Selfie with Hat

I'm not a fan of selfies. I take quite a few pictures lately but most of them are not of myself. I don't always like to look at pictures of myself and I certainly don't like the reaching and odd positioning that most selfies require. But since the Oxford English Dictionary has decided to celebrate this word, I'm going to post one. Mostly because of the hat.

I realized that in all my pictures I don't have a single one of me in this hat, which seems amazing. I love this hat. I've practically worn out this hat I've worn it so much. Jeff and I were in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and while walking, we happened upon this old dying shopping district. There were two maybe three stores left in a whole four block area. We stopped into the sporting  goods store, and I decided to buy something. After all we were on vacation and the man running the store was incredible sweet. He told us old stories about when he was a pitcher. I wish I remembered his name. I'd look him up.

I needed a new hat so I was check out his stock. And the hat you see is the one I kept coming back to. I'd look over the hundreds he had but I kept coming back to that hat. So I asked. I thought it was just an odd Boston College logo. He informed me that it was for a minor league baseball team in New York, the Brooklyn Cyclones. And I knew at that moment that I had to have it. I love minor league baseball. I love obscure teams, that people outside of the city of origin might not know. I'd certainly never heard of the Cyclones. I love that I bought a hat for a minor league NY team in Fort Lauderdale. And I loved the hat. I bought it and I've hardly taken it off since. Twice now I've had to wash it but it's still going strong, although it was blue when I bought it. I just hope that the Cyclones are still playing when the hat finally wears out. I'll need to buy another one.

Halloween

The Cardinals were playing the series at the time. Jeff slaved over that one. 

In October, one of our good friends came down from Minneapolis and stayed with us for a couple days. Since it was right before Halloween we decided to carve pumpkins one night. Jeff and I had bought a few to carve and it was a great night. I roasted the seeds (which didn't last two days) and we had jack o'lanterns on the porch for a couple days. The first night we went out with candles and lit them up and took pictures. I love how the camera takes dark shots. The ones above are both Jeff's pumpkins. The ones below were Josh and mine.

 Left to right: Cooperative, Josh's, mine

Misty

This is my favorite picture of my kitty, Misty. I've taken well over a hundred photos of our spoiled kitty but this one is probably the cutest. I love the light and the look on her face. As she gets older I realize how wonderful it is to have photos and videos of her.

The World, From a Different Angle

Over the last couple years I've become more and more fascinated by space. I wrote this post when NASA's budget cuts forced them to stop shuttle launches. I've started following Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an outspoken advocate for astrophysics, space, and NASA. And just in these last couple weeks I've started following Col. Chris Hadfield on Facebook.

Brazilian Farms

Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut serving as commander on the International Space Station. He's incredibly active when it comes to social media and has been posting pictures, making videos, and generally keeping us informed about what it's like up there in space. I first heard of him when I watched this video about how to make a sandwich in space. Zero gravity may be cool but it makes some tasks just a bit more difficult. I've seen videos on how to shave in space, how to sleep, and even how to clip one's finger nails. Each time I watch him glide effortless through the station it seems a tad unreal, but cool to know that people live like that.

London at Night

But it's the photos that he posts each day that make me glad I'm following him. They remind me how incredible the solar system and the Earth are. As the ISS orbits around the world, the views of Earth are stunning. Hadfield takes close up images of the cities he passes over, islands and fields, the aurora's spectacular beauty, or even better, the edge of the Earth. The first shot of his I saw was the aurora borealis, with the start of the dawn behind it. I was instantly hooked.

Auroras at Dawn

This man was not only seeing Earth from a unique angle; he was sharing it with us. And he always refers to people as "us". I recently sent him a message telling him how wonderful I felt his use of the word "us" was. He showed a picture of an area in Brazil and mentioned that about "3 million of us live there". As I read the word I realized he's talking about humans as one group. That we're all one people. And I can't help but wonder if the view up there has to impact his thinking that way. If it makes him inclusive of all human as an "us". It make me think of another astronaut that made a similar comment.

Mount Etna

"I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogenous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied."   --Michael Collins

Perhaps seeing our Earth from outside of it, reminds these men and women of how small and insignificant our home is. I know that both the idea of a small fragile Earth and the idea of a collective human kind was repeated in every quote I read from an astronaut. Perhaps looking at the world from a different angle is all we need to unify. And if that is the case, I'm even more appreciative of Col. Hadfield's work in sharing his images of our beautiful planet with us.

All photos taken by Col. Chris. Hadfield

Moon Shots

Jeff and I went out one of the nights last week to try to catch a glimpse of Comet Pan-STARRS, a bright comet that could be seen in the Western sky right after sundown. We had heard that it could be seen with the naked eye but we still brought out binoculars and of course the camera. Jeff made sure I packed the tripod as well.

Although the clouds were low on the horizon, the rest of the sky was clear. So we took some sunset photos and a couple of beautiful moon photos. Jeff and I played to see how close we could get with just the natural zoom of the camera. I thought about digiscoping it but I'm still learning and most of my shots come out terrible. Plus once we got home, I realized just how close the zoom had gotten.

Alright Jeff, you're correct, the tripod makes all the difference.

And a view of the sunset that night. Now if only the colors were perfect. But I guess that just gives us something to work towards.

Foxy Lady

I've been an animal lover since I was a very small child. I love to be around pets and wild animals. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in zoos, at least when I wasn't reading about animals. Some days I think I like animals more than people. At least some days. And I love photos of animals.

One of the sites I follow on Facebook is Wild for Wildlife and Nature, which posts pictures numerous times a day. So many of the images are wonderful but I've noticed a trend recently that got me thinking. I've only saved a couple of images but a majority of them recently have been foxes. I'm drawn to the images of this shy elusive creature and I'm not sure why. Of course they are cute but so are many other animals. Why this creature?

A fox and a cat who've become inseparable friends

I've see them twice. The first was almost 15 years ago. I was waiting in my car at work to be let into the building. It was 5 in the morning. As I sat there, half drowsing I saw a blur through the windshield. I looked up to see a red fox darting across my path along a major road. I remember being thrilled. The second was just a couple months ago. Jeff and I were driving home when one came loping through the dark past us into the woods. Two fleeting glimpses in a lifetime of a magical animal.

So I read up a bit on the symbology of the fox. Foxes are crafty but aloof creatures. They are good at eluding people and predators. They are crafty at finding their way out of traps. Most of the totem pages say that they show the way through difficult confusing situations to places of simplicity. When I read that, a lightbulb came on. Work has been a difficult place recently. The politics are intense and often changable. And I'm not a good player. I find myself longing for a way to escape them, or at least navigate them. And suddenly I'm back to the fox.

 The man rescued the fox when it was a kit and raised it by hand.

Now I'm not a huge believer in totems or animals as symbols but it seems strange that I'm suddenly fascinated by foxes right now rather than before. I'm reading up on their calls (creepy sounding). I'm paying attention to their hunting habits and their family structure. I'm enraptured with them. I don't know if it has to do with my work politics or if I've just moved on to a new animal to learn about. Whatever it is, I couldn't help but share these pictures.

Playing with Pictures

For my birthday this past year I asked for a camera I could carry around in my pocket. As I'm still technologically backwards when it comes to phones, I don't have anything on me that would take pictures that I could then download. My poor ancient cell phone takes pictures but has no way to transfer them. So I wanted a small camera that still took good photos.

My parents bought me the Canon Elph 530HS. I honestly can't remember a birthday present I'm more excited about. I find that I'm taking pictures of things just for the sake of playing with it. This camera has a number of setting that allow me to take tilt-shift photos, fisheye photos, and other gimmicky shots. It also offers video and slow motion video. Just the basic setting takes pictures that are ten time brighter and better than the ones from my old camera. I love my new toy.

Two weeks ago I took the camera out to play with the Snow setting. Since it's Iowa in winter, I didn't have to look far to find snow. Above is the view of the creek right outside our door. Lovely with the snow isn't it? The shots are crisp and bright. But the real advantage of the new camera is the zoom. Note the area across the creek, under the branch on the right. Here is the zoomed in photo. Aren't those cool snow structures? I wouldn't have seen them if it wasn't for the zoom. It's as good as some binoculars I own. And the photos are still crisp.

I took the camera to all of my family events last week. I took video and photos and only had one or two that came out badly, a sharp contrast to my previous camera. With that one, I would be lucky to have one or two that came out. Something like the picture below would never have come out.

I'll leave you with one last picture. It's of the newest guest to visit my bird feeder, a less than welcome guest. Hint: It's not the squirrel. Jeff had to forcibly remove it from our garage this afternoon. It's becoming more and more of a frequent visitor so I might have to end up doing something. We'll have to wait and see.

Hummingbirds

This is my computer's wallpaper. I have about 30 dozen hummingbird pictures in my iPhoto. I just love the birds. This one is from my parent's backyard. They have a Lantana that gets regular hummingbirds. The other ones are from my feeder. I started feeding them with premade food but then started making my own food after hearing some concerns about the premade stuff. Sugar and water is all you need to attract them and is quick and easy to make. The red dye isn't needed and actually may be bad for them.

I love how bold these birds are. I can sit less than 2 feet from the feeder and they will come. I can hear the buzzing of their wings and their chirps as they swoop past my head. They hover and feed so close without fear. For a tiny little bird, they offer a lot of beauty and boldness.

Finding Books

This....

is a bookstore. That magnificent place sells books. I originally thought it was a library or an auction house. But no, that's a bookstore. That, more specifically is the Lello Bookstore in Porto, Portugal.

This...

is also a bookstore. When I saw this I was sure that it was not. I've seen libraries that look similar. And have never seen any place as common as a bookstore that looked that grand. But then I realized my fallacy. Libraries aren't necessarily grand (I've seen some pretty plain ones) and bookstores aren't necessarily boring (I've seen some fun ones). So why are these bookstores so surprising for me.

I spent part of an afternoon looking at Google Images of bookstores. Try it sometime. There are some pretty incredible ones. And some pretty fun ones. Like this one in Mexico City (this is the Polanco branch of El Pendulo bookstore).

I scrolled through image after image savoring all the different types of bookstores. I clicked on a photo and found this linked list of Most Interesting Bookstores in the World as part of my search. And that's where I found it. My favorite bookstore. Shakespeare and Company in Paris is listed as one of the most photographed bookstores in the world. I can understand why. That is my quintessential bookstore image now. Nothing else will ever live up. Of course I'm not giving up. I'll keep trying to find something more perfect. Isn't that what bibliophilia is all about?

[Writers note: For those interested, Shakespeare and Company is (and has been) one of the foremost centers of all things literature in Paris. In December the long time owner of the store passed away. I read his obituary without ever having seen the bookstore itself. I'm even more saddened by his death now.]

Inside of Shakespeare and Company

Book image

I'm not really feeling like writing this week so instead I'll be posting images I like. That way you still get something new but I can take a bit of a break from writing. I found this one years ago and have had it sitting up on my desktop waiting to be posted. I like most of Cindy Grundsten's work but I love this image.

Needs list

I'm in an odd mood. It's not a particularly good one. So I have to post this image that I stole from a friend on facebook. Today it would be "peace". I might have to create one of these and post them up around me. A good reminder. And it brought me a bit of a smile.

Creepy Cardinal

I have my computer set up so that my desktop photo changes every five minutes or so. The computer shuffles through all the pictures in my iPhoto library and displays them. It's actually a lot of fun to find old photos that I haven't seen in quite a while. Last week there was a dark image that popped up on the screen. I minimized and I have to admit that this photo of a cardinal kind of freaked me out. It must be the glowing eyes. Or the fact that it all looks fake. Not sure what it was, but I knew I wanted to share the image. I just find it creepy.

Ghosts of Halloween Past

I've been going through some of my old pictures recently. Be warned. I'll probably post some of the older ones here. I'm a photo junkie, although I don't end up taking a ton of them myself. But I love when people send me old family photos. One of the ones I had in my album was the one below. Believe it or not, that's me, ready to head out for a fun night of trick-or-treating (although I looked stoned on candy already or maybe it was the wallpaper). I can't imagine how old I was. I'm terrible at guessing.

When I was younger, I went out dressed up a lot as cowboys or pirates or monsters. I was almost drawn to those type of action oriented characters. I also went out as an animal frequently. I remember an owl costume, a lion costume, and cat ears. I was never (to my knowledge) a princess, a fairy, or rockstar. I didn't do a lot of traditionally female costumes.

 I've been having a discussion with a friend of mine about how difficult it is to find women's Halloween costumes that aren't a bit slutty. It seems like every costume is for sexy nurses, sexy cops, sexy ladybugs, sexy librarians (which I pull off in my daily life ;-) ), sexy witches... everything sexy. A witch becomes a sexy witch. So now if I were to dress up, I would probably go in a man's costume. No one wants to be thrust that deeply into my cleavage.

But I have gone out in more traditionally female costumes as these pictures prove. These were Halloween parties that my sister threw back when Jeff and I were first married. The first year is me in the flapper dress, one of my favorite costumes. Jeff went as Jacob Marley (I love a man in a literary reference costume). The second year I was lazy and went in a Renaissance costume we had. My friend Josh is with us as Dracula, looking rather dashing for the undead. So I guess there are some costumes out there that don't stop at the crotch or show off "huge tracts of land". Maybe there is help for next year's Halloween.

Old Photos

Wednesdays are my knitting nights so I have no time to post this evening. So instead I'm treating you (please note the sarcasm) to two of my favorite old pictures. That way I feel like I posted, and you get something new...er...old to look at.

Yeah I know that you probably don't really want to see my baby pictures, but it's my blog damn it.

Me in my favorite pose, reading, with my "who made this man a gunner" look. Yeah I was cross-eyed in all of my baby pictures. I was also blonde.

I'm not sure what I'm doing in this photo (or if I want to know), waiting for Kasparov to show up perhaps?

Bird Photos

As I sat outside today I started taking pictures of the birds and playing with the zoom on my camera. I took two photos that I'm the most excited about. I love how close they are and how detailed.

A pair of Black Capped Chickadees

A weather-beaten looking Titmouse

Skagway and Glacier Bay

I figured that Skagway would be pretty easy to write up since it was such a tourist town and that I would lump it with Glacier Bay. But the focus of this post is Glacier Bay, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. Skagway was a nice town, a interesting historic town but the focus was on shopping. The boardwalks were wood and all of the buildings were original wood and in many ways it was a unique look at how towns were formed. But other than a great rock shop off the main strip, it was filled with souvenir shops, jewelry stores, and curio stores. We never got a chance to get away from the tourist section. A nice town but like any other cruise port I've been through.

Skagway

After spending the day shopping in Skagway the boat sailed off toward Glacier Bay. If you ever get a chance to go to Alaska, you need to see Glacier Bay. It was the highlight of my trip. Every single moment of our time there was awe inspiring and picturesque. We sailed between mountains covered with trees and snow, and through waters filled with puffins, sea lions, and whales. I saw more wildlife in Glacier Bay than I saw all the other days combined. This was the ultimate wild experience. Oh yeah and there were glaciers.

The first time you see a glacier you are in awe. And that awe doesn't ever really go away. When we parked the boat outside of Margerie Glacier (see below) I stood on the deck freezing my fingers off and taking picture after picture. The ice formations on the glacier are breathtaking. Each section of the glacier is different and unique, a work of art in ice. The blue was again prevalent although right after this glacier the sun came out and the blue disappeared. The cave like structure at the base of the glacier is just that. The cave had a small waterfall running through it, the fresh water escaping down the mountain and into the ocean.

Margerie Glacier

Another image of Margerie Glacier

After Margerie, we continued up the channel and came to the most amazing glacier I'd seen so far. This is Johns Hopkins Glacier. This is a steady state glacier, meaning that it loses 6 feet of ice a day and adds six feet of ice a day. There are very few steady-state glaciers left in the world and even fewer growing ones. Most glaciers have receded at unprecedented rates in the last hundred years. Someone going to Glacier Bay ten years from now, will see very different glaciers. I feel fortunate to have seen the ones I did. The snowy mountains rising up at the back of Johns Hopkins are Orville and Wilbur, although I'm not sure which is which.

Johns Hopkins Glacier from the front of the boat

As we were sailing away from Johns Hopkins, the naturalist on board called our attention to the side of the boat. Off in the distance (and I mean distance) was a set of three bears. Rather than the three bears of story, these were a mother and her two cubs down at the shore to eat mussels. They were nearly impossible to see with the naked eye but Jeff ended up getting some decent pictures using a tripod and our zoom lens. I've decided that I have to learn how to digiscope for just such an occasion. As we sailed by, the bears hardly noticed us. The whole boat (crew and all) stopped what they were doing to spend some time looking at them. I passed my binoculars to most of the members of the buffet staff so they could get a closer look. It was an incredible moment.

The Three Bears (the lighter colored things, in case you can't tell)

I tried to get photos of the puffins we saw but they were too fast (and far away) for my camera. I managed to get a decent shot of a whale breaching but it is too distant to share. As we sailed out of the Bay I sat on our balcony, huddled into my coat and gloves, and watched the islands slide by. Each seemed completely untouched. And that is one of the images I'll take away from my Alaskan experience. This is a wild place, a state with untouched land that just begs to be explored. This is a state where things are a bit more rustic. Where roads only cover a portion of the state. Where planes are your main mode of conveyance. Where the people and the animals are hardier, mostly because they have to be. Where every view is a postcard. It was a wild and untamed place. And if it wasn't for the weather, I'd happily spend years of my life exploring it.

Image from Glacier Bay itself

Heading out of the Bay

Still No Trench Photos

I have no real excuse for why you aren't looking at the pictures I took this past weekend from Trench. I had planned to download them Sunday night but after spending half the day on the road, I was in the mood to just relax. Jeff and I drove home on the back roads which was just wonderful. There was constantly a new town or new farm to see. We drove through towns with less than 200 people, spotted a quail on the side of the road, and at our friends suggestion stopped and picked up a fantastic pie (thanks for the suggestion Cathy! Mmmmm tasty). It was so much better than taking the interstate. The only problem was that it added another hour onto our drive. So when we got home we sat on the porch and relaxed until dark, then headed inside to numb our brains with TV. Plus, the cat wouldn't have let me sit at the computer for more than five minutes without demanding to be petted and attended to. She might have missed us a little. So I figured I'd download them and post them here and to Facebook on Monday night.

After dinner last night Jeff and I ended up at the grocery store to pick up enough fresh produce to get me through the week. I've been buying produce once or twice a week lately to up my fruit and vegetable intake. I eat a good amount of them but I want to make sure that produce is my go-to snack. And I tend to grab whatever is easy and available as a snack, which too often tends to be junk food. So last night, after carting home tons of produce, I spent a good chunk of the evening cutting and cleaning and prepping all my fruits and veggies. My fridge is practically overflowing with tupperware containers. This morning I made myself a quick salad in less than 5 minutes since all my ingredients were ready to go. But of course that ate up part of the evening and by the time it was done I didn't bother to track down the cord for the camera. So I set my sights on tonight.

And that won't happen either. I can flat out tell you that since I'll be out of town this evening, having dinner with a friend and then attending an Irish Jam. I'm leaving straight from work for the 35 minute drive up north and won't be heading home until after 11. Should be a long day. I hope I can stay awake for it. So I'll plan for Wednesday, either before or after knitting. I figure it doesn't take more than a minute or two to download. So I have no idea why it hasn't gotten done. But it hasn't. So you'll have to wait another day.

A Quick Plea to Mother Nature

I'm calling Uncle!!! I've had enough with winter now. Now normally by the time that February rolls around I'm starting to be tired of winter. But this year I had reached that by Christmas. This is just overkill.

This is my front patio. Buried under there is my air conditioner. Somewhere.

It has been completely buried under snow since December 8th. And tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to get 6 more inches. I've started looking for houses in Florida. So I'm offering a plea to Mother Nature. I like Iowa. I wouldn't mind staying a couple more years. But she's offering me little choice. I'm officially done with winter.

Quick Image

This is nothing special. I'm working mostly full days now (7-8 hours) and my work days have been really busy. In the evenings I've been either exhausted or out so I haven't really had any time to post anything. I hope to get back on schedule soon. Thank you all for your patience.

In the meantime, here is a fun image I took off of Epicute. I love Bento boxes and these are just too cute to pass up.

Lightening the Mood

I'm having a sad day. It is one of those days where I'm going to be sad and angry all day. I'm researching the meat industry for work and that never fails to leave me in a bit of a bad mood. Whenever people ask my why I became a vegetarian, I simply say that I work a little too close to the meat industry for comfort. So in order to lighten my day I'm going to share a couple images that make me happy.

The first is my current desktop image. This is where I'm going to be in two weeks. If that thought doesn't make me happy, I don't know what will. This is a hotel in Playa Del Carmen Mexico. I'm heading down there in 14 days (not that I'm counting) for Jeff's brother's wedding.

The next image is fitting for Halloween. My first painting for painting class was of a jack-o-lantern (because I have a book in the works about one). I used this guy as my model. The painting turned out okay but the photo here is just perfect.

The next is a picture that a friend of mine at work gave me. This is one of the Shinkansen (bullet trains in Japan) passing in front of Mt. Fuji. It has decorated my desktop several times. I love the colors.


And lastly I would be remiss if I didn't post this image. I hope that Jen and Greg, and the rest of the family will forgive me for posting it. This is the couple who will be getting married in Mexico along with the rest of my inlaws. I'll have to actually post some images of my side of the family soon. Although I'm pretty sure my mother wouldn't be happy with that.

Again thanks for letting me share these. They brighten what looks to be an otherwise difficult day.