March 2009 Mosaic

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Another month in the books, and I actually managed not to miss a day, woo-hoo! Here are the fill photos for this month.



One of the best reasons to go to Olive Garden, extra olives on the salad! How can they call themselves Olive Garden when they only put two on the salad unless you ask otherwise? This time, our waiter brought me a whole little bowl full. YUM!



Not quite the picture I was after, but I actually like it. I intended to get the center flower in focus, but it was hard with the low light, plus I was holding the camera above my head. I was annoyed at first, but it has grown on me since, and I like how it turned out.



It looks so innocent, doesn't it? One little pine pollen pod, and this one still intact (probably because it was wet when it fell). But put millions and millions of these things together, and the whole city turns yellow. It's been raining more days than not lately, so it hasn't been too bad, but it's coming. No wonder Atlanta is the allergy capitol of the world.



I told you I would be taking a picture of this tree each season. The color of the flowers disappeared into the roof color, so I tried to get it against the other trees instead. Not thrilled with it, but it will do for the spring photo. For reference, here is the winter version.

2009-03-31

See, I do actually cook on very rare occasions. Tonight was an old family favorite and a relatively new one: cheeseburger pie with risotto.

2009-03-30

Click it or Ticket! Car safety is very important. He's been bad lately about unbuckling his seatbelt before we are fully pulled into a parking space or garage, but now that he is enforcing it with kitty, I think we'll be okay.

2009-03-29

Oh dear, what have we done?

2009-03-28

I abandoned my husband and son today for a younger man. I had the honor and privilege of babysitting this little one today while his mom had dental surgery and his dad waited to drive her home. Much more pleasant for Mr. R to nap at home and then play with me than to sit around the dentist's office for 4 hours. He slept the first 90 minutes I was there, then eyed me warily from across the room for 45 minutes, LOL. He didn't quite know what to make of me. I've sat for him before, but it was months ago and I'm sure he doesn't remember. (Photo posted with his parents' permission.)

2009-03-27

Rain, rain, go away! It has been raining for the better part of 4 days now. I'm tired of being wet from the knees down all the time. I got so drenched yesterday just walking Luke from the car to daycare and back (because stupid me thought "how wet can I possibly get?") that I had to change when I got home, so I took the umbrella today. Bengal thought it was a great place to rest.

2009-03-26

This is Luke's new daily regimen as assigned by the ENT yesterday: antihistamine, decongestant, and nasal spray. We are trying to get the fluid out of his ears (not currently infected, but the potential is there) without resorting to more tubes (I think they're called grommets in some other countries). As far as we are concerned, the person who invented these medicine strips deserves a special place in heaven. The only liquid medication Luke will willingly take is Children's Motrin. Any others are a huge battle. He doesn't really like the strips, but they don't require nearly the same fuss as other liquids.

2009-03-25

The primary instrument of the ENT. These are the tubes they fit to the scope to look in your ears. She wasn't very thrilled when she looked into Luke's today. Seems we might be in for a second set of tubes, but we'll play wait and see a little while longer.

2009-03-24

I honestly have no idea what kind of trees these are. I want to say cherry trees, but I don't know for sure. I didn't quite capture what I was after. I was hoping the white (maybe a little pink?) would show up a little more clearly against the gray of the sky. Even tweaking it later didn't help. Still it's not bad, and it's the only photo I took, so it will have to do.

2009-03-23

Another cell phone picture for you, since I (again) forgot my camera. It's the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure, isn't it? Luke *loves* to have the windows down in the car. It gives him "funny hair" and makes him grin uncontrolably. Given that Atlanta only has two seasons (broiling and freezing) except for about 2 weeks of fall and 4 weeks of rainy spring each year, it's pretty rare for him, but we had a good day for it today. He is only allowed to stick his hand out the window, nothing else, but he doesn't care. It truly made his day.

2009-03-22

Wow, I'm capable of sending emails from the future now. Good to know.

2009-03-21

I don't think I have ever seen lazier bundles of fluff in my life. As far as they are concerned, it is the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. When we first brought Cleo into the house (she previously lived with my brother), none of the cats liked her. I thought they would never stop fighting, let alone calmly be in the same room with each other for extended periods of time. It took nearly 2 years for them to get within 5 feet of each other and not freak out. That was, wow, 5 or 6 years ago. And now look at them. Not friends, really, but tolerant acquaintances for the sake of a nap on Daddy.

2009-03-20

Gee, what seems to be missing from this picture? How about, oh gee, I don't know, frozen foods! This entire row of frozen food bays was empty. It was 15-20 "doors" long, and there was nothing at all in it. Not a big deal, except that the usual contents were no where to be found anywhere else in the store. What was missing? PIZZA!! I did find it logical that they waited until Emory University's spring break to be completely out of frozen pizza, but still.

2009-03-19

I think Tigger was a little perturbed that we are still using Christmas napkins in March, what do you think?

2009-03-18

I was trying to get him in silhouette against the television. I think he looks so adorable holding that huge guitar. Didn't quite achieve what I wanted, but these are the only pictures I took for today (I took about 5 of them; this one came out best), so it will have to do.

2009-03-17

No, I don't have a cute St. Patty's Day photo for you today. In fact, I totally forgot what day it was when I got us dressed this morning, so Luke wore a Batman shirt with no green in it, and I wore purple. Oops. But I did do something fun today. Installed my new scrapping software on my laptop! I've been using PSP8 on the desktop for about 4 years now. With the desktop barely functional and now moved to an inconvenient spot where all it has to do is support the modem, scrapping has been a total pain, so I just really haven't done it much at all for months and months. But I had an overdue (personal, not work) project, and I had acquired the software in February, so I finally bit the bullet and installed it. Got my simple little overdue project done, and I can see a lot more scrapping in my future now that I can sit in my recliner and do it instead of on the floor.

2009-03-16

Wow. It was Monday all day today. Not only did we leave sunny skies and temps in the low 80s and come home to cold and rain, but we woke up very late Monday morning. DH turned the alarm off and then fell back asleep, and our usual "back up system" is Luke, who routinely wakes up 7-7:30. Only 7:30 is now 8:30 with the time change, and Luke slept to about 8:45 with the rainy skies and residual tiredness from the trip. DH called his boss to explain he would be late, and I got Luke off to daycare. Mere minutes after I pulled out of the driveway, DH tried to leave for work and discovered that L had flipped the interior light on in DH's car before we left on Friday, March 6. Needless to say, the car wouldn't start, and he had to wait for me to get back to try and jump it, which is what you see here. It did turn over almost right after I took this picture, and the battery recharged just fine on his drive in. Still, not our most stellar Monday morning.

2009-03-15

Last minute jam session before leaving for home. Luke really wanted to play, but the game only supports two guitarists (well, one guitarist, one bassist). We tried just giving him an empty guitar, but he knew the controller was supposed to be in it. So we put it in but didn't "turn it on." Thankfully he didn't notice, and he was happy to jam with Daddy and Nana.

2009-03-14

No, I don't have a picture of pie for Pi Day (3/14, get it?). I actually don't have many pictures from this day, believe it or not. We were all hot and tired, and the park was *packed* with people. Everything had an hour or more wait, one of the main things we wanted to do was closed, and the other one broke down before we had a chance to do it. Not a good day at all, especially for our last day. When we were at the Studios the previous Saturday, I noticed this survey marker on the ground right outside the Backlot Express. I meant to go back and get a picture but forgot. DH reminded me as we returned to the Backlot for lunch on our last day, and I thought it would be fun to show us actually standing on a real officially marked "spot" at Disney.

2009-03-13

The only thing that disappointed Luke about Test Track is that he wasn't allowed to drive, so we decided to fulfill his wish and let him on the Tomorrowland Speedway. DH and Luke did this while Mom and I rode Space Mountain (which is about to go down for an extensive rehab). Our only mistake was not sending DH with a camera! He did take some pictures with his camera phone (such a smart husband!), but since I didn't take them, I can't post them as my POD. The line was actually pretty short, which is rare for the Speedway, so they met us as we got off Space Mountain and asked to ride again, this time with Mom and me taking pictures to commemorate the moment.

2009-03-12

I really thought I was going to post a photo from the baseball game for today. After all, the whole reason for annual March trips to Disney was (originally) so we could catch some spring training games. When we booked our package this year, though, Disney included some extras, like a free round of mini golf. I had no idea when we might fit that in, but it worked out to be a great thing to do in the morning before the ballgame in the afternoon. It was Luke's first time playing, and I'm pretty sure it was mine and DH's first time playing each other together (sad, I know!). He's no Tiger Woods, but he still seemed to have fun. I will be able to recall this part of the trip long after the boring ballgame has faded from memory.

2009-03-11

This was sort of an accidental shot. It was my first time riding this coaster, and all of the good things I had heard about the queue theming were true. It was wonderful! I was trying to get a good shot of the Tibetan prayer flags in the queue for Expedition Everest, and I wanted some of the top and bottom rows of flags. I hadn't even realized that the mountain was in the shot when I took it, but I think it turned out really great. (As my father would say, I'd rather be lucky than good.) Luke also rode Everest. 3 times! He loved it. I definitely think we have a true coaster junkie on our hands.

2009-03-10

This is one of the things he has been asking to do ever since we told him we were going back to Disney. "I want to ride the horsey again!" I don't know why the carousel has stuck with him so specifically, but here he is. And like the true child of two engineers, he spends most of the ride staring up at the mechanism that makes the horses go up and down! LOL He was pretty distressed when the ride stopped with his horse at the very apex of its "jump." It was a long way down!

2009-03-09

I absolutely *love* this photo! It sums up the best part of this day. Luke got to ride Test Track for the first time, and he had a total blast. (This was actually taken on his his 3rd ride.) And let me tell you, this picture was hard to get. We are outside in an open car, going around a banked curve at 60+ mph. You try holding your arm fully extended, pulling a few extra Gs, while pointing the camera at him with no way to see the viewscreen, and actually getting him in frame! And that is pure joy on his face, let me tell you. It may well be my favorite picture from the trip (out of over 1800).

2009-03-08

Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (behind the castle). All I needed was Big Thunder Mountain in this shot, and it would have covered almost everything we need at the Magic Kingdom. I should mention that this was taken while moving on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (formerly WEDway Peoplemover) while dodging support columns, so I'm pretty thrilled with how it turned out. (Yes, it is cropped, but I'm still happy with it.)

2009-03-07

Annual speederbike photo! See 2007 and 2008.

2009-03-06

Luke inspired me to take this picture. We stopped to eat at Golden Corral on the way out of town, and Luke noticed that he could see DH and me in these brass spheres. He laughed, he waved, he had all kinds of fun. I couldn't get a good shot of the three of us, so you'll have to settle for DH and Luke on the left, and the camera covering me on the right. (I tried to get me in the picture, I promise! It just didn't work out.)

2009-03-05

Countdown complete! This is the sticker chart we have been using to count the days until our Disney trip. As you can see, we leave tomorrow, though we won't make it all the way there. We'll stop at my parents' house to stay the night, then Mom will go with us when we leave first thing Saturday morning. Dad has to work. :-\ Not sure if I will be able to update while I am gone or not. We'll just have to see how we decide to handle the internet situation while we're there ($10 for every 24 hour block per computer, ouch). I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to choose from for the next 10 days or so! Just not sure when I'll get them up. For trip updates, feel free to follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/moviemuse

2009-03-04

Cleo got her own little photo shoot today. I was wandering around downstairs during a conference call today when I saw her sitting in the sun on the stairs, and I just had to run and grab my camera. She is definitely the sunbather of the group. Sure, all of them lay in the sun from time to time, but she can almost always be found in a patch of light somewhere. Usually, they are in very inconvenient places for picture taking, but not today. I wish she would let me get a good picture of her right ear so I could tell the story of how she got her name. I've tried a couple of times, but they never turn out. I'll keep trying.

2009-03-03

This is the scissor fob that my friend Shalini made for me. I designed it and provided the beads, and she put it together for me. It arrived a few days ago, but I have been remiss in taking a photo and publicly thanking her for doing this for me. You can read the story of how and why this fob came to be on my regular blog tomorrow morning.

2009-03-02

The roads were still icy and/or slushy after Sunday's snow, and I'm a great big chicken about driving on slippery roads. I don't know how to do it, and I know most of my fellow Atlantans don't either, and we really can't afford to wreck the car 5 days before we leave for Florida. Monday is usually a light work day for me, so I just kept Luke home with me. He was pretty good about playing by himself or watching television most of the day, but right around 10 AM, he was being silly and wanted attention. "Picture me, Mommy, I clap with my feet!" LOL How could I resist?

2009-03-01

We had 3 inches of snow fall in about 3 hours today. That is simply unheard of for Atlanta! It was also Luke's first significant snowfall, and he had a blast playing in it.