Carlsbad Caverns T – 21 Days
If you have never been to Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico, you must visit if you are ever in the area.
Snakes, Kitties, Lizards, Flowers & Hoodoos T – 22 Days
Me with Red and Blue
Nick
Guildenstern & Tristan
Nick and Rosencrantz
Stretch
Guildenstern
Bun Bun
Collard Lizrd
Cama cama cama cama cama Chameleon
Chameleon
Snow on casita 2005 (the casita was demolished in 2012)
Rosencrantz following Laurie in the snow
Hoodoos
badlands
Big Bend and Roses T – 24 Days
The photos on 24th day before 2016 are of Big Bend, Texas and award winning rose arrangements by me, Laurie and Tristan.
In another life I won awards for rose arrangements.
Laurie won Queen of Show with this arrangement
Tristan put this arrangement together using all dried roses
I put this arrangement together in a clear vase, which is much more challenging
I did this arrangement with a borrowed pot, using up left over roses and fill
I used Hot Cocoa for this arrangement and used another clear vase
The Preacher's Daughter T – 25 Days
Five years ago, I beat the odds, so it's fitting that for the first of my Advent-style countdown to the end of the year, I am posting photos of another Burqueño who beat the odds to become the UFC Bantamweight World Champion. Holly Holm, The Preacher's Daughter, defeated the formerly unbeaten UFC World Champion Ronda Rousey on November 15, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. Holly is the first professional fighter to hold world titles in both boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA). There was a home coming parade and celebration in Downtown Albuquerque yesterday, December 6, 2015.
Young fans "heart" Holly
Crowds at Central and 4th Street, Downtown Albuquerque
A fashionable young Holly fan
Another Holly Fan
Crowds lining Central Avenue (old Route 66) in Downtown Albuquerque
APD's Mounted Patrol were on big, beautiful horses
A packed Civic Plaza
Singing the National Anthem.
Holly takes a selfie with a packed Civic Plaza behind her.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez giving Holly a gift after proclaiming Dec 6 as Holly Holm Day for the State of New Mexico.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry thanking Holly after giving her a proclamation for Holly Holm Day and November as Holly Holm Month in Albuquerque.
Holly told her story, talked about her training, coaches, family and all the support she has received from her fans from Albuquerque and New Mexico
Holly talking to her a adoring fans
Holly's father is also an auctioneer (left). Holly started the auction of the photo of her knockout kick at $1000. All proceeds went to the Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home.
The winning bid for the Knockout Kick was $8000
The winning bid for this photos was $7000
The Noms
Cha, Cha, Changes T – 26 Days
A photo I took on July 10, 2010
What eventually turned into Photo of the Day, Etc. began on CaringBridge on July 10, 2010, That post read:
"By Timothy Price — Jul 10, 2010 6:35pm
I had my first treatment on Friday, July 9th. This was rituxan, which is used to help break up the tumors to help the chemo to be more effective. Since the type of Lymphoma I have has the CD20 antigen, rituxan can be used. Rituxan is a genetically engineered chimeric murine/human monoclonal IgG1 kappa antibody directed against the CD20 antigen. It is made using the ovaries of Chinese hamsters.
The doctor separated the first round of rituxan from the first round of chemo to see how I would react to the treatment. Apparently, many people have a very adverse reaction to the murine. I had absolutely no reaction over the 7 hour long treatment. Maybe all those years of handling rats, mice and hamsters has made me tolerant of murine.
I'll see how I react to the chemo on Tuesday."
Since my first blog post above, I have blogged daily, one post every single day, on one of four blog platforms since July 10, 2010. The end of December will mark 2000 consecutive days posting my blog.
Tomorrow, December 7th, is 25 days before the end of 2015, so I'm going to treat the last 25 days of 2015 like an Advent Calendar. I will post 25 photos tomorrow, 24 the next day ,23 the next, and so on until I post one last photo on December 31st. The posts will include a variety of photos from when I first started doing digital photography in 2003 to the present. Some days may be all old photos, never before published, while other days might be a mix of old and new photos, and others days may be all new photos mixed up or as part of a theme. After the start of the new year, I'm going to change from a daily blog to some other schedule.
Speaking of rodents, I ran across this one last night. Can anyone guess what it is?
Brown Coat
Spraying plaster over the scratch coat and smoothing it out to make the brown coat.
I explained the scratch and brown coat process in the November 24th post at http://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/11/scratch-coat. Today's post gives a closer view of the brown coat getting applied over the scratch coat.
Smoothing out the brown coat
The darker plaster is the fresh brown coat, the lighter plaster under the workers is the dried scratch coat
Closer view of the brown coat being applied over the scratch coat
Worker unloading boxes of drywall putty for taping joints on the interior walls. You can see the raw siding and the chicken wire waiting for the tar paper to be tacked onto the siding before they can apply the scratch coat to this section of the building.
A Horse With No Name
"Oh horse hockey! Who's this stupid, pesky paparazzo?"
"What? I'll be Famous?"
"Now you're talking!"
Fall Colors
On a walk on the ditch in Corrales yesterday, I noticed the fall colors were still holding on despite the cold nights.
A Little Bit of Blue
Considering Blue is about 8 feet long, Tristan only has a little bit of Blue in these photos. All of the photos are shot at ƒ/1.4, so they have a shallow depth-of-field.
Of Dogs and Doppelgängers
Of Dogs
Just shy of a week ago, an old yellow lab came knocking at the door asking to come inside. The cats said "No!" and he sat outside looking pathetic. Determined to get inside, he took the door handle in his mouth, turned it and pulled on the door, but the door was still sticking from the rain, and he was not strong enough to pull it open. He didn't have a collar and he didn't want to find his way home, so I started calling around to see if any of our neighbors knew who he belonged to. No one knew who the dog belonged to so I called Animal Control to see if a yellow lab had been reported missing, but Animal Control had closed for the day. After a few more calls, I was told no labs had been reported missing, and I was given the number for dispatch. About 30 minutes after describing the dog to a dispatcher, a police officer showed up. The officer said he recognized the dog, but he didn't know who it belonged to. Old Yellow eagerly jumped into the patrol car and the officer told me he was taking the dog to the kennel, where they could check for a microchip, and the dog could have a warm place to stay until the owner was found. About 30 minutes after the officer drove off with the dog, one of our neighbor's knocked on the door with the dog's owner. She was walking her dogs when Old Yellow's owner stopped and asked if she had seen a yellow lab. They took off for the kennel after I explained what had happened. The next day, my neighbor said they drove straight over to the kennel (only a mile from our house), and the office had not dropped the dog off before they got there. Apparently the officer was making his rounds with Old Yellow keeping him company. They called dispatch, and my neighbor went home, so she assumed that the officer ended up taking the dog home instead of to the kennel in the end.
Diné poofed-up and ready to defend her turf
Of Doppelgängers
Laurie was on the treadmill when I heard her say "Oh! Who are you?" She said a tiger-striped kitty that looked like a light-colored, ghostly Spunk came up to the glass in the door and looked right at her. I went out on the deck, turned on the lights and called "Kitty kitty!" but I didn't see or hear a cat. I came back inside and called Spunk, and he came running from the catio poofed-up from head to tail looking nervously out of the glass in the French doors, and anxiously pacing back and forth. I stretched out on the couch and Spunk snuggled up on me and stayed snuggle on me for an hour or so until I got up. After that, he stayed very close to me and Laurie, and got on my lap whenever I sat down. We decided he had come face to face with his doppelgänger, and was very disturbed by the experience.
Black Pads Friday
While the shoppers go wild, I'm staying home with the cats.
Tesla, my brother-in-law's cat, wearing his bowtie