From the whirlwind New York trip a couple of weeks ago. Or whenever the hell that was.

I amped the blacks and got this crazy number lit down. I kind of like the weird monochrome with hint of color on the edges.

I’m still a little nervous because the plumbers come back today to run a camera down the line. Here’s hoping it won’t be as expensive this time. Also, we are looking into possible laxative/softeners. Just in case. o

There is a plumber in our house right now. He is running a cable into our indoor “clean out” that is “at the bottom of our stack”. Things are draining, just hearing some weird gurgles and seeing some random backflow now and then.

I’m very hopeful that we’ve caught it in time. Very hopeful.

I’m tempted to live blog the plumbing. I’ll spare you the details. I’m sure there will be updates. o

UPDATE: Plumber just left. Coming back tomorrow to flush the line and run a camera down it. Will hopefully be less expensive than the last time we did this. The drains are running tonight, so that’s good, right?

Taken on 6th Street in Austin.

Yes, I tweaked the colors. It’s just life, people. It’s what happens when Lightroom and I get together. o

No, this was not taken today. I took this a couple of months ago and found it browsing through the hard drive. Today, it’s warmer, no snow (for the most part) and I think the harshest part of the winter is finally over. Sure, we’ll probably see a couple more storms, but it’s really lovely out and it looks like the trees are trying to shake off the glum of winter.

We have returned from a subdued (for us) SXSW and Heather has barely a moment to catch her breath before her book tour. It was lovely to see friends and have the mind expanded. I met with an old friend from my Mormon days and had an amazing burger in weather so nice I wanted to move to Austin immediately. Then I remembered what summers are like, especially at night. As usual, I took about 10 photos in Austin, a city screaming for an extended photo walk. I’ll share the few over the next several days. o

Not a high SOP (cf: Heather Champ’s sea of penis) Quotient. o

Walking around 6th Street in Austin today in 84° F weather was deliriously wonderful. It was almost too warm to walk around. We didn’t bring shorts or light clothes.

I’m still so flush with Vitamin D that I can’t think straight. And I swear that’s not the booze talking. o

This is the weather I hoped for!

When Leta and I did our second beach walk, she was fascinated by these, but would not touch them. She did slowly warm to the sand and made a mesa-like sandcastle by picking the grains of sand one by one and distributing them like she does cheese with her nachos.

I like how these look a bit like fingers, with the lighter parts at the bottom like finger nails. Kind of freaky if you look at it that way for too long.

SO LOOK AWAY, internet. o

Taken on my last walk with Leta. She liked the colors but we were close to the Beach! the Beach, daddy, the Beach! that I couldn’t frame this quite like I wanted. Still, these plants grow everywhere in southern California. It’s crazy how big some of them can be. Blooms the size of a small car… o

I had the wrong lens on the camera when the ladies took a bathroom break and was too far from the car to change it out. So this is a mega-crop.

Love the rust, love the neon, love the type, love the colors. I didn’t do much to this one in post-processing. The light was stellar. I forgot how awesome the light is in mid/late-afternoon in the late winter in California. o