Kareneh

What kind of a photographer do you think I am? Well......okay.....if we can call it Art.

Okay, am I the only one who has her shrine in the laundry room? I prefer Tied, you know. ***Checks for typos, doesn't see any.***

Hmmm.....after my weekend with Clay, I'll let you know. Somebody who gets me!!! And I said I didn't care.....HA!

Karen Eh? tosses a Cheese Doodle and snatches her tongue back from the.......um.....kitty. I haven't posted because I can't keep up with y'all....Lord! You have been a model of prolific this weekend, haven't ya? I'm still up in Canada visiting family (from kids, to mothers, and the whole gamut of relations) until the middle of September. My husband is still in Texas so those relations are on hold for the time being. I have to hang here until my husband drops by, for a week, after Labor Day and then returns to the US to renew his work visa. I can't reenter the US until he's done that.....our current visas expire on September 2nd. I make this trek mostly alone (or with my dog) in the car two or three times a year. I get asked all the time how I can do that 5 day drive all by myself but in all honesty, it's marvelous to have all that time to myself. Love it! If at all possible, I catch a few concerts or appearances along the way. Hopefully, I will get a GPS for Christmas. If we have any money left that is. Anyhow, I'm one of those fans that found Clay on that first day on AI2 and didn't realize that I had fallen so hard until the show ended, and it occurred to me that I wasn't going to have a date with him the following Tuesday night. I was so not ready to break up. I went to the Fox Idol site, found a link to Bolt and tour dates. Bolt was interesting. I ended up at Neurox, TWOP, PRoC, and ultimately the LBFCA. Talk about your guilty pleasures........I would open that site and close it so fast (silly me!).....go back, open it again.....close it not so fast. etc etc. etc. The purple pages of the LBFCA became, and still are, what I consider my home board. Before I got into the photography thing I was into writing....nothing serious....I'm better at nonsense..... and had a blast creating a few Main Pages for that site. Even now I go back and read through the archived Main Pages at the LBFCA. If you're ever feeling like the fandom is getting a little to heavy go back over there and dig through the archives. Every page ever put up is still there.....some funny sh*t. Look for some more new ones in the near future, we've got a push on to get back some of the timeliness and frequency with which those pages went up. There is just so much good material to work with these days! I don't remember when I joined FCA. All I do know is that I was getting topic notifications in my email and I was just deleting them. One day in the spring (?) I opened one accidentally and saw that it was KAndre who had posted in an FCA thread and I said to myself......."Huh? So what's this all about then?" I followed the link like a good minion and voila. Here I am......Member #888. I think it's good luck or something....if I would just remember not to put my purse on the floor when I get my nails done, I think I'd have it knocked. Where was I? (Yes, Karen is a babbler.) keepingfaith is negotiating with someone at the SPCA for another tongue deprived cat right about now. Okay, so........I found this place when my interest in the boards was starting to ebb a bit. I've never had any major issues with any board or anyone but I found I was doing an awful lot of scrolling and nobody wanted to play all that much.....or maybe they had just forgotten how. I have never lost sight of how absurd I think this whole thing is.......I love it because it is just that. I don't want it to make sense. I don't care if anyone in my family understands me or gets it. I want to be the crazy old aunt someday. The one everyone talks about because there's something worth talking about. Haven't we got the best stories? We've got so many stories, it's hard to keep track. I'm losing focus here....hang in for a bit, I think I can get it together in the end. In 2005 I left Nova Scotia (hence the Eh?......pronounced "A" as in YAY!!) to take up residence in Houston where I was inducted into membership in the eHP. I have never hit Solo, however.....and I did hide the glitter glue on KAndre so she couldn't slather lovingly apply it all over the nametags for the CH Houston party but....... You learn early in the eHP to stick up for yourself and duck when necessary. I love them.....every one of them. I love everybody. :F_05BL17blowkiss: So, here I sit up in Canada. I have classes starting online this Monday and most of my pix from the summer tour to do and get uploaded. It's a tough job when you're a clack ho and can't seem close that media player without "one more time." I think someone should write and sell a download manager called "Tourniquet"..... Okay, then.....it isn't often I comment on the serious stuff because I'm happy to let someone do the heavy thinking for me fluffy. Seriously.....let me think about that for a while. I could probably phrase that better. Bottom line for me is...this is supposed to be fun. There's no point in being here, for me, if it isn't and while I do have opinions......yes, I really do sometimes.....the fun part is the most important thing for me. The rest I just find all very fascinating. Oh, and the pretty is good, too. I like the pretty....and the voice and all the great people I've met. I am going through luggage and tires faster than my kids went through diapers in 1986. Thank God, luggage and tires are cheaper. This weekend I've been doing the happy dance because I found out that I'm free from school work as of December the 8th and make my way northward to Nova Scotia for Christmas anytime after that! I can do Red Bank and Morristown and anything other shows come up along the way. This has made me very very happy. Unlike the rumblings of a job transfer to Azerbaijan. Well, I'm kind of interested in driving to Moscow instead of Halifax....really. Oh........and about the school thing, you new folks shouldn't be fooled by that reference. I'm older than dirt. I love this board. I think you'll find it's just got the right kind of atmosphere to suit most everyone. Dead horses are quickly converted to glitter glue. That's about as sticky as it ever gets. Well, that's a lie. It gets sticky quite often around here......hence, all the laundry. Throw in another load and wait for the spin cycle. Question.....can you get the same effect from a front loader as you get from a top loader? Just wondering, before I spend all that money for nothing. OMG!! This took so long you've all moved onto his hair! I just wonder what it feels like.

Please....tell me you own some chaps, too.

Amen, Sister Muski, let's begin with something from the Book of Job, shall we? **I'm never all that far away in spirit....ever.**

Oooooh....jmh123, you and I share a bib. I'm so easy. I was "quickly reading" the last couple of pages until I scrolled my way into AAIT's pix and stopped for a pic-nic. YUM! KAndre, your recaps crack me up....seriously. And I know all about Scarlett's ability to bust a move. On the day we were to fly to Waukegan last December she called me in the wake of the first big snowstorm to cripple O'Hare, I got a 5:00 am call telling me I'd better get my butt up to Bush right then. My husband was driving me to the airport that day and getting up at five wasn't on his agenda no matter what. He didn't actually talk to Scarlett or meet her in person, so he was able to stick to his original plan. I'm beginning to feel kind of badly that I haven't done too much with the pictures I shot on tour this summer. Someone sent me a PM on another board and asked why I hadn't been able to make any shows this summer.....it felt a bit odd to reply that I had been to eleven concerts.....oh dear. Anyway, being a mom again and being on vacation has a way of distracting a person, though, to be completely honest I've been hitting the clack pretty hard. I love me some clack....yessiree! Love, love, love that sh.....stuff. Tonight, in particular spot's MOAM from Orlando. DAYUM!! Should her video from Orlando happen to find its way onto another medium that can be inserted into a certain silver box in my livingroom, there will be a brand new 52" LCD flat panel television in the K'eh household to celebrate the occasion. With lip prints all over it. Thank God we no longer use VHS tapes, they'd never stand up to the constant rewinding or the heat.

keepingfaith, I'm here. Here being up in Nova Scotia at my sister's. I arrived last night after pulling two 13 hour days on the road from Knoxville. (I hate flying, too.) I wish I was going to be in Florida this weekend but I'm happy to be up here and seeing my kids again. This has been the most fun summer of all. I can't believe that my concert run is over so fast and that the tour is in its last week. No fair!! I haven't been on line a whole lot with all of the traveling and what not, so now I'm in full clack absorption mode. When I'm taking pix at a concert it doesn't feel like I'm missing a thing but when I get the videos and watch the shows that I attended, I find all these new little gems. I love it! Sometimes it feels like the first time all over again. Does that make sense? Anyway, it's time for me to hang out in the coolness of the Atlantic Canadian summer (it was 12C out there tonight). I hope to get some recaps written.....probably once I've got this bottle of Biltmore Merlot into me. I have so much catching up to do.....not sure if it's even possible at this point....so I guess moving on is the best plan, eh? I'll wish those of you going to Florida the best time ever and sit here patiently waiting for clack. I'm good at that patiently waiting thing. {{{{{{Claygasm}}}}}}} Welcome eandpmommy!!

couchie, you asked where we upgraded to and I missed it. A table in the second row of Champagne came up on MBITS that's just off center so I took it. The original seats are really good ones, but I was afraid I'd be too exposed there on the aisle if we aren't allowed to take photos. I have a hunch this one might be tough. Sitting up here in the Marriott and thinking it's time to go to bed. We'll be out and about during the day tomorrow. I have to find a Best Buy since I forgot to dump a lot of stuff onto the external hard drive before I left home. I only have a half dozen gigs left on the laptop, so I have to go buy one of those handy dandy compact ones to use on this (and future) trips.

Congratulations, Carrie & the Blaze!!! Love the tournament recaps muski, please keep them coming, okay? It sure is nice up here on top of the Marriott Marina. Quite lovely! All three of our flights were on time and the GPS thingy I got with the rental is a blast. We've decided we really really like California. A lot. On the way down to San Diego we stopped by Pala and that's lovely, too. The lawn is so small. I think it's going to be a very cool place to see Clay. And a very easy one to see a sound check. Gawd! Didn't I love that video of the Chataugua soundcheck? How adorable! One of my most favourite pieces of clack ever. I didn't get my Canandaigua pix done before I left like I had hoped but I have quite a few uploaded. Here is the link for the album and some samples. The album is here

I'm staying at the Renaissance Hollywood and the mall is the one that's attached to the hotel at Hollywood and Highland. A bunch of us Broads have decided to descend on California Pizza Kitchen there in mid afternoon. I'll be having Thai, too....but it's going to be the Thai Chicken Pizza.

Couchie, I upgraded my San Diego seats this week and after I did that I found out that we had been sitting at the same table! I'm running with friends from the Broads this week and doing a lot of hanging around taking it easy. We have to meet up somewhere along the way and spend some time together. I'll be in San Diego on the 1st, Joe's Crab Shack before the San Diego concert, then leaving for Pala after the SD show. Our plan was to hang around Pala and relax on the 3rd and then we're heading up the LA on the 4th and checking in to the Renaissance Hollywood.....grabbing something to eat at a place as yet undetermined, at the mall there. The next day it's off to Indio and the Holiday Inn Express.....I changed my mind about going back to up LA that night and have decided to stick around Indio for the night. I'm sure we can hook up somewhere along the way. Please say "yes"....

pkmiller, that photo is bizarre. I have no idea if you can get a double exposure with a digital camera. I know you can get weird artifacts but I've taken thousands and thousands of digital photos and have never gotten anything like that. I guess you'd best not let Quiana see it. Speaking of scary things......I got a letter from my Volkswagon dealer yesterday offering me.....get this....the opportunity to "upgrade" my Jetta. So, I want to know who up there at VW is watching me. How did they know that an offer to upgrade would cause me to read the entire length and breadth of their piece of junk mail? I ask you? What else do they know about me? Kind of makes me laugh, though. German engineering and all that notwithstanding.....they aren't so smart, really. If I want to move my seat up in the Jetta I have this button on the side of the seat that I push. ldyj, your new avi cracks me up everytime I see it. Yes, the old cut and paste.....like you want me to upset my work flow, eh? Like do them all at the end instead of one at a time? BWAH!!!! Cut & paste, eh? Nobody pays me to be anything, least of all smart. Is this still first page? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I just printed my boarding pass for California! I knew once this tour started the summer was going to fly by, dang it! I can't believe this week is already here and I'm packing again. I have to have lunch with a long lost friend who wants to have lunch after 14 years. Then I'll be back here cutting and pasting those clothes right back into my suitcase. Wait.....maybe black pants, black pants, black pants, yellow shirt, yellow shirt, yellow shirt won't work. Crap!

YAY! KAndre found Cora's and instead of the poutine you should have had some street meat. Beats that poutine mess hands down. I'm still talking about the hot dog I bought outside the ROM two Saturdays ago. It was divine....so good in fact that if Clay Aiken himself had sat down beside me on those steps and offered me a meet and greet in exchange for a bite.......I would have told him to get lost. Well, maybe not if he let me lick the mustard off his chin. We coulda worked out a deal on that basis......or if he agreed to let this be my prom pose. I could go for a little of that. Still jealous of her after all these years. I am almost done with those Canandaigua photos. I sure will be glad when I don't have to type Canandaigua anymore.

Is that what they're calling it now? Frosting is very very good for the psyche.....why else do people always try to swipe fingerful when no one is looking? YAY! More cake! Happy Birthday to my wonderful, darling,friend Divayenta :bday2:

Well, gosh, since she's in Canada and all on her birthday, I'll offer up something tasteful and subdued. Actually, I'm doing that because I don't know how to do the fancy stuff. Get yourself a street hot dog for me, okay? I had one up there on Saturday, sat on the steps at Avenue and Bloor and ate the best darn thing I've eaten in ages. Toronto has the best street meat ever! Heck go ahead and have two, it's your birthday! Happy Birthday, KAndre! :7252:

How's this... A little clone stamping in Photoshop doesn't hurt. Clay, this is just one of the many services I provide. Call me. I mean it. :F_05BL17blowkiss: Do you really want muski's finger up your nose?

Why did I read this as natural extension? Was I using "muskifest" in the margin as a context clue? *interrupts the intelligent conversation to throw herself down on her back in front of KAndre and whisper in a husky voice.... mock me... pleeeeeeeease... mock me!! * Hey tag! If you're into domination like this, you'll fit right in. *g* And best of all, she'll never tell you to go mock....yourself. Wouldn't I just love to be there! My aunt and uncle have traveled from Nova Scotia for this, there only concert. A fine pair of Clay fans the two of them.....it's cracking me up that they have their brand spanking new Dell laptop with them. I'd say by now they are enjoying the buffet at Meadowbrook after scoping out their 8th row seats. If I remember rightly, the buses in Meadowbrook are behind a big ass chain link fence so I hope they figure out a way to do the bus line tonight. Though, my aunt has been to a few shows of Clay's over the years, she's never been to the buses....not because she doesn't want to....it just never worked out. I can't wait to talk to her tomorrow, the heck with her roaming charges! And I bet I'm going to get a call in a few days asking me if I'm going to be doing Florida. I always tell them once is not enough..... I'll have what she's having.....extra helpings, please. MOAM has been the song this time 'round that's inducing the goosebumps. I am loving it! Thanks for the recommendation of dlh7777's video. My groaning external hard drive thanks you, too. I guess it says Maxtor-bation on the side for a real good reason, eh? Just.....amazing! I can't wait to see this again in San Diego, et al. And for the oddity of the day, it has come to my attention that Katy, Texas is outside of the Houston Community College "in-district" boundaries for residency/tuition and that my tuition for the coming year will be "out-of-district" ie., double. I cannot for the life of me figure out why, if this is the case, there is a campus IN Katy. Does that make any sense? Rhetorical.....because I know the only thing that makes sense is world domination. Interesting that the chief dominator does live "in-district". I'm beginning to wonder if I need another degree thingy afterall.

*raises hand* Me, me, me! It's gonna be a long two weeks...... Me, too. Me, too. Me, too!! Well, except not Cary *pouts* One of Clay's sexiest moves....to me, anyway....is the absent minded way he just slides those shirt sleeves up to his elbows. If he has to roll them a little bit when they get there. Bonus. And God Forbid he doesn't look down to check if he's done a good job of it. No fair when he does that to me....bad bad bad..... A mild example of what I'm talking about. He just slips them on up and keeps right on talking like he isn't doing anything to anyone at all...... ETA: BWAH! on the shadow envy, PhillyluvsClay

More than a handful's a waste, they say. I can tell you're all really feeling Clay's ass.....well, you would if presented the opportunity and he agreed that is was okay for you to do so. He has very pretty eyes, too.

Mercy! What a cute little curvy bum. Just a nice perfectly rounded handful. Okay...two hands....even better. And how about that belt? Keeping everything nicely locked and loaded. See also photo posted above ^^^^ by jmh123 for further evidence and to lessen any possible ambiguity. Aw dang, artquest, here I thought it was caused by tight pants..... This, I guess, comes from having a science degree that is 32 years old.

That was some good cup of tea! But I'm back now. I have a cooling cup of Starbuck's coffee here to keep me company now and a bottle of water because WW says I HAVE to. I thought I would work on pix all day but so far......I haven't gotten around to it. I seem to be distracted by clack and the whole afterglow of being at concerts. I don't know what it is but when I get like this, there isn't much anyone can do to get me moving. I just want to sit here and enjoy all those moments over and over again. Probably by the weekend it will hit me that the California trip is only a few days away and I'll begin the scramble to get ready for that but dammit......I'm leaving for Asheville and Knoxville (and a month in Nova Scotia) two days after I get back from Indio. I think I'm going to have to get all that ready this week. That means a shitload of....... wait for it........ ....ironing. The pix are going to have to wait. Kidding. Hee. muski, Congrats to Carrie and the Blaze!! I loved your recap of the tournament. It just doesn't get any better than that. What a great and exciting weekend you guys had. YSRN, I had a hell of a time adjusting to central time when I moved to Houston from Atlantic Canada which is on Atlantic time and 2 hours later than central. I'm a night owl, too, and it wasn't as much fun being up anymore when most everyone was gone to bed. I still miss most prime time programing on TV because it starts at seven and not nine o'clock. It was unbelieveable. The rain was just pouring down in sheets, and the venue was so quiet you could hear it pouring, and there's this deeply moving, haunting melody. Sigh. Oh, it was sublime. You can hear the sound of the rain in the video, particularly jojo's and Clayfanin VA's. I wouldn't say it translates exactly as it was but I am so glad that it's there. I agree with cindilu2. It was my most magical moment ever, too. I really wish I was in Sterling Heights tonight! I was so close (Toronto) two days ago. I should have hung around....sigh.....so what if I'm only going to see my husband for 12 more days until Labor Day weekend......sigh Labor Day isn't that far away is it? I think I'll banish that thought. This tour will be all over by Labor Day and that makes me sad. In the meantime, I'll be happy. And happy for everyone who's going to tonight's concert. Enjoy!! I'll get back to work... Oh.....and I think I'll put the kettle on.

Hi! It's just me. Sitting up here in Toronto listening to the cell cert, missing Chatauqua, lurking in chat and going through my pix from last night. You have no idea how happy I was when I heard that we were allowed to take photos. Syracuse was awesome but damn it the lighting there was good and it hurt to just sit there and enjoy him so much. Had I done it two nights in a row, I swear I'd have developed some dandy S & M tendencies. Love that kind of pain......Yep, I most certainly do. I uploaded one photo. . Now, I think I'll go make a cup of tea.

I'm heading off to bed in a few minutes but had to drop by to say how great tonight's was. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, so much tonight. I met lickiest1 and cindilu2 in the theatre and standing in the bus line I was next to sylvie and kavanaugh who I also met for the first time. I didn't make the acquaintance of the security guard who stayed right at the end of the infamous Row 4 all night! I left my camera in my purse because the row was really open, the ambient light was fairly bright, and I was four seats in from the end of the row. I've never felt so exposed before. But the concert was fab. The acoustics amazing and Clay came over and sang on this bit of the stage that wrapped around the end of Row 4 twice and that was very very nice indeed. I do have to say though, the lighting was so good, I was heartsick over the evil-security-guy-but-probably-a-nice-family-man-doing-his-job-person at the end of the row. Anyway, the bed is calling. The guy can sure sing. Yessireee! Love that meet and greet pass!