When did Blogging get to be a Chore?

I'm a bit confused ...

I used to love to blog.



Too much.


All the time.


About anything or nothing at all ...


But now ... something will happen, I will see something or think about something and I will think to myself that I should sit down and and plonk out a post, but I never do. I guess that part of me changing is not going to change back.


Maybe ...



Maybe it will come back ....



Later ...


~~~~~~~ Crazy Company Call ~~~~~~~

UPDATE:

I am nervous even writing this in here ...

Gary told me not to, but ... this just blows my mind.

(If you are confused then you need to read a few posts beneath this or it will not make a lick of sense.)

The phone kept ringing the other day and I kept ignoring it ... it was from the same number and toll free so no one I knew. It would ring till the answering machine kicked in then stop. Not a minute later it would start all over again. I finally picked up the phone and redialed the number to figure out who the heck would do such a thing.


Ring.

Ring.

"Hello, and welcome to xxxxxx"

I hang up. The xxxxx part is the name of the company I trashed talked about in a previous blog and so now I don't dare type their name in for fear they have a 'tap' on my computer (kidding - but seriously guys ... WHERE DID THEY GET MY PHONE NUMBER?).

Hmmmm. I guess they are calling me to apologize that someone was imitating them? Like it's their fault?

The phone rings.

I pick it up. And yes it was an upper level drone from the company telling me that it was not them, to hang up immediately if and when it happens again ... and then oddly enough gave me his e-mail address to e-mail him any information I can get out of them since they have an open, active investigation into my situation.

So ...

Upper Level Dude ... am I supposed to hang up immediately or 'gather intel' for you? You can't have it both ways.

OK, a little weird, but pretty much what I assumed was going to go down.

Until:

Upper Level Drone: "Ms. Hurst we need you to take that post off your blog."

Lori: "Excuse me?"

Upper Level Drone: "The post we are talking about, we need you to delete it. In the near future."

Lori: "Ummm, well I make books out of my blog (NOW a total lie since I don't plan on making my blog into a book any more - the new Lori again I suppose ...) and would like it in there. I will think about it for after.

Upper Level Drone: "We really need you to delete that post."

Lori: "Sir, you do realize that I am very much a NOBODY and no one really reads my blog? It will be fine."

Upper Level Drone: "We would very much like for you to delete it."

Lori: "Now that you have formed your statement into a request rather than a demand ... I will think about it."

Upper Level Drone: "Excuse me?"

Lori: (totally lying) "Consider it done."


So, yeah I'm going to hell for lying and all, but I WON'T have a Special Forces Ops unit from a country we will not mention here dropped by helicopter into my back yard, smashing my back door in and holding me at gunpoint until I delete the post.

It's a win - win for everybody! They think I am going to delete it, and I get to FURTHER TRASH TALK THEM!

What's not to love about this situation?

Seriously - all this is the complete truth - I don't think I could make up something so bizarre ...


~~~~~~~ Reluctant Gardener ~~~~~~~

SO ....

A while back Gary told me in a way that only he can, that he hated my gardens.

He can actually get the message across to me without actually using the words 'hate', 'loathe' or 'despise' but the message is heard loud and clear. It is a gift he has developed as he matured. Had this been the first week of our marriage - he would have said: "Lori I really hate, loathe and despise your gardens."

His gift for keeping his mouth shut rather than being brutally honest has come a long ways ...

So I went about cleaning it up, and wasn't sure what to do - I liked it how it was. When talking to Gary about it he mentioned that he just wanted to be able to see the floor through the plants - that there was just too much.

So I started. It was the day my cleaning lady comes so I asked her if she wanted some and then dumped about a third of everything on her - but still had a mess:
While I was doing my culling, I ran across this:
One of my plants decided to grow through my ginormous bird cage:
It was so sad! There was just too much and the bars were too small to pull the vines back through so I had to do some chopping:
I've never successfully got anything to 'root' by sitting it in a glass of water, so I just let them lie on the floor for a couple of days and watched them slowly die ...

The plant was still in pretty good shape, though:
More mess - since I was not sure what I was doing, it just sat this way for a couple of days while I thought about things.
In the middle of this all, we decided to replace the carpet that had a huge dog barf stain on it. It had really been bugging Gary for a while. Someone had stupidly fed Charlie boneless buffalo wings and she was dumb enough to eat them ...

Unfortunately, some time in the middle of the night, her stomach decided that was not such a great idea and so she barfed RED hot sauce all over my WHITE carpet.

AND IT STAINED!

Who knew buffalo wings were so dangerous?

We had another rug exactly like the one that was there since we had bought two of them at IKEA in Norway since the entire house we were living in had solid wood floors. When we got here, we only needed one so put the other in the attic.

Got it out and it was incredibly filthy. We tried to clean it up and decided that buying another one sounded funner. Rolled up both the crappy ones and decided to put them in the attic until we decided what to do with them.

Don't you just love attics? They are like a big, convenient black hole! I am sure we will never see those rugs again!
Decided to let our fingers do the shopping and booted the computer. Googled "Wool Area Rug" and started looking. We decided to look at IKEA since we knew they sold wool area rugs. Got on and were wandering their website when I mentioned that I would love to buy the same rug if they still sold it and if they sold it in the US but chances were slim - it had been years since we bought them. Gary mentioned that he thought it was a little too small for the area and wished it came in a bigger size.

And all of a sudden ... there it was! And the really cool thing? It came in sizes and there was one bigger than the one we had!

Called the Houston IKEA and asked if they had it in stock, they said yes and within 10 minutes we were in Gary's truck on our way there to purchase one. Easiest rug purchase ever! And it fits beautifully (The weights are no longer holding the corners down. Why, why, why didn't I move them for the photo? It is really bugging me .... but not enough to go take another photo):
I moved everything out of the way and brought the tree from the entry area garden back to live with the other two:
I could not get them to fit, so waited until Gary came home and we decided it was impossible. So we moved two of them onto the back patio. They look lovely, but going from 70 degrees in a sun protected environment to 100 degrees in the sun ... well, lets say we don't give them much time ...
It was around this time that I realized that I really didn't know what I was doing, had liked my old gardens and had no interest what so ever in the new garden. I packed up all the plants to take to the Women's Shelter.
When Gary realized this he felt bad and told me not to do that and went about setting up the garden himself. He did a good job and I was not sure what I should do to finish it - especially so that the floor was still showing. I decided to think about it for a few days.
Gary was having a meeting on that Saturday so I promised that I would have it done by then and on Friday finished up the best I could.

See - you can see tile through there, right?
This side might not have as much floor showing:
And a lovely panorama that looks a wee bit warped but shows the whole lovely 'garden':
I might not like the new garden as well as I liked the old ones, but I don't mind it and I know that it looks better and is more practical - my love for my forests is not a logical one ...

I do like this little corner though:
I do like what we did with the empty garden space - which is weird, I know. We put the kitchen table Gary built in the entry. If someone had asked me if a kitchen table and chairs belonged in an entry I would have said no and that anyone that put one there was nuts and had no style at all.

But, then again - I am nuts and have no style at all ...
Moved the Arts and Craft desk Gary built downstairs. Gary decided he hated it only when it was closed. When it was open it was OK and didn't look organ'ish. So it went into the dining-room-that-we-don't-use-as-a-dining-room room:
All in all, things feel more organized and cleaner. That is a VERY GOOD thing for my mental health ...

And during this big room upheaval, I figured out where to put my angel! I SERIOUSLY fell in love with my giant angel I bought in Arizona and was feeling bad that I was going to have to put her away after Christmas. I could not figure out where she was going to live. It came to me while I was shuffling stuff about that she would look lovely on my desk up high where the iris vase lives. I am at the desk more than anywhere (other than my bed) and I enjoy seeing the iris vase out of the corner of my eye. I decided I would enjoy seeing the angel there more!

Not to mention the very important fact that I just got me a Super Duper Computer Guardian Angel! Based on her mass alone I should be well protected! My troubles are over ...

Maybe I will even start sleeping at nights ...

You never know what exactly a Super Duper Computer Guardian Angel is capable of. Looks promising though ...

I like her there .... just as long as she does not get excited and take a swan dive onto a monitor ...
This is here just because I was bored.
So ... that's pretty much the post I told myself every day for a week that I was going to write. Hopefully this is a phase - not that I want to blog more often. And ESPECIALLY not because y'all want me to blog more often! But because it feels wrong to do it if it feels like a chore. It should be enjoyable or not done at all - blogging, that is!

The 'Crazy Company Call' was thrown in just for fun.


Later ....




But hopefully not that much later ...

No ... That Isn't Creepy AT ALL ...

I am in the middle of an exhausting project, laying down to see if my meds will kick in and help with some really annoying back spasms ... so I thought I would post the entry I meant to post yesterday. TOTALLY LOVING the app that let's me blog in bed - horrible as that sounds ... I am in bed quite a bit and with my iPad and apps like the one that let's me post to my blog, I feel a wee bit more productive (YES I DID use the word "blog" and the word "productive" in the same sentence WHAT'S YOUR POINT?)

Ahem ...

Yesterday morning I woke up, rolled over, picked up my iPad and started with my morning 'can't-get-out-of-bed-until-my-meds-kick-in' routine. The news was ... news, the weather was going to be in triple digits AGAIN and still no rain in sight ...

Oh!

What's this?

In my e-mail inbox there was a notification that I had a new comment (I get an e-mail notification whenever a new comment is posted to my blog) from the company I had trashed talked in my last post! Um ... ah ... I never did send them an e-mail telling them off so WHAT IN THE HECK ARE THEY DOING COMMENTING ON MY BLOG?

It was a funny, icky déjà vu'ie feeling and my brain froze up for a bit. I was TOTALLY CREEPED OUT!

How did they find me?

How did they find my blog?

How did they know I was being less than complementary about them?

WHAT WAS IT EXACTLY that I had said about them? Frantically searching my brain for whatever scathing remarks I had posted ... but, as is generally the case ... I had spewed out that post typing fast - ranting and raving ... 'in the moment' if you will ... then hit "Publish" and mentally walked away from it, not looking back. Probably not the best method of blogging ... sometimes I actually do make more of an effort ... but not yesterday! Still, other than calling them 'idiots' I was thinking I was in the clear.


But ....



Seriously ...



What else do they magically know about me?

My spending habits?

My medical history?

My social security number?

My favorite color?

Did they have my address and at this very minute, have two men in suits and dark sunglasses sitting in a car parked out in front of my house?

This all flashed through my mind as I had clicked on the comment in my blog and saw it was addressing ME PERSONALLY. It has been a while since I had that 'looking-over-my-shoulder-and-checking-in-the-closets-and-under-the-bed' kind of feeling and really, really don't like it one bit!

Brings back memories of my work at JPL on a Top Secret project for the Air Force (this being during the Cold War - yes, I know, I AM ANCIENT ...). We would have monthly "Safety Meetings". The goal of these meetings, I am pretty sure, was to totally scare the shit out of you and leave you - on a scale of one to ten - an eight or nine on the "Severe Paranoia" chart.

This, of course, was their intent and it worked marvelously! I mean, being smart, calm and aware of your surroundings seemed reasonable enough for me ... did I really need to know

"What to do in the event a loved one is kidnapped in exchange for information"

or

"What to do if you, yourself, are kidnapped"

or

"How to recognize the signs that you are being followed

... on foot

... in your car ..."

or

"how to recognize the signs that an area has been searched

... at home

... at work ..."

or

memorize phone numbers in the

"Unlikely event you are intercepted, but then are able to get access to a phone"

(yeah, I DID wonder which of the events was supposed to be 'unlikely': that I had been intercepted, or that I was able to get to a phone ...)?


OK, maybe I did need to know this stuff - being prepared for any eventuality and stuff - but, man ... it took days for the "Deer in the Headlights" look on my face, the creepy, crawlies and the feeling that I was being followed to dissipate.

YEARS AND YEARS ago and there I was, lying in my bed with a severe case of off-the-charts-paranoia! Seemed ever so familiar ...

Read the lovely letter from them and calmed down a bit. They weren't threatening to kidnap anyone or firebomb my house - rather they were trying to assure me that the experience I had was in no way connected with their company and any help I could give them in identifying the person / scammer that called me would be greatly appreciated. Seemed nice enough and I calmed down a bit.

Still, I was rather startled that one evening in my silly, insipid, inconsequential blog I trash talk a company based on the other side of the planet and within 14 hours they were leaving a message on that silly, insipid, inconsequential little blog!

I thought about it throughout the day and decided that they must troll the world wide web for occurrences of a combination of words ... their company name being one of them and investigate whenever this occurs. I can not come up with any other scenario that fits ... unless one of you called the company and 'tattled'.




Um ....






did you?

There's a Question in Here ... Somewhere ...

Howdy.

Long time, no see, yes?


I have not gone through the thousands of 'Last Day at Yellowstone' photos and culled it to something that won't make my computer start smoking when I upload them all in a post ...

Soon ...


Maybe ...


I am trying to catch up on other things and not doing a great job of it.


~~ LIKE TODAY! ~~

I have a severe addiction to graphics. I tell myself that they are relatively inexpensive (albeit data hogs) and I enjoy them AND use them ... so I can think of worse things to be addicted to .... oh! and there is no withdrawal symptoms? Well, there might be ...

I have download a BUNCH lately. There is one downside - basically me being crazy ...

I have to manipulate it all JUST SO to fit into my organizing system and generally rename everything. They come with so much information attached to every .png and .jpg file that the file names are huge! They range from 30 - 40 characters long, and are embedded in folder upon folder that is also 30 - 40 characters long and before you know it - the file name with the path is so long that when I go to back up my data I get errors that x number of files did not back up because the file name was too long. AND my OCD won't let me have the nasty file names they come with. Also sometimes an item ... say a flower ... is named (at the very end of all the other information they tack on to it) '1' instead of 'flower' and so when I search in my graphics for 'flower' - that one will not show up, so I have been systematically renaming the non-descriptive files so that I can find them. Yes - HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of tiny pieces of graphics ... I AM THAT STUPID ...

So ... I was busy doing that today, ignoring all the things I was supposed to do when the phone rang. It was a number that I didn't recognize and I generally don't answer the phone EVEN when I know who it is, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Until it rang back. And then rang back again ...

"MY GOSH!!! LEAVE A MESSAGE ALREADY!!!" I thought and back to my deleting and renaming.

The phone rings again and I realize that based on the number, it is most likely a sales call and I am bored, so why not?

Lori: "Hello?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Hello, may I speak with Lori Hurst, please?"

Lori: "Speaking."

Dude with an Indian Accent: "I am from Microsoft's Support Team and we have discovered there is a serious problem with your computer that if you do not fix it RIGHT NOW it will crash and cause irreparable damage!"

Lori: "I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER! DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN. TAKE ME OFF YOUR CALLING ..."

... phone hangs up ...

Harsh, you say?

This happened to me about 3 months ago. They called and the guy strung me along for a bit, but it didn't feel right. When he got to the part where he wanted to log onto my system to look around, I said no. He said fine, and walked me through getting into the 'Event Viewer' and seeing that there were errors and warnings. I remember very clearly him saying at the time:

"Oh my G**! Your system is going to crash any minute! It won't make it until tomorrow!"

That made me even MORE suspicious. He said that they had a service I could pay for and they would clean up my system and download software so that this heinous, horrible, awful thing could never happen again.

I acted like I was interested, said I would think about it and call them back. What was their phone number? He gave it to me, and told me that if I didn't do it now, my computer would just be smoking rubble when I made up my mind.

I told him I would take that chance, and that anyway - I had a service package with Dell. He told me that "No, you don't - that is for hardware only - this is software." I calmly told him that I had purchased the software support package (true) in addition so "Yes, I did".

He continued to argue with me for a few moments telling me that I did not have the support that I VERY CLEARLY had, and then abruptly hung up on me.

First, I called the number he gave me and it was a non-working number. I then called my Dell Support Team and told them about it. He said the errors we were looking at were just the run of the mill errors you get every now and then, but proceeded to run some checks on my computer and said everything was fine.

End of story.

UNTIL THEY CALLED BACK TODAY.


Thus - the harshness.

So - I am tootling along - DID happened to fold the laundry, clean the kitchen and mess with some photos I need to give someone tomorrow at church, but WHEN HE CALLED BACK, I was back to deleting and renaming and bored out of my skull.

It was at that moment I hatched my evil plan ...

Lori: "Hello?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Am I speaking with Lori Hurst?"

Lori: "Why, yes you are!"

Dude with an Indian accent: "I have called you twice now, today to tell you that you have a VERY SERIOUS problem with your computer that needs to be fixed!"

Lori: "Well, if you would stop hanging up on me it might help ... just sayin'."

Dude with an Indian accent: "Excuse me?"

Lori: "Never mind. Now, who did you say you worked for?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "We are contracted by Dell to monitor all their computers running windows and when a malicious virus is discovered to have invaded your system, we call and fix it."

Lori: "Seriously, you're going to go with that? Nice. What I wanted to know is WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY NAME?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Iyogi. We are based in India. As I said, Dell has contracted us to take care of your computer."

Lori: "OK, explain to me EXACTLY what you think is wrong with my computer?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Your Microsoft Security Layer has expired on your computer and it has let in some viruses."

Lori: "So my Microsoft Security Layer has expired?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Yes, they provide it only for a time, then you must purchase it. Yours has expired."

Lori: "How long do they give it to you for free?"

Dude with an Indian accent: Starts up again that if we don't fix my computer now it will basically explode in my face ...

Lori: "I suppose you want to log onto my system?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "No, I can walk you through it."

Lori: "OK"

** It should be noted that I have not stopped working on my graphics this entire time ... ***

He tells me to do basically what the guy three months ago told me to do - get into the Event Viewer. I kept working on my graphics all the while telling him I was doing what he told me to do ... BUT NOT DOING IT. I figure the longer I keep him on the phone - the more money I was able to lose their company!

He tells me to do stuff ...

I mutter, ask him to repeat that step?

He is patient ... tells me again ...

Ooops! I lost it! I think we need to start over ... (delete, rename, delete, rename, delete ...)

We start over ...

I think I misspelled it, could you spell it for me?

He spells it for me ...

That didn't work, could you spell it for me again?

He spells it for me ... slower ...

OK, that worked, what next?

We move with our make believe session as I make my way through my list of items to be renamed.

Oh! Wait a minute, back up a few steps, I think I didn't do the right thing there, was I supposed to click on it or just hit return? Cause return caused my screen to go blank! I don't see the program anymore?

Oooops! I think my system is rebooting, I have the Windows logo - we need for it to reboot? Is that supposed to happen?

He sighs, says "No" and we wait.

I tell him that my system takes a REALLY, REALLY long time to boot up - maybe that is because of the virus?

He says that could be it.

We wait, I delete and rename, delete and rename ...

OK! It's back, now what was I supposed to run?

How do you spell that again?

Ooops! Just a sec!

Hmmmm, that didn't work?


THIS ACTUALLY GOES ON FOR 30 MINUTES!!!

I finish my renaming file names and move on to renaming actual graphics items.

Another misspelling, another fumble, another OK, wait, wait, um ... , um .... , .... crap, just a sec I need to start over. Just a sec, um ..., um ... oh, crap! I think I right clicked and ... now, what was I supposed to do again?

He is not very jolly and clearly frustrated with me.

I am TOTALLY STUNNED he has not figured out my sham and hung up on me again!

I start feeling sorry for him so I make believe that I get to the part where the errors are listed. Told him I was there.

When he asked me about the errors (those little inconsequential errors) I came up with a random number and told him.

I had to chuckle when he actually shouted out:

"Oh my G**! Your system is going to crash any minute! It probably won't make it until tomorrow!"

Lori: "Really? Nasty! OK, question. How did you get my information?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Ma'am?"

Lori: "It is a simple question - how did you get my information?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Dell provides it, we are their contractor."

Lori: "Alrighty then ... when did I purchase my computer?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "I do not know that. They don't give us that."

Lori: "Dell gives you WHAT information?"

Dude with an Indian accent: "Your name and phone number"

Lori: "OK, when did they give you THAT information?"

Dude with an Indian accent: says nothing

Lori: "It is a simple question - WHEN DID I PURCHASE MY COMPUTER FROM DELL? I mean you got the contract to support it ... WHEN?"


..... dial tone ......



Fun, fun, fun!

Here's the question:

I Googled the company 'Iyogi' and to my complete and utter astonishment found that they exist and do support computers!

Have any of you heard of this company?

Know anything about it?

Use them?

I don't know if these guys that happen to have my name, number and know I bought a computer from Dell (OK, I might have let that part slip during the support argument 3 months ago come to think of it) are really from Iyogi or not, but if this is how they do their cold calls - something is really wrong with them!

I Googled 'Microsoft Security Layer' and all I got was people stating ALMOST VERBATIM the same experience as I had (some having let them on, paid for service and had random charges to their credit card from them ever since ...) and ways to install it from Microsoft's website for free ...

The sites I read all said it was a scam, but I am wondering if these guys are scamming or if the company itself is bonkers. It is based out of India and maybe this seems like a reasonable way to drum up business over there ... I don't know ...

I'm just trying to figure out if I can find a way to get these guys off my back - I'm off to e-mail the company a scathing letter, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't help.

Oh, well, next time I think I will be dumber, cry every now and then AND spill my drink on my desk and see if they will wait while I clean it up (and just leave and go take a bath ...)

Meet the In-Laws ...

I don't know if you noticed, or if you have forgotten if you did notice ... but I went to Idaho this summer ...

Yeah, two family reunions, took photos, ate a bug, had my face run over by a mouse, got sick ...


... you know, the usual.


JUST IN CASE you forgot ...

Where, oh where did I leave off? And how did I get side-tracked? It was long enough ago for me (and that is, oh, about 4 hours) that I have forgotten, so I am awkwardly starting up my final countdown of our summer vacation. I have another complete day of photos ... and when I say complete day -

be afraid!

There most likely will be over 100 photos what with all this decision-making-issues I seem to be having on whether or not to put something on my blog or not. At the end, like it is right now ... deep into the night, I just throw caution to the wind - along with it go all consideration for y'all's patience and long suffering with me and my photo obsession - and dump EVERYTHING on.

Sorry. I have had worse problems ... this one does not keep me up at night ... hah! as I type this at (don't tell Gary) 2:38am ...

Some things just HAD TO BE PHOTOSHOPPED ...

So - today's title could have also read: "Sunday-and-Monday:-Since-we-just-swapped-families-Sunday-and-all-I-did-on-Monday-was-lay-around-the-cabin" but it wouldn't fit. Still ... pretty much that was it. All I took photos of was a family get together Sunday night and a sunset Monday night ...


AND STILL:


THIRTY SIX photos in this post! I think I have a problem and it seems to be getting worse. Hmmm, I will have to spend some time thinking about this. Feel free to let me know if it is driving you nuts. My thinking is the more photos there are, the less 'rambling' by me and that is ALWAYS A GOOD THING!

So ... Sunday after my sister has a melt-down at our cabin because she liked it and wanted to go back in time and come visit, relax in our hot tub, sleep in a spare bed ... After that Gary and I just lounged around. He mainly sleeping and me mainly playing with photos - thus I was getting sicker and he was not.

That evening we headed to the Glassman cabin, which became the Hurst Family Reunion central location, whether Craig and Jill liked it or not! The cabin is our sister in law Jill's family cabin and it is a beauty! Jill is married to Craig - Gary's older brother. They were SAINTS on this vacation. There is no other word for it.

They seemed to have all the meals planned out - Gary and I were clueless (or at least I was) but both Gary's sisters seemed much brighter than me and were big contributors. Had I felt better, I am sure I would have felt much more guilty about this than I did ... and I felt pretty guilty! But, by the time the Hurst side of the family showed up, I was pretty much toast having gone to Idaho ill, then having serious sleeping issues about small rodents chewing on bits of me if I nodded off, so I was a horrible person to be around. I feel rather guilty about it now, but at the time I was just trying to get by, but I can't imagine what my in-laws think of me - I was a butt.

Along with Craig and Jill, as I mentioned, both of Gary's sisters were up with parts of each of their families. There was his older sister Vicki and her husband Steve. And his older-yet-younger-than-Vicki sister Cherri and her husband Steve. That Gary has a younger brother named Steve is not a problem in the least ... Steve Hurst lives in Dallas and was not there, thus cutting down on the 'Which-Steve?' game. Actually we just shout out 'Allan', 'Hart' or 'Banana' and each knows which name he belongs to thus very little confusion ...

So - we get to the cabin for a wonderful meal - prepared and put together by 'everyone-but-me' (this became the theme for the Hurst part of the Reunion for me)

Who's floating the river? (come on say it: Everyone-but-me)


Who's making dinner?


Who's participating in the conversation?


Who is helping?


You get the idea of the game I am sure ... (Seriously ... I was a BUTT)

And while we were at the cabin, I did get some photos, so I thought I would introduce you to my in-laws! Unfortunately Gary's parents Rex and Lee (O'Leah) have both passed away and it is mainly because of that fact that we realize it is very difficult to have get togethers after the parents have passed away that Gary has pushed my family to get together every year. I grumble and complain, but I have wonderful memories, and making memories is what it is all about.

Here is Craig and both of their current dogs, I have forgotten their names (SHAME on me ...) and I am not waiting till morning to post when I can ask Gary so they shall remain nameless (unless I get ambitious and come edit this later ...):

And Jill:
And to make sure the dogs got 'equal time':
Seriously, these guys were wonderful. I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around me when I actually showed up for something, but I did catch on that Craig had made a fishing pond with treats for my niece and nephews children. Many more little touches that didn't need to be done, but they did it and it made a big difference! I meant to send Jill a thank you note (with a big 'I'm sorry I was such a butt' addendum) but I am just now feeling decent and it seems too late to send one now ... what is the statute of limitations for sending Thank You notes?


Anybody know?


Seriously ...

I really like their cabin and took a bunch of photos of it while photographing people:

I really like this table set:
Mainly because it has a 'mini-me'!
I didn't take many photos of everyone. I feel uncomfortable taking photos of people - mainly because I ABHOR having my picture taken, thus assuming everyone is like me and feel bad snapping away ...
Here are Gary's lovely sisters ... and I do mean lovely! I meant to mention at the beginning of this post that my in-laws are wonderful! It has been very nice to marry into a family of such nice people!

Cherri is on the left and Vicki is on the right. Oh, and have I mentioned before that Gary is a genius? Yes? It is a family thing ... their father, Rex instilled a very strong sense of the importance of education in all of them - what a wonderful legacy! Craig is a doctor, Vicki is a Computer Science Professor and Cherri is a Math Teacher - there are no slouches in this family!

Gary speaking with three of Vicki and Steve's children:
OK, I have hit my dilemma ... what do I call a child of my niece or nephew? Seriously I don't know:
At the left table: Two Steve's, a Jill and a Vicki hiding behind her hubby Steve:
Brandon my nephew (Cherri and Steve's oldest son - Oh! Get this! All three of Gary's older siblings families - Craig, Vicki and Cherri - all have five children each and all in the ratio 1 and 4 - Craig: one daughter, Vicki: one son, Cherri: one son ... yeah - we broke the pattern, but they didn't kick us out of the family or anything ... OH! And Steve - the youngest (yeah Rex and Lee had five kids) has three daughters and ONE SON! I will let you know if the pattern continues ...).

Brandon is doctor doing his residency in something to do infants in the ICU (the NICU - pronounced 'nick you') and I really should know this, but I really don't know the details ... Cherri! One of my most faithful readers ... feel free as the proud mother you must be to let me know in the comments what his title, specialty, what ever it would be called is ...

I believe he is practicing that sweet, gentle, kind look a doctor needs to put an infant at ease in this photo:
A LOVELY shot here! Two of my nieces husbands (here AGAIN ... what would I call them ... other than my nieces husband?) posing provocatively (?) while their adorable young ones watch a movie. And yes, they were being wonderful - this was the babysitting room and they were on duty all evening:
Another pretty little thing! This is Trisha and Brandon's youngest, Halle, talking to Jill ... Trisha being one of Vicki's girls: (plus Lori - Vicki's eldest daughter and Brandon - Cherri's oldest son looking less like a serial killer and more bored ...)
And just another shot of the crowd there that night (more showed up the next day):
OK, here is where my post gets a little ... weird in that 'I-have-no-control-over-the-photos-I-dump-on-my-blog' thing.

I was playing around with some actions, textures and blending modes that are specific to portrait photography. Since I rarely take photos with humans in them, I sort of got carried away, then liked it all, and all of a sudden, all these photos were uploaded ...


... Ooooops! So fire me ....

This first batch is Trisha and Halle and I liked the photo so much I couldn't stop making new variations (I DO have SOME self control ... I only put in five ...):




This wonderful photo is of Vicki and two of her grandchildren - Lori's two: Brooke and Drew (Andrew) aren't they beautiful? (I do remember that Drew was telling me AT THIS EXACT moment that he did not want his photo taken ... mean, mean, me ...)


And, yes, Dr. Serial Killer is a NEW FATHER! Doesn't seem at all excited about it! SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH an excited new daddy! Here we were trying to get Bridger to show off his matching set of dimples, but sadly he didn't seem at all happy about the fact that I was taking his photo, all we got was drool:




WHEW!!! Almost done! I am sure you are so excited!

Sunday ended and Monday began and I stayed in the cabin in hopes of resting and feeling better while Gary went with the group down the river. Went back to the cabin that evening and I was so nausious that I couldn't talk (when I am going to throw up, for some reason a sure bet is to talk ... really SUCKS since you can't TELL SOMEONE YOU ARE GOING TO THROW UP ...) so I hid in another room and played with my phone apps. When counting activities that I attended, Gary says I can't count that one ...

On the drive home, the most beautiful sunset started. And had I posted this seperate - the title would have been

"Chasing Sunsets"

since that is EXACTLY what we did. We would drive to a place to get crap out of the foreground or someting nice in the foreground and by the time we got there, that part of the sunset was expiring, but, wait! Over there! Another part is lighting up! So off we would drive - only to be thwarted again ...

This went on for about 4 or 5 or 6 (?) mini races with the sinking sun and we finally gave up. I knew I was in trouble with the last stop, I jumped out of the car as fast as a nauseous person can and pointed the camera and took about 5 shots wondering what was wrong with my camera? It was showing black and white and had lost all color. Hmmm, crap, another camera death?

Um, no ... I looked up FOR THE FIRST TIME since exiting the car only to find that the sky was indeed, only black and white - the color was gone ... Must have been scary tired to think my camera was broken before I thought to look at the actual sky rather than the view screen on the back of my camera ...

But! Before all that, I took some shots with a bunch of crap in the foreground:
And you know me ... if I can get rid of it, I will:
Thus preparing the way for me to play:

And folks ....

THAT'S IT!





YOU MADE IT!




YOU SURVIVED!




I'm going to bed ...