I Hope This Tastes As Good As It Looks

This is my first attempt at grilled salmon. I'm not quite sure if it turned out or not. But it looks pretty on the plate. Or maybe it's just because it's sitting next to those amazingly perfect fried potatoes. And actually, who cares if the salmon's good. I really just want to eat the potatoes. Rosemary / Italian herb smothered potatoes crisped up nicely in some extra virgin olive oil is my latest addiction. If I don't slice em and fry em, then I chunk em and bake them covered in the oven. Either way they make me happy.

** The salmon was just a touch tough, but not too bad. I'll have to try it again soon.

Sunset

Beautiful sunset tonight. Too bad I live in town and there are all these silly houses blocking my view from every angle. Sigh.

Moar Kitteh

I woke up this morning knowing exactly what my pic of the day was going to be today. I had lunch at Hinode with some friends for Kim's birthday and I was going to post a pic of our food either being prepared or eaten. But I forgot my camera. Then I decided that since I brought home some tasty leftovers I would take a picture of them when I warmed them up for dinner and ate them. But I forgot that too. So instead I present you with another picture of Takara the eternally happy kitty. Enjoy.

Oooh Pretty

Remember the new little point & shoot camera I was talking about 2 days ago? Well I'm still testing it out. And I think that as long as I remember to have it on the right setting, it's gonna be a pretty good little camera. Above is the road to Goodnight Cemetery just south of Monett, MO. And below is the storm that was blowing through that afternoon. Both of these pics have been edited with some photo software. I don't want to mislead you into thinking they came off the camera looking this good. But it doesn't matter how much editing you do if you don't have a good decent original to start with. And this little Panasonic is doing okay so far.

Just Look At That Face

This is Lola. Isn't she cute? She stayed with us last night because Scott was doing a favor for her owner. She ended up sleeping in bed with me all night so I was the lucky one who got woken up this morning for potty duty. I seriously took this picture at like 6:15 am. But even though it was a bit early for a Saturday there was no way I could be mad at her for it. Just look at that face.


Also, tonight I got together with some family. Just a normal gathering. No really, this is normal.

This Picture Has Been A Test

Most of my pics are taken with my spiffy Nikon d40, which I love more than almost any other thing I own. But sometimes, in some situations, the d40 is not always the best choice. It's not allowed into concerts for one thing. Also, I've taken it to Silver Dollar City 5 times this year and you have to be very careful not to get it wet. Plus, even though it's not very heavy, it becomes a burden to wear the thing around your neck and the neck strap always causes the back of my neck to get so sweaty. Point is, sometimes you just need to carry a little, tiny, point & shoot camera that you can toss in your pocket or purse and forget about. Unfortunately the last point & shoot camera I bought ended up being a lemon. It bleached out everything with a flash and without a flash everything looked like you were in a dust filled cave. I've been looking to replace it for a while now. Last week I found a good deal on a new little Panasonic Lumix and it came in the mail yesterday, so today I decided to check it out. I just took a drive around and snapped a few random pics. I took this pic because I wanted to see how it would handle the vibrant colors and the distances. It's no d40, but I'm very happy with it. It's gonna be great.

Once Again I Have Pissed Off The Cat

I'm sitting at the table working on my laptop and 2 feet away from me Takara has been pawing at the curtain on the patio doors for like 30 minutes because a bug is crawling up the window outside and she can see it's shadow. Eventually this distracts me. But do I yell at the cat? No. In fact, I decide to be nice and I take the time to chase down and retrieve the bug myself so I can present it to her and it can be hers. But is she happy with this? No. Apparently when my big meat claws trapped the bug I injured it to the point where it was barely moving. This did not meet kitty's approval. After she stared me down to make me aware of her discontent, she completely snubbed the bug and simply walked away. How ungrateful.

* Note the cute little black bug in the picture which has betrayed me by not moving.

Jacob Is 18 Months Old

Wendy got to babysit Jacob today and I got a chance to hang out with her and all the kids. This is just a snapshot I took while playing with little man.

Hooray, I'm Helping

Tonight I did my first weekly raid in MONTHS. And it was awesome. I love playing World of Warcraft so much but I have such a weird relationship with the game. Currently I'm in the "play every free moment of the day" mode. And that could last for months and months... or it could all be over tomorrow. Hard to say when my brain is going to find something shiny and get distracted. That's why I hadn't raided since last year. Because I felt guilty having "raider" status in my guild and then only running 1 or 2 raids a month. And then not even play the game for weeks at a time depending on my current distraction.

But now that I am in game mode again, I couldn't stand not being a raider and grouping up with my guildies to go in and kick some elite ass. So I've reinstated my raider status (thanks Alas) and participated in the weekly raid. And I'm so happy I did.

For the record, I know this post might as well be written in German for some of you because you don't understand what the hell I'm talking about... but it's okay. Other people will get it.

I Knew It Would Die Eventually

A couple of months ago, Scott's mom brought us a pretty potted plant for the front of the house. I knew when I saw it that it wouldn't last. I just don't always remember to water them AND I spend a lot of time gone from home for days at a time. But, the little thing hung in there pretty good... until this week. When I came back from Tulsa I noticed the poor little guy had finally just burnt right up. I had hoped it would last through the summer but it didn't even make it through the first day of summer. It just got too hot and didn't get enough water. How sad.

Leaving The Hard Rock Hotel

Today the checkout time for the room was at 11:00, but that doesn't mean you have to leave the casino. Before we checked out, I took the time to check out the view from our room on the 10th floor. Then we packed everything in the car and headed back in (told you I had an addictive personality)for more slot machines. Oh and we ate the breakfast buffet at the Wild Potato Buffet. It was a huge, delicious buffet and was less than $5.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

This place is amazing. I wish I could come here like once a month. It's so pretty. And best of all IT'S A CASINO!! But luckily, I am completely aware of my addictive personality and I only allow myself a trip to the casino 3 or 4 times a year. Of course, that would be a lot harder if there were any closer than 1 1/2 hours away. Anywho, I digress. This place is amazing. I had such a great stay here and enjoyed all the music memorabilia. But mostly I enjoyed the penny slot machines. That's all I ever play. Unfortunately, I didn't win big. But I also didn't lose much at all either. I love the sights and sounds of a casino. I highly recommend this one. You can see more pics from our trip HERE

Preparing For Another Road Trip

I am packed and ready to head down to mom's house tonight so that we can get up in the morning and head to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are spending tomorrow night in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino... just because we can and we both love casino's. That's our whole plan and I am excited.

Summer Storms

I love summer storms. As long as their not the super cell variety, that is. When the sky gets dark and the clouds roll in I run outside with my camera. The rumble of the thunder as it rolls towards you is one of my favorite sounds. This little storm didn't last long at all, maybe about 20 minutes. But it did rain pretty hard and the wind was blowing so strongly that the rain was coming down sideways. It was so pretty.

Kim Is A Redneck

Kim came over today to hang with me and play some WoW. While we were in game chatting with our guild mates Kim confessed to them that she was bumming around in camo shorts. So I had to point out that she was wearing pink flip flops with huge pink flowers. And then I had to take a picture and put it on our guild's website so they could enjoy it. Kim was not amused.

Carrie Underwood Is Not In This Picture

I don't have a decent point & shoot camera right now so tonight I went to a concert armed with only my Droid. And while it takes better pics than most cell phones, it still sucks in concerts. I did snap one pic just to see how it was gonna look, but there was no point in taking any more. That's why Carrie is not in this picture. These guys are the Sons of Sylvia and they were the first opening band for the Carrie Underwood concert tonight. I absolutely loved them and have already bought their cd. After these guys was Craig Morgan who was also great and very entertaining. "International Harvester" is my favorite song of his, we were all jamming to it. And then came Carrie. She is an amazing performer and her voice is so huge and flawless. There were so many effects on stage and different props and backgrounds. At one point a tree branch with a huge rope swing was lowered and she sang a song while swinging. But my favorite would have to be the real Chevy truck that she rode out over the crowd as it was suspended from a track on the ceiling. Such a great night with the girls.

Summertime Shoes

I have never really been a flip flop person before because I believe I have ugly toes. But something about getting older causes you to care less and less about what other people may think and as a result I decided to go buy me a nice pair of summer flip flops. I went to Shoe Carnival and because they were doing a "Buy One, Get One Half Price" sale I ended up with two pair. Of course, I still think my toes are ugly so you don't get to see them on my feet.

1 of 3

Not much I need to say here. This is 1 of my 3 tattoos. It's the second one I ever got and I've had it for around 20 years. The rose is a larger copy of the rose that's on my left hand. Rose is my mom's maiden name so that's the significance there. On my ankle I added a bumblebee next to the rose to represent the other side of my family because my original birth surname means "son of bee".

Backwoods Barbecue

This is how it's done in hillbilly land. Why waste your energy walking over to your neighbors house for a barbecue when you can just sit the food in the middle of both yards and party on either side of it.

* If you look closely you will see that there is a second group of people sitting in the yard at the house in the distance. We're all related and we really did share the food in the middle. It was like a young crowd vs. old crowd thing.

Celebrating Missy's Birthday

Tomorrow is Melissa's 23rd birthday, but unfortunately she has to work tomorrow. So we are all gathered together tonight to celebrate. We had a huge barbecue with burgers, bratwursts and pork steaks and as it began to get dark we lit a fire and sat around it. Which of course led to smores. Which of course meant Jacob was going to eat his first ever smore. Which of course means he looks like this. So cute. Please ignore his hair in this picture. He's on Izzy's lap and before she gave him the smore she was playing with his hair to see if she could make it stay in a mohawk.

Silver Dollar City

Today I spent the day at the "city" with my sister and my twin nephews. We watched the saloon show, ate at Mary's SpringHouse, the boys rode the new River Blast ride and shot me with water(buttheads), we checked out some shops and walked all through the cabins, church and schoolhouse area. It was a great day. The only thing missing was Emma. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go with her soon.

Missy & Jacob

Today I got to babysit little man for an hour or two while Missy took her placement exam with OTC. It actually didn't take her nearly as long as she thought so the babysitting ended too soon in my opinion. But I enjoyed every minute I had. In this picture he looks like he's finally walking, and since he's 18 months old he should be, but he's not. He can cruise walls and furniture really fast and will walk if you hold at least one of his hands. But the minute you turn loose or he wants to step away from any furniture he automatically sits down and crawls. He's a lazy butthead. Lol.

Job Search

Today I had an interview with Expedia. Even though I had submitted a resume to them online, the email reminder about the interview instructed me to bring a copy of my resume to the interview with me. Which is a problem because I don't have a printer. So I called Kim... who doesn't have a printer either. And of course I had procrastinated so I was running out of time. Kim also needed her resume printed and she had emailed it to her stepdad who was printing it out and bringing it into town for her. So she called him real quick and asked if I could email him mine to be printed too. He graciously said yes and I got my resume about 20 minutes before my interview. And then they never looked at it... said they had their own copy. /facepalm

Taking Care Of My Baby

Today I went to Schumaker Tire in Golden with Dad, Charlie & Jessica to get some new kicks for my car. The back tires had some weird warped areas on the inside edge of the tire and it was causing some major road noise while driving fast. So I moved the fairly new tires off the front to the back and put some brand spanking new tires on the front. Now I can speed in silence again.

Side Note: I love to take photos of the sky. Clouds fascinate me. As you can see in the picture above, there is nothing unusual in the sky behind my car. There was nothing unusual in the sky at Seligman and nothing unusual in the sky at Golden. But apparently, the REST OF THE ENTIRE OZARKS got to witness a new type of cloud which made the sky look like it was boiling. Apparently it was an extremely rare event that we may never see again in these parts. AND I DIDN'T SEE IT. If I had been at home in Republic, I would have. But no, I chose to put tires on my car today and missed the amazing clouds everyone else got to see. Here's a link to a story and some pics of the clouds. Story About Rare Clouds

Ouch!

Yesterday my grandmother fell in her kitchen. My mom took her to the ER and they verified there was no broken bones or any issues at all. But today she looked a bit rough.

Picture Unrelated

Now that summer's here, the Sunset Drive-In is open for business. Tonight I went with Wendy and the kids (including Kyle) to watch Alice In Wonderland and Prince of Persia. I LOVE going to the drive-in so much. The movies were good, Prince of Persia was way better than I expected. But mostly I just like the atmosphere. You get to pack a cooler and buy junk food and sit outside enjoying the evening while watching a giant movie. It's just so cool.

Oh right, about the picture. This is a pic I snapped of Dillon at his house while Wendy was inside grabbing the cooler. I didn't take any pictures at the drive-in because I was so excited to be there, I forgot to.

Birthday Party

Yesterday was Josh's 30th birthday and it was Todd's 4th annual 40th birthday, so of course a party was in order. We (the usual Beeson crew) got together over at the party pad for some pool, some music and (thanks to JR) some beer pong. I of course only nursed a few wine coolers, but we all had a good time. As usual, Shawn carried Josh around. Seems to happen every time. I don't know why... but it makes us all laugh.

Alan Wake

This. Game. Is. Amazing. Just saying.

Route 66 Pops

I bought this 6 pack of assorted soda last Wednesday in Arcadia, Oklahoma at Pops, the soda superstore. It's a super cool building and they have so many flavors it's mind boggling. What I liked about it is that they have the old classics. Jessica loved it because they also sell bottles of Route 66 sodas. I picked out my 6 pack based on flavors I wanted... she picked her out based on finding bottles that said Route 66. Lol.

Anyway, I brought them home and stuck them in the fridge but I wouldn't allow myself to drink one until I got a chance to photograph them. Which I finally did today. Now I'm going to sit down and drink the strawberry. Yum.

Been Gone Too Long

This is what happens when you only come home long enough to throw out dirty clothes and grab clean ones for like 2 weeks straight. Sure has been fun though.