Happy Birthday Ammy!!!

She can't see this at the moment because she is gone on a road trip. Having a great time I'm hoping and scattering a few Random Pixel cameras as she goes.

And while Ammy and Rick are away Nym and I will play. Kevin is being wonderful and is giving living with my cat a try while Ammy is away. He isn't on any medications yet, but we have over-the-counter Claritin on hand just in case.

Having Nym in the house during the day is really nice. The house doesn't feel as lonely. I should be here a lot this week since I'm really working hard on getting the photography business website up in the next few days. That's a reminder that you need to change your bookmarks over to http://blog.phoenixfeahter.net

In other news, we had a great weekend. Ammy had a birthday party on Friday which was lots of fun. Saturday Kevin and I did stuff around the house, picked up Nym and saw Shrek 2 which, while nothing like the first Shrek was really fun.

Sunday we slept in and then went into the City to meet up with Ali and Mark. We took a walk up to Coit Tower with them and a couple of their friends from high school. Then as their friends headed out on the road we hoofed it all over the city. Seeing the sites and taking pictures.

Throughly exhausted the four of us to BART up to Berkeley where we had Baja Fresh for dinner. With our energy replenished we headed over to see the Dido in concert. The show started late and was a bit short. But it was a great concert. I enjoy singers who tell you about how their lives effect their music.

Later that night, finally home, we collapsed in bed and slept the sleep of those whose feet know the San Francisco hills. So all in all it was a good weekend and I am projecting a good forecast for the week ahead. :)

Randompixel.com has been getting a lot of attention lately! Its so very cool. Last Wednesday it was listed as one of USA Today's Hot Sites and this week Kevin was interviewed by the San Jose Mercury(Registration may be required) for an article that appeared in the paper yesterday.

Kevin was even sweet enough to mention the Random Pixies: Ammy, Rick and I.

So this is one of those beaming proud kind of bragging sort of posts. But its not just for me.

Some of you know that Kevin and I are taking online photography classes at BetterPhoto.com. I am really really enjoying the class and learning a lot. I don't think I can ever go back to the time when I didn't take my pictures manually.

This aside this class has a reward for those of us with a slightly competitive nature, such as Kevin and I. Picture Of The Week is a reward that singles out the top photos for that week. Kevin and I both received this recognition in our respective classes.


Coiled by Rachel

Spinning Your Wheels by Rachel

Net by Kevin

Announcing Random Pixel!! This is a Kevin project. Those of you who know him, know he has been working on this for years, or procrastinating this for year, whichever you prefer. And now its finally open for business.

It’s such a cool idea. He hands out disposable cameras and asks people to hand them around. Each camera has a name and once you pass it on, you can check in until your pictures return and are posted. Not all cameras return, but many do and its great fun to see what kind of pictures appear.

I really love this idea and I'm really proud of him for finally buckling down and getting the site active. Yay Kevin!

Google rumors from the girlfriend of a Googler!

Kevin's UI design is so cool! I'm so proud. And I got to be a usability tester several weeks ago!

;)

This blog entry very much amuses me. You should check it out.

*giggle* And that’s a mouthful!

I created this game for Mark! Because he "asked for it" and it will be fun.

There are about three and a half weeks till Easter, and I don't care if you celebrate Easter or not, everyone loves Easter eggs! For this reason I'm sending you all on an Easter egg hunt, Rachel style.

No, you are not looking for a decorated egg this time, but instead the techy version of an Easter egg. An Easter egg is a hidden, invisible or unknown link on a page. The little hand that appears when you put your cursor on a link will appear when you find the Easter egg. The best way to find the egg is simply to scan the page with your cursor until the hand appears in a place where there isn't an obvious link. Click the link and it will take you to the first Easter egg.

There will be a new hunt each week until Easter. So you have three hunts to look forward too.

How to Play:
1. I have placed 3 Easter eggs on 3 different Phoenix Feather pages. The first one is on this blog default.

2. Find the Easter egg and click on the link; it will take you to a hidden page with your egg and a link to the page that contains the next Easter egg.

3. Repeat this process until you have found all three Easter eggs.

4. The last hidden Easter egg page will have a random surprise and a secret email. Email me there and I will put your name on the Easter Egg Hall Of Fame.

5. You have until Wednesday March 31st to find the eggs and then a new Easter egg hunt will be put into place. One hunt a week(approx) until Easter!

I will try to make the Easter eggs worth the search. See you at the end of the hunt!

A long long day, but oh so good.

Kevin and I went to Berkeley for the day. He had an eye doctors appointment at 10:30 and we also had a dinner and movie party at Emily's (in Hayward) at 7pm, so it made sense for us to spend the day hanging out in Berkeley. Yay!! Always fun.

So Kevin let them put things in his eyes and when they were done we picked out new glasses for him. He's so very cute in glasses... looks so smart. And then the day really began...

We started with exploring campus. Well, exploring for me, not so much for him since he graduated from Berkeley. There is still a lot that Kevin hasn't shown me, and he is ever so excited about sharing. So we wandered around and took pictures. I was proud of myself as I randomly identified a tree from a picture Kevin had taken years ago. After a while we got hungry and shared a panini sandwich from the Musical Offering restaurant; which was followed by browsing through Hot Topic, walking the Berkeley streets and smiling a lot.

We paused to view and photograph two boys playing metal music on their violin and cello. The boys weren't more than 20 years old and related (they have the same last name). Called Judgement Day; we enjoyed their music as well as the ability to photograph them so we gave a donation and were given a CD in return.

Their music wasn't bad. Technique was a little bit lacking, but their style was good. A lot of potential here and even more important a lot of spirit! I wish them luck.

After that we went to the Berkeley Hat Store. This store is my weakness! While I can rarely justify buying a hat, I do love them ever so much. This time however was not about me. While I had fun trying a few on, there were no hats that called to me. There was a hat that called to Kevin though. Kangaroo leather, squishy and very very cool. We walked some more and enjoyed a beautiful day. I took a bunch of pictures, which will be going up soon!

After Berkeley, we went over to Karen's to say hi, drop off some books, borrow her bike and visit for a bit. We gained a Paul there and soon headed over to Emily's for yummy Chinese food and to watch the Miyazaki movie "Laputa: Castle in the Sky". Dinner was wonderful and this was a great movie, though I had a hard time staying awake at the end. It had been a long day and it was catching up to me (didn't go to bed till almost 2am the night before).

Home at about midnight I happily climbed into bed and passed out; exhausted in body and mind!