Piper seems to be doing well. She is definitely acting like her spunky self, again. We went to visit her very early today, and were able to have several quality hours with her. We can tell that she is still trying to shake the final stages of the bug that was causing her so much trouble earlier last week. But, it really didn’t seem to affect her demeanor.

Piper’s new thing is TV. Especially, she seems to love Dora. Her little roommate has a TV on the wall that Piper can also see, when she is laying on her side.  It is pretty funny to see what she reacts to. I think that she is still trying to figure out the appropriate parts of the show to laugh or smile at. I have always been a pretty strong opponent of laugh tracks. But, now, I don’t know. It seems like they could actually come in handy for Piper. I’m sure that she will get the hang of TV-watching eventually.

Below: practicing her walking; and, fixated on the television.

Here, for a couple more shots from Sunday morning.

I had to be in the office for a while on Saturday. When I arrived downtown, it was late afternoon, and it was like a ghost town. It was totally freezing outside. The only people that I really saw were occasional groups of tourists. The sun was totally lighting up the west side of the downtown post office. So I stopped to take this shot. Not the first time I have had fun with this piece. I walk past it almost every day, at least once. So, why not?

What is even better, is that after I got this shot, I was packing everything bag into my bag, when a group of tourists who were kind of off to the side watching me pulled in right behind me and started breaking out their cameras. Like run-on sentences much? This is why that’s funny (the incident, not the fact that it was expressed in a run-on sentence, it’s pretty obvious why that’s funny).

Below is a detail from the shot above.

For the title, I was going to use “this n’ that,” again. But, I already used that earlier this week. “Ramble on” works better anyway, because it kind of invokes the Led Zeppelin song. Here is le scoop:

• Piper wasn’t feeling too hot earlier this week. Apparently she had a minor case of pneumonia. Luckily it wasn’t serious enough for a trip back to the ICU. According to reports from her nurses, she has been doing a lot better, since she started antibiotics. I’m glad that Reagan will be able to hang out with her tomorrow.
• Reagan and I redesigned her Blob, this week. I always love it when I can trick Reagan into collaborating on a nerdy project with me. It almost always goes the same way. She gives me all of the directions, then generally gets bored during the nuts and bolts of doing the actual coding and testing. She gets frustrated, says never mind, and leaves the room. Hahaha.
• It is supposed to snow again in the morning. Apparently it was snowing last year on Jan 8, as well.
• When Reagan’s Parents came to visit, they brought me some new reading material. The book that I chose to start this week is called “The Great Bridge.” It is another one of David McCullough’s compilations of historical facts. This one is about the Brooklyn Bridge and the father/son team who conceived and built it. So far, I’m really enjoying it. BTW, me starting a new book is the only thing that the photo above (shot in a RJ bookstore last Nov.) has to do with anything in this post. That last sentence was a mouthful. It does seem kind of fitting that I happened to photograph the “history” section of the bookstore, though. It’s like I saw the future, and knew that I was going to need a photo of history books. Hahahah. Ok, it’s not really like that at all.
• I plan to do some running in the evening, for the first time since early December. Ughhhhh. I have really just let things slip much too far. But I built a new playlist to get me motivated. In fact it is uploading to de J-pod as I am typing these words. It will also be a nice way to break up the day, since I’m predicting a pretty late night at work.
• Reagan and I are taking a trip to VT for snowboarding, next weekend. It will be nice after having been relegated to the gently sloping icy confines of Mountain Creek all season, last year.
• I may be getting booked to shoot a very exciting (to me) photo gig, coming in Feb. I’m hoping that it pans out.

I’m always amazed by the way that this chica can look hot doing just about anything (including bogarting the final mini-guarana that came back from Brazil with us). Antartica Refrigerante de Guarana, forevah. We may or may not have made out after I took these photos.

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First of all, sorry in advance. It is that time of day where I feel like everything that I bang out on the keyboard it hilarious/awesome, even though in reality it is total crap and laden with typos. It’s like punch drunk mixed with invincibility.

Getting to the point: I mean, you have to love a band that is named after a song, right? Keeping with the electronica theme, this week, we are listening to Ladytron. I first discovered Ladytron, on snowboarding videos. Yes, snowboarding videos. I don’t remember which video, but I thing the song was “Flicking your Switch,” which is still probably my favorite Ladytron track. Since that day, I have grown to like Ladytron so much, that when I’m in the right mood, I find myself skipping every track not by them, on the Ladytron Pandora Station.

Their sound has changed a bit, over the last decade. Their first album “604″ was super raw, almost to the point of too-much Casio. They have since developed a much more refined sound. The single “Ghosts” from their latest album “Velocifero” almost has a Portishead feel to it. The stuff that I like the best, falls right in the middle. The track that I’m sharing is from “604.” The name of the track like the band’s name, also contains the word “lady.” It is entitled “Ladybird.” Check it.

As a side note: Last week I meant to link to this site Musicritics.com, which is a golden font of trance music, complete with commentary. I have gotten to know one of the authors, Andre, a little bit over the past few months. Anyway check it out, for some solid content.

I was working on Reagy’s website and I got up to take a bathroom break. As I was standing there, I looked up and saw la luna peering through top of the window at me. I thought I may as well have some photo fun. The first one is with a 40mm at f/22 for like 18 seconds. The second one is 200mm, also f/22 for like 1/6th of a second, both were shot at 200 iso. I wish that I could have dialed in the focus a little bit sharper on the second one.

It was really nice not having to work, this week. Reagan, unfortunately was not able to get out of work on Thursday. So, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Reagan’s Parents. One of the great things about having family come from out of town, is that it gives me a good excuse to do things that I probably wouldn’t normally find time to do. I haven’t been to the Met, since Reagan and I have been married. It was a lot of fun.

Below, left to right: Walking through CP after a fresh snow; European painting section of the Met; and, Greek sculpture section of the Met.

Saturday morning, Reagan and her mom wanted to go shopping at some of the stores in Rockefeller Plaza. So her dad and I decided to check out the observation deck on the top of 30 Rockefeller, to kill some time. It was very cool. Even though it was overcast, the clouds were high enough that the visibility was really good. The temperature was in the low 20′s and the wind was gusting pretty strongly. But, it was still a very enjoyable experience. Below are a couple of my favorite shots from Top of the Rock.

Above:  somebody in their fur-trim snorkel jacket, shooting the Empire State Building. Below: Central Park and the UWS. Toward the top of the frame, you can see where it was starting to snow, in Harlem. Also, just for kicks, I uploaded a full resolution image of the UWS, in case you want to try to spot your house.

Here are a few more shots from the Met and Top of the Rock.

On New Year’s Day, we showed up to visit Piper, and she was apparently still partying from the night before.

We are still trying to get used to her new place. It has been really good to be able to visit her so much since she moved. We were able to have some really great visits with her Baker grandparents.

Click through here, for some more shots of hanging out with Piper on New Year’s Day.