand hold a shot of the girls hamming it up for the camera.
And what would a hike be without a shadow shot: Connie, Me and Mary Kay.
Home watching this different visitor drinking from the water Ray put out before he left for the San Fernando Valley today.

Off to bed.

Too late to blog.

Up at 3:45am tomorrow morning to hike with Connie and Mary Kay.

Good night.

p.s. Katie was "4" yesterday!