Sunday, December 30, 2007

San Diego Auto Show 2008

2008 Dodge Challenger

Mustang

New Car

We spent three hours at the San Diego Convention Center today looking at new and concept cars. I'm not in the market for a new car, but it is nice to see what the latest models look like, and if I can fit inside them. The Saturn Sky was too small for me. One of the more interesting cars was the 2008 Dodge Challenger, which will be available early next year.

Note: Made correction. This was the 2008 International Auto Show.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Christmas 2007

I saw three movies on Christmas day. One in the theatre and two on DVD. The theatre film was Sweeney Todd, not the most festive of choices, with all the throat cutting and gushing blood, but there was lots of singing! The DVD movies were X-Men III and The Mummy, both of which I had never seen before, surprising everyone. Somewhere in there was pizza bought during the big fire evacuation party and of course, beer. Sorry, somehow no photos were taken for this get together. I was back at work today and plan no time off for a few more months. I'm trying to save some vacation time, so I don't keep using it as soon as I accrue it.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Eve 2007 At Karl Strauss

Christmas Eve Stout
Another new tradition started this Christmas Eve by going to a movie followed by a meal and beer at Karl Strauss. The movie was I Am Legend, and the beer was Russian Stout. The movie was entertaining and the beer was satisfying. Now it is Christmas morning and at least one more movie, and beer, is planned.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sunday Morning Hike

Apparently the entire population of San Diego had the same plans as I, to hike up Iron Mt. this morning. The trail was like a superhighway! It was a clear day, and from the top I could see many areas of the county that had been burned in the fire storm, from Romona to Lake Hodges. What was most notable was not how much land had burned, but how much hadn't. The latest rains made the hills green with new growth, and the burned areas were more of a brown color. So I finished my hike and got home in time to watch the Chargers kill the Lions and win the AFC West title.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Christmas Tree 2007

Christmas 2007 is Here.
I got into the Christmas spirit tonight and decorated my Christmas tree. For the first time in years, I decorated it with all my Star Trek ornaments - all 14 of them! The older ones plug into the lights and either talk when powered on or when a button is pressed, or just light up, while the newer ones sit on stands and are powered by batteries. Either way, all the decorations make this little tree a special, Charlie Brown like tree. Don't you agree?

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Star Trek Closet Completed



I am finally done blogging about my Thanksgiving trip. It is time to move forwards. I finished my Star Trek closet today. Step one was to empty the closet of all boxes. Next came removing the sliding doors and existing shelf. This task left damage for me to repair, as I used a hammer improperly, but nothing some Spackle and paint can't hide. Then I cleared the Star Trek stuff off the shelves, cleaned the shelves and dusted the toys, moved the shelving in to the closet and re-stocked them with my collection. The end result is an empty wall ready to be filled with more action figures. It also frees up some space next to my guest bed, but at the same time took away a useful place to hang clothing. But since the guest room gets used about every five years, I'll worry about that later.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Athens and London Gallery Photos

I have posted my best photos from my trip to Athens and London. I hope you enjoy them.

Piccadilly Circus Video (2nd Try)



This is the movie I took at Piccadilly Circus in London. You can see the glowing globs of lights that I talked about in a previous post at the beginning and ending of the video.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Greece and London Photos ...

Lycabettus Hill The hill in the background is called Lycabettus Hill. We had plans to get to the top but never did. One reason we wanted to venture up the hill was that there was a funicular railway there, and twice our attempts to use a funicular in Barcelona were prevented due to them being non-operational.



Traitor's GateAn entrance to Tower of London that you would not have wanted to used.



Thanksgiving Beverages We didn't get a photo of us eating our Thanksgiving meal, but I did snap this shot of our drinks. Mine is the beer.



Setting the timer I was so engrossed in my task of setting up my camera to take a group photo that I didn't realize that someone was taking a photo of me.



Cat and Chicken The "hidden" zoo in the National Park, where cats and chickens co-exist peacefully.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Photos of Greece and London Continued

Inside the British Museum First, I want to point out that for some reason photos uploaded to blogger don't open withing IE. I assume this is something done by Blogger, since it is happening to multiple blogs on several computers.

Second, "blog" has been on my mind, so I should clarify that our hotel in Athens was "blocks" from the Acropolis. I laughed out load (LOL) when I saw my typo :-)

The photo above was taken the the British Museum. Even though photos with flashes were allowed, few of the photos I took turned out very well. This one took some Photoshopping to get the detail and color to stand out.

Ruins among the cityAs you can see, the sites in Athens sit right in the middle of the modern city. This is part of Hadrian's Library with the Acropolis in the background.



On Aegina A photo of me standing at the Temple of Apollo, I believe, on Aegina.



Didn't go Inside Tower of London, another site in London that I didn't get a chance to visit. Sounded like a worthwhile stop, but no time on this trip.



Our boat The hydrofoil we took to the island of Aegina. Fast and smooth ride.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Greece Photos Continue

More Temple of Olympian Zeus Every so often the sun shown through the clouds making the columns glow for a good photograph.



Good Lighting A view of the Acropolis taken a few blogs from our hotel on our first day in Athens. The Acropolis can be seen from almost anywhere in the city, which made for a good landmark to use so we knew where we were in reference to our hotel.



Crowd of twoI'm not sure what we're cheering, but it must be exciting. In fact, I'm not sure what events took place in this theatre. Unlike Peru, we had no private guided tours. I'm sure we would have learned much more about the Greek culture, but we relied instead on a tourist guide book.



Proof We were thereLike I said before, we beat the tour bus crowds to the major sites. This was taken by one of the cats we befriended.



Snytagma at Night It almost appears that the people are ice skating, but there are just going about their business. Like Barcelona, there were Christmas decorations all along the street, but we never saw them turned on except on the last night, but only down by the port.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

More Athens Photos and Fun

Have you seen my head?
There were tons of statues with missing heads, so I thought I'd help this one out. We found the missing heads later in various museum halls, which we refered to as "hall of heads".


Brad seated on the steps
We were able to walk around the Theatre of Dionysos, where this photo was taken. There was no whistle blown at us for taking this photos.


Great photo of AthensA view of Athens taken from high atop the Acropolis. You can see the Ancient Agora building sitting below among the green trees.


Rain in the distance
A partly cloudy day in Athens made for a good photo on the top of Filopappos Hill.


Action Photo of Lorie
There were no whistle blowers on Filopappos Hill either, where we got Lorie to stand on a pillar.


Me on the Acropolis Another great view of the city of Athens in the background, we me in the foreground looking very old, for some reason.


Gaudi Cow? This is the closest we came to finding an Antoni Gaudi inspired bench. And it just happened to be a cow!