Leap Day

I can't believe I didn't take a picture on a day that only comes every four years, but I was busy gardening and cleaning out email on my day off. So to commemorate this special day, I've created a small collection of pictures of the bulbs that are blooming in the front yard. I used this cool widget I learned about in my MCLS Web 2.0 class - just click on the picture to shuffle through the stack:

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Ventura CROP Hunger Walk 2008

It's time to start recruiting walkers - we're holding this year's CROP Kickoff this coming Sunday at 2pm. Although the walk will begin and end at the usual place, Ventura First United Methodist Church, the Walk to Emmaus is using the church this weekend so we're holding the kickoff at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Ralston. Join us on April 13th!

These videos don't mention that 25% of what we raise in Ventura stays in Ventura. The money will go to Project Understanding, Catholic Charities, Family to Family, and FoodShare.

A Total Lunar Eclipse on a Clear Night!

The last total lunar eclipse until 2010 happened tonight and I actually got to see some of it! I was at work but went outside a few times and saw these phases. (After having used the GoodWidgets photo stack on March 1st, I liked it so much I'm re-doing this set of photos so they don't take up so much scrolling time.)

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The disadvantage to these stacks is you can't click on the photos to see them in their original larger size. So I've left the later stages in their own individual shots.
Here are some diagrams from the StarDate Online site that illustrate what happened:
By the time work was over, the moon was coming back:
By the time I got home, the moon was full, and pretty soon, it was in the clouds and back to normal!

Presidents Day Ski Holiday

We just got back from a great four-day holiday to visit and ski with Sam and Jenn. Dick connected with us and we all had a fun time - great spring conditions after the massive snow dumps of a couple of weeks ago! Snow is expected back much of this week, so there will be more when we come back. Click on the title of this posting to see some of our pictures.
I had good and bad things happen camera-wise. I fell on the last run of the day in an ungroomed area of Kirkwood and didn't realize my Pentax Optio had fallen out of my vest pocket (it was so warm I didn't wear my parka with all the good pockets). Hence, all the pictures we posed for were lost. I bought a Flip Video camera in time for the trip and used it for the first time this weekend. The videoclips are really sharp and the sound is pretty good. I'm learning to put clips together using Windows Movie Maker and created this little movie. Now if I could just learn to ski as smoothly as Sam . . .

Microclimates

I like to look at temperatures and weather conditions where I live, play, and visit and I appreciate all the people and organizations who maintain weather stations around the world. It's interesting to see how places just a few miles apart can vary in weather data because of their particular location. That is really apparent whenever Santa Ana or Sundowner winds are in the picture. I noticed this yesterday when it was a very mild 69 degrees at work in South Oxnard and the weather.com magnet told me it was 78 degrees in Ventura. This morning at 6:10, the Weather Underground station in the Ventura Keys shows a temperature of 45.9 degrees with 66% humidity and no breeze, while the station just east of our house between the 101 and the 126 shows 57.3 degrees with 40% humidity and a north-northeast wind that just increased from one to two miles per hour as the sun will be rising soon.