While driving around lunchtime, I saw an airplane pass overhead, its contrail casting a shadow on the thin cloud layer below. I had my camera handy, and was stopped at an intersection, so I snapped a couple of shots. As often seems to happen, the first, haphazard one was the best.

The diagonal line extending down from the sun is, I believe, a sun pillar-like effect in the trails left by the windshield wipers. Also: Unless I’m mistaken, you can just barely see the edge of a halo in the feathery clouds at bottom center. It’s the slight reddening.

A few hours earlier, I saw this:

I glanced out the window while changing lanes on the freeway this morning & noticed the bottom edge of this halo. By the time I had a chance to stop the car and really look, the lower arc seemed to have disappeared, but the left side was sharply visible – as was a sundog. I rolled down the window and snapped a couple of photos while waiting for the light to change. Unfortunately, I couldn’t position anything to block the sun, so the exposure isn’t all that great.

By the time I reached my destination and parked, it had all faded except for a slightly bright patch in the clouds to the left.

A bright light at the edge of the photo oversaturates this view of a mall.

Looking up at a huge Christmas Tree under a dome, flanked by palm trees.We are South Coast Plaza of Borg. You will be overstimulated!

Seriously, after only 20 minutes at the mall on Saturday, I was already feeling overwhelmed. The children’s choir singing “Holly Jolly Christmas” right outside the first store did not help!

I miss the Ghirardelli shop. It was my favorite way to just retreat from the madness that is South Coast Plaza during the Christmas shopping season and prepare myself for the next hour or two.

Oh, yeah…here’s a better photo of the bridge and the mall segment formerly known as Crystal Court.

A man dressed in aluminum foil with a sign on his back reading Sir Reynolds of the Wrap, talking to other people dressed in more serious Renaissasnce Faire garb. More people are milling about in front of some shop stalls.

Somehow I don’t think he’s taking this quite as seriously as Faire folk might prefer…

At the Renaissance Pleasure Faire held at Glen Helen Park near San Bernardino, California in spring 2001. (Yeah, I’ve been scanning old photos again…)

Update: I like this filmstrip-style filter and border. It’s a good fit for a Throwback Thursday on Instagram.

The same photo, cropped square, colors faded and wrapped with a border that looks like the border of a strip of film.

Smoke from a brush fire near San Juan Capistrano, seen from the parking structure at the Irvine Spectrum. I wouldn’t have caught this if I hadn’t checked Twitter when I sat down to lunch and seen an update from @LATimesfires. (As it is, I still had to make do with the camera on my phone.)

The picture was taken around 1:30. It’s about 3:30 now, and I don’t see a plume anymore (though it could be behind a building) — just a smear of haze to the south and west.

According to the LA Times, the fire started when a tractor crashed into a power pole this morning.

Katie carved this incredible anatomically-correct skull Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween today. Update: Check the comments for her writeup on how she carved it.

Katie VampireIt seems to have worked as a “yes, we’re handing out candy” signal. Last year we didn’t get any trick-or-treaters. (We also didn’t put up any decorations that year, either.) This year, they started arriving while I was taking photos of the pumpkin…and while Katie was opening the bags of candy!

She dressed up in her vampire costume, which got some great responses. One trick-or-treater asked about the fangs. She overheard another walking away from the door and wondering, “Do you think she was a real vampire?”

By 8:50 we were down to only three Starbursts left to hand out, so we brought the pumpkin inside and called it a night.

Earlier this afternoon, I ran some errands and deliberately went to the Spectrum so that I’d have a chance of spotting the Great Park Balloon in the air while it still had the Jack-O-Lantern face on. I thought this view made for a nice image of the Great Pumpkin, rising up over the trees.

Large orange balloon, half-hidden behind trees, with a simple Jack-O-Lantern face painted or stuck on it.

I’m not much of a pumpkin carver myself, but Katie likes to get creative. Here are some Jack-O-Lanterns she’s done, inspired by science fiction, fantasy, comics and games.

From 2003… Gourdzilla!

Inspired by a Grand Ave. strip earlier that week.

Also, Aeryn Sun from Farscape!

Aeryn pumpkin in lightAeryn pumpkin dark

More about these: 2003 Halloween Madness

From 2005… Puzzle Pirates’ Navigation puzzle!

glowy stars and projected arrrrrs

Yes, the “Arrr!” on the wall is a projection.

More: Pumpkin Arrrrrt.

And finally, one that hasn’t been on this blog before: The Eye of Sauron, from 2002. Unfortunately we could only find one picture of it, and it was lit up from the outside, so you can’t see how awesome it looked in the dark.

Eye of Sauron Pumpkin

(Evidently, whoever sat at this desk liked dogs.)

This year’s Jack-O-Lantern will be up soon!