Right before I went on vacation a month or so ago I did the 3 month photography for Scottie D. and Melissa’s new family member. I was still struggling from the equipment problems, but I think we did some good work.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Next week’s random Wednesday photo collection will cover my vacation, well the biggest part of my vacation.
These are the pictures I entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest and the person that selected the picture:
Thanks to everybody who took their time and energy to select pictures for me this year!
The picture that Dawn chose got 2nd Place in Black & White. My original intent for next year’s selectors was to bring back all of the people that had chose an award winning photo in the past few years, but my fire for photo contests has kind of been extinguished. Not that I might not reconsider, but I think that this might have been my last photo contest. Or at the very least the last time I enter the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
The pictures are from:
Backup/Old My Pictures/Real to Life/Color
Apparently at one time I thought these were some of the most important color pictures I had taken. In retrospect, I have no clue why.
Next week’s folder will be:
Old My Pictures/Real to Life/Special Effects
I’d like to give a big thanks to my fence crew that over the course of 4 intense work days over the last couple of months built a fence for me.
Thanks to:
Jason Stensland
Jay Janson
Andree Jauhari
Joshua Kraushaar
Derrick Gorshe
Scottie D.
Here are a few pictures from the project:
Me and my friends put a lot of sweat equity in this project. The heat index was well over 110 on at least 1 of the days we worked on this project. But I’m sure it will be worth it when I finally complete Operation Puppy!
These pictures come from backup/Old My Pictures/Deg-Porter Wedding
These pictures were taken at Scott and Melissa’s wedding. The last wedding I was in until Jen & Derrick’s wedding.
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Scottie D. all tuxed up!
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Scottie D. in black and white.
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Scottie D in glorious color.
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Setting up chairs.
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Posing for George
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Future Mrs. Porter
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Nate
Next week’s folder will be: backup/Old My Pictures/Egg Toss
Because I had such an incredibly packed weekend, I didn’t get a chance to post this until it was two days late.
Happy Birthday Scottie D.:
Sorry about the tardiness!
“DOWN GOES NATURE! DOWN GOES NATURE! DOWN GOES NATURE!”
-The voice of Howard Cosell inside my head
At exactly 10 PM on July 29. 2010, I popped the top on two bottles of Virgil’s Micro-brewed Root Beer and Dawn and I celebrated the end of Hedgegeddon. We had just dumped the final body of my fallen enemies into the burn pile at Scottie D.’s Mom’s place. It was over. Mankind was victorious!
It wasn’t easy though. Nature put up a good fight. I have complete and utter respect for nature, but on this front, I was the victor.
It took quite the effort though:
Thanks to the following people for helping me win my ultimate battle with nature:
We took a few pictures of the ceremonial removing of the final hedge. Scottie D. was there at the beginning and there at the end, so he gets a very special thanks. Plus he even cut down a bonus bush after we removed the final hedge.
The Path of Destruction
Dead Hedge Waiting to be Removed
The Last Hedge
Scottie D. and I with the Last Hedge
The Same
The Beginning of the End
The Battle is Almost Won
A Matter of Time…
Down Goes Nature! Down Goes Nature!
Mission Accomplished
Present Arms
Scott claimed that he would be able to cut down this bush in under 1 minute. I pulled out the old Gra Lab Enlarger Timer and timed him.
I haven’t seen a wife prouder of her husband since Jen and Derrick when he took down the Gunderburger.
He didn’t quite make his 1 minute goal, but Scott definitely took this bush down in under 3 minutes.
Doing a little cleanup.
Now that the destruction part of my backyard plan has been completed (for now… I’m looking at you currant bushes) I will be diving head first into my fence building plan.
I smell a fence building party on the horizon!
This past Sunday was Hedgegeddon (pronounced Yardegeddon in the Jansonian dialect) and it was a complete and utter disaster. It rained all weekend (or so it seemed) and the rain didn’t stop for Hedgegeddon.
In the end Hedgegeddon Round 1 – You Win this Time Mother Nature! was a complete failure. There were 2 No-Call-No-Shows. 1 person backed out at the last minute. The ground was one cohesive piece of mud and wouldn’t give anything up. The chains and straps became wet and mud covered and slipped off the hedges regardless of technique. In the end, the ultimate battle between Man and Nature wasn’t even close.
The crew of Jason, Scottie D., Derrick and I were completely and utterly demolished. Even though Nature laughingly ran up the score on us at the end (like Tom Osborne teams of the past) by having my spade break in half in Derrick’s hands, our spirits are not crushed.
There is a reason that the most common signature at the bottom of my emails reads:
Man can be destroyed, but not defeated.
Hedgegeddon 2 – Suck It Mother Nature! (that is a working title) has already been scheduled. Barring rain, this time Mother Nature will feel the bitter taste of defeat. After all, the words before “A man can be destroyed…” are “But man is not made for defeat.”
Despite the Georgia Tech vs. Cumberland U. size of this last setback, the day was not without some small modicum of success:
There was actually a good thing that came out of Hedgegeddon. I stopped mowing certain sections of my yard in preparation for this unblessed event. When I stopped mowing a certain patch of the yard I found out that I have hollyhocks. Sweet!
I’m particularly proud of these hollyhocks because apparently these are a difficult flower to grow in this part of the Cyclone State. However, I can grow them without even trying. I truly am becoming a master gardener!
Here are a few other flower pictures from the Bennett Flower Gardens:
I’m hoping that there will be some moonflower and lily action in my backyard in the next couple of weeks. It also seems like the cherries will be ready for picking in the next couple of weeks as well!
I had my, what could theoretically become, annual Birthday Barbecue on Saturday. I would like to thank all of the people that attended and made the evening special:
Next year, I will move the barbecue back to its traditional spot of the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Feel free to circle the date May 28 on your 2011 calendar that you have yet to purchase. It will perhaps be an even smaller and more intimate gathering. I might start instituting a survivor type invitation policy similar to the fashion of invites that Jay uses for Symposium.
Special thanks need to be extended to the following people:
Sara for taking the pictures for the invitations.
Sara for providing the s’mores goodies.
Jay for making three desserts: chocolate raspberry cookies, key lime bars and apple crisp.
Steve for providing homemade salsa and chips.
Becky for making a pasta salad.
Scott and Melissa for bringing a banana creme pie.
Shannon for baking a fresh rhubarb pie with rhubarb picked from my personal rhubarb patch.
Johnathan for bringing over cornhole.
Logan and Russ for running the grill.
Mom for baking a cake and creating a watermelon fruit thing.
Derrick for being the fire-starter.
Andree for being the best dressed person at the party.
Shannon for opening the party.
Willy for closing the party.
There isn’t any photographic evidence to support that this party existed. I was too busy to touch a camera and Sara didn’t take any pictures this year. Maybe next year I will add “Party Photographer” to the list of Staff positions for this shindig.
If you wish to be hired for this position (no pay, no benefits, possibly a STAFF t-shirt*) simply send the answer to the following question to bennett@photography139.com:
Why would I make an awesome Party Photographer?
I suppose I should start planning Friendsmas now. It can wait a couple of months.
*That is not a joke. There will be staff t-shirts next year.
When I recategorized the entries in this journal, there is one category that was sorely aching to be added, but I decided not add it because I was a tad bit fearful.
You? The Great Christopher D. Bennett was fearful?
I know it seems an unlikely turn of events, but it is true. The category that struck me with a small degree of trepidation was food. Go ahead, go to the website. Look at the list of categories. You won’t find food listed.
Why? Because I’m scared to know how many of my little adventures circulate around stuffing things down my pie hole.
Yet, in the next few weeks I might be launching a second blog with my eating chum Scottie D.
A couple Saturdays back we arranged a lunch trip to BK’s in Ogden to knock down what we both consider to be the state’s best tenderloin. This was going to conclude a weeklong food vacation for Scottie D. He had spent the early part of the week visiting the Twin Cities eating Jucy Lucies. Then he took the family down to Kansas City to Blanc Burgers and Bottles to have what he considers to be the greatest burger in the world.
I’m not sure if Scottie D. really wanted to go to BK’s or if he was avoiding going to a birthday party where he might run into a guy by the name “The Sleeve”. If you know the tall tale (actually sick and twisted story) of The Sleeve, you know why Scottie D. was looking to avoid the shindig.
On the day that we were going to make the pilgrimage to Ogden for tenderloin bliss Scottie D. called me and wanted to know if instead of O-Town if it would be okay if we went with his friend “House” to Stanhope to try a restaurant up there that was getting rave reviews.
I’m always on the prowl for new places to eat, so I agreed to the change of venue. On the way up there House enthralled us with tales of a pizza joint just a tad further up the road in Kamrar that was excellent.
We ate at the restaurant in Stanhope and it was decent. They had some intriguing appetizers. We tried their Reuben Bites. They were good, but the cheese was not Swiss cheese. It was some bland tasting yellow cheese. Most likely cheddar. My burger was tasty, but Scottie D. did not enjoy his burger. He cited the steak sauce on it.
After we left the restaurant Scottie D. proposed the unthinkable – The Double Lunch!
I was game. I’m not sure if Scottie D.’s motivation was unquenched appetite or he just had a burning desire to avoid the lasciviousness that surrounds The Sleeve.
Either way, we continued our journey up Highway 17 to Kamrar.
We pulled up to the pizza place and saw this awesome sign:
I was definitely leery at this point, but ventured on inside to find…
Something rather shocking. The inside was roomy and beautiful. The woodwork was nice and fancy and appeared to have been recently done.
We ordered some Pickles Fries.
We also ordered up a taco pizza. Their pizza was thin crust and this was easily one of the best taco pizzas I’ve ever had in my life. The only thing that was strange about it was that they didn’t cover the whole pizza with lettuce, chips and tomatoes. They only covered the center.
It was a great pizza and I have already decided that Pickles Pub is where I’m taking FNSC when it is time for my birthday FNSC.
On the way back to Boone I was uncomfortably full. I was further made uncomfortable when Scottie D. finally told me the story about The Sleeve became known as The Sleeve. It is a story that I have recounted to a few other unfortunate souls because I believe that misery loves company.
After his tale, Scott declared that we should start a blog where we tell people where the best food is in central Iowa. I agreed to take part in this experiment even though my experience with starting group blogs (see The Sports Proletariat) has been decidedly negative.
However, if I think positively, I will be buying a new domain name and starting up a blog with Scottie D. in the near future. Hopefully it will go somewhere.
The best way for it to go somewhere is to enlist the aid of others. What we need is scouts. If you have tried an excellent place and you think we might enjoy it, let me know and we will let you know if you are right or not.
Scouts that show particularly good taste in picking locations might even get to move up to the level of contributors some day.
