The Bride and Groom

I just learned that Jeff and Jayme (The Bride and Groom) are back from their honeymoon so I thought I would post a couple of photo's of them during the sunset on their Wedding Day.

The horses above were released just after the Bride and Groom said their vows. If you've never had an opportunity to witness a hundred horses running full speed up a mountain I highly recommend you do it. The sound is thunderous, the ground shakes and I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Really an incredible experience.

An incredible Wedding

Hi everyone,

It has been too long since my last posting I know...truth is, I've been incredibly busy, but in a good way. Last week I flew down to a Guest Ranch near a small town called Quincy in California where I spent four days documenting an incredible wedding event that included horse rides, frog races, fly fishing, camp fires and more. The Bride and Groom were incredibly great as were their families and friends. As I am typing this, I am waiting for Photoshop to catch it's breath as I've been spending virtually all of my free time working on the nearly 6,000 images I shot over the course of a few days! My shutter finger is still sore :) I haven't even gotten to the wedding day yet in my editing but thought I might post a couple of pics from the day for y'all to check out.

Be sure to let me know what you think.

Mat

Wine, Goatees, Horses and More

Howdy Ya'all!

Been a while since my last post. I shot a wedding last Sunday and have been spending every spare moment on editing those photo's.

Finally finished at about 1:30 this morning and now I'm flying out to Reno to spend 5 days shooting a big wedding at a Dude Ranch near Lake Tahoe. I've been very excited about this wedding and as far as I know it is my last for 2006.

Last week we had our General Manager's Meeting at Maryhill Winery (www.maryhillwinery.com). I had talked the owner and Vice President of the company into holding the meeting there so I was a bit nervous about it as I didn't know what the meeting facility would look like and how it would go. In a nutshell, if it wasn't good, I was in deep doo doo. My concerns were completely unfounded however as we were put into the beautiful residence of the owners Craig and Vicki. We had our best meeting ever and Vicki herself kept our coffee pots full. After the meeting she gave us a private tour of the winery and opened the wine bar to us. That is pretty dang generous too considering what a bunch of lushes Restaurant Managers can be :) They have around 24 different wines and I kid you not, there isn't a stinker in the bunch! They are all so good. If you are at the store and see a Maryhill Wine, buy it! You won't regret it. After the wine tasting, Vicki invited us all back to the residence for an incredible meal. Steve Turner the manager in Eugene and one of only 2 managers with the company longer than me just celebrated his 25 year anniversary with the company! As a gift they gave him a nice plaque and a full month off from work with pay! He was floored. The expression on his face was pretty funny as he didn't know what to think. As for the other great stuff at the meeting, after years and years of pushing the owner to allow goatees, he finally gave in and is allowing them! Just in time too as the hair on my head is about gone. I'd better get some on my face to make up for it. Also, our schedules at work loosened up a bit so I will be able to spend a lot more time at home with Lea and the Girls. All around good news for sure.

Well, I'm off to the dude ranch and will be sure to post some pics when I get back.

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

A new chapter in life

It's official...Savannah is in Kindergarten! She started yesterday and is having a great time with it. Her teacher Mr. Stevenson seems like a very nice man and according to Savannah is neat because he helped her tie her shoes today. Savannah was very excited to finally get to use her new Hello Kitty Backpack. Sophie was sad to see her go. Lea and I were feeling a bit choked up as well, but Savannah barely even looked back. The gate was open, she went in and within about 30 or 40 seconds she had already made a couple of new friends. Can you imagine being able to do that as an adult. "Hi, can we be friends?" "Sure" Then you're friends. Pretty cool. I'll try to keep you updated on any of her accomplishments in the days and weeks to come.

Weddings

Well, two weddings last weekend, both went really well. Friday was with Cory Parris who took the photo posted here of my ugly mug(http://www.coryparris.com) and Saturday was at the Willow's Hotel and Lodge in Seattle. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm finished. The photo's of the RocknRoller are done, you can see the final slideshow here... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/rock.htm

Until next time...

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

Links to the pics

Well, read the post below then come back to this one to view the photo's. Usually Blogspot fixes their issues pretty quickly and the problems are short lived. This time however I haven't been able to upload photo's for a couple of weeks. Sorry bout' that.

Bummer Eh (That's Canadian for "That Sucks")

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/bsw.jpg

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/high.jpg

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/bald.jpg

Abundant Adventures in Canada!

I have a million stories to tell (well, at least 8 or 9 anyway) but I'm pooped. We just got back from a great trip to Whistler, BC. If you have never been....go! The entire town is full of charm. Everything is clean, the people are nice, the food is good, the Hotel's are beautiful. Tons to do and see! In a nutshell, Lea forced me on a bike ride that I couldn't tell you how far was because everything is in Kilometers out there. I can tell you this, we saw 3 lakes on this bikeride, the air was thin we were up so high and 2 days later I still can't sit down without making a conscious decision as to which cheek to lean to (think about it, it'll come to you). Anyway, I think it was around 1,000 Kilometers. Probably like 500 or 600 miles. It was far!

Then we went up a mountain where the sign was posted in Kilometers and Feet because us Americans couldn't believe how high up we were...6,000 feet! This was the day after our 800 mile bike ride! While you might think being up over 6,000 feet was adventure enough, we saw two bears! I've posted a photo of the first one we saw. He was close enough to snap this photo which should answer the question for those of you not certain..Yes, Bears shit in the woods. The other picture is of our family at a famous statue/landmark that is on all the Whistler Brochures so we know we were cool to be there. Let me just stress again, look at the picture..we were wayyy up there. OK, I'll confess...we didn't hike it. We took a Gondola up. It was a cool ride too. Whistler is famous for being an incredible ski town though many people visit in the summer. The ski lifts are in action for all the intense, extreme bikers that fly down the mountain. They sell the hemmoroid (sp) cream by the gallon there let me tell ya (I know because I bought 2 gallons).

Oh yeah, my wife snapped the photo of me upside down to show off just how much hair I have lost. Yep, it's pretty much gone. I was on a Bungee jump doing one of my many flips in the photo. I won't tell if the flips were on purpose or not. I'll post more pics later with more details on the Bungee jumping. For now, I'm hitting the sack. I'm photographing a Wedding with Cory Parris tomorrow then Sara and Jesse's (engagement pics below) wedding is on Saturday. No rest for the weary.

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

RocknRoll

Well, the last few attempts I've made Blogspot hasn't been uploading my photo's for whatever reason. You can view some of the photo's from today's photo shoot down at the beautiful Gasworks Park. Aaron is the significant other to one of the managers at the Fish House. He is a talented musician that is going to start producing some solo tunes pretty soon. He asked me to get some promotional shots for him to give to the clubs with his CD. A few of the photo's are here.... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/gasworks
There are lot's more to do but that will have to wait until we get back from Whistler BC where we are heading tomorrow morning. Should be fun eh?

See you in the funny pages,

Mat

I was so close

Well, after a weekend of non-stop Photoshop and Full Tilt Poker (www.fulltiltpoker.com: Sign up for a new account and enter the bonus code PEZHEAD to receive a 100% matching signup bonus on your first deposit) My girls have returned! I was mauled by Savannah and Sophie. Lea was glad to see me too (until she realized I hadn't fed the fish or cleaned the litter box the entire time they were gone.)

I was so proud as I thought I was completely finished with my backed up photo's. As I was organizing my hard drive tonight however I realized I never even looked at the photo's from the 4th of July. So close, yet so far away as I also noticed the photo's from our trip to the North Cascades on my birthday was only partially completed. Sighhhh. There are some pics from the 4th on this post.

Sara and Jesse got to see their engagement photo's from last weekend. They couldn't decide on their favorite for their 11X14 so they narrowed it down to 2 and had me choose. I think I chose wisely for them :) I can't wait until their wedding on the 26th. They are a great couple and a lot of fun too! You can see many of their engagement shots here... http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/sjslide.htm

See ya next time!

Mat

Seattle Mariner's

Well, after the ugly performance by the Superbowl Champion Seattle Seahawks (you all know who really won that game!) last night against my friend Dave's Dallas Cowboy's I thought this would be a perfect time to post some pics from the Seattle Mariner's game my brother, his family, my family and I went to on 7/23 when they smoked the Red Sox. It was a lot of fun. You can see a slideshow of some of the photo's I took here...http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/baseball.htm.

I've been vegetating in front of the computer all night and day. I have to go to work tonight for my favorite past time...period end inventory. Beyone that however, I am not getting up from this computer until I catch up!

See y'all later!

Mat

I'm on a roll!

Can you believe it? I told you I would try to update my blog on a more regular basis. I'm going through some of the photo's from the wedding at the Willow's on Sunday. Here is a photo of one of the many cool decorations they have scattered around the property. Lea and the girls are heading down to Eugene this week so my goal is to get completely caught up on all of my photograph's by Sunday night. It's going to be difficult to work in the middle of all the wild parties I'm going to be throwing but I'll give it a go all the same.

Photorama

Hey Mat...what did you do during Summer of 06 you might ask me some day. My response will be...I took photo's and I spent a lot of time on Photoshop. It sure has been a lot of fun too!

Yesterday I spent the day shooting a wedding with my buddy Cory Parris (www.coryparris.com) at a place called The Willow's. Coincidentally I will be photographing a wedding there on August 26 for a great couple Sara and Jesse. Today Sara, Jesse and I hit Kerri Park in Seattle for an engagement session. I've only been able to go through a few of them for now as I'm a bit backed up, but there are definitely some great shots there. It's pretty tough to miss when you have such a photogenic couple to model for you. The pic on this blog is from this afternoon.

I also wrapped up all my post processing for Adrienne and Colin's incredible wedding at the Seattle Golf Club. Their photo's are at the lab and their Slideshow is on DVD.

Well, I've got to get to the Fish House bright and early tomorrow morning so I had better wrap this up.

See you in the funny pages!

Mat

Such a nice kitty

Those of you that know Jasmine will get a chuckle out of this pic. This is her way of saying "I love you." When she smacks you with her declawed paws it is a friendly gesture of high 5. Such a sweetie. She has been saying "I love you" a lot this weekend as we have an awesome house guest. Jasper the Shitzhu has been staying with us. It was pretty cute this morning I got up for work and he was snuggled up close and cozy with Savannah in her room. He definitely isn't a "morning dog" as he had no intent to get out of bed to relieve his bladder despite my urging. Pretty funny. Anyway, this pic is using some of my new editing toys...err, I mean tools. Kinda cool eh?

Holy Moly

Wow am I behind! Well, since today I heard from more than one person that I have been grossly negligent in updating my blog I have taken it to heart and updated it :) Since my last post we have taken a trip to Ocean Shores. I photographed Nicole and Andrew's wedding and last week was Adrienne and Colin's wedding. I've been taking a lot of photo's and will be heading out with my buddy Cory to another wedding this Sunday. I'd better start charging my batteries :)

So this is just a quick update. The photo's here were taken at Ocean Shores on an old washed out road on the way to see Washington State's most famous Shipwreck. For some reason I really like these photo's a lot as they make me think about the girls looking ahead to the future. Without getting all sentimental I believe that their future is bright and I hope to take them to this road for similar photo's throughout their lives.

Take care y'all...I promise I'll try to update this Blog on a more regular basis!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been super busy since my last blog update. I photographed Andrew and Nicole's wedding at the Subud House in Seattle which was a lot of fun. Last week I flew to Reno to get walloped by a 14 year old at Ping Pong. The next day we drove to California near Lake Tahoe to check out the site of a wedding I am photographing late September. What an event that is going to be! It's at a genuine dude ranch. One of the old time Wranglers can be seen in the photo here. I'll try to update this blog more frequently from here on out.

Happy Birthday to me

Howdy y'all. Just wanted to post a pic from our drive up SR20 in the North Cascades on my birthday monday. The drive is filled with breathtaking views of waterfalls and teal-green lakes filled from glaciers on beautiful mountains. I was truly awe-struck by the amazing sights. Until Savannah bit it on the steel bridge anyway....but that's another story. I'll post more pics later on.

Mat

Sun Bears and Toothaches

Well, it's pretty late/early tonight. I've been sampling some Sauvignon Blanc for our new wine list at McGrath's. It's never really been my favorite varietal, but it is extremely popular to drink with fish so the decision is an important one. In case you are interested, New Zealand is the hottest spot on Planet Earth to produce Sauvignon Blanc right now so our newest addition will definitely be a New Zealand Sauv Blanc. Probably Brancott.

I'm getting ready to hit the sack. When I wake up it is off to Downtown Seattle to get my friggin Wisdom Tooth pulled. All of a sudden this week it has torn through my cheek and is killing me! At times, the pain has been more than I can stand so as long as it isn't impacted, it's getting yanked in the morning. I had one pulled about ten years ago, with this one going that leaves two more to torture me at will. I hate going to the dentist, but I hate the agony of a toothache even more.

The Zoo emailed me earlier this week with a challenge to get the best photo of a Malayan Sun Bear possible for the cover of the Zoo Member magazine next month. I went for a few hours on Thursday and they never appeared. Today I was there over an hour before I caught a glimpse of one as they like to hide out more than they like to show themselves. Finally however two came out and I was able to snap a few shots off. I hope they are good enough to make the cover as I would be pretty excited about it. I attached a few of my favorites for you to judge. Let me know what you think, no one comments on the blogs anymore it seems like.

Wish me luck at the torture clinic (Dentist)!

Mat

Grizzly

Date Night

For the first time since September, Lea and I had a date! For her birthday I had bought us tickets to Teatro Zinzanni. I had heard good things about it, but nothing I had heard prepared me for the incredible show, dinner and all around great time we had! If you live in the Seattle area and haven't gone to this show...Buy your tickets right now! It is worth every penny and more! We had the best seats in the house. Right on the floor directly next to the stage, so all of the actors spent a lot of time with us. At one point, one of the actors pulled me onto the floor to attempt to throw a hat on my head. To my embarrassment, I had missed. So on his next attempt, instead of throwing the hat someone snuck up behind me and slammed one on my head. One of the main stars of the show kept hitting on Lea. At one point rubbing some vibrating device on her back, softly caressing her arms and kissing her hands (which caused his mouth to glow brightly). He is the guy that is on the giant mural Lea is standing in front of. The bald man in the photo with Lea was another of the main stars. Check out http://dreams.zinzanni.org/ to read about who he is. 4 Presidents chose him as their favorite comedian as did the Queen of England, Johnny Carson, Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Lea and I. He was so freaking funny I could hardly contain myself. Anyway, it's late and I am exhausted so I'll wrap this up. If you get a chance to see the show...Do it!

War of the brothers

You know I got the better of this one :)

The winery

Photo's from Sunday

The photo's aren't uploading right now for some reason so check back soon for updates.

Full Circle

What a blast from the past and a great day in Oregon on Sunday! Both Savannah and Sophie had their own Birthday parties locally. Sophie at Chuck E Cheese with the Parris's and Savannah at the Children's Museum with her friends from school and some neighbor kids. Each were great, but over the weekend we headed to Oregon to celebrate with our families and friends. The weather reports were ominous as was the threat of a nuclear cloud as they had just imploded the Nuclear Plant a little north of Portland. That didn't scare us though. We stuck with the plan and met at Willamette Valley Vineyards for a picnic, some Rice Krispie Cakes and presents. What better place to celebrate your fifth or second birthday than at a winery right? It really was great. There was a bit of wind and it looked like it wanted to rain, but the sun came out and we had a great time. I was able to sneak into one of my favorite places on planet Earth, the WVV Wine Cellar to take some photo's. I had never been able to go down there myself before and it was super cool to get to do so this time. Later in the day I was able to sneak Robb and Sydney in to check it out too. I even got Robb to taste a couple different Pinot Noir's. He confessed to me that he oxygenates his Diet Pepsi in his mouth to get more flavor out of it like many seasoned wine tasters. He is a natural wine taster and it is now going to be my personal goal to make him a wino.

After the girls got to open their great presents from our friends we headed to the Enchanted Forest. I should mention that my baby brother Pete whose blog you can read by clicking on his name where he leaves obnoxious comments about me here got my two year old daughter Sophie a gun that shoots BB like objects and Savannah a guitar that she loves to play right in my ear when I am on the computer. It's not that she can't carry a tune or anything...well, yeah actually that is what it is....oh well, Pete has three kids that I can get my revenge on him with.

So the Enchanted Forest for those of you that don't know is this Amusement Park just south of Salem, OR that has been there for like 500 years or so. It is exactly as I remember it from when I was a kid. I was filled with a sense of nostalgia from the moment I got out of my car and it didn't leave until long after we had left. The weather was absolutely perfect and when we got in we quickly realized that we practically had the place to ourselves! There were no lines for any of the rides, the kids (and the parents...and the Grandparents) were able to go down the slides and rides over and over again with no waiting, no whining...it was perfect! We hit the Western Town and it was like a ghost town..till we got there :) Lot's of running, screaming, laughing, playing...the kid's thought we had gone nuts. It honestly was so cool. We were all able to stick together for most of the day and one of the ladies at the park took the group shot for us. It came out pretty good too. Next, those brave enough entered the Haunted House. Lea led the way and she gave genuine screams more than once. As did all of us for that matter. The advantage to going first is that we could hide around corners and really scare the crap out of our group. It was awesome! Sydney braved it for the first time in years and even 5 year old Clayton made it through. He is very adventurous. After the Haunted House we hit the Roller Coasters...they are pretty fast for being at such a small Amusement Park. Savannah did both the big ones and both times she was in the front seat of the front car! She loved it! Anyway, I took so many pictures that uploading them filled my hard drive to maximum capacity so it'll be a while before I get them all done. In the meantime I'm going to put a few up here for y'all to check out. If you are reading this and you were there yesterday thank you very much for going! It was the most fun I can remember having in a long, long time and it wouldn't have been the same without each and every one of you. We'll have to make it an annual tradition for sure!

Lea's Birthday

Just a reminder that Lea's birthday is coming up on May 26. If you want to buy her a gift, she really likes camera equipment. A Macro Lens is what she really wants I think :)

This picture was taken of her at the Tulip festival this year in Mt. Vernon. As you can imagine, people are always asking me "Mat, what are you doing with that broad?" I always tell them it's for the money.

Savannah's 5!

Savannah had a great birthday party Saturday at the amazing Children's Museum in Everett. They have so many incredible activities for kid's. Some of her friends from school and neighbor kids were there to wish her a happy 5th. We had pizza, cake and all that good stuff and then the kids sprinted to the museum for fun! They have a rooftop play area with dinosaur bones to dig, musical instruments, a huge play structure and much more. We haven't seen that area before. Why haven't we seen it before you may be asking? It's weather dependant and living up here in the Puget Sound prevents that part of the Museum from being played with too much. Well, I didn't know I was going to be on the roof on one of the hottest days of the year so I didn't bother putting on sunscreen. Yeah, I'm a genius. My bald head is as red as the eyes of my Tree Frogs. You can see the picture of Savannah's big toy, she drives about as good as her Mom already.

Lea's Mom has been up all weekend too for the party and for Mother's Day. She brought her new little Shitzhu puppy Tika with her. He poops and pees a lot, but he's about as cute as a little furball can be. His picture is here too.

Savannah and Sophie both have another big party next Sunday at the Enchanted Forest in Oregon so all of our long lost relatives can see them down there soon!

Take Care and don't read my brothers blog...he's crazy

Sophie's almost 2!

A brief blog as I'm up past my bedtime as it is. Lots of photo's taken this week. Nicole and Andrew's engagement session was at the beautiful Seattle Arboretum. One of the photo's is posted here. They are getting married shortly and I am very excited to photograph their special day!

Today we drove up to Mt. Vernon where it was around 70 degrees and perfect! We hit the Tulip Festival which is amazing. Talk about eye candy. We then headed over to Uncle John's house where he and Vickie graciously invited us into their home to raid the wine cellar, eat pizza and wait for Hummingbirds to make an appearance. The Hummingbirds never showed, but the Turley Zinfandel was very yummy as was the Bogle Petite Sirah and the Pizza..Thanks again you two!

Sophie is turning two on Wednesday. Tomorrow is a short(er) day for me at work so we're hitting Chuck E Cheese in the evening with some good friends. Should be fun. A photo of the Birthday girl is above and of course a Tulip from today.

Late Night, Early Morning Thoughts

Hmm, deep title. The sad truth is that I don't have any deep thoughts right now. I just got done beating a guy in a heads up Hold em match on Full Tilt Poker who was quite possibly with the exception of my little baby brother Peter the most annoying player I've ever played. At least my brother is annoying in a humorous way. At least my brother actually understands how to play the game and when he is being annoying it is all strategy. Maybe this guy had a similar strategy, but he forgot to point out that he wasn't really a schmuck, just pretending to be one. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that it was very gratifying to win. My poker career has been a real rollercoaster of ups and downs. I haven't been playing too much this past year as I've moved into other time consuming avenues in my life and only have so much time available. Maybe I'll start playing more. I'm sad to report that I will not be repeating my appearance in the WSOP this year though my little brother will be playing in one of the more difficult games of the tournaments. I really think he has a shot too.

Easter was fun. Lea's sister drove her two girls up from Eugene, OR. Those of you that haven't been to Eugene are really missing out. It's kind of like visiting Paris, France in a way. Most of the woman have hairy armpits. The town plant is Marijuana and the song they play before every City Council meeting is Bob Marley's "Don't Worry."

Don't forget Sophie turns 2 on April 26 and Savannah turns 5 on May 12. Probably the most important date to remember though is June 12 when I turn one year younger than my beautiful wife Lea.

Have a great day everyone!

Mat

Gorilla's are done

Well I took the Zoo's request pretty seriously and went out there every opportunity I had over the last couple of weeks. It was tricky the first few times I went because one of the habitat's was undergoing a renovation that required the zoo to keep one group on display and the other locked up out of sight so it was a crap shoot as to which group I would get. Almost every time it was group 2 and almost every time the big Silverback Vip hid out of sight. One day I got in the Zoo before it opened which was super cool, I walked up to the Gorilla display and there he was. I got a few shots off and away he went. Lucky timing really. Then Monday I went back and they had the second habitat open. It was really a great shoot and I finished getting my shots. The photo's I posted here are the ones I submitted to the Zoo for their display. I have tons of shots of the Gorilla's they can use if they don't like these, but these are my favorites. Let me know what you think would ya?

Thanks,

Mat

What a gal!

So my beautiful bride has once again outdone herself for our anniversary leaving me as probably one of the last remaining "dumb" males. I actually believed her when we said that we would go easy on the gift giving for our anniversary. I truly am dumb to believe this as our anniversary is on April Fools Day. You'd think I would have learned in the past six years. I guess it's tricky to get past millions of years of evolution. Anyway, at least I did better than the Sewing Machine fiasco at Christmas and got her something she did want....a bird feeder. Yep, and they say romance is dead. Lea of course got me an expensive Tripod that I have had my eye on for some time now with no expectations of being able to purchase until it was completely obsolete. She cooked an amazing dinner, we drank a good bottle of wine and watched the beginning of Memoirs of a Geisha (which looks like it's going to be an amazing movie). I guess we've truly become old farts because we both sort of nodded off on the couch in anticipation of Daylight Savings Time. Hmm, maybe next year we'll actually get a babysitter and hit some Seattle hot spots.

I did get some great news. The media relations director for the Woodland Park Zoo contacted me and wants me to take portraits of all of their gorillas for the debut of their new Gorilla Habitat opening next month. I am very excited about it as the photos will be displayed at the Habitat with information about each Gorilla and will be seen by thousands of people. I was shocked to learn that after all of my visits there I still haven't seen them all. I thought there were only the six I've come to know (1 Silverback and 5 females). Turns out there is an entire other group that hasn't been available to be viewed by the public for a month or so. I can't wait to see them. Tomorrow, their display will be re-opened. I'm going out today to get as many shots as I can before we meet some good friends at the Red Hook Brewery for lunch and beer.

Take care y'all. See you in the Funny Pages!

Mat

More Zoo Pics

Howdy Y'all, just a quick post...I went back to the Zoo earlier in the week and finally got some good pictures of the Elephants. They have been eluding my lenses up until this time. You can see all the pics from this session at...

http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/WoodlandParkZoo

Let me know what you think!

Mat

Apparently, Poopy Diapers aren't so great.

Well, apparently Sophie got tired of waiting for her procrastinating parents to potty train her. She took it upon herself today to let us know that she didn't enjoy sitting in her own fecal matter anymore when there is a perfectly good toilet down the hall. She just all of a sudden started taking off her diaper, putting the potty seat on the toilet and going when we weren't looking. We wouldn't have known if it hadn't been for the Almond Roca sized floaters she left in there. Toilet paper and all. Unreal, she just knew. 3 BM's and a squirt of urine and I'm convinced we have ourselves a smart kid here. For those of you that don't know, she is only 14 years old and I couldn't be more proud. Here's a picture of her when she was just 1. Ha Ha, just kidding. This is her on the pot just today. While this is probably way more information than someone just browsing blogs would like to read about, I'm sure some family members will think it's pretty cool.

Last Day of Vacation

Well, I have to get back to work tomorrow. I'm not too sore anymore, but the Doctor was full of beans when he said I would have no problem getting back to normal after 2 days. 5-7 days is what I would recommend if you are getting neutered in the future.

Today Savannah had her first Dentist appointment at 10. Lea had an appointment as well. At the same time, Lea had made an appointment at the Grade School next door for a tour and some information about a program we are considering enrolling in. It's hard to believe that Savannah is going to be in Kindergarten this year. I wasn't too thrilled with the school to be honest, but with this program we are thinking about, Lea would be a part of the class one day every 2 weeks and in later grades, one day per week. Even though we aren't too happy about the school, I think we're stuck there as it's quite a process to switch to another school unless you move.

So anyway, Sophie and I walked to the school for our appointment and then we hung out all day. Lea forgot to mention that she had a "few" plans after the appointment, so Sophie and I got to hang out for about 6 hours. She was really good too, hardly any poopy diapers. It was good Father/Daughter bonding time and I got to watch the Wiggles again. It's been a while (almost 2 days).

A goal I had for this week while hanging on my rump was to clean up my hard drive. I burned most of my archived images to CD's and deleted a ton of stuff. I realized as I was copying Sophie's baby pictures that in the last two years my Photoshop skills have improved by about 10 million percent. I found this picture in some and realized today that I had a real diamond in the rough. I think it came out pretty good. What do you think?

I hope that you are all doing well. Remember, don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

My Vacation is Winding Down

Well, my recovery is still in progress. There are shades of Black and Blue that I won't be talking about in too much detail, use your imagination then multiply it times 10. The photo of the Zebra below was published on the top front page of section B in Wednesdays Seattle PI. That is a huge newspaper and they even spelled my name right! I was pretty excited to see it.

I'm hanging out with Sophie right now as Lea and Savannah are at the store buying toys and clothes for children in Africa. It's a pretty great program, they put fun items in a wrapped up box and kids get to open them up. Savannah is really excited about it. Now if I can talk Lea into letting me fly to Africa for a photo safari :)

Take care y'all. For those of you that don't know me, if you happen to click on my brothers name in any of the comments on this blog and you read his blog...I cannot be held responsible. He is this tattooed poet dude that lives in the armpit of Oregon and I think that all the years I beat him to a pulp as a child have finally caught up to him.

Watch the News

I just heard from the Zoo's Media Relations Director. Sadly, the Zoo had to Euthanize an older Zebra recently. They sent out a press release today to all of the local news and newspapers with a photo I had taken of the Zebra last month. They credited the photo with my name so I will probably be published tomorrow and possibly have my photo on the news tonight. Obviously, a sad circumstance, but I am glad I was able to get the shot for them.

Wow, two blogs in one day. I'm pooped.

All is well

Well, nearly 48 hours since the "whacking." I'm feeling much better now. Thank you to all of my friends, family and blog readers for all of the well wishes, the cards, the flowers and the candy. They are all very much appreciated (next time just send cash please). I took a sick pleasure in sitting in front of my computer and the TV for two days straight. I could see the veins popping out in my wifes forehead as the piles of plates and garbage were beginning not only to pile up, but to smell bad around me. She would start to let me have it and I would interrupt with "Doctor's Orders." I should have told her that he said 5 days of relaxation. Hindsight is 20/20.