tampa police museum

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Andy chose the Tampa Police Museum for Wednesday Adventure Club. Ryan put this option on the list from a travel guide that he read. I was surprised that it made the list. I have been there and didn't think it was very interesting.

Ryan chose the route downtown. He opted for Navigon's middle option which was the longest since it has more surface roads than interstate. And he complains when Andy's chooses a longer route on the way home. I know the downtown area around the Police Headquarters because we have had several photo walks there. Parking was easily found and a stranger gave us her parking receipt so we didn't have to pay.

We walked around the block to the entrance. Ryan saw the barricade and went to cross the sidewalk. I told him we could go this way since the museum was before the barricade. There were signs inside the museum windows saying to go around the building. I was confused but tried the door. It was locked so we walked around. The signs said we should go upstairs. I knew this wasn't right and we went back to the front. The doors were still locked but I saw a man sitting and talking on the phone. He got up and let us in. He didn't get off the phone. 

It didn’t take long to walk through. The museum is small and mostly a memorial to those who lost their lives in the line of duty. The exhibits consist of dusty uniforms and some badges behind glass.

We did see a robotic bomb diffuser and a jail cell door. Andy was happy to stand the faux jail cell. Ryan didn’t want to go in. I showed him that the key cannot be taken away and he got in. But he immediately set to unlocking the door. We were done with the place in less than 15 minutes.

We walked around a few blocks, following Ryan’s lead. The boys are very good about following the rules for crossing the streets and questioned anytime someone crossed against the light or jaywalked. They were very anxious and jumpy around cars.

We got back to car at 10:40 which was a bit early for lunch. We went to Barnes & Noble since the rained kept us from going after haircuts yesterday. The boys picked out their books while I ate lunch. I am very tired of chicken nuggets and was happy to eat a roasted tomato caprese panini.

Then we did drive thru lunch and went home.

Photos can be seen on flickr and I made layout.​

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blog changes

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Are you wondering what is going on with my blog(s)?

A somewhat brief history of my blogging. 

My first blog was an iWeb blog from Apple. I liked it and thought it was easy to make look good. I didn't like that text could not be searched and non-Apple people could not find my blog easily. 

I switched to TypePad because all the cool kids were doing it. I learned to make style adjustments and make the blog my own. 

When I started LinneCards I had my own hosted site. I looked into Moveable Type but it was expensive. I switched to Wordpress and had help with the transition. Over the years, I changed the look of the blog by changing the header and adding widgets. It seemed to serve me well except for the updates I had to make. Since I had several blogs, I had to spend too much time updating. Way too much time trying to make things easier for myself.

This year, I kept hearing how wonderful SquareSpace they was sponsoring most of the podcasts I was listening to. I decided to switch but still have some time left on my self-hosted site. I thought I could eliminate my Zenfolio site and just use the SquareSpace blog to host photos. I decided to go for it and set up my site. I thought it would take a few weeks to get it moved over but it was easier than I thought. There are fewer options than Wordpress which I missed at first. But I started to like the cleaner look. The move had a few glitches but mostly it went OK. Most of my images were too wide and needed adjusting. I figured I could fix them a bit each week.

I noticed that I lost quite a few subscribers when I moved over to SquareSpace. I wonder why and wonder if they will eventually come back. I know I don't really mind if no one looks at my stuff. But it is nice to be acknowledged. 

Now SquareSpace has rolled out version 6. I don't have to move but I can. It is strange that it is not automatic but they explained that version 6 is template based and you had to choose a template first. I really liked the template I had in version 5 and nothing was similar. I tried a few before I found one I liked. It is minimal. But that is good. Again, I had some glitches moving the blog over. My galleries did not transition. And when I tried to set up new galleries, I had loads of problems. I finally got them to work when I limited each gallery to just 12 images. It is probably a good thing to do anyway. 

The reason for switching now was to move my Zenfolio stuff over to SquareSpace. It turns out that I cannot without added cost. More than what am spending at Zenfolio. So the photos I take and post for Special Olympics will stay at Zenfolio though I did downgrade to a cheaper plan. 

A couple of items in the plus column for SquareSpace 6 is that I do not need to resize my photos and it has responsive design so the mobile versions are built it. SquareSpace is working out the bugs and I am learning how to use the platform. 

Now if I could figure out how to get a search box in here and maybe a directory of monthly posts, I would be pretty happy. A subscription link would be nice too.

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heritage village

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Wednesday Adventure Club was on Thursday. 

Ryan's chose Heritage Village. I took the boys there back in August 2010. We went after I had a photo shoot at Plant Hall. We didn't last very long because of the heat.

Ryan chose to go I75 to I4. I showed the boys the Raymond James offices where Gail used to work. We arrived at the Village just before 11. The parking lot was full and we had to park on the street. Ryan didn't this was allowed since no one else was there. I sprayed Off! on all of us knowing we would be walking around a lot of trees and scrub.

Ryan went first to the visitor center. He didn't walk around, just got the map to be on our way. 

We walked through the McMullen-Coachman Log Cabin, the Sulphur Springs Train Depot, HC Smith Store, McMullen House, and Walsingham House. The Walsingham House was set up as a doctor's office in the 1920s. The woman who gave the tour was just learning and did an OK job. Andy didn't want a tour. He wanted to walk around. 

We followed Ryan as he went the wrong way. Actually, it wasn't his fault as the map showed a path that had not been completed. We had to walk through some soggy ground to get back on track. I was glad for the Off!

We walked by the outhouses at Moore House and looked at the Union Academy. We looked at the fire engine and walked through the Lowe Barn and the Lowe House. The buildings are air conditioned which really helped. But it was still really hot. 

A lot of the scrub is gone and you can see most of the buildings clearly. We made it back to the visitor center and looked in on the wood carver. He looked bored. 

Ryan was done. We were ready to leave. We found our way to McDonald's and CFA for lunch. Andy picked the same way home. 

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early morning spice

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I was walking Saturday morning. I rounded the corner onto FG and saw a gentleman come out of his house. I have seen him before, usually coming home from his walk/run. His shirt is typically soaked with sweat. 
He started out slow, and I began to catch up to him. As I got closer, I noticed a fragrant odor. Was someone cooking onions at 7 am or did this guy wear the same clothes day after day without washing them? 
He started picking up pace so I could not pass him. Finally, we reached the intersection where he continued straight and I turned onto ES. The smell faded away so I assumed this guy was ripe before he even got started. 
I continued on my walk and didn't think about him. I do a somewhat figure eight route and as I turned from ES back to FG, the smell came back. The gentleman was nowhere in site so I knew it wasn't him. Someone had been fixing their breakfast. 
The next morning I had the thought that maybe he thought it was me and that is why he picked up his pace! 

 

new music

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Amazon is having one day sale. I saw a couple of people tweet about it. Who can resist albums for $2.99?

I went over and checked out the albums. I went through several pages and opened new tabs of albums that looked interesting. There was a time when I knew what albums I owned without referring to my library. I cannot do that any longer. Age and too many albums are to blame.

A couple of albums I had already purchased from amazon. I love that amazon tells me at the top of the page. The rest I had to check against my iTunes library. I eliminated a few more until I had 8 albums left. 

I decided to eliminate some more and only purchased 5 albums. It seems like a lot but that was only $15 which is about the price of one album at retail. These are the albums I purchased:

Iron & Wine Around the Well

The Shins Chutes too Narrow

LCD Soundsystem

Sound of Silver

The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs Volume I