Eating photos are back

This is one of those weeks where not much has gone on besides my pretty normal routine.

One thing that did happen today that was exciting... was the opportunity to shoot photos on the show of the hosts sampling some salads made by a guest.

I've discussed shooting eating photos on this blog before. I think eating photos are amusing. Everyone eats so it's a common thing. But, when you shoot primarily still photos like I do, capturing a moment where it's 'open wide' is something I challenge myself to do because I find it fun. It's an extra bonus when it's part of the action on the TV show.

I was shooting with my Sony RX100 today which makes virtually no noise (as opposed to my Nikon DSLR). It made it a little easier to be sneaky enough to try for the eating photo without being detected by the eaters.

I had not had an opportunity to get this type of photo in a while. It was the biggest accomplishment I had all day.

Om nom nom.

It came out a little blurred...
but here's a "princess" bite.

Here's the money shot.
Open wide!

Gas relief and ripped shorts

It's Sunday, which means the end of another weekend and the weekly excursion to get dinner and groceries for Anthony and I.

The second half of this week we had a house guest - Anthony's aunt Joann. It was lovely having her stay with us. Lucky was only out of whack for about a day when she arrived. He bounces back from these things much faster these days (he used to act weird the whole time any strangers visited us). We were able to put her up in our guest room (we've really never had a room specifically for guests before, it was always my home office that doubled as a guest room). She left earlier today to return to Pasadena, and we're back to our regular routine.

We had dinner at Taco Bell at Broadway and Camino Seco. One thing I noticed was that the TVs they used to have in there that showed a Taco Bell dedicated channel were gone. It made eating in the dining area pretty boring without them. But, I suppose the dining area is for eating rather than interesting Taco Bell themed videos showing snowboarding and music.

We shopped for groceries across the parking lot at the Walmart Neighborhood Market. The awesome moment of the night came when Anthony was getting back into the car after we were done shopping and proceeded to rip the shorts he was wearing with about a 12 inch tear. I told him that he's now equipped those shorts for summer (air conditioned!) but I have a feeling those won't get worn outside of the house anymore. I was a little disappointed that he took them off when we got home before I had a chance to take a picture... but I have a feeling he didn't want me to post a photo of his butt hanging out of a pair of ripped shorts to live on this blog for all of eternity.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip!!

Quesadilla and taco at the
Broadway and Camino Seco
Taco Bell.
They look soooo appetizing
in these wrappers.



Anthony got this in a
funky box

Fine art on the Taco Bell wall

Chocolate Glazed Donut coffee
at the Broadway and Camino Seco
Walmart Neighborhood Market.
A woman in an orange dress with
a white apron will serve it to you.

Peanut Hottie flavor hot drink
Not many products proudly announce
on the label that "you make me hot".

Banquet Penguin Shaped chicken nuggets
I thought they might also offer chicken
shaped penguin nuggets, but no dice.

Oreo Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies
They're half brown and half brown.
Sounds like a date I've had.

Dr JH McLean's Volcanic Oil
It must be quite an adventure
to get this from a volcano.

Pomada Dragon Cream
It must be quite an adventure
to get this from a dragon.

Tom and John 30 year gay secret
on the cover of Star magazine.
The real secret is that they aren't gay.
It's been tough to hide all these years.

Nettoie Mieux!
I now know how to say
"cleans better" in French.
I feel really prepared for
a trip to France now.

Hey Anthony!
Yeah you, way down by the woman in pink.
I have something for you!

First visit to The Tilted Kilt

Anthony and I had dinner at The Tilted Kilt tonight at Broadway and Craycroft.

This location used to be Risky Business. It looks a little different inside now that it's Tilted Kilt. It's kind of amusing that the female staff wears the same type of "sexy" outfits that they wear at Hooters. The guys wear kilts as well.

It was a bit pricey I thought but Anthony did have four drinks. We both had chicken tenders, which were really good. I'd order those again on a return visit. I had mine with onion rings, and Anthony had fries. He also ordered pretzels as an appetizer.

Our friend Payton works in the kitchen there and he was able to come out for a minute to say hello.

One really amusing thing that happened occurred before we even went inside. There was a car in the parking lot that someone had decorated to include a ribbon around the perimeter of the vehicle and a blow up doll on the windshield. These are the moments I'm reminded why I bring a camera everywhere -- to catch life's unusual moments.

Tilted Kilt at Broadway and Craycroft
We were seated in the bar area

Payton and Anthony chat
for a minute when Payton was
able to make a brief appearance
during a work break

Photo of the seating
area of the bar section

Almost got a side boob photo
of our server on the left
but my stupid shoulder
got in the way

Beer choices o' plenty

Anthony's pretzel appetizer.
He was so hungry he couldn't
wait to take a bite before
I got this photo shot

My chicken tenders
and onion rings

Anthony's chicken tenders
and fries

Car in the Tilted Kilt parking lot
with a blow up doll on the hood.
The price of these dolls are
always subject to "inflation"

Balloon fun on St Patrick's Day

We had a DIY (do it yourself) balloon party expert (Sandi Masori) on the show for St. Patrick's Day.

Balloons are always fun. They're also fun to have on TV.

Hey look! We're wearing balloon hats!

The show hosts learn how
to make balloon party decorations

This leprechaun is holding
an "A" -- to give Arizona luck
in the NCAA basketball tournament

My dog gets his own
St Patrick's Day balloon

A mattress in a wash and a swamp in a jar

It's Sunday. Of course Anthony and I did the usual dinner and grocery shopping today. I'll get to that in a moment.

This weekend has been a little odd. I received a letter from Unitrin, the insurance company that was listed by the DMV as the carrier insuring Mr. Bill Law a.k.a. Bill Kei Yu (finally have a name of the guy). That's apparently the two names of the jackass who hit my car two weeks ago and denied it ever happening. One guy, two names. Probably an spy in his spare time.

The letter basically states that there "was no policy insuring Bill at the time of the accident". Either one of two things is possible here. He either is insured by someone else and Progressive (my insurance company) did not have success finding out who his current insurer is, or I'm reading a little into this letter that he is uninsured. I'll bet a donut (that's a heavy wager in my mind) that he let his policy lapse. It means that I'm screwed and have to eat the cost of repairing the car. All I can do at this point is be grateful that the damage was minor and no one was hurt.

Anthony and I went to the Sprint store yesterday and traded in our iPhone 5 smartphones for iPhone 6 Plus smartphones. Sprint has a pretty nice deal now where the phones can be leased for a small fee each month and after two years you can just take the phone back and get another one without a big upfront fee. It was a pain in the ass experience -- not from Sprint, the customer service folks at the store are fantastic and the company has always taken good care of me, but from Anthony. Every time we've ever gone to get new phones he mourns the loss of the old one, like losing a loved one. I've never seen anything like it.

I use my phone a lot for Twitter and Facebook, and so I enjoy having the newest technology that allows me to handle social media and blogging as efficiently as possible. Once Anthony has a new phone for a minute, he realizes that it's a good thing that it works better than his previous one and he is happy. It's just an anxiety filled few hours getting the transaction done every couple of years. What made it worse yesterday was that even though the customer service guy repeated back to me what I wanted.... a pair of 64gb models... he gave us the 16gb models instead and I didn't discover the error until we were back at home. So, it required a second trip to the store to swap out the wrong ones an hour after we had left for the correct ones. Anthony blamed me for not inspecting the boxes they came in (part of the anxiety thing and sure, it was my fault for not catching it.... I suck apparently). I didn't discover the error until I went home and hooked the phone up to my computer to restore the data from the old phone. The end result: He seems happy now so it's all good.

Today we went to Fuddrucker's at Speedway and Alamo for dinner. There were a few tables of customers, and we enjoyed a nice dinner and the food was good.

After dinner, we hit the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 22nd and Craycroft. I didn't think it was a big deal, but Anthony wanted me to mention in my blog that I gave a guy some money in the parking lot who had a much more compelling story than most people who panhandle. A veteran down on his luck, physical disability, homeless, staying at a homeless shelter, etc. What struck me about the guy was that he was well spoken, had his hair combed, seemed sober. I may very well have wasted some of my hard earned money giving it to him when he very well could have been off to buy crack with it, but in a rare moment (it is nearly never that I donate money to anyone or anything) I thought maybe this was a situation where it could have been legit.

Anthony asked me why I gave him money and I said "He needed it more than I did, he had a compelling story, and I would just have blown it on loose women and cheap liquor." Part of that statement was true.

Anthony has this week off because the school he works at is on spring break, and I'm heading into another full work week. Here's hoping something interesting happens so I can get it in pictures. That's my hope every week, this one is no exception.

Fuddrucker's at Speedway and Alamo

A rather dramatic looking menu board
and place to order.
In a sad moment, I tried out Apple Pay
for the first time with my new iPhone 6+
and it declined my transaction.
Of course it did, that's how I roll.

A few people in the dining room at Fuddrucker's.
Anthony made us move to a different table
than what we originally sat down at
after a family with kids sat two tables
away from us.
He doesn't like children.

Fuddrucker's has Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
Anthony operates it like a champ.

Anthony's burger on the left
and I had "The Works" with chicken
instead of a beef patty.

Fresh baked cookies and bread
and brownies at Fuddrucker's

This mattress was in the wash
on the west side of the Fuddrucker's
parking lot and was surprisingly clean.
If someone needs a spot for sex
it's more economical than a hotel room
and you can enjoy the soundtrack
of cars whizzing by on Speedway
while you're getting busy.

Old Maid card game
at Walmart Neighborhood Market.
I didn't know a card game was
created about Anthony.
Tee hee.

Duck Commander Swamp In A Jar
Apparently swamp in a jar
isn't too popular, it was
on clearance.
Not to be confused with swamp ass
in a jar.

Carefree thong pantiliners
Didn't know they made these.
Then realized I wouldn't know
what to do with them if
I had known they made these.

Our stuff on the checkout conveyor belt.
Iced honeybuns on the left.
Official breakfast of
the Ken Carr show.

A hot dog in a hallway

There is a sexual reference that I've heard before: "Like a hot dog in a hallway". My best attempt at a PG explanation is that it's referring to putting a small piece of meat in a large enclosure. If that doesn't make sense to you, then Google it.

We had a Basset Hound on the TV show today. His name is Brutus. While waiting for his turn to go on the show, he decided to make his way out into the hallway outside of my office / the green room and spread out in the middle of the hallway.

I was walking back to my office from the studio and when I rounded the corner it struck me as an opportunity to take a pretty awesome photo. A hot dog in a hallway in it's literal meaning.

A hot dog in a hallway

Like fish in a bowl

We have tours regularly conducted at the TV/Radio building.

I forget through the normal sequence of the business we do that it's fascinating to other people who don't work there to see how a facility like ours functions. It's almost ironic that sometimes I'll hear a co-worker say "I can't wait to get out of here" when they've had a long day, and people who don't work there will make a special trip if they have opportunity to come look and see what we do.

It's like we're being watched like fish in a bowl. At least no one is tapping on the glass.

Kids getting a tour conducted
by sales manager John.
They're getting a look at the
radio programming area.

We set up chairs for them
in the TV studio so they
could watch the show in person.

The kids even got a picture
with one of our guests today:
Former University Of Arizona
basketball player (and now
on the coaching staff)
Joseph Blair

Staff photo shoot outtakes

We had a staff photoshoot today.

I wasn't the primary shooter, but I did take some photos while it was going on. I thought it would be fun to post a few of the silly ones.

Heather and Tina have a creeper.
Or, Heather and Tina
photobomb Alex's picture.
Take your pick.

Alex does his John McCain
walk through the shot
impression

I have to admit....
this is my favorite.

Andy joins the party

Expressions

Heather does fabulous.
Alex checks his pockets.

Alex is happy to be here.

The Magic 8 Ball says yes

It's Sunday, which means Anthony and I headed out this afternoon for shopping and dinner.

Our first stop was at Target at Grant and Tanque Verde. I purchased razor refills and cologne. Anthony bought tank tops. He wears them around the house. He needs new ones because the ones he has now look like they had an encounter with moths and the moths won.

We had dinner across the street at Pizza Studio. It was pretty busy. It's unusual for us to eat in busy restaurants so it was a surprise. The staff still got us through the line and our pizzas pretty quickly.

Grocery shopping was at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 22nd and Craycroft. In a tragic moment, they were out of my favorite iced honeybuns (which I eat for breakfast). I had to buy the glazed ones instead. This location is the most reliable for carrying the iced honeybuns so it was a real disappointment they were out. My mornings will be sad all week until I am able to get the kind I like.

Another weekend flew by. They always seem so short. Only 11 weeks until the first three day weekend of the year!

Star Trek t-shirt at Target.
Look at that lovely rainbow....
it must be raining behind the ship.

Cherry Gummy Bunny at Target
One pound of naturally and artificially
flavored gut busting goodness.

Spring Oreos
These cookies are the first sign
that the winter is coming to an end.
Warmer weather has nothing
to do with it.

Target cart down in the parking lot!
Anthony won't let me take pictures
of him anymore but he didn't
say anything about me taking
a picture of his shadow (on the left).

Dinner at Pizza Studio on Grant Road.
It was kind of busy for a Sunday evening.

Anthony's pizza

My ham, mushroom and baKEN pizza



Sunset over the Pantano Wash
as seen from the parking lot of the little
strip mall on Grant Road that has
Pizza Studio, Chipoltle,
Jersey Mike's, a Verizon dealer, and
something else.

Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars
These look like they are made out of gravel.
Mmmmm gravel.

Someone left a Magic 8 Ball
with the Keurig Coffees.
I asked the 8 Ball if it was raining behind the Enterprise
on that t-shirt at Target, and it said "Yes".