Yawn of the Sasquatch

When 5 PM rolled around today, this was what I found in my office: Both of my boys, strewn out across the floor so that I could barely move. Maurice gets his dinner at 5 PM, and once that's done, he's ready for another nap. So I figured I'd take a few photos because they were so cute. Except Maurice doesn't like to have his photo taken, so he got up and was ready to leave, and just started yawning uncontrollably. I don't know if these photos are quite blurry enough to sell to Weekly World News, but I think it's kind of funny...





Yes, Maurice's teeth need to be cleaned pretty badly...

My Other Half

My wonderful and talented husband Andy just put up his gallery of digitally manipulated photographs based on photos he took while on our trip to India this past December. Check out the images here.

The Family Antognoli

On Sunday, I attended my annual family reunion in Ohio. My father's father had something like 16 brothers and sisters, and as you can imagine, that produced a ton of relatives! The group photo above isn't even a fraction of them, for scale. I try and make it back for as many of these reunions as I can, because if you miss even one, there are so many new faces or growing up faces that you don't recognize, like these ones:







My grandmother was there, and she is always fun to see. She seems so much younger than she is, and I can only hope that I look that good when I'm her age!


My mother has been in charge of the games for the kids for years. They do all sorts of fun things, and then cap it off with a whirl at the pinata. We had to instate the rule that the pinatas would not resemble anything living though, because one year my mother brought a rabbit pinata, and the kids went all lord of the flies on us and were fighting over the body and head, which had become separated. So now only shapes, and colorful streamers are allowed!



My brother brought his guitar and was playing with a few other family members. I think I left when they went into a rendition of "Freebird" though. That's my limit, I'm afraid...


I have absolutely no idea what is going on here, and I took the photo!


Even family puppies gather for the reunion. I wanted to take this one home with me. He kind of looks like Maurice, only 75 pounds lighter : )


So thus ends another reunion, and thank you again to my second cousin Holly for hosting all of us crazy relatives!

I can see clearly now...

As I mentioned in a previous entry here, I had pretty big news that I would elaborate on later. Well, now is later. I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it too much beforehand, so only a few people knew it would be happening... but I finally broke down and got lasik surgery! Yes, that's right, I can now see 20/20 without any vision enhancing apparatus. No contact lenses, no glasses... I can practically see through walls, that's how well this has worked!

So why would I go and do this after 18 years of wearing contacts well, you might ask? I suddenly became allergic to my contact lenses in June. They say when you live in DC long enough, it's bound to happen sooner or later. Wearing glasses was ok, but I found it difficult to be a photographer with them on. My career ultimately spurred my decision to go to the same doctor that performed the surgery on my father and younger brother, so I traveled to Niagara Falls to seek him out.

My family has a lot of great traits, but one bad one is our horrible eyesight. The reason my brother went to Canada a few years back is because they offered a type of lasik, Zyoptic, that was not offered here in the states. It is better for those of us hovering around -5 and worse. It also cuts way down on the risk of night halos, regression of correction, and is more accurate for the heavier prescriptions. So that's why the travel...

The day before the surgery, Andy and I wandered around the Falls, and I "found" this written on one of the nearby pillars:


No, I did not put it there. I FOUND it that way. I know some of you still don't believe me... you know who you are.

In case you are wondering, Niagara Falls is big. How big? THIS BIG:


So now it's DAY 4, and my eyes will be a bit swollen for a few more days. I have to wear these special shades outdoors, both to protect my eyes from UV rays, and also to hide my bloodshot eyes. Next week I should look pretty normal, I think. So if you see me around, I will look like this:


This photo was taken by Andy at my family reunion, which happened on Sunday (this was less than 48 hours after the surgery, btw). I will post some photos from that in a separate entry once I get through editing and am able to pull a few photos to share.

I might also post photos of some of my Canadian socks. Most people go on vacations and come back with souvenirs resembling something remotely normal, but not me. All I came back with were really cool, knee high, multicolored socks. You should have seen the customs officer at the Peace Bridge - he asked what we were bringing into the States, and Andy just paused and said, "socks". The guy got this puzzled look and then waved us on our way. I managed not to laugh until the window was rolled back up and we were a safe distance away.

Ah, yes, when I say "my adventures or lack thereof," you really don't know what you're going to get, do you? : )

With Great Power Comes Great Something Something...

I was joking the other week with a photographer friend from North Carolina that I could levitate a book because I had such awesome powers of mind control. Well, she asked me how it was going, and of course, I can't NOT respond to that. So I figured I'd do even better than levitating a book - I would levitate a person! Myself, to be specific. So I set up a camera on a tripod and recorded my telekinetic ability for all posterity.


^^^ Hmmm... the kitchen looks like as good a place as any to start with this. I ponder my strategy...


^^^ Whoa! It's working! I'm off the ground! Wait 'til Charo sees this!!!


^^^ I am so totally awesome! I can FLY! No more dealing with rush hour traffic for me... I'll be above all that! Suckers!


^^^ But wait... my powers were too great! It seems I not only levitated myself, but all the furniture and appliances as well. What was that quote from Spider Man? "With great power comes great something something..." . I'll have to reconsider this whole levitation deal until I have a better grasp on it.


^^^ Oh... so THAT's where all the furniture went. Great. Just great. I always wanted to do my laundry in the middle of the dining room... -

(To be continued...)

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Yeah, I know it's been forever since I last posted in my blog. I really hate to let it go so long without entering something, but I've just been really busy!

So what's new with me?

I've been spending a lot of time printing my holga work in the hopes of getting a show of that collection in the future. I forgot to bring up a lot of music to listen to, so had to listen to whatever was in Andy's car for the duration of my 8 hour print session. That's not entirely a bad thing, because I discovered a really cool band - Cloud Cult. I must have listened to the Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus album about 3 times during that time, and it still hasn't gotten old. If you check out my LastFM playlist (look to the right) and like a lot of the other music I listen to, you should give this one a try. Also on the playlist during my print session was NIN, Cibo Matto and Modest Mouse. LIkewise, I'm always looking for new music, so if you have any to suggest, I'm all 1's and 0's.

We got a new floor in the kitchen this week. Between having knocked out an old counter and Maurice biting the old linoleum floor when we first got him, it really needed to be replaced. Now we have cool ceramic tile, and it just makes the kitchen look 10 times better. I will post photos soon... but I have a plan for them, and I'm not finished yet (insert diabolical laugh here).

I've been working with some other area artists on a project that I will tell more about later once it is up and running. It should be pretty cool though, and there's a lot of talent involved.

I have another big "to do" on the horizon, but I don't want to mention what it is until after it is done... it's a pretty big deal for me though.

So, in a nutshell, I am not dead, I am just busy. And I will try to update with some images of various kinds soon : )