How Quickly It all Goes Away

Okay, I hate to admit this, but I have just spent thirty minutes pretty much spending my entire paycheck. Where does it all go?

I'm going now in search of something really sweet to get me through this.

Shooting Star

Okay, I have spent about two hours today and a bunch of tape fixing what can best be described as a mini-studio.

I saw this somewhere, somehow - it's amazing how if I really sit still long enough at the computer I can find all kinds of things and never really know how I got there.

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

This is a link to the spot where I found out how to make a cardboard light box or whatever they call it. Anyway, I am really looking forward to playing with this, not because I may start selling small items on Ebay - who has time? - but really because I just love making stuff and seeing if it will really work.

Needless to say I am already happy with the results, and this from simply holding a lamp next to the box while shooting the picture. Actually, I balanced the lamp on my knee while shooting the picture, and not even using a tripod as suggested in the article.

Read the article if you are interested in photography. I love the stuff he does in the article linked at the bottom of the link above - he uses granite and foam board to make a picture that looks like it could be in a magazine or catalog. Amazing.

Expect to see some odd stuff from me. But just for fun - lol. And here are a couple of my first shots.

Sassy

Well, the trouble child Brent and I have has finally made us proud. I have just found out this afternoon that her picture has won first prize in the Beaufort County Humane Society's Photo Contest in the Favorites Category.

Below is the picture I took, about seventh months after we got her. Brent and I both knew that was the picture we would send in for her.

I just hope that Petey can stand the star power we have here with her as part of the family. :-)

So, who has pets? And are they prize winners like ours?

National Boards

I have been wanting, for a long time, to write some about my experience with getting my National Board Certification.

I found out in November, and that was probably the best thing that happened to me all fall and winter.

Getting your National Boards for a teacher means several things -

1. You've spent up to three years trying to prove that you are a really good teacher/media coordinator. Which really means you have jumped through several hoops while having it videotaped and then you sat down and "reflected" on the hoop jumping - like how high did you jump, what would you do differently next time, did everyone get something from your hoop jumping, etc.

2. If you work in North Carolina, getting your certification means a 12% raise in pay. And that's the reason North Carolina is number one in the nation for the number of teachers who have their certification, in my honest opinion.

3. It also means that you get to hang a great certificate on your office wall so that everyone can see that you are Board Certified.

4. And finally, it means that you get recognized at a dinner held in a high school cafeteria this week, along with the others who earned their Certification this year (I think there were only four of us in the county this time.)

So, that's sorta it for that. Dinner on Thursday with some other National Board Certified Educators. Should be a hoot.

The Garden

2008_0411odds0023
Originally uploaded by leaseuhd

For those of you following the flowerbed, I have posted pictures to Flickr, because if you are going to get into this Web 2.0 thing, you might as well dive in head first.

So, what will hopefully happen is that the picture I am using will let you click over to Flickr to see the rest of the pictures.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Harbinger of Spring

I was reading an article in one of Brent's fishing magazines earlier today, and I saw an article entitled "Tuna: Harbinger of Spring."

Well, I don't know about you, but I'd have to say that they missed me with the whole tuna thing.

What I say is the "Harbinger of Spring" is our local ice cream truck. Ice cream truck, you say? In these days and times? Yes, folks, in this part of Washington, there is an ice cream truck, and he drove by today.

I was sitting inside watching TV when I heard the harbinger of spring - the tinkle of the ice cream truck's music. And for some reason, that made me happy. Like, YEAH, it's finally here. (Although we are reportedly going to have a frost on Monday night, because the temps are going to drop so low!)

And no I didn't run out to get an Eskimo Pie, or Rainbow Pop, but I may next time, now that spring is here.

Twenty Years Later

I had a wonderful thing happen to me at a meeting I had to attend on Thursday for school. A lady came up to me and asked if I was Lisa Williams, and I said I used to be, and she said, "Do you know who I am?"

And believe it or not, I did.

When I was a freshman at NC State, I met lots of people, especially as part of the Teaching Fellows Program. I met September there, and we are still friends to this day. I also met a girl named Debbie White, who was from New Bern, and who was married and pregnant, but her husband was in the Marines, so she was living in the dorms like we were.

Debbie White is now Debra Kinsey, and get this, is the Assistant Principal at John Cotten Tayloe right here in Washington. Amazing!

I am actually tickled to death to reconnect with her. We exchanged some information about our lives, and I told her Sep would not believe it when I told her - and she didn't. So now we are going to try to get together here in Washington - if I can get Sep down here - and have a good old remember when session.

So, I was thinking, I have some pictures from our wonderful journeys we took as Teaching Fellows - lovely shots of people that look a little like the people I know now. But what is really cool about this picture I am including here is the date on the back of it - May 1988 - twenty years ago - when in the hell did I ever get to be this old?

So enjoy folks! (Debbie is the one in the middle, and Sep is the one on the right.)

Finally, Pictures

Before

After

For a better shot -

For those of you from around here - that dark and light on the grass - that's sunshine and shadows - sunshine - can you believe it?

Twitter Updates on the Web Site

It's really the silliest thing. You sign up for an account, and then you can send just brief bursts of nothingness from your cell phone. It's addictive. You can also access it from the web. Very cool. Great for doing when you are sitting still on Highway 17 for ten minutes.

All Summer In a Day

Ray Bradbury wrote a story about a planet where it rains all day everyday for like seven years in a row, with one day of sunshine every seven years - well, I am living there. And it is damn depressing.

Flower bed pictures on hold for some natural light.

Flower Bed Redux

Okay, I have just finished showering after a very busy morning during which Cindy finished up the flower bed out front. I helped, and Brent helped a little (he did all of the clearing before this part of the project), but Cindy really did the lion's share of the work.

And it looks gorgeous, so I will take some pictures later today or tomorrow - hopefully the sun will shine.

So be looking for those.

The worst part of today was the fact that it rained so much yesterday and Friday night that if we stepped into the new part of the bed, we sunk down to our ankles. Seriously. So we haven't been able to test out the stepping stones, and we have a really, really muddy porch, which I want to spray off, but will wait to do.

But it was nice visiting with Cindy, and it is a beautiful flower bed with lots of promise for the years to come.

My Little Blue Car

Okay - here is a picture of the final product of my little blue car I made - with Brent's help on the stand. The theme for the spring bookfair is "Take a Reading Road Trip," and the clip art includes pictures of cars piled high with books on top like luggage.

I really wanted him to be much bigger, but it just didn't happen. But I think he's cute.