Sunday Streets!

Cora and I decided to go to the Farmers' Market in Yakima.  Our own garden seems to be woefully inadequate and slow to form, and we wanted some fresh vegetables.  As you can see it is a popular attraction.  The menagerie of fruits and vegetables available is intriguing.  There are numerous vendors and options available for a visitor to look at and buy.  Today, there were a few students that I have taught waiting to sell some raffle tickets...they saw me and descended.  I had two bucks, so relented, however, I explained to them we would be at the Hop Festival and to stop in and buy a coloring book.

We wandered the booths and ended up bringing some vegetables home for dinners.  It was a good time.

We finally got home and did some chores and we are now relaxing.  I expect we will have some cordon bleu tonight and perhaps some fresh vegetables.

I leave you a portrait of the two of us.  I eagerly await the arrival of my camera!!

Have a good night!!

New Blog

Cora suggested I make a new blog to devote to the hundreds of photos I expect to take with my new camera to show them off.  I like that idea.  I don't know if they'll be of the highest quality at first while I work into the new camera system.  I've never owned a Nikon until now.  I have been happy with the Canon Elph, but the Nikon just feels so cozy in my hands!  I had a Pentax P3N years ago (Still do, but it eats film and that's expensive to feed)  I figure disk space is cheaper in the long run.  An extra hard drive eventually will also help with that.

So, sorry for digressing.  I plan on using the new blog for photography talk, even though I am a comparative amateur to most.  I DOOOO love to talk.  I think that being a teacher is a good fit for that...but I digress, yet again.

The purpose for this post is to petition you all for names.  I like the name George for my new Nikon, Cora, however, thinks it needs to be something else...why name an inanimate object???  It's fun.  That's it.  Also, instead of spouting off a bunch of photography terms like, "let's take my new Nikon dSLR D-90 with the 18-105mm DX VR lens down to the dock to snap photos of fishing vessels." I might say, "Let's take George down and shoot some ships."  Rolls off the tongue better, don't you think?  Or I could say Fred, but that might confuse matters, since we know a Fred...though, I'm not sure if he would mind me calling a camera Fred, too.  He might become un-amused if we named a new Chihuahua Fred instead...never mind, I digress.  So, I was thinking of using the name of the camera in this new blog, so I need a name!

I think it ought to be unique.  It should be short, that way I am not saying, "Let's take Emmanuel Benjamin Lothar Lewis down to the dock."  You know, something catchy.  Not too cutesy, though.  Nothing like "Puffy" or "Princess."  I don't want my camera looking for sunscreen or sunglasses.  Something fun, yet not overly stuffy.  I don't want to take Reginald down to the dock; that just sounds boring.  I think a Reginald would want to discuss tide schedules instead of take some pictures.  A Spike might want to start a fight and a Joey would just flirt with girls, probably saying in a New Jersey accent, "How you doin'?"  That would just get me in trouble with the mrs.

Cora and I brought up the potential for naming lenses, too. So, then it might be George Joe, or John Robert...you know...

So, I think you get the picture...err, you will get the pictures when I get the soon-to-be-named camera and get the blog up and running.

We had a great day yesterday.  The heat was high, but not oppressive.  It was a good heat, the kind you don't mind being in the shade with.  I finished the sign.  I think it is ready to go...as soon as I wipe off some bird poop.  (Note to self: do not lure birds to yard with bird feeders if you are not willing to get a little bird poop on yard items...)  I think it looks good.  I will have to take a picture and show you all.  It's a little different from the original, since I am a poor planner, still, it looks good.

Well, Big Brother began Thursday night.  Yes, I am still watching reality TV...I guess I am weak.  It's on again tonight.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Camera Ready!

I took the money we have saved and scraped and scrounged and put it in the bank, then, after a process of elimination and comparison and re-comparison and research and forehead massaging, I purchased my camera on-line at Wal-Mart.com.  Yes.  I did.

Wal-Mart sells it below what the recommended price and it saved me almost $150!!  Plus, free shipping to my door.  Soon, I will be shooting 1000s of pictures!  With!  A! Nikon D90!!!!!  It should be here in a little over a week.  So, instead of whining about getting a camera, you will likely be seeing me writing scathing commentaries on delivery companies and their short-comings.

I have had many kind people offer me their opinions on which is the better camera.  I have taken their suggestions into account.  I compared those cameras side by side.  The guy at the local electronics store was nice enough to take a couple out of the box for me so I could have a look and a feel unfettered by security devices.  I have also done much research on the internet and when I narrowed it down I bought a book concerning the camera in question. By the time I arrived at the right amount of money, my decision making process turned to where to buy it.

So, it is on the way...or will be in one to two business days!!  I cannot wait!!

In the meantime I will be finishing the sign I have been working on in the back yard.  I need only touch up a few details and then I shall deliver it!  After that I shall have my yard back again!!  ...And the two small tables that we usually set our beverages on...they have been supporting the sign.

We had grilled steak and zucchini last night.  Our zucchini plants finally delivered a zucchini!!  I took that baby and sliced it up, rubbed some olive oil on it and some of my home-made Johnny's seasoning and then threw them on the grill.  I did that with store bought zukes the other day, but the taste difference was incomparable!  The fresh zuke, even after sitting on the grill, was crisp and fresh and heavenly!  It complemented the steak, too.  "Hi, I'm a sliced zucchini.  Wow, Mr. Steak, you look good today!  Well done!" (You didn't expect that one, did you?) (oh, and the pun, did you get the pun?  "well done"  I can't believe all this stuff comes out of my head!!)

Anyway, back to my camera.  I will pet it and love it and care for it and sleep next to it and I will name it George.

Cora may get jealous.

Friday Is Here Again!!

I have been working 10 hour days lately.  To make up for the holiday observed on Monday.  Yesterday, I put in my time and then rushed off to make copies of coloring books.  So, there are fifty more coloring books that need to be collated and bound.  

Then I got dog food and fuel for the truck.  Then I stopped and picked up dinner.  I know that Cora's day wasn't any easier...apparently fruit does not always juice the same.  I got home about a little after 630pm...some 12 and 1/2 hours after I left.  Of course, I had stopped by to check the dogs a couple times and have lunch.  Still, it made for a long day.  Even though I wanted to stay up and read, I could not force my eyes to remain open much past ten.

Today will be another ten hours day...the last until the week before the Moxee Hop Festival, then I will use that Friday to set up our table at the Hop Festival.  Hopefully I will have my camera by then.

I am torn between the availability of a local store where I can walk in and say this thing doesn't work and the economical decision of buying a camera on-line.  I would love to save $100 but I really like being able to walk in and say: "FIX IT!" if something goes wrong...I am really close!!  I can imagine my camera in my arms and sleeping next to it every night.  I even imagine Cora putting a blanket over my sleeping form and gently prying the camera from my arms and setting it nearby on its own special camera pillow...

OK, back to reality.

Sorry for waxing on about the camera.  It has been a very long time since I had a camera where I could control every facet of exposure...so I am more than a little excited about such an animal entering my house again!!

My Mom;s Birthday

My mom, as it turns out, has a birthday.  I know, I know, you didn't even know they had calendars back then, but you'd be surprised how long calendars have been around.  I believe when my mother was born, they were  using an ancient Sumerian version.  Anyway, through divining and many complicated calculations, we determined when her birthday was and decided to celebrate it.

We did so at a local Mexican restaurant.  My sister and her husband and kids were also present.  Cora and I arrived about .3 seconds before my sister did...making us fashionably early and her late.

Of course, my mother got to wear a sombrero.  Note the youngest is trying to blow out the candle!

He's a charming little guy...and good looking, a lot like his uncle.

I like to call this one, Mother and Spawn, of course others might call it Mother and Children.

We don't talk about my dad much, because he's a swinger-no, REALLY, he swings!

My brother-in-law seems to stay out of pictures.  Or he tries.  I managed to capture this shot while he was unaware and in his natural surroundings.  I will be turning this one in to National Geographic to see if they will pay me for such a rare photo!  My sister, however, had great situational awareness, and knows that me+camera=candid photos.  She's a clever one.

So is Cora...

My mom.

My nephew at full speed!

My other nephew at even fuller speed!

and my niece at fullerer speed!

We went to a park afterwards, as you can see, these pictures were NOT in a restaurant.  I took photos the entire time...why not with such cute models?

I DID discover I need to choose my words wisely.  Below I found my nephew sitting on a toy and asked him to look up...

It turns out a "sense of humor" comes out early in my family...

He thought he was quite clever and followed my instructions to the word.  Smart alleck!

It was good getting together with everyone.  It seems we don't see family nearly often enough and by the time we do they have grown up so fast!  I had a great time!  Cora, and my sister, however, were apparently delectable morsels that the mosquitoes fed freely upon, and I am not so sure they enjoyed the park as much as the rest of us.

ruminating

I have been reading a book concerning the Space Race and the Race to the Moon.  I have been enjoying this book very much, although, since I am presently reading approximately three books at once, the going is slow.  The author was quoting from a speech by Kennedy about how he wished to end the space race and work cooperatively with the Soviet Union...etc., etc., ad nauseum.  Still, what played in my head was the speech we all know...at least part of...in which he says "we choose to go to the moon.... not because [it] is easy, but because [it] is hard."  Yes, that beloved president mispronounced the word "decade"...still, his meaning rings true.  It was these goals that set this mighty nation apart.

I sat, tonight, on our back step.  I looked at the stars and I thought of those words.  I thought of the president's description of the planets Venus and Mars as distant.  In truth, they are so very distant.  They seem but a speck of light in our night sky, but, compared to the stars which abound in our heavens...they are closer than we could ever imagine!  Even now there are man-made items on both of these planets.  That is a statement of Man's ingenuity!  We will go there.  

We may not have "Star Trek" technologies yet, but perhaps someday we will break that barrier.

My grandfather watched the stars.  Hell, he built his own telescope.  He ground the lenses himself.  I have always been enamored by the stars. I have been a science fiction fan for these many years simply because the books offer a jumping off point.  I wish I could visit them, but I recognize the time frames involved and hope that I can interest SOMEONE in completing the journey for me.  

I maintain that as long as someone remembers you, you never really die.  Maybe I can live on in my interest in space through one of the kids I teach, or maybe my own child.  

Those stars are there.  They hang from the night sky inviting you to reach out your hand to touch them and then they are back, 20,000 light years away.  It is an optical illusion performed by the darkness and the inability of our eyes to view such far-away objects with stereo vision that functions.

I watched them tonight...and I willd ream of reaching them, too.  The only way I will visit them is with an imagination.  fortunately, I seem to be overstocked in that!  

Good night folks!

More Fourth

Cora can attest to my fascination with strange clouds...the doctor says it's completely normal.

Cora took this one of me and the sparkler.  I like it.