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.

that girl of mine

nothing very interesting happened today, so here's a few shots i grabbed of taylor acting silly yesterday. it's what she does best, and i haven't a clue where she gets it.


this is a shot of her sitting in the backseat of my car, decked out in her soccer gear with her snowball in hand.


here she's trying to make the same face as the partially earless chocolate rabbit.... one eye and all..


and then she chomped out another piece of its ears

oh, and i'd like to thank the academy, my adoring fans for staying up to date with my life by reading my blogs, and my dear friend lauren for coming shopping with me to buy my "girlie" clothes which i was sporting at the french quarter festival. thanks bertha!

"plethora" because i just like that word

i've had a couple things happen since my last post... the saturday before easter me, taylor, & matt sat down in my mom's kitchen and dyed a smurf-load of eggs. i picked up some tie-dye and funky paint egg dye and mom had the cups-o-color for egg dunking (which was taylor's main method of egg-coloring). we spent a good while prettying the eggs up, and well, for some of the eggs... they actually looked better before we got our hands on them. i actually think taylor put more egg dye on her shirt and my mom's floor than she did on the eggs. here's a couple shots from the "egg coloring eggstravaganza" (haha.. i crack me up... get it .. crack.. haha).

this is matt telling taylor how she's supposed to slice gouda cheese.. oh, no wait.. he's explaining how to dye the eggs.. silly me.



check out her shirt.


i tried using one of the cups for a funky photo effect, but i wasn't impressed (impressed with myself, of course.. just not the "effect'')

matt fashioned him some eggshell eyeballs.. the one on the right was his pride and joy.. he made some really cool looking dead trees on the egg.

this is my swamp egg... i know, i know.. you're jealous. i'm not surprised.

easter morning the bunny paid a visit to taylor and got her some really neat junk (if i do say so myself).. she got some bubbles, lots of candy, sweedish fish, a frisbee, happy feet dvd, some jewelry, a doll that came with markers for her to write on it with, which i'm supposed to throw in the washer to clean it off for her to draw on it all over again, but it looks like instead her comforter is going to have to take a trip to the washer because she apparently "missed" when trying to write on the doll and went to town on her comforter.

here's some shots from easter morning:

that's her "wow, look at that easter grass" face.



probably the most photographed child ever.

taylor sporting her easter dress with her massive chocolate bunny who's ears she chomped off last night.... and that's her brand new basketball goal there to the left.

we had a good easter.... lots of food, lots of eggs, and of course... lots of reese's peanutbutter eggs.

post-easter news:

last monday i didn't have to bowl league.. thanks to brandi and lisa who were on their awesome cruise kissing dolphins and snorkeling and junk.... but i still love them anyway (punks). so me and matt hit up the bowling alley to shoot a few games and i um.... well, let's just say i knocked one out of the park. it's really too bad i wasn't bowling league that night (thanks again y'all) because i bowled a 215 baby!! the funny thing is that me, matt, and the little dude bowling on the lane on side of us all had strikes in the first frame.. and i said "hey, look, we're all working on our first 300 game".. even though that wasn't true, i sure thought it was when my first six balls were strikes...


this is the printout of the games i bowled that night.. pretty consistent eh? i really think i deserve a ring or something for this.

this is matt reading taylor dr seuss' "sneetches". if you've never read it, read it. it's a pretty awesome book.

oh and something else.. we've made some more paintings...

this one is another one of our "jelly donuts". the left side is mine and the right side is matt's.

this is my newest one. i figured i'd be a little less retarded about this whole abstract art thing and make use of my elementary circles and lines paint skills. matt's been working on one for a while, but it's not done yet and i don't want to spoil it, so you'll have to wait until he finishes it.

also... we have our paintings hanging at the waterlife museum here in houma. we put them up thursday for "art after dark". to read about the event, just click here. and if you look really good at the photo on that link, you can see our paintings on the wall.... but no fear.. if you can't see them in there, check them out here:
they'll be there for the next couple weeks i guess.. so if you've got a hair appointment that got cancelled or just got out of court, take a walk over to the museum and check it out.

we didn't get to visit art after dark and listen to the awesome comments people said about our paintings because we were at the french quarter festival in new orleans. i showed up a little late, but i got to hear rebirth... here's a shot of them.. and then, of course, a self portrait.




it was muggy for a while and then the wind started blowing like 48.763 miles an hour, but we loaded up on coke caps, so that was good.. ah ahem.. by the way.. i'm still accepting those.. you know, just whenever. um, no.. now. i meant now. i'm accepting them now. but you know, just whenever. (i'd like to thank all of those who have helped us out so far... just like "that person who just farted, but is trying not to look like they did"... you know who you are).

oh, and on sunday was the annual blessing of the fleet in chauvin. it's basically a boat parade where all the shrimp boats and skiffs.. and even some smaller boats get decorated up and parade down the bayou into lake boudreaux. the priest rides on the lead boat and blesses all the shrimp boats he passes as he goes down the bayou (before they all go out into the waters for the shrimping season). matt put up a gallery of photos from the event on houmatoday.com so go check it out. as for me,... i've got my own little gallery of photos from the boat blessing:


this is the boat we rode on (the lead boat).


me and matt on the boat


and, of course (sorry matt) me and martin folse (for those of you who don't know him, he was in my first blog.. sort of.. and he's a "local celebrity" .. the guy who owns the tv station and proudly puts himself on it every chance he gets). i got him to volunteer for the dunk tank for relay for life at the end of this month, so that should be fun. anyone who wants to see martin folse get dunked.... or wants to dunk him yourself.. hey hey... now you get your chance. you're welcome. i am accepting gifts for this awesome work that i do for the community, so please, don't be shy.

please direct all positive comments about me, my blog, my paintings, my photography, my exceptional cheeseball eating skills, my awesome car, my wonderful use of the words "a", "and", & "the", or my pop a shot skills to me personally (oh and anything else you'd like to leave positive feedback about).

as for all negative comments, please refer them to my dog dixie. she doesn't listen to you anyway.

oh and congratulations are in order.. since i finally finished my taxes.

i wish you all a great week... and myself as well :o)