Happy Birthday Elvis!

If he were still alive, Elvis would be celebrating his 74th birthday today. On his website, you can watch a live stream celebration from Graceland today. Click here for details. If you click for more information on that link, you'll find there's a bunch of things planned for people. I think this is amazing. It's a little tacky in one respect, but it's pretty cool that the man is such an icon that they do this. I mean, think about it. He died in 1977. That was 32 years ago. His fame and popularity has only gotten bigger. To be rich & famous is one thing. To be remembered so many years after you're gone is another, especially when your fame grows larger than it was when you were alive. What a challenge for any artist, whether a singer, dancer, actor or writer!

I'm a big Elvis fan. When I started this blog back in August, I talked about about my mom taking me to see Elvis concerts. Click here if you want to read that. Seeing Elvis Presley shows were definitely highlights of my life. No one put on a show like he did, but I have some regrets. I regret I don't have any of the programs or scarves they sold at the concerts. I regret I didn't let those Japanese girls toss me onstage like they wanted to. I regret I didn't see more of his shows. Regardless, I'm grateful for being able to see him in the first place. I'll never forget the excitement in the room right before he came on stage. Or how the lights turned red while he sang "Fever" and how the women all went wild. Or how he'd give kisses to ladies who walked up to the stage, or even rings off his fingers. He was a true entertainer.

I belong to another message board that did a poll once asking if people preferred Elvis or the Beatles. Not surprising, the Beatles were more popular, but I think it had to do with the average age of the members. Most are probably 10 years younger than me. I grew up with both. My mom was a huge Elvis fan and my sister loved the Beatles. They were great in their own way, but I still think Elvis was a better performer. There are many great singers in the world, but not many of them can sing well. Elvis could sing well, even without training. He had that gift. Here's a question -- what's your favorite song by Elvis? It's hard for me to pick just one because I like all of his music, but I do have one true favorite -- MOODY BLUE. So, in honor of The King's 74th birthday today, here is my song ...

La Femme Nikita

Did any of you watch this TV show on the USA Network? It ran from 1997-2001. I rarely watch TV, but I was really into this when it aired. It was one of those shows I couldn't miss. La Femme Nikita was a spy drama, very similar to Alias or 24. Unlike those shows, Nikita had a smaller budget. What they couldn't do in expensive action scenes, they made up with drama, good acting and complex characters. Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis were incredible together, as were all the other characters. The episodes either left you in suspense or sent chills down your spine. Not many shows do that for me. I was really into this one. About a year ago I bought season 1 on DVD. Just the other day I ordered season 2. I'm going to start watching them in order soon. It's one of those shows you almost have to watch in order or you'll get totally confused. Click here to read a pretty good summary on what the show was about. If you go to You Tube, you'll find lots of clips from the show. There were 5 seasons and I was really sad when it came to an end. Did anyone else watch? I hear it has a cult-like following.

On another note, a few days ago I received the payment check for the craft project I submitted to Highlights for Children magazine. It's pretty cool to get paid for doing something fun. I also started working on part of my NaNoWriMo project last night. If you remember, I wrote about my cat. Part of the project included a fictional version of his story as a picture book. I finished that last night. After not writing since November, it felt good to work on something new. Today I'm mailing out several photographs for a contest in a local magazine. That will be Photojojo's Photo Resolution #6. I'm also mailing out a recipe for the same magazine and hope they publish it as well. Lots of fun stuff -- but for now, I must get ready for school.

National Bird Day

Today is National Bird Day. I love birdwatching and photographing them. When I was little, my brother and my grandmother both had pet parakeets. My grandmother had this little plastic bathtub and I loved watching her little bird hop into it and splash around while his cage was being cleaned. As much as I love birds, they scare the daylights out of me. I had a bad experience with a crow when I was younger. My next door neighbor had one as a pet. His name was Amos and he didn't like me. If I went outside when he was out, he'd chase me down and try to land on my head. I can't remember how many times that stupid bird pecked at my head or at my feet. It sounds funny now, but to a child, it was terrifying. This was in the 70s, remember, which was the same time The Birds came out. I hated that bird with a passion and that hatred stayed with me for a long time. Then when I began working as a vet assistant, I had to work on birds a few times. That was freaky because they're so fragile and you really have to be careful. For now, my love of birds consists mostly of birdwatching and photography.

I do, however, have a nine-year-old son who is obsessed with birds. He knows so much about them that he's thrown members of the Audubon Society into a frenzy when they couldn't answer his questions. Nathan's the type of kid that goes to a bird show and when they ask if anyone knows what type of bird it is, he gives the exact name including the region it's from. He cracks me up. We call him our little Bird Nerd. While most boys his age are reading books like Captain Underpants or Nate the Great, Nathan can sit for hours reading a 1000-page bird encyclopedia by National Geographic. He's totally obsessed with birds. Both he and his little brother collect the musical stuffed Audubon birds. They have over 100 of these. I don't even want to add up how much that has cost us. On a recent trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom, everyone was engrossed in the giraffes and other African animals, while Nathan was picking out the birds. He yells out, "That's a Victorious Ground Pigeon, the largest pigeon in the world!" Rick had to ask one of the bird experts to see if Nathan was right -- he was. I hope he continues with his interest and becomes an Orithologist someday. I can't even pronounce that, more or less understand what it would involve. Nathan and his birds -- if you ever have a question -- he's the one to ask!

This picture is of a rough-legged hawk. I took it here in the Flathead Valley when we were house hunting in August 2006. This guy was sitting right on a telephone wire and I got some really good shots of him. Rough-legged hawks are winter visitors here, coming down to escape the cold weather of the north. They're unique birds because they are only one of three hawks that have feathers all the way down their legs to their toes. We see them all the time in the winter, but by spring they've all headed north again. I've managed to get some pretty good pictures of birds since moving to Montana. This one is probably my favorite. For those who know me well, know I have a thing for bird feeders. That's why I've also gotten some pretty good pictures of bears, since they love birdseed too. The bears aren't a problem now, so I have 2 feeders up which are being frequented by red-breasted nuthatches and black-capped chickadees. I haven't seen many dark-eyed juncos yet, but they're another bird that hang out during the winter, so I'm sure they'll start showing up soon. Maybe I'll see one today on National Bird Day. Do you have a favorite bird? Mine is the bald eagle.

Photo Resolution #4 ...

... PUT MORE PHOTOS UP!

That's #4 on Photojojo's New Year's Photo Resolutions. Click here to read all 22 resolutions. I'm curious -- how do you display your pictures? I take so many photos that I can't possibly display them all, but that doesn't stop me from trying. Downstairs in our family room I have a lot of photos on the wall. Last summer I bought these collage-type picture frames for the kitchen area in our family room. These pictures don't show it well, but these are movie poster sized frames, so they're pretty big. These frames are fun and a great conversation starter for people because they can see so much at one time. For these particular frames I used photos of my family mostly in national parks or camping trips. As random as the photos look, there is sort of a theme to them. I'm thinking of getting another frame for my boy's playroom. They have a wall that could use some pictures and I thought it would be fun to make a theme of "silly kid pics" or something. I also have a digital picture frame that I totally love. For Christmas a few years back, we got them for my mom and Rick's parents. We loaded the disks up with our pictures for them. I'm hoping someday they come out with really large ones, like 50-inch frames, which would be awesome to display on my fireplace wall. One of my favorite photographs I've had printed onto a blanket. I have that in my hallway as a wall hanging. Click here if you want to see which picture it was. It's probably my favorite mountain goat picture I've taken so far. I think if you click on the photographs, they might enlarge, if you want to see the pictures closer (note: second one does). So, I was just curious how everyone else displays their photographs. Anyone have any new ideas?

Chocolate Covered Cherries!

Do you like cherries? I've always loved cherries, especially fresh ones. I moved to the right place because Bigfork, Montana is famous for cherries. Most of the farms are on the east side of Flathead Lake and I live 2 miles away from the lake shore. One of those farms can be seen here. In the summer you will find all sorts of cherry booths set up around town. Not only are they delicious and low in calories, but they're really inexpensive when you buy them from local farmers. Rainier cherries are my favorite, which are the yellow ones. You can also find cherry coffees, cherry fudge, cherry jams and other goodies all year round.

It probably won't surprise you that today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. This seems a little odd to me because by January 3rd, most of the stores are no longer carrying chocolate covered cherries as much as they do at Christmas. But who are we to argue, right? Normally, I buy a box (or two or three or four) of Queen Anne cordial cherries at Christmas. This year I was holding out for the peppermint ones, but before I found them, my friend Gale sent me a box of Trader Joe's Liqueur Cherries. What a great surprise! I absolutely love those cherries and we no longer live anywhere close to a TJs. Gale had remembered me talking about them and surprised me with a few other goodies from TJs. Thank you Gale! I believe Trader Joe's only sells these around Christmastime. I haven't had breakfast yet, but I have had 2 chocolate covered cherries. I had to eat them after taking this picture. The sacrifices a photographer has to make -- sigh.

The other day I said I wanted to try some of Photojojo's Photo Resolutions for the New Year. Resolution #16 is to "do something different" and to photograph things that don't come easily to you. I figured photographing the cherries would be a good place to start, with it being Chocolate Covered Cherry Day and all. It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it!

Happy Mew Year!

Seriously, I saw it online -- today is Happy Mew Year for Cats Day! Uh huh. You're probably starting to think I make these up, but I don't. SEE! As they say, cats are people too and need a special day of their own. If it means I can mess with my cat's picture and make her look silly, it's a good enough reason for me. I've always loved cats. Cats and I go back a long time ...

I got my first cat when I was 5 years old. Her name was Missy. She was an ordinary striped tabby cat with short fur. She was good at math. Missy multiplied to 4 cats, and those multiplied into 8 cats, and those multiplied into 12 cats. We had a lot of cats. Missy's first litter was funny. The first born was Fatface. He had this round little face and a short stub of a tail. He was my brother's favorite. Then there was Quail, which my sister pronounced with a rolling sound in her throat. Quail had a little longer tail than Fatface, but it was only half the length of a normal tail. The last was Princess, who I obviously named, being the baby of the family. Princess looked a look like Belle here, minus the moustache and top hat. Princess had a normal length tail. That was a strange litter. Oh, there were many others too. Elvis, the little grey kitten who loved to sing. Squeeze Parkay, Elvis' brother, who was kind of sickly and would leave a yellow mess on you if you held him too tight. Mosh, Nica, Abby -- the list goes on and on and on. My favorite was CJ, of course, which you've all heard about before. He was one of those once-in-a-lifetime cats. He was absolutely the best cat!

Now we just have Belle, who is sitting here with her furry rump on my keyboard as I type this, and our other cat, Kitty. Kitty was born outside near our house in California and she was as wild as can be. My girls started feeding her and she eventually became a member of our family. Maybe I'll blog about her sometime. She's cute, but kind of skittish. So anyway, if you're a cat owner, give your kitty a little hug today and maybe an extra treat or two. After all, it is Happy Mew Year for Cats Day, you know.

Happy 2009!

When I was younger, a year felt like it lasted forever. Nowadays, time flies so fast that I wonder what happened. When you look at the headlines, you'd think 2008 was the worst year in history. It wasn't for me. Another year passed where my family was healthy, which is most important. I taught my youngest son how to read. I received several book contracts. I was able to take my boys to see The Wiggles in Canada, which is a big deal because we've been seeing their shows for 5+ years. I wrote a 50,000+ word novel in a month. 2008 was a good year, even though it went by so quick.

I know many people don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do. As I've gotten older, I've learned to keep them realistic and obtainable. I got an email this morning from Photojojo and it suggested to pick ONE resolution and make it FUN. If you make a long list of things you don't want to do, you probably won't do them. It makes sense to pick one thing and then do it. I did that when I first moved to Montana. I made a resolution to try XC skiing. I'm still not good at it, but I kept my resolution to try. I can think of a hundred things I should do, but it's easier to think of a couple of things I want to do. However, it's just too hard for me to pick only one ...

My Resolutions for 2009 --

1. Go on a few snowshoe hikes this winter.
2. Improve XC skiing skills.
3. Get back on my treadmill routine.
4. Start submitting my MG novel.
5. Begin outline for sequel to MG novel.
6. Follow some of Photojojo's great ideas, here.

And finally, New Year's Day wouldn't be complete without a picture of an old man and a baby, so here's me and my grandfather. At least I think it's me and hopefully not my sister. Regardless, it's an old man and a baby, so that's close enough.

I wish you all much happiness and success in the year 2009. God bless.