11 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
Happy Birthday Hannah: In Honor of Her Tenth Birthday Hannah Donates Her Hair
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10 Temmuz 2012 Salı
9 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
The Grand Canyon
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Hi folks - Rudy here! What an adventure! We drove to Flagstaff, AZ today. By the time we reached there we saw SNOW!
Surprise, that's NOT the big adventure! After lunch we drove out to see the Grand Canyon - and here we are!
The depth of the canyon is hard to convey, even in Den Dad's photos. The altitude along the top of the rim is around 7,000 feet - the Colorado River is almost a mile below. Here are a few photos - but you really have to see it to believe it - and WE DID!!
So good-night from northern Arizona.
Surprise, that's NOT the big adventure! After lunch we drove out to see the Grand Canyon - and here we are! The depth of the canyon is hard to convey, even in Den Dad's photos. The altitude along the top of the rim is around 7,000 feet - the Colorado River is almost a mile below. Here are a few photos - but you really have to see it to believe it - and WE DID!! So good-night from northern Arizona.
Flagstaff, AZ to Albuquerque, NM
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We were real tourists today - driving over 500 km but stopping to take in two famous tourist destinations - the Arizona Meteor Crater and the Painted Desert.
Later we stopped at The Painted Desert - really colorful rocks and such. Here are a few photos - thanks to Den Daddy.
Oh, and we tried to make a new friend but he was stand-offish.
So, we had fun on our road trip today.
So good-night from ...
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| Here we are looking 170 meters down to the bottom of the crater! |
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| and 1200 meters in diameter. |
Later we stopped at The Painted Desert - really colorful rocks and such. Here are a few photos - thanks to Den Daddy.
Oh, and we tried to make a new friend but he was stand-offish.
So, we had fun on our road trip today.
So good-night from ...
Pueblo, CO to Aurora, CO
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Today we traveled a shorter distance but still had some adventures. Along the way is the famous Pike's Peak - called "America's Mountain" - near Colorado Springs, CO. We traveled quite a way up the mountain but there was cloud and some snow obscuring the peak so we had to "borrow" the photo below.
Pike's Peak But we did take our own photo on the way down.
This evening the Den Parents went into Denver, CO to dinner with a friend from way back in our Ontario days. While they were wining and dining and visiting, we bears had to spend the night in a hotel room watching a re-rerun of Back to the Future - not really an adventure. Better luck tomorrow.
Pike's Peak But we did take our own photo on the way down.This evening the Den Parents went into Denver, CO to dinner with a friend from way back in our Ontario days. While they were wining and dining and visiting, we bears had to spend the night in a hotel room watching a re-rerun of Back to the Future - not really an adventure. Better luck tomorrow.
We're HOME!
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Hi Folks! Rudy here! Happy Valentine's Day - a day we really Love! We made it home today. During our trip we were away for 64 days - 61 of them in the U.S.A. We covered 11,593 kms.
Last night there was snow in Calgary so we saw it when we started out this morning.
This is our last entry for this blog.
Thanks to all those who followed along and sent messages
of encouragement and appreciation.
Remember - it is Love that keeps us Real!
(for other adventures you can still visit www.fosterlearning.com)
Last night there was snow in Calgary so we saw it when we started out this morning.
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| Snow! and you can see some sad flowers by the doorway. We're sad too when we think of all the beautiful flowers in California. |
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| They are far in the distance but you can see the snow-capped Rockies on the horizon. We saw mountains on every day of our vacation! |
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| Some typical Alberta farm land. (the farm on the right edge, distant, was once owned by Henry Wise Wood) |
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| After a leisurely lunch in Red Deer - we reach Edmonton ... |
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| ... and then our "home hamlet" - Sherwood Park. |
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| And here we are at home! We would like to thank Margaret and Jim for looking after our condo, and all the other bears, while we were away. And a big thanks to Barb and her bears - our most loyal blog follower. |
Thanks to all those who followed along and sent messages
of encouragement and appreciation.
Remember - it is Love that keeps us Real!
(for other adventures you can still visit www.fosterlearning.com)
Jerry's Deli is so yum
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I got my hair done this weekend! Lightened it up a bit for summer. I like it. Thankfully I've got a tan now, so it helps to not wash me out. Speaking of tan...I got St. Tropez self tanner from Sephora. It works AMAZING!!! I am loving it so very much! :)
Hung out in Westwood with Katie last weekend. Here are some photos..
P.S. We ate at Jerry's deli for lunch. I ate the yummiest mushroom, grilled onions and motzorella cheese pinini on cheddar cheese bread. <3
I got my hair done this weekend! Lightened it up a bit for summer. I like it. Thankfully I've got a tan now, so it helps to not wash me out. Speaking of tan...I got St. Tropez self tanner from Sephora. It works AMAZING!!! I am loving it so very much! :)
Hung out in Westwood with Katie last weekend. Here are some photos..
P.S. We ate at Jerry's deli for lunch. I ate the yummiest mushroom, grilled onions and motzorella cheese pinini on cheddar cheese bread. <3
8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
Happy Mother's Day
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I want to wish Happy Mother's Day to my mom. I love you very much. You mean the world to me. I am so honored to have you as my Mom.
Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you!
I also want to take the time to wish Happy Mother's Day to all the woman in my extended family. Even if you don't have children of your own, you are still a great influence to the nieces, nephews and cousins and other children who are in your life. So even if you don't have your own, you are still a "Mommy" influence to your loved ones.
Happy Mom's Day to you!
Now go something nice for your mom, or for yourself.
Kim
I want to wish Happy Mother's Day to my mom. I love you very much. You mean the world to me. I am so honored to have you as my Mom.
Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you!
I also want to take the time to wish Happy Mother's Day to all the woman in my extended family. Even if you don't have children of your own, you are still a great influence to the nieces, nephews and cousins and other children who are in your life. So even if you don't have your own, you are still a "Mommy" influence to your loved ones.
Happy Mom's Day to you!
Now go something nice for your mom, or for yourself.
Kim
Impromptu NRA meetup at the top of the arch:
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As if it needs pointing out, NRA folk are among the most friendly anywhere!
We had some time today before our flight out to take in some of the local sights. Specifically we visited the top of the Arch. You see the woman that bore me had a philosophy on traveling: When you get to a new town, get to the highest point and look out over the land. [note the 630 ft marker in the background].
So we visited the arch and at the top, we met up with a couple other NRA members as well. We started talking to the New Jersey contingent [middle red shirt and black/grey jacket] comparing notes from the meeting. They'd been to the 2009 Phoenix meeting and 2010 Charlotte but skipped Philadelphia last year. This year they upgraded to Benefactor members. Houston will be a bit too far next year but are already planning on Indy in 2014. They are falling into a nice "every other year" pattern.
The Idaho gentleman [purple shirt] and son on the right heard the conversation and joined in. [rats I cut off his son from the picture. Sorry, my bad]. He bought his life membership during his sophomore year with the proceeds of collecting hay in the fields. His mom thought he was nuts spending his hard earned money ($200 back then) on such a frivolous purchase. I suspect few financial advisors could come up with a better investment today!
We six spent a good 20 minutes at the top of the arch talking guns & stuff. Idaho son hunts and shoots anything he can get his hands on. He was also sporting a broken leg. I asked if he had a good story to tell. He didn't - I suggested he work on that. It really doesn't matter if it's true, the tale just needs to be long and entertaining ;-). Dad reports he has about another 3 1/2 weeks in the cast. I think he was embarrassed by the attention. That was not my intent. Rather I hope we made him feel included and at home in the NRA family.
The camaraderie continued back in the base of the arch. We met a man riding a scooter in the gift shop who had been at the meetings. He asked if we had seen any of the meetings and speeches. I mentioned live blogging Friday's celebration of American Values and the SCSon's photog experience. Turns out he was up front in his scooter and remembered seeing a young boy walk up with the press pool escorted by the SS, with equal parts surprise and awe. The 2+2 moment was an all around win!
Good people all around. And I'll bet we were not the only ones with an impromptu meetings [anywhere] This one happened to be at the top of the arch. We met others at breakfast in the hotel. Impromptu's work because they are not planned. Anything planned takes up too much room.
See Y'All next year in Houston! [more STL NRA content to come]
We had some time today before our flight out to take in some of the local sights. Specifically we visited the top of the Arch. You see the woman that bore me had a philosophy on traveling: When you get to a new town, get to the highest point and look out over the land. [note the 630 ft marker in the background].So we visited the arch and at the top, we met up with a couple other NRA members as well. We started talking to the New Jersey contingent [middle red shirt and black/grey jacket] comparing notes from the meeting. They'd been to the 2009 Phoenix meeting and 2010 Charlotte but skipped Philadelphia last year. This year they upgraded to Benefactor members. Houston will be a bit too far next year but are already planning on Indy in 2014. They are falling into a nice "every other year" pattern.
The Idaho gentleman [purple shirt] and son on the right heard the conversation and joined in. [rats I cut off his son from the picture. Sorry, my bad]. He bought his life membership during his sophomore year with the proceeds of collecting hay in the fields. His mom thought he was nuts spending his hard earned money ($200 back then) on such a frivolous purchase. I suspect few financial advisors could come up with a better investment today!
We six spent a good 20 minutes at the top of the arch talking guns & stuff. Idaho son hunts and shoots anything he can get his hands on. He was also sporting a broken leg. I asked if he had a good story to tell. He didn't - I suggested he work on that. It really doesn't matter if it's true, the tale just needs to be long and entertaining ;-). Dad reports he has about another 3 1/2 weeks in the cast. I think he was embarrassed by the attention. That was not my intent. Rather I hope we made him feel included and at home in the NRA family.
The camaraderie continued back in the base of the arch. We met a man riding a scooter in the gift shop who had been at the meetings. He asked if we had seen any of the meetings and speeches. I mentioned live blogging Friday's celebration of American Values and the SCSon's photog experience. Turns out he was up front in his scooter and remembered seeing a young boy walk up with the press pool escorted by the SS, with equal parts surprise and awe. The 2+2 moment was an all around win!
Good people all around. And I'll bet we were not the only ones with an impromptu meetings [anywhere] This one happened to be at the top of the arch. We met others at breakfast in the hotel. Impromptu's work because they are not planned. Anything planned takes up too much room.
See Y'All next year in Houston! [more STL NRA content to come]
Martini Bar Blogmeet
To contact us Click HERE
We met a few bloggers at the Martini Bar Thursday evening. Many were present but I only said hello to a few before we had to leave (JayG, NUGun, Awelownt & "no lawyers, only guns & money" come to mind*. I know others were there but I didn't have time to make the rounds.
We couldn't stay as we had just dropped off our bags at the hotel and needed to find a store for a few things before closing time.**
It's a nice place but horrendously expensive to park downtown. The waitress reports she pays $18 to park every night. Wow, I don't know what she makes but that's gotta make a significant dent in the net.
BTW, here's the reverse angle shot, The Martini Bar from the top of the arch.
* If I've omitted anyone from the Thurs PM meetup, no offense intended. Please let me know and the error will be corrected. Please accept the "mybad" in advance.
** IOW the SCQueen was hanging back giving me dagger eyes. Time to go!
We met a few bloggers at the Martini Bar Thursday evening. Many were present but I only said hello to a few before we had to leave (JayG, NUGun, Awelownt & "no lawyers, only guns & money" come to mind*. I know others were there but I didn't have time to make the rounds.We couldn't stay as we had just dropped off our bags at the hotel and needed to find a store for a few things before closing time.**
It's a nice place but horrendously expensive to park downtown. The waitress reports she pays $18 to park every night. Wow, I don't know what she makes but that's gotta make a significant dent in the net.
BTW, here's the reverse angle shot, The Martini Bar from the top of the arch.* If I've omitted anyone from the Thurs PM meetup, no offense intended. Please let me know and the error will be corrected. Please accept the "mybad" in advance.
** IOW the SCQueen was hanging back giving me dagger eyes. Time to go!
More Safes
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Pendleton Safes has an interesting design. The central spindle is motorized. The spindle can be turned left or right via a rocker switch just inside the left door jamb. Worst case you would have to move two guns to get to the one on the inner ring.
Like most safe manufacturers, they see the device not just as a secure storage facility, but as a piece of furniture, intended to be seen and ooh'd and aah'd over. Pendleton's paint is like something you might see on a six figure supercar. Prices start at about $5.5k to nearly $7k as shown.
Bartel Armory has an innovative cylindrical design.
The door stows inside the safe when opened, and slides into place when closed. (note the two holes just below the tumbler. Rotate that 180 degrees to set or retract the door.)
Once closed, the whole safe can be rotated on it's axis so casual viewers won't even see the tumbler. They report one customer wants them to paint it to look like a water heater. Hide in plain sight!
Who said American innovation is dead?
#include"std.disclaimer" Neither company has provided nor promised any compensation for the mention here. I don't think we even picked up any swag.
Pendleton Safes has an interesting design. The central spindle is motorized. The spindle can be turned left or right via a rocker switch just inside the left door jamb. Worst case you would have to move two guns to get to the one on the inner ring.Like most safe manufacturers, they see the device not just as a secure storage facility, but as a piece of furniture, intended to be seen and ooh'd and aah'd over. Pendleton's paint is like something you might see on a six figure supercar. Prices start at about $5.5k to nearly $7k as shown.
Bartel Armory has an innovative cylindrical design.The door stows inside the safe when opened, and slides into place when closed. (note the two holes just below the tumbler. Rotate that 180 degrees to set or retract the door.)Once closed, the whole safe can be rotated on it's axis so casual viewers won't even see the tumbler. They report one customer wants them to paint it to look like a water heater. Hide in plain sight!Who said American innovation is dead?
#include
Things I'm thankful for...
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... people that care enough to let me know when I have a light out on my car.
As a pilot, we are taught to do a preflight check of the vehicle. Checking anti collision, position and landing lights are a big part of the preflight check. Now most flights take place in conditions where these checks are 99% meaningless. The lights are simply not bright enough to be effective during day VFR conditions. Making them bright enough to be effective would require spotlights and simply not practically effective.
Drivers are not drilled to the same extent. We had a rainstorm today and had to meet someone at the airport. I pulled up behind a van and noticed a difference between the L & R headlight reflections. I wrote it off as a bad angle on the R light.
Fast forward a couple hours. Friend surprised me with a call 2 mins after we'd said good bye. Friend tells me the right headlight is dead. Now the weather today sucks and it could be a simple short. But it could also be a blown bulb. I am 100% thankful for the call. I would rather know there is a light out than learn about it from a pair of flashing lights in the rear view.
In the same vein, anytime I notice a similar problem, I will offer up the same alert in a friendly way. ("Wouldn't want to give officer friendly any excuse....")
Anytime you notice a friend with a brake or position light out, let them know. They may not be especially thankful, but they should be!
As a pilot, we are taught to do a preflight check of the vehicle. Checking anti collision, position and landing lights are a big part of the preflight check. Now most flights take place in conditions where these checks are 99% meaningless. The lights are simply not bright enough to be effective during day VFR conditions. Making them bright enough to be effective would require spotlights and simply not practically effective.
Drivers are not drilled to the same extent. We had a rainstorm today and had to meet someone at the airport. I pulled up behind a van and noticed a difference between the L & R headlight reflections. I wrote it off as a bad angle on the R light.
Fast forward a couple hours. Friend surprised me with a call 2 mins after we'd said good bye. Friend tells me the right headlight is dead. Now the weather today sucks and it could be a simple short. But it could also be a blown bulb. I am 100% thankful for the call. I would rather know there is a light out than learn about it from a pair of flashing lights in the rear view.
In the same vein, anytime I notice a similar problem, I will offer up the same alert in a friendly way. ("Wouldn't want to give officer friendly any excuse....")
Anytime you notice a friend with a brake or position light out, let them know. They may not be especially thankful, but they should be!
5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe
SkyWarned
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The SandCastle Son and your humble host spent the evening training to join the SkyWarn network. We have our SkyWarn member ID numbers and in theory know the difference between a bonafide tornado and the usual imposters. More important, we learned what phenomena they are interested in, and how to report.
Tornadoes are pretty rare in these parts, but we do get plenty of weather phenomena worthy of note: Severe thunderstorms, flash floods, hail, heavy rain, sustained dust storms, etc.
The SandCastle is only a couple miles from our local towered municipal airport where the controllers are certified weather observers. However the class D airspace disappears at 9PM local, and there is much exciting weather after they shutter the tower and the airspace reverts to class G.
Also the SCSon seems to have a school requirement for "community service" (Is mandatory volunteerism actually voluntary?) This may check the box and in a far more interesting way then the ones they propose.
One of the questions on the registration form was "Do you have a rain gauge?" I answered "Not Yet". IOW I'm willing to shell out some shekels to set one up to satisfy my inner WX geek and by extension through the SkyWarn network, the public good. I first have to coordinate with the HOA CCR's, but I don't recall any restrictions (OTOH, the general attitude of the CCRs is "everything is banned unless specifically allowed..."). Ideally we'd have the sensors mounted well above the roof to avoid surface anomalies.
In the meantime, I'm open to weather station recommendations? I'm be interested in something I can connect to the computer and post current conditions and graphs of past weather reports, maybe add some "current conditions" widget here to the webpage. Amazon offers some solutions starting in the low C-note range. Scientific Instruments has some in the 2-3x C-note range but it's not clear if that connects to the computer (since they don't mention it does, I assume it doesn't).
The other problem is the physical weather conditions we experience here in the Sonoran Desert and how well the hardware will withstand the conditions. Some of the comments suggest the hardware will not survive the local climate. The plastic parts just can't take the heat.
There are hard metal solutions that will survive the heat but these tend to be North of a kilo-buck and thus out of the budget.
Ideas? I'm open.
Update: I just ordered one of these. The price is in budget and does a whole lot more than I had in mind. Dad has had an older version of this for several years and he gave it a thumbs up. Now he lives in Northern CA, a climate a little more benign than the Sonoran Desert. We'll see how long it lasts. But Oregon Scientific is a respected name and they've been around as long as I can remember. Will advise on the longevity.
Tornadoes are pretty rare in these parts, but we do get plenty of weather phenomena worthy of note: Severe thunderstorms, flash floods, hail, heavy rain, sustained dust storms, etc.
The SandCastle is only a couple miles from our local towered municipal airport where the controllers are certified weather observers. However the class D airspace disappears at 9PM local, and there is much exciting weather after they shutter the tower and the airspace reverts to class G.
Also the SCSon seems to have a school requirement for "community service" (Is mandatory volunteerism actually voluntary?) This may check the box and in a far more interesting way then the ones they propose.
One of the questions on the registration form was "Do you have a rain gauge?" I answered "Not Yet". IOW I'm willing to shell out some shekels to set one up to satisfy my inner WX geek and by extension through the SkyWarn network, the public good. I first have to coordinate with the HOA CCR's, but I don't recall any restrictions (OTOH, the general attitude of the CCRs is "everything is banned unless specifically allowed..."). Ideally we'd have the sensors mounted well above the roof to avoid surface anomalies.
In the meantime, I'm open to weather station recommendations? I'm be interested in something I can connect to the computer and post current conditions and graphs of past weather reports, maybe add some "current conditions" widget here to the webpage. Amazon offers some solutions starting in the low C-note range. Scientific Instruments has some in the 2-3x C-note range but it's not clear if that connects to the computer (since they don't mention it does, I assume it doesn't).
The other problem is the physical weather conditions we experience here in the Sonoran Desert and how well the hardware will withstand the conditions. Some of the comments suggest the hardware will not survive the local climate. The plastic parts just can't take the heat.
There are hard metal solutions that will survive the heat but these tend to be North of a kilo-buck and thus out of the budget.
Ideas? I'm open.
Update: I just ordered one of these. The price is in budget and does a whole lot more than I had in mind. Dad has had an older version of this for several years and he gave it a thumbs up. Now he lives in Northern CA, a climate a little more benign than the Sonoran Desert. We'll see how long it lasts. But Oregon Scientific is a respected name and they've been around as long as I can remember. Will advise on the longevity.
Venus Transit
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Venus is the dark spot in the upper right quadrant.
The camera is a Sony DSC-H9. It does a lot of things well. However one limitation is that I cannot manually set the focus. In a shot like this, I just want it set to infinity and leave it. I took several shots some of which came out this sharp others definitely less. Suspect the autofocus is to blame.
Trying some of the manual settings. This one is a little better:
See you in 105 years for the next transit!
Update: I considered the top photo over exposed and much preferred the later and considered replacing one with the other. But in the interest of "naa, it's already published" I left it. A co-worker today vehemently disagreed. "The TOP photo IS WHAT I SAW!" (I ordered in eclipse glasses for the SandCaslte personal use at the prior event and sold off the surplus at cost. There were plenty floating around the plant for this event.) BTW, both images were made at the maximum zoom of the camera (x15). The top image is smaller due to the cropping of the image where I kept the glare from the brighter image.
My co-worker is correct - the top image is what we saw looking through the eclipse glasses. I like the lower better as it's not as over exposed.
Venus is the dark spot in the upper right quadrant.
The camera is a Sony DSC-H9. It does a lot of things well. However one limitation is that I cannot manually set the focus. In a shot like this, I just want it set to infinity and leave it. I took several shots some of which came out this sharp others definitely less. Suspect the autofocus is to blame.
Trying some of the manual settings. This one is a little better:
See you in 105 years for the next transit!
Update: I considered the top photo over exposed and much preferred the later and considered replacing one with the other. But in the interest of "naa, it's already published" I left it. A co-worker today vehemently disagreed. "The TOP photo IS WHAT I SAW!" (I ordered in eclipse glasses for the SandCaslte personal use at the prior event and sold off the surplus at cost. There were plenty floating around the plant for this event.) BTW, both images were made at the maximum zoom of the camera (x15). The top image is smaller due to the cropping of the image where I kept the glare from the brighter image.
My co-worker is correct - the top image is what we saw looking through the eclipse glasses. I like the lower better as it's not as over exposed.
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