More House Hunt

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I looked at 4 more houses.

One house didn't have a basement, which was kind of bad, but the fact that it didn't have any yard eliminated it.

I did find a few interesting things in one house.



Mirrors for closet doors? What a great idea!



A tragic waste of a claw foot tub.


Although I didn't like this house all that much, I think mirrored closet doors are going on my want list, right next to having a garage and having a yard.

Thanksgiving

I started Thanksgiving by helping serve the free Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom, Teresa and Logan. I was given the extremely important duty of collecting trays.

After my shift concluded I talked dogs with Karma's former vet Jordan and his family. Even though I know when I get a dog again it will be a Golden Retriever, I was told by one of Jordan's daughters to look into Bulgarian Mountain Dogs.

I really had no intention of doing this, but I was told (incorrectly) that I would be a hypocrite if I didn't do such a thing.

So enjoy this little tidbit from Wikipedia about Bulgarian Mountain Dogs (AKA Caucasian Shepherd Dog):

Powerful and massive, the Caucasian Ovcharka can be a difficult breed for an inexperienced owner, because it respects and obeys only those that it deems superior to itself. They are good with children, but will not see them as their masters. The dog develops a strong bond with its owner but will rarely be submissive; this is truly a thinking dog which relies on its own instincts, sometimes even disregarding its master's directions. A breed with a very quick reaction time and fast protection reflexes, it has even been unfairly described by some as somewhat of a "loose cannon". With proper care, handling and training, this is a well-behaved and obedient family companion.

I have no doubt that such a dog would see me as being superior, but Golden Retrievers are where it is at.

I concluded my Thanksgiving by eating a wonderful dinner and dominating my family in Rack Rummy.

Here are some pictures from the day.


























If you break it down, I had 6 Thanksgiving to attend this week. That is a lot of good and unhealthy eating.

Too Crafty?

Teresa's latest project was too make individualized Christmas booklets for all the members of the family. Well, not for me, but for the other members of the family.





I spent a fair amount of Thanksgiving trying to explain that I don't really care what I get for Christmas. I'm the easiest person in the world to shop for because I like everything and I get too much as it is.

But the actual truth is that what I would really like for Christmas is to find somebody that can challenge me at the game of Rack Rummy.

Willy's Birthday

On Willy's Birthday I got a couple of unique photos of some friends.

Willy joined Jesse, Frank, Vest and I for lunch. In honor of Willy's birthday Jesse donned the shirt that Jay made to honor Willy. Then he posed with Willy.



Jesse donning Lone Wolf Gear with Lone Wolf


On Wednesday Andy, Melissa, Becky and Grace set up in front of the Fareway in Ames and Nevada to raise money for Holiday Food Baskets.

While I was sitting at Okoboji Grill having lunch, my phone rang (incidentally I was more popular than my mom last month, I had more used minutes on the cell phone bill!)and it was Shannon. Andy and Becky were setting up in Nevada and Grace was hoping I would be able to go over their and get their pictures.

I was not able to do this because I was celebrating Willy's birthday.

However, while I was sitting at work later that day I got a text message. The number was not in my contact list. Every time that I get a text message from a number I don't know it is pornography.

I'm not what you would call a fan of pornography. I understand why it exists (to demean women) but if I were a fan of pornography, I would make certain that I was sending it to a person I knew for sure. But hey that is just me and The Bennett Text Messaging Pornography Policy.

It ends up that the text message was not pornography, but a message from Melissa wanting to know if I could come down and take a picture of she and Grace at the Ames Fareway.

As it turns out, I could.



Melissa and Grace


Incidentally, you can still donate to the Jaycees' Holiday Food Baskets and help feed 200 families Christmas Dinner in Story County.

Visit the Ames Jaycees Website for more information.

Happy Birthday Willy

I've been a bit busy in the last few days and I've been negligent. So I apologize. It was Willy's birthday on the day before Thanksgiving.





We took Willy out on Sunday night for dinner and then to lunch on Wednesday for his birthday.

I think I won a Photo Contest once with that picture of Willy.

No Good Deed...

From the Clare Boothe Luce Files:

Monday was the annual Computer Mine Thanksgiving. The Mine brings in a healthy spread of food and the meal is supplemented in a potluck manner by various employees.

In my time at the mine, I've never once contributed to a potluck. This is connected to the fact that I don't cook all that much and because I don't really want to.

On the Friday before the Thanksgiving I was having a conversation with newest member of the mining team. He had signed up to bring a wide variety of food and through the process of the conversation I somehow agreed to lighten his load by bringing rolls.

On Monday I brought rolls, butter and homemade apple butter. The apple butter is made by a woman that works with my mom.

After the meal was concluded, the people that run the Thanksgiving loaded the leftovers (including the apple butter) into the company fridge.

The next morning the following email was sent out to the entire company.

To whomever had a jar of homemade applesauce/butter in the refrigerator, I regret to inform you it fell out and busted on the floor. Sorry.

I think this is the universe telling me not to contribute to any potlucks in the future.

Mr. Meeting

As I look at the year that is rapidly approaching, it turns out that 2009 is going to be the Year of the Meeting.

For starters, I will be the Marketing VP for the Ames Jaycees in 2009. That means two board meetings a month in addition to 2 membership meetings a month.

I will also be on the Board of Trustees at the church. I don't know exactly what the Board of Trustees does, but apparently it involves staring at water damage to the ceiling and then voting on it. I vote "yes" that is water damage. I'm not sure how many meetings that will entail, but I'm hoping that it isn't too many.

It also seems like I might end up on the Board of the Methodist Men. I'm not sure if this is a done deal, but I think that the meet twice a month in between church services.

That should be enough meetings for me, I might have to abstain from all meetings in 2010.

As it is, my years working for the Evil Clown Empire conditioned me to hate meetings. We only really had 2 Store Manager Meetings and we rotated through them.

The first meeting I will call the Boat Captain Meeting. The old man that owned the company would give a stirring story about how managers were doing to much work. My favorite was when he compared managers to boat captains.

If you were a captain of a boat and you saw that you were going to slam into something ahead, would a good captain run down into the boiler room and start shoveling coal or would they grab the wheel and steer the ship out of danger?

The point of the meeting was that he wanted more staff added to every shift so that managers could manage rather than shoveling coal.

The next manager meeting would always be about how labor was too high and we needed to cut labor.

This of course would be followed by the Boat Captain Meeting. It was an endless cycle.

The Turkey Trot

I have to admit that I'm kind of phoning this one in. I'm going to copy and paste and email I wrote about the Living History Farms Run on Saturday.

You just need to know that there was some confusion about whether or not we would be able to watch Willy and his friend Kristy participate in this race.

Turkey Trot

The LHF Run ended up being a piece of cake from a spectator perspective. Jay and I left Boone about 7:45. We got down to Des Moines at about 8:30. A line of traffic began to form on Hickman (correct me if I’m wrong) underneath the interstate bridge. This gave me some cause for concern, but it was wasted energy. We pulled into the LHF parking lot and they had people directing traffic. We got a choice parking spot right next to the road.

In the morning it wasn’t that cold. In fact, Des Moines didn’t get nearly as much snow as Ames or Boone. We hung around the starting point for awhile, but could not find Willy in the middle of the mass of humanity of 7500 runners and maybe another 500 or so spectators.

We walked maybe a quarter of a mile down the course and set up. The hope was that when the crowd started to move we could pick out Willy and Kristy. When the racers did reach our point it was fairly impressive to see 7500 people running next to you. It took in the neighborhood of 6-8 minutes for all of them to run by us.

We were unable to pick them out. It was like looking for a needle in a stack of needles, plus we didn’t know what they were wearing.

After the runners passed we cut up through the town to watch the runners go by again. By the time we got there, the group had spread out, but I still didn’t think that we would see Willy. As luck would have it Kristy and Willy saw us and waved to us. I’m not sure how they saw us, because we were standing behind another group of people and Willy just isn’t that observant of a person.

After they passed we followed a group of spectators to a part of the stream where the racers would have to cross it and then climb up a hill using ropes. We set up near there. I was at a spot in between the ropes and the creek. Down in the little valley it was actually pretty warm because there was no wind.

What I did not count on was that the ground I was standing next to was going to turn into mud after a few hundred runners came out of the stream.

While I was standing there. Annie Buchmiller came running by. She stopped briefly and said, “Hi.” Then she ascended the hill.

As runners ran by me I got covered in mud. At least my jeans and winter jacket did. Some groups of people started picking up mud and throwing it at each other. One girl threw some at the guy she was running with and he ducked and it hit me.

She looked horrified and she came over and apologized.

I said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal. It’s my fault for standing this close to the action.” I do believe that.

Eventually Willy and Kristy came through the stream, but they didn’t cut the way the course was supposed to cut. They didn’t go up the ropes. They went over the side, so I didn’t really get a very good picture of either of them. Actually I didn’t get a picture of Kristy at all.

After they passed we walked out of the stream valley and made our way towards the finish line.

Here is an example of focus.

The runners began to get backed up pretty far from the stream. We had to work our way up the pack to find a place to cross the course and head back to the town. While we were walking alongside the race course a bunch of girls that were kind of stopped because runners were backed up at the stream that we were walking by asked, “Aren’t we cute enough?”

At first I didn’t realize they were talking to me, because I was 100% focused on getting to the finish line before Willy.

So, I kind of responded off hand, “You’re cute enough.” And kept walking.

Jay said, “You get that a lot don’t you?”

It was then that it dawned on me that they thought I should take their picture because they were “so cute”.

“I guess it has happened twice this year.”

While we were walking back to the town it started to snow and the wind picked up. The temperature must have dropped about 10 degrees.

We watched them cross the finish line and I got a picture of Willy and Kristy.

At this point, Sara called and asked if we were still on for lunch. I told her that I was covered in mud, but we were still on for lunch.

Jay and I stopped by Christian Photo to pick up folders for December 1 and the Roland Christmas thing.

When we got to Sara’s she loaned me a pair of pants that didn’t really fit, but as long as I held them up while I walked it was okay. At least better than being covered in mud.

We ate at Los Laureles. It was excellent. They serve their meals with 3 different types of salsa. I’d say their only drawback was that they serve their soda out of cans, therefore there are no refills. Maybe the best refried beans I’ve ever had.


Then we hit the Juice Company. I had the Orange-Carrot-Banana. It was very good. I think in the future I might go with the smoothie so it is cold. I can’t remember what Sara had, but the name might have had Aloha in the title. Jay didn’t have anything and he seemed confused as to why anybody would pay 5 bucks for 24 ounces of juice. Sara liked it and is going to go back to try their wheat grass at some point. She also like the atmosphere because it was a lot less “snooty” than Fresh.



7500 Runners



Kristy and Willy



Jay



Mud



Annie Buchmiller



One of my favorite runners.



Climbing the Rope



The Brides



Willy



Willy



Kristy and Willy



After the Finish Line



The squirrels in Sara's neighborhood have been eating her pumpkin.



Sara with her drink from The Juice Company



Styling in my loaner paints.


All in all, it was not a half bad day.

Happy Birthday Suzie

This past Saturday was the birthday of Suzie.





Happy Birthday Suzie!

The Real Real

I've heard a lot of my friends conversing about "real" things lately. I am not going to weigh in on what is "real" camping or "real" cheesecake.

I also heard a rumor about a cribbage game that went down a little while ago.

This makes me want to weigh in on what a real cribbage board looks like.

It look a little something like this:





It almost makes me wish I knew how to play cribbage.

Something Beautiful

I've been working on the Friends Album in the Snapshots Gallery lately. I've added close to 100 new photos of friends.





If you would like to check those new photos out, just follow the link:


Friends


Also, I would remind you that if you "Register" to become a "User" in the Galleries, you can do some cool things like "Favorite" pictures, "Comment" on pictures or "Rate" pictures.

J.M. Barrie

The Least of Us

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. - Mother Teresa

Maybe you hadn't heard, but there are people struggling out there. Maybe you hadn't heard, you can help.

The longest running Ames Jaycees project is the Holiday Food Baskets program. Last year the Ames Jaycees were able to provide 80 families with Christmas Dinner. As the economy has tanked, the number of needy families in Story County has skyrocketed.

The Ames Jaycees are attempting to provide 200 families with a Christmas Dinner this year and you can help. For only 25 dollars you can adopt 1 family and provide them with a Christmas Dinner.

Here is some information that I've taken from the Ames Jaycees website:





As you can see, we are almost halfway to our goal!

Here is the condensed version of the information:

You want to request more information? Email Grace and Melissa at: holidayfoodbaskets@amesjaycees.com.

You are ready to donate? Click the this link: Holiday Baskets Donation Form

Fill out the form, drop it in an envelope, drop in your donation and mail it to the address on the form.

I've heard from two people that are going to donate. I hope to hear from more.

Aesthetically Qualified

Because I know interesting people sometimes the beget me more interesting people.

Such as Lowell begot Bill who then begot Willy who then begot Faust.

Frank from work met a guy while working at Best Buy that is a movie producer. Well, he is sort of a movie producer. He moved out to Iowa from some place out East and is trying to raise enough money to make a movie.

He hasn't made the movie, but he has made a movie that is over 90 minutes long about the movie he wants to make. It includes lots of his theories on movie making. Lots of the sets he wants to use. Pictures of the women that are going to be in the movie in bikinis. Pictures of horses that will be in the movie. Pictures of dogs that will be in the movie.

However, nowhere in the sale pitch does he indicate what the movie is actually about. The closest you get to know what the movie is about is the discussion of the characters that will be in the movie and you can combine that with the sets that will be used for the movie and maybe get an idea of what is going to happen in this movie.

There is one exception. One little sliver of information that comes through. The producer does include 5 rehearsals of one scene from the movie. Here is the dialogue from that one scene, starring the producer as the lead character from the movie, talking to somebody that isn't there:
(Try to imagine this being said with a Jersey accent, by a guy wearing a leather jacket and gloves.)

Johnathan Sinclair
What does that mean? What you just did? I saw that.
I see women doing that? What does that mean?
You pulled your shirt down over your butt. What does that mean?
Does that mean that you think your butt's too big?
Or perhaps I'm not aesthetically qualified to give you the once over?
Or maybe I'm not financially qualified to give you the once over?
Babe, you're like a fantasy world?
Like a dream world. Like a dream world.

I don't think it is too big of a stretch to call it poetry.

It Ends

Saturday was the final home game for the Cyclones. I don't have many pictures because low light and cold temperatures do not make for ideal photographic conditions.



Faust and I were defeated 12-10.



Jesse and his reversible hat.



Faust and his beverage.



Ames Party Bus



ISUCFVMB



Senior Day



Joe



Cheerleader



ISUCFVMB Senior Tradition



Moon



Arnaud



Jack Trice Stadium



Iowa State Center


There are more pictures in the ISU vs. Missouri album in the Snapshots Gallery:


Iowa State vs. Missouri

Cardinal Mystery

In case any of you have been wondering why the Cardinal in the football uniforms...





does not match the color of Cardinal that the cheerleaders or basketball teams wear...





the Athletic Department sent out a letter explaining the reason.

Dear fellow Cyclones:

This past year the athletics department made the decision to return to Iowa State University’s traditional school colors of cardinal and gold (as adopted by the institution in 1899). Although we are very excited about returning to these colors, we also recognize this decision is not something that can be fully implemented overnight.

It is our goal to have all of our athletics teams in the same shade of cardinal and gold, that represents our proud history and tradition, as soon as possible.
The purpose of this letter is to share several updates on the transition. Nike, our equipment provider, has designated the football and men’s and women’s track programs in their “elite” uniform division which means those sport’s uniforms are custom made in the colors we want (for example, what is being worn by the football team this season).

Unfortunately, Nike has not designated our other teams in that same category at this point, mainly due to our institution’s overall lack of retail merchandise sales. We are continuing to work with Nike on this issue and are optimistic that we can resolve it in the future.

In the interim, our other athletics teams, including men’s and women’s basketball, must select their uniforms and warm-ups from Nike's stock colors. Nike's stock cardinal color is darker than our football uniforms, and in some cases appears burgundy or maroon. In addition, Nike does not provide uniforms for spirit squads, dance teams or bands. Each of those programs has to order their uniforms from separate companies, which makes obtaining the proper shade of cardinal even more difficult for our department.

In closing, we simply ask you to have patience and understanding as we complete the transition.

Go Cyclones!
Sincerely,

Jamie Pollard

The Brandon Kahler Project: Chapter 4 - Fun with Frames

Here are a couple of special effect pictures of Brandon and a frame.








I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Brandon is wearing the tie I wore in Jen and Derrick's wedding this summer.