Can of Corn Challenge: Swing and a miss (May)

Well, this month's challenge snuck up on me.  I blame the end of the year for my lack of activity on all fronts.  Let's face it.  It just gets plain busy at the end of the school year and time is at a premium. So this post is a basic Swing and a Miss.  

Here's a shot I took in 2013 when my daughter took me to a baseball game at Anaheim Stadium to see my beloved Angels take on the Seattle Mariners.  If I remember correctly, the Angels won, so I went home a happy camper.

Dear Mr. Grossman

I met you in the summer of 1986, when my girlfriend took me to meet you and your wife.  Over the course of the last 31 years, I've known you by a variety of different names.  You were Mr. Grossman for about a day, possibly two, before you became Sherwin to me.  Less than a year later, you were Dad.  I had become part of your family by marrying your youngest daughter.  Within two years you had been renamed once again, the name that you kept for the rest of your life, Grandpa.

When we first met, you were a heavy smoker.  When your daughter became pregnant with your first grandchild, you started to cut back.  We had already outlawed you from smoking inside our house, so after a dinner you'd go outside to have your smoke.  Eventually, you decided that you wanted to live longer to enjoy your grandchildren down the road, so you quit.  I'm very glad you made that decision, because you were able to enjoy your granddaughter for 27 years, and your two grandsons for 25 and 21 years.

I chose this photo of you because it's an awesome photo of you with your grandchildren.  You were one of the hardest individuals in the world to get a good smile out of.  My very last roll of film I ever took, I ended up shooting an entire roll of trying to get a good shot of you and Grandma together.  The first shot on the roll was the best and only one where you were really smiling.  This shot of you with the kids is the best I've got, but it's a good one and that's what counts.

Today, your daughter and I began the painful task of cleaning up a house after a loved one has left.  This was not a one day job, but just the first step.  However, you should know that I know, now more than ever, why your daughter is the way that she is.  You taught her very well and I hope you're very proud of that.  You have left a good legacy behind.  You were a very good father-in-law and if I can be half the father-in-law that you were, I will have to say that I have succeeded in that part of my life.

You leave behind two very loving daughters, three loving grandchildren, and one loving son-in-law.  You will be missed Grandpa.

Sherwin Grossman

March 7, 1930 - February 3, 2017

Dream winter vacation (Day 7) - 20 Days of Chill

I had a great shot all planned for today, but now when I'm looking for it, I can't find it.  But I have a back up photo for this one, so it's all good.

I live in Southern California, have so for all of my life.  I don't do snow, so to think about a dream winter vacation is pretty much a stretch for me, unless you're thinking about somewhere tropical during the winter months.  

As most people know, I love to travel.  Natural wonders are my destination of choice.  When the kids were little, I used to take them camping all of the time.  We went to Joshua Tree, we went to Sequoia, we went to Yosemite, we went beach camping at San Simeon and Hearst Castle.  You get the drift.  We didn't camp in the winter time, because we were in a tent.  Way too cold to be camping like that, although I know people who would do that too.  Not me.

Now as I'm older, I have many destinations I still would like to see, but as far as a dream vacation be it winter or not?  The only vacations I want to go on now are the ones where my love is at my side.
Go here to read other Dream Winter vacations.

Nicknames (Day 6) - 20 Days of Chill

Nicknames.  I haven't had many nicknames growing up.  My brother-in-law used to call me PJ, because I was a junior as opposed to that being my middle name, but I haven't really gotten any nicknames growing up.

Now, as an adult, I've accumulated quite a few nicknames.  Probably from people on the road calling me idiot or asshole.  Hey, you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk buddy.  Funny thing is, I'm not a fan of nicknames, and yet two of our three children growing up had nicknames.  Go figure that one out.

Now, for many of you, you'll know that I use the screen name Webfoot a lot.  I've already created a nickname for myself.  I don't need a nickname for my nickname.  I'm Webfoot, not Webster, not Webby, but Webfoot. I don't understand why some people insist on shortening someone's name, even if it's an avatar name.  And I know, the photo has nothing to do with this post, outside it shows Webfoot and Tadpole95 right after they found a geocache up near Pt. Reyes, California.

Little red wagon (Day 2) - 20 Days of Chill

Since the photo is dated December 1994, I'm going to say the wagon was a Christmas present that year.  I liked to take family photos around this time as well, so it made sense that the wagon make an appearance in the kids' photos for this year.  

It was bright red, with wooden sides, although we didn't put the wood side on the front, as it made it easier to get in and out of the wagon.  Ages five and three were the perfect age for this wagon.  They filled it with toys and hauled things around in the front yard as well as the back yard.  Sometimes the older one would pull the younger one around, but not often.

By the time the third kid came along the following year, the wagon had already seen better days.  It was used hard and often, a sign of love for most kids.  I've not known a toy of my own that didn't have scratches, dents and dings in it, usually from the first week of use.  If it didn't have those dings, it wasn't used much and was probably not a good buy.  This wagon was a good buy.

When I first saw the theme for today, I knew this was the photo I was going to use.  It's one of my favorites of the two older ones as they were growing up.  Hard to believe they're 27 and 25 now.  I wonder where that wagon is now.

Check out other stories of red wagons here.

Some perspective from the parental side

I read something on line recently regarding the death of Harambe the gorilla in Cincinnati this past weekend.  I've seen all sorts of outrage directed at the zoo, directed at the parents, but I really haven't seen much of this, so here goes.

This photo was taken in the summer of 2000 while we were on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park.  My children were 8, 4 and 11 respectively in the photo.  On this particular day, we had decided to hike the Mist Trail, a popular trail that takes you to the edge of Vernal Fall, which is what you see in the background.  It's over 300 feet straight down at this point.  If any of you have ever been on this trail, you know it's very strenuous, and not to be taken lightly.  The last part is pretty much stair steps going up the rock face with a handrail similar to what you see in the photo.

At the crest of the staircase, my youngest, who had been diligently holding my hand as we climbed up, broke free and made a mad dash to this spot, which I couldn't see at the time.  Needless to say, my life flashed before me several times in what was probably 2 seconds worth of time at the most.  There were other people there who stopped him immediately.  Did I mention it's a popular trail?

The fence/guardrail you see is all the way around like that.  It would have been difficult for him to have made the dash and gotten outside of the fence.  But please remember, he did break free and was headed that way.  AND I WASN'T DISTRACTED BY ANY OTHER CHILDREN AT THE MOMENT!

If you have more than two children, you're outnumbered and you no longer have enough hands to hold onto all of them at the same time.  Think about that next time you start berating the parent of the young boy who ended up in the moat with Harambe.  All it took was a second or two.  

Life’s turning point

Today's prompt for the 20 days of Chill Writing is Life's Turning Point.  I didn't really have to think too long about this, because for me, anyway, it was that point in my life when I finally realized I was an adult.  And surprisingly, it wasn't at the birth of my daughter.  No, the moment came a year later.

For the most part, I know most people are clueless until they have their first child.  Some might even be clueless afterwards, but that's an entirely different story that I won't go into deeply at all.  I've heard many people say that when their first child was born, then knew that they were adults.  I didn't think that way at all.  I already had a job, was married, owned a house, but I really didn't feel "grown-up" even after my girl was born.

On her first birthday, all that changed.  At the risk of embarrassing her, I'll tell the story, but I'm sure she's heard it before.  On her first birthday, we were celebrating much like other couples do, including giving her some new foods to try for the first time.  Something definitely didn't agree with her and she started projectile vomiting. (We later found out she'd caught a virus, because we all ended up getting sick).  So my wife grabbed her and rushed her to the bathroom to try and contain everything.

In the meantime, I'm out in the living room, trying to entertain my daughter's godfather and keep the dog at bay.  I walked down the hallway and noticed barf on the carpet, barf on the walls, barf on the ceiling.  At that moment, I realized I was an adult, because I didn't see anyone else around who was going to clean all of that up.  That was my life's turning point.

Life wouldn’t be the same

This will probably be the most difficult post I've ever had to write on this particular blog.  When I looked over the list of prompts for P.J.'s 20 days of Chill writing challenge, I thought this post might be tough to write about.  The events of the last week make this post very difficult to write about, but not like you might think.  And actually, this post will be very therapeutic for me.

He came into our lives in mid February, 2005.  We had been dog-less for about 6 months after our dog Rocky had passed away at the age of 17.  I was kind of getting used to the idea of not having a dog under foot and when my wife called me up and said that I needed to go look at a dog, I decided to humor her.

She had called me up because she knew I'd look at the dog and say no and that would be the end of it.  She knew herself too well to be able to be rational about things like that.  So I went down to the dog grooming place where this two month old puppy was.  They put him on the counter, he looked up into my eyes and then put his paws up on my chest and that was it.  I brought him home, put him on my daughter's bed, which woke her up and said "Happy 16th birthday."

He was named Jack for no other reason than we all liked the name. It was far better than my wife's suggestion of Quentin.  Jack has been a member of our family ever since.  He'd greet my wife's dad at the door, because he knew Grandpa always brought treats for him.  He liked my lap the best sitting in it for hours while we watched a movie or a sporting event on TV, but he liked the foot of my wife's side of the bed at night.  He'd look at you and then sit, as if to say, "Look, I'm being a good boy.  Will you give me a treat?"  And he was a very good dog.

Last week, age and illness caught up with him.  He got sick just about the time Christmas break rolled around and a couple of days after Christmas we had to take him into the vet because he just wasn't rebounding like he'd done in the past when he was ill.  After a night in the hospital, it was clear we had to make the toughest decision anyone who has ever loved a furry friend will ever had to make.  

Jack was surrounded by love as he crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on December 30th last week.  He is missed by all who knew him.

Life wouldn't be the same without dogs.

Who am I?

I have to say, I'm a man who has strong convictions, but not a whole lot of follow through.  I've made resolutions in the past, especially with regard to blogging, but usually have fallen through.

Just last year, I participated in P.J.'s 20 days of Chill Writing blog challenge and swore I was going to do better with my blogging.  I posted 23 blog posts in January of last year, but only 34 overall.  Needless to say, January was the high water mark of my blogging last year.  So I'm not going to make any promises this year.  All I know is I had a lot of fun with this writing challenge last year, so I'm going to participate in it again this year.  

Today's prompt is "Who am I?"  

I'm a teacher.  I've taught in the same school for 32 years, plus one additional year at another school.  Interestingly, I've taught at my school longer than four other teachers at the school have been alive.

I'm a husband.  I've been married for 27 and a half years.  As in every marriage, it's not perfect, but I know for sure I got the better end of that deal.  Why my wife would want to put up with some of my antics and shenanigans for the past 27+ years is beyond me, but I'm glad that she has.

I'm a father.  I have three children, all beyond their teenage years.  My daughter, my oldest, is a teacher up north.  She is a fifth generation teacher in my family.  My son, my middle child, is in between jobs right now, but just moved back down here to Southern California.  I hope that means I'll bee able to see more of him in the coming year.  My younger son is still at home with us.  He's attending community college and looks like he's going to major in Psychology once he gets to a four year institution.  We will be making the rounds to different colleges this spring.

I'm an outdoorsman.  I enjoy being in the outdoors.  If it's hiking, or camping, or geocaching, I'm probably doing it and doing it for much of my off time when I'm not working.

I'm a photographer.  Believe it or not, my parents bought me my first real camera when I was in 3rd grade.  I wish I still had that old camera that took roll film, but somewhere when I graduated to better cameras, that one went by the wayside.  I still enjoy taking photos and you'll see many of them in this blog and on other sites as well.

Day one done.  I'm looking forward to the next day of this challenge.

PB Challenge (April 2015): Friends and Family

When I saw the prompt for this month's Photo Blogging challenge, I thought it might be difficult, but then I remembered that Easter was right at the beginning of the month and I knew we'd be with family, plus I also hosted a geocaching event at the beginning of the month, so then it actually became even tougher as I ended up with quite an assortment of photos for the theme.

That being stated, I decided to go a little bit different route with this month's theme.  And so without further ado, I give you my five photos for the theme Friends and Family.

1.  Handprints in cement

I think these handprints are from when I was about eight or nine years old.  Mine is the one on the right.  Sometime during that period, my dad poured some concrete at our house in Santa Ana, CA where we grew up and had all three of us put our hands in the wet cement.  When they finally moved out of that house about 15 years ago or so, my dad pried up that piece of cement and brought it with them to their new house where it now sits on an island in the front yard.  It's definitely a reminder of when we were a lot younger and smaller and it's fun to look at.  You can see I really relished squishing my hands into the cement, whereas my sisters were much more dainty in their approach to the gooey stuff.  Boys will be boys I guess.

2.  The Calendar

I'd say close to 20 years ago, my two sisters and I decided to start a family tradition by giving my parents a photo calendar.  The past 6 years or so, I've coordinated the effort, collected the photos from various people and put the entire thing together on my computer.  It's worked out rather well and my parents cherish this gift each year and it proudly hangs on their refrigerator in the kitchen.  The first year, my dad wanted to actually use it to write calendar reminders in it, but my mom put the kibosh on that very quickly.  They also don't throw them away and my mom says she goes out in the garage where they are stored and looks through them from time to time.  She gets to see her grandkids grow up every time she does that.

When we started this endeavor, it was a lot easier because there was only three sources that the photos came from since the kids were small and the adults, my sisters and me were the ones who took the photos.  Now, with four of the grandchildren on their own, we have to really on photos from seven different sources.  That just means we have to start the process earlier each year.  Before, I used to send the "all call" for photos sometime just before Thanksgiving and I'd have the photos soon afterwards and it would be a done deal.  This year, we were slightly late getting the calendar to my parents, but they did get it before New Year's Day, so it's all good.  April of this year was my niece's and her husband's month, so they're featured on that page.

3.  University of Notre Dame

Some of you might not be aware of this, but I was born in South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame.  This all came about, because my grandfather taught at Notre Dame back in the early 1930s.  Because of this, my dad and two of his brothers also went to Notre Dame.  Some of my cousins went to Notre Dame and I also had a cousin who was a priest who taught at Notre Dame.  This cousin also married my parents and married my sister and her husband.  Notre Dame is a family affair with us and although I didn't attend there, mainly because it was out of my price range when it came my turn to attend college, I follow the college quite closely, especially for football.

Growing up in Southern California, that was sometimes very tough to do, mainly because many of my friends in junior high and high school were USC fans.  My best friend attended USC and during the 70s and early 80s, it was tough being a Notre Dame fan when they played each other because usually USC came out on top.  Yes, I was there in 1974 when Notre Dame was ahead 24-7 at halftime and I watched Anthony Davis run back the second half kick off directly toward the Notre Dame section at the closed end of the Colosseum in Los Angeles, which started an avalanche of points, eventually leading to a 55-24 loss to USC.  That was just ugly.

I was also there in 1988 with our entire family to watch #1 Notre Dame battle #2 USC.  Both teams were exceptionally good that year and my dad and I surmised that the winner of this game would become the national champion that year.  My dad took no chances that year as he was decked out in full Irish regalia, including his blue and gold Notre Dame tam-o-shanter.  That's when I finally realized that my dad was one of "those" people.  Those crazy alumni you always see.  I'd never seen him like that before, but he really wanted a win that day.  I don't believe he'd seen Notre Dame win in Los Angeles since 1966 when the Irish shellacked the Trojans 51-0 enroute to a national championship that year as well.  Anyway, to make a long story short, Notre Dame came out on top that year and our family went home very happy.  I haven't been back to see a Notre Dame/USC game in Los Angeles since that game.  I want that memory to last forever.  It was very satisfying.

4.  Father of the Bride

About a year and a half ago, I was up visiting my daughter.  I'm an early riser and my daughter isn't so I'd usually get up early, find some local geocaches and then hang out with her later in the day.  This particular day, my daughter's boyfriend asked me if he could tag along and go geocaching with me.  Sure, why not?  But I had a suspicion that he had ulterior motives, after all he'd been dating my daughter for four years at the time and we were pretty sure they were serious about settling down.

Eventually that day he asked for our blessing to marry my daughter.  I don't think my daughter could have picked a finer young man to spend the rest of her life and my wife and I were both thrilled that he was going to be joining the family.  As you can see, all of this will be coming to fruition in the middle of July up in the Bay Area. I will fully admit that I will probably be very emotional about this and will probably be the one crying as we walk down the aisle.  But I know if I start to cry, so will she and it will just be a mess, so I will restrain myself and think of happy things.  Maybe I'll even crack a joke as we walk down the aisle.  I think part of me is sad, after all, I loved her first, but most of me is very happy.  He makes her happy and I like that.  I'm looking forward to when I can call him my son-in-law.

5.  Geocaching friends

Most of these photos have been about family, so I knew this last one had to be about friends.  Another part of geocaching that I don't always talk about is the number of friendships that have developed for me over the years since I started this crazy game.  Outside of my wife, I can say most assuredly, that most of my best friends are fellow geocachers.

This is Craig who I've known for three years, possibly more.  I don't think I can pinpoint the exact time I met Craig, as it's more of a gradual thing as opposed to a specific day.  Either way, Craig is a very good friend of mine and although this isn't the best photo of him, the only other one I had was of his backside carrying a tire while we were cleaning up a trailhead last weekend during a Geocaching earth day weekend event.  I'm sure he's probably glad that I didn't post that one.

Craig is the friend that I helped last summer hike the John Muir Trail.  He needed a ride to get up to the starting point in Yosemite Valley and I readily jumped at that opportunity.  In fact, I credit Craig with helping me get into better shape.  When he decided to do this hike, I was invited to come along.  I knew I wasn't in any kind of physical shape to do that kind of hike, but over the past year, I've lost weight, gotten into biking more and am just more physically fit.  If he'd been doing this trek this year, I probably would have gone on the hike.  As it is, there was a time in the last couple of years when I thought my hiking and backpacking days were behind me, but I don't think that anymore and I thank Craig for being that inspiration.  This year, he and I have another road trip planned for June just because we like to geocache and it's fun to go out on the road and explore new territory.  

And that about does it for this month's photo blogging challenge. I hope you have enjoyed this month's selection.  It's not my usual type of shots, but I wanted to do something a little bit different this time around.  To see other people's interpretation of this month's theme, stop by P.J.'s blog and click on the links at the bottom of that page.

An Affair to Remember

28 years ago today I made the smartest decision I've ever made in my life.  I asked my girlfriend to marry me, and amazingly, with all she knew about me, she said yes.

For whatever reason, I am amazingly blessed to have a wife who puts up with all my foibles.  She said to me this morning that she wondered why I put up with her, but I actually think it's the other way around.  I know myself all too well, and I don't think I'd like to live with me for very long, yet she's done it now for 27+ years.  That's pretty remarkable.

During that time, we've lived in an apartment, and purchased three different houses, always upsizing to go along with our expanding family.  Interestingly, our first house was a brand new house and the other two houses we've owned since then have been increasingly older.  

Our three children have gone to school here in town, graduated.  Two of them have graduated from college and have full time jobs in Northern California.  Our youngest is still in college taking some very interesting classes, some of which I would have avoided when I was in college, but would love to take today.

Early last year, I took a series of photos entitled "Grow Old with Me."  All of the photos feature my wife's left hand, for obvious reasons.  This particular shot was taken on Valentine's Day last year.  Grow Old with Me my Love.

Organizing - Day 13 of the Chill

I really need to do a better job of organizing my photos.  Although I enjoy taking photos, keeping them organized in a systematic way has proven way too time consuming for me and so they're just on my computer by date.  It's not necessarily the most practical way of organizing things, but so far it works.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way my photos are organized on my computer.  I looked in the photo album and the folders inside that album are not in chronological order.  2001 might be next to 2007.  You get the picture. 

This could prove problematic down the road as my next major photo purchase, which I have alluded to earlier is going to be a slide scanner.  Most of my parent's family photos during the 50s and 60s were taken with a Kodak Instamatic, using slide film.  I'd like to scan all of those before they deteriorate too much more as there's a lot of family history that needs to be preserved.

I've got to come up with a better way of organizing my photos.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

The photo that I chose for this particular writing prompt really doesn't have anything to do with organization other than it's the third time in the last three years that we've gone up to the mountains to visit my father-in-law over Christmas break and then gone down to the lakeside to feed the ducks and geese.  That tends to suggest that there's some kind of organizational work going on in our family lives.  Certain traditions are hard to break.

Favorite Winter Comfort Food - Day 2 of the Chill

This is an interesting topic to be talking about for day two of the Chill challenge.  I'm not exactly sure what winter comfort food really is, mainly because we don't get much of a winter compared to other regions in the United States or in the world for that matter.

The weathermen in Southern California could "predict" the weather as "Sunny and mild" every day and be right probably 75% of the time.  In my book, that's a pretty good track record for weather guessers.  Winter, the way most people view winter, doesn't happen here.

So comfort food is, to me anyway, things that I don't get on a regular basis during the year, mainly because it's either not very good for me, or too expensive, or just ridiculous.  Christmas time is always the time for all of us in the family to get some really good stuff, just because. That's what ends up stuffing our stockings every year.  It's gotten to the point that our stocking stuffers take up grocery bags, because my wife goes all out with it.

Things that usually end up in my stocking are Oreo Cookies, Pop Tarts, Clamato Juice (don't judge me, I like it), bunches of Heath Toffee bars, boxes of Junior Mints and York Peppermint Patties and Pringles Potato Chips.  Sometimes if I'm really lucky, I'll get a can of Macadamian nuts.  See? All the things that aren't really good for me, but that I love tremendously.  Once all of those things are gone, then Christmas is really over.

Needless to say, I've been rationing things this year, so Christmas isn't over, even though I went back to work yesterday.  I still have half a bag of York Peppermint Patties and an entire package of mint Oreo Cookies.  And my youngest better hide his stash, because I've been eyeing his Triple Decker Oreo Cookies that landed in his stocking.  

Spilled milk - Day 1 of the Chill

I think New Year's Resolutions are quite funny.  It seems that most people make resolutions and then don't follow through on them.  "Oh, I'm giving up chocolate this year."  Then, a week later, they're eating a chocolate chip cookie or chocolate bar.

Resolutions are promises to yourself.  I like to use the word goals.  Goals are something you strive to do.  They might have a definitive ending or might not.  What happens if you don't reach your goal?  Do you cry over spilled milk?  No, I actually think that you re-evaluate your goals and see what could have been done to improve upon that goal for the coming year. 

In 2013, I found 1244 geocaches, making my goal of getting at least 1200 finds in a calendar year.  Looking back over my totals, I felt that the way I was now finding geocaches, I could probably find 1500 in 2014.  At the end of this past year, I ended up with 1424 finds.  Did I fail?

Some people would say that I did fail because I didn't reach my goal.  Looking at my statistics, I think I did fairly well at reaching my goal, even if I didn't quite reach it.  In 2013, I went caching on 161 days, which means I averaged 7.7 finds each time I went out.  In 2014, I only went caching 137 days, but found 10.4 caches every time I went out.  My average was up, but I went caching 24 less days which means that if I'd gone caching the same number of days, I would have found 1674 caches in 2014.  

So the key question becomes, why didn't I reach my goal?  Well, certain things conspired against me.  Usually, when I travel, I have lots of opportunities to geocache.  My yearly camping trips with my son usually allows us to geocache every day, getting at least one or two each day with other days where we'll find a lot more.  My son's schedule didn't include a camping trip this summer.  I did go camping, but it was a much shorter trip, so not as many cache finds.

July is usually a very good month, caching-wise for me since it's in the middle of summer with lots of time off when I can geocache.  In 2013, I found 199 geocaches in the month of July.  In 2014, because of family commitments, which limited my caching, I found 61.  I suspect this upcoming July will be similar because we're having a wedding that month.  I can live with that.  If I want to meet the goal of 1500 cache finds this year, I'll just either have to get out caching more during the rest of the year, or find more each time I go out.  I can see where a combination of both techniques will help me achieve the goal.

That's one of my goals for this year, to continue to enjoy geocaching and try and find 1500 caches by December 31st.  I think that's achievable and actually, I think the more important goal is to enjoy the game.  If I enjoy the game, the numbers will come.  

I have several other goals that I'll share with you over the next couple of days.  For now, this is my first post for the 20 days of Chill Writing Challenge.

Photo Blogging Challenge (Dec. 2014): ‘Tis the Season

This is the last day of the year and it's time once again for P.J.'s Photo Blogging challenge.  This month, the theme was 'Tis the Season, and I've approached it, at least in my mind, from a traditional and non-traditional viewpoint.  Some photos will make perfect sense with the theme, while others will need some explanation.  But you already know I'm going to explain all of them anyway, so here goes.

1 and 2.  The Evolution of our family Christmas trees
Christmas day, the family gathered at my sister's house to celebrate the day.  Lots of good food was had by all and by the time the last of us had eaten the last portions of cheesecake that my other sister had made, most of us could probably have just rolled down the hill back to our own homes.

My sister's Christmas tree is the only tree in the family, that I'm aware of that has just white lights.  I believe that all the rest of us have colored lights on our trees.  Growing up, for the first ten years or so, our family tree at home was all blue.  Blue ornaments, blue lights - everything was blue on the tree.  Christmas of 1971 or 72, we went back to Indiana to have a "White Christmas."  While we were back there, my last surviving grandparent passed away.  He had been suffering from what we would call today Alzheimers disease, so it was not totally unexpected.

We ended up staying a couple of extra days because of the funeral and other family obligations that come along with an event such as this.  One of the things that ended up coming home with us were a lot of really old Christmas ornaments from my grandparent's estate.  The next year, we used those ornaments on the tree and over the next 10 years or so collected, purchased, etc., other ornaments so the tree was no longer a blue tree.  We got new light strings with multi-colored lights to add to the non-blue theme.  Some ornaments were even made.


As each of us eventually moved out of the house, the ornaments that had been given to us as children were taken and subsequently added to our own Christmas trees in our new places.  My daughter has taken her ornaments that have been given to her and she now has them displayed on her tree in her place.  My middle son didn't have a tree this year and isn't totally settled yet, so his, plus my youngest son's ornaments still adorn our tree every year.  In the near future, I'm sure this will change.

Both my older sister and I have a strong affiliation for things Disney, so it was no surprise to see several Disney ornaments on her tree.  This one of Dopey Dwarf climbing the staircase heading up to see who was up in the Dwarve's bedroom struck my fancy.  To took several shots, because the shutter speed was very slow, one thirteenth of a second, which is usually too slow for hand held shots.  I'm very pleased that this one is in pretty fine focus.  

3.  Games
Every time I blog this particular post, I look forward to the next month's theme.  This is one of the few times I'm disappointed I can't use this photo for next month's theme as the theme for next month is Games.

In our house, the kids tend to generate the games and it was no exception this year as several games were pulled off the shelves and others were given as gifts this year.  Growing up, I enjoyed playing games although sometimes found few takers.  I can't imagine my competitiveness had anything to do with that. <smirk>

The day after Christmas, the kids gathered around to play games.  My middle son's girlfriend is an artist and began sketching us as we played Settlers of Cataan.  My youngest son is on the right and he's not complete obviously, but the rest of us, moving counterclockwise from the upper right, my son, my daughter, myself and my future son-in-law are all there.  She did an excellent job capturing the character of each one of us in this drawing.  If you look closely, you can also see that each of us are labeled and identified.

4.  Trip to the Lake
My father-in-law lives up in Lake Arrowhead and for the past several years, we make a trip up there over the holidays to visit with him.  This year, he went all out for us to enjoy our short stay up there.  Blintzes, tamales, the chocolate cake that was to die for were just some of the treats he had for us.

Usually, we'll go down to the lake to feed the ducks and this year was no exception to that.  It's no wonder the ducks and geese are fat and happy up there as there were all sorts of people doing the same thing.

The shot is of my middle son on the left and my future son-in-law.  I had a couple of different shots of the two of them, plus one of them with my daughter, but this one turned out the best of the set that I took while we were down there.

Both men get along very well with each other, which is a very good thing.  We are all looking forward to July when Brian and my daughter Kathryn tie the knot.  He is very good to her and he is a very welcome addition to our family.

5.  The Granddaddy of them all
Finally, what seasonal blog would be complete without something dealing with the new year, which is literally right around the corner now.  In some cases, it's already here and you might even be reading this in 2015.

Growing up in Southern California meant watching the Rose Parade and watching the Rose Bowl on television.  I actually attended two Rose Bowls in the late 70s, courtesy of my good friend who was attending U.S.C. at the time.  U.S.C. was a powerhouse in football back then and they usually contended for the Rose Bowl every year back then.

Every year, we'd get the Pac 10 vs. the Big 10.  Since we were from northern Indiana, our allegiances were more toward the Big 10, especially since my father attended Notre Dame.  We wouldn't root for U.S.C.  We would very often root for west coast teams in other years when U.S.C. wasn't there however.

Now with the old BCS and the new playoff system in place today, college football doesn't always have the traditional rivalries we came to expect in certain bowl games.  This year, the Rose Bowl (which is the 101st edition) is giving us Oregon vs Florida St. in one semi-final game.  The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans is giving us Alabama vs Ohio St later in the evening on the 1st.  

Given that I've always enjoyed the traditional match ups for bowl games, it should come as no surprise that I'm rooting for Ohio St. and Oregon to prevail and meet in the championship game.  And yes, I will be rooting for the Ducks in the championship game as well.  I took this shot just after Christmas when we went on a hike up the Arroyo Seco, which is where the Rose Bowl is located.  Walking back down to our car, we also found a geocache.  So what else is new?

And there you have it.  This was my interpretation of the theme 'Tis the Season.  I hope you have enjoyed these shots.  Please stop by P.J.'s blog to see his interpretation and look below on that page for the other links to others who have participated this month.

Baseball

Now it's already fall and I really haven't written much about what happened this summer, so you're going to get a retrospect view of different things that happened to me this summer.

This summer was really a whirlwind type of vacation for me for the first time in a long time.  It seemed like I had things happening all the time and just when I was done with one thing, another thing got planned.  Not all the things were pleasant (most medical procedures aren't), but it's safe to say that I passed those with flying colors and am now moving on to rectify the things that were in the grey area, health wise.

Summer, for me, actually started Memorial Day weekend.  I went up to visit my daughter and her fiancé.  My middle son was up in the Bay Area that weekend as well, so we ended up taking in a Giants game at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  We rode the train in, barely making it to the station on time, but the ride worked out well as we had seats.  As we made our way closer to the ballpark, the train kept getting filled with more and more black and orange.  I felt like alien, this Angel fan that I am.

As you can see from the first shot, I didn't do a very good job of raising my daughter to be a local team supporter and so she's become a Giants fan.  Nothing much I can do about that as she's a big girl and can make her own decisions.  I blame it on TV.  Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Now hear me out on this one.  I'm not a fan of watching baseball on TV.  Whenever my daughter has taken me to games at Angel stadium, we always go early.  My daughter says, "It's like a religion to him.  He has to see batting practice or the experience isn't complete."  And that's right.  I like watching batting practice.  I like watching the players warm and and play soft toss.  I like to watch them stretch and loosen up.  It's all part of the game.

TV doesn't offer that.  For the most part, not all, but for the most part, TV presents a duel between the pitcher and the batter.  With TV, you don't get the pleasure of watching the players adjust with different pitches.  You don't get to see the center fielder shade a batter to left center and make subtle adjustments throughout the at bat.  TV doesn't cover baseball well in my opinion.  And so, because of that, I never watched baseball on TV and my daughter has glommed on to the Giants as her team.  Yeah, part of that is her fiancé's fault since he's a die hard Giants fan, but if I'd watched more baseball, she probably would be a better local sports enthusiast.

Now if you're going to talk football with her, she definitely has her passions, or at least she knows which teams to really hate.  Her fiancé has learned that if the Cowboys are playing well, it's just better to turn the TV off, because she really hates the Cowboys, just like her dad.  I couldn't be more proud.

The baseball game that weekend was a lot of fun.  I went to three games this summer, far more than I've gone in the past couple of years combined.  I didn't realize how much I missed the game.  I suspect that in the upcoming years, I shall be returning to different stadiums to enjoy games more than once every couple of years like it's been in the past.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2014): Fun

Well, once again, it's time for the monthly photo blogging challenge set up by P.J.  This month's challenge appeared to be fairly easy, with the theme being "Fun," but for a variety of reasons, I didn't get my camera out as much this month and so it was a little more difficult.  I did, however, come up with five shots that I think convey the theme of fun, although they might not be fun for everyone.

So, without further ado, here's my list of "fun" shots.

1.  Farmer's market
We have a farmer's market that is in downtown Claremont every Sunday morning until around 1 in the afternoon.  Lots of fruits, vegetables are offered for sale. The crowds make for some nice people shots and some very colorful fruits and vegetable shots.  I've been coming down about once a month to get some new photos.  It's a fun excursion just to people watch.

2.  Games of chance

Our church has an annual fiesta every Mother's Day weekend.  It's the big money maker for the church and there is a lot of activity going on on all three days of the fiesta.  There are lots of games of chance that, obviously, is rigged in favor of the game establishment in order to make money for the establishment as well as the church.

I watched these carny workers use all kinds of lines to get people to try their luck at these games.  I think the older people understand that the payment you give to them is for the fun of the competition, much like gambling in Lost Wages, Nevada.  It's fun and if you win, that's a bonus, but if you expect to go in there and win, you will be sadly separated from your money.

Younger people don't seem to understand that and are constantly at these games with the hope of winning something.  I know, when I was younger, I had the same kinds of feelings.  I had this one game figured out.  Shuffleboard bowling.  Knock over 6 pins with three metal pucks.  Easy, just get the puck in between two pins three times in a row and you're a winner.  Guess what?  I never won.  But it was still fun.

3.  Jack
This is our dog Jack.  Jack will be ten at the beginning of December.  He's been featured on this blog many times in the past.  I think Jack is very photogenic under the right conditions and light. I really wanted to post this in B&W, because I think his gray hair looks really good with some nice contrast going on, but it just didn't work very well for this shot.

Jack came into our life in February 2005, just before my daughter turned 15.  I went down to a dog groomer's place because my wife said there was a dog there that we might like.  We'd lost our two dogs the succeeding year in a span of just over 3 months.  They had been 13 and 17, so we knew they didn't have much, but to have both of them go in a matter of months was tough.  I didn't want another dog and my wife knew this so she sent me down to reject the dog.  Yeah, right.  Jack stood on the counter, put his paws on my chest and he already knew I was done.  My wife was surprised, but thrilled and immediately fell in love with this small ball of fur the minute he walked over and settled into her lap on the floor of the kitchen.

Jack has been a fun addition to our household and it won't be quite the same when he crosses over the Rainbow Bridge.  Let's hope that doesn't happen for a long time.

4. Boomerang
The end of the year trip for our 8th graders involves a trip to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.  Knott's started out as a small "ghost town" complete with shops and Cordelia Knott's chicken dinner restaurant.  


Eventually, if they were going to compete and be relevant in Southern California, they had to expand to include something a little bit wilder than the Calico Mine Train.  They added a log flume ride.  The first corkscrew roller coaster was built here.  They still don't get nearly as many people as nearby Disneyland does, but they pull in their share of money.

These roller coasters are the really fun part of the park.  They have several that are really good.  Ghostrider is one of the best wooden roller coasters I've ever been on.  Xcelerator shoots you out of the station until you hit a top speed of 82 mph in 2.3 seconds.  205 feet straight up, then up and over and 205 feet straight down.  Then there's Silver Bullet.  Six inversions, while dangling underneath the track.  Boomerang takes you up an incline, then lets you go where you run through two Cobra rolls, then a large loop.  You then get to do them again, backwards.

As I've aged I've noticed, that my body doesn't like what these rides do to it.  It's not nearly as fun as it used to be.  I used to love wooden roller coasters, but about four years ago, Ghostrider banged me around so much that I felt like I'd been in a prize fight after riding it.  This month, I rode Silver Bullet.  I've always enjoyed that ride because it was so smooth.  This time, however, I felt like I'd been squeezed too tightly and I just had to sit down afterwards.  Took about an hour and a half before I felt normal again.  I think I shall leave this type of fun to the younger set from now on and just enjoy the photo opportunities the rides give me.


5.  Take me out to the ballgame.
This past weekend, I went and visited my daughter up in the San José area in Northern California.  Saturday, we decided to watch the San Francisco Giants play ball against the Minnesota Twins. 

Baseball is one of the few games that I think is much better to attend live than to watch on television.  I don't think TV does justice to the American Pastime and I'd much rather go to a game, no matter the weather, than sit at home and watch the same game.  It's so much better live.

AT&T Park is the 7th major league stadium I've been at to see a major league game.  The obvious two are Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium since I grew up in Southern California following both teams, although truth be told, I'm an Angel fan before I'm a Dodger fan.  I've also attended games at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, plus Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.  The Giants play at AT&T now and Jack Murphy Stadium is only used for football games as it's home to the Chargers.  The other two stadiums I've been to don't even exist anymore:  Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia and the Kingdome in Seattle.

Anyway, this game was a close 2-1 affair, with the home team winning.  My middle son was also up visiting, so he also came to the game.  3/5ths of the family was there to enjoy some baseball fun.

That's another month of photo blogging.  I hope you enjoyed this month's installment.  As always, please feel free to comment as I won't bite.  Please stop by P.J.'s to see how other bloggers interpreted Fun.

Now that I'm out of school again, hopefully, I'll pick this back up and not post just monthly updates.  My calendar is pretty booked with all kinds of stuff, but I still should have time to do some blogging over the next couple of months.

Until then.  Happy Trails.

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2014): Smile

I really need to get back into this a little bit more than once a month.  I kept thinking about this challenge that P.J. threw out for this month - Smile - and I couldn't think of anything that might be different.  I didn't see any kinds of random smiles on the road, or anything like what you see on the front of the train at the end of the Silver Streak movie.

I did, however, take some portraits of some of my family members on Easter Sunday, and while the shot of me, I technically didn't take as my wife pushed the shutter on the remote, I set the whole thing up so I'm counting it as well.

Here's my five photos of smiles.

1.  My baby sister.  

Now, here's where the story gets longwinded.  Every year, for as long as I can remember, my two sisters and I give my parents a calendar with photos of all of the family members on it throughout the year.  Last year, we had a hard time getting together enough shots of my sister and her two boys, so every time we're together, I take as many shots as possible so we'll have plenty for next year.  Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, expect to see this one next Christmastime.

2.    My dad.  

My dad turned 80 on Christmas Eve.  A lot of people say I look like my dad.  I've actually seen the resemblance in one photo of my two sister and myself.  My youngest sister (above) and me have my dad's nose, while my middle sister has my mom's nose.  I've also shown people several other photos of my family and every time the comment is always the same. "You look like your dad."  I guess I see it but I'm probably too close to the subject to really tell for sure.  What I do know is my dad has never lost his smile in photos.  For the most part, his smile is the same, it's constant and always makes him look good.  My mother-in-law used to say I had my dad's smile, but lately I feel like I'm forcing my smile.  I used to think I never took a bad picture, but lately I've not liked any of the photos of myself.  Perhaps I'm picky, but at least I know I don't have to say that about my father.  Every shot of him always seems to be a good one, even the ones where he frowns.

3.  My mom.  

I don't dislike this photo, but I think there are better shots of my mom out there, but for this challenge, it has to be shots taken during the month of April to count, so I'll not twist the rules just to post a better photo of her.  The hard part of getting to take photos of people, especially when you're the recognized picture taker in the family is everyone expects you to take a great shot every time.  So when I want to take shots, I have to take them quick, because no one really has a lot of patience to spend any kind of time for me to get that really great shot.  I can see all sorts of things that are wrong with this shot, from the focus to the lighting.  Yet, when I've posted it, I've gotten nothing but positive comments about it.  Either people are trying to be nice about the quality of the shot or I've just become too particular about what I think is a really good shot nowadays.  I guess this is a good thing, since it means I must be starting to become a better photographer.

4.  My wife.  

I've discovered the trick with taking photos of my wife.  She's very much like her dad in that she's either very self conscious about her photo being taken, or she doesn't like her photo to be taken.  I think it's the former, because she seems to be a willing subject for me in quite a lot of my shoots, but getting a natural smile on her seems to be very tough to do, so I have to catch her in moments, almost candidly.  She knew I was taking her photo for this one, but I also told her to just keep talking with my sister while I took the shots.  I have to admit I'm the luckiest man in the world.  I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again, but I don't know why she puts up with me sometimes, but I'm very grateful that she said yes on Valentine's day many years ago.

5.  #GlobalSelfie

I set this shot up on Earth Day this year.  I had to get three different sets of shots before I was finally pleased with an image.  As I noted above, I used to be very satisfied with almost every shot that was taken of me.  Each year when we'd get our school photos taken at work, I was always pleased with them, but about 5 years ago or so, all that seemed to vanish.  Needless to say, most of the shots of me over the past three years have been selfies, because I don't like the ones that the professional photographers take at our picture days.  Anyway, NASA was sponsoring a Global Selfie day on Earth Day this year and I decided to participate.  I haven't seen any final product produced by all of the selfies taken by people that day, but I'll keep checking back.

Well, there you have it.  Five smiles for the month of April.  Please go to P.J.'s page and check out some of the other bloggers who've participated in this challenge this month to see how they interpreted the word Smile.  I'm sure it will be more imaginative that what I came up with.

Oh, and could someone give me a quick kick in the butt every now and then and ask me why I'm not writing more on this blog.  If someone were to do that, I'm sure I could post more than once a month.

Marsha's Song

This post will probably ramble, so if you want to stop reading now, that's OK with me.  Sometimes, I can't even read other people's rambles.  The title of this blog is A Photo a day.  The actual URL reads a photoortwoaday because aphotoaday was already taken on Blogger.  Not like that really matters because I had high hopes when I first started and then life got in the way.

For example, it's been 16 days since my one and only post for this year.  I could make excuses and say I've been busy playing with my new lens and that would be partially true.  But I'm not sure it's that honest.  True, I have been doing a lot of different things but one of them has been playing computer games.  Yeah, I've set up our old computer in the back bedroom and all three of us (the boys of the family) have been using the computer to play various games.

So I've gotten lazy if we want to be perfectly honest and I need to get away from that.  I've actually been timing myself on the "gaming" computer and trying to limit myself to an hour at a time.  That doesn't always work, but it's a start in the right direction.  Some might say a better start would be to not play games at all.  Yeah, well there's that, but I find computer games entertaining and relaxing.

But to get back to my photo a day project.  Three years ago, I started a photo project called 365.  The purpose was to get people to go out and try and take a photo every single day for an entire year.  Well, I succeeded in that endeavor and continued on for a second straight year.  730 days later, I posted my first "filler" shot, a shot not taken on that particular date.  

I started a third year on January 1st, 2013, but it eventually ran out of steam sometime in May of that year. I couldn't keep up a pace of a photo a day, nor did I want to at that point, so I quit.  I had personal reasons for starting the project in 2011 and those reasons didn't exist anymore, so it was time to let go of the 365 Project.  But, in case you haven't been paying close attention, I've decided to start up the 365 project again.  

It's a little bit more loose fitting in that I won't be adhering to the photo taken on that date.  I want my shots to be quality shots.  I say that as I posted a photo of my spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove for today's shot, taken with an iPad and not my regular camera.  Don't ask, it's just a long story.  However, most of the shots I've taken and posted so far this year, I feel are quality shots, which is what I'm aiming for this year.

Every year I put together a calendar for my parents and my father-in-law.  My parent's calendar is easier from a photographic standpoint because my two sisters get two thirds of the calendar and I get the other third, so finding enough family photos for four months is pretty easy.  Finding family photos for an entire year is a little more difficult, especially when one person isn't highly represented. 

Because my wife works longer hours than I do, she's harder to get into photos, so I've made a concentrated effort to get her into more photos.  I've even started a series of photos entitled "Grow Old with Me."  Each of these so far have just featured her hands.  I'll probably include other shots in this series that feature more than just her hands, but for now, please enjoy these three from the series.  

My favorite singer, John Denver, wrote a song to his wife Annie.  I can't write music, but I can take photos.  This series is Marsha's Song.

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2013): Festive

Happy New Year.  This being the last day of the year and I have insomnia, it works out well I can put this post out before everyone is up.  We will have our annual New Year's Eve party this evening and I have a hike planned for tomorrow morning.  By the end of the day tomorrow I will probably be exhausted, so I want to make sure this posts for the December Challenge that P.J. put out for this month.  

Festive was the challenge and I had some fun this month taking photos, both with my regular camera as well as my iPad, which I use for my Instagram shots.  The quality isn't quite up to par with my iPad, but I wanted to test it out thoroughly this month.  You'll be able to tell the difference of the two since the Instagram format is square, whereas my regular camera will be more rectangular.  Anyway, here's my five shots for the month of December.

1.   Christmas wreath

When I first started with Instagram, I posted quite a few shots from it on Flicker.  As noted above, I don't think the quality is nearly as good as my regular camera, although there are a couple of images that I've really liked, this one being one of them.  I found this wreath hanging on a gate of a neighbor's house.  It was one of the first signs of Christmas I'd seen, so I wanted to include it here.

I don't really like the way the wreath's bow blends together into a red blob, but I guess that's part of the appeal of Instagram.  Perhaps appeal isn't the right word to use, but it's the best I can come up with for the time being.  The filter I used however, Lo-fi, did a nice job of bringing out the details and textures of the fence the wreath was hanging on so I'll give props for that.

2.  The Spirit of Christmas Present

My parents have an entire Victorian village they put up under their Christmas tree every. Usually one of my nephews who live close to them help put it all together.  Each of the bisque porcelain houses has lights inside them to give it a nighttime glow to it and the set even has the characters from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.  

This Instagram shot, shows Ebeneezer Scrooge encountering the Spirit of Christmas Present who will show him things that are including how life is like in the Cratchett household, who celebrate Christmas the best they can even on the meager salary Scrooge pays his employee Bob Cratchett.

The story reminds us all that what's past is past and no matter how much we'd like to, we can't go back and change things.  We can only move forward and if we have regrets, or things that we'd like to change, we can only do so by changing what we do and say in the future so things will turn out differently.  

My parent's village is always displayed differently every year and it's always a festive addition to their holiday decor, so I've included it here.

3.  The Santa Claus bank


This is a bank that originally sat under my grandparent's Christmas tree in Indiana. My dad was the baby of the family and inherited the bank sometime before his mother passed away in 1961 when I was three years old.

It then became a fixture under our family tree while we were growing up. About 10 years ago, my parents gift wrapped it and gave it to me and it now sits under our tree every year. Some time in the future, one of my three children will inherit it and the cycle will continue.  The bank is probably close to 70 years old.

I've always liked this bank and it gives me a connection to my grandmother, who I never really got to know.  It's a connection to my past, or more importantly, my father's past, one that I am familiar with, but have no memories of, so this gives me some consolation.  The bank also keeps the festiveness going beyond the actual day of Christmas, because it reminds me that even Santa Claus needs to take a day off now and then.

4.  Are you going to give that to me anytime soon?

This is Jack, our dog.  Jack turned 9 years old early in the month, which roughly translates to 63 in people years if you subscribe to the 7 dog years theory.  If this theory holds any water, then Jack is very spry for his age and all I can say about it is I hope I have as much energy as he has when I'm 63.  Of course, Jack also sleeps many hours of the day.  When he's tired, he takes a nap, which I think we should all subscribe to as a regular part of our daily regimen.  I think the world would be a better place if everyone took a nap every single day.  Unfortunately, we can't, but I think it's still a good regimen to follow.

Jack went to the groomers about three days before Christmas and it's our groomers policy to put a bandana on the neck of each of her clients that represents the time of year.  We have bandanas for Jack from every time of year and this particular bandana had a very festive look to it, both in color and style, so it's included here.  He'll wear the bandana for another week or so until it becomes too dirty and then it will have to be removed.  We keep all of the bandanas as keepsakes, so I could probably find another one that's been washed to replace this one after the season is over.

5.  Happy birthday

Christmas Eve is my dad's birthday.  This year, the family celebrated it on the 28th, because it was convenient plus it made it a little easier on everyone since it was also one of those milestone birthdays.  My dad turned 80 a week ago.

We gathered at my sister's house last Saturday to celebrate his life and wish him well.  He was very appreciative of the time we spent with him, both on that day and on all days when we've been able to get together as family, either as a small unit, or a much larger unit as was the case this past weekend.

My sister cooked a couple of pineapple upside down cakes as his birthday cakes for this year.  Both of my sisters and I noted at the time that none of us had ever attempted this type of cake in the past.  It turned out rather well and if dinner hadn't been so good, I might have been tempted to eat a second piece, but I refrained and my waist thanked me for that decision later on.

My uncle (Dad's oldest surviving brother), turned 90 two days before Dad did, so there's some longevity in the family.  My uncle came out here in July for a visit and both of them noted at that time that having a birthday around Christmas isn't a bad thing at all, especially if it's before Christmas.  As my dad said and uncle agreed with, "Everybody's in the giving mood."  I will never get tired of him saying that.

Well, there you have it, another challenge accepted and delivered.  Please comment below and also please check out P.J.'s photos and the link at the bottom of his blog to see other's interpretations of the theme festive.

That's it for this year.  75 posts, which fell a little short of the 100 that I thought I could write when I started this blog two years ago, but still well over the 28 I posted in 2012, so I would call this a success for this year.  I hope to continue with this on a regular basis next year.  Here's hoping you all have a very prosperous and happy 2014.  Thank you all for reading this and for all of your comments.  They are truly appreciated.