Day 227 - 12.24.10 - Ginger Man Time

Nieces Madison & Jillian made some ginger bread men for Christmas Eve devouring... with a little help from G-Ma "Syllie."

Day 220 - 12.17.10 - Miss Eleanor Eberline

Miss Eleanor Kay Eberline was born today to happy parents Tim and Beth, and ecstatic grandparents Wally and Judi. All are happy she will be home for Christmas...

Day 147 - 9.12.10 - Skeletal Siesta

On Sunday, we celebrated the birthday of Lauren's sister Beth. While dining at Estrella Negra on Fullerton, this fella watched over us...

Day 118 - 8.14.10 - A Crustacean Feast of Epic Porportions

Behold, the culinary subjects of the 18th Annual Klauder Crab Feast, hosted by my Aunt Nina and Cousin Ben in Rockville, Maryland. It was the final stop on our ultimate family vacation, and it was great to see the rest of my east coast relatives, including the aforementioned Ben and Nina, Ben's wife Mary, their one year old Helen (named after my maternal grandmother), my cousin Matthew, his wife Audrey, and their four boys, Alexander, William, Henry, and Benjamin (all under 5). The crabs kept the hands busy as the mouths helped family members catch up in between bites of one of the two things Maryland does best (the other being football, according to the writers of Wedding Crashers). I stuck to the claws that were cast aside by cousin Ben who claimed they were too much work for not enough payout. As someone who generally avoids seafood, the claws were just fine for me...

Day 117 - 8.13.10 - Toy Story

After we returned to D.C. from Delaware, Madison wasted no time in getting reacquainted with her toys...

Day 116 - 8.12.10 - One Last Day at the Beach...

Today Lauren convinced me to opt for the beach instead of the pool for the afternoon of our last full day in Delaware. It turned out to be a great couple of hours sitting in the sand, wave jumping, dolphin watching, and gull chasing. I tried to get a snap of the dolphin fins, but without a zoom lens, the pics did not do the dolphins justice. Instead, this increasingly friendly and bold seagull wins the day... Back to DC tomorrow... leaving is for the birds.

Day 115 - 8.11.10 - Captain Jack's Pirate Golf / Wacky Gator

I think that there is a proportional relationship between the amount of family vacations you take and the amount of mini golf courses and arcades you encounter. Tonight, Lo and I attacked Captain Jack's Pirate Golf and the Arcade at Bethany Beach. I took the golf crown by a wide margin, but Lauren proved that she can whack a Gator with the best of 'em.

Day 114 - 8.10.10 - Babies in a Basket

With toys and games aplenty, the beach and the pool just steps away, the most entertaining item of the day was a laundry basket. Go figure...

Day 113 - 8.9.10 - Right Near the Beach

The beach. The Delaware beach. Our first state. Our first beach. The beaches of Delaware begin with dunes that roll up against the exquisite homes adjacent to the sand. Then a plateau of khaki brown sand, that is just gritty enough to feel, but not uncomfortable. Broken seashells and cool packed sand mark the previous high tides. As you approach the water, a 45% downward grade leads to the crashing waves that pound the beach. The two to four foot waves are modest, but relentless and sound larger than they really are. They rise and crash with impunity, all within a span of 25 feet or so from shore. Tugging rip currents challenge ocean waders, but they can be dealt with, for the most part, easily. Our first beach is not the most serene or the most beautiful in America, but it might be the most "classic." It certainly has the seagulls to prove it...

Day 111 - 8.7.10 - Jilly's Photo Op

With the rugrats running around, photo opportunities are plentiful...

Day 110 - 8.6.10 - A Smirk From Madison

After an incredibly smooth and ahead of schedule flight from Chicago to DC, and a drive filled with beach going vacation traffic, we finally washed ashore in North Bethany Beach, Delaware. As the unpacking commenced, the little ladies threw on a DVD to keep them occupied while the adults did the heavy lifting. Jillian (background) was more entertained with the discs themselves, while Madison was completely dazzled by the action on the computer. As I tried to earn her attention and coax a smile, she gave me this smirk. It was all she was willing to offer. Fischer Price Little People Happy Birthday DVD: 1 - Uncle D: 0.

Day 104 - 8.1.10 - My Girls

My nieces Madison and Jillian have been back in Illinois for the past couple of days, and today I went out to Elgin for a play date with my 2 favorite little ladies. On Friday, Lauren and I will head out East to their territory for a little family vacation. I expect they will be the subjects for many photos in the next couple of weeks. Each time I get to spend time with them, I'm astonished by the amount of personality and intelligence that they develop... they are quite a pair.

Day Ninety-Nine - 7.27.10 - Girl Talk

Congratulations to Tim and Beth, my friends and my brother and sister in law, who will have a baby girl in December. They announced the sex of the little one at a Bransen family dinner, via the ancient code of colored baked goods. The cake was pink... Now the name guessing can begin. Smart money is on Wilhelmina or Rapunzel...

Day Ninety-Six - 7.24.10 - Arcade On Fire

Taking a break from the sun, Brian, Beth, and I hit up the arcade at the Osthoff. It has been a while since I've been at an arcade, or even seen an arcade for that matter. It was highly enjoyable. Air Hockey, sit-down NASCAR Racing, and the NAMCO Quick & Crash Real Shooting Game were the sources of much entertainment. Brian was an ace at the shooting game... until a 10 year old beat his time record... I think kids around these parts have experience with guns, of the arcade and the real varieties...

Day Ninety-Five - 7.23.10 - Dice @ The Osthoff

Day Two at the Osthoff (Bransen family vacation weekend blowout extravaganza), Brian R. and I forced the girls to stay awake and play dice while we polished off a bottle of red wine...

Day Sixty-Eight - 6.26.10 - Dew Swept Out Of Contention

Day Three of the Tournament - The Final Day - Yesterday, Uncle Mike and I teed it up early in the morning and squared off against a seventy-something Elmira lifer named Tommy Hamilton and his partner, Buddy. Tommy is what you would call, "sneaky-good." He's old, he does not hit the ball very far, but he is deadly straight and he can putt with the best of them. Plus he has the benefit of probably nearly a thousand trips around the ECC course. This guy was a par machine. He made par after par after par... except for the birdie he made after Mike and I missed 2 short birdie putts on the par three seventh.

It all came down to the 18th hole, a nasty little, uphill, 115 yard par three known as The "Jewett" Hole. This tester has a tiny green that slopes severely from back to front and from right to left. Wedges hit to the front half of the green spin off the front with regularity. Shots to the back of the green and to the right side (AKA "jail") set up chips or putts that are 80% likely to roll right off of the green. The pin was cut in the most lethal of locations, the front-left. If you want to have an uphill put, there is about a 5 feet by 5 feet section of the green where that could happen. And can you guess where Tommy hit it? Mike and I missed the green and made 4s. Tommy 2 putted for par, and won the match.

After a couple of beers, one bought by Tommy and one bought by Buck (who beat us on Thursday), we made our way back to the hotel and passed Harris Hill, the soaring capitol of the world. Soaring is flight in a glider like plane, only the "sailplane" does not have a motor and uses natural updrafts in the atmosphere to maintain altitude. While this sounds fun, and maybe I'll put it on the "to do" list for my next visit, for now I'll remember my drives soaring into the Elmira pines, and my putts soaring past tough cup placements. You win this one Buck, Tommy, and ECC, but I hope to back to compete again...

Day Sixty-Six - 6.24.10 - Elmira, New York

Day One of the Tournament - Qualifying - Kicking off the weekend, all 2 man teams played a best ball qualifying round. It was an educational go, my first trip around all 18 holes of this lush, woodsy, undulating, elevation changing course. Tee shots are challenging, but not unfair, and the par threes are all reasonable. It is the greens, the smallish and lightning quick greens, where strokes build up and build up quickly. The rolling Appalachian mountains that surround the course played tricks on this flat-lander's mind while reading putts. Putts that look uphill, are actually of a devious downhill variety. Putts that look downhill can stop short if directed up toward the mountains. Subtle breaks lie in wait and carry short puts away from the center of the cup... We fired a 78 as a team, good enough to place us in the second flight for the remainder of the weekend. Match play starts tomorrow at 9 AM...

Following the round, Uncle Mike drove me around the various Elmira neighborhoods including the houses he and my father lived in growing up, along with Grandpa Thom, Grandma Marg, Uncle David, and Aunt Annie Pie. Elmira is the epitome of a working class town, with a rich history dating back to the Revolutionary War. Like many old blue collar towns, Elmira has seen better days... As we made our way through Elmira's east side, we passed an old steel foundry, now boarded up, that pre-dates the Civil War.

Day Sixty-Five - 6.23.10 - Delays

On Wednesday, I began my trip to Elmira, New York to play in the Elmira Country Club Annual Invitational Tournament with my Uncle Mike. Due to inclement weather in Chicago and Detroit (where I was making my connection to Elmira), my first flight was delayed five hours. The flight was supposed to leave at 7 am, and we actually boarded on time, got to the runway, where we sat and sat, for an hour, waiting for clearance from Detroit to take off and secure a flight pattern. While we waited, storm clouds drew nearer and nearer... before clearance was secured, the storms hit Midway causing a ground stop. Taxi, jetway, deplane, terminal, gate, more waiting... As I sat in the gate, I heard all sorts of disgruntled travelers take their frustrations out on the hapless Delta employees. While I empathsized with the travelers, I felt sympathy for the workers. Despite the wishes of JoDean Willoughby from South Detroit, who was "just so pissed, my word," the Midway Airport Delta Airlines workers do not control the weather.

I commandeered an electrical outlet, powered my MacBook, and was able to watch, in its entirety, the thrilling World Cup Match between Algeria and the USA. I let out a yelp as Landon Dononvan's extra time goal found the back of the net, drawing crotchety looks from the elderly travelers also waiting on their delayed flights, and prompting assuring nods from other sports fans in the terminal who clearly also new what had just happened.

Eventually, I made it to Detroit at about 2 p.m. local time where I had a guaranteed seat on a 9:30 flight to Elmira. I got to the gate, and attempted my best to charm a Delta representative to the top of the standby list for a 3:20 flight. Electrical outlet, MacBook, ESPN3, Germany vs. Ghana... halftime... 3:20 flight boarding... passenger Grady to the Gate 22 kiosk... "Sir, we have a seat for you on this flight. It is in the emergency exit row, I sure hope that is OK with you." Indeed it was...

Straight from the airport to the first tee to meet Uncle Mike... We managed to play nine holes before hunger took over and the sunlight escaped the skies. I saw nine of the most difficult greens I have ever played in my 20 years fiddling with this ever frustrating and rewarding sport. It is going to be a challenging weekend...

Day Fifty-Five - 6.13.10 - Golf & Family

Today the rains held of long enough for me to walk 18 holes at a local golf course with some friends. It was an enjoyable round, and mentally I did my best to focus as if I were in full on competition mode. In ten days, I'll depart for Elmira, New York, to play in a 4 day golf tournament with my Uncle Mike. Elmira is the town in which my Uncles Mike and David, Aunt Annie Pie, and my father grew up. This tournament, which takes place at the Elmira Country Club, has a distinct place in the history of my family. For years, my late father and my Uncle Mike competed on the sloped fairways and fast greens of this beautiful and challenging track.

As for Elmira itself, I unfortunately recall very little of my past visits, most of which occurred as a young boy. My most recent visits, and consequently the most vivid in my memory, were for the funerals of my grandmother and my Uncle David. As much as I am looking forward to four days of golf, I'm looking forward to reconnecting with the Grady side of my family (Aunt Annie Pie still lives there) and to exploring and forming fond new memories of the city where my father, his brothers, and his sister were raised by Grandpa Thom and Grandma Marg.

Day Fifty - 6.8.10 - Old Time Photography

In my experience, when it comes to family photos, there are two camps; 1) Keep them in the albums, or 2) Keep them on the walls. I grew up in an album family. The Bransens, who have kindly taken Lauren and me in during our transient phase, are a walls family. At various locations throughout the home on Stewart Ave., multiple family photos of myriad shapes, sizes, content, and time periods adorn the walls. As I walked upstairs in an effort to find Scooter, the family feline, I was struck by this photo of Grandma and Grandma Bransen, taken before they were even parents. Older photos have a very distinct look (almost like they were hand drawn by a skilled realist), and because of time's passage the look is just a little bit weathered, but still striking, visually distinct, and full of history. In today's age of quickly disposable digital snaps, it is rare that a simple portrait can seem so powerful... I'm a big fan of this photo (and I think that Grandma B kinda looks like Peggy from Mad Men (Season 3 Peggy, not Season 1 Peggy)).