Oh! Christmas Tree?

December 26, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

People have been asking if I took photos of our Christmas Tree. First of all, Laurie and I have never had a traditional Christmas tree. The closest we ever got to a traditional tree was a tiny, live, pre-decorated tree we got from a fundraiser. Otherwise, we normally decorate a houseplant, indoor tree (ficus or norfolk pine) or more recently our large bonsai ficus. This year we got as far as lighting candles, although there is one gold ornament laying at the base of our gnarly, bonsai ficus from last year (last photo). Laurie did a lot of cooking, so the candles reflecting in the stockpots and mixing bowl made nice decorations.

Dinner with Santa

December 24, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

If you are wondering where Santa was on the day before this Christmas eve, he was having dinner with Laurie, me and a group of friends and making kids worried as to why he was at El Patron’s eating with the likes of us instead of preparing gifts and tending to his reindeer and sleigh.

Purple Haze

December 23, 2013 Timothy Price14 Comments

As darkness fell, firefighters continued battling the stubborn blaze. The flashing lights highlighted a purple haze in the smoke that consumed the area.

Burning Down The Block

December 19, 2013December 19, 2015 Timothy Price12 Comments

I am posting my blog very late today, because I got home late from the fire. The flamenco studio on the end of our block caught on fire yesterday afternoon and it turned into a major fire that threatened the rest of the block. Patrician Design was the most immediately threatened business, and fortunately the firewall between PD and the flamenco studio held. Our offices above Gold Street Cafe got a lot of smoke, but late, after they had the fire out and the power was restored, I opened up the office for some firemen and women who brought a big fan in and blew out as much of the smoke as the could from those offices. While they were blowing smoke out of the offices upstairs, I went downstairs and got all the servers fired back up. After that, the fire marshal gave me permission to secure the office, set the alarms and go home. The photos show the progression of the fire and the last photos are of Patti of Patrician Design celebrating that her boutique didn’t burn down. The fire caused a lot of excitement and anxiety for what started out to be a rather lazy afternoon.

Cats & Concert Sunday

December 16, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

The cats were in winter mode most of the day. Even though it was sunny and a blistering 40º F (4.4º C) outside in the afternoon, Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Diné chose to lay around on our bed most of the day. We went to the West Side Chior’s Christmas concert Saturday night, and Jerri had me help record the concert. I didn’t think of it, but I could have taken equipment and shot a video of the concert Saturday night. Well, they had another concert on Sunday, so I shot a video of it with my Canon 5D and a stereo mic. The video and sound are great, but it’s going to be a lot of work putting the hour long concert altogether into one video.

Magic Bird

December 15, 2013December 15, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

While photographing René on his perch with the sun behind him, he decided to try some magic tricks on me. He folded out his wing like a cape, and then made his head disappear when he pulled his wing back.

A Cat Tail

December 13, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

Guildenstern was pointing out photos with his tail and then admiring himself on my computer.

Breakfast with Beaker

December 10, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

Laurie has to share her cereal and coffee with Beaker most mornings. Guildenstern thinks we have things all wrong — “one should have birds for breakfast, not have breakfast with birds” he meows — but he knows Beaker and René are formidable adversaries and stays clear of both of them. René is slowly getting better at flying and I’m slowly getting better at sneaking in better lighting to catch him in flight.

Japanese 101

December 8, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

Laurie’s set up for studying for her Japanese 101 final on Monday.

Paris Authentic

December 5, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

Does anyone remember Marcel Duchamp’s found art? The urinal he simply signed “R. Mutt 1917” was discussed it my art, art history, photo and photo history classes when I was a geography/photography student some 30 years ago. We finally got to see it in person at the Pompidou Center in Paris in June. Even though this piece was quite popular among the art professors and art students at the university, I didn’t have to hold my camera above crowds of admiring people to get a photo of Duchamp’s porcelain masterpiece, as Laurie pointed out. I could actually touch it as there were no barriers around it, alarms to set off or even a guard in the room.