Stanford

Since Jimmy and I spent so much time at the Stanford University Hospital this month, I thought I'd post some of my favorite pics outside of the waiting room and doctor's office.
View of the Main Quad from the top of Hoover Tower

Stanford Stadium, San Francisco Bay and East Bay Hills

Bicycle in the main quad

Main Quad and Hoover Tower

The Gates of Hell flanked by Adam and Eve.
In the Rodin Sculpture Garden.

Some close-up detail of the Gate of Hell. Eerie.

Photos taken Spring 2005.

Snowman Paper Bag Album

I made this for stamp club as one of the samples for the project that I shared with my group.



I have more pictures here.

Honey Coma

Poor Pooh. Consumed too much honey.
I almost bought this t-shirt.
Submitted to Photo Tuesday: Theme - Consume

Reminiscing Turkey Day

I'm a little late posting these pics, but here's a little peek at our feast.

The beautiful table on the deck with a view of the ocean.

Frying the turkey. Nope, didn't burn the house down!

Skillful hands - like surgeon!

Homemade apple pie. There was also pumpkin and pecan!

Our View during Thanksgiving Dinner

Giving thanks for a feast with family with a bounty of food and a view of the setting sun over the Pacific ocean.

Salty the Sea Lion

Strikes a pose for the tourists at Pier 39.

Sunset over San Francisco

Took this last October from Pier 39. If you've been to Pier 39, you can practically hear the sea lions barking to the right...

Safest big city in the Nation

For the 5th year in a row, San Jose was rated as the safest big city in the nation. Murders and burglary are way below the national average (per capita), however, car theft is above average.
This photo was taken the day before the San Jose Grand Prix. Several roads were blocked so traffic was a nightmare.

Cable Cars and Consumerism

This is a great city to be a tourist even if you live in the area. The typical tourist sites are so cool. I love it when friends and family come to visit and I can show them around. Not that my cousin needed showing around since she lived here for so long.
We entered shoppers paradise on this day. See the ads on the cable car for H&M? It's an a-m-a-z-i-n-g clothing store with extremely reasonable prices. The first time I heard of them was on TLC's "What Not To Wear". The mothership store is in Manhattan and last year when I was in NY, I had to make a pilgrimage. So when Cousin and I saw those ads, we headed directly there. It had just opened the day before and it was a madhouse. Imagine Ikea for fashion. I suppose you really need a visual to understand, so if you ever find yourself near an H&M, even if you don't like to clothes shop, just take a peek. I took this pic in NY last year before I was approached and told "No Photos!". I didn't even attempt to take one this time despite my urge to capture the mob of consumers handing over buckets of ducats with glazed eyes.

San Francisco Architecture

Spent Monday in the City with my cousin. We were riding on a cable car (yes, doing the tourist thing in my own neighborhood), standing on the back, without a worry in the world. It was an amazingly warm 73 degrees in the city by the bay. Absolutely lovely.

San Jose Buddhist Temple

Intricate patterns of the roofline.
submitted to Thursdays Challenge: Pattern

"The way I look at it..."

While I was waiting to get a chest x-ray at Stanford Hospital the other day, I was sitting next to a young man, he couldn't have been older than 2o. He was wearing one of those contraptions on his left leg that screwed into his bones. He asked me "So, what are you in for?" I say "Oh, just a chest x-ray. How 'bout you?" He says in an upbeat tone "Oh, just another appointment to get this checked out, see how it's moving along." I asked him what happened. He says "I was in a head-on collision on Niles Canyon Road." Niles Canyon is a windy mountain road in the east bay. He continued to tell me that he was going the speed limit, and so was the guy who hit him. The other guy just crossed over into his lane and next thing he knew, he was in intensive care. He said he was in ICU for a month, the accident was on June 8th. I asked him how much longer he'd have the contraption on his leg. He hoped that by January or February, it'd be off. I was amazed at how easily he told his story and with no bitterness or self-pity. Just before he went in for his xray, he said "I'm just happy to be alive. The way I look at it, someone else always has it worse off than me."

He made an impression on me. And as I sit here, sick for 2 1/2 weeks and barely feeling any recovery, I try to remember his story.

Fall Leaves

This is the first time in days that I've gone out beyond my mailbox...all the way to...the front yard! Jimmy and I have pneumonia so we've pretty much barred all of the doors and windows waiting for the horseman to come by hollering "Bring out yer dead!"

Well, the huge tree in the front is losing its leaves and I haven't posted anything in days so, in despirate need for a little fresh air, I went out for 5 minutes and took a couple of pictures. Most of them turned out awfully blurry, hard to keep a steady hand when you're coughing your lungs out. But I managed to find a few red ones to press and use in my crafts.

That little excursion to the front yard exhausted me, though. So I'm back to my couch to watch Ellen.

Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center

Flowers from this spring.
Since I posted the sundial for Lensday, I wanted to showcase some of the flowers I found in the garden.

The Moving Finger Writes

At the Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center, Palo Alto
Submitted to Lensday - Theme: Time

En route to Vegas

I'm stuck on the desert theme.
Here I am, trying to capture joshua trees whizzing by at 70 miles per hour...oh wait...that was us. Yes, James drove the speed limit the whole way, for 8 1/2 hours. I slept 4 hours, till I woke up in a fit because Jimmy wouldn't tell me what was wrong with the hovercraft...yes, hovercraft. I was in that mostly-asleep-and-dreaming-but-conscious-of- certain-real-life-conditions state. I was dreaming about a hovercraft (watching too much sci-fi) when in reality the freeway was being repaired so drive was very bumpy. Yea. Well...they say a lot of alien activity happens in the desert...