Monday - Monday was a bit of a long day. I worked my usual day and went home for dinner. Later I went back to the office to host a "web conference" with a customer on the other side of the world. I call it a web conference because I don't know what else to call it. Through a service called Genesys, I can run through slides and share applications on my computer's desktop while we discuss issues over the phone. In some ways it's the next best thing to being there because they can see my screen even better than if they were looking over my shoulder. Alas, I didn't get home until nearly 11 p.m.
Tuesday - Since I was gone most of Monday and I knew that I had plans to be at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Manchester tonight, I had made arrangements with my boss to take today as a vacation day. I knew that mom and dad would be leaving on Wednesday morning. If I didn't take the day off, I'd barely get to see them the last few days before their departure.
Santos Dumont - Shortly after Claire headed off to school, we rounded everyone up and took them to Santos Dumont. Although dad had been there before, this was mom's first time. It was also the first time that their morning work crew, which usually only sees me alone on some of my commutes into work, got to see much of the rest of the clan. They had heard passing mention that I had a brood of children, but this was their first time seeing it first hand.
Mild weather - It got very warm today -- approaching 60°F. When we returned home the kids spent a lot of time savoring the nice weather. I only wish the back yard was ready for them. It's still covered in snow. Nevertheless, we went on a small walk, blew bubbles, the boys road their trikes, etc.
Shopping - Mom stayed home with the boys while they napped. Michelle took Abigail to the Mill Stores in Nashua. It's basically a 'naked furniture' and woodcraft store. She bought a few crafts for Abby. You can never have enough crafts for Abby. Dad and I headed west (a rare event for me) to visit Peterborough Camera. There were several times this winter when I thought my camera would really benefit from a decent flash. Too many indoor pictures looked dark and often the boys' hair looks two tone with blonde sides and brown on the top. (Here for example) In the end I decided upon the Nikon SB-50DX flash. Mom says I just liked the initials (SB). They had another nice Nikon model but it was too expensive and too high end for my purposes. My main hope was to be able to supplement my camera's built in flash with a strong "bounce flash" to fill in the room and reduce the contrasty results that come from the small direct head-on flash bulb which are built into many modern cameras. I took a few pictures of Claire and Abigail when I got home later. Bouncing this flash off the ceiling at the same time the built-in flash fired straight at the subject made an enormous difference in helping the girls look as blonde as they are and making the room look less dark and gloomy.
Marriage - I don't want to re-open the discussions from last week. As Jay Leno joked on Monday, "Personally I don’t want to stand between two gay guys getting married." (bah-dum-bum) Earlier I was reading the Wall Street Journal column called Deja Vu. This week looked at the crazy history of marriage in the US. I've mirrored it locally in PDF format if you'd like to read it. It's doesn't reference the recent gay marriage debate (which I'd like to avoid re-opening) but it is interesting historical background.