Throwback Thursday: Scans from Los Angeles

  Today's "throwback" is going to focus on photos I took on vacations around Los Angeles and California back in 1987 and 1994. I didn't take as many photos back then because, well I couldn't afford the film in the age before digital. I didn't know what would come out, you couldn't just "delete" photos you didn't like, and there were times that rolls of film didn't get developed(due to lack of money) and/or just got lost.

Quick Trip down the Bristol-Memphis Highway

  A week or so ago, we took a "quick" trip to Sevierville to pick up Mom for something-er-other. I put "quick" in quotation marks because "quick" would mean the 3 hour ride along Interstate 40. But we actually had most of Sunday so we took Highway 70, the old Bristol-Memphis Highway, roughly from

Signs, Everywhere Signs, Old Motel Signs

Another "sign" that I was born in the wrong decade(or perhaps have intense feelings from past lives), is the feeling I get when seeing old motel signs. There almost isn't anything that evokes life on the road quite like a kitschy and googie architectured motel sign. The giant arrows, "vacancy" neon, and bright colors-all now fading into nothingness. The old "motor hotels" along Route 66, Dixie Highway and other roads that were the interstate before the interstate. There aren't many left so I try to get snapshots when I can. New motel/hotel signs are so boring now. 

Give me the past anyday.

Etowah Motel in Etowah, Tennessee. I've been told it's gone now.

Scenic Motel, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

411 Motel, Maryville, Tennessee

Tuckaleechee Village, Townsend, Tennessee

Canal Motel, Old Route 66, Chain of Rocks, Illinois

Bel-Aire Manor Motel, Old Route 66 Springfield, Illinois

Overton Motel, Livingston, Tennessee

Sands Motel, Van Horn, Texas

Bridgeway Motel, Smithville, Tennessee

Ragland Motel, Indian Mound, Tennessee

Sonny Gray Number Retired

  On  Thursday night, Sonny Gray, pitcher for the Oakland Athletics, had his high school number retired. He returned home to Smyrna for the ceremony that took place during half time of the Smyrna Bulldogs-Riverdale Warriors game.

  After the ceremony, in which it was stated that the #2 uniform would still be used by players who are deemed worthy by showing excellence on and off the field, Sonny was interviewed by several local news stations

  He smiled and waved and interacted with the student section of the stands.

  And then he stopped for a group who wanted 'selfies' with him. He also signed a few autographs(including signing my game program!). 

  Thanks for coming home Sonny! Too bad the Bulldogs lost the game 42-20. 

Foodie Friday: All Pumpkin, All The Time!

  I would like to start this post by stating that I am not a regular "foody" or "foodie" nor do I intend to post lots of food type entries. In fact, I am quite a picky eater, so unless you are looking for blog posts about food that absolutely stays away from onions, peppers, most other veggies, and pretty much anything but macaroni & cheese, then this is not the place for you. However, I love me some pumpkin! Today I am going to review some of the many pumpkin/pumpkin spice flavored items that I have come across since they started hitting the store shelves.

  Pictured above we have Entenmann's Little Bites Pumpkin Muffins, Entenmann's Pumpkin Donuts, Pop Tarts, Oreo, Little Debbie's Delights cookies, M&Ms, and Kisses. There will be more that are not pictured here. So let's get to the reviews!


Entenmann's Little Bits Muffins: Sweet small muffins, about 5 to a pouch. Very moist, just enough for a tasty snack.

Entenmann's Donuts: Cake donuts, more on the spice flavor side. Moist and delicious. I love these quite a bit, should probably buy up a bunch more before they are gone!

Pop Tarts: I know pop tarts aren't the greatest breakfast, but when in a rush I don't really care about nutrition. These are really good, good flavor and filling, I usually can't finish both in the pack.

Little Debbie's Delights: Heavy on the spice side, I can barely handle more than one at a time-and they aren't very big. But for those times I want a heavy shot of pumpkin spice, these do nicely.

Hershey Kisses: Creamy, melt in your mouth pumpkin goodness. Also on the sweet side so I rarely eat more than 1 or 2 at a time. Yummy, Kisses can almost do no wrong.

M&Ms: Well, I didn't get a chance to try these as they went into a care package for my Marine nephew who was just coming home from deployment. Haven't been able to find another package since then. I'm sure they are good, they are M&Ms!

Not pictured:

Planter's Pumpkin Spice Almonds: Not a huge fan of almonds, but I do like these. Heavy on the spice side, I can only chomp a few at a time, the kiddo LOVES them.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies: Melt in your mouth, so good. In fact the bottom few had pretty much melted together into a mass of cheesecake pumpkin-y goodness.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Spice Milano: Sadly, this was the one pumpkin thing I found that I really hated. Honestly, to me they tasted like I was eating the bottom of a shoe. Ick.

Bigelow Pumpkin Spice Autumn Spice Tea: Seriously, why aren't these available all year round? Smooth tea with just a hint really, not overwhelming pumpkin flavor. Almost a cider. Yummy.

Pillsbury Grands Cinnabon Pumpkin Spice Rolls: Heaven for breakfast. Just like cinnamon buns should be-quite messy. But melt in your mouth goodness.

Pillsbury Toaster Strudels Pumpkin Pie: I'm not a huge fan of the "toaster strudel" concept, they seem to get too messy in the toaster and microwave just doesn't work. Still they are good, just not something I would go out of my way for, Pop Tarts are easier to deal with.

Yoplait Lite Pumpkin Pie Yogurt: Again, why can't these be available all year? I would eat yogurt like crazy if this was a choice all year! This and any chocolate flavors, of course. Creamy, not too sweet. Really good.

YoCrunch Pumpkin Pie with Pie Crust Topping: Not as good as the regular version. Way too tangy. I mean I will eat the others in the fridge, but these were not a fave.



 And that's it for now. I have some more pumpkin flavored baked items to make, waiting for time with the kiddo to do that. And I can't say I've tried the pumpkin beer, perhaps I should get hubby to get just one for my to try. I can't even imagine what that would taste like! And as ever, I will keep my eyes peeled at the store for more pumpkin goodness and gosh darnit why can't this all be available year round!!

Travel Photos Tuesday: San Antonio, Texas

  Slowly but surely working through all the photos that we took on our major trek in 2013. Gosh it's hard to believe it's been that long ago already. So anxious for another real trip!

 Today's photos are from our day in San Antonio, Texas.

First up is the Alamo, of course.


Then we visited the lesser known missions all located south of the Alamo. This is Mission San Jose


Mission San Juan Capistrano(no, not *that* one! that's in California)


Mission Concepcion


Mission San Francisco


And then we are at Texas Pride Barbecue, best damn BBQ sandwich I've EVER had!

30 Days Project from Fall Break

Last week was Fall Break for kiddo at school, so I spent loads of time with her doing what she wanted to do. I took only a few minutes out of each day to grab my photo, but no time to actually upload pictures from camera to computer, photoshop and move to Flickr. Today is Monday, back to school, and back to regular routine of posting. So here are last week's photos from the 30 Days Project.

Day 7 Sunset
   Taken of a reflection in the window after taking a dozen shots of looking at a rather boring view from my back porch.


Day 8 Bathroom
 Nothing interesting in our bathrooms, so this is kiddo's fingernail polish


Day 9 Back Yard
  Walnut tree in the back yard, nothing else to see here!


Day 10 Children
  I don't post photos of my kiddo, at least not where you can see her face, it's just a thing I've chosen to do from when she was young. So this is her posing with her new wolf hat/paws thing.


Day 11 Building
  Couldn't get out of the house to photograph something interesting, so this is the gutter on our house from an interesting angle


Day 12 Junk Drawer
 Stuff from my computer drawer


Upcoming subjects: Macro, Rule of Thirds, Patterns, Action, Nature and Landscape. Some of these are going to be rather difficult!

Throwback Thursday: Classic Cars Need Some ID!

 Well they weren't classic at the time!

I have no idea what these two cars are, but the writing my mom put on the back says "Barstow Motel 1969". That's me on the bouncy horse.

Me hanging out of my dad's car, "Somewhere in Nevada 1969", perhaps a Gran Torino?

Station Wagon, this one might even be before I was born taken by my mom in the early 60s(maybe even late 50s?), possibly out in the desert near Barstow, California.

  I know these aren't technically "mine" since I didn't take them, but I am IN two of them, and they were all taken by my mom or dad. And I've been wanting to post them for so long in hopes of getting an identification on the cars!

Weird Wednesday: Bacon Soda

     With the bacon craze going on right now, I'm not really surprised at anything I see in bacon "flavor". While visiting Colonial Williamsburg last year, we found bacon bandaids, bacon toothpicks, bacon gum, among other things. And then there was the Bacon Soda. We simply could not pass this one up. So while getting our local root beer and ginger ale fixes, we got one bottle of the bacon soda. Unfortunately, I suppose, it tasted absolutely awful! The kiddo actually fondly recalls it tasting like "fizzy barf". Yeah, something like that.

    I know Jones Soda makes some really disgusting sounding sodas at different times of the year(I've yet to try any of them), but this soda is made by Lester's Fixins which I think is a product of The Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shops. And it looks like they have other "interesting" flavors of soda. But I don't think I want to try any of them!

Thirty Days Project, 2nd addition

 More photos added today from the first week of my 30 day challenge to become a better photographer.

Day 4 Fence
  Taken at a band competition in Hartselle, Alabama


Day 5 Animal
 Panda watching birds


Day 6 Water
  Changed from sunset because it's going to rain all week. I've always wanted to try this. Took quite awhile to get right, and the quality sucks because my camera sucks, but I did it anyway.

Thirty Day Photography Project

 I've tried the 365 day projects-twice-but things keep coming up and I'm just not able to finish them. I admire those who can stick to taking unique photos every single day. I just don't get out enough, and I'm kind of sick of trying to look at stuff around my house in some different way.

 That said, I did come across a 30 day project( Take Better Photos in 30 Days) and thought I might try it for the month of October.

  As is typical for my photo projects, it is easier for me to actually take the photos each day, but I can't always upload each day's photo right away. I don't have a smart phone, don't have any mobile sort of way to access the internet, if I am out of town there is no way to get things posted in a timely manner. I can also, yes, be rather lazy and procrastinate.

  One other note, I really don't expect to be a better photographer after these 30 days are up. Maybe if someone actually looked at my photos and told me what I'm doing wrong, I might be able to learn from my mistakes. Otherwise I just keep making the same mistakes and taking the same crappy photos. And I would LOVE to "reward" myself at the end with a new camera(especially since the only camera I really use right now, my Canon XTi, is more than 6 years old and can't seem to focus for $hi*) but making big purchases is not in my control and I doubt we can afford to pop a thousand bucks(or more) for a new camera and lenses. I'll just have to keep on keepin on with the potato I currently use.

  Posting the first three photos here today, will post more later in the week(having Comcast issues today as well).

DAY #1 FOOD
  Candy Corn seemed the perfect way to open up the month of October.




DAY #2 SELFIE
 This is as selfie as I get. There shall be no photos taken of me, for I would probably break the camera.


DAY #3 SUNRISE
 It's tough to get a sunrise when it's cloudy and you are busy at that exact time trying to get a kid ready for school. Taken in the school's parking lot.

More Day 2 from last vacation: Around Houston

San Jacinto Monument

James Coney Island, Pasadena. One of the many food places I miss in Houston and Texas.
Houston skyline

Ugly Reliant and my Beloved Astrodome. 

Historic Union Station, now attached to the new Astros stadium, downtown

Pause...Unpause

    I might be getting good at writing these "whoops, I'm back because I forgot about my blog" posts. I don't always mean to just up and stop writing, there's always a reason, even if it's not a good one or perhaps it is several. It's been over a year and I really don't remember why I stopped this time. It usually starts with missing a day due to circumstances beyond my control. Then a week goes by and when I log in, they want my password but I can't be bothered to look where I wrote it down. Then a few weeks go by and I become entrenched in the thought that "who cares really, nobody looks at my blog anyway". And that thought gets deeper and deeper.
   I admit, I dabbled with Tumblr. Seemed easy to post, but there eventually there were too many things I just didn't like about it. Doesn't work well with Twitter. Too much "fandom", not enough thoughtful history(though I found a few really interesting ones to follow, I didn't feel like I was adding much). Lots of followers seem to be porn blogs(?!?).
   I still add and add to Flickr. Not as much "new", more and more "go through old photos and do a better photoshop on them." I've tried taking Lego photos, but I am God-awful at that, and have no creativity whatsoever when it comes to building with Lego. Love the sets and the little figures, no imagination.
  But I still play World of Warcraft. A lot. And I read Twitter, though I don't post there much. I once read that "certain people" post about themselves too much and you should always be using Twitter to talk about others. Uhh, whatever. I'm no narcissist, I mean I'm like the total opposite in that I absolutely HATE myself, but I still like to talk about what things about myself *might* be interesting or weird, just in case there happens to be some other weirdo out there who is just as weird as I am. And occasionally I come across someone who seems to be a kindred spirit and I sort of stalk them because I am way too afraid to actually say "hey I like all those weird things too! Creepy huh?!?"

 So I will go back to posting photos here. I suppose I should go back and finish posting photos from our vacation last year. I'd love to do a 'current and up to date of what I'm doing and seeing blog', but that would mostly consist of me saying "woke up, got kiddo to school, played WoW, picked up kiddo, made dinner, watched tv, went to bed." Every. Damn. Day. No joke.
  I will post photos of things if I do happen to do something interesting. And I will link to Twitter. And I will post old photos. I *am* working on a 30-day project, so I might post those photos. And if you have ANY thoughts or requests or suggestions, please do tell in the comments or on Twitter. I might even post a poll(if I can figure out how) because I might go the old route of "subject of the day" thing (think 'Throwback Thursday', etc). Who knows?!!?

  Some questions...
   Do you want to know more about what cameras(really crappy ones) I have?
   Do you want to know where all I've been?
   Do you want to see really old scanned photos, historic places, or artistic stuff?
   Do you care if there is lots of stuff to read or --post only photos damn it, I ain't got time to read--!

Thanks for reading, everyone only wants to know they are noticed. If we aren't noticed, that's when we cease to exist.