AllanThinks

The Age of Aquarium

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Oh Hai!

The Barn

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I took this a few weeks ago on Thompson Run Road, up on Gilson's Ridge, just outside Titusville, PA.

Dude! The Cats are pwning the Razorbacks!

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Even the 21C Museum Hotel penguins were impressed by the University of Kentucky basketball team's win over Arkansas on Saturday. A win that should propel UK into first place in the nation on Monday.

Alison and I spent the weekend at 21C. It was her birthday gift to me. It was an experience I will never forget. It was wonderful to be pampered in luxury. The food at the hotel restaurant, Proof, was amazing.

I really want to do it again some day.

Imagine all the people, living life in peace

Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York, New York.

Crypt

Taken in the crypt of Saint Martin Church, Île de Aix, France. As always, the photo is clickable.

Grounded

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We got home last night after spending 9 days in the Charente Maritime. The trip back was exhausting. It involved three plane trips for a total of around 14 hours in the air. Plus the rushing through airports/customs/passport control/security. Multiple times.

And then I only slept for about 4 hours.

I need a vacation.

Under the Bridge

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Taken in Pittsburgh, PA, Saturday, April 11, 2009.

The Road (so far)

Fresco

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Another shot from the Palace of Versailles. I think I am about done with the photos from the trip. I'll take one last look and see if there is anything else worth posting.

So keep checking the Flickr set.

Arched

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Another shot from Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. I've added a few more to the Flickr set.

All of these have been post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 2. I downloaded a 30 day trial of it before we headed to France. I need to contact Adobe about doing a cross platform upgrade from Photoshop CS2 to CS4, now that we have made the switch to MacBooks.

I might buy Lightroom too, when I purchase the PS upgrade. It has taken some getting used to, but it has some nice features. But still lacks the more advances PS tools I like to use some times.

Last time I looked, though, Adobe was offering a discount on Lightroom when purchased with a PS upgrade, so I will probably take advantage of it.

Big Ass Balloon Dog in the Palace of Versailles

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More art appreciation. Doesn't the balloon dog look like he is gazing at the painting?

This piece, by Jeff Koons, is called Balloon Dog (Magenta), and was one of about a dozen pieces by the artist on display throughout the Palace of Versailles.

The juxtaposition of these neo-pop pieces with the classical art of the palace was, to say the least, intriguing.

It turns out there are 5 Balloon Dog pieces, in different colors. I've been told that the red one is currently on display in Berlin.

I am still not done processing photos from our trip, but what I have done can be seen here.

I have only one thing to say...

...after our visit to the Palace of Versailles.

Ciné

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Angel

 
 
 

 

 

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I took this photo at the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, SC, last week. Alison and I made an impromptu trip down there, with an overnight stop in Asheville, where we met up with some friends. 

Our honeymoon plans kind of got derailed before the wedding, but we decided we needed to get out of town for a few days after the wedding weekend.

Despite the heat and humidity, we had a good time. We wandered all over the historic district, saw some other sights, hung out with Mike for a day, and ate lots of great food.

I'm slowing going through the hundreds of photos I took. I've posted a few in a Flickr set.

Foggy Country Road

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This was the view outside Ali's brother's place the same night as that amber moon. This was taken just as the sun was setting, and the fog was setting in.

I've taken several photos of this road over the past year or two. You can probably find them by searching my Fickr stream with the keyword 'road' or 'country road'.

This might be the most beautiful I have ever seen this stretch of road.

Amber Moon

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This is what the moon looked like Thursday evening.

We're On A Road To Nowhere (Summer Remix)

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A summer view of this scene. You can see a few other photos I took in Pennsyltucky this past weekend on my Flickr stream.

And the title is just a musical reference. Don't read anything else into it.

The future is bright. Alison and I are very fortunate.

Game Room

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Aperture:  f/11
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100

A 3 exposure HDR, combined and tonemapped  in Photomatix Pro with a bit of enhancement in Photoshop CS2.

Neogothic

The photograph is, as always, clickable.

This is the PPG Tower in downtown Pittsburgh. It is the centerpiece of PPG Place, a complex of six buildings that is the headquarters of PPG Industries, one of the world's largest glass manufacturers.

The complex was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, and was completed in 1984. The tower is 40 stories, and rises 635 feet above ground level. I took this photo from atop Mt. Washington, across the Monogehela River from downtown Pittsburgh. Alison and I try to make it up there every time we visit the city. Luckily, Sunday was a beautiful, if cold, day.

And for the photogeeks:

Exposure:      0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture:     f/8
Focal Length:     170 mm
ISO Speed:     100
Exposure Bias:     0/6 EV

Above Pittsburgh

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Aperture:  f/22
Focal Length: 15 mm
ISO Speed: 100

A three exposure HDR, combined and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro.

Easter Sunday was a gorgeous day in the Burgh.

Café Society

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The first time I visited Alison in France in the spring of 2005, I took hundreds of photos. Over 400 in Paris alone. At the time, I only processed a small number of them for upload to Flickr.

I had every intention of completing the task over the next several months, but I ended up back in France for 5 weeks that fall, and I never returned to the photos from the first trip.

Since I haven't been  taking many photos lately, I decided to try and complete the task. As it turns out there were only a handful of photos that I felt good enough about to upload. They are now in my Flickr sets here and here.

This shot was taken as we sat outside of Café Psycho, across from the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, enjoying a beer and watching the world go by.

Chomp!

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One of the things we did while the kids were here was visit the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh to see their recently renovated dinosaur exhibit, Dinosaurs In Their Time.

That was the culmination of a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania. Visits to Erie, Titusville, and Pittsburgh over the course of four days. That last day, besides visiting the museum, we ate dinner with Ali's dad and his wife, then hit the road to drive back to Lexington. We got home in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Then we had to ready the house for a visit from Ali's brother and his family on Sunday. They returned to Erie on New Years Day.

The holidays were busy. Pretty much a blur. But we had a blast.

And I think it did me good to stay so busy. It made what could have been a depressing couple of weeks a delight.

I wish you all the best in 2008.

We're On A Road To Nowhere

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Actually, we are on a road to somewhere. I'm just not sure where. That's part of the adventure that is life.

The photo was taken of the road where Ali's oldest brother lives with his family. I've taken many a photo of that road, but this is the first time I have shot it in winter. It has never looked more beautiful.

We will be taking the kids to the Cincinnati airport this afternoon to put them on their flight home. They have been with us for two weeks, and we have crammed a lot of activity into that time. But the time still flew by.

I wish they didn't have to go back.

"Lord I was born a ramblin' man."

Alison and I are getting ready to vacate the gîte, and begin our trek back to Lexington.

It is customary to leave a rental such as this as spotless as you found it when you moved in. This one was immaculate. Alison wrote the other day about how nervous it made her. But I think we will be leaving it in very good shape.

The floors are vacuumed and mopped, and we are going to go have lunch somewhere. We will finish packing when we return.

We will pick up the kids when they get out of school this afternoon, and drive to Bordeaux, where we will spend the night in a hotel. We have to get up early in the morning to return the rental car and board our flight to Paris.

We will then board another very long flight back to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, followed by an hour drive back to Lexington. We should be home early Friday evening.

As usual, it has been an adventure. Full of fun, meeting old and new friends, and the consumption of wonderful food.

And the traveling isn't over. In a few short days we heading off again to spend time with Ali's family for the holidays.

See you all soon.

Got Jetlag?

Alison and I made it to France, and have settled into the house we are renting for the week.

We realized that we had gone for more than 24 hours without sleep. It was impossible to sleep on the flight over. The plane was packed, and we were surrounded by some of the most annoying fellow passengers you could ever imagine.

Ugh.

I wish I could afford for us to fly first class on international flights.

In any case, as I said, we are settled in. The kids are spending the weekend with us. Ali cooked a wonderful meal last night, and afterward, we sat down to watch Shrek the Third. Well, Ali and the kids watched it. I fell asleep on the sofa and missed the entire thing. I went into our bedroom to check the internet (yeah, we have tenuous internet access, thanks to a neighbor with an open router), and crashed on the bed.

I awoke sometime during the night in a dark room, fully clothed, and covered with a quilt. I went right back to sleep, and woke again at about 6 a.m. local time. I had slept for 10 hours.

Ali had slept in the kids room, and had awoken a little bit before me.

I guess that puts us back on a relatively normal schedule.

It is very cold here, but the skies are clear, and it promises to be a beautiful day. I don't know what we will end up doing, but I don't think we will spend it inside.

Time to put some kilometers on this unlimited mileage car we rented.

Up, up, and away!

Alison and I are out of here for a few days.

We might, or might not, have internet access where we are going.

If not, we will see you when we return.

I could SO live here.

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It really is this beautiful on the Olympic Peninsula.

Mt. Rainier (Again)

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I can't get enough of it. Damn. It is impressive.

When we took off from the Seattle airport on Friday, we looked out the window of the plane and saw Rainier and at least 4 more volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens.

We didn't get a photos of them, as our cameras had to remain stowed until we reached altitude.

It Was A Two Volcano Day On the Olympic Peninsula

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Ali, Cathy, and I drove up to the top of Mt. Walker today. The weather was gorgeous, and the view promised to be stunning.

Mt. Rainier was visible from the south lookout. This is one of the shots I took of it.

We were not able to see Mt. Baker from the north lookout, but did see it from the beach at Kala Point where we are staying. Photos of it will be posted to my Flickr photostream later.

We are flying home tomorrow.

I don't want to leave yet, but the cats need us, and there are chores that need to be done.

I want to thank Cathy and Mike again for being such gracious and welcoming hosts. And for being our friends.

Look What I Did (To Myself) On My Summer Vacation

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Okay. Where do I start?

Let's get the unpleasantness out of the way first.

Monday night, while attempting to prepare dinner  for our hosts in Port Townsend, Washington, I managed to slice my left thumb and forefinger open with a 12 inch chef's knife.

I did something really stupid. I tried to cut open the plastic encasing the pork tenderloin we were going to grill with a huge, and very sharp knife rather than do the sensible thing, and open it with a pair of scissors.

I swear that alcohol was not involved.

Needless to say, it was very shocking. Much blood was shed. And I knew that elastic bandages were not going to be enough to take care of the carnage.

Our wonderful hosts and friends, Cathy and Mike, were down at the beach walking their two dogs when this happened. Luckily, they returned home about 5 minutes after it happened.

Cathy asked me if I wanted to go to the local emergency room. I, of course, said yes. So after wrapping my injured appendages in bandaids and paper towels as best as we could, we set off.

On they way to the local hospital, we passed an emergency walk-in clinic. Cathy asked me if I wanted to go there instead of the hospital ER. I said yes, knowing that I would probably be seen quicker there than the ER.

So we turned around and went to the Urgent Treatment Center.

Fortunately, the clinic was not too busy.  There was only one other patient being treated there. A woman who had had a similar accident with a kitchen knife as it turns out.

I filled out the registration forms and was taken back to an examining room, where the nurse removed our crude bandages and took a look at the wounds.

Within 10 minutes I was seen by the doctor who eventually sutured the wounds. He was a very nice guy with a great bedside manner. While we waited for the operatory to be prepared, we exchanged recipes.

As you can see, he did a great job of suturing my wounds. Which is kind of remarkable as he only had three fingers and a thumb on each of his hands. Yes, he was missing the pinkie fingers on both hands. I assume their absence was congenital.

As a dentist, I have had a lot of experience suturing surgical and accidental wounds, so when I say this guy was good, I know what I am talking about.

So three days later, I am on the mend. The wounds are healing well. I will have my doctor remove the sutures on Monday or Tuesday after Ali and I return to Kentucky.

I guess you are wondering what the heck we are doing in Port Townsend, Washington.

It's been a very stressful past few months for Alison and me. Ali had to go to France to bring her kids to the States for a month. Then we had to take the children to Pennsylvania to see their grandfather, aunts and uncles, and their cousins. All while dealing with my sister Jo Ann's illness.

Then, after we got the kids back to France, Jo Ann's health got even worse, and she eventually died.

Ali and I discovered her the morning that she died.

Later that day, after arrangements had been made, and we had returned home, I told Ali that as soon as we could, that we were going somewhere. Anywhere but Lexington. I just knew we needed to get away.

There were several possibilities. We had plenty of standing invitations from friends to visit them.

But our dear friend Cathy came to our rescue. She knew what we were going though, and insisted we come visit them.

I did not hesitate. I made the reservations as soon as we received the invitation, and two days later we were flying to the Seattle.

We have been here in Port Townsend since last Friday.

I haven't been this  relaxed in ages. It has been a very therapeutic and rejuvenating experience. Even with the trauma of my hand injury.

I can't thank Cathy and Mike enough for what they have done for Alison and me.