...hello from New Jersey

...Saw Brown on Sunday and Monday...got to Kristens last night and have been here today. Bolting here as soon as possible tomorrow. Probably 10 hours on the road tomorrow..thank god for XM radio.

I was able to get some good stock photos ( i think) and I am pretty confident of some photos of Kristen's son. I might post one of them late Wednesday night.

There are WAYYYYYYYYY too many people up here. Traffic is just out of control...rubbernecking constantly. A drive that should take 5 minutes can take an hour. Ridiculous.

Well... gotta go...

Hitting the road soon

...heading to New York City on Sunday to see Brown and see some sites... then back to Jersey to see Kristen and her 8 month old son Harrison.... so, long haul in the car on Sunday mixing it up with all the memorial day traffic...at least the Jetta can make it there on one tank of gas.

Should be able to get a couple of px of some stuff there on Monday. And i am sure Brown with have some ideas... Then back home on Wednesday...Jessica is off to Kansas City to see Kari on Friday and she will be gone till Wednesday.

I have a photo gig with Aj's sister at some point. I am looking forward to that and getting some good "portrait" shots and other poses with my light setup. That should be good.

???

Ok..so..Ive am about halfway there on the porfolio thing...I have different photos of landscapes, things, people outside, etc...I now am working on getting some good portrait shots of different people. I one gig set up with the sister of a friends fiancee. i am looking to do one more of a different person. I have a white guy, black girl, my twins...will have 2 different types of white girls at some point and I might try to drive up and see Brown in a couple of weeks. If I see Kristen on that trip, i bet i could take some photos of her and her son and some pix of NYC. Then i could get Brown to take look at the photos i will use... I just need to see if that will be a good time and if we can free up 50 dollars for gas for me to drive up there and back. Also, i think Jessica might be flying out to Kansas City to see Kari, so I might have to wait till later...I guess we shall see... I want to have a diverse set of photos in my portfolio.

sigh....just got back

...just got back from Charlotte. It was a fun weekend. Saw Star Wars and the Races on Saturday. kinda tired so I heading to bed here soon. Of course, the #20 took out my guy by knocking the #01 into the #29. So...no..it wasnt a bummer that Steard wrecked. it was a bummer that he took out Harvick. Plain and Simple...still had fun though...wrecks right in front of us...direct view of Pamela Anderson. Going to get the same tickets next year...

Off to Charlotte

...back to Charlotte today. dropping the twins off in Columbia to stay with the grandparents for the weekend, then heading up I77 to Charlotte, meeting up with Brandy, AJ, Harwood, Jessica and Ellen for dinner, then a 9:45 showing of Star Wars. To the track saturday midday, tailgating then to the race Saturday night. Then back to pick up the kids Sunday afternoon, then back home. Should be a fun weekend...I am going to try to get a picture of Pamela Anderson. And I might even get to see some Pam Anderson wannabes during the weekend too...

food for thought

..a while ago, I was listening to some radio station online and there was an discussion concerning reparations to African Americans, etc.... the question came up that was posed like this..."If you were offered the ability to go back to Africa, would you go?"...kinda funny because I was sitting here thinking to myself "Hell No!"...when a caller calls in, obviously a black man..and he says "I got 2 words for you on the question..."HELLLLLL NO!!!!!" "He went on to say that he will take his Fried Chicken and Collard Greens and stay right where he is at than go to Africa and have to fight off Mosquitos and Lions. I am with you brother...lock step.

ramblings...

Another day, another birthday.... got some cool shoes, "Bleachers" by John Grisham, a couple of accesories for my camera stuff, some 1/64 diecast cars and some sugar free candy (like M$Ms)....

...looks like I might have an opportunity to do a graduation shoot sometime soon. I need to get in touch with people here real soon like... I think I am going to try to do it on location at their place... but we shall see.

...its so cool to see your kids be able to go to the ice maker and get their own ice and water. Kinda funny watching them too... they are so matter of fact about it.

Yep... XM satellite for now. They have Nascar (until 2007) and Baseball, as well as all the other stuff... research shows XM being the stronger company while Sirius is way outspending for stuff in order to try to lure listeners. I suspect the future will see XM absorbing Sirius....

...may try to see Star Wars on Friday night in Charlotte

How true...

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
-George Bernard Shaw

A great time this weekend

We went up to Charlotte for a quick visit with Kim, Jeremy and Brandon and Brandon's 2nd birthday celebration. It was a nice time, and I got to renew my aquaintance with Kim's father, Hiram...about as funny a man I have ever met. Itwas a nice time. I also have decided that I am going to go for XM satelitte whenever I get around to getting that. they have Nascar and Baseball, which are my 2 favorite things.

This should be an interesting week.... Taking the twins to the grandparents on Friday afternoon, then heading to Charlotte for a fun weekend, I hope. Harwood and his wife Jessica, Brandy and AJ, Ellen and others out for dinner Friday night...then doing the race on Saturday, then picking up the twins Sunday afternoon....

After that...the "events" are over for now. I have a tentative plan to visit Josh and Kristen this summer, but that is on hold for now. I also plan to go to National Convention in late July....then later is the Smith/Ford wedding in October. No other big plans at the moment...

Ok...take a look below...

...Those are the last pics of the twins I plan to post for a while. I will post pics of other people, things for a while.

Ian goofing off while I test lighting...a little better now, i think. need a fill for under the chin....

Rylee sitting for portrait lighting test. A little over exposed, i think. But I fixed it later....

Me and Rover Dawg have a meeting

Yesterday, me and the rambling rover dawg finally had a meeting of the minds. After noticing him in our back yard yesterday, and him running off when i came outside, I saw that he had decided to set up camp/watch/lick himself/whatever next to our mailbox out front. So...i went and got the "Dealmaker"...a small Daisy BB gun I purchased not too long ago. I went to a window and since we have the windows open in the house, all I had to do was raise the screen an inch. Doing so, i could see his ears poke up..he's like "wha?... wha wuz that?"...looking around and stuff... I silently snicker and load a BB into the "Dealmaker" and place rover dawg squarely in the sight...had to sight through the picket fence, but that added to the experience. I wait patiently. (if you know me, you know that one thing I have is patience) The "Dealmaker" waits at the ready. rover dawg calms down and starts eating a piece of grass or something. I squeeze the trigger. "TANG!!!!!!!" .."WHAP!!!" .. rover dawg takes off like a bolt of lightening back to his house.

... havent seen rover dawg since.

...the "Dealmaker" is back unloaded in its hiding place in the garage. ... and Mocha is somewhere chillin

I always try to feed the children something good and all that. But its nice when they are still at the age where you can drop cottage cheese, a Bojangles biscuit, 5 ritz crackers and a slice of Turkey in front of them, and they are jumping up and down. sigh... I know that there will come a time when that will no longer be up to speed.... sigh....

but of course,...

...these people picking up the trash is far cooler than having to figure out a way to get rid of the trash every week. i remember when we had to do that. that did notwork out too well....

trash

the trash people here are such idiots. They wont take anything not in a trashbag. And the recycling people only take certain recycling, and we keep getting things left behind because they rift through the recycling and simply leave what is "illegal". WHY????..oh, why cant they just toss the "illegal" stuff into a "illegal" bin and chunk it once they get back to trash central, where ever that is? so...they are forcing me to just toss EVERTHING into the trash bags and say "screw recycing!"

Mother's Day... the twins salute Mama

kinda weird....

...ever notice this Cinco de Maya or whatever thing seems to pop up about the same time every year? kinda strange....

Kristen, during her "hair" days

Me...I am messing around with my Portrait setup and some lighting setups.... just a different look

Rylee. Everytime Kevin Harvick comes on TV, she point to it and says..."Jamie!"

Ian fishing down at the creek. As long as he's at the water, things aref ine. But he has this penchant for trying to cast at bad places.....

On deck...

Twins got invited to a friend's 2nd birthday party. They have decided to go. Guess that means Jessica and I will have to take them...

Darlington up this Friday and Saturday. Hoping it don't rain.

Still working on all the scans...its a slow process... scanners are not fast.

Does anybody want to volunteer to be in my portfolio, i.e. be a model for a couple of hours?