Monthly Archive for April, 2007

i give up on tring to name these things

bend

I think this is going to be another one of those medley blog posts that tries to cover way to many subjects in an attempt to make up for the lack of time to write enough posts to keep up.

So where to begin? Let’s seeeeeeeee. I haven’t done a fitness update in a year or so and that makes a nice transition into my next subject, so here goes nothing. For the last year or so I’ve been maintaining my fitness pretty well. I haven’t really made any big efforts to improve anything, but working out I’ve been happy with my fitness and my health. In the last month or so I’ve been trying to kick it up a few steps and have been having good results. Keni keeps posting about her running and getting in shape for their wedding next week. On top of Keni and Blake being all sexy, I have to try to get in shape because my date for the rehearsal and wedding is about two to three times more pretty than I am handsome. I told Keni that if I don’t get in better shape, the little old ladies at the wedding will see us and assume that the pretty girl had to take her ugly little brother to the wedding….and that would be too much for my sensitive ego to handle! So I’m trying my best to not confuse the little old ladies and try to look respectable for the wedding. Last year I was biking like mad, and only doing some weights. This year is pretty much the opposite of that. I think I’ve ridden once and haven’t ridden with Blake or Rob at all (not sure I can even keep up now). But I have the weights and diet figured out pretty well by this point, and have been getting the results I’ve been looking for.

Jen!!!

One week! Cinco de Mayo! Blake will no longer be a free man! He is going to forever be enslaved to the tyrannical dictator that is Kendra. His life will be forever changed. He will no longer play with the guys, he’ll have to ask permission to go out, and risks becoming Fuddy Dutty part Duex. :) Actually I’m not at all worried about Blake. Miss Keni is a pretty fantastic lady and I’ve never met anyone who could hope to be a better match for Mr. Blake than her. I’m confident that they will be happy and enjoy their marriage and new adventure down in the Ghetto of South Dallas.

cars

I feel like I’m way behind on my pictures. For me this is a good problem to have because it means I’ve been taking lots and lots of photos. I’m just not used to falling so far behind on getting them posted. I’ll post a few in here as previews. Since my last post I’ve taken pics with Blake and Viv of the 65 Fastback Mustang, and 99 Viper GTS. I think there are some really good pics, but like the others I haven’t had time to go through them all.

I’ve also have been playing with some older pics like the ones below of Melissa and above of Jen. I want to find a day soon to just go through older pics and fix them up.

Melissa!

Finally I have done two recent shoots for Ally and Bend Studio. One was of the Bob Schneider and Dan Dyer show at Rock House Films in Dallas. The other was for a magazine that needed pics of her studio (flower pic at the top of this post is from that shoot). The Bob show was fun as always. It was a refreshing show at a cool little venue. If you ever need a really funny/entertaining music show, it’s hard to go wrong with Bob. I enjoyed Dan also; I’ve heard his music on the Bend benefit CD’s for a long time now, and have never had the chance to see him live. Very mellow and smooth. I think I got some good pics of Dan also, but have only looked through the Bob pics so far.

Bob

Dan Dyer

So many more things I could ramble about like Militza and Sam moving into their house, the Byron Nelson and shoe show, or Momo’s 80th birthday…but this post is already too long and over done. I’ve been really good but just really busy. Almost every moment has been accounted for lately with work and fun. Everything is fantastic, but it still didn’t feel like I’m getting any rest. Sorry for the long rambling post. I’ll try to add enough pics to make up for the boring text. :)

Jen!!!

Bend Studio

Melissa

Jen

Blake

Keni

Bob

Dan

Kinko’s Cares

desperado dancers

Well GOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNINNNNNG VIETNAM!
It’s 4 a.m and I’m at work on a Sat. morning. For the most part I can tell you this isn’t any fun, but I can also tell you that working weekends and off hours like this is really rare for me now (and wasn’t so rare a few years ago). So what better to do while trying to kill time in a small lab on the 20th floor at 4 a.m. than to blog about whatever comes to mind. So here we go!

Rowdy (Dallas Cowboys)

FedEx Kinkos impressed me last week. I love this company and have always thought highly of how it treats the Team Members, but when they say they are going to put on a big event, you can usually count on there being some ” Ra Ra!!!” as I call it, and a little bit of fun. The Ra Ra is the standard “we are the best, we are doing well” , or ” we are not the best but are on the way to doing well” pep talks given by Sr. management. At this event there was no BS and no RA RA to be heard, and that impressed me. They rented out Texas Stadium and had a huge event open to all the local workers and their families. They had games and events for the kids, and food and fun for the adults as well. They brought in 2 Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and also the Dallas Desperado Dancers (indoor football). The big wigs and execs got up on stage and gave a little speach but it was just to give away prizes (including a plasma tv) and to say thanks. They didn’t mention any numbers, metrics, goals….
They just said thanks, and that was impressive to me.

desperado dancers

As you might have guessed, I was lucky enough to be one of the photographers for the event. They don’t want me to share any pics of the people who work for the company at the event, but they said I could post the pics of the cheerleaders and dancers (I didn’t think you guys would have a problem with that :) ). I got some really nice pics (took 700!!!) and had a good time even though it was cold and I was too proud to wear a jacket. The poor Desperado dancers couldn’t wear their jackets, and stood there with goose bumps and a smile for about 3 hours. Those girls are tougher than I am for, there is no doubt about that.

dallas desperado dancers

I guess the bottom line of this blog post is …. My company is better than your company!!! !NA NA NA NA!!!

Dear Al Gore

I think you are right about this whole global warming thing. Really, who can deny it? Today I write this to you from Dallas where we the high temp is 36 degrees colder than our historical average high temperature, and the high is also 20 degrees colder than our average (yes i wrote that correctly).Parts of the area are getting snow in April for the first time in recorded history as we move from one of our coldest winters on record into what appears to be a cold spring as well. These are clearly signs of the global warming pandemic.

Also I wanted to thank you. I can’t imagine how cold it would be today if it wasn’t for your 20 room house using 221,000kWh of electricity each year; that’s 20 times the national average right? In fact, in one month that’s almost tripple what I can burn through in a whole year. Thanks for making me look like the greenest environmentalist around! How cold would it be without your oven of a house keeping us warm? Also, your strategic use of CO2 to insulate us by using over $1000 per month on average of natural gas also really might have saved us all from this Global Warming Pandemic.

Thanks Al!

Cruse for burgers: Viper run to Mr. Frosty

Viv's Viper GTS in front of Mr. Frosty's

Tonight was one of those low key nights that really ended up being refreshing. Viv called me up and let me know that he had a few hours free, and thought a cruise in the Viper might be a good idea. I’m not one to turn down a cruse, and the night was perfect for a ride. I got Viv hooked on old school burger joints when we took the Supra through Health Camp in Waco on the way to Austin last year. Mr. Frosty is a similar place in Denton I used to go when I was at UNT when I needed a good old school burger and a home made root beer (yes, they actually make it there). They have been in business for 53 years with the same family owning and operating the restaurant. Like Health Camp, it hasn’t changed much since it opened, and you really get the feeling of going back in time when you sit down for a meal there. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and we had a great time running 20 miles up the road to Denton where we enjoyed some burgers, chili cheese fries, and root beer in. We thought we might have a nice little race on our way home when we saw a SL 55AMG ( a Benz with teeth! 493hp stock), but it was a soccer mom with her teenage son doing his homework in the passenger seat. :) It was not to be! Stil, the night was refreshing for a low key Wednesday and just what I needed.

Viv's viper

If you are looking for a good old fashioned burger, check out Mr. Frosty. They in Denton just west of 35 on Fort Worth Drive (aka 377) on the north side of the road.

Finally I leave you with a good IM converstaion between Viv and Keni. Both of whom are getting married this year: Keni to Blake, and Viv to Novie:

keni: wedding planning takes a lot of time
Viv Indeed.
keni: Blake and I can’t agree on a first dance song
viv: 2Pac’s Picture Me Rollin’.
Viv: Done.
Viv: Next.
Viv: I know that doesn’t sound romantic, but 2Pac didn’t do a lot of slow songs, so he just didn’t leave a lot to choose from.
ken: hahahaha
ken: Poor Novie