Terry's Idea of Heaven
I am not an artist - I make no claims to be one. I love art, I can appreciate paintings, photos and the like, but when it comes to how they are produced, you lose me. Terry on the other hand loves all things art - technical, creative etc. We'll be travelling down the freeway and he'll say something like, "Did you see that billboard we just passed?" Yeah, I saw it, I checked it for grammar and spelling as we went by. He however will say, "That font is the [insert font name here] and it was used by [insert name here] when he/she/they did the ad for [insert company here]"
He will show me photos that are reversed (I think that is the right term). I try to look interested, really I do, but unless the dog is on the ceiling, or the cars are driving upside down, I probably would never be the wiser. But I am glad there are the Terry's in the world - they make our world a happier, brighter and altogether prettier place!
Like any other professional field out there, you need to keep abreast of changes, trends and what the future holds. For artists like Terry 'the' conference to attend is
Photoshop World. Unfortunately finances have dictated that he has only attended one conference, and that was back in 2003.
Last night he was watching some online demonstrations and I overheard the announcement for Photoshop World 2008. It is to be held from April 1, 2008 and at Terry's
favourite vacation town. My ears perked up at that! About a month ago he had made mention that he really wants to attend one of their conventions again (and in all fairness I did fly to Michigan for a writer's conference. I was one of the speakers, but I still benefitted from listening to and talking to fellow writers.) I told him to start making plans to attend and to tack on a few days before or after the conference to see
Mickey at
Disney World. 
He's already making plans!
Labels: Disney, husband, Photoshop, Terry
Time Flies By
When you're having fun! We returned from a wonderful vacation last week (I promise I will post photos on my .mac account as soon as I get a spare minute!)
This photo was taken on the monorail after a long day at the Magic Kingdom - you can tell it's been a busy day when the kids are zonked!
Our first day was spent at Typhoon Lagoon - we got the first shot of all 5 kids together in a long time!
I hit the ground running when we came back. I currently am about two-thirds of the way through editing a manual for a client, I have several articles to write for the papers I work for, and just returned from a trip to Dallas to visit the wonderful ladies at
Surrogate Parenting Center of Texas. I have worked through their agency twice now. I first contacted them in January 2004 but have never met any of them. I spent one full day with the owner on a road trip as we drove to interview a prospective surrogate and I made an instant best friend!
Summer is just around the corner, and in fact the last day of school for the kids is tomorrow. Instead of buying season passes to
Fiesta Texas as we have done in the past, we decided nothing can compare to Walt Disney World and instead chose to join a local sub-division pool. The girls will swim competitively again this summer, and Hayley will be able to join the District team and swim at a city-wide and hopefully soon, a regional level once more. This is the pool she'll be using next fall.
Oh, we also got "Little Red" a new (well new to us) car for Terry. We have had to share a car for the last 17 months; not that it is necessarily bad, but the busier I get with the freelance reporting, the more the need for a second car became apparent. Terry is now the proud owner of his first 'foreign' vehicle; a 2-door Honda Civic with sun-roof and 5-speed stick. We both love to drive it, and in fact I took it to Dallas this week. It's a zippy little thing with great gas mileage!
Labels: Disney, Hayley, SPCT, Terry
The Countdown Is Almost Done
The Smelker Seven are getting ready to go somewhere we haven't been in almost 9 years. And that somewhere is
Walt Disney World, the Wonderful House of Mouse, and as far as Terry is concerned, the
only place on earth to vacation.
According to the calendar we have upstairs in the game room we have 20 days until we pack up the conversion van and make the 16 hour drive to Florida. Thank God for a third driver (Warrick). The kids are excited although really the four little ones have nothing to compare it to; the last time we went Teagan was two and a half and Hayley only 11 months old. I was 7 months pregnant with Garrick and Carson was not even a glimmer in anyone's eye.
The vacation is already paid for, completely paid in cash so all we had to do was save for gas, food and souvenirs, and even that has been done. All that's left is to wait, patiently, (hard for Terry) and plan our days at the parks to maximize our time there.
Labels: Carson, Disney, Garrick, Hayley, Teagan, Warrick
