Curiosity

This is my most popular photo on Flickr, and I can see why. I decided to play with it and make one of those motivational posters. I like the way it turned out! View it larger here.

Getting into the swing of things again

It's a hit!
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

The other day he started realizing he hadn't been playing baseball for a while and he missed it. So we all went outside and he and daddy played for a while. Will got to be the pitcher for a while, too. I have some pictures of that on my flickr, which often has updates that I don't always get to post on here right away.

Anyway, he made contact on this one pretty good. This is a setting on my camera I'm just starting to try out. It worked out really cool in this one, though.

"Wiggles ROCK!"

"Wiggles ROCK!"
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

Oh, yeah. Another few years of Greg, Anthony, Jeff and Murray. I can't wait.

This is a new development for her, but she is really into them now...*sigh*

Geez, dad, if you wanted to see them that badly, you could have just ASKED...

She's looking at me like "a little help here? Just a little? someone?"
  

Learning to fly

Learning to fly
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

but she ain't got wings...coming down is the hardest thing.

It was a hot day when it started to rain. She wanted very badly to go outside in it -- after all, she is definitely a water baby. Here I have decided the diaper is counterproductive and that it needs to come off. Photo by daddy.

Laundry kids

Laundry kids
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

I never get tired of seeing them play together.

This diaper was made for walkin'

leafy goodness

leafy goodness
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

We went outside and played in the rain the other day, and Adelaide had a great time. She did find this leaf and wanted to chew it...okay, yeah, I snapped some photos before I took it away. It was too cute!

Discover

Discover
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

And here is Will, in a poster that is very him. I like how this one turned out...I may fiddle with the lighting in the picture a little, but overall, this I think is a neat one.

laila at play

laila at play
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

I made this with a really cool application for flickr. I have a badge on here that you can click on to see my newest photos. I update it more religiously than my blog (sorry! but it is a lot easier to upload photos than to write entries!) If you are interested in frequent updates and photos of the kids, I would recommend you bookmark my flickr homepage. Anyway, here is a fun montage of laila.

So funny -- hubris in photography...oxymoron?

This is a hilarious post for anyone who belongs to online photo sharing sites -- it is a satire of some famous photos and comments they "would have gotten" if posted on the internet. Funny, funny because there are so many people who think that just because they have a large piece of glass and plastic they are art experts. *sigh* But it is funny.

uh oh!

teeth!

teeth!
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

All six are showcased in this photo (thanks to my rockin' new camera...) and isn't she just adorable?

Cool...but how random is the lack of south carolina and the virginias?

create your own visited states map
OH.MY.WORD.
Look at Ben's!!! Not only was he an Air Force Brat, he had evil Wisconsin traveling job. Wow. He so wins.

Will's art

I love what Will did with this picture. I adore my son, of course, but wow, I think he is talented and amazing! He took this picture of Adelaide and turned it into this. Pretty cool, huh?

Wow...how wrong can you be? Cable de-monopolization is the future.

So some of you have read that I loathe cable companies and the current "franchising" system (which I prefer to label "government approved monopoly"). So I was understandably excited about the bill moving through the government to dismantle this system and free the lines for open competition in markets.

So here comes this dude, who simply gets it all wrong. He laments that instead of complaints about the cable company being handled by "city hall," everyone will have to go through the FCC. HELLO? Apparently he is so entrenched in the thinking of "red tape" that he has forgotten that money speaks louder than words, tape, or city hall.

He writes: "The major telecommunications bill careening through Congress right now would shift almost all the responsibility for cable complaints from local governments to the Federal Communications Commission. With some 30,000 local governments currently taking and acting on cable complaints, it's not clear how the FCC would suddenly gear up to all of handle them. But I’ll let you guess."

Okay, okay, I know this one! (hand shoots up in the air) If cable companies had to face competition and had some kind of financial incentive to treat customers with respect and to deliver good service, there wouldn't be so many complaints. People would just switch companies! And while I feel certain that if this in enacted, cable companies will suddenly come up with all sorts of schemes to get subscribers to sign contracts (a la cell phone companies -- don't do it!!!) it would nonetheless give people options they don't currently have. So what do you think matters more? The people angry with their local cable company switch to a competitor, or the people angry with the local cable company go to their local government, whose palms are greased with the tax revenues and money of the provider filling their coffers, who then say, "hey, stop that. really. stop. okay, stop when it's convenient for you." Or better yet, they say, "quit complaining."

I, along with many others I know, have converted to satellite service for television. But I still have to go with the worthless, do-nothing, money grubbing, service-impaired local cable company for my high-speed internet service. I would like to point out, however, that when I call my satellite provider with a problem that I talk to a human (who is usually generally pleasant and helpful and whose only advice isn't "unplug the box for thirty seconds...")

So file this under "think for yourself." It is a pretty sad state I suppose when we need government regulation to fix government regulation (see: Louisiana ethanol mandate), but I have a dream. I dream of a world in which I can tell Cox Cable to stick it somewhere very impolite because I'm moving to _______ (fill in the blank...satellite, Time Warner, Comcast, local provider, etc.)

These companies fear the day they will have to compete for dollars. Improving service and options...it frightens them! Entrenchment...it is soooo comfortable...Responding to consumer sentiment and demand...nooooooooooooooooo!!!

Please, "Red Tape Chronicles," get a clue. The market is the best consumer complaint system of all. Just ask aol.

Just when I thought I was having a bad day...

Wow. Just when I think I'm having a bad day, I read this. And I realize that, yeah, sometimes things happen that stink or upset me, but in the scheme of things, at least I didn't ask someone to marry me who said they didn't think they were ready, which then precipitated jumping out of a window naked, running down the street, and being shot at. Really, everyone. It could be worse!

Reason #3271 I don't miss Wisconsin

There are so many reasons I am glad we don't live in Wisconsin anymore. In fact, the population of Wisconsin in the 2000 census was 5,363,675. But let's be fair...not everyone in Wisconsin is bad. So there are probably only, like, 5,363,242 reasons I'm glad we don't live there anymore. I'm calling this guy #3271. I really need a "Wisconsin" tag like Fark.com has a "florida" tag. I like to refer back to them when, say, a hurricane is coming or when I think about Governor Blanco (which is as little as possible) so that I realize that at least the people here in Louisiana are 97% awesome. Considering that the people in Wausau were about 97% awful, rude, and uncaring...I think I can live with a stupid governor until the next election.

Introducing (drumroll....) WILL'S BLOG!!!

Wow, Will is just so fun.

Let me introduce everyone to his really great blog "Terrific Kid." He came up with the title all by himself. So clearly he has no problems with self-esteem...but he is a terrific kid, so that's fine.

Will has been asking me for a blog for a looooong time, ever since he realized I was posting on mine. I should have done it sooner, but better now than never! Will likes to get on Adobe Photoshop and create really cool pictures with neat effects. I certainly don't think it looks like the work of someone who just turned five!

He says he also wants to start posting pictures of his lego creations and scanning in his art that he does here at home. Really he just wants to have a website. For a tech-savvy little guy, I guess that's sort of an awesome thing!

So visit his site and leave a comment. He LOVES reading his comments, and check back because he's one of those bloggers who likes to respond to all of them! He's really proud of his site, and I'm really proud of him. He is, after all, a really Terrific Kid.

Mischief Maker

DSC00198
Originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

This is Will's room.

He HATES it when she stands at it and bangs on the door. He says she eats the stickers off the door.

He's right.