Posts Tagged ‘Family’
Olivia is at an age that I’m really starting to love. Not only is she running around on her own two feet and making all sorts of mischief, she’s downright adorably expressive. I took these photos around Memorial Day.
My youngest brother graduated from college this weekend. Naturally, I got pictures, and got some good use out of my new Canon EF 50mm ƒ/1.4, which I think may be my new favorite lens.
Next weekend I’ll be back in Vermont for Memorial Day: my sister and brother-in-law are hosting a barbecue. I’m sure I’ll get a ton of photos from that.
Went up to Vermont to spend some time with my mom and the other various family members left in my place of birth. Of course, I got some photos of Olivia, and quite a few of my dad, who happened to be over at the house while I was there. Sunday, I thought I would do something for my mother and cook her dinner, so I set off to the grocery store in search for some swordfish steaks, only to find out that not only was the fish market almost completely out of swordfish, but what was there was also fifteen bucks a pound. I don’t think so. So instead, I got some salmon, thinking that it was a similar type of meat and would cook nicely without changing too many of my plans.
What I hadn’t planned on, though, is that apparently my mother hates salmon. D’oh.
I do have to say, though, that despite that one little snafu, I completely rocked the meal: salmon steaks with lemon garlic herb butter, fresh brussels sprouts and rice pilaf. Three out of four of us loved it. Unfortunately, the one person who didn’t was the one I was cooking for. :)
And now, the aforementioned photos:
Amy came down to Connecticut on Wednesday with the baby, so I went over and had dinner, and took these while I was there.
Drove up to Vermont yesterday to spend Easter with the folks. Got these photos of the niece (and even one of two of my other nieces as well).
Visited the family in Vermont this past weekend and got a bunch more photos. Even snagged a couple of one of the cats and my sister’s dog. Lots of great baby faces in this set.
My sister came down to visit my dad again this week and so I made the trek over to the house today to spend some quality time with them and, of course, to take new baby pictures. Twice in the span of three weeks is great (and I’m probably headed up to Vermont this weekend, too, so that means even more), and she’s really starting to show some great facial expression, even reliably grinning when you do certain things (a raspberry sound seems to be her favorite).
I was up in Vermont a few weeks ago, visiting my parents, and while I was there, my mother asked me if I would hook up the new surround receiver they’d bought, which is always fun for me because it means I get to tell my parents what to do (they don’t seem to understand why I put so much importance on the right usage of sound equipment, I think). This meant a trip to the electronics store for appropriate cabling, so once I took an inventory of what was needed, we took a Saturday morning trip to the nearest Best Buy. Unfortunately, Best Buy didn’t happen to have any cables of the appropriate length (and on top of that, the cables they did have were unbelievably expensive), so we decided to forgo the cables for cheaper alternatives to be found at Radio Shack. But while we were there, I decided to head over to the video games to see if they maybe had a display for Guitar Hero III, which had not yet been released. They didn’t, which stunk, but I was surprised to turn around from the game display to see my mother standing next to a stack of Nintendo Wiis with what can only be described as a look of delight in her eyes.
She looked at my stepfather and breathed, “They have them in stock.”
The thought that my mother would be interested in buying a video game system sent me practically into overload. Parents aren’t supposed to be this childlike, right? Truth be told, though, it was a pretty adorable sight. Almost as adorable as the later sight of my mother standing in front of a television with a wiimote in her hand, flailing her arms in the air while throwing a virtual bowling ball down the lane.
But I digress.
When we got to the checkout line, the woman at the checkout looked over the various pieces and asked us if this was a Christmas purchase. “No,” I said. “This is an impulse purchase.” I then remarked that my idea of an impulse purchase wasn’t something like this, though; my idea of an impulse buy is more like a new shirt at Target and wasn’t usually on par with a video game system.
Then I thought about what I’d said and realized something. “You know,” I said, “I must be getting older. My idea of an impulse buy used to be something like ‘Hey, look, a new CD.’ Now, I’ll walk into a store and go, ‘Ooh… boxers.’ ”
It was a joke that my friends thought was funny when I got back home, but I came to another realization today: I’m sitting in my living room right now and watching the Food Network. Before that? Golf.
When did I become old?
I used to watch cartoons on Saturday. Later, I might watch a bunch of movies over the weekend. Lately, though, I’ve found myself aligning my TV interests with interests from other areas of my life. I never once thought I’d get a kick out of cooking shows, but I found that the more interested I became in cooking good food, the more interesting these programs became. The same with golf: I used to think that golf was a great game to play, but not so much to watch. Isn’t it strange how our tastes change?
I listen to NPR, I read nonfiction books, and while I still love to bust out a game like Guitar Hero and heavy metal, I find it interesting that my idea of a fun night with friends usually involves some kind of food I’ve cooked rather than a six-pack of beer.
Then again, there’s no reason we can’t do both.
