scene in springfield

good weekend times

This weekend we have a couple of fun things going on. First up is a show at Smith College with Bob McGrath and one of my favorite kids in the whole world – Maddy.  Despite the fact that her mother is pumped about the idea of her daughter getting to perform in a show with Bob from Sesame Street, Maddy was not quite so psyched as of a couple of weeks ago. Her mom thinks it’s because she has to dress up in a not-so-flattering duck suit (if I am remembering this correctly). And Maddy confided in me that she hopes none of her schoolmates will be in the audience. I’m sure the opportunity to be on such a big stage in front of a big audience will turn her around. She’s quite the showperson.

Sunday is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Holyoke – arguably the city’s biggest day of the year. The weather is supposed to be real nice and it’ll be a great photo subject. Plus, we’ll have Pat’s dog with us. How nice to be a dog owner for a day!

colorful pantry

This is one of my very favorite photos that I’ve ever taken. I am attracted to color when I shoot so this was a great subject for me. This is Matt’s grandma’s pantry. I shot this photo last summer.

suck it up

Matt is right now trying to fix our vacuum cleaner–the one we were so excited about late last year. It’s stopped sucking right, which sucks. The claw attachment also stopped working properly about a month ago. I just wrote a lengthy email to Hoover about how annoyed I am.

In other consumer-related news, I got our cable company to knock $30 off our bill for the next three months. I had been calling to downgrade our package/see what other packages were out there, so I guess it was worth their while to save us $90 this spring so they could keep us at our same level of service.

I’ll take it.

letting it all hang out

I’ve been inspired and will be going in a different direction with my blog design. You’ll get to watch the development in all its messiness. Enjoy. Or come back in a few weeks when everything is done if you’re not into dress rehearsals.

House

Lights

jamaica bag

I made this bag for my future mother-in-law. or is she already my mother-in-law even though I’m not married yet? Anyway, she left for Jamaica yesterday and took it with her, so I have dubbed it the Jamaica Bag.

These pictures are terrible. I must have taken them in the dark. The strange one above is me modeling in the bathroom mirror. That’s my toothbrush.

Cafe Lebanon – Downtown Springfield, Mass.

Nice to see blue skies lately.

sampling

I work with a lot of statistics/traffic reports in my job. They’re very time consuming to analyze and compile, etc., and quite frankly they can be a real pain in the ass. I’ve learned a great word to use when I don’t feel it’s necessary to take the time compiling exhaustive reports: Sampling.

If I tell someone that I can’t get them an entire report but rather a sampling of numbers that can help them identify trends, they immediately take to this idea like it’s the best idea they’ve ever heard.

They seem to really like this word sampling because it sounds very smart and analytical.

The act of sampling, in turn, saves me a lot of time I would have otherwise spent pouring over stupid reports all day.

Win Win.