Because I love you.

The pork:
One picnic butt, sprinkle generously with garlic salt and black pepper, then slather with high end bbq sauce and put in the crock pot on low for 9 hours.
Shred after cooking by pulling with two forks in opposite directions.

The slaw:
One bag of packaged cole slaw
One freshly squeezed lime
1/4 c. mayo
1/4 c. sugar (in the raw)
1/4 c. cider vinegar (or a little less depending on how much you get out of the lime)
1/4 c. diced pickled jalapeños (jarred, with juicy goodness)
Mix sugar and wet ingredients until sugar dissolves, then mix in slaw and jalapeños.
Let it get happy in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

The tacos:
Soft taco shells
Dampen paper towel, put on plate, layer damp towel per taco shell with one damp towel on top.
Nuke for approx 20 seconds.

Optional:
Fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Drizzling of bbq sauce not used in cooking

Assemble, devour, send me a thank you gift.

Back in July I blah blah blah’ed about trying some big things – there were two I didn’t mention.

- I applied for an internship with Leah and Mark, and I got it.
- I applied for a program at work. I was accepted (found out last Thursday).

Holy shitake mushrooms.

The internship with Leah and Mark has been rewarding so far, challenging me to think more and shoot less, not to mention the technical additions to my arsenal. It runs through October, with a week of vacation in late September being dedicated to strengthening my brain and my trigger finger.

The program at work is (get ready for the elevator pitch) an “intense, internal baby MBA program” and begins in mid-September, running through mid-November.

It’s certainly a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for but more than that, it’s a reminder to both of us that good things happen…but they only happen of you make something happen first.

Let’s just hope my head doesn’t explode.

Cross posted from my intern blog over at LeahandMark.com

To make up for my lack of shooting during my vacation last week, I decided that I would be my own punishment.

I’m not the easiest subject – I hate being on that side of the camera, have very few good angles and a lot of bad ones, salt and pepper hair, uneven skin tone, my nostrils that don’t match (size or shape) and I have scars from a smooching incident with a Pekingese when I was 5. All this, with the addition of trying to light myself and focus when not behind the camera made for a perfectly painful challenge.

I was probably at it for 45 minutes before I tweeted:

Trying to do something and sucking wildly at it.

I kept at it. Moved the flash closer, leaned in, turtled my neck, stared at the lens, *click click click*.

Eventually, I arrived at these, which I’m pretty happy with. It’s not every day a picture of me is taken that doesn’t make me shudder, and this alone is one of the reasons I love photography and want to learn from Leah and Mark. That feeling? I want other people to have it, and I want to be the one who gives it to them.

We all deserve to feel beautiful.

Time lapse. 37 years and the blink of an eye.

I won shot of the week again with APG, this time for this picture of Cassie. Better stand back, pretty sure my head is on the verge of exploding.