Ouch

So, I don't get it. Why is it so hard to find a flipper guy that doesn't have slots cut in it? I don't know about you, but I don't recall the last time I wanted to turn something over but found myself saying, "wow, I wish there was some way for bits of this to fall through while I'm doing this". And the cleaning... partially cooked egg + holes in a plastic flipper <> good combination.

In other news, I discovered yesterday that that stuff that makes chilis hot does not go well with eyes. I had broken up some dried chilly peppers with my dinner last night, and at the end of the meal, forgot that I had done it. I rubbed my eye and realized pretty quick that that stuff sticks around for a while.

Whoops.

The little chick was quite concerned, and asked "are your eyes feeling better now?" more or less every two minutes or so until they were. She's pretty sweet.

I suppose I knew it could be like that, and if I would have had Science Nathan around, he probably would have reminded me. In any case, I've learned my lesson now. Next time, I'm getting someone else to rub my eyes for me.

Really, Really Good-Looking

The keyboard guy at church this morning was wearing a piano-key necktie. I don't know if it really was invented by the guy from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, but it was pretty great, I thought. My only regret was that he was playing a traditional keyboard, rather than a keytar.

And if these references (or the title) confuse you, ask someone who's seen Zoolander.

The other interesting thing this morning was that the pastor was talking about how rare it is to find a friend who really cares for you, who is faithful and honest and open and caring and interested in your real well-being, how you are doing spiritually. He was talking about people who are really there for you when things go wrong, people who care enough to stick with you, who really, really love you. People you can depend on, people you can trust, people you can live your life with, no matter what comes.

At first I was a bit confused, because I don't think those people are rare at all... I have a lot of those kinds of friends. And then I realized... I am just very blessed. So for those of you who fit that description in my life: thank you.

The Problem With Calgary

I'm getting used to the weather... other than the first couple of weeks, it actually hasn't been too cold. I am feeling pretty okay about the accent - still seems a little odd sometimes, but it will be alright. I am even dealing reasonably well with the addition of 5% sales tax to everything. So far, at least.

What I'm not liking are the drivers.

It's not so much that people are reckless... it's just that they are often really, really, really slow. When a light turns green, it's like the guy at the front goes, "well, I'll be! that thing just changed colour completely! Mabel, what do you make of that?". And then he takes off his hat, and he scratches his head, and then mumbles something else to Mabel about time to get a move on. He digs around in his pocket for his keys, starts up his engine, wonders why it won't go anywhere, remembers that his car (among other things) is in neutral, puts it into gear and moves off very, very slowly.

Imagine someone driving with a full fish tank in the back seat, not wanting it to spill. That's the kind of slowly that I'm talking about.

And then the lady behind him notices that he's moved, and that now there's a giant space in front of her. She finishes applying her makeup, looks for her keys, checks the fish, and moves out, keeping a safe distance of several hundred feet between her and the guy in front of her. After all, you can't be too safe when driving 15 km/hr.

And so on, and so on.

As a result, three people get through the average green light. Everyone else waits, and complains about how bad the traffic is. When, if they would just put their foot down when the light turns green, I would wager that the traffic situation in the city would be immeasurably better.

I am not a very fast driver, and I am not driving a very fast car... a 4-cylinder Honda, to be exact. But it's not uncommon for me to look back in my mirror after coming away from a light and have a full block between me and the next guy just a couple blocks down the road. That's a whole block full of people who are still sitting at that light instead of on their way home.

The funny bit, though, is that 5-10 minutes later, those same guys who were in the back seat digging for dropped crackers when the light changed are roaring along past me at 20 km/hr over the speed limit. Except the ones who are on their phones, who are going 20 under. And, at the risk of being labeled (unjustly, I believe) as a sexist pig, there are always a couple women driving 20 under the limit in the fast lane. They must be using hands-free, because I can't ever see them talking, but they are going awfully slow in the wrong lane.

I did go out for chicken wings and a hockey game on TV last night, though, and that was about enough to make up for a whole lot of slow drivers. So maybe this will work out, after all.

He's Not Heavy, He's My Cousin

Well, my cousin got married and he let me take a few pictures... my first try with my new camera, and while there were a couple of surprises, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. Here are a few of my favorites.

You can see the rest here. And it's time to start writing again... more to come...

I Spent It All

So, I'm in Calgary now. It's really cold, and there's a bunch of snow on the ground, but yesterday I had Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers, and today I got to drive my own car. I have said good-bye to some amazing friends in the last week, but tomorrow I fly down to get Erin. I'm a lot further from anyplace that serves good fondue, but so far I've understood almost all the people who have tried to talk to me since I arrived.

Yeah, kind of strange.

As I was leaving Geneva, something happened that made me think of Derek - perhaps the only man I know who has more appreciation for a well-crafted analogy than I do. This is what it was.

I had 8.20 CHF left... all the rest I had deposited in my bank, or traded for USD, or gotten rid of some other way (like a roasted chestnut binge - I figured it may be a while before I get those again). I figured I'd get a sandwich and a drink or something at the airport. Well, I get past security, went to the sandwich guy, and looked, and most of his sandwiches were more than I had, just on their own. But he did have croissants, for 1-60 each.

I did the math... 3 croissants at 1.60 would be 4.80, which would leave me 3.50 for a coffee to go with them. So that's what I ordered. He gave me the croissants, gave me the coffee, and then told me the total: 8.50.

Oh.

I counted again to make sure and then just said, "uh, let's make that two croissants". He looked confused so I explained that I was 30 cents short. He just looked at me, kind of shrugged, and said "that's okay - no problem. " He took my partial payment, gave me the food, and I thanked him for being so kind and left.

And I realized that's a bit how I feel about leaving Geneva now... like I spent every last cent. I didn't run out while I was there - I had everything I needed, both to have, and to give, but I didn't have any left in reserve by the time I got on that plane. As hard as it is to say good-bye to the wonderful friends I have there, I've reached the end, and I'm ready for what's next.

It's going to be a pretty interesting few months.

Uncoordinated

The movers came today.

I have pasta in the cupboard that I was going to have for dinner, but my pots are on the boat.

No problem.

I have some ravioli that I can heat in the microwave. Or could, if I had my can opener.

I pulled a towel aside to keep it before they packed my bathroom stuff, but they saw it and packed it anyways. Thankfully, I had one in the laundry that managed to evade them.

I like my blanket - it's nice and fuzzy and warm, and I don't need a sheet with it. But it won't fit in my suitcase, so I had to either send it on the boat or leave it behind. It's on the boat. Hopefully, aforementioned towel will be dry by evening, because it's going to be doing double duty.

I kind of feel like having one of the special Belgian beers I had been saving for a special occasion.

Guess what's keeping the can opener company.


And it's only been 6 hours.


Oh well.

Christmas Came Early

I've been going through my apartment trying to get ready to move... figuring out what to sell, what to keep, what to give away. It's been interesting seeing how much stuff I have or have inherited and really, really don't need. A LOT of clothes, mostly.

But I did find something that was quite nice - some jeans that I had bought five years ago or so... they were my favorite ones at the time, from Roots, and it was tough to find them, so I bought 3 pairs, figuring that when mine wore out, I'd have replacements. Well, mine wore out, but I forgot about these ones, and so it was pretty exciting for me to discover them there. I still dig the cut and the color of the wash is good.... merry Christmas!

In other news, it's snowing outside. That's not really supposed to happen here, and does make me think that if it's going to snow anyways, I may as well be in a place that has chicken wings.

Oh, and so far, no movement on the yellow couch. It looks like it will be making the trip with me!

I'm For Sale

The yellow couch is for sale.





Not the idea, nor the blog, nor the domain name (I've checked), but the actual couch is, unfortunately, on the chopping block. First 500 CHF takes it. It is a wonderful couch, but when I started to look at the cost of actually moving it... well, it's going to be a bit pricey.

So if you're interested, let me know.


It's been a long time since I've written... I've been pretty busy trying to get all of my moving stuff figured out. Turns out that it takes a lot of energy, and I am SO looking forward to getting it done. In any case, the little chick and I are well; I hope you are, too.

Glenmore Audi Wants to Rip You Off

So, I've been looking at cars online in preparation for my move back, and I found this one:

Description : PREMIUM Package, Sport Package, Xenon Headlights. FOR MORE INFO CALL: LOCAL 536-3765 OR TOLL FREE 1(866)769-6851

Year: 2003
Make: AUDI
Model: A4
Stock Number: U0647AA Mileage: 45,600
Warranty : Available Body : Sedan
Type : Sedan

It was selling for $13,900, and had pictures of the car, complete with manual transmission. So I called the dealership and spoke to Scott, who assured me that it was a great car, but, unfortunately he had heard there was a little issue with the price it had been advertised at: in fact, it was $6,000 more.

Whoopsie.

He asked if I was still interested, so I said I was, and asked for some more information. It turns out, though, that the car in question was not only $6K more than advertised - it also had double the mileage and an automatic transmission. As far as I can determine, the body color was the same, but that seems to be about it.

I could maybe accept this as a little error, except it's the second car I've been interested in at Glenmore Audi in Calgary this week, and, coincidentally, the second one they've had a little misunderstanding with. The other one had a small "error" in the price it was advertised at, as well.

An A6 with difference of about $10K.

I don't usually name names on TYC: it's meant to be a venue for love and peace and happiness, but I did a search on "glenmore audi scam" and it didn't return anything. But people should know, and these guys should not be able to lie without being called on it.

So if you've found this by doing a search on "glenmore audi scam" or "cheats" or "rip-off" or "lying lies and the lying lyers who tell them", then I'd suggest you do what I'm doing, and keep shopping somewhere else.

And if anybody knows where the A4 with 45,000 km on it actually is (the pictures had to come from somewhere, right?), I'm interested.

The Race

I've heard a lot of people talking about how excited they are about the possibility of having the first African-American president (a term that's been oddly transplanted and politically-correctified, I think - I hear people here using the term "African-American" to describe people who have never even been to the US). And I have to admit... as a guy who has a lot of human-rights activist friends, but still falls a little right of center, even I find Obama pretty compelling.

The funny thing to me is that I have yet to hear one Caucasian refer to Obama as "our" candidate in quite the same way (with the possible exception of Josh). But his mother is white, right? I kind of think that if people of African ethnicity can embrace him as representing them, then a few more people of European descent should be willing to do the same. Why is it that someone who is half-African can be African enough to satisfy people who share that, but half-Caucasian isn't enough for the white folks?

In any case, I'm not voting. But I will be watching.

Bad, Bad, Bad

Nathan and I saw a Samsung commercial where they were talking about helping a little blind girl to get some kind of surgery to recover her sight. He mentioned that he hates it when companies who are really dodgy put out adds to try to spin their image.

Well, I didn't know that Samsung was bad, and he was a little fuzzy on the details. So, we decided to go where the truth can always be found: the internet. I did a search on "is samsung evil?" and was prompted to find the answer on youtube. Here's what I found.



Now I can only guess that it must rhyme in Japanese. But here are the lyrics in English.

Enjoy.


We didn't know you were shameless
That isn't fair - how could you?
Why you didn't apologize for your wrongdoing
No concept, no conscience

People go there by them selves
Don't know how they worked hard
And you say you know nothing
Oh my - we are very vexed

Chorus:
Tell me (lots of times)
Tell me you are sorry, you are really guilty
Tell me (lots of times)
Say you'll take the blame
Tell me (lots of times)
We cannot accept it any longer, tell me the truth right now
Tell me (lots of times)
Repent what you have done

Oil flows over the Tae Ahn coast
My heart is getting crazy
Watching fishing people like watching parents
It gets me tears

The tidal flat and the sea
You don't know how it is polluted
Disappeared fishers, dead shells
Oh my - get all the gone back alive

Chorus

YOu are the number one in desctruction, Samsung
You are the global polluting company Samsung, Samsung
Everybody is watching you
You know what you did, global pollution
Number one in destruction
Oh my - repent what you have done

Chorus




Oh, and for the record - I was too captivated by this to do any further research to validate it. But if it's on youtube...

In Chips I Trust

I have been pretty busy lately... about a month until I'll be homeless, and I have a lot to do to try to make the transition a smooth one. It's amazing how much energy it takes just to get out of Switzerland.

But that's not what I want to write about today; my hard drive crashed. My external one, that had my iTunes files on it (thankfully, so did my iPod), and a whole bunch of my pictures.

Before you say anything, yes, I learned my lesson, and I now have an online backup/archive plan, and more or less the entire contents of my computer is being uploaded as we speak. Or, I guess, as I write and you read, unless you read this in March 2009 or something.

Anyways, I'm hoping that it can be recovered, that it's just the power for the disk, and that perhaps if I buy another one the same and swap out the disks, I'll get my data back. The problem is, when it comes to technology, I am a complete and hopeless optimist. This shouldn't be a huge surprise - that's more or less what I'm like about other things (like people), too. And I love being an optimist, being trusting. The problem is, it doesn't always pan out.

I bought this external drive from a friend, and when it went down, I asked him where he got it, so I could see if they could help me with it. He was pretty concerned... "did I give you the receipt?". I wasn't sure, but I had a pretty good hunch (knowing him) that he did and that I (knowing me) threw it away.

Why would I throw it away? Because I somehow believe that nothing will ever go wrong with any piece of electronic equipment I buy.

Of course, I say this as I type on a PC that's been through more than one hard drive, took about 3 weeks to accept a firewire card, writing on a monitor that often shows little streaks beside text as though it had been smeared across the screen. Never with pictures - only with text. Beside me sits a mixer which used to have 2 firewire ports (hence the need for the card) but now only has one that works. Behind it is a keyboard which is currently willing to produce about 15 of it's purported 800 or so sounds. And the iPod that saved all my music is one that had died twice within 9 months of buying it - and the last time, they couldn't even fix it.

Yet I throw out every receipt for everything electronic that I ever buy. Strange, eh?

I'm not sure why it works that way. Part of it, now, may be to keep me from ever having to deal with aggressive, suddenly-no-one-in-the-store-speaks-English "customer service" people, a real treat in Geneva. Part of it may be some misguided idea that the object of my trust can be made reliable simply by me placing enough trust in it. THAT's a tough one to learn, I'll tell you.

But I think that mostly, it's just this: I'm surrounded by the stuff. I make my living with it, pursue most of my recreational activities with it, and even use it to keep the little chick acquainted with her grandparents. If it doesn't work, where does that leave me?

Frankly, I'd rather think about the move...

Faces

More pictures... some of my favorite faces from Rome.

I like these ones. Yes, that's partly because I took them, but I like to think that even had I not been the one to pull the trigger, I'd still dig them. I got some new filters for editing, and tried them out on some of these shots... and I'm pretty happy with the results. Let me know what you think.

You can see more here - enjoy.

Body Language

More from Rome... these people just stood out to me for how they moved, how they were standing... something about their physical presence. I hope you enjoy them.

You can see the rest here.

I Like Him

I saw a one-legged bike courier riding in front of my place. He caught my eye as he was going by and gave me a nod and a look that said very distinctly, "yeah, you better believe it".

Now THERE is a guy who's up for a challenge. Very nice.

Brommie

I remember the first time I heard a brommie (Birmingham) accent - it was on the radio (BBC 18 or some such creatively-named station, in true British form), and I was sure it was a joke. I couldn't believe that anyone would actually talk quite like that, and I found it absolutely fascinating. The program ended far too quickly, and I was disappointed to get back to a regular old BBC voice.

Well, the novelty has worn off.

There is a TV channel here called EuroNews. Clearly, they talk quite a bit about Europe, which is fine with me - somebody probably should. But the guy who does a lot of the voice-overs for them has, I believe, a brommie accent. And so there is one word for which he has a rather distinct pronunciation.

Unfortunately, it's "Europe".

When he says it, it comes out as "YOUR-op". This wouldn't be a big deal if it was "chesnuts" or "didactic" or some other word which didn't come up quite as frequently, but since YOUR-op can fall several times within the same sentence, I do find myself wondering exactly how he got the job. Knows the owner, maybe?

In other news, I've been sick, but there are more pictures on the way...

Flowers And Stuff

I called it scenery, just because I wasn't sure what other label would work. Turns out, though, that it's primarily architecture... sorry if you were hoping for anything else. In any case, here are some of the pictures:

The Colosseum and somebody's arch.




The Trevi Fountain. If you plan to use a tripod there, try not to let the police see it. Whoops.




The Forum.

You can see the other ones here. It's probably worth saying, though, that the pictures aren't all up yet - more are loading as I speak...

Devil Is In

Here are some things I noticed while I was in Rome. No particular theme running through them beyond that, but I hope you enjoy them.

You can see the rest here.

Fast Food

I was trying to remember who had the slogan, "Have it your way!". At first I thought Burger King, but I think theirs is something about being made fresh. Dairy Queen, maybe? I know that, if I'm writing this, I'm connected to the internet and could look it up, but that somehow feels like cheating, so I won't.

Anyways, I've been organizing my pictures, and here's how the categories break down so far:

• Details - textures, colors, shapes that I happened to notice
• People - uh, that one's mostly people
• Scenery - a lot of buildings, but some other scenery-ish stuff, too
• Art - mostly sculpture
  

I have quite a few in some of the categories, though (scenery and people), and started to try to work through my people ones to pick out the keepers. Here are the categories I've got as I've been narrowing them down:

• Body language - I noticed them because of how they were sitting, standing, or moving
• Children - wee ones
• My favorite faces - we all have one
• Style - people I noticed because of something about their personal style... good, bad, or otherwise
• Italians - people who just really, really looked Italian to me, and kind of captured the feeling of the city
• Lost - people looking at maps. It's better than it sounds.
  
• Phone - Italians looooooove to talk on the phone, and here's proof
• Pictures - yeah, I know: they're all pictures. But these are pictures of people in pictures, but no pictures of people in pictures of pictures, which would clearly be just too much.
  
• Setting - it wasn't so much who was there, it's was just where they were
• Tourists - see them coming from a mile off

Anyways, I was trying to decide which ones to edit and post next, and I thought I'd try something a little different. If you have a preference, just tell me in a comment and when I get enough votes/a vote (depending on how things go), I'll edit and post those ones.

Your way... kind of like Burger King. Or maybe Dairy Queen, except without ice cream. And not quite like Subway, because I won't make you stand there and tell me how to edit them before I post them. It's like the very best of the fast-food world, and how can we go wrong with that?

So, polls close when I get enough votes to form a consensus, get a vote from Erin, or get tired of waiting, whichever comes first. And since I don't really like visiting facebook, any facebook comments will be warmly appreciated but disregarded in the whole voting thing. I'm sure you understand.

Rome Pictures - Couples

Well, I'm back, and the parents and I both survived our Roman adventure. I'll write more in the coming days, but just wanted to get a first set of pictures up for you. It's such a beautiful, romantic city, and so one of the things that I noticed a lot of were couples interacting. I have quite a few pictures that I'll be getting up over the next few weeks, but this will at least get you started...

If you squint just right, their faces almost go together to form one single (though slightly cubist) face. I like that.






No, it's not fair, but that's just the way it goes.

You can see the rest here. Enjoy!

She's Very, Very Quiet

You haven't been reading any comments from my mom lately, because she's here with me. She and my dad are over for a visit, which is also the reason I haven't been writing much - I've been pretty busy with them and with the little chick.

We're going to go to Rome for a few days, and I'm pretty excited. I think it's going to be a pretty nice break from work. And they make the best coffee in the world. And I'm going to take a bazillion pictures. I'll even show you the good ones.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to report. I hope you're doing well, though.

Chopsticks

I was at home on Saturday after the little chick left, and I got a call from a friend. He works for a relief agency, called the global hope network, and they concentrate on caring for the most destitute people in the places where CNN isn't focusing, where other relief agencies aren't going. They're worth looking at, and supporting - you can see some more about them and their programs here.

Anyways, they were having a fund-raising concert - a classical pianist - and my friend wanted to take some pictures to use for publicity after. He was wondering about what kinds of settings to use on his camera, how to be able to do it without a flash... and since I hate explaining stuff like that, I offered to come and shoot some for him. He took me up on my offer, and these are the pictures that came out.

Turns out that Pascal Solomon, the pianist can really, really play. I'm not much of a classical guy, but even I dug this. And it was fun to be able to get some pictures of him at work.

You can see the rest here.

Secret Agent

The Little Chick and I went to the park today. It was windy, so she wore her trench coat. And, she got new sunglasses, so she wore those, too. I didn't let her carry the gun, though.

You can see the rest here.

LOL

I've watched a few movies lately that, while clearly not for everyone, I actually found pretty funny.

The Promotion - is about a recently married grocery store assistant manager who is looking to make it to the big time: to be promoted to manager. Just when it looks like he's got the job, a French-Canadian rival shows up, and crazy hijinks ensue.

The Love Guru - I'm not usually much of a Mike Myers guy, but this one also featured a Quebecois in the antagonist role, made me laugh a few times and, mostly, made me remember how much I really, really, really miss real hockey. Plus it has a fantastic Bollywood-ish ending. Slightly less toilet-humor than his other outings, which is a nice change.

You Don't Mess With The Zohan - not quite what I had anticipated in terms of plot (okay, "plot"...) but actually did make me laugh several times. Predictably offensive (Adam Sandler), it started with me wondering how Palestinians felt about it. It left me pretty sure that no one who takes themselves seriously would feel that good about it, Palestinian or otherwise. Still, some funny moments.

I think it might be time for something blowing up, right after I get through the second disk of my camera one. By the way, one point I would like to clarify there: when I said they had women to explain how to attach the strap and so on, I didn't mean like Italian game show women. Best guess is that she came with the guy with the safarri hat, but didn't have the good fortune to have brought her own. Maybe in disk two - I'll keep you posted.

Read My Lips

You can't spell it "Favre" and pronounce it "Farve". It's just wrong.

Picture This

So I've been watching an instructional camera video... trying to pick up a few pointers. It is fantastic, and even if you don't ever plan to use the camera they're talking about, I would highly suggest that you watch it... preferably, with me. Why do I love it so much?

It's all shot inside, but one of the presenters is wearing a safari hat. Here's what I think: if you're bald, either embrace it, join the hair club for men, or stick with your initial gut feeling that you shouldn't be doing video for public distribution. Some of those are better options than others, but you'll notice that "wear a safari hat" does not make the list, even as a footnote.

It's a great tool if you know someone who wants to shoot an instructional video without a script on the basis of "it's okay, we really know the topic". If you are interested in saying things like "here's the daylight savings time setting - we'll go ahead and switch that on because, hey - you never know" and "you change the ratio... no, wait, the ratio stays the same, you just change the balance...", then on-the-fly is a great way to go ahead.

There are even women in it! Men explain how to use the camera; women, how to attach the strap or play back the images. And no, I'm not kidding.

I think the best part, besides the safari hat, is where one of the guys is showing a picture of the stars at night... a picture that, even though I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, is notably unremarkable. What, exactly, is it that he so loves about this picture? It shows not only the stars, but clearly captures his amateur radio tower.

Yeah.

So next time you've got a Friday night free and are looking for a little edu-tainment, I'm your man.

Bring your own hat.

Like, Totally, Dude

I have a friend who is very, very English. He has what the English refer to as a posh accent... which does not mean, as you would expect, that he sounds like Victoria Beckem, but instead that he sounds (more or less) like he has money. Every once in a while, he decides to speak "American", which basically involves speaking in his normal, posh accent, and then adding "...dude" at the end of each sentence. It's pretty funny.

I kind of felt like the little chick should have been doing that a couple nights ago. When I was putting her to bed, she looked up at me with a big smile and said "You're awesome, Daddy, and wonderful for taking such good care of me!"

Needless to say, she absolutely melted my already-pretty-soft heart. It's an incredible thing for a three year-old to think about expressing, in my opinion. It wasn't until later that I realized I have no idea where she picked up "awesome". It certainly wasn't from me. In any case, it made me one pretty happy dad, dude.

Dancing Cell Phones

For some reason, cell phone operators LOVE advertising on CNN international. Irascom Telecom was a big one for a long time - handy for everyone looking to be traveling in Iraq and not sure about who their provider will be there when they arrive.

The one thing that they all seem to include is a series of shots of people dancing... always in native garb, and frequently through rolling green fields in the sunset. I just finished watching one for Pakistan... it had a guy riding in a private jet, the usual dancing, a lot of fantastic buildings. It left me with a question: when I'm traveling to a country on another continent, do I really care that much about traditional folk dances, or could I be more concerned with, say, if they have coverage at the airport and how much a text message is going to cost?

But then, I barely ever travel. What do I know.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

I love that tune. Thankfully, it didn't hold true today.

I had a very special morning today - I did some engagement pictures for Dan and Catherine a while ago... I was looking for some practice, and they were looking for something to commemorate their engagement. It worked out pretty nicely for both of us. Well, today I got to do the pictures at their wedding.

In the sunshine.

Yesterday, it was pouring. Last night, it was pouring. Today, the forecast is that it would, in fact, continue to pour. But what looked like scattered sunshine this morning turned into barely a cloud in the sky by lunch time, so we had some pretty nice conditions for our pictures. I'm glad... not just because it made it a whole lot easier for me, but I'm really happy with the way the day went for Dan and Cat, and I'm glad I could share it with them.

Here are a few of the shots I took. I have some more of my favorites here, if you'd like to see them.

Airport Security

As time goes on, I find myself less and less concerned with who may be carrying a bottle of water onto a plane, and much more regularly affected by people who seem to have missed health class on the day that they talked about why showers and deodorant are a good idea every day.

I'm okay with them making people take off their shoes as they go through the security check. But maybe instead of sending the shoes through the x-ray machine, they could just take that opportunity to give them a good smell; if they fail the smell-check, it doesn't matter what the machine says... they don't get on the plane. They can either take a shower or check themselves into the hold.

THAT I would wait in line for.