Some quality reading material

I just got this book in the mail...

It is 850 pages of wonderfulness. I am pretty much obsessed with Disney World. Hopefully JP and I will be going this fall. If not this fall sometime next year.

Snow Day!

On Friday February 12, Birmingham got an inch more of snow! It started snowing around 10am and didn't stop until around 5pm. Seeing the snow coming down all day was beautiful! I even got to come home from work an hour early. JP and I had a lot of fun playing in the snow!


Our new friend was the biggest snowman I remember making. Getting him up on the table was quite a task. The bottom layer was much too heavy just to pick up so I had to roll it on to JP's knee, then roll it onto the bench, and then finally roll it onto the table.

Don't try this at home...

JP recently decided he wanted to eat healthier in an attempt to lose weight. JP and I inherited a lot of canned vegetables from a friend of his that moved to California. We never eat canned vegetables so they have been taking about precious cabinet space for a while. On the second day of JP's dietary makeover, JP decided he would eat some of these vegetables. However, he did not eat these in the typical way.

First he loaded a can of peas and a can of asparagus into the blender.

He then preceded to puree them, adding chili powder and whipping cream.

After pouring this concoction into a glass, he drank it. He said it was the most disgusting thing he had ever consumed. He felt sick for a several hours afterward. When I asked him why he did it he replied, "I was trying to be healthy."

Since then, I have been making fresh salads every night, and we have been enjoying both fruits and vegetables in a much better way. I am having so much fun coming up with healthy recipes! I always tried to cook healthy before, but now JP will actually eat it without adding unhealthy stuff to it!

The Chili King

Last month was our church's 2nd annual Chili Cook-Off. If you remember, JP won last year! So, this year he was determined to repeat... and that he did. I feel like his chili this year was more of a hit than the one he made last year. Everyone kept commenting about how much they liked it.

Like last year, I can't tell you the recipe, but I do know that it contained coffee and pineapple. JP sure does know how to make a strange combination taste good!

Basic Photography Class Photos: Week 2

This week our assignment was to submit pictures that follow the "rule of thirds". The "rule of thirds" states that the main subject of the photo falls on one of the four main power points which are formed at the intersection of the lines that divide the photo both horizontally and vertically.

I was super busy, and it was SO cold this week that it was hard to get out and take pictures! I did go to Samford and take some pictures Sunday afternoon; however, I didn't get my final photos until about 45 minutes before class. Our teacher uses a Yahoo group for us to all upload our pictures. Because I uploaded at the last minute, I did not have a chance to double check my folder. I know I uploaded 5 but when my teacher pulled up my folder only three were there.

My teacher was pleased with all the three of the photos that uploaded stating that they were excellent or cool shots.

These are the two pictures that for some reason did not upload so I was unable to get my teacher's response.

Late Majority

Source: http://blogs.idc.com/ie/?p=205

If you have ever taken any sort of marketing class you have seen this chart. Each group is distinguished by their entry into the market with the the innovators being the earliest and laggards being last.

JP and I are definitely NOT innovators when it comes to cell phones and their services. I would consider us Late Majority (probably Late Late Majority if that was a category). Now let's see why we get this classification.

Meet JP's phone:
This is the SGH-t809. This phone first came on the market in 2005. In 2008, JP's friend got a new phone and gave JP this phone. If you want one just like it, you can find one for $17 on Google Shop. (at least as of now... you better hurry before someone snatches it up!)

Meet my phone:
This is the LG CU720. This first came on the market in 2007. I got this phone in 2009. However, the only reason I got this phone was because my Razr completely died. If it hadn't died, I probably would still have it.

Now on to service features, well really texting...

First we must note that JP and I are both still on our parent's plan. It is just a lot cheaper for us right now to do this, and it is preventing us from having to decide which service to choose. My family has AT&T and his family has T-Mobile. Makes it difficult to decide which service to use because one of us will be giving up our free mobile-2-mobile minutes with our family.

Let's tell JP's story first: JP's family never had texting so everytime they sent or received a text it was 20 cents. That got very expensive so JP's parents decided to just block texting all together.

Now my story: All through college, I never had texting. I asked for it, but my Dad never put it on the plan. So, I just kept my texts to few and far between. When my sister went to college, we still didn't have textinig. So, her first month of college, instead of limiting texts, she sent zillions of texts running up a pretty high bill. As a result, my Dad added a small texting plan. She got 1500 texts, I got 200.

So in the world of smartphones, JP and I were completely limited or somewhat limited on texting.

Well... Hello Unlimited Text World... we are here!

JP's story: JP kept asking his parents for unlimited text, and his brothers started too. For Christmas, they got Unlimited texting!

My story: Because my sister isn't much of a talk-on-the-phone kind of person, my mom started texting her. She didn't have a text plan so each text was paid for individually. My Mom initially didn't text much but then it started to grow. So, it ended up being a better deal for my Dad to purchase the Unlimited texting plan.

Now why do we not get the laggards classification? There will always be people out there like my grandmother who have no desire to text!

So now, please feel free to text JP or me anytime! Now, when will we enter the smartphone world? Let's get JP a CPA and a job first! :)

Basic Photography Class Photos: Week 1

Each week of my photography class, each student brings in 5 pictures and during the last half of class, we discuss them. Each week I will post here the pictures that I submited as well as the comments they received.

Our first assignment was to bring in our 5 best pictures. Well, I really don't have 5 "best" pictures yet. Since I have had my camera I haven't taken a lot of pictures for a couple of reasons, 1) I don't really know how to use all of the fancy things my camera can do (hence the class) and 2) I haven't had a whole lot of time. When I do take pictures, I have tried to do more complicated things than just looking at composition. I had a photography class in high school and feel I have a pretty good grasp on composition. Anyway all this to say I knew all of the pictures I submitted weren't really "best" quality. I was really only confident in two of my pictures.

PHOTO ONE

I took this picture while I was in Arizona over Christmas. I had never attempted a silhouette shot so thought I would give it a shot.
Teacher comment: It's nice. Just a silhouette. (My take was he wasn't very impressed)

PHOTO TWO

I took this picture when I was in Central Park this summer. I really don't think it was that great of a photograph but it was one of the first pictures I took on my own (without Michael's help) in which the foreground was in focus and the background was not.
Teacher response: Eh.

PHOTO THREE

This is another photo I took while I was in Arizona over Christmas. I took it because I liked the way the grasses overlapped the water.
Teacher comment: Not a good subject.

Now for the only two photos I have that deserve a "best" label. These were the two I was confident about.

PHOTO FOUR

I shot this in Times Square. I love this picture, but I can't really take a lot of credit for it. Yes I did press the button but Michael set everything up so it would look like this. But still, it is my picture so it is one of my BEST. Hopefully I will learn how to repeat this picture without any help!
Teacher comment: This is a very nice shot. Excellent composition.

PHOTO FIVE

I took this picture in a waterfront park in New Jersey. This is what I consider my BEST picture because I did it completely on my own.
Teacher comment: Pefect composition. Excellent. Very well done.

Next week our assignment is to submit 5 photos that use the rule of thirds. I better get shooting!