Metz Darling

Our digital camera is pretty crappy actually but I tried to make do with what I got by messing around with the basic of most basic elements color adjustment & brightness & contrasting.  Which mostly just consisted of me sliding the slider bar back and forth until it gave a result that looked interesting to me.  Yeah, skills, I have none. LOL

Here are the results.

 

Here she is, playing the part of Gothic Tween Red Riding Hood, Miss Gabrielle.  I wish I could've done the picture in my head justice.  I loved the idea of her posing pensively near that red tree.  The middle one is my favorite of of Gabby.

 

 

And playing the part of the plundering pirate, Benjamin.  ARRRR!

 I had to gently remind him that we do not stab the neighbor's boo globe.  LOL

Yeah, she's all that!  :-D 

 

This one is my favorite of Ben. 

 

 

 Gosh darn it she's just so freaking beautiful!  Yeah I know, I'm not exactly impartial but hey...

To Grandmother's House! 

The Driveways Are Alive With The Sound of Pirates! 

 

 

 

Some attempts at "artistic" photos.  LOL 

 

 

OOOOH, Spoooky!

Scarecrow C.S.I., or was it Scarecrow S.V.U.?

Yeah yeah, I'm the Ghost of Costumes Past.  There's 3 different costume remenants here.  :-P

The 1st photo is my veil deciding it wanted 2 be in the picture.

A chocolate Halloween House the kids got to decorate/make in a craft program at our local Library.  I LOVE our Library!

FLOWERS!  

EEEK!  Save us!

WHEW!  We're free!

Free to Trick Or Treat again!

This is yet another example of why 1) You should verify all facts before spreading them far and wide, Even if said so called "facts" come from someone on a news channel.  Yes, just because Limbaugh or Olberman says so doesn't make it fact.

http://web.mac.com/joelallenschroeder/DMW/main.html

Just heard about this from Twitter.

I wish them well!

Sad news over at Two Lumps.  :-(

It feels like everyone I know is losing a pet these days.  Love to all of  you who've lost a dear member of your family furry or otherwise. 

And goodbye to the inspiration of Snooch, Mister Cameron Caramon (sorries my mind was on Auto-correct).

 

I'll post more later.  I promise.  I'll give a nice rundown of my family vacation to Michigan 2 weeks ago.

For a sum up though, let me just say it was WONDERFUL!  I was so happy to be with my family who I hadn't seen in 2 years!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metzdarling/sets/72157621527618100/

We also got to see a great air show and balloon launch at the Battle Creek Balloon Festival.

I apologize though, for the darkness and poor quality of some of the photos.  I really need to get myself a new camera!

 

 

Yesterday I went to work with it all gloomy and rainy.

When I left the sun was shining so brightly mere squinting was not doing the trick.  Especially since I drive West going home.

Rooting around in my purse, I couldn't find my sunglasses.  Then I remembered I'd left them in the van from our family excursion over the weekend.  I did however, have my son's bright yellow Finding Nemo sunglasses.

I don't think I made it a mile down the road before I gave up and put them on.

Too small, uncomfortably pressing on my face, slightly distracting with the frame in my peripheral vision.  Not to mention the annoying little tiny Nemo sticker on the upper corner of the left lens.

But the best reward of all was not the protection from the sun's glare.  Oh no.

It was the exaggerated looks of confusion and outright staring from the people in the other cars.

Took me back to the days of dressing up in my fanciest of clothes and galivanting around the small towns and countryside of SW Michigan with my friends Matthew & Dennis.  The looks we'd get from people. 

Oh, and here's a pic of a moth newly emerged from its crysalis.  My Mother In Law took it when we were on our family excursion at a local nature preserve.  The hand holding it is a field guide leading her and my daughter and a group on a nature walk.  My husband, son, & I were with another group doing some bird watching.

 

Isn't he beautiful?

 

A while back I discovered Twitter, just before the big boom with Ashton Whatshisname and Oprah.  I "follow" about 60 some people, some of which I am not ashamed to admit are considered "celebrities".  Mind you, my choices of who to follow though are based on the thought provoking "tweets" they post, as well as the genuine ability to make me laugh.

Among those celebrity Twitterers I follow is author Neil Gaiman.  When he posts a link, you can bet I will click it, because I feel that his links are never a waste of time.  This more recent one is no exception.

"neilhimself Dear (fightforyourrightobookburn) Christian Civil Liberties Union, whatever side you're on, I am now on the other one: http://bit.ly/twerps"

Unbelievable.  Book burning.  A lawsuit to demand the right to burn and ban a library book.  I thought those days were long gone.  If you don't like it DON'T READ IT!!  If you don't want your kids reading it then that's your business and up to you to enforce that (ha), but to deny others... GRRRRR!!!! 

 

Then, just as I was recovering from that, I heard about this on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me from this past weekend.

Oh My GOSH! HELLO!!>???????

There are no words to describe what I'm thinking right now.  Well, polite words that is.

Really, I just sat there dumbfounded when they were talking about it on Wait Wait, then of course I laughed at the "Heaven-O!" and their musings that workers might rebel by saying, "Heaven-O, how may I HELLp you?"

Seriously though, WTH?

Ok, gonna stop the rant now.  Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

Oh, and if you to have a Twitter account, feel free to stop by and say Hello!  :-)

http://twitter.com/MetzDarling

PS:  I've also fallen in with the facebook crowd, http://www.facebook.com/Metzdarling

 PPS:  Forgot to add this very important public service message from Neil Gaiman as well.

"neilhimself No! Do not arm squirrels! They will take over the world if you do. http://bit.ly/1950k"

 

It's that time of year again, time to dust off those tornado sirens.

We (Americans) love our extreme videos.  Extreme car chases, extreme girls going wild, extreme animals being their naturally wild selves, extreme uncomfortably close accidents, extreme watching guys get their tender spots crunched.  Fun!

Ooops, left out the Extreme weather gone wild videos. That is one of my guilty pleasures.  Thing is, I've got a huge phobia of storms.  Even a mild thunderstorm can cause me to get agitated an nervous. 

I am terrified of being caught anywhere near  tornado.  Yet I cannot stop watching these guys.  I've been following them for a while on their website. http://www.tornadovideos.net/video-gallery before they were on Storm Chasers.

 

(note, this isn't one of their pictures)

I don't know, maybe I'm partial to them because one two of the guys is are from my home state of Michigan.

Anyway, thought I'd give them a shout out because they deserve it, as well as the other storm chasers out there.  The ones out there for the thrill AND the educational aspect of it.  The stuff they learn could save lives one day.

 

This was one of those so full and busy weekends you're too tired to go back to work.

Saturday we worked on some household chores, moving stacks and stacks of wood for our "Build It In One Day" Deck project. (HAH!  As if!).  Then yesterday was the Town of Riverhead Street Painting Festival.  Gabby, my Mother In Law Suzanne, and I went.  The "boys" stayed at home.

 First up, we hit the Lego Exhibit.  Some local boys made some awesome lego models.  The big big set on the center table here is from an ongoing collection made by a young man, 18 yrs old now, who actually left more than 1/2 of it at home. 

Then some sights from the arts & crafts fair and activities along the way.

 

 

 

Giant Checkers Game

Craft Fair

 

 

 

 

Music, poetry, storytellers...

 

 

 

Art & Architecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing fun with the family dog(s).

 

 

Street Painting!

 

And apparantly the papparazi were out in full force as there were Gabby sightings everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

Now, just when you thought this post was over!  On to today, Memorial Day.  Gabby and Ben rode with their Great Grandpa for the Memorial Day Parade.

 

 

And those darn papparazi were at the parade and got Miss Diva Gabrielle and her assistant Benjamin.

 

No word yet on the audio.  If you REALLY can't wait to hear it, PM me with your email addy and I'll email it to you!  :-)

 DANGITDANGITDANGIT!  I cannot get Vox to upload the audio.  Any of my peeps able to give me a hand with this I will be most appreciative.
 

Today was the Riverhead, NY Street Painting Festival.  One of the features was a free recording studio session for kids and others to record 1 song.  Professional quality recordings with a producer and everything.  The Rothman Family Diva Miss Gabby chose to honor us with a performance.  :-)

 

 

I'm not so blind (or deaf) to say it was just perfect, but DANG, my kid is good!  (Buffs Genes)

 

 

 

More pics and review of the street fair to follow.