Emma aka Tree Climber

Back from the weekend at Nana and Papa's house. Lots of cool shots (their house has the most incredible light) that I'll have fun posting bit-by-bit for the next week or so, but these two just had to come first.

This is the kind of thing that makes me shudder. But Emma loves it. Morgan loves it, too. But she won't go quite as high as Emma does.

No fear


Perspective

March 2006, southwestern Minnesota, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Sun facts

Because of this shot, I've now learned all about halos aka icebows. :)

Halo

March 2006, our front yard, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Foodporn

Not the best pictures (because the fudge was melting the ice cream and I had to shoot fast), but Oh. My.

It was wonderful.

(Good thing I worked out last night.)

Sinful


Decadence

March 2006, my kitchen, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

The Red Hat Girls

My mom, who is an awesome Nana, keeps these red hats in her car just for the girls...

Emma wasn't feel very well when this was taken (someone ate too much sweet stuff at the brunch and almost got carsick on the way to meet my mom), and it shows. Poor kid.


Morgan, on the other hand, was positively glowing.

March 2006, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Family

It's Great-Grandma Myrna's birthday. And Jennifer and Tammy* are in town from Seattle. That means brunch!

And pictures. :-D

Emma, or, The Budding Photographer


Scott and Emma


Mandy and Morgan


Carol and Matt, or, Up To No Good


Jennifer and Tammy*


Inez and Myrna


The rest of the set is here. Enjoy!

*Tami? Ack, I don't know how you spell your name!

Last snow person of 2006*?

Note the question mark at the end of the subject line. Will we get more snow yet this March? Probably. Will it be enough to make more snow people? That's anyone's guess.

I had to lighten this one considerably because Morgan's face was so shadowed. :/ My bad--I should have had her stand on the other side. But it's still cute.



Check out the broccoli eyes, carrot nose, and apple mouth. She's one healthy snow lady!


March 2006, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT




* I do realize we could very well have enough snow yet later this year--like, November or even October--to make more snow people. I'm using 2006 in this context to mean the end of the winter of 2005-2006. Like, if we're making snow people in November, they will certainly be 2006 snow people but made in the winter of 2006-2007...

The scarf

There is a gorgeous, glorious sunrise happening right now...and I'm at work, and the camera's at home. Pout. This happens to me regularly--I can't tell you how many times I've had to be a passive onlooker to wonderful, beautiful sunrises that make me catch my breath and want to reach for the camera. I suppose that's rather silly. After all, I've been being a professional early bird since I went back to work in 2003; you'd think that by now I'd be resigned to constantly missing out on these great photo ops.

But I'm not.

Pout. Pout.

# # #

It's barely 7:00 and today's already been a strange day. I've been up since 3:50 am to play taxi service for my brother and his wife, who are getting the heck out of this snowy Dodge via an early morning flight to Jamaica. (Jealous! So jealous!!) But they goofed and set their alarm for 3:30 pm, not am. And didn't wake up until 4:30. So they weren't over to my house until 5:33. Eeek! But I had them to the airport by 5:39 (if any law enforcement types read this blog, I really wasn't speeding very much at all, really), and they made their flight--or I think they made their flight. At least, I haven't heard that they haven't made their flight...

But so much for coming in to work early. Most mornings, I'm here by 6:00 or 6:30. Today, I figured I'd drop Matt and Jenn off at the airport and then come straight to work, get in an extra hour or so as a sort of catch-up for the work mess that's resulted from this week's sick kid saga. But no. I walked into the lobby at 5:57 am. Three minutes early, after being up for two hours. Whooo! ;-p

Anyway.

I did get outside yesterday, gloomy grey skies and all, because what's brighter than a kid's smile? Nothing.

Except maybe that kid's scarf.




March 2006, our front yard, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Edit: I almost forgot!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!


March 2006, our front window, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Snowsets

We did indeed get more snow--about another six inches. And I am home--again--taking the "afternoon shift" with a not-so sick kid (you can read about that ongoing saga here), but alas. The snow's let up but the dreary grey skies remain. Poor light and new snow can certainly result in some good and interesting photos, but...I just don't feel like taking on that particular challenge today. If the sun peeks out later I'll grab the camera and dash--erm, flounder outside. :)

In the meantime, have some more day-after pics from Monday's storm.




March 2006, Minnesota River overlook, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Sunset and icicles

A lot of people are not too happy about Monday's storm and the possibility of more snow tonight and tomorrow...but I say: Bring. It. On. After yet another wussy winter, it's nice to see some white stuff. Plus, I'm feeling so much better now that I'm positively reveling in being able to tromp around in the snow and freeze my fingertips off taking piccies. :-)

Drip


Drop

March 2006, Ft. Snelling National Park overlook, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Aftermath

You may have heard about yesterday's storm. Closed down a whole bunch of things, made a mess of the roads, created all sorts of unpleasantness in general for those of us in and around the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Well, today* I happen to be home with one sick kid and one sort of sick kid**, and I also happen to think that there are few things in this world quite like the morning after a winter storm, especially if that morning after happens to dawn with bright blue cloudless skies. The combination of sky and sun and new snow is crisp and clean and glorious--and pictures do not ever do it justice, but while one child was asleep this morning and the other was watching the idiot box, I just had to sneak outside for a half hour with the camera...

As always, click on the pic to see the larger size.

















*My husband stayed home with the kids yesterday; today it's my turn.

**Poor things were sick yesterday, too. Their one snow day of the year and they couldn't even go outside and enjoy it.

Mud puddles and berries

Monday when the girls got home from school they promptly jumped into the mud puddles that have taken over our yard.

(Tuesday it was raining. I don't have anything against kids playing in the rain, but it was a cold, wet, miserable rain, and they seemed quite content to come straight to the house from the bus with no stops along the way.)

Today when they got home from school they climbed trees, and then jumped into the mud puddles that are now threatening to become small ponds within our yard.

I think this means it's spring.

Which means this picture is not really appropriate to the season of the moment (plus, I think I may have already posted this one--however, I'm lacking the motivation to dig back through ze archives to find out for sure), but there's really not much of anything to shoot outside right now. Except mud. Or muddy kids. Dang, that would have been a cute picture. Huh. I don't know why I didn't grab the camera, other than being a little busy getting the muddy things stripped off and into the washing machine and the muddy kids into the tub.

Ah well. I hear Vegas is taking odds on the chances that there will be other muddy-kids-shot opportunities between now and oh, say, the end of this week...

Winter Berries

January 2006, Ft. Snelling State Park, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Back

Eep, but it's been a while since I've posted. I'm better (the weird nasty cartilage and bone inflammation is much, much improved, although the doc did not lie when she said it would take several weeks for this to clear up completely) but in the ying and yang that is so often my life, I'm now completely swamped at work. o.O

I've been keeping this blog strictly to photos, but today I'm going to veer a little off course. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post if you'd rather skip the verbosity and go straight to today's photo.)

Former MN Twin Kirby Puckett died yesterday. If you don't live here--or aren't a fan of baseball fan--you maybe won't won't understand how big this is.

If you read the links, you'll see that he was a tremendous athlete who was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2001 for good reason: twelve seasons, two World Series, numerous achievements, numerous awards.

But that's only a small piece of it. The guy was sheer charisma, sheer joy. The articles all talk about his exuberance--that doesn't really even come close to describing the way he played the game, both in good times and bad. (The media isn't mentioning this, except maybe as a side note, but the Twins have never exactly been consistent from one season to the next. In other words, before, in between, and after those two World Series were an awful lot of years of lousy seasons and rotten game attendance. I can remember going to games as a kid with my dad and seeing four or five empty seats--or more--for every one that was filled. But whether it was the World Series on the line with a stadium full of screaming fans or just one more game in a big long losing streak in a mostly empty dome, he played the same way. No holds barred.)

But there was more to it than that: Kirby's persona was that of a genuine good guy. Other pro athletes whooped it up, partying and womanizing and everything else, but not Kirby. Oh no, not Kirby. He was a gentleman, see--and that is such an old-fashioned thing to say, but that's how he came across. He loved the game, loved the fans, loved this state, and handled himself with exuberance, yes, but also grace. There was no bad press about Kirby during those years--because there was no bad press to be had. He was Kirby, this kid from the wrong side of the tracks who'd risen to the top and was grateful for what he had and didn't forget where he'd come from, and in love with what he was doing, and on top of all that was also a genuinely nice guy. A gentleman.

Which is why it bit so hard, at least for me, when the infidelity and allegations of domestic abuse and assault came out in 2002. Awwwwwww, man. Come on, Kirby, not you too. You weren't supposed to be like all the other guys. You're Kirby. Kirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee PUCKETT!, as the Twins' announcer used to holler when Kirby came out to bat. Please, no.

That was so much worse than the glaucoma and blindness and early retirement in 1996 (for there is something to be said for going out on top; better that than a long, slow, sad slide into mediocrity). That was a shame. Tragic, even--but he handled it in classic Kirby style, glad for what he'd had, glad for what had been. What a run!

But the 2002 reports of the womanizing, the infidelities, the allegations of abuse and assault...that was a betrayal. You weren't supposed to have feet of clay, man. You were supposed to go on being...Kirby, the gentleman, the guy with the huge smile and heart. Not that other guy. Never him. Because there are already too many of those other guys--we don't need any more of them. But Kirby, the Kirby of 1984 until the reports broke in 2002... we needed him.

Needed him to be more than he was, apparently.

Ultimately, it did become a long, slow, sad slide. Extroverted, exuberant Kirby became a recluse who eventually severed his connections with the Twins and Minnesota and moved away to Arizona, and then died too young of probably preventable excesses.

Who is it that can tell me who I am?

RIP, Kirby.