iPhone camerabag app

About a month ago Jenn sent me this link to a story by Melissa Lyttle, a photojournalist out of Florida. All the photos in the story were taken with her iPhone using the Helga filter in the Camerabag App. The Helga filter mimics the vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions found in photos taken with the cheaply made Holga cameras. I loved the way the images Melissa used for the story looked and decided if and when I got an iPhone that this would be the first app I got. Well as it turns out Fiancé’s cell phone died this week which resulted in us combining our cell phone accounts and him getting a new BlackBerry and me a new iPhone. These images are nothing special and are a little out of focus (I know) but are just used to show how the image changes when the different filters in the Camerabag app are applied. Original: Helga: Lolo: Magazine: Mono: 1962: 1974: Cinema: Infared: Fisheye: I can see the possibilities to have a lot of fun with this. The only thing I am disappointed about is that there is supposed to be an “Instant” filter that takes Polaroid style photos that isn’t there. Between all the photography apps and the Canon 20D (more on this in a future post) Fiancé got me as an early birthday present I foresee a whole lot of picture taking. UPDATE: Turns out that Instant is there and I just had to go into the menu and turn it on. Not sure why it was the only one turned off but matters not. Here it is… Instant: Thank you to @jcpretro for pointing that out to me! Also found out you can layer the filters. Head is exploding with ideas.

Fiance plays baseball

And I think thats hot.

the best thing to happen to Forks, WA

I like a good vampire story as much as the next guy. I loved the movie Lost Boys and I own (yes own) all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never read any of the Anne Rice vampire books, but did see Interview with a Vampire. And even though I had not read the books I still could not buy Tom Cruise as Lestat. Brad Pitt as Louis on the other hand…now that is a hot vampire. The Twilight Saga was first brought to my attention a few years ago by my friend Theresa; the same person who got me hooked on Buffy. She had read the first two and was reading the third. She outlined the story for me and it sounded interesting. I thought maybe I would stop by the bookstore and pick up Twilight. When Theresa told me I would have to look for them in the young adult section I heard the squealing of breaks in my head and thought maybe not. As of this last spring I believe I was the only female I knew who had not read these books. Friend: “Have you read Twilight?” Me: “No”. Friend: “What? They are the best books EVER in the history of books. Such a romantic love story and they get pretty steamy”. Me: “Steamy…how can that be…they are books written for tweenagers…and isn’t Stephenie Meyer a Mormon”? Friend: “Oh…but they are soooooooooooooo good!!!” No matter how hard I was pressured I could not bring myself to read a bunch of books written for 13 year old girls. I was standing my ground firmly and was not going to give in to reading them. EVER! Then my sister Rebecca called and asked if I wanted to see Depeche Mode in August. What does seeing Depeche Mode have to do with Twilight you ask? Well nothing really. It just meant that the show was in Seattle, which is in Washington. You know what else is in Washington? Forks…the town in which the Twilight saga is based. My 13 year old niece Amarah would be accompanying my sister to Washington. She had read all the books, is Twilight crazy, she loves Edward Cullen and she wanted to go to Forks. My sister had also read them and was up for it. Hmmmm…maybe I would have to read at least the first book to see what all the craziness is about. Fiance and I went down to El Paso the next week to visit with family. My future sister in law Christy had just started reading Twilight and was discussing it with my future mother in law Lupe. Lupe had read all four books and had loved them. She offered them to me and at first I politely declined. But as the week wore on and the conversations continued my curiosity got the best of me. I picked up that first book and read the first hundred pages. It was okay, the story moved along slowly but it was keeping my interest. Upon my departure Lupe gave me the first 3 books. I would have to buy the fourth book as she had given that one to Christy, who could not check it out from the library at the school she taught at because of sexual content. So over the course of the next four weeks I read the four books of the Twilight saga. My official opinion of the books…MEH. Yeah that’s right I said MEH! I had been duped. I read 2560 pages waiting for it to get good. They all said it was good, when does it get good?!?!? Oh…and that steamy sexual content...it’s implied…no actual sex. Every time I would get frustrated with the story line I would have to remind myself that these books are written for 13 year old girls and not the adult women that are so ga-ga over them. But I digress. And because I am a good Auntie, this past Saturday we hopped into my SUV for the four hour drive to Forks. Amarah’s excitement started to build as we drove through Port Angeles, the town where Edward saves Bella from the near do well bad guys and takes her for mushroom ravioli. 54 miles and a scenic drive along Crescent Lake (very pretty) in the Olympic National Park later we rolled into Forks. We pulled along side the road with about 20 other vehicles to take pictures of the Welcome to Forks sign. As soon as Amarah was out of the truck she let out an excited, girlish squeal. We had to wait a short line before she was able to go up and stand in front of the sign. I took pictures for the teenage girls in front of us and upon seeing them they thanked me with a swirl or screams and giggles. This was just a small taste of what was to follow once we got into town. There is an actual Twilight tour that you can take out of Port Angeles for about $40 per person. We figured with Forks being such a small town that we could find our way around. Everyone in this town, and I mean everyone is finding a way to cash in on the whole Twilight mania. You cannot walk into a business without there being some sort of Twilight angle. The Ace Hardware for instance has a put up a sign that says Newton’s Sporting Goods and you can go inside to have your picture taken in Bella’s work smock. So we drove around town and hit some of the main attractions. Amarah did not want to see any of the houses that they were trying to pass off and the Swan’s and the Cullen’s because in her words they were ghetto. We started off at the visitor’s center where Bella’s truck is parked. While not the same make or model described in the book, it is red and that is enough for most Twihards. (yes that is Fiance you see in the back ground. I forced him to come along for this unique experience). Next stop was the High School... Then on to the police department… and the Hospital... We then walked up and down the main drag and wandered in and out of stores. There is one store that is dedicated to all things Twilight which was jam packed with fans and more Twilight crap than you could shake a stick at. Fiance and I did a quick look around and then sat back to watch the pandemonium. Amarah purchased a New Moon poster and some mints that said Mrs. Cullen. As they were checking Rebecca commented to the girl ringing them up how crazy it must be in town on the weekends. She replied by saying it was crazy in town all the time. It will die down a little once school starts but ramp up again once the New Moon movie is released. And you know what that means….more $$$!!! planter boxes outside the Twilight store By this point we were starving and had lunch at the Forks Coffee Shop. I wish I had taken pictures of this place…it was a hole. I don’t think that any repairs or updates have been made to this place in…well ever. Don’t let the pictures on the website fool you. While the food was good you can tell that the prices have gone up along with the number of people coming through town. After lunch we headed south to La Push home of the Quileute Tribe (and Jacob Black) to see First Beach. Once Crossing the Treaty Line (ha ha) the drive to the beach is beautiful. The weather was less than ideal for a day at the beach but it did not take away from the beauty of it. I would say that First Beach made the whole trip worth the drive. From La Push we headed the four hours home. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We had a good day and it way kind of cool to experience something that my niece is really into. Oh…and for the record…Team Jacob!!!

another boat, salmon, and blue angels

NOTE: This post was originally written on Aug 6th. I had spent an hour uploading photos, writing witty content, and cursing because I could not get the photos to space evenly. After much ado I got everything lined up to my liking and clicked publish. Instead of publishing the post that I had worked so hard on, blogger deleted 99.9% of my post and only the title appeared online. F*#@, F*#@, F*#@!!!!!! So after a bit of a cooling down period and 4 day visit from my sister and a 2 day visit from my mom and auntie I have decided to give it another go. (keeping my fingers crossed) Ever since we moved up here Fiance has been talking about going to be the Blue Angels at Seafair. Fiance will find any reason to see them perform and once flew us down to Dallas for that very reason. In the weeks leading up to Seafair he talked about it more and more and had staked out the location we would be watching them from. It would be crowded but would be good for viewing the show. The week before his birthday I was looking it to whale watching tours and was on the Argosy website and saw that they had a Blue Angels lunch cruise. Taking a boat ride to the middle of Lake Washington to watch the show seemed like a no brainer. So on Saturday we drove up to Kirkland to hop on the boat. We were shown to a nice table near the windows where we ordered a few mojitos and settled in for the 3 hour tour (no Gilligan jokes please). We set sail, sipped our cool drinks in the air conditioned cabin, and watched the speed boat racing to the middle of the lake to find a good viewing spot. Then it was time for lunch which consisted of several types of salads, three cheese ravioli, a chicken marsala-esque dish, and salmon. Yes…that is salmon on my plate. Anyone that knows me knows I am not a fan of salmon. That is usually something I keep to myself; because when you tell someone you don’t like salmon they look at you like you just said “I don’t like getting massages” or “I kick puppies”. I have tried to like salmon. I have had it grilled, smoked, poached, baked, and in sushi (I don’t mind it so much in sushi anymore). Every time Fiance orders it he puts a little on my plate in hopes that maybe just maybe I will like it this time. Nope…too fishy. So as I stood there hovering over the large plate of salmon fillets I decided that I would try it again for the last time. If I did not like it this go around I was done. I took the smallest piece I could find and returned to the table. Fiance was surprised to see that salmon on my plate and held his breath as I took that first bite. This time I did not hate it. Turns out in order for me to like salmon it has to be over cooked and flavorless. But I look at it this way…Fiance ate his steak well done when we met and after 3 years I have him eating it medium rare. So maybe in a few years I will be able to eat a properly cooked piece of salmon. Baby steps. After lunch we went up to the third deck to wait for the show to start. We were surrounded by hundreds of speed boats filled with bathing suit clad, sunburned drunk people. As always the performance started with Fat Albert. We did not get to see the jet -assisted takeoff (JATO) this time, but it was cool to see the C-130T Hercules. Then came the main attraction. (low altitude fly by...temprarily lost partial hearing in left ear from the roar of the engines) I think I got some pretty good shots considering I was standing on a rocking boat after having 4 heavily poured mojitos and a corona. The show lasted about 45 minutes and as soon as it ended all the speed boats turned and raced back to their docks. We returned to our table and had dessert on our way back to the dock. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. I know Fiance is already looking forward to seeing the Blue Angels again soon.

boat trip

A few weeks ago Fiance told me that he had submitted an application for us to take a ride on a Navy destroyer. If selected we would get to take a 3-5 hour cruise that would take place during Fleet Week which is the kick off of Seafair weekend and is a pretty big deal up here. Much to Fiance's excitement we were selected and would be riding on the USS Momsen. History Lesson I: The USS Momsen is the twenty-sixth destroyer of the Arleigh Burke class and is named for Vice Admiral Charles B. Momsen. The USS Momsen's keel was laid on 16 November 2001 and was launched on 19 July 2003. The Momsen was commissioned on 28 August 2004. As of 2009, the Momsen is serving in the Pacific Fleet, home ported in NAVSTA Everett, Washington, and assigned to Destroyer Squadron 9. The construction of the Momsen from initial steel cutting to sea trials, was documented in the Discovery Channel television special Destroyer: Forged in Steel. The destroyers were not referenced by name, but their numbers were visible on their prows. So for the past week we have been experiencing record breaking heat for these parts. On the day of our little cruise temps were to reach an all time high of 102. When I say all time high I mean hottest day on record for Seattle. EVER. And even though we were going to be standing on a mammoth steal deck; I could not imagine a better place to be than out on the water of Elliot Bay in the Puget Sound. (Actually any place was better than our A/C free apt which has been a toasty 95 degrees inside until about midnight where it dropped to 85. All of you that told me that you don't need A/C up here can suck it! LIARS!!!) So after a lot (A LOT!) of hurry up and wait we boarded the ship and were under way. One knows that these vessels are huge but you don't really get a sense of it until you get up close and personal. The coolest part of the cruise (other than the breeze) was that the ship was about 85% open for you to wander around and explorer. The first time we went below deck it was a little confusing with all the stairs and hallways that lead to locked doors. After a bit you get the lay of the ship and how to make your way around. (last picture I got before crushing the LCD screen on my camera) Lunch was also served on our boat trip. I was thinking it was going to be a simple box lunch. But when the Navy has a BBQ they go all out. As we stood in the very long lunch line we saw people walking away with heaping plates of cheese burgers, bbq chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, chips, and rice crispy treats. I was starving and for every plate that went by my mouth watered a little bit more. Every now and again the Master Chief would come and grab a group of about 10 passengers behind us and take them down to the galley to help move the back of the line along. He did this until the 50 or so people behind us were gone and Fiance and I made up the back of the line. About 5 minutes later he came back and asked if if we would like to follow him and have lunch in the Wardroom. Fiance's eyes just about popped out of his head. History Lesson II: The wardroom is the mess-cabin of naval commissioned officers above the rank of sub-lieutenant. The term the wardroom is also used to refer to those individuals with the right to occupy that wardroom, meaning "the officers of the wardroom". Since 1948, ward-rooms have been used by warrant officers as well as commissioned officers. It provides a place of recreation as well as being a dining room. Usually, a galley or scullery adjoins the wardroom. Service is provided by stewards. Wardrooms have rules governing etiquette. Traditionally considered taboo are three topics: politics, religion, and sex (earlier guidebooks referred to the latter as ladies). On large ships in peacetime, talking about professional business is frowned upon. It is also considered inappropriate to perform work or to meet with subordinates in a wardroom. So instead of eating our lunches off of a paper plate on our laps on the flight deck we ate out lunches seated at a table eating our made to order lunch off of china in the air conditioned wardroom with the officers. (Sailors Manning the Rails) History Lesson III: Manning the rail is a method of saluting or rendering honors used by naval vessels. The custom evolved from that of manning the yards, which dates from the days of sail. On sailing ships, men stood evenly spaced on all the yards (the spars holding the sails) and gave three cheers to honor distinguished persons. Today the crew are stationed along the rails and superstructure of a ship when honors are rendered. The United States Navy prescribes manning the rail as a possible honor to render to the President of the United States and for rulers of foreign nations. A similar but less formal ceremony is to have the crew "at quarters" when the ship is entering or leaving port. Manning the rail is also the traditional way to honor the USS Arizona Memorial when it is passed by U.S. ships. The only down fall was when I smashed the LCD screen on my camera while coming down a steep ladder. It still takes photos, you just can't see what it is your are taking a photo of. Good times! Over all we had a great time out on the water. the crew was extremely accommodating to the 200 extra people they had aboard for the work day. Now I think Fiance needs to work on getting us on an aircraft carrier...Tiger Cruise anyone?

tennis

an exchange while watching a rebroadcast of the Federer/Nadal finals match from last years Wimbledon this morning.

Fiance: Why are they showing this? Where are today's matches?

Me: Maybe there is a rain delay

F: Nadal won this last year right?

M: I think Federer did.

F: NO if this is last year's match NADAL won.

M: Well if you knew that then why the f*ck did you ask me?

apparently I make really good eggs...

Last Thursday stared off like any other day the only exception being it was Fiance's birthday. We stuck to our usual routine. Fiance gets up and hops in the shower, I get up make coffee, his lunch and breakfast. This morning I made one of his favorites; eggs over easy, sausage and wheat toast. While he eats he watches Sports Center while I tidy up the kitchen. We decide because I am going to meet him for lunch that I will go ahead and drive him to work this morning. Normal morning chit chat continues, nothing seems out of the ordinary. That is until I head to the bedroom to make the bed. It is then that Fiance intercepts me. He pulls me into an embrace and following exchange went a little something like this... Fiance: I like waking up next to you. Me: I like waking up next to you too. (I try to back out of the embrace) F: You made really good eggs this morning. M: ummmm...okay (I try to back away again...I mean I have an unmade bed to make) F: I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I give him a "whatchoo talkin' about Willis" look as he pulls a white box out of his pocket, did he buy me some earrings or maybe a necklace? F: With that being said...(he drops to one knee)...will you marry me? He opens the box, I see the ring, and I lose it. Tears streaming down my face I nod and mouth the word yes. He slips the ring on my finger which is followed by lots of hugging, kissing, and more tears. He had been planning this since February. We had never even gone to look at rings together. He had enlisted the help of my friend Jenn to run reconnaissance to find out what styles and cuts I liked and my ring size. They referred to the surprise mission as Operation Busty Housewife which is based off of one of my tweets. And boy did he catch me by surprise. He had been talking about taking a trip this fall and I thought that he would pop the question then. Turns out he was just trying to throw me off the track. He did an awesome job and I love my ring. Fiance isn't always all that romantic; but this was better than anything I could have asked for. I am looking forward to the happily ever after.

Today is Fiance's Birthday

Today Fiance turned the big Three Five. We went bowling at the Garage with our friends Pete, Tasha, Deepa and Gabe (yes we finally have some friends) helping us celebrate. I made a black forest cake that was so sweet it sent us all into a sugar coma but did not stop us from polishing off three quarters of the cake. Although he had some stiff competition from Pete; Fiance ended up being the best bowler of the night with a high score of 219. It is possible that Pete let him win...being his birthday and all.

So I am sure that you have picked up on the fact that I am now referring to Boyfriend as Fiance. More on that to come...