4 panels

Tyler's baywatch moment.

Managed a nice action shot going the wrong direction as usual.

At the Rose Garden.

Life captured in 2 seconds.

Day at the Beach

It was great to see the sun out bright and early today. We planned an afternoon at the beach with Sherri and her kids before they leave for Chicago tomorrow.

People had the same idea as us but still plenty of room to play in the waves.

I love the brightly painted lifeguard houses.

Josh insisted on wearing his wetsuit that he inherited from Tyler. He looks very handsome in it, don't you think?

Perfect size waves for the kids, no riptides for me to worry about.

Summer is finally here! Hooray!

Skew Socks

I had to knit these one at a time because these socks are nutso. The construction was totally unique and so confusing at first. So I made the left sock first which took about a month (off and on, mostly off) to knit.

Once I figured out the sock #1, I plunged on ahead for sock #2. Now that I was familiar with the pattern, 2nd sock took me a week. I must say I love them! Not the easiest to put on because of the unusual heel construction but it's well worth the effort.

Very hard to photograph too. I managed one heel but I need to set up a tripod and remote shutter to do the heels justice. I chose the striping yarn to highlight the unique diagonal flow because if it was solid , they would be just socks.

Hector says this pair makes him dizzy. Maybe I can hypnotize him into letting me buy more yarn! :) Just kidding! I'm starting another pair pronto.

Science Center

The kids and I took an outing to the California Science Center. The blue skies made a semi-appearance to brighten the day.

The best times to go are the weekdays after 1:30pm when all the day/summer school groups leave. Tyler had his 4th grade field trip here so he was very eager to show everything to Josh.

The first cool item is the wave machine. I wouldn't mind having one.

The thermal imaging is amusing.

The Ecosystems is fairly new and divided into various zones, like polar, desert, river and etc. Lots of fun and tons of things to try out.

School of fish.

The kids learned to make a stone arch.

Then destroy it.

Communication.

Fun Toy

Got my pictures printed today from my newest toy, the SuperSampler which a fun little camera. As you can see, there are 4 panels taken over a 0.2 sec or 2 sec time frame. There is no real viewfinder so it's hit or miss but my first try of a jumping shot captured Josh perfectly. Now for me to figure out the right motion to get the sequence in correct order. Just read it the Asian way for now.

Here is another favorite from the roll (film, yikes). I don't remember the motion I used, maybe diagonal (?). I can't wait to shoot more, darn the gray gloomy weather!

I just liked the manga images so I went for it. It's the TokyoPop bus parked in front of the convention center.

This one I rotated the camera while shooting so it's topsy turvy.

I had the kids run around. Do see doh.

Tardis phone cozy

This is for Kat my BFF from college. She used to talk about Doctor Who on BBCA so one night I saw an episode. It was eh-okay. Then I saw another (much better) and decided to add it to my DVR queue.

Kat got a new phone last week, showed it to me at the Devo concert and requested a phone cozy to protect it. Sure no problemo. I browsed Ravelry for patterns and guess what popped up? A Tardis pattern. I dug into my scrap sock yarn to find some blue yarn. Hmmm, hope I have enough.

Had to add Lego mini figures!

Well, it turns out that I didn't so I had to switch to light blue. No black yarn so I used some Kool-Aid scrap yarn and yellow beads for the light. I'm pleased with it although my lettering is a tad big and wraps around the edges.

Kat hasn't seen it, but do you think she'll like it??

Fireworks

We're very sad that this is the last year for Torrance's annual firework show. I finally got around to really reading how to photograph fireworks and here are some nice ones.

I used my 100mm macro lens, a tripod and remote shutter release button. I had to look up how to set some things but overall, I think did okay for my first time. The fireworks are at Wilson Park which is about 1 mile from us so we head over to the school to view them. The gate was open to the school so I found a nice spot to set up where people or things would be in my way although some of my shots have a telephone pole and some buildings in there.

I might have shifted something when I was trying to find the sweet spot so a lot are blurry. Still I'm really happy with them.

Some look like colorful alien flowers to me. :)