Yesterday: a software demo in a hotel next to a fancy shopping center I'd never
visited, then an afternoon off. A tasty but ridiculously expensive lunch in said
center. A visit to the Poisoned Pen, a
mystery bookstore I'd never been to either, where I picked up a copy of Barbara
Hambly's Day of the Dead. (I'd planned to wait for paperback but -- score!!
-- they had a signed copy. Given that I never sell books unless they're absolutely
awful, I have no idea why it makes me happy to know that in five years it will be
worth twice what I paid for it.) Next, an hour and a half with Janice, student
masseuse extraordinaire with a soft voice and strong hands, then a stop to pick up
the film from Death Valley, where I caved in to a combination of exasperation and
holiday-shopping-mode and bought us a light table and loupe. I'm sick and tired of
looking and slides in a one-at-a-time viewer, and given that Rudder's bought ten
rolls of film for Antarctica, I think it's time for better way.
There
were some good shots in the Death Valley batch, though as usual we disagree on
which ones they were. One of my favorites is of me in the dry chute of a seasonal
waterfall. You can see the whole chute and a bit of sky at the top with light
coming down; I'm tiny, maybe a tenth the height of the chute, dressed all in black
and looking up. My other favorite is the Devil's Golf Course, which is a flat
plain full of rough stubby salt formations. You're looking across the plain at a
mountain with sunrise light on it and snow on the top; the mountains are fuzzy and
the salt formations crystal clear. Rudder likes the waterfall pic but says "It
looks better smaller," i.e. not magnified in the loupe, and prefers a similar shot
of the Golf Course where the whole scene is in focus. Pah. The man has no artistic
sense.
(The long-time reader, or the long-married one, will correctly
interpret this to mean "He doesn't like what I like.")
Unfortunately
we didn't get these pictures put on CD-ROM or I'd post them and take a poll. We
probably will digitize the best along with our Antarctic shots when we get back,
so maybe I'll do it then.
Today was back to work, but did include a
lunch out with most of my department. Paid for, even.