Day 195/365 - April Bower

For this week's self-portrait we have this shot of me under a canopy of pink cherry blossoms in a grove of trees between Capitol Hill and Union Station in Washington, DC. Honestly, I wasn't intentionally trying to look like Eraserhead here.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 186/365 - Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everybunny!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 174/365 - Cherry Blossom Time in DC

The cherry blossom trees have started to bloom in Washington, DC. The blossoms will only last for about another week, so I decided to make the most of the clear skies and warm weather today and walk home. My path home takes me right along the edge of the Tidal Basin and through the main grove of cherry blossom trees. The trees were a gift from Japan to the United States and, although they don't actually produce any cherries, they do put on a beautiful display each year in early Spring.

If you've never seen the cherry blossoms before they are an amazing sight. I've been here ten years and they still astound me. The day I get so jaded that they stop astounding me is the day I need to turn my eyes back in and let them give them to someone else who will make better use of them. Most of the cherry blossoms are a brilliant white, but some are a light pink. They make the trees look like they're full of snow or cotton candy and then when the wind blows some of the petals pull loose and tumble and flutter along on the breeze like snowflakes made of satin.

As someone I know said: "thanks, Japan, for the trees."

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Fairy Tale Tree

For this week's bonus shot we have a picture I took of a tree and bird's nest on the DC Social Flickr group photowalk yesterday. I love the way this shot turned out. It looks like it belongs in a scene from a fairy tale movie.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 111/365 - Snow Day

Today we got our first real snow of the winter. It was only a couple inches, but that's more snow than we've seen around here for the past few years.

I'm still trying to shake my cold so I took a sick day today, but then when it started snowing I had to go out and take some photos. This might be my only chance to take pictures of snow this winter so I figured I'd better make the most of it, cold or no cold.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - The Sea Inside

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took at the aquarium in Chicago when I went there to see the Nats play the Cubs in May 2006 (they lost, go figure). Chicago is a terrific city and a place I wouldn't mind living (although, granted, I've never been there during wintertime).

In this shot, I liked the way the aquarium pool verged on Lake Michigan with (seemingly) only the glass wall to separate them.

(Taken with my old Canon SuperShot 400)

Day 76/365 - Tag, I'm It

For this week's self-portrait I decided to get in the Christmas spirit and shoot my reflection in one of the ornaments on the tree in the lobby of my apartment complex. Also, because I was tagged on Flickr by Picture Prefect, it's now my turn to reveal sixteen random facts about myself and this seemed like a good occasion to do so.

And so here they are:

1. I was once hoisted up into a helicopter that was hovering fifty feet above the deck of a ship at sea.
2. I used to have two earrings and a body piercing, but I quit wearing them about a year ago.
3. I took fencing and bowling classes for PE credit in college and sucked at both.
4. I love musicals.
5. I once had dinner at a restaurant one table over from Condoleeza Rice and totally eavesdropped on her conversations.
6. I've been through the Panama Canal.
7. My driver's license expired about eight years ago and I never bothered to get it renewed (obviously I don't drive).
8. I once chewed the same piece of blueberry Hubba Bubba bubblegum for three days straight (it turned white eventually).
9. I've skydived and bungee jumped, but social situations scare the hell outta me.
10. Until I was halfway through college, I thought the word 'pseudo' was pronounced 'puh-sway-do'
11. I sat three rows in front of Colin Powell for opening night of 'Mamma Mia' at the National Theatre and didn't realize it until I got up to leave at the end.
12. I'm terrified of dancing but secretly wish I knew how.
13. I used to write short stories for fun in high school and college but stopped (I still think up ideas for stories but never actually do anything with them).
14. I'm really good at building a fire (both fireplace and camp fire).
15. I once stepped on the end of a hoe and the handle swung up and whacked me in the face just like in cartoons and Three Stooges shorts and I wound up having to get stitches in my eyebrow.
16. I'm ridiculously over-organized (you have no idea how much time I put into compiling and revising this list).

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Merry Christmas

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot of a Christmas tree in the waiting room of the 30th Street train station in Philadelphia. I took this picture when I went up to Philly for the Army-Navy game in 2004. Merry Christmas!

(Taken with my old Canon PowerShot S400)

Day 71/365 - A Capitol Christmas

This is the Christmas tree that stands in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC as mirrored in the waters of the reflecting pool. I set the self-timer on my camera and put it on the edge of the reflecting pool basin and let it do its thing in order to avoid winding up with a shaky, blurry shot. Wish I'd bothered first to make sure I had the camera straight. There were some people there with a tripod though and I was getting in the way of their shot so I tried to be quick about it.

Even though there's only one week left until Christmas Day I still haven't been able to muster up a lot of holiday spirit yet. Once you become an adult you kind of lose Christmas a little and I don't think you fully get it back again until you have kids. You can recapture a bit of it by going home for the holidays, but during those years where you don't go back and spend the day with your family, Christmas just winds up sort of empty feeling.

Tomorrow night though I'm going to see It's a Wonderful Life at the AFI Silver, a really cool art deco movie palace in Silver Spring, and I'm hoping that will help jump start my Christmas spirit. It's my favorite movie ever and I've never seen it in an actual theater before, so I'm pretty excited.

Remember, every time a bell rings an angel gets his (or her) wings.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 64/365 - String of Pearls

I liked the way these raindrops looked clinging to the branches of the trees growing in the courtyard of my apartment complex, so I grabbed my camera and an umbrella and headed outdoors. It was the first time I'd been out of my apartment all day. I have an appeal response I have to file Monday, so I lugged a bunch of files home with me last night and spent today working at home.

There's nothing quite like practicing law on your couch in a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. I'm lucky in that my boss is really cool about letting me telecommute whenever I want. I always manage to get way more done at home than I would in the office. It's partly because of fewer interruptions, and I think partly because I feel less inclined to take a break at home. At work I'm almost always looking for an excuse to take a break.

It's been rainy and grey here for two days now, and yesterday it was uber-humid. It's been more like Spring in Washington state than the verge of Winter in Washington, DC. It's December -- it should be snowing rather than raining. You can't make a rain man or rain angels or have a rain ball fight. I want a white Christmas, not a wet Christmas.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 8/365 - Autumn Has Fallen

Autumn has definitely arrived in Washington, DC. I went for a walk on the National Mall at lunch today and noticed this tree near the National Museum of the American Indian that was ablaze with color. I love Autumn. It's definitely my favorite time of year. There's always so much new and exciting change going on in Autumn, even more so than in Spring I think.

For me, Fall always marked the start of the new school year with the attendant shopping for new clothes and supplies, the start of football season, the start of the new tv season, and the build-up to Halloween and Thanksgiving (two of my favorite holidays). Plus I love the cooler weather and being able to wear jackets and sweatshirts again. Fall brings apple cider and pumpkin pies and trees dressed in technicolor dreamcoats -- leaves fluttering through the air like feathers and rustling as they blow across the sidewalks and streets.

Although I did really hate having to rake leaves as a kid, so Autumn has that going against it. Now that I live in an apartment building though, I don't have to worry about that anymore. It's all good!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)