Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged family
An Update On Happenings
Mar 5th
Just an update-y sort of post today.
First off, school. The latest project in my Digital Imaging course was to recolor a black and white photograph and make it look like it was always color. I went over to my grandmother’s to look at some of our old family photos and she showed me the wedding picture of my great great great grandparents (maybe another great on there…not sure exactly). It was definitely old, but it was in really good shape, so I ended up doing that. Finished it this week in class, although I think it could have turned out better if I had more time to tweak it (only got two class periods to work on it and he doesn’t want us working on stuff outside of class). Turned out all right though. I’ll post it up here when I get my flash drive back.
Along those same lines, I decided it’s probably going to be a little bit before I manage to take some of the more theory oriented design courses, so I’ve got myself a textbook on design theory that I’m starting to get into. Not quite as good as taking a course, but the book is good and I’m learning a lot of interesting stuff (well, interesting to me anyway).
Moving away from learning and school stuff, I’ll be meeting up with my sister Saturday afternoon to hang out a bit and watch the Syracuse game. Looking forward to it, after the realization that we only really see each other on holidays anymore.
Man On A Horse
Feb 12th
Urgh. Today is shaping up to be…awful. I got caught in the hall right as I was walking in and told something bad happened to our web app that needed fixing. But the e-mail saying what was wrong was total gibberish to me (except for the phrase “the customers are demanding answers!!!!”). So that’s getting sorted out and I’m taking the lull in the morning to post here…
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been working on a project for my lone class this semester, as I’ve mentioned previously. It’s coming along pretty well, I think. It’s a composite image of two chess pieces playing a game of chess with little people as the pieces on the board. On Monday I was able to finally grab a good park bench type shot to act as the scene, so that was the last big hurdle.
During class Tuesday the professor mentioned how it would be cool if I could have a guy on a horse (to act as one of the knights) but he didn’t know if it would be possible to get the shot or not. Well, I happen to know a guy with a horse (my uncle) and they were able to provide some nice pictures to use which should really add to the quality of the piece. I’m kinda regretting not taking more pictures at the Renaissance Festival the last couple years I’ve went because they’d be extremely useful right about now.
I’m also going over to my grandmothers house this weekend hopefully to look through some of her black and white pictures for something that could have color added to it (as is our next assignment for the class).
I’m also starting to go all out on my 2010 City of Heroes FArt competition entry for this month. The theme is romance and I’ll be doing an advertising poster for a super hero oriented dating service. I’m trying to work out the copy on the poster right now (jotting down ideas as I think of them while I work). Oh, I just realized I never posted my entry for last month here! What If? The Rogue Isles Olympics. (Make sure you click the image to see the full sized view) You’re probably not going to get a the in-jokes unless you play City of Heroes, but I’m really happy with how that particular design turned out (still).
Merry Christmas Eve!
Dec 24th
Ahhh…finally. It’s Christmas Eve and my vacation has begun. I won’t be back to work (unless something explodes) until January 4th, so needless to say yesterday time was standing still. But it’s finally arrived. Vacation. Wooo!
The next several days are going to be consumed with family type stuff. I’m going over to my parents today for out main Christmas celebration as well as the (semi) gathering for my mom’s side of the family, then back there tomorrow more for hanging out purposes. Then I’m headed off to my aunts house for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family on Saturday.
Today’s going to feel looooong as well, because Wassy should be finishing up the Christmas-themed Frost piece at some point which I will be unable to see until this evening when I return home from my parents house. She did the inks last night and it’s turning out amazing, so I can’t wait to see colors.
But al that must wait until later, I’m off to get ready to visit my parents. To all 4 of you who read this, I hope you have a happy holiday.
Yup. It’s December.
Dec 9th
We’re right in the middle of our first winter storm of the season right now. Snow, wind and sleet/freezing rain later on in the day. Fun! Today was also my first drive to work after moving further away in true winter conditions. We had a smaller event last week, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the weather we were getting today.
Altogether though, my drive was better than I was expecting it to be. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that during the hilly bit, a snow plow had just gone through and deposited a fresh coat of sand. Thankfully. I’m not looking forward to the drive home if the freezing rain prediction holds true though.
December also means planning for family gatherings and the dates of them this year have started to firm up. I’ll be busy the 24th through the 26th with Christmas family gatherings which works out fine for me. Going to be at my parents for Christmas Eve and Christmas and then out to one of my Aunts for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family. We might have some people over for Christmas Eve from my mom’s side…possibly. Not quite sure how that’s all going to shake out though.
Lets see, more random stuff. I did some re-measurement yesterday and it actually seems that I’ll be able to fit a new desk into my space in the office after all. Wassy was up there doing work last night so I figured I’d see where my chair would be pushed with her sitting there at her drafting table working and it actually looks like we have more space than I was initially thinking we would have. That always seems to be the case. So perhaps that can be a tax refund expenditure. We’ll see what happens, as I know I’m not getting nearly as much back this year as I have in previous years.
Thanksgiving Summary
Nov 27th
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was definitely an enjoyable one this year.
As per usual, I woke up bright and early to head over to my parents house for our traditional putting up of the christmas tree and such. This year, I helped with thanksgiving dinner again (assembling the lasagna and making the lemon meringue pie were my tasks). Unlike last year though, we didn’t do turkey. But that was perfectly fine with me.
My mom had a migrane headache the day before so she was running a little bit late with preparations so we ended up starting doing the tree after the Macy’s parade started. But it seems like everyone was running late (since they changed the parade route this year) so it worked out. The christmas tree has seen better days. Some branches are a bit droopy this year and some parts of the top are being held on by zip ties. The thought was that it’s going to have to be replaced soon. Dah. Especially since all the trees out there are pre-lit which seem to break more often.
The afternoon lead to some Madden with my Dad. I finally broke my horrific losing streak and we *almost* got our franchise mode game up to the playoffs. One more play and we’ll be there, but it’s harder to organize now that I live further away than I used to.
Dinner time arrived and with it came my roommates (along with the Strawberry Shortcake Cake that Wassy made to bring over. Mmmm) and my sister and her husband. The rest of the evening was thoroughly enjoyable, I thought. Dinner was tasty and fun and after we broke out Apples to Apples and played a game which ended up being a really really fun time.
As per usual, I know I left out a bunch of stuff, but the most important bit was that it was a great start to vacation. Lots of fun hanging out with my friends and family.
Turkey Day Plans (Minus The Turkey)
Nov 24th
It looks like plans are beginning to shape up for Thanksgiving this week, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me. I’ve used a vacation day to turn the 4 day weekend into a 5 day weekend and I could use the time off.
As per tradition, I’ll be heading over to my parents house early on. This year to help prep the lemon meringue pie and the lasagna (we’re having a non traditional thanksgiving dinner this year. No turkey) and put up the christmas tree like we do every year. New this year though my roommates are going to be joining my family for dinner later on (and bringing a tasty strawberry shortcake cake for desert. Mmmmm).
As far as what I’ll be doing in the meantime, I’ve been feeling the itch to start working again on some of my personal web design type projects that have been floating around in limbo for a while. I opened up the work that I was doing on my mom’s website last night and I’m not really sure I like where it’s going anymore. Sigh. This project is becoming epic.
2009 New York State Fair
Sep 6th
I went to the state fair on friday with my Mom. We managed to catch some really nice weather and had a good time. Unfortunately, I accidentally left my camera in the car and my cell phone pictures didn’t come out all that great. I also left a lot out, I know. Too much stuff to write down and remember. If I think of anything else, I’ll edit it in later.
We went up early, before the buildings open since we’re both up early anyway. That turned out to be a really good idea since we were able to hit all the stuff in the buildings before it got way too crowded to move. We did the Center of Progress building first to check out the sand sculpture and see what products were being hawked this year. They had an amazing amount of dog themed booths this year and my Mom, being the crazy dog lady that she is, ended up almost buying several Maltese related items. Eventually she bought a hat. Mostly because it was really sunny out.
We made sure to grab some milk from the dairy building. The best milk ever. I have no idea how they make it taste that good, but…they do and it’s awesome. I wish I could have milk that good all the time…
One of the unexpected highlights was running into a guy who was doing a one man band type show. He had a drum kit strapped to his back, controlled mostly by his feet, a guitar and a harmonica. He was pretty goofy, but it was cool watching him play. You’ve gotta have a good amount of skill to play drums, guitar and lay a harmonica solo on top of it all.
We randomly ran into my uncle Dan and his family while we were looking at the chickens. Surprisingly we didn’t see them again for the rest of the day. Usually when something like that happens you tend to follow each other around (unintentionally or not). We also made stops over at the dairy barn to see the cows, and we also saw the sheep, goats, pigs and llamas.
The horse barn was closed for the day pretty much due to the fact that it was a horse team competition and it takes forever to prep for those shows. At the middle of the day we grabbed some ice cream and settled in to watch the horse show. My mom and I managed to randomly pick the top 2 finishers even though we had absolutely no idea what the judging criteria was.
We also wandered around the midway for a bit. I almost won a game of bouncy ball bingo or whatever it’s called. Tossing balls into an area with a grid. I managed to get 4 balls in a row but then somebody won. Boo. I also spent about $2 on a game where you had to roll a bowling ball down a track and get it to stop at a certain point. I was so close but didn’t manage to win.
As far as food goes, I mostly avoided eating stuff that was TOO bad for me. Specifically I didn’t get anything fried. Mostly because I had some cheesecake on a stick… I had some cotton candy too. My first bit of cotton candy ever. It was a bit weird but tasty.
We had planned on eating dinner there (at the awesome sausage place that sets up shop every year) but by the time that came around we were tired and hot and just wanted some quiet, so we left early and went to Tully’s for dinner.
It was a fun time this year. Very glad I was able to go to the fair and also glad to spend some time with my Mom. My fractured foot held up pretty good. It was my knees that were killing me by the end of the day. I’m becoming an old man. I even have a streak of grey hair now 
Family Reunion Wrapup
Aug 16th
Back of the Gorge
Owwwwwww. I’m extremely sore today. As in…I’m limping around the apartment and planning my day out so that I take the fewest number of trips up and down stairs as possible. Yesterday was the family reunion for my mom’s side of the family up at Whetstone Gulf state park and I had a really fun time.
After many changes of plans, we decided that I would head up really early to pick up my Mom so that we could go hiking in the morning around the rim of the gorge, about a 5 mile trail filled with lots of hills and a near constant cliff face off to one side. I planned on waking up at 5:30 so I could get ready to go, but I ended up gettig up just before 5 at which point I decided was close enough. So I got up and got ready and headed out to pick up my mom.
We arrived at Whetstone around 8ish and pulled into my aunt Stacy and Uncle Mike’s campsite. The family was occupying 3 campsites right next to each other, my uncle Dan and his (large) family in one and my Aunt Bette and her family in another one.
Walking Stick
We tried to get my uncle to walk the gorge trail with us, but he just laughed. More trail for us then! There’s two ways you can start the trail, the north side and the south side. The north side of the trail has a much steeper climb starting out, but it’s a lot shorter as far as sustained climbing goes. The south side contains the lookout tower and has a much longer, gradual climb to it. My mom decided that we’d start out on the north side because it had one big hill but then “was level”. HAH! It was true that it was level…for a while. We managed to get up the incline and started walking on a more level trail. My mom picked up a walking stick at this point.
Trust me...it's a hill.
The walking stick turned out to be a pretty good idea because no sooner had we rounded the next corner then we were brought face to face with a climb even steeper than the one we had just walked up. At points I was crawling up on my hands and knees. It was decided that we should find a walking stick for me at this point as well. After that there was a lot of flat walking. Except there wasn’t. Lots of hills! We brought along a couple bottles of water and some peanuts to much on, but we probably should have brought a couple more bottles of water looking back on it. We had to conserve a bit on the trip.
The Creek From Above
There’s some really neat scenery up on the gorge trail, and I don’t have room to put all the pictures here, so you should check my flickr account for more details. A bunch of the other family members were walking up the gorge floor and at one point, we think we hard them yelling out for us. We yelled back, but I don’t think anybody heard us.
We had fun for about 75% of the trip, but it stopped being fun the quarter…It was just a little too long. We were debating on if we wanted to hit the lookout point or not and we eventually decided to just go for it since we came all that way.
Lookout Tower
The lookout tower was located at the end of a very large dip in the trail, along with another big hill to climb, but we struggled up to get there anyway. The view was pretty nice, but I was hoping for more of a look down into the gorge. e did see some cool views of the surrounding country side though. We ate the rest of our food and headed back to start the trip down. That trip took the longer than expected. Going down really kills your knees, especially after having walked that long. to begin with.
The entire trip took us about 4 hours total to do. Not sure if I’ll be doing that again entirely, but I think it could be fun to do bits and pieces of it.
By the time we got back to the campsite, it was lunchtime and the rest of the family had pretty much arrived. Some grilled hot dogs and macaroni salad were on the menu. We were waiting for the group who were walking up the creek to return and for my grandparents to get there, but when the creek walkers came back we discovered that one of the kids had taken a pretty hard fall. After looking at it, they decided to take him to the nearest hospital’s ER to get it looked at. My grandparents waited to hear word from them before coming, so there was some downtime while we waited.
Dog Scooter
A group of us decided to cool off by heading to the swimming area and taking a short dip. The water was freaking cold, as per usual although I forgot exactly how cold it was since I had last gone there. It was a refreshing little swim, first time I had gone swimming in quite a while. Eventually, my grandparents arrived and we headed back to the campsites. It was one of my younger cousins birthdays so we had a little birthday party thing for him with everyone there.
My dad brought the dog up when he came around Noon and after a lot of running around, the dog got quickly tired out and spent the remainder of the day laying in my dad’s lap. Or, as the picture shows, getting driven around on a scooter.
Cooking Sweet Corn
One neat thing that should be mentioned is that my uncle Mike had a binder filled with handwritten pages. Apparently, my family has been having get-togethers at Whetsone Gulf since the 1930s. They had taken meeting minutes, with all the information like who was there at the reunion, who traveled the farthest, births and weddings during the year. It was really neat reading back through that stuff. Of course, we made an entry for the current gathering listing everybody who was there and everything.
The cousin who fell had returned with his arm in a sling just before dinner. It had gotten broken, but not terribly badly. Dinner went along well, with the traditional burgers, hot dogs and more macaroni salad. There was also some shrimp-kabobs that were grilled up by one of my uncles. Not to mention 40 ears of sweet corn (one of my cousins (Adam) decided that he wanted to have his with ketchup). All and all, a very good camping type dinner.
I stayed until around 9:00, eating peanuts by the fire and listening to my uncle and one of my cousins play banjo/guitar together. At one point a group of people pulled into the camp site next to us and we started taking bets on how long it would be before they decided that they wanted a different site.
I had a lot of fun and I probably left a lot of stuff out since so much happened. I’m hoping we do this again next year. It was cool heading up to the old campgrounds again with my family and just sitting around the camp fire hanging out and talking. Of course, like I mentioned, I can’t move now. But…it was entirely worth it.
Campfire At Night
Going Camping! Or Not…
Aug 12th
If you recall earlier in my summer activities post, my family is having a little family gathering out at the family’s favorite state park this weekend. A bunch of them are going to be camping out overnight and everything, but my particular branch of the family was just going to go out on Saturday for the day.
For a brief moment though, that plan had changed. I went out to lunch with my Mom yesterday and she asked if I would be interested in actually camping out. It’d been a while since I had gone camping (a loooong while) and I agreed. There were some holes in this plan though. First of all, we didn’t have any camping equipment. She was going to try to borrow a tent from somewhere and some supplies…we were going to be borrowing the cooking implements of other family members, etc.
Then we started discussing it. Thinking about food storage and lack of showers. Then we thought about sleeping on the hard ground and not getting enough rest. It’d be annoying to have to borrow everything from everyone and it’s pretty short notice. We had realized that we thoroughly talked ourselves out of the idea.
Not closing the door to camping out in the future, but for now…it’s not really a good option
Ready For School (Maybe?)
Aug 11th
I swung by the local college that I’m going to be attending in the fall to see if there were any books to buy for my course (there wasn’t) and if there was anything else I needed to do in order to make sure I could attend classes without trouble (nope).
The book thing, knowing the book store, is probably a result of somebody not ordering a book. And the second reply is probably somebody who didn’t know what they were doing, knowing college administration.
But they say everything’s set and I’ve got all my supplies (aside from a potential software purchase for the Digital Typography course that I’m taking) so I’ll just have to see what happens. I’m really excited to be going back to school, which still amazes me because I didn’t think that I would ever be excited after I graduated with my Computer Science degree. Hopefully this helps me find the path that I’ve been searching for.
Unfortunately, it’s not all rosy on the design front. I’ve been trying to work up a design for my mom’s craft business website but I’m having a very hard time with it. I have a bunch of ideas, but nothing seems to be working right. It started with fiddling with the color scheme but then that devolved into the entire idea I had for the look and I’m not sure that I can salvage the idea at this point. I’m getting the feeling that I’m just trying to force something that is destined not to work at all. Might have to switch back to a more conventional website design.
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