More pics over on the Flickr account. The afternoon ritual is to run off to an outdoor adventure when Francis wakes up from his nap. Favorite spot: the lake park. Here are the boys on top of the lifeguard stand.

Near Atsion NJ. Today's pictures | Atsion Flickr Map

More for the Lifehacker crowd than my normal audience (Wess being the most likely cross-over friend), I used a few mesh baskets and twist ties together yesterday to bundle my collection of cords and gadgets and documented it over on Flickr.

For those with geek tendencies who don't know Lifehacker check it out, as it has a lot of tips and tricks and is a good place to share obsessions not necessarily shared with spouses or family members.

...are worth taking:



Apparently the best part of making Christmas cookies is the mess afterwards.

We went to family fav-place Longwood Gardens last night for New Year's eve. It was cold but the lights on all the trees were beautiful and the fireworks were loud and fun. Going around I kept thinking about how many cameras were around. I took a few photos of course, but I realized I'm starting to develop a reaction to Obsessive Photography Disorder. How many fuzzy pictures of long-ago fireworks do people need to store on their hard drives?

A few weeks ago I took an eye-opening picture at a wedding. It was a quick photo of the bride and father walking down the "aisle" (it was more a space between tables in a small banquet room). I must have had squirming Francis in one arm, the camera in the other, because it's all blurry. The light's bad, there's red eye, it's totally not something to send up to Flickr. But what's haunting about the picture is the background: behind the bride you can see four people. From left to right, they are: taking a picture, holding camera at neck level ready to take a picture, leaning back from the camera screen setting up a shot, and looking down at a display reviewing the just-taken picture. This is a wedding and it's the dramatic part: the bride's just entered the room and is about to be given away by her father (it's a second wedding so I can't take the symbolism too far, but still this should be a holy moment).

Many Friends Meetings ban cameras in wedding ceremonies and I shouldn't have relaxed my standards to take my own photograph of the wedding-in-progress. There are times where our presence is much more important than any documentation. I dare say that none of the two-dozen or so walking-down-the-aisle photos taken that day are worth developing or printing. I use my picture-taking for memory's sake and love looking at old shots of the family, and a few of the pictures I took that day are definite keepers. But us compulsive shutter bugs need to know when to put the camera down.

Yesterday the kids and I took a road trip to Apple Pie Hill, a summit of loose gravel that towers over the South Jersey pinelands from a dizzying height of 209 feet above sea level. A fire watch tower on the summit adds another few dozen feet, enough to get a visitor over the treetops. On a clear day it's said you can see the skylines of Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Fortunately for me it was an quintessentially beautifully fall day--clear and crisp. It was easy to spot the cities, both thirty-two miles away (mostly to the south and mostly to the west respectively) and here's blowups of the two resultant photos:


More pictures, from left: Sand road to the hill, the fire tower, the view down through the steps of the tower (the kids were left in the car), two year old Francis eager but thwarted attempt to repeat Papa's climb up tower. Click individual photos for enlarged and geotagged versions. More photos of this and out stopover at Atsion later in the day on yesterday's Flickr page.

For those interested in repeating our journey, here's a map showing our route up and back. I was mostly winging it, depending on these directions from NJPineslandsandDownJersey.com starting from nearby Chatsworth NJ, self-styled "Capital of the Pine Barrens."



Other map views: View Larger Map | Satellite with Route Map

Photos clockwise: Theo blows out the birthday ice cream cake's “4” candle; kids huddle around when box opens to reveal Thomas the Tank Engine related toy; independent Francis surveys the scene; cousin M. plays pattycake with Poppop while her mom looks on.

Over on the photo sharing service Flickr, I'm noticing a bunch of photos from this week's Britain Yearly Meeting session. One contributor has tagged (labelled) all her photos with "britainyearlymeeting06" which means they're all available on one page. Cool, but what would be even cooler is if every Flickr user at the event used the same tag. We'd then have a nearly real-time group photo essay of the yearly meeting sessions.

So this year I'm going to tag all my personal photos from next month's Friends General Conference Gathering of Friends as "FGCgathering06". I invite any other Flickr-using attenders to do the same. While I do work at FGC, please note this is not any sort of official FGC decision, it's just my own idea to share photos and to see how we can use these online networks to share and promote Quakerism. In a few weeks you'll start seeing entries via flickr and technorati. I'll probably start with a few pictures of the bookstore truck being loaded for its cross-country trek.

Blog posts:
If your blogging system doesn't support the use of tags, then simply add this line in the bottom of each of your Gathering-related posts:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/FGCgathering06" rel="tag">FGCgathering06</a>

The offices of Friends General Conference are across the street from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which is this week hosting a biotech convention. The streets outside are hosting a bit of a counter-convention led by a group named BioDemocracy 2005. Here are some shots from a melee outside our front door a few minutes ago.

Update: apparently one of the police officers at the center of this scuffle suffered a heart attack and has since died. I'm not even sure how to comment on that. From my vantage point it certainly seemed like the police officers were using undue violence. But while I was ten feet away I don't know who threw the first punch and what exactly happened in that sea of bodies. Whatever happened, it's quite appropriate to hold him and his family in our prayers.

For comparison, Theo in Second Month 2003 and last week

They say second children don't get as much attention and that parents forget to take many photographs of them. We want to avoid that so we'll get an early start with some ultrasounds. They always look a little scary to me but I take solace that Theo looked just as skeletal but turned out pretty cute.  

 

 

 

www.flickr.com

Click on any of the pictures above for captions, etc. Here's the photoset of our whole trip. Apologies to all the Theo fans (you know who you are) for not getting these up sooner.

Theo had quite the social calendar this summer but made sure to get in some hang-time too. Here he is in the car, "come on, Mom, come on Dad, daylight's burning, let's go!" July 11.

This summer we started house-hunting in a nearby town.

Theo has the instincts of a natural-born negotiator. He loves to growl a lot, especially in this particular snorting heavy-breathing way that's just too cute (don't tell him that though, say "Oooh nooooo, I'm so scaaared!"). He's also started looking at you then swinging his head side to side--this is a house hunter that knows when to say "no". One of his favorite sounds is "a-haa"--he's not just a nay-sayer.

August 28th was the observed date of Theo's birth.

The one year old is almost crawling--he can pull himself where he wants to go as long as the incentive is right. He can pull himself up to chairs and stand all wobbly by himself for a few minutes when parents let him go. He loves his toys, especially the wooden blocks that fall when you throw them off the high chair; the stuffed cars that go "aaaa-boom" when they crash; and Paul, the anatomically correct doll who Theo loves to talk to ("a duh duh duh doop drad da doo!!")

These pictures are from 5-7 months. Status updates: Theo sits up by himself increasingly well. He's not crawling & doesn't seem interested in it. He laughs a lot and is very ticklish, esp. under his armpits, the bottom of his feet and under his chin. He likes growling like a scary monster, reaches his hands out menacingly then squealing in laughter! He takes his bath sitting up (splash! splash!). He loves sweet potatos, carrots, and spinach. He doesn't like apple sauce. He's babbling a lot (da da da da, ga gah ga, puh! puh!). Two bottom teeth have come in (some are on their way up top too).

2004, a new year and new fun: parades, sledding and solid food.

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The first Holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, the holiday get-togethers with friends and family. Plus the first snow.

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On November 1, Theo was freed from sin.

Julie & Theo getting ready at home. Julie, Theo & Maia waiting in church lobby. Theo memorizing his lines before the big event (all Nov. 1).

Theo, freed of sin: Godmothers Becky & Jess, Father Pasley, Theo & the parents.

Everyone wants to hold Theo. Susan, Tom and Patty get their turn.

Below: Theo smiling in chair, Nov. 8

And for those readers of Martin Kelley Quaker Ranter wondering why his son is getting baptized, see Are Catholics More Quaker?

Pictures of Baby Theo futzing in the car seat on the way back from Ocean City, October 11. At a red light, Martin reached his arm back to snap this picture to see how little guy was doing. He's alright!

Pictures of Baby Theodore Kelley Heiland!