Random things......

My husband and I bought a lovely 3-piece luggage* set for our upcoming vacation to Chicago. This luggage set is huge. Now I'll be able to fit all of my belongings in one bag and not two bags. It also has wheels and a handel to pull it. That should be nice when walking to and from the train station.
*The picture is not the exact same set we bought. Ours is only 3-pieces. Basically the three with the extended handles came in the set.

Erika chose not to use the Power of Veto on Big Brother 7. I'm glad she didn't. If she would have used the Veto to save Diane or Nakomis, that would have forced Kaysar to put up one of the Chill Town boys. I was a geek and voted at cbs.com to get Erika into the Big Brother All-Star house. I want her to stay for as long as she can and not become a target.


Photo Credits: www.kmart.com & www.cbs.com

Its getting hot in here

The past two days at my house haven't been enjoyable. There is a lovely heat wave that has hit Michigan and it has been 90+ degrees. Right now it is 90 degrees but with the heat index it is 94 degrees. My husband and I don't have central air, so right now my house is at a wonderful 84 degrees. We have been using ceiling fans and personal fans to keep ourselves and the dogs cool. To save us at night, we do have a window air conditioning unit in our bedroom.

Maybe next year we can get the central air that my husband and I have been talking about for two years.

Photo Credit: www.weather.com

Miss River Raisin Festival 2006

I photographed the 2006 River Raisin Scholarship Pageant at the River Raisin Festival in Blissfield this evening. I got to the Pavilion stage where the contest was being held and it was lightly raining. Then the skies opened up and it turned into a downpour. People who came early are standing on the stage trying to keep dry, myself included. After 45 minutes, the rain stopped and the pageant started a half hour late with the sun shining.

Elisabeth Dorman, 19, of Tecumseh was crowned Miss River Raisin Festival 2006. I will post photos of the pageant starting tomorrow on my photo blog, DCO's Photo Gallery.

Runway and Big Brother

I finished wathcing Project Runway 3 this afternoon. The designers challenge this week was to go back to their apartments at Atlas and find anything that they could use to make an outfit. They used the bed sheets, rugs, curtains, shower curtains and whatever else they could fit into a laundry bag. I really liked Laura's coat, Keith's blue dress and Robert's white dress with the added jewerly. Keith ended up winning the first challenge, but I thought that Laura and Robert also had a chance to win.

Tonight on Big Brother 7 it is Live eviction night. I hope the house is smart and votes to evict Alison. Alison is a smart player and she can win challenges. Danielle is a smart player, but she has trouble winning any competitions. It would be better for the house to get rid of the bigger threat which is Alison. If the house evicts Danielle tonight, Alison will be going after Janelle for nominating her.



Photo Credits: www.bravotv.com & www.cbs.com

Random things......

I was glad that Janelle won the Power of Veto and chose not to use it to save Alison or Danielle. I would like both of them out of Big Brother 7 is fast as possible, but I hope Allison gets evictied first. We will find out live Thursday who is first to leave and which two other houseguests win Co-Heads of household.



Tonight on Bravo is the start of Project Runway 3. I will be in bed by the time the show starts. I will watch it Thursday when I get home from work.

What will Tim Gunn do without Andre and Santino? Make it work.



Photo Credits: www.cbs.com & tv.yahoo.com

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Engagements - Weddings - Families - Children - All Occasions
Located in Adrian, MI

dcophotography@hotmail.com

Random things......

Since Sunday, I have gotten so many mosquito bites on my legs. I have seven on my right leg and two on my left leg. I don't think I even had that many for all of last year. I guess that is what I get for standing outside talking to my neighbors and helping my husband put up a fence in my backyard. To avoid getting more bites on my legs, I'm wearing pants today. There's nothing like wearing jeans when it is so hot and humid outside. You know what else I hate about mosquito bites besides all of the itching and having my legs all red with scratches? It is so hard to shave your legs.

What is with Danielle from Big Brother already? They weren't even in the house for a day and she is trying to get things going by saying if Co-Heads of Household Janelle and Jase don't agree on who to nominate to evict that they both go on the block. That backfired on her. HA HA! Janelle and Jase nominated Danielle and Allison. I hope when it comes to eviction night that the house votes to get rid of Danielle. I wouldn't mind if they got rid of Allison as well, but I don't think I could stand another summer of Danielle.

My husband and I are driving back to Toledo, Ohio Saturday to pick up his slacks at the Men's Warehouse. He said when we go back that he wants to get a black shirt and a black tie. Personally I think that will make him look sexy. There's nothing like a man dressed all in black.

My vacation starts in about 3 weeks. I'm so excited and I can't hardly wait.

Finally, Congratulations to fellow blogger Krista on her engagement! Best of luck to you two.

Big Brother 7

I'm such a geek.

Tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS starts another summer reality TV show: Big Brother 7. I'm sad to announce that I have watched all 6 previous seasons.

Seven years ago, I was 19 years old almost 20. I lived at my mom's house with no cable, no computer/internet and no air conditioning. My dad, John, had passed away the year before and I was still dating my husband. Growing up in and living in a house with no cable, limits what you watch. Since we had only a handful of channels, Big Brother would be watched every week at my house. After getting married, moving to my own apartment and then my house, we have had cable. Even with 100 channels or more every summer I find myself turning to the CBS network for Big Brother. I guess I like everyone stabbing each other in the back and playing dirty.

I will be watching tonight to see which 12 former residents will move back into the Big Brother house. Let's see who I can hate all over again.

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Turning the Tables: Restaurants from the Inside Out, Steven A. Shaw
Lincoln's Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk
The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour M. Hersh
Sinatra: The Life, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan

Currently Reading: The Third Reich in Power, Richard J. Evans
Up Next:

July 4

Today is the day for no alarm clocks, sleeping in till 7 a.m., (weekdays I get up at 4 a.m.) watching bad infomericals on TV and laying on my couch.

Things I have to do today: run, go home to see the family and work on wedding contracts.

If I don't get everything on my list done that's ok. I'll just be happy that I got to sleep in and not go to work today.

Happy 4th of July!

The weekend

My husband and I drove down to Toledo, Ohio Saturday. We made numerous stops while in the city.

We first had lunch at Shorty's Barb-B-Que at 5111 Monroe St., Toledo. Fabulous food! I love the pulled pork sandwiches! The sandwiches are so big and the sides are wonderful! Along with the pulled pork sandwich I recommend the mac-n-cheese and coleslaw. After lunch, are next stop was the Men's Warehouse. My husband had a coupon for the summer sale and he needed some clothes with colors for the summer. He ended up buying new dress shirts, slacks and ties. Thursday, we should be driving back to the Men's Warehouse to pick up his slacks from their alterations.

Leaving Men's Warehouse, we stopped at Westfield Franklin Park Mall. I told my husband we could walk around the mall once before leaving Toledo. Walking the mall, we approached Pottery Barn. I told my husband we didn't have to go in. I grabbed his hand and pulled him from the door. I couldn't walk away, we turned back around and went in. I love Pottery Barn, but everything is so expensive. They always have pretty and bright colors for pillows and placemats. If I had a lot of money I know I would be dropping it in that store. The next stop was Borders. I went straight to the photography books. I found two that I wanted: digital wedding photography and marketing strategies. I took them over to my husband and asked if I could get them. He said yes. (I read them both later that night.) After getting what I wanted at Borders we made our final stop in the mall at Dick's Sporting Goods. My husband picked up some Under Armor shirts and shorts. I didn't get anything but I was pointing out some Nike Dri-fit shirts and shorts that I wanted for my upcoming birthday (July 26). They are so good to run in, they keep me cool.

We left the mall and drove to Best Buy down the street. My husband bought a computer game and Microsoft Money. While he was looking at the computer stuff, I found the aisle with camera bags. I found the backpack I was looking at online. I wanted this backpack for my upcoming vacation to Chicago at the end of the month. I didn't want to be walking around the city of Chicago with two cameras hanging from my neck. This backpack will let me carry both cameras and other stuff. I looked through the bag to see if it would be big enough. It was. I grabbed it and took it over to my husband and asked him if I could get it. He said I could get it and bought it for me. He is so nice!

The day was very busy, with delicious lunch and shopping. We had a good time. We both got things that we needed. It was great to spend the afternoon with my wonderful husband.

Wireless internet

This week my husband and I had wireless internet installed at our house. The computer guys came over and put something on our roof and added more cords to the computer. They left and we started to use the internet. My husband and I came to the same conclusion after surfing the web: it is slow and we don't like it.

I type in an address, the Microsoft flag waves for 45 seconds, then it says it is done. No you're not! The page is in the exact same place! It takes so long for everything to load onto a page. It is a good thing that our DSL line is still hooked up. We are going to drop the wireless internet and go back to the faster DSL line.

Wireless, you suck!

My fabulous 3.5 mile run

This afternoon's run was not good from the start.

After the first few steps, my quads were tired still from Sunday's 10k. This made my run slow. I didn't make the first two stoplights on my route. Stopping at the crosswalks interrupt my run, I rarely like to stop during a run. Not even done with mile one and I get horrible cramps. I run with them for a while, but I can't stand the pain anymore. The pain forces me to walk. If you know me, you'll know I'm not a fan of walking during a run. It makes me feel weak.

While on the second half of my 3.5 mile run, a yellow car with two guys drive by. I notice the driver is looking out of his window at me. Not once, but three times. I thought it was weird because I never seen that car or those guys before. I was relieved when the car went a different way then my route. A couple of minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I see a yellow car. I look over and it is the yellow car with the same two guys. Again, the driver is looking at me. They drive pass me and turn onto a street a block away from me. Once I got to that street I was looked around to see if the yellow car was in sight. It wasn't. I'm just glad they didn't park the car and wait for me.

I make it back to my house. Once I finish my run, I stop in the middle of my driveway to take a breather and cool down. While bent over with my hands on my knees I hear the neighbor girl and her friends, who are in a parked car, say "you're in the way." I look up and all three girls in the car are looking at me. The driver wanted to pull her car in my driveway to turn around. Since I heard her say that, I just stayed in the middle of my driveway. She finally got tired of waiting and pulled into my other neighbors driveway. When they went by they were all giving me looks. First of all, you don't say you're in my way when there are plenty of other driveways to turn around in. Second, you don't say you're in my way when it is my driveway and property. I can stand and relax in the middle of my driveway for as long as I want.

As soon as they went by I walked to my porch and went inside my house. HA!

Where is everyone?

Before I go to bed every night, I check a few blogs. Sometimes a new post is on the page, sometimes it is not. If it is not, I know in the morning at work I will have something to read besides the 4 newspapers and my cable news network website. Most of the bloggers I don't know personally, but after reading their blogs for a while, it feels like I know them a little. So after doing my required work at the office, I take some time to catch up on my blog friends. I like to read blogs in the morning while photos are uploading to mycapture. Mycapture is a site attached to The Daily Telegram's website to sell photos that we, the photographers, take for the newspaper.

This past week I have been checking out my usual blogs and noticed something. One blogger signed off for a fabulous week of vacation. Another blogger hasn't posted in six days. I'm sure that they have a busy life and can't blog every second of the day. Are you on vacation? Run out of things to blog about? I know my blog isn't stellar, but I try to post every weekday. I know that the three people out there who do read my blog may be disappointed. Are you? I know I get disappointed if people haven't posted in a while.

This is the summer. The weather is nice. People may be spending more time outside. They could be on vacation. They could be busy with work. Who knows? Maybe they don't have anything to blog about. I know I'm that way sometimes. Just letting you, my blog friends, know that when you come back, I'll be at your blog reading and catching up with you.

Miles run in 2006

After running my 10k (6.2 miles) Sunday at the 23rd Annual Hospice of Lenawee Run in Blissfield, MI , that put my total mileage so far this year at 251.0 miles. I will be running again Wednesday, I wanted to give my legs a rest.

Total miles run up to June 27:
2004: 157.8
2005: 197.7
2006: 251.0

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Turning the Tables: Restaurants from the Inside Out, Steven A. Shaw
Lincoln's Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk
The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour M. Hersh

Currently Reading: Sinatra: The Life, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Up Next: The Third Reich in Power, Richard J. Evans

Bruce Jones 10K

Despite getting cramps during the second mile of the six mile run, I finished the Bruce Jones 10k in Blissfield this morning in 1:11:16.

It was a nice day to run. There was a nice breeze and it wasn't too hot or humid. I had a nice first mile time, then trouble struck. I started getting stomach cramps. I had to slow my pace a bit to be able to continue to run. Of course when I did that people caught up with me and passed me. After the cramps went away, I was too far behind to make up the difference.

What really made me upset was this guy who was behind me the entire race. He would run, then stop, take a walk break and talk to everyone in site. The entire race I could hear him behind me. Around mile 5, he got right beside me and passed me. Here I am running the entire race and this guy passes me. He continued running all the way to the finish line. Where are your walk breaks now? GRRRR!

When he passed me, that now made me the last 10k runner on the course. It really didn't bother me because I knew I was doing good and I didn't stop to walk once. Of course being the last runner meant I got to hear the hum of the ambulance engine following me the entire course. If I twisted my ankle on the course, they would be right there to help me.

I finished last once again, but I was pleased with my time and effort.

Business adventures

I'm finally getting my Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography business website created! I have been waiting, patiently, (well, not the entire time) for Emily, a designer from Swank Web Style to come back from vacation. Emily made my week when she emailed me on Wednesday telling me that she could start the process for designing/hosting my website. I sent Emily a bunch of information and photographs that she will use on my website. I can't wait to see the mock up of it!

Besides the website, I still have to get my business insurance, find a lawyer, get a phone book ad and make business cards. That should be fun! Not really. I knew running a business would not be easy. I didn't realize how much work it is to actually start a business. I hope after a couple of months of running my business it won't be as stressful.

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Weddings - Engagements - Families - Children - All Occasions

Located in Adrian, MI

dcophotography@hotmail.com

Storm front

I was upset yesterday after driving to
my Legion baseball game to see that the field
was empty. I called the office, got the assistant sports editor and asked if the game was moved to another location or if it was canceled. He told me that the game was canceled. I was disappointed because that was the second time this week that Legion games were called off. When I drove to the baseball field, the sun was shining. It was warm and slightly humid. Finding out the game was off I drove back home and read my book.

While reading the TV is usually on. I turned the channel to the Weather Channel and found out that Lenawee County was under a tornado warning. Who knew? My husband had the night off of work, so I told him about the warning. He walked over and turned on his radio (his police portable radio) and we heard that there was funnel clouds spotted over Onsted, which is about 10 minutes from our house. The calls over the scanner kept coming in, funnel clouds spotted, they seemed to be coming east towards Adrian. A call came over the scanner that said that a funnel cloud was spotted in town over the mall, which is about a mile from the house. Then the call that freaked me out was that funnel clouds were spotted near our house , not even a block away. Instead of immediately running into the basement, my husband and I walked out onto our front porch to look. We didn't see anything, but the sky was pitch black at 6 p.m. Looking around outside, we decided to go down to the basement. Me being the photographer, I grabbed both of my cameras and my photo vest. My husband looked at me when I brought it downstairs, I said, "I don't want to pay for these if something happens."

Mike went back upstairs to get our dogs, Blitzkrieg and Kelly. They don't like the basement and they don't like to go down the stairs. My husband picked up Kelly and brought her down. Blitzkrieg refused to come downstairs. My husband tried to push him on the landing of the stairs, Blitz would wriggle free and run away. After many tries we gave up and left him in the kitchen. While downstairs, we watched Channel 13abc Action News and they had extended news coverage of the huge storm. They talked to a man from Adrian, who said that his flap pole fell over and he lost a swing. Whoopee, a swing.

Along with the funnel clouds, it was raining a lot outside. The street in front of our house was flooded. All of these idiots were driving through so fast and splashing water all over the place. After about a hour, the skies started to lighten up and the heavy rain and storms had finally passed. The water flooding our street receded and everything was back to normal. The great flood of 2006 was over. Once Adrian gets another heavy rain, the streets will flood again.

Chicago: My kind of town

My husband, Mike and I booked our hotel and our train tickets to Chicago Monday! We will be going to Chicago at the end of July for a 5 days, 4 night stay. The last time we were in Chicago was for our 3-day honeymoon back in September 2001. When sightseeing we wanted to go inside the Sears Tower. It was closed due to what happened at The World Trade Center in New York City 4 days before we got married on September 15.

Our fabulous hotel is right off of the Magnificent Mile and near the Navy Pier. It has two pools, indoor and outdoor, and is very close to the beach. It should be a good time. Bring on the Chicago style pizza's and the Cheesecake Factory!

A long weekend at the track

Race weekend at Michigan International Speedway has come and gone. It will be back in July for the IRL and August for NASCAR. Usually I don't say this, but this weekend up at MIS wore me out.

Friday afternoon during NASCAR NEXTEL qualifying and the ARCA race I never sat down. I stood on hard concrete and asphalt for 6 hours. That evening when I finally made it home, my legs and feet were in pain. Saturday morning when I woke up, my legs were still in so much pain. To let my legs recover, I skipped my weekend run. Besides not running, I did some work at home and the office and took the time to relax. It was nice not having to go to MIS Saturday.

Sunday morning I drove up to MIS around 8:30 a.m to attend the photographer's meeting. After the meeting I went back to my car - read for 1.5 hours, hit lunch and then waited for driver introductions to start. All of the pre-race ceremony activities were moved up by 10 minutes because rain was in the forecast, but the start of the race remained the same 1:40 p.m. After all of the introductions, the fly over, the national anthem, drivers getting strapped into their cars, it started to rain right before Adam Sandler said the most famous words in motorsports, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" Everyone had to wait out the 45 minute rain delay. Finally the weather cleared up and Adam Sandler finally said those words.

With 9 cautions for crashes, debris and rain- the race was a total of 2 hours 10 minutes and 19 seconds. Kasey Kahne won the rain-shortened race with only 129 laps of 200 completed. My favorite driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr finished in 3rd place. With all of the cautions, rain delays it just seemed to drag the day on.

After battling with all of the other photographers and TV crews for position in a tiny garage for Victory Lane, I got to sit in race traffic for 25-30 minutes. I found my exit on back roads and headed back to the office without much traffic, except the 4 jerks who wanted to run me off the small back roads.

I was glad to see the race end early. I don't know how much longer my feet and legs would have been able to stand on the concrete. But I was also disappointed to see the race end so soon. Dale Jr. Finished in third place, who knows if he could have challenged Kasey for the lead? Who knows? It has been almost 24 hours since I was at the track, and my legs still hurt.

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography
Engagements - Weddings - Families - Children - All Occasions

Located in Adrian, MI
dcophotography@hotmail.com

GRRRRRRR!

Its 9 p.m., what should I do? Oh yeah, let's mow the lawn. Brilliant idea!

One of my neighbors is mowing his lawn as I type. I'm sure that I will fall to sleep without any problems!

Why didn't you start mowing earlier in the evening? I'm guessing you don't have to get up for work tomorrow at 4 a.m.

The decision

I decided to send in my registration form for the upcoming Bruce Jones Memorial Run in Blissfield on June 25. I had the form filled out for two months except which race I was running in the 5k or 10k.

I took down the form from the bulletin board, looked it over and told myself to not be such a wimp. I checked the box for the 10k run. This will be my first 10k race since last November.

Should be interesting. I haven't done a 6 mile training run in a while.

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Turning the Tables: Restaurants from the Inside Out, Steven A. Shaw
Lincoln's Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk

Currently Reading: The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour M. Hersh
Up Next:

Credential trouble

After eating lunch with co-workers, I drove up to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn this afternoon to pick up my press credentials for this weekend's race. Usually every race week, I take the 25 minute drive to the track on Thursdays because there is always a problem when I pick them up.

I walked into the credential trailer and a couple of guys were being helped by MIS workers. A woman said that the girl at the end could help me. I walk over to her and say my name. She shakes her head and says it is not there. Then she asked me where I worked and who some of the other names were on the credential list. I named off everyone on the list. She still couldn't find it. Then another woman came over to assist. She brought over another binder full of credential requests. She went to the tab labeled D and my newspaper's list was right on top. In the middle of the list was my name. Come to find out the girl that was helping me was typing in my name wrong. She typed in my maiden and hyphenated name in the wrong order. Last year I had the same problem. I even showed the girl my license. Oh well, that is why I picked them up today.

Now I have my parking passes, my hot/cold garage passes and my photo pass. Everything is set. I will be at Michigan International Speedway on Friday to photograph the NEXTEL Cup Time Trials and the ARCA race. Saturday, my co-worker Mike will be at the track alone to photograph the Craftsman Truck Series race. Sunday both of us will be shooting the 3M Performance 400 which actor Adam Sandler has been named grand marshal. I hope I'll be able to see him. I loved him in Billy Madison.

The rundown

Out on my 3.4 mile run today, I thought my legs were going to give up on me. I ran on Sunday but decided to take a day off of running yesterday. For some reason that didn't seem to help. My legs were very tired. Other then my legs being tired, I got honked at by someone and four dogs barked at me. I would rather have dogs bark at me then people making stupid comments.

On Thursday I have to mail in my entry form for the Bruce Jones Memorial 5K/10K run that will be held on June 25 in Blissfield. I don't know whether to stick with the 5k that I have been running for 3 years or try the 10k course for the first time. I really haven't trained for the 10K. The most I have run in a while has been 4 miles. But I know I could run the 10k with no problems. I guess I have 2 days to figure out what I'm going to be running.

What's in a name?

Growing up I thought I had a unique name: Deloris. I didn't share my name with anyone at school. I didn't know anyone who had the same name as me. How I spell my name, Deloris, is different then the ways I've seen it spelled: Delores or Dolores.

When people have to write my name down, I always have to spell it for them. If I don't, it ends up being spelled -es, instead of -is. All throughout elementary, junior/senior high, college and my life now, people always spell it wrong. A couple of days ago a company sent me a notepad and address labels with my name on it. It was very nice of them to do that, the thing is my name was spelled wrong on everything. The address labels went into the shredder and I kept the notepad. Hey, I can always use paper.

The Detroit Free Press had an article in today's paper about how parents want to be different with their children's names. In the year 2000, there has been 5 boys in the United States named Cobra. Come on, Cobra? Two hundred seventy six boys named Armani. On the girls side, Lexus was the chosen name for 353 babies. My personal favorite, Avis is the name for 9 girls. Did the parents like the Avis car company that much?

I got picked on in school with the name, Deloris. How bad are this kids going to get picked on?

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography

Engagements - Weddings - Families - Children - Special Events

Located in Adrian, MI

dcophotography@hotmail.com

Why, blogspot, why???

I tried to post on both of my blogs today, but had problems. What is going on with blogspot? Usually it takes my computer 30 seconds to post, today it kept saying cannot find server. What is up with that? If blogspot is still having issues Friday, I might not post. I can't sit in front of my computer for an hour to see if it finally posted. GRRRRR!!!

The gas station

Today after going to the bank, I decided to stop at a national chain gas station to fill up my car. I pulled to gas pump #3 and put $20 or just over 7 gallons into my tank. I finished filling up, put the gas nozzle back, screwed the gas cap back in and found a Twenty in my pocket and opened the door to the gas station. I walked to the cash register and saw the male cashier on the phone looking into the cooler. He then reached back with his right hand and totally dug the underwear out of his ass.

He then saw my reflection in the cooler doors and came over to the cash register. While still on the phone he asked if I filled up. I said, "Twenty on #3." Then I handed him my money and left. I'm so glad I didn't have to touch his gross hands. I hope he plans on washing his hands before touching some food products. But he probably won't because he probably thinks no one saw him playing with his ass.

Things seen on my run

Besides the heat and the humidity, I know when it is officially summer. Today on my run two different ice cream trucks passed me with their happy and cheerful music playing, hoping to get kids to run to their trucks to purchase some yummy ice cream. After both trucks went by, I ran by two girls on the sidewalk eating ice cream.

More Chris & Anna photos

Over on DCO's Photo Gallery today I posted more pictures of Chris and Anna's engagement session from Saturday. To see more photos go here.



Deloris Clark-Osborne Photography
Engagements, Weddings, Families, Children and other events.
dcophotography@hotmail.com

The "express" lane

While waiting in the express lane at Meijer today, a woman ahead of me bought a pool that was on sale. She also bought intertubes, other pool floaties and pool shock.

When the cashier finished ringing up her stuff, he said "That will be $301.00".
The woman said, "Three hundred dollars! I thought the pool was on sale." At this point she looks at me and says, "hand me the Meijer insert." I just looked at her and took a step back, she was looking at it before getting to the cash register and she set it down. I stepped out of the way so she could get it herself. She reached over me and got it. Then proceeded to turn the pages to find the pool ad.

"See!", the woman said. "It says $279.00." At this point the cashier and I looked at the screen above the cash register, the pool rung up at $279.00. He said, "the pool rung up at $279.00." The woman said, "I thought it rang up at $301.00."

Uh, don't you remember that you bought an extra $20 in pool stuff? Or were you so excited about the pool, you forgot?

By the way, thanks for holding up the line.

Engagement session - Chris & Anna

Today I met my friend Chris and his fiance Anna at Trestle Park in Adrian to take some engagement photos. The session lasted for almost an hour and I ended up taking 186 photos. Chris and Anna are a great couple that made me laugh and were really easy to photograph.

I picked two that I liked so far. There are so many more pictures to go through and edit yet.

Wine and Cheese reception - LCVA Gallery

Lenawee Artists: All Ages
May 18 - July 1, 2006

Friday, June 2, 2006 the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts Gallery is hosting a wine and cheese reception from 5-7 p.m. If you are in the Adrian area and would like to see some great work from artists from Lenawee County of all ages, stop by the gallery.

The LCVA Gallery is located at 112 West Maumee, Adrian, MI. Phone number is 517-265-4403. Hours for the gallery are Thursday 4-8 p.m., Friday 10-2 p.m., 4-8 p.m. and Saturday 12-4 p.m.

Postcard credit: lcvamembers.blogspot.com
Thanks Gregg.

A day of rest

After working 13.5 hours on Tuesday, I decided to leave work today after 6. 5 hours. One of the reasons I left early was my watch battery died this morning at work. I kept looking at my watch during work, it was blank. I kept forgetting it was dead. After leaving work, I went to JCPenny and had a new battery put in. It is a Timex Ironman watch, it took me 10 minutes to program the day, year and time.

The second reason I left early was I had less then 5 hours of sleep. I didn't get home until 10 p.m. Tuesday night. I still had to eat dinner and take a shower. I didn't get to sleep until after 11 p.m. I woke up this morning before 4 a.m. So after getting my battery replaced in my watch, taking a photo order to Image Gallery, cashing a check at the bank and filling up my car with gas, I stretched out on my couch and took a 2 hour nap.

Wednesday is a day that I schedule myself to run on. I was putting on my GPS wrist tracker/timer and it started thundering. I watched the Weather Channel and the radar showed a big patch of storms/rain heading to Adrian. Not wanting to chance it, I ran on my treadmill in the basement. Today was a nice easy run of 3 miles. When finished running, I went upstairs and looked out the window. It just started to rain.

Today was the day for taking it easy. Tomorrow, I won't be leaving work early like today. But I will try to get my schedule back to normal, with an afternoon nap before my girls soccer district game.

A quick post

Today starting at 4 p.m. is The Daily Telegram Individual Invitational (DTII) or as I like to call it the DTII's, hosted at Adrian High School. The newspaper I work at hosts a track invitational every year of Lenawee County's best track and field athletes. The top 8 athletes with the fastest times/or distances are invited to participate. So I will be busy taking many, many photos during the entire meet.

Thunderstorms went through town around noon. Now it is sunny and starting to get hot and humid. I hope the thunderstorms and rain stay away the rest of the day.

A busy day

This morning I got out of bed around 7 a.m. It felt good to sleep in on a Monday morning. Usually Monday through Friday I'm out of bed by 4 a.m. After letting the dogs outside, I watched some TV. Nothing really great on TV so I watched some Fox and Friends until 7:45 a.m., but before getting dressed to run I flipped it to the The Weather Channel. The local on the 8's said it was 71 degrees in Adrian with 88% humidity. It wasn't even 8 a.m. yet!

After watching the weather I decided to stay indoors and run on my treadmill. I started running on the treadmill and my legs were so tired from the 4 mile run on Sunday evening. I thought I wouldn't make it through my 3 mile run this morning. I wanted to stop and not continue a couple times because my legs were so dead. I finally made it to 3 miles and my t-shirt was soaked. It didn't sweat as bad as Sunday, but it was close. After cooling down from my run I took and shower and then sat on my couch reading a book and watched more TV.

Around noon, I woke up my husband. It was hot in our house, so we really didn't eat lunch. We don't have air conditioning. So while waiting for my husband to leave for work, I took a nap on the couch. When my husband left for work at 1:45 p.m., I got in my car and headed off to two high school graduation parties.

Instead of giving the girls a card and money, I had photographs that I took of them during the cross country and track seasons and had them enlarged, matted and framed. When I handed the photos to both girls I knew that they loved them. The mother of one of the girls already said that she wanted it. So I guess I scored with the pictures.

After the open houses, I drove to my mom's house to spend some time with her, my sisters and my brother. We all talked and had a few laughs. Then I had to go to let my dogs out of the kitchen. I got home and I let them out in the backyard to stretch and do their business. To help them cool off, I gave them each an icecube to eat. They both enjoyed them and ate them quickly.
Now with the dogs laying on the floor downstairs, it is time to change into some other clothes, read more in my book and wait for my husband to come home around 6 p.m. Then tomorrow morning my routine of getting up at 4 a.m. starts all over again.

Running in the dark

Usually on Sundays is my long run of the week. Today wouldn't be any different.

I didn't run this morning because I started doing housework early. Then I got hungry and had something to eat. After I eat, I know I can't run without cramps for 2 or 3 hours. If I waited that long it would be time for lunch. I decided to wait until later in the day to run.

Five o'clock came around and I laced up my Mizuno Wave Riders and stayed inside to run. During my run it is 89 degrees outside, but feels like 93 degrees. And a wonderful bonus of 50% humidity. Those elements were a big factor for me to run on my treadmill in the dark in my basement. I had a fan going and my TV turned to ESPN2 to watch the awesome Prefontaine Classic.

I decided to run 4 miles on the treadmill because on Friday I only run 2.1 miles due to horrible side/stomach cramps. With the 4 miles today, that would put me at 9.6 miles for the week. My goal every week is to run more then 7 miles. I usually run more then 10, but Friday I lost mileage due to the cramps.

While running the first mile, I actually threw up some of my lunch in my mouth. Delicious! Not really. There is nothing like the taste of chicken strips. That was very disgusting. It burned my throat for a bit. Getting past the vomit, after my first mile, I developed the wonderful cramps that shorten my day on Friday. I wanted to get to a 1.5 miles before stopping. I hit 1.5 miles and took a short break. After the break, I didn't have anymore problems on the rest of my run.

Running in the dark on the treadmill was a pleasant experience. I will probably do it again Monday morning on my day off for Memorial Day. During and after my run it looked like I ran threw a garden sprinkler with all of the sweat that was dripping off of me. That is gross and awesome at the same time. It shows me that I'm working hard, and how much I love to run even in heat.

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Best of Wedding Photojournalism: Techniques and Images from the Pros, Bill Hurter
Turning the Tables: Restaurants from the Inside Out, Steven A. Shaw

Currently Reading: Lincoln's Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk
Up Next: The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour M. Hersh

Storm front coming to Tecumseh

Thursday, I had to photograph a girls soccer game at Tecumseh High School. Tecumseh was playing Ypsilanti Lincoln. During the game I noticed how dark the sky was becoming. I knew the area was supposed to get some rain, but these clouds looked very bad.

During the course of the first half, the wind picked up more and the sky got darker. With 10 minutes to go in the first half with the score tied at 2-2, sirens in town went off. Not being from Tecumseh, I didn't know what they were for. When the players heard the sirens, they all ran off the field, grabbed their bags and headed into a building near the soccer field. I was walking off the field and some people asked what the sirens meant, I said I didn't know. A Tecumseh parent was nearby and said that the sirens meant the area was under a tornado warning.

Leaving Tecumseh High School, I called my husband, the cop, who was working at the time. He said that a tornado touched down near Adrian. That is always a comforting thought when I have to drive back to Adrian. While driving back to Adrian, the rain was pouring down. It was hard to see the road. I'm glad that I had some taillights to follow. By the time I got back into town, the rain had stopped and the tornado warning was downgraded to a thunderstorm warning.

All of that wind and rain stopped the soccer game. I don't think the teams continued playing because no results were called into the sports department. That sucks because I had a kick ass picture and we couldn't use it for the sports pages today because the game wasn't finished.

So disappointing.

Never saw this coming

Does anyone think this relationship can last of if it is even real? MSNBC asks the question are Tom and Katie on the rocks?

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Currently Reading: The Best of Wedding Photojournalism: Techniques and Images from the Pros, Bill Hurter (Doesn't really count as a book. Picking up new ideas for my wedding photography business.)
Up Next:

Random things......

Today over at DCO's Photo Gallery Part Four is the last post of Encore Dance Studio's Friday night recital of 'That's Entertainment'. I emailed Tanya last week about making contact sheets of all of the pictures that I took so people could look at all of them. I will try to have them finished and bring them to the studio when classes start again.

Yesterday before running on my treadmill I turned my TV to ESPN 2 for the adidas Track Classic. During the broadcast ESPN threw it back to the studio to watch Barry Bonds bat to see if he could hit a homerun 715. Yes, I know that the home run record is huge and that a lot of people are following, but I am not. I turned it to ESPN to watch track and field, not Barry bat. I really don't care about the record or Major League Baseball. Barry by the way was out at first. A while later in the track broadcast, ESPN studios had to break in again because Barry was up to bat. This time, he singled to right field. I have an idea. Why don't you break in after he has hit the homerun so you don't bore the people that don't like baseball? I know you want to be first showing the live footage, but after he hits the homerun, everyone is going to see the replay over and over.

This morning at work, I was watching a cable news program and they had a fluff story about what Hillary Clinton listens to on her ipod. Why is this news? Who cares what she listens to? Then they showed on the screen what President Bush likes to listen to. Are we so desperate for news we have to sink so low for this? I don't own an ipod, but I do bring cd's to work with me. In the morning I like to listen to George Strait, My Chemical Romance and Mariah Carey. Shouldn't this be on the TV? Don't people want to know what a nobody like me listens to? I didn't think so.

The last couple of days....

Thursday night was a awesome! I got to hang out with friends that have moved away from Adrian. A few of us ate dinner together at Mister Ed's, then we went down to The Barley House and stayed until closing (midnight). I got home around 12:10 a.m., went to sleep around 12:30 a.m. and got up around 4:20 a.m. Friday morning to get ready for work. I walked into work at 4:45 a.m. The night was great. I wish I could have hung out with the gang longer. Dang.

Friday afternoon was jam packed with activity. Only on four hours of sleep, I drove 35 minutes north to Grass Lake. Grass Lake hosted the Division 4 Regional Track finals. I arrived at the school at 2:30 p.m. and stayed till 8:45 p.m. Besides working a long day, I was also wearing my winter coat. Who wears a winter coat on May 19? At the 2005 Grass Lake regional, it was about 80 degrees and sunny. Friday it was windy and 45 degrees. BRRR!! Anyhoo, after leaving the meet I still had the drive back to the office and download all 102 images that I took. My day was over around 10:30 p.m. after 12.5 hours of work.

Congratulations to Ernie Ayers and the Sand Creek boys track team for winning the Division 4 regional title at Grass Lake. Sand Creek's boys team won the regional title with 77 points in a very close meet, with the top four teams all from the Tri-County Conference within 17 points of one another. Sand Creek girls team finished second behind Madison with 81.53 points. Madison's girls team won the regional title with 109 points.

Today was another busy day. This morning I drove to Hillsdale College to cover another Division 4 regional track meet. I arrived at the college and it was cool and sunny. I wore a light jacket, at least it wasn't my winter coat like yesterday. Around noon it got warmer so I took off my jacket, my face and arms got sunburned. Some areas of my face weren't burned due to the fact I was wearing sunglasses. I have a little bit of white on my face to go along with a lot of red. That looks attractive.

Tomorrow besides running and housework, I plan to lay on the couch most of the day and catch up on my sleep.

Last night

Last night was America's Next Top Model season finale. I didn't care who won as long as it wasn't Jade. I was happy to see her eliminated, leaving only Danielle and Joanie. After seeing the photo shoot and the runway show, I didn't know who was going to win.

The winner ended up being Danielle.

After ANTM, I went up to my bedroom to go to sleep. I had problems getting asleep because my neighbor and her little friends decided to be so noisy. They were screaming, talking, and laughing so loud. I shut my bedroom windows because the forecast called for rain. It just seem like I left them open. I could hear every word that they were saying. They were like this last summer as well. I guess that they don't have have a job and can party all night. As I was pulling out of my driveway before 4:30 am to go to work, I see the glow of a TV on the front porch and hear her laughing. I wish I could party all night.

Tonight I'm getting together with a bunch of ex-co-workers and co-workers. Some of us are going out to dinner then meeting up at a downtown bar. We all haven't been together since last year, so it is kind of a reunion. It will be fun to catch up, see everyone and remind me of the wonderful, fun past. Ahh memories!

Photo credit: www.upn.com

Over 200

Today with my run of 3.5 miles, I have passed 200 miles run for 2006! I'm very excited. It makes me so happy that I have run so much this year. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to run more and I think I have accomplished that. I didn't type it on my blog but I know that I told family members that I wanted to run over 365 miles this year. I think with the way I'm running now, I know I will beat that.

Miles run up to May 17:
2005: 121.6
2006: 201.1

Random things......

It has been raining for almost an entire week here in Adrian. Can the rain go away for a while?

For the last three weeks everytime I had photographed a track meet it has rained. Today at the start of the Sand Creek/Whitmore Lake track meet the sun was shining. No rain. Then the dark clouds came and the rain started. At first it was a light sprinkle. It turned into a cold steady rain. At that point I was getting wet. I decided to walk to my car and get my long raincoat. When I got it out of my truck, put it on and walked back over to the track, the rain let up. About 10 minutes later the sun came back out and got very warm. All of that work and the rain stops. On a good note, it was nice to write notes without the ink smearing.

Tomorrow on my photo blog, DCO's Photo Gallery, I will be posting the first part of Encore Dance Studio's Friday night recital, 'That's Entertainment'. Today I posted the last part of Wednesday nights rehearsal.

Right now I'm working on starting a wedding photography business. Trying to nail down prices for coverage, albums and extras is a lot of work. When I'm completed with it. I know it will be worth it. When I get the website up and running, I will link my blogs to it. Keep checking back if you or someone you know is looking for a wedding photographer in Southeastern Michigan. Or send me an email at dcophotography@hotmail.com.

National Police Week

This week, May 14-20, 2006 is National Police Week. Today a ceremony was held at the police officers' memorial in Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian . The memorial honors police officers who were killed in the line of duty.

This is important to me because my husband is a cop. It is important to my husband to honor the fallen officers and never forget. My husband and I have been to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. twice. Both times I have been there it has been very moving. To see the endless amount of names etched onto the memorial, it just brings tears to my eyes. All of these fallen officers gave their lives in the line of duty.

Heroes live forever.





TOP PHOTO: Names of the fallen officers from Lenawee County.
MIDDLE PHOTO: Roses on the wreath of the fallen officers
BOTTOM PHOTO: Officers at the ceremony.

That's Entertainment

Tonight, I had the opportunity to be backstage during Encore Dance Studio's recital "That's Entertainment" held at Tecumseh Civic Auditorium. The show and the dancers were terrific! I shot a bunch of pictures and I will be posting some starting next week.

Until then, check out my photo blog, DCO's Photo Gallery and view Part One and Part Two of Encore Dance Studio's rehearsal of "That's Entertainment" Wednesday night.

Encore Dance Studio rehearsal photographs

Starting today over on my photo blog, DCO's Photo Gallery I have posted pictures from Encore Dance Studio's rehearsal of "That's Entertainment". I will continue to post six photos at a time. Friday night, I will be back at Tecumseh Civic Auditorium to take photographs of that night's performance.

Keep checking back for a new set of photos next week.

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees
Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow

Currently Reading: In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Up Next:

Weird...

While waiting at a red light this afternoon, a woman sitting on the passenger side of a vehicle in the lane over says to me:

Lady: " I like the color of your car."
Deloris: "Thank you." *Smiling and nodding*
Lady: "Its the color of Halloween."

When she said that I nodded again, looked away and was glad the stoplight turned green.

Metallic Orange is the color of Halloween? OK.

Random things......

I work at a newspaper. This is something that I don't want to see in print, but everyone knows its true. Take for example, every morning at work I read four newspapers online.

Why is it the garage man will pick up furniture, couches, chairs, piles of wood, and other random crap from our neighbor's houses, but will not pick up a 21-pound bag of dog crap? This is the third or fourth time that this fucker just ripped open the bag and left it in front of our house. The rules state that a garbage bag can't weigh more then 40 pounds. But this jerk refuses or can't lift up and throw at 21-pound bag into his dump truck? That's amazing because my husband and I seen him lift a huge couch and La-Z-Boy chair into the truck himself. Idiot.

Why is this even newsworthy?

Junior a winner again

Tonight, Dale Earnhardt, Jr won the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond, VA. Junior held off Denny Hamlin with 10 laps to go. This is his first win in 28 races. With tonight's win, that moves Junior up two spots into 6th place in NEXTEL Cup Standings.

It is great to finally see him win again after the horrible season that he had last year.

TOP: Dale Earnhardt Jr. during driver introductions at the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, MI - August 21, 2005.

BOTTOM: Dale Jr in victory lane after the Crown Royal 400 - May 6, 2006. Photo Credit - www.nascar.com

Things heard and seen on my run

Friday after my husband went to work, I went on a 4.4 mile run. It was a great afternoon. The sun was shining. The wind was blowing and it was still warm. Things overheard and things that I saw while running.

- Two guys on a front porch. One man was giving another man a haircut. I ran by the porch and the man giving the haircut yells at me, "Slow down". Then both men start laughing. Yeah, you're hilarious! Loser.

- I had to stop at a crosswalk for several cars that had the green light. After all of the cars cleared the intersection, I looked both ways to make sure no other cars were coming. As I cross the intersection a car that was waiting at the red light, decided to go right through it. Just because I crossed the street during the red light, that doesn't give you the right to run a red light in your car. Jerk.

- A little girl dressed up in a Spanish outfit having a good 'ole time dancing on the sidewalk.

- An old man in a Pontiac Montana driving straight towards me on the side of the road. Just as I jumped out of the way so he didn't run me over, the old man finally yanked his steering wheel in the other direction, avoiding me.

- I ran down into a local park to add more miles and a big hill to my run. Before leaving the park, I ran right by a wedding. It looked like the bride's dress and hair was from the turn of the century, or at least the 1980's. I'm sorry nobody wears a dress like that anymore.

My Dad's scholarship

I wrote on April 10th about my Dad. If he was still alive he would have turned 64. I graduated from Sand Creek High School in 1997. In between my freshman and sophomore year at Siena Heights University in Adrian, my dad, John died on August 15, 1998. It was very devastating to me and my family. All of our lives changed in that one instant.

When he died, we wanted to give something back to community and schools of Sand Creek. We asked that memorial contributions be made to Sand Creek Community Schools. My dad was on the Board of Education for 16 years, some of his final terms as Vice President and he was also on the High School Building Committee. I believe in 1999, the school called us and said that the money from Dad's memorial contributions were sitting in a bank account. The school wanted to know what we wanted done with the money, we suggested a scholarship in his name.

Today at work, I received a phone call from Ann, and she asked me to put together a couple of paragraphs about Dad and his life. His dedication to the community and schools and how his mother, sister and seven children all graduated from Sand Creek High School. The paragraphs have to be emailed to Ann next week for the school's upcoming Achievement Night.

I thought that it was nice that the school finally wanted us to be involved with the John Wayne Clark Scholarship (Fifth down on the list - John Clark Scholarship). I'm glad that some money goes to a student that will be attending college. I'm very proud that something that my Dad's name is attached to helps someone out. That is how Dad was, always helping anyone out who needed it.

My long day

Yesterday, I photographed a Adrian College baseball game. The game started at 2 p.m. The weather was wonderful, sunny and 70 degrees. Usually I don't stay the entire game. I shoot whatever I can until the 5 or 6th inning and leave. When the 6th inning came the score was still 0-0. Adrian College and Albion College just couldn't score. When the 7th inning passed and it was still scoreless, that is when I heard someone say extra innings. For some reason I always thought college played 9 innings.

The first game of the doubleheader was finally won in the bottom of the 12th inning. Adrian College beat Albion 1-0. The game started at 2 p.m. I think it got over after 4:30 p.m. During those 2.5 hours my face and arms got sunburned. My husband always tells me to put on sunblock, but I usually don't. That is not good being a natural redhead with fair skin.

After standing in the sun for 2.5 hours, I decided to go run 3.5 miles outside. It was a nice run, but the first half my legs were really tired. After my run, I ate dinner, took a shower and sat on the couch waiting for America's Next Top Model to start. I made it through the first half hour just fine. Then I layed down on the couch to watch the last half hour. What a mistake! I fell asleep. I woke up to see Furonda get eliminated. I don't like Jade, I wanted her to leave. But after watching Furonda trying to perform her Thai dance, I knew she would be eliminated.

Now that it is down to the final four, I would like to see Joanie win. Her photos have been really good recently. Well, I would like to see anyone but Jade win. Jade is so smug and she thinks she knows it all. Isn't she to old to start modeling? Anyway, I don't want her to win.

Photo Credits: www.upn.com

Rain soaked mess

Tuesday I was so happy to photograph one of the biggest track meets, at least to me, Sand Creek vs. Madison. Every year the Tri-County Conference title comes down to these two teams. I was hoping the rain would go away, but it didn't.

I came to the track meet prepared. I was wearing a long rain coat, my photo vest, a rainproof jacket and a hat. I thought that would keep me dry. While waiting for field events to start, the skies opened a it rained hard. My raincoat stopped at my calf, so my pant legs got all wet. In about 10 minutes the wet areas on my pants legs spread up to my knees. Good thing it stopped there. Beside my pant legs, I was having other troubles. The rain found its way down my collar and soaked my photo vest and parts of my "waterproof" jacket. The inside of my jacket arms were all wet and it just felt gross.

When the running events started I was able to keep my Nikon D100 dry by hiding it under my huge raincoat. That worked for most of the meet. Near the end of the meet, it started to rain again, only harder. My camera got all wet. My notes also got all wet. I had blue spots of ink all over. It is very hard to take notes in the rain. During the 800 meter run I just stopped taking notes. Its a good thing I knew the athletes. After the 200 meter dash, I left because my notes were soaked, my camera and pants were wet and I was getting tired and hungry.

On another note, The Sand Creek boys and girls track teams swept Madison. The boys won with the score of 101-62. The girls score was 86-77.

TOP PHOTO: A helper measuring in a puddle of water during the girls shot put.
BOTTOM PHOTO: Kailah Gerig anchored the winning 3,200 meter relay and won the 800, 1,600, and 3,200 meter runs.
RIGHT PHOTO: Sand Creek boys beat Madison for the win in the 400 meter relay.

Books read in 2006

The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
Shopgirl, Steve Martin
The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H. Wolfe
Marilyn: The Last Take, Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham
The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell
Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley
Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Hidden Hitler, Lothar Machtan
Auschwitz: A New History, Laurence Rees

Currently Reading: Jack The Ripper: The Complete Casebook, Donald Rumbelow
Up Next: In Cold Blood, Truman Capote