Trip to New Norcia

Trip to New Norcia
Video sent by basykes

Well, this video is a test. The program I generally use for slide shows (Pictures to EXE) now allows you to save your slide show in .avi format. The quality of the photos seems to be better than creating a slide show in Windows Movie Maker.

This is a trip we took to New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, now an historic place. It was spring in Australia and all the canola fields were in bloom. A beautiful day!

The Audition

Rehearsal
Video sent by basykes

I don't expect anybody will find this interesting except me, but I was going through some old video yesterday and came across this clip of Paul rehearsing for a movie or TV audition. (It looks like it might have been for a commercial)

Was he ever that young...?

No More Fosters

No More Fosters
Video sent by basykes

We were going to foster a new dog, Molly. Sheila went out of her way to make friends and it was all going well, but at the end, Sheila ended up attacking Kimba again, so I've had to decide not to take any more foster dogs while Kimba is still alive.

I just happened to be videotaping, so was able to get the attack on Kimba on tape (though it ends very abruptly, since I had to drop the camera to go after Sheila!)

Music for this is called "Bump as You Go," written by Ned about his dog, Bert, who died suddenly on Christmas Day, while Ned and Marta were in Hawaii.

KingsPark

KingsPark
Video sent by basykes

I'm sorry that I didn't realize, 3 years ago, when I went to Australia, that I would eventually get into video. It frustrates me to have so little of that trip recorded on video. But this is a snippet of Kings Park, overlooking Perth.

ProductTesting

ProductTesting
Video sent by basykes

I took it as a challenge. Peggy said she had used one of those new silicone baking pans for muffins and that it was a huge mess. I decided I had to try it out for myself. You. Are. There.

Happy birthday, David

Happy birthday, David
Video sent by basykes

Another birthday montage. David's birthday is 2/4. He would have been 34.

"The Drawer"

"The Drawer"
Video sent by basykes

Everyone has one. A junk drawer. Today I decided to see what was in mine.

AVtest

AVtest
Video sent by basykes

I now have a little AIPTEK DV4500, a "toy camera," (thank you) which saves to SD cards and uses AA batteries. It also fits in my pocket. It's more convenient to use, but not quite as good quality as the other one, but it sure is more convenient, and easier to film myself with the camera held at arm's length. This is a "nothing" movie--just a test to see how it all works and check the quality. It was a gray day, so not really a good test of the color quality

Getting Lazy

I guess I'm lazy this week. I haven't made any videos, other than Concetta's birthday. Actually, the tape on that one had a glitch on it, so I need to buy a new tape and that is partly the reason why I haven't spent any time on videos.

Thing is, I have a couple of ideas of things I'd like to do, so first chance I get, I'll have to get out and get some more tape and try making a video again.

It's not that I have the most interesting videos on the internet, but I at least have consistent, regular, expectable contributions and if I start posting irregularly, I will lose too many of my 7 viewers.

Concetta turns 65

Concetta65
Video sent by basykes

Our friend Concetta is turning 65 and today we had a birthday party for her. This is part of our college group and, among all of us couples, we had 22 children, some of whom were there today with their own children.

Surprise!

I have no video for today. I looked at the two that I have waiting in the wings and decided that they were crap and would be posted only to keep the "one-a-day" record going, so I've decided to take a day off.

I'm sure the world will go into mourning, but...well...that's life.

Happy Birthday, Paul

Happy Birthday, Paul
Video sent by basykes

My son would have been 37 years old today (not 35, as I put on the slide show--pretend I made the slide show 2 years ago), so I put together this slide show. It's hard to believe he's been gone 6 years already.

Pine Ridge Winery

PineRidge
Video sent by basykes

We took a tasting tour of the Pine Ridge Winery on the Silverado Trail in Napa. It included instructions on pruning vines and information about the barrels stored in the winery's caves (which we visited), an in-cave wine tasting, as well as tasting in the usual tasting area. Really an interesting tour.

Up and Down the Silverado Trail

Up and Down the Silverado Trail
Video sent by basykes

We spent a day and a half in the Napa Valley, tasting wine at a few of the smaller wineries. This is just a "flavor" of what it was like.

Old Film

Old Film
Video sent by basykes

I really kind of liked the way I chopped up Thanksgiving into three different little movies--but I never got this one posted, so I'm posting it today. In this video you see how my mother imported a non-family member to stand up for her against her disrespectful grandchildren.

BucaDiBeppo

BucaDiBeppo
Video sent by basykes

Dining at Buca di Beppo is a unique experience.

English lessons

English lessons
Video sent by basykes

We hosted people from around the world for ten years, sometimes through groups; sometimes just friends of friends. Victor came from Zaire, cousin to Ndangi, who had been with us a year before. Victor was escaping the deporable conditions in Zaire and hoping to find a way to bring his family here as well. But he spoke not one word of English.

David and his friend Jeff took it upon themselves to teach Victor English. Every day after school they would get together and try to teach him to speak English, and not only did he begin to learn, but a close friendship developed.

We lost track of Victor, but years later he got word of David's death and showed up at our door on the day of his memorial service, tears streaming down his face. We haven't seen him since that day.

Take a Turkey...

Turkeysoup
Video sent by basykes

I finally used up the last of the turkey. Here I make a weak attempt to explain how I make soup. Martha Stewart I ain't.

Kimba

Kimba
Video sent by basykes

I found an old video of young kimba, about 16 years ago. I'd forgotten she was so thin and so cute!

Piano Lessons

Piano Lessons
Video sent by basykes

My father having a jam session with my kids. This was the night that my father finally realized that his grandchildren shared his love of music. Unfortunately, he died shortly after this...this was the last time my kids saw him alive.

Living through History

Living through History
Video sent by basykes

What do you do when you are the guardian of a history that nobody is interested in?

The Jagged Tree

The Jagged Tree
Video sent by basykes

This commemorates the death of a beloved city tree. I wrote a journal article about it, but then took a very brief video on my way to the dentist today, when I got to see the dead tree myself.

CircusTrain

CircusTrain
Video sent by basykes

In 1967, we took the kids to the train tracks to watch Ringling Bros. unload the animals for the circus.

In the Still of the Night

In the Still of the Night
Video sent by basykes

...when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my recliner to see what was the matter....

MyDay

MyDay
Video sent by basykes

Walt tells me that when I post links from YouTube, they don't show up for him, but that these DailyMotion links do, so I'll go back to DailyMotion.

I made this video for two reasons. One was because Walt asks me every night "what did you do all day?" and I thought I should let him know, and also because Susan of KityKity.com posts a video each day called "My life in 5 second increments" and I thought it would be fun to parody her.

Try not to get too worked up over this.

This isn't mine...thank goodness...

...but I just felt the world needed to see it.

Mail Call

I ordered a new shirt today from here. It's such a nice shirt, I ordered a second one.

(Incidentally, the background music for this is "I Love Robert DeNiro" by the band Lawsuit)

Ballet -- Test

I'm testing embedding a You-Tube video




--oh that's MUCH better!!!!

Vitamin C

Cold
Originally uploaded by basykes

Does it work?

Masks

Masks
Originally uploaded by basykes

I was just playing around with some old photos today. I kind of like this one, but it's just kind of strange.

Superman3

Superman3
Originally uploaded by basykes

The kids made "Superman," they tell me, 3 times. They are getting older and trying more sophisticated things in this version (but not THAT much more sophisticated!)

Lord help us if I ever figure out how to transfer VHS tape to my computer. There are YEARS worth of home movies.

Family Treasures

Family Treasures
Originally uploaded by basykes

Every family has its hidden treasures. Here I display mine.

(P.S. -- LATTE HAS A HOME!!!!!)

The Last of Latte

The Last of Latte
Originally uploaded by basykes

Latte hasn't found a home yet, but having her here caused problems between our own two dogs, so she finally had to go (see http://www.funnytheworld.com/2006/Jan/04.htm for details). So anyway, Latte is no longer here, but I had to post the last video I made of her. Sheila really misses her.

Nannie and the Piano

Nannie and the Piano
Originally uploaded by basykes

My mother talks about my father's mother and why she stopped playing the piano. So many unanswered questions: how far did she go in school? Where did she learn to dance? What made her go into Vaudeville?

We'll never know.

When you care enough to send the very best

I started this three years ago. We get so many photo cards at Christmas. Just like all of you, we watch our friends' kids grow up in our mailbox each year.

I never know what to do with them. You can't keep them all (can you?) but I did the next best thing...I started scanning them and arranging into a slide show.

This is our 2005 edition.

Flash version is here.

JimminyGrasshopper

JimminyGrasshopper
Originally uploaded by basykes

Things have been kind of crazy around this house, so I haven't had time to think about making new videos. This is another home movies, one of my favorite snippets, of Ned, age 2 (he's now nearly 39) and his encounter with a grasshopper. Just "cute kid" stuff.

Too bad the "Daily Motion" snap that they chose for the thumbnail happened to come in the middle of a dissolve so it looks more like abstract art than a real photo.

Indy and the Goose

Indy and the Goose
Originally uploaded by basykes

Indy was a 6 month old puppy we met in Australia. Indy was the first thing Peggy saw when we got out of the car and she fell in love instantly. She was an adorable, lively puppy (now an adult dog) and her antics made us laugh a lot over the week we wpent on the farm.

Here Indy, a herding dog, tries to herd a goose, who isn't having any of it.

The Bird Tree

The Bird Tree
Originally uploaded by basykes

This is "the bird tree," where we ended our bush walk each morning, checking out which birds were there this day. Usually pink and grey gallahs and Rosellas (also called "28s" for the number of colors in their feathers). Sometimes we saw black or white cockatoos. I loved standing under it each morning. Peggy narrates this video.

Did you know that if a black cockatoo sings, it's going to rain?

Bush Walk

Bush Walk
Originally uploaded by basykes

One of my very favorite things to do when I was in Australia in 2003 was to take the dogs (German Shorthair Pointers, Keno and Chippa) to the bush in the morning to go for their run (for Chippa) and walk (for Keno). Peggy and I would be out at 6 a.m., occasionally earlier, just when the sun was coming up. We drove to a park and then to the back of the park, which opened onto the bush land that was part of Pinaroo Cemetery. The place was filled with birds and rabbits and kangaroos. I only saw roos in the place where we walked twice, but we could look down onto the cemetery land and see them lounging on the graves, and sometimes we walked down to the graves area to let the dogs run (not on the graves, but on the grassy area along the sides).

No roos in this movie, but the thing I loved most about those times was watching Chippa running through, around, and over the bushes and there is a lot of that here.

How to Wash a Dog

How to Wash a Dog
Originally uploaded by basykes

This is a video from 1967 of Walt trying to give our dog, Ho Chi Mutt (what can I say? It was the Vietnam era) a bath.

Mutt wasn't liking it.

What did YOU get?

Opening
Originally uploaded by basykes

This is the "gift opening" portion of our Christmas evening. As a general rule, we didn't do the usual "scarf" or "sweater" kind of Christmas gifts. This video is just the highlights.

The nice thing about this Christmas was that it was so low key. In other years we have had an embarrassment of riches, mountains of gifts (since there were so many more people). This year each person had one or two gifts to open and it seemed much more civilized and not so over the top.

Crisis

TVCrisis
Originally uploaded by basykes

I had a crisis last night and discovered just how strong my addiction really is.

Toys and Poliltics

Toys and Poliltics
Originally uploaded by basykes

I never realized that Sheila and Latte had such strong political opinions. Since they are dogs, they mostly seem content to listen to news reports without actually commenting.

But when they received toys for Christmas, suddenly their true colors--and beliefs--came out. Watch for yourself and see if you don't agree.

Christmas Night

PreDinner
Originally uploaded by basykes

Some families sit around and discuss politics, current events, religion, sports and all sort of interesting topics. Our family? We sit around and learn interesting facts about poop.

This is Part 1 of our Christmas celebration, all the stuff up to dinner. The gift opening part will be in the second video, which I'll post tomorrow.

Christmas with the InLaws

XmasEve05
Originally uploaded by basykes

We began having dinner with Ned's inlaws the year Paul died, when they very graciously invited us to join them at a time they knew was going to be very difficult for us. We've just continued to join them each year. Ned's mother-in-law always makes burritos and then afterwards there is music...of some sort. The past two years there was a chorus of kazoos. This year, I got a bit more organized and...well...you'll see....

Also this was the first year that Jeri's new beau, Phil, joined us for both Christmas eve and Christmas day.

CommunityMeals

CommunityMeals
Originally uploaded by basykes

Every year in Davis, there is a holiday dinner which is held for anybody who is alone, or homeless or who just wants to join with other people for a holiday dinner. There are over 500 people served, and all the food is donated by members of the community or by local merchants. For the last several years, my friends Ellen and Shelly have organized it. This year they asked me to be the event photographer.

The Grinch's Christmas

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without pressure! It came without stress!
"It came without company, tension or mess!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe crisis," he thought, "doesn't come from without.
"Maybe crisis...perhaps...is just always about"

Will you just go away and leave me ALONE!!" I shrieked at the dogs. They had permanently attached themselves to my legs even moreso than usual. I couldn't go anywhere without them having to be touching me. It was worse than having toddlers again. They lay on my feet, they leaned heavily on my legs. I wanted to give both of them a good swift kick, but of course I couldn't do that.

I got the trifle I had made yesterday out of the fridge, whipped up the cream and spread it on top. Then I tried covering it with some of that press-and-seal wrap, but discovered the "stick to everything" wrap would not stick to the moist bowl fresh from the fridge.

I wanted to throw it across the room.

What was wrong? This is a tension-less Christmas. No company to worry about. Just the same people who are here all the time and know this house intimately, clean or dirty. It's going to be a small dinner, and it will pretty much cook itself.

Why are my insides churning like they do every other, stress-filled Christmas?

A package arrived from my internet buddy Doug, in Rhode Island. He is determined to get me into a chat group for video bloggers and I am hopeless at getting the computer to recognize a microphone. I have had geek experts from all corners of the globe, literally, giving me advice for how to get a microphone--any microphone--to work and so far nothing has worked. All of my volumes are at the top, none of my mutes are muted, today Andy had me install software. I tried three different programs, including one called "funny voice," but none of them realized that I had a microphone.

The Windows help screens tell me that if I'm having problem, I should make sure to check that my microphone is plugged in and working...but it doesn't tell me what to do if it's plugged in and not working. My XP for dummies doesn't even address the issue of microphones, much less acknowledge that there might be a problem with them.

I realize that a good part of my grinchiness comes from the frustration over the microphone, which I thought would really work this time.

But it's more than that. There is this huge ball of MOM'S ANNUAL CHRISTMAS CRISIS just sitting there in the pit of my stomach, just like I were going to be hosting a dinner for 24.

It seems that no matter what I do, or don't do, I am doomed to go through my Christmas crisis. It's just part of the annual tradition.

You don't suppose that having two people who are supposed to be here and aren't has anything to do with it, do you?

Nah....

PumpkinPies

PumpkinPies
Originally uploaded by basykes

I actually posted the first part of this video a few weeks ago, but after finding the second part and videotaping it last night, I put both halves together into one glorious whole.

These are movies, taken in in 1970, 71 and 72 of my friend Char and I and combined 10 children and an annual incident after Halloween, where Char and I would bake pies and then in year 1 I threw one in her face, year 2 she threw one in my face, and year #3 the kids demanded their turn.

Part 2 starts out as kind of anticlimactic, but when you have 10 kids with 10 pumpkin pies, the action very rapidly builds.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread
Originally uploaded by basykes

We found a neighborhood that had chosen a decorating theme, Gingerbread men on Broadway and all the houses were decorated with that theme in mind (some better than others). As this was a retirement community, and it was 9 p.m., many of the houses had already turned off their lights (old poops), but I did manage to get a fair representation of the area.

It just needs a little love

A Charlie Brown Tree
Originally uploaded by basykes

Today we decorated our tree. In past years, we have gotten big, full, bushy trees, but with no kids at home, and so few people (7) here for Christmas dinner, somehow having the big fancy tree didn't seem necessary, so this year we went for a Charlie Brown tree, that seemed to need a little love.

We may not have beautiful themed trees like those we saw at Macy*s, but every thing that hangs on our tree has a meaning behind it, no matter how weird it may seem to other people!

Shhh...don't tell anybody

Shhh...don't tell anybody
Originally uploaded by basykes

...wherein I reveal the secret of what I'm getting for my family for Christmas. Most of the people I buy gifts for don't or can't watch these videos, and the couple who might are not discussed in this video. But it was fun making a video about what I got for people.

Flash version is here
Blip version is here

Have a Politically Correct Whatever

Have a Politically Correct Whatever
Originally uploaded by basykes

(for some reason, this video loads slowly, so be patient--I think it's because I tacked on an extra movie, made in 2003, at the very end of it....but it seemed appropriate to the video!)

This is a difficult time to send people good wishes. You never know when it's not going to be politically correct. I started to make this video and realized that I have a whole system for how I send out cards, who gets what, what the card look like when it arrives, etc.

Here is the flash link.
This is the link to Blip.

RainyDay

RainyDay
Originally uploaded by basykes

I love rain. I love being inside on a rainy day. Always have. At this time of year, a rainy day reminds me of living back in San Francisco again.

Blip is not allowing me to post movies tonight (I've been reading about problems all day long), but I did get a flash version posted to You Tube.

Wedding

Wedding
Originally uploaded by basykes

We went to a wedding of a guy who works in Walt's office. It was a lovely wedding, though the ceremony was mostly in Chinese (don't know if it was Mandarin or Cantonese)

Must. Have. Coffee

MustHaveCoffee
Originally uploaded by basykes

We had a blackout this morning. BEFORE I'd had my coffee. I'm posting this now to test out the movie-posting feature of Daily Motion. I'd love to get feedback from everyone, if you can see the imbeded video or if you can't.

Pre-Dinner

I'll tell you--I'm wondering what kind of audience I have out there. This is the caption I put on this photo: I finally have gone through some of the video I made at Thanksgiving and have put together another couple of videos. This one is the conversation and preparation that went on pre-dinner. See what Ned and his grandmother are chatting about--you'll be very surprised (she's not such a sweet old lady!)

Now. When I check my stats on Blip-TV, I generally have about 30 hits per video that I upload. But this video has, as of this writing, had 852 hits. EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO hits! What are they expecting to find in Ned's conversation with his grandmother?????

Yeah, it's not your typical grandma-grandson conversation, but she doesn't rip off her clothes and ravage him on the kitchen floor or anything like that! I suspect there were an awful lot of disappointed viewers!

Flash version is here.

2005 Remix

I suppose I'm a couple of weeks early for an "end of the year" retrospective, but I got this idea today for what I wanted to do and ended up working on it so intensely that it was 1 p.m. before I even looked up. I had skipped lunch and didn't remember anything about any morning television.

In the end, I was pleased with how it came out. It's a mix of photos and movies and it seems to go together logically, at least in my own mind. I think that I hope I can do something a bit better next year, if I'm still keeping a video-a-day.

The Flash version is here.

Gold Rush Days

One thing about living in California, we do have our "western" history. Old Sacramento, a special area set aside on the outskirts of Sacramento itself, has been maintained as a national historic monument, and kept looking much as it did when it was the last outpost before miners went up into the hills to search for gold.

Old Sacramento is also where the Pony Express began (did you know it only ran for 18 months?).

In the summertime, "Gold Rush Days" are held over a weekend in Old Sacramento and these are pictures which I took this past year when we happened to stumble upon the event. This is a slide show, not a video.

The flash version can be found here.

The Great Potato Debate

Years ago, Walt's uncle Ernie came to visit us at Thanksgiving time. While he was here, he took the boys on his knee and shared with them the secret of the "Baur Mashed Potatoes," which include adding an egg and making sure to leave in lumps.

The boys took over making Uncle Ernie's potatoes (and to tell the truth, I don't like them) and have been doing it ever since.

My mother doesn't like them either, so this Thanksgiving she decided that since she was cooking dinner, she would do the potatoes the way SHE liked them. Great hilarity and mock-anger erupted. This is the video.

Flash version is here.

Nannie and the Earthquake

I didn't much like my grandmother (my father's mother). When I was born, the first grandchild, she insisted on being called "Nannie" because she thought "grandma" made her sound too old.

I was the favored child and I hated that. My sister was a tomboy and Nannie was very feminine and never really did understand Karen. I was so jealous of Karen because Nannie's preference for me was so blatant.

But she had an interesting background, including being a young girl during the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 and later going on to become a chorus girl in a vaudeville company, where she met my grandfather. Over Thanksgiving, I interviewed my mother about some of my history, which I didn't know before, and here she talks a bit about my grandmother's early days.

Click here for flash version.

A Life in Parentheses

You start out filming one thing and it ends up being quite another. I started out filming a report on the Christmas letters that I've written throughout the years. In the end, it turns a bit melancholy, but I guess that is to be expected.

For flash version click here.

Any Day Now

Any day now, there is going to be a family who wants to adopt Latte. All I want for Christmas is a permanent home for Latte!

But as long as she's still here, she is fun to videotape. Sheila's favorite game of all time has always been tug of war, but until Latte came along, Sheila never had anybody (2- or 4-legged) who had her stick-to-it-ivism, or her ability to hang on, literally forever.

Latte, however, loves tug-of-war as much as Sheila does and they can play it for hours. They play and tug until they are worn out, then they curl up together on the big pillow until they wake up and start all over again.

When Latte finally leaves, I won't really be sad, but I will be sad for Sheila because she and Latte are such close friends.

Flash link is here

Latte and the Big Green Monster

This is probably the shortest video I've ever posted.

It really was dangerous for Latte, but she was so funny, I had to take her picture first. I remember years ago when I was videotaping one of our kids being caught by undertow in the ocean. It wasn't really dangerous because Walt was right there to pick him out and I was too far to do anything anyway, but Char told me one day I'd be taking pictures of my own kid's death. [As it happened, I didn't do that either :( ] But Latte is unharmed and the video is, as I said, very short!

Flash version, click here.

Success!!

Well, after the angst, the sweat, the frustration, the certainty that it would never get done, it did, of course, come off just fine.

The cousins dinner was great fun and the house satisfied me. I'll never be one of these people who decorates to the hilt for the holidays, but I don't think I set too ugly of a table.

This video was made mostly for the cousin who couldn't make it, so there is a section where we all talk to her, but it just gives you the flavor of the evening.

Too bad I couldn't have shared with you a taste of the panettone trifle too!

Flash version here.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

My boss, the entertainment editor of the newspaper (in the photo) gives my favorite kind of Christmas party--no stress, interesting people, fun things to do, and an amazingly decorated house. This video is mostly of the house decorations. Watch and be amazed yourself.

For the flash version go here.

How's It Coming?

Second entry for today. Tomorrow is the day that my cousins and their spouses (9 people in all) will be here for a holiday meal. I've been talking about this for weeks, about getting the house cleaned up for them. This video was taken yesterday afternoon, midway through the clean-up. It's now 4 p.m. Friday and I'm still working--with lots more to do.

But this will give you an idea of the "progress"! (And the conclusion I reached at the end of it!)

Link to the flash version.

Ridin' the Rails

We went to San Francisco by train. Amtrak really has a good deal, where it takes you down to Emeryville, across the bay from SF and then buses you to where you want to go in the City. I love the space on the train.

I had hoped to take some nice views of San Francisco as we got closer, but it was one of those days when the bridge was so socked in by grey that you could just barely see it if you squinted--and it would not have shown up on video at all. But I did take a couple of shots en route, just to give a flavor of the route. I love going under the Carquinez Bridge and seeing it tower above me!

This is a link to the flash version.

Looking for Christmas

I've always loved San Francisco at Christmastime. The fancy windows at the Emporium, the decorations on the streets, the feeling of Christmas. Feels like walking out of a Christmas carol.

We we went to SF today to look for Christmas. It wasn't there, but I did take some video of what was there.

I'm getting to be an old fogey. I know it's always been commercial, but surely it hasn't always been this commercial! I also almost longed to hear "White Christmas" or "Jingle Bells." I got so tired of the rock music that was played everywhere.

I think I'll do the rest of my Christmas stuff close to home.

For flash version, click here.

I Dream of Genie

This is another one of our home movies. It was such fun to show a few of them on Thanksgiving. We're going to do more over Christmas.

This one is probably about 1975 or so. The kids were just learning about camera tricks to do special effects, and they decided to make their own version of "I dream of Jeannie." Fortunately, as they got older, their plot lines got better!

Flash version is here.

After the Fall

Sometimes life isn't fair.

I hated exercise of any kind all of my life until I turned 57 and decided to lose weight. A friend talked me into getting a bike and going riding with her and I discovered I really enjoyed bike riding. I went riding 8 miles around town in the mornings before starting my day. On the weekends, I'd ride 10-15 miles out into the country and back.

I did two charity runs to raise funds for the homeless. On this particular one, in 2003, I had completed a 30 mile ride and was just a block or two from the finish when I took a bad tumble and ended up with a dislocated shoulder.

I put together a slide show with the photos that were taken to document the event (I'm the person who, lying in the street in extreme pain called out to Walt and said "get. the. camera.")

This is the link to the flash version.

The Down Side

There is a down side of everything, even a beautiful new floor.

Flash format

Move Over, Julia

Well, there was a challenge issued by the guys who run Kitchen Arts, who invited people to submit videos demonstrating gadgets in their kitchen.

Some time ago, I started getting rid of gadgets, so I don't really have anything specific to demonstrate, so I went through my "gadget" drawer to see what was there.

I figure my "presentation" rivaled Julia Childs for the number of surprises and goofs and near-misses.

Photo goes to .mov file. For flash click here.

Josiah Milton Kirkpatrick

My great grandfather, Josiah Kirkpatrick, was apparently quite a guy, as my mother explains in this video from Thanksgiving. I was happy to have a video record of her talking about him. I don't know if my kids will appreciate it after I'm gone--but it makes me feel good (and now I know more about him as well!)

It's fun for me to realize that a talent for writing has shown up in every generation of this family. I guess I come by my obsession to write naturally!

Photo links to .mov. For flash click here

The Search for St. Stephen's Green

OK. This is a long video. No question about it. And if you didn't like Tom's story about the San Francisco airport, you won't enjoy this.

But the back story is that when Tom and Laurel went to Spain, he learned that cousin Nora's son, Ciaran, ran an Irish pub in Spain, so he decided that they would find the pub.

It's fair to say that it was not as easy a task as it appeared to be.

I just love the way Tom tells the story.

Photo links to .mov file; for flash version click here.

Latte and Kimba

Latte doesn't know that Kimba doesn't like dogs. And that Kimba doesn't like to play. And that Kimba is a grumpy old lady. So Latte is this big bumbling puppy who tries to get Kimba to play.

Amazingly, Kimba doesn't seem to mind.

I won't go so far as to say she is enjoying it, but since she seems to go out of her way to put herself in the same space as Latte, I can only assume that somewhere in the back of her head, she is thinking that maybe this is sort of fun.

Photo links to .mov format. . For Flash format click here.

Latte is starting to feel entirely too comfortable here. She is very much at home...and I'm sitting here counting the days until Saturday and hoping that "her family" will find her and take her home with them.

She is really feeling her oats these days. She's discovered that she loves tearing up blocks of wood and she has realized that there are sometimes Good Things To Eat on tables, stoves, and kitchen counter. Now that it's also raining outside, there are always muddy pawprints on the counters. It also seems that the minute I sit down at my desk, I hear things being knocked over, torn up or chewed in the other room. She's a fun dog, but I won't be sad when she leaves.

Were we ever this young?

It's always fun to look back on your earlier years and see how really silly you were...and how much fun you had doing it.

Somehow we grow up and we send our kids out into the world and we join PTA and other organizations and we get jobs and move into the work force...

it's always nice to look back and remember when you did silly things that made you laugh--and still make you laugh today.

I'm so glad Ned brought home movies to Thanksgiving dinner!

Photo links to the .mov version. For Flash, click here.

Just Like Mother Made

Well, exactly like mother made because this is mother making it.

I've always thought my mother made the very best turkey stuffing in the world (just like my father made the very best potato salad). In the years when she wasn't having holiday dinners with us (because she was with her new husband's family), she gave me her recipe and it never quite tasted right, so I started embellishing it and liked what I came up with. However, nothing is quite like Mom's home cooking, is it?

So this year, with camcorder in hand, I decided to get not only her recipe, but her technique on film.

Funny thing is, though, that either her technique has changed over the years, or my taste buds have changed over the years--or I just have developed a taste for my own stuffing (which uses lots more butter and adds dried cranberries to it).

Nonetheless, this holds the title (in my mind) for best turkey stuffing ever until only very recently, so I thought it would be fun to post the video.

Photo links to .mov format. For flash, click here.

Toys for Tots

Sunday was the 29th annual Toy Run, with motorcyclists all over Northern California bringing toys for underprivileged kids to the state capitol.

I had taken pictures of this event in 2000, and had always wanted to go back and really do it justice. In 2000, I just stumbled upon the some members of the group at their pre-meeting spot in Old Sacramento. This year, I went whole hog (pun intended) and followed the group all the way to the Capitol to see what happens when they get there. I overheard someone say there were about 3,000 motorcycles which participated. Pretty impressive, I must say!!!

A Two-for-one day

I have two movies for today. I didn't know if I would have anything worth posting from the party we attended this afternoon, but when I put the digital photos together with the movies and added a nice piece of music as a sound track, it didn't turn out too badly. At least I like it--and, of course, I only make these things for me anyway!

Photo links to .wmv format. For flash, click here.

Boy of Steel

It's too bad that we didn't have time to watch more movies at Thanksgiving, but we did watch a few.

One of the best was Superman. Our kids never made your run-of-the-mill movies. They always had a plot, costumes, sets, and special effects. Usually the plots were taken from TV shows or movies and, as we were very heavily into superheroes in those days, Superman was one of the most popular.

After the first Superman movie came out, the kids decided to recreate it. It had a cast of thousands (well..dozens, perhaps). There was more leaping off our roof than I am comfortable watching today. There are very funny special effects. We laughed a lot watching this movie on Thanksgiving. I knew I had to post it here. I don't know if anybody will appreciate it as much as we all did, but what the heck. Give it a try.

The photo links to the .mov version. For the flash version, go here.

Identified Flying Objects

Tom is really a good story teller. He ranks up there with Walt's cousin, Ernie, whom I once dubbed The Seanachie (Irish story-teller). Tom had us all laughing with a couple of stories he told over dinner at Thanksgiving. This, shorter, one is an incident that happened at the San Francisco airport, while he and Laurel were getting ready to leave on a flight to Spain.

It involves "dense objects."

The photo links to the .mov version. For the flash version, click here.

Baked Alaska!

Thanksgiving has taken place. Tom has baked his famous baked alaska. And I didn't eat pumpkin pie at 3 a.m.

That pretty much sums up yesterday in a nutshell. My mother cooked a delicious turkey, with her famous stuffing--and there were no leftovers to take home, so there will be no turkey sandwiches for lunch today.

But the baked Alaska was definitely--an experience!

(Photo links to .mov format. Flash link is here)

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm about to head off to my mother's for a couple of days, so I'm posting this early and won't post another entry until I get back on Friday.

We're headed to the big pig-out feast of the year, concluding with my very favorite: pumpkin pie.

What is wrong with this picture?

(Photo links to .wmv format. For flash format check here.)

Playtime

More dog movies.

Latte and Sheila have discovered tug of war. They love playing it. They will go on for hours. Sometimes Sheila will have a toy and Latte will go through all sorts of submissive behaviors as if she is begging for Sheila to let her take hold of one end of it.

Sometimes Sheila will take the toy and stand in front of Latte, practically stroking her mouth with it, waiting for Latte to take hold of the toy so they can play.

With the slippery Pergo floor, they take turns dragging each other across the floor, or dragging each other along on a blanket or the big dog bed pillow.

This is the first time in my life (this year) when I have been home pretty much 24/7 so that I can observe dog behavior and interactions first hand. I'm having a great time doing it. I took this brief video with my little digital camera that has no sound on it. (Background music courtesy of Jeri)

The Airport Adventure

Calling it an "adventure" is a bit of a misnomer. I went out to pick Walt up at the airport. He had been to Santa Barbara to have an early "Thanksgiving" with his mother. As I waited for him in the car, I had nothing really to do, and had a video camera with me, so I just made a video.

The best thing about this video: It's short!

The link for the flash version is here.

Video Meme

You know how you find, from time to time, lists of questions in somebody's blog that the writer invites you to answer? Like 100 questions, or Childhood Memories, or something.

Well, in a video blog called Bicycle-Sidewalk, the videographer, Nathan Miller filmed himself showing cards on which were (he said) 50 different questions. In reality there were only 38 of them, and I cut one out, so I answered 37 of them. But it makes for a weird 13 minutes of video. It was fun to do, I have to admit.

The link for the flash version is here.

Saturday at the SPCA

I had hoped Latte would find a home today, but no luck. However, she did get a bath, which she definitely needed (having become very stinky when she went off to the vet's to be spayed).

I have started photographing the dogs and cats each week, so their pictures can be posted on the Yolo County SPCA Pet Finder web site. This time I took the video camera along (again) and made another SPCA video. These may be boring after awhile, but I do like to have a record of the various animals that have gone up for adoption. Last time I didn't video the cats.

This video also includes a tour of part of Petco. I'm sure that is just thrilling for most people!

Asking some "hard" questions

I call this my homage to Andy Rooney. Seems to me he did something similar a few months back. However, it doesn't alter the fact that it's damned annoying!

Two for the price of one

Two videos for the price of one today. First there is this "leftover" video of Sheila. The footage came from when Slingshot was here and I cut most of it out of the Slingshot video and put together this Sheila video, for those who are not yet sick of seeing my dogs and hearing my daughter's music!

Yesterday wasn't a "film-able" day anyway, being spent just sitting at the computer, and cleaning up my office, in preparation for moving things from the living room in here. I figure if I expected Walt to do some cleaning up, I should do the same thing!

But the better movie is Steve's, a video from the Ovation Awards in LA. I have seen this video a number of times now and I still get all teary-eyed when I watch it.

It's fun watching them receive the award from Jerry Herman, of all people (as Jim says, he started his career in show biz on Broadway selling orange drink at intermission of "Hello Dolly") and then even, perhaps more emotional is Jimmy's being rendered speechless backstage after winning the award. I've never seen Jimmy speechless before.

Then the video ends with my very favorite song from the show, which makes me cry even WITHOUT an award show in front of it. Please watch the video. It's fantastic.

Photo Shoot

If you want to photograph something irresistible, go to a rehearsal of a performance featuring 4-6 year olds. I decided to go to the photo shoot for the picture that will accompany my latest feature article about a woman who teaches music programs for 1-9 year olds. They were militantly adorable.

I just fell in love with this woman and her philosophy of giving little kids an appreciation for music without all the pressure, teaching them love of music for the sake of the love of it without any real expectations. She talked about how some kids are able to be on stage, while others wander around and play in the curtains and how that's OK because the point of it is to offer them the experience.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite videos so far.

I need to get out more, obviously!

Down on the Farm (or Up on the Ranch)

I have this theory that the shorter you make a video, the more likely people are to watch it. Do you really want to click on a video when you see that it's 11 minutes long?

So I cut our "ranch visit" into two shorter videos, this being the second ("Olive Harvest" being the first). This is all the stuff we did before the guys who were harvesting the olives got into the trees to pick 'em off.

In the photo at the right, our friend Mike is showing me the outer husk of a walnut--city girl that I am, I didn't realize that they had outer husks just like coconuts.

This isn't the best of all possible videos, but the main reason for posting it was to test out a new method of encoding videos so they will start sooner and you won't have to wait for 2 or 3 minutes before a video starts playing.

Tomorrow's video will be much better, I promise!

Doggie Psychology

I just love this video. Sheila was playing with a new toy and Latte desperately wanted to join in the play, but for some reason she didn't feel comfortable just going over and trying to get it. So she goes through all these gyrations. ("Maybe if I stretch my feet out far enough, Sheila won't notice that I'm getting close to her.")

Times like this, you can almost hear them talking to each other. I just got such a kick out of it.

Take an Olive...

We went out into the Sierra foothills to harvest olives yesterday.

DMTC Gala

The link is to an mp4 file. I found it took forever to start for me, so I also uploaeded an .wmv file. I didn't know if anybody would even be interested in this very brief file, except possibly my daughter, so it seemed a good file to experiment with mp4 again. This is the gala reception for the theatre whose ribbon cutting we attended a couple of days ago.

On the video, I said that the guy in the red shirt hates me because I gave him a bad review. In truth, I actually gave the show quite a good review, but criticized one thing that he took exception to and it led to a lengthy letter to the editor. I don't think he knows what I look like, but I kind of steered clear of him throughout the night anyway.

Meet Latte

There are better shots of Latte on this video that I could have used for the screen, but I just loved this big nose sticking up into the camera lens. She then proceeded to lick the lens, I believe, but the "tongue" picture wasn't nearly as good.

Yeah, I wasn't going to take another foster dog until the first of the year, but Ashley was out of town and Latte needed a home, so here she is. I won't go into a lot of detail about her because I did that in my journal for today.

I'm not sure how long she'll be here. She goes to Petco tomorrow, but can't be adopted out until she's spayed on Monday.

Finally!!!

My journal today talks about the ribbon cutting that we attended for the Davis Musical Theatre Company. Last night we went to the gala reception which preceded tonight, which is the first official performance in the new theatre.

I have an off-again, on-again relationship with this company, the latest (before the theatre opened) being an off-again relationship when the director of a recent production (which I raved about) sent a blasting letter to the editor, taking me to task for one criticism I leveled. He was there last night and I don't know if he knows me by sight. I tried to stay away from him just in case.

But last night was not a night for old complaints, it was a night for celebration as fans and backers walked through the ~$1.5 million facility, watching the drapes being hung and waiting for the pit band to play the first notes of the overture to Into the Woods, which will have its opening night tonight.

We've crossed paths with this company since before it existed and I have to admit I was tickled to see their 20+ year dream come to fruition.