She’s famous! (sort of) (updated)

DSC_8279

CK (lead singer in my (secular) band) has a dog who gave birth to a litter of puppies.

I took photos of them on Saturday in order to show my family the adorable puppies who want to have a home with us. “Us” is sort of like the royal “we,” in this case, my parents will be the ones who are most likely to get (a) dog(s).

Anyway, I noticed that my photostream and photos, especially the one of Missy up there at the top, had gotten a lot of hits yesterday and that my stats showed a lot of it was coming from tumblr. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of in the “WTF is tumblr?” boat.

I am still not entirely sure, but the photo of Missy was posted on Brandon’s site and as of this morning about 1600 people had “reblogged” it onto theirs. Hence the “she’s famous” title of this post.

Update: As of Tuesday at noon, the photo of Missy on Brandon’s Tumblr site has 4,394 notes!
That’s a lot of people looking at her photo.
I guess everyone loves puppies.

Another update: As of Saturday morning, the photo of Missy on Brandon’s Tumblr site has 10,094 notes! I haven’t even looked at any other Tumblr sites to see how many notes it has on any others.
Again, I think this just shows how a love of puppies is universal.
There have been 349 views of that photo (or of the adjusted version) on my Flickr site!

She IS adorable, isn’t she???

This one is my personal favorite:
DSC_8293

If you want to oooo and awww over the cuteness, feel free to check out the set.



Rabbit hopping competitions – too funny.

DSC_2509
That is a photo I took last year of Max for my Christmas cards last year.

I’m going to be busy today and next week writing, giving, and grading finals (and calculating final grades), so I wanted something “Christmas-sy” at the top of my blog now.

I ran into a funny story on MSNBC when I was looking at the Animal Tracks on MSNBC. It was about a hopping competition for rabbits in Switzerland.

The photos were just too cute for words!

rabbit_hopping_competition

My rabbit, Max, is REALLY good at jumping high, and the high jump IS one of the competitions evidently, but somehow I don’t see him doing it on demand. He has to have a goal in mind. Like jumping high in order to grab some papers to chew on. Or jumping high in order to get on the couch and eat cheerios.

rabbit_highjump

I just can’t see him jumping over a hurdle.

He also doesn’t have the focus for something this chaotic, I think!

rabbit_hopping_longCourse

Here is how the online story started, which made me laugh:

“Europe’s first-ever rabbit-hopping championship, also called Kaninhop, were held on Oct. 30, in Wollerau, Switzerland.”

“And by the looks of it, people are pretty serious about this latest trend to hit Central Europe.”

rabbit_hopping_SeriousBusiness

Isn’t that hilarious?! I still laugh at it.

very.
serious.
business.
Don’t you know?

Read the story here to see the rest. The bunnies are cute!



Happy Easter!

DSC_3669

DSC_3670

DSC_3395_resized8x10

DSC_3370_resized8x10

DSC_3378_resized8x10

DSC_3386_resized8x10



Winning photo

DSC_2353

I know I haven’t blogged in forever, and the dearth of information is going to continue a bit longer.
But this one only needs a couple of sentences, so I thought I’d post it.

I entered this photo in a Biology Photo contest at school in the “plants/fungi” category. The photo had to have been taken this semester, which meant that I pretty much had to intentionally look for something to photograph. I happened upon this vase by pure accident.

DSC_2351

I was at Mom and Dad’s new house, and after coming back from attempting to take a photo of the deer in the neighborhood (which didn’t really work), I spotted the vase as I was walking up the driveway! I ended up spending a while taking photos of it, and they looked better than anything else I’d taken, so I entered it, and I won the category! I was particularly excited, because while I didn’t get to see the other faculty entries, I know that one of the other profs takes beautiful flower photos.

They are getting matted and hung in one of our buildings, which is rather cool.

BTW: here is the only deer photo I got.

DSC_2344

Obviously, not one that would work for a contest. But rather funny all the same. ;-)



Animal Tracks on MSNBC.MSN.com reminds me of my family

One of my favorite parts of MSNBC MSN online news is their category called “Animal Tracks.”

I don’t go to the MSNBC site everyday, so I often miss it, because they only have it every few weeks or so. But the good thing is that once you are on it, if you keep clicking previous, it will keep taking you back to older ones.

I was looking at it today, and some of the photos were reminding me of my family.

My older niece, M, usually bonks some part of her body at least once a day – I think she may average around 3 a day right now.

Texas Seestor is usually the one who consequently holds her and kisses it to make it better. So this photo reminded me of them.

kiss it and make it better

Please don’t think that the appearance of either of them remotely resembles the orangutans!

Then I saw these photos, which reminds me of my younger niece (YN) when she is eating her mushy foods by spoon in her highchair.

baby birds

pelicans feed me

Thank goodness there is just one of her! Can you imagine feeding triplets? or more?

This next one reminds me of playing blocks, playdough, or cartons with M. She just loves to make towers.

tower of pandas

And this final one reminds me of my parents’ new home in TX.

deer at golf course

There are a LOT of deer in their neighborhood. And when I say a LOT, I mean that the house right next to them had 3 deer in it the other week eating the grass. And one of the homes down the road had a whole herd of about 10! TEN deer!

crazy.

And since they live on a golf course, I wonder how many times the golfers end up seeing deer run across the course?

And did you notice those pants on that golfer???

too funny!



Fall Festival 2009

In my attempt to write short little updates, here goes a bit about yesterday.

Performing was a lot of fun. The crowd was small, but appreciative. The event was organized by a different church that invited us to perform and raised money for the local food shelf.

My solos went pretty well. There was one note that wasn’t ideal, but HB didn’t notice, so maybe no one else did either!

I played the tambourine some while I sang, which was also fun.

Some of us hung around to watch the other groups. The second group was another praise band from a church in the twin cities. It was interesting to hear their versions of some of the same songs that we sometimes sing (ones that we didn’t do that day).

I also loved the petting zoo. My camera battery ran out of power before I got any photos of the bunnies, unfortunately. One bunny let me pet him/her for quite a while. :-)

DSC_0439

DSC_0437

DSC_0430

DSC_0432



Flowers for a fuzzy friend – tulips to remember the Girlie

I set these flowers up in one of the Girlie’s favorite spots. This happens to be my usual spot for taking flower photos, but also happens to be one of her favorite places.

DSC_9203

DSC_9207

It was a little later in the day than she really liked, but the light was good for photos. So, it was a compromise.

DSC_9208

DSC_9206



Fuzzy Friend Friday – warm

The Girlie-girl was intently staring at the fireplace hearth last night after I had turned it on and it had warmed up. I decided to put her blanket on the hearth, since that is likely what she wanted.  It took 30 sec (or less) for her to sniff it and decide it was a good place to be.

She was so adorable, all tucked in, that I took a few non-flash shots of her with my tripod.

DSC_9186

DSC_9185

Doesn’t it make you feel warm and cozy?



Flowers for Friday & Fuzzy Friend Friday – orchids

DSC_7871

As per my usual photo-taking when I don’t use my lightbox, I set the flowers on the floor to get a wide shot.

And guess who came over to investigate?

DSC_7869

Yes, the Girlie-girl had to get right in the center of things.

DSC_7870

DSC_7868

I actually had to herd her away to get that first shot, because she kept wanting to lie down in the sun. This made her tail, or some part of her, in the photo.

Finally, I shoo-ed her away and got a shot. But just one, because she was quickly back.

Close-ups will be here when I take the ones with my 70-210 mm lens with the Kenko extension tubes.

But here is a hint of some photos taken in the late afternoon sun with the lens that came with my camera.

DSC_7857

DSC_7856rotated



Fuzzy Friend Friday – Under the tree

DSC_7117_adjusted

The Girlie-girl just loves the tree skirt. The funny thing was that she was nowhere near the tree when I was decorating it. Then about 1 minute after I got the tree skirt down – bam! – she laid down on it. At first, she had this hunched look like she was sure I was going to scold her about it. But once she realized I didn’t care, she relaxed and got into her favorite sleeping pose with her front feet all tucked in. And then, of course, I got the camera and the nap that she had planned had to be post-poned. Hence the grumpy look, I’m sure. ;-)

I hope each of you finds somewhere to snuggle up and be cozy this Christmas season. Maybe on the couch with a fuzzy blanket. Oh, well, that is my favorite place, at least. Isn’t it everyone’s? ;-)

I hope to take some poinsettia pics to post on Christmas Eve, so if you are around, see you then! If not, Merry Christmas!