why we work -- journal

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I came across the Hockneyizer, a Flickr tool that makes a David Hockney-esque photo collage of an image from your Flickr account. Considering that I spent hours with glue stick in hand making these collages back in the 80's, I found the digital version much easier.

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Monday, August 28, 2006

We recently switched to a new brand of litter, Nature's Miracle, so we decided to try a new box as well. And you can't beat a cat dressed as a pirate and a Spanish slogan that translates roughly to "Say goodbye for the search for treasures."

Taken with a Nokia 3650 Cameraphone - View all cameraphone pictures

(don't worry, we're going on vacation this weekend so we'll have better blog content soon)

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Sunday, August 27, 2006

A close-up from last night's picture.

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Saturday, August 26, 2006

Still averaging about 4-5 tomatoes per week - although this weeks harvest seems like more than usual. Planning to make pasta with tomatoes, zucchini, and basil tomorrow night.

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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

As is our tradition, we're using frequent flyer miles for our Christmas vacation. We did end up having to purchase a one way ticket from Kigali (Rwanda) to Nairobi (Kenya). I could have bought them online, but I felt a little uneasy with e-tickets on Rwandair. I had to go to the Kenya Airways office (at 401 N Michigan - home of NBC and the giant chrome moose statue seen below), and pay by check. The tickets will be mailed to me as soon as my check clears. This must be what it was like buying an airline ticket in 1950 :) Then I went to the W hotel (last picture) on Adams to meet up with Andy and Lisa for drinks. Quite a mod hotel for its location.

Taken with a Nokia 3650 Cameraphone - View all cameraphone pictures

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Sun drunk grey angel

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Sunday, August 20, 2006

The air show concluded with another loud performance from the Blue Angels. They fly along the lakeshore and then right over my building - what seems like a few thousand feet above my terrace. Who knew that they wore yellow helmets :)

Towards the end of the show their trails produced this strange shape in the sky. I can't decide if it's Linus from the Peanuts cartoons, some random character from the Simpsons, or maybe that turtle that you have to draw to get into art school. This might keep me awake tonight.

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Saturday, August 19, 2006

This weekend is the annual Air and Water Show here in Chicago. The weather today (and the past few days of practice flights) isn't too great, and I spent most of the day waiting for Dish Network to come explain to me why I don't receive the National Geographic HD channel (no resolution on that, by the way). The Blue Angels did make a a few appearances, which is quite a change from last year when the Thunderbirds left early.

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Friday, August 18, 2006

I now have too many tomatoes, although I have found that I do not get tired of grilled bread with cheese, tomato, and basil.

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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

I got a new phone for the office. Morgan moved into the phone box.

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

The terrace is still in full bloom, and I'm harvesting tomatoes every few days (which are usually eaten on grilled bread with provolone and basil). This morning Andy captured this bee nicely blending in with the sweet potato vines.

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

After a productive day of meetings I got to see Old Faithful, which is about an hour from where my meetings are in the North part of the park. During the drive, I saw a bison ! He's the brown lump in the field under the red arrow :)

(This is a work trip so I didn't bring any of the good camera equipment)

Old Faithful erupts once every 90 minutes or so, and our visit was timed perfectly because we only had to wait five minutes. Excuse any video production glitches as I don't have the bandwidth for proper quality assurance :)

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Meanwhile, back in Chicago I missed a beautiful sunrise.

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Monday, August 07, 2006

I'm in Yellowstone for work (and before you curse me, let's not forget about the spring I spent commuting to Texas Monday through Friday). It took basically all day to get here - but I did see some geothermal thingies