I was cleaning out my closet and found a binder full of theme park/logo'd napkins I used to collect. There were piles of this stuff with a lot of duplicates. I was throwing them out and decided to take a picture out of nostalgia. They're now stuffed in the side pockets of my car, to be used at my leisure.
These are some highlights from my family reunion in August in San Diego. We rented an oceanfront house in Coronado, with a view of downtown San Diego.
It has a cute yard that goes down to the water. This photo shows part of the house, the grayish 1-story building in the front. The white Spanish-looking house is the next door neighbor's. Our house is the oldest on the block and looks like it hasn't changed since it was built in the 40's (the inside too).
We left some dog poop in the bushes.
I took this one from the owner's picasa album. It shows the full yard better.
I love this half indoor, half outdoor fountain/aquarium (also owner's photo). When I have my own house, I am totally installing one of these (but with a better design). It was sadly empty when we were there, and we didn't want to fill it up and make someone clean it since we were only there a few days.
This one below is a picture (owner's) of the living room. It's spacious and we spent a lot of time sitting around here and just chatting.
My brother and I are standing on opposite sides because the kitty and the dog don't get along.
There's a fine line between an assumption and an expectation. I expect the sun to come out tomorrow. I expect my car to turn on in the morning if I put gas in it and kept up with regular maintainence. If I thought I wouldn't like someone before I even meet him, I would be making an assumption. If I read some Internet gossip and believe it to be true with no other basis, that would be an assumption. Assumption, which in this case means "something taken for granted," has a more negative connotation than expectation.
I expected my twenty-five-dollar tent to hold up in case of rain, after making the assumption that it's a reasonable expectation from something designed for shelter. I really thought that was a standard feature. Rocky and I were camping on the beach near Santa Barbara, and it rained hard. We noticed the tent got wet -- it leaked at the zipper seams. After some deliberation and loading everything except the sleeping bag into the car, we drove to Rite Aid (just outside the camp site) and bought some packing tape and trash bags. The patch work did its job and held up until morning.
Today I browsed Amazon for a waterproof tent, and read one reader comment which said that "Almost all tent manufacturers, even for the most expensive brands, suggest that the buyer seal the seams to assure everything is watertight. A knowledgable camper wouldn't even think of purchasing a tent without applying sealant to the seams," in response to a reviewer who complained that his tent leaked. OK, so I'm a beginning camper, and I have not camped with anybody who is experienced. How was I supposed to know? This was the first time I've even heard of seam sealers, and I'm an avid instruction-reader so I'm sure my tent instructions made no mention of it. Anyway, now I know, and it was actually fun in the process, since we could've slept in the car if the trash bags hadn't worked out. And the morning was beautiful.
Our campsite
Walking on the beach
More of the beach
This was taken from my India houseboat trip. In the mid-afternoon it suddenly started pouring, as it is wont to do in south India. The crew covered up the windows in the sitting area with tarp when it poured hard, and this was shot after the rain dwindled a bit. I love the rain and the sense of raw elements during a downpour.
This poor guy was caught in the rain, though I imagine he's used to it since it rains almost daily there that time of year.
I took these on one of the flights with Rocky in July. For some reason it never occurred to me (nor to him) to take pictures until then. We're planning to fly again this Sunday if the weather's good enough, and take some videos with his new camcorder to mail back to his family.
It was kind of a smoggy day (as it usually is in the summer), so my pictures look hazy.
Long Beach harbor from the sky.
Catalina Island from the sky.
