Toto! We're Back in Kansas

Did you know that Kansas has actual land still considered frontier territory by the definitions set by the US Government? These are among the many things I learned while visiting my friends John and Karen this week. (we're old camp friends - I have to say - that the friends I've had the longest - are friends I made during my stint working at summer camp... Maybe I'll blog about that sometime). Anyway, Kansas kind of surprised me. I was expecting fell-off-the-floor-flatness, but, at least in the Eastern part of the state, it was quite hilly. In fact, it reminded me in many ways of the town I grew up in the Poconos. Except for the fields of cows, buffalo herds, small flock of llamas.

(NOTE: I had a long discussion with J&K's son about animal groupings. He informed me, for example, that a pile of frogs was known as an ARMY of FROGS. We also discovered MURDERS of CROWS, but were wondering what a group of Llamas were called. For the purpose of this post, I choose 'flock,' although 'compendium,' or 'gaggle' would also suit our purpose.)

Anyway, I was long overdue for a visit to The Little Apple: Manhattan, Kansas. On the first day, we went down to the lake - seen above. They were draining some of it to fill the Kansas River - so the boats wouldn't bottom out. It was rare that the water levels were so low - so we took some time to explore. Here's their youngest son digging in the dirt for burried treasure (he found farm implements, and a lot of broken glass).

The other brother suddenly hit the dirt - and made an angel. What's great is that Karen didn't even yell at him for getting dirty. I hope he appreciates how cool his mother is. I predict that when these boys are in high school, all their friends will want to hang out at their house because J&K are the coolest parents.

When all this exploring made us hungry, we headed out to Famous Dave's - because we thought it would be fun to get Dave (who stayed home) a FD t-shirt. Here's the evidence. I should have photographed the ginormous garbage-can-lid-sized plate of food they brought us, but I was too busy eating.


When we came home, the family dog kept licking my watch. Makes me wonder if I got barbecue sauce stuck in there... (I'm sorry - That was so gross!)

So we had a good time - Except for one thing: I got a massage from Lizzy Borden's distant relative - he hacked up the knots in my back with such precision and skill that I'm still sore... He promised me there would be a payoff - but so far, it hurts to lean back on chairs...

Karen and John and I are already plotting our next get together - and even though there's no place like home - someday I'll click my heels together and go back to Kansas.

More from Assateague

I forgot to post this one - Do you suppose this little Sika Deer is under House Arrest? I've never seen a tracking device quite like this one.

How I Spent The Rest of My Vacation

I came back from vacation a day early. The moment Dave stepped into the *free* beach house, he got a raging cold. Now, before you think Dave is some pansy with the sniffles, I have to defend him - It was a chest-clinching-coughing-head-so-stuffy-his-eyes-were-bulging-from-his-poor-sad-why-does-this-always-happen-when-I-could-otherwise-be-having-a-satisfying-sick-day kind of cold. Poor guy.

I mention the *free* beach house - because I want you to know how important it is - that when you're sick as a dog, at least you're not shelling out money to sleep someplace...

I mention Dave's cold, because people will wonder why we're home early... Poor Dave. He was a trooper. Once per day he ventured out of the house to either attempt to enjoy a restaurant, or look at the ocean. "Let's go up to the boardwalk, Kell..." he said on Tuesday. We walked about 20 blocks or so before Dave got this "I'm going to die" look on his poor stuffy face and I took him back to the house. He slept, I drove to Asscheek Island (see post below) - to visit those with clear sinuses.

Outside of the obvious disappointment at not being able to do all the cool things we'd planned to do (like rent those silly chariot things on the boardwalk, play music, go to the gem and jewelry show (ok, that's my idea of fun, not Dave's - but he was willing to go!), walk on the beach, ride bikes, drink fruity things with umbrellas in them, watch the Harley's go by (it was "Bike Week" in Ocean City), go see "Little Miss Sunshine (which would've been cool because it's one of the few movies that both Dave and I want to see), and eat fabulous seafood)... But for a bad situation, I have to say, having a quiet week (for me - not poor Dave) wasn't too bad.

Even though I did most of my vacation things alone, I got to hang out on the beach, just get the tiniest sunburn - the kind that doesn't hurt and doesn't peel too badly - see the ponies of Asscheek, buy jewelry from a local store, and even cook a little bit (ok. I realize driving to a restaurant to get takeout one night and reheating a rotisserie chicken doesn't necessarily constitue cooking, per se, but I liked it all right!

So I'm home - a little early. Dave's kind of bummed (but I made him go to the doctor's - and he's now probably sleeping under the influence of whatever prescription he got...) - but I promised we'd find some cool day trips to do this fall...

Asscheek Island (or "How I spent my First Vacation of the Year)

My friend, Mark, calls Assateague Island (one of my favorite corners of the world) "Asscheek Island..." I know - it's catchy, isn't it? Anyway, I thought you'd like to know how the natives of Assateague were faring this afternoon at about 3 pm:




Sorry about the potty humor - I swear, I'm the only one who thinks "Asscheek" is funny, and am a self-diagnosed Potty Humarian.

Need To Get Out More

Trixie pointed me to this post, where you can map out all the states you've been to... I need to travel more. Sheesh.



create your own visited states map

Kellifornia's Wedding Adventures

As the Beach Boys so aptly said, ‘The East Coast Girls are hip….”

They’re right. We are.

And if all the other ECG’s are like me, they’re also poor planners. Every time I pack for a trip, I bring the wrong stuff. In February, I didn’t pack correctly for 85-degree West Palm Beach weather. I figured February would mean cold weather – so I packed pants. So to prepare for Santa Barbara, I packed for warm weather…. I wasn’t expecting the 55-degree weekend I got. Weather (and airline travel) aside, it was a lovely weekend in a beautiful place. I flew out to photograph (and be a guest at) my friend, Alison’s wedding. Enjoy the pics. I’m told I merely need to multiply my current salary by a billion or so, and I could live there!

The day began with breakfast and makeup. Our Hollywood makeup artist taught us the “Hollywood Way” of accepting compliments when you hate accepting compliments: “Just say thank you then (she points to her head) and then you think to yourself, “I know!”
Ok. A word on Al’s past – her mom died when she was fifteen. Shortly after, she got pretty close to her uncle. He got ordained so he could perform the ceremony… And the wedding was lovely. Al planned to wed on the beach, but the weather sent us into city hall’s clock tower (I’m told this tower is in a lot of TV shows).


Alison is also, like me, a wedding photographer. After shooting hundreds of ceremonies, she decided to go small. I like that.
Upon our arrival, another couple was getting married, so we waited until they were done and took our places (all 8 of us.) We took our places with a mountain backdrop. As soon as the ceremony began, a member of the previous wedding party marched right in the middle and asked if anyone had seen a camera. It was kinda funny… But cute.
After the wedding, we went to dinner. It was lovely. The whole weekend was lovely.


So enjoy the pics!

6AM EST; 3AM PACIFIC

If you consider I'm on West Coast Time, I've been either in Airplanes or Airports for about 13 hours. United Airlines was having a bad day. In Chicago this AM, at 8, plane censors said the plane was unbalanced. The guy sitting next to me said the gnomes were in the belly of the plane, frantically repositioning luggage... It took an hour and a half to fix. We sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half... No drinks, no snacks...

(Maybe I'm too tired to be blogging)

When the plane finally flew, they didn't serve food - which was rude. I missed my connecting flight, so I sat in LAX for four hours waiting for the next flight...

All to photograph a wedding.

But I must say, the flight up the coast was lovely in the sunset. California's rolling green hills and lovely lovely ocean bring to mind Kermit and Fozzie Bear, singing "Gee, I've never seen the sun come up in the west..."

Ok. That's it. Because if I keep typing, it'll just be nasty. I did meet a nice custommer service rep. AND! Chad at the hotel helped me with my computer, so all told, not the worst day...

A Failed Shopping Experience

I was in New York City last weekend. The goal was to do a little shopping. I failed. I walked into Lord & Taylor - and couldn't circumvent the Botoxed beauties lining the fragrance and makeup counters - or at least coudn't circumvent all of them. I sampled DKNY's new apple fragrance. (nice) - Decided that Vera Wang's wasn't for me... Then got suckered into a free facial at the Borghese counter.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I've been through the wringer - spent thousands of dollars at the Dermatologist - what makes you think you can fix my skin?" (So glad I asked...) The Borghese line was started by a princess. She fell in love with the healing waters of the land that would soon become the Borghese Spa in Italy. She bought the land - and now, for only 57$, the same facial mud mask that soothed the cheeks of royalty could be mine!

"And besides," said the lady at the counter. "It'll only take 5 minutes!"

Two hours later, she's finishing my makeup. I looked good, I'll admit.

To be honest, I didn't even mind. My friend Audrey and I were having a New York Moment (or 2 hours worth, as the case may be) - discussing everything with the makeup artists from sisters who were on "America's Next Top Model" to what Sarah Jessica Parker looked like when she did a promo thingie at L&T, to children to the hysterical results of Borghese's "Lip Plumper" (It's like my lips got dipped in Novacain - really nutty. "It's not like your friends will notice your lips are bigger - they'll just notice what you're doing with them... LIke what you're doing now!" It's true - I was puckering without realizing it. They were numb!).

It's weird, but over Borghese, we bonded.

At the end of the day, I went home with product that I wasn't intending to buy - but she threw in a free tube of Lip Plumper.

What could be better?

Winter Break

I spent less than 24 hours in Florida earlier this week... I wasn't looking forward to it - as I had a lot to do, very little time to do it, was travelling with a person who liked chain restaurants (I like local places when I travel.), and knew I wasn't going to be able to look at the ocean.

In reality, I did see the Atlantic - but only from an airplane. Here are a few photos of orange picking (This morning, I had a grapefruit that I personally picked for breakfast - which is cool), the ant colony I stepped on (see below for details), and some crazy old houses. I also met Sally Chapman, who's grandfather was George Putnam, the publisher. Years ago, he fell in love and eventually married Amelia Airhart. (Sally Putnam Chapman wrote a book about it called Whistled Like A Bird, available at Amazon.com)

Sorry for the short post - I'm just swamped... But I hope you northerners enjoy sharing my little bit of Florida Sunshine with me.

BTW - I've spared you the photo of my swollen, polka-dotted, ant-bitten ankle. You don't even have to thank me! I don't even want to look at it... Just know it looks worse than it feels (the actual attack wasn't horrible either. I was just reminded of how sticky ants are - and how difficult it was to wipe them off my leg... and then how difficult it was to further get them off my wrist... Don't you feel sorry for me?!!