The view from my hotel room

So here I am in San Diego. Won't be getting out too much while I'm here, so I'll start with the view that I'll see more than any other.

I'm here for a training class / conference, and my class is 8am to 7pm today through Thursday (we got out a little early today, but it'll be later the rest of the week).

Sutro Tower from Shura's house

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Looking east from Shura's house. As I said before, you can see this thing from just about anywhere in the city.

Note the power lines. In that part of the city, there are no buried lines, so there is always wires overhead. Makes it hard to get a really good shot, but they add character anyway.

San Francisco Architecture

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San Francisco is a very compact town. The whole city is only 49 square miles, which makes for extremely dense architecture -- fitting a lot of style in a short amount of space. Remember the pictures of the "Painted Ladies" -- several beautiful houses, all crammed together.

This is an example of such a narrow style of architecture. It is a house in the Mission district, a few blocks from Mission High School and Dolores park.

Fuzzy Clem...

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Clemmy blurred (not enough light). Gives her a really cartooney look.

New Blackberry...

Got my new Blackberry 8800

GPS, Media player, etc.

Not sure about the trackball vs the wheel in the older BBs. It'll probably grow on me (though that's what I thought the multi-letter-per-key thingy on the 7100 series, and I was certainly wrong about that!).

Glowing Edge effect 2 ...

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I really like the Glowing Edge Effect (see the flame from last month).

This is a simple lamp.

Man, am I lazy when I don't have any good shots for the day.

The Tile...

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Yesterday, you saw the mess associated with the tile. Today, you get to see the tile itself. Isn't it pretty?

Caryn and I picked out the tile together (Canyon PDR Spanish tile), and I picked out the grout (Winter Grey). Javier, the tile guy (and as I said, if you want a good tile guy, let me know and I'll get you his info) laid it.

Tomorrow night, we actually get to step on it. The next day, we might get to take a shower in our very own shower.

Um, that's not where the toilet is supposed to be...

We are having the tile done in our bathroom (replacing the carpet, which had gotten nasty with Clementine having accidents at night.

We haven't had access to the master bathroom (or toilet) for a week now, but the tile guy (and, if you need a good tile guy, let me know, cause Javier is GOOD) is almost done.

I had to get a pic of this site -- simply because the toilet being in the shower is somewhat surreal.

Marine layer on the mountain...

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Sometimes, the pictures come EARLY -- in this case, about 6:30am.

I looked out the window at the end of the hall one my way downstairs to get get something for Ziggy, saw this site, grabbed the trusty D70, and snap.

Photo Shoot Location...

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Clementine had her photo shoot for the Weldon Owen book on Hybrid Dogs. The shoot took place at the palatial estate in the East bay. This was the view from the back door -- the pool, the fireplace, the lighting... I just love the clarity of this shot.

Contrasts ...

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Contrasts -- I love pictures with muted, yet startling contrasts. This is the hill behind my office at 6:00.

Oh man, this is SO cheating...

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Well, this picture was taken today, though the picture that it is a picture of was taken in May of 2005, when my mom, my wife, and I went to Alaska.

Ok, lazy, I know, but I sometimes it's just hard to get a fresh, exciting picture every day.

This is what tired looks like ...

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I know, I know -- I promised no more Ziggy pics for a while. But here it is, 10:30pm, and I've taken NO pictures -- nada -- not one. Then I look over and see this sight. How could I not share it?!?!?

Stick's a bloomin...

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A significant rite of spring around here is a buying Trader Joe's "sticks" and watching them bloom into beautiful daffodils.

TJ's sells them for a buck per 10 stems (actually, they just went up to $1.19 this year). They look like simple green sticks until you cut off a small portion of the end, stick them in water, and wait 24 hours or so.

The moth on the wall...

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See, I promised this wouldn't be a Ziggy picture!

Of course, if you still want Ziggy pics, you can always bop on over to the Flickr page.

More Ziggy

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Forgive us -- you know new puppy owners. This will be the last Ziggy themed pic for a while.

Also, confession time -- Caryn took this picture, not me.

Enter the puppy...

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Ziggy's Here!!!!

He's super cute, but REALLY hard to get a picture of.

More of the ones I did manage to snap are on the Flickr page.

Also, he's even smaller than we thought he'd be.

Now, it's clean ...

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This is the only way I know to make 100% sure that the virus that attacked the laptop this drive was in will never infect another machine (at least, not from that machine).

The first blow was with the claw end of the hammer -- the platter instantly shattered (pulverized actually). When we picked it up, this fine dust came out. It was rather gratifying!

Soon to be a non-infected hard drive...

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What happens when my team isolates a virus-infected computer?

Behold -- the before picture.

Tomorrow -- the after.

Angles and Plane ...

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Beautiful day today. While I was out grilling, I looked up and saw the plane streaking across the sky. I got the camera out just in time to snap a pic just before it passed over the house. I liked the angles, and, as I'm sure I mentioned before, I LOVE flying things...

Revelation...

So, since nearly everyone already either fiigured it out, or already knew, I'll just let the rest in on the secret. We are getting a new puppy!!

Here you see Clementine being prepped for her new brother, ZiggyJ (Ziggy, 'cus we like Ziggy, which is his father's name, and J as an homage to his original name -- Jet).

Pictures of our new baby can be found on his new Dogster page. He arrives on Thursday, so you can probably guess what my pic-of-the-day will be that day!

Something's Coming (part 2) ...

We're gonna need this soon...

Sunset -- Ocean ...

The view westward (duh) down the street that Shura (our oh-so-awesome dog sitter) lives on, just after the sun dipped below the horizon.

I guess I'm just a sucker for heavy light contrast.

Something's Coming...

Something good...

Watch for more clues in the coming days.

Marine Layer coming in...

I liked this picture because of the contrasts. The close focus of the bird and the guy looking out onto the beach versus the shrouding of the Cliff House and "Bird Poop Rock" by the fog (aka Marine Layer).

Isn't it ironic? No, it's just a coincidence...

Remember the Alanis Morrisette song? Remember how everyone got so upset that she kept calling stuff ironic when it was just coincidental? I always thought that it was ironic that she made MILLIONS of dollars on that song, in spite of the folks who complained.

Well, here's my example:

The picture above is from a lottery ticket bought for tonight's MegaMillions drawing -- the largest lottery jackpot in US history. Note the top of the ticket -- hundreds of millions of tickets purchased during "National Problem Gambling Awareness Week".

Ha ha ha ...

Shadows...

Getting late, driving home, nothing superior to show. Then I rounded a corner and got to a stoplight. That's when I saw this study in light and dark.

Dessert

Didn't get much chance to take pictures today.

Here is dessert -- Trader Joe's Peach Strudel and a dollop of Double Rainbow French Vanilla ice cream. Those are dried cranberries on top

I Thought Mastadons Were Extinct...

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Pulling out of the parking lot of the local grocery store, I ended up behind these people. I had to grab my camera and snap a picture cause, well, frankly, I was struck by HOLY CRAP -- THAT'S A BIG DOG!!.

I mean, seriously, this dog has to duck when the car goes through underpasses. He has to affect their mileage. On the bright side, if they do run out of gas, they can ride him home -- better yet, he can pull the car to the nearest station!

Ok, enough really big dog jokes.

There is one more pic on the Flickr page of this guy.

Golden Gate Fuzzy Bridge

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As I think I mentioned before, you will be seeing a number of Big Orange Bridge pictures as the year progresses. This particular one is taken during Yappy Hour at our wonderful Dog Sitter's place. I had to put the tripod up on a table, and I couldn't reach the viewer, so the focus isn't great.

Luckily, the bridge looks good even fuzzy!

Spider Web

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Went to work REALLY early this morning (3:00am) and came home and went back to bed at lunchtime. As a result, I didn't get much time to snap pictures.

So, I decided to play with focus, macro settings, etc, and found this spider web on my poor broken grill (which, by the way, won't be broken after this weekend, cause I got the replacement parts in while writing this!).