Monday, January 31, 2011

31/365

31/365
It's Hay, just after her Girl Scouts meeting tonight. Someone came in and did origami for the girls. I told her to sniff the flower she had and she complied.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

30/365

30/365
This was shot last year on the UW campus. My friend Evan invited Rye and I to a Huskies basketball game. I didn't get any good shots today and I thought this shot was fitting since Rye and I had a boy's weekend with the girls away.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

29/365

29/365
This flower salesman came in during PLFC's set today at the Comet. Sadly, no one wanted to buy flowers from him. Instead, people just wanted to

ROCK.

Friday, January 28, 2011

28/365

28/365
Angry Birds. What else is there to say?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

27/365

27/365
Cheating again. This was shot last year. I chose this picture though because it'll be what I'll be playing on Saturday at the Comet with the Scheme.

I love this bass.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

26/365

26/365
Haley taking a picture of Bella. Trying to see if I can do post production on my phone. It's pretty limited but it's something.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

25/365

25/365
Saw a spectacular sunset today outside Petsmart. Actually they were more pink clouds instead of sunset. Hope the phone's camera did it justice.

Monday, January 24, 2011

24/365

24/365
For about the past 7 days or so, a rattling noise has been emanating from our laundry room. It's not our washer or dryer, not the cat goofing around in her litter box, no. It's a rock tumbler that Haley got for Xmas and it's been going crazy tumbling rocks.

We started off with rocks. They went in said tumbler for something like 3 days. Then it was rinse and repeat, for another 4 days. Since it finished last night and I didn't want to hype Hay out right before bed, I did it for one more day's tumble.

So tonight I grabbed them and rinsed them. Here is how they look for now. Done, right?

Nope.

Bust out polishing powder #4 for another 4 days. Put it in the barrel with the stones, push the button and deal with the noise.

Here's what it sounds like visually:

POIALSJAFOIUSLDKJVOIZXUOIUELJLSADOIUZXCLKJXVOIUOIEWQOIULKJCOIAAKEIA

For real. Luckily from upstairs it just sounds like it's pouring rain outside.

Nancy: can you name the rocks??

Sunday, January 23, 2011

23/365

23/365
Took this today before embarking on about 6 hours of pressure washing. I love and hate doing it. Things look so nice when you're done, but what a pain to get to that point!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

22/365

22/365
I shot this a year ago at Pike Place. Don't know the busker, but in going through the archives, I thought I could tweak it a little and make it look cool, you dig?

21/365

21/365
Dinosaur at the Pacific Science Center. Staying the night here with Hay.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

20/365

19/365
A blurry camera phone shot of Haley at an after school thing tonight.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

19/365

19/365
Would you believe I took this shot off of a reflection of a lake?

No?

Well, good, because it's not.

The moon was blinding and I wanted a shot of it. It was clear so I took the tripod out to the back yard.

I've done moon shots before so I tried moving off the deck. It wasn't until I got to the computer that I saw the branch. I actually thought it looked kind of neat and that if you flipped your brain, it kind of looked like it was trying to TOUCH THE MOON.

Oh, yes. Profound.

I wanted the moon halo too, and it's sort of there. I closed down the aperture and slowed down the shutter for some movement, but I couldn't get both clouds/halo and clear moon at the same time.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

18/365

18/365
This is from last year and I feel lousy tonight so too bad. I think I may have even posted this on my FB rejects page last year, so too bad.

In an amazing coincidence, Riley is on a hard-boiled egg kick and tonight Marci made him one for snack tomorrow.

WOW.

Monday, January 17, 2011

17/365

17/365
My two best friends. I went to band practice tonight and Bella always loves it when that happens. When I'm not around, she shoves herself between Marci and the couch.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

16/365

16/365
There's a guy I know through the Magic of the facebook. I've never met him in person, but we have some mutual friends and a mutual love for photography. We've spent some time chatting and admiring each other's pictures.

He is one of those guys that can ROCK a beard. I know a few guys like that, and many who can't, including myself.

Not that I'd want a beard, but maybe have it as an option?

Anyway, this is tonight and I haven't shaved since Thursday. Envy it!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

15/365

15/365
Taken at Latitude/Longitude:47.632100/-122.315948. 0.74 km East Broadway Washington United States (Map link)

A year ago today I hit up the Seattle Conservatory with a friend of mine. I didn't take any nice pictures today, so here's a flower from last year.

Friday, January 14, 2011

14/365

14/365
Ok, Pinewood Derby Photo Week culminated tonight in the actual Derby.

There were 26 heats tonight, each one lasting about 2 to 2.5 seconds. Riley's car had some mods done to it prior to racing. We glued some weights back on as some of the graphite ones fell off. In addition, he had to have his number changed from 98 to simply 9. He was a little alarmed as he thought he did something wrong (tears in his eyes; he took it all very seriously), but when we explained it to him, he was fine.

In all, each car competed in 4 heats, once in each lane. Unfortunately, Riley started the night 2 for 2, both times finishing last.

He took it well, though. We tried to explain that competition isn't always about winning. In fact, when the scout leader asked about competition when we started, Riley volunteered by saying exactly that, that winning isn't everything.

Anyway, on his third go-round, he got third place.

You'd think he was on an Oprah's Favorite Things episode. He freaked out!

I was at the other end of the track (the raised end) and I saw him jump into Marci's arms. She told me he was screaming and had tears in his eyes again, he was so excited!

His last heat, he finished last again, but he had fun. At the end of the night (almost 4 hours of time spent at the church!), he got a ribbon and in his den, he finished 4th out of 5 members. He was a little bummed he didn't get a trophy, but he was happy he did it.

Now that he and I have some experience with the Pinewood Derby, I think we'll do better next year. We'll go for more of a wedge shape, and place the weights a bit more strategically.

It was a good time.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

13/365

13/365
Here's Riley's car in all its glory. We took it over to the church tonight for a test run. The track is pretty epic. Maybe 25' long or so, with a finish line and sensors that tell you place of finish and time.

Apparently the cars can be up to 5oz and Riley's was 3.5 or something, so that silver chunk you see under the nose are some graphite weights. It's pretty much at 5oz now.

He raced with another boy's car tonight and kept getting beat. Apparently we need to put the weights toward the rear of the car (which we haven't done yet).

When we got home, he was in a little mood and it turned out that he was having second thoughts about racing tomorrow night as he didn't think he would win.

We told him the standard "it's not about winning; it's about participating" line, but, in reality, it would be cool to win.

However, I did see one guy's car (one of the dads that's been doing it for years). It was red, basically shaped like a doorstop, with the notches below (where the wheel nails go) filled to minimize drag. In addition, it was painted and shellacked and probably had less wind resistance than an arrow.

That car flew down the track.

Our car? With all the swoops and cuts, well, it may win the Most Asthetically Pleasing prize, but I'm hoping we don't finish last in the actual races.

More from our Pinewood Derby tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

12/365


alt="12/365" />
My dashboard. I was gonna upload one from 2010, but didn't have any on this date. Apparently I had already purged it.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

11/365

11/365
A friend gave me a new refurbished cell phone. For all intents and purposes it is a new phone. Trouble is there is no physical keyboard and it takes way too long to type a message. Here's a pic I took of myself using a free camera app I downloaded. Cute, huh?

Keep in mind, the guy and the border are part of the app.

Monday, January 10, 2011

10/365

10/365
I have not turned this into an All Riley, All the Time blog, no. He has his own blog for that. But he is currently my most interesting subject.

My post yesterday was surprisingly popular and got a lot of comments on the flickr (thanks!). An old friend also contacted me via the facebook, saying I got a "ringer" to do the work for Riley and I.

It was a good-natured ribbing, but it made me a little nervous as it was Dick and I that did the work (ok, Dick did it all but for smoothing 2 nails) yesterday on Riley's car.

Tonight, though, he sanded the block down and, though Dick wanted us to prime the wood, then paint it, then seal it (wow!), Riley insisted on painting it himself tonight.

I love watching him when he does stuff on his own. He is a needy little dude at times, but I think that's cause Marci and I sometimes forget that he has to be able to do things on his own.

Part of our reluctance to let him fail is due to his condition; part of it is us just overparenting.

When I see him totally concentrating, going Michael Jordan with the tongue, it just cracks me up. He has come so far and I forget all the time about the stuff that he still has to work through.

I'm proud of him every day and I made sure to let him know that tonight.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

9/365

9/365
Riley is in Cub Scouts and the good ol' Pinewood Derby is coming up. We got our kit, we have the drive, but we don't have tools or skills to make a block of wood into a fine racing machine.

Enter Marci with the bright idea of asking our nice old neighbor who has a downstairs workshop in his, er, downstairs.

Rye and I headed over after lunch and expected Dick to simply get out his band saw and cut a block of wood for me.

Back in the day, when Dick's sons were Riley's age, apparently he partook in the Pinewood Derby a time or two. Dick had taken out the four nails and inspected them as if he were a NASCAR mechanic. He was making sure the nails were true (they weren't), that they were smooth (nope), and that the block was square and level (just about).

We put the nails into his lathe, spun them, and filed/ground down the imperfections until they were smooth. He even let me try it and I still made it home with all 10 fingers intact.

He had me and Rye draw out a template for the block and then we took it to the band saw for further work. He has a vaccum cleaner attached to cut down on the sawdust and after a minute, he shut it off, went into a back room and came back with the cans for Riley.

That's Dick in the background, cutting Riley's soon-to-be Blue Ribbon Pinewood Derby racer.

Thanks, Dick!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

8/365 2011 (2010)

8/365
Ok, got the date right today. This actually was taken one year ago today. The only pictures I've taken this year today are on my phone, and that's just me messing around.

Anyway, this is a photo of my friend Malcolm, who I went shooting with a few times early last year. We should do it again sometime, but now that I'm employed, it's a lot tougher.

And it's his birthday today. Happy birthday Malcolm!

Friday, January 7, 2011

7/365 2011 (2010)

6/365
I didin't take a picture today. But, I took this picture a year ago today!

I'm surprised it took me 6 days to think of this. On days when I'm busy/lazy/uninspired, I'll mine through the archives and see what I come up with.

This butterfly is in the public garden at Crossroads. It's tucked in the parking lot between the Top Foods and Sports Authority.

ps: oops. Just realized this photo is from 1/6, not 1/7. I thought today was the 6th. :-|

Thursday, January 6, 2011

6/365 2011

6/365A test picture of a picture taken by my new phone. And on-screen typing is such a pain.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

5/365 2011

5/365
Picture info: shot with BlackBerry 8900

I "made" dinner tonight. And I was saved when Marci got home and was able to make everything taste better. Here's my pic of the day. Call me lazy.  

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

4/365 2011

4/365
A tree Marci got for a Christmas present from her kids at work. It's lit by a lamp nearby.

Monday, January 3, 2011

3/365 2011

3/365
I have had the past 5 days off. I figured I'd take this last day off to get out of the house for a bit for some photos as I'll be in an office during daylight hours for the foreseeable future.

I was on a walking path parallel to 156th and decided to catch some rays.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

2/365 2011

2/365
The in-laws have been in town the past few weeks. As my regular computer is in the room they're staying in, I've been using the kids' computer as my workstation.

It's slow, but functional and nice to have available.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

1/365 2011

1/365
And so it begins.

Again.

I debated not doing this again as I was so burned out on it. Then, as I posted my last shot of 2010 yesterday, I was all pleased with myself and wondering what else I could do.

Then I realized that this little camera/obsession has become an extension of me and, well, I just have to continue.

I'll keep being inspired by those that are so creative and incredible, and I am just going to do what I do. They won't always be pretty and/or inspiring, but they are a (no pun intended) snapshot into my life and I love having that kind of record.

Today was sunny and cold. You see the sunshine, you see the ice. You see the bony gloves on Riley's hands too.

Happy New Year!

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