#249 Ithaca Carshare Birthday Cake

Last week Thursday we followed the invite to the Ithaca Carshare First Birthday Party. In this picture the delicious super-sized birthday cake is just getting cut. Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm over Ithaca in the early evening so not too many people came and we all had to eat a lot of it ;)

So the party was fun, there was really good Cuban food and live music and nice people to chat with (including the friendly car share staff). And thanks to Rob (who won driving credit as a prize but isn't actually a member) we went home with a driving credit voucher. Woohoo!

By the way: If you happen to sign up for Ithaca Carshare, don't forget to put our names (Jonas & Conny) down in the referal field - this way you will get $25 of driving credit (and so do we).

#248 Ladder

A ladder. I really need to download these photos from the camera...

#247 Boat & Cornell

The foreground shows Ithaca Harbor and far in the background you can see (on the left) the Johnson Museum and (in the center) the Cornell Clock Tower.

#246 The Ithaca Journal

Recently we had the above postal trash (a typo of recyclable material that gets delivered to your door) in our mail box. It prompted me to for the first time buy the Ithaca Journal to see what it's like.

First: Why would anyone pay $7.55 a month for the weekend edition of this paper if I can get the four (or five) weekend editions that come out per month for 75ct a piece from the boxes that are at every street corner??? I don't get that. Can someone explain?

Second: So I got one from the box at the corner (for 75ct). It was heavier than the NYT weekend edition what I considered promising. But after taking the advertisements from every store in Ithaca and the surrounding area out, I was left with a few pages filled with a terrible mixture of local and national news. Some sex offender had been promoted to the front page (sex sells?) and the usual promotional articles about local wineries followed suit on the second page.

Summary: The Ithaca Journal is a waste of time. Leave it in the box.

#245 What on earth is this???

Cycling down Esty Street one block is completely empty apart from a lot of building materials and a massive tent. Google Maps shows what this block used to look like and we wonder what might be inside this big tent? Does anyone know?

#244 Fishing Dudes

Two men fishing in the lake inlet opposite Cass Park in Ithaca. Since very big fish are frequently caught down there, they brought their big flat bed truck to transport them away.

#243 Bridge Graffiti

A bridge near Cass Park.

#242 Ithaca is Green

This is a photo of Ithaca from above the Ithaca Falls (the chimney belongs to the old gun factory). It's pretty green here.

#241 Where is this?

We were on vacation. Where were we?

Hint: Of course we were not on vacation in Ithaca...

#240 Ithaca Highway

People who like to emphasize Ithaca's remoteness often point out that there isn't even a four lane highway going to Ithaca. But in Ithaca there is one for all the people going from downtown to the mall. Usually there are cars going on it.

#239 Stewart Park History

The history of Stewart Park for you to read up in a picture.

#238 What is it?

Hint: The photo was taken in Stewart Park.

#237 Sunset in Stewart Park

#236 Last week of spring

Reminder: It's the last week of spring, summer officially kicks off on Sunday.

#235 Rusty Bike (seen @ Ithaca Festival)

#234 Cha Pion

Interior of a canoe near Cass Park.

#233 Folk Band @ Ithaca Festival

A bunch of musicians enjoying themselves.

#232 At the Lake (2)

Evening in Stewart Park No 2. Unfortunately, the lake is way to dirty for swimming around there and full of disgusting plants.

#231 At the Lake

Evening in Stewart Park.

#230 Train Waggon

Since we are already on the topic of ancient forms of public transport, here is a shot of a railway wagon, supposedly housing offices of the Chemung Canal Trust Company - a small local bank.

#229 "Old" TCAT

I take the bus to work pretty much every morning. One morning instead of a modern hybrid engine bus this old wooden artefact came along the street. It was indeed route 10 going up to Cornell.

Over the past few days it has been spottet doing other routes as well so we suspect that TCAT had to sell their modern busses due to the bad economy.

#228 Fair Contract for Cornell Workers!

Recently spotted on Ho Plaza.

The point this poster is trying to make: Cornell workers, i.e. cleaners, kitchen staff, etc, should get a rise despite the economic climate and should generally earn more. I can't really judge on that because I don't know much about the details but of course I think the cleaners should earn a fair salary.

But what is funny about this is that it highlights a little known fact. The domains www.contractforcornell.org is not the same as contractforcornell.org. While the latter is a second level domain, the former (with www.) is, strictly speaking, a subdomain of the latter. Other subdomains of contractforcornell.org might be something.contractforcornell.org or getadecent.contractforcornell.org. Technically www.contractforcornell.org and contractforcornell.org are different and some people configure their server in a way that it only responds to one of both. In this case the server only responds to www.contractforcornell.org. Omitting the www. on the poster is therefore a bad idea.

#227 The End @ Cass Park in Ithaca

The end is located at the entrance to the hockey field which is used by the Suffer Jets during summers.

#226 Eat Fish @ Ithaca Festival

Photo snapped in Stewart Park during Ithaca Festival. What more can I say than: Eat Fish!

#225 Another bunch of runners

Because watching people run fast is so much fun, here's another set of four pictures from the Ithaca Festival Mile Run. There was another set of those last Saturday.


So first we wanted to show the clever way of taking part in the run: Having yourself pushed all the mile.



These two are included for looking cool with their caps.



I tell you, these two were running real fast. They just stopped for a second so I could take an unblurred picture and then paced up their speed again to win the race.



Giving the atmosphere something that reminded me of being in the Alps amongst a herd of cows, this gentlement was ringing a bell all the time - supposedly his way of cheering for the runners.

#239 Boat Landing @ Stewart Park

And again a photo from our latest Stewart Park series. Who needs more?

#224 Become our neighbor

The house next door is up for sale. Open house was last Saturday so maybe it's too late already but if you want to become our neighbor, here is your chance. Check out the offer at Trulia. Compare to the info on Zillow. Having worked in the online property industry I enjoy checking out the infos that are available online about properties in my area. Not unsurprisingly, the sale price is right at top ceiling of the "Zestimate". Also check out the last sale price on Zillow.

#223 The Chainsaw Gang

For no particular reason these chainsaw people were part of the Ithaca Festival Parade.

#222 The future is so bright you got to wear shades

From the Ithaca Festival Parade is this picture. It's very blurred but I thought the design of the contribution justifies posting it here.

#221 Ithaca Festival Final Day

So when we walked over to the Commons last night for Ithaca Festival, but despite being it being pretty early in the night every was taking down their stalls and stages. So today we got the move on a little earlier to get out to Stewart Park to see whats going on there. I was most impressed by a big circle of people drumming and dancing. I previously thought, this sort of tribal dance is only still performed in Africa. I am told people there dance long enough to fall into trance and then cut their tongues off. They didn't do that here in Ithaca.

#220 Ithaca Festival Parade (2)

So many photos! So Ithaca Festival finsihed yesterday. We had the pleasure of seeing Ithaca Festival for the first time. The parts that we saw weren't the "Hippifest" that some promised us but just the sort of small town festival that you'd expect of a place such as Ithaca. You go out and suddenly there are crowds (not like Oxford Street on weekends but crowds nevertheless). And you get a chance of seeing all the weirdos that live in Ithaca all in one place. And all the normal people (there are a few), too.

Here are some more photos of the Ithaca Festival Parade on Thursday. There was a previous batch of those yesterday.



I am always impressed by people on these wooden leg extender things. Particularly if they walk a mile with them. It's probably not very difficult though. I just never tried. No idea what these guys were representing.



This is the Ithaca Vespa club. They made a lot of noise and smell.



Again, no idea what they are representing but this is a robot and robots are cool.



And finally, there's not only a Vespa club (above) and a Volve club (not shown) in Ithaca but also a Mini club. Unfortunately, no classic Mini was there, just the new fake Minis produced by BMW.