Our friends Jason and Misi sailed by the house today in their parents boat and took this photo from the river. If you click on it you can see it in a slightly large size.

#Photos

I just received, care of my step-mother, a gift out of my history. At some point in the later half of the eighties, I think 1988, my father and I dressed up as doctors for what I believe was halloween. Today Patty found a photo of the disguised duo and scanned it in and sent it to me. So, in order to share the humor of the photo I have put it up in the sites photo-album. Enjoy, but please, don't laugh too much at my mini-afro.

#Family #MyLife #Photos

As promised I have posted some photos of the backyard zen-garden. I have also posted the year 2006 photos of the family in the timeline.

#Family #Photos

I have added a new feature to the site today - a photographic timeline of our family. This is something I discussed last year (or maybe in 2004) but just got around to building recently. Basically it shows a snapshot of our family around May of each year starting in 1999 (when Lisa and I were married). It isn't complete yet (I am missing a bunch of photos of Lisa and I) but as soon as I dig into our photo archive CDs I will get those other images up. However, there is enough there to give you an idea of what I'm going for.

I think it is a pretty neat idea - but as the timeline page says, it isn't mine. It was the idea of a guy named Diego Goldburg in Argentina. He has been doing it since 1976 so his gives a better idea of what it could be.

Make sure you come back each year to see how the family changes. I will try to make sure I put a reminder on here each time I update it.

#Family #Photos

Ok, so I am admittedly slow at getting photos up on the site. However, I did manage to get some posted today. I posted a few from December 2005 and then Jan-Apr of 2006. Most are, as you might expect, of Shannon and Emily.

Along with the standard shots of our kids there are some photos of my Uncle Rick and Aunt Linda (with the Kids), My Cousin Dave and his family (with the kids), one of me (with the kids), and one of Lisa (with, of course, the kids). I hope you enjoy the photos.

#MyLife #Photos

I just saw one of the neatest ideas I have ever seen. I think my little family is going to have to start doing this.  A man named Diego Golberg in Argentina has been taking a photo of each member of his family on the 17 of July of each year (don't know why that date was picked, I figure the first one was when he thought of it).  He posted the entire chronology as a webpage and it is pretty neat to see the changes.  What a cool time capsule.

#Family #Photos

I came across a neat tutorial today titled Invisibilia so in an effort to see if I could do it I took this photo and made myself invisible. What do you think of the end result? I think it is kind of neat. You can see some more Invisiblia in the Invisiblia Gallery.

I did make a small error though. While doing the tracing I changed the opacity of the actual photo to about 42%. But when I was done I forgot to set it back to 100. That is why Lisa and the sky seem kind of washed out.

#FunStuff #Photos

About a week ago I had a vision of a better backyard and somehow or another Lisa agreed with me (mostly) so we have been working on redesigning our backyard. The redesign is pretty major and has already involved a lot of labor on my part.

For those of you unfamiliar with our backyard the main part is basically a big square patio covered with a pergola. The pergola is coated with wisteria, a creeping vine that blooms with long purple flowers. The eastern side of the backyard is flanked by the garage wall and the northern end is flanked by the house (the kitchen looks out upon the yard via this wall). The south and west walls are bordered by a six foot privacy fence. Currently, there is a Koi pond up against the garage wall. The pond is about 6'x4' and is surrounded by stones, flowers, and some small shrubbery. The wisteria grows up near the western fence and then covers the entire pergola which is about 15'x15' in size. The pergola covers almost the entire square of our yard except for a border that runs around the pergola and is about 5-6' deep.

To start the remodel the wisteria is being removed. Then the pond is being shifted to the southwest corner of the yard. The current pond location will be filled in and bricked over to match the rest of the patio nature of the backyard. Our current grill will then go where the pond was. Eventually, we hope to build an outdoor kitchen along that garage wall. We will then be draping small white lights (think small christmas tree lights) over the top of the pergola. We may also lash bamboo poles across the top to help provide some shade under the pergola. In the middle of the patio area we will be putting in an outdoor fireplace. We will also be decorating the pergola with suspended candles or lamps. Around the fireplace will be a variety of seating.

The rest of the "border" will remain as a flowerbed garden where Lisa will be able to continue her gardening. Overall we think the yard will be more usable, nicer looking, and much lower maintenance. Yesterday I managed to remove almost all of the wisteria (except for the root/stump). We are giving the main root/stump to a friend who wants to plant it in their yard. The heat has been fairly unbearable but I am going to try and remove at least one of the wisteria plants (we have two) tonight - if I'm lucky I will get them both out. Once the wisteria is out I can dig the new pond location - once that is done Lisa gets to be involved by catching the fish, and helping setup the pond how she wants it. Once the pond is setup we will consider how were going to handle the pergola (lights, cover, etc). We hope to have it finished no later than mid September. I should have taken a "before photo" but I will definitely post an "after".

#MyLife #General #Photos

Lisa needed me to take a photo of her for her 20th high school reunion program. So I did and it came out pretty well. Just click on the thumbnail to view the full sized image.

#Family #Photos

They aren't actually the newest - but they are new to you. I have added a bunch of photos to the March 2005 album that are of Shannon and Emily around Easter. I also added a new photo featured here that is the view from our front door of the river (taken today) and a photo of how our music room looks currently (also taken today).

I will put up some shots of Shannon's birthday as soon as I remember to bring the CD home and the photo of Lisa and Savion as soon as I ask the photographer for a copy.

#Family #MyLife #ThisSite #Photos