Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Paul and I's Wedding
featured on Off Beat Bride!

So this is SUPER cool....
I submitted a few photos of Paul and I's wedding to Offbeat Bride last week and tonight/this morning I discovered this:

And then this:

Pretty sweeeeet, huh?!

Here's the direct link to my bride profile.

Thanks Ariel for featuring us on your site! Your book was really helpful and a great read - and your OffBeat Bride site was super inspirational. Nathan - once again - thanks for providing us with such kick-butt wedding photography!! And Justin - for all the beautiful portraits and reception photos. And thank you to everyone (especially friends and family for the countless hours of indentured servitude) for helping us with our incredibly offbeat and extremely memorable wedding! We love you all.

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Monday, October 27, 2008

Florence Renaissance Festival &
Angela's Halloween Party

Paul and I made it to the Florence Renaissance Festival this past Saturday. Hadn't gotten to go in a couple of years so it was nice to finally make it back. Its definitely grown a bit since last time; there are quite a few more vendors. We mowed down on a couple turkey legs and then wandered around taking in all the sights.

Various hilts from swords from a historical group that does some of the sword fight acts and a general information talk on life in the middle ages which is really quite interesting. I ended up carrying my practice foil actually - it added a nice touch to my outfit.


LifeSouth had a blood drive going on one of the blocked-off streets.


Loved this sign!


Water glass music is beautiful and eerie all at the same time.


A set of pretty little dolls one of the vendors had.


A random stranger asked if she could take some photo of us while we were talking to a friend which was kinda funny - I guess the three of us all had good outfits? She wanted me to look longingly at Paul... but no touching - because guys and gals weren't aloud to touch in public back then. She was really nice so we obliged. And then had our friend snap a photo of us together - which was cool - because we don't usually have anyone to take pictures of the two of us.


Later that day we joined the crowd at Angela's Halloween party only to discover Captain Ohad Sparrow...


Batwoman and her demon (whom we had to keep pulling back from the bonfire...poor thing...)


And a very Piratey crew... (for somereason 1/2 the attendees were dressed up like pirates - completely unplanned which made it all the funnier!)
ARRRRRRRRRRRRGG!!

My folks just came into town this afternoon and in a couple days it'll be my Dad's birthday - so I'm sure I'll post more photos soon!

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Friday, October 24, 2008

New Links & Feedback

Over the past week I have discovered and added quite a few caving & misc links to this site. If anyone has caving - or just a cool site folks would enjoy - please give me the address in the comment section below this post and I'd be happy to add it!

Other than that I have a question. What's your favorite website or blog? Is there one you feel you have to read on a weekly or even daily basis and why?

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Ugliest Thing Ever Award

I'm officially giving this the Ugliest Thing Ever Award.

I believe this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. So ugly in fact that I felt the need to covertly photograph it and warn people about it - lest it jump out at you when you least expect it. A molded burl chicken?! It isn't even real burl - not that wood would naturally grow in the shape of a chicken or anything - but I feel very sorry for the poor Chinese worker who had to waste part of his or her life pouring the mold and then painting this horrible monstrosity - only to have Hobby Lobby slap it on one of their shelves for $39.99!

Seriously... $39.99? A frackin' burl chicken?! You couldn't PAY ME to take this thing home! I think I'm going to go get ill now.

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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

TAG Fall Cave-In 2008


Well I for one had an incredibly awesome TAG (albeit minus Paul - which was sucky - everyone missed you Paul!) TAG is always the highlight of the fall season for me. I can think of nothing more fun than camping, caving and staying up till all hours for 4 days with friends. And this one especially seemed to be jam packed with coolness...

Camping is always cool (especially when it doesn't rain - and this is the 1st TAG I've been to where we did not have rain!)

Discovering cute little slimey salamanders under logs while hunting for fire wood is cool.


Helmet shopping with Tommy is cool.... and funny.


Ridiculously bright lights are always fun. (3 compact floursecents taped to a helmet + battery + inverter = comments like "DANG!" and "What the hell?" and "Is that the sun?" and "Where can I get one of those?" followed by lots of explanations of how its just a joke - that its for cave photography) And then getting to play photographer while Nathan gets to be in front of the camera for once was quite nice also.


Late night "crafts" are cool.


Nathan showed Andrew, Vic, Ohad JR and I how to make a soda can stove. I'm thinking I might do a tutorial on this later on - now that I know how to make one.

Camping still lifes are always cool - especially when they incorporate plastic squid, sausage, rubber dinosaurs and bananas.


Weddings (like Tiny and Nikky's wedding on Friday) are cool . The ceremony was Friday at an overlook in Cloudland State Park - perfect weather - a happy, beautiful bride and handsome groom - lots of nice friends and family - some tunes & some food. I didn't get to take any pictures since I was in the the wedding...so you'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful - or ask Nathan since he took all the photography. I did snap this one photo of Nikky in her fun veil with Nathan and Brent. Congrats Tiny and Nikky!!


The SCCi making the announcement Friday night that they've got Fern was frickin' WAY COOL!

Seeing the shirt I designed for Fern Cave being worn by masses of happy cavers is super cool too! Learning that they sold out of the shirts - ever better!

Friends you don't get to see that often mixed with friends that you do mixed with old friends and some new friends are all definitely cool.

Vic, JR, Nathan, Andrew, Joe and I

Tony and Chris

Me, Geoffrey, Andrew, Jennifer, Brandy, Donovan, Nathan (what the...? uh...where exactly is your other hand?!) and Steve

Ok now that's a bit better.

Annette, Nathan and Kelli at the NSS tent.

The Pope, Tommy, Michelle and Bruce during our Huntsville Grotto potluck.

Steve, Roger, Jim, Gerald and Avis too.

Geoffrey, Michelle and Phillip around our campfire.


Toni (Will you braid my hair?), Tony and Ohad also around the campfire Saturday night.


Everyone on Saturday night waiting for the festivities to begin.


A Huge "TAG" hanging up at registration is cool.


Hairbraid tug-of-war in the SCCi booth between Geoffrey and Nathan - cool.


Full sized pool tables are cool - especially in the middle of the woods.


Getting to watch "Vertical Bill" climb is cool.


Walter Cronkite impressions are always cool.



Winning 150' of PMI rope for frogging 30 meters in 2min 29sec is cool.


Huge TAG bonfires are always cool.



Giving two pairs of my favorite but unwearable caving boots a good send off (onto the TAG boot funeral pyre) is very cool. (Brent, Nathan, Brandy and Steve C. had the honor of the boot flinging. Thanks guys!)

This would be a really blurry me chucking the first boot in.

Brent is attempting to chuck the last boot in... this last boot took like 5 tries before we got it in.

3 am ice water fights are cool! (sorry no pics of that...I was too busy running and tossing ice water) but I think a few folks in the grotto can attest to hearing the maham.

Michelle and Vic putting out the fire and having to say goodbye to a bunch of friends... kinda a bummer... but still cool - hugs and waves all around. And a good cave trip was still ahead too...


Running over friends on the way out... I mean - Andrew goofing off that we'd hit him...cool.


And of course cave trips, like the one we took on Sunday to Guess Creek, are always cool - especially with massive doses of sleep deprived sillyness at the back of the line. I think we were bordering on the Three Stooges... if only we'd added the "nuk nuks" I think we would have had the routine down. And of course taping when no one knows you're taping... that's particularly cool.



38 foot waterfalls are cool too - even if you guys couldn't see it. (Look on Nathan's Flickr site over the next couple days for the nice pictures of the waterfall and some other pretties from Guess Creek Cave)



Then there's Joe's - a Joe's Pizza picnic is a very very cool ending to a phenomenally fun filled TAG weekend. (Try saying that one 3 times fast!)

Walter Cronkite impressions - again - very cool.



(HA ha! Made you look! So does it count?)

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Friday, October 10, 2008

Surprise!


So right about now the SCCi booth at TAG should be all a twitter with the latest new cave acquisition. And this particular one is especially important for me - seeing as how I survey in this cave once a month (2 years - 30 trips to date) with a awesome group of cavers (Steve, Jennifer, Jimmy, Brent, Steve C. to name a few) dedicated to conservation & seeing the resurvey through. The SCCi has finally been able to convince the land owners to not just lease - but purchase the Fern Sink entrance of Fern Cave - home of Surprise pit - the the deepest pit in Alabama at 437'. I was lucky enough to learn about the property buy early because of my survey involvement and subsequently lent the SCCi my graphic design skills, designing an 18x25 advertisement poster and the new (and very differently styled) shirts. I'm pretty thrilled that I got to play a small part in helping. And I know I'll have a really geeky graphic designer "look that's my shirt your're wearing!" smile on my face the whole weekend.



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Tuesday, October 07, 2008

ACKD 2008


Presenting the 2008 t-shirt design for Ancient City Kids Day - a one day festival for kids held in St. Augustine, Florida every October. Its crazy to think I've been doing their shirt logos for 8 years now! In 2000 my senior design portfolio class at Flagler College held a competition for a logo - and they chose my mosaic design, and had it printed on a shirt. I've been doing the shirt every year since. Every year a committe chooses an iconic St. Augustine feature. Past years included the light house, the city gate, the beach and the Bridge of Lions.


I was very excited to learn they chose Flagler College for this years design. I wanted to pull out all the stops so while I was in Florida last month I was able to stop off and shoot my own photos for my alma mater-themed shirt design. I always loved the lions, and I think they translated rather well into mosaic.



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