02/28/11 - Paul

I'd rather be reading. Or eating. I'm very hungry. Lunchfast was a long time ago. A latté splurge, some Chiclets, and half a bottle of water has me starving.

Should I eat the emergency chocolate bar in my bag? Should I wait?

Will they find me passed out at closing?

02/27/11 - Paul

Cam's First Crab

02/27/11 - Lori

Mexican Train

02/27/11 - Amy

"Sunday Morning Blossoms and Sunbeams"
I had so much fun taking pictures of the sunbeams in my apartment and these daffodils this weekend! The weather has been positively springy (I've even seen people wearing shorts!)...(ok, it has been in the high 40s, but this is Scotland, after all!). This has firstly made me really excited about spring (I even washed my windows today, and I usually wait 'till March to do that!), and second of all it has given me a nostalgic feeling for my first few weeks in Scotland, exactly two years ago. I've been thinking a lot lately about how much has changed in just two years! It's simply amazing!

02/26/11 - Paul

Jack Fills the Donuts
(Tigard Donut)

02/26/11 - Lori

02/26/11 - Amy

"Pancakes"
Making breakfast for my man :)

02/25/11 - Amy

"Nearing the End"
Going through the very final edits of my book...about to submit to the publisher in March! :)

02/25/11 - Paul

Comfort

02/25/11 - Lori

Oh, YES SHE DID!

Amanda matched her shirt with her computer desktop background. Carmen actually bowed to her. The final tally for the week was Amanda: 19, Carmen, 17. More pictures here

02/24/11 - Paul

Portland's Winter Blast 2011
(as photographed in Tigard)

02/24/11 - Lori

Oh No, She Didn't!

Carmen's shoes today might have earned the Bonus Shoe Point, however I mentioned that I loved Amanda's red Converse sneaks but would love them more if they had Sharpie art on them. Amanda practically dove for a Sharpie and started doodling on her sneaks for my vote. Someone has their eye on the prize!!

Tomorrow is the final day of the Sock Off. They BOTH say they are going for the Trifecta vote. We shall see.

02/23/11 - Lori

SOCK OFF

Amanda & Carmen, two of the people I am lucky to have working for me , each have an extensive sock collection. (I think Carmen has an entire drawer dedicated to holiday socks) They/we decided to have a Sock Off this week ~ may the best feet win! I put the rules & ballots in place: each day this week the members of our department have 3 points to give out, they assign one point for each of 3 categories to either Carmen or Amanda:

1. Originality (overall "cool" factor of the socks)
2. Coordination (how well the socks "jive" with the overall outfit - note: this is is not the same as "matching")
3. Bonus Shoe Point (point for having cool shoes)

These are Amanda's Glow-In-The-Dark socks. She got my Originality vote this day. The ballots have been secret so we do not know who is winning yet. The winner gets two prizes, purchased by moi: (1) Magic Socks ~ put 'em in water and they grow! (2) a mini-sock change purse with skulls/crossbones on it

02/24/11 - Amy

"Hanging Around"

01/23/11 - Paul

It would be wrong for Truck not to make at least one appearance in PAD so here it is.

02/22/11 - Paul

Irony

02/21/11 - Paul

The Only One

02/23/11 - Amy

With this image, I was aiming for something that was visually interesting, yet whose subject matter would be difficult to discern. I hope I've achieved that!

02/22/11 - Lori

Better Late Than Never

When I took a photo of The Grant House (seen here) at camp last September, I started to notice shadows as subjects. I drive by this barn, located across from Lyman Orchards, on my way to work. I noticed this shadow in the fall after the leaves had fallen, but never had my camera with me. The barn makes such a good canvas - I just love it. If I could paint, I would paint a picture of a barn like this with no tree - just the canvas and the shadow, as if the shadow were painted right on the barn.

This is the photo I intended to take for my first PAD ever on January 1st. I thought PAD would be a good excuse to get the shot ~ since then it's been a matter of timing to get the light at the right angle on a sunny morning.

02/22/11 - Amy

"Spring has Sprung!"

Today was a lovely spring day in Aberdeen - one of the first! The weather today reminded me of when I first moved here two years ago, and got me thinking about how much has happened over these past two years...

I loved the shadows, but instead of converting to black and white, I enhanced the green to convey the 'springy' feel. Also, I liked how that made the paving stones look like they could be grass...or at least moss-covered...a small patch of green in the city :)

02/21/11 - Lori

A Woman With Purpose

I've been looking forward to this day for quite a while. Jim got his annual bonus on Friday, and Lori had the day off by herself for President's day. That can only mean one thing ~ shopping! I am a bargain hunter. I'd rather get more for less than get caught up in shopping at the "right" stores.

My day started at Once Upon A Child, where I sold a lot of Cassie's clothes from last summer. I bought a little over $100 of merchandise (clothes and toys) and paid $46 out of pocket due to the items I turned in. Not bad for 2 hours work!

Then I was off to Goodwill to drop off the items that the consignment store did not take. Our house is small and has very little storage, which means I have to get creative with space. I've been wanting to turn our dining room into a play room ~ I once commented, "with about $200 I could work wonders in there", so Jim took me on my word and I have a $200 budget to make magic. For President's Day, everything at Goodwill was 50% off, and I ended up doing very well there. I bought a gorgeous book case for $25 ~ my only regret is I was not 10 minutes earlier, otherwise I would have gotten the matching armoire for another $25. They are not allowed to help get furniture into your car there, and they looked at me like I was nuts when I said I'd get the huge book case into my little hatchback by myself. Apparently they do not recognize a woman with purpose. I got it in. (fortunately Wal-Mart is next to Goodwill, so I was able to buy some bungee cords to get things home without losing anything on the road)

This Froggie lamp was one of my many finds today ~ it cost $2. Froggies are a favorite in our house, and it makes a wonderful addition to Cassie's room. So do the dragonfly wall hangings I found for $1 - I'd go into why dragonflies mean a lot to me, but I've already rambled enough for one post!

02/20/11 - Lori

Enough is Enough!

I took a lot of photos of Cassie today and chose this one for PAD simply because it stands out from the rest; Cassie is a happy/smiley/cooperative baby, so when she starts to look like this you know you've pushed your luck with the camera!

02/21/2011 - Amy

Bath Time

02/20/2011 - Amy

Chicken Soup for Body and Soul :)

02/20/11 - Paul

Next Door Neighbor

02/19/11 - Paul

Breaking Boards

02/18/11 - Paul

Can you guess what this is?

02/17/11 - Paul

Earth

02/16/11 - Paul

Jack making faces at OMSI on our day off together.

02/15/11 - Paul

Where have I been? The above is partly to blame though it's mostly passed now so perhaps I'll be back to a more regular posting schedule.

02/14/11 - Paul

Serious Business

02/19/11 - Amy

Any guesses what I made this evening?

And yes, it was spicy... ;-)

02/18/11 - Amy

"For and Inspired by Lori"
My 80s Glam Sharpies are at home - those are just for fun. But guess what I got when I walked by a Staples in NY before leaving?! A big pack of fine-point Sharpies for work! I don't know, I just loved that picture you posted, and the Sharpie stories from work, and the idea of 'making it a certain colour Sharpie day,' that I just wanted to be a part of your Sharpie world! ;-)

PAD was the last thing on my mind on Friday, but just before I left work, I saw my mug and thought of you...and snapped a picture :)

02/18/11 - Lori

Post-Bath Bliss

02/17/11 - Lori

I downloaded Angry Birds and suddenly I see them everywhere!

02/17/11 - Amy

"My Girl"
It gets hard when you reach a certain age and your friends start posting pictures of their babies online - you feel left out of the club. I may not have a child or a husband, but I do have my Minnie, and she means the world to me. Minnie took 9 months to get (read into that what you will), and it wasn't easy. I survived battles with credit agencies who wouldn't trust a college professor with a line of credit because she hadn't lived in the country for long enough. I also went through the ridiculous hassle of not only having to take my driving test all over again, but also endure months of driving lessons (because I didn't have a car of my own to practice on) with the world's worst driving instructor, who told me I was doing everything wrong (despite 20 years of an impeccable driving record in the US), and convinced me I was going to fail my test. Needless to say, I passed it with flying colours, in June; I applied for my loan in July, and got my baby on September 1st. And she is the best girl ever - always by my side, never fussing (no matter what the weather) - she has never let me down. She is so much more than a car to me - she's my girl!

02/16/11 - Lori

I admit it, I kinda dig this photo. It makes up for yesterday's photo, at least :)

02/15/11 - Lori

Dumplin's (or is it Dumplins?)

02/16/11 - Amy

"This is Performance Art"
There's a performance art festival going on in my town right now! Performance art! For those of you who don't know, I am writing a book on performance art! So when things like this happen, I can't help but believe that I was meant to be in Aberdeen...

Today they had a round-table discussion to open the festival (pictured here), where we could all meet the artists. One of the artists who is in town is a Finnish man who did a performance back in 1992 with the Latvian artist that I am writing about. So, I got to meet him and ask him some questions, the answers to which will appear in my book, which I am in the process of finishing as I type this!

Even more amazing that the festival is happening, it was timed perfectly to coincide with my return to Aberdeen, so I didn't miss a thing!

02/15/11 - Amy

Amazing.

02/14/11 - Amy

"Coming Home"
I didn't take many pictures that day, but this was taken as I was waiting for the flight from Amsterdam to Aberdeen to take off. This shot reminded me of a Dennis pic from a while ago.

02/13/11 - Amy

"Tom's Diner"
Of Seinfeld and Suzanne Vega fame! I used to walk by here all the time when I was taking a class at Columbia in 2003, but I never went in. On my last day in New York, I made a few pilgrimages. The first was to Carrie Bradshaw's front stoop (the outside of her Sex and the City apartment), and the next one was to this diner. I liked the fact that they didn't cash in on the Seinfeld fame. The place doesn't even accept credit cards, and has an old fashioned cash register that isn't even digital. And the prices are dirt cheap for NYC!

02/12/11 - Amy

"A Picture That I Did Not Take"
Nope, I didn't take it. You can clearly see my arms in the photo! ;-) When I was looking through all of the photos that I took that day, I thought about posting my 'best' or most artistic one, but it just didn't capture this wonderful day for me. Even the pictures that I took at Wicked could have done so, but this is by far my favourite picture from the day, for reasons that I hope are obvious, so I am posting it. For other pictures that I did take that day, please see:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=269301&id=529082182&l=c69dffb8fb

02/11/11 - Amy

"Morning Commute"
There are so many photos from this Friday morning that I could have uploaded, but I chose this one, because I was pleased with the capture of the man walking across the street. It reminded me of this Henri Cartier-Bresson photo that I have loved since I first discovered it in an undergraduate course on photography at BU: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Photo_cartierbresson_europe.jpg

On this particular Friday morning in the city, I went to the Today Show, mainly because I wanted to get on TV with my University of Aberdeen banner. I stood outside in the freezing cold for one hour, waiting for the half-hourly moments when the camera crew came outside to film those short crowd segments. After an hour, I gave up, I was so cold (I did make onto the TV, though!). Then I walked around a bit, and found a place where they were doing road works, and there was a typical New York scene of smoke billowing out of a manhole. So, I started snapping. You can see the rest of my NY adventures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=269301&id=529082182&l=c69dffb8fb

02/15/11 - Dennis

"Mac at Night"

02/14/11 - Dennis

Middle Earth?

02/14/11 - Lori

This is the only photo I took today, a quick one before work - I had grand ideas of taking more pictures suitable for Valentine's Day, but oh well ~ we don't do much with V-day in our house, so why should I expect to do so on PAD? Anyway, in hindsight, this could have a lot better if not for f/3.5 and with a lower ISO - however it's the only shot I took, so it's the only one to choose from!

02/13/11 - Paul

Fleur de Tissu

02/12/11 - Paul

A good bottle.

02/13/11 - Lori

Moving Forward

It was a weekend of milestones for our girl. Although Cassie's had the crawl position down for a while, she never really went anywhere with it. Until Friday night that is. I walked away for a second, looked back, and there she was on my heels, following me out of the room! Suddenly she can go anywhere and get to anything. My next goal is to have her crawl through this table.

She also started eating "non-baby" food this weekend - pancakes, eggs, peas, carrots - this is a big milestone for Mama, because I never did get to buy the "Feeding Babies for Dummies" book I was convinced I needed in order to feed her something other than a jar or a bottle. Don't ask - I have issues!