Christmas cards come unglued

I have a new level of respect for professional photographers. As an amateur, I figured my lack of experience and technical prowess could be overcome by shooting an enormous number of shots. (Not kidding, the iPhoto count for November photos was 836). Thankfully, my subject was, at times a handful, at others an angel, but ALWAYS entertaining.

It was hard to find the one photo that was worthy of our 2005 Christmas card. And the one we did select might make some wonder whether Christmas stocking hats in Arizona were recently redesigned to be red and blue.



oh well.. here are some of the photos that didn't make the cut for anything other than this pictorial of one wild boy and his unwieldy hat.



photo captions top to bottom:
1) "Nah, nah... my eyes are closed and you can't see me!"
2) "Clap hands, clap hands! Maybe if I signal we've come to the end, she'll get that camera out of my face."




3)"You behind the camera! Go get me a snack! And take this babushka off me!"




4) "Look ma, can't you just take Barry the Bear's picture? Nobody will be able to tell it's not me."






5) "Take me inside, this stinks!"

For Amore & Pop

There's no vocabulary
For love within a family, love that's lived in
But not looked at, love within the light of which
All else is seen, the love within which
All other love finds speech.
This love is silent.

- T S Eliot

Be well tomorrow. You are in my prayers.

Arizona named dumbest state in the union

Now there’s a superlative I could live without. To those unaware, Bob and I are in negotiation over where to buy a house and raise our little family. Since I was raised on the east coast and he on the west and our extended families are located accordingly, it’s obvious to see how we might conflict. Thankfully our discussions are usually rationally based, and we consider cost of living, employment opportunities and the like. It’s the subjective quality of life "discussion" where we can get a bit heated. This recent article though may be one of the best arguments in my favor.

I'll be honest, I'm usually the one who goes off on the quality of life rants. For example, I can get past the fact that it’s still too hot here in November to bake cookies. I can get past the fact that scorpions thrive all too close to intimate spaces in our home. And I can even get past the fact that the newscasters here are, at best, amateurish. Call me spoiled but growing up watching NYC news has made me yearn for newscasters who can manage more than 3 syllable words and, more importantly, who don’t seem to be going for the Pam Anderson look.

Now that we have Sam, the education issue is a new salient one for both of us. Bob argues that he went through the public school district in Arizona and he’s reached a level of academic and professional success. Several family members are prominent members of the Tempe public school system, to the benefit of their students. Finally, the public school system has experienced some difficulties in part to two issues that are often extremely localized -- illegal immigration and the explosive rate of growth.

I argue that I’d rather my son be part of a school district where his peers are higher performing, presumably as he is. In this environment, I’d hope he’d be challenged to learn and grow more than one where he’s the brightest. According to my sister in law, the level of challenge for her smart boys in Chandler isn’t adequate. And the immigration and growth issues aren’t going to change anytime soon. I view those as a failure of the local government here to put priority on educating their student population.

For two people who value education and critical thinking, this debate will rage on. In the meantime let me extend my congratulations to the great state of Connecticut. I’ll settle for Salutatorian.

Happy Halloween!

I wonder if everyone has certain superficial things they look forward to with life events like marriage or having kids? For example, when we were registering for our wedding I really looked forward to going to Williams Sonoma and picking: Henkels or Wusthof? Calphalon or All-Clad? I had been preparing for these important decisions since the day I tagged along with Dave and Lee Ann when they registered for their wedding in Albany. When it came time to make those decisions with Deanna- it was a snap! Wusthof. Check. All-Clad. Check.

As we prepared to celebrate Sam's first Halloween, I thought back to my nephew Connor's first Halloween. Kevin's cousin got Connor a Tigger costume that was *so* cute. I thought to myself- "Now this is one thing that is really cool about having kids. When I have kids, I'm going to put them in super-cute costumes for Halloween." A few weeks back, we were at Babies 'R Us and I saw this Winnie the Pooh costume that really suited Sam. I wanted to get it, but decided not to- we already had a little pumpkin onesie that he was going to wear for Halloween. As Halloween drew closer, I kept thinking about the Pooh costume and started pestering Deanna to get it. She finally relented, but when we went to the store, not only were they sold out of the Pooh costume- they were sold out of *all* their costumes!! For the first time I felt like I had failed my guy (as if he cared what he wore for his first Halloween). After some relentless searching on the Internet and calling around to local stores, Deanna found the Pooh costume! And it was half-off, can you beat that?

So, here I share with you Master Samuel Garrison all dressed up for his first Halloween! Gosh- he is so cute...