One Dad's Life

Never Too Many!

There are a number of places in St. Louis where it's just not possible to take too many pictures.  The Missouri Botanical Garden (or as us long-time residents call it "Shaw's Garden"), is one of those places.

The Climatron is one of the coolest structures inside the garden, as it contains a mini-rain forest.  This shot is a shot of one of the waterfalls in the structure.  I take a lot of pictures of this!  If you are bored, you can look through "One Dad's Life" and probably find more.   

Here's this week's version!  The most amazing thing about this photo, if I do say so myself, is that it is reasonably sharp - AND IT WAS HAND-HELD!  No tripod or other supporting device was used.  Big deal, you say?  Well, to get that silky smooth water, long exposure times are required.  In this case, one quarter of a second.  I actually have one from the same vantage that is a bit sharper, but liked the composition of this one better, so this is what you get today!

Wordless Wednesday - Christmas Tree 2009

Boy, the "One Dad's Life" complaint department has been working overtime, fielding complaints of there not being enough updates here.  The problem is the "One Dad's Life" complaint department fields, seemingly, 72% of ALL of the complaints in the St. Louis area, and since the complaint department is really just me, I haven't had much time for blogging.

So, it's Christmas time (still) and I've totally missed out on all the great Christmas posts I could have written.  As a token, I give you our Christmas Tree, 2009 edition.  It looks a LOT like the 2008 edition, unless you look really close.

I was in my office wrapping a set of Wizard the Oz PEZ dispensers I was giving my wife, when I heard a sleigh bell, a meow, a small "thunk", and my dog jumping up on the couch to look out the window.  Then the noise was over in a flash!  Well, I grabbed my camera and ran upstairs, hoping to catch Santa in the act. 

Let me tell you, that guy is FAST.

The cookies were mostly eaten, the egg nog was empty (and the glass knocked over - from the cat, obviously), but nothing had spilled out since the glass had been DRAINED.  There was also a note to my youngest daughter, answering some questions she had for Santa, and two new Hogwarts Gryffindor scarves left for my daughters.

Missed him AGAIN!

Anyway, here's what the tree looked like!

Wordless Wednesday - Colorful Cookies!

Today's wordless (or as wordless as I usually get) post is from the same cookie baking tradition I discussed here and here.  The cookies in the first picture are actually called "Colorful Cookies."  I can't remember the name of the second cookies; we made them for the first time this year.  Our emphasis in 2009 was "pretty."  I think these fit!

Nikon D60, 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 kit lens, SB-600 flash.

 

Christmas Traditions - Cookie Baking Day 2009

I almost hesitate to write this post, as not too much changes from year to year!  So, if you want to get the low-down on Cookie Baking Day, click here. In summary, the whole "Cookie Baking Day" starting the year my Grandpa Luecker died.  It started out as a way to give my grandma something to do during the Thanksgiving Holiday and she LOVED to bake.  Who knew it would turn into a huge tradition for us!?  Grandma died a number of years ago, when Rachel was a baby, but the rest of us are keeping with the tradition.

Every year, we load up our car with cookie dough, cooling racks, cookie trays, and other accessories and head to my parents' house the Saturday after thanksgiving for the big event. What's interesting each year is how everyone changes and shifts into different jobs.  Cookie baking day started when I was a kid, living at home.  Now MY kids are involved.  I remember how strange it was the first year we had Rebecca up in her high chair to bake the cookies.  She was 11 months old (Christmas baby!)  My mom made matching aprons for all of the participants in cookie baking day, and finally this year (due to all the grandchildren and the fact that they continue to GROW) she ran out of the original material for the aprons and had to make a new style of apron for the youngest.

Rebecca has now graduated to what will be her permanent adult apron.  At 13 years old, she has been a big help the last couple of years making icing for cookies, in addition to the normal decorating tasks.  This year, she even made cookie dough for us!

Rachel, at eight years old, also loves to cook. We've been surprised in the morning by fresh muffins from this kid!  She also loves to make cookies and all other manner of things, and is even adept at breaking eggs without getting shell fragments in the bowl.  This year, she took over some of the rolling tasks and cutting out the cookies and did an excellent job!

The last several years, Dianne and I have decided that while we LOVE making the cookies (and love eating them...too much) we really didn't care for the step where we divide them all up.  So, we let the kids fill up a couple of containers of cookies and then we donate the rest to our church's cookie walk.  Sometimes, we even buy back some of our own cookies!  Since so many of the cookies head to the cookie walk, this year we made the conscious decision to just make the more colorful and pretty cookies.  This unfortunately eliminates some favorites like chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies, and rocks, but the cookies we ended up with WERE beautiful.

I've intentionally concentrated on MY little family in this post, to try and keep it a reasonable length, but the total participants included my family, my mom, my sister and her son and daughter, and my brother-in-law.  Each family brings 3-4 batches of cookie dough and we work ALL DAY.  Each batch is a double or triple batch, too!  Here's this years photo of the participants.  Look at us all styling in our aprons!

This photo was taken AFTER the cookies were all baked, and we're still smiling!  After we ate a nice soup dinner, most of the people cleaned up the dishes and bowls and decorating supplies and packed them away for next year.  Dianne and I spent some quality time decorating dozens of little gingerbread boys and girls.  By the way, using a pastry bag is the ONLY way to do these things.  They are so easy to use!

So that's it for cookie baking day, 2009 style. Clearly, this is one of our big family Christmas traditions.  Hopefully all of our kids will keep this going when we are no longer here and OUR aprons are neatly folded on the table.

Wordless Wednesday - Remington Typewriter

While browsing through an antique mall in the little burg of Tracy, Missouri, I ran across this old-time Remington Typewriter.  I love these old typewriters.  My parents used to have a similar model which I always loved. There is just something magical about these typewriters.

Taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 point and shoot camera I carried in my jacket.  ALWAYS HAVE A CAMERA WITH YOU!

My Fantasy Christmas List

Before you go jumping to conclusions, the "One Dad's Life" household does NOT focus on the whole materialistic aspect common during Christmas season.  Well, unless you count the whole beef tenderloin we make each year for dinner (from Steak Paradise - Kenrick's, of course!) No, nearly all of our Christmas season is spent at our church, preparing for special services and performing for these services.  I heard it said best the other day that taking Christ out of Christmas would be like taking the jews out of Hanukkah!  So far, I haven't seen any effort taking place in that area!

So, what follows is pure escapist fantasy for me, OK?  Certainly, I'd love ALL of these things...or even one of them...but it won't drive me too crazy if it never happens.  That being said, here's my Fantasy Christmas List for 2009!

1. 2010 Camaro.  While I'm fantasizing, I'll take the SS with the 420 H.P. V8.  Or the Hennessey HPE550 Camaro.   Color not too important, I like nearly all of them, though I have a preference for ones with the hood stripes in contrasting color.  Blue with a white stripe is my current favorite.  Though, truly, the base model would be fine.  It must be a manual transmission though. NO AUTOMATIC.  That part is non-negotiable.  Thanks.
2. A mansion right on Lafayette Square.  I want to see the park out of my parlor window.  If that isn't possible, then perhaps something in Compton Heights?
3. A pair of Mesa Boogie Mark V amp heads and a pair of 4x12 cabs to go with it.  This would be the power house of a new guitar rig!  This would also pair up well with number 4.
4. Guitars.  Yeah, I have a bunch I want.  I'll list the top ones here - in no particular order, though I'd say the Taylor is on top. So, I'll start with that! Taylor 714CE acoustic, Music Man John Petrucci model with piezo bridge, PRS Custom 24, Guild 12-string acoustic, F412 or F512 with pickup system, Chris Squire Rickenbacker bass, Gibson Les Paul Standard, sunburst tiger striped top.  Whew, I'd better stop there before this gets ridiculous!
5. 32" 120HZ LG LCD TV.  For my home office. For video games and concert DVDs! If you want to go really crazy, I'll go with an LED LCD for crisper blacks and brighter color!
6. Yamaha Surround Sound system with my current Polk Audio Speakers (I LOVE them!).  Same reason as for #5.
7. Photography stuff. Again, big list. Let's go with a Nikon D300s, 50mm f1.4, 60 mm macro, 70-200mm f2.8, and a SB-900 flash head. This would all be a nice compliment for my D60 without going TOO crazy! I mean, that camera body is under $2000, and all of the lenses except for one is under a $1000.  I'm reasonable.
8. A Viking 6 burner stove.  There is not room for this in my current house, so naturally I'm assuming I'd find this in the kitchen of #2.
9. Keyboards. Again, there is a big list and honestly, I'm just waiting for a show to come along that REQUIRES one of these as my excuse to work on getting one.  Unfortunately, this hasn't happened, yet.  Hammond XK-3C, Alesis Andromeda or even Ion Analog Modeling synth, Moog mini-moog...the new one, not the original, Roland bass pedals (to use while playing guitar!), Kurzweil PC3x, Yamaha DX-7IIFD, Korg Wavestation AD module, and a PPG Wave 3.2!
10. Every Nintendo product ever made! It was too hard to narrow this one down - but to help, you can stick with items currently in production.
11. Time to enjoy all of the above (perhaps the most difficult item to achieve).

Coming up, what Christmas is really like in our household!

Portrait of a Cutie-Patootie!

While I can do pretty good on subjects that don't run away, my wife has a knack for taking portraits.  We spent Thanksgiving in Leavenworth, Kansas with Dianne's family and one day we spent some time in a park with the nieces and nephews.

As I was going through the pictures last night, I came across this shot of my niece.  I liked the way the light was coming through her hair, so decided to play with it just a bit.  I made a crop that isolated my niece a little more, then played with the saturation and levels a bit to make the following picture.

The thing is, I'm not sure I like the result any more than the original shot!  So here is a once in a lifetime (or at least this week) chance to decide for yourself whether I should have just left my wife's original shot alone.  For comparison, here's the original uncropped, unmolested image straight out of the camera.

I honestly don't know which I like better! Go ahead and let me know your preference.  By Monday, I should be over any rejection.

Taken with a Nikon D60, 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 kit lens and SB-600 flash.

Photo credit: Dianne Mueller

Tampering: Gregg Mueller

Vocab Sure Ain't What It Used To Be!

Ran across this vocab homework from my daughter.  That's right, this is part of her homework.  Good grief, I'm sure glad I didn't need to draw stuff on my homework when I was in eighth grade.  On the plus side, you have to admit, Rebecca can sure draw! (click on the drawing for a better view)

By the way, if anyone knows how the title of this post really SHOULD be capitilized and have documented proof, please let me know! I'M TALKING TO YOU, ENGLISH MAJORS!!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Whirling!

My youngest daughter and some of her cousins whirling around on a carousel.

Taken on a restored C.W. Parker Carousel at the Carousel Museum in Leavenworth, KS.  This carousel could move!  More pictures coming, too.

Nikon D60, Shutter priority mode on 1/4 second, f14,  ISO800, rear curtain flash. Rear curtain flash is fired at the closing of the shutter, rather than the opening - results in freezing the action at the END of the blur.