Windmills

Tonight I drove out towards Bone to photograph the windmills East of Idaho falls. I had to race to make the light, but I am very happy with the images I got. The light was beautiful! There were clouds that I had to work around as there were thunderstorms to the northwest. I even took up my 4x5 press camera. Just as I got it set up, the battery in my digital died on me (I don't have a light meter, and I use my digital for metering), well I was able coas the battery to work just enough to get one metering (shake it!). So I bracketed several (like 6) exposures. It will be a while before I can develop them, I hope that one turns out. On the down side, when I got back home I could not find my lens cap and UV filter for my Canon. I can't remember exactly what I did with it, but I worry that I set it on the roof of the car and then drove off. DANG! I hope it will turn up somewhere in the car in the daylight.

Kevin called today and asked if we would like to go with them to Jackson and Grand Teton Park for a day hike tomarow. So in the morning we are heading up that direction. Maybe I'll have a chance to make a few photos there...I will have all three kids and Jess with me...so that is a huge Maybe.

Weekend relaxation

I got off work a little early on Friday, and went up to Blacktail with my in-laws to cool off and take the boat for a shake-down run. We water ski-ed, tube-ed and swam-ed. The water was great (as long as my bony body was in a wet suit)! I find it hard to get pictures of me on the water like this one of Sam, first off I can't take a picture of myself and second, I can's ski anywhere near this good! I can't even get off 2 skis! But I do enjoy taking pictures of those that can ski well. Jess was able to get up on slalom (one ski) on her second attempt. She was doubtful, what with the receint baby. I was very happy for her as well as proud. We were very tired after coming back from that short trip.

Darren came down on Friday and we built about 12 or 13 picture frames for him. That was fun. It always amazes me how working with wood is therapeutic, it was also good to see him and catch up with him.

Tonight we made plaster casts of the kids' feet for our family night. We want to have a cast of TJ's foot (to see how it grows and changes), and thought we'd do Toph & Cree's feet too. It is a mess and a pain (TJ really didn't like it). We will see how they turn out tomarow. Bakc to the grind for the week.

Beard Styles?

Sorry if that last post was a bit weird…but I had to share my groovy experience with everyone. And I must say that I am NOT a druggie!

On to the next thought. So I shaved off the goatee Monday night, and thought I’d experiment with it and try out some other looks. What do you think and what “look" should I go for next?

My standard goatee

The Adolf

Soul Patch

Thin Goatee

Pedophile

N2O

Fading in and out of consciousness is but only the tip of the iceberg…an iceberg drifting from left to right…on the right I see a man with a blue mask looking down on me, he does not see me notice for his eyes are fixed elsewhere…I close my eyes and breathe deep…inhale…exhale…inhale…there is a grinding…my throat is filling with saliva, I don’t mind…the music…I can see the music! Purple. Red. Crimson. My eyes open. There is a light directly in front of me, still. I go back to the music, Jefferson Airplane…or is it Starship? Zeppelin…Hendrix…Dr. Hook…Wonderful…My body is within and without. Within when I open my eyes, I am somewhere. Instantly without when I close them and breathe, I am nowhere…Nowhere Man is the next song…I can see him. “Is the Nitrous working?” the man asks, I nod and grunt the affirmative. Nitrous Oxide, classic rock, jaw blocks, and mouth dams are wonderful things to have when you are getting a crown! Just lay back, let the dentist do his work and slip away for an hour. Next time you are asked if would you like nitrous oxide…oh baby take it! And a bag of Cheetos for the road.

Climbing At Ross Park

Saturday afternoon, we met up with Kevin & Tammie in Pocatello to do some climbing at Ross Park. It has been a long time sense I climbed at Ross Park...ok so I haven't climbed at all in a long time. I sure was feeling it today and Sunday. We had some ropes set up and let the kids climb a little, they got a kick out of it.


For those of you who are not familiar with ross park, it isn't too high only about 20' or so on the shady side. For the most part the routes are just 'high-ball' boulder problems. I was going up one line and feeling pretty good, then about 3 moves from the top, I lost my zen and didn't think I could finish so I downclimbed it. I later tied in and did the route, right at about the same spot I had a hard time working out the moves again, glad I was tied in.

Here's Kevin...he's much better than I.



It was great to get out and climb again. It felt good, painfull but good. I finally got my own guidebook for the City of Rocks and flipped through the pages and really want to get down there and climb...soon! Hope I can make the time in a few weeks. We'll have to see.

Yellowstone

I worked hard to get those windows done for the Harts this last week so that I could have my weekend to play. After work (around 3 each day) I would go to do the windows for the Harts, and get as much done as I could. So between working at Cherry Glass and for myself, I was working from 7am to 8pm...I was sore and tired all week. But my reward for working hard all week was a trip to Island Park and Yellowstone. It was a lot of fun (when the kids were sleeping), and we got a lot figured out for the reunion in 32 days! The B&B we are staying at looks great! I am very excited for that.

Here's my Buffalo picture. They were holding up the flow of traffic...stupid wildlife.

It rained most of the weekend, kind of off and on, but not too bad. Traffic was not too bad in the park on Saturday. A few stops for Buffalo in the road, and for people who stopped to get pictures of deer on the side of the road (woo hoo). The only thing that bugs me about Yellowstone is that if anyone sees ANY animal on the side of the road, they have to stop and take pictures "OH look! A ground squirell, use a roll of film!" Then if they see a car pulled over taking pictures of the stupid squirell, they have to pull over to take the same pictures. And they always pull over right before of after a pull out. Don't go to Yellowstone to get away from hoards of people and traffic!

This one is for Darren...I think it was a moose. It was 100 yards down wind from old faithful and only 10 feet from the pathway, wonder if he went up to wet his whistle?

We drove in as far as Old Faithful, and thought we would drive the whole loop, but the kids were crazy, TJ was getting sick of his car seat and I was beat. So we headed back. We needed to check one more place in Island Park for tube rentals anyway. I had to have Jess drive home, and by the time we got to Rexburg, TJ was very ready to eat and we all wanted out of the car. We stopped at the BYU-I campus to walk around a little and see what art is on display in the Spori...the Marilyns are up!

It was a very long day! Wonder if I should have just done the windows...no, it was worth it.

Bulletproof

Today at work I had my first experience installing bulletproof glass. It was kinda cool, the most heavy glass I have ever lifted (dense), but cool. OK, so it isn't glass, but rather it is 1 3/8" Polycarbonate (kind of like plastic). We installed it in the Madison County Courthouse.



We are in process of finishing but we got a big chunk of it done today. We even installed a completly clear door (that is freaking heavy!). Yep it is also the 1 3/8'' polycarbonate SOLID. I especially like the system for communicating through the glass, rather than having a little microphone and speaker (that a bullet could easily go through) there is a layering of the polycarbonate with a space in between. The clerks that work there said that it works better than the microphones. Here's a picture of the speaking area

I also finished the job that I was doing on the side. Dad helped me with the large picture windows and a few others. I couldn't have finished it without him, it sure feels good to have that out of the way. With it done, I can do something fun this weekend instead of working. So we will go up to Island Park...whoo-hoo!

Amazing family night

So it has taken me 2 days to finally get around to writing about this, but it is such an amazing experience that I had to get it out there. Anyway so on monday night, we wanted to take the kids to a park for family night, Toph likes Sportsman's park by the river because of the bridges. On our way there we told him we were going to the park with the bridges, but he said he wanted to go to the one by the river with toys...Freeman park. So we ended up there.

While the kids were playing on the toys, they made friends with this other little girl there about Tophs age (they make freinds easily). He brought her over to see TJ "Come see my new little brother!" As they ran off, Jess asked if I noticed the little girl's foot (she was running aroud bare-foot)...It is almost identical to TJ's! Here she was running jumping and playing just fine! I didn't even notice until I looked for it.

So we built up the courage to ask her parents about it and learn what their experience has been. The little girl has the same irregularity that TJ has, but (at this point) TJ has fewer bones. We have the same doctor at Shriners, and they can't speak enough good of him and Shriners.

It is amazing that with as unlikely as this deformity is that there is another family in Idaho Falls with the same thing, and that we would happen to meet up with them at a park on the other side of town.

On another note, I found another tree to photograph and holga-ize. I think I've got the one for the shirts. At this point I probibly could have shot it with the holga and made time to develop and scan the film. But hey, I didn't have much time to make the time, right?
What do you think? Better? Does it look like it came from the Holga?