A bunch of hot air...

Went to the 14th Annual Big Country Balloon Fest this weekend. Great music, good food, hot air balloons = good times.

A few photos:Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys

Kiddos taking advantage of mom & dad's inattention. ;-)

Bowers Wedding

Had a fantastic time in Wichita Falls this weekend, my sister and I got to shoot the wedding of my cousin Blaine and his beautiful bride Tamara. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the evening.

Monday again?

How does it happen? You wait all week for the weekend, and then suddenly, miraculously, it's gloriously here. And then before you know it, you're back at your desk looking doggedly at another 5 days of workplace bliss. Ugh.

I need a new job. I love the people here, but I hate, HATE answering the phone for a paycheck. I've turned the ringer down, so it's less intrusive, but it still annoys the hell out of me every time it rings. During this post (already), it's rung twice. I try to be as chipper and cheerful as possible, but sometimes I just want to throw the phone through the glass windows that constantly taunt me with their images of trees, sunshine, and freedom.

Why do we (phone call #3) torture ourselves at jobs we don't like in order to maintain our (phone call #4) piss-poor lives? If you have a crappy job, you are likely complaining about it at home, and it probably doesn't pay you what you're worth (or even enough to cover your student loan payments), so your social life probably sucks too. It's an endless depressing cycle.

I know everyone can't have the job of their dreams. If they did, there would certainly not be enough (phone call #5) waste management employees, waiters, and (phone call #6) retail workers. But why can't I have the job of my dreams? (phone call #7)

I'm working on it, building a photography portfolio that I can hopefully put out there and have someone think I'm amazing and wonderful and want to hire me and teach me everything they know. It's out there. I just know it is.

Isn't it?

(phone call #8)

The Diller Family

I had the pleasure of photographing one of my coworker's and his family on Friday evening. They were quite the troopers, following me all around downtown Abilene in search of the perfect family portraits. Here are a few of my favorites!

The heebiejeebies

It was just another quiet lunch hour here at the workplace. Something, however, was causing the hair to raise on the back of my neck. I glanced over my shoulder, and there, resting on the ceiling entirely too close for comfort, was a GIANT roach. He was watching me. It was freaking me out. He was too far away for the RAID to reach, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. It doesn't make for a pleasant work environment when you keep having to look up over your shoulder and see if the vile creature has inched any closer to you.

Luckily, I have a rather agile CFO who is a bug killing machine. He found the nearest ladder and broom and swept the devil bug off the ceiling (I at this point was standing as far away as possible, RAID can in hand in case he landed in a 10 foot radius of me). The ginormous roach of death was hanging onto the broom for dear life, so I skittered out of the way as Bob neared the trash can. My eyes grew wide as I wondered if he would just leave the horrible insect to find his way out of the trash can and torment me again, but to my great satisfaction he turned the broom over, grabbed the nearest piece of paper and squeezed the final breath from the evil spawn.

CFO 1
Roach 0

Hooray!

Football. It’s back.

Freakin finally. The only thing that kept me from going crazy in anticipation of August 30^th was the Olympics. And I certainly enjoyed them, but I'm definitely glad that it's football season.

We're two weeks in now, and the true colors of the top 25 are starting to show. Ohio State had a bit of trouble with Ohio last weekend, and Mizzou tried to give away its season opener to Illinois, but managed to hang on. No huge upsets as of yet (unless you count East Carolina's spanking of Virginia and A&M dropping their home opener).

OU is looking really good, Sam Bradford is doing a phenomenal job, and he's only a sophomore (!!!), and new WR freshman Ryan Broyles is very promising: 7 receptions for 141 yards and 1 TD. Boomer Sooner baby.

Everybody's eyes are on this weekend's matchup of #1 USC (blech) and #5 Ohio State. My pick on this one is Ohio State. Not sure how they were so unlucky to draw each other in the pre-conference bloodbaths (must have been some crazy folks back in the 1940s), but whoever loses, will in all likelihood lose their shot at the National Title. Let's hope the Buckeyes can pull this off. O H - - - I O.

Also this weekend, Arkansas at #8 Texas. I'm going to go with UT on this one. It's hard to beat them at home, and they've got an entire season riding on this. They also have Lamarr Houston back in the game after only serving a one-game suspension instead of 3 for his drunk driving escapade a few weeks back. *thanks cousin JY

I've got a Saturday full of football to look forward to.

Sigh. Ain't life grand?

Sigh. . .

I love Adam Levine. He needs to eat a few sandwiches, and maybe a Snickers, but I love him.

His songs are true, emotional, intense, and amazing. They put on one hell of a show too. I trekked down to Dallas on Saturday to see Maroon 5 and the Counting Crows (and Augustana—too many of those boys need to wash their hair and stop wearing girls jeans, but they weren't bad). Audra and I had seats on Row T (20 rows from the stage), in the middle section on the end. Not quite as good as the seats my sister and I had last year at the Ft Worth Convention Center (they had two walk-out runways and when Adam was on the end singing, he was a mere 20 feet from us—sigh) but still incredible. M5 had a full hour set, playing all of their biggest hits, AND my favorite song from their first album (Songs About Jane, which is still in my CD player in my car after 6 years), The Sun (never made the radio airwaves, so it was AWESOME that they played it!).

After a set switch, the Counting Crows were up. The first half was a bit slow, and had it not been for the hippie girl channeling the 70's in the next section over, it would have been rather boring. The second half definitely picked up, and we rocked out at the end.

It was an awesome show. I'm surprised I didn't dream about it last night. Maybe tonight. Let's hope.

Back on the block

Though they are hardly 'New Kids' anymore. Regardless, I was a big fan when I was a kid, and am still a big fan. No matter what the critics say. Hehe. Am I gonna go see them on tour?

Quite possibly. IF I can find tickets.

I didn't realize their album dropped yesterday (and yes, I am listening to it at this very moment). I'm only 2 songs in, and I gotta say, there's some definite radio-friendly tunes on here.

Want to know how I found out? ESPN.com. No lie.

"Time to sit back and let the musical stylings of NKOTB guide us through the Week 1 Bottom 10 for 2008."

Hehe. A little jab from the sports world, but it's press for their new album, The Block.