April iPhone Photo Dump

My goodness. I'm getting worse at dumping these pictures from my iPhone. May's done come and gone and June is already off to a fine start and still no April pictures. Well, time to cure that. Ready? Here we go!

April is the cruelest month. Just ask T.S. Eliot or any CPA. In my case, that means I don't have a whole heckuva lot of time to for photo opportunities. Still, you take 'em where you get 'em. It isn't unusual to find a CPA in his office on a Saturday morning and I'm not exception. One of those fine mornings, they held the biking portion of the Redbud Classic. The route runs right by my window:

The hardcore head out first and fast:

The not-so-serious are a little more. . . leisurely:

While dashed in the store one day, I noticed this seasonal display, unusual for this part of the country:

We're becoming more multi-ethnic here in Oklahoma. Usually you'd find this tucked away on a dusty shelf somewhere but in honor of Passover these items get a more prominent location:

Monday nights, Clara teaches ESL. That means a movie for Emily and me, if we can find one. Emily gets to pick both the movie and the seat:

Storm season approaches and so do massive thunderheads. These stayed south and to the east but ominous no less:

Here's a better shot:

So the storms passed us by. That means the running of the hoses and sprinklers:

When the weather is fine, the clouds are almost cheerful:

Post-filing season, there was time for golf. The fairways and greens are coming up nicely. Too bad my game wasn't:

Aw, Emily. My drive wasn't that bad:

April is past us and tucked away in our memory. Let's see what May holds.

March iPhone Photo Dump

I know it's the end of April and I'm only just now getting around to my monthly iPhone photo dump but, well, I've been a little busy. So let's just get to it, okay?

March began sunny and warm and clear. Clear enough that I finally noticed something I hadn't noticed before: I can see downtown Oklahoma City quite clearly from the entrance to my building:

But March weather in Oklahoma is nothing if not restless. My father-in-law had to do some time in the hospital for what turned out to be nothing serious and the days turned gloomy. The view from St Anthony's looking East:

Barely 10 days later, my mother-in-law did her own time in the same hospital for some heart-related tests. The construction of the Devon tower kept her more amused than anything. The cranes worked through the day and through the night, she said:

I posted a short video on YouTube of the part of my morning routine that includes setting loose the dogs. This barely does it justice though the blur of motion is just about captures the morning's feel:

I found time to make a batch of wine. Usually that kind of thing deserves a post of its own but see my comment above about being busy. This time around: a pinot grigio. My palate's too unsophisticated to detect much of a difference between it and the riesling I made but it's a good batch. (A client of my office partner gave him a case of wine for a filing season ending gift and I managed to snatch up a bottle of pinot grigio to perform a taste test. Mine compared favorably to a major commercial product so I was quite pleased) Perfect for Spring:

March was windy and dry and that meant grass fires:

We managed to get to Dallas for an overnight trip. I spent time browsing in the bookstore while the girls shopped. There's a name now for the genre of fiction that Emily's addicted to:

The atrium of the hotel always makes me dizzy. You?

Don't look down!

And so I end March where I began: a view of downtown from my drive home. The afternoons are sunnier, clearer, the skies bluer. Winter's a dim memory.

February iPhone Photo Dump!

February was a light month - not only is it shy a few days of being a normal month but with the two snowstorms, it seemed the month was all about preparing for the storm, enduring the storm, and digging out from the storm.

Now here we are in March. The weather's warm! All of that snow is but a dim memory. Still, lest we forget:

Here's what happened with the second storm. This time the snow was dry and powdery, a pleasure to shovel:

Emily did the smart thing. Bundled up, reading in the flood of light reflected from the snow:

But all that passed and we survived. One night I went to pick up Emily and there was a full moon and the night sky was bright. You could clearly see a jet contrail glowing in the light and if I had a better camera I might be able to show you how lovely it looked. Instead, this'll have to do:

As the weather warms, golf becomes possible and that means Emily's skillz as a golf-cart driver are needed. Time to contemplate the meaning of existence while waiting for the party ahead of us to tee off. The flag behind Emily tells you it was a bit. . . breezy:

We're done with Winter. Oh, it'll try a comeback or two before letting up but, really, what's the point? The earth spins, the planets wheel, and we move on.

iPhone Photo Dump

Who's in the mood for an iPhone photo dump? I am! Let's get started:

Post Christmas, the weather warmed enough so that we could play golf. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. While we were waiting to tee off, Emily spent some time getting some putting pointers from Grandpa:

I think they were betting money on this one. I saw money changing hands later:

New Year's Eve, we took Emily and her friend with us while we went to a movie. On our way back, we stopped at the Chesapeake Energy Christmas light display:

A riot of color:

Emily and her friend, Alex:

You can almost hear the brightness of the lights:

We're well into Winter and that means the days are getting longer and that means pictures of the dawn on the drive in to work make their re-appearance.

A shot from the Westmoore parking lot after I dropped Emily off to school:

Another shot, with a bus driving by:

I tweeted some of the following pictures already so those of you who've already seen them may leave. Emily and I were cooking spaghetti sauce and meatballs a la Grandpop Pete; though he lives 1,500 miles away, the smells made us think he was right there with us:

Coming along nicely:

Emily seems pensive about the recipe:

Emily-a, she makes-a the meat balls-a! (Imagine a Sinatra song in the background.)

Rachel's birthday rolled around, her 19th so not the same milestone as last year's 18th but no less important. Her choice this year: Red Lobster. She brought her friend Matt along:

Don't touch Emily's silverware!

After dinner, I had to drop off Rachel and Matt at Wal-Mart to get Rachel's car; she'd had a flat earlier in the day and needed two new tires and her car was ready. As I turned down on our street, the full moon spilled silvery light on over the houses. Who says you can't find beauty in suburbia? Of course, I tried to get it on camera. Of course, I failed:

And that's it for this edition. The days and weeks and now month are flying by. These pictures aren't nearly enough to grab a hold of some of it but they'll have to do.

Evidence of Emily's Awesomeness

Emily's taking a Journalism class this semester and she's had her story published in the school newspaper. Need to know about those wrist bands all the kids are wearing? Emily's got the scoop!

Next thing you know, she'll want a fedora with a band she can tuck her press pass into.

The Journalism class also did a little community service and Emily volunteered. That's her second from right.

Awesome? You bet!

A Big Ol' Ball of Cute

We stopped in at PetsMart on Saturday, just to take a quick look at the adoptable dogs but fell in love instead.

One of the local dog rescue organizations had two groups of mixed-breeds puppies available for adoption. These were a shepherd mix and looked like they'd make a great dog for a family who lived out in the country or had a big yard:

Awwwwwww.

Fifty bucks to cover their shots and care and one of 'em could be yours.

Here's the other bunch, in black and white, just because I can. They're a dachshund mix and a little more higher priced:

Awwwwwww.

No, we've got two dogs already. We don't need another. But they're awful hard to resist.

Night Pictures

I had the task of dropping off and picking up Rachel and Emily at the recent Michael Buble concert and it was the perfect opportunity to whip out the iPhone camera and catch some night shots. The Oklahoma City skyline was especially beautiful. Too bad I wasn't able to capture it.

Cripes. When will I learn: low light + moving vehicle + one-handed-shooting-with-one-hand-on the-wheel = crappy pictures.

Still, I managed to capture a couple of good enough images. Here's some of the Christmas lights downtow:

And here are a couple of Michael Mann-ish street shots, all shiny and slick and urban-grittiness:

Ah, well. The good side about bad photography and that there's always hope that future pictures will be better. How could they be worse?