Well, thats that...

So we finished tiling the shower only three weeks after tearing the walls out of our bathroom. If you're thinking about doing some tiling and have never tired it before, take some advice from someone who's been there, hire someone else to do it.
If you're still thinking about tackling the job yourself (regardless of my timeless wisdom) do yourself a favor and forget talking to the guys at Lowe's, they're a bunch of idiots. Maybe give Home Depot a try.

Look, We're Handy! (or crazy)

Jacqueline and I have been planning to renovate our bathroom ever since we bought our house two years ago. We've been back and forth between hiring the work out to a contractor (smart) or doing it ourselves (...). Well, today's the day for action. We woke up this morning and took a hammer and steak knife (yeah, we used steak knives) to the drywall and made a huge mess in the tub. Yes that is our bath tub in the above image. We're going to attempt to install the cement backer board as soon as I get back from Sonic with a Diet Coke with vanilla. We hope to have the whole thing done by tonight because Jacqueline is an optimist and I believe in miracles.
I'll post some pictures of were we're at when we decide to give up later.

I FINALLY GOT TO USE IT!!!

So it's been a WAY long time since I've made a blog entry but this ones a doozie. It's now 5:05 am Thursday morning and the police have just left our house.

Our dog woke us up this morning around 4:15, barking hysterically in the kitchen. I got out of bed in my shorts to quiet her down. Jacqueline was freaked out but I wasn't worried because I'm a man and we men know that there's never really an intruder in the house, (thats why we're always so willing to go check on it). So I'm walking down the hall trying to adjust my eyes to the light when I see him, the dude in my laundry room.

The laundry room is separated from the kitchen by a glass pane wooden door with a dog flap at the bottom, which this guy was sticking his head through. The door was locked, but the frame has warped with the humidity and now will not fully shut. He didn't know that yet.

The guy starts to yell at me about someone trying to kill him and that he was being shot at. He wanted me to unlock the door and let him in. By this time, Jacqueline was standing in the hall behind me. I told her to go get "that thing" which was my new code word for the gun in the night stand. Now the guy is back on his feet and pushes on the door which instantly opens for him. joy. I push it back and tell him to stay in the laundry room. By this point, I'm not sure wether he's the threat or if there's someone else in the yard or street with a gun or if he has a gun.

I snatch the phone and dial 911 as I dash to the bedroom and grab my gun, (Smith & Wesson 38 special, thanks grandpa) and head back to the kitchen where the dude is trying to come in the door again. I point the gun at him and tell him to back up into the laundry room. This was WAY more exciting than I imagined, like...roller-coaster exciting.

By now, I've told the 911 dispatch the situation and my address and start asking the guy questions (at gun point) about where he came from and who was chasing him. The cops where here in about four or five minutes and for some reason were not aware that the guy was in my house. I put my gun down when I heard the officer come in the door and he walked into the kitchen. He instantly drew his gun on the intruder and started yelling at him, again, very exciting. At this point I returned to my bedroom and put some clothes on.

They take the guy out on my porch and start to question him. He said that someone was chasing him and shooting at him. The officer told me that he had been parked close by for over 30 minutes and never heard a thing. Then they realize they guy has a warrant. Next they discover that he thinks he's in California. That's right, the guy is B A N A N A S.

For some reason, he hid all the stuff in his pockets behind my washing machine. A pack of smokes, his wallet, a cell phone and a piece of paper with the Salvation Army's address on it (a block from my house). Why would anyone take the time to do that if they were running for their life? Weird. They end up taking him to the hospital to check him for drugs and have him evaluated for a case of the crazies. I'll be checking the Washington county arrest site tomorrow to see if he was charged with anything.
I'll surely never check on a noise without a gun in hand again.

I hope this blog entry makes sense, I'm really tired and its 5:47 in the morning.

New blog for my Images

I started a new blog where I plan on journaling my photography. Here it is...

http://smpphotos.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

Need a little motivation

So I got a new camera for Christmas and I want to be more proactive with my photography. I hope to update this photo journal at least weekly with images. I’m currently pursuing a journalism degree from the University of Arkansas with an emphases on photojournalism. I work at a portrait studio, am a staff photographer for the Arkansas Traveler and I’m starting to get into wedding photography on the side, so it’s sometimes hard to find the motivation to get out behind the camera on my own time. Here are some of the first shots with the new Canon 30d. I also bought a 580ex flash head that can command my old 420ex wirelessly. The shot of Jacqueline and Gracie was my first attempt at the master/slave setup with the 420ex to the right, bouncing off the ceiling. The tower shot was taken at Lake Fayetteville and the other shot of Jacqueline was taken in our kitchen with the 580ex mounted on a flash bracket.

Look what was in our backyard last night...

National Geographic, here I come

So I started officially shooting for the Arkansas Traveler this last week. I took an assignment to shoot some people working in the agri department with the gro green project on the north end of town. The story came out in the first issue of the semester (Monday the 21st) and one of my photos made the front page. It was cool going to class on Monday and seeing thousands of people picking up a publication that I contributed to.

UofA International dinner

Jacqueline and I attended the International dinner held at the UARK Bowl this weekend to shoot some pictures for a friend. While I was walking around taking pictures of the people there, Jacqueline mingled with the students. She ran into the editor of the Arkansas Traveler, (the school newspaper that I was hoping to do some work for) and mentioned that I was a photographer in the journalism department. He found me and let me know that he needed photographers and that I should meet up with him on Monday to get some assignments! He even asked if we could use the stuff I was shooting at the party in the next paper. All in all, the event was a blast and I got an awesome connection out of it. If you guys have some spare time on your hands, I highly recommend investing it in an international Student, it's well worth it and they're a blast to hang out with.
Find out more HERE
Here's some of the pictures from the party.

Superman's Dead

WARNING:
If you haven't seen Superman Returns yet and don't want any spoilers, STOP READING NOW! I'm going to talk about the movie and give a major plot point away.
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Lets begin.

So I went to see Superman Returns with Jacqueline and my parents tonight. I've been waiting for this movie for months and am quite the Supes fan. Sadly, I left the movie feeling slighted. Thanks to one glaring fault in the plot line, the whole character of Superman falls apart. Here's what I thought of it.
I'll start off with the good points by stating that the movie is absolutely stunning from an aesthetic standpoint. The effects are awe inspiring and the cinematography is thoughtful and well executed. They couldn't have found a better man for the lead character, Brandon Routh is the spitting image of Reeve, especially as Kent. He did seem a little young for the role, but I didn't feel that it was all that distracting. Superman's character was done well, Brandon did a good job portraying the soft spoken hero. Kevin Spacy is the icing on the cake, perfecting Luthor.
As much as I want to love this movie, I can't. Anyone who follows the comics, even a little, knows that Superman is different from the rest of the superheros. While it's true that he's more powerful than the rest of the DC heros (or the Marvel heros for that matter) his main strength has always been his spotless moral code. Superman stands for what is good and pure in all instances. If this is true, (last chance to avoid spoilers) WHY DOES HE HAVE A CHILD OUT OF WEDLOCK? Superman returns to metropolis to find Lois in a relationship with a live in boyfriend and a child, which is all fine and good since Lois is indeed mortal and imperfect. Later, we find out that the child is really Superman's, a product of a steamy night "spent with Superman" as Lois puts it in her article. Regardless of what your personal views are of extramarital relationships, no real fan of Superman should swallow this as something he would do or is even capable of. Batman sure, but never Superman. Even worse, DC gave them the green light on this and Dan Harris wrote the screenplay! Is this supposed to be canon now? What about Clark marrying Lois like in the comics? Do we forget that? What did DC have to gain from creating a bastard Superboy and scandalous Superman? Is this all just a cheap ploy to make an easy jump off point for a sequel? Not that I wouldn't watch it.

High altitude = good health?

I noticed something while I was working out this week. I like to use the elliptical machine for about thirty minutes when I first get to the gym (ok, that's really the only work out I do) and watch the TV. I almost always get there just in time for Martha Stewart, today she made the perfect chef salad with some lady. Anyways, the machines that I like to work out on have the metal squares set into the handles that can take your pulse and then show you your heart rate in real time. There's a little row of lights that start green, then yellow, then red. My heart rate is always displayed by the very last red light, blinking just as fast as it can. I'm pretty sure this means my heart rate is to high. This all changed last week. My heart rate has been in the green the last 5 times I've gone to the gym. I'm not talking about the top part of the green, close to the red, but middle green. This change took place the first time I worked out since returning from Mexico. I wonder if walking and working in the high altitude conditioned my body to run better? Is that possible in just 8 days? Anyone know more about this? Anyone had his happen to them? Anyone understand LOST last night?

New look, same tired content.

So I've been playing around with the blog template today at work, instead of working. I'm thinkin it's pretty neat.

HAPPY MONDAY!

I've been converted

I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see... Here's my testimony.

I was raised in a non-apple household. We started out with a Tandy computer that could run old sierra games that came on 10 to 15 floppy discs. Later, my parents got an IBM that ran windows 3.1, I guess they didn't know any better. I started high school and things spiraled out of control from there. Windows 95, Windows 98, I even dabbled with Windows NT. By the grace of God, I never had it bad enough to load up Windows ME. I've been on Xp for the last 4 or 5 years now.

Sure, I knew people who owned mac computers and led very happy, fulfilled lives, we called them mac freaks, apple thumpers. I've always thought "that stuffs not for ME" and "I'm glad you're into that, but I'm having too much fun with Microsoft". Truth was, I didn't have a clue what I was missing. Not until someone sat down with me and walked me though the conversion process. I can't remember his name, but he works over at MegaByte and was very informative. Thanks dude.

I've been an apple thumper for a few weeks now, I bought a 20" iMac with 2gb of ram and the intel duo-core processor followed by a 30gb iPod.

I'm learning more and more everyday, reading my O'Reilly manual and memorizing new shortcuts. I'm constantly amazed by what this piece of technology is capable of. My heart aches for my friends who haven't come to the same realization as I have. The sad part is, some will never take that first step.

Pictures from Mexico

I made it back from Mexico on Saturday. We had a great time hanging out with Mark and Roxanne (the missionaries) and I got to meet several new folks from the Grove. Here's a few of the many pictures that I took during our stay (I shot about 250 total). Click on the pic for a larger image if you want.

Mucho gusto frijoles...

So I’m sitting at work this afternoon, browsing news articles on the Internet, when Aaron Babyar from the Grove (my church) calls me. He starts talking about how the Grove is sending a group of people to Mexico this week and that they need some help with something. “Oh great” I think, “They want me to get up and talk at church”. I guess I thought this because they’ve asked me to do it before. For those of you who don’t know me that well, this will never happen. I don’t do public speaking. I would rather have a King Cobra bite.

Luckily, Aaron’s request had nothing to do with any sort of public speaking or poisonous snakes. It seems that one of the team members had to back out of the trip at the last second and they needed someone to fill the slot. While I was honored to have been considered for the trip, I declined. I’m a grown up now, with a wife and a job and things to do, I can’t go gallivanting across the continent at a moment’s notice. I called my wife to tell her about the offer and she said ARE YOU KIDDING? GO! I got the same response from my boss (dad). So I called Aaron back.

I’m going to Mexico the day after tomorrow, and I found out today.

I’m really excited to get to see Mark and Roxanne (the missionaries) again. I stayed with them for a month back in 2003 and really got to know them. Y’all need to keep Jacqueline in your prayers this next week since she’ll be alone from Thursday until the next Saturday, ten days! That’s the longest we’ve been apart since we were married.

By the way, “Mucho gusto frijoles” was something that I kept saying over and over again during my first trip to Mexico whenever my host family offered beans. I thought it meant, “Yes, I like beans a lot”. Now I know that it means, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Beans”. Won’t be making that mistake again.

Writely

So have any of you heard of the new company Google just purchased? It's called writley and it's a web based word processor that lets you do most of the things Microsoft word does and then save it to the web, or your hard drive. It's cool because you now basically have access to your files anywhere you can get on the net. You can even upload your old word documents and save them online as well. You can also save your documents as html pages with links that people can read online. There's even a button that allows you to upload whatever you type with writely to your blog (like I'm doing now). I know that Microsoft is planning on making their next office product online, but this is free and owned by Google, so it has to be better. Hopefully a spreadsheet isn't far behind.

A Valenswine's day to remember

I don't listen to the radio at work. I would like to, but we just don't. Jacqueline, on the other hand, does. But there's an evil twist, she has to listen to contemporary country music on Kix 104. One of the up-sides to listening to the radio at work is that you can partake in all the contests and giveaways. Yesterday, Valentine's day, my wife's long hours of listening to Honky Tonk Badonkadonk over and over again finally paid off. We won a fabulous dinner for two on the most romantic night of the year. Yeah, wrong and double wrong.

She really won a $25 gift certificate to the "Rib Crib" in Rogers. Remember, Kix 104.

We're a little short on cash these days, so we weren't planning on doing anything for V day beyond watching old episodes of Lost and eating popcorn. This gift certificate was our ticket to ride on the love train to Valentine's day bliss short bus to hillbilly junction.

If you don't want to wait a long time for a meal next Valentine's day, go to the rib crib. We were seated in 10 minutes. There was a flyer on the table advertising their Valentine's day special, the "Bar-B-Cutie". It consisted of an appetizer, two entrees, a dessert, and two beers. Things were looking up. All of this only cost $29.99, so we would only be out of pocket $5. I got the ribs and brisket, she got ribs and chicken strips, none of which, were all that good. The cheesecake was the highlight of the evening. You could upgrade to wine for $2, but ribs and wine don't really mix. Neither of us ate much of the food, but at least it was cheap. Oh wait, the gift certificate wasn't valid with any other special offers, including the Bar-B-Cutie. Ouch.

So all said and done, we drove to Rogers to eat at the Rib Crib for Valentine's day. We still have a $25 dollar gift certificate to eat there again. I wonder how much cheesecake and beer that'll get us.

Two months later...

So, it's been a while since our last post. Between the new xbox and the new house (both acquired on November 21st), there hasn't been much time to a do lot of blogging. I'm sorry that our last post was a picture of John, making obscene hand gestures in the layaway line at Walmart. I always go to my page to access my list of links, so I have to look at his picture several times a day.



We've been in the new house for about 7 weeks now and it's slowly coming together. The place was a halfway house for addicts and alcoholics for a few years, so you can imagine it needed some work in the cosmetic department.







We had a painting party a week before moving in and pretty much got the whole house done in about 10 hours. The floors were sanded and refinished a few days later. We've knocked a very large hole in a wall between two bedrooms and had a fence installed in the backyard for the dog. The kitchen and bathroom are still in the early stages of being renovated, but they're functional.





Here's a shot of our completed living room. I'll post some shots of the rest of the house when I take some.

Later.

I think they're trying to spell X-Box.

 

"X" BOX

 

Are these guys crazy or what?

Spencer and I are different. Spencer is currently in line at the Springdale Wal-Mart (near layaway) -where he has been since 2pm-waiting for a video game console. He has been in Wal-Mart for 9 1/2 hours! This X BOX 360 is just about the most precious thing on the planet in his world. He took the day off tomorrow, so that he can play this thing for hours and hours.

The exciting thing for me today is that we closed on our first casa today. We officially own our first home: 1401 Ellis Ave. Fayetteville

Also, we were in a lease until January, but were moving out this month. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to find another renter to rent our townhouse and would be stuck paying our rent AND our mortgage. Praise the LORD. He provided once again. They found someone to rent this place and I have 8 days to pack and get out! 

Congrats Trevor and Laura!

This past weekend our friends Trevor Stilwell and Laura Squires got married. Spencer was the photographer for the wedding and it was his first wedding to photograph.

Click here to see more of Spencer's pictures and give him your feedback!

My job was to rally everyone together and pose them for Spencer. We made a good team.

The best November EVER!

So, November is almost here, and there is much to be excited about around the Presley house.
Here are the top four, in no particular order:


Exciting Thing #1)

We're buying a house (Lord willing) in Fayetteville this November! This was formerly the "Grace House", a halfway house that my dad ran for guys that were out of drug or alcohol treatment, and needed some heavy discipleship. I hope the house continues to live up to the name. It's on Ellis street on the south side of town, and the back yard faces 15th street. One of my favorite things about the location is the enormous jungle backyard:

You can't really tell from the picture, but there's a wall of bamboo along the back of the lot. Very cool. I can't wait to have a yard for our dog. Very exciting

Exciting Thing #2)

For those of you in the know, the House of M (Marvel Comic's event of the century) Is coming to a close this November. For those of you not nerdy enough to know what I'm talking about, google it. If you're not currently reading any comic books but used to, or would like to start, now is the best time to jump in. The Marvel Universe is about to be drastically re-shuffled and many new series are about to start. Very exciting.

Exciting Thing #3)

Do I really need to even say it?

The Xbox 360 is set to drop on November 22nd. For those of you not in the know about this, ask your husbands.

I am currently gathering the

funds needed to obtain one of these beauties at launch. Since the purchase price is WAY over my monthly "entertainment" budget, I have been working diligently at selling everything I own on eBay.

Very, very exciting.

Exciting Thing #4)

We will finally get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The peppers are big and red and ready to eat.

I'm not sure what we are going to make with them, maybe a salad, maybe just eat them raw, maybe a dang quesadilla. Maybe we can sell them at the farmer's market.

Fairly exciting.

We've got peppers

So Jacqueline and I accepted a bell pepper plant from Evelyn Stilwell a few months ago. I felt very sorry for the little guy because he had no idea he was about to dry up and die on our porch about a week later. At least that's what I thought. To my surprise, the thing kept getting bigger. I had to re-pot it a couple of weeks later. After a month had passed, we had our first pepper! One month later...We have THREE!


(click the pic for full pepper glory)

We're very proud of the middle guy, but the one on the right is starting to shrivel up a bit. I keep expecting them to go bad, like they were in the fridge or something. Does anyone know how long these things have to grow before they're ready?

I've already got like, 3 gangs recruiting me because of my pepper farming skills, so don't even bother asking...

Labor Day Blues...

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend (for those of us that didn't have to work). While I love three day weekends as much as the next guy, they DO have a dark side, the Tuesday that feels like a Sunday. Mondays off always trick me into believing they are really Saturday, making Sunday the next logical day in the timeline. That being said, I am currently sitting at my very messy desk at work feeling quite violated. Then I remember that there's only three days left till Friday and the universe is back in balance once again.

Jacqueline and I spent some time at our families lake house with my dad, really nice and relaxing. I took some neat pics from the deck on Monday.









Hope y'all have a good Tuesday/Sunday!

My last Transformers post...

Check out THIS GUY.

BTW, I just discovered that He-Man came out with a season one dvd...

Welcome to the junkyard, Rick...

So I got the Transformers dvd set in the mail only two days after ordering it off eBay. I've watched two of the episodes so far, only ninty six to go! The set came with a reissue of the porsche Autobot, Ricochet, we'll call it the Rick.




The Rick stands on my monitor at work and points the laser cannons at the employees. It also watches over the junkyard, AKA: my desk. (que the Sanford & Son music)



I should really have my wife come over here and organize my workspace! It's more like a table than a desk, as there are no drawers. I only have the little filing cabinet to the left, and it's too hard to open and close to be very functional.

Anyways, back to the Rick. I considered keeping it in the box, (just in case it was worth something someday), yeah...whatever. It came in it's car form and it took me a good 20 minutes to figure out the "transformation" into robot form. I've had it for two days and still can't seem to achieve car form again. Sorry the Rick, looks like your free wheelin porsche days are over. T.G.I.F. y'all...tgif. let me know if anyone wants in on some of the transformers action.

Nerd Fest 2005

I don't know if anyone is aware of this yet, but some company out of China has released a dvd boxed set of the ENTIRE run of Transformers cartoons. Thats 98 episodes, as well as the movie, crammed onto 25 dvds. It all comes in a wooden box along with trading cards, posters, and a reissue transformer action figure. I've been eyeing these things on ebay for a few days now, and finally sold enough stuff off to pay for one. I should have it by the end of the week, if I can hold out that long.

Just shoot me...

So, we had an employee quit last week. Didn't seem like a big deal at the time. He was on the news this morning under this headline:

"Springdale Man Arrested In Connection With 18 burglaries Say More Than $90,000 Worth Of Items Discovered"

Are you kidding me?

The news on TV said this was one of the biggest crime sprees in the history of the city. He even stole the Chevy Blazer that he drove to work in. He worked with us for eight months. He went bowling with us. He went to church with us.

This happens two months after we found out our office manager had embezzled over $50,000 from us. THAT happened 6 months after we discovered our old office manager had failed to make ANY of our tax payments for two years.

I think it's time we revamp our application process...

What should we name her?

Spencer got me a puppy for my early birthday present!!! She is a Cairn Terrier.

Well crap....

So, my company just moved to Springdale this week. It took exactly 4 days for us to get a truck stolen over here. Came in this morning, the gate was off the hinges and one of my one ton ford F 350s was gone...with a trailer....and lots of tools. Welcome to Springdale. This hits us two months after discovering that our office manager got us for over $45,000 in credit card charges and fraudulent checks. I've had to deal with more police and detectives in the last few weeks than in the last 10 years. It's like I brought a little bit of L.A. back home with me.

I found this statue in my parents garden. Didn't think much of it at the time, but now I really like it.