Hati and Mani

So, I was reminded of a few things this morning.  One of the smallest is that if you take the time to setup a tripod prior to getting up to take pictures of a lunar eclipse, you'll probably fall back to sleep sooner afterwards.

I didn't do that though.

The first picture I took, I forgot to turn off the flash...

So the moon's there, but it's really faint.

So next, I turned off the flash, but didn't realize how much hand moved when supporting the camera, and it's a bit heavy with the zoom lens.

So I went to the closet and got out the tripod.

I took several pictures, but this one I think is the best.  What surprises me is how much the stars moved in just a 6 second exposure.  I have one shot I took that has a 10 second exposure.  Even the moon is blurred and slightly elongated from its movement.

Still, it was cool to see.  We were very fortunate to have fog only over San Francisco and not all over the Bay Area.

Also, for reference, Hati and Mani...

Interior Decorating

So, yesterday Jennifer and I took down our Thanksgiving decorations, and brought our Christmas decorations out of storage.  We didn't get very far doing anything else lacking the motivation.

Today, we buckled down and decorated while watching football on NFL RedZone.

Felix was the first to discover the tree skirt.

Then we had the blinds open for the beautiful weather, and he found the storage boxes.

Then he left, and Oscar found them.

Keep in mind, cats are only semi-solids, and will flow slightly in direct sunlight.

Felix was frustrated by the packing material being in his sunlight.

And here is the completed tree.  The rest of house will be decorated this week.

A Bridge Kind Of Near

Yesterday when I got home, I changed into biking togs, and Jennifer and I biked out to the new span of the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Once we got to the gate we felt pretty good, but there was a growing wind as approached the bridge proper.  At the end of the land trail there is a steep incline that is reminiscent of the climb at Golden Gate Fields.  And then, you're on the bridge, and it is a constant 2% grade.  Even when you get to the suspension section, it doesn't really slope down.  We got to the end of the bike lane which is where the trail would almost intersect the old span.  According to signs and such, we will have to wait for the old span to be removed for the lane to be connected to Yerba Buena Island.  That isn't scheduled to happen until 2015, so we've got some time to wait.

It was a good time to rest and take some pictures.

Then we went downhill home.  That was an awesome payoff and we laughed, yahooed, and chortled the whole way to back to IKEA.

Of course, I forgot to run my tracker app, so I'll have to do it again, but after almost half an hour of riding to the end of the lane on the bridge, we seemed to get back to IKEA in 5 minutes.