On the loose.

Today my buddy Paul and I made a plan. Today we were going to escape from our little, dark, smelly glass fish bowl offices. (anyone who has seen our offices knows this is no exaggeration...they really are glass, and quite fish bowl like) So, with a worried eye turned to the front offices, we snuck out the back door, slipped through ghetto gate number one, crossed the scary ally to ghetto gate number 2, ran to my truck, did a little commando crawl the last 5 feet, jumped in, fired that puppy up and escaped through mechanical ghetto gate number 3.

"Which way?" I asked franticly of Paul.

"NORTH, TO BROAD RIPPLE!" he shouted over the roar of the engine, sound of sirens, and gunfire from the guard tower.

One bullet nearly knicked me in the temple, smashing through my windscreen.

"Just one more block and we'll be in the clear!" Paul screamed.

Ok, so this was a little dramatic, but we DID escape from the office today and went to Broad Ripple for lunch. We ordered vegetarian burritos (I'm not veggie, but sometimes don't like a lot of meat for lunch), and sat outside in the nice warm air to eat them.

It was a nice lunch - a bit longer than "allowed" but nice.

Missing Brain Cells

This weekend was FUN. How do I know it was fun, you may ask. Well, because I don't remember some of it!

No, that's not true. I remember it all. Saturday evening Lauren and I went down to my parents house for what was supposed to be a nice little cookout at their cabin. I was looking forward to just relaxing around, maybe even shooting some photos, just chillin.

Well, we pulled in and all of my stuff (jeep, dirt bike, kayak, fishing pole, mini bike) was all sitting out in the driveway with "FOR SALE, MAKE OFFER" written on it. I thought my dad was just playing a prank on me. So I jumped out of the car and got no more than "What's the meaning of this...." out of my mouth and "SURPRIZE!!!!" all of my good friends and family were there to throw me a surprize bachelor party! I really was surprized!

From that moment until midnight it was just hanging out with the fellas, drinking, having a good 'ol time! It was exactly what a bachelor party should be - FUN!

On Sunday I had arranged weeks earlier to get up at 8:00 and drive to Terre Haute to pick up a TV from Lauren's brother. Well, let's just say it was a long morning! I managed it...but from about 8:00 AM to about 1:30, I was feeling a little low. No headache - I drank way too much water all night for that to happen, but queasy, yes.

All in all it was worth it, to have all of the guys there to celebrate.

Lake Lemon

The other night I sat down with my little traveling water color kit and painted the view of Lake Lemon from what I could remember....

The photos should be processed soon, so I can post some up.

Manifesto

It's been a while since my last posting here. I've been busy living. Last weekend it rained on Saturday, so Lauren and I hung out. We got up and went to 'Flapjacks' for breakfast. It's always good there. I got the vegetable omelet (without onions, I hate onions). Then we went grocery shopping and ran errands around town until later that evening when we met up with some friends for a few drinks and to watch a co-worker of Lauren's band play. They were good, but after a couple of hours they started playing the same songs again...so we decided to leave. The night was fun, though. We had made the plans to meet up with Lauren's co-worker friend earlier in the week, and then we decided that since we never hang out with any of our old downtown friends, that we would invite them too. They all showed up! It was great to see them all, and to hang out again like we all used to.

Sunday morning I got up at 4:30 AM to get down to Martinsville where I met up with my dad for a fishing trip on Lake Lemon. It was really nice. I caught a bunch of fish...some little and one pretty good sized bass. It was fun. I usually don't catch a thing...but I was lucky on that day!

Work this week for me has been kind of slow. It's nice to get a little break. I have a big website that's getting ready to heat up again soon, so I'll soon be swamped again - writing strung out journal entries here about how life sucks! Hopefully I can convince myself that it's just a job...to let it go. We'll see.

Lauren got a new job, so she is super excited about it. She'll be getting out of the not-for-profit sector after 2 years of struggling. When they say "not-for-profit" they mean not for profit - for anyone. No one get's rich. Sure, it's for a good cause, but people have to survive.

I finally got around to setting up a little website and a blog for the big art project. You can check it out and follow along with us as we build this project. Who knows when it will be done...but at least it's starting to get some momentum. The website's not done yet...but it is a placeholder for now...

Good people.

This morning I decided to not listen to the radio, cd's or anything on my way in to work. I just turned off the stereo in the truck and rolled down the window. The sound of the wind and the tires was all I could hear. I just wanted to have a nice relaxing drive in, and just let my mind wonder wherever it wanted.

At SR 136 and Crawfordsville road I noticed a guy pulled off the edge of the road running around. There is an entrance to a supermaket on the right there, and he was scrambling around after something. He had who I am assuming to be his son with him, also scrambling around after something I couldn't see. As I got a little bit closer, and the light turned red for everyone to stop, I could see what they were doing.

A couple of little ducklings had been separated from their mother. They were in the street, and she was in the grass over the curb with her other ducklings, looking in distress. She was pacing back and forth, probably wondering what these two humans were going to do with her babies.

The man and his son quickly cornered the frightened ducklings and scooped them up and over the curb, one after the other. They were confused at first, just sort of running in all directions until the mother duck's call got their attention. Quickly, they ran over to her and joined the other little ducks.

The light turned green, and we all started driving again. I was able to catch one last glance at them before they were out of site. The mother duck guiding her little ducklings into a patch of cover, reunited and happy.

I looked at the people around me in their cars while this was all going on. The man behind me was on his cell phone...oblivious to what was happening 20 feet from his car. The other people just seemed to be in some kind of daze, staring ahead at the traffic light, trying to perform some strange voodoo on it to make it turn green I would guess. But I was sitting there, undistracted by a radio or CD's, watching a good man and his son reunite a duck with a couple of her little babies.

I wonder what I'll see tomorrow....

We survived - again!

Well, the results are in, and we survived the Indianapolis Mini Marathon again this year.

Lauren and I had 2 goals to accomplish this year, and we did.

1. Run the entire race, walking only for 1 minute intervals at water stops - to hydrate and recompose ourselves.
2. Beat last years embarrassing time of 2 hours 45 mins (IT WAS HOT last year!)

This year we ran it all - only walking where we pre-planned that we would. It was a strategy handed down to Lauren by a veteran marathon runner in her office. It worked. 1 minute is the perfect amount of time to run. You don't walk so much that running becomes impossible, and you don't run through the water stops - choking down water as you dodge people meandering around.

Our time this year (according to us) was 2 hours 29 mins. The official results say 2 hours 30 minutes and 3 seconds. I'll take either.

We averaged 11 min miles (10 min miles for the first 4 miles) right up to the last mile, then it took us 13 minutes to hobble down New York street to the finish. I was in a lot of pain from a newly formed knee problem, but bit through it and finished running.

I'm going to see how the pain is tomorrow before I decide if I will do it again next year..... :)

Cats and Sunsets

So, this last week I've had my cameras out shooting stuff. Some stuff for my photo class, some stuff just for fun. I've taken a few of my favorites and put them up here.


- "Chachi" (Hasselblad 500 EL/m - Kodak Portra 200 B&W 120 film)
This cat is a lush for the camera. Afraid of strangers, most people don't even know what Chachi looks like. But, if it's just me in the house, or me and Lauren, he will sit pretty for a photo all day long. Most people who've seen him just see him slinking across the floor to get under a bed or a couch. Some people don't even know we have two cats because Bailey loves people, while Chach runs and hides. But here he is, in all of his glory.


- "Big cat yawning" (Hasselblad 500 EL/m - Kodak Portra 200 B&W 120 film)
"ROOOOAARRRRRRR" :)


- "Bailey" (Hasselblad 500 EL/m - Kodak Portra 200 B&W 120 film)
Here's Bailey, the biggest lush (and craziest cat) I've ever seen. She's a bit bi-polar. One day she'll love you to death, never leave you alone, then the next she wants to kill you. Would you believe that this cat once held Lauren and I hostage in our office for and hour and a half? Another cat was outside tormenting her and she turned on us. Yeah, she's nice most of the time, but when she's mad...she's crazy...


- "Dirty Elmo" (Canon A1 - 25mm lens - Fuji Provia 100 slide film)
Elmo - my parents' cat - chillin' in the sunshine. He's my dad's fishing buddy. He used to rub all over your legs while you stood there, but after my dad "nudged" him into the lake a few times, he only rubs the back of your legs... He's dirty here from fishing or hunting moles or something big outdoor cats love doing.


- "Sunset 100" (Canon A1 - 50mm lens - Fuji Provia 100 slide film)


- "Sunset 101" (Canon A1 - 50mm lens - Fuji Provia 100 slide film)
These two sunsets were from the last couple of weeks out by my house. My back door faces the west, so when there's a good sunset, we've got front row seats!

Lawn Mower

Got a new lawn mower for the back yard. It's perfect.

This rabbit has been hanging out in our back yard for the last couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure it's eating my new grass seed, but I can't be sure.

It gives the cat's something to fantasize about catching, so I guess it's worth it...