Vacation photo's

Hi all, Jen and I are back from vacation and getting back into the swing of things. Yes we have been back for a week and a half but we are fighting it with all that we are. We would much rather be in the warm Mexican sun than the Seattle cold and now the rain is back on the way. This is part of one of the photo posts. These are some of my favorites from our one day side trip to San Francisco. We took the BART from the airport to downtown, hung out there for a bit then took the cable car down to the waterfront and Fisherman's Wharf. I've never been to SF before and want to go back for a lot longer and check the whole place out.

Mexican Vacation

So Jennifer and I are in Cabo del Sol which is about a half hour north of Cabo San Lucas. So far we've spent most of our time just relaxing by the pool drinking and snacking while soaking up the Mexican hot sun.

Our trip started a day later than planned thanks to Hurricane Norburt but our detour left us in San Francisco for a day and I've never been there either. Pix will be coming soon but we haven't really been out and about much yet.

Does anyone even read this

So I'm sitting here realizing that I haven't posted anything in a while and was wondering if it's even worth the time. Does anyone even read this or look at the photos I post? Show me some love if you do by posting a comment.

Show coming soon

Keep your eyes open as I will be having a showing very soon at Hotwire Coffee in North City (Shoreline). At the urging of Jennifer I talked to the owner yesterday about what the processes was. We chatted for a bit and after I figure out what to show we are going to meet. I am thinking the first show will probably be Mardi Gras / New Orleans shots since I have a bunch from the French Quarter, parades, and the 9th Ward.

First trip to the Japanese Gardens

With friends Matt and Stephanie in town from Austin TX, Jennifer and I made the trek out to the gardens and braved UW graduation traffic, well Stephanie did since she was driving. Matt and Stephanie moved from WA to TX last year and this was their first trip back together since they've moved. The day started with breakfast at the BOB, always a good place to eat and they are known for their Chicken Fried Steak (yummy). After that we went to the Japanese Gardens in Madison Park. Surprisingly even though I've lived in this area almost my whole life I've never been there. Admission is $5 and is worth the price. The gardens though smaller are just as nice as the section in Butchart Gardens in Victoria. Below are some of the 130ish shots I took. This was my second trip with my new 80-200 2.8 Nikon lens and I love it more than ever.

More pictures from the Ship Canal

The above shots were all taken on Saturday 5/31/08 under the Ship Canal Bridge. The shots .were taken with a Nikon D70s w/ a Tamron 75-300

Updated profile picture

This picture was taken during Mardi Gras 2008 by Jennifer, my loving girlfriend.

Weekend fun

This weekend was a very productive photo weekend. Saturday a co-worker and I met at 7:30am under the north end of the Ship Canal Bridge for some morning shooting. We went out in search of crew teams practicing and we found what we were looking for. Here is one of the shots from the trip.

Past shots

Web Developement

I have my eye on getting my web site up and running very soon. Formating has been a big challenge though. For now I am going to add a few shots here and will let everyone know when DraegerPhoto.com is up and running fully.

Coffee Shops

So I haven't posted anything in a little while and thought this might be a good topic. I am looking for some good local coffee shops that have free Wi-Fi and kick ass coffee. So far the best one I have found is Hotwire Coffee in Shoreline and Caffe Ladro in Bothell. Caffe Ladro gets special props because their CEO answers emails personally. To me that is customer service on HGH. Let me know what your favorites are.

One note about this picture and it's just the way my mind works. What if there were bears and you had your garbage, wouldn't they come after you then? My ass is old and fat and certainly couldn't out run a bear. Not that I am endorsing littering because I am not. I just think they should have had this sign at the beginning for trail not at the end. (location, river front park in Leavenworth)

Rollovers fail to make it out of Spring Training

These next few games will be the last for our beloved Rollovers. See below for comments from our fearless leader, Richiro.

Seattle WA (SNN) – A throng of softball enthusiasts looked on in shock and disappointment as the PA system informed them of the tragic news that nobody wanted to hear. In the manner of the Kennedy assassination, the moon walk and the Challenger disaster, people will most likely remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news: The Rollovers will not be playing spring softball.

A spokesman for the Rollovers organization stepped up to the podium to make the dire proclamation in front of thousands gathered at Seattle’s historic Roosevelt Commons (which locals affectionately refer to as simply “The ROC”) and countless millions linked via satellite worldwide.

“It was kind of expected, but we never thought it would come to this” said local Rollovers fan Patrick Tracy.

“I wept openly and I’m not ashamed to admit it; I love these guys.”

At the end of the address there was some hope for the future. It was announced that the team was looking into options for a summer league in either Redmond and/or Lynnwood. Manager Rick “Richiro” Hanner could not be reached for comments.

Thanks,

Richiro

Rollover 2008 Tune Up Schedule

3/9/2008 Perrigo Park #1 2:00 pm vs. I'd Hit That - Loss

3/16/2008 Perrigo Park #2 2:00 pm vs. Great Balls of Fire

3/23/2008 Happy Easter

3/30/2008 Perrigo Park #2 4:30 pm vs. Jews On First

4/6/2008 Grass Lawn #1 7:00 pm vs. BRINC.

4/13/2008 Grass Lawn #1 2:00 pm vs. Fielder's Choice

Perrigo Park

Grass Lawn Park

Game one of the new season

I tell ya, nothing makes you feel old more than the day after the first day of softball. The Rollovers faced I'd Hit That. With a name like that I was hoping for a team of really cute girls and they didn't let me down. We have to send out a special shout out and thank you to Kristina and Alysa for helping us out. We were a few girls short of a team so we ended up having to forfeit both games but they loaned us Kristina and Alysa, two of the nicest girls Microsoft has to offer and we had a lot of fun playing a good practice game. See below for Richiro's commentary.

We hope to see some of you out for our next game, this Sunday at 2pm at Perrigo Park.

Walk in, tune up, and drop in (to a hot bath).

Our first weekend was a painful reminder of how long it’s been since we actually tried to play this game. The weather was very cooperative and the field at Perrigo Park is quite nice.

We actually had to forfeit both games as we didn’t have enough women show up for the game. Kudos goes to Eileen for being the lone female on the roster to attend. Super kudos to Renae who showed up to help us out, but then twisted her knee and had to leave the game early in much pain. The other team graciously loaned us two players so we could at least play for fun.

As I said, we ended up borrowing two players from their team who fit right in with the Rollovers spirit and talent level. We may even recruit them to join us permanently provided Nate can keep up his charming demeanor (and not wear any spandex).

This was a tune-up game and it certainly showed it, although for us we were in mid-season form. Our hitting was actually pretty good at times, but our fielding needs some work.

Hopefully next weekend we’ll have enough to play and perhaps even eke out a win.

Richiro

Rollover's season has officially started

Hello Sports fans,

The season is officially underway with our first trip to the batting cages on Saturday 2/16/08. It was very productive with Nate having three balls leave the yard. On an even brighter note we met Brian, a new Rollover, thanks for making the trip out Brian. I had a good day too, I didn't pull a single muscle.

As promised here is a link to some photo's from last year. It's actually only one game, but it was a good game and a great day. I might have stretched the truth a bit on some of the captions, except the one about the Chicken Dance. Enjoy and I look forward to seeing you all out at the park.

Doughboy #19, first base and pitcher if we get REALLY desperate.

Rollovers 2007

Softball is just around the corner

It's almost Spring and the Rollovers are getting ready to take the field once again back in our old home of Grass Lawn Park. This should be an exciting season with some new faces to go with the old ones. Our number one goal as a team is to have fun and we do that by pointing out Nate's spandex wearing as often as possible.

Coming soon:

Schedule
Team Photo
Game Photos

Mardi Gras review

OK so I suck. I said I'd keep the blog up and add photos and I didn't. That's actually a good thing as I was just too damn busy drinking and have'n a good 'ole time. Jennifer and I had a great time in New Orleans, well except for the last day as Jennifer got really sick on Friday and is still trying to recover. Things we did: Lots and lots of parades. We watched most of them from Judy and Tommy's on Napoleon St. They are very nice people and I hope we can hang out with them next year. Yes, we are planning on going back for a third year in a row. We still didn't have enough time to see and do all that we wanted. The plan for next year is to see more sites. I want to do a photo tour of the churches and cemeteries in the area. I also want to go to some museums.

Our favorite things from this year were the Muses parade. Jennifer got most of the throws that she wanted but not the elusive shoe. We also did a swamp tour with Honey Island Swamp Tours. The best thing though was getting to spend time with Kim and the kids (Jennifer's friend down south) Chelsea and Shelby are going to be out to Seattle this summer to go to camp. It will be Chelsea's third trip and Shelby's first. Sadly little bro Blair has to stay home (this time). I also enjoyed my first ever shave with a straight razor. I had the head and face done. It was nice and I didn't end up with any missing ears or new scars.

I was really shocked to see how little clean up had been done from the previous year. We went through a neighborhood that had some very nice, HUGE, houses. I'm not sure what the value would be down there but in Seattle these would have been million dollar homes. They had all kinds of stuff just sitting outside because the homes were not fit for the property. This was something I was unaware of as last year I just saw what was wrong with the poor neighborhoods. Katrina affected everyone in New Orleans, not just the poor. Sadly we weren't able to get any pictures of the neighborhoods. We didn't even have time to go back to the 9th Ward to see how far it had come.

Links to cool places:

House on Bayou Road

Port of Call

Fat Tuesdays

Save NOLA

Preservation Hall

Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/insurance.nerd/MardiGras08

Mardi Gras Day 3

Last night was a blast. We met up with the lady that does the cooking classes here and the B&B and her husband, Judy and Tommy. Tommy is the Army's local military historian and knows everything you could want to know about this wonderful city and Mardi Gras. We watched 4 paradises from in front of their house. The high light of the night was the muses parade (photo's to come, I took 500) where I got a really cool set of disco ball bead for flashing my "man boobs" to a lady on a float. It took her a second to get them to me due to laughing so hard she almost spilled her drink.

Today was a nice warm day, sunny and 75. We went to a parade this afternoon but it didn't go so well. The thing started late and then it must have had had technical difficulties because it kept stopping every 20 feet or so (no exaggeration). For those of you that don't know I had minor back surgery to remove some skin cancer a couple of weeks ago and got the stitches out the day before we left. My back wasn't really into to the standing and watching nothing gig so it asked if we could leave early. Jennifer was very understanding and we came back to our room.

Next on the plan after the pain killers kick back in is dinner. Not sure where we are going but I'll let everyone know where we end up and how good it is. That's one thing that this city certainly hasn't lost and that's an abundace of great food.

Link to pictures. This will be updated every few days. I'll post link in each post so you won't have to go back to old posts.


Happy Mardi Gras.

Cheers!

Mardi Gras photo album located here.

Day 1 in New Orleans

Yesterday was kind of a bust. All of the parades we planned to see were cancelled due to tornado warnings in the area. And as is typical when they predict snow in Seattle there wasn't a tornado to be had in New Orleans. We did have some great food and enjoyed the shops on Magazine Street.

Speaking of snow in Seattle, it looks like they're expecting some over the weekend while it's supposed to be nice and in the 70's here. Sometimes I really do hate Washington weather.


Today is supposed to be much nicer. It's very sunny but for the locals kind of cold. I was walking around in shorts and flip flops early and the manager of the B&B (click link to view web site) we are staying in asked me if I was freezing. My reply was that this is almost summer weather back home.

Tune in for the good, the bad, and the devistation. Photo's to come of the parades, Bourbon Street, and how little has been done to clean up the Katrina devistaion in the poor neighborhood.