Sunday Six: Week 36 (Dragon*Con Edition)

Today's Sunday Six is going to be a Sunday Nine, simply because I have extra pictures and I don't want to pick between them! This weekend thousands of folks are visiting Atlanta for Dragon*Con 2009. Dragon*Con is billed as North America's largest Science Fiction/Fantasy convention. Two of this year's biggest speakers were William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (a.k.a. Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock). In addition to the convention there is a huge parade with tons and tons of fun costumes. For example . . .


The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland was there.


The Blues Brothers danced their way down Peachtree Street, too!


Captain Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Carribean" was present via pirate ship.


This guy was there, too! Although, I have no idea what character he is. If you know, please speak up in the comments! I'm sure I'll feel like a dummy when I find out who this is.


Almost always present at an Atlanta parade is the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Band. They are so wacky! They're always lots of fun to watch!

Finally, as you would expect with any Science Fiction/Fantasy themed parade there were a lot of Star Wars characters present.


Darth Vader was there along with his security forces. Dark Helmet and the SpaceBalls crew were also there. Sadly, I didn't snap the shutter quick enough to get their costumes!


Stormtroopers were everywhere! Y'all, I kid you not when I say there was an Indianapolis Colts Stormtrooper! Who knew they liked football?!


This was probably my favorite of the Star Wars costumes, simply because I'd never seen someone dressed up as Chewy.


And, finally . . . does anyone recognize this guy? Two of the guys behind me were positive this was George Lucas. I think it's just a close likeness. If George had really been there, surely that would've made headlines around here!

Until next week, which will certainly have far less wackiness!

Sunday Six: Week 28

I have another Recap Six this week, but nothing too exciting. Here they are in order by when they were taken.


Last Sunday night my aunt and cousin stayed with me. We went out to dinner and walked along the Roswell Square afterward. This piece of art sits outside an artists market, just down from the main square. He's a cute little baseball player, isn't he?


On down Canton St. from the artists market we stopped to wait while my cousin ran up to a store window to check the hours for the next day. I snapped this quick photo of the streetlight.


I had more family in town this weekend, 5 more members to be exact. This morning we met for breakfast. On my walk to the restaurant I spotted this piece of art. It's a peacock, I think.


I also spotted this pretty, tin flower outside the Red Door Playhouse.


Friday night we headed to Ikea to do a bit of shopping. I finally found a duvet cover that I liked for my extra bedroom. I wanted something colorful and with a bit of orange. I took a photo of it tonight after it came out of the dryer and was stuffed with my down comforter.


Finally, I needed some background noise while I worked getting things settled tonight. It had to be something that wouldn't distract me. I chose the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

Until next week, when hopefully I'll have more exciting pictures!

Costume (86 of 365)

It's an Imperial Stormtrooper!

Film (19 of 365)

This is the well-known marquee sign of Atlanta's Fox Theatre. While it only shows films a handful of times each year, the theater was originally an old movie palace. If you ever have a chance to see a film here DO IT, and make sure you sit in the balcony! They show a news reel, cartoon, along with the previews before the start of the film. We saw "Ironman" here during the summer and it was really neat.

366 Pictures: #240 Cinema

This photo may seem a bit odd at first, however, it does fit the theme. These are the lions of Tsavo. If you've seen the movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" then you're familiar with these lions. These are the actual lions, although they were repaired due to damage to the skins. The exhibit says the actual lions were much bigger. I had never heard of maneless lions, but evidently, it's one of the traits of lions from this region of Africa.

The story behind the lions is really scary, but very interesting, and the movie is really well done.

What's scary? These two lions aren't the largest man-eating lions. Check out this guy. He's also on display at the Field Museum.

Date: November 21, 2008.

6 miles . . .

I finally got my booty back on track with my training schedule for the ING half-marathon. Today I got in 6 miles at the Silver Comet trail. It was super crowded there today, which is to be expected on a lovely January day in the high 50s. Hopefully, work will calm down a bit and I will be able to get myself into the gym in the mornings before work.

Tomorrow I'm seeing The Queen. It is my goal, as usual, to see each of the movies nominated for Best Picture before the Oscars ceremony. So, I must see Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima before the ceremony. It's been so crazy lately that I still haven't seen Blood Diamond or The Pursuit of Happyness. Hopefully, I can get those in before the ceremony,too.

I'll try to let you know what I think of The Queen.

Fun with friends . . .

Last night I went to the movies and dinner with 3 of my friends. We saw "Pulse." Don't see "Pulse." It started out okay, but by the end, it was a bit ridiculous. At one point, we were all ready just to leave the theater. It wasn't at all scary, although there were a couple of jumpy parts. Dinner was okay, as far as the food, we all had a good time hanging out together.

This afternoon, my friend S. and I decided to see "The Descent" because we were told last night that it was scary. Holy cow! That was the most stressful movie I've seen in a while. It was really good! The premise is 6 women who are into adventure sports go spelunking (caving). Crazy stuff starts happening once they get into the cave system. When we were told last night that the movie was about caves I was immediately interested. My first job was as a tour guide in a cave and it was so much fun. We would wander around the noncommercial parts of the cave a lot of times after we closed for the day. I've also gone to a couple of other noncommercial caves, but that's been probably 8 years or so. The cool thing about this movie, I thought, was that it didn't characterize the women as they usually are in scary movies. These were athletic, brave, kick ass women! It was the best scary movie I've seen in a long time.

I was able to get in a run this morning before I met S. at the movies (we met an noon). I did 1.5 miles. My mile time was a little less than my bootcamp post-test, but I expected that. It wasn't too far off, which makes me feel better. I've got to find a 5K to do within the next month or so. Unfortunately, I was right that I won't be in town to do the Run for Justice. That was a fun run, so I'm a little sad about that.

Bootcamp 2: 9 days! I've got to start going to bed earlier!

Ramblings . . .

Having three friends currently in the news business, and one who used to be, I've seen my fair share of funny and creative headlines. This morning, when I logged on to CNN.com, I saw what's become one of my favorite headlines. Evidently, Elton John is interested in expanding his musical horizons to rap music. CNN's headline is this: "Elton John to try 'Candle in the Wiz-ind'?" Hee! I really am not sure why this has made me smile like it has, but it has. My friend, T, agreed with me, and she's in the news business.

We're seeing "Pulse" tonight, there are four of us -- what we like to call our "Scary Movie Group". I have no idea if it's good or not because I haven't read any reviews. I hope it's at least suspenseful. I love a good scary/suspenseful movie. I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed. I'm weird about scary movies. There aren't that many that I've actually found scary. I don't think "The Exorcist" is scary at all, but that could be because I'm not Catholic. Who knows, that's what my Catholic friends tell me. I did find "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to be scary. Of the recent movies that have come out I enjoyed "Saw", it wasn't so much scary as intense. I still need to see the second one. "Wolf Creek" was alright -- I need to watch it again. "Hostel" was just gross.

I talked to my on-again/off-again crush today. We're just friends, and probably will always be just friends, but I have moments where I crush on him and others when I don't. He's a wonderfully sweet guy, lots of fun, and the boy can dance -- which I love. We always have fun when we hang out. I'm trying to talk him into going dancing next weekend -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Tomorrow, I start running. I haven't ran since I was in Florida, which is right at 2 weeks. I didn't even pack running shoes for Barbados. Bootcamp starts back on September 5th, and I want my mile time to be at least the same as my post-test, if not better. This means it should be at least 10:15. They're actually having an 8:30 a.m. bootcamp which is so tempting. However, if I find work within the next month it would completely interfere. 6:00 a.m. it is!

Also on the schedule for tomorrow, cleaning my apartment.

Bootcamp Round 2: 10 days.