Recently in Family Category

Lucky for us, Josie remembers how to hand out gifts. The occasion is Jordi's birthday. Here, Josie helps with one of the birthday cards.

I forgot to bring my flash along, so the image blurs when there is movement, which is just about always when Josie is awake. Jen set up their camera on a gorilla-pod and using the remote control, took some "good" pictures. I guess if piebee.com cannot compete on picture quality, I'll just have to compensate with my insightful prose.

Karen made a yummy apple-crisp. We neglected to take leftovers home with us, something I will forever regret.

Here is a photo of our younger cat, Ginny. If you have met Ginny, you may notice this is not a very true likeness. The image seems smudged or something. Maybe I need a better camera or maybe I should take a few lessons in photography at the local adult ed.

Or perhaps it would help to be told that Karen has been working in charcoal in her drawing class the past few weeks. Perhaps the feline footprints near where these drawings are kept would be a clue. Perhaps.

My winter Sunday routine is to go to pubic skating. Jen is looking ahead to when Josie might strap on the blades and learn her way 'round. To be a role model, Jen got her skates out and joined Bert and me this morning. Hard for me to read whether Josie is ready to try it out, but she did enjoy watching mom and all the other commotion out on the ice.

After a breakfast of gingerbread waffles, we braved the cold weather and did some sledding down a nearby hill. You have to look carefully, but bundled somewhere within that snow suit is a happy, smiling Josie. After we all took turns acting as chauffeur, she took a few rides solo, just lying back in the toboggan staring up at the clear blue sky.

Leaving work before Christmas, the company surprised each of us with the fixings for a gingerbread house. This included gingerbread, icing, and a very, very nice assortment of candies: chocolate pieces, gumdrops, licorice whips, hard candies, marshmallows, and a candy cane. The candy cane did not get into the picture, but almost everything else did, when our helpers arrived on New Year's Day.

Josie helped out, of course. The surprise was she did not do much (any?) sampling of the construction materials. Maybe the psychedelic colors were too novel for this all to register as candy. Maybe it has been twenty months of grownups saying, "don't put that in your mouth!". My daughter, of course, is past that, and has a sweet tooth. As Jen says, "it's all good." Her suggestion for the unused candy cane: Mint (candy cane) chocolate chip cookies

We got together yesterday in advance of today's snow storm to exchange presents and celebrate with a Christmas meal. My sister sent along a cell phone pic of some chocolate camel cookies they had made. These are a tradition in our family and one of my favorites. We were busy, meanwhile, showing Josie how to make sand tarts. Hmm, good.

Just a little video for our fans.

We celebrated Jen's birthday with a fondue party. Jen got out her fondue set and made a series of three fondues: cheese, veggie/pasta, and chocolate. This was a slow paced meal, spread out over the late afternoon. In between courses, Jen opened her gifts. Or more exactly, Josie opened Jen's gifts. Josie is very helpful in delivering and unwrapping boxes.

Jordi could find no way to light a few candles in a fondue however. So dessert was cupcakes. Here Jen gets some assistance in making her wish come true.

After Thanksgiving, we broke up the drive back from Pennsylvania, stopping for an overnight at a hotel just over the New York/Connecticut line. This hotel pool had the hottest water of any pool I have ever experienced. Visit this page again this winter when you need a little warmth.

Oh, the name of the hotel was Soylent Green Inn.

We were in Pennsylvania this Thanksgiving, visiting my sister and family. Diane prepared a splendid table, as is evident from this picture. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, very traditional, all good. Have I forgotten something? Dessert was a peanut butter pie, or a pumpkin roll. Did I say "or"? Ha ha ... of course I should have said "and".

But wait, there's more. My cousin Sue and hubby Jeff had all of us over on Friday after. The configuration of the table did not lend itself to a classic photo, but this pic of our hosts looks pretty good to me. Pie was mincemeat, yum.

Jen & Jordi & Josie dropped by yesterday after doing some shopping. After doing some visiting inside and out, we got dinner together. Dinner itself was easy, store-bought Caesar salad and pizza. Jen also brought along Braeburn apples for a pie. I made a crust while Jen peeled, cored, and spiced the apples. The pie was pretty tasty, and with her hand on the spoon, Jen got enough sugar into the filling to suite her taste.

We are doing some cat sitting while the owners are away. This clip shows the cinqo gatos hanging out, waiting, hoping for some tasty treats. The can top was popped shortly after this video was shot. Everyone indulged, licked their chops, and found a spot for their cat nap. They miss you, Jen.

The weekend here saw some pretty dang nice weather. Thus my new excuse for putting off any yard clean up is: Josie will want to play in those leaves. Good fun!

The previous two entries, Vacation and Ouch! were cell phone posted, and lacking a full phone keyboard and sufficient patience, they supplied nearly no context. Karen and I, along with Karen's sister Sheila, were in Miami to assist their mother, Ruth, in moving. We arrived the Wednesday before Halloween for a five night visit. We had a lot on our to do list: packing, cleaning, setting up a new bank account, clothes shopping, furniture shopping, and more.

On top of this we had a couple of surprise additions. Did you know it is not possible to set up a new bank account without a sanctioned photo id? We are told it is a Homeland Security rule. Ruth's drivers license had expired, and an expired license is not good enough. So after a phone call to set up an appointment, we go off to find the Florida DMV. The appointment is an appointment to stand in line. The October 30 photo shows the door to the DMV office.

What's worse than waiting in line at the DMV? Waiting in the ER! Karen's ankle apparently was looking delicious to some Miami insect or spider. We had it looked at on Friday by Ruth's physician, and he didn't think it looked like anything. But it was worse on Saturday, and fearing an infection, we stopped by Mt Sinai Hospital, conveniently halfway between Ruth's old and new digs.

Whats worse than waiting in the ER? Waiting twice in the ER! Yes, the oral antibiotics from Saturday did not seem to be doing the job, so we returned on Sunday. Karen got additional meds via IV. Tere and Gilbert were in touch and were generous enough to swing by to help. Tere stayed with Karen at the hospital while Gilbert and I joined Sheila and Ruth for more packing.

The move finally occurred on Monday with minimal fuss. Ruth is getting settled in her new apartment. Karen's ankle is looking pretty good after a follow up visit back here at home and a switch to a new antibiotic that is better tolerated. Whew!

Ouch!

Jen and Jordi have been envious of some of their friends who have nice DSLR cameras. Josie's poor pixels were somehow not all they could be. While a new DSLR is on their holiday wish list, Jen borrowed a nice Canon and was snapping some pics yesterday.

It is certainly true that a bigger lens and bigger sensor makes for better pictures. That makes gathering light so much easier with a never-sit-still Josie. But still I say it is the photo subject that counts most.

On a side note, you may notice the site's new "piebee" image. The bee portion of the original image was borrowed from some now forgotten place on the web. A few weeks ago, an honest bee was spied in the back yard. I macro-stalked the busy one as it buzzed around some flowers behind our bedroom. One of the lucky shots, photoshopped and paired with an old blueberry pie photo, is the result. I may have to tweak some other style elements of the site to match the pink behind the bee.

The weekday nights last week were crazy busy. Here is a quick summary of the week, I have a few more things to post here over the next day or so, so let's get something online and move on.

Karen and I started Monday with our first Beginning Spanish adult ed class at the high school. Our teacher, Penelope, tells us this is her first time teaching adults. I think this is going to work out fine, as we are just big kids after all, right?

Tuesday I joined folks at work for a release party, celebrating the latest rev of one of our products. Brews and burgers and shooting (very poorly) some pool.

Jen and Jordi had given Karen the very nice birthday gift of tickets to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. Yes, that Steve Martin is a big blue grass music fan and accomplished banjo man. The show was advertised as an evening of banjo and blue grass music and that's what we got. It was a good time!

Most Thursday nights are basket ball nights for me, but this week was an off week from hoops as the whole school was taken over for parent-teacher's night.

Finally on Friday, our entry in the Buda Grandmasters club league, Minimum Time Aloft, had our first win (asterisked, as we were short on roster players and had to pull in a few ringers). As a "club" team, we don't get new t-shirts from Buda. I have, however, just updated my t-shirt page with the summer league threads.

Jordi's mom, Tere is visiting. Here we are yesterday, about to pile into the cars for dinner out. We had a nice meal at Bertucci's, but the whole event took two hours. Josie was quite the trouper as we waited for a table, waited to order, waited for the food to arrive, and then waited for all the grown ups to dine.

Even paying the bill took a little extra time. I should know better by now, but I tried to put part of the bill on a debit card I had gotten as a rebate on my cell phone purchase. Even when you tell the server how much is on the card, the restaurant "system" seems to add in a bit extra for the anticipated tip. So you cannot really max out the card.

Posted by phone from Niles Beach, Gloucester.

One of the compulsions of a trip to the shore is getting in the water. The Boston Globe over the Labor Day weekend reported the Cape beaches were seeing above average water temperatures this season. You won't get a confirmation from us. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't warm either.

Cold water shrivels up the body. On my first day treading water off the beach outside our home away, I realized my wedding ring had slipped off my finger. You can note in this photo of Josie and me on the Route 6 side of things that I am sans jewelry. I can now join Tuna in the "lost my ring at the beach" club.

A new wedding band is now on order.

It is raining pretty good here at home today. Two weeks ago saw the same as we drove out for a week's vacation on Cape Cod. Sunday was overcast, but the remainder of the week was quite nice, lots of sun. We made the most of it.

First opportunity on Monday then, we took out a parafoil kite for its first flight. After we figured out which side of the kite was up and which was down (pretty side down, duh), we found it quite easy to fly. Josie is getting the concept of "taking turns", although that is not to say she likes the concept.

Coast Guard Beach and there is almost no one else here.

Tuesday, September 8th: we are back from our vacation now. I will be posting a few more photos in the coming days.

The cellphone posting is slightly improved; now the photo gets through. I will have to forward the fix along to Movable Type to see if it might be of use to others. Still lacking: eliding any [category] prefix, accepting comments, and splitting the title from the body.

It has been raining hard as we make the drive to Truro, almost all the way to the tip of Cape Cod. It is a relief to get out of the car, and we are looking forward to a week of good weather.

My sister and family left today after a four day visit. As always, we take a few goodbye photos, this is one from my camera. Nice visit, but it goes by so fast!

There hasn't been much activity here on the Piebee blog the past couple of months. There hasn't been any particular reason for this slow spell. An apple pie went unremarked upon a few weeks ago. The BUDA Good Cause tournament got me out for a day's worth of Ultimate, with the added bonus of running into a former Newon neighbor we have known since he was small. And, of course, Josie continues to amaze one and all. These are topics for posts, but I just haven't been blog-ready.

I've been finding it harder to snap a picture of young Josephine. She is fed up with me and others sneaking up on her with a shiny, interesting looking cameras, making a fuss, and then we don't let her examine the dang gadget. Why shouldn't she get to learn all about how a digital camera works? Or tastes? What's up with that?

So when the camera comes out, you can tell she is thinking, "How do I get my hands on that camera?". It takes Josie away from whatever it was she doing, you don't get the shot you had hoped for.

One thing that deserves a video clip is: how Josie approaches a chair to sit down. She has a couple of right size for her chairs. There is a small slice of lifetime when one learns how to sit down in a chair, and she has pretty much mastered it now. Once you learn, you don't even think about it; you just eyeball the seat, turn around, and you know where your butt is supposed to go. But when you are learning that spatial awareness, it takes some practice to build your confidence. Josie peeks over her shoulder as she backs up to the seat, her side to side positioning not always spot on. Besides, she doesn't do much sitting still anyway.

Each Fourth of July holiday, the Lions Club in town sponsors a carnival at the high school. Jen, Jordi, and Josie attended yesterday and had so much fun, we decided to go back again today. We took turns with the various rides; here the ladies are on the carousel.

There was one ride that Josie did not like at all, a back-and-forth in an arc, with a spin in it. I am not a fan of spin rides either, but thought I could tough out a kiddy ride. Wouldn't you know it, the operator "treated" us to a second ride. Planning ahead, I wore a green shirt that disguised just how green my face might be on its own.

We got together for Fathers' Day and spent the rainy afternoon doing some cooking and playing. I was looking forward to baking a pie with Jen's help, but Jen has not been feeling 100% the past few days, so my help came from Josie. She caught on pretty quickly how to work the apple peeling machine, although she was more interesting in exploring what-ifs: what if I move the crank back and forth? what if I try to grab the sharp thingie?

The two dads in attendance got some nice presents. We did Skype with the Suozzos in Albany. And we had a very nice vegetarian meal that Karen put together. Jen has been pretty careful about introducing foods during Josie's first year. By now, all the ingredients in apple pie have been vetted, so she got a taste. Yum! Still, shoulda had some ice cream to go along side. Right, Jen?

After a trip to the mall on Saturday, we returned home for a short nap and then a cookout. I say it is too early for corn on the cob, but the stores say otherwise, shipping it in from who knows where. Josie was a big help here. What she lacks in mass, she makes up in determination. Karen offers her one shuck at a time, and Josie can yank it off the cob and drop it in the waste bowl. I have a video, if you need further demonstration.

Jen put together a big, blow out party for Josie's first at Together In Motion, a self-described tumble gym. Josie has lots of buddies from Jen's and Jordi's circle of college friends plus new friends from the neighborhood. The total of kids plus parents sounded like too much to me, but at an average age of one year, plus or minus, for the kids, everything went quite well.

Here in the gym section is maybe half of the party goers. A like number of people are in the other room where the lunching and caking went on. That is Josie in the red dress in the picture's center with her back to the camera. She has gotten over her reluctance to crawl under and through various paraphernalia.

With the big day here, we went out for a nice meal (Mexican, in defiance of current events) and returned home to show Josie our gift to her. She likes it!

Josie also likes clothes. She received this one cute red dress. The dress came on one of those plastic hangers, and mom got what-for when she started to remove it. Josie grabbed onto the dress/hanger and would not let go. This girl is going to need a big closet.

Tere and Gilbert visited via Skype. That is not as good as being here, especially when all they can do is watch us wolf down the birthday cake. Not at all fair.

Last night, with the first anniversary of Josie's birth a couple of days away, it was time to assemble the present we got for her. I have committed a couple of snafus in recent memory, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little bit of tape (electrical or duct, depending on size and background color). They probably stand out more than other, forgettable successes. I had recently read an article in the New Yorker about neuroenhancement. Mental-wise, I am a morning person, perhaps juiced on the accepted enhancer, caffeine. I forged ahead and down into the basement. Armed with my rubber mallet and a couple of screwdrivers and the oh, so easy, it doesn't need words instructions, I spread the pieces across the floor and started in. The result? All is o.k. We will see if the birthday girl enjoys her new ride. It does look like a lot of fun.

We jumped on the chance to get outside on a couple of relatively warm days we caught here at the end of the first week of March. Saturday found us at the Stone Zoo. Some of the animals there need warmer weather, but we did catch sight of some of attractions: snow leopard, jaguar, black bears, and more. Incongruously, they have a flock (or is there another word for that?) of flamingos, who apparently do adapt well to our chillier clime.

While we brought the stroller, Josie got carried through most of the visit. The zoo grounds were wet and muddy, so she didn't get down much to walk and sully her new kicks. But she did like to push her stroller. It rolls pretty well! Check out this video.

Karen and I visited Josie, Jen, and Jordi on Sunday. We had a little cake and Josie showed us her new good habit: teeth brushing. She is pretty thorough, although with only six teeth to tend to, she can afford the time. Josie does look very serious about this process. Or maybe she is just wondering why I am snapping yet another picture.

Jen tells me she too has a tooth brushing photo to post. But she has been snoozing and now I have beaten her to it. Well, not snoozing, Jen's been under the weather and otherwise quite busy.

Lacking enthusiasm for the crowded restaurant scene on Valentine's Day, we opted for a visit to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. We preceded that with a visit a couple of blocks up Huntington Avenue to R. Crumb's Underground exhibit at MassArt. A tip of the hat to Mr Bloom for cluing us in, first a few months back when this exhibit was in Philidelphia (plausible but not practical for a visit), and again when the show arrived locally.

At MassArt, we also took in Figuratively Seeing, a collection of portraits by contemporary artists. From there we had lunch at the MFA cafeteria, and then to the MFA's Photographic Figures. Josie took a lot in, but by late afternoon it was nap time. Jen tells me that I move along too slowly from picture to picture to keep a youngster engaged in it all.

Afterwords, we did end up eating out. Nothing fancy, but a new find for us: a very enjoyable Chinese restaurant, Quindao Garden, not far from Teel Street. They do dumplings!

We celebrated Jordi's birthday yesterday by unwrapping some gifts and chowing down on some chicken wings. Jordi received much assistance in unwrapping his presents. Josie has the knack for ripping the paper, although we are constantly after her so she isn't getting small bits ingested. Mio helped, too, as you can see.

Whatta Wing! was too busy to answer the phone on Super Bowl Sunday. Jordi and I ventured out and just showed up there to put our order in in person. We rounded the meal out with some toasted ravioli and roasted broccoli. Jen made dessert, a nice pecan pie with a touch of whipped cream. Yums!

For the holidays this year, we had an additional passenger as we headed to Pennsylvania. Josie has shown her displeasure on short rides at being stuffed into today's über-safe car seats, so we were a mite apprehensive about how she would fare. With lots of company in the back seat, she did fine.

Visiting my side of the family, we had a very nice holidays. Here in the background of this video we can see a bit of the excellent decorations put up by Diane and Todd.

The video subject is Josie rocking out on their piano. She has been offered a chance at the keys before, but here for the first time, she really gets into it. She accomplishes quite a lot with just the black keys.

The weather prognosticators called this one right. We got a storm late Friday afternoon and through the night. Another storm was called for Sunday, and as this is being written, the NOAA has us down for "Freezing Fog". This all got us to do our gift exchange a day early, on Saturday.

The supermarket had a good price on blackberries. Not very traditional, but sounded appealing, especially when imagined combined with something like lemon sans meringue. A web search turned up a recipe. This also gave me an opportunity to try out Jungle Shortening. The resulting crust was well received, but it was more cake-like, than classically flaky.

We had a nice time exchanging presents. Josie has the knack for ripping the wrapping paper off any gift, but had to be distracted from eating the paper so convenient there in her hand. She got a big kick out of her new Push and Ride Racer. It needed assembly, and I only broke it a little bit getting it together. Still a lot of fun!

We toured the New England Aquarium last Sunday as part of Jen's birthday celebration. We had a nice time. Josie takes it all in: the harbor seals, the penguins, the jelly fish, all the big fish in the main tank.

We took a brunch break at nearby Sel de la Terre. The staff there was very accommodating of our babe. The food was very good. The morning's weather saw some snow flurries, which are only barely visible in this post-meal photo. The snow in the end didn't amount to much. It certainly didn't slow us down.

We had a pre-Thanksgiving get together yesterday. It is not a feast unless we have pie, so making the pie occupied our afternoon. I made a crust while Jen and Josie worked on the filling. Jen brought the apples; the guest ingredient on hand was chopped walnuts. A quick Google found us this recipe from recipetips.com

Here is Jen using my apple machine, and Josie trying out her new clamp-on seat.

The filling and crust both received a pre-baking cooking. I screwed up with the pie weight beans, and had to toss the first attempt. After a trip to the supermarket for other dinner fixin's, I prepared another crust, laid on the topping and popped it in the oven.

The recipe has the temerity to suggest "Cool several hours before cutting." Well, we did wait a little while, but the pie was still warm and runny when we attacked. Yum! Today, the pie slices are much more Euclidean, and still delicious.

The jellied cranberry was added to the picture for a little color and interest, but did not go in to the pie.

Jordi and Jen are following something called baby-led weaning. Josie has been subsisting solely on nursing so far, but the six month anniversary is when we first offer some solid food. You can see how the sweet potato fest went at the jenjordi blog. Summary: interesting, but too soon to be sure "food" is a good idea.

Jen has posted the companion photo to this pic. I'm just moving too slowly, and being a me too. Oh, and another thing, Jen made a pair of scrumptious sweet potato pies.

We got together for dinner last Thursday to observe Yom Kippur. I put together an apple pie starting with a sack of Empire apples and pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. The ingredient of note was a spoonful of Ceylon cinnamon from Penzeys Spices. The pie went fast.

Karen and I were over visiting our granddaughter both days this weekend. On Saturday, I was doing some repair work on the hand-me-down changing table after Jen's cats had distressed the newly applied fabric. Along the way, we made a visit to the nearby playground. Josie does not sit still, and after she hopped off a low seat on the jungle gym there, I got out my camera and made this two minute video.

Josie doesn't like to sit. She has always resisted the suggestion kick back and relax by stiffening her whole little self. With steadying support, she prefers to stand and take in the better view.

We have yard sale bouncy car ready for her. The car is appropriate for an bigger child. But given her predisposition to stand, her ever improving grabbing skills, and a vintage 49th Edition CRC, we dropped her in and she was well entertained. Note my earlier post.

August is a birthday busy month for our family. Karen asked for a blueberry pie for her day. She anticipated if she asked for a cake, it would be store bought, not homemade. Pie is almost certainly going to be homemade, and I even found some pie-friendly candles at the grocery store.

J & J & J were unable to join us and Ruth for pie on Saturday night. On Sunday they brought along a store-bought "paddy cake" (as in "Paddy cake, paddy cake, bakers man"). I always heard "patty cake" and google backs me up about 2 to 1. A few candles went on the cake and Karen gets a second wish.

Karen's mom Ruth arrived today for her first glimpse of Josephine. It is special to see this span across the generations.

Tuesday, July 22nd. Catching up, again.

Grandpa has been on the spot for a bit now to post some pixels of our visit to the Old Res'. Josie, Jordi, Jen, Karen, and I went late afternoon on the twelfth to Lexington's little pond.

The pond is small enough to be warmed to a pleasant temperature, even after the rain we have seen here recently. Still, Josie isn't all that sure what we are getting her into. That is a strange sensation, having your legs dipped into something, well, wet. But it turns out not to be so bad, and everyone else is enjoying the moment. The dip was followed by a nap on the beach under the sun-tent. Ah, summertime.

Monday, July 21st. There is a little catch up work to here on Pie Bee Blog. I will back-date this posting to match when the photo was taken. This and a couple more to come in the next couple of days.

Almost a couple of weeks ago now, we had house guests: Sheila, Bob, Dan, and Mister. This was their first glimpse of Josephine, and they seemed suitably impressed. Who needs pie when you have a fresh baby in the house?

June is often a busy month for us. There is a birthday, Father's Day, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces come for a visit. For Father's Day, we went out to a nearby driving range. This was a new one for me. A bucket of balls went screaming off, most with a serious slice. A few of us were kink-ified the next day.

Renovation is ongoing during all of these other activities. We had some wet concrete and someone thought it would be the thing to do to immortalize our hand prints. We didn't jump in right away, the concrete was somewhat far along, too far along to get more than a faint impression of Josie's toesies.

We played tourist with the Graybills. We played some mini-golf up on Route 1 and visited the ocean at Halibut Point and Good Harbor Beach. We walked a bit of the Freedom Trail and sampled some micro-breweries. A whirlwind visit and a lot of fun.

I tossed together a peach pie, too. Mea culpa, with a Pillsbury crust. You cannot cut corners with a pie (it has no corners).

I cannot resist baby toes. There, I said it. Given the opportunity and a camera, I will snap away.

Back on the computer, looking at a couple of shots taken of Josie's footsies, one can notice a certain asymmetry. Some may suggest this is a trick of perspective, but my theory is: we have a budding Danica Patrick in the family. Hopefully the costs of custom made footwear and ludicrous automobile insurance premiums will be offset by the endorsement deals.

We spent a very nice Mother's Day visiting with our newest mother. But a mother's role is not the easy one. The hold the baby time is so often feed the baby time. So today the camera captures a light moment with our son-in-law and our granddaughter.

Later we took our new stroller out for a spin around the neighborhood. It was a nice sunny day, but not the warmest. The ride in the fresh air put Josie right to sleep. Everyone was feeling sleepy when we returned. We did manage to stay awake long enough to scarf down some goodies from Kick A** Cupcakes. Happy Mothers Day to all.

Due to popular demand, of at least one request anyway, here is a photo of Josephine with her mom's parents. We have been over to visit a couple of times since they returned home on Thursday. We cook up a bit of dinner for everyone and take turns holding the baby.

Josie is pretty much into sleeping and eating and not a whole lot more. Then again, we are not around for the long, interrupted, grab a few Zees, nights. That sure simplifies the experience for us. We also are clueless regarding the new-fangled diaper technology. Even the cloth diapers have evolved, diaper pins having been superseded by some kind of plastic grabber thing that holds it all together. It is a new adventure.

After forty long hours in the hospital, Jen and Jordi now have a new daughter! She is the cutest. See more at the authoritative source for all things Josephine, JenJordi.

Mio accompanied Jen & Jordi on a visit a week ago. He wheedled his way into a boost to on top of the refrigerator. From there it was a quick hop up to the high window above. "I'm king of the world!" It only took a little coaxing to get Mio down, but only because he was ready.

We were renting in Waltham when Karen was pregnant with Jen. That fall, with the big day approaching, you would find me in the basement workshop there, listening to Duane Ingalls Glasscock on the radio and making sawdust out of a stack of pine boards. Karen's side of things had an excellent outcome, and the piece of furniture known as the changing table, while not elegant, served us for quite some time.

The changing table has passed on to the new generation. It needs to be spiffed up to match the new nursery. So today, I was in the basement here, again butchering the wood I thought I was done with. A few taps of my rubber mallet and the glue holding the door's stiles and rails together let go. The fabric was torn from the backing plywood. A bit of sanding and scraping, and the plywood is ready for some fresh material. That will come soon. No rush. After all, it wasn't quite finished when Jen was born.

For Christmas, Jen & Jordi gave us the very nice gift of two tickets to tonight's Celtics' game in the (TD Banknorth) Garden. The Celtics have been having a great year with the addition of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. All the Celts put on a good show against Detroit, getting an early 10+ point lead in the first quarter. That proved to be the margin at the end, although Detroit had the score tied at the end of the 3rd when some of the Celtics' first string was resting on the bench.

This was a tough ticket with two of the leagues' top teams. Jen did good getting these tickets, and I hope I don't sound like I'm checking the horse's mouth, but we were in the very last row of the balcony. It is a long way down. We had a great time, even if today's modern show time extras have Red's coffin's rotisserie set on eleven.

We had a wonderful time at Jen and Jordi's place before they left to spend the holidays with Jordi's family.

Mio says, "Best wishes to all!"

About two years ago, Jen took on four foster kittens. These white with black spots cats were named after the Weasley's of Harry Potter: Ron, George, Fred, and Ginny. The demand side of cat adoption has been weak of late, and these animals have not found the right adoption situation.

In a spooky echo to Cassie's passing, we found Ron had died in his sleep a few weeks later. That left Jen's menagerie at six, and ours at one. To rebalance this situation, Karen and I took on Ginny the week before Christmas.

Ginny started very skittish towards us. She would never let us get close. In the past couple of days, she is relaxing and this looks like it will work out. She loves the petting and brushing now.

Thanksgiving this year was with my sister and family. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon. That evening, I was presented with the task of making two pie crusts while Diane made the fillings for an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. The pies were a nice dessert for our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and did not linger long in the leftover category.

Glenn and Shirley joined us for Thanksgiving. The following day we were invited for another excellent meal with Jeff and Sue. A whirlwind trip, but a great time.

Karen had her total knee replacement last Tuesday. So piebee gets even less attention than usual. The two prior July entries here were written today, and back-dated to the day they transpired. Re: knee replacements, do not view this webcast of knee replacement surgery. It is very, very, icky.

Jen wanted to do something a bit different for my birthday. She knows me well enough to know I appreciate a gift that does not require finding additional space at home for storage. Her inspiration was to rent us a sail boat excursion in Boston Harbor.

This was a surprise for me. I was told only to set aside the day for an outing. We (Jen, Jordi, Will, Karen, & I) headed east on Broadway in Somerville and kept on going into Charlestown. This route had me perplexed, but we amazingly emerged on the water front and made our way to the Courageous Sailing Center.

We had a good wind and our captain, Judy, sailed east on a reach. She let some of us novices take turns at the wheel. We got to Lovells Island and Judy dropped us off at the dock for a picnic lunch.

We tacked back after lunch. Going upwind produces the more dramatic sailing. The boat tilts over at a good angle and it seems like you are moving at a good clip. Fast enough to blow my hat off and into the water. Cap'n Judy says, "We don't go back for hats".

This spring, neighborhood mice can breathe a little easier. Tuesday morning, we found that Cassie had passed away in her sleep. Cassie was a sweet cat. She will be missed.

The job search takes us to Manhattan to visit a well known (it's been verbed!) internet search engine company. We haven't visited New York City for I don't know how long, so we squeezed quite a bit in to 24+ hours.

On Thursday evening, we visited the Chelsea Art Museum. Mostly because it was open until 8PM while most of the other museums and galleries were closed by 5:00-5:30. We strolled through the current exhibits there. The real treat (if you like your art on the abstract expressionist side) was the work by the Museum's patron, Jean Miotte.

The treats continued with dinner with nephew Willie. He introduced us to Penang, a nice Malaysian restaurant. Hey, check it out, they have a location in Boston down near the theatre district, too.

The next day, while I was squirming under a unrelenting series of brain teasers, Karen went uptown to MoMA. This was our first visit to the renovated space. I joined Karen late in the day, late enough to take advantage of the Target Free Friday Nights promotion. Just right for a quick run through of some of the museum's highlights.

No negative NYC sterotypes were in evidence. The ambience was friendly, the cabs were easy to hail, and the cab drivers all spoke decent English. We may have to make these trips more often.

I may catch heck from Jen for this pic. Jordi is driving and Jen is doing Sudoku. The three-lip effect is not flattering. She will point this out to me when I do it, so I guess she gets it from me. That is, she gets the three-lips from me, she has not (yet) started posting unflattering photos on a blog.

The 10 megapixel JPGs from the new camera run about 2 to 3 MB, while my old 2 megapixel JPGs ran 700 to 900 KB. This seems to be enough to make my poor ol' 512MB 1GHz laptop start to gasp for breath. Running Photoshop Elements with these images pushes everything else out to swap, making application switches tedious. This may justify a new PC, or at least that's my story.

We spent Christmas with my family in Pennsylvania. It is a special time given the distance and all. I don't know what I can say that won't sound like a cliché. Here is Todd, Diane, Ally, and Abby on Christmas morning.

The new Canon G7 takes very nice pictures, but I found myself crossed up using the flash. With the flash, pictures looked washed out (at least on the camera's lcd). Without the flash, it is easy for the subject to move and blur the result. This needs more trial and error.

As promised, the new camera is out and consuming pixels at a startling rate. For the web, we distill down, leaving just the choicest bits. That, of course, means Mio is in the picture; just barely as I didn't get this shot framed just right. Please notice the paint job on the wall behind. That is Benjamin Moore Rosemary Sprig.

We had a splendid, three out of four vegetarian, birthday dinner at Kathmandu Spice and returned to Jen's and Jordi's for dessert and presents.

Ron & Ginnie were adopted out almost a year ago, but the crumb-bum adopters didn't bond and gave up on them. Grrr ... Karen & I have been doing the cat sitting visits while J & J are visiting Jordi's folks.

These are some big kittens. These pics don't convey how solid they are, especially Ron. Fred & George are no slouches (couches?) either. Should we take them some turkey for Thanksgiving?

We carved up a couple o' pumpkins on Saturday evening after having dinner Jordi's parents. One Jack O' Lantern stayed in Arlington and the one that returned with us (on the right) seemed a bit lonely on the front step.

Karen fetched backed a couple of companions and I hacked them into shape. We will see what kind of vistors these gourds summon All Hallow's Eve.

We missed a pie opportunity this weekend. When we left Chatham too early on Sunday morning, Marion's Pie Shop had not yet opened. D'oh!

We had two nice beach days, Friday at South Beach, and Saturday at Hardings Beach. Read the book "Guitar, An American Life" by Tim Brookes.

Saturday offered ideal weather for the Buda summer hat '06 tournament. Our team, Great Auks, played to our ranking and went winless. Still, I can't complain (and, no, it's not because I am still worn out two days later).

Karen took a bunch of pictures with her film camera. Developing the film we found a bunch more photos from last year's insanely hot edition. This year we had Walgreens develop onto CD-ROM, so there is no delay scanning in negatives.

Looking forward to Fall League!

Photojojo clued me in:

What if we told you that there’s a magic word that will make any posed photograph leap off the page? Four magic letters that will bring a smile to the most tightly pursed lips?

“Jump”

Well, that is easier said than done if you have a digital camera with a bit of lag between the time you press the button and the pixels are pressed into memory. But at the end of this weekend's visit, I gave it a try with Bob, Sheila, Danny, & Willy. Mister did not get the hang of it, but there is a little bit of air beneath everyone else's soles.

Yesterday, we were Joy Dai Buell's students at one of her plein air landscape classes. We made the trek amidst the beach traffic up to Rockport and settled on a bluff overlooking Rockport harbor.

This was my first attempt using acrylic paints. Karen had given me a crash introduction a few days earlier which gave me enough techique to muddle through. Having way too much exposure and enthusiasm for impressionist painting, I find it satisfactory to go crazy with lots of blobs of color. Let the viewer make sense of it all, you know they will.

The photo above is taken of the review of the class' efforts. It was a perfect day.

I am not telling you anything you do not already know: this is not a true blog. I am a week behind in posting this pic of the ladies as we take our traditional "back on the road" snapshot. Do other folks do that, take get out the camera and line everyone up, after packing up the car, and before driving off to return home?

It was a very nice visit, with day trips to the Adams Family (one "m") homes, the Wachusett Brewery, Kimball Farm, and the DeCordova Museum.

Oh yeah, and a store bought peach pie. We were just too busy to do some baking.

For my birthday dinner, we chose Max Stein's. This is the restaurant that replaced the Hartwell House where Jen & Jordi had their wedding and reception. These occassions call for a family pic, and so:

We enjoyed the meal, the service, and the setting (dark and quiet), but it was a bit pricey. There are a lot of very good restaurants in the area, so I don't place this one up at the very top.

Yesterday, Karen joined the celebration of Beth and Yashi's engagement. Beth is the daughter of Karen's cousin Cheryl and her husband Jay. Karen took a dozen plus pictures. Matzal Tov!

Three years ago, Jen & Jordi were joined in holy matrimony. Spring in New England is predictably unpredictable; we had snow. No big deal, the only blip was seeing the bride, the bridesmaids, and the flower girls limo up to the Hartwell House in their jeans and flannels rather than their wedding finery. Oh, that and a max'd out credit card, and the resulting refusals and apologies. Can't blame that on the weather.

Well, today on their third anniversary, we see the same storm: about an inch of slushy snow. Download clip of today's weather. We take it in stride. At least those of us who are in town; Jen is away in sunny Las Vegas at a conference. I called Jen to tell her the weather news.

Jordi & Jen hosted Thanksgiving this year. We had a delightful dinner with good food and good company. A feast for the palate as well as the eyes.

We closed on our new house yesterday. Per cliche, we initialed and signed an inch high stack of papers. But that was probably the easy part. A lot more work remains ahead of us.

Last week we had a very nice time in Chatham on Cape Cod. Except for a touch of fog (fifth inning fog!) the weather was splendid. The Graybills joined us for the first half of the week. Lots of beach time along with mini-golf and taking in two games of the Chatham A's.

We had a very nice time today at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, taking in the Ralph Lauren car collection. For dessert after lunch, we took in the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Good stuff!

We had a very nice time today at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, taking in the Ralph Lauren car collection. For dessert after lunch, we took in the Quilts of Gee's Bend. Good stuff!