Miscellaneous

Snow on Black-eyed Susans

On Sunday it snowed, then yesterday we had freezing rain, covering everything with a coating of ice. This morning, just after I got up (to find that school was canceled again) it started snowing. I don’t think they needed to cancel school today—late opening would have been enough, but then that’s not up to me. I went out into the yard and took pictures of the snow. I’d say we had between two and three inches. These are black-eyed Susans growing in our front garden, with a little bit of snow added.

Snowfall

We had our first real snowfall today. The forecast was possibly a little more dire than the reality but it actually did snow and it make the roads quite slick for a little while. I heard of two people that I know who had accidents and we saw another. We came home by a less windy road than normal and didn’t have any trouble but on at least one occasion I had to rely on my anti-lock breaks to get the car stopped in time. It wasn’t terribly cold, right around freezing, which is when snow is the most slick, of course. Beautiful, too, of course.

Christmas Balls

We helped Cathy’s mom get Christmas decorations out this evening and I took a few pictures. I’ve always loved reflections. Hold on, I’m going to stop and think about that for a minute.

Alright, I’m done. This is a picture of one of those shiny, mirrored Christmas balls, with more Christmas balls reflected in it (as well as the photographer. As you can see, I bounced the flash off the ceiling, which made a bright spot, but not so bright as if I had aimed it straight at the balls.

Potatoes and Kale

I went to the grocery store this evening to buy a few things. Included on my shopping list were potatoes and kale, both of which are ingredients in caldo verde, a Portuguese soup that I plan to make for Sunday. When I was younger, I didn’t care for cooked greens but now I like them quite well. The soup is good, being thickened by the potatoes, which are cooked until they basically fall apart. Unfortunately, I have to make it ahead, and that means that by the time it is served, the kale will have lost its bright green color. It will still taste the same, but won’t be quite so appetizing a color.

Cracked Crackers

I don’t have a lot to say about this photograph. We had cheese and crackers out this evening, as we often (almost always) do when people come over. Some crackers were broken so they didn’t get put out. Don’t you hate it when you open a box of crackers and they’re all smashed up? But what can you do? Anyway, there were plenty that were not, in this case. Those that were got left in the kitchen and I took this picture after everyone had left. Even little pieces of cracker are fine, though, for some types of cheese, so they got eaten.

Dorothy at Wonder Books

Dorothy needed a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, for book club in her literature class. She wanted to be able to annotate it, so we went to the local used book store to buy a copy she could write in. We found that and browsed a little while, coming home with about a dozen books. I love a good, used book store. There are actually two in our area, Wonder Books (which used to be the Book Alcove) on Shady Grove Road and Second Story Books on Parklawn Drive. I can spend a lot of time in either of them, but really, I shouldn’t be buying books when I have so many already waiting to be read.

Thanksgiving Pizza

We had something of a non-standard Thanksgiving today. We usually go to Cathy’s mother’s on Thursday and then to my mom’s on Friday. This year was a little different. I made a casserole with acorn squash, which turned out to be really, really good. The other thing I made was pizza dough. We each made a personal pizza with the toppings we each wanted. This is my pizza, fully cooked and ready for our Thanksgiving meal. Sausage, pepperoni, and anchovies isn’t everyone’s idea of a good pizza, but it works for me.

Tail Light Reflections

I hope you aren’t tired of reflections. I really like them so perhaps they show up here more than you’d like. Well, I suppose you could start your own photo blog and take the pictures you want to see online and I’ll keep taking the pictures I enjoy. It rained heavily most of the day today and the lights were reflecting more than normal off of the very wet roads.

There’s a portion of my not-too-long commute where the traffic almost always slows down to a crawl and often stops for a few moments. It isn’t took great a distance so I don’t mind it terribly and it does, on occasion, give me the opportunity to snap a few reflection pictures while I’m waiting. I took a few that show more cars but I like this one, which is mostly reflections.

Water On a Windshield

We had a little rain today. There was talk of more than just rain but it was never cold enough that it was going to happen. School opened on time and there wasn’t really any problem out on the roads today. When I left work, I noticed the patterns that the water was making on the windscreen and decided to take a few pictures. This is the one I like the best. I think the patterns are cool. I also like the organic shapes and shades of color made by the various thicknesses of water. Maybe I’m just easily entertained.

Erasers, Pens, and Pencils

I was looking around the house again for things to photograph. Dorothy’s vast collection of colored pencils, pens, markers, and paints often catches my eye in such circumstances. This time, instead of focusing on the pens and pencils themselves, I looked at the erasers.

Something new and with its own set of colors, muted and transferred in the process or removing colors from drawings.

Venetian Blinds

Do you know how to make a Venetian blind? Poke his eyes out. Old joke and not terribly funny. Sorry about that.

I was looking for things to photograph this afternoon as the sun was streaming in the windows on the back of our house. The first pictures were of windows with the blinds open. The sunlight was strong and it was just a little bit hazy and the windows, which frankly could use a bit of washing, actually made an interesting study. Then I noticed the color on these blinds and decided I liked this picture quite a bit more. Also, it doesn’t make us look like slobs quite so much.

Actually, the color is on the blinds themselves. I’m not sure what it is. It looks a little like rust, but I don’t think that’s what it is, because they have a painted coating and the color is on the outside of that and can be washed off. The blinds are pretty old and could probably do with being replaced, but that’s another story.

Cellophane

On May 26, 1914, Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger applied for a patent (awarded on May 21, 1918 as patent number 1,266,766) for a method of producing composite cellulose film, a.k.a. cellophane. Actually, I have no idea if this is true cellophane or some other film, but I think of it as cellophane, in any case. I spent the evening assembling and packaging photographs for the upcominb WCA Christmas Bazaar on Saturday and this is my trash bin, full of wrapping material.

Chain Mail

Chain mail, that is. In a few weeks I plan to visit the fourth grade class at Dorothy’s school and talk about knights and castles. When we lived in England we loved castles and I still find them a lot of fun to visit. I plan to talk about some of the design features that are unique to castles. We’ll also talk about armor and I have borrowed a chain mail shirt and a few other things from Steve to bring with me. This is a section of chain mail — actually, it’s more than one thickness of mail, lying on a table. Pretty cool.

Leaf Cookies

We had some friends over this evening and had a wonderful time talking about all sorts of things. My dinner turned out well, although it took a bit longer to cook that I had expected. Still, we had a few munchies in the meantime and no one suffered unduly. Cathie brought a plate of autumn leaf cookies, which were not only beautiful but also delicious.

Thanks to all who were here. We had a great time.

Pilgrim Celebrations

Cathy’s Birthday isn’t quite here yet but we celebrated it this evening with her mom and brother, who flew into town yesterday for a few days. I took a few pictures around the house and of Cathy blowing out the candles on her cake (and boy were there a lot of them).

This picture is of one of the celebrants, a wooden pilgrim man wearing a festive, paper party hat. He teetotal wife, also made of wood, had none of it. Actually, I think she didn’t quite approve of the gift that Dorothy gave Cathy. I think, though, that when the xylem starts to phloem, she can party with the best of them. Or maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.

In any case, we had a wonderful meal and a good visit.

Reflections On an SUV

Today’s picture is another taken from the car. I was stopped at a traffic light and liked the bright red reflections in the black SUV next to me. Sometimes people paint simple stripes or occasionally flames on the side of their car. I think it would be cool to have reflections painted on the car so I looked like this all the time. Maybe it would be hard to make the painting bright enough, but it would be nice if you could.

Evening Traffic

There was quite heavy traffic this evening. Usually it’s only heavy in the direction I’m going (more’s the pitty). This evening it was heavy in the other direction, as well, due to a small accident blocking one lane on that side of the road. While stopped in traffic, I took a few pictures of the lines of cars. Getting the exposure right on a picture like this is a little iffy and of course, I didn’t have a lot of time to fiddle about. In consequence, it’s a little darker than it actually was.

Tail Light

Cathy and I often drive to work together on Mondays because she doesn’t have to leave earlier then I do to pick up Dorothy. After work I drove from my building to hers to pick her up and as I waited for her to come out, I took a few pictures. Odd pictures.

This is the wall behind my car, lit up by the car’s red tail light, as seen in the passenger-side rear view mirror.

First Quarter Moon

I’ve griped before about the fact that I don’t have a good, long-focal-length lens. In spite of the fact that I still feel that way, I went out this evening and took some pictures of the moon from our front yard. It was high in the sky and just past being cut in half (which is a quarter moon rather than a half moon). I love looking at the moon, don’t you. Still (here I go again), I wish I had a good 500mm lens. Unfortunately, even a mediocre 500mm lens is pretty expensive and not really something I can justify.

Cerveza Pacífico and Heineken

We went out to dinner this evening and I took a few pictures in the restaurant. That’s always a little touchy, because I don’t want people in the restaurant thinking I’m taking their picture (especially if I am taking their picture). I do like lights and the patterns they make when out of focus. This picture if of two of the three neon lights that were above the bar. On the left is an advertisement for Cerveza Pacífico and on the right one for Heineken. I took some that are in focus, as well, but I like the colors in this one better.

Broken Mug

Here’s a random picture for you. This mug got dropped on the pavement outside. As you would expect, it shattered. We have more mugs than we almost ever need but once in a while, lots of people will be over and everyone wants tea or coffee and we’re glad we have them. Then, of course, there is a certain attrition rate, and eventually you have fewer. There is a box with a few mugs in it out in the garage. They were to get rid of but they never made it beyond the garage. Maybe I’ll bring one of those back inside.

Masonry Screws

Like yesterday, I didn’t take any pictures until late in the day. In fact, I was thinking of heading to bed when I realized that I hadn’t taken any all day. So, I looked around for something colorful to photograph. I caught sight of these masonry screws and thought they might make an interesting picture. I used a few of them recently to put up a bracket in the garage for hanging shovels and rakes and things. Actually, the first time I put it up, I tried drilling in the bricks but the bit wasn’t sharp enough. I settled for putting holes in the mortar instead. That was much easier but the screws weren’t tight enough in the loose mortar to hold very well. I bought a new bit (a pack of five, actually) and was able to get new holes drilled into the bricks. When these screws went in, they were quite tight. This thing isn’t coming down in a hurry. They’re colorful, too.

Squash Seeds

I got home this evening and hadn’t taken any photographs at all today. Some days it’s easy to take pictures and other days, not so much. Today was a not-so-much day. I got home and started fixing dinner. I had an acorn squash that I had been meaning to cook for a while and decided tonight would be as good a time as any, so I cut it open and cleaned out the seeds. I don’t know of Solomon will get them or if they’d go outside for the wild birds, but they won’t go to waste, I can promise you that. Anyway, it was something to photograph.

Lake Needwood

It rained pretty steadily starting Wednesday evening and continued pretty much all day yesterday. This morning was continued to have rain. I went to the school to have some fun with the first graders (shhhh! they aren’t supposed to know it was me) and I got good and soaked walking around the school dressed as a cowboy (a sheriff, actually). On the way to work, when I was done, I passed Lake Needwood and decided to stop for a few pictures. It’s not as impressive a view on an overcast day but the colors, particularly the grass and weeds in the foreground, are quite vivid in the gloom. The trees are a bit late in turning this year, it seems, but it should be here before long.

Tomatoes

Somehow I missed posting this and didn’t notice until more than a week later. Sorry about that. I took a few random pictures around the house today, none of which will win any awards. I like the reds of these tomatoes, although I should have turned them so that the stem was behind them instead of out in front. I also have an acorn squash, which you can see on the right, and need to do something with some evening soon.

Chrysler Minivan Engine

It didn’t though. We were the last to leave church today because I had “door duty.” I walked to our car as the last two cars other than ours pulled out of the drive. I got it and “click, click, click, click, click.” The car wouldn’t start. I expect this sort of behavior from our oldest car. Even the middle car, which has over 229,000 miles. But this is our newest car. Of course, new is relative. It’s a 2000, it’s a Chrysler, and at 190,000 it’s not exactly a low-mileage car, either. Fortunately, our friend and one-time house sitter Tim came to our rescue. Turns out all it needed was a little more juice and a jump start got it going. When we got home I attached a charger and we shold be fine.

Making Chili (click to show labels)

A year ago tomorrow I posted pictures of making chili and described the process. Today I made chili again but didn’t take pictures of the whole process. Here are the ingredients, though, and as far as a recipe goes, “chop everything up and cook it until it’s done” just about covers it. I cut the meat into larger pieces this year and that made a difference to the finished product, in terms of it being chunkier, which I think was good. I also added three cayenne peppers and increased the spices a bit. I doubled the powdered pepper, although part of that is paprika because I ran out of ground cayenne. I thought I had dried habanero peppers and would have added one or two of those but I’m out. I also used meat from the other end of the animal, round instead of chuck, but I don’t think that made much difference (except it was on sale for about 60% of the cost of chuck).

Bob’s Scraped Face

In my mom’s basement, we found a large pad of paper that had writing on it saying it was art done with Stephen and Iris (my nephew and neice, respectively). We were looking through that this evening and towards the end came across this sketch.

It’s an interesting sketch for a few reasons. First of all, it is both a profile and a front view of a face, sort of like what Pablo Picasso did in Girl Before A Mirror and The Dream.

Second, there are those odd red marks on the nose, upper lip, and chin. Those, it turns out, are fairly easily explained. There is some writing ont he page, not included in this photograph. It says (in mom’s handwriting), “Bob after he fell + scraped his face – Feb. 7, 1990.” For some reason, and this is a little unclear, mom decided to sketch dad after he had fallen and scraped his face. I suppose I would have taken a picture.

Hazmat

We continued working on mom’s basement. Rather than showing a picture of the basement itself, here is a photo of mom’s van with a load of hazardous materials, bound for the county transfer station. There were cans of paint, stain, and ink. There were solvents and some pesticides. Of course, this load was a mix of things, including electrical parts and wire, scraps of wood, and quite a few bags of rubbish. This was one of four loads that we took over two days.