All Decked Out

The Visible Woman...opines. 

Don't you think that there is an escalation of decoration? I took the picture above in New York last year when we visited to see the post-Thanksgiving decoration. It was part of a Bergdorf Goodman display.Things just keep getting more and more elaborate until perhaps it is the simplest thing that will intrigue us.

New York, New York

The Visible Woman...walks.

We are in New York City, Our hotel is on Fifth Avenue. It's about six blocks south of the famous NY Library. We love walking in this town. When the weather is nice (and sometimes even when it's inclement) we walk to get places and walk to experience New York streets. Today, if all goes well, we will walk to the West Village for an early dinner and catch an Off Broadway show after that. During the day we may well walk around Times Square or to the Upper East or West side. People often are amazed that we do these walks. But a two mile walk will take us to most of the things we want to see. And along the way there are many amazing surprises.

I posted the above paragraph in case I couldn't deal with thumb typing and Chrome on the iPad. Butt, here's a brief NYC walking report. We arrived on Tuesday, taking a car service from JFK,  and after lunch in the hotel and unpacking we had a nap and walked to 59th Street, looking in shop windows and fighting crowds of sidewalk gawkers and rushing New Yorkers. Then we walked back, regrouped and walked to a restaurant on the north side of Madison Square Park. That's only ten, short up/down blocks.

On Wednesday we walked over to Madison and up to 82nd and came back to the theater district and walked around, saw a matinee on 47th, walked some more, met friends at Sardi's and walked back to the hotel. We walked at least five miles. My Austin training well-prepared me, though, and no sore legs.

Yesterday we had timed tickets to the Frick Collection so we walked there and back. That's on 70th so that's 33 blocks each way and lots of ped traffic. Blocks are short going up and down Manhattan, though, generally. We had reservations for a late lunch at a fancy restaurant near the Frick but decided to dress up a bit. The hotel gave us a ride in the hotel car there and we grabbed a cab back. Later we walked to Time Warner Center to see a jazz show at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club. That's only a little over a mile and a half.

Hopefully we'll walk to the Village and back this evening after a walk to 44th Street to meet friends for lunch. I only hope the walking offsets the eating we are doing, but that's another story.

Missed Deadline

Yes, I'm doing Holidailies. It's been almost forty-eight hours since I posted. Not exactly 'daily.' I thought about it yesterday. I edited this picture yesterday to use it. I thought about writing something last night. But I didn't. Is there a twelve step program for being a blogging laggard?

Of course, it doesn't matter. I can even achieve the badge of honor on Holidailies (the maximum number by your name) by squeezing in some entries that are not quite twenty-four hours apart. (Or that used to work on the old Holidailies.) And, really, the whole thing is an exercise. It's important to go through the motions in life but you can always cheat a little bit, huh?

When we were taking pictures of the holiday windows in NYC, I was surprised to see that this one still had someone touching up the icicles blocking the elegantly-dressed mannequin in the winter wonderland. But things don't always get done on time, do they? Some things are critical, some aren't. In my world, if I get to my agreed on appointments on time, there is always another day to do chores and such, it seems. If you are lucky. There are bills that need to be paid on time and holiday cards will look silly after the 15th of January I suppose. There are consequences. I've sent about twenty cards so far, I think. Trying to at least keep up with returning the favor on the ones I receive.

Certainly work posed many, many more deadlines. When I worked for a living. Over ten years ago.

But. My life is not devoid of deadlines. The most dreaded ones loom: tax deadlines. I hate taxes. I hate paying them, of course. But I also hate the mounds of paper and the incomprehensible forms (even though my CPA figures out what boxes things go in). Congress and the President are currently contemplating unknown changes that will doubtless not only complicate things further, but throw several monkey wrenches in how we planned to fund our retirement. It makes this old lady weary. I believe the uncertainty is, itself, affecting the economy. It certainly affects my spending and giving to charities and plans for the future. All the looming tax deadlines almost spoil the festive holiday feeling. (That and the winter allergy attacks from 'cedar fever' triggered by pollinating mountain juniper.)

But here's a Holidailies entry. There's that done.

Strangers Make the World Go Round

I've been sitting here hand-addressing holiday cards and, in many cases, writing a hand-written note to enclose with the 4x8 photo cards I ordered from Snapfish. Very old school communication with people that, for some reason, we know. I have decided to avoid pre-printed labels and even the return address stamp. Sure I may introduce errors but who gets hand-addressed communications these days? (Except those that are faked up with special fonts.)

But most of our world is propelled by relative strangers, by people who manufacture, package, drive, deliver, build, connect, repair, etc. And much of our entertainment comes from the people we don't know who walk through our world. As I mentioned on December 3, I enjoy watching people at home and when traveling who just happen by where I am.

In the picture above FFP chats with a woman who walked by the Berdorf Goodman window we were photographing it. I'd backed up for a picture and I caught, instead of the window in full, the two of them exchanging a pleasantry  I don't know what was said. If I'd spoken to her I might have said, "I love that coat!" But I did not. I'll will probably never know who she is and what her path through this world looks like.

I have for a long time been fascinated by the people in my travel photos who are total strangers. People who happen to be in the frame and then, most likely, are never encountered again. Their existence for me is tenuous and yet there they were in the same place in the space/time continuum.

Does This Room Make Me Look Fat?

I mentioned thid Tatzu Nishi art project surrounding the Columbus statue of the eponymous Columbus Circle  in New York City with a living room in an earlier post. You could climb up to it on several flights of stairs. When you got up there Chris dominated a room with couches, a flat screen TV, bookshelves with books, some other furniture and kitschy wallpaper depicting American iconic topics such as Mickey Mouse, hot dogs and baseball. 

I like things like this that change a place into an artwork. We made a special trip to see Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Gates in Central Park. When I first read about this opportunity to climb up here with Columbus it was to end in the middle of November. They extended it and we were able to see it, but it was only extended because of the disruption caused by super storm Sandy. Life is random, isn't it? And now...it's gone again, I believe, ending last weekend.

Been There, Done That, Got the Souvenirs, got Rid of Them

I'm on a trip to New York City. I like to travel or, actually, I like to be some place else, staying in a hotel, selfishly focused only on my own pleasure. I'm not crazy about airport security although I'm pretty tolerant of the getting there aspect of travel especially if there are no delays.

There was a time when I was checking places off my list. Seeing what was supposed to be seen. Now I'm happy to return to old haunts. To be reasonably familiar with a place. To walk past the guys hawking tickets to the Empire State building or bus tours and go to a favorite restaurant. I don't need to take home a T-Shirt, refrigerator magnet or a little replica of anything. Oh...I've done that. When we downsized some of my souvenirs were given away. Don't miss them.

The photo is taken from the 4th level of Time Warner Center looking at Columbus Circle. That's the statue of Columbus in fact. He is temporarily covered with a 'living room' which is accessible to the public. It's an art project by Tatzu Nishi called "Discovering Columbus."Today we have timed tickets to look the old Italian in the eye. It will be gone soon like Christo installations and the holiday windows we are enjoying on Fifth Avenue. I like photos that are stuck in a certain time although of timeless things.

Well, that's me for today trying to do Holidailies remotely. I love the old familiar feel of this Year's portal. Cheers to Jette and Chip. Last year when we visited NYC around this time we had a breakfast meet-up with Jette who was visiting, too. That's another thing I like about travel...meet-ups, planned and unplanned. More on that tomorrow perhaps. I have to go look Chris in the eye.

Where To Begin

After a long pause, I finally got around to writing a blog entry on Monday, November 14. I felt a bit adrift then. We were planning a little celebration (of our first date) with some friends. We had a trip to New York scheduled. (Which we took December 5-12. The above picture is our multiple reflections in one of the Bloomingdale Christmas windows.) I couldn't decide what, if anything to do about Christmas and the holidays. Whether to send cards, buy presents for anyone.

On November 16 my mother-in-law died. (The events of that day are somewhat interesting. See Forrest's description here.) That capped off a year and a half during which Forrest had a cancer scare and two surgeries; my dad died; his dad died; I disposed of my Dad's estate; he handled his dad's; and his mother died, leaving us parent-less. Then we begin disposing of his mother's estate.

There were three services, burials and such to arrange during what seemed like such a short time. There were fiduciary duties. There were (mercifully short) trips to MD Anderson, times in hospitals here. Three ambulance rides at the end for parents. Through it all we were very 'lucky.' Lucky FFP's cancer has apparently not spread. Lucky our parents didn't suffer too long. (My mother died in 2002 and, sadly, she did suffer a lot longer than I would have liked. My dad, of course, had his share of problems in the last few years.). But still. We were lucky. We had the money to handle things, for me to retire and take care of things for Dad after mother died. For Forrest to retire. We had time to see my dad through some trouble, to look after some things for his parents. We have the money now to not worry about money but just do what needs to be done with houses and stuff and all that.

Lucky or not, things are different. I realized after my dad died that I'd stayed young (in my own mind) and exuded confidence that I could take care of things trying to help him through his old age. Forrest did most of the things for his mom but her presence made me feel younger. Because she needed us, didn't she? Because we were young and strong and capable, right?

Now we can arrange to travel and not worry about what parental difficulties may arise at home. But, of course, we may find ourselves in difficulties. Can't really escape that.

We have kind of sleep-walked through the last six weeks. We went on with our schedule after a few days of handling my mother-in-law's services. We cleaned the valuables and mementos out of the house. We drifted through Christmas. I finally printed a few cards and sent them post-Christmas. We had a fancy dinner with friends on Christmas Eve and we were invited to a family gathering with someone else's family for Christmas Day. I didn't buy any presents except hostess gifts. FFP and I bought whatever we wanted and I sent money to my nieces and sister.

Now I wake up and it is 2012 and I'm vacillating between wanting to make some changes (blog, write my novel, exercise more, socialize with people, travel here, travel there, get rid of stuff, get new stuff) and wanting to roll down the shutters and be a recluse, changing as little as possible and buying nothing.

Where will I go with it? Will the blog record the journey or will I go back inside my head? Too early to tell. Going through old blog entries for the links in this entry make me realize that sometimes it does help just to write it down.

Art Critic

One of my joys in traveling is to visit museums. I enjoy the art, of course, but also the other people enjoying the art (or by turns being puzzled or even repulsed by it). When we were in NYC, FFP and I handed the camera back and forth and shot pictures while at MOMA. One thing I like about that museum is that except for some special exhibits you can take photos there. Here I think this viewer has unintentionally become part of the exhibiting of this Pollock.

Yesterday was my walkie/talkie (and lunch) with a dear friend. Given the searing temps in Austin we didn't go too far for lunch (Chez Nous on Neches) although that ten blocks or so was enough to feel a bit hot and sweaty. Afterward we decided to go to AMOA where an exhibit about memory has been mounted. FFP and I went to the opening but, honestly, it's hard to enjoy a show at the opening. After that we stopped at Arthouse at Jones Center where the New American Talent is up. My friend is a playwright and he is working on a play that involves the art world. We had a rambling discussion of what is and is not art, what is 'good' or 'bad' and so forth. That's a discussion that never ends, of course. One of the best things about museums and galleries and movies and plays and performances and reading and writing is the way we don't just consume it...we are all critics. Sure, we listen to the 'real' critics and, in the visual art world, are very influenced by them. My friends says that putting something in a gallery, putting a seven figure price on it attracts some people.

Personally I love learning what I like, what I love, what merely puzzles me. Given our discussion we pronounced on the art we saw yesterday. It was interesting how our opinions differed and how quickly they were formed.

Here's a photo I edited that FFP took at MOMA of a girl knelling before the art with a tattoo.

Manhattan

This is the view from our friends' apartment they are letting us use this week. Yeah, the Chrysler Building. Cool.

We haven't really hit our stride yet, but we've eaten at two favorite places and gone to Crawford Doyle Booksellers. I love that little store where everything seems curated so you just see so many things you want to buy (or that you have a copy of at home and think you should read or read again).

There was a huge parade on Fifth Avenue for Puerto Rico day. There were police barricades on Madison where cars had not been allowed to park (or been removed) with the barricades out into the street as if to accommodate large numbers of people. People were going by with flags of Puerto Rico, everything was covered with them.
We ask one of policemen (there were one or more on every corner) if there was going to be a parade here, too. "No, this is for the aftermath," he said. Oh. Large crowds. Aftermaths. We don't do that well. So we decided to rest up a bit before the evening.

One of our reasons for being in NYC is the literary-geeky Bloomsday readings of James Joyce's Ulysses. We have just added to our schedule an afternoon reading that will include a friend reading part of the book. Add this to the evening one at Symphony Space on Tuesday and we will be thoroughly ensconced in Joyce Tuesday. (For the uninformed, Joyce's book takes place in one 24 hour period beginning the morning of June 16, 1904.) Yes, I've 'read' it. And maybe I even understood a little.

So far we've had an easy time getting into the two restaurants we tried (where we only called in the hour before to get a table). We saw lots of empty tables for lunch today on Lex. And we received the sad news that our favorite downtown Austin wine bar, Taste, had closed. Yeah, it's officially a recession. Well we'll be spending some money around NYC and then we will come home and keep supporting the other restaurants and venues and charities we love. But will it be enough?

I Always Wanted To...

FFP had always wanted to go to the Café Carlyle and see Bobby Short. Then we got to do it. I couldn't say what year at the moment. Bobby is dead now and after the recent remodel his portrait is in the little hallway between Café Carlyle and Bemelmans Bar. I posed FFP with the portrait on our trip last month.

Everyone has lists of things they want to do. I feel like I've gotten to do most of the things that I wanted to do in my life. I say that I have this dream to go to all the Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments. [Ed. Note: You did go for one day to Wimbledon.] I say I have a dream to follow the Danube to the Black Sea (on one or more trips). Truthfully, though, while I do want to travel to a lot of places and can't wait until my obligations make that more possible, I'm pretty happy with my life here in Austin. I'd like to beat back some of this downsizing and moving stuff so that we can live the dream of just walking out the door of our building to a cab and not worrying about a house. This assumes we can hire people to look after the parents, too, if needed.

Naturally, some of our dreams are under-financed, too. But truthfully it is mostly about time and obligations at this point. I'm not saying I have the money for all my dream vacations. Because I don't. I think I'd like to reach the point where money was the thing holding me back. And at some time before my infirmities are in charge.

That is the race we run, isn't it? With money, time, obligations and health. And no one is immune. I read in the paper that Roger Federer had battled mono in recent months. Hmm...maybe my chance to see him win a Grand Slam in person is past!

Meanwhile, someone seems to have stolen an hour in the night.

Nothing Coherent to Say

I haven't given myself too much Visible Woman time this morning. We don't have a schedule, but there are things I want to get done. I didn't have a tennis match this morning. (The ladies I play with couldn't get enough people together. Which is OK because I did a workout yesterday with a team much better than I. Thursday was a washout but I did play Tuesday and, as I mentioned in passing, it was truly glorious.)

This picture is of FFP in New York with the section of Berlin wall that is somewhere on 53rd Street (I think). It's a thing I do: take pictures of sections of the Berlin Wall where I find them. Has this one been further tagged in New York? Don't know. I took a picture here long ago but I would be hard-pressed to find it.

I'm a little worried about the downsizing projects. They seem to have slowed down. But I think that is only because I was immersed in taxes and such for a few days. In any case, time to get serious. Monday we are moving some furniture to our other house and to my in-laws' house. I do realize that it isn't exactly like getting rid of it, but feel free to point that out!

First, though, I think I'll get a workout and ponder how to get moving on the downsizing thing. I fear that in some realms we've reached the point where getting rid of more stuff is hard. We keep applying a finer and finer screen until what has survived seems precious. That's not completely true, of course. I think there are things we haven't even looked at yet, to be honest. But it does look like we will touch everything seventeen times (or some prime number of times) before we decide its fate.

Taxing Authority

New York buildings reflected in the Air Stream trailer that was part of MOMA's design show.

Let's see. I'm working on my taxes. So I keep finding reasons to be interrupted. I'm hungry. I need coffee. I'll surf the net while copying this. Fortunately I don't have to fill out the forms. I just have to fill out an organizer and, you know, get the stuff organized. My in-laws managed to sign theirs on the correct lines on the second try. Ours is a tad more complicated than theirs. It makes a national sales tax a tempting thought.

My head swims with figures and forms like the picture above. This is not my cup of tea. Hmm...maybe I need a cup of tea.

The Weather Turned

Smug in my warm Austin, I was surprised last night by the cold bitter wind. I opted for a sweater under my blazer. This is Austin after all. I didn't get out a scarf or overcoat. Oh, well, the fronts make it here now and again.

I have a busy day in a country club sort of way. Tennis. (I hope the wind has died down.) A meeting about a country club project. And voting. The lines I saw at early voting while running errands gave me pause. Maybe during the day while other people are working? Then I have to work on taxes for me and my in-laws.

Today's picture is our reflection in the Steuben Glass window in New York. Many mes. Many FFPs.

I'll be back when I have more to say. I stayed up too late reading a friend's new book. Yeah, the one I asked for at New York stores and didn't find. Rob has a reading on Sunday at the Arboretum Barnes and Noble and I decided to just go ahead and buy and read the book before the signing so when I was out that way, seeing about my dad, I bought a copy. I wanted to read it all last night and, although a follower of his blog will know a lot of the stories, it makes a pretty coherent and touching narrative. It feels a bit strange to hold a book about something that had been online 'ether' writing that could disappear. Also, made it hard to be objective about the book.

I would say that Rob is my friend (in fact I did in the last paragraph and I called him a 'buddy' the other day). But, reading the book, I realized that I am merely his reader. We've had a couple of personal encounters. Even a drink. (Sadly, friends often become so over drinks in my world.) But I realized while reading the book that we are too far apart in our experiences. We have friends his age. Some a lot younger. We have friends with kids. We both like music and books and joking around. But there is something that has made a friendship a non-starter. (And the fact of that turns an online reader into a stalker if you aren't careful!) The funny part? One of his best friends is someone I consider a friend even though I never ever see her since she moved away, got a fancy pants job and became a stepmother (minus the wicked part).

By Design

Part of a design exhibit up at MOMA when we were there was an Airstream trailer. Airstreams have fed my imagination since I was a teen. (One of my unwritten pieces, either a short story or a memoir, is "Airstream Dreams.") We enjoyed walking around the MOMA, taking pictures, seeing a few pieces we'd seen before and the special exhibits. Lines weren't so long as our last visit which was right after the renovation and move back to 53rd.

More New York thoughts later. Right now it's time to play tennis on a cool Austin almost spring day.

I've Been Touring

FFP and I don't normally do tours. We book flights, hotels, make reservations and go it on our own. That will probably continue to be our norm, but if Stuart Moulton, pictured above is putting together a trip, I'm there! We had a short jaunt to New York City under his care. We had a couple of weather-related flying setbacks, but Stuart's planning and execution was amazing. He's really a Realtor and the leader of Austin Cabaret Theatre but if you like food and cabaret shows (and fashion we understand from some other participants) there couldn't be a better guide to New York.

I took the picture of Stuart at the Cafe Carlyle after we heard Judy Collins (you heard that right!). More later on the trip, but thanks Stuart! I'm ready to move into the Palace Hotel and let you plan my life!

Where Am I?

Sometimes I drift away from the shop windows of Austin for my pictures, huh? Where am I? Where are you?

Spiraling into the Rabbit Hole

Yesterday, Sunday, had a delicious free quality to it. We had a little social event in the evening and one that didn't elicit a fashion emergency at that. This was the first day in a few weeks where there weren't daytime commitments as well as evening ones. Don't get me wrong...it was all fun or self-improving stuff for the most part. Still I'd been busy. Here was a nice time to maybe catch up on the downsizing or get something tidied up around here. Or just relax and read. So how did I waste my time?

I decided to run virus and spyware scans on one computer and watched them run part of the time. I tried to work The New York Times magazine crossword on the computer and later tried to fill it in in the actual magazine. (No joy until today when I could unlock the key and get help. Clever puns in this one.)

At one point I thought I'd attack a pile of magazines that had survived other attempts to move them toward recycling. I managed to discard a few. In one I just had to read a piece before letting it go. Most of the ones I looked at got saved. A Harper's because of a piece by Jonathan Lethem about plagiarism that was completely plagiarized. (I later read this on the exercise bike but still saved it because I hadn't completely read his notes about where he extracted everything.) I saved a Summer Fiction edition of The New Yorker from 2004 even though I have it on DVD because you never know when it would be handy to take along to read. I saved another Harper's because of an article about Werner Herzog. I saved a June issue of The New York Times magazine not to work the puzzle (which looks quite hard) or to read the serialized novel (I haven't been able to get into any of these and this is chapter five of the last one they did). No, it was a bunch of articles about the rich getting richer and the poor...you know. I'm still trying to figure out which I am much less the whys and wherefores and politics of that economic idea. So...interesting and maybe I should read it.

Then there was The New Yorker issue (too new to be on DVD yet) which had a review of the Edith Piaf movie I missed at the theaters. I saved a Harper's because of an essay on the virtues of idleness. The irony was not lost on me.

I saved another issue of The New Yorker because of an article about the Queen Mary 2. The issue is on the DVD collection. But I'd really like to read it. If I ever get downsized and escape real estate hades, I'd like to go on that ship. I've been on the QE 2. But I digress.

Another issue of The New Yorker survived because of an article about neurosurgery and a Woody Allen casual. And another because of an article about mathematics. So sue me. I must confess that there is a 2005 issue in one of the bathrooms because of an article about Angela Merkel.

So the result of all that activity was that one pile had become two, reduced by three or four magazines that will make the recycling truck on Friday.

During my bout with the magazines, FFP arrived in my office with a 'home for sale' brochure from a house in the neighborhood. We spent a bit of time looking the place up in the database of the local tax collector and calculating a price per square foot.

I sorted through some current newspapers and tossed some ads in recycling. I glanced at Marilyn Vos Savant's column in Parade. She had an interesting puzzle. I didn't try to work it out but when I read the solution I thought it was amazing and wrote a small proof about why it worked. Seriously.

I managed to get to my gym for some exercise (mostly riding the recumbent bike while reading the Jonathan Lethem piece). I thought briefly about a trip to New York, too. Because in New York once, in the Village somewhere, we found a mystery book store while waiting for time for a jazz performance at the Vanguard. And I bought Motherless Brooklyn because it seemed interesting, I wanted to support the store and it was set in Brooklyn. I later bought Fortress of Solitude because I liked Lethem.

Yeah, those were the kinds of "accomplishments" and reveries I managed on this day of little obligation. Oh, and I put together a letter about my great nephew Jack's Flat Stanley's adventures in Austin and ordered and picked up prints of pictures of his (F. Stanley's) visit here and wrote on postcards and put the whole thing (along with Mr. F. Stanley with arms and legs folded) in a package to mail back to Jack's teacher.

I wanted to accomplish things in my retirement. I didn't anticipate how much my adult attention deficit disorder would affect idle times. And my greatest accomplishment seems to be becoming a dilettante. And learning to spell dilettante!

New York Treasure

FFP got off this shot in New York in 2005. I wasn't with him. I was in South Africa.

Late September perhaps. Still warm. Everyone needs to catch a little air.

When I have a moment I've been sorting the pictures. The idea would be to winnow down to the ones that really deserve space on the hard drive. We won't even talk about all the actual photos that need sorting with some getting tossed, some getting scanned. I probably have four or five cubic feet of actual physical photos around here. When I'm worried about downsizing, I think of cubic feet of whatever. Photos sure take up less space on hard drives. But a lot of them still creates a confusion that can be not unlike the shoebox with loose photos.

At one point I thought I might collect old photos. I stumbled on some in a bin at a junk shop and thought that I thought were so cool. This collection didn't get off the ground. And I don't know where those few I bought actually are. Somewhere in my office, I guess. If I find them, I'll scan them and show you. Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of New York.

Still Recycling Here

It's sort of interesting recycling stuff. Especially pictures on the computer.

This one was taken in New York in January 2002. These signs are at that weird angle, I believe, because when the World Trade Center fell the blast blew them around the pole. The careful observer will notice the decoration on the street signs.

Well there you go. I'd forgotten all about this picture. We (I went with a couple of girlfriends) were like all those tourists who went down to the area. Seeing things where there was nothing to see.

It was freezing cold that day and I had a cold. We finally found a place to get a cup of coffee and a snack a block or so away. How those guys were holding on in that little hole-in-the-wall joint across the street from places with a fine dust all over everything you could see in the windows I'll never know.

Well no drama today. A meeting discussing gates, playscapes, pool deck finishes and sidewalks. A small workout. (Exercise rule here: if you do something it's better than nothing.) Dad doing well. Picked up his own shirts at the laundry. I installed a 160 Gig Maxtor external USB drive on FFP's computer. And it worked perfectly and immediately. I only paid $69 bucks for it at Fry's, too. I remember when I got a computer that had two disk drives, each with a 1/2 gig. A gigabyte! On your desk. I thought that was ultimate computing. But I digress. As always. Ground zero should bring on thoughts of off-site backup. Yeah, I do some of that.

Daily Photo

I've been reading Paris Daily Photo for a while and while this site isn't daily and isn't always Austin so it can't be Austin Daily Photo, I appreciate the idea.

Eric of PDP published this entry and I immediately thought of a picture I had FFP shoot at MOMA in New York City in the summer of 2005. So here it is. I think it's pretty clear who is real and who is not in this one. Maybe.

I had in mind to blog today on two other topics. I fully intend to write one entitled "I Don't Read Enough" and another under the rubric "This Aquisitive Life." Instead I've published this (over a year old) photo.

And so it goes.