EngelFish.Net

Taryn and I spent the last few days at the beach in Nags Head, NC.  A couple of folks from the Raleigh Flickr Group decided that a short holiday was in order, so we rented a house at the beach and proceeded to have a great time.  Taryn and I are already talking about when we can do it again.

House-wise, we’ve taken two steps forward and one back.  We finally found a home that we both liked, so we made an offer.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the house.  This leaves us back in square one.  I know we’re both ready to find something, and I’m sure Taryn doesn’t want to be looking at houses any more.

This upcoming weekend I’m volunteering at the Contemporary Arts Museum’s “Exposure Time” fund raiser.  We’re setting up in the building CAM is working on buying & renovating, and then making portraits for anyone who comes out.  The sitting fees go to CAM and I’ll get a chance to meet some new folks and connect with some area pros (and hopefully pick up a few things).  If you need to have a picture taken, this is a great time to get a professional portrait and support a great cause too.  As a side note, I’ve finally posted something to chrisengel.com.  It’s minimalist but will grow slowly over time.  I’d love to get some feedback on it.

IMAGE: The clouds denied us the obligatory “sunset over the sound” picture at Jockey’s Ridge, so I made this portrait of Taryn instead.  Sometimes clouds are our friends.

In haste and carelessness, I’ve managed to allow a virus to infect my computer (a.k.a. the blackbox). I wrestled with it until after four this morning, and have been fooling around with it sporadically today. The resident IT guru, Rob, thinks it’s time for a clean slate and I’m inclined to agree. I don’t relish the idea of spending a few hours of this weekend blowing it away and reinstalling everything, but it’s better than the ongoing agony of popups, browser hijacks, and possibly compromised data. I may be offline all weekend, but hopefully “bb” will be feeling spiffy and sprightly come Monday morning. I really need to build another PC though, with more storage. Digital photography may save on film costs, but having to constantly buy additional drives to hold your archive is bloody expensive (no I don’t feel safe having archived copies on DVD… I need two copies to sleep at night).

Tonight is a dinner out for Taryn’s birthday. We’ll be dining and drinking at Humble Pie, along with 10 of our closest friends. If you’re in town, I hope you’ll be there!

IMAGE: This is from the last trip to SA, and it’s a scene I shot from the car window as we drove back home from Gran Blakeman’s house. Acacia trees and red dirt. Both unique and familiar. The trees remind me of how different Africa is from home, and the red dirt is so very North Carolina.

It’s Monday morning and the amount of work waiting for me in the office was tremendous. I had planned to work over the weekend, but if I’m not in the office, I don’t seem to get much work done. Thus, I’ll be chained to my desk today. It’s funny, because my sister called last night to tell me they were leaving for Disney… a trip we were supposed to be joining them for. I could be on my way to Florida, but instead I’m here. C’est la vie.

This weekend was good. I relaxed, had a few beers, shot some pool, shot a few pictures, printed some stuff, and celebrated a friend’s birthday. Not bad at all.

IMAGE: This is from the bridal portrait session with Sarah on Saturday.  Her wedding is next weekend, and we’re photographing it for her.  Not only is she beautiful, but she’s unbelieveably nice too.  Taryn and I agree that Dustin is a lucky guy.

Last night, T made chicken livers for dinner. The last time we had liver it was a bit too much for my delicate constitution. Very, very rich. This time it tasted terrific. Then she told me that there wasn’t any liver in my meal. She’d pulled it all out and left the apple, onion, bacon, and sauce. It still tasted terrific to me. I had it shmeared into a sandwich, and went back for seconds. Mmmm, Mmmmm, Liver!

The rains from hurricane Alberto are keeping everyone indoors here today. It’s better to have good rains now and avoid water restrictions for the rest of the summer! Of course, that’s of little consolation to the folks who’s streets are flooded. And I just read that there was a minor train derailment where the tracks cross West Jones Street in Raleigh, which is right in front of my old restaurant, 518! How can a train derailment be “minor”?

IMAGE: Reaching into the wayback-machine for this one. A few years back Denise, Alyson, Elvis, and I rented a beach house for the last week before “the season” started in May. We arrived at the beach totally ready to party and relax, but it was coming down like toads (not unlike today). We said, “what the hell” and grabbed beers and slickers and trooped down to the water. As you can see from our smiling faces, we enjoyed ourselves in spite of mother nature’s shenanigans. The rest of the weekend has to “stay in vegas”. ~grin~.