Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Being a proud disciple of Captain Obvious, I should first point out the irony of reading a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" post when it's currently 3 days after Christmas. This only seems odd to those who are either visiting my blog for the first time, or those who haven't been paying attention over the past year. As always I have an excuse. I'll pause a moment to allow the shock to subside... Please, stop snickering, it breaks my concentration... Fine, I'll continue. I received some new video editing software for Christmas. While it is much more powerful than Windows Movie Maker that I've been using the past year, and it should allow me to try new things and make better videos, it also has been very temperamental. Causing me much frustration since it's installation. Between random crashes, corrupted files and lost work, I almost gave up. Finally I was able to keep the program running long enough to complete the movie included in this post.

"Just the Facts Ma'am"

Just a quick (well, that's the idea as of right now) post covering Thanksgiving. I figured this was the only way to ensure getting some pictures and quick commentary up about our Thanksgiving before Christmas is upon us. This post will be without fanfare, bells, whistles or snazzy high dollar production value. Okay, maybe that is a bit much, but humor me. Let's just say this is mostly a pictorial with just a bit of commentary. My homage to Joe Friday "Just the facts ma'am."

We were unable to make it out to Kansas City again this Thanksgiving (hopefully we will make it next year, fingers crossed that the housing market turns around and everything else goes well). However, we were graciously invited to spend Thanksgiving with family up in Panama City.

Whatchagot Stew

Well, it's Thanksgiving week. I can't believe how fast time is slipping by. You know all those things people say when you're growing up that you just never believe? Every day I'm finding out more and more of those phrases are true. If only I could turn back time and pay heed to all the advice people gave...

"Enjoy Growing Up, It's The Best Years of Your Life!"

You know, looking back I dreaded that part of my life. But now I think of how great it could have been. If I only knew then what I know now I would have attempted to make so much more of it. Not only the social aspects, in which I utterly avoided. The actual time to just learn and explore interests without worry of money, work and bills. Growing up did include a lot of work. Looking around at other kids I realize that comparatively yes, it was a lot of work, but that taught me many valuable things that has served me well to this day. Heck the way things are going in the world, I may end up needing to rely on knowing how to "rough it". Many people I see out there would be at a complete loss. Anyway, even with that said there was plenty of time to enjoy and just be a kid. I took so little advantage of that time I should be put on trial, because it's gotta be a crime. To think of the free time I had to just practice on my golf game. I frittered so much of that time away. I could have played just half as much and still played 10 times more than I do now, and still I would have had to practice a couple hours a day.

Surfer Girl

Here I sit, once again, staring at a blank screen. It seems to be a reoccurring theme lately. There is "news to report" but I struggle to find a starting point in which to transfer the thoughts in my head into a form more accessible to someone other than myself. My left brain tells me to just post the information and corresponding media, be done with it, and continue with other activities. My right brain says "Hogwash, I'm not going to let you off that easy. You WILL sit here and present the information in a somewhat creative way." Being a southpaw, and therefore held hostage by my right brain, I'm forced to surrender to it's whims. With that being said I will attempt to fulfill my obligation, but would like to make clear I am currently treating my brain as a hostile witness.








A couple of weeks ago... okay that's a lie. Way back over Labor Day weekend we decided to take Taylor for her first trip to the beach. Okay, that's another lie. She had been to the beach one time before while visiting family in Panama City but she was still immobile, basically akin to a piece of luggage. Albeit a very precious and cute piece of luggage. But, this was her first trip where she could be an active participant. Anyway, we packed up the vehicle and headed over to Crescent Beach for the afternoon. It's a nice, lightly populated beach just south of St. Augustine. A great place to avoid the crowds and just enjoy the ocean.



The first thing she noticed was an incredible number of shells to pick up. Now you have to understand that Taylor has yet to meet an item that she hasn't wanted to collect. We've begun to call her the Roomba. I can thoroughly sweep the floors and she will still find every little speck, no matter how minute and either hand it to us, or put in her mouth. Every time we take her outside she comes back with a handful of rocks or hickory nuts. Upon seeing all the shell fragments on the ground you'd think she'd stumbled upon Blackbeard's treasure. After the long trek eastward, stopping intermittently to pick up a prized piece colored calcium, we finally reached the waters edge. Her first reaction to the water was curiosity. The second reaction was confusion as each receding wave washed the sand out from under her feet. She was suddenly reluctant to move as her feet sank. Linda and I took turns holding her hands as she stood in the edge of the surf. On this trip she never graduated to actually walking in the water herself, but she did spend some time walking along the waters edge. She saw some bikes which completely enthralled her and saw a few other children whom she wanted to befriend. All in all it was a very enjoyable day and we are looking forward to our next trip when I'm sure she will graduate to actually playing in the water.

As expected, we took a few pictures and I shot around 30 minutes of video. We all know how tedious home movies can be, especially if they are long enough to require an intermission for bathroom breaks and snacks. With that in mind, I pared down the footage to around 5 minutes and put together a short synopsis of our afternoon. I hope you enjoy.



Here is a photo album of a few selected photographs.

Crescent Beach Photos (well Taylor photos taken at the Beach)

My favorite of the photos is the first one, an action shot where I captured Taylor in mid fall.

Taylor's Big Day

What is this stuff on my face? Oh, it's egg. For those who visited "Not Too Bad..." after receiving an email around 8:30 Saturday night, you may know what this is about. For the sake of those who didn't visit until after Saturday night, let me do a brief recap. I published a post last night with some material that I just wasn't satisfied with. I mentioned how I hadn't come to a firm conclusion of my opinion, but published anyway. Well, I came to a firm conclusion approximately 10 minutes after sending the notification email. In this digital age there is no way to cry "Stop the presses!". So, I will utilize the internet to it's fullest power. I will re-write history, and delete the evidence!.

So, basically there is no new material produced for this post from the one last night (other than some additional writing), it's just presented in a different manner.

For those who saw the page last night. I hope you'll find these changes drastic enough to make reading again worthwhile. The previous effort kind of made me think of a peanut-butter & tomato sandwich. The ingredients themselves are quite good, but when you try to make a sandwich out of them, it just... doesn't work.

For those who are didn't see anything last night. "What are you talking about?"


THE PEANUT BUTTER

"The Kindle of an Idea..."

A few months ago I had an idea. I imagined compiling the video and photographs I'd collected during Taylor's first year and produce a "year in review" movie for her birthday. I have hours and hours of raw video footage and hundreds of photographs. I've captured such milestones as first bath, sitting up, first meal, turning over, laughing, crawling and first steps. I've chronicled swings and swimming pools, play time and nap time. All the ingredients one requires for an in depth, entertaining overview of how Taylor spent her first year.

"The Application of the Wet Blanket..."

Oh, I'm sorry... you weren't believing I actually completed this task. Were you? I didn't mean to mislead. Just reflecting on an idea I had. I have a lot of them, most end up in the "cold files" department. For now, in what I like to call the realism world, I just settled for producing a "day in review" movie for her birthday. It only took me 1 week to find the time for such an endeavor. One week to chronicle 1 day... the way I see it that gives me about 7 years to complete my "year in review" project. I'm not sure I'll be able to meet that deadline. Maybe someday, when I'm retired, and Taylor is off and settled on her own, I may actually see the fulfillment of these grander visions. Like my "9 holes at Turkey Creek". A project I've been working on for over a year now. (I think I'm at hole 4 if I recall correctly). But that's an entirely different subject.

"The Compromise..."

We woke up on the 2nd and got Taylor up and dressed. After breakfast we gave her our present, an activity cube. She enjoyed exploring all the moving parts and colorful pieces. I can see how it will provide multiple years of entertainment and learning. After a short play time Taylor went down for a nap. Linda started to decorate the house with the help of a friend from work. Having completed my decorating contribution the night before (blowing up balloons), I headed out to mow the yard and make the exterior presentable. Upon completion I entered a wonderfully decorated house just in time to quickly shower before guests were set to arrive.

Taylor woke from her nap to find her world completely transformed. There were decorations and people everywhere. Well, may around a dozen people, but she had never seen so many people in our house. You could tell she wasn't quite sure what to make of everything. In situations such as this she get's very quiet and observational. Perhaps she gets that trait from me? There was some short visiting, the ritual passing of the baby, and then the party started.

This is where I will let the movie take over the story telling.





I hope you enjoyed a quick overview of Taylor's special day. Hopefully someday Taylor will watch these movies, enjoy them, and understand the emotion in which they were created.

Special thanks to Nate for handling the video duties during the party, and for the unwitting voice actors who I'm afraid will receive absolutely no compensation for their contribution.


THE TOMATO

"2 A.T. - Day 1"

After posting the last movie "Crossing A Threshold" there was a great amount of positive feedback. Something for which I was very grateful. A couple of people asked me how I made the movies, what the process was. I tried to explain, but probably didn't do a very good job. Since it's relevant to the current post, I'll try again.

The first thing I do is look over all the raw footage I have at my disposal. Of course I knew I wanted to make something for Taylor's birthday so I was sure to take plenty of pictures. I also enlisted Nate to help by shooting some video during the party.

Once I set aside everything that catches my eye, I start listening to music... lot's of music. I find a dozen or so different songs that seemed to be the right mood for the pictures and video. Then I listen to them again, most of them I drop from consideration. Ultimately I will come up with different ideas during this time. A few fizzle, but some take shape until they I like what I see. The following was made from footage taken the day after Taylor's birthday. She's playing with her toys and enjoying some birthday cake in a more civilized manner.

Hope you enjoy.





THE BREAD

"The Perpetual Apology..."

At the risk of sounding like a broken record. I'd like to again apologize for such a long delay between postings. It's not from lack of material. I have quite a few ideas, many of them much more attainable than my more massive cold files inhabitants. There just seems to be so much to do and the day, weeks... hell the months are flying by. Linda and Taylor will be in KC for a few more days. Perhaps I will try to dig through the cold files and knock a couple out. Maybe I will tackle the epic 6 hour round of golf I had a last Saturday. Any round of golf that includes the passage "after the cops were called" has to make for an interesting story.