Lunch with John - Super Mex

I had no idea where to eat. John suggested Super Mex. I had it once before and thought the food was decent. I did find it novel that the chips they served for their chips and salsa were just whole corn tortillas that were fried rather than cut into chip sized pieces. 

Does this look yummy to you or what?

Crack

I scored me some crack this morning.

I have no idea exactly what's in it, but I'm pretty sure there's some milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, sweetened condensed milk, some sort of cookie or cracker base, and enough calories to sustain an adult human for an entire day in one bite. Anyhow, I don't care what's in it, it's DELICIOUS!

Thank you Anita for making it and thank you Colleen for sharing.

Pot Stickers

I cooked! Okay, technically, I heated. Hey, this is an accomplishment for me!

Randy and I picked up some frozen pot stickers at the asian market and I fried them up. I think I'm going to start bringing these to parties since they are so yummy and easy to make. Why didn't I think of frozen food earlier?

Fish

Randy and I went to Seafood City, a local asian market, on the hunt for mangos. $50 worth of frozen durian, pot stickers, shrimp crackers, and sausages later we finally found our mangos and decided to leave before we did more damage. 

On the way out, I ran into this guy. One day, I'll learn how to cook the little suckers.

Denny's - The food is good?

My insurance agent (great guy) asked me to meet him at Denny's this morning. There were some papers I needed to sign.

I didn't plan on eating breakfast there, but I'm never one to pass up on eating a little something. I decided to order the Santa Fe Skillet.

Oh boy, was it good! I'm serious! What happened? Denny's food never actually tastes GOOD. It's just something you put up with because there is no other place open at 2:00am after the bar closes. This is so good I actually WANT to go back and have it again. I'm just as shocked as you are.

Dinner with Verg - Pho House

I went out to dinner tonight with Vergil. Apparently I take more pictures of the food I eat than the people I'm with. I've really got to break that habit.

Well, as long as I took them, I might as well share them. Here is mine and Vergil's dinner.

Independence Day

We didn't intend to have an all out 4th of July BBQ, but it happened anyway.

Randy and I just wanted to make a couple of skewers for dinner. I wanted, well, anything covered in bacon and grilled: Bacon wrapped shrimp, bacon wrapped tomato, bacon wrapped onions, bacon wrapped asparagus, you get the idea.

Randy's brother, Rob, wanted to grill some steak. Rob's wife wanted to make spaghetti. The next thing we knew it was an all out BBQ. I suppose it was appropriate since it was the 4th of july.

The city I live allows us to set off "safe and sane" fireworks, which are fireworks that don't fly or explode: fountains, sparklers, wheels, smoke and snake items, strobes, ground spinners, novelty fireworks that don't travel, snappers, and caps. In short: boring. The fireworks definitely don't have as much pizzaz as when I was a kid.

If it wasn't for us having kids in the house I don't even think it's worth buying anymore. Luckily a few of my neighbors still score some illegal fireworks and every now and then we got to see a nice burst of color in the sky.

Actually, I am happy that our city only allows "safe and sane" fireworks. I'm sure it reduces the number of fires and damage. I remember watching a bottle rocket land in a neighbor's bush and crossing my fingers the bush didn't go up in flames. I also remember the dumb-asses that used to aim roman candles at people. It just makes for a boring show, but I think it's worth it.

We lit a few fireworks out front and gave the kids some sparklers. It was all good. The kids seemed to enjoy it. Maybe by the time they grow up, fireworks will be illegal all together and they'll look back on this with as many fond memories as I did.

Pictures at Weddings

Tisha's Wedding

This morning I read a tweet from @apertura_erwin, a fairly well known photographer in the wedding photography industry, saying:

People who get invited to weddings should just enjoy being guests & not be photographers. The B&G invited you for a reason :) Esp during ceremonies.

and somehow it just rubbed me the wrong way.

I love taking pictures at weddings. I love taking pictures just about anywhere I am, ESPECIALLY during special occasions. It just ticks me off that a photographer is suggesting I shouldn’t be taking pictures during those special times. They should understand how important pictures are and to limit people to only having pictures the “pro” took is just selfish. Is it so wrong to want to have our own pictures and not the photographers? We all have a different eye.

Alyssa's Wedding

The photographer can’t be everywhere at once. They aren’t going to capture every moment from every angle. What if I can get a shot they didn’t? Occasionally film gets ruined and memory cards fail.

Amanda's Wedding

I once retouched an event for a photographer in which some of the pictures were wildly over exposed while others were wildly under exposed. I just thought they were a bad photographer. It turns out the processer chip in the camera was faulty and it wasn’t able to read the exposure settings correctly. I managed to save half of the images, but the others weren’t salvageable. Imagine how the bride felt when she was told half of the pictures from her wedding day were gone. Imagine if no one else took pictures because they were busy being guests.

Kat's Wedding

Okay, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he isn’t saying guests shouldn’t take pictures at all, just not as much as a photographer would. So, what constitutes a guest trying to be a photographer? Is it the camera he or she brings, is it the quantity of images they take? Where is that line?

Summer's Wedding

Yes, the bride and groom invited you to be there for a reason. What’s that reason? I always assumed it was because they wanted me to share in their special day, not to exclude taking a couple of pictures. I’ve NEVER had a bride or groom tell me to stop taking pictures at their wedding. In fact every the bride and groom have THANKED me for taking extra pictures.

Banasorn's Wedding

I do believe that people shouldn’t disrupt the wedding, and especially the ceremony, in pursuit of photography nor should they get in the way of the pro that was hired to document the day. Don’t step in front of the hired photographer to get a shot, don’t stand next to him, don’t direct the couple and their party. The bride and groom hired the photographer because they wanted pictures from them. Do the couple a favor and let that photographer take those pictures.

Rita's Wedding

People bring cameras to a wedding. Most photographers deal with it. I was elbowed – HARD - by a groom’s grandmother as she tried to get me out of the way so she could take a shot. A friend of mine was accidently punched in the face by an enthusiastic dancer at a reception. Stuff like this just comes with the territory.

Seriously, I enjoy a wedding just as much while downing my 5th beer from the open bar as I do when I’m taking a few pictures. Maybe some people don’t know how to enjoy a wedding from behind a camera, but I do. Sorry if I’m cutting into your print sales.