So Long... Farewell...

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot this week should have been simple:

Your Final Photo Shoot: Wave goodbye! Because all good things must come to an end, but I think we can leave on a high note.

Of course, I decided Milo should say goodbye, since he just loves to be exploited! So I set out to make the little monster "wave." Using a fake palm frond as a lure, I taunted him with it until he'd swat at it.

Obviously, I need to work on my framing and my timing... but it sure was a fun little project.

Well John, it's been a pleasure playing along with the Photo Shoots and the Weekend Assignments. And I'm sure Milo has enjoyed the ones he has participated in as well!

In the Mood

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot (which I'm actually doing on a Monday!): Make a moody picture. By which you can use mood lighting of some sort, or possibly arty black-and-white, or whatever you need to in order to give the shot that certain moodiness. It's hard to describe, but you'll know it when you see it, I'm sure.

It's amazing what fog adds to a picture: romance? mystery? anonymity? Well in this particular case, it was just bringing the camera from the AC of our stateroom to the hot & humid balcony that made the lens fog up. But the effect is interesting.

(By the way, yes that is that dress. It worked great that evening. Sadly, it met its demise in the dryer when we got home. I don't even think a professional dry cleaner could get the pleats back the way they are supposed to be!)

Park Hopping!

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Show us a picture of you or family/friends on an amusement park or carnival ride. Roller coasters, tilt-a-wheels, Ferris wheels or even carousels work. Usually I like picture as fresh as possible, but in this case I think it would be a little much for me to expect that you would go out and pay admission to your local amusement park just to snap a picture. So pictures from your archive are more than welcome.

I thought I was going to have to sort through DOZENS of pictures for this one. As it turns out, of my zillions of Disney photos, only a handful were actually taken on rides, and most of those aren't worth taking the trouble to scan and edit. So here's just a few:

This is my nostalgia picture. It was taken a whopping 10 years ago (January 5, 1997 according to the back of the photo) on the Skyway ride at the Magic Kingdom. I just love the fact that not only was this picture taken on a ride that no longer exists - the old lagoon where 20K was is behind me. They filled that in a few years ago and now there's a Pooh-theme playground on that hallowed ground. Also - and I admit that this might only be interesting to me - does anyone else think that ring on my middle finger looks an awful lot like my engagement ring? This one actually had a Mickey-shaped "diamond" in the middle, but I did a double-take when I found this picture.

Taking pictures on Cinderella's Golden Carousel is a dorky ParkHopper family tradition. Scott is generally pretty good sport about it.

No, your eyes don't deceive you. This isn't a Disney ride. This is from Hershey Park. I don't know the name of this ride, but it's some sort of torture contraption. It's a combination of Ferris wheel and teacup ride. And my Aunt Becky (and Scott) decided to spin us really really fast. There's something very wrong about spinning AND going up and down at the same time.

Mugging for the Camera

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of one or more interesting coffee mugs you might have. Because it's my experience that people have coffee mugs with interesting stories behind them. At least, I do.

I think that interesting mugs are things you accumulate over time. Growing up, it was fun for me to pick a mug off the mug tree for hot chocolate or the occasional tea. There were lots of fun ones to choose from. Here in the ParkHopper household, we collect pint glasses and have some cool ones, but we don't have a whole lot of interesting mugs. Maybe that's more a symptom of living in Florida than of a young marriage. Check back with me in 20 years!

Anyway, I do have some interesting mugs:

The mug on the left is a hold-out from my college days (further enforcing the theory that lack of mugs is a Florida thing). I used it back then mostly as a cereal bowl. Obviously, the center mug is current. It's my most recent travel mug purchase, and I carry it to work most days because it brings a smile to my face. Who wouldn't want their imaginary boyfriend on a mug?? And the one on the right is Scott's. He's had it since before we were married. I asked him what the story behind it was and I was informed, "it came with a pair of underwear."

So there you have it. Three examples of the ParkHopper family collection of mugs.

Affirmative CATion

After yesterday's ZoePig love fest, Milo wanted in on the action. It just so happens that his picture slides nicely into this week's Monday Photo Shoot: Present a picture that clearly shows a particular emotion. Happy, sad, thrilled, bummed, anything in between.

In this picture, Milo is clearly tolerating us. He allows us to use his favorite napping spot (the man chair) when we want. He permits us to pet him. And he was kind enough to look straight at me when I took this picture.

(if only he knew what a ridiculous position that is to sleep in!)

4 Years Ago???

After all of yesterday's excitement (and yes, I finally did get some sleep - from 8 pm to 8 am), I was quite glad to see that the Monday Photo Shoot for the week wouldn't require much effort.

You may or may not know that today marks the fourth anniversary of By The Way, which was started on this date in 2003 (here's the first entry). To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to have a historical-themed Photo Shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Find a picture from 2003 and post it. Any picture is fine; it just has to be from the now-oh-so-distant year of two
thousand aught-three. Surely you have pictures from then? Yes?

Gee... 2003... what happened that year that I might have some pictures of?

Actually, 2003 was a big year for "big deals" in my life. Besides getting married, we also got engaged, my dad got married, I got my first job promotion when I went to the Comm Center, etc. However, I was without home internet access for much of the year and therefore many of the big deals were never actually put into the computer. I started blogging the year after, so many of my activities since then have been better documented.

The Outhouse in the Cemetery

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of, or in, a cemetery. Your local cemetery is good, but if you've been to, say, Paris, to see Jim Morrison's grave, or took some arty shots of an ornate headstone elsewhere, something like that works, too.







Yes, that's me, standing in front of an outhouse in a cemetery.



WHAT?!?!?



This picture was taken during a trip to Alabama when Scott and I were dating. Being a closed-minded Yankee, I declared that I wanted to have my picture taken by an outhouse during the trip. You know - because it was my impression that there would be lots of outhouse photo-ops during the trip. You know - because it's "The South." (please don't hate me - I don't really believe all the crap that comes out of my mouth)



Anyway, it turned out that this outhouse was the only one I saw up-close during the trip. It happened to be inside the cemetery you can see on the left side of the photo. No, the outhouse was not the purpose of the visit. There are some lengths to which even I won't go for a photo.



I'm pretty sad that I don't have possession of the album of my family's trip to the UK when I was little. We spent a lot of time in cemeteries, and in some of the churches, where people are buried right in the floor. But my favorite gravestone picture was the grave of Gelert - a dog - around whom the town of Beddgelert is named. (sure, the story is a legend. but so are Robin Hood and King Arthur)

Meow! (the sound of cattiness)

Scalzi's Weekend Assignment: Humiliate your pet! Show a picture or tell a story that features your pet doing something that's goofy or silly, even for dumb animal. If you don't currently have a pet, you can tell a pet story from a previous furry pal of yours, or pass along a pet humiliation story someone once shared with you.

Gee... it's awfully difficult for me to pick just one "stupid pet trick" here. After all, while the most ridiculous thing I see regularly is Kilo sucking on his back foot (we think he was weaned too early), I don't have any photos or video of that. Same for ZoePig running laps around her cage at 1 am. What I do have photos of is Milo's penchant for squeezing himself into places he shouldn't be.

Especially boxes. The box he is sitting in here (pretending to be comfortable and casual) is the length and width of a standard DVD case. What is that? 5" x 7"? He eventually managed to curl up and take a nap in this particular box. I don't know how - or why - he does it!

It's not just boxes though. I've shared my picture of him in the fridge in the past, and I may have already published this one of him in the basket. That particular photo session got much funnier when he tipped over and it took him a few seconds to get his footing and get out of the basket. This is what makes housecleaning so much fun!

And Milo often helps me see the silver lining in a crappy situation. Last spring when my Wicked Step-Mother sent me most of my childhood (you know... everything that wasn't valuable or desirable to her), she sent a total of around 20 boxes. And in the time it took for me to invest in plastic storage bins and sort through 25 years of mementos, Milo certainly made the most of the situation!

Extra credit: Do you think your pet is actually humiliated? Umm...no! In fact I'm the one who should be humiliated. After all, I turned these pictures and a bunch of others into a "Cats in Boxes" calendar, which I then gave to family members for Christmas. Because who doesn't want picture of someone else's cats hanging on their wall right above their important reminders?

Geometrically Speaking...

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Picture something that shows off something geometrical. Squares, cubes, vectors, right angles, tangents and so on; basically, any picture that shows geometrical forms and shapes in an interesting and obvious way.

OK, so the theme is geometry. Is anyone at all surprised that my photo choice is a close-up of Epcot's Spaceship Earth?


Amazingly enough, I couldn't find another picture of the whole sphere in my archives (but here's one from Photobucket.com for reference - a pretty night shot). But that's ok - because this particular picture shows off many of the triangles that make up the surface. Here's some facts for you about the structure:

• Spaceship Earth is 180 feet high
• It is a geodesic sphere
• 11,324 triangles make up the exterior
• The exterior was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. (All water is "absorbed" through one inch gaps in the facets and is collected in a gutter system - and finally channeled into World Showcase Lagoon.)

And possibly the best news of all, the ride is currently closed for refurbishment, during which time they will remove that eyesore Sorcerer Mickey hand from the outside.

Get Me OUT of Here!

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Get a picture of a crowd or crowded event. Conventions, weddings, parties in cramped spaces -- you know, anywhere there's lots of folks doing something.

Nothing I could possibly go and take a picture of right now could top these two pictures from my photo album. I thought they had been taken on Thanksgiving, but the back clearly notes the date as December 27, 1996.

The place: Magic Kingdom (intersection of Main Street U.S.A. and Town Square)

The time: Around 3:30 (just after the 3:00 parade)

My mental state: Crazed! (Jamie no likey crowds)

This crowd was so amazing to me that I actually took two pictures - which in the days before the digital camera says something! The first picture was taken up Main Street (you can make out Cinderella Castle all decked out "pepto palace" style for the WDW 25th Anniversary celebration), and the second was taken into Town Square.

This was taken two years before the opening of Animal Kingdom, so I would guess there were over 60,000 people in the park that day. And I would also guess that most of them had stopped somewhere along the parade route to see the Christmas Parade. Now that I live down here, I avoid the parks when they get this crowded. My litmus test: if the line for Haunted Mansion is more than 30 minutes, I'm not staying.

Still, that was quite an experience. And I'm glad to have a) been there to take these pictures, and b) lived to tell the tale!

Stretching

I had a bit of trouble with this week's Monday Photo Shoot:

Capture something in flight. Birds, insects, planes, bats, whatever -- if it's getting around in the skies, it's fair game for this photo shoot.

We went to Sea World yesterday with Mike and Reyna and their 3.6 children (#4 is due in another 2 months), and I had every intention of catching a great Shamu-in-the-air picture for the MPS. If not Shamu, then one of the lame flying people in the new dolphin show. Sadly, due to our not hitting any of the shows at the right time and our leaving early in the afternoon when really horrible weather was about to rip through the area, we didn't see either show. So instead of a giant mammal flying through the air, I present a giant fish "flying" above my head...

If it's above me, it must be flying. Right? And now I shall present some irony, in the form of non-flying birds:

...and just in case any of you out there were thinking about accusing me of cheating on this MPS, here's an old Shamu picture from our last trip to Sea World in 2005. This one DEFINITELY shows an orca in flight!

Eating Tomato

Yes, I have been away from the computer for the past two days enjoying life. No apologies! I thought I'd start with some photos.

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show what you did with your Memorial Day Weekend. I figure most of you got some pictures in over the last couple of days, yes?

Just a handful, actually. Since I worked through the weekend (and even if I hadn't, I would have avoided the tourist areas and the beaches because I HATE CROWDS) I didn't have anything to photograph until Monday itself when Scott came in from the balcony holding the first tomato!

It looks huge in this picture, doesn't it? Not so. It's actually sitting on the top of a roll of paper towels that's about half-gone. Anyway, those of you who have been following the growth of the tomato plant probably understand how excited Scott was about this. He immediately cut it and ate it.

It tasted much better than you would think from looking at this picture! I actually only had one piece, which I covered with a basil leaf from the balcony herb garden. That was tasty! Now let's hope that the plant survives long enough to provide me with that Caprese salad I've been waiting for!

B-eautiful

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of something beginning with the letter "B". That shouldn't be too brain-busting, right?

No John, not too brain busting at all! In fact, this photo shoot gives me the chance to show off some of the best pictures I've ever taken. Shall we?

Here's another bonsai tree captured during the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot. Of course, I already showed off my favorite bonsai picture, but I like that you can see my former workplace in the background of this one.

And my second picture is also from Flower & Garden. The last time I showed one of my butterfly photos off, my Mom made a comment about how amazing it was that I actually got a picture of one. I have a confession though: there's a whole butterfly house full of flowers they love, and there are tons of them in there. It makes it easy for you to snap a bunch of pictures.

While this wasn't my favorite butterfly picture (poor thing has a broken wing), I just love the colors of the blossoms and blooms.

There's lots more beautiful blossoms, bonsai, and butterflies on my slide show.

The Wave

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Wave hello! It could be you waving, or some of your family, or a group of friends, or complete random strangers. I just want to see those hands waving.

I really had to dig back into my digital archives to come up with something for this assignment. There's bunches of pictures of my family members doing "jazz hands," which looks like waving, but it's just not the same. So here are the two I came up with:

When in doubt, default to a picture of a Disney Star in a parade. This, of course, is Ariel. She's presented here all fish-like for the Stars & Motor Cars parade at MGM, but she's got feet in the Magic Kingdom parade. All that magical transformation must get exhausting!

And another Disney favorite: the wave-at-the-person-who-waited-in-line-with-you-but-ended-up-not-riding photo. This is my dear friend Jackie, taking Juliette out for her first spin on Dumbo. Julie isn't the baby anymore, by the way. She's now *gasp* the middle child.

Blow High, Blow Low

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of wind. Naturally, it's difficult to get a picture of the wind itself, being that air is generally transparent. however, it's easier to get a picture of how the wind is affecting other things: hair, flags, kites, so on and so forth. You can see where I'm going with this.

OK, I was truly planning on checking out the topic of the MPS this week and going out and actually taking a picture for it. And had I checked on this earlier yesterday, I would have gotten a killer picture of the trees across the street blowing like mad. Sadly, I didn't. And so once again I am delving back into my archives from... the cruise.
The picture above is Scott, he of the plastic LEGO snap-on hair, demonstrating just how windy it was up on deck 10 on one of our at sea days. You can actually see his clothes blowing as well.

The other two pictures were taken just about a year apart, on two separate ships, but both during the "Sailabration" sail away deck party, and I'm drinking the same beverage in each - a daiquiri/colada swirl in a souvenir cup. (in the second picture I'm also holding Scott's Mojito) These pictures were also taken up on Deck 10 - one with the wind in my face, one with the wind at my back.

P.S. - bonus points to the first person who can tell me from what show the title of this post is borrowed.

...and Zoom Out

Here's the reveal for the Monday Photo Shoot extreme close up:




That tacky gold rose was actually one in a series that runs around Belle's fancy ball gown. This was one of my favorite "Jamie" moments on the cruise - standing up on the stage and getting up close and personal with these fabulous costumes.

Random Fact: The Cruise Line costumes are all created by the people at Creative Costuming at the Disney MGM Studios, and you can see into their workshop from the Backlot Tour tram ride.

EXTREME Close Up

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of something in extreme close-up -- so close it's hard to tell what you're looking at. Ask people to guess. On Thursday, reveal what you've photographed.

Oh boy, these are my favorite photo shoots! I think this one is pretty tricky. Scott has a chance, but I'm not sure anyone else does. So here goes...

I must admit, I'm a little bummed I just used those Easter egg pictures from work - that would've been great! Oh well, I think this picture looks pretty grand, don't you?

As John asks, I will be back Thursday to reveal the big picture.

Update: Here's the zoomed-out picture.

CHIA Herb Garden - Day 55

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a snap of some of the latest blossoms and blooms near you. If for some reason it's still too chilly where you are, one, you my sympathy, and two, go ahead and use a picture from your archives. But everyone else should go out and take a fresh picture if they can. Let's see what spring looks like here in 2007.

One of the bummers about our balcony herb garden is that it doesn't yield pretty flowers. True, I could have gone 15 minutes from home and captured some truly beautiful professional floral displays (after all, the Flower & Garden Festival is just around the corner - I'm sure there's already a ton at Epcot I could have captured). But I'd rather showcase what's at our own home.

These flowers are on our granddaddy basil plant. This plant has yielded us countless spaghetti dinners, fried eggplant sandwiches, etc. and Scott has even cultivated lots of other basil plants from it, which have been potted and distributed to random people. This particular plant is really past its prime, and has been replaced on the sunny shelf by one of its babies.

While we're out on the balcony, let's check out how our CHIA experiments are doing! I think this might be my last CHIA update, since it seems the crops have stabilized. Obviously, the cilantro is thriving, as are the chives. What shocked me this morning is how well the one single sprout of "don't count me out" dill is doing. I might actually go so far as to say it's a success. Still, it's one sprout. Not a whole lot of culinary possibility there!

Workers on my Vacation

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of people working outside. Because now the weather's right for it (mostly). If you have a photo in your archives of people working outside, that works too.

You know, I was hoping the MPS this week would be something I could use to flaunt more of my cruise pictures. Thank you, John!

Both of these pictures showcase the fabulous crew of the Disney Magic working hard to keep the ship umm... ship shape! Sorry, couldn't resist! The first picture is of the guys painting the bow of the ship while we were docked in St. Maarten. Wow - add that to the list of jobs I don't want! The second picture is a guy on our veranda, stripping the wood on the railing and then refinishing it. Of course, not everyone wears a yellow jumpsuit while painting. Goofy just wears his regular clothes!

Magnetic Personality

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Show off your refrigerator magnets. Because you know you have 'em.

Me? Refrigerator magnets? Well ok, but remember you asked for it!

Here are the front and side of our fridge, in all their magnetic glory:

As you can see, we - ok, I'm not even going to ask Scott to share the blame on this one. it's all ME - I am a big fan of magnet picture frames. There are pictures of me and Scott, my bridesmaid Bridget (back in the college years), me and Minnie Mouse, me and the Grinch with two guys I haven't seen since around the time of the photo, Mike and Reyna's kids, my cousin Jenn and her family (this year's Christmas photos haven't made it up yet), and two little girls whose names I don't remember. Perhaps it's time to reevaluate the fridge-o-pics...

Of the non-photo magnets, most are from places we've been:






Moose X-ing, from my last trip to Wyoming.




Hershey's Syrup from - you guessed it - Hershey Park. There's also tons of Disney ones scattered around. In fact, the big tacky pink castle on the side of the fridge was a gift from a girl who works at Disneyland. We've never met, but she came east once and we exchanged random tourist stuff.


...and the statue of David, dress-up edition. I prefer David in the dirty construction worker jeans, but he always seems to end up in the boxers (or, when certain friends used to come over, nothing but his tool belt).

Also featured in this picture is the local Papa John's magnet. And the one shaped like Alabama is from the "Alabama Radon Education Program." What? Like you don't have one too?

Actually, growing up, my family had magnets shaped like every state we'd been to. They were in geographical order, but not to scale (Delaware was almost the same size as Florida). My mom still has them on her fridge, and I think she may actually have all of the continental US now that she's actually been everywhere.