Winter Kitty

My kitty can never decide if she likes winter or not. She loves being "outside" on the screen porch, but this whole snow-and-cold-thing gets her every year.

The wind will sift the snow through the screen porch just like powdered sugar being sifted onto a cake--very light and fine-textured. She'll go outside the first couple times, get the white stuff stuck in her paws, and start doing the paw shake dance. After a few more snow encounters, she makes her peace with it, scoops up a paw's worth, and starts eating it.

Even the wind and cold won't usually stop her from wanting to go "outside." Although that does generally shorten the length of stay. Sometimes she'll sit out there with her back to me, wind whipping through her fur, temperature and windchill well below zero, putting on a show of being a tough kitty. I'll tap on the window to see if she's ready to come in yet. She'll give me the green-eyed stare and then give me the cold shoulder again. Another minute passes and I tap on the window again. She contemplates giving me the cold shoulder again, but comes to the realization that she's quickly turning into a kittysicle. She bolts for the door, and as she crosses the threshold, she'll make the same grumble noise that Marge Simpson makes when Homer or Bart do something wrong. Like it's all my fault that it's cold out there. What a cat!

Yesterday, though, it was 20 degrees and sunny for a short time, so I think she mostly enjoyed her time out there.

Twilight Moon

I actually got this photo ready a couple weeks ago, and then forgot to blog it. Duh.

I looked up and saw this beautiful twilight blue sky with the moon shining brightly and just had to get my camera.

First National Bank Building at Night

Continuing from yesterday's blog, we also went to Raspberry Island last Saturday. I thought the First National Bank Building looked so festive with all the decorated trees around it.

According to Wikipedia, it was completed in 1931. They had a hard time getting the materials to construct it because the Empire State Building was being built at the same time.

We can see the flashing red of the sign at home through the trees in our back yard. Actually, it isn't flashing. There are three "1st" signs and they alternate being lit. Since this was a long exposure, the shot had to be timed just right to only have one sign visible.

Here is another timed exposure where I made it appear that two signs were lit at once. Oh, by the way, that "1st" sign is 50 feet tall!

35W Bridge At Night

Last Saturday we went to see the new I-35W bridge in all its evening splendor. For anyone living under a rock, the old bridge collapsed August 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring over 100 people. The new bridge opened September 18, 2008. Anyone who wants to know more about the collapse can look here.

I guess they had originally planned for white lights on the bridge, with colored lights for special occasions. But something malfunctioned that they can't fix until spring, so we have blue lights instead. I hope they keep the blue lights. I think they are pretty.

Here is a view from a different angle. I had one more shot I wanted to get, but it didn't turn out. I guess that give me an excuse to go back and try again some time.










Here are a couple documentary photos I took in the daytime back in October.

Crackling Fire

The weather has been rather gloomy all week. Nothing like a cheery fire in the fireplace to brighten things up.

Techie Corner
I took a lot of pictures of this fire last night! Fires are kinda tricky to light properly. I used Photoshop to tweak the lighting.
Shot at: 1/20 Sec @ F2.8, ISO 200