Remembering Zep Again

marczeplin.jpgDamsel and I are again very proud to be able to honor Marc Scott Zeplin on the sixth anniversary of 9/11/2001. Last year, as a part of the 2996 Project, we honored Mark Scott Zeplin, who was killed at the World Trade center in New York on September 11, 2001.

“Zep” is what his friends called him. Zep was age 33 when he died. He hailed from Harrison, N.Y. (USA). Marc worked in the World Trade Center offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company. Reading what Marc’s friends and family have written about him, Marc was well-liked and respected by peers, friends and others who wrote words about him following his death.

Please see our post from last year where we included a tribute to Zep written by his wife and mother.

We wanted to post more about Zep, but this week we are on travel. So, as a result we have to use a borrowed computer and have limited time and resources. But our best wishes go out to Marc’s family and friends on this day.

Off to Catalina Again

It’s our anniversary week and later today, in our tradition, we’re off on a pilgrimage to the place we got married – the city of Avalon on Catalina Island. We will be crossing the Catalina Channel on the Island Express helicopter, which takes about fifteen minutes. I shot this video last year on the helicopter trip over to the Avalon Heliport.

Our plans are to visit some of our favorite places like the shops on Crescent Avenue and the botanic gardens in the hills behind the town. We plan to do a bit more hiking this time, and will probably climb the hill up to the Chime Tower. We’re looking forward to this trip. We will try and update the blog from the island with some photos and posts about the island.

Solar Sparkler

sparkler.jpgNASA’s SOHO website has a weekly feature that highlights selected solar events. This week’s SOHO Pick of the Week is about a video taken by one of the STEREO Spacecraft pair. STEREO consists of two space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind. The video reveals a recent “shower of sparks” event on the sun’s surface. The circled region in the inset is where to look when playing the 36-second video embedded below:

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Lean Cuisine

We had a busy day today. We visited the recycle center, did our weekly shopping, maintained the lawn and garden and, finally, grilled some chicken breasts up on the barbecue to go with steamed broccoli and orzo/veggie salad. Served in reasonable portions, it was a waistline-friendly meal – and delicious too!

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Blue Tuscan Rosemary

We never buy commercially-grown rosemary these days, since this beautiful Blue Tuscan Rosemary grows in abundance in the garden here. We have so much of this vigorous herb, that we can use its smoke in the barbecue to add a unique flavor to some of our favorite meats. And who can deny the beauty of the delicate little flowers?

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Shuttle Tydirium

star-wars-shuttle.jpgWell, not actually, but this little “Butterbug” perching on one of Damsel’s Zinnias reminded me of the Star Wars shuttle craft when it folds it’s wings back for a landing on the flight deck of the Death Star.

To get the inset Shuttle Tydirium photo, I did an Internet search on “star wars shuttle” and found reference to it on WOOKIEPEDIA, the Star Wars Wiki Site. I never saw Wookiepedia before, although I’m sure many readers have.

NOTE: Due to a transition in my work assignment, you will be seeing less content and more pictures for the remainder of this week. Next week we will be blogging from romantic Catalina Island for our annual anniversary pilgrimage.

Damsel took this picture over the weekend.

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