We'll miss you...

The day after Thanksgiving, we had to say goodbye to our dear buddy, Loki. Loki was our 13 year old chocolate lab mix that had been fighting with a cancerous tumor on his neck. Because of his age, his doctors didn't want to operate on him unless they absolutely had to. After some sudden complications in late October, he had to have emergency surgery to remove the tumor. He pulled through that surgery like no other and acted like a young dog again. He had a great month running and barking, then things took a turn for the worse, literally overnight again. This time there was nothing we could do. His cancer had come back eight-fold in a matter of weeks. He suddenly had eight cancerous tumors and it spread to his lymphatic system. We rushed him to the vet the day after Thanksgiving and had to make the hard decision of putting him down to end his suffering.

The staff and doctors at Fort Caroline Animal Clinic are fantastic. Our family has taken our dogs there probably since just after they opened their doors in the early 80's and I still drive mine all the way there even though we live almost an hour away. Dr. Lincoln primarily handled Loki's surgery and care and we are lucky to have had such a great vet for him. The rest of the staff is very understanding and compassionate as well, and they all seem to truly care about the wellbeing of your pets and your family.

After 4 days in Jacksonville, I checked my mailbox just yesterday, knowing that Dani probably neglected to pick up the mail the entire time I was gone. I was right, and we had something from the folks at the animal clinic waiting inside. They sent us a very nice and encouraging card, and an imprint of Loki's paw that they took after we had to let him go. (There are even little stray pieces of his hair still stuck in the plaster...) I went ahead and strung a ribbon through it so we could hang it on our Christmas tree this year, and somewhere else after Christmas is all said and done. We'll miss him this Christmas and every Christmas after, but his paw print and his old beat up collar now have a special place on our tree.

A Thankful Thanksgiving, Indeed

When you think Thanksgiving, you think of getting together with your entire family, sometimes with a dreaded few, eating a lot of turkey (or for me, mac n cheese and cranberry sauce!!), then going home and laying on the couch the rest of the night. And quite honestly, that's what I expected again this year.

I was driving to Jacksonville this afternoon and out of nowhere a little dog ran out into the road and began running down the middle between both sides of traffic, but right on the line next to my lane. Something happens in my brain in moments like these that I just can't explain. I go into savior/rescuer mode immediately and will do anything and everything to prevent disaster happening to a helpless animal. Uh yeah, forget me and my poor car and all the traffic, it's all about the dog at this point. This time, I stopped four lanes of mid-afternoon Jacksonville traffic all by myself and ran to this little dog to save him from turning into smushed dog guts. If I had not stopped my car behind him, I probably would not have been able to avoid hitting him. He was so scared that as I ran toward him whistling and calling, he turned to me and ran straight toward me as if to say "Save me!", and immediately flopped onto his back once he reached my feet. He was terrified. I scooped him up, waved a quick "thanks" to everyone that stopped, and hopped back into my car with him.

Now that I was sitting in the middle of busy road with a tiny shaking dog on my lap, I knew that I couldn't take him home with me because he'd be terrified of my big "bullies", but I knew the perfect place. I called my mom and told her to put her insane-o Boston terrier in his crate... I'm coming over with another dog. :)

I took him to Mom's and told her I thought he'd be the perfect companion for my grandmother. After all, he had no tags or collar so there was no way to find his owner, and to be quite honest, I didn't find him in the best of neighborhoods anyway. My grandmother is 82 and has some health problems but still lives in her own home. Since Grandpa passed over a decade ago, she just wasn't quite herself. We got her another dog shortly after Grandpa died, a chow named Bear. Bear was a good dog to her and they were great friends, but Bear fell to old age recently and she was now without a friend. Mom had looked for another dog for her but just hadn't found a good match yet since Grandma is feeble and can't handle a whole ton of responsibility because of her age and her mind.

Mom and I agreed to give it a try so we went to pick up some starter supplies like a collar and leash and some food. She had a spare crate that is too small for her Boston now, so we loaded everything up in her car, dog and all, and went to Grandma's.

Here's Mom on the back porch holding the dog, waiting for Grandma to answer the door.



Grandma opened the door and was literally so stunned she was speechless! First she saw Mom holding the dog and I think she was just happy to see an animal. Then she saw me and I think she realized something must be up! Mom explained to her that I'd found him this afternoon and we were going to let her give him a try and see how he works out for her. I think we really made her day!



She sat down with him on her lap and didn't want to let him go. After a few minutes of letting him sniff around and get aquainted with the surroundings, we ran to Kmart to pick up her medicine, and when we came back, she was on the couch and had him wrapped up in a little blanket on her lap! :)

So tomorrow's not going to be about turkey and cranberry sauce for me anymore. It's about being thankful that another little dog was saved and making my Grandma the happiest woman in the world for a day. I was holding back the tears when I saw how happy she was and how content the little boy seemed to be snuggled in her lap, and to know that I made those two that happy today is reason enough to be thankful for me!

Piglet's Bridal Portraits

Yes, I do realize that this makes me an eccentric pit bull lover/weirdo.

Whatever. I borrowed this dress for an upcoming TTD shoot for Breaking Tradition and brought it in from the car this morning. Piggy loves to be covered up, so she immediately tried to bury herself in it when I set it down. So, we made the most of it.

SACARC's Dog Days in the Park, this Saturday 9/20

I have the pleasure of volunteering for the second year in a row as Event Photographer for Springfield Animal Care and Rescue Club's third annual Dog Days in the Park event this Saturday! If you're a dog owner, or even just an "animal person" in general, you should come out to this event! Last year was a blast and I can't wait to document it again this year.

SACARC is the rescue organization through which my pit bull, Piglet, was rescued. I feel so grateful for such a great organization that is out on arguably some of the worst streets of Jacksonville, scooping up animals like Piglet that would otherwise literally die without some type of humane intervention.

The event is free and donations are accepted. All proceeds benefit SACARC and help with all of the expenses involved in foster care. There is no way I could have personally afforded Piglet's necessary medical care when I first took her in as a foster dog. Other animals need our help too! Come out and enjoy a day of fun with your pets, or if you don't have one, come check out Rescue Row! You never know, you might find your new best friend waiting for you!

Thursday, 9/11/08

You probably thought I was going to do a 9/11 post today. Well, I'm not going to be that person today... no offense to the patriotic folks in the audience, but I just didn't feel the need to drag it out today and think about what I was doing this time, this day, seven years ago like everybody else...

edit: If you're really interested, yeah, I was there and experienced the whole thing and was trapped in the area for about 18 hours. I have some of the last photos ever taken of the World Trade Center, from the evening of September 10, 2001. I don't have a scanner and they are packed away somewhere since I recently moved, or I would share those with everyone. Definitely a surreal experience.

So here are some random photos from last night. Jezzika and I got bored so we went down to the Conch House Marina, then to the beach to see what was going on. This is what we found!

On the way to the Conch House, we were driving down A1A and of course I notice every dog on the side of the road, dead or alive, but I think I have some sort of pit bull radar. I see them quite often. This little girl caught my eye as she was trotting down the sidewalk, stopping every 20 feet or so to look into people's backyards that backed up to the sidewalk, like she was trying to figure out how she's gotten out to the sidewalk and how she was going to get back in. I had to do two u-turns around the median to get back to her, but there was no way I was going to let her get hurt. We pulled up onto the sidewalk and she came right up to me. Lucky for all of us, she had tags! AND she was microchipped! I wanted to give her owner a big pat on the back for that one but I refrained.... anyway, we tied Jezzika's camera strap to Kona's collar so we could hang onto her and I sat down with her while Jezzika called her owner and told him we had his dog. He showed up quickly and picked her up, thanking us repeatedly for stopping! So there was our good deed for the day. :) Had she not had a collar or been microchipped, Dani would have had a big surprise in the backyard when he came home last night.... 0:)

Here is Jezzika holding Kona with her camera strap.



Dani's friend Billy and his family own a deep sea and sportfishing charter company called Endless Summer Charters, and they dock at the Conch House Marina. They are awesome folks and have some of the best secret numbers in Florida for a guaranteed great time fishing. Check them out and plan a deep sea fishing trip if you have never done one! They are booked pretty far out in advance from what Billy said last weekend, but they run year-round so you can go at any time.












When we got to the beach we were hoping to find some volleyball matches happening at the sand courts, but instead we found a live band playing at the beachside pavilion and tons of people everywhere in lawn chairs and sitting on the sand.



We stopped to take in the music for a bit. Personally, I always enjoy watching the tipsy couples who are most likely experiencing midlife crises elsewhere let loose and dance. Maybe that's why shooting wedding receptions are so fun. Drunk people dancing are universally entertaining.











Jezzika collects fortunes from her fortune cookies, and also loves Yogi organic teas. Each teabag from Yogi has a little fortune on the tab and she saves the good ones. This one particularly struck a chord with me after the conversations Jess and I had yesterday on the way to Marineland and back about future plans. :)



And last but not least, a flashlight graffiti experiment!



(Techie info: 10 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 160.)

Girls Day Out, 9/6/08

I spent yesterday out on the town with my mom and my brother's girlfriend, Abby. We played "tourist" and did some sightseeing and shopping in St. Augustine. We didn't have to go far and we still had a fun day and learned a lot more about St. Augustine's history, legends, and hole-in-the-wall shops.

We decided to take Ripley's Red Train Tours around town for the full tourist experience! It's a great way to see everything that you won't want to miss and there are plenty of opportunities to get off the train and spend time in different areas of town. The drivers are entertaining and it's also a great way to cool off and sit down if you've been walking in the heat all day.

We went in several shops that I didn't even knew existed. Here are some photos of my favorite things I found yesterday and some random funky things around town!

SO true around here!:



Unforutnately I can't remember the name of the store that we found the little signs in but they also had a huge selection of art and windchimes. The back area is natural garden with benches, trellises, and a few windchimes and suncatchers around. It's settled between old stone buildings. I liked it because it reminded me of my grandma's backyard where I grew up. Her backyard is literally never manicured and is still covered in Wandering Jew, soaring potato vines and grape vines, huge ancient shade trees everywhere, and lots of GREEN. Really reminds you of Old Florida. This garden was a treat to visit.



Here's Abby in what she calls her "tourist hat". :) I think this may have been on the backside of the Milltop.



Indians! I guess not many people would understand why I took this photo. When I was a kid we used to take yearly road trips up to North Carolina to visit my family over summer break. There was a gas station off an exit of I95 in a town in South Carolina called Santee. I can't remember the first year that we stopped at this gas station, but it must have been completely by chance and my brother and I haaaaad to stop there every summer thereafter. They had a huge junky souvenir shop, and wax Indians in the front window. For some reason we thought they were the coolest thing. I was on my way up to Pennsylvania about 3 years ago for the Carlisle All-Truck Nationals and insisted that my boyfriend at the time stop off this exit because I had to see if the the Indians were still there. Sadly, they weren't, and when I asked the lady behind the counter, who was the same big-haired Dolly Parton-esque lady I remembered from 15 years before, she said they'd been sold to someone a long, long time ago. She was shocked that I actually remembered them when I shared with her my little story about stopping off every summer to see the Indians.



Squatters. Bums. Homeless... whatever you want to call these people. Yes, I'm annoyed just like anyone else when one of these people asks for money but I always have had this secret wondering about how these people live their lives the way they do. Maybe that's another project down the road, but you do come across some interesting characters downtown sometimes. Generally these guys don't bother people much (the police keep tabs on them regularly) and I believe they are allowed to hang out downtown and play music or "entertain" for money, as long as they aren't doing it on the main walk, St. George Street. Sometimes they add a little something extra to their "show". I actually smile for some reason when I see one of these people with a dog. They've made a friend, and while they may not have much else, they always have that one true friend by their side. It always makes me wonder where the both of them came from and what they have been through. And why they do the things they do now.



And here is Charlie Brown. He enjoys entertaining you and your kids, apparently...



Abby was on a mission to find a replacement piece for a necklace she has, so we found a bead shop in one of the indoor stripmalls. It reminded me of a candy shop. So colorful!





We didn't go into Potter's Wax Museum but I managed to get this through the window. (Note to self: invest in polarizing filter!)



Mom loves these things. No, they aren't real people. Very realistic statuettes in a shop on King Street.





We did a quick walk past the Casa Monica Hotel and I slipped up into the valet area and snapped a pic of their car, and Abby on the stairs.





The Closet! OMG this place was a neat little hole in the wall with Tara's name written allllllll over. Lots of vintage, tons of reconstruction and DIY clothing, upcycled items turned into something else... loved it! (Glad I found this place, good ole' 5 Points is a bit of a drive for me now...)



Rows and rows of vintage shoes.... I wanted to whip out my acrylics and paintbrushes and start painting right there! (I custom paint shoes in case you haven't heard!)



Meet Elvis! He hangs out at Paradise Poochie, a doggie boutique on Cordova Street. Elvis loves to play fetch with a tennis ball! I can't wait to take the Pigster to meet him and visit the store. They have some really unique dog toys (lots of the indestructable variety, a necessity when you own a pit bull!), a huge variety of gourmet treats, and super friendly employees!



Now I have a tooooon of photos to go along with this shop. It was probably my favorite place we visited besides the Dr. Seuss Gallery where they do not allow photography! (But it's a DEFINITE must-see! Next door to this shop.) Plaza Verde is owned and operated by Europeans so everything in the place has a European touch, whether strong or faint. My husband, Dani, is Polish, and while he doesn't really enjoy frou frou things and shopping, I've got to drag him into this place because it will without a doubt ring a bell to him. They carry luxury bath products, imported home decor, European foods, and fine gifts. Sometimes I question myself as to why I didn't go into Visual Merchandising or something. I have this weird "oooooh.... ahhhhh" obsession with retail displays (another reason I loved The Closet so much). The whole structure of this space was awesome, from the literally soaring high ceiling, and long, open "hall" feeling to the vintage furnishings-turned-retail displays, and big use of hanging paper lanterns.







(Next craft night, I'm going to try to make these!!)





This is on my wish list this year. (*ahemmm. mom. stocking stuffer. !*) I loooove little coffee table books. Unfortunately my coffee table only holds a prized photography issue of Surfer Magazine currently, but I have a bookshelf in the living room with pretty much nothing but coffee table photography books. This one is all about kids getting into "innocent" trouble. Something I was all about back in the day.



I'd die to have this cabinet in a big bathroom or a kitchen! Loooove the black and white paint job.



Organic soaps, body lotions, and shampoos.





This line of candles are my new favorite thing for smellin' up the house. Voluspa Candles are handmade and come in over fifty different scents. You can get them in jars, tins, or even incense sticks. Oh excuse me, "luxe burning sticks". They are extremely fragrant in a sophisticated sort of way; no fresh ocean breeze christmas tree homemade cookies and mangopineapplepearblueberrygrapeapple smells here. I had the hardest time choosing just one to take home! I ended up with the Santiago Huckleberry 85-hour variety and so far, so very, very good....





The last stop on the train tour brought us to San Sebastian Winery. I've been a big fan of the Vintners Red for a few years, which I originally found in Publix, but it seems to be sold at most major grocery stores in northeast Florida now. (Even Wal-Mart has it.) The winery offers free tours that explain their own unique wine-making process, as well as a free wine tasting where you get to sample about twelve different wines. Allow a bit of time if you visit San Sebastian Winery. The tour is about 30-45 minutes long and you'll spend about 20 minutes at the wine tasting. They have a big store that carries all their wines plus accessories and very unique sauces, jams, jellies, and spices. They also have a rooftop wine and jazz bar, as well as banquet/reception facilities. (I'd love to shoot a wedding and/or reception here, so book it, people!) :)

The barrel room. You can actually get married in here or have your rehearsal dinner or reception in this space! They use these old whisky barrels to age one of their varieties of wine. At the tasting after the tour, we got to sample this one and it did have a very woody/nutty yet sweet taste.



They were prepping for a wedding reception on the rooftop while we were there so I snapped a pic of the setup. Love me some gold bamboo chairs! For some reason I'm convinced that anything that has been painted gold photographs beautifully.









Mom waiting on a refill. :) This is particularly amusing to me and me only, most likely. My mom doesn't drink but I think she had a good time at the wine tasting. We both have a new favorite: the Cream Sherry!







Abby enjoying the last drop.



Avenida Menendez is usually a traffic jam of tour trains, tourists trying to snap photos of the fort from their car windows or trying to back up into oncoming traffic, horse-drawn buggies, and pedestrians. I don't know how these horses put up with it sometimes, but they just keep trotting along with traffic. :)



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I missed the morning session at the pier yesterday due to my outing with the gals and didn't make it out there until right before dark. I'll have some shots up from today, late morning, shortly. Here's all I got last night.

Some long exposure fun:



And the moon.