177/365...Trash

Readers of the Long family blogs probably know by now that we like to make a habit of Sunday afternoon outings. This week, however, we are down one member. Don't get worked up...nothing tragic has happened. Unless you count the passage from kidhood into tweenhood tragic. I'm still on the fence, by the way.

So, Ethan is spending this week in sleep-away camp. For the first time. It's been an adventure. So, we headed to the beach yesterday. And it was a wet, stinky mess. No fun. At all. But, I was able to snag one picture. So, there's that.

172/365...Dirt

This is the second year that both of our boys have had the chance to participate in Pioneer Camp here in St. Pete. Pioneer Camp is basically just an all day outdoor playing in the muck, mire and dirt with no restrictions or limitations kind of thing. Both of our boys LOVE this. What boy wouldn't. These are two of the feet that came home today. Nothing had been washed off when I took this picture. Jackson had just removed his socks and shoes and I snapped the picture. Now, that's one dirty kid, folks.

121/365...Sand angel

Yep...we were at it again. Another Sunday, another beach day for the Longs. Even with sand angels.

Tennis, anyone?

Anyone who knows me (or reads my blog long enough) knows that the wife and I aren't crazy about Florida. We're not beach-goers, we don't enjoy the outdoors and definitely hate abhor detest don't like the hot weather. Off and on, we've flirted with the idea of escaping moving, only to be drawn back in by one thing or another...job (or lack thereof), the housing market crash, dream job found, etc..

Recently, however, the lovely bride has become hooked on touristing, as she calls it. Basically, it's about finding different things to do where you live and then experiencing them just as a tourist might. This has led to Sunday excursions, the occasional trip to the (gasp!) beach and new and different restaurants in the area.

OK...long story longer...

Friday nights are date nights for the husband/wife Long. Typically, a movie. Except there were absolutely NO movies we wanted to see this week. At all. Earlier this week, as we're driving around running some errands, we stumbled across Old Northeast Tavern. Loved the location and loved the look of the place, so we settled it...this would be our date night destination.

The place was everything we could have hoped for...Turkey and strawberry sandwiches, sliders, pinot noir, and Magic Hat #9. Quintessential tavern food. We even found some friends hanging out there as well.

Lovely evening. Nearby is North Shore Park and we decided to tourist away, even though it was dark. I still hadn't found my picture of the day and figured I would once again be running around the house trying to find something interesting to capture at 11:00 at night.

Until...

...we found the lighted tennis courts. Sweet! I don't play (well). Never have and never will. I suck at sports. Period. But, the nets, the lights, the shadows were all too much to pass up.

So, I ended up getting out for a night, finding a new one of my favorite restaurants and got my pic for the day all before 10:00. And I didn't have to frantically scramble around looking for even more Legos to snap.

This week, I'm linking to the Live Every Moment photo challenge. Check it out!

090/365...Rain!

Today, we've had rain pretty much non-stop. I got outside today just long enough to snap a few pictures.

089/365...Skies

Today was this girl's sweet 16 party at Ft. DeSoto park. After the party ended, we headed down to the beach to take some photos and I caught some pretty wicked looking skies.

Foot trouble

Last week, my darling bride posted a blog about her fear of self-portraits and how her (insane and completely wrong) image issues come into play every now and again. Now, I'm not ravishingly handsome or anything, but I'd like to think I've got something going on. Otherwise, I wouldn't have got the girl some twenty-one years ago. And don't worry, I'm not going to post a self-pic here. This is about my very real and very founded fear of showcasing my...um, "feet".

Yeah...that's not a picture of my feet. That's just some random dude's feet that I found online.

My feet are, in a word, what-the-fuglyicious. I know...new word (and even better band name, in my opinion). But, this has been the case for all of my 30-something years. When I was a kid, they were bony and skinny. As a teenager (and young adult) they smelled funky and just as bony and skinny. Now, they're just bonier, skinnier, itchier versions of their younger selves. And what-the-fuglyicious. The only good news? Now, they don't smell so bad.

Still, though, I've become brave over the past year or so. I started wearing flip flops. My desire to not look like a doofus in those old man sandals combined with wanting to stay cool in the "OMG I'm dying" conditions of Florida summers overrode my fear of showing my WTFF (what-the-fuglyicious feet...see what I did there?)

So, what does this have to do with anything? For starters, the fam trekked to a local park yesterday afternoon to let the animal and kiddos expend some energy, which they did with gusto. As always, my trusty iPhone 4 was at the ready to snap some pics and things were going well...

Trees...

Pics of the wife, kids and animal taking a stroll...

Even a shadowy self-portrait...



























And then, it happened...

Just as I was lining up some more shadow-portrait shots, I inadvertently snapped a picture that included my WTFF. I was horrified and morbidly curious all at the same time. As it turns out, it's not that wretched. With some post-processing, it's almost nearly passably tolerable.

Well, add another check off my bucket list. One of my features is almost photogenic. Now, to work on the rest of me...

By the way, this was my photo of the day from our little park trip/self-assessment/energy releaser...