Happy Birthday Mom!...

Today is my moms birthday, though I won't mention any numbers for fear of having my lungs ripped out through my nose.

I may be 52, but I still have a healthy fear of my mother.

;)

My mom was a single parent of 5 (2 girls, 3 boys) and we were poor (though I didn't know it when I was younger). We lived in the projects in Boston area and my mom would try to make ends meet with some pretty crappy jobs, cleaning other peoples homes and taking in their laundry.

Two things I remember, being happy and always having a wonderful Christmas. No matter what the year had held for us, when Christmas came it was magical. It seemed no matter what we had asked for from Santa, we would find it under the tree on Christmas morning.

I knew there had to be a Santa because there was no way my mom could afford to buy us these things.

When I got a little older, and knew the big man was more myth than man I couldn't figure out how my mom did it. Because by then, I knew we were poor.

Then one day stumbled upon five envelopes that were rubber banned together. One had my name on it and the others had the names of my brothers and sisters. Each envelope had the same about of money in it, all in ones and change.

Then it hit me, after a long day of cleaning houses my mom would take some of that money and split it evenly between the 5 envelopes. And she would do this after every basket of laundry, after every dirty house, all year long. So by the time Christmas came, mom could make the magic happen.

Though at the time I understood the process, I could not appreciate all her hard work, all her sacrifices until I was older. As I write this it still amazes me.

And I know why we were happy, because we were loved.

Well, it's time to head to mom's. My daughters love this for several reasons, not the least of which is that when I walk through her door I am no longer their dad, I am my mothers son. They get a kick seeing me in that role.

The picture below is from a couple years back, Cathy and the girls made my mom a birthday cake that looked like a platter of spaghetti and meatballs (cream cheese "spaghetti" frosting, strawberry "sauce" topping).

Happy birthday mom, I love you!

For all you Twilight fans...

Chances are if you have a daughter (or several) you are well aware of the Twilight books and movie by Stephenie Meyer.

Even if you don't (have daughters) you've probably seen the advertisements and images that have blanketed the media.

Well, photographer Zach Hodges did an outstanding (and elegantly simple) reproduction of the "Twilight style" and was kind enough to share how he did it.

So, if you want to see how, check out Zack's detailed tutorial on his blog here. If you want to see some of Zack's other work (and you should), check out his website.

One of the tools used in creating his Twilight image was a DIY beauty dish, you can find the plans here. Since the original posting of the beauty dish plans there have been two updates, you'll find them here and here.

Zack also used some actions as part of his image processing that you may not have (or don't want to buy), you can try using the "Dave Hill" technique that we have talked about in the past.

I am in the process of making my own beauty dish and my daughters (and their friends) or chomping at the bit to make this image, so I will let you know how things turn out.

The merriest Christmas to you…

This was the first year of “non-believers” in our house… no milk and cookies for Santa, no reindeer mix for Rudolph and company.

I know, I know, my mind tells me that I have absolutely no right to complain, and I’m not. I have too much to be grateful for, but my heart is having a hard time letting my little girls become young women.

May you and yours have a warm and loving holiday season.

Let your new year be full of love and family.

I hope there is always food on your table and those most important to you sitting around it.

That your home is warm and your heart is happy.

That as you look back over this past year you see happiness, and as you look forward to the new year you see nothing but hope.

Photo contest reminder...

I just wanted to remind everyone that the December Photo Contest Extravaganza ends on New Years eve.

The winner will be announced in New Years Day (between bowl games, nachos, and naps).

It's an outstanding holiday prize package that includes Dave Hobby's "Strobist Seminar" on DVD.

So you have 8 more days to email your winning image.

18 inches of snow later...

Below you will see my birdhouse and picnic table after Friday's storm and then again after Sunday's storm.

I can't show you the sunflower (that I posted Friday) because it's under the snow.

And now my dogs can simply walk over the top of our fence to freedom, if they were only that smart.

Well, it's off to blow some snow.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I don't want to seem like a whiner...

But...

It was just a week ago that we had that incredible ice storm, in fact there are some poor folks who still don't have their power back.

Well, last night we had a foot of snow dumped on us!

But wait, there's more, we are expecting yet another big storm tomorrow.

Yeah us!

;(

Back to the ice storm for a second, there was so much work to be done that Nova Scotia (Canada, hey!) sent a 45 man crew to help with the work of restoring power. Each member of the crew receives per-diem pay of $11 every day they are here.

The 45 men decided to donate their per-diem pay to the York County Food Rescue program.

$11 may not sound like much, but when you do the math that comes out to $500 day ($4,000 so far). Regardless of the amount, it's pretty darn impressive that these men, far from home and working long hours in freezing weather are thinking of the needs of others.

Yeah them!

;)