A good time to clean up some of the backlog. These pictures were all taken in June and never really found there way into an “Artist’s Notebook” entry. Almost all of these are from Maven’s birthday party. The other image was taken as a theme reveal for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme SELF-PORTRAIT. That picture was actually taken by Jay.
One of the things that Shawn and Sara excel in is throwing parties that are photogenic. More people should look into that.
This is my last pitch to get you to join the Roundball Oracles NCAA Tournament Pool for this year. The deadline to enter this year’s pool is approximately 2 hours after this post publishes.
I just wanted to brag on the state of Iowa a little bit. Something I rarely get to do these days. Iowa is the center of the basketball universe. There are 363 colleges that field Division 1 Men’s and Women’s basketball programs. 68 Men’s and Women’s teams make the NCAA Tournament.
Of those 363 schools, only 26 schools got a team invited to both the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournament. Of those 26, 3 of those schools are in Iowa!
Check out this graphic from Fox Sports:
The state of Iowa only has 4 schools with Division 1 Programs. Iowa State University. University of Iowa. Drake University. University of Northern Iowa. Despite only having 4 schools that could achieve this feat, Iowa is the only state to have 3 schools do it. Iowa State. Iowa. Drake. Sorry, Northern Iowa. I’m sure you are good at something.
Full disclosure, the stats I’m about to reference are a couple of years old, but if anything, the numbers have went up.
California has 26 Division 1 Schools. 2 accomplished this feat: USC and UCLA
Texas has 24 Division 1 Schools. 2 accomplished this feat: Baylor and Texas (Horns Down!)
New York has 22 Division 1 Schools. 1 school accomplished this feat: Iona
North Carolina has 18 Division 1 Schools. 2 schools accomplished this feat: Duke and North Carolina State
Pennsylvania and Virginia both have 14 Division 1 Schools: They combined to have zero schools accomplish this feat.
Florida, Ohio, and Illinois each have 13 Division 1 Schools. Only Illinois and Miami (Fl.) from those states accomplished this feat.
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee each have 12 Division 1 Schools. Only Tennessee accomplished this feat.
Iowa, had 3 schools do it.
The Big 12 States of Kansas and Oklahoma combined to have zero schools do it.
To break this down by conference:
Big 12: 4 Schools (Iowa State, Baylor, Texas, and West Virginia)
Big 10: 5 schools (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Purdue)
SEC: 3 schools (Alabama, Mississippi State and Tennessee)
PAC 12: 3 schools (Arizona, UCLA, and USC)
ACC: 3 schools (Duke, Miami, and North Carolina State)
Big East: 3 schools (Creighton, Marquette, and UCONN)
My point is that you should be proud (if you are from Iowa) to be from the center of the basketball universe. If you want to play in the NCAA Tournament, go to a school in Iowa. Besides UNI. Go to one of the other 3. The ones that are good at basketball.
So if you still want to play, click on the link below:
And remember that the deadline is 11 AM (Central).
I still talk to you in my sleep
I don’t say much ’cause the hurt runs too deep
I gave you the moon and the stars to keep
But you gave them back to meThe hill I’m walkin’ up is gettin’ good and steep
But I’m still looking for a promise even I can’t keepI still lay on my side of the bed
I dance alone when the last bottle’s spent
Memories like a river runnin’ through my head
I’ll have me an ocean before I’m dead
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! This collection of flowertography pictures were taken on September 15 in my yard.
While there is still snow on the ground in Iowa, we are inching closer and closer to flowertography season!
When I’m blowin’ out the candles
And when people start to sing
I will always cross my fingers tight
I remember everythingBut I always make my wishes
For the same thing every time
If I live to be 100
If I ever get it rightMy mind is racing with thoughts
And the songs that never end
And I prayed to God last night
Just before I went to bedEven now I can’t remember
A single word He said
If I live to be 100
If I get it through my headI always think about you
And I have to close my eyes
If I live to be 100
Will I ever cross your mind?
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! I have more flowertography images to share that I took in my yard. Seems like I need to get out of my yard this year. There are more than a few gardens I have my eye on for this year already. Now I just have to remember to take action.
I’m getting excited! It is almost time for flowers to start poking up from the ground again! Prime flowertography season is getting near!
Need to start today by sharing some sad news for those of you that don’t know. My Aunt Barbara passed away a few days ago. I wanted to share her obituary.
Barbara Bernice Kessler Bennett O’Connor, 90, of Fort Dodge passed away Thursday, February 23, 2023, at the University of Iowa Hospital. Visitation will be held on Thursday, March 2, 2023 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at the Laufersweiler Funeral Home. There will also be a church visitation Friday, March 3,2023 from 9:30 to 10:15 AM at Holy Trinity Church followed by a Mass. Burial will follow at Corpus Christi Cemetery.
She is survived by her daughter Mary Beth Frischmeyer and her husband Michael of Fort Dodge, son Bennett and his wife Diane of Fort Dodge, and daughter Becky Fideler and her husband Dr. Brad of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin as well as grandchildren Connor Frischmeyer, Megan Frischmeyer, Cara Bartingale, Erin Clavey, Dr. Kate Fideler, Emily Fideler, Elizabeth Fideler, four great-grandchildren, sister Linda Bennett, and brother Jack Kessler. She was preceded in death by her husband Robert J. O’Connor, parents Henry and Bernice Kessler, John and Bernice Bennett, and brothers David and Gerald Bennett.
Barbara Bernice Kessler Bennett O’Connor was born on June 14, 1932, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA. She graduated from Boone High School in 1950 and then attended Saint Joseph’s Mercy School of Nursing in Sioux City, IA, where she graduated in 1954. She worked as a staff nurse at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Fort Dodge, Iowa for several years. On April 16, 1955 she married Robert John O’Connor at Sacred Heart Church in Boone, Iowa. They were set up on a blind date by their friends Chuck and Norman Doyle. The couple resided in Fort Dodge where Bob was in the insurance business with his father John.
The first school nurse’s office for St. Edmond was established by Barbara in 1977. All the equipment for her office was from the old Mercy Hospital; including the beds. In addition, she was one of the first 60 hour, now 75-hour, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) instructors at Iowa Central Community College where she began teaching in 1971 and continued until 2019. Barbara also led the Home Health Aide and Medication Management classes at the college and administered testing of the CNA’s there. From 1983 to 1986 she was employed as psychiatric nurse with the North Central Iowa Mental Health Center, now UnityPoint Health-Berryhill Center. She donated time to the St Mark’s Free Community Health Clinic as well. In 2011, she was awarded the Messenger Nurses Excellence Award.
In her free time Barbara enjoyed playing bridge in several clubs and Mah Jong with a group of friends and attended “tag” sales. She participated in the PTA and other parent groups of Corpus Christi Academy while her children were in school. Other groups and clubs she enjoyed, and was a member of, included the: Wahkonsa Chapter of Questers, Soldier Creek Chapter of Questers, Ingelside Club, Art Club, Catholic Daughters of America, Chapter MT and currently JX of the P.E.O, Red Hat Society, Fort Dodge Area Symphony Board, and the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Auxiliary. Barbara was a docent, and a donor, at the Blanden Art Museum. She also participated in the Square Circle Church and served as a Eucharistic Minister for Corpus Christi church.
It seems a life well lived. She will be missed.
My grandpa gave me a wheat penny and I kept it in my pocket
I had big plans in my backyard to build me a space rocket
I talked to my brother on a fake CB that I made from a Tic-Tac box
I packed my snowballs nice and tight
And in the middle, I put rocksDon’t trade in your Tic-Tac box for a ball on the end of the chain
And don’t go spending grandpa’s pennies buying into the game
You gotta keep your heart young
Don’t go growin’ old before your time has come
You can’t take back what you have done
You gotta keep your heart young
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! This collection of flower pictures was taken in my yard.
Still plenty of flower pictures to share. I don’t want to say I have an infinite supply of flower pictures, but flowers are going to poking through the ground in central Iowa shortly. Then flowertography season in on!
Hang on, just hang on for a minute
I’ve got something to say
I’m not asking you to move on or forget it
But these are better daysTo be wrong all along and admit it
Is not amazing grace
But to be loved like a song you remember
Even when you’ve changed
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers. This collection of flower pictures was taken in my yard on August 26.
Moonflowers. Still my favorite flowers!
The sun came up and five years gone
Life goes on, yeah, life goes on
I wonder how you’re gettin’ by
The sun goes down and I feel blue
Now I toss ’cause my mind’s on you
And I kind of miss your broken smileSave part of yourself for me
Won’t you save part of yourself for me?
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! Today’s collection is of flower pictures were taken in my yard on August 26, 2023.
Still so many flower pictures to share. Just so many!
I’ve been down with a broken heart
Since the day I learned to speak
The devil gave me a crooked start
When he gave me crooked feet
But Gabriel done came to me
And kissed me in my sleep
And I’ll be singing like an angel
Until I’m six feet deepI found myself an omen and I tattooed on a sign
I set my mind to wandering and I walk a broken line
You have a mind to keep me quiet
And although you can try
Better men have hit their knees
And bigger men have died
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers. This is a pretty small flower collection. It doesn’t mean that I’m running out of flower pictures. Just means that on the particular day that I’m sharing photos from, I didn’t take many flower pictures.
All of these flower pictures were taken in my yard.
I never did learn how to follow the rules
I never was good at sleeping while the moon was full
I just lie and burn
Wreck my mind while the planet turns
I sometimes wish I could start again
I’d try and do the right thing every now and then
I’d step in line
That’s what I would do if I could turn back time
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! This Thursday I’m going to share the final collection of flower images I took at the Iowa State Fair this year.
This is the closest I’ve ever come to getting a decent picture of a hummingbird.
I can’t wait to get back to the Discovery Garden again this year and do some more flowertography. One of the truest tonics for the soul that this guy has ever come across.
I need to begin by wishing Anders a happy birthday.
Happy birthday Anders! I hope your birthday is sufficient in every way you want!
Heart breaks, mistakes
Catching up to me in old ways
I know of hard days
Had my share of lonely nightsIt’s only you that my heart desires
Only you alone can break my fall
I pace the floor and I wish for more
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers. This collection once again comes from the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair from the last day of the Fair.
I do love me some Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fair!
I swear when we touched, I saw heaven in your eyes
And jewel studded clouds floating in your skies
Seas of blue and fields of green
Looking like you’ve fell out of someone’s dreamsWhy do my troubles turn true
Whenever I rest my eyes on you?
Why must my heartache be found
Wherever your feet are touching the ground?
-Brandi Carlile
Thursdays are for flowers! This Thursday flower collection was taken in the Discovery Garden on the last day of the Iowa State Fair.
Still many flower pictures from the last day of the Iowa State Fair left to share!
