Late Summer in the Steger Garden (2013)

From Flowers

More photos after the jump.

Berkner Bounces Back

From 2013 09 06 North Garland vs Berkner

The Berkner Rams varsity football team quickly shrugged off a beating on the road last week from the South Garland Colonels. This week the Rams defeated the North Garland Raiders at home, 42-7. It's a great time to be a Ram!

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: Mashhad, Iran

Mashhad, Iran
March 29, 1977
Five hours spent at the Afghanistan/Iran border.
We made a futile effort to find a restaurant in Meshed, ending up eating at the hotel and having a bad, over-priced meal.

Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 03 29 Iran

From Herat, Afghanistan, it's only about 50 miles to the border with Iran. More on that and our first stop in Iran, Mashhad, after the jump.

Amour (2012)

IMDB

Amour (2012): Elderly man cares for his invalid wife. What do you do when nothing can be done? Heartbreaking. Oscar-worthy performances. B+

The Master (2012)

IMDB

The Master (2012): Acting A+. Depiction of mentality behind cults B+. Overall, empty and depressing. Characters, scenes don't connect. C+

The Butler (2013)

IMDB

The Butler (2013): Civil rights movement seen through prism of White House black butler's family. Works as both history & drama. Moving. A+

OTBR: Gun Emplacements of Wollongong

Latitude: S 34° 29.184
Longitude: E 150° 55.044

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".