More playing with the new camera . . . and my two youngest girls

Mad face

Scooby-snack face

Sharpened and tinted

Hide and seek

Walking the line. Soft focus, B&W

Done swinging

Sisters. :-)

Playing with video.google.com

I have no need to post video to Google. It's not like anyone outside my family wants to see anything I might film. There are probably the same people who regularly read this blog. But I like the technology. Some days that's enough.

My Christmas wish list

It's that time of year again. So if you're browsing the site and thinking to yoursefl, "Self, you've got disposable income and the desire to give. Here's your chance to do a little something."

• Double Standards by Lea Delaria
• The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3) by Neal Stephenson
• Sony DRU-800A Internal ATAPI/EIDE Double-Layer/Dual-Format DVD/CD Recorder
• Offered by TigerDirect by Sony
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys : A Novel by Neil Gaiman
• Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock
• Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 1 (Animated) by Corey Burton
• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
• Devils & Dust by Bruce Springsteen
• TX 5-Foot Giraffe Unicycle Offered by Magic Geek - Juggling Store by Torker
• Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More by Cory Doctorow
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
• Band of Brothers by Kirk Acevedo
• Flashbacks: : Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury (Trudeau, G. B., Doonesbury Book.) by G. Trudeau
• Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 2 by Corey Burton
• Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition) by Ahmed Best
• Power Strip Liberator II 1' "Y" Cable Offered by Cyberguys! by Cables Unlimited
• Liberator Combo Pack, Poly Bag Offered by Cyberguys! by ZIO TEK
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
• Scientific American by Scientific American
• Popular Science by Time4Media
• Computer Shopper by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
• PC Magazine by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
• PC World by PC World Communications, Inc.
• Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab/the Body Farm/Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by William M. Bass
• THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director's Cut Two-Disc Special Edition) by Robert Duvall
• Last Child in the Woods : Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle and Shake by Various Artists
• Unnatural Death : Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Michael M. Baden
• Radical Fish Street Pro Club Red Offered by Magic Geek - Juggling Store by Beard Juggle
• How Would You Move Mount Fuji? : Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers by William Poundstone
• Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman
• The Best of Frank Deford: I'm Just Getting Started by Frank Deford
• The Sixth Sense (Vista Series) by Firdous Bamji
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• PlusDeck 2c

List available via Amazon.

I made Literally!

I have a number of pet peeves with the use of English. One of them is the (incorrect) use of "literally." Literally (http://literally.barelyfitz.com) scratches that itch so I don't have to pound people.

Last night I made my first submission and it was posted. Bully for me!

For anyone here from Literally, "Welcome!" Take a look at my favorite posts over to the left . . . they have less to do with family stuff than the rest of this little blog and is more general in nature.

Eight wonderful years

Last week Susan and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. Dinner and a movie mostly. Talk about how we have changed, how our love has changed, how many more kids we have. -=sigh=-

Our wedding day is not the most important day of our pre-marriage life to me though. The most important day is when she accepted my proposal.

It went like this . . . .

The dryer at Susan's house was on the fritz and she didn't have money to
repair it. So she packed up the two kids (and me because I had nothing
better to do and loved being with her) and off to the Laundromat we went.

The kids and I were no help at all. It was hot out we were more
interested in goofing off than moving wet laundry. So there's Susan making trip
after trip with the clothes . . . back and forth . . . sweating and getting wet
and tired.

The kids and I, we're laughing and running and chasing,and having a great
time.

Susan finally loses it. She is hot and tired and frustrated and
getting no help and she is DONE.

She says she's going home. And if we want a ride home we better get in the
car NOW. And we better not talk to her on the way to her house.

There was silence in the car.

We pull into the driveway Susan is out the door and into the house before
any of us are out of the car. By the time we get into the house she's in
the bedroom with the door closed . . . with a slam.

The girls and I sit in the living room and pretend to watch TV for a while,
each of us in our own thoughts.

Finally I can't stand it anymore, I go into the room and kneel by the
bed. I whisper her name to wake her. "Susan. Wake up
honey."

She stirs . . . and looks at me with eyes filled with anger.

I take her hand an tell her that even with her being so mad at me, and
being so hard to deal with, I could not imagine my life without her in it.
And I told her that I wanted to be the one to make days like this better.
And I asked her to marry me.

She looked at me as if I were crazy. And said yes (with
conditions).

And here we are today; happily married.

Gwendolyn's Christmas list

I'll translate:

Floam
Polly Pocket Jewelry Maker
Light-up shoe laces
Hair-Dye Barbie
Baby Born
Amanda (doll)
Robots (movie)
Barbie Digital Camera
Barbie Pegasus
Real Real Oven Meal

She also enjoys arts and crafts

 

On a walk

At the start of a walk . . . Gwen needs a new bike . . .she'll be six next month.

She's growing up so quickly. It's hard to imagine, but it was eighty degrees today in Houston.

Miriam decided not to ride today . . feeling a bit lazy.

And to prove my point . . .

We stopped to move a beetle off the sidewalk.

Gwen kept riding ahead and then stopped to ask what was taking so long.

A brief stop on the way home.

And a picture of Miri and I . . .

Home again, home again.

Panama Canal Timelapse video