The Uhlenkott Family

Had a fantastic time shooting portraits of Craig and Nicole Uhlenkott, and their gorgeous 6-month old daughter, Ava. Shot the majority of the images at Balboa Park and then headed down to OB for a bit. The cold breeze kept the OB session short, but they were troopers nonetheless ;)

Quinten James Sylvester

On Saturday, we went and saw little baby Quinten, the new baby of our good friends (and my clients) Chelsea and Tyler Sylvester. Quinten (to his parents' chagrin, I've started calling him 'Q') is so little and totally covered in blond hair. Whenever I see a newborn it's hard to believe that Emme was actually that small at one point.


While Jen was feeding Q, Emme pulled up and gave him a big smooch!

Then she was so proud of herself (that she didn't smack him in the head), that she decided to clap!

Got this in the mail the other day...

I do most of my printing through White House Custom Color. In every package of prints that are delivered to me, there's a little card that displays the name of the person who packages the prints. It must be so if something gets screwed up, I know who to yell at.

I got this and immediately started to laugh. The double-entendre is ripe for the picking...

Funny story...

At least *I* think it's funny. And for the purposes of this blog, that's all that really matters ;)

So this morning, Emme and I are getting ready to head out to the grocery store for some provisions. But whenever we're heading out, Emme loves to play hockey with me before she gets in the car. Little Miss Gretzky uses an old wooden stick I cut down almost to the blade. She doesn't hit the puck to well; she's actually more content dancing around to the click-clack sound of my bad-ass stick-handling.

While I'm showing Emme the finer points of puck control, a technician from Lloyd's Pest Control, who evidently had an appointment at our neighbor's house, approaches us.

"Excuse me, sir," says the technician, "but I'm checkin' the flux capacitor next door and it doesn't look like anyone's home. Might I use your restroom?"

Now I will admit, the first thing that went through my head was some scene from all those horror movies where the seemingly innocuous contractor asks to use the restroom or asks for a drink of water, only to chop the homeowners to pieces. But then logic set in, and I thought it probably wasn't too big of a deal. Besides, I could have taken him ;)

So I pick up Emme, go in the house, and direct him to the hallway restroom.

"Oh, thank you so much, sir."

"No problem," I reply.

So Emme and I head back into the garage, and just to be safe, I stand within arm's reach of this big axe I have.

But then I was overcome with another thought: Which *number* is he doing in our bathroom? One or two? Well, it can't be one because if he was any kind of reasonable adult he would have held it. Plus, the dude's been in there like 5 minutes, so it had to be number two.

Number two!! Nooooooo!

Now I'm a little peeved. I just let a complete stranger into our house to kill our bathroom. Screw the stereo, what about the toilet?!

So midway through my worst-case scenario of his toilet adventure, he exits the house and reenters the garage. I greet him with a half-smirk/half-glare.

"Gee, thanks, sir," the technician says. "You know, when nature calls, sometimes you have to listen."

Uhhh... I guess so. I just wish you didn't have to "listen" in my house.

As the technician headed back to his truck, which was parked up the street, Emme and I made our way back into the house. Fearing the worst, I pointed my large nose towards the hallway bathroom.

Dude. Horrible. As a parent of a 19 month-old daughter, I've smelled plenty of putrid dirty diapers. But nothing compared to the stench that Mr. Pest Control left behind. If you believe in Heaven and Hell, this might be what Hell smells like.

Comedic value aside, I'm still trying to figure out the point of this story. Maybe the point should be to never let strangers in your house, not for fear of a crime, but of what they'll do to your toilet.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

They had them. This was the year. Brady was held in check, the Chargers defense intercepting him 3 times and holding him to some gawd-awful passer rating (if you believe those things). LT had nearly 100 yards rushing in the *first half*.

Up 21-10 in the third quarter, the REAL Chargers showed up. I hate it when history rears its ugly head.

Chargers defense is playing well. Hold Pats to a punt. Erik Parker muffs it and, instead of just falling on the ball, tries to pick it up and run. SMASH! There goes the ball. Thankfully, Chargers defense steps up and holds the Pats to a field goal.

Chargers ahead 21-13.

Chargers just can't seem to put a drive together. Defense has already missed one interception and...OH THEY JUST PICKED OFF BRADY AGAIN! WAIT! MARLON MCREE JUST HAD IT STRIPPED AND RECOVERED BY THE PATS! NOOOOOOO!!!

New England--actually, Tom Brady and Jabar Gaffney (no relation to the folks at Gaffney's Wine Bar, BTW)--worked its way down the field for a score (thrown to Reche Caldwell, another former Charger player who came back to haunt them). Down by two, they go for the two-point conversion and score.

Tied at 21. Here we go again.

Chargers can't put anything together for what seems like the 10th drive in a row. Punt away.

Time running out, Brady works the Pats down the field for the go-ahead field goal. Under 1:00 to play.

Chargers return the kickoff to their own 35 or so. Haphazardly work their way down the field and into field goal range. 54-yarder--Kaeding's longest of his career.

For all the marbles and a chance to play the Manning Family.

Snap is good. Kick is...

Wide right.

Again.

The irony is that the last time Kaeding missed a kick was *two years ago*.

In the playoffs against the Jets. To win in OT. Wide right.

I'm to pissed to watch any of the replays or post-game stuff. Perhaps in another day or so I'll bring myself to check them out.

Oh well, at least the Padres got Greg Maddux...

Hello from Toyota Carlsbad!

Haven't written in a while--been regrouping for the new year and making the marketing push. But I'm sitting here in the lobby at Toyota Carlsbad as the antenna on my car is repaired.

I've been waiting for the shuttle to take me home since about 1 PM (2:15 at the time of this writing). So far, the only shuttle that's reattached to the hitching post for another round of Toyota victims is the north-bound shuttle. I need to go south. So I shall sit and blog.

About my antenna... Parked the other day at the beach, hoping to catch a few waves before the sun went down. Turned off my car, leaving my radio on (1090 AM--sports radio all the time, baby). Usually, the antenna just goes back into it's little home under the hood automatically. In the words of Aragorn, King of Gondor (a little Lord of the Rings trivia comin' at ya) "But NOT THIS DAY!" The motor made a sound like someone vomiting, and continued to make said sound for about 10 seconds. I noticed the antenna had not gone back into it's little home.

"Hmmm," I thought, "that's weird." I reinserted the key and tried again, same vomiting sound and same motionless antenna. Oh well, guess I'll take the car in tomorrow.

So here we are. Dolores, the lovely Assistant Sales Manager to whom I was assigned, just notified me that they need to replace both the antenna and the motor under the hood. Cost? A cool $225. How else could one month's salary last forever?

It is important to note that when Dolores approached me with the repair bill, she mentioned that she called me, but then looked up and realized that I hadn't left yet. Oh, Dolores, shall I bore thee with the impetus behind my existence here in this wonderful seat at Toyota Carlsbad?

It's because THE SHUTTLE HASN'T SNIFFED THIS BUILDING IN OVER 2 HOURS!

(But I'm not upset, I'm really not. After all, life could be a lot worse, right?)

I told her I'd wait for it to be done. Going to walk down the street and grab some lunch, because I haven't eaten since this morning, and the only thing to eat here are putrid-looking pastries and stale coffee.

Late.

Kaitlin and Brooke Olivier

Had a great shoot with sisters Kaitlin and Brooke Olivier last week down at Moonlight Beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous winter day. Kaitlin and Brooke were a lot of fun to shoot and probably got more than they bargained for when their dad told them they were going to the beach for some pictures.