2017 in Review

2018-01-31.

While 2017 was a dark and worrying time for the country, we had some bright spots:

Our son continued to level up his stats: turning one year old, getting dedicated, having his first haircut, and learning to walk, talk, and long-press to get Siri on iOS devices.

Visited Toronto (with a side trip to Niagara Falls).

Watched a total solar eclipse in Lincoln, Nebraska.

One high-profile death that hit hard: Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan, who on a trip to the Philippines once said of 7th grade me, “this kid’s done his homework.” Still doing it, Captain.

Best selfie of the year: my first pair of glasses. Now we enter 2018: the year of SeaQuest DSV.

Bit of Snow

2018-01-11.

We’ve gotten barely two inches of snow total so far this winter, but record cold kept it on the ground for a while. The first accumulating snowfall of the season in December I found a little snowperson by the bridge.

And last weekend, out in the woods behind the house, we spotted a fox napping by a log before trotting off through the snow.

Wintry photo album building up here.

Transfer Point

2018-01-02.

Captured a bit of symmetry at L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station lower platform while waiting for a train.

(Compare with this shot from the Baltimore Metro, 15 years ago.)

Christmas 2017

2017-12-27.

Back to NJ for Christmas! Ezra had a lot of fun being showered with toys and fawned over by relatives.

Amy gave me a ukulele, a simple fun instrument I’ve been wanting to learn for a while now.

Some highlights from the in-laws’ tree:

After Thanksgiving’s Turnpike backup we opted for the US-15/I-78 route up through Pennsylvania. Longer drive, but much better scenery, and almost no tolls. Ezra got to be King at a rest stop.

Full Christmas 2017 photo album here.

Thanksgiving 2017

2017-12-17.

Visited Amy’s folks in NJ for Thanksgiving, with a trip to Turtle Back Zoo over the weekend.

This is Ezra’s first Thanksgiving away (we stayed home last year as he was just 5 months old). He’s gotten past his stranger anxiety phase and had a lot of fun with everyone, even mistaking Amy’s cousin Dave for me a couple of times.

He also enjoyed the zoo, especially the penguins, goats, sheep, and dinosaur park.

Enjoy these closeups of a penguin and a ram.

Oh yeah, I’m skipping the NJ Turnpike next trip. Due to accidents, construction in Delaware, and a toll plaza bottleneck, we were stuck in traffic with this view for 2-3 hours.

Full Thanksgiving 2017 photo album here.

LoC NAVCC

2017-12-17.

Work gave me an opportunity to tour the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center out in Culpeper VA a few months ago.

Also known as the Packard Campus — after its benefactor David Packard of Hewlett-Packard fame — the facility began as the Culpeper Switch, a cold war Federal Reserve bunker burrowed into a mountain.

Today the bunkers are now vaults and labs for film reels, cassette tapes, records, wax cylinders, photos, video games, and other artifacts of bygone eras of audio-visual media, all carefully restored, cataloged, and digitally archived by Library of Congress workers — with help from a few robots here and there.

I mentioned video games. They had a spread of various games across all kinds of on one table, which seemed a haphazard scatter at first, but I don’t think it was an accident that ET for Atari, CD-i Zelda, and Battletoads — some of the worst titles in the history of gaming — were clustered together.

Meanwhile, someone took severe umbrage with these.

For those wanting to visit, the Packard Campus also has a lovely theater with free events for the public, and yearly open houses with facilities tours. More photos in the full LoC NAVCC photoset.

Glasses

2017-11-05.

After decades of 20/20 vision I finally started having trouble reading small text close to my eyes, and an optometry appointment showed mild farsightedness and astigmatism, which means reading glasses.

I only need them for reading small text near my face, very important for Pokémon GO. I picked the thinnest frames possible so I wouldn’t scare our son, who’s failed to recognize his grandpa when he puts on his glasses. Good news is that a puff test showed no glaucoma. This is fine.

Halloween 2017

2017-10-31.

Ezra outgrew last year’s Star Trek: Next Generation outfit, so this year he was in Original Series Captain’s Command Gold. Meanwhile, Amy and I donned our red shirts as his security detail.

He’s still an unsteady walker and doesn’t have enough teeth to handle candy yet, so no walking around trick-or-treating, but he had fun staying out late and greeting the monsters and superheroes who showed up. Two bags of Costco candy — only one was finished up, which means now we have 150 pieces to ourselves.

First Haircut

2017-10-02.

Another milestone: Ezra’s first haircut. We brought him to a local Cartoon Cuts which specializes in first haircuts, and has TVs and toys for the kids. None of that mattered as Ezra wailed and struggled through the entire ordeal. Still, he looks a lot better after a trim.

Oh, you know how you get a keepsake lock of hair in a baggie to remember a first haircut? Make sure the lock of hair is dry. Turns out wet hair in a sealed bag gets moldy.

Baby Steps

2017-10-01.

And suddenly our son Ezra has begun to walk. He was already cruising with some assistance earlier, but at 14 months came those wobbly first few steps at a time, and by 15 months he could cross a room.

Almost 16 months now, and he’s running around outdoors like a pro. He especially likes little footbridges, walking across them and turning around and recrossing them repeatedly.

New milestone crossed. Very proud of our little bridge-crosser, now technically a toddler rather than a baby.

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