Thursday, March 21, 2019
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Post 600: Putt-Putt with Elyse
Blogger tells me that this is the 600th post on our blog!
This afternoon Elyse went with Jessica and Mommy to play tennis at our neighborhood tennis court; Elyse didn't have a very good time and didn't feel like she did very well at tennis, so she wanted me to take her to do something she thought she'd be better at: miniature golf at Stone Mountain.
So I did.
Unfortunately, we got there just a few minutes before they closed (at 5:00 on a Saturday? Yes, I guess since it's still technically winter and they aren't really that busy) so we didn't get to play as long as we would have liked, but it was still fun and I'm glad we went. We didn't keep score, and I only played the first couple of holes, and we skipped around a bit and only did about ten holes:
There's no golf going on here, I just like taking pictures of this part of Crossroads:
Before we left I took this portrait of Elyse:
This afternoon Elyse went with Jessica and Mommy to play tennis at our neighborhood tennis court; Elyse didn't have a very good time and didn't feel like she did very well at tennis, so she wanted me to take her to do something she thought she'd be better at: miniature golf at Stone Mountain.
So I did.
Unfortunately, we got there just a few minutes before they closed (at 5:00 on a Saturday? Yes, I guess since it's still technically winter and they aren't really that busy) so we didn't get to play as long as we would have liked, but it was still fun and I'm glad we went. We didn't keep score, and I only played the first couple of holes, and we skipped around a bit and only did about ten holes:
There's no golf going on here, I just like taking pictures of this part of Crossroads:
(It wasn't as empty as this picture would lead you to believe.)
Snow Mountain is currently being taken down, so the lawn in front of Memorial Hall is both unusable and unpassable:
Before we left I took this portrait of Elyse:
On the way home we stopped for supper at Elyse's favorite restaurant, Moe's, where we ate lots of chips and queso (though I didn't take any pictures of that).
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Father-Daughter Dance
Tonight Elyse and I went to the Father-Daughter Dance at her school. Anna took this picture of us before we left:
Here are a couple of pictures I took of Elyse there:
and a selfie we made together while we were waiting to get our formal pictures taken:
Elyse took this picture of me in the gym:
It was very well attended, though this picture doesn't quite indicate just how busy and full the gym really was:
It was a masquerade ball, and they provided masks for the girls (and anyone else who wanted to put one on, I suppose), but Elyse couldn't quite settle on one to wear for the night and didn't bring one home. But she did try on a few, including this one that she had to hold in place:
Some of the really good desserts:
This is the formal portrait we had made:
Here are a couple of pictures I took of Elyse there:
and a selfie we made together while we were waiting to get our formal pictures taken:
Elyse took this picture of me in the gym:
It was very well attended, though this picture doesn't quite indicate just how busy and full the gym really was:
It was a masquerade ball, and they provided masks for the girls (and anyone else who wanted to put one on, I suppose), but Elyse couldn't quite settle on one to wear for the night and didn't bring one home. But she did try on a few, including this one that she had to hold in place:
Some of the really good desserts:
This is the formal portrait we had made:
(Yes, I did pay for the rights to it so I can legally post it here...in case you were wondering.)
Friday, February 22, 2019
Nostalgia and T.V. and Me and Jessica
Not everyone is affected by middle age the same way, so I don't know if this is a common experience or not, but one of the things middle age has done to me is to make me pine for things that weren't all that good the first time around.
Earlier tonight I was searching for one thing on the Internet, and, as happens so often and so easily, I got distracted by any number of other things. In the process, I came across a mention on some random guy's blog of the great -- er, "great" may be a bit generous; let's say the factually once existing Vic Tayback. Many years ago, Tayback played the cook and owner of Mel's Diner in the great -- er, again, too generous; in the late-1970's sitcom "Alice."
And, seeing that, I was overcome with a wistful longing to see "Alice" again.
It wasn't that great a show, really; definitely not one that I made sure to always see when it was on back then, and not one that I watched regularly in syndication on Nick at Nite or TV Land; in fact, I probably haven't seen "Alice" in close to forty years. But I did enjoy it when I saw it, which was at least somewhat regularly between 1978 and 1980 or so. If you were around back then, you probably remember the show's breakout star, Polly Holliday, who played waitress Flo on the series, famous for her exasperated cry of "Kiss my grits!" when Mel would get on her last nerve. You may also remember, if your head is as full of as much ancient pop-culture trivia as mine is, that Dave Madden played one of the regular customers at the diner; Madden is perhaps most famous as manager (and Danny's foil) Reuben Kincaid on "The Partridge Family" -- another show I would love to see again, despite its mediocrity.
But what I really want, of course, is not so much to see "Alice" or "The Partridge Family" again -- I feel a similar nostalgia for "The Brady Bunch," and have it in my Hulu watchlist, but I've only actually watched one episode -- as it is to be eight or ten or twelve again, in my childhood home in Lilburn, in the living room (or the den; for a time we had a TV set there, and for some reason I remember watching "Alice" there more than in the living room) with my family, watching...well, whatever happened to be on would do, actually. To be young again, my whole life before me, my parents a full decade and a half younger than I am as I type this, my only real responsibility getting through sixth grade with grades good enough to get me promoted to seventh, my grandmother still alive, my extended family still close enough that I see my cousins every couple of weeks and my cousin Scott, then my best friend, at least once a week, my vague dream of someday being a novelist not yet fully formed, and certainly not dead, as it sometimes feels now.
Without meaning to, I have infected Jessica with a similar nostalgia, though in her case I guess it can't truly be called "nostalgia," since she was not with me forty or more years ago when I originally watched the TV shows she now watches on DVD or streaming from Hulu or Boomerang: "Gilligan's Island," "The Monkees," "The Flintstones," "The Munsters," "The Addams Family"; none of them great shows (though it pains me to admit that "Gilligan's Island" and "The Monkees" are not exceptional TV shows, for I do love them so), but all of them fun and funny and entertaining and basically harmless. I do feel a little guilty sometimes that, in encouraging her fondness for these shows, I am giving her attachments that are totally foreign to just about everyone else her age: when Peter Tork passed away recently at the age of 77, I saw several remembrances of him and the Monkees from my peers on social media, but I'm pretty sure none of Jessica's peers had any idea who Peter Tork was, or that he had even existed.
I don't know if the longing for mediocre elements from your past (even for things you didn't like; sometimes I listen with great enjoyment to songs that I hated when they were first out) is common or not, but I am pretty sure it's a common desire to want to recreate some of your own youth for your children. Jessica, if you read this years from now, perhaps even when you are near my current age, I'm sorry I've done this to you, but I'm really, really glad you like "The Monkees."
Earlier tonight I was searching for one thing on the Internet, and, as happens so often and so easily, I got distracted by any number of other things. In the process, I came across a mention on some random guy's blog of the great -- er, "great" may be a bit generous; let's say the factually once existing Vic Tayback. Many years ago, Tayback played the cook and owner of Mel's Diner in the great -- er, again, too generous; in the late-1970's sitcom "Alice."
And, seeing that, I was overcome with a wistful longing to see "Alice" again.
It wasn't that great a show, really; definitely not one that I made sure to always see when it was on back then, and not one that I watched regularly in syndication on Nick at Nite or TV Land; in fact, I probably haven't seen "Alice" in close to forty years. But I did enjoy it when I saw it, which was at least somewhat regularly between 1978 and 1980 or so. If you were around back then, you probably remember the show's breakout star, Polly Holliday, who played waitress Flo on the series, famous for her exasperated cry of "Kiss my grits!" when Mel would get on her last nerve. You may also remember, if your head is as full of as much ancient pop-culture trivia as mine is, that Dave Madden played one of the regular customers at the diner; Madden is perhaps most famous as manager (and Danny's foil) Reuben Kincaid on "The Partridge Family" -- another show I would love to see again, despite its mediocrity.
But what I really want, of course, is not so much to see "Alice" or "The Partridge Family" again -- I feel a similar nostalgia for "The Brady Bunch," and have it in my Hulu watchlist, but I've only actually watched one episode -- as it is to be eight or ten or twelve again, in my childhood home in Lilburn, in the living room (or the den; for a time we had a TV set there, and for some reason I remember watching "Alice" there more than in the living room) with my family, watching...well, whatever happened to be on would do, actually. To be young again, my whole life before me, my parents a full decade and a half younger than I am as I type this, my only real responsibility getting through sixth grade with grades good enough to get me promoted to seventh, my grandmother still alive, my extended family still close enough that I see my cousins every couple of weeks and my cousin Scott, then my best friend, at least once a week, my vague dream of someday being a novelist not yet fully formed, and certainly not dead, as it sometimes feels now.
Without meaning to, I have infected Jessica with a similar nostalgia, though in her case I guess it can't truly be called "nostalgia," since she was not with me forty or more years ago when I originally watched the TV shows she now watches on DVD or streaming from Hulu or Boomerang: "Gilligan's Island," "The Monkees," "The Flintstones," "The Munsters," "The Addams Family"; none of them great shows (though it pains me to admit that "Gilligan's Island" and "The Monkees" are not exceptional TV shows, for I do love them so), but all of them fun and funny and entertaining and basically harmless. I do feel a little guilty sometimes that, in encouraging her fondness for these shows, I am giving her attachments that are totally foreign to just about everyone else her age: when Peter Tork passed away recently at the age of 77, I saw several remembrances of him and the Monkees from my peers on social media, but I'm pretty sure none of Jessica's peers had any idea who Peter Tork was, or that he had even existed.
I don't know if the longing for mediocre elements from your past (even for things you didn't like; sometimes I listen with great enjoyment to songs that I hated when they were first out) is common or not, but I am pretty sure it's a common desire to want to recreate some of your own youth for your children. Jessica, if you read this years from now, perhaps even when you are near my current age, I'm sorry I've done this to you, but I'm really, really glad you like "The Monkees."
Friday, February 15, 2019
Exploring Lawrenceville with Jessica
Today the girls didn't have school, and Jessica and I went to Lawrenceville to do some exploring and picture taking. Here are some of the pictures I took in downtown Lawrenceville, including Liberty Books, the Historic Courthouse, and the Gwinnett History Museum inside the old Lawrenceville seminary:
Monday, February 4, 2019
Elyse's Valentines Day Cookies
Elyse made some Valentines Day cookies, and she wanted me to post some pictures of them:
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Vines Gardens with Elyse
Today while Jessica was out having lunch with Pa for her birthday present (they went to Steak & Shake and then Book Nook) and Mom was out grocery shopping, Elyse wanted to go to Vines Gardens to walk around and take some pictures. So we did! Here are sixteen of the pictures from our walk:
She wanted me to take some pictures from across the lake:
She thought this was a good pose for a picture:
She was amazed that there is a palm tree there now (near where the green house used to be). She thought it felt funny:
In mid-twirl:
She thought her doing a split on a bench would make a good picture:
She was please with her ability to balance on the Asian Garden's boardwalk's posts:
On our way home, we stopped at Publix and got little chocolate-covered donuts for a snack! (But I didn't take any pictures of them.)
She wanted me to take some pictures from across the lake:
She thought this was a good pose for a picture:
She was amazed that there is a palm tree there now (near where the green house used to be). She thought it felt funny:
In mid-twirl:
She thought her doing a split on a bench would make a good picture:
She was please with her ability to balance on the Asian Garden's boardwalk's posts:
On our way home, we stopped at Publix and got little chocolate-covered donuts for a snack! (But I didn't take any pictures of them.)
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