Photo Hunt

I failed miserably for December's Photo Hunt. I knew I wasn't off to a good start when it was the middle of the month and I hadn't taken a single photo. I did take some towards the end of the month but not very satisfied with my results, therefore I am not submitting any photos. I feel like I failed but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. In case you are interested in taking a look at the other participants entries, go to Photo Hunt Challenges and take a look.

One of the categories was a macro shot and I took a picture of my nephew's wrestler action figure and a votive candle holder. The other one was for the ornament category.

Photo Hunt #5

It's time again for another Photo Hunt from Photo Hunt Challenges. I signed up again this month, hoping I'll have time to take some photos in between all the craziness December already brings. Take a look at the list and see if you'd like to sign up too! Go to the website for more details.






Here is the list:

1. 1. Holiday Lights
2. 2. Holiday Spirit
3. 3. A Holiday Treat
4. 4. An Ornament
5. 5. A Gift-Wrapped Package
6. 6. A Window Display
7. 7. A Winter/Holiday Icon
8. 8. A Tree
9. 9. A Tradition
10. 10.Something that says Noel
11. 11. Something Precious
12. 12. Something Peaceful
13. 13. Something Hot
14. 14. Something Cold
15. 15. Something Red
16. 16. Something Green
17. 17. Motion blur
18. 18. Black & White Photo (with selective coloring)
19. 19. Any photo using an Infrared Photography Technique (in-camera OR post-process)
20. 20. A Macro Shot

Photo Hunt Voting

The Photo Hunt Challenges website has now posted all the favorite photos for each category in one post with links to each category for voting. Of the 20 photos, 18 of my photos were selected as favorites. Go take a look at the link below and vote for your favorite photos.

Vote here!

Week in Review

Before I can write about this past weekend's activities, I need to get up to speed with the prior week's events.

Friday, October 22nd:

M and I went out with Chris and Alyssa and Chris and Tanya to the American Legion in Hopkins to go see a band called Headband and to see M's guitarist friend Chris (another one) play for the night. We spent a good majority of the night there and then continued the evening with Chris and Tanya at Legends in NE Mpls. M and I had never been there before and the moment we walked in it smelled like puke. Gross. We went downstairs where they had a DJ and it was better smelling down there. This was the first time we had been out with Chris and Tanya since they had gotten married. M tried on Chris's ring and his wedding gift from Tanya, a Movado watch. I had to take a picture of that because I may never again see a ring on M's finger!

Saturday, October 23rd:

M and I woke up and went out to breakfast at a place in St. Paul called The Copper Dome. When you walk in, it has such a small town feel to it and you would think you are somewhere on the North Shore. There are old antique flour sacks and tins that decorate the whole place. We had read a couple of reviews before going there and one was terrible and one was ok. We had fabulous service and very good food. I would recommend this place to anyone for breakfast. We then headed to the West 7th/Bloomington area to take some photos and went to Fort Snelling State Park. It was a nice park to drive around in and take some photos which some became part of my photo hunt. We saw a few deer while we were in the park and got out of the car to take some photos of them when a couple walked past us and asked what we were attempting to take a picture of. We told her that we say some deer walking around in the woods when she responded, "Oh, been there. Done that a thousand times." Well thanks for your two cents, lady. It was our first time in the park and we weren't going to let her dumb comment discount our time seeing the deer. We drove home and then took a nap for the afternoon. I love Saturday afternoon naps! We ventured out later for dinner at Pepito's before coming back home and going back to bed shortly thereafter.

We took Fuzzer out of the house and let him roll around in the grass. He loved it and kept eating the grass.

Did you know this is a water tower? It's on Snelling and Ford Parkway.

Fort Snelling Park:

Sunday, October 24th:

Vikings vs. Steelers. It was the first loss of the season and while I did not think that the Vikes would have hung in there as well as they did against them, I was impressed with what I saw and realized that the Vikings are a real contender. I cried after they lost but moved on after 30 minutes of being sad. We watched football for the remainder of the evening and called it a night.

Monday, October 25th:

I went over to my sister Jamie's house for dinner. She made delicious tacos. I brought over some Halloween trinkets and treats for Keith and Hunter and Jamie. Keith was very excited to dance for us. He is usually pretty shy and won't let me hear him sing or see him dance or do anything like that so this was a rare event. We both had our camera's so we videotaped a little of it. I recorded 5 vidoes of him but here is the shortest one. The quality isn't the greatest but it's so cute.

After leaving their house, I stopped by a house on the East Side of St. Paul that I saw was all decorated for Halloween. It was pretty cool!

Then I went over to M's cousin Jason's house to check out their annual display of carved pumpkins. We weren't able to join them this year for the carving. The picture quality isn't very good in the dark.

Tuesday, October 28th:

M and I went out to dinner at Norman Quack's. It's a little far for us to travel on a work night just for dinner but we had a $10 gift certificate. I had only been there one other time but I really liked their food. I planned on getting chicken but we ended up going all out and ordering the filet. It was ok but not worth the price in my opinion.

Wednesday, October 27th:

I went to Old Chicago in Roseville to meet my friend from the past. I met up with Garrett, one of my former coworkers who I hadn't seen since at least 2003 but we weren't quite sure on the year. We reconnected on what else than Facebook. Both of our lives have changed quite a bit since we last saw each other and it was very fun to catch up and listen to each other's stories. I had my camera with but I forgot to take a picture. I forget that almost every time I meet someone for dinner.

Well, that about brings me current. My next post of my fun weekend coming soon!

Photo Hunt Results

October's photo hunt is over and I scrambled a little too much this month to complete it but I'm done. I'd love to hear comments about the pictures! I will update you once Kristi chooses her favorite photos from each category to be voted on at a later date. To see all of the other participants, click HERE.

1. A Fall Activity

2. A Fall Treat

3. A Harvest

4. Leaves

5. Fall Colors

6. Something Orange

7. Something Spooky

8. A Cemetery

9. A Costume

10. A Black & White Photo

11. A Critter

12. Symmetry

13. Contrast

14. Texture

15. A Logo/ Mascot

16. Something Neon

17. Something Inspiring

18. Something Entertaining

19. Something Fast

20. Something Slow

Weekend Recap

On Friday night, M and I went out to dinner at Acapulco and then went to see the movie, Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. Before watching this movie, I thought it might turn out to be really cheesy but it was really good and intelligent, and that's not just because Gerard Butler is hot. I recommend this movie.

I woke up on Saturday morning and was more than thrilled to see the sun shining bright. The days are few and far between for the sun this month and we've been more accustomed to cloudy skies and rain. I took advantage of the morning and left the house before M got up and went to the cemetery. I went to visit my grandparent's graves. I love cemeteries and have since about 10th grade. While I am afraid of death, (not for myself but for others) I do not think of death very often in cemeteries but more of history. Cemeteries are one of the most beautiful places on earth and they are fascinating. I especially like the cemetery that my grandparents are buried in. It's probably my favorite. I also went there to try and take some pictures for the photo hunt I am currently working on. After not having a charged battery, it was almost dead so I only took a few. I did see some deer there though. I have only been there one time when I didn't see deer. I hope you don't find the pictures of my grandparents grave stones creepy but interesting.

This Dala horse (Swedish horse) was on the ground. He looked like he fell off of something.

After I got home, M and I went out to breakfast to a cafe in St. Paul. We hadn't been there for awhile and I ended up seeing someone I have successfully avoided for the past 15 years, one of my ex-boyfriends. I don't normally hold grudges in life but there are two people on my grudge list and he's one of them. Here's a good reason why: I met him when I was 17 years old and he was my first BOYFRIEND if you can figure out what I mean by that without me having to say it. He was older than me and I was a naive, young impressionable girl (I still am) and he just hurt me. The best example of that hurt would be when I found out from someone else after he had broken up with me that he was engaged to another girl while we were together. Yeah..... So I saw HIM on Saturday. As far as I know, he didn't see me. Good. Moving on.....

M and I took a little ride in the car later in the afternoon to Tamarack Nature Center and later up to Chisago City, Lindstrom and Center City. M used to live on Chisago Lake with his brother so he took me to look at his old house. All of those towns are so cute and were founded by Swedish immigrants. (P.S. I'm about 75% Swedish-also according to Wikipedia, Minnesota has the most Swedish Americans of any other state) We also went to a pumpkin patch. I've been to places that have pumpkins already cut and ready but this place still had the pumpkins in the...patch. I've never seen that before. It was fun to walk around see all the families picking out their own pumpkin. There was a corn maze that had Wizard of Oz theme but we didn't go in there.

Michael building something with the sticks in the woods-Ok, not really. The sticks were already there. He's just posing with a stick as though he had built it.

Look at that butt... I mean the leaves!

Do you see M way back in between the trees? This was a cemetery and there was one single grave back there.

We got back to our house and I made filet mignon and baked potatoes. We relaxed and watched Saturday Night Live and went to bed and went to the Vikings game on Sunday. I already posted about that here. I hope your weekend was as good as mine!

P.S. Dad, we drove by what used to be Paradise Resort in Chisago. It's partially a park now and some other place to stay or a private residence. It brought back memories you grounding me in a room while we were on vacation. I still don't know what I did. Everyone felt bad for me. I hope you're not still thinking about it after all these years. It's obvious I haven't forgotten. Ha ha. :)