A Turtle and a Dolly

You might be looking at this photo thinking "A turtle and a dolly...what the &#%*??? Welcome to my Sunday morning.

A brief summation to get you up to speed: Epic storms all night in Austin. 11+ inches of rainfall. Waterfront living. Approximately 4 ft rise in water level. One lost turtle. Three determined strangers. Oh, and one dolly.

So this morning I spotted a turtle crossing the road. Well, not quite a main road, but very close and still a very busy driveway into the apartment complex next door. I pass him by (for simplicity's sake, I'll assume its a "he"), trying to convince myself that he'd find his way back to the water. Which in my estimation, is about 50 yards in the opposite direction. You know, let nature take its course and all that.

After about 5 minutes of shuffling around in my house, my curiosity got the best of me. I kept picturing that terrified looking turtle encountering a car driven by someone preoccupied with an incoming text message. I couldn't live with that on my conscience. Mission accepted, Mother Nature.

I grab my umbrella, walk next door and discover a couple afflicted with a similar case of curiosity. The dude (we introduced ourselves, but I'm terrible with names) was about to pick the turtle up. This seemed like a simple solution to our problem, however, we quickly discovered that: a) the turtle was quite a hefty creature and b) the turtle was actually an alligator snapping turtle who was very scared and very pissed to be so far from home. Crap.

After several minutes of trying to herd the turtle back to the water with our umbrellas - and seeing a snapping turtle actually snap - we determined that the poor thing would probably die of a heart attack before we escorted him even 5 feet. Nope, this wouldn't work...we needed something to carry him with. Like a dolly. The dude decides to check if the 7-11 across the street has one.

Now take just a second here to imagine yourself walking into 7-11 and asking the cashier if you can take their dolly so you can wheel a lost turtle back to its home. Yeah, that actually happened. And shockingly, he succeeded. He comes back, dolly in tow, the turtle hops back on, hitches a ride and wishes us well as he saunters back into his liquid world.

Not so much. It turns out that getting a large, angry snapping turtle on the small metal shelf of a dolly is no easy feat. We had him on for a second but when we tilted to push, the turtle would slide and get a limb caught, or he'd snap at us and get his head stuck under one of the bars. So pushing was out of the picture. This wasn't going to be so easy.

At this point we're all soaked, the couple starts losing steam and I sense that they are about to call it a day. I quickly suggest that if we can get the turtle fully on the dolly shelf, we could each take a side and carry it down to the water. And by some miracle, the turtle cooperated while we did exactly that. Staying far enough away that it couldn't snap its head and have a chunk of leg for breakfast, we carried the turtle and the dolly approximately 50 yards back down to the flooded riverbank.

There were a few more obstacles in its path and I did have to pull a post or two out of the ground (shhhh!) for it to swim around, but the turtle made it back home. We watched as he took a little breather before swimming away. I'd like to say it was a way of him tipping his hat before riding off into the sunset, but I'm retty sure our helping hands would still wind up with missing fingers if we got too close.

The dolly got returned (with more strange looks), I said goodbye to my fellow turtle whisperers and walked home in soggy shoes practicing my turtle call just in case I ever need it again. 

Superbowl 2010 - I watch for the commercials of course!

Yesterday was a big day in the world of football, the Superbowl. Fans paint their faces, friends gather with crock pots full of chili-cheese dip, and viewers battle game-day traffic as they make their way to the biggest flat-screen in their area.

While I am always a fan of tradition and get-togethers, I am not a fan of football. Sitting and watching an entire game is about as enticing to me as watching paint dry. Lucky for me, the Superbowl is traditionally one of the biggest days as far as commercials go. I find myself forwarding through the game just to get to the next set of commercials.

This year's Superbowl commericals proved to be entertaining...not as good as previous years...but entertaining nonetheless. Call me sentimental, but the 2 commercials that had the biggest impact on me this year were what I'd call "warm and fuzzy". And they are (drumroll please): Google Search and Budweiser Longhorn,in that order. See for yourself.

Google Search


Budweiser Longhorn

Katie sings Biggest Fan

My little sis, Kaitlyn Noelle sings Biggest Fan.



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Katie sings for my birthday

My little sister, Kaitlyn, has an amazing voice...how I'm related to her I have no idea. Anyhow, she asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and all I could think of was for her to sing my favorite Christmas song, Oh Holy Night. Here it is for all the world to enjoy. :)

Oh, and the creepy Santa thing is there because she had to be far from the microphone...sista's got some pipes!



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Autumn colors in Salmon, Idaho

The two days I spent in Salmon, Idaho were well worth the trip. Flying and driving was exhausting, but the scenery was unlike anything I've ever seen before. I think between the two of us, Trevor and I took about 300 pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras!




After picking Trevor up from Salt Lake, we made our way north to Salmon, Idaho. The drive was absolutely beautiful and I decided that Fall is my favorite time of year to visit. I also decided that karma can be a cruel, cruel thing when it wants to be. Remember the ticket that Maria and I avoided earlier in the trip? Well, no such luck for me the second time. I was nabbed for speeding in Challis, about 50 miles from our destination. Drat!

Booking Belize 24 hours in advance - Belize 2009

Today I arrived in San Pedro, Belize after what ended up being about a 7-hour series of flights from LAX. It's quite surreal being here considering I booked my ticket extremely last minute...just yesterday morning! My friend Angela and I had been talking about going for a few weeks now and she wisely booked her ticket right away. I, however, hesitated and missed the boat on good flight prices. Week after week, prices kept creeping upwards and I was beginning to lose hope. Fortunately though I checked tickets one last time yesterday and found an American Airlines flight that was pretty reasonable. I booked, went home and packed (my grandma's vintage luggage) and VOILA! A little over 24 hours later I am unpacking at Pedro's Inn in San Pedro, Belize.

My dream job!

I've been meaning to post this video for a while and just now got around to it. This is pretty much what I dream of doing in life...traveling the world and capturing moments for all to enjoy. This particular video resonated with me because it very subtly infers that no matter where we live or what language we speak, we all are fundamentally the same. People want to live the best life they can and enjoy as much of it as possible.

Something as simple as dancing in front of a camera turned into something silly but touching. I double dog dare you not to smile when you watch!

Watch Video

Letterman's farewell to Bush

So funny, I had to post. David Letterman says farewell to President Bush.