Miscellaneous

Margaret, Cathy, and Dorothy

I already posted a photo from the sunrise service we went to this morning. After that we enjoyed talking with friends and having ham, deviled eggs (which, come to think of it, is a funny thing to have on Easter), and fruit. At 8:30 we went to the regular 8:00 a.m. service. I say regular but the orchestra does make it a bit more special.

After a nice lunch at home with roast lamb, potatoes, green bean casserole, and asparagus wrapped in bacon, we went to Cross Community Church, which is not the official name of the church plant that we’ve become involved in. After the service there, we all enjoyed the warm afternoon sunshine and I took a few pictures, including this one of Margaret, Cathy, and Dorothy.

Leisure World Globe

Over the weekend something came up about old fashioned phones—remember when you had to turn a dial a different amount for each number—and I mentioned that my mom took my older brother and me to the New York World’s Fair in the mid-1960s. Ralph and I saw an exhibit where you could time yourself dialing your phone number on the then-current “rotary dial” phone and then on a newfangled touch-tone phone. We also talked to each other on video phones, which was even cooler, even if it was only in black and white video.

I mentioned that I had heard that the large globe at Leisure World was from the New York World’s Fair. Turns out that is not true. According to this page at the Roadside Architecture site, the globe from the World’s Fair, the Unisphere, was 140 feet tall. The Leisure World globe is only 40 feet tall. They are similar, of course, because they are both based on the same planet, but they are not the same. Someone also mentioned that there was a rumor that Australia is upside down on the Leisure World globe. That is also false.

Steak, Tomatoes, and Olives

I was home alone for dinner this evening because Cathy had a soccer game. She’s also not having red meat for a week. So, I took the opportunity to have a New York strip steak. I had some very nice tomatoes so I cooked one of those and melted some cheese over it. The olives were something of an afterthought but went with this very well. I had both Kalamata olives and green olives stuffed with garlic, both sauteed a bit in the meat drippings.

Cathy and Broccoli

I made some chicken for dinner tonight, in a tomato sauce with sauteed onions, mushrooms, and Kalamata olives. To go with it, I cooked a little broccoli. I thought I’d take a few pictures of the dinner to post, but instead I’m going to go with this one of Cathy, being silly with two large spears of broccoli. She has one foot up in some sort of yoga pose, but I didn’t have the right lens on the camera for that, so you just get her and the broccoli.

1/2″ Ship Auger

I hope you don’t find this boring. I was looking around for things to photograph this evening and not having a lot of success, frankly. I’m much better off when I get outdoors but it was getting late and I wanted to find something to photograph. I came across this 17″ long, 1/2″ ship auger drill bit. I don’t remember for sure why I first bought this long bit but I think it was drilling a long hole through the corners of a built-up pond I made out of 4″ by 4″ lumber at our old house. In any case, I like the helical flute on this and, whether it’s worth it or not, it’s my photo for the day.

Sculpture In The Snow

I took only a few pictures today and, not terribly surprisingly, I suppose, they involved snow. Are you tired of the snow yet? I know a lot of folks around here are ready for spring and I’m pretty sure it’s just around the corner. I can almost feel the daffodils starting to push their way up through the cold, wet earth. But for now, we still have a bit of snow. I spotted this piece of natural sculpture when I got to work this morning. Between the stems and their shadows, it paints a pretty picture. Look for spring, but enjoy the remainder of winter.

Snow Cream

Without question, proper Italian ice cream (i.e., gelato), with its particular texture (generally no egg and with less fat than “standard,” American ice cream), is just about the best thing in the world for dessert. A close second, and considerably easier to make if you have the ingredients on hand, is snow cream. The recipe is about as easy as anything can be: one can of sweetened, condensed milk mixed with one can of crushed pineapple. Then mix in as much fresh, light, fluffy snow as you can. You want to be ready to eat it right away, because it melts fairly quickly. Of course, the snow is the tricky ingredient, as it’s not always easy to come by, depending on where you live and the season of the year. This evening it was available in abundance. The other two ingredients are easily bought ahead and kept for the occasion.

Table Knives

Dorothy and I drove up to Frederick today, but more about that in my next post. We had a little time to kill so we went downtown and wandered into an antique shop. I took a few pictures in there, but this is my favorite, a table covered with flatware. It was laid out with the knives, spoons, and forks in different segments of a circular display, all radiating out from the middle. The knives all range in price from $4 to $6 and the sign said 20% off. All I took were a few pictures, though.

Snow In The Trees

We had another little snow fall this morning. When I checked early Montgomery County had decided on a two hour delay for schools. That hasn’t mattered much this year but I was planning to go in to do some things with the fifth grade. Because it was already scheduled to be a half day today, the delay meant school was canceled. Montgomery County decided to close, anyway, a little later. Cathy and I went to work together and had no problems with the snow. The roads were all fine. This is the view from the front of my office building, into the trees beside the parking lot, taken from a third floor window. There are a few mid-sized trees growing on the banks of a small stream. The thickets toward the top of the picture are brambles.

Broccolini and Burger

I’m afraid all I have for a photograph for today is another meal. This evening I decided to make burgers. I topped them with sauteed tomatoes and onions and then melted some Irish Dubliner cheese, which is something like cheddar but a bit more buttery and quite good. I had the burger sans-bun and paired it with some fresh broccolini, boiled briefly just until tender. Turned out pretty well, if I say so myself.

Before (The Old)

Mom sent an email this morning saying that her refrigerator was leaking water. The ice maker hasn’t worked for a while now but it’s still hooked up to the water supply. Unfortunately, it seems somewhere along the way there is a leak and the water is coming out onto the floor under it. She turned the water off at the mains but there is only so long you can have water off and still be considered to be living in modern America. I went there after work and pulled the frig out from the wall. Nothing obvious—the copper tubing comes out of the floor just where it meets the wall and didn’t seem to have any problems.

After (The New)

I took the panel off the base of the refrigerator back, exposing the compressor and the rest of the mechanical workings. When the water was turned back on, I could see the where the leak was, with water dripping from the plastic tubing just after where the copper tube is attached to the system. What to do. The most obvious thing was to find the other end of the copper tube and turn the water off there, to only the refrigerator. It took us a while to find but we finally did, behind the access panel of the upstairs bathroom. Unfortunately, that value wasn’t in very good shape and the handle broke off before I was able to even start to turn it. We ran out to Strosniders and bought a new valve and in a fairly short time I had it replaced. The water is now turned off and all seems well.

Lake Needwood in Snow and Ice

It was quite cool this morning. My phone said it was 1°F here and my car agreed. There was a bit of wind, which made it seem a little cooler but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. I had to drop some papers off at the school so I went to work via Lake Needwood. It’s covered in snow and I stopped to take a few photographs before continuing on to the office. Fortunately, the roads are clear because I needed to drive to Richmond later in the day and bring Dorothy home for a short visit.

Fjords

So, have I had a trip to the International Space Station where I took this black and white photo of fjords? Well, no, obviously. As you probably guessed, this is a close up of wet and salt encrusted pavement. But to me it does look a bit like an aerial photograph.

This was in the parking lot at work and the patterns were quite varied and (to me) interesting.

Fresh Snow

We had a small snow squall again overnight and this morning. By midday the sun was out and it was quite beautiful. The roads were never terribly bad but because I had no meetings and what I needed to get done today I could do just as easily from home, I stayed and worked from here.

In the afternoon I cleared the walk and the drive and then went around the yard taking pictures of the snow. It’s notoriously hard to get interesting pictures of snow. It’s sort of white on white, but these footprints that were in the show and that were mostly covered by this recent fall make for nice shadows. Personally I’m not tired of winter yet, although I know some people are. It’s only February, folks.

Urban Barbecue

In my four plus years of taking and posting a photo every day, I have a few days where I only take two or three pictures. They typically don’t end up being everyone’s favorite and I have a feeling today will be a perfect example of that. I met a good friend for dinner at Urban Barbecue this evening. We had a very nice dinner and an enjoyable time. I got there a few minutes before he did and that gave me time to take three pictures of the bar from my table (it was the most interesting view from where I was sitting, without aiming my camera at, and weirding out, other patrons). Not a terrific picture. In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed by it. But it’s all I have to show for today. The dinner and visit were much (MUCH) better than the photo.

Quilt

Yesterday I woke up to find that my back had seized up. I’m not sure what brought this on, other than an aging spine that’s never been exceedingly strong (either figuratively or literally). Whatever the cause, it was not comfortable. I decided to give it a good rest and stayed home today, spending most of the day on the couch reading with an ice pack under the small of my back. That, along with some wondrous pharmaceuticals, helped considerably and by the evening I was able to get up without the aid of a cane. This picture honors the quilt that kept me warm while the ice pack kept me cold. This is one of the many, beautiful quilts that my mom has made over the years.

Keys

I was messing around with my new macro flash equipment today. I’m looking forward to insect season with this. The extra light means I can take pictures at f/32, which means as much depth of field as possible and with a fast enough shutter to stop the movement of those always moving bees and wasps. Up close like this, Depth of field can be just a few millimeters. At f/32 it is more like 10 or 15. Big difference.

These keys, of course, don’t move much by themselves. With a tripod I could tak as long an exposure as I like. But this was hand held at f/32 and 1/200 of a second.

Leeks

Cathy isn’t hugely fond of leeks but I like them a lot. It’s not uncommon to find them in my kitchen but when you have a leeky kitchen, something needs to be done. Tonight I thought a creamy leek sauce would go well with skate wings. I’ve never actually cooked skate before and I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. They are not terribly fishy but have a nice, delicate flavour. The sauce went pretty well with them but I think something a bit tangier might be better in the future. I also happened to have some blood oranges, which I sectioned and put over the fish and that might be a better base than the leeks.

Fire

It’s a bit chilly today and we’re getting ready to watch some football game or other. I thought a fire would be nice so I laid one up and got it going. There’s nothing like a good fire to warm you in a comforting way (a controlled fire, of course, otherwise it is liable to warm you in a very non-comforting way). As the pre-game show droned on and on, I muted the sound and turned to the fire, instead, which was much more interesting. Getting a still picture of fire that is interesting, I think, can be pretty difficult. It’s mostly hit or miss, because the flames are moving so fast. This is my favorite. It’s what you get today, anyway.

Carpet Rainbow

I have a 70 gallon fish tank in our kitchen. Late in the day the sun hits the corner of the tank and, all the way down the hall in our family room, this rainbow appears on the floor and slowly moves away from the kitchen for about ten minutes before disappearing for the night. It’s pretty good size, covering about four feet by a foot and a half. It’s quite bright and very pretty, running the spectrum (literally) from violet through indigo, blue, green, yellow, and orange and finally to red (vibgyor).

Snow on Tree Bark

We had another snowfall today. It wasn’t enough to close school. Of course, around here, “not enough to close school” is very litte indeed. It just was enough to turn things white. There was talk of it being worse by the end of the day but it didn’t happen. They are also forecasting much more tomorrow. Still, it was pretty.

I took this picture near the parking lot of my office building. This is the bark of a black gum or tupelo tree (Nyssa sylvatica, also known as ). It’s a nice tree with a few things to recommend it including very good fall color a very bright orange-red. if you decide you want one, though, you will want to know that they have dark berries that will drop and be tracked into your house. Also, the birds eat the berries and if they then perch over your car, you might not like the results.

Eagle Statue

If you’ve lived in this area for any length of time then you almost certainly know where this eagle is. It isn’t a great picture, hurriedly taken before the light turned green for me to proceed. I do like the framing, however, even if the picture isn’t as sharp as it might be, having been taken through my windscreen. In any case, this eagle stands in front of the Jefferson Plaza at the somewhat complicated intersection of Rockville Pike (MD 355) with Veirs Mill Road (to the east, named after the mill owned by the Viers family, but the misspelling is there for good or ill) and E. Jefferson Street (MD 28).

Fruit and Whipped Cream

Our good friend Julia came over again this evening. Actually, Cathy had picked her up to help with a few things at her (Cathy’s) mom’s house. They came back here and Julia helped me carry in a new bookcase and move some books onto it. She stayed for dinner (panang curry) and dessert (fruit with freshly whipped cream). The fruit was apple, plum, cantaloupe, and mango. Not a bad dessert, if I say so myself.