Playing with Legos and a camera

Today it is hot. The little thermometer on my computer says it is 98F and the air conditioning says it believes the computer since it (the A/C) hasn't had a break all day. So, since I didn't have to work today, it was a day spent in the house. Well, mostly. See, it's been very dry here this summer. (How dry is it?) It's so dry the grass is wonderful shade of brown and slightly unpleasant to walk on.

Anyway, I was bored and I told my son to get a couple of Lego minifigs so we can set up some kind of photo shoot with them. This is what came of that.

The first one I tried to make it look like he was stranded in the desert. Minus the sand, of course. 

Then I found a little hole in the ground so I shoved one of the guys in there and did these. 

Yes, I'm a dork. And now I'm hot. 

Thanks, Jerk

Last week we went out to Navy Pier, in Chicago of course, to take the kids on a short boat tour of the skyline and watch some fireworks. The kids were pretty excited. Well, actually, our son was excited to go see the fireworks while our daughter was excited to go out for dinner. Priorities.

It was kind of a hot day but the breeze off the lake kept the temperatures reasonable, so it turned out to be a good time. I took my camera to try to take some decent pictures off of a moving boat, and I did get a few.

Here is a view as we leave the pier and look back at the city. Trump's hotel is there off the left.

I've never been on the Seadog boats, but they look fast!

As we headed north we had a good shot of the Hancock as dusk was setting in, and as I mentioned on Twitter, Chicagoist used my photo. I was unreasonably happy about that.

Then the fireworks started. At first we were pissed because the boat turned into them and we couldn't see a thing even though we were the first ones on the boat and asked where we should sit for the best view. Then the boat turned and we had a good view. Well, except for the guy that decided to stand up the whole time. Probably because he was late and had a bad seat. Tough cookies, dude. (Yes, I said dude.)

Can you see his outline here?

How about this one if I drop the black level? See him now?

He stood there the whole time. Now, granted, we could still see pretty well and these pictures wouldn't have been perfect anyway, but they would have been decent. Oh, then when the finale came we were heading back in straight into the fireworks so this was the view. So, if you go on a fireworks sit in the front of the boat, not on the sides like the guy told us.

Enjoy your July 4th celebration!