Farewell.

Digging through my limited archives, I found this photo among other posed shots around summer pools, crowded farmhouse tables, and outdoor picnics. There are other, more traditional photos of the man (He’s on the right), but this one is how I’ll remember him. Goodbye, Uncle Neil.

Sitting with Deend

There are so many reasons this is my new favorite picture; the obvious comparison in size, the whorls of hair on each head, the lighting… I could go on. This was one of about ten that I quickly shot through the screen door.

On the merry-go-round!

Flowers in the Woods.

I didn’t get to spend as much time as I wanted with my ladies this weekend, because I was junkyard huntin’ and Scout fixin’, but I did get to spend the balance of Sunday with them, and it was a great day. As detailed elsewhere, Peer Pressure is back on the road. After wrenching Saturday morning, I sanded the floor in the den in preparation for a third and final coat of polyurethane, which went down today before work. In the evening e went out for a fantastic vegetarian Indian dinner with a family from Finn’s co-op class, and afterwards enjoyed the sound of the three girls running across the restaurant lawn as the light faded. When we got home there were two huge boxes of produce on the back steps from Aunt C. (I don’t know if I should publicize the details, but WOW, and thank you) and after Finn went to sleep Mama and I sorted produce with some cold beer and tried to find space in the fridge for everything.

Sunday was shopping day, so we bundled up and hit the stores for some essentials, then came home and got ready for a family fun day at her co-op, for which we had to wake her early from a nap. This did not go over so well, because the fun day was shutting down early and we missed most of the events and food, but met up with her friends. After meltdowns involving shoes and balloons (and a failed attempt at trying out the moon bounce—thwarted by a snotty kid), we decided to adjourn to the playground across the street and let the girls run off some energy.

Sunday evening we had the windows open and I made some guacamole with our dinner and enjoyed being with my family, and I couldn’t be happier to see white buds on the cherry tree outside. Spring is coming and it feels good to be alive with another cold winter almost behind us.

Heartache.

I’m sitting at work attempting to concentrate on a relatively interesting project (three pseudo-Lichtenstein illustrations) without feeling huge pangs of loneliness for my two girls. We spent a quiet, peaceful, low-key weekend together doing mundane things like grocery shopping, napping, and errands, but the fact that we were all together was the only thing that mattered to me.

It goes without saying, but there’s noplace else on earth I’d rather be than with my ladies. I think Finn’s finally beginning to understand how much I enjoy hugging her, because instead of wiggling away after five seconds, she’ll wrap her arms around my neck, hold tight, and lay her head on my shoulder quietly while I rock us back and forth, letting time stand still.

Rappin’ Santa.

This one goes out to my Grandma Krohn, who gave me Rappin’ Santa something like 20 years ago. She loved little battery operated toys like this, and now Finn asks for us to clap hard to make Santa dance.

In other news, Finn and I hit the stores on Saturday to finish up some Christmas shopping, pick up building supplies, and stock up on groceries for the coming week. She’s been really, really good dealing with shopping and long lines, especially when Daddy carries some raisins to snack on. We got a new subpanel for the side porch, a new in-wall heater for the bathroom, and some other small stuff from the Lowe’s. Mr. Scout put the back door in on Friday, which makes the entire room look much bigger and brighter, and he went around and sealed off all the cracks with insulation. He’ll be back Tuesday to start replacing the siding on the outside walls, which will further improve our heat retention.

While Finn napped, I got the Scout into the garage and did a little work to our free snowblower, which brother Rob dropped off in the middle of the summer; some carb cleaning, reassembly, and a new spark plug later, I poured some gas in the tank, primed it, and it fired right up! It came to us missing linkage from the handlebar to the drive sprocket, so I bent a coathanger and made a replacement. Now it sits on plywood in the garage, waiting for the next blizzard. Thanks Rob!

Free snowblower!

Sunday I watched Finn for Mama again, but before she went down, I pulled the old wall heater out of the bathroom in a cloud of dust and replaced it with a smaller unit. I had to get creative with my drywall replacement methods, so Liquid Nails came in handy. Tonight I’ll put the first coat of mud over the cracks and start smoothing out the opening.

Family On The Beach

Thanks to the Thompsons for the excellent photo!

Random Musings.

The new AppleTV looks very tempting. We are currently paying for the FIOS triple-play as part of their 1-year promotion, so once our contract on that expires I’ll be looking for ways to ditch cable altogether and move to a more internet-oriented TV delivery system. AppleTV is now based on streaming vs. buying, which means there’s only 24 hours to watch a show or movie multiple times. I’m thinking this isn’t a huge deal for Jen or I (especially since we already have a Netflix account, which is supported in the new AppleTV) but for Finn, who will most likely want to see shows or movies multiple times, this could be a challenge. It would also mean giving up a few channels I’d like to have for her, including the kids’ music channel and Disney-free cartoon channels (in the rare event we let her watch TV).

I think the other thing I’d do with it is drop another terrabyte drive into our media server and load our DVD collection on there, along with as much kids’ programming as I could get my hands on in order to stream it to the TV. It would be so nice to retire the DVD player completely and subtract a big box from the TV stand; apparently there is a way to use the XBOX as a DVD player but I need an “XBOX DVD Movie Playback Kit” to do it.

Speaking of Apple, Jen’s new iPhone should be arriving on Friday, which is excellent news. Her old Motorola will be relegated to duty as Finn’s new toy, which is, sadly, about all it’s good for.

She Sells Seashells

Thanks to the Morrises, who hosted us in Easton last night for a tasty supper and an early morning visit to a secret beach in view of the Bay Bridge, where Finn got to play in the sand (and get stung by a jellyfish).

Wake Up!

Mama graciously let Finn and I sleep in until 8:20 this morning, so tired were we after our three-day adventure to New York for Great-Grandpa’s 95th birthday party. Finn got to spend time with her grandparents, meet a huge swath of her extended family on my side (this was one of the biggest turnouts we’ve had in years) and play in the lake, something she did not stop asking to do even as the stars were out and the fireworks were going off.

And now I’m back to missing her and her Mama terribly as I go back to the grind.