Thanksgiving Photoshoot

If you received a Christmas card from us you will recognize the photo. We had a whole series of photos taken this fall when Sarah, Grace, and I visited Denver for Thanksgiving. Carrie's brother Justin is a photographer and did an amazing job handling the entire Hesseltine Krewe. (You remember Carrie from when she "hijacked" my computer during a video chat... revisit that blog post HERE) We haven't released these photos until now because we used many of the photos for Christmas gifts and, as previously stated, our Christmas cards.

Check out the entire album of 32 photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/scott.templin/Fall2010PhotoShoot#

Thanks again to Justin for the great job he did. If you are in the Denver area and would like to use him for a photo shoot of your own, he doesn't have a web page, but contact us through the blog and we'll make the connection happen.

Recombobulation Revisited.

A while back we posted an entry with a photo of me standing under the "Recombobulation Area" sign just past the C terminal TSA checkpoint at the Gen. Mitchel International Airport in Milwaukee WI. (Original blog post HERE) I initially laughed heartily at the sign thinking, "I can't believe that sign made it past however many levels of government management it took to get it designed, approved, appropriated, and manufactured without anyone realizing that's not a real word." Having been an instrument of the government for some time I could guess just about how many people reviewed the paperwork before something as simple as a sign could be fabricated and displayed. Realizing the number was close to 20, I second guessed my initial reaction, thinking surely at least one of those 20 would know that "recombobulaion" isn't a real word. To check and make sure I wasn't wrong, I looked it up. Nope, I was right. Not a real word. Although a colloquialism and listed as an entry on UrbanDictionary.com, this does not hold the legitimacy of Miriam Webster.

I decided to do just a little more digging and google the term. Low and behold, lots of results specifically for the exact sign I had just had my photo taken under. As it turns out, airport management put the sign in place to give travelers a nice chuckle after going though the stressful act of TSA screening. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel does a great article entitled "Airport Draws Smiles with "Recombobulation Area." Find that article HERE.

I had been duped. Not only had I underestimated the intellectual capacity of government employees, but also their quotient for humor. They had tricked me, but also made me laugh, which was the intent of the sign in the first place. Well played Airport Director C. Barry Bateman. Well played.

On another note, I would like to mention how enjoyable an experience we had, all around, during our 2 hour layover at the Gen Mitchell airport. Everyone was extremely pleasant and I can't remember a single employee who wasn't smiling. The airport itself was one of the cleanest I can remember. There was also a museum chronicling the achievements of Gen Billy Mitchell, the airport's namesake. It was also quite nice to wander around a an airport that wasn't jam packed with people. I must say, in the future, if I have my choice of layovers, I choose Milwaukee.

SOTU DG

Photo from whitehouse.gov

As most of you are aware, the President gave his annual State of the Union Address last night, and concurrently the 2011 State of the Union Drinking Game was held. Being a bit of a nerd/geek/dork, I have likely been watching these speeches since middle school - although through the years, the reasons have changed. In primary school it was getting extra credit in Social Studies class. In college it was a good excuse to play a drinking game on a Tuesday. Today, now that I'm old, I'm actually interested in the contents of the speech and listen to better inform myself as a responsible, voting citizen, The drinking part is just a carryover.

If you google SOTU drinking game, you will be bombarded with results. After looking at several versions I've decided the version I play is much simpler and more efficient. The genesis for this version came from the Iron Chef Drinking Game. That game evolved into basically watching almost any TV show, developing a simple set of simple rules specific to that show, and play! Through the years the rules have been adapted to many a show, including: Price is Right, MXC, Cheaters, American Chopper, Blind Date, Southpark, Talk Soup, almost every cartoon on Adult Swim, and just about any other mindless TV show out there.

Four SOTU DG, the rules are simple, drink when any of a predetermined list of words are spoken. Each year, as the political atmosphere changes, so does the list of words. Everyone is allowed to give input to the list and the list can change at any point until the Sergeant at Arms proclaims, "Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States!" This year's words and respective count in the speech were:
Jobs: 25
Spending: 11
Economy: 7
Recession: 4
Bipartisan: 2
Housing: 1
Stimulus: 0

Deficit: 11 (Deficit actually wasn't on the list but we got about half way though the speech before referencing the word list and realizing this, so it gets this nice footnote)

NPR Transcript of the 2011 SOTU Address

It was brought up that each person should stand and drink with their respective registered political party if there were partisan standing ovation interruptions, as there are each year. This year, however, as the political parties comingled their seating, it was determined that this rule would be too difficult to keep track of and thus the rule was tabled, to be saved for some time in the future.

In closing, I'd like to echo a statement at the bottom of the Iron Chef Drinking Game web page. "Don't drink and drive. It's stupid..."

Hope to see you at the 2012 games.

The Girls Have Left Me

Sarah's parents are vacationing in Arizona this week and, as Sarah also had the week off from work, she took Grace to go get some sun, fresh citrus, and of course, time with the Grandparents. Notice the sunshine and lawn chair in the photos. Obvious signs that it's at least NOT the Pacific NW. This leaves me home alone with the dog and nothing but a honey-do-list about a mile long. A week of bachelorhood ahead of me, I drooled at the possibilities. After taking quite a while to contemplate what mischief I would get myself into, and coming up with nothing, I realized that without Sarah and Grace, I'm pretty boring, and so is my life. Case in point, the only thing I have planned socially this week is to play the State of the Union Address drinking game tonight - thankfully, not alone. (More on the SOTU drinking game in a post soon.) I felt I had heard this story before and so, searching my memory, found and reread a post of the musings of another father turned bachelor for a week. (Polillo Blog HERE) Chris fell into a similar scenario this past summer, and after reading his blog post again this morning, I was comforted to know: I am not alone in enjoying every aspect of being part of a family - the late nights, the engaging smiles, the extra cleaning, the fun of making things dirty again, ect... I enjoy it all. It's only the second day the girls are gone, I miss them immensely and know it will only get worse as the week passes.

Fair warning for anyone who wants to drop by and say hello this week - I will NOT be wearing pants!

I like to think Grace is saying, "HEY! What the hell did you do with my father and when will I get to see him again?"

Grace Joins the Holograms

I'm not sure where Sarah gets all of Grace's cloths, nor do I think I want to know how much she pays. The one thing I am certain of is Sarah's inspiration for the outfits. This is not the first time I have found Grace dressed like one of the members of "Jem and the Holligrams", this is just the first time I was able to capture photographic evidence. The 1980's are alive and well in the Templin household. If you are interested, contact us about some tips for hosting your own Disco Wednesdays Dance Party. Martha Stewart gots nothin' on Sarah and her retro.

Eda-Mom-e

First we planned to see the Picasso exhibit in Seattle, but when the line for tickets was 3 hours long at 11AM we changed plans and headed to the Redhook brewery for lunch. Grace gets an edamome(sp?) snack before the brewery tour.

Sit-Ups

Developmental milestones continue to arrive as Grace gets more active with each passing day. This photo was taken about two weeks ago. Grace, if placed sitting up would remain sitting up, a bit wobbly, for up to 20 seconds before toppling over in the effort to reach a toy or some other distraction. In the short two weeks of this new year, that 20 seconds has grown to 20 minutes. It continues to amaze me how quickly she develops each day.

Below are some photos we took on the same day (notice the outfit) while she was hanging out in her chair swing. Pun intended.

New Revelations in a Video Chat World

The last time I tried to video chat was around the turn of the century. The video was as choppy as the Atlantic during a winter storm or like Chuck Noris fighting bad guys. Add to this the fact that there was no audio and you get a scene where two people stare at each other typing. Not the dream of two way video conversations I had seen in 2001 Space Odyssey (even though it really was almost 2001, and the film made in 1968)

Of course I was familiar with Skype, but my prejudice for this software had been shaped by scenes of mole like individuals hovering in the corners of coffee shops and libraries whilst they skype with similarly nefarious individuals on the other end of the internet. It is with these preconceived notions that I gingerly began figuring how to use our computer to reach out and touch someone. Not wanting to associate myself with the Skype Trolls, I decided to use Google chat, a platform built into Gmail and which I was not only familiar with, but also comfortable using. I knew G-chat was capable of including video, and that our computer had all the hardware necessary, I just needed to coordinate the two.

My first victim was our next door neighbor, who, working from home, graciously allowed me to take time from his day to experiment with the system until we connected. Even if it was a mere 100 feet or so away, I was impressed with how easy and quickly we connected.

From 100 feet to nearly 1,000 miles - my next victim was Carrie in Denver. It took a few tries, but as you can clearly see from the photo, Carrie ultimately succeeded in hijacking my screen and

video chatting with me for a while. Great fun.

Next step - get the Grandmas online. That might prove considerably more difficult than a few tech savvy kids who grew up with computers. I'll keep you posted.

Snowshoes

Both Sarah and I had to work this weekend so Grace spent most of her time with some friends of ours, Meagan and Seth. Thier son J.J. is 3 months older than Grace. (Check out their blog HERE) When they initially asked us if it was ok for them to take Grace snowshoeing up on Mt Rainier, there was a lot of hesitation from both of us. Ultimately, we couldn't come up with a good reason for them not to go. Grace had plenty of warm clothes, they would have plenty of food for her to eat, diapers to change, and all the other things you need when you leave the house with 2 babies. It seemed like a lot of work that Sarah and I were obviously just aprehensive about undertaking. But if Meagan and Seth wanted do it all, we were going to let them. The report back was simply, "Well, we don't think snowshoeing is Grace's favorite thing in the world." You can't tell by the photos. Apparently the one with her smiling is the "only split second she smiled the whole time."

Maybe I'll take Grace with me on a hike of the Wonderland Trail when she's about 2....

Jumping for Playdates

Grace has been doing all kinds of new things this past month. One of the most fun, for her - and for us to watch, is hanging out in her bouncy chair. It's essentially a chair, attached to a spring, connected to a clamp, which grips onto any door frame. Properly adjusted, it provides Grace with hours of entertainment. The first time we placed her in the chair, she got mad that we weren't giving her enough attention. In her frustration she would kick her legs. This motion would set the chair into oscillation which would amuse Grace to no end. It took her not more than 10 minutes to have the chair bouncing in a rhythmic romp. The video above is the second day she sat in the swing, whil we were babysitting another child of a friend of ours, 18 month old Macie. In the days since, Grace has become even more proficient with the coordination of her legs and the cycles of the ups and downs, becoming so good at timing her leg thrusts as to completely compress the spring on the apparatus. Next step is a full up trampoline.

Photo of the Day

"WHAT?! You haven't been posting for over a month?"

Grace was a little surprised to hear we haven't been consistent with our posts over the holiday season. Since the blog is mostly for the Grandparents - and they all got to hang out with either us or Grace recently, we took some time off too.

No worries, we've now accumulated enough stuff since leaving those Grand-Parental units to throw some of it up here. Enjoy.