Great Political Humor!!!!

I really like this skit! Enjoy!

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Camping and Baseball

Hi All,

As you can see, blogging is not top priority in my world. As you can well imagine there are a myriad of things that have occurred since. I have a variety of media to share, and the stories that go along with them. Please enjoy these snippets of the last month and a half!






CAMPING


Now with Sharper Video.....


On the weekend of Aug 28-30 Christina, her parents, and I took Brian on his very first camping trip! It had been a rainy week at Warren Dunes leading up to our trip. So the ground was quite muddy (note giant blue tarps). Brian had a lot of fun!! He was especially thrilled to climb the sand dune seen in the videos. He wanted to climb it himself and he did so until about 30 feet from the top (I carried him the rest of the way). When we got to the top Brian got applause from strangers! They had never seen such a little one climb such a long way! Brian did slide all the way down by himself! After climbing the sand dune and playing all day he slept very, very well!

He also liked eating outside, roasting marshmallows, sleeping in the tent, finding acorns, playing at the playground (his self named 'blue park'), and taking walks with anyone who would go with him. He was not a fan of getting his first bee sting! Especially because he was asleep when it happened! Not a good wake up call.....






At the end of our trip Brian did not want to leave. He insisted to all of us that he wanted "More camping please!" on a repeated basis! All this and we never even went to the beach! The poor weather has caused the beach to be closed due to unsafe swimming conditions.






Panoramic View From the top of Mt. Randall (sand dune) looking west.

Panoramic View to the left of the first panorama looking north.


BASEBALL

Over Labor Day weekend, Patrick and Shawn came to visit Chicagoland, Indiana, Michigan and in Patrick's case (Wisconsin). This was a lot of fun. The main purpose of this aside from seeing friends was to attend a White Sox/Red Sox baseball game at US Cellular Field. The video below was my experiment for the day. I used the sports setting on my camera to take lots of images. I then put them all in a slide show with a very fast transition speed. The result is stop motion animation! Every image you see is saved as an individual still on my computer, so if you see one you want, email me! Also, these images were taken from our fantastic seats (Thanks Shawn!) about halfway up the upper deck behind home plate.





Also, I played around with making panoramas. Ever since I discovered that I had a panorama utility, I have been looking for fun pictures to take. The below images are from our seats at the cell...


Full ColorSame Image

Black and White

Squished to make wallpaper






DOWNTOWN/THE LEDGE


The below pictures are of the Sears Tower's newest additions, the ledges. They are glassed in rooms at the Skydeck observation floor of the tower. They supposedly can hold 5 tons each. It's also the hot new place to get married here in Chicago (its been done multiple times already).


Street View, Full Frame

Zoomed in a little....

Zoomed in as much as the camera can! Note People in the ledges!!




That's all for now!


-Paul




New Reading Project: The Great Inflation and its Aftermath, by R. J. Samuelson.


On the box: Background noise of Thomas the train engine on TV. No music.

Warren Dunes State Park

Hi All,

Please enjoy this video from Brian's first trip to Warren Dunes State Park in Southwestern Michigan. This was a day trip and we drew a wonderful day for it!!

Brian had a wonderful time playing in the water, digging in the sand, running, splashing, finding rocks, swimming, and building sand castles!! He has asked to return almost constantly since we left! In fact the only way we got him to leave was to promise him pizza (which we gave him and he ate).

The slow motion portion of the video is Brian's favorite part (Mom and Dad's too) slowed down with the colors inverted. He had SO much fun splashing his feet in the wet sand! We will be going back this summer for more fun and excitement.

Enjoy!

-Paul

Time Lapse Photography #1

Hi All,

Today I tried something new with my Nikon P80, time lapse photography! Ever since I found out that the camera had this capability I wanted to try it out. So this morning I hopped over the the grocery, bought some tulips and irises that were closed. Christina helped me cut the flowers, arrange them, and place them so they would stay in the frame.

After that I sent the camera to take a picture every 30 seconds and automatically autofocus each image due to changing lighting conditions. The film starts at about 10:40 AM and runs till about 5:00 PM-ish (I'm not sure when the battery died, thus ending the film).

After the original time lapse, I played around with Adobe Elements, making the colored pencil outline scenes. They run 200% faster than the original, one forward, and the second in reverse. The last version of the film is simply the original running in reverse.

Hopefully I will get to take more time lapse at some point, but I'm not sure when.

Enjoy!

-Paul

Easter 2009

Note: Now with sharper video!!!

Hi All,

Here are two videos of Brian enjoying Easter 2009, the first was taken at about 6:30 AM at our house and the second about mid-afternoon at Christina's parent's house.

Enjoy!

Paul

Photos/Videos, March 2009

Hi All,

The above slideshow/clip is sort of the best Brian pics and videos in the month of March.

As to the pictures, credit is due to Christina for the couch fort, and blueberry photos. She is also chief architect of the couch cushion fort. This temporary outpost was in place while I was at work and seems to have been throughly enjoyed by all occupants (Brian and Lambie) while it lasted.

For those who are unaware, Brian LOVES blueberries (and most other fruit). However blueberries hold a very special messy place in our house.

Spring Swing! is from the warmest day yet in Chicagoland this year. Brian really likes to swing, but its still cold enough for a fleece jacket. Tommorrow the forecast calls for 5 inches of wet slush/snow/rain/BLAH! Hopefully this is the last of winter here.

Feeding the Pig is a lot of fun around here. The pig featured was a gift from my fellow tellers and bankers when Brian was born. Brian loves to feed his pigs (he has 2), kiss their snouts and put them back on his shelf in his room. Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters are his favorites. I made the mistake of giving him special coins, namely 3 dollar coins and a Kennedy half dollar piece. Since they were special he didn't want to put them in the pig! So, back to regular old pocket change for the pig.

Also, Brian has a lot of words in his vocabulary these days.

Most notable new word this week: Obama (and no I didn't spend hours teaching him!).

Physically he is much taller (I swear by the day he looks taller) and stronger. He is picking up things that were too heavy a week ago and carrying them through the house. Also, his favorite place to visit is the libary or Nana's house. His fine motor skills are very, very, good. Brian can now handle a spoon most mornings and get most of his food in his mouth. He has successfully eaten a small container of yogurt by himself and does pretty well with breakfast cereal.

There will be more photos/videos as the weather grows warmer and more time is spent outside.

-Paul

Trivia Question: Can you name the song/artist/album on the slideshow?

The Effects of Baby Powder on the Avg. Sofa!

A turtle who was hanging out at the Shedd Aqarium Garden.

Hi All,

I just wanted to share some of my photos from our recent venture to the Chicago Flower and Garden Show. This show has been away from downtown in recent years, but has made a return to Navy Pier. Below are a smattering of what I think are neat photos.

First, my version of a vanishing point photo:

Next, a rain apparatus for the Shedd Aqarium Garden, Note the drops in mid air!

And from a different angle with longer exposure, droplets turn into straight lines that look like fishing line, but it is water, I promise!

My personal favorite in the whole show:

Free Wallpaper! One Good, One Bad, You Choose!

Note: The roses are a close up section of a larger wall of roses. The weave is a basket top that was in the example roof top garden. The camera capture the brightness of both quite well.

This is for Amy. This is an example of a succulent plants bed that looked really nice. This was part of a rooftop garden exhibit; however it should succeed at any height.

This is what happens when the toddler gets a hold of the baby powder. He thinks since powder makes his behind feel better; baby powder makes everything better! Right!?! I have to admit, for 19 months old, his rationale is pretty decent! Needless to say our couch smells FANTASTIC!!

Admit it to yourself; you wish you were this flexible!!

More Brian photos and videos to follow in later posts.

-Paul

Brian's First Trip To Walt Disney World

Hi All,

From Feb 1 to Feb 8 2009, Christina and I got to take Brian on his first trip to Walt Disney World (Florida). At first we were uncertain of what he would like or if he would be scared of characters, fireworks, etc...We had nothing to fear. Brian was a dream the entire time, and had a blast. The first night we took him for fireworks and a ride on Small World. After that it was all, as Brian says, "Go! Go! GO!!!!"

The above slide show is a good sampling of what we saw, and what Brian liked.

The first two of the castle are from our first night at the park. Brian liked the changing colors and the fireworks! I liked the fact that my new camera (Nikon P80) is able to take such nice photos at night. Especially the fireworks and fountain photos.

On the topic of character photos.....Brian liked any character in a mask. For example, he was unhappy with the Mad Hatter because he sat in Christina's chair and pretended to drink her coffee. Notice Brian's hands in this picture, flat on the table, looking at the Mad Hatter with a look that said, "You're not Mom and that's Mom's chair!"

Mickey was the first one he encountered, but he had the best time with Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Winnie the Pooh. He also likes Tinkerbell; so we went to visit the fairies in toontown twice. Brian was absolutely amazed. We had told him for weeks that we were going to see Tinkerbell....imagine his amazement when we actually met Tinkerbell!

Each day we would put all of our shoes together in the hallway of our Cabin. It was pretty cute too. Brian would line up our shoes next to his.

We also for the first time gave him ice cream and chocolate on a stick. Even us adults like Mickey Bars!

Stollers look alike! I had forgotten how many stollers are to be found at Walt Disney World. Lucky for us Christina had thought ahead and made a nice stoller tag for Brian, complete with sea turtles!

At the end, on our last day, he fell asleep mickey sucker in hand, in his stroller hours before the ride to the airport.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Yesterday we took Brian on his first train ride to downtown Chicago, which he really enjoyed.

More to come as the spring and summer progress....

-Paul

Winter in Chicago!!

Hi All,

Welcome to Winter 2008 here in Chicagoland! This morning while Christina and I were shoveling snow and brushing off cars; Brian got his first experience of being out in the snow.

This film clip starts just after Christina set him down in snow for the first time. Last year he was still a little baby, so no snowtime. This year, as you can see, he is big enough for this kind of fun stuff.

A note about the audio: Brian tries to say "arf arf" when he hears a dog barking in the background. However the dog barking is a little hard to hear without overpowering the rest of the audio.

Enjoy!

-Paul

Back In The Saddle

Hi All,

In a more realistic attempt to write and share more I have taken to trying out a slideshow of Brian photos from around Halloween 2008.

I hope this works, and if it does, expect more. I could promise to deliver more sooner, but as the 20 faithful readers know, that is improbable!

-Paul

Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious!!!

I've always wanted to use that word as a post title. So if anyone still reads this, here are some highlight pictures of the last few months with Brian, with some adventures interspersed....

The above pictures are from around Halloween 2007. Brian dressed as Tigger. As you can see he got to play with pumpkin guts, watch Christina carve his pumpkin, and go trick-or-treating. The picture of him in the stroller is actually out trick-or-treating, he stayed awake the entire time.

In November 2007 we traveled to the Island of Oahu, Hawaii to meet up with my Mom's side of the family for a week over Thanksgiving. Some of the below photos were taken by my Dad, or he was letting me use his camera.

No comment needed. This was at the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

This is Brian and I stopping for lunch at the International Marketplace on Waikiki Beach.

Brian and Lamb outside the Honolulu airport waiting for our taxi, he was such a trooper on the airplane, both times!

Baby's First Christmas

Brian really enjoyed his first Christmas. He loved the tree with all the lights, and one day refused to nap anywhere except under the tree! He first met Santa at the bank, where Santa was a little loud and scared Brian at first; after a few minutes Brian calmed down and was alright afterwards.

Christmas Eve was spent at Christina's Aunts house for an extended family party.

Christmas morning was spent out to breakfast with Christina's folks, and then the rest of the day was spent at Christina's parent's house. These events were recorded using the video recorder, because I now have software that can pull still images from videos. So perhaps there will be pictures at some point. For now, I am working on a DVD to share with family.

Since the New Year, Brian is now 6 months old!! He has now started "solid" food. He started with rice cereal, pictured below:

Since then he has gotten to really like solid food more than formula. We have also introduced applesauce, pears, bananas, and today peaches!

All of these things make for a sleepy-saurus!

In the last week he has also started rocking back and forth on all fours. He is now somewhat capable of crawling backwards, but he is uncertain of how he's getting around!

Hopefully my next post will be sooner than months from now...

Fall Pictures

Two and a half weeks ago, I had a day off. Christina, Brian and I stopped in the front yard when we got home to take pictures of Brian. Here are some of those pictures:


Christina and Brian, ready to go walking!

Christina and Brian, being very cute.

Brian enjoying the sunshine and some leaves.

Brian sitting with me under the tree in our front yard.

Life is good when you can stick your tongue out at Dad!

Brian, enjoying the sunshine, usually he doesn't like bright sunlight but that morning it seemed to be ok.


The details of the outit, made of polar fleece. Very cute!

ps: I know the pace of photos and videos has been rather slow, sorry to those who check here frequently!

Brian's Gym

This video is of Brian, playing in his gym. He spends time here daily and likes playing with his toys!

Infant Economies

Here is Brian, wearing a onesie that Christina gave me for Father's Day. Also, this speaks to the structure of the US tax code!

This post is called Infant Economies which is a term I made up and is completely different from an infant industry. Now for those who are unaware, infant industries are industries that are protected by some form of trade duty, tariff or quota to help them compete with foreign firms of the same industry until the whole industry is out of its "infancy". For example the US Steel industry is a century old infant and then some. So, infant protectionism never really does what it claims to do.

Now that I am a parent of an infant, the term has floated up in my head quite often. Which made me start thinking (just for laughs), that Brian acts a bit like his own economy.

1) He takes inputs to produce output.
2) To borrow a biology or accounting term, he also has "organic growth", but I prefer to consider his height and weight his own personal measures of GDP (an economic measure, rather than an accounting one). He has a high rate of growth these days!
3) Some of his inputs are occasionally rejected, some more forcefully than others.
4) Brian also produces positive and negative externalities.
5) He can rank various inputs (milk or formula) as a matter of preference and uses those inputs to produce very different outputs!
6) He is also very efficient at all of the above tasks. Efficiency or productivity as it is commonly known, is one of the keys to macroeconomic growth.

Those are all for now, but I am sure I will dream up more as time goes by and post them here.


Brian teaching all of us what to wear when born on the northwest side of Chicago!

Brian got to sit with me through the first five innings of the Cubs game on TV last night. He also sat with me and watched the opening of this years NFL season. He may not grow up to like sports, but for now its a fun time for me to spend with Brian!

Brian and the lamb that Christina got me for Father's Day.

The good story here is that when I was a baby I had a lamb named Lambie (inventive naming on my part!). Brian has several little toys that he likes, one that he is afraid of (stuffed dragon), and generally likes to have one to look during floor/tummy time. While Brian's lamb is not an exact replica of my lamb, it is a bit nostalgic to see my son also enjoy a stuffed lamb at this age.

That's all for now,

-Paul

Brian and the Panda

Hello All,

Sorry for the lack of pics and videos of Brian.....not much blogging time lately. This little video is of Brian in his crib, where he has discovered his panda crib toy. When he's upset, but not yet crying we find him "talking" to the panda, and eventually works his way up to crying when the panda fails to fix his problems. Sometimes he just plays with the rattles on the bottom of the toy.

Brian continued to receive a clean bill of health at his well-baby check-up last week. He weighed in at 9 lbs 3 oz.!! He alos measured one inch longer.

Also, Brian got a card from The White House. I ordered a birth greeting from the White House website, and it arrived 2 days ago. Too bad its from Dubya, but its the fact that its from the White House, and Brian might find it neat when he looks in his baby book later in life. The card read:

Welcome! We are delighted to join your family in celebrating your arrival, You have already brought much happiness to those around you, and you've just gotten started!

We are glad you are now part of the wonderful American story. Our Nation holds great opportunities for you. May you make the most of your unique gifts, and may happiness and love surround you always.

Sincerely,

George Bush Laura Bush

Enough blogging for now, time to head off to work for the day,

-Paul

Pictures

Brian after a bath.

Hello all,

The last three weeks have been a bit of a blur and blogger has not always cooperated in letting me post videos, and I just today download images from the camera. Hopefully blogger will continue to cooperate today.

Brian has continued to grow, last week he weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz, 2 oz more than his birth weight, and a full half pound more than his discharge weight.

Brian resting in his bassinet.

This week Christina and I took Brian on his first sojourn to my work to be introduced around the bank. He slept through the entire experience. So he looked a lot like the picture above, not like the picture below. He was an instant hit at the bank, and he never even woke up!


Does anyone else ever feel like doing this? I know I do!

Also this week we had a scary moment, when the village tornado siren went off. For more details on this, please see Christina's upcoming post, with a detailed account of the afternoon. One thing I know for sure, I'll be happy if that siren stays quiet for the rest of my time here in Barrington.


Brian being cute and awake.

Another change we've had is the kitty cat adjustment. Since Brian came home, the cats have been happy to maintain their distance from Brian, especially when he's making noise. However this evening there was a significant change in Biskit's behavior towards Brian. As the pictures below demonstrate, I think both cats have decided Brian is alright.




Biskit guarding Brian, and both watched each other for a few minutes.



That's it for the pictures,
-Paul

Brian Video

Here is a little video I shot of Brian a couple days ago:

Hopefully this works, the video upload is a Blogger in Draft product, and may have some bugs.

-Paul

Welcome Brian

Hello,

As many of you know, on July 17th, 2007; Christina gave birth to our son, Brian Victor.

Our lives have been forever changed and will forever be changing! Everyone has been home from the hospital for a week this evening and its been a lot of fun getting to know Brian!

Here are the important facts:
Length: 20 in.
Weight: 6lbs, 11.3 oz (3040g to be precise)

He was a very alert baby from the minute he was born. The first three hours of his life were spent awake, wide-eyed and incredibly well behaved. Those trends have continued. Brian is a very good baby; when he is awake he opens his eyes all the way and does his best to watch everything around him! Some of you might be thinking I am biased to this opinion, and I am. However even the hospital nurses were impressed with his good behavior!

Here is a good picture of Brian, in his carseat, just before we left the hospital to come home.

As Brian grows, I will try to post the occasional snapshot or video here, along with any stories of our adventures in parenting! Perhaps next time I'll write about how Java and Biskit have adjusted to our newest family member!

-Paul

Root, Root, Root For The Cubbies..

WOW! Today was an unbelievable day. Here is the account of my first trip to Wrigley Field.

Shawn and I arrived early at the stadium, so we could walk around the neighborhood and look at the exterior of the ballpark.

Waveland Ave. prior to the gates opening.

The back of the center field bleachers.

These houses have roof seats for rent/sale that give great views into the outfield.

Many, many bars right outside the stadium, mostly baseball themed. Shawn and I paid a visit to the Cubbie Bear (see below).

These two things go together! Harry Caray used to always sing Take me out to the ballgame, and now, anyone interested can audition!

My first view of the ivy upon entering the park.

Now the fun begins!

The seats we originally were assigned were covered seats, in the back row of the stadium, with a fabulous view of the entire park, similar to this one, only a little higher up and to the right of home plate instead of to the left.

I have to confess that I did not get my camera out first when we got to our seats, I called my Dad who had bought the tickets to say thank you. During that call, a Cubs employee came and asked if Shawn and I would like to be the "Lucky Fans of the Day", and sit 15 rows behind home plate! All we had to do was put on cubs t-shirts (to keep) and be Cubs fans for the day. Fair enough. We agreed and it was off to our new view of Wrigley Field:

Great upgrade eh? We thought so too! I shot a little video with my camera that shows everything I could see from my chair: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-733124032237636978

These seats even came with musical entertainment!

The baseball game was pretty good, although never really in doubt. The Cubs got an early lead and never relinquished it. The Rockies starting pitching was pretty bad, while Carlos Zambrano pitched well. From our seats you could really see pitch movement and placement. Also, one part of Wrigley that no picture could possibly portray is the sound of a real organ playing baseball music. Old style baseball music, played live, not recorded. Being able to look up at the press box during "Take me out to the ball game" and sing with the rest of the rowdy fans at Wrigley was a lot of fun.

One other little highlight of our day was to see a lady in a wheelchair who was in the section to our right who was celebrating her 104th birthday at the ballpark. People were nice to her, went up to her and wished her a happy birthday, our section serenaded her, she blew kisses to the crowd and when she left in the 8th inning people applauded her as she left. Rarely have I seen someone smile that much. In the picture below she's wearing the white hat, waving as they announced her name over the loudspeaker.

While the Rockies lost, and the Cubs won, it was a grand time at the ole ball game. And just as if by magic, the game ended, the fans started to leave and the rain started to come down in buckets. This happened no more than 25 min after the last out.

What a fun day to spend, I have more pictures to share and I'm sure they'll creep into a future post. However that's the main part of our day at the friendly confines!

-Paul