CaptainOrange

Wendy and I are leaving for Nashville today. I'll start posting about that in a few days. Today, just a little update for those of you who are either far flung or have been too busy to catch up since my last mountain trip. As a disclaimer, many of these pictures have already appeared on G+ or FB. We did a family photo shoot at a couple of locations on the river bank. There was some grumpiness and hard feelings (aging parents and teenage girls have some body issues, in case you were unaware), but mostly we had a great time. There were Halloween shenanigans... Wendy is a genius when it comes to Value Village shopping. Months ago she found me some great felt boots. They were the basis for one of my favourite costumes ever. Sure, you say... Mike as a pirate, how novel! Get over yourselves. Yes, I could have (and have in the past) whipped up a costume for free. However, this is a costume that required some effort. Boots - Felt VV find -- $5 Pants - Lululemon. I wear the...

Greta loves me, so there was pizza on the day of our arrival. One with meat (boo!) and three vegetarian options (yaa!). Like our family, they like to eat outside nearly exclusively in the summer. They have a wonderful, sheltered deck with burgeoning grape vines and a peach tree surrounding it with vibrant leaves. Max knows how to get attention and is incredibly full of energy. The first thing he wanted to show me was his room. At this point, he was called "Super Bat." He was only too happy to continue throwing himself off his dresser until I got the perfect shot with my camera. Darwyn was pretty shy of me at first. Her reluctance to smile, despite my strategic sulking, was heartbreaking (if typical). I'm used to this response from my work at the library and managed to persevere in short order. Success!!! I got to tell them a bedtime story. We made up a lengthy story about Super Bat Max and Fairy Princess Darwyn. We also sang to guitar:  Pete the Cat Loves His W...

Last year when I bought my Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) (their website) , I was nervous that it was one of my radical, rash and rushed decisions. As an 'artistic' individual, sometimes those are the best ones and sometimes I rue-the-day. It was a slow start for me to get into shape running in a totally new style, but by the end of last summer I was getting the hang of it . Naturally, Leora and Anwyn loved my shoes. I'm always looking for ways to encourage the girls to be more active. So when I started running with Anwyn's school-mates to train for the Bridge-City Boogie (a 5km fun run), I hit upon an idea to try and inspire them. They are both pretty good at saving their allowance and always have several hundred dollars in their bank accounts. Anwyn, who usually has twice her sister's savings (or mine, for that matter), said she would be willing to buy herself a pair ($110 after tax). I agreed and offered to repay her $30 (the price of a new pair of sneakers) plus ...

Winter's Icy Grip Crushes Goose Vanguard I've been struggling a bit with this weather. It's a bit of an understatement (we may talk of that another time). Cold and lack of sunlight have me a bit down. I've been grouching at the girls, sighing a lot, and projecting gloom around the house in the evenings. Wendy gave me a kick in the pants last night and told me to take today off. I didn't have any work with the library scheduled, but I would have spent the morning making and canning chutney out of the beautifully ripe mangoes that I got on monday. Instead I went to Don's Photo and found an awesome deal. A used Sigma 70-210mm f/4-5.6 auto-focus lense for $40! It's twin was sitting next to it for $100 (they were both on consignment and the price on one had just been dropped). OK, so Sigma is a bargain brand, but it's my first telephoto--I'm excited. Naturally, I had to go take some pictures. 1st set, 0-0 I went to campus and fooled around a bi...

I've been very excited about my new camera. Leading up to QNY, I spent quite a few hours on and about campus testing it out. Here is what I learned: Only attempt to do one thing at a time while airborne. In the above picture I had just jumped off of the window sill and was... doing a spread eagle trying to look manly in the spread eagle position (just as tough as it sounds) toggling the remote shutter switch for the camera attempting to land gracefully on the stairs I'll let you be the judge of my success on #'s 1-3. I seem to have failed miserably at #4. No, I did not fall down the stairs. I simply realized that the landing was a bit more jarring than I would have liked. At no time in this process did I feel "hurt". Upon waking the next morning, however, I discovered that I might as well have fallen down the stairs. I pulled a muscle in my back and popped a rib-head behind my shoulder. One of these may have caused the other--I don't know. It hurts. Oh, and th...

My volleyball season is winding down. It has mostly been an enjoyable season. My team is in the "D" division of our co-ed league, and if you were to break "D" into pieces... we would be in the "D" part of it. In case you don't get the picture -- we suck sort of hard. I say 'sort of' because, on this team, we don't do anything all the way. I guess that's part of the problem. It's been good for me, really. I've helps me to focus on my game and not get frustrated with things beyond my control. For my part, service reception has been quite weak all year. I don't quite know how to shake off the nerves of making that first good pass. Aside from that, I am very happy with my game. My vertical has been coming back over the last 6 weeks as has my general bounciness. I had a bit of a knee issue all through the late fall and right up until the end of December. I was starting to feel age seeping in through the vulnerable places and sett...

My sister-in-law, Teela, came to visit recently and with her came a marvelous young child. You will all be jealous to know that his name is Merlin! If you can't make up your own name, at least use one with a bit of flash. Anyway, it was a terrific visit. Merlin is nearly 8 months and loves to wake up early in the morning. Since he was visiting over reading week (when we might have been tempted to sleep in), it was kind of him to make sure that no one in our house frittered away a moment of the day. Merlin's favorite activities seem to include eating when someone other than his mother is feeding him and sleeping when someone other than his mother is holding him. If he had one wish it would be for world peace (and he looks dynamite in a one piece swimsuit, too). During an overlapping interval, Greta came to visit along with her new boyfriend, Anthony. They are buying a house together, but it's way too early to talk about marriage. With all four of the sisters in town, it was ...