December 13, 2006
63 photos
63 photos
This is the first installment of my many pictures of Costa Rica. I was able to go visit my entire family, although time was too short for such a large one! My abuelita is doing great! We had a scare, but God is good and taking care of her. I was also able to see my papi , who is still as charming as ever! There are just some of the pics of my family that I was able to visit while in C.R. Que disfruten las fotos! Los quiero a todos muchisimo!! Hasta el proximo año!!
November 16, 2006
162 photos
162 photos
I was finally able to make it up to DC to visit Mary Ann and Don while they were packing up and getting ready to ship out to San Diego, California. They're leaving DC, a place that holds so many special memories for MAM and I, and are starting a new life together on the West coast. I'm so excited for you guys!! And while I was there, I was able to visit the new Air Force Memorial. More pictures to come for that... enjoy!
September 25, 2006
100 photos
100 photos
Well, yet again I head off to Colorado. This time to party it up with some of my bestest friends. This time was special though because I got to take Nicol with me, and it was her first time in Colorado. She's hooked! We first headed to Castle Rock (south of Denver) and stayed with Barb! Jim came up and partied with us at the local, hole-in-the-wall, karaoke joint... on Saturday we struggled out of Caste Rock in rainy gloomy weather and headed to Ft. Collins to celebrate Myra's Birthday! So... don't be surprised, but all the pics I got this weekend, were shot in a bar most probably. HA!
September 10, 2006
56 photos
56 photos
Erica, an awesome girl with great legs, is getting married. Yep. Sorry boys. To celebrate, she was taken to dinner (which I couldn't attend) and then to the Piano Bar at DJs Dugout in W. Omaha. For those that have been to "Howl at the Moon" (Florida/Texas), it is bar in which two pianos, facing eachother, rock out the entire night to tunes requested by the customers. There is drunken debauchery on the stage as well, as couples and others are put on stage to celebrate some event. And OH YES, Erica got her 5 minutes of Piano time! Hope you had a great time Erica! We love you and wish you the best in your marriage!! It was a pleasure to spend time with you and all the girls... at least my bar tab reflects the pleasure.
17 photos
17 photos
For the simple folk, when we are departing for unknown parts of the world, we simply want to go out with our close friends and drink. That simple. And if there happens to be karaoke, well... that's fantastic! RAY, our fearless security forces warrior... (HA!) is heading off to KYRGYZSTAN for a long time. For those of you that don't know about it, it is one of the five central asian republics that was part of the Soviet Union and ends in the four letters... "STAN"... (meaning 'land of').... anyways, I get carried away. We wish RAY an awesome journey and pray that he stays safe. Love ya RAY!! Good luck out there...
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September 8, 2006
51 photos
51 photos
I was able to runaway from the stresses of daily life and visit two of my closest friends from college down in the Denver/Colorado Springs area. I was unable to visit so many others though!! *sniffle* Barb, who lives in Castle Rock, was able to show me her Lockheed Martin facility where she works as a "rocket scientist" on different projects dealing with MARS... THANKS BARB!! And Jim took us hiking and then we chilled in his Hot Tub... all in all...a much needed repreive from Nebraska.
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August 18, 2006
62 photos
62 photos
These pics are a bit late in coming... but they are special nonetheless!! Barbie, we f'n love you so much. It was so great to be there to celebrate with you on your birthday... and to celebrate your new "state of being"....!! I think Mandy, Lis, and I cried our hearts out when we found out!! Congrats on everything, and on being one of the coolest chicks I've ever known. You're like a sister to me! LOVE YA!
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August 15, 2006
35 photos
35 photos
a continuation of my Louisiana journey... Jeremy Couvillion (my awesome hairy cousin!!) finally finished his Master's degree in Educational Administration from LSU(is that right, J??)... well, that means he gets to be a principal one day! HA! Thanks to the Hills for being so generous with their home and the beer!
I met and reconnected with some awesome people! And really got my fair share of LSU cheering! Congrats Jeremy!! It was awesome to have the family there!
August 13, 2006
57 photos
57 photos
I recently returned from visiting Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Louisiana. These are photos from the awesome 10-year reunion for Baton Rouge Magnet High School, class of 1996. There were alot of us, and our brilliant event organizers... (toni, lauren, ashley??) decided it should be an OPEN BAR 
! It was held at the Varsity Theater at LSU and was an absolute blast. It was great seeing all of you, and am proud to see all the amazing things everyone has accomplished! Can't wait till the next one!
August 3, 2006
106 photos
106 photos
RIVER RIOT 2006!!! The annual concert was held in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was incredible, about 14,000 people (most of them way younger than me!!), and the line-up was great!!.... Swizzle Tree, Blue October, Yellowcard, Matchbook Romance, Dashboard Confessional, Hawthorne Heights, and 311.... granted, it was infested with youngens trying to grow up too fast... but we had the BEER bracelets... HA! Eyecandy was great though! Amanda, Lisa, and I had a great time... bumping into other people throughout the day. I love you girls, thanks for spending it with me!! Now, enjoy the pictures!! I got all the way up to the front for 311!! OH>>>> and I was able to sneak in my digital camera, and got Swizzle Tree to pose for me!!
July 25, 2006
40 photos
40 photos
Ok, so, our awesome sexy FIREDOG friend... CODY ... is leaving us to join others in Korea.... there was only one thing to do, and that was to take him out, one last time, into downtown. We bar hopped and fed him shots all night! CODY, I wish you weren't leaving, I'm going to miss you so much! .... the night ended at T-Henry's, where I bumped into some other friends of mine. They were quite the wild bunch, so I will have to post some of those pics separately... CODY, GOOD LUCK!!
July 10, 2006
117 photos
117 photos
Alright ladies.... these pics are from two different cameras, taken on Amanda's Bacholertte party night!! We started off at Wheatfields (best strawberry cake ever!!), and then the 15-passenger van took us to downtown! Billy Frogs, T-Henrys, and the MAX... we had some crazy fun! Unfortunately, the camera was retired in order for the dancing at the MAX to occur... so no evidence. Congratulations Amanda, I'm so excited to see so much love in your life with Jeremy! Have a blast in Vegas!! ---- if any of you have any more pics you would like me to add, let me know!
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June 5, 2006
105 photos
105 photos
My cousing Heather and her daughter Lilly came to visit Don and I for four fun filled days!! You won't actually see Lilly in these pictures because she is only 7 months old and therefore of course still in Heather's belly...that you will see!! Hehe. It was so wonderful to have my cousin Heather here with me in DC. We are the same age, partly grew up together (we spent the summers together), and have always been very close. About a year and a half ago I was her maid of honor when she wed her wonderful husband Matt. Now I was able to share in the joy of her first preganancy!! She is so beautiful and definitley has "that glow". This was the first time Heather was able to visit me since I moved here and I am so happy she came when she could share the experience with both me and Don. We took her to NYC for one day and spent the rest of the time in and around DC.
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May 20, 2006
53 photos
53 photos
This evening, as I was coming home to repair my motorcycle battery, I looked up to see a massive fury of black clouds, occassionally licked by orange flames. It appeared to be coming from the roof of an apartment building nestled behind a church and school on 36th Street. Pheasant Apartment Complex.
I immediately grabbed my camera and went to work. Myself and another photographer of the Bellevue Reader were first on site, as far as media goes. I stayed throughout, taking over 350 pictures.
PHEASANT RIDGE APARTMENT COMPLEX. The fire started at around 6:45pm, and quickly spread. There were a number of people with minor injuries, and one man who suffered a heart attack and was sent to the hospital.
If you have any information on the residents, or have any comments concerning this news story, please feel free to leave a comment.
If you would like to use these photographs, please send me an email, and I will get you the full version. These are all minimized, but I have the raw files that are about 1.8MB a piece.
May 15, 2006
I eat meat...
I think meat taste great...
I think, in the right quanities, meat can be part of a healthy diet if a person so chooses...
Eating meat is part of the circle of life for many animals. It doesn't take a genious to turn on discovery channel or even just go into the wild and see that an animal eating another animal is as natural as it gets. Nature is as raw as it is beautiful. Of course in nature, there are natural vegetarians as well as carnivores, and the debate is endless on which variety we humans are "supposed" to be. In other words, what are bodies are designed/evolved for, vegatables only or meat and vegetables.
I personally don't feel the need to take a stand on that debate one way or the other to say that REGARDLESS, we certainly don't need the amount of meat an average american eats!! The health of our bodies does not require meat as the staple of every meal. Though the meat industry loves to propose otherwise "MEAT, IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER"...COME ON!! Alas, meat as the staple of just about every meal is part of our culture, as it is part of many cultures and there are greedy opportunist all over the world that look at animals and only see dollar signs rather than sentient beings. Anyone who has a pet should be able to percieve that animals feel emotion, some are more aware of themselves and their feelings than others, but they are senitent nonetheless.
So, what gives these greedy humans the opportunity to make money off the misery of animals? Well, many factors, but the one directly controlled by all of us is DEMAND, plain and simple. With meat being the staple of every meal for such a vast majority of the worlds population, OUR DEMAND for meat creates the opportunity for profit and a lot of it. The conditions that some animals are kept in for factory farming (among many other) purposes are barbaric and atrocious.
There are far too many variables on this subject to list here. I TRY to make a difference by being mindful of how much meat I eat and where it is coming from. I say "try" because obviously it will take a majority of the population to make a difference. Now, I will also use my website to make posts from time to time on the information I find related to the subject. Especially information that highlights what each of us as individuals can do to make a difference.
If you don't care about the animals then you should at least take this information into account for YOUR OWN HEALTH. Many of the methods used don't just affect the animals but they directly effect you! Think about that antibiotic epidemic possibility you keep hearing about, and all that pollution that seems to be getting worse worse...factory farms are a HUGE contributor to both these issues and in this case what you don't know CAN KILL YOU. The following link is a great animation that uses the matrix as an analogy for a comical but very informative introduction to all the issues that I have only began to touch on....
http://www.themeatrix.com/
and if you want to see video of the real thing, the real deal behind the meat you are eating...
http://www.bancruelfarms.org/
You can close your eyes and turn your head but it is still there, and there IS something you can do. To begin with, reduce the DEMAND and you can help take the opportunity away from the greedy bastards that create these conditions!!
The following is taken from the blog of my local favorite coffee shop, Murky Coffee. It is an example of yet another way animals are being violated at the ignorance of those creating the DEMAND.
The infamous Kopi Luwak coffee.
So in a nutshell, Kopi Luwak is coffee ('rare' and expensive) that has passed through a civet, an feline animal indigenous to Indonesia, where this sh*t comes from. That's right, if you didn't know, 'Kopi Luwak' is recovered from the civet's poo.
"Normal" coffee does go through a fermentation process, which lasts a period of hours. What this civet's digestive tract adds is a unique sort of fermentation.
Now as strangely glamorous or intriguing as this all sounds, the fact is that without knowing how this all started, Kopi Luwak 'farms' have popped up in Indonesia, with caged animals (in horrible conditions) being force-fed coffee beans all day. Those opportunists are looking at feeding coffee cherries to other animals as well. Yuh.
So the moral of the story is, "Friends don't let friends drink poop."