Mother's Day

May was a busy month, photo opportunities presented themselves at every turn. Since my last post on May 9th, I spent a wonderful Mother's Day exploring the Shore starting with a visit to the Marina in Atlantic Highlands



Then the Monmouth County 9-11 Memorial at Mount Mitchill also in Atlantic Highlands





Maddox had a great day too, he loved being out and about in all the new surroundings.

Chilling at Mount Mitchill



The gang with Maddox for his very first visit to Asbury Park beach



Meeting new friends and socializing at the beach



Watching the early season Surfers

More Fun with Wordle

Time for some fresh Wordle art

Happy Mothers' Day

Wishing all those very special people a Very Special Day. This drink is on me, enjoy!

Off to the office

Off to the office
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

It's been awhile since we've been out with the camera. A couple of weeks ago Rosie came along to the office to help get a new PC ready for delivery to a customer

What are you talking about?

Slang has always been used by teenagers and sub-cultures as a way to speak freely without others really understanding what is being discussed. But, today's use of such language can easily be translated on the internet. As more people share their knowledge and the world becomes smaller and smaller due to the speed at which information flies into our lives, it might as well be "Pig Latin"

There are a few blogs that I follow on a fairly regular basis, and today there was an entry that was just too funny and enlightening, I just had to play along. This post Chronicles of a Country Girl: Whiling away the hours on a rainy day in April introduced me to the Urban Dictionary and post a list to look up. I just had to play along, so maybe you want to play along too?

1. Your name. Margaret
A girl who craves attention. Is also one of the most giving people you will ever meet,

~There was a bit more, but you'll have to look it up yourself. Kinda reminded of the Dennis the Menace comic's Margaret

2. Your age? 51
Apparently this is related to recreational pharmaceuticals

~hmm, should I be surprised?

3. What should you be doing? Laundry
a code name for sex

~I should have known it would have something to do with sex

4. Favorite color? Blue
The hue of the portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in a human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers.

~Looks like there is a scientist in the bunch

5. Birthplace? Bronx
One of the five boroughs of NYC which was originally part of Westchester county in the 1800's til they made the subway connection from the Bronx to Manhattan. Home of Hip Hop music and Culture. Home of the Bronx Zoo, The Yankees, Botanical Gardens, Zulu Nation(originally the Black Spades) and birth place of John Gotti. The only borough which has "THE" in front of it's name.

~Excellent

6. Month of your birthday? June
The month the hottest people in the world are born.

~I'd agree :-)

7. Last person you texted? Katie
A happy person who is a good listener and reliable friend. Likes to party and is always there when you need her.

~Pretty good, I'd mostly agree

8. One of your nicknames? Maggie

n. Nickname for Margaret.

~Perfect, although alternate entries left my jaw dropping.

9. What are you doing this weekend? Fundraising
fundraising isn't defined yet, but these are close: Band parents

~Wow, this IS a shocker

10. Random word: Responsible
responsible isn't defined yet

~ yet another gem of a find

While it's great to play along, it's been pointed out that one should not actually use these terms when in conversation with those in the know, cause it just ain't cool for the old folks to talk like dat.

Rosie Meets Max

Rosie was traveling with the family for Easter and very excited to meet her cousin Max. She was amazed how much he looks like Scout.

Can you see the resemblance?

Rainy Saturday Indoors

It was a rainy dreary Saturday, and I'm needing to get some time with my photography so I decided I'd pull together some plush toys around the house and setup a shoot. Some of you may know about my photo-buddy Scout and his little companion Rosie. If your not familiar, it's an idea I stole (with permission) from a fellow Flickr member. The adventures of Pupsy and Pals is adorable. It wasn't until today that I realized there are entire Flickr Groups dedicated to toys and "material" animals. Since everyone around me is extremely camera shy I've adopted two photo-buddies, Scout and Rosie.

Scout was the first to freely model for me, he likes to come to work and seeks adventures around the house. Sometimes he ventures out into the world, but mostly he loves to hang out and chill, today he came across my daughter's school books and I found him reading,



Shakespeare!



He's quite the cultured little fellow.

Later, he was quite happy to run into Bunny. Since it was the day before Easter he thought maybe Bunny could use a helping hand. You see Scout is always on the look out for a friend in need.



Maybe Easter Bunny will help by filling this up for the humans, but we won't know for sure until tomorrow. Bunny explained that Easter Bunny surprises humans, they don't get their presents until Easter morning, and since he is a very crafty bunny they sometimes have to hunt around the house to find them.

Now Rosie on the other hand is just a tad impulsive, she heard Scout and Bunny talking about the empty wheel barrow and quickly went to find a solution. She searched around the house and found something that might be useful for the wheel barrow.




While Bunny could see Rosie was anxious to help, he really didn't think this was quite what should be placed in wheel barrow. Someday he would have to have a conversation with Rosie about the different traditions that humans have for their holidays and rituals. Rosie is young and the most recent addition to the gang.



Scout was quick to join in and tell Rosie that Bunny was getting ready for Easter, NOT Halloween.



"Jeez Rosie, that's a Halloween toy! You have alot to learn about the rituals of humans." Scout will soon be reading up the habits of humans to explain things to Rosie.

Happy Easter

Scout and Friends

Saturday Night in The Village

Our trip to the city was originally planned to see Jack Bruce at the BB King Theater. Unfortunately the show was cancelled due to illness. Since we were already in the city we ventured off to the village. It's been some time since just walked around the neighborhood and things had certainly changed. Luckily I had my camera and made the best of the trip.

As we travelled west to east, we came across some new and interesting sites. Like this restaurant that had quite a crowd inside and people waiting to get in.



Apparently there is HUGH market for gluten-free dining in NY. You can read more about this on the Risotteria webpage.


The brand new DIZTRICT store, "a one-stop shop for cool, cute and quirky accessories" according to Time Out New York.




This store is a Korean Hotdog place, the first in New York, but there are over 100 of them in Korea. I've never heard of, let alone tried a Korean Hotdog; not sure I handle this, but it sounds interesting.




Spring has certainly arrived, even on the sidewalks of New York, Daffodils are breaking through and making their appearance.



Even the neighborhood bodega has an assortment of fresh-cut flowers to choose from.



East of 6th Avenue, you can find an assortment of clubs and pubs, some old and some new. You can even sign up for a walking-tour "Pub Crawl" to all the joints that have been frequented by literary greats such as Dylan Thomas, Eugene O'Niel, Edgar Allen Poe, and more. Heck, even Bob Dylan was a Greenwich Village lover.

Pubs that we ran across in our jaunt included The Bitter End, Kenny's Castaway, The Back Fence, to name a few.

The Red Lion, in the heart of NYU territory. Read what the New York Magazine has to say about it at
nymag.com/listings/bar/red-lion/



Thunder Jackson's Urban Roadhouse?



Home of the "Dirty Burger"? Now that sounds interesting... but the place get some very mixed reviews over at CitySearch newyork.citysearch.com/profile/46378182/new_york_ny/thund...

Rosie and the Tricky Tray

Rosie and Tricky Tray
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

Spent the day at our local Church's Annual Tricky Tray, it was a fun day. Unfortunately I didn't win that 42" flat screen TV, or the Toshiba laptop my daughter was eyeing. Well, there's always next year!

Friday Morning Fog

The early morning fog, but what a beautiful day it turned out to be!





The remnant raindrops from Thursday night's rain



Spring is slowly getting started!

First Train Ride

First Train Ride
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

I know I've been away from the blog for quite some time, but that doesn't mean I haven't been trying to improve my photography skills.

I even adopted a Photo-buddy, one who isn't so camera shy to help me get some practice in. Meet Scout, a cocker spaniel of the Webkinz variety. He'll be making appearances regularly I'm sure.

Sunday on Broadway

I spent a wonderful Sunday in the city with my daughter Kate. She is off at college studying Communications (she'll be a famous Radio Talent some day!) and needed to review a Broadway play for one of her assignments. Kate loves Broadway, and goes to see a show at any and every opportunity, so this assignment was a great excuse. Her choice this time: Avenue Q. For a quick reveiw see Avenue Q and My Twisted Childhood. While the main characters were puppets this certainly was not Sesame Street!

Late Afternoon Shoot

Managed to arrive home a little earlier than normal this afternoon and caught some sun streaming into the den. It made immediately take out the camera and try some expermental shots with my Nikon D40.

I took a throw blanket and set as a backdrop for one of the many plush animals that happen to still be around the house, and this is the shot I got:

Little did I know, Maddox was closly watching and noticed that the little teddy bear was holding HIS toy

Maddox is a fiesty, and very jealous little yorkie (we still love him). He's just not used to sharing his toys....

He was having none of it:

Fun with Wordle

I was surfing through some blogs this week and I found an interesting little app that makes Word Clouds. The word cloud for this blog looks like this

It was fun seeing the words randomly set out. You can check it out at http://www.wordle.net/

Trying to Catch Up

It's been busy, but while I haven't been able to get online I have been trying to get some photos to post.

At this late date the only one's I think worth sharing are here; starting with a fantastic sunset I caught on the side of the road returning to the office Wednesday afternoon.

(click photo to enlarge)

Thursday brought about the great winds, not as bad as some in the mid-section of the country, but gusts of 50 - 60 mph. I can't remember the last time is was so bad. As I travelled to client locations the street closures from downed trees and powerlines were the worst I could remember. Getting about was difficult, but I couldn't really see the damage as I drove. All the damage was far behind the patrol cars and traffic cones strategically placed to keep us all safe and far away.

Then Friday came and on my daily drive past The Pond I came head on with a very disturbing sight. Thankfully the tree didn't fall in the other direction, it surely would've damaged someone's home.

(click photo to enlarge)

This pond is one of my favorite spots and this was a very upsetting scene.

But it wasn't until Saturday morning when we found this scene in our own backyard.

(click photo to enlarge)

It's amazing to me that we escaped any damage to the house, but that poor tree was fallen and broken. We obviously weren't home when it happened, the neighbors were as shocked as we because they didn't know it came down either. Funny it really makes you wonder, we're too busy to hear the thunderous cries of Nature around us.

When Big Utilities Fail Us

I've been away from my blog for quite some time, I try to post every couple of days or so but that hasn't worked for over a week and Verizon is mostly to blame. Yes, it's true sometimes just living life gets in the way, it happens to the best of us. But Verizon doesn't see any need to rush getting their DSL services running. I lost service on Monday night the 9th, after daily follow ups with their helpdesk and multiple closed tickets stating the service was restored (Not!) I was informed Thursday that they'd need to send out a technician. The next available appointment: Wednesday the 18th! Needless to say, I'm happily back on the 'net with another provider!

On a lighter note, as I struggle trying to improve my photography skills I should probably take some pointers from Kylie, she has it all figured out!

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=533e05d2-9f12-4a86-bdda-efd0455fcd36" target="_new" title="Kylie">Video: Kylie</a>

I'll be posting again soon, I've got to call Verizon to disconnect my service. (Before I'm billed again!)

Remembering Autumn

CloverDaleBog (43)
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

Thanksgiving weekend I went with my brother and his friend on a walking tour of Cloverdale Park. A cranberry farm turned county park and brought along my then new Nikon D40. This shot is my favorite from that outing, I know the settings were all on "Auto" but I just got the camera and hadn't used my skills in a very long time.

We had a great time and I'm looking forward to going back during other seasons, especially when they fill the bog for the harvest! There are a couple shots from that walk in my Cloverdale Set on Flickr.

Back at the Pond

Back at the Pond
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

What a difference a day makes!

The snow is finally finished and a brand new day makes it all look fresh again. The ride to work today was full of sunshine and snow covered landscapes to enjoy. I wish I could stay out and play. See some more morning shots here

Tuesday Snow

Tuesday Snow
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

The day was gray, pictures taken in the morning were all gray. But, the snow just kept falling and as gray as it was I felt just a bit like I was living in a snow globe.

As I left the office the snow was still coming down and I saw some warmth in this scene, along with opportunity to adjust some settings to get this shot.

Another family treasure

Belle
Originally uploaded by maggie_gem

You would never know that our lovely Belle was even around, no the pictures so far seem to all be of Maddox. Our young yorkie who just takes command and is oh so jealous.

Lovely Belle just does her best to stay away, far away from the young, attention hungry little dog that invaded her space two years ago.