Flip those rooms, part II

Painting today! Look at those two studs! The one in black is my nephew Alex, the good looking one is me!

Flip that bathroom and bedroom, or , how I will so own Linda on the Brownie Point thing

While Mary and Tim are down in Disney, I've been working on my mom's house to do some painting, or so it started. However, I watch entirely too much "Flip that House" and what started out as "No problem, I'll be happy to paint the two rooms" has turned into a classic 'might as well' project. As in, "If we're painting this, we might as well put up some matching towel bars in the bathroom... might as well change out the toilet too, and if we're going this far, we might as well put a new vanity and mirror up." So here are a few pics of the project as we go along. I should have started with pure before pics, but, I didn't think of it till I got into it... The bedroom needed some spackling for the cracks that are inevitable in a 60 or 70 year old plaster house. The bathroom is much newer but did need some upgrades. Mom wouldn't go for the travertine marble steam walkin shower, so, here is whats been removed so far.

Try to top this Linda! hah!

In the credit where credit is due department, Sue has been doing a lot of this too mostly on the design and picking stuff out end though, so far.

Jim

Jim usually has a smile on his face. I was messing with my flash and took this in the kitchen during my graduation party.

I'm walkin, yes indeed I'm talkin

I finally graduated and got my Masters Degree today! Here are some pics from the ceremony and at the little get together at home afterwards. I missed my dad today, wishing he was here to share it. I know how happy he would have been for me and how much he would have eaten up being at the ceremony and party.

The lighting in Schwartz Theater stunk for picture taking. This is the only one from inside that came out...



Sue took this pic. We're so serious all the time!


Sue was messing around with the camera and got this one of our good friends the Nadkarnys and us in the kitchen


Here's the serious graduation pose.

It was a dark and rainy/foggy night...

Some times it gets foggy, and along an empty road or side street, you can see all these cones of light working their way through the fog. The other night it was foggy and just barely drizzling down. Here are a few different views of a road right down the street from me, all from the same raw file. The color image is pretty true to how it looked, but I like the black and whites. The b&ws seem more believable and mysterious. In the second b&w, I cropped out the puddle. I think I like the one with the puddle better.

More Alamo Pics

Two different views of the same spot.

San Antonio Pics

It was grey and nasty for the time I was there last week. Here are some pics from my room, and the Alamo...




The Texas Professional Photographers Association was coming to town the day I left, they turned on the lights for them for a day or two before.


I tried to catch this as the Red light turned green.


This seemed like a black and white shot to me


You can see how grey it was the day I was at the Alamo. The plants kind of 'pop' though...

Wicked R Ranch Speed Racing Photos

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The Wicked R Ranch did a Speed Show thing today. Mary's friend Cindy told me about it, so, I took some pics of Cindy's niece (and the other riders) . Horses and people, you can't beat em for exciting, dynamic pics. These are some of the best of ~ 5 gigs worth of pics. Yes, that's a lot of pics!

Holiday Doors

The decorations are coming down all over the place. One of my friends wanted me to take some pics of their house with Christmas Lights. I thought the doorway would make the best photograph. When I got home from their place, I did my own!

Impressions From Our Nation's Capitol, Part Vier, or, One of my best images, Ever (updated)

I decided to give this one it's own post... The memorial always gets to me. This photograph reminds me of some prints I've seen. (Note: I just uploaded a little bit better version of the same picture. The black looks black instead of grey...)

Impressions From Our Nation's Capitol, Part Drei

War Memorials:

Vietnam:
This memorial never fails to hit me hard. Most of the guys on that wall were probably within 10- 15 years of my age...



Nurses are never shown enough respect in the media... Just ask Mary. This statue certainly does. Look at the compassion in her face, and the strength she must have had to help this horribly injured soldier.


These guys look like they could come to life and walk away.

Korean War Memorial:
This memorial was not one of my favorites the first time I went. It's growing on me though.

Impressions from our Nations Capitol, Part Zwei

Flags... I've been waiting for the chance to get a 'sun shining through a rippling flag' shot for a while. I hit the jackpot today in Washington DC. The flags are all near the Washington Monument. I suppose they might be better if the flags were blowing to the right... another time...

Impressions from our Nations Capitol, Part Eins

I did a quick jaunt to Washington D.C. today and a whirlwind tour with my sister and some friends of her's from Germany. Here are some of the shots I got....

From the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial:







Sunset On the Mall:




A mystery to me:

I'm pretty sure this is a Cherry Blossom. What it's doing blooming this time of year is a mystery to me...