Jennifer's Road Trip

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I am very excited to host Jennifer over the next few days. She's not your ordinary girl; she's a class act! Read more about Jennifer and her road trip at The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bras. I know most of you are already aware that I'm a breast cancer survivor having been diagnosed in October 2011, having surgery, and then chemo. But, I'm doing great these days, my hair is growing back, and my life is moving forward. It's easy to understand why participating in Jennifer's Road Trip takes on a very special meaning for me.

I was out and about in my yard and around my house with her yesterday, and a I captured Jennifer in patriotic and romantic moods. She's so fun!  I hope to have more photo shoots with Jennifer and pictures to share over the next few days too. Enjoy her trip with me!

My daily is showing off the pink Cadillac pin that I added as part of the bling or memento that Jennifer will be picking up at each of her stops.  I've always had a thing for Cadillacs and better yet pink ones;-)

Here's a collage showing the other pics I took of Jennifer yesterday and linking you back to the gallery I'll be updating daily during her visit.

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All you flamingo lovers out there, take note!  Here's Jennifer posing with a very special flag from SmugMug friend Carole.  The girls, Ms. Flamingo and Jennifer, were quick friends!

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Jennifer also got to view these beautiful lilies in my front yard.

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Best stop typing and get busy hosting!

Wool E. Bull

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Donnie and Wally let me tag along with them to the Durham Bulls baseball game last night at the DBAP (Durham Bulls Athletic Park).  Although the Bulls lost 10-5, the game was interesting, and we had a great time with all the between inning festivities and crowd encouraging music.  They even had fireworks after the game!  Donnie and I tried to get up on the Kiss Cam with no luck but did get up on the big screen dancing to one of the upbeat songs.  Too bad there's no picture of that!  Featured in my daily is the team mascot Wool E. Bull with some kids they picked out of the seats to dress up and follow him on a humorous tour around the field.  The kids LOVE Wool E. Bull!  He gets out there in mini cars and drives like a crazy person around the field too!

A big thanks to the guys for the pink hat which they picked up for me at the last game.  I like!

In the collage is a cell phone picture of the 3 of us (center), a scene from the sumo wrestling (lower right), and the field crew (upper right) dragging the infield and dancing to M. C. Hammer Can't Touch this:-)  I loved that!

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Bye bye fireworks until next year...

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Red-Bellied Woodpecker

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While cooking breakfast yesterday, the mother red-bellied woodpecker came up with two of her babies to feed on the suet in my backyard.  The suet is about 15 -20 feed from my kitchen window past the deck rail. Of course I stopped what I was doing, grabbed the camera, and tried to take a few decent pics of them.  It was cute how the babies scooted up and down and around the small sweetgum tree.  Looks close at the upper left picture and you'll see the one baby on the backside of the tree poking his head around for mom's beak full of suet.  Lower right you'll see the baby mouth open below mom.  The female adult red-bellied woodpeckers don't have the red crown coming all the way to their front beak.  There's a break in the red.  The males have a fuller red crown.  I didn't see the father although I am sure he comes to the suet also since I frequently see males feeding too.

Here's Madi with her Martha Washington impersonation:-)

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Donnie and Madi in the pool yesterday.  She begs him to 'throw' her now:-)  We gave her some lessons yesterday on how to push off better like Johnny does and she was getting the hang of propelling herself even farther.

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Me and Donnie poolside.  See, I really do have hair now:-)

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Happy 4th of July!

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The town of Fuquay-Varina, NC always has their fireworks display on July 3rd.  I like it!  That way if you are so inclined you can get to a great fireworks display in the area on both the 3rd and the 4th:-)  Don't know that I'll get to more tonight as it's scheduled to be another volleyball day in the pool, but I like the option.  Donnie and I were able to park and set up chairs on the southwest side of the field where they were putting them up from.  We really lucked out getting there at 8:50PM and the display starting at 9PM prompt.  A big cloud came up a few minutes before 9 and lightning was filling the skies, so the town wasted no time starting the 15+ minute show.  Usually they might have waited until 9:15 for it to get a tad darker.  The first few shots I took had a blue background!  Just as the show ended big drops of rain started to fall.  Donnie and I got to the car quick and all was well.  I think the bulk of the rain stayed east giving the 1000s of people at the event time to get to their cars too although some had a much longer walk than we did!

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The shot below moves on my screen.  How about yours?

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Tufted Titmouse

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A quick shot of a tufted titmouse in my camellia tree taken out my master bathroom window.

The daily food shot...2 eggs made like a crepe with hamburer and Wisconsin cheddar cheese int center served with salsa.  Yum!  We eat eggs every day now. 

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Lights a Flutter

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No vignette...had trouble making up my mind:-)

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My daily shot is a composite of two images.

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I inverted the colors and applied some pseudo HDR and cropped and adjust colors and used select and eraser and added the vignette and framing.  You know, highly tweaked:-)

A slightly wider/different one.

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The most normal pp'ed shot from yesterday.

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If I can't get a real butterfly shot I guess I've got to create a butterfly shot.  The cool lights came from Target.  I have some dragonfly ones too:-)  Donnie suggested I tape the cord on the kitchen table to keep them where I wanted them while I shot them.  Great idea!

Star Heat Map

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Just playing around with a picture I took of a flag windwock yesterday.  My yearly use of the Heat Map filter:-)

It was just too hot yesterday.  We hit 102 at my house again.  And it's cranking back up today.  I had to go out in the heat and emergency water some flowers to try to save them...a bit sad seeing them wilted.

A SP of me in my gazing globe.  Too bad I couldn't see the birdhouse on top of my head in the background when I took it!

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Another spiny orb-weaver in my yard this time showing more of the web.  I was going to post this as my daily but didn't want to put a spider in your face two days in a row:-)

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Another yummy dinner.  A beef fillet from Wilkerson Farms with green beans and onions.

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