Photo Blogging Challenge: April 2020 – Your (My) World

An April like no other April. This them was difficult as I had so many to choose from, if you don't want to choose, you can go check out my April. But here are the five-ish I pulled out.

Staying at home brought back new old activities. We haven't worked a jigsaw puzzle in years.

Nature keeps on like nothing is going on. Birds, squirrels, even snakes, have been particularly active.

Family Easter Dinner was unlike any we have experienced before. But it was great to see and hear from our family even if we are apart.


My baby sister, turned 50 this month. We had big plans for celebration but those were all cancelled. Instead, we had a socially distant tailgate party for her with cupcakes, Taco Bueno, and at least six feet of separation.
She can still do a cartwheel without breaking anything. Click through the video.


I rented a 24 yard rolloff dumpster and cleaned out our family garage/storage. 40+ years of old paint and garbage accumulated and is now gone. Room for new stuff!


I had to sneak in a sixth; I made it smaller. It wouldn't be spring without our family bluebonnet photo!


So there you go. April at home.Head over and check out the others at a lil hoohaa. And maybe join in next month.

Food Photo Challenge (April 2020): Dinner

Dinners in the time of COVID have been kind of different. My favorite local spots have been doing curbside and family dinners so I'm doing my part to help keep them going in these weird times. Bangkok Royal has been a favorite for nearly 30 years. Cashew Chicken (HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT, no really a HOT number of stars).  It's so good. Not the same as being there but I'll take it!

Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2020): Seven

Wow, this month has ended quite a bit different than we started! The theme for this month is Seven. Let's go on and get started.

Baylor University is celebrating 175 years, it was chartered before Texas was a state. This is Judge Baylor. He has a pink nose thanks to the Noze Brothers paying a visit.


After the social distancing guidelines came about, we have tried to find some out of the way parks to walk the dogs. This one has a disc golf course. It was advertised as 9 holes, but it appears they are up to 18, sharing baskets. How fortunate that hole 7 is shared with hole 1(+)6.


How's about seven cows standing in a field?


We have a Jeep CJ7 that needs some work. John loves it but it just got to be too unreliable once he moved off campus. It's waiting for summer for school to let out so John can get back to troubleshooting.


I finished up the month with a 8K trail run/hike that was turned into a virtual. I had the course directions so went out and hiked it alone Sunday morning. I made a wrong turn or two and that added to my mileage. And then I dropped signal on the GPSr just shy of seven miles, that drives me crazy! But it still has a seven in it.


That's five. Let's see what the April challenge brings. Thanks for visiting.

Food Photo Challenge (March 2020): Lunch

A Jamaican restaurant opened late last year. What a great time to be trying to make a restaurant go, eh? Many places are doing curb side take out and family meals trying to stay open as long as they can while we are social distancing. Tru Jamaica is good! We've been once to dine in when they were just opened. They were having oven problems so we didn't get a meat patty. I was happy to find them available and even happier that they taste just like the islands. The plate is rounded out with some jerk chicken, plantains, roasted veggies and peas and rice. So tasty! And it was a lovely day so we at outside.

Vernal Equinox 2020 - COVID-19 Edition

Picked up some BBQ for dinner and a sandwich for lunch. Supporting our locals, Curb side pick up. Stopped in the park for lunch.


HonkyTonk Kid Rye Melt. Chopped brisket and cheese for days on a marble rye!

Short walk to stretch my legs. Social distancing was observed.


A friend was waiting when I got home.



Old Sadie was dragging today so Amy and Rosie went on and we took the circle. Lots of sniffs.


Can you see the bee?


HonkyTonk Kid brisket and sausage along with some Dr Pepper baked beans. The beans may have been a tad too sweet!


Laid outside by the pond a bit. Taking some time to notice what's around me.

Ended the day with music. Willie Nelson's Luck Family Reunion was cancelled but it didn't stop the music. A night of Skype and Facetime sets from the performers.

Will and I saw Paul at last year's Old Settler's which has also been postponed due to the COVID19.

Food Photo Challenge (February 2020): Breakfast

I'm not a big breakfast eater. I like to sleep until the last possible second and scramble to rush out the door. I get my good breakfast eating in on the weekends but just not much during the week. I love breakfast foods. Breakfast for Dinner is the greatest.

I couldn't pass up when my friend, The HonkyTonk Kid, announced a special BBQ sandwich using waffles for the bread. He baked the waffles with those little sugar balls so they got all good and carmelized. You had your choice of meats, I did chopped beef. It also come with 2 strips bacon, Muenster and colby jack cheese, and a choice of sauces. I chose the Strawberry Chipotle.

I present the My Liege’s Sandwich!




It was so good. It came with a little side of fruit and yogurt to cool things down. Also, his place is the only place I ever drink Mountain Dew. I really stay away from sodas for the most part. I would totally eat this for breakfast!

Photo Blogging Challenge – Money (February 2020)

I got to tell you, I've been really busy at work and I just didn't think about this project until this weekend. I pulled up the prompt and took a look at what I had shot and nothing was particularly good for the theme. I was digging around in  a closet and found some boxes. One contained a bunch of stuff I had saved from a trip to Europe in the summer of 1987. Among that stuff, some film containers with coins from some of the countries we visited. So, like my kids cramming for a final, I laid the coins out and did what I could with the iPhone. I'm not proud of them; but I didn't get a zero either! :)

So here's a small collection of coins. I need to get those cool little clip on lenses! These are from Czechoslovakia, pre-Czech Republic. We weren't supposed to take any money out so 18 year old me was terrified when we were stopped at the border.

The 500 Lira coins were my favorite. I keep some in my golf bag, I like to use them as markers.

I had a bunch of coins from Austria for some reason.

A few from England.

And we'll wrap it up with some Swiss francs.

I'll start working on next month right now so I don't have to cram!

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2020): New

A new year, a new challenge, a new theme. It's all new. Let's go!


A new toy. I got a GoPro Fusion 360 degree camera to play with. You can do all sorts of things besides just VR. Like our Tiny Planet selfie at the top of Enchanted Rock.


My gym got these new bikes. Similar to Pelotons, they have trainers that lead you on bike rides through cool scenery to keep you mind off the exercise and that it is cold and rainy outside.


I bought a new reflector and gave it a shakedown on some senior portraits for Will.


Connor is our troops newest Eagle scout.


And I got a new library card. My kids had theirs but mine was long expired. No more!


So there's what's new. January was super busy; February is not slowing down. I can't wait to see what's next.

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2019): Jingle all the Way

Another year has come and gone, another decade, too! I love the holidays. I stretch it out from Halloween to the Superbowl, seems fair! But, I think the Christmas sparkle is my favorite.

Baylor University hosts Christmas on 5th, they mean 5th Street but it actually ended up on the 5th this year. They light the tree, sing carols, have artisans selling items, etc. all over campus. This truck was set up as a background for a photographer.


We continued to play tourists the night Magnolia opened up the Silos for "Locals Night" during their Christmas at the Silos event. For a small charitable donation, we were able to enjoy the music, the "ice skating" rink, and a 40% discount on all regularly priced items! :) It was fun, the Gainses have done quite well for themselves and downtown.


The Boy Scouts decided to host a family dinner, complete with Turkey and all the fixings. They prepared the meal themselves and planned all the activities.


We host family Christmas dinner at my house. It's a good middle ground for all the in-laws, out-laws, and steps of our extended family. My sister decided my nephew needed a squish; my dad decided they both did.


We wrapped up our year by heading to Fredricksburg, Texas. It's a small, German town in the Hill Country of Texas. The Marketplatz was the site of New Year's Celebration and was still all decked up for Christmas.


Maybe next year, I'll remember to do a few of small town courthouses. They really go all out with the lights in some places. This is Blanco County Courthouse behind us in Johnson City.



I made it small so it wouldn't count and I could stick with the rules! There's our December in a nutshell. We did so much more, you can always see what I'm up to at my flickr site for as long as they keep going. I've started my 11th year of a photo a day. They aren't always great but I've not missed a single day in the past ten years. Take a look at the other Jingle-er's over at a lil hoohaa, who hosts this monthly challenge.

Until next time...

Photo Blogging Challenge: Whatcha Eatin

Ahhh, food pics. Love em or hate em, you choose. I take quite a few of them as I like a little help remembering a particularly tasty one. So I had plenty of options this month.

When we are out at the cabin, we like to cook our steaks right on the fire. My dad will toss them right on the coals but I'm not quite that brave so I use a little piece of steel as a griddle. This was fajita night!


We had a few days of windy, cold, and wet weather. This Soon Tofu soup really hit the spot.


We have a new spot open in town, Union Hall. It's the new big thing we've seen around, basically a food court. koKo Ramen was once a food truck but now have a spot in Union Hall. Another good warm-me-up.



Next up is one of my all time favorites. My buddy, Youngdae, has a truck called Club Sandwich, but don't let the name fool you, he has no sandwiches. A few years ago, he was able to move onto the Magnolia Silos property, if you aren't familiar with Magnolia, Fixer Upper, or the Gainses, it's basically a license to print money. His specialty is the Trashcan Rice Bowl. It's your choice of proteins and sauce with veggies and rice and is about the only thing that gets me near the Silos. He will post on his social media accounts when its SFL, Safe For Locals, to visit.

I've got a ton of Turkey Day food photos but I'll settle on this one. The prize for finishing the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K was this delicious cinnamon roll. Worth it!

Bonus: I guess they tried their best!

  

So there you go. It's December already so I better start snapping some pics. Enjoy the rest of the folks posted up at a lil hoohaa and join us next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge – Liquid (October 2019)

Full disclosure, I forgot the theme this month so I kind of backed into it. Let's see how this goes. :)

I had the opportunity to backpack from the North Rim to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We were originally just going to camp South Rim and do some day hikes but things fell in place and thanks to some awesome people we were able to secure a Bright Angel backcounty pass on very short notice. The canyon floor feels somewhat otherworldly. This was at our camp site at Bright Angel after the sun had gone beyond the canyon walls.


Climbing out of the canyon actually proved to be slightly easier. We were in the shade most of the day and there are plenty of rest stops. Still, it was probably the most difficult backpacking trip to date. This is shortly after we crossed the Colorado River via the Silver Bridge you see below.


After the trip to the Grand Canyon, I had a work trip to Boston. My wife had never been so she came along. I was busy so she did all the site seeing, but we did get to share a nice meal followed by a chocolate martini at Max Brenner's.


A little mid morning pick-me-up between meetings in Boston.


One of our Boston meetings had a fantastic view. I believe that is MIT across the river.



That's five photos, they all contain liquid! I hope to do a little better next month!!!