February 2009 Archives

Rob - Trudy - Tai - ca 1973
I'm pretty sure this is 1973. That looks like the same shirt I was wearing in my junior ID picture. I'm pretty certain the dachshund is Trudy (She was larger than Augustine, her mother, and much larger than Mom's two current girls) and I think that's Tai, our Siamese kitten. They didn't get along and Tai was too tiny to hold Trudy off. My kitten, Casey, could keep our two larger dogs at bay with her evil, evil hiss. Tai didn't have one of those. Hope I'm spelling his name right. Mom?

I mentioned a cool use of FlickR the other day here. I forgot all about it this weekend but had the day off today to tinker around so I broke out the tripod, set the camera on it with the widest aperture and the slowest shutter speed, went outside and snapped three pictures. I uploaded to FlickR as per instructions and then went about my business.

CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009
Less than 15 minutes later, I got a response on this one that reads:

astrometry.net says:

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center92.3657322745, 31.5703696947) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S)069:27.776, +31:34:13.331)
Orientation:72.57 deg E of N

Pixel scale:75.80 arcsec/pixel

Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.72 x 51.54 degrees

Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
The star Alnitak (ζOri)
NGC 1499 / California nebula

View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)

If you go to my FlickR site (Just click on the picture), my image will have little squares all over it identifying the objects listed. Coolness times 1000.

CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009 - 2nd upload

This one took a little longer but here it is:

astrometry.net says:

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center92.1846782404, 31.5523572596) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S)068:44.323, +31:33:8.486)
Orientation:71.47 deg E of N

Pixel scale:75.52 arcsec/pixel

Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.47 x 51.35 degrees

Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Mirfak (αPer)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
NGC 1499 / California nebula

View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)

-----
If you would like to have other images solved, please submit them to the astrometry group.

Yesterday was Samuel's 4th birthday. He kept asking me all day when he was going to be 4 and I kept telling him "It's your birthday today so you're 4 today." He finally said, "No, when am I going to get 20 presents and blow out 4 candles?" He thinks he doesn't officially turn 4 until he has a party. We'll have cake and ice cream on Saturday when the family comes over so I guess he'll believe it then.

We celebrated Mardi Gras today by heading uptown to St. Charles with Joey's brother, Scotty, and his friends. One of his friends has a house close to the parade route so we were near a bathroom, which is a must for me! We brought out the ladder chair for the kids, but didn't get out too early so we didn't get to walk the street and see any memorable costumes today. Samuel loved sitting in the ladder chair but Luke could stay home for Mardi Gras- he is not a fan! He'll be the type of New Orleanian who will leave town every year at this time. Joey had a great Mardi Gras season at the store-the recession hasn't hit the Carnival-going-New-Orleanian thankfully.

Samuel's 4th birthday

Elizabeth and Angela - August 1983

Feed the birds
Toppins a bag

Mary Poppins

Whenever Patsy and I went to the French Quarter, she would go to the A & P on Royal Street and buy seed for the birds. I think Angela and Elizabeth are holding out their hands in the hopes that one of those filthy pigeons would land on and eat from them like they had for Patsy and Janine. The French Quarter Association frowned on this then. I think you'll get cited if you do it now. It was fun, though.

Dad and I - December 1985 I'm guessing Patsy took this picture. I don't remember it at all. I see a lot of resemblance between us when I look in the mirror now. Not then, though.

Crispin - Date Unknown

When in doubt, ATTACK

Happy Birthday, Janine

Have a day

Happy Valentine's Day

Got plans?

There are so many interesting tidbits about Valentine's Day that I thought I might share a few. My favorite tidbit comes courtesy of Wikipedia:

In Slovenia, a proverb says that "St Valentine brings the keys of roots," so on February 14, plants and flowers start to grow. Valentine's Day has been celebrated as the day when the first works in the vineyards and on the fields commence. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day.

I think that last sentence a bit fanciful but who cares? It's harmless fancy and I like it. Another tidbit comes from The History Channel:

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.

Also a bit fanciful. When I was a kid, people used to route their Valentine cards by mail through Valentine, Nebraska so they'd have a Valentine postmark. I don't remember how to do that and I'm not sure that it can even still be done.

They celebrate it a bit differently in Saudi Arabia. Had to include that because it contains a committee with my all-time favorite title: The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Watch out for these guys and have a Happy Valentine's Day. Have a red Rose on me

Moonrise near CrabAppleLane - February 8, 2009 Bobette called and said I should go out and take a picture of the moon. I have to go out to the main highway to see the moon when it's close to the horizon. I think it was worth the trip. Good night and have a great weekend from Patsy and Rob.

I offer some images taken this morning on a gorgeous CrabAppleLane Sunday.

Clouds - CrabAppleLane Sunday - February 8, 2009 - What I thought of when I saw these clouds

Buffy the nectar slayer - CrabAppleLane - February 8, 2009 Blame my wife, Patsy, for that name. Buffy is a buff-bellied hummingbird that has been hanging around CrabAppleLane since late October. He/she has endured snow and freezing temps. Normally, I'm done with hummingbirds, almost all ruby-throats, in early October. This development has been a pleasant and very welcome surprise. Buffy is quite the charmer. Just chatters up a storm. More pictures of Buffy below the jump.

Front

Back

Casey the kitten The first photo is self-explanatory but I thought I'd expound on the one above. The first thing I noticed about it was the date. May 9th is our anniversary and 1995 marked 14 years. I was looking for an album. Casey, not quite two yet, stepped right over me, got in there, and looked around. We're in the house three months in May 1995 and we still don't know where anything is. I will never forget the mountain of junk stuff in the living room the day we moved in. The first goal was to get everything out of sight and then sift through it at night and on weekends as time permits. It took a long time before we were settled in and, then, the table...

That table is part of a five-piece set of overpriced pecan furniture that we bought from Kirschman's right after we got married. It was the square end table pictured above, a hexagonal end table, a desk, and two shelf units. All of it was damaged when our ceiling caved in. Our pipes had burst one day after a hard freeze. So overpriced was this furniture that our homeowner's insurance, after seeing the receipt, thought it better to restore rather than pay us replacement cost. We still have all five pieces but we hate it now. We're going to someday bring them to Habitat for Humanity but we'll have to figure out what we're going to do with the things we're storing in them. Also, I hate the thought of asking Kevin, Scott S, and David to help me move it all once again.

Family Photo Going by who is in it and how old the twins and Stephen are, I'm thinking this was taken in 1982 or 1983. I can't decide if I like the heavy textured paper it's on or not.

Confirmation - May 2, 1971 When I first saw this picture, I thought graduation. May 1971 was when I graduated from Our Lady of Perpetual Help and this looks like a graduation gown to anyone with a fuzzy memory of that time. Written on the back of that photo, as people used to do in those days, in Mom's unmistakable handwriting is "Confirmation - May 2, 1971". I remembered being confirmed in 8th grade but I didn't remember it being that late in the school year. A lot of us were pretty upset that it took so long. 8th grade, that is. A new nearby church called Our Lady of Divine Providence confirmed their parishioners in the 4th grade. Many, many of my classmates lived in Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish even though they went to school at OLPH with me and they had already been confirmed for many years.

Left the "May 71" and Fox Photo logo in the scan intentionally. I think it's kinda neat. Remember Fox Photo? Can you imagine anyone willingly manning one of those one-person offices now?

That's Dad's company car behind me and a brand new fence on the neighbor's property.

Heated Bathroom sign
Nancy and I went to the St. Paul Winter Carnival on Saturday. They have snow and ice carvings that are spectacular. It was an unusually warm day. It started out about 31 degrees and ended up at 46 when we left about 2pm. The 'title' picture is for all of you "Chilly Willy's ". Aside from the cool sculptures and spending the day with my sister, my favorite part was the mini donuts. YUM!!! All in all we had a very fun day together romping in the snow.

Duncan and Casey - October 1994 Duncan is the Shetland Sheepdog (Or Sheltie, if you prefer) in this picture. He is a fairly spry 12½ year old pup who thinks he's in charge. He has his younger (10½) and much larger brother, Nikki, in line. He also insists on asserting his authority over Casey, the kitten. Casey is about a year old here and is a blur to our two dogs. They are no match for her. She can can do anything they can do, only much faster. She can also jump to the moon and is totally insane. She lives to torment them. She torments Nikki by ignoring him and Duncan by laying traps like the one above for him. She'd swat him and he'd reprimand her with a couple of barks and a snarl. I think she just loved the reaction. Duncan has moved on but Casey (15 now) is still with us and has a younger feline brother who lives to torment her.

Nikki - January 1990 Nikki was our Samoyed. He loved everyone. When we first bought the property on Crabapple Lane, where our house was later built and where we live now, there were horses on the property next to us. We used to like to bring our two city dogs up with us and wander around the property. It was sensory overload for them. They loved going for a ride, they loved the country and all those new scents and wide open spaces but there was something else, too. We'd bring carrots for the horses. The horses would light up when they saw us and the carrots. Nikki would light up when he saw them. Not at all sure what they thought of him. He would tap his paws, wag his whole body, and then sing to them. He would be just beside himself with joy. He gave us a great deal of joy, too. Nikki was that one pet that everyone has in their life. You know, the best ever.