Candle and Cross from Liz and Clancy's wedding

I'll leave all the wedding pictures -- the rings, the presents, the cakes, the dresses, the tuxes, etc etc etc to the professionals.

I did like the juxtaposition in this one.

OKC Memorial

We visited the OKC Memorial (former site of the Murrah Federal Building, which was bombed in April of 1995).

The chairs in the field represent the casualties and are arranged by the floor they were on at the time of the bombing. The smaller chairs represent children (from the day care center).

Wedding sparklies

My niece is getting married on Saturday. She and her matron of honor were working on her cake topper, and had a bunch of sparklies out. When they were done, and were packing up the glimmers into their various shapes and sizes, I snapped this one.

Grandson...

We get to spend some time with our grandson, Austin.

Views of Oklahoma City...

Waterfall at the Fairgrounds



The Paseo



A street side water spigot



The milk jug building

Road Trip -- Day 3

In Groom, Texas, the Knights of Columbus have erected what they claim to be the "Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere" (it isn't - there is one in Illinois that is 8 feet larger).

After there, we passed through Shamrock, TX, where we ran smack-dab into a nasty thunderstorm. Our first clue that we might be in trouble were these "Biscuit" clouds



These are indications of immense instability aloft. Then we hit the heavy stuff. Marble-sized hail smashing down on the rental car making us feel like we were being crushed



But, we made it. I write this from the comfort of my mom's living room. The rest of the week will be scenes of Oklahoma City and Texas.

Road trip -- Day 2

2 state lines





Several million dead bugs on the windshield



and 673 miles today.

YIKES!!!

Ok, I usually drive a Scion xB. It has a 10 gallon tank, and I've been paying about $3.95 / gal, so my average fillup is between $30 and $35

So, now we are on a long distance car trip to my niece's wedding in Oklahoma City. We've rented a Chrysler Pacifica for the trip.

The first stop (in Bakersfield) yielded this...

It's going to be a long, expensive trip...

Ziggy -- a day late...

In all the hubub of getting ready for the trip, I forgot to post yesterday. Here is yesterday's picture....

A Dream Dinner

Caryn and I had a session at Dream Dinners tonight.

For the uninitiated, Dream Dinners is an establishment which gives people the opportunity to pre-prepare delicious entrees. They have a number of stations, each of which has the ingredients and recipe to build the entree. You bag all of the marinades, rubs, sauces, etc, then drop them in the freezer with instructions for finishing the meal.

The food includes such delicacies as Sweet Cedar BBQ Chicken, Marinated Pork Roast with Apricot Sauce, and Mango Glazed Indian Salmon. This is Thai Fusion Shrimp. As their website says, "Red and green bell peppers add flavor and color to this unique shrimp dinner with orange and peanut overtones."

Talented flying...

More from yesterday's fire. This pilot made several trips between the marina and the fire summit. Given how windy it was, this guy was a real pilot's pilot.

Here, he's paused while the tanker is making his run.

Fire on the hill

click here for details on the fire

Cityscape

Piedmont Boutique in the Haight

Three days of heat, and then ...

So what happens when the bay area is hit with 3 consecutive days of high heat (at least, high heat for San Francisco)?

The marine layer rolls in...

Home of the "Crack Wings"...

Remember a few years ago, when the Chinese authorities found out that a dumpling house in BFC (just like BFE, but replace "Egypt" with "China") was adding opium to the dumplings. When they arrested the owner and closed down the restaurant, the people in the town damn near rioted.

Tucked away in the Inner Sunset (11th and Irving, to be exact), sits this little Chinese restaurant. This is a *real* Chinese place -- you have to ask for an English menu, and they have to look for it when you do.

Among their delicacies is a wonderful little treat called the "Dry Fried Chicken Wings". Anyone who has ever eaten in this place knows this menu item as "Crack Wings".

Crispy and sweet, and ever so slightly spicy, you will want more and more.

And if the San Francisco authorities ever determine that they really do have crack in the recipe, I'll be among the rioters.

The REAL crookedest street....

Back in December, I posted a picture of the famous "Crooked Street" (Lombard) and I mentioned that it is not, in fact, the crookedest street in San Francisco.

That distinction falls to Vermont Street between 19th and 21st.

The reason you don't hear a lot about Vermont is that there is no vantage point where you can see the whole street. This view is the beginning of the 8 curves.

The "Dead" house...

In 1967, members of the Greatful Dead lived in this house in the Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco.

After I took this picture, 2 more people walked down the street behind me with cameras to take basically the same pic. There is no indication that this house has any special history, but Dead Heads are a dedicated lot, and lots of them treat 710 Ashbury as a shrine.

Wildflower field

Eucalyptus trees and boats

Taken outside my office pointing towards the bay...

Mom's Day Present

My most incredible darling wife Caryn, for those of you who don't know her, is an avid scrapbooker. Her scrapbooks, cards, etc are works of art, and she loves doing it.

One of her big Mother's Day presents was a Cricut personal electronic cutter. This device allows you to cut shapes (aka Die Cuts) of letters, animals, trees, etc, on the paper of your choosing. It's a big thing in the scrapbooking world.

Slap on the cuffs -- an illegal picture...

Caryn and I went to see a matinée of "Cats" today at the Paramount in Oakland.

For those of you who haven't seen Cats, during the intermission between the acts, one of the characters (Old Deuteronomy) stays on the stage, relatively still, for the duration of the intermission.

I know, you aren't supposed to do it, but I looked up and snapped a picture on my camera phone. Granted, it's not a very good shot, but...

Here are some other scenes from our trip to Oakland:



Us at the BART station about to buy our tickets for home



The fresco over the door at the Paramount



The Marquee at the Paramount

Tired Mr. Ziggy -- CGC!!

He's tired because he's been working hard the last couple of days.

Ziggy has earned his AKC Canine Good Citizen award!

Say "Hello" to My Little Friend...

Apologies to Mr. Paccino ...

I had to bend down behind a server rack to plug in a server, and when I stood up, I caught a cable management assembly with my cheek.

Cheesy "through the airplane window" shot...

Special guest star -- Phoenix...

I visited Phoenix for the day for a security conference.

Here are some pics:

Breakthrough day

Caryn had some pretty substantial breakthroughs with Arnie today. She got him outside, without having to box him up and force him into the dog run. Then she got him to come in without boxing him back up.

While he was out she got a couple of great shots of him:



I like the composition of this one. The focus on the leaves, the light patterns on the fuzzy dog, etc. Very nice -- good job babe!

Then, there is this fantastic closeup:

Natural Bridges

Foggy day at Pigeon Point

After I dropped Caryn off at a National Scrapbooking Day crop, the doggies and I took a drive south about 40 miles to the Pigeon Point lighthouse.

Didn't I see this flag on a Daffy Duck Cartoon?

At the Thoreau Center at the Presidio, they fly this earth flag.

It reminds me of a "Duck Dodgers" Daffy Duck cartoon (see the pic below).

May Theme Day -- Numbers

In the lobby of Coit Tower is this amazing mural -- it covers the entire lobby all the way around. This is the keystone/signature point.

There are 181 blogs participating in this month's theme day of "Numbers". Please take the time to visit some...

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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