Year In Pictures: 2010/08/09

[plonq]

The mercury topped out at about 33ish today (that's 90-something for you Fahrenheit folks), but with the clinging humidity it felt more like 42. It hasn't been this warm here since the queen's visit.

I spent much of the day lounging around the house and sweating out a few litres of water. I took time out from lounging to make a pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade. I also started another batch of ice cream, and broke the lawn mower. I'm a little bummed about that last one because our lawn is in dire need of cutting. I am going to try swapping cords tomorrow before it gets too hot, and try a couple of different outlets to assure myself that it is the mower and not the former two. If it turns out to be the mower itself, then we are going to have to decide if it's a case of repairing or replacing. It's not that old, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have a rechargeable one.

Thanks to all who tweeted, Facebooked, carded and phoned with birthday wishes. Other than that lawnmower thing, it was a good day.

After atara got home from work, we debated over going some place air conditioned for dinner. Since we are going out tomorrow for my late birthday dinner, we decided to compromise and grill something instead. We soaked some ears of corn and slapped them on the grill until they were nicely singed all around (but not quite in flames). If you have never had corn that way, do yourself a favour and try it. We also sliced some kohlrabi and bread to go with it, and grilled both of those, finishing the latter with a drizzle of olive oil. Finally atara sliced up a fresh cucumber from the garden.

After dinner we hopped in the car and went for a drive with the ultimate goal of getting ice cream for dessert. She asked me where I wanted to go for ice cream, so I wandered in here and did some research before arriving independently at the same choice. While we were out, I snapped a few pictures from the car, including this shot of opportunity while we waited for a few cyclists to cross the street up by the legislature.



Although I had planned to change the ISO back to 100 after yesterday's shot, I left it at 200 this evening because the sun was going down. Since we were driving around, I decided to shoot Shutter Priority and locked it at 1/250th of a second. The camera chose f/2.8 for this shot. I did a bit of cropping and sharpening before converting it to black and white.

Here is my lovely spokes model holding my cup of ice cream from the Marble Slab. It is called a "Snickerdoodle"; vanilla ice cream with a Snickers bar and caramel cut into it. When the girl was preparing it, the lid came off the caramel container, dumping about 4x as much caramel as it was supposed to into the treat. At the time I told her it was fine because I like caramel, but if it happens again I'll probably ask her remove some of the caramel first. It was way too rich.


We drive this route so often I could probably do it with my eyes closed, though usually we drive it by day. It takes on quite a different character after dark.


Twilight is my favourite time of the day, whether it is the last clinging light of the evening, or the first light of dawn. Here is the Canwest Centre against the fading blue of a northern sky.

Comments

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

My battery started losing its ability to maintain a good charge within a year. The charger itself died after 2 years, just after the warranty period. That's when I did research and found out that most batteries only last about 2 years anyway and cost $100 to replace.

It's a shame really because it's such a great idea. Maybe in 10 years the technology will be better and more affordable.

I have since sold it on Kijiji and bought my push mower. I'm happy with it.