Moving Day For A Stranger

Went up to Orange County with my friends  Mary and Sylvia to help Mary’s uncle move some of his belongings down here to San Diego. The day consisted of us driving up to Cypress, stopping first at a Starbucks to refuel ourselves before any heavy lifting, then stopping at a motorcycle shop/U-Haul rental business to pick up a 14-foot van, spending a couple of hours going through a lifetime of painstakingly organized memories, most from World War II (although finding a few Disneyland treasures that Mary said we could keep), loading only a few things into the U-Haul, having lunch at a Subway, me driving the U-Haul back down to San Diego, us unloading at the Paradise Valley assisted living facility after having met Rodrigo there to help us, fixing up the room for Mary’s uncle’s arrival tomorrow, and finishing up with a nice Chinese dinner at Mandarin-Canton in Chula Vista. A tiring but very productive day.

( v e r y   m o v i n g   p i c s )

Cats Again – Day Four

Fourth and final full day of cat-sitting for the neighbors. Today the focus was mainly on action shots with a few portraits thrown in. Slowly I’m getting to know what to expect and when with the cats. And slowly they are getting used to me shoving a camera into their personal spaces. But alas, tomorrow morning the adventure ends.

One Year Down

One year ago today I sheepishly posted my very first blog entry. It was quite brief, highly uninteresting and dismissible at best. In the year since that first almost stillborn post my regular viewership has exploded, literally tripling from just one reader (me) to an astounding three readers (still, including me)! And more than one third of all comments on my blog, including my replies, have been spam. I can honestly say that after 1,107 posts the success of this blog is proceeding exactly as planned. The future looks dimly bright indeed!

Cats Again – Day Three

Third day of watching the neighbors’ cats. All eight of them. All black. All large. All skittish. All rights reserved.

Tumblr Win For A Day

Apparently my Cotton-headed Tamarin and Red-headed Rock Agama photos on my Tumblr blog were very popular today. No idea why the surge, but grateful for the interest. Probably a lot of cross-blogging going on. I guess I need to start adding more images.

Nature's Realm

Starbucks With My Mom

Went for a post-Thanksgiving coffee trip to Starbucks with my mom today. Besides our beverages we also split a slice of delicious lemon loaf cake, which, unlike social media of late, never ceases to satisfy me.

 

Cats Again – Day Two

Second full day of cat-sitting for the neighbors. Not much to share other than it started on a cloudy morning with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, which I didn’t even watch, and ended with a night version of the morning shot.

Religious Insect

After our Thanksgiving dinner I noticed a praying mantis on the outside of our kitchen window screen. Not sure if he was praying to be asked in to join us in the holiday celebration or that he was eternally grateful for not being involved in our gathering and was perfectly happy eyeing us from the other side. Either way I was quite willing to bother it with my image-capturing hobby. And I’m uncomfortably certain that he’s looking right at me.

Thanksgiving With The Family

Seven ninths of our immediate family plus three kittens assembled for our Thanksgiving meal of turkey (duh), mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, asparagus, broccoli and yams. Completely forgot to make the gravy and the dressing. At least we can make those later for all the leftover turkey. For dessert we enjoyed cupcakes and both apple and pumpkin pies. The day ended with a really nice, puffy cloud-filled sunset to the west. All in all a pretty decent Thanksgiving. The glass of red wine probably helped.

Cool, Free Christmas Music

Excellent Christmas music for free from Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors.

Cats Again – Day One

First full day of cat-sitting for the neighbors once again. Pretty sunrise, a dead whale on the TV, cats everywhere…the usual stuff.

Wonderful, These Videos Three

Three fantastic videos to share. The first two are color film videos from Disneyland in 1956, a year after it opened and the same year that my family escaped Soviet-oppressed Hungary, and the third is a must watch for appreciating every day we are alive.

Home Movies At DisneyLand – 1956 from Jeff Altman on Vimeo.

Home Movies At DisneyLand – 1956 **Part Two** from Jeff Altman on Vimeo.

Just Glad They Were Ours

Witnessed a formation of military planes, consisting of a C130 Hercules and eight F-18 Hornets, circle over our neighborhood three times today. There actually was one more C130 and another F-18, but they were flying off to the side and not in formation. Couldn’t find any information about the reason for the flyover. Maybe a photo shoot. Like from me.

Pilot Ad

This is so well done! It can’t be any simpler and yet so visually descriptive.

 

Pilot: ‘Evolution’ from boolab on Vimeo.

November Kitten Update

Went over to my brother Ozzie’s house to spend a little time playing with the kittens. Amazing how fast they’ve grown into miniature cats. His normal sized cat, Cody, really wasn’t that interested.

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