A Mystery

This morning, I found this on our van.

It wasn't there yesterday - at least not when I parked my van, after getting it washed, in the late afternoon.

The scrape is a fair bit deeper on the bumper, but this is the part that perplexes me...

Yes, the scrape continues right at the top, too.  This confuses me, because the corner of the van is not a straight line.  Where it's scraped here is part of an inward curve.  That means whatever hit us had to have somehow... tilted?  Bent? Had sides that curved outwards at the top? 

So whatever hit our van had to have been at least as tall as the van itself, and white.  It also had to have happened either yesterday evening, or last night.

Most likely scenario; a box truck tried to turn around in our neighbour's parking spot.  We are the very first parking spot, and both our spot and our neighbour's are awkward to get into because of how we are oriented with the building.  Plus, we have a longer vehicle and stick out a fair bit, unable to go farther forward because of unusually high curbs. 

Will have to pay a visit to our office and see what the security cameras picked up.

*sigh*

Living in the west...

So tumbleweeds are part of any good western movie, but finding one in the middle of downtown is still a little weird ;p

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

They're watching...

When the Shrimp Army comes...

... they will come for yoooouuuu....

Photo taken at a local Pet Smart, where my daughter and I found these shrimp, all in a perfect row.

Watching.

Intently.

Hammer Time

It's been a long time since I've walked West Edmonton Mall.  Doing the entire mall, including the side halls, took me a little more than half an hour, minus the time it took to snap some shots of the giant, robot jackhammer of awesomeness.
Sent from Anna's phone

River City Round Up

On now in Churchill Square.
Sent from Anna's phone

Again?

I think this is the same vehicle that was backed over the sidewalk a few days ago.  Perhaps they are moving in?  Not making a good impression with their neighbors, if they are.
Sent from Anna's phone

Wow.

I have to assume there is a reason for this.
Sent from Anna's phone

All that glitters is not gold

My older daughter is working on her Halloween costume. Part of it reqires washing the glitter off of some Christmas decor/plastic plants.
This was taken after they had already been washed once.
Sent from Anna's phone

Rescued

This is a pretty old photo of my daughter, taken by her friend with his cell phone.  They had gone out for a walk during one of the many rain storms we've had this year.  As they passed a bush along the sidewalk, they noticed movement.  Checking it out, they discovered a nearly downed mouse!  My daughter held it in her hands to warm it up.  For the longest time, it just lay there, panting.  Eventually, she felt some movement and took a look.  She found it struggling to get to its feet and looking around.  Then it started to lick her palm!  After a while, it started to move around in her hands, but made no attempt to escape.  When it looked well recovered, she kept her hands open a little more at a time so that it wouldn't be too shocked by the cold when it was released.  It was about 20 minutes or so before she let it go in a drier area.  They figure it's den was somewhere under the bush, and the rain and flooded it.

My daughter makes me proud!

The things you see...

My older daughter and I headed to the bookstore this evening to do a bit of shopping. We had split up to look at different things when she suddenly came up to me, grabbed my sleeve and dragged me across the store. There sat a wagon with a bin holding a tortoise, of all things.  She asked somebody about it later. It turns out that there is a regular customer who comes in every Sunday with his tortoise and does his shopping while leaving it in an aisle near the door.
To the guy who takes his tortoise out for walks, thanks for making my day!

Loom

I, for one, welcome our giant glass overlords.

Hmm.

Every now and then, you see something that makes you wonder how the heck someone managed to do something. Take this little escapade.




We came out a couple of mornings ago to find this, which is across the road from our home and part of the housing co-op we live in. If you visit my flickr set, you can see the damage to a willow tree outside of this shot, too.

Now, for someone to jump the curb, run up against a tree and a street sign, through a hedge, then back onto the street it odd enough. It gets more interesting when you see the angle from the other side of the hedge.





Yes, there's a retaining wall there. You can see the black marks left by the tires as the vehicle, whatever it was, went over it. The tire marks continued down the lane, then went off the road to the other side of a power pole, through some mud and grass, before joining up with the lane again and eventually disappearing onto the road.

Just how, exactly, does one do something like this? And what kind of vehicle was it that could do it? I'm guessing it was something jacked up rather high, as there's no sign that the body of a vehicle scraped anywhere on the tree, sign or retaining wall.

Hmm.

Checking out the museum

The Royal Alberta Museum opened a new temporary display this weekend, Creatures of the Abyss (pdf). This is a favorite theme for us, and my older daughter and I both really enjoy the museum, so we made a point of checking it out. We like to head over on the weekends (half price admission before 11am on the weekends), hang out in the displays until the cafe opens, have a delicious lunch (very reasonable prices and generous portions - almost too generous!), wander around some more, checking out any new stuff, then hit the gift shop before we leave. A lovely way to spend a few hours. :-)

Today was a bit of a surprise, just as I drove into the parking lot. Some time ago, I'd found myself driving behind a vehicle with the back end painted. It rather perplexed me. When the vehicle turned, I could see it had paintings on the doors, but I couldn't make out what they were (one side was just a glimpse in my rear view mirror). It was a bit of a surprise to pull into the parking lot and see it again - with more paintings added, since I last saw it, including one that was unfinished. I couldn't resist getting photos.

If the owner of this vehicle happens to read this, I'd love it if you'd leave a comment explaining what it's about.

This is the view I had when driving behind the vehicle, the first time I saw it.



Click on the image to go to my flickr page and see the other views, including the writing at the top.

None of the others are giving the finger, except the one showing the top of the trunk.

Based on the photos, I get the impression the driver 1) hates cell phones, 2) hates God and 3) hates people.

But I could be wrong.

As for in the museum itself, we had a lovely visit. Here is what greeted us when we went into the new display.



Except there's a side view on entry.

The eye on this guy moved. :-D

Once again, click on the image to see more.

I have to admit, we were a bit disappointed in the display. With how much there is to explore in the deep oceans, we really expected more. There was a lot of open space around the displays, and a fair number of hands on stuff. Parts of it were preachy in an eyerolling sort of way. We think it was really aimed more at young children, and it seemed rather dumbed down to me.

We loved seeing the hagfish, though. That's one of my daughter's favorite creatures.

Flare out

Just outside of Edmonton is an oil refinery.  Like all oil refineries, it has a flaring stack.  The lights of the refinery are visible from much of our city, including our downtown balcony.  Depending on the size of the flame and the weather, we can usually see the flare itself, or at least a cloud.

Today is somewhat different.

I happened to be watching the news, which I normally never do, hoping to catch a friend of mine in another province being interviewed, when I caught a story about the flare being unusually large.  Emergency services have been getting calls about it all day.  The station's helicopter was over the area, filming the blaze and smoke, and we were assured that the refinery was doing this on purpose.  Then they moved on to other things.  Eventually I change the channel to another news program where I was hoping to see my friend while working on a scarf I was crocheting.

Now, picture this scene.  In the living room, I've got the tv on.  My husband is playing WoW with headphones.  My friend's son, who is living with us right now, is on his laptop with an earbud in one ear loud enough that I can hear him playing WoW, too.  There's also conversation and a very loud cat to add to the volume level.

Through all this, I'm noticing a strange, pulsing noise, just barely auditory.  It was loud enough, however, that my husband took off his headphones, wondering what was making it.  I had been wondering that myself and got the impression that it was coming from outside.  I muted the tv and we listened for a while.  Then I realized what it might be.  Grabbing a pair of slippers, I headed outside and saw this.




We grabbed the tripod and tried for a few shots, but they mostly didn't turn out.  Since it's -20C with a wind chill, I didn't try too hard, either.  I did, however, switch from the 18-55mm lens to the 70-200mm.





It's kinda got this whole Mordor look to it, don't you think?




This is as far as I could zoom in, with the ISO at 1600.  I missed a lot of potential shots, as the flames would occasionally spurt high up, but with the long exposures, it was rather difficult to catch them.

This was, indeed, the source of the noise.  In fact, I could still hear it when I started this post, though it seems to have stopped for now.  Though this refinery is visible from our balcony, it's not anywhere near us.  It must have been quite the thing to hear in the neighbourhoods at the outskirts of the city!

I can certainly understand why so many people were phoning emergency services about this!

Oh, and while I was freezing outside, getting these shots, I think I missed seeing my friend on tv!  Oops.

Good morning...

Good morning...
Originally uploaded by amkb
The view from our 3rd floor window at about 2 am. Not sure what's going on. Perhaps we'll see something in the news tomorrow.

Look Into My Eyes

Just a little something I made for a friend.

Wrong. Just, wrong!

Wrong
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: It's been a long time since I've posted a photo for the "Love My Parts" flickr group. For those unfamiliar with it, this is a group promoting body acceptance, encouraging people to post photos of those body parts they find a bit harder to love than others.

This morning, I just had to ask my husband to get this photo for me when I saw it. This rather horrifying photo is the back of my right heel. I don't have cracks in my heel. I have canyons. With little mysterious black bits in them. And pieces of fuzz caught on the rough edges.

Ew.

Ew, ew, ew.

I'm kinda glad I can't see that backs of my heels very often.

Though I have to wonder, which is worse. That fact that I asked my husband to dig out the macro lens and take the photo - or the fact that he did it! *L*

Everything and Nothing!!

Philippe: - The geometric Nucleus; only the geekiest of you will get this. :)

Ew alert!

tooth3191
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: A crappy picture, but I now understand why our cat lost her tooth. It had been sticking out sideways for several days before it just disappeared.

And my daughter solved the mystery of what happened to it, when she found it on the rug in the living room.

321:365 Glow

Anna: Philippe got some photos of my new toy (product review here) for me.



Using it in the dark doesn't actually work that well, but it looks really neat in a photo! *L*




And it was really comfortable to work with, too.