31 October 2008 A Profusion of Pampass
(Click to enlarge or hooligans will TP your house on Halloween.)
Archive for October, 2008
31 October 2008 Thank God for Choo-Choo Bob’s
When Genbo thinks of Minneapolis, there are two places he wants to go: his step sister Linnea’s house and Choo-Choo Bob’s. Since there isn’t a whole lot for us to do around my dad’s house during the day, we spend a good part of each day at one or both of these destinations. I make a large effort to ensure our welcome is worn out at neither.
Choo-Choo Bob’s is a mecca for everything toy train-ish, from wooden Thomas trains for toddlers to huge O-gauge sets for adults with cash to burn or the kids who know how to pester them effectively. There is a lot for us to buy at Choo-Choo Bob’s, but since we spend an hour or so at the store every other day, I try to space out my purchases so that we buy something each time we visit.
Here is Choo-Choo Bob himself making adjustments to the impressive layout in the front of the store
Genbo enthralled
The back of the store, where the 5-and-under crowd hangs out
So much to see, so much to do
31 October 2008 Autumn in the States
I’ve been enjoying my time in the States. It’s been three generation of Braverman men: my dad, me, and Genbo. My dad delights in playing the irascible curmudgeon, but he and Genbo have been warming to each other very well. Today Genbo actually sat in his lap, but when I tried to take a picture of it I incurred my father’s wrath by breaking the spell of the moment, triggering Genbo’s exit from said lap. Here are a few random pictures from the last few days.
I find lawn signs signaling political affiliation crass, I object to the politicization of kids, and the Japanese tick of aping the “peace sign” for the camera (which Genbo mercifully doesn’t usually do) makes me want to throttle the entire country. This confluence of all three in front of my dad’s house, however, is just unbearably cute.
Raking leaves with step-sister Linnea
Having fun at a pre-Halloween party. (Apparently determined to strictly follow gender roles, Genbo and the other two boys abandoned the pumpkin-decorating in about two minutes, while the girls kept at it….for a long time, I guess. I don’t know because I managed to sneak out to a cafe for the duration.)
Genbo in a borrowed costume
22 October 2008 Off to the States
Genbo and I are going off to the States for a couple weeks. This will be both his first Halloween and his first US Presidential election! I hope to be blogging soon from beautiful autumnal Minnesota, but before I go let me share this video that a very good friend of mine had a key part in making. Do not press play if profanity and bad Jewish jokes offend.
The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.
13 October 2008 New Camera
So, I sold my venerable Fuji S5 Pro. I was very sentimentally attached to it, as it’s a great people camera that I bought it expressly to shoot my kids with. However, Nikon came out with something I couldn’t resist. The new D90 takes video, and is the first SLR in the world to do so (Canon has a new camera that does as well, but it’s not on sale yet and costs more than twice as much).
The S5 had great dynamic range and skin tones, which I loved. The D90 has better resolution, speed, high-ISO performance, and video. It was worth trading in the S5 and a lens. I’m not ordinarily big on video per se, but with Genbo and Zoe so young it seemed like a perfect fit. There are some times when video does justice to young kids more than photos, and although I have a video camera, like 99% of video camera owners it stays in the closet all the time.
This is part of the reason I have not posted in so long. I’ve been figuring out my new camera. At the same time I’m switching from Aperture to Lightroom, and transferring all my photos is a huge pain. Aperture is nice and I have no complaints, but a friend of mine is a Lightroom developer and made me an offer of free lifetime personalized support, including coming over to my house late at night to fix any inconsequential problem that might arise. And, I’ve always thought Lightroom had a slicker interface. So.