WizBlog

Happy Halloween 2007

A little Halloween humor, Seinfeld style. Enjoy :)
[for our many email subscriber friends, click here to see the video: WizBlog]

Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Watch Where You Are Going

Sam, watching where he is going ...

Advice from a friend:

Airplanes land outside the wall of windows. I check my watch, Twenty minutes until my flight leaves for Salt Lake City.

I decide to take care of some last minute business and enter the restroom. To my horror, I discover a man standing at the sink, washing his hands.

I cringe. "Am I in the wrong restroom"

He nods.

Embarrassed, I stammer, "Well, I guess there has to be a first time for everything - and this is the first time I have done this."

I quickly back out of the room, but, as I do, I am surprised to see that familiar sign on the door that indicates the women's restroom is inside.

I was right. He was wrong.

I go back in and tell him of the mistake. He turns beet red. "I just followed another man in here and I guess I didn't look."

How interesting ... he followed someone - not paying attention to what he was doing - and found himself in a place he would never have chosen to go, should he have been aware of his surroundings.

I learned two things that day:

1. You can end up in the wrong spot if you follow someone else's path.
2. You are not necessarily wrong just because someone said you are. Trust your gut.

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." ~Benjamin Spock

Here's to watching where you are going.

Honoring our brave firefighters

[to our email subscribers - just scroll to the bottom of your email and click on the WizBlog link]

In tribute to the service of our courageous firefighters - past, present & future.
Special honor to our EMS heroes from August 2005.

Halloween Humor

Q: What do you call a skeleton that won't get out of bed?
A: Lazy bones.

Q: What's black, white, orange and waddles?
A: A penguin with a jack-o-lantern.

Q: What kind of mistakes do spooks make?
A: Boo boos.

Q: What is a ghost's favorite ice cream flavor?
A: Boo-berry

Q: Why are monsters huge and hairy and ugly?
A: Because if they were small and round and smooth, they'd be M&M's.

Q: What is the obvious phrase for donating your body to a medical school?
A: A dead giveaway.

More Halloween fun tomorrow ...

Family Re-Connected | Semper Fi!

Prayer for a Military Wife
Lord, give her understanding so that she may know,
When duty calls him, he must go.
Give her a task to do each day
To fill the time when he's away.
When he's in a foreign land,
Keep him safe in Your loving hand.
And Lore, when duty is in the field,
Please protect him and be his shield.
And Lord, when deployment is so long,
Please stay with her and keep her strong.

Darn military logistics. Although calendared for several months to capture Staff Sgt OD's homecoming from Iraq, there was one too many date and schedule changes. We felt awful we couldn't make it work out, but we were determined. So, two days after his return, we met up with cutie mom Y, dad S, and their two cute-ier boys, li'l S and E.

What a joy it was to see how quickly this sweet family had re-connected. The li'l guys just loved bear-hugging and lovin' on their daddy.

Big kudos to mom for a stellar job parenting these beautifully-behaved li'l guys while their daddy was in the Middle East protecting the freedom of our country. (and we love that he brought us first-hand news of the positive differences he had seen)

Frequently our faves - like this one - are caught in unplanned moments. Sweet.

We can never say it often enough: Heartfelt thanks to our military families for their sacrifice and service. God bless America!

Important Note: Unfortunately, many photographers do not make adequate storage to archive their clients' photos. All Wizzy & Friends clients - past, present and future - may be assured that we have a long-standing policy of purchasing plenty of storage to ensure the photos our clients order are permanently archived. In case of any trauma - fire, major illness or death- these would be made available fee-free. Why? Wizzy will always be grateful to those who generously replaced some of the photos lost with her home.

Burned Out

Lots of thought about whether to post this or not. Finally decided that the reminders about the benefits of the value of perseverence, determination, and personal growth into authenticity are okay - both prospectively and retrospectively. Grief and loss are all a part of the cycle of life that certainly we'd all prefer to neither experience nor remember, yet are valuable in their own way.

The past couple of days have been very difficult for us. Many of you know how deeply bonded the WizWoggs are with our home as our nest ... countless memories which anchor the past to the present to the future.

Exactly fourteen years ago today, October 23, 1993, this was Wizzy's beautiful hillside oceanview home in Laguna Beach:
 
And on the 27th - just three days later - the same home:


Gone. Decades of mementoes consumed, along with 350 other homes, by a devastating wildfire - children's plaster handprints, handmade Christmas ornaments, three generations of baby clothes, four generations of photos and irreplaceable heirlooms and memories ... and two kitties. And so the grieving and healing journey began.

Moving through and beyond seemingly insurmountable challenges, it's now clear that if it hadn't been for the circumstances resulting from this fire, Wizzy and Paul e Wogg would never have met to be heartmates and create their own home and lives together. Nor would we have evolved into authentic selves with one another.

We would not wish on another soul what has been a pretty brutal journey for both of us in many ways. But we're here ... together in a safe harbor ... and divinely fulfilled and content.

Wicked winds gusting up to 100 MPH, driving and feeding twenty southern California fires raging  around us. It's been an unsettling couple of days - air thick with smoke and often hard to breathe, ashes and debris littering our yard. Fourteen years of healing temporarily vacates with the first whiff of acrid smoke and the first shower of ash. Such primal fear.

Mercifully the wind has subsided here to a breeze. God bless the firefighters who still battle the flames day and night. At this hour, one million evacuated, 1800 homes down. So much loss.

Tonight from our back patio, looking southeast to the two Camp Pendleton fires, about ten miles away south on the I-5 (Santa Ana Freeway):

And viewing from the far side of our neighborhood - looking northwest. I-5 is just out of sight on the right. These are the Santiago Canyon fires - Santiago Canyon, Modjeska Canyon, Silverado Canyon, Trabuco Canyon.


Our prayers for strength and peace to those who will be struggling to re-connect with their lives in the face of losses in the weeks, months and years to come. The hardest part to deal with, we know, will be the loss of feeling safe ... and finding new safe harbors in their own ways and time.

In retrospect,
"Now that my home has burned down, I have a much better view of the moon." ~Zen saying

Milne Days

"One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." ~ A. A. Milne

Raised on Milne's original classic Winnie the Pooh (NOT the Disney version), Wizzy calls days like the past few "Milne Days" - well, feeling more disorganized than usual, anyway. Will post a couple of fun photo discoveries in the next few days.

Question of the Week: Like wire coat hangers, is it possible for paper to multiply in the night?

Our images of cutie Newborn K just seemed perfect for a few pieces of Pooh philosophy -

"Sometimes the smallest ones do the grandest things!"


"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~ Christopher Robin to Pooh


"Whatever fortune brings, don't be afraid of doing things."


"There's no such thing as too much hug."


Ta ta for now ...

It's the Small Things | Monterey

"Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come." ~ Perry Paxton

For us, life is about authencity, love and excellence. And we thrive on details - seeking out, capturing and savoring.

From Monterey earlier this year ... [bonus points if you can spot the image with a teensy weensy upside down stop sign]

Bronze John Steinbuck bust -


 



You've heard of a 'bird's eye view' - this is a Wogg's Eye View ;=)
 

It's the Small Things | Blue Sky

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ~ Eleonora Duse

It's hard to say if we became  photographers because of the way we see our world, or whether we see our world because we are photographers. Probably a little of each.

Capturing even the small things allows us to savor them again and again and remind us of the life in our souls.

We rarely leave home without our cameras. Backing out of the garage on our way to dinner, the pink glow reflected on our black hood. It begged to be shot. Car stopped in the middle of the street, I opened the door, raised the camera, and shot. What a magnificent creation!

"Georgia On My Mind"

This is one of those jaw-droppers that filled us with awe and admiration.
Hats off to creative artistry!