It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

The best and hardest point of my day is usually walking from home. That's when both Laura and Alice are at the window waving enthustically and wishing me a good day. It warms my heart so much to see them, but it cuts a bit that I am leaving them for the day.

As problems go, having family that love you very much and are not afraid to show it is a pretty good problem to have. 

Banana Airplane

This morning while holding a half eaten banana (with peel) Alice says "banana airplane! Naaa errrrr!" as she glides her banana around.

These are the awesome moments that I want to remember.

Update: that evening we had a great presentation of the bread cow on the kitchen-table-engeti. Moo moo mmmm!

Challenge Accepted!

One of the more challenging things to take pictures of (for me) lately is our daughter. She will smile, but for a 1/250 of a second. She's have neat, done up hair, for 7 seconds. Most of the time she'll stay in one place - but that doesn't mean that she's still. Using natural light can be a bit of a challenge.

I've also got to figure out which apperature I should use to get all the faces in the focus, yet still have a nice short depth of field. There are always more challenges.

Why is daddy going "darrh!" all the time?

The important things

I can get bummed out sometimes. A lot of the time it's related to being stuck inside (unexercised), sometimes it's because I see people I care about posting anti-vaccine crap. Sometimes it's because I feel behind on things.

Then I look at my family and all the rest falls away. Only happiness is left.

Happiness. Laughter. Love.

The Future

The future is just a kind of history that hasn't happened yet.

— Bruce Sterling

Robotic Cookie Overlords

Tonight as I was putting non-bake cookies onto wax paper to dry, I was thinking that it would be really cool if I didn't have to do this. Yes, it was mostly because my back was killing me and I was standing in our 3 season sunroom which was below zero. But think about it. A fridge that can know what you have in it and order replacements. Drones that fly purchases to your home in 30 minutes. A programmable robot that can make cookies in your own home. The smell of a small batch of freshly baked cookies, within an hour of thinking of it. Well, unless you schedule cookies to be baked or that robots truly become much smarter than they are and can anticipate human feelings and how to correct them. Imagine that - your smart phone figuring out that you've had a bad day, so by the time you get home there are some still-warm cookies and some hot coco waiting for you. Yum.

Now, I'm not the first person to think of a totally automatic house. Not even the bad things that could happen like Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains. There can always be a downside.

But I just want some freshly made cookies.

Good times

It's that time of the year - time for reflection, family, friends, and staying in the warm as much as possible. Things are good. I'm having fun. Best of all, Alice looks good doing her toque and mitten power move.