Bridges of Johnson County...Part 3 (34 of 365)

As pointed out by a few of my friends, I apparently have a fascination with bridges. Oh well, enjoy it!


Over my lunch break, I met up with a few friends and we made our way to Sapling Grove Park. Being that we were "new" to the area and looking out for hot spots to get away from the office during lunch, we where trying out different parks and restaurants and found this.


I snapped this quick picture with my Nexus One on our way back to the car on 04.14.2010.

Fresh New Start (33 of 365)

Here we are back at the grind again. I'm finally getting the chance to update a few photos that have been sitting in Picasa waiting to be talked about!

This particular one is nothing too fancy, but it serves as a special landmark in my working career. The company I work for recently moved into this much larger building, like 4x bigger! In the photo we are having the company name put on the side of the building. Now this may not seem like anything incredible, but even through all the economy troubles we moved into a newer, larger building, hired 80+ new employees (and counting),  handing out promotions + raises, and we even recently acquired another company!

I snapped this photograph over my lunch break on 04.14.2010, with my Nexus One.

A Night on the Town (32 of 365)

I got together with a few friends for a night out where we met up at a Mexican restaurant for dinner then went to the Rio, which is one the few single screen movie theaters left. Kinda like the dive bar of theaters, only we had to be some of the youngest in the crowd, ha!

We went to go see Män som hatar kvinnor (U.S. title - Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) as you can see from the picture. It was a pretty good movie and is the first in a book-to-movie trilogy from the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. I have not read the books but have heard great things about them as well.

I snapped this photograph after the show with my Nexus One.

Spring is finally here! (31 of 365)

Ya I know my titles might be a little out of date, but I'm catching up remember?

I took this photo in April when the snow finally melted away and the trees and flowers started to bud. I do really like the winter but there is something about spring that gives way to all kinds of good photos!

This photograph was taken on my Nexus One. You may recognize the large rock and the decorative river rock from one of my first posts where they were covered in snow.

Easter, Time for Chocolate Bunnies and Fake Plastic Grass (30 of 365)

This Easter was a little rushed and a blur, but I spent some time with my family, playing games, going to the movies, and finding these "Helpful Hints" on the egg coloring set very helpful in figuring out what to do first, ha!

This was a quick photo I took with my Nexus One and had to share. Kudos goes to my youngest sister for catching this one!

Family weekend! (29 of 365)

I got together with my family for a movie weekend back in the beginning of April. The guys went to go see Hot Tub Time Machine and the girls went to go see that new Miley Cyrus movie...The Last Song.

I would totally recommend going to see HTTM if you haven't already (if it still is in theaters this is), if not, queue that up on Netflix yo!

This fun photo was taken with my Nexus One on the way out of the movie theater to dinner at Old Chicago, yum!

Dancing For No One (28 of 365)

Yes, back finally from my month-ish long vacation and ready to get back into keeping up with my photo challenge. I have been taking photos the whole time so I should have enough to catch-up. Sorry ahead of time for the barrage of posts! ;)

This photo was taken back on April 1st when I got together with a couple friends at Houlihan's...the dance floor was totally empty! Good thing there was Texas Long Islands and friends!

This photograph was taken with my Nexus One while I was enjoying my Texas Long Island. For those who don't know: Texas Long Island (only made the size of a pitcher...to myself!)

Again with the traffic signals? (27 of 365)

Ya I know, when I get on a kick I might have a few themed pictures in a row. Anyways, I snapped this photograph when I was running around town and was inspired by the latest episode of Castle. Already in its second season, Castle is one of my favorite shows lately. Being a Nathan Fillion fan, I could not pass it up! Turns out there has not been an episode I did not like. The show is like a funny CSI where they bring the all the science stuff with a touch of layman humor drizzled on top.

I snapped this with my Nexus One out and about town. It is a reverse of what was in the episode though. When coming back from the commercial (or starting the next scene) the camera starts out on the arrow then pans up to the cast. I dunno why but I liked that shot so much I had to find my own!

Stop...Here? (26 of 365)

"I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva, I'm gonna go go go there's no stopping me..."

Classic song by an awesome group. Although I have a few others of their tracks that are more of my favorites, this song seems to fit today's photograph.

Obviously this is a place where you are supposed to stop before proceeding with your vehicle, but I wanted to post this for its uniqueness and as a reminder to a lot of us. We see these everyday but this one caught me off guard when I noticed the arrow included with the traffic signal. It is just barely squeezed between the word "STOP" and the stop line, so it begs one to wonder if it was really necessary or if the stop traffic signals were added as an after thought? These sorts of things keep me awake at night, ha!

This photograph was taken with my Nexus One as I was cruising around the city this afternoon. Oh, and for those of you who are still stuck on the artist and the song from the beginning of the post, Don't Stop Me Now - Queen.

Moon Over The Dunes (25 of 365)

The weather has become better and the skies have cleared. One way you can tell is in the mornings 435 highway headed East-bound is backed up because people cannot seem to remember that the sun rises from that direction and they do not bother to put their sun visor down or wear sun glasses so they drive really, REALLY slow. Sorry, I went off on a little rant about how bad the drivers are here, I digress.

Anyways, the weather clearing up has also brought clear, beautiful nights. This is a look over one of the buildings in my apartment complex with the full moon, also known as the Worm Moon or the Lenten Moon, hanging just above the city. This photograph was taken on my Nexus One looking East over my apartment complex and the city.

The Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything (24 of 365)

A tribute to the newest website of a buddy of mine,  TwentyOneTimesTwo.com. This is also a tribute to one of the greatest books, radio shows, television shows, and movies of all time...The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you have not read, listened, or watched anything related to Hitchhiker's Guide where have you been?!?!

This photograph is taken of my washing machine with my Nexus One the other night when I was catching up on laundry and not posting, ya I know, I already slapped myself on the wrist, ha!

To see a fun easter egg from Google's search and calculator tool, check this out: http://goo.gl/kFBb

It's a Jungle in Here! (23 of 365)

As I have mentioned before, I have quite a few plants sitting around my apartment. This is a peace lily that I have sitting on my end table that looks outside trying to grab all the sun that it can.

This was taken with my Nexus One when I was taking a peak outside from my couch this morning. I cannot wait for my lily to bloom again!

Checking For Trolls (22 of 365)

Went for a walk over lunch today with a couple of friends from work. One of the last few times we will be able to do this over lunch until our company moves to a new building. Sometime in the first week of April we are moving from Leawood to Lenexa, not a huge move but a bigger building and I'm sure a lot of other benefits to the company than I know to list.

This trail is within walking distance from our Leawood office and is called the Indian Creek Bike Trail and goes through Foxhill South Park. A perfect place for sitting outside and enjoying the sun over lunch break.

This photograph was taken with my Nexus One of the 435 Highway bridge that crosses over the Indian Creek Bike Trail and Indian Creek.

Bridges of Johnson County...Part 2 (21 of 365)

I was pretty rushed today so I did not really have much chance to be inspired and grab a snapshot of anything, so I'm bending the rules again and bringing up another photo from the nature walk on 03.21.2010.

Using the monochrome setting on my XSi and the 18-55mm lens, I snapped this photograph of the bridge I talked about in an earlier post. A good friend once said, after looking through photographs I had taken, that I have a thing for vanishing points. What can I say...it is the truth!

C is for Cookie (20 of 365)

"C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me, yeah!"

Wow, I have not watched that show in forever! Totally takes you back, huh? It is pretty funny too how this show, of all kids shows, is still cool to watch no matter how old you are. Either that or it is just what I keep telling myself, ha!

I was invited to help decorate these dinosaur cookies and thought I would share how cool they turned out. Looks like scientists totally had it wrong, pterodactyls and velociraptors were really polka-dotted and stripped! Who needs feathers or fur when you look this cool?

This photograph was taken with my Nexus One using the human zoom feature, gotcha! For those of you who are still singing the Cookie Monster song in your head, here is the music video for "C is for Cookie" from YouTube.

April showers are on their way! (19 of 365)

With this last snowfall the water levels have caused many bodies of water to rise like this one. This is Indian Creek near 103rd St. and State Line Road. Basically Jaspers, where you can find a great Italian meal.

In some areas this water was so deep that in spots where you can normally step across into the creek, was covered by a few inches of water! There were also a few other parts of the creek that had water rushing so fast that it would have been doubtful that anyone would not come out without a few scratches.

Believe it or not, this photograph was taken with my Nexus One. It has officially turned into my main point-n-shoot camera with the quality and abilities that it has and not to mention the fact that it is my phone, which is with me all the time!

Bridges of Johnson County (18 of 365)

Being that I was not feeling the best yesterday afternoon, and happened to pass out early, I did not get the chance to upload a picture of the day. I am making it up for all those who missed out.

This is the Prairie Star Parkway overpass which crosses over the bike trail I mentioned in my post from Sunday. This overpass is very well built and looks very pretty lit up at night. Another neat feature this bridge has is an anti-ice system. With a large creek, two railway tracks, and a bike path all going underneath it, one can imagine a bridge of its size would normally have quite a bit of ice.

This photograph was taken on 03.21.2010 with my XSi using my 18-55mm lens. Being that it had just snowed the anti-ice must have been on because we had to dodge showers of water drops to cross underneath the bridge!

"Walking in a winter, uh...spring wonderland..." (17 of 365)

Yes it is not an optical illusion, it is officially the second day of spring and there is snow on the ground. What a wild weekend huh?

After a bit of house hunting, Kali and I went on a nature walk in the snow. We stumbled upon these two sets of footprints. One of a jogger who had been and gone long before we showed up and the other of a little bird trying to find food in the snow. We eventually caught up with the bird to take a few pictures, but it was just really neat to see how the bird was zig-zagging between the footprints.

This photo was taken with my XSi and 18-55mm lens. Believe it or not, underneath all this snow lays part of a fifteen mile bike trail. I have only traversed about the middle three miles, but it is hard not to spend a lot of time checking out all the beautiful scenery in the middle of the city!

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..." (16 of 365)

For the first day of spring it does not feel much like it. But in a way, it is kinda nice to still see the snow trying to stick around a bit longer. I have all kinds of fun stories about being out in the snow. Sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, slipping, and sliding. All good times.

This was taken shortly after midnight this morning when the snow was starting to fall faster and heavier. About an inch has stuck to the ground so far, but one would find about three inches on the side of an unmoved car about now.

This was taken using my XSi and 18-55mm lens with the flash. I also grabbed a few other snapshots without the flash and I was able to capture some neat shots where the street lamps gave a sepia effect to the pictures. I might have to post those up sometime or add them to Picasa sometime, hmm.

Left Handed Guitar (15 of 365)

"...I blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots..."

Ah Garth, with classic songs like that and his impressive stage presence, it is no wonder how he has achieved so much! I was even lucky enough to be one of the thousands to see him perform on his nine night comeback performance in Kansas City, MO. He is definitely one who has inspired me with the guitar.

The other is my grandmother. She started teaching me when I was young and boy was that a challenge. Being left handed, I was learning to play the guitar upside-down! "But the years went by and the rock just died..." Basically my family moved and I was not receiving lessons anymore. I started to pick it back up after college, but it is one of those things you have to really sit and put a lot of time into. Time that I do not have much of, ha!

This was taken with my XSi using the 18-55mm lens and flash. The guitar was sent to me from my grandmother when I mentioned I was wanting to get back into playing again. I'm trying grandma, I promise!

No Problem (14 of 365)

"I don't have a drinking problem. I get drunk, fall down, no problem"

Thanks for this quote goes out to a shirt my dad has from his college days. I still have yet to even have him loan it too me, ha!

A meager collection, but all are very much to my liking. Surprising as I have access to a "package store" within walking distance too.

This photo was taken on my XSi using the 18-55mm lens and using the studio lighting that came with my place. The plants are two of many I have around my apartment. Yet another one of my hobbies, a green thumb.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (13 of 365)

Brian and Stewie have their green and party on! I picked both of these guys up at Dave & Busters. Went for a full meal and to play all sorts of fun games. I even had some pretty awesome luck with the giant claw machine. My sister was trying to get this gigantic stuffed dolphin and after many swipes of her players card I stepped in to show her how it was done. I picked out this gigantic stuffed orca and got it on the first try. Boy was she pissed, ha! Well after about another 20 or so swipes of our players cards we finally got her dolphin.

This picture was taken on my Nexus One. Oh, and I did not have to fight a claw machine for these guys, tickets from playing the games were enough for both of them. It was either them or a few pounds of candy, ha!

Which Way To The Mine? (12 of 365)

Another photo taken on my westward trip to Arizona. This was taken on the side of the road in Jerome, Arizona. Now just a monument to the history of the town, this cart used to haul rock and copper out of the mines. Jerome, now the largest ghost town in America, used to be home to the largest copper mine in Arizona. At one point in time, this mine was producing 3 million pounds of copper per month!

A very steep and winding road led my family and I through Jerome. The road was so steep that several times we had to pull to the side of the road to let the brakes cool off!

This photo was taken with my XSi on 11.27.2009. It seems I have been posting a lot from this trip, but I have so many great photos! If you want to catch a glimpse of America's most vertical city, take a look through Google Maps.

Tree Stars! (11 of 365)

Yes I brought up a movie reference from the late 1980's. Was a very interesting movie until they had to go crazy and make another 80 or so sequels. Well enough about The Land Before Time and back to the picture of the day.

This is another one from my trip to Arizona last year. I was able to stand just right to get the effect of the Sun being a star peaking through the branches of this tree.

This was taken with my XSi on 11.27.2009 just outside of Sedona, Arizona. Did I happen to mention I like pictures of trees? Ha!

Happy π Day! (10 of 365)

Happy Pi Day!

For most everyone else it's 3/14, which really does not have much of a meaning. But to us nerds, today is Pi Day! So in celebration I made a Triple Layer Classic Turtle Pie. The pie has a 1/4 inch graham cracker crust with a layer of turtle, turtle mixed with whipped cream, and then a thick layer of whipped cream to top it off. Yum yum! Having the three layers and 1/4 inch crust, I was even able to fit 3.14 into the recipe!

The photo was taken with my XSi. To see more photos of the making of the pie, you can view my Pi Day 2010 album.

The White Rock (09 of 365)

Worth a thousand words...but I will only use a few...

For some reason the photographs I have sitting around my place have little color. What can I say, I like black and white photos and they tend to be of trees. I picked this little number up at Wal-Mart on the cheap. I have it sitting on one of my bookshelves along with this white rock.

The white rock cost me an international round-trip plane ticket but was totally worth it! I found this rock while walking around in Northern Ireland. The trip was a blast and don't worry I took plenty of pictures and got to do tons of fun stuff! I might just have to post some of those pictures someday.

This photo was taken with my XSi using the 18-55mm lens. Ya I know I missed out yesterday, but plan on posting this and another today to keep up!

Never Roam Alone (08 of 365)

Think you can cure this guy's cabin fever?

Catchy commercials huh? I grabbed this guy up a couple years ago back when I was going to career fairs and job interviews, just to be sure I had something setup for when I finally graduated university. Luckily I showed up at a career fair I was not even signed-up for, and found a great place to work!

This photo was taken with my XSi , the 18-55mm lens and no flash this time. Oh and just to clarify, that is not a mess you see behind him. It's my bookshelf and movie collection, plus many more things that are hobbies or that I collect...same thing? Ha!

Day Lapse (07 of 365)

All in a days' work!

One of the views off of the patio on my apartment. Typical Kansas with the cloudy skies, especially this time of year, but I wanted to grab a progression through the day of the scenery. I would have added one from the middle of the day but that would have required me to make it home for lunch. It's not that far of a drive but one that you do not want to make more times than necessary, ha!

These were all taken with my XSi using my 18-55mm lens and the standard, on-board flash. The three views were taken at: 7:50am, 6:05pm, and 11:23pm.

November Moon (06 of 365)

Sooo... probably breaking the rules again, but its my photo challenge right? So I figure as long as I have taken the photo on either of the two cameras mentioned at the start of the challenge, it counts.

A cloudy November night last year inspired this photo. The clouds were moving by so fast I had to time this photo just right to find a break in the clouds to capture the moon barely peaking through.

This photo was taken on 11.03.2009 with my XSi. Isn't it so weird how our eye interprets the size of the moon so different than a camera? Just one of those thoughts that keep one awake all night huh?

Radioactive Eggos (05 of 365)

Leggo My Eggo!

Yes it was one of those nights where I just couldn't seem to figure out what I wanted for dinner. Opened up the freezer and found the treasure.

Breakfast for dinner, sometimes its the best alternative especially when cooking for one, haha!

Don't worry, the eggos were not exposed to any radiation nor did they come out of the package like that. I found a fun feature with the camera on my Nexus One. I changed the color setting to 'solarize' and came up with this picture. Yum yum!

Winding Road (04 of 365)

Bending the rules yet again, but this is another one that was too good to pass up!

My family and I went to visit more family down in Arizona for Thanksgiving last year. On our way back to Kansas we made a slight detour through Sedona to see the sights and scenery. The poor GPS (or Eva as it was dubbed on the trip) seemed like it was about ready to go nuts with the switchback roads that cut through the mountains!

This picture was taken with my XSi on 11.27.2009. Don't worry I got plenty of other shots of the sights than this one, ha! If you are curious and want to see what this road really looked like, see it on Google Maps.

Spring Snow (03 of 365)

Being that I never saw the official rule book for this 365 day challenge, I'm might be bending the rules for this one. This picture hit me as soon as I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex.

It was late at night, obviously, early February this year when one of the many snow storms were just starting up and we received a light dusting. It was just very neat how the headlights from my car cascaded across the rocks that line the parking lot.

This photo was taken 02.07.2010 on my N1 with the help of my car's headlights for that extra lighting. But it's not like the Nexus One needs much help with that blinding, yet effective flash that it comes with, haha!

Check Mate (02 of 365)

Ah chess, great game to pass the time and to give your brain a good workout! Reminds me of the start of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the pieces in all sorts of disarray...mine are obviously lined up for a great battle!

The chess pieces are made of glass and the board is a mirror where the off-color has been frosted. The set is thanks to my sister and her fiancée. What a great gift! The picture is taken once again with my N1 believe it or not. I swear it is the best for grabbing a quick and perfect snapshot!

I SPY! (01 of 365)

I SPY! Isn't that one of the best time killing games? I remember finding one of these books being the best thing about going to either the doctor or the dentist. 

I took this picture with my n1 and it is of a Wendy's placemat. Sad it was not in color but made for a great picture!

365 Day Photo Challenge

I know its a late start but I have decided to try out this photo challenge that quite a few people have got into.

I figure, what the heck, I love taking pictures. With my 5mp on the Nexus One from Google and my 12.2mp EOS Rebel XSi from Cannon, I'm sure to have loads of great pictures!

If I'm lucky I might even be able to post more than one a day just to catch back up!