Category Archives: Becky

Animals, Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Flowers, Macro, Shannon

Volt-face

October 4, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Sunday I had some unexpected free time when I got fired from a friend’s photo project.

That is right I got:

A career change opportunity
Discharged
The Pink Slip
Dehired
Canned
Downsized
Let Go
Outsourced
Made Redundant
Skill-mix Adjustment
Released
Walking Papers
Shown the Door
The Ax
Terminated
Sacked

On the positive side, this freed up my Sunday afternoon.

I made the use of my time by taking some flower pictures.

I also was able to witness some Ames Party Bus painting. I have more pictures of this, but even posting the one picture that I’m posting is kind of violating an agreement I made.

I made use of my unexpected freed up future.

Becky, Commercial, Shannon

New Sales Record

September 24, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

On Sunday I went down to Hy-Vee Hall to help man the Little White Lye Soap booth at The Women’s Life Expo.

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The Women’s Life Expo

Women's Life Expo
Little White Lye Soap Booth

Before Sunday I had helped Shannon set her 1 day sales record at the Webster City Farmer’s Market.

After 1 day of the Expo, the record still stood.

Then came Sunday. We managed to shatter the record into a trillion pieces. Now I can’t take full credit for the record being shattered. I only talked to a handful of customer’s and none of them actually bought any soap, but I must be bringing something to the team. I have helped break the record twice. It must be something intangible. Something that you can’t quite place a finger on. Because of its ethereal nature, it can’t be replicated. I wish there was a word for it.

For reasons that are not clear to me, this new sales record is also shared with Becky. She wasn’t even in the building. Something to do with merchandising. That is okay, I guess, I can share the glory. As long as my name goes on the Sales Record Plaque first.

Don’t forget that if you are running low on Little White Lye Soap, you can pick some up at the Ames Downtown Farmer’s Market this Saturday. My understanding is that there will be a soapmaking demonstration going on. You’ll regret missing that.

Becky, Movies, Politics

Exercise Your Enfranchisement

August 7, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I’m free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn’t, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.

– Jefferson Smith; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

As you all know, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is one of my favorite movies. This little bit from that movie reminds me of how important it is to vote.

Now I’m not urging you to go out and vote this November. That is an awful log time to wait to express one’s opinion. What I’m urging you to do is go to the following website:

LINK NO LONGER EXISTS

Once you are there you should see something like the picture below:

That is a picture of Becky’s rabbit Maude. Once there you should exercise your ability to think for yourself and do what I’m about to tell you to do. Vote for Maude as the “Cutest Pet”.

Maude thanks you for your support.

Animals, Baseball/Softball, Becky, Boone County Fair, Candid Portrait, Contests, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Monica, Robert, Running, Willy

Images from a Saturday

July 20, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

I had a rare busy Saturday. Although admittedly a lot of my Saturday was spent watching other people do stuff or sleeping on a wet lounger. Perhaps the highlight of my Saturday was trying the taco dip that spawned Monica’s world famous taco dip. I should have gotten a picture of that.

The first batch of pictures is from Willy running the 4K at the Iowa Games. Willy also ran the 8K. Then for fun, he ran 18 miles when he got home.

The next batch of pictures are from the Minor Girls State Tournament in beautiful Huxley, Iowa. I used to have a friend that lived in Huxley, Iowa. Maybe that guy will return a phone call some day…

Kalista’s team beat Madrid in the game that I witnessed, before falling to Grand View in their next game. Their game against Madrid was an excellent example of how positive energy overcomes negative energy.

Boone won the game. The deciding factor in the outcome of the game was positive energy. I do not think that Boone had the more talented players. I do not think that Boone had the superior strategy. I think the entire difference in the games was that positive energy was flowing from the Boone coaches and negative energy was flowing from the Madrid bench.

As many of you know I despise Little League. This comes from 10 years of coaching and many more years sitting in the stands. Little League is a shining example of how adults go out of their way to ruin children’s activities. There is some good, but it is usually outweighed by the bad.

An example: While the outcome of the game was still in the balance, the Madrid coach began yelling at her daughter as she was coming off the field for what she perceived to be a couple of mental errors on her daughter’s part. At about second #15 of the tirade, the 8 or 9 year old girl began crying. The Madrid coach’s response: “Don’t you cry. This is YOUR fault.” Another timeless childhood memory provided by Little League.

I won’t even get into the sequence where the Madrid coach began yelling at the Madrid fans.

The next batch of images comes from my trip to the Boone County Fair to visit Becky.

My favorite part about the Boone County Fair (besides getting the World’s Best Funnel Cake!) is the fact that the Boone County Democrats were giving away free gun locks.

The Fair was followed by a trip to the Henning household in Ogden. Christopher and Robert were both back in town. Christopher from Iraq. Robert from Wyoming. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I didn’t.

This was followed by a trip to Lone Wolf State Park AKA the McAlpine Lair to do some barbecuing. No pictures of this either, so you’ll have to take my word that it was a good time.

Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Derrick, Event, Holidays, Jaycees, Jen, Music, Night, Shannon

Independence Day

July 6, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

It was a busy 4th of July.

I started the day at about 9 AM by moving mortars into place. Then at 10:30 I went over to Half Shell to help set up and serve beer until about 3 PM.

Check out some pictures from Half Shell.

Shannon and Matthew

Scott with the 1st Beer of Half Shell

Becky and Jenny

I switched from my “Beat Iowa” hat to a “Beer Nuts” hat for this Half Shell.*

Burnin’s Sensations

Sarah finishing off the pepperoni pizza that she didn’t want to be “too eager” for.

I don’t know what is going on in this picture.

At 3 I headed back to the fireworks area to set up sandbags. Fireworks was a very educational experience. For starters, fireworks don’t look anything like I thought they would look like. I thought they would look like giant bottle rockets or like the big red rockets that Wile E. Coyote shoots at the Road Runner. Instead, they look like this:

Fireworks.

The main thing I learned though was that being in the pit or ground zero of a fireworks display is about a million times more entertaining and fun than watching a fireworks display.

To let off fireworks there is a dress code. You are required to wear boots, long pants, a cotton long sleeve shirt (polyester will catch on fire), a hard hat, safety glasses and ear protection. Even with all of that clothing and protective gear it is hard to put into words how powerful and loud the fireworks are in the pit. It is an intense experience.

I was really down in the pit to take some pictures. However, I was ordered to set off a couple of fireworks. So I set off three.

After we finished some clean up I went over to Jen and Derrick’s traditional 4th of July barbecue. I was asked the same question a few different times while I was there:

“Which fireworks did you light off?”

Shannon would usually answer the question: “The good ones.”

Although I enjoy her vote of confidence, that answer has no basis in fact. The truth is that you never get to see the fireworks that you light off. In fact, you barely ever see any fireworks at all. You feel them. You hear them. You never see them.

The steps to setting off the fireworks prevent you from ever seeing them. When you go to light off the fireworks you are handed a 5 or 6 foot pole with a road flare taped to the end. You approach the mortars with the flare pointed away from the fireworks. When you get near the fireworks you remove the protective sleeve that covers the fuse. Then you take a few steps back and light the fuse with the flare. As soon as the fuse starts to light, you turn your back to the fireworks, get low and move away from the mortars.

While you are moving away from the fireworks, there is another person acting as a spotter. The spotter tells you when it is okay to go light another fuse or to get down. Trust me, you definitely know when the shell has shot into the sky. You feel it. However, there are a couple of things that could go wrong. The shell could blow up in the mortar or the shell can come a few feet out of the mortar and then blow up. If these things don’t happen, you get to go back and light off more fireworks. But you never really get to see the fireworks that you light.

Here are a few pictures from the pit:

Joe packing mortars.

Charby moving boxes of fireworks.

Shannon putting foil on the Grand Finale mortars.

The line moving away from the explosion is the flare.

Fireworks.

More fireworks.

Peggy setting off fireworks.

Shannon watching.

Grand finale aftermath.

Of course there are about 80 more pictures in the Snapshot Gallery in an album named “Jaycees – Independence Day – 2008”.

Jaycees – Independence Day – 2008

When I concluded my evening at Jen and Derrick’s barbecue I found out that something pretty major had happened in my absence. However, that is not my tale. All I can tell you is that congratulations are in order next time you see them.

One last story.

While I was walking around Half Shell taking pictures two girls came up to me.

“Do you want to take our picture?” they asked.

“Why would I want to take your picture?”

“Because we are so cute.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah!”

“I can take your picture.”

I’ll leave it to you to make your own assessments about the level of cuteness these girls possess.

I have a feeling this is how the Girls Gone Wild guy got started.

*I bought a new hat for this coming Half Shell on Saturday. I think it is perfect.

Becky, Nature, Night, Railroad

Enigmatic

June 30, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

So I went on a small cruise around Boone County with Becky on Monday night. Here are a few images from that experience.

What I learned about Becky from this trip is that there is a strange inconsistency in a person that claims that Halloween is their favorite holiday, but freaks out when you tell them a simple story from Boone’s historic past. I also hear that the Jaycees Haunted House isn’t her thing, but she insists on going through it every year. Well, I guess not this year.

Becky, Commercial, Derrick, Event, Jaycees, Music, Shannon

Box Brothers

June 27, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Ames on the Half Shell was rain shortened on Friday night. At least we got in about half of the concert. I only had to go on stage to make a brief speech about our sponsors when it started to rain. I didn’t get a chance to announce last call or really make the FULL sponsor speech. I also was denied the chance to announce last call. Oh well, I still got to do the radio interview for 105.1. I think I came off as a tad bit arrogant.

Here are some pictures.

There are about 40 more images in the Ames on the Half Shell – 2008 Gallery.

Ames on the Half Shell – 2008

Ames on the Half Shell is a bit different this week. Since Friday is Independence Day there are a ton of stuff planned for downtown Ames by the Main Street Cultural District. Half Shell will run from 1-6 instead of 5-8. The bands will be Burnin’ Sensations and The Nadas.

Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Derrick, Event, Music, Photoshop, Shannon

Burnin’ Sensations

June 15, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Friday was another hugely successful night for Ames on the Half Shell. The band was Burnin’ Sensations and they were phenomenal. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Abi and Melissa

Dennis

Sara

Birthday Girl

Scott

Derrick

Burnin’ Sensations

Chad

Andy and Charby

Working the Picnic Table

Possibly Discussing an UnHingd Reunion?

Every once in awhile when I’m editing pictures I find something that amuses me in a picture that was completely unintentional. Sometimes that happens when I’m not really concentrating, but just taking pictures quickly. One of those pictures above amuses me in just such a way.

I took a picture of one of the singers from Burnin’ Sensation out working the crowd. I was impressed by this because they were the first band to really work the crowd in such a fashion.

I think if there was somebody standing on top of my table playing a tambourine, I would probably be so impressed I would watch them, but that isn’t the case for everybody. Some people would rather text message.

I also made a panoramic image of the event. These are really hard to post because of their extreme width. So below I spun this image counterclockwise 90 degrees so that you can at least go through the image to some degree. It is also compressed to about 10% of its actual size. In its full resolution it is much crisper.

Of course there are about 40 more images in the Snapshots Gallery in an album named AOTHS-Burnin’ Sensations. It is located right next to the Family Night Photo Album.

AMES ON THE HALF SHELL – 2008

I should also point out that I had a new life experience on Saturday. To say it was my life experience isn’t really fair, but I overheard something that I thought I would never hear, not even in Iowa.

After a long discussion about life with Becky on her sweet front porch, I made my way down to Tradewinds for the conclusion of Shannon’s birthday shindig. While I was there I was sitting at a table where a creepy guy was putting the “moves” on a lady friend.

One of the things he said to impress her was that he was once up to his nipples in pig feces. I guess you go with what you got, but if that is what you got, maybe you should lie.

Of course, it all happens again this Friday. Not the pig poo guy, but Ames on the Half Shell will happen again this Friday. 5-8 at Bandshell Park. 3 bucks gets you in the door. Another 3 bucks gets a beer in your hand.* 1 buck gets you some Red Monkey.

This week the band is Vivace. They are also excellent. They are one of the two bands that I booked. I got to play hardball with them. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So how much do you charge?

Vivace: XXXXXX bucks. A little more for an outdoor show.

Me: Well this is an outdoor show.

Vivace: Well we can keep it the same.

Me: Sounds like a deal.

Hope to see some of you there. Even my Corporate Sellout friends.

*Technically 3 bucks gets you an orange token that magically gets turned into beer at the beer tent.

Baier, Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Dawn, Derrick, Event, Music, Shannon, Suzie, Willy

Family Night

June 9, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Last Friday was Family Night for Ames on the Half Shell. By all measurable criteria the event was a smashing success. More than twice the amount of children made it to Family Night this year than last.

Plus I got to see many of my friends and their children. Take a look at some of the fun that was had on that evening.

Of course there are about 80 more pictures in on my website in the AOTHS Gallery.

AMES ON THE HALF SHELL

Here is a Family Night Fun Fact. Despite the fact that there were 5 times the amount of children at Family Night than there were for the first night of of AOTHS and Red Monkey was free for children, less than half the amount of Red Monkey that was consumed on the first night was consumed on Family Night.

If you picked up what I was laying down with that big run-on sentence, you might be wondering how that was possible. The fact is that I am to blame. I laid off the Red Monkey during Family Night because I thought the youth of Central Iowa would pick up my slack. They did not. Now I have to hit the Red Monkey doubly hard this Friday night to make up for lost time. But I mean really, what is wrong with this generation?

I also learned a few things on Family Night. I learned that Shannon can’t blow bubbles. I learned that if you sign up to run the 5K during Scandinavian Days they give you a pretty sweet free shirt. I learned that Becky proved that she doesn’t know anything about hats because she wore a balloon hat around most of the night. I learned that even if you have somebody watching the bounce house, children will get in a fight and scare other small children. I learned that the Baier children will take their tats like men when the time comes for them to get their tats. I learned that security is such a tough job that I didn’t get a chance to talk to everybody nearly as long as I had hoped.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Ames on the Half Shell will happen again this Friday night. This week the band is Burnin’ Sensations and they are excellent. If you have a hole in your schedule between 5-8, this is the place to be. Also Friday is somebody’s birthday. I don’t wish to embarrass them (yet), but at the very least it is worth the price of admission (79 cents less than a gallon of gas) to wish her a Happy Birthday!*

Plus it is Friday the 13th. I’m not a superstitious person, but it might be a good day to be in a large crowd.

*That exclamation mark is not a random choice of punctuation.

Becky, Event, Jaycees, Music, Shannon

Redzband

May 31, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Friday was the first Ames on the Half Shell event of the season. I have to say I was surprised by the large turnout considering that Ames was flooded. Below are a handful of pictures from the event.

Of course there are a few more pictures in the Ames Jaycees Album in the Ames on the Half Shell Gallery.

Ames on the Half Shell – 2008

This week at Ames on the Half Shell is Murphy’s Law. It is also Family Night. I understand that there is a slew of awesome things for kids to do, but I’ll write more on those later.

>A few of you have told me that you will be coming out for Family Night. I look forward to seeing you there and hope a few more of you make the trip out as well.