A Day at the Dog Park

It has been months since the dogs have been to the dog park. Roscoe seems to enjoy it quite a bit and has a good time with all the other dogs. Addie is a different story and prefers to keep to herself. I don't think she's too crazy about the dog park. And, in case you didn't know, it's very hard to take pictures of animals, especially dogs. It seems they are always on the move.

Meet and Greet

Thirsty pups

Good smells

Slingin' slobber

Grazing

A small expedition with my camera

So, on Saturday, I ventured out of the boundaries of my yard to take photographs. Driving to and from work this past week, I had some ideas of photos I wanted to take so instead of doing yard work, I went out and took the pictures. It was very fun. Next weekend, we'll be going to Prescott, so I will venture into town and get some pictures there. But for now, here are some photos of some of the public art that Phoenix has to offer:

This is some professional graffiti painted on a vintage store. This is a very scary picture to me.

Same picture but from a different view

At the Cancer Survivor's Park

A close up

A neat piece of art at the Phoenix Public Library

A different perspective

A fountain at the Phoenix Art Museum that fascinates me

Looking through the fountain

Some desert plantings

Another policeman dies

I'm not sure why I feel I need to post this but this last police killing has moved me enough to say something here. Another police officer was killed in the line of duty the other day. This is the third Phoenix police officer to die in the past year. All of them have been completely senseless killings but this one, to me, has to be the worst. Officer Erfle was killed for approaching three people for jaywalking. JAYWALKING!!!!! The scum who shot and killed him was wanted on some minor charges and was apparently "a really bad dude". He had also been deported in the past and the media here is going into a frenzy over that. Being an illegal was not the issue here as far as I am concerned. I just don't understand how people today have such a lack of respect for life that they feel it is their right to simply pull out a gun and shoot someone. I will never understand this and the lack of respect for law officers is even more shocking.

The shooter was killed himself by the police after carjacking a vehicle and trying to escape.

I have been tagged

I was tagged by Little Brain of the One Acre Wood

#1. Rules-Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.

I have given this first one much thought and just can't come up with anything at all. And my middle name only has 3 letters in it for god's sake. Maybe I will revisit it at another time.

Meme #2. This meme consists of ten questions to be answered.
1. If you could have super powers what would they be and what would you do with them? (Please feel free to be selfish, you do not have to save the world!)
Be able to talk to animals, although this might be a two-edged sword. I think the benefits would outweigh the negatives.

2. Were you to find your self stranded on an island with a CD player...it could happen...what would your top 10 blogger island discs be?
Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Leo Kottke, 10,000 Maniacs, Alison Krauss, Soundtrack from "Amadeus", Grateful Dawg, Aerosmith, Z.Z. Top, cowboy poetry.

3. If you were a smell what would it be?
Orange blossoms

4. What bird would you most like to be? Roadrunner (beep-beep)

5. If you were a bird who's head would you poo on? Michael Vick. Nuff said.

6. Are there any foods that your body craves? Chinese food

7. What's your favourite time of year? Spring when the Orange Blossoms are blooming and fill the air of Phoenix with their scent.

8. What's your favourite time of day? Morning

9. If a rest is as good as a change which would you choose? A rest; I'm not good with change.

10. If you could have a dinner party and invite any 5 people from the past or present who would they be? (Living or deceased.) My maternal grandmother, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, John Paul II.

Frog Mania

The other day, I promised you frogs and here you go...Frogs Galore!!! Friday night was my mom's turn to host bunco and she had this crazy idea to go with a frog theme so she has been collecting frogs since May for her next bunco. So here we go....

Mom with some of the frogs

Frog name tag holders

Thrift Store Frog

Bunco prize frog

Steiff Frog

Frog-Around-the-Rosey

Bunco Babes

Frog Cake

How do you do, Mr. Frog?

Prince in Frog's Clothing? (wardrobe malfunction, cheap zipper)

The handsome prince unmasked

A photo visit of my backyard

Our first assignment in the photo class was to just get out and take pictures of our yard. I took these photos several weeks ago but just now decided to add them to my blog.

The fountain (which is no longer working due to some electrical issue)

A coyote paw on the saltillo tile

Mexican Bird of Paradise

A variety of Yucca

St. Francis statue

I still don't know what this is

Brittle Bush

A frog (more about frogs later)

An old Coke sign found in my parent's backyard at the cabin when they first bought it in the '70s.

Adoring hounds...

or beggars for attention?

Three day weekend!!!

Hooray!! Just got back from a weekend up in Prescott which was nice and cool. I thought I would be able to work on my next photography class assignment but could not find any flowers in the neighborhood to take pictures of. We need to take 20 pictures of one subject and the instructor has explained that the most interesting subjects are good looking people, children, animals and flowers. I thought animals would be too difficult and opted for the flowers. I believe that now, Roscoe (my dog) will become my subject. Mostly because there are no flowers in Phoenix in the summertime or very few or very fake.

So, here are some photos I took during my time in Prescott (keep in mind, we never went into town so all these pictures were taken at the cabin or in the neighborhood).

What a handsome boy he is! Plus, this photo sort of satisfies the "rule of thirds" which I'm not going to go into here.

It rained while in Prescott and Granny J gave me the idea of taking a photograph of the rain. Here are some photos of that:

Granny J has also given me the advice to take my camera with me wherever I go. Well, that's good advice and well and good if you don't have two fifty pound dogs with you, plus a clean-up-after-your-dogs-bag, plus it's 100 degrees still at night when we're walking. Anyway, as I said it is good advice so I took it while walking the two dogs in Prescott. Here are some of the results: