Dreams, Moments, Travels
Moments prior to getting my haircut with Albert at Gio’s on Bell Road and 64th Street in Phoenix, Arizona, I snapped a photo of myself with my beard hiding my many chins. Following the haircut, back in the car, I took a photo of the new naked and near-bald look I am sporting for the second half of the year. Turns out that when you sit in your car, you sit in almost the exact same spot all the time – this photo turned out to be fairly simple to composite.
With Caroline at her Cold Fusion Users Group meeting in Tempe, Arizona, tonight, her mom and I stopped at 25th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix for a couple of Nogales Hot Dogs.
This local street-side vendor sells traditional Nogales Dogs wrapped in bacon topped with tomato, onion, mayonnaise, Mexican and cheddar cheese, grilled onion, guacamole, and salsa with a side of roasted peppers. Jutta had a bottle of Coke while I opted for the Mexican Apple Soda. This was my mother-in-law’s first sampling of Nogales Hot Dogs; as for me, well, I’ve been a frequent enough customer.
Using Easy Mosaic software from www.ezmosaic.com, I created this 3072 x 2048 pixel image using 346 images from our vacation with my mother-in-law. The final image contains 4096 images, the maximum allowed with the Free Trial version, and, of course, are duplicated images from the 346 source photos. The software is easy to use and free for 20 days of usage, which I took advantage of. Easy Mosaic cost is as low as $35 for a Home version and up to $149 for the Commercial version – for those of you needing 2 GigaPixel images using more than 400,000 images.
To see the details in the image, click here.
Moto Photo printed a matte 11×17 image in less than 10 minutes for under $12 as a photographic print, not a laser or inkjet print. I’ve used Moto Photo for a couple of years now and love their service, friendliness, great quality, and prices.
Earlier in the day, I printed nearly 800 photos that will travel with Jutta back to Germany later this week. Afterward, we visited my mother again for another cookout, but this time, we took a dip in the pool before dinner – even Aunt Eleanor joined us, her first time in the pool in 2 years. With only a few days left until Jutta leaves us, I can’t help but start to miss her as her stay, for the most part, has been so much fun, and the smiles and laughter a real pleasure to see on my mother-in-law’s face.
We barbecued at my mom’s house tonight; she’s the one holding Guido, the dog. Aunt Eleanor, Grandpa Herbert, and my mother-in-law Jutta get along well; it must be that Jutta is their connection to the Old Country. Tomorrow night, we will visit again, but this time we are keeping time for getting in the pool before dinner.
Disclaimer: This post was updated in November 2022, as the original only included one photo. The bigger details were written back then, although a few things needed to be figured out.
My mother-in-law standing under the dollar bill we stapled under the shelf. In March, I stapled another dollar there when my grandfather Herbert and aunt Eleanor and I passed through on the way to Florida. There is also a bill on the left of the picture that Caroline and I stapled on the wall when we visited Steins in November 2000 on our way back home across the United States.
Today, we found our way back to Phoenix through a very hot desert.
Well, that just sucks, a rollover accident where the roof of the SUV had to be cut off; we can only hope that everyone was okay. And that is the end of our short 5-day mother-in-law/son-in-law super drive.