Plates and vacation

We've been together for eight years. We've seen changes together and yesterday I had to let you go. You're not where I want you to be, but your still with me. I should be able to let things go, but I didn't want to part with you. The state told me otherwise. Goodbye friend......

When I bought my own car in college, I was given a Michigan blue license plate (blue background, white letters). I liked the plate because it was mine. It was registered under my name and not my dad's, like all of my previous cars. The letters were memorized by me and others and it has been with me through three different car changes. In 2006, the state of Michigan passed an act saying all blue plates had to be replaced in 2007. Since my birthday is in July, I waited patiently at the Secretary of State Friday morning for 45 minutes to get my new plate.

When my number was called, I handed my info to the SOS worker. She said the blue plates were being eliminated and I had to choose a new plate. My choices were the standard plate of a white reflective background and blue lettering or the Spectacular Peninsula plate. The spectacular plate features cityscape's, forests, the Mackinac Bridge and the Great Lakes. The plate also costs five dollars more. Since I was spending $95 to renew my tags, I passed on the spectacular.

Now 'ol blue is gone and replaced with clean white. I'm still not fond of it, but I shouldn't be. It is a only just a license plate.

July is a good month. It has the 4th of July and my birthday. Besides those, this year it also contains my vacation. My last vacation was the first week of August 2006. It has been 11 months since my last vacation and do I ever need one.

Besides my full-time job at the newspaper, I own my own business. I've been working non-stop and I need a break. That break comes on July 13. My husband and I are going to take some day trips closer to home. One day we will be going to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and another day to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. My husband and I haven't been there since we were both in elementary. The last stop on our vacation is going to a Detroit Tigers baseball game. It should be fun.

The official countdown has begun. My vacation starts in 12 days.

Photo Illustration credit: www.michigan.gov/sos/

The shirt and the ring

At work this morning, something was different about my polo. I looked down at my sleeve and noticed my shirt was inside out. I went to the restroom to turn it right side out. I was walking around with my shirt inside out for two hours. I'm such a dork.

Besides wearing my polo inside out, another thing happened today. I got something back. I had a voicemail on my cell phone yesterday from the jewelry store. The jeweler said my engagement ring was fixed and I could pick it up. My husband and I drove to Tecumseh to pick it up before lunch today. I was so happy to get back. I have been without it for two weeks. Now my finger is happy again.

Books read in 2007

A Man of Faith, David Aikman
Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris
All of the President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III
Jack: A Life Like No Other, Geoffrey Perret
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate, Bob Woodward
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, James L. Swanson
The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon
Leni Riefenstahl, Rainer Rother
From Here to Eternity, James Jones
Cultural Warrior, Bill O'Reilly
Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing, Lee Server
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, Marvin Kitman
Clint Eastwood, Richard Schickel
Notorious, Donald Spoto
Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Leaming
Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes, Donald L. Barlett
Diana, Andrew Morton

Currently Reading: Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years, Barbara Leaming
Up Next: Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend, David Shipman

Weekend update

This past Saturday, I photographed a wedding. I felt bad for the bride. Things weren't going her way.

I get to the hotel at 2pm and ask the front desk clerk where the bride's suite was. He asked why. I told him that I was supposed to shoot the bridal party there. The clerk said that they weren't in that room. He added he didn't know where they were either. He said he would call the mother and see where the bride was. He talked to her and hung up. The bride was still at the hair salon. After 10 minutes of waiting, he told me he would call the mother again. He hung up the phone and told me that there wasn't an answer. The front desk clerk then called someone else and found out which room the bride was moved to. He asked me if I would like to go to the room or stay in the lobby. I said the room.

We walked down the hallway that led to the bride's room. While walking through the hall, I noticed a smell. Why do most hotels have smelly halls? Anyway, it wasn't plesant, but we arrived at the room soon after that. He opened the door and let me in. Once I was in the room, I unpacked what I needed and started to work. The bride had her veil on the bed, so I took photos of that. Not much else was in the room. After I was in the room for 10 minutes, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and saw two women dressed nice. They were the mother of the bride and her friend. They weren't sure if this was the correct room or not. I let them in and we all sat down. We all chatted until the bride came in about 10 minutes later.

The bride said that they got behind at the hair salon and there were other problems as well. The hotel double booked her original suite. That forced her to get another room. The second room she got was smaller. With the smaller room, all of the bridesmaids had to get dressed elsewhere. The placards for the reception still had to be finished. After they were finished, someone had to drive to the reception site about a half hour away to set the cards up. At this time, a bridesmaid went to go get copies of the program. The store said that they couldn't get to them Sunday. She told the store that the programs were for a wedding later that afternoon. Last I heard, the store started making the programs around 4 pm. The programs never made it to the wedding. In between moving to different rooms, things having to get done, the bride forgot to pack double-sided tape. Not to worry. Her mother's friend drove to a store nearby and picked some up. After the bride got her dress on, she put some of the tape underneath her dress. The tape wasn't sticking. The bride said she didn't have time to worry about it and let it go.

Once it was time for the wedding, everything was going according to plan. The wedding, formal photos and the reception happened without any problems. I felt bad for the bride. It was her big day and she had to worry about things that went wrong and weren't finished.

A while ago I blogged about running a 5K. I didn't send money before hand, because I missed the early registration. The race was Sunday morning. I figured that I usually get up early on Sunday's and I would have no trouble getting up for this race. The night before I got home from the reception around 10:30 pm and didn't go to bed until after 11 pm. Sunday morning, I woke up and looked at my alarm clock. It read 8:30 am. I totally missed the start of the race. I felt bad, I have run this race for 4 years.

I had a good excuse, a wedding the night before. Later in the day, I did run on my treadmill while watching a NASCAR race. But it wasn't the same as running in a race. Checking out the other runners before the start. Standing at the start line getting ready to start my watch. Hearing the gun go off. Hearing the sound of other runners feet striking the road and clapping and cheering when you cross the finish line.

I will be running a 5K at the end of July. This race is on the best high school cross country course in the county, lots of hills, swamps and woods. When I say I will run this race, I will. It is the toughest race and I love it.

Random things

On Tuesday my husband and I went to a restaurant on 35 cent wing day. After we ordered a hostess walked around the corner to seat some customers in the area we were sitting. First around the corner is a mother holding her daughter. Behind her is her mother. The mother was wearing curlers in her hair. She didn't have a scarf on her head or a hat. Her hair was long and the curlers were only on the ends of her hair. She was wearing them like it was no big deal. Did her daughter say anything to her before they left the house? Or does she not care? If my mom was wearing curlers in her hair in public I would be embarrassed. But this woman didn't seem to mind that her mother had them in her hair. I think wearing curlers outside of the home could be the next fashion trend. Why hasn't New York picked this up yet?

While eating at a BBQ place down in Toledo, Ohio on Wednesday, I managed to drop food on my lap. I was holding my pork BBQ sandwich above my platter and some pork fell out bounced off of the platter and landed on my shorts. I had a many barbecue stains on my shorts. After dinner I order dessert, bread pudding. My husband doesn't like bread pudding so I ate half of it. I got a box to put the other half in. When we were driving back to Michigan, I had the box on my lap. My husband happened to knock the box over on my lap. I thought nothing of it. He pulled into a gas station to fill up his car and I looked down at my shorts. The other leg had a big bread pudding stain on the leg. The delicious topping leaked out of the corner of the plastic box and right on my shorts. Not a good day.

At work today, corporate sent speakers to the office for a conference. The photographers' speaker was Justin from The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois. He had a great power point presentation about documentary photography. It was nice just to get a refresher course on everything. After his talk he had some tips on Photoshop to help me tone my photos better. My seminar was the last one of the afternoon. It would have been nice to have more time with him to talk more about Photoshop.

Books read in 2007

A Man of Faith, David Aikman
Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris
All of the President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III
Jack: A Life Like No Other, Geoffrey Perret
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate, Bob Woodward
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, James L. Swanson
The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon
Leni Riefenstahl, Rainer Rother
From Here to Eternity, James Jones
Cultural Warrior, Bill O'Reilly
Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing, Lee Server
The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, Marvin Kitman
Clint Eastwood, Richard Schickel
Notorious, Donald Spoto
Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Leaming
Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes, Donald L. Barlett

Currently Reading: I will visit the library Wednesday. I hope I'll find books that aren't over 600 pages long. I enjoyed Empire, but three weeks is a long time for me to finish a book.
Up Next:

UPDATE:
Currently Reading: Diana, Andrew Morton
Up Next: Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years, Barbara Leaming

Weekend update

Friday, I spent most of my afternoon and evening standing on pit road at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI. The afternoon started with the Citizens Bank 400 Time Trials for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. I didn't get to see my favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in person. I saw him on the big jumbo-tron in turn 4 and driving around in his car during his qualifying lap. Sadly, Junior didn't qualify in the top 5. Only the top 5 in qualifying park their cars on pit road. After his lap he pulled straight into the garage.

After time trials, was the ACRA RE/MAX series Michigan 200. The big names of the race was IndyCar driver Sam Hornish, Jr and female driver Erin Crocker. The race was pretty boring and Hornish and Crocker finished second and third.

On Saturday morning I woke up dizzy. Everywhere I looked the walls were moving. Usually on Saturdays if I don't have an early morning assignment I run. I considered running, but I didn't feel up to it. After taking a shower, I really wasn't feeling well and threw up three times. I had an assignment later in the afternoon, so I had to get better. I snacked on some crackers and started to feel OK. My husband made hamburgers for lunch. I started eating it and felt like throwing up. I kept the food down, but I didn't finish it. My dogs Blitzkrieg and Kelly were thankful for that. They got to split what I didn't eat.

Later that afternoon, I got in my car and drove to Battle Creek. A local team, Tecumseh Indians, were playing the Division 2 Softball state finals. When I arrived at Bailey Park, I found a parking spot and collected my photo gear. It was a hot, sunny day and I was still not feeling well. I knew it would long day.

The media box that I stood in was right on the field to the right of the batter box on the third base side. I have covered a lot of games before but never that close. During the 3rd or 4th inning, a new photographer came down to the field and stood outside of the box. After the inning was over, the umpire behind the plate told the photographer the he needed to be in the media box. He asked the photographers near him to move down and only two of them did. I was on the other end of the box at the chalk line, I couldn't move down any more. The two photographers on my left didn't move at all. Since they didn't move and there was no more room in the box, the umpire told him to leave the field. I kind of felt bad for him, but if he wanted to shoot on the field he should have been earlier, like at the start of the game. The team that I covered, Tecumseh, won the state championship 3-1. It was nice to drive 1.5 hours to see a team win it all.

I took Sunday off. I could have been at MIS photographing the Citizens Bank 400, but I gave it to another photographer. During the race I worked on wedding stuff and got a lot taken care of. Later that afternoon I ran on my treadmill. The first half mile was terrible. I felt like I was running with cement blocks attached to my shoes. It was hard to run. I stopped at a half mile and took a breather. After that, the rest of the run was good.

Random things

Over on my website, Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography, a blog has been added. On this blog I will be posting my favorite photos from my sessions. I have a couple of engagements posted right now. I will be adding the weddings and teens that I have already photographed this year soon.

While in Tecumseh yesterday, I decided to get my engagement/wedding rings cleaned at the jewelry store that made them. I handed my rings over to the employee and she went in the back to clean them. She came back and handed me the rings. She then asked if the ring was bought at the store. I said it was made here. She went on to tell me that one of the prongs holding the diamond is cracked. She said that it wasn't an emergency to get it fixed, but it needed to be repaired. My husband asked how long it will take to fix the engagement ring. Two weeks she said. My husband told me its either two weeks now or two weeks later. It needed to be fixed so I reluctantly handed over my ring. I still have my wedding band, but now my ring finger is lonely without its diamond.

I heard the rumor last night. Now it is not a rumor, it's fact. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will be driving for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.

Loud talkers

Across the street from my house is another house broken up into apartments. Those apartments are like revolving doors. People move in a out all of the time. Currently, a couple of college age guys live over there. During the day, I never see them. It is only at night when they become a problem.

Between the hours of 11 pm - 3 am, they like to sit on their front porch and talk. There is nothing wrong with that. When it becomes a problem is when one loud mouth guy likes to yell, scream and swear as loud as he can.

This morning around 3 am I woke up due to the loud mouths across the street. That one guy started yelling. A few minutes later, a car with a loud radio drove by and he started yelling again. Excuse me dude, but when is yelling at 3 am such a good idea? Some people, ME, actually have to get up at 4 am to get ready for work.

When my alarm went off, I got out of bed and walked downstairs. My husband was still awake sitting on the couch. I asked him if he heard the loud mouths yelling around 3 am. He said he did and called the cops on them. I asked if the cops came when they were still outside. He said they didn't because they went inside. He called dispatch to let them know that the loud mouths weren't on the porch anymore so the cops didn't have to stop. The dispatcher told my husband that someone else also called about the yelling and the cops were going to stop and talk to the people.

Do these people just not get it? It seems like every week that the cops get called on them. How many times do the cops need to talk to you? I'm looking forward to the day that they move out so the 3 am yellings will stop. That day is not soon enough.

Weekend update

Friday night I had to cover for a co-worker in the office, while he went to a photo shoot. I left work around 9:30 pm and was hungry for dinner. I decided to go to a sandwich shop a couple of blocks away.

I pull up to one of the driveways leading to the restaurant while I wait for traffic to go by. When I'm waiting a truck pulls into the second driveway. He pulled in a weird angle and decided to park over two spots. Just a guy and his wife in a truck not hauling a trailer park over two spots. I pulled into the lot and pulled up to the front of the restaurant to an empty spot. As I was getting out of my car, the jerk beats me in.

I wait in line behind this guy and he orders two sandwiches. Of course he has to have double meat, cheese and get them toasted. Once his sandwiches came out of the oven, he had the fixings put on. The lady behind the counter didn't hear him, either did I, but he asked for a gallon of mayo to go on first. She starting putting the veggies on the sandwich and he told her that the mayo went on first. She picked off toppings to put the mayo on. While he is getting both sandwiches made, his wife walked in to tell him to get her a certain kind of sandwich. What you didn't tell him before he got out of the truck?

Finally both sandwiches are made and then he asks for a box of cookies. Could you make your order take any longer? The lady gets all the cookies around and then gives him his total. He gave money to the lady and she gave back change. He is about ready to walk away and stops. He tells the employee that he didn't get some of his pennies back. Pennies are you serious? She said sorry and opened the drawer to get them. No pennies were in the drawer. She had to go to the secret stash and break the pennies open from the paper roll. Leave the pennies jerk and get out of my way! GRRRRRRR!

Last night I stayed up to watch the series finale of The Sopranos. I thought it was a good episode. I was happy when Phil Leotardo got shot in the back of the head. I laughed when his wife got out of the SUV after Phil was shot and left it in drive. The SUV rolled over his head. It was awesome. The last five minutes was a big build up. The Sopranos were going to meet at a restaurant to eat dinner. Tony is alone at the table and flips through the tabletop jukebox and picks a song, "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey.

While Tony is waiting, he keeps looking around at the others in the restaurant. Carmela is the first to arrive, then AJ. A guy walked in the restaurant door before AJ and sat at the counter. Tony, Carmela and AJ are waiting for Meadow, the guy at the counter keeps looking at Tony. Cut the scene to Meadow and she is outside trying to parallel park her car. It takes her a couple of tries before succeeding. Before Meadow comes into the restaurant the shifty eyed guy at the counter gets up and goes to the restroom. Meadow opens the restaurant door, walks in and looks at Tony, then the screen went black. I thought my cable went out, because it has done that before. Then a minute later the credits rolled onto the screen. I was pissed! I thought I missed the last scene. I hit rewind on my DVR and all I saw was the black screen. I set the DVR to record another Sopranos later that evening because of the black screen.

Before going to bed I checked a TV website and people were saying "worst episode ever", "I want that hour back" and "I waited eight years for this!" I noticed that other people wrote that their cable went out as well. This morning when I read newspaper stories and saw the ending on cable news shows, that is how it ended. My cable didn't go out. After knowing what I didn't miss, I am OK with the ending. The Sopranos is about Tony's family and it ended with a nice family dinner. I was glad that Tony didn't get shot. With Tony living that always leaves the door open for a movie down the road, just like Sex and the City. I can't wait to see that movie!

Photo Credit: HBO

Race debate

For the past 4 years, I have run the in the Hospice of Lenawee Run, Walk and Bike Tour in Blissfield, MI. Last year I ran in the 10K instead of the 5K. I was excited to run that. I made the time to train for a 10K and I wanted to run something different.

The day of the race, it was extremely hot and humid. That made running the course a bit harder. I finished 4th in my age group at 1:11:16. When I crossed the finish line, I promised myself that I would run the 10K again in 2007.

Fast forward to 2007 and I will break my promise this year. I haven't had the extra time like last year to train for the 10K . Most of my time this year has been decided to my photo business and my full time job. I debated on whether I would even run in the race this year. But I decided that I will run the 5K.

I'll see you'll on the course, but only on the 3.1 mile one.

Attack of the Blitzkrieg

When my dog Blitzkrieg has free reign over the house, he tends to get into trouble. While you're in one room, he is in the other doing something he shouldn't be doing. The best example is from last night.

While working on my computer in the upstairs office, Blitzkrieg walked upstairs, layed down beside my chair and chewed on a bone he brought with him. I got up from my chair and Blitzkrieg dropped the bone and followed me. When I walked back to the office, my other dog Kelly, walked over to the bone Blitzkrieg was chewing, picked it and started on it. Blitzkrieg layed down and watched Kelly for a while then got up and walked downstairs. A minute later, he walked back upstairs into the computer room and layed down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw he had something in his mouth. The object was a light cream color, so I thought it was another bone from downstairs so I continued working.

After a couple of minutes, I looked down at Blitzkrieg and he wasn't chewing a bone. It was my husband's hat. I got out of the chair and tried to grab the hat. Blitzkrieg picked it up and ran with it. I cornered him at the top of the staircase and tried to get it away from him. He stood and growled at me with his front paw on the hat. To get the hat away from him, I kept repeating dog treat names to him. Blitzkrieg and Kelly know the names to their treats. I said "Ol' Roy" and "Pig's Ears" Blitzkrieg calmed down and stopped growling at me. I picked up the hat and saw the damage. It wasn't too bad. He chewed the inside flap of the hat. I took the hat downstairs and put it on a shelf. To keep Blitzkrieg from doing that again, I leaned a pet gate in front of the shelf.

I walked back upstairs and continued working. Then I heard Blitzkrieg scurrying around downstairs and I ran down as fast as I could. Blitzkrieg now had my library book about Howard Hughes in his mouth. When I reached the bottom of the steps, he dropped the book on the floor. I tried to get my book, but Blitzkrieg started growling again. I knew just saying the names of the treats wouldn't get me anywhere. So I tried something else. I walked over to the cabinet where the treats are stored and got out the pig's ears. Blitzkrieg and Kelly then ran over to me jumping up to smell the bag. I walked with the bag in hand, picked up the book and put it on a table where he couldn't get to it again. I shouldn't have given Blitzkrieg a treat for being naughty but since the bag was out, I gave them a pig's ear.

This is not the first time or the last time Blitzkrieg has done that. He tries to get his paws or I should say mouth on newspaper, bookmarks, paper towels, Kleenex, books, money, checks, receipts and VHS tapes. He has eaten a lot newspapers, paper towels, bookmarks, Kleenex and chewed the front cover off a cook book. As you can see he likes paper and also likes to eat it.

Barking alarm clocks

My husband and I have two German Shepherds. When it is time for me to go to bed, they both know. When I get up and close the entertainment center doors, they know it is time for them to go to their beds. My two dogs sleep together in the gated kitchen.

Two nights ago, I got into bed around 9:15 am, about a half hour-later both dogs start barking. It was still early, so I really wasn't mad. I hoped they would just calm down and be quiet. After a couple of barks, they both stopped. Not even five minutes later, both of them are barking again. They didn't stop after a minute or two, so it irritated me. I got out of bed and opened the door and yelled at them to be quiet. Once they heard my voice they stopped. I closed the door and layed back in bed.

Right after I got back to sleep the dogs started barking again. Besides barking they were jumping all over the back door. Usually when they jump on the back door, it means that my husband is home. I got out of bed and walked over to a window. No sign of my husband or his car. So I didn't know what they were barking at. I walked downstairs to try to calm them down. I walked up to the gate and Kelly is wagging her tail. I look at Blitzkrieg and he started growling at me. I turned on the light and he continued growling. I told them to quiet down and finally Blitzkrieg backed away and stopped growling. I went back up to bed and fell asleep. I stayed asleep until my alarm woke me up the next morning.

When I walked downstairs to let the dogs out, I had a surprise at the end of the staircase. Both Blitzkrieg and Kelly were sitting at the bottom of the steps. I walked over to the kitchen and turned on the light. They both escaped by knocking over the gate. I'm sure when the gate fell over it was loud, but I didn't hear it.

This morning, the dogs woke me up with their barking. This time it was 2:45 am. I got out of bed and told them to be quiet. I shut the door and crawled back into bed. That didn't stop the barking. Blitzkrieg continued. His bark was quiet, not as loud as his regular bark. I knew what that meant. He needed to go outside. When I walked downstairs, Kelly and Blitzkrieg were wagging their tails near the gate. I said, "Do you want to go outside?", and they both ran to the door. There is nothing like waiting for dogs to finish there potty break at 2:45 am when you need to get up for work in an 1.5 hours.

I guess that I shouldn't be mad when the dogs wake me up. I would rather have the dogs wake me up with their barking then my loud neighbors. With the dogs, I can tell them to be quiet or take them outside to calm them down. With the neighbors, they don't quiet down unless someone leaves or if the cops are called on them.