May 21, 2008
posted by Shelley
Bunko isn’t just for James Bond and I have proof! Below are 8 lovely women that enjoy the game and strive to take home that big Bunko prize. Tonight was our last Bunko night until after the summer — we always break so those with children in summer sports can enjoy those moments and not miss the Bunko fun…
Alisa (shown with an almost empty glass of Bunko Brew), Sherry, Wanda, Shelley, Gena (guest for Chrystal who couldn’t attend), Linda, Dianna & Stephanie (sorry Steph — I’ll do better next time with the photo!)
Check out Alisa’s BLOG for more photos and Bunko tidbits — she even included the recipe for Bunko Brew!! Hurry!!
I almost forgot to mention what one of the major topics of conversation was during Bunko! This is for Mike (as a test to see if he’s still reading) — the topic was mowing grass! Yes, I’m not the only reader of The Pines Restaurant’s BLOG ‘What is Cookin’, and I’m not the only one that is trying his method of mowing grass either. How cool is that?
May 21, 2008
posted by Shelley
The forecast for the burg’s upcoming weekend is next to perfect. Sunshine and temps in the mid 80’s on the holiday set to remember those men and women who have died in military service to our country. With the last day of school rapidly approaching (not rapidly enough actually!), it feels like summer is truly and finally here.
May 20, 2008
posted by Shelley
Do you keep a secret buried so deep that you’ve never shared it with anyone? I’m talking about the kind of secret you wouldn’t share with a friend because you’re afraid of what they might think of you — or you’re afraid that someday, somehow it might come to light. If you do, enter stage right the Post Secret art project.
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I’m betting that most of you have visited the popular PostSecret Blog, but did you know there are now even 4 PostSecret books you can buy online? Not sure where I’d put one of these books after a purchase…are they good bathroom reading? Or would they make a better conversation piece on the coffee table?
Some of the submissions are funny, others are touching, and it seems that everyone reading a postcard wonders if it was sent in reference to them. For example — one of Sunday’s postings had the caption, “I don’t know where my sister lives or works.” Soooo…everyone who doesn’t know where their sister lives or works wonders if it was THEIR sister that sent in the postcard. And then there was the one that said, “I hate my wife, but I can’t leave her. I’m a diabetic and her job has health insurance.” That one got a chuckle from me anyway. I think under my breath I even called the unknown jerk that submitted it a pathetic user, and privately felt sorry for the unknown wife. Funny stuff!
There’s a ton of submissions — enough to keep you busy while you’re supposed to be working for a whole week even. Once Friday rolls around, you can make a postcard to send that says, “I spent a whole week reading PostSecret when I was supposed to be working and my fatass boss didn’t have a clue.” Go ahead…it will make you feel awesome!! 🙂 (And it will also make every boss with a larger than average ass wonder if one of his/her employees submitted it!)
May 19, 2008
Posted by Perry
Dominating. Complete. Handily. You can use any verbiage you want to describe Big Brown’s crushing victory saturday in the Preakness Stakes. So complete was his win that even the great trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert have pretty much said, “He should win the Belmont.”
At this time every year, the country seems to slow down a bit and we become captivated by three races in a five week span. We become emotionally connected with four-legged heroes that do what they do simply because they are born to do it – and that is run.
Having seen the replay of the Preakness, I was amazed at the fact that jockey Kent Desormeaux was pulling Big Brown up at the 16th pole. The horse didn’t even look like he was running hard at all – a scary thought for all his coming opponents in the Belmont on June 7th.
My initial experience in the Triple Crown was in 1997, the year Silver Charm ran. I was hooked from then. I remember seeing Real Quiet the next year lose by a nose to Victory Gallop. Seeing Charismatic injuring himself and coming in third to Lemon Drop Kid. I can vividly picture War Emblem stumbling out of the gate and effectively ending his chance at immortality. Who can forget Smarty Jones moving way too early and being nipped by Birdstone at the wire.
The thing that separates Big Brown from those horses I just named is this – while they were all very good horses, Big Brown is a GREAT horse. He wins almost effortlessly, his moves in a race are devastating in their finality. In other words, when he moves, the race is over. Another thing that makes this horse special is he KNOWS he’s good. When you see him on the track, he exudes the air of a champion.
America right now isn’t feeling too good about itself with an ongoing war, gas prices, and diminished standing around the globe. A Big Brown win on June 7th would give us all a well needed shot-in-the-arm. Something we could all be proud of. A hero who has no ego, no motive to win other than the fact that he simply loves to run.
One more to go… and the stable of immortality will have to make room for one more occupant. Oh what stablemates would that be?
May 19, 2008
posted by Shelley
It’s the last week of school until summer break and I’m barely hangin’ in there. To say that I’ll be thrilled when Friday arrives is an understatement — even though I know you’re not supposed to wish your life away, I wish it was here already. I’m not a morning person and I never will be. Just the thought of sleeping past the ass crack of dawn is exciting. Yay!
Saturday was my day for a quick road trip, and I snapped a few photos out the window — amazing what you can get when you’re traveling 55 mph. (Please note that I wasn’t driving!)
Throw a camera in your car the next time you’re cruising to no place special and snap away. It’s not like the old days when film was expensive and developing it was worse. And it’s just as fun when you pull the photos from your digital camera to your computer and take a gander, as it used to be when you got those prints back and sat in the parking lot sifting through the pack to look at them all.
You remember those days, right? You paid a fortune for your 35mm camera and bought film. I remember it running about $3.50, although I have no clue what it is now. I would snap 22 carefully planned photos. A month later, I’d pull the ole’ camera out again and take the last 2 photos — having totally forgotten what I’d used the first 22 to capture. 1-hour photo service was a futuristic dream when I first started getting into photography, and so was Wal-mart.
Most times I’d take my film to 3D or the drugstore for development, (I had friends that did the mail-in thing but I was never patient enough.) Then the wait would begin. After about 5 days, I would stop or call each day following to see if my magnificent creations were ready for pick-up. Once they finally arrived, I jetted to get them — and sometimes couldn’t even wait until I got in the car to check them out. On average, I’d say about 5 of the 24 were ‘keepers’, and the price was around $11 bucks.
Now that all that’s a memory — you simply have no excuse if you don’t capture a bajillion awesome photos! Click away on anything and everything you find interesting — and then, trash the ones where you look fat, the sun glare made a big circle on your face, or your thumb got in the way.
