Last Saturday my good friend Michelle and I decided that we kind of sucked at this whole “hanging out” and “seeing each other” concept and put a date in stone: Saturday the 26th of January. Yes, Saturday we WOULD hang out. No longer could both our general laziness be considered a valid reason for not seeing each other.

Michelle and I have known each other since sophomore year of high school. I’m not sure I’ve told the story of how we met but I think for awhile Michelle thought I was a legit stalker of some sort. I sat down beside her at an assembly (don’t you remember those? Weren’t they fun? Not) and just struck up a conversation since she seemed like a cool person. A few days later I saw her in the library and it literally took me a week to get up the courage to talk to her and be like “Hey, let’s be friends!”

And she hasn’t been able to get rid of me since.

Anyway, the last time we hung out we wandered around downtown Seattle and explored Pike Place Market. Due to both of our general laziness in checking stuff before doing it we ended up there way before the market was actually open (oops) and just walked around downtown taking random photographs (me) and talking. We had a blast and Michelle quickly remembered how much I liked walking aimlessly downtown for hours at a time.

I’m weird. This isn’t news.

So Saturday I swung by her house, picked her up, and we headed north for the day. In a typical northwest fashion it of course was raining but honestly? It made the adventure all the more sweet. I mean, sure, we could have done without the ATM freaking out and not wanting me to exit the screen; or her leaving her purse at Subway; but hey, it was all in good fun!

And here are some photos from our wonderful adventure (used with my old camera due to it being rainy and wet that day):

(more at the flickr set)

All in all: another great adventure had with an amazing friend!

Last week I finally ordered a new camera for myself so I can work on my photography. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my Panasonic camera (and I’ve only had it for a year) but I felt it was kind of limiting to expand with.

Plus, the lack of ability to really be able to control the focus really irked me.

After much consideration (and lusting) I settled with the Nikon D90. My Mom owns a D60 so I’d be able to steal borrow her lenses and, after talking with a few photography experts and my wants/needs with my camera, I felt this was an excellent spring board into the SLR world.

Last week Mack and I decided to drive up the mountains to go see SNOW! I write this in ALL CAPS because we’d lived in Arizona and Florida and frankly you don’t see much in the way of snow in those states (for some odd reason). Generally I loath cold weather and can be found wearing about twenty sweatshirts now that we’re back in the northwest. With January here and only one day in which it snowed (and didn’t stick) I decided I need to see snow and realize what a pain in the ass (in a wonderful way, of course) that snowy white powder is.

Plus, it gave me the perfect excuse to use my D90. Motives, I do have them sometimes.

So instead of offering my inane ramblings about the snow and cold and our nice car trip I’ll let a few of the pictures do the talking instead:

(you can see the rest at the flickr set)

Technorati Tags: washington state, washington, nature, outdoors, photography, photos, mountains, winter, cold, snow, outdoor photography, plants, trees, evergreens, rivers, waterfalls

Lopez Island, Washington.

When Mack and I went up to Lopez over Labor Day weekend we ran into this sign near my parents house and literally did a double take. I think what kills me is the cross-out of horse and just the majestic tail hair flowing in the wind.

Technorati Tags: unicorn, unicorns, street signs, altered street signs, sharpie markers, horse crossing, street sign

(poem by Emily Dickinson, photos by me)

A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer’s noon –
A depth — an Azure — a perfume –
Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see –

Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle — shimmering grace
Flutter too far for me –

The wizard fingers never rest –
The purple brook within the breast
Still chafes it narrow bed –

Still rears the East her amber Flag –
Guides still the sun along the Crag
His Caravan of Red –

So looking on — the night — the morn
Conclude the wonder gay –
And I meet, coming thro’ the dews
Another summer’s Day!

Yesterday, Mack and I made another epic trip down to Cape Canaveral to (finally) see the delayed launch of the Discovery to the International Space Station. In case you missed the news (which, if you don’t live in Florida and have no interest in happenings of NASA like a majority of the nation), it was originally supposed to launch on Wednesday of last week but that delayed. This delay was caused by a leak in the liquid nitrogen vent line between the shuttle and the external tank. Mack and I have seen plenty of videos of space shuttle and rocket launches GONE BAD and know that had they ignored that leak and just gone ahead, it would have been a nice big BOOM and we would discover why there is a three and a half mile radius of DO NOT ENTER zone around those shuttle launches.

But I digress.

The launch was scheduled for 7:43p.m. EDT and is about two hours away from where we live so naturally around 2PM I started harassing Mack that it was time to go like, TEN HOURS AGO. After taking my word to heart he burned an audio book of “Four Hour Work Week” for the drive down and off we went, around 3PM. Unfortunately for him and that audio book, I was in a very Irish mood due to the Irish Festival the day before so the two-hour trip was spent listening to Flogging Molly which, frankly, put me in a damn fine mood. I didn’t even mind when we took the Kennedy Space Center exit that the lights were out and it was a cluster-f**k every-whichway. Mack was on it though and was like “HOLD ON” as he got back in the freeway north and took the exit towards the Space View Park which, as it turns out, EVERYONE had thought of before us. Oh yeah, and their dogs too.

It wouldn’t have been as bad if the launch had:

1. been on Wednesday since people work on weekdays
2. a late (at night) launch.

But c’est la vie and do you see a parking spot? Did you see that woman and what she is wearing? As we inched through the area, with the teeming masses of humanity sitting and walking slowly on every square inch of that park, we looked at each other and decided it might be best to go sit in a dumpster instead. At least there we might be alone and have our space. Luckily, before we resorted to that, we went through a neighborhood and saw a sign inviting those who wanted to watch the space launch to view it (for free!) from their backyard. Cautious, we parked to check out what the deal was and oh my, straight shot view of the launch pad from across the water and much better then we’d be able to do at the park.

We were happy campers. So happy that we didn’t let the kids on my left (who’s parents gave them cinnamon rolls, energy drinks, potato chips and wondered why their kids were on a sugar rush) annoy us too much.

From the patio behind us, where the owners and their friends were watching the launch, they yelled out the countdown and all fifty pairs of eyes on their lawn looked across the water and witnessed NASA’s brilliance at work:

You can see the rest of them at my flickr set for the launch.

Obviously, the launch was amazing, awe inspiring, the whole nine yards. The part that SUCKED, though, was trying to leave the town. You can tell even that, even though there is a “Space Viewing Park”, this town does not believe in having a good infrastructure to handle the multitude of tourists who come in for launches. We left directly after the launch about 7:55PM and managed to get back the I-95 freeway about 11PM (we stopped for food for about 15 minutes at around 10:30PM since I was getting sick to my stomach). This, of course, meant we were home by 1AM which SUCKED. Worth it, but SUCKED.

Technorati Tags: space launches, discovery shuttle space launch, STS-119, cape canaveral, florida, launches, launch photography, NASA

On March 6th Mack and I took the journey down to Cape Canaveral to view the launch of the Kepler mission. This one was particularly cool due to what its purpose is:

“NASA space telescope designed to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Using a space photometer developed by NASA, it will observe the brightness of over 100,000 stars over 3.5 years to detect periodic transits of a star by its planets (the transit method of detecting planets)” [source: wikipedia]

Since we were new to the whole space launch viewing deal we pretty much arrived in Cocoa, FL and checked into our hotel room, ate, then tried to figure out where one went out viewing those new-fangled launches. First we ended up in a private neighborhood and, fearing getting shot, we moved on and headed onto Cape Canaveral to see if there were signs pointing VIEW LAUNCH HERE to help us out.

Only to end up at the security gates of the restricted area of Kennedy Space Center.

Honest mistake (you can tell since the security guard had those directions down SOLID) and after being pointed the right way we went around bumbling and mumbling and trying to find anywhere with a view. How did we figure out a place? Mack took a random turn and went down a bunch of random streets where, hurrah!, we found public parking and access to the beach. After marking the place in our phones so we’d be able to get back we ventured to Target so I could buy myself a tripod and we were SET.

And here are a few of the results:

I think the best part was the drunk older women behind us who made fun of me for having a tripod (“oh fancy pants with the tripod!”) and almost had heart attacks when the thing flew over us (“it’s going over us! IT IS GOING OVER US!!!”). You can vaguely hear them in the video I took (and hear me being thoroughly impressed).

You can view the rest at my launch flickr set for it (including Mack’s shots!) and also see the pictures of our trip to the Kennedy Space Center on the glorious day known as my birthday.

Tonight Tomorrow we are taking the trek down once again to Cape Canaveral to view the launch of Discovery. Wish me luck as I take more photographs to share.

Technorati Tags: cape canaveral, NASA launches, space launches, kepler mission, kepler launch, launch photography, kennedy space center, space, space exploration

January 1, 2007
Originally uploaded by annbee1985

… I post this gem. Yesterday was her birthday and now she is 24. I can’t exactly tease her about being another year older since two days after her birthday is mine (and whatever comments I make she will make back). I fully expect a text at some un-godly hour for texting her at 6AM wishing her a happy birthday but that is why you can turn off ringers.

Happy birthday girl. I’ll soon be joining you on the 24 side of things.