lickety split

so i ruled and reigned over the queendom for three years and the answer to your question, blogger fans, is yes. i DO have too much time on my hands. but i had an idea. i was browsing through flickr, possibly going through soft-serve withdrawals at the time, and looked up "dq." there are only 327 pictures with this tag and 11 of them are mine. half of them have nothing to do with dairy queen and one poor soul was even under the impression that dq stood for don quixote. that fool! just kidding, sort of. well the above photo is, in my opinion, the best one and, although admittedly pretty sweet, that's not saying too much. so thus comes the challenge. i think we should flood flickr with hot eats and cool treats. i'm proposing a friendly little competition to all you faithful readers. take the best picture and i will personally treat you to, well, a treat of your choice. the winner will be decided by flickr viewers. i will check to see which of our dq pics is the most viewed/commented/favorited (don't cheat) before i leave on, say, my last day of work (may 12th, that gives you two weeks). then to celebrate my leaving and your winning we'll head off to the land of lactose. all will be welcome, but only one will go for free:) deal? p.s. a moment of silence for when the dairy queen used to live next to the burger king:(

Ivan

this little guy is my friend leanna's little boy ivan. he just got tested for the gifted and talented program at his school and they discovered what i could have told them long ago...he is both gifted and talented. he is very funny, obsessed with robots and is a bit of a trouble-maker. smart people often are. his teacher had a hard time staying mad at him for drawing on his test when she looked and found a drawing of a praying mantis, detailed down to its very joints. what a cutie.

Does this crack anyone else up?

i know, i know. just got back from a trip to los angeles and THIS is what i choose to blog about? well sometimes pictures win out over subject matter. i was walking home from work yesterday, waiting on the corner of broadway and higgins to cross the street when i spotted this. i don't know if you can tell from the picture but this is a cardboard cut-out of the owner of instyprints (right? missoulians help me out). i know you've seen his award-winning commercials. but what's creepy (or should i say creepiEST?) is that it's about a three-quarters-size cutout, which is always creepy. i can't exactly put my finger on why it is. maybe it goes back to the terror that people in period costumes bring. history is scary and it seems like all people from history were small. we know napoleon was, i picture pushkin to have been...well, another contributing factor to this (yet another) neurosis of mine may have been the time i saw prince's purple rain costume in a display case in the hardrock cafe in nyc. he is, apparently, the size of this cut-out. uhhh, shudder.

nataLEEa klondike

i'm sorry t. i told you i'd get you back for your blog post. i had to stay true to my word.

yep, that's my country

i think i just found my new favorite flickr photographer. not only are they brilliant with a camera, they are clever with titles and the like. (czech me out) my most favorite sLOVEenska (which means "of slovakia," as in photos of slovakia, in slovak. too bad it doesn't work in english sLOVAkia. lova. kinda rings a, um, different tune.

hisssssss

in the notorious words of they might be giants, "this car is protected by viper." and can i just say, thissss car isssss protected by one badd-a#* (really wanted to use the s's on badd-a#* so i could be onomatopoetic) viper if i ever ssssaw one. oh boy. it must be late. my jokes are even worse than usual. actually, (it must be late if i'm questioning whether or not actually has two ls. actualy? no, actually) this was a pretty freakin' sweet snake door lock cover rocky spotted in butte a few weekends ago. there we were, h.j., rahee, krysty kay, rockabella and i, coming out of the world's best second-hand store (yeah, you know) when all of a sudden rock looks to his left and there, in the window of a little red (again, bad-a#*) pickup with airbrushed something or other on the door (screaming eagle was it?), was this little tough guy. i know I won't be lookin' to break and enter any time soon!

beyond balderdash

...no, no, no, this is no one we know. i just needed a picture of a muscle builder to help illustrate the gems i saved from the game of beyond balderdash i played with katie, bethie, and chris when we visited portland. for those of you unlucky souls who have never experienced the joys of the game, the object is to fool everyone with the most convincing made-up description or definition of a given name, date, movie title or acronym. here are some of my favorites:
movie "three bites of the apple"-a guy wins a pantload of money at a casino and suddenly women are all over him.
movie "age isn't everything"- a 15 year old boy spends the summer hitting on older girls and driving with a fake id.
movie "age isn't everything"-a 15 year old german shepard defies the odds by coming out of retirement for one more drug bust.
movie "meeting at midnight"- a highschooler with a learning disability secretly meets with his english teacher for some late-night tutoring.
movie "homebodies"-two out-of-work muscle builders get put on house arrest and hilarity ensues.
movie "homebodies"-two obese men who eat potato chips and veg out, drinking and staying home.

i'll leave you to guess who penned each answer, but it may or may not have been:
katie, chris, katie, katie, chris and bethie...in that order

awww, isn't 'e cute?

codella schelbella i love you. you might be the smartest little dresser i know. not only good taste in clothing, but good taste in on-line cartoons, to boot. even if i got you hooked on h.s.r. wish we could hang out more. looking forward to the next trip to the gym...two...too.

Piggyback

hey! you asked for it, lady. so don't make that face under the weight of all my, well, weight. i fought pretty good to warn you not to try and pick me up. just borrowed this pic and the next from knitload to say, "aaaaaaaaaaah. come, summer." ***click on this photo for some extra notes and specifics.***

did it fool you, too?

no one but maybe eri and i are arguing that we look a heck of a lot alike. but when a pic fools even me, how can i argue? she unknowingly pulled a fast one on curtis cole the other night when he thought she was me. identical cousins...(all the way).

happy bday, tot!

this might be my favorite picture from my trip to portland a few weeks ago. i have a series of katie nailbiting/chris coffee drinking and it's great because he becomes increasingly more annoyed with every photo i snapped. i just think this picture is so telling. well anyhow, happy bday sweetie girl. i miss you so much! erin and i were talking about you yesterday, missing you and all your quirks. it's like you don't realize how much you miss someone 'til you see them again. can't wait for the day that we can return to fat dave's together again...or better yet, muchas gracias! go do something fun tonight!

value village

when i went to portland last month we made a special trip all the way to another STATE to see this. ok so that's not enTIREly true. we did go to another state, washington (about 10 minutes away) but we did not go to see this. this was a bonus. maybe it sounds kind of sick, but there's something funny about a barbie in a bag.

a little bubbly

i guess a couple a things. we had an open mic/art show the other night in the UC and it was a success. several people brought in art work to display, including paintings, photos, poetry, and mixed media. peter encouraged me to sell my photos to help fund my missions trips. then i went to dillon and spent time with some artistic friends who were also very encouraging about my pictures. it made me very excited and inspired to do more. then lastly, i just miss slovakia. hearing scott's stories, seeing his pictures, and reading sara's newsletter from there just resounds in my ears the calling.

Jack Everlovin Foster

i raise my proverbial glass to this boy, who loves freedom more than anyone i have known. Jesus offered us freedom, but so few of us know how to take it. this kid, though, took and ran with it. all the way to puerto rico, where he just up and move to, aparently. i'm sure his hair is blowing in the breeze there, just the way he likes it. here's to fearlessness.

fat dave's

here is a sweet little joint known as fat dave's. it's open 24 hours a day. it has a juke box. it's juke box contains red, red wine. it has a stained glass window that says "fun." it is all out of pie except for coconut cream meningue. it's waitresses allow us to play scrabble there. it is katie's boyfriend's favorite restaurant. it was the site of their first date. it is pretty sweet if you ask me. and speaking of 24 hour joints, we drove by but did not get to patronize a 24 hour drive-thru fast food mexican place named muchas gracias. i think i am going to open one in missoula. and lastly, we did get to go to a 24 hour donut shop. it has an open sign...that's permanent!

Blue like jazz church

it's a crappy pic, i know. but i just had to do something to make record of my visit. i'm back from my long weekend in portland. it was really good to see tot and her boyfriend, despite the rain. and i mean RAIN! i don't think i could ever live in portland. but the church service at imago was really good. i enjoyed pastor rick's sermon immensely. they have a lot of cool things going on there. writing classes, discussions on faith in film, making meals for families of sick kids at the ronald mcdonald house...it challenged me and inspired me to think of new ways to spread the love of jesus.

the cutest baby on the planet

this is isaac. a son of a friend's sister. well, a son of some friends' sister. last night we celebrated one of the aforementioned friend's birthdays. his 19th. he maintains that when he and his wife have a baby, "people will come from millions of miles to see 'the cutest baby on the planet,'" but i think he has some competition with his nephew, don't you?

katie potatie

this was the last time i saw my friend katie. this is 6:30 in the morning, the day scott and i left for slovakia last year. it was also katie's departing day from the garden city, her home for many years. she had blonde hair then, but has had many different colors since, and when i see her this upcoming weekend (yay!) i am not sure what color it will be. no matter what happens this weekend i hope: scrabble, twin bings, and/or homestyle bakes are involved. can't wait to see ya, tot.

hardin, mt

here was our first destination. the purple cow. after having been disappointed last presidents' day weekend when the p.c. was closed due to p.d. it became a much-anticipated locale for those among us who had, you know, been previously disappointed. and though none of us partook in the legendary "dozen egg, loaf of toast, gallon of oj and pound of meat (or whatever) breakfast" for twenty bucks (or whatever) it was still a friendly little joint with waitresses that called you honey (which, by the way grew less and less frequent the further east and south we drove) and let us return to the salad bar if we wished.

Wyoming at night

this picture is real. i didn't just cover the lens on my camera and snap. i literally pointed the camera out the window and took this driving through wyoming at night.