Ol' Will had it all Wrong...

"First thing we do is kill all the lawyers."
Henry VI (Part 2)
William Shakespeare

Last week I had the opportunity to do some photography of a stage production called "Misbehavin' at the Menger" at the Empire Theater in San Antonio, Texas. I was curious about this production...so much so that I volunteered my services a year in advance! There were several reasons for my fascination.

You see, this is a production, going under the umbrella name of "The Ethics Follies", that has been set up as an alternative means of conveying continuous education credits for Ethics Training to legal, accounting and medical professionals seeking to earn credits toward renewing their professional certifications/licenses. I have had to attend my fair share of ethics training seminars conducted in the classic download method, and I have managed to catch up on a lot of sleep while doing so, while retaining little information that might be used to keep me out of the clutches of these legal eagles. So, the attempt at making the topic fun and enjoyable is, by itself, a noble undertaking.

Fair weather dreams and broken legs...

About a year ago, the beautiful Ms. C's sister sent us a link to some pictures a friend of a friend had taken at a stage show that she took part in. We talked about those photos a couple of months later and I told her that I thought that I might be able to provide a different point of view if they did it again. Flash forward about 6 months, and I get a call from the Lady M,and she inquires if I am still interested in the gig...

Am I interested??? Hold me back!!!

A couple of months later, I decide to book a trip to one of my favorite photo friendly events - the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival. I neglected to check the two dates. It turns out that I am doing these two events only two days apart. My camera hasn't been this busy all year!!!

Damn , I am psyched!!!

I will post some shots from each event as they go live. It is going to be a great week.

The Cowboys Still Ride High...

More years ago than I care to remember, I started a small casual social group that has come to be known as the Cowboy Cooking Club. There were three of us then, and there are three of us now...albeit a different three. Our mission , as it were, is to provide exceptionally good food and wine for small dinner gatherings that we put on at least a couple of times a year. Spouses, significant others and honored guests are invited to share in the bounty of what can be anything from a couple of hours to a full week of preparations leading up to the main event. Nobody goes away hungry. That just wouldn't be hospitable.

A few years back, one of the original Cowboys drifted off to live his life via a different set of rules. My buddy Skip and I held the fort for a couple of years on our own, and the quality didn't suffer any, but we both knew there was something missing. And the x-factor that made the whole cooking club what it is today was right in front of us the whole time!!!

Skip had been in the insurance business for the better part of the first 15 years that I had known him. When he got out of that industry, he turned over his customer base to his friend Kirk, who had a business that was positioned for the long haul. It was important to Skip that he turned his clients over to someone who would look after them like he did. Kirk was one of the few people in this life that had earned that kind of trust from Skip. And that was good enough for me. I had known Kirk for a few years by this point in time, and he and the lovely Miss Sue were frequent guests at Lemmings Walk (my humble abode). They had even managed to attend a few  of the Cowboy Cooking Club dinners.