Good Thing We're Not From Detroit

Yesterday I tossed Carter's uneaten saltines into the backyard to see if the squirrels would eat them. Along came a bunch of baby blue jays and two adults. The babies would pick up an entire cracker, almost the size of themselves, and flit away with it. After that a pair of cardinals came through. I grew up near St. Louis and Joanie in Toronto — somehow the appropriate baseball mascots knew where to show up.

West Capitol

The U.S. Capitol as seen from the far side of the Capitol Reflecting Pool, from my mid-December trip to Washington. Behind the U.S. Grant statue at center you can see the lights from the Christmas tree, and behind that the platform scaffolding going up in preparation for the Inauguration.

Deauville

While at work in Miami Beach we stayed at the Deauville Beach Resort, which in its day was a swingin' place — when the Beatles invaded America in 1964 they were guests here and performed a concert for Ed Sullivan in the grand ballroom. Indeed, there was a framed photo of the Fab Four in my room. The hotel is a bit older and quieter since the days the Rat Pack used to visit here, but it's still not a bad place to stay.

One Photo Causes Another

Claire on Joanie's lap looking at pictures together on the computer this weekend.

Relativity

Here's who I got to visit the other week in Florida.


I went to dinner with Grandmama and Aunt Denise.


Sam and Jim and cousin Sarah with her baby Ryan. The picture over Jim's shoulder was painted by my Mom; the wing chair partially visible in the painting's archway now sits in Joanie's office.

Uncle Roger and Aunt Peggy. This semicircle table sat in our front room when I was a kid.


Along with some fab steaks, Roger mixed up the famous family Caesar with anchovies and a raw egg. I'm not sure what the egg does but it's worth living dangerously for. I had three bowls.


Their kitchen still has my favorite sign on the wall. I remember asking Roger as a young kid what it meant, and he said read it out loud.

Purposeful

Here's a picture of North Miami Beach I took on purpose. It was my fourth night in the hotel and I had only set foot on the beach once the first day — too many late nights PowerPointing to prepare for my conference. After getting home late from my Uncle's house for dinner I hit the beach at midnight with my tripod to make some long exposures; this one was 10 seconds so the waves crashing on the shore are only streaks.

Incidental

A lot of my photography is incidental: I'm on my way someplace else and take a moment to get a quick shot off. Here are a couple of ocean incidentals taken in between meetings at the hotel during my Miami trip. The first is out my hotel room window; the window inside my shower(!) gave the same view. The second is at sunset from the ground level balcony, taken just after our conference and debriefing were over.

Goodbye Buddy

Today our beloved cat of 17-1/2 years, Larry "Bud" Grandon passed away. Born in Springville, Utah on July 15, 1991, Joanie and I adopted him as a kitten on a slow Sunday afternoon shortly after we got married that August. Joanie immediately noticed him as a standout in his litter. She recognized quality. He's been the third member of our family ever since our first basement apartment in Provo as seniors in college.

Buddy was always known for being wise, aloof, and a good judge of people — he tolerated few. Eventually he got along with the idea of us having children, though it took about 15 years, by the time we had our fourth.

We knew this day would come, though we didn't want it to. It's been emotional, we've been through the Kleenex. It's dawning on us we're now on our own without him judiciously overseeing things.

Someone closed the basement door this evening, the pathway to the litter box. After walking by the third time it still didn't look right. I propped it open again.

Buddy's worn frame is now at rest in our back yard, under a few feet of earth and snow; his soul has traveled to kitty heaven. He'll always be with us in our hearts, and in our house — we'll probably never get rid of all the fur he left behind.

We love you, Buddy. Hope to see you again someday.

The Dark Secret

When my baby brother Matt was a little kid, my other brother James used to taunt him with a dreaded malevolence called The Dark Secret. Nobody knew what The Dark Secret was, it was just something you said in a mysterious voice that gave Matt the jeebies.

I didn’t see the moon at all this week, it usually reflects off the ocean and lights the beach up at night. Looking out the hotel window and seeing nothing where the ocean should be is a little sinister. Are the bad guys out there ready to come ashore? Is there a tsunami zeroing in on me? You wonder what’s going on out there offshore that you don’t know about. When I was young my bedroom used to face the ocean but I don’t remember it being creepy like this. Ignorance was bliss. I’ve turned into a landlubber.

My Mammy

Downtown Miami at sunset across Biscayne Bay, taken from my 15th floor room at the beach.

Coast to Coast

This week I'm in Florida to put on a conference for work. I came a day early yesterday on the MLK holiday to visit family. I had a great time getting new stories from Grandmama, then visiting Aunt Denise, and Uncle Jim and Aunt Sam (Sam's a girl, she's not that kind of aunt; though their old dog Ralph was a girl — they have name issues). Bonus, cousin Sarah's in town and I got to meet her sweet 2 year old son, Ryan.

After my visit I drove from the Gulf Coast to my Miami Beach hotel and caught the Inauguration on the radio. I'm always struck by how flat it is here when I drive across. I was also struck by how the water outside is in liquid form.

After a quick swim in the ocean, I went out for Cuban with the gang from work. Now I'm cranking on PowerPoint. Over and out.

Wisdom

Madeleine got her wisdom teeth out first thing this morning and is doing surprisingly well. Joanie called from the oral surgeon's when Mada was waking up all loopy from the anesthesia, it sounds like she's a happy drunk.

This is a photo I took of a picture of me — does that make it a self portrait?

Pass the Egg Nog

It's getting snot-freezing cold in New York. Tomorrow's high temp is 10°F; Friday it's going to get all the way up to 11°. I was so cold when winter started this time around ... I've tried to gain a few pounds like on that episode of Northern Exposure, and it is helping. There's just more of me to love. Sexy, I know.

Pucker

Icily

Last month's ice storm knocked our power out for 3 days and was a pain. But for the tree limbs that were spared, the coating was icily beautiful.

In 5th grade I was my elementary school spelling champion and went to compete in a bee with a bunch of other schools — and I got knocked out on the word "icily."

To this day I don't think I've heard anyone use it in a sentence. I'm thinking about starting to use it my everyday conversation.

All Fall Down

Malcolm has a way of getting our Little Kids all riled up when it's nearing bedtime.

By the way, I supposedly can't call Malcolm and Madeleine "The Big Kids" because the Pull-Ups diaper lyrics mention, "I'm a big kid now." Yeah, right.

So when I call M&M for dinner or whatnot, I'll say, "Hey Big Kids, get yourselves and your Pull-Ups in here." Someday they'll thank me for building all that character in them.

Blur Girl

I'm working on a PowerPoint on photography tips that I'll present in Miami Beach in two weeks. I'll use this shot to demonstrate how to throw the background out of focus — zoom your lens to its longest telephoto distance and then back up and snap. It's my secret weapon for cluttered backgrounds.

How do my kids always show up in my presentations?

Did I mention I'm going to Miami Beach in January?

Duck Bums

While on my work trip to DC the week before Christmas, I had a night on the town with my tripod for some shooting. These are ducks at the reflecting pool in front of the U.S. Capitol. More to follow.

Bleary Christmas

I took Monday-Wednesday this week, and then the President added Friday onto Thursday as a parting gift, so I've just spent a week pretty much productivity-free. It has been wonderful. Back to the office tomorrow for a short work week.

Among other things I got several pairs of socks for Christmas and it has been my favorite gift so far. Today I'm on pair four from the six-pack of whites; I'm planning on going dark tomorrow. I can't get over how great it feels to wear new socks. I broke into my bag of Peppermint Patties today and these are coming up as another winner. After I accept the fact I'm not getting that monster $1,600 camera lens this year, I'm relatively easy to please.

Vocabu-Claire-y

Claire's getting to be a great talker, but at age 2 she still says some really funny things. Here's a dictionary to translate what she's saying.

Carter = Tahtoe
Malcolm = Bahgah (was Bah)
Madeleine = Nummy (my favorite)
Claire = Kay
Lollipop = pee pop
Fruit snack = foo-tack
Blanket = blay
Piggy bank = Pee pee peek
I Was So Mad (book title) = Sho My
Hop On Pop = Pop Pop Pop

UPDATE 12/28:
This weekend she got better at saying Blanket. It's now two words — Blay. Ket.
Also a favorite I forgot first time around. Flashlight = Bud Light

The Great Lie Begins

Happy "35th" birthday today, Joanie! (Now take a closer look at the picture of the cake.)

She had lunch with the girls, I made the mother-in-law cake, we took the big kids out to P.F. Chang's (my first time there — loved it), we showered her with presents, we played with her new Wii Fit.

Even with so many trips around the sun, she's still a hottie.

Forestation

Is the opposite of uncouth, couth? Is the opposite of deforestation, forestation? Well, that's what's happened in our house. The kids took over decorating the tree this year, and it is a wonderful precedent.

Brother Can You Spare An Electron?

Thursday night we got tangled up in the Great Northeast Ice Storm of '08. Treetops 15' and 20' feet in length snapped off in our backyard under the weight of all the ice. All over New York trees downed power lines, and we even saw a few telephone poles down.

Our electricity was out for 3 days and 2 nights, and it got incredibly cold in the house. Without power our two sump pumps could not run and we had 3 inches of water in the basement. We could see our breath distinctly when we went to bed the second night.

No more of this — it was too cold to stay home a third night. After a refugee dinner at one friends' we went home to gather some things in the dark to spend the night at anothers'. We came home to a lit-up house with the heat on. We all appreciate electricity a lot more now.

Taking It To The Mattresses

Carter has graduated to a twin bed so we have this shredded crib mattress from his intermediate kids bed that's on its way to the dumper. Joanie thought it would be a good idea to show Malcolm and Madeleine how to ride it down the stairs. We have a new indoor sport for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

My 20-year-old Nikon flash from eBay has this fun repeating feature ... I set it at 4 Hz, darkened the house and left the camera shutter open for four blinks to capture Malcolm's descent. Click the photo for a larger version, you can just make out the ghost of him wearing a gold shirt and red plaid jammy bottoms.

Out of the Blau

Last week we got a message that one of our best friends from Missouri, Herman (B.) would be passing through. So we invited him to make a special guest appearance for dinner! We haven't seen each other for 10 or 12 years or some crazy amount of time, but he's still just as fun as before. What a great time we had catching up.

Herman and Melissa were newly married around the same time as us, had their first kid just as we did, and they were even our next door neighbors for a while. I'd bring home from work an exotic-in-that-day Mac laptop to "configure it," but me and Herman would really be networking it with my home Mac so we could wage Bolo tank battles. Eat hot lead, Tank-Boy!!!

You could look at me and Herman and think we are different as night and day, but we had a great time. Even separated these long years, we talked about how much we both hate home repairs and rely on our wives to fix the house. Friends who know you like this don't come along every day.

Party Pooper

What do you do when you're a 13 year old girl and too cool for a house full of 11-12 year old boys running around? Camp out in the kitchen and make the best of it with a slice of pie and the TV guide.

Birthday Boys

Malcolm's second birthday cake came with a pack of boys for a party and sleepover. After pizza, cake and presents they played manhunt out in the freezing cold night, then came in for Legos, traditional bedtime cereal and Corner Gas until I made them go to bed at 2. I took the opportunity to whup a few of them in Wii tennis and bowling.

Cake 2

This was Malcolm's second birthday cake of the week, created for his friend party. Unfortunately while it baked we discovered the bottom element of the oven gave out, but hey, the top was done. The layers all sagged a little in the middle, but it was mostly cooked, and Joanie added extra homemade buttercream frosting in the center to prop things up — never a bad thing. Then the whole thing collapsed under its own weight. Drinking straws were added as a makeshift structural integrity field.

It actually was delicious, though not much to look at. Of course, for 11-12 old boys, they thought this was the coolest cake ever.

First Lights of the Night

When the sun goes down on downtown Albany, the building lights come up and make everything shiny.

Last Rays of the Day

Sunset on the Corning Tower, downtown Albany, Tuesday evening. Taken through my office window while paying strict attention to my third conference call in a row.