how now brownpau
For Easter 2018, a view of the new pipe organ‘s trompette en chamade at First Baptist DC.
Sixteen years now with this church, singing and worshipping with them. I looked back through my archives and found my first mention of this church in 2002. Lots of changes since then — and sometimes it really has felt like death and resurrection.
At 21 months of age, Ezra is well into the transition to toddlerhood. He can walk, run, walk backwards, and even negotiate stairs with help. (One thing he can’t do yet is jump; he bends his knees and jerks upward a bit without leaving the floor. He’ll get it someday. )
He can sort shapes and do simple toddler puzzles. He actually has a vocabulary now: maybe 50-100 words, including various body parts. He can identify his mom (“MAMA”) and dad (“DADA”) and cats (“CAT”) and grandparents (“BABA” for both grandpa and grandma). He understands a lot more than he speaks, able to follow simple instructions like “put your clothes in the hamper” or “get the ball and throw it here” or “don’t release the clutch so fast, and shift to a lower gear to slow down on a steep downhill slope.”
At the dinner table he can handle a spoon and fork, and eats a variety of soft foods without complaint. He’s got at least four molars in and sharp canines showing now. The fact that he can bite and chew a banana and identify it by name (“NANA”) is still amazing to us. Sometimes he’ll sit in a regular chair to eat, and he’s big enough that his chin isn’t on the table.
When at church he likes the cookies at the post-service reception.
He really, really loves being outdoors, even when it’s cold, and tries to socialize with other kids by throwing balls towards them.
Ezra also got his second haircut and seems to have gotten over the worst of his earlier stranger/separation anxiety, handling the process with much more calm than his first.
He can also use a laptop, tablet, phone, or handheld gaming console; so far his favorite game is “find the home button and press it repeatedly.”
Just 3 months shy of two, when I can’t really call him a baby anymore.
He’ll be a full-fledged kid.
Much-anticipated launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket yesterday out of KSC Pad 39A: three F9 boosters strapped together, with a Tesla Roadster mounted atop the upper stage as a test payload. Two side boosters returned for a synchronized double landing at CCAFS, while the core booster aimed for a barge landing in the Atlantic (but missed and went through RUD in the water).
The Tesla Roadster, while definitely a frivolous indulgence on Elon Musk’s part, made for some amazing visuals as cameras sent back live views of the car, spacesuited “Starman” posed in the driver’s seat, backdropped by space and a shrinking planet Earth. After a departure burn, Starman and its car are heading out past Mars to the asteroid belt.
Amazing remote camera photos photos from near the launch site from Kraus, Mahlmann, and Killian, Studwell, and Walters.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.