Grassy And Sassy

The Fine Print

The men's restroom at The WAB. You can relieve yourself, read amateur political commentary, and get your picture taken, all in the course of five minutes.

Sexy Listing

Heather loves making lists. She has lists for everything that it is possible to make a list for and a few things that aren't. I find that very sexy.

Jonesing for A Jones

Zach's current favorite thing in the known universe is Jones Soda Carbonated Candies.

The Wisdom Of Zach, Volume 2

September 28th, 2002

(After reading the book Cappy Boppy, about a family that adopts a Capybara as a pet)

(Z) "We don't have any animals?"

(Dad) "No, do you want one?"

(Z) "Yeah!"

(Dad) "What do you want?"

(Z) "A DINOSAUR!"

The Peas Are "Peaing"!!!

I love snow peas. The parents grow them in their extravagent garden every year, and we sneak over and steal them with reckless abandon at every opportunity. This is prime pea season here, and I couldn't resist riding my bike over there to snatch some tonight.

The Wisdom Of Zach, Volume 1

November 11th, 2006

(Dad) "I'm going to teach you how to play baseball next summer."

(Z) "No, I want to be a Ninja! They teach you how to climb trees like cats."

Journies In Cyberspace

Dennis has started a blog. Check it out at:

A Look At The World

"A wise man once said, "the journey of a thousand miles starts with an oil change and a check of the tire pressure". This is, in my case, the tire pressure check; the first entry in my blog. I know at least one person will read this, Sensei Wild, from whom I've learned much."
~ Dennis

It will be interesting to see if Vigo does any guest posts.

Rain Tea

Heather loves to make sun tea. Yesterday, it wasn't sun tea so much. We had a storm.

A Day In Dearborn

We had "Bring your child to work day" last Thursday. I knew I was in trouble early on, when Zach started banging his head on the wall during a ten minute meeting with my boss, and afterwards proclaimed "Dad, that was Soooo Looooooooong!!!". You can just imagine how the hour and a half late afternoon program review went over. I think his skull was literally about to burst open from boredom. That would have been quite a messy scene. The meeting ended just in time.

He did like going to Fair Lane, the one-time home of Henry and Clara Ford. We wandered around the grounds there admiring the kind of house you can build when you can afford anything, and then went for a sushi lunch. That's one thing Old Henry probably never did.

A Very Bad Habit

We're going to BBQ Coco steaks on the 4th if she keeps this up.

Wet Summer Fun

Remember this stuff from being a kid? I do. It's almost as fun watching it as a parent.

"I Wouldn't Go So Far As To Call A Dog Filthy... "

"...but they're definitely dirty."

Coco Mofo and Jake have been partying hard all summer and they have the nasty stank to prove it. Yesterday they got hosed down in the yard just to take the edge off and give us a little "peace of nose". They did not like it so much, as you can see from Coco's response.

Luna Flora

This is the moon flower picture I used as a logo for my photography business.

Mammals, Strewn About

We often have scenes like these at home. It is interesting to note that if Coco was not on that red blanket she would be almost completely invisible on the leather couch. If she did not have lightning reflexes she would have been flattened by someone sitting down long ago.

Alcatraz

What a depressing, dingy place. You would think they would at least hang some art or something. Almost has the feel of a prison.

Infestation

I really need to fix that hole in the screen.

Passing Moments

I think every moment is a little like a ghost. It's here, in a fragile and fleeting way, and then it's gone.

Go Swimming Today

Because Sniffy did, and he's WAY happy now.

The World Made Permanent, On Pewter

This is it. This is the earliest surviving "permanent" photograph. Seems funny to think that there was a first photograph, but there was and this is it, or as close to it as we'll ever see. This is a actually just a representation of it. The original pewter plate is faint, and very difficult to view, you have to be in just the right light and look at just the right angle.

This was taken by Nicéphore Niépce in France around 1826. It is an image looking out the window of his upstairs lab. The image is chemically etched on pewter, and the primitive emulsions he used required an EIGHT HOUR exposure. As a result you can see the sun shining on both sides of the buildings.

It's amazing to think of how far the technical capability of photography has come in the last 180 years. Just imagine what it will be like in another 180.

Momma Vino

We had Heather's Mother's Day wine last night. It was wonderful. Especially because we had it on the deck, and we laughed and talked. And we toasted a Great Mommy: Heather!

This Look

See this look? I get this look alot from Heather. I think it means "I love you like crazy, Dave".

:)

Exposure

I have loaded film in the Canon FTbn that my sister gave me, and taken a few pictures. I love old cameras. The battery for the meter is dead, so I am using my professional Sekonic to set exposure. I can't wait to finish the roll and see what the negatives say!

(They'll probably say something like "Hey! Who are you? And where's Mary? Don't drop me, or you'll have some trouble on your hands...")

Pixel Quest

I used to love the Space Quest computer games. Check out the sweet graphics. If you look real hard, you might be able to tell where the characters are.

Iron, Rubber, & Gasoline On Woodward

Summer on Woodward Avenue. You can't go a quarter-mile without encountering a fire-breathing classic muscle car, rolling slow and rumbling like a tool shed in an earthquake. It starts in the spring, to be sure, and by June the smell of gasoline and burned rubber is everywhere, leading up to the fever pitch of The Dream Cruise in August. This is the place to be if you like old Detroit iron.

Still, living as close as I do to this spectacle can be challenging. Roads are blocked off, traffic is frustratingly slow, and police are everywhere looking for people having too much fun. We usually avoid the area during the summer weekends, and especially in August. I used to bring the Mustangs out during the cruise and at least do one loop to feel like I was a part of it. But now that I drive a sedan, it really doesn't have the same feel. I still like to go walk up to 13-Mile Road to see the craziness, of course, but it's not an all-day thing for me anymore.

There is something, though, in that thunderous engine tone. Something real. I don't think there is another sound that brings quite the chill to the spine of a male than a big V8 with a tall cam, rumbling down the concrete of the world's most famous cruising street. Whether it's a Dodge Charger with a 426 Hemi, a 427 'Vette, or Boss Mustang, you get a blast of something amazing from the past, when safety and gas mileage didn't matter as much as fun and style.

So, once a year, I get my fix and feel like a teenager again for a few hours.

Life

"Life is about creating yourself" - George Bernard Shaw

Bad Christmas Gift, Defined

A Hippo is the kind of animal you generally don't want to mess with. It doesn't really matter that they look cute and big and slow and dumb, they are actually very aggressive and fast, and have razor-sharp teeth and a mouth big enough to crush an oil drum in.

"If you are going to live in the river, make friends with the crocodile". - Indian Proverb

Maybe, but I'll bet if you asked the crocs, they find it important to make friends with the hippo.

Play Hard, Play Hard

Ahhh...the life of a dog. A dog's life. It's a well-known phrase for a reason. They really do have it made, don't they? I think I figured out why. Consider this...

Dogs have shorter lives than we do. Due to some yet-undiscovered physical law of the universe, they need to fit in the same amount of sleep and play that we humans get in our much longer lives. In order to do this, they must eliminate other, less important things. Once their lives are full of snoozing and running and lounging and basking, there is no time left for work or stress or language or flushing toilets.

They're just doing the best they can with their more limited time on Earth. Arf? Arf.

Eyes Of Compromise, But Beautiful, They Surprise

Eyes. Don't we love them? From day one. Such a small part of us they are, and yet we are completely tuned-in to their every little expressive gesture.

Eyes are not technically perfect, as they are often held up to be. The light-sensitive cells are inverted inside of our eye, meaning that the light entering has to travel through a layer of blood vessels before being registered. The effect is like throwing a piece of tissue paper over your camera lens. And the main nerve bundle plunges right through the center of this surface, giving us a nice blind spot that our brains have to fool us out of. There is also no anchor between the retina and rear of the eye, making detachment a pretty common and pretty bad failure mode. But still...

I guess It's not what our eyes aren't that makes them so great but what they are. Little round shiny books that spell out our thoughts and dreams to anyone willing to look into them.

Peeing On "The Hydrant"

A few days ago I asked for readers to send in a photograph and I would post it and give my honest opinion of it. So, because I almost never break a blog promise...here's the first one! Please, feel free to comment yourselves, it's all in fun.

This picture is from my friend Dennis, who has re-positioned himself in the art world as Vigo Huhnerdrosseler. Vigo is the arrogant, abrasive vegetarian Eurotrash alter-ego of the Mildman, whose work is so excruciatingly good he's almost worth all the trouble. Anyhow, here is a "piece" by Den- er...Vigo. Taken with his shiny new medium format film (remember that stuff?) camera, a sort of Chinese rip-off of a Rolleiflex called "Seagull". The format is 6x6 on 120, same as a Hasselblad.

Anyhow, I was with Vigo when he captured this moment. If you look carefully in the window, you may just see a glimpse of the frightened homeowner reaching for the phone to call the authorities. Vigo does not do "snapshots". Vigo uses a tripod and sets up slowly and deliberately, gazing down into the viewfinder as if it were a WWII bomb sight. The poor residents must have thought they were about to be blown to bits by a mad scientist. I calmly metered the scene with a Sekonic.

The film is Fuji Velvia (Velveeta as Heather calls it). It's a great film for landscapes, with almost surreal saturated colors. But the evil flip side of the stuff is never shoot anyone you like with it, they will look sunburned and freaky.

Ok, composition is bulls-eye. Dead on. Like a six-year old shooting a refrigerator. Vigo prefers the term "accurate". Enough said. Add to that the square framing and the subject of the picture is very clearly the hydrant.

That notwithstanding, I really like the over-saturated colors in this. I think it makes the hydrant look almost like candy. And the late evening sun makes everything glow. Vigo also got down on the level of the hydrant (physically and mentally) and that is something we should all do more. How many pictures of children have you seen taken from an adult perspective? Getting down on the level of the subject can make a huge difference, you are suddenly in its world instead of yours.

So I think it works despite the dreaded snapshot composition. I think this same photo taken with Kodak 120 would not be as effective, even in the late light and down low. In this case I think it's the Velvia that makes the shot. And that choice was made by the great Vigo.

Bundled

When Coco was more puppy-like, She used to love to curl up on the baby chair and she just thought she was the Fuzzy Little Princess.

29

Happy Birthday Lisa!!! We love ya!!!!

Paralithodes Camtschaticus

I love King Crab. I ask for some every year on my birthday. What a magnificent, terrifying, majestic, and most delicious creature! Love it, love it.

Of course, the fairly big downside is that I am going to hell for this passion:

"...And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you . . . ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcasses in abomination." (Leviticus 11:10-11)

Unsung Heroes

Zach and his friend Carl save the galaxy yet again, while the rest of us bask in our naive ignorance.

Bubblicious

Maddie having fun with bubbles, because that's what bubbles are for.

Nature, Red In Tooth And Claw

Jake is a Rat Terrier. That means his ancestors were bred primarily for hunting so-called "vermin": rats, foxes, and other small mammals that are often considered pests. He can stalk very well, has good hearing and smell, and can dig into burrows almost like a badger. The selective breeding his ancestors were subjected to over many generations is embedded in Jake, they are inseparable. And while these tendencies are dormant most of the time, occasionally they come out and remind us that he is, after all, descended from a wild animal.

Jake's inner nature reared it's head yesterday. Soon after I let the dogs out after work I heard a major "event" taking place in the yard, complete with yipping, growling, flying dirt and grass, and barking. Jake had caught a squirrel and was mauling it very badly. Coco was in the fray too, and they were really going at it. I got them to back off but the squirrel was bleeding and not moving much. It was quite an event in our otherwise maul-free yard. The squirrel eventually hobbled out of the yard under the fence, but I'm sure it didn't live long.

So life goes on. We always knew it was in him, but still I think I see a glimmer in Jake's eyes that I never noticed before.

Self Portrait, With Crazy Still Life

Just because.

Call Me Peter Piper

More pickles! Cukes, hungarian peppers, and brussels sprouts. I am jonesing to do some green tomatoes next!

"He Who Controls The Spice, Controls The Universe."

This is my spice cabinet. Anyone who knows me is not surprised by this vast collection. I think I could reach in here and pull out just about anything you asked me to. Black cardamoms? Yep (green too). Mexican Epazote? No problemo. Dundicut chiles from Pakistan? Got 'em!

From Achiote to Zatar, The Baron Harkonnen's got nothing on me :)

Dooka Dooka Doy Doy Doy

Maddie has been verbalizing constantly lately. She makes up the funniest "words" and "sentences", and seems so proud of herself.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!!

Fool Heads Were Being Barked Off

Our new neighbors behind us have at least three dogs. A ruckus of king-sized proportions broke out the other day when Coco and Jake first saw them. Coco charged the interloping pack so hard she ran right through the fence! There was a brief moment of extreme confusion as she wondered how she ended up in enemy territory. I decided to use that interlude to get Coco back onto her native soil.

Yesterday the dogs were firmly in "Phase Two" of their relationships: sniffing through the fence, tails wagging, with short bursts of barking to enforce boundaries.

Hopefully soon the yardscape will return to normal, and doggie society will reach equilibrium again.

Hottie

Is my wife a babe, or what?

School's Out For The Summer

Zach's last day of school was Wednesday, so he is one happy day camper!

Strolling At The Zoo On A Sunny Day

Maddie looks up and shows me her radiant eyes, which are now somewhere between brown and hazel. Can you believe she's 11 months old already?!?!

Lothar, Ivan, Or Perhaps Fritz?

We've been working on Dennis' "photography name". In case you are not versed in the arts, you need a really catchy name, either hip or incredibly weird, in order to make it out of the wedding photography bit. So Dennis just doesn't cut it, and Dave is already taken, so...


...we made a list. I really like Fritz. Or maybe Lothar. Eastern European names sound cool, especially if you can couple it with a wicked accent and no last name. Any suggestions?

The WAB

The WAB (Woodward Avenue Brewers) is our favorite pub. We love the atmosphere of the place, and the location right on Woodward in a very hip area, and the sitting outside and the food and the beer (they make a mean Hefewizen).

The WAB has what could only be described as a "licence plate" theme, right down to the menus. A Motor City thing, I suppose.

Here is Maddie trying to decide between the topopo salad and a chicken avocado quesadilla.

Bumperface

Loco Confectionoco

Is this a crazy wedding cake, or what?

Superhero Reflexes

So, I have cat-like reflexes. By this I mean I often respond to sudden events with blazing speed and full-on action. I once opened up my spice cupboard (which, if you know me, is very large and full), and three separate spices fell out just as the door opened. I caught them all. That kind of thing. I was relating that to my brother Brian and he said he has "Superhero" reflexes too. Must run in the family. :)

Dreamer

I have always been a dreamer. I guess I sometimes just have things to think about that take up all my attention and leave none for the outside world. I think they call it "Hyperfocal" now, but to me it's just natural. I promise, when I am dreaming and not paying attention to you, I am thinking important thoughts.

Better Late Than Never

Heather and I finally picked out (most) of the pictures for our wedding album. A little late, yes, as we were married in October of 2005. I hope our photographer has not retired or died meanwhile. We went to Quarton Lake and got a bench and ruthlessly edited and selected. I think within another year or two we might do the rest. That would be cool.