Year 2000 Edition


Photographs

When I was a boy I wanted a house with a staircase, a fireplace and a weathervane. I now have that house! The cupola and weathervane ("Long Tom") are now up. Here's a photo.

We had 12" of snow on 1/25 - the government was shut down on the 25th and 26th. I spent both days shovelling and taking pictures: the house, Ethan's igloo, Meredith in the snow, Meredith's snow tunnel.

We got some photos developed: Meredith 2000, Ethan turns 16, Seven inches of snow, An evening game of Astro Launch, Those Happy Meal toys will accumulate! and Decorating Christmas cookies.

I got a letter to the editor printed in the 2/22/2000 Washington Times. (Click here.) Why is the South Carolina flying a Confederate naval ensign over their state capitol? Do they seek to honor the maritime Rebs over the Confederate Army? My guess is that they don't know any better...

For the past five years I've been doing all of my photography with an Olympus Infinity Zoom, one of those compact auto-focus cameras. But lately I've become interested in my old mechanical 35 mm SLRs: a 1978 vintage Pentax K1000 and an older Petri FTee (for which I'm buying a new lens). Here are some shots with the K1000 - I think I'm going to use it more often, I like the image quality better: Three Civil war pards at the Lone Star restaurant, a study in blue and red #1, #2 and #3, and the squinting subjects. Also, Julie is 13 and Ethan, February 2000.

Ethan's lacrosse photo. April, 2000.
Julie's seventh grade photo. April, 2000.
Meredith's fourth grade photo. April, 2000.

Mom and the girls at a church luau.

Swim meet (7/1/00) and Compliant Cari.

We went to Virginia Beach for a new days on vacation - here's Julie and Meredith. When we got back, the siding guys finally arrived and work began. Of course, we spend a lot of time at, around and in the Hunt Valley pool.

By the way, if it looks to you like I get a lot more photos of the girls, you're right. Ethan is at the age where he hates to have his picture taken.

I went to California in August. Here are some shots: Me and Mike back in class, Wesley Drive, Sing for me, Ariel.

TP attack!

A few of us at work were presented with a Department of Commerce Gold Medal in a ceremony in D.C. for the Patents on the Web project. I got to shake hands with Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Commerce. All I did was to provide network connectivity via T-1 and T-3 lines to the Internet last year - but it's an election year this year... Anyway, here is an image of the actual medal.

I took the kids to Six Flags Over America - here's one of those ride images from the Superman ride.

School begins again, 8th grade for Julie, 5th grade for Meredith
Julie, September 2000
Meredith, September 2000

Ethan finally got his Eagle in the Boys Scouts on 10/27/00, and we are very proud. I know these days Boy Scouts are unfashionable and politically incorrect - which makes the program all the more attractive to me! Click here for an image of Ethan with his cake, here for Ethan and his grandparents and here for Ethan and Matt Wood.

Meredith just being Meredith.

New siding! - I finally got the new siding up and the entire outside of the house painted - a major effort, but it looks much nicer. Now we work on indoor projects...

It's Christmastime! Julie, Meredith, all of us.

"Scrooge": Cari directed a church version of this Leslie Bricusse musical for three 12/8 and 12/9 performances. All of us save Ethan - who couldn't be dragged in kicking and screaming - got involved somehow. Julie was in a girl's choir and also a townsperson, Meredith was one of the Cratchit children (shown here with Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim). I got dragged in at the last minute to play the Ghost of Christmas Present when the fellow doing it got sick. Everyone else had two months to rehearse; I had three days. The part required acting, singing and some dancing - none of which I had ever done on stage before. But somehow I pulled it off, with a line substitution and an ad lib here and there. Glad that's over and done with!


Family films

Click here for my list of which family-friendly films to rent and which to avoid. Many years in the making and updated frequently!


Film Noir

When I'm not watching videos with the kids I'm watching videos in my favorite (not family friendly) genre: film noir. Click here for a web site I started on the subject, but didn't develop.


Rugby

My journal for my rugby fifth season - the one that just ended - is here. How I got into this sport is explained in the first season journal, here. And, of course, my rugby web site can be accessed from the top of the page or from here.

Free publicity in Rugby magazine! (Click here.)

And look at this: my fitness letter got printed up in Rugby World magazine! (Click here.)

By the way, I play with the Western Suburbs Rugby Football Club based in Merrifield, Virginia. I now maintain the web site; my goal is to make it the most informative and entertaining page in U.S. club rugby.


etc.

My father-in-law gave me another watch, which I've had cleaned and adjusted. It's a Helbros "Invincible," made in France. Click here for a scan.

But the big watch news for 2000 was my finally getting the Breitling Colt Chrono Auto I've wanted for years. Cari gave it to me as a 20th anniversary gift on 12/10/00 - a little early, but that's fine with me!

I got a kick out of this.