The following transpired on March 27. Shannon and I went to see the Blue Note Records 70th Anniversary Tour at Stephens Auditorium. The show consisted of an all-star lineup of current Blue Note musicians playing the songs of some of their greatest composers. One of the performers in the Blue… Read More »Friday Night Jazz Club
On March 19, I got a simple 3 word text message from Shannon in Florida: “I got it.” The “it” that she “got” was a Horiuchi Memorial Award for being an outstanding State Program Manager for the Iowa Jaycees. PHOTO LOST Contributed Photo AKA I wasn’t in Florida Although admittedly… Read More »Another One for the Awards Wall
I have one loyal subscriber that incessantly complains whenever I post too many posts without pictures. He often sends me an email that in essence “boos” me. I usually tell him that he is a big boy now and that he needs to use his words. But I’m quite certain… Read More »Saturday the 14th
I actually struggled quite extensively with picking out colors for the living/dining room. I wanted to do the accent wall thing and I didn’t want to match any of the colors in any of the other rooms. Red, blue, gray, yellow and green were all taken. I was heading towards… Read More »The Great Room
The guest bedroom. I view it as my library, but most people view as the cowboy room. When I got around to picking the color for this room, I had already picked blue for my bedroom, red for the kitchen, gray for the office and green for the bathroom. I… Read More »October Leaves
There are no pictures from moving day, but I would like to thank the people that gave some effort to make moving day work out. The Friday before moving day had spectacular weather. The Saturday of moving day was not scheduled to have spectacular weather. I returned to work on… Read More »Moving Day
The very first color I decided on was for the bedroom. I was kind of partial to Dutch Boy paint because an old high school chum used to wear a Dutch Boy hat around. Plus, I like the plastic paint jug with a pour spout. Plus, I picked up paint… Read More »The Master Bedroom
On Monday Shannon and Jesse came over to help paint the kitchen. This concludes all the pictures I have of people helping with the new house. It took 6-7 coats of paint to paint the kitchen. That is lots and lots of paint.
Although Carla and Alexis did a wonderful job of taking pictures, one of the downsides of not having taken any pictures myself is that I didn’t get pictures of everybody that helped. So thanks to my incredible painting crew on Primary Painting Day: Jason Stensland Carla Stensland Alexis Stensland Jason… Read More »Primary Painting Day
More pictures from paint prep night. I got those green chairs from my Aunt Linda to with a sweet white table she was throwing away. Those chairs are surprisingly popular. That is also Shannon showing off her taping skills. Carla painting the bathroom. Life Lesson: When working on a ceiling… Read More »Friday Night Paint Prep Club – Part B
Day 3 of home ownership consisted of paint prep and lots of it. Her are some pictures in no particular order from that night. Teresa eating. Shannon would want me to point out one thing in this picture. Well maybe two things. One she is a master taper. Two she… Read More »Friday Night Paint Prep Club – Part A
Negotiation isn’t the sharpest tool in my skillset. So after I had made the decision to make a move and try to buy the House with the Cute Backyard, I was a bit worried about the negotiation part of the process. To not bore you with the details of the… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 5 – The Art of Negotiation
On Sunday, January 10, I looked at the House with the Cute Backyard with Jason. I had seen the house with my Mom, Carla and Jay. Plus Teresa had seen it earlier. I wanted Jason’s far more practical perspective. Jesse also dropped by to look for a lead pipe. A… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 4 – A Closer Examination
Saturday was the day of the big Ottumwa Blitz. I made plans to see the houses on Saturday morning before Jay and I headed to Ottumwa. I had drove past the house on Union a couple of times and determined that the backyard might be a little bit too cutesy.… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 2: Initial Look
I began this Saturday morning (12-20-2008) by rising out of bed around 5:45 in the morning. I often don’t sleep that well, but on this night I purposely slept on the couch so that I wouldn’t sleep well and I would get up in time. I was getting up at… Read More »Matthew 25:40
The 2009 Photography 139 Calendar went through quite a large metamorphosis this year. I wasn’t sure that I was going to produce a calendar this year. The amount of time involved in the designing, printing, laminating and binding the calendar was becoming a burden on me and my friends. I… Read More »January
I reported yesterday that I took pictures for the Toys for Tots press release for United Way of Story County. Here are a few of the pictures: This might have been the most fun I’ve ever had in a Wal-Mart. Toys for Tots received thousands of dollars in donation on… Read More »Toys for Tots
Sometimes I will bury the lead in an entry. Most of this time it is done on purpose because I want people to figure out what the most important part of the story is for themselves. However, I’m sure there are times where it is just another example of sloppy… Read More »Burying the Lead
About a year ago I posted a comment on Shannon’s MySpace page where I was apologizing in advance for what Iowa State was going to do to her UNI Panthers IF Wesley Johnson played in the game. Wesley Johnson did indeed play in the game and he played well, but… Read More »Plus Five
Monica contacted me a month or so back about coming to Roland to take pictures of couples for the Roland American Legion Auxiliary during their annual Christmas Party. Monica is the Co-President of the Roland American Legion Auxiliary with her Aunt. The basic idea was to take pictures of couples… Read More »Roland, Iowa