Miscellaneous

Anna-Gabrielle

Our lovely friend, Erin stopped by today with three of her four equally lovely children. We were fortunate enough to be allowed to watch the three kids while Erin visited her brother and sister-in-law in the hospital along with their new-born baby, Fritz.

This is Anna-Gabrielle, the youngest of Erin’s children, and a lovely little girl she is, too (it helps to win the genetic lottery and have parents as good looking as Erin and David).

Muddy Pond

It was such a beautiful day today that I went outside for a little break from work. It was cool but the sky was clear and it was lovely. I haven’t been going out much lately, partly because of the weather but also I think I’m a little bored with the empty lot next to my office. So, I crossed the little stream and walked up to the higher ground on the other side.

There are a few small ponds up there that were filled with muddy water, which is what this picture shows. Not a great picture but it was a very nice diversion for me. I like the color of the grass and the color of the water, both in the foreground where it is a sort of milky, blue color and in the top of the picture where it’s a rich, earthy tone, reflecting the pale grass on the far bank.

Rat’s Nest

I told Dorothy this evening that I was thinking of skipping taking a picture today. It’s been over two years that I’ve been taking a picture every day and I figured I could miss one day without ruining anyone’s life. She said I should take one, that I could take a picture of her, if I wanted. I picked up my camera and took this, along with a few others, of her hair. It’s not as tangled as it might appear, actually.

So, the photo-streak continues.

Colored Pens and Pencils

Two days ago I posted a picture of colored pencils. We have a lot of colored pencils, pens and markers around the house. Dorothy does a fair amount of drawing and so they are never really put away. As I was looking for something to photograph today I saw this basket full of markers and pencils and took a few pictures of it.

Subway Lights

I was going to pick up Dorothy this evening and it was raining fairly hard. The lights of cars were reflecting in the water on the pavement but of course I couldn’t exactly get my camera out while I was driving and get it set up for pictures. So, before I got where I was going I pulled into a shopping center and took a few pictures of the shop lights reflecting off of the wet pavement. This happens to be a Subway sub shop.

Colored Pencils

I was looking around for something to photograph this evening and I saw the box of colored pencils. I didn’t want them to be just lying there in their box, so I made a little split-rail fence with them. I like the colors, even if the photo is a little blah.

Reflected Sky

Reflected Sky

Dorothy and I went for a nice walk in the neighborhood this afternoon. I carried my camera, as I usually do on walks, but didn’t take all that many photographs. It’s not like there are beautiful vistas in our corner of suburbia. The houses are nice but nothing you’re going to want to see pictures of. There are not very many flowers this time of year. Most of the plants are dormant and leafless. So, what’s left?

We’ve had a bit of rain lately and the ground is quite wet. There were puddles along our walk, sometimes in the drainage ditch (or jewie, as we call it) along the road, sometimes on the road itself. The first of these shows the blue sky through tree branches in water in the jewie, with grass on either side. The other is on the street and has the added interest of a little cloud colored by the setting sun.

Beacon of Hope

I went to pick up Dorothy from band practice this evening and there was a little fog, which made the light from the church steeple very pretty. I took a series of pictures with the camera sitting on the roof of the car, braced in various ways against the roof rack. This is the one that turned out the best, I think. I also like the sky in this picture.

“Inside Painted” Sniff Bottle

Snuff was in widespread use in China during the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century. Rather than putting snuff in a small box, bottles were used and the old bottles are quite collectable, I understand. In the 19th century bottles painted on the inside were made and continued to be made up to the present. I was given this bottle by my in-laws quite a few years ago. I don’t really know much about it but have always liked it quite well.

On the front it has a painting of an old man resting under a tree. On the back are mountains and more trees. The brush work is quite remarkable, especially when you realize that the opening through which the brush was inserted is less than a quarter of an inch in diameter. If someone can read the characters on the bottle and tell me what they say, that would be terrific.

ICC Tunnel

I took some pictures with my dashboard mounted camera this evening, including this one in the tunnel where the ICC goes under Olde Mill Run. Turned out pretty nicely, I think.

Coca-Cola Cooler

I drove out to or friends’ farm today because I left my camera batter charger and extra battery in their barn the last time I was there. I took the opportunity to take a few photographs of ducks, geese, goats, and various other things before heading back to work for the rest of the day.

This is an old Coca-Cola cooler that they found in the woods and rescued.

Sprinkler System Pipes

I’ve often thought that the pipes for a building’s sprinkler system would be a good subject for a photograph but usually they disappoint when the time comes. I tried again today, as I was on my way back to my building after a meeting.

I think I like this picture as well as any I’ve taken of the bright red pipes, although that may not be saying much. At least there is a little variation in the color.

X-Men

I think perhaps I was following one of the X-Men home from work this evening. Either that or I need to wash my windshield. Not sure which.

Coke Machines

I only took a few pictures today so didn’t have a lot to choose from for my post. I did take a bunch of the octopus that I bought on Friday at the Main Street fish market but I posted octopus pictures recently enough that I didn’t want to repeat them quite so soon.

Instead you get this picture of the soda machines in Five Guys. It’s not exactly fine art, is it?

Winter Lights

I had a friend complain about the octopus picture that I used as a banner. She said she didn’t stalk me quite so much with that there. Since she’s a good friend and since I had this picture to replace it with, I made the switch.

As you can see from this original version, I’ve flipped it horizontally so that the brightest of the red lights are not covered up, either here or in Facebook, which I try to keep in sync.

Post Office Pavilion Tower

Rail Yard, Union Station

Escalator

Cattle Chute

Dorothy, Karlee, and I went downtown today. We spent a good while in the Natural History Museum, mostly looking at sea creatures and the rocks and minerals collection. We particularly liked the fossils of crinoids and some brightly colored rocks, like rhodochrosite (MnCO³). I took some good pictures of stones but didn’t select any for today’s post.

From there we went to the American History Museum to look at their trains. Karlee is working on a photography assignment and we thought we might find some good pictures there. We took quite a few pictures and some that I like quite a bit but again, I didn’t put any of them in the post, either. You’ll just have to imagine.

On the walk back to the car I took the first of these pictures, the tower of the Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue. I asked if they wanted to go in and get something to eat but Dorothy wanted to eat at Union Station, which was our next stop in any case. We parked on the third level of the parking garage and took pictures of the tracks heading out to the north of the station. We tried to get some that showed motion by using a slower shutter speed so that the moving train would be blurred but Karlee’s camera didn’t give us a lot of control over shutter speed.

We went into the station and the next picture here is of the girls going down the escalator in the parking garage. If I had brought my tripod (which was in the other car) I could have blurred them a bit more as well as having the rest of the picture a bit sharper, but I like the color and the lines of this one, anyway.

We walked all through Union Station. I had been here a couple weeks ago (see White House and National Christmas Tree, December 18) so I knew my way around pretty well. There is a pretty huge food court in the bottom of Union Station and since Dorothy found out that there was a Bojangles she’s been talking about eating there. When we got there, however, she decided to have a gyro instead. I joined her in that and Karlee had a couple slices of pizza. We had a nice (late) lunch and enjoyed watching all the people.

As we were heading back to our car we looked down on a line of people moving through the cattle chutes they use to organize the chaos of boarding the trains. I love watching motion and was able to take a few photos including the last one here, showing the flow of people. Again, a tripod or bean bag would have helped but I’m pretty happy with the results. Having stood in these lines it brings back the feeling of being herded (and wanting to make mooing sounds).

We made one more stop at the Maine Street fish market, where I bought a dozen large clams and one huge octopus.

Octopuses

As a gag, Dorothy brought some frozen octopuses as her contribution to the gift exchange at X-Factor on Friday night. Once the game was over, I traded some pop-tarts for them, so the poor guy who got them wouldn’t go home totally empty handed. I had them for lunch yesterday, boiled and then sautéd in butter and olive oil and served with yellow rice. They were delicious and I thought I’d use them for my banner for a little while.

White House and National Christmas Tree

For her birthday we gave Dorothy four tickets to a Grouplove concert at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. If you recall, however, Hurricane Sandy rolled through on Monday evening and much of Tuesday. The concert was postponed and rescheduled for tonight. With Dorothy’s exams yesterday, today, and tomorrow, this wasn’t the best night for us, but she’s doing well in her classes and we knew she’d have had all but the last two of her exams. One friend who had planned to come couldn’t but Dorothy was able to find someone else who could. So, I drove them down in the evening and then spent a few hours wandering around DC. I took pictures of the Capitol, Union Station, and the White House, including this one of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse. This is actually three images with different exposures combined into a single high dynamic range (HDR) image using Photoshop. It’s still not perfect but it’s better than any of the three individual images turned out.

Rain Jewels

Not a lot going on this evening and I didn’t take many pictures today. When I walked out to my car after work the windscreen was glowing a sparkling gold. I was parked under a lamp and the light was reflecting off the hundreds of tiny drops of rain that had accumulated there. They were big enough to cover the glass completely but not big enough that they started combining into larger droplets and rolling down, leaving streaks down the glass.

Santa’s Early Visit

T.K. With Light Wands

In our neighborhood, Santa doesn’t want to take any chances of not knowing where all the kids are so he makes an early run, just checking things out. He doesn’t bother with looking at chimneys or roof tops and the reindeer are still resting up for the big night that is just over a week away. For this trip he uses a bit more modern transportation and he brings some elves with him to help distribute a few goodies to boys and girls who have been suitably good.

One nice thing about this trip is he’s not so silent as he is on Christmas night. In fact, if you are quiet, the music can be heard for many blocks — to say nothing of his “ho, ho, ho!”

This was the first time our new neighbors, Jimmy and Katie and their three kids have seen Santa making his early rounds. Apparently where they used to live he either didn’t feel it was necessary or it was a much quieter affair. In any case, they were excited to go out to see him. Of course T.K. and Piper were here, visiting their grandmother across the street from us. They’ve seen this pretty much every year, so they know how excited they should be. As you can see from the second of these pictures, T.K. has been especially good and got not one but two light-up wands.

Is he excited? Yes, he is!