Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Four: In A Blur

Shopping,

cleaning,

cooking,

organizing,

decorating,

making lists,

checking them twice,

more shopping,

more cleaning,

more cooking...

...'tis the season to become stressed out with too much to do in preparation for the holidays.

So instead of running around constantly lost in a blur of "things that need to get done," why don't we take some time to focus on what the season really means to us.

Now is a time of preparation.

I'm not preparing my house for parties, not my kitchen for meals, not my spare bedroom for guests, not my budget for gifts.

Right now I'm preparing me, myself, for the Christmas season.

For me this means being mindful of these weeks of Advent in preparation for the celebration of Christ coming into the world.

For me this means bringing to the forefront the charitable lifestyle I sometimes set aside out of convenience to myself.

For me this means hot cocoa, caroling, goodwill and friendship.

The shopping, the cleaning, the decorating, the cooking - all of that will come in time. But right now...now I'm trying to stay out of the blur.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Three: 'Tis the Season

One candle down, three to go!

Happy Advent!

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Two: Riding the Pine

Having spent most of my varsity basketball career sitting on the bench, I can relate to these restless legs hanging off the bleachers during one of Ankeny High School's season-opening scrimmages.

Emily's brother Ted Friedman is currently starting for the Ankeny varsity squad as freshman. Ted is blessed with both height and athleticism which, combined with experience and good coaching, adds up to a lot of talent.

You won't see Ted's legs very often in pictures like these - as the tallest member on the squad at 6'7", he'll be seeing a lot of playing time. As for the other benchwarmers, they'll get their chance. And when it comes, hopefully they will make the most of it. I'd like to think I did.

In the end, even though no score was kept, it appeared Ankeny came out on top of this scrimmage with Des Moines East High School. Ted got some valuable experience on the court. Handshakes were exchanged and a good game was had by all.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-One: Black Friday

4:00 a.m. - Black Friday Morning
A pile of advertisements from yesterday's paper lies scattered across the floor. Deals upon deals waiting for early bird shoppers. But will any deals be left for people wanting to sleep in until, say, five o'clock?

---

4:45 a.m.
A line has gathered outside of the Best Buy in Roseville, MN. The line wraps around the outside of the store. The news later reports that the line started forming at ten o'clock the previous (i.e. Thanksgiving) morning. Tents and sleeping bags outside the front door help verify this.

---

4:55 a.m.
Best Buy employees receive last-minute iunstructions before the doors open to the anxious, shivering public. Some study fliers the refresh themselves on specials, some guzzle coffee for a jolt of caffeine, and some do stretching exercises as though preparing to run with the bulls.

---

5:00 a.m. on the button
Doors open. The crowd rushes through like air spitting out of a balloon. Employees inside the door and outside keep watch on the line, preventing "cutters" and "butters." (Many tried cutting in, none succeeded.)

---

5:10 a.m.
This photographer's hands are cold. "No worries," I think, "Kohls has been open for an hour already - maybe they have a deal on gloves!"

5:11 a.m.
This photographer realizes the folly of his thinking. The line of people in Kohls waiting to check out wraps completely around the 80,000 square-foot building. The time in line is not worth the two dollars I might save on gloves. Oooh! But what a deal on a digital picture frame!!....

---

5:30 a.m.
The roads are virtually empty, just like any other day two hours before sunrise. Unlike any other day, however, people are not home sleeping in their beds. The roads are empty now because all of the cars are in parking lots: Kohls, Best Buy, the Roseville Mall - all parking lots are stuffed tighter than yesterday's turkey.

---

5:35 a.m.

This photographer breathes a sigh of relief that he has nothing to purchase, and can remain an observer on this, the craziest of shopping days.

He heads home to enjoy a quiet breakfast of turkey-and-stuffing leftovers.

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty: Giving Thanks

The travels are completed,
The weather has been toughed,
The family has gathered,
The turkey has been stuffed.

The candlelight is glowing,
The wine has all been poured,
A prayer of thanks is offered
For our blessings from our Lord.

The gravy boat is brimming,
At last the turkey's carved,
And just in time, we all agree,
For everyone is starved!


The clinking of the knives and forks
Replaces sounds of words,
Until the hostess offers forth
Some seconds...and then thirds

"I couldn't eat another bite!"
All of us reply
Just before we grab our forks...
For one more piece of pie.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Day Three-Hundred and Twenty-Nine: With...Fizz

In one of my earliest (and favorite) entries of this blog project, I brought you a picture titled, "With Lemon."

Today I bring you the sequel, courtesy of Emily's fizzy water and my parents' bright red counter top: With Fizz.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Change Of Focus

Sometimes when things aren't clear, all you need to do is change your focus. You might just find that things start making a lot more sense if you back off a little.

Click on today's picture for a change of focus:

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Seed Anenome

This view of the inside of a red bell pepper almost looks more like sea life than seed life.


The magnification brought out intricacies I didn't notice with my bare eyes. It's nice to find details in the little things in life every now and then!

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Six: Oh, the Places You'll Putt!

These weekend the Lawrence Public Library played host to two nine-hole miniature golf courses.

They called the event, "CaddyStacks."

For a very reasonable greens fee - all of which benefited the library - patrons had their choice of courses, each hole built and sponsored by a local Lawrence organization.

Highlights included the multi-level billiard table hole (where at one point youa re required to usae your putter as a pool cue), the volcano hole (which erupted with each successful putt into the hole), and the near-impossible anthill hole, whose steep approach from all angles left many golfers feeling a bit antsy.

The signature hole, though, was the Dr. Seuss-themed creation featuring oversized books and an elevated tee.

Players were advertised a 98.6% chance of success on the hole, and as young golfer Mara Smith (pictured below) found out, all it takes is one easy stroke...the books will guide you the rest of the way!


Overall the event seemed very successful. Still, I left wondering: Is it appropriate to yell "fore!" on a library golf course, or can it only be whispered?

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Five: Hammer and Nail

This weekend Emily and I tried our hand at sheetrocking.

We spent Saturday morning volunteering with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. This weekend's project was a house for the Mendoza family, and among the many volunteers helping in the construction was Mr. Mendoza himself. (I tried my best not to bend any nails in front of him.)

This is the 71st home built by Lawrence's HFH organization. Pictured below are our primary tools for the day: a good, old-fashioned hammer and nail.

In the background is the project foreman overseeing the most important part of the day - lunch break.


The lunch was good, but it was not the most rewarding part of the day. The morning was spent gaining practical experience and helping a local family build their new home - that made it an activity worth repeating.

We hope to do it again soon, bent nails and all.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Four: It All Stacks Up

Take two frugal-minded shoppers who both love their dogs...

Place them in a pet store with their dogs' favorite food on sale...

Add in the extra incentive of ten percent off a purchase of 200 pounds of food or more...and what do you get?

A decision you have to sit on for a while...


Of course, in the end, we did end up purchasing 200 pounds of dog food.

If the additional $3 saved per bag wasn't motivation enough to buy five 40-lb bags of Iams Mini Chunks, the story - and me lying down in the middle of the Petco aisle to take this picture while Emily posed atop the bags - was all the incentive we needed.

Our pups will be eating to their hearts' content.

For quite a while.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Three: Burning Bridges

Lawrence is going to have to pay their sanitation department a heap of overtime for hauling away this mess.

Recently the old Interstate-70 bridge crossing the Kansas River was the victim of two bombings - both well-planned, well-supervised, and well-executed.

The explosions are all part of the process of bringing the entire bridge - which carried traffic for 50 years - down to the ground now that the new-and-improved model stands directly to its north.

Many tools and pieces of machinery are currently on hand for the bridge construction and removal project.

The series of blasts brought out many spectators.

One particular spectator with a camera thought he would get a great picture of the day, but upon arriving found the bridge already toppled - the demolition was pushed up a half-hour due to weather concerns.

So the spectator with the camera settled for the pictures you see here instead.

All of the construction around town has caused changes in traffic flow.

Another bridge - this one connecting downtown to north Lawrence - sees a lot of delays...especially now that the flow of automobile traffic is temporarily dependent on the traffic of trains whose rails cross the only detoured route out of town.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Two: Color Climb

A colorful array of ladders lines the exterior wall of a house in East Lawrence.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-One: Burger's Done

Burger night - the weekly gathering of friends to celebrate life, liberty, and half-priced burgers - is rarely a perfectly catered occasion.

In fact, the ineptitude of the wait staff seems to thrive independent of the group's choice of the dining establishment.

Silverware is often forgotten.

Napkins are scarce.

Drinks go unfilled.

On some of the more memorable nights, burgers have mysteriously come without buns, and entire checks have been thrown out because strong winds knocked out the power generator rendering the credit card readers useless (that was a good night!).

Burgers are undercooked.

Burgers are overcooked.

Tonight, Emily made sure her burger was done.

As is usually the case, it was a fun night.

Day Three-Hundred and Twenty: Up On the Rooftop

The rooftop entrance to the Jazzhaus in downtown Lawrence is about wild and vibrant as the live music that can be heard coming through its walls most nights on Mass Street.

This picture - zebra stripes and all - was shot from the rooftop of the adjacent parking garage.

On a grey, rainy day in Lawrence there wasn't much color to be found here. Black and white dominated this afternoon scene.

Later in the night, though, the Jazzhaus was all blues.

Day Three Hundred and Nineteen: Down the Road

On a quiet, drizzly afternoon in Lawrence, the sound of rain falling on the ground was interrupted only by the occasional car splashing by.

This lone pedestrian made his way down the street under the partial shelter of his umbrella.

Day Three Hundred and Eighteen: Brick By Brick

The East Lawrence community is a pretty tight-knit group, and today community members gathered together to rebuild a brick sidewalk in front of a house on the east side of town.

By the time I stopped by the group had been hard at work for at least an hour.

Of course, I couldn't snap a picture without at least offering to get my hands a little dirty, too, so I put in a little time behind the shovel before heading back home.

Rain put the completion of the project on hold, but soon the 1100 block of Rhode Island St. will have a fresh patch of brick to admire.

Day Three-Hundred and Seventeen: Fashion A Tire

Faster and faster,
Higher and higher,
Touching the treetops
I swing on my tire!

Back toward the ground now,
Lower and lower,
Shoe tips drag through the dirt -
No, don't go slower!


No matter the hour,
Whatever the weather,
Nothing can stop me
On tire and tether!

Gaining momentum now -
Reach for the stars!
Who says these tires
Are only for cars?

Happiness lies in the
Simplest of things,
Like cool autumn days...
And old tire swings

Day Three Hundred and Sixteen: Mystery Boy

When I was six years old I played basketball in the St. John's Elementary School gym with a bunch of friends.

Then I moved across town (taking me to a different school), then to a different state, graduated college, found a job, and 25 years later here I am, back playing basketball in the St. John's Elementary School gym with a bunch of friends.

Of course, the gym's a lot smaller now that I'm all grown up - the basketball games are limited to 4-on-4 as the court - whose half-court line doubles as the 3-point line - becomes more congested than rush hour traffic on 23rd Street if you put any more than eight adults on it at one time.

Nonetheless the games are fun, competitive, and a good source of exercise. About the only difference between the games now and when I was six is that now all the teammates go out for beer afterward at the Yacht Club sports bar. (When I was six we preferred to do all our beer drinking at Louise's downtown...)

I don't know when the chalk outlines made their way onto the walls of the St. John's gym, but this boy has been there as long as I can remember:


I'm not sure what purpose he serves - he is the only human-shaped outline in the gym.

I assume he's running, although he could be getting ready to kick a soccer ball or, as today's picture suggests, he could be tripping over a basketball.

What the chalk outline usually reminds me of is a police-inspected crime scene, which leads me to wonder what happened to this boy?

Was he flattened against the wall by a barrage of enemy dodge balls?

Was he the victim of an all-out full-body check in a vicious game of floor hockey?

Or maybe that is just the most common place for people to hit the wall, since there is only about 2 feet of space between it and the out-of-bounds line - I know I've probably crashed into that spot a few times trying to save a rogue basketball.

Well, whatever his purpose, chalk-outline boy adds to the cozy and unique nature of the gym.

And 25 years from now, after life has taken me wherever it has planned, perhaps I'll end up back in this gym some time with chalk-outline boy...playing basketball...with a bunch of friends.

Day Three Hundred and Fifteen: Half Mast

Flags like this one across from City Hall in Lawrence are still flying at half mast today in response to the recent events in Texas at Ft. Hood.

The symbol of the flag took on added significance today, November 11th, Veterans Day.

Day Three Hundred and Fourteen: Momentary Delay

I love riding my bike.

I ride my bike to work. I ride my bike to the store. I ride my bike for convenience, adventure, and exercise. I ride my bike because it can take me a lot of places a car can't (to quote Doc Brown, "roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...).

But even as this bicyclist discovered during his afternoon trek in the country, there are still some things that can get in the way of a good bike ride - if only for a moment.

Day Three Hundred and Thirteen: Two-Faced

I've been told I have an expressive face.

Well, here's a look at what some harsh lighting post-picture editing can do to one of those facial expressions that Mom always said "would stick" if I kept making it...


Click on the picture above to see its negative...different look, same picture.

...A very "Halloweeny" (but not my most flattering) self-portrait.

Day Three Hundred and Twelve: Pimply Pumpkin

Meet Warty.


Warty was a runt in the litter of pumpkins outside the grocery store prior to Halloween this year. But Warty had something all those other pumpkins didn't:

Hideous growths?

No. Personality.

Sure, he may not be your typical smooth-faced, ready-for-carving, scoop-out-my-innards-and-grill-up-my-seeds type fruit (seriously, how bad are his seeds if his outside looks like that?).

But what other pumpkin is a ready-made poster boy for gourd-related acne?

And when a movie producer does a casting call for "pumpkins that survived nuclear fall-out," who will be first in line?

Warty, that's who.

So, go easy on Warty. He may not be standard fare for holiday-related fruit. But when it comes to pumpkins, I think he looks smashing.

Day Three Hundred and Eleven: Good Timing

One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning is to wake up just before sunrise and ride the mountain bike trail along the Kansas River.

This morning I threw my camera in a backpack and brought it along with the intention of capturing a specific picture about three-fourths of the way around the 9-mile loop.

After realizing I had forgotten something, I needed to double back to the start of the trail - and I'm glad I did, because this was the view that was waiting for me there:


Sometimes finding a picture you love is just about being in the right place at the right time. In this case I'm glad I doubled back, because the other picture did not work out at all.

I love sunrises and sunsets, but when you photograph too many of them they can all start to look like a dime a dozen.

For this picture alone, however, I would gladly pay at least a quarter.

Day Three Hundred and Ten: Ever Vigilant

This coming Wednesday is Veterans Day.

The national holiday, which honors military veterans, was first declared as Armistice Day by Woodrow Wilson on November 11, 1918 following the formal ceasefire of World War I in the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month (thank you, US History class).

So, how did it come to be known as Veterans Day? That story actually has its roots in Emporia, Kansas. Click here for a brief explanation.

In Lawrence, the University of Kansas honors its war veterans every year with a 24-hour vigil held the weekend preceding the official holiday. The vigil is maintained by two ROTC students at each of the campus's three war memorials.

Tonight Emily and I caught up with two naval ROTC members keeping watch over the Vietnam War memorial.


While I originally had the idea to photograph the vigil, the suggestion to shoot a close-up picture of the officer next to the quote on the wall (the top picture) was all Emily's.

I'm glad she suggested it, because it is one of my most favorite pictures of this project. It helps to have another set of eyes for a fresh perspective!

Day Three Hundred and Nine: Bailed Out

I like this picture of a row of hay bales all lined up on the top of a hill beside a quiet country road, just a few miles east of Lawrence.

Day Three Hundred and Eight: And He Called It....Macaroni?

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I think I'll cook up some macaroni and cheese on the stove top?"

And after you boil the water and pour in the noodles and turn down the heat just a bit on the stove, have you ever laid down on the couch while waiting for the noodles to cook?

And then have you ever fallen asleep on that couch for about two or three hours, because it was really too late to be cooking macaroni in the first place, and you should have just gone to bed instead?

Well, in case you haven't done all of those things, here is what happens to that macaroni in the neglected pot on the glowing burner after all the water has evaporated and an odd smell wakes you from your unintended slumber:

No matter how badly I have messed up new recipes in the past, I have always been able to say, "at least I can still cook up a mean pot of mac and cheese!" Now, even that has proven to be over my head.

Alas, I guess it's back to PB & J for me.

Day Three Hundred and Seven: Baring it All

Many leaves have fallen.

Many trees are bare.

The sun is about to set on another brilliant autumn in Kansas.


At least the fading light of day still promises to add color to a leafless countryside throughout the approaching winter months.

Day Three Hundred and Six: Tip-Off

The KU basketball season tips off Tuesday night.

Here's a picture to help get you in the Rock Chalk mood.

Expectations are high this year, with the Jayhawks ranked a solid #1 to start the season.

Who knows, maybe another sanpshot from the field house will find its way onto this blog before the year (and the pic-a-day project) is up!

Day Three Hundred and Five: On the Job

Wedding bells will be ringing soon, and two of your favorite bloggers are on the job!

Emily and I were hired to take engagement (and upcoming wedding) pictures for friends Erica and Justin.

So, this morning we headed out to Pendleton's Country Market to have a little fun on the farm.

The happy couple wanted to let their playful side show, so we worked in (among other things) some tricycles, an oversized butterfly, and some pumpkin slingshots.

While the harvested corn field shot was something Emily and I had planned ahead fo time, the impromptu over-the-shoulder lift was all Justin's idea.

:)