Hi. I'm new here.

There's a new person on earth. We'd like to introduce you to her. This is Willow Star Harris. She was born yesterday (Dec. 30, 2008) at Emory HealthCare's Crawford Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta, Ga. at 2:30 p.m. She was 7 lbs. 6 oz., 17 inches long. She has a great disposition and dreamy eyelashes.

We hope you all can meet her soon.

Willow Star Harris

Willow and Mommy

Summer says hello to "baby sister."

Julia, her mother Jennifer, Summer and little Willow.

Hot Dogs & Paper Hats!

Our good friend Julie had a layover in Atlanta on her way back West. How do you kill 2.5 hours in Atlanta? Well you start at The Varsity, of course.

The gang.

Summer liked the big gumball machine.

Summer wouldn't wear the hat. What a little upstart.

Julie brought us shells from Sanibel Island. They look better than they taste.

Scenes from Christmas Day

Summer's first tricycle

Buster's first chipmunk


Summer's new latch board.


Ron's new winter pullover.

Summer gets sick

Summer was sick a couple of weeks before Christmas with a double ear infection. She's all better now, but this is how she spent much of her time; curled up with her fuzzy friends on the couch.

Summer helps w/ the Christmas tree

Christmas Eve

Summer, Julia and Jennifer went to Christmas Eve service at the church where Summer attends pre-school. Here are some photos of Summer before she left.

The Pink Pig!

Finally, we got around to the Pink Pig, a little tram for kids that has been a part of Macy's in the Buckhead area of Atlanta for years. It began as a suspension tram on top of the old Rich's department store decades ago. Now, it's on a proper rail in a tent full of pink stuff. We went with the Roarks, and Summer and Avery seemed to like it.

Thanks for the nightmares daddy.


Weeee!





The crew on the pig.


"Priscilla," the original Pink Pig tram thingie.

Ooooh....cameras!

Shopping for a new camera for the holidays? Of course you are. Well, I take a lot of photos, use a lot of cameras (and I've got a lot of geek cred), so AP asked me to write a digital camera and camcorder gift guide story. It may be of some help if you're in the market. Links below.

(P.S. Thanks Amy, Kevin & Julia for helping me take a boatload of photos with the various cameras.)

- ron

The article can be read at:
Fox News
Forbes
The Chicago Tribune
Newsday
and of course, at Georgia's own Macon Telegraph.

Snowboarding

Of course Julia didn't go snowboarding, but I'm posting this photo to remind her how awesome she is anyway. I'll get her back on the slopes as soon as we stop making all these babies. :)

Rain romp!

It rained today, so Julia dressed Summer up in her rain gear and they went on a puddle hunt.

Summer likes to stomp in puddles of water.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Q.) How geeky is Summer's daddy?

A.) Very. Here's the proof, a shot of Ron's office on the average morning. Three computers running on three different screens, with three different keyboards (because KVM switching just isn't good enough) running a blend of Microsoft XP/Ubuntu Studio dual-boot, rendering video, editing photos, reading e-mail, avoiding Facebook, reading the news, and it's all wirelessly networked to both an Xbox 360 and a Sony PS3.

More of Our Moon

On any given night, even when it's cold, you can find Ron snapping a photo or two of the moon. It's not the biggest object in our solar system, nor the oldest, nor the most complex. It's just relatively close and easy to see, thanks to Theia, a planet that represents the prevailing theory that so-called proto-Earth (our very early young blue marble) was struck by something huge, and broke off a chunk we now know as our lone satellite, the moon. I know I'm boring you, so here's my latest pics of that dusty, grey 4.5 billion-year-old rock, peppered with craters as seen through the brisk Decatur sky.

The moon, taken Nov. 15, 2008 at 8:15 p.m.

A little more detail of our impact-scarred moon, taken Nov. 17, 2008 at 11:09 p.m.

The cupcakes Julia made.

One more post to tout the awesomeness of Julia's homemade chocolate cupcakes, with little chocolate cat cookies on top. They were a hit!

Summer turns two!

Summer had a great birthday on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008, as she turned two. Mommy made chocolate birthday cupcakes and we had a pizza party in the evening. The kids (Summer, Avery and Neal) even got to make their own pizzas from scratch!

It was wonderful.

The whole crew looks on as Summer helps blow out her candles.

Neal gives Summer some elephant ears.
Avery takes a minute away from eating pizza to give me a great smile.

Pizza making.

Summer with Mommy and Daddy.

Avery wasn't in the mood for this shot.

Kevin enjoys a cupcake.

A day at the zoo

We went to the Atlanta zoo for Ron's birthday on Tuesday. It was a great day. Summer had fun. Here's a slideshow of our trip,with music. (Just click the photo below to start it.)

- ron

Victory is mine!

It's been a while, but Ron finally won a tennis tournament again. He won the Men's Open singles title at the Callaway Gardens Clay Court Championships, held in Pine Mountain, Ga. Ron kinda hates playing on clay, for reasons best discussed over beer, so this is double sweet vindication. No trophy, but they did give the finalists premium Callaway Gardens sweatshirts. :) Classy, huh? With the victory, Ron will move up in the rankings for the men's open division (hardest division) in Georgia, from No. 72 to roughly No. 20 or 25.

Here's some pics.

Thoughts of "home"

Of course "home" is where you are, but that didn't stop me (Ron) from getting a mini-yearning for my hometown of Santa Cruz, Calif. Fortunately, in my line of work, many of my memories found a home in stories I've written. Santa Cruz and it's crown jewel (the 100-plus-year-old Beach Boardwalk) is no exception. Here's a piece I wrote that appeared in USA Today about the Boardwalk's centennial. Ahhh... home.

- ron

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2007-06-20-santa-cruz-boardwalk_N.htm

Autumn- the real thing!

It's so exciting to experience the fall season here in ATL. The changing leaves are beautiful and they are sure fun to play in, as Summer shows in these photos. Here are some pics of her playing with her friends in the leaves at our next door neighbors house. Thanks to my neighbor Jill for taking these!