Photo Pain

I have had photos online since 1996 or so. Obviously I like taking pictures, as I'm in the tens of thousands, all captioned and organized. My harddrive took a hit this last winter -- not to worry, I didn't lose any data. But the online solution failed with the drive and I've been working ever so slowly to rebuild the system in a functional manner. All sorts of things have gone awry, including network connectivity, router setup, plumbing issues, etc. (The January Plumbing Debacle took the PCs in the basement offline for a while for safety's sake)

So it's been six months and the albums are not yet available. I've been amassiing the images all this time, and as we get closer to being able to relaunch them they've been slowly sorting themselves. But there's a lot of work to be done there yet.

In the meanwhile, you can check my Picasa web albums or my facebook albums. Most of those are pics from my phone, but the quality is not bad at all. In fact as I've been sorting images I'm becoming less and less able to determine the source - camera or phone camera. Which is either an endorsement of my phone, or a signal that I need a new camera.

I have looked at alternate hosting solutions, as well. I really really really really like hosting my own images as it offers a local, convenient, highly customizable solution. And it won't file chapter 11 and take my images with it, like an online host may. It doesn't offer instant offsite storage, links to professional printers, etc. But it's home and comfortable for me. That said, I'm trying very hard to like Picasa and their web album technologies. One of the reasons I like my homebrew system is that I have a slick captioning system. But Picasa Web Albums have an even slicker way of associating people with images, which is half the reason I caption - for the searchability. Obviously I'm picky about all of this.

But rest assured the photo albums will be back, and when they do come back I plan on having an RSS feed so you can tell when and what the new albums are, etc. I'll also post to this blog when I get them back online and stable. I'll also be trying my very best to get the daily Craig Kid Picture emails working again. I know lots of Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles are jonesing for their Craig pictures!

TNRRR

Great ride, no rain! Lots of back streets and funky areas. Way fun!

TNRkimer

Another great Tuesday Night Ride! No rain, but for a while there it felt like we were in Portland...

Sunday Drive

Took a nice ride this afternoon snooping around the SW part of the city, looking for good sections for the TNR. Found some awesome stuff! Also found some desolate stretches, but that happens..

Tuesday Night Ride

A great Solstice ride -- a little of everything, a lot of riding!

Walking

Walking days	:	110+ (estimated)
Days recorded by GPS	:	87
Daily walk length	:	3.5 Miles
Google ETA	:	1 hour 9 minutes
Average ETA	:	1 hour 3 minutes
Fastest	:	55 minutes
Slowest	:	1 hour 16 minutes
		(6" snow, 14 degrees, 30 mph winds, -7 windchill)
Lowest temp	:	-22
Highest temp	:	93
Dollars Saved	:	$350 (estimate parking ramp - bus)
Pounds lost	:	15

I'm finding that I'm treating the hot weather walks much like I treated the cold weather walks:

• I get excited about an hour beforehand and can't wait to head out
• I take the skyway as far as possible to stay in a comfortable temperature
• I follow buildings closely and think about where I'm going (winter: avoid wind, summer: find shade)
• Obsessive tracking of temperatures and hoping for "just a few more degrees" (for better shock factor)
• Pride in having done something possibly dangerous, definately ridiculous
• Extreme weather makes for a faster walk, for some reason, even in the heat.
• On days when I don't walk I feel like I'm cheating

Of course, there are some differences, the worst being that in winter I can add layers of clothing or increase my pace to generate heat. In summer all I can do it sweat. And I really miss the ridiculously cold days of winter - I was the only one outside and it was nice to have some alone time.

Overall I'm happy with my walking plan. And sometimes I like to blog about it - not for you, but for me. :) I really wish I had a concrete record of the days I walked before I started tracking it by gps. The numbers, man! I want the numbers!

My spreadsheet: Click here to see it

Walk for Father's Day

We went on a walk from Hidden Falls to Crosby, then hit Dairy Queen for a cooldown treat!  A very happy Father's Day.

Robert Craig
Sent from my G1 Android phone

D.C. Day 4

FBI building, Spy Museum (no pics there, obviously!), Museum of Natural History, and a taste of the Air and Space Museum quick before we all passed out and melted down. Had a wonderful meal in Columbia and then headed back to crash hard! Sadly, we're heading home tomorrow. A long day of trains, planes, and automobiles.

D.C. Day 3

Sailing on the Chesapeake Bay with Uncle Jim aboard the Newgale. Again simple incredible and wonderful. Followed by the wonderful generosity of the Lemanski family and their SUPER AWESOME pool! The kids were worn out completely, and Eli learned how to jump into the deep water without a flotation device!

D.C. Day 2

Memorials: Vietnam Veteran's, Lincoln, Vietnam Nurses, Korean. Driving tour of Washington D.C. (including Embassy row, the monuments, etc.) Also Union Depot, Library of Congress, Capitol building visitor's center.

Lily is becoming quite the photographer! The kids were once again really good, especially considering the deathmarch we did on the mall.

D.C. Day 1

A wonderful evening at the Baltimore Harbor area, had some great food and great connecting with Uncle Jim. The kids were happy to spare the live lobsters by not ordering them.

New York, Day 3

Before leaving New York we enjoyed a bit of the shore, then headed out on the Train to D.C. The kids were phenomonal travelers, and we had a lot of fun!

New York, Day 2

On the way into the city, the kids got to blow the horn on the train!

Eating the $50 lunch at the museum..

The kids with "Rexy"

Wall 'o life. My favorite, for some odd reason.

The kids, my pearls..

Ferris wheel INSIDE the Toys R Us!

Lobby of Thomson Reuters.

View of the "ball" over Times Square from Michael's work.

More views from TR.

Quote of the day by Lily as we crossed Times Square: "New York is crowded."

(Also nominated for "Understatement of the century")