Happy Birthday Francis!

Today, Francis turns 4. She awoke this morning to find streamers, balloons, and birthday banner in her bedroom -- constructed by Sally as Francis slept. She's in for a big surprise tonight. We're going to Kiddieland.

The girl is really growing up. For example, from the backseat a few days ago, she said:

"F you, guys."

Sally and I looked at each other, startled. We had been noticing that Francis picks up saucy language at school, but so far it's been of the "nanny nanny boo boo" variety. Hearing an actual F-bomb, even an implied/truncated one, from our 3.95 year old was very troubling.

What did you say, Francis?

"'F,' you guys," she said, as she pointed to the capital "F" in the book she was reading.

Oh. I see.

Here's What Sally Does

I don't know how many of you follow Sally's periodic account of her photography business, the GreyFinch blog. If you don't, then you probably haven't seen this picture of a wedding she shot down in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

If anyone ever asks me why I think Sally's a great photographer, I'll point to images like this. I think it reveals her heart. Sure, she's becoming a great technician of photography: adjusting any number of factors to account for tricky lighting and other situations. But she's got something else: an instinct that seeks out and captures a line of nails in a pier.

The picture stands alone without metaphor, but I love the idea of the nails representing the days of a lifetime leading to that moment. The nails don’t form a straight line, but the carpenter kept right on driving them into each board. The line snakes and resets itself as it moves down the pier and through time, leading to the couple and to whatever lies beyond.

Thanks for letting me be part of this, Sally. And happy birthday yesterday.

We’ve Been Busy

One month has passed since our last entry, an unprecedented lapse in the history of this blog. We apologize, and offer this explanation: we’ve been busy.

Somewhere along the way of being a lawyer, I decided it would be interesting and meaningful to be a federal criminal prosecutor. After a few rejected (or ignored) applications to various U.S. attorney’s offices around the country, I worked the other side of the fence for a while. Now I’ve finally found a federal prosecutor’s office that will take me, and it happens to be in my hometown: Amarillo, Texas. About a month ago, we made the decision to move, and the nights and weekends since then have been occupied by cleaning, fixing, discarding, worrying, and planning. Mostly worrying.

Please forgive us for this lapse, and prepare yourselves for a change in the nature of MattandSally.com. Sally and I have decided to go private with the blogging, and only allow password-protected access to our site. Before the switch, we’ll send an email to the usual suspects with access information, but if you’re someone who has been enjoying our blog in anonymity (or if you think we might not have your email address), it’s time for you to speak up. Send me your email, and I’ll make sure you get on the list.

6 years together! :)

6 years together! :)
Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

Happy Anniversary (May 25) to us! I love you Matt Gulde. Looking forward to the fun ahead!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Remember when our young niece Anna shaved her head for cancer research? That was uplifting. Her sister Lily did it this year. Also uplifting. Check out this story (more here) about a Canadian waitress who was laid off for following the example of our nieces and then refusing to wear a wig at work.

Independent of the cancer-research aspect of all this, I think that baldness in the food-service industry should be encouraged. If everyone were shorn, there would be no more hair in my eggs.

Milk makes you jump

IMG_8590.jpg
Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

Yesterday, the family packed up and drove down to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm in Indiana. Fair Oaks is a working dairy farm that is open (and tailored) to visitors. We saw the milking facility where more than 60 cows are milked simultaneously on a giant carousel. We saw the mountains of Total Mixed Ration that feed the thousands of cows at the farm. Most memorably, we all sat spellbound for half an hour as cow number 49885 gave birth to a calf.

"Francis, are you seeing this?" I would ask.

"Yes, I see it, Daddy. Why is that baby cow so wet?"

"All babies are wet when they're born. You were wet."

"Really?"

"And then your mommy licked you clean just like that cow is doing."

Francis laughed, but most other people just looked away nervously.

Pictured here is the inflatable trampoline that gives the cow-birth a run for its money in the most-memorable race. Not pictured: tractor races, climbing wall, and delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.

Woodturning #7: Oak Bowl

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Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

I turned this bowl, my largest thusfar, out of oak cut from a friend's father's house (the same friend that gave me the cherry logs). I started turning the bowl on Saturday afternoon, and was in a rush to finish it before heading out to dinner that evening. In my rush, I was too aggressive on the first hollowing cuts and caught my blade in the wood. The resulting "catch" knocked the bowl from the lathe and chipped the base. Deflated, I set the wood aside, swept up the mountain of shavings, and went to the dinner.

Woodturning is such an addicting activity that I replayed that moment of catastrophe several times in my head at dinner. Sorry if I seemed distracted. When we got home around 10:30, I remounted the bowl, turned off the chipped wood to create a new base, and still ended up with a bigger bowl than I'd ever turned before.

I'm told that my dad used to say he enjoyed woodworking because the medium was so forgiving. He had spent years as a pre-stressed concrete engineer, so he was used to mistakes being literally set in stone. Woodturning is possibly the most forgiving among woodworking disciplines. As long as there's a way to remount the wood and get it spinning, something interesting can happen.

There is a life lesson here. After a mistake, find a way to remount and keep turning; redemption is attainable through diligence. And don't be in such a damn hurry before dinner.

Hand in the Creamer

Hand in the Creamer
Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

I went upstairs for just a minute -- putting away some laundry. I left the kids playing in the living room. When I returned, George was gone.

"Francis, where's your brother?"

"I don't know."

Then I heard George talking to himself in the kitchen, so I turned the corner and saw this. He was hard at work putting powdered creamer into the three saucers that he pulled out of the cabinet. Such a helpful and industrious boy.

Good Morning, Daddy

Sally had a gig shooting some lawyers in Milwaukee this morning, and she left just before the kids woke up. Not long after she closed the door, and while I was still in bed, Francis came into my room to see if I was awake. You know, this is one of those iconic moments of parenthood: angelic child padding into the parents' bedroom to start the day. If I had a picture of being a daddy, it was something like this.

Francis was carrying her blanket in one hand, and she held her other hand in front of her as she walked up to me. I didn't have my glasses on, so her fingers were two inches from my face before I noticed her finger had something on it. It's not uncommon for Francis to show me the most recent thing that she's fished out of her nose, so that's what I expected. This was something different, though.

"What did you get into?" I asked as I tested the substance between my fingers. The answer was a gleeful whisper, like she was playing a joke: "it's poo poo, daddy." It was no joke.

Francis self portrait

Francis self portrait
Originally uploaded by ..Sally..

Francis took this picture of herself the other day. She really enjoys the feature on my phone that lets you draw on existing pictures. Often, when we get in the car, she will say, "Daddy, I want to draw on a picture," so I get her to the right menu, and hand her the phone.

Little did I know she was also snapping pictures the whole time. I discovered them when my phone told me it was full. I'll upload more of her pictures soon, but I wanted to share this great self-portrait immediately.