photos.ALBj.net

photos.ALBj.net → 2011 → Miscellaneous 2011

Miscellaneous/random shots taken in 2011 which I did not include as part of any other set of photos.

An unexpected pen caddy
I'd planned to say, let's see how long this Sharpie stays on top of the door access panel before someone removes it, but I have enough coworkers who'll see this photo that one of 'em will probably go seek it out. 🙂

Getting a new laser-engraved tag for the dog
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Very grateful to my father-in-law for cutting in paint in the condo I'll be renting out
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It's a bit chaotic at the food fair, but there's lots of tasty stuff here
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Stormy day is stormy
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Late night car wash provided by a busted sprinkler at apartment entrance
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D'OH! Dropped my iPad. It was in the case and damage is cosmetic, but CRUD!
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Yeah, a little past the season, but better late than never—and they had a blast
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Close up of the gingerbread house
Okay, so I attempted to enhance a snowy effect with a white vignette, and applied a tilt-shift to make the house look larger than it is. Not sure as to the success of either effect. 🙂

Isn't it in the rulebook somewhere that at least one gets saved for the husband? 😉
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I'm playing Candy Land with Adrienne
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Typing and designing an article in Pages for iPad with USB keyboard attached
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Is "wonky stuff" a technical term for app developers?
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Triple FAIL for WESH
1) Casey Casey? 2) If it's not important enough to give some story details rather than just a teaser to go to the web site, then it's not important enough to push an alert to your iPhone app. 3) Do any of us (except her family) really care about "Casey Casey" any more? Just tell us when they've made up their minds whether she's guilty.

Treat yourself to an empty, abandoned gas station
Most signs were removed from this property, except the one above the building entrance. Treat myself to WHAT, exactly??

New raspberry cheesecake cookies at Subway: NOM NOM NOM
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"In our defense…"
Regardless of the truth, have to admire Taco Bell for defending their reputation with this national full-page newspaper ad.

I feel obligated to cheer for this American Idol hopeful
A few months ago, I sat in a performance of The American Idol Experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The girl who won that day was going to LA for auditions the next day, and winning AM Experience got her a head-of-the-line pass. That's her—the redhead on the left. Unfortunately, she wasn't among the auditions producers chose to air during tonight's episode, so I don't know if she got a 'yes' for Hollywood, but it's cool to see that she actually did make it to LA!

American Idol Experience performance photo of girl from previous photo
This is the fabulous shot my wife took of the girl we saw perform on September 19, 2010. Haven't had any luck recalling her name. I sure hope we see her in the Hollywood A.I. episodes. Photography by Lori Bennett

Ugly ripe tomatoes
This is one of those rare instances where the photo is making things look better than they really are. Trust me, the 'maters lived up to the "ugly" label.

Superbowl, Twitter, and Facebook FTW
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Congrats Green Bay!
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Played Sorry! with the family tonight
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Chloe likes burrowing under her bed pillow better than laying on top
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Something is wrong with this picture
Bright House broadband at home, supposedly 15Mbps fiber at office. Hmmm.

By now, seems the White House could install a permanent floor plate instead of running an ugly cable
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Appliance Direct—functional, not fancy
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iPhone owners who are staying with AT&T can get 1000 free rollover minutes
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I hope there's not an EXIT sign on the other side of that door
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Magic Kingdom parade close-up
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Good night Disney—had a great day
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Demolished Publix at 17/92 in Winter Park
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Sunset bricks with XPRO C-41
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Irradiated red pepper? Is this stuff safe?
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Orlando has apparently selected my apartment community as its newest landfill location
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Remind me not to shake the hand of this gloveless trash collection worker
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It's that time again
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Another carpet dent—another BIG step closer to being completely out of the condo
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Congo River Putt Putt
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Plane Crash at Congo River Putt Putt
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An interesting-but-random juxtaposition of tweets
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Baby dedication for Mason
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There will be hot chocolate
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THE HOUSE IS OURS!!!
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Why I don't mind Florida humidity—fingertips never look this bad at home
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This conversation (read bottom up) was going downhill really fast
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Storm damage (I think, though, the lightning strike may actually have been from much earlier)
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Xander found a new hiding spot
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Rock climbing wall at Camp Meeting
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Yesterday afternoon, Lori and the girls (yes, I helped) washed my car, and now it's sparkly!
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Wife's girls playing with 3D chalk (I have to say, the effect was pretty cool)
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New playthings at the office
Looking forward to using my new 8-core 2.4GHz Intel Xeon Westmere. 6GB of RAM and four 1TB hard drives on a hardware RAID card. This will replace the quad-core G5 I've used for more than five years. Needed an Intel machine for latest software. The G5 will be converted to a dedicated video editing station.

500 people can't be wrong
More sidewalk chalk art by Meg and Adri.

My status for the next several hours
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Controlled burn at Rock Springs Preserve (photo by Lori B.)
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Everyone on last night's American Idol was poking fun at Casey's beard
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Never mind Waldo, I found Charlie Brown! (from an America's Funniest Videos episode)
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Here's a visual to go along with my earlier gripe about sink faucet placement—too close to back edge
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Dream Lake Park
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What caused this? Woodpeckers? Angry Birds?
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My key ring is two keys lighter and I am officially free from these apartments—my advice: don't rent here
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Holy love bugs, Batman!
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How in the world does Amazon offer free shipping while using huge boxes to send much smaller products?
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I'm at Marble Slab doing my part for a church fundraiser
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Face-painted Meg
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Odd form of direct advertising
From the looks of the neighborhood, a vehicle drove by and just tossed these out the window at every home.

Open in March, eh? It's mid-May and the store still shows no signs of life
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Bizarre building (house?) in Apopka
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Free stuff
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I guess this piece of metal's owner REALLY wants you to leave it alone
Convince me of a reason you need the original/uncensored version and I can make it available to you.

All my CDs have finally found their home in my new home
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Moronic parking job of the day
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What happens when web developers assume a visitor is using Mobile Safari as opposed to some other app's mini browser
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Today was employee appreciation day—18 years for me (nearly 19 if you count my internship)
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Chloe is queen of the sunny spot
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Rufus Teague Made Some Sauce
He put some in a jar and shared it with the boys. They kept on painin' him 'til he fixed up another batch. Next thing he knew he's makin' sauce all the time. It's damn good.

This is the first CD I ever burned, in 1996, at 1X speed—it's still readable
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Taking the twins to Disney
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Space Mountain lit up for maintenance, viewed from the People Mover
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Wall tiles in simulated electromagnetic testing room at Epcot's Test Track attraction - unprocessed
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It's 2011—why does it still matter which side goes up when loading new paper into a printer?
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What Is It - 06/14/11
Starting off my indefinite whim of "what is it" close-up photos. Sorry, no prizes other than bragging rights if you correctly identify an object.

Shhh—don't tell Wells Fargo that the warmth they feel is actually the stuff that came out of their rear ends
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Delicious vintage
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My treat as an honorary Dad. Happy Fathers Day, y'all!
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So, this is happening
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So, this happened
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What Is It - 06/21/11
There are certain individuals I know will get this right away. If you own/use one of these, hold off answering until those who don't use this item have a chance to guess.

Drat. Worked late. Now raining buckets. Umbrella is in car. Wanna go home. *sob*
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Church service honoring military veterans
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Really proud of how awesome my wife is making the girls' loft look
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Creepy characters
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Birthday spread—yeah, that's a fly (part played by a raisin) on the frog's tongue
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Canada Pavilion
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New shades—gift from my wife
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Nice day to be poolside
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Kids' cookies
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Sitting pretty
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A friend's new art piece
My friend Mandy tweeted back in May: "Purchasing a painting today from a high school friend. It's of an elephant pooping. 🙂 I'm in love with it!" Naturally I was quite curious. Not only did she share a picture of it with me, she granted permission for me to share it along. Not sure why I delayed a few months, but here it is. She later tweeted to someone else: "It's so cute! I paid $[REDACTED] for a piece of [$4!+]. Literally. :)" Nice. 😉

Three felines
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Photo taken August 1, 2011—sign is a bit out of date, eh?
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Playing with dinosaurs will really wear you out! zzzZZZZZzzzzzZzZZZ
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Gusher at neighborhood entrance
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A treat from The Sweet Shoppe during our first anniversary evening
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I'll see the new Trek soundtrack @gedeon bought and raise him 18 more
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I love when apps know how to multithread properly
Using all eight cores to simultaneously crunch four MPEG videos into QuickTime H.264 files.

Let's go bowling
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Cosmi-licious
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Cheap shades are cheap
Don't get me wrong, they were a much-appreciated gift from my wife, and I knew they probably wouldn't last for years. Just too bad they didn't last more than a couple months.

Out with the old dead lawn, in with the new
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Only in Florida—POURING rain from above with BRIGHT sunshine and some blue sky from ahead
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New restaurant coming: Lime—as if Moe's, Qdoba, Chipotle, Panchero's, ad nauseum, weren't enough
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Guess it was "go to McDonald's in our PJs" day
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Sing with me: "One of these things is not like the other one…"
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Biketoberfest—Camp Kulaqua style
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AHHHH! BIGGEST HORSEFLY EVAR! (Sucker was as long as my finger!)
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The neighborhood mascot
Don't let the fake tilt shift fool you. This guy was pretty large—roughly a foot long when his head and tail were out.

Is this what happens when you measure with a slide ruler?
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Stormy skies in Deltona back on Friday
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"How much for that [cutie] in the window?"
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Wednesday evening, I stitched 6 pompom hairpieces onto puppets for Adrienne
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This store has had its pumps closed off a long time—they really ought to pull down these old prices
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What a rip off! I paid 80 cents a bottle but this sign says I should've only paid 8/10 of a cent per bottle
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School bus stupidity
Idiotic. This bus stopped TWICE, and only a couple hundred feet apart (stops could have been combined). The first was to load up easily 3-4 dozen kids, necessitating busy Lee Road traffic to wait behind for more than 5 minutes. Second stop dropped off several kids to waiting parents and held cars up for two complete traffic light cycles at the intersection up ahead. Both stops had perfectly decent and relatively empty parking lots the bus could have pulled into so as not to cause a half mile backup on a busy main road. This should be signed into law whenever there are more than half a dozen kids to transfer. Yes, only 6, because the drivers still have to keep the red lights flashing until the kids sit their butts in the seats, and we all know how long kids take to do what they're told.

I know someone in this office has a legitimate allergy, but does this sign also serve as a warning toward certain visiting people?
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Wait, I'm confused, what am I supposed to do?
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First visit to 4R
Finally tried the new Four Rivers BBQ restaurant this past week. Verdict: it's conveniently close to where I work, but has outdoor seating, crowded, and perpetually long lines. Moreover, Cecil's tastes a lot better, in spite of being way down on the south side of town.

Waiting for handouts—the pesky little beggars! (Yes, Chloe was in heat at the time, ergo the diaper.)
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Fighting for the sunny spot
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Cousin's kids, Halloween 2009
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Winter Springs Kickball Tournament
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Kickball Tournament trophy table
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RIP, Steve Jobs. To me, you will always be, His Steveness.
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Here's to the Crazy One
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Probably the best sentiment you'll see all day
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Adri's stuffed animals
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Getting home in my neighborhood is becoming increasingly unpleasant
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If you approach me and I smell like air freshener, you can blame the wall device that squirted it in my face!
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Feeding ducks at Crane's Roost
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Been a long time since I've seen the bottom of my car's cargo area
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Don't let the serenity fool you
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Sloppy kerning
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The ultimate Hard Rock pin collection
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Very cool Hard Rock pin collage
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Understanding the US budget
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Apparently "Fragile" stickers now mean "crush the dickens out of it"
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Three animals call this building address sign home—can you find them all?
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New entryway carpet at Tampa First Church
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Redecorated sanctuary at Tampa First Church
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No, they didn't expand the barely visible stained glass—they just added mirrors. Wow!
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I'd like to say we waited so long for our food, Meg fell asleep, but no, she just wasn't feeling well
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The kids are about to pet an alligator
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You really get a sense of how big cruise ships are when you see a full size tanker truck on the dock next to the boat!
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Not plants, they're animals—leafy dragons
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Penguin
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Divers in the shark tank
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Red Robin—YUM
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Super straw
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Three cheers for haircuts
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Dude sits in his front-end loader by the road and waves at passing cars every morning
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What do I look like, the pet hotel?
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Yummy new chip flavor at Subway
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Family, friends, food, Amigo's!
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Wonder how many Frenchmen this restaurant has offended (comment if you get it)
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Hayride time
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Giddyup!
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Girl on a fence
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View from the hotel
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Billy's Tap Room & Grill
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Hilton Oceanwalk Daytona
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So, rain tomorrow is going to be coming from a sunny, cloudless sky?
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*Sigh* If only it was that easy
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Quite jealous of my parents who are on the west coast now—this is looking out their Yosemite hotel room window
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Cold Gatorade bottle bottoms are like catnip to Xander
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Can't help but be impressed that my iPhone 4S can push and pull WiFi bandwidth pretty much the same speed as my Mac Pro
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Xander is watching you
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Bennett house tree trimming has commenced
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Making holiday paper chain links
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My first "$#[^ Siri Says" moment
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Wife was busy today—our tree looks amazing!
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Not what I had planned to spend money on right now
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More awesome decorations in our house—I love my wife!
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Warning, if you sit on this couch, you'll no longer be outstanding in your field
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Friend request accepted
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Oh puny, weak mild, you are simply not worthy to be granted an audience with my taco
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Big Macs? Seriously? Well, at least it breaks the monotony of spa session deals!
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Capitalizing on the success of launching Angry Birds at pigs, we can now launch pigs at—stuff
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My office has subscribed annually to Clipper>Electronic Clipper>Liquid Library>Thinkstock since at least 1986—that's the oldest binder I could find!
Wow, just realized that makes it 25 years!

The neighborhood flock
Earlier this week, every last one of these hoodlums were camping out on top of a house, up to no good, I'm sure. Just glad it wasn't my house.

What's wrong with this picture?
----- Do not read past here if you're still trying to figure it out on your own. ----- As if to add insult to injury, the brainiacs who came up with this are school employees, educating our children. Well, I rescind that. It's a public school. I've never heard of education taking place at public schools, have you? Conformity is the only thing I ever see come out of those institutions. This signage is at the entrance to a parking lot. There's an entrance from the other side with a sign that is marked, buses only. I can only assume that employees must be given specific instructions to completely ignore the signs, because there's absolutely no other way into the parking lot. But seriously, a do not enter line combined with an arrow inviting me to follow? (FYI, it's a counterclockwise loop in the parking lot. Even without the do not enter message, cars are not supposed to go straight there.)