Miscellaneous

Back Patio

This isn’t much of a photograph, I know, but it’s probably going to be an off week for me. I’m home because I’m recovering from outpatient surgery (which went well, thanks) and I’m not supposed to life anything more than ten pounds for a while. Cathy asked me to take pictures of the front corner of our house, because we have some work being done and they will be digging up a little of that part of the garden. Those pictures are fine in terms of documenting what it looks like but they aren’t much to speak of. I also went out back and took a few pictures of the containers on our patio. They are not any great shakes, either, but that’s what you get. Maybe tomorrow will produce something better.

Water Droplets on Daffodil Leaves

Well, yesterday I commented that I wanted a good, soaking rain. We are getting it and it is lovely. It was still wet this morning so you get to see another picture of water droplets on leaves. This time, the leaves are the long, strap-like leaves of daffodils. The flowers are gone (from these, anyway, there’s one variety still finishing up its blooming) and it’s time for the leaves to do their job of converting light energy into chemical energy, which can be stored in the bulbs for next years blooming. In terms of this photograph, I like that there are water droplets clinging not only to the top surface of the leaves but to the edges, as well.

Tree Cutting

When we bought our house almost seven years ago I said I’d really like to take out the two trees in the middle of the back yard. They are poorly placed and the larger of them, in particular, makes me nervous every time the wind gets strong. If it were to fall, it would definitely fall toward the house and it would do serious damage. This morning they came down. This is one of the crew up in the tree cutting off a largish limb. This was taken from out front, looking over the top of the house as I left for work.

I like trees, really I do. But when it comes to small, suburban yards, they need to be the right trees in the right place. If I had a couple acres (or more), I’d be planting trees. But this huge tree this close to the house was an issue.

Stinky Cheeses

I picked up Dorothy this morning in Bethesda and we stopped briefly at Balducci’s, in Wildwood. I don’t shop there often, or we’d be broke, but it’s fun to go there once in a while. I do splurge and buy some expensive cheeses from time to time. Today, I got a little Stilton, some red Leicestershire, and some cheese called Jasper Hill Landaff, which I knew nothing about. It is made from raw cow’s milk and comes from Landaff Creamery on Springvale Farm in Landaff, NH. I took a few pictures while we were in Balducci’s, including this one of the “stinky cheese section.”

7-Eleven

When I started this project I said that I couldn’t promise that any of the photographs I took would be worth anything. I flatter myself that there have been some pretty good photos among the considerable amount of chaff. I’ve taken and used my camera in places I never thought to take it before — the dentist office, getting a CT scan, the grocery store — but I recognize that some days it just doesn’t work out.

Frankly, my life is pretty pedestrian and the pictures I take are for the most part pretty run of the mill. Today, I was in my office all day. I looked up and it was 6:10 and I had to be set up for a Skype-based interview at 7:00. I rushed home to get my computer and then to the church and by the time we were done it was after 9:00. I took this picture on the way home. I think it’s safe to say that this one lives down to my promise of not being worth much. But, I took a picture today, my 826th consecutive day taking a picture.

Corvette

It’s a little bit funny. I don’t think that I’d be interested in a Corvette even if I could afford to be. On the other hand, I think they make good photographic subjects. I happened to be passing Criswell Chevrolet this morning and decided to stop to take a few photos. Partly it’s because they have a nice, curving line of them along the road. I suppose their bright colors and sleek lines also contributes. Anyway, this photo is a bit more red than I remember the car actually being, which seemed more orange but perhaps that was because of the deep, dark red car that was next in line.

College Hall

Dorothy and LKarlee on Locust Walk

The last of our five college visits was to the University of Pennsylvania, or simply Penn, the only Ivy League school we’re likely to consider. Two of Dorothy’s cousins went to Penn, I have a couple friends who went there, and my grandfather earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics there, about 100 years ago. I was a little (but only a little) surprised to find that there are more graduate students at Penn than undergraduates (11,092 vs. 10,324).

Like Swarthmore, I think of Penn as an engineering and science school, but only about 1,700 of their undergraduates are in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, with 6,344 in The College at Penn (School of Arts and Sciences).

There is no question that it’s a beautiful campus. It is very different to Swarthmore in being an urban school rather than in a quiet, tree filled, suburban setting. For all of that, though, there is a surprising amount of open green space. While Drexel fills city blocks with buildings, Penn seems to have eliminated (or never had) every other street, filling the space with a quad, either green or paved. This produces a much more pronounced campus feel. The fact that Penn was in session, while Drexel was on spring break contributed to this difference, of course. Penn was teaming with people, Drexel was not, making the comparison somewhat unfair.

Dorothy liked Penn the best of the five schools we visited. I know the Director of College Placement at Dorothy’s school will be excited to hear of Dorothy’s interest. Of course, getting in and paying for Penn is not a given. It’s a tough school to get into and a tough school to succeed at. It’s also not a cheep school, although it’s hard to know how much any school will cost, since few people actually seem to pay the sticker price any more. Still, at about $60,000, that sticker price is pretty scary.

I have mixed feelings about so many schools and about the Ivy League in particular. Intellectual diversity and intellectual curiosity are not encouraged in most departments at most schools. There was a time when “question everything” was a popular idea. Now, questioning the liberal orthodoxy can cost you your education and even your career. And I’m supposed to send my daughter there to learn. And to pay dearly for the privilege. Scary.

Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

Continuing our two day college visit tour, we dropped Cathy off at her training and then took the train from Malvern into Philadelphia. It’s a short walk from the 30th Street station to the Admissions office at Chestnut and 32nd. What a beautiful building that is. Both the train station and the administrative building are great, actually. They don’t build them like that any more, and that’s a pity.

The girls got signed in and we had a chat with Maggi, who pointed us to various buildings we should visit. Unfortunately Drexel is on spring break, so the campus didn’t really have much of a campus feel. The Chestnut Square buildings are being renovated so they are covered with scaffolding. They are fine inside, but of course, without people, they are just buildings. We did like the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design building, which is one of the places Maggi suggested we see.

Scott Outdoor Amphitheater

Cloister at Clothier Hall

Jonathan, Karlee, and Dorothy

Our third college visit today was Swarthmore. It is possibly not so well known as Villanova, at least partly because it doesn’t have a basketball team that features in the NCAA tournament. It’s also a fairly small school with enrollment between 1,500 and 1,600. For all of that, they have a surprisingly broad variety of courses of study.

My contact with the school has been mostly through two friends and two cousins. The two friends were Carol and Erik, a sister and brother who were very good friends of mine in high school. My cousin, David, went there, as well and his son, Jonathan is a freshman there now (and is in the third picture presented here). All four of these folks were on the science end of things (engineering and physics) so I think of it as an engineering school but they have good programs in the social sciences and arts, as well. I just don’t know much about them.

Erik is now a professor of engineering at Swarthmore and he gave us a private tour, which was very nice. We started by walking through the science center and then down past the Scott Outdoor Amphitheater, where graduation is held. What a nice place for a graduation ceremony, unless it’s raining, of course. We walked through a few other buildings including going into a few art studios, which was nice. The second picture here is a cloister that’s part of Clothier Hall. Clothier Hall is built to look like a church but in fact it houses the college bookstore, a snack bar and café, the Intercultural Center, offices for various campus organizations. We also got a slightly different tour with Jonathan, who took us to see his dorm room and a few other places we hadn’t been. He seems to be doing well and obviously likes Swarthmore quite a bit.

The campus is quite pretty and in a few weeks, when everything starts to bloom, it’s going to be really something. There is a lot of space for a school with so few students, so it’s fairly quiet. Dorothy didn’t think it was the place for her, and I think she’s probably right. Still, I’m glad we visited and it was good to see Erik and get caught up a little.

St. Thomas of Villanova Parish

The second of our three college visits today was Villanova. It’s a much different place to West Chester and for a number of different reasons. First, rather than being a state school, it is a private school, founded in 1842 by the Order of St. Augustine. Second, and it’s clear that they have a good deal of money. Considering the tuition at the two schools, there’s no question why. Villanova isn’t a cheap school, by any stretch of the imagination.

Dorothy and Karlee liked the campus and it had “good vibes.” It’s a big enough school (about 6,600 undergraduates) although not huge. It seems to take its Augustinian roots seriously, which I think is a good thing.

It was also great to visit with my old friend Pedro, whom I haven’t seen in far too many years. Thanks for having lunch with us.

Plato, Aristotle, Bacon

Because everything goes better with bacon…

I took Dorothy and her friend Karlee on three college visits today. The first was a school I knew very little about but we were going to be in the area and it turned up in a list of schools. West Chester University of Pennsylvania is in, not too surprisingly, West Chester, Pennsylvania. Our hotel was also in West Chester, so it couldn’t have been more convenient. I’m glad we gave it a visit, although Dorothy wasn’t too keen on, it in the end.

Still, any school that recognizes the empirical importance of bacon can’t be all bad. I think Francis would agree.

Snow in Tree Branches

We’ve had some late snow this year, although the &#x201cbig” snow we were supposed to get on March 6 was a big dud. We had a dusting again four days ago and I posted a picture of the Pachysandra in our back yard with a little snow on it.

Today, however, we got a real snow. It wasn’t a blizzard, by any stretch and I still went to work and had no trouble on the roads, but when I woke up there was already an accumulation of about three inches and it continued snowing for most of the morning. While it wasn’t a problem in terms of traffic, and while it didn’t affect school, since they’re on spring break anyway, it was quite beautiful. It’s hard to get a great picture of snow, though. It’s so white. These are the trees to the south of our house, covered with snow.

Sprinkle

We were out for a bit today, doing some shopping but not actually buying anything. On the way home we decided to stop at Menchies for some frozen yogurt. I took some pictures from our table of the paintings on the wall, among other things.

This character, sort of the Cousin It of Menchies, is apparently named Sprinkle. I wasn’t sure what she was (and I don’t know for sure why I think she’s female). Odd creatures painted there, but the yogurt is good and we enjoyed ourselves.

Other characters include Kiwi (a monkey with a sliced kiwi fruit for a face), and Mellow (made out of marshmallows and kind of creepy looking). Silly.

Raise your berets, to those Canaan days

This evening we went with some good friends to see a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Covenant Life Church. The cast are high school students and they have a lot of talented kids. The production was very impressive and it was a lot of fun, made all the more so by knowing a few of them.

In this picture, Simeon sings Those Canaan Days, as they contemplate the famine and their fate before going to Egypt and their ultimate reunion with Joseph.

Wintery Lake Needwood

Although many people hold to the convenient fiction that spring starts on the equinox, I tend to consider March a spring month (and December the first month or winter). That’s not to say we don’t have wintery days in March (or November, for that matter). Today was such a day. After some decidedly spring-like days, it was cold and blustery this morning, with snow blowing around. It wasn’t really cold enough for the snow and Mother Nature gave up trying after a very little while. On the way to work I stopped for a few pictures as I crossed Lake Needwood. This panorama is made from five images taken with a 24mm lens (which is the equivalent to a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera). Often I’d try to increase the contrast in an image like this but this time I left it as it was to help convey the cold, flat light of the morning.

Eggs In Toast

The concept of a fried slice is somewhat out of fashion these days. Nevertheless, cutting a hole out of a slice of bread and cooking an egg in it turns out to be quite tasty. You get the crispy bread, the runny yolk, all wrapped up together. I made this for Dorothy this evening for dinner. She likes it best with strawberry jam on top, which sounds strange but it’s really a very good combination. Try it sometime. You might like it.

Of course, it doesn’t look quite as fancy as this once you flip the eggs, but it still tastes good. For a real treat, cook bacon first and fry the toast and egg in a little of the fat from that. And bacon goes really well with the sweetness of the jam.

Cutting Iron

I have an iron bar, an inch and a half wide by a quarter inch thick and three feet long. I needed to cut about six inches from that. I wasn’t worried about the cut being particularly smooth so I used a cutting wheel on my rotary tool (I call it a dremel but that’s actually a brand name and mine isn’t that brand, but you know what I mean). I love cutting metal. A hack saw would have worked by it would have been a lot more tiring and not nearly as bright. A little while after I started I decided to take a few pictures. The problem is that the sparks are pretty bright compared to the rest of the scene and getting that balanced would be easier in daylight. Anyway, this one turned out nicely. The disc in this picture is only about an inch in diameter, in case you’re wondering.

Great Falls, Maryland

We went from a winter storm, even a poor excuse for a winter storm, to a wonderfully beautiful spring day between Wednesday and today. The sky was a pure, clear blue. The Potomac was a clean, green color. As you would expect, there was a good crowd at Great Falls, but it’s nice to see so many people enjoying such a nice day.

A great blue heron flew past and I got a few pictures of that, as well as an immature red-tailed hawk that landed on a tree right over our heads. I took pictures of water, of rocks, of reflections, and of trees but in the end I decided to go with a standard picture of the falls. Pretty place, Great Falls. We really should go there more often.

Falling Snow

It wasn’t exactly the storm of the century. If the forecasts were of quantity of snow that fell, they might have been considered reasonably good. If, on the other hand (and I think this is what they were) they were of snow accumulation, then they were pretty poor. We never got more than about an inch on the grass and there was never more than a little slush on our sidewalk. The snowfall itself was quite pretty, it just didn’t amount to much.

Still, it was a good excuse to stay home and work from here. I also decided, in honor of the silliness in Washington, to release some CO₂ that had been sequestered for the last quarter century or so. That is to say, I built a fire.

Nine Corvettes

Our friend Bob loves Corvettes. At least that’s how it seems. He has one in his driveway (yellow), but also has model Corvettes inside. Here are nine assorted models. I must admit that the top center car, the red and white 1956-7 model is by far my favorite. The others are nice but that’s the model I’d really love to have. The slightly newer model to the right of it would be a close second, and I suppose there’s something to be said for having one that’s the same model year I am. Even then, I’d want the red/white combination, which is just “right.”