Kelly took the tree down yesterday. These little guys are a bit odd, but awfully cute. I’ll miss them.
Author: thedude
Post New Year’s Party with the A-Team
What kind of a party can this group of party pros pull together with one day’s notice? A most excellent one! Thanks so much for coming, Tres, Jack, Dave, Leslie, Steve, Terra, Linda, Larry, Eric, John, Andrew, Christina, Ben, Vince, Scott, Justyna, Itzik, and Ellen. Happy New Year with love from thedude and Kellster.
New Years Eve Panoramas
Thanks, Grant for sending these gorgeous panos.
More Fun from Jibjab
In case you’re wondering, I have not forgotten my blogging duties. It’s been a long time since I took some real down time, so Kelly and I decided to finish 2005 quietly. We did not attend any big parties or take any trips (‘cept for Fresno.) I also took a little time to do some…
Christmas in Fresno
We made our annual trek to foggy Fresno so that we could take part in the very serious business of overindulging with the Hunter clan. Mass quantities of Christmas cookies and candies were consumed along with numerous bottles of wine and champagne before dinner. Later, we searched for and easily found extreme Christmas lighting displays…
Christmas Cosmos!
In my opinion, the best gift is something consumable. Thanks Grant and Sandy, Ali and Neil for the perfect gifts! Oh – and the ergonomic mouse pad is way cool too! Amazingly comfortable. My wrist never felt better! 😉 Highly recommended!
Printing REALLY Large
The hallway panorama is in! It looks pretty impressive, if I must say so myself. A major improvement. The nine foot wide print was made from a 10,000 pixel wide image consisting of four time exposures – approximately 30 seconds each – shot with a Nikon D2X. I used PhotoVista to do the stitching; Pictopia…
Affymetrix 2005 Christmas Party
While the rest of the country shivers under a blanket of heavy snow, thedude and Kelly attended the season’s first holiday party in 68 degree weather. The venue for this year’s food and wine extravaganza was the beautiful Asian Art Museum. The company provided what seemed like hundreds of tantalizing food options – everything from…
I’m Apple Pie Proud!
Wow. I don’t even have a category for this one! This strange, somewhat creepy recording is part of the “Stanford Audio Recordings Children’s Development Series”. The jacket proclaims, “Now your child can improve all phases of his development by playing records!” There is no date on the red “vinylite” record or on the jacket. I’m…
Christmas Crazy
Just so that you don’t think folks in California are lacking in the Christmas spirit department, I offer the following images from Thompson Avenue in Alameda. If you’re into this sort of Christmas insanity, you’ll probably enjoy this totally whacked Christmas video – once. After that it’s just weird. (Windows only – 5 megabytes.)
1000 Foot Warehouse
This morning my neighbors and I toured a huge warehouse on the Oakland estuary. The building is something like 1000 feet long. I have never seen so much cotton in one place. The Ninth Avenue Terminal will be almost entirely demolished to make way for a massive 3100 unit housing development. I’m probably the only…
Thanksgiving Day on Muir Beach
Kelly had the inspired idea to spend this holiday at the nearby Pelican Inn. We decided to make a day of it by taking the scenic route – through the city and with a stop at Muir Beach along the way. As we watched the beautiful sunset, we reflected on how much we have to…
A Million Dollar Idea
A story about this clever site appeared in the Wall Street Journal today. I expect he’ll have his million dollars within a week. Dang, why didn’t I think of this???
Fun with a Fisheye Lens
A fisheye lens has limited applications, but it can be a lot of fun. The Nikkor 10.5 mm DX lens is very small, light and fast. I can hand hold shots at 1/10th of a second or more.
In the “Studio” with thedude
My dear friend Jack has an impressive collection of vintage Leica gear that he’ll be selling on Ebay. He asked if I’d take a few shots of the four cameras and six lenses. Of course, I immediately accepted the challenge, and rushed off to my studio, which in this case consisted of a wooden place…
Hooked on Night Photgraphy
It’s not that I prefer shooting at night. I’m shooting so many long exposures because it’s dark when I get off work these days. That’s not all bad though. These really are fun to shoot digitally – much easier than it would have been back in the days of analog photography. Kelly works on the…
Oakland’s Most Recognizable Feature Creature?
car•go•saur•us (kar’go-sôr’əs) n. Large quadruped with long, flexible neck. Frequents shoreline areas, often in groups. Eats continuously when hungry. Can consume all the cargo in a container ship in less than a day.
Oakland Skyline Panorama
I took this panorama last night from the rooftop. While I was setting up to take the shot, three or four motorcycle cops swooped in and closed the freeway! You can see their red and blue strobe lights in the foreground. Some of my neighbors and I like this image so much that we’re going…
A Couple of Great Shots From Wisconsin
It’s not that I have a soft spot for cute kids in leaf piles. It’s just that this is the sort of picture parents tend to e-mail to their victims friends. In fact, some of these images are pretty good – like this one. This adorable shot of Leah was taken by her Dad, Jeff…
Cliff House Sunset
Inspired by our recent trip to Cliff House with my ol’ pal Steve, I decided to take Kelly to the same spot for a bloody mary and a few oysters on the half-shell. It turned out to be one of those rare super-clear days in the bay area. It was easy to see the Farallon…
Woo! Scary!
Halloween is upon us. My first party of the season was at work today. Mwa-haa-haa-haaaaa.
Steve Wynd 2005
The title of this entry hints at the fact that I see my first friend in California way too little. Steve and I had an awesome time revisiting our old haunts in the foggy Sunset District. We both concluded – again – that there’s no place like San Francisco – the number one tourist destination…
A Roast With the Rowes
Just to be sure we’d had our fill of MEAT on our trip, Steve prepared a huge slab of bison for dinner with Jim and Wendy Rowe on Friday. He paired the meat with a few rare and delightful reds. Yum!
Baraboo Circus Museum
Another destination never seen by thedude or Kelly is the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The museum is loaded with colorful and often hilarious circus posters from the past. Out back there are two large warehouses filled with meticulously restored circus wagons. Cool!
Devil’s Lake
As I mentioned earlier, the fall colors probably peaked a week after we left Wisconsin, but since neither of us had ever been to Devil’s Lake, we decided to make the drive anyway. It turned out to be the perfect way to spend a Thursday afternoon. There were just a handful of people at the…
Chicago
We visited Chicago on Wednesday. Steve, Kelly and thedude started the day at the opulent Four Seasons Chicago Luxury Hotel. The oysters and sushi were OK, but we give the view and atmosphere five stars. Next, Kelly dragged us to Water Tower Place where we peered through windows at a whole lot of things we…
More Hilights From Our Visit to Wunnerful Wisconsin
Tuesday was a busy day with an outstanding lunch at B.J. Wentger’s in Burlington, a short tour of Lake Como aboard the Kimpossible and finally a prime rib dinner with old friends at Eric and Bonnie’s fabulous estate. Kelly had a chance to witness the heart-warming hippotherapy program offered on the property before we warmed…
Dinner with Chef Dieter
It should come as no surprise that food and wine have played a significant role in our trip so far. We had an excellent Alsacienne meal at the Chef’s Corner in Williams Bay. Dieter provided the fine cuisine, Steve supplied numerous bottles of rare wine, and we finished the evening off with a bottle of…