Been Busy

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days! From Dallas to Jackson Hole with a computer virus thrown in! I promise a big update! Here's a shot from the 13th hole of the Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis Club. The hole was 100 yards away, and I hit it...100 yards to the center of the green. Keith hit the birdie putt in, and it's been a good day for our threesome scramble.

I think he took us out there to kill us...

Today was our shootin' day in Texas!

We left Bobby and Kristy's at 8 a.m., and headed to Richardson to Debbie and Keith's. Test drove the 4-wheelers around their neighborhood, then got all 3 up on the truck bed and trailer. (Okay, Keith had all that taken care of before we got there!) Four hours south west, lots of visitin' in the car (I'm in Texas, by the way, I need to do a lot of 'n).

And we arrived! The famous "deer lease." No shooting (shootin'!) deer today, but lots of watermellon and honey do's, and apples (thanks to Robert for that tip!). But, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...

First we unhooked the 4-wheelers and drove half the property (the entire place is about 700 acres), saw some of the tree stands, and generally had a fantastic time.

THEN we pulled out the guns...
- .22 rifle
- 12-gauge shot gun
- 7 mm mag rifle
- 9 mm Beretta pistol
- .38 special SNW

I have photographic evidence! Just need to upload the photos! But I promise they are coming!

Here's the play by play...
Keith set up an apple hanging from a coat hanger onto a branch of a tree. Keith and I both took 3 shots with the .22 rifle, but caught the tree instead of the apple. Mike stepped up and ... Mike: 1, Apple: 0.

Next up was the 12-guage shot gun. Keith blew an apple completely out of the tree with his first shot. Then Mike followed suit, hitting his apple, too. I skimmed the side. Photo to follow. This was my first kill.

The 7 mm mag rile came next - this is Keith's deer gun. He blew several honey do's into oblivion. Mike got one watermellon and a very, very sore shoulder. I passed on shooting this gun!

The 9 mm Beretta. It's inaugural use. And clearly the crowd favorite! The Baretta is a semi-automatic pistol that holds 13 bullets. We started with the mellons, and even on MY first magazine with this gun, I killed those suckers. They had it comin'.

My best shot was when Keith set up the watermellon, pointed to the grocery store sticker/ label in the center, and said, "go ahead and aim here."

On the very first shot, I went straight through the center of the label. Stunned silence...until I pulled the second shot, and knocked the label clean off. The watermellon stayed completely in tacted, and just seeped it's blood with two clean shots straight through. You could see sunlight. The crowd went wild. Photographic evidence to follow.

We moved on to the apples, and they didn't stand a chance, either. Especially when I told them to "freeze, bastards!"

Three hours later, we had shot 410 pistol rounds and killed all 1 dozen mellons and 2 dozen apples. Our work was done.

Back to the truck, with Debbie lying in wait (she had finished her 400 page novel and painted her toe nails while we were out!). A photo of Keith's "toilet" is to follow, but take my word for it... we drove 5 miles to the closest Dairy Queen for a bathroom break before getting back on the road!

It's now just about midnight in Richland, Texas, and we're reliving the day with Pinot Grigio. What better way could we end!?!

Fort Worth Stockyards

Another great day with Kristy & Bobby! Pedicures while the boys slept (they went to OK to gamble last night, and arrived home at 5:45 am!), brunch in Sundance Square, a nap, and then dinner at the Stockyards!

Fruit-infused tequilla

Just arrived at Booger Red Saloon at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Bobby recommends the fruit-infused tequilla here. So I just ordered a margarita with pineapple tequila. I'm hoping it'll distract me from the buffalo butt coming out of the bar!

The Best Tex-Mex

We're with Bobby & Kristy, and just left Joe T. Garcias. OMG. Great food, good times, strong margaritas, $66 for the four of us. Does it get any better? We had to wait 20 minutes to get seated at 3:30 pm on a Saturday afternoon! It was that good. Now we are back to their beautiful house to put on swimsuits (if we can still fit!) and spend the afternoon at their pool!

This is why no one walks outside in Texas

It's hot here. Really hot.

When I come down to work at the Grapevine office, I've begun staying at the Southlake Hilton. This is a great spot because it's in one of those 'town square' areas that have tons of high-end shops and a dozen restaurants to choose from. It's nice to break up the nights after meetings.

I just arrived and walked from the hotel maybe .3 miles to a Cafe Express for dinner. Realized as I walked in that the restaurant/faster-but-still-fresh-food place has free Wi-Fi. Walked the .3 miles back to the hotel, got my computer, and .3 back to Cafe Express.

And I arrived dripping in sweat. It's hot here.

Travel Tip!

Many thanks to my colleague Keith for the travel tip of the day! Skycaps can be convinced your bag is under the 50 pound weight limit with $20 and a smile!

Explaining the need for a "wrap party"

Maybe I should have explained in the previous post the reason we needed a "wrap party" on Tuesday night. I'm working on an updated video about my association, including member testimonials and interviews with staff. When I went to Michigan in June I did some filming with a member and my colleague (and posted really fuzzy photos from that). Tuesday we spent filming the DC crew.

That meant three hours standing outside the Capitol building in terrible heat, then six more hours filming in our 700 square foot office. I literally think I dropped 5 pounds of water weight from how much I sweat that day!

Here are some photos from the day (and one more from Michigan - the one with me in the polo shirt). Clearly, I was the one taking the pictures. But I think Kristi Gunster might have some of me being filmed on her camera. I'll post those later.

Strict rules on filming, too. Most people in DC know this, but you need to get a permit to have a tripod on the Capitol grounds. And part of the permit says that we agree that we won't prohibit the public from walking, talking, taking pictures, or generally doing whatever they want even if it's disrupting us. Keith tried to be "boucner" while Kristie was being filmed, trying to keep people from walking behind her in the shot. He was pretty successful, answering questions on directions, and taking photos of people and families just to get them to stop talking about who was going to take a picture!

A lot of tourists wanted to crowd around and see what we were doing, thinking Kristie (really the only one on camera except for the b-roll we got at the end of her and Keith walking/talking) was someone important. That was the most annoying part - people really didn't seem to care that we were trying to keep things quiet!

I've got to give her credit, though. It was stiffling hot, and she stood in the same spot for three hours, full suit on, smiling into the camera!

Mmmmm...!

Had a fantastic "wrap" dinner last night after filming at The Source. It's a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant attached to the revamped Newseum. The meal was fantastic - started with lobster rolls and scallop and shrimp wontons, halibut for my main course, and a tasting of almost all the deserts on the menu! Fun times with Kristie, Rich, Keith and Mike. Although, I'm not sure ordering the second bottle of wine was such a good idea on a Tuesday night...!

Lights! Camera! Action! (Part 2!)

Pumping myself up for another long (and hot...hopefully not too hot...it's gonna be really hot...ew, I'm hot already) day of filming for the video I'm pulling together at work. We're starting off in front of the Capitol building, in today's glorious 500% humidity! Full, dark suits for everyone!

We've got some of our Texas colleagues up for this one, too, so it's a full house at work. But that'll also make it all way more fun. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow or Thursday.

Our houseguest for the summer arrived on Sunday. One of Mike's colleagues needs a place to crash for about six weeks. It's really no problem for us - he can have the top floor with lots of privacy, and he'll be able to watch Goldie while we're gone on our next couple of trips.

Enough procrastinating for the morning! I'm off to the brutal morning...!