Regular Life

Today, please use the time you usually spend here to think of the fallen at Virginia Tech, and their friends and families.
Looking at the larger picture, let’s also remember the more than 3300 American soldiers and others killed since the war in Iraq began.
Violent death is a terrible reality that only humans have the capacity [...]

My tie is a child’s rendering of AZT under the microscope.
I never intended for that many posts to come out of the long Easter weekend. In fact, I have one more to go, because I’ve only touched on Shannon’s family’s festivities.
When Ben and I arrived at cousin J’s Friday night (remember, we’re still talking the [...]

Turn it up.

Can there possibly be an explanation for this? (click to enlarge)
Sort of, but first let’s finish our time with my family.
There’s something about when Ben and his first cousin get together. Before they finish hugging each other hello, things turn competitive and downright combative. Whether over a coveted toy or just personal space, they rarely [...]

On the way to my parents’ house, Ben did what every small child should do. Aside: It’s great to be able to say “my parents’ house” again, because for about 20 years it was just “my dad’s house.”
He napped.
I grabbed my camera bags and Ben’s toy bag on the way in, figuring they were the [...]

Survivor
On Thursday, from my Aunt J’s place, Ben and I went to visit my grandfather at a retirement community/nursing care facility. The seeing Granddad I give a 10 out of 10. Taking the boy along without someone to help manage him? I give that about a 3.
Ben wasn’t particularly problematic, but every time I leaned [...]

Easter thrust itself upon our family and refused to let go for five straight days.
Normally a tame affair consisting of a whirlwind weekend trip to my parents’ house, this year was different. The tradition for our entire marriage, and many years prior to that for me, was two days of egg dying, catching up since [...]

The above pics illustrate why white balance settings are important.
In the first, my camera was set to the direct sunlight setting, because it fit conditions of my previous shots.
In the second, I remembered to change it to the shade setting (on my camera, a picture of a building casting a shadow).
See the difference in the [...]

Picture by our friend R
(Note: Clicking a pic in this post will load a bigger, clearer version. My photo plug-in muddles up the detail a bit when it converts the pics.)
Last weekend, we loaded up our little family and two-thirds of another into Homer and headed out to the Dallas Arboretum. It’s a large park [...]

(Note: The following originally was part of “Quite Animated,” inspired by my recent viewing of The Lion King, but the length prompted me to separate the two.)
Along with the insertion of popular songs to reveal a character’s thoughts or keep the action going, there are pop culture references, presumably to keep the adults’ attention. They [...]