First off .. I took a job in South FL with Liz’s company. Which means .. I’m relocating to South FL. I made the decision at the end of last month that we wouldn’t renew the lease on our condo tenant so I’ll have a place to stay down there in June. Starting this week though I’m going to be working Mon – Wed in the office there, which gives me a long weekend with Sean back here. The plan for now it to keep both places (as long as we can) .. the condo is really too small for both of us when he’s working from home (no yard for the dogs). So its sort of a compromise. I’m hoping that me living back at the condo will help us with the possible refinancing at the end of the year .. but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. But I’m looking forward to this new experience.

So there’s no sign of things slowing down for me. As crazy as March and April were, the summer looks like it might be just as interesting. May seems to be a slow month in comparison, but I’ll be driving back and forth weekly to SoFL .. so that will def. be keeping me busy. June I have 2 trips scheduled, plus Hive and the move. I’m pretty sure I’ll be sleeping on an air mattress for a few weeks because I’m dreading the actual move.

The week in MA was good, its always good to be with family during tough times. Unfortunately I had some allergic reaction to flowers or something in Nana’s house which turned into a sinus infection by the time we went to Philadelphia. Liz and I had a business trip planned in Philly so we flew from Boston to Philly last week (incase I didn’t  mention that). In Philadelphia we put on a big show at the Hard Rock and the crowd was a bit thin in the beginning, but that meant that I got some awesome photo opportunities.

I’ll try to post more as soon as I get through editing .. wish me luck!

I did follow through with my last post and spoiled my dogs Thursday, a walk, a trip to PetSmart and on Friday we actually made it to the dog park. They ran around like crazy for a half hour and then they said they were cold and wanted to go home If I could actually make / find a coat that fit them we probably wouldn’t have a problem. But as you can see:

They out grew the coats I made them last year .. they’ve only gained like 1lb .. but I guess it was enough. Daisy still fits in hers, it was always too big .. but big pup can’t get his head through his cape. So this winter Old Navy had a clearance on their dog coats/sweaters when I stopped in one day so I picked up a sweater and a jacket for each of them. Got them home .. ripped off the tags on the sweaters and they were too small. Really they’re skin tight, and probably too short for a long wiener dog. So I returned the jackets for a larger size, but they didn’t have the same style .. so I picked up a different style and they’re just ginormous. Thursday was in the 40′s and I actually wanted to walk with the dogs .. so I pinned the big jackets up a bit .. and well .. it didn’t work. I need to sit down and actually alter the jacket (which i think is actually supposed to be a vest). Of course when I finally do it, it will be summer time

Daisy says “I don’t need no stinkin’ coat” 

Other things that happened this week? I subbed a couple days, took Friday off. I decided if a decent high school class popped up I’d take it .. but only one showed up and it was for english, not one of my strong points .. so I let somebody else have it. I spent Friday developing a business that I’ve been talking about for awhile .. in fact I bought the domain last year. It’s going to be a cool / urban dog boutique .. not froofy.. I have a biz plan in my head that involves starting it online in phases, and maybe eventually it would be a brick and mortar biz. But in this economy that step is years away. The first step is just getting the site up, it requires no inventory .. so the upfront costs are really minimal. The trick is getting customers to the site .. and if I can make that happen, well then it would just grow bigger. So we’ll see  

Saturday I went to Annabelle’s birthday and took lots of pictures, but I gave them to Keri so I have no idea if there are any good ones. I was experimenting with my new gadget that will hopefully help with white balance, which I just hate dealing with (those of you with SLRs know my pain). I picked up [this lens cap] from photo jojo and in the camera it really seemed to make a difference. I downloaded a couple experiments from inside my house and they didn’t seem as neutral as they were inside the camera. So I’m wondering if my monitor color is really off (its been a good month since I calibrated). I’ll let you know if the lens cap is worth it when I play with it a little more.

I made a few South Beach recipes this week, and fully intended to photograph and share my reviews .. but I just haven’t been motivated to do it. I would much rather post pictures of my dogs Also, Saturday I got my official letter of eligibility to teach computer science in Florida. So .. if a job pops up I could take it without any problems. Of course nobody has open teacher positions right now …

And I think thats all I have to report today .. I need to jump into the shower and pack a bag. I’m heading south for the night to photograph little Tori tomorrow morning!

I have a few updates to my 101 list, last night I started crocheting .. my mom taught me when I was a kid, and really this book just brought it back. I don’t think I knew the names of the stitches before, but now I do And I’m going to tackle that scarf soon! Also today after photographing the Konickis I stopped at the local library and signed up for my library card. I didn’t check anything out though because the one book that I wanted to get in the past was out. It was a book on square foot gardening, but I’ve decided to wait another year before starting any real beds. Also, this wasn’t on my 101 list but on my new year resolution post, I came home from the store today and actually chopped up my celery and put it in a bag and put my cilantro in a cup of water on my counter so both will be ready to use when I need them! 

I don’t have any sub jobs lined up this week, I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up one or two as the week goes on, but I’m not in a rush to get back in a classroom after last week. So I figured this would be a good week to start a strict 2 weeks of South Beach. Tonight I’m enjoying some girl scout cookies, the thin mints will be fine in the freezer for a few months, but I know the tagalongs wont. Oh well. 

Well I just watched a full commercial, the sobe lizard 3d commercial, I wonder if it was any good in 3D. 

Oh! I didn’t realize the pictures from last weekend were up on Liz’s kodak gallery – [Lion Country Safari] and [Trying On Dresses]

The rest of this week I subbed. For 3 days I was in an ESE art class. The description on the job said ESE Language Arts, but it was just regular art. I really don’t like subbing for art classes, usually there’s not enough structure to enforce any sort of rules. Those of you who know about my ‘incident’ last year, that happened in an art class. Art class is supposed to be fun, you’re supposed to be able to talk to your friends and interact and bounce ideas off each other .. but with a sub, that escalates into shear madness in seconds flat in even the best of schools. Now .. add in the ESE (or exception ed) factor .. which is actually more like drop out prevention in this school, and its just pure chaos. You know you have a bad class when the CUSTODIAN is warning your sub about your class. The librarian said that all those students should be in jail, they’re all criminals. Little did I know she wasn’t kidding. 

I actually think I managed the classes fairly well, there were no fights, some kids (actually the majority) did work, and usually I had things under control. Day 1 I only had 2 classes that I struggled with (out of 6), day 2 I only had 1 class with issues and by day 3 it was smooth sailing (of course I bribed them with candy the last day). I talked to alot of the kids trying to figure out why they were in this class and what their problems were. Most of them were over 15 years old (this was 7th & 8th grades), there was a 16 year old with a 5 month old, another girl who told me she had been held back 3 times in her life, pre-first, her mom died when she was in 3rd grade and then they tried to skip 4th grade but she was too far behind. Next week she’s moving to the ‘bad’ school for fighting and what not. The worst was a 17 year old who’s been at that school for 5 years (its a 2 year school), who kept telling me he’d rather be in jail then to draw in art class (he then did the assignment for me, but wouldn’t put his name on it) .. I ended up talking to the real teacher this morning who informed me that he’s been in jail a few times and is in this school as some sort of probation deal. So .. some of her kids really did belong in jail. I told her how I made it through the week and she actually gave me a hug she was so proud of me I can’t imagine teaching those classes for an entire year

Today I happened to have another ESE class, but they had a test scheduled so it was actually easy, and boring. But the way my day started out was kind of interesting. Earlier in the week I took a walk with who I thought was the substitute coordinator for the school. He got me some paper for my class and listened as I told him about my background (some subbing, programmer for a few years .. just sent in my paperwork for my temp. cert .. etc) I was just rattling on, making conversation. Turns out he wasn’t just a sub coordinator, but a dean, an administrator and basically the jack of all trades in the school. When I checked in today, I had a strange classroom on my schedule that turned out to be a tech lab. I hung out there, nosing around in projects and looking at trophies. They had lego robotic setups, strange little cars built out of all kinds of material .. half the class looked like a shop class, the other have a regular classroom. Anyways, he ended up coming to the room and when I told him I couldn’t find any sub plans, he said that I was there as a ‘meet and greet’ he actually scheduled me to meet with another teacher who teaches what I’d be certified to teach .. so of course I jumped to conclusions and twittered away thinking it was a job possibility Once I got to talking to the other teacher she just wanted to pick my brain. She has a competition coming up where the challenge is to build a website, but neither she, or her students know HTML .. so they’re learning together. I listened to her project and gave her some tips .. I hung out for 2 classes. So it looks like I might come in and help her students after school learn some of the basics of building a website for this competition. Which is still pretty cool in my book She also has a digital photography competition in the future .. she was seriously excited that we were introduced .. and to be honest I am too I think it could be alot of fun to help teach kids about things I really know, even if its volunteering.

But the real bottom line is that there is an administrator who knows my skills and background, recognized that their school needed that help, and put me in touch with that teacher who was ridiculously happy to meet somebody like me. It just makes me feel like that school really likes me and wants to keep me around And eventhough the classes I taught this week were not just mentally draining, but physically too (literally on my toes all day long) .. it was a really good week. Now I’m going to bundle up for Jason’s bonfire. I should have pics this weekend

She kinda freaked me out when she ordered strawberry ice cream with m&ms. I’m not a fan of strawberry ice cream .. and mixing it with chocolate just doesn’t sound good to me .. so I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to finish it up. Luckily .. she loved it!

Next we took a stroll to City Walk, since it was in walking distance from the hotel. Of course I had to get her up on this surf board, I have a picture of her mom up there too

Then we wandered over to this fountain, which she successfully avoided being hit by the random water spouts for a good 5 minutes, then her favorite little one decided to hit her right in the face 

Our last stop of the night was the red carpet infront of Hard Rock Live, where Liz was inside planning her event. Ella just loved rocking out under the spotlight. 

The next morning Ella and I headed to the Magic Kingdom bright and early. The first stop? The teacups, by her request!

Then we hung out at Pooh’s house for a bit 

and met Scrooge McDuck or “The Professor” as Ella kept calling him 

Then we raced to the new Pixie Hollow to meet the fairies, knowing that the line is super long, we were in the first crowd of the day. We still waited 45 minutes! But it was well worth it  

Thursday Nikki & Halle braved the stormy weather to spend a day with us at Hollywood Studios. It just happened that the Stewarts were there as well, Ella was so excited to play with Zach We did Playhouse Disney, the new Toy Story ride, Muppets 3D, posed for pictures with a couple of Cars, Ella played with a parachute in a parade, we watched Beauty & The Beast and The Little Mermaid shows. Overall it was a very full day! I took a bunch of pictures, but they’re all on Liz’s camera. So you’ll have to wait for her to upload them, or Nikki or Christina to upload theirs

UPDATE: [click here] to see Nikki’s pics

Friday we headed to my house for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday morning Ella and Liz woke me up to encourage me to set up our Christmas tree. Ella helped put up our newest decorations, one from Santa Fe and New Orleans