A Diary of Small Things

54 // via Samsung Instinct M800: Roll With It

I taught my kids to hill roll the other day. That is to say, I rolled down the hill, they watched, and then attempted to copy.

When I came home I was itching like a bitch. I don’t know what I rolled in, but it wasn’t pleasant. Anyhow, itching in multiple places aside, Das Kids have been initiated into a tradition of children everywhere. And they didn’t come home scratching, either.

53 // via Samsung Instinct M800: Bird’s eggs

Morning doves have made our house their home for as long as we’ve lived here. At first they lived in the drier vent. Well, that wasn’t a really good plan, so I closed that up with some wire fence. Now they’re living under the deck.

And they’re having a family. Yay!

53 // via Samsung Instinct M800: Hibachi!

Date night with the wife, last night, so we went to the hibachi grill Matsutake at the Westridge shopping center. I’d forgotten how much fun it is — the clatter of steel on steel as the chef precisely slices and dices on a sizzling stainless steel table.

This is the chef torching some onions into a flaming volcano.

53 // via Nikon Coolpix L12: Country Road

On the road trip mentioned in 52, my in-phone navigation took me on a weird jaunt from I-495 to the hotel where the award ceremony was to take place. Weird, but not unpleasant. As soon as I was off the main highway I was on a nice winding little country lane.

It was a pleasant surprise, especially in Baltimore. Here’s a snap I took from my car.

52 // via Nikon Coolpix L12: On the Road

I headed into Baltimore today for an awards ceremony. It was a beautiful day, a good day for a long drive, even though I knew slicing out a three -hour chunk would be costly, work-wise, when I got back to the office.

51 // via Samsung Instinct M800: Light through tree branches

Another snap from our walk.

50 // via Samsung Instinct M800: The River Flows

Nice to see on a recent walk the Monocacy, which has been looking a little anemic, flowing strongly. I don’t know if it means anything with regards to a drought (or if we even have one), but it’s a refreshing change from the recent low flow. This was taken on a walk this evening.

49 // via Samsung Instinct M800: Just the Facts

This is a press conference. I was at one today. It’s been a while. As a government and politics reporter, I used to find myself at these on a regular basis, so I was somewhat nostalgic.

I shouldn’t love press conferences. If you’re at a press conference, you somehow can’t help but feel you missed the story, that you should have somehow scooped the info coming out of the event before the event was held.

But I do love press conferences. Yes. I used to know all the people at them and they knew me, and we had a sense of community, collegiality. Even if you were trying to shank each other to get to the story first.

So, why is a fat, over-the-hill pasty white English former reporter turned desk jockey editor doing here? “You’ve been promoted and sent up the hill with the generals. Why would you be back in the front lines, sir?”

Well, today at the paper I work for we tried something new: Twittering the event live. Gubbins here was the keyboard monkey. And I think I acquitted myself quite well, thank you.

48 // via Samsung Instinct M800: New Shoes

It was that time of year again: New shoe purchases to ensure proper growth of young feet. Very dashing, I think you’ll agree. Her’s have flowers with LED bulbs that light up. Nothing so special for him, although the shoe sales lady did manage to spin the efficacy of the bouncy rubber balls in the soles:

“There’s no scientific evidence for this,” she said, “but I hear that the balls make you jump higher.”

47 // via Samsung Instinct M800: ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Some events in life leave you with an indelible mark, something you feel you will never wash away. Saturday was one of those days. I’ve had worse, but it’s been a long time and before I had a family.

After six or seven hours soaked in details of imponderable, unexplainable violence, I left work and met up with my wife and kids at a local playground. (Laura, God bless her, has long suffered the exigencies of my career.)

Washed in the love of my family, the joyous giggles, the playful taunts, the hugs, the kisses, the sight of my boy up there on the slide, framed against a deep blue sky, daring life, I forgot the pain just for a moment, pain I feel I have no right to.

So here’s to Francie, and Chandler, and Gavin and Fiona and the moments like these they will no longer have.