Food, Fourth of July, and Launching Rockets

Wow. It's been a while since Ive posted.... or maybe it just feels like it. I have returned home from my Alabama Rural Ministries mission trip, been to visit friends in Decatur for the 4th, then brought my friend home with us to stay another few days in Birmingham.

ARM was great. We travel about 2.5 hours south of Bham to Tuskegee, AL to do our mission work. Our church (Trinity Methodist) team was divided into smaller teams of 6-7 people. Each of these teams then go to a work site, to do construction and repair work for those who do not have the means to do so themselves. It's a great thing, and this past trip was my 2nd time going.

You know, honestly, I sort of feel like I skipped the 4th. We didnt do anything terribly special or shoot off fireworks or anything. At one point in the day I said to myself "Oh. Its the 4th...".

The shot above is of our meal (well, part of it) on the 4th. Or maybe it was the 3rd. I dont know--either one. We had Beef Carpaccio, which is thinly sliced raw beef, topped with an aioli/horseradish sauce, arugula, and caper berries. It was delicious. I believe the recipe came from Birmingham chef Frank Stitt's new cookbook,  Bottega Favorita. My friends laugh at me when I tell them what we eat on holidays like the 4th, where most just throw some hot dogs on the grill. My parents are foodies. But hey--there's nothing wrong with a good cookout.

I had a good action shot of my friend Manny beating the slices of meat in order to thin them. My dad didnt think to get them sliced at the store when he bought the meat. Anyways-- the photo got lost somewhere in between my memory card and Picasa. I'll see if I cant dig it up.

Manny (my friend who was visiting from Decatur) and I like science stuff. Particularly stuff that flies, explodes, shoots, etc. So, we went to Hobby Lobby, and got a rocket to launch. We got setup with the launch pad, electronic launching thingy, and the rocket itself. We put it together and shot it off on the Shades Cahaba Elementary field yesterday. It was so cool. I posted a video of the launch on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQinPNBugZQ I'm in the blue shirt.

Ha ha-- I'm a total nerd.

-Rip

The Lady at Her Finest

I have returned home from the trip to NYC I took with my church's (Trinity United Methodist) youth choir. We did all sorts of cool stuff--sang at missions, local churches, and toured the city. The first few days were wonderful. 75 degree weather, sun--it was awesome. Then it joined the ranks of Alabama, hitting 90+ degree temps.

I have to be honest, I was really worried about how it would work out with 90 teenagers. But luckily, no one got lost/hurt/..... anything else.  I took this while walking the perimeter of the Statue of Liberty, with the summer sun in the background.

The common disease of summer boredom is encroaching upon me...in May we're all like "Yea! We can sit at home and do nothing all day!" And now we are sitting on the couch passing time by drawing faces on our lesser-liked teachers in the yearbook. I try to avoid that by filling my summer with activities and things... church youth functions, mission trips, beach trips, that sort of thing. We are heading to Gulf Shores, AL this weekend for our annual "Mom's-side-of-the-family-beach-trip". My grandfather rents a big house and we all stay for a week.

Well, I hope all of your summers are going well. You know it literally just dawned on me that adults with most jobs have to work over the summer. Alas, it is something to do.

-Rip

Don't Forget

I feel like sometimes, after a disaster such as the one that struck Alabama in April, people feel sorry and send their best wishes... and then move on. I'm not saying we have to stop dead in our tracks, but I do think that we should continue to pay mind to the on going recontruction. Especially after our attention is being thrown to tornadoes all over the country!

This is a piece of insulation (yes, you heard me) from someone, somewhere's home, that got blown into our front yard after the storm. This is just one of 10-15 bits we've found, ranging in size from 1 to 4 inches in diameter.

Well, I am in NY right now, and wrote this last Friday. So, if my attempt at scheduled post doesnt work, please forgive me.
-Rip

Down the Line

I need to make some serious changes to this blog template. I recently began experimenting with the tab under the template thing that allows you to pick out your own colors.... and, as you can see, not all of them turn out well! I pulled up my blog just a few minutes ago, and realized the atrocity of color combinations that covered the page.

Summer has begun!! It is so nice to know (for the first few days, at least) that you have no where to be at 8 am, no homework to turn in the next day that you dont understand, and no clubs that are putting you on probation because you didnt get up at the crack of dawn that morning to attend their meeting. (I'm not kidding...) This weekend, we are having all kinds of people over, but for the most part, we arent doing anything major the first week.... then, after that, its go go go go! until we realize that its the end of July, and that we have to go to the school to get ready for the next year. I am leaving for NY on our annual Trinity UMC Youth Choir Tour on June 4, so I will try my hand at "pre-posting" as I am calling.

Sigh.... its always the last part of the post before I actually tell you about the photo I'm posting. This is another one from Pepper Place. These lines adorned with clothes pins and price displays are all around!

Walking along, we passed an empty booth....

Ah. That explains it!

-Rip

Perfect Spot....

This little girl had a great setup under her family's table. A few more degrees, and I might have just gone under there and introduced myself...

-Rip

2 More Days....

Seasons: Fruits of Summer

Well, last Sunday's Seasons didnt happen. Sorry about that..... I was viewing my blog, just, for the sake of viewing my blog, and realized that a Sunday had passed since the last Seasons post. Oh well.

Yesterday was my very first visit to Pepper Place downtown B'ham! I have had many opportunities to visit before..... I guess my bed was just too comfy. If you know me at all, you know I am not an early riser. But now, I see what I have been missing! All different sorts of people, with all their different sorts of stuff. I love strawberries, and these nice plump red ones, ripe just in time for summer, had nice perky leaves. I made an attempt to grow strawberries in my little garden last year-- I ended up with one about the size of a dime, and about 5 that some pesky creature had taken a nice bite out of. And they dont even eat the whole thing! Its like they take a little nibble of your strawberry--just enough to ruin it--and then move on to the next one. Anyhow, it miraculously survived the winter with all of its frost and cold (with ZERO care or water other than rain) and produced the same thing this spring. I suppose thats just something I'll leave to the farmers...

I have many other neat shots from Pepper Place I'll be sharing with you soon.

We have THREE! 3! III! TRES! TROIS! days of school left. Oh, I am so ready. I actually hate summer, as in, the season. But, the fact that school is let out makes it a little bit better. It seems like last week that I was shooting the melting frost.

-Rip

A Trip to Ed's...

Ah, Ed's Pet World. I think anyone who lives in the B'ham metro area, Homewood especially, immediately knows what I'm talking about, and why I'm talking about it! You know those photos, that really need only a few words of explanation? Well, this is one of them. I think the elements of the shot pretty much sum up what Ed's is all about.

You've got this 100 year old turtle wondering around the place, (literally...and, with a phone number written on it, mind you)The skulls hanging up top, the golden retriever wandering around looking for a pat on the back, and the a-bit-too-natural fish tanks lining the walls. I hadnt been in Ed's for some years until yesterday. I have recently started a small aquarium, and was looking for a few new male molly fish to join the 3 females I had had for 2 weeks, in hopes of producing molly fry! (I'll keep you posted on that one.)  Anyhow, you could walk around that place for forever! There are so many nooks, crannies, and different sections that you keep discovering new areas of the store and new animals.

Ed's gets a lot of criticism, claiming that it is unsanitary, not responsible, and shouldnt be allowed to keep animals. But in reality, I believe that it is just as, if not more, capable of keeping healthy animals than some of these big chain pet shops. The employees are all very knowledgeable on all the animals, and are eager to help out. So, I will definitely be returning to Ed's for any future fish purchases.

-Rip

P.S.-- As you can see, I have solved my rotation problem!

Seasons: Waiting

Well, I have decided upon my theme day: Seasons. I have been thinking about doing a theme day for quite some time, and have come to the decision of what it was going to be- so, on Sundays, the post will be themed after the changing of the seasons, etc.. One of my favorite things to photograph is the changing of the seasons; wildlife (theres not too much of that here, but...), plants, climate- it all fascinates me. And, its one of my favorite things about Alabama. We have 4 very distinct seasons.

This photo captures what I think is so cool about plants... this rose, somehow knows when its spring, and grows this bud just in time for it to reveal its beautiful colors in April. Just one of those curious things of nature that has always been, and always will be.

Oh, and before I forget, a quick question for my fellow photo bloggers- I have noticed most of your posts have the time "12:01 am" of when they were posted... is this just because you set it to automatically post on a certain day and write it ahead of time? Just a petty thing that is bothering me.

-Rip

P.S. Happy Mothers Day!

I AM still alive...

This photo is from, as you may remember from an earlier post and Birmingham, AL DP, Grayton Beach in Florida. The body of water in the picture is a branch of Western Lake, just about 30 feet from the Gulf. It really is a beautiful place, quite untouched by most development, considering its neighbors Destin and Panama City. We were there last over New Years, but we have at least one trip planned for June/July. My fathers brother's family lives ON western lake- his daughters are Emily and Lucy...one at USF and one headed to NYU! (Congrats to Lucy, by the way, for being excepted into NYU's school of drama... or whatever they call it.) Ya'll probably dont care about that anyhow though....

Well, the title of my post was what it was for a few reasons.
1) I havent made a post in quite sometime, so I appreciate those of you who havent just given up on me entirely.

2) Some horrific tornadoes have devastated much of Alabama in the past week, and I am very happy to say that Homewood (on the southern city limit of B'ham) was not in the path of the storm, although there was a major tornado that touched down just a few miles from us, somewhere in northern Birmingham. I must say, that my outlook on these storms really has changed since this disaster. I mean, in Alabama, its not uncommon for there to be tornado warnings twice a week in April/May. Most of them dont touch down, and if they do, do not cause any widespread damage, so my thought was usually "hey, we get out of school early!". Now, though, I think I will take these storms much more seriously, now that an area that is so close to home has been so devastated. It's just one of those things that no one has any control over. Although, taking proper cover is so important- I have heard stories of people who have been divided into different locations in the home, and those who were in "safe" places in the home (bathrooms, basements, etc.) survived, while those who were not werent so lucky.

Well, that was quite a long post. If you skipped my ranting on storms, I completely understand! =) Its nice to know that somewhere in this world there is peace and tranquility.

Brooklyn Bridge

Something about New York's Broolyn Bridge seduces my photographic eye. My family was dragging me across as we walked west towards manhattan post lunch at a pizza place tucked under the eastern bank. I guess its just my personality, but it does bug me that I cant scoot it to the left a bit and make it symmetrical!! (Thats what you get with impatient family members.....) I was recently introduced to the rule of thirds... something I was slightly ashamed that I wasnt aware of before. (Many thanks to Chieftess!) I think this shot is pretty good considering the guidelines... But I might just be willing my eyes to complement myself. How did I do?

Still working on that theme day......

-Rip

SIDE NOTE:
Join thousand of Americans on April 25, 2011, in silently speaking for the invisible children, forced to fight under Joseph Kony, leader of the rebel army. We will commit to silence for 25 hours, symbolizing the 25 grueling years of Africa's longest running war.

Find out more and register at : http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/25

Wisteria

Our backyard is full of this vine! Talk about invasive... I guess this could be, "the vine that ate the south", except, "but flowered and made things all better." Hey, at least its not kudzu. I debated over whether or not the 2nd one was too busy, or had an interesting background. I still cant decide, but I suppose that I cant be self conscious about every photo I take.

Well, I have just gotten plain jealous, viewing other blogs and their theme days; and I don't have one! Therefore, I am going to brainstorm, and think of a theme for a certain day... for two reasons.
1) I think its something to look forward too.
2) It will give me more motivation to pick up my camera and go shoot.

Has anyone noticed I like lists? Also, have you noticed how many posts I end with "Hmmm..."? I find myself writing about all of these various subjects in my posts, and then by the end, I begin to ponder them. I think my brain and typing fingers have some sort of abnormal communication that I cant seem to control, with the exception of the "backspace" button.

-Rip

You Are Beautiful

The "You Are Beautiful" graffiti slogan is popping up everywhere around Birmingham! I think it's wonderful, and should be an exception to whatever laws go against it. Now, I know this shot isnt very good in picture quality, but it was taken out of a moving vehicle, through the back window. We were headed downtown for something when I noticed it, so when we were heading back to Homewood, I decided I was going to photograph it! But then, I came to the disappointing conclusion that there wasnt any feasible way of doing it without turning around and heading to St. Vincent's hospital in the background. So, I opted for a somewhat risky method, (but safe, considering) of postioning myself in the trunk (SUV) and trying to stabilize my arms enough to take a photo. Sigh...... the things I will do to get a photograph.

 -Rip

Episcopal in Ivy

The old Episcopal Church in Brewton is one of the prettiest around, and covered in that gorgeous ivy.

-Rip