And here you see why I'm generally BEHIND the camera!

So today's my 39th birthday, and.. whoo-hoo. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (an expression which in and of itself dates me as vintage--what's the modern equivalent, a corrupted mp3 file?), every year brings another age I just never imagined I'd be, somehow. Not that I expected to cork off by now or anything, I just never pictured myself as being 39. I guess I'm fairly ambivalent about it, though this exchange from Nobody's Fool comes to mind:

Miss Beryl: Does it ever bother you that you haven't done more with the life God gave you?
Sully: Not often. Now and then.

Anyway, the photo is because as I mentioned before, I thought today would be a good day to start a Project 365, which I last attempted in 2009--and I further thought a birthday selfie seemed an appropriate way to kick it off. I don't expect I'll post daily photos here, don't worry. Maybe on occasion. I just hope I stick with it!

Heh, I looked at what I posted on my last birthday. I wrote that it had been rainy due to a stalled cold front, I was working but went out to lunch with Heather and the girls, and I was just starting to work through Breaking Bad. Well, this year it's been rainy due to a stalled cold front, today I'm working but went out to lunch with Heather and the girls, and I think I'm going to re-watch Breaking Bad. Starting now, as a matter of fact.

I hope everyone is having a good day. :)

Whew, my day started with an 8:30am conference call and has been busy from there. But productive, I am happy to say! Now it's already almost my lunchtime, but I thought I'd toss out some random updates and whatnot first.

-Weekend was good. My sister-in-law came over for a visit Friday evening, and left Saturday afternoon. She's great, so that was fun. She took the older girls out mini-golfing Saturday morning, and Heather and I took Amy to Lake Lotus for a stroll. It was still too hot, but Amy fell asleep in her stroller and sorely needed the nap, so it was still worthwhile. We took a path we don't usually, which winds through some fairly swampy woodland. Only AFTER we emerged from the woods did we learn that there's been a 6-8 foot alligator stalking that part of the park lately. But we didn't see him/her, or the black bear family that's also been spotted. Didn't see much of anything, actually! Heard some purple gallinules in the distance, but they were too far away and obscured by grass to see. Ah well, it was still a nice walk.

-For AMA people, is it just me, or do you also immediately mentally answer YES to any question starting with something like, "Has anyone ever...?" I know what the questioner means, of course, but my brain always immediately replies "Why yes, I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, sometime, has done that very thing." Just a thought.

-So one of the wedding gigs on my horizon is the sister of a girl whose wedding I shot several years ago. We met up for an engagement shoot at EPCOT a while back and that was all good, but then she pushed the weddings back from this October to (tentatively) next February sometime. Well, she e-mailed me today to say guess what, we moved the date back up! The date she picked (without, of course, asking if I was available)? November 9, the day I'm already booked for two other weddings. Which is REALLY unusual, in fact unprecedented. Any other weekend in November or December, no problem. She has to pick literally the ONE DAY that is no good for me. So I replied to let her know, and I'm hoping she can still move the day (again), because we could use the money. If not, I can't feel too bad about it since she picked the day without checking my availability, you know?

-Hallie (my daughter who turned 6 last month) finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels! We'd tried a few times before and she'd get scared and give it up. But this time I raised her training wheels so they'd catch her if she started to tip but wouldn't touch the ground when she was balanced right, and she got the hang of it pretty fast. So she spent as much time as she possibly could outside riding her bike up and down the street, and yesterday afternoon we took the training wheels off completely. She's still working out the best way to get herself started from a stop, but once she's going she's doing fine. She even got the hang of making wide turns, so a little more practice will make her a pro. And that's just in time! Once the weather cools off, we'd love to load up all our bikes and go ride at state parks and other trails and whatnot. Training wheels made her ride soooo much slower, and probably more tiring too, so it'll be awesome that she can ride along and keep up without wearing herself out so much. We're proud of her! Shaky video here. :)

-Sunday was that newborn photoshoot, which went okay. It's another one where I'm sure I got images they'll love, but I didn't feel like I was living up to my potential. I was taking pictures and not MAKING them, if that makes sense. I need to work on that, because it makes me a bit bummed, and it makes me feel like even more of a fraud than I already know I am.

-It's my birthday week! Wednesday I'll be 38. Creeping up on 40, which seems so strange to me. After 32 or so, every year seems to bring another age I just never pictured myself being, and it's odd. And of course by now there's not much special about my birthday. I'm not even planning to take the day off from work, though maybe I should. Nah, it's still too damn hot. I'll save my days for better weather--one thing my birthday means every year, at least, is that cooler weather isn't too far away. Not to mention the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival and the cool concerts that come with it!

Okay, that's about all for now. Hope everyone's Monday is off to a good start!