My (Early) Christmas Present!

I have had paint chips on the walls in the dining room and the bathroom for at least a year now (even painted a swatch on the dining room wall but didn't like the color in the end).  Bill has taken the swatches and painted the dining room and is working on the bathroom today!  What a fantastic present.

The bay window wall is a gold color but from certain angles and with different lighting it looks like a soft chocolate.

And as an added bonus . . . .




Bill polished all of the silver!

O Christmas Tree

I came home tonight and William had the Christmas tree up.  He went and picked out the tree on Sunday and brought it home on his own.  So, it was only fitting that he decorate the tree himself.  He has worked on it for the past 3 hours.  It is looking quite festive.

I decided to take the opportunity for low light pictures using my 50 mm lens.

This photo of the ornaments in front of the tree shows the beauty of having a 50mm 1.8 lens - I love the depth of the picture.  When I took my first photography class I didn't have this lens and I couldn't figure out why others in the class got this wonderful depth/blur effect.  Took me most of the class to figure out I just didn't have the right lens.

Can you tell the difference?

My wonderful mother-in-law sent me a new wig.  It is surprisingly light and matches my normal hairstyle pretty closely.  After wearing winter skull caps for the last week, this is actually easier on my head than the caps have been.

Treatments have been going well.  If head itching is the worst complaint I have during chemo, then I am way ahead of the game.  My friends have started making and buying me hats.  I will have to take pictures and post  them - a couple are seasonal silly hats!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm enjoying being in the kitchen today and everything is starting to smell nice.

Happy 16 Will!

I think he is happy with his board, boots and bindings!  School and then DMV to get the driver test complete and license in hand.  Bill is also taking Will to the courthouse to get his passport updated so he is all set for the Ireland trip in the Spring.  Busy day.

Happy Birthday baby!

Warning - do not read this sign if you are drinking anything!  I did and about choked.

OSU Game

I totally blog lifted this photo of Katie and Will at the OSU game the end of October!  It is a great picture.

Homecoming

Being the No. 1-ranked team in the state isn't a jinx after all!  Fishermen were victorious in their Homecoming game over Yamill-Carlton Tigers, on 10/7/10.  It was not without injuries as the quarterback Harber received a concussion and receiver Boord ended the night with a broken collar bone.  I spoke with Conor Harber's father yesterday who was under the impression that the homecoming dance was Saturday night - maybe that hit was a little harder than they thought, as the dance was Friday night!  Conor is fine, dad isn't in the "know" on the dance info - sports is his bag.

So, then on to the festivities . . .  Friday was an in-service day so the girls had plenty of time to get ready and the guys were able to take their time for that 20 minute preparation getting into the dress clothes (complete with ties)!

There was a lot of anxiety about getting the boutineers pinned on the guys! The boys had it easy as each chose a wrist coursages.

Mission accomplished - and they look great!

A large group of friends started the evening at the Tumberello's for dinner (25 in all, I believe). 

The adults served courses of salad, prime rib entree and cheesecake for dessert.  It was a very coordinated affair and very relaxing for everyone involved (yes even the adults!).

 I wish that we had done things like this when I was in high school, it makes the whole evening a lot more fun for everyone. 

photo shoot

Bill asked me to take some photos for his publication, yesterday.  I was nervous and flattered.  Here are a few of the before and afters.

Before picture (straight out of the camera) 

I thought I did a pretty good job - manual settings, compensating for glass garage door and sunny day (it happens occasionally) and shiny cars!

Here is after

Photoshop enhanced,  this shows the color of the MACH I much better.  This happens to be Mark's car which he restored. 

I do believe that Bill has found the perfect mechanic!

The goal was to get a great "Footprint" publication picture.  We have a couple contenders:

  

This is the before picture                              

 . . . and after 

The guys set up a nice selection of Red, White and Blue American made cars (two Corvettes, MACH I and a Couger).  Nice!

Here is the photo SOTC (Straight out of the Camera).  I think I did a decent job on this one for my camera settings as well as composing the shot.

The Before Shot:



The After Shot:

I think that this one is the winner!  I cropped it in, so you really see the footprint first, Mark is in focus and the footprint is slightly out of focus.  Popped up the colors and adjusted the lighting a little bit.

It's October

I have been bad about posting lately but here is a picture of the annual October scenery in Astoria (and they are everywhere!)

There was a fine mist most of the morning and all the newly spun webs looked like gems, gleaming on an overcast day!

It is fitting beauty for October and heading into Halloween season!

Bill is in the paper

Bill is in Seaside today selling some of his limited editions.  The weather in Oregon is in the 90's today so there are lots of folks on the coast this weekend.   Astoria has the Regatta weekend and parade today with an Arts Walk tonight.  Bill has his picture in the Arts Walk section (one of my photo assignments during my class!)

http://www.coastweekend.com/SiteImages/FileGallery/A01_08-12-10_CSW_226.pdf
 Check out Page 6!

I think I may need to go blackberry picking this afternoon - there are many ripe ones ready for cobler - Yummy!

We already are at 75 degrees at 10am, so it is going to be another hot one.  Beautiful sky, calm weather so the river is stunning.

Are we on Round three . . .?

Bill has a new Vette.
Yep - it is red . . . .

So the boat is gone (I believe that was the end of the second round of Vette, motorcycle, muscle car/classic car, boat).

Welcome in Round Three

1976, all original parts and at least it is a stingray! Yeah!

Note the beaded water - it may be the last time this auto sees the rain.  Took Bill three days to get the garage/workshop cleared out so that the new "baby" could be tucked in.

The boat has sold

Good or bad, Bill sold the boat today.  He has been showing it about 2 times a day for the last few weeks and a couple from Newport purchased it this weekend.  He is happy and sad, kind of the way it goes with boats.  I've heard the best two days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it.  I have never had an attachment to the boat.

Goodbye boating trips!  It did make for some decent pictures!

Snoozin'

A nice moment captured with Will and Hy snoozin in the chair.

 I had very low light so had to play with this a little in photoshop to get some better details.  I was focused on Hy so Will is a bit out of focus in the background.  I think those photo classes are paying off.
This was the day after an out of town golfing excursion with the high school coach and a few team members.  He fell asleep in the chair and stayed there all night.

Happy 4th of July

I liked that this set of fireworks created a nice heart shape and a nice red glow on the river.

Fireworks were very nice again this year.  We had drizzling rain all day and lower clouds this evening but they didn't hide the show.

We really have a good view from our house and the water was very calm.

Will was at the beach (as usual).  He said that the folks next to them had their car packed with fireworks and let their young son light a bouncing firework.  Guess where it bounced . . . yep!  into the car of fireworks.  Guess that was one of the best shows of the day!  They got the fireworks out and didn't anhilate the car, nobody hurt all was well.

The finale is always fun and very bright!  Hope everyone had a safe and fun independence day.

Sun on the Oregon Coast

I went to Lincoln City yesterday for some training.  The weather was beautiful with full sun and no clouds.  Patchy fog in the morning (I left Astoria at 6am) but all burned off by the time I arrived at 9am.

I brought my camera along to see if I could complete my final assignment (a group photo - kind of hard when we are a family of three).  So, there are a lot of nice groups who graciously let me photograph them and then I took pictures with their cameras too!  We all came out ahead.

Even the birds were cooperative!

Goonies 25th Anniversary

The town is overrun with Goonies fans!  It also is graduation night for our seniors, so the town is hopping.

Bill is running a booth from the Elliott and looks very dapper in his goonies shirt and blazer!  He actually let me get a couple shots (just don't tell him I've posted them here).This one is really clear of Bill but cuts off his Goonies piece.  This next one is a little more creative on my part.  I only had one lens with me (50 mm, so could get too far away).

So, there are 4 cast members here signing autographs (poor guys - they have been at it all day).  Bill has at least 3 people wading through the lines to get more autographs and has had Joe Pantoliano stop at his booth and look at his own photograph with his daughter.  That is pretty cool.