Friday:
Worked my ass off all night, came home had a snack and took a brief nap before having to be up early Saturday morning.
Saturday:
Despite going to bed around 5am-ish I managed to drag my ass out of bed at about 9:30 or so. Reached for the phone and rang up my great friend and partner in crime, Melisa. She and I headed off to HCC and Centro Ybor to meet up with some of the kids and their sponsor from the Dallas House.
(The Dallas House is a home in a pretty rough neighborhood in the College Hill area of Tampa. This home was purchased and turned into something along the lines of a community center where the neighborhood kids can come to learn reading, computer skills and basically get away from whatever other temptations may be lurking on their streets. It's a nice alternative.)
Their program is running so low on funds that at some point if things go unchanged there will be no funding for electricity, water and the basic essentials needed to keep the place up and running. We are part of a project through HCC where we are working with the kids and teaching them some photo skills and letting them shoot their surroundings. Their work along with written-word pieces from them will be in a show at the HCC Ybor gallery June 3rd-11th. Hopefully this will draw some much needed attention to the plight of the Dallas House and keep them up and running. After spending several hours shooting with the kids and chatting about the project I headed back for a spot of lunch at TTL with Melisa, Robin and Torben. I think they have one of the best steak sandwiches in Tampa by far. Although their cheese fries should be made with real cheese and not with CheeZ from a bottle. Blech!
Saturday Night:
Came home and rested for a bit before heading out to Four Green Fields, the best Irish Pub there is. My wife planned a little surprise get together for my 30th birthday, which is the 24th of May, and we had a great time. eisdamme came of course which is always a nice surprise. Six or eight of my other friends popped in to help us celebrate. Got some cool gifts. The place was shockingly quiet for the better part of the evening. It was funny because the Lightning were playing he Flyers about 3mins down the street and we figured it'd be packed. It turned out to be a nice relaxing evening with friends, even the ones who showed up late and convinced me to stay for atleast another pint or two. Melissa drove me home and we just hung out here afterwards. Being slightly intoxicated, just a wee bit, I kinda crashed out after having a snack.
Sunday:
Well I was supposed to go to the Hooters Regional Bikini Contest Finals and drink copious amounts of liquor...I am saddened to report that I didn't make it. Yeah I know, what kind of a man am I? Well I was the very hungover kind on Sunday. Pretty much hung around the house for awhile and ran to Lowes and Walmart to do a little shopping. And believe it or not both trips were made for stuff to modify my new toycamera(s). Gee imagine that. I am a hopeless case. Oooooooh Melisa, wait till you see the Banier mods. Oh yeah it rocks! All I will say is...Latex Bondage Tape. I have been shooting all weekend with it. Now I just can't wait for the Diana De Luxe to get here too! Dinosaur World here we come!
Moday, my 30th Birthday! :
Woke up early and headed out to meet my mom at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. They were pretty busy, so breakfast was more like brunch. Drove mom home afterwards because she was having a dizzy spell. That's kinda scary, hopefully it's an odd random kinda thing. After hanging out to make sure she was feeling okay Melissa and I ran by the house to pick up movie passes and went over to Regency 20 in Brandon to see Shrek 2. OMG that was hilarious. Lots of references that the kiddies won't get, but tons o' fun for adults who just wanna laugh. Came home and cremated Maceo, the wonder ferret. He passed a few weeks ago and was buried until the right vessel could be found for him. Melissa went last week to a do your own pottery place and made him a box that should be ready this week. Anyway, I tended a small bonfire in the pit out back of the house and took care of that. Popped by my grandparents to pick up a birthday card and $$ from them for my birthday. They're doing good. Pretty much my whole family ended up going to highschool graduation for one of my younger cousins tonight. My brother, his wife and my little niece called up to make sure I knew they were taking us out for dinner tonight while everyone else was at graduation. Yummy, yummy steaks...I devoured a ribeye that pretty much melted in my mouth. Deliscious.
All in all it was pretty much a great weekend. I even took the night off from work tonight to relax and enjoy my 30th birthday...They won't miss me for just one day...LOL
A big thanks to my wonderful friends, you know who you are, and my wife for caring enough to make sure I had a nice time to celebrate my birthday. I can't say enough how much you all mean to me. Thanks...
Worked my ass off all night, came home had a snack and took a brief nap before having to be up early Saturday morning.
Saturday:
Despite going to bed around 5am-ish I managed to drag my ass out of bed at about 9:30 or so. Reached for the phone and rang up my great friend and partner in crime, Melisa. She and I headed off to HCC and Centro Ybor to meet up with some of the kids and their sponsor from the Dallas House.
(The Dallas House is a home in a pretty rough neighborhood in the College Hill area of Tampa. This home was purchased and turned into something along the lines of a community center where the neighborhood kids can come to learn reading, computer skills and basically get away from whatever other temptations may be lurking on their streets. It's a nice alternative.)
Their program is running so low on funds that at some point if things go unchanged there will be no funding for electricity, water and the basic essentials needed to keep the place up and running. We are part of a project through HCC where we are working with the kids and teaching them some photo skills and letting them shoot their surroundings. Their work along with written-word pieces from them will be in a show at the HCC Ybor gallery June 3rd-11th. Hopefully this will draw some much needed attention to the plight of the Dallas House and keep them up and running. After spending several hours shooting with the kids and chatting about the project I headed back for a spot of lunch at TTL with Melisa, Robin and Torben. I think they have one of the best steak sandwiches in Tampa by far. Although their cheese fries should be made with real cheese and not with CheeZ from a bottle. Blech!
Saturday Night:
Came home and rested for a bit before heading out to Four Green Fields, the best Irish Pub there is. My wife planned a little surprise get together for my 30th birthday, which is the 24th of May, and we had a great time. eisdamme came of course which is always a nice surprise. Six or eight of my other friends popped in to help us celebrate. Got some cool gifts. The place was shockingly quiet for the better part of the evening. It was funny because the Lightning were playing he Flyers about 3mins down the street and we figured it'd be packed. It turned out to be a nice relaxing evening with friends, even the ones who showed up late and convinced me to stay for atleast another pint or two. Melissa drove me home and we just hung out here afterwards. Being slightly intoxicated, just a wee bit, I kinda crashed out after having a snack.
Sunday:
Well I was supposed to go to the Hooters Regional Bikini Contest Finals and drink copious amounts of liquor...I am saddened to report that I didn't make it. Yeah I know, what kind of a man am I? Well I was the very hungover kind on Sunday. Pretty much hung around the house for awhile and ran to Lowes and Walmart to do a little shopping. And believe it or not both trips were made for stuff to modify my new toycamera(s). Gee imagine that. I am a hopeless case. Oooooooh Melisa, wait till you see the Banier mods. Oh yeah it rocks! All I will say is...Latex Bondage Tape. I have been shooting all weekend with it. Now I just can't wait for the Diana De Luxe to get here too! Dinosaur World here we come!
Moday, my 30th Birthday! :
Woke up early and headed out to meet my mom at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. They were pretty busy, so breakfast was more like brunch. Drove mom home afterwards because she was having a dizzy spell. That's kinda scary, hopefully it's an odd random kinda thing. After hanging out to make sure she was feeling okay Melissa and I ran by the house to pick up movie passes and went over to Regency 20 in Brandon to see Shrek 2. OMG that was hilarious. Lots of references that the kiddies won't get, but tons o' fun for adults who just wanna laugh. Came home and cremated Maceo, the wonder ferret. He passed a few weeks ago and was buried until the right vessel could be found for him. Melissa went last week to a do your own pottery place and made him a box that should be ready this week. Anyway, I tended a small bonfire in the pit out back of the house and took care of that. Popped by my grandparents to pick up a birthday card and $$ from them for my birthday. They're doing good. Pretty much my whole family ended up going to highschool graduation for one of my younger cousins tonight. My brother, his wife and my little niece called up to make sure I knew they were taking us out for dinner tonight while everyone else was at graduation. Yummy, yummy steaks...I devoured a ribeye that pretty much melted in my mouth. Deliscious.
All in all it was pretty much a great weekend. I even took the night off from work tonight to relax and enjoy my 30th birthday...They won't miss me for just one day...LOL
A big thanks to my wonderful friends, you know who you are, and my wife for caring enough to make sure I had a nice time to celebrate my birthday. I can't say enough how much you all mean to me. Thanks...
I envy you for seeing shrek 2, i can't wait. Glad you had a good bday.
*j-me