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