Musings

Our photographic safari to Seney Refuge with KW and GG produced several hundred images from four still cameras—one apiece! Note our New Camera, delivered here courtesy of Amazon right after we arrived. It has more zoom and wide-angle capabilities, and faster shutter cycling (whatever that’s called); generally, a huge pleasure. The only major (if this indeed is major) drawback is that the lens cap needs a tether (no camera store for 90 miles or so). We’ve become habituated to the small cameras with no separate lens cover, and struggle to remember….

As to critter sightings, mostly birds and rodents. Did see Sandhills this time around, but no super photos, just ones where you can see the red eye patch and general shape, but no details. (You see, the new fab camera’s modest-capacity chip had been filled by then.)

Of special note: we enjoyed our first picnic out of the New Prius!

If you didn’t know us, you’d think from this entry (New this, New that…) we are big consumers, when in reality, we spend much of the year not buying much besides groceries and paying utilities and the like.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Photo safari

We thought this was our temporary plate, but, as The Guru pointed out, it looks like it’s good for a whole millennium!

Posted at 6:32 PM | Comments Off on Temp plate

Where have all the cisterns gone?

Am I the only one that has the DoubleClick opt-out cookie, so that less data can be collected about me (or someone using my browser)?

[Here’s the opt-out link, and you can read about it here, or a bit about the company in Wikipedia.]

I comb my cookies regularly, and delete all but essentials. I guess I deceive myself, however, that I’m doing much to defeat the data-collectors.

Posted at 2:58 PM | 1 Comment »

Mini roadtrip

Took the new buggy for a spin. Had to try it out at highway speeds. And get the first Starbucks.

Did pretty well: 146 miles, average gas consumption—51.3 mpg. Whooopeeeeeeee!

Went to Athens. Met up with friends. Brunched at Farm 255. Flawless.

Friend’s iPhone

Yes, I’ve held one. Yes, it’s super cool. And, yes, you have to sign with AT&T for a total cost of something like $2K for your first two years of fun (including phone, activation, and monthly nut).

So far, we’re (broke and) holding off. Maybe the next generation iPhone? When we really need one?

Posted at 7:34 PM | Comments Off on Techno-fun

Yes, proud owners and all that….

Michael McGough, in the LA Times, describes the message on the Alaska kid’s banner as ineffable. I looked it up and I’m still not sure what he means.

I said for the last two elections that neither the Democratic Party nor the outside interest groups made a big enough deal that your vote for President was overwhelmingly a vote for what kind of Supreme Court justices you want, and, because that would be such a powerful influence on what this nation will be, that one issue should be near tops in your decision about which candidate to vote for.

Now we’re living with The Shrub’s choices. Which may really mean Dick Cheney’s choices, although I can not believe The Angler was the one who picked poor Harriet Miers of the short-lived nomination. That had the stamp of The Shrub awarding loyal employees with important jobs whether or not they’re up for it. Brownie come to mind here? Alberto G?

Today’s vocabulary:

ineffable

too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words

Posted at 8:43 PM | 2 Comments »

Not an iPhone.

Living in a cell-phone-less household, I’ve been able to avoid learning about the boring intricacies (intrigue?) of calling plans. However, this week I’ve been checking out the soon-to-be-available iPhone to keep up with some of what the Guru’s talking about (since Leopard and Cocoa are way beyond my knowledge base, I thought I’d pay attention to the iPhone).

I’m struck by the basic offering: 5000 night minutes. Wow! I thought; that sounds like a lot! With the 450 daytime minutes, that means about three hours PER DAY. Plus a modest pot of text messages (do just sent ones count or both sent and received?—see: intrigue!).

Makes my ear hurt!

[I promise I wrote this before the Guru posted his entry.]

Posted at 4:19 PM | 7 Comments »

The Guru brought back this photo of legendary SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen’s fine typewriter. I learned to type on a Royal—black not gray, and even older than this one—which still resides at the parental estate in MI. And still works.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Legendary & loyal