Happy Halloween From Arrowhead

Chiefs Baby! What a great place to spend a Sunday.

The BlueBird Trail

This morning several of us got up early, went into town for breakfast and then got busy doing some cleanup and painting on the Beeson Family BlueBird Trail. Yep, my family has it's own official bluebird trail. It's something my grandpa helped establish in 1962 with the local 4H group. Miles and miles and miles of bluebird boxes spread out in all directions from my grandparents home. It's been a family project ever since. The bluebird is the official state bird for Missouri. Every spring and then again every fall all of our bird boxes get repaired, cleaned out, replaced & repainted. My uncle Lloyd and his family do most of the work because he's the official builder of the bird boxes. But we try to get the youngsters involved as much as possible. Today I went on a run with Uncle Bill, Uncle Randy, Sabrina, Alana, Max & Emily. I believe it's the first time Max & Emily have gotten to help us. They really had a blast.

For the record, we do have a Facebook page: Beeson Family BlueBird Trail

Cassville

Tonight I went to Wendy's house and spent the night with her and the kids. I took this pic from her front yard. I love hay bales.

Also, this morning I saw an 18 wheeler with a Jason mask hanging from the passenger seat visor. Looked really cool so I decided to hang one from my rear view. It's creepy to see this coming towards you.

Bowling League Thursday

This is Larry. Not as cool as last weeks picture of Lisa. Bummer.

Blank Day

Between being sick and spending weekends running around like crazy away from home, I have no idea if I even took a picture for today. I can't find one, so I'm guessing not. It's not the first time I've missed a picture and I'm sure it won't be the last. Still pisses me off though. I do nothing during the week except struggle to get enough sleep for work and try not do die of a sinus infection. Except for a 20 minute drive home in the mornings, I never even see the sunlight. My weekdays are just one big blur which is making it harder and harder to remember to take pictures. And when I do, it's just some stupid pic of the house or cat. Sigh. Moving on to tomorrow.

She Kills Me

I seriously hate that this cat is so cute. It makes it hard to hate her no matter how hard I try.

There's A Giant In My Living Room

And it's been there for weeks. :P

Lazy Sunday

Didn't do much at all today. Cleaned up from my LAN party and relaxed. Spotted this turkey buzzard on my way to WalMart.

Still Nerdy!

In case you were wondering, this is what fuels a nerd party.

Nerd Alert!

A few weeks ago, I ordered a Blizzcon virtual ticket (look up Blizzcon here) and invited some of my friends over for a LAN party (look up LAN party here) this weekend so they could watch the convention with me. The virtual ticket meant that I could access a website where they streamed live footage from the convention. At my house, Scott has a laptop that is permanently connected to the big screen tv so that we can watch illegally downloaded movies just because it's cool. So I just played the convention on that pc and we sat down and watched it like normal TV. Well actually, we spent a lot of time actually logged into the game and listening to the TV. I had hoped for a better turnout, but several people were unable to make it. So Tschetter, Kim, Ben and I carried on without them. This is day 1.

Trip To Cassville

Tonight I drove down to Cassville for Holly's visitation. I spotted this hedge apple tree on the way down and snapped a pic.

Relax, It's Only A Drill

There was a little bit of excitement this morning as we began to hear sirens and looked up to see black smoke right next to the building and 4 of the airport fire trucks racing straight towards us. Turns out it was just a drill. They lit the fire in the parking lot and each truck took a turn to respond. It was actually pretty cool to see.

Proof She's A Brat

I'm always talking about how our cute little kitty is a brat who loves Scott way more than she loves me. But even though I know it's true, it still saddens me to walk by Scott's room and see this kind of proof right before my eyes.

I Got Some Drugs

Today I did something very rare for me... I went to the doctor. It's not that I hate doctors, it's just that it seems like a waste of time and money when I can just force myself to toughen up and push through. But on occasion, I just get too sick and too worn down. I have just not felt good for a while now, so I decided to suck it up and head into my local Walmart Clinic (those are so handy). Turns out I have a-typical sinusitis and an upper respiratory infection. And to top off all of that bad news, there's even worse news. Unfortunately my cousin Holly lost her battle with cancer this morning. I will never forget her laugh and her love for life. Today sucks.

Tree Farm

This is a shot from a tree farm right outside Seligman. I have no idea what kind of trees these are, I was simply told by my mother that I must stop and take a picture. They are pretty but not as pretty as sugar maples. After a busy Friday & Saturday I didn't do anything too exciting today. Stopped at gma's for Sunday dinner and then headed back home to Springfield.

Fall Decorations

Today I am out running around in NW Arkansas with Charlie and Ruthie and trying to find Ruth a dress she needs for her Halloween costume. Because of the craft fairs in the area this weekend, everywhere you look there are so many cute fall displays.

Craft Fairs

Every year North West Arkansas goes craft fair crazy. And so do me and my mother. War Eagle is our favorite, then we head to Bella Vista, Springdale, and Pinnacle Hills in no particular order. This post is gonna be picture heavy. Strap in. Here we go.

War Eagle is by far the most popular one and generally has the biggest crowds. Mom and I usually get up early and head there first because there's only one road in and one road out so if you don't get ahead of 90% of everyone else then you get to spend like an hour in your car waiting in line to get to park. There is even more congestion due to the fact that the craft fair is spread out on both sides of the river and the only way to cross it is a single car bridge. So they have to alternate car traffic from both directions and accommodate pedestrian traffic too. War Eagle Mills and Farm is a beautiful place, even without the craft fair. Check out more about it here.

When we arrived, we came in from the east and immediately crossed the bridge to park on the west side. Trust me, that is the best strategy. Even though we were early and were way ahead of the crowd, there were quite a few people ahead of us. Here's the parking lot at the moment of arrival:


Here's what we first saw after parking and walking towards the action:



This next photo is blurry, sorry about that, but it shows what it is like inside one of the huge craft tents. This is just one side of the tent, each tent has two sides just like this. And on the west side of the river there are 4 of these tents.


After going through everything on the west side, we get in line to cross the bridge and head over towards the mill:


There's already quite a crowd on this side:


Here's a pic of the mill and the east side of the bridge:


On this side, the crafters just have single tent booths setup. It's more open and thins the crowd out a bit:


It's a lot of walking and shopping, so Mom (orange shirt) offered to buy us each a fresh squeezed lemonade:


After we had seen all there was to see, we crossed the bridge again and headed for the car. A couple hours had passed and the crowd size had grown like 10x. Remember the line to cross the bridge a few photos ago? Here's the same line, going the same direction, now that we're leaving:


In fact, the line to the bridge is all the way back to the first tents we went into:


Now you see why we get there early. We managed to avoid having to wait like that. After we left War Eagle, we went to the Bella Vista craft fair which is so much smaller I can't even describe how much smaller it is. I didn't take any pictures there. It's just a few tents in a field in the middle of nowhere. While in Bella Vista, we stopped and had lunch at Dairy Queen.

Next stop was Springdale, AR for the Holiday Inn Convention Center craft fair. I had been waiting to get to this one since... well, since last year actually. Because the only real purchase I make during craft season comes from this location. And I don't even have to go in the front door. This is the craft fair where I find Carey Huckaby every year. He's a spray paint artist from Austin, Texas and he creates spray paint paintings and sells them right outside the main entrance. I could stand and watch him all day. This is the 3rd year I've seen him and it's the 3rd year I've purchased one of his paintings.

Here he is painting the one I bought this year. His work is so popular you have to jump in and buy the painting before it's done because otherwise someone else will have bought it before you get a chance to. Once I saw him put down the yellow & orange, I paid for this one. My other two did not have these colors so I knew it'd be one to add to my collection.







More pictures of Carey at work on different paintings can be found on my Flickr page.

And to see pictures of the past two paintings I have purchased from Carey, check this old blog post.

Bowling League Thursday

Thursday. Bowling. Cell phone. Lisa. Look closely. Spare.

I Love Fall Colors

I spotted this tree on my way home from work this morning. The colors around here are starting to get pretty. I hope I get a chance to get out and take some pretty tree shots by the time they reach peak color. But it won't be today because I have got to spend as much time online as possible this week. The 4.0 patch hit WoW yesterday and there are so many changes and things I have to do. Re-spec, reforge, regem, relearn how to play Elfindale. Sigh. I know it's gonna be worth it in the long run but it's just so much to study right now. Of course the release of the patch also signals how close we are to Cataclysm, so that's the good news behind it.

Translation:
I like pretty trees in the fall.

I play World of Warcraft, the largest online game in the world. I play it because I'm a nerd. Every once in a while they add new content to the game or change the way some things are done in game. In order to get the new stuff into the game, they push out a "patch" that everyone who plays has to download before they can log back in. These patches are released to everyone at the same time and usually come on Tuesdays because that is Blizzard's (parent company)normal maintenance day. Patch 4.0 was a huge significant patch because on December 7th the entire game will be changed with the addition of an expansion pack, called Cataclysm. The patch right now is just introducing some new stuff and some changed stuff for us to get used to before Cataclysm hits the stores. My character's name is Elfindale and because of the changes included in the patch, I have to change some things about the armor and spells I use. Then I have to get used to learning the new stuff.

I am a nerd.

Desk Deco

Well I have finally gotten my desk decorated at work. My original idea was to cover the walls with fabric before decorating to cover up the dull gray. But I'm lazy and a procrastinator, so of course I ended up skipping that step. Besides, I actually managed to cover the walls so well that I don't even notice the gray. In fact, the minute I come around the corner and prepare to sit down, the space now feels so personal and strangely a little more private. Like it's my own little corner of the world. Of course, the fact that no one else in the office has bothered decorating at all helps that illusion. I walk through rows of boring and then see mine and it makes me happy. I have also included some Halloween garland and Halloween lights across the top of my cube because it's that time of year of course. But strangely enough, I'm thinking of keeping them up there. I mean, it's my fave holiday and since it all went up at the same time I think I would really notice something missing if I take it down. So, I may just have a Halloween desk all year. We'll have to see.

Really Cool Fog

I know it's a pain to drive in, but it just looks so cool when everything is shrouded in a thick fog. This is what it looked like driving home from work today.

Cute Stuff

It's no secret that Halloween is my favorite holiday; but what you may not know is that I keep a few halloween decorations up in my bedroom all year long. Not like garland or anything, but I have some pumpkins and witches and figurine type stuff. So yesterday at Apple Butter Makin' Days I was on the lookout for new items to add to my collection. I ended up with these cute little items and decided they'd look great on my desk at work.

One Of My Favorite Days

The second weekend in October always means 3 things to me. First, Emma's birthday is today and even when the 9th doesn't fall on the weekend exactly, we usually celebrate it this weekend. Second, it's the annual Beeson family hayride and that is something we all look forward to all year long. Thirdly, it's always the weekend Mt. Vernon holds their Apple Butter Makin' Days festival. It's just a great day of fall activities (craft fairs, junk food, parade) followed by a great night of fall activities (hot dog roast, hayride, hot chocolate). And this year the weather was exceptionally beautiful. I can't wait until I get to do this again next year.

Here's a pic of some of the men making fresh apple butter:



And a pic of Emma, her goofy boyfriend Kyle, and her friend Rachel on the hayride:

Still Catching Up On Sleep

I still haven't gotten into a solid routine yet and today I was lazy and didn't leave the house. So here's a picture of the centerpiece on my table. I didn't get a good picture of the bowl, but that's a Pfaltzgraff brand KC Chiefs bowl. It's a gift I got from an old friend like 12 years ago and I love it.

Bowling League Thursday

It's bowling night again. Being at the bowling alley is so colorful with all the pretty bowling balls and bright shoes and I would love to take my dslr in there and get some really good shots. But my bowling buddies don't really care about photos and they don't want their pictures taken, so they would think it's silly for me to do something like that. I got ribbed pretty hard for carrying my little point & shoot in and taking this picture. But at least I got it. Mine is the black & blue swirled one.

It's Gonna Be A Good Day, Tater

These are two of my favorite things on a beautiful fall day.

Generic Picture # 1

Still adjusting. I'm not having any issues with sleep; I stay awake all night at work and have no trouble sleeping during the day. I'm just all screwed up about what day it is. When my friends from day shift come in this morning, I said something like "blah, blah, blah today?" and I was referring to Monday because that's when I got to work and hadn't been to bed yet so it's still Monday to me. But friend was confused because what I was talking about happened yesterday in her world. Then there's the fact that Charlie and I both work 3rd shift and after a full night of work, as we're leaving the building, we say "see you tonight".

I've worked 3rd shift before, I know how to do it. It just takes a few days for me to get my bearings about me. Especially now that I'm 40. :P

This week, I start working 3rd shift. My world is all screwed up. I will probably be taking pretty generic pictures for a few days until I get oriented in my new life style and can remember what the hell day it is.

Todays picture was easy. These are the blackout curtains I bought because I wouldn't be able to sleep during the day otherwise. I'm not saying I have to have complete darkness to sleep, I'm saying that the white curtains I normally have up keep my bedroom as bright as the surface of the sun... and that's a bit too bright. It's a crappy picture, but that's a good thing. It's because the curtains are doing their job and it was so dark in my room the camera had trouble focusing.

Lowe Family Reunion

For as long as I can remember, the Lowe family reunion has been held on the first Sunday of October. It's something we all look forward to because you get everyone gathered together, there's huge amounts of great food and then most of us younger ones (I'm ignoring that no longer applies to me) would head outside and play football, Frisbee, etc. It's always fun. We have it at the Monett City Park and everyone enjoys it. Normally the only complaint is that we're missing the Chiefs game. Of course this year, the Chiefs are on their bye week right now so we're not missing the Chiefs game for like the first time ever. But that's about the only good news. Because if I'm being honest, the family reunion was kind of a bust this year. Attendance has been dropping off the past several years. That always happens as everyone gets older. The people who used to be in charge are too old to make it out and the kids who used to run around are too busy being adults and doing other things. But this year was the worst. I bet we didn't have 40 people (used to average 80 or so) and over half of those was my immediate family, my grandma's direct descendants.

I can remember several years ago when we would all get there early and then stay an hour or so after dinner just visiting and playing. Now only 4 or 5 of us showed up before it was time to eat and as soon as the eating was done, everyone just cleaned up and left. It made me sad.

Now I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the people that were there, because I did. I rarely get to see Melissa, Tim & Jacob these days so I was glad they were there. Obviously Jacob's the subject of today's picture. I hope when he gets a few years older he looks forward to the first Sunday in October like I always did.

Shepherd of the Hills

Tonight I had a rare kids free, girls night out (kids free being the rare part) with Wendy, Sabrina, Cindy & Jessica thanks to Wendy, who had discount coupons for the Shepherd Of The Hills show in Branson. I had seen the outdoor play twice before (last time was the night the twins were born, over 14 years ago) but none of the rest of them had ever seen it. Before you get on the tram that takes you down to the seats, they hand you some weapons and bags of money and snap a picture of you. Now this type of stuff happens all the time in tourist trap places such as this and normally I glance at the picture they are trying to sell me and move on. But I gotta tell you... this time the picture was totally worth it. In fact, all 5 of us bought our own copy. I'm sure the others bought it for some sort of silly sentimental reminder of our night together and how much fun we had. But I bought it simply because the face Wendy is making (far right) is priceless. What a great night.

** FYI - Even though I am a nerd and work in the IT industry, I do not own a scanner. The picture above is a picture of the picture, which never really turns out right. So it does look a bit crappy. I assure you, the original is worth the money.

Good Eatin

I love to try new restaurants every chance I get. Especially if they have a claim to fame or are known for having the best of something. So when I read about the new Smith's Restaurant in town and how they are well loved in Collins and Boliver for their amazing pork tenderloins, I had to have one.

So I invited Charlie & Rachael, Kim & Ben, Jamie, and Scott & Izzy out tonight to stuff ourselves with some home-style cooking. I got the pork tenderloin (since that is what I had been thinking about for days) and I chose fried potatoes and sweet corn as my sides. They were both perfect, though I did end up regretting that I didn't get mashed potatoes with gravy simply because the gravy would have been awesome with the tenderloin.

In addition to huge plates of amazing food, the place has great appetizer options (nice big portions) to start with and a good selection of mouth watering pies for dessert. I highly recommend everyone eat here. Smith's Restaurant in Springfield