Ruby Tuesday Too - Birthday Antipasto

Ruby Tuesday Too reappears not long after Pati's birthday where she and I had dinner at Moto Bene Italian American Kitchen in our domicile of Ansonia Connecticut. We had their antipasto salad appetizer, nicely served on a cutting board for easier sharing. Although there are plenty of non-rubies present (olives, parmesan, mozzarella), kinda reds (soppressata salami) and finally the ruby goodness of tomatoes and roasted peppers. Everything woke up out taste buds and added our favorite Tuesday color. Happy New Year to all!

Whimsical Windows - Tinsel

The holidays have been busy, but happily I am back for this week's fun Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, hosted by Toby. In this view, the era is the mid-1950s, the place being my grandparent's home on Oregon Avenue Steubenville Ohio, the person my Aunt Terry. The windows here seem peripheral to the giant holiday tree.

However, in an FB exchange last week with Terry, the picture window has a prominent history as she advised:

"Grandpa did like big trees - and he loved displaying those trees in the picture window. I remember when I was little we had small living room windows. When it was decided to replace them, Grandpa insisted that the windows be simple plate glass so that everyone would be able to see his Christmas trees in full view. When the city busses drove down Oregon Ave. they slowed down so that passengers could gawk at the tree -- and everyone rode the bus in those days"

Further, the tree was a part of the lore in Steubenville it seems:

"And, yes, one year the tree was featured on page 1 of the [Steubenville] Herald-Star. The paper had been asking for several years to feature the tree but they wanted Grandpa to decorate it a week before Christmas. He would have none of that when I was small. But one year he gave in. It might have been this tree that was featured"

So the giant tinsel tree makes the window whimsical indeed!

Shadow Shot Sunday - More Happy Birthday

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 returns this week the day before the birthday of my two favorite ladies, Patti and Allegra. That the daughter and mom celebrate their birth on the same day is amazing, the firstborn had a due date of December 22 but chose to wait a week for Patti's birthday. As I see it :)

The photos may have been posted before. However, I like them, especially the mom and newborn just from the hospital on 1 January 1989, and the Paris school trip. Happy Birthday ladies, and a happy two years for SSS2!

Shadow Shot Sunday - First Christmases...

24 December 1989, E.Windsor, CT

25 December 1990, Derby CT

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 arrives this week near Christmas Day. Naturally in life, parents like to chronicle their children in the holiday for the first time. And given my look back at the past, shadows small and large on Christmases past seem are the theme. Our daughter was eleven months old on her first, however our son was only a month old. Yet the lights and such provided a wonder to both. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all participants in this meme's shadowy world!

Wordless Wednesday - Not mere ornaments...

Parents, it seems, dote over their babies on many ways. Like Christmas ornaments that celebrate the little ones intro to the spirit of the holiday...see Wordless Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday Too - Christmas cheer

Somewhere in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, New York City. Captured by Patti

Ruby Tuesday Too brings us along in our discovery of the alluring color red. Sometimes bold, sometimes subtle is is a hue that catches our attention. On Sunday, we helped our son move to Brooklyn NY to be closer to his new job. While hunting for the way to the I-278 Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to get to our Connecticut home, Patti captured this holiday house, nicely adorned for the season, and so a fine entry for this week's RT. I like the subtle boldness of this ruby!

Whimsical Windows - Freedom

Patti's fabulous capture of the Freedom Tower in Manhattan, from the BQE in Brooklyn.

Toby is the host of the fun meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors - and I hope you have been able to dig out from your monstrous snowfall :)

Today, our son cameron who has landed a great job in New York City has moved to his new apartment today and three vehicles filled with belongings make the trek to his place for his move. 

In our van, I was the driver and the lovely Patti chronicled our trip in pictures. Along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (I-278), there are some great views across the East River toward Manhattan - and she captured this fantastic view of the almost completed Freedom Tower. From that worst of days in 2001, the new tower shows us that despite the evil that surrounds can never impact us if we have both resilience and hope. It seems to have a glow as it rises toward the heavens...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Ornamental

Holiday cheer hanging from the ceiling at the SBC Restaurant in Milford

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 is back, as am I.

Missed this fun meme last week as I attended a 'Holiday" Party (I prefer the non-PC Christmas Party :) last Saturday at a restaurant. 

As always, shadowy shots are not necessarily sought, yet they find me every tome. Subtle shadows emanate from these large ornaments as the hang from the sloped ceiling, the colors of the holiday mix with the artistic lighting and pixelated colors. 


The look of the season indeed!

Ruby Tuesday Too - Eatery bathed in red...

Bold ruby neon sign atop Angellino's Restaurant, Vernon, CT...captured by Patti

On Friday evening, we attended a 60th surprise birthday party for my brother-in-law, who was really surprised! Fun and excellent food for all, from the recipient to the 30 guests.

As this is for Ruby Tuesday Too the search for red takes us to the venue - Angelno's Restaurant in Vernon CT, and it is perfect. Patti saw and captured the huge ruby neon sign on the roof which is both bold (its ruby intensity) and subtle (the soft ruby glow on the roof shingles). Thus, it fits the mood for this week's meme :)

Whimsical Windows - Old diner requests relevance

Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors is a fun meme where we look for interesting portals. Here is an old diner in Milford CT that was nearby a holiday event we attended yesterday. Milford has been gentrified with may nice, pricy restaurants - except for this old diner. Living a few towns away, I haven't paid much attention to what restoration efforts are in store for what I guess to be built in the late 1940s, so the B&W and Sepia were to add age the building. Not so much ambience but omelets, burgers and the always fresh and hot coffee. The drawback at this location is that the one-way on New Haven Ave goes eastbound so drivers do not see the classic facade except in their rearview mirrors, so is easily missed. Hope for funding...

Whimsical Windows - Past industrial passed

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, and we keep our eyes open. Today is a prosaic view of our old and small industrial town of Ansonia Connecticut. 

This is the intersection of Olsen Drive at the Maple Street Bridge that carries traffic over the Naugatuck River to downtown. We see the backside of the Farrell Machinery plant in the foreground, looking as if it were built in the very early 1900s, the modern building in the middle of the frame the company headquarters from the early 1970s. The old industry is a much smaller part of life - the gray autumnal day seems appropriate here...

Shadow Shot Sunday - The cat's aura

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 returns on a cold morning around here. Friendly furry family feline Linus McDonald does have fur to keep warm. Of course, any cat prefers to be warmer. So Linus likes the window with a southern exposure and more sun, and chooses the dining room window in the A.M. Naturally, the sun casts an aura onto him, an almost ghostly glow that radiates from his backside. I almost feel warmer just by looking at the glowing furball - who needs a furnace?

Whimsical Windows - Old Industrial

Backside of the Ansonia (CT) Opera House

Toby's fun meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors returns as do I after working on side jobs that occupied a lot of time (and not paying for the fixed price $ I hoped for :). So it is great to be back! I noticed the subject for today's photo on Tuesdd congratulationay, and all I had was my cheap Droid phone, so it had to do...

We are on West Main Street in our old industrial town of Ansonia CT. This subject is the rear of the 1870 Ansonia Opera House and it seems a bit decrepit - although I used the front of this subject in a WWDD post in April where there is retail on the street side. I wouldn't call it patina, but the old building with modern graffiti seems the norm in old towns like ours. Still, the style, details and hulking presence are still impressive...

And congratulations on twenty years! We are at 26, and it has been the best thing ever :)

Shadow Shot Sunday - Birthday 23

First week, 1990

University of Hartford, 2009

9th Birthday, 1999

UofH Grad, December 2012

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 is back as Cameron celebrates a birthday today - 23 years have occurred since this day in 1990 at 8:52 AM, and our son was born. In fact, the day before was Thanksgiving Day and we were and are thankful for the gift...even though it is his birthday, no celebration today - since he received a nice job offer as a software developer in New York City, he is meeting with apartment brokers in Brooklyn to secure a place to live...As parents, we are quite happy. So a pictorial retrospective is in order. Once a helpless babe, he has grown up with a sense of values, honesty and knowledge. So we celebrate not just a birthday,  but also his continued success...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Touched up

Concentric Sun and Shadow from 1936

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 returns us to this oft posted view from wheelchair height of classic almost art-deco 1936 Dodge. However, our artist friend in Derby, Rich DiCarlo, continuously requested to add some flair to this view in order to display it at our favorite Gallery@37 in Derby. So this pic was transported via flash drive to his care...and a cool rework of the original. Now minus the reflected photographer, the shadowy arcs highlight the crescent shaped light beam that travels around the whitewall tire. I like the changes he wrought...it remains unsold, yet the non-artist in me is happy that this wheelchair view may yet have commercial possibilities :)

Whimsical Windows - Perspectives

Toby's fun meme, Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors is back. Readers of this blog know that I am still in the process of scanning a lot of old prints taken by my grandfather over many decades. The curious thing about many of these is that there are bereft of notations - so it is a sort of mystery as to just where it is. However, I believe this to be in Chicago, from 1964 and if my big sister Michele (that I know) on a trip away from home with my grandparents...the perspective here is the large edifice in the behind to the ten-year-old. Big vs, small, merely a different perspective...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Dressing for the occasion

Clockwise from left: Julie (6), Stephen (12), Patti (ageless), Christina (7), Bobby (4) and Nicole (3)

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 returns a mere two days after the dress up/down day of Halloween. And even we grownups dress for the occasion...here is a print taken on October 1987, a family party at our apartment then in our neighboring small town of Derby CT. I know all the players in this pose, especially the witch, whom you know as Patti. Who is not really a witch, that is... Since we were not parents at the time, many a relative, then children, complied with amazing costumes - the scene including non-spooky shadows to complete the day...

Ruby Tuesday Too - Cape Cod Cone Confectionary

Four Seas, Centerville MA

Ruby Tuesday Too is back with the simple proviso: a little or a lot of red - I am choosing the former today. Neon red usually jumps at us at night and we notice. On an overcast day near the seacoast, it is not always so noticeable. Here a crop, there a crop...then the ruby is easier to spot. The place is the Four Seas in Centerville Massachusetts. No frills, but as good ice cream we had on Cape Cod. With a dash of retro ruby neon to enjoy along with the frozen treats :)

Whimsical Windows - Second Congregational

Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors is a fun architectural meme hosted by Toby - and of course, congratulations foe reaching the century milestone. One-hundred posts is an accomplishment, and architecture on both sides of the Atlantic pond is equally prolific, so the second hundred posts is not in doubt :)

For my contribution, I am inside the Second Congregational Church in nearby Derby Connecticut. built in 1845, on its exterior it fits the impression of the small town white clapboard church sitting near the town green. Inside it mostly follows theme of a 19th century church, including the leaded stained glass windows. The only difference between then and now is that the dour Puritans that built this would never allow colorful banners to fly inside. The Puritans never had fun it seems...

Shadow Shot Sunday - New used car

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 arrives in a week where the family has a new addition...not what you might think though.It is really Allegra's new used car, a '99 Chevrolet Malibu sitting in the long autumnal shadows falling upon the Ansonia Uplands.



This shadowy beige conveyance replaces her 1996 Plymouth Neon that graced SSS2 and other posts. The absolutely nicest first generation Neon anywhere, it was totaled by an errant driver's left turn. Happily nobody was hurt and the other driver was at fault. The only casualty, alas, the shiny ruby Neon...

Nevertheless, the Malibu leaves excellent shadows under the more southerly sun. Owned and carefully driven by an older gentleman, it has only 74.000 miles (119,000 km) so it has a long and shadowy life - we hope without other drivers' faulty left turns...

Ruby Tuesday Too - A hint o'ruby

Autumn this year is not so red - yet. Osbornedale State Park in Derby, CT

Ruby Tuesday Too returns in this autumnal season. Although the peak foliage in Northern New England is nigh, we being closer to Long Island Sound means that there is a patchwork puzzle of color still in the trees. For us, some trees like the mulberry in our front yard is mostly leafless now, while summery greens are all over the place. So a hint of red leaves is in my entry, the ruby does stand out very boldly far more than its mere size might indicate. RT and nature combine well in this season of change...

Whimsical Windows - Downtown Seymour in Pink

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors where we look for portals of interest. Today I am featuring two views that Patti snapped during this past week in our north neighbor, the small (13,000) town of Seymour CT on the annual Seymour Pink Day. Turning the small stylish downtown awash in pink in honor of the month of October and breast cancer awareness - a whimsical pursuit indeed:)

See Patti's New Haven Register blog post for an interesting writeup and more pics of the day...