I think this was the last Christmas we all were together.
Since that time, we've gained three new family members, but lost Mother & Dad.
This was taken with my first digital camera, setting the timer each time for each shot, then running back into the frame and trying to assume the same position, more-or-less. Some of us did better at that than others.
BTW, I'm the fat, balding doofus on the far-right. The best at holding her spot was my niece-in-law, second from the right, second row, and also my niece in the middle. A rock, that girl, just like Momma at the back, middle. The other is a bit twitchy; she must get that from her Uncle Mike, bless her. Just kidding...She's a beautiful girl, inside and out, as is the other one. Heck, everyone in my family is pretty 'cept for my BIL and me. I'm beating him on the balding, but he's got me on the belly bit.
As soon as I got home that evening, I downloaded the photos to my computer, then put them together with IrfanView and UnFreeze and made that animation, then e-mailed it to my momma. I called her to tell her to check her mail and heard them all giggling like crazy. It was worth the response.
(my big sister said that our BIL, on the far-left, looked to be doing something obscene)
June 30, 2007
Say "Cheesy"!
My Trip to NYC
My sisters are taking a trip to NYC at the end of the week. I wasn't asked to go and I'm sure that's because they knew I would decline. It also could've been, since they're both older, that they remember much shorter trips with a much shorter me where I whined all the way there and back.
Besides that, I went to NYC a year or so ago, just after downloading the Google Earth program. Ain't the Internet great?
First, I zoomed out from the Panhandle, took a good look at North America.
(click any pic for a larger view, then use your back button to return. Need to see about "new window" script to add to posts w/ photos/screenshots/links)
Then I zoomed in on the Eastern Seaboard; the topography is fascinating to me, especially the Niagara Escarpment.
Wow, Long Island really IS long, ain't it?
Down, down, down to the Big Apple.
Going to the max resolution, one can even see ships in the Hudson River. This tanker is on the NY side of the state line with New Joisy Jersey.
Over to the Statue of Liberty.
A literal birds-eye view, no crowds, no admittance fee.
(and no Staten Island Ferry. We'll leave off the jokes)
Zoom out, get our bearings, use the hybrid view for the streets of Manhattan.
(this is the Christopher Cross satellite; it's the one between the moon and New York City)
Zoom in a little bit more; hey, there's Broadway!
(give my regards, etc. Couldn't make out Joe)
Note the wakes of the ships and other smaller watercraft. I dunno 'bout the Hudson, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to water-ski in the East River.
Let's get a closer look at that empty spot.
Ground Zero
We must never forget.
If I travelled to New York City, I'm sure I would want to do the same things my family is doing; take in a Yankees game, a Broadway play, visit the Empire State Building...all the "touristy things"... but if I couldn't visit the WTC site it wouldn't have been worth going all that way.
(I'm fairly certain there's a double negative in that last sentence, but you do know what I mean, don't you? Do you? Do you not? )
I'm sure my family is planning on stopping by the site. When I sent my "big sis" those screenshots above, she sent me the link to some Times Square Webcams.
She said she'd wave at me.
Blogger Navigation
I'm getting the hang of these things; I found the archive so past posts can be more easily searched (although why you'd want to do that, I haven't a clue) and discovered that by clicking the logo on top after going to a particular post's "page" (and I set it that way, I hope it's the best way) you can return to the "home" page.
This'll Be The Thistles
I *think* these are Russian thistles; I asked my friend Barb - who should know, since she teaches botany- and she said they called them "Canadian" thistles where she lives. It makes me think that this is one of those cases where the things might very well be "American" thistles" in Canada or Russia, or "Texas Thistles" in Oklahoma.
