Category Archives: Alexis

Alexis, Art, Candid Portrait, FNSC, Formal Portrait, Holidays, Jay, Movies, Night, Scottie D., Willy

All Hallow’s Eve

November 1, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

I had a pretty good Halloween.

I hosted FNSC. I made chili. I made cornbread from scratch. I made apple cider. Jay made a blueberry buckle. Willy showed up in a costume. We watched some movies from a bygone era that some people might characterize as strange. However, I think I might have found proof that rabbits will jump off a table in one of these movies. A classic from the 1970s known as Night of the Lepus. A phenomenal movie.

Jay’s annual sweet pumpkin.

I can not compete with Jay, so I made a stick figure to accent the disparity between our pumpkin carving skills. This annoyed Jay for some reason. I don’t often do things out of spite, but I might have to make the stick figure my annual pumpkin because it both annoys Jay and because the simple stick figure grew on me as the night went on. I don’t think it was just the apple cider impairing my judgment either.

The candles in Jay’s pumpkin.

Scott and Austin; Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the Howard kids or the Davis clan. I’m going to get that done next year.

Jay carving his second pumpkin.

I had to buy a new flash recently because, well I don’t want to get into that story. This might have been one of those blessing in disguise type things. I really like my new flash.

Although I’ve gotten glowing feedback on my Cider, chili, little smokies and cornbread, I think I’m going to have to research a new recipe for pumpkin seeds before next year. They take a decent picture at least.

I think if Willy dressed like this every week, he would be irresistible to the womanfolk. He probably already is though.

I also didn’t get a picture of Alexis this year. I think she kind of phoned it in any way. She went to school dressed like Hannah Montana, but she showed up for trick-or-treating in her gymnastics outfit.

The best part about Alexis showing up was that she didn’t even ring the doorbell. She just walked right in with her friends and said:

“Where’s the candy?”

She was showing off for her friends just a little bit.

Alexis, Formal Portrait, Olympic Sports

First Meet

September 25, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Alexis had her first gymnastics meet on Sunday. She totally ripped it up. Just look at all the precious metal she brought back with her from that other side of the state.

I don’t know how she can even stand up!

This is how she did:

6th on Floor
3rd on Vault
3rd on Beam
1st on Bars
3rd in All-Around

I’m glad that she got all of this athletic ability from the Bennett side of the family.

Her next meet is in Chow’s gym AKA where Shawn Johnson trains. That should be a pretty incredible experience.

Alexis, Black & White, Contests, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Macro

Spurned

August 30, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Two more pictures that were not selected.

It took me some time to actually find one of these old merry-go-rounds. I searched high and low and only found one in Boone. Perhaps there is another one somewhere, but the only one I could find was at the Trinity playground.

The point of this picture was to convey movement by making the background a motion blur, but keeping the foreground in focus.

I don’t really have much to say about this picture. I can’t even remember when or where I took it. It is a black and white flower picture.

Alexis, Art, Baseball/Softball, Carla, Elainie, Flowers, Jason, Macro, Road Trip

Albia, Iowa

July 21, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

I drove to Albia on Sunday to watch Elainie play softball in the Little League State Tournament. I was honestly expecting to only watch one game because they were playing Grand View. I can never recall a Boone team beating a Grand View team. But it happened. Boone beat Grand View 9-6. They played Monroe County in the title game and fell 7-1.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Not going to make a play on Elainie’s monster smash!

Great Raspberry Shakes!

There is one other thing. It is traditional to paint your vehicle to support your kid’s team when they go to tournaments. I understand that. However, there needs to be some common sense exercised.

For example. Say you have a daughter. Say that daughter is a pitcher. Say that daughter strikes people out. A reasonable thing to do would be to paint a couple “K”s on your van because the “K” is the symbol for strikeout in score keeping.

Now think about it. Just off the top of your head, what amount of “K”s would you not want to paint on your van.

Has it come to you yet?

Figured it out yet?

Have that answer yet?

Yeah, that seems like a bad idea to me. Even if there are 3 outs in an inning.

For the record, this van was from Wisconsin and not Boone.

Alexis, Candid Portrait, Jay, Jen

Another July Birthday

July 17, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

One last Happy Birthday!

Now I have to get caught up on birthday presents. I got Jay’s delivered yesterday. Now I just need to get Jen’s delivered.

Alexis, Birthdays, Brandon, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Elainie, Ernie, Formal Portrait, Jen, Johnathan, Logan, Music

Happy Birthday! [Squared]

July 12, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Saturday was this guy’s birthday:

It was also the birthday of this punk:

While going through some pictures I found this picture:

Alexis, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Movies, Nature

3 Things

June 12, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Relay for Life

So Relay for Life is coming up pretty darn quick. As it turns out I forgot to start raising money. I have raised some money, but that money consisted of me sitting on my rump when somebody came up to me and threw some cash into my hand and said, “That’s for Relay for Life.”

I don’t want to give you a long winded sales pitch about why you should donate money for Relay for Life and tell you about how cancer has effected my life or the people in my life. I think I can distill the entire thing down to its essence.

“It is cancer, stupid!”

So if you have a couple extra bucks stuck in your couch cushions or have a bag full of beer bottles in your basement that need to be taken back and you don’t really have much use for that money and you aren’t mad that I just called you stupid, I would be in your debt if you would throw it my way for Relay for Life.

There are a couple of ways to do such a thing. First you can go to my Relay for Life page and donate there:

LINK DELETED

You can also just give me money when you see me.

Flood Pictures

From time to time I get asked if I have any flood pictures. But I will post the one flood picture I do have.

Son of Rambow

I’m pretty jacked up right now. One of two must see movies of 2008 has finally came to Ames.

Take a look at the trailer. (If you received this through a RSS Feed or e-mail, you will actually have to go to the website to view the video.)

VIDEO DELETED

I’m hoping to put together a small platoon of people to go see this masterpiece next week.

Alexis, Art, Derrick, Eric, Holidays, Jay, Jeff Kewer, Jen, Monica, Movies, Sara, Suzie, Teresa

Memorial Day and the Crystal Skull

May 26, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Memorial Day wasn’t really meant to be a good-time-feel-good holiday. It was established to honor Union Soldiers that died in the Civil War and was first known as Decoration Day.

Regardless of its original intentions, this solemn holiday has become a chance for most Americans to barbecue and enjoy a 3 Day weekend. I’m not different than most Americans. I just wanted to have a good time on Memorial Day.

My day started out good enough. I watched 4 straight hours of Animal Planet with Alexis in the morning. Jay came over and we had tacos and nachos for lunch. Then we headed over to the Cinemark to catch a matinée of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull with Derrick.

+++SPOILERS+++

Usually I’m not the type of person that gives away spoilers about movies. I want people to see movies on their own, but this is one movie that I don’t feel the need to protect any of its secrets. This movies is a piece of garbage.

I’ve alway been a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies. Sure Temple of Doom blows a little bit, but the other 2 are excellent. Crystal Skull is an insult to all 3 of those movies.

I didn’t understand why so many Star Wars fans were upset with the prequels that came out a few years back. True, they weren’t very good, but the first 3 Star Wars movies stunk as well. What was the big deal? Instead of 3 movies with terrible acting and writing now you had 6 of them. Star Wars fans should have been elated.

I still don’t understand Star Wars fans, (there are certainly much, much better science fiction movies out there, I refer you to the two that Stanley Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange just for starters) but now I can relate to them a bit. I’ve seen a movie franchise that I love torn to shreds before my very eyes.

On Sunday when we were driving down to The House of Bricks Willy told me that Crystal Skull was not very good. I told him that I could handle it if it wasn’t very good, but I would not be able to handle one thing. If they tried to set up a series of sequels starring Even Stevens, I would be angry. I would leave the theater in a rage.

I should have seen the warning signs. Even Willy would be the first to admit that I have much higher standards for movies than he does. The dude loves Van Damme movies!

Despite my bold proclamations, I left the theater angry. In fact, I haven’t been this angry leaving the theater since I sat through the misogynistic propaganda piece masquerading as entertainment known as Sin City. I was madder than when I left the theater after Transformers. Another example of taking something I loved from my childhood and making it suck. Incidentally also starring Even Stevens.

The one good thing I can say about Crystal Skull is that they didn’t end the movie by setting up sequels for Even Stevens. They came close. They made you think that is what they were going to do. At the end of the movie Indy’s hat blows off a hat rack and rolls to a stop at Even Stevens’ feet. As he bends over to pick up the hat, Indy picks it up before him and puts it on his head. Me physically vomiting in the aisles was averted.

I suppose that I don’t have time to write on all the things I hated about this movie, because there are so many of them. I’ll try to keep it to just two.

ALIENS!!!!

Are you kidding me? Could Lucas and Spielberg not turn the last Indiana Jones movie into a science fiction movie? I now fully expect that the next Spielberg WWII movie to involve aliens in some way, shape or form.

CGI!!!

CGI has already, for the most part, ruined most summer movies. It was as if they had missed the point of the first three movies. They were an homage to old time serial movies and they were done with trick photography and stuntmen. Crystal Skull is an homage to the other 3 movies basically, only with way too much CGI. I should have known it was coming when the first shot of the movie features a CGI prairie dog.

My day was ruined from that point on and I don’t think that there was much that could have happened to turn my day around.

+++SPOILERS OVER+++

My day did turn around though. I headed out to Roland for Monica’s barbecue. The only low point of the barbecue was having Happy Birthday sang to me for the third time in 8 days. I’m glad I won’t have to hear that again for some time. Although Monica did make me a sweet Jello birthday cake.

I don’t really like getting presents all that much. Unless it is something the person has made, like a sweet painting or piece of stained glass or cake or rhubarb pie or a card.

Teresa sent me this birthday card.

There is the occasional exception. Sara got me this sweet gift:

The camera is 30 years old and still is in its original box. This will look great on my shelf of old cameras.

Alexis, Animals, Art, Carla, History, Mom, Steph, Teresa

Mt. St. Helens Anniversary

May 18, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

On May 18, 1980 three things happened.

1. Mt. St. Helens erupted.
2. Stephanie Kasper was born.
3. I turned 5.

5 years earlier I was born.

A cousin of mine once gave my two sisters and I the very backhanded compliment that we turned out pretty well considering the white trash from which we came.

I don’t want to dwell on that story and its obvious hypocrisies. I use it to illustrate a point. If I ever become a person worth remembering historians will note that on the date of my birth my parents were at The Hillbilly Auction.

Now I wasn’t born at The Hillbilly Auction. Although that would have made a great story. It will be noted by some future scholar that even “Greatness” can come from such humble roots. “Christopher D. Bennett’s mom went into labor while she was manning the antique booth at The Hillbilly Auction” the future narrator of a documentary will intone while on the screen will flicker an actress playing my mom in 1970s garb sitting in front of a camper with a bunch of antiques sitting on a table in front of her clutching her stomach. An actor portraying my dad will come out of the camper and rush to her side.

I don’t know if there will be actresses portraying my sisters. I don’t know if they were there. I should look into that. I want them in the documentary even if they weren’t there. A pig tailed red headed little kid to portray Teresa. A dark skinned black haired actress to portray Carla. It seems like I’m missing a perfectly good opportunity to post pictures of them from their childhood. I’ll have to look into that too.

Well 33 years later, I can’t return to The Hillbilly Auction. Instead, I witnessed the evidence that my niece Alexis is a hooligan.

Just look at this vandalism!

Although I do approve of her use of colors, but the message is so cliche. I will expect better from her in her future acts of vandalism.

I also took a ride down to Jester Park in the Howardmobile. My car decided to no longer have brake lights. I’m going to need to do something about that in the near future. Any way, check out some pictures.