Today wasn’t quite as glamorous. I got to visit Siesta Key, which apparently has some of the nicest sand. It was seriously like powdered sugar. So beautiful. We had breakfast at a place called Word of Mouth. It was really good.

CEO arrived in town that afternoon. Our client had picked him up at the airport, so I was waiting outside the hotel to get some portrait shots of the client, which I’d just found out were needed. So this guy comes up to me (I was shooting test locations) and starts asking me what I’m doing. Well, my initial thought is this guy is hotel management and is wondering why I’m taking photos of his walls hehe. Well, he says “Oh, are you with MediaSauce?” Well, seems this guy was waiting for our CEO, too, so I had a nice chat with him. He’s in to mobile technology, and he had recommended some firms to our client but was wowed when he saw they’d discovered us. He’s really excited about the work we’re doing. So I got to hang out with that group and talk mobile technology possibilities for an hour.

After that, I had some chill time, so I caught a bit of Ellen, which was exciting because I never get to see it. After that, I headed out with Mitch & CEO to get some community shots. It was already 5pm by now, so our light was really limited. It totally worked out tho because I think I got some killer shots.

Oh, but just as we had started down the road, the client (Mitch’s, not mine) in her convertible started pointing off to the right. Well, there were these huge birds just walking around, so Mitch is like “you got it?” I frantically switched to the zoom lens and went running down the road and over to the median. Well, the birds walked damn fast so I was at a full run, and I just heard CEO yelling “ooh yeah, go Mindy!!” hehe so I held my arm up in the track victory pose and started shooting away. So fun!

So then we ventured to this house under construction. Really we just used its patio as a platform to look out over one of the golf courses. Man, I was so shaky tonight. You could see my camera jiggling but I managed to pull off some of the best low-light shots of my life this evening. Gosh, so many photos I’m proud of, but I must share the one of Mitch. He said afterwords that “we really went out on a ledge” to get these shots. I think he got some of me out there too. I’m really proud of myself for not dying.

And tell me, how pro is this shot of the lady? hehe look at me bragging. Ooh but it was such a nice evening. Just beautiful. I’m really improving which makes this all more exciting. It was cool to finally get to out with Mitch. I think we make a good team. Ok yeah, I’m sorting photos between writing, and half this post will be photos.

So as they were dropping me back to my car at the client’s office, all of the sudden, Mitch was like “What the heck..?!?” and I look over and see nothing but as I look back behind, I see the shape of a lil creature. Mitch is like “I think that was a wild boar.” And I was like “I really think you’re right.” It was the distinct outline of a pig with some spiky hair. I agreed that it mandated turning around, but when we went back he was no where to be found. haha definitely my first wild boar spotting.

So we all made it back to the hotel and prepared to depart for dinner. Well, as we were debating where to eat someone was like “Well, we could go to Ybor City if we went up to Tampa.” hehe so whomever said it was joking, but everyone was like “I’m up for it” So yeah, we took a 45 mi road trip up to Tampa to check out Ybor City, which is basically the Broad Ripple of Tampa to my understanding. How many people can say they’ve been on a road trip with their company’s CEO to get dinner? I didn’t think so.

Following some signs, we made it to the place, but really had no idea where to eat, so I asked some random people on the street. We decided we couldn’t ask where the main drag was because that would sound too Indiana…in our eyes, it was the same as asking where the cool cats hung out. We walked up & down the main drag, but DISH was what caught our eye, especially since their tagline was “life. love. and a little sauce.” It was clearly a sign. No pun intended.

Well, it turns out the place was basically mongolian barbeque, a phrase which meant absolutely nothing to me. Luckily, Mitch was more savvy so we just followed his lead. So we’re clear, it’s basically this big salad bar of pasta, veggies, and raw meat that you pile in a bowl. Then there’s a huge selection of sauces to choose from. You go up to this counter that surrounds a huge grill, and they take your bowl of food and throw it on the grill. Once it’s cooked, they throw the sauce on it, cook a lil bit more, and put it on to a plate.

I was admittedly a little scared of this whole experience, mainly because at the start of the food selection, I was seeing nothing beyond pasta that I would eat. Luckily, I found some more as I went on around. The grilling man was quite a character. Almost a lil too “in your face,” but amusing all the same. With my new flash we can pass ourselves off as VIP cuz huge looking camera = important :) The guy was giving me a hard time for taking a pic of his bad side. I got some major kidding attitude when I went for round 2.

I had salmon, pasta, red potatoes, and alfredo sauce first round and sirloin, pasta, chicken, and terriyaki sauce round 2. Both were really good. It sucked they were out of bourbon barbeque. That’s really what I wanted to try. Either way it was good stuff and I’m totally sold on the concept. It was just a really fun time.

We were there for a really long time, so we got back pretty late, and I should completely be sleeping but I just lose my drive to write these books after I sleep. So we hit a major traffic jam on the way home, further delaying our return. But it was all good, I really got to know CEO & Mitch and company better. Never really get those chances to talk about non-work stuff around the office. We spent most the drive discussing our fave SNL skits and movies and music stuff. A big portion was spent on re-enacting “I need more cow bell” Classic.

After traveling a ways, we did discover a ticket on our windshield. It was hilarious. We totally spaced putting money in the meter, partly assuming that it was free after 9:30. The ticket turned out to be just a warning and said some lil rhyme about how fun the place it is so it’s easy to forget. Have you ever gotten a ticket in a pretty envelope that says “Welcome to _____” hah funny

So I’m back to the hotel…I almost said home. It’s funny because I’m not really missing home at all yet. I feel quite settled here. I really hope I get to do more of this. CEO said on the way home that we just need a set of Mitch & Mindy’s to get in a van and gather the content stuff and we could do all kinds of off-site projects like this. Woohoo

But I do need to sleep, so I’ll just leave you with even more photos. Decision making is not my forte. heh and I just remembered how horribly this day began. I was ironing my shirt and when I lifted the iron up, I managed to sear a big line across my stomach due to poor sense of depth when moving the iron closer to me. So yeah, that kinda hurt like a bitch. Luckily I didn’t ruin my shirt by just leaving the iron face down on it. Kinda hard to run cold water over your stomach when you’re dressed and about to leave so I went down to the ice machine and put that in a washcloth. It stung horribly. 16 hours later it’s still bright red and a good 3” long. Totally gonna leave a scar.