Photo of the Week (10/28/07)

Greetings from Fountain Valley, California, USA!
Photo was taken on Thursday, October 25, 2007.

On Saturday I dressed as Zorro for two Halloween parties and one was at my own home. My roommate and I are in neighboring chapters of a volunteer organization. His group lost its event location and our place was the 11th hour replacement. Meanwhile I also had a volleyball friend’s party on the same night. My roommate’s party had a ton of leftovers – the chicken alone will last for a month, just in time for Thanksgiving and the traditional turkey dinner. I’ll be sprouting feathers soon. Aha, a costume for next year!

The California wildfires are worldwide news. Living here, you have great odds of knowing at least one of the half-million evacuated people. I received several emails from friends and acquaintances. One mentioned watching from her bedroom window as a fire burned a nearby hillside. I talked with an evacuated couple that spent three nights sleeping in three different places. Fortunately my biggest problem was smoke and ash and not the possible loss of my home or life.

If I was asked for my most eventful year, 2007 is in strong contention to take 2nd place – this series of emails is proof to that. In indisputable 1st place is 2001 but not because of the World Trade Center disaster. So much more happened. Among them: An acquaintance committed suicide. I took three trips - to Japan for business school with classmates, to the Caribbean on a cruise with my brother and to Northern California on my own. I attended three weddings including two that occurred on the same day. A cousin’s son was about two months premature and missed being born on my own birthday (the BIG 3-0 that year!) by two days.

On the last day of 2001, I asked, “What else could happen?” Mere hours before the New Year, the question was answered when I called a classmate in Australia where it was already 2002. She updated me on our common friends. When I asked about Scott, she replied, “Have you heard? Scott is now Samantha.” Can you end a year on a note more surreal than this? By writing that, I tempt the Fates once again. Just over 2 months left – plenty of time for 2007 to become my 2nd most eventful year. I never want to top 2001.

Recently I wrote that the Red Sox team would win baseball’s World Series before I got married. Then they won and I’m not married yet. My superstitious 13th email mentioned the devilish Santa Ana winds and the weekly photo numbered “666”. Then California became hell on earth. Am I channeling Nostradamus? While you ponder, enjoy the photo: Koa the kitty playing with Tessa the golden retriever, half of the four pets (2 canine, 2 feline) that I took care of while a friend was out of town. Last week I mentioned storms and mudslides. I now predict it will soon rain like cats and dogs, as the saying goes. And be prepared for the second coming of Noah and his ark.

Angelo

Photo of the Week (10/21/07)

Greetings from Irvine, California, USA!
Photo was taken on Saturday, October 20, 2007.

“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Judy Garland’s character says this to her pet dog as they set foot in the titular land of the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. We’re not in Kansas, nor Oz, but the city of Irvine at a Halloween-themed housewarming party. The “Dorothy” in this photo of the week is the daughter of two good friends. Their son was also dressed as an Oz character, the Cowardly Lion, but had taken off his headwear earlier in the evening, never to be worn again.

The party itself was very entertaining, especially as it went late into the night. “En vino, veritas” is Latin for “In wine, truth”. The things said in front of friends and strangers alike flowed as freely as the wine and beer AKA the truth serum. One woman dressed as a bee and wanted her husband to dress as a flower but he refused and came as a chicken instead. Anyway among the things I learned were that Chicken and Bee tried to join the mile high club but the airplane’s coach section lavatory was too small. Another couple – a disco Ken and Barbie - said the ones in business and first class are definitely roomier.

The evening was far more entertaining than my afternoon earlier that same day. I participated in an aquatic scavenger hunt. In an electric-powered boat called a Duffy, each team cruises to checkpoints in Newport Harbor as part of the competition. On my team I was the only guy and also chosen to “man” the steering wheel despite my limited experience. The result was 2-1/2 hours with 5 female back seat drivers and no way out. I spent all my time steering and couldn’t take pictures. My team members took some photos and I’m sure the look on my face would say it all. We didn’t win but all in all I had fun.

As if I hadn’t done enough, on Sunday I went to a welcome home party in a park for the adopted son of a family friend. The afternoon was enjoyable despite the fierce Santa Ana winds. The news is full of reports of the many wildfires ravaging Southern California. I’m nowhere near any of the fires but still get fallout as the winds carry the smoke well beyond the hot zones. A rainstorm would be nice right now but the burned out areas would probably be prone to mudslides if they got too wet. You just can’t win.

The current temperature in Kansas is a bit too cold for me – a high of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a low of 40. This week I am dog sitting for a friend who went to Hawaii on business. The temperature there is a high of 86, a low of 75. Hmmm... What would happen if I clicked my heels three times and said, “There’s no place like Hawaii”?

Angelo

Photo of the Week (10/14/07)

Greetings from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, USA!
Photo was taken on Saturday, October 13, 2007.

On Sunday was my third and final wedding for 2007. No chance on a fourth before the end of the year, right? Right?!?! The ceremony - quick, the bride – stunning, the reception - a blast. And unlike the last wedding, I did not lose my jacket, my lunch or anything else. The day went fast but I have the pictures to show for it. Among the photos are shots of the three bridesmaids and me, of me hand-feeding white chocolate to a bridesmaid and of the bride in my arms being dipped on the dance floor.

But enough wedding pictures. You need something different - like another adventure in San Diego – the third time since August. What else can I possible do there? It’s a trifecta, a triple play, a triumphant trio of trips. I went to a football game, then SeaWorld and now an air show. That’s land, sea and air.

On Saturday I went with a group to the Miramar Air Show, an annual event showcasing the United States Marine Corps. The only performance cancellation was the parachute team due to the previous night’s storm. The wet weather probably made a few people stay home meaning smaller crowds. The cloud coverage also kept us from baking under a hot sun, which eventually broke through in the late afternoon.

Plagued by another low battery, I managed to get three dozen photos or so before my camera shut down. Among aircrafts big and small sharing the airfield with tanks and other military vehicles, I checked out the vast interior of a transport plane, got myself photographed in the cockpit of a Coast Guard rescue helicopter and fought back the urge to buy a BMW motorcycle after sitting on a display model. I even successfully avoided the food booths - well, most of them. I bought some fries but I didn’t buy the motorcycle… This time.

After I walked for what felt like forever, it was time to sit down and look up. The afternoon was four hours of an amazing and action-packed aerial show. An assortment of airplanes performed death spirals, corkscrews, flips, turns, dives and even fly-bys with planes passing within mere meters/feet of each other. The finale was the Thunderbirds – a six-plane air demonstration squadron courtesy of the United States Air Force.

My favorite was the Harrier jet - it flies like any other jet but also took off, hovered and landed like a helicopter. A still picture cannot fully show what the Harrier can do. A video on a big screen television does no justice either. Nothing compares to seeing it live – the noise, the power, the awe. Of course my camera had stopped working by then. Its final shots were of the Patriots jet team complete with smoke trails of red, white and blue as shown in the photo of the week. As Superman says, “Up, up and away!”

Angelo

Photo of the Week (10/07/07)

Greeting from Corona del Mar Beach in Newport Beach, California, USA!
Photo was taken on Saturday, October 6, 2007.

It’s back to the beach for this photo of the week. On Saturday afternoon I realized that I hadn’t taken any pictures. Just two weeks ago I was in this very same predicament and I ended up with a shot of my brother’s two pet turtles and a bunch of paragraphs about expired passports and confessionals at Vanity Anonymous meetings. I won’t do that again. This time the weekly photo will be my police mug shot and I’ll write about court-ordered anger management classes and the completely erroneous accusation of airbrushed pictures during my passport office visit. Or maybe not.

The weather lately has been a mild but dry heat. The Santa Ana winds do not come from the local city of Santa Ana but from the nearby mountains. Your friendly high school science teacher will tell you that air becomes warmer and drier as it move down from the mountains and towards the ocean. Centuries ago the Spanish colonists associated the warm dry wind with the devil Satan and the name evolved from Santana to Santa Ana. Okay, class dismissed.

Following the Mexico trip, I had promised myself to acknowledge the end of summer and put my job search into serious mode. My roommate may vouch for my more reclusive behavior this week but on Saturday, with my need for a weekly photo, I ventured further than my mailbox. The “devil wind” cleared up The City of Angels’ smoggy skies and sunsets take on new colors so to the beach I did go. Ask a seasoned photographer about the “golden hour”. It’s a brief period of time immediately after sunrise or right before sunset. The sun hangs low in the sky and the angled light casts a golden glow. I didn’t quite capture that in my photo. Nonetheless I’m impressed by the amount of detail that my digital camera did capture. Sunset at the beach from an empty lifeguard station. Welcome to the OC. Welcome to Southern California. Welcome to my life.

Angelo

PS: I just noticed the purely coincidental fact that, through my camera’s automatic numbering system, the attached photo has the file name of “DSC00666” (note the last three numbers). I’ll be under by bed covers until the devil wind stops.

PPS: I forgot to blind-copy my distribution list, not a major security breach, but then I realized that this is my 13th weekly email. First the photo's "666" file name, now this. Forget the bed covers, I'll be under my bed.

Photo of the Week (09/30/07)

Greetings from Las Rocas Hotel in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico!
Photo was taken on Saturday, September 29, 2007.

This is the first photo in this weekly email taken outside the United States. It is also an unofficial sequel to the picture from the 07/29/07 photo of the week. The bride from the first wedding and the groom from this second wedding are siblings – sister and brother. I will be going to yet another wedding in October - my third this year – but there is no relation to the first two.

I will have gone to three weddings in each of the last three years and easily over 20 in the last decade. I know of more family, friends and acquaintances who also got married in that time that would push the count to over 40 easily. Thankfully I’m not invited to all of them. Otherwise I’d spend every weekend alternating between bachelor parties and wedding receptions.

After attending so many, I have often joked that the guest list of my own would be everyone who invited me to his or hers. As to when I myself will get married, the Boston Red Sox will probably win Major League Baseball’s World Series again before I tie the knot. Then again the Red Sox are in this year’s playoffs and may not have to wait another 86 years (or whatever the actual number is) to win it again.

The wedding in Mexico was easily in my top three of best wedding receptions ever. I know a lot of people at my family’s weddings but my relatives don’t drink. If you go to a wedding where you don’t know many people, then drinking isn’t as much fun. When you know a lot of the other guests AND they drink AND the reception has an open bar AND you don’t have to drive later, it makes for one AWESOME party. Senor bartender, a round of tequila shots, por favor.

I lost count of my drinks after 10. I joked with one friend that I would have to rate the wedding as a 10+ because of this. I may have lost count of drinks, but I didn’t “lose my lunch” although other people said they did (and no hangover the next day – WOOHOO!). I thought that I lost my suit jacket but the groom’s sister called me a few days later and said I left it in the wedding couple’s suite and she now had it. How did it ended up in that room and why she had it now? The travel rule applies: What happened in Mexico, stays in Mexico.

Angelo