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Updatey Goodness

16 February 2009 By Leave a Comment

News All Around! Let’s start with today.

Today Michael took Atos to the vet. He has an ear infection, but we can use the meds we have for Sasha, and she only charged us for the test on his ear, not the visit itself. He is otherwise healthy and friendly. We both ran down to Lauderdale and picked up Sasha’s Interceptor (the Abandoned Pet Rescue gave us a months supply for 80$ instead of 12 pills for 80$)  and she started that today. The gal in charge there said she should start to look better in a couple of weeks. Yay!

Once we were done in Lauderdale we came back up to Coral Springs and signed the boys up for camp for next year. I never did hear back from Camp Gan Israel, so we signed them up for three days a week at the place they went last summer. I am going to make plans for the other two days a week, so we should have a busy summer! I inquired about VPK for Eshiva for next year, and tomorrow morning we’re going to fill that paperwork out. KIM offers a 50$/week full day of pre-K when coupled with VPK. 7:30 – 3 (VPK runs 9 – 12, so we can drop her off after the boys and I can pick her up after the boys too). She also gets one day a week of swim instruction (not the full day of course, but the instructor comes in once a week) as well as time in the gym and daily school stuff, etc. It’s a great deal, and Olivia waived the registration fee since we’re bringing Eshiva for VPK.

Ah… we also went to Target and went food shopping. Eshiva spent some of her birthday  money and got a Hello Kitty CD/Tape/Radio player. I burned her a couple of CD’s today and she is in heaven. Michael got a full sized acoustic guitar and is going to learn right along with Dorian, who has a kid sized acoustic. He got a video from NetFlix and they are going to do it on Mondays. We went to GameStop and the boys bought some games with their cash. We went back to GameStop and bought a new PS2 because the dog broke ours (total accident). Today was a money kind of day :( At least camp is paid in full and I don’t have to fret about it (ha, fret/guitar) and we saved a little to contribute to the fence fund.

Saturday I saw one of my Aunts & Uncles, and Gram & Zaide. They brought down some studio lights from another Uncle, so I get to tool around with those tomorrow. I need to get Michael to come outside with me and his dremel and fix up my PVC piping so I can get my backdrop stand to, you know, stand. Had a fab visit. I may bitch and moan about my family, but I really miss having more of them live locally, and I should make more effort to visit the ones that are local.

I put all my tattoo equipment in Michael’s car tonight. I haven’t had time to work with it in months. I wont have time for a while yet, and my focus is kind of on my photography at the moment anyway.  I started out with the intention of learning how for the sake of knowing how, and well, I know how, so that’s that. I’m not going to go work in a competing shop, and I wont be hired to work at the shop Michael is at, so I feel like it was getting kind of pointless anyway. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be?

Starting in August I’ll have a full day to myself. I suspect I’ll have a very clean home (I hope so anyway!). I’ll have time to repaint the front room. I’ll have time to find a place for everything. I’ll have time to set up some bad ass photo shoots and put together props to show off how cute my kids are. I’ll have time to finish my digital work during the day so I am not up doing it at midnight. I’m pretty excited about it!

So, that’s the news!

Filed Under: Education, Mishpucha, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been wanting to post, but I haven’t had anything to say

15 December 2008 By Leave a Comment

Last night in the car, Malachai kept telling us not this song, not this song, not this song, and at one point he changed it up and said “not this. definitely not this.” <3

We had dinner with my Aunt, Uncle, Gram, Zaide, and the eight of us. My Aunt & Uncle got the kids gifts. Mal got visibly upset because he got a smaller bag than the other two. He is quiet enough and was talking into my neck enough that we passed it off as him being tired. Poor guy. He got over it quick enough (he got a very cool card game, as did Eshiva, but hers was packaged in a bigger box, and Dor got a ball that was not inflated, but it was packaged bigger too) but we felt bad for him. I remember how I felt getting a gift that I thought sucked when everyone else got cool stuff.

We bought boxes today. I am packing up our breakfront full of crap so I can get rid of the breakfront and sub out something much smaller. All the “crap” in there were my folks wedding fits, my moms owl collection, our “Jew” stuff and some misc. tchotchkes. Dad is asking why I am keeping it. I can’t bear to tell him it’s because I’m a girl and I am emotionally attached to anything that I feel still reminds me of mom. It’s getting better, I’m not saving *everything* some of it really is crap.

I told Michael to box up the tattoo stuff and take what he can to work – I haven’t drawn in over six months, and I haven’t set up the machines in almost as long. I went as far as looking through the stencils today and I just wasn’t feeling it.

My uncle is trying to find a cheap way to send me his studio lights, and we’re going to build a backdrop stand from PVC sometime soon after they arrive. I’m pretty excited about that. I also hinted that I’d be happy to take any other old equipment he isn’t using off his hands and give it a good home (he said he’d like to see his lights get some use in a good home) so maybe I’ll get some other surprise goodies too :-)

I think I might branch out into printing some general greeting cards and stuff. Nothing in big batches, little micro batches I can list at my leisure to sell.

Cliff Bar brand put out organic twisted fruit leather things – I picked up a box on impulse today. They worked out to about fifty cents a package and the kids love them. One full fruit serving in there! Score!

I am back on my “mostly raw” raw diet. I put on a pair of size 10s this morning. I got them on, and had disgusting muffin top BUT I got them on and buttoned. I could not do that even last week. I took them off and put on a comfy pair of size 16s that fall off unless I belt them down. A few more weeks, I think, and I can dig out at least six pair of pants that I haven’t been able to wear for longer than I care to admit.

I’ve been food shopping at the WalMart food store. This should go in confess I guess, but I spent 200$ where I’d normally have spent over 300$ so I don’t care that bad. It’s not like they are putting Publix out of business or anything.

I <3 my dreads. I feel bad putting wax and crap in them, but I need them to look good and not like I am wearing a rabid mop on my head. All in all, it’s working and I am pleased with them and have not threatened to brush them out or cut them off. Yay!

I think that’s it. I am feeling restless and I want to be doing all these things and I just can’t pick one to focus on, so I am kind of doing like, 5 – 10 minutes of a lot of things. It sucks.

Filed Under: Art, Body Modification, Mishpucha, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ritz Camera/Ritz Camera Online

21 November 2008 By Leave a Comment

So, I ordered myself a new lens and some filters (ah.. I’m a sucker for a good sale. I am going to save our economy all by my damn self, just dangle a sale in front of me) last week, and a windstorm of mess happened.

A) Ritz didn’t offer me a size option on the filters online, not that I saw anyway.
B) I am a dumbass and assumed (you know what they say about assuming) that because it popped up after I got the lens that they would send the right size, like they did *last* time I ordered a lens and grabbed some filters after the fact. M hm, nope, didn’t happen.

So, I figure I’ll just buy a step down ring. I have a set of step-up rings, but it would be too easy for them to just be reversible. Yep. Too easy.

So I hop on ebay and Ritz and some other places to price them. Not too bad, but no one has a set of them, they come in large jumps. Fuckers.

So I decide to go in to the local Ritz Camera to see what I can see. The guy is super helpful, but it turns out they don’t have a jump in the sizes I need. He suggests checking Ritz online or B&H.

So I get home and decide to just call Ritz and see if I can exchange or return the offending filters. Turns out I can’t exchange them because I paid via paypal (what is *that* about?) But I can order new ones (at a higher price, I bet that is what that was about!) and return the others for a refund. So I did.

The guy on the phone was super helpful, and now I just need to run to the post tomorrow to return the ones I have that are the wrong size.

Why yes, my new ones are arriving in the correct size!

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Just documenting

14 November 2008 By Leave a Comment

The boys got their report cards yesterday. Dor made honor roll (with a 1/2 average, like a/b) and Mal got a “you try hard” award. His marks were all over the place.

I got a tidy paycheck today, so I bought myself a present. Ritz Camera was having a sale on filters (I know, it’s kind of a waste, since I can do it in PhotoShop, but I wanted to experiment without using PS) so I got

  • QUANTARAY 49MM 6X CROSS SCREEN FILTER
  • QUANTARAY 49MM SPOT FILTER
  • QUANTARAY 49MM CLOSE-UP FILTER SET (I got this for macro photography – super cheap alternative, if it works)
  • and I picked up a Q-RAY 18-50MM F/3.5-5.6 DIG ZOOM F/NIK.

    • Seeing as I had gone to price check a Nikon F/1.2 50mm, I didn’t do so bad. I came away with the less expensive lens (which does the same thing) and three filters for less than the Nikon brand lens. I just wish I wasn’t too cheap to pay for over night shipping lol  Eh, it wouldn’t have been here by tomorrow anyway. I guess I could have seen if the local Ritz had it in stock – I just thought about that. No worry. I’ll have plenty of chance to use it, and the lenses I have are perfect for the trip anyway.

    We picked up a Wii Fit – the kids are loving it and I am hoping it does some good. I’ve done more yoga in the past two days than I’ve done in the past two months (longer even) and I’ve had fun doing it. Yay!

    Filed Under: Education, General, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

    I bought myself a present

    20 September 2008 By 2 Comments

    I shouldn’t have, but I did. It was the right price. I got a Reverse Ring Macro for my camera. I’ve been wanting a macro lens, and fuck if they aren’t expensive enough to keep me from getting on because it’s a hobby, not something I’ll be making money back on. This little gizmo was 23$ after shipping and supposedly does a spiffy job of converting my current lens into a macro lens. Good enough for government work anyway.

    For you nosy types, here’s the description:

    Here is a brand new Nikon 52mm lens reversing ring for extreme Macro close up photographs. Macro-photography is one of my favorite forms of photography. You will be surprised to see what is lurking just out of site. You will have so much fun you will hardly be able to stand it! To give an example of what this will do, I will use this illustration, results may vary depending on your lenses, this is just a ballpark figure from what I have here. If you use a 55mm (focal length) Macro lens that has a 1:1 ratio capability and take a photo of a dime you will get almost a full frame of the dime. With this ring attached to the camera the lens mounted in reverse you will almost get a full frame of the date on the dime. This is for extreme Macro and if you use longer lenses with Macro capability you will get ultra close to the smallest subjects! The threads are 52mm so the front ring of the lens you want to mount in the reverse position needs to have a 52mm front ring. You can also use step up or down rings to make this fit other lenses that are bigger or smaller than 52mm. The ring is brand new in the box made in Japan. This is not a Nikon brand item but it is very high quality. This is for the Nikon manual focus cameras and will also fit the Auto Focus Nikon cameras.

    Fun stuff, I can’t wait for it to get here! I almost got a macro/fish eye instead (also cheap as fuck, so how good could it really be, right?) but I can’t see using a fisheye more than a handful of times for the sake of using it.

    Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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