November 2008

Out with the Old Red, In with the New Red

Still doing well in the planters by the front porch. These have been providing color to the entryway since late September. I’m going to be replacing these red zinnias with red poinsettias for the Christmas Season after Thanksgiving. I’ll post pictures of those after they’re planted.

Click for the close-up.

red-zinnia.jpg

The Happy Bear

We have been trying to desensitize “Bear” to going for a ride in the SUV. She usually gets a little hyper when she thinks she’s going for a ride. Since we’re planning on taking her on our next vacation, we have been getting her to take short rides so she can (hopefully) get bored with it and just enjoy the ride with us.

bear-happy.jpg

I took this picture after she finished her ride while we were on the front porch. Click for a bigger picture.

Fire Expo at the Botanic Garden

We diverted from our usual Saturday errands when we saw that there was a LA County Fire Department Expo in progress at the Botanic Garden. This giant American Flag was suspended between a fire department crane and a hook and ladder truck’s extended ladder. Click the image for the wide angle view.

fire-expo.jpg

The Essence of Sand Art

not-sand-art.jpgActually, it’s the other way around – the sand art of essence.

When we season meat, poultry, seafood and other food items, we like to use a concoction of spices that Emeril Lagasse calls ‘Essence,’ or ‘Bayou Blast,’ consisting of several different and complimentary herbs and spices. I added each item into a spice shaker and after I added the last one, I noticed the resemblance of my creation to sand art.

I paused to take this photo before blending the ingredients together. Click for bigger..

The Gazebo at Malaga Cove in 3D

gazebo-3d.pngGrab your 3D glasses and check out this stereoscopic view of the Gazebo at Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes Estates, California. This photo was taken at Roessler Point, a scenic overlook of the spectacular so-called “Queen’s Necklace” vista of the lower Santa Monica Bay.

We come here occasionally for the photo-ops when the smoky skies of the South Bay give way to the azure ones.

Click on the image above for the bigger picture. You will need 3D glasses to view the image in 3D. If you don’t have the 3D glasses handy, you can see the 2D version here.

Journey to the Center of the Earth – 3D

3d-nuts.jpgOne of the things we love to do in the evenings, is to watch a DVD on the flat screen TV. Verna has an extensive DVD collection with an eclectic assortment of titles in all genres. We are constantly adding to the collection, as well as retiring DVDs that we will probably never watch again – we donate them to charity.

Last week, she acquired “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” an action/adventure movie that included a copy in 3D – complete with the nerdy colored glasses. We first watched the movie in standard format; as we watched, it became clear that the producers were obviously accentuating some of the scenes for 3D. After numerous such scenes we resolved to watch the movie again – this time in 3D. It was quite spectacular, actually. Lots of stuff came flying out at us – from birds to giant dandelion seed pods and from flying fish to T-Rex dinosaur slobber (really). It was a lot of fun.

Click on the thumbnail image to get a closer look at a couple of 3D nerds and don’t forget to visit the 3D Stuff pages.