Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
The National Weather Service is saying we might get up to 20 inches of snow by morning, while conservative estimates land around 13-14".
Sweet. Just what we need on top of the 52 odd inches we've already seen this winter.
But, as in all things, it's all relative. My friend Fred Bryan of Oftencold.com lives in Alaska, and when I mentioned the 20" he didn't even think it worthy of acknowledgment.
There are advantages to living in the boonies though - check out the visitors on Fred's back porch:
I enjoyed last weeks contest, so here's another entry in Sometime's I Thinks J-Land Photo Shoot.
The subject this week is OLD.
This is a picture taken on my first tour of the home I live in now, which was vacant for a number of years.
The cloth electrical wires and old-school fuses above, when combined with a vastly outdated power supply (to my recollection, less than half the juice that flows into a 'normal' home), were not enough to power a modern fridge or washer.
As a result the house had only an old ringer washer and an icebox. As you can imagine we replaced and updated the electical service.
Now that I look at the link above I realize I've posted this pic before, as part of that tour. So, in the interest of not selling the same item twice, here's a shot of the washer I mentioned (there were actually two in the basement).
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Tonight Lost returns for Season Four, and let the word spread far and wide: knock on my door, call my phone, Nextel me, or otherwise interrupt the glory of watching my favorite show in HD on a big screen (for the first time) and you will face a wrath unseen since the time of the Pharoahs.
Have a nice day!
On a lark I decided to jump in and participate in the weekly photo shoot over at Sometimes I Think.
This weeks' subject: Black and White.
I had originally intended to contrast the beauty of our recent snowfalls with the dirt, grime, and salt that quickly turns the side of the road into a dark slushy mess.
But in reality that's more brown than black, so no-go.
As it turns out I think I like this shot better, although I admit it's nothing fancy.
Speaking of snow, we followed that wonderful -7 (F) weather with a good six to seven inch snowstorm the next day. It was a pretty odd brand of snow, very loose and almost artificial. I remember thinking as I shoveled out our parking slab that it seemed to be composed of thousands of tiny individual balls - like a Willy Wonka-ish blizzard of Dippin' Dots.
Of course, gimmicky or not, it didn't make digging out any more fun that it's been for the other three feet of snow we've had this winter. And as always I wonder- my ancestors leave central Europe, travel halfway around the world . . and stop here. Why???
My maternal grandparents.
My folks
And us . . note the clean-shaven look mandated by my bride, and the carnival glasses.
Here's this years crop of official dance portraits. This is LuLu's first:
and YaYa's 3rd.
I'm not sure why they loaded so small. When I'm done with the post I'll try to correct the problem.
I have no idea what dance YaYa's doing but Lu does a charming little "Hey Daddy, I want a diamond ring, bracelets, everything, etc" number.
Today she sang out "Hey Mommy, I love my Daddy" to the tune. :)
[Lisa herself took dance on Monday's, the same as the girls, but recently dropped out as the pregnancy progesses. Man let me tell you, the months have flown by with this pregnancy. Six months in already? Wow.]
[The 6th also marked my 6 month anniversary without a cigarrette. I celebrated by gaining another three pounds]
Their recital is coming up so look for more pics of the crowd at the show.
Here's some photos of YaYa at my work. Sometimes it made more sense to bring her back to work with me after school, rather than journey all the way back to our old house.
Here's my bulletin board. Note all the girls' drawings/photos and the horrid reminder of my term as AOL's First Guest Editor. The dinosaur is from LuLu.
Normally she'd snatch something to eat and then go on barbie.com, pollypocket.com, or disneychannel.com on my laptop.
This particular day a possum was out in the parking lot. I've seen deer, hawks, possums, snakes (caught one and had YaYa hold it), Praying Mantis, and coyotes in my years there.
Which is dang odd, considering I'm smack dab in an established commercial area in the midst of the city.
Here's a bland pic of Parker in the tub. Because of the kooks in the world I won't put the rest of the pictures online, but check out the eyelashes on this kid. Believe it or not, he gets that from me.
Secondly, here's a pic of my girls entranced by the computer. In additon to Barbie.com, Disney.com, etc. we've now discovered how to play videos on AOL.. They've watched two Mary Kate and Ashley Christmas videos, and one of the Smurfs.
Hmm. . . not sure why the previous post has now messed up the size of the page, given that the exact same content was present (with no problem) all day. I hit 'edit', then changed my mind and discarded the changes. Oila (sp?), a messed up looking page, when theoretically it should be a carbon copy of what was there all along. Even the 'change' should not have altered the page size, but whatever.
Guess I'll have to wait until I post 10 more things before it's bumped off the main page and all returns to normal.
If you want to look at an entry and have it be somewhat 'normal' in appearance, just click on 'link to this entry' at the bottom of the individual post. That'll bring it up in it's own window, looking just dandy.
Here, by the way, is a modified version of the pic we sent out in our Xmas cards this year.
Recently we had our kids pictures taken at DeLaura's Photography, a new outfit owned and operated by Lisa's cousin. Take a gander at the portfolio she includes on her site, I think you'll enjoy her work.
Here's two shots we DIDN'T pick for inclusion in our Christmas Cards. The winner has our name across the bottom; thus I didn't include it here.
You'll have to excuse me, as the next few posts will be all out of order chronologically.
Today the Mrs. and I took Middle Child and Parker (YaYa was overnight at a friend's house) on a walk down Layton Boulevard.
Layton Boulevard is the name of a southern strip of S. 27th Street aka US 41, a street that bisects the city and has the longest continuous strip of businesses in Milwaukee. Why the name change for a mile or so? Ask someone else, I don't know.
What I do know is that Layton Boulevard features some of the most amazing single-family houses in Milwaukee. A shame really, as they're located in a 'changing' neighborhood, or, if you are less charitable, an 'almost ghetto'.
I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
The basis of the walk was exercise, but I always wanted to photgraph the houses on that stretch. So bear with me as I post some of them here.
I love the arches on this next one. Note the window AC unit tho' - very few of these houses have central air.
I like the trim on this one.
I think this one is gorgeous. I have a fetish for dark green awnings, and I adore the brickwork.
These next few are of my dream house. It even features a pair of pineapples on the front steps - the logo of my employer.
Nearby are several houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, including one I've heard is the only creation of his to feature a garage - because he designed it for a buddy.
