Aug 12 2011
Walked 4.41 miles with the Tapias this evening around Mission Bay just outside of SeaWorld. Started at dusk and ended at a non-blood-sucking twilight. Matter of fact it didn’t suck at all. We saw all kinds of wildlife: egrets, terns, rabbits, jumping fish and a gaggle of practicing roller derby broads.
Aug 11 2011
My old friend and client, Harriet, got the old work gang back together for lunch after a few year hiatus. She chose a newer restaurant in Del Mar called Flavor and the food was excellent. We started with freshly baked bread with warm butter and four different flavored salts followed by an appetizer of Grilled Flat Bread covered with all kinds of vegetarian ingredients. For my main course I enjoyed a very good Maine Lobster Roll sandwich served with freshly made house chips that tasted great but weren’t quite as crunchy as I had hoped. I would go back as well as recommend the joint to others.
Aug 10 2011
Had a nice, long, sometimes silly birthday video chat with Brenda. First one in a long time. She loved the canvas print of Musashi, laughed at the cowboy birthday video and wondered about the birthday song video. It all went according to my plan.
Aug 10 2011
Brenda received my photo on canvas of Musashi for her birthday today. She actually started crying when she opened it while on the phone with me. But crying in a good way. I also sent her two completely silly birthday videos because I felt they were necessary.
Musashi
Aug 09 2011
Was lucky enough to capture a very healthy Monarch Butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Forgive the poor cell phone video quality.
Aug 07 2011
Spent a little over an hour with my sister Beata setting up decorations for a surprise birthday dinner for Jeri after she and my nephew Stephen returned from their trip to Catalina Island. We had really good burritos and tacos from Chipotle that my brother Ozzie had picked up followed by some delicious chocolate cake and ice cream.
Aug 07 2011
While spending the night in the Tapias’ backyard studio, I was shocked awake by what turned out to be two very unhappy raccoons fighting next to and in the Tapias’ pool. There was so much vicious screeching and splashing that when I first awoke I had no idea what was going on. It didn’t last very long and they both walked away in different directions leaving wet paw prints behind.
Here is a sample of just one distressed raccoon. Imagine two of these, in the dead of night, right outside an open window you might be sleeping under.
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Aug 06 2011
Setup a small outdoor movie theater in the Tapias’ backyard patio complete with hanging chairs, projector and drape-screen to watch the movie “Rio.” The movie looked fantastic with amazing animation, but at times the main characters seemed flat and uninteresting, had poor dialogue and overall it was pretty predictable. Some of the main characters I thought were also totally miscast. I do not think Jesse Eisenberg was a good choice for Blu. Even the musical numbers seemed forced. But the detail in the animation was outstanding. It’s a great movie for young children. After the movie we watched two episodes of “Firefly” which were fantastic as always.
Aug 06 2011
Went for an impromptu, short walk along Mission Bay just east of SeaWorld on a picture postcard southern California day with Sylvia, Rodrigo, Lilo and Stitch. Finished the outing off with a deliciously sweet Berry Blast Slurpee and a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from 7 Eleven.
Aug 05 2011
Second day of watching the neighbors’ cats and dogs. (Other than working on Oxnard photos and watching podcasts, I didn’t do much else today. Sad? Maybe. Pathetic? Youbetcha.)
Aug 04 2011
Starting another animal-sitting stint for the neighbors. This one’s for three days, two nights and still with two dogs that need meds and eight cats that sleep a lot.
Aug 03 2011
Received a canvas print today of the wagon and barrels photo that I shot in Old Town back on July 14. As always I am very happy with the quality that Picture It On Canvas produces.
Aug 03 2011
My photo of a Coast Horned Lizard was added to a group of other lizard shots on a Live Journal page on 500px. My plans to take over the Internet are crawling along nicely.
Little Dragons
Aug 02 2011
Drove around Camarillo checking out the three houses our family lived in while us kids went to schools in the area. They seem much smaller than my younger mind remembers.
Aug 02 2011
Spent over an hour walking around my old high school in Oxnard with my sister and mom, taking pictures and chatting with a few of the staff including the new school principal.
