#55) Botanical building in Balboa Park

I love Balboa Park. The Botanical building is a real treat. It opened in 1915 and is one of a kind.

Inside is magical

See what I mean?

One of the gazillion orchids: The light was not very good and so I didn't really get very many good close-up flower shots that were all that good.

#55) Skateworld

My kids like to rollerblade. They love it. For several days, they have asked me to take them to "Skateworld" --- It's an ugly-quonset-hut-building, located in the Asian part of town. It has no parking lot and for the last decade, the city has been threatening to tear it down. It smells like sweat and stale cigarettes from the '70's and has the worst sound system imaginable. Miley Cyrus belting out Disney-kids-tunes, followed by Justin Bieber, screaming "Baby-baby-bay---Ooooo"... but in an echo chamber, at the bottom of a well, tin-can-quonset-hut-gone to hell-horror-show... It made me wanna cry.

I survived. Yes I did.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hit-and-run-roller-rink-from hell.

#51,) (52,) (53) & (54)

Today, while the internet was down, my son, Ian, & I went shopping. We made a stop at Fry's Electronics, which is about 3 or 4 city blocks from our front door, then onto the produce market and finally a stop at Vons. While we were at the produce market, I gave my iPhone to Ian and asked him to take some pictures of the produce from his vantage point. I asked him to look for color, contrasting shapes, angles and parallel lines. He did such a great job, I am going to post some of them as my Picture a Day post. Giving full credit to Ian.

Here's Ian, Guest photographer:

Carrots:

Asparagus & Tangelos:

Tomatoes:

Peppers:

Update - Why I've been A.F.K. (Away From Keyboard)

Here is an explanation of why I haven't been keeping up with my blog this week... Reason Number (1) It all started when I spilled a drink on my Macbook Pro keyboard... Ahhhh! I shorted out the keyboard which led to a number of issues. The main problem being, that one of the keys is stuck down, canceling out all other key operations and causing every, single, document and application to open at mind numbing speed. I've been waiting for several days for the replacement keyboard to arrive from Huntsville, Alabama. I've been tracking the keyboards journey via the USPS Priority Mail Tracking System, using my iPhone (remember, my computer is not useable?) --- I've been keeping up with my email and Facebook using my iPhone but Blogger and iPhone are not really great friends. Well, I tracked the keyboard and it is on a United States Postal vehicle and is out for delivery today. Yay! But, wait... THAT'S NOT ALL... I have to wait until Monday to have the keyboard installed - A friend, who is also an Apple Tech, (Ultra-Tech-Geek) is going to do the tricky installation - Apple has a habit of using its own tooled screws for its products. They do this so people can not service their own equipment... But there is always a third party, tool & die maker, who makes a tool that works on the exotic, little screws. I have zero interest in buying the screwdriver set and taking the Macbook Pro apart. There are a whole-lot-a screws in a 15” Macbook Pro... In one article I found, it said there are 50 screws involved in replacing the keyboard. Really Apple? 50 screws?

After waiting for the internet to come back up, the USPS delivered the keyboard:

I finally realized that I could use my daughters’ Macbook but prying it from her hands is almost impossible. (I almost cried so she let me use it.)

Then, there’s another little problem. Reason Number (2) Our high-speed, internet connection has been miserable. Time warner so sucks. It drops off constantly. It is unreliable. It makes Pull Up A Chair cry. In fact, right now, as I write this, the internet is, once again, totally and officially fucked up. I had to stop writing on the Blogger® site and move the text into my word processing program and start writing my own little HTML codes for things like italics and bold which also makes Pull Up A Chair cry.

This all proves one thing. Drinking and using a laptop should never, ever, ever meet. I knew this. I did. But I did it anyway. What a moron I am. And, since Time Warner® has been a ginormous pain in the ass, I’ve been relying on my 3g on my iPhone... So guess what...???? I just now got a text from those “lovely” ROBO-people at AT&T, telling me I have used up 65% of my data plan and reminding me that wifi is free... No-shit AT&T. Tell that to Time Warner.

#50) Aloe

These things grow like weeds... Seriously.

#49) Spicy Carrots

That's right, spicy carrots.

#48) Columns at the Park

It was a rainy night here. I doubted I could get a decent photo... After all, it's all about the light. I managed to get several images that I really like. This is one of them.

#47) Gently Weeps

During guitar class today.

#46) Keyboard

I liked this image so much I am using it as my profile pic on Facebook.

#45) Guitar

My daughters guitar was my photo victim today. It's a Baby Taylor - My son has one too. It's kind of like The Partridge Family without the horror of Danny Bonaduce.

#44) Happy Valentines Day

I have 3 bougainvilleas in the back yard. Two are gigantic now. I planted them 10 years ago. They haven't always been happy though. about 4 years ago we had an extraordinarily cold winter and all three bougainvilleas died off to the ground. One did not come back but the other two made a real strong comeback. I replanted the third plant but for some reason it has never done well. I think it's because it's on the fence to the south and it hates that neighbor.

#43) View of The Prado

I took this today a little after 4:00 p.m. - It was warm, wonderful and reminded me why I love it here.

#42) Some Kind of Succulent

#41) Purple Flower Bud

This pretty, little flower is about to open. It is all alone, probably confused by the warm spring-like days here.

#40) Jacqui at the Park

Okay - I happen to like this picture because it shows Jacqui's innocence it a very unassuming way. Very natural and totally unposed.

#39) Downtown Trolley at Night

I am posting both the original photo and the enhanced, B&W version of this photo.

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#38) Big Ficus Tree

It's big, it's a tree. It's in Balboa Park. It's about 78º here today. It's glorious. Today is Superbowl. We have the TV tuned to the obligatory channel. (I'd rather be outside.)

#37) Façade at Balboa Park

I took this picture last night at Balboa Park. It is obviously enhanced. I like to call it artsy.

#36) Garden Fairy

She is on my front porch. She has been reading that book for over 8 years. Poor thing.

#35) Black & White & Silver World

Looking through the old gate at the outside world. Southern California, Cookie cutter houses that were slapped up post WWII to accommodate the huge military influx who settled in our town to escape the brutal winters in other parts of the country.

#34) Ginger Cat

This is my ginger colored cat, Curtis. He is the nicest cat ever. Very sweet and gentle. Don't worry, this blog will never turn into a crazy cat-lady blog.

#33) Pomegranate

My children are home-schooled and we have to do an art project every month. I decided we would do a photo still life. For this I used my Canon Powershot S5IS camera and my kids used their cameras. These are two of the pictures I took.