we call them poopies

this week i got a phone call from my friend val asking me to go pickup a stray pup that showed up in her yard... so i did.

i've been through several litters of puppies (which are referred to as "poopies", because.. well, that's what they do).

dixie's been known to get herself knocked up on occasion, so i'm getting to be a pro at taking care of these little boogers. well, i had NO intention of holding onto this little guy.. who i've named "jeffrey".. in fact, i was hoping to get rid of him as quick as humanly possible. but after spending a few days with him, he's really starting to grow on me.


he comes to work with me, and sleeps in my bed... and well, taylor loves him and he likes to romp around with dixie. i'm not at all sure what he's mixed with, but we believe he's a daschund mix.

now i know he's a puppy and all, but MAN can this little guy chew. he chews on everything.. shoes, tables, couches, computer bags, rugs, carpet, towels, cords, EARS (yes i said ears.. and it freaking hurts too)... and this morning i woke up to him tugging on my comforter.

well, tonight i was working on my computer only to look down and see this....



the poop was chewing ON MY MAC..... i guess maybe he thought it was a big flat piece of chicken..

i can't be mad at him though.. he's just too darn cute.


oh, and last week i went in to dodge get my oil changed... and i got a dodge magnum instead.
so, yeah.. i changed my oil alright....






and this was just after learning of will ferrell's SNL skit with the phrase "i drive a dodge stratus!!"
if you've never seen it,... please... watch it. it's freaking hillarious (especially for those of us who USED TO drive a dodge stratus... that's right... "used to")... "i hate you, you big fat turd".. ha.. so funny.


oh, right.. and all the "herse" and "station wagon" comments about the magnum don't phase me. i love my car and it stores ALOT of junk. alot. i've waited a LONG time for this and it rocks.

alright.. bedtime for misty
g'night all.

crabs and squeeze cheese

spent most of today learning how to edit web pages (great big ol' thanks to matt for helping me learn this junk). it's pretty interesting stuff (according to me). so, if you get a minute, go check out www.voiceofthewetlands.com and visit the VOW fest area and let me know what you think of my header (banner thing at the top)... and check out the rest of the site while you're there. i'll be updating it quite a bit in the next two months, so keep checking back.

oh, and clear your schedules for the weekend of october 12-14... that's the voice of the wetlands festival. and you'll be spending that weekend of your life at southdown plantation.. with me :)

yesterday we spent the day out on island rd. near pointe-aux-chenes ("pawn-a cha'n" for you non-louisiana folk. you actually don't say the "n" at the end, but that's the only way i could write it so you would say the "a" part right). we didn't do so hot in the "look how many crabs we caught" department. we ended up with 21 crabs, but it wasn't nearly enough to feed everyone. but like i said... heck, it was plenty enough for the four people who caught them. (that's right dad... i'm not counting you. what with your videotaping and sitting on your hiney and all). i actually like crabbing a whole lot more than i like fishing.... i'm a little impatient, and throwing 20 lines out and checking one every minute and a half or so is ALOT better than waiting with just the one line for a fish. plus i had chee-tos. so that rocked.

here's some photos of each of us and our first crabs of the day:

me


brandi


taylor (notice dad in the back)


val




and here's brandi and val recovering from almost losing a crab





me and taylor (the heat was making us a tad delerious)





taylor learned an important lesson on this trip: crabs think fingers taste like chicken




if you'd like to see more of these photos, check out my myspace page.

and i believe a little congratulations is in order for mr. matt stamey.. or stampley.. depending on your preference, i guess. he had his gallery opening of his photos from hurricane katrina at the waterlife museum on friday night. (to be said like the french guy in monty python) it was verry niice. they even had squeeze cheese.... see:



so i'm changing that phrase from "it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings" to.. "it ain't over 'till the squeeze cheese is gone"

here's a few more photos from his gallery opening (p.s. the gallery will be up for a few weeks, so stop by sometime)












the gallery has photos of his "faces of katrina" project which is portraits of evacuees who ended up in houma, as well as photos from the katrina evacuation and damage from the storm. so, congrats to matt on his gallery...

and to me for getting dvr (well, technically it won't be until tomorrow, but still... congrats are in order, i think).

this ain't your grandma's washboard

alright, so since no one showed up with a corkscrew, i had to get creative (well, that and i forgot to pick one up at walmart, again). so i took my battery drill and a screw with reasonably wide threads, snatched up a pair of pliers, and *voila*... (insert that "pop" noise you make with your finger and your cheek, here).











now my bottle's open and i've got a pretty cool ornament for my christmas tree. (i'm always looking for neat things to hang on my tree).

so, yeah... corkscrew schmorkscrew. i just saved myself ten bucks. ha.
and i've decided... money spent on a case of coke is better than on a bottle of wine... no matter how little you pay for it.

in other news...
this weekend my parents are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary (well, technically tomorrow). they kicked it off in style, with dinner at big al's followed by drinks at the jolly inn (and the rest will be spent at the beau rivage casino resort in biloxi- fyi).

well, i was kind of leery about going to the jolly inn.. not thinking it would be very interesting, but... alas.. indeed it was. folks dancing, accordians and fiddles playing, drunkards drunking,.. and washboards being used for other uses than their intended purpose. i'm guessing somewhere along the lines, after people decided that the washboard could be used for making sounds (not necessarily music, mind you- i've heard what they're capable of)... someone decided that it was just entirely too much work to have to hold it up. so, he sat down, had a little conversation with himself and said "self... this is just too much work. hows about i make some washboard overalls so i can just strum on my chest without having to hold that thing up all the time"... "naaah.. that would be too much.. a little too much stress on the nether regions".. "oh, yeah... i agree.. let's just make it a chest plate type thing then.. and make it hook over the shoulders, kind of like a bib, but not so much'"... "why, self, that sounds like a superb idea" (i like his use of the word "superb".. i thought that was a nice touch).

and so, now one can play the washboard with great ease... if you like all that "zipp" "ziippp" noise it makes... geeezzz... that creeps me out. anyway.. so, moms and pops, and our cousin diane took to the washboard stack at the jolly inn and tried their hand at it. and after i grabbed a few photos, i gave it a whirl also. and for what it was, i have to say.. i'm pretty freaking good. (feel free to be jealous.. it's an understandable emotion when it comes to my musical talents).

this is the jolly inn (where all the jolly takes place)..





here's mom and dad and cousin diane jammin out on the washboard vests (yes, that is what i will continue to call them)





here's me and dad jammin out "zydeco jam session".. haha.





and here's a group of random people.. (and diane again- she's not shy)





people dancing stuff that i can't do.. and frankly, they're not defensive dancers.. nono. they'll plow right over your behind, and without shame too. (crazy people)




and here's me and dustin's "rockstar" poses out in the parking lot. (we put the "cool" in coolpop- and YES that is a vest i am wearing.. and i will continue to wear it in the summer and the winter and the fall and the spring and in jamaica if i ever go.. because darn it i paid 47 cents for it, and i'm gonna get my money's worth)









thanks, i'll be here all week.

saints, toilet paper, and birthday cake

well, today was insane.

i planned on taking the day off to help dad out with some birthday plans for my mom's birthday today, but i had two assignments and a lunch date to smush in there... and, so, i was running around like a crazy person. for my second assignment i had to drive out to des allemands to photograph this chick who is CRAZY about the saints. seriously.. i've never seen anything like it. i thought i've met sports nuts before in my day, but nono. nothing compared to this chick. nothing. she could rattle off player stats, who got traded when and to what team, what year they were drafted, what teams the coaches played for, their mommas' maiden names, pediatricians names, their fanta flavor preferences... holy. fricking. cow. it was insane. super interesting though.

here's a couple of shots from that assignment (and, yes... that is, indeed, saints toilet paper)









then i went to my mom's for her 60th birthday bash. woohooh! yay for cake.

this is a shot of her, my godchild lauren, and taylor trying to put out the forest fire...





it was fun, especially since i got to visit with my great uncle felix... "uncle p". he's my favorite uncle, and one of the funniest people i know. i love it when i can call someone "old fart" and he replies with "hey, who invited this monkey?". so fun. at one point, we were letting him listen to southpark and family guy clips. i thought he was going to pee his pants.

for this photo, i told him to give me his best "mcelroy" face, and this is what he gave....






and my brother garrett brought over the newest member of the mcelroy family... "buster". he's a 6 week old boston terrier. and his breath smells like puppy. i think instead of spearmint or peppermint flavored mints.. they should make "puppy breath" mints. that would be awesome.

here's a couple pictures i snagged of buster (one of them i just really like because dustin looks funny)












after the party, taylor decided it was time to attempt rollerblading. she's about as good at rollerblading as i am at peeing standing up.
here's a shot of her just after taking a spill near a neighbor's house.






on another note...
earlier in the day me and dustin went pick up a bottle of wine for mom as a gift... and while we were there, we decided to each get our own bottle of wine. and, although i always said that if i ever bought a bottle of wine, i'd get one with the coolest looking bottle.... i lied. while we were shopping, dustin said "hey, this one's good.. and it's really cheap too"... well, whatta ya know. i'm a cheap kind of girl. so we each got one. now, this is the first time i've ever gotten a bottle of wine, so, frankly, i haven't a clue what to do with it. i wonder if it's considered poor form to drink it from a mardi gras cup.





so, here's my problem. i don't have a corkscrew. i ALMOST had one, but dustin said "you can find a better one than that"... well... stupid me decided that he was probably right, even though i knew that it wasn't likely that i was going to go anywhere else to get one... and now i'm stuck with a bottle of wine that i CAN'T OPEN. geez. so, if anyone would like to drive their corkscrew over to my house, i'll let you have some of my "probably costs less than the bottle it's in" wine. so, come on.

i'll just be sitting here holding my empty mardi gras cup in my hand, watching tv, not going to work,... until you get here with your corkscrew. and i'll just blame you for not being able to go to work.

sweet. drive careful.

that girl's a dome fool

so yesterday afternoon i drove out to new orleans so i could take a good photo of the superdome for a project i'm working on.... probably not the smartest idea in the world. especially by myself. let's just say that it's not just zippers and bucktoothed penguins that freak me out... walking around new orleans alone kinda freaks me out too. and.. AND... here's a little tidbit of information for you lovely people. if you want to take a decent picture of something that's the size of roseanne bar (ergo- the superdome).. the best location to do that is not standing right next to it. so what i thought was going to be a ten minute project turned out to take over an hour.

i drove around town for a while looking for a good parking spot and trying to eye maybe a hotel where i could get up high and get a clear shot of the big easy's belly button. it was pretty cool though.. i got to try out the satellite on my new phone. didn't help much though. still kinda cool.

after a while, i found a decent enough spot to park, and walked right up to the lobby of one of the ginormous buildings next to the dome, and the security guard came ask me if i was there for the road home program... um.... not really, but thanks. so, that was kind of wierd. i explained to the lady what i was trying to do, and she was like "um.. no, i don't know what you can do, but i do know that you can't take photos on this building's property".. um.. ok. good to know. i must have ran over those invisible warning signs on my way in... unless that's just information i was supposed to be born with. like the chemical formula for polyester- you're just supposed to know.

anyway.. then i started asking her about the other buildings around... and was like "what about that one.. you think that one is open?"... (the building was only about a block away).. and she was all like "no, but you were gonna go waaay over there??"

well, duh.

so, eventually i did get a decent enough shot, but i had to walk clear around the dome and climb 12 half-flights of stairs (so like 6 real flights) in a VERY very abandoned parking garage. (not cool). it sure is a good thing my camera weighs as much as a computer monitor, ... in the event i would have had to whack somebody with it.

anyway... here is my "betyounevergotasuperdomephotowithnocarsinit" photo...





and speaking of spam...

i've got a little job for you fine folks. seems that the word on the street.. well, at least my street.. okay, well, maybe just the word around my living room is that when i take self portraits (alot), that i tend to make the same rotation of faces each time (alot). so, as i was going through the self portraits i took yesterday evening (again,.. alot)... i noticed that there were, indeed, a variety of facial mishaps. so, i'm curious to see what others think is my best self portrait face. and maybe, just maybe (or maybe not even), the next time i stop to take a self portrait, i just may save some time by just doing the one face. and not the whole bushel of faces. but, if i had to guess, i am willing to bet things will continue just as they always have, but ...

i'm still curious.

so, here you go. me. and the dome. in overtime.

#1:



#2:



#3:



#4:



#5:



#6:



#7:



had enough of me yet??? no? well, aren't you in for a treat.

i finally put up some of my photos up on the web. you can check them out here:
4th of july gallery

these are some pictures from my trip to portland, oregon in early june for "geekfest". which, is basically just a gathering of photographers from around the country, where we get to meet other photographers, listen to awesome speakers, and can carry around our cameras 24/7 and bust them out whenever necessary, and not feel awkward about it- like we do when we're around "normal'' people (for example, you).
portland #1 gallery
portland #2 gallery
portland #3 gallery

i've got more portland photos to put up, but i'll send those in another blog. let's just hope i can get around to blogging before we lose another planet.

((laughing uncontrollably))... sorry, just had to share this little bit of late-breaking news- i just saw on jimmy kimmel where a couple was being interviewed by a reporter because somebody stole their pool while they were sleeping.

their pool!!! that's crazy. haha. too funny.

g'night all :)

little bit 'o jazz and a macbook cord

i'm going to try and finish this entry before my boy "ferg" (craig ferguson- not to be confused with lauren's dog "fergie") starts... so no interruptions please.. if you feel the need to interrupt, just drink a pepsi.. that should leave you gagging long enough for me to finish this post. anyway.. what was i saying? oh, right... we were discussing how awesome i am. no?? oh, wait.. did i interrupt you discussing to yourself how awesome i am? because if i did, i'm very sorry. it won't happen again.

here's a little story:
so last night i was watching one of my "oprah anniversary collection" dvds.. and there was this story about a little boy with muscular dystrophy who was pretty much confined to a wheelchair with a breathing tube in his throat... who could barely talk and had to tote around an oxygen tank and several other devices that i have no clue what they are or what they do, on the back of his wheelchair. he was probably the happiest, most optimistic child i have ever seen and he was saying how he had three wishes. 1. to have a book of his poetry published 2. to meet jimmy carter 3. to meet oprah. well, he actually did get all three of his wishes (the jimmy carter one came in the form of a phone call and not a personal visit, but to the boy that was close enough).. and taylor was sitting on my lap watching it with me and i was explaining to her how grateful the little boy was and trying to relay the point of the story to her when she turned to me, arms folded and said "hmph. i didn't get three wishes." boy. talk about a punch in the gut. how IN THE WORLD did she pull that from that story, i will never know. but she did.

i sometimes wish there was a computer program that i use to schedule regular attitude adjustments.... and sometimes i think.. if i did that, then where would all the funny come from?? so i guess you just have to take the good with the bad and drink a mr pibb and get over it.

so i got to see spiderman 3 today with my friends brandi and benji. there are three lessons i learned from that little expedition.. 1. don't order a large popcorn and a large drink even if it the guy at the counter convinces you it's a great deal.. it's not worth all the wastedness that occurs when you're a person who knows she can't eat much more than a bowl of microwaveable easy mac in one sitting and ends up only eating the overflow of popcorn that sits on top of the bag 2. you actually can get away with throwing handfulls of popcorn as long as you do it when the lights go down between previews. 3. do NOT use the first stall in the bathrom at the movies... people can see you.

quick macbook update... aka "the switch":
i know i haven't taked about my computer much lately, but i'm back up and running so i thought i'd give it a shot. my computer hadn't been doing all that well lately.. i was having problems with it getting hot as a fajita skillet and making whirring noises that sound like a ceiling fan on crack (lauren can vouch for that one).. then one night i was sitting in my comfy chair getting ready to put my computer down when dixie took a dive to the floor and took my computer with it. in that split moment of my life i thought my chest was going to explode. i couldn't believe it... the sound of my computer hitting the floor might as well have been the sound of a freight trane running over it. with my past experiences with computers i just knew that thing wasn't gonna have a pulse. but it suffered minor damage and now it doesn't get hot anymore, .... it just rocks when i set it down (so annoying)... but it's better than a cracked computer screen which i have inflicted before (sorry dad)... also- i've actually had to retire it for the last couple of days because lately it's been hard as a mofo to charge and i couldn't figure out why.. so on monday me and brandi took a little trip to comp usa and found out that it was my cord and not the computer (thank you jesus). so i ordered the cord, waited.... waited..... waited.... and *ta da*... today it came!! now we're back in business.

while we were in new orleans, we stopped by the french quarter and had some shirts made at one of my all-time favorite stores ever. mine says "trailer trash" and hers says "the shaws". here's a shot taken with my phone of us wearing our shirts at the bowling alley (and yes, those are my awesome new glasses) :

here are some photos from stuff we've done in the last couple of weeks:

a couple of "firsts" for taylor:

her first time blackberry picking (one of my favorite memories as a kid)

her first time crabbing (pointe-aux-chenes)
-this day i learned not wade into the water and stand in the mud with boots for any length of time... when you try to move your feet, you will lose your balance and fall into the water (and none of this nonsense about how to get unstuck from the mud properly... frankly, i would just rather believe that was the only way)

from the front of my dad's boat for the grand caillou boat blessing

my awesome new sunglasses :o)

this is me and the fish i caught on island road the day i got my fishing ticket for being a retard and deciding not to get my fishing license. because that's the kind of proud genius i am.

here's a couple from jazzfest:

this is me in front of the "fais do do" stage run by my friend and co-worker chuck (seen at the far right in the orange hat)

another self portrait (i'm full of them)

some guy in some band playing some song in some parade during jazzfest

ludacris "the guy who lets the audience sing his songs for him"

my "best hair of the day" winner from jazzfest

a band that was playing on a street corner near the end of the line for the shuttle bus

my "fork" picture (i plan on getting one random shot of a fork on the ground at every jazzfest i attend). yes i am a dork. no i don't care if you know it.

from the brad paisley concert... it was freaking awesome

we also got a personal warm up session viewing by gillian welch and her banjo boy while hanging out in a tent behind the fais do do stage. i have to admit they play a mean banjo.... but it's nothing compared to my mad banjo skills.

oh and ... AND this weekend at the fireman's fair in thibodaux i ran across this lady who was trying to guess either your weight, your age, or your birth month... sooo.. i decided i'd give it a shot. like one in 84 people come even semi-close to guessing my age so i figured this was a piece of cake (oooh chocolate cake.. mmmmm).. oh, anyway.. yeah, so i gave her my three bucks, she acted like she knew me and everything about me... and then EENNNNGGHHH... wrong mister. she guessed i was 22. which was actually closer than ALOT of people guess. so i paid three bucks, got a little satisfaction out of knowing that i could trick a lady who hadn't gotten any guesses right in the last 5 people, and taylor got a stuffed fox. i think i know who came out ahead on that deal. brandi-she didn't spend any money :o) bravo brandi. bravo.

oh, and i left $10 worth of ride tickets on the ferris wheel so i believe i made someone's night. you're welcome whoever you are.

alright all, it' s been fun, but momma needs a new pair of shoes.
wait.. no.... that's not right... um...
oh right. bath time.

g'night all.