July 16, 2023

VARF

As you might have realized by now, we are fond of Renfests. We’ve talked in the past about some memorable visits to the Renfest in Robert, LA. (LARF!) When we first moved to Northern Virginia we attended the Renfest in Crownsville, MD. We actually went twice. Let’s just suffice it to say it was not our thing. Whole ‘lotta reasons. A couple of years later, we discovered the Virginia Renfest (VARF) in the booming metropolis of Spotsylvania, VA. We had a nice time at the fest in 2009, and then truth be told it slipped off our radar…. Fast forward to 2023, the year of the great retirement, and I…

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written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, X-Pro2, Fuji, XF35mmF1.4 R, Yapping

June 18, 2023

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Fathers Day out there to all “fathers and father like figures” out there. LOL. I saw that phrase in the media recently and had to chuckle. Sign of the times I suppose. Looking back in the photo archive for Father’s Day entries, I found a particularly memorable Father’s Day where Meghan and I hopped into Agnes (her Mini Convertible), put the top down and did a complete run down Skyline Drive. For those who don’t know, Skyline Drive runs 105 miles north and south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park and is the only public road through the Park. We are no newcomers…

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written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Photography, Travel, Fuji, X-T1, Fuji, XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS

May 31, 2023

Fairfax Classic Car Show

The City of Fairfax, the town we live in, is an interesting community. Once upon a time it was small out of the way hamlet isolated from the hubbub of the WMA. Nowadays, urban sprawl has encompassed Fairfax and it acts a thoroughfare through which people travel getting back and forth to work. Saying that, it’s been a pleasant place to live the 2+ years we have been here. Fairfax still is operated as a small town and presents a large number of annual events, many of which we have taken part in. The subject of today’s post is the annual Fairfax Antique Car Show held on May 20th. We…

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written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 10-24mm F4 R OIS, Yapping

May 21, 2023

Phase II

Well, May 5 was my last official day at work. I’ve got a bunch of leave to burn, but at the end of May, I’ll officially say farewell to the company that was the driving force behind our migration to Northern Virginia in 2007. The CEO of my company threw a nice retirement (oh oh, there’s that word) dinner for us at a restaurant in Falls Church not far from where my career with this company began some 16 years ago. My daughter Meghan and son and daughter-in-law, Jourdan and Stefani, joined us in the gala event. There were about a dozen other folks that worked closely with me over…

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written by Chris - Posted in Yapping

May 18, 2023

Seattle Part Dieu…

So, after a takeout dinner of excellent Lamb Biryani from Kanak Indian Quisine, I fell into bed and slept the good sleep. Only I was still on East Coast time, so my eyes opened automatically at 5:00 a.m. local (8:00 a.m. EDT). That’s about as long as I’m going to sleep nowadays. Years of getting up at 5:30 a.m. have left their mark. After taking a shower, I dressed and headed out toward our meeting. Stopping in at Cafe Madeline for breakfast, it’s early and I’m the only one in the place, thank goodness. Service is, as they say, sub-optimal. Luckily, there was plenty of time, so it wasn’t a…

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written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR

May 7, 2023

Seattle Part Un….

Back in early April, I was voluntold to travel to Seattle to attend a meeting with a potential business partner to the company I’m contracted to. They needed someone technical in the discussions as the primary members were business types with little to no technical expertise. I’ve not typically done this in the past, but all of the others who had were, for various reasons, not available. So, lucky me I got to spend 10 hours of plane time for 2 hours of meeting. Yay! The benefit was there was going to be ample downtime to go out and exercise the new to me Fuji XF16-80 lens I bought with…

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written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR, Yapping