the Boy is Back in Town

Well, my friend Nick DeLuca is finally back in town, after being "shipped off" to the Naval Academy this summer. It'll be good to see him for lunch tomorrow, at the traditional Saturday lunch locale, McDonalds.

I'm pretty sure he's not a reader, so I can just go crazy: He's in the Naval Academy, training to be the best pilot America has ever seen. He's the man. I'm 100% that he will make the BEST, literally, #1 pilot, in the history of the United States.

I got to fly with him, just before he left, I was honored. Hope you like the photo, I took my gear up with me, specifically to get this posing pilot shot. I'm happy with it. Since I shot with bounced flash, I was able to evenly expose his face, while not blowing the image out.

Anyway, I'll try to sneak a photo of him in his uniform for ya'll, but I don't know how pumped he's going to be about wearing it, this is probably some of the first days in the last five months that he has actually CHOSEN what to wear, the last thing he'll pull out is one of his uniforms. Anyway, I'm PUMPED.

By the way, the mighty Tigers won tonight, lining them up for STATE! Go TIGERS!

The Tree is UP!

Well, this afternoon, after enjoying a great Thanksgiving lunch, we decided to put the Christmas Tree up.

Not to skip any details, lunch was interesting on it's own.

A few years ago, we decided to give my Mom a year off, so we went out to eat on Thanksgiving. This nice restaurant down the street, Fred's Hickory Inn, does a nice Thanksgiving lunch. It was good, to say the least. The following years were a jumble, being in Amarillo one year, and Little Rock the next. This year, we're all home again, so we decided to go back. It's beginning to become a bit of a tradition around here, with my Mother being the #1 advocate. She went ahead and "did us a favor" by getting the reservations a few weeks ago. She really "did herself a favor", by making the statement that she wanted another year off.

So, we kept the forming tradition alive, and went to Fred's for lunch today. It was just as good as the last time, which puts my Mother in line for slipping under the radar once again next year.

To be honest, I like going out, because there is no mess, and I can eat as much of whatever I want. However, If we are home next year, I might push for us to have a traditional meal, because I don't want this Fred's thing to get locked in for all eternity.

Anyway, sitting around this afternoon with no dishes to clean, and no left-overs to stare at and dread the consumption of, we got bored. So, I went downstairs and started hauling up our artificial Christmas Tree in segments, making the statement that we were putting this sucker up, today.

I know how it works around here. If we didn't put it up today, it'd be December 20th. And, on December 20th, then it'd become a "do we really want to set this rig up for five days?" affair.

The tree is up. It's looking good, and I feel like the neighbors will soon follow suit.

Maybe we're actually late, and I just think we're ahead of the game. I don't know what the standard is. When is the right time to put it up? I know over at the Elliott house, they were ON THE BALL this year, because their beast was up just shy of two weeks ago.

What's the norm?

Look Out, Tom Turkey!

Well, tonight I feel for the turkey's of America, or ahem, the lack there of. Those poor birds line up by the millions, every year, and take one for the team. Ben Franklin thought the North American wild turkey should be the national bird. The bald eagle won that war, thank goodness.
Every table in America will be set tomorrow for a Turkey Thanksgiving Meal. Let us all join together now, for a moment of Turkey Silence.......

no gobbles, please

Well, that was lovely. I hope everybody is with family, simply having a wonderful turkey-time!

(thanks, Redcorn Studios, for the Thanksgiving Table photo)

CZECH it Out: 479Photo.com

Back in January of this year, a few of my photography buddies and I put together a website. Most of us are from the Bentonville area, so we went with the domain: 479Photo.com. Before this blog was a work in progress, the photo site went up, and we began daily postings of our photography work.
The site is designed to give each of the seven photographers one assigned day of the week to post a photo. Only one photo can be posted, and the photo has to have been taken in the last seven days.

It forces us to be producing at least one photo a week that we are proud enough of to post on the internet, for public critique. We all try to comment on each other's photos, stating the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a nice, friendly reminder to me personally, because there are four or five day stretches where I won't take a single photo. To the newspaper shooters, it's no big deal, but to me, it forces me to get out and shoot something cool, at least once every seven days.

At the end of this year it will be nice to go back and have 52 portfolio-worthy shots, all documented and out on the web.

I keep the link to the site on the right, with all my other favorites, but in case you missed it, I wanted to do a quick post about the site, for ya'll to CZECH it Out!

It's been busy. It's been fun.

First of all, I must apologize for the lack of posts lately. I haven't said a word since Wednesday, and sorry, but at this point it might be Too Late to Apologize.

Since I've been a slacker, I'll try to give ya'll the "Reader's Digest" version, as someone would call it...

Thursday
U.S. History was cancelled, giving me a nice long lunch before The Praise Hour. Hutch Kufahl called in and won the CD for this week, way to go, Studio 412! As soon as Radio class was over, I headed over to 2nd Baptist. Thursdays are Refuge days for me. The Refuge service starts at 9pm, with a total of three hard-working crews sweating all day to make that happen.

2pm-4pm - Crew One: Tear down all 2nd Baptist Stage Plot, and bring out all Refuge gear, for basic plotting and cable running.
6:30-8:30pm - Crew Two: the Band and the Tech crew. Setup the stage, get Media Shout prepped, soundcheck, and rehearse
10:30-11:30pm - Crew Three: Tear down all Refuge Stage Plot, and bring back out all 2nd Baptist gear, leaving it just how we found it.

I'm proud to be apart of ONE of those crews, Crew Two, as the FOH Audio Engineer. The guys working to make this weekly production happen really have some of the biggest servant's hearts I've ever seen. It is truly their passion to serve the LORD, through their weekly devotion to this show.

Friday
Class in the morning, lunch at Arby's. Yeah, I picked five.

Spent the evening with Aubrey, we drove to Benton to Tinseltown, a massive movie theatre. Did I mention, Waffle House Dinner? Booya. We met our friends, Austin and Laura there, and saw Eagle Eye. The movie was ridiculous, and that's LEGIT. We'll call it, Deja Vu meets: Live Free or Die Hard.

Saturday
Spent the day with Aubrey, in Little Rock. We met my family at Red Lobster for an early lunch (they were in town for Caleb's "open house" at pharmacy school. That pharmacy junk is no joke. I have an overly-elevated respect for those pill-counters behind the wall now. You should too, their training to get back there is insane.

We went to the Museum of Discovery, and saw an IMAX movie before heading back home... err... to Arkadelphia. IMAX rocks.

Hit the new BBQ place on the way into town, Fat Boys Fine Food. It's right off the highway, and WOW, it's good. If you're going to be traveling through the Arkadelphia area... Well first of all, call me. Then, make the quick exit and eat there for lunch. It's good, and they have Club Crackers, too. I love Club Crackers.

Sunday
We went to 2nd Baptist, and it was pretty solid, I'd have to say. After the service, we went to their College Sunday School, where they feed you lunch. (They really know how to get us in the door.)

Aubrey and I spent the entire afternoon working on homework, and ended up with free time last night. She moseyed on over, and we watched The Rescuers Down Under. Yep, it's a cartoon. Yep, we're 18.

These last few days rocked my socks off. A fun weekend with the girl I love, while still keeping things busy and taking care of business. I'll try to wrestle her memory card from her, and post some photos for ya'll.