High Five!

Us in New York, Part 2

More pictures from New York! and the Squirrel of the Week!



An awesome wall in the subway.







The kids loved the subway.




The rats are kinda cute from a distance.

The following are window displays from Bergdorf Goodman, a really fancy dress company. They were awesome!






This one has a squirrel in it, can you find it?



SQUIRREL OF THE WEEK! Awesomeness. I want a bike-riding squirrel. (Santa, I've been good, I promise.)

Bokeh from New York

I love bokeh.

Us in New York, Part 1

For Thanksgiving I traveled to New Jersey to visit my sister Stefanie and her family. My sister Amy also came from California. The first night I was in town we traveled to New York City (my first time to the Big Apple) and met up with my cousin Jeremy and his fam who live in the NY area, plus my aunt and uncle, who are currently ex-patriots in Mexico. It was a grand time.














(Amy, I'll get the video one up soon...)














I didn't mean for it to be a photo shoot of just Amy, but she was the only one not watching a kid all the time and had a free moment to pose. I would have liked more pictures of the kids...but they wouldn't hold still.











We went to see them blowing up the balloons for the Macy's parade.

New York at Night

It's dizzying.

Break the Fast

For break the fast we had a Pumpkin dessert competition. Mine was a cinnamon bread with a pumpkin cream sauce. It wasn't that great, but I thought it was a good idea. It needs work.

Tomato-Pumpkin Bisque

Served with roasted pumpkin seeds and a sprinkling of mozzarella.

Delicious.

Squirrel of the Week

I've been studying for the GRE, and the following came up in one of my practices:

A squirrel must eat an average of at least 24 acorns per day for the month of September (which has 30 days) in order to fatten up for winter. If the squirrel only eats 20 acorns per day for the first 6 days of September, what must he average per day for the rest of the month in order to meet the minimum for the month?

A) 24
B) 25
C) 26
D) 28
E) 30


What an industrius and clever squirrel to have figured out the exact way to fatten up for winter! Clever squirrel, better luck next time sticking to your goals.

(The correct answer is B, but I know from sad experience that the clever squirrel will, on average, not meet his goal because the number one cause of death among squirrels in the wild is starvation, unless they live in urban area, in which case the squirrel is more likely to be hit by a car than starve.)

The rest of the Disney pictures

Family and Disney and Fun

Last week some of my family came into town to play. Here are just a sample of the pictures of them, me, and my friends who also came to play with us...more to come soon.


This picture wasn't posed, but it is so us. Left to right:
My stepmom, Amy; me; my dad; my Bro-in-law Phil; my sister Juliana.


My dear friend Sam. (Sam, you may steal this picture. And all the others, too.)




Jennlyn and Stone and the rest of the group eating dinner after the first day. Phil made rigatoni and meatballs! Awesome.


Sam, this picture is for you, too.


We love candy corn.


Stone. Great face.

4th Annual Peanut Butter Party

As you loyal friends know by now, November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month! YAY!!!!

So, it is time for the 4th Annual Peanut Butter Party!

The party will be at my place, Wednesday the 18th, at 7pm. All are invited. Please bring:

Food with peanut butter in it, or something best served with peanut butter on it.

Please refrain from bringing a dessert (not that anyone will stop you if you do...but try to be creative.)

If you need some ideas, just look online or ask me!

Let me know if you're coming.


SPECIAL INTRACONTINENTAL edition!
For all my friends out there who live far away and can't make it to the party itself, cook up something peanut buttery and send me a picture so I can put it on my blog! Or put it on your own blog to celebrate the month!

Squirrel of the Week

I found this one on a picture site I follow. Love it.

Tawnya and John

Over a month ago, I took pictures for Tawnya and John, who were sealed in the Orlando temple on their one year anniversary. Sorry it took so long to post. Anyhow...here are some of the pics.

Disney's Animal Kingdom

I think I am in love with Animal Kingdom. I could live there.


I have no idea what they were looking at.










I had a telephoto lens attachment to my prime lens, and I love the blurred effect around the edges.




My two favorite parts: Expedition Everest and Ice Cream.










Best group shot ever.






We went down the slide in the kids' area.

Dear Sam,

This is the only picture I had of you from that night I "took all those pictures" of you. Sorry, but I think you were avoiding the camera all night.




Here is the one of Doug you wanted from the same evening.


Sorry Doug.

Love,
Skoticus

Chili Deluxe

The idea was to create a fancy nacho plate. So I fried some corn tortillas, and instead of breaking them into chips, layered them and put the cheese between them. Topped them with the homemade chili, more cheese, and a few jalapenos.

Pumpkin Carving Party

Surprises

1.
I've been studying for the GRE of late. Surprisingly, I find the fill in the blank sections to be oddly fulfilling. Who would have thought so much personal satisfaction could be gotten from vocabulary?

I am secretly looking forward to studying for the math section.


2.
Last night, while I was tie dying t-shirts on the pool deck, the sky turned the most beautiful shade of blue I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, blue, bright blue, but somehow dark as well because it was sunset. The clouds were a vibrant shade of pink, and then shifted to a deep, deep yellow-gold. The large storm cloud above us soaked up and reflected the golden light, giving everything a radiant, cinematic glow. The magic lasted for about five minutes, and I wanted to just stop and stare at the sky, but the two bikini-clad teenagers only wanted to do their tie dye, and wouldn't turn around to look at the sunset quickly disappearing behind them.

Fun Team

I found a disposable camera in my closet, and I couldn't remember why I had it. So I took it to work one day, to capture the FUN TEAM in action. Now you can see what I do at work. The fact that the name of the camera was the Kodak FunSaver was ever more apropos.

A note: The film prints came out great...the digital versions are poor. So sad. I am also a little ashamed of the number of times my finger got in the picture. Oh the woes, the joys of disposable cameras.

I painted the cat mask for a sample craft. I named the cat "Spooks."

The feet picture wasn't even my idea. I swear.

The squirrels won't eat the popcorn, which makes me question it.

We were dancing. Blame it on the Boogie.

Possibly the best part of movie night is the clean up, like rolling over the screen to deflate it.

Big turnout for Bingo.

Yes Please.

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