Business as...usual? I wish.

An update on the photo biz. It's pretty much at a stand still right now since on my end I've had a rough start getting things re-established here in KC. It'll just take some time but with my website out of commission it has set me back.

Which leads me to Time Warner Cable. It took them a MONTH to find our address in their system so we can get internet & cable in our apartment. This is what you get with a monopoly. But, the installer is coming Tuesday between 5 & 7 pm to hook everything up. That means I have to actually clean the "office" space in our bedroom. Which then means that I won't have much time to work on pictures this weekend. But, having internet means I can get my photo site back up.... or, re-done & uploaded, I should say. I'm doing a complete re-design so I'm excited about that.

Seems like getting one thing accomplished is always pending another thing being done. For instance, I want to get my business cards & business stationary, brochures and what-not done and get them into places, but want to wait until my site is done so I can put the url on everything and have an established marketing identity from the get-go. Ugh. I hate waiting!

I'm not a patient person. I may appear to be one on the outside, but really I'm going nuts with the antsies in my pantsies. Gosh, I'm just glad they're not fire ants.

Who says sea cows aren't cute??

This is pulling at my heart strings: The recent story of a manatee who swam too far north into the cold waters of the Mississippi and is stuck there still right now until it's rescued & sent back to Florida leads me to think back to my Florida days of visiting Homasassa Springs on the Gulf Coast to see the gentle manatees in the "warm" spring waters. The springs are actually really cold to us - about 76 degrees - but the temp is constant year round so that's why they head for the Florida rivers & springs in the winter. One thing we never got to do while we lived there was swim with the manatees. I guess we'll have to go back to visit for that. But, if you've got a soft spot for the endangered sea cows like I do, check out http://www.savethemanatee.org/. They're actually not on the endangered list anymore but that doesn't mean awareness should go down or that all is safe. They are still a protected species and they are still cut quite often from propellers or they get tangled in fishing line. All the ones I've ever seen have huge scars on their bodies from being injured. This is my cause of the month!!

Eureka! Eureka, shout it from the highest peak-a!

Here are the Eureka Springs pictures I promised this week. There are quite a few here but this isn't all of them. I will post more next week of a few other places. The two directly below are outside the Crescent Hotel at night. Sorry these aren't really in order, but you get the idea.








































In an antique shop. This was an old "bread machine" with instructions right on the lid.













Eureka at night from atop the balcony at the Crescent. I froze my buns off taking this!

























































On the way to War Eagle. We passed this barn about 3 or 4 times on 2 different trips to War Eagle before I finally pouted enough to get Chris to stop.













The Crescent at dusk



















This is one worn out horse. There's nothing but mountains it has to walk up & down pulling the carriage.













Beaver Dam



















Beaver Lake













From Lookout point above the dam.













Pea Ridge Historic Military Park from the bluffs






































A bumble bee! (I took lots of these)




















































Pea Ridge


























Pretty fall leaves in Eureka



















A fountain at a B&B that's for sale.
































At Pea Ridge













Victorian rooftop & fall foliage in Eureka



















DEER!! They stood there for what seemed like forever just staring at me while I took a million pictures before finally crossing the road.













Pea Ridge



















Cat I thought was cute prancing through the flowers until it lifted its tail & sprayed them. Bad cat.













Pea Ridge. The house in the distance I didn't get any closer ones of b/c the Park Ranger made us leave promptly at 5pm.













Ivy on Crescent













Cute little deer. (Don't shoot it Scott! hee hee)













Flowers in garden at Crescent














And this is it for today. Self explanatory. It rained later this day but the clouds looked kinda cool before then. Sorry, no ghost stories from this trip. It still looks creepy though.

Back to the Grind

Coming back from vacation is always a miserable thing. Not to complain at all about having been on vacation, but having to come back is one of those occurrences that reminds you why you went on vacation in the first place. Rather than feeling refreshed & rejuvenated & ready to go again, I long to be back on vacation rather than splitting my eyes on a computer screen all day. But, since the world is not a free place to live...here I am! What's a girl to do but plan the next one?

Eureka Springs is a very quaint town & it's nestled in the mountains (literally buildings built into the mountain-sides). This time of year is very pretty there, but rather than me trying to explain what it looks like, you'll just have to see some pictures! I have over 400 to go through & probably won't get through all until this weekend. But I'll try to post a few tomorrow or Friday.

This was our 3rd stay there (1st time was just a day visit while we stayed somewhere else) and we were booked at the Basin Park Hotel this time, but when we got there at 2am Saturday morning to check in (it was a much longer drive than what Mapquest said!) they had given our room to someone else & told us they had over-booked for that night. So, feeling a bit like Mary & Joseph with no room at the inn (only thankfully I'm not preggo) we were turned away. "Ohmygoodness! What did you do???" You ask? Well, thankfully, someone had cancelled at the Crescent Hotel (where we've stayed in the past) & this is their better, prettier, richer sister hotel, so they sent us up there & didn't charge us extra for their mishap in bookings. We ended up with a much nicer, very large, king suite in the hotel we'd really wanted to stay at in the first place! The only hitch was that our meal vouchers (part of our package at the Basin) couldn't (or wouldn't) be switched for the different hotel. So we had to either pay for our breakfasts in the Crescent & waste our already-paid-for meals at the Basin or drive down to the other hotel, park 3 blocks away & wait for a shuttle, or pay for closer parking & walk up the side of a mountain to eat breakfast. We complained but they "said" they "couldn't" do anything about it. Pretty big inconvenience since we weren't staying at that hotel & we ended up not being able to use all our vouchers. I hate that "buyers remorse" feeling of having wasted money. But I guess with the better room at the Crescent it all evens out in the end.

Still a really wonderful trip. Chris freaked out a little at the thought of getting a massage but I forced him & he ended up really liking it. & then I got to say "I told you so." & he said I was RIGHT! & that he was sorry he didn't do it sooner. ;o) We saw lots of new things & did some things we've never done down there before, most of which I have pictures to show for. We even got suckered into a couple tourist traps. One of which Chris asked me not to admit to anyone that we actually did. But I've got some crazy pictures of that too since I don't have any qualms about admitting we paid $11 for the crappiest & weirdest tourist attraction ever. It's in Ripley's Believe it or Not, but it should really be Ripley's Don't Do It! We got a great laugh at least!! :oD

Vay-cay-shon!

I'm counting down the minutes (135) till we leave for Eureka Springs, AR for our anniversary trip for 4 days. And since I'm having quite a bit of trouble concentrating on anything else right now I thought I'd post here.

I will be taking plenty of pictures so be on the lookout next week. I picked up another 1G card last night and the weather forecast sounds perfect so there will be lots of photo ops. The War Eagle arts & crafts fair at War Eagle Mill & Farm, Thorncrown Chapel, Pea Ridge historic military park, and all sorts of things around town.

We're staying at the Basin Park Hotel, the "sister" hotel to the Crescent, which is the hotel we've always stayed at in the past. So trying something new this time will be nice. It's been a couple years since we've been there so we're both super excited!! See the link to the side for the Crescent Hotel. It's super cool-rific.

And, being that it's so close to Halloween, all the spookiness comes out & the Crescent is haunted but I'm not sure about the Basin. I think they have a Ghost Tour also, so we'll see if we come back with any ghost stories. ;o)

Anyone out there??? ::hint hint::

First off let me say I'm well aware that having 3 posts in one day is a record for me & may be over-doing it, but I just can't resist this opportunity...

I've already told everyone I know who reads this blog, but I'm just going to throw this out there for anyone from Hallmark who might stroll along & see this. It's not on my resume, but I'm definitely considering it. ;o)

Here's the link to see where I made it as a finalist for the BBC News 2006 Photographer of the Year:

And the link to see who won in the end. (we all know the voters must have been a little loopy the day they didn't pick me!) There's always next year at least!

::sigh::

I've been having trouble with Blogger all morning trying to get my photos uploaded. For the first couple hours it kept telling me there were errors or the page couldn't be displayed and now it's telling me "Done!" & then I look on my post & there's nothing new there. Hmm...very odd. I feel a bit of de ja vu.

Anyway, I'm still trying. I've got several more pictures from yesterday still I want to share. Aaaaand...I'm realizing that this is quickly becoming a Photography blog. WHO KNEW??! ::shrug::

No, this picture isn't upside down. It's really a reflection in the "gazing pool" (I guess you'd call it??). For those of you not from around here, it's directly above the underground parking garage and there are circles in the bottom of this shallow pool that allow light to come into the parking garage in the ceiling. It's much cooler-looking than I'm describing...

There's also a leaf in the bottom of the pool in this shot but I don't know how well you can see it. First one to tell me where it is wins something. Oh, wait, since I'm broke again now, you win nothing but the personal satisfaction. But that's okay, isn't it? Say "yes." "Yes, that's an excellent arrangement."











































































And a few final ones of the kiddo looking at & then eating a leaf.













He looks very sneaky about it too...

I have to show off, you know...

Afton in our apartment looking like a ham for the camera, as usual!














In the Town Pavillion tunnel that goes over the roadway. Rainy day...again!


















I wish more of his eye was showing in this one...it would have been perfect













Some pics from the Neslon-Atkins Museum of Art outside. It turned cloudy & dark about 1/2 hour before we could get out to take pictures but these still came out okay & I had fun playing with my new camera. I got some fall foliage I was really going for so it was a successful trip. Well, any trip to take pictures is always a good thing.