Construction Update

First let me address Smith Paving. While I was pissed about the ungodly hour for construction, that WAS the only day they started so early. The rest of the week the noise has started about 7:30 am. I cannot complain about that. Besides, this road was a mess and REALLY needed repaired. I am trying to be patient but c'mon, I am not a nice person at 6:40 in the morning! Thanks to Lisa and Loraine for letting me know about the person to contact about the noise ordinance. Now, if anyone knows who to contact about the butt crack ordinance, I'd appreciate that! Oof.

Now, on to an update!

Part of my tree lawn is littered with little flags. I am all about flags but with bifocals, I had to get up close to see what they said!


Gas lines, cool. I realize they are under there but some how pointing them out just kinda freaked me out. I see there is a new line in the tree lawn. Mike says the line has always been there, but they might have just made it more visible. Ok, that made sense.


I wish they'd work on my water line. I've hit that with the damn mower more times than I can count! I'll have to get pictures of it since it really looks beat up. It couldn't all be from my bad mowing, but I sure put my marks on it! But, I digress.

This must be the old line which was about 20 feet or so to the south of the new line.


And, a new line a couple of feet or so away from the one above.


I am not a good visualizer. That's why I needed help placing the furniture in my house! That's why there are still very few pictures on my walls. I can't visualize how I want something or how it should be. I could NEVER build a house from scratch! Too many decisions! So, we are all torn up and I'm sure there is a reason for it all, but I just can't picture in my mind's eye how good it will look when it's done.



Who ever knew exactly what it looked like under the road? This is really kind of fascinating.


So there ya go. An update on our paving project. I'll keep taking pictures so we can watch this progress. I have no idea when this is supposed to be finished. Hey, I'm just a home owner. I've found out recently that being a home owner means nothing! I am not kept informed on ANYthing. I guess it's all on a need-to-know basis and I obviously don't need to know.

I had read that this reconstruction project was on the plate for this year, but the Friday they started, it was a surprise to all of us. You'd think they'd notify the home owners or the neighbors or something that their world is about to be messed up.

So, maybe Smith Paving is off of my shit list, but don't think I've run out of things to bitch about. The next post will fill you in on all of that! Stay tuned!

Smith Paving - That's Just Wrong, Page 24

Also known as: thank you for waking me up! I have enough trouble sleeping and for once, I was actually sleeping soundly this morning. Granted, it was just before my alarm was due to go off, but still.

Ridiculous.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of big diesel engines idling outside. My first thought is always a fire truck when I hear that. So, I looked outside to make sure all was well in our world and I see the trucks from the paving company.

Ok, showing up to work early, I can almost be jiggy with that. But then . . . the saw starts! Before 6:45 AM!!! For real? Is there no noise ordinance in Lorain? Or is it just that this is a poor section of Lorain so who gives a crap. Well I give a crap.

Since I was still in my jammies, I tried to get this video from inside of my house. Unfortunately, I was standing next to the fish tank and the sound of the gurgling fish tank is mostly what the microphone picked up. But, you get the idea.




So to make sure I gave proper credit to this company, I ran upstairs to get dressed, grabbed my camera and went outside.






There ya go. A crew of guys that either didn't give a crap or were just following orders from other people that don't give a crap. 6:45 this morning was a good time in your book to start making all that noise? And hey! PICK UP YOUR PANTS!

So, thank you, Smith Paving of Norwalk OH for waking me and the rest of the neighborhood up at 6:30 this morning. And, the pants thing too. That's just wrong.

Two For One

Usually when I write a blog, I have a story to tell, a point to make. Yes, I really do! It might not always seem that way but trust me, I do. Some days I edit myself out of half of a story just to make sure I'm only bringing to the table that one point I wanted to make. This story, I just couldn't do that. This is one story with two points! Hence, Two For One!

First I want to thank my brother Mike for teaching me good stuff. One of his money saving tips is, if you're going to go out and spend some bucks on something, go to Giant Eagle first and see if you can buy gift cards for whatever you're buying.

You go to Regal a lot? But Regal gift cards first. Sears? Got it. Home Depot? Wouldn't be without it. You're going to spend the money at these retailers any way, so you might as well earn $.10 off a gallon of gas for every $50 you spend. It just makes sense when you're watching your pennies. Or if you're just a smart shopper.

I really needed to buy new sheets. I was down to just one set and the wear hole in the bottom sheet is just getting bigger and bigger. I finally decided that they were not going to make it through one more wash, so this weekend I HAD to buy new sheets. I called my sister for good advice as to how much she thought I should shell out for different thread counts. Armed with this info, I started searching.

Kohl's was an absolute bust. Now, I am a huge fan of Kohl's but some days I just can't find anything there. The sheet department is one of them departments. Why can't all the sheets be together, and just let me go down to the line to find the thread count and/or color I want? Sheets, blanket, comforter. Go down a few aisles and there are more sheets and pillows. Another aisle yet? Sheets, blankets. Yeah, to me, it's confusing. It so does NOT go with the feng shui of my mind. I walked out.

I thought about going to Midway Mall and hitting Penney's but on the way I was driving by Bed Bath & Beyond and decided to give it a shot. I DO love that store.

Sure enough, I found just what I thought I wanted. And, for a price, while expensive, should offer me sheets that I won't be replacing yet again in a year. I've done that enough. I'll spend the extra bucks now for longevity. I deserve that much.

I added up in my head how much I'd need for two new sets of sheets. $119 plus $119 = $238. I went just down the street to Giant Eagle to get me some gift cards! I walked out with $250 in cards, thinking I was covered.

I got back to BB&B and realized I didn't factor in the price for extra pillow cases. DAMN people, those are as expensive as some sheet sets I've bought in the past! Ouch! But, I wasn't going to run back to Giant Eagle for another card, I was happy with my $.50 off a gallon that I just got.

I grabbed two sets of sheets and two packs of pillow cases and went to the register. A young um, girl (nicest adjective I can think of right now) rang me up. The bill came to just over $300. I handed over my newly purchased gift cards and told her that I wasn't smart enough to factor in the cost of the pillow cases so I didn't buy enough gift cards to cover the entire purchase. True story, here is how the rest of that conversation went:

girl: That's ok! You STILL got over $300 in merchandise for only about $50! That's a GREAT savings!

me: blank stare

me: um, you DO realize that I'm the one that bought those gift cards, right?

girl: Well, yeah, but that doesn't count! You STILL got a great deal getting over $300 in merchandise for only $50!!

Ok, here is one young girl that really needs to stay in school. And, maybe not have a job where she has to have her hands in money. I'm just sayin'.

So there is my two for one story!

1. From Mike's advice, if you're going to go shopping and spend some cash, look at getting gift cards. Love them fuel perks!

2. Some people really aren't ready to go out into the work force with the quality of education they've received so far.

I can't make this stuff up!

Cathie's Visit

Have I mentioned lately what a procrastinator I am? This is proof! I am such a slacker!

My sister Cathie came all the way from California at the end of May for a short visit. Hey, a short visit is better than NO visit! Considering she was only here for a few days, she packed a lot into them days for sure. I have a feeling she needed another vacation as soon as she got home from this one!

We hit all the hot spots while she was here. We went to Mutt & Jeff's for dinner and Pete's for breakfast! Nothing but the best for my family! We all even went to bingo one night. If that doesn't spell family fun, I don't know what does! Cathie won a door prize and my sister-in-law Mary Jane split a bingo! It was an exciting freakin' night! The rest of us were just there for comic relief as we did have a blast.

In the middle of the visit, family from near and far all headed to Mike and Mary Jane's for a good old fashioned family dinner. Jim of course, came from Erie and our niece JoBeth was awesome in making the trip all the way from Rochester New York with her boys for some Aunt Cathie love! You are the best, Jo!

Aside from celebrating Cathie's visit, we threw a bunch of birthdays in there for good measure. The day we had the picnic, May 22, was actually my nephew Mike's birthday. With company from so far away, we made poor Mike share his birthday with two of his favorite uncles. Uncle Phil celebrated on May 29 (go ahead! Ask that old fart JUST how old he is!) and Uncle Jim was the final one of our birthday trio with June 6. That's a lot of birthday goodness if you ask me!

The weather cooperated and we all ate outside and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. Of course, what's a family picnic without pictures? Thanks to Cathie and Jim for providing the pictures since my dumb ass was too lazy to take any.

Cathie and Mary Jane enjoying the birthday cards with Noah and Grady.


Jenny with Isaiah, Evan and Grady.


Jenny and the birthday boy (AND my favorite nephew!) Mike.


Noah and Isaiah taking a break from playing.


Me and Ron with my favorite niece JoBeth!


Mike and JoBeth - my favorite nephew and niece.


Phil, just waking up from an afternoon nap in his chair. I told you he was old!


Cathie and Mike.


You can always count on Mike for at least one good photo op. Here's Mike, taking a picture of . . . himself!


I gotta throw a little side story in here. When my Dad was alive, he had a shirt similar to this one that Mike is wearing. We called it his "bumblebee shirt". For whatever reason, my Mom HATED that shirt! I guess just out of spite, I used to tell him I LOVED that shirt! Being a daddy's girl, every time they would come to my apartment for Sunday dinner, he wore that shirt. Later when that shirt wore out, he bought himself another one just like it. He wore it every chance he got. I don't know if it was more to irritate Mom or for me, but he wore that shirt a lot. Mike wore this shirt in honor of Dad. Really, how cool is that!

Then, there is the whole motley crew of us.


Only five left. But what a group of five, huh?

Lastly, Cathie even got to take a side trip for a day to Erie. No trip is good without a quality visit with every one's favorite Aunt Mary.


Like I said, a fast trip but a trip filled with fun. Cathie and I got some serious shopping done and played a lot of Rummikub. Best of all, just the face to face sister time. Priceless.

Thanks for coming to visit, my sister. Let's do this again SOON!

Diet Pepsi Owes Me!

Ya know, when it rains, it pours.

For all of the money I've spent on Diet Pepsi over the years, you'd think that it would like me a LITTLE bit. I found out it hates me!

Just before my sister Cathie came to visit (I promise, that's the NEXT blog post!) I spilled almost an entire bottle of Diet Pepsi on my living room rug. I tried to scrub that damn rug but all I got up was cat hair. I had a huge stain on the rug during Cathie's visit! Nice, huh?

Just after Cathie left, Ron decided to give it a try. The poor guy was down on his hands and knees with whatever magic potion he came up with and got that stain out of the rug! Way to go, honey!!

Then this week happened.

Ron and I were getting ready to eat dinner (a delicious dinner of Gorton's fish sticks!). Since it was just the two of us that night, we were going to eat in the living room, while watching TV. I grabbed another bottle of Diet Pepsi, put it on my TV tray and went to get something out of the kitchen. When I came back and sat down, I went to move my tray and BOOM! The damn bottle fell over and no, I did not have the cap on tight. CRAP. Once again, on my hands and knees, picking up cat hair and some of the Diet Pepsi stain from that freakin' rug. I am NOT happy.

Later that same evening, I poured some Diet Pepsi into a glass this time. I thought I was being smarter! Up in the office, Ron and I are both on our computers, playing POGO and watching tv. I took a sip of my soda, went to put the glass down, and with too much crap on my desk, I think I missed the coaster. A full glass of soda, all over my freakin' desk! UGH! I remember I swore, then I grabbed the closest thing I could, a hand full of tissues, to sop up the mess. While I'm telling Ron what I did, suddenly BAM! The room went dark. We lost all power in this room. WTF. Could it possibly be a black out in town? There is no storm happening, we didn't hear a car crash that might have taken out a pole, so WTF. Luckily, Ron is a lot smarter than I am. He looked out the window and saw that our neighbors still had power, so this black out was probably my fault.

He told me to unplug my computer and I sat here like an idiot in the dark, and told him I really had NO idea where the hell my computer plugged in around here. Being the good guy he is, he crawled under my desk, told me it was soaking wet under there, and unplugged the surge protector from the wall. Then, he went to the basement, flipped the breaker back on and viola! We had lights!!

I guess the soda dripped off my desk and right into the surge protector under my desk. You wanna talk about a bad Diet Pepsi day! I cleaned up my mess which included getting most of the crap off of my desk, and then I just went to bed. I was afraid to touch anything else that night. I was also afraid to boot my computer back up.

If you recall, Ron had to restore my computer back to factory new as I had major issues in booting it up just before that. Backblaze had most of my info but it seemed to be in no particular order. All of my pictures that I had in folders, the folders were all gone. The pictures seem to be there, but in no particular order. Ugh. And, all of my links in Firefox which I thought would be saved, are no where to be seen. UGH! I am still kicking myself in the ass since I wanted to get a flash drive and just back up these two things that I wanted. But NO! I was too lazy. At least I spent the $$ on Backblaze and was at least able to save the pictures, even if they are all jumbled together.

So, I went a few days being afraid to boot my computer back up. Sure enough, when I finally did, it would NOT boot up again. Once again, Ron tried to work his magic but the result was that the hard drive was toast. I'm not blaming all of that on the Diet Pepsi, since I think the hard drive was going anyway, but the blowing of the surge protector probably put it over the edge.

Now it's a dilemma. I can get a new hard drive or a new computer. I really don't want to do either one right now. Luckily, I have this laptop. And, cleaning up my mess on the desk, I even have a place to put it on the desk! Bonus!!

For right now, I think I'll just work on the lap top. My files should be saved in Backblaze until the time comes that I do get another computer. And, at least while I had my computer working, I did put a bunch of pictures into blogger, so I have a couple of blogs ready to write. That's my silver lining!

As I'm looking here, I have a cup of coffee on my desk. Maybe I should implement a new rule that there are NO beverages on or near my desk.

Or in the living room.

Oh, Diet Pepsi, after all we've been through. How can you do me like that?

This Is Why You Shouldn't Procrastinate

Ya know, I have a ton of pictures all set, ready to blog about. Unfortunately, I haven't put them IN a blog post so I could just write when I had time. They are all on my computer in separate files.

Bad, bad, bad idea.

Especially when you know your computer is acting up and probably on its last leg!

I shut my computer down at night (I hate wasting electricity!) and in the morning when I boot up, some days it works and some days not so much. But, after some coaxing and some praying, it would come up. Today I was not so lucky.

I thought a back up would be a good idea, so I invested in the same program we use at work, Backblaze. The first download of your computer to their system takes a couple of days but after that, it's a piece of cake. Luckily I did that about a week ago.

Ron was able to restore my computer to factory new so NONE of my stuff is on here! I am in the process of having Backblaze restore my computer. Hopefully this works or sometime soon in my future, I will be buying a new computer. And I do NOT want to do that!

For today, life kinda sucks. At least my computer is working, but I have none of my files or pictures or bookmarks. Ugh. My fault for being such a procrastinator on my blog!! THAT bothers me more than anything, that I might have lost all of those photos.

Keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully my computer will be back and running as before.

I Almost Ran Over WHAT???

Saturday, the temperatures warmed up and the grass dried enough to cut again. Ron and I decided to cut the grass before we went off for a day of fun. Ron was pushing the hand mower in front and I was in the back on the riding mower.

Coming across the back of the house, I was watching the left side of the deck. I see what at first I thought was a small knit hat in the grass. I leaned over a bit to get a better look and the "thing" started to uncoil and slither up the freakin' wall! IT WAS A SNAKE!!! IN LORAIN OHIO!!!!!! Seriously, WTF!

Ok, what do I do first? Well, I screamed, of course. But with two mowers going, I don't think anyone heard me. I drove the mower probably 10 feet and shut it down and then ran to the front to get Ron. I told him there is a SNAKE at the back of the house! We walked back to where I saw him and he was no where to be seen. There is a downspout there, with a brick under it holding up a water diverter. I figured the snake was under that diverter. I ran to the garage and got a rake and Ron moved the diverter. Sure enough, there was the SNAKE!

I know what a garter snake looks like and this sure wasn't it. This snake was a good size snake, in my dumb ass opinion. It was a good 3 to 4 feet long. I was not happy and I had no intention of finishing the grass with a SNAKE waiting for me against the house! What did I do now? I called 9-1-1! I know y'all are thinking right now that I am nuts! So, before I finish my story, here is the snake curled up in the brick that was holding up the diverter.


Perhaps not the proper use of the 9-1-1 system, but to ME this was an emergency! Here, look closer at this SNAKE!!


Holy crap! Well, the police gave me the number for the wild life center as they don't get rid of unwanted animals. They would have to send a car since I made the call, but they wouldn't get rid of the snake. Hey, I've seen COPS on TV! They not only got rid of snakes, I've seen them get rid of opossums, raccoons, bats, all kinds of things. But, I digress.

The wild life center was no help. No one was working on a Saturday and besides, as the police before told me, there are supposedly no venomous snakes in Ohio. Well, it might not be indigenous to the area but that doesn't mean that it didn't get away from some one's house where it was a pet. No one else seemed to think this was a problem other than me.

For as much as I have bad mouthed the Lorain Police before, I gotta give these guys props. They were actually there pretty quickly. It must have been a slow day at the precinct because I not only got a patrol officer, one of the SWAT guys came along with him! I had high hopes for my situation when I saw that!

They looked at the critter and confirmed that it was a snake. Duh. They also confirmed that neither of them had any intention of getting too near this snake either! I did remind them both that they are armed and they should feel free to SHOOT the snake! I was positive that deadly force would be approved by their superiors! They didn't buy it.

SWAT guy pulled out his iPhone and tried to figure out what kind of snake it is. I still have no idea so if any of you know what it is, please let me know. While we were all standing there, the snake finally uncurled and made a run for it. He headed over to some trees at the back of the neighbor's yard. As long as it was away from me, and I couldn't convince the officers that shooting the snake would be the right thing do it, I had to be ok with this outcome. They had a good story to take back to the office and of course, I have blog material. Win/win.

As soon as this thing started to make a run for it, I tried to get it on film. Considering he had no legs, he was hauling some serious ass! All this in Lorain Ohio.



Once it made it out of the yard, the police left, I headed to the riding mower to drive myself out of harm's way and Ron finished up with the hand mower. I may NEVER cut that part of the grass again, but that's a whole other story!

He was a little easier to see once he got out of the grass and was on the gravel of the driveway. Too bad Ron didn't stand close enough so you could judge the size of the snake! BIG snake.


I can't make this stuff up! Who else has a snake in their yard in Lorain Ohio? Only me!

Author's note: Since I've written this, I've been pouring over pictures of snakes in Ohio. It is my belief that this is an Eastern Fox Snake. Supposedly found near the shores of Lake Erie, how did this guy get two miles inland???

Happy Birthday Edna Party!

You know how I love birthdays! Edna must be on the same page as me on that once since she flew 3,000 miles to come home and party with family and friends for her birthday a few weekends ago!

Now, with me loving birthdays as I do, plus Edna being my good friend, of COURSE I went to the party and strapped on the feed bag! C'mon people! There is no carbs in birthday food OR birthday cake! Right??

Luckily these people know me and my love of taking pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get many of actual people but I sure did get a ton of pictures of the food! Hey, I was hungry when I went over there! What do you expect from me?

I have no idea what most of the food was, but I can tell you, I had some of absolutely everything. I was told the Arabic name of all of this stuff, but I couldn't repeat any of it if my life depended on it. It doesn't matter, I ate it all.


Ok, I did know the salad! That was an easy one!


This one I knew too, tabouli. That must mean yummy!


No idea what these were but I ate them anyway.



All I know about this one is that Nick was grilling them up outside. And, they are mighty tasty!


Stuffed grape leaves. MMMM!


Roasted leg of lamb. Another first for me. I should never have waited this long to try it!


Don't think I didn't enjoy myself. This is my dish after three trips to the food table!


It was a fast weekend home for our friends, but it was so good to see them. Here is our birthday girl Edna, with Aunt Sandra behind her and her dad, Nick, to the right.


And of course, David, hamming it up for my camera! At least I don't leave my camera on the table waiting for someone to pick it up and start snapping pictures!


Happy Birthday, Edna!

Flowers

So much to blog about, but I haven't had the time to sit and write. Let's try to fix that right now!

When you walk in to where I work, you are in the front lobby. One huge plant lives full time in our lobby and in the winter, my brother Mike and my nephew Mike, both winter one of their plants in our lobby. I've blogged before where I took on the responsibility of watering and nurturing them, just to have all of their leaves fall off! Well, they not only lived through my care but they have been known to thrive as well! I have heard that they are Moonflowers, but don't hold me to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sweeping up the lobby and I saw one of the plants, out of nowhere, had a full bloom! I didn't even notice it coming!


They really are beautiful and smell wonderful. This is looking up into the flower:


I thought if one of these trees is blooming, perhaps the other one is too. I went over to the other one to inspect and sure enough, not one, but THREE buds were easily visible!


About a week later, I was the first one at work one day. I unlocked the door, walked in to the lobby, and I was about blown over from the smell! These three blooms had opened during the night and the smell was most everywhere in the building! It really was overwhelming at first. I have never smelled anything like it! It wasn't a bad thing, just really, really overpowering.

Of course, I grabbed my camera and here is what I saw. As you can see, not fully opened, but most of the way there.



To the right of the top right flower, you can see one more bud coming in too! There is one in every crowd that just has to make an entrance!


These were just nice surprises in an otherwise drab day. A girl can never see too many flowers in a day.

Thanks For the Memories! And The Photos!

In case you haven't read it anywhere else by now, by mutual consent, our PhotoPhun challenges have come to an end. That's good and that's bad! But, that is NOT going to stop me from getting out there and taking pictures so look out!

On a personal note, thank you to Lisa and Mark for welcoming me to their group and for letting me play their reindeer games! I had a blast and learned SO much from both of you!! Thank you!

And, thank you to our followers! It was a good ride, but now it's time to bring Margareetaville back to life. It's been a wild month and I have lots of stories!

Stay tuned!

PhotoPhun: Unusual Views

Way to go Chuck, on picking this week's challenge! Unusual views. My mind went racing on this one but alas, I edited out the bathroom pictures! Some things we just don't need to see immortalized on my blog!

But, here is what I did do for unusual views.

First view is under my dining room table. Other than vacuuming under here I never really look under here. I guess I should have hung up my coat first. So, here we go!


The next two views are from Ron and they are unusual because normally you see firemen called out to put out fires. In my neighborhood, they are here to start the fires first and then put them out. This house has been empty and for sale for about three or four years now. Well, instead of getting it fixed up and renting it out, someone in their infinite wisdom decided it would be better to burn the sucker down and use it as a training exercise for future fire fighters. I guess that's a noble cause. Be safe out there, guys. The pictures are not out of focus, that's the smoke in the air!



You want to know somewhere else I never look? Under my bed! But, I put my camera down there and snapped a few pics. It seems that the boogie man and nightmares that live under the bed are hiding, and all that's left is kitty prints in the dust and my box of pictures. I really am trying to be better as I stated in my New Year's resolutions! I just cleaned this room last weekend!!


Now on to one of our favorite places to take pictures for ANY occasion!! Lakeview Park! First, looking UP a tree, literally.


Looking out through Ron's hand. Now that I think of it, this might not be as unusual as I originally thought. After all, this is the way I watch most scary or suspenseful movies, through his fingers!


And now, letting my ADD show, this is how I watched Black Swan last night. For real, can anyone explain that movie to me? It won numerous awards and I truly have NO clue what the heck it was about. I don't get it. But, I digress.

Lastly, looking up through the seat of one of the benches at Lakeview Park. Just be happy it's my face I'm shooting and not my ass on that bench!


There we go. Unusual views! I know my fellow PhotoPhunners are known for their unusual views so make sure you go check out Lisa (and Chuck??) and Mark's blogs!

PhotoPhun: Straight or Straight And Narrow

Ron and I went on a little adventure this morning looking for the straight and the straight and narrow. Too bad we picked a dreary day to do this but that's just how it worked out this week. Here is what we found!

Actually, I have to back track first. This first picture is from the archives. A banged up, but straight sidewalk in front of my house! I know, not even summer yet and I'm longing for fall. Yeah, never happy.


And now, the pictures from our adventure today. Ron and I took a nice ride out in the country. As always, some shots didn't work but some did. I really intended on getting a shot down the run way of the Lorain County Airport! Who knew that you couldn't get that close to it! Spoil sports. But, I did get this shot from Butternut Ridge Road.


My challenge today was to find a road with no traffic long enough for me to stand in the middle of it and get a picture! People were not cooperating with me today! But, I finally got my shot!

Down the same road we found some wicked power lines. Straight, and narrow!


The expansion joint from my driveway. I should have played with this one more.


Since it's been awhile since I've submitted a bathroom shot, I thought I was due! My bathroom tile!


Another take on my straight and narrow: after Ron took me out for Margareetas recently, I've been walking the straight and narrow! Boy, howdy! I am too old to party!


Make sure you head over to Lisa and Mark's and see how much fun they had with this week's challenge!

Chuck has already picked out next week's challenge. Next week we have Unusual Views. I KNOW this is going to be fun!! If anyone has any suggestions for a PhotoPhun challenge, throw them out there. We are always looking for ideas!