Sony Alpha Nex

As an early anniversary present, Bjorn got me a new camera, the Sony Alpha Nex-3. This is the new kind of camera that is small but has almost the same shutter speed and capabilities as a big DSLR but at a fraction of the cost and size. I've been taking pictures like crazy, partly because it's so easy to take 10 all at once and delete the bad ones. Here are some of the ones that made the cut.

Andy and Barrett playing Bakery Story.

These kids are fascinated with putting their bikes upside down and "fixing" them. It seems very familiar.

She's quite intense when scooting. Plus, shoes are for the Suri Cruise's of the world.

He does this funny thing when he's chilling, he spins in circles.

Andy's school obsession, a game called First in Math that we have a log in through the school. He's so proud as he's the second highest in the class consistently. He's definitely got Bjorn's math skillz.

Seriously? Look how pretty this kid is? The skin, lips and eyelashes just blow me away. And look what a great shot it is? Love this camera. And obviously I'm a gifted photographer.

See how gifted I am?

Andy really wanted to do the rock climbing wall at school during the fall festival. It was pretty cool. The whole rock climbing wall folds up onto a trailer to take away at the end. It was a little more advanced for him but I know we'll be back to do this kind of thing again.

She is totally the Ghostest with the Mostest.

I love the hair! And the dancing.

Mommy's little axe murdered, I mean, firefighter.

Bjorn and Fafa. We were scouting out Grapevine Mills for the Big Bennett Family Christmas this December. I totally want to take the kids to Legoland. It looks awesome.

Andy loved this spinning teacup.

Obi-Wan at Book Character Day at school. We don't call it Halloween here. Some of the Religious Right are very against pagan holidays like this.

Margaret and Fafa reading. Meg was so happy to have her grandmother to read her this book. She's also wearing her other Halloween shirt, "Out of Candy: Need Refill."

One very happy Batman (Batwoman?) with her loot.

Mobile uploads

Any experts on using the Blogger mobile uploads out there? I followed the instructions and e-mailed myself several posts with pictures. The text came through fine, but the photos, well, not so much. Any advice from you out there?

It's been been a long week in the house and we are finally getting out tomorrow. Andy's school sent an e-mail for the kids to bring snow clothes because they're going to play on the playground in the snow. He is thrilled. And I am thrilled that he'll get to visit with his friends. I think he's bored with us. And let's be realistic, the feeling is somewhat mutual. All things considered, I'd say we all held up quite well what with six people in a four bedroom house and three feet of snow swirling around outside.

Meg has her two year old appointment tomorrow. If I remember correctly there aren't any shots at this visit (fingers crossed, but I'll bring the Tylenol just in case). Her language is good, way better than Andy's at this age, she's very dexterous and beyond adorable. My main question is about this umbilical hernia/fat deposit on her belly above her belly button. I want to know what we do about it and if/when it could/will be a problem.

I have about a thousand pictures of the snowstorms to upload eventually. My Acer laptop has imploded and I'm quite annoyed with customer service at both Best Buy who refuses to acknowledge they sold it to me and Acer which conveniently dates its year warranty from the date is ships from the manufacturing plant rather than the date of sale, therefore shortening the warranty by a quarter. Not impressed. I've ordered a wireless card for my old desktop and assuming UPS ever makes it back to my non-plowed Fairfax neighborhood, I might get some pictures uploaded.

On thin ice

It's amazing how 45 degrees can feel like 85 after a month of 20 degrees with 50 mile an hour winds. Today was nearly 50 and sunny so I took the kids down to the park and we all relished being outside. Andy wanted to go look at the lake since it had a pretty layer of ice on it. The lake is in desperate need of being dredged right now. Fairfax County is pretty broke at the moment though so I don't think it will happen soon. In the meantime, Royal Lake is about two feet deep in most areas. That made it pretty easy for it to freeze seemingly solid.

Andy was fascinated and we walked around the edges and talked about it. At the edge, I ran into a lady from church and we were talking about six feet from the edge. Meg decided that would be a grand time to step on the ice. I ran over to her and reach out, but the sly little vixen just smiled and walked in her Stride Rite sneakers about 15 feet from the edge. I kept calling her name and she just looked at me and kept moving. I knew it wasn't deep, but I also knew there was no way the ice was thick enough, especially in the warmer weather, to hold me. In desperation, I called out, "Meggie, come back. Let's go home and get some candy." Yup, that did the trick. She calmly walked back to the edge and we went home.

My computer is mostly better now, after a new $85 hard drive, 10 days without it and all my pictures and documents gone from my hard drive. I am very disappointed with Best Buy and Acer. It's a scam that they say the warranty on the computer starts when Acer ships it to the store. So even though I bought it in February 2009, Acer shipped it to Best Buy in December so the warranty expired last month even though I actually only owned it a year. Bastards.

Ugh, part 2

My computer is still broken. The latest word is that my hard drive is corrupt and I might need a new one. I am very displeased with my Acer. I bought it less than a year ago. Now I have to get into Best Buy and see if it's under warranty.

Good news, however, is that I can post the link to the pictures we took at the Picture People last week. So adorable! They were super nice. I can't believe I haven't done this like 100 times already.

Operation Big Boy Bed, Part Three

It just took three days, but Andy has figured out how to climb out of his bed. Witness tonight's bedtime fiasco where he climbed out and I heard him on the floor banging something against the bottom of the door. Nice. He's just so darn big now that I can hardly pick him up and put him back in bed now if he doesn't want to. I'm also finding reasoning with a cranky toddler to be a futile effort. Funny, it took me a while to figure out when he was little that I was in charge of everything. Now that it's a few years later, I'm totally comfortable being in charge so his attempts to exert control over his life is causing some friction for all of us.

The 10 foot furniture swap of moving rooms is still not complete and the very thought of it depresses me after all the effort we did last weekend. Last up is switching closets. Andy's closet has wire shelving that I've used as his dresser for the past two years. The other closet has two filing cabinets and 200 vinyl albums on the shelves left over from when Bjorn was in high school (not that we're pack rats or anything). The closets are shaped differently so it's going to require some thought as to what will go where. Groan. I would leave them where they are, but that's a lot of walking back and forth some days. Bjorn has also announced his intention to be done with this whole project so I have a feeling I'm going to be trying to move these filing cabinets by myself. That should be interesting. I keep trying to convince Bjorn that after this project, I'm really done for a long while, but I don't think he believes me.

The move also somehow zapped our router so I haven't been able to upload any of my pictures. Bjorn talked to the folks at Verizon who couldn't have been more helpful, but Linksys' crappy help line makes you wait 45 minutes and then says you have to pay to talk to someone. Jackasses.

In lieu of actual photos, here's a picture of the bedspread. I haven't gotten him the sheets or sham. Yet. He does have one pillow case though. It was on sale for $3.87 at Wal-Mart. How could I refuse?