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Tag: Pictures
GIP and Summer Update
Dad sent me the photo he took at Erie which I loved in particular. It’s one of the five of us ladies enjoying the beach. I’m the one on the far left. Mum is beside me. I’m probably reading The Ripple Effect during this photo. I decided I wanted to make another Lake userpic, so this I have done.
I also figured I should continue my book, bike, and movie stats for the summer. I’m into the final weeks of my absolutely brilliant summer vacation. I’m very close to my personal goal of 25 books read and I expect to top that and then some before the kiddies return to our building on August 26th.
# of Bike Rides: 12 since the start of summer vacation. Just a short ride yesterday (under 4 miles) but a useful one where I had my seat adjusted a smidgen by the bike shop dude.
# of Books Read: 23 (with every intention of finishing #24 today – whee!)
# of Movies Watched: 24 (whoops – that took over my book total – and I should get another watched today)
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce (which I borrowed from the library after watching the Rise of the Guardians movie)
Penny Arcade Vol 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots by Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins (eBook – part of a Humble Bundle eBook purchase)
Penny Arcade Vol 2: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings! (eBook – ditto)
A Crack in the Lens by Steven Hockensmith (another Holmes on the Range mystery from Hockensmith – library book)
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Vol 1: Save Yourself Mammal by Zach Weiner(smith) (eBook from same Humble Bundle as before)
Doctor Who: Ripple Effect by Malorie Blackman (eBook novella in honor of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, 7th Doctor & Ace)
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (which I heard about while listening to the extras on Doctor Who: Persuasion, a 7th Doctor/Elizabeth Klein adventure from Big Finish – same author for both. Library book)
The movies continued (library DVDs unless otherwise specified):
Iron Man 3 (2nd run theater)
Quartet
Despicable Me 2 (at the Icon theater in Chicago with
Pacific Rim (at the Icon with Judi)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I realized I hadn’t seen when we saw a trailer for The Wolverine at the Icon)
X-Men: First Class (might as well complete the set).
The Croods (2nd run theater – saw same day as Epic)
Epic (see above)
RED (wanted to see it in case I go see the sequel now in theaters)
Les Miserables (first time ever seeing the musical)
Still doing well with movie and book picks this summer! (Though it is taking me quite a bit of time to get through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell… Need to renew it from the library.)
Pix or it didn’t happen!
As promised, here are some photos that I took in Chicago and in Galena when
Elsa and Judi and I engage in a simple game of "Cell Phone Wars" – I think I won cuz I got 'em both in one shot! 😉
Elsa awaits the boat ride to see the Navy Pier fireworks.
Judi also awaits the fireworks on the boat. I probably had the same expression that she did that night.
Navy Pier at night.
Seeing this painting at the Art Institute of Chicago was even neater after seeing the 3D version at Troy's Sculptures on the Square exhibit.
From our second night time boat ride, the city of Chicago at dusk.
A shot from my morning bike ride. I'm probably 6 miles or so from Judi's place when I took this photo.
You can see my shadow (and that of the sign beside me) as I look over the Mississippi near Galena, IL. That's Iowa on the other side of the river.
The front of the resort we stayed in near Galena, IL.
We had to climb up to the top of the levy to get to this foot bridge to cross the Galena river and get to the town proper.
I never did get a good enough shot to really get a feel for how high up the stairs go in Galena. I think Judi got a nice one though.
A shot of Galena from atop the foot bridge.
From the size of this photo, you can't hardly see the caption on the statue, but it says "Grant Our Citizen." I had to get Judi to pose in front of it, of course.
Wow, October’s nearly over!
Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it’s the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc… MMORPGs are bad, mmm’kay?)
Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I’ve done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn’t know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.
I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print “Generic Mask” on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post punkin pix.
Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
Anyone have a novel plot idea????
DC Photos
As I promised back on the 18th of May, here are some photos from my weekend in Washington DC with mom. Our time on the National Mall was… extensive. Mom swore to dad that I was trying to kill her again (the previous time was on our cruise when we took the hellish hike). Dad e-mailed Amy that I had taken mom on a DC Death March. Amy responded to him “Oh no! I sent Trina the link to dcdeathmarch.com as a joke!” Heh, my family!
Me in DC
I’m in DC standing next to a giant metal flower. Like you do.
Arlington Cemetery
A blue jay pays his respects to one of the fallen.
The White House
’nuff said.
Washington Monument
It’s tall & pointy!
First Lady’s Garden
Beautiful garden near the Capitol and the American Indian Museum.
Lincoln Memorial
Am I the only one who thinks of Logan’s Run when I see this statue?
Non-reflecting Pool
Time to Photoshop some water into this picture!
My trip partner
It’s me mum! Really though, it’s my older sister – she can’t be old enough to have had me!
Artomatic: Beaker!
Beaker is my muse! by Jenn Bock
Artomatic: Who, M.D.
Who, M.D. by A. T. Tribby (always great to see other Doctor Who fans out there!)
Artomatic: Peep Dioramas!
The Peeps dioramas were BRILLIANT at Artomatic. If you’re in D.C. while it’s still going on (till June 23rd!), be sure to go to the 9th floor of Artomatic to see them all. If you can’t read the text under each segment:
“What people who enter the WaPo Peeps Diorama Contest think Peeps are.”
“What scientists think Peeps are.”
“What kids think Peeps are.”
“What Just Born thinks Peeps are.”
“What Peeps think they are.”
“What Peeps really are.”
Obsession
I’m a collector. When I get interested in something, I have a tendency to collect stuff regarding that thing, usually to obsession. I got to thinking about it recently when I was talking in SMAS about my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. I was ruminating that I now had so many photos, it was hard to find one for sale that I didn’t already own. I thought “I’ll bet they’d be surprised to see the size of the binders I’ve got all my photos in.” Then I decided I’d do a LJ post about it – and some of my other obsessions.
My photograph collection originated as a “scrapbook” collection (long before “scrapbooking” was a verb). And it’s all Helen Hayes’ fault. See, I was reading one of Grandma A’s Reader’s Digress when I saw some article (or maybe ad) with a lovely photo of Helen Hayes. I asked Grandma if I could cut out the photo and she said I could. I still have that picture from the mag – it’s part of a collage I made several years ago (late 80s) that hangs in my den. Although some of my tastes have changed and are not reflected in this collage (which actually had a couple of different permutations until it settled on its current one), I like it just as much when I finished it. And there’s enough stuff on it that I still like (like Helen Hayes).
Click the image for a larger version of the collage. How many people/shows/etc can you recognize?
Moving from scrapbooks to photos happened because of two important things: Jerry Ohlinger’s Movie Memorabilia store and Whomobilia. Both were mail order companies (Whomobilia in the UK) that I’d receive catalogs from. Jerry was first – I bought several black & white and color 8x10s from him. Movie stars and TV stars and occasional movie posters. (My giant, and I MEAN giant, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory poster came from there. Three times the size of a standard marquis poster, IIRC.) I was actually a movie poster & photo collector then. (Mom & dad started the fire with movie posters with a Willy Wonka marquis as a Christmas present when I was young & impressionable.) In 1995, I went to my first Doctor Who convention (Visions ’95) and managed to start properly on my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. And then came eBay. Gah, eBay, you are EVIL!
The Doctor Who binder is half photos and half scrapbook with magazine cut-outs. The two Sylv folders (Color and B&W) are just photos of varying size.
A binder next to a roll of duct tape, just to illustrate how thick it is.
I also have a binder of non-Sylvester McCoy photos which includes most of the Jerry Ohlinger photos as well as other convention guests from conventions.
So, now I have a substantial photo collection which rivals my earlier scrapbook collection of TV guide & other magazine cut-outs.
I used to have a substantial video tape collection, but I have upgraded to DVD. According to DVD Profiler, I have 434 DVD titles currently. The number of actual discs is considerably more. And I’m doing a good job at getting ’em all watched (and rewatched – which is why DVDs are brilliant). Just about any time DeepDiscount.com has one of their 20% off sales, I spent at least $100 on DVDs in my wishlist. I go to theatrical movies now with the mindset “should I buy this on DVD or not?” (My summer theatricals are all “yes.” Now I just have to wait for the DVDs to come out.)
(For photos of the DVD, CD, book, and toy collections, check out the gallery I put up on my website.)
I don’t remember if I posted photos of my finished library (if I did, I didn’t tag it properly). But as you can guess from other posts about books, I’m obsessed with them too. (Current obsession, Lois McMaster Bujold books.) Back when the New Adventures of Doctor Who first came out, I was thrilled when 1-800-Trekker started their Pen of the Month Club. For a substantial fee, you’d get a 1-800-Trekker pen and 1 (and later 2) free books! I think the last of the 1-800-Trekker pens (which was living in the bathroom at mom & dad’s cottage) dribbled out its last bit of ink and they are no more. However, I still have all of the New Adventures and Missing Adventures that I got from ’em! I made an important break-through in obsession control when I was collecting the BBC 8th Doctor Adventures. I found I wasn’t enjoying them AT ALL. So I (and this is profound, folks) STOPPED BUYING THEM. Wow. That was an epiphany for me. There are still a few sitting there which I’ve not read, but I probably will someday. (I stopped right before Lawrence Miles’ Interference two-parter. I’d hated everything else he’d written (yes, hated) and I refused to give him any more of my money, cheap bastard that I am.)
But it’s not just Doctor Who books in my collection. I have thousands of books. Well, OK, only 1300+ books according to LibraryThing. (I do own more than that, but some of ’em don’t auto-detect in LT or in Book Collector and I didn’t want to bother adding them manually.) Thanks to the lovely shelves that dad & I put up, I have nice homes for my books. And a wonderful place to sit & read ’em.
Other obsessions of mine include toys and stuffed animals. I still buy toys and stuffed animals (though usually the animals are souvenirs to places, like zoos or similar). I love physics toys most of all and have quite a few of mine over at the school for use as demos in physics class (with duplicates here in case they get broken there). I’d’ve taken a photo of the animals sitting behind my sofa, but the kitties have messed ’em up and I didn’t feel like putting ’em back yet.
In a previous post, I wrote about my webcomics obsession and showed photographic evidence of that. (Indeed, my collection of webcomics-related swag has increased since that post.)
So, yeah, obsession. Got that. In spades. And hearts and diamonds and even clubs. (Oh, did I mention all of the packs of playing cards I’ve got? Jennie Breeden of Devil’s Panties now has Men in Kilts playing cards which I should get…)
Millennium Park
I’m back in the Windy City – a mere month from my last visit here. Indeed, this is the first time since I was a kid (I think) that I’ve been here in the summer and it’s not around Taste of Chicago. No matter, there’s lots to do (and eat) even though that festival isn’t going on.
Today’s flight was uneventful – yay.
We headed back to her place where Lance greeted me, looking very chipper (a contrast from last weekend, apparently. Glad he’s doing better!) Judi and I then sort of vegged for a bit, eventually each taking a nap. This refreshed us quite nicely for our Grand Adventure yet to come.
Our only real plan for the day was to have tapas for supper at Exposure (which is also on Wabash). But then I asked about going to the Apple store, so that’s where we headed off. We took the #3 bus up Michigan Ave and as we paused by Millennium Park, Judi asked me if I’d been there before. I hadn’t, so we hopped off the bus and visited the park.
The Grant Park Orchestra was rehearsing for tomorrow night’s performance, so we listened for awhile. It was a lovely day and I took lots of photos. We walked through the flower garden and across the BP Bridge. But eventually we continued walking up Michigan Ave towards the Apple Store.
Along the way, we encountered Eno. This is a wine/cheese/chocolate place. They serve flites of wine, of cheese, and of chocolate. We’re not big on wine, but we love cheese and we love chocolate. So Judi ordered a Riesling for herself and we got the International cheese flite and the bittersweet chocolate flite. We both enjoyed the 4 year old Gouda and the cheddar. The Spanish cheese was a little tasteless in my opinion. I liked all of the chocolates, but Judi really disliked the third chocolate, so I ate the extra piece of it.
We also popped into an art store on the walk and talked to a nice young man from the Cleveland area who enjoys Cedar Point. And eventually we made it to the Apple store. That’s a neat little place. And there was a lady teaching a workshop on the second floor. Judi and I both managed avoid buying anything, so yay us!
We just missed the #3 back, so we waited at the bus stop for the next one. Bus after bus came by, but none of then the #3. Judi eventually got pissed off enough that she hailed a cab to take us to the tapas place.
This was her first time to Exposure, even though it’s just two blocks from her apartment. She needs me and Elsa to visit in order to explore her neighborhood. 🙂 We picked out four tapas to try (they go for a variety of cuisines rather than sticking to Mexican): steamed mussels, crispy Asian calamari, goat cheese gnocchi with pulled pork and caramelized onions, crab stuffed jumbo shrimp with Israeli cous cous and a shallot cream sauce. Then the waiter told us they also had fondue on the menu. So we ordered that as well. He wanted to know what type of cheese, but we said “surprise us.” He picked Gruyere, which was an excellent choice. We enjoyed the tapas (though it turns out I don’t like steamed mussels and Judi managed to eat a hot pepper while eating the calamari which nearly wiped her out).
Although we’d stuffed ourselves silly at Exposure (though they take forever to serve you each tapas, so it takes a couple of hours to eat it all) we decided to get some ice cream at Marble Slab for dessert. I chose peppermint ice cream and double chocolate ice cream. Yum!
I took photos with my camera while we were in the Park and have posted them for your edification.
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| Millennium Park amphitheater
Symphony in the park – what a lovely idea. The weird structure over the lawn area supports lots of speakers to allow everyone to hear the orchestra. |
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| Millennium Park amphitheater – alternate view
Turn away from the amphitheater and this is what you see. |
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| Grant Park Orchestra rehearses
The Grant Park Orchestra rehearses for Friday and Saturday’s concerts in the Millennium Park’s amphitheater. |
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| Seats
Judi and I enjoyed this view from where we were sitting and enjoying the practice of the orchestra. |
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| Millennium Park flower garden
There’s a nice assortment of flowers at the park. I loved the juxtaposition of flowers and cityscape. |
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| Millennium Park sculpture
There’s this neat reflective kidney bean at the park. Can you see me reflected in the surface? |
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| Millennium Park sculpture 2
Here I am! |
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| King Lear
A King Lear statue by J. Steward Johnson, 2008. |
Winter Storm
Like others in my friend’s list, we were part of the Winter Storm that swept quite an area of the US. Thankfully, since I’m a school teacher, I had yesterday and today off. And I had fun documenting the storm with photos. 🙂
Oh, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Valentine’s Day card. Linus and Lucy posed especially for it.
So, yesterday we had lots of snowing going on. I made chicken & rice soup for lunch, but since I put far too much rice in it, I wound up with very nice chicken & rice porridge. Yum! I spent the entire day indoors, except for a couple of minutes when I took some photos from my front porch. In the process of doing that, the kitties got out and Lucy hopped off the porch to investigate this “snow” thing better. I stepped down to coax her back up. And then proceeded to slip and fall onto the porch (into the thin layer of snow which had blown up that far). I now know why they call those things “slippers.” Heh. I’m pretty sure that Lucy was laughing as she hopped back inside the house.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I finished watching season 3 of Open All Hours (and now must order season 4…) I played some City of Heroes. I had leftovers for supper (from Dinner & a Movie). It was a very nice day.
Today I’ve been watching Columbo and trying to get caught up with grading. I’m nearly done with the physics tests, but then I’ve got chemistry tests and physics quizzes to grade. (The lab reports are stacking up too, but they’re on the server at work, so I’ll do them when I’m back in the building.) The folks and I walked up to the Post Office today, so I took some photos along the way. I took a cute photo of them outside their house so dad could send to one of his friend’s in California who’s been complaining about the 60°F temperatures they’ve been having. Heh. Also took a photo of a neighbor’s house who’s off in Florida for the winter. That way they can remember why they go to Florida every winter. 🙂
Here is a shot off the porch during the storm. It’s all misty looking due to all of the snowflakes falling.
This is a similar view after the storm was over.
Lucy went out again some this morning and plopped into the same spot as yesterday. A little more snow in that space than yesterday. Silly kitty.
Getting from my doorway to the street was something. Some of those footprints are DEEP. (Up to my knees in one of ’em!)
My house in all of its glory!
Awwwww, aren’t they cute?
The mound of snow after they plowed out the Post Office parking lot makes for a fun snow mountain for kids!
My street on the walk back.
Dad shoveling the walk… Actually, a neighbor had just plowed through with her snow blower (and it was a chore for her!) and dad’s just following up.
This is a neat icicle that always gets formed in that tree each year. Some years it’s been much bigger. But it’s always pretty.
I know some of you are probably tired of snow and/or photos of snow, but for those of you who aren’t, I hope you enjoyed my pictorial journal. 🙂
Shangri-La
Back in October, I promised dark_pheonix a photo of Sylv for her birthday. I searched through my collection looking for something unique and just didn’t find “the one.” And as always happens, I eventually forgot about my quest. (Glad I haven’t been picked the find the Holy Grail or anything… Or maybe I have and I’ve forgotten about it…)
Anyhoo, the other day I was looking for a new background for my computer when I sorted through my “raw” scans (huge 600dpi+ files which I haven’t edited yet for wallpaper) and found “the one.” So, I present for dark_pheonix and other folks who enjoy a bit of Sylv, The Shangri-La Doctor!
More Cute Overdose
The kitties are finally used to my house, I believe. They’re eating like birds (ie 10 times their own weight in food), they’re doing their business in the litter boxes, and they’re exploring every nook & cranny they can get their claws on. Yesterday was “spend as much time in the reading room as possible” day. The day before was Lucy’s “hide in the pink chair” day. Today seems to be Linus’s “play with the feather/ball toy for 20 minutes at a time” day. It’s been quite entertaining.
Of course, I’ve got a couple more pictures to display. In the course of my home improvements, I intend to put floor to ceiling bookshelves in my reading room, so I’m going to need more bookends. Well, I was certainly surprised when I looked in the reading room yesterday and
Linus & Lucy (or is it Lucy & Linus?) as bookends.
While exploring the reading room, Linus discovered another wonderful place to sleep. On the bottom shelf of one of my bookshelves are my collection of Elmos (except for the life-sized Elmo in the living room).
Linus & the Elmos.
While the kitties were playing in the kitchen yesterday, I used my camera to video them. My camera doesn’t do sound like some of the later models, but they really weren’t making any sounds anyway. So I thought, “Let’s try that YouTube thingy” and created an account.
Tonight, the parental units will get to meet their new grandcats. I think they’ll be delighted by them. They are, after all, delightful! 🙂