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.

It was his great misfortune to still be on the light when I was leaving for lunch. A co-worker volunteered to help me catch the wee beastie and between the two of, with no squealing I might add, we got him in a box for me to take home to show the kiddies. Needless to say, Greg was thrilled. “You have what?” “No you cannot keep it.”

He was too big for the kids bug boxes as he was between 4 and 5 inches long, as long or bigger than Greg’s hand so I used a clear plastic pitcher to keep him in overnight. MaryVic was awed and drew pictures of him for school. William didn’t notice it at all. Yeah, yeah, I’m coloring here.

We took him to ‘school’ the next morning and all the kids were thrilled with one Dad making a “Fearsome Five!” comment. The three year old class was called over to look at it. William noticed it then and began excitedly pointed and waving “HI!” to it. He was even jockeying for a place to see it as the other children crowded around Ms. Nita’s desk to see it. It was decided he could see it best by scaling Momma.

After the excitement of the daycare and car ride, he was quite happy to rest on the reference desk for a while. I released him into a nearby flower garden onto some day lilies where he blended in very well.

Climbing the daylily.

Cleaning up.

Looks like his ready to catch his next meal.

Definitely giving me the evil eye. Go away crazy woman so I can catch some food after you have starved me 24 hrs!

He was really cool to catch and see. I wish the pitcher shots had come out better because he was huge! Hopefully he survives and maybe I’ll see him again around the library.

We went to the Wednesday storytime for preschoolers as we missed the Monday Toddler Time. MaryVic had a great time but William was a bit distracted. He wanted to push the stroller all over the place. They both enjoyed the craft and visiting everyone.

It was a nice day and we went to the playground outside the library.

Last year, Mary couldn’t do this without help. This year she has mastered it and insisted on having several pictures taken.

Very proud!

Lunch with Daddy afterwards. She was being goofy and refused to smile.

I found a toy that they hadn’t seen in a while and she’s begging William to share it. He would look at her and go “NO!

Dance class on Saturday. Another one spent walking the stroller.

Little did I know it was in preparation for this! We went to the Family Fun Zone at Thoroughbred Theater. We took the shopping cart with us. He pushed the cart around, chased the Chik-Fil-a cow and was able to flee the other mascots in this manner. I sat down with him in the chalk drawing area and asked him if he wanted to draw. I pointed him towards the chalk and pushed his cart on over. This was the second or third piece of chalk because I was so surprised to see him start walking independently. I was busy cheering and yelling at Greg who was being superdad and standing with MaryVic in the facepaint line.

After that I was brave enough to put him in a bouncy with some other tots. It was 4 years old and younger only and not crowded.

He liked being in but this is all he did. He went in it again but immediately wanted out.

The next morning I heard MaryVic coaxing William down the stairs. It is the first time since the accident that William got out of bed himself (the guest bed) and came downstairs. “Come on little fella, it’s not far now…” They were very cute. They haven’t made another trip down the stairs together.

One of only two pictures I have of William walking at the zoo on Sunday. I think there was the ‘help, my feet won’t stop’ red shoes deal going on. He would stop and squat frequently to rest. He occasionally laid down in the path to rest. He did not want us to pick him up and if we persisted in asking, he’d get up and go for a little bit more.

Sunday was probably the most he has walked with it getting less frequent as the week goes on. He does a mix of moving via crawling and walking. I picked up papers from daycare and we’ll see how he does on Tuesday for half day.

We’ve kept busy and went to Toddler Time this past Monday. He did walk around the library. He fell down the bonus room stairs Monday night but was okay. He calmed down fairly quickly compared to the playground fall in Arab.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school. William and I did the grocery shopping and visited Home Depot for lock for the front door. MaryVic can unlock it so Greg has put a flip lock at the top. Not high security but it should keep her in. She stepped out one day and I thought she was with Greg, he thought she was with me… I found her wandering on the sidewalk in front of the house. I think she was looking for aliens. I don’t know why the child security doorknob thing works on the other doors. Yes, we do have one on the front door. I guess I should take it off now.

Yesterday we went to the pool and stayed around the house in the afternoon. It was interesting as the air conditioning guys were here until in the evening. A little more interesting when we found the hole in the ceiling but they were genuinely apologetic. As MaryVic, likes to say ‘accident’s happen’.

I twittered yesterday about the doctor and it doesn’t seem to be anything major. I woke up Tuesday morning and checked on William who was fussing at 3 a.m. I noticed my right eye hurt and went to get it checked. The doctor said it was probably just sinuses and gave me some prescription eyedrop samples. She told me to take some sudafed.

Today is a quiet, rainy day. We may go to the pool again after naps. We’ll just take it easy and let the air conditioning guys finish up. The patching guys have already been here and will be back next week. Air conditioning guys are back to finish up. Greg is home talking to them so we should be all done with that soon!

On Monday morning he decided to ‘help’ me push the stroller around the library. I was carrying him while MaryVic rode in it. He does get heavy after a while, even without a spica cast. He squirmed confirmation so I put him on the floor. He crawled to it, pulled himself up and started trying to push it. He couldn’t get forward momentum without assistance at first but he ‘helped’ me traverse the whole library. He started to get some momentum right before we had to leave. I let him push all the way out to the van and he had a tantrum when I took the stroller away from him.

We went to the park on Monday too and he decided to independently walk a yard or so. I left him standing with nothing around and set down on the ground a few feet away. He was screaming but he decided to come over where I was sitting. He fell down once but stood up again and came until he was sitting down next to me. I was not deliberately trying to push him but he was being a bit bossy so I guess it was a ‘mommy tantrum.’

He decided to give the play shopping cart at home another try. He pushed it around for a long time in the evening. Once he was going, he was so tickled with himself that he didn’t want to stop.

All the walking took a toll. He fell asleep crying. On Tuesday, he flat refused to walk or crawl. He must have been very sore because he wanted me to carry him everywhere. Pinkerton Park was slammed with cars parked out to the main road so I took the kids to Strahl Street Park by the Community Service Building off of Fowlkes Street. It is a nice little park. William crawled the primary playground unit three times then insisted on being carried around everywhere.

I finally gave up and put him in a very warm bath with epsom salts for over 30 minutes in the afternoon. MaryVic joined him and they played for a long time. He felt better after the bath and tackled the shopping cart again. He pushed it around some and cried when I picked him up to put him in the van. He tried to push it out the laundry room to the van but I caught him and took it back in the house.

We took the kids to Chik-Fil-A for dinner. He scooted into the play area on his bottom and climbed into the little airplane unit where he could spin the steering wheel. He crawled to the unit to climb up for the slide and could make it up the first two steps which are pretty much on top of each other. He was too short to get any higher. It was probably for the best since MaryVic tended to get ‘stuck’ at the top of this unit during our first family nights at the restaurant. He would scoot around on his bottom to get to the play area and chase after the Cow in this manner. Usually he resorts to crawling which is a faster so it was funny to see him scooting.

He fussed some Tuesday night while falling asleep but not as bad as Monday night. He tossed his leg at one point and cried afterwards. He did fall asleep relatively quick. I can say that none of this fussing is as bad as during the ‘cast’ period. MaryVic came and got on the guest bed with us. I left them sleeping on the guest bed together in a pillow fence and they slept all night.

It is exciting to see him up and around. I’m so happy to see him starting to ‘go’ now. There is a tinge of sadness too as I notice the limp he has now. I’m so glad he is going to outgrown it and won’t be able to remember any of this. He truly is a little trooper.

I was in the kitchen Monday morning and heard shrieks which always require investigating. They were watching Cat in the Hat on the computer and William had decided it was more fun to spin MaryVic in the office chair. She was more than glad to let him because hey, a little brother has to be good for something!

And she reaps the benefits of all the upper body strength he developed while in the spica cast.

He enjoyed it as much as her.

It was unusually cold Monday morning but pretty. I took the kids to the library despite the temperature. Here they are playing on the preschool computers in the children’s department before Toddler Time. They had a good time at the storytime about Bugs!

After Toddler Time we went up to Momma’s office where she has some neat things like balls and slinkies.

And oooo… bookmarks!

Bookmark or ball?

Momma needs help. Look at this mess!

Yes, this needs to go.

and it does.

Then there are two helpers and then the shredder gets unplugged!

Monday continued with rounds in the library to visit co-workers, lunch with Daddy and then home for naps. We stayed in the rest of the day although MaryVic campaigned to go to the indoor pool. It is not heated so Momma vetoed pool visits. William did walk in the library a little bit while holding on to Momma and while holding on to Daddy with one hand in the evening! We have him climbing the stairs at bedtime now, all 16 steps.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school so Momma did some cleaning. First she moved everything into the den and playroom to mop. William watched a show after he tried to climb a chair and get on the coffee table. The subsequent scolding sent him to climb up on the bathroom stool where he perched the whole time I was mopping.

Daddy came home from lunch and left the van. William took his nap and then we were off to get sister.

Everyone was glad to see him out of the cast although he took one look at Ms. Cathy and promptly hid from her, tucking his face into my neck. He perked up and then played spider on Momma while I talked to her. We found MaryVic in her class. Apparently everyone got the memo and all the little girls were in a pink outfits and the only boy was in a blue polo, very cute.

Ms. Cathy gave us a gift from Williams class. She told Greg and I about it weeks ago. She said it took forever to dry. The kids stepped in paint and walked on the paper. The teachers wrote the children’s names next to the footprints at different places on the sheet. A cute idea and it was sweet of them to think of him. I do have to laugh at the irony of it though.

She gave the roll to MaryVic to carry, ‘Can you carry William’s gift to the car?’ or something like that. All I know is William heard his name and started shrieking at the fact sister was touching something of HIS! So William got to carry it to the car. It was long enough that both of them had to hold it in their laps on the way home which William tolerated. He couldn’t wait to get it unrolled. I kept hearing paper noises and finally there was the rip.

We made it home with it mostly intact . MaryVic carried it in via the front door while I unloaded William and he pouted about it. I kept them from destroying it during the unraveling process. William promptly crawled all over it repeatedly. MaryVic crawled around with him too. At first he fussed about that but decided it was more fun to play with her on it.

Just a picture taken while waiting for Daddy to come home so we could all go see the cow!

We had dinner at Chik-Fil-A. The balloon guy was astounded to see William out of his cast. He really is very nice and made a big deal of it. He made William another special balloon with lots of twists. A race car balloon! MaryVic got a balloon wand with which she proceeded to attack the cow. Literally, I had to go get her at least twice and pull her away from cow. Momma, I’m hitting him on the nose! Yes, I saw that and you need to stop or cow is going to start going the other way when he sees you! And he did, unfortunately, so we had William at our table, “Coow! No…Cow!” So no cow high fives for William. Cow took a break right after that and it was time for us to go.

The next couple of days are supposed to be nice so we’ll be shooting for the park, indoor pool and zoo before Friday when it is supposed to rain again. Greg has added Twitter to the web blog. I input where we are which I was doing via Facebook. I’ll be able to input it via Twitter and it will update my Facebook page and the blog page. It seems pretty nifty.