Six Peeps

« Pro Photo Alliance, 100 improvements and…

February 27, 2008

Back from Birmingham!

Wow! What an awesome trip I just got back from, promoting my new business the “experiment in lateral thinking” (yeah I know, how many times have you heard me call it that), and some time hanging out with one of my best friends from my Jack Tripper days, Katie, and her husband John Law and kids Jay (3) and Bobo (William) (2).

Let me tell you, people have been so confused about why I would go to Birmingham of all places. Everyone seems to think Alabama is like some sort of hickville or something. Like anywhere, I am sure it has it’s “hood”, but I am so impressed. It’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL. If only it had snowy peaks, I’d want to live there. The country roads are so scenic and the downtown Birmingham has so much to offer with it’s impressive restaurants and watering holes. Birmingham is one of America’s best kept secrets!

I worked for 9 hours and spent the rest of the time eating and having the following “good times”. I took some fun photos with my iPhone but I am without my sync cord right now, so come back in 24 hours to see some funny shots. I also had my G7 and I can post some of those now.

For some reason, when I get back from trips, I like to outline everything I did. I don’t know why. I like looking back at good times. Does anyone else do this?

I had a great time and allowed myself to pig out on some great Southern foodstuffs (this ended up a Splurge WEEKEND and I practically fell off the scale after I read it’s results when I came home. Back to my Commando routine!):

* Grits!
* Biscuits!
* BBQ! (chicken and pork)
* Deviled Eggs!
* Potato Salad
* Baked Beans!
* Tippeh Caviar! (or something like that)
* Sweet Tea!
* Pecan Pie!
* Homemade cookies!
* These southern sweet and spicy chips!
* Cheddar Biscuits
* Strawberry and Cream Cheese Croissants
* Blueberry Muffins
* Dinner at Bottega (pictures coming tomorrow a’ la iPhone)
* And for the last night, John Law and I cooked! JL made a rustic salad with grilled veggies and grilled asparagus and I made my famous Penne with home made tomato sauce with Nonnie’s meat-a-balls and sausage… and my “dragon breath crunchy garlic bread”, which is a new invention of mine. Here’s John Law showing me how they grill vegetables in the South (taken with point-and-shoot)

* Pecan Pie! Yes I know I said it before, but I had more.
* We also drank a lot!
- White Russians (The Dude Abides)
- Martinis
- Coffee with Frangelico
- Margaritas
- Beer
- Lots of wine.
Here’s Katie’s sister, Mivvi, an all-american b-ball player and her man after eating mine and John Law’s food stuffs. They won’t be making out any time soon because they just ate my crazy dragon garlic breat. It’s a small price to pay, and totally worth it!

THINGS done in Bham that I’ll never forget!
* Going to this awesome Art Gallery and seeing like a 10 foot canvas painting that Katie made, along with like 3 others! I’m so pumped, her artwork is really cool! She does these really awesome acrylic (I think that’s right) paintings on unprimed canvas. It sounds like a really interesting process and it was cool to look at, and the best part was listening to her talk about the things that inspired her color selection and composition… anyway you just have to see it. I’ll try to get a link to some of her work on the blog soon.

Here’s Katie next to the life-size cover of Birmingham Magazine - she’s was on the cover, so John Law went out and got her this poster. Very cool! Nice work Katie! She’s a local celebrity!

* Living in a house with little kids (VERY entertaining)

* Rode in a FERRARI! (That’s right!) Katie’s dad just got this Ferrari and he took me on a spin and wasn’t afraid to open it up! I went into an uncontrollable laughing episode for like 5 minutes and spent the rest of the day with perma-grin. (It was amazing)

I didn’t really get to take the photos that I would have liked of this car, but here are two:

My logo is way cooler

* Played Guitar Hero (iPhone photos coming, so return!)

* Visited VULCAN Park. Vulcan is the God of Iron and Steel! There is a statue of him, and I think the sculptor spent a little bit too much time on his little tush, which was perfectly round and tightly clenched. Trust me it was hard NOT to notice.

* Driving through these beautiful country roads ad looking at the most amazing homes ever!

* Watched Big Lebowski

* Did some family photos of Katie and JL and some of their friends, too!

* Went to a cool Southern Market called V. Richards, bought Jenny some real Southern Grits! We’re going to make em next splurge day! Jenny comes from a Texas family so she has an affinity for Grits, too! Is that the right word? Affinity? I just used it without looking it up in the dictionary.

Here are some shots we got from Katie and John Law’s family photos.

Bobo (William): I love this kid. Full of smiles and he is going to grow up to be a real ladies man. I think he may already be.

Jay: So cute. He was eating a pear and I was telling him how pears grow on trees, then when asked if he knows of any other fruits that grow on trees, he thought for a while and proclaimed, “Watermelons”! Now that would be really cool.

The whole fam-damily

John Law and the shorties. John Law is an amazing dad - it was really fun observing this family in action. Kids are a total handful, and they are just awesome parents. JL and Katie have been added to the list of parents I hope to be like someday. (along with Lenny and Amy, Kent and Gerri (they don’t even have kids but I imagine they would be great parents), Steve and Cara - you guys know who you are!)

I love this shot of Katie. The last time I saw Katie in Alabama, she was not even close to being a mom. So to come back and suddenly she has TWO, was awesome to see!

Here’s Katies Mom and Dad with the grandkids. Katie’s Mom is real nice, although I didn’t really get a chance to meet her. Katie’s Dad is a real inspiration. As an entrepreneur with three teeny tiny sprouts of businesses myself, it was neat to hear Mr. Strickland’s story. It was especially fun riding in that Ferrari after hearing that he had a picture of one taped inside of his closet for who knows how long. I’m sure it was an awesome feeling of satisfaction buying that thing. I have some pictures taped inside of my desk drawers and for me. It’s not so much about buying cars and huge houses, but they make for good icons to strive for. He also owns and pilots a small collection of WWII war planes. So cool!