There's a Kernel of Truth Here

Men Are Just Happier People:

Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can never be pregnant.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.

Gray hair makes you look distinguished.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks and engines.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
Your underwear is $9.99 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You never have strap problems in public.

Your can't see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color.

One mood all the time.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Ryker Dude!

I have only one grandson at this point in my life. I hope to have more in the future, but at the moment, Ryker is the one and only. One thing is for sure, he's all boy. He bundles ten times the energy and curiosity of his sister (and 20 times that of his cousin) in one small bundle. He's a little tornado and one of his t-shirts sums it up succinctly: "Here comes Trouble." But it's the best of trouble and I can't imagine life without this little bundle of energetic joy.

He gives the huge, spontaneous hugs and seems to be always smiling. Nothing warms the heart like having a little boy throw his arms open wide and come running toward you yelling, "Papa, Papa, Papa."

He loves climbing, running, dancing, slides, swings, hot dogs, yogurt, music, dogs, cats and baths. He hates milk, getting his nose wiped, and loud noises. He enjoys sitting on my scooter and making funny noises and loves to get his toy lawnmower out to help me cut the grass. He thinks that when I get in the floor it's time for a horsie-back ride, and when I sit down to watch TV, he thinks my lap is the place to be.

He's my grill buddy, and always helps me when we cookout. Of course, he gets the first taste of anything coming off the grill. One handed grilling can be tough, though, since Ryker insist that he be able to see the food at all times. Fortunately, his attention span is short enough at this age that my arms get frequent breaks during grilling time.

Ryker loves his grandma too, but I think I get the majority of his attention these days. She's not the least bit jealous, of course. :)

It's great to have grandkids, and I look forward to having more in the future, though if there are any more like this little boy, I need to find a new energy drink to keep up with them.

We'll get to have all three grandkids together this July, and it's going to be so fun to see them all interact. I'm sure they'll run us both ragged, but that's really part of the fun of being a Papa.

Another Visit with Jocelyn

I had a great visit with Jocelyn and her parents over the weekend. I had to be in Phoenix for a business meeting on Monday evening, so I flew down on Friday evening and was able to spend the entire weekend with the family. I hadn't seen Jocelyn of her daddy since before Christmas, so it was a great opportunity for me to get reacquainted with my youngest granddaughter, who has grown so much since I last visited her. Who would think that a mere 4 months would make so much difference?

On Saturday we essentially spent the morning letting her get familiar with me again. She's a bit of a shy baby, so you can't just snatch her up and expect her to take right to you. So I simply sat in the floor and let her approach me. Pretty quickly were were playing with her Lego blocks, throwing her big, blue ball back and forth (she's getting pretty good at that), and putting her puzzles together. While she's definitely a daddy's girl, I think she enjoyed playing with her "Papa."

Her parents have her on a good schedule and routine. Much like her grandmama, she needs time to fully awaken, so she gets an hour of Yo Gabba Gabba in the morning. He daddy seems to like the show, but I think her mommy just barely handles it. After breakfast, she gets playtime, and on Saturday and Sunday that meant we got down in the floor and scattered toys everywhere. She goes down for about a two hour nap after lunch, so on Saturday I took advantage of that time to go for a walk and to dry out from all the rain we've been getting in Oregon lately.

The weather was beautiful in the Phoenix area over the weekend. The heat wasn't bad at all and the temperatures stayed mainly in the 80's, so  I had a nice long walk and grabbed a burrito for lunch while I was out.  One thing I noticed on my walk was the large number of Harley-Davidson motorcyle riders out and about. I kid you not, during my 90 minute walk I bet I saw a couple of dozen riders, all but a couple of them on Harleys. Arizona doesn't have a helmet law, so the vast majority of them were riding without protective head gear, and I saw a at least 3 riders in shorts and tank tops. Come on, it wan't that warm.

Later Saturday afternoon we went to tour the house that Jeremy and Kristin have made an offer on. It's a short sale, so they're getting a great deal. At the moment, their loan is approved and they are just waiting for the banks on the seller's side of the transaction to approve the sale. With any luck they will be able to move into the house in a few weeks.

I went along with them to see the house, watch Jocelyn and take some photos for them. The house has 3100 square feet of floor space, a pool, a hot tub, and an exterior kitchen area. It's very nice and I do hope they're able to conclude the sale soon. Jocelyn seem to like the house, especially the stairs. She and I went exploring on our own and she wandered from room to room checking out all the closets.

On Sunday we went to the zoo. The Phoenix zoo is smaller, but well designed. The desert landscape certainly lends itself to the zoo's design and inhabitants. The zoo features giraffes, gazelles, tigers, cheetahs, and lions for the larger animals, and a smattering of smaller creatures such as otters, meerkats, and African wild dogs. And there were squirrels everywhere. I think they were freaking out Jeremy a little bit since they got so close to the people.

The zoo features a lovely carousel, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it most, Jeremy or Jocelyn. His smile was certainly bigger than hers.  They also have a small water park area with slides, sprayers and a tunnel.  It was hot enough that day to certainly make it tempting for all the kids. There is a little pond adjacent to the water play area, and Jocelyn really wanted to jump into it. She got a little pissed when her daddy would let her jump in - though, I do think she managed to get at least one foot into the water.

One neat thing about the Phoeniz zoo is that they have a monkey enclosure where the zoo patrons can actually enter a fenced area where a number of monkeys are free to roam within the enclosure. You were prohibted from touching the monkeys or getting too close, but the little creatures were right there in the trees or in platforms with nothing between them and you.

Kristin, thrifty girl that she is, purchased an annual membership to the zoo. I think it cost her $80 for the family pass, but now she and Jeremy can bring Jocelyn to the zoo as often as they want and save the $32 entrance fee. Because she also got two free quest tickets when she signed up, getting me in for free, she saved $64 off that $80 pass on the very first visit. Seems like a great deal to me.

We called it a day around 1 pm as it was Jocelyn's nap time and the day was getting a bit warm (high 80's). All in all it was a fun first time zoo trip with my granddaughter and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've always had great memories of zoos. My parents used to take me to the Atlanta zoo when I was small, and Wanda nd I always enjoyed taking our children to the zoo as well. Now, I'm getting to enjoy taking my grandkids to the zoo.

Jeremy had to work Monday and didn't get home until I had to leave for the airport on Tuesday, so I had to say my goodbyes to him that evening. After he went to bed, I went for another short walk and on my way back I stopped in by a place called Tom Ryan's. It was a small hole-in-the-wall country bar, but the staff was friendly and the beer was exceedingly cold. It was nice to be able to sit down, have a cold one, and listen to some music for a little bit. I had a couple of beers, a few pretzels, and then walked back to their place to turn in for the night. I, too, had ot work the next day, so I went to bed pretty early.

On Monday, I had a lunch date with Kristin and Jocelyn at a local park. Kristin had made a friend from an on-line forum for mom's and she was meeting a lady named Kim, her two little boys, and Kim's mom at Espee park and invited me to join them.

The park is quite lovely. Wanda mentioned how nice the Chandler, AZ parks were when she came home from Spring Break, and I have to agree with her. Jocelyn and I had a great time. We chased each other around the park, played on the huge covered play structure, and then Jocelyn had some fun on the water pad.  She really enjoyed the water until the very end when she stepped directly into a large stream of water falling from a fake water tower above her. The unexpected shock of the cold water suprised her and really pissed her off - and when she gets pissed, she has a screech that will clear the wax right from your ears. After that she was done. She just crawled up in mommy's lap and fell asleep.

Unfortunately, that was really the end of my time with her. By the time I got back from work that evening, she was already in the bed, and I had to head back into work the next morning before she awoke. I did get to see her briefly on the ride to the airport the next afternoon, and she sure was cute as she chattered and talked to herself in the backseat on the 20 minute ride, and it was sure nice to get a smile and a kiss from her before I had to fly back to Portland.

After over 10 years of traveling back and forth between Portland and Phoenix, I used to dread traveling, but I sure don't mind now. Too bad there are fewer business reasons for me to travel so much these days, but I'm sure I'll get at least one more trip in before summer.

Back from Spring Break

Wanda got back from Spring Break the day after the POTN Portland Meetup. She had a very relaxing and fun visit with our granddaughter, Jocelyn, and with our son and daughter-in-law, Jeremy and Kristin. Fortunately she brought lots of fun photos back to share with the rest of the family, most of which I've posted on Facebook but here are a few of my special favorites from her trip.

The Chandler area has some amazing parks, and it turns out that Jocelyn is quite the little climber. She seems to match her cousin Ryker in that regard in that the both have no fear of heights and will climb on anything with sufficient protrusions to grip. Jocelyn also enjoys her slides and bouncy play areas. On some of the larger slides she needs her daddy's help, but on many of them she'll willing to wind her way down all alone. You can't fault her for lack of bravery.

She's not nearly as shy, I'm told, as she was when we first visited her in her new home. She warmed up to her grandmother quite quickly and spent a lot of time playing with her grandmother, both at home and in the local parks and playgrounds

Fortunately, there was lots of warm weather and sunshine to recharge her grandmother's batteries and she loved helping with Jocelyn's meals. Jocelyn parents have her on a great schedule with a definite meal time, bath time and bed time. Something her Auntie Talitha really needs to work on with her two cousins. A steady and consistent routine gives small children needed structure to their day and triggers for specific behavior patterns of wake, eat, play, eat, sleep, wake, play, eat, bath, quiet time, bedtime. That was the process we used when our children were younger - or I should say the pattern that Wanda established and maintained during they're younger years.

Children adapt to those routine and their behaviors are triggered by the pattern of the day. The structure is important to them and helps cue them to be hungry, sleepy or playful. A good schedule can accomodate some flexibility in unexpected circumstances, but strives to get back on track as soon as possible. Over time, children learn their schedules well via their biological clocks and can get quite upset if their schedule is disrupted.

Her mommy and daddy have Jocelyn on a great schedule, so Papa and Grandma are going to work getting the other two on a schedule as well so when their mommy goes back to work we can keep it up and accomodate her work schedule.

There's obviously some monkey in this girl's genes. She probably gets it from her mom, though her dad was quite a climber too. As long as she doesn't start hanging from her prehensile toes like her mommy, she'll probably be fine.  I'm not sure what's going on with the tongue though. It might just be a new way to cope with the Arizona heat.

This is one of the many fanciful playgrounds in the area. Wanda told me that she was quite in impressed with the variety and the size of the play areas and structures available in the area near my son's home. From the looks of it, Jocelyn is quiet impressed too.

Little girls can't play outside all the time. When it's dark, they get to go play inside with their grandmother who gives them their batch, dresses them for bed, and reads them their books. And this grandma is a great reader of books, reading every single word with great enthusiasm and with the very best pronunciation.  She also reads with great dramatic flair and wonderful voices, making the stories come alive for her wonderful babies, creating fond memories for the little ones to cherish for many years to come.

Portland Photo Meet

The Pacific Northwest Chapter of Photography-on-the-Net (POTN) met today at the Saturday Market in downtown Portland. We had a terrific weather for the event and 8 our our members showed up to shoot. We all met at the Skidmore Fountain next to the Max Lightrail Line, and dispersed for an afternoon of shooting. Our newest member, Marlene, joined us along with several other members from Washington State. We had a number of locals as well, including myself, Tony Long and Daniel Browning (and his wife and daughter).

To the left here, we see Matt and Marlene meeting each other for the first time next to the Skidmore Fountain. Marlene is one of our newest members and she came down earlier than the rest of us to get a jump on the day and the crowds. She told me she spent a good part of the morning shooting ar
ound the waterfront park. She's a new photographer (or rather, at least new to Canon DSLRs), and seems very methodical in her approach to photography. Not a bad way to learn and grow if you ask me.

Tony Long was the organizer for today's event. He can be seen leading the pack of photographers in the image to the right.

Tony is an enthusiastic photographer and attends almost all of our events. He also tends to get separated from the group more often than not as his photographic style is very deliberative. He's also quite the talker and engaged with a number of pedestrians and street people during out stroll around Portland. He's an engaging fellow and just plain fun to be around.  Tony has a custom title on our photography forum that says, "winded" - combine that with his user name, and you get Tony Long"winded."  A title he earned while defending a post from one of our other attendees, Daniel Browning (seen with the little girl on his shoulders in the image above.

We spent a bit of time at the Saturday Market, then wandered over to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to do some people watching and shooting. We did take a few minutes to visit the Beer Garden before we headed over to Pioneer Square. Along the way, we got stopped several times and asked "what's happening?" I guess a group of photographers wandering around town with big lenses and professional looking cameras had everyone wondering if there was some special event in progress. I wish I had been quick-witted  enough to answer that we were paparazzi stalking Jennifer Lopez or some other celebrity, but alas I was too slow on the uptake.

Of course, the streets of Portland offered their own unique sites, such as the vehicle in the image to the left. I saw it several times during our stroll to and from Pioneer Square, but I never quite got a long enough look to determine what message the driver was trying to convey.

We took a different route back to the Saturday Market from Pioneer Square and that led us down to Burnside Street, one of the major avenues dividing the city. Burnside and the Willamette River divide Portland into quadrants. Burnside defines the boundary between the north and south sections of town, will the Willamette determines east and west. So, streets north of Burnside and West of the Willamette are designated NW, while those south of Burnside and east of the Willamette ore designated SE.

Portland is known for its numerous strip clubs and, in fact, it's been said that Portland has more strip clubs per capita than any other city in North America. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea, but there are certainly a lot of them. One of the most famous is Mary's, one of the first strip clubs established in the city. Most of us had to get shots of this notorious club, and Mat went a step further - literally a step further, into the street to get a shot of the sign, and I assume the folks sitting on the sidewalk in front of the club.

All in all, is was a fun day for photography with wonderful spring weather for the meet. We're already talking about having our next meet in Seattle and perhaps shooting in the arboretum there. With any luck, we'll have several meets over the course of the good weather months.

I Want an MP3-500

I understand the art of compromise, or at least I thought I did. A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle, and I thought about getting a Harley. Hey, it's everyman's dream, right? I'm a responsible person. I've taken care of my wife and family for over 30 years. I earn a good living, so I can afford a few luxuries and I've bought just about everything my wife has wanted for our home. I spoil her, our children and our grandchildren.

But, when I mentioned a Harley, all hell broke loose and I was threatened with both divorce and eviction. Okay, I can understand her point to some degree - she loves me and doesn't want to lose me - but she's willing to divorce me and kick me out to keep from losing me? Say that again? Female logic just isn't logical.

So, I thought I'd compromise, so I started doing some research, and I found out that the Piaggio MP3-500 scooter was an excellent choice for someone who wanted the experience of riding a bike while having a more stable and safe platform. The additional front wheel provides extra stability, more capability to handle gravel and sand, and yet maintain cornering capability. The 500cc engine powers the machine nicely and allows highway speeds, but isn't so much that dangerous acceleration and speeds are possible.

So, I took her up to the local scooter shop to take a look - well, I learned there's not much compromise available in her opinion. Hmmm, very interesting.

Construction

For most of the past 14 years, there has been a wooded lot directly across from our home. When we moved here in 1996 our neighborhood was only about 6 years old and the area was surrounded by large fields or red clover, hay, and other grass crops. Over the years, the fields have slowly disappeared, replaced by subdivisions, apartment complexes and shopping areas. There are still a number of large fields and farms to the north and west of us since we live on the edge of the Urban Growth Boundary, but the fields directly around our home have been developed.

We had thought the wooded area across from us would remain untouched for some time to come, even though we knew that a major portion of the lot was owned by the Catholic Archdiocese.  About two years ago, though, we noticed surveyors and other workers moving through the trees and orange tape and paint began showing up on the various limbs and trunks.  Shortly after that we were invited to various meetings with the parish as they began to discuss their plans to build a new church on the lot. The church congretation and priest for St. Juan Diego parish were quite good about sharing their plans with us, and Father John, the parish priest came through the neighborhood several times to meet with the residents and to chat with us about the construction plans.

The congregation did some of the initial work of clearing out the brush between the trees during late spring and early summer of 2009, and they had the archbishop bless the construction site before the initial groundbreaking.  The parish children went through and picked out some of the larger trees and named them for various saints. Quite a few of the trees are actually being used in the construction of the church and the larger ones will be used to form the interior support columns in the church proper. In fact, they set some of those interior columns into the ground last week. I'm sure the polished wood will be quite beautiful when the church is finished.

Construction began in earnest in late summer and most of the trees were cleared from the property owned by the archdiocese. They did keep some trees for ambience, but most had to be removed to meet the county requirements for parking. The construction company had to move a lot of dirt fast during the first couple of months of construction since they had to get the area graded, drainage pipes installed, and gravel down before the winter rains set in or they faced delays in trying to work in the inevitable mud pit that would follow. There was a lot of noise during that time, even on the weekends, but once the gravel was down, the construction slowed from a frenzy to a more normal pace.

The parking area is quite large and extends from what used to be a dead end street to near the top of the hill where our house sits. There are still a few trees and bushes directly across from our house, and the church plans to extend the sidewalk that used to end about halfway up the lot all the way around the corner and to connect with the sidewalk one street over.  They also improved the drainage at the lower end of the lot by installing a larger drainage pipe. The plans for the church are quite lovely, and the congregation seems very friendly, It seems that they will be good neighbors to those around them.

I've been sporadically documenting the construction process via photographs since last spring. Today I took a new photo of the building itself and  processed a number of the photos from the previous phases of construction and sent them to Father John so he could share them with his parish he wanted to do so.  The last photo would be much better without the traffic one and the porta-potty in the shot, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

I'm not sure when the construction is scheduled to be complete, but I hope that the church will be a positive addition to the neighborhood. It certainly seems that it will be. Father John has mentioned that the parish hopes to work with the local Parks and Recreation district to improve the undeveloped land adjacent to the church, and it would be nice to have a wooded area with some picnic or meditation spaces in the neighborhood. In any event, we're making the best of it, and I'm actually quite interested to see how things develop.

Playtime in the Park

We had a rare day of warm weather and sunshine this weekend. The rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun shined on the valley. The temperatures soared into the mid-50's (hey, it's still January, remember), so we bundled up the kids and took them to the park for a bit of playtime (I'm sure my son and daughter-in-law in Arizona are laughing by now - or maybe not given the rain they've had recently).

It was good to get out of the house and to the park. Ryker and Makayla got to play on the sides, to swing for a while and even managed to kick the soccer ball around a little bit. Their grandmother enjoyed getting out in the sunshine too. She's always claimed to be solar powered.

We all enjoyed getting out actually. It's been raining quite a lot lately, though the temperatures haven't been too cool. The ground is soggy and the moss has a jumpstart on all the susceptible surfaces, and I can see the lawn is going to need lots of attention come spring. We took a towel to the park, though, and once the water had been wiped from the slides and the swings, all was well and kids were able to run around and spend some of the energy that had been pent up over the last few days.

Ryker especially enjoyed his time in the sun. The little tyke has really been using his energy in creative ways. His latest antics have included pushing the kitchen chairs around to whatever surface he is interested in at the time and gaining access to whatever he wants. He especially enjoys playing with the ice water dispenser on the refrigerator. 

After about an hour in the park, the kids were tired, a bit cold, and ready for a hot snack and a nap.  Nap times are good. Nap times are quiet. Nap times mean that Papa gets a few minutes of uninterrupted reading. And when the little ones wake up from their naps, they're much happier than right before their naps, and you get lots of big smiles like you see in these images.

A Full House

My youngest daughter had some shoulder surgery on Tuesday. Fortunately, it was all done orthoscopically and the surgeon was able to find and repair a defect that had caused her left shoulder to sporadically dislocate with certain movements, which is not a good thing at all when your a paramedic and the mother of two young children. Her arm will be immobilized with a shoulder and wrist cuff for the next six weeks. That means she and her two children will be staying with us for a while. That's lots of grandkid time, but Wanda and I both love it, even if we get a bit worn out at time. We sure aren't as young as we used to be.

Fortunately, they are both good kids and we've spent some time baby-proofing the house in advance. The little one, Ryker, has 5 teeth coming in and can be somewhat irritable at times, but when he smiles at you, you forget all that and just want to pick him up and give him a great big hug.  Makayla is just a joy these days. She's so funny and smart, and she can be quite lovable with spontaneous kisses and hugs when you're least expecting it.

I guess what I'm saying is that a house full can be a little stressful at times, especially when you're not all that used to it, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I'll find a little quiet time as needed, but I'm going to enjoy my grandchildren as much as possible (now if I could only get the third one here for a while), because I know someday they may not have time for me.

Dancing with the Wii

I've been seeing a few commercials lately for a game called Just Dance for the Wii. It looked like a very fun family game and I thought the grandkids would really enjoy it. Makayla and Ryker certainly love to dance, and I'm sure Jocelyn will enjoy it as well when she comes to visit with her parents.  Target had the Wii Console and the game on sale, so I picked it up to install in the family room. Like I said, I knew the kids would enjoy the game, but I didn't expect that the adults would enjoy it so much too. Wanda and I tried out a few songs that evening and it was fun (and funny to watch).

The game is simple. You hold the Wii Controller in your hand and attempt to follow the moves of the animated dancer on the television screen. The Wii senses the movements of the controller and grades your movements against that of the dancers. If you really get into the game's premise and movements, your can get a pretty decent workout too. I was certainly out of breath after a couple of songs, and when Wanda tried it she found the same to be true.

On Thursday (New Year's Eve) when Amber brought the grandkids over we fixed some new recipes for a little party, played some games with Makayla and Ryker, and then put on the Just Dance game. Ryker fell asleep before we got started, but as I suspected Makayla loved it. She didn't actually play the game, but instead danced alongside each of the adults. I managed to get some video of it, but Wanda won't let me posts any of the video where she's actually in the frame. So, I thought I'd post this little cut that shows just Makayla dancing to the music (Wanda threatened me with dire consequences if I included her so the video is cut somewhat). So here's about 15 seconds of laughs.

Reorganizing

I've decided to revamp my blog, and to some extent my website. This particular journal will be family centric and will concentrate not only photographic events related to the family, but to generally family friendly events like the various fairs and festivals that we attend during the year. I've gone back through the previous entries and deleted many that were not appropriate for a family journal. Other entries have been marked as NSFW (Not Safe for Work), but not deleted because they contribute to the flow of the journal.

I have copied those entries over to a different journal that will be specific to my glamour photography. This will allow me to separate my photographic interests more appropriately and keep the journal very specific to family and family events that are only of interest to my closest friends and family.  If you've been following my glamour photography and want to continue to do so, let me know and I'll send you a link (or just check out the link for Through the Lens in the side bar).

We spent Christmas with our grandchildren (as much as we could) this year. Unfortunately, our Christmas with Jocelyn was limited to a video show via the PS3 network, but that was quite delightful. We got to see her open her presents from us and to watch her play in the ball pit that her mom and dad gave to her. She certainly had quite a lot of fun with that. We're hoping that next year we'll be able to actually spend Christmas with her like we did last year.

After the all-too-short video show, we went to our daughter Talitha's house for Christmas brunch with Makayla and Ryker, their mom and Aunt TeeTee, and their Grandma Carol. We managed to get there before the kids had been up very long and they hadn't yet opened their presents from Santa. Makayla was reluctant to go look at the tree full of presents until she was absolutely sure that Santa wasn't still in the room.  The kids got to open their Santa presents right away while the adults put the meal together (or at least while Grandma Wanda put the food in the oven to finish cooking)

Brunch was delicious. Wanda made her hashbrown egg casserole as well as homemade biscuits while I made some sausage gravy to go with the meal.  While certainly not light in calories or fat, it was good and filling. Afterwards the kids finished opening their presents and the adults got to share theirs too.

Of course, the most fun was watching the little ones play with their toys, or in Ryker's case, with both his toys and his clothes.  Makayla also treated the adults as play accessories, especially since she got a medical cart as part of her Christmas. All the adults received medical exams and I received special attention and even a call for mommy's ambulance to take me home due to a "really bad owie."

Okay, now you can see why I'm separating the journals, right? :)

Zoo Lights

We took the grandkids to see the Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo last night. It was the first time for even though we've lived here in Portland for nearly 14 years. I guess grandchildren are a great catalyst for doing things you wouldn't normally do because you wouldn't want to deal with the crowds or because it's too cold or too wet or just about any other excuse that you could profess. But with grandchildren, you set all that aside when your grandchildren are part of the equation.

Makayla has been so excited about Christmas this year, and has had a real fascination with Christmas lights. So we all bundled up last night--her mommy, her brother, her auntie and her grandmother and I--and braved the traffic, the drizzle, and the crowds to see the lights at the zoo. And, I'll have to say that it was definitely worth it (though, somehow I wound up paying for the entire family, a patriarch's duty perhaps?).

Mayayla was certainly entranced by the lights. Very few of the animals were to be seen. The penquin house was open, and we did see a few monkey and a sleeping ocelot, but no elephants, bears, giraffes or other animals not depicted in the lights. The light displays more than mode up for the lack of animals though. Many of the displays were animated. There were monkeys swinging from tree to tree, elephants spouting glowing water, butterflies bursting from their cocoons, and an eagle soaring from one perch to another. There was even a river filled with alligators while elephants played in the background.

The kids were delighted, as were the adults. The zoo was quite crowded and it certainly wasn't a dry night. The rain wasn't too bad, though, mainly just mist and fog. The chill temperatures provided the touch of winter without being too cold. Makayla had hoped to see more real animals, but she did enjoy all the lights, and Ryker was really fascinated and wanted to touch all the lights. He did enjoy walking around the place, annoying his sister, and keeping the adults busy trying to keep him from running off in the crowd. He had just as much fun as his older sister, if not more. They both enjoyed the cotton candy that their Auntie TeeTee bought them near the end of our tour.

Jocelyn also got to goto the zoo lights , but she went with her parents to the zoo in Arizona. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that yet, but perhaps her mom will read this post and SEND SOME TO THE GRANDPARENTS!

Zoo lights also gave me a chance at some difficult lighting conditions. The images you see here were shot with a Canon 40D and a 17-55 f/2.8 EF-S IS lens. The camera was set to manual, and because the displays were most static, I enabled the image stabilization (IS) on the lens. I set the camera ISO to 1250 and the exposure mode to manual. The lights varied greatly in their brilliance, so I was constantly adjusting the shutter speed (within limits) to control the exposure. The biggest issue I had was a smear on the clear filter I had on the lens to protect it from the weather. Once I removed the filter, I was much happier with the image results.

Here are some final images from the night:

Thoughts at the End of the Year

I think, perhaps, my long running battle with my computers may be over, or at least in a lull. My laptop drive has been restored with only the loss of a list of images that I needed to process. The images are still there, but the list of images the model chose for me to process was lost in the recovery.

The external hard drive that failed when PGE cut the power to my neighborhood has been restored and the thousands of family photos on that drive have been copied over to a new drive, backed up, and re-cataloged. Additionally, the main images will be backed up to a small hard drive and stored in my safety deposit box. I’ve also added to UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) units to my computer network and optimized the system drive on my desktop. Now, at last, I can actually begin processing the images I’ve taken over the last few months. In fact, I did manage to complete processing the Autumn Fairy Reshoot images for the model chosen for that shoot and will deliver them to her this weekend. Now I have to start processing the Sword and Sorcery shots from mid-November.

In the meantime, I have a number of family images to process, including some Christmas portraits of my grandchildren and daughters. Those will need to be completed before I travel to Arizona next week so my daughter-in-law will have them for her scrapbooking. Of course, Wanda has a few thousand photos she wants scanned a retouched too. Maybe I should consider golf as an alternative hobby.

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is almost over and with it the end of the first decade of the 21st century (depending on how you look at it). The 2000’s were sure different from the 90’s, and not all in a good way. We’re still in the midst of two wars, the economy is, at best, staggering along. Unemployment is at an all time high, and more people are homeless this Christmas season than ever. What I can’t understand, is why we can’t as humans, despite our political and ideological differences, pull together as a country to do better and be more kind and humane toward each other.

I feel fortunate I have a wonderful wife, great children and adorable grandchildren, as well as a job, a home and the time and money to spend on a hobby. I know there are many others who are just scraping by these days and would be grateful for a 1/10th of what I have. That makes me appreciate my family and friends all the more—and I’m certainly happy I have the ability to take photos of them, and my other projects, and share them with the world.

The Next Project

This image is the latest from my Fae in All of Us project, and probably the last image from this project for the year. I still have a few more images to shoot in the series including the Wind, Earth and Winter Fae, but with the exception of the Winter Fae, I'm unlikely to shoot them this year. The Earth and Wind shoots had been planned, but in the case of the former, the model canceled on me and in the latter case, the prospective location wasn't available in time to do the shoot before the weather turned too cool and wet for an outdoor shoot.

It's alright though, the shoots will get done in due course. My extensive portfolio of images from previous shoots in the series has made it much easier to find willing models to participate in the remainder of the series. I may have to push back the publication of my book, but that's okay too. I'd rather take the time to create the right images with the right models than set myself an artificial deadline.

In the meantime, though, I'm starting a new project for the winter months, though in all likelihood I'll continue the project into the warmer months as well. I'm calling the project Swords and Sorcery, though it rightly should be called Swords and Sorceresses, as it features models as both warriors and mistresses of magic.

I've been slowly acquiring the materials to shoot this project over the last couple of years and the project planning is almost complete. I've put out a casting call and I have studio time available, and with any luck the project will start soon.

My goal is to use the art of Michael Whelan, Luis Royo, Julia Bell and and Boris Vallejo as inspiration for a series of photos that put my own twist on the concept of strong women. On the concept page of my website, I describe the project: "I decided to create a series of images featuring various models whose outfits and looks are coordinated with matching sword or enchanted device. The idea is to create a series of images showing women as strong, mystical figures with innate power and beauty"

The artist and designer, Kit Rae, has also inspired a portion of the project with his fantastical sword designs, especially his Swords of the Ancients series which includes the Avoloch Mithrodin sword seen here.

The costume designs for the shoot will include a variety of items but will primarily feature the chain mail jewelry I've been acquiring from artists in Connecticut. I've been using much of their jewelry in my Fae project and it seems quite appropriate to match their unique designs to the models and swords as part of the creative challenge.

The Pumpkin Patch & Post Surgery

I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee this morning. All in all, the pain isn't as bad as I thought it would be (knock on wood), but I'm sure that this is due to the strong medications and the "Game Ready" cooling device the physical therapy office provided me. I'm still quite sleepy from the anesthesia, but I feel lucid, if not exactly clear-headed. Getting up at 5 am this morning and going without coffee before the surgery has been the most unpleasant part of the experience so far, though I'm sure that's going to change as the residual anesthesia wears off and the pain meds are used up.

I have most of the rest of the week off from work since I will be on strong narcotics during that time and I will need to keep my leg elevated and continue to use the cooling unit during most of the day. The surgeon wanted me to take a full two weeks off from work, but I cleared it with my manager to simply work from home next week, as I should be off the major meds by then and can keep my leg elevated and cooled from my home office.

The "Game Ready" cooling unit is actually quite an interesting device. It's a portable cooling unit that provides pressure and cooling to my leg to help reduce the swelling and pain. The main unit has a reservoir for ice and water and connects via a snap on hose unit the the large cooling jacket which wraps around my leg. The unit has adjustments for temperature and pressure and I have a protocol sheet which tells what to use and when. It's quite easy to use and seems to be helping quite a lot.

Unfortunately, my son injured his left knee while playing Ultimate Frisbee with the guys at his fire station a couple of weeks ago and it looks likely he'll have to have similar surgery in the near future. He'll probably call me this evening to see what he has to to look forward to when he has his own procedure.

In other news. we had a great time taking Ryker and Makayla to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island this past Saturday. Their parents came along, as well and their Auntie TT. We had very nice weather for what is becoming an annual family event and the kids were able to pick out some nice pumpkins to carve for Halloween. We sure wish Jocelyn and her parents could have been there too. It would have been a real treat to have all the grandkids together for the event.

Ryker, his sister, and his mom and his auntie stayed here that night, and the girls and I had fun playing Rock Band for the first time in a long time. The girls were out of practice, but we tackled some tough songs anyway, including the new song pack of Queen that I downloaded on Friday

The next day, Wanda and I took Makayla to Disney on Ice to see some of her favorite Disney characters, and we all had a great time. Makayla enjoyed the show immensely, as well as the cotton candy and the other treats, and Wanda and I really enjoyed watching her delight. We hope to more activities like this with all of our grandchildren over the next few years.

Wanda's birthday is this weekend, so we'll be seeing Ryker and Makayla again this week when they come over for their grandmama's birthday dinner and we'll be seeing Jocelyn pretty soon too, since her mommy is brining her up for Thanksgiving.

There aren't any photos with the entry right now, but I'll add some later when I'm off the drugs. :)

Late Nights & Medical Fun

I have a long night ahead. I've reached that age where torture, disguised as medical procedures, is becoming more frequent. Don't misunderstand, I have a good doctor and he provides me with great care and sound medical advice, but I would just as soon stay young forever and not need preventative tests and intrusive procedures because I've reached a certain age.

In any case, I'm not likely to get much sleep this evening as I'm "studying" for my test scheduled for 6:30 am. Such study involves a clear liquid diet and large quantities of Miralax dissolved in Gatorade. Yum, yum. I get to drink another 32 ounces at 1:30 am. Fortunately, there are not photos to go with this post.

I am, however, wrapping up one photo project and collecting materials to begin another. My Fae in All of Us series will come to a close with three more shoots - Earth Fae, Wind Fae, and Winter Fae. I'm also hoping to reshoot Autumn Fae since that was the very first shoot of the series and I think I can do it much, much better now. I just spoke to a vineyard owner today about using their property for the Wind Fairy shoot, Winter Fairy as a model ready to go and I just need some snow and an open field, but Earth Fairy may be a bit of a problem.

I had a girl scheduled to shoot the Earth Fae, but she canceled on me and now it's getting too cool outside to use the concept I wanted to use, so I may need to change it up a bit. That's a shame, because the initial idea involved the creative use of mud. I'm' sure I'll figure out something, though.

I am continuing my Women in Chains series and starting a new one with a similar theme but focusing more on Sword and Sorcery. These two projects will give me something to work on in the studio over the winter months instead of me spending all of my time simply working on post processing my images from previous months. I enjoy the post processing, but sitting at a computer for both work and pleasure gets a bit old and I need to spend time actually behind the camera shooting new images and creating new scenarios.

But, the holidays are coming up too, and there's always opportunities to shoot photos of my family and especially the grandkids. We'll be going to the pumpkin patch soon, and that's always fun to shoot. Thanksgiving and Christmas always offer good photographic opportunities as well.

Makayla and TeeTee Decorating the Tree

Test of image uploading

Test of image upload options via MarsEdit.The image to the left was uploaded from Flickr.


And the image below was uploaded directly from my computer.

This is an editing test done a few days later to determine the impact on the original post. If this continues to work well, I'll be utilizing MarsEdit as my primary blogging software. MacJournal is good for "journaling" and by that I mean writing a diary or journal on a home computer or laptop, but it certainly doesn't work well for blogging, especially when the content of the blog includes a large number of images. MacJournal has never worked properly for me to upload images to my server and doesn't seem to offer a decent editing interface for aligning the images either to the left or right of the entry.

MarsEdit overcomes those limits and allows me to upload the images directly from my computer to Picasa where the images are automatically inserted into the blog, or allows me to use my Flickr account to specify what images to include in the post. It also includes a media catalog to track the images used in the blog so far - something that MacJournal doesn't even begin to do.

I also like that the program offers you a preview window that shows you how the blog entry will look on your site with regard to image alignment and image placement. It does slow the program down a tad, but not to a degree that's intolerable.

Finally, the html source code for the images can be directly edited in the text entry window so images sizes and targets can be adjusted to taste and intent.

The software comes with a free 30 day trial, so I'll continue to evaluate it for a few more weeks, but it's looking more and more likely that I'll purchase it and use it on a regular basis.

Portland Pirate Festival 2009

This year we finally got the majority of the family to the Portland Pirate Festival. The first year of the festival, I attended the festival alone and covered the festival for the St. Johns Sentinel. The next couple of years, Wanda, Amber and Makayla attended with me, and Ryker attended last year even though he was only a couple of weeks old. This year, we went all out and even brought Greg and Nikki (and all of us were in costume, I might add). Unfortunately, Jeremy, Kristin and Jocelyn weren't able to be with us. Had they been, it would have been truly a terrific festival. Wanda and I hope we get to attend the Arizona Ren Faire with them in the spring of next year.

We did get quite elaborate this year. I had the idea to decorate one of the Radio Flyer wagons as a pirate ship and had thought to simply add some cardboard cutouts and a flag to the wagon and that would be it. Once I made the suggestion, though, Wanda, Amber and Greg took off running with it. Amber drew ship outlines onto plywood and Greg cut them out and designed a method to mount them onto the wagons, and added some neat modifications such as cup holders, restraints for the handles, mounts for the pirate flags, and cannons on the port and starboard sides. Amber designed images for the ships and Wanda painted them with bright colors. Amber and I added cannon balls and fake smoke to the cannons. Pretty quickly we had a two ship squadron of pirate vessels. They were certainly a hit at the Pirate Festival. We had to stop every few feet for folks to take photos. It certainly didn't hurt that we had a couple of cute pirates manning the rails.

Wanda made Ryker a cute little pirate's outfit and we bought one for Makayla some weeks before the festival. With all the costume materials at our place, we didn't have any difficulty coming up with appropriate outfits for all the adults. We remembered to bring blankets this year to watch the shows, and we even thought to bring a tarp for the wet ground.

When we arrived the the gypsies were on stage, and while they were quite fun to watch, the kids had little interest in them. So we spent the first hour of the festival checking out the shops, the food vendors, and the children's play area. There were definitely fewer vendors this year, and fewer activities for the children. Many of the same entertainers were there, though, including the Boom Pirates, Captain Bog and Salty, and the belly dancers.

There seemed to be lots more attendees in costume this year, though the Saturday crowd was smaller. I think the smaller crowd was due to the weather. The lack of vendors was probably due to the economic downturn. I suspect many of them went out of business over the last year. Still, there was plenty to see and do. The food was plentiful, there was a beer garden, and the weather turned out to be quite nice for the festival.

Of course, the reason Makayla came to the festival was for Captain Bog and Salty. For the entire week leading up to the festival, she had us playing the Captain Bog CD and specifically Nellie the Elephant and The Pegleg Tango so she and Ryker could dance to the tunes. Ryker especially loves the Nellie the Elephant song. It has a part where the song starts out on a long, low note and then rises to a very bouncy and bright chorus. During that crescendo he just starts giggling and laughing in anticipation and then when the chorus arrives, he bobs and dances his little heart out.

The band got off to a rough start. There was a power failure about 10 minutes into their show (their portable generator died), but they recovered nicely and put on an excellent show for the kids. Ryker and Makayla both had a grand time dancing to the songs, as did all the other kids there, including some "big kids" who looked to be well into their 20's and 30's. They seemed to be pirate groupies.

Rogue Brewery had a tent set up with several varieties of beer and wine and well as some quite delicious pizza. The Pirate Wenches serving there were easy on the eye, and the beer was easy on the throat. There were plenty of other food vendors with delicious treats as well. Chowder bowls made from bread and filled with New England style clam chowder seemed to be quite popular as did the African dishes. As can be expected with any festival there were also sweet treats such as elephant ears and a very interesting rosemary lemonade.

A big part of any festival for me, though, is watching, photographing and interacting with the people who attend and get into the spirit of the event. When you're in costume yourself, the interactions are friendly and fun, and I had a number of short conversations with various groups of people throughout the day. All of them were quite willing to pose for me and happy to have their photo taken.

Here are some of the images taken throughout the day:

Wanda had a lovely costume complete with boots, chains, a hat and a wonderful smile:



A small group of Pirate Wenches looking quite lovely in their festive attire:



Here's the lovely lass who ran the games for the smaller children. She's been a fixture at the festival for at least a couple of years.



The Beer Wench and a lucky customer from the Rogue Brewery Tent:



After we had been at the fair for a couple of hours, we met some of our daughters' high school friends, Holly and Jenny. They're sisters and Jenny spent quite a lot of time at our house when she was high school with our daughters.



Makayla and her grandmother had fun sword fighting. Makayla's favorite phrase was "Give me your treasure." She seem to be able to wrangle a few dollars out of me, so it must have worked.



Nikki enjoyed cuddling her nephew:



Of course, Papa had fun too - even though his earring got ripped off at least a half a dozen times!



THe Portland Pirate Festival is held every September in Cathedral Park underneath the St. Johns bridge. It's a wonderful setting for a fun event and I hope it will continue to be an annual festival for pirates of all ages for years to come.