WOW! March Madness has been nothing short of it’s name….especially that final game to make up the Final Four! First time all 4 #1 picks made it, and I have all of them this year.

They sure didn’t play well, but hopefully it will be the wakeup call they need before taking on “Roy and the Boys” of NC on Saturday.

GO KANSAS!

Oh, I thought I better brag about it while I can, here are my standings with my brackets right now. And yes, that would be me on top of both of them…uh huh! :-O

Yep, I’m the old lady of the house, but I’m cool with that. Garfield has nothing on me either, incase you were wondering. Eat, sleep, get loved on…that’s what I do. Everything else, like chasing balls around the house, worrying about other critters….that takes energy, and I leave that up to the other cat, BlueStar (who chases me around everywhere I go, the little pill!)…

That’s why I’m left to find all the comfy spots to ponder when the next shaking of the treat bag will occur!

Wow! Kevin just got his latest TaeKwonDo belt during testing today….he’s now in the rank of Recommended Black Belt! It’s hard to believe he was 7 when he started on his journey to becoming a Black Belt, and now after just turning 11 years old, he’s ONE belt away from that honorable rank of a Black Belt!

We couldn’t be prouder, he has really done some amazing things and come a long way since tying on that first White Belt!

Congratulations son, you are the best!

I had chosen this weeks theme, “3-Sided”, as I thought it would be a good challenge. I also wanted to see how everyone else would interpret the theme themselves, so it should be fun seeing what everyone came up with.

I thought I would be shooting triangles the whole time, but it turned out to be triangles and 3-dimensional objects. Here’s my 5 images for this theme:

Please leave feedback about the images, and then visit the other group members and do the same. If you’d like more information about the group, or would like to join in on the fun, Ed has the info here. I’ll be posting links (below) to the other members photos as they submit them to their blogs…

CJ’s Photos – The Great Detox
Ed’s Photos – The House of Husar
Ryan’s Photos – Hanser Blog

My first post from my phone…and while on a train, so this may be interesting to post!

Last time I was on a train was in Europe some 15 years ago I think. It’s Natalie’s first train ride since she was 2 or 3 and Kevins first ever.
It just seems so cool to me, the combination of old and new. We left the historic Union Station in KC….full of things from a hundred plus years ago. Trains are trains I guess not much has changed for a while, except power outlets at each seat. Still no e-tickets…still pouring out diesel smoke….still the conductor wearing mostly the same uniform….still tooting horns….

But we can now listen on the scanner to the engineers, switch operators, station managers as they give their status, calls, data. Or we can keep track of our progress on mobile devices, Google maps, etc. There’s texting, e-mailing, web surfing, picture/video mailing, satellite or streaming radio listening to, DVD watching, DS playing, snorring, and spralling out like thugs ….that make the 6 hour 12 stop horn toot’n wobbly ride very enjoyable!

And of course you can get your gourmet goodies from the snack bar….chips, Smokehouse almonds, omlete bagel, “fire grilled” cheeseburger, bratwurst sandwich(?), egg salad…etc.

What did they do on the trip 100 years ago…read last weeks news…talk about the crops, cattle, town hall, outsiders….Wow, not today!

Here’s some quick documentary photos taken with the camera phone (sorry for the poor quality):

All of us here have some serious Spring Fever going on!

Here’s what things I can’t wait for:

• The NCAA Tournament to start TODAY! (Go KANSAS!)
• The grass to get green so I can start mowing
• Getting some cardio in on the bike
• MLS Soccer
• Kevin’s baseball season (I like baseball so much more now than when I played my short stint as a kid!)
• Fresh air in the house
• Everything in nature to come to life for photographing
• Being able to wash the cars w/o them freezing
• Putting the heaters away
• Fresh fruits and veggies back in stores
• Getting the Christmas lights syncronized and all figured out how to animate everything

So, lets here it for SPRING!

If you ever have that thought that you can’t do something….think again….or watch this video of Stevie Wonder!

Here’s one of our cats, BlueStar, trying to get into the cardboard box full of packing peanuts! Three of her favorite things: boxes, chewing on boxes, and packing peanuts. Sorry for the poor quality video, it’s just from my phone.

So my buddy Ed came up with this idea to get out with cameras in hand and get the creative juices flowing….weekly. So every week we will be picking a one word theme, capture images about that theme, select 5 of those images, and post them on our blogs for everyone to comment and criticize.

• Each week is a new single word theme. Using a single word allows everyone to interpret it in their own way. This allows for more creativity possibly.
• Each theme starts on a Friday and ends on the following Friday.
• You must shoot your photos that week. You can’t submit anything you have shot in the past.
• Post your best 5 photos to your own website or blog each week based on the theme. Feel free to comment or tell a story about how you interpreted the theme that week. Or just post the photos.
• Post the camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, and aperture used to capture the photo so more people can learn details.
• When you post your photos to your blog or website you then link to everyone that is participating that week. This does a few things for us. Gives us more exposure to our own blogs. Visitors can jump between all our posts/pages very easy.
• You should try to comment on everyone that is participating in the weekly theme. Try to give constructive criticism and encouragement. Maybe select which photo you like the most and why. Commenting is very important with this project!

This week’s theme was Numbers.
I went back and forth with several ideas, but kept reasoning to just stick with traditional numerical characters. It will be fun to see what others interpreted for this theme!

Here’s the 5 images I’ve selected for this week:

Please comment, and be critical so I can learn more, more, more!

I’ll be posting links to other members photos when I get them….

• Here’s the link to CJ’s photos.
• Here’s the link to Ed’s photos.
• Here’s the link to Ryan’s Photos.

I thought this ashtray made by Surgeon Generals Ceramics was awesome…something every smoker should have to visually remind them what they are doing to their lungs!

On the bottom it has this warning: “SURGEON GENERAL’S CERAMICS WARNING: The Anatomically Correct Ashtray Causes Those Who See It to Think Twice. Thinking Twice Does not Cause Lung Cancer, Emphysema, Or Complicate Pregnancy.”