Melting Pot

 

Alaska Cruise Trip Day 2 – At Sea

One of the things I enjoy about a cruise is the eclectic mix of people aboard. I'm suddenly thrust into the middle of a huge melting pot of people from around the world, each with their own languages, customs, and style of dress. 

The breakfast cafeteria was a madhouse with stations serving traditional breakfasts from several countries. People zipped and zagged from station to station with full plates, and I tried my best not to run into anyone.

More than once, I saw a large group, possibly from China or Japan, sitting together. They would gather finger food on several plates and then serve themselves family-style. One day, we were sitting at a table waiting for the changeover to lunch service.  The kitchen staff were busy loading up the stations with food and had plastic wrap on the outside to keep people from taking food early.  When that same large group came through and saw that there was a huge bowl of lychees at one of the stations, they went crazy.  They ripped through the plastic wrap and started grabbing lychees like it was a gold rush.  It took a while for the kitchen staff to get things back under control again.  The entertaining show was hilarious.

There were a variety of activities for the time we spent at sea. None of them interested us much, but it was fun to walk around, check things out, and take pictures.

Unintended Hokey Pokey Trike Dance

 

Last week I was trying to take a selfie using my phone camera timer delay.  I tried several different poses until I got one I liked.  What I didn't realize was that my phone didn't take just one image for each timer.  It took 10 photos for each timer!  So not only did I have my posed pictures, but also a bunch of images walking toward my phone and bending down to reset my timer. 

Put together, they looked like I was doing the hokey pokey or something.  I got a chuckle out of it, so I thought I'd share.

Self Portrait

 Taking a picture of the sculpture that was "taking a picture" of me.

Centenario

A few years ago, the church my husband and I grew up in, and eventually got married in, became a Spanish church.  But it is still affiliated with the Free Methodist Church of North America, so today they had a 100th Anniversary celebration.  The "little church on the corner" has been around for a century now.

Some of the "old church family" came back for the celebration and a tour of the interior.  I love what they've done with the sanctuary.  The pics really don't do it justice.  It's so light, bright and cheery!  I love the sheers on the windows.  They make the stained glass glow.  The seats are comfy and the A/V setup is nice.  One of the best improvements they've made is putting in a new furnace with central air.  

I'm glad they can bring the Good News of Jesus to our South Minneapolis Spanish speakers.

Reunion

This past weekend we went to a family reunion.  Somehow, I became the photographer for the group photo.  I'm not quite sure how that happened.  

Techie Corner

I took a few single-shot group photos, but I was unhappy with how small individual people were.  

I didn't have any time to plan for this "photo shoot."  I made a snap decision to take some fast and dirty group segment pictures, hoping to have enough to work with to put them all together in Photoshop.

I took several hours this evening to combine 7 images, by hand (no automation), into a pano in Photoshop.  It's hard cutting people apart and sticking them back together again!  And then I had to make the whole picture look believable.  I even had a family member email me one of their phone photos of me so that I could add myself to the group.  Ha!

The image in this blog is much smaller than the full-size version, but a 33MB file isn't really blog-friendly.

Happy Dog

 That ear, though.

Field Trip

A truck ride and a trip to the pet store.  Life is good for our new pupper.

Bananas for Bananas

Another one from the circus.  The circus is so glitzy and glamorous, that I decided to go rogue on this one and stick with black and white; except for the delicious, juicy bunch of bananas that this 7500 lb lady could hardly wait to scarf down.  As far as she was concerned, there was no noisy audience, no bright lights and no human on her back – just bananas.  

Ribbony

This afternoon we had the opportunity to go to a small circus show at a local arena.  

Today I'm wrapping up a 5-year project.  Since May 17, 2017, I've been giving my blogs 1-word names that end in "y" that sounds like ē, expanding this requirement in the past year or so to be any word that sounds like ē at the end, singular or plural.  I decided a while back to end that requirement today, May 22, 2022.  It doesn't mean I won't use them; it just means I won't tie myself to that anymore.  Over the years I made up some words, but most were found using my trusty Merriam-Webster thesaurus and unabridged dictionary.  Yes, "ribbony" is in the unabridged dictionary. 

Avidly

Mom and her favorite pastime.  As seen in 2008.

Melancholy

I've been thinking about my grandma this evening.  Here she is getting her corsage pinned on by my mom's friend and bridesmaid on my mom's wedding day.  Grandma died from cancer just two months later.  She was only 53.  I wish I could have known her when I was growing up.  I have been told that she loved kids and made the best cinnamon rolls on the planet.

Loyalty

 I don't care what we do, daddy, as long as I'm with you.  

Maniacally

My future husband, acting like the star of a horror flick.  As seen in 1986.

Legerity

 Got wood?

Multitaskingly

Tandem napping while websurfing.  As seen in 2018.

Unreservedly

A few years ago, we were celebrating our anniversary with my "second mom" and her husband, who is pictured here.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of him looking at the camera and smiling, but a picture of him clearing his nasal passages will have to do.  

Recovery

We had a splendid time with this lady last month.  

Techie Corner

No Flash, but No Trash either.

I also took several pictures at the time, most of them using flash.  But this one was caught in between flash cycles and was almost completely black.  I typically try to lighten these images before scrapping them to make sure they aren't salvageable.  

But I really like this one, now that I can see the image.  I like it even better than the image I blogged about last month.  The only problem – extreme graininess.  

New Photoshop plug-in to the rescue!  I recently purchased Topaz DeNoise AI and I figured this would be a great image to see what the plug-in could do.  I'm really pleased with the result! 

Blithesomely

 One of my favorite pics of me.  As seen Thanksgiving week, 1991. 

Pleasantries

It was a beautiful spring day today.  After all the rain and gloom this week, the sunshine was a welcome sight.  After I picked up my bestie, I looked on the map for a new place to explore.  Just a short distance away was Minnetonka Mills Park, so I headed that way.  When we got there, I found that not only was it a park, but a historic site.  More on that in the days to come.  My bestie isn't fond of having her picture taken, but she humored me.  It was a fun outing.

Slapdashery

Mom at her bridal shower.  Looks like she had a rip-roarin' good time.