We’re back!
We spent the weekend at Wasserbahn, which is basically a Holiday Inn with an indoor waterpark, restaurants and bar. It was FUN! It truly felt like we were on an expensive’ish vacation for a couple of days. We are waterlogged after spending about 20+ hours or something over the whole weekend submerged in pools, fountains, waterslides, a hot tub and our own sweat!
200+ photos later, these are my weekend pics that I want to share:
My baby turned 9 today! Yes, nine. NINE. Jeez, she’s almost in the double digits. She chose a very fun thing to do for her birthday weekend so we’ve been celebrating since yesterday morning and won’t be through until tomorrow! I’ll tell you all about it, for now I just wanted to share her sparkly candle moment. Make a wish!
(I am hoping this pic turned out okay, I can’t really tell on hubby’s laptop!)
Lastnight was a little VIP party and public “coming out” of the Catfish that were done for the Catch-A-Catfish program. These fish are all going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in August, and I’m hoping mine comes in 1st place as far as charitable dollars goes. We shall see. The comments people were making were amazing, everyone was so nice and complimentary about my painting! Kids who passed my fish smiled and pointed at that guy trapped inside.
It looks stunning with its clearcoat, so I took a bunch of pics. The colors are really enhanced, the gloss works perfectly with the glass reflection I painted on the belly. I am very pleased that it did what I thought it would do!! (See category archives for previous pics.)
The skywalk is really beautiful too, so I’m throwing a couple of pics of it in here, too! It’s a “new feature” to the Mississippi Riverfront in Downtown Davenport, Iowa. It connects a parking garage to a casino (which, ahem, I broke even on lastnight.), and it has moving lights at night. It’s really nice for a big expensive sidewalk suspended above an occasionally busy road. LOL
Lastnight I also learned a lesson, but it’s kinda one of those lessons you learn the next day, you know what I mean? Tequila – not my friend. 😛
It was the first night out with my hubby alone in forever – I think Caitlin had to have been about 3 the last time we were out together. It was very nice date, I think I’ll have to go out with him again sometime. 😉
I thought this was a unique capture, usually the foreground is the focal point. I chose to do the opposite and reverse focus to the background, and it plays a little trick on my eyes when I view it.
For the first time ever, I present my photography, framed in really expensive stuff, and ready for showing in my very own living room! (That air intake vent has been a PITA since we moved in here. I wish I could hide it!!)
These are all 16×20 black frames, and I chose a 8mm archival white mat with a black core, which really sets off these photographs. For my regulars, I posted these when I took them just a couple of months ago. For my new readers, you can see two of them here: Jay and Cait. I don’t think I’ve posted Mark’s here, but you can see that one here.
I’m quite proud of how all of these turned out, and even the gentleman who cut my matboard asked if I was framing them for a gallery. 🙂
Why is it that when I’m trying my best to be understanding and caring, the one I’m trying to understand is the one I understand the least at that very moment?
Why is it that because I care so much, the only thing a lack of understanding brings is intense sadness and/or frustration?
Why is it that the more I try to show someone I love them, the more crazy I make them?
Why is it that the most productive conversations sometimes are arguments?
Why do arguments have to hurt so much if they’re so productive?
Why don’t I know a better way to be productive?
Why is it when my brain is throbbing from pain that the tears that so desperately need to fall, won’t?
Why is it that when I feel a little better and my head isn’t throbbing so much, and I feel like I can go forward, I turn music on, and tears are triggered and falling all over the place?
Why is it that I’m always out of Kleenex when that happens?
Why is it that my head hurting doesn’t make me cry, but all the crying makes my head hurt?!
Why is it that things like this happen when I least expect them?
Why is it that something that may seem so small or unimportant, is so very very huge in my mind?
Why is it that I live so very far away from the people who understand me the best? The people who would trigger my tears just because they know they need to fall. Those are the people with whom I say “yeah!” and “I know!” the most in any given conversation. The people who would analyze things with me until the sun comes up and not think twice about over-analyzing things, because it’s just fun to pick things apart. It keeps brains happy.
Why did God make girls so #^<%!$% emotional?!?
I found it!
I saw a commercial the other night and just thought about it, and went to the website. Of course it’s one of those glamorized “weight loss” things, those magic pills, you know.
“Here! Pop a pill and you’ll be SKINNY! I PROMISE!”
I don’t think I’ve shared this pic with you! Of all the poppies growing in my wildflower garden, me likes this one the best. I think it likes me, too, because it seems to keep coming back in the same spot, reincarnating itself. I know that I’ll be painting this one, some day over the rainbow, it’s on my list of things I want to paint.
Ooh I know! This will be the one I paint when I try out that linen canvas I mentioned yesterday! 
(Gotta finish my other projects first. Yes. I’m working on those!)
