Sean just received several copies of his debut graphic novel (which he wrote and penciled and inked, published by Oni Press). This was very exciting because last time we had checked, it was selling for at least $50 used. Perhaps I should do a give-away of a copy? Thoughts? Anyone interested?

Prior to the horrible end to our balcony experience…this was us. Lounging around in the sun, enjoying crossword puzzles and warm weather!

Saturday morning was such a beautiful day in New York…it hit about 70 degrees in Brooklyn! So that morning, Sean and I dragged the dog’s beds onto the balcony to drink our coffee and work on crossword puzzles. And it was such a beautiful, lovely morning.

That is until…..we noticed at the funeral home (pictured above) that a body was being rolled up that ramp and into the facility. Being rolled on a hospital gurney type of thing with nothing but a sheet covering it. We could see the outline of a nose, chest, legs…it was creepy. Needless to say, my morning was ruined.

This is Anthony…an aspiring model and (I think) an electrical engineer. So, basically…he’s brilliant and handsome. It doesn’t get any better than that! (Hi, Anthony!)

In the area of Brooklyn I live, we have only one option (so it seems) for cable and internet. Time Warner Cable. And I am here to tell you that this seems to be the worst run company in business history.

Quite literally 3 or 4 days a week, I’ll wake up in the morning and try to boot up my internet to look for photography gigs or email back people who’ve contacted me with inquiries…and the internet will be down because of “service interruptions.” I pay WAY too much money a month to be losing 3 and 4 days of work WEEKLY due to service interruptions. Time Warner is literally costing me money. More often than not, I end up having to go to a coffee shop in order to do research for articles I need to finish and for job hunting.

I’ve called Time Warner 3 different times to get a technician to come look at our system (our tv cable box also doesn’t work very often and we don’t get channels that we’re paying for AND we don’t have movies on demand which were promised to us in our package AND the screen will sometimes “tile” and pixelate and the sound will warp),  and all 3 times something has happened where they have either canceled or not wrung our buzzer. Twice they called my phone, when I specifically asked them to call Sean’s because I knew I’d be at a shoot, and when I didn’t answer, they left. Without ever once buzzing our door. YOU’RE ALREADY AT THE APARTMENT!!! HOW HARD IS IT TO GO RING A BELL?

So, I’m so fed up that I’ve started to research other cable providers…only there aren’t any others in our neighborhood. We literally have one choice and one choice only, it seemed. Verizon, nope. Cablevision, nope. My last and fleeting hope is that maybe satellite tv and internet is an option out here. Does anyone know how much satellite tends to run…and is it reliable? The problem as I write this is….I DON’T HAVE INTERNET RIGHT NOW SO I CAN’T LOOK IT UP!

Anyway, that aside…I thought it was ILLEGAL for a company to be the only possible option for a given area? I thought that was what was called a monopoly? However, maybe I’m just remembering 10th grade economics all wrong.  Either way—if it isn’t illegal, it should be.

And if you can’t tell…I’m pretty angry about this.

I loved the way this shadow looked cast against the wall. I had to snap the photo quickly because within a minute and a half, it was already too dark to photograph. Seriously…did anyone else know that the sun sets in only about 3 minutes?!?! Because as much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t.

In case you didn’t know, Luna doesn’t handle change very well. She is a creature of habit and any sort of straying from her normal routine throws this dog for a loop. Her veterinarian thinks that she has some sort of brain damage from her experience in Hurricane Katrina…and having known (and loved) her for 3 years, I have to say, the brain damage would explain a lot.

Every work day, Luna goes into Sean’s office to sleep at his feet while he works. It’s part of her routine. When he finishes his coffee and gets up to “head to work” she’s following at his heels.

So on Saturday, when he went to his office to finish up taxes, she was naturally following right behind him. Unfortunately, the nature of taxes required him to lay out all his receipts all over the floor and since his office is essentially a closet, he couldn’t have Luna in there stepping all over everything. So he shut the door on her.

AND SHE COULD NOT HANDLE IT. For about an hour she sat outside his room scratching at the door, whining and bumping her nose into it. Finally, I picked her up and brought her over to my desk where I was working. And she would fall asleep, but after a few minutes, wake up and realize, WAIT, I’M NOT WHERE I’M SUPPOSED TO BE! And then she would go back to Sean’s door. Minutes later, she’d give up and come back to me, proceed to fall asleep and again wake up realizing I’M NOT WHERE I’M SUPPOSED TO BE! And so this circle continued over and over all day long.

This frustrated face I captured was a weird mixture of a yawn and a howl. And the noise was as obnoxious as her face.

Last week, I had Liza and Maddie over for dinner at the new apartment. There was much debate over whether we should go out or stay in and eat a meal cooked by yours truly.

“I swear I’ve improved since college.”

“Improved how much?” Liza’s voice oozed with doubt, even over the phone.

“Enough.”

“I have a six-year old, you know. They’re picky eaters.”

“Yes, I know. I have Sean. An equally picky eater, comparable to a six-year old.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Ok, Chef Colleen’s it is.”

So for dinner I decided on mixed vegetables, egg nog casserole and chicken in an apricot brandy sauce. To make the sauce, I needed to light the brandy/apricot sauce on fire to allow the alcohol to burn out.

“Ok, Maddie, stand back. Just in case…”

“Just in case what, Aunt Colleen?” Maddie’s eyes grew wide and her chin dropped to the chest.

“Umm, well…just in case, you know. There’s an accident.” I looked at Liza who pulled Maddie out of the kitchen and then at Sean who was slowly backing away from me as well.

Maddie shook her head, looked up at her mother and said through the side of her mouth: “She’s going to burn the house down, isn’t she?”

But I didn’t burn the house down. And the apricot brandy sauce was delicious. So THERE, Maddie. Ha!

And off we go. Wedding Season–a photographer’s DREAM. Granted, this was from a wedding last year, the beautiful Emily and the dashing DC Vito. Their wedding was very personalized and beautiful in a tiny town in Vermont.  And the dress–Emily’s mother MADE it. Is that not spectacular??  I wish I had that kind of talent. The best I can do is knit a scarf. And even then, chances are it will be uneven with weird scraggles at the ends.

You’d think that Sean would have learned by now that getting onto the floor to “cuddle” with the dogs always results in them wanting to play. Here, in this photo, Luna is batting at Sean’s hand, trying to get him to hand over the toy. And she’s not a very patient pup.