October 2008 Archives

Well, yesterday I had a busy day in Thomasville at a meeting with the tourism group that represents the 11 county region we are working with for the www.alabamafrontporches.com website. After the meeting, I zipped out to my sister Julia's house for a minute (really about 20 minutes) for a quick visit. She had some great birthday gifts for me and for Ann. But what was the greatest gift of all was a photo album she had of Mama's. Loads of great photos to add to my blog. Starting with these two: on the left, Uncle Bud Hinson (Mama's brother) and on the right Mammy, Papa Hinson and an unknown man holding a shotgun--can't tell if that is Mammy's shotgun or not. Great stuff and much more to come!

Well, that would be some years ago. I was driving up Highway 5 yesterday through Centerville and saw two of my favorite birthday spots. We went there SEVERAL years. The Sawmeal Restaurant was one. We would go there and have chili and saltine crackers. Great stuff. Thankfully, the Sawmeal is still there. The other, the most wonderful place in all the world, the best place to find anything, was the Army-Navy store pictured below. Anything you could imagine would be there. Well, if you could, as any healthy young boy would, imagine only things in camoflauge or knife-like. Mama took me some years. Aunt Gladys and Uncle Edward took me several times (once after Mama was convinced that Uncle Edward wasn't the world's greatest driver anymore). Mama and Papa, Mama and some assortment of my wonderful sisters. It was a great ritual. I still have some of the things I got for my birthday. I suspect the old WWI gas mask is somewhere in Octagon still.

Sadly, the store is no longer around. A Mexican restaurant now, no less. I imagine that the original owners drive by and feel the same sadness.

Wow, what a busy week last week. First, I have way too much to do. Then, I get hooked on Flickr. (Even uploaded a few photos to the al.com photo section--they seemed to like my photo of the guys sitting in front of the Selma grocery store--they left it on their front page for almost 2 days.) But, I managed to get lots done, including a draft of a 48 page program manual for the Alabama Communities of Excellence program (ACE), photos for a new client (the American Society of Landscape Architects--Alabama chapter), ads for Underwoods, Florida sister company to Birmingham-based Brombergs and other things I can't even remember right now.

Oh, and I finally got around to writing up a travel itinerary for a trip to Selma, Alabama, Gees Bend and Camden. It is posted on the Alabama's Front Porches blog site: www.alabamafrontporches.com/blog. A little more work and I'll incorporate it into the main site. I ordered a GPS (Garmin nüvi 750 ) yesterday to help me better plot my travels around Alabama. (click the link to buy it through Amazon.com--and give me money!!!)

Wow, what  a busy week--little time for updates, though I admit to playing a bit more than I should on Flickr. I've added some additional photos (mainly of Birmingham--downtown and the zoo). This morning, I'm going through a training manual for the ACE (Alabama Communities of Excellence) Program and reformatting it for consistent use of fonts, sizes, styles, etc. I'm trying to give it a cleaner, easier to follow look without putting loads of hours into it (it is somewhere around 45 pages). Other than that, just the typical updates to my various blogs (I added several links to a Facebook Group about Black Belt natives yesterday).

Ordered the Adobe CS4 suite of programs yesterday--can't wait to get that in hand. Oh, and picked up a new client as well: the Alabama chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. I'll be developing a website for them in the next few months, but Friday night I'm off to one of their banquets to take pictures. That's two months in a row with actual people photography work (a judge last month and now an event). I'm not as fond of taking people photos as I am of landscape or food photography, but I'm getting the hang of it more and more.

There are just too many social networking opportunities out there right now. I'm giving all the above a try. I've been on LinkedIn for a long time, thanks in large part to an old college buddy, Dale Kiefling years ago. I've been on Facebook for a lot less time, but still pretty interesting. Twitter is pretty new to me--I'm still getting the hang of exactly why I'm using it, but sort of secretly like it. Plaxo--pretty lame overall, but keep it up for a certain crowd.

And, I just joined Flickr today. Flickr is basically a photo-sharing website that lets you upload and organize your photos. Never been very into that sort of thing as I never saw a need--after all, I can post stuff to my blog anytime. Finally broke down and joined and uploaded some photos, though. It seems pretty cool so far.

And the reason for all this? I want to understand the social media networks in order to use them effectively for my own personal benefit and particularly to benefit my clients. There are many, many opportunities to market to a whole new crowd and in a completely different way. So here goes!

Siblings: oldest (but never old!) Suzanne, middle child Julia, and Youngest (that's me!) . I'll go for the other three later--this was mainly an attempt to cover up my desire to show my awesome Easter outfit! Check out the shoes.

This must be either Mama (Inez Watts) or Aunt Sadie Lou. Taken in Chewacla State Park near the falls just outside Auburn, Alabama. This photo appears to be taken at the same time as one of my personal favorites titled "Goddess of the Woods." A great photo with a great story for another time.

One of the monthly newsletters I work on: The Alabama Sierran. I did the first newsletter for the Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club in January 2006 and have done one each month since then. This is an 8 page tabloid-size newsletter printed on recycled newsprint. You can download the full newsletter at alabama.sierraclub.org. In addition to working on this newsletter, I just finished an online newsletter for Birmingham, Alabama based CGH Insurance Group (www.cghinsurance.com/newsletter). And, perhaps most fun right now, I'm working on a website on tourism--particularly historical and ecological--in Bibb County, Alabama. I'm developing it almost entirely in Movable Type (using a little Dreamweaver to help me handle the CSS stylesheets). Pretty interesting stuff. Not that far along yet, but I've built the shell: www.bibbtourism.com. Other than that, just the usual blog updates at Your Town Alabama and Alabama's Front Porches.

A quick, toss-together meal last night of sauteed eggplant, garlic, red bell pepper and yellow onion along with some fresh herbs (basil, oregano, and parsley) tossed with penne pasta and finished with a little white wine and fat-free half and half--yes, I know, not the best thing in the world, but it seems to work pretty well in small quantities. Topped with a bit of quality Parmesan cheese. Would have been better to have used bacon drippings instead of the olive oil and finished with a healthy toss of chopped crispy bacon, but I'm trying to be a little healthier.

Okay, who can help identify these people? I'm sure that they are cousins from somewhere. Again, an Uncle Edward Waddell photo. Wow, quick answers abound! A sister emailed me within about 30 minutes of posting.

Billy Watts, Ed Watts (both sons of Bill Watts, my father's brother), Jane, Julia, (back) Suzanne, Carol and Cynthia on the horse.

Photo on the left: me (Joe Watts). Notice the stylish Dukes of Hazzard t-shirt. All the other photos appear to be Christmas at the Watts house. Top: Madeline in the mix. Bottom left: Papa (Clark Watts) trying on a new down jacket--I think he kept that one forever. Center: Suzanne with, I'm guessing, Laura. Bottom right: Stacy. These photos all come from Uncle Edward Waddell's many, many slides!

This newsletter is one that I do only about 2 times each year. It is a pretty good sized newsletter with lots of input, so it takes a while to complete: very pleased with this issue, both design-wise and content-wise. We managed to add in more reference, teaching-oriented information into this issue than ever before (at least since I've been doing the newsletter--and that's been about 5 years).

Wow. Looking back on some old CD backups from the late 1990's, I found about a dozen letters I sent to family (mainly Mama and Papa but also Aunt Gladys and others). Interesting stuff. I also found some old recipes I developed when I worked at Weight Watchers. This Bread Pudding recipe actually got a perfect score in the Test Kitchen--I don't think it ever managed to get printed, though. It was for a section of the magazine that was, I believe, abandoned. If it ever ran, it did so after I had moved on to work at Scenic Alabama. The recipe was a good one, though, so thought I would share it here.

Bread Pudding With Whiskey Sauce
 
3       cups milk
1/2    cup raisins
1/2    cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4    cup sugar
1       tablespoon vanilla extract
1       teaspoon ground cinnamon
3       large eggs, lightly beaten
2       tablespoons butter, melted
9       (1-ounce) slices French bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
Cooking spray
Whiskey Sauce
 
          Preheat oven to 350`.
          Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well. Add bread cubes; toss gently. Let mixture stand 30 minutes.
          Spoon mixture into a 13-x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350` for 45 minutes or until pudding is set. Serve warm with Whiskey Sauce. Yield: 10 servings (serving size: 1/10 of pudding and about 3 tablespoons sauce).

Well, I've been rummaging about on an old hard drive and came across several dozen letters I wrote back in the late 1990's. The following is a letter I wrote to my Aunt Gladys (I've mentioned her in my blog several times and included photos her husband, my Uncle Edward, took while they lived in Alaska in the 1940's and 1950's).  You can see some of his old photos here and here.


Ann and I went to Alaska on a cruise for our honeymoon in 1997--one of the best trips of my life. Here's the run-down:

 I thought that I'd write to you about our adventures in Alaska. I enjoyed talking to you over the phone about them, but I thought that you would enjoy a slightly more detailed description of our trip.

On Saturday, we flew to Vancouver, British Columbia. I wish that we had more time to spend here, but we hurried to the ship. Riding through on a bus was interesting, however. It is a beautiful city and one that I hope to see again, and in more detail. We got on the ship down by the docks, just blocks from the downtown district. The ship was huge, 11 stories tall and 941 feet long. It was very nice and we went to our room to rest after the long flight.

We got up in time to watch as we sailed out of the Vancouver harbor. Leaving Vancouver was beautiful and we sailed past Stanley Park. It's amazing to see that much green, undeveloped land in the middle of a city. I really liked that and would love to have time to explore the park some day.

The next day, we spent the entire day on the ship looking out at the mountains, which got larger and taller as we sailed north. There really wasn't a lot to see on this day because we weren't very near the shore. As a result, we saw mainly commercial fishing boats and sea gulls. It was nice though, because it gave us a chance to rest.