Thursday, October 30, 2008

Always Wear Your Helmet. :-)



Don't judge this yet. This is a test for something that I'm working on. I will certainly be posting the results here, eventually. It's going to be cool. I think. :D It may take a bit of time for me to use up the roll of film though. :-( (I may have something to post next week)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Art and Dining in Beresford. Plus a workout report.

We had a pretty decent weekend. I worked on some things around the house on Saturday. That night Nick and I went into the big cities of Beresford and Alcester.

The Nuance Gallery had a reception for Vermillion artist, Charles Weidemann. I'd not been to the gallery yet so I asked Nick to go with me. I didn't really know many people at the show. My high school art teacher was there, so it was nice to catch up with her.

Mr. Weidemann is a 76 year old painter and works in the realm of realism. Painters boggle my mind. I mean, sure, I can *paint*. But, I can't PAINT. Certainly not realistically. I can make an accurate depiction of something by drawing it, but not really *that* well either.

The artist seems like a neat guy. I hope that when I'm 76 I'm still making art, even if it's just to make myself happy. I am happy for people who can continue to do what they enjoy all through their life. I hope that for everyone.

It was nice to indulge my inner artist. Beresford has such a talented pool of people that have landed in the area. The owner of Nuance is a Beresford local and is a talented painter. She has a son who was a high school classmate of mine. I know that at least two of her children are talented artists themselves. Two other Beresford artists have work in the gallery too. One does woodwork, turning bowls out of logs and other raw materials. The other creates art from eggs.

Really, check it out.

There are other pieces from the area too.

Afterward we headed to Alcester for dinner at the Steakhouse. They have such good food. The place was packed. Nick's steak was a bit more rare than he'd asked for. Unfortunately he didn't enjoy his meal as much as usual, but that was a rare exception rather than the rule. My chicken alfredo was awesome. The last time I was there I had the parmesean and herb tilapia. Yummy.

Alcester is a smaller town than Beresford. They don't really have that much for business in town. There are only two restaurants in town, a cafe and the Steakhouse. Beresford isn't large either, but they have essentially three art galleries (at least two aren't open that often either) and limited places to eat. You can find lunch in town, but there isn't anywhere to really have dinner. Am I totally wrong? The only sit down place is Emily's. I haven't been there for awhile but the other half hasn't been giving it rave reviews. I should disclose that I don't know when the last time that he ate there was either.

Regarding small town life: Yesterday we were also wishing that the local bakery wasn't such a thing of the past either. I haven't been to the one in Centerville, but I wish those weren't as rare as they are.

Regarding excercising: I haven't been as diligent as I'd like. I haven't been on my bike since the Margarita ride. I've been making attempts at running. I get out at least once a week, typically. Most of the time I've only squeaked out two mile runs in the last month or two. I started getting kind of frustrated and felt like I was falling off of the wagon.

Last Thursday I ran three miles. Saturday I walked three. Yesterday I ran four!! Yay! I don't know when the last time that I ran four was, probably last winter. I felt pretty good. I was going pretty slow, but felt like I could've kept going for awhile. However, my knees started aching a little around mile 3 to 3.25. So, I finished four and called it good. Woo!

I've gotta get my roadbike in on the trainer.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Buddies


I Love You.


I want to bite your face off.


No, really, I love you.

Friday, October 3, 2008

New Photos on Sieversma Photos Blog

Hey, I shot a friend's wedding last weekend. I was honored that she asked me to photograph such a wonderful day. The weather was perfect, everyone was glowing and busting at the seams with happiness.

The bride and I were roommates our freshman year of college. We remained friends and she's one of the few people from college that I'm able to stay in regular contact with. I had a lot of fun with them and all of their friends.

I managed to tweak and upload the black and white photos. There's a slideshow of my favorites on my other blog page.

You can click the link to view all photos too. I didn't put them all in the slideshow, it takes too long to load.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, if it's okay to say so.

Keep checking, hopefully it won't be long before I can get a selection of the color photos uploaded. It probably won't be this weekend though.

Thanks for looking!!!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

They're Home!!!!!!!!

In the last three days we've distributed 50 photos looking for our pups. 30 minutes ago two neighbor kids knocked on our door saying they knew where our dogs were. We were fairly skeptical. Another lady called to say that her dad had seen them this morning. We checked out our initial lead and went to a farm place two miles north. We hoped itd be them. We got on the yard and saw a dog that looked like Ruby. I got out of the car and called to her. She about came out of her skin. Ruby and Max stayed together for nearly four days. I am impressed. They look pretty thin, but I think that they'll be good to go.

We didn't think we'd find them!! Thank God for huge favors. In all of this I've met some fantastic neighbors. There are good people around here.

Thank you guys for your thoughts and prayers.

The dogs are so grounded now. :-D