Category Archives: Work

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!

Andy, Art, Birthdays, Carla, Flowers, Fran, Funk, Kim, Linda, Lowell, Michelle, Pastor Sarah, Scottie D., Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Viva Las Vegas: Cell Phone Pictures

March 3, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett 9 Comments

I need to start the day by wishing Andy a happy birthday. Happy birthday Andy!

I hope your birthday is filled with all the joy you can handle!

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I spent almost all of last week in Las Vegas working at the Computer Mine Convention. I didn’t get to see anywhere near the amount of stuff I wanted to see because I spent most of my days staring at conference room walls. However, I did get a chance to see a few things and took a few pictures. Today I’m going to share some cruddy cell phone pictures from the trip.

While some people got “rock star” parking, I got stuck in the Gray Lot, which is more like “zydeco star” parking.

And the flight got delayed.

4 flights. Only got snacks on one of them.

On flight #2 I got rock star leg room.

Southwest. Wasn’t as bad as I feared.

New luggage made it to Vegas.

The view from my room.

Meal #1. $30 for this.

Closest I got to the actual Vegas sign.

I’m sure I have an exhibit in there.

Fran said I absolutely had to eat here. It was also high on Lowell’s list.

Elvis and Marilyn made out of jelly beans.

If he goes ring pop engagement ring and she says no, she is a terrible person.

So many candy stores in Vegas.

View from the room at night.

Speechless.

A bar where a robot mixes your drink. Lowell said it was a Top 5 Drink he has had made by a robot.

They are planting marigolds already!

Planet Hollywood is kind of a dud, but it is near cool casinos like Paris.

I can almost see Emily and Mindy walking down the street.

The real Arc de Triomphe was built by a megalomaniac, so it makes sense that they put a poster of one on their recreation.

This sign is how I knew how to get my elevator.

It was 130 degrees in this room.

Planet Hollywood

I didn’t disappoint Fran, but I did make her jealous.

Michelle.

The show is about to begin.

A lot of eyes on me when this speaker asked the audience, “What is one thing that every man knows about every woman.”

View from my Friday dinner table.

Friday supper.

Friday dessert.

Fountain of the Gods.

Neptune’s Fountain.

Bellagio Fountain.

The other elevator bank had Miranda Lambert on it. They won.

Nacho Daddy, for people who like puns and nachos. That includes me.

Neither Kim or Lowell stepped up to the challenge.

I sent a picture of these to my Pastor who is a Chiefs fan, he wished bad things to me. Very bad.

I didn’t get the Raiders Nachos. But these were delicious.

Scott recommended I check out the Bellagio Gardens.

Saturday night supper.

I am sad to report I never ate here.

Goodbye Las Vegas.

It was from here that I waved at Susanna.

She waved back!

And on the final flight I got rock star legroom again!

All in all it was a pretty good trip, even though I put in some massive hours. It was certainly better than my previous trip to Las Vegas for the Evil Clown Empire. But that is a story for a different day.

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

STORE

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

But what is a STORE image? It is simply an image of a STORE or taken inside of a STORE. There are all kinds of STORE(s) out there. From department to convenience to junk to antique to book to music to grocery to dollar to a little kids lemonade stand. Of course, there is more than one definition of the word STORE.

This is not the first time that STORE has been a theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. Here are some examples of previous submissions to inspire you:

Week 141 – Linda Bennett

Week 141 – Kim Barker

Week 141 – Christopher D. Bennett

Week 18 – Carla Stensland

Week 18 – Sarah Karber

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Automobiles, Baseball/Softball, Basketball, Becca, Black & White, Brandon, Calendar, Christianity, Dad, Flowers, Geri, Gretchen, Holidays, Iowa State, Linda, Logan, Maven, Michelle, Mom, Music, Naima, Night, Photo of the Day, Road Trip, Sara, Self-Portrait, Shawn Lockner, Shorty, Still Life, Teresa, Work

Hello 2023.

January 1, 2023 Christopher D. Bennett

It is the first day of 2023. I’m not really a “resolutions” person. Pastor Adam was on vacation today so we had a substitute seromizer in church this morning. He gave an impassioned, longwinded sermon on resolve. It took more than a bit of my resolve to stay awake during the longest sermon these ears have heard in quite sometime.

But if I were to take the words on resolve to heart, I would say that I’m not without goals. Last year my main goal was to complete THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT. I did that.

My main goal in 2023 is to complete Phase 2 of THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT and put the book together. I should be freeing up sometime to work on that buy dropping a couple of photo projects that I did in 2022.

My second goal in 2023 is to begin work and complete my new photo project. Details are still foggy, but it is to create Boone postcard. Not a bunch of Boone postcards. Not even to print up a bunch of one Boone postcard. But to make one big image of one Boone postcard. While the end goal is one image, it will involve taking at least several hundred (probably thousand) images. It will make more sense when I get going on it.

My third goal in 2023 is to keep the positive momentum that was achieved in 2022 in participation rates for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. I’m not likely to go out and beat the drums looking for participants, but doesn’t mean you guys can’t. Right?

My fourth goal in 2023 is to consider and maybe take action on visiting and photographing every State Park in Iowa.
That seems more straight forward than it actually is because in addition to State Parks there are State Forests and State Preserves and State Recreation Areas. Boone County contains 3 Minor State Forests alone! We will see where this one goes, but we all know I could use the exercise.

I don’t have any goals related to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. That type of stuff is a considerable amount of luck. So best not to have goals that are out of one’s hands. Maybe my goal should just be to give my best effort.

Hopefully 2023 is a good year for all of us!

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Time to share the December images for the FatMumSlim Photo A Day Challenge. This is also the final collection of images as I will be dropping this pursuit in 2023. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it still eats up a fair amount of time. Hopefully time freed up that I can use to pursue some of those 2023 goals.

Here are the December images:

December 1 – I Love This!

December 2 – I Bought This!

December 3 – Starts with T

December 4 – I Held This

December 5 – Something Red

December 6 – Peace

December 7 – Tree

December 8 – Looking Up

December 9 – Small

December 10 – Out + About

December 11 – Free Choice

December 12 – Lights

December 13 – Something Green

December 14 – Decoration

December 15 – A Star

December 16 – Candy Cane

December 17 – A Hat

December 18 – I Made This!

December 19 – Joy Is…

December 20 – Begins with S

December 21 – On the Floor

December 22 – A Gift

December 23 – A Tradition

December 24 – Someone I Love

December 25 – My Day

December 26 – This is Delish

December 27 – Colourful

December 28 – A Book

December 29 – Us

December 30 – How I Relax

December 31 – Best Part of 2022

Top 9 Most Popular Images

I did enjoy this project and I’m not walking away from it because I didn’t enjoy it. I “met” numerous other people in this community that I will continue to follow, like @bea.photoaday, @sara.fms.photoaday, @outnbout, @gerkgirl, @pink_koffie, and @lostfate13.

But there were other things I didn’t like. Most people used the challenge to curate images, rather than take new images every day. The person that ran the challenge is Australian. That meant that a lot of the prompts were seasonal for Australia, meaning they weren’t seasonal for Iowa. Prompts repeated an awful lot. Not that they wouldn’t after 365 days, but I felt like they repeated more than necessary.

These minor complaints aside, I would consider doing it again in a future year. Just not this year. I’m sure many of you have minor complaints about how I run THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE as well.

Art, Black & White, Calendar, Cathie, Elizabeth, Event, Flat Earth Joe, Holidays, Jesse, Kim, Michelle, Micky, Work

Computer Mine Holiday Party

December 30, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

It is time for me to reveal the November image of the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar:

November

The November image is a picture of the Tin Man sculpture in Stanley, Iowa. In retrospect, it does feel a little strange that I chose to process this image in black and white when the Tin Man is only in the color portion of THE WIZARD OF OZ. But I do love processing the decrepit in black & white because black & white photography shows off the textures so much better. I chose November for this image as November is when Olivia’s birthday is and THE WIZARD OF OZ was her favorite movie.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony ILCE-7M2
DATE: May 28, 2022 – 11:03 AM
LENS: Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
FOCAL LENGTH: 75mm
APERTURE: f/9
EXPOSURE: 1/250
ISO: 100
EXPOSURE BIAS: +1.0

Tomorrow I will reveal the December image for the 2023 Photography 139 Calendar.

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Last week we had a mini office party for the few people that actually work in the physical computer mine. I was tasked (sorta) for taking some pictures of the even for the computer mine socials.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Computer Mine Office Christmas Party - 2022

Michelle took the picture that I am in.

I hope next year we are able to bring back the chili cook-off. Even if it is just Me vs. Jesse vs. Micky.

Art, Kim, Lowell, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Miami Beach – Day 3 and Day 6 – A7II

June 17, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

In this post I am going to share pictures I took with the A7II on Days 3 and 6 of my work trip to Miami Beach. I did not crack out the camera at all on Day 4. On Day 5, I actually got away for a bit and took several pictures, so I’m going to dedicate an entire post to those pictures. I didn’t take many pictures on Day 3 or Day 6, so I’m combining them here.

Day 3 was supposed to be kind of a half day of training, but those of us on Team Setup ended up spending quite a bit of hours tinkering with the computers at the Convention Center. I only took a handful of pictures walking back from the Convention Center with Tony after he went to 7/11 for some smokes.

Miami Beach Work Trip - Day 3 - May 2022

Maybe I’m immature, but you can’t tell me if this sign was in Ames, it would be right up there for college freshman to steal with highway 69 signs.

I would love to see this hotel when it is done being renovated.

A tree growing outside of the Plymouth.

Day 6 was the last day of the convention. It was a long day for me because I left the hotel about 7:30 for the Convention Center. I got back to the hotel at about 8:30. From 4:30 until about 8:00 I sat around with Kim, Tony, and Lowell waiting for one crate to arrive. All the pictures I took that day are from that wait.

Miami Beach Work Trip - Day 6 - May 2022

The Computer Mine Booth

That reddish crate isn’t the one we were waiting for, but Kim packed up all our snacks and then wrapped it. So we starved for 2 hours. Please feel sorry for me.

A Computer Mine competitor’s booth.

It was a good trip, but the highlights, photographically speaking are from Day 5. Which I will share soon.

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

SERVICE

SERVICE! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

This is a theme that was suggested by Andy. If you don’t like it, well remember that I crowdsource the themes once a year about November, so watch for that post and conduct your actions accordingly.

That isn’t to infer that I don’t love this theme. If I didn’t love the suggestion, I would have filed it in the trash next to Shannon’s suggestion of CATS. Maybe not next to that suggestion. Cause that one I threw in the trash and then stomped the trash down. Then took it to the incinerator. I didn’t even own an incinerator. I went to the store and bought one, just so I could incinerate that suggestion.

That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t make suggestions for Year 10 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE when that time is nigh. Just don’t suggest CATS.

But what is a SERVICE picture? A SERVICE is simply the action of helping someone else. A SERVICE picture is simply a picture of one person helping another person. Or the results of one person helping another person. Now there are many different types of SERVICE. For example the theme reveal is a picture of a worship SERVICE. I get very questionable internet SERVICE from Mediacom. A couple days last week I ate at restaurant where I received SERVICE from many fine servers.

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Black & White, Night, Street Photography, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Miami Beach – Day 2 – A7II

June 10, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

On Day 2 of my trip to Miami Beach for the Computer Mine I had a little bit of free time in the evening to do a little street photography in the blocks around our hotel.

One of the first things I learned was it would take 10 minutes (at least) for my camera to acclimate to the change in humidity between the air conditioned hotel room and the hot humid nights of South Beach.

Here are a few pictures from this short walkabout:

Miami Beach Work Trip - Day 2 - May 2022

I didn’t actually take my camera out at all on Day 3 and barely on Day 4. I’ll probably combine Day 4 and Day 5 into one post at some point in the future.

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

CHILDREN

CHILDREN! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a CHILDREN picture? Simply put, a CHILDREN picture is any picture that includes a CHILDren or CHILDREN or anything that deals with CHILDREN. This could be a very easy theme for some people. Some people can’t throw a rock in their house with out hitting a CHILD(REN). Which isn’t to say that I endorse throwing rocks at CHILDREN. It is just a saying. Some people might not have such easy access to a CHILD(REN) or even know a CHILD(REN). No worries! That is where the “anything that deals with CHILDREN comes into play. Notice how the theme reveal image doesn’t have any CHILDREN in it, but instead is a picture of a playground, which CHILD(REN) of all ages use.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Lowell, Travel, Work

Miami Beach – Day 1 – A7II

June 5, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

I thought this Sunday I would get back to Formal Portrait Sundays, but today didn’t unfold how I planned at all. Not even a little bit. Instead, I’m going to share some pictures I took with the real camera on the first day of my work trip to Miami Beach.

I didn’t take anywhere near as many with the A7II as I did with the cell phone camera. Like 7 hours of the day was taken up with a Major League Baseball baseball game, and I wasn’t allowed to take that camera in there. However, I did take a few. Mostly at the beach.

There are still more pictures to share from this trip and hopefully next Sunday I’m able to get back to Formal Portrait Sunday, but the way my schedule for next weekend is lining up, I have my doubts.

Art, Baseball/Softball, Cathie, Kim, Lowell, Night, Self-Portrait, Still Life, Street Photography, Travel, Work

CMC – Miami Beach

May 28, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

At 7 AM on my birthday I loaded up on to a plane and flew to Miami Beach for the annual Computer Mine Convention. It is the biggest convention of the year for Computer Mine customers. They don’t come just to see us, but they come to see our competitors or other products that aren’t even related to us. I spent a lot of time under the brutal fluorescent lighting of the Miami Beach Convention Center, but I did get out and about to have a few adventures. I thought I would share some of my cruddy cell phone pictures from the almost 7 days I was gone from home.

Our layover was in Atlanta.

An altitude of -140 feet doesn’t seem ideal.

A limo driver holding my name up at an airport. I’m a pretty big deal people!

Santiago was the Man! He also took us back to the airport a week later.

We stayed at the Plymouth Hotel. I only have 4 things I look for in a hotel. #1. A bed. #2. Free Wi-Fi. #3. Free breakfast. #4. A good shower. It had 2 of the 4. But it did have a swanky retro vibe.

The closest I got to the ocean. I thought we would be back. I thought wrong.

I was told we would probably see boobs on the beach (by undisclosed person). I’m just bringing this up to cutoff the inevitable question about topless beaches I might get later. There were no uncovered boobs on the beach I saw. Sorry if this disappoints you.

The owner of this van is killing it. I mean that metaphorically. I don’t think they are a serial killer. But in Florida, you never know.

First Miami Beach meal at Sultan. Cost about $20. It was delicious.

Lowell and Tony really, really, really hate this thing. I think it is hilarious. Bad art, but hilarious.

Kim’s new hat.

That was like $16. It is Kim’s drink.

$10 with free refills. And it was Pepsi! Bingpot!

The raw material for nightmares.

The special wardrobe I bought for the Marlins game. 3 compliments on this outfit from strangers.

Whatever stadium the Marlins play in was okay. Not great, but okay. For a dome.

Seats were first row on the third base side.

So much amazing neon in Miami Beach.

This might have been my favorite meal on the trip. Cost was $15.

If I remember correctly, this is called Mount Miami.

So many micro cokes in this town. At an Italian restaurant on the Lincoln Mall. It was very fair. Costed about $30. Service was less than fair.

Computer Mine meeting.

There is a lot going on here.

Guess how much this cost me?

We never got to ride in Sexy Uber, but our Uber driver to the Cuban restaurant had 2 Jacquelines on the hook.

Did you guess $122? Then I probably already told you. It would have been more, but Carlos (the creepy waiter) forgot my dessert and Lowell paid for one of my sides.

Inside the Miami Beach Convention Center.

A German booth a couple aisles down. They had some creepy stuff.

Germans man.

Best outfit in the convention center.

The drink Derek is holding cost $21.

A tanned, bronzed god. With aching feet.

Sculpture across the street from the Plymouth.

I literally took this picture because I thought we were never leaving for the Cuban restaurant.

But we did!

Restaurant recommended by our doorman.

These shrimp stuffed plantain appetizers that Tony ordered were maybe my single favorite thing I ate on this trip.

A Cuban. I was going to try something else, but in the end, I love a good Cuban. I don’t think I have had one since the Cuban fries incident that happened in Indianola. I haven’t forgotten Andy. I’m close to forgiving.

Math. This meal cost $30.

I appreciate good bathroom art. Someday I may even tell you about the outhouse I found in Unionville, Iowa. If you have the guts to take it!

One of the side effects of the pandemic is that I forgot that smokers even existed.

Miami Beach from the beach. At night.

Inside the convention center.

This is the Computer Mine Booth Closet. It is a magical place. It is where the snacks are. It is where you hide from regressive weirdos that don’t think women should have the right to vote and that the wife’s job is to do whatever the man wants them to do… hypothetically speaking. However, to the disappointment of one customer, there is not a port-a-potty in there.

If you say so.

Another micro-Coke.

This pisses me off! You don’t put the Gambler in a corner. You don’t cover him with a ladder.

This mural was in Sweet Liberty where the sales team hosted a party. Free appetizers and micro-Cokes! The tacos here were one of my favorite things I had on this trip. Cost to me, yeah I already said it, free!

I ghosted on the party (well Tony saw me leave) to try to hit the Miami Beach Botanical Garden before we lost the sun, cause the closer you are to the equator, the earlier the sun sets in the summer, cause the earth isn’t flat. But by the time I got there it had closed and wasn’t going to open again before I flew out Tuesday morning. The humanity!

Although that sucked, it did lead to me visiting the Holocaust Memorial which was extremely powerful. Germans man.

That night I walked to a nearby Walgreens to buy some postcards (hopefully some of you have received them by now) and some ibuprofen. On my way back to the Plymouth I was nearly hit by a cop car stopping at the Abbey Hotel. A few of our staff were staying there. By the time the cop cars stopped showing up, there were 9 cars and a fire rescue truck. I’m not sure what happened, but rumor has it involved a few women fighting over the same man. I hope it was not Jacqueline1 and Jacqueline2 fighting over our Uber driver. The next day the couch in the lobby was covered in plastic and then the day after that it disappeared.

I just don’t see the connection, but I love it the same.

This empanada I ate at the convention center was by far the worst thing I ate on this trip. With a regular sized coke it was $11.

A computer mine competitor’s booth.

After the show, we tore down our booth. Within and hour, all of our crates showed up… except for one. We got them packed up and then we waited for the last crate.

And waited…

While we waited Amy was kind enough to bring us pizza so we didn’t starve…

And this thing… which she questioned why I photographed… beyond the obvious reasons… I photographed it to send a picture of it to Elizabeth as she is a noted cheese fiend… it is fresh mozzarella… Elizabeth thought it was gelato… which wasn’t the last time gelato would come into my life that night…

Then after 3 hours… the crate arrived… Not really. Tony walked around the convention center and found our missing crate just sitting there next to a bathroom and brought it back to us. While Tony is definitely a hero, I wonder if his crossing a union line might lead to a hit being put out on him by the Teamsters. I kept my distance from him just in case.

Outside of the convention center. But we weren’t allowed to go in those doors. We had to walk completely around the building to the other side. I know, times are tough.

A theater near the convention center.

After getting back to the hotel, I rested briefly and then went to a store to get some touristy stuff. A magnet for my fridge. More postcards to mail out. A couple stickers. One for my 2022 Log Book and the other I’m holding onto until I get new luggage. They also sold some sweet shirts.

I texted a picture of this shirt to Jen and she described it as classy. I agree with her.

Bought one of these for Tony cause they were in clearance and he asked me to pickup anything that said “Tony or Shannon”. Not that Shannon, but Tony’s Shannon. Tony’s Shannon does roller derby, which is badass. Ball is in your court not Tony’s Shannon.

Elizabeth mentioned gelato and gelato came to me. The universe looking out for me.

Sorry Elizabeth, no malts, only shakes.

I ordered Banana Nutella.

I’ve been hacking on the alcohol drinkers on this trip for spending $22 on a drink cause I’m cheap and I don’t drink alcohol. But this shake cost me $14. Hypocrite much? Maybe, but it was delicious. Although frankly more liquidy than an Iowa shake.

I wish I could take this home and put it in my yard.

Jeez lady, cover up, there might be a DeSantis voter in the neighborhood.

So much great neon in Miami Beach.

Goodbye Miami and the worst airport experience I’ve ever had.

Flying home, well right by home.

If you are from Boone, you are genetically programmed and morally obligated to take a train any chance you get. The Minneapolis airport.

I had 5 compliments on this shirt that Teresa made for me.

Saylorville!

Had to do some tenderloining at Ted’s Coney Island on the way home. $15.

Baklava!

On the flight from Miami to Minneapolis I shared by dream of putting one of those take one-replace-one libraries on my front lawn and fill it with banned books to Amy. She worried that in a town like Boone, somebody might burn it down. I’m sure it would be fine. You can say a lot of disparaging things about Boone, but it isn’t a backwards hick town like Ankeny.

If you want to see plenty more cruddy cell phone pictures I took on my trip, click on the link below:

Miami Beach – 2022

Tony asked me how many pictures I took on this trip at one point. It was over 500 cell phone pictures. I also took a far less number of pictures on my real camera. Some of those will be coming any day, week or month from now. Sometime after the Renaissance Fair pictures I’d reckon.

Still Life, Travel, Work, WPC - Reminder

Computer Mine Pittsburgh Trip Eats

February 25, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 6 Comments

Last week I was in Pittsburgh with Lowell and New Chris on a work trip to install computers in a customer’s office. The office’s office manager just completely spoiled us with constantly hosting us for dinner, bringing us food, and taking us to fantastic restaurants.

While this isn’t a foodie blog by any stretch of the animation, despite all the tenderloin posts, it is in the Bennett DNA to photograph pictures of our food. So I thought I would share some cruddy cell phone pictures of most of the foods I ate last week:

Chicago Airport

Monday Dinner

My favorite dish on the trip.

Peanut butter and chocolate equals perfect harmony.

#wafflelife

Tuesday Lunch

Tuesday Supper

Wednesday Lunch

Wednesday Supper

#wafflelife

Thursday Lunch

Thursday Supper

Wednesday Lunch – Charlotte Airport

A Valentine’s gift from the Computer Mine when I got home.

Sorry to those who already endured my food pictures and sorry to those that haven’t and are now jealous.

I hadn’t travelled for work in at least 5 years. Don’t know that I’ll travel again for another 5 years, but I guess we’ll see.

++++++

This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is HARMONY.

HARMONY

HARMONY! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what exactly is a HARMONY image? A HARMONY image is simply a picture of at least two things that team up together perfectly. Like peanut butter and jelly. Cardinal and gold. Laurel and Hardy. Colors can also harmonize. I’m not going to go deep into color theory, but here are a few examples of colors that HARMONYze: Orange-Blue, Pink-Green, Orange-Green, Red-Green, Yellow-Purple, Blue-Yellow, Green-Magenta, Red-Cyan. Also, a HARMONY image could also relate to music as HARMONY is a very important part of music.

Happy photo harvesting!

Formal Portrait, Self-Portrait, Work

2021 Computer Mine Holiday Card

February 13, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

I used to take a picture of every Computer Mine employee for the Computer Mine’s annual holiday card. It was a fun, little diversion from swinging the pick axe even if I could count on getting the same complaints from the same people every single year. “Why can’t you just use last year’s picture?” “Why do we have to do this?” “Why can’t I wear a hat?” “I hate doing this.” “Can you stand on top of the picnic table to get my angles?” “Can I have somebody hold my neck?” I actually do kind of miss it. Well, I miss some of it.

The pandemic and the fact now the grand majority of employees work exclusively from home has lead to my losing of this gig. Now, everybody takes their own picture and submits it. It is actually an improvement for the holiday card. It doesn’t look as professional, but it allows people to show off their personality. Even people who take pictures with their cat for some reason. So you know who the bad people are.

Last year, I did take my picture (obviously) and I also took pictures for two other pick swingers. Here are some of those pictures: