Air-filled balloon slide

Now THIS looks like fun.  I wish I had a picture of Oskar's face that first time, last year, when the bottom fell out. 

When I asked if I could do this, the young men supervising smiled, nodded their heads and said, "No, I'm sorry. Prob-LEM." Many Albanians nod their heads for no and shake back and forth for yes. One typical confusion came in a store when I was buying apples. I asked if they had change for what amounted to a $10 bill. He smiled grimly and shook his head. I was disappointed and said, "You don't have anything??" I was looking around the store when he pulls out the small box in the third drawer that I had seen him use many times, full of cash and coins, and then I understood that I had been fooled again.

Walking up pyramid in Tirana

23 December 2011

Boys in the middle of pyramid.  Broken glass and graffiti are typical of the entire monstrosity. 

Boys at the top

A dramatic picture of protesters running around on the pyramid last Januray 21.  Three people died, were shot.  They were protesting the national election.  The emotions quickly simmered down and a week later, protests were muted; a month later, you would have been amazed to think that something like this could have happened.

Shadow pictures while walking down the slope

All these pictures were taken moments before the camera was stolen.  In preparation to film us running up the slope, I changed the SD card in the camera. How fortunate.  To begin with, using a 7" tripod, all three of us ran up with the camera doing its job at the bottom.  Then Maxim filmed me only running up the slope.  It was difficult to keep the subject in focus.  Using the tripod, I trained the camera on my run up the slope.  By the time I got to the top, I was invisible. 

Then I pushed our luck once too far.  I set the camera up right next to the bottom of the slope while the boys were going to adjust the zoom, and try to make it all work out.  I took off and got about halfway when they boys started yelling.  I thought they were telling me that the camera had run out of battery or the card was full.  I was not worried and figured I'd have to redo the exercise sometime when my legs didn't feel like rubber.  As I came down, though, I didn't see the camera and than I understood that they were telling me that someone had stolen the camera.  By the time I got to the bottom, in 30 seconds, and ran in the direction the boys pointed, the thief was gone.

Mama's 2011 birthday

Here is one science experiment that Oskar thought up.

Toys from Grandpa and Grandma

Constrution toys December 2011

90, 180 270, 360 degree icicles "For Rend"

August 1990, Yellowstone National Park. The pictures show icicles reaching out at every angle around this hub cap. It's really amazing the combination of elements that must be perfect for this to happen. The humidity had to be high enough and temperature low enough for frost to form; the sun had to be bright enough for it to melt the frost. We had to get out of bed on our way soon enough that the day did not warm up too much so the temperature low enough for the water to re-freeze. Then that moose had to be walking through the lake at just the right time so we would stop and take a picture. And one of us had to be observant enough to catch sight of this super 'cool' natural coincidence. And...at this time, 1990, I had to have my handy-dandy 110 mm instamatic camera with me and easily accessible, with a few pictures still available.

Here is a sign on a house in Albania. Makes me think of a gang walking around town with sledgehammers and axes, searching for houses that are marked for demolition.