pictures from the weekend

Blue Monkey for Birthday Drinks.

Jenna and Allie for breakfast coffee.

The Sunset on the Mississippi River from BBQ Fest.

Railroad tracks in Memphis.

great sense of direction?

I recently have travelled to a couple of places (New Orleans; Pinnacle Mount, AR) with two friends who've claimed to have incredible senses of direction.  They managed to maneuver us around in circles in New Orleans for a few hours--at least it felt like that.

I also have a mom who is directionally challenged. She claims it to be a disability.  (I don't know if the ADA covers that.)  I think she only says that because she wants some understanding when she turns left after I tell her to turn right.

My father is a forester and land surveyor, and made his living by navigating the moss on the trees to find his way.  For as much as I feel that I've inherited my father's gift, I choose to not declare that I have a great sense of direction.  Because that means tomorrow I'll get lost when I walk to work or something crazy like that.

some pictures from in and around memphis

quick update

The past month went a little like this:

Went to St. Louis for some work-related stuff and got to tour the Budweiser Brewery (w/ free samples) and go to the top of the Arch.  The Arch was a little scary.  It's really tall and you have to sit in this little Jetson's-like contraption to get to the top.

I got back from St. Louis and got sick. Really, really sore throat.   I voluntarily went to the doctor, which is not normal.  They said that I wasn't sick.  I begged to differ.  Regardless, the next two weeks were painful, but extremely busy at work.

In the midst of that, I went skiing in North Carolina.  I wasn't too sick to go skiing.

My mom and Aunt Liz came to visit me the next weekend.  We went down to Tunica, Mississippi and played the penny slots.  High rollers!

I had a weekend off and played in a whiffle ball tournament.  It was around that time that I found out that my scheduled trip to Reynosa, Mexico with some students at Rhodes had been cancelled due to some recent violence on the Mexican border.  So, it was during the first half of the Duke/Carolina game (last one of the regular season) that I decided to go with some other students to New Orleans to help with rebuilding.

And, now, I just got back from that adventure.  I'll be posting stories about New Orleans on the Rhodes College blog.  If you're interested, you can read those here: Rhodes College Blog.

snowy morning in memphis

All of these pictures were taken on the campus of Rhodes College in Memphis, TN.

The mighty Charles Diehl statue stands tall against the backdrop of Burrow.

The snowy landscape from the courtyard of Stewart.

A wall.

A bench in gray.

The fence, outside of Bellingrath Hall.

licking, missouri

So, I went on a road trip this past weekend.  I detailed it (sort of) on my blog for work.  Check it out if you want: road trip blog

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip...

Old trucks somewhere in Iowa

Sunset somewhere in Arkansas

Mistiming our self-timed jumps.

the biltmore

On my recent drive to NC, I made a slight detour to view the Biltmore House.  My parents say they took my brother and I there when we were younger, but neither of us remembers it.  So, I turned my 11 hour drive into a 13 hour trip.  And, I had some good conversations with people and got some decent pictures. (Each of these was taken separately.)