Art & Life of SwarDrawS

My favorite song today is I Can't Decide by Scissor Sisters. I am not sure why I felt the need to write that right now. I guess I had to tell someone.

One thing most people know about me is that I am picture taking nut and that photography is my passion. I think there are a handful of people who also know that music is a big deal to me too.

Today I got to play photographer at work. Jon was doing an e-newsletter and the photo of two guys that he had sucked so he suggested to the project manager that I should go and get a better photo of them. The next thing I knew I was scheduled as the photographer. I guess our normal photographers weren't around. I felt stupid and am glad I don't have to do that for a living.

This week was a nutty one at work. It started with a crazy rush deadline for a fairly indepth Flash file. By Wednesday the client realized they needed to think this project out a bit more and it was shelved. The 2nd half of the week I felt I was in meetings more than at my desk doing actual work.

We put down some earnest money for the camper we hope to buy next spring. Probably not a great idea as I don't really want another payment.

I subscribe to way too many magazines. I can't keep up. I am 2 months behind on my Real Simple magazine. I hardly ever read Family Fun. Lots of good ideas in there that I never get to. I will probably ditch the 2 photo magazines when they come do. I think I am 2 months behind in my mindless reading of Redbook. I think I am keeping caught up with MacAddict but am sure if I really need that one. And for some stupid reason I signed up for 4 free issues of People. I got my 4th issue yesterday. Thank God that is over ;-)

I need to ditch all the magazine reading and focus.

Posted by swardraws at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Went camping with the camping club last weekend. The weather was perfect.

Chuck, one of the club members is giving up the camping and selling his 2 year old trailer. It is niiiiicccceeee. We have had the pop-up for nearly 5 years now and the set up, put down is getting old. We avoid doing any one night trips because of the set up. Chuck's camper is not a pop up, well only the beds. But it has a kitchen with microwave, a full bathroom and the dining room and couch expand out to give lots of room. Like I said it is nice.

And the price isn't too bad really. Chuck said we can buy it in the Spring and it might be cheaper. I found the same exact deal on line from a guy in New Hamshire for the same price and same amount of times used. Chuck only used his for camping club which is about 12 times.

Tonight we went to the camper store Chuck bought his to see them and ask questions. Felt a little sleazy since we were just getting info with no intention of buying.

Well, the 2006 of the model is priced $3000 more than what Chuck is offerieng and because they are anxious to get rid of the 06s he will work with us on price. Neither of us are good at haggling, I just want to know what his bottom line is, get right to the point. We told him we wanted to see this model cause we knew someone who had one. Yes he bought there. I wanted to pretend I couldn't remember his name but we told him and of course he remembered the guy especially since Chuck was just in this week to get the unit winterized. Then he asked if Chuck tried to sell it to us. Dang the gig is up. But that could work in our favor if he really wants us to buy his new one.

We will see

Posted by swardraws at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend we skipped our camping trip because of the threat of tornados and a generally rainy day. Sunday was beautiful as so not to waste it, I suggested a hike around the forest preserve. R

AW gave me grief over that most of the week over missing camping. Hey, at some point you got to make a decision and stick with it. We will try again next weekend. Well the weatherman is again forecasting rain. This time however it is RAW who doesn't really want to camp. We got a little bit of rain (generally we aren't afraid of a little rain) but for the most part Saturday was a nice day.

Instead we decide to go to the Lake County Discover Museum. They had a show of Pulizer Prize winning photos. Interesting show but probably not the best place to take Hollace. Some pretty intense gory images. Hollace didn't really pay attention anyway.

Before we could go though, Cloudy had freak out moment. She apparently got herself caught in a large paper shopping bag handle. She tore through the house at break neck speed crashing into Hollace's legos, bouncing off the walls then off to the computer room where there was no noise and no sign of her. Finally I found her hiding behind the printer cart. I have no idea how she got back there but she isn't budging. She was finally free of the bag but still freaked out. We crawled under the computer desk to check on her. She hissed everytime RAW touched her. We were worried that she got hurt bad during the rampage. Was it her paw? Was it her back? She wouldn't move or come out.

RAW got out an ice pack, I got out Cloudy's blanket and her favorite bowl of water. Between all of that she eventually came out. It looks like she hurt her paw but not too bad.

On Sunday we took advantage of the perfect weather and took the train into Chicago. For 4.5 hours we walked and walked, stopping at Millenium Park and tried to make it to the lake (but didn't). Me and RAW were hobbling around, sore feet all around.

My heel spurs were really hurtin

Today I woke up as usual unable to walk to the bathroom (the time heel spurs hurt the worst) and went to work. I realized my feet felt pretty good so I had the bright idea of taking a walk during lunch, you know to keep with the momentum of yesterday's walk.

Bad idea. Half way around my 1.5 loop my feet started hurting again and they haven't stopped 10 hours later. I can barely move my feet let alone walk. Idiot!

Tonight we have been having thunderstorms. According to the blinking clock over there the power flickered 2 hours ago so that is as long as we have been hearing the thunder. I haven't investigate it too much yet but I suspect my monitor bit the dust. Since I am on a laptop with the monitor as a second monitor I can still see stuff, just not on the bum monitor.

I am proud of Hollace. She went to bed during that thunderstorm without any problems. This has to be the first in her 7.5 years that a thunderstorm was happened during bedtime. Once she is asleep, thunderstorms don't phase her.

Posted by swardraws at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)