79:365

Philippe: They've got a new addition at the WestEd Mall fish tanks; this guy was thoroughly enjoying himself in the water movement :).


















Philippe: The neat part of this one is the model fire escape bolted to the outside. According to the plaque, the model was created in 1930 ish (I think) as a marketing tool for the shop that created the actual fire escape for the building.












Philippe: I just can't resist a good starburst.. :P














Philippe: Old fashioned construction is such a marked difference from today's standards.. There's a real sense of solidity and stability from this brick building that just isn't there for me in the modern glass and plastic constructions.











Anna: I just couldn't do it.

Normally, I will at least resize my photos so they are smaller file sizes, faster loading, etc. They loose detail, though, and for these, I just couldn't bring myself to resize them.

Click on the photos to see them at 100%

78:365 Random Acts of Kindness

Anna: Yesterday evening, both at and after work, was truly interesting, and showed me again why I have come to really enjoy people. I'm actually a hermit by nature. I would be quite happy sitting in a corner, interacting with no one, buried in a book or a craft. Over the years, I had reason to make the effort to reach out to people and discovered that, in general, people are really fantastic.

I found myself working a convention of some kind - the room was filled with vendor's booths and large equipment. Coring and drilling rigs, and contraptions with names like "Mud Puppy" and "Geoprobe" on them. I had only the vaguest idea what I was looking at, but still found them beautiful. I have a thing for heavy equipment. ;-)

For the most part, all we had to do was wander around, cleaning up glasses and plates from the many tables scattered around. There were also 2 large food tables with chefs cutting meats for the guests as needed, plus two other smaller food tables with chafers and staff serving out pieces of hand thrown pizza. There were 3 bars, too. Those of us who were wandering with trays would sometimes help those at the food tables, clearing away empty food trays and replacing them with fresh.

In the back, where only the staff goes, the kitchen and dishwashing staff were kept hopping, making sure we servers had plenty of space on these great rolling shelf units, taking away and replacing them as soon as they were filled. At one point, I was walking back towards where these were kept, just as one of the kitchen staff was rolling a shelf away in the other direction. As we crossed paths the guy looks up at me, then suddenly smiles, reaches onto a tray, grabs one of the fresh flowers that were part of the decorative display and handed it to me, with a cheerful compliment. I thought that was pretty sweet, and I ended up wearing the flower tucked into my name tag for the rest of the evening.

The convention shut down at 11pm. By then a lot of the staff were sent home, having started much earlier in the day than I did. Even so, the few of us that were left were able to get everything cleared and put away before midnight.

It was a gorgeous, warm evening, so I waited for Philippe outside the building. As I was sitting, watching the classic and muscle cars cruising by (they seem to all come out on friday nights. :-D), I heard a loud bang. Looking over, I saw a guy had opened the lid to one of the garbage cans in front of the building and was rifling through it. The noise I'd heard was the lid falling and hitting a post. I've seen people going through garbage cans before, and this guy wasn't at all like any of them. He was well groomed and well dressed, wearing a backpack on his back and carrying a plastic bag for his finds. I think he was gathering plastic recyclables. No big deal. I go back to watching the traffic.

A minute or so later, he came up to me. Seeing my uniform, he thought I might be security (which I found kind of funny - banquet staff wear formal clothing; tuxedo shirts and bowties). He wanted to let someone know that he'd found a "50 pounder" 0f Morgan in the garbage can. With it being grad season, he thought it might be good to warn someone that there was probably a guest - or 5 - that was really drunk. We started joking around about just how sick drinking that much would make someone - and that hopefully, the person would learn their lesson and never drink that much again! Then he moved on.

Moments later, he's back - wearing a black plastic top had and carrying a gorgeous, long stemmed rose with bud, pictured here. He asked me if I was on my way home, and I said I was. He then offered me the rose. The rose and hat had been left on a bench nearby, and he thought I might like it. As he hands it to me, joked, "just to show how much I love you." Suddenly, he doffed his hat, struck a pose and began to sing,

"Just to show how much I love you,
Just to show how much I care..."

He then asked if I remembered that old vaudeville song. I had just been thinking that it sounded familiar, too. So we laughed and joked some more, before he headed off down the street, still wearing the shiny black plastic top hat.

And I have a beautiful white rose.

77:365 Italia

Anna: I missed out on posting yesterday. Not only did I not take a picture, I was hardly up at all. :-/ I had a late shift the night before and got home at 2am. That, in itself, wasn't a big deal. It's just that I was on my feet the entire time, and I'd forgotten to bring my painkillers. Arthritis sucks. So I slept in, more or less, but was in such a fog after I got up, I finally gave up and went for a nap. You know those sleeps where your dreams are so busy, you wake up feeling more tired than when you went to bed? By the time I got my butt in gear, I ended up having to rush to get to work.

Thankfully, though, last night's shift was a lot easier. I got to count cutlery for most of it. Then I got to polish cutlery. I even got home before midnight! Not too shabby. :-D


This is one of my favorite pairs of earrings. I like to wear them for work, because they're so simple, elegant and professional. No worries about loosing them, either. They have the most unusual clasp - I've never seen anything like them before or since.

They were sent to me as a gift from my penpal in Italy, some 20 years ago. I was about 15 when we first started writing to each other - back when home computers were almost unheard of, and writing involved pen and paper, then waiting for the post. *L* Now, we can email each other. I even bought a new web cam so we can see each other and talk. I need to figure out how to use Skype.

76:365 Tea Cupboard

Anna: We have a rather small kitchen, and it doesn't have a lot of cupboard space - a universal problem with kitchens, it seems. ;-) It wasn't much of an issue when we first moved, since I left so much behind, bringing just the essentials. So one cupboard for spices, baking supplies and teas worked out.

Since then, however, the girls and I have been trying out new types of tea. Before long, space became an issue. Every time I tried to find some spice or herb for cooking, I'd have boxes of tea falling all over the place. As our collection grew, I finally gave up. I took the stuff I had in the next cupboard over and moved them to a storage closet. I now have one cupboard completely dedicated to teas and mixes (you can't see them, but there are some cans of Gatorade powder hidden in the back corner), and another just for my baking supplies. If I want to use my blender or food processor, I'll just have to fetch them from the bedroom closet. *L*

Funny thing is, after all the teas were removed, my spice cupboard still looks crowded.

Anyone for a nice cup of tea? I recommend the Tetley Vanilla Rooibos or the Numi Chinese Breakfast. The African Red Black Tea, from Poland, is good, too - though I admit I got it because I found the name really funny.

75:365 Finished

Anna: Here it is! The project I wrote about here is now done. It's a very simple bag, large enough to hold a cell phone or PDA, a few cards and some cash. Not large enough for my set of keys, though, but I don't like to carry those in my purse anyways.

I'd originally intended to have only one button in the flap's centre, but as I worked it, I found the corners curled quite a lot, so I made two button holes in the flap, instead. It still curls a bit, but it's not as much of an issue. The bag itself is all one piece, reduced in width slightly for the flap, then folded and crocheted closed on the sides. The strap is made long enough to be worn across the chest, rather than on one shoulder. I find those are forever slipping off my shoulders.

I think it worked out rather well. :-)

74:365 Birds at the park

Anna: The birds at the park were once again quite co-operative today. :-D

I had been walking past this building, which has a dock in front of it. I went onto the dock to see if I might spot our resident turtle in the water again, when this goose suddenly flew out of the water and went straight for my head! It then swooped up to the roof and, moments later, I saw its head pop over the edge, watching me. This is one of several pictures I got of it as I continued on my way. It kept watching me the whole time.

Maybe it was mad I didn't feed it, like some other people had been. *L* I happened to be walking behind a couple with a bag of bread pieces they were tossing out (and yes, there are signs all over saying not to feed the birds), so when I went my, I had geese coming right up to me, waiting for their hand out.



There was a pair of mallards feeding right along the edge of the water; the path here is actually part of the edge, with a concrete barrier to prevent erosion. I don't know what was in the mud in that spot, but they really didn't want to leave it, allowing me to come much closer than usual to get this picture of the female. She was very shy, and kept hiding along the concrete edge while the male kept close watch on me.









I don't know what these birds are - it's the first time I've seen them at this park, though I've seen them elsewhere over the years.

This bird isn't about to fly away, nor is it trying to land. Every now and then it would suddenly start flapping its wings and lift itself out of the water, then let itself drop again. After seeing that a few times, I zoomed in, focused and just waited until it did it again. I love it when my subjects are so helpful! :-D

updated: Thanks, Sharon, for letting me know that these are Laughing Gulls.





My friend. the Yellowlegs, was back, and this time it was a lot more comfortable with me being there. This isn't the clearest of pictures, as it was moving its head as I took it, but I thought the water in its open bill was neat.












Here, it let me come even closer, but I didn't try to go any farther.

It was a bit of a challenge taking pictures today - one of those days where it's sunny one minute, cloudy the next, so I was frequently adjusting the settings on my camera. I think they still worked out rather well.











Philippe: I was nice and comfie on the park bench, and moving just didn't appeal to me. This guy was mooching for all he was worth, so he figured posing for a shot was a fair trade. The word 'gull' is so poetic; nothing like the name we gave them in the military.. (Sh##hawks).

73:365 skulldugery

Anna: Not quite the photos I expected to post for Mother's Day! *L*

We were just pulling into the garage entrance to our building after my Mother's Day dinner when we spotted a truck parked in front of the building, with this rather unique tail pipe decoration.











The truck stood out on its own, even without its grinning accessory. It was jacked up high, painted matte black with black tinted windows, even on the cover for the box. The only break from black was the skull and the sliver stars at the centre of all the tire rims, one of which you can see a bit in this picture.

I would drive something like this. I really would! *BG*