Building Blocks

You can see the full-sized version of this photo here.

I've been having fun at night getting some macro shooting in. Table salt is interesting up close, and I love the cubic nature when you can see it clearly.

Bones

This is my cat, Baghira -- after the black panther in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books.

She's a marvelous cat, she loves attention, loves to play rough and she even does a trick: she rolls over on command.

The one problem we have at the moment is that she has started to go to the bathroom outside of the cat box. No urine, just solid offerings.

We figure there must be something wrong, like she is feeling unwell, or the other cat, Albion, is mistreating her in some way. There is definitely a different feline dynamic in the house, they are in each other's territory at odd times, and there are more open hostilities than ever before. I wish there were some good way to diagnose the issue, but I'm afraid there is not.

Lil' D Talks Smack

This evening I came home to find that Beth and the kids had bought Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. For those of you who don't know that Swiss Rolls are, they are the Little Debbie version of the Hostess Ho Ho.

Now the Hostess Ho Ho is the real McCoy, and all other versions of the "Swiss Roll" are clearly just pretenders to the throne. But to what did my wondering eyes did appear, but a sign on the box declaring these Little Debbie forgeries to be the #1 selling Swiss Roll in the world.

Of course I expressed my outrage, and Beth proposed a Swiss Roll blind taste test. So off I went to the store to acquire the Hostess Ho Hos which would be required to crush this little 'ho and her little false Ho Hos.

So the truth of the matter is that the Little Debbie is smoother and creamier, while Hostess is deeper and richer.

Ethan and I preferred the Ho Ho, and Margot and Beth preferred the Little Debbie. It's hard to imagine how I married and fathered these crazy women.

By the way: Little Debbie on the left, Hostess on the right.

msd

Ode to Joy

So I spent the morning shoveling the foot of snow from half of our drivway so I could drive to the gas station to get a gallon of gas so I could fill the snow blower so I could blow the other half of the driveway. Aftwards I swore I wouldn't shovel anymore snow forever.

But then the whole family went outside to play in the snow, and Beth started building a cool, curving sled-run and I got involved banking the turns and sculpting the run until I found I'd spent most of the afternoon shoveling more snow around the yard. Great fun.

This is Ethan enjoying a short rest.

msd

What you need to do...

It's time to get back to the shaving! Last your I participated in a wonderful event called St. Baldrick's. Baldrick's organizes large head-shaving parties across the nation where volunteers get sponsors to pay money to have the volunteer's head shaved. The money goes to fund childhood cancer research. So last year I had my head shaved and raised over $3,700!

The St. Baldrick's home page is located at:

http://www.stbaldricks.org/

For you who don't know, my cousin is a five year-old boy who was diagnosed on April 1, 2003 with Neuroblastoma, a rare cancer which affects the nervous system.

You can see his parents' journal at:

http://www2.caringbridge.org/co/nathanmichael/

I am now registered and ready for the 2006 St. Baldrick's celebration, and it goes like this: you promise to sponsor me. I go get my head shaved in a big, happy, silly, beer-drinking event. When I am done you pay the amount of money you sponsored me for in a tax-deductible donation to St.Baldrick's, which sends the money off to fund childhood cancer research.

You can donate on-line (or print a form) at:

http://www.stbaldricks.org/ShaveePhoto.asp?SolNumber=15326389

You can just click on the picture of me with hair to get the on-line form to fill out. You can also come and drop a check off with me, or just donate cash anonymously (there's a jar on my desk I'll be emptying when I leave every day.

Like last year, the event will be at Fado's Irish Pub downtown, and I want as many of my friends and donators to make it. It's Friday, March 10th, and I think you should take a half-day of vacation to come and celebrate and have a good time. You have to pay for drinks but there was catered bar food last year. So get it on your calendar and join us!

They raise a *lot* of money ($12 million since the year 2000 and over $5.3 million last year). The normal donation is $50, although they will accept any amount, small or large (and it is tax deductible). Last yearI had donations ranging from $1 to $250, and everything is appreciated. My largest single donor (who attends the event) will have the honor of taking the first swipe with the shears. The one condition is that he or she may not be drunk when they start the shave.

Let me know if you have any questions, and please forward this post as far and wide as you'd like.

Matt

Bubbles!

You can see the whole photo shoot here (at the time of this writing it is not fully uploaded yet).

Great idea from a fellow photo blogger. She took some great macro shots of bubbles. Find her stuff here.

So I've been drinking some great beer lately (my friend Christian visited and brought some of his homebrew, and it was superb).

So I tapped some of my own homebrew tonight and got some interesting bubbles from the head -- tastiest photo shoot of my whole life.

msd

Her First Smile

And here is the new smile.

Her Last Smile

No full-sized picture of this one.

Well Margot's bottom two teeth are very loose. So loose in fact, that she will likely have the bottom-left tooth out before the end of the night. This may be her last full baby-tooth smile.

--

A question came up the other day from my friend Chris. He is tasked with converting a lot of old family slides to digital files. He is looking for advice, so please post it here. He is interested particularly in any advice anyone might have on any equipment people think would be a minimum requirement, like a larger monitor, special color calibrators for monitors, DVD burner, etc. Obviously any other wisdom from experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks