B-4

This will have to suffice as Tasha's "before" shot. She looks a little shaggy. I'll post an "after" shot tomorrow. I took a few yesterday, but I'm not happy with them. Tasha would not sit still enough. I put her in a "sit/stay" to take the picture. She's very good at sitting, not so good at staying.

Tasha pauses by the lone walnut tree during our morning walk. Her back end and feet really need a trim.

We're enjoying dry, sunny, and relatively warm weather! I don't want you to think that I only mention the weather when it's bad. Yard work isn't happening yet, but we'll get there. I hope.

A March sunrise

What's that old saying about a red sky at morning? I hope all the sailors in our neighborhood took warning. I wish the saying was "red sky at morning, temperatures warming." And they actually are!

The sailors probably weren't delighted yesterday.

Tasha's grooming went well yesterday. Remember, back in November (Tasha's previous grooming session), I was attacked by a rogue goat. No such problems yesterday. Tasha's clean and trimmed. I should take a photo.

A quick one

Tasha's groomer arrives at nine this morning, and I have to walk her before that, so I don't have much time for posting. Of couse, Smart WCS would have prepared the post yesterday, but he was nowhere to be found.

The back, or eastern façade. of the D&H Building, Albany, NY, May 2016.

This is SUNY Plaza, the administrative headquarters of the State University of New York since 1978. It was completed in 1918 as the HQ for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company. To me, it will always be the D&H building.

Feeling groovy?

Or not. There's no "Livingston Avenue Bridge" song. The bridge carries no cars. Just trains. It connects the north end of Albany (The Warehouse District) with the Amtrak station across the river.* Trains run daily from that station south to NYC (Penn Station), north to Montréal, east to Boston, and west to Chicago (the Lake Shore Limited). The bridge is in bad shape and, from what I've read, is going to be replaced in the near future. The new bridge will accommodate cyclists and pedestrians, connecting to riverfront parks on the Albany side, but no cars.

Looking downstream toward downtown Albany, May 2016.

* A subject for another day. Albany's beautiful Union Station was abandoned in 1968 for a new station across the river (plenty of parking!), but was thankfully not demolished. It still stands and has been repurposed as an office building.

Somewhat tall

This building, with its forty-four floors, is the Corning Tower in downtown Albany, NY. When completed in 1973, it was the tallest building in New York State outside of New York City. According to Wikipedia, it still holds that title. To get this shot, I stood in what is unceremoniously called The Parking Lot District. Cars park on the vacant land left when the neighborhood's commercial and residential buildings were demolished to make way for a sprawling freeway interchange. I read somewhere that there is a project in the works to redevelop parts of the district, but that the landowners who operate the parking lots are, naturally, opposed. I'm not sure where in the planning process that project is these days.

Some parking structures were built in recent years, but much of the district remains as surface lots.

It's still cold outside, but there's hope for a warm up in the coming week. Let's cross our fingers.

Close encounter

Is that the sun, or have the aliens arrived? This view is westerly out over the vineyards, last Thursday afternoon, during my walk with Tasha.

It's the sun, right? Right?

Glad March is finally here. Still, it's 2.2ºC (about 36ºF) out there this morning.

Meatball pizza

This is one of the better pizzas that I've made. If you read Ken's blog, you know that he made Swedish Meatballs a few days ago with great success. So, talking about what to do with the surplus, we hit on the idea of putting them on pizza. We cut a dozen meatballs in half for our pizzas. I made my usual pizza dough (enough for two pizzas), then topped each with tomato sauce, dried oregano, some comté cheese, mozzarella, mushrooms, black olives and, of course, the meatballs. We devoured them.

The first of two meatball pizzas. Yum!

Most of yesterday was sunny and beautiful, if not a little chilly. It is still February after all, at least until midnight. March is a notorious month for unsettled weather in France. wind blown rain (sometimes snow) squalls are the norm; they're called les giboulées de mars (March showers -- the equivalent of April showers in the US).