Hearts on a wire


The last daffodil


Jack in black

These were from May 11.

Sunday in the city...


This is Cafe Orlin where we had breakfast both days.

( four more )

Our trip to New York City, day one, in pictures.



In which we see New York from a tall building, Central Park, walking the streets, St. Patrick's Cathedral, great skyscraper architecture, and Japanese restaurant.

( lots more pics )

Our trip to New York City, day one, in pictures.


Niagra Falls

In which we see New York from the air, the cab ride, the Williamsburg Bridge, The Strand bookstore, the Flatiron District, Jefferson Market Library and Garden, The Highline park and the kids.

( lots o'pics )

If you're young, try not to get involved with the "too cool" crowd. That quickly becomes the crowd that's too cool to work hard, too cool to take chances, and too cool to succeed.

Here's the short version:

Got up early on friday to catch our plane. Flew into LaGuardia. Taxi to the East Village, and St. Mark's Hotel. Wandered around - Union Square, Flatiron, Chelsea, back to the hotel, then the West Village, Washington Square, the Meatpacking District, High Line Park. Walked from there past St. Mark's Church, to the east side of the East Village to Mike's place. Hung out with Mike, Jill, Heather and Greg for Heather's birthday. Went to dinner. Went back to Mike's and Jill's place. Went back to the hotel.

Met them all for brunch the next morning. We all went to the Met, and then split up. Cindy and I walked through Central Park, went to the top of Rockefeller Center. Visited St. Patrick's Cathedral. Subway back to the hotel. Went to eat at a little Japanese place. Then drinks at an Irish pub.

Today, we had breakfast at the same place as the day before, walked around the neighborhood a little more. Went to the airport, and came home.

The sky has thin clouds over much of it. In the west, where the sun was going down there were more clouds. Some time after the eclipse was supposed to have started, I went out, but the sun was going down in a line of clouds. Later, I decided maybe it had come back out underneath them, so I went back out to look. It had come out, but the lower half was below the horizon/trees at that point, so I could see no evidence of an eclipse.

Interesting article about unintended consequences of a badly written law.

http://ncamendmentonetruth.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/guest-post-vote-no-on-amendment-one-heres-why/

Of course, one wonders if it was unintentional, at all.

The Constitutional Amendment in question reads, "Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State."

A domestic legal union is not valid between a man and a woman, unless that union is a marriage. No male/female domestic partnerships. There's no guarantee that a non-spouse can benefit from a bequest in your will. You can not get protection against domestic violence unless you are married.

I had four hours of overtime by Tuesday. That probably doesn't sound like much, but I never work overtime. Work is crazy busy. My head was spinning on wednesday. I was trying to work on an important project, but I kept getting interrupted. I was supposed to visit Doug that evening, so I only worked an extra half hour. I was pretty beat in the afternoon, so I told him I wouldn't stay late. He asked if I wanted to cancel, but I didn't. If I stayed home, I would want to go back to work, and would generally be too exhausted to get anything done anyway.

So I went down about 7:00. The temp was near 80(!), so we sat in the back yard for a bit, talked and sipped some Scotch. Then we went in and played a board game he made. It wasn't going very well, and I originally wanted to leave by 10:00, but he wanted to keep playing so I did. I didn't leave until 11:00, and I was crashing, by that point. I got home at 11:00, read a magazine for a little while, then went to bed.

I never turned the computer on. LJ is pretty dead, these days, so I was able to catch up today at lunch time. I felt much better today. Almost back up to full strength, and work was more "relaxed" today.

This would appear to be from April '91.

Only a couple of the photos from this night of shooting are dated - 4/91. At least I'm assuming they're all from the same night. They must be, since they're all in the photo album in the same place. But I got the car just before Thanksgiving, and I thought it was a year-end clearance deal, which would have meant I got it in 11/91 (it was a '90). Apparently I'm misremembering that fact. So I got the car in November 1990.

I've got an old Polaroid 215 Land Camera. That model was made 1968 through '70. I picked it up at an auction in the late nineties, I think. I finally got around to cleaning it up and jury-rigging in a battery. I bought a couple of packs of film - Fuji still makes it, and took it to saturday's photowalk.

Here's the first shot from the roll:


Not that many turned out well, but there weren't many sheets of film in the pack anyway.





There is more to shooting these than I would have expected. Many things went wrong. Some things went wrong, but turned out well anyway - they're all artsy and shit! It was a learning experience.

If you want to see all nine pics, and find out what it was all about, here's the link to the set. You can click on the first thumbnail, and read the descriptions.
Polaroid set, first roll

The week before last, I went down to Milwaukee on Monday (St. Andrews Meeting), Tuesday (CoPA meeting) and twice on Friday (CoPA set-up and Rodrigo y Gabriela concert). Last week, I went down to the city on Tuesday (hanging pictures at CoPA show), Wednesday (saw Othello at The Rep), Thursday (Scotch with the guys), Friday (CoPA show opening) and Saturday (photowalk). Sunday was gaming, but it was close to home.

Now I've got three nights in a row at home. I should do something productive. I didn't, last night. I need to clean the basement some (a lot, really). I need to work outside in the garden, but it's been chilly. It's about time to mow the lawn again. My back hurts. Brandon brought his wife down to see my photos at the gallery on Saturday. I raced down there to meet him, but afterwards found out they arrived there earlier. I hosted the photowalk. It went well enough. The characters of Othello were all bikers in modern-day gangs. It was pretty cool. I'd never seen it before, but since the dialogue was all the original Shakespeare, I might as well have.

Thursday, I'm working the gallery in the afternoon. I'm going out for drinks with the guys from work on Friday after work. Saturday, Cyn and I are going to see the MST3K show at the Pabst Theater. Our anniversary is coming up, but I don't have any plans. May may be slightly less busy than April has, though it includes some birthdays and a trip to New York.

We went to the CoPA members show tonight. It was kinda crowded. There was a lot of great work there. I enjoyed talking to my fellow photographers. My dad and stepmom came down. We went out to the Whiskey Bar for drinks afterwards.

I took yesterday morning off to help set up at the CoPA gallery. It was a lot of work (which involved unloading 4x8 panels and sand bags) and I got a parking ticket. I was supposed to then mow my lawn, but the tractor didn't start. I should be trying to fix that right now.

In the evening, we went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela. It was great fun.

It was supposed to be raining all weekend, but it's sunny and warm right now. I need to cut the grass, since it's extremely long and shaggy. I hope I can figure out what's wrong with the tractor, and get whatever I need to fix it before the store closes at noon. Probably not going to happen. I also need to go get some shoes, and a battery for my old Polaroid camera.

Tomorrow is probably gaming, and those are all my plans for the weekend, at this point.

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-manchester/the-war-on-women-has-always-been-waged-by-democrats

So empowering women is anti-woman. Interesting.

If you give a woman a safety net to get herself and her children out of a bad situation, that's anti-woman. But if you keep her there, with her family intact, in an abusive situation or with a poor male role model for her children, that's woman positive.

If you break down the barriers that keep women from education and from historically male-dominated professions, that's anti-woman, because those barriers are what keep women women. Apparently I read this part of the article wrong.

And if the government forces companies to hire more than their share of women, due to some arbitrary quota, it's anti-woman because... I don't know, they didn't explain this one. Odd, since I'm not in favor of such quotas, and I still can't figure out how this is part of the war on women.

Forcing insurance companies to withhold coverage of drugs that can, for example, prevent ovarian cysts or endometriosis, (on the grounds that such drugs are also contraceptives,) this is not anti-woman?

I'm sorry, I don't see a single thing in here that points to the Left engaging in a war on women. I see the usual complaints about things that conservative hate, and there's no need to argue about that, but the premise of this article doesn't hold water.

Last year, at our neighbor's auction, I picked up some old magazines. A guy bought some boxes, and didn't want what was in them. I took all the photography mags, plus a bunch of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. I hadn't touched them until now. Last night I took the one National Geographic off the top. It is fascinating. Like you'd expect from a National G, it's a window to other places, but being from 1964, it's also a window to another time. Three articles are about Washington DC, Jordan and Acapulco.

I was quite interested in the article about Jordan. There's a section written by King Hussein, the the main article, "The Other Side of Jordan." It covers the growing cities, the flinty desert, the holy Christian sites, horses, camels and desert warriors, police outposts, the Dead Sea, coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba, Roman constructions, coffee and other rituals and a visit by Pope Paul VI. It makes me wonder what the first side of Jordan was.

The most interesting article was one written by Bertha Spafford Vester, entitiled "Jerusalem, My Home. Bertha was brought to Jerusalem at the age of three. At the time of writing this article, she was 86, and known as the American Good Samaritan. She gave her life to helping the sick, injured and needy, and earned the respect of all. She was allowed to operate by all sides in times of war, and she went through several. She saw Jerusalem through Turkish, British, German, and Jordanian rule. I like to tell you her stories, but you'll have to read the article for yourself, since there is no room here.

I'm going to be in the CoPA Members Show! Being that there are 109 other photographers in it, and that's it's simply pay-to-play, I don't feel special, but it's still exciting. My photos are at the printer now, and I should receive them early this week. Then I have to get them framed. Set-up for the show is in two weeks (everyone has to help with either set-up or take-down). The the opening is the following weekend. Opening night is big, since there are over a hundred of us in the show. It will be a big party, I'm sure.

There are some great photographers in the show. I feel privileged to be in their company. Vicki Reed, an artist based here in Grafton, will be in it. She's recently had some of one-artist shows at the Cultural Center and other places around this part of the state. Plus a bunch of my friends from the CC:MKE group - Dave, Josh, Bonnie, Brian, Tina, Marty, Tim and Jessica. Plus some other CoPA members that I don't know personally, but are very talented.

Opening night coincides with Gallery Night in Milwaukee, on Friday April 20th. The show runs for a month. Join me if you can!

When I was up by Horicon Marsh, a week ago, I stopped in a couple of cemeteries. I posted pictures to mourning_souls, so you can take a look there if you want.

Stone Cemetery near Horicon

Graceland in Mayville

A kid was shot while walking through an upper class neighborhood. The implication is that since he was black the resident felt he was a criminal and felt threatened. President Obama remarked "If I had a son he would look like Trayvon." Newt Gingrich responded to these words, "Is the president suggesting if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it wouldn't look like him? That's just nonsense. I mean, dividing this country up, it is a tragedy this young man was shot."

What does that even mean? Anyone with half a brain can piece together what Obama meant - "my son would not look like a hoodlum, and neither did this kid." But I'm having trouble figuring out Gingrich arrived at this strange conclusion. And Santorum said a similar thing. "What the president of the United States should do is try to bring people together, not use these types of horrible and tragic individual cases to try to drive a wedge in America." How is Obama's comment dividing people?

People just get dumber and dumber.

I posted that on facebook. I would have used more profanity otherwise.