february theme day

four frog fountain for february theme day!

i'm doing a late monday/early tuesday post due to the weather snow-pocalypse forecasted for our area! tomorrow i'll probably be doing a remote post from my hotel room in plano =)

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ft worth stock show rodeo

the weather was great today for a trip over to the ft worth stock show and rodeo!

i'm hungry for a hamburger now!

weekend activities

father and son fishing after baseball practice =)

good times

measuring up

made it through 'that' time of year at work. annual reviews.

with the recession, last year's didn't come with any type of compensation. this year that remains to be seen.... fingers crossed

happy friday!

winter views

today's photo was taken in Addison following the Hot Chocolate 5k. I plan to re-visit this spot in the spring/early summer when everything's green for a different view =)

the area is home to saturday evening concerts during the summer. From their website, they have 'symphonic saturdays' in june, jazz in july and salsa in august...

trees

my dad had a major surgery today and celebrated a birthday too... thoughts and prayers for a quick recovery.

elmo water tower

happy wednesday!

strategic locations

still on the lookout for a cool place to put my STOUT headstone in the hereafter.

i still think i prefer a BEER to be next to, so i'll keep looking.

always good to have a backup plan though =)

before i get any hate mail - i got the idea from some boozers and stonars.

weekend reflections

once again, a busy weekend coming to an end.

friday started with a dentist appointment, a chinese buffet dinner and a visit to grandma in Terrell hospital. (she's out now and things are going alright)

saturday was a beautiful weather day and i managed to get out and get a few pics (like today's reflection photo =))

sunday began with my 4th race 0f 2011 - the 'Too Cold to Hold 5k'. i finished in 32:13... and i ran the entire course without yelling at anyone to get out of my way! =)

lazy saturday

didn't get a lot accomplished today... getting carbed up and rested for my 5k tomorrow morning!

i'll be running at the 'Too Cold to Hold' 5k at Norbuck Park tomorrow morning... i'm already tired just thinking about it!

friday night, no frosty

BC has taken over Friday night! he said it was his turn!

BC stands for black cat... and he is that. I used to be superstitious about black cats crossing my path, and black cats in general... but he's one of the coolest cats i've ever been around or owned and i don't have those thoughts anymore!

BC wasn't born in Terrell, but he's lived here his whole life. he's 12 years old and still able to outrun Frosty in a chase =)

nightswimming

not really. i haven't been nightswimming in a long time, but i did always like the song by REM =) i'm linking to a live version below.

night-running, i've done. and i prefer light. i actually prefer the Texas heat to the winter cold. it would be nice if the lights worked at the running path at the park. especially the ones on the backside by the wooded area.

thanks to jim over at terrell daily photo for capturing me running in the park tonight. see the shiny beady eyes of all the wildlife in the dark?

=)

a night at the iris

one more night shot from downtown. i hate when i do a post and save it instead of post it =) this Wednesday's post is just a little late =) i'll try to do better.

yeah! tomorrow's friday!

frosty

you woke me from my nap.... and i'm hungry

winter evenings

i'm ready for daylight savings time to end so we can have more daylight! during evening runs, it's already dark by 6pm.

we're still running down in the park, since they have a few lights for the running path.

you still have to watch out for little duck presents left on the sidewalk though.

sunday evening in downtown terrell

just got back from downtown where I snapped today's photo. it's pretty dreary out tonight, with a misty rain off and on - which makes for some cool reflections in the street =)

hope everyone had a great weekend! my next run is the Too Cold to Hold 5k at White Rock Lake next Sunday!

keeping up

well, i partially fulfilled a new year's resolution today by finishing my first 10k of 2011.

the goal was to do one per month, so 1 down and a few to go =)

6.2 miles is a lot for an old couch potato like me. my legs feel like jelly and i need a nice long nap!

p.s. thanks to Jim over at Terrell Daily Photo for the picture! the 'official' photog pics usually run about 16.00 for a single print or upwards of 50.00 for an entire set. so, thanks!!

happy friday

gotta get up early in the morning for my first 10k of 2011!

ugh... that's 6.2 miles... =)

a year in the life of a tree

Cilla over at A Swede Lost in Texas blog has started a new weekly tree photo series - posting a photo of a tree every week for a year! I thought it was a neat idea, but wasn't sure about being able to keep up every week. and i hate to feel like a slacker, so i decided to do a photo a month.

i chose the 13th! and today's photo is my first photo! I'll make sure the tree looks creepy when it falls on Friday the 13th =) my tree, by the way, is located near Memorial Stadium at Ben Gill park.

I decided to go with one of my snowy tree photos after seeing jim's snowy street view over at Terrell Daily Photo. He's doing a 'down the street' view of trees on a street near downtown, and the recent snowfall makes for a beautiful winter scene! =)

resolutions

i made a few resolutions for 2011, but didn't put them in print. (so i couldn't be held accountable =)) but one of my goals was to run more 10ks this year - maybe one per month - along with the regular 5ks.

so my first 10k is Saturday. it met the objective of being a 10k in January - but I'm not so sure of the course. The 10k course is just doing the 5k course twice! no change of scenery, just a do-over of the first lap =)

it's called the hot chocolate 5k/10k. Jim's doing the 5k, along with several people from work. after the run, everyone gets souvenir coffee mugs and free hot chocolate!

wintry views

just a few traces of the snow left around town... i'm ready for warmer weather!

happy monday

monday morning started early for me today... up to work remotely at 6am!

but it felt nice sitting in front of the electric space heater with my cup of hot chocolate =) coffee sounds good next.

hope everyone made it in to work safely!

first snow of 2011

i rarely believe the forecasters when they say snow for Texas... but they were right!

January 9th - Terrell's first snow! Photo taken down in Ben Gill park.

superbowl xlv 5k

Well, i'm 0 and 2 so far this year on the accuracy in my race times. Last week, the race organizers switched mine and Jim's results.

This week, the race organizers had no record of my registration after I finished the race. Even though I'd picked up my bib, shirt and race packet at the Plano Verizon store earlier this week.

So, after the race I had to verbally tell the race timer (from Run On! Texas) my name and finish time. He didn't record it may not have heard me correctly.

I finished with my new best time - 30:24 -- but on the Run On! results page, they have it listed as 34:24... tried to email the race timing people with the correction, but it came back undeliverable!

Grrrrr....

Had a good run nonetheless... and a new best time... now it's nap time.... =)

**UPDATE** Just to follow-up -- the nice folks over at Run On! Texas were really helpful and promptly made the correction to my time and re-posted the results! Thanks again to Lear Johnson, race director, for his assistance in routing my email through to the correct people.

friday night campfire

tonight's photo was taken at another great dinner party/campfire over at Kelly Hanna's house.

nope, not Grizzly Adams and not ZZ Top either. It's the Comedi-Don! the party entertainment that no get-together should be without! Yep, it's real, and don't pull it! =)

under pressure

busy busy at work this week. i need to get out and get some new photos!

today's photo is taken at the dallas world aquarium, underneath one of the tanks looking up. i'd hate to be down there if the tank sprang a leak!

P.S. anyone looking for Warrior Dash Texas photos from 2010, click here!

the party's over?

or is it better to always be prepared....

Christmas is over and now comes the chore of taking down all the lights and decorations and packing everything up until next year. But I was thinking it might be easier to just leave the lights up outside. I can easily mow around these light trees in the front yard. and the lights around the porch would look festive all lit up on holidays, like 4th of July...

campground...

i'm all for diversification, but i don't think i'll be pitching a tent here.

(cue the 3rd grade punny joke here)

today's photo was taken up in Poetry, just north of Terrell. =)

old barn

today's photo is my submission to Tricia's weekly barn charm series over at Bluff Area Daily. She's got some great photos over there, in addition to the barns, so go check it out! the lighting wasn't the best on the day i got this shot - i've been planning on going back and getting a better shot, if i could just remember exactly where it was?!?

made it through Monday relatively unscathed. it was busy and hectic, and i smiled and nodded a lot as i tried to work. too many things going on at one time, sometimes! but it makes the day go by faster...

a Fairly good start to 2011

i had an awesome beginning to my 2011 yesterday, starting the day out with a 5k run in the brisk morning air (after an evening of moderate drinking the night before to ring in the new year =))!

then it was off to Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl to see the new Ticketcity Bowl inaugural game between Texas Tech and Northwestern University. Jim scored media passes for us both; it was cool to have sideline access for a real college game in the Cotton Bowl!

After all that excitement, I had to come home and take a nap. Cause that's really what weekends are about too - rest and relaxation =) i'll have more photos posted over on my facebook page later this week.

hope everyone is having a 'fairly good start' to 2011!

2010 Photo of the Year

i originally planned to do a poll from a selection of photos to decide my photo of the year, similar to what Jim did over at Terrell Daily Photo.

time, the holidays and life in general changed my plans and i decided to select my own photo of the year from a list of favorite photos that Jim gave me. He went through the entire year on my blog to review all 350 or so photos =) no small feat... (and thank you)

one of my favorite types of photography is trying to mimic what I would consider a 'norman rockwell' moment. a small slice of american life.

i always loved 'Funny Farm' with Chevy Chase... and the way they try to turn their town into a perfect 'Norman Rockwell' town in order to sell their house. in the end they learn they love the town, with all the quirky townspeople just the way they are. =)

That said, I selected these 2 photos from Jim's list.

The winner for 2010, selected by me, is the top photo - Terrell Baseball team playing in a tournament in Waxahachie from my post on March 7, 2010.

The runner up, below, was taken at the Warrior Dash in Forney/Dallas back on my post from May 2. The muddy 5k run ended with a big truck full of water that hosed everyone down to wash off some of the mud.

Happy New Year 2011 to everyone! Let me know what you think, did I choose the right one? =)Click here to view thumbnails for all participants