Sunday, January 6, 2013

40 x 40 - 13. Complete Project 366 (Final Update)

Take a picture every day for an entire year.  It sounded pretty easy when we committed to Project 366.  Both Scott and I like to take pictures, and one or the both of us always has our camera with us.  Plus, with the capability of taking a decent photo with our phones, we had the opportunity o take a photo pretty much 24 hours a day.

So why were some days harder than others?  On more than one evening, the last words I muttered to Scott before we went to sleep were "did you remember to take a photo of something today?".  I am proud to say that we did take at least one photo every single day.  We ran into a slight problem when the SD card in my camera stopped working and we were not able to get about five days worth of photos off it.  We had backup photos for four of the days, but we did lose the photo for one day.  I know in my heart that we took a photo, so I had to get past that one and move forward.  We replaced that day's photo with one of the broken SD card.  After a few tense moments, I came to the conclusion that it was just part of the project.

Since the project is officially complete, I can cross it off my 40 x 40 list.  I can also catch you up with a few of my favorites from days 201-366. 

Day 212 - The day I stepped outside to find my cat but found this very large bug on my front porch!

Edited Day 212

Day 223 - The day we came home from a trip and found this really cool new yard ornament courtesy of our friends the Hoskins.

Edited Day 223

Day 227 - The day that Scott spent out on he Barry Point Fire.  

Edited Day 227

Day 261 - The day that Scott and Scotty went out hunting.

Edited Day 261

Day 274 - The day that we walked down to the river and Mack refused to come back home.  He would spend all day swimming if we let him.

274

Day 277 - The day that Kim and I went on the local farm tour.

277

Day 294 - That day that Scotty, Scott, and Nick went to the Boise State football game.

294

Day 303 - The day that Tonja and I went to the see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Ross Ragland Theater.

303

Day 308 - The Saturday morning I backed through the garage door and officially trapped myself at home for two days until Scott got home from Ski Patrol.

308

Day 315 - The day we (Scott) re-ran the cable under the house to set-up his man cave.

315

Day 319 - The day the chickens figured out how to turn on their white light inside their coop all by themselves.

319

Day 328 - The day Dawn and I went shopping at 3:00am to get the best of the Black Friday deals.

328

Day 330 - The day Daisy discovered what happens when….well, I think this one speaks for itself.

330

Day 337 - The day that the rain soaked through the newspaper and made a heart shaped watermark when I opened it.

337

Day 359 - The day that Georgia and I got the same scarf (from two different people) for Christmas.

359

Day 360 - The day we went ice skating for Christmas.

360

Day 363 - The day my husband asked me out on a lunch date, then drove me four hours to Denio, Nevada for a famous Denio Burger.

363

Day 366 - The final day of the project!

366

Both Scott and I agreed that it felt strange not taking a photo on day 367.  Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do with all these pictures.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

40 x 40 - 32. Go to a Concert

Whew - Did we make it through the holidays?  

It's amazing how fast time goes.  How you think that you are going to work all year at getting organized so that when the holidays roll around, you won't be overwhelmed.  How you tell yourself that no matter what, you are going to enjoy every day.  Then reality hits, Thanksgiving is here, and then every day leading up to Christmas has something scheduled.  And then you wake up one day and it's the first day of a new year. 

This morning when I woke up I had this feeling that I could sit on the couch all day and catch up and not feel the least bit guilty.  Of course, I woke up this morning with my "to do" list in my mind.  Today's list included putting dinner in the crockpot, finishing my book, finishing my Project 366 photo edits, posting my elliptical exerciser machine on the local online yard sale page, watching the Rose Bowl game, and catching up on my blogging.

I have so much to share with you.  Like I said, we have been busy.  I am going to focus the next few blog posts on catching you up on my 40 x 40 list.  In all the madness and craziness of our life recently, I have managed to cross a few things off my list.  Let's start with this one.

I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.  I can remember when I got the Born in the USA cassette tape.  (Yes, I said cassette tape!)  Released in June of 1984, I would have been 11.  I remember staying with my grandma and I had a boom box in my bedroom there.  I spent so much time in that room listening to the tape.  After song 6, "I'm on Fire", I would have to manually flip the tape over to play side two.  Awww, those were the days.  This was also back in the days when Mtv actually played music videos.  Who doesn't remember Bruce pointing down to a young Courtney Cox in the front row of his concert and pulling her up on stage to dance with him during "Dancing in the Dark".  This would be the extent of my exposure to Bruce for a while.

Flash forward to over 20 years later.  In 2008, I bought a car that had satellite radio.  I discovered E Street Radio, and rediscovered my love of Bruce.  I love a song that tells a story, and that is what Bruce's music is about.

While doing some research for a fundraiser at work, I found out that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were coming to Portland.  My heart stopped for a brief moment.  I knew that I had limited time to make a decision about getting tickets.  It would require taking a couple of days off work and making an extra trip to Portland right after Thanksgiving.  I got home that night and discussed it with Scott.  He wasn't as excited as I was, but he was interested.  I logged on to look at the tickets.  In the few hours since I had looked at work, the availability of tickets decreased dramatically.  I didn't have any more time to think about it.  I impulsively purchased two tickets.  Almost two months would go by before the actual concert.

It was a cold night in Portland (notice the red nose), but the rain held off long enough for us to make it back to Albany after the concert.

Image 1

We got to the Rose Garden early to ensure a spot in the parking garage.  This also gave us time to eat dinner at the Pyramid Brewery at the Rose Garden.

Image 2

We found our seats early.  I was not going to miss a thing!  Yes, we were the first people seated in our section.

Image 3

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band came out intending to put on a great show.  They did not disappoint!!!  I won't even begin to summarize the concert.  I will leave that up to Steve Hannah, official blogger for the tour: http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2012/notes-from-the-road-portland-or 

Image 4

Bruce and the band played for over three hours.  We could have easily stayed for another three.  We had so much fun!  I think I just might have converted Scott to being a Springsteen fan.