New Fur Baby!

We've added a new fur baby addition to the Bachmann household! Here she is, yet to be named. A friend had a stray cat have her litter in their garage, so being the softies that we are, of course we had to take one in. (In fact, if you're in the Atlanta area, there are 2 more calico kittens available - let me know if you're interested!) Although DH and I had already been talking about getting Thoth a "sibling" at some point too, so the timing just seemed to work out. I picked her up today, and she's in quarantine in the "master bath suite" until she's old enough to get all of her testing done. Thoth did get to see her several times today from a distance, and seemed interested and not too bothered by her presence. She appears so far to be fearless, spunky, vocal, cuddly, and a loud purr-er. Hopefully the transition from a 1-cat to 2-cat household will be smooth. Name suggestions and kitten advice welcome!

To Infinity and Beyond!

DH and I headed down to Titusville, Florida last Thursday to meet up with some family and friends and to witness the final mission launch of the space shuttle, Atlantis. We staked out a spot along the river east of Titusville at Parrish Park around 10 am on Friday. There was a small beach along the north side of the road, so we were armed with chairs, a pop-up tent (thank goodness, because it was sunny!), sand toys for my bonus niece (3 yo), and picnic food. There was quite a crowd as the morning wore on, and by lunchtime, you'd a thought it was Gameday! RVs, surfers, families, retired folks, students, people with dogs, were all out and waiting to watch the launch. I've been crazy busy with deadlines since coming back to work this week (among other things going on too), and so I haven't had a chance to go through all the photos yet, but here's one at liftoff. The launch was pretty much on time, around 2:20 pm, and I was glad I had thought to bring a little radio (and batteries!) so that we could listen to the AM station with the countdown. The skies were clear so we had a great view of liftoff, the arch of the shuttle, the contrail into infinity, and the rocket boosters falling. What a fantastic experience!

Birthday Cake

I must say, I think I had one of the best birthday cakes ever (okay, maybe runner-up to the Pac-Man cake I had once in elementary school...). My birthday was last Friday. DH surprised me and my birthday crew with fabulous cake from Brazilian Bakery. BB is a local place, just across the street from our neighborhood Publix. They have very tasty fried meat pies and pastries, and also very yummy desserts, which we have only made a small dent in the long counter-full of goodies. This cake was layers of yellow cake with an inner layer of a delicious cream filling, whipped cream icing, meringue crunchies on the sides, and strawberries on top. Moist, tasty, and to quote my friend Tim, "stupid." (As in, that's stupid good!) YUM! Thanks, Honey!

Easter weekend

We had a nice trip to Alabama visiting family and friends over Easter weekend. Our Civic also rolled over 50,000 miles, ironically just outside of Talladega. On our drive over Friday night, we made a quick stop for dinner in Birmingham specifically to visit an old GT favorite that has now moved to Vestavia Hills, Kool Korner Sandwiches. Kool Korner was an old Tech standby on 14th Street for the best pressed Cuban sandwiches in town, until a few years ago when Mr. Ramirez was convinced by his son to move to Birmingham and retire with his family. Well, that lasted 2 weeks. When we walked into the store, Mr. Ramirez had just left, but his son was there and called him to tell him that 2 visitors from Atlanta were there. Well, he turned around and came back just to visit with us, and that was very touching. There also turned out to be a late dinner rush, so he hopped back behind the counter to help out after visiting with us for a few minutes. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, along with a new guava turnover that we were treated to, and I intend to make it part of our trip to Alabama whenever possible!

The new Kool Korner storefront in Vestavia Hills:

DH enjoys his first bites, including plantain chips, of course:

Enjoying my Cuban:

Mr. Ramirez behind the counter:

DH and I also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this Tuesday, 4/2/10. Happy Anniversary, Honey! I love you!

60mm

A friend of a friend lent me an old AF Micro Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8 D lens last weekend to play around with. It's been interesting playing around with it, since I am so used to using my 18-200mm VR lens. I've been using it on manual focus, even though it is AF, because it does get a little squirrely with the body sometimes. A couple of fun shots that I've taken:

My kitty buddy, Thoth

Thoth's pentapus (only 5 legs) toy

My friend Val's kitty buddy, Sherman

Kitty buddy looking out the window

Wheatgrass and blue bottle in the kitchen window

Sleep is good

I've been getting over a sinus cold for about the last two weeks now, so not much to report. Along with the typical OTC meds, I've been trying to take my vitamins, eats lots of veggies, drink lots of water, and of course, get in LOTS of sleep. Which made me think of a small, but important change to my sleeping habits these last few months. I was on a random trip to IKEA where I probably came out with nothing I planned to buy, yet found other things that I needed while I was there. One of those items was a contoured foam pillow. I'm a side and back sleeper, and for some time was waking up with my arms behind my head (for neck support in my sleep, I suppose), or with back pains after sleeping more than 7 hours. I saw this pillow, and decided to give it a try. Well, after about a week of getting used to sleeping on it, I've had much better sleep since using it, and highly recommend it for you side/back sleepers out there. Now to get DH one for sleeping on his belly...

In other news, I've managed to make it to two major concerts in the last two months, which is probably a record for me. We went to see Silversun Pickups and Muse on 2/27, and They Might Be Giants this past Friday, 3/5. Both excellent shows!

Small Flash Class

I took a fun Small Flash Crash Course this past Sunday with instructor Michael Schwarz, who is a professional photographer, digital photography consultant, and teaches for the Nikon School. I was a little intimidated going into the class, worried that everyone was going to know so much more than me, etc., but I went with a friend (thanks, Adam!) and found that everyone there was just as eager to learn and share what they have learned. The class took place at Professional Photographic Resources (PPR), which rental all kinds of professional camera equipment and has a studios for rent. (Incidentally, I hear that it's also a great place to rent camera lenses if you want to try one out, even for amateurs like me.) We mostly used Studio 1, complete with a huge, white, coved cyclorama wall and floor. The studio is so large, you can even drive in and photograph a car! We also took about 2 shots outside during the course of our 1-day class. I learned a lot about using the SB-800 in a studio setting, and I hope one day I might be able to get even a small bit of the equipment I would need to re-create shots like these! Many thanks to our model, Marc, who put up with our jokes about him blinking (we were constantly using flashes in his face *all day*) and put on a great face for the "paparazzi"! Here are some of my better shots from the class: