Beautiful day
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Trolley Museum Video
I learned a lesson about uploading video footage to google. Don't compress to a Windows Media File format. The minute worth of video below is pretty low quality because I tried to compress it down a little more than the Alexandria Train video but it gives you an idea of what the trolley ride was like. The boys keep asking if they can go see the trolleys again but it's a long drive so I'm thinking no for a while.
They have both been wearing big boy underpants most of the day this week. Few accidents so far. Keeping our fingers crossed.
I learned a lesson about uploading video footage to google. Don't compress to a Windows Media File format. The minute worth of video below is pretty low quality because I tried to compress it down a little more than the Alexandria Train video but it gives you an idea of what the trolley ride was like. The boys keep asking if they can go see the trolleys again but it's a long drive so I'm thinking no for a while.
They have both been wearing big boy underpants most of the day this week. Few accidents so far. Keeping our fingers crossed.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Spring in the air
It is starting to smell like spring out there. The dogwoods and cherry trees are coming out and the air is full of life. I realized this on a simple trip to the curb with the garbage and recycling for pick up tomorrow. Funny how if you just pay attention, you can get a completely different experience from what you expected performing a simple chore.
Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)
Saturday, March 25, 2006
National Capital Trolley Museum
We had a busy morning today. Me and boys had a haircut with Patrick at 11am, but I thought it was 9:30 so we were a little early. We ended up finding a nice playground in Adams Morgan and got a little breakfast on 18th Street. We then headed up the National Capital Trolley Museum in Layhill Maryland. This museum is actually right next to the house Jud and I lived at together in for a few months in the early nineties. I never visited the museum back then, too busy going out to bars and stuff like that. The museum has a dozen trolleys in their collection and had a newer one donated by the Netherlands running on the track today. The boys loved it and their are some really cool shots of the two of them getting their tickets stamped by the motorman. Pure wonder in the whole process..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594090566581/
We had a busy morning today. Me and boys had a haircut with Patrick at 11am, but I thought it was 9:30 so we were a little early. We ended up finding a nice playground in Adams Morgan and got a little breakfast on 18th Street. We then headed up the National Capital Trolley Museum in Layhill Maryland. This museum is actually right next to the house Jud and I lived at together in for a few months in the early nineties. I never visited the museum back then, too busy going out to bars and stuff like that. The museum has a dozen trolleys in their collection and had a newer one donated by the Netherlands running on the track today. The boys loved it and their are some really cool shots of the two of them getting their tickets stamped by the motorman. Pure wonder in the whole process..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594090566581/
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
First Video Post
If I haven't annoyed you enough, I'm now going to start to add video to this blog. I've uploaded a couple videos to Google Video over the past few months and will now link to them in this blog so you to can enjoy these fine creations. The boys, particularily Dylan, love watching train video and Google Video has a ton of home movie quality train video available for free. Some people just love to watch and video tape trains and have uploaded them to Google. Since I have a computer attached to big plasma in the basement, we can watch these videos while hanging out on the beanbags.
A couple weeks ago we went down to Alexandria for a little trains watching and I filmed a couple Amtraks and a CSX. I edited the footage a little to keep the focus on the trains, not the boys and added titles. I uploaded it so that other mothers and fathers with trains obsessed children can watch the trains that we see, kind of paying into the train community in a way. Go to google video www.video.google.com and search trains and see all the options. You can also search Alexandria trains to get to a smaller return or search Chicago trains for see Dylans favorite video with Amtraks, Metras, subway and freight trains.
Enjoy
If I haven't annoyed you enough, I'm now going to start to add video to this blog. I've uploaded a couple videos to Google Video over the past few months and will now link to them in this blog so you to can enjoy these fine creations. The boys, particularily Dylan, love watching train video and Google Video has a ton of home movie quality train video available for free. Some people just love to watch and video tape trains and have uploaded them to Google. Since I have a computer attached to big plasma in the basement, we can watch these videos while hanging out on the beanbags.
A couple weeks ago we went down to Alexandria for a little trains watching and I filmed a couple Amtraks and a CSX. I edited the footage a little to keep the focus on the trains, not the boys and added titles. I uploaded it so that other mothers and fathers with trains obsessed children can watch the trains that we see, kind of paying into the train community in a way. Go to google video www.video.google.com and search trains and see all the options. You can also search Alexandria trains to get to a smaller return or search Chicago trains for see Dylans favorite video with Amtraks, Metras, subway and freight trains.
Enjoy
Monday, March 20, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Oxon Hill Farm
In case you are wondering, Dylan left, Sam right.
We went over to Oxon Hill Maryland again today. This time to the Oxon Hill Farm http://www.nps.gov/nace/oxhi/ where we saw a bunch of animals and ancient farm equipment. This was originally the home of Samuel Debutts and his family. They lived their about the same time Washington built Mt. Vernon. From 1890 to 1960 is was worked by and fed the nearby St. Elizabeths Hospital, now home to John Hinkley Jr. and many other slightly crazy people. The boys loved being outside on this crisp Sunday and had good naps after all the excitement. What I really love, is that this place is literally 5 miles from the house. Should be fun in hay ride and milking season.
I loaded a bunch of pictures up on flickr and I'm sending the link to the Park Ranger who said they needed some shots for the new web site they are building. Enjoy http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594085817607/
In case you are wondering, Dylan left, Sam right.
We went over to Oxon Hill Maryland again today. This time to the Oxon Hill Farm http://www.nps.gov/nace/oxhi/ where we saw a bunch of animals and ancient farm equipment. This was originally the home of Samuel Debutts and his family. They lived their about the same time Washington built Mt. Vernon. From 1890 to 1960 is was worked by and fed the nearby St. Elizabeths Hospital, now home to John Hinkley Jr. and many other slightly crazy people. The boys loved being outside on this crisp Sunday and had good naps after all the excitement. What I really love, is that this place is literally 5 miles from the house. Should be fun in hay ride and milking season.
I loaded a bunch of pictures up on flickr and I'm sending the link to the Park Ranger who said they needed some shots for the new web site they are building. Enjoy http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594085817607/
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Up early again
On a plane bound for Dulles and looking forward to seeing Nicole and the boys. Don't tell them but I bought two Jay Jay Jet planes at the airport gift shop. I don't want them to think they get a present everytime I leave town but its hard to come home empty handed. I still remember a fire engine my dad brought me from some trip over seas. He use to travel to Germany and Japan a lot and to me, that fire engine was exotic. Possibly coming from a foriegn land or an airport gift shop. I don't remember how many times he brought me something after a trip but I remember that fire engine.
Maybe the boys will recall one of the presents in 40 years and look back at it as proof that papa loves them.
Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)
I also got an extra added bonus for being in the bay area yesterday and today. It turned out that Adam was playing a private show in San Jose. I took a cab down after the reception at Stanford and caught the show with Gil. They were performing for the VON Conference at the Civic Auditorium in San Jose. VON is the Voice Over Network group run by Pulver Media. They obviously have too much money but the crowd of 2000 of so loved the show. The CEO of Pulver Media somehow conviced Adam to allow him to sing Mustang Sally as the last song. He wasn't that bad but it was a little annoying and I'm pretty sure the crowd was not all that impressed. I'm going to bed now...
I had to stop in Denver on the way out west yesterday. I don't like stopping all that much but it did offer a better view of the Rocky's after takeoff. Usually, you see the mountains from 35,000 feet but after takeoff from Denver, you get a look at them at less than 20,000 feet for a while. Some spectacular views.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Quick stop in Miami for a meeting and dinner with the e-business executive council. Always a fun group of people with similar jobs as me. They come from up and down the east coast and the midwest. I have an early flight tomorrow so I gotta get some sleep. Quick note, the empty space with the cranes in the picture above is where I stayed last year for this event. It used to be a 25 story Sheraton Hotel, now it's a vacant lot. Amazing....
Monday, March 13, 2006
Spring has sprung in our front yard. The first flowers are coming up to be followed by a bunch of different stuff as spring continues. It was 82 today but it actually may snow later this week. Go figure... If you look closely, you can see the boys in the window to the right of the door. You gotta look hard.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Day at Fort Washington
We took a quick trip to Fort Washington in Maryland today. It's really only about 10 miles away, over the Wilson Bridge and down Indian Head highway a bit. It sits on the Potomac, across from Fort Hunt which is on the Virginia side. I've seen it from the Mt Vernon Parkway for years as we trained for marathons up and down that road but never ventured across the river to look around. It's a cool park with a bunch of history.
Originally built in the early 1800's to protect DC from ships coming up the river, it also was reinforced in around WWI with six or seven big gun bunkers behind it to stop more advanced invading armies. In WWII it served as a training base and was turned into a park in the 60's after it was a bunch of different military offices in the 50's. The interesting thing is that the army now has a small portable radar station near the river at the base of the fort. It is part of the air defense network set up after 9/11 that rings the city with military radar and anti-aircraft defense batteries. After 200 years, the fort still has military significance in a different world.
I posted a bunch of pictures, including one of the new radar station in my flickr account. Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594080708999/
The picture above is the boys sitting on a couple of old canons in the main forts courtyard. Dylan left, Sam right. They had a great time running around and getting really dirty. This area has a ton of history to visit that is only a short drive away. We need to make sure we are visiting as much as we can while we live here. Who knows when we will move.
It was in the 70's here again today. Too damn hot for March.
We took a quick trip to Fort Washington in Maryland today. It's really only about 10 miles away, over the Wilson Bridge and down Indian Head highway a bit. It sits on the Potomac, across from Fort Hunt which is on the Virginia side. I've seen it from the Mt Vernon Parkway for years as we trained for marathons up and down that road but never ventured across the river to look around. It's a cool park with a bunch of history.
Originally built in the early 1800's to protect DC from ships coming up the river, it also was reinforced in around WWI with six or seven big gun bunkers behind it to stop more advanced invading armies. In WWII it served as a training base and was turned into a park in the 60's after it was a bunch of different military offices in the 50's. The interesting thing is that the army now has a small portable radar station near the river at the base of the fort. It is part of the air defense network set up after 9/11 that rings the city with military radar and anti-aircraft defense batteries. After 200 years, the fort still has military significance in a different world.
I posted a bunch of pictures, including one of the new radar station in my flickr account. Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594080708999/
The picture above is the boys sitting on a couple of old canons in the main forts courtyard. Dylan left, Sam right. They had a great time running around and getting really dirty. This area has a ton of history to visit that is only a short drive away. We need to make sure we are visiting as much as we can while we live here. Who knows when we will move.
It was in the 70's here again today. Too damn hot for March.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
I met Nicole and the boys at the train station last night after a quick happy hour for Gina's birthday. Happy birthday Gina, enjoy the weekend. The boys saw two Amtracks, two VRE's and a CSX while waiting for me to get there. Needless to say, they were excited. It's been in the 70's the last couple days and feels like summer. I need a little more winter, so I'm hoping it will get cold again soon. Here they are playing pirate with their Williamsburg hats. Their little heads have gotten so big, the hats don't fit anymore. Growing up fast.....
Friday, March 10, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
So I didn't post yesterday because I was so tired from posting so many times over the weekend. The boys loved spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and will get some more Grandparent attention this spring from both sets, which will make them happy. Here they are watching Fireman Sam, which is a new favorite. I'm sure it's educational.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Very Good Show
We ended our long weekend in New York by going to a show with Adam and Amy last night. The rendition of Sweeney Todd http://www.sweeneytoddonbroadway.com was amazing with the actors actually playing all the instruments on stage. These were some extremely talented people moving from Cello to violin, flute to clarinet, guitar to piano and so on. Patti LuPone, pictured above with Adam, actually played tuba at one point and did a bunch of the percussion while playing the part of Nellie Lovett. Michael Cerveris played Sweeney and was brilliant. He also invited us back stage after the show where we had a few drinks with him, Patti, Lawrence Fishburn and Johnny Depp. Lawrence and Johnny happened to be in the house and were not in the show.
We didn't leave the theater until around midnight so we had dinner a little late but it was a good time. This morning came kind of early and we took the 11am shuttle home. The boys were eager to see the presents we promised them before we left on Thursday. I think they actually missed us a little but were more interested in the dinosaurs and lighted dinosaur hunting helmets, complete with miner light attached. We've been catching up with the boys the rest of day and will probably hit the hay early tonight.
The grandparents did a fantastic job with the kids and we really appreciated the time away. Time for bed.
We ended our long weekend in New York by going to a show with Adam and Amy last night. The rendition of Sweeney Todd http://www.sweeneytoddonbroadway.com was amazing with the actors actually playing all the instruments on stage. These were some extremely talented people moving from Cello to violin, flute to clarinet, guitar to piano and so on. Patti LuPone, pictured above with Adam, actually played tuba at one point and did a bunch of the percussion while playing the part of Nellie Lovett. Michael Cerveris played Sweeney and was brilliant. He also invited us back stage after the show where we had a few drinks with him, Patti, Lawrence Fishburn and Johnny Depp. Lawrence and Johnny happened to be in the house and were not in the show.
We didn't leave the theater until around midnight so we had dinner a little late but it was a good time. This morning came kind of early and we took the 11am shuttle home. The boys were eager to see the presents we promised them before we left on Thursday. I think they actually missed us a little but were more interested in the dinosaurs and lighted dinosaur hunting helmets, complete with miner light attached. We've been catching up with the boys the rest of day and will probably hit the hay early tonight.
The grandparents did a fantastic job with the kids and we really appreciated the time away. Time for bed.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Shopping in Soho
Did a little shopping in today. Bought some pants and some jeans. Good stuff. We are sitting around relaxing a little now but will be heading to a show in a couple hours. Can't wait to see the kids but it sounds like they are having a fun time with the Gil and Linda. They've taken trains and subways today and are going to have pizza somewhere tonight. More soon....
Did a little shopping in today. Bought some pants and some jeans. Good stuff. We are sitting around relaxing a little now but will be heading to a show in a couple hours. Can't wait to see the kids but it sounds like they are having a fun time with the Gil and Linda. They've taken trains and subways today and are going to have pizza somewhere tonight. More soon....
Friday, March 03, 2006
Relaxing Day
I've added a small set of photos from today to my flickr account. Check them out here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594074283203/
Off to dinner soon. Should be good.
I've added a small set of photos from today to my flickr account. Check them out here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72057594074283203/
Off to dinner soon. Should be good.
Anniversary update
We went to the public library map room for a quick tour then off to buy some dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Having a drink at Ocean Grill on Columbus right now. Good times.
Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)
Thursday, March 02, 2006
My Bad
I missed a couple days of blogging this week. I guess I've had a lot going on at work and haven't taken any new pictures in a while. Linda and Gil have been in town since Monday and Gil took a quick trip up to Philly to visit Elaine, who had a little a slightly abnormal ekg at the doctors office this week and spent a night in the hospital. I hear she's feeling much better. Nicole and I opened her anniversary gift to us last night and thank her very much. We also got a nice card and resources from my parents to help us eat an extremely expensive meal this weekend for our fifth anniversary.
Dylan and Sam are loving the new google video service and we have found a number of train videos posted by users out there that we watch on laptops, desktops and the media pc in the basement attached to the big plasma. That one has the added benefit of all the train noises in 5 channel sound. Try it out, go to google video and search trains. Actually searching "chicago trains" gets you to their current favorite. That video includes a couple double decker Amtraks, some Metra's and a whole bunch of "double diesels" with intermodal cars. We have a good time counting the diesels and naming the cars. I hope to add footage of trains coming and going from Alexandria to google video when the weather warms up.
Oh yeah, they also like jumping off the furniture into the bean bags. Sam actually has a few Greg Louganis moves when he jumps. He's almost got a complete 360 degree spin going, but has mastered the jump forword, spin to land on your butt move. He also has the spread your arms out wide and fall thing going to, complete with rolling his eyes back in his head as if he's passing out. Dylan seem to like to dive for distance. It's all safe, I've got both bean bags together and their is really not room to miss, yet...
The boys have been going to school this week and only have minor coughs so they're pretty happy.
Gotta go...
I missed a couple days of blogging this week. I guess I've had a lot going on at work and haven't taken any new pictures in a while. Linda and Gil have been in town since Monday and Gil took a quick trip up to Philly to visit Elaine, who had a little a slightly abnormal ekg at the doctors office this week and spent a night in the hospital. I hear she's feeling much better. Nicole and I opened her anniversary gift to us last night and thank her very much. We also got a nice card and resources from my parents to help us eat an extremely expensive meal this weekend for our fifth anniversary.
Dylan and Sam are loving the new google video service and we have found a number of train videos posted by users out there that we watch on laptops, desktops and the media pc in the basement attached to the big plasma. That one has the added benefit of all the train noises in 5 channel sound. Try it out, go to google video and search trains. Actually searching "chicago trains" gets you to their current favorite. That video includes a couple double decker Amtraks, some Metra's and a whole bunch of "double diesels" with intermodal cars. We have a good time counting the diesels and naming the cars. I hope to add footage of trains coming and going from Alexandria to google video when the weather warms up.
Oh yeah, they also like jumping off the furniture into the bean bags. Sam actually has a few Greg Louganis moves when he jumps. He's almost got a complete 360 degree spin going, but has mastered the jump forword, spin to land on your butt move. He also has the spread your arms out wide and fall thing going to, complete with rolling his eyes back in his head as if he's passing out. Dylan seem to like to dive for distance. It's all safe, I've got both bean bags together and their is really not room to miss, yet...
The boys have been going to school this week and only have minor coughs so they're pretty happy.
Gotta go...
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