Nov 28 2012
Ran a buttload of errands with my mom which included a lunch stop at Waldo’s Chili Dogs at Clairemont Square. I’d eaten there once before and I knew how much my mom likes hot dogs. We both ordered the Avocado Bacon Hot Dog and they were really good. We split a bag of Fritos and I washed my meal down with a Coke.
Can a lunch get any more American than this?
Nov 26 2012
Had to take the car back to our mechanic at Tune Craft yet again to get ongoing problems taken care of. Second time in about a month after a long string of repairs. The car has been a bit of a lemon since the beginning, but it’s kind of stuck in the middle of that “keep repairing” or “new monthly car payments” area.
At least Shawn, the manager at Tune Craft, always treats us very well and helps out as much as he can, but I do not look forward to the phone call with an estimate on how much this round is going be.
Nov 25 2012
Using an Amazon.com coupon code for a $1.99 Christmas album I purchased “Holidays Rule” with songs performed by a wide variety of artists.
Not bad for less than $2 and yay for adding new Christmas music to my collection.
Nov 24 2012
While out in the backyard this morning I watched another Monarch Butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, our fourth in about a week, with another three still to hatch. This one was hiding under the lip of a large, plastic flower pot.
Never get tired of watching this happen.
Nov 24 2012
Beautiful, early morning fog, one day into my short house/cat-sitting stint for the neighbors. This is the milky view towards the canyon behind their house. Took a couple of hours to burn off and become a gorgeous, sunny day.
Nov 23 2012
Had a much-needed afternoon of distractions with the four Tapias in Chula Vista. It began with a great lunch from Los Panchos followed by a Starbucks run for my usual tall, decaf, Caramel Macchiato with extra caramel. We stopped to briefly harass the Vander Schuurs before taking a leisurely drive along by the South Bay bike path at sunset.
Nov 22 2012
Had our annual most-of-the-family Thanksgiving get together at our house. This time the food was generously provided by my older brother and his family members, instead of my mom having to make most of the dishes, and it was a lunch instead of a dinner. It was all really good.
Next year, for the benefit of all family members with eyes, I’m going to wait until the fog/clouds roll in before taking an outside group shot.
Nov 19 2012
Came across this sleek alligator lizard staring at me through my bathroom window. At first I was a little uncomfortable, like when a pet sees you naked. It whistling at me and waving a dollar bill didn’t help either.
Nov 19 2012
I finally upgraded my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Once I knew I could run my main apps in the new operating system I decided to take the $20 plunge.
The downloading and installation went off without a hitch, as I expected. Spent a good chunk of the afternoon familiarizing myself with the new features that I had only read and heard about. It won’t take me very long to adjust to the new way of computing, but what is taking me a while to get used to is the scrolling in the opposite direction. Too many years of doing it the same way on too many computers.
Love the Notification Center, especially since Growl notifications stopped working with the last update to Snow Leopard.
One huge unfortunate that I did not expect was losing every single Stickies note I had written and saved. Luckily I had an fairly recent Stickies Database I could open in TextEdit and copy into the newly created database, but I still lost a few recent notes.
And I can now finally take full advantage of iCloud and all it’s syncing.
Plus, one of the main reasons for upgrading to Mountain Lion was so that I could download and begin using iBooks Author. I have so many ebook ideas I’d like to create from all my photos and then put online in the iBookstore.
Should be a fun next few days and weeks.
Nov 17 2012
After my morning RV adventure in Poway, I drove down to Chula Vista to spend some quality time with Rodrigo, Sylvia, Stitch and Lilo. Our hanging out involved a Starbucks run to try their annual holiday-time drinks, enjoying some fantastic stew that Sylvia crock-potted for lunch, a shopping trip to Sam’s Club, and ordering amazing pizza and potato skins from La Bella’s for dinner while watching Disney’s “Brave”.
Pretty darn good day.
Nov 17 2012
Saw the most incredibly bright and full double rainbow that I had ever seen in my life this morning. Because of the angle of the sun directly behind me and the small rain shower directly in front of me, it created perfect circumstances for a stunningly vibrant sighting.
It started out as a long, three-quarter arc behind Mt. Soledad. But slowly, as the rain shower headed straight for me, the rainbow brightened, doubled, became an entire half-circle and moved in front of the mountain. And because the shower was moving very slowly, the rainbow lasted for about twenty minutes before the rain finally hit us and the colors faded into nothing.
The rainbow was so huge that this image is actually eight overlapping vertical photos combined together.
Except for the small bit on the right that is hiding behind the trees, I can honestly say that I have seen and captured the perfect rainbow.
Nov 16 2012
I virtually attended a free, live online presentation by Stephen Burns, an Adobe Community Professional and head of the San Diego Photoshop Users Group, entitled “From Imagination to Digital Canvas“. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for half of the one and a half hour tutorial but still, I learned some new tricks I look forward to implementing if I ever decide to work in 3D.
Nov 15 2012
I was part of a San Diego Zoo Google+ Hangout this evening where the Zoo’s ambassador, Rick Schwartz, presented research findings and answered questions about his recent trip to study koala conservation on Bee’s Island, Australia. There were four of us in the hangout: Rick, Matt Steele, the moderator and Zoo’s Social Media Planner, and Victor, a long-time friend of Rick’s. Another friend of mine, Michelle, who, along with her son, Dylan, enjoys the Zoo at least as much as I do, if not more, and who writes a terrific blog about her adventures at the Zoo with an emphasis on animal conservation, was also supposed to also participate but she unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute for health reasons.
For me the hangout started out a bit rough with the words to my questions becoming jumbled in my brain before they even had a chance to come out. After the second question I began to settle in a bit better. One friend told me I fidgeted too much. Another friend told me my voice was too high. I embarrassingly agree with both of them. I felt awkward and uncomfortable at first and probably should have practiced a little ahead of time. I’ve had plenty of video chats, but they were all very informal and with friends I talk to every day. This time I needed to be more “professional”, which I kind of failed at. Plus I was bizarrely aware of total strangers watching this live. I’m sure I’ll do better the next time. I already have my backdrop setup ready to go. That I did practice.
After we went “Off Air” Rick and Matt stuck around with me so I could get all the questions I had prepared answered. I had sent all my questions to Rick in advance so he could be ready. For that portion I was casual, relaxed, not fidgety, deeper voiced and more myself. Figures.
Still, I had fun and hope to do it again.
Nov 15 2012
Took my mom for her regularly scheduled three-month checkup with Dr. Romero. Her blood pressure was good, there were no changes to the few medications she takes, and she got her flu shot. Overall it was a very positive visit.
Dr. Romero is really good with her. He is patient, really takes his time and listens to her stories.
Nov 14 2012
Had a setup rehearsal with Matt, the San Diego Zoo’s social media guru, for tomorrow evening’s live Google+ Hangout with Zoo Ambassador Rick Schwartz. This will be his second such online get-together since his return from studying koala conservation in Australia.
There will be many watching, but only three of us interacting with Rick and Matt, one of whom is Michelle (she has an excellent blog), a zoo-loving, photographer friend of mine. The entire hangout will be available later on the Zoo’s YouTube channel.
The first picture shows my cluttered area and simple backdrop setup. Have fun snooping all the detritus. (Yes those are pirate skulls, peanut m&ms, scissors hanging from a finger, Zoo cups and Toy Story toys. And no need to worry, those medicine containers do not actual contain prescribed medication.)
The second image is just a screen capture of our hangout rehearsal. The backdrop worked pretty well, I think.
I’m really looking forward to this live video chat.
My life...and escape
Chattin' with Matt
