ESPN The Weekend 5k — I survived!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
I completed my 3rd 5k in a year..and my 2nd this year! Here are some pictures and a short little video from the run.
This may have been my proudest moment of any 5k..I didn’t need to use my asthma inhaler nor did I even think about it during or after the run! You have no idea how happy that makes me. That is HUGE for me!
My friend Angela finished in 31:52
My mom finished in 49:18
And I finished in 52:57
P.S. — In the video, it’s my mother that is smoking a cig. Just her..
American Idol..Is it really THE Experience?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Jeff and I went to see the newest attraction at Walt Disney World — The American Idol Experience. It was mainly to go see Jeff’s latest work! Which was just exciting in itself!!
This is a picture of a T.V. screen which includes Jeff’s work on the small screen.
After seeing his work in the pre show, we decided to check out the actual show and see if it lived up to all the hype.
I’m going to admit this..and it does not, I repeat does NOT leave this page: I watch American Idol and I sometimes enjoy it.
Maybe had we had seen at least the finale I would have enjoyed AIE more, but it seems like to fully get the whole “experience”, I would have to see all the daily shows and then the finale. I can’t say that there will ever be a day that I feel like sitting in that room for 7 hours off and on. But hey, maybe one day. Plus, it truly depends on the “singers” for the show that you are watching. Yes, they have gone up against others that day for that spot, but maybe you don’t always agree with the judges and you would have liked to have seen someone else. I mean I didn’t agree with who won our show. But then again, that’s life.
Either way, here are the pictures (that was my favorite part — taking pictures). Enjoy!
Tweetup at an Irish Bar
Saturday, February 21, 2009
How many non-Irish folk can you fit into an Irish bar? I wish this was a set up to a joke, but it’s not. The answer is about 100 completely different people from twitter! 100 people shoved into Scruffy Murphy’s in College Park makes for an interesting night.
Jeff and I met up with our friend Tommy and we had a little walk over to the bar. We were early, but all was well and Mickey, from SomaCow, was there already so we grabbed our first drink of the night. Thanks to Mickey for our drinks! All of the SomaCow guys are great…well I can’t say that for J though..seeing as though he apparently doesn’t ever want to come meet others, so I haven’t met him yet..
Shortly after, others started flowing in and by the end of the night I had walked around (yep..I continued standing the entire night, even after…oh…6? beers. Oops!) and met quite a few wonderful people (I also did some catching up with others that I got to meet at the Ichiban tweeup). Including, but not limited to: Carri, Sir Kyle (because that is what I will always call him), Ashley, Anthony “I don’t have a butterfly on my keychain” Richardson, Garth, Katy, Marc Middleton, Geoff, Jen, Mickey, Ross, Shawn, Etan, Daphne, Melanie, and Susan (who is a great alarm system–she kept Jeff from stealing things from my bag! Which I greatly appreciate!)
Thanks again to Etan and Daphne for putting together a wonderful tweetup. I can honestly say that I never expected that many people to show up. Who would have thought?
Below are some of my favorite tweets the day of the tweetup! And then pictures from the tweetup!
Video from Marc Middleton and Katy Widrick from GrowingBolder.com
What is a tweetup?
Serious website meltdown
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I am sitting here working on my photography website..which I haven’t updated since November of 2008. I’m not sure how exactly I want the “gallery-to-store” links to work, but I want to make it the easiest for YOU! So please, click through the gallery and tell me how YOU would like to see or have seen an easy “click here to buy” function. I don’t really like how it is now..if you find a picture that you’d like to buy in the gallery, you then have to go to the store and find the same picture. Not that it’s that difficult because they are in the same categories and named the same, but I just want to make it the easiest thing possible for YOU.
This is where you come in. The incentive: I will be going through reading the comments/emails and whichever way I think will work best for peglegpug.com, that person will receive ANY print from the website of their choice! Try your hardest to explain to me the way your ideal gallery/store functions would work.
Comment below or e-mail me at kelly@peglegpug.com
My 1st…Rental
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A couple of week ago I decided that I was finally going to rent a camera lens. I started going through a couple of sites and came across the perfect first place for me to rent from. RentGlass.com. Not only were the prices very reasonable, along with the shipping, but I found out that they were located in Kissimmee, Florida (which is only about 15 minutes away from our house).
I sent a message from the website asking if it was possible to pick up a lens and got a response 25 minutes later stating that I could pick it up Monday-Friday. Thankfully it was Friday and I have the day off.
After searching through the website and trying to decide what lens I wanted to try first, I decided on the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM. Here is some information on this specific lens:
–Closest focusing distance is .65 feet
–Auto and Manuel Focus
–Maximum Aperture is 1:2:8 (Aperture = limiting the amount of light passing through a lens; hole, gap, or slit; larger the number the smaller the opening vs. smaller the number the larger the opening; Depth of field is larger when the number is smaller)
I placed my order, called my friend so she could go with me and went on the search for this place.
First of all, Google Maps gave me directions that took me, no joke, about 20 minutes out of the way. After driving around in a great big square, we finally made it to the plaza that it’s located in. Well, from there it got even crazier. There aren’t many offices/stores in the building, so there weren’t many signs. But after walking up some stairs and following the inside signs we made it. The office seemed neat and clean. Daniel, who e-mailed me back, was very nice. I signed my paper, was given the lens and the package to ship it back in. And off we went.
I spent the next few days taking pictures of really anything that was laying around the house and the office. From my cat to the filing cabinet. The lens was very quiet and quick to focus in automatic. Manuel focus may be a bit more “work”, but always seems to work a bit better no matter what lens you use (in my opinion).
The condition of the lens seemed near perfect. Didn’t really see any scratches or markings on it. Seemed to me that it was quite a new lens. The week rental cost me $21.00. Since I picked up the lens, it cost me a mandatory $5.00 to ship it back, even if I wanted to take it back. (Fine with me, I saved some gas!) With the rental, shipping and tax, the lens cost $27.82. I wish I would have had some more time with it. Had I had planned to go somewhere and take some pictures I would have definitely rented it longer to get some really great pictures. There is always next time.
Thank you to rentglass.com for a great lens and a wonderful first rental. I will most definitely use them again!
Is Magic Kingdom’s New Parade Really New?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Technically “Share A Dream Come True” parade is no more. Although from what I saw on Tuesday 2/10, I would kinda of have to argue that.
For those seeing a Magic Kingdom parade for the time will not know any different, but those that have seen the parade literally hundreds of times probably will not like the “Celebrate a Dream Come True” parade. It started back on January 23rd and I hadn’t really heard anything good about it. So a friend and myself decided to go check it out and see what we thought..only way of knowing right?
Although a float or two are “different”, there isn’t much change to those. Throw some ribbons and balloons on it and call it a day. A few of the characters have been removed — Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Robin Hood, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Baloo and Stitch, 6 of the 7 Dwarfs to name a few. As my friend said, “Don’t they know Pooh doesn’t go out without his friends?”. Apparently someone missed that memo. The villains is mainly the same, if NOT the exact same. And Snow White’s Prince Charming has been added with her. Oh and Bert is with Mary Poppins now!
This new parade does a couple of “show stops” (if you’ve seen the Hollywood Block Party Bash, you’ll know what I mean). The only problem with that is, unlike Hollywood Studios where there is bouncing and fun things happening down the whole street, “Celebrate a Dream Come True” parade contains dancers….dancing. And well, I can see them dance when they are walking down the street. The characters don’t seem to be the main part of this parade and that’s probably my main problem with this parade.
And to top it all off..I can not STAND the song. It was horrible when Corbin Bleu sang it on the WDW Christmas Day Parade and this isn’t any better.
Have you seen this parade yet? If so, did you ever see “Share a Dream Come True”? If you haven’t seen one or the other, what have you heard about it? I’m very curious to know!
But oh well, those are just my opinions on the parade..now for the good stuff..the pictures!!
Mini Golf — Fun for Everyone
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I’ve been trying to plan a little miniature golf outing the past couple of weeks due to the fact that as a Disney cast member, we get a free round of golf through Thursday, February 12. Sunday, 2/8 was that day! Angela, Scott (aka Scangela) Jeff and myself (aka Jelly) went to see what was going on with the Disney golf courses. We’ve done them before, but hey, why not! It’s free! Plus I’m always up for some mini golf. You will see the details of what happened when we arrived.
Highlight of the night: Scott AND Jeff both got a hole in one!
Are there any places around the Orlando area that have awesome mini golf courses?! I’m always looking for some golf places.
Adventures In Line Dancing
Monday, February 9, 2009
My friend, Angela, and I tried a few line dancing classes out at Cheyenne Saloon a few months back. We went a couple of times, but decided that the classes weren’t that good. It could have been the teachers we had, but still. Plus, some of the people there dancing just kinda drove us crazy. So, Angela searched around and she finally came across a couple of places. We decided to try out the classes at Jesse Blacks and I must say, we’ve gone to 4 so far and we quite like them. The teacher is wonderful and the people there range from beginners (like myself) to pros, or so it seems, who put their own spin on the dances. For the most part some are just fun to watch. Here is one of the nights we went — Wednesday, 2/4/09.
I won’t point out which one I am, but I’m not that good on most of the songs and I started to goof off toward the end of the night. Oops!
Yet Another Tweetup
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Jeff and I spent the afternoon in Tampa — no, not at Gasparilla. We were with Cate and Ginger, from gifts.tv. Jeff has been working on the animation and their new website, which should be lauching before next weekend! We left Cate’s house around 9:30 PM and headed straight to Icebar. When we walked in, she told us $30 per person and I’m sure I didn’t hide my shock. After a bit of talking, they informed us that we could sit in the “Chill Zone”, which is where everyone was supposed to meet. But after we walked in, this is what we saw..
EMPTY!!
We decided to have a drink and wait and see if anyone came out of the Icebar part. And yes, about 20 minutes later..they started filtering out. But with Jeff and I not being the “go start a conversation” type of people, we sat there for a while and about 10 minutes before leaving Jeff went over to talk to Julia Roy and Lucretia Pruitt. We were talking to them for a few minutes when Ted Murphy and Alex Schek walked over. Everyone was having a GREAT time. And it was nice to talk for even a couple of minutes. Makes IzeaFest feel like it’s that much further way!!
Here is video of Alex, Julia, Ted, Jeff and I walking out. Wow, great times. haha
Need to Rent a Lens?
To rent a lens it doesn’t matter if you are a pro or take pictures as a hobby or are going on a vacation. Renting the perfect camera lens for more than likely less than $100 for a week, what better way to get the pictures that you really want. Instead of spending $300 – $1,500 on buying the lens outright, why not rent and try them out? Think of it as test driving a car that you are thinking about purchasing.
Throughout the past couple of months I’ve been thinking about renting a lens, but I didn’t really know where to start. I mean, yeah, I can do some searching around online and see what places are out there. But how would I know who is good? Who has good prices? Who over charges for shipping? I never came across any place that had a list of a few of the websites in one place. (If there’s one out there, do tell!) This is where I started my “research” and wanted to share it with any others interested in photography..
To start things off, I went through all of the websites to find the same lens to compare the prices. Well, to say the least, that was a major failure. The three lens are quite close in mm and price. I will note for each website which lens it is.
– www.borrowlenses.com — Located in San Mateo, CA
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $25, Shipping is $19 for 2-Day, Local pick-up is available
Reservations can be made
– www.lensprotogo.com — Located in Acton, MA
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $55, Shipping is included
Reservations can be made up to 4 months in advance
– www.rentglass.com –Located in Kissimmee, FL
Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $21, Shipping is $13 for 1-3 Days; Local pick-up is available
Rental is based on a first come, first serve basis; Can rent 3 lenses at a time
*Side note: I e-mailed customer service about picking up a lens and got a response less than 30 minutes later. Great service!
– www.photolensrental.com — Located in San Rafael, CA
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $39.45
Lenses are on a first come, first serve basis; one lens at a time
– www.lensrental.com — Located in Cordova, TN
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $26 for 2-Day, Local pick-up is available
Reservations available
Guaranteed availability, given two weeks notice on a two-week rental
*Thanks to Will Glynn at lensrentals.com for additional information.
– www.adoramarentals.com — Located in New York, NY
Canon 60mm f/2.8 Compact Macro E-FS
1 week rental is $60/week, or $20/day
*Side note: Days in transit are included in the rental period
– www.rentmylenses.com — Located in Camden, AR
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
1 week rental is $29, Shipping is $24.40
Reservations are available, See website for a “two-in-two guarantee”
– www.lensgiant.com — Located in Northville, MI
Canon 100mm EF f/2.8 Macro
8 day rental is $23, Shipping ground is free or 2-Day express is $10.37
Reservations are available
– www.prophotorental.com — Located in Denver, CO
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
7 day rental is $44.80 (at $6.40/day), 3-Day shipping is free, can upgrade to 2-day or overnight, Local pickup available
Reservations are available
4-day minimum, based on a day rate
– www.ziplens.com — Located in Brookline, MA
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $23 for 2-Day and $35 for Overnight, Local pickup available in Boston area
Reservations are available up to 3 months in advance
Gift certificates available
– www.cameralensrental.com — Located in Anderson, IN
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $25, Shipping is $24.99 for Fed-Ex
Use code CLR and get 10% off your first order
Reservations can be made as far in advance as you want
Rent 4 lenses (doesn’t have to be at once) for a week or longer and get a 3-day rental for free, just pay the shipping and if needed longer, the difference in the rental period
*Side note: E-mailed for an “incomplete order in the database” by two different employees, within a hour of each other, both of them happened on a Sunday. Great customer e-mail service.
– www.mjlensrentals.com — Located in Wichita, KS
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
1 week rental is $56, Shipping is $31.62 USPS Priority Mail (2-3 days)
Rent as many as you want, may require a copy of your drivers license and/or security deposit
Not many different lenses available
I hope this information helps. I found it useful to gather all the information on a similiar type of lens from lots of different websites and then go from there. If you know of any lens rental sites/places that I didn’t mention please e-mail me at kelly@peglegpug.com and I will be sure to add them to any upcoming lists.
