Regular Life

As I have reported in the past, we found that our local Portrait Innovations does a good job for a good price. I stop at “good” because there’s nothing groundbreaking about the poses or the photographers. They are easy to work with and our prints always look great.
While our first and second trips [...]

Thursday ended with Shannon staring at her computer screen, tears streaming down her face. “Ben’s hiding in his closet,” she said. Ben likes to do that when I get home so I can “find” him.
Then Shannon looked up at me and sobbed, “He could have died.”
Just home from work, I set down my [...]

Benjamin and Shannon splash it up. Click for a much better look.
Although I enjoyed all the father/son time Benjamin and I spent last week while I was off work, the time we spent as a family topped my list.
They often get buried under her depression, but my wife’s sense of humor and love for life [...]

Click to enlarge
Last week while I was off work, we had another first, and it was a blast.
One nice thing about living in a major metro area is that there’s almost no limit to the options available as long as you can cover the admission price. Laughter was the sound of the day as [...]

Note: Photos in this post by Benjamin, with his Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera (generation one model).

My Blurry Mommy, by Benjamin
It’s strange, having nine days off work in a row and nowhere to go. We could have gone to Spain, England, France, or all of the above. Heck, we live in a [...]

Besmirch not my mommy’s name.
(click to enlarge, or walk the plank)
In Tulsa last weekend, my favorite time was one cool morning playing with Benjamin in the front yard. He picked up a couple black plastic stakes advertising the lawn service Shannon’s uncle uses, and following his lead we pretended they were swords. We [...]

If you normally spend between four and five minutes reading here, then today is your big break.
You get to spend about the same amount of time listening, because I’m offering up a hodgepodge of clips that help paint a sonic portrait of what goes on in our lives. No, it isn’t just a bunch [...]

(Note: Yesterday’s post was my 700th published. About 60 days short of three years doing this, I figure that’s one post every 1.4 days.)
Before the thievery on Saturday, there was a windfall of epic proportions.
Sometimes, you just get lucky.
You’ll recall that we were at a place featuring games that spit out tickets rewarding [...]

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Curses!
I sit at our home PC typing a blog post or some such nonsense. On one of her nights to put Benjamin to bed, Shannon walks into the guest bathroom to assess his teeth brushing progress. I hear them talking to each other, but can’t [...]

(click any pic to enlarge and sharpen)
The Dallas Arboretum is the centerpiece in an oasis in a concrete jungle. Plus, the deli makes a great panini.
Shannon and I loaded up her father and Ben in the minivan and headed out last Sunday for a warm, overcast-then-sunny afternoon among the flowers. Every city’s residents should [...]