Category Archives: Geri

RWPE Y2 #7 – Silence

SILENCE did not keep people from being silent. There were a healthy amount of submissions this week. Here are the submissions for SILENCE:


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Dawn Krause of Impassioned Versifier

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Geri Derner

WEEK 7 - SILENCE - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

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Julie Johnson of The Joy is in the Journey

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Carla Stensland

WEEK 7 - SILENCE - MIKE VEST
Mike Vest of Waxen Media

Mike and I fired up the Random Theme Generator and it fired out a kind of consumerist theme for this week:

MARKET

You can take a look back at last year’s submissions for MARKET by clicking on the link below:

MARKET – 2010

It is a good broad theme that might push the comfort levels of some people. I hope this is another great week for participation!

RWPE #37 – Hope

I’m very excited to announce that there were 3 brand new first time contributors. Shannon Bardole, Angie Dewaard and Geri Derner all contributed photos for the first time ever. Hopefully they will find it addictive and become regular contributors.

Here are this week’s submissions for HOPE:


WEEK 37 - HOPE - MIKE VEST
Mike Vest

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Geri Derner A

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Geri Derner B

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Dawn Krause

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Shannon Bardole

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Angie DeWaard

WEEK 37 - HOPE - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

Looks like Dawn has gotten back on the writing horse! Here is her poetry contribution:

Walls Against Hope

Hope is a diabolical trade
it sets the heart and soul to be played
a chance for broken dreams to be filled
compromising the soul to be killed

If I told you how I felt today
would you take those thoughts and run away
or would you stay to comfort my heart
and give me reason to trust our start

The music sounds different to my soul
there’s part of you that makes me whole
If my heart trusts to reveal that thought
would the fulfillment be all I’ve sought

Walls against hope are in our nature
keep us from rising up in stature
Secret desires, wishes to fill
to let them out is a bitter pill

I’ve been down to the cave where the Random Theme Generator is housed. I answered its riddle and it gave me the theme for this week:

FACE

This is another great and easy theme. After all, everybody has a face or at least they know somebody that has a face. I hope to see many contributions next week. Hopefully some new faces as well. (Terrible pun intended.)

ACTORS

I did the publicity stills for the latest community theater production by ACTORS. This is what they look like:


Shannon Bardole
Shannon Bardole – Props

Troy Rutter
Troy Rutter – Director

Odie John Lofton
Odie John Lofton – Light Tech

Jane Johnson
Jane Johnson – “Dolly”

Jennifer Nieland
Jennifer Nieland – “Nedra”

Josh Van Waes
John VanWaes – “Steve”

Lanette Woodard
Janette Woodard – Costumes

Melissa Krepfle
Melissa Krepfle – “Heidi”

Cheryl Rogers
Cheryl Rogers – “Ethel”

Christopher D. Bennett
Christopher D. Bennett – Photographer (Photo by Shannon Bardole)

Dean Stevens
Dean Stevens – “William”

Geri Derner
Geri Derner – Co-Producer

Jarius Davis
Jairus Davis – “Bill”

Amanda Green
Amanda Green – “Kathy”

Barb Lofton
Barb Lofton – Stage Manager

Belinda Merritt
Belinda Merritt – Co-Producer

Ben Smith
Ben Smith – “Larry”

Brian Parrish
Brian Parrish – “Brad”

The play is called Game Show. It is playing Friday and Saturday nights, plus Sunday afternoons from April 9 through April 25. Tickets run you $15.00, cheap!

Also, I get 2 free tickets, so if you are interested, let me know.

Plus if you go on certain nights, you can meet people who were on actual game shows. Including a couple people that were on that Survivor show. Plus the woman that is married to that weather guy on channel 8.

Punch Myself in the Face

I had decided to shave all the way down to a dirty naked face last weekend. It had been over 3 years since my chin had tasted air and felt the rays of sunlight. My chin was dreadfully dry and desperately in the need of some moisturizing. Lots and lots of moisturizing.

For some reason, I allowed myself to be sold by Jesse on shaving down to just a moustache for one glorious day. Despite my better judgment, I did it.

On Thursday night I spent close to an hour in the bathroom slowly trimming my beautiful goat down to a dirty stache. When I had completed my task, I had to make a conscious effort to stop myself from punching my reflection. I hated that dirty stache.

Although I had stayed up well past my normal bedtime to complete this mission from the devil, I couldn’t sleep at all. I knew that I had violated the natural order of things.

I showed up for work the following day and tried to avoid everybody. Well, I did stop to see Micky. He deserved to see the stache since he has been a rock for me in the Busted Furnace Support Group that we have with Vest every few days.

Jesse showed up at work about an hour after I did. He was still sporting a splendid goat. I felt that I had been had, but he showed me his clippers. He went to the restroom and came back looking like the same type of doucher that I looked like.


Punch Myself in the Face

Punch Myself in the Face

After taking those pictures of Jesse looking so wretched. I allowed myself to be photographed in this horrible state.


Punch Myself in the Face

As I was posing for this picture, the World’s Greatest UPS Man came in with his daily delivery. He seemed to enjoy how wretched I looked.


Punch Myself in the Face

Then Jesse and I posed for a picture.

I have known Jesse since I moved from unannexed Boone to Urban Boone and enrolled in Mrs. Ford’s 2nd Grade Class. Over the years we have posed for many a photo together. But I have not a doubt in my mind that this is the worst picture of us ever.


Punch Myself in the Face

That night Jesse and I went to Trivia Night for FNSC. We had 3 missions.

The first mission was to drink as much sweet tea out of mason jars as was humanly possible. Check and double checked.

The second mission was to pilot Team Stache from the complete and utter futility that has been its history all the way to mediocrity. Check and double checked. Team Stache (I’m not sure what they were known as before FNSC showed up and revolutionized the game) had never finished above 3rd to last. We piloted the team all the way to respectability. We finished almost exactly in the middle of the pack of 24 teams. Although we would have surely finished higher if the Sports category would have included sports questions. The Winter Olympics and NASCAR are not sports. Although I’m pretty sure that the judges would have given us points for picking Brewster Baker as the answer for the question about the winner of the 2010 Daytona Left Turnathon. But we were overruled.

Mission 3 was to be the table that had the most fun. Check, double checked and triple checked. I knew every member of Team Stache (Jay, Willy, Geri D., Shannon and Jesse) very well with the exception of Papa Smurf and his wife. At the end of the night I wasn’t sure if Mr. and Mrs. Papa Smurf loved or loathed us. They seemed to run hot and cold on us and certainly weren’t fans of our lengthy discussion of how great Kenny Rogers was in Six Pack. However, Mrs. Papa Smurf called Geri D. on the following day to tell her one and only one thing – She had never had so much fun at Trivia Night and it was all because FNSC is the bee’s knees! She wanted to make sure that we would be returning to Trivia Night in 3 months. I think FNSC might just make a return, but the moustaches won’t. I’m kind of thinking that our team theme on that night will be “lumberjacks”. A little tribute to my boy Steve Roberts.

After our team huddled up and put all of our hands in and shouted “Mediocrity!!!” I tried to convince Jay to come over in the morning to take a couple of photos of the stache before it was clipped from my face and washed down my sink into the dark, dank drain of history.

Jay insisted on taking the pictures that night because he couldn’t stand to know that this moustache was even in existence.

Jay came over and took some pictures of the porn alter ego that Micky wanted me to create with the moustache. He even named such a character “Hammer”.

Here are a few publicity stills for a movie that will never exist starring “Hammer”.


Punch Myself in the Face
“Did you call a repair guy?”
Punch Myself in the Face
“Mrs. Robinson, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this water heater…”
Punch Myself in the Face
“It is kind of hot in here. Do you mind if I take off my shirt?”

Although I think most people were just being kind, the reviews on the moustache were mixed. Mixed between people who were honest and people who were struggling to come up with something that didn’t sound cruel.

4 women from work commented that it looked “good”.
Andree said, “Are you hosting a Do-It-Yourself show on channel 11 tonight? You look exactly like Al from that Home Improvement show.”
Jen said, “I’m totally laughing out loud!” I will point out that she actually typed out “laughing out loud” as opposed to “lol”. These mean two totally different things. Jen also admitted on Sunday that she had shown a stache picture to Dionne from work. Her response was perhaps the most honest. “He needs to shave that immediately.”
Shannon said, “The soul patch makes the stache work.” I still don’t know what she means by make it work. As near as I can tell it doesn’t work at all.
When I sent the picture to Jill, I warned her that it would make her want to punch me in the face. Her response. “U don’t deserve a punch in the face! It’s not bad, especially considering NO ONE should have a moustache long term in the 21st century.” Jill must be a pacifist because I definitely deserved a punch in the face for looking like that!

Although Jesse will be celebrating Moustache Day again next year, I will be passing. I don’t think I have the discipline to make it through the day without hurting myself and that wretched upper lip hair.

Regression

I haven’t been as active blogging lately. There are several reasons for this absence.

  1. I have been spending most of my free time organizing the basement.  When I completed this project I moved on to the upstairs.  I am on the verge of being quite downsized.  Hopefully this project will be completed next Wednesday.  Or at least, I hope that the only room that I will have left to organize and downsize will be the office after next Wednesday.  There is always a fair chance that I will just give up on the office and declare it a permanent disaster area.  We’ll see how the other two rooms go.
  2. When I haven’t been organizing, eliminating and donating I have been moving furniture around. True this doesn’t take much physical time, but it is emotionally draining.
  3. I have been working on a personal facial hair project.  For one 36 hour period, I wasn’t intelligent enough to put a noun against a verb in a meaningful way.
  4. The last couple of Friday Night Supper Clubs have been emotionally draining.  The night we viewed Free Walking at Jay’s apartment was a visceral experience.  What a great movie!  Then the Jucy Lucy replication Friday Night Supper Club was an overt failure that ended with My Great Shame.  It took me several days to recover from that shame.  At least Dawn got to become an auxiliary member of FNSC.  She allegedly doesn’t even mind that it is a “Boys Club”.  I will believe her when she makes a return appearance. Plus Trivia Night.  Well, I can’t even begin to discuss how emotionally draining Trivia Night ended up being.  Plus Trivia Night fell in that 36 hour period where I was a moron. However, Team Stache (Geri D., Willy, Jay, Jesse, Shannon, Papa Smurf and his wife) was an undeniable powerhouse.  I only wish I had pictures to share so that you could relive the experience.
  5. The cleaning crew (Jill) for my Oscars Watch had to work at her “real job” and got stuck in Minnesota.  Therefore I had to do my own cleaning.  The bed maker (Sara) also got stuck working her “real job” so I had to make my own bed.  I tried to get that out with a straight face.  Sara had to work, so I just shut my bedroom door and pretended that the room was how it was supposed to be.  My kitchen crew (Jen and Derrick, well mostly Derrick) came through with flying colors though.  Still, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I should add that my neighbor joined the Watch and listening to his plan to get his life back together by finding a girlfriend so that he can have some self-esteem.  Well, that was psychologically draining.
  6. Perhaps the most important reason why I haven’t taken keyboard in hand and banged out some words is because during the move from one blogging entity to a different blogging entity, I decided to completely recategorize my blog. I started this process with well over 770 journal entries to review. Through this process I eliminated several journal entries.  Things that I didn’t need any longer. Like videos that no longer existed or calls to donate to a “charity” that would lie and claim that your donation was tax deductible.  I even broke down categories by people and I left the number of blog entries by the category.  A quick glance down the left side of this blog will tell you who I seem to write about the most.  Are you surprised that Jay is number 1?

A surprising side effect of my reading is that I think I might have regressed as a writer.  I fear that I might have peaked and it is all downhill from here on out.  Some of my writings in the not so distant past were clever, witty and dare I say it – brilliant.  I fear if I was ever going to write a play for ACTORS that was going to revolutionize costumed (believe me I have tried – Geri D. will not let me put an all-nude play on her stage) drama in a meaningful way, I have missed my chance.  Rather than eloquently crafting phrases, I now rely on cheap tricks (like my over reliance on parenthetical statements that makes me want to punch myself in the face almost as surely as if I had moustache) and broad allusions.  I have surely descended into hack-hood.  See, that isn’t even a real word.  It isn’t like the old days when I used to invent words that are sure to be the next surefire hits in our lexicon.  I can’t come up with a word so I throw out a dash and postfix and then I merrily go on my way.

It didn’t used to be like this.  (I just don’t mean that I used to not end sentences with prepositions.)  I used to be growing as a writer.  For example, when I was in the 4th Grade I wrote the worst creative writing stories ever!! They were based loosely on a pet rabbit that most likely died due to my neglect.  Only I stole some ideas from a few cartoons and movies that I enjoyed and out of my pencil and on to some poor dead tree came writing that was so dizzingly bad that it makes me want to vomit when I read just a few short passages:

When Fluffy found him he took him to Leo the Lion. Leo took care of him. Pucky told Leo his life story. Then he told Fluffy what Jack, Jill and Joan said. Fluffy said “I better get going” then he left. He hid in Raspberry Forest and said “By the power of Carrot Castle! I HAVE THE POWER!” Then he said, “Up, up and away and he flew off to find Joan, Jack and Jill. When he found them he landed and said, “Pucky sent me.” Superfluff said.  “Let’s get that wimpy rabbit!” Superfluff picked them up and twirled them until they gave up and promised to stop picking on Pucky. Then he went after Swampfrog. When he was fighting Swampfrog he said a few words he shouldn’t of. When he returned he taught Pucky karate. When he stepped into the pond, Jack, Jill, Joan and Swampfrog were waiting for him but Pucky beat them up in 15 fish winks. Now everybody calls him The Karate Duck.

Fortunately I can still say that I’m a better writer than I was when I put that horrible drivel to paper. But I did slightly improve by high school:

Eric reached deep into his soul, past the candy wrappers and half-eaten bagels, to the insult department. Through the corridor with doors marked with signs that read “whites”, “blondes”, “Scott Kendall” and “dogs”.  He opened the door that read: “The Mother of All Insults”.

The glowing light almost blinded him. The brilliant shiny box in the room was his destination. He opened the box and was greeted with a cloud of rolling smoke. He reached into the box and grabbed a piece of paper. Eric read the paper and he knew he had his death blow!

Back in reality Eric stared at the landing party and said… and I quote… “Huh, freaks of nature!”

He was puzzled when this didn’t break their morale. They were laughing at him. This was the Mother-of-All-Insults and they were laughing at HIM!

Chris looked at Eric and broke into another 5 minutes of laughter. Chris controlled himself and said, “You sir are our inferior. You call us freaks in an attempt to manipulate reality. We have evolved into a place of superiority over you!”

“Liar! I’m not listening to you!” Eric screamed.

“Scott. Who-o-o-o-o-o is this m-m-m-an?” Captain Punjab whimpered.

As you can tell, I have clearly progressed from the terrible wretch that wrote those words. I just hope that I am not regressing to that level again!

Number 750

This is entry number 750 in this online journal. I’d like to take a little bit of time to archive some data. It is one of my peculiar imbecilities that I love meaningless statistics. Therefore, consider these statistics:

Every journal entry falls into at least one of sixteen categories. This is how many journal entries have fit into each one of these categories:

  1. Photography – 295
  2. Friends – 269
  3. Life – 238
  4. Family – 98
  5. Religion – 63
  6. ISU Football – 41
  7. Jaycees – 40
  8. Movies – 39
  9. Blogging 33
  10. Sports – 25
  11. Work – 25
  12. House – 24
  13. Writing – 23
  14. Comedy – 20
  15. Politics – 17
  16. History – 12

If you measure popularity by how many times a picture is viewed, these are the 10 (or so) most popular pictures in my Artistic Gallery.



#1. Outburst of the Soul (26 Views)


#2. Untitled (23 Views)

Grizzly McAlpine
#3. Grizzly McAlpine (22 Views)

Obama at Mike O'Brien's House
#3. Untitled (22 Views)

Obama at Mike O'Brien's House
#5. Untitled (21 Views)


#5. Jen Smoking (21 Views)


#7. UnHingd Publicity Still (20 Views)

2007 - Living History Farms
#8. 1900 (19 Views)

ACTORS
#8. Untitled – (19 Views)

Boone County Fair Photo Contest - 2008
#10. Campanile Self Portrait – (18 Views)

06-11-08
#10. US30 East of Ogden – (18 Views)

I know these numbers are somewhat controlled by the length of time a picture has been in the Artistic Gallery, but I am pleased by the number of black and white images that are high in popularity.

But it begs the question, what is the most popular subject in the Snapshot Gallery. What do people like to see from the “Daily Grind of My Existence”?


The Big Jesus Road Trip
#1. Jesse and I with the World’s Largest Cheeto – (25 Views)

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#2. Jesse with a Bob’s Dog – LeMars, Iowa (23 Views)

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#3. Jesse and I in backstage of the Surf Ball Room – (21 Views)

Shannon at Backbone State Park
#4. Shannon reading a map on our first road trip to Backbone. (19 Views)

Iowa State vs. Texas A&M
#4. Sumrall catching a pass against A&M. I think this picture is so popular because it was a popular picture to get spammed when I was having spamming problems with the galleries.

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#6. Jesse at the Surf Ball Room – (18 Views)

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#6. Jesse kissing the Blarney Stone – (18 Views)

Eastern Iowa Road Trip - 2006
#8. Jesse and I in Clinton on The Eastern Iowa Road Trip – (17 Views)

Bonne Finken
#8. Jen and Shannon making some kind of deal at Bonne Finken – (17 Views)

Bonne Finken
#8. Cousin Amy, Sara and Jen at Bonne Finken – (17 Views)

Eastern Iowa Road Trip - 2006
#8. Jesse and Jay on The Eastern Iowa Road Trip – (17 Views)

Eastern Iowa Road Trip - 2006
#8. Robert enjoying the view of the Mississippi River in Balltown – (17 Friends)

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#8. Jesse videotaping Big Jesus – (17 Views)

The Big Jesus Road Trip
#8. Jesse and I at the Sgt. Floyd Memorial – (17 Views)

I think what I have learned from this exercise is that people like to see Jesse and I having adventures. I think I’ll have to look into us having a few more adventures in 2010!

I will have to check back in on this when I hit journal entry number 1,000.

Proust Questionnaire Number Ten

Proust Quote:
“Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.”

Confessions Question:
Your idea of happiness

Confidences Question:
My dream of happiness.

Proust’s Answer:
I am afraid it be not great enough, I dare not speak it, I am afraid of destroying it by speaking it.

That Proust sure was a coward. “I am afraid of destroying it…” But he was from France and that is a country that isn’t exactly known for its courage.

However, I think there is some truth in the quote that happiness exists to make unhappiness possible. I think it is closer to the truth to say that unhappiness makes the experience of happiness richer. I would also argue that unhappiness is at its lowest depth before happiness arrives. But happiness is a much more powerful (although frailer) emotion than unhappiness. A little drop of happiness blows unhappiness out of the water.

There is a misery questionnaire question where I will repeat this basic information, but I think in general terms, the greatest misery is in waiting for a certain thing to happen. The greatest happiness is when that certain thing happens. That certain thing might not ever happen, therefore a person sometimes has to come to acceptance.

There are certainly things that make me happy. One of them ends frequently with the phrase “Sweet dreams.”

I have two friends that are diametrically opposed on the concept of dreams. One friend believes that dreams are an intricate part of life. They should be held up and examined every day and they should be pursued with every breath of your being. If you call his phone, the voicemail message will tell you that you have reached, “Dreams, Incorporated.” It is not a real company, so don’t give him any money. You won’t get it back. But your money will help him pursue his dreams.

This friend’s philosophy on dreams would best be summed up by the Marcel Proust quote:

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.”

The other friend thinks that it is pointless to pursue dreams because dreams can’t become reality. He once noted that he couldn’t “grow bat wings” in reality. All this talk about dreams is a humbug!

This friend’s philosophy on dreams would be best summed up by the Baltasar Gracian quote:

“Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.”

My philosophy lies somewhere in the middle. I certainly believe that dreams are worth pursuing. To not have aspirations or goals leads to somewhat of an aimless existence, but perhaps I don’t follow my dreams with the type of vigor that Friend One does.

If dreams are (what I think they are) our ideas of perfect happiness, then these are a few of my dreams:

Some of these are attainable dreams. Some of them are in the “bat wing” category.

To hear Jay say, “Want to come over and watch a completed version of Games 2 tonight?”
To hear Willy say, “And this is my beautiful wife…”
To hear Shannon say, “Wow! You organized that really well. If this is the caliber of person that Iowa State University produces, I should root for their athletic teams when they play anybody but my beloved UNI Panthers.”
To hear Geri D. say, “Opening night for the One Act play you wrote will be…”
To hear Jen say, “Maybe the dogs don’t like being dressed up.”
To hear Derrick say, “Yeah, Pink Floyd called and they want to open for us on our European Tour. I told them we would get back to them.”
To hear Jill say, “I think I have changed my mind… feet are funny, not gross!”
To hear Sara say, “I looked in the mirror and decided, I didn’t need that Hello Kitty humidifier.”
To hear Monica say, “I just don’t have room for all these paintings I have done. Here, take about 5-10 of these off my hands.”
To hear Baier say, “I really shouldn’t be that emotionally invested in a pro sports team in a city that is 3 hours away from where I live. I think I’m going to take that wasted energy and train my dog to be less racist. Perhaps research unicorn blood in my spare time.”
To hear Russell say, “I don’t even know why I ever even question anything you say about sports, politics, movies or life. Mr. Bennett, I am in awe of you. In the future, when you speak, I will sit silently and keep notes. It is my greatest fear that some of your wisdom will be lost to the following generations.”
To hear Nader say, “The new Harry Potter movie was pretty good.”
To hear Andree say, “Maybe I have too many televisions. 7 is a lot for 1 guy.”
To hear Scottie D. say, “I apologize for ever questioning your commitment to tenderloins. You may hit me one time.”
To hear Eric say, “Dogs are really better than cats. I don’t know why I couldn’t see that before.”
To hear Jesse say, “I’ve thought about it. Maybe I should worship somebody that actually gets some playing time during the Olympics, rather than that creepy looking Finch girl.”

There are more, but I might be on happiness overload just thinking on my dreams.

Saving Second Base

On Wednesday, Jen brought me the super-cute Knocker Walkers shirt for the 5K on Saturday. I would have to say that the shirt was super-cute and ended up being the best shirt that I saw there.

The only shirt I saw that approached it was a shirt with a baseball diamond on it that said: “Saving Second Base”. But that shirt was a distant second.

I took a few pictures to send to interested parties and I am going to post some here. Remember that these pictures were taken with a phone, so they aren’t of the highest quality.


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Derrick registering for the 5K.

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Jen texting somebody to find out their location.

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Jen and Jessica. Jessica is one of the 2 founding members of the Knocker Walkers and is a cancer survivor.

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I call this picture “Estrogen Overload”. We arrived at the event about an hour early and proceeded to… well I’ll leave that alone and repeat that it was for a good cause.

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Sara seemed to insist that this was the first time she had ever seen my legs, even though I wear shorts constantly. This was the first time I have ever seen Sara in a ball cap.

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Me, Sara, Jen and Derrick

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Sara and Jen

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Dionne, Jessica (with her pink mohawk) and Jen. Even though we (Sara and I) just met Dionne, I think she might attend the Matisyahu concert with us on Thursday night. She will be a welcome addition to the concert, since of the 3 of us, she is the only one that can pronounce his name correctly on the first try. Although I have been practicing.

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This picture is supposed to show how crowded it was at the start of the 5K. We lined up about 2 blocks away from the starting line and it took about ten minutes to get to the starting line. For an event like this, that is a “good thing”.

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Jen waiting to get to the starting line.

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The starting line.
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This picture is supposed to show how far into the distance the crowd was this closely packed. You can’t really tell in this picture, but the crowd goes all the way to the buildings in the distance. The crowd was that packed almost as far behind us. 25,800 people.

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Derrick, Jen, Sara and Karolina nearing the end of the 5K.

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Jen, Derrick, Sara and Karolina crossing the finish line. 1 hour and 20 some minutes after the race had started.

It was an awesome event and I would encourage anybody to be a part of it next year.

I would also like to give a special thanks to Jason Baier and Geri Derner for making contributions to the cause through my pledge page. Special people, those two.

Yet There is Method In It

On Saturday, after going to the gym, helping Becky move, having lunch at Papa Chubby’s, touring Andree’s new digs but before going to Jeff’s birthday barbecue, I went down to check out Midnight Madness.

On my way from the car to the event, I took these pictures:


Midnight Madness - 2009

Midnight Madness - 2009

Midnight Madness - 2009

Midnight Madness - 2009

Once I got to where the competitors were congregating, I snapped a couple more pictures.


Midnight Madness - 2009
I believe that Logan was trying to throw down the badass vibe in this picture. It is a family trait of men with Bennett genetic material.

Midnight Madness - 2009
There is no doub about this one. Brandon is definitely throwing down the badass vibe in this picture.

Midnight Madness - 2009
Geri D. showing off her time clock. I made a deal with Geri that if she walked Midnight Madness next year, I would walk it with her. I don’t know if this is a “real” deal or if this is the type of deal I made with Becky last year where she was supposed to hold me accountable for volunteering for Special Olympics. I did not volunteer for Special Olympics.

Midnight Madness - 2009
I’m not going to describe this picture. In fact, there is only one regular reader of this blog that will even understand this picture. I hope they enjoy it.

Once the race got started, Becky joined me and I took a few more pictures of the competitors.


Midnight Madness - 2009
The beginning of the 5K.

Midnight Madness - 2009
Willy

Midnight Madness - 2009
Willy nearing the finish line.

Midnight Madness - 2009
Logan

Midnight Madness - 2009
Blake (The World’s Best UPS Guy)

Midnight Madness - 2009
Scott

It was an interesting event.

4th of July

I had a pretty great 4th of July!

I woke up in the morning and headed to Ames at about 9 am. I met Shannon and her cousin Matthew for a pretty sweet breakfast of biscuits and gravy that Shannon made.

Then I headed over to Jen and Derrick’s to drop off some cherry ice cream I made the night before for their annual 4th of July barbecue.

I got to Bandshell Park at about 10 am and worked on Ames on the Half Shell until about 7 pm.

I got a few photos of the event, but I’m just going to post my 5 favorite.


Nadas - 4th of July
Peg and Angie with Mike Butterworth of The Nadas

Nadas - 4th of July
Me with Teresa and Logan

Nadas - 4th of July
Me with Willy

Nadas - 4th of July
Geri D. re-enacting the stamping of Matthew’s Tongue

Nadas - 4th of July
Matthew and Shannon’s Annual 4th of July Portrait (Destined to be used as a Facebook Profile Picture with the cute part cropped out of it.)

After Ames on the Half Shell, I headed over to the fireworks firing grounds. Lighting off fireworks was quite a bit more dramatic this year. I saw quite a few fireworks do things that they weren’t supposed to do.

Becky signed up to do fireworks, but after the very first one that Shannon lit blew up only a few feet in the air and flew all over the shooting area, she changed her mind.

I have to admit, that was pretty exciting. The next day I talked to Melissa. She did security for fireworks, so she wasn’t at ground zero. She told me that when she saw that first firework blow up and shoot fireworks all over the area, she said a little prayer. But figured everybody must have been okay, because the fireworks didn’t stop.

Shannon never knew that her firework malfunctioned, but that is part of the training. You don’t watch your firework.

After a couple of minutes, Becky changed her mind and joined in the fun.

Here are a few pictures from the fireworks:


Independence Day - 2009
Scott showing off our massive amount of communication technology we had a ground zero.

Independence Day - 2009
Hammering Rebar. Rebar is hammered in between mortars to prevent them from falling over and firing into the crowd. Or worse, at the shooters. This is an example of what went wrong in Charles City last year. They used rebar, but they only hammered it in a few inches into asphalt. Because all the mortars were chained together, when one mortar fell over, they all fell over.
Independence Day - 2009
Joe unpacking fireworks.

Independence Day - 2009
The 10 minute warning. This was the very first firework that Becky ever lit.

Independence Day - 2009
Last year, Sara asked me what fireworks look like from the other side. I don’t have a good answer for that question, but this is what fireworks look like from underneath.

Independence Day - 2009
Shannon lighting a 5 inch shell. The 5 inch shells were the biggest that we lit off this year. I think this is actually my favorite picture from the day. Even though I’m sure critics will claim that it is slightly derivative of my earlier work.

Independence Day - 2009
This is an example of what it can look like when something goes minorly wrong. It might look to some people like this is a series of fireworks going off, but it isn’t. This is what it looks like when a firework doesn’t go up high enough before it blows up. It comes back to the earth before it has completely burned up. The strange thing about this picture is that if you look closely, you can see aluminum foil on top of the mortars. These are the grand finale mortars and they are covered by aluminum foil in case something like this happens. All the grand finale fireworks are fused together, so if 1 of them goes off, they all go off. If you look even closer, you will notice that there is not aluminum foil covering all of the mortars. This happened while people were removing the foil and getting ready to set off the Grand Finale. If you look very close, you can make out Joe on the very right side of the picture. Shannon was also in the middle of this, but she does not appear in the picture.
Independence Day - 2009
The Grand Finale going off.


There are a ton of other great pictures from the day. I suggest you either click on the picture below or the link below and check them out:


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It was a great and safe fireworks show. It was a spectacular show and nobody came close to getting injured!

I concluded the evening hanging out with some wonderful people at Jen and Derrick’s barbecue. I didn’t leave there until a little after 2, but I still woke up in time to usher at church. Take that sleep! Who needs you any way?