It has been 20 days since my last post. Yikes. I’ve just not felt in the mood to write. You know the feeling, the ‘Hmm, i didn’t do anything special today. Why would anyone else want to read about it?’ as well as one that seems to be happening more frequently, ‘Phew. Is it bed time yet?’  It seems I’ve been keeping quite busy in recent weeks but now I am coming to a calm. I have a weekend unplanned and some photo and scrapbook stuff to catch up on. {As well as gobs of sticks to pick up and bundle in the yard, laundry to put away, dog hair to vacuum {yeah, ick} and new ‘stuff’ to explore with my NEW vehicle.} 

I am finally breaking my silence about my latest and greatest {and most expensive EVER} purchase. I bought a new car! Well, it’s not totally new, but it sure does feel like it! It’s a Mazda Protege 5 and it purs like a dream. I still hold my Montero near and dear to my heart because it got me all the way through college hauling me back and forth from IA to MN countless times and even moved an apartment for me. She still sits in my driveway {mostly taking up space and hauling my dog to and from the dog park} but we might have a use for her, we’ll see.

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That is me {complete with work ID badge} and my new beauty in all her glory pre that ‘first drive to work’ event. I love it! It vroooms like a spry young car and it makes me look a little flashy. And the best part? It has a sun roof! I honestly don’t know how I lived without a sun roof before. It is probably the greatest thing I have experienced {in vehicle form.} I am able to throw my hands up like I’m on a roller coaster {while still maintaining complete control of the motor vehicle, of course … 10 and 2 at all times}. I also get a kick out of planes landing ‘over’ me while I drive home from work. A jumbo jet. Directly outside my window. More precisely? Above my window. It’s a little thrilling.

In other news, plans are well underway for the ChocoHound ‘free photo weekend.’

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I’m at this point I’m tentatively planning on the last weekend in May and a weekend in mid June. I’m speaking with my coordinator tomrrrow {aka, the owner of the land} and if everything goes well I’m also planning on maybe a fall weekend? If you would like more information, as I mentioned in the last post about this, just send me a message via my website … www.chocolatemooseimages.com… or here on my blog and I will gladly give you more details as they arise. Oh, it will be so much fun!

On a more photographic note, in doing some reorganizing of my pics, I found some fun photos that haven’t made it to blog form yet.

More from White Sands, NM. I think no matter where I am, I will always love sunset. The light changes to the most beautiful colors and it is such a soothing end to the day. Farm – City – Home – Park – Anywhere … it is delightful. Hmm. if I was a poet or had any skill at all in the art of beautifully assembling words, I might be on to something.

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The following set is also from White Sands. Pre sunset. Post sunburn. I do love my ‘tidy-clusters’. They make so many things so much easier to display!

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This is just a favorite photo of Mur and I. It has a movie feeling to it, which i think is my favorite part. Course I’m not real knowledgeable on cinema photography but I’d say this photo would be in the running for a couples version of Thelma and Louise. No?

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And finally, a shot from Paris. I know, New Mexico to Paris? “I don’t see the connection.” It’s true, there really is no connection. I was just going through photos and felt especially nostalgic over the silhouette of my traveling companions. Oh Pari, how I wish you were more accessible than a small fortune and an 8 hour flight across the pond.

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To keep you totally caught up on my ‘to dos’…
* I made a second trip to New Mexico at the end of March for work. It was nice to be back in the ginormous state of NM again, but to tell the truth, I only really saw the airport and HWY40. I stayed at the Route66 Casino and Hotel for 3 days and while the sound system was great {yahoo Paul} the ability to smell like an ash tray from just walking to the restaurants, the inevitability of eating out every day as well as the inconvenient proximity from Albuquerque got to me a bit. I was ready to come home!
{but as a side note, the trade show was great! lots of really nice people who were thrilled to see us there.}
* In other news, we’ve had several visitors over the last few weeks which has been a delight! It seems we are usually the ones that visit so it was a welcome change of pace. Come one, come all. We love people!
*Last weekend we felt ambitious in the backyard and spent a good 8 hour day cleaning up leaves, chopping down ‘trees’ and breaking up sticks. It made a dent in tidying our wilderness abyss and also used muscles in my legs I didn’t know existed. Ouch.
*Right now in the house: Roux is fast asleep after a sprint around the yard and I am waiting for chicken to thaw before making a salad and snake bite.

Have a lovely rest of your weekend and I will leave you with a few photos of  my great friend’s kitty cat… and a turtle.

Atlas, because he’s a spunky kitty which is not really my mood right now, but I wish it was…

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And the turtle because he was slowly but {most definitely} surely crossing in the middle of the trail and yes, I almost stepped on him. Cheers to a long {and ambitiously active} life.

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