Eisenhower inauguration

Turns out that JV's great uncle marched in the parade at Ike's inauguration. I found some pics at this link. Check them out. The info on the website says that this photo is "For personal non-commercial use only." Got it? Good.

Great Inauguration pics

See these and others at this site. Thanks to Cha for sending me the link. And thanks to JV's uncle for sending this link of an aerial/panoramic of the big day. Way cool.

Grandmom Luh

Grandmom Luh left us on Saturday night, she has been seriously ill since last summer when she suffered a horrible fall. She will be sincerely missed. This photo was taken at a party celebrating her granddaughter's graduation from High School. I think it's a great portrait of her. She was funny, quick-witted, and ornery til the end, and we loved her for it. One of the last conversations we had with her at the nursing home was about hospital food and how horrible it was. As she put it, "no one ever goes to the hospital to order the food." She had a ton of great stories to share, especially when she was really young and she and her family had to make due, during the depression. She often told me of one of the nuns that was her teacher, and when no one else was in the room this particular nun would call her "bright eyes" and give her extra bread to take home to her family. Grandmom Luh would interject and say, "I never knew why she called me that," but she did. It was perfectly clear to me why this nun nicknamed her and gave her extra bread. She was a tiny woman with an enormous heart, and like I said above she will be sincerely missed. Rest in peace Grandmom, you deserve it.

Inauguration

What an amazing day Tuesday was, sorry I didn't post anything yesterday I was exhausted and then I had to drive the three plus hours back to NYC. By the time I got home, I didn't have the energy to plug in my laptop. I barely slept either night on Sunday or Monday, and I expected to be dead on my feet on Tuesday, but the excitement and adrenaline kept me up all day. But as soon as we got back on Tuesday night, it all came crashing down on me, and I'm still recovering.

But, what an amazing day. There were hoards of people everywhere, and for the most part everyone was in good spirits. Yes, it was cold. But I came prepared with many many layers, and the handwarmers and the foot warmers provided by Cha were awesome. And the crowds of people helped keep the temperature up. And the sun helped, soon after we got to the mall the sun became hidden by clouds, but I have to say right when they started the inaurguration festivities the clouds slowly shifted away, until we were being bathed in sunshine while Mr. Barack Hussein Obama was being sworn in. Even God voted for Obama.

Parts of his speech almost moved me to tears, it was so amazing to be there witnessing it with so many other people. We could only watch on the jumbo trons, but it was way cool when they would show aerials of the mall and we could see just how many of us there were. I have never been in such a large crowd that was so full of diversity of age, race and gender, and everyone was there to celebrate. Well, there was one idiot next to me that kept cheering for Bush and Cheney, etc. But that's the beauty of America, even idiots have the right to free speech. Most everyone just ignored him, except when he complained that little Sasha should be smiling more...one woman laid down the law, and said, "she's a child." Which seemed to shame him appropriatedly enough.

We also met a tiny little woman who was in her eighties, who told us about how she had been at the mall for MLK's big speech, and she was a hoot. She was at most perhaps 4 feet tall, if on her tiptoes, but she would talk back to the jumbo tron, saying "hi babs, how you doing?" when they flashed an image of Barbara Bush arriving, she was really funny.

Click here to view more of my photos.

Best inaugural product ever

more inaugural fun to come tomorrow, I'm absolutely exhausted and need to rest up for the drive back to NYC. But today was an excellent day.

pics from Cha's friend Sandy

Barack in Baltimore

We braved the cold and joined thousands of others waiting for Obama, and when he finally came out to speak, we could not really seem him. I could catch a glimpse if I was on my tiptoes once or twice. Cha took the picture above just by raising her camera as high as she could and aiming in his general vicinity. And as soon as the president elect finished his short speech, the crowd (some of which lined up at 5 in the morning to be there) started to quickly disperse. A little tired and disappointed that we didn't really see him, but still in good spirits we made our way to the front and center of the state house, where a small crowd was still gathered. Then when we were just goofing around and taking pictures, the small crowd started cheering, and we watched as those who were on the steps filed out, then the man of the hour himself walked up the steps, did a quick turn and waved directly at us. Cha and I were so excited we were waving right at him, he saw him clear as day, and then we hugged and jumped up and down in jubilee. Only the people in the front had known that Obama was still there, evidently talking to people and shaking hands. It's too bad that all those people who wanted to see him so bad were so cold and just left, because I know they would have loved to see him, unobstructed. I don't expect to see him at all on Tuesday, that will be just about the experience, so I'm so glad we saw him yesterday. Plain as day. Definitely worth the trip from NYC.

fresh off the boat

While digging through some old stuff to try to find something funny for my big sister's birthday, I came across this clipping she sent to my brother who was in the navy at the time. We were at the Inner Harbor because we had our cousins visiting from Canada, and I remember this guy came out with a cart full of watermelons, they pulled off the plastic wrap and pushed it in our direction, saying something like "here it is" then the guy got out of the way. I was obviously one of the first to get at the cart followed closely by my other big sis, and my cousins. Too bad Cha isn't in this pic. It figures that my first picture in our city paper was of me stuffing my face. Damn good watermelon, though, locally grown. Guess which one is me.

Big weekend coming up

Big weekend coming up, Saturday morning drive to Baltimore, Saturday afternoon: catch Barack at his Baltimore whistle stop, Saturday night/Sunday: celebrate Cha's birthday, then watch the Ravens stomp the Steelers, maybe squeeze in some karaoke (as per request of the birthday grrrl), rest up on Monday, then Tuesday catch the 5:36am Marc train to DC for the inauguration events. I'll try my best to photograph it all and post the best of it for my three loyal readers...

Baby, it's cold outside

The view from our bedroom window. The snow still looks pretty since no one ever goes through the courtyard that connects our apartment buildings.

Chalups recovering in a ray of sunshine. She tried to balance on her right front paw and her back left paw while going to the bathroom on the sidewalk today, she most disliked the wet snow, icy sidewalks and freezing temperatures.

diy waste ink pad almost full

So, I've had my canon i9100 for at least 3 years now, and I've been really happy with it, but just before Christmas I was getting error messages that the waste ink pad was almost full. When I looked this up online at canon.com they said to take it to a certified canon repair place. I called up two places and got over the phone estimates of about $100. The printer itself was about $300, so I opted to do it myself with the help of a few websites (thanks! to fixyourownprinter.com and tech guy forums). The most difficult thing was actually getting the top case off of the printer. After nearly taking apart my printer to what seemed like beyond ever being put back together again, I found that the "used ink tank" sponge was barely full. Evidently the error message is triggered by how many times you clean the printer heads or something. Anyway, I carefully took the sponge out and rinsed it in the kitchen sink with a little bit of soap until the water ran clear, I let the sponge dry on the radiator. Then I put it back together and re-set the code on the printer (again thanks for the fixyouronwprinter.com). And fingers crossed, did a test print and it seems like I saved myself about $100 and more to the point a pain in the ass cab ride with a huge printer sitting on my lap. DIY rules.

Chalupa's bench

When we first moved from our apartment down at the bottom of the West Side highway, my only regret was that we wouldn't have a couch next to the window, as this was one of Chalupa's favorite places to sit and watch over her kingdom. So, shortly after we moved in we were shopping for furniture for our new digs and we thought a bench would be a great idea, because we could push it up against the windows and it would be a great place for Chalupa to sit. Well I have never seen her willingly sit on that bench for very long, until today while I was typing away on my keyboard I heard a faint snoring and when I looked around to see where she was lying, I was happy to see that she finally took it upon herself to sleep on the bench. I think the radiator enticed her. She woke up when I got the camera out, and is now nestled on my lap...but what I've learned from the Benjamin Button movie is that nothing ever lasts. Not even naps on a specially bought bench.

The A-Team Season one

One of my favorite x-mas gifts was the complete season one dvd set of the A-team. Just reading the show's one line synopsis makes me giddy. And some shows that I loved aged very badly...like the Greatest American Hero, but the A-Team is just how I remembered it, corny and funny, and full of funny characters. I can't wait to watch episode 9, titled: Holiday in the Hills. "B.A.'s fear of flying is justified when The A-Team's plane crashes in the backwoods where they must battle mountain men to keep a man from being burned at the stake."

Also, who remembers that in the 2-part pilot epsiode that Faceman was played by some tall shmuck who couldn't act a lick. And he wasn't even cute, bonus points to whoever can tell me who this original Faceman was.

Ravens, Dimsum, DickBlick, and Outsider Art

Had a fun weekend, we watched the Ravens play on Saturday, with John worrying the whole game. I knew they would win. :) I just didn't want to jinx it by saying it out loud. Then on Sunday we went to the Golden Unicorn, our favorite spot for Dim Sum, then we hopped on the subway to go to the Dick Blick art store, where I bought a great travel/laptop bag (with my 40% off coupon!--although their prices online seemed way cheaper then at the actual store), and then we hit an Outsider Art show that was featured in the NYT. It was fun, but they've got nothing on the Visionary Museum in Baltimore.

John putting his tetris skills to work

We asked our families to go easy on Christmas this year, and this is what packing the car looks like. We had a huge vaccum that took up most of the trunk and most of the back seat filled, so Chalups had to sit on John's lap the whole ride back. But we've had far worse years where I couldn't see anything out of the back windows. THANK God that some people listened to us and scaled back. Note: Chalupa in the lower right doing her best to help pack the car.

Happy New Year!

Here's Chalupa reflecting on the presents she got this year, her New Year's resolution is to get more belly rubs.

We had a relaxing and fun New Year's at Pat and Geoff's house this year, we brought a huge tray of chik-fil-a nuggets, but I was so excited about eating them I didn't get a picture. We bought it from the Chik-fil-a in the mall, and as we were walking out we were the envy of every person we passed. They know what's good. By the way, Chik-fil-a is having a special make any purchase today by 6pm and you get a coupon for a sandwich, like I've said before, free food always taste better.