1-2-3 Hockey: 2 of 39
Deer in the backyard is a very common occurance around here, and as such isn’t usually a camera-worthy event. But no matter how boring regular deer are, deer with antlers are always exciting! Since today was my first day of vacation, I figured I could take the time to stop and snap some shots of this dude. I figure he’s an omen that means vacation is going to rock! (And that I should get cracking on my Deer Valley quilt.) — Pookie
So on Saturday we finished off our Project 365 (the first chapter. Obviously we’ve started up right away on Project 365: II), and posted our choices of our best and worst pictures from the year. Today we wanted to take a little space on IPB to look at our favorite photos from the year, the five favorites we share, and our personal picks.
Our Mutual Favorites:
September 13, 22/365
We met up with Kristin to take a photo excursion around NYC. Or rather, we planned a photo excursion so that we’d all have an excuse to have cheese samplers at Artisanal. Cheese samplers turned into hours and hours of cheese, wine, sandwiches, beer, more cheese, and desserts. In short, it was heaven. It simply does not get better than that.
November 10, 80/365
Pookie had a comp day one random Monday, so we met at our favorite pizza place for lunch, as is our tradition on days when she’s not working but Schnookie is. We were sitting at our usual table by the window overlooking the parking lot (which the pizzeria shares with our grocery store, among other things, so we spend a lot of time there) when we suddenly noticed that while it seemed early, it was, in fact, The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year. The olde-school tinsel Christmas decorations were up on the lightposts! EEEE! It was so exciting and so wonderful and just so perfectly “Our Town During The Holidays” that we chose this as our picture for the day instead of one of the many totally kick-ass pictures Pookie took later that afternoon when she took the camera out on the nature trails behind our house.
December 4, 104/365
Back to normal, on a wintry weeknight. Hockey on TV, a mug of hot cocoa, stitching, and full dark outside. Perfection.
January 6, 137/365
This one pretty much speaks for itself. (This gem was re-gifted to us from Boomer’s blind friend. There was much laughter after it was unwrapped.)
June 5, 287/365
More from the neighborhood pizza place. It’s a very inspirational space. We’ve had many a genius discussion about hockey there, only to get home later in the evening and totally forget all of it, which is why you never read any genius discussion of hockey here at IPB.
Schnookie’s Favorites
November 5th, 75/365
One of my favorite types of “everyday” pictures is the “taking pictures of lights through a rain-covered car window while driving home from work” oeuvre. There’s just something delightfully cozy and end-of-day about them, but since my own commute is so short, almost all of the ones in our 365 collection are from Pookie’s drive home. I love her pictures, of course, but this one is the empty parking lot at my office on a cold, rainy November nighty.
November 23rd, 93/365
The bread for Thanksgiving stuffing, being processed (namely, cubed and then left out to get stale). There’s something about this picture that makes me feel like I’m in middle school, walking out to the car at noon after the school-wide holiday concert ended, heading home for the long weekend. Needless to say, that’s a good feeling.
December 14th, 114/365
Ahhh, the early days of my love affair with quilting.
January 13, 144/365
Our friend Elizabeth (our inspiration to do 365 in the first place) is a devotee of our favorite chili recipe, so we challenged her to a chili photo-off. This was our favorite picture we took of our chili dinner (and the prep thereof) — the giant jar of homemade chili powder. Not only was this a really fun way to find a subject to photograph, but we ended up with a picture that just smacks of Newer, Better Life to me.
January 15th, 146/365
The day we started our Project 365, while on vacation in Arizona, I had a vivid dream about a winter wonderland type of snowstorm that left me obsessed with the idea of taking pictures of snowflakes. It can be pretty hit-or-miss in our part of central Jersey whether we’ll have snow in any given winter, but I pinned all my hopes and dreams on having significant snowfall during our 365, just so I could photograph it. So imagine my dismay when we had a morning with huge, fluffy, perfectly photogenic snowflakes, and I was running late for work. Instead of getting to use our nice DSLR and macro lenses I was stuck snapping a couple of shots with my point-and-shoot of my lunchbag on the roof of my car. When I got home and uploaded them, I was so delighted to find this one worked out. I love the light, I love the snowflakes, I love the colors, and like the rainy car windows picture from November 5, I love that it feels to me like a quiet, empty parking lot at work. There’s something very peaceful and isolated about that.
Pookie’s Favorites
October 13, 52/365
Fall is by far my favorite season, and this picture couldn’t possibly be more fall! These puppies were set up in my office for days, and they were just killing me. Thanks to making a habit of always having my point-and-shoot with me, I can look back and pretend my life is always filled with rows and rows of baby pumpkins.
November 13, 83/365
When Schnookie and I were planning our move from Arizona back to New Jersey we made a list of “Reasons of the Day to Move Back East”. One of my favorite reasons was “those whirlygig things on trees”. You just don’t get those in Scottsdale. So not only is this picture the perfect gray November day, it’s also highlighting one of the many, many reasons I’m happy to be living in New Jersey, now and forever.
December 7, 107/365
The hanging of the wreaths on the garden fence is an annual tradition at stately IPB Manor. I love this picture because whenever I look at it, I remember how we were too lazy to hang the wreaths on the nice balmy warm Saturday, so we were stuck hanging them on Sunday when it was -1,000 below and windy as all get out. I’m getting frost bite just thinking about it!
January 7, 138/365
I took this shot out the windshield after arriving at work on a gloomy, rainy day. I love the sound of raindrops on the car roof, and often times think I should be allowed to just hang out in the car until the rain passes, instead of having to go to work. (The best part of this being one of my favorite shots is that the original caption from the day I uploaded it was “Not much to say about today. It rained.” Another joy of Project 365 is documenting days that I didn’t even remember at the time!)
February 4, 166/365
166 pictures into Project 365 I’d learned that you’ll miss a lot of great shots if you aren’t opportunistic. This goes against my very, very lazy nature. So it was totally notable that on this day I woke up, saw the bright blue sky and all the thick white snow and said, “Quick, Pookie! Get your ass and the camera outside! Stat!” Mere moments after I got back inside, a giant gust of wind came by and blew all of the snow off the trees.
We’ve had many a genius discussion about hockey there, only to get home later in the evening and totally forget all of it, which is why you never read any genius discussion of hockey here at IPB.
I knew there had to be a good reason. :P
The project looks like it was a lot of fun. You guys did a great job! I actually appreciate this photos more now that I’ve had to go through the pictures my dad took of our trip to visit our family in Boston. (which, by the way, was not a great place to be this weekend with NY license plates.) My dad doesn’t believe in posed shots, so we have approx. 150 pictures of my cousins and I not looking photogenic. At. All.
I still want that Santa mug!
These are so, so pretty! And so many of them were fall/winter based! I am now positively LUSTING for fall/Halloween/Christmas etc. Like, I got weak in the knees and shit.
Thanks, mcguggs! Can you believe there wasn’t a single shot in there of our ice girl activities? :P
My dad doesn’t believe in posed shots, so we have approx. 150 pictures of my cousins and I not looking photogenic. At. All.
:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Our dad didn’t believe in candids, so we got stuck posing painfully and artificially in scenic spots during all of our family vacations. I think the better approach lies somewhere in the middle. :D
Heather, if I had extra Santa mugs I’d totally send them your way! I promise I would!
I actually also, believe it or not, love that jaunty umbrella-d frog. If you ever need to re-gift it, let me know :P
I’m afraid the frog is no longer. It was broken, so after spending quite a long time collecting dust on the breakfront in our kitchen, and a very short time trying to act as a rain gauge after Boomer tried gluing it back together, we finally had to admit that it couldn’t be saved. Heh. (And trust me — that picture makes it look WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY cuter than it was in real life. We were STUNNED when we saw how it turned out. In real life that thing was HEINOUS. If you could see it in person, it would be a lot like discovering that some foxy movie star is actually really short, bald, and has terrible skin. It’s all a trick of show biz, that frog picture. :D)
Can you believe there wasn’t a single shot in there of our ice girl activities? :P
Our sparkly asses ruin the flash.
I like the umbrella-d frog too, but I couldn’t figure out what it is attached to. Is that a beaker to measure rain fall? Am I right? Am I right?? Do I win the Santa mug if I am??
and a very short time trying to act as a rain gauge
I am so smart I am so smart S-M-R-T
Hey… isn’t Matheui Schneider like as old as my gramps?
There’s this sexy rumour going around that he’s close the signing with the Canucks.
Our sparkly asses ruin the flash.
:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
And no, mcguggs, you don’t win a Santa mug for figuring out that frog was a rain gauge. :P
alix, I can’t say I’d be very excited about Mathieu Schneider joining my team. Heh. He’s old as the sands. And an ex-Ranger.
Froggy the Rain Gauge looks like he would have been the perfect gift for a white elephant / Yankee swap exchange.
Pookie, I love the photo of the rain on the windshield. There’s so much texture there, it’s amazing.
Can you believe there wasn’t a single shot in there of our ice girl activities?
It’s just because you (and the team) want to keep the mystery behind the secret goings-on at Ice Girl Camp. We know how it is.
I’m loving the mini pumpkins! I love to populate our apartment with those and gourds*!
*The gourds for the apartment have to be selected carefully, because many of them gross Val out.
Froggy the Rain Gauge looks like he would have been the perfect gift for a white elephant / Yankee swap exchange.
Aw, he would have been! It’s a shame the person who gave it to us hadn’t opened the box before regifting it to us, so she had no idea what it looked like. If she’d known, she probably would have hung onto it for a much more perfect comical situation for unloading it.
It’s just because you (and the team) want to keep the mystery behind the secret goings-on at Ice Girl Camp. We know how it is.
Heh. You’re right. We’re not allowed to bring cameras into Ice Girl goings-on. They don’t want any unlicensed exploitative pictures of us flooding the interwebs and undercutting their stranglehold on the exploitation-of-ice-girls market.
*The gourds for the apartment have to be selected carefully, because many of them gross Val out.
Oooh, like the little warty ones? I love those! It’s almost gourd season! EEEEEE!!!!! There are gourd fields out there where the little things are working hard on sprouting their warts…
Yes! Val hates the excessively warty ones! So when there’s a huge bin of them at a farm or garden shop, we have to slowly pick through it to find acceptable ones for her.
Gourds are just another reason why Fall rules!
And like that I come across this gem:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,grossbild-1014109-516017,00.html
Oh my god! That gourd horse is amazing! And with nary a wart in sight — are you sure Val didn’t build it? :P
All these mini-pumpkins and gourds… why isn’t it fall yet? (I still stand by my belief that it’s not summer anymore, though. It’s Back-To-School. :D)
PS It’s a safe link, just a picture of a giant horse made from gourds!
are you sure Val didn’t build it? :P
I don’t think there’s enough time in the world for Val to accumulate enough non-skeevey gourds to create that beast!
That gourd horse is amazing! We saw a hut made out of pumpkins, with a yard and garden made out of gourds while we were in Dallas. It was awesome. I think all art should be made out of pumpkins and gourds from now on.
Amy, thanks for the compliment on the rainy photo!
And alix, I felt a little bad that all my favorite shots are about fall and winter, but all of our spring and summer shots suck. Spring and summer suck, what can I say? :D
I felt a little bad that all my favorite shots are about fall and winter, but all of our spring and summer shots suck. Spring and summer suck, what can I say?
Yeeeeeeeeah. We had such an unphotogenic summer, what with all the rain, and whenever I look at our pictures from spring, I’m always like, “Oh god. That was when I was being beaten down by hockey. That was NOT a good time.” So in that respect, Project 365 is a terrible thing to do. Because who wants to wallow in the last March-June stretch?
whenever I look at our pictures from spring, I’m always like, “Oh god. That was when I was being beaten down by hockey. That was NOT a good time.”
isnt it amazing how we associate photos, regardless of subject matter, with our emotions at the time of photo? very interesting concept, thanks for pointing that out. associating with the subject matter is an obvious observation, but outside emotions i never considered. I’m very much like that with music, theres many songs i cant listen to anymore because they dredge up feelings of past pains and dissappointments. last summer i went through some shit and kept listening to the same music over and over until i was through it, so that i would ruin only one band. i should have chosen a worse band though because i miss them dearly. ah well, now i know for next time.
and your photography is beautiful, very enjoyable. the deer photo reminds me of some photos i took of a coyote in my fathers field that have that same feel.
I’m very much like that with music
Me too. Music takes me to different points of my life.
last summer i went through some shit and kept listening to the same music over and over until i was through it, so that i would ruin only one band.
Oooh, that’s always such a tricky choice, picking the right band/album to ruin with bad memories. But you’re so right about how “time and place” music can get. To this day I’m grateful that I was listening to an album I didn’t really like the night our dad died. Every now and again I’ll get one of the songs from that album stuck in my head, and it always seems that the song is, like, doubly bad. Imagine if that had happened to music I actually liked? What a waste!
And thanks, Ken, for saying such nice things about our pictures! :D
speaking of music… Paully Martin’s summer of stoner music.
“The 28-year-old defenseman has spent much of his summer attending concerts, including six Phish shows.
He said he attended Phish concerts at Fenway Park in Boston, two at Jones Beach in New York, one in Camden and two in Seattle. He also saw Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton in Minnesota, Government Mule in Minny and the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater in New York.
Martin saw the Dave Matthews Band at Fenway Park and again at a festival in Minnesota along with Widespread Panic.”
-from Richard Chere
one of the strongest mental triggers for me, and i think for everyone as per studies, is smell.
I’ll get random smells that bring back incredible memories, theres one re-occuring smell of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from early grade school cafeteria. the smell of the trains to NYC remind of all the books i’ve read while commuting – that one is my favorite – memories, not smells.
Yes Ken, I agree on that too. Someday the stank smell of microwaved fish will take me back to my graduate student days!
Paulie better be careful going to all those concerts — isn’t there more drug testing during Olympic years? :P
Paulie better be careful going to all those concerts — isn’t there more drug testing during Olympic years?
Absolutely. And USA Hockey has a list of about 80 players that they are having follow the Olympic testing protocol. I guess Paulie will have to give up his brownie-a-day habit, if you know what I mean.
the smell of the trains to NYC remind of all the books i’ve read while commuting
That’s so strange because the old NJ Transit trains remind me of reading the Hobbit while going in for my NYU interview. It was one instance of riding the train, while reading a book I otherwise can’t remember to save my life (it didn’t really grab me); there are so many other train rides for me to remember, so why that one? The new NJ Transit trains make me think I’m going to the Rock. Hee!
I guess Paulie will have to give up his brownie-a-day habit, if you know what I mean.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: He’ll find a way. And if that way is pulling a hamstring before every drug test, so be it!
knowing Paulie, i’m sure he’d stuff his pet gopher in his pants and make it pee in the cup.
i know what you’re about to say, but his gopher hates Phish and will only accompany Paulie to the Kenny G concerts, no chance of contact highs there.
I’ve read about 50 books on the trains over the couple years i commuted, and now each time i ride the train i’m reminded of a different one. sometimes its Atlas Shrugged, sometimes its The Alienist, or Earth Abides, Prayer for Owen Meany. I never know what to expect. but the worst is when i dont have a book with me.
knowing Paulie, i’m sure he’d stuff his pet gopher in his pants and make it pee in the cup.
Paulie’s a genius!
These pictures are so lovely. I particularly like the one at Artisinal.
That’s so strange because the old NJ Transit trains remind me of reading the Hobbit while going in for my NYU interview. It was one instance of riding the train, while reading a book I otherwise can’t remember to save my life (it didn’t really grab me)
I read the Hobbit while suffering from one of the worst ear infections I ever had (and I had many). I remember reading it in the middle school nurse’s office and later that day my eardrum burst . . . fun times!
Funnily enough, I don’t really remember anything about the book from reading it, but I do remember listening to it on tape in the car when I was very little because the scene where they’re in the dragons lair scared me so much.
See, I don’t remember any dragon’s lair at all! :D Still, your ear drum bursting will make whatever book you’re reading stick with you, won’t it? Poor Meg!
I think the worst is when the situation makes the book seem way better than it is. I remember the glacier scene in “Independent People” being the most amazing thing ever because I read it while sitting in a dark lighting booth during a performance, and being totally transported away from the theater. When I reread it a few days later in the bright sunlight of my dorm room I was like, “WTF? This shit is boring!” Same thing with “All the Pretty Horses”, which I read in Santa Fe while trying to escape roommates I couldn’t stand. Back in NJ, the book seemed like a shell of its former self.
Thats so true, location is so important. I had read Touching the Void and Into Thin Air during the cold winter snows and it made the stories so much more interesting. here i was freezing in a 68 degree house while the characters were stuck at -30 blizzards. definitely not beach reading books. I’ve given the Touching the Void book and movie to friends with instructions to only read or watch in the winter.
for both my brother and my nephews i’ve carefully scheduled my book gift given to be the most influential and life changing. reading A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for early high school student can change everything.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
That fact that Paulie ACTUALLY goes to Phish concerts just made my summer!
My cuzzie’s going to big boy Tampa camp! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
peanut butter
Peanut butter reminds me of the group homes I used to work in. UGH. I couldn’t eat it for years after I stopped working in them.
I’m also all ready for fall. I’m good to go! I’m ready for some chilly weather and all that rain. Oh yah.
And hockey. All the dreamy hockey. Good news! The front page of the Vancouver Sun announced today that Luongo “is over last year’s playoff disappointment.” Oh good. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
No hard feelings.
Good news! The front page of the Vancouver Sun announced today that Luongo “is over last year’s playoff disappointment.” Oh good. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I ‘magine you were on pins and needles all this time! :D
I love all those pictures. I especially love the rain on the window and the mini-pumpkins.
Good news! The front page of the Vancouver Sun announced today that Luongo “is over last year’s playoff disappointment.” Oh good. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
:^::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Well, as long as he’s happy with it, I guess that’s all that matters. :P
And thanks, Patty! :D
My cuzzie’s going to big boy Tampa camp
Really? Awesome! Tell him to tell Vinny that Pookie says hi. Heh.
Tell him to tell Vinny that Pookie says hi. Heh.
Heh! I swear next time I see cuzzie in person, I’m going to accidently blurt out “Let me know what Vinny looks like all lathered up in the shower!” Probably in front of my Aunt and Uncle and Grandparents too.
Oh, don’t worry about that, alix. Your Aunt and Uncle and Grandparents are probably wondering too.
Hey All! Fire and Ice is saying that the Devils will wear their red, green and white unis on St. Patty’s Day vs. the Pens this season! I don’t know why, but I am really geeked about this!
I don’t know why, but I am really geeked about this!
Um… Don’t read our latest post then… Heh.
I’m going to accidently blurt out “Let me know what Vinny looks like all lathered up in the shower!” Probably in front of my Aunt and Uncle and Grandparents too.
How can you favourite a comment on this site? Because this one made my whole night. Thanks Alix.
SNORT!!!!
Whoops! I was too mesmerized by the photos to read the text…
Seriously, I think you guys have a great eye with these shots and I have been enjoying them very much. Also, I have been a bit crazy getting everthing in order before the family and I go on vacation next week, so I am even more scatter brained than ususal.
As for the red, green, and white unis: Fuck ‘em! Whoever is in favor of this idea is clearly an idiot.