Having a blast

I love weekends!  They’re wonderful, fun, relaxing and really offer a break from the big ball of stress called work.  While I love lazy weekends around the house doing nothing, there is certainly something to be said for going out and spending time with others, whether it be friends or family – getting out and hanging out can be just as, if not more, rewarding than staying in and relaxing.

This Saturday Ann and I spent the majority of the day being completely and utterly lazy.  We watched some TV (finishing off Leverage season 1) and lounged around the house.  Late saturday afternoon, however, we got cleaned up and went down to our friends house in Greenwood.  These same friends were the awesome photographers who shot our wedding.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with friends  - they are currently on a very short list of “married friends” – grilling ribs, drinking beer, and enjoying a gorgeous saturday evening.

After dinner we went out to the fire pit in their back yard to burn some excess wood that they had laying around their garage – which gave me  and John (his name is John too) an excuse to get out our cameras and do some photography (always fun!).  I’ve really been on a photography kick recently – wanting to grab my camera and just shoot anything and everything.   I’m not so much concerned about getting lots of great photographs as I am just getting photographs.   I experiment, try new things and see what works and what doesn’t.  I shoot digital and have a large storage capacity in my camera, so I can afford to experiment.   Eventually I will dial it down and start shooting more conservatively – focusing not so much on getting lots of pictures – of which one or two are really great.  Instead I’ll focus on taking few pictures, but having ALL of them (or close to it) turn out great.   That’s what I aspire to,  and that’s what I tend to call a good (or great, awesome, stupendous, amazing, incredible) photographer.   For now, I’m still an amateur.   I’m OK with that.

While we did that Ann played with their daughter Molly – a 45 minute game of tag combined with swinging on a swing set and generally being silly.  I could tell Ann was having a blast, as she seemed to have a big grin plastered to her face the whole evening.   She loves kids, and consequently is great with them.   Molly seems to really enjoy playing with Ann too and I got several pictures of the two of them goofing off.  It made me look forward to when we have kids of our own, knowing that I’ll get to see that kind of joy – and get to photograph it – as they grow up.

We also played with their dog – a beautiful German Shepherd named Rain – for a while.   That might just be one of the most hyper dogs I’ve ever seen.  She got super-excited by a group of ducks that she took of running after them – running right through the invisible fence that kept her in the yard.  She took that opportunity to run around the pond adjacent to their house, prompting John and Molly to go chasing after her.   Eventually they herded her back towards their house and I crouched down and called her over as she approached.  Much to my surprise – rather than running from me she came right up to me to be petted.  It *almost* made me want to get a dog.  Ann really wants one, and I don’t.   I don’t think we’ve got enough space, nor do we have enough time, to really take care of one.

Rain was tired afterwards and laid down to rest – giving me a great opportunity to snap some pictures.  I’d not taken pictures of dogs before,  mainly because we don’t have any.   I’ve done cats plenty of time, and they rarely give me the opportunity to frame a good shot.  Rain, however, seemed perfectly content to lay there as I took pictures – allowing me to get a few good ones that I really liked.   I’ll admit, it was a nice change over shooting Cats.

Once the sun started going down the mosquitos came out en-force.  Ann was tired after running around with Molly, and John and I had taken all the photos we were going to.   The fire had wound down as well, so we decided to head back in the house where John and I played Nazi Zombies (part of COD World at War) and Ann pretended to study (but instead watched us play.   This also got her to say that she really wanted an XBox).   And so the rest of the night went,   a mixture of rounds of Nazi Zombies and hanging out, snacking and talking.  It was an awesome time hanging out with friends, and something we certainly don’t get to do often enough.

Now, I look forward to the week ahead and all of the exciting things that are part of it.  Tuesday night brings the Cloud Computing group meeting at BlueLock, which I’ll be attending for the first time.   Thursday brings a much needed back massage and dinner / hanging out with my good friend Jason.   Add to the week my first batch of Chili this season,  probably grilling several times, and spending time with my best friend (who is also my wife), and I’ve certainly got a lot to look forward to.

To see more photos from that night, check out the Flickr set I created for them.