The neighborhood little boy gang pretended the storm was chasing them, getting cute points from me that I normally don't grant them.

Some pictures from the garden

I'm trying out a new rented lens today, so I thought I would use it to share a few photos from our garden. It's a little weedy still on the far side, but it's coming along. Maggie has done the vast majority of the work on the garden so she deserves credit. I am in charge of the lawn mowing, so you can check out my masterful job in the first photo.

The Oven is whole again

Repair Guy: Alright, so I have something in my notes about a dryer and an oven.

Me: Right, the dryer is making weird squeaking noises and the front of the oven fell off.

Repair Guy: (Looks shocked) The front of the oven fell off?!

Me: Yeah, it's not as bad it sounds.

(Repair guy fixes the door in three minutes by taking the whole door off and then attaching the lid back on to the door)

Repair Guy: I don't think I've ever seen anything like this happen before.

(Repair Guy then quickly fixes the dryer and, at dad's request, cleans the bottom of the dishwasher. Dad beams in satisfaction)

Grandma and Aunt Julie come a callin'

The Life of Teya

Good Night Sweet Prince

Surprisingly, this ended up not being the stupidest thing I would do to this poor car.

But we did have some good times.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mary Ellen Dreier!

I was hired by Uncle Jim to shoot his mother's 90th birthday on Saturday in Cedar Falls. It was exhausting but also fun. Here is the slideshow (somewhat out of order at the moment)

First quilt block done tonight! You guys can't let your kid sit on it, though. I don't know how strong the seams are, hahaha.

Monday. Morning. Arty. Farty.

Maggie and Stephen take their work very seriously

Just another day at the Solon Economist

Monday. Morning.

Washington Post "Peeps Show IV"

Yay Peeps

AHNULD!

Here's to Stephen, King of Chicken Fried Steaks

Take a look at this picture Stephen, and ask yourself, where is your God now?

Behold! Mnomiquah! Lord of Sloth and White Peppered Gravy! Those of the Coyote Grille spoke of his vastness. Dismissing their cautions with a wave of my hand, I ordered forth, madness gleaming in my eyes. But, instead of the joy I'd hoped for from such daring an order, there came only a shuddering emptiness, a chasm that coffee and apple juice could not fill; and then I saw at last a fearful truth which no one had ever dared to breathe before, the unwhisperable secret of secrets, that fact that this steak, batter dipped as to be chicken-friend, and slathered rich a gravy as rich and deep and thick as time and memory itself, was set in front of me, its density and matter that the very light above us was bent and warped around it.

Long story short, I barely dented this guy.

(btw, in this pic fully 1/5 of this behemoth is obscured by the biscuits and eggs)

Poor Myrtle

AHHHHH!!!
Down goes Myrtle, Down goes Myrtle!

Toilet Phone?

A first for me. I hesitated picking it up because I was suddenly worried it wasn't a real phone and, instead, that it would simply connect me to another person in the hotel sitting on the toilet. (the logic makes more sense when you're a bit sleep deprived in a different time zone)

Baby Quilt

I thought you (Maggie) might like to see the sweet baby quilt that I found on Etsy (that my sister secretly bought for me after I talked about it) that I'm going to use as inspiration for decorating the nursery.

Monday. Morning?

In Fresno California, they have fireplaces on the out of doors.

Also, enjoying how the new work computer I have has a flash on its camera...if it could make me look any more pale I'd be glittering.

The Baby Name Suggestion Thread

I thought we should have a localized place for baby name suggestions, so here it is. Post your name suggestions here.

Stephen: I'm going to suggest a name, Kirby!
Maggie: That's a terrible name!
Stephen: I think it's great! What about Kirkland?
Maggie: I like Kirk better, I like short names.
Stephen: But long names can be short names.
Maggie: What about Edmund? They like Ed. You've got to go with short names, they're better.

Bryan found this awhile ago. Good cooking music, especially "Kiss." I am using it to soothe my disappoint over Battlestar's terrible final episode. Enjoy!

Louis Armstrong remix

P.S. Somebody get some baking soda! Steve and I have set The Salt Slab on fire with our prolific posts!

"Stephen, you're such a dork." - Maggie

Actually Maggie, according to this Venn diagram, I believe I would be classified as a nerd. If I work on my social aptitude, though, I could one day be upgraded to geek.



















Finally a useful chart for us all to rely on.

On a completely different topic, I covered the President's visit to Iowa City on Thursday, an exhausting experience that I hope I will one day soon look back at as worth it. I haven't seen my story posted online yet, but I did take a few photos.


























































Unfortunately, because of my press credentials, I had to sit in the bleachers on the side where I was directly blocked by the President's teleprompter. This led to most of my good shots (such as the one above) being of him reading said prompter. Here's looking at you, kid.

After his speech (and while I was probably walking by on Jefferson St. and not even noticing), Obama went to Prairie Lights unannounced and bought a Star Wars book for the press secretary's kid.

Sorry if you've already seen these!

Dance!

Dad rediscovers the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack from Stephen Schmidt on Vimeo.

Monday. Morning.

Monday. Morning.

Meanwhile, Steve is off somewhere reading the Techmo Bowl manual for NES.

Monday. Morning. (taken AM, posted PM)

What, no Monday morning photograph of a groggy Ben to start my day off right? :)

We finally opened Maggie's New Years Eve champagne

Cheers to you guys!

Monday. Morning.

Sunday night at the Schmidt house

Oh my.

Maggie, as my bridesmaid I feel like you should have reminded me that I wasn't complete as a bride until I had a head-piece like this. And a bigger skirt. And this guy.  I could've been so pretty...

The Power of Wireless Off-Camera Flash!

Even though I have to work this weekend, I can say happy Friday. Why? Cause it's gadget Friday! Happy Gadget Friday!

Alright, I concede that this is really dorky

And nobody will probably care about it but me, but here's a movie that was made by independent filmmaker Jamin Winans using my camera. There's a making of featurette first with the actual movie after.

Why You Don't Walk Cats

Ben, this commercial reminds me of your work

Yeah!

Monday. Morning.

Nobody cares, Piper.

From the Mad Men party

From the Mad Men theme party. Don't worry, it's a bubblegum cigarette.

Dad just said "Maggie, pills." I'm going to go ahead and call it a sentence!

This one's for you, Maggie!

Valentine's Day Fondue

We have more chairs at this table... Come and join us!

Old School Letter writing

Mom writing a letter to Grandma B.

Hilarious (read all the way to the end! His name is the best part!)

Dear Kathryn Schmidt,

I do understand that you have upgraded the program and you want to down grade it.

Kathryn, I do sincerely regret for the inconvenience that happened, I apologies for the delay in response, since you want to downgrade the software.

a. Login to taxfreedom.com

b. Use the same user id to login and choose the option “I Qualify”
c. After entering all his personal Information and when the AGI is greater than $31,000 the program will give a popup that he does not qualify and gives you an option to choose the programs like (Basic, Deluxe etc…)

d. You cannot transfer the past year taxes to 2009, but by doing this you can use the same user i-d and password for the tax year 2010.

Sorry to say this since there is no other option to do am suggesting you to prepare your taxes from beginning

If you have any quires, I kindly request you to contact us through 888-777-3066 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM in PST, so that we can serve you better.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be of service.

You will receive an email survey within 24 hours asking you to evaluate my performance and to comment on our TurboTax product. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey as we use this information to improve our service and support.

Sincerely,

Ebenezer
TurboTax Consumer Group

Ebert responds to Esquire feature

Ebert's response

"Roger Ebert: The Essential Man"

Dad smiles

You have to be quick to catch them, but the rare Jim Schmidt smiles still do occur.

Monday Evenings

Monday. Morning.