test garvin wordpress

Arthur and him are stuffed up together in the top bunk. Earlier Jessica heard them discussing the wonders  of IKEA dinner as they flipped through a Where's Waldo book. "But the meatballs and gravy are AMAZING."

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmUQkSMlKM]

--sent from my mobile device--

I posted this on facebook a couple days ago but forgot to post here. ------------ I just surprised my incredibly hard working, David-Byrne-loving wife Jessica with an airline ticket to New York City to see Byrne's sold-out show tmro night at the Beacon Theater. This falls in line with my desire to be a heroic husband, but the tr uth is she totally deserves it and it's the sort of thing she'd do for herself is she had time to think about herself amid caring for our kids. She was stunned and is now super excited. When lining this up a week ago I called her good friend  Isabel  in Brooklyn who I learned LOVES David Byrne. So they're going to the show together, staying in her apartment and spending the day Wednesday seeing museums or whatever else. My mother, who's been in town a few weeks and had planned to return Wednesday, agreed to stay an extra day to help make this super fun thing possible (thanks, Ma!). And, if you haven't heard it, here's a track from B...

Jessica is on a mom-cation with her good friend Lena. This email just arrived... --sent from my mobile device-- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Lena Cicha" Date: Sep 22, 2012 6:48 PM Subject: Camp is pitched. Temp is dropping. To: "Ben Garvin"

Bailey just called out in "ehh mine! Ehh mine!!" in a dream. So I soothed her with a pat and saying, "its yours, bailey.  Its yours, you can have it..."

Consistently for as long as I've been aware of it the girls have presented very distinct waking styles.  When I hear them waking either in the morning or after a nap I am almost sure to find Netta scrambling to stand up, if she isn't standing already while Bailey is still laying down, eyes open and sucking her thumb but just lollygagging a little longer.  Actually, come to think of it, I think we used to rouse her when she was really little.  Ben can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we would usually find Netta awake and then wake Bailey up so I could nurse them together.  Hmmm...  Anyway, the reason I wanted to write this all down was because I'm curious how Bailey's desire to stay horizontal even after waking will translate in teenage and adulthood.  Will she be a late sleeper?  Is she really just a night owl trapped in a bedroom with a morning-person twin?  Or will she be the type to be on half-speed until she's had her morning run or coffee or ot...

The days of the quadrabath are numbered.  Many tangled legs lie under those   bubbles!

My mother is in town for another nice long stay, and last week her good friend Melody came to join her for a week from Arkansas. Mama had great fun showing her friend around town. They went to the state fair one day around 11am and didn't return until 9pm. And they're INCREDIBLY OLD! Well, not really, but still. I was so impressed. They went to farmers markets all over, the Renaissance Festival, went on many walk with Netta and Bailey, and on and on. One of them took this one of a young man walking by. Apparently they just couldn't believe how low his pants were. It thinks that's funny. Not just that they were so amazed, but that they took a photo...   And here's a nice photo Melody took of me and Ma at the state fair.

At MN Zoo...

Here's a funny photography story from the Vikings game yesterday. There was four seconds left in regulation and the Vikings were three points behind. They kicked a super long field goal and the crowd and team went wild. It's the sort of moment we photographers rush the field after the game winning last second play to get close up photos. Except in this case it was just a game TYING play. Luckily I  realized this, as did every other photographer--except one. Andy King, who was shooting for Getty (and who said it was fine for me to post about this), raced onto the field to get wonderful close-up photos of the star kicker and the coach. He was moving with great speed and agility, weaving between celebrating players to get the best shot. I watched him in amazement, thinking "does he work for the team now?" I soon realized what was going on and couldn't help laughing. Slowly, after a minute of getting what were likely some of the best photos of the day, he started to l...

Well, that not may true, since we've actually had a BUTTLOAD of dates over the past many years. But this was up there. I first had to talk a reluctant Jessica into going to the State Fair. She poopooed it for a few days, it's so big and overwhelming, yada yada. So the way I got around that is I didn't as if she "wanted" to go to the state fair, I asked if she "would" go there with me. That got a reluctant yes. And she had more fun than I did! Before we went to the fair we stopped for a  wonderful Ethiopian dinner , then headed to the fair. Since I didn't work out at the fair much this year it was especially fun to be there and wander around with a beautiful and intelligent woman. She's both. It's just crazy. Here we are with our treats sitting among the Christmas trees. I had a beer sampler, she had key lime pie on stick. We saw crop art, big ass pumpkins, creative activities stuff like pickles and poundcake, rode the skyway thing, saw some...

(handiwork by Jessica)

I splurged and bought the boys each a decent fishing pole from Fleet Farm. We tried using corn and bread for a day and no bites. The next day I got some worms and BAM. You couldn't leave the hook in the water for 10 seconds without getting a lot of bites. I was pretty funny. I remember at one point BOTH boys were reeling in their poles yelling, "I got one, I got one Papa!" That was 30 seconds before this photo above was taken, after the same thing happened a second time. Later, a fish swallowed the hook and I had the end his little life. So we ate him. Arthur eating a chip in Nora's memorial garden. "I like Nora's garden," Art said. An odd porch scene with crazed baby in background. Closeup of said baby. "Ben, take a picture," said Jessica when we saw Netta 'looking' through trashy magazines.  The folks at the neighboring cottage have a super fancy jet speed boat. They gave us a terrifcally fast and fun boat ride. We also jumped in the ...

This piece, titled The Amazing Cow Boat, was also was from the wonderful Open Eye Figure Theater .

There's a 21-year-old kid in St. Paul named Austin who has made a pretty spectacular marble roll thing from Kinex pieces in his room. This photo shows less than a third of the entire contraption, which circles his room entirely. There's even a big crane that travels overhead. Nance, Jessica's aunt, lives in their neighborhood and got an email notice about an open house, which she forwarded to us. And I'm certain he's open to having more people come. So if you wanna see this, send an e-mail to them here or email me and I'll pass along their number. I don't think it'll be up much longer.

Cynthia, my step mother and mama to Jenny, my step sister, just sent me this lovely photo. It's of Jenny and Sujit and their children Mira and Zach. We don't see them often but love them dearly. They live in Chapel Hill, my father and Cynthia in Durham. We are already planning (in our head) an epic vacation next summer, a road trip to Myrtle Beach to the Meher Baba spiritual center, a place that always brings great joy and peace. And a place for us all to be together and play. Three years ago we took Bubbe, I still smile thinking about how wonderful that trip was. Here's a little video from it. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQbEN2Ku_Y?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ZM_3SXTi0?rel=0&w=640&h=480]