After several hours of their shenanigans, everything was put back away in the box in time to set the table for dinner.

Flash forward 20 years, play time now involves toys that are made not of plastic, but rather metal and light. And instead of names like Ken and Barbie, they have names like Nikon and “Despicable Me”.

There is still a box, of sorts.

Other people bring their boxes too:
And line them up neatly, ready for play time.

Out of the box comes friends

And dinner

And even a man to kiss.
His name is Toby though, not Ken. I’m pretty sure if you called him Ken, he’d look at you crossways.

His clothes are cooler than Ken’s anyway. (Although Ken has been known to rock the Donnie Darko.)

And once all is nicely assembled, it’s PLAY TIME.

Drive-ins are fun. I’m glad they brought them back.

How do you play?

The photo of my friends in the back of their car was actually taken by Toby (though I did the post processing, so you might call it a joint effort). The final photo is a 10-second exposure using a Nikon D300.

What a week this has been.

I’ve had a total nightmare dealing with web issues because it looked like my site had been attacked by some malicious content that would infect everyone with The Virus From Hell 2.0. Except no such thing existed. I scoured my site looking for the malevolent creature that Google insisted was lurking in my e-files somewhere. But nary a devil to be seen. Until my hubby took a look and discovered that I had actually been hacked. Yes, some a-hole calling himself JohnnyA snuck into my system and declared himself administrator. And anytime anyone clicked on anything in my site, they were redirected to a fake malware warning page. Awesome, no?

(Oh yeah. And he hacked into hubby’s site and my FIL’s site. Just spreading the joy everywhere.)

So we kicked him out, gave him the ol’ heave-ho. A thumb to the nose, so to speak. Reinstalled my files from backups. And finally, finally(!) got a clean bill of health from Google.

At 11:27 p.m. before You Capture. I had thought I couldn’t participate this week because I didn’t want to freak everyone out, thinking I was spreading viruses like some disease-vector-terrorist. So I’m sliding in under the wire this week and only have two photos for you.

But it’s been a hell of a week. Not just with the computer issues. So I think these photos quite aptly capture my state of mind right now, such as it is.

Empty.
And waiting.

I’m sorry I don’t have something more…uplifting…for you. Hopefully next week. In the meantime, you can find more black & white and maybe some beautiful shades of grey at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

P.S. Watch out for JohnnyA. I hope karma finds him.

Unless it’s the kind of vehicle to transport me someplace exotic (like Ensenada for our 2-year anniversary).

Then I could get on board with that.

Or popcorn.

The vehicle with which to convey butter and salt into mah belly.

Happy capturing! More vehicular imagery at: I Should Be Folding Laundry.

And I got to thinking, what I really wanted to do was capture what I miss about America when I travel to foreign countries. What I think about 8 weeks into a trek in the bush of South Africa {hot full shower – sorry, no water saver here baby}. What I relish the thought of, in the streets of Bangkok {air conditioning. and the lack of the smell of durian fruit.}.

I didn’t capture what I first immediately thought of: our wide-open spaces. The broad skylines and wide avenues. That’s America to me. (Anyone who has been to the tiny streets and even tinier bathrooms in Europe will know what I mean.)

Orderly lines when waiting for something…knowing with some degree of certainty that some jack-o is not gonna’ cut in front of you in line. And if he does, you can get up in his face give him the stink eye.

The English language. (You miss it when you’ve been out of the country long enough.)

I didn’t get a chance to capture those things. But I did capture something else that is quintessential America to me: beachside BBQs with burgers on the grill.

And Southwest Chipotle burgers (Because of all the different food you can get in the U.S., pretty much all of it comes from somewhere else, right? Pasta, pizza…but sandwiches! I’m pretty sure we have the corner on the market for sandwiches. I haven’t come across any nearly so good anywhere outside the States.):
Did you see that avocado? Here’s another shot:
Nothing beats California avocado man. I tell ya. I get CRAVINGS for avocado…guacamole…I go through withdrawal if I’m out of the country. Or out of state, really. ‘Cuz I’ve never seen a decent avocado outside of California Hass avocados.

With sweet potato fries on the side.

And kids fleeing

Wait, what? Ok, maybe that’s a little foot race.

But how about this? All-American strawberry pie:
Strawberry pie is American, right? As American as apple pie! Right?

At least the picture is kind of red, white and blue. Ish.

For more Americana, check out this week’s You Capture challenge at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

The color of youth. Naïveté. Money.

Envy.

Beginnings and growth.

Illness and foul.

Jade. Jaded.
{oh wait. that’s me.}

Makes do for an accent.

But it’s better…

…as a cloak…

…to soak yourself in.

Green is at:

Details like, oh my god, I need to clean my floors.

fyi for my regulars: I’ve revised my About Me page, if you’re interested.

Water

Everything on the earth bristled, the bramble
pricked and the green thread
nibbled away, the petal fell, falling
until the only flower was the falling itself.
Water is another matter,
has no direction but its own bright grace,
runs through all imaginable colors,
takes limpid lessons
from stone,
and in those functionings plays out
the unrealized ambitions of the foam.

~ Pablo Neruda

There was only one afternoon expedition that heard the click of my camera, so I’m cobbling something together from that. And trying to make something fun of it.

I apologize in advance for my lack of poetic skill.

A Poem For A Saturday Afternoon

We followed the yellow brick road
With cameras aplenty to towed.

Fee fi foh fowl
We spotted an owl!

Off where the sun dapple light glowed.

Then! We hunkered in a bunker

While the whales went kerplunker

Up where the shoe blossom tree growed.

The End.

It’s my 30th birthday this weekend and we’re having a “Great Gatsby” style party with jazz, cocktails, bocce ball and yummy treats. I can’t wait! PLUS I’m getting SO CLOSE TO MY GOAL!! $1030 for my 30th. (See that button at the top right?) This year I’m giving up birthday gifts and asking for donations to The SOLD Project instead. If any of you feel like helping a girl out, contributions of $30 or more will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate to Smashbox Cosmetics, Borders Bookstores, or another establishment of the recipient’s choice (though any amount is MUCH appreciated!). Just be sure to put your name in when you donate so I know who to thank! Thank you much!!

So live it like you mean it.

Love like you mean it.

The only true failure is regret.

p.s. i was trying out different photo styles this week and got up at 5 am (!) to go traipsing in a field in my evening gown for these. if you want to see more from the shoot, just click here or click on the header and scroll through this week’s posts. kthxbai.

I like this shot of the moon:

This one was saved by post-processing.

I suspect the only part that works in this one is the s-curve of the hat leading the eye along with the curve of the elbow.

So it turns out composition can be tricky when you’re setting up without the subject in the frame. Well. It was good practice anyway, especially trying out new styles of post-processing.

And I’ve saved the best for last: this week’s You Capture post.

(Um. Don’t get too excited.)