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November 23, 2007
So Much to Be Thankful For
Wonderful friends, perfect Bay Area weather, fantastic food. An awesome day.
Love to all of you from thedude and Kellster!
View the rest of the photos from our fun-drenched day here.
Posted by thedude at 9:06 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
The Essence of Dudeness
For the last few years I have been hosting a web site featuring the work of an extremely talented illustrator named Charlie Powell. I have always been a fan of his work, so when he offered to paint a portrait of thedude in exchange for web hosting services, I jumped at the chance. Now thedude joins the likes of Bono, Howard Stern and Oprah among the celebrities he's painted.
I am so very happy with the results! I think it's an excellent likeness of thedude enjoying three of his favorite things - wine, cameras and computers! This is especially amazing when you consider that Charlie and I have never met. He painted this based solely on images from thedude.com!
When deciding where to display the 11 x 17" painting, Kelly's first suggestion was was, "How about above the toilet?" Nice. Well, I have a few ideas of my own.
Posted by thedude at 9:55 AM | Comments (9)
November 15, 2007
thedude and The Younger Dudes
While in the Midwest, thedude stopped in Franklin, Wisconsin to pay a visit to his favorite nephews - Jacob and Ryan. It's hard to believe how tall these kids have grown. Ryan is old enough to drive a car and is looking for a college to attend! Man, I must be getting old.
Sister Dawn and her husband Dennis' backyard is adjacent this cornfield. Fun!
Posted by thedude at 4:05 PM | Comments (1)
November 9, 2007
A Beautiful Dream
Last night I had one of the most beautiful dreams of my life. You have to have known my friend Jeff to fully appreciate it, but I felt I needed to write it down anyway and share it with those of you who did.
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Kelly and I were vacationing in a beautiful place with steep mountains, brilliant green pastures, fluffy clouds. Our hotel room had a spectacular view. Kelly was in the shower getting ready for a hike through a nearby valley where I planned to shoot a few pictures to capture the beauty of the place. I grabbed my camera, turned around and the door swung open and in walked Jeff! He looked exactly the same as I remembered him and very much alive. We spoke to each other and joked like we had seen each other last week. Nothing about Jeff seemed to have changed - except that he had this little smile on his lips - like he had a big secret he was anxious to share. Was he really alive?
Kelly came out of the bathroom and met Jeff. Smiles were exchanged, and at that moment I noticed that other friends were in the room with us. Paul was there, Kalvin too. We all sat around the hotel room and joked and laughed like we had done a thousand times before. As always, Jeff was center stage. We were so happy. I couldn't believe it. At one point I asked, "Is this really happening?" Everyone smiled and nodded - yes, it was.
As if to prove a point, Jeff waved his arm and pointed at the door. He said, "Go ahead, say you wish the door would open." I did, and the door swung open hard - leaving no doubt as to who caused this to happen. Jeff beamed. He said, "Say you wish it would close!" The door slammed shut.
It was at this moment that I realized my friend Jeff really was dead - his new powers proved it. But it was OK - in fact better than OK. He was having a great time, and he was still very much with us.
A few seconds later a glittering, ghostly wizard came into the room. He was short - perhaps three feet tall. He looked a little annoyed with Jeff, and scolded him for "revealing too much". He reached into his robe and pulled out a hat, which he placed on Jeff's head, instantly transforming him into a wizard too. As he hustled Jeff out of the room, I heard myself say, "We love you, Jeff." The wizard looked at me and said, "I can see from your eyes that you mean what you say."
I awoke with tears in my eyes.
Posted by thedude at 7:46 AM | Comments (8)
November 6, 2007
Our Favorite Fresno Fan-atics
The fabulous Fresno Bee ran a story last weekend on a couple of our most favorite people on account of their being rabid Fresno sports fans - at least one of whom can carry on ad nauseum about her beloved Fresno girls softball team. Yep - that's the two of them on the left in the "Red Room" - their shrine to the Bulldogs.
The Bee did a good job profiling Dorothy and Frank, though. There can't possibly be any more devoted fans than what the author calls "the practical Hunters". Hah!
Click on the picture to download the story of their 40 year love affair with Fresno sports.
Posted by thedude at 7:18 PM | Comments (1)
November 3, 2007
Another Addictive (and Useful) Tool?
At least two of my friends told me that my life would be better if I started using Jott. Yeah yeah, I thought. Another toy no one needs. Well, it turns out they were right! I'm already hooked!
Jott uses an amazingly accurate voice-to-text processor to convert up to a 30 second voice message into a neatly-formatted e-mail. Now, I can easily send an e-mail to one or many people directly from my Crackberry without typing on its teensy keyboard. And of course, Jott is free! There are even tools to allow bloggers to publish entries from a phone. Hmm... Interesting!
Posted by thedude at 5:06 PM | Comments (0)
