Day 31: The Front Door Flamingo

This is something I saw one day when my mom and I were out shopping. He was a touch out of my price range, so I let him be. That Christmas, he showed up under the tree because my mom is just that cool. :D

Been great y'all... can't wait to see the HxH and I'm looking forward to the summer version so I can go outside a bit. :D

Day 30:Context

Been a long and painful day. I didn’t have a lot of energy for this today so I thought I would take a quick picture of the shelf. I figured a little context can’t hurt and I do love these shelves. Yes, I’m as weird as you would expect as I am sure you can tell by the DVD titles, book titles and Magic cards.

Good night all and happy Friday!

Day 29: Worthy Things

This is the edge of one of my shelves. This little cluster of stuff is a mix of mine and my roommate’s things. I can’t tell you much about the pumpkin, because I don’t really know its history. The Bates Motel sign and ‘Norman’ is actually a part of this Worth entry. That was a fun one to do and I hung on to a piece of it until I need the space for something else. Of course, it may just become part of my strange collection of things! :)

Day 28: Idle Hands.

Now you know what I do when I have idle hand disease. I’m not to good at just sitting and watching TV, but I am good at sitting and watching TV while websurfing, playing video games, doodling, or tinkering with photoshop. When I need a break from it, this is what I do. It’s slow going, I’ve been working on this one for about eight months and it will probably be another three years before it even gets close to finished. I usually give them away, but I might just keep this one!

Day 27: More Braaaiiiinnnnssss...

This is a gift I received from a very good friend of mine. Since it lives in my bathroom it keeps me on time in the mornings... when I keep fresh batteries in it. :)

Day 26: Break from the theme.

As you can see, we are really busy tonight with important coloring projects.I apologize in advance for the not so exciting photo, but I dont want to give up too much coloring time tonight. :D

Day 25: A Kooky Kow.

This one is really special since it has W1K ties. Kookaburra recognized the cows in a picture I took in the last 30 challenge (here’s the answer to your question Kim, in a curio! :0 ). She kindly offered and sent me one that I did not have, tutancowmon. He arrived a few weeks ago and I couldn’t be more happy with him. Such a cool trinket to remind me just how kind strangers can be (and I don’t think she could get any stranger….). :D

And because I have not been able to comment on everyone’s photos I want to tell you all how much I am enjoying them. Some really cool photos have been taken over the last thirty days and some of you have quite a portfolio to be very proud of! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and leave comments and encouragement on mine, I wouldn’t still be going if you hadn’t!

Day 24: Cooking with Cows

I just love these two cooking cows. There was a time when I cooked a lot and I thought these were fun and expressive of one of my hobbies. Maybe I will be inspired to cook more if I keep draggin them out! :)

Day 23: The Patriots

This collection is very Americana. I bought the NASA cow because he reminded me of a one of the best trips ever my very best friend and I took through Florida and one of our stops was NASA. Almost made me wish I was an astronaut.

The American Flag cow was a gift from the same girlfriend. I think she selected because a the time there were about 10 cows in the whole available collection and she thought it was the closest to my personality.

The Statue of Liberty is one I bought for myself. My fiancée, best friend and I had decided to do American icons for Halloween costumes. I was made myself the Statue of Liberty, he was Uncle Sam and my girlfriend Lady of Justice. We started the costumes in early September, the same year the towers fell. We debated on wearing them, but in the end went for it and it was great. Soon after, I picked up the Statue of Liberty cow just because I wanted a reminder of some of the unexpected patriotic emotions that surfaced on and around 9/11.


For those of you that asked, Cow Parade figures are created from the cow parade art pieces that travel the world. I’ve seen some of the live size cows in Atlanta GA and Charlotte NC. Check out the website, the UK collection has some of my favorites and it looks like they will be in Madrid soon.

Day 22: The mom cows.

These three were gifts from my mom over the last few years. I think they speak volumes about both my crazy mother and myself and our shared lack of any real taste.

She bought the poodle cow because she know how much I love the idea of the 50s and big old rhinestone glasses. She said the morning cow was just fun (note the slippers) and the shopping cow is just plain silly.

Good toys. Good toys indeed.

Day 21: The Cows are Coming!

The next few days I will be showing off some of my cows from my cow parade collection. I have about 50 of them, but some are just more special than others. I don’t see any reason to start with anything but the first one, so here is the cow that started it all.

I actually ran across this guy at a local gift shop and felt like it was the perfect stupid present for my dad, I mean come on, look at that jumpsuit. The longer he stayed in my Christmas pile, the more I wanted him and went back and bought one for me too. The rest is history and collection grows….

Day 20: Flamingo

Day 20: The bird

OK, here he is taking a snow day. I couldn’t resist taking him out for a silly photo even though it isn’t in my “master plan”. I’m sure he will show up again before the 30 days is over and I will tell his story then.

Just for giggles and because it NEVER snows here, I added a bonus picture of the tree from earlier this week. I’m off to build snowmen! :)

Day 19: The Giraffe

There isn’t much of a story for this one. It hasn’t lived long enough to have true history, though it was a really nice Christmas gift from my roommate.

Here’s an extra photo just to show his true size, he’s uber tall. :)

Day 18: Something Off Theme

Yeah, I know.. it’s completely off theme, but I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been obsessed with the weather all day today, it’s just weird out there. It rarely snows here, but we have had a bit of a cold spell the last two or three days. The sky looks like it REALLY wants to snow, but it just isn’t cold enough. All we are getting is light cold rain. Then in my back yard, there is a farm with acres of green grass and my tree with the red leaves still hanging on. It’s almost like it is spring, winter, and fall all at the same time.

Hopefully it will freeze overnight and there will be no work/school here. Unlike some of you other poor souls, the world stops here when there is a bit of snow or ice on the road. I’ve got plenty of games to play and would like the time off! :D

Day 17: More Frog

These frogs were my maternal grandmother’s. She had a small curio cabinet that she kept about 10 little keepsakes. I was always obsessed with this one and every time we went to her house I begged her to let me play with it. She never did and the one time I snuck it out, she knew it! One day about three years ago, I was at her house and she told me she thought it was about time I had the frogs. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, I had not thought of them in years upon years. When I finally figured it out, I went and got them and they’ve lived in a nook above my fireplace. My grandmother is quite senile now, but she knows I have them and still asks me about them from time to time when I see her.

And the dust.. that’s original grandma dust, I’ve never cleaned them. I’m not sure why, I’m expect they won’t break. :)

Day 16: Cookies?

Years ago, when I saw this Michigan J Frog cookie jar in the store I just had to have it. Too bad I didn’t have the money at the time. When I finally got paid, I headed right back to the store to get it and surprise surprise… sold out. Since it was long before stores had linked inventory systems I had to drive around until I found one. I think I ended up driving over 150 miles between malls looking for it!

He’s never housed cookies though. He actually just sat empty for about 5 years until I got the bright idea to keep otc drugs like Advil or Benadryl in him. It works out pretty well. :)

Day 15: The Mixer

First, Thank you for yesterday’s comments. It was a really bad day and the encouragement has certainly helped and made me feel much better. The good news is today was a much better day and tomorrow is Friday, can’t ask for more than that. :)

My mom bought this for me as my house warming present when I bought my first house. My mom and I are extremely close and usually give gifts of a more tasteless and humors flavor. I always think of her when I use it, or even see it, because it was such a unique gift. It also helps make some of the best apple bread you’ve ever put your lips around. As my grandfather used to say, “It’s so good, it will make your tongue slap your brains out.”

Day 14: Beauty

OK. I’m sorry. I’m not sure this should even count. My brain is fried though and nothing I tried is even close to acceptable (bad lighting, hard location, or other random issues). It’s a rough week this week in real life and I’m trying so hard not to give up, but it can be so tempting.

Anyway, this noisy photo is a picture of a statue my dad bought me. My dad is not so good at any interpersonal relationships and thus tends to be a bad gift giver. This is probably the only thing he’s ever given me that doesn’t totally suck.

Now. I will veg. until tomorrow…

Day 13: My first Mother's Day

This is the first present my daughter 'gave' me for mother's day. She was about three months old and she must have felt me looking at it in the jewelry store while she was still in the womb. Before my daughter I always wore a different frog that was a gift from my best girlfriend or a scooby-doo charm that was a gift from my mother. Since my daughter I've only really worn this one. I guess I need to get myself a charm bracelet for the others. :)

Day 12: It lives!

I’m going to do my very best to get this done the next four days. I have all day training all four days and it’s tough to come home and try to be inspired when I all want to do is take a bath and go to bed! Hopefully, it won’t break me. :)

Here is a photo of one of my favorite living things. She’s been with me since 1996 and lived through three other dogs, two crazy roommates, two craptastic boyfriends, a husband, and a baby. She’s been one of the few consistent things in my crazy life and I’m going to sorely miss her for all my years when she’s not with me anymore.

In her younger years she was jet black, from the eyeballs all the way to the tip of the tail. Her coat has always been shiny and I tried highlighting her gray and blowing out her black coat with a crazy flash. I don’t think I did what I was going for, but I’m without the patience to keep messing with it.

Day 11: What's old is new again, the game box, part 4

Chrono Trigger is another one of my favorite games of all time. The development company was nice enough to freshen it up and rerelease it on the Nintendo DS. Here’s my original copy that I spent I spent roughly an entire season playing in the mid-90s and the new DS version. I love all these great games showing up on portable systems. It’s much easier to replay them this way.

Day 10: The Game Box, Part 3

Time is short today and I chose a difficult subject. Way to go Suedre. Anyway, this is my absolute favorite game series of all time. All of them are not here, but this is a pretty good cross section of them. The labels are a bit hard to read so they are:

Final Fantasy: NES
Final Fantasy II: SNES
Final Fantasy III: SNES
Final Fantasy VII: PS
Final Fantasy IX: PS
Final Fantasy X: PS2
Final Fantasy X-2: PS2

If I had even half of the hours I put into these things back, I could probably find a way to cure cancer. Well, ok, I didn’t spend THAT much time on them. :)

Day 9: The game box part 2

This was my very favorite Super Nintendo Controller. The sticker on the controller was a bonus for being a loyal Nintendo Power subscriber. You can tell by the worn off part of the sticker that this controller may have been used once or twice. I put Super Mario World on the TV for the excitement of it all, but I have to be honest, it’s the Wii console version. I do, of course, still own the origs, but it seemed like a lot of work to drag them out. :D

Off to play some Earthworm Jim. That’s the problem with turning it on, its so hard to turn off!

Day 8: The game box, part1

I opened up my game box stored away under the stairs expected to pull one or two things out. When I started going though it I found all kinds of awesome stuff so I expect the next few days will be retro-video game related. :)

I’m sure everyone recognizes this gem of toy, but for those of you that don’t, it’s the gun that came with the original Nintendo. While it may conjure up images of a laughing dog and flying ducks for most people, it makes me think of swinging cardboard old ladies and policemen. My brother and I played hours upon hours upon hours of Hogan’s Alley and I’m not sure we every actually got good at it. When I get a bit more time, I’m going to have to hook it back up and give it another go. I bet I’m way worse at it now!

This picture isn’t the greatest, we were just playing around with the stuff when I took it, but it was my favorite one in the series so I just used it.

Day 7: The Dragonflies

These are a boxed art project that my daughter picked out when she was about three. She saw them on the shelf at the local art store and just would not leave without them. We brought them home and tore into box and she did two and I did two. After they were finished she said that she wanted to hang them on the wall in my bedroom, so we did. When I told her that we would be moving last year, one of her first concerns was if the dragonflies were coming. So they came with us and went up on our new wall too.

Just for context, here is a photo of them in the “wild”.

Day 6: A flamingo

Looks like I'm going to be at work late tonight and considering my personal errands after work I shouldn't get home until well after my bedtime. Which means no camera because I didn't have the forethought to bring it with me on this nasty rainy day. Oh well, means W1k gets a quick break time cell phone's view of one of my favorite office trinkets.

The flamingo was a gift from a good girlfriend of mine. She bought him for me when beanie babies were all the rage and if I had to guess, I would suspect she spent a bit more than she should have on him. He's wearing fake mardi gras beads I got at universal studios orlando during one of their mardi gras celebrations. Even though that trip was more than ten years ago, it was one of the best times I ever had and I keep the beads around to remind me of it. Both the bird and the beads have lived on my home desk until I got rid of it about two years ago. I couldn't let them live anywhere but a workspace, so I brought them to my work desk. :)

Day 5: The dog 2

This is only amusing once you know the story of the dog toilet brush holder. I was seeing a new fella that had been to my house a few times, but had not been around long enough to know where the Dalmatian toilet brush holder came from. When he spied this barking, (yes, it barks) soap dispenser he decided it was a perfect gift for a ceramic dog lover such as myself. It was such a well thought of gesture, I never had the guts to tell him that he missed the mark. Instead, I tried not to laugh out loud and proudly displayed my gift. I’ve long since lost the guy, turns out he missed the mark on lots of things. The Dalmatian stays though. I’m not sure when it crossed the line from dime store silliness to part of my story, but it sure has.

The dog picked up the shamrock sticker at a St. Patty’s Day party my roommate and I had soon after. She went through the house and stuck the stickers on anybody that didn’t have green on, including this soap dispenser and my real dog. I’m pretty sure this is the only sticker that lived and I’m not sure why I never removed it. Just another one of those things. :)

Oh.. pictures with mirrors in them suck eggs.

Day 4: The dog

This is an item picked up on a scavenger hunt around 1999. A group of friends and I would spend weekend nights travelling the town looking for kooky list items like business cards and community watch signs. The budget was always 10 bucks and one week a my group ended up with the tackiest thing in Wal-mart within the budget. This is what we came up with. It looks cute, until you turn it around and reveal its secret.. a toilet brush holder! Ha! OK. It isn’t as funny now as it was then. I’ve never actually used it, as evidenced by the dirt collected in it. He’s lived one of my bathrooms since the night we picked him up. I never did name him, I suppose I should it is now obvious that he’s staying!

Day 3: The Romeros



Most of my DVDs live in a DVD case. I rarely keep the clamshells unless the movie is really special. This small set is a collection of the Romero zombie movies (The Crazies just doesn’t fit in). These movies get to live on display because Night of the Living Dead was an important film for me. I saw it for the first time when I was about 11 or 12 on USA UP all night. It was one of the first (and only) movies I saw that actually scared me and left me feeling a bit something at the end. After that movie, I couldn’t wait to see more and it led me to lots of Hitchcock, 12 Angry Men, Mildred Pierce and a host of bad 80’s slasher films. I still love a good zombie flick and try to catch as many low budget brain eating flicks as I can. It is my mission to meet Romero before he dies or quits doing the convention circuits. I’m hoping to catch him sometime next year when he promotes his next film.

Until tomorrow,
BRRRAAAAIIIIIINNNNSSSSSSSSS……………..

Day 2: The bear

It’s funny, now that I’m looking around my house for things that have a story or sentimental value, I’m finding it hard to choose which 30! This is one of the things that makes me smile a bit every time I see it. The bear’s name is Oliver. I received him as a gift when I was less than a year old. When I was a kid, Oliver went just about everywhere with me and I would not go to the doctor and get a shot without him. Eventually I outgrew Ollie, but I never got rid of him.

He’s pretty much lived on a shelf until my daughter was born which is when Oliver became a transvestite. The dress he is wearing is my daughter’s very first dress that she wore to see Santa when she was about six days old. The shoes didn’t quite fit Ollie, so they just have to sit next to him.

And so you don’t have to ask… the picture is of me (the front) and my best girlfriend from about six years ago. We happened across some tickets to WWE King of the Ring and decided we needed to properly celebrate. We watched Monday Night RAW and took a shot each time they said KoTR. Needless to say, we were pretty wasted. That was a self portrait that I tried to take and literally fell into her trying to beat the camera timer. Good times, and a good reason I stay away from drink now a days. :)

Day 1: an ugly pot and some flowers

Day 1 is kind of a two-fer.

In high school I had the world’s best friend. I suppose we were so close because we both knew the pains of growing up under the thumb of an addict. My friend’s mother was an amazing, talented, and inspiring woman during her highs and a pained desperate woman at her lows. My girlfriend and I did everything a pair of high school girls could do for a deeply disturbed drug addict, but in the end, the drugs won and her mother hung herself.

I hated the iguana pot and frequently poked fun at her mom for having it. Her mother always told me that when she died, she was going to leave that iguana pot to me. It has lived in my kitchens for the last 10 years as it did hers. The flower arrangement was one that my friend’s grandmother made to match the pot, it never seemed right to separate them so they live in my kitchen area as well.