Miscellaneous

Unique Thrift Store

Cathy and I went to the Unique Thrift Store this morning to buy a few things. In addition to good bargains, we enjoy it as a cultural experience. There is a store that specializes in clothes and accessories for Latino parties in general and Quinceañera in particular. I particularly like the shelves with rank upon rank of figurines dressed in their quince-best. The varying colors along with the otherwise identical postures and features make for interesting patterns.

Hubble’s Galaxy Puzzle and Kepler’s Planetary Puzzle

Cathy gave me these two puzzles for my birthday. I do enjoy puzzles and these were quite nice. The first that I tried, on the right, was labeled as Kepler’s Planetary Puzzle. Apparently it is more properly known as a Chuck puzzle, invented in 1897 by Edward Nelson. It is a form of Burr puzzle, a three-dimensional puzzle of interlocking pieces, often made of wood. This was a bit tricky but I managed to get it back together in about a half hour. The second, on the left, was labeled as Hubble’s Galaxy Puzzle and that took me a little longer. It took nearly an hour, with the first 45 minutes or so being trial and error (mostly error). Once I figured it out, it took another 15 minutes or so to actually get all the pieces together.

Boiling Eggs

I happened to be hard boiling a few eggs this evening and as I watched the water boil I realized how cool it looks (cool in a hot sort of way). The rolling bubbles, bursting, sending spouts of water up into the air, was just beautiful. But it all happens very fast. So, I pulled out my camera and took some flash pictures, easily freezing the boiling water. I think there’s more to be done here, but this is a reasonable first attempt.

Foggy Morning

It was quite foggy this morning as I drove to work. There were a few times on the way in where I would have liked to take a few pictures but there was nowhere convenient to stop the car, so I kept going. When I got to work, though, I walked around a bit and took some pictures of the trees in the fog, which was starting to lift. This photo was taken looking across the road behind my office with a nearby tree backed up by woods in the fog in the distance.

Montecristo

I like neon signs. I’m not sure what it is about them. Perhaps it’s the intense colors in the dark. Perhaps it’s the flowing lines of the glass tubing. In any case, whether or not I know why I like them, I do.

This evening I was in a parking lot and took pictures of a few neon signs. One simply said, “open” but I thought this one was nicer. I particularly like the “font” used, especially in the letter M. Montecristo, in this case, refers to the cigar company.

Baby’s Great Turtle Adventure

If you’ve been following my photo blog, then you’ve met Baby before. In fact, he was in a photo just a couple days ago, along with his new friends, Mr. Beaver and Mrs. Schnauzer. Baby came from Chinatown in New York City, where Dorothy found him. As I mentioned the other day, he travels with Cathy, riding in the bottom of her purse, but getting out to pose for pictures in various locations. Mostly those pictures go to Cathy’s Snapchat friends but once in a while they show up on Instagram. This outing, however, was a bit more adventurous. Baby paid a visit to Fluffy, a red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). He hesitated to actually go swimming with Fluffy, however.

Three of Cathy’s Figurines

I was looking for something to photograph this evening and noticed these three figurines on the stairs so thought I’d take their portrait. The beaver and the dog are new, having been brought by Dorothy as a birthday present for her mom. They seem to have settled into the household routine. The baby was also a gift to Cathy from Dorothy. She bought it in Chinatown in Manhattan. When we were there in May we happened to find the store where she bought it, which I think it pretty remarkable. Cathy carries the baby around with her, taking pictures of it in various places to send to Dorothy and her friends via Snapchat. The ‘rug’ they are all sitting on is actually a paint sample of a color called ‘Hostaleaf.’

Rainbow

We had a fair bit of rain today and I enjoyed hearing that against the window in my office. Later in the day, after about 4:00 p.m. the rain stopped and the colors of the trees outside my window were intensified, as they often are in the afternoon light after a storm. At about 4:30, though, the sun broke through the clouds to the west. Apparently it was still raining not too far to the east and there was a lovely rainbow over the trees in our parking lot.

Ara and the Band, Open Mic Night, Villain and Saint

We had a nice time in Bethesda this evening at Villain and Saint’s Open Mic Night. We went specifically to hear Cathy’s friend and soccer compadre Ara, who was singing with her band. I really should be able to label this picture with all of their names, but we only know her. It was a rockin’ good time, loud for these old ears, but a lot of fun. In addition to Ara’s set, which included four original songs, I believe, the bands before and after her were quite good, getting a bit of the Doors, Moody Blues, and Chicago into the mix.

Crossword Puzzles

I enjoy crossword puzzles. Way back in the early 80s I started doing the crossword puzzles in the Washington Post. I had a friend at work that I’d do them with during lunch. Neither of us was very good at them and we were often frustrated by them. There was another co-worker who seemed to know all the answers and we marveled at his ability. Now, more then 30 years later, I often complete the puzzles in the post. We don’t get the print newspaper but my mom saves the puzzles for me and I work through them when I have time (as well as the puzzles in Simon and Schuster puzzle books). Here’s a stack of recent puzzles that I’ve finished.

Lamb Chops

I don’t usually buy lamb chops because I try to stick to the lower priced cuts of meat. There’s generally more flavor in those, anyway, but it’s at least partly about money (actually, it’s mostly about money, in this case). I will, for a special occasion, buy ribeye steaks but that’s an extravagance. The first thing I check at the store is the meat that’s been marked down, usually 30% and occasionally 50%. This is typically perfectly fine meat that’s nearing its sell-by date. Since I’m either going to cook it right away or freeze it, that’s no worry. These lamb chops were on sale this week and I figured it was worth it. They were terrific, broiled until hot and crusty on the outside and slightly pink in the center (except cooked all the way through for Cathy, who doesn’t care for rare).

Lake Bernard Frank

Cathy and I drove to the small parking area on the far side of Lake Frank today and walked up toward Meadowside Nature Center and back. It was a beautiful day, although it got fairly hot by the time we were back at the car. I took pictures, as you won’t be surprised to learn, but I wasn’t particularly excited about any of them. This one was reasonably good, although a picture of a muddy stream isn’t all that special. The trees are pretty, though.

Queen Elizabeth II

I know it’s not much of a picture, but on the windowsill in our kitchen is this small tin. On it are faded and worn likenesses of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It was made to commemorate her coronation on June 2, 1953.

Her reign actually began over a year earlier, on February 6, 1952, upon the death of her father, George VI. Today, September 9, 2015, she surpassed her great, great, grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-reigning British monarch in history.

We’re not really into monarchy here in the United States. We think we have a better system, even if it was born out of the Anglo tradition. In any case, I wish her well and many more years of health.

Pennsylvania Monument, Monocacy Battlefield

It was another fine, summer day. Quite hot, but pretty. Cathy and I drove up to Frederick and visited the Monocacy Civil War battlefield, just south of town. The battlefield straddles the Urbana Pike (now MD 355) where it crosses the Monocacy River. The Confederate troops, under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, had come up the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland and approached the bridge over the Monocacy from the north. Union troops, about 2,300 strong, but mostly Hundred Days Men, were commanded by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace, who is perhaps more famous as the author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Wallace’s troops were reinforced by men from the 3rd Division of the VI Corps, under Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts. Together about 5,800 Union soldiers faced about 14,000 Confederates in what became both the south’s northernmost victory of the war and the defeat that saved Washington. Because of the delay to Early’s troops, Union General-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was able to get reinforcements to Fort Stevens in time to meet them on July 12 and on July 14, Early and his men crossed the Potomac back into Virginia at White’s Ferry. That ferry is still running and the boat is called the Jubal Early.

Our connection to the battle is that an ancestor of Cathy’s (her great, great grandfather) was in the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteers, who are commemorated on the Pennsylvania monument at the battlefield. They did not actually participate in the battle, however. They were “delayed” and didn’t arrive in time for the battle. Their commander, Col. John F. Staunton, was court martialed. He was found guilty of the first two of three charges (Disobedience of Orders and Neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline) but not guilty of the third (Misbehavior before the enemy), and was relieved of command and removed from service. (You can read the minutes of the court here.)

123,456

It’s meaningless, I know, but I have an unusual (probably) affinity for patterns in numbers. When the odometer in a car turns over to a number with a particular pattern, I’m interested (I won’t go so far as to say excited). Hitting an even hundred thousand is the most obvious. In the first car I drove much, my parents’ 1971 VW bus, the odometer only went up to 99,999 so it would roll over to zero when that happened (it happened twice in the ‘life’ of the car, which made it to about 210,000). This photograph is from our newest and lowest mileage car. It is a long way from an even 100,000, so I look for other patterns. This is a good one, I think.