A visit to New York, NY (prelude to China 2009)

I had a quick day trip to NYC in January to obtain a travel visa to China. Because my time line was pretty tight, I had to do this in person.

I arrived early in the morning and caught a cab to the west side of Manhattan. The Chinese consulate is on 42nd street, next to the Hudson river.







I snapped a few photos from the cab on the way across town.













It was a sunny, but very cold day. Traffic at that time of day is pretty heavy, but cabs navigate it very well.
















After putting in all my paperwork, I had a few hours to spend. My colleague, Kobi, met me and we did a bit of sightseeing and shopping during my free time. I had never visited Times Square and since we were in the neighborhood, I made my first visit there.









A self-portrait with Kobi in Times Square.












It's bigger than I had realized. I can't imagine what it would be like on New Year's Eve with so many people gathered there.











It's like one huge billboard that is constantly shouting at you.


















Seems like a lot of fuss for advertising, but, hey, it is Times Square.















Here are a couple of more pics of the area.
































We went to the Rockerfeller Center to have lunch.

















WTF??? This is way over the top for an advert, I think. I could see that for Côte d'Or or some other tasty chocolate, but Hersheys????? I guess I'm a chocolate snob.

Central Ohio Woodturners Meeting - January 2009

I haven't had much success in attending the club meetings this past year, but I did manage to have a Tuesday evening free for the January 2009 one.




I actually brought in some pieces for the show-and-tell table, also.












I always enjoy looking at what our club members have been making.













We're still meeting at OSU, but I hear that we are scouting new digs in the near future.












There are more than 200 members in the club and a typical meeting will have around 100 attendees.












Kirk DeHeer was this month's guest demonstrator. He was in town for the woodworking show that is held the third weekend of January.









Just a couple of random shots to share.












It was good to see everyone and catch up on some news.

January 2009 birding pics

We started the new year with an Audubon outing to Black Hand gorge. It was a rather cold day, but the sun was shining brightly and a hardy group of birders showed up for the excursion.

























Mike Flynn led the field trip. I had never been to Black Hand Gorge before and I found it to be a lovely place to stroll.










The path cuts through some interesting rock and runs along a peaceful river.












There are quarry pits throughout the area.













I don't remember all of the species we saw, but brown creeper comes to mind as one of the more interesting birds to spot.












This will be a nice place to visit in the spring.













Slime mold icecicles.












Later in the month we got together with some audubon friends to do some birding down at Deer Creek reservoir.











After a fun afternoon we had a nice meal at the lodge.












You can probably tell we had a good time.














Cheers to good company and good birding!

Last pics from 2008

Ok, so I'm two months behind in posting pics for the blog, but, hey, I've been very busy.

I'm taking a day to recover from jet lag and so while I'm sitting in my recliner I'll try to catch up and post pics from the past couple of months. I have thousands of pics from China to sort through and process, so I imagine it will take a while to post all the cool stuff from my trip.

At any rate, here are some pics from the end of December 2008.

Christmas morning. It wasn't one of our best holidays, so I won't dwell on the details.









Michael loves the hat he bought in Ireland. It could probably stand to make a trip to the dry cleaners by now.









Richard doesn't like to have his photo taken - can you tell?










One of Santa's helpers.










Steve and I have been doing long walks in anticipation of our Nepal trek. One of our routes takes us to west campus where there are a pair of red-shouldered hawks in residence. This is the female.










Here's the male.












We gave ourselves Panasonic Lumix cameras and here is one of the first pics from mine. It's been a cold winter and this is from a pond on west campus.










Steve, trying out his gear during our walk.

New Content coming soon

Greetings from China. I've been here for the past week and a half, taking pictures, doing science stuff, and some sight seeing. I have way too many pics to process, but there are some gems in there, so I will be posting new content as soon as I catch up. Stay tuned for new content. . . .

UAHS Little theater production

Meghan enjoys the drama program at school. She was in a little theater production that featured staging, directing, and scripts from students. These pics are from the first half of the production.




This was a scene featuring miscommunication about a student asking for a date, all done in rhyme.



































This one was from "The Shadow Knows."












Meghan played the part of the wife of the condemned.
















































































































The next vignette was about transportation interactions.






























































Another one was a variation on the nursery rhyme about Soloman Grundy










































































































The final one before intermission (I couldn't stay for the second half, so I don't have pics from that) was about the ID and Ego.