I hope that you, your family, and your friends all had a groovy Halloween! I know I did

Melanie spent last week in Los Angeles and snapped this photo across the street from the El Capitan Theater. Is this a sign of the times? Elmo and Tigger out of the work and forced to negotiate a drug deal in broad daylight?!? Say it ain’t so Tigger… say it ain’t so!

This was my last wedding of the year and what a way to end the season! D+D tied the knot at the always fashionable Lakeway Resort and Spa on Saturday October 11th (yes, I know I’m a bit later than usual blogging this wedding… my trip to Chicago pleasantly interrupted my normal flow). But the good news is that even though I’m later than usual I’m going to post more photos than usual from their special day. Dyan planned a memorable day with the help of Becky from Something To Celebrate and they were on top of everything. The day had a little bit of everything… a softball game for the guys and guests, pampering for the ladies, a sweet ceremony including Daniel’s daughter, a rocking party, and a sparkling exit. Dyan looked beautiful and was calm, cool, and collected the whole day. Daniel looked dashing and was full of nervous energy from early in the morning until late into the night. Their A-List guests kept things interesting all day and the Nash Hernandez Orchestra kept the dance floor filled all night long.

Other vendors:
String Quartet: Divisi Strings
Cake: Simon Lee Bakery
Video: Round Rock Video
Flowers: Exquisite Petals
Lighting: FILO Designs
Photo Booth: Party Booth Pix

Congratulations guys and I hope you get to jet off for a honeymoon soon! Enough with the words… onto the photos

(22 more photos after the jump)

This past weekend I flew up to Chicago to hang out with my friends Holly and Matt who just moved there from Dallas a week ago. The trip was a lot of fun and Holly and I got to act like complete tourists on Friday while Matt worked. Things I learned during this trip:

1. The Sears tower was completed in 3 years.
2. Giordano’s stuffed pizza rocks! (and two slices will put you to sleep)
3. Cloud Gate (aka the bean) has to be the coolest art installation I’ve ever seen.
4. Chicago architecture is fascinating.
5. 3 days is too short of a trip to take in this huge city.
6. Buffalo calamari is fantastic (visit Bar Louie for this delicacy)
7. I want to see a Cubs game at Wrigley in the near future (perhaps next Summer)

And what good is a trip without photos?

We took the brown line downtown from the Addison stop.

A few photos from the 109th floor of the Sears Tower (yeah, it wasn’t that nice of a day… overcast)

Millennium Park and the Art Institute

(12 more photos after the jump)

Wow! Living in Austin it’s hard not to be a UT Longhorn fan and both Melanie and I embraced the hometown spirit when we moved to Austin 8 years ago. Yesterday the Longhorns (ranked #5 in the country) faced the Oklahoma Sooners (ranked #1 in the country) and beat them 45-35 and were rewarded with the #1 ranking on the Associated Press poll. I only have one thing to say about that:

I’ve been thinking about joining a gym lately. I’m not exactly in prime physical condition and I like to eat too much to really think that changing my diet alone will be enough. The problem is will I actually go to the gym on a regular schedule and will I be able to overcome my feeling of awkwardness that comes with taking my flabby self to the gym for the first time? Is anyone a member of Gold’s Gym? They recently opened a new location in Cedar Park and I’m thinking that it might be a great time to join (low number of members, brand new equipment, and everyone getting used to the place). Care to venture a guess to the number of times I’ll actually make it to a 5:30am spinning class if I do join?

————————————–

In general I’m a sports fan… any sport is fair game to watch when it’s on TV… football, yeah… billiards, sure… basketball, okay… baseball, only during the playoffs. I just can’t get motivated to watch the games until they really mean something. Each game being 1/162th of the season is just too much to me. Make it 1/3rd of the team’s remaining season and you have my attention. I’m looking forward to watching the ALCS (Red Sox vs. Devil Rays) and NLCS (Phillies vs. Dodgers) over the next week or so. I’m rooting for Boston and Philly.

————————————–

My last wedding of the year is this coming weekend. After that I have some portrait sessions lined up, but for the most part the rest of the year will be down time for me. And I am totally looking forward to it.

————————————–

I recently took a skill finder assessment for work (yes, remember I still have a full-time job outside of photography) and found that my top skill is being an achiever (along with a maximizer, learner, listener, and hunter… okay, that last one is made up because I can’t remember my top 5 skills). Being the achiever that I am I decided 3 weeks ago to start teaching myself to play the guitar. I’ve been tossing around the idea of posting videos on YouTube to document my progress, but I felt like that would be a little too narcissistic. Not to mention I’m not sure I want to subject the world to my feeble attempts at guitar playing. What do y’all think?

————————————–

Only 4 weeks until we elect the next President. One of the good things about living in a one sided political state (Texas is a BIG red state) is that we don’t hammered over the heads with political ads. The democrats know that the republicans will win this state. I really feel for those in battleground states… y’all are probably sick and tired of political ads. The good news it will be over in a few weeks.