Slingerdoo

Tonight several friends got together for dinner at a local restaurant - Surin in Va-Hi. On this night 20% of the proceeds were donated to Project Open Hand by this restaurant and many others. I missed last years, but am glad to have made it out tonight.

After dinner we headed over to Manuel's Tavern for a few drinks and to basically chill out. I haven't seen these friends in several months, so it was good to catch up with them. One friend is heading to the Bahamas this weekend and another is beginning a busy summer of travel all over the country.

This year I have met some really awesome people and made so many new friends. In the past few months I have become very active with a photosharing website known as flickr. So much so that I have organized events known as "photo strolls". I guess I must be doing something right in the coordinating because the size of the group has grown every time from three at the first stroll to nine this past Sunday.

The photo strolls are geared toward meeting new people, seeing new places and taking pictures of the world around us. I've met so many new and wonderful people. It even turns out one such person is a neighbor. The people pictured here are (from left to right) bobafred, anselpixel, lazaro, me, studio antwan, gudguds, OWK, Justin and Head Trauma.

For this particular stroll we met in downtown Decatur. Shortly after meeting and going through a few introductions we split into two groups. One went west and the other south and east. The most interesting thing is how everyone caught different perspectives. What one person walked by, another would catch and snap pictures. Everyone had different cameras from my "point and shoot" PowerShot to near professional quality gear.

Discussions ranged from techniques and equipment to what each of us does for fun. I encourage anyone in the Atlanta area to come out and join us, or start a stroll in your neighborhood. They are lots of fun!

My weekend trip turned into a week! I was visiting aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, and friends in Chicago. What a great time! I got to spend quality time with relatives that used to pinch my cheeks and tell me how cute I was at the time. Long story short, my cheeks got pinched and they told me how cute I was when I was little. Guess I got ugly! Oh well.

I ate my way through Chicago. From the time I got off the plane until I boarded the return flight it seemed I did nothing but eat! (There was drinking, but I behaved) Now I'm back and I'm going to bed. No more eating for a week!

Things have been hectic lately. Taking care of health matters and family matter has really taken a toll on me. Just a few hours ago I realized that I have a flight to catch later today! How time flies.

I'm off to Chicago to visit with family and friends for the weekend. Since there has been so much going on, all I want to do is chill out and be with family. So, that is what we have planned. Burgers and beer. Joking and laughing. But first and foremost, connecting with family that I haven't really gotten to know.

Off I go, a last minute trip that was planned over a month ago. Hopefully I will have some good pictures when I return.

My family is very close. 2005 has turned out to be our worst year. We've had two deaths in our family in less than two months. I won't be posting for here for awhile, but photography is kind of a therapy for me so I might be posting some things to Flickr.

Sorry I don't have my weird sense of humor right now. It's all meant in fun and light-heartedness, so please read below to see some of it.

Slingerdoo

In my neighborhood today a young lady set up what I thought was a lemonade stand. With a pocket full of change I headed down to get a belly full of lemonade. Much to my surprise she wasn't selling lemonade. Instead she was selling VERY RARE "Oragami" Jumping Frogs.

Well, I was skeptical at first, but she kindly demonstrated the amazing distance that these very rare frogs could jump. Not only that, but she also made certain I understood how difficult the frogs were to make!

I was tempted to buy the whole lot of frogs she had, but realistically I couldn't care for that many frogs. (I already have a dog and he might mistake them as snacks.) With no hesitation I handed over my 25 cents and picked the prettiest orange frog. Carefully I placed it in my pocket and went on my way.

Together Frog (that's what I named it, and I call it "it" because I can't tell a frog's sex) and I went on a tour of downtown Decatur. We stopped by the fire station to see if Frog could get a ride on a fire truck or ambulance, but our favorite EMTs were not working so we couldn't get a ride. Frog got really sad, so to cheer it up I took it to Jake's Ice Cream and Muncheteria. Still sad, Frog didn't have much of an appetite, so I ended up eating the whole bowl of Key Lime Piescream.

Still trying to cheer up Frog from my empty promise of the fire truck ride, I took it to the square for a bit of people watching. That seemed to cheer it up a bit. We checked out the Brick Store, but Frog didn't have an ID, so we got kicked out. Frog just laughed it off, but I could tell it was a little bothered by not fitting in.

Well, what better way to cheer someone up than to go SHOPPING!! We went on our merry way to Decatur CD and spent nearly $50 on cd's and a magazine. Frog was happy, but I was a little put out by it's spending habits! (This could be an expensive pet.)

A little disgruntled over my new pets spending habits and the weather looking like rain at any minute, I got a little pissy and insisted we head for home. I wanted to go straight home, but Frog wanted to make a detour by a creek to see if it saw anybody it recognized. It didn't so we came home.

Now it's dinner time and I realized I didn't get "care and feeding" directions from the young lady. Oh dear! What next?

Oh. My. God. Today, for some reason I could not get into Flickr. I repeatedly clicked my home icon on the browser (yes my homepage is Flickr), then I tried going to my favorites where the first thing listed if Flickr, then I tried opening another browser window to Flickr, then I got on my laptop and tried to access Flickr. When none of those worked I called a buddy of mine to see if he could get into Flickr. He was stuck in traffic, so he couldn't access Flickr. I insisted that he pull into the nearest coffee shop to see if he could log into Flickr. Dumb butt that he is, he said he had to get home. Apparently the urgency of not being able to get into Flickr was over his head.

Frantically I tried Flickr again on the desktop and laptop. Dare I say, I tried another site to make sure my internet connection was working. It was. So I tried Flickr again. Still no Flickr. Not knowing what to do, I called my friend back and insisted that he try to access Flickr, NO MATTER WHAT!!! He tried to calm me down by telling me to go take pictures, then when Flickr was back on line I would have something to upload. Like WHAT KIND OF ADVICE IS THAT?!?!?! I hung up on him! How dare he suggest such a childish thing. I would much rather be there the INSTANT Flickr came back online. Hmmph, what does he know?

Update, I just checked Flickr and they're not back yet. Hold on.....yep the laptop confirms it, Flickr's not up. Well, I've got to cut this short and go to my neighbors to see if they can get on Flickr. If they can't I've got several other options/neighbors to check on. Wish me luck!

I have absolutely nothing against the Girl Scouts, THAT'S the problem! I just want to eat Girl Scout cookies morning, noon and night! If they could come up with a Tagalongs IV, I'd be the first in line. There is a website that lists the varieties of cookies being sold. I've had to replace two monitors due to "bite-thru" problems. (Who knew that wasn't covered under warranty?)

A buddy and I were leaving a store one innocent day and were suddenly accosted by numerous four foot tall Girl Scouts. Out of pure fear I handed over all my money and received several boxes of goodness. See, I was so afraid someone else would get them before I did. With my arms full of the wonderous delights. I pleaded for my friend to hand over his money, too! I didn't want to see him hurt by having his cookies sold out from under him. To my delight he complied. Poor guy, I wouldn't be able to stand it if something like that ever happened to him. After that altercation, we went on our merry way to find licorice whips. (Don't ask!)

The cookies are so good, I've started my own test kitchen to see what kind of creations I can come up with. A few ideas include Chicken a'la Tagalong, Somoa Lamb Chops (get it? some mora?), Do-si-do Satay, and Lemon Cooler Pot Roast. So far, no luck, but if I can ever stop eating the cookies first I'm sure things will progress rapidly.

Today, actually several nights ago, there was a slight conspiracy against a very, very good friend of mine. It was something that had to be done. This guy went on a cruise and didn't even try to smuggle me on board! Oh the nerve, oh the humanity! How could I ever get him back? Well, it took just a quick e-mail and willingness of the other party to stoop to my level and presto - MAGIC! He saw the humor in it and even added a few notes of his own.

Not much going on over at my end. Hope your end isn't as clogged as mine. People have asked me recently, where to I come up with this stuff? Well, when you're sitting on the john, there is plenty of time to think! Perhaps that's what is meant by "bathroom humor" or, dare I say "potty mouth". I don't even want to begin to speculate on where the latter came from! Perhaps someone was walked in on while chewing on a commode, I dunno. (I've always locked the door so that doesn't happen.)

Sorry this is so short, but I'm really tired. After all I just woke up and that takes alot out of me. I'm going to sleep it off.