Photo Penguin 365

Flowers

2008-08-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Some flowers for today.

I'm a star!!

2008-08-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

I won a major award at work! To win the award, people get nominated for doing a good job and then the employees vote on who should win. I was priveledged enough to be one of the winners this week and I got this super cool balloon. :)

What in the World?

2008-08-11T06:00:00.002-04:00

We saw this hearse on our way to lunch a week or so ago. In case you were wondering, the silver thing at the bottom of the back window was a silver skull thing. I thought it was weird enough to warrant a blog post, so here you go:

Better Late Than Never...

2008-08-10T18:39:00.007-04:00

I know I've missed posting for a couple of weeks, but I swear I have a good reason. I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed a couple of weeks ago. (Blech!) No pictures from that lovely event, but I have some even better ones.

Hubby and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary in mid-July by having dinner at The Melting Pot. It was truly fabulous. Everybody greeted us by name and wished us a Happy Anniversary, we were seated in a private booth, and the Manager came by to personally congratulate us. And the food was yummy, too! So without further ado, I am proud to present..our dinner. :)

This was the tabletop of our private booth. :)

Our first course was a cheese course. We went with a cheddar cheese fondue. They brought us bread pieces, chunks of green apples, and fresh veggies (cauliflower, carrots, and celery). It was really, really good and a great sign of things to come. :)

Our second course was a salad course. We forgot to take a picture of that one (oops!), but it was a house salad with "crisp greens, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, and Emmenthaler Swiss cheese with a sweet and tangy House dressing." It was really good. :)

Our third course was the meat course. We chose a "court bouillon" (sounds fancier than "homemade, seasoned vegetable broth") to cook everything in. The dinner we picked came with: Filet Mignon Medallion, Jerk-Seasoned Sirloin, Vanilla Rum Chicken, Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Zesty Peppered Shrimp, Butternut Squash Ravioli, and Fresh Vegetables. They also brought an assortment of sauces to go on everything. Super good! :)

For dessert, we went with a "Yin & Yang" fondue. It was white and milk chocolate swirled together. The presentation was awesome and it was amazing!!

These are the goodies they brought us to dip in the amazing chocolate fondue. There was: cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows covered in Oreo crumbs and Graham Cracker crumbs, rice krispy treats, pound cake, brownies, and a cherry on top!

Mischa

2008-07-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

This is one of the amazing pictures Hubby took of Mischa a couple of months ago. It's one of my favorite pictures of her that we've ever taken.

Girl Meets Frog

2008-07-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

So, usually I hate frogs. Alot. A whole lot. But, I made an exception for this one. We went for barbeque on my Birthday to Sticky Fingers (great rib place with amazing sauces). I was happily eating my ribs, minding my own business:

When out of nowhere comes this 6 foot tall frog!!!

Turns out, he's their mascot (we've been eating here for over 5 years and have never seen the frog before - go figure). They told him it was my birthday and then made me get my picture taken with a frog.

At least he was a nice frog. :)

Lounging with my Buddy

2008-07-16T06:00:00.003-04:00

I've always loved to read. If I'm at home, chances are, I'm either cooking or reading (sometimes both!). Since that activity does not directly involve Mischa, she does her best to make sure she's still the center of attention. This time I was lucky - she usually tries to curl up on my book. :)

Shameless Plug

2008-07-15T09:15:00.000-04:00

If you have not seen Wall-E yet, you're missing a huge treat! :) Hubby and I went to see it a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. This will be one that we buy the day it comes out on DVD. I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob.

Mischa

2008-07-14T09:04:00.001-04:00

This is Mischa on the first night I had the new camera. I was looking around for things to take pictures of and she's a (mostly willing) subject. :)

Morning has Broken

2008-07-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Now, on to pictures that I've taken with my snazzy new camera. :)

If you read Hubby's blog, then you will know that we went to the beach on the Fourth of July to take pictures of the sunrise. We woke up just after 5 in the morning (I'm not sure I was aware that there was a 5 o'clock in the morning!), picked up some breakfast from Dunkin' Donuts, and head up to the beach to camp out for the sunrise.

Here's a few of my favorites from my camera.

Man Fishing:

Sunrise:
The Pier:

My absolute favorite of the day:

Back Finally...Again....

2008-07-12T08:10:00.004-04:00

K, so I've seriously been slacking with my blog over the last couple of months, but I'm really going to try to stay caught up this time. :)

My birthday fell into the middle of my accidental hiatus from the blog. And for my birthday, Hubby got me my own "Point and Shoot" Digital camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix S210 and it is small enough for me to carry with me all the time (see below). For those moments when you look out the window of the car and think, "That dog is wearing a hat! I wish I had my camera!" :)

Back...finally

2008-04-09T21:41:00.004-04:00

I'm back after a month-long hiatus to get settled with some new stuff going on with me. :) For my first post back, I've picked an elephant from a recent trip to the zoo with Hubby. It was the first time we've ever really seen one of the elephants doing more than standing (and we go to the zoo A LOT).

"I" is for Instructions

2008-03-18T20:05:00.003-04:00

The sign is missing the "B" in "Bubbles, but you get the idea. :) Hubby and I went to Fernandina for the weekend and ran across this sign there. We were strolling on the main street and noticed all the bubbles swirling around. We looked around to see where they were coming from and saw this sign. So....we followed Instructions and followed the bubbles!

A Visit to Uncle Phil's Diner

2008-03-13T09:01:00.002-04:00

These are some more pictures from the youth fundraiser we attended. It was really cool - a diner themed Dinner Theater. The kids did a fabulous job (and so did the adults who helped out!) It was a blast! :)

This first one is me with my Dad (aka Uncle Phil) and "Flodine" (the head waitress).

This one was during the show they did. They had stuff going on onstage as well as out on the floor where the diner patrons were sitting.

This one is my Mom (on the right in the gray wig). She did a fabulous job as Uncle Phil's Ma. :-D You can see her in the picture above, too.

The whole thing was super awesome and I really hope they do something like this again. :)

More Uncle Phil pictures to come later!

"H" is for Hair-Don't

2008-03-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

As opposed to Hair-Do. :) We attended a 50's Diner themed fundraiser for our church youth group this past weekend. One of the characters was a failed hairdresser named LaVonna. In the spirit of fun, I let her "fix" my hair. It turned out very...well....umm...let's go with special.

More Mischa

2008-03-11T08:58:00.000-04:00

Sky Watch Friday

2008-03-06T17:54:00.002-05:00

Worker on a Roof

2008-03-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

"G" is for Glee

2008-03-04T19:07:00.003-05:00

This is not our child, just some random little girl at Disney World, but she was just too cute meeting the princess Aurora so we had to take a picture - pure glee! :)

Sky Watch Friday

2008-02-29T07:26:00.002-05:00

This one was taken at the beach around sunset last weekend. Everything was kind of hazy and so the sky looked like a giant rainbow. I don't think that we were able to fully capture the awesome sky, but it's still pretty. :)

Butterflies

2008-02-28T08:20:00.003-05:00

These were taken at the Natural History Museum in Gainesville at the University of Florida. They have a large section that is entirely devoted to butterflies - there's a butterfly garden, a nursery area where they hatch new butterflies (which is where these were taken), and a huge display of butterflies of every size, color, and shape imaginable.

Revisiting Otters

2008-02-26T08:57:00.001-05:00

Sky Watch Friday

2008-02-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

I've been drawn to water and blue skies lately for my Sky Watch photos and today is no different. This one was taken down in St. Augustine. We've had some rain the last couple of days, so I was feeling the need for a crystal blue sky. :)

Birds

2008-02-21T08:39:00.003-05:00

An assortment of feathery friends for today's blog entry.

"E" is for Equine

2008-02-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

For today's ABC Wednesday, I've gone with an equine theme and picked some of my favorite pictures of horses that we've taken. The first three are from the Olustee Re-enactment we attended this past weekend.

This beautiful horse is from the Medieval Fair we attended last year. I've posted a picture of him before, but he was too gorgeous to resist posting another. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Meditations

2008-02-19T09:37:00.001-05:00

Olustee Highlights

2008-02-18T08:45:00.003-05:00

So, we went to the Battle of Olustee this weekend. Not the actual battle, but the annual reenactment. :)

It was very cool (as usual) and also very exhausting! We did get some really good pictures, though.

Sky Watch Friday

2008-02-14T21:52:00.002-05:00

Nice bright blue sky for Sky Watch Friday today. The weather has been lovely the last couple of days. Pretty rainy before that, but now we're into the calm after the storm. DH and I have plans for a field trip to take lots of great photos this weekend. More on that in days to come. :) But for now, we can all take a deep breath and just enjoy the moment.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T08:37:00.004-05:00

Whether you celebrate Valentine's Day or not, I hope you have a wonderful day. :)

"D" is for Drawing and Duck!!

2008-02-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

I couldn't decide between two pictures for ABC Wednesday, so I went with both today. I hope you'll humor me.

This is a Disney cast member portraying Walt Disney in a parade. Why did I pick him? Because he's Drawing! Incidently, the parade was called the "Dreams Come True" Parade.

This one is a Duck. In case you didn't know. ;-) He waddled near us when we were waiting for the parade in the previous picture to start. We think he was looking for Donald.

Lots of D's today - Disney, drawing, Donald, dreams, ducks, dork (well...the blogger is, anyway). :-D

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by. :)

Can't see the forest..

2008-02-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

This is the park next to the St. Augustine Light House.

Cool Breeze

2008-02-11T07:54:00.000-05:00

New Friend

2008-02-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

Hubby and I were out and about this weekend andran across this little guy. :) Usually kitties that you see outside don't really want much to do with people, but this one was really very friendly. He came right up to me, rolled around on his back, and let me give him a tummy rub.

Sky Watch Friday

2008-02-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

A nice relaxing beach shot for today's Sky Watch Friday. Enjoy :)

It's what she do

2008-02-07T08:22:00.000-05:00

"C" is for Character Greetings at Disney World!

2008-02-06T06:06:00.000-05:00

The first several pictures are from a trip Hubby and I took in a Christmas trip to Disney World a couple of years ago. It was really cool - they just had this room with all the characters scattered around it. And NO LINE!! (Which is practically unheard of at Disney!)

Us and Pluto

Alan and Minnie...

Minnie got a little too flirty for my taste, so I stepped in! ;-)Us with Chip n' Dale (for those who don't know - Chip is on the right and he has a chocolate chip nose, Dale is on the left with the red nose). They were such goofballs!
Us with Goofy
Us with Mickey!!

This is me with Mr. Incredible taken on my birthday visit to Disney that Hubby surprised me with. :) Nobody was waiting to see him and I felt bad, so I asked Hubby to take my picture with him. Once I did, he had a line of kids form to see him, too. :)

These are without a doubt, my favorites. Anyone who knows hubby & I knows that we are semi-obsessed with Penguins. We love them! We have over 200 of them scattered throughout the house. So, when we were at the Magic Kingdom on the aforementioned Christmas trip, riding on the train, absolutely exhausted, and saw these guys, we totally flipped out. We almost jumped off of the train while it was still moving a little (and got fussed at by the conductor!).

Note my super stylish pink Santa hat (it says "Princess" on the white furry part in the front and it comes with its own tiara!)

These poor penguin guys - we ran up to them screaming and jumping up and down the whole time, like they were a couple of rock stars or something. lol! We figured they either thought we were just plain crazy, or they were excited to get the kind of reaction that most people reserve for The Mouse.

Medieval Rebels

2008-02-04T08:29:00.000-05:00

Lace

2008-02-03T08:26:00.000-05:00

Pathways

2008-02-02T08:24:00.000-05:00

Sky Watch Friday

2008-02-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

It's pretty gloomy and rainy today, so I picked one we had taken where the sky looks similar. It looks dark, but there's a terrific breeze that feels so good!

I realized I never posted pictures when we got our new carpet in

2008-01-31T07:22:00.000-05:00

This is how the carpet looked when we moved in.

This is the tile that was underneath the carpet when they pulled it up:
We still have the old carpet in the two bedrooms, so this is a comparison between the old carpet and the new carpet.
And this is the new carpet.

We're thrilled with the end result. It looks really really nice and we are absolutely loving it.

"B" is for Blogging

2008-01-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

I was staring at my latest blog entry, throwing out random ideas with hubby, trying to figure out something that starts with the letter B. When it came to me....Blogging!!! So, here's some screenshots of what it looks like when I'm working on my blog.

Bonus Tuesday Blog: Voting is Cool!!

2008-01-29T20:48:00.001-05:00

Yep- I voted in our primary. :) It is an amazing priveledge and responsibility - and I'm proud to be able to take part. We did have one little mishap - I'm registered Republican and hubby is registered No Party. Hubby checked in to get his ballot right before me and the very nice woman who was in charge of handing out the ballots gave me a No Party ballot, too. Oops!

(On the off chance that anyone reading this is not familiar with the American system of voting: in the primaries, you can only vote for a person if you are registered in the party they are trying to get the nomination for. So, registered Democrats can only vote on people trying to get the Democrat nomination, Republicans can only vote for people trying to get the Republican nomination, and if you are registered No Party you don't vote for anybody. In the actual election, you can vote for whomever you wish.)

After I bubbled in the ballot (it was for an ammendment in our state), I realized that there weren't any Republican candidates listed...or any candidates for that matter. I checked back with the super nice volunteers and we quickly figured out that they had assumed I was No Party like hubby. The first ballot was destroyed, I made my pick on a new ballot, and all was once again right with the world...I'm pretty sure there was whistling and sunlight involved there somewhere. :)

The most beautiful kitten in the world...and I'm not biased at all!!

2008-01-29T07:57:00.000-05:00

Am I right or am I right? :-)

One of my All time favorite meals...

2008-01-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

This is one of my all-time favorite meals from one of my all-time favorite places. :) It is at Le Cellier, which is the restaurant in the Canada section of Epcot. They have some of the best steaks I've ever had in my entire life!

This was my dinner - A New York Strip Steak with balsamic red onions, watercress and roasted Yukon potatoes and finished with veal demi-glace.

And THIS was dessert. A chocolate-on-chocolate whiskey cake. (For the record, I'm pretty sure the whiskey is in the cream sauce on the right...which I don't really like. Now the chocolate cake by itself.....NOW we're talkin!!)

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

2008-01-28T07:27:00.000-05:00

Different Perspective

2008-01-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

She waits

2008-01-26T07:50:00.000-05:00

This was taken at Olustee last year. It didn't turn out exactly as I hoped it would, but it's still pretty.

Sky Watch Friday

2008-01-25T07:25:00.000-05:00

Subtitled: Mooning About

(just because I read that phrase somewhere and it seemed to fit the picture to me).

Actually, this was taken on a very happy night - the night 2 of our friends were married. Which also happened to be my birthday last year. :)

One-on-One

2008-01-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

This is a falcon from the Medieval Fair that has been blog fodder for me for the last few days. There was a demonstration of this beautiful bird as well as a few other types of birds.

"A" is for Armor

2008-01-23T08:27:00.001-05:00

Today's ABC Wednesday photo features a Jouster from a Medieval fair. In full armor, of course!!

Flower Power

2008-01-22T07:25:00.000-05:00

Baking Bread

2008-01-21T13:58:00.000-05:00

I baked White Mountain bread today. :) So, today's blog features pictures from the different stages involved in baking it.

This is the "Warm Liquid Goo Phase" (10 points to anyone who can name that movie). :)

It is the warm milk, water, honey, butter, salt, etc... right after I added in the activated yeast.

The flour has been added in and the dough has been kneaded (by hand, of course!) I don't have a bread maker or stand mixer, so it sort of had to be by hand, but that's ok. It was really fun!

Settling the dough in for the first rise:

Divided in half and rising for the 2nd time:

After about a half an hour in the oven, it's all done!!

Mischa at Play

2008-01-20T20:11:00.000-05:00

We tried to play a game on our Wii last night for the first time since bringing Mischa home. It turned out that the game was pretty lousy, but Mischa was super entertaining. :) She tried to get at the curser on the tv screen. We played with her like that for about 30 minutes. Way better than the doofy game.

At one point, she noticed that the cursor was disappearing at the side of the screen, so she jumped up beside the tv to try to figure out where it was going!

This one is Mischa playing in front of a mirror (technically, I think she was taking a break to take a bath). This one has the added bonus of showing our new carpet. :)

Today, we've been married for exactly 4 1/2 years

2008-01-19T08:38:00.000-05:00

Exactly 4 1/2 years ago today, Hubby and I were married. :)

Exactly 5 1/2 years ago today, he proposed. I thought it was romantic....he joked that it was so he'd have less dates to remember. :-)

In honor of those special days, I'd like to dedicate today's blog to my hubby, whom I love very very much.

Anywho... he took a disposable camera with us that he slipped to our waitress after we finished eating. He had my anniversary present in a little red bag (you can see it in some of the shots) and he left it on the table for me to stare at for our entire meal. lol!

He slipped out for a minute when we were almost finished (and took the camera with him - I found out later that that was when he palmed it to the waitress). Finally, we were done eating and he asked if I wanted my present yet. Then, he got down on one knee and proposed (turned out that my present was my engagement ring that we'd designed together a few months before). The waitress set herself up off to the side, and with that little disposable camera, she took these pictures:

Really big horse

2008-01-18T20:31:00.000-05:00

Rocky Goes to the Zoo

2008-01-17T07:36:00.000-05:00

Today's blog is inspired by Hubby's ABC Wednesday post yesterday. For those who don't know (or haven't had a chane to see his blog), we took a small stuffed penguin named Rocky to the zoo and took his picture with all kinds of different things. There was a fun series on a website where people would take little stuffed animals to different places and take their pictures with stuff. Since we have a legion of penguins, we picked one out and joined in the fun. :)

Here's a few highlights of Rocky Goes to the Zoo.

"Z" is for Zonked Out

2008-01-16T07:34:00.000-05:00

For today's ABC Wednesday post, I give you a jaguar at the zoo doing what kitties do best!

Beach

2008-01-15T09:09:00.000-05:00

More Mischa

2008-01-14T07:07:00.001-05:00

Mischa is still doing well. :) She's fitting right in with us. So far, she's got two speeds: off and warp drive!! This picture was taken very near the "off" stage. As you can see, she was actually sitting still and cooperating with me.

Rat Basketball

2008-01-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

As part of a Behavior Modification project in one of my psychology projects, my group decided to work with a local zoo to train ordinairy rats to do something new. Basketball. Yep, Basketball. It was a very interesting experiment (and a successful one, too!!).

We basically taught them how to roll a ping pong ball to the opposite side of the box they were on, pick up the ball, and put it through a basket we'd made. There were a few more steps to it than that, but you get the idea. :)

Bee Rock Revisited

2008-01-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

By request, here's a few more shots of Bee Rock. Enjoy! :)

If I recall correctly, the first two shots were taken of me and hubby on top of Bee Rock (shown better in the third picture). If you look really closely at picture #3, you can see us standing at the top. I don't do heights at all so, it was an interesting experience.

Welcome home, Mischa!!

2008-01-11T05:47:00.000-05:00

This is our adroable new kitten, Mischa. We just got her last night from a rescue group we found on Petfinders.com. She's really very sweet and affectionate and loves to play. In fact, she's perched in my lap, helping me type my blog this morning!!

I tried to get one of her by my shoe to show how tiny she is (or how big my feet are......nope.....let's stick with tiny kitten.) :)

She's a little over three months old (we think) and is an absolute doll. She even figured out how to work this toy in just a few minutes (there's a ball that runs in a track around the scratchy center). She's also totally a lap cat which is really cool, since I've never really had one of those before. When she wasn't playing last night, she was curled up in my lap. :-D

So here she is, our newest member of the family. Welcome home, Mischa!

Sky Watch Friday

2008-01-11T05:38:00.000-05:00

This is Bee Rock in north central Tennessee. Taken when we were on vacation a while back. A friend of our family runs a really nice Bed and Breakfast there. :)

"Y" is for Yelling!!

2008-01-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

Which is what I did on my first, last, and only ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney World (sorry for another Disney picture, Aunt Sharon!!) I am quite the coaster chicken and thought I had conquered my fears....apparently I have not. :)

Happiest Place on Earth

2008-01-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

Some pictures from when Hubby surprised me with a trip to Disney for my birthday last year.

My first effort at Black and White

2008-01-07T11:36:00.000-05:00

I took these on a trip to St. Augustine with hubby about a year and a half ago. They were my first attempts at more "artsy" photos and also my first serious Black and White pictures. They're still some of my favorites.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2008-01-06T23:00:00.000-05:00

Does it get any better than warm cookie, cold Snow Cream, and fudge sauce? Nope...didn't think so. :)

Dedicated to my Beloved Jaguars

2008-01-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

Photo courtesy of Peter Diana, Post-Gazett

So, tonight my Jaguars will boldly take the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game of the play-offs!!! In honor of them, I have posted some pictures that we (mostly Hubby) took at one of the Jaguars practices a few months ago. (But I did have a part in taking them, as I would freak out and frantically point at my favorites while spasmodically poking hubby in the side-

"There he is!!! There he is!!! Get his picture!! Quick!!!")

See? I helped. :)

Anywho, without further rambling, here's my top 4 favorite Jaguars in no particular order:

This is Big John Henderson of the Defense. He is a Defensive Tackle and nobody gets by him!

This is Rashean Mathis, also of the defense, and our star cornerback.

The guy in the white jersey on the left is Maurice Jones-Drew (aka Mojo). He is one of our amazing Running Backs. From interviews and such, he seems to be a really really great guy in addition to being a really really great football player.

The guy in the white jersey is Fred Taylor (aka Freddy T). He is another one of our amazing Running Backs. He's broken lots of records this season and may actually get to play in the Pro Bowl this year. :-)

So, here's hoping they do their best (and...you know...winning would also be special)!!

Go Jags!!

The Worst Movie of All Time

2008-01-04T07:39:00.000-05:00

And I now own it. :-D

For a little background info, here's some Manos fun facts!

It was made by a manure salesman on a bet.
It was filmed on a budget of $19,000.
It was recorded on a camera that could only film 32 seconds at a time and could not record sound.
As a result, ALL the voices (even the little girl's) were dubbed in after filming by 2 men and 1 woman.
Only 2 of the actors were paid (the little girl got a bicycle and one of the dogs got a bag of food).
The adult actors were going to be paid with the earnings the movie brought in after release - it tanked so horribly that none of them were ever paid, because it never earned anything.
During the premier showing, the cast and crew snuck out of the theater halfway through the movie, because the audience was laughing and heckling to badly.

And now it's ours!! If you do decide to try to watch it, I would advise that you only watch the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version. I've heard the original just by itself is pretty much unbearable. I love it because it is a masterpiece of awful (and I'm a HUGE Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fan).

Sky Watch Friday

2008-01-04T00:05:00.000-05:00

This is a shot of the Intracoastal Waterway near Ponte Vedra, Florida. Taken while the car was moving (which I find pretty impressive, since I was simultaneously trying desperately not to be car sick). :-)

My first Blog post ever - a favorite trip to the zoo

2008-01-03T09:51:00.000-05:00

For my first ever blog posting, I decided to post a few pictures I took on our most recent trip to the zoo (which is one of our favorite places).

This one is a tree on the way there. It was pretty foggy.

This one is a fountain they've recently added:

Monkey at play:

You otter see the otters. :)

While you're at it, you also otter see the giraffes.

This one is a picture of a baby giraffe. Well..sort of...it's in there! I promise!

So, those were some highlights from our zoo trip (where I got to work the camera for a change!). ;-) It was a great visit and Hubby and I had lots of fun.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to check back for new stuff.