Just a Little Light

I loved the way the sunlight hit this small flower on my desk after lunch yesterday, and so took a few photos.

And you thought Kansas was windy …

This small image from NASA shows a dust-devil on the surface of mars. A short movie of the Martian dust-devils is also available.

Update: Here’s another link to a movie of the Martian dust-devils, plus a link to another photo of the Martian dust devils.

For the past couple of years I’ve used this site to document, via photos and words, our various travels. Sometimes I post articles in near real-time, and other times I post a set of related articles after the trip is over. In either case, once I’ve written all the entries for a given trip, I assemble them in correct chronological order (recall that blogs are posted in reverse chron order) which makes for a nice presentation of the journey.

I used to have links to these reports as part of the navigation for this blog. The recent redesign of the site indicated the chronicles of our journeys would be better served from their own index page. Not wanting to have to maintain a separate page outside the blog, I created this entry which will serve as an index to our travel postings.

I’m pleased to present Mike and Sheryl’s Trip and Travel Reports, from July 2003 through March of 2005.

Kansas, July 2003
This trip, taken about a year after I started blogging, marked the beginning of a new style of travel essay. Covering our road trip from San Jose, California to the Lindsborg, Kansas area, and back, I blogged most of this trip in close to real time, blogging nightly from our hotel while we were traveling, and from my brother’s house once we got to Kansas. Images include The Arches National Monument and other attractions in Utah, as well as the chalk bluffs in western Kansas out by Oakley.

July 2003 Kansas Trip
::

Eastern Sierra and Las Vegas, November, 2003
This trip was interesting in that we had a couple of days of vacation, 4 days attending a technical conference in Las Vegas, and a few more days vacation after that. Highlights include images of the natural hot springs, showing visible steam in the cool fall weather, plus a lot of good shots from around Vegas, including the Strip at night and others of the nearby desert.

November 2003 Eastern Sierra and Las Vegas Trip
::

San Diego, February 2004
In March of 2004 we took our very first trip to San Diego. Images include the breath-taking Hearst Castle at San Simeon, plus the beautiful San Diego coast near La Jolla.

February 2004 San Diego Trip Journal
::

Seattle, April 2004
Later in 2004, we took a road trip to Seattle to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. There are photos of Astoria, Oregon, Seattle itself, including the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier, plus many more.

April 2004 Pacific NorthWest Trip Journal
::

Maui, June 2004
We returned to the lovely garden isle of Maui last summer; let the photos speak for themselves!

June 2004 Maui Trip Journal
::

West Coast, March 2005

These photos highlight our trip to Palo Alto and San Diego in March of 2005. There are a lot of desert wildflower photos, as well as other scenic images from the trip.

March 2005 West Coast Trip Journal
::

Before July of 2003 I created photo-essays of some of our trips. They do lack the narrative that the blog provides, but you may find the images interesting.

Mike and Sheryl’s 1998-2003 Travel Photos

Motivated by a grocery store display of pickle-making ingredients, I made my first batch of pickles this weekend. I have canned jellies before, and had thought about making pickles in the past, but hadn’t ever done it before. Wasn’t too hard, and in a few weeks we’ll know how they turn out. The samples I tasted before canning promise it will be worth the wait!

Bread and Butter Pickles

4 quarts sliced medium cukes (about 25)

3 cups sliced onions (about 4 medium)

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1/3 cup canning salt

5 cups sugar

3 cups cider vinegar

1-1/2 tsp. turmeric

1-1/2 tsp. celery seed

2 Tbsp. mustard seed

hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine cucumbers, onions, and garlic. Add salt; cover with cracked ice; mix thoroughly. Let stand three hours, drain well. Combine remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Add cucumber mixture and reheat just to a boil. Seal in hot, sterilized jars and process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10-15 minutes or so to ensure a seal. One trick is to not overfill the jars with cucumbers. The first time I made these I only ended up with 1/2 of the expected jars as I had overpacked them.

Yield: 7-8 pints.

Just a quick, short post to ensure that MT 3.2 is working in terms of posting. Everything else I tested seems fine so far.

And yes, this is a new look. I’ve been using a set of templates that I started modifying 3 years ago, using an ancient 2.x version of movabletype. Version 3.2 is a major upgrade (should have been called MT 4), and it seemed a good time to start with fresh, standard templates. Not to worry, the goodies will show up soon, starting first with the Flickr badge.