On the real January 5, 2012, my dad and sister were out of town and most of my friends couldn’t make the event. Celebration day for a January 5th birthday is usually the first weekend after the holiday season when people are partied-out. So I waited until the beginning of March and set my party plan in motion. No time like age 30 to make you feel like a kid again. For years I’ve wanted to jump in a bounce house but had been turned away many times, mainly for being an adult. I also wanted to break a piñata (I’d been denied for the same reason).

First, there are sumo costumes. I told my parents I was renting a pair of suits only to see the disappointment on their faces when I said I was joking. I then turned my joke into a rental agreement and “wrestled” with Nicki.

My mom wrestled my cousin Josh. She didn’t win.

Then the cake arrived, delivered by my dad dressed as a gorilla. This was the same method used to deliver the cake on my last birthday party at age 16. I was totally surprised! The 4 people in the background just happened to be at that party fourteen years ago.

The bounce house!!!

That’s me!

Nicki and Ryan took most of the photos during the night since I was the guest of honor. But I did get to take a few. Photos in the bounce house are so difficult. As you’re composing the photo, the camera is slamming into your face.

Bouncing is aerobic and EXHAUSTING!

And then I lived my dream of breaking a piñata. Nicki made this Canon replica piñata for me!

If you want to know what we ate, I pinned most of the recipes here. And if you want to rent a bounce house for your own party, Matt and Josh from Party Rental Guyz are SO nice and accommodating.

We had time for a family bounce on Sunday morning.

Wow! I seriously had the best birthday party ever! I’m so thankful for my wonderful family and friends who helped me celebrate this milestone!!!

So this year I wanted to focus on the Mobot Race. Unfortunately I didn’t get there early enough to get a good spot since the Buggy races were delayed due to injuries (yikes!). When I did make my way over to the race, I was greeted by this friendly robot.

Each contestant poses with their small robot (smaller than a shoebox) before taking to the course. Many of the Mobots were powered/controlled by Android Smartphones.

On Friday evening, Ryan and I returned to Midway to check out this year’s Booths. The theme was “When I was Your Age.” Ryan spotted this banana stand…”there’s money in the banana stand.” (Joke for fans of Arrested Development)

There were aprons and a permit inside. Was SAE really selling frozen bananas?

At night, out came my Diana Lens for some Lo Fi photography. Nothing like using a cheap plastic lens for dreamy nighttime photos.

Using bollards and parked cars as a camera stabilizer for these long exposures.

And back to real glass….This would have been my favorite booth if I were a child. Boxes were so much more fun than the toys inside.

Comedian Eddie Griffin performs a comedy routine on Friday night.

Students pass Go and collect $200? Maybe I should have gone into this booth….

See you next year, Carnival!

I DO have photos from our Sunday visit to the Hoover Dam and Red Rocks State Park in Nevada.

First, a lo-fi shot from our hotel room at the MGM Grand Signature.

Being huge engineering nerds, a tour of the Hoover Dam was at the top of our to-do list. We’ve been to the Dam before, but it was summer time and the crowds were huge (who knew that the desert was so popular in the summer?). This time, we quickly joined a group for a tour of the diversion tunnels and the power plant. Here are some huge turbines that collect energy from the water passing below. Plus we got to make tons of “dam” jokes. Here are some dam photos.

The Hoover Dam was built with visitors in mind. Art Deco architecture is found in some pretty unusual places.

One of the coolest (most time consuming parts) was walking down into one of the vents in the face of the dam. We’re located near the head of this white arrow–about 200′ down into the concrete structure.

Ryan (6’5″) and me (6′-0″) are standing (crouching) at the end of this 100′ hallway in a single file line with the other 20 visitors in our group. Creepy!

A non-OSHA approved stairway. Ryan was in heaven when his nerdy wife asked our guide questions about ventilation, waterproofing, and safety. Also we learned that 150 gallons of water leak through the dam every minute! Small drainage ways were designed in the corridors where we walked during the tours. Too many fun facts to type, so try Wikipedia.

Second half of the day at Red Rocks State Park.

Sunny, 50F, and windy.

Photo by me.

And this one by Ryan.

It started with a few casual after-class dates–the kind that aren’t really dates–when you are hungry after class and have to eat somewhere that accepts your campus meal plan. After shopping with my roommate, I returned to my dorm room to a rose and a thoughtfully written card. Then, I was unable to find Ryan for 7 hours!!!! Later, I learned that he was hiding (perhaps from fear of rejection?), but I found him and never let go. I’m so happy to be married to my best friend and favorite Valentine.

Enjoy some photo from early in our relationship. The dark ages when people still used film and made photographic prints……

Photos by Michael Gibbons

I hope you’re all lucky enough to be with your best friend forever.

Some pre-parade sword fighting.

The love of my life laughing at something hilarious that I said, for sure.

Liz, Dan, and Ryan

Some very smart children watching from inside of this building

All of the streetlights are turned off while people and floats covered in lights walk down the street.

Oh, just a public bus covered in lights.

I tried a lot of panning photos and managed to get this scary face in focus.  I think that is the mean old lady from Hansel and Gretel.

Happy New Year and I hope that everyone had great holidays!

I recently joined a new gym that I enjoy very much.  I won’t be able to take any photos there, since I’m pretty sure that violates gym policies.  Still, I wanted to share.  I wanted to buy new shoes, but couldn’t find womens’ cross-training shoes anywhere.  Running shoes were easy to find, but since I’m doing things other than moving in a forward motion (like step aerobics, jumping, etc), I had to find something else.

On Thursday night at 9:30pm, I ordered some new cross-training shoes from Zappos.com.  By Friday at 8am, I had them on my doorstep.  Ryan said they must have a “long range ballistic shoe cannon” since they were at my house less than 12 hours after I hit the CHECKOUT button.  Any online shopping addict would know that you sometimes regret online purchases made late at night.  I’m not sure I regret these purchases, but I can’t decide which I like better.

First up, blue Nike “Trainer One.”  Yes, my leg is really that pale and I’m proud of it.  These are super comfy and supportive.  The only question is “Would I make fun of someone wearing these at the gym?”  I’m cracking up just looking at them.  They are really brighter than a smurf.  No color saturation on this photo–just really really bright blue shoes. 

Second, New Balance WX1011.  Ok, first the name isn’t as fun.  And they are pretty standard looking.

The finalists:

If you care to vote, leave a comment. It’s okay to vote for both, or neither.

Many thanks, R.

**UPDATE** Blue shoes were the CLEAR winner and now I wear them every time I go to the gym.  Thanks for the input.

We’ve had at least 10-12 quarts of these babies.

And about 50 of of these big mamma jammas.  Nicki and I just used 40 of them to make salsa (video coming soon, after Labor Day).

Rebar stakes necessary for these heavy plants.

More like a “tomato hedge” than just plants.

You know how sometimes you have house guests that you LOVE?  And you love that they are visiting, but you also kind of want to have your house back at some point?  Well, only half of that sentiment applies to how I felt about my house guests from last week.  I loved that they were here and I love them.  But I didn’t want them to leave, even if it meant that my house was slightly out of order and definitely busy.  I loved this visit and I didn’t want them to go.  But they had to, so now I’m sharing photos of our fantastic visit.

Steve (our best man from our wedding) collects vinyl records.  We spent a lot of time at Jerry’s Records on Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill.  I don’t know anything about collecting vinyl, but I do know that I love looking at album art.  Record store = Steve heaven.

Like a good house guest, Steve played concerts for us, nightly.

Nicki, with one creepy right hand, takes it in.

My favorite photo of the night.  I didn’t take it, but I’m in it.

Last weekend, we had even more fantastic house guests arrive from Northern Virginia.  Sara, Nigel, Krissy, and Jon joined our Pittsburgh Party. In grand Pittsburgh fashion, we spent most of Saturday in the Strip District.

Enrico’s Biscotti.

Whoa busy

Freaking forget about waiting in this line for a sandwich.  We went back on Sunday for lunch and cruised directly to a table.

Go Canada!  and a dog/bunny.

Pinchy

Talking on a lobster phone, in Japanese, drinking some Starbucks.  Typical.

And I can’t wait until next week when I get to BE a house guest when I visit Jenn in New York  City.

When there was a break in the adult softball game, these kids took the spotlight.

There are many more photos in the online gallery too.  All proceeds from online print orders will benefit Jacqui.

Earlier this month, they asked me to photograph the roof garden of the Heinz 57 Center in downtown Pittsburgh.  Rebecca had worked on the design of this space earlier in her career and wanted to showcase it among their new firm’s many talents.

It started to rain (on this typical Pittsburgh Monday morning).

I was really soaking wet (who gets wet when they enter an office building?) after about 10 minutes outside, so I had to cut it short.

I’ll make it back to that roof garden plus a few more later this summer.  Congratulations on your business launch, Origin4Design!

Me with “Mrs Claus,” who looks a lot like my dad.  And John O as Mr Claus.

Maybe dad and I still look similar in this photo, but Nicki looks WAAAYYY different.

Nicki torturing dad

Nicki on a swing

And here he is working.  A more recent photo from about a month ago, shot with my Canon G11.

Dad and Ryan setting up a ladder to my roof.  Dad did an incredible amount of work on our house.

Photo by dad with Canon G11.

Chimney math.

Carrying a ladder while climbing a ladder.  Nice outfit, Ryan.

Happy Father’s Day to my biggest fan, Dad.  I love you!

My husband, Ryan, works with me often, and  sister Nicki is starting to come to more weddings with me too.  Both are excellent photographers AND models when I need to check lighting for a certain shot.  Here, they are standing in where a bridal party is about to gather around.  I don’t know what I like best about this photo–Nicki’s face, Ryan’s face, or Ryan holding Nicki’s purse.

Ryan checking lighting for a cake-cutting ceremony.  The photos turn out better if we actually DO what the wedding participants are going to be doing.  Also note Ryan’s shadow on the wall.

Here is a light stand that I found.

First dance prep.

Same cake cutting ceremony as above, but this time the staff at Nevillewood was nice enough to stand in.  I wonder who this guy is?!?!?  Jason, obviously.

Here’s me earlier this month at Laura and Donnie’s wedding in Hawaii.

You know I’m serious about my work when I’m willing to post this photo of myself online.  Obviously, I’m playing a crying groom as his new bride comes down the aisle.

More cake……

Parent Dance prep

In action at the church.  These cameras have done wonders for my arm muscles.

I spend some time testing my lighting for the family/group shots at the church.  Here, I knew some big groups were coming to the altar, so we had to test a large area. See, the people in the front and the back have to look good.  Lookin’ good.

And those close-ups have to look good too.  I love this girl.

Ryan testing the cake.  You can see my light stand to Ryan’s right and sunlight is streaming in from a window above.

And a bouquet toss from the lovely bride…..

Well, that’s all for today.  I love my life and job and am excited to do it everyday.  I hope you’ve enjoyed these behind-the-scenes photos of me and my crew.  Cheers!

Thankfully, my friends and family were not silent on this issue.  My dad called, basically, every store in Pennsylvania to see if they had one (I even found out he called Carlisle and Harrisburg).  I had suggestions from people on where to look (HomeGoods, Tuesday Morning), lots of text messages and emails checking in (Thanks Jamie, Milla, and Krissy)  and even a picture text from Krissy asking me if I wanted this one…

I didn’t choose that one, but I’m so flattered that people cared so much about my decor.  When I purchased the lone piece, I decided that I did not have to find the match.  Finally, I found one that I liked and I think complemented the style , but contrasted the color.  Here he is!

A perfect pair

I bought the gray one at Ikea, where they have a million of them.  I thought it was funny because the yellow one was so unique.  I did make it my own by changing the knob to this.

Yay, I have grownup furniture in my bedroom now!  Thanks, friends…

One part of that hard work is the Buggy Race, which I was lucky enough to go to on Carnival Friday.  Part two is “Booth” where different organizations build a structure to house a carnival game.  There is a different theme for Booth each year, this year’s theme being “History with a Twist,” and the Booths are judged in different categories.    Organizations can start building the Booth in their garage, and all Booths are moved on to Midway (called “Move-On” on the Friday before Carnival).   I also visited Midway (a parking lot where the Booths and carnival rides are located) on Carnival Friday, but the weather was not quite as nice as it was earlier in the day.  Such is Pittsburgh in April!

Poor weather often equals dramatic lighting.

Midway Watch playing with Sigma Phi Epsilon’s giant working keyboard on their Second Place booth.

Giant keyboard

I love this shot.

My favorite of the night

There were lots of photos that I would have loved to take, but due to some heavy rain storms, much of midway lost power.

On the right is the winning booth from Phi Kappa Theta, “RoboRome” from the Fraternities category.  The Fraternities category is one of the most competitive.

I also got the opportunity on this night to see and photograph the Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge.  It was incredible!  You can see a live webcam of the bridge here.  Not as cool to see the webcam during the day as it is at night.  The lights are constantly in motion.   

I didn’t have a tripod, but I was resting my camera against a concrete structure and taking enough photos so I would get one where I wasn’t moving.  The trees, however, were not anchored to concrete so they are waving through my view.

During the moving rainbow of light, all of the colors of light mixed together to form white light.  The exposure was too long and I was quickly reminded about the primary colors of light.

A child visiting the bridge.

Congratulations to all of the Booth and Buggy winners at Carnival this year.  See you next year, alumni!