Poppy Leaves, GF in London and More Photos!!

Ok, so this week Poppy has gone back home. I promise this is probably my last Poppy picture. It was so sad when she left. She didn't even wave goodbye :(. To make matters worse, the gf left for London the weekend, so I was left here all by myself this weekend. I thought I would do so much "me" stuff this weekend. "Me" stuff turned into me sitting around my apartment on Saturday in my underwear watching espn. I know exciting stuff.

Around 6pm I decided to turn off 'Flip This House', brush my teeth and get out in the nice weather. I had just gotten a fisheye camera lens last week, so this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. The photos below are from the Lincoln and WWII memorials. Hope you like them!

At the Lincoln. I was taking longer exposures so there are a lot of ghosted people in the images. I kinda like the affect.

The tourists were ridiculous. You wouldn't believe how many people stood in front of the camera after they me setting up the shot. Ugh. Tourist season.

Ah, the fixie makes a cameo appearance!

I would like to thank Illinois for being in a such a photogenic location.

I think this was the only shot that no one walked through.

Black and White. I dunno... It just felt right to make this one B&W.

The 52 Project: Meet Poppy

Ok, at this rate my 52 project is going to end up more like a 37 project. I still don't understand how people take a picture a day for an entire year.

But anyway, on to the next photo: Meet Poppy the Dog. I introduced her in the last post, but that was after just a few days with her. After spending most of the weekend with her I learned these things:

1. She's big, but still timid around other animals... especially Mo the cat.

2. She loves attention, so if you stop petting her expect to get nudged.

3. She'll fetch a ball, but if you throw a stick, she'll run to get it then chew it up.

4. She farts way too much.

5. She'll lay on the couch, but only if you're touching her.

6. When she goes to shake your hand she swings her paw way too hard.

7. If you run, she will chase you.

I really don't have a story for the photos this week. Just hangin out with Poppy. Hope you enjoy them.

Where my Dogs At: The Story of Poppy the Dog.

I'm getting a dog!!

At least for about 10 days that is. My girlfriend's ex-roommate's good friend is getting married so naturally my gf was selected to watch the dog, Poppy. I refer to her as "Poppy the Dog" just to avoid any confusion. Last night was her first night staying over, so of course I had to stay at my girlfriends house for support. You know, if Poppy needed an emergency game of fetch or something serious like that.

Poppy is such a good dog. She always sometimes responds to voice commands and never barks. I tried to get her to jump on the bed/couch/whatever piece of furniture was near when no one was looking but she knew she wasn't allowed up there so she didn't do it. I know, no fun. There was actually an epic standoff last night between Poppy the Dog and Mo, the cat that owns one of my gf's roommates. I was fortunate enough to catch the entire thing. At the end of the day, it ended up being just a staring contest. Poppy was more curious than anything else. I believe photo below is an accurate portrayal of the events:

Anyway, I'm not making any promises but I'm gonna try to incorporate Poppy into my baller lifestyle. Hopefully, pictures to follow!

Cherry Blossom Tournament Weekend

So this past weekend was the annual Cherry Blossom Soccer Tournament here in the city. This is the second year that I played with my weeknight coed team 'Trix are for Kids'. For those not familiar with the format, the tournament is setup just like the World Cup. There are 32 teams split into 8 groups of 4. The top 2 teams from each group advance to a 16 team single elimination tournament on the second day. Last year we ended up making it to the semifinals, this year we weren't as fortunate and ended up getting knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Although we got knocked out a bit earlier than I had hoped, it was still a really fun time. Among the highlights were meeting Trix the dog, catching the Cherry Blossoms and scoring 5 goals (yahoooo!!!). The lowlights were the hail/rain/cold, playing all of our saturday games on a field with a giant puddle and getting a ref on the first day that was bad yet serious.

Anyway, pictures are below. Enjoy!

I successfully avoided the mud pit all day.

Halftime talk. Jeff is not interested.

Me with Trix the dog. Our unofficial mascot.

I got mugged by this girl. No foul was called...

God is a Trix fan :)

My excellent girlfriend braved the cold, rain and hail to watch all the games.

Jeff and Emily trying to soak up some sun to get warm.

Dave and his ridiculously hard shot. Look how high he's off the ground!