A Vivid Imagination

Luke frequently takes the shoelaces off his shoes. This time, he laid the shoelace on the floor and told me it was a "worm tail."

Patrick on the Prowl

The week before Christmas, Patrick started dragging himself around by his arms. That soon progressed to a quick scoot, and each day he scoots a little faster. Now he doesn't want to be carried; he'd rather explore on his own. He likes anything Luke is playing with, balls small enough to hold onto, and strings, cords, and ribbons.

As a result, Luke has learned some new phrases: "No Packick!" and "Dat's MIIIIINE!"

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!
Patrick found a little present under the tree (not for him) and dragged it around with him all morning. He especially liked the way the curly ribbon felt on his gums.

Christmas Eve

Luke enjoyed the Christmas Eve service. When it was time to light the candles, he stood up on his chair and carefully held it very still.

New Job

About a month ago, I started on a new job at Kennesaw State University (where I go to school). I work for Multimedia Development Group (MDG), which is the department responsible for - well - basically anything technology related except for the computer infrastructure on campus.

Officially I do event support (setting up and running sound, any video and lighting), but most of the time I edit/fix/archive video recordings of all of the sporting events that take place at KSU, which we film as well.

This week is graduation at KSU, so everybody in the department has been working on the event. We have four graduations over two days. We stream the graduations online for out-of-town family and friends of the graduates, or for those who could not make it to the graduation. I'm mostly babysitting the stream and also running any presentations on the projector, which are few and far between (we mostly just have a live video feed from four cameras on the projector).

Here's some pictures of the whole setup:

Two of the four cameras. The other two are on the sides, a level up, towards the stage

A/V booth. You can only really see half of it... sound stuff is on the other side of the perpendicular table.

They spent $115,000 on three of these cameras. Best to avoid dropping them...

Took about 6 or 7 hours to rig the whole thing and then raise it up. Fortunately that was contracted out and we didn't have to do it.

Last graduation is at 7pm tonight - and we get to take this all down afterwords.

Engagement

Daniel proposed to Greta Friday night, and she said yes!

Outside my bedroom door when I woke up this morning, there was a bouquet of red roses and a love note saying that Daniel had arranged for a massage at a spa. After teaching my art class, I had a wonderful looong massage, then browsed at some upscale shops nearby.

Since the school semester had finished yesterday, we were planning to have a celebratory dinner at our favorite restaurant. Once Daniel picked me up for the dinner, he got a phone call from a photographer friend saying he was stranded at school: his car had broken down, and no one else was around. So, we drove to KSU to rescue him from the art building. But instead of walking into the art building, we continued past it, towards a beautiful bridge that had been our special place on campus. At that point, I knew!! The whole stranded friend story was a ruse. But what a surprise!

The bridge and the path were lined with luminaries, lights were in the bushes, and red rose petals littered the stone path. After delivering his speech, Daniel dropped to one knee with the ring and proposed. We got pictures of the whole thing from that not-stranded-after-all photographer friend!

After dinner at Cafe Lily, the server brought a cake with a sparkler. Seeing my ring, the whole restaurant clapped and cheered for us.

Christmas preparations

Luke turns 2

If you ask Luke how old he is, he'll say "Two tan-uls. Bow tan-uls." (Two candles, blow candles). All he wants for his birthday is a "yiyyo muffin" (little muffin) with a candle to blow out. And yet, we actually haven't had a real birthday party for him - emergency travel plans and Luke's bad cold have delayed it. Luke: one pumpkin muffin, coming right up!

Dad/Gramps

John Walker: 1928-2009

Went to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday morning. Ten of us were privileged to surround him and sing hymns and praise choruses as he lay in ICU. He wasn't able to respond much, but we saw his lips move a little, as if he was trying to sing with us. A few hours later he passed away.