To blog or not to blog, that is the question

Spring is in the air

2012-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

The weather in California is crazy. It is just February and their are buds showing up in the trees. It doesn't officially start getting warm here until March, but we've had some unseasonably warm weather.

Oh well, I took this picture and created a line drawing out of it.

Abstract art (so called)

2012-01-11T04:23:00.000-08:00

What I did here is take a picture of a Christmas tree with a long exposure and moving the camera vertically. I then applied an accented corners filter to the photo and this is the result.

Fire alram (neon)

2012-01-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

Saw this fire alarm in the men's bathroom and took a photo and applied a neon filter and this is what you get.

Clouds via hdr.

2012-01-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

Did I say how much I like to photograph clouds, well I do. I added a little effect called hdr. It gives a little pop to the clouds. BTW, can you spot the bird in the last photo, I didn't when I took the photo.

Christmas morning breakfast

2011-12-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yes people, this is what I normally eat when I first wake up. I like to have sweets with my coffee. You have to realize that I wake up 3 or 4 in the morning so I have no time to make breakfast, therefore I improvise and eat cookies or cake. Then, sometimes I'll have a regular breakfast at 9 or 10.

Writing on the cup

2011-12-21T06:02:00.000-08:00

One of the ladies at work owns this cup.

"Woe to those who fail to heed the writing on the cup!"

Railroad tracks

2011-12-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

No idea why i took this picture, but I did. I think it gives me that feeling of "infinity and beyond".

1940 Chevrolet

2011-12-10T08:31:00.001-08:00

Saw this boss looking car and had to get a photo. The owner was generous and let me take a couple of pixs. Unfortunately, it was parked in the open and the sun was blaring down on it. But I did manage to salvage one photo and with PS help, created this image.

Ana's Cafe

2011-12-09T06:51:00.001-08:00

A little Mexican restaurant that I like to go to has a mural inside. I liked the mural so naturally I took some photos, with the owners permission. Their food is good and they make a variety of dishes.

A larger picture of a portion of the mural.

Another gorgeous morning

2011-12-08T05:35:00.001-08:00

The picture says it all!

Cones cones.

2011-12-06T05:27:00.000-08:00

Went for a walk last week and saw these cones. I guess they want to make sure no one misses the plywood on the grass.

Trains & Toys

2011-12-05T07:20:00.001-08:00

My little grandson , Noah, likes Thomas the train and my VW van. So, the company that I work at had this Santa showcase in the building entrance. I found Thomas, VW van and a caboose and put them together. Now it looks like a complete train set with Thomas at the head and a caboose at the rear with a van in the middle.

Fall leaves effects

2011-12-02T07:28:00.001-08:00

Some weird effects from Photoshop on fall leaves.

Shadows

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

I really like this photo, especially how the shadows give life to it.

Photo taken at Santana Row.

Fall Colors at Work

2011-11-26T08:28:00.001-08:00

The company that I work for is located in in one of several buildings that encircles an outdoor atrium. The atrium has many flowers and trees and also a water fountain. I took this picture last week because I like the fall colors that are being displayed

Crepuscular Rays

2011-11-21T04:54:00.001-08:00

I was driving home yesterday morning and noticed this light show coming from my right side. I swerved my van drove up a couple side streets until I came to an empty lot and took these pictures. I'm glad I had my good camera and not my instamatic.

Chicago Sport Teams

2011-11-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Trip to Chicago 2011 (Barns)

2011-10-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Took these pictures of old abandoned barns in Orland Park

Bad to the Bone

2011-02-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, I was at a shopping mall and they had this school bus in the parking lot.They were selling rides for some school function. I totally could see me coming to school in this.

7 wives For 7 brothers

2011-02-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

My little princess likes the music in the movie 7 Wives for 7 Brothers. In this video, she displays her prowess for picking up music steps and then performing them.

1st Dance Recital

2010-12-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

My little princess had her 1st recital yesterday and I think we have the makings of a major dance performer. (Note to myself: find out were the next "So You Think You Can Dance" show is being held, and take Irelan there.)

Even more Fall colors

2010-12-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

More pictures taken at work. I'm not sure if you can tell how much I like the colors of Fall, but I do.

Tortillas

2010-12-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

My little princess wanted to help make tortillas. So her Nana set her up and the rest is history.

Santana Row

2010-12-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Some photos taken at Santana Row Plaza a couple weekends ago

Sun Flowers

2010-11-21T04:47:00.000-08:00

One of the ladies at work has these two sun flowers on top of her cubicle. I thought they were kind of neat so naturally a took a picture and increased the saturation of the colors to make them more vivid.

Viva ! chopper

2010-11-20T04:37:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to a party at a pizza place and there was this bike parked in fron. Really nice chopper, decked out. I took a picture and on my pc increased the sharpening level to where it created halos. The picture below is the result of my edit.

Lithuanian Flag & Fall

2010-11-19T04:22:00.000-08:00

Some info about the Lithuanian flag and also my attempt to create the colors of the flag with leaves.

Lithuania Flag

The flag of Lithuania was officially adopted on March 20, 1989. The Lithuanian flag was reprised after it regained independence from the Soviet Union. Before the re-adoption of the flag of Lithuania it was originally in use till 1940, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union. The idea of the tricolor used in the flag of Lithuania stemmed from the flag of French Revolution. The yellow color symbolizes the country's wheat fields, green symbolizes forests and red stands for the patriotic spirit. The colors together signify hope for the future, freedom from oppression and the undaunted courage of the Lithuanian people.

Fall part 2

2010-11-18T05:31:00.000-08:00

More fall colors....

Fall part1

2010-11-17T05:25:00.000-08:00

I've been taking some pictures around work when I go for my walks. I love the fall colors so the next couple blogs will be fall related.

Maria - West Side Story

2010-11-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

My little princess likes Maria, one of the actors in West Side Story. So my wife fixed up a dress, just like the one that Maria wears, and gave it to her. She likes it so much that she wears it all over the place. Below are pictures taken in our back yard with Maria.

Colosseum Pizza

2010-11-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

A friend of my daughters opened up a pizza parlor. I've been there a few times, great pizza and Philly cheese steak sandwiches. The ambiance is totally New York, but I can Bear (Chicago Bears) it because the food is great. If you're in San Jose, check it out. Located in North San Jose, near the Great Mall.

Send in the Clouds

2010-10-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, took a drive up to Ed Levine park in Milpitas. The clouds in the sky were developing and I wanted to get some shots with some nice background.

Rollers

2010-10-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Rollers located at work which held, at one time, electrical and fiber cables

A Day in San Francisco

2010-10-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I worked from our office in SF. I took some photos of the scenery around the building that I was working.

Outside on the side of the building, the street is the size of an alley. There is parking, providing you pay for it.

Looking down the small same street, this is the view you see of the Transamerica building.

No problems finding a bathroom facility. Again, the same little street.

Also, the same little street, there is dining.

Fire truck in a building, adjacent to where I was working.

That same hook and ladder fire truck on a call.

West Side Story Dance

2010-10-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

My little princess loves to watch West Side Story, so one early morning, she showed me some of the dance moves from the show.

Yellow Flower

2010-09-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago, after my morning workout, I noticed these yellow flowers growing at work. So, being the photo guy that I am, I got my camera from work and took some photos. I actually posted one of my photos and the other photo is a crop from the one I posted.

Kitten in a tree

2010-09-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, during my morning walk with my grandson, I saw this kitten on a tree. I took my camera out, snapped a shot and the kitten ran away.

Painted sky

2010-09-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

One of the perks for being an early riser and going out for an early morning walk is that you get to see a magnificent sky; and there definitely was one last weekend.

Lady Bug

2010-09-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

I was walking down the sidewalk with my little princess and she spotted a Lady Bug on the sidewalk. She likes Lady Bugs and so built a little house for her made out of leaves. But, before she built the house, she wanted a picture of it. OBTW, I convinced my Princess that she may be safer on a tree and that's where we left it.

Skypark

2010-09-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine traveled to Singapore and China for her summer vacation. Below are photos that she took in Singapore. The 3 tall buildings connected together is the Sands hotel, recently built. The building is 65 stories high and on top is a park and large swimming pool.

Princess Gardener

2010-09-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

My princess and I have a garden of tomatoes growing in the back yard. She helps me water and tend to the plants. Below are pictures of her in one of her many pretty dresses.

The King

2010-08-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

One of the sales ladies at work had a picture taken of herself with non other than Elvis Presley. She was a stewardess and Elvis happened to be on one of her flights. She also mentioned that Elvis was wearing one glove on his hands. It's hard to tell, but if you look close, you can see the glove on his right hand.

Grasshopper ????

2010-08-26T04:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, when I went to my van in the afternoon, I noticed this bug on the top roof edge. Upon further inspection, it looked like a grasshopper. I'm more used to seeing brown or darker green grasshoppers and with a longer body. This one was short and wide with a very vivid green color. Strange but interesting.

Light Rail

2010-07-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

In San Jose, a lot of people travel around on the Light Rail System that goes through town. Recently, train started sporting advertisement on some of its cabs. Below are some pictures I snapped while the train was moving down the tracks.

Treasure Island

2010-07-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I had to make an office visit to Kentwood, a town just North of San Francisco. On the way back, I got confused on my directions and ended up in Treasure Island. I thought as long as I'm here, I'll take a few photos. The weather was breezy and overcast, but I like this picture that I took so here it is. The bridge that you see is the Bay Bridge.

Face painting

2010-07-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

One of the agents at work had this painting on her wall. I liked how it looked so naturally I took a picture of it. Also included a photo of me taking a photo of this painting.

Grass fire

2010-07-25T05:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, one of my daughters friend's child had a recital and had a get to get together afterwords and she invited the whole family. Not having any set plans for the day I decided to go. They live in the east hills of San Jose. It had a great view. As it turned out, there was a brush fire in town and I was able to get some nice shots from my elevation. The day was hazy and I was trying out my new sd900 camera. Below are photos of the fire and the surrounding area of the house.

My Princess is 4!

2010-07-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

My Princess turned 4 a couple weeks ago. She had her real celebration, which was on her birthday, in Sacramento with her immediate family. My family decided that we should also celebrate her birthday so we also had a birthday cake about a week ago. Below are some pictures taken by my daughter.

Zebra box

2010-07-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

A box came in for one of our agents at work, it was from African Travel. I thought the box was perfect for what the organization represented.

Graffiti truck

2010-06-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I went for a morning walk and saw this truck parked in the driveway with some cool graffiti.Just had to get a picture of it.

Cow A Bunga

2010-06-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

Every now and then we get visits from hotels, here at work. A lot of the time, they will bring goodies for the agents working here. Millennium Hotels would bring these plastic, stress relief, cows. This year, it was the Durham, NC cow. In previous times it was Chicago and New York. One of the agents that I work with had these 3 cows on her desk, so naturally I put them together and took a photo.

Weekend superb.

2010-05-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my little princess spent the weekend with us. We took a trip to our park, she made breakfast and also watered the plants. Besides all that, she's cute to boot.

Telemundo

2010-04-28T07:41:00.001-07:00

Telemundo is only a block from my office. I took a picture of their sign in front of their building.

Odiferous

2010-04-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend. took a trip to the dump. Not the most pleasant place but very useful.

Trains, tracks & graffiti

2010-04-12T05:18:00.001-07:00

Last week I took a little walk on some tracks located near my work. I took some photos and here they are.

County of Santa Clara Seal

2010-04-08T11:14:00.001-07:00

A while back I was walking past the Probation Dept. building and saw this sign with the county seal on it. I thought, why not, so I took a picture of it.

Urinal Courtesy

2010-04-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

I hate going to the bathroom and seeing the urinals not flushed. It looks horrible and it smells. I always flush the urinal when I am done and I will flush any others that need flushing. I don't mind doing this because I use my foot to flush and not my hand. I've wanted to put a sign in bathrooms asking people to flush when they are done but never have. Someone actually did put a sign up and believe it or not, it has been working. Kudos to the fellow that did this.

Easter

2010-04-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

I had a great Easter weekend. Saw my little princess both days and had the family over.The family came over on Saturday for hamburger and hot dogs My wife gets mad at me because I don't take enough pictures of the family. The way I look at it, when it warrants it, I will take more pictures of them. For now, I enjoy taking pictures of my little princess. She got a new dress, I believe from her Grandma, and was showing it off.

2010-03-31T08:28:00.001-07:00

I saw this cloud formation early this morning. Looks like a super cell and if that's the case, then we will definitely have hail today. We have been having some strange weather lately. I am absolutely enthralled with the cloud formation.

Sprinkler Valve

2010-03-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a sprinkler valve setup located at my work site in Santa Clara

Blooming Trees

2010-03-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

I like to take a 3 mile walk on the weekends if I don't have to go in to work. This last Sunday, I took a picture of the street that I walk down and the trees were in full bloom. It looks a little like snow on the trees.

Shark Bait

2010-03-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Cool poster near my work. I had to take a picture of it. San Jose Sharks are a local NHL hockey team in San Jose.

Smug Cat

2010-03-12T04:36:00.001-08:00

This is a picture that was hung at the house of the company founder. It was a difficult photo shot because the picture is black and white with a glass frame and the sun shining on it. I made some adjustments in Photoshop to bring out the color and to reduce my reflection in the photo.

Black and White tree

2010-03-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

I took a picture of my company presidents back yard and especially liked this one particular tree in the middle of her yard. I also did a black and white conversion of the picture, and really liked it. Check it out below

Irelan on the Laptop.

2010-03-07T05:26:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Irelan spent some time with us and we watched "The Jungle Book" movie. The movie comes in a 2 disk case, 1 disk containing games. This is a picture of her playing a game on the computer.

Shall We dance?

2010-03-05T07:48:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the owner of the company that I work for is an avid art collector. Here are a couple more paintings that she has adorning the San Francisco office.

Identity Theft

2010-03-03T05:19:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me this email with some real good information. I thought I would pass it along.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add the bottom numbers to your contacts in your cell phone.

ATTORNEY' S ADVICE - NO CHARGE

Not A Joke!! Even If you dislike attorneys..You will love them for these tips.

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:

1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards . Instead, put ' PHOTO ID REQUIRED .'

2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers . The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS#printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have It printed, anyone can get it.

4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine . Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.
I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealinga Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards...

Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.
But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

5. We have been told we should cancelour credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

6.. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here's what is perhaps most important of all : (I never even thought to do this.)

7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number.. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name...

>>>The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit...

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks..

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888- 397-3742

3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289

4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):
1-800-269- 0271

Pretty / Ugly

2010-03-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

Walking in my yard I saw my neighbors tree branch hang over the fence on top of my old, rusted metal shed. I liked the contrast and took this picture.

LeBron

2010-02-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

One my co-workers has this poster on his wall. The poster pretty much says it all.

Morning at work

2010-02-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

This morning I went in early to work at my part time job. The office is located on the 3rd floor and has a nice view of the surrounding area. I noticed the sky start turning red so I got my camera and started shooting some photos. Below is one of the photos that I took

Birthday flowers

2010-02-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

The CEO, at the company that I work, celebrated a birthday last week and received the flowers pictured below.

Super Model

2010-02-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Little Irelan had some new clothes that she was wearing and I had to take some photos. Now people, understand one thing, I don't know how to pose anyone for clothes shoots. All I did was asked Irelan if I could take some shots of her and she did the rest. The poses that you see are all her doing.
All you Wall Street merchandising people out there, you may want to take note of an upcoming new super model.

Send in the clouds

2010-02-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

I saw more great looking clouds so naturally I took more pictures.

My super model on Super Sunday weekend

2010-02-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

My little princess spent some time with us this weekend and I had to get a shot of what she was wearing. She is always dressed so demurely.

My Desk.

2010-02-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of a shelf on top of my desk. As you can see, I have everything I need to get work done.

A fun time at the library

2010-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Irelan and I went to the Cupertino Library. They have a large aquarium on one side of the wall, full of fish. We also got on a computer to play some number and color games. Good time.

Picket Fence

2010-01-30T07:22:00.001-08:00

A couple weekends ago, I drove up to Grant Ranch Park up in the hills to see if I can see any snow on Mt. Hamilton. There was some snow but the road was closed and for me to get a nice picture of Mt Hamilton observatory would have required a very expensive lens. So I looked around Grant Ranch Park and took some pictures of the fence and some dew drops that were on the park.

Puffy Clouds

2010-01-29T04:21:00.000-08:00

I think we, in California, are so fortunate to have clean air and to have great looking clouds. I make it a point to always look up in the air and admire them. A couple weeks ago we had some nice puffy clouds and I snapped some photos.

Ed Levine Park 2009

2009-11-29T06:06:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, Khamalani, Darren, Seann and I drove to Ed Levine Park. The day was overcast and windy. The reason for the drive was to take some Christmas photos for Kama and her family. I took about 40 pictures and this morning I am working on sorting and editing the photos. I also took this photo of a tree near the shore of Sandy Wool Lake. You could see the waves on the lake caused by the wind. Nevertheless, I liked the composition so I took the shot.

Turkey Trot

2009-11-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving day, my daughter Shimaine and her friend Tasha ran a 10k race in downtown San Jose. A job well done to both ladies. I often wish I could run again, I really miss it. But, my knees are bad, so I am confined to walking which, in itself, is not a bad thing. I guess I should count myself lucky that I can still walk.

Fall Leaves

2009-11-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

I love the colors in Fall. Here are a couple pictures of red colored leaves. The rich red tones are really fantastic.

Humongous Waves

2009-11-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

This last weekend, the northern California coast had giant waves hitting the shores. An after effect of a storm, somewhere in the Pacific. I took my tripod and camera early Saturday morning and got these shots of the waves. I did suffer one casualty. The high waves were coming onto the shore, covering the whole beach where I was taking pictures. I found a small hill mound about 3 feet above the shore, near a cliff, to climb on to keep from getting wet. Unfortunately, there was no room for my tripod and I left it on the shore leaning against a wall cliff. A giant wave came, covered the beach with water, almost reached me and knocked my tripod down. I retrieved it, but it was covered with sand and water and tiny little animal creatures. I spent 3 hours Saturday trying to clean my tripod of the sand and grime that got lodged in it.

I'm not sure you can see the surfer catching the wave.

There are 2 surfers in this picture, one on top of the wave the other near the bottom.

Casto Lights

2009-11-06T04:49:00.001-08:00

A couple days ago, the place that I work at, Casto Travel, had their outside sign illuminated. Now, anyone traveling down 1st street near Trimble, will be able to see our location.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

On Halloween night, we were visited by the devil, little Seann came down to show us his costume. Celena and Tijan, who sometimes babysit him, posed for a picture.

Little Irelan went as Princess Jasmine and was joined by our neighbor Henna ,who went as Snow White.

The day after Halloween, Irelan let me take a couple of pictures of her in her costume

Mushrooms

2009-10-23T05:34:00.001-07:00

Of course, after the rains come the mushrooms.

Raining Cats & Dogs.

2009-10-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

That same day that I took those pictures of the ominous clouds, in the afternoon , the sky opened and a deluge of rain came pouring down. It only lasted 15 minutes, but in those 15 minutes we had wide spread flooding everywhere. We are definitely experiencing crazy weather.

Ominous clouds

2009-10-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, early morning, I looked in the sky and saw this strange cloud formation. It looked like there was smoke emanating from the sky. A very foreboding look.

Then I turned around and saw this rainbow.

JapanTown in San Jose

2009-10-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday went to Japantown with a couple of co-workers and had some Japanese food. Good stuff, I like the teriyaki steak and deep fried vegetables. The photo below is a banner hanging on a street light.

Fall at work

2009-10-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Fall is upon us and our environment is beginning to change. I walked around work a couple days ago and snapped these photos

Renaissance Faire

2009-10-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

This last weekend the family made a trip to the Renaissance Faire in Hollister, CA. My 2 daughters, wife, son-in-law and of course Irelan and her mom. Everyone was in agreement that it was a great time. As usual pictures are provided with some commentary. Enjoy

The morning of the Renaissance Faire, Irelan spent the night at our house and these are a couple of shots of Irelan posing eating her cereal breakfast.

This is one of the open areas at the Faire.

We stopped at site that was having a puppet show and let Irelan enjoy it. I don't think she was the only one enjoying it

Irelan wanted to get on this big, humongous swing, so Tasha and I got on it with her. It was a lot of fun but I felt sorry for the 2 large burly men that had to swing us.

I liked these ribbons that where hanging. The colors gave a nice presentation of the colors at the Faire.

One of the performers.

This was the stage of a really funny show put on by 2 really funny ladies.

Some material sold at the Faire.

I don't know what this is or what it represents but I knew I had to get a picture of it.

I really liked this hanging glass ornament

Future be told.

After the Faire, we visited a farm that had a lot of interesting play things for kids

On the way home, everyone was tired. Tasha and the princess took the opportunity to get some shut eye.

Firewood

2009-09-22T05:29:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I received my firewood delivery, 3 cords of it. It took a couple of days to stack it in my backyard but I finally finished with the help of my son-in-law and neighbor. I've been doing this for 30 years and it doesn't get any easier. It's good to have help.

The wood piled on my driveway.

My backyard before the wood.

My backyard with about 65% of my wood stacked

My backyard with all the wood stacked.

Pirate

2009-09-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

Saw this cool ornament in the parking lot, so I took a picture. I have a few more that I will be showing in the near future.

Fire

2009-09-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Camouflage Turtle

2009-09-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

Light Pole Base.

2009-09-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is the base of one of the light poles in a parking lot. Interesting rust design.

Egyptian scroll

2009-08-31T07:37:00.001-07:00

The president of the company where I do weekend work went on a trip to Egypt. While there, he picked up various Egyptian picture scrolls. Most of the workers have them hanging on their walls, so I took pictures of them and will show them on my blog at different times.

The Wedding

2009-08-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

The bride was pretty, the groom was handsome, the decorations were in place, the food was being prepared, the weather was cooperating (somewhat), the Rev was at his best and the parents were there, what could possibly go wrong, I ask you , what could possibly go wrong....nothing, nada, nyet. Everything went off without a hitch. There were a couple miscues, but they were quickly remedied. The only other obstacle was the heat, it had to be 95 degrees outside. Thank goodness for shade. I had some shade but I knew I was going to need more. I went to my neighbors and they generously provided more .
I didn't think that my daughter could get any prettier, but she did. She looked gorgeous and the groom was handsome. Hard to beat that combination.
It was nice to see all of Celena's immediate family here. Even her great aunt came in from Bakersfield. As a side note, Bakersfield is located in a desert, but I gotta believe that it was probably cooler there than it was here. The heat here was incredible.
It was nice to see Tijan's parents, Gary and Althea, who flew in from the east coast. Also flying in from Atlanta was his sister Robyn and her daughter Keyera.
As usual, below are some photos.

The wedding eve

2009-08-29T05:09:00.001-07:00

It's Friday night and I've met the parents of my son-in-law and I'm impressed. What a fantastic couple. The mother is warm and charming and the father is genuine and almost as funny as me, maybe funnier if that's possible. I spent a lot of time talking to the father. What a history he has to share. He and a friend went to Woodstock 40 years ago and spent 2 days there in the rain and the mud. He came to watch his friend, Ritchie Havens, perform. He met all of the early great performers, Temptations, Drifters etc, etc. In his college years, one of his roommates father was a promoter or organizer (I'm not sure), of the early rock and roll groups. The friends father got him a job at the Apollo as a go-fer and that's where he met a lot of performers.
We started setting up the trestle for the next day wedding, below are some photos.

On a side note, this morning, as I'm writing my blog, I'm nervous, anxious and excited, and I'm not the one getting married. I still have a lot of work to do to prepare my yard, for the friends and family that will be arriving later. Today is all about my daughter. Whatever help she needs or job done, it will happen. The only job that I need to mentally prepare for is the officiating at the wedding ceremony. I hope I don't blow it. Other than that, I will be at my daughters beckon call. For I am The Rev and a father; and today, the father supercedes The Rev.

OBTW, found out yesterday that my daughter is having a Boy. Can't wait!

My daughter and my little princess

A photo of my daughter, no flash and hand held.

The future Mr & Mrs

24hr MickeeDee

2009-08-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

On weekends, when I drive to my 2nd job, I go in around 3 or 4 am. I always stop by a McDonald on the way there and pick up a large coffee. The place where I work at has one of those cappuccino makers which I have no clue how to use, so I bring my own. This one morning I decided to get a picture of their drive through window.
On a side note, tonight I will be meeting my daughters fiance's parents for the first time. I'm a little apprehensive but if they are anything close to what their son is like, I know that I will like them right away.
The wedding is tomorrow, the butterflies in my stomach have morphed to birds. I know that everything will go well, how could it not? It's my little girls wedding and I will make it go well. Besides, I'm the Rev.

Antenna Ornament

2009-08-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

In my usual search to find things to photograph, I thought it would be fun to photograph antenna ornaments, I think that's what they're referred as. So, I will be interspersing these pictures ever now and then. On a side note, I can't believe that I came up with that word, interspersing.