A shot of the Casa Rio Restaurant.

The Riverwalk appears especially festive at night.

A quieter section of the Riverwalk, near the La Villita section.

Labels: pictures, travel

It just occurred to me that I never did post any of the handful of pictures that I took while in Los Angeles in July. Since I was really only there for about 18 hours, with seven hours accounting for sleep and three hours in an interview, I didn't get much of a chance to sightsee.

I did, however, take some shots at my hotel, the Millennium Biltmore, which was faaaaaabulous. Please excuse some blurriness--I was exhausted after the six-hour flight and famished. Not a good combination for me, if you know me. Also, these pictures are yoooooge. Sorry!

Off we go:

The lobby was cavernous and stunning with its ornate Art Deco style.




I stayed on the tenth floor, otherwise known as the Concierge Level. Just as I checked in, the complimentary Happy Hour in the Club Room had ended. Drats. But I did get to enjoy a very fancy and free breakfast there the following morning. This is a shot of the stairwell from the tenth floor, which I took on my way to my room at check-in.



And here's a shot of my room. The bedding was probably the comfiest I've ever slept on in my life.



Tough life, isn't it?

Labels: pictures, travel

...and all I got were these couple crappy pictures.


OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! It's Dave's tour bus!



...and there he goes, making a beeline for the entrance to the arena with nary a glance in my direction. So close, yet so far...



At least Taylor Hawkins was nice enough to stop, say hello, and smile for my camera!

Labels: bitching, Foo Fighters, music, pictures, sheer insanity, travel

Just got back from the penultimate show of this Foo tour.

Unfortunately, I got COLD BUSTED at the door with my Nikon (man, is ANYTHING going my way lately???). So I had to turn around and take it back to the car. Damn.

The show was okay but I think they're just tired! Their last show is tomorrow night at the Meadowlands. Dave's voice is sounding worn down.

I do have a teensy bit of good news, though: in true stalker form, I sat outside the stage door of the venue this afternoon for almost three hours, waiting for the guys to come to soundcheck. The Huz was with me almost the entire time (thanks honey! You're the BEST!).

At around 3:30 p.m., two tricked-out tour buses pull up right next to us. Dave and Chris pop out of the first one and go straight into the arena. Didn't even look in our direction--and there were only about seven fans standing around outside.

Nate, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, and Taylor hopped out of the second bus. I yelled hello to each of them, and they posed for a picture for me! Taylor was especially nice.

I also got a picture of me and Sean Cox, their guitar tech. Very cool guy!

Here's the sucky part: later in the afternoon, I accidentally deleted the GREAT picture of Pat and Rami. I am so pissed at myself!

I still have a nice shot of Taylor smiling for the camera, and two shots of Mr. Grumpy--er, Grohl--making a beeline for the stage door.

I'll post the shots in the next day or two when I get home. My inlaws claim to have high-speed internet here, but I suspect otherwise. Plus, their mouse is pretty much shot and that is seriously aggravating me now. I can't work under these conditions! /diva rant

Labels: bad news, concerts, family, Foo Fighters, good news, marriage, music, pictures, sheer idiocy, sheer insanity, travel

I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing Mr. Grohl and Company again.

This will be the third show from this tour that I've attended.

And the first time I've ever paid actual face value for a Foo Fighters concert ticket.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Labels: concerts, Foo Fighters, music, pictures, travel

So I went to a Three Dog Night concert over the weekend (shut up).

I did it as a favor to my "second mom" Marcie and her aunt.

Odds were good that I was the youngest person in the venue. But they still put on a pretty good show.

I made Marcie crack up while we were waiting in the theatre's vestibule for the doors to open. An older woman a few people ahead of us bent over to tie her shoe, and a small plastic baggie fell out of her open purse.

"Hey, you dropped your weed!" I called out, just loudly enough for Marcie to hear.

Marcie started laughing.

"Actually," I corrected myself, "you dropped your Geritol."

Then Marcie completely lost it.

Bah-dum-dum!

Labels: concerts, friends, funny stuff, music, pictures

Hibiscus on my deck.

Sigh...back to work in eight hours.

Oh yeah. I nearly broke my hand this afternoon. As it is, I bruised it very badly, which I think is sometimes worse than a fracture. Some of the skin on the top of my hand completely peeled away, too. Gross!

The cause of it is so stupid that I don't even want to mention it, but let's just say it involved a very sweaty and devious Huz chasing me around the house, in his underwear.

Good times.

Labels: bad news, health, marriage, Philly burbs, pictures, sheer idiocy

I've been feeling that way lately, more so than usual for me. Not sure why.

I feel like I'm waiting for something really major to happen.

Historically, this has galvanized me into some kind of new project. That usually perks me right up. Doing home renovations, taking classes on a subject that I want to learn more about, planning a trip.

Hmmm.

Right now I just feel like I'm killing time.

I hate this.

*************************************************

I went out tonight around 9 p.m. with my camera, looking for something interesting to shoot. I wasn't expecting much, since the sun had already set and Limerick isn't exactly the hub of excitement, even on a Saturday night. But then I remembered that the local fire company was having their annual summer carnival.

I wandered around the decidedly tiny fairgrounds for a little over an hour with my camera and tripod, and made quite a few friends in that short amount of time. Nothing like a tripod and professional-looking camera to spark people's curiosity.

I wound up talking to the guys working the rides for a while. One of them, the owner's nephew, asked how much I'd charge to sell him some of my pictures.

Since this was my first time taking long-exposure night pictures, I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of selling my shots to someone. So I just gave him my email address and told him to shoot me a message, to which I would respond with a few picture attachments.

He really, REALLY loved this picture in particular. It's a long-exposure shot of a ride called the Tornado.


And for nostalgia's sake...an oldie-but-goodie:



Be good, you guys.

Labels: bitching, Philly burbs, pictures

Hellooooooo, John Mayer!!!

You put on a really fantastic (as always) show last night at the E-Centre/Tweeter Center/Susquehanna Bank Center/whatever the hell its name is this week. However, I must admit that besides your stellar dexterity and musical genius, I was most impressed by your mesmerizing, newly-developed upper body. Even though I was about sixty rows from the stage, your seemingly recent conversion to full-out stud was glaringly obvious, though I'm sure the collective gasp by the 96.2% female audience upon your arrival onstage must've tipped you off to that fact.






See you in A.C. in August. Kisses!

-Lori

PS - Don't be embarrassed. You look GREAT.

Labels: concerts, John Mayer, music, Philadelphia, pictures

Tonight while doing some photo cleanup on my laptop, I came across this picture I took while walking through Savannah's Lafayette Square. If I were better already in Photoshop, I'd be able to get rid of the cars in the background, which I think are distracting.

Maybe after I get better at PS, I'll refine the picture and repost it here.

Labels: hobbies, pictures, technology, travel

1. I had a two-hour long interview today at Company X, where I met with four people, including two very high-up people. I think it went well. I'll get feedback from the recruiter I'm working with next week.

2. I found this kid courtesy of my friend's Myspace page. He is AMAZING.



3. Finally, we've been having quite a few dramatic thunderstorms around here lately. I've been trying so hard for a long time to capture lightning with my camera, but it's really tough. The other night, I finally succeeded, though the quality of the picture isn't great. To give you an idea of how hard it is to get, I took nearly 800 shots and captured only three pictures of lightning.



What's new with you guys?

Labels: goals, hobbies, music, Philly burbs, pictures, technology, work

Well, I finally broke down and bought a Dummies guide to using Photoshop Elements. I've had the software for about three months and it still mystifies me. It's so powerful but I don't think it's necessarily user-friendly.

I was playing around with this cameraphone picture I took of myself today. Here's a shot of me rendered in colored pencil. Pretty cool, huh???

Labels: hobbies, pictures, technology

In case you're wondering, I've made the blog private because I'm in the middle of the interviewing process for a job that I really, reeeeally want.

Normally, I don't really like to talk about these things in advance (I'm superstitious that way) but this new opportunity has been my ultimate career goal since I began in my field. And now I'm finally at a place in my professional life in which I've gained the experience, confidence, and credentials to be a viable candidate for this position.

I've already done several phone interviews with both the recruiter and the Northeast regional VP of client service of the company. On Friday afternoon, the recruiter notified me that I did a "fabulous" job on the phone interview with the VP, and that he wants me to come to the office and meet me in person. After that, if I'm still in the running, the company will fly me out to their HQ in Los Angeles, where I'll have to do some kind of presentation for a panel of big-wigs.

Trying hard to keep my cool.

Other than that, I've been indulging in my latest photographic obsession: taking long-exposure shots of waterfalls in the area.

My first outing was to the Valley Creek in (where else?) Valley Forge Park, not far from my office. The process of reaching the geographic location of this little waterfall was arduous. There was no parking near the creek, so I hiked about a mile through VERY tall grass, dragging my tripod and camera case with me. When I finally arrived at this particular spot, it was hot and humid and buggy. My mind began churning out incessant thoughts of chiggers and ticks and impending Lyme disease, and I almost convinced myself to turn around and go the hell home.

I stayed just long enough to take about 100 shots from various angles, using various exposure and ISO settings. I'll leave you with this one, my favorite so far.

Labels: goals, hobbies, pictures, work

Here's a slideshow of my pictures from the wedding of our friends Matt and Jill. They were married Friday evening on the beach on Marco Island, Florida. It was such a beautiful, intimate ceremony.

Congratulations to you both, and thank you for letting us share your special day with you!

PS - I'm a little disappointed by the quality of these pictures as they appear in the video, but the original JPEGs came out crystal-clear. I don't know why the pictures don't show up that well here, though. Sorry!

Labels: friends, marriage, music, pictures, technology, travel

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Naples or Marco Island on Florida's Gulf Coast...DO IT!

I don't know this guy; I just thought it would be a cool picture. He had no idea I was even there with my camera.

Looking across an inlet at the Delnor-Wiggins State Park beach. The water was fabulous. We spent quite a bit of time in the Gulf this afternoon, and I don't even like being in the ocean!

This might be my personal favorite of all the pictures I took in Naples, underneath the Naples Pier.
Shore birds abound here. I saw HUGE pelicans (second in size only to the great California condor), sea osprey, egrets, herons, and of course, seagulls.

Labels: pictures, travel

Perhaps my imagination is running wild, especially after doing all that recent reading about the haunted graveyards of the South.

Just for the hell of it, about fifteen minutes ago I started scrolling slowly through my pictures of the First Unitarian churchyard in Charleston again...the unedited, raw footage. I took about sixty pictures there. I got to the twenty-second or so photo and blew it up on my screen, and I SWEAR....I see a man's face in it.

I'm SO not joking.

After staring at this picture for about ten minutes now, I'm still trying to decide if my eyes are just playing tricks on me. But I can clearly make out a man's face in this picture. It's disembodied, which is the strange part...that is, if you don't consider the fact that there's an image of a person who wasn't actually THERE in my picture to begin with strange.

Anyway, I can clearly make out an almost full frontal view of his face. I see his hair and high forehead, his eyes, his right ear, a mustache and possibly a beard, and the fact that he appears to be smiling. But he's not looking at my camera.

I am one of the most cynical people you will ever meet...Cayman, you can vouch for me on that one. However, I seriously believe there is SOMETHING in this picture.

I'm posting the original, unretouched picture here. The only thing that I have changed in this picture is the color; I changed everything except where I see the "face" to black and white. I still don't think it's large enough to see well here, but click on the pic and tell me what you think. Remember, it's a disembodied head/face, and it kind of blends in with the tree trunk in the picture. Yet the facial features are still SO. DAMN. CLEAR. to me.

Am I nuts?

Labels: opinions, pictures, sheer insanity, travel

I like cemeteries, especially very old ones.

I was a little bummed that we didn't get a chance to visit the famed Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, but we did swing by a beautiful graveyard behind the First Unitarian Church in the heart of Charleston, so well-camouflaged that supposedly most of the locals don't even know of its existence.

If I ever felt compelled to join a religious congregation, I would totally be down with the UU. But I digress.

This particular graveyard is the locale of many ghost legends in Charleston. You can read about them here and here. The second link also features a creepy (and probably Photoshopped) picture of a spirit wandering in the cemetery.

I took plenty of pictures during our stop here, but sadly, no mysterious shadows or glowing orbs of light appeared in my shots.

Labels: history, pictures, travel

On Sunday afternoon, we drove about 100 miles north from Savannah to Charleston. Our first stop was the Magnolia Plantation on the Ashley River. We took a house tour and a tram tour of the grounds. It was amazing. There is an array of wildlife on the plantation grounds, and the tour guide told us that a local ornithologist had identified over two hundred species of birds on the property last year.

If you're spending any time in the Charleston vicinity and have a few hours, I highly recommend checking it out. There's also a self-guided walking tour through swamplands, a petting zoo, and extensive gardens.

Here are some pictures.




The live oak-lined driveway to the plantation house.




Slave cabins on the plantation grounds.


Many peacocks wandered around the petting zoo area. This one in particular seemed to enjoy posing for me.




Here's a shot of Bubba, the resident male gator of the plantation.


Fred, a great blue heron.

Labels: animals, family, history, pictures, travel

I'm in Charleston tonight, but wanted to post a couple pics I took in Savannah yesterday.

This place was fantastic. The gardens, town squares, fountains, architecture...everything is so charming, unlike any other place I've ever visited. The sweet aroma of wild honeysuckle perfumes the air. Spanish moss drips from the limbs of the enormous live oaks that line the avenues of this small city. I'm only sorry that we weren't able to stay longer. There are tons of great photo opportunities here that I didn't have the chance to explore, due to our tight schedule.

Labels: family, pictures, travel