Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

Photos

Cold Kitties

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It has been frigidly cold here in Birmingham, AL for the last few days. Down into the teens–and that may not seem too cold to some folks, but if you live in Alabama, it is extreme cold. We feed 4 outdoor cats that more or less came with the house–they are feral and won’t let anyone come near them, but they’ve come to depend on the food we provide. (Yes, we got them “fixed,” so no kittens!)

Two are always here and two others come and go with less frequency. I’ve seen the two that are always here (Callie and Blackie) and have seen the others, but not today. We got really worried about them so I went out and purchased a tiny outdoor dog house for them and put it under the deck. No one has dared venture into it, of course.

Our indoor cats find these outdoor interlopers boring and pay them no attention whatsoever. (The cat in the photo is Callie–she’s been enjoying the nicer weather we are having today by rolling around in the sun and basically saying, thank God I made it through, that sun feels great–time to eat!)

 

The Best of 2007

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Reflecting on 2007, I’m mostly just glad to see it gone. I’m looking forward to getting back to work after all the holidays and time down. 2007 has been a pretty crappy year. But I’ve done a bit of reflection and think I’ve come up with my two favorite memories from 2007.

1. Lunch with Mama, Margaret, Bill, William, Ann and Julia at the Bright Star Restaurant in Bessemer, AL. What a treat this was–and turned out to be more important to me than I can ever explain. Mama and Julia brought us a bouquet of daffodils. They were beautiful and smelled so good (yes, they did bother my allergies, but I enjoyed them anyway–and I can’t wait to see the blooms in our yard this or next year).

2. My birthday. I think this was certainly not my best birthday–not by a long shot. But, I’d built it up to be so dreadful that, when it came and Ann took the day off to be with me and we got out of the house, it was overall a pretty nice experience. We went to eat at Gilchrist in Mountain Brook (yummy classic lunch counter sandwiches). Then, we went to the zoo. I got to use my new camera to take loads of photos (see them here)

12:01! We Made It

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I would have never guessed 10 years ago that staying up till midnight would be so hard. But hey, we made it. Watched the Auburn/Clemson game, watched Shrek III and even watched some crazy person jump a motorcycle over a football field. But we managed to stay awake until midnight. Think we were just about as excited to toast that we were going to bed as we were that 2007 was finally gone, but hey, whatever.

I’m always rambling through my old photos. Anyone that wants to organize lots and lots of digital photos should look into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, as it allows you to categorize photos, tag them with keywords, sort them in so many different ways and edit them in some really cool ways. I took this photo several years ago, but thought I’d toss it out as I’ve always liked it for some reason.

Happy New Year!

My Secret Girlfriend

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If you ever happen to hear a baby crying when talking to me on the phone, have no fear–we haven’t had children. Burmese cats sound a lot like crying babies. Roxy, in the photo, is the worst about creating a fuss.

She’ll sit outside my office for half an hour or more and howl until I come out. At that point, she hurls herself up towards my chest and starts to purr.

It can get a little old, but overall it makes you feel pretty good. You just can’t get that kind of “urgent, got to have it” love from anything else. And yes, she does stroll around with her tongue sticking out, though she does it less lately.

Ann took this photo earlier this summer shortly after we got a new lens (a wide angle 17-40). Thus the distortion.