Yavapai Overlook, Grand Canyon National Park, 2007-May-27
(Click on image for full size.)
Another view of Grand Canyon, from the Yavapai Overlook. Even in person, it hardly seems real.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, 2007-May-27
(Click on image for full size.)
This is looking down the Bright Angel Trail, one of the most famous (if not the most famous) trails in the Grand Canyon National Park. I only went a short way down, but it does continue to the bottom of the canyon, where the Colorado River flows. You can’t even see that from this vantage point, but hopefully you can still get some sense of just how immense the canyon is.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Finch, Wild Animal Park, San Diego, CA 2007-April-25
(Click on image for full size.)
This was a lucky shot, and one I love! This finch had to go back and forth from a sturdy branch to trying to mimic a hummingbird at the feeder. I’m not sure he ever did get much nectar out of that feeder, but he did manage to hover for a moment.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Blackfooted Penguins, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA 2007-May-4
(Click on image for full size.)
Seth, I took this photo for you and Marcia. They were also at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and pretty hard to catch while swimming - I don’t think I got a single focused shot. But when they were standing around, it was do-able. These guys came from South Africa.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Before I post the pic of the day… Happy Anniversary!! to my sister Candy and her husband Jim, who has always been more family than in-law.
Southern Sea Otter, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA 2007-May-4
(Click on image for full size.)
The Southern Sea Otter is found on the California coast. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a webcam where you can see some of these playful creatures. I know watching them get fed was quite an amazing experience - they don’t give them whole shellfish while they’re on public display, or else the otters scratch the plexiglass tank when they demonstrate their knowledge of tools and mechanics by cracking open the shells . Instead they take the shells off, and put the shellfish bodies inside toys - kind of like Kongs for dogs - so the otters still get to work at getting the food out. They loved it (or they were very hungry!), and it was very entertaining to watch.
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Lesser Flamingo, Wild Animal Park, San Diego, CA 2007-Apr-25
(Click on image for full size.)
The Lesser Flamingo is found primarily in eastern and southern Africa, and per Sea World’s website, “is a tall, large bodied bird with a long neck and small head. Most flamingos, including this species, have pale pink plumage, legs, and bills. The lesser flamingo is one of the smallest and the brightest of the flamingos.”
I’m guessing they mean “bright” as in intelligent, since the Caribbean Flamingos I’ve seen are definitely brighter in color (similar to a scarlet ibis sometimes).
All photos © Amy Friends Stone and all rights reserved.
Ooh, I know you’re surprised to hear the crayons melted.
And what it looked under the box:
I didn’t plan for it much except to put a sheet of folded paper under them (a legal size normal-paper brochure), which wasn’t enough. This is the wax under the brochure:
The paper did absorb a lot of wax - it literally became translucent waxed paper in its entirety - but the folds weren’t enough to contain the remainder and the dyes, and that was fluid enough to leak through the hinge of the glovebox and into the upper compartment. I had lots of cleaning to do… but wasn’t this all Blair’s idea?
And finally, a photo inside the box - I got pretty messy just trying to open the box with all the melted wax; next time I will know to do this stuff when I’m home and/or near a sink and soap.
Just how hot does it get here? New Orleans is HOT and muggy…. the other afternoon I had purchased an iced tea. I forgot to take the cup out of my car, and the next day it sat in the cup holder for a few hours. My car sits in a parking lot at the apartment complex, not in a garage, so it gets full sun exposure. This is what the cup became:
I hear that July and August are the worst months for heat, and that the heat continues through September and even often into October. Whew. I don’t know if I will get used to this!
AFI Top 100 U.S. Films
June 24th, 2007I don’t often play along with the memes (If everyone’s posting the same stuff, how can it be interesting?) but just this once…
I’m somewhat surprised at how many of these I’ve seen. Friends may be surprised at how many of the ones I’ve seen are not Science Fiction.
The idea is to bold the ones you’ve seen. I think I have some ideas for more movies to watch.
Ok, here are the ones I’ve seen (remembering is another story). Blair - have you really not seen “Gone With the Wind”??
1. “Citizen Kane,” 1941.
2. “The Godfather,” 1972.
3. “Casablanca,” 1942.
4. “Raging Bull,” 1980.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952.
6. “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
7. “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962.
8. “Schindler’s List,” 1993.
9. “Vertigo,” 1958.
10. “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
11. “City Lights,” 1931.
12. “The Searchers,” 1956.
13. “Star Wars,” 1977.
14. “Psycho,” 1960.
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968.
16. “Sunset Blvd.”, 1950.
17. “The Graduate,” 1967.
18. “The General,” 1927.
19. “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946.
21. “Chinatown,” 1974.
22. “Some Like It Hot,” 1959.
23. “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940.
24. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” 1982.
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962.
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939.
27. “High Noon,” 1952.
28. “All About Eve,” 1950.
29. “Double Indemnity,” 1944.
30. “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
31. “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
32. “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975.
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937. - it seems like I should have seen this, but I don’t think I have
35. “Annie Hall,” 1977.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” 1957.
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” 1948.
39. “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964.
40. “The Sound of Music,” 1965.
41. “King Kong,” 1933.
42. “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967.
43. “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969.
44. “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940.
45. “Shane,” 1953.
46. “It Happened One Night,” 1934.
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951.
48. “Rear Window,” 1954.
49. “Intolerance,” 1916.
50. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001.
51. “West Side Story,” 1961.
52. “Taxi Driver,” 1976.
53. “The Deer Hunter,” 1978.
54. “M-A-S-H,” 1970. - hmm… not sure I’ve seen the movie, just the series
55. “North by Northwest,” 1959.
56. “Jaws,” 1975.
57. “Rocky,” 1976.
58. “The Gold Rush,” 1925.
59. “Nashville,” 1975.
60. “Duck Soup,” 1933.
61. “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941.
62. “American Graffiti,” 1973.
63. “Cabaret,” 1972.
64. “Network,” 1976.
65. “The African Queen,” 1951. 
this was just on tv, too!
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1981.
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, 1966.
68. “Unforgiven,” 1992.
69. “Tootsie,” 1982.
70. “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971. Ok, I’ll count this although I only made it halfway through. Awful and disturbing. Watched as much as I could handle in freshman psych.
71. “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998.
72. “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1994.
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969.
74. “The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991. I’ll skip this, thanks.
75. “In the Heat of the Night,” 1967.
76. “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
77. “All the President’s Men,” 1976.
78. “Modern Times,” 1936.
79. “The Wild Bunch,” 1969.
80. “The Apartment, 1960.
81. “Spartacus,” 1960.
82. “Sunrise,” 1927.
83. “Titanic,” 1997.
84. “Easy Rider,” 1969.
85. “A Night at the Opera,” 1935.
86. “Platoon,” 1986.
87. “12 Angry Men,” 1957.
88. “Bringing Up Baby,” 1938.
89. “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
90. “Swing Time,” 1936.
91. “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982.
92. “Goodfellas,” 1990.
93. “The French Connection,” 1971.
94. “Pulp Fiction,” 1994.
95. “The Last Picture Show,” 1971.
96. “Do the Right Thing,” 1989.
97. “Blade Runner,” 1982.
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942.
99. “Toy Story,” 1995.
100. “Ben-Hur,” 1959.