We here at Intrigued just wanted to take a quick moment to extend our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas (or related holiday event) to all or wonderful readers!
It’s that time of year when we shut the lights off and close the office doors for a few days so we can enjoy this special holiday with family and friends. Hit the jump to see a few more warm tidings from our staff!
Continue reading Merry Christmas and Warm TidingsEveryone here in the Intrigued family would like to extend a hearty Merry Christmas to each and all! We have had a wonderful year here and that is entirely due to all our wonderful readers.
Hit the jump for some more merry good cheer!
Continue reading The Intrigued Family Wishes You a Very Merry ChristmasI have to feel a bit sorrow for all the SoaRs out there (Spouse of a Runner) or more specific SoaIRs – Spouse of an Injured Runner. Clearly we can be a difficult lot as Linda continues to remind me daily. Beginning to think my full name is really “Don’t You Dare”, purely based on the number of times that is proclaimed lately and as far as I can tell..always directed at … well, ME. She caught me heading out to a pile of concrete with a sledgehammer the other day (we had some new concrete poured and the contractors left huge slabs for me to deal with). My excuse that it couldn’t be any worse than what the therapists were going to do me apparently didn’t hold water. The good news is Doc says the elbow is healing nicely, but wants to re-xray it in three weeks. Obligatory head nod while inner Bri goes postal “THREE WEEKS, is he crazy!?! I have a road race this Saturday and an ultra in October to train for – where did she hide that sledgehammer, I need to get on with building my strength back up …when Linda is away, of course”. While my accelerated recover plan germinates, thought I would see if I could get a quick post out. Brad was kind enough to take us along on his Huntington bird walk last we met. Unfortunately, my birding days are put on hold for some time – even decided to send The Beast in for some spa recovery time at a local Nikon repair shop – so, how about we take a walk of a different kind.
This adventure will be from the comfort (and safety) of my den. Yep, it is time for a hodgepodge of images that either didn’t make the first cut, one-offs or in some cases just some fun images that have been perpetually stuck in 5 o’clock traffic.
Hit the jump for a walk for those of us with no particular place to go.
Continue reading HodgepodgeFor the last two weeks I’ve woken up, looked at the day’s to-do list, covered my dog’s ears and let out a string of colorful words. In big bold letters is the word “POST”. Although that probably is obvious but it is short for “Get your lazy butt into the den and get a post out you lily-livered, bow-legged, flea-bitten varmint”. Yes, I’m retired, yes, I still have to-do lists and yes, my to-do list entries mock me. This month it isn’t so much procrastination, just too much stuff going on, but today we are going to take another bite out of the self-imposed monthly post quota.
Going to start with another brag introduction. I previously mentioned Raven did well in the TDAA National competition held last week in Minnesota. He is starting to slow down a bit, but he is getting the job done qualifying in 4 out of his 6 runs. I’d be sleeping on the couch if I didn’t give some of that credit to Linda ha!
I think Raven is starting to feel the pressure from the newest member of the agility family. A long way from the steady runs of his brother, Ruger is just starting out, but showing amazing talent – Linda just needs to get him focused. We laughed at this shot of him “doing” his first ever weave poles. By “doing” we mean running right through them to get to his favorite obstacle the teeter-totter. “That isn’t how it’s done Ruger!” Raven was absolutely embarrassed and went and hid in his crate after that fiasco.
As they Say’s, hit the jump to see today’s featured feathered friend!
Continue reading It Say’s I’m the BestGreetings from the road to Terre Haute. Linda and I are on our way back home from our trip to French Lick (chuckle) and thanks to being so far behind on posts this month I have resorted to using our travel time to pump a few blog posts out. Today we have a special treat and by that I mean a guest photographer. The first stop on our mini-vacation was to the Indianapolis Zoo. Linda and I loaded up all of our camera equipment and headed out for a day of mirror slapping. Later that night, Linda post processed some of her pictures for her peeps on Facebook (sigh). I must say, she produced some amazing shots and thought I would share them with you. Let’s start with the big cats.
That cat came out tack sharp with nice detail in the fur. The tiger also has a look of intent as it stares down a small child with a face painting of a deer… kidding, it was actually watching his mate (below) taking a morning swim. In truth, I would hate to be a deer that came face to face with that killing machine. The composition isn’t the only thing that impresses me about this particular shot. The fact that it even came out at all is a credit to Linda’s photographic abilities. The tiger was actually behind GLASS at high sun. One might be able to dismiss this as pure luck (hints of a certain sunflower picture), but then she pulled out this shot.
She also captured the tiger’s mate taking a swim in their pond. Again, tack sharp (check), captivating expression (check), difficult lighting (check) with the added composition element of reflection (score). All that is plenty enough but yes, it was taken through the very same glass protecting it from us. She actually manually focused these shots to compensate for the false glass readings. My only credit point is I taught her how to take pictures in full manual exposure mode which she is now downplaying as just a refresher from her 35mm Pentax days. This is probably a good time to point out that it was extremely hot the day we were there which is probably why a cat (notorious for not really liking water) decided to seek relief in the stream. “How hot was it?… it was so hot, even the cheetahs had their sneakers off and lounging in the weeds.”
Although not through glass, this big cat shot was nicely done as well. It was actually in mid sentence asking us if we’d be willing to get it a slurpy (antelope flavored) to help cool down. One of the features at the Indy zoo was to test your speed against a cheetah. I had heard the programmed announcer (Tony Stewart who helped fund this exhibit) initiating the races which were going off about 3 minutes apart. I was actually feeling sorry for the poor cheetah having to continually race in blistering heat until I came upon the race site. It was just an electronic simulation consisting of lights representing the cheetah’s speed above a single lane track for the human to run on. If those lights were accurate, that cat can move! The heat was getting to everyone that day and most of the animals were seeking any shelter they could find in their natural pens. The polar bear below was taking a snooze when we first arrived at the zoo around 9:15am.
Hit the jump to see a few more great pictures of wildlife at the Indy Zoo
Wildlife Intrigued 