The icing on my cake.

How about a reenactment for you today? A few have asked what got me so down in the dumps yesterday, and while this is only the crowning moment of a spectacularly bad day, it was the only thing I could illustrate very well here.

As any good reenactment should, names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. However, the situation has not been changed to protect the idiot victim. (psst...that's me)

Let's begin.

This is our victim's car in a parking lot.



Imagine, if you will, that this parking lot belongs to a large bulk super-store type place. See? There is the entrance right there.



Also, lets imagine that this parking lot is much larger with quite a few more cars in it.



And yes, they DO all look the same.

Shove it.

So there our scene is set.

Picture in your head a beautiful sunny afternoon. Our victim had a couple of errands to run and the first one was to check tire prices at this local store. Our victim got into the store before realizing she had forgotten to write down the tire size. And so the victim headed back to her car.



As our victim traipsed back across the parking lot she had no idea what was in store for her.



Our victim hopped in the driver's side seat and popped open the glove box.



After writing down the tire size, our victim neatly put everything back in the glove box and closed it.



Our victim hit the lock button and stepped back out of the car.



As she swung the door shut, the world seemed to slow to a molassian* pace . Something wasn't right.



The door clicked shut and our victim's vision was immediately sucked to the front seat of the vehicle.



What was that in the front seat?

Oh look! You can see me in the reflection! Hey can anyone tell what kind of camera I use?



Oh right. ehem. Sorry, back to our story.



There, lying neatly on the front seat of her newly locked vehicle, were our victim's keys.

Let me repeat that.



Her KEYS.

Please pay no attention to:



Our victim's car get's vacuumed on a regular basis. If by regular you mean biannually.

But that's not the point now is it!?

Let me repeat.



However, this story ends better than it could have. At this point it was very possible for our victim to break down into tears. Or into a raging bout of curses only fit for the saltiest sea dog's ears.

It would have been completely logical for our victim to run screaming around the parking lot like a crazy person.

Or to try and break in the car herself.

Luckily, a hero of a locksmith came to our victim's rescue. And now she owes him a HUGE favor.

*whether or not the word molassian is truly a word or not is beside the point. So you just hush. You knew what I meant.

This post deserves no title.

In the midst of Pirate Fest...how about some randomness for you. It's been a while since I've been random.

Stop it. Yes it has been.

HEY! I. Said. Shut it.

Anyway.

Spent a few days in KC a couple weeks ago. Remember how I said I was taking my camera everywhere I went now? Uh yeah. Well, I guess that just means to work and the wineries.



Stopped by Les Bourgeois on the way home. It was a beautiful evening.

I just couldn't seem to drag the camera out all weekend.



But the vineyards were so pretty in the setting sun.



Not that I was really able to capture it very well here. Photography class anyone?

Oop. There I go with the photoshop again.



So, next bit of randomness.

Take a look at what I did the other day. Can you tell what it is?



No, it's not a medieval torture device.

Here's a little bit more of a clue.



I taught myself how to knit with double pointed needles the other day. I had some time to kill at lunch.



Seems I have a lot of time to kill on this job. Or at least more time to kill on any other job I've had. My boss likes to give me 'jobs' to do that only seem to require me to sit and watch the real workers do their thing.



So this is how I pass the time. It's very constructive of me.

And, for the last bit of randomness, because I can't leave you with all that structured nonsense up there, here are a couple of photos that have no relevance to each other whatsoever. Wow. 'Whatsoever' actually doesn't trigger the spell check. Who knew?



Most of these have been shown on this site before...in one form or another.



They've all just been slightly more modified this time around.



Ok. Some more than just 'slightly'.



Leave me alone. I'm going to go nurse my Photoshop addiction now.

I just can't help myself!

From the Missouri Botanical Garden's website:

"Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark."

Here is a photo from that time period.



No really!

I swear it...ok, ok. Maybe it's not.

I admit, it's from a couple of weeks ago. We visited for the last show of the Whitaker Music Festival.

Here is the original photo.



But I think I like this version better.



Sometimes it's hard to know when I get out of control with Photoshop. How much is too much?

Anyway. The light didn't really last long enough to get many shots. The setting sun made for some great reflections though.



There I go with those burned edges again...



I also tried to get a few shots of the moon...but didn't have the correct lens with me that night. Ah well.

These next couple of shots? Oh my. Kristen's is fine, but Rico? I'm sorry. But I had to. I LOVE the shot of you.





Thanks for being such a great sport and letting me blind you with my flash in the name of 'art'. Or at least in the name 'fun'.

Where the Wild West Is Still Alive

When thinking of vacation places so many folks tend to imagine tropical beaches, quaint European villages, and a myriad of other exotic locations. But how many of us have really seen all the U.S. has to offer?

I've been to a good many states but truthfully? Most of the time I was just drivin' on through. I've only been to a few states/cities where I took the time to check out the sites.

Recently we spent some time in Fort Worth. Texas is such an...interesting...place. Heh. I mean, it WAS a country of it's own at one time. And I think more than a handful of Texans still have a bit of that mindset. But...I digress. On with the pictures. These are a representation of one of our days in Fort Worth.

Preston's stint as a cowboy was short lived.
(I couldn't get him to stay behind the cutout for more than two pictures)



The cutout was located in a part of the Fort Worth Stockyards. Pretty facinating place. If you look closely at the left side of the above picture, you'll see the train tracks that run down the middle of the building. It's where they used to sell off the sheep and hogs.

I thought to myself, "Wow! It would be so cool if they still had a train come through here!".







This was a pretty cool train. You could ride from Grapevine, TX down to the Stockyards in Fort Worth and back again. Looked like uber fun!






After watching the train pull through a building full of people (there were no guardrails or ropes to hold someone back) we stepped outside to see what other dangers we might encounter in the scary land of Texas.



What the!?

That's right folks. They're longhorns. Being herded down a street packed with parked cars and people.







What do you think would happen if they decided to stampede? Yikes.

Moving on...we then decided to see a Wild West show that was billed as a reenactment of the old Pawnee Bill show. Umm...not quite. But it was still very entertaining!


Here is "Pawnee Bill" riding on two horses around the ring.



Have I mentioned that I love motion blur? Yeah yeah...I know I said I love lens flares...but I love motion blur almost as much.


This guy was shooting at that balloon behind him. Using a mirror.




Pawnee Bill is back with some fancy whip work.



He missed the first time but came back around and got it the second.




And if the guys weren't daredevil enough for you...check out THIS lady!




So we enjoyed the show and made our way out of the arena back into the hot sun. Feeling tired and thirsty we headed into downtown Fort Worth to visit the Flying Saucer. (I didn't think to take pictures of this)

We passed by the Bass Performance Hall on the way.



Yep. All of my angel shots were grossly underexposed. Which is why the lighting in that picture above looks so weird. My Photoshop skills only go so far.

Speaking of Photoshop. I leave you with a portrait. This woman fascinated me and and I wish I had her job.