The Curse...

Oh my, I uttered the proverbial parental curse...
"may you have a child twice as difficult as you"

We went to the mall today to get a few outfits and man oh man, Amelia had no desire to follow what we said or did. As far as she was concerned, she was her own boss and we could all kiss off if we didn't like it. We managed to get her to go in the clothes store with us for a few minutes...she's a natural.











After she had the clothes it was "screw you coppers!!!" she bolted for the door. Shoplifting at her age...shame.













To get her to leave the mall Laura had to lure her with a chocolate covered pretzel.


This is gonna be a fun one kids. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut...

IT WORKED!!!!

I left Monday for business, returning today (Thursday). Kim left today on a 4pm flight for her gig. She gets back in 10 days but I leave on the 9th day for Denver. So that was the long way of saying we weren't going to see each other for a while. I landed today at Midway at 12:20pm, jumped in a shuttle to O'Hare to try and see Kim before she left and get our car in the O'Hare lot. The shuttle driver got me door to door in 40 minutes, it was a little hair raising but that's ok, I don't have much hair to raise (unless we are talking about ear hair). Not only did I get to see Kim, we were able to catch up for over an hour before she had to go through security.
Some things are meant to be...

Two good things...

I'm up in Redmond WA doing a few meetings for "the company". It has been long days creeping into the evenings. Two good things came of yesterday.
First of all, after a brutal day, my boss popped for a 94 Cakebread Cab . What a generous offering...












The second is the goofiest picture of my second camera man Brian...perfect

We have a problem!

Amelia now knows to smile for the camera. I can only get natural shots 20% of the time now...

The Greatest Generation

A few days ago Kim and I went to a fund raiser at the invitation of my parents. There was going to be entertainment by one of the best jazz accordion/organ players around named Don Komar. There were two seating/shows one at 3pm and one at 6. Mom and Dad chose the 3pm show. The shows starts with an older couple, He playing the accordion and she singing. They broke out so many old songs many I have never heard but obviously the rest of the room had. He spoke of when he was a teenager during the war and the patriotism that all his family and friends had. I looked around the room and a few things struck me. First of all Kim was the youngest person in the room, then me. At our table were 3 other couples, 2 of them getting ready for their 60th anniversary (including my folks). The agreeing nods shared by many people in the room to the stories of the 40's and 50's was very neat to see, or should I say "swell" I read the book by Brokaw The Greatest Generation and have always been drawn to the 40's, the music, the cars, the clothes... Were the old people in that room really that different from me or am I just witnessing maturity in action? On the East coast Mark's grandmother was doing her part for the war effort but not typical behavior for a young girl. Kim pointed out that maybe when these folks were our age they may have thought like us. I am most definitely in a different frame of mind than when I was 20. Interesting thought process. I was also a wee bit jealous of the bond all these people had. Soon after that I realized we were eating dinner at 4:30pm. Home soaking our feet by 6:30 and asleep by 8. Holy crap! We became old in one afternoon!

Here's a tune from Don Komar Samba De Orfeu

What a hobby

Meet Carlos Chavez.

Carlos was my partner for the past 4 days on the road. You learn a lot about a guy trapped in a truck, driving across the country. This guy has one of the most unique hobby's I have ever heard of. Memorizing genealogy, now I know you are saying "Doug many people do genealogy" but this guy does royal blood lines. He can sit down and write a family tree of complete ancient European blood lines. He showed me papers that had hundreds of names on them, from English to French to Italian to Flemmish, yada yada...all memorized. He then pulls out his latest task. Japanese blood lines from 1100 on. Those are not memorized yet but he's working on them. His dream was to be a history teacher then he realized he really doesn't like kids.

The young'n

I was able to sit for the wee one tonight. In rare form I broke the camera out. She was good for about 5 shots then became very annoyed with my flash.
You choose which picture she lost it on...