Memorial Day Weekend

Emily & the kids were down this weekend & we all had such a good time! It's hard to post just 1 pic per day! My facebook album has 135 pics, so you will have to go there to see all of them: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1894823184657.105031.1663904266

Saturday we had an adventure in Seattle. We started out with shopping & lunch at SouthCenter mall, then DJ took us to Kerry Park overlooking downtown Seattle, then to the Waterfront, dinner at Marrakesh Moroccan restaurant & then walked back through Pike Place Market & the hill climb. The picture is dark & grainy, but it's of all of us at dinner...

Sunday started with blueberry pancakes & eggs for breakfast, then afternoon BBQ at Pt Defiance.

Emily & the kids went home after a big breakfast Monday morning. We all lounged around most of the day until dinner when we roasted hot dogs, corn on the cob & marshmallows over the fire out in the garden.

Back to work & reality on Tuesday morning. No good job postings on craigslist today as I am still unemployed. UGH!

Emily, Alyssa & Christopher

Emily & the kids are here for Memorial Day Weekend. 

Wed/Thurs

It was sunny & nice out this morning so Katie & I decided to go to the Farmers Market. There was rain in the forecast, so we took coats just in case.  We parked at the Tacoma Dome & took the link there & it started to pour just as we got off the link. YUCK!

Yesterday was shopping day so I've attached my Costco receipt.  This was just a small trip, not a very good example of my "normal" stock up trips there.

In Memory of Jean Batnick. 7/21/1942 - 5/24/2009

My Mom would have loved our garden retreat.  

Heather & I planted honeysuckle & jasmine today in her memory. 

 

CARPE DIEM

Seize the day...
I've heard so many people talk about "project 365" where you take a photo a day for a year to journal your life. Sounds like a great idea & easy enough, but I've never started.

I really want to do this, but when do I start?  I suppose Jan 1 would be a good day to start, but I didn't, so lets start now.  I will start with yesterday. The 2nd anniversary of the death of my Mom.  She started me, so good day ha? She would have liked this idea.

This will be the story of our life - literally, day by day.  I will probably only update the blog every week or so, but I will do my best to post a photo & comment for every day of the year. Some days I will scan a note, a receipt, or some other "souvenir" of the day to document what we did.

Tips on How to Do It

Here are six tips on how to create your own Project 365:

1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
   Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.
2. Make Posting Easy
   You can install blog software like Movable Type or WordPress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog.com are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.
3. Vary Your Themes
   Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.
4. Tell a Story
   Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.
5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
   This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place. There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.
   Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.
   N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!
   
6. Post early, post often
   Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference. 

 http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Why do it?

Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:

• Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)
• Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.
• Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day. 

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/