Wordless Wednesday

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Bloomin' Tuesday!

Jean over at MsGreen "thumb" Jean has started a fun new post - Bloomin' Tuesday and I thought I'd join in the fun!

This flower is called Bridals Wreath. My mother in law gave me a cutting from her plant 2 years ago and I'm so pleased it is growing and blooming!


If your not familiar with this plant, I did a little investigating about the flowering shrub.

"Bridal wreath is an old-fashioned plant that flowers year after year with delicate clusters of pink flowers atop thin, 2-foot-tall stems."

My flowers are white!



Something else is "bloomin" in our neighborhood! My daughter Sara! Isn't she lovely? Jackson is due to arrive on or around July 3rd. We are counting the days!


If you'd like to join in the fun and post your own Bloomin Tuesday photos please visit Jean's site and sign up.

Flower info courtesy of eHow.

I learned something or.........

according to the Camera Totin Idiot "She can be taught!"

The tulip's in my neighbor Helen's yard have been beautiful this week! I've been busy snapping photos of her flowers because I knew they would soon be gone. The best time to take the photos are in the morning and at lunch time to catch the morning and afternoon sun on her front yard and back yard. I'm lucky I get to come home for lunch everyday!

I've been frustrated that my photos haven't been turning out the way I want them too. I see what others take of their flowers and I just haven't been getting the close up effect I wanted. Well, leave it to HIM to get to the root of the problem. "Read the directions" is what he told me this morning! So I did! And the result is wonderful. I didn't realize I had a Macro (close-up) setting on my camera. Well I do and I'm going to use it from now on for close up shots of flowers and things. Maybe even that new grandson!

Here is the photo I took today WITHOUT the macro setting:



Here's the photo after changing to the macro setting:




Much better! Don't you think?

There are two macro settings. Macro and Super Macro. When the camera is set on Super Macro the zoom button can't be used. I guess the camera is zooming in for me.

Here are some photos taken earlier in the week in the auto setting using the zoom. They are nice but I can see where the Marco setting is going to be great for flowers!




I took these photos in the afteroon when I was home for lunch and I'm glad I did because by the time I got home from work a little after 5 pm here is what I found:





Sad isn't it? I know tulips don't have a long life and the hard rain we received today probably would have beat the petals off but it would have been nice to have enjoyed them for a few more days. Too bad the neighborhood kids didn't think so.

My neighbor Helen died in 2003. Her daughter, Joy, owns the house and isn't able to live there right now but although Helen is no longer with us, I still enjoy her flowers just like I enjoyed them with her when she was living. I was sad when I saw the flower's petals laying on the sidewalk discarded and unwanted and it made me so glad I had taken their picture earlier in the week!

So what I learned is this - Always have your camera ready and take photos, photos, photos, because what you want to photograph may soon be gone and

Always READ the Directions!

Wordless Wednesday

Tulip time Again

Wordless Wednesday

Sneeze, Cough, Cough, Sneeze

I've been sick! A bad head cold, sinus congestion, cough, aches, and pains. That's about the whole of it. I missed a few days of work and managed to be unproductive the days I did show up. So it will be busy, busy, busy this week at work.

What I'm thankful for:

Kleenex Tissues with Lotion - My Nose is very thankful!


Vicks VapoRub Cream - I hate the smell of this stuff but it works!


Pillows - without them I couldn't have slept! These aren't mine but aren't they pretty?


And just when I needed a laugh my Netflex movie showed up! Season 6 Disc 1 of Wings. Funny, funny, funny.


It was a good weekend to be stuck at home on the couch sick. Besides Wings I also watched King Kong 3 times (well parts of it over three days) and three Star Wars movies!

King Kong is pretty good. I like Adrian Brody. He's quite funny in the movie. I don't care for Jack Black and his character in the movie is worth not liking. The end is sad and happy!


Also watched Star Wars - 3 episodes - A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi! They are favorites!





The Spike channel has been showing all the Star Wars movies over the last two weekends. So between last weekend and this past weekend, I've now watched the entire Star Wars saga from Episode 1 to Episode 6. This is the first time I've ever watched them in order. I enjoyed it very much. George Lucas did a pretty good job of putting all the episodes together. There are a few plot holes but so what. It's fun! Maybe someday I'll own them all on DVD. Sweetie, that's hint!

Any other Star Wars fans? Do you have a favorite? Mine will always be the original Star Wars. I saw this for the first time on July 4, 1977 with my brother and sister. I was 17 years old and had just graduated from high school. We drove one and half hours away from our hometown to see it because we couldn't wait any longer for it to come to our town! I'll never forget the first time the music started! It was just great! We ended up going to the same place a week later and seeing it again. We took my best friend along this time! We loved it! In all I guess I saw it 12 times during 1977. You'd go broke doing that now a days! It's a great memory! That was 30 years ago last summer!

Here's the original trailer from 1977 for Star Wars! enjoy!

We had a terrific show!

The Abilities Expo was a great experience. I really enjoyed doing the show! It was fun to get out of the office and see the kids on the trikes. It is so rewarding to see a child's face light up with excitement when they ride a tricycle for the FIRST time! The parents get all excited too seeing their child do something they never thought they would do. All the kids that ride our trikes have some sort of special need such as cerebral palsy or other. They need the 3 wheeled trike for balance and some kids need help keeping their feet on the pedals or help sitting up. We can provide a tricycle for just them. We have trikes for kids from ages two up to young adult! Here's one we have for sale!


We were so busy on Saturday of the show that Graeme and I didn't even have time for lunch. I had a few minutes to have a yogurt and a banana and that was it.

This is my boss, Graeme. He's from Glasgow Scotland and is the Vice President of TRIAID, Inc and our sister company in Scotland, Theraplay LTD. He's a fun guy and a hard worker who loves football (soccer to us Americans!). He has three children and a lovely wife. I've meet them all when they've been here on vacation. They love to visit Williamsburg and Busch Gardens in Virginia when they are here. I asked him if I could take his picture and he agreed but don't tell him you saw it here! Graeme flew back to Scotland today, 4/5/08. I hope he has a safe trip. He will have left here around 1 pm today and won't get home until 1 pm Sunday UK time. The flight is 8 hours long and there is 5 hours time difference between Glasgow and Maryland. So it's a long journey home for him and he'll have a dose of jet lag but he'll be in the office at Theraplay Monday.

In the evenings we went to a Woodbridge Center(mall) for some dinner and a little shopping. I bought Lori a game for her Xbox and for Sara I bought a little outfit for her Jackson and a toy for him! Paul just wanted me to bring myself home and that's what he got. The mall is huge. It has two floors and is in the shape of plus sign. I think the one part of the plus sign and one floor is as big as our mall here.

I sure was glad to get home on Sunday night. I've been tired all week. When I got home Paul had a surprise for me. Here's what he bought me.


Aren't they lovely! He's such a sweetie. It is so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed. Although the bed in the hotel was great. A King size bed for just me. I could sleep sideways, at an angle, anyway I wanted.


We had breakfast here:


And Saturday night we meet up with our friends from the DC show in November Andrea and Craig from Access Anything for a drink. Well everyone else had a beer and I had a PEPSI!



I didn't take my camera with me on the trip. I didn't want to have to worry about loosing it or having it stolen. So I didn't get any pictures of our booth or the show but here's a photo from the Abilities Expo My Space page. The fellow walked around the show all day Saturday. The kids loved him!


Friday night, Paul & I took the kids,Sara, Aaron, and Lori, out to dinner. We had fun. We went to a new place in Frostburg. The Sand Springs Salon and Steakhouse. Although none of us had steak. Go figure! Paul had pork chops, Sara had a crab cake, Lori and Aaron had chicken, and I had the ribs. It was goooood!!!!!!!!!! I felt a cold coming on all week and it arrived in the middle of the night last night. Today has been a catch up on sleep day. Monday it will be back to work on my own! I hope you've all had a great week. I'll be back to regular blogging this week!

Photos of the Sheraton Hotel from their website.

Wordless Wednesday - I met a movie star and didn't know it!

I can't be wordless this week.

As you can see from my previous post I attended the Abilities Expo in New Jersey with my company, TRIAID, Inc. We stayed for 3 nights at the Sheraton Hotel in Edison. I was in room 601. On Thursday night I tried to get a soda out of the soda machine on the 6th floor and it wouldn't work. Well this man, actor Joe Gannascoli, was also trying to get something out of the soda machine and we stood together for about 15 minutes trying to get the machine to take our $1 bills. I don't watch the Sopranos so I had no idea he was a "Star". So, I've met my first movie star and didn't know it! He was very nice too! He was also attending the Abilites Expo with Bright Steps Forward.