Banner Day

Today is a banner day – that is to say, I updated the banner image today. Previously I had used an image of rotting fishing ropes, but was constantly troubled with how to make the text legible over that image. The new image is from the photo trip to Shinojima for their Gion festival.

I pulled a lot of the color and contrast out of the background using GIMP; hoping that this would make it easier to view the blog title. Also, for visual reasons I wanted the strong lines in the image to be nearly horizontal. Someone with a sharp eye will notice that flags rarely flutter horizontally and the image is rotated 25 degrees counter-clockwise.

Another Shot

No apologies this time. I left for our honeymoon in Venice, the Tuscan countryside, and Florence on the eighth and just got back this afternoon. Although I took my NetBook along, a reasonable opportunity to upload photos did not present itself.

We spent a little time in four countries today (Italy, Holland, Korea, and Japan) so we are a little tired out; however, before I hit the hay, I thought I would upload one photo for you. This shot was taken the first night. We arrived at the Venice airport about 10pm, grabbed our bags, and hopped a water taxi to the hotel. My wife doesn’t like me taking photos and usually doesn’t smile for them, but I have convinced her that those look as good; so, I snapped several shots while asking her questions like, “Where are you?”, “Oh, where are you staying?”, “Are you excited?” I thought this one showed her level well.

Something about water taxis really sets them apart from normal taxis. It was really fun sliding up to the lobby of a 15th century palace turned hotel and stepping off the boat into luxury. The sheer convenience of the taxi made it worth the price. Had we taken the water bus at night we would have arrived confused, tired and very late.

I’m Home – Short Version

Friendly seat partner, early departure on last leg, fast customs and immigration all led to me catching the 8pm boat from the airport and arriving home shortly after 9pm, instead of 11pm. Heading for a soak in a hot bath. Glad to be home, but sad I couldn’t meet everyone nor get everything done while I was in Seattle.