These are from the bouquet of congratulatory flowers I received from my family. I think this is the last of the flowers from that photo session. However, I do have more photos of some of the flowering trees and bushes near the house. So, I will have some photos for future weeks to tide us over until the outside annuals get into full bloom.

and in large

and in large

Posted by danielle at 10:42 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

I learned something new yesterday.

My brother-in-law taught me how to open a beer bottle with a lighter.

It was pretty damn awesome.

The pictures of us, being all happy and successful are on my Flickr account.

Anyone have a beer bottle they need opened?

Oh, and do you have a lighter?

;-)

Posted by danielle at 10:21 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

and in large

These shots are some of my favorites from this set. I'm not sure if it is the shape of the lily, or the contrast of it against the black background. But I just love them.

I'm sure Squirl will like them too, since they is yellow. ;-)

and in large

and in large

That one, I'm particularly fond of, since you can see the grains of pollen.

and in large

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone! If it doesn't rain, I'll be singing at a church service that is outside amidst the trees. My mother in-law is going to come and hear me sing. She, my father in-law and brother in-law are visiting this holiday weekend. It should be a lot of fun to have them here!

Posted by danielle at 09:36 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

So, I went to music practice last night for church and it ran long. This meant that when I got home, I watched American Idol on TiVo (which, unfortunately means, not in High Def). I was glad to forward through Donna Summers and through the ads. I was really impressed with how all of the American Idol contestants did on the new songs. I am also surprised that with the choreography, they all manage to step in the right direction together without staring at each other.

And here is the problem with TiVo and Fox.

Ryan Seacrest says (something like) "And the winner of season 7 is David....... Cook!"
And RIGHT AFTER he says Cook, like his mouth is still forming the K, the TiVo cuts off the show.

I was shocked, happy, and frustrated. I really had wanted David Cook to win and had tried to vote for him, but the phone lines were always busy when I tried. I figured that with the tweeny-bopper vote, he didn't stand a chance. But maybe that knowledge rallied people to get to their phones and vote.

Anyway, the story ends happily, because someone on YouTube posted the announcement and the final song here. So, if you didn't see it, and have 6 minutes to spare, you can watch it on YouTube. American Idol also posted the song, but not the announcement and reaction (which is what I wanted to see).

This is a guy who went to the try-outs as moral support for his brother and got encouraged to try-out himself. He DIDN'T EVEN INTEND to try-out! Just amazing.

Here is a video of him singing U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. It is only 2 minutes, I think the video includes the judges' comments.

And here is a video of him singing Billie Jean. It is 2 minutes, and listening to the comments is also really interesting on this one (which brings it up to 3 minutes).

And the best part is that I will totally buy his albums. I love the rocker-gravelly sound of his voice. While I like purity too, I like the style of his music much better than David Archuleta and Syesha. The only other AI contestant I could see getting behind is Carly Smithson (who reminds me of Cher) and Michael Johns. Brooke White is kind of a maybe in my book, because I love that Carly Simon, James Taylor vibe she has going for her.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, if you watched it. I know I did.

AND NOW, we get to see So You Think You Can Dance!

Posted by danielle at 10:07 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Jenski commented on my peach rose post about how she liked the black background.

I thought I would post this photo of my picture-taking set-up for those photos.

As you can see, I had the black sheet draped with some textbooks underneath. The flower in the vase was sitting on top of the black sheet-covered textbooks. And I was using my light to cast full spectrum light on the flower. The only thing that isn't in that picture is my tripod that I use for close-ups.

At one point, the sheet started moving and I couldn't figure out why and that was when I noticed her underneath it. That is, she was underneath it with her CLAWS clawing the sheet and making the whole thing unstable! It was too funny to pass up, so I, of course, snapped a picture of it, in between lenses.

The girlie-girl evidently decided that it was the purrfect hidey-spot.

She is a goof. (picture in large where you can see her better)

And over the course of the few days where I left it set-up, I kept finding her under there. I guess it was good protection from the (make-believe) hawks that fly around our rooms and are ready to attack at a moment's notice. ;-)

You know those hawks, very unpredictable. Gotta watch out for them.

Posted by danielle at 02:55 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

As you can probably tell, this rose was part of the bouquet that I received from my family as congratulations on my new job.

Posted by danielle at 11:48 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

I'm not sure what these are called. I feel like we've had this discussion before and Squirl or Texas Seestor came up with the name. But I can't find that post. Anyway, they are certainly the hardiest of all of the cut flowers. And when I looked at them up close, one of the prettiest.

and in large

I hope these perk up your day. I know looking at them cheered me up. :-)

Posted by danielle at 10:27 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

So, I don't twitter, because for one thing, I don't have the time for it. But for another, my main entry over and over would be "doing an experiment". This is also why I don't always have much to blog about. My life is often fairly routine.

However, with job stuff, there has been more to say recently. Also, something of note that happened today:

I'm going on vacation in July! The room(s) have been reserved, I got the okay from my boss, Texas Seestor got the okay from _her_ boss, and I booked my airline flight about 15 minutes ago. So it is real! Vacation is on the way! In case the statement about Texas Seestor has you wondering, this is a family vacation with Texas Seestor, Trainwreck, Munchie, Mom, Dad and Me. No HB on this one.

Just check out the pools!

Isn't that gorgeous? The place is in Texas on the Gulf coast near Corpus Christi. You can see the ocean in the distance in that photo. The place is actually connected to the ocean by a boardwalk, this view just makes the ocean look farther away than it is.

And get this: the pool has water slides! How awesome is that?

I'm pretty psyched, as you can tell.

Posted by danielle at 07:42 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

and in large

I got these flowers from my family as congratulations for my new job! They were delivered to my work-place! That is 2 deliveries in one year. :-D

I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. And the funny thing is that on the day that they arrived, I had just been thinking about how I wanted to buy flowers for the weekend to celebrate and for taking photos.

There are a lot of photos here, but it is because I couldn't eliminate any of them. I am just too pleased with how they turned out.
AND, if you want to see more, you can go to my photostream on flickr. Of course, flickr is being dreadfully slow today. I'm not sure what is going on there.

and in large

The one just above, and the first one, are probably the ones I'll have blown up into 5x7's in order to have some to decorate my new office.

I love the curls on the center of this reddish gerbera daisy. (in large)
I think the large one on that photo is really fascinating - the curls, the straight parts, the pollen grains...

Have a good weekend everyone!

Posted by danielle at 02:32 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack