Only 2,339 Days To Go

Today Alex started kindergarten. This is of course a big milestone in a child's life, not to mention a day that makes parents feel old and wonder where the time went.

He left this morning very excited with his Spider-Man backpack full of supplies and his lunch box full of lunch. I think he was just a tiny bit more nervous than he was letting on. He arrived home this afternoon tired, but proud to have completed this rite of passage. The first thing he told me when running home from the bus stop was "Dad, I wasn't even bored very much!" All in all, a good first day. We can only hope that the next 2,339 days are so interesting.

Andy Simpson

So, this is what I would look like if I were part of the Simpson's universe. Now before all you clever people say something to be witty, let me take care of that for you:

• "Hmm, don't see much difference"


• "You mean that's not an actual photo of you?"


• "You wish your goatee was that thick"


• "You wish your eyes were that small"


• "I always thought you were rather two dimmensional"


• "Its spelled 'dimensional' with just one m, Genius"


• "If I looked like that, I wouldn't be smiling"


• "Doh!"

So, you got anything else?

If you'd like to create your own Simpson-you, you can visit the Simponize web site

A Dog Days Night

On the first Saturday of every month, the town of Frederick MD hosts a First Saturday Gallery Walk. Because Sirius, the dog star, is prominent in the summer, The August Gallery Walk is held in honor of the Dog Days. Popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" (from Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813)." Frederick decided to play down the boiling seas angle and instead made it a day where dogs were welcome in downtown shops and restaurants.

We loaded Charlie into the Subaru, headed into town, met with Grammy and Grandad, and enjoyed the sights and tastes of the town. Dinner at La Paz was muy bien, dessert at Ben & Jerry's muy biener, and I got two free stickers from Two Paws Up (since I had no cash and they did not want to bother with my credit card - I told them I would return another day to buy something, and give them a bonus mention on my blog, like that is worth something.)

The best part of the night, however, was the dogs. We saw them in all shapes and sizes. The kids felt obliged to pet every dog they met (add dogs to the list of things the kids cannot just walk past), but I only took pictures of a few. These were some of my favorites:

For whatever reason, my most favorite dog only made it into one shot, along with my most favorite daughter:

All in all, it was a great outing for both man and beast. And, as far as I know, there were no burning fevers, hysterics, or phrensies.

A Week In West Virginia

Last week, 14 Roths from Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, and Maryland converged in Canaan Valley, West Virginia for our annual family vacation. The focus of the week was relaxation for the older generations, and running around, swimming, and singing variations of the Underdog theme song for the younger generation.

Rather than go into details, I'll instead share some pictures of the trip. You can see the whole set (and more if Dave tags his the same way) on Zooomr.

Awesomeness on Zooomr

I am a heavy user and big fan of Zooomr for all my photo sharing needs. One cool new feature they have is the ability to sort photos by "awesomeness". The secret sauce algorithm is, well, secret, but probably has at least a little to do with how many views the shot has, how many people have called it a favorite, and the number of comments on it.

Just for fun, I share with you a screen shot of my most awesome photos, as determined by Zooomr:

The Police in Hershey

Thanks to some much needed and much appreciated overnight babysitting from Grammy and Grandad, Shelley and I were able to travel to Hershey, PA to see Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland, and a fellow with the unlikely name of Sting - better known as together as The Police. This was a concert I never thought I would see given that they broke-up just before I was the concert going age. I've seen Sting at least 4 times since then, but to see them all together was a whole different ball of wax.

But before I talk about The Police, let me first say a little about another trio with another Sumner on bass and vocals - namely Fiction Plane. This hard driving trio from London, led by Joe Sumner opened the show, and let me say I went from "Who are these guys?" to "Hey, that guy looks like Sting!" to "We need to buy their CD!" (Left Side of the Brain) They were quite good and had the energy and agnst that The Police had back in the 70's. Shelley said that Joe sounds just like his dad, and though I did not hear it, she knows more about this kind of stuff than I do, so there you go.

But on to the main act. When the Police finally took the stage, my first impressions were:

1) Sting looks not too different and way better than I expect to at that age.

2) Stewart looks like an older, wrinklier version of Stewart Copeland.

3) Andy Summer's hands (especailly on close-up) looked as wrinkled as though he just got out of the tub, but he still has his chops.

They kicked off the show with Message in a Bottle, then went right into Synchonicity II. Of course they did Roxanne, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, and Every Breath You Take. I was more surprised and pleased to hear songs like Voices Inside My Head, Truth Hits Everybody, The Beds Too Big Without You, and Next to You. I was also suprised that the songs were as similar to the recorded versions as they were, and I should know since I've been listening to these songs on records, cassettes, CD's, and MP3's for 20+ years. That being said, they were still able to bring a freshness and energy to the songs that made it all worthwhile.

So what impressed me most about the show? Two words, Stewart Copeland. Sting was fine, even if he lowered the key or lowered his part on many of the songs., Andy was great too, though it often felt like he was not aware he was at a concert. But it was simply stunning how much energy Stewart has, but he manages to channel it all into something that sounds more like music than anything I've heard from a drummer. This really stood out on Walking in Your Footsteps and Wrapped Around Your Finger, on both of which Stewart played all kinds of hanging junk that I can't even guess the names of. I should have known Stewart would steal the show when he kicked off the concert with a big gong blast.

A great concert and a great concert experience. Here is the set list as well as I can reconstruct it:
Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Voices Inside My Head / When the World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Driven to Tears
Walking on the Moon
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Bed's Too Big Without
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking in Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
First encore:
King of Pain
So Lonely
Second encore:
Every Breath You Take
Third encore:
Next to You

39 Down, 11 To Go

Another life goal is to visit all 50 states. I have 11 left that include some gems like Hawaii and Alaska, and some others to drive through quickly like Mississippi and Alabama.



create your own visited states map

11 Down, 14 To Go

One of my life goals is to visit at least 25 countires. So far, I have visited 11:

United States
Canada
Mexico
Virgin Islands
France
Bahamas
United Kingdom (but only England)
Germany
Austria
Italy
Switzerland



create your own visited countries map

So, what's next? We don't have any trips outside of the U.S. planned, but new some countries near the top of my to-visit list would include:

Spain
Ireland
Scotland (though part of the UK so I don't know if that counts)
Iceland
Costa Rica
Australia
New Zealand
Japan

A Little Trip

If the mind starts to go, could the body be far behind?

The four of us and Charlie journeyed to PA this past weekend. Friday night we visited with the Lamberts and the Flickingers for some burgers, dogs and remember whens. The thing I did not remember was to bring along a memory card for my camera, thus no pictures. Even so, we had a great time catching up with our old friends and their young children.

On Saturday morning, we took the short drive to St. Peter's Village. I recalled many an adventure I had as a youth jumping on the big rocks across the creek. What I did not recall was how much more slippery these rocks are when wet. Ella was attempting to cross between a rock and another hard place when she started to slip. Trying to save her, I slipped too. We both got wet, but for me, that was not all. As I smashed my knee into a very hard rock, I realized my Super Hero days might be behind me.

Before this learning experience, we took some shots:



The adventure continued with a visit to Great Mom's, and a stop at Zern's. At the former, the power went out for about 30 minutes, and at the latter we learned you can no longer buy boxes of purple Swedish fish. Saturday night we left the kids and the dog with Oma and Opa and saw Knocked Up then had a fairly decent dinner at Ludwigs Inn & Oyster Bar.

All in all it was a pretty good trip

Duck Brown Goes to San Francisco

Duck Brown and I spent most of last week in San Francisco for a business trip. I managed to keep waking up in EDT, so had a few chances to shoot some pictures in the morning before getting busy with work.

So, here are some of the shots. Click through for bigger versions and some explanations of what they are.

Here Comes The Big Parade

The 53 Annual Carroll Manor Fire Company Carnival kicked off yesterday with the yearly parade through the streets of Adamstown. The parade is a big hit with the kids since they love them some candy. Here are some shots. Click through for larger versions.

Pictures From NC

I realize it is two weeks later, but here are some shots from our Memorial Day trip to North Carolina. To read more about the actual Pig Pickin', read Dave's post. Don't blog like my brother.



The cousins pose on the porch on Sunday morning.



A rare shot where Alex's head seems small.



Ella and Thomas - her all time favorite fur-friend of the week.



Seeing Spider-Man 3 made Alex want to climb.



Dave was more than half-lit in this shot.



Why not play some golf at the baseball game?



I blame Dave Hill for this picture.




Unlike Alex, Zoe has crazy good climbing skills

Pig, Bull, and Chicken

We spent a long Memorial Day weekend in North Carolina attending the Second Annual Pig Pickin. Read Dave's blog for more details on what is involved with turning a 72 pound pig body into a delicious meal. I will tell you that he has the knack, and as they say in Charolette's Web, that was some pig.

We also did some other fun stuff in NC, including visiting downtown Mebane for some good pizza, seeing Spider-Man 3 in Durham, and attending a Durham Bull's game. I'll do another post with pictures from the weekend once Zooomr is back online.

On Monday night, aka Going Home Eve, I noticed some suspicious red spots on my shoulder. I would have written them off as bug bites had our neighbor back in Adamstown not informed us that her daughter and constant friend and playmate of Alex and Ella had the pox. The Chicken Pox that is.

To cut to the chase, I don't have the pox, since I had them a few decades ago. My doctor says I either have shingles or bug bites. Ella, on the other hand, definitely has Chicken Pox, and it seems Alex may have them, too. Looks like we'll all be speding some more time together over the next few days.

So, if any of the 60 or so people at the Pig Pickin or the 10,000 people at the Bull's game get some red dots on themselves, I apologize.

Robot Redux

Despite what I said, maybe I don't want a robot after all.

Hi, Five.

fiveDay Hosted on Zooomr

Today Alex turned five. He says that being five "feels good because I am bigger, faster, and have more toys." His favorite new toy was a Blue Lightning Storm McQueen:

Pixar Cars Lightning Storm McQueen

Anyway, look for a follow-up post after Sunday when he is having his party. In the meantime, read the first comment for the previously unpublished and unfinished story of the the days leading up to his birth.

Thirty Five, and a Half

finsih Hosted on Zooomr

Yesterday was a big day for Shelley. She started the day by racing in the Frederick half-marathon. She ran the 13.1 mile race in under two hours, which is better than a 9 minute per mile pace, for those of you keeping score at home.

This feat is all the more remarkable when you consider that she is now a year older than she was a few days ago. She celebrated her 35th birthday after the race by hosting a party for 50+ of her closest friends. If I am ever able to run that far that fast (which I can tell you now - not gonna happen), I am quite sure I would celebrate with some serious couch time. Not my bride. She was up and about and mingling with the guests well into the wee small hours, and was even spotted doing some dishes after everyone left. The fact that she went to bed at 9:30 tonight should in no way take away from any of that.

So, congratulations Shelley, on a race well run and 35 years well lived.

Soccer Night

The U6 Soccer season continued tonight here in Adamstown, with the mighty Avalanche taking on the Navy Blue Team. Two differences about the game. First, Coach Chad was out of town, so coach Shelley stepped onto the pitch as acting head coach. Second, this was the Avalanche's first, and as far as I know only, night game.

Otherwise, it was a typical U6 soccer game, but worth photographing if for no other reason then the light is better at 6:30 PM then it is at 11:30 AM. So, here are two shots of Alex, either of which might make you think he knows what he is doing:

soccerNight1 Hosted on Zooomr

soccerNight2 Hosted on Zooomr

No More Teacher's Dirty Looks

Tomorrow will be Alex's last day of pre-school. He started at the Onica Prall Lab School at Hood College back in September 2005, which looking back, seems like a long time ago.

Alex on his very first day in the three year old class - Sept 05

firstDay Hosted on Zooomr

Alex on his first day of four year old class - Sept 06

First Day For Fours Hosted on Zooomr

Alex today

lastday Hosted on Zooomr

Sleep Well, Cat Friends

You did not have too much to offer us. That was not your way. Even so, you were with us through very interesting times of our lives. For good and for bad, we'll not be able to think back to those times without remembering you as well.

Forest, I appreciate that as old as you were, you still had antics. I hope that there are plenty of sunbeams where you've gone in which you can nap.

Duncan, you were a loyal brother to the end and your fate was most unfair. I will miss you curling up next to me on the couch.

Still we see you then remember again that you are gone. I did not expect to miss you.