I'm late I'm late...

Sorry, I was out of web range yesterday so I am late posting. I thought I would put a picture of Laura Brown's wedding from 2006. I went there and hung out with her for a few days and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

And I hear she's pregnant...yay!

Capoeira

Life resembling "fluid acrobatic play" . . .

As the years stretch into a decade; seeing days, 

hours, and moments as dance-fighting is getting easier to picture.

(of course mine's the totally naïve, baby version)

Allyn catches a...

Two years ago, Alyson and I bought kayaks. I didn't care for fishing, since I'm from Iowa and fishing always meant sitting around a farm pond drinking beer. After buying the kayaks, Alyson taught me how to fish in salt water. This involves catching fish and not drinking beer (at least for me). Most fish are catch and release for me, I usually catch tiny ones.

I LOVE my kayak and can't wait to use it again. Our weather today felt perfect, but I know the water is still cold. My kayak is a 'sit on top', so I don't worry about drowning but I do get water in my boat. The picture here is me in my kayak in the intracoastal waterway at Wrightsville Beach, NC October 2007. If you can see the fishing pole, I caught what Alyson thought was the world's biggest flounder. It was actually a sting ray and it took me for a ride! After taking this photo, Alyson had to paddle like crazy to catch me. She held out the fishing net, only to find it was way too small... the ray was at least 3 feet across.

Three ducks walking along. . .

OK, I found this in the botanical gardens. It is my FAVORITE place in Indy, and I thought appropriate for my first picture post (don't worry Ryan, lots of pics of the dogs to come!).

last summer...

i feel like adding another one. this was taken inside the burned out mable peabody's beauty parlor and chainsaw repair last july. lorra, the pretty army lady who is now in baghdad, was home for her last two week leave, and there were many alcohol-soaked antics to be enjoyed. while paying homage to mable's by taking a shot on her steps, lorra noticed that the only thing holding the door closed was a 2x4 nailed across it. 2x4's are not army strong and we were quickly inside. my foot is the converse-clad one, followed by (going clockwise) dayna, audrie, ayejae, jess, cherry, and lorra. i really wish i could blend some of my worlds and have all of my wonderful cottey girls meet all my beloved crazy denton girls. i love them dearly.

Beauty

Beautiful isn't she? Jen (my partner) is an amateur photographer specializing in nature photography. We spend a lot of time chasing down wildflowers, hopping across streams and climbing mountains to get the perfect shot. (Heather and Kat - this might sound familiar). Usually I bring a book...or just wander off as she "does her thing" - a few Saturdays ago as she and one of her photographer friends took pictures of wild-growing daisies in inner-city Phoenix - I decided to go graffiti/mural hunting. And that's how I met this amazing woman - kicking back on the side of a building in a rather sketchy part of town.

Once More With Feeling

I borrowed this photo from the theatre archives. It's from the one show Paul and I have done together. At least the one time our characters interacted with each other, we were both in Inherit the Wind (worst show ever-the script is okay but it was a horrible experience). This is from the end of The Nerd - I don't remember if it actually ever happened in the show.

Blast from the Past

My addition for today is a photo of me with one of our kiddos from San Francisco. Heather and I moved there in 2003 when we finished undergrad and lived with a family of four: mom, dad, 2yo boy and brand new baby girl (Heather was present at her birth). This particular little munchkin was a tough little nut, sleeping only 45 minutes at a time... ever... even at night.  I was the only one who could get her to sleep more than that (once or twice) and absolutely the only one who could get her to sleep out in public. When we moved to Boston we missed them terribly and were sure that the kids would forget us, especially little miss, as she was under a year old. Much to my delight, however, somewhere deep inside she remembers me and loves me still!  When we see them for short vacations, she's attached to me like glue! I love it!  (Photo is from our vacation a year ago.)

photo friday

i guess since there's no theme yet, i get to start this off any way i see fit. it's kinda tough figuring out what to share with you ladies...some of my favorite shots would have no relevance to you since they're full of people you don't know (i'm sure i'll eventually post many of those too though). i'm gonna start this one off with my faery, who i hope will be my next installment of permanent body art. i have plans to get her tattooed on the back of my left shoulder. ooooh, maybe i just stumbled onto a theme for today...INK.
post a photo of what you would like to get a tattoo of (even if you never want a tattoo, what's something that you would get inked if you were into them?) or something along those lines...

Workout warriors

Tonight I went back to the gym for TaeKwonDo Kickboxing with Jeff. Thankfully he did not kick my ass (or head for that matter). Yes, I have been kicked in the head before so it is a concern. More troublesome is the number of times I am punched in the face, but he took it easy on me this time. I feel the best I've felt all week.

Cooler still, Jeff joined a stunt team this year. He is choreographing a fight scene and asked me to help on filming day. This is so exciting. You won't be able to see me, but I will definitely post the short film when it's done.

Jeff's MySpace page is 'Sandor' if you need some eye candy....

Photo Fridays!

Photo Fridays! Photo Fridays! Photo Fridays! Photo Fridays!

This is just an announcement, tomorrow, Friday, April 18, will be our first of many Photo Fridays.

Here are the rules;
1. post one picture each Friday
2. label/tag your post "photo friday"

That's it.

Can't wait to see your photos!

Picture Posts

Hello All!

I've been dying to do a picture post but each time I'm about to upload somebody else posts and I feel bad about taking the top spot. I'll start small. Over the weekend I promised somebody a picture of Kat and Osker with matching smiles. Here they are, my family. 

Must be genetics!

lynn wants in

would anyone be opposed to lynn getting on here as well? i've been sharing snippets of humorous posts and she'd like to have her own access. chime in with your opinion if you have one.
namaste

Parlez-vous francais?

Today I went to the beach. A lake beach, but a beach nonetheless. We wound up at Lake Calhoun, playing in the sand, playing on the swings.

We decided we wanted food. Although Linnea is my tour guide, she doesn't own a car so she is not really that familiar with how to get anywhere (this is lending itself to some funny adventures traveling around Minneapolis).

In lieu of walking aimlessly we decided to ask a guy on the corner to recommend a restaurant. He told us he does not speak English. Somehow Linnea suggests that he and I have a conversation in French. This worked remarkably well. He offered to walk us to a nearby restaurant. During our brief walk we learned that he is not French, no, he is from Kosovo and has been in Minneapolis for 5 days. But he speaks French and I speak French. Linnea just got back from South America so she decided to speak to him in Spanish. He does not speak Spanish, however, Linnea continues anyway. It worked this random street corner conversation.

So, of course my favorite part of the conversation is when he repeatedly asks me if I am American ... because he does not believe that I am American because I have a strange accent. I am loving it! My previous claim to fame was buying shorts at the Gap in Paris and the girl said "oh, let me help you, those American sizes are just so confusing!" ... so the Parisians think I am European, and now a European in America does not believe that I am American ... yay! For me this is the greatest feat of being a foreign-language-learner. If you can fool the locals (or in this case foreigners) then you have succeeded in communicating!

So, those are the highlights of my day. I posted some pictures on Facebook ...

The day after taxes

I feel kind of bad that I'm not sick. I didn't seem to catch a cold from anyone, though through no effort on my part. I've spent the last week+ slightly dehydrated because I keep forgetting to drink more water, I start the day with 3-7 cups of coffee, I never remember to take my one-a-day, and I unwind at the end of the day with a gin martini. I'm currently trying out a new brand New Amsterdam-a dutch style gin-I think you'll all get a kick out of their tag line.

Work is more of the same, with a few must-get-done-now projects. Monday and Tuesday were spent working on getting documentation ready for a new product, that isn't even close to production ready (luckily based on an existing one) that was to be presented at a meeting in Canadia on Thursday. Just as I'm winding up with the manual I asked the salesman if he wants a printed copy or just electronic. I don't even remember what he said but he was laughing the whole time. It comes out that the other salesman (in charge) decided there won't be time to present this new product at the meeting. But the kicker is, "I just found out 20 minutes ago, but Mike said not to tell you."

What! not tell me? I don't understand the rationalization used to come to this decision. I let my displeasure be known first to the salesman, then to the other two people in my office (both of which were working on other items for the product, neither of which knew of the change) then eventually to Mike, who apparently thought I didn't need to know. I probably made a bit of a scene, and I know my voice carries, but I was pissed and felt disrespected. ( I can't use that word without cringing just a little bit.)

So, we had the best weather ever this weekend though and Paul and I pruned the fruit trees and Yoshi and I spent some quality outside time together in out ratty backyard. Rain and snow are projected for tomorrow, but spring is coming.

The Founder's Passdown Cold

I think we need a new survey. I suggest "Who caught Susan's cold at Founders?" ... another fun survey might be "How many tissues have you used this morning?" (I am nearing 20).

Ah Ladies,

. . . this is for you, 

whether you are leading the crush poll,

 watching the crush poll or 

debating who to vote for on the crush poll.

(photo inspired by Alison)

glass vase cello case

folk music and ren faire

ok, as promised, here's a bit of an update on this past weekend in the world of jules and lynn.
saturday morning we had a great time dyeing each other's hair red. dyeing dreadlocks is interesting business...much easier to do when working with different shades than super-long curls. we still have the blonde streaks to do. we were going to do that before all the red, but ran out of time as we were expected at megan's (my ex, still a good friend, guitar & vocals of our little music project) house to work on music. as it turns out we could have done the blonde and not missed much because when we got there to rehearse, she was suffering from such extreme cramps that she'd already down 8 ibuprofin, 2 muscle relaxers, and a shot of whiskey. then we shared a few hits of the green variety. needless to say, not much rehearsing got done before saturday night's performance. the great thing about free folk music sets at coffee houses in denton is that they can get away with having that rough-edge quality. we did finally add one of my favorite songs to the set, though..."glass vase cello case." we also played some of our old reliables..."uniform grey," "in the road" (both by sarah harmer), "two little girls" (ani), and "then so it is" (melissa ferrick). i'm sure no one knows we're lesbians...HA!

4 of lynn's hippie coworkers came up from dallas for the show, and they, along with our good friends dayna and jess, retired to megan's house following the set for more beer and smoke. fun fun fun.
i woke up sunday morning BOUNCY in excited anticipation of my first day at faire for the season. there was a little tension as we were getting ready as lynn was not totally convinced that she wanted to wear the wrap pants, tunic, and belt with pouches hanging that i had laid out for her. we came to an agreement however (she brought a change of clothes just in case she hated it) and we were on our way to waxahachie south of dallas to enjoy the gorgeous texas spring weather. as it turns out, ms. thang has an inner rennie of which she was never previously aware, and before two hours inside the gates had passed, she was plotting how we could both afford season passes and keeping a watchful eye for the kinds of pieces she might like to add to her own garb collection. i'm so excited to have someone to play with at faire...finally. now if we just weren't so broke, it would be much easier to build her wardrobe and have fun. thank goodness for ebay, though. it's much cheaper than actually shopping out there. aren't we cute, though?
at one point in the day, we were wandering past noobler's place (noobler is one of the tinker gnomes...he sings silly songs and creates gnomish art and has a cool little house built into a hill, much like bilbo baggins' house in the shire). noobler called out to admire my chest tattoos, and we started talking about music stuff. upon learning that i play the cello, he immediately asked for my contact info. turns out he has a band when he's not being a tinker gnome; they used to have a cellist, but she moved on to bigger and more important musical ventures. so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i might be finding a band to play with here around home in addition to MERCH in san francisco.
so that was our weekend in a nutshell. yesterday i taught high school french and had to listen to (i found other things to occupy my eyes) "aloha scooby doo" in french 3 times. tomorrow i'm teaching german, so there's a much higher chance of me understanding what's going on. today was physics. thank god they had 90 minutes' worth of busy work. i only passed dr. ozkal's class senior year because he took pity on me and knew i wouldn't graduate if i didn't pass his class.
alrighty, banter is about to close which is my cue to pack it up and walk home. i was going to upload the video of us playing "glass vase cello case" but it's taking way too long, so i'll do it later.
so glad to see more people figuring out the posting thing on here. i miss you all, my wonderful cottey girls. i wish you were all here with me. we'd have fun turning this damn town upside down; smoking, drinking, petting, necking, etc...
goodnight and namaste

voting according to Heather

So, Heather suggested that I could start stripping to boost my votage. I now propose sexual favors for peeps who will vote for me...

C'mon, who is with me?!?

Thoughts for the night

Today, I saw my last new client at my current work... I have four more weeks of parent meetings, report writing, and wrap-up with ongoing clients and then I'm DONE! It's so crazy! Apparently, though, they saved the best for last and this week has been abusive kid week, to really diminish the joy of last week's sprinters.  I've had more of a workout in the last two weeks than all year!

Seriously? How would you like to start your morning like this?

"Hi cute stuff! Are you ready to come back and play games?"

"Shut up! I hate you!"

"It'll be a lot of fun!!"

"I'm mad! I hate you! Shut up!"

Oh, and don't forget, this goes along with little tiny toddler arms swinging at you to hit you or anyone else who happens to be around. Did I mention my clients are three year olds???

 

Whoo hoo!!

Thank you so much for all of your help.
Glad I can now join in on the fun!!

Flickr Tutorial

Okay, I know that some of you have seen pictures on Flickr. 

But I'm thinking that you haven't taken any. I'd like to explain how to take them because I think you are all beautiful ladies and should have a few of these pictures to share with people you know that enjoy your beauty. I think there are a few gorgeous portraits and a good portrait is hard to find. Or maybe I'm picky. Either way, you'll know how to download an entire picture with this post.

First, you have to join Flickr. You can do it for free and upload photos or not. As much involvement as you choose. All of my photos are downloadable to my friends/family (Cottey gals are FAMILY).

Second, find the photo you like. Yes, you'll have to download them one at a time. But you can do it whenever you want. They are there to stay and you can have as many as you like. The quality is good so you can have prints made or posters even. 

Third, when you click on a photo there will be options on top. One of the options is "all sizes" when you click that you can choose what size you want to download. 

A few more obvious clicks and the image is yours!

To sum it up,

1. join Flickr.

2. add me as a friend

3. choose photo

4. all sizes

5. download and have

Alma Mater

Lesli you Rock!!

Here's the Alma Mater . . .

Thanks Schoopy!

I found us on Youtube....

I was wandering through youtube this weekend and we're posted. At least Founder's Day was, among other Cottey things. Go to youtube and put in the user name of schpoopy. I showed my roommates somes of the songs and they just laughed at me. Had to smack them around a bit...

Voting

I voted for myself to boost my ratings. I now plan on campaigning for more votes....

no time like tomorrow...

hello lovely ladies. just a quick note to say i don't have time to write anything right now. lynn and i are supposed to be over at our friends' house and i'm procrastinating as usual. tuesdays are my day to catch up on internet stuff since lynn doesn't get home from work until quite late, so i'll plan on that tomorrow. can't wait to peruse all the new pics and post more of my own...tomorrow.
love you all!
namaste

:)

Okay Kali! You crack me up . . . looks like Nancy is kicking some crush ASS!!! Go Eddy!

Kali is being a dork!

Woo hoo! I am winning the crush contest. Currently 57% ... you will find me listed as "Someone else entirely ..." so I am winning because my name is not on the list, therefore I am going to take credit for every single "Someone else entirely" vote. Yay me!

:-p

Hello!

Hey girls! I love all the new pics!!! Yay! Are there more? Heather! I just have to say that you are an amazing woman, and thank you so much for all the work you've done. Pictures are a window to the past, and now we won't forget our time at Cottey. Muah!

So, where's the survey? I don't see it . . . hmmm.
Love you,
Sara

PHOTOGRAPHS!!!

G'morning Everybody!

I spent a lot of the weekend working on getting pictures ready to post. All of Sunday was devoted to uploading the 300 that made the cut. It was a long and tedious process that benefited Kat because it gave her study time, but frustrated Osker. Here he is, looking neglected and sad. 

Poor dog. 

Watch for pictures, I hoping to have them published by the time I leave work today.

Photo Slideshow

Morning everyone!

  I added a slideshow of pictures (not heather's yet) to the side of the blog! If you have pictures on Flickr and tag them csc1998 they will also show up on the slideshow!