Cow Parade Part III

More cows from the La Jolla Cow Parade...

Senorita Flora Fauna de Vaca

Digesting the News

My Ancestors' Village

Designer Jeans

(This cow was robbed the day before this shot and so her jewelry -- necklace & earrings-- are missing. The man sitting by her made sure we knew! Also, in case you can't see it, there is a double helix on the "jeans" and this cow was sponsored by a genetics company...)

Cow Parade Part II

I decided to dedicate this post to just one cow from the parade. It's my mom's overall favorite and one of my favorites as well. To get all the detail, I took quite a few shots close up.

Here's A Triumph of Will (that's the cow's name in case you were wondering):

Cow Parade Part I

I'm not done going through all my Cow Parade photos, but I do have some of them ready, so I figured I would post them in parts over the next week or so. Here are the first of the bunch!

Just to warn you, I only had one day to get as many of the cows as possible and the light wasn't great. I just had to do the best I could. I am including the official names of the cows given by the artists. The only sad thing about them is that the charity auction was canceled due to poor ticket sales. I wish I could afford to buy one, because there are quite a few I really love!

Milano Cow

Mad Cow Wild Style

Psychedelic Cow

What NOT to Do in Public

I ate lunch at a local Panera today and heard something disturbing. A lady next to me was on her laptop (free Wi-Fi access at Panera) talking on her cell phone. The problem? She was talking to a rep at a credit card company about an error on her credit report and she verbally gave her social security number... twice! Then she went on to give her full name and address. Hopefully the other diners at Panera with us are not identity thieves because she'd would have made their job so easy! I probably wouldn't have paid any attention except her SSN starts with the same 3 digits as my sister's area code, so I thought she might be from Boston.

I'm usually paranoid anytime I have to give out my social security number. Even when I'm on a cell phone at home or in my car, I worry someone will somehow get it. I hope those of you reading this are more aware of your surroundings when relaying any personal information. With identity theft such a big problem these days, it pays to be careful!

Up To Date?

So summer school kept me incredibly busy and I neglected this blog and my daily photo blog. I've finally caught up on my daily photo blog, but I still feel bad for neglecting this blog. It's been on my mind, but I just haven't had time to post! I do have ideas for upcoming blog posts, though. Once I get my act together a bit more, I have more updates about my reading challenge. I've been reading a bit more often lately. And I'm finally catching up on my Cow Parade photos (yes, I know I've been promising them for ages!) For today, I'll leave you with these shots of some interesting cars that I've taken recently.

I saw this Chevy truck while out running errands and I stopped to take photos on my way back home. The light wasn't great, but I'm glad I stopped.

Here's a car my mom and I parked next to at Plaza Bonita. I guess someone likes Swarovski Crystals!

Update on Support Your Local Library Challenge

Okay, so if you remember, I took on a couple of challenges regarding my reading habits as New Year's Resolutions. I decided to keep better track of the actual books I read in 2009. And I decided to join the Support Your Local Library Challenge as well.

It's been way too long since I updated my efforts, so I wanted to give a report. I have been tracking the books I've read (even though I haven't been posting them here). I will try to post a list when I figure out how to easily export it from the database I've been using to track them.

The main purpose of this post is to update the status of my Support Your Local Library Challenge. I've discovered that my local libraries are pretty small and have limited hours (out of the 3, none are open on Sundays). I have made a few trips and read some books, though! After browsing the adult section, I was drawn to the juvenile section, so a lot of these are more young adult/juvenile fiction books. Here's my updated list:

1. The Billionaire Next Door by Jessica Bird
2. Mouth to Mouth by Erin McCarthy
3. 7 x 9 = Trouble! by Claudia Mills
4. Out of Order by Betty Hicks
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

I'm not quite half-way there, but hopefully over the summer months I can catch up!

Out and About

I went out to the Otay Ranch shopping center with my mom today. I got lots of different pictures of various things, so it was pretty hard to decide which one to use for my daily photo journal. I decided to post the rest of them here!

On the Road Yet Again...

I hit the road to visit my parents in San Diego. There are so many places along the drive that I'd like to stop to take photos, but it's not exactly safe most of the time. In fact on my way back to Avondale from my spring break visit, I decided that what I really needed was a camera mounted on my windshield (maybe on the other side of the rear-view mirror?) so I could just click a button and take a photo!

Anyway, just west of El Centro, the road winds through these rocky hills. The rock formations are so interesting, especially on the way down (from San Diego to El Centro). Unfortunately, there are no pull-off areas on the road down hill (and the roads each direction are totally separate).

On the road uphill (from El Centro into San Diego), however, there are many stops and pull-off areas. Why? Well, with the long, constant incline, it seems cars have a tendency to overheat, so they created a bunch of areas along the way where you can pull off the road and get water for your radiator.

The trip was a pretty dusty one (due to high winds), but once I got to the uphill climb outside of El Centro, the sky was pretty clear. I decided to pull off the road at one of the radiator water stations and take some photos. I was pretty careful, though, because I know it is still pretty dangerous. I stayed well off the road and didn't take any photos anytime a car was within sight.

I had more photos than I could use for my daily photo journal, so I figured I would post the photos here!

The view up the hill

This shot is one I took looking back down the hill. It caught my eye since I kept turning around to look for cars coming up the hill before taking my uphill shots. I was careful never to turn my back on an on-coming car.

Supremely Bad Blogger

Once again I have been a very bad blogger. I got the flu and it all just went down hill from there. I've been thinking about my blog, though! I have pictures to post, and will make sure to do it soon.

I also still plan to post my Cow Parade photos, but I still haven't gotten through them all. Stay tuned!

Cool Contest!

Check out this great contest thanks to HelenKay Dimon, Jill Shalvis, & Alison Kent.

I would so love to win the Sony eReader, wouldn't you? Make sure to get your chance!

Spring at Estrella Mountain

It's definitely spring around here! Everything's in bloom and I love taking photos of all the plants and flowers. I'm still getting used to all the differences between the plants in Arizona and Southern California.

I used this cactus in bloom for one of my daily photos, but I had the other photos of the Ocotillo plant that I love as well, so I'm posting them all here.

Enjoy!

Jury Duty!

I had jury duty this past Monday. Arizona is a one day-one trial state. I called the night before, and they told me I didn't have to report at 8:00am but I did need to call at 11:00am to see if I would have to report. I thought that was a bit odd, and others (who were more familiar with Arizona jury duty) thought so too. Evidently it was just an extremely busy day because I did have to show up in the afternoon (12:45pm).

They called 6 panels (one of 50 people!) in the first 30 minutes after I checked in, but luckily I wasn't one of them. Normally I'd like to serve, but it was a bad week (and as I'm a teacher, a bad time of year period). So after a couple hours, I got released.

I noticed some photo ops on the way in, but I had left my cameras in the car because I wasn't sure if they'd be allowed in the court building. Since I got out early, I walked the 5 blocks to the parking garage (we had just missed the shuttle), got my camera, then walked the 5 blocks back to the courthouse. The light wasn't the best, but I got some interesting shots. I hope you enjoy them!

Just outside the Superior Court Building

Looking up at the court building

The Forensic Science Center which was next to the parking garage

State Archives & History building that I drove by on my way out of downtown