Fort Bend County Fair - Family & Friends

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

We went to the Fort Bend County fair with our Studio 563 family.

Food, Drinks and plenty of fun was had by all.

The Blonde One and Loo are best friends and they had so much fun at the fair.

We started off walking through the Midway....Loo won a panda bear.



Goog had a pretty good time too!



WATCH OUT!! It's the Attack of the 50 Foot Toddler!



Next....it was time for the Dragon Roller Coaster!







Chip brought his camera too! (Check out his shots from the fair here)



Sisters love the Turtle Spin!





We stood in line a few minutes for the Merry-Go-Round....Once we got on we had to wait some more!



Once we got going....the smiles came out.





A little while later Craig stopped by the fair with his family....here he is with the Wee One.



Here's another shot of Chip before it got dark.



After dark, the Fun Slide was ROCKIN'



Over on the stage, the performers called a bunch of kids up on the stage to get dressed up and to sing some songs....of course Loo and the Blonde One had to perform!



We all had a great time.

Our Christmas Lights

I originally wanted to take pictures of our Christmas lights and post them on my blog.

Well, things happen and I didn't get them posted as soon as I wanted to.

What made it worse was that a recent storm blew our lights down!

So last weekend Chip and his family came over to our place. The wives went our shopping and he and I played Xbox and played with our kids AND put the lights back up!

Here are some shots from the day that Chip took with my camera.

The wind got them all tangled up too!

Wendy, Don't Look at these!

OK, don't look at this one either!

YES! DONE!!

Johnny Appleseed Day

September 26th was Johnny Appleseed Day at Loo's school.

I volunteered to be Johnny Appleseed for the class. I dressed up in jeans and a western style shirt. We rolled up the pants and we cut up some old pajama's to make patches for my clothes. We couldn't find a pot that would fit my head (they were either too small or too big), so we found a colander that sort of fit....as long as I wore a ski cap on my head!!

I also emptied out my ShootSac (my camera bag) and put a ziplock bag with apple seeds in it....man if I was gonna be Johnny Appleseed, I was gonna BE Johnny Appleseed!!


We didn't tell Loo, so it was a complete surprise when the kids came into the classroom to find Johnny Appleseed there.

Loo didn't recognize me at first....who knew that a colander on your head would be a good disguise? (I'll tell you who....Clark Kent that's who!!) All the kids came in and were full of "OOO"s and "WOW"s.

A couple of kids had their doubts...."That's just someones Dad", I heard.

I was there to read a story and to answer questions from the kids and to help with the arts and crafts....I wish I would have known this ahead of time....I would have checked the CLIFFS NOTES!

All the kids sat down in front of me, so I could read the story of Johnny Appleseed. Once Loo sat down, I looked right in her eyes and whispered, "Hi Loo"....her eyes lit up and she turned around to one of her friends and whispered, "That's my Dad!" (Oh man....what a feeling that was....she was so proud of that guy with the colander on his head!)


Once I finish the story, it's time for the crafts....a few of the other kids mom's were there to help out with the projects (including the Wife). As I'm walking around from apple station to apple station, the kids are asking me questions....

Here are some of the best ones
(and my answers):


"What are all those patches for?"
(They're to cover the holes in my clothes.)

"What's that bag for?"
(It holds my apple seeds.)

"I know your real name, It's John Chapman."
(That's right, but I like Johnny Appleseed better, don't you?)

"Why do you have a pot on your head?"
(I put it on my head so I don't have to carry it in my hands.)

"How come your pot has all those holes in it?"
(It's old, I need a new pot, huh?)

"Are these real apple seeds?"
(Yes.)

"Are you really her dad?"
(I'm Johnny Appleseed.)

....and the best one saved for last....

"Our teacher told us you were dead"
(I took some medicine and I feel much better now.)


I had to think quick for that one.

Anyway....I had a really good time and I hope these pictures made you laugh.

Downtown Richmond - Addendum

One more shot from the "Man-cation"

While I was taking this shot....Craig walked up behind me and said, "You know that's just a telephone poll, don't you?"

Very funny dude....very funny!

Speed Limit

I've had this shot on my computer for a few months now and just never posted it.

The Wife and I were out walking with the girls and I saw this speed limit sign and the whispy clouds and blue sky and just knew that I could do some cool stuff with this shot in PhotoShop.

As I was taking the shot she says, "You know that's just a speed limit sign, right?"

I just laughed and said, "Yeah, I know. But I have plans for this picture!"


What do you think?

WHAT IS IT? - Contest Results

Thanks to everyone who entered in answers for the contest.

This was pretty fun, I'll have to do this more often!

So here's what you've all been waiting for....

That's right, rubber from a shoe.

Congratulations to Lynne B. who was the ONLY person to correctly identify it as a shoe. (Lynne email me your contact info, ok?)

Be sure to check out the comments from the last post to see everyone's answers.

CONTEST TIME!

I'd like to thank all of you for your patience with my lack of blog posts....well at least most of you (Chip, I'm talking to you, here buddy!)

To show my appreciation, I've decided to run a little contest.

What's this?


Please post ONLY ONE ANSWER in the comments. Everyone who answers correctly will be put into a drawing for a $20 Starbucks card!!

I will reveal the answer and the winner on Friday.

(The only person who is ineligible for this contest is my mother, because she was there when I took this picture and I told her what I was going to be doing with it....sorry Mom)

Stay Tuned....

I know I'm behind on blog posts....I apologize for that.

You can look forward to these posts:

1) Johnny Appleseed Day
2) Fort Bend County Fair
3) Neon Project
4) Insert a Random Post Here
5) 2007 Year in Review

Hopefully coming soon.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I have many things to be thankful for.

I am most thankful for my wife....I mean she did say, "yes" and that got the whole thing going. Not only is she my wife and best friend, but a terrific mother to our two beautiful daughters.

Of course I would have never even gotten to that point if it weren't for my parents. (Don't worry, I won't go into the birds and the bees part). My parents divorced very early on in my life....but that's ok, because it brings in the next two people that I'm thankful for.

My grandparents. I give most of the credit to them for molding me into the person that I am today. Thank you for that....plus now that I can share "the beautiful game" with my grandpa.

I am also thankful for family. My Aunt Flo and Uncle Mike have been such a great help to us here in Houston. They've really helped to make our transition here a smooth one.

And I can't forget friends. Especially our new friends from Studio 563. Craig, April, Chip & Jeanette. They are now a part of our family and I'm so proud and honored to be a part of the 563 family and also to call them friends.

Lastly I want to say thanks to my friend Kyle in NYC. Even though we're far away and "talk" via email....I value your friendship and I want to say thanks for keeping in touch.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.

Downtown Richmond: Part Three

Here's Part Three of the Downtown Richmond shoot.

If you'd like to know more about Richmond, Texas, check out this article from wikipedia.org

This barbershop was right next to the door handle and the not for rent sign from the last post.

Here's another shot of the ON/OFF switch from the last post....just in black & white.

I'm not sure about this shot of the water tower....what do you think?

Last up for this post is this ONE WAY sign near the train tracks.

Downtown Richmond: Part Two

More shots from Richmond

This door handle was actually the first picture I took in Richmond.


Right next to the door was a window with this sign.


This rope was for a flag pole nestled in between 2 buildings.


I like this arch and also the empty boxes in the doorway.


On/Off


More to come....

Downtown Richmond: Part One

The 563 guys and I went shooting in downtown Richmond a few weeks ago....Chip has already posted three different blog posts of pictures (One, Two, Three).

I've been calling this outing a "Man-cation". Chip's been saying "Free Shoot"....whatever we call it, it was a blast and I had a great time hanging out with both of you.

I don't know when Craig is gonna post his shots....Craig bought this super expensive high tech camera....called a....HOLGA or something....it was a bit too technical for Chip and I....so we shot digital! (HAHAHA....just kidding man! I have a Holga too, and love it!!)

I figured I'd take my time....do some research on Richmond and post pictures along with the info I gathered.

That's taking waaaaaay too long.

So here's a few shots to hold you over.

More MB Aquarium

A couple more....(these are straight out of the camera)


The aquarium has such a beautiful jellyfish exhibit....easily the best on the west coast, and the best jellyfish exhibit that I've seen.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I've been trying to organize some of my almost 40 gigs of pictures on my hard drive....(I'm running out of space)....while moving things around, I found these two shots from the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I took in November of 2005.


I ran them through Photoshop giving them a little Totally Rad Actions love and this is how they came out.