Euro Trip

Today marks the day I started really exploring the options to visit Europe. The best weather/temperature starts in May/June/July, although that is also peak traveling time for people in the states because school is out. 

Anywho I've made a preliminary date for Ben and I to go to Europe in June of 2014. That will give us enough time to plan and save. 

Europe

The places I'd like to go are:
  United Kingdom: London
  France: Paris, Marseille
  Spain: Barcelona, Madrid
  Italy: Florence, Rome, Naples
  Greece: Athens 

If I plan for 2 weeks, probably all of these places are not feasible to go to. Hmmm...maybe we should plan for 3 weeks. I'd like to stay in London and Paris at least 3 days each to explore and relax. I'd like at least one night in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower from the hotel window all lit up. I know it's probably not as magical as the shows and movies make it look, but it would still be pretty cool to see it at night. I can't remember exactly what attractions are in each city, so it might be ok to cut out a few cities. Looking up how long it takes to get somewhere by train...one website has a route from Paris to Madrid that is about 14 hours. So, either we will be flying a lot to get around or we will be sleeping on a train...I wonder how comfortable those trains are? When I think of train, I think of rickety and loud and uncomfortable. Maybe they're nice though. 

Advice or insight to planning a Eurotrip would be very much appreciated and helfpul! Hopefully the inter-webs won't lead us astray....

What's for Dessert?

More about Dragon*Con!

Aaaaaannndd.....more Dragon*Con pictures!! I took some neat photos of Atlanta and made a collage out of the best. My favorite is the top right....

I like it for a few reasons. One is that all I was trying to take a picture of was the row of buildings with the street and the crowd of people in the street and the building at the end of the road. Two is because when you follow the skyline of the buildings and when your eyes reach the top of the yellow building, it makes it kind of look like a painting (well in my mind, at least). I love pictures where you can't tell if they are real or not (and this one is real!). And third, I like this picture because I got the reflection of one of my favorite Atlanta buildings. I don't know what building it is, but for two years in a row, I've gotten really good pictures of it. 

Ben laughed at me when he saw this picture because he said "oh what a nice reflection of the other building" and I said "what other building?" and he laughed and said "I bet you didn't even know you got that in the picture"....Nope. And it turned out nice. :)

We went to an art festival in Marietta. They had some cars that people had decorated entered into a contest. Here are a few neat cars. Some people have some great imaginations!
 

ALIEN CAR!

BEJEWELED CAR!

this one's my fave

GUITAR MOTORCYCLE! seriously, this is a real motorcycle that looks like a guitar. Really cool!!!

HEAVEN OR HELL CAR!

PINK SHAG CAR! (well it's a van, really.)

PUBLIC POLE AND FLAMING CAR! so much to say about this one. There is a pole on top for dancing. There are two gold poles on back of the car (like in middle picture) that really shoot flames out of them.

AMERICA CAR!

BLANKET CAR!

Here's some costume collages from Dragon*Con 2012:

Awesome costumes, everyone!! Ben and I had a blast meeting these people and taking pictures! We got some great info and insight on what it takes to make some of these costumes, so maybe soon we can start making some costumes of our own to wear at Dragon*Con in the coming years!

And now, for some comic book heroes!

On the road again back home...

 

Picture of the Day

cranny

Learning new things at work, then coming home and learning new things about cameras and photography...my brain is numb. I need a dummy guide for this photography thing because for some reason, I feel I am reading and re-reading the same things and it's just not clicking in my brain. Is that a sign that I'm not cut out for it? The funny thing is that I've always felt I don't really have any skills at anything. Maybe a little here or there, but not anything that I can keep at for a long amount of time. And now I've been feeling really good at photography, and I don't know if it's just Ben building me up or if my pictures really are that good. Maybe someday I will find my niche....

Dragon*Con 2012!

Right now Ben and I are mad at dragoncon because it's been 2 weeks since we came back home from it and we are still sick with the "con rot" or "con crud" as some people call it. But besides that ickiness, we really had a fun time! 

So what is this dragoncon I speak of? Dragon*Con is probably the biggest sci-fi/fantasy convention around. It takes place every year around or on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. The website says there were over 52,000 people there this past convention. Ben and I did a lot of people watching, saw a TON of amazing costumes!

We arrived in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. Once we got our hotel keys and convention badges, we took our stuff to our room, relaxed for a few minutes, and went to the spot where our pizza party was going to be.  

After the pizza party and hanging out with friends, we went downstairs to the lobby to walk around. A few people were in costume on Thursday but not many because a lot of people were just checking into their hotel rooms on that day. 

Ben and I went outside and were admiring the buildings at night when a man on a horse-driven carriage asked if we wanted a carriage ride. Sure! He took us around, showed us a lot of gorgeous buildings with a ton of history behind them. I didn't get any good pictures because the horse knew when I was about to snap a picture and he managed to step in a pothole in the road every single time. ;)  

I gotta learn more about this camera because sometimes I can snap pictures while moving and they turn out ok and not that blurry. But sometimes it doesn't work like that and the slightest movement makes it so blurry, you wonder what in the world you must have been trying to get a picture of. 

There was a beautiful building right outside of one of the hotels, and Ben and I must have snapped a million pictures. It didn't matter at what time of day you look at that building, it was beautiful. It has all these plants in front of it, and at night with the lights on, some of the plants had glowy leaves.

Friday we went to a few panels. The first panel we went to was Storytelling through Role Playing. Ben likes role playing games (RPGs). It was a very interesting panel! I'm not that into RPGs, but I would like to be the person who writes the game into a story. Just once. :) 

Another panel we went to was for the cast of the show Eureka. Huge room filled with people! If you haven't seen that show, it's really good, and it's on Netflix! 


Also, Friday, we met ALICE COOPER!!! 

pics from here and here

It's probably my highlight of the trip because it was so awesome to get to meet him! He wasn't in all the makeup that he wears in his shows, he was just a down-to-earth person. (He looked like the picture on the left when we met him.)

The best part about meeting him was that he was willing to talk to my mom on the phone (again, very down to earth). Let me set the "stage" for you:

Ben and I were walking past a room that said something to the effect of "Meet Alice Cooper here!" So we walked in and there was a long table (probably 3 or 4 people in line in front of us). On the table were all sorts of professional pictures of Alice Cooper that you could purchase and have him autograph. Behind the table sat two women who were selling the pictures on the table and selling tickets for people to get a professional picture WITH Alice at a later date and time at the convention. 

Ben and I were a little confused because we thought when we walked in and saw the table that Alice Cooper would be behind the table signing autographs and meeting people. However, he was around the corner (so that you couldn't just take pictures from the doorway or see him from the doorway). He had a sign that he didn't want any pictures taken there at the table while you were meeting him, so we respected his wishes, although I wish I could have taken a picture while he was on my phone!

Anywho, we told the women that we just wanted to meet him. We were waiting behind 2 people at this time. And in that moment, I call mom, thinking it would be cool if he could talk to her or just say hi. When she answered, I didn't have any time to tell her that she might get to talk to Alice Cooper, I just had enough time to tell her to hold on a second, and then Ben and I were the next ones to meet him. 

We walk up to him and shake his hand and tell him we're big fans, and then I ask if he would mind saying hi to my mom while handing him my phone. He laughs and one of his security guards (I'm assuming that's who he was?) kinda laughed too. He said ok and asked what her name is, I said Melanna. He took my phone and said "Hi Melanna?" and since she didn't know who she was talking to, she just said "Hi?" thinking that she was probably talking to Ben. Alice laughed and said "wow, someone really IS there!" He asked "Is this your one phone call from jail?" and then he said "Well it's nice talking to you" with which she replied "It's nice talking to you too" (still confused at why Ben was acting that way). As he was handing the phone back to me he said "tell her I'll bail her out!"  

We said thanks and nice to meet him and went on out the door. Mom was still on the phone so I said "Mom! That was Alice Cooper!!" and she said "What?!" "Mom, that was ALICE COOPER!" "Ohmygosh are you serious?! I was talking to Alice Cooper? On the phone!! I can't believe it! That was Alice Cooper!" lol  soo hilarious and awesome all at the same time. Apparently she had a good day because she got to tell everyone she saw that day that she talked to Alice Cooper on the phone. We have no "actual" proof, but it's a true story and so awesome that he was so nice and friendly to do that.

The rest of the trip was basically spent people-watching. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the convention is when most people are out in costume, and it's so cool to see some people's creations. Some costumes are straight from costume stores, and some are actually hand-made and really original and thought out. Some people's creativity and imaginations are really amazing sometimes! I will have to post more pictures of people's costumes at a later time because some of them are on the other computer and it is occupado at the moment.

The day after we got back from Atlanta, I started my new job! It's in a brand new hospital. The CEO really has "patient and family healing" in mind in every aspect of the hospital, which is really cool. My bosses seem awesome right now. The hospital isn't even open yet and we're all so busy trying to get it all ready for the first day when it opens. So far, it's amazing though!

Neato frito

I took this picture while in Atlanta last weekend, probably one of the neatest pictures I've taken in a while.  :)