I did not go down to the Mall even once this November, despite it being only a few blocks from home, so I completely missed seeing any Fall color other than the piddly stragglers still hanging on to this tree over the weekend:
Workers at the National Gallery
Workers in a cherry picker doing something to the facade of the National Gallery East Building. I like how this photo came out on the first try — smooth complements of color and geometry: sky, clouds, stone, angles, abruptly encroached upon by this blocky green mechanical appendage, a machine of industry casting its shadow on the smooth timelessness of a house of art.
Caturday!
I take so many photos of Pandora, I should really dump them here every so often, for the sake of your cuteness intake quotas. Taking a cue from the blogosphere, I will do so every Saturday. So now, without further adieux:
Not The Best of Mornings
I wake up three hours later than I intended to, with the smell of cat urine wafting from the bathroom and a non-guilty-looking cat sitting on my chest, meowing at me for breakfast. Optical inspection for a video shoot in one hour. If I were still full-time, I’d be late already. The bathroom rug beside the litter box is soaked through with feline incontinence. I splash some pet odor odor neutralizer and cleanser on it. Tonight it goes back in the laundry — for practically the third day in a row. I pray to God she doesn’t have a urinary tract infection, because I don’t have money for a vet.
The camera power cables and microphone cables are hopelessly tangled, but being the obsessive compulsive person that I am, I unknot and organize them with nice, neat twisty-ties. I will thank myself for this later in the day.
Downstairs, a car alarm across the street spits a high-pitched whistling whine into the air. I briefly contemplate printing a clever little “NOTICE: STUPID CAR ALARM ANNOYING EVERYONE” ticket to stick under the offender’s windshield wiper on my way out, but there isn’t time to design it, and my printer is inkjet anyway, so the ink would bleed off the paper in the drizzle.
“Breakfast” is a fistful of vitamins and a couple of herbal supplements (green tea extract to boost metabolism and echinacea for immune response) hurriedly downed with a glass of chocolate milk. No time for a real breakfast. Lunch will be good. Maybe a burrito.
Wind advisory and severe thunderstorm watch today. That means heavy rain, but too much wind to hold an umbrella without it going all Mary Poppins on you. Hardcore. That’s how I lost my last jumbo umbrella, so all I have right now is a piddly little push-button barely big enough for one person.
I’m starting to feel just a bit like Alexander.
Pink Flamingoes and a Wicker Chair
A couple of WTF scenes around Arlington, VA last night:
(Above, left) While workers pour concrete into the foundation for a large house on North Adams Street, the neighbor has arranged his flock of plastic pink flamingoes to appear as though they are rubbernecking the noisy scene.
(Above, right) At the Pines of Florence restaurant on Fairfax Ave, the men’s room features this large, comfortable wicker chair directly across from the toilet. I’m uncertain as to its specific purpose, though I did sit in it briefly to pull up my socks.
Clematis Seed Pods
Saw these on a vine hanging on to Amy’s mom’s fence. They’re Clematis, but I’m not sure which kind specifically, because there are hundreds of species and subspecies. Based on the seed pods I was going to guess they were Clematis vitalba or Clematis tangutica, but Amy says these had tiny white flowers through the summer, so neither of my guesses would have applied. Any Clematis experts have an idea? More photos here.
Basang Panaginip Mention
I’ve received some mention from Basang Panaginip* as a best-designed Filipino blog (in the Movable Type category), and as a runner-up in the listing of Top Pinoy Probloggers. Thank you.
(I’ve never really thought of HNBP as a “problog,” though it does earn the majority of my Adsense income, but I’m hoping that one day, projects like Cheap and Tiny can do that earning for me. For now, it’s nice to get at least enough cash to cover my web hosting expenses and then some.)
* Basang Panaginip is Tagalog, literal, for “wet dream.” Heh. Clever.
Premier Pestates
When designing logos, sometimes it’s nice to split evenly worded logo type in half with a light, stylized design element. The separation reinforces a sense of symmetry and, tastefully done, can subtly strengthen brand recognition.
On the other hand, sometimes a designer decides to use a typographic flourish as the separating element, which — not being light, large, or different enough to be perceived as being distinct from the main logo type itself — creates a new word altogether. In this case, PremierPestates.
Returning from Thanksgiving 2006
The last Amtrak Regional for the evening passed through New Jersey ten minutes late, but was not too heavily packed, as the bulk of the Thanksgiving holiday crowd had already milled through the corridors of transit several hours earlier. Amy and I found a couple of seats together in an Amfleet 1 coach — those older ones with brown and tan interiors, dimly lit with bright red seats and only a few AC outlets in certain rows. It was a noisy, slightly cramped train, with the heat turned up way too high, so that the air had that musty “burnt radiator” smell, and we took off our hats and jackets and sweaters and still felt too warm. But we managed to sleep most of the way, listening to Grieg’s Peer Gynt on Amy’s iPod, with an earphone splitter to share the audio between two sets of earphones.
I came home at about 3am, to a cat who, though happy to see me, had also thrown up a hairball on the sheets and peed on the bathroom rug.
Thanksgiving Day 2006 Photo Highlights
Thanksgiving Day was cold, gray, and rainy as we drove to Amy’s grandmother’s house. (The trip may have also involved river and woods.) Two turkeys of one stone each were eaten, as well as cream of broccoli soup, string beans, turnips, mashed potaters and sweet potaters. Here are some photographic highlights which, unlike last year, do not include food, but do include photos of Grandma’s antique cash register:
More photos in the NJ Thanksgiving 2006 photoset, which continues to grow as the post-holiday weekend progresses. This morning, Amy and I had pre-marriage counseling with her pastor. Now it is time for shameless Black Friday shopping at a suburban big box store.
Comments and trackbacks are open again.