Stop and Smell the Flowers

Oooh, flowers.

Sniiiffff!!!

Aaahhhhh.

New York, New York

I'm in the city, staying at the downtown Marriott at the bottom of Manhattan, right next to the World Trade Center site. Out my hotel window looking east there are a couple of buildings going up. I'm guessing they are replacements for buildings made unsafe and razed after 9/11.

Riding the Rails

I'm on the Acela train right now traveling from Baltimore to New York City for meetings tomorrow. I've not taken this train before but it's quite comfortable and we seem to be moving pretty fast. Things are breezing by out the windows ... we're going over 100 mph. Taking the train along the outskirts of cities shows more of the infrastructure than you normally see — factories and smokestacks, major power and communications lines, refineries. There are many forgotten buildings along the way and I wonder who put them up what people used to do there.

Annapolis By Land and Sea

Tonight I went with my work team on a water tour of Annapolis Harbor. We saw boats in the harbor from Australia, the Cayman Islands, the Marshall Islands, and lots of states that you thought were landlocked.

Along the water we saw lots of houses and boats belonging to the rich and famous.


As you get out towards Chesapeake Bay the water gets a little more choppy. These huge radio towers were used by the Navy to direct the U.S. fleet during WWII.

The U.S. Naval Academy is right next to where we had dinner tonight. You can tell this is a Navy town with all the "N" flags and Navy merchandise being sold in the stores. For dinner I tried my first Rockfish, the state fish of Maryland — thumbs up.

SCH

Here's the Schenectady County Airport as seen from my window seat taking off out of ALB this afternoon. This is 2 miles from home, but I couldn't quite get a picture of my house. We're looking mostly east here.

I pass by opposite sides of the airport morning and evening on my commute, but don't get to see so much of the winding Mohawk River hidden behind the trees.

At top right is Freeman's Bridge; the big white building at 3 o'clock is the Glenville Wal-Mart. At 7 o'clock is the old Glenville K-Mart and if the picture went further down you'd see Route 50 intersect Route 146, which diagonally crosses the lower left corner of the photo. In the large version (click on the photo) you can also see several Air National Guard planes parked on a bright white patch of pavement. Some of these planes fly missions to Antarctica.

Annapolis

These shots would be better if it weren't completely black outside. I do what I can for you people.

Annapolis was the home of Alex Haley, the author of Roots, and on the waterfront there's this little group of statues depicting him telling stories to children.

3 & 4

Sarah showed up at the game, giving Carter a chance to flaunt his new age.

Fans In The Stands

Of course the reason people don't all stay home to watch sporting events on TV is because the people-watching at the game is part of the fun. Not that they'll broadcast Madeleine's middle school field hockey games anytime soon.

Field Hockey Season Opener

Friday was Madeleine's first field hockey game of the season, and my first time seeing her play. There's a lot of action so it's fun to watch. The main rule I caught so far is the ball can't touch the girls' feet. Just as much fun was watching Carter and Claire climb through the bleachers and generally mess around on the sidelines. After the game, Carter ran across the field into the team huddle and surprised Madeleine. Malcolm intercepted.

Union of the Snake

I found this little guy creeping around the forest floor after I finished mowing a couple weeks ago. He was not very thick, as big around as a dime or a nickel, and about 20 inches long. We watched each other for a while and then he took off. My kids will freak out if they find out there are snakes in the forest, so don't say anything.

Schodack Rest Stop

On the way home from Boston yesterday, just after crossing into New York.

Boston 'Burbs: Belmont, Burlington, Bedford

I just got back from a quick overnight trip to Boston, or rather, the surrounding suburbs. Driving in big cities doesn't phase me, but I avoid going into downtown Boston wherever possible because I value my time, and the roads there were laid out by a drunk man riding a cow with one short leg. First a stop in Belmont for a late lunch break, then to my hotel in Burlington to work on slides all night and eat at Legal Seafood, and then a day of presentations in Bedford today.

Carter Turns 4

Happy fourth birthday today, Carter! I don't know what's up, but he strikes this fists-on-cheeks pose when he sees me coming with a camera. Maybe he thinks he's being cute. He would be right.

Junior Photo Assistant

Claire is fascinated by photo gear and has a soft spot in her heart for tripods. I see a bright future for her as lead grip.

I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found

Take down the Wanted poster! After a year and a half of searching I finally found my old Pentax SLR from 1986. I purposely took a photography class in college so I would have a sweet camera to eventually take with me to some exotic foreign land as a missionary (Utah). I have been hunting high and low for this thing; then I end up finding it in a basement box in plain sight which I thought was empty. It's got a prime 50mm f/2.0 lens that's old-school: to focus you turn the focus ring by hand; to zoom in you use your feet.

A lot of my photography reading comes from outdated library books that are still 90% worthwhile, except for the chapter on film. So I have been thinking it would be a good challenge for me to try film again, to see if I'm really any good. It's hard to believe people used to take pictures in the blind, with no way to know what you were getting until you got the film developed.

Inbound from Tampa

Free, fast wireless in the airport — yay, TPA! This morning I made my last of four presentations at our work training conference in Tampa. Yesterday I did a class on photography for web managers, so I am loaded down with gear: two cameras, lenses, a heavy duty tripod, a flash and lightstand, wireless flash triggers, reflectors, a laptop, extra batteries, and more. Ironically, I hauled all this stuff, yet didn't get out to make pictures for fun, except incidental tourist shots as I was on the way somewhere. I'm wiped out.

Guess Who's Turning 2 Today...?

...Hoodlie, boodlie, skoodlie, doodlie doo today. If you haven't seen the hilarious "Nanny G." episode of Cheers starring Emma Thompson, you may not understand this little song. But it may be my last chance to sing it so I went for it.

Claire's now made two trips around the sun, and I am out of town missing it! I talked to her on the phone from Florida and had the best conversation ever...some of the words even made sense.

She's getting pretty tall, too. We were at the playground the other day and a mother asked how old she was. I said "one," and she did a double take. Claire only knows one speed of ambulation, and that's running. She loves to smile and gives sweet kisses. I just need to figure out how to make her stay a baby.

Bubblebeard the White

Carter's lathered on more of a goatee than a beard, but the name had a fierce ring to it.