Opryland Hotel

Here are a few shots from our Nashville trip last week when we stopped by the Opryland Hotel.





The entire garden area is inside under a dome, and features a man-made river with boat rides available. We were there on April 1, and were the first ones in line for the boat tour that morning, so we got the historic honor of being the first people to have to pay tax on the boat ride thanks to a change in Tennessee state law.

Hotel Lobby

Again, I have more stuff to post, but just had a busy week and then weekend.

Building and Clouds

Seen on I-65...

...near Elizabethtown, Ky.

Personally, I don't like to buy used because they don't have that "new cow" smell.

Meet Mr. Noodle

My mother's Weimaraner, who is named "Mr. Noodle."

Sorry for the slow posting again, but we've been out of town, and I wasn't about to pay the $8 per day fee to use the wireless Internet service at Embassy Suites. I'll have some Nashville pics I'll be posting over the next couple of days.

A sign of spring?

Rusty

Life is Just A Tire Swing

Reece getting a push from his Pawpaw.

Easter leftovers

Sorry for the slow posting lately. I have some other shots I want to get posted later today, so hopefully I'll get that done.

Happy Easter

My son's Easter Egg hunt at daycare was today, and this squirrel got there early and claimed one of the plastic eggs, which he took back to a tree, and cracked open and helped himself to some M&Ms.

Rosary Beads

One of my co-workers makes all this beaded jewelry, and I occasionally shoot photos of it for her.

Sunrise

This is from Monday morning ... it looks really crappy out today.

Train Show, Part 2

Here are some more pics from the railway show at Greenbo. They had lots of neat stuff for kids as well, including miniature steam engine rides outside.

Train Show, Part 1

We went to a model railroad show at Greenbo Lake on Sunday, and I have to say I was very impressed at how large of an event it was and how many people showed up. Here are some pics.

I was also amazed at the amount of detail that went into some of the setups.

Nails

This is a small portion of what is hundreds of nails in a telephone pole near my daughter's school.

Grate Shot

I think any type of grid-like pattern always makes for an interesting shot. This is the bottom of a popcorn popper that we bought for our movie room. The color cast comes from the machine's built-in incandescent light.

White on Blue

Snow Day

I tried to post these yesterday, but couldn't get the images to upload.

We had some snow over the weekend, maybe three or four inches. The big stuff just missed us, hitting to the north and to the west, but it was still enough for the kids to get out and play a little.




These little guys thought it was safe to come out for spring ... after all, it was in the upper 70s last week.

Lots O' Bears

Sorry for the slow posting, but we've been in clearing out mode in our bonus/junk to try and make it useable space again. That's where this shot comes in. My wife had a whole box of Boyd's Bears that we're selling on eBay. They were just tucked away in a box, and we're trying to cut down on clutter and other stuff we don't use at our house.

My Tribute to Gary Gygax

O.K., I'll admit it. I was (make that am) a Dungeons and Dragons nerd. I spent countless hours as a teenager playing the game, so when I heard yesterday about the game's creator, Gary Gygax, passing away at age 69, I thought I'd drag out some of the few items I have left and take a tribute photo of sorts.

Stairs

Lake Trip

It was a beautiful day here, mid-70s and mostly sunny, so this evening we had dinner at Grayson Lake and let the kids play for a while. Here are a few pics from the trip.

State Swim Meet

Today and tomorrow are the YMCA state championships. Kenzie swam awesome today, beating her best times in three events, and finishing fourth overall in backstroke and seventh overall in individual medley. She was in the top five overall in freestyle, but they didn't have the final results posted when we left, so I'm not sure exactly where she finished in that one. I'll post a link to all my state championship photos later on when I get them all online. For now, here's two.

Green Grid

This is the ceiling of an elevator with florescent lights behind a chrome grid. I snapped a quick photo, leaving the white balance on "auto" and it didn't compensate for the color temperature and left the lights a slightly green tint. I bumped up the saturation in photoshop, and it turned them bright green, giving what I think is a neat effect.

Breakfast

Our daughter was being all cute this morning, as we found this on the counter when we got up.

More Pet Shop blogging

Swim Chicks

Here's a shot I did today for an ad in the state YMCA swim championships program that we're hosting in Ashland next weekend. My daughter is on the left.

Ice Storm

We had some freezing rain this morning. The first photo is similar one I shot last year where the ice had formed around a leaf, and then the leaf broke free leaving an ice mold.