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Why’d You Take a Picture of That?

Every now and then Quite frequently, Hubby will come across a picture I have taken and say, “Why’d you take a picture of that?”

He’s an engineer. Things I do rarely make sense to him.

He has a screen saver that cycles through all of the pictures on our network. So I hear questions often…

  • “Who are these people?”
  • “What dog is that?”
  • “Do you really need to keep ten different versions of the same picture?”

I can’t explain what motivates me, really. Because it’s different things. Sometimes it’s color, like with this ham and cabbage casserole I was cooking one night.

Ham and Cabbage Casserole

Once the cabbage cooks for awhile, it loses most of the green coloring. But for a while there, it was a striking casserole.

Dramatic sky colors really catch my eye. Not just the sunrise and sunset shots, either. I also think the sky looks interesting before and after storms.

After the Storm

Don’t get me wrong, I like sunsets, too. A lot. Not just seeing the sun dip below the horizon, but watching as the sky turns a lot of different colors over a very brief period of time.

Most of you have seen the following picture, but I am not sure if I ever shared the story behind it. I was actually standing on the sidewalk in front of our house taking pictures of the sky one afternoon. When I turned around, I saw the girls sitting there looking all cute with this awesome reflection of the sunset visible on the glass.

Go Ahead, Knock. I Triple Dog Dare You.

That will always be one of my absolute favorite doggie pics.

Speaking of dogs, they catch my eye a lot, too. Not because of their coloring, but just because they make me smile. The faces Belle makes, as captured in many of my images, really tickle me. It’s doubly impressive when I get an action shot AND a goofy face at the same time.

Obsessed with Speed

Each of our dogs has different little quirks that are unique to the individual. One of K’s quirks is the way she sits on the steps. Her butt and back feet are usually on one step and her front feet are on a lower step. When Belle and Meg are ready to come in from outside, Belle looks in through the door and Meg looks for a bit, but also scratches. K just sits on the step with her back to the door. The image you see below is a common sight.

Ready to Come Inside

Speaking of Meg, I just love her face. She has one of the most expressive doggy faces ever.

Meg in My Face

I took this close-up one evening when she was sitting on my lap.

I do admit, though, that Meg’s unique coloring has inspired quite a few photos.

There’s that color thing again. I just like colors.

Blue Moon with Craquelure Effect

Colors are fun to look at AND colorful pics make for some great experiments with photo processing software.

Soon, nature will be a riot of color. I can’t wait.

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Wedding Tackle

Every now and then, I come across a word or phrase being used as a euphemism in a new and unique way. Since I’m a word nerd, I get all excited and have this compulsive urge to share said discovery with my faithful blog fans. That urge becomes especially strong when that phrase/term appears in a passive aggressive note written by a guy named Fat Tony. If you haven’t guessed already, today’s phrase is wedding tackle.

If you haven’t poked through passiveaggressivenotes.com before, you’re missing out on fun stuff like:

  1. Encouragement for carnivores
  2. Diatribe of an angry apartment complex manager
  3. Rules for proper cubicle etiquette

The list goes on and on. Just keep in mind that some of the communiques are a bit racier than others.

On a completely unrelated note…

Hubby has been taking pictures lately, something he only does when he has good reason. Or when I ask him to, which I guess would also qualify as a good reason.

Anyway… I thought I’d share a couple of his shots so his efforts don’t go unnoticed.

Belle's Spot

Belle is a morning girl in more ways than one. Mornings are her favorite time to sit with me. Whether at the MD or WV home, she likes to be with Mama in the mornings. Hubby couldn’t resist this shot of Belle looking all cute (and me not so much) very EARLY the other morning. It was probably around 7:00 a.m., which is why I look so sleepy.

Enough is Enough

Hubby took this shot to show that K and Belle had been outside so long yesterday, K had planted herself in a sunny spot in front of the wall. It shows more than just that, however.

You can see Belle standing on the hill. When she’s been outside long enough, she stands in that spot, or close to it, and stares into the kitchen. That’s her way of saying, “I am ready to come inside!”

You can also see the little yellow ball. None of our girls really LOVE playing with balls, but they’ll pick it up occasionally. Sometimes they will chase it, too. But they never bring it back. They usually just drop it at some random spot in the yard for ME to go retrieve. They call that game, “Mama Plays Fetch.”

Finally, you can see that the snow is almost gone from our yard. Above and to the right of K is what remains of Bumnabul.

I am still holding out hope that we get more snow. It’s not looking good, though. Spring is just under three weeks away. Although it has snowed here as late as April before, I’m not overly optimistic.

"Mama, can we go outside now?"

I have to end this post now. Belle, who is in her customary spot on my lap, is giving me the look you see in the picture above, which basically says, “Are you done yet? Can you take us outside? Please?”

She looks so darn cute when she gives me that look, how can I refuse?

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Mystery Mountain

All that talk of travel yesterday got me thinking of mountains. Why mountains? Because I love mountains. Especially snowy ones like these.

Denali National Park (not Denali Mountain)
In the Denali Vicinity
Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park (note the people in the bottom left-hand corner)

The three images above were taken in Alaska. There are lots of snowy mountains there.

Mystery Mountain - Can You Guess Where This Is?

The “Mystery Mountain” is not in Alaska. And we did not actually fly there. I just thought it would be fun to pretend we flew there so I superimposed a shot of Hubby and I with an airplane onto the mountain shot.

Take a look without Hubby the airplane and me.

Mystery Mountain Without Props

Does that help make it look more familiar? No? Maybe a wider view will help…

Mt. Arundel

It’s Mt. Arundel! At about 20 feet (just over 6 meters) tall, it’s one of the taller peaks in the Arundel Mills Range. That particular mountain range is scattered throughout the parking lot of Arundel Mills Mall.

Yep, it’s a man-made snow mountain. It’s been almost 3 weeks since the last blizzard. The snow has been melting pretty quickly. But these giant snow piles will probably be around for a long time. They’re basically harmless in a mall parking lot.

Snow piles in the city are another story. Apparently, the trash collectors in Baltimore City are really having problems with them. You’ll have to watch this video to see for yourself.

Did I have you going with my mystery “mountain” pic?

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The Calm Before the Storm

So, I was sitting here thinking to myself, “what can I possibly blog about today?” when an e-mail arrived from my new friend, Julia. She saved the day! Because I was about to say something boring like, “It hasn’t started snowing YET. But it will. Predictions vary, but we could get a couple of FEET.”

The e-mail contained a bunch of doggie pics, which I decided my faithful fans deserved to see. I call this collection of images Weird Shit People Do To and With Their Dogs. Thanks, Julia!

These images got me thinking about what other weird dog pictures might be out there.

So I googled “weird doc pics”. These are just some of the gems I uncovered…

Sorry, but that’s all I have time for.

And, by the way, it hasn’t started snowing YET. But it will. Predictions vary, but we could get a couple of FEET.

UPDATE

I was reminded that I forgot to add my girlfriend Tracey’s baby girl, Snowy Day, the toy fox terrier who was less than thrilled to be dressed as a pumpkin and then in a Santa suit. Truth be told, I think it was the gold lame booties that pushed her over the edge. She was SO not happy that she refused to move. So when Tracey stood her on the floor, she just fell right over!

Unhappy Halloweenie
Unhappy Snowy Santa
Really Unhappy Snowy Santa

I would have loved to get a picture of Snowy laying frozen on her back, with all four bootie-clad feet sticking straight up in the air, but we were laughing way too hard. You just had to see her face. She was pissed. It was priceless.

If you’d like to see a slideshow I made for Tracey a few years back, click the link below:

Snowy Day’s Tour of America

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A Little Humor Won’t Hurt

Hypnotism at the Senior Center
(submitted via e-mail by my brother, Tom Reichard)

It was entertainment night at the Senior Center.

Claude the hypnotist exclaimed: “I’m here to put you all into a trance. I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience.”

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. The polished metal gleamed in the light.

Claude the hypnotist said: “I want you each to keep your eyes on this antique watch. It’s a very special watch. It’s been in my family for six generations.”

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, “‘Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch.”

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light shimmering off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist’s fingers and fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces.

“SHIT!” said the hypnotist.

It took three days to clean up the Senior Center…

My Very Expressive, All-Boy Grandson
(plus ToadMama having a wee bit of fun with Photoshop)

Dear Reader:

You won’t fully appreciate the small details that totally make this picture unless you click on the image and check out the larger size. So, please. Humor me. Put down that darn Crackberry/iPhone, whatever and look at the full-size view.

Fondly,
ToadMama

Did you look at the larger version? Well, did you?
Why not?
(The faces this boy makes crack me up!)

K Finally Expelled Her Tapeworm
(submitted by Jenn Myers, K’s awesome foster Mom)

She really did. The above photo is a reenactment, staged by K’s foster Mom who just may have a sense of humor weirder than me. Maybe. If not, she’s pretty darn close!

Where Mom Jeans Really Come From
(submitted by Shannon, my oldest, globetrotting daughter)

Shannon found this Mom-cotton store in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. That’s gotta be what they use to make Mom jeans, right? Mystery solved! Thanks, Shan.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…
(found by little ole me while shopping for dog bones)

Amazon.com definitely has its pluses and its minuses, but I still shop there often because they have lots of stuff and you can usually find pretty good prices. For the life of me, I don’t know why local brick-and-mortar retailers either don’t sell compressed rawhide rolls or do sell them for exhorbitant prices. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

I found the rawhide rolls on Amazon at a good price. And I got a little giggle out of the deal. Check out the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” recommendation.

You’d think more than one person would have to buy this item for it to qualify as a recommendation, right? Could it just be a weird coincidence that multiple customers bought professional noise canceling earmuffs with the bones?

I confess, I didn’t so much giggle as just scratch my head and wonder what’s up with that?

Wacky Web Sites You Might Enjoy
(most of these were found by Hubby)

Is your partner one of those not-so-handy men? If yes, you should be able to relate to this one. If no, go look anyway, just for some giggles.

Do you always feel like somebody is watching you? Apparently, lots of other people do, too. They see Faces in Some of the Weirdest Places. You may never look at things around you in quite the same way.

Need a cartoon for your Blog? There are some cool–FREE–ones to use at www.BZToons.com. Like this one, which made me think of K’s foster Mom…


Here’s one that describes yesterday’s weather…


Speaking of crappy… you have reached the end of today’s post.

That’s a weak closing, I know. Sorry. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.