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| Santa Barbara November 2012 |
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Pictures! the second
Pictures of the family in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hopefully Dani and/or Mary Jo will upload their photos to a location where they can be shared...
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| Butlers in Santa Fe |
Pictures! the first
From Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns
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| Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe National Park |
Friday, July 06, 2012
Are Teests
Some of the art that impressed me while in Santa Fe:
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| "Meet and Greet" by Barbara Meikle ($3,800). Barbara was very outgoing and loves talking about her art. You can find her artwork at the Pippin Meikle Gallery. |
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| A giant ball made out of chain link fence - I think it looks like a lantern. I don't remember who was the originator of this piece, but it is located at InArt |
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| "Autumn in Taos" by Pamela Dewitt ($1,200). This picture does NOT do this piece justice. It is a reverse painted piece on shattered glass. The effect is awesome. We were told that this artist is relatively new so her pieces are currently very reasonably priced. Her artwork is currently at InArt. |
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| "Canon del Agua" by David Perez Escudero ($18,500). First, this painting is huge. I was standing at the door to the gallery and this is all I got of the painting (it's 5' x 5.5'). Second, this is pointilism and this guy sure does take it to a whole different level. He was a programmer for Los Alamos before retiring. He now paints full time. His artwork can be found at InArt. |
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| "Wyoming Sunrise" by Carol Shinn ($3,9,50). This is freestyle sewing. SEWING. It's insane! Her artwork can currently be seen at the Jane Sauer Gallery. |
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| "Poppies Whirl" by Gregory Smith ($1,250). Just cuz I like me some botanical artwork. Gregory's artwork can be found at the Ventana Fine Art Gallery. |
Thursday, July 05, 2012
New Mexico Trip
As most of my faithful readers (all 2 of you!) already know, Shawn and I took a trip to meet up with my family over father's day weekend. Since Shawn and I are nerds, we generally keep track of the gas mileage the car gets. We don't have any charts (like Shawn does for our combined Net Worth), but we generally know that in town, the car gets between 32 and 34 mpg and on trips it's usually better.
On trips, we also keep all of the receipts...I'm not really sure why; Shawn claims it's so he knows how much money we spend, but that's not it since we can track that via our credit card statements, so it's gotta be something else. He also used to set our "B" odometer to log the total number of miles for the trip, but I wouldn't let him do that this trip since I use it to track the number of miles between oil changes. ANYHOO, we spent $282.28 on the trip (on things that we wouldn't have had to pay for if we had gone by plane). Of that, $163.57 was spent on gas. If we had travelled by plane, we would have spent an additional $150 (over the $280). The car got some amazing gas mileages with the worst being 30.39 mpg (we had only used half a tank and filled up because gas was cheap). The best, by contrast was 40 mpg. On average, we got 35.68 mpg.
So, do I love my car (2008 Honda Fit)? Yes. Absolutely.
On trips, we also keep all of the receipts...I'm not really sure why; Shawn claims it's so he knows how much money we spend, but that's not it since we can track that via our credit card statements, so it's gotta be something else. He also used to set our "B" odometer to log the total number of miles for the trip, but I wouldn't let him do that this trip since I use it to track the number of miles between oil changes. ANYHOO, we spent $282.28 on the trip (on things that we wouldn't have had to pay for if we had gone by plane). Of that, $163.57 was spent on gas. If we had travelled by plane, we would have spent an additional $150 (over the $280). The car got some amazing gas mileages with the worst being 30.39 mpg (we had only used half a tank and filled up because gas was cheap). The best, by contrast was 40 mpg. On average, we got 35.68 mpg.
So, do I love my car (2008 Honda Fit)? Yes. Absolutely.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Family
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| The family at Buffalo Thunder Casino in Santa Fe, New Mexico |
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| A photo showing how much space we all were keeping from Sickie Jim (hence why he looks a bit closer to the camera in the photo above). |
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Flying
So, as most of my loyal readers (all 2 of you!) knew, I was in Colorado last week for my cousin's wedding. We, of course, flew there because we only drive when we have to take kidney-failure cats with us.
I dislike flying. Not as bad as the Spiteful Chef, but I don't relish it either. The funny part is that I actually somewhat understand airfoils and fluid dynamics thereby keeping the tin can with wings aloft (damn you engineering!). This does not, however, really assuage any of my plummeting fears. Though, as a plus, I'm not scared of flying; I'm scared of falling.
But do you want to know the best part about flying? Skymall. That's right. Skymall. I love paging through the magazine and looking at all the crazy lawn/garden statues that I find absolutely ridiculous. Since I wanted to include some pictures of the statues that are my particular favorites, I actually went to their website this evening. I don't think you can understand how surprised I was that my personal favorite, the Zombie of Montclaire Moors (pictured below), is by far the most popular statue with 36 reviews, most of them rating it at 5 stars.
If you still want to scare the bejeebus out of your friends, postman, and neighborhood cats, you can opt, instead, to get this realistic 4' alligator which is on backorder until the middle of April:
Not recommended for those in Florida as it may instead train your grandchildren and dogs to ignore the actual REAL alligators in your neighborhood.
If, for whatever reason, scaring the crap out of your friends is not your goal, then you can always go the unicorn route.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good things in the Skymall magazine, and plenty of very helpful things (plus it's beginning to aim more at the business travellers, so there's a bunch more office related stuff), but those things don't really do much to take my mind off of the fact that we're bouncing and jostling, and great scott! we MUST hit 88mph before liftoff! So yes, thank you Skymall for making my flight a little more pleasant every time we take off.
I dislike flying. Not as bad as the Spiteful Chef, but I don't relish it either. The funny part is that I actually somewhat understand airfoils and fluid dynamics thereby keeping the tin can with wings aloft (damn you engineering!). This does not, however, really assuage any of my plummeting fears. Though, as a plus, I'm not scared of flying; I'm scared of falling.
But do you want to know the best part about flying? Skymall. That's right. Skymall. I love paging through the magazine and looking at all the crazy lawn/garden statues that I find absolutely ridiculous. Since I wanted to include some pictures of the statues that are my particular favorites, I actually went to their website this evening. I don't think you can understand how surprised I was that my personal favorite, the Zombie of Montclaire Moors (pictured below), is by far the most popular statue with 36 reviews, most of them rating it at 5 stars.
If you still want to scare the bejeebus out of your friends, postman, and neighborhood cats, you can opt, instead, to get this realistic 4' alligator which is on backorder until the middle of April:Not recommended for those in Florida as it may instead train your grandchildren and dogs to ignore the actual REAL alligators in your neighborhood.If, for whatever reason, scaring the crap out of your friends is not your goal, then you can always go the unicorn route.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good things in the Skymall magazine, and plenty of very helpful things (plus it's beginning to aim more at the business travellers, so there's a bunch more office related stuff), but those things don't really do much to take my mind off of the fact that we're bouncing and jostling, and great scott! we MUST hit 88mph before liftoff! So yes, thank you Skymall for making my flight a little more pleasant every time we take off.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Backpacking
on my birthday, Shawn and I went backpacking with our friend Lon, and his 4-year old daughter, Ma-belle. This is the only photo I took. I figured that it's his kid, he's the one that's in charge of taking the photos of her, right? I let her wear my hat the entire hike in because that's like an ounce that I don't have to carry myself.
Friday, November 05, 2010
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Christmas
It's like I'm on a Holiday roll around here....
But, Machu Picchu, December 2011. What do you think?
But, Machu Picchu, December 2011. What do you think?
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thoughts for the Week
When the BP exec said something about Obama being un-American my first thought was "Wait, doesn't the B in BP stand for BRITISH? So how is someone complaining about a company, based in a foreign country, un-American? Unless that guy has a VERY different idea than everyone else what is and isn't American."
and
Why haven't football and basketball had big doping scandals like baseball and biking?
The moving of Shawn's parents down here to Texas went well. The only real hitch was the problem with the towing hitch. (haha). Basically the hitch used to tow the car down was attached incorrectly and the Beetle came partially off of the hitch just north of Trinidad, Colorado. So Shawn spent about an hour and a half under the Bug on the side of I-25 banging some U-shaped piece back into shape in order for us to continue on.
The only other hitch would have been when we got to Brownwood, Texas to eat lunch on Wednesday. Unfortunately Underwood's Cafeteria is not open on Wednesdays so we walked some half mile circuitous route to the Schlotzsky's. Mostly because it's impossible to drive a 26-foot truck anywhere unless it's semi/large truck accessible (thus the walking). Also, Brownwood is not pedestrian friendly (thus the circuitous route). We walked down to one traffic light to go to the KFC but because of lack of cross walks, we ended up crossing the street closer to the Schlotzsky's, ergo we ate there instead.
Now, to unload a truck on Sunday. Wish us luck!
and
Why haven't football and basketball had big doping scandals like baseball and biking?
The moving of Shawn's parents down here to Texas went well. The only real hitch was the problem with the towing hitch. (haha). Basically the hitch used to tow the car down was attached incorrectly and the Beetle came partially off of the hitch just north of Trinidad, Colorado. So Shawn spent about an hour and a half under the Bug on the side of I-25 banging some U-shaped piece back into shape in order for us to continue on.
The only other hitch would have been when we got to Brownwood, Texas to eat lunch on Wednesday. Unfortunately Underwood's Cafeteria is not open on Wednesdays so we walked some half mile circuitous route to the Schlotzsky's. Mostly because it's impossible to drive a 26-foot truck anywhere unless it's semi/large truck accessible (thus the walking). Also, Brownwood is not pedestrian friendly (thus the circuitous route). We walked down to one traffic light to go to the KFC but because of lack of cross walks, we ended up crossing the street closer to the Schlotzsky's, ergo we ate there instead.
Now, to unload a truck on Sunday. Wish us luck!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
No Real Updates
No real updates here. Except for oh MY INLAWS ARE MOVING TO TEXAS. House is empty, and papers signed, truck, car and van are all packed, and money has been wired to Texas for the new house.
We're up here in in windy Colorado and are 45 minutes away from leaving for Texas in the moving truck (yes, we flew up here specifically to help Shawn's 'rents drive the moving truck down to their new house).
Based on how hard the moving guys worked to move some of the furniture, I'm a bit concerned that Shawn and I, and his parents aren't going to be able to move some stuff off of the truck. So, yes, that promises to be fun.
OH AND!
My sister in law is like 20 minutes away from having her second baby. Her due date is on Thursday of this week, but she's probably going to go into labor before that (at least I'm pretty sure she's hoping that's the case).
We're up here in in windy Colorado and are 45 minutes away from leaving for Texas in the moving truck (yes, we flew up here specifically to help Shawn's 'rents drive the moving truck down to their new house).
Based on how hard the moving guys worked to move some of the furniture, I'm a bit concerned that Shawn and I, and his parents aren't going to be able to move some stuff off of the truck. So, yes, that promises to be fun.
OH AND!
My sister in law is like 20 minutes away from having her second baby. Her due date is on Thursday of this week, but she's probably going to go into labor before that (at least I'm pretty sure she's hoping that's the case).
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