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Scoutland Fall Family Camping 2011 (7 photos)

Galio (1 photos)

Scoutland Fall Family Camping 2009 (17 photos)

Troop 3 (well, most of the Tiger Scouts anyway) of First Presbyterian Church met at Scoutland on Lake Lanier for a brisk weekend of camping. Friday it rained and soaked us all through. Saturday it was cold, but sunny. It made for a memorable weekend - and a first time camping for many of them.

Bonnaroo 2009 (6 photos)

Mother's Day (2 photos)

Aquarium of the Americas: New Orleans (7 photos)

Las Vegas - VMWorld 2008 (16 photos)

Alchemy Drumming & Dance (63 photos)

Halloween 2008 (6 photos)

Sorscha (62 photos)

Bobble-Head Trooper (10 photos)

An Arm's Length (8 photos)

Self-portraits shot at arm's length. Mine just might be the perfect distance.

Philadelphia (48 photos)

Lake Lanier: Drought 2007 (7 photos)

One of the hardest droughts in the last 50 years hit the southeastern United States and had a grave impact on everyone. Here are my pictures of a local lake, Lake Lanier.

Callaway Gardens (12 photos)

Hondo, Texas (14 photos)

It's Nowheresville, but near enough to San Antonio.

World of Wheels 2008 (12 photos)

The Wonderful World of Wheels. I'm not totally into this, but cool cars, bikes, and wicked paint jobs can lure anyone!

Christmas 2007 (8 photos)

The people, sights, and gifts of the holiday season of Yule and Christmas.

Halloween 2007 (10 photos)

VMworld 2007 (22 photos)

San Francisco, California

Dragon*Con (95 photos)

The biggest congregation of freaks and geeks in the nation. Dragon*Con is a massive display of Sci-Fi, Goth, gamer, alternative culture, anime, film, costumer convention goers. We were there, as we always will be.

Costumes (81 photos)

Halo 2 (13 photos)

The life and times of Covenant and Human forces before the war.

Halloween 2005 (8 photos)

Amy spent one entire night on Balthazar's parrot costume. She put it together while vacationing in Florida and had a great success!

Disney World - 2007 (71 photos)

An adventure into Walt Disney's World of imagination and wonder.

My 30th (5 photos)

Egads! I'm 30 now. It seems like only recently I was still in my 20's.

Easter `07 (4 photos)

Balthazar (436 photos)

All things Balthazar.

Me (157 photos)

All things Olaf.

Spousal Unit (94 photos)

All things Amy.

Favorite Christmas Ornaments (5 photos)

Some Good Ones (51 photos)

Self-awarded best (and even some that have been judged a la Flickr - aren't theme groups fun?!?).

Friends (52 photos)

Friends of Olaf. Sorry.

Flora & Fauna (102 photos)

Mostly images from around the house, but there are some other locations too.

Creatures (73 photos)

Creatures great and small.

Arts & Crafts (23 photos)

Drawings, graphics, and other artistic mediums I've worked through.

Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze (7 photos)

2006 Fall festivity!

Make the Mackerel (5 photos)

Flickr Group: Fluffy Mackerel Candy Boots: Weight Watcher's Recipes You should visit Candy Boots' site to read her segment on the subject. It's a grand way to spend your weekend with friends.

Bear on the Square (10 photos)

Dahlonega, GA is the home of Bear on the Square each year. It's a festival of Blue Grass music, crafts, and Appalachian arts.

Pensacola Beach Vacations (155 photos)

Dancing Goat Farm (7 photos)

My mom's hobby farm, Dancing Goat. There, she works hard to maintain dairy goats, chickens, sheep, and other barnyard animals.

Atlantic Station: St. Patrick's Day (18 photos)

Black & White (32 photos)

Black & White, sepia, or other monochromatic images.

Skate Country (5 photos)

One night we kicked it "old school" and hit Skate Country. We got tired after an hour.

New Year's: 2006 (10 photos)

As the world spun beneath the moon's glow, a new year crept across it's surface like a slick spreading over the sea. Be kind to those on the far side of the globe that have not yet felt the new year. Send affirmations of hope - 2006 and all's well!

Christmas 2005 (4 photos)

Christmas Adam, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

RACE Art Show (4 photos)

RACE - An art show at Athica in Athens, GA

Yellow Daisy: 2005 (11 photos)

The Yellow Daisy Festival. Held in Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta.

Destination: Canada (19 photos)

Work sent some of us to Waterloo, Canada for a couple of days. Along the way, we took a look at Niagara Falls and ate at the Anchor Bar - home of the original wings.

North Georgia Celtic Festival (11 photos)

The 4th annual festival of this type. Hosted by our good friends, Emerald Rose.

Harry Potter: Book 6 (6 photos)

We loaded up the studio lighting and set material to do a gig for Chapter 11 Books. The event was a midnight release of the new Harry Potter book.

Atlanta Flickr Group: Celestial Studios (16 photos)

Celestial Studios welcomes the Atlanta Flickr Group for lessons in studio photography.

Atlanta Photo Stroll 5 (25 photos)

My first ever, but worth revisiting. What a great group of people to shoot!

Hall County Master Gardeners (13 photos)

I took most of these pictures for the simple fact that I wanted to remember these plants for my own use. As it turns out, I don't remember all of the plant names anyway.

Atlanta Photo Stroll 6 (32 photos)

Atlanta Botanical Gardens: Asian Cultural Experience

Barnstroll: Summer 2005 (18 photos)

A morning run in Gainesville to check out the local culuture. The bugs and heat eventually drove Studio Antwan and I away.

Father's Day 2005 (9 photos)

I thought a lot about what this day means this year. I wrote a blurb about it here and there.

Athfest 2005 (17 photos)

Kidsfest (part of Athfest) drumming by Alchemy in Athens, GA.

Atlanta StriFest 2005 (59 photos)

Welcoming Striatic, Emily Ann, Fubuki, and friends to Altanta hospitality.

Festival of the Arts (6 photos)

Canton, GA hosted the Festival of the Arts. It's pretty much a standard festival, but we went for the hot air balloon launch. This was the family's first experience in this.

Louisiana Nights (10 photos)

Many thanks to Salemah for inviting us to this awesome gig!

Blairsville Scottish Festival & Highland Games (8 photos)

www.blairsvillescottishfestival.org/

The folks I know best!

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Sorscha the Serious

Olaf — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:09:58 +0000

We’re starting to see a more wakeful baby now. She’s staying awake during longer periods of the day – only to nurse relentlessly upon her mother. She has gained a good amount of weight and shows all signs of being a very healthy girl. Of some uniqueness, she’s quite grunty. We get the impression that she’s largely displeased with being awake. However, she’s still not very fussy. As we’re seeing more of her eyes now, I think they’re going to be green/hazel like ours.

Sorscha Valkyrie

Olaf — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:43:48 +0000

The latest member of our family made her gooey entrance around noon today. She cleans up well, however. Balthazar is so happy to be a big brother, and Sorscha’s mother and I are, of course, completely in love with the new girl. She’s such a beautiful, healthy girl; I couldn’t ask for anything more. Mommy is doing very well after her surgery too. She’ll be getting up tomorrow to begin her walking recovery and we should be heading home in a few days.

Sorscha Valkyrie Gradin weighed in at 6lbs. 11oz. and measured 20.5″ in length. She’s capable of thawing icebergs with a look, but has used her powers for good to warm the heart of every soul she meets.

Smallest, and Newest Member of the Empire’s Finest

Olaf — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:21:19 +0000

Guess who has the coolest costume on the block? Balthazar does! His best (and only) Uncle-figure went all out and got together a suit of youth Storm Trooper gear for Balthazar this year. He’s been working on it for a while now and it’s finally finished. Sunday, he brought it over and we had an event of fitting it to him. It took all day of Jeff sitting on a partially constructed floor in our garage fitting, grinding, shaping, and gluing PVC armor components for a perfect fit. Balthazar was a real trooper and went back and forth for component fittings the whole time. He was so excited about it, I don’t think he even noticed the minor discomfort of ill-fitted plastic pieces. After hours of labor, the costume was finally ready for him and by dinner he was able to dance around the house in his new Storm Trooper costume. The whole thing is constructed exactly the same as the screen-accurate versions adults where. All the details are there, though he’ll need a smaller blaster to fit the scale issue a bit better. Jeff and I are going to try and throw together the remaining Star Wars costumes this Halloween to take him out on the town. I’ll be Chewbacca, Jeff might be C-3PO, and we’ll have the littlest Storm Trooper ever. It ought to be a hoot! We’ve got to hit every spot in town possible to get full use out this before he out grows it…in a week! Actually, there should be enough material for him to grow into it a year or two. After that, we’ll have to make a fancy display of it on a little mannequin.

Oh man, he’s going to have a real ball at Halloween this year!

I’m a Climate Witness

Olaf — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:05:00 +0000

I was contacted a while back by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), originally through Flickr from a picture I posted on the severe drought conditions around Lake Lanier. I was invited to write a “Climate Witness” story to tell the world about how the climate has changed in northeast Georgia from my perspective. It has taken me a while working with a representative from the WWF to get the story completed, but we finally did it! As of the 28th of August, my Climate Witness story has been published on the panda.org website.

Go check it out and read some of the other Climate Witness stories there while you’re at it. They come from all over the world and offer some interesting perspectives.

The First Day at School

Olaf — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:58:12 +0000

Yesterday was Balthazar’s first day of school. It started early that morning and the whole family was up for the affair. We drove him in and walked him to his class. It’s one of those “big steps” in a child’s life. I am excited about the idea of him becoming independent and beginning his formal education. He’s growing up and I look forward to all the things we’ll do together in the years to come. Amy, on the other hand, has a distinctly different take on her little baby’s first steps in the big world. Her experience was miserable as a child, and didn’t apparently get much better in later years. She hated school, and she doesn’t want Balthazar to have a hard time either. Balthazar began his journey into the world with a brave heart. I was proud of him for being so courageous in the face of the unknown – I had very few worries.

After school, Balthazar was to take a bus over to his after-school care with some friends – apparently more like 20. We knew it was a lot to manage in one day, so we agreed to pick him up early from there. He barely managed to get out some vague details about his day before he passed out completely in his car seat. The guy was worn flat-out by his adventures. It turns out his day was a mixture of fear and fun. We weren’t able to convey the amount of time he’d spend at school, though technically it was less than what he spent in pre-K and after-school before. He got scared and cried a little bit early in the day. After some lunch and recess time, it sounded like he came to better terms with it.

As parents, we hate to know that our child was upset and afraid. You’re completely helpless when they’re away and having these feelings. I guess that’s what it is that parents really get upset over when their child gains some independence. You really feel the need to continue helping them and holding their hands when obstacles arrive, but you just have to let them make a go at it themselves. You do everything you can to ensure that they’re going to do good in the world and that they’ll have every manner of protection at their disposal, then you send them out the door to see how you did. It surprised me a lot that he had an emotional break-down at school. Not that that’s unordinary by any means, I just thought that he would have such a great time.

Today is Friday and he’s off on his second day at school. As a testament to his courage, he said yesterday that he wanted to go again. Even though there were some rough spots to contend with, Balthazar has stood back up to give it another try. I believe that he’ll have done much better this time, and he may even begin doing the things that we all loved at school; making friends.

Twitter Updates for 2008-07-21

Olaf — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Just saw a Flickr photo by Tim Williams on display @ the Phily Zoo! #
Blitzkrieg of activities today; zoo, Big Bus tour, Natural Science Museum, and now the pirates exhibit @ the Franklin. #

World of Wheels

Olaf — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:11:07 +0000

We attended our first ever World of Wheels show in Atlanta this year with friends. We are largely unfamiliar with the “World of Wheels,” as it were, though it was actually cooler than I had imagined. Balthazar had a time running from brightly colored car to Hot Wheels-inspired dream. We enjoyed the fantastic detail put into the artwork in the show. I didn’t realize that the pros painted pin stripe details by hand! We watched a guy doing some work on a Power Wheels truck. The highlight for the boy was a Lightning McQueen replica and a cameo appearance of SpongeBob and friends. While the Nickelodeon cartoon stars don’t exactly say “World of Wheels,” they did entertain the children.

If one has skills…

Olaf — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:54:06 +0000

…if one has skills, one could make the slums bloom with no money at all, simply by work and skills.
— George Nakashima

The Family Portrait

Olaf — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:40:27 +0000

For Christmas this year, I commissioned Len Peralta of monsterbymail.com to do our family portraits. He did a wonderful job – a wonderfully gruesome job! I built a frame to finish it out and presented it to Amy Christmas morning. It was a fun present, certainly an unexpected one.

I detailed the frame over at Lumberjocks. Head over there if you’re interested in learning about the construction details.