9 May 2009

I didn’t really want a posed photo of these two — I am happy with the fun, natural, candid nature of this one. Kyle’s dad was in town for Mother’s Day weekend . . . his mom lives in Carrollton. Mum and Kellye Beth had other plans for their weekend, but dad wanted to come up and be with family. After all, his mother is well into her nineties, and we all know how precious each day is. The benefit for us, was that Dad enjoys a day at faire almost as much as we do, and he wanted to come visit with us on Saturday, before heading to north Dallas for dinner. He and Kyle even got to go to the wine tasting (fabulous new event at Scarborough this year!) together. I believe this photo was taken after that!

These two have a lot in common . . . besides genetics. They are both charming, witty, intelligent, fun-loving, beer-drinking, wine-loving, curmudgeonly Caruthers men. And I love them, both, more than words can say.

~MB

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12 May 2009
I’ve been a fan of macro photography for most of my life. So, I was delighted when I found that the current mini-challenge is a macro challenge. Therefore, of course I find myself stymied by inspiration.

I’m pretty sure I took a similar photo back in 2006 or ’07, but I’m too lazy to go seek it out right now. So, I present (again) my collection of writing and highlighting utensils I keep at my disposal on my desk.
Cheers.

~KR

Listening to:
Barbeque by Buzz Cason
from Hats Off to Hank

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

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11 May 2009
With the Mini-Challenge being "Up Close & Personal" I tried in relative vain to capture a close-up of our extremely photogenic cat. As a result, I have a whole slew of photos that are slightly blurry because getting that cat to sit still when she doesn’t want to is nigh unto impossible.

Cheers.

~KR (Written on 15 May 2009)

Listening to:
Walking Contradiction by Green Day
from Insomniac

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

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10 May 2009
Sunday. Just as hot, just as muggy…and just as successful financially for East Wind Games. I’ve always disliked hot & humid days, but it seems my business doesn’t suffer from them in quite the same way I do. Quite the contrary in fact. I suppose I should be thankful. I guess I should also be thankful that, because it was so slow a day at faire, that I was visited several times throughout the day by workers and performers that had nothing better to do. So, they came by to visit, play games and, in a couple of cases, perform in my shop. I got up close & personal with Garry, one of the visitors, and took this close-up, macro-style photo of him strumming his guitar.

He was playing a pirate shanty at the time and I was loving every minute of it.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 12 May 2009)

Listening to:
Litany (Life Goes On) by Guadalcanal Diary
from Nuggets of American College Rock: 1987

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

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9 May 2009
Saturday. A faire day. Six more faire days to go after this one.
This is a shot of Marcus, the manager of East Wind Games and an all-round good man, and Mia who currently works for my wife over at Pendragon Costumes and whom I do not know nearly well enough.

You can damn near see the humidity in the air reflecting off the white. The shot was taken early enough in the day that no looked quite wilted just yet.
And, despite the humidity and heat factors, East Wind Games achieved it’s best sales day thus far this year and the 4th highest sales day in the history of the company. Thanks to the excellent management and staff I have.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 12 May 2009)

Listening to:
<em>Watching Airplanes</em> by Gary Allan
from <u>Billboard Top 20 Country Singles of 2007</u>

Camera:      Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure:     0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture:     f/2.8
Focal Length:     5.8 mm
ISO Speed:     80
Exposure Bias:     0 EV
Flash:     Off

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8 May 2009
Another Friday night and another trip to festival. This time around though, we had astonishingly beautiful weather patterns to keep us entranced for the trip. We had to make one stop for gas and food on the way down. We chose the rather new convenience store in Midlothian. For a convenience store it is quite remarkable, housing inside a Sonic, a BBQ restaurant and a great many odds and ends befitting a truly Texan establishment. It was here that I took this photo of the setting sun.

Cheers

~KR (Written on 11 May 2009)

Camera:      Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure:     0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:     f/4.0
Focal Length:     14.3 mm
ISO Speed:     250
Exposure Bias:     0 EV
Flash:     Auto, Did not fire

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8 May 2009

After a crazy day—have I mentioned I’m not a fan of Fridays during faire season?—of sewing and necessary errands and shipping/receiving snafus, Kyle and I managed to get on the road toward faire quite a bit earlier than normal.  And that’s great by me!  I just cannot always make it happen.

Today, we made a grocery store stop and then realized we also needed petrol.  So, we decided to combine our fast food-dinner stop with our gasoline stop, and so chose the new Travel Stop on Hwy 287 in Midlothian—-Texas Best BBQ!  Well, we didn’t order Texas’ Best Barbecue; we had the adjacent Sonic instead.  But, that was certainly tasty!

The most remarkable thing about the trip down there tonight, was the breathtaking sunset.  Not only were the colours as vibrant as I’ve ever seen them, but the sky was alive.  It was quickly-changing, and offered a different view out each car window.   A harsh front was visible to the southeast.  Maxfield Parrish skies due south.  A tiny rainbow was even clearly visible for a short while.  And by the time we got to Midlothian, the sky behind us was dramatically streaked with wedges of pink and orange alternating with grey.  Magnificent!

This lovely example of what was once a classic Texas sight is a part of the ambiance of this little business conglomerate of western wear shoppe, gas station, gift shoppe, barbecue joint and fast food restaurant.  And tonight, it was twirling hard and fast.  I was amused to look closely at my photo and realize that it says “Chicago.” 

~MB

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7 May 2009

My darling husband surprised me tonight with an adventure. He was home a bit earlier than usual and he asked me if I had any plans for dinner. I did not, I told him, and his response was, “Good, then get ready. Let’s go!” I quickly changed clothes and brushed my hair and we were out the door in just a few minutes’ time. I had no idea what he had up his sleeve.

Turns out he had heard of this place in the Highlands retail zone, called BlackFinn’s American Saloon. From the outside, we were afraid it might be a bit on the “high and mighty” side for our tastes, but once inside and perusing their menu, we were encouraged. The place is lovely—huge—and has a pretty decent selection of beers on draft, including (for now) Guinness 250. We both ordered their house variety, though—something called BlackFinn Ale, which I very much enjoyed. (Brewed by one of our northern favourites–Leinenkugel’s!) I snapped this photo while we waited for our food. We were impressed by how very many television screens there were inside this place! Without turning our head there were three in our range of vision. Turning the head a small bit gave three more, and on two walls not far away were mosaics of many more ranging from big to gi-normous. We were glad to be seated in a booth off to one side of the very large, loud, open, main dining room, furnished with only chairs and tables. We ordered a sampler platter of their appetizers and had more food than we needed for the two of us. All in all a delightful dinner experience.

Then, it was back to work.

~MB

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6 May 2009

On my way home from Scarborough’s second Kid’s Day this week, I was intrigued to end up behind this little caravan on the highway. I was confused at first, but as I got close enough I realized what I was seeing was a really beautiful bronze sculpture of a jockey on a race horse. The truck and trailer with the sculpture was closely following a big multi-horse trailer . . . I imagine the story that says the statue commemorates some big win of one of the horses on board the trailer . . . hmmm . . . why is it that horseracing is so romantic?

Kid’s Day #2 was not as quiet as the first one—more kids and slightly better weather. But, still no sales at Pendragon and very few at East Wind Games. I did have a great time visiting with friends, though. Garry sang and played his guitar on and off, and Chuck and Bill sat with us a long time, and we discussed history and learned from one another. Others stopped in, too, from time to time, and the time passed relatively quickly. I could go on and on about the fiasco that is Kid’s Days in its current incarnation, and how I feel it could be so much better . . . but, really . . . I don’t have the energy.

Oh, and oddly enough, the birds’ nest today, seems to be empty! I can hardly believe that my timing was so good yesterday as for it to be the last possible day to capture those young fledglings before they took flight. But, no chirping today—no coming and going at all. Spring is pretty much over, I guess.

~MB

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5 May 2009

Our avian squatters at the Pendragon Costumes booths are making quite the racket, now. At least three hungry baby birds occupy the nest we watched the adult birds build. I snapped a number of photos at the end of Kid’s Day #1, but this is the best one I seem to have gotten of the babies themselves.

~MB

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