I paid eight bucks for this picture...

...that's the toll for the George Washington Bridge. This photo was taken on the eastbound lanes. That's the first bridge pier up ahead. I took this shot this past Wednesday afternoon while on a business trip to New Jersey and Connecticut. It's about 4:10 PM at this point and traffic was pretty good except for the truck that broke down at the other end of the bridge. After a pretty drive on the Merritt Parkway, we got to our destination in eastern Fairfield county Connecticut at about 5:20 PM.

It was a humid day and I was driving, so NY skyline photos were not worth the bother. We could see the Empire State, Chrysler Building etc. but not very well. No skyline on the return trip. We stayed north taking I-287 crossing the Hudson at the Tappen Zee bridge and heading home on I-80. Overall it was a good trip, but one I am glad not to have to make every week.

200th Post!!!

This is the 200th post to the Little House! Thanks for reading and coming back!

To mark this event, we have redesigned the site!

Please keep coming back and as always feel free to share what you think.

Festival Time

Here's Janine and Nana, hand in hand at last week's festival at Nana's church. We all enjoyed eating dinner and playing some of the games. It was a more subdued time this year than last. Click here to compare. This year we stayed close to Nana who did not venture from the picnic tables.

The "rides" at this year's festival were rented giant inflatables manned by teenage volunteers. When I said same to the parish priest, he replied, "Nicer than the carnies last year. Right?" Funny, I felt the same way. Here is John on the slide. The new Lumix did a good job here. I held the shutter button down half way. The camera readied itself and took the shot exactly at the right moment...however blurred.

Gitty-up

Saturday we went to a picnic at North Park when we heard voices from the trees from the trees up the hill. Then we saw people seemingly floating along behind a hedge. As they reached the clearing we finally understood they were on horses!

The group took a break before reaching the bottom of the hill and crossing the intersection. It was quite a sight to see the cars next to the horses. Thankfully the drivers were patient and so were the horses.

Summer Flashback

Here's one from last summer. That's our friend Sue Harris with the kids at the marina in Gloucester, MA. This photo was on a roll of film that languished until recently.

Bobbie and the kids went up there last July for a week's visit. It was a great break for them. As usual they fit in an historical stop at the USS Constitution and a brief walk past the Old North Church on the way to an Italian restaurant. Great photo. It's about time it got on the blog.

John Test Photos

Here are some photos of John that I took with the new camera. The first one is a keeper. The rest are testing the forced flash on different ISO settings as well as some tests of the Intelligent Auto function. The flash setting seems to add a lot of contrast and does not fill as well as I thought. But I have found myself putting my finger over it when I hold the camera awkwardly.

But that's the point of testing the camera out. Trying and learning is part of the fun.

Sunday note: What a difference a monitor makes! I am posting this note on the iMac and all the photos look better. The LCD display must have a softer contrast than the old Dell CRT.

Girl Scout Camp

This was day camp week for Janine's Girl Scout troop. They had a great time in the rain and the sun. The camp site was only 10 minutes away in North Park, but it is so heavily wooded it might as well have been deep in the forest.

Sarah's leadership skills and sense of responsibility impressed Janine's group leaders so they invited her to be a teen helper despite the fact that she has never been a Girl Scout. I guess they viewed her as a legacy because her mom was one as well as her sister.

She took along the camera only for the first day which was humid and rainy. Yesterday they missed the storm that soaked the rest of the city. Of the photos she took these are the best. Of course there is a self portrait as well as one of her new friends, the troop leader's older daughter. As you can tell, it's pretty steep terrain.

I had to drop by today with beach towels for water day, but forgot my camera, but no worries, Sarah did a good job of capturing the moments.

DC Trip

Everyone enjoyed their trip to Washington DC two weeks ago. Even though I was left behind, I did enjoy the quiet for the first few days. But after that, I was glad to have everyone home last Monday.

Here's a slideshow of the cousins and the monuments, and the cousins having a great time together.

Found at last

Ever since Youtube came on the scene a few years ago I have been looking for commercials from my high school years and this series specifically. I found it earlier this week. I hope that you can appreciate this slice of early 1970s life along Interstate 80 in the middle of the USA.

As you can tell from the list of links next to this post we appreciate food along the road. This place stands beside the shiny metallic streamlined diners in New Jersey and the road side taco stands in California. In fact it once had mythic status in what some people mistakenly call fly-over land. Enjoy!

This video has been hard to find, so please let me know if you find it no longer active.

John's Birthday

John celebrated his birthday on the road in Washington DC last week. His mom, sisters, cousins Biz and Grace as well as Aunt Barb and Uncle Steve took him to Clyde's, a pizza restaurant in Georgetown. For more about Clyde's click here.

Bobbie tells me they were all so full they all split John's dessert pictured here.

The entire Goodbarn/Paulson crew walked all over Washington during their visit. I think their feet are still recovering! Look for more about DC in the coming days.

Fireworks!!!

I just spent the last hour and a half putting the finishing touches on this video of our fireworks display. It compresses the 20 minutes it took to ignite the $20 package. Thanks to Sarah who shot the video, iMovie for the editing software, GarageBand for the soundtrack software and finally, Igor Stravinsky for the music.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

(Safe) Fireworks Fun

Well most everybody enjoyed the 4th of July fireworks. Janine is not so sure about the party popper she is about to set off, but she got used to it by the evening's end.

Once it stopped raining, we all had a great time after dark. I bought a $20 package of fountains at Target that afternoon, as well as these party poppers. I also thought I was buying some classic sparklers, but they turned out to be more like the fountains shooting sparks straight ahead. One of the errant sparks burned John on the head and Janine on her leg. Don't worry, all is well now.

Adding to our fun was the fireworks display from one of our neighbors a few blocks away. Fireworks is their hobby so they created their own overhead shells and sent them up above the neighborhood. The view from our deck is obstructed, but it provided enough fun to get everyone through while I set up the next fountain.

Then finally, the morning after. The fountains were a lot of fun. Sarah shot video of most of them. Look for a short video later.

Tea Time

Two weeks ago the Ballet Ladies went to tea at a nearby bed and breakfast. Here is a photo of the official hat table.

It was a thank you from Kathy to all the ladies that danced in her piece at the June recital. A good time was had by all as the small town newspaper used to write.

4th of July Parade

When I was a boy growing up in Omaha there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood born as I was at the height of the baby boom in the mid 1950s. Every 4th of July we would gather together and march around the block banging toy drums, hooting recorders and blowing whistles to celebrate our nation's independence while wearing three cornered hats fashioned out of newspaper.

Here is a photo of the older of my two sisters as she joined us for the first time. I can't tell what section she is wearing, sports or business, but I think the year is 1963.

She was probably fast asleep by dusk when the fathers around the block would set off fireworks in the large undeveloped back lot. My favorite thing was when the gathered crowd would count the balls on the roman candles. One!...Two!...Three!...etc.

All these activities did not necessarily teach us about the significance of the date and the reasons for it, but when I read that John Adams predicted Independence Day would be celebrated with fireworks and parades, I am proud to know that we continue in that tradition to this day. Come dusk tonight this father will be setting off fountains and roman candles for his brood in this great country of ours.

GeoCaching

Two weeks ago John and I joined our monthly Saturday boys club in a Geo caching expedi- tion. We went over to the nature center at North Park and met in the parking lot. We then followed one of the trails as the GPS lead us into the woods.

As you can see, it was not a flat trail. It was mainly uphill on the trip to the site, but that meant that we were treated to a downhill walk back.

The signal was weak because of the tree cover so the accuracy of the reading was about 400 feet. Amazing when you think about it, but vexing when you are trying to find something in the woods.

Here is the prize, a one gallon plastic bucket with a leaky lid. We signed in the log book with a crayon someone had left as a thank you. Some geocache sites have little toys and ask you to leave one behind. We opted for a nickel one of the boys found in his pocket. The smaller boys liked the small action figures someone left. But we had to remind them not to take any.

This activity was fun and made the best use of the outdoor setting, but I think we will revisit it in a few years when the boys are older. At the end one of the boys said his favorite part was walking through the woods to play with Spiderman.