We visited Cannon Beach to watch the annual sand castle contest. There were many very amusing creations, and a few that were fantastic. Of the twenty constructed, only a few were actual sand castles. Here are few that left us in awe or tickled our funny bone.
What lies at the bottom of the ocean twitching? Can you guess? A nervous wreck! Arrr! Want another one? Okay, how much does it cost for a pirate to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer! Arrr har har! Okay, okay, I know you want one more. So, when I was a wee young lass, I wanted to see a pirate movie, but me mum and dad wouldn’t let me because it was rated ARRRRR! No groaning, now. I heard that.
What’s with the pirate jokes? Let’s say I was inspired by visiting the pirate ships at the Portland Rose Festival yesterday.
We just moved into our new one-room place at Oakview Village. When I first looked at it, I liked it. I didn’t think we’d get it though, because it was bigger than the other one-room apartments I’d seen, and too expensive. But one morning, I prayed that God would show us where to go, and I trusted Him to do so as I drove around looking at different places. By late afternoon, I was ready to quit when I got a phone call from Oakview. The manager asked me if I would reconsider living at Oakview if she lowered the price to what we were hoping for! Thanks, Lord!
Before we got married, we both read “The Five Love Languages,” where it describes each person having specific ways they give and receive love. We both were strong in “Words of Affirmation” and “Quality Time.” But though the book primarily talks about each of us having a primariy and secondary language, I believe that speaking in all the love languages fills the “love tank” much more successfullly.
“I hate spiders.”
“I’m deathly afraid of spiders.”
I’m amazed at how many times I’ve chuckled as people confessed their fear and sometimes hatred of spiders. I’m not so much amused at their fear, but that spiders in general are small creatures with an enormous capacity to scare and terrorize. Even myself.
It’s been a fabulous weekend celebrating with Clark and Mary as their wedding is coming up fast! First up was Clark’s bachelor party on Saturday evening that was a laid-back time with dinner, the driving range, then pool and darts. Sunday, we celebrated with Clark and Mary at their shower.
The past few days, the sun has seeped through our vertical blinds, so I’m glad Jenni worked on putting up some curtains to keep our bedroom dark while we sleep. I’m pretty happy with the setup, the curtains are a nice deep red that blocks most of the sunlight on its own, and with our vertical blinds pulled over, our bedroom gets pretty dark.
At BridgeTown Swing 2005, Jennilyn and I won tickets to Reno Dance Sensation 2006 when we placed first in intermediate and novice jack & jill contests respectively. When I looked at the dates of Reno, I was pleasantly surprised that our first wedding anniversary was the same weekend. What better way to celebrate our first anniversary than to go dancing? How about dinner, dancing, and a show?
It’s hard to express the joy that God has brought into our first year of marriage. He provided for us financially, allowed us to grow to love each other for our strengths and weakness, and celebrate each day with a kiss. He blessed us with great friends and family who supported us as we got our bearings. He sang to us as we danced together. I’m also sure He smiled as He shared jokes with us.
We had the opportunity to photograph a wedding a few weeks back, and when Jennilyn did post-processing to the photos, I was struck by the elegance and simplicity of black and white. As she changed some of the photographs to black and white, they transformed from an “okay” photo to a great picture.
Experimenting with the monochrome theme, I took a few photos of flowers and changed them to black and white. I chose a specific color to filter for— generally a red color, so that the reds will become whites. I also boosted the shadows so that the only flower is visible and the background disappears to darkness.
Most of the flowers in the pictures are tulips outside my workplace. I waited until the rain stopped for a moment and captured the raindrops on the petals. Sunlight peeked through the clouds gave good lighting for my transition to black and white.
The rose in the collage was taken on my apartment dinner table. I included it because it was the first flower I used the aforementioned technique. The difference is that I blurred the edge of the pedals.