Bookish Cat

Mom gave Dexter a new sweater for my birthday. He seems to really like it. Its pink argile. Dexter also enjoys wearing glasses and pretending to read for my stock photos. Such a good cat. It's all the kitten yoga I did with him when he was very young. Imprint training is very important with cats. It may also be that he is mildly retarted and I feed him into complacency.

T Day Update

Mom just got here. She wants me to sweep, mop, fix the record player, clean my study, vaccuum, wash my hair, and boil some eggs for gravy. Luckily I have an hour and half before guests get here. I love her!

Thanksgiving (a day early)

Thats my turkey. He's still raw - and maybe a tiny bit frozen. Hopefully noone will get food poisoning. My entire family that still lives in austin (about 12 people) are coming over for Thanksgiving (+scott) I'm a bit nervous that he is going to think my family is strange. Thankfully my mother hasn't showed up yet to freakout! I just know shes going to show up and start bossing me around even though its my dinner and my house. Sometimes she has a hard time letting go.

My favorite thing about holidays is my families Purple Jello. Its sooooo yummy. Its black cherry jello with pineapples, creamcheese, coke a cola and bing cherries. (and then pecans on top, but I grew up on a farm with pecan orchards, so i don't like them much. I also don't eat beef the other thing we raised on the farm.)

Wren

Wow. My friend Lazlo has one heck of a cute baby.

Wheres my cheese???

The answer is - in the trash. I stopped having a regular house keeper months ago because she had a habbit of throwing away important things. She also likes to hide things - once she hid my hasselblad and i almost had a heart attack because I thought it had been stolen. Turns out it was just at the back of the linen closet behind a blanket (don't ask how I found it) The latest victim was my aged yellow gouda. I can just imagine her putting the cheese to her nose, curling up her bottom lip, and then throwing it away. *sigh* At least she seemed appologetic and promised she won't throw anymore cheese away. If it weren't for silly thanksgiving she won't even be here.

Gym

I joined a gym. This may be hard for y'all to believe but I've but on almost 20 pounds since graduating college a few years ago. I used to run a few miles every day and eat extra healthy food. Then I discovered the sloth lifestyle - I stopped running, started drinking and ate mostly cheap food. Putting on pounds happened slowly at first and then all of a sudden - I'm pudgey!

So I've been doing cardio and yoga and some weight lifting. Joining a gym wasn't quite as expensive as I thought it would be and I joined an all girl gym (which is populated primarily by old ladies) so I don't feel any pressure to "preform" for others.

December 4

I'm having a big birthday party and tv show screening. Party starts at 7pm. If you need directions to my house please drop me a line or leave a comment. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there! If you need gift ideas here are some things 20 something year old girls like...

Good Ideas-
Hensel Porty Plus 1200wts Light Kit w/ Modifiers
Epson Stylus Pro 4800
Fuzzy Slippers with Hard soles
Anything from Christian Diors J'adore line
Capes
Mixed Cds
Rechargeable AA Batteries
Dress socks (argile or other size 7 or M)
Trashy Magazine Subscribtions
Photo books
Pink sound blocking ear muffs
Funny medium(small) tee shirts
Victor 1460-3 adding machine (or equilivlant)
Silver Jewlry or anything gaudy
Tea (green, peppermint or other)
Records
Stinky Cheeses (gouda yum yum)
Baked goods
Sun Hats and dresses (size 6 vintage 36,26,full)
Scarfs (not wool)
Fun-feti Birthday cakes
Power tools
Furs
Patio Furniture
Cat toys
Olives
Art (nothing bigger than 10" x 10")
Purses (homemade is better)
Staionary
Anything Monogramed (ie pink towels, gym bags)
Inky pens

Bad Ideas-
Candles
Pictures Frames
Sented Soap
Stars
Journals (i've already got one)
Cooking gadgets
Home manicure kits (the dirt likes living under my nails)
Concert Tickets

Leah and Bradly

Leah and I both went to Austin schools in Jr. High and High School. I ran into a her a few months ago and she asked if I would photograph her wedding. She didn't want tons of photos just casual shots of what was going on. I thought it would be fun so I volunteered. I loved her polka dot theme! She even had guests get into by requesting they all were dots too.

Boating

i left my gloomy house and go boating with lorenzo candice and scott this afternoon. we had a lovely time. a coldfront is blowing in later this week so it was probobly the last of the summer fun for the year.

nothing beats drinking beer and boating. what made it ultra nice was that we had the lake to ourselves!

Felix

i've decided to have Felix, the old cat that lives on my front porch put to sleep. i feel TERRIBLE about doing it, but i think its the most humane thing i can do. i've tried giving her antibiotics and cleaning her wounds with all sorts of stuff, but she just doesn't seem to heal and now she is having a hard time eating. the weather is also about to get cold and i don't want her to be uncomfortable. its silly, but this is one of the hardest decisions i've had to make in a long long time. my wonderful loving mother is going to take her in for me. i was going to, but i think it'll be easier for me if i don't. i don't want the vet to guilt me into have any treatments done. the cat is almost 20 years old. when she was about 15 she was attacked by a dog on the 4th of july. she was missing (presumed dead for 14 days) and then one day her corpse showed up on the lawn. when i ran up to her i discovered she was still breathing. $1200 later she was all fixed up. after that i decided no more extrodinary measures when it comes to old critters. so. dear old felix this is the end. :( i'm so happy i don't have anyone else i have to justify this desicion to. i can remember getting sooo mad at my mom when she had my dog put to sleep when i was a kid (that poor old dog should have been put to sleep about a year before she had it done) now i understand. it was for mom to decide to put the dog to sleep and me getting mad about didn't help. rrrg.

weddings

Leah had a great polka dot theme wedding. :)

Dinner Party FUN

I hosted a dinner party last night. I had a great time. We served eggplant parmisan and a ceasar salad. between the 7 of us we drank 9 bottles of wine and a six pack. WOW. the kitchen is almost back to being clean and I'm not AS hungover as I thought I might be. I highly reccomend dinner parties. They are a bit labor intensive and can get expensive fast, but they are well worth it. i don't think the last guests left until after midnight.

Folio

For the first time EVER (in my memory) a potential employer wants to me come by and show them a portfolio. Like a book of photos. Real prints. WOW.

So I had to go thru thousands of files to find my favorites. I choose all color photos shot with strobes. Its frightening how "tight" they are. My style is more defined than I thought it was. I decided to only include photos of people. This ad agency needs lots of different kinds of photos and once upon a time i would have taken in a book showcasing my many different photo skills - food, buidlings, still lifes - but not anymore. I only want to take ad photos if they involve people (i say that but if they offer enough i'll photograph anything)

wish me luck guys!!!!

Ryan J and the plumber

Exciting day yesterday. The plummer came over to fix my slow drains, leaking faucet and broken sprayer. I wanted him to replace my faucet with a new mroe fashionable one and he WOULDN"T!!!! He said I had a fine faucet and they don't make them like that anymore. So strange. He didn't seem to care at all that the thing looks old. He just swore up and down that if I replaced it - it would break all the time and never be as nice again. He blaimed china.

Also photographed and up and coming country musician... guess up and coming may not be the right term. He's already had a song in the top ten of the charts.

Texas Prize

This was the fanciest party I've been to all year. Tix were $300 each and the celeb attendants included - Ann Richards, David Hickey, Michael and Susan Dell and on and on. The theme was Excess and wow did everyone take it to heart. I wore a little black dress with lots of jewels and some patton leather farragamo shoes with bows. I went with my friend Ryan because he is the only other person I knew who was near my age, not gay and had a ticket to the party. We did a lot of drinking ( i was still hungover at 9pm the next night ) some dancing and lots of hob nobbing. A very fun night all together. The longhorn band played, the signature drink involved taquilla and dinner was served at the Driskill.

Records

I'm in a good mood. Someone dropped off two boxes of old records at my office this morning. They were just going to throw them away! Lots of AWSOME classical stuff and some rock and folk. Its making my day at work much more fun.

Anyone else going to see the new HP movie when it comes out. I'm tempted to buy matinee tickets for the friday it comes out and watch in the afternoon.

Cutest girl in Texas

For a night!!!

Canon Pro Service

Today I got my letter from Canon Pro Service. I'm now on the team. Yipee!!!

Chronicle

Did y'all see the photo they ran? Looks more like a portrait than a live shot. Sometimes they pick the strangest ones - i'm not saying i don't like it... just that lots of the other stuff was way more rock star like.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-11-04/music_TCB_all.html
scroll down half way to see the photo.

Plants

Interesting. I'm working at the shop today because my mother is on a buying trip. Its fun to answer peoples plant questions. I know an alarming amount about plants. If y'all ever have any burning horticulture questions - i'm your man.

In other news. Think i'm going to the big fancy Texas Prize party with my buddy Ryan. Its going to be TONS of fun. Tickets are shockingly expensive so i'm hoping mine gets "taken care of" for me. What to wear? Black. I think i'll wear a black dress with sparkles on it. I'll be the prettiest one (i mean youngest/poorest one) there.