Category Archives: FNSC

Art, Black & White, Commercial, Drone, FNSC, Jesse, Railroad, Ruins, Self-Portrait, Willy

Bottled Bliss

June 24, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Maybe you haven’t heard, but there is a new bar in Boone called Bottled Bliss. It is a wine and crafter beer bar. It was started by a friend of mine (really Nate’s friend, but I’ve borrowed her as my friend) named Kelli.

I’m sure many of you are wondering why I’m writing about a bar when I don’t drink. “Sure… sure…” you are thinking, “I’ll listen to you when you endorse a company like Honey Hollow cause you look like somebody that has eaten your fair share of honey in your day. Probably more than your fair share of honey. I’ll even listen to you when you endorse a company like Little White Lye Soap because you come off clean and are clearly one of the best smelling employees at the Computer Mine. Top 5. Maybe even Top 2. Some days, #1. I’ll even give you the benefit of the doubt when you endorse Salon 908, when you clearly don’t have a great head of hair perched atop your Gulliver. But why should I listen to you… a notorious teetotaler about a place to go get a drink?”

Don’t worry. There is an answer to your question. It all started back on May 5. Cinco de Mayo. I had heard a rumor that my favorite The Colorado Grill employee was hanging it up. Calling it a day at The Colorado Grill. So Jesse, Willy, and I saddled up and took Friday Night Supper Club out to The Colorado Grill for Kelli’s last night.

Once we got out there, Kelli told us that she was leaving the Grill to start her own wine bar. (Incidentally, I haven’t been back to The Colorado Grill since.) I was heartbroken because Kelli is a master of customer service and she always keeps my raspberry ice tea topped off AND she always serves it to me in a giant mug. Not like the glass that the paupers get.

To commemorate Kelli’s last day and what I thought would be last raspberry tea I would ever receive from her we took this picture:

As fate would have it, it wasn’t the last raspberry tea with Kelli in our future. She told me that she would stock raspberry tea for me AND we struck a deal to put some of my photography on the walls of her new business.

Here is where you come in. You should 100% get your friends together and go down to a night of wine tasting or craft beer tasting at Bottled Bliss. My understanding is that Kelli really knows her wine and craft beers. She spent years honing her knowledge by stocking the craft beers at The Colorado Grill and running a monthly wine club. Also, she pours a mean raspberry tea… which is no easy job.

I’ve already heard a couple of “Yes!”es and a few “Sounds really good. I’ll have to do that”s.

But if I haven’t sold you yet, here is some information from her website (bottledbliss.net):

Monthly Cork Membership:
$35.00 Monthly
1 Glass of wine each weak.
$10.000 off Wine Club admission
20% Off bottles of wine.

There are 2 Wine Clubs.

4th Tuesday of the Month

Think of this wine club as a Wine 101. Become the expert wine lover you’ve always wanted to be. Explore new wines and expand your pallet. There’s no shame in enjoying a fantastic glass of moscato BUT there is more to wine than just one varietal. Enjoy new exciting wine in a welcoming and learning environment with great company and small bites.

This wine club will be hosted by wine distributors and Iowa Wineries.

2nd Tuesday of the Month

This wine club is designed for a mature pallet. Experience wines from around the world, build knowledge about unique wine regions surrounded by fellow wine lovers. Deep reds, dry whites, and full bodied wine can be expected at this wine club. Small bites will be offered to help compliment your wine experience.

This wine club will be hosted by wine distributors to help enhance your wine journey.

Wine Club events are $25 per event.

But I want to know more about Kelli other than she pours a mean raspberry tea. Also from the website:

My name is Kelli Casper and I was born and raised in Boone. My husband and I are raising our two beautiful daughters in Ogden surrounded by all the things that I loved growing up. Most people will recognize me from The Colorado Grill. I was just a month shy of celebrating my 19 years with the Gano’s at The Grill. In 2013, I launched a wine club there to learn more about wine. We dedicated one Tuesday every month trying different distributors and wineries all over the world; it was successful every month for 7 years and then Covid hit. Covid ruined so many good things. I’ve always enjoyed exploring wine and craft beer and The Grill was the perfect place to build my knowledge. My interest became a hobby and then a passion. I love talking “shop” with anyone who wants to listen. A wine bar was always my dream and then one day I decided I was tired of dreaming. And BOOM. Enter Bottled Bliss! We have around thirty chairs to offer anyone wanting place to land. A great craft beer selection and wines from around the country and globe. We offer bottle and glass service and we have prosecco ON TAP! For now, our main focus is beverage services but we are looking forward to building a small kitchen where we can offer small bites in the near future.

We will have a monthly wine club (just like old times) and also a Cork membership (think gym membership) with weekly rewards for your monthly members. I am looking forward to partnering with other businesses in Boone to make downtown great and something to be proud of.

See you soon!
Kelli Casper

If you ever want to get together and you have a wine and I’ll have a raspberry tea, let’s go!

Bottled Bliss is located at:

706 Keeler Street
Boone, Iowa 50036

Current Hours:

Mon Closed
Tues wine club
Wed 5 PM – 9 PM
Thu 5 PM – 9 PM
Fri 5 PM – 10 PM
Sat 2 PM – 10 PM
Sun 2 PM – 6 PM

But… you are probably wondering about the deal I struck with Kelli to display my photography.

Currently there are 5 of my photos displayed there. I went a little crazy on the size, so they are 40×30. They are acrylic prints.

After conferring with Kelli, here are the 5 prints that are up (Click on the link below the images to see more information on each image):

More Info

More Info

More Info

More Info

More Info

Kelli wanted pictures of local interest that people would recognize. Her favorite is the picture of the Teddy Roosevelt Statue. She claims she knows who has the thumb in their possession, but is sworn to secrecy. You can talk to her about it when you go in for a drink.

There are going to be about 6 more smaller pictures going up and then maybe they will rotate in and out now and again. But This does remind me that I need to swap out pictures at pictures at Salon 908 at some point.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Flowers, FNSC, Formal Portrait, Jay, Macro, Nature, Willy

2010-01-30

July 11, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2010-01-30 are from both THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE and PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT. The flower pictures were taken for the theme PLANTS. THE PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT involves a broken mirror and Willy.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Personal Photo Project of the Week No. 6

The Digital Bouquet

RWPE #4 – PLANTS

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve basketball and cleaning toilets.

Animals, FNSC, Jay, Jesse, Photoshop, Self-Portrait, Willy

2010-01-02

June 20, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

Most of the pictures in the folder 2010-01-02 are of a Personal Photo Project I worked on where I put a microphone next to a fish bowl and took a picture of it. This (like almost all of my photo projects) ended up being more difficult than I anticipated. Mostly because the fish didn’t cooperate. It had little to no interest in facing the microphone.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

PERSONAL PHOTO PROJECT OF THE WEEK NO. 3

Next Saturdays walk down memory lane will, at the very least, involve Christmas cards.

Animals, Contests, FNSC, Iowa State, Logan, Pufferbilly Days, Suzie

Pufferbilly Days – 2019

March 26, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

I didn’t take a ton of pictures at Pufferbilly Days last year. Probably because there wasn’t a petting zoo. Probably because I didn’t really make more than an appearance at the parade. Probably because there really wasn’t much left by the time Sunday came around.

I did spend 3 days at Pufferbilly Days. Friday night with Willy at FNSC. Saturday I walked around with Suzie and her friend Michelle. On Sunday I went up and took pictures of my Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest entries, and Logan’s.

Here are a few pictures from Pufferbilly Days:

I think I will appreciate Pufferbilly Days a little more this year than in past years.

Derrick, Flowers, FNSC, Jay, Music, Photoshop, Willy

2009-08-31

February 15, 2020 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 2009-08-31 are from both the last day we spent in Ottumwa working on Jen’s Uncle’s house and from my backyard.

The collection of Derrick and his guitar are amongst my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken of Derrick:

By adding these pictures to the Photograpy 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to it’s original glory:

Ottumwa

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve some computer mine pictures and maybe some Iowa State football pictures.

Becky, Commercial, FNSC, Jay, Monica, Nature, Scottie D., Tenderloining

06-10-08

July 21, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

There is a lot going on in the pictures from the folder 06-10-08!

There is a sunset.

There is FNSC.

There is the first official outing of The Tenderloin Appreciation Society.

There are pictures of the Ames Party Bus.

Let’s get to it!

The first tenderloining experience was at the Lake Shore Cafe. It was a restaurant-slash-bait shop on the banks of the Don Williams Lake. Monica worked there and recommended their tenderloin highly. It was on this day that we discovered that Monica doesn’t know anything about tenderloins.

The Ames Party Bus was the dream of Becky. She bought this bus and over months turned it into a party bus. However, the dream was short-lived. If I remember correctly, the Iowa Legislature took time out of their busy schedule of passing voter suppression legislation and regulations on women’s bodies to make the cost of insurance on a party bus prohibitive. Another example of politicians being in the pocket of Big Party Bus.

By adding these photos to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” to their original glory:

SUNSET

A NEW TENDERLOIN JOINT

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve flooding, Little League, and hot dog sauce!

Becky, FNSC, Formal Portrait, Tamara, Willy, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 148 – HUMOR

July 16, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I knew that HUMOR was going to be a hard theme. As I write this, it would seem that many people struggled to find HUMOR in their everyday lives. I would have some commentary on that, but I’ll spare you at this time.

As I am writing this, I am sitting at home recovering from an epic performance of HAMILTON at the Civic Center and waiting for the cable guy to show up and lower my bill by $30, allegedly.

Therefore, it is possible that I will be without internet while he is upgrading my internet. If more pictures come in after I write this, I will post them at some point. Probably Friday.

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about the cable guy. You came to see the submissions:

Tamara Peterson

Becky Parmelee

Christopher D. Bennett

Cathie Raley

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:

NIGHT

NIGHT! What a great theme! But what is a NIGHT photograph? A night photograph is any photo that is taken at NIGHT. You don’t necessarily need a tripod and long exposure, but that wouldn’t hurt.

As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date. It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

Nobody showed class, taste, and sophistication this week by signing up for a Photography 139 email subscription. I’ll try and do better next week.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very nightly Monday.

Andy, Animals, FNSC, Mom, Movies, Naima, Willy

No! Not Bird Defecation AND Excretion!

April 27, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

Since the weather outside has been turning less frightful, I’ve been trying to take Naima on a walk or at least an adventure about every day.

At last week’s Friday Night Supper Club, I nearly nodded off after consume massive amounts of Casey’s Taco and Hot Sausage pizza, while watching the Academy Award winning documentary ICARUS. When Willy knocked off to call it a night, there was still enough time in the day to take Naima for a walk. Which she badly wanted to go on.

However, I needed to crash. The excitement of buying King Kong Cola at the area’s premiere craft soda proprietor earlier in the evening had wore me out. I made the following deal with Naima. On the morrow, we would go on TWO walks.

She doubted that I would follow through on this deal as sometimes I’ve been know to welch on our deals, but she reluctantly agreed.

Saturday morning at 6 AM I sprung out of bed, clapped my hands and said:

“This is going to be a great day!”

I looked at Naima and poked her in the heart and said:

“If this is empty.”

Then I smacked her on the head:

“This doesn’t matter.”

She doesn’t love Dicky Fox quotes as much as I do, but she was excited to load up in the car and we headed to Dickcissel Park for an adventure.

Once we got there, I was excited to to see that there were geese on the pond. Last time we had come out there with Willy, there were no geese. I wanted to see how Naima reacted to the geese. She was moderately interested in them. They were infatuated with her. They followed us all around the lake. Honking at us. Naima would occasionally stop and look at them. Sometimes getting in the pond, but they never held her interest for long.

As we were walking along the south shore of the pond, Naima came across a smell that intrigued her. Intrigued her enough that she decided to flip on her back and start rolling in it. I made her got up and realized quickly that what she was rolling in was some form of bird poo. It was all over her back. Great.

We finished our walk. Got loaded back up in the Camry. We stopped at my Mom’s house, so I had some help in getting her cleaned up.

I was pretty sure we got her cleaned up, but it was hard to tell because Mom also sprayed her down with Febreze, so that is all she smelled like.

While writing this blog I found out that the reason bird poo is booth white and black is because birds both defecate and excrete.

The defecation is the black part.

The white part is the excretion. Excretion is the getting rid of metabolic waste products.

Knowledge bomb coming your way:

Here’s the chain of events: an animal eats and the food is being digested. Whatever content can be used is absorbed from within the digestive tract into the blood in the form of molecules. Whatever food content cannot be used is thrown out through defecation. The molecules that were absorbed from the food travel through the body in the blood system and then enter the cells. Here they are used for all sorts of things, e. g. to generate energy, build proteins, whatever. And of course, this means the molecules will be split and changed in many ways. This creates molecular waste products, in particular nitrogenous wastes. And this waste needs to go, pronto. From the cell into the blood and through a filtering device (the kidneys in mammals, birds, and birders) to the outside world. That’s the clear, transparent pee in mammals. And the white mushy part in bird poop.

Thanks to the following website for this bird poop knowledge:

Source URL: http://www.10000birds.com/what-is-bird-poop.htm

Here are some cruddy cell phone images from our adventure:

Naima rolling around in bird poo was not how I wanted to start my day, but as Dicky Fox would say:

“Roll with the punches. Tomorrow is another day.”

BONUS NAIMA PHOTO

Sunday’s adventure was taking Naima to Andy’s farm. Naima met a goat! They weren’t exactly fans of each other, but they didn’t hate each other. I feel with time, they could become friends. Naima also met some peacocks, chickens, and horses. The peacocks and chickens were terrified of her. Naima was terrified of the horses. I don’t think they will be friends any time soon.

I’ll just close with wishing you “my kind of success!”

Alexis, Animals, Baier, Derrick, FNSC, Football, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Jorge, Logan, Micky, Mom, Monica, Nader, Nature, Night, Photo Journal, Railroad, Road Trip, Russell, Scottie D., Shorty, Travel, Vacation, Weddings, Willy

Remembered with Nostalgia

October 8, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett 8 Comments

Now that I’ve been back to reality for 7 days, probably a good time to go over my vacation.

FRIDAY

Left work at 4 PM or so. Vacation starts.
Had FNSC with Willy. Ate at Colorado Grill.
After Colorado Grill. Started watching a new show, NARCOS.

SATURDAY

Breakfast at Legal Limit with Mom.
Photography for Amber and Steve’s Wedding.

Not Steve pictured.

SUNDAY

Went to the Lutheran Church in Gilbert with Jesse and Nader to celebrate Nader’s 30th year in the United States.
Ate lunch at the church with some of the people that helped Nader when he got to the country.
Went to Gene’s farm to admire his car collection.

Sent this picture to Russell of Youth Nazis harassing this old woman.

Sent this picture to Logan because he sent me a picture trying to make me jealous of his lunch.

A Studebaker with an El Camino back.

Naima getting her pills.

Went to the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad and Shorty was there working it.

While this food stand looks awesome, the ice cream isn’t that great.

MONDAY

Loaded up Mom’s car and headed for Mount Rushmore.
Stopped in Sioux Falls for gas, human fuel, and Falls Park. It rained all the way to Sioux Falls.

Sent this picture to Jorge and Joe to remind them that I wasn’t at work.

Falls Park

Mom struggles with the selfie concept.

Confused by the bridge they built to seemingly just to wreck the view.

I wonder what this picture would look like with me in it.

Oh. Like that.

I give Falls Park the thumbs up. I’ll have to go back when I have more time at some point.

Stopped for gas again next to 1880 town.

Stopped at Wall Drug right before it closed.

Still don’t have the selfie thing down.

Free Water.

Pretty horrible restaurant across the street from Wall Drug.

I’d give Wall Drug the bird. Don’t waste your time. A bunch of touristy garbage with ridiculous hours.

Got to Rapid City and checked into a hotel with free WI-FI and continental breakfast.

TUESDAY

Got up in the morning and ate continental breakfast at the hotel. Had a lengthy conversation with two women from Arizona that came up there for the Buffalo Roundup.
Left for Mount Rushmore.

Posted on Instagram. #wafflelife

First view of Mount Rushmore

View from the parking lot.

One armed woman took this picture for us.

Getting better at the selfie game.

What Mount Rushmore was supposed to look like, but they had to stop because of WWII. Another thing we can blame on Hitler.

I give Mount Rushmore the thumbs up.

At the base of Mount Rushmore we ran into Brad Dighton. The cousin of a member of my church. He gave us several pro tips for the area. We weren’t able to get to all of them, but maybe next time.

One of his pro tips was take the Iron Mountain Road to Custer State Park.

All of these tunnels point back to Mount Rushmore. You can’t tell in the picture, but trust me.

I give the Iron Mountain Road the thumbs up.

Custer State Park is a great example of white privilege. I have no clue why a park is named after Custer. His 2 claims to fame are graduating last in his class at West Point and then getting his buttocks handed to him at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Custer Park (like the man) was more hype than pay off. We were told we would see hundreds of buffalo. We saw one. That being said, the feral donkeys and the prairie dogs made up for the lack of buffaloes.

I give Custer Park a thumbs up, but it didn’t live up to the hype.

After we left Custer, we went to Needles Highway.

Still working on the selfie game.

We’re starting to get there.

Needles Highway is a road about the width of McHose Park road, but with a 400 foot drop to your death on one side. It is amazing!

I give Needles Highway a big thumbs up!

After that we went to Hill City to eat lunch/dinner at a place recommended to us by Brad Dighton. That place was closed, so instead we dined at the Hill City Cafe.

We bought fudge there.

Hill City Cafe wasn’t terrible, but it certainly was not great. Thumb sideways.

After that, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Almost there!

We might’ve regressed on our selfie game.

I’d give Crazy Horse another big thumbs up! My only complaint is that all the information seems to be on the family carving the memorial and hardly anything on Crazy Horse himself. You know, the guy that ripped Custer’s buttocks off and handed them back to him. He took out Custer’s brothers while he was ate it. Crazy Horse was an OG.

Pro Tip: Pay for the $4 bus ride.

After leaving Crazy Horse, went back to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.

Sent this picture of Thomas Jefferson ice cream to Russell since Russell hate Thomas Jefferson for being a slave owner and a rapist. True, but he also made a mean ice cream.

Paid and extra dollar for the Thomas Jefferson ice cream.

The lighting ceremony kind of drags on for awhile, but the part where they bring veterans on stage and take the flag down is powerful. While waiting (forever) for them to light up the mountain we became single serving friends with Lance Young. A former Iowa State wide receiver that played in the Dan MacCarney era.

After the lighting we went back to Rapid City and crashed.

WEDNESDAY

Got up in the morning and hit the continental breakfast. Hard. Going home day. No time for single serving friends. Ate and hit the road.

Stopped at Badlands National Park.

This sign was all hype. No snake.

Still working on it.

I think we have it. At least we’re in striking distance.

Taken by a woman who was friendly, but strangely afraid of falling down the side to her death. She has no future as a Photography 139 Assistant!

“I’ll take one to the side and one of you in the middle.”

Not afraid of the edge. Pimp.

Badlands. 2 big thumbs up. They just need to work on their rattlesnake game.

Next stop on the way home was to see the Dignity Sculpture. It looks like the Big Jesus in Sioux City, only less creepy. I don’t have a picture with the cell phone, but when I unleash the camera pictures, there is one there.

The next stop was Mitchell. I was going to avoid the Corn Palace but it just lined up with when we needed gas and human fuel.

Go home corn. You’re drunk.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER in corn. Well, I can’t hate that.

Mic Drop! I think we finally nailed it!

Last time I went to the Corn Palace, I gave it the bird. I’m going to upgrade it to just a thumbs down. It is worth seeing, if you don’t waste time going inside.

We stopped at a place called The Hungry Dog for lunch.

The Hungry Dog was by far the best eating experience of the trip. 6 out of 5 Stars!!! It only seats about 5 people on the inside and after the only employee took our order, made our food, and delivered it; she locked the door and told us she’d be right back. She had to go pick up her kids from school.

I loved every second of my experience!

On the way out of town we saw this Albert the Bull wannabe. Jason Baier will get that joke.

The last stop of the evening was in Jefferson for gas and human fuel.

I wish so badly we had this sign when I worked for the evil clown empire. I can’t even count all the times some dirty white trash blew cigarette smoke in my face as soon as I opened the drive-thru window.

1424.3 miles in 3 days.

Then home for sleep.

THURSDAY

Did not much in the day. Hung up a bunch of pictures in my bedroom. Cleaned out the guest bedroom now that Alexis has moved out.
Picked Derrick up for the Iowa State game.

I don’t care what anybody says. I love the new Bugle Cyclone secondary logo.

Well almost everything about that game sucked, except the company.

FRIDAY

I can’t remember next to anything that happened on Friday.
I visited Scottie D. to get a yard sign. He is running for City Council for Ward 5.

Also had FNSC with Willy. Think it was at Jimmy’s Barbecue.

SATURDAY

Don’t remember much about Saturday either.

Went uptown during YesterBoone to complete another page of the Photo Journal Project.

Sent this to Micky and offered to buy it in case he got shutout on his hunting trip in Wyoming.

Went out to McHose Park and with Jesse’s assistance completed yet another page of the Photo Journal Project.

After that, we went to a Gender Reveal Party for one of the members of the Youth Group. It’s a Girl!!
Headed up to Jay’s for Chili Lab. Both Jay and Wily made great chilis and we enjoyed a viewing of KONG ISLAND.

SUNDAY

Got up and went to church at Boone First United Methodist Church.
Then lunch with the family.
Meeting for the Council to Elect Degeneffe.
Then I went to the Freedom Flight Send-off to see Jesse’s Dad.