Thanksgiving, a day late

Thanksgiving photos above. Spent it at Felicia & Jim's. The first photo is of their son, Michael, who didn't feel good, so he's not in any more of the pictures!

Ate waaaaaay too much, but that's the point, right? The only thing I missed was the stuffing--they do cornbread dressing here, which is yummy, but not as yummy as good ol' regular-bread stuffing!

Chitlins were present, in the down-home Arkansas tradition, but Jim had them banished to the room we weren't eating in, and the cover had to stay on the casserole dish. I think only two people ate them, but I couldn't even watch, because I knew it would make me gag. Luckily, I only caught a whiff of them once or twice. To be fair, neither Felicia nor Jim eat them, but Felicia's mom cooked some, and they somehow talked Jim into allowing them to enter the house.

Other than that bit of scariness, everythin was dee-licious. Finger-lickin' good. And whatever other thing you can think of to mean "mmm."

Then, while Jim took a nap on the couch (see photo above), some of us played cards. Then he woke up and joined in. Eventually, I had to leave since I was only one of two people who actually had to get up and work in the morning (as in, today.) Drats.

A gobble gobble here and a quack quack there, here a cluck there a cluck, everywhere a turduck...hen

I got up early this morning to take some pictures, but as you can see from the picture above, it was waaaay early, and too dark to get anything, unless I used a flash.

Now, on to the meat of the entry!

Arkansas is a big ol' meat-eatin' state. You should see the size of the meat sandwiches they eat. The restaurants brag about this-or-that kind of meat sandwich being "hubcap" size, and they're not lying! Who could eat that?

They even eat meat soup. But they call it chili. And don't put beans in it--a true Arkansas Chili Eater will not eat his meat soup if it so much as touches a bean.

Now that Thanksgiving is here, Arkansas falls into a frenzy over that special Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas gourmet delicacy, the turduckhen. It's a boneless hen stuffed in a boneless duck stuffed in a boneless turkey. I'm not making it up. Go ahead, click here, and you'll see.

Some people just can't get enough meat, I guess.

Hold the mayo

Sorry, no new pics, so you get an old one instead, of the Fishermen's Memorial in Gloucester. I woulda had some new ones, except for the brain problems lately. One day I got up really early and went out to get some fall photos...and forgot to put a diskette in the camera. And twice I rushed out the door to do something and just plain forgot the camera. Oops.

Now for today's Little Rock Story: For some reason, Arkansans just lo-o-o-ve mayonnaise. It ends up on everything. If you don't want mayo on something, you better say so, just in case. I've gotten mayo on a grilled cheese sandwich. Blech! Who would've thought you'd have to go to a lunch counter and say, "I'd like a grilled cheese, hold the mayo?" I think maybe it's in the apple pie, too, but I can't be certain.

I dont even LIKE mayo. And don't get me started on Miracle Whip--that's just a bad joke made worse.

I once ordered a BLT from Coupe De Grille, a greasy spoon that was located down the street form where I work. Now, I realize that BLTs have mayo. But anything that regularly comes with mayo in the normal world comes with EXTRA mayo in the Little Rock world. Knowing this, I thought I had better just go ahead and order it with NO MAYO. I called the order in, and said, very clearly, "NO MAYO."

I went to the diner, picked up my sandwich, came back to work, opened it up, and it was dripping with gobs and gobs of mayo. I looked at the ticket that was stapled to the bag, and on it was handwritten, "No mayo."

All I can think is, the short order cook saw the ticket, and his mind couldn't fathom that a person might actually want a BLT with no mayo, so he assumed the ticked instead read "Mo' mayo" and he just slathered it on good and thick.

Thankfully, I was able to wipe most of it off with napkins.

And the verdict is...

Went bowling today, with Felicia and her kids, as you can see above. No, no pictures of me. I stink at bowling, by the way. This is regular bowling, nobody does candlepin bowling here. My wrist is going to hurt tomorrow, from hurling that heavy ball around for a couple hours!

Now, I know you were all waiting with bated breath to know what happened to Wayne Dumond. Well, he was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder. Hopefully, Missouri will be a little better at keeping him in prison than Arkansas was.

No Fluffernutters?

The first photo above is what the photo from the last entry looked like before I made a paper negative of it. This one was selenium-toned. The second photo is from the same cemetery. B/W print, plus blue toner. That's a little of what I did in class last night. Just toned a bunch of stuff--selenium, sepia, and blue. Didn't print anything new--my eyes were too tired and blurry from staring at the computer at work all day.

For the first time since I moved to Arkansas, I saw a jar of Marshmallow Fluff for sale in the store. Oh, all along they've had a poor imitation, known as "marshmallow crème," but that stuff's just kinda flat-looking (and probably -tasting) compared to Fluff. Not that I'm condoning the indiscriminate eating of Fluff. I looked it up, though, and there are no preservatives, artificial flavors, artifical colors, or anything else fake, but a Fluffernutter is, after all, like eating a peanut butter and sugar sandwich.

Anyway. I guess even Marshmallow Fluff is a regional thing.

Brr...Finally!

Well, it finally cooled down. It was 84 one day, 54 the next. I know that's not cold to some people, but it's a 30 degree change!

Haven't updated in a while because I wasn't been home any night last week--mostly working, ho-hum. Went to the darkroom today and came out with the photo above, taken from a cemetery in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. We couldn't get in the cemetery, even though we went back a couple times. The gate was always locked. So I had to get photos by walking around the top of the wall (and hoping I didn't fall in, which, obviously, I didn't).

Saw Santa and an elf riding a motorcycle on Old Cantrell Road today. No photo, since I haven't mastered taking pictures while driving a car, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Road Trip

Ahh, autumn in Arkansas. It's brown. See above.

Went on a roadtrip with Felicia today to Mountain Home, which is in the northern part of the state, near Missouri. Nothing much to see between here and there, although I saw one disturbing thing:

In Yellville, a little antique/second-hand store called Needfull Things. I'm not kidding. Don't these people read books? Or watch movies?? You couldn't pay me to go in that place. Nosir. Nuh-uh. No telling what I'd find. Probably something I couldn't live without.

Yeah, they spelled "needful" wrong, but that's just to trick ya into thinking it's ok to come inside.

Nope. Not me.

November 1st, and still in the 80s

Spent more than three hours this afternoon in the darkroom, and came out with nothing. Nothing!

Nothing ... except that "lovely" photo above, of part of the collection of things that sits above the revolving door from Studio 6 into the darkroom.