http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog a man, no plan, a blog, golbanalponnama. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:43:00 -0600 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've neglected blogging here for seven months and I'm not even sure why. Every time I tried to sit down to write, the posts felt incomplete or shallow. But my lack of blogging has also meant that I've not written anything about the amazing girl that has sprung forth ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2012/02/04/no-no-noway-noway/ I started this post the night before his fifth birthday, fully intending to finish it before we left on vacation. Best laid plans, as they say. So here it is, not complete and not on-time, but published. What can I say about Nate at five years of age that ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/07/05/nathan-at-five/ helloheather and I celebrated our first anniversary in Colorado (outside Denver) with our friends from college. (The actual night of our anniversary we spent just the two of us at dinner, but the week-of we were in the Denver area.) One of the nights we all went out ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/06/07/happy-anniversity-number8/ The storms on Sunday were quite intense. We were driving down to my parents in Elgin to have a Memorial Day party and were caught in some of the most intense rain I've been in in many years. Streets were flooded, ditches were running over the tops of ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/05/31/wherein-im-no-longer-wearing-a-winter-hat-but-am-waving-a-flag/ Really, the subject says it all. It's the end of May and, this morning, I was wearing a winter hat while standing on the train platform. Why? Because the mid-40 temps and 20-30mph winds were stealing the heat from my body at an alarming rate. The fact that ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/05/26/wherein-i-am-still-wearing-a-winter-hat/ During prep for our family gathering for Mothers Day I kept smelling something that reminded me of burning plastic. Given that we can still burn where we live, I thought maybe a neighbor threw something into their burn pile that they shouldn't have. But then later I noticed that our ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/05/08/whats-that-smell/ We headed out to northern Virginia last week (April 15-22), giving Lily her first trip on an airplane. Both kids, all things considered, did very well. Nate loved the flight but sadly didn't get a window seat either there or back. (The way out we were stuck ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/04/26/family-vacation/ Lily is turning 1 in just a few hours. It's hard to resolve this in my mind. This past year has been a lot of work. I love my daughter, so very much, but I've spent so many days this past year arriving home within 20 to 30 ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/04/01/headlong-into-the-future/ We loaded up the car and headed down to Indianapolis this weekend to visit family & friends and enjoy our groups annual St. Patrick's Day Party. A little later this year, but scheduling what it is, I'm glad we were able to get together! As helloheather recently ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/03/30/st-patricks-day-weekend-2011/ Last Saturday (02/19) our Canon XT took its 40,000th photo. We purchased it in February 2006 in anticipation of Nate's birth that June. (This was our first digital SLR, but not our first digital camera.) Cliché, to be sure, but how life has changed since then! After ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/02/26/forty-thousand-and-one/ My one photographic goal this year is to print. I enjoy sharing photos online, and I often browse our library with Picasa or Lightroom at home, but there's something to be said for going through the effort to print and frame a photo. Part of my problem with ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/02/15/first-prints/ A bit of a tongue-in-cheek title here. It's been a crazy 24H+ but we fared quite well. It took a long time to get home last night (Tuesday) because the trains were all messed up. I left work a little early to make sure I got a ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/02/02/i-survived-the-february-2011-blizzard-thundersnow/ Lily has started walking. (Cue old fears re: head bonks). At least, I'm calling it walking. She's taking 2 or 3 steps from either our hands to supports (tables, chairs, walls, etc) or from object to object. She's able to stand on her own—when she thinks about it—for ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2011/01/24/tentative-first-steps/ And so we arrive on the other side of the stupendous Bernhard Christmas Season (it's really a season for us): 6 gatherings, 4 big meals, lots of laughter and many many photos snapped. (Who me?!) Lily made it through her first Christmas season fairly well. Despite being carted around ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2010/12/28/christmas-2010/ On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Nate and I drove up to the Milwaukee Zoo. Frankly, I don't think I've had a better time at the zoo. Seriously, this was great. It was about 32 deg. out and mostly sunny. We were one of maybe ... http://www.bernhard.us/rob/blog/2010/12/06/zoo-plus-cold-equals-good/