Aenean sit amet tellus ut lectus interdum porttitor. Nam condimentum, leo quis tempor aliquam, augue augue pretium purus, ut suscipit nisi nunc sit amet libero. Phasellus tortor turpis, hendrerit ut, iaculis vel, malesuada sed, mauris. Sed eu nunc quis neque ultrices rhoncus. Vestibulum nisi nulla, condimentum vitae, egestas vel, congue at, leo. Duis malesuada malesuada nisi. Nulla nec sem nec mi molestie tempus. Cras viverra odio sed metus aliquam vulputate. In pulvinar accumsan est. Sed non sem eu libero semper commodo. Nulla eget sem at odio lobortis tristique. Fusce a dolor. Integer sodales elit vel nibh. Curabitur cursus bibendum nibh.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent ligula. Mauris lacinia ipsum. Etiam molestie tortor non ligula. Sed vitae massa. Suspendisse rhoncus porta leo. Ut sollicitudin est ut leo. Cras molestie nisi ac lacus. Sed ut lectus at dui suscipit posuere. Donec dignissim ante sed erat. Suspendisse ornare pulvinar quam. In ante. Nullam dui pede, pellentesque at, luctus id, laoreet quis, lectus. Nullam massa magna, vulputate et, faucibus eget, interdum in, metus. Nunc mi arcu, dapibus vel, aliquet id, varius eget, est. Praesent laoreet tempor neque. Phasellus quis sapien eget sem hendrerit scelerisque.

Aenean sit amet tellus ut lectus interdum porttitor. Nam condimentum, leo quis tempor aliquam, augue augue pretium purus, ut suscipit nisi nunc sit amet libero. Phasellus tortor turpis, hendrerit ut, iaculis vel, malesuada sed, mauris. Sed eu nunc quis neque ultrices rhoncus. Vestibulum nisi nulla, condimentum vitae, egestas vel, congue at, leo. Duis malesuada malesuada nisi. Nulla nec sem nec mi molestie tempus. Cras viverra odio sed metus aliquam vulputate. In pulvinar accumsan est. Sed non sem eu libero semper commodo. Nulla eget sem at odio lobortis tristique. Fusce a dolor. Integer sodales elit vel nibh. Curabitur cursus bibendum nibh.

This is a new recipe. I’ve never tried it, but it looks fine. It’s pretty hard to fuck up zucchini bread. Originally, I thought I’d locate my mom’s recipe, but couldn’t find it. I just assumed it came from my Mom’s vintage Betty Crocker recipe book that was handed down to me, but it wasn’t. Oh well, it’s good to try new things.

VEGAN ZUCCHINI BREAD

A classic recipe for vegan zucchini bread that freezes well. I love zucchini bread with a sprinkle of sugar and a dollop of margarine, though for a healthier breakfast, you’ll probably want to omit those extras! This recipe uses egg replacer, so make sure you have some on hand.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups grated zucchini, about 6 zucchini
* Egg replacer for 3 eggs
* 1 cup oil
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 3 cups flour
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp baking soda
* 1 tbsp cinnamon
* 2 tsp nutmeg
* 1 tsp baking powder

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 bread pans.

Stir together the zucchini, egg replacer, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.

Pour the batter in to the pans and bake for 50-60 minutes. Enjoy!

source: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/breakfastrecipe1/r/zucchinibread.htm

After the bread is done, I have to pack for Chicago. Do I own warm clothes? Not much.

Got to the shoot early. Stopped for donuts at the famous Dales Donuts in Rancho Dominguez.

And yes, Summer is over. Today is the first day of Autumn. I’m always a little sad when Summer ends. Not because I love Summer or anything like that…but thinking about it, I realize that I still maintain childhood feelings of melancholy that school is starting again and the year is almost over. Of course, I don’t have school anymore. So why so blue? Don’t know. Halloween is around the corner. Once that baby hits, it’s on to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. Big things are happening this year. My brother’s baby is due around the end of November. I’m trying to decide if I want to travel to Omaha. I probably will. Christmas Eve is now being held every year at my palatial estate. I need to start thinking about that. The end of the year means the start of a new one which means I’ll be 34 in a matter of months. Cripes.

As you can see, I’m starting introspection early this year. Must be the cool weather. I planted Oregano in the backyard. One of the plants that came with the house didn’t last on my water schedule and died, what must have been, a slow, painful death. I think a spider bit my knee. Bastard. So I replaced the old plant with hearty oregano. How awesome will it be to use fresh oregano from my own yard? Pretty awesome, I think.

Now that the weather has cooled off, as promised, I’m going to start cleaning out the garage for reals. Over the Summer, I hired two kids to help me and all they really did was put things in indistinguishable piles. The garage, upon completion, will be my new photography studio. I’ll set up a backdrop, lights, a make-up table, a changing area, and music. It’s gonna rock. Along with shooting my own junk in there, I’m also thinking about renting it out. I imagine there are quite a few people in the area that would love to have access to a small studio for a low price. So cheap, you’ll think you’re stealing it! Anyway, that’s up and coming. Perhaps I’ll start today. The garage, if it’s hot, is intolerable – If it’s cold, the garage is freezing. Over the winter, I’ll have a heater and by Summer, if all goes well, we’ll be able to install an air conditioner. I’m pretty excited. Thing is, little old me has to do it all by her little old self and little old me ain’t looking forward to all the manual labor involved. *sigh* Get started, that’s all I can do. Thank Apple for iPods and thank me for frequent breaks. I’ll also be putting all kinds of things on eBay. Sales will go back into the studio and make for improvements and equipment.

I’m hoping cooler weather means the spiders have all gone to sleep. Now that Summer is over, I finally feel like I can start getting things done. The heat fucks me up. I get tired, cranky, sweaty, gross. Time to come out of my Summer Coma and get to work.

Friday Comic Con: Extended Watchmen trailer, lots of walking around, a modest amount of pictures, met Dave for a bit, tried to see the Mystery Science Theater panel – missed it. Crazy amounts of people to the point of claustrophobia. Spent about 10 hours at the con. Got back to our hotel, slept.

Saturday Comic-Con: AJB and JCS pissed me off early enough that I let them leave without me. Took a cab to the Con around 11:30pm, missed the Heroes panel. Sad about that. Walked about by myself, had lunch, let lots of cool people, took lots of pictures. Met the Steampunk Ghostbusters, bought two Death Note DVD’s – one might not work at home. Met up with AJB for dinner. Was cranky and tired, went home by myself and watched “The Other Boleyn Girl” (which wasn’t that bad) and knocked out.

Sunday Comic-Con: We all took our time getting ready, had a late breakfast at the hotel, and got to the Con around 2:30pm. Went our separate ways, I walked around, took more pictures. Stopped by for some candids of Frakes, Sirtis, and Burton. Frakes looked up at me and smiled. I was overcome with school girl delight and said to him, “God, you’re adorable“. He grinned and thanked me. LOL. I love him. The Con ended and we, along with the thousands of remaining geeks, went home. The drive home from San Diego was long. Took about 4 hours. Ate gross Panda Express food in Irvine, came home, caught up on some work, went to sleep.

And that’s about the gist of it. I would have liked to blog more when I was there, but seeing as each day ranged from 5-12 hours, by the time we got back to our dingy hotel, there was no way. There was a general consensus that this year, Comic Con became less about comics and more about movies. There were panels about things non-comic book related and a whole slew of tourists and non-geeks. The convention center was packed to the gills; it was pretty bad. While many things were the same, there was still this overwhelming feeling that Comic-Con was no longer for the die-hards. I talked to random people and it seems I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Next year Comic-Con will be 40 years old. I guess it’s about time the rest of the world found it. You can’t hide something that awesome for too long. Still, it’s sad when something unique gets assimilated into the mainstream.

After all that, I’d taken a job with a local photographer to help assist on his photo-shoot. It’s good petty cash and nice to see how other photographers work. I knew the shoot was taking place at the beach, I just didn’t know how bad it would be. We got to Malibu around 4:00pm. I lugged a 25 pound battery pack down three stories of beach steps and a winding path. I spent most of the shoot knee deep in rotten sea water, the tide ebbing and flowing, some times coming out of no-where. I got wet, I got covered in sand. My Docs got soaked and were weighing me down, so I took them off. Barefoot in the sand and rocks, at one point, the tide came in and dragged big rocks up and down the shore, but also slamming into my ankles. At first I thought the big black marks on my ankles were dirt, but no, they’re bruises. I followed the photographer around carrying the battery pack in an awkward tote bag, saving it from certain death when the tide came in.

WHOA! 5.8 EARTHQUAKE IN CHINO HILLS!!! Felt like two big booms, as if the house was being lifted up by giant hands and moved. Scared the hell out of me. I was on the phone with mom at the time. The cats freaked out, ran about the house and are still missing in action. Luckily, nothing fell off the shelves or moved very much. This old house sure can take a beating. I figure, it’s stood up through the last 100 years of earthquakes and natural disasters…it must be made pretty well.

So anyways, the shoot yesterday was pretty grueling. I’ve got bruises on my ankles, my shoulders are sore, and I’m pretty tired. I can’t figure out if I’m just getting old or if yesterday was unusually difficult. I’ll go with the latter. I should also point out that one of the male models insinuated that I was fat. He made some comment that he and the girl model got cold faster because they didn’t have any body fat. What ev. How dare he. If I’m considered fat, there is something really wrong with the world. Anyway.

I did learn a few tricks, but mostly I learned that the major difference between me and the high ranking photographers is finances.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com