You Can’t Be Serious!

While I didn’t expect to win the News-Leader Pet Idol contest, I didn’t expect to be losing to a Pug in a Tina Turner wig!! Humiliating! Not only to me, but the poor dog who was forced to dress up. When I told Dolly what was happening, she sulked back to the back bedroom and cried herself to sleep. At last check, 4 of the top 5 vote getters were dogs wearing either a wig, hat, or Halloween costume. The people who do this to their dogs should be arrested, as should those who are voting for these poor animals. This is the real March Madness!!!! (by the way, the photo above is not in the contest, but equally ridiculous)

What a Difference a Year Makes

So, as I was looking through a few old shots, I found this one from last spring in Phelps Grove Park. It was just about this time of year, maybe a few weeks later. But then I started thinking about what it’s going to look like this year. Will it ever be the same? The “Great Ice Storm of ‘07″ did so much damage to those trees, that it will probably look quite a bit different this spring when everything is trying to bloom. If I remember to do so, I may go shoot this same shot when the redbuds are blooming, and see just exactly how much damage was done.

Springfield Paparazzi

Living in Springfield, MO, you would think that celebrity sightings would be a common occurrence. I mean this is the home of Brad Pitt, and more importantly Aaron Buerge. Well, amazingly enough I’ve never once spotted Brad Pitt. But it’s only a matter of time, because for some strange reason, I’m a bit of a celebrity magnet. My only sighting in Springfield was a few years back when Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow were still together, and I saw Gwyneth and Brad’s mom shopping in a little gift store. (Apparently Brad got a teapot from Gwyneth that year!) Interestingly enough, that would not be my last encounter with Gwyneth. Just a few years later, while in Austin, TX, Meredith and I would run into Gwyneth again. She was with Luke Wilson, who refused to be in this photo.

That very same day, we came upon a film crew filming a music video for one my favorite artists of all time. Willie Nelson!! He signed a piece of paper for me, which upon returning home, was defaced by a scribbled note that my brother wrote right over the top of the autograph. He thought it was just a piece of scrap paper. Leanne Wommack was also in the video, but was too busy getting primped to sign autographs.

New York is obviously prime celeb spotting territory. Here is Tom Cruise (pre Oprah couch-jumping freakout) when he was still considered normal. He was very nice, and signed an autograph for my sister.

That same trip to New York produced perhaps one of the more disturbing sightings…Jack Black….I’ll let the photo speak for itself.

Our next trip to NYC was again ripe with celebrities. After leaving a Broadway show one night, I was almost run over by Bob Sagat, so I just whipped out my camera and stuck it in his face!

Here’s Hank Azaria coming out of Spamalot.

The very next day, while strolling in the West Village, we saw Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker coming out of their Brownstone to take their kid to the park.

These are the only photos that I have of my celebrity sightings, but I have also run into Rob and Amber from Survivor/Amazing Race fame in the Las Vegas airport, former governor of Arkansas and now Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on an airplane, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin at a trade show, and the dude from the show Ham on the Street was on a flight. As creepy as the Jack Black photo is, my brother saw Michael Jackson at a mall in Indianapolis….now that’s creepy.

Wildflowers