Poll Results!

The result of this week's poll, "If you were pregnant, would you let someone photograph you in your underwear?" is a tie! Yes, it's beautiful and No, I'd be embarrassed.

This week's poll coincides with my Serious Heebie Jeebies post. Hope you can read it without getting the creepy crawlies!

Serious Heebie Jeebies!

WARNING! IF SPIDERS FREAK YOU OUT, SCROLL QUICKLY THROUGH THIS POST!!!

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Don't say I didn't warn you!

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I was talking with some of the girls at work the other day about spiders and I told them about my spider wall. They tried to convince me that they were Brown Recluse/Violin Spiders and then told me about all the people they know who have been bitten by them. Now, I may be a California girl and slightly naive to the dangers of the Midwest, but don't they call them Brown Recluse for a reason? Still, they did freak me out so I bought a long broom and tore down my spider wall. Not that it made a difference, the spiders are just pissed off and rebuilding. Just to make sure my limbs aren't in danger of rotting off, I went outside tonight to take a picture (with my zoom lens!) so I could identify my live mosquito repellent. My skin is crawling so much right now it's ridiculous! Not only did I have to take pictures, I then had to go through my bug book and look at all of the spider pictures to figure out what kind of spiders I have. Then I had to google the names of the 3 I narrowed them down to. My guess is the Hammock Spider. Take a look at these pictures and let me know what you think. The second one is the underside of the spider.

At least I know they're not the dreaded Violin Spiders! If you're looking at the pictures and thinking, "Wow, those look big," you're right, they are big! The bigger one is about the size of a quarter (counting the legs).

Photography Competition!

Tomorrow I'm entering my first photography competition. It's with the Lakewood Photographic Society which I joined last week. They're a really cool group of people and have a lot of information to share. I'm entering a picture of a butterfly for the "Nature" category and one of the pictures of Stacy for the "open" category. Wish me luck!

Fun with Ice Cream

Zoey's been at different relative's houses all week while her parents take care of her new baby sister. I thought I would help tire her out for her Great-Grandma the other night by running around with her, but all I did was get her so excited she couldn't fall asleep. It was so cute because when I drove up the driveway she ran to the screen door and started yelling, "Auntie! Auntie!" Here she is making a mess with a fudgesicle. She's my favorite two year old this side of the Mississippi.

Indian Food!

I went to Cafe Tandoor for dinner last night and it was awesome! It was so good that I ate the leftovers for lunch and dinner today. I was convinced I didn't like Indian food because I had something with curry once and didn't like it, but Derrick works with a lot of guys from India and they made some food for him to take home so I could try it. I'm hooked! It's probably one of the fattiest foods I've ever ate since it has a lot of butter and cream, but the flavors are so different from anything I have ever had before it's like a party for my mouth. Here's what I ate:

Garlic Nan - Nan topped with garlic and butter (Nan is kinda like pita bread without the pocket)
Saffron Pullao - Basmati rice steamed with spices and saffron threads
Chicken Shahi Korma - Boneless breast cooked in a mild cashew cream sauce
Butter Chicken - Marinated chicken in a fresh, creamy tomato and butter sauce

It was served family style which was cool because Derrick and I each picked an entree and split them. If you've never tried Indian food before, you should really give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.

Poll Results!

For this week's poll, "If you had the chance to go to a Political Rally, would you go?" we had a tie between Yes and No Way! I'm excited how many people voted this week. Twice as many as last week! I'm glad to see you all participating :) This week's poll goes with the My First Maternity Photo Shoot post. This week is going to be a busy week but hopefully I'll get some more posts in for you!

My First Maternity Photo Shoot!

I photographed Derrick's sister, Stacy, last weekend. It turned out to be pretty good timing because her water broke early this morning! Here are my favorites :)

Poll Results!

And the winner is...Pill Bugs! With Potato Bugs and Roly Poly tied for 2nd. Although, my cousin Tiffiny proved that Ohioans aren't misinformed. According to Wikipedia;

"Common names for woodlice vary throughout the English-speaking world. A number of common names make reference to the fact that some species of woodlice can roll up into a ball. Other names compare the woodlouse to a pig.

Names include: armadillo bug, cheeselog, doodlebug, pill bug, roly-poly, parson's pig, potato bug, roll up bug, slater, Carpenter, Wood Bug, sow bug, Chuggy-peg, Chuggy-pig, Granfer Gravy, butchie boy, and butcher boy."

So there you have it. If you're a cute bug that doesn't bite then everyone wants to make up a fun name to call you. Good to know if you believe in reincarnation.

This week's poll coincides with my Ohio! Obama! 08! entry. I couldn't post it last night because the weather was crazy and knocked out the internet. Thank you hurricane Ike! or is it Gustov? I'm not sure which one we had the tail end of yesterday but the wind was crazy!

Ohio! Obama! 08!

I saw Hillary Clinton speak! Thanks to my handy-dandy emails I get from the Obama Campaign, I found out she was speaking at a rally held by the local Junior College. Derrick and I went even though I had the flu (a mild case of it, I'm already recovering). It was such a small space! I thought we were going to be in an auditorium far away from her, but we were standing in a common area and she was about 25ft in front of me.

It was kinda funny because they had so many political people speak before her and most of them were pretty annoying. Then, the last person to speak before Hillary was a local woman who worked in the Ford Plant and was recently laid-off. She was the best speaker out of all of them! She had most people ready to cry. She wasn't dramatic, just honest. I told Derrick how amazing it was that all the politicians have tons of public speaking experience and instruction and then this poor woman who does manual labor showed them all up. Hillary, of course, was great. Very enthusiastic without being over the top. She was pretty funny too. I felt like she was preaching to the choir, but it was still pretty fun. Now I'm all pumped to see Obama speak. The fun part about living in a swing state is all of the politicians come to speak numerous amounts of times trying to persuade even one more person to vote for them. I might go to a Republican rally just for kicks. Plus, maybe I can meet a rich man to marry me and then Derrick can be my man on the side. lol!

I didn't take my camera because I didn't want to get to the front of the line and be told I couldn't bring it in so these are pictures from my cell phone. The title of this entry is the cheer we chanted :)

Fall is Here!

The Season has changed! The air is crisp and cool and everything seems to be changing. Today was 63 degrees and I was freezing! I actually bought a coffee (which I hardly ever drink) to warm me up in the middle of the day. Caribou Coffee, which is like Ohio's Starbucks even though they have Starbucks out here (they're just few and far between), has this really tasty Pumpkin Latte that has white chocolate mocha and cinnamon in it. My breath was terrible after I finished it but a few breath mints took care of that. I didn't want to freak out the high school kids I was photographing today. Hopefully I can go buy some warmer clothes with this paycheck because I'm definetely going to need them!

Holiday Portraits!

This year will be the first year I'm advertising for holiday portraits. I decided to post my flyer for you guys because I thought it was pretty cute! I'll be home for Christmas (just like the song) so if you want me to photograph you while I'm in town just let me know! I'm not sure what the dates are yet. I'm sure this goes without saying, but in case you were wondering, I don't charge sitting fees for family and friends :)

Deer!

Last night Derrick and I were driving home and right when we were about halfway through our complex I noticed a large dog standing by the side of the road. I was thinking to myself, "Wow, what a large Great Dane. I wonder where the owner is." I was about to drive past it when Derrick yelled out, "Deer!" I hit my breaks just in time. Three large deer ran across the road right in front of our car and onto the grass on the other side of the road. Then one of the deer, I'm guessing it was the male, just stood there and stared at us like he was challenging us to a fight. I drove away. I've noticed deer in the field across the street from our apartment complex before, but I never thought they would actually walk around the apartments themselves. Now whenever I drive through the complex at night I pay extra attention. The last thing I want to do is kill a deer, especially in the middle of my new apartment complex. Not a great way to meet your neighbors.

Weekly Polls!

I'm starting a weekly poll on my blog. Every Sunday there will be a new poll so have some fun and participate! This week the poll coincides with my blog entry, Bugs, Bugs, Bugs. Thanks for reading!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

At first I was going to spare you the pictures of my new neighbors but then I decided you wouldn't really get the full effect of what I'm talking about unless you saw them. I may no longer have centipedes, but now I have large, black crickets and wolf spiders. At least they're not in the house! The crickets come out at night and are near the garage and front porch. They're about 1 1/4 inch long (not counting the antennae). The wolf spiders are mostly in the garage but the other day I had a very unpleasant surprise when I had just sat down in the bathroom and one jumped out of a towel on the floor at me like, "Ta-Da!" I yelled for Derrick to put on shoes and stand at the bathroom door so as soon as I opened the door for him he could run in and kill it. I normally can handle spiders very well but these guys are huge! In fact we have what we call our "Spider Wall" outside by the garage where there are tons of spiders, I'm not sure what kind yet, that come out at night and catch mosquitoes in their webs. I've thought about spraying bug spray but after seeing how many mosquitoes they catch right near our front door I've made a deal with them (like they can understand me) that as long as they keep up the good work, they can live. I figure they have about til the end of September and then it will be too cold for mosquitoes. I may have a friendly report with the spiders now, but if they start coming in the house I'm cancelling our deal.

Another comment about bugs. Potato Bugs and Pill Bugs are not the same thing! As California residents (I don't think I have any Ohio readers) I'm sure you are fully aware of this very important fact. At first I thought it was just Derrick who was poorly educated in the nasty world of Potato Bugs, but when I was talking to Rebecca last night she said she calls Pill Bugs Potato Bugs too! I was so shocked that I looked up www.potatobug.com right there on my iPhone and showed her the horror that are Potato Bugs. She freaked out. I'm not sure if they live in Ohio or not, but that is the excuse I'm giving Ohioans for their misunderstanding. It could be a coincidence that both Derrick and Rebecca made this mistake and it's not an Ohio thing, I'll have to poll some random people and see. I will spare you a picture on this topic because Potato Bugs seriously freak me out. I personally think they are aliens because God wouldn't make such an ugly creature. lol.

*A special note: I did not take these pictures. I will not get close enough to take them even with my zoom lens. They are courtesy of a Google Image search.

Why I Love Hanging Out With Chefs

Last night Rebecca (Derrick's Co-Worker) and my Girl's Night was turned into a co-ed festivity when Derrick got out of work early (and by early I mean 10:45pm instead of midnight). That's ok though because as we were drinking margaritas they decided to make nachos. How would the normal tipsy person make nachos? Pour some pre-shredded cheese over chips and nuke them in the microwave for 30 seconds. How do tipsy chefs make nachos? One sets up a cooking station, shreds a bled of cheeses and melts them on the stove with heavy cream while the other digs through the entire kitchen looking for beans and other fun stuff to put on the chips. Gourmet Nachos. I'm glad I didn't volunteer to make them!