Early Christmas gifts, rare collectable Cabbage patch dolls, remote controlled cars, and who knows what else… are nothing besides the allure of a brown paper bag with holes cut out.

(Originally the bag was a Christmas gift bag without holes… Until Supergirl fell backwards through the temporary ice chest.)

Turns out… the backlog apparently works differently.

So… A week before Thanksgiving, the scheduler for the area calls Jeff. There has been a cancellation. Can Greg do December?

Emails are sent to me asking this question. Immediately after reading first email, I notice second email, with answer ‘Yes.’

Oh boy.

(There is only SLIGHT liberty taken there…)

So, It’s pull out ALL the archives, load them up, sort them through, remove the duplicates, rebuild the index, throw all that out, because you should have removed the Duplicates BEFORE adding them to Aperture, and Aperture doesn’t like it when 30,000 pictures disappear at a time.

NOW, you can start actually figuring out which 20-25 pictures are actually going to make the cut. I didn’t pull much of anything from before 2003, so Five years. That worked out to be around 150,000 pictures in the archive library (not counting the years 2007-2008).

2007-2008 were easy. I had already been using Aperture to handle all of my Digital asset management, so it was a relatively simple task to pull photos that were already marked well, and choose there.

But, I wanted to get some the earlier stuff as well. Neither Jeff nor I wanted to put recent pictures of the Kids on display. Jeff does work in the Public, and DOES have to tell people NO. Having the kids up there readily identifiable and letting some upset person pull the comparison wasn’t going to happen. Having said that, some of the early pictures of Mary don’t give you a good indication on how she is now, so those became fair game.

It’s not kosher to sell directly from the Library… So we now have a new Domain and face for some of my stuff. GAN Photo is now up and running, with a separate gallery and blog system. Given that it went up a few days before the pictures did, I’m sure that it is going to change and evolve. Some parts of it I like, some… eh. It’s hopefully going to get more updates than this site has over the next month.

Of course, on top simply getting the photo’s selected, I had to re-edit most of them, as the software available today is SO much more powerful and precise than what I was using 5 years ago. I was pretty happy seeing some of the older images pop back into existence and breath. My old D60 Camera did a VERY fine job, given it’s limitations.

Printing was actually the easiest part, aside from the fact that I was producing about 50 feet of 17″ paper to display. My Epson 4000 did eat some roll paper and drink heavily from the ink well. Combining with the Thanksgiving timing, that meant that I was making multiple trips to the local (Nashville Local, not Franklin Local) Pro Photo shop.

Two of the prints are Panoramas. Those, as well as three of my more recent favorites, went on Gatorboard to keep the cost down, and sizes up. The rest were framed and matted in Arab, AL right before (and after) Thanksgiving. My Dad made an incredible find on Ebay of 22×28″ frames, and we spent some significant time cutting the mats and getting everything just right. I thank both Dad and Mom heavily for their help.

The pictures came out wonderfully. I’ve got the exhibit area COVERED with frames, colors and images, and I’m really proud and happy to see it. I regret the Gatorboarded pictures, because we did SO well with the framing, and they just don’t look nearly as good. And Those were the ones that I personally liked the most.

That said, If I had not done them that way, I wouldn’t have had the space or the weight capacity. It does all work out.

I’ll post more at GAN Photo. I’d like to be able to detail some more of the methodology and stories behind each shot that is going up there. I’m going to be busy.

The Original plan was to come down Friday night, stay in Arab, and then go to the airshow in Huntsville on Saturday. Jeff had to work Sunday on a Literacy program for the Library, so we’d come back Saturday Night. Shades were drawn, and the kids wouldn’t see the fort until Sunday Morning. Perfect planning, deserves perfect execution, right?

Ok, so, it wasn’t the perfect plan, and it didn’t have flawless execution. Friday night, we find a 70% chance of rain during the airshow hours. Immediately, and especially after the previous week, we start contingency planning. Mary has always loved the Rocket coming into Alabama (Saturn 1b at the rest stop). So, let’s go to the Space center.

Even on Saturday, Mary didn’t want to go. I think one Airshow a year is probably going to be pushing it. A Friend SMSed me later that due to the traffic, we made the right decision. He drove further than we did, and never made it onto the grounds.

Ok, she’s 4. It’s a reach. She did enjoy the beginning of it. They have done a pretty decent job restoring the Saturn 5 that was laying on it’s side in the original space park. It’s now suspended in an environmentally controlled building, and it’s been cleaned up. They have all sorts of exhibits in the building, and Mary loved the science (kid friendly) demonstrations.

Then, the second treat. Kung Fu Panda on the Imax screen!

First off : None of the following apply to Kids.

Second: Rectangular projection movies should NEVER be played on a spherical screen. I think it’s Mercator’s revenge.

Third: Grandma would violently agree with the above.

I enjoyed most of the center. It needs money. It needs massive amounts of restoration done, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s getting much of that, even with the money it’s getting. It seems like much of the facility is now devoted to Space Camp (and hey, *I* went to Space Camp). It’s a shame that Space Camp is taking the priority away from the history, as much of Space Camp itself IS history now. Look to the future, but always remember the past.

The fact that we can’t DO some of our very recent past anymore is very troublesome to me. We haven’t been out of low earth orbit in practically my entire lifetime. And that isn’t progress.

Kennedy’s quote about space being the next ocean, and America needing to be able to sail it seems quite right to be on the wall of the US Space center. Why does it feel like we stuck our toe in, said “WOW, that’s cold” and walked away?

We finished up, and took some tired kids home. They slept a large part of the trip. They needed their strength for the last phase.

The Pictures are up now, the post will follow when the Video is done.

This turned out to be pretty easy, as Grandmother met us at the Cullman exit Crackerbarrel. Neither kid knew anything about it, and their faces when they saw her was priceless. Mary was all smiles, and William was literally trying to rip himself out of the car seat to get to her.

William was funny, as immediately after getting Grandma, he holds his hands up and to the side, and with a quizical look, “Papa?”

Papa was still at home, as his treatments haven’t left him with much energy. Thankfully they will be over soon.

We had figured that this would reduce the amount of time the kids were in the car, and give them some time with the Grandparents. They just don’t seem to get enough of that anyways! Next week was the Airshow in Huntsville, so we’d return for that. In the meantime, we had our own plans!

And no, it’s not what you think! (or us for that matter).

We bought the Kids a playfort. That was Monday Lunchtime. I’ll now show you the following week. It’s completely wrong than an entire week compresses to 30 seconds. It looks best if you press the expand icon next to the Vimeo logo. That will show the clip in 720p High def.

Playhouse Construction from Greg Nicholson on Vimeo.
Rockwalls and Upside down mounting beams SUCK.

We spent practically every available moment building this thing. Both came home at lunch, and we worked from 5 till after ten most nights to get this done before the kids returned. Jeff was quite happy at first, when on Wed, it started to storm. She actually thought I might stop and we could go eat dinner at the local Mexican place. HA! There were parts that could be constructed in the Garage. She didn’t speak very much to me that night.

I don’t think the kids missed us at all, although they did ask once if we thought about them. Oh, I assured them, they never wandered from our minds.

Storms were forecast for Friday evening but the morning was beautiful. The kids had a blast playing on the driveway. They escaped the house after MaryVic was dressed. I caught William on the driveway wearing nothing but a diaper as he chased MaryVic to the ‘doghouse’ to get Poppa. I dressed him as he scooted on his bottom yelling ‘Poppa!’ The driveway concrete being too rough to crawl on.

Here comes sister back!

Special package delivery and no you don’t get to keep the egg.

Playing with brother as she runs circles round him.

Posing with the precious pink egg.

All worship the egg!

William figured out he could scoot up into the garage, push back and roll out of the shade into the sun on a slight slope. This would have entertained him all day.

As you get tired. you have to put more effort into it.

But this may be overkill.

Taking a break and Mom, why don’t you take a break from the camera!

We played ball too. William would get the ball, sit up and try to kick it. It wasn’t a good system but they had fun until MaryVic fell on the driveway. Poppa said she was going to fall.

Now we have a Dora band-aid on each knee. She still guards the special delivery package egg though!

We joined everyone for lunch at El Rancho.

Aunt Brenda came and ate with us!

William had some of Dot’s red velvet cake and El Rancho cake. I didn’t think he was going to eat the red velvet and took it. Needless to say he had a problem with that, wanted it back and did eat it despite someone at the table saying children don’t like red velvet cake.

The Birthday girl!

MaryVic skipped the red velvet cake in favor of 2 pieces of El Rancho yellow cake.

More friends off to the side.

Max and Justin.

How dare Mom take my cake!

Walking downtown Arab.

She was running ahead so I teased her that she couldn’t touch the flag which set her to jumping like a cat beneath it.

She found a few feathers but then found a big one here. It was greasy and all kinds of nasty so we had to have a discussion about how it was NOT going in the van. She finally dropped it after realizing that none of her ‘buts’ were going to work.

It was a nice lunch with good friends. Later we loaded up and headed back home to Franklin with MaryAlice. It took a while but William finally took a bit of a nap along the way. We managed to beat Greg home and have dinner ready for him when he arrived.

While the kids took a bath, we wrapped Mary Alice’s gift, an iTouch from Apple for listening to her audiobooks. Greg gave it to her and showed her how to use it while I got the kids to bed.

We still hadn’t gotten to cake in Franklin but we like to spread birthdays out for a while and when your Grandmomma is as extra special as Mary Alice, you sing Happy Birthday everyday and count your lucky stars!

Our first stop was El Rancho for lunch. William latched on to Ms. Dot. I think his opinion is she has the third best lap after Momma and Grandmomma. He sat with her for the whole meal.

We went strawberry picking Wednesday afternoon. It was hot and the lady in charge sent us down an aisle with a huge mud puddle. I didn’t realize how deep it was until my entire foot went under. MaryVic lost a shoe in the muck and there was no water to rinse anything off. Between that incident, the sun and the heat, it just wasn’t as fun as remembered. I think she went strawberry picking later in the year last time. Grandmomma bought a basket and we’ve been munching on them during our visit.

There’s a red one! William was unhappy the whole time considering he didn’t get his feet muddy,.

and that was enough strawberries!

At the playground on Thursday.

Running a milkshake shop. These pictures are all after the big fall.

William took a turn at management.

Being brave and making everyone nervous.

He climbed so far and then wouldn’t put his feet down. I took him off and put him back when he fussed. He wouldn’t let me set him up top with sister but wouldn’t climb either. I finally had to put him down and let him tantrum it out for a few seconds before he moved on to something else.

Lunch at El Rancho. He amused everyone by using one french fry to eat all his ketchup. He did eat his half of his cheese sandwich first.

and MaryVic ate her half.

There were no problems on Wednesday. The family had breakfast at Shoney’s before Greg headed to Bardstown, KY for work and I took the children to visit the Nicholsons. The kids loved playing all around their grandparents house. Grandmomma had new toys so they were happy. We had lunch at El Rancho and dinner at Cherokee Ridge.

Dot and Max ate with us at both places. William sat with Dot during lunch and ate up all the attention. MaryVic talked with everyone and had 2 pieces of chocolate cake. We got to see Rhonda for the first time in forever. Justin and the Brannons were there.

MaryVic had to go say hello to Ms. Lavelle at Cherokee Ridge and then insisted on asking Grandmomma repeatedly to go back to talk to Ms. Lavelle. She refused to go on her own. MaryVic then ‘entertained’ everyone by running back and forth across the front of the room. Dinner was a long time coming so it was hard to keep her sitting at the table.

I was amused by all the comments from Dot and Max about how quiet and good William was. He really was being good until we left. Momma and Grandmomma had issues with him scooting across the parking lot on his bottom in the dark. He let everyone know how unreasonable this was when Grandmomma picked him up. I guess he was feeling shy up till then as he didn’t say anything to anyone but was smiles and friendly.

He crawled, scooted, pushed his shopping cart and played hard all afternoon. Unfortunately the end result of all the activity despite a long car ride, was a fit at bedtime. He cried and fussed for a while until he fell asleep. He would semi-wake and cry out during the night. I gave him some tylenol which did help him fall asleep.

Amazingly, William was up and going the next morning. Mostly crawling but getting around. We thought it would be good to take the kids to the park before lunch. Everyone was having a good time. William wanted to try out a different playground unit. I should have known better as MaryAlice pointed out, it was painted orange and blue in Auburn colors (joke!). There was an opening between the top landing and the one with a tunnel to the slide. William fell in-between and down to the ground, about a 3 foot fall. I jumped down to grab him but he was already on the ground, screaming.

He cried for a good bit scaring Mom and Grandmomma. Grandmomma had been checking on her garden club’s plants across the park and came running back. He wouldn’t go to Grandmomma and wouldn’t let go of Momma. Gradually he calmed down and got tired of Mom moving his legs and feeling them. He started playing again, standing while holding on to the bars and crawling through the tunnels.

We went back to the El Rancho for lunch where he got sympathetic loving from Dot and ate lunch in Momma’s lap before deciding to get in his high chair. After lunch, he wanted to go see Dot again so I held his hand and we walked to the other end of the table. His effort resulted in lots of cheers and he was so pleased with himself that we walked out to the crosswalk, across the street and past the van. Once he realized he passed the van, we walked back, around the van and he climbed in himself. He can’t quite get into his car seat on his own yet.

You would have thought that was enough excitement but MaryVic didn’t have any souvenirs of the trip yet. She fell while playing on the driveway and scrapped her knee. Fortunately that was alleviated with leftover chocolate cake from Wednesday’s lunch. It wasn’t enough though. Add a busted lip to the equation. Apparently she was so busy looking at how big things are with her magnifying glass that she didn’t realize the huge countertop was so close. She bumped off of it and busted her lip on the magnifying glass.

Needless to say Grandmomma and I were more than ready for a glass of wine with dinner. Thankfully William didn’t have any problems falling asleep at bedtime. Hopefully Grandmomma’s birthday will be less exciting.

William is doing well progress wise. He will walk independently for a short distance, like 2-3 feet or less, a couple times a day. His long walk yesterday was while holding one hand of mine although he would grab it with both of his. He is scooting along on his bottom more frequently although crawling is still the quickest way to get from point a to point b. The only positive thing I can think about the fall is maybe he’ll realize he can fall and not get hurt as badly as he did when his leg broke and he’ll gain more confidence to move around. However, I think we’ll look to other confidence building activities in the future!

I was tickled and saddened to see him on the red tricycle last night scooting with his left leg. There was a smaller big wheel and he could reach the ground with both feet on it. It didn’t compare to the flash of the red tricycle. He howled the whole time MaryVic was riding on it and climbed on as soon as she stopped. Unfortunately he couldn’t reach the ground with both feet. He scooted around by leaning off slightly to the left, making the right leg look even shorter. He was happy though.

The plan for today is to have a birthday lunch at El Rancho with Grandmomma and her friends then head back home. It is Main Street Festival in Franklin this weekend so we’ll see how William does in the Children’s area.

What she now wants as a pet

!

More fun at Grandmommas:

But that’s okay when you have stylish bug boots!