Category Archives: Night

Andy, Art, Birthdays, Cathie, Kalista, Kim, Lowell, Micky, Naima, Night, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

The Windy City: Day 1C

May 26, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Today is Kalista’s birthday, so happy birthday Kalista!

Hope your day is as amazing as you want it to be!

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We begin where we left off last Friday. Kim, Lowell, Tony, and I were hanging out by The Bean after having supper at Giordano’s.

The Bean is one of the few touristy things I’ve seen in my life that didn’t disappoint. But something else on this trip did disappoint.

Underneath The Bean.

In Las Vegas I never found a mailbox. I marked this one so I could actually mail postcards from Chicago this time.

I loved this clock.

I think the Nederlander Theater was called The Orient Theater, before they realized that was racist.

Jagged Little Pill was playing, which Jesse wants to go see in Minneapolis.

Right next door to it is a Garrett’s popcorn, which I would go to twice on this trip.

The historic Chicago Theater.

I wanted to hit up the Torture Museum so bad, but I never made it. And that is what regrets are made of.

Reverse angle, Chicago Theater.

There was a wide variety of acts that played here while we were there.

Window shopping at the Torture Museum.

Across the street from the Chicago Theater was this alley with a bunch of sweet murals.

This mural may have given me nightmares.

After this we went back to our hotel rooms. I think Tony and I watched the Minnesota Timberwolves get crushed in their playoff game. I dozed off after a pretty good Day 1 in Chicago.

Next Friday we will start in on Day 2.

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REMINDER THAT NEXT MONDAY IS MEMORIAL DAY. WHILE YOUR BANK AND THE GOVERNMENT AND A BUNCH OF OTHER BUSINESSES TAKE THE DAY OFF, THERE IS NO REST FOR PHOTOGRAPHY 139. RISE AND GRIND EVERY SINGLE DAY. I DON’T KNOW WHAT MY PLANS ARE FOR MEMORIAL DAY (OTHER THAN MAYBE SLEEPING LATE AFTER WHAT I HOPE IS AN EPIC MOVIE NIGHT ON SUNDAY) BUT IT MIGHT INCLUDE A ROAD TRIP OR A BARBECUE OR A FEW OTHER OPTIONS THAT MIGHT KEEP ME BUSY. LIKEWISE YOU MIGHT BE ENGAGED IN A SIMILAR ACTIVITY ON MONDAY MORNING. YOU MIGHT NOT GET A REMINDER AND YOU MIGHT NOT BE IN A POSITION TO SUBMIT. PLAN ACCORDINGLY.

This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is PARK:

PARK

PARK! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what in the John Culbertson is a PARK image? Simply put, it is a picture taken in a PARK. And there are all sorts of PARKs. There are city, state, national, baseball, softball, playgrounds, nature preserves, urban, pocket, sculpture gardens, cultural… just to name a few. Of course, there is more than one definition of PARK.

Also, if you take a picture of a PARK, let me know the name of the park and I will include it in the entry on Monday. If you don’t, I might ask you.

PARK has only been a theme one other time in the 10 year history of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE/RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT. I was actually surprised, because I thought that it had never been a theme before. I guess this makes it the second time.

Here are some previous submissions that will hopefully inspire your submission this time:

Micky Augustin – Week 195

Cathie Raley – Week 195

Kim Barker – Week 195

Andy Sharp – Week 195

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 195

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Iowa State, Night

Fountain of the Four Seasons – Night

May 20, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Because the Fountain of the Four Seasons in being restored and replaced, I made two trips to photograph it before it left. I already shared the pictures I took during the day. Here I’m going to share the pictures I took at night. But first, here is some information about the restoration and replacement from the Iowa State University Memorial Union website:

The Fountain of the Four Seasons by Christian Petersen, Iowa State’s artist-in-residence from 1934-55, has been an iconic landmark on campus for 80 years. The fountain and pool itself were donated by the VEISHEA committee in 1937 and the Maidens were added later in 1941. This beautiful fountain at the north entrance of the Memorial Union is cherished by students and campus visitors alike, typically being a popular spot for graduation photos, or a place to relax between classes. The President’s Office has commissioned a conservation project to place the original 1941 Maidens from the Fountain of the Four Seasons indoors and have a replica carved and placed in the fountain.

Once the replicas are completed, the original Maidens will return to campus and be placed in a building yet to be determined by University Museums. The replicas will also be installed onto the fountain. This project is estimated to be done by Fall 2023. However, the replicas will need to cure for 30 – 40 days upon installation. Due to this being close to the winter season, the fountain will not be turned on until Spring 2024.

Here are the pictures:

The campus won’t be the same until the fountain returns.

Alexis, Anders, Andree, Angie, Art, Baier, Bill, Black & White, Carla, Elizabeth, Jason, Jay, Kelly, Kim, Lowell, Michelle, Micky, Nader, Nathanial, Night, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Shawn Lockner, Steph, Still Life, Street Photography, Teresa, Travel, WPC - Reminder

The Windy City: Day 1B

May 19, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I need to start out by thanking everyone that wished me a happy birthday. I believe this is a comprehensive list of everybody that wished me a happy birthday.

+ Kim and also thank you for buying me birthday Buffalo Chicken tots and the card.
+ Ron, Clevenger, Jordan, and Aaron. Although I may have bought those birthday wishes with donuts.
+ Elizabeth and also thanks for buying me candy bars I know you don’t like but the real thanks goes for looking for my favorite candy bars the Whatchamacallit and the Take 5! You are the real hero! Also, glad you are digging SHRINKING! Such a great show!
+ Steph. My birthday buddy, I hope FAST X was everything you wanted to be and I’m trying not to lose just a smidge of respect that you went to it.
+ Jesse – Sorry I was so aggressive in accusing you of eating all the mystery cheese.
+ Nader – Thanks for the frog statue!
+ Shannon- half credit for including a picture of a gross cat with your birthday wishes.
+ Michelle – good job taking a three day weekend to celebrate my birth.
+ Jay – doesn’t look like you got any rhubarb. It isn’t going to pick itself.
+ Kelly – thanks for the kind words. Not necessary, but thanks.
+ Angie – hope the postcard arrives soon.
+ Monica – thanks for sending me the picture of me in my Hulkster phase.
+ Suzie – thanks for knowing the proper animal to include in a happy birthday wish!
+ Jason – glad you are feeling better!
+ Bill – thanks for replying “no problem” when I said “thanks”. Don’t know why, but that amused me.
+ Sara Lockner – thanks for almost using enough exclamation marks in your birthday wishes!
+ Shawn – I’m sorry your wife used up all the world’s supply of punctuation in her birthday wishes and there wasn’t any punctuation left for yours.
+ Faust – thanks for pretending that banking sounds fun.
+ Teresa – thanks but I have my doubts you know who Dwight Schrute is.
+ Anders – I don’t know if it was a great one, but I’m sure May Movie Night will be.
+ Sarah Toot – Thanks for thinking I have the slightest clue what emoticons mean. Don’t feel pressure to do better next year.
+ Alexis – thanks for letting me think today was my day.
+ Baier and Dre – We didn’t have much interaction, but thanks for thinking of me.
+ Micky – thanks for multiple birthday wishes. It isn’t a contest, but if it was I think Elizabeth won. At least I think that is what she yelled at me as I walked out the door. But your message was the closest I came to having cake today. So that is something.
+ Lori – thanks, no need to apologize for transferring me my favorite kind of call, even if I really shouldn’t have been first in queue. Hope things went well today.
+ Mark – thanks. I suppose I should learn when your birthday is. Also stop using your desk for storage. Nah!
+ Lowell – thanks for the gift card. I like to think you would get me one even if the company didn’t require it.
+ Carla – thanks for getting your birthday wishes in right before the buzzer.
+ Nathanial – thanks for the final birthday wishes of my day.

I think that is the list. I think that is everybody that wished me a happy birthday! Thanks everyone!

If you are wondering what I did for my birthday, it was nothing super spectacular. It was mostly an average day.

I woke up about 5:54 AM. A little late for me. I was up late last night watching the NBA Playoffs. Then trying to watch the season finale of THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND. Dang it! This wasn’t the season they actually found treasure. And I was so sure! I also ate fried food the night before. I’m trying to eat healthier, so it is fairly rare I eat fried food these days, he said hoping that there were people that believed him. Point is I slept in. It was my birthday. Cut me some slack!

I’m not sure what I did when I first got out of bed. I think I moved to the couch and watched the news for a little bit. Then I went outside and watered the flowers. I also took apart the trunk in the Camry. I had a slight gas spill in the trunk the night before and it was creating a pretty strong smell in the rest of the car. Then I took a shower. Brushed my teeth. Got dressed. But on cologne option #2. Said goodbye to Naima. Got in the Camry. Headed out.

There is an old birthday tradition at the Computer Mine where on your birthday you bring in food for the other employees. On a good day, there are about 10 employees in the building. (On a great day there is less.) On this day, half those people were gone for various reasons. On my way to work I stopped at the Dutch Oven Bakery and picked up a dozen donuts for my co-workers.

This is a small detail of what transpired on my birthday, but perhaps one of my favorite things that happened.

I left the donuts in the breakroom and then sent an email out to the people I knew would be in the building. Here is the backstory.

About 2 weeks, Elizabeth brought in a dozen donuts from a bakery in Nevada. (For the record, and I might get rode out of Boone on a rail for saying this, these donuts buried the ones from Dutch Oven.) She cut all the donuts in half. Now I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain why, but I will. She cut them in half so that people could try multiple donuts and multiple people could try the same donut.

Back to my birthday. Based on my current work schedule, Ron gets to the building about 30 minutes before I do. Elizabeth gets to the office about 15-30 minutes after me. She is in Special Forces so she can come and go as she pleases. I guess that is really more backstory, for what I’m promising you isn’t much payoff.

So back to that email. I explained in the email that there were donuts in the breakroom for my birthday. I didn’t cut them in half (cause I’m lazy – I didn’t write that, but it was in the subtext) but maybe when Elizabeth got here she would cut the donuts in half. I added that this wasn’t sexist on my part, just she is very passionate about the donut cutting thing.

Here is the “payoff”. I’m telling you that the ink wasn’t dry on that email before Ron was standing next to my cubicle. He wished me a happy birthday and then said that he was going to go get a donut quick before Elizabeth got here and cut them in half.

I said it wasn’t much of a payoff, but I thought it was hilarious.

I think it was somewhere in here I went to take a Snap of the donuts to keep my Streaks going with Logan (501), Brandon (257), Nathanial (89), Fran (37), and Alexis (23).

Somewhere after this, Elizabeth did come in. She did not cut all the donuts in half, but she did cut the donuts she tried in half. Take that Ron! She also brought me candy! So the day was off to a great start.

After that I put in a good solid 8 hours for The Man. I was a problem solving machine. Well to be honest, in the morning I mostly did a lot of rando stuff. I think the highlight of my morning (besides the other stuff I’ve highlighted) was being on hold with a customer for about 30 minutes as they repeatedly rebooted their computer before announcing, I’ll have to call you back.

Then came my lunchbreak. I did point out that I am trying to eat healthier. That means (amongst other things) that I only drink pop once a week. I’m pretty much completely off fast food. I rarely eat fried foods. This means that one of my favorite haunts, B-Bop’s has been off the table. But I figured it was my birthday, I could treat myself to B-Bop’s.

I drove halfway across Ames and got the #2 with Cheese with a Large Pepsi.

Sidebar: A great birthday present would have been the B-Bops across the street from the Computer Mine opening back up so I don’t have to drive completely across tarnation to get B-Bops goodness. They have been remodeling for months now! How long does it take to remodel a restaurant that doesn’t have a dining room?!?!?

It was just as good as I remembered. Although, I could feel the salad place next door judging me a little bit. But I literally ate there the day before. Asian Crunch Salad, no protein. So I think we’re square. Stop looking at me lettuce!

After I got back to the work I was a machine. Updating Server Managers. Modifying hosts files. Attaching SQL databases. All a beauty of motion, while sitting in a desk chair staring at 3 monitors. Barely taking a break to try to solve the mystery of what happened to the missing (I failed).

I called it a day, leaving many a satisfied customer in my wake. (Which means next time I work I won’t be able to solve anybody’s problems.) I drove home. I like to take a route home (sometimes called Old 30) where I drive by a bunch of railroad cars just parked along the highway to see if there is any interesting graffiti to photograph. There wasn’t anything transcendent like a painting of a dog or a clown or characters from The Simpsons, but there was one I found photo worthy. I pulled over and snapped a photo. I’m collecting these images and when I hit about 20 or so I will share them. This is what passes for an art scene in Boone.

Got home. Said hello to Naima. Then mowed my back yard. Which needed to be done before it became a 3 man job… again. I was supposed to have a meeting with my friend Kelli. She is opening a wine bar and wants to use my photography on her walls. I was supposed to look at the space and kind of figure out what we wanted to put there, but that meeting got postponed cause, from what I’m gathering, one of her kids did something dumb. Like go to Grand Junction.

The cancellation opened up a hole in my schedule and I was able to take Naima to Dickcissel for a walk and some wading for her. It was also a good time for me to take the theme reveal image for next week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme.

There was a decent rain coming down on us when we completed the loop. Which meant Naima was soaked all over. I consider this to be a positive though, because the smell of wet dog masked the smell of gas. Not much of a trade up, but small victories.

I decided to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream on our way home since I’m eating healthier. Unfortunately, the line in the DQ drive-thru was crazy long, so instead I drove across town to Big Kahuna’s. This is a considerable upgrade in the quality of the ice cream for me, but it meant Naima didn’t get a pup cup. Sorry, Naima. Don’t feel too bad for her. She did get a full pork chop for supper. Me? I had a cherry amaretto ice cream waffle cone for supper. The supper of champions!

I came home and started watching the Lakers-Nuggets game to finish off my night. While sitting there I got a snap from Nathanial asking for my opinion on his options for the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. He is the second person to ask for my opinion. Meanwhile, humble narrator, hasn’t even given any consideration to what he will enter. Usually at this point I at least know at least 2 of the pictures I will enter. This year I have absolutely no clue. I mean that could be a weekend project, but I don’t know I’ll have much time this weekend either. I guess we’ll see what happens.

After the Nuggets won, I watched a little bit of “90s Nation” on MTV Classic and called it a night. Nodding off into a golden slumber listening to the “Morbid” podcast on H.H. Holmes. Part 4. All in all, a pretty good birthday.

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We begin where we left off last Friday. Lowell, Tony, and I were walking around Chicago waiting for Kim to get done getting good union employees fired for smoking a joint while putting up our booth. Kim has no chill. We were going to checkout a place called Zombie Taco as a potential place for supper. Kim had told us that we were to pick the place for supper. Tacos are always a good choice. That is free advice that I’m giving you, that I wish I had listened to on Day 3 of this trip. Unfortunately when we found Zombie Taco it seemed to be only a walk-up window and on top of that, it seemed to be closed.

But back to the walkabout.

A play on “This American Life”. My favorite radio show. But I’m not sure what it means.

I think this place was abandoned.

Never let anybody tell you, wearing Skechers is not cool. I wear them. Snoop wears them. Tony wears them. Elizabeth’s Grandma used to wear them.

My greatest regret from the trip to Chicago is not taking a river cruise.

I wonder if this was the boat that the Dave Matthews Band dumped their poop on. As awful as that must have been, still better than listening to their music.

Chicago has a fair collection of interesting bridges.

More street art.

Down to the River Walk.

Another interesting bridge.

It was around here I met a lady that was walking a golden retriever. Such a good dog. Also, more street art.

I’m guessing this is to protect you from Dave Matthews dumping his poop on your head. Now if they could devise a way to protect you from his awful music.

I assume Dave Matthews put that there.

I’d tell you what I think of Salesforce, but enough work talk.

There is also a Dick’s Last Resort on the San Antonio River Walk. This parking garage is an excellent example of why I would never want to live in a city.

But it is pretty to look at.

My #1 goal of the Chicago Trip was to see The Bean. Crossed it off the list Day 1.

After telling us to pick the restaurant, Kim picked the restaurant. Which fortunately, was 1 block from The Bean.

The WPC theme this week was FRIENDS. Nathanial told me I could take a picture of my reflection and I could be my own FRIEND(S). I have FRIENDS Nathanial. Still a cool shot.

The sculptor (Anish Kapoor) of The Bean at first hated that people called it that. It’s official name is Cloud Gate.

It is made out of 168 stainless steel plates welded together.

It’s highly polished exterior has no visible seams.

It measures 33 x 66 x 42 feet.

The design was inspired by liquid mercury.

I still have one more collection of images to share from Day 1 of the trip to Chicago.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is HAPPY!

HAPPY

HAPPY! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what in the Dave Rauker is a HAPPY photo? Simply put, it is a picture of somebody that is HAPPY or a picture of something that makes you HAPPY. HAPPY is, well it is a feeling of pleasure or contentment. In case you aren’t sure you know what it means to be HAPPY.

HAPPY has been a theme one other time. Here are a few of the submissions from that time to provide you with some inspiration:

Suzie Brannen – Week 71

Kim Barker – Week 71

Stephanie Kim – Week 71

Angie DeWaard – Week 71

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 71

In fact, that was pretty much every submission I received for HAPPY. I bet there will be more submissions this time.

Happy photo harvesting!

Alexis, Andy, Angie, Becky, Bill, Brandon, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Iowa State, Jen, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Micky, Mindi, Monica, Night, Ruins, Sabas, Sara, Sarah Toot, Shannon, Suzie, Teresa, Vest, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 399 – SCHOOL

May 8, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

SCHOOL! It isn’t much fun, but it is the best shot at social mobility, so it has to exist. But did SCHOOL get people excited enough to take a picture and submit it? You’ll have to keep scrolling to find out!

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, May 1, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore the numbers in parentheses):

1-Nathanial Brown – 1 week
2-Jen Ensley-Gorshe – 1 week
3-Sabas Hernandez – 1 week
4-Sara Lockner – 1 week
5-Willy McAlpine – 1 week
6-Mike Parmelee – 1 week
7-Mike Vest – 1 week
8-Alexis Baugher – 4 weeks (3)
9-Scott Degeneffe – 4 weeks (2)
10-Jesse Howard – 4 weeks (2)
11-Mindi Terrell – 10 weeks (3)
12-Monica Jennings – 16 weeks (2)
13-Tamara Peterson – 26 weeks
14-Brandon Kahler – 35 weeks (3)
15-Linda Bennett – 40 weeks (2)
16-Sarah Toot – 41 weeks (2)
17-Angie DeWaard – 44 weeks (2)
18-Dawn Krause – 49 weeks (2)
19-Kim Barker – 55 weeks
20-Joe Duff – 56 weeks
21-Logan Kahler – 58 weeks
22-Teresa Kahler – 67 weeks (2)
23-Carla Stensland – 67 weeks (3)
24-Micky Augustin – 69 weeks
25-Andy Sharp – 70 weeks
26-Bill Wentworth – 71 weeks
27-Cathie Morton – 75 weeks
28-Elizabeth Nordeen – 76 weeks
29-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 78 weeks
30-Kio Dettman – 80 weeks (2)

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Angie DeWaard (Iowa) – 45 weeks

Kim Barker (Iowa) – 56 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 77 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa)

Micky Augustin (Iowa) – 70 weeks

Carla Stensland (Iowa) – 68 weeks

Carla Stensland (Iowa)

Kio Dettman (Iowa) – 81 weeks

Kio Dettman (Iowa)

Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 41 weeks

Alexis Baugher (Iowa) – 5 weeks

Alexis Baugher (Iowa)

Sarah Toot (Nevada) – 42 weeks

Bill Wentworth (Nebraska) – 72 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett (Iowa)

Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 11 weeks

Mindi Terrell (Iowa)

Logan Kahler (Iowa) – 59 weeks

Logan Kahler (Iowa)

Teresa Kahler (Iowa) 68 weeks

Teresa Kahler (Iowa)

Becky Parmelee (Arkansas) – 1 week

Sara Lockner (Iowa) – 2 weeks

Sabas Hernandez (Ohio) – 2 weeks

Jen Ensley-Gorshe (New York) – 2 weeks

Joe Duff (Texas) – 57 weeks

Suzie Brannen (Iowa) – 1 week

Jesse Howard (Iowa) – 5 weeks

Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 36 weeks

Cathie Morton (Iowa) – 76 weeks

Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 17 weeks

Andy Sharp (Iowa) – 71 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley (Iowa) – 79 weeks

Dawn Krause (Iowa) – 50 weeks

Mike Vest (Iowa) – 2 weeks

28 participants! That is a pretty good week! A slight dip from last week, but still definitely a good week!
There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

+ Arkansas
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ Nevada
+ New York
+ Ohio
+ Texas

Thanks to Sabas’ work trip to Ohio, we were able to add a new state to the map! We actually now have more than half the states and districts. 26 out of 51! I have no belief that that I will get submissions from all 50 states, but I’m curious to see how close we get.

Here is the current calendar year list for states:

+ Arizona
+ Arkansas
+ California
+ Colorado
+ Florida
+ Georgia
+ Illinois
+ Iowa
+ Kansas
+ Nebraska
+ New Jersey
+ New York
+ Nevada
+ Michigan
+ Minnesota
+ Missouri
+ North Dakota
+ Ohio
+ Oklahoma
+ Pennsylvania
+ South Dakota
+ Texas
+ Utah
+ Washington D.C.
+ Wisconsin
+ Wyoming

25 states and 1 district! That is pretty impressive! Over halfway there!

The Outside of the United States map is currently:

+ British Virgin Islands
+ Mexico
+ Nassau Bahamas
+ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

I took my picture about 15 miles from my front door, so I continue to not contribute.

There were no major milestones this week, but there was a veritable bloodbath of streaks. Nathanial, Willy, and Mike couldn’t build on their contribution last week. Scott’s streak is over at 4. Most tragically, Tamara’s 26 week streak is over.

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:

RUINS

RUINS! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what in the Ron Harris is a RUINS image? Simply put, it is a picture of something that is in the state of physical destruction or disintegration. Something that is in bad shape.

While considering possible subjects for your RUINS image, mediated on the following quote and I have no doubt you will create a fascinating image:

We moralize among ruins.
-Benjamin Disreali

I look forward to seeing your interpretation.

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge. There is a limit of 3 submissions per participant. To be considered the photographer, you have to be the one that takes the picture. Don’t be stealing the work of other artists. You can submit pictures for other photographers that took pictures with your camera or phone, but give credit where credit is due.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is it. Thems the rules!

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of RUINS in this place that will one day lay in digital destruction next Monday.

Angie, Becky, Elizabeth, Joe Duff, Lowell, Night, Street Photography, Travel, Work

Viva Las Vegas Day 5C

May 5, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

After enjoying the rest of my personal fountain show, I made my way back to Planet Hollywood through the flooded Las Vegas Boulevard. I met up with Lowell and we had supper at Pinn-Up Pizza. It was one of those order by the slice places where they warm it up in the brick oven after you ordered it. It was perfectly okay.

We had a brief discussion of going to Fremont Street, but with the late night, the early shuttle call, and the bad weather, we decided to call it a night.

Here is the final Per Diem Tally.

I started the day with $223.

Breakfast: Free
Lunch: $30
Supper: $17

Final Per Diem Balance: $176.

What did I do with this extra $176? Nothing really. I put the Per Diem in savings when I got it and never really transferred any of it. It is sitting there earning next to no interest in my lousy bank. However, I have a to do list I want to get knocked out in the next couple of months and it includes a little money management. It goes something like this:

1. New tires on the Camry.
2. Get my Real ID.
3. Renew the registration on the Camry.
4. Move most of my money to a different bank/credit union. Both dollars.
5. Sign-up for TSA Precheck.
6. Oil change for the Camry.
7. Oil change for the RAV4.
8. A whole bunch of Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Stuff.
9. Pick out, order, and enter 4 pictures for the Iowa State Fair Photo Contest.

I’ve knocked out the first 3 on this list. The 4th one is my birthday present to myself. I’ve knocked out a good chunk of #8. But there is still a lot to do there.

Any ways, here is the final collection of pictures from my last night in Las Vegas:

It was a pretty good trip to Las Vegas. Next up, I’ll share pictures from my trip to Chicago.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SCHOOL:

SCHOOL

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

Let me tell you about IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY!

Iowa State University (ISU) is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1858 as Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, and it became the first land-grant institution in the United States in 1862, thanks to the Morrill Act.

Today, ISU is a comprehensive university with more than 35,000 students and offers over 100 undergraduate majors, 112 master’s degree programs, and 83 doctoral degree programs. The university is organized into eight colleges: Agriculture and Life Sciences, Business, Design, Engineering, Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, and Graduate.

ISU is known for its strong programs in agriculture, engineering, and science, and it has a reputation for being one of the top public universities in the United States. The university is home to several research centers and institutes, including the Bioeconomy Institute, the Ames Laboratory, and the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

The university’s mascot is Cy the Cardinal, and the school colors are cardinal and gold. The Cyclones, ISU’s athletic teams, compete in the Big 12 Conference and they completely dominated the Cy-Hawk Series with Iowa Hawkeyes this year.

Overall, Iowa State University is a well-respected and prestigious institution of higher education, offering a wide range of programs and opportunities for students to excel both academically and professionally.

Wait. Wait. Sorry. I’ve just been told that there are more SCHOOL(s) in the world than just Iowa State. I’m not entirely sure why. But I guess you can take a picture of some other stupid school nobody cares about.

SCHOOL! So what in the Terrence Allen is a SCHOOL picture? Simply put it is any image that involves SCHOOL. From a building to a playground to schoolbooks (before they all get banned) to report cards to teachers to really anything related to a SCHOOL. There are all types of different SCHOOL(s). Pre, secondary, high, middle, junior, dance, Sunday, vocational, technical, and even sometimes I take people to SCHOOL on the basketball court. It does NOT have to be Iowa State, but I mean, why would you take a picture of some lesser school? But you do you bro.

This isn’t the first time that SCHOOL or something similar has been a theme. Here are some submissions from the ghosts of WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGEs past to inspire you:

WEEK 329 - EDUCATION - ELIZABETH NORDEEN

Elizabeth Nordeen – Week 329

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 329

Angie DeWaard – Week 329

Becky Parmelee – Week 329

Joe Duff – Week 329

Happy photo harvesting!

Night, Road Trip, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas Day 5B

April 28, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

Despite the constant rain storm, I hung out by the Bellagio Fountains waiting for the show. While I was soaked, oh well, it gave me a feeling of solitude that I didn’t get very much in Las Vegas. No matter where you go, there are people everywhere. Tony is a fantastic roomie and I have zero complaints about him. But even in the room you don’t get much alone time. Besides, why would you want to hang out in your room when there is so much to see and experience in Las Vegas. I don’t think I ever made it more than 6 blocks from Planet Hollywood and I still know I missed a million street photography opportunities.

What I’m trying to say is that I was pretty much the only person to watch the Bellagio Fountain Show. At least from the sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard. It was like my own personal show. I’m not going to hate on that.

Here are some pictures of the fountain:

I still have one last collection of pictures from Las Vegas to share and then we can move on to my trip to Chicago. Probably.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ROAD TRIP.

ROAD TRIP

ROAD TRIP! What a great theme for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE! This is one of my favorite themes for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. It isn’t just because I am one of the few universally recognized Masters of the Road Trip. Okay, maybe it is.

But what in the Sam Hill is a ROAD TRIP photo? Simply put, it is a picture that is taken on a ROAD TRIP or in preparation for a ROAD TRIP. It doesn’t have to be a picture of a road or a car or a map or snacks. I LOVE a good ROAD TRIP snack. For example, if you are taking a ROAD TRIP to Pella to do a little flowertography this weekend, then a picture of anything you encounter on that ROAD TRIP is fair game. It doesn’t have to be a grand ROAD TRIP. You don’t have to leave the state on this trip. And judging by where many of my submissions come from, many of you haven’t left the state since Theresa Becker was the Iowa State women’s basketball coach*.

Happy photo harvesting!

*If you don’t get the reference, are we even friends?

Andy, Angie, Art, Carla, Derrick, Elizabeth, Jen, Jesse, Kim, Lowell, Monica, Night, Sara, Scottie D., Still Life, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas: Day 4 and Day 5A

April 21, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Day 4 of my trip to Las Vegas was the 2nd Day of the CCM. It was a busy day and I barely touched my camera. I spent pretty much the entire day at the conference center. I got to leave for the day at a pretty normal time and only felt the urge to punch another human being in the throat one time. But I didn’t. I just want you to know that. I didn’t punch that other human being in the throat. I only wanted to punch them in the throat.

That night I was taken out for supper by one of the biggest Computer Mine customers. They are big fans of Italian food so they took me to Trevi Italian Restaurant. Trevi is inside the Shops at the Forum. Our Uber driver dropped us off at The Caesars Forum, which is actually farther away from Trevi than our hotel.

Everybody else at the meal was Catholic and adhered to the no meat Friday deal. I ate lasagna. I offered to join them in not eating meat, since they were paying, but they told me not to worry about it. The lasagna was good and I followed it with some delicious tiramisu.

We walked back to the hotel cause we no longer trusted Uber drivers. We stopped and watch the fountain show at the Bellagio. Then I bid them a good night. I think it was late enough in the evening that I might have just went to bed myself. I don’t know. It is all a blur at this point.

I only took one picture worth sharing:

So after 4 days, here is the Per Diem Fund Update

I started the Day with $223.

Breakfast: Free
Lunch: Free
Trevi Supper: Free

Estimated Per Diem Balance: $223.

According to my highly inaccurate fitness app, I walked 18,170 steps for 8.35 miles.

Day 5 of my trip and Day 3 of the CMC is only a half day. I got to the convention center around 8. It ended at noon. Afterwards everybody “helps” pack the crates. This was the other time I wanted to punch another human being in the throat, but not as hard as the person yesterday. Also, not the same person. Just a person that had “opinions” on how the crate should be packed. After everybody else left, Lowell and I tried to redo the crate as much as we could. Then we locked them up and called it a day.

We took a moment to go back to the hotel and change clothes then we went to Nacho Daddy for lunch with Kim. Nacho Daddy serves the “most insane gourmet nachos smothered in queso and salsa made fresh daily and (they) guarantee you’ll never find a dry chip”.

I believe I got the Fajita Nacho. Which the menu describes as:

Marinated filet mignon, seared peppers & onions, refried beans, melted Cheddar & Jack cheese, yellow queso, cherry tomato pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, & pickled onions on top of our house made tri-colored chips.

Nacho Daddy also serves a Scorpion Shot. It consists of Telson Blanco, a scorpion, salt and a lime wedge. I don’t drink alcohol, so I was off the hook for trying it. But Lowell and Kim both backed down from the challenge. It was a bit of a disappointment.

After the meal we back to the hotel for a bit. There was talk of going to Fremont Street but I didn’t hear from anybody for hours, so after resting I decided to explore a bit nearby on my own. Scottie D. had recommend I check out the Botanical Garden at The Bellagio. I walked across the street to seek it out.

Here are some pictures:

It just absolutely poured rain all night. It pretty much eliminated the chances of anybody wanting to do anything that night. Which I guess was okay because we had to be at the shuttle by 5:15 in the morning.

Still more pictures to come from this rain-soaked night and one final Per Diem Upate!

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FRIENDS:

FRIENDS

Not only is this your reminder that this week’s theme is FRIENDS, it is your reminder that I am in Chicago right now and won’t return until Tuesday. Three things to note about that:

#1. If you were hoping to have me in your FRIENDS picture, you better make it to Chicago.
#2. I’m going to be in Chicago on Monday, so there might not be many reminders sent out, so you will be on your own.
#3. I won’t publish the submissions until Tuesday at the earliest.

A FRIENDS photo is simply a picture that involves FRIENDS or a picture that represents a FRIENDShip.

While considering possible subjects for your FRIENDS image meditate on the following quote:

Friendship is being there when someone’s feeling low and not being afraid to kick them.

This isn’t the first time that FRIENDS has been a theme. Here is a look at a few of the submissions from the past to help inspire you:

Angie DeWaard – Week 246

Elizabeth Nordeen – Week 310

Andy Sharp – Week 172

Carla Stensland – Week 172

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 172

Hopefully this inspired somebody.

Happy photo harvesting!

Basketball, Iowa State, Lists, Nader, Night, Street Photography

5 Star Bridge

April 1, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

Wow! Iowa did it! The Iowa women’s team ended South Carolina’s 42 game win streak and shocked the world by a score of 77-73. Caitlin Clark scored 41 points. She is the first player in history to score 40 points in back to back tournament games. On Sunday at 2:30 they will play Louisiana State for the National Championship.

Louisiana State is coached by Satan, I mean Kim Mulkey. Some people, who don’t know me well, find it shocking when they find out the sports person I root against the most vehemently is Kim Mulkey. “A women’s basketball coach?” They say with a fair amount of incredulousness.

“Yes, and there isn’t even a close second.”

Not Duke basketball. Not Notre Dame football. Not Nebraska football. Not North Dakota State football. Not Baylor football. Not Kansas basketball. Not Texas football. Not Texas basketball. Not the New York Yankees. Not the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not whatever NBA team Kyrie Irving plays for this week. Not Iowa in any sports.

But if I had to pick a second, it would be Texas in all sports.

Trust me, if you watch the game on Sunday, and endure her antics on the sideline, you will get it. That is without me telling you about how she covered for Baylor during their rape scandal. Or her infamous “people in the know” comment.

However, I clearly admit that if she is not the best coach in women’s basketball, she is one of the best. The only other coaches I would put on her level are Geno Auriemma at UCONN, Dawn Staley at South Carolina (although I have to say she was very clearly outcoached by Lisa Bluder last night), and Tara VanDerveer at Stanford.

For example, Mulkey left Baylor two seasons ago. In her final season at Baylor, they went 28-3 and made it to the Elite Eight. The year before that, the tournament was cancelled, but they were a favorite to win the Championship. The year before that they did win the National Championship. When she left, Baylor had won 11 straight Regular Season Big 12 Championships. Baylor had won 9 of the last 10 Big 12 Tournament Championships.

The year before Kim Mulkey moved to Louisiana State they had a 9-16 record. LSU hadn’t made it to the NCAA Tournament since the 2016-17 season. They hadn’t made it out of the first round since the 2013-14 season.

Two years later, LSU is 32-2 and about to play for the National Championship.

Meanwhile, Baylor slipped to 5th in the Big 12 this season and they have lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament both years since Kim Mulkey left. They are still good, but they aren’t cutting down any nets any more. (This year they lost in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament to Iowa State.)

After the Hawks bested the Cocks last night, I texted a couple people that the only mystery left now is whether or not Iowa will repeat as National Champions next year. I know that is pretty dismissive of Louisiana State. But I am pretty confident that Iowa will beat Louisiana State. They are a good team with good players, including Angel Reese, one of the best in the country. Kim Mulkey will be going for her 4th National Championship. I still think Iowa has a team of destiny feel to them. And while Caitlin Clark will be back next season (and possibly the season after that)*, Czinano will be gone. Warnock will be gone. To use a metaphor from the NBA, Czinano is definitely Clark’s Pippen to her Jordan. And remember who got that rebound with 20 seconds to go essentially sealing the win over South Carolina, that was Warnock. Iowa has 2 freshman coming in, but the one that is highly regarded (Ava Jones) was in an accident where a car ran over her family and killed her dad. It is still to be determined if she will ever be able to play basketball again. That doesn’t leave the cupboard bare. Marshall, Davis, and Martin can all use the Covid year and come back. Iowa State transfer Kylie Feuerbach should be back from injury. Iowa will certainly be an attractive landing spot for any transfers looking to play in a packed arena and to record television ratings.

My prediction is Iowa will win the game, but I expect it to be a very exciting game. The game is at 2:30 tomorrow and will be televised on ABC.

Since the NCAA Tournament is like a holiday for me. It is the end of the sports season, until college football season begins in September. A time of year where I cancel my television package and save a few bucks over the summer. Kind of like a Lent for this sports fan. Lasting from the end of the men’s National Championship Game until the kickoff of the first college football game. Probably some people out there that won’t like that analogy.

But bear with me, since I consider the NCAA Tournament to be a holiday and on holidays I like to release power rankings, I’m going to release my power rankings of the college coaches at Iowa’s 4 “major” universities in the 3 main sports I care about. Yes, Boomer Saia (Iowa State Tennis) and I’m sure whomever coaches wrestling at Iowa are pretty impressive, but they definitely aren’t in the top 3 sports I care about. While Andy has worked on me for years now, I’m still not sure I even consider wrestling a sport.

IOWA UNIVERISITY COACH POWER RANKINGS

12. Todd Stepsis – Drake Football Coach
11. Tanya Warren – Northern Iowa Women’s Basketball Coach
10. Mark Farley – Northern Iowa Football Coach
9. Fran McCaffery – Iowa Men’s Basketball Coach
8. Ben Jacobson – Northern Iowa Men’s Basketball Coach
7. Allison Pohlman – Drake Women’s Basketball Coach
6. Bill Fennelly – Iowa State Women’s Basketball Coach
5. Kirk Ferentz – Iowa Football Coach
4. T.J. Otzelberger – Iowa State Men’s Basketball Coach
3. Matt Campbell – Iowa State Football Coach
2. Darian DeVries – Drake Men’s Basketball Coach
1. Lisa Bluder – Iowa Women’s Basketball Coach

This list was harder for me to put together than I thought. The bottom and the top was pretty easy. But I feel the middle could be very fluid. If Allison Pohlman has another great season, she could definitely climb. If Fennelly has another distavorous offseason, he could fall. 2 weeks ago he would have been higher. FIVE players transferring later, he is lucky to be above Allison Pohlman. If McCaffery ever wins a couple games in a tourney, he could climb. What does Otzelberger do with the highest ranked recruiting class in school history? What transfers does he bring in? Does Campbell rebound from a bad season last year? Does Ferentz ever fire his worthless son? Does Jacobson ever return to the form he showed at the beginning of his career? Or should he have jumped ship seconds after Ali Farokhmanesh hit that 3 against Kansas all those years ago.

My decisions are final. No interviews at this time.

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Seems like a good day to share some pictures I took of the Iowa State Pedestrian Bridge I took a couple months ago. Some day when I release my bridge power rankings, it will be #1. Something like: 3. Brooklyn Bridge. 2. Golden Gate Bridge 1. Iowa State Pedestrian Bridge.

I took these pictures with Nader after going to a movie. If you are ever looking for somebody to just wander into your shot over and over and over and over and over and over again, I can recommend Nader for the job.

This bridge is phenomenal it has it’s own Twitter account and strikes fear into the hearts of Big 12 fans from Lubbock to Morgantown to Lawrence to Stillwater. You can check it out by clicking the link below:

Iowa State 5 Star Bridge – Twitter

If you haven’t had a chance to walk this bridge on an Iowa State Gameday you need to put it on your bucket list.

* If Iowa is smart,(I know technically the university can’t be involved) they will line up all the sponsors they can find and make Caitlin Clark a multi-millionaire by tomorrow. Do whatever they can to get her to come back for the extra Covid year. If Olivia Dunne and the Cavinder twins (I’m not blind, I know why they make so much money) can make a million dollars, Caitlin Clark should be making several million dollars. I know Caitlin Clark is a polarizing figure. There are people that don’t like all of her playing to the crowd and all of her trash talking and all of her flopping and her arguing with refs. To be honest, I don’t like the flopping. I don’t like the constant arguing with the refs, but she is the best thing that has happened to women’s basketball, probably ever. Tickets to the Women’s Final Four are more expensive than tickets to the Men’s Final Four. Trust me, those ticket prices are not skyrocketing because people want to see what incredibly stupid outfit Kim Mulkey is going to wear.

As for the trash talking and playing to the crowd. I love both of those aspects of her game. For example, in the South Carolina game she refused to guard Raven Johnson because she is a bad 3 point shooter. At one point “guarding” her from 10 feet away and then waving her off, basically begging her to shoot. In the Louisville game she told a Louisville player that was running her mouth to “Shut up. You’re down by 15.” I love me some good trash talk. My absolute favorite moment of Iowa State’s men’s season (and I know he was a big part of why our season tanked at the end) was when Caleb Grill hit a big 3 against Texas than ran over to their bench and told Texas’ coach that he needed to call a timeout.

Angie, Art, Cathie, Mary, Music, Night, Photoshop, Still Life, Street Photography, Teresa, Travel, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas: Day 1B

March 17, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett Leave a comment

I might normally start today with a picture celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day. But I don’t really celebrate. I’ll be working for the man with my nose to the grindstone, swinging my computer mine pick away. If I’m lucky, I might be able to get a Reuben. The West Street Deli has the best Reuben. At least the best that I’ve had.

Anyways, happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all those the celebrate. May your beer be green and your shakes be Shamrock and may you not be stalked and murdered by a leprechaun. If I would have had time I could have done a LEPRECHAUN movie power rankings. I do own a boxed set, on physical media. Cause I’m old.

I did read that Catholics can ask for a special dispensation this year to allow them to eat meat on Saint Patrick’s Day.

From KCCI:

This week, Friday is also St. Patrick’s Day. For some, St. Patrick’s Day is commonly associated with corned beef and other Irish dishes. Therefore, several locations across the country, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, are allowing parishioners to eat meat Friday.

St. Francis of Assisi in West Des Moines says there is no blanket guidance, but parishioners are encouraged to talk to clergy if they would like a dispensation. The priest is evaluating situations on a case-by-case basis.

St. Joseph on the east side of Des Moines says the same.

The Diocese of Des Moines is leaving it up to its local parishes to decide what is best.

“While there will be no general dispensation granted, people are free to approach their pastor or petition Bishop William Joensen for a particular dispensation.”

The Diocese of Sioux City, which covers parts of Central Iowa, says this Friday will be a “typical Friday in Lent.” The diocese says “the faithful are to abstain from eating meat per Bishop Walker Nickless.”

The Archdiocese of Dubuque says Catholics in their Archdiocese are “dispensed from the obligation to abstain from meat on that day.”

Sioux City don’t mess around. I assume the churches that are handling it on a case by case basis are doing the old dispensation for a cash contribution dance. Either way, I find this amusing and would like to sit in on one of these dispensation requests. While eating a Reuben of course.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate.

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Time to share the second collection of images from Day 1 of my trip to Las Vegas for the Computer Mine Convention. There isn’t much more to tell about this day that I didn’t already share last Friday. After walking around a bit, we went back to the hotel and I fell asleep by like 8:30. Which made be feel pretty cool.

Are these the names of bands or of mathlete teams?

I regret not going up in the High Roller, but those pods hold 40 people. That seems excessive.

I had no clue that you could go up inside the Eiffel Tower. Not doing this is maybe my biggest Vegas regret.

This was the only day/night in Vegas where the weather was good. It was cold the rest of the trip. Well Saturday was almost warm and then it rained the entire day too, so that was fun.

Even though the weather was warm, it was still incredibly windy. When I looked to the sky, I thought it was foggy, but turned out the wind had whipped up quite a bit of sand. I found this out when I looked the wrong direction and got an eye full of sand. Fun.

According to my extremely inaccurate Fit app on my phone I took 11,634 steps and walked 5.35 miles on the day.

Still plenty more pictures to share from the Las Vegas work trip.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is PURPLE:

PURPLE

PURPLE! What a great them for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a PURPLE image? Simply put, it is an image where the subject OR a major compositional element of the image is PURPLE. That is it! Couldn’t be simpler than falling off a log. Getting a bruise from falling of the log. Then taking a picture of that bruise.

This isn’t the first time that PURPLE has been a theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Take a look at some past submissions to help inspire your creative juices:

Angie DeWaard – Week 90

Cathie Raley (Morton) – Week 90

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 90

Mary Green – Week 369

Teresa Kahler – Week 369

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Birthdays, Carla, Kim, Lowell, Michelle, Music, Nature, Night, Nora, Railroad, Steph, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas: Day 1A

March 10, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I need to start today by wishing Nora a happy birthday, so happy birthday Nora!

I hope your birthday is filled with lots of candy and cake and ice cream! If not, I will buy you so much ice cream next time I see you.

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Time to start sharing the real camera pictures from my work trip to Las Vegas. I took the backup camera to Vegas just cause I’m always leery of traveling on planes with the 1st string camera. Even though the bag never leaves my side. It is probably a mental block that I will never get over. We’ll see what happens next time I walk on a plane. In April.

I took enough pictures on Day 1 in Vegas to split them into to two posts. This is post 1.

Vegas Day 1 started in Boone. I got up and headed for the Des Moines International Airport a little after 9 AM for my 12:15 flight. I’m one of those people that gets to the airport early. Probably cause I don’t fly that much and probably because I get paid to be there early, sorta. That is how I interpret the travel rules.

I knew there was bad weather west of us and the potential that one of our flights could get cancelled. The good news is that they didn’t. The bad news is that a little after getting to the airport, I got the notification that the flight from Des Moines to Denver had been delayed. Which worked in my favor because the Des Moines International Airport is currently under construction right. They have taken away a bunch of the parking in the parking ramp to make room for employees to park. This meant I had to drive by the parking ramp and the Blue Lot and the Green Lot and the Red Lot and the Yellow Lot and the Indigo Lot and the Cyan Lot and the Polka Dot Lot and ended up all the way in the Gray Lot. A lot so far away from the airport terminal I think it might be in Norwalk. Possibly Cumming.

I took a 15 minute shuttle ride to the airport. It took me a minute but I finally located the Southwest check-in counter in the room with all the weird car rental places and checked my luggage. Two things here. First, I wasn’t crazy about flying Southwest. I haven’t flown Southwest since the last time I went to Vegas, which was almost 20 years ago. I haven’t heard good things about Southwest. They say the people on there are animals. But not in the millions of good ways that animals (in this scenario humans are not animals) are easily superior to humans. But in the bad ways where humans compare other humans to animals to make them seem lesser than. Second, I did buy new luggage for this trip. I don’t travel much in the manner that requires luggage, but the two trips I took in 2022 showed me that the luggage I have been using isn’t practical. Merely sentimental. I bought the new luggage off of Amazon because I had a Amazon gift from my computer mine anniversary. I can say, that while the walls of the luggage seem a little thin, so far I am digging the new luggage. I bought red luggage so they would be easy to spot in the baggage claim line and because they were $30 cheaper than more mundane colors. I don’t know why.

After getting through the security line without incident, I found my gate, grabbed a seat and discovered I was the first person there from the Computer Mine. I wasn’t there long before I got another notification that the flight had been delayed again. Now it was going to be over an hour late taking off. I took solace in the fact I had been reassured by the Southwest ticket lady that there were over 30 people transferring from our flight to the connecting flight in Denver to Las Vegas and there was no way that they would leave that many people behind.

While I was comforted by that information, one of the things that concerned me is that Southwest has no assigned seats. You have an assigned position to get into the plane and then once in there, it is every person for themself. I was worried that I would get there late for the connecting flight and lose any chance at getting a good seat. I’d end up in a middle seat. Nobody wants that. Not me. Not the person in the window seat. Not the person in the aisle seat. However, they hadn’t started boarding when we got to the connecting flight and I was able to grab a sweet spot in the emergency exit row!

If you don’t know, that means extra legroom! It is like 1st Class for those of us in steerage! Bingpot!

The flight into Vegas was a little rough because it was so windy. I didn’t get a snack or beverage service. That is how I determine if a flight was rough. By the time we got to the hotel, I was famished. The only sustenance I had knocked down was a bag of snack mix and 6 ounces of 7-Up on the flight from Des Moines to Denver.

We took a shuttle form the airport to Planet Hollywood, our home away from home for the next 5 days. Here is my review of Planet Hollywood:

It is kinda dirty. It is a little rundown. The big selling point is that it has what I would call a glorified mall. There is virtually no Hollywood artifacts or paraphernalia there. But for what we were there for, it worked great. The conference facilities and staff were great! And it is near places that are cool like the Bellagio, Paris, Caesar’s Palace, and The Flamingo.

After getting to my room, which had a breathtaking view of a parking garage, and organizing some stuff and claiming the bed nearest the breathtaking view (my roomie Tony didn’t come in until the next day so I got choice of beds) I connected with Lowell and we went to supper.

We walked down to Caesar’s Palace to look for a buffet, but we actually ended up in the Caesar’s Palace food court where we ate at Bobby’s Burgers. A restaurant that is connected to Bobby Flay. Who is some kind of chef of note, but he isn’t a raging douchebag like Gordon Ramsay, so you might not have heard of him. I’ve only heard of him because Faust used to be big into him back in the day.

I ordered a Bacon Crunchburger (Bacon, American Cheese, Potato Chips, Bobby’s Sauce – yeah not crazy about that name either), French Fries, and a Soft Drink. The price tag came to a little over $30.

THIRTY BUCKS!

I consider the Computer Mine to be generous with their per diems. I know it is set by the government, but I usually come back with a little extra coin jingling and jangling around in my pockets. This is mostly cause I don’t drink alcohol. In fact I was actually mostly off pop before this trip, but I fell of that wagon pretty dang hard in Vegas. I don’t think it is inaccurate to say I went on a regular Pepsi Cola Bender. We are almost 2 weeks out and I’m still weening myself back off the hard stuff.

The per diem I got for this trip was $288. The fact that I had just spent $30 for a food court burger caused me to take a step back. I expected this to be one of the cheapest meals I shoved in my face on this trip to Sin City. I wasn’t sure $288 was going to make it.

Dang!

After Day 1, I had an estimated $258 remaining in the per diem fund.

Maybe eating is overrated…

After the meal we walked around something I would describe as an open air mall that was between The Linq and The Flamingo. This is where I took the majority of the pictures I took on Day 1.

Here is the first collection:

Caesar’s Palace Sportsbook

There are few musicians I like lesson than Jimmy Buffett, but the man can market.

In-N-Out Burger was on Lowell and I’s list. It was the only thing that we crossed off our lists.

I wasn’t expecting there to be so many candy stores in Vegas.

Seeing the actual Vegas sign was on my list. This is the closest I came.

I do regret not going in here a little bit.

Not the Bellagio fountains.

This was so close to being my MUSIC photo for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE.

I have several more pictures to share from Day 1 that I’ll share at a future date. My best guess is March 17th, while I’m eating a Reuben from West Street Deli.

And nobody better give me any nonsense about letting the Reuben rest for a day and it somehow being better. Got it?

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This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is SUNRISE, SUNSET:

SUNRISE, SUNSET

What is a SUNRISE, SUNSET picture? It is a simply a picture of a SUNRISE or of a SUNSET. I’ve heard some grumbling this is a hard theme. The weather is bad. I go to bed at 6 shortly after eating my early bird special at the nursing home. I don’t like going outside. Whatever. Of course THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is hard sometimes. That is what makes it great. If it was easy everybody would do it.

“Maybe you will just have to get creative.” He muttered while sipping on a cocktail made out of tequila, orange juice and grenadine. Unmixed. In a tall glass. Served on the rocks. Sometimes garnished with a cherry and orange slice.

If getting a little lit doesn’t inspire you, maybe these example submission from when SUNRISE, SUNSET was a theme in days past will:

WEEK 43 - SUNRISE/SUNSET - CARLA STENSLAND 1

Carla Stensland – Week 43

Kim Barker – Week 43

Stephanie Kim – Week 43

Michelle Haupt – Week 43

Christopher D. Bennett – Week 43

Happy photo harvesting!

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RULES

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IOWA UNIVERISITY COACH POWER RANKINGS

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