happy happy, joy joy!

10 Meghan points if you can guess the reference. Though I promise you this post won't be as disturbing as that ugly animated TV show. And yes I hated that TV show and yes I watched it anyway and no I cannot get the stupid song out of my head!!

Anyway, we finally got the seller's contract for our house! This means that we can move forward with our inspections. Of course, the water was turned on but the gas wasn't so we had to postpone the inspection until friday. But I don't care. We almost have a house!

I know I'm lame and don't have any pictures to show right now, so I'll just have to hand out Meghan points for getting some fun references.

It was a good day

Today was a rather emotional day for me. I woke up and did my usual routine to get ready for work and then sat down in front of the TV to watch our 44th president get in a limo to take him to the place where he would be sworn in as the leader of this country. On the screen, I saw lots of interns and security guards walking around and while this might seem like an extremely boring television show, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I was hooked. I watched until I had to head to work and regretfully got into my truck.

At work we were given the option to watch the inauguration online. I had made a smart move and set my DVR to record all the festivities this morning. I had a hunch that I wouldn't get to watch any of the events on tv and I was right. Our staff meeting, our first in weeks by the way, started at 9:00am instead of 8:30 and lasted until about 9:40. Of course, President Obama was sworn in at 9:05am Pacific time so I had completely missed it. I decided to wait until I could be with Matt to watch the formal inauguration. Yet for some reason I couldn't get it out of my head all day: we have a president that I am actually excited about.

I actually don't know many of Obama's beliefs about what his role should be in this country. I don't know what policies he wants to create and enforce. I don't know what effect his decisions will have on my personally or the people around me. But I do know this: I am very excited at the prospect that this man brings to our country. I am, for the first time, full of hope. I am anxious to see what this man can do and how we can all come together to be safe and happy for the good of everyone everywhere. I believe that his wife will have a great deal of influence on the American public as well as she seems like she truly wants to be involved. The First Ladies in the past have been very proper and almost Emily Gilmore-ish, which is perfect for an old-school leader but I think Michelle has the ability to reach more people and be more involved than any other First Lady ever.

I'm very excited.

Ok I seriously love this texture...

BEFORE:
AFTER:BEFORE:

AFTER:

Apparently I love textures...

Ok don't give me a hard time. I know the exposure and white balance aren't right on this picture, but it was my first time using RAW ever and my first time in manual mode in probably 10 years. Anyway, this is one of the bulls at my in-law's ranch. I wasn't too happy with the picture because it didn't show their bright red color, but I decided to try a texture on it to see if I can save it and make it more artistic as well. Take a look...

BEFORE: AFTER:

More textures

This picture was taken in Alaska when we went dog sledding. These are the salt flats that you pass on the way to the camp. It was a sunny day with a few clouds and very green salty water which I thought was really pretty. In practicing with textures I found one that I really really liked so I wanted to test it out, and I think it gave this picture a cool effect.

BEFORE:
AFTER:

Thoughts?

Playing with textures...

Trying to add some fake color via textures to my whale picture. Let me know what you think (I honestly don't care if it looks real, I'm just practicing!)

BEFORE: AFTER:

I'm there is more where these came from...

Finally Friday!

I have great news and I have some not-so-great news. The great news is Matt and I were accepted on a house! After 5 months of serious looking (probably well over a year of curious searching) we were finally accepted on a beautiful two story house. This all happened yesterday at work, I got a text message from our realtor saying "Can you call me asap". Of course I jump up and call her right away and all she says is "Congratulations". I was completely speechless. I just had a big smile on my face and said "uh huh" a thousand times and we agreed to talk later. I immediately went to tell Matt and we jumped up and down together for a little bit before realizing we needed to get back to work. We are super excited! :-)

The bad news is I'm sick. Really sick. Sore throat led to lots of pain killers and now a pretty nasty cough. Hopefully a lazy day at home will help me feel better so we can start packing up the house!

Anyway, we don't have many details yet, but I will update when we do. Sorry no picture today :-(

Every little bit counts

Can you tell the difference? (other than the border...)

more More MORE!!!!

Let me know what you think.

BEFORE: AFTER:

Fiesta Bowl!!

The husband has talked me into being a Texas Longhorn fan. I've got the earrings and the spirit and tonight we're going to sit and watch the game together. Awww togetherness :-)

ETA: HOOK 'EM HORNS!!! The earrings win out again.

So after several hours of watching Mike Colon's video on photography, I decided to play with photoshop some more and practice the tonal black and white trick that I learned this week. I took this picture yesterday in between the Bar Mitzvah events that went on at 10am and 7pm. The Bar Mitzvah boy was actually my neighbor that I used to babysit :-) I was taking pictures of my best friend Natalie and her boyfriend (mutual friend of mine and Matt's) and we ended up at the senior center in San Ramon [haha]. We played some Bocci Ball and took pictures in the gazebo, which was a blast. During a mock chess game, I got this picture of some beautiful trees. Anyway, I played with it a little bit and I think it has a cool effect!

Just too excited I guess

Ok apparently I'm too excited. I decided I wanted to play with photoshop tonight and apparently when I get my mind set on something I don't quit, so here you are... some before and afters.

Before:
After (some very subtle adjustments but I think it looks better):
This is a picture I took in San Antonio during this last summer. It's actually one of my favorite pictures from the trip, but I think the adjustment is very cool too.

Before:
After:

Ok so tell me the truth, let me know which ones you like better.

Exciting news

So two exciting things have happened in the last week or so. Today, I received what was a sort of Christmas gift to myself. Mike Colon had a sale on his videos and I got my hands on one! It's a 7 hour video I think, hopefully I'll get to see it before heading back to work. I'm excited!
Of course, the video was really good news for me and no one else. My second piece of news is about gas prices. Those of you shop at Safeway know that they run a special on gas based on how much money you spend on groceries. Well this last week I was able to get 80 cents off (THAT'S RIGHT!) which put me just under $1 per gallon! I was so excited. Thank goodness my truck was almost out of gas, otherwise it would have been a waste. I was quite excited!Wow if I had a goal to blog every day in January, I'd be 2 days into it! We'll see if that actually happens...

Just some practice...

Ok this is a very boring post, but I finally got my hands on the full version of photoshop (not just the elements that I have been using). Since I have no idea how to use this program at all, I've been studying books and pod casts on photoshop for digital photographers. Now this picture may not look entirely real, but I'm just practicing to see what everything does. So here's one of my first real attempts.

Before:

After:

What do you think?? (more to come...)