At last I have arrived.....

Just like a girl has a shoe for every occasion, I find it necessary to change jobs every so often (I was suppose to say just like a girl changes her shoes - but I would lose the charm that is me) . In all reality I have not had much luck in finding simple longevity anywhere. I consider myself the black widow of employees. As soon as I leave an organization, they cease to exist, go out of business, close down a department or go and get bought out for the upteenth time. I try not to take these things personally. I consider my latest opportunity a real challenge to my new status as the BW or black widow. I sincerely doubt that BAH will get bought out any time, and the liklihood of them closing shop is very small. The thing that should scare all of you is that my new line of work will be in diaster recovery / consequence management. So be afraid Alabama - be very afraid!

I will of course miss my spacious office here in Crystal City where I have an office all to myself and look out my window to see the Capitol building. However there is some sense of calm knowing that I will be gainfully employed for as long as I want a job. Who cares about sharing windowless offices when at least they are not cubicles?

I am now at the halfway point in school for summer classes. I have 3 weeks left. Business math is about as boring as it sounds but my Criminal profiling makes up for it! I now profile everyone one I come into contact with. And I am startled to find out that indeed most are lacking a sensitivity chip and feel self important or wait is that me?

Ah - so I am off, to a new job in shiny Mclean, near Tyson's Galleria where I will go broke if I dare spend there. I cut my commute by 15 miles each way = 30 a day -- see Business Math already coming in handy there. Less gas - which is huge seeing as a major pipeline is being shut down. I love public panic....ahhhhh raise prices, gouge the customer some more because they are clueless about oil supply and pricing. Quick feed the panic - there is no fuel, you will have to pay $10 a gallon and you will have to wait in long lines to receive it. I can see the head of Chevron now -- oops sorry Andrew.

A camera all it's own

The last six months have been a truly tiresome effort to get up and go to work everyday. My company has not been doing well and so every week I would hear "you may or may not have a job next week". All I wanted to do was work, get a check come home and spend time with Mark and Lo. So having said that, a much needed vacation found us in Wisconsin.

Logan and I learned how to use the digital camera. I know how to use one but she wanted to learn too. She actually took some good photos that were in frame!We have enjoyed our trip to Wisconsin - there is something so relaxing about the cottage there. I also see some spectacular sunsets. A week never seems long enough. Logan has been trilled to spend some quality time with her Grandy and Poppy. She gets more and more excited for their visits as she gets older. We find this to be wonderful. I knew both my mom's parents. I never met my dads. My grandmother raised me until I was four and then died when I was about 7 from injuries sustained in a brutal car accident. My grandfather lived in Florida for many years and died when I was in high school. He lived with us for a year after my grandmother died. It is odd not to have any extended family. I have my Uncle HJ who I see more than anyone else and I don't see him that much. Mark's family is so different from mine. I have really enjoyed sharing time with Eric and Andrew (the twins) and reconnecting with Steve and Beth. Seeing Matt and Jen was a real treat. I especially loved my time with all the young cousins. So funny, full of life, colorful and animated. Logan loved all the attention.

A New Look

Soon - speckhard.com will have a new and improved look.  Check back soon!

 

 

Dances with phones

I gotta admit I am hating this whole idea of blogging from my phone. I have yet to get it to work correctly! Blogger has no help/assist either. GRrrrr... A few notes - speckhard.com is getting a new logo and new look. Get your gripes in now about it. I am revamping and making a more robust and easier gallery to update.

Things I am lovin' right now... FOOD: Barbecue potato chips, TV SHOW: Rock Star Supernova, SONG(s): "Anything, Anything" by Dramarama

Fun with photoshop and blogging from my phone

First I was bored and created a little Photoshop tutorial for myself. So I took this old photo of Lo and decided to attempt an oldtimey feel to it using a sepia handtouched feel. This is the same style photographers use in wedding photos alot and I wanted to try it. I only had so many photos available to me at me "worksite" so I had to use what I had. This one is very dark but I wanted to see how the eyes and lips would come out. After several attempts, using hue/ saturation and alot of curves and graident mapping, I was able to come up with a not so bad looking photo. The question is does it look better then the original? The real challenge with this one is that the background is very dark and she is wearing white. You can hardly see the side of her head and her face is shiney. Here is the end result. I think you can click on them to see them in their real sizes. Quite honestly I am forced to amuse myself these days and there is only so much reading one can do in 8 hours, 5 days a week. Let me know what you think of these and if you want me to touch up a photo or two - I can probably do that. I am not sure how I feel these came out. I like them but I am not a big fan of this coloring technique. Maybe I need to practice a bit more but I think it has to do with the lighting and contrast you have in the photo you actually use as your test subject.

I was not a big fan of her school photos this year, and yes I think she is cute in all her photos but this year she looked weird. So I also attempted to use the same technique and apply it to a professionally done photo and see how it would come out. Here is the original. and the touched up one.

I have been experimenting with phone blogging. I may actually change out my blog to incorporate the new one. I can use the camera on my phone which will make for some very interesting blogging! Or not. Here is a link to my experimental blog.

What the ARK is going on here?

The rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down
In rushing, rising, rivlets
'Til the river crept out of it's bed
And crept right into Piglet's...

I have lost my mind! Okay this photo is of the Cameron Run exit on the beltway. Nice huh? See the garbage? That is where the waterline was. I am thankful for not living near any flooding. Our basement seems to have no egress and we did have quite the stream flooding into our neighbors yard - they have the drain! I could have canoed down to the Rupps house.

Here is a photo of Laruel, MD. I am not sure where these trees are but hey - it was a shot of Laurel so I had to use it. There have been alot of power outages. We only had flutters but that is because all our stuff in Ashburn is underground so you gotta love that! We never even lost TV which is really good because I did not want to miss "Hell's Kitchen" my new guilty pleasure. I have also digressed. After going through years of never ever being adicted to a soap opera, I was home last week for two days and flipped over to Days of our Lives. It was the only soap I use to watch when I was in high school and we were in the states for summer vacation. I think I watched 2 months of it one year and two months of it the next year. We only got General Hospital and Ryan's Hope in Germany. My sister was addicted to GH which is how I know about Dr. Noah Drake. It turns out they "DAYS" - brought back in the last few weeks all the old characters I saw when I watched this thing years ago. They also have the same actors that never left.

While I admit I am confused but alot of the plot - I have - GASP! - Tivo'ed it. One character has an eye patch on - I can't remember if he has always had one - one character is dying and showed up on the day his wife was marrying someone else (he was presumed dead as was the guy with the eye patch). The guy Steve with the eye patch and the presumed dead guy Jack, are also brothers. Steve has amnesia so he can't remember that he is Steve and now thinks he is Nick. The dying guy shows up in a hospice somewhere after being rescued by someone and guess who was at the hospice to take care of him....Nick - I mean Steve his long lost thought to be dead brother! Come on! And that is just one storyline.

Where did my little girl go?

To continue as blogger is having issues....

Lo has to think to herself, "my mom is the nuttiest person I know besides my Aunt Ashleigh". Lo is now in the four year old room, where there are alot more rules, hand raising, language correction, no baby talking, schoolwork like reading and writing to do. She likes the room so far though she had a major bout of crying when Mark left her off on her third day there. The teacher told me that they were astounded by her vocabulary. I am sure they say something nice to every parent to make them feel good when there is a change. I think it was genius on the teacher's part because it was the perfect thing to say.

Yes parents love to brag. On my street everyone's kid is a genius. Everyone's kid needs to go to a special school. It's kind of funny. Every kid to include mine will then turn around and do something amazingly normal or stupid like eat dirt. I keep listening for those triggers words my teachers use to use for me... creative, unique, colorful, animated, drama, she will make a good actress or lawyer, does not apply herself, is not using her full potential...come on I know some of you know what I am talking about. My dad once said that I would always be a "C" student. And he was right. Up until I learned that when you pay for it yourself you willwork alot harder. I just completed a final and rocked a 100%. Now understand I had no choice but to get a 100 on the final or I would have gotten a "B" my average with the final was a 90.01. It's one thing when you can blame your failures on a hangover it's another thing when there is just no excuse.

Lo Turns 4 - and I am still in shock.

Logan turned 4 last weekend and celebrated with 21 of her closest friends. Rule #1: The people that came up with one friend per age of the child were geniuses. Rule #2: There is a reason places like Build a Bear and Chucky E. Cheese make so much money, they plan it and clean up! It went well despite the lack of "Martha Stewart" genes that does not run in my family. She loved the Scooby Doo theme which brings me to Rule #3: Invest in Scooby Doo stock immediately! I feel like I almost need a what is in and out list! And she is only 4!

IN:
Krypto the Superdog
Kim Possible
Naked Mole Rats
Spiderman, Power Rangers, Batman, Superman, Xmen
Foam Swords
Light Sabers
Magi Staffs
And the only girl stuff is Kim Possible related

OUT:
Anything Girl Related other than Kim Possible

Mark and I will never get it right! I have to wonder, where did the little baby I had go? She is now a little girl. I have to catch myself when I think she is entering kindergarden next year! The time really flies - so fast. Already you catch glimpses of the woman she will be one day. When she laughs it makes everyone laugh and when she smiles it really does light up a room. Yes, all parents must think the same thing about their kids. Yes, all parents must impart this to the rest of the world population. It is tough to see that this thing that was helpless and needed you all the time, now just slowly starts to need you less and less. Right now she is still crazy about mom and dad. She told me the other day when she gets older and has her own house, she will have mom and dad live in it with her. It's touching, it's funny, it's heart breaking.

Oh the times they are achangin'

What a week! First I feel old after getting this picture of Mark's bro and his family. The kids are sooo big! Last time I saw Garrit he was smaller than me and now he is as tall as his dad. That whole family breeds amazons. I once asked Steve (or shortie as he now must be called) how he disciplined Jake with Jake being taller than him. I think he told me he just steps on a stool and yells at him that way. Now he can do that with both his sons. Maybe he has to do this with Beth too? Ahhh but I digress....

K'Fed has really become my new hero. It's not that I think he is anything but a slacker but even I have to tip my hat off to him. He has dragged Brit (the self proclaimed "queen of pop") along, gotten her preggers - twice and still manages not to care. Before bringing children into the equation - at what point did she look at K'Fed with his pants down around his knees, his squinty eyes, silly earring and go, "Now there is a solid famliy man (he already has two kids) there is no way he would cheat - even though he cheated with me". Nice. What level of hell do you have to be in to go from reigning "Pop Queen" to KFed's doormat?

I have done nothing over the last week and into this one but take midterms, write papers and prepare for testing out of my public speaking class. I cannot wait for the day I can scream from the tallest point in Ashburn (which is going to be hard to find considering it's all flat here) and yell "I am the smartest human..." oops did I say that out loud? I meant "thank goodness it's over!"

And now a game:

Please post what you think I should say after my last exam at the top of my lungs (with perhaps 3 martini's in me)...

And for those of you into "Urban Cowboy" I give you this photo. But really the movie or the sleeper hit Mark and I saw over the weekend that we rented because we never go to the real movies anymore was Date Movie! The scene with the Cat makes the whole movie worth it and I have to say we did indeed rewind it for reviewing.