Recently in Holidays Category

Tonight I ate at one of the regular restaurants in my rotation. It was chilly (and extremely windy) eating out on the patio, but nonetheless, many of the tables were taken. Being Mother's Day, they were unusually busy.

After having ordered, across the restaurant I heard a patron complaining rather loudly and angrily that he and his party had been waiting to order for over 20 minutes. Well, I knew the 20 minutes claim was a bit of an exaggeration as I had seen them come in and be seated—maybe 10 minutes. But certainly, to be fair to the man, they should have had their order taken by this now.

The table cleaner to whom they complained had a waiter come and immediately taker their order. But here's what was so ridiculous: the grumpy old man who had raised such hell about not having his order taken for so long still had no idea yet what he was ordering. He took forever to look over the menu and decide.

So what was he really complaining about? What expectation did he have that was not being met by the restaurant staff?

Rather makes me think of the idiots that drive so recklessly dodging in and out of congested traffic during rush hour in very congested areas. They never get anywhere any faster than anyone else. They just place themselves and others at risk of accidents. But why?

Pity that our society promotes this type of ridiculous behavior by rewarding the Alpha Male Type in so many ways.

I received these in an email and had to share them...

I received these in an email and had to share them...

My favorite holiday! I share it with everyone.

Ever year I give, as a holiday gift, a calendar of select photos I shot that year. Last year, instead, I gave a book of photos, all from one vacation destination, to family members who I knew loved that place.

This year, back in sync with my traditional holiday gift-giving, I'm selecting photos for the 2010 Calendar. But now I have 2 years of photos from which to choose!

The task of selecting only 12 photos from 2 years of astounding travel has been all but unbearable! I narrowed the selection down to 60 and then had to begin sawing off my appendages to get it down to 12.

Here are a few that I love, but, for various reasons, these didn't make the final cut. Click any image to see the larger photo.

The devil's mask was just too frightening for the younger children. It had to go, and it was much too hot. Then my standing on the balcony over the front door shooting silly string terrified a few unsuspecting parents. (I didn't shoot the young children. Middle-aged children begged to be shot.)

The entrance to the house was also just a little too frightening for some of the younger children--that, I didn't anticipate. Perhaps they found it scary because of the loud sound effects from the DVD playing in the lower main front window, or maybe it was just so busy with scary things: pots of fire, large hanging bats, a hanging mummy, tombstones, a spider skeleton (I didn't know they had them either), a jar of eyeballs, chains, a giant rat, etc.

Unexpectedly, about half way through the evening, the fog machine set off the smoke alarms, adding even more drama to the scene. I then moved the fog machine to spray the fog out the front door.

But many parents said the house won the award for best haunted house in the hood. In the beginning there was a large caldron full of candy--24 bags of candy. It was all gone by 8:30pm. Hundreds of children came by.

Favorite quotation from the night:
"What do you say honey." after the child took candy from the caldron.
"May I have a fourth?" answered the child.

Clicking on any of the pictures will enlarge the shot. And, presented below, is a short video I shot of the DVD that was playing in the lower main front window of the house along the street where many children and adults stopped to watch. Showing the DVD, Hallowindow, while the haunted house was "open for business" was my favorite part of the evening. You can click on the movie to watch a brief excerpt, but to see the movie, visit Mark Gervais' site. He really did an awesome job with these animations!

Halloween will be a little out of control around here. The iron front door already lends itself to something of a haunted house. Here's a little preview.

At the front door (Click to enlarge)

And a wonderful Halloween animation will be playing in the lower front window of the house. Here is a shot of what it looks like "behind the scenes."