Mar 21 2012

My Twitter Birthday

To celebrate Twitter’s sixth anniversary, I tried out a horribly named free service called TwBirthday that, once you input your Twitter handle, tells you what day you created your account and gives you a couple of other items of information, such as your godfather (first person you followed, I’m assuming; mine was tech podcasting babe, Cali Lewis) as well as an age percentage that I’m not 100% certain I understand, and your total time with an account in hours, months, days and years. Not terribly useful, but still, the certificate they create for you is a little cool.

Mar 20 2012

The Life Of Flowers

Really pretty stop-motion video of all sorts of colorful flowers opening up.

Mar 19 2012

Tapias House Sitting Day Five

My final day at the Tapias, after their return from Colorado, began with an early morning flyover of a loud and very large, low-flying military aircraft, descending toward North Island Coronado through the bottom of the dripping rain clouds. Lunch was a plateful of Delimex rolled tacos that Sylvia added deliciously fresh home-made salsa to as we watched the slightly disappointing season finale to “The Walking Dead” that was recorded the night before. The day, and my time in Chula Vista, ended with a drive home during a fantastic, post-rainstorm sunset.

Mar 18 2012

Tapias House Sitting Day Four

My last full day of house-sitting for Sylvia and Rodrigo. Started out with occasional heavy downpours and incredibly strong wind gusts, proof of which is the large, broken branch from the neighbor’s tree across the street, sandwiched between minutes of blue sky and sunshine. The one outdoor shot below was taken sandwiched between some steady rain and a powerful hail storm. Very bizarre weather patterns. Shooting a few more photos of Lilo and Stitch was the main extent of my day’s activities until that last shot which shows us in the cell phone parking lot near the airport, impatiently waiting to pick up their much missed parents.

Mar 17 2012

Tapias House Sitting Day Three

So today was a really rainy day which meant I was stuck inside. Didn’t really mind though since I had fun with Lilo and Stitch, including Lilo helping me get the mail and Stitch playing tug-a-war with his shredded, pink monkey. I also took a bunch more pictures, got updates about WonderCon from Randy, and I had my computer to play/work on. Most of the pictures today were macro shots of items I found around the Tapias’ house including some Disney toys, Coca Cola items, religious symbols, some of Sylvia’s bathroom art and, of course, a couple of items about Mickey (the dog, not the mouse). Kept checking on the poor little hummingbird nesting in the patio. She kept dry but I’m sure she wasn’t very comfortable with the rain, wind and humidity.

Tomorrow will be my final house-sitting day. I’m guessing there’ll be more pictures.

Mar 16 2012

Tapias House Sitting Day Two

Of course there are obviously the required daily shots of the doggies, but I also had a nice lunch with my good friend, Lannie, today at a nearby Rubio’s. We did what we always do…talk about our lives, but mostly about our friends’ lives. Normally I have my usual two fish tacos, but today I wanted something different. I tried the Salsa Verde Pan-Seared Shrimp Taco Plate which was amazingly fresh and good. It came with sliced avocados and was covered in cheese, a creamy chipotle sauce, cilantro and onions, and cabbage. I also added more cilantro and onions as well as some green chili sauce and some juice from fresh limes which made it over-the-top delicious. And since it was a plate, I had it with pinto beans and chips.  Would have no problem ordering this meal again.

Today, like yesterday, ended with a fun video chat between Sylvia and Rodrigo in Colorado and the dogs and me here in Chula Vista.


Mar 15 2012

Tapias House Sitting Day One

After being picked up the night before, spending the night and then dropping them off at the airport long before even the sun got up, I began my house-sitting for the Tapias by getting shots of not only their fur-kids, Lilo and Stitch, but also of a hummingbird that began nesting on an Asian-themed wind chime in their backyard patio.  In between photo sessions I did some weeding for them since it’s what I like to do to relax. And so went the sunny portion of day number one. The day ended with a video chat with Sylvia and Rodrigo from Colorado so they could see their kids from 800 miles away.


Mar 14 2012

Spanish Village Sculpture Garden

The final portion from yesterday’s adventures for my mom and me was a quick stop at the Sculpture Garden inside the Spanish Village Art Center at Balboa Park. Some sculptures I found a bit unorthodox, but there were others that were just outstanding. Life-sized figures, made of either wood, terracotta, metal or resin, are exceptionally well done, and all by local artists. May stop here every time I visit the nearby Natural History Museum just to see if they have anything new to show. It may also finally make me check out all the other artist vendors in this colorful little Village.


Mar 14 2012

Lunch At The Zoo

After leaving the Botanical Building, my mom and I walked next door to the San Diego Zoo. Since I’m a member I got us both in for free. We mainly went to have a nice lunch together and possibly stop to see an animal or two. Our lunch was at the terrific Albert’s Restaurant, by far the nicest eatery at the zoo. My mom had a small Caesar salad and I had the Linguini Pasta with shrimp that was incredibly good. There’s a really nice waterfall that adds a pleasant, if a little loud, ambience to the outdoor eating area. After finishing lunch and a quick stop at the bonobos, our choice of animals to view on this visit were the Western Lowland Gorillas, appropriate since the restaurant was named for Albert, a four-month old silverback that arrived at the zoo from Africa in 1949 and who passed away in 1978. The old gorilla grotto where Albert lived was situated where the restaurant is now located. The gorillas this day weren’t very active, but they were still fun to watch. Any day you can have lunch at Albert’s and then watch a band of gorillas is a good day.


Mar 14 2012

Back To The Orchids

Made a return visit to the Botanical Building at Balboa Park in downtown San Diego, this time with my mom and my sister. Since my mom loves flowers, I mainly wanted her to see all of the amazingly colorful species of orchids that were blooming, but I think my sister took at least many pictures as I did when I first saw them a few days ago. I myself added quite a few more to my photo collection, this time taking some with my macro lens. I really wish they would have had the orchids identified so I could have titled them accurately. Afterwards we watched a couple of turtles swimming around in the Lily Pond before we headed out of the park.  Next visit will be for my mom to see all the Easter Lilies that will be on display.

( b o t a n i c a l   p i c s )

Mar 13 2012

The Most Astounding Fact

Wonderful video put to a TIME magazine interview answer by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, who was asked the question, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?”

Mar 12 2012

Surprise Calendar Addition

So, when I renewed my D23 (Disney) membership a while back I didn’t realize that they would send me a 23-month calendar as a gift. That makes 25 total that I need to change ever month now. Not complaining though. It was a nice surprise. Each month has wonderful concept artwork from various Disney movies and their calendars are always really high quality. Plus this one is good for two years.

Mar 11 2012

Time With The Tapias

Spent some time with my friends, the Tapias, playing with their fur-kids (Lilo and Stitch), discovering a juvenile alligator lizard with an impressively long tail, helping Rodrigo flush the pool filter, visiting Sylvia’s parents, running errands at Costco and Home Depot, rewarding ourselves with a trip to Starbucks, and then lounging and watching an entertaining “Eagle Eye” with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. All in all, a productively fun visit.

Mar 10 2012

Brand New Condor Chick For San Diego

A newly hatched California Condor chick emerged today under the watchful eyes of its parents, Shatash (mom) and Sisquoc (dad), as well as that of the San Diego Zoo’s Condor Cam. Pretty darned amazing that, thanks to Internet webcams, anyone in the world can witness this kind of event live. Sisquoc even pooped on camera, which wasn’t quite as adorable.

Mar 10 2012

Mami’s Taxing Day

Today I escorted my mom to a tax preparation help appointment. The organization is called Home Start and while they were all very nice and cordial, I didn’t leave with the greatest of confidence in them being able to help her. At one point there were three people trying to figure out her return. She came away owing the government a lot more than she was expecting. Good thing she went to church afterwards to try and forgive. Not sure it helped, though.

Content Protected Using Blog Protector By: PcDrome.