Ephemera

A writer friend in Atlanta once gave me a whole tub of old magazines... some dating back to the early 1900s. As I was flipping through them, I found this raffle ticket tucked inside an old issue of LIFE. What did the second place winner get, two tons of coal?

The Best Things

Naps...

Tracy not looking a day older...

A brief tour of Millcreek Canyon...


Tracy's obsession with making the perfect mousse...

Evan's obsession with Tracy's obsession

Getting this close...

Occasionally being referred to as "dashing"...

Shrimp Po' Boy Sandwiches...

Father's Day presents...

Father's Day Gifts...

Not pictured:
- Eden pulling Rickshaws for YMAD...
- Finally learning how to adjust our sprinklers...
- Running with Tracy and Nike+...
- Mazza with the Southwicks...
- Riding my scooter to work...
- Banbury Cross Maple Bars...
- Barbara's Visit...
- The time when I told a room full of people at church that Tracy's birthday was on Tuesday. (It was on Wednesday)

Just a few moments from a really decent week. I promise I'll try to write something more soon. Maybe a poem? I don't think I've ever written a poem.

Fashion Stroll: A Family Affair

In spite of her blood-oath to the contrary, Hailey signed for yet another fashion show; this one a competition sponsored by VitaminWater.

To one degree or another, everyone got involved:
Hailey meticulously designed and sewed the dress.
Eden nervously agreed to be her model.
Mom proudly led the cheering section.
I barely took the photos.
Evan... Well he played Minecraft in the basement.

Hailey did an amazing job. The dress was beautiful, the construction flawless. She has come so far, so fast. She didn't win this time around, but felt justifiably good about her showing. We were proud parents.





The event also gave me an opportunity to play fashion photographer. For the same reason no one should hire me to photograph their wedding, no one should hire me to do this. Why? There's no shortage of reasons, but I'll give you two for comfort. 1) I can only intermittently operate my camera. 2) I am easily distracted. If the primary objective is one thing, I will almost certainly accomplish another. Use the photos below as an example... When a full body photo would best serve to show the designers work, I might inexplicably create a portrait. Meh...










Also, this happened....

Reverence

Sunday at church...
Father's Day...
No, you probably shouldn't take photos during Sacrament Meeting...
I've done worse...
Evan listening intently to the hymns...
Or at least the hymn book...
The couple behind us... fast asleep...

Flower Power

Have you ever met someone you were magnetized by? Someone you instantly liked and wanted to be connected to? Karen is one of those people... a friend of Tracy's, she is a tiny, creative, force of nature. Tracy, Eden and a couple of other friends spent Saturday morning at her house making handmade flowers. Karen had recently bought 500 lbs. of wool sweaters and wanted to put them to good use. You can buy sweaters by the pound?

Before the photos, few things about the host:
- She is (on her tallest day) only about 5' 1".
- She has five or six gigantic looms in her home studio... she can weave almost anything.
- She used to work on movies, among them The Bluebird with Elizabeth Taylor.
- Her son Mike was Bobby in The Brady Bunch
- She keeps a pellet gun handy for shooting magpies. (she prefers the pointed pellets, the round ones just bounce off)
- Her house is a joy to behold... not because it's expensive or large, but because it has an energy that is contagious. You just feel good when you're there.

I wanted to go along... not so much for the flowers, but for Karen. I would have wanted to document her and the whole thing. But I think she would have had none of that... I'd be flower-crafting just like everyone else. So, the photos you see below were shot by Eden and Tracy. I insisted they at least take the camera.

Accidental Spaceman

I had intended to draw a robot. Who doesn't love a good robot? Unintentionally, I made a jet-pack spaceman or something. Not sure why he has a number. I just found this typeface and wanted to try and find a way to use it. I've always wanted to have an edgy or somehow sophisticated style... Instead, I produce stuff like this. Or birds... I like to draw birds. To my knowledge, no one has ever said... "Dude, that is one bad-ass finch."

Facade

- New roof.
- New windows.
- New porch.
- New paint.

An improvement to be sure. Although it does feel like we're building one of those western towns you see in the movies... all front and no back. Either way, it feels better to see less peeling paint and rotting wood. For a time... Maybe just a short time... Our curb might have some appeal.

Were there shenanigans? Of course there were.

The painters were nice, but didn't know a ton about painting. While chatting in depth about Legos, they filled all of the nail holes in our new porch with caulk, not putty. So now the newest thing on our house, on day one, has problems that we'll get to lovingly fix. We could have pushed harder on our guy, but he was just a nice kid in over his head. We could both sense he was about to be at the end of our rope.

Our windows guys brought their A-game when it came to installing and clean up. They also brought the wrong windows... which had to be used anyway. Not quite logically, they removed our old windows before confirming the new ones were correct. Opting not to leave gaping holes in the side of our house, we had them go forward with a pinky promise to make things right at a later date.

Also, Tracy notes... The yellow door was her idea. A nice touch, I'll admit.

Everything isn't perfect. It never is. But for us it's visible progress... And that, my friends, is something.

Meeting Notes

My "notes" from a recent meeting with one of our clients. They do stuff with planes, oceans and satellites. All through school, I used pen and paper to draw while I listened to my teachers lecture. Now I use an iPad to do the same. Apparently some things improve over time... and some don't.

St. George 2011

I know you're thinking I rely too much on photos these days... that I'm not giving you enough of my witty prose. (okay, you never thought that) But I have to be honest. I think this pretty much captures Memorial Day weekend in St. George. Everything but maybe the last five minutes...