There’s an abandoned street in my neighborhood that’s blocked by gates at both ends. It looks like the developers built a street and planned for more houses, but never got any further. You can easily get around the gate at one end, so I decided to have a little photoshoot.

My daughter is a good sport when it comes to my photography whims. We have a lot of fun picking outfits and coming up with poses. Honestly, we spend so much time laughing and goofing around that I’m surprised I make any decent pictures.

My main goal with this shoot was to play around with backlighting. There’s a speedlight on the ground behind her in most of these shots. I’m triggering it wirelessly, trying to get a glowy effect. I still need to work on it because none of these have what I was going for. I’m happy with what I made here, it’s just not exactly what I wanted. That’s normally the case with me and my creative endeavors. I usually like what I end up with, it’s just rarely what I planned.

My middle son went to Prom last night. This was my second foray in the tuxedo renting, dress color matching, flower buying, photo taking high school ritual. He’ll get another chance next year, when he’s a senior, and that one will make me feel even older because it will be *his* prom. And then there will be that whole graduating thing, which I’m choosing not to think about today.

I rented a lens for the occasion – the 24-70L II – and it’s very nice. I could get used to having this on my camera all the time. It’s a great “walking around” lens, but ouch levels of expensive, so I’ll have to settle for renting. I get to enjoy it for another week and I might extend the rental a little bit. I could always sell my 24-105L, but that wouldn’t even get me half of what I’d need to buy the other one. i would love to make the switch one of these days. Maybe I’ll win the lottery or something.

The new kitten has firmly established her place in the household. She is an absolute shit, but is so completely adorable about it that we love her anyway. Even the big cat is coming around. Sort of. Or maybe she’s just found a way to take out all her kitten-related aggression and frustration. In the last week, we’ve found 5 bird murder victims on the patio, another 3 or 4 in the back yard, plus a couple of field mouse fatalities. I think that classifies it as a “spree”. My cat is a serial killer.

Yes, I’m bad at blogging. We’ve established this. Let’s skip all the promises to be better, blah blah, and move along to the new stuff, shall we?

So, I’ve acquired this asshole.

I know, I know, she looks cute and cuddly and adorable. She is all those things. She’s also DETERMINED to be filthy all the time. ALL THE TIME. She can’t seem to navigate the litter box and steps in her own poop every single time. Then, immediately after I clean her up, she jumps right back in. If she does manage to stay poop free for a few minutes, she will submerge her entire head into the cat food (the soft kind, with the really stinky “gravy”). Did I mention that she really likes to cuddle with me after she does these things? Oh, she does. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m her mother and should groom her clean or something. So, I bathe her and we start the cycle all over again.

I found her at work. Her mother abandoned her last week. She seems to be about a month old and didn’t understand eating solid food the first couple of days, hence the soft food. She definitely has it down now, though. The dog is completely enamored. The other cat, not so much. She still needs a name. Somehow, poopfoot doesn’t seem very feminine, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something appropriate.

See? This is why I don’t promise to update regularly. I am shit at it. I did manage to get those family photos, though. Me, included. Be amazed, be very amazed.

I’ve spent the last 3 months doing absolutely nothing new. I guess that’s ok. I’m pretty lazy and excitement takes energy that I just don’t have. I’ve been off work for the last week and a half and I’ve slept way more than is probably necessary. Today, I finally managed to get the christmas decorations taken down and boxed up. After that, I really wanted to take a nap, but I didn’t. I’m proud of myself.

Since its the new year, I’m feeling a little bit introspective. I’m not good at keeping resolutions, so I don’t make formal ones. I would like to just put more effort into things in general this year. I want to read more. I really want to take more photos. I want to write more. And I need to exercise. All these things require effort. I think it will make me happier and that’s always a good goal to have.

I haven’t made much progress on this whole “effort” front, so far. I did cook tonight, so I’m counting that. Homemade meatballs and spaghetti, sauce from a jar because I’m a cheater like that and a salad. Oh, and I guess I’m writing, too. And holy shit, I read a book yesterday! I’m doing better than I thought.

This is the part where I make grand promises to update with more regularity, but you know what? Fuck that. I might update, but I probably won’t, or maybe I’ll update for a while and then slack off again. As I get older, I’m figuring out that I’m pretty much too tired to make promises and why set myself up for failure, anyway? Perfect. Glad we’re on the same page.

I’m finally feeling more or less human after a 4 day bout with malaria. It could have been something less sinister (like a cold), but let’s just go with malaria. I’m not sick very often, so I like to get the most bang for my buck possible. All I’ve done the last four days is whine, drink tea and watch Dr. Who. Well, I also went to work because who wants to use a sick day when you’re actually sick, but mostly it was tea, whining and the doctor. I don’t know how I managed to not watch this before now. I mean, I watched way back in the 70s/early 80s when I was a kid, but this new one is great! I’m almost to the end of season 2 and I have a very bad feeling about Rose.

I’m waiting on the weather to finally cool off so I can herd the children out for a photo shoot. I haven’t taken real pictures of them in a while. I haven’t taken real pictures of anything in a while, actually. I’ve been very bad about getting my camera out of the bag this summer. I took photos on vacation, but that’s basically it. What I really need to do is get batteries for the remote and take some family shots. With me in them. I know. I’m not crazy about the idea of it, either, but still. There’s not much photographic proof of my existence out there, so I should probably remedy that. I just like the back of the camera so much better than the front.

Time for working. I have school lunch menus and high school drama programs to print today. Someone has to spend the tax money.

Yes, its summer. July in Texas, if you will. If I’m being perfectly honest, the weather this week has been pretty fucking mild for Texas. In July. That still doesn’t make it a good time for the a/c to crap out. There are strange men in my backyard and my attic right this very minute installing things that will make my house hospitable again. They can’t do this fast enough for me. It’s hot. So hot.