3 Cousins Meet New Baby Cousin

Cousins, explained

Yesterday three of my grandchildren, Michael, Jack and Maura met their new baby cousin Joseph.

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Their mothers are first cousins as their mothers are sisters so their offspring  share a great grandparent!

Michael, Maura and Jack are first cousins once removed to baby Joseph’s mother but are second cousins to her son Joseph.

Right?

It can be confusing -even looking at the chart

 

 

 

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The Color is What Caught My Eye

Whether it be flowers in a garden, a rainbow in traffic, or colorful cake mixes on the store shelf.

The color is what caught my eye!

Unsure about actual consumption, though.      Here’s how I came to see these boxes of cake mix……

After school, I drove down to the Waterfront to get gas, stock up on provisions. Lunch items to take to school.

Target was right there and I needed more wonderful 8GB Flash Drives that are still at a low, low price.  The ones they keep by the checkout line so you can load up as you head out the door.  Must be an old shipment as the ones up front are two dollars cheaper than the ones in the electronic section in the back.  (Hope I didn’t clue them in and they change the price!)

Now you might already know if you follow the blog,  I really don’t like to eat anything blue

(with the exception of fresh blueberries)

but those fakey blue raspberry popsicles?

Just looking at blue food/icing gives me a shudder down my spine.

But if you need to bake a Smurf cake, the Blue Suede mix might be your answer.

I can definitely see some of these colorful cake mixes as the basis for art/photography projects.

And from what I read on Charm City website,    “Our inspiration comes from everywhere: art, fashion, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, music, and history.”   

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iPhone shots of the cake mix shelves

 

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Inspiration for the colorful cake mixes, created by Duff Goldman

 Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis

Found at least 3 Pink Cadillac songs

Bruce Springsteen,

Natalie Cole, Jerry Lee Lewis

And Prince won an Oscar in 1985 for Purple Rain

 

 

 

 

 

Grateful for Traffic Backup

This post inspired by fellow blogger Colline   – Wednesdays she publishes a “grateful post”.

Last year at school in the final staff meeting, I was awarded the Most Optimistic Award.  I found the little plastic trophy and happy dancing apple in my school cupboard yesterday afternoon and took it out and placed it on my desk.  A reminder to remain optimistic,

It’s a new year so don’t want to rest on my laurels, though.

HA!  (Just this morning my sister was remembering how dad would say that when he wrote to us)

Would be cool to be a repeat for this new school year, I thought to myself and laughed at myself.  A good plan.

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Last June Selfie.  An unexpected award voted by my colleagues- Most Optimistic

On my way home this afternoon, a different route, there’s a bridge out. What a mess.

It means everyone sits and sits,  winds around the corner like snails, waiting to get a quick left turn, the arrow light. It’s a real clog.

I first saw the rainbow on the straightaway and you can see it’s photographed through a tinted windshield.

But then I had to inch up.

What a glorious rainbow.

Were there a parking lot to pull into, I would have done so and gotten the end of the rainbow as it arched into the Allegheny River.

Back in my car since school started, driving around the city  all over the place.

Opportunities to see things I wouldn’t have seen if I were stretched in my hammock on the front porch, sipping a lemonade, reading a book, or knitting for winter.

Today I was grateful for the traffic standstill.  Got to catch a rainbow.  Thanks, Colline. For more posts on Colline’s Gratitude Project, click here.

Rainbow in traffic

 

Uh-oh, can’t see it between the wires as I did when I looked with my eye Interesting wires intersecting.

Rainbow in traffic series 5

It gets better and the traffic winds around the bend.

 

Rainbow in traffic series 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow in traffic series 1

 

 

Rainbow in traffic series 3

And the other half of the rainbow as I made my way in the traffic

 

Ford Explorer Swallowed by Vines

Centre Avenue on the way home from school.  The lush green growth of summer. 

I turned around after I’d passed it by,

pulled over to the curb, waited until the rush hour cars zipped past.

The reflection on the windshield was so bright, the atmosphere muggy, a bit of haze.

I wonder how long it had been parked there.  It is a second generation Ford Explorer somewhere between 1995-2001according to the front grille as a clue.
I wonder how long it had been parked there. It’s a second generation Ford Explorer somewhere between 1995-2001 according to the front grille as a cl

When Flat Ruthie was traveling courtesy of friend Shuey, she learned the origin of Kudzu and how it can grow a foot in a day.

The first photo with the red parking sign seems better but why I shot it so close to the edge of the frame is beyond me and I did it just the once.

Ford Explorer SWalloed by Vines

Industrial Strength

As I left the school today, I noticed the big barrels of janitorial products and a giant mop wringer system.  Ready for action! Industrial Strength Action.

I read the labels and they seemed poetic. Purplematic. Pink Concentrate. iShine.  

Three more days to go.  And the the custodial staff will make the building ready for the new school year.

Our school is a really clean one and you can see why.

 

Mop wringer

 

 

 

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Purplematic

 

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Autumn Leaf Popsicles

 

Woke up this morning to the first snow.

After school there wasn’t much left in the school parking lot, except for these few leaves.

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autumn leaf popsicles 2

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Curb medley of autumn leaves with icy accents.

Autumn Tree in Phillips ParkJust before I got into my car, the sun was sinking in the west at a fast pace.

What I Saw on Reynolds Street Curb

 

 

 

 

After knitting at Ann’s, I drove her other friend to the Frick Market so she could order a fresh turkey.  Right across from Sterrett School.

And when I parked I saw all of these fine items waiting to picked up at the curb.   I talked to the people outside the market and they said they were going to be listed on Craiglist under CURB APPEAL

. It was the fake log fireplace and andirons that set the mood.

 

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Do You Even Think About What You See in the Trash?

Due to Penn Avenue closure, I ended up in a Bloomfield Alley and caught this trash scene with the iPhone as I waited to get out into the main road.

Do you think people get tired of looking at what’s on their wall?

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Cars Driving Uphill Have the Right of Way

….and so when I leave school and I’m driving down Parkfield Street (AKA the Cow Trail) and someone’s driving uphill, the road’s so narrow you have to pull over to the curb and allow the uphill car passage. Even pulled over it can be a tight squeeze.

Wouldn’t you know it, I got lucky on Monday afternoon and as I’m at the curb I look out the passenger window and see the neighborhood of Carrick and St. Basil’s Church up at the top of another hill.   One shot with the window down and then I put the camera back in my school bag and take my foot of the brake and head down the hill as the uphill driver gives a wave of thanks.

Looked up St. Basil‘s story, too.

This shot shows Pittsburgh topography. Hills and more hills.

The trees are full of leaves now. Shot with the Canon 70-200mm lens as I was headed to the  Girl’s Softball game.

Carrick Neighborhood

 

 

 

Not Quite Gilligan’s Island and The Ruins of Something Along Route 28

It was late when I left for home cause I went to photograph the girl’s softball game and

because the Bigelow Blvd. ramp was closed, I had to follow a lengthy detour.

I found myself in bumper to bumper traffic at a standstill on one of the most awful roads- Route 28.         It is ALWAYS under construction.

And there I saw this abandoned boat along the  busy highway.

It took  my mind of my impatience at not being home yet, having to wait.

I wondered how it got there.  To whom did it belong?

It’s like being in a coffee shop and suddenly understanding why someone writing a screenplay is sitting there, working.  A snippet of conversation overheard. You write a script.  You get ideas.

I heard the guy say to the woman at the next table, “You have a certain lyrical unexpectedness.”  (inaudible response from her) Him again, ” I played in a bar last night.”

So what’s the story of the boat?  And the next scene just a few feet later, a few more car lengths down?

abandoned boat

or the next scene when the traffic stopped again.  These scenes  just make you wonder.

Or if I hadn’t been stopped, would I have seen them?

Architectural Ruins