Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
I’ll start off to day talking about consumerism. I didn’t realize just how much of a consumer I actually was until I began tracking my purchases and saving every receipt. I’ve been doing that for years now and every so often as I’m entering that end-of-month information into a spreadsheet I’m forced to admit my somewhat excessive consumer issues. Once each month I find myself standing next to a trash can filled with receipts and that has to tell me something.
That being said as I was reading yesterday I discovered that in comparison I might not be as bad as I first thought. I noticed that as bad as we American seem to be when it comes to crass consumerism the Japanese make us look like a bunch of amateurs. Here’s a collection of tidbits on the Japanese and their quirky approach to retailing and consumption.
“In Tokyo, Japan there are vending machines that dispense frozen meat, jewelry, and even dating information.”
“A company in Kyoto, Japan, makes waterproof books for students who like to study in the bath.”
“Kanebo, a cosmetic company in Japan, has developed a line of panty-hose that are embedded with vitamins and special scents that are released when worn.”
I know you thought I was kidding, right! Those crazy fun loving Japanese will merchandise and sell just about anything.
Next I’ll address a subject that has always fascinated me. Synchronicity! I’ve firmly believed for most of my life that there are no such things as coincidences. As a former extensively trained investigator it’s been proven time and time again to my satisfaction. Unfortunately there have been a few random times that "synchronicity" has reared it’s ugly head and I had no logical explanation.
Two days ago my better-half and I were taking a walk near our home when a passing motorist stopped to tell us about a large turtle she saw crossing the road. She was concerned it might be hit by a car and had turned around to check on it. I walked a short distance and found the turtle scrambling from the highway and helped him along in his travels to get off the road.
We returned to our house and I sat down at the computer to check on a few things on-line. On Facebook I found an entry from my step-daughters husband who was traveling for work and happened upon what else, a freaking turtle on the road. He posted a photograph of himself parked along a highway and assisting the rather large turtle to cross the road to avoid the dangers of oncoming traffic.
A synchronistic moment to be sure. I’ve had a few other startling incidents like this during my life for which I have no reasonable answers or explanations. Just saying.
Lastly, I finally finished the renovation of my wine-making area. I’d been wanting to complete this job for years and finally was able to get it done. It should make bottling and handling of my wine a much easier process than in the past.
That’s all I have for today but I thought I’d pass along a few tidbits of wisdom from Jeff Foxworthy. In the Army we called this process “Knowing Your Enemy”. If this offends anyone out there just remember I’m just doing my part in adding a little humor to a humorless situation. So get over it.
* * *
Have you ever wondered why it’s OK to make jokes about Catholics, the Pope, Jews, Christians, the Irish, the Italians, the Polish, the Chinese, the French (including French Canadians) etc., but its insensitive to make jokes about Muslims? We need to level the playing field for the sake of political correctness . . .
Jeff Foxworthy on Muslims
1. If you refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor, you may be a Muslim.
2. If you own a $3,000 machine gun and a $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can’t afford shoes, you may be a Muslim.
3. If you have more wives than teeth, you may be a Muslim.
4. If you wipe your butt with your bare hand but consider bacon to be unclean, you may be a Muslim.
5. If you think vests come in two styles: Bullet-proof and suicide,you may be a Muslim
6. If you can’t think of anyone you haven’t declared jihad against,you may be a Muslim.
7. If you consider television dangerous but routinely carry explosives in your clothing, you may be a Muslim.
8. If you were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs, you may be a Muslim.
9. If you have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four, you may be a Muslim.
10. If you find this offensive and don’t forward it, you may be a Muslim.
THERE YOU HAVE IT!
Another Father’s Day has come and gone. It was great day primarily due to my better-half. I was able to spend an hour or so early in the AM finishing my project for my man-cave. It’s now complete and after drying for one more day it’ll be moved into the cave once and for all.
“The Finished Product”
We initially decided to fire up the grill for a meal of corn-on-the-cob, steaks, and a fresh garden salad. The garden is growing so fast that I actually ate my first radishes yesterday. Take a look.
All of the recent rainfall has accelerated the growth of almost everything. I especially love the bright green colors and the lushness of the garden at this time of the year.
Now, let’s get back to my Father’s Day celebration. My better-half and I after a few cold and refreshing alcoholic beverages decided to cancel the home cooked meal and head for Old Orchard Beach, a local tourist trap and amusement park. She was in deep withdrawal due to a lack of greasy chicken wings and I was looking forward to some good old amusement park junk food. To hell with the weight loss program for this night.
The place wasn’t overly crowded but the tourists had definitely arrived in force. People watching in the park and a walk along the beach gave me my first “big butt” beach picture of the season.
I was really hungry so as the better-half waited for her chicken wing order at the Chinese hole-in-the-wall I discovered a new entry into the food competition right next door. Lo and behold a Mexican food stand had magically appeared and I was drawn to it like a gigantic black bean craving magnet. My black bean and rice addiction kicked in and I was hooked.
Three tacos covered with jalapeno vinaigrette and hot sauce were just what the doctor ordered. I threw in a fresh fruit cup for good measure and to help ease my guilty diet-conscience. The food was excellent and fresh but suffered from tourist pricing. No big surprise there.
Not too bad for amusement park food. We snapped a few pictures and did some window shopping and people watching. All in all it was a great night filled with good food and better company. Happy Father’s Day to me. I saw this shirt and I almost bought it. If it’s still there on my next trip I might be forced to make the purchase and regift it to a certain friend.
Todays posting will be a little more scatter-brained than usual but that’s something you should be used to by now. My life continues in it’s normal routine broken up only by the occasional minor problems, things that need fixing, or just a shot of Jack Daniels when needed. Owning a home is a constant stream of useless tasks that must be dealt with or the whole world will come crumbling down around us (or so says my better-half).
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time for the last few days trying to discover exactly what my brand new cell phone can do. I was forced to return to the bosom of Verizon Wireless after my two months of freedom when I discovered just how truly bad the Tracfone company really is. It sounded like a good idea at the outset but things went down hill fast after I actually tried to use it. Apparently they have half the number of towers that Verizon has which is reflected in their terrible cellular coverage. So I came crawling back to Verizon with my tail between my legs and signed up for a phone that appears to be way smarter than I am.
“Samsung Galaxy S4”
After two days of playing around with it I finally have it setup and ready to go. It’s actually pretty damn cool and has a camera function with 13 megapixels making it comparable to the quality of my Nikon 3200 SLR. The Android operating system also makes it a snap to get the photo’s from the phone to the blog. Android rules (even though I hate Google). Here’s a couple of sample photo’s I took in the garden yesterday.
It’s been a rainy week so far and I’ve had to find something to do to keep me out of trouble. I’ve had two old Sanyo speakers that I bought a million years ago that have long since become obsolete. I kept them around for years with the intention of making them into something useful and this was definitely the week for it. Here’s a series of shots as I progressed through the project. It’s nearing completion but it will be another week or two before I’m completely finished with staining and painting.
It’ll make another fine addition to the décor in my man-cave and will give me a few more storage options for my stupid treasures. I have a second matching speaker sitting somewhere in storage and I guess I’ll keep it until I can come up with a workable idea to repurpose it. That’s a new word I recently picked up from some stupid television show about salvaging old stuff and giving it a new life. It’s a little lame but accurate I suppose.
Yard sales and flea markets are on the agenda for Saturday, weather permitting. I sure hope we find a few things worth dragging home.
This has been a better week than I expected. The weather has been beautiful with lots of sun and temperatures in the low eighties. The better-half’s schedule is finally cooperating and her days off fell just perfectly. We packed up our cameras and headed to Kennebunkport, Maine for lunch and a short shopping spree as she searched for a Father’s Day gift for her Dad.
It’s little early for the normal crowds of tourists but it’s obvious that the summer is nearing. Traffic was moderate but as always finding parking is a huge pain in the ass.
Before the advent of the Bush family to the national scene this place was just a small quaint little town on the water with a small harbor full of lobster men’s boats. Now it’s THE place to go in southern Maine for all of the Bush family admirers. Everything Bush all of the time.
We decided that lunch at Federal Jacks was in order. Federal Jacks is located on the main drag directly adjacent to the harbor. It’s a great restaurant and also the original microbrewery responsible for the Shipyard line of beers. We took a seat on the deck of the second floor and ordered drinks and a light lunch. Here’s the view from our table.
“Black Bean Chili and Chips”
It’s low tide so the smell of the ocean and fish fill the air. Some of us like that but many others like the schmo at the next table do not. It’s the the ocean dumb ass, get over it. Go play tourist at the Grand Canyon where you can enjoy the aroma of hot sand. Brother!
We walked through a number of shops until my better-half found that special gift for Dad. We decided not to spend the entire day there because it’s quite likely we’ll be back a few more times before this summer is over.
There you have it, another day in this northern paradise. If you visit Kennebunkport in season there is one problem you’ll be forced to contend with. A small town, limited space, thousands of people and unless you pay there will be:
Just a friendly warning.
I’m feeling somewhat so-so today. I’ve got the blah’s for some unknown reason and it’s making me a little crazier than usual. I have a number of small projects to do but my motivation has disappeared. It shouldn’t be this way but it is. Even though the weather is beautiful, the house, garden, and yards look as good as they ever have, I’m still blahhhhhh.
Todays title is mish/mosh and it’s the perfect descriptor of where my head is at. Todays posting will contain almost anything that crosses my mind with no rhyme or reason. To start off this list of so-so crap will be today’s celebration of a stupid flower. For years my better-half and I wanted to find and to grow white iris’s. We have hundreds of blue or purple iris’s but white ones seem difficult to find. Last summer we stumbled on a white iris plant that we purchased, gently planted, watered, and babied hoping against hope to see a bloom this year. Our wish was granted this week when this bloom made it’s first appearance.
I can’t believe I actually became excited by this but such is my life these days. Every little special moment must be celebrated no matter how lame I may have thought things like this were in the past. With that in mind here are a few updated photo’s of the garden and yards now that the weather has warmed and the plants are really taking off.
As you can see I have chives growing every where. The main reason is exactly what you see, gorgeous blooms throughout the garden. Later I’ll harvest them and have dried chives for cooking next winter. It’s just a beautiful plant for those of us who love beautiful flowers and the always delicious taste of onions.
Over the years our herb and vegetable garden has changed dramatically as we experiment with plants that can be easily stored, canned or frozen for our own use. Most of the herbs are culinary with the exception of the catnip, apple mint, spearmint, and peppermint. The catnip is permitted only because it’s removal would really piss off the neighbor’s cat if he couldn’t stop over for a buzz every so often. The mints can be used for tea or potpourri when dried but we don’t use them all that much. They just supply a wonderful aroma as you walk through the garden.
There you have it, another posting of my disturbingly blah day. The better-half and I have an upcoming day trip to Kennebunkport, Maine which should make for a few interesting photographs of the harbor and surrounding area. That should make my next posting a bit more interesting . . . or not.
BLAH ! ! !
I figure by now most of you are tired of hearing about my Texas trip and I understand completely. While I understand I still have one more day from the that trip I need to tell you about. It was my final day in Dallas before my ill fated flight home.
The day started with an omelet cooked superbly by my nephew and was filled to the brim with diced jalapenos. If that doesn’t get your heart started then there’s something very wrong with you. We then took a cruise in my nephew Mustang. It’s a car he’s spent a great deal of time and money getting as perfect as possible. It is one beautiful machine and it rode like a dream and was as fast as lightning.
While cruising around the metroplex we did a little people watching and ran into a mobile Texas furniture store parked in a mall parking lot. We saw a number of these vehicles during my short visit and it fascinated me. It’s definitely not something I’m used to seeing here in Maine.
We eventually arrived at the Texas Land and Cattle restaurant and I was really looking forward to another excellent meal. I wasn’t disappointed.
As you would expect the interior was all Texas all of the time. These two wall decorations and this saddle display were very cool and brought home the western ambiance in a big way.
The meal was a piece of soft and tender smoked sirloin with jalapeño sauce. The asparagus was cooked perfectly and was almost as tender as the sirloin.
We finished the meal and made our way home because I always need my beauty sleep before I go a-flying. I wasn’t really looking forward to my flight even though I’ve flown hundreds of times. I just hate flying and airplanes in general. That’s one of the reasons I liked skydiving so much. I’d rather jump out of a plane than depend on an unknown pilot to get me down safely.
This last photo was taken at Reagan National airport in DC at 3:00 am the next morning, where I was sleeping on the floor of the terminal. It’s the ceiling of the terminal from that perspective. I couldn’t sleep so a snapped a few pictures.
UNITED AIRLINES SUCKS
I’ve been a lover of good Mexican food for years and after meeting my better-half (a good old down home Texas girl) and traveling to Texas on a number of occasions I was hooked. During my recent trip to Dallas I was taken to this Mexican restaurant by my nephew who assured me I would be getting authentic Mexican fish tacos. I was excited for the meal and as we arrived I could hardly wait.
True to his word the fish taco’s were to die for. We ate two huge plates of tacos, chili beans, and rice. They drizzled an outrageous jalapeño cream sauce over the tacos that was so damn good it makes me hungry just thinking about it. Four gigantic peach margaritas later and we were destroyed. We slowly and safely made our way home and sat for hours because we just couldn’t move.
They also supplied us with chips and salsa which was good but the Verde sauce was the best. It was not quite a salsa and not quite a sauce. It also wasn’t quite hot enough for me so I decided upon my return to Maine to create a version of my own.
My better-half and I made a visit to a local South of the Border restaurant after my return to fulfill my ongoing taco obsession. It only made me want to create that Verde sauce even more. I thought about it on the way home that night and the next morning I was off to do some early food shopping.
I found the tomatillos, jalapeños, and pickled green chilies to which I added a few spices, some onions, a little jalapeno vinegar and cooked it all until soft. I threw it into a blender and liquefied it for five minutes and OMG. My eyes began watering as soon as I took the lid off of the blender.
Later that day the better-half made a pan of enchiladas over which I sprinkled a cautious amount of the hottest thing I’ve ever created. It was mean, nasty, smoking hot, and freaking delicious.
I was able to can almost a dozen jars of this sauce and it will definitely be used sparingly and as often as possible. I’m already planning the next batch so I can turn down the heat a little to make it palatable for all those so-called lovers of hot food who I’m pretty sure wouldn’t be able to handle this sauce.
“The Finished Product”
We’re having a rainy, gray, and gloomy day today with little or no chance of sunshine. It’s an inside day where I can catch up on a myriad of small tasks that I tend to ignore so I can go out and enjoy the nice weather. Honestly it doesn’t take much for me to blow off these tasks but unfortunately the list keeps getting longer and longer until I’m forced to do something.
I’ve been in the process of redesigning my man-cave which requires a few large tasks and many smaller ones. Sometime ago I ordered two wooden wine boxes. They arrived two weeks ago and were immediately stored away and pretty much forgotten. Today is their day.
Yesterday I made a short trip to one of my favorite retailers, Michael’s. My aim is to line both boxes with felt and to create brackets to hold many of my glass wine making tools. They include a small collection of hydrometers, a large thermometer, vinometer, and a wine thief. The hydrometer is used for measuring the sugar content of the wine during fermentation. The thermometer is a long one that is used to measure temperatures of the "must" in the earliest stages of fermentation. The vinometer is a small glass device that uses small samples of wine to determine alcohol content and proof. Lastly the wine thief is just a glass tube used to extract samples of wine in the final stages of fermentation to test the flavor and finish. I added a spray adhesive to my purchases along with four sheets of royal blue felt and two pieces of balsa wood. I was ready to get to work.
“The Finished Product”
In years past I’d been forced to replace these delicate devices due primarily to my clumsiness during moving from place to place or during general use. Hopefully this small project will keep future damages and costs to a minimum. I returned home and began pulling out old file folders from my archives looking for a collection of old and unique wine labels I’d collected many years ago. A perfect decorative addition to these boxes.
A few hours later I had one box completed to my satisfaction and the second coming along nicely. I should have the second one completed tomorrow and then I can move on to the next task on my list. The bigger tasks of building a new siphoning table and shelving units can wait until the better-half has vacated the premises and is on her way to the left coast.
I’ve spent the last few days complaining about United Airlines and the terrible time they gave me while traveling. So today maybe I should calm down and thank my nephew for being such a good host. I’d hate to make people think that my entire Memorial Day weekend had been totally ruined because of an unfortunate incident when it really wasn’t.
I managed to drag my camera around with us during my visit and took a few hundred photos. I thought I’d share some of them with you today, These first few are of the highlight of the trip as far as crazy delicious food was concerned. The name of the place is The Hard Eight and this was the line at the entrance when we arrived. You could smell that barbecue for miles around.
As we waited in line the smell of cooking meat was overwhelming and as we approached the grill station it got even worse. This is their outrageous version of a menu hanging on the wall.
And then you walk to the grill and see this.
You can almost smell it just by looking at these pictures. You choose your meat, it’s placed on a tray covered with wax paper, it’s weighed and priced and then your off to the dining room to choose your side dishes.
We enjoyed the band playing C&W music as we ate and OMG was it incredible. We ate until we couldn’t move and then just sat there to enjoy the atmosphere for a few minutes. The prices were reasonable and I’d recommend this establishment to anyone going anywhere near Dallas. It’s barbecue heaven.
This was just day one of the trip and I have many more photo’s that will follow in the next week or so. I also feel somewhat obligated to introduce all of you to my new best friend and Texas bedmate. She made me feel right at home and actually snored and kicked less than my better-half does in Maine. Her name is Pepper.
Thanks for a great time Mike.
Well the Texas trip is finally here and I’ll be flying off to Dallas tomorrow. I don’t intend to do any blogging until sometime next week, probably Wednesday at the latest. I’ll be taking a break from working out, blogging and everything else as well. That’s what a vacation is supposed to be and I’m going to make the most of it.
This week I finally planted the last few plants in the garden. I have others breaking ground as we speak and so far everything is doing fine except for the asparagus. All of those I gently planted are doing absolutely nothing. I purchased a bag of asparagus roots and knew at the time it was a big gamble. I have yet to buy either flower bulbs or veggie roots packaged that way that have actually grown. I’ve finally learned my lesson, never again. Next year I’ll try to find asparagus seeds and start my own plants. Hopefully I’ll have more success.
“Zucchini”
As you can see the garden has made significant progress in the last week. The plants are loving the warmer nights and are jumping out of the ground. As you can see I have more chives than I know what to do. When I return I can look forward to a day spent filling the dehydrator with chives for our use through next Winter.
“Cherry Tomato’s”
Starting tomorrow I can kick back and relax for a few days and enjoy my trip. It will be nice to enjoy the warm and sometimes hot weather in Dallas. It should help me shake off the effects of this last Maine Winter. My summer will officially start when I return home next week fully rested and relaxed.
“Left Side”
“Right Side”
I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and that the weather cooperates. Show the flag, cook a few burgers and dogs, and toast all of our former and current Vets. Without their service we wouldn’t have much to celebrate.
everyuselessthing.com 