50 millimeters of freedom

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mica got me a 50mm 1.8 lens for my Nikon. This thing was anticipated, but not without some trepidation. I had a similar lens for my Canon, but it seemed like it just flat out sucked for action photography. Well, it seems that Nikon has proven once more why they are awesome. This thing is leaps and bounds better than the Canon lens of the same spec. All pics in this post were taken with it...

Corey nailed this toboggan over the hip. The light was a little dim, but I still liked the shot. Apparently I cost him some money by exposing him to a stomach virus at my house. Sorry about that buddy.


Billy was just pedaling away during this. I liked the feel of the pic. Wild William is more photogenic than he thinks...


This is me getting nosy on the hip. Corey was nice enough to snap some pictures with my superior camera.


Billy airs out on this higher than he should, and really he should just do the same thing in the bowl. Airs on the spine side like that scare the piss outta me.


My brother-in-law says life is too short for bad beer. I say life is too short to have to use a bottle opener all the time on the fancy stuff.

Rolling with the punches...Merry Christmas!

Life throws us curve balls, and sometimes it pulls a Nolan Ryan and just straight up throws at our heads. Well, we had a bit of a curve ball tossed our way for Christmas this year, but we did the best we could do with it and in the end, we came out okay. The kids seem really happy with everything; as well as the adults, so mission accomplished.

We hosted a Christmas party the night before Christmas Eve. It went very well and everyone had a good time. As per usual, I took pictures.

Bacon and brussel sprouts!


The amazing lady that makes it all happen. If all I got for Christmas was more time with her, that'd be enough.


An Indian, a redneck and a Irishman walk into a party...


John and Shauna gettin' their glutton on!


Taylor and Bobby discussing the finer points of the car of tomorrow, no doubt.


Couples!



LOLZ.

Me and the best friends a boy could have...I look like an Arab trader...


I got a Nikon 50mm for Christmas. Anna and my brake lever helped me test it out...



When Garrett showed up, sissy had no trouble helping him open stuff...


He does not want to share his Hershey Kisses with you.


Inside the Optimus Prime pop-up tent...


Time to drink a little wine and call it a day. Merry Christmas!

Vomitus maximus

Garrett got sick last night. At about 12:30 he started throwing up and didn't stop until about 3 hours ago. I stayed up with him all night, watching at first "The Venture Bros." then "Gremlins" then I watched the replay of the Spurs vs. Hornets game followed with some Food Network. He seemed pretty freaked out with the vomiting and he fought it off a lot, which probably made it worse. He's sleeping now and I probably should be. I was supposed to go volunteer for the Empty Stocking Fund today, but I was just in no shape to do that. I called my boss and let him know that I was up all night with Garrett and he kind did the "sure you were" laugh, but there is not much I could do about it.

I took some pics during happier, less vomit laden times the other day...

I like this because Mica looks insane. She is.


Garrett started out pretty unimpressed with getting this train set for his birthday. Now he is enthralled with it.


Hopefully tonight will be a better night.

Be careful with the details of the war...

I got my grades! An A in English and a B in Spanish. A decent start to my renewed college career, I think.

I picked up my son a little bit ago and he was happy to see me. That warmed my heart to no end. We ate some dinner and then watched some Rudolph. He's playing with his train set right now and is being as cute as can be.

I rode the park this morning with Corey. It was colder than I thought it was gonna be. My session got cut short by a flat tire, but I took a few pictures (of course). I feel like I ride the park too much, but it is the safe and comfortable bet for me. I do like street, but it hurts my body. Transition flows and feels nice...but really it feels like I need to do something else.

Corey was my preforming monkey today.





He took a picture of me doing a footplant. I love a footplant. It is easy, but always feels rad and people get siked on seeing them done.

Tomorrow I work...but it is looking more like Christmas.

Tomorrow starts my last full week of work for 2008. I am taking almost all of next week off (I am supposed to work Friday, but I might be able to talk my boss into letting me work from home) and I can't even fathom the amount of sleep that I may be getting! Last week we took the kids to the Christmas parade downtown. It was cold. There are a few aspects of my personality that are universal and are known by many...one of these is that despite my hatred of cold, I hate wearing a coat. I just hate it. Apparently my son also shares this trait. We were both freezing, but he refused to put on his coat that I had brought for him. Mica and the others were bundled and warm; Garrett and I shivered and felt miserable. But we got to see electric Jesus and Santa, so it is was worth it all, right? I should have asked for more summer for Christmas.

Mica prepares for the night...


Ocean had a cup of some bum piss. He said it was warm, so I let him keep it.


Anna lost her tauntaun, but remained prepared for the Hoth climate...


Garrett in a hoodie. Which is all that I had on. We are stubborn. He may not look like me, but by god he acts like me.


Oh, Mica sent this to me at work. She is declaring Jihad on ratty neighborhood kids!


Merry Christmas! Happy Yule! GERMANS RULE.

Lack of color but not a lack of lighting

Tonight I took pictures for the Christmas cards that we are sending out. I borrowed some flashes and radio transmitters from Corey to help with the lighting (wanna give it the P-R-O feel) and they came out "technically" good. Garrett's mood sort of shit the bed when the camera would come out, so we have an interesting offering for the family. If it isn't one thing, it is another. At least the flashes fired.

So since I had the set up, I decided to play a little. The Nikon has some nice in-camera settings for black and white shots, so I gave it a try. I think they came out okay!

The SFA is always down to be photographed...




Then I wrapped it up by blinding myself!


My ribs hurt.

Fake plastic trees

Thanksgiving came and went. This was not my year with my little ones, but we still had the biggest little one (Pho) so there was at least a modicum of child like wonder. Mica made a delicious spread...I mean she took it out of the park (to borrow some baseball) and I am still fat because of it.

She made this awesome apple/raspberry pie that, due to the coloring from the raspberries, fooled her mom into thinking that it was a pie made from ham. Her parents spent some time in Alaska, so maybe the same magic that gifts Sarah Palin at times rubbed off on Mrs. Johnson. Maybe not.

The offending and delicious pie...


I took this picture of Mica a last week and noticed that she looked like a "Real Doll". All kinds of jokes in this...


I had to go meet Garrett's mom last night to pick him up. The drive was atrocious, the weather was wild and Tennessee was losing to Gonzaga. Once Garrett got home and into his jammies, he found joy in looking at himself on a Mac iSight camera.

After this, there was a comedy of errors involving Star Wars Episode 2 and the Spanish language. Eventually Lilo and Stitch saved the night and Garrett got some sleep.

The house is nearly finished with its Christmas decor. As soon as the weather lets up, I am venturing out to the roof to play with lights and electricity. We have a massive fake tree, but this little guy caught my eye...

Stockings were hung by the...uh...wall with care.


The brothers bedlam seem to enjoy the tree...


Anna made it back from Mississippi in one piece and decided to carb load since I can only assume that she ate nothing other than slaughtered pig product in the deep south.


Finally, the end. I got a haircut, by the way. And I got an A on my last English paper. None of this keeps me from making internet religious extremists mad at me, so I am toying with the idea of making my own message board. More to come on this at a later date...

More BMX on the next go.

Embrace the chaos.

It's 5 against 1. The one has given up trying to bend the world to his ways and has instead chosen to flow with the world's ways. I think this is going to net a much better result.

I took Pho to the skatepark. He dropped in first try...like it was nothing! So proud of that guy. He struggles with life sometimes, but I think he is just looking for something to anchor himself with.


Garrett learned to pedal a bike the other day. Saturday to be precise. This is not a picture of that event. This is him playing with a doll house. We pick our spots...


Ocean sticks his tongue out of his mouth so much that he gave himself a raw spot on his lip.


Anna is going to Mississippi for Thanksgiving. I will miss her dearly. For the record, Jackson, MS is a poop hole.


We got a new table. Well, actually it is a really old table, but new to me. Yay for retro styling. All I need now are some chunky plastic glasses, a scraggly beard and a fixie and I am the bane of bmxboard.


I do really like the table, though.

Wonderful pic of Mica. Very early. We got awakened by kids too early on Saturday. Damn it.

Kidsplosion.

Eras are ending. Though the economic crisis continues to draw breath, I am oddly calm. I think things are very much on the verge of getting a lot better. I imagine this is what it was kind of like for people in concentration camps that could hear the Allies getting closer...

Kind of. I know that is a pretty dramatic comparison, but these are dramatic times. We had been led quite astray as a nation.

Though polar bears are cannibalizing themselves, it is very cold here in Tennessee. One of the things about global warming that people (and by people I mean conservative retards) fail to understand is that it doesn't mean that it will warm up everywhere. Just because it is cold here doesn't mean it is cold there. And global warming will cause the weather to get a little wonky. But what do I know? I am not even a college graduate.

Speaking of cold and here...Corey and I braved the elements and slight flurry activity to ride the park on Sunday morning. That did not last long.


Kidsplosion.

There are many children scattered about in my family.

My son...who ironically uses my bike as a fingerboard obstacle...


My daughter...who because she is my daughter is doomed to look like a muppet. At least she looks like one of the cool ones...


My niece Ella, who has apparently removed my son from first place on the list of "kids with eyes so blue, Superman weeps".


Aidan, who just showed up to the party and has no idea what in the hell he has stepped into...


Not pictured, Grace, who was crying because water is made from hydrogen and two oxygen molecules; Phoenix who was sitting in his underwear someplace; Ocean, who was probably telling anyone who would listen that he can jump into outer space and Madison, who got too close to the lens for it to focus properly.

I like this picture of Mica. She is my little "LillyAllenMegRyanPaigeDavis" funball and I love her...


This is a horrible picture of me. Do I need a haircut?