It's Live

Tony's Photography website is live! Go to www.aquerio.com to check it out.

It has been a very long wait for a legitmate website and my own domain name, but it finally has happened. Friday is the big art show and unofficial launch of A. Querio Photo+Design. I will be showing some of my Fine Art nature pieces along with some of my graphic design. There will be a slide show running of some of my other work to introduce people to al that I do. Things are coming together for it, but there is still a ton of work to be done. The night should be great fun though. The Kilns (the venue where I am showing) is also hosting their first full rock band that evening and it is being catered by our friend who is a wine and cheese expert. Eliot, the band playing durring my show, are promising to bring in at least 100 people, so it should be a great night.

I Hit the Red Button

I put in my request to go live on the website. I will just be launching the photography side of aquerio.com this week with the design side coming soon. Be ready to check out over a year of anticipation being realized.

nails & hammers

Soooo... these may not seem like exciting pictures, but if you've been living in a beige palace with empty walls for two months, this is the coolest thing since otter pops. That's right folks, after two months, Tony has begun wielding a hammer & nails and putting some art and pictures on the walls of our apt. The top one is from our wedding and the bottom one is a piece Tony designed based off of Micah 6:8 "Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God."

More Posters

Here are a couple more posters that I made for The Kilns.

Poster Designs

I have taken on designing all the posters to promote the Kilns Concert series here in Bend. The Kilns Bookstore is a non-profit boutique bookstore, created to sell items with a cause behind them. They sell products made by women in Africa to support their families, Chinese orphans too old to stay in orphanages, women who have left the sex trade, and other causes. All the money goes back to the people who made the products and they make a lot more than if they sold them in their own countries. The books and donated art cover the rent of the building. The space also hosts concerts and art shows as community events.



Robert Jon is buying this design for his next run of t-shirts.

We Are Still Alive

So it has been over two months since we have pulled into Bend. Things are going great. Cait is fully in swing on staff at Antioch. Things are going great with that. I have been re-promoted to my old position at Starbucks. We have made some killer cool friends. I have been doing a lot of design work with the church. I mostly have been doing posters for the Kilns Concert series, which you can check out on my Flickr. I am going to be working on a quarterly newzine the church as well. I know I keep saying it, but the website will be up soon. I am just waiting to hear how I can go through the church to get it and save some cash. So yeah, if you were worried, we are doing great.

A Little Pic From the Road

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take such a cool portrait of ourselves.

This picture is a lot cooler when blogger doesn't suck all the color and contrast out of it. Trust me. It's super cool.

We're Here!

We pulled in yesterday around noon and were all sign up and moved in by 2:30. It is taking a little bit of time for us to get used to the size, but we are not complaining about that.

I guess I can go ahead and fill you in on what you have missed since the last post. Our night in Montana after Yellowstone was freezing. That played a huge factor in how little sleep was actually got that night. The next day was Idaho and half of Oregon. There is nothing to say about Idaho besides how boring it is. You come strait out of Yellowstone into hours and hours of nothing. We made it to our original stopping point sooner than planned so we added on another two and a half hours in Oregon to get us closer to Bend for the next day. All that is between Bend and the Eastern Border in 5 hours on beautiful country and the one town we slept in. There are a few towns that maybe compose two or three blocks, but other than that nothing. It also is 70 miles, over two mountains, without a gas station on the east side of that town. Yesterday morning we hopped in the car and chugged our way to Bend. We pulled up to the apartment at about noon and were done moving in by about 2:30. Almost everything is still in boxes on the floor, but work is getting done. We spent most of last night looking for furniture. We are going to go pick up a few more pieces today and then we are going to drive up to Antioch's (the church we are here to work with) Family Camp for the afternoon and evening.

So there you have it. We are here, safe and sound. Everything is looking good.

We're Getting Close

Yesterday we conqured over 500 miles. We detoured a little bit out of our ways to drive past Mt. Rushmore and swing by a winery for a wine tasting. They made a lot of unique wines out local fruit. They were all fantastic. We picked up one bottle as a memento from our trip. Cait also made it over her first set of mountains. We had to drive over a mile high to get through Big Horn National Forest. I think I got some amazing pictures going through there a few hours before sunset. Right now we are in Cody, WY, which is about the last town before Yellowstone. It's a 50 mile drive to the edge of the park, and 100 through it to where we are staying tonight. We are about to take off here so we can get up into the mountains on the edge of town and make it to the Park for the rest of the day.

A little Farther

Today we made the short trip to Wall Drug and back through the Badlands. To the Gold Coast man who told me not to bother going there: you were wrong! That place is amazing. We are camped 5 miles south east of the Park and are going back in there in a bit for dusk. It was neat to stand where Underoath had there promo shots for Define the Great Line shot. The whole thing just appears out of nowhere and looks to alien. I loved it. The colors of the north west corner are so pretty too. We'll see how the pictures turn out.

Tomorrow is a long haul to get as close as we can to Yellowstone so we have as much time there as possible on Wednesday. My goal is 481 miles, but Cait is hesitant about that. Tomorrow is also our first experience with mountain hauling too, so...

I am off now to write an e-mail to some people who want to take me to Afghanistan to do publicity photos for them. Pray for that whole thing.

Tony

733 down

Everything is packed in the trailer and we are at our second camp site. We spent last night in Rochester, MN and tonight we are in Kennebec, SD. We are moving pretty slowly for being on the freeway. Semis and double semis are passing us, but we need to keep the car in good shape and there are still a few more states to go. Today we visited the worlds only corn palace (and you thought Mt. Rushmore was the highlight of South Dakota) and yes it is a palace made of corn. Tomorrow we are heading up to Wall Drug and then back to the Badlands, before camping east of there. I am constantly re-working the schedule and driving Cait insane by doing so, but I at least finally have the iPod adapter set up. I guess that's all for now. We are going to jump in the pool for a bit here. We'll keep you posted.

Tony and Cait.

Field Trip Week

Seeing as we have less than two weeks left in Chicago, we have taken some time to make this week "Hubby-Wifey Field Trip Week." There is a long list of things to do while living in Chicago and not a lot of time to do them. Yesterday Cait took me to the Brookfield Zoo and let me get some great pictures. Seriously, for zoo shots they rock. The monkey's were super expressive and the light was pretty good. Today we went up to the Chicago Botanical Gardens and shot a lot. Cait loved the English Walled Garden while I had some fun in the Japanese Garden. After getting home we ran over to the Museum of Contemporary Art to check out the Jeff Koons exhibit. It is amazing. We were blown away. Well, there's a little update for you. Gotta go have more hubby-wifey time now.

We have a home!

We got a call last night from Eagle Landing Apartments saying that we got the place we wanted. Cait is two blocks away from the offices. I (hopefully) am a parking lot and a half away from my store. Pray for the store!

The First Photo!

Be prepared for more!

Waiting For a Plane

Well here we sit at terminal D7 waiting for our flight to take us back to Chicago. The wedding went excellently well; no major problems. Our Florida trip is pretty much done now. Some of the highlights include:

• wild dolphins (twice at sunset)
  
• sunsets
• a ton of geckos
• a lizardy lizard
• a swooping pelican
• a rainbow
• amazing food (both homemade and out)
• many trips across the street to the beach
• sleep
• late night hot tubbing

There were a few things we wish we would have done, but it was still great fun. Our plane just pulled up to our gate, so I guess I should wrap this up. Expect pictures to follow.

Seven Days Out

We are seven days out from our wedding now. A week from this exact moment we will be at the reception partying down with people we love. It's really just starting to sink in. I am slowly getting things crossed off of my to do list and as that happens the realization of this whole thing is slowing coming. All of the design stuff literally was just finished as I typed this sentence. I can't wait for everyone to see the rest of the stuff. Tyler, my best man, just moved back to Chicago a few days a go, so I have spent a lot of time with him and have made up on a good chunk of guy time that I had lost lately. Things are going great. We still are super busy, but hey, we'll make it.

Tony

Added Twitter

So I thought Twitter was possibly the most useless and narcisitic of all web based communication, but I saw how useful it was on Gary and Courtney's blog that I decided to add it. Now I can have a quick update instead of never updating due to lack of time. Oh web!

I Know, I Know...

Okay, the last post was when we were about to leave for Spring Break right? Life has been crazy. Here is what has happened:

Spring Break with Daddy Q and Teressa was great.
We went to the U.P. for a wedding shower.
Cait graduated.
We got a car.
We both worked a lot.
A lot of other stuff.

We are currently 12 days from the wedding and there is still so much to do. We are pushing hard to get through to the day and the honeymoon. A week of just Tony and Cait time. No homework, no work, no schedules, no interruptions, no good nights, no drives home, no looking for parking. A whole week of relaxing with each other. Expected highlights include :

Cooking.
Swimming.
Kyaking with manatees and dolphins.
Beach walks.
Sun rises and sun sets.
Talks.
Sleep.
Rest.
Married people stuff.


It will be so good. Pray for our sanity until then. There is still a lot to do first and today started our two weeks apart.

Almost there

After a long week for both of us, Caitlin and I are now mere minutes away from our first vacation together. I have a cold and she had a ton of school work, but the school work is behind her now and my cold is still present. We are off to Tucson, AZ for a week to visit my father and Theressa. More to come as we enjoy some sun and relaxation.

A Calm Saturday?

I am sitting here enjoying the first quite Saturday morning that I can remember having in a long time. I had the day off of work yesterday and don't have to work until this evening, so Caitlin and I took the opportunity to get stuff done/spend some good time together. Yesterday we drove up to the far north side to eat at the Heartland Cafe and use their authentic (not the new digital ones - analog baby) for our engagement photos version 1.0. We were supposed to have one of the photography students I work with do them yesterday but Caitlin was sick all week, and still is a little bit, so we went back to our original plan for the photos in the invitations. We often use photobooths when we find them, so we thought it would be another cute personal touch. We are going to get real portraits once Chicago gets a little nicer. Hopefully we can take some of ourselves next week when we go to Arizona, but more about that later.

On our way to her parents we stopped at Metropolis Coffee company for some killer drinks. Microroast of the year 2007? Why yes, we would like to have some. They were great as usual. We then proceeded to take "a different route" to her parents' house. We drove through the Southside, through industrial districts, through Gary, through nowhereyoueverwanttobe, and other places like that. Then finding our way to the thrift store from there was another challenge. We even drove over a hill. The one hill in Indiana, which is immediately preceded by Columbus street. I am still holding to my statement that we where in Ohio, but... Anyways, when driving in Indiana if you see a road that is on hill you obviously do not take it, since, well it's on a hill; it obviously is not the street you want to be on. That is until you pass it and see that the street actually is the one you wanted to turn onto. (That last sentence is not following the rules of grammar, because it ends on whatever part of speech onto is, and that is not allowed. I can never figure out how to fix those kinds of sentences, so it will not be changed.) Anyways, we finally made it to her parents, ate dinner, watched The Darjeerling Limited, and then The Discovering Channel before going to bed.

Now it is the early afternoon, and I am sitting here alone as Caitlin tries on wedding dresses. Yes, she is looking for a dress to wear when she becomes my wife. I posted some stuff on Flickr, looked for some stuff to work on wedding invitations and such, read some friends blogs, and found out a bunch of exciting stuff about Antioch, our future church home. I am constantly growing more excited to work with them out there.

Okay, enough for only being able to hear dripping water, clicking clocks, whirring computer fans, and clicking computer keys; I am putting back on the All Songs Considered that Thom York hosted. Enjoy self. I will.

Hello World

As Cait makes us our traditional we-don't-have-to-be-to-church-early-today Sunday morning cinnamon rolls I will introduce to the world to the wonderful, real life adventures of Tony and Cait.

Since we currently live in Chicago, but plan on moving to the Left Coast in a few months, I thought I would set this little sucker up so everyone that we love can keep in touch with us.

The plans for our wedding are coming along quite well, except for the fact that whenever I go somewhere to pick out something, that business establishment chooses to be closed. I mean it's only little things like tuxes and rings, but you know. God has been good to us by using people we love to offer us some amazing things. Not all of it is set in stone, but there will be some major thank yous going out to a few people as things progress.

The wedding countdown is approaching four months and it's crazy to think that soon we will be married. Only a month after we jump in our mini-suv of the future (as it not yet ours, not space age) with two bikes on top, and a hopefully small trailer attached to the back, we begin our journey to our new home. Cait has been offered a position at the church in Bend, Oregon she interned for last summer. There is a pile of exciting things going on there and we are anxious to be part of it. Wrigleyville, this does not mean that we don't love, but God is calling us westward. As for me, we'll see what doors open in the near future, but it looks like a longer stint at Starbucks might be the case; at least for a while.

It looks like the cinnamon rolls are done, so I will end this little introduction.

- Tony