Categories
Daughters

Home with Dad

This past Thursday CDF went out with the girls and I stayed home with MDF. I met CDF at the church and traded cars. Then MDF and I went over to Walmart to pick up some pictures a buy a VCR for the church.

When we got home it was 6:00 PM and time for supper. After supper though, we went outside to walk around and look for blackberries, bunnies, and whatever else we could see.

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Sitting on the Bench

The crabapple tree she’s sitting beside has a lot of “baby apples.” It’ll be something if they all ripen this fall. I hope they’re good to eat.

Categories
Around the House

Clowning Around

This weekend I was playing around with MDF and I had the camera handy. I don’t remember what I was going to take pictures of, but we all ended up in this informal portrait.

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Pictures with the Dog
Categories
Work

Pictures of Downtown

I took a stroll downtown during my lunch break (actually it was last month, May 17) and took the camera to try to get some pictures that captured a little of what I see everyday working in Wilmington.

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Sidewalk

I still find it difficult to picture how scenes will look to the camera lens. Supposedly our eyes have the same field of view as a 38mm lens (or 50mm if you’re talking about a single eye). But sometimes I feel like I make a better match with a 400mm lens, because I selectively focus on an interesting subject and tune out the rest of the view. If I stop to pay attention to what’s around the subject that caught my interest, I realize that there’s a whole lot of detail (i.e. clutter) that would show up if I took the picture and the original subject would end up lost in all that clutter. Maybe now that I’m realizing how I’m “seeing,” I can start working on finding better views, especially finding perspectives that simplify the background and cut out the clutter.

I don’t always get it wrong. I think the following picture came out well. I was interested in the texture of the water and how the buoy and anchor contrasted with, and reflected on the water.

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Buoy on the Cape Fear River
Categories
Rambling Thoughts

Jamming Again

Rick came over last night to jam. It’s been at least six months since we last got together. I set my drums up in the living room and he plugged in at the bay window. It took us a little while to get warmed up, but eventually we got going, playing some 12 Stones, Switchfoot, SFB, and just jamming for a while too.

I’m looking forward to see if we can get something going.

Categories
Daughters

Sunday Afternoon With Dad

Yesterday afternoon CDF went with her mother to pick up Mrs. Joy from the airport. So MDF and I had the afternoon together. CDF left from the church and I headed home with MDF in the van. On the way we sang the song, “Deep and Wide,” that MDF had learned that morning while in the Nursery with CDF. I’m still amazed at how fast she learns and retains things.

We had ham, noodles, and corn for lunch, and despite her protests about the noodles, she ate pretty well. We had mango cake with cherry ice cream on top, and she like the pineapples in the cake the most.

After lunch she took a nap and I watched Lord of the Rings (pt 3) for a couple of hours (and still didn’t finish it… that’s a long movie). After nap, she was ready to go out an play in the sand box. CDF had set out the beach umbrella so she could play out there and not get sunburned.

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MDF loves to play in the sand (June 11)

We played for a good while, and she didn’t stop even when Pop and Ruth stopped by for a visit. Eventually though it was time to go inside and get something to drink. Then, after cleaning off her feet, she went inside and played with Ruth (and got her to read books).

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Making sure they’re clean.

Later that afternoon MDF and I went for a walk around the block. Actually we first went down toward the hospital to the empty lot to find blackberries (“black raisins” according to MDF). Then we went down S Walker and to the first right after Campbell Street. There are some nice houses down that street, including a very cute, tiny, two story house that looks like it dates back to colonial times. I’m sure it’s not more than a thousand square feet, and maybe smaller.

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Afternoon Walk

On a side note, MDF missed her mommy all afternoon. She actually talked to CDF on the phone — more than she’s ever talked on the phone — and MDF couldn’t get enough of her when CDF finally got home at 6:45 PM. She just wanted to hug CDF and sit on her nap.

Categories
Daughters

Sprinkler

A couple days ago, Tuesday to be exact, CDF and MDF were out in the back yard and CDF set up the sprinkler. Then she and MDF ran around in the water… well MDF actually preferred just to stand in the water and talk to “Mama” about the rain!

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“Rain, Mama!”
Categories
Wife

Five Year Anniversary, Part Three

On Sunday, after church, CDF, MDF, and I went up to Raleigh.
We at lunch at the church, leftovers from the Sunday School party at
CDF’s Parents’ the day before, and then left directly for Raleigh.

We first went to Pullen park, where we had spent time while we were
dating. We were worried that we didn’t remember how to find it, but got
there fine, with out making even one wrong turn.

We walked around some, looked at the train car, and the miniature train
the runs around the park, and then went to the playground to let
MDF play for a while.

Later I held MDF up to watch the Carosel go around. She was
facinated by it and didn’t want to leave. But it was getting hot and
muggy and we wanted to take a few pictures beside the lake before
heading back.

On the way back we met a couple with a yellow lab and a terrier mix.
MDF stopped to pet them, and we chatted with the couple for a few
minutes before moving on.

Leaving the park, we went to meet CDF’s nephew, Amos. He had
apartment about five minutes away from the park. After visiting a
little, and looking at his apartment we left to go find something to
eat. The original plan was to eat at Brothers Pizza, but it has just
closed down a few months back. So instead we went to Two Guys’ Pizza,
which was only a few doors down from Brothers. The pizza we ordered
looked a lot like what we would have gotten from Brothers, so we were
not as dissappointed about them closing.

After dropping Amos off at his apartment, we headed home. But since it
was still early we didn’t want MDF sleeping an hour before her bed
time and then keeping us awake later that night. So we stopped by a
shopping center just outside of Raleigh. Unfortunately most of the
stores had already closed, but we found that Target was still open, so
we did some shopping there. We wanted to wait until about 8 o’clock to
leave for Burgaw, so that MDF could sleep on the way home.
Ironically, on the way home I sat in the back, and kept MDF so
entertained, that she never went to sleep.

Categories
Wife

Five Years, Part 2

On Saturday, June 4, 2005, CDF and I went to Swansboro to continue to celebrate our anniversary. The plan was to visit the shops, take some more pictures by the waterfront, and eat at Yana’s. When we got there we found that there was a line out the door at Yana’s place. The lady told us it would be a forty-five minute wait. We put our name on the list and then went to browse in some shops (Noah’s Ark, Russels, etc.). Then it started raining. We returned to the restaurant to wait on the bench. It turned out that a lot of people who put their name on the wait-list didn’t stay around to be called, so we ended up getting in sooner than we thought.

For lunch we both had cheeseburgers, fries, and two complimentary onion rings. I was surprised that CDF tried her onion rings, but she seemed to like them, though not enough to eat a lot of it.

After lunch, we walked down to the park on the other side of the bridge… and who did we meet? The Cavanaugh twins. Not the first people that would have come to mind, but it turned out they were both their with dates, touring the town just like we were. We chatted for a few minutes and then went back down town to find a place to take a few pictures.

On the way home we stopped to pick up MDF and stayed a while at CDF’s parent’s house — they were having their Sunday School party — and had some desert. MDF especially liked the fruit/cake/pudding bowl desert.

Categories
Wife

Five Year Anniversary

This past Friday (June 3, 2005) CDF and I celebrated our fifth anniversary. Dom and Amber came over at 3:30 PM to baby sit MDF and gave us the evening to ourselves. CDF had gotten dressed up in her black fitted skirt and the beaded, sleeveless, red and black top. I wore khakis and a nice shirt.

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On the bench at the Pergala

To start out we went to Arlie Gardens. We took the camera and tripod to get pictures of us as a couple. We started out in the theme gardens and took a couple of pictures before walking along the lake toward the Pergala. The ground was still damp from rain earlier in the day, but we made it OK. Under the arbor we took a number of good pictures of us together and of CDF by herself.

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Under the arbor

As we walked on some more, we had to pass a family of swans that were preening on the side of the bridge. We were okay until we were just passing them, then one of the parents hissed menacingly at us. We took the hint, and walked faster. Fortunately the swans “recognized” us on the way back and “knew” they had already warned us and didn’t feel they needed to say anything again.

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The bottle chapel

Before we left we went to see the “bottle chapel” that was constructed out of cement, glass bottles, and sea shells. It was neat. In the center was a tree made out of brass, and there were two benches built into the rear wall. We took some pictures of us sitting on the bench — well I was sitting on the bench and CDF was in my lap. I think a couple who was walking by got a kick out of that.

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Having fun in the chapel

Then we left Arlie and went to Wrightville Beach to eat supper at the Oceananic, which was an upscale (to me anyway) restaurant right on the beach. We had a nice view from the second floor, looking over the pier and the out on the water. CDF wanted a table right beside the window, but we settled for a booth against the other wall. CDF ordered a steak and I ordered a shrimp and pasta dish (Fresca I think). For dessert we had chocolate chip pecan pie. The food was good (though my salad was more watery than I like it).

After supper we went out to walk on the beach, but it started raining. We thought we might take shelter under the pier until it stopped, but the wind made it too cold. So we decided to ride up and down Wrightsville Beach for a little bit and then head home for some romance.

We got home in time to put MDF to bed. She had a lot of fun with Amber and “Domey,” and was ready for sleep when we got there. We talked a while with Dom and Amber after she went to bed, but they left about 9:30 PM.

After that…

Categories
Wife

CDF’s Flowers

A few weeks ago CDF went to a nursery in/near Wallace and got a bunch of flowers. We planted them in the bed right in front of our house and in one around some trees in the front yard. The bed in front of the house appears to have poorer soil, and some of the flowers aren’t doing as well as the ones around the trees.

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Gerber Daisy
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What are these small flowers?

CDF wants to put a bird bath in the middle of these flowers in the near future.

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Future location for the bird bath