Miscellaneous

Home For The Challahdays

It’s a sort of stale joke, I suppose and it certainly isn’t original, but I couldn’t resist. Dorothy was home for the challahdays and we really enjoyed having her here. Of course, having her here means getting used to having her gone again when she goes back to school.

Well, that’s today. We left home at 5:40, met Peter and Porter and loaded Porter’s things into the car and by 6:15 or so we were on our way to the North Shore of Massachusetts. It’s about 480 miles and a little more than half way is the Rockland Bakery. I have posted pictures from there before, on August 23 and again on October 04, 2015. If you are ever in the area around Nanuet, New York (just west of the Tappen Zee Bridge) then I recommend you stop in for a visit. The bagels by themselves are worth the effort, if you can get them as they come out of the oven, so hot you can barely hold them.

I brought cream cheese as well deli meat and sliced cheese for making sandwiches and we made a late lunch at about 2:30, after we arrived at the school.

My Right Eye

Some of you know that I’ve had some eye problems over the last seven and a half years. About seven years ago I had cataract surgery in my right eye (pictured here). Then in 2014 I had the left eye done. Both procedures went well but in both cases I tore my retina in the weeks following the surgery and had to have a laser procedure to ensure my retina didn’t detach. I had another follow-up appointment with the retina specialist today and for the first time since 2009 I don’t have a follow-up scheduled. I’ll only go back now if I have any further problems. At the bottom of my eye in this picture you can see the edge of the lens that was implanted in my eye.

Ceramic Doll’s Head

Dorothy has been home and today she was going through a bunch of stuff. For one thing, she went through a huge number of pens, both felt tip and ball point, and got rid of those that didn’t work. It’s always frustrating to need a pen and not be able to find one that works. The odds are now much more in your favor if you need a pen when you are at our house. She also started to go through papers from middle and high school and got rid of a lot of those. One thing she found, and I have no idea where it came from, is this head. It is made of ceramics and I thought it would make an interesting photo for today.

Ginger Snaps

Cathy made my favorite cookies today. Ginger Snaps. That isn’t to say that I don’t like other cookies, of course, and if I only ever had ginger snaps, I’d probably miss other types, but these are, I think the cookies I like best. They are especially good when warm out of the oven, as almost all things are, but they are also good after they have cooled and are slightly hard, with that characteristic crunch (or snap, if you will).

CT Scanner

I started the day off right with a visit to the radiologist’s this morning. There’s nothing like a CT Scan to get you going. Well, I suppose that’s maybe overstating it a little. But I did have a CT Scan today. All is well, so don’t worry (if you even thought to worry in the first place). This is just keeping an eye on things and things seem to be fine. I snapped a couple pictures of the scanner after we were done and as the images were being copied onto a CD for me to take with me. This machine always looks like an enormous point-and-shoot camera to me (e.g. Canon Powershot E1).

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).