Archive for the 'Douglas' Category

Splash!!

June 11, 2008 | Douglas, Summer

Our neighbors had a party last Sunday. Here’s Douglas taking a leap into the pool:

And here he is earlier in the day showing off the new LEGO we bought the day before at the R2D2 model event at the Natick Mall.

More photos on Flickr.

SciFi Sunday: R2D2 at the Natick Mall

June 8, 2008 | Douglas, Science Fiction, TV/Film

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…

Actually, yesterday in a mall not far from our house…

Douglas and a legion of 5 to 12 year old Jedi Warriors (and their parents) helped a LEGO Master Builder build a giant R2D2 from LEGO bricks. They were about half-way through construction when we got there Saturday afternoon. They are expected to finish Sunday afternoon, and the completed model will be on display at the Natick Mall LEGO store for about a month.

The kids don’t actually add pieces directly to the model. They build subassemblies, which the Master Builder and his assistants attach to the model. The small size model (picture below) is built mostly from white, gray, brown and blue 2×4 bricks.

The kids use smaller bricks to create a large equivalent of the 2×4 brick which the Master Builder uses to assemble the giant model.

For their efforts, they get a certificate and a $5 coupon off a $35.00 purchase. If they are a member of the LEGO Brickmaster club, they also got a postcard in the mail that entitled them to a free Star Wars LEGO keyring with a $25.00 purchase. Needless to say, we used all the coupons plus a LEGO giftcard we had from Christmas toward the purchase of two new kits.

It’s definitely a fun thing to do if your kid likes LEGOs.

Technorati Tags: LEGO, Star Wars, R2D2

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my: our visit to the San Diego Zoo

April 22, 2008 | Animals, Douglas, Holiday, Travel

Zhen Zhen, 8 month old panda bear

Today, I am sitting in my hotel room in Santa Rosa while Douglas and David continue to enjoy San Diego and the Lawrence Welk Resort (tiny bubbles…) in Escondido. I’m up here for two days for New Comm Forum, flying back south tomorrow evening.

Sunday we spent the day at Legoland followed by dinner in Oceanside.

Monday, as the title of this post suggests, we went to the San Diego Zoo and had Mexican food for dinner in Old Town San Diego.

Technorati Tags: San Diego Zoo, Legoland, panda, legos

SciFi Sunday: Pre-empted by vacation

April 20, 2008 | Douglas, Holiday, Science Fiction, Travel

SciFi Sunday is pre-empted this week by our family vacation. I’d much rather spend time exploring the environs of San Diego California than waxing poetic about science fiction and fantasy.

Although I will say that Battlestar Galactica rocked last week. I didn’t even mind that there was so much Cally in it for once

Regularly scheduled rantings and ravings about science fiction will be back next week. In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures of our first day in California.

And don’t be confused by the picture of the dog and the cat, or our family room at home. They were on the same card as the CA pictures and I have a small person who wants to do Webkinz hanging on me, so no time to create multiple sets.

Technorati Tags: La Brea Tarpits, Lawrence Welk Resort, pillow fort

New pictures: Snowshoeing, skiing and a rainbow

March 2, 2008 | Douglas, Family, Travel, Vermont, Winter

February vacation was a bit bittersweet because of the dog, but we managed to have a little fun too. I’ve finally put up a bunch of pictures on Flickr from a 2 hour snowshoe hike we did on Mount Tom. There are also some new pictures of the ridge, including a great one that Dave shot with my camera of an early morning rainbow, and some pictures from this afternoon’s backyard skiing lesson.

Aren’t they cute?

The only editing I did on this picture was to increase the saturation a tad, to pop the blue and the rainbow a bit.

It’s all downhill from here…

Technorati Tags: skiing, Mount Tom, Vermont, rainbow

Slideshows from Flickr

February 8, 2008 | Douglas, Resources

I’ve been looking for tools to easily create slideshows from Flickr. I knew there was a decent hack of Powerpoint, but quite frankly was hoping for something easier. Preferably free.

Twitter friend Shashi Bellamkonda (shashib) came through with a link to PictoBrowser. It’s pretty good, but you can’t preview or save your work for future editing, which is a major drawback for someone who likes to tweak settings.

I have run across a couple of not-free products, and when I have time I’ll see if I can’t get review copies.

Hannah Montana Wrap-up

January 8, 2008 | Douglas, General

Well, I was crazy enough to take three kids to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert just before Christmas. With all the holiday to and fro, plus work, I just finished making souvenir HP Photo Books for the two young ladies who joined Douglas and me at the concert.

HP is one of the sponsors of the tour, which is how I got the tickets in the first place.As a result, unlike most concerts, bringing a camera was actively encouraged. Kids can create an HP Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Memory Book at www.disney.com/hannah, and purchase a book online, or print it out at home.

Since the pages were designed for the larger HP Photo Book format, it was very easy to add our own pictures and create the books. I think it would make a nice souvenir for any Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fan, whether they attended the concert or not.

My favorite pictures? This one, of the keyboard player snapping a pic of Miley at the end of the concert:

And this one, of poor Douglas, who wasn’t feeling so well and fell asleep toward the end of the concert. Hard to do when you are sitting in row six but he managed it.

Tags: Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Disney, HP Photo Book

Whew, Christmas!!

December 27, 2007 | Animals, Douglas, Family, Holiday, Products, the Uncle

Well, Christmas has been and gone, and we got lots of photo-related gifts in our family. I got my longed-for Canon Digital Rebel, and Santa brought the family a Flip camcorder. Even my husband got into the game — one of the few things he really wanted was a device that attaches to his telescope and uses the PC as the camera engine to take astronomy photos. And my brother, known here as the Uncle, got some items for his new Nikon D40, including a book on how to get the most out of his camera.

So I expect we’ll have lots of things to write about in the coming year. Starting with a report on last Friday’s Hannah Montana concert, which we were lucky enough to attend courtesy of my client HP, one of the sponsors.

Because HP was a sponsor, photography was allowed at the concert, and it was amazing to see so many people clicking away. Our photos are on Flickr.

In the meantime, let me leave you with a video I took with the Flip of my dogs playing with another one of my brother’s gifts, an alarm clock that runs and hides if you attempt to snooze. It was dead easy to upload the video directly to YouTube using the Flip interface.

Tags: Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Flip, Scottish Terrier, HP

Holy moly Hannah Montana

December 19, 2007 | Douglas, Family

Friday, I will be escorting three children to see Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana at the DCU Center in Worcester. We got the tickets from my client HP, who is a sponsor of the US Concert Tour.

Douglas doesn’t care that much about Miley/Hannah, but I know he’ll enjoy the concert because he loves music. The two girls we’ve invited to join us, the 11-year-old from across the street and an 8-year-old who Doug has known since daycare four years ago (WOW, time flies) are both a bit more invested.

Call me crazy, but I am really looking forward to spending the evening with the kids.

I know it’s hard to get tickets, but unlike most concerts, the Miley/Hannah tour encourages you to bring your camera, so kids lucky enough to go to the concert should remember to bring their digital camera. We certainly will.

Afterwards, Doug and I will be making MyConcert Memory Books on Disney.com as gifts for his two friends. We’ll be making HP Photo Books, which makes sense given my recent work on the launch campaign, but you can also share the books at Disney.com or purchase a printed one online.

What’s really cool about the Hannah books is that the kids can mash up their own photos with one that Miley takes from the stage at the concert they attended (how cool is that!) plus four- six other pictures of Hannah/Miley from the concert and a whole bunch of general photos from the tour – rehearsals, promo photos and so on. Even if a child doesn’t attend a concert, they might enjoy a book with some of the photos.

An important note: kids should make the book with their parents. Children under 13 logging in alone will be able to make a book with the photos on Disney.com and share it with their friends on Disney, but they won’t be able to add their own photos or comments, or print out the book at home. Plus most kids will go to the concert with their parents, and this is a fun activity for them to do together afterward!

We’ll report more after the concert on Friday!

Happy Holidays

December 14, 2007 | Douglas, Holiday

Next week is shaping up to be pretty crazy — a new client, more bad weather, I’m taking 3 kids to the Hannah Montana concert next Friday and then we’re off to Vermont until the New Year — so let me take this moment to wish you all a Merry Chrismakah and a Happy New Year.

After Christmas, I’ll have a report on the Hannah concert and new photo contest. I’ve got a bunch of 8×11 HP Photo Books, plus extra packs of paper. Stay tuned for details.

I so appreciate everyone who has discovered Snapshot Chronicles. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to more photo fun in the New Year.

Peace.