One Dad's Life

Another Important Teenage Milestone Reached!

2009-11-10T10:34:46-06:00

As you know, those turbulent teen years are years with many "firsts." This is the time when kids make that sometimes difficult transition into adulthood.

My oldest daughter, Rebecca, is 13, with her 14th birthday coming up soon. We've noticed lots of changes in the past couple of years with her...she's really growing up! This past week, however, definitive proof presented itself that she is moving steadily towards adulthood.

I know by now that many possibilities are going through your head about which particular first this could be, and let me tell you: IT'S A BIG ONE! Huge. Ready?

On Sunday, we were preparing for company to come over to celebrate my advancing age. Naturally, we expected a lot of help from Rebecca. We were going through a short list of things for her to help us with including cleaning the porch, and other minor items. Then my wife, Dianne, realized she still needed to put the pie filling together - something my youngest daughter was going to do, but she ended up eating lunch and staying with my parents.

So, Dianne asked Rebecca to help make the pies. Pardon me while I tear up a bit...I'm so proud. Rebecca agreed, but also cautioned:

OK, I'll help, but I was really planning on taking a nap before people came over!

That's right, I was there to witness Rebecca's FIRST voluntary nap! I couldn't be more proud.

Oh, and just so you know that there is still SOME child left in Rebecca, here's a gratuitous picture of her eating the banana cream pie filling out from around the actual bananas in the pie!

Why Does Toilet Paper Have to be so Confusing?

2009-11-06T07:31:43-06:00

Why is it so difficult to buy toilet paper? I'm not talking about actually finding and then obtaining the toilet paper, mind you. That's easy enough. I'm also not talking about any psychological issues with buying something as "private" as toilet paper. I don't have any problem with grabbing the MEGA super-value pack and walking around the store with it. I mean, really, think of the alternatives!

I'm not even talking about picking a brand, though the claims on the rolls of toilet paper crack me up. Example: "A guaranteed clean!" Really? There's a guarantee on the clean level? How do you cash in on this guarantee? Do you have to bring in the section of the paper that proved ineffective? Do you have to SHOW how it didn't work? Just as a hunch, I'm betting no one has ever cashed in on this guarantee. Personally, I was sold years ago my Mr. Whipple and his squeezable softness. That's brilliant! Reverse psychology in action: "Hey kids, whatever you do, DON'T squeeze the rolls. They are just deliciously soft! Don't do it! No, No!" Of course, everyone IS going to squeeze it, and when they find delight in the softness, they'll buy!

So, here's the problem that makes buying toilet paper so difficult. (Yes, this really is a post about buying toilet paper. Don't try and tell me that you haven't wanted to do the same thing!) Toilet paper is packaged in a number of different size packages, from the dainty 4-roll variety, all the way up to the MEGA super-value packs. You'd think that all you have to do is count the number of rolls in the pack, look at the selling price, and divide the price by the number of rolls to come up with the pack that is the best value.

Well, that might work with SweetTarts, or AA batteries, but it sure doesn't work with toilet paper. No. Because toilet paper rolls ARE DIFFERENT in every. Single. Package. There may be one package that advertises "big" rolls, while another advertises "MEGA" rolls. Another may have "two-ply" rolls, and yet another have "20% extra for free" rolls. They ALL compare themselves to a fictitious roll called "normal" that I don't believe even exists. For example: "contains 24 MEGA rolls which equals 60 'normal' rolls."

Great.

Let's just look for those "normal" rolls and see how the pricing works out, shall we? Oh, wait. THERE AREN'T ANY. Ok, let's look at another package. "Contains 12 BIG rolls which equals 24 'normal' rolls." OK, for all you algebra fans out there, this actually provides enough information to compare these two packages for value. I think. Just like I don't want to use algebra while shopping at Target (I'm usually on my lunch break after all. I'm officially off the hook from using algebra at lunch, right?), I don't want to use algebra while writing a blog post, either.

I still can't tell WHICH ONE IS THE BEST DEAL! There are at least two more different packages to compare. Obviously, they are trying to confuse you. That's right, toilet paper is sold on the basis of misdirection and confusion! Of course, neither of those packages has the same size roll, either. What a mess. I'm not even certain if the small print on the container works. There are two variables that I am currently researching: number of squares, and total square feet of toilet paper. These areas have issues, too, in that I'm not certain the squares are even the same size, or if the total square feet of the package includes each "ply" laid on top of the other, or next to each other.

So, you are probably wondering which one I bought, right?

I bought the package that was on sale. If it's on sale, it must be the good deal, right?

Wordless Wednesday - Classic Truck

2009-11-04T07:18:47-06:00

What is it about rusty old pickup trucks that make them such a popular photo subject? I don't know, either! However, I was still ensnared by this truck that literally FORCED me to take its picture!

Taken at Eckert's Millstadt Farm, Millstadt, IL. with my trusty Nikon D60. Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-03T07:17:56-06:00

As any self-respecting parent blogger with children still at home will tell you - there is a unspoken law somewhere that I'm sure clearly states that all parent bloggers MUST post their darling children in each year's Halloween costumes. I'm not about to break the law, so here's my post! Check it off my "to-do" list.

As I'm certain that the only people interested in all of the pictures to come are either relatives, close friends, or possibly long-time "One Dad's Life" readers who are in no way creepy stalkers, despite disturbing statistics to the contrary, I'm going to get right to it and skip the rest of my normally clever prose!

Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, I actually got to be around for the preparations instead of fighting traffic on the highway! So, I sat on our front porch, enjoying the wonderful fall weather with the three pumpkins we purchased at Eckert's last week, cut the tops off, and scooped out all the seeds and other assorted pumpkin innards. Then I turned over the pumpkins to the kids to carve their scary faces in...or if that was too hard to make more traditional pumpkins.

I joke. They never intended to carve their own faces into the pumpkins!

First we have little Rachel, who at eight years old figures she can do pretty much anything by herself and how she wants! I figured what kind of trouble could an eight year old get into with a sharp knife and a giant squash that weighs nearly as much as her? So, naturally, I gave her the knife (or more accurately - wasn't about to try and disarm her) and let her go. She sketched out her idea for a jack-o-lantern face on a piece of paper, then enthusiastically stabbed the fleshy gourd. Remind me to hide the knives when I'm done typing this, won't you?

While Rachel was going crazy with sharp objects in the kitchen, Rebecca had successfully enslaved my wife, Dianne, and had forced the captured Dianne to work on her hair. As a performing kind of family, dressing up in costumes is NOT a task to be taken lightly. Hair and makeup had to be done!

BTW, sharp-eyed readers will note that the normally blond and short-haired Rachel now had long BROWN hair. That's right, Dianne died her hair AND wove long braids into the newly browned hair. This all happened before Rebecca had captured Dianne and Rachel had gone on her knife-wielding, pumpkin carving spree.

Then the newly coiffed Rebecca had her turn carving up a pumpkin. Check out that concentration!

I even got a chance to carve a pumpkin all by myself, due to the whole Saturday thing! Yeah me! No one took pictures.

No doubt by now you are DYING to know what their costumes were, right? Well, wonder no more, dear reader! Here they are, posing in my sisters living room:

Rebecca, on left, is "Alice in Wonderland" and Rachel is "Laura Ingalls." Authentic, no? Dianne made the "Alice in Wonderland" costume, and my mom made the Laura Ingalls prairie dress for Rachel. The bonnet was a souvenir Rachel bought on a trip my parents took both kids on last year - a trip to all the important "Little House on the Prairie" and "Laura Ingalls" sites. Cool, huh? There's no way we're going to get suckered into expensive and sub-par store-bought costumes, no matter how long it takes or whatever the cost! No, not us.

Here's both of the little darlings together along with a matching doll for Rachel:

Each year, we head to my sisters neighborhood, which just goes crazy for Halloween, to do our trick-or-treating. It also gives us a chance to show off our Halloween themed food (forgot to take pictures! Here's a link to some of last year's food) and gives the kids a chance to trick-or-treat with their cousins. This year, however, Rebecca ran off to her friend's house for a party with her classmates and didn't actually trick-or-treat with us. Wah!

We even brought our freshly carved jack-o-lanterns to my sisters and added them to the collection on the porch. Here's what they all looked like:

From left to right are Rebecca's, Rachel's, and finally mine. I stole my pumpkin's eyes from a book. My daughter's are ALL original!

While Rachel was out trick or treating with one of her friends from school and her cousins, she ALSO ran into ANOTHER friend from school! Here they are in all their over-the-top glory.

It was totally Rachel's idea to bring a basket to put her candy in instead of using a plastic pumpkin. Apparently, the plastic pumpkin just wasn't the right way to collect candy for a Laura Ingalls costume! Details make all the difference, people, details.

And now, as a special treat for all my dedicated readers, I shall present MY Halloween costume. However, since I'm the one that normally takes the pictures on our family outings, there really wasn't any way to get a shot of me...plus I didn't actually HAVE a costume. So, instead, we go now to my alternate reality in the peaceful little town of "Rosebud." In all the important ways, "Rosebud", in Nintendo's "Animal Crossing: City Folk", is exactly the same as my so-called "real" life...right down to being surrounded by talking animals! (insert your own joke here).

So there I am in my pumpkin head and patched shirt, standing next to the fountain I donated to the town 'cause I'm rich. And, yeah, I'm rich like that in real life, too. The parallels are just astounding!

My daughter's put up the "Hey, Dad!" flag while I was in China as a surprise for me. Wasn't that sweet?

And that's it! Halloween 2009. I hope you enjoyed this little journey in self-indulgence, because basically that's what having a blog is all about, so just deal with it people. Creepy stalkers included.

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Harvest

2009-10-28T06:50:16-05:00

This past weekend, we took a little trip out to Eckert's Orchards in Millstadt, IL. Although I take a LOT of pictures, they are most often pictures of opportunity. This trip, however, I had a number of images in my mind that I wanted to create, all the way down to composition and color.

Fortunately, the weather (and sky!) cooperated with my imagination, and conditions were just about perfect! Included here are three of my successful shots - at least they met my expectations and hopes. Of course, looking closely at them now I can think of things I'd do differently, but to the extent of my ability this past weekend, I like them!

All shots taken with Nikon D60, f3.5-5.6 18-55mm kit lens. Click on each picture for a larger version!

Friday Photos - The Climatron, in Total

2009-10-23T08:12:42-05:00

One of the primary reasons I started this blog, was to provide a place to post some of my pictures. If you come here often, you know that just about my favorite place in all of St. Louis to take pictures is at The Missouri Botanical Garden. There is literally an endless supply of inspiring scenes!

If my search on the website is accurate, I've frequently mentioned a structure on the grounds called "The Climatron." I've even posted a number of pictures that show glimpses of the cool exo-skeleton of the dome. However, it seems I've never given someone who is not a St. Louis native a shot of what the building looks like in total. (ed. note: Oops, actually found one here!)

So here it is! (click on photo for larger view) This shot was taken just a couple of weeks ago, near sunset, when the garden was already technically closed. I lingered a bit, which drove my daughter CRAZY, as she thought we would surely be locked in overnight.

This view is taken from what used to be the main entrance to the garden. In the foreground, there are three Water Lily ponds (and they are blooming!). The domed structure is The Climatron. Inside, is a miniature rain forest display. It's incredibly cool. As a child, it amazed me that they had AN ACTUAL BANANA TREE inside, with ACTUAL BANANAS!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Congratulations, Rebecca!

2009-10-22T08:15:05-05:00

If you read "One Dad's Life" regularly, you know that we are pretty much an artsy fartsy family. Other than a somewhat unnatural obsession with Nintendo, Dr. Pepper, and the lawn, most of what we do has some artistic component.

Whether a child gets their interests and talents through genes or environment, our kids are probably doomed to follow in our footsteps. So it shouldn't be too surprising that our oldest daughter, Rebecca, also loves to perform. To date, this has largely manifested itself through dancing, performing in musicals and playing the violin.

However, this past week, an opportunity presented itself for Rebecca to audition for a singing job, doing vocals for a new series of Sunday School CDs from Concordia Publishing House (CPH) in St. Louis. If she was selected, it's possible she could sing for recordings over the next couple of years, for material that could be published for the next decade!

To be honest, I didn't even know she'd be interested in doing this, as she has always been excited about musicals and acting, but has not really talked much about doing any other type of performances. However, as soon as she got out of school on Monday, the first thing she asked about was whether we had been able to set up an audition time for her at the recording studio. Obviously, she was excited!

As it turns out, we had been able to arrange a time that fit into her normally busy schedule, but she had to quickly learn the material for an audition that same evening! So she sat on the floor of her bedroom with a laptop computer playing the tracks and reading the music off the screen. It was her job to sound as much like the previous recordings as possible. The spot had opened up because the previous batch of kids doing the recordings were now too old and didn't sound like kids anymore! Rebecca worked to sound like the recording, as much as possible.

Shortly after I got home from work, it was time to head to the audition so off we went.

We got to the studio and after an explanation of what was being looked for, she went into the vocal booth for her audition. They were looking for kids that could sing basically by sighte and blend with other singers - not the usual type of singing for musicals, but distinctly choral in nature. This is actually something Rebecca is very good at, and I thought that she did pretty good for just getting the material that day. More importantly, they seemed to like what she did at the studio, but it still had to be sent to CPH for the ultimate decision.

As we left the audition, Rebecca told me how much fun she had. She was so excited, and really enjoyed singing in the studio. Who knew? I really hoped she'd get a chance to try this again.

The first indication we got that she had a decent chance was when the studio contacted us the next day, inquiring about her availability during the next week. That was encouraging, but still, at this point, nothing was certain.

Then, Wednesday afternoon, the word came. They wanted Rebecca! Awesome! It's impossible at this point to know how much she will ultimately end up doing for this publisher, but judging from how long the last group of kids lasted, there is a chance it could last a while, if she does well. The important thing is that she has a chance. In fact, she will already be recording vocals for the first piece to be published, along with three other kids, this coming Monday! She is really looking forward to doing the recording, and is so happy to be lucky enough to be chosen for this project.

So, congratulations, Rebecca! I'm very proud of you! I know you'll do a great job.

Break a leg!

Wordless Wednesday - Looking for the Sun

2009-10-21T07:56:10-05:00

These plants are in the Climatron at The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. I like how they look like a flower with a completely different flower blooming out of the middle! On either Friday, or next Wednesday, I'll post a new photo of the building itself!

Taken with a Nikon D60, 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6, natural lighting.

Now what?

2009-10-20T08:31:40-05:00

It seems that since May, I've just been completely swamped with projects and events outside of the normal work stuff (which I don't talk about here). These activities are in addition to the "normal" half-dozen rehearsals a week, playing in church, 4 dance lessons, 1 vocal lesson, and all the other normal family activities I can't think of just now.

Here's my rundown, in summary form! Starting in May, we've had visitors here pretty much full time from India and China. There was a brief 2-week period at the end of August where there actually wasn't anyone extra here! So my family spends a lot of the weekend showing these visitors the sights in glorious St. Louis. Oh, and when I say "glorious", that is actually NOT sarcasm. I love this city. This fall we have been less able to do that, due to some of our other activities, but believe it or not - WE STILL HAVE OUT OF TOWN VISITORS!

From June until the end of July, I took, and edited, hundreds of pictures for our new church directory. It was finally released this past Friday. Out of the hundreds of pictures I took and submitted, a dozen or so made it into the directory. The company putting the directory together didn't allow too many of our own pages in the directory. The pictures I took make up the majority of the church provided photos. On the positive side, the printing looks GREAT, keeping the color and resolution of my original files. I'm very happy with how my pictures look. I even got the cover shot (shown below).

As soon as that project was wrapped up, I scurried MYSELF off to China. Here's a picture I took my first evening there. This (and some of the remaining pictures) have previously appeared on "One Dad's Life." So, all you old-timers, cut some slack for the new visitors, OK? Thanks!

And another from the mountains near Xi'an my first weekend!

Then, the very day AFTER, I returned from China, I started orchestra rehearsals on the 260+ page score of "Annie." Production on the show, of course, had been going on through-out the summer, starting in June, but this was the busiest time for me. The show finally played the last two weeks in September. By my way of measuring it, the show was incredible...and so much fun. We had the BEST cast and crew, ever, this time around.

Then, this past weekend, we had the 2nd Annual "St. Louis Interactive Festival." It was incredible! As a bonus, my wife, Dianne, helped out all weekend with it so I didn't even have to be away from her for one of my "day's off!" She got to know some of my blogger friends a lot better. They are a great group of people. We also went out to dinner with a group of them on Friday night at Hodack's, which was a lot of fun, too! I was the speaker/host/moderator of a session on "Photography for the Hobbyist" along with Mike Wilkerson, which was fun. There were tons of questions, which totally knocked me off my agenda, but it was really good in that we were able to help some people with problems they had been having. We are currently working on plans for at least one "lunch and learn" session on basic photography. Stay tuned!

So, now that all of this stuff is "over", I can finally come back to my home a few nights a week without going right to bed! So, as I sit in my home, relaxing a bit, there is one question that is asserting itself loud and clear:

"NOW WHAT?"

Learn To Take Better Pictures and MUCH More!

2009-10-15T07:45:41-05:00

On this Saturday, October 17th, members and special guests of the St. Louis Bloggers Guild will be holding the 2009 edition of the St. Louis Interactive Festival. This is going to be a fantastic event, and is an incredible bargain for YOU, the social media practitioner!

We have a full day of events planned, starting at 9:00 AM and going until 4:00 PM. Breakfast, Lunch, and beverages are included in your ticket price. What's the price for all of this, you ask? Well, lucky you, it's FREE!!! Unbelievable, right? There is only one catch, you MUST register so we can have an accurate count on food and other supplies.

This year, the event will be held at Shock City Music, at 2200 Gravois, right next to Hodacks in the old Polar Wave Ice and Fuel building. There are two parallel tracks in this event, one intended for "beginners" and one containing more "advanced" topics. Topics will range from "I have a Blog, Now What?" to building a site from scratch to a number of business related topics. For more information on the wide range of topics and the panelists, please visit the St. Louis Bloggers Guild Website and check out the posts this week. There is truly something for everyone! No matter if you have a hosted site ("One Dad's Life" is a basic Typepad blog), are self-hosted (or want to be), or you are in charge of the social media for your company, we have topics of interest for you.

I will be conducting a session titled "Photography for the Hobbyist" along with Mike Wilkerson. We're going to help you learn to take better pictures, no matter what kind of camera equipment you have (it really doesn't make too much difference!), and how to get more professional looking results for cheap ... or even free! You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get fantastic pictures.

So if you want to get more out of your point and shoot camera, or you are just moving to the SLR world, we have help for you! We'll also be glad to talk to each of you after the session and answer as many questions as I can.

So drop what you are doing right now, and visit the St. Louis Blogger's Guild website right now to register! It's FREE, but you MUST register. It will be a great day. I'll see you on Saturday!