himespau

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T16:36:00.000-05:00

Since I don't remember to post often, I thought I'd add a couple of pictures of Penny at Thanksgiving and playing Peekaboo with Mommy.

She keeps growing and growing

2011-11-20T12:26:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been about 4 months since I last posted pictures of Penny. I'm not going to go pointing fingers here, but the fact that a certain little Miss Someone decided to pull a Jonah and get herself swallowed by a whale causing her Daddy to have to do a lot of work to free her might have had something to do with that.

In the meantime, Penny has gotten a lot bigger,

though her Daddy apparently hasn't discovered this wonderful modern invention called the comb.

She has also broken out of baby jail,

survived her first huricane,

gone for walks with Mommy and Daddy,

started eating solid foods,

read some books

and magazines,

taken baths,

slept some

(though maybe not as much as Mommy and Daddy would like),

taken up basketry,

joined some sort of bunny rabbit cult,

crawled around,

laughed a lot with Mommy,

met new friends,

gone to the zoo (where they didn't want to keep her - we did ask),

sat with her Daddy

and by herself like a big girl,

started up the Penny Jane Airline (so far no crashes - at least none that we had to report to the FAA),

had a crazy hair competition with Daddy,

and explored fallen leaves.

She has also gotten into films

and spent some time at the aquarium.

All in all, it's been a busy several months.

Adventures with Penny

2011-07-25T15:14:00.003-04:00

Since I’ve last updated this, Penny is now about half again as old as she was. She’s done a lot of growing and seen a lot of new things. So many new experiences, where to begin?

For Father’s Day, Debbie arranged for us to go on a lunchtime cruise around the harbor.

It was really nice and lots of good food, but I think the music was a bit loud for Penny. She didn’t have a problem with the boat ride itself, however, and I think we all had a good time.

Debbie wanted Penny to get some culture (because she needs a good counterbalance to her rasberry blowing duets with Daddy), so we went to the MFA to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit.

There were lots of pretty glass pieces.

Penny appeared to be having a good time.

There really was some impressive stuff there.

I think she and I were impressed by different things.

But for the most part, I think just about anything shiny had her attention.

I wish I could say the rest of the museum held her interest as well as the glass, but, while it wasn’t as shiny, she was a good sport.

Then, over the week of July 4th, we went back home so that Penny could meet the family. Penny did really well on three of the four flights and even managed to sleep through the entirety of two of them (between 2 of the flights, she got to meet the Colonel).

I feel bad for our fellow passengers on that final leg from O’Hare to Boston, but that was beyond our control. Anyway, while back home, Penny got to meet her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Mullenix (while her parents ate and ate and ate and ate at Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt Barb’s house)

and her Great Grandma Ultz.

She also got to meet her Grandpa Himes for the first time.

There were also many great aunts and uncles to meet too. Including Mark,

Jerilyn,

Jean,

Connie,

and Jeff and Becky.

Oh, and cousin Jamie, too.

There were many more great aunts and uncles she got to meet, but most of the time I’d rather play with her than get behind the camera, so I don’t have pictures of those meetings.

At Grandma and Grandpa Himes’ house, there was bubble blowing

and water gun squirting with cousins Malachi and Addison and Uncle Brian.

Sometimes Daddy got involved in a standoff too.

Malachi put on his fearsome face paint,

but quickly decided he was more of a lover than a fighter,

while Penny decided she wanted to start working on learning some building skills

with Addison.

Malachi, the expert, helped out in a supervisory role.

Penny spent some time hanging with Auntie Kara,

and making funny faces with Mommy.

Mommy and Brian chatted,

while Grammy and Grampy took the big kids riding on tractors.

Penny enjoyed playing in Mr. Turtle with her big cousin Addy,

while Grammy and Uncle Brian helped.

With the warm weather, everyone enjoyed being able to cool off in the water.

Malachi wanted to help water the lawn, but I think that was just because he wanted to help mow it if the grass grew.

One day, we went to the park and Penny got to try out swinging with Mommy and Addy

and sliding with Daddy.

Daddy spend a lot of time monkey-ing around

and the other kids got Grammy to push them and their mommy on the swings.

Good times with the cousins.

That evening, she went over to Great Grandma Ultz’ farm to meet some more relatives.

She got to feed the pony

and the goats,

and meet a cow,

some chickens,

and the pigs.

She also got to see Great Uncle Rick feed the baby calves with bottles just like she uses (only much bigger).

Addy and Uncle Brian explored the fields,

and Malachi got to explore his love of tractors.

There were new people to play with,

teeters to totter,

trees (and other things) to swing from (for the big kids),

and s'mores to eat.

When we went back to Elkhart, we saw some of the new elk statues they have around town,

and Grandpa Yoder took Penny (and the rest of us) to the Potawatami Park Zoo.

Penny got to see some monkeys,

pet a goat,

and look at the lazy lions.

She also got to watch some kangaroos and zebras

and help feed the fish.

She got to see a bunch of other animals,

but soon the heat got too much for her and we had to retreat to inside the reptile/monkey house.

There she met some monkeys that were very interesting in talking with her.

She also met more people and did more things, but, unfortunately, her daddy has a habit of snapping lots of pictures and then not taking any for a while in alternating spurts so there’s a lot of stuff that got missed. All in all it was a good trip, except that last leg of the flight (sorry to anyone who had seats around us), so thanks to everyone who helped make our visit so much fun.

Fun with Penny

2011-05-29T16:50:00.001-04:00

Sometimes Penny likes sitting in boxes

and playing hide and seek

or playing with Ted Theodore Bear,

but sometimes she just wants to cuddle with Mom and Dad.

She occasionally even likes talking on the phone (not that she knows that that crazy thing that rotates and has a string is a phone or will ever see a rotary dial outside of a museum).

She does like going on walks with Mommy and Daddy, too,

and seeing other babies with their mommies and daddies.

Fortunately, we were glad that Mommy was smart enough to know that we needed to put a new big girl outfit in her diaper bag to replace her newborn one we had in there as we had to use it within hours of putting it there.

I'm not sure she appreciates how cute she looks in her little outfits, but she sure is our little cutie pie.

She even got to go to the pool for the first time today in a swimming suit lent her by some kind older girls from church who are too big to use it anymore. I think she liked the pool. Splashing is fun.

Penny is growing up

2011-05-01T16:52:00.002-04:00

Haven't posted in a while and Penny's been growing and growing.

She likes cuddling and sleeping with Mommy,

and Daddy,

and sometimes even reading.

She even puts up with Mommy and Daddy dressing her up in funny outfits sometimes.

Her Grandpa and Grandma Yoder came for a visit

and so did her Grandma Himes.

She likes dressing up to go to church with Mommy and Daddy

and sometimes likes going out for outings with the family

Home at last

2011-02-14T22:11:00.004-05:00

So after spending a bit longer as the guests of the fine folks at Beth Israel Deaconess than we'd initially planned, we finally got to introduce Penny to her new home just a little bit ago.

Given we went from 1 room plus a bath there, to two rooms and a bath here, we've at times been twice as far away and that makes us a little anxious when we can't hear her breathe at all times. I'm sure we'll adjust soon.

She's very happy being snug as a bug in a rug in one of the blankets her Great-Grandma Mullenix made for her after we got home and reading with Mommy.

Tomorrow, we're going to play fashion show trying on the close Grandma Yoder made for her, but for now it's time to try to get some sleep (all of us - I'm especially looking forward to my first night in a bed in a week).

The impossibility of being objective

2011-02-13T15:00:00.002-05:00

Before 2/9/2011, Debbie and I discussed whether or not we'd be able to look at our baby and know whether she was really a cute baby or if she was odd looking (and given that she shares half my DNA, the latter was kind of likely). We both thought that (unlike many other parents out there) we'd be able to look at her and see the truth (because we're scientists and evidence and all that nonsense), but either we were completely wrong or our little Penelope is the cutest baby there ever was. Anyway, here she is (and you know what, maybe we were right and we are being objective when we say she's the cutest).

Christmas 2010

2011-01-12T16:38:00.003-05:00

Can't say I'm too impressed by Boston's idea of a "wicked blizzard" that shut down most of the city (but not me because I'm apparently essential personnel), but the fact that there aren't that many other people here gives me a few minutes to post some pictures

One of Debbie's projects this past year (since she won't let anyone see her watercolors, I can't talk about them) was to make us some beautiful stockings as can be seen above.

Over the holidays, we made the trek back to Michiana (or thereabouts depending on your definition of the word) for a week and a half or so with our families. During that time, we had several celebratory gatherings and I've posted links to the pictures below (sorry none of the gathering at the Yoder house as my battery was dead and had misplaced my spare-in my luggage where it was supposed to be as it turns out).

First there was the gathering at Grandma Ultz's house
where there was much merriment

some card tricks

and we watched the Lions lose once again. The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Then there was the shower at the church gym

which featured some good soups and salads

and some highly competitive games. The rest of the gallery from the shower can be found here.

A bit later in the week,

we celebrated the Himes family Christmas

with some angels

who like to hide in cupboards,
go sledding,
and read with Grammy.
Oh, and Callie the wondercat was there too. The rest of the pictures I took in Sturgis are here.

On Christmas, we went to the Mullenix celebration

where there was much food,

and many presents. Here's also where my camera battery died, but the rest of the pictures I got on that battery are here.

In our last gathering (after a battery recharge), we went back to Sturgis for the extended Himes family gathering, which, due to some untimely illnesses, was much smaller than expected.
We still managed to have our usual white elephant gift exchange, but with only 6 people we had a bit harder time not grabbing what we'd brought.
In the end, though, a good time was had by all (even if Mom and Dad did have more leftovers than anticipated). The pictures from that gathering are here.

Lots of old photos

2010-12-11T22:03:00.003-05:00

Way late (after I thought I was going to be better about it), but I'm finally posting some pictures. For the first, back in June, we went on a duck boat tour of Boston followed by a tour a Fenway Park. The pictures are here.

Then, in October, we went to Mount Washington and took a train to the top to see the fall colors. Pictures of that trip can be found here.

Then we have some pictures from our Thanksgiving, which are here.

A tale of watching whale tails

2010-05-31T14:31:00.004-04:00

So Debbie and I went out on a whale watching trip on Saturday. We saw a couple of humpback whales. Don't have really good pictures of them because I was always a bit slow on pushing the button and the couple that I had where I think I would have gotten a good picture of them, someone's head was in the way (stupid rule about tall people having to stand in the back - how is it fair that just because of a genetic disposition totally beyond my control I've had to stand in back of the line all my life?). Anyway, what pictures I do have are here. Overall, it was quite fun, but it got cold once we got way out there with the wind and all, and the crowding inside during the brief rainstorm wasn't the most fun. I think the most fun sighting of aquatic animals was watching the seals in at the aquarium while we were waiting in line for the boat to come.

I'm getting better (or Our Trip to Seattle)

2010-04-27T11:44:00.003-04:00

Well here it is, a post about an event that just ended yesterday. Debbie had a meeting last week in Seattle so I flew out Friday night so that we could spend the weekend out there seeing the sights. We saw lots of stuff and had a pretty good time; didn't get to sleep much though. A scary hotel room had something to do with that, but even at the nice hotel, the pillows weren't my friends. Anyway links to some of the photos are here. I think I've passed my limit to what I can upload, so the rest may be upcoming as I clear out some junk.

Edit: Looks like they're all there now.

Only 6 weeks late

2010-04-27T11:41:00.002-04:00

A month and a half or so ago, Debbie's parents and her brother, Jon, and his family came out for a visit. Unfortunately, in the only picture I took that them all it it, they all had their backs to the camera. The rest of the pictures I took that day are here.

Our project: a new coffee table

2010-03-18T22:45:00.002-04:00

So a couple of months back, a local Crate&Barrel location closed and we bought some of their shelving to in the hopes of making it into a new coffee table.

We put the three boards together to make the basic shape.

Unfortunately, the table made with just 3 boards wasn't sturdy enough, so we needed to add a shelf to stabilize it. The board needed staining, because it was unfinished.

Because the top board was scarred and had a lot of holes that needed filling, we decided to paint a pattern on the tabletop to mask that.

First, we had to sand the finish off the top, which made a huge dusty mess all over our apartment.

Then we had to mask off the tabletop for how we wanted our pattern.

We decided to go with a simple geometric design.

We went with black paint to match our bookshelves.

Even though we don't play many games,

we decided making a game board on the table would be fun.

Once we were done painting,

we had to put the shelf in.

Then a number of coats of polyurethane followed,

and finally we ended up with our new coffee table.

Paperweights

2010-02-22T22:54:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Debbie and I took a class in making glass paperweights at a glassblowing school. It was lots of fun, though very hot. We each made 4 paperweights: a clear one, one in which we just did some free-form experimenting, one in which we made bubbles with a pointed object that we pressed into our colored piece, and one with which we used a flower mold. Pictures of the final products are here. And no, I don't know why the picture above is cut off. It's the full picture in the link.

Only a month late

2010-01-25T12:54:00.002-05:00

I'm a bit behind schedule, but I've finally uploaded the photos from Christmas celebrations at the Ultz, Himes, and Mullenix houses, respectively. Don't see any from Christmas at the Yoder house. Was probably too tired and suffering from camera fatigue at that point to want to take more pictures. Anyway, they're now linked, but I still might go through and fix red eye/crop/whatever them.

Lab retreat

2010-01-25T11:21:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks back, my lab went to Woodstock, Vermont, for a lab retreat (and my first time downhill skiing). Mom wanted to see who the people in my lab are, so here is a link to the photos Dr. Gilmore took during the retreat because this seemed the easiest way for her to see. And yes all those little kids in the picture above got down the hill faster, with more grace, and on more difficult routes than the one I took. For the record, this is before my second-to-last (penultimate, if you will) trip down the hill. It was on my last attempt down that I slid 30 yards or more on my stomach (though there might be a picture among those posted where I'm a bit snowy after finally making it the rest of the way down).

Our new coffee table (maybe)

2010-01-25T11:15:00.002-05:00

So Debbie and I are in the process of making a new coffee table that, if we like the end result, will replace the one we're currently using. It's a bit taller and deeper, but not quite as wide. The nice thing is we're making it out of shelving we got from a Crate & Barrel location that was closing, so we got the parts for dirt cheap ($15, I think). Oh and we also picked up one of their cool display barrels but aren't sure yet what we're going to do with that. Anyway, here's what we have so far (it needs a shelf running across the length to support it and the top will need refinishing before we're done):

Our Trip to NYC

2009-12-06T16:37:00.002-05:00

So yesterday, Debbie and I went to New York City for the day (yes, that's us in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center). It was cold and rainy (and eventually that turned to snow) and the bus was made for people considerably shorter than us, but all in all we saw a lot of things and had a good time. A link to some of the pictures we took is here.

Links to many pictures (been a while)

2009-10-25T18:40:00.002-04:00

So I have posted links to two new sets of pictures.

The first is here and is a group of the last pictures I took in Michigan (some at Michigan State, some of Brian coaching a soccer game, and some when everyone came to Lansing the week before I moved for Dad's birthday).

That's followed by a second set, here, and is of the parks across the street from our apartment here in Brookline (unfortunately that's not the side of the building we're on, so we don't have quite that view) and then a photographic tour of our apartment (including in the last few shots, the view we do have). Featured prominently in the tour of our apartment is the new set of very dark brown bookcases in our living room we built last weekend and my new (again very dark brown) dresser we also build last weekend, all from Ikea. Please pardon the mess and we still haven't finished decorating, so it's a bit of a work in progress.

Father's Day/Malachi's Baptism

2009-06-23T11:50:00.003-04:00

The folks and I went to Sterling Heights last weekend to celebrate Father's Day and see little Malachi get baptized. Pictures are here.

Special Delivery

2009-05-24T11:55:00.005-04:00

Kara was feeling like she needed a bit of rest for her last few weeks of school and Debbie did offer, so she should be expecting a package in the mail. And yes, we did make sure there were some holes in the box.

The rest of the pictures from our visit yesterday are here.

Easter at Grandma's house

2009-04-12T20:29:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd post a link to the few photos I took at Grandma's house today.

The rest of the photos can be found here.

A visit with Addison and Malachi

2009-03-29T14:22:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the folks and I headed over to Detroit to visit the Horvaths.

Got to spend some time with Addison

and meet Malachi

all of the pictures are here and the few I took in Boston before my battery died a couple of weeks back are here.

The animals of my Christmas

2009-01-01T22:45:00.011-05:00

I was trying to think of a way to post about my Christmas travels and visits with family and I decided I would mention my visists in reference to the animals I got to see at each stop. (Links to all the pictures I took at each gathering are below the photo.

The first gathering I went to was of my Dad's side of the family on the Saturday before Christmas. While the Fullers couldn't make it, we did have a good time (and, apparently, so did the cardinals outside).

12/20 pictures

The next day we went to my Grandma Ultz's house as we do every year on the Sunday before Christmas for a celebration with my mom's side of the family. This year, while there weren't any four-legged animals in the house, we had our share of party animals, including Brandon.

12/21a pictures

Then we went back to my parents' house to spend time with both Callie

and Jasmine and did our celebration with my immediate family.

12/21b pictures

The next day, it was on to Debbie's parents' to celebrate with her immediate family and her brother Jon's dog Jezebel.

12/22 pictures

On Christmas Day, we went to Debbie's Grandparents' house to celebrate with Taffy

Roman

Lucky

and Alexander.

12/25 pictures

Finally, it was back to the house where I'm staying in Haslett, and Emma, the cat who likes to wake me up by knocking open my door if she can (or scratching it and meowing sadly if she can't) at all sorts of awfully early hours while I'm still trying to sleep. She's definitely a more friendly cat than I'm used to seeing.

12/27 pictures

Now, this is not to say that the animals were the most important part of my Christmas by any means. They're just a way to organize it. If you follow the links to any of the albums, you'll find many more pictures of the people who were part of my christmas, but there were way too many of them to post them all here, while the animals were easier to list.

My horrible hitting technique

2008-12-11T15:24:00.003-05:00

So I've been trying to post a video of my hitting the volleyball for a while so I could get some critique about what I'm doing wrong. I know my form is a complete mess, but by soliciting criticism over at volleyballforums.com, I'm hoping to improve.

Anyway, if you've got any comments on how I could improve what I'm doing, please go over to the proper thread and post them. Just saying my form is a mess isn't really helpful as I know that, I'd like some advice on how to improve it.

thanks.

A Day in the Life (11-7-08)

2008-12-10T16:43:00.014-05:00

So Pound has been after me for the longest time to do one of those "A Day in the Life of ___" blog postings where I document everything I do one day. I finally got around to doing it over a month ago, but never got any further than taking the pictures. The day I chose was November 7, an auspicious day because it was my wife Debbie's birthday, and I was supposed to have a phone interview for a possible job that day. So without further ado, here's 11/7/08 in the life of Paul:

Mmm...cereal for breakfast, yummy.

It was a bit more difficult to get around during those couple of weeks as we'd already started packing up for the big move to boston.

Since neither of us had appointments during the month of November (mine ended in August, Debbie's in October) we were (and I still am) using public transportation to get to work. Kind of a pain as it adds an extra hour and a half onto our day, but not much choice in the matter.

It was another beautiful late fall day on MSU's campus.

Ah yes, my bench where all that sciency-looking stuff is used to make the world a better place (or something like that).

And yes, my desk is messy, but I know where everything is and have everything I need close at hand.

For lunch I joined Debbie's lab in going out to celebrate her birthday and that of a labmate who had the same birthday at Sultan's a local middle eastern restuarant.

I had the salad

and baked kibbee and baba ghanoush.

Debbie's labmate, Shoko, drove.

Then back to work labeling and oligonucleotide probes with 32P and purifying them. And yes, that means I was using radioactivity, but no, it wasn't strong enough to do me any damage even had I not been as careful as I was and always am (that one visit from the police and fire department aside--hey I wasn't even using radioactivity that time).

I also spent a significant portion trying to get in contact with the person with whom I was supposed to have the phone interview, but unfortunately, we weren't able to connect that day (and my chances of getting that job don't really look so hot either).

It wasn't a total waste though as I got to listen to some good tunes.

Then off to our regular Friday night of volleyball.

Kind of a pain because, as usual, every time we took a break to get some water between games, all the basketball hordes would try taking over the court and we'd have to kick them off again.

After the volleyball, I took Debbie out to her fabulous birthday dinner at Georgio's Pizza. Actually, I forgot to take a picture of my food, so this is from a more recent visit (hence no plates of her food on the table), but I still got the same food, a slice each of eggplant parmesan and mediterranean pizza. Also, I did take her out to a theoretically nice dinner for her birthday the next night at Ai Fusion. Unfortunately, her dinner of veggie tempura wasn't all that good that night either. My sushi there was awesome, though. Our dumpling appetizer was quite good, so, even though she doesn't eat seafood and wouldn't take some of my sushi, at least she got some good food for her birthday dinner.

Then it was back on the bus and home to our apartment where there were a few presents waiting for her.

Yup, that's it, a day in my life, and not at all exciting, but overall it was a pretty good day (at least I didn't have to use my AK). Aren't you glad you wanted me to post it, Pound?

Playing around with old photos and photoshop

2008-12-10T16:02:00.006-05:00

So over at the Pioneer Woman Photography blog that I read, they've posted a new set of photoshop actions and I wanted to try them out on an old picture I have of my grandfather. He died when my dad was 4 so I've never met him and, as far as I know, this is the only photo of him that I have. When my mom sent it to me, it was all faded and he was just as small part of the overall composition of this photo that was quite small in and of itself. You didn't really get a good feel of him from the picture, so I played around with PW's actions and tried to get a different feel of a picture that was all about him. First, the original picture:

The first thing I did was use the Dim The Lights action from her second set to try and get rid of some of the washed out feeling and bring in some more contrast:
Then I used the 4x6 crop in photoshop to get a picture that was mainly him (because I want to print it out on a normal 4x6 print at a photodeveloper).

Then I used the Define and Sharpen action from PW's first action set to bring out a few more details:

Finally, I used the Quick Edge Burn action (also from PW's first set of actions), to get sort of a haloed effect around him. Overall, I kind of like how it turned out:

I also tried it without the Define and Sharpen action to see if there would be much difference and you can see with that action some of the shadows are a bit crisper than without (but I'm still debating which way I like better):

I sent all of the steps I've tried here (and a few others) to be printed and I'm excited to see how they turn out when actually printed when I pick them up tonight or tomorrow night. I'm a bit worried about pixelation from trying to blow up a small part of a small photo (less than 3x5, maybe 2x3.5?) into a 4x6, but after Debbie finally did find the photo (all of our pictures were in various boxes after the move to Boston), she very kindly scanned it at 2400 dpi before sending it to me, so I'm hopefull it won't be too grainy.

Next up, I'm finally going to post my Day in the Life pictures I took over a month ago.

I love sparklers

2008-07-30T14:30:00.001-04:00

Yes, this post is 4 weeks old, but I really like the effects of taking pictures of moving sparklers at night:

The commute on my bicycle

2008-07-30T14:06:00.003-04:00

I'm such a fan of the interurban pathway even though there's nothing urban about either side.
It makes my commute so much nicer than riding through a subdivision or dealing with the traffic on grand river. Plus, the little extra distance is good for me.
Sometimes I even get to see nice animals, like the two fawns with spots on the other day or the great blue heron, I tried to capture here.
Overall, it makes for a pleasant ride.
And this is my ride.
Isn't she a beauty?
Works very well to get me where I'm going, but when loaded up, it's a bear to get up and down stairs at the apartment.
My control panel:
And this is how I had to make things fit in order for my brake light (yes that's right, it lights up when I press my rear break and has turn signals and everything) work.

Another try at the photoshopped pictures

2008-06-12T09:29:00.005-04:00

So, I'm trying again to post the pictures I used to play around with in photoshop. After having been told that I can't move them after posting them if I want them to be openable, I'm going to try that instead. This first picture is the one from which I stole Dezire's head. She's the little girl in the pink shirt behind the girl in the green dress.
This next picture (below) is the one that I used as the base that I then added people into.

The above picture is the one from which I took Britta's head (blonde back row peaking in near the left side).

And this is my final product.

This was just a fun picture I took of the fauz stained glass in the church when all the lights were off. I just thought it looked neat to have the window so bright against the black surroundings.

Playing around with my new camera

2008-06-11T14:27:00.009-04:00

Some pictures of flowers I took last weekend while visiting the parents. Just trying out the macro feature of my new camera that lets me take pictures of things from supposedly 1 cm away. Never tried quite that close, but did try an inch or two distance. At some point I might play with photoshop to improve them.

I'm not too happy with the way the first picture came out, but I kind of like some of the others.

While I was there, we had a party for my grandma's 80th birthday. Most of her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids were there (just missing 3 grandkids and one grandkid's spouse I think), so we all got together to take a family group picture. Unfortunately, some people were hidden in all of my group shots. I've been trying to patch a couple of people back in via photoshop. Here's the rough effort so far:

This isn't the final picture I want to put the two people back into, but it's just something I was practicing with. If you look closely it's fairly obvious where I added back in Britta (blonde in back row peaking out behind her mom in the yellow top--you can see that I didn't actually delete her from this picture where her hair is sticking out on the other side of her mom because I didn't know how to do that with the drapes hanging down. The other person I inserted was Dezire (pink shirt second rown behind the girl in the green dress with glasses). Originally, she was sitting on her foster mom Janelle's lap, but most of her was cut out by the pew end, so I moved the pew end out a little further to cover the rest of her (seem is really obvious) and pasted her in from another picture when she's actually sitting in that location from when just the great grandkids were sitting around my grandma. To be honest, I'm most proud of my completion of the pattern on Janelle's shirt that was hidden behind th original pew post and that wasn't even that great of a job.

Here's the original group photo I was working with:

And here's the great grandkids with grandma shot I stole Dezire's head from:

Britta's head came from this one:

I'm still going through my group shots to find the best one I want to use to try this for real, but I don't think it'll be any of these that ends up serving as the base.

I don't know why clicking on the first three pictures leads to larger version of the picture, but the last two doesn't. Any suggestions?

2008-03-01T17:25:00.008-05:00

A few more pictures I thought I'd add.

From my lab's new homepage (http://www.bmb.msu.edu/faculty/kroos/KroosLabPage.htm edu/faculty/kroos/KroosLabPage.htm):

A couple of pictures from my wedding:

Wow, 2 and a half years have gone fast...

And now for my favorite wedding photo of us:

Where I wish I was right now:

instead of:

Although sledding would be more fun than sitting here in the lab.

Playing Tarzan on my first picnic with Debbie:

And finally, taking a nap with my neice:

2007-11-06T11:24:00.000-05:00

So I found an old picture of myself at work from my lab's website (http://www.bch.msu.edu/labs/krooslab.html) and thought I'd include it, so anyone who finds this can see what I do all day...

Test Posting of old photos

2007-11-05T14:36:00.001-05:00

Some old pictures of me as I have been:
A year ago...

Several years ago...

6 or 7 years ago...

Man, that was one snowy Christmas. I never thought my Dad would send my up to the roof with a shovel and tell me to shovel it off, but we had well over a foot (over two feet I think) up there and it had to come down before it damaged the roof. I miss that old car (and that old backboard I painted). It was the first car that was all mine, with my name on the title and everything. It was a pain to drive in the summer as the only way I could keep it from overheating was to drive with the heater on full blast and the windows down. Those were some sweaty nights, but it was all mine...

The little building off in the upper right corner we always called "the house." It was a little shed that my dad built that used to be out by the road (our house was surrounded by woods and not visible from the road), that my sister and I used to wait for the schoolbus in when it was cold or rainy until it got too full of spiders and we got too embarrassed about all the comments about how we were coming out of the outhouse as the bus came...

That's a far younger me on the front on the far side braving some rapids in West Virginia following graduation from undergrad. What a great time that was.

Debbie and I on our first (sort of) vacation together in Toronto, a number of years ago: