“U.S. cannot impose vision on Mideast,” Bush says
Imagine how things might be different if he had seen that so clearly in 2002.
4th Avenue South, Seattle
I stayed in tourist mode for a little while after we got home from our Thanksgiving trip this afternoon, and snapped some pictures of three of the sights along 4th Avenue South just before the sun went down: the vaccuum shop, the car wash, and the fire station.
I love the feel of 4th Avenue from downtown south to East Marginal Way. There are stretches that haven’t changed significantly in decades (Andy’s Diner, fer chrissakes), and a few new sights too, such as the old Sears building in the distance with that coffee company logo on top now, and the old Rainier brewery with the same damn thing (different coffee company). And these days, once you get downtown on 4th the old sights like the red brick King Street Station clock tower and the white neoclassic Smith Tower (tallest building west of the Mississippi from 19141 to 1931) are now juxtaposed against nearby Safeco Field and Quest Field. the Kingdome used to make a good backdrop too, and I took a picture of it from 4th when it was brand new in 1976, with my brand-new Minolta SRT-101, a high-school graduation present from my parents.
I often took 4th Avenue home from downtown Seattle on my motorcycle in the early 80s, and in the 60s there were a couple of electrical surplus stores along 4th where Dad and I went to get parts that he used to repair things around the house. We also took the train from King Street Station to Jamestown, North Dakota many times in the 60s and 70s to visit Mom’s family. I’ve found myself on 4th Avenue repeatedly my entire life, now that I think about it. The Smith Tower is where we donated Grandpa Mahugh’s artificial leg when he died in 1968, right Mom?
I’ll snap a few more next time I’m near that area early or late in the day.
Stone Mountain #2
Megan and I went back to Stone Mountain today to take a long walk and hike to the top, to work off Thanksgiving dinner. We caught the tram down, and the whole experience on the mountain was crowded and noisy. Too many tourists!
We’re heading home tomorrow, so this is probably the last post from this trip. I decided to post pictures every day this week so our mothers could see what we were up to, but after their deafeningly silent response I may not bother next time and just spend that extra half-hour drinking each evening instead. 
Thanksgiving in Alabama
Granny, Aunt Marsha, Megan and I took a road trip from Atlanta to Montgomery today, to visit Gloria and have Thanksgiving dinner with Lyndon, Tomika, Peddie, John-John and Jasmine. And visit Oreo and Brandy, of course.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Goodbye Chicago, Hello Atlanta
The Thanksgiving whirlwind tour continues …
Monday afternoon we took a walk around Evanston and Northwestern University, relived old times at the Keg (I went there a few times when Megan was in grade school), and went out to a spectacular dinner in Uptown with Scott and Larisa:
Then this morning we flew to Atlanta, where we’ve been hanging out with Granny, Marsha, and the dogs Andy and Daisy. I just realized I didn’t take any portraits of Daisy. But Andy’s so darn fun to torment it’s easy to forget she’s around, frankly.
Sorry about the lack of scrolling through the photos this week. I’m on vacation and feeling lazy.
On to Chicago
We had a nice lazy Sunday, watching a bit of the Packers game from a bar in Wisconsin, then the Bears game from a Chicago suburb, then out to dinner with Tom and Lizzy at Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder. Thankfully they now have a smaller size Italian Festa salad, but it was still a feast!
A drizzly day in Evanston now, and the internet connection at the hotel is flaky so I’m posting this from Starbucks while Megan shops nearby. I better go find here before our credit cards are all maxed out.
A night in Milwaukee
I’ve been spending way too much time lately in my office on the Redmond campus, where the view isn’t all that interesting, so this week we’re taking a whirlwind tour of the Midwest and the South, to visit friends and family over the Thanksgiving holiday.
First stop was Milwaukee yesterday. We went to Mo’s Steak House, a Milwaukee institution, and enjoyed cigars in the lounge after dinner, where Jerry the piano player was kind enough to put together a Jimmy Webb medley at my request. Now we’re in Racine at a Starbucks, and soon we’ll be headed to Evanston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Montgomery. More photos to come, I’m sure.
Blurb #2
OK, I’ve uploaded an 80-page book, with almost all pages full-frame shots. It’s essentially the first book (below), with about 30 photos added. Here’s the Blurb “badge” with the links:
Mom, please don’t order a copy. Yours is on the way.
Becoming a Blurbarian
I’ve signed up with Blurb.com and started creating books. Blurb is a web site that has software to let you lay out a book and upload it to their server, and then you can order copies from them. Their niche is “coffee table books” — big colorful books printed on thick paper, in hardback or perfect-bound paperback formats. (Like Robin tried to convince me to do a couple years ago — great idea!)
There’s a limited set of sizes and page layouts available, but for living within this standardization you get something pretty cool: you can order books in quantities as low as 1, for prices that aren’t too atrocious (starting around $20).
I put together a simple 40-page book of travel photos just to test the concept, and it worked great. I uploaded my book late Sunday evening, and Friday morning I had a hardcover and paperback copy in hand. The printing and binding are even nicer than I expected, and the only surprise was that they seem to saturate the colors a bit, so my already saturated shots (I usually shoot in Nikon’s “vivid” mode) are really colorful. No problem, I’ve never been big on subtlety anyway.
I’ve made this first book available to anyone who wants to order a copy, just to see how that works. I selected “no profit” on the pricing, but you can also specify a profit on each book if you want. And I decided this first time around to keep it non-personal, so the only shots of anyone we know are Guillermo on page 32 and Megan’s hand squeezing a lemon wedge on page 25.
I’m planning several more books soon, although the work schedule may not let me get to them for a while. And I’d like to expand this one from 40 to 80 pages, and then add a few dollars profit to each copy. Hey, it takes time to do this stuff! But seriously, I don’t expect to sell many of them, this is mostly for my own use. These books will make nice Christmas presents, or promotional items for various purposes, personal and professional. Let your imagination run wild as they say, ha ha ha.
Meanwhile, here’s a link to my first book: “Doug’s World: Miscellaneous Photos.” They have a preview that Blurb can provide for you, but it only shows the first 15 pages, so here’s a preview of all 40 pages.
The previews are much lower resolution than the real book. For this one I picked mostly high-quality shots: close to full frame, well exposed, and sharp focus. Well, mostly — I included a few shots I like in spite of their technical imperfections, too. That’s what’s nice about a hobby, as opposed to work: you can do whatever you damn well please.
