Saturday, July 28, 2007

Fireworks

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago we can see some massive fireworks every Friday from our windows. Well, today we actually went to Coney Island in hopes of taking some close up shots. After waiting from 9:30 to 10 we figured that they got canceled for some reason. However as soon as we started to leave fireworks started.

The shots are far from spectacular again. I still do not know what I’m doing, and I wish there was somebody who could teach me. I’m actually considering taking some photography classes. Just have to get a recommendation from somebody to something local.

In: Photography
Time: 01:49 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, July 27, 2007

Boulder

Отдыхать - хорошо, а хорошо отдыхать - еще лучше! Вот уж не знаю, кому принадлежит сие откровение (русскому народу?), но, согласитесь, сказанно точно!

Любой отдых в Даниной компании для меня в радость. Наша ДеньРождественская поездка не оказалась исключением. А если к мужниному присутствию добавить весёлого Эльдара, его ОЧЕНЬ гостеприимных родителей и бабушку, захватывающе красивые горы, лето и наши 77 лет на троих, то становится понятным, почему так грустно было уезжать из Колорадо. Read more…

In: Travel
Time: 18:55 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Colorado

It’s the end of the last day of our vacation in Colorado. We’ve haven’t been keeping the blog up to date because there really was no free time at all. Each day was filled with so much activities that we barely had enough time to sleep.

We spent two days in Breckenridge. We ended up in a really awesome resort. I’ll just say that it had 3 pools, 8 jacuzzis and our room had a fireplace and a balcony. We originally planned to stay there for a day, but we decided to extend the stay.

On our way there Eldar took a scenic route through the Rocky Mountains National Park. There are so many beautiful views there that we ended up with over 300 pictures. We’ve spent several hours trying to trim the collection up as much as possible before uploading it.

In Boulder Eldar’s parents were really great. It always is such a pleasure to stay at their house. They are probably the most hospitable people I know.

P.S. We’ll try to make more posts about this trip later with more details.

In: Travel
Time: 04:38 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

The City of Manhattan

You can often hear a term “the city” from new yorkers. It takes some time to figure out that by “the city” they mean specifically Manhattan, and by no means Brooklyn, Queens, or Bronx. I’m sure that no-one would argue that every borough has it’s character (or energy, or flavor, or mood - whatever description fits your understanding of it).

For me Manhattan is more busy, snobby, festive, loud, expensive, bright, or in other words more crazy than Brooklyn (where as you all know we happened to live). I’m not sure that I would want to live in Manhattan even if the property there wasn’t so expensive. One thing is work, and another is serenity of one’s home.

We have a couple of friends though who just moved to Manhattan and really love it! Tonight they invited us for dinner and we had a great time! Hope they will continue to enjoy living in the city and will eventually buy an apartment of their own.

In: Life In General
Time: 02:34 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

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Friday, July 13, 2007

Friday Night Exhaustion

I often feel complete exhausted towards the end of the work week, and this Friday is no exception. Today was a hard day at work, trying to get another project ready for release. Then there is a mandatory “being-stuck-in-traffic-for-two-hours” on my way home. However one good thing came out of today’s traffic. I took a snapshot of a funny plate using my phone. Took about 10 pictures and the last one came out readable.

Also we noticed that there are some really massive fireworks being shot from somewhere nearby on every Friday night. I did a little searching and found that it’s going to keep happening all the way until the Labor Day weekend. They are being fired from the beach on the Coney Island from 9:30pm to 10pm. We’re going to try and go out the week after we get back from Colorado, and I’m going to practice my fireworks picture taking.

I’m glad the weekend is here. Two days to relax and then the cycle starts again.

In: Life In General
Time: 22:53 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Relaxing Music

I’ve added a couple of songs to my favorite music collection today. Here is one of them on YouTube (don’t mind the video - just enjoy the music). I think that Nino Katamadze has an amazing voice. You can download some of her songs here.

Another one of my favorites is the Sunny Road by Emiliana Torrini.

And since we’re on the topic of good music - here is a touching melody from Amelie. And Yanni’s One Man’s Dream gives me goose bumps.

In: Life In General
Time: 15:43 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

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Sunday, July 8, 2007

Beaver Pond Campground

We just got back from our first (and hopefully not last) camping trip this year. In the past 4 years we’ve been managing to do this only once per year, and every time we end up having a lot of fun.

This one got planned kind of on the fly just last Sunday. We got together, picked out a spot, and made a reservation. This time we decided to try to go to a new park, much closer to the city - Beaver Pond Campground. Total travel time to get there is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Read more…

In: Travel
Time: 23:45 Comments: 4 Comments Post a Comment

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Thursday, July 5, 2007

4th of July

Today we celebrate an Independence Day. The most noticeable characteristic of this holiday is the amount of fireworks that gets set off officially and unofficially.

During the first year in America we were scared to go outside, because the whole city was more like some kind of a war zone with things going off all day long all over the place. But during these past years the fireworks have been outlawed and cops have cracked down on this activity hard. However that doesn’t seem to stop everyone, and it still is a special day, when you can hear people setting things off, but in much smaller quantities.

However the official fireworks keep getting better and better. I’ve tried to take some pictures, but they came out really bad for several factors. I do not know what I’m doing, the view from our windows was less then perfect and the day was very rainy and foggy. Otherwise Manhattan skyline would’ve been much more visible.

Either way, while we’re living in New York we must just go out there one year, and see it up close. Maybe next year?

In: Life In General, Photography
Time: 00:31 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

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Sunday, July 1, 2007

Домик в Деревне

На прошлой неделе Люда прислала мне фотографию бабушкиного дома в Семерниках. Выглядит почти так, как я помню, только не хватает побегов диково винограда, свисающих с крыши, и бабушкиних разноцветных георгин, заботливо подвязанных к длинным деревянным колышкам.

Сижу и ругаю себя — за многие годы, когда дедушка и бабушка были еще живы, мне в голову даже не пришло взять с собой фотоаппарат и сделать хотя бы парочку фотографий их самих, дома, сада, деревни… Хотя, конечно, и фотоаппарата то собственного не было в то время, но всё же. Read more…

In: Life In General
Time: 13:39 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

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Таня says:
July 5, 2007 @ 15:55

Ах, Алена… Прочитав пост, мне сразу захотелось в Березу…
Маленький кусочек Родины, самый родной, самый лучший.
В следующий раз, когда поеду, возьму фотик, и наделаю много-много фотографию. У меня и так их уже прилично много, но… сделаю еще! РАзное время года. разное время суток, разное настроение, разные обстоятельства, разные надежды, но суть всегда одна - такое родное, такое любимое…
Эх, жизнь.

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