We've Moved!!!

This beast will no longer be fed here. These and lots of other posts can now be viewed at http://blog.theleeworld.com

Nice Shades!!!

So I'm checking my email this morning and I get a link from Laura for a "my space" user profile. Imagine my surprise when I click on it and see the stellar picture below. Hey Carly, where can I get a pair of shades like that????



Above photo is copyright of my kid but what's she gonna do? Sue me?

Parental Weakness???

For the past several weeks Jimmy has discovered that he can stand up next to the computer chair, reach up and cause all sorts of havoc with a keyboard. This makes it very interesting to check one's email and such. Last night, while Laura was trying to fend the kid off and play an online game I remembered an old dilapidated keyboard I had laying around. I cut the cord off it and gave it to him. The kid was happier than a pig in, well you know.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY!!!!!

In honor of Jimmy's first birthday I thought I'd post sort of a year in pictures thing. Enjoy, and be sure to leave your comments in hopes of embarassing him when he's old enough to read them..hehe:

Long Lost Jimmy Webcam Video

The other day while doing a little hard drive housekeeping I discovered a video clip I'd forgotten I had. It is low quality as it is recorded on my webcam while sitting at the computer. (excuse the tacky blanket I keep over my window behind me to block the sun). It is absolutely amazing how tiny he was!!!

Note: Dialup users may or may not be able to view this. If so it will require a great deal of patience. If you have dialup and wish to give it a shot I recommend you right click the link, select "save target as", download the file to your hard drive then watch the video. It is 3 megabytes or so which will take 15-20 minutes on most dialups to download. Video is just shy of 2 minutes long...no audio.

Here's the link:

Click Here

Cute But Unwanted Visitors

Last night Laura looked through our sliding glass door to see the 3 visitors pictured below. She opened the door to try to scare them away but instead they rushed toward the door trying to get in. Anyone think they've been getting fed by humans? Naw! Couldn't be!

I just hope they don't figure out that they are small enough to fit through the kitty door.......

Long Lost Jimmy Pics

I just got a roll of film developed that I had misplaced for awhile. Here are a few precious shots of Jimmy when he was very tiny:







It sure is amazing how fast they grow!!!

Long Night!

Last fall I built Jimmy a crib. Due to the fact that it was getting chilly in our drafty old shack Laura decided to have Jimmy sleep with her in the side bedroom until it warmed up. Yesterday I finally got around to doing the final assembly of the crib so Jimmy could sleep in it last night. He was NOT thrilled with the idea! This is the scene from 5:30 this morning (the scene at 2:00AM was quite similar!):



Hopefully, soon he'll get used to it!

On the bright side, I now have a great photo to show his prom date some day!

4th of July Festivities

Just got back from watching this year's fireworks display. Jimmy wasn't all that excited about it although he watched some of them. Naturally, being 9 months old, his attention span is all of about 3 minutes.


I took lots of photos with my 35mm camera. Unfortunately, our vantage point from the Jack-in-the-Box parking lot wasn't the best. I tried to shoot slow exposures so the streetlights caused the forground to overexpose on many of the shots (you shutterbugs out there will understand that last sentence..hehe). Here are a few that turned out fair.

Close Call for the Ol' Rancho

At about 11am yesterday I walked outside to get in the car to go to the Post Office. Imagine my surprise when I saw 15 foot high flames shooting up from the brush that grows on my neighbor's property! I ran back into the house, grabbed the phone and dialed 911. I was told the fire was already reported and the fire department was in route. I ran over to the neighbor's house and did what I could with his garden hose while another neighbor did what he could with a shovel. After what seemed like an eternity (Laura assures me it was 10 minutes) the fire department showed up along with an inmate crew from Antelope fire camp. Those folks all (inmates included) do exceptional work! In no time they had the fire that I'd estimate to be 1/4 of an acre under control. During this time it threw embers on to my property causing 2 small "spot fires". I took a couple hours off work to run some sprinklers out in the area to make sure nothing was missed. It was quite the wake up call, especially to my neighbor who thought he had his burn pile from the early morning put out before leaving for work.

Here's a couple photos taken from my driveway. All the trucks you see are on my property. The spot fires that started were near where the green forest service truck is parked. My house is about 50 feet behind where I stood to take the photos. Close enough for me! I didn't get any shots of the fire actually burning since I was a tad busy at the time!



Note the large tank on the stand in the shade to the left of the frame of the following photo. At present it contains 125 gallons or so of 87 octane unleaded. Note also that there is a puddle next to it. Laura had the presence of mind to run some water in the area while I was over at the neighbor's house.




Was an interesting adventure for a bit; one that I'm not in a big hurry to repeat, thank you very much!