Arrival

We're here!

Peace-
Matt

Cheerio

We're off to England tomorrow. I'll be glad when the travelling's over and we finally get there. Flying sucks.

We'll be back on the evening of August 25th. I got a global phone loaner from verizon and will have a cell phone if you need to get in touch. It's my cell number. You can call me just like you would if I was here. It's $1.29/minute though, so I won't talk long. I'll be checking email too.

"What's with all the panoramics lately?" Good question, it's just what I've been seeing.

Just ran mile 230 of my 500 mile goal. I'm a bit behind, but still running.

Peace-
Matt

Pounds

Seven more work days until vacation starts. I went to the bank yesterday and turned dollars into pounds. Between the exchange rate & the bank's fee, I felt pretty violated. This is going to be one damn expensive vacation. It's just money though, and some memories don't come cheap.

Alex and I went to see Batman last night. It was great. Heath Ledger was amazing. What a great actor. I wasn't impressed with his rump riding cowboy performance, but as the Joker, he was awesome. Too bad he's dead.

Peace-
Matt

Bittersweet

Happy Birthday to those I missed yesterday. You were in my thoughts.

My niece, Ashley, is a very, very good dancer. A couple of weeks ago she joined hundreds of other young women in Boston to try out for the Boston Celtics Dancers; one of the elite dance teams in professional sports. Hundreds tried out for 17 positions. She made the first cut and had to go back this week. We found out last night that Ashley was chosen for the team. She is now one of the Boston Celtics Dancers. What a great accomplishment for Ashley. A dream come true. Congratulations!! You can see her on the left edge of the photo above (the right edge of the group).

We had some bad new yesterday as well. Angie's Aunt Rose passed away yesterday. Rose had a long fight with cancer. She was wonderful and will be missed terribly. As you know, we are taking a trip to England in a couple of weeks. There are many reasons we are going, but one of the big ones is to attend the wedding of Angie's cousin Lisa. Rose is Lisa's mom. What a hard time this must be for the family. For those that don't know, our Madeline got her middle name from Angie's Aunt Rose.

Peace-
Matt

Envy

I got a text message from brother in law today. He's on vacation in Colorado with my sister, my nephew, and my mother. He told me via text that they were heading into Estes Park. I am so jealous.

I was in Colorado about eight years ago for work. I was there a couple of days early. One morning I got up about 4am and drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park for sunrise. I remember having to stop on the highway where hundreds of elk were crossing the road. I drove slowly into the herd. They were all around the car. It was surreal. I made it to one of the lakes for sunrise and took some photos. One of the coolest days I've had. I miss Colorado.

Peace-
Matt

(PS - Don't forget, you can click on the photos to make them bigger. Some, like the one above, need to be seen bigger. Some don't )

Doghouse

Mammalian Protruberances

We moved to Cambridge when Alex was in Kindergarten. It'll be 10 years in November, so she was 5 when we moved here; Abby was 2. I have known a lot of their friends since they were very young. I see my girls every day (more or less). When you see someone every day, you don't really notice the changes as much. It's different with their friends. When girls hit 11 and onward, their bodies change. It's weird seeing these girls I've know since kindergarten for the first time with breasts. How quickly they change. No wonder puberty is a bitch.

Angie took Abby (who will be 12 on Sept 27) to get a new bra today. Angie says she's a C cup. I don't really understand the female undergarment lingo, but she says that's big for a 12 year old. Great.

The photo above is a 2 minute exposure of ice melting. I had to get out of the house.

Peace-
Matt

Thick

The air was thick when I woke up this morning. The muggiest day we've had this summer; oppressive really. The van said 95 degrees on my way home.

It rained tonight. It felt good.

Good corn growing weather.

Peace-
Matt

Tired

We picked Abby up from camp on Friday. She had a fantastic time, thank goodness. She was telling us camp stories all day Friday.

Alex is off with a friend to the Wisconsin Dells area. Her friend's mom (a local kindergarten teacher) and little brother are along for the trip as well. I admit it's nice being short a kid for another week.

Happy Birthday Maureen. I hear it's a big one.

I spent a few hours today taking photos in the sheet metal shop where I work. I've wanted to bring my camera there for quite some time. There are so many photos everywhere. It's a goldmine, at least in the way that I see. I shot only film. 5x7 sheet film. I might bring the digital someday, but film feels so right for this project. I can't wait to get back there for more.

I don't take a lot of photos with people in them. Everytime I do, I feel very uncomfortable and inadequate with it. I was unhappy with every single photo I took for the church directory. I have a serious problem connecting with people and I feel it shows in my photos of them. I don't know what to do about it. I get a few requests now and then to take photos for/of people. I get so nervous and anxious doing it. The results show this. The artificial light/flash, the posing, the communication & connection; I'm just no good at any of it. The more I do it, the better it will get, I know. It's something I really need to work on, but just don't want to.

Do you ever get tired of being tired?

Peace-
Matt

Boom

We go pick Abby up tomorrow. I'm anxious to hear about her week at camp. Last year she hated it. I really hope it's a different story this time.

Happy Birthday Vince.

Peace-
Matt

Paper Chain

Angie & Madeline made a paper chain today, counting the 45 days left until we leave for England. We're getting excited.

Peace-
Matt

(PS - Angie's passport arrived. What a relief)

Happy Camper

We'll move Angie's home office back down into the basement today. She will be much happier there. I put carpet down there yesterday.

Abby heads to Catholic Youth Camp today, for the week. She's excited to go. We're excited to have her there. We all need a break from each other.

Peace-
Matt

Midsummer

Long time no blog. Sorry for leaving you all wondering. The flooding in our basement never got worse that what's shown. Thank God for that. Here are some photos of the flooded fields. I'm hearing that the corn crop in Iowa has sustained many billions of dollars damage. Some are calling it "Corntrina" in reference to Katrina. Silly.

If you look at my 2/10/08 post "40 days", you'll see the same concrete columns that I've shown in the photo above. Comparing the two posts, you can see how high the river is now. It's amazing.

Summer has been very busy. Alex has her permit and has been driving all over. We need to find her a car soon. We're both sick of taking her everywhere. She needs a job too. Her social life is expensive.

Abby and Madeline stay home most days and get pretty bored at times. When they're bored they bug their mother, who is supposed to be working during the day. When they bug her she gets frustrated. When she's frustrated, we're all frustrated. Summer has been LONG for her. When the basement flooded, I moved her office upstairs. I need to get her back down in the basement before she loses her mind.

We're counting the days to our England trip. I hope Angie's passport comes soon, it's the last piece.

Peace-
Matt

Ark

We've had a crapload of rain the last few days. Our basement has been getting water since early Friday morning. This is the first time we've ever had water in our basement. It's pouring into the sump pit from the drain tile. The sump pump has been running every 45 seconds or so. The drain tile has never had one drop come from it since we've lived here. It's got us on edge. If the power goes out, or the pump fails, or whatever, we'll have a foot of water in no time. We've put everything up. Angie is down there wet vaccing as I type.

We thank God it's not worse for us though. There are plenty of folks in town that have it much worse. Cambridge is flooded. This is the worse it's ever been according to some very old locals we've spoken with.

Time to build an ark I guess.

Peace-
Matt

Scrappy

Madeline is a heck of a ballplayer. She watches every move the ball makes and chases it down. Most of the girls on her team are typical tee ballers, their minds are somewhere else and they'd rather play in the dirt. Not Madeline, she's serious. She told me her coach called her "scrappy".

Peace-
Matt