Rare Cheese Flavor / What kind of express?

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rare Cheese Flavor - Yes, this really is "rare cheese" flavored orange juice. (Well, 51% juice. Maybe the other 49% is cheese.) I bought it. It's been in my fridge since yesterday. I haven't been able to psych myself up to try it yet.

Tara: What kind of Express? - I saw this in a dollar store and it took me way too long to realize that that was an "s" in "Fast" and not an "r." Also, I just noticed that I've inadvertently given my photos this week a WTF? theme.

Kawaii Pastry / Rainbow Foods

Kerry . Tara


Kerry: Kawaii Pastry - This is also completely normal in Japan. (Kawaii means, approximately, "cute".)

Tara: Rainbow Foods - I made sure ROY G BIV was represented in the table settings and separated three 1lb bags of Skittles by color to make a centerpiece that children couldn't get the concept of. By the end of the party my centerpiece was just two bud vases with green and purple Skittles. I loved the way the fruit platter turned out. Although, if I make this again, I'll either get grapes to represent green or get more than two kiwis and also learn how to correctly cut them so I don't waste so much trying to get the skin off. I would also like to give a public service announcement about that caramel fruit dip. This was my first time ever buying and consuming this product. If you've never bought it, don't. It will forever ruin fruit for you. Never again will fruit be a healthy snack option because you will want to douse it in that delicious, soft caramel. Trust me on this.

Love Snow / Sweet Love

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Love Snow - It doesn't snow in the part of Japan where I live, pretty much ever. That was one of the things that was told to me when I first moved here, in a reassuring tone of voice - "Don't worry, it doesn't snow here." Like that's a good thing? I lived for seven years in places where it didn't snow; and yeah, Hawaii's weather was picture perfect every day and I wish I was still there, but geez. It is so much harder to deal with cold weather if you don't get even a little snow now and then. I mean, what's the point?
Well, tonight is the third time it's snowed in the past few weeks; and what's different about tonight is that it is STICKING! I stepped out onto my balcony and took this picture with my trusty Lensbaby Composer w/Creative Aperture Kit. Heart-shaped snowflakes! Happy Valentine's Day!

Tara: Sweet Love - I thought this would be cute for Valentine's Day. I feel the subject has the same qualities as the holiday. Candy is not real food, but generic. A little bit of candy is a treat, but too much of it will make you sick. Candy is bad for your teeth, just like Valentine's Day since it causes excessive candy eating.

Obscenity (Theme) : Graffiti / F#@$

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Graffiti - I was all set to upload a different picture, and then I saw the one that Tara had on tap as a backup for today and I thought, hey, why not make today a theme day? I took this picture at the playground yesterday because I am making an effort to document as much of the graffiti as possible, in case I ever get around to writing a complaint letter about the lousy job that security has been doing around housing. Anyway. It's hard to take pictures of graffiti on this plastic playground stuff because of the way the light comes through it; the letters end up looking translucent and not really showing up in the picture. In this case, it looks kind of cool. (Also, if you look closely, you can see that this picture is actually on its side. I usually upload directly from my camera and I'm too lazy to put it through photoshop first to rotate it.)

Tara: F#@$ - No cussing signs at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. [This is a backup picture. I am on vacation.]

Spring Week: Lace / A Bug's View

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Lace - Brandon is always picking up plumeria blossoms from the ground. He invariably picks up ones that have browned a bit, and since he isn't exactly delicate with them, they get more and more bruised as he holds them. They aren't what most of us would call "pretty" but they are absolutely fascinating to him. It made me think about how things that are imperfect and past their prime can be pretty in their own way. This is a bug-eaten leaf on the same hibiscus bush from Tuesday.

Tara: A Bug's View - I took this picture by putting my camera in the middle of this branch. I think it's a fir tree of some kind but I know next to nothing about Botany.

Spring Week: Fuzzy Seeds / Smashed Handprint

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Fuzzy Seeds - Spring in Hawaii is weird because there are falling leaves and seed pods - neither of which are things that happen in the spring where I'm from. It's almost like they took all of the seasons and smushed them all together into the month of May.

Tara: Smashed Handprint- This is my son with his hand pressed against the screen door. (Well actually I guess it's a plexiglass door since there is no screen.) It's been getting nicer and nicer outside, so this day we let him play in the sprinkler and then the dirt.

Spring Week: Coil / Secret Bubbles

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Coil - The theme this week is "spring" and I'm a smartass.

Tara: Secret Bubbles - My husband and son were on the other side of the fence blowing bubbles. I didn't know until I walked out of our back door and saw bubbles coming up from behind the fence.

Spring Week: Spiky / Random Magenta

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Spiky - The spring flowers I grew up with are things like tulips and daffodils and hyacinths - pretty, cheerful flowers that just don't exist in Hawaii. This is a flower that grows on bushes around my neighborhood. I don't know what it's called, and it doesn't have any fragrance, but it's pure white and colorful at the same time, and undeniably tropical looking. It doesn't exactly say "spring" to me, but I'm sure it says "spring" to people who grew up here.
(ps, I'm an idiot - it's a hibiscus. Duh.)

Tara: Random Magenta - I took my son on our usual walk yesterday. Usually the only flowers we ever see are some buttercups or dandelions. I have no idea what these are, (Uh, Kerry?) but they were definitely out of place and very pretty.

Spring Week: Pink and Green / Furry Trees

Kerry (top). Tara (bottom)

Kerry: Pink and Green - This is some kind of succulent (the class of plant that cacti and aloe belong to) in a pot in my neighbor's yard. Obviously they don't put too much effort into taking care of it, since the pot is now also full of grass. I thought the colors looked nice and spring-y.

Tara: Furry Trees - After living on this base for a year and a half, we found this really pretty nature walk behind some buildings we never go to. It's fairly close to our house, so I think I'll be integrating into our daily walks.

The only bad part about this nature walk is that there is poison ivy and oak everywhere. You have to stay on the path or you will pay for it with lots of itching. I found these trees neat looking because they are covered with poison ivy, and in the sunlight, they looked furry to me.

CHEATING DAY : Goats/ King's Chariot

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Goats - I took this picture on Saturday afternoon, at the petting zoo section of the Honolulu Zoo. (We didn't let Brandon touch anything.) I swear to you, we didn't plan this out in advance as a theme day (the theme being "cheating") - I was watching an extra one-year-old yesterday and didn't have time to take any pictures. I decided to post a picture from over the weekend instead, logged on to upload it, and saw that Tara did the same thing. More evidence that we are freakishly alike.

Tara: King's Chariot - Ok so I'm cheating. I didn't take this picture yesterday but this past weekend. I promise, after this no more Elvis related pictures from me. This is one of Elvis' Cadillacs that sits on the Graceland grounds. I added a blur effect just because.

P.S. Great minds think alike.