Blog Archives

Jeff and I are in Michigan this week. In addition to doing the traditional 4th of July festivities, we are toasting Jeff’s nephew, Matt, who graduated from high school in June. (Congrats, Matt!)

So, hopefully, we’ll have some updates of the fun in the sun. But these photos come with a pretty steep price. In all my haste (and procrastination), I left the camera battery charger at home. And frankly, there is no cheap solution. Almost every charger is unique…and pricey.

Its quite the scam. (Up there with cables and connectors.)

Anyhow, have a happy 4th. I can’t wait to dig through some more of my old photos.

I gave a TON of details on the beautiful chateaux along the Loire and Cher Rivers in central France during our ONE, TWO, THREE days driving from site to site. So check out those entries for more specifics. This is the photo portion of our tour.

We begin our photo journal with our own tiny chateau–Le Manoir Les Minimes–situated in the cozy town of Amboise on the Loire River.

Above the town of Amboise is its very own Chateau Royal d’Amboise with flags-a-waving. The town of Amboise makes a perfect launching pad to the surrounding countryside.

Our second chateau was the majestic Chateau de Chenonceau, which actually straddles the Cher River and has beautiful formal gardens.

Next was Chateau de Chambord, an enormous 426-room “hunting lodge”.

Next visited Chateau de Cheverny with the 70+ hunting dogs (which made quite a smell).

Then is was the quaint Chaumont-sur-Loire, built in the 15th and 16th centuries with its classic pointed towers and a working draw bridge.

One of our favorites stops was Villandry, a Renaissance-style chateau with stunning terraced gardens, including a tranquil water garden with large pools and fountains, ornamental knot gardens of boxwood borders with flowering interiors, and the expansive ‘kitchen garden’ that uses flowers and herbs and vegetables to create colorful, intricate patterns. Oh, they also had a gallery with some freakish paintings!

Yes, I am supposed to be working on my Europe pictures…but I’ve been swept into a nostalgic mood by this recent slew of old college photos going around. Along the way, I discovered three things:

1. That NOBODY should still still like film. Color prints fade. End of story. And scanned faded color photos are even worse.
2. With my 80s and 90s hair (and lets not mention my 70s hair…or my 00s hair for that matter), how did I ever get friends?
3. Boy were we geeky 🙂

Anyhow, enjoy a short trip through some fun photos from my archives. The last one is a special one for Mr. Bogdan, who is always a good sport with nostalgia!

Just killed mosquito #3…IN MY OFFICE. This building has lobby doors and elevator doors and suite doors and office doors…not to mention filtered air and sucking recirculation intakes.

I suspect a coordinated mosquito attack. Seal your doors and windows now 🙂

How exactly do mosquitoes make it into the sanitary confines of a 33rd floor office? I’ve killed not one, but TWO, of these healthy-looking buggers in my office today. Its not like I’ve got an open window up here!!