My Backyard: November 2012

I think I am back to the normal old every day routine now. I'm even talking to myself again. It's good to be home. I pulled the trigger at the last minute with a flight out of Orlando with a direct shot to XNA. Cindy picked me up at the airport and delivered me to Chris' house.

The first thing going on when I arrived was the filming of the FSA video. You can catch up on that here:

Click Here to See it!!!

#############################################

Since it was Halloween we decided to carve a few pumpkins.

Power Tools!!!

Chris got very creative with a pattern he made of Prince.

I had a short, squat pumpkin so I decided on a slanty-eyed cat.

Steph went old school. Sometimes bad photography can have happy results. Evil looking!

And here's Puff Kitty in his Halloween costume.

*************************************************

Stephanie, who is now my favorite daughter-in-law, (Why? Because when I arrived she presented me with my favorite: Hiland Dairy French Onion Dip!) took me out to Lake Fayetteville for a long walk with Prince and a chance to get back to my roots... taking pictures of nature things.... in broad daylight.

Prince loves to swing!

This tree is HUGE!

Ah, now this reminds me of the NWA that I know and love.

It was high up in a tree.

Looking desperately for some animals or bugs. Finally found a pretty nice Lazy Susan.

This gal can walk....

Yes! An animal.... a dead mole... oh well...

Horse Apple

Honeysuckle! I miss honeysuckle.

That's far enough, Steph, thank you!

*************************************************

I found out that one of my friends (Katie McNally Daniels) was also going to be in NWA at the same time, so on the fly I created an event called Dinner and Drinks with Deb so we could all get together. (I know, it sounds rather egotistical of me, but it is what it is.) And I had a wonderful group of old friends show up at the Chiles' in Rogers.

Melinda showed up as a surprise!

What a deal! I had a second Mel show up unexpectedly. Melody, it was great to see you again.

Another reason to get together, Bonnie!

Heather... My, my, Heather, you are hilarious!

Look, who else? My favorite sister (Hey, I can legitimately say that since I have two sisters.) and Katie herself!

Oh, and I have a favorite sister-in-law, too. (The X part doesn't count!) Thank you, Debbie! She bought my dinner!

I think there were more drinks than dinner.

And here's the finale. Yeah, we were asked to leave. We all blame it on Heather, but I'm thinking the drinks didn't really start flowing until Veronica arrived. I blame it on her! (LOL) I stole this picture from Katie so if you guys have any more pictures send them to me and I can post them here.

******************************************

And just for grins and giggles, I present to you my version of:

Chris' Backyard

There's a face in the bark of this tree. Can you see it?

***************************************

Here's an event that I didn't even expect to happen but we were able to pull every one of my siblings together in one place for dinner Friday night. This only happens once every blue moon.

Pat, Buddy, Cindy, and Debbie, together again!

****************************************

And here's one last minute addition. Laurie called me late my last full day in NWA. She and Vince had been in Cancun all week... she didn't get any of my messages until then, BUT... I made some last minute plans and ran to her house for a VERY short visit!

That's it folks! Other than a miserable flight home with the ultimate "Honey-Boo-Boo" child literally screaming the entire time, I had great trip. I hope you have enjoyed my "vacation" pictures.

Oh yes, here's the final music video:

One of the major reasons I made the trip to NWA was just for this event. My son, Chris Harriman, stars in this music video for the Fayetteville Ska Alliance. The song is "Jingle Bells" and he portrays a "hipster" Santa.

I arrived at Chris' house Monday night and had just enough time to catch up before Mr. Cherokee Turner arrived with some very expensive and professional looking video equipment.

The premise of the video? I still have no idea and I was there through the vast majority of the filming. Basically it's about your average scrooge who falls asleep on the couch and wakes to find himself as some sort of super hipster Santa Claus... calamity then ensues.

This is Stephanie Harriman, my favorite daughter-in-law, wiping peanut butter on Chris' face so they could get a shot of Prince (their dog) licking his face as he wakes up.

Prince is their rescued dog, a very cute, inquisitive Chinese Powder Puff.

We were up until like 4:00 in the morning. (5:00 am for me, I was still on Eastern time.)

The next day we were joined by Damen who helped with some camera work.

I have no idea how all this will be put together. I can't wait to see what Cherokee comes up with.

Hipster Santa falls off the roof.

He is also chased by a pack of angry chihuahua's.

I'm thinking this is a good look for Chris!

And now the real fun begins! They got the band together to film them playing "Jingle Bells" at the The Smoke and Barrel on Dickson Street in Fayetteville.

They decorated the place with cheap tinsel and 25 cent wrapping paper. Remember this is all for charity and there's a strict budget (meaning none) to follow.

UGH! I am not a photographer. Sure I can take pictures of insects, birds, and the occasional reptile, if they kindly line up in front of my camera, in broad daylight, and I manage to actually hit the button at the right time. I have many friends who are real photographers and I have a new appreciation for all they can do with all those confusing settings on their cameras, lighting and so on. I had a miserable time with my camera this trip. It started when these guys were filming indoors and I would shut off my flash so as not to interfere with their video. I couldn't get a decent indoor shot after that, flash or not. The damned thing just wouldn't click when I wanted it to. I have decided that I am no longer allowed to take pictures of people or anything indoors. Sorry, guys. I wish I could have taken better candid shots of you.