iPod, Christmas, Weather

The Blogger app for iOS isn't as good as the Blogger app for Android. Go figure. Blogger is Google, Android is Google. I'm going to stop complaining and move to my Ubuntu machine.

Okay. Much better. I love my iPod touch for a few reasons: it plays music, the touch screen is really accurate, and the accelerometer is really accurate. I hate it because Apple limits their devices so you have to upgrade every time a new one is released. I had one operating system update for my iPod touch 2nd generation and I had to pay for it. The next operating system update wasn't even available for me. This made me really angry because I payed lots of money for this mini computer. I can't multitask applications, I can't send more than one picture with an email. I can't even attach anything other than a photo as an attachment in an email. But that's okay. It still plays music and browses the web. My iPod wasn't supposed to be the subject of this little blog. It was supposed to be about my trip to the east mountains--and something else too. I forgot.

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Oh well. I can't remember what the other thing I wanted to say was. I do want to remember my Christmas day 2011, so I'm going to document it here.

I had a fantastic day yesterday. I woke up at around 7am, freezing. (Lindsey and I turn our furnace off at night to conserve energy.) I think the low Christmas eve was in the teens--I think like 17°F. So it was pretty chilly yesterday morning. It's alright because the furnace in this house works like a charm. It warms up our entire house in about 20 minutes, then it even gets too hot.

So after I turned the furnace on, I turned the radio on. I put it on 89.9 FM. Sunday mornings there's this amazing gospel music program.

Then we went to Lindsey's parents house and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas breakfast. There were scrambled eggs, ham, green chile, and cinnamon rolls. Then we got to open presents and just hang out. It was really relaxing.

After Lindsey's parent's casa we went home to let our little Diego out to go potty and also unload all of our gifts and firewood that we got from the Freeman house. Diego also wanted to play with his new toy he got from Nana (Lindsey's grandmother).















Onward to the Dominguez house. This was a Latino zoo for sure. The decibel level at my parent's house was greater than what you would hear in the boiler room for a navy ship. There was so much going on too. I couldn't keep up. Despite the chaos, it was really great to see my grandma and grandpa, and my aunt Dodo (her name is Dolores but we call her Dodo) and my uncle Sam. It was also good to see my uncle Jeff, aunt Carmen, uncle Mark, aunt Gloria...(did I miss anyone?)...a few of my cousins, my parents, my brother. Yeah, I saw everyone. And I ate some more. I made my plate, then I covered it with my mom's red chile. It was good, but then when the crowd started to chant, "Jerry, Jerry" I decided to make like a tree and leave.

One cool thing about my parents house in Moriarty was all the stinking snow! They had like 18'' of snow! As we were driving east from Albuquerque, we could see the snow show up more and more. We made it to Moriarty and all you could see was white. Then I looked down at my thermometer in my car and it read 13°F. I tapped my instrument box to see if that would fix it. I don't know why I did that because it wasn't broken, and even if it was broken I don't think giving it a firm tap would have helped. But yeah, 13°. It was cold in Moriarty. I looked at the forecast, and it went down below zero last night.

Anyway, that was my day yesterday. Christmas 2011...

Littlest Dog in the Whole Southwest

Sunday morning! It's good to have a day off! Strong coffee, the littlest dog in the whole southwest, the sleepiest cat in the Milky Way, Netflix, eggs in boiling water. It's a good day. This morning, church. This evening, UNM soccer. It's a good day. Next week will be good, too.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Christmas is my favorite. November through January are my favorite months.
I've decided that I will not be so negative. Lately, I've been really negative. Well, maybe just opinionated. Whatever it is, I need to stop.
Here's something positive, Lindsey and I are starting to really get into the X Files. Lindsey loves detective shows and she loves the paranormal. Lindsey loves Sci Fi but she won't admit it. Next, I'm going to try to get her into Star Trek Next Generation. I'm sure she's going to love it, it's just going to take some time.
Next week is Lindsey's birthday. I have to figure out where we should eat dinner that night. She wants me to pick.
Luke has been growing in the womb for 20 weeks. He's growing so fast! I need to update our baby blog (http://newmexicobaby.blogspot.com).
I'm writing this blog using my iPod Touch (2nd Gen). This is making me want an iPhone 4s. I might have some opinions about Apple, but you can't argue against the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The Android phones are also so cool though! I know Lindsey is getting an iPhone 4s. But I kinda want a Droid RAZR. They're all just things in the end...cool things. What's important now is breakfast. And X Files.

-Lorenzo Dominguez

Musical Mood

I feel bad I haven't bought the newest Blindside record. I can still listen to it using Groveshark, but it's really not the same as opening that CD and popping it in my CD player for the first time. I'm listening to it right now anyway... The first song sounds pretty good so far. We'll see how the rest of the album goes.

I've been in a musical mood all day. I haven't really put on music that I love and turned the volume up in a long time. Today I did that.

The day started out with me and Diego taking a trip to the Peak and hanging out there for a few minutes. We had the music turned up and we were just enjoying the view. I think Diego was getting anxious. He just wanted to get out of the car and run around. We saw a dusting of snow all the way at the bottom of the mountain. As we begin to climb in elevation we started to see more and more snow. (I like how I say "we"... It was just me and Diego. He is my buddy though.) I made a video and I posted it on You Tube.

I could see Mt Taylor and the southern Sangre de Cristos perfectly. Both mountain ranges were covered in snow. I could also see the city really clear. It's kinda neat how clear the air is in New Mexico. For a city the size of Albuquerque, I would expect much more smog. I'm glad we don't. On our way down we spotted three deer! It seemed like one was the mother and there were two young ones with her. One of them looked injured. I hope he/she wasn't hit by a car. Either way, I hope the wound heals. If not, it'll be an easy lunch for a mountain lion. That would be sad, but that's the circle of life. The mountain lion might have some hungry cubs that need to fatten up for the winter. I was actually thinking about how cool it would have been to see a mountain lion kill that deer. It would have been like my own personal nature show! The deer was living after we left. And we continued home.

Here are some photos of our little journey. 

When I got home I decided to head to the gym. I don't know why, but I was just really getting into the music when I was running. People probably thought I was weird playing the air drums while running. Whatever. I was going to look up all of the songs I listened to on You Tube to share them, but I don't feel like it anymore. Besides, Lindsey just got home and now it's time for me to hang out with her. I was also going to talk about traffic safety. That'll be a different blog... Please don't text and drive and please don't speed in school zones. 

My New Cameras and What I Have To Say About Them, Some Photos Too

I was going to start a photography blog, but I figured that if I had anything photography related that I would just post it in my normal blog. I have too many blogs to maintain (like anyone cares anyway) and I'm not really a photographer so I can't justify a "photography blog".
I am a cheapskate who frequents thrift shops and I got lucky and stumbled upon two very nice vintage cameras. My first little gem is a Japanese camera called the Topcon Unirex and my most recent purchase is this really neat (West) German camera called the Voigtländer Vitomatic I. I have taken a few photos with my Topcon. I haven't scanned all of my photos from the Topcon, a lot of them are garbage anyway. These first few rolls of film have been me trying to learn how to manually set almost everything needed for a photo. There's no flash, and there are so many factors you have to take into account when snapping a photo. I love my Sony digital cameras for what they are--point and shot. That's all you have to do. Not the Topcon, or the Voigtländer I'm guessing. I'm so excited to try my new camera and the truth is I'm not even sure it works or if I can find film that fits it. From what I've read in the past ten minutes, this camera is from the mid '50's, so I don't know if my standard film rolls will work with it. I'm excited nonetheless.

So those are them. I'm mega excited to take some more photos with my Topcon and I'm excited to find out if my Voigtländer even works. I'll post the photos as soon as I get them developed. For now, here are some photos Lindsey and I have taken with my Topcon.