December 2007 Archives

What the heck is a cusp?

Good grief, the year flew by for us at Casa del T-bone. I'd like to meet someone who can honestly say 2007 was the slowest year they'd ever had, though (I know they are out there, and my heart goes out to them because usually a slow year is a bad year). Because usually it seems like everyone walks around for the first few weeks of a new year saying, "I can't believe it's 2008." The few checks we write will erroneously have "2007" listed as the date. We'll scratch our heads when asked what the date is. Classic, fairly ubiquitous stuff, I imagine. And it seems to happen every year.

Santa was good to us all. I'd tell you what the Cutlet and Riblet got, except that it was all a blur. Plus, with both of them having December birthdays, I can't really remember when they unwrapped their stuff. If you'd like to see it, just poke your head into our living room, which at any given moment has played host to a ton of fun things simultaneously, new and old. One of the highlights was the Cutlet getting his first bicycle for his birthday, which we took for his first spin yesterday afternoon at a nearby park (yes, I took photos; they're on my camera at home).

I got some photography equipment, some great books, an Apple wireless Mighty Mouse™, some shirts (you know you're an adult when gifts of clothing excite you), some gift cards (some of which have been used to buy more photo-related stuff) and a few other sundry niceties.

The Petite Filet got a new cell phone (a Crackberry™ Swerve™ or something like that), some pajamas (which she was real excited about), a topaz pendant (to represent our boys' December bdays) and some other sundry niceties.

But there were some downsides. A friend of ours has been in the hospital with a serious infection, expected to go home Monday. This was the first Christmas without my grandmothers, both of whom died late this year. But that's all pretty normal stuff, too. My grannies both died in their sleep and are now in much better places.

How were your holidays? And are you ready for 2008?

I realize that I've posted way too many pictures of my kids lately. Seeing how my blog has never been cutting edge, or even mildly relevant to anyone but me, I'll try to provide something more interesting later. For now, it's more of the same old, same old, as we celebrated the Riblet's 1st birthday on Saturday.

I just noticed that three of the photos involve the Riblet having something goofy on his head. He's also got a Lightning McQueen car in his hand for many of them, although that's really the Cutlet's toy that has already seen lots of miles. The last photo includes his cousin, who will turn 1 in March. She's the lone granddaughter in my family, among her two older brothers and my two boys. She's not spoiled at all, of course.

On a sad note, I dropped one of my lenses on Friday. It hit the concrete and split open like a ripe egg. Bad news: it was one of my favorites, a 50 mm f 1.8. Good news: it was my cheapest lens, costing about $80. Of course, I'd feel pretty sick if $80 in cash fell out of my pocket. At least then it wouldn't have made an awful cracking noise when it dropped. I'm now wondering if I should save up for the similar lens that's a step up in quality (and price, of course), or just get another cheapo. In more than 20 years of taking pictures (first with a Polaroid), I'd never dropped any equipment. Let's hope that no matter which lens I get to replace it, I have learned my lesson about gravity.

I love my car. Well, as much as anyone can love a car. It's not fancy. It's not red. It's not particularly fast. It's not exactly sexy. But it fits me and my family quite well, thankyouverymuch. It gets fairly good mileage, has tons of airbags, full-time all wheel drive, a bit of extra ground clearance and even boasts a strong horn with which to beep. I would like to get even better mileage, though, without a) replacing it with a hybrid b) bicycle commuting (which I'd love to do if I didn't need my car during the workday) or c) moving within walking distance of work (also not feasible).

A few months ago, I saw an article about a Japanese car club (maybe it was unofficially a "club") that basically competed for bragging rights on how many miles per gallon they could squeeze from their Toyota Prius hybrids. One guy would drive without shoes on and refuse to transport anyone in his car to maximize mileage and minimize weight. I've noticed around here that most Prius drivers operate their vehicles just as dumbly and sometimes with more abandon than others ... mashing the accelerator when the light turns green, zipping around corners and tearing up the asphalt 10 miles over the limit. What, then, is the point of having a Prius? It cannot possibly be because of the vehicle's good looks (*snort*).

So, short story long, I've decided to attempt to be the polar opposite of a lead-footed driver. My car has a fake computer thingee that estimates the mileage I am getting and can expect to pluck from the tank with the remaining gas. While it's an estimate and not all too accurate (I was getting 72 mpg for a few seconds yesterday), it's a reminder and encouragement to be Feather-Footed.

There are some impediments to being a gas miser, though:

1. Impatient wife in the passenger seat wants me to drive faster than 0-60 in three days.
2. Impatient drivers behind us want me to get the $#@%^^& out of the way.
3. I had to put that twerp in the pickup truck in his place by showing him that my station wagon is quite fast off the line when I want it to be.
4. See No. 3, but other incidents involved a punk in a Camaro, some bimbo in her mom's Honda and the constipated yuppie in a BMW.
5. Note that calling other drivers names does not help save gasoline.
6. I like to go fast sometimes, too.
7. Sadly, gas seems "cheap" at $2.73 per gallon, so it's easier to burn, burn, burn.
8. I can tell myself that the Soccer Mom in her extra-long SUV is getting such bad mileage that my car is saving the planet one cylinder at a time.
9. It's only cool and acceptable to drive without shoes in the summertime.
10. Like so many in the road-rat race, traffic congestion makes us all unwilling contestants on American Idle. Sitting there with the motor running only decreases total miles per gallon.

So, who's with me? If enough of us sign on, I'll draw up a FeatherFooted Project logo, we'll order up some goofy T-shirts and we can all be gas-saving geeks together. That is, unless some moron in a Prius wants to race me.

It's hard to believe that today (Dec. 11) is the Riblet's first birthday. Where does all the time go?

We're having a family party with the grandparents and some other extended fam on Saturday. Not that a 1-year-old really understands what's going on. Put a present in front of the kid and he pokes it with a finger. Put a piece of cake in front of him and he's going to fling it around the kitchen. But at least it will make for precious pictures that we can bribe him with show him later.

He's a sweet kid so far, even if he does look like a third-world Booger Boy in this photo. He's kept his pale blue eyes (which both our families have a few generations back), while he rest of us have brown. That, among a gazillion other things, makes him very special.

I bet many people who decorate their homes for the holidays have a similar experience of the process:
1. Unpack boxes of decorations and fake tree from wherever (ours were in the garage in a nook under the stairs).
2. Carefully unpack boxes, reminding yourself what decorations you have.
3. Trip over unpacked decorations for a few days.
4. Become motivated to decorate and put the boxes away for a few weeks.
5. Enjoy!

Here are some photos that tell the story of our home's Decornado that touched down and took all four (or five, with the dog) of us by storm ... (note: if you want to see the photos as a slideshow, look at the first one for a few seconds and then scroll down and repeat. tee hee!)

My other grandmother passed away on Saturday (my dad's mom), a bit more than a month after my mother's mom died. I won't be able to make it to her funeral in Virginia, but the pastor officiating at the service solicited input from family members and friends for her eulogy. The following is what I submitted.

Being one of her grandchildren, I have a large selection of memories to choose from. But one of the most important for me is remembering Grammy the Photographer. Whenever our family got together, we knew we were in for it when Grammy whipped out her old Olympus. We would pose for the photo, and wait as she would look through the lens, fiddle with the settings, reframe the photo again. Eventually, she’d take the picture.

Photography was one of her many hobbies that she loved. That’s why I was stunned when she offered to give me her camera equipment about 12 years ago after I graduated from college. She knew I would need a camera at my newspaper job, and she said she no longer enjoyed taking photos anymore.

I used it during my first year on the job, and looking back on the images it helped me produce, they are among the best photographs I’ve ever taken. It takes time to advance the film manually, focus manually, set the aperture and shutter speed manually. Using it makes me think more carefully. With the high-tech digital cameras I use now, it’s all too easy to fire away without thinking. Grammy’s old camera remains one of my prized possessions.

Many years later, I realized that she took time in taking photographs because she wanted so much to get it right. She was like that in so many parts of her life. She cared enough to take the time. I was blessed that she took the time to be such a great grandmother.

I'll try to find one of my favorite photos of Grammy (there weren't too many unless I took them myself; she was the designated shutterbug, after all). She is wearing a hat for Easter that looks like a nest with multi-colored eggs in it. Hilarious! I still have her camera, and I plan to shoot a few rolls of film with it just for old time's sake.