Saturday, Midnight: Kate arrives in Denver.

Sunday: Last minute Christmas shopping, including a tree to decorate and the Big Present for The Year (a new bed from Denver Mattress). Kate decorated the tree by herself, basically -- I no longer remember what I was doing. We thought we'd go to Zoo Lights with Kaylee, Jackie, and Dan, but the weather looked contrary, so we made it our SECOND last-minute-shopping-trip of the week instead.

Monday: Kaylee woke up happy, but her mood spiraled as her temperature climbed, and by 11 in the morning we were both at the doctors for a quick checkup (no strep -- just give her some otc meds and lots of liquids). Monday evening, Kaylee was at Jackie's, so Kate and I went to I am Legend, followed by midnight mass. I highly recommend I am Legend -- the ending is quite a departure from the book in facts, but stays true to the tone and theme and scorns saccharine Hollywood. Some of the best acting from Smith I've seen, and I happen to be a big fan.

Tuesday: Christmas! Kate and I opened gifts, assembled Kaylee's toy kitchen, and checked the weather reports, which were not favorable for the planned trip to Colorado Springs. Change of plans: I went and picked up Kaylee and we had Randy over for Christmas-y lunch, followed by opening, assembling, and playing with all my brand new Settlers of Catan expansions (I lack only one small one now).

Wednesday: Kaylee still wasn't feeling well, and while her illness isn't catching, her grouchiness spread a bit. Due to the weather, daycare being unexpectedly closed (more illness!), and the imminent arrival of the new bed, I worked from home and actually managed to accomplish things between everything else going on. Kate, in the meantime, primed the British Racing Green family room, so that we can paint it a softer heather today.

Today: I've more work-work to do, and as I said we're going to be painting the family room and kitchen; the cabinets too, though I think they'll wait a day or two, since we want to paint all the cabinetry in the house. Parenthetically, it's snowing again today, possibly twice as much as it did on Tuesday.

... and now you're all caught up. I'll try not to let myself lapse so badly again. To make up for it, here's a video of Kaylee encountering her first Poncho.

Current score is Kaylee: 0, Poncho: 1.

This is what happens when daddy says "we need to get ready to go outside."

... like she's shouting to the world "Daddy dresses me funny!"

... ever since I upgraded to 4.01 of MoveableType. Hopefully there will be some fix for that soon, but for now it's simply "the reason I haven't posted much this week."

So, in lieu of that, here are some pix from this weekend.

Kaylee likes to take the game controller and pretend it's a camera. She's notoriously difficult about actually LOOKING at a camera, or even sitting still, so I hit on the idea of "taking turns" taking pictures Sunday morning -- she 'took a picture' of me with her 'camera', then I snapped one of her. Brilliant!

Not a great picture: a cellphone shot of a computer screen that's displaying pictures taken at Kaylee's 2-year (and one month) photo shoot.

But yet, still cute.

Waiting for the dentist!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Kaylee's first checkup.

Home again, home again..., originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Many many hoops jumped through, and they are finally back where they belong.

Jiggedy-jig.

IMG_0389, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

... but it comes with a great story. Kaylee and I were watch the blue-black guy on the sidewalk. He was slowly fanning he's wings up... then pause... then down... and repeat.

"Daddy, what's that doing?"

"He's getting ready to fly."

She watches the butterfly slowly fan the wings for about 10 seconds or so. No flying occurs.

"Come on, bu'erfly! You can do it! You can do it!"

Too. Cute.

Classy!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

"This is an outfit that says 'I'm going to the shore... and I have a thick Staten Island accent.'"

Kaylee and Rosie, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Trip to the Butterfly Pavilion today, and another chance to hold Rosie the Tarantula. Kaylee is clearly unsure about this 'opportunity.'

Rose colored glasses, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

New glasses for Kaylee.

Today marks a momentous occasion -- an anniversary that I know resonates with me as one of the key formative moments of my life -- the kind of thing that changes everything when it happens.

I'm speaking, of course, of the death of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Who here could imagine the kind of --

*checks calendar*

Oh, wait... that's wasn't it. I meant to say KAYLEE'S BIRTHDAY!!!

That's right: the little munchkin turns two years old today. We're having a party on Saturday (which will be very GREEN-colored, and include at least one pony).

Until then, and in lieu of pictures of her smearing frosting all over her face, I give you a shot of her opening her first present of the year. Note the crazed, hungry look in her eyes as she realizes EVERYTHING IN THE BOX IS FOR HER.

Oh yeah, we're raisin' her right.

Gimme those presents!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Bike Ride, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

but I finished the Tri. Not as fast as I might have dreamed, but not beyond the point-of-absolutely-pathetic, either, so I'll take it. I consider it a low bar, easy to beat the next time.

... next time? Oh dear.

A few more photos (all courtesy of Dave whom, along with Margie and Katherine, I cannot thank enough for coming out to cheer), with comments, here, and a longer blog post tomorrow or Monday.

Hold on TIGHT..., originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Kaylee is ready for the Triathlon tomorrow, even if her daddy isn't...

First apples, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Again, Kaylee approves.

Grandma Daycare, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Kaylee approves.

Beautiful eyes, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Everything in this picture is pure Kaylee; the bright eyes, the bow she decided HAD to be in her hair, the clothes, the 'baby' she wouldn't let go of, the 'bike' that has become one of her favorite toys, and the purple string of beads that she put around Jake's neck -- he wore them for most of the weekend before I finally took pity on him.

First Bike Ride, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

This weekend, I picked up a kid's bike seat for my mountain bike, figuring that hauling Kaylee through the green belt on a heavy mountain bike for an hour would make 12 miles on a road bike seem easy.

Look at the sly look in her eyes. "Y'say we're gonna get on this thing? And you're going to pedal me wherever you want? Innnnteresting."

It's full of Bunnies..., originally uploaded by DoyceT.

A detail of Kaylee's helmet, which she gravitated to at the shop like a moth to a cute pink flame.

IMG_0316, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Finally a shot of the seat itself, which is (a) mounted on a rack and strapped to the seat post (b) straps her in with a three point harness (c) velcroes her feet into the stirrups to keep them from interfering with parental pedaling or getting into a bad position in the event of an accident and (d) roller-coaster-style handlebar.

I daresay, in the event of some kind of mishap, she's safer than I would be.

Finished!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Kate and Yi Shun

07-04-07_1524.jpg, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Hi Daddy!

Beautiful beads, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

A view into Kaylee's head:

"If one set of beads is beautiful, MORE beads will be MORE beautiful."

Not just a grin., originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Supergrin!

Sunset, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

... A reason for evening bike rides.

Tastes salty..., originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Kate and Kaylee in the ocean. This was the second day at the beach and the first time Kaylee let us get in the water very far.

It was also the first time she screamed bloody murder when we tried to take her OUT. :)

Sandy, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Daddy brushing the sand off.

Swing!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Time at the park, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Sssslide...

Day at the beach, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Hula girl!

Sun hat!, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Getting ready for the beach.

Sunglasses, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

Ready for the beach!

Test post 2, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

A considerable improvement from last year.

Test flickr post, originally uploaded by DoyceT.

May Kaylee forgive me...

Caption this picture in the comments.

My entry: "Umm... SURE it's my hat..."

Working from home today (more on that later), and while that affords me many opportunities that being in the usual workspace typically curtails, the premiere one these days is the ability to actually post to my blogs. I know: I could be posting from home, after work, but that's evening-time, and between Kaylee and/or my own personal projects, writing up a blog post just takes too much of that time block; only at work do I have that kind of copious free time. (Albeit interspersed between hell-weeks where there aren't enough work hours in the day.)

Anyway, enough about that -- let's not natter away the time when I can actually post, talking about why I can't post. Instead, how about a few week in review posts?

I thought you'd like that. Let's start out with some travel.

I'll back up a few weekends to Easter. Easter was a bit of a challenge this year, due to some last minute plan-changes. I'd planned to be out in NYC that weekend -- had in fact made plans several months in advance, picking the weekend at random and unaware of its holiday status. As the day approached, however, I became aware that it was Easter that we were talking about. So did a number of other people, among which we will include "most of Kate's family."

Example: "Oh, Doyce will be out that weekend? That's nice. Wait... is he BRINGING KAYLEE?!?!?!??? SQUEEEEEEEEEE....."

I don't know that they actually made a sound only dogs can hear, but in my mind, that's exactly what happened. It's worth noting that the question was posed a number of times, both in NYC and locally.

Now, I've traveled out to NYC with Kaylee. It was, in fact, for another holiday -- Christmas -- and while the visit itself was wonderful and full of mirth and wonder, the flights were... fraught. It's not that my little girl isn't a wonderful angelic cherub, but she gets bored when confined to the same restricted space for a few milliseconds long period of time. She loves to spend time with Daddee, but come on: unless you're Lee, there's only so much time you can spend sitting on my lap.

Also, Kaylee's teething, big time. All in all I was, as you might guess, hesitant.

It was Timmy and Madeliene that broke my resolve.

Y'see, Timmy and Miss Madeliene are Kate's niece and nephew. They met Kaylee during the Christmas visit and after some initial shyness and five-year-old assertion of authority on Maddy's part, they pretty much fell in total and complete adoration of Kaylee, to the point where Maddy would immediately demand where I was taking Kaylee if I came to get her when they were all playing together. Kaylee and Maddy look a lot a like (both redheads!) and I think Maddy was simply charmed by that -- honestly, they could be sisters.

When the two learned that Kate and I were engaged and were going to get married, Tim and Maddy immediately asked the only question of any real importance:

"How soon will Kaylee be our cousin?"

It'd like to make yer heart melt, I reckon.

"Fine," I relented, "I'll bring Kaylee out for Easter."

On our second big flight, I learned a few things:
- I really, really don't care if I leave a mess under my seat for the cleaning crew -- I just don't. I want to, but I have bigger fish to fry, you know?
- Trying to keep a teething toddler from kicking the seat in front of you is a little like tongue wrestling a pissed off electric eel in possession of fully functioning rape-whistle.
- At Kaylee's age, CRAYOLA ANTI-ROLL CRAYONS ARE THE BEST THING EVAH -- you can pretty much cross off at least one hour of the flight as "taken care of" with those in your diaper bag.
- The flight back from NYC to Denver is usually going to be much easier than the flight from Denver to NYC: This is partly because the flight out is new and exciting, but also strictly about the numbers -- the flights back from NYC to Denver almost always have an open middle seat between the aisle and the window, whereas the flights out to NYC are PACKED.
- An open middle seat means I can sit there, let Kaylee have her way with the window seat, shield the rest of the plane from her, and maybe even catch a little nap, if she settles down enough.
- I usually sit on the aisle, so I can get up and move around during the flight once or twice with out disturbing a whole row of people. WIth Kaylee, however, window seats are invaluable, and minor disturbing of your fellow travelers definitely falls into the "nice to have, but not remotely critical" column.

Anyway, we got there on Thursday without anyone trying to kill us (it helped that KK and I were sitting in a row with a young middle-school teacher and a kids snowboard instructor who were too busy chatting each other up to let kaylee bother them), and arrived at Kate's just in time for supper and bedtime.

Bedtime was a big new adventure for Kaylee, because it didn't involve a crib. Instead, I'd bought and brought along an air mattress and pump. With a little ingenious arrangement, we actually put most of the mattress under Kate's bed, leaving a perfectly Kaylee-sized end sticking out on my side. Six months ago, this would have been an impossible arrangement, as the girl flopped around in her sleep like a beached halibut, but she's settled down quite a lot since then (I've actually converted her crib to the "daybed, with guard rails" mode), and I was curious what she'd do when she found herself in a sleeping arrangement she could easily get up and leave.

The answer? Nothing. In short, she's got the expectation that someone must come get her out of bed, and will stay there until someone does. I'm sure that wonderful state won't last forever, but for right now I'm very happy about it; for Kaylee "bedtime" means quiet self-play, or sleep, and not much else. It definitely doesn't mean "get back up because I don't want to sleep yet." I won't be very happy the first time she tries that move, I'm sure.

Friday was a pretty uneventful, lazy day. Using Kaylee as a convenient excuse, we basically lazed around the apartment all day, playing and watching kids shows and cooking stuff for a quiet little get together that night. Matt and Ali (redhead) came over, Keeley (Kate's roomate) and his girlfriend Paula (redhead) were there, and we spent the first part of the evening being charmed by the little girl and commenting on the fact that almost half the people in the room were redheads, and the last part of the evening playing a great card-game called Bang -- I was the sherrif for this game, and lasted a remarkably long time, thanks in no small part to my wanton cunning use of DYNAMITE and GATLING GUNS to enforce the law, as mandated by the god-fearing tax payers of the New Mexico Territory, amen.

Saturday, Kate's mom earned an early sainthood by driving into the city to pick us up, thus avoiding any need on our part to call a car service or take the train out. The half hour drive ended in a delicious breakfast/brunch, at which point in time we put Kaylee down for a nap and Kate and I headed out to look at possible locations for our wedding reception. I was a little nervous about leaving Kaye and Barbara in Kaylee's clutches for several hours, but it all worked out fine: in the time it took us to look at our two a-list locales (and decide on one, which we totally did) and get home, Kaylee napped: she basically woke up just as we pulled back into the driveway.

The rest of the afternoon involved some quality time with the little girl, during which we watched part of the Curious George movie, which -- can I just recommend that to everyone with kids? And really to everyone without kids? It's a great, fun, funny time, and I really really enjoyed it -- so much so that I actually went back in and finished watching it after Kaylee went to bed. Fantastic soundtrack, too.

Side Note: Kate's mom has a piano. Kaylee ... LOVES that piano.

Sunday was a big Schafer family Easter -- great food, an easter egg hunt combined with a really good detective-style treasure hunt that led ultimately to full-sized easter baskets for each kid, concealed around the house.

And, of course, Madeleine and Kaylee, glued to each other, the whole day.

Did I mention they're both redheads? :)

Whereas my 'Kaylee on my head' shots should really be called "The Redcap Adventures."

(Or possibly "how sunlight and short light hair can make Doyce look friggin bald.")

Some picture I snapped, on the run.

A couple pix from the last JC Penny photo session.

Another shot on the run.

The current ruling opinion is that the stuff I (and everyone else) snaps of Kaylee comes out better than the stuff we're paying for -- though I attribute some of that to the 'when' of the photo sessions (6 o'clock at night makes her hungry AND sleepy at just the wrong time).

(Click to embiggen.)

Picture by Kate. Epic Cuteness by Kaylee.

I joke a little bit -- come this time of year -- about how it's not a huge amount of fun for me, traveling over the holidays.

And by "joke a little bit," I mean "speak the gospel truth"; and by "not a huge amount of fun," I mean "essentially the 14th circle of Hell"; and by "for me," I mean "for any sane person."

So... right. This December, I'm flying out to New York with Kaylee, then turning around about 3 days later and doing a 11 hour drive (with baby breaks factored in, and not counting 4 more hours up to my folks' place) with her, to South Dakota. (The next weekend, she's flying to Cali with Jackie, but I'll be taking a break from travel that week.)

Clearly, I am insane.

I had a pretty good plan (I thought) for the trip out to NYC: get on the plane at 11, have an hour of excitement from the takeoff, then feed the wee munchkin, let her drop off for her nap as is her norm, then it's just a couple hours to entertain her before landing.

Lemme tell you people: no toddler is going to nap on a flight they haven't been on fifteen times before. Period.

They also will not want to be held for 4 hours in the same place. (A statement which any parent or person-with-half-a-brain can read and think: "Duh.")

So... what really happened was that a very very VERY un-napped, tired little girl got to La Guardia at about 4:30 pm, desperately in need of a quick 10-minute trip to the apartment and a nap.

Right. It's the week before Christmas. We got to the apartment just a little after six, and most of the hour and a half delay was waiting in line for a cab.

She slept in the cab. That was it. Once at the apartment, she and the bags under her eyes were UP and NOT INTERESTED in sleeping. (Though, granted, she never failed to be cute.)

MJ came over to get a dose of cuteness before KK crashed out, then she stood watch while Kate and I ran out to get some food down the street. (9pm, typical east coast supper time.) Back home, the three of us watched the Doctor Who tribute to ELO ("Love and Monsters") and by then I was ready to crash myself (you try entertaining a toddler for a 4.5 hour flight).

Saturday was gloriously lazy. The three of us basically hung around the apartment, hanging up pictures and playing. Once Kaylee went down for her nap, Kate started on cookies for the Sunday christmas thing at her sisters and I ran out to the deli to fetch lunch. Kaylee woke up at some point in there and was entertained by Keeley, who amused her with raspberry noises at the TV and playing catch.

(Speaking of TV: the ability to TiVo a random selection of children's shows to unleash at a moment's notice is AWESOME. Also: Kaylee loves the Wiggles. A lot. This was her first encounter, and she llllllllllloved them. Honestly, I liked them too.)

I did my cookie baking, and by the time we were actually thinking about getting out of pajamas and going out to see some New York Christmas Sights (tm), it was 4:30 in the afternoon and getting duskish.

That's right: the whole day in pj's, playing with the girl. That's a GOOD Saturday, people.

We got ready while Keeley put his hats on Kaylee and had her do bobblehead doll impressions as she walked around the apartment.

"Into the city for lights at the Rockefeller Center" turned into an amusing (for Kaylee) Human Grape Crush all along fifth avenue (people pressing in on every side so tightly you literally don't need to support your own weight -- Kaylee amused herself by waving at random people and 'adjusting' their hats).

After that, Kaylee charmed the thug-lites on the subway on the way to a small Christmas party, where she played with the little 6-pound terrier -- the perfect combination of doggy love and cat-size -- at least from her point of view. Then it was back home, bedtime for Kaylee, and PB&J's for Kate and myself while watching Battlestar Galactica and more Doctor Who. (We know how to live it UP!)

Sunday, Kate went to get our rental car for the trip out to Jersey (2007 Toyota Rav4 - nice), and Kaylee and I went down to the local bakery for bagels, some bread for a spinach dip bowl, and free cookies for Kaylee from the owner. (Yes, she did in fact charm every single person on the East Coast, why?)

The family shindig was great (somehow we didn't get a picture of Kaylee in her pretty dress), and Miss M (who is five and a half and also has red hair and blue eyes -- they could be sisters, honestly) bonded with Kaylee (petting her hair and hugging her constantly) and made sure she was entertained... and close at hand... all night.

By the way, here's a FANTASTIC party idea: if you're hosting a shindig where you know there will be lots of kids, hire your two best local babysitters to BOTH come over for the party and keep an eye on ALL the kids. That's what Kate's sister did, and it was genius. Kaylee charmed them instantly, and there was never a moment one of them wasn't within arms reach of the munchkin the whole night. (This didn't stop me from checking on her every 10 minutes or so, but it helped a LOT.)

It was a long, pretty tiring night for her (she learned the basics of Duck-Duck-Goose -- tap people on the head and go "dah... dah... dah... dah... GOO!" and then run from whoever is chasing you), but although she was pretty frazzled by the end, she clearly had a great time.

Next morning it was up at 6:30am for the 8:30 flight (returning the rental in the process), which was an extra hour long due to Global Warming.

So... just figure that it was pretty much like the outgoing trip, but longer.

Result: a great, fun trip that I totally want to do again...

... just, not... you know... right away.

Kaylee's delighted by snow. Every squishy, slippery step makes her giggle, and the cold flakes sticking to her hands are FAScinating.

Something tells me the garbage service won't be making a pick up today.

Prague is a great city, and honestly I'd love to go back and do more of the stuff there is to *do* there, despite the fact that I feel as though we saw alot of what there was to *see* -- in other words, we caught most of the Sites and Sights, but didn't get enough time to check out things like any of the dozen musical performances we got fliers for on the front steps of cathedrals. I'd like to see more of the countryside, maybe even (as De mentioned) during winter.

We had a great time.

Friday was pretty uneventful -- it was a 'clean up' day for us. We had a late breakfast at "coffee and cigars" right across the street from our flat, then spent some time shopping for souvenirs. We weren't too hungry by lunch time, so we spent some time in a "Best of" Mucha & Jan Saudek exhibition right off Old Town Square, then had a late lunch at "Red Hot and Blues." We were getting a bit homesick, and this was the answer -- I had the Grande Nachos, thanks very much, and hummed along to Johnny Cash on the speaker system.

Took the long way home, stopping at the Museum of Communism (MAN the Czechs like making fun of Communism! :) on the way, then spent the afternoon packing up for the next (very very early) morning.

We went out that night for last minute souvenir shopping, took one last set of pictures from the Charles Bridge, and crashed sometime around 10 pm.

And y'know what? It was a good day. There's something to be said for taking a vacation that FEELS like a vacation: sleeping in (albeit on the Most Uncomfortable Bed Ever), taking lots of naps, and generally just going at your own pace, even if it means not always packing the day full-to-the-brim.

So... one more save point, and the game's over.

Our plan for Thursday was a trip out to Karlstejn, the "second most-visited castle." This required actually getting up at a reasonably early time, which we managed (sort of). We had breakfast at the flat, then took the metro down to the train station that would (we hoped) take us on the forty minute trip out of town.

Now... the train station required some detective work, combining Kate's native familiarity with All Things Mass Transit and my familiarity with the Czech-English dictionary I had close at hand (and ability to ask for and actually get change from one of the newsstands). It was complicated, people -- our travel guides spend about four pages trying to decipher the train schedule, then admits that even the natives don't really understand the posted schedules.

Anyway, we got our tickets (something like 2 bucks :), found our train, shivered for awhile on the platform, then had a very speedy and very country-scenic 40 minute ride to the quaint Karlstejn Station (see the opening picture). As promised, it was still a hike from the station to our destination. There's a ten-minute walk to the village of Karlstejn itself, a ten minute walk through said village, noting the pubs where we'd probably have lunch and the view of the castle from below, then a STEEP 15 minute hike up the backside of the hill the castle's built on, right past one of the entrances to Paragon City's Pocket D (geek reference).

Now, I can say it was a steep hike, and you'll all nod and say "got it," and I will secretly doubt that you do, so let me illustrate. Take a look at this picture. No, you can't see much, but you can make out the incline of the path, right? Imagine that, for fifteen steady minutes. That's what I mean.

So, I've written quite a bit about getting to the castle, and not much about the castle itself. Honestly? Not much to write. Architecturally, it's a gorgeous castle, and the layout reminds me strongly of Wales' Chepstow Castle in some ways, except the river's a bit further off, there's way more climbing to get there, and Karlstejn has a complete roof (and is, in fact, completely habitable).

That said, there really isn't much to see inside the castle itself -- almost all the really cool furniture was carted off to Italy several hundred years ago, so you're left with a few pieces, some models of what it used to look like, and an uninspiring tour guide. There's supposed to be an amazing room in the final tower of the castle, but it takes a couple months to get into that tour, with a special reservation.

So we hung out a bit, did the tour, attacked a drawbridge, delved into the castle's lowest courtyards (and found out, once we got there, that the "well tower" was closed for lunch), and then headed back down into the village. Had lunch at U Janu, then back to the train station and Prague.

That makes it sound pretty plain, but it really wasn't -- it was a nice relaxing time out in the country... just not a lot to say about it.

Once back in town, we dumped off souvenirs at the flat and headed down to the Museum of Decorative Arts.

What the heck is the Museum of Decorative Arts? I'll tell you, but it won't sound as cool as it really was. It collects — in both Czech-national and international contexts — examples of "historical and contemporary crafts, as well as applied arts and design." In short, it's a collection of art-as-functional-stuff -- chairs, clothing, clocks, cutlery... really cool and historical and sometimes just beautiful examples of the tools we hairless monkey use from day to day. It's just neat. Also, they have a ton of interactive things to mess around with, and really pretty stairwells (we couldn't take pictures in most of the space).

Outside, it had gone to sunset, so we took a few pictures, then walked across the river for shopping near Charles Bridge and a tram to "BarBar" for beer and sweet crêpes - which in my opinion is Prague's finest contribution to gastronomic innovation. Yummy.

From there, we took another tram to Molly Malone's for many (many, many) glasses of cider, "authentic" live Irish music... (played by two Scots, an American, and an Ukranian woman on fiddle), complete with an all-hands-on-deck rendition of The Pogues' 'Fairytale of New York.'

What more can you say about a night like that? We went into a small irish pub, drank some beer (and cider, and baby guiness), danced a tiny bit, and sang along with everyone in the place. That's a good night, right there.

Someone hit a save point, because I'm crashing.

From the north end of Wenceslas Square, Na prikope runs north-east along what used to be a moat surrounding Old Town. Today, the street is mostly shops and impressive examples of Adaptive Reuse -- read: 'turning stately buildings into shopping meccas, leaving Gestapo and Soviet hardliners to spin in their graves.'

My personal favorite is the Museum of Communism, which shares the second floor of a building along Na prikope with a casino and lies upstairs from a McDonald's and across the street from a Benetton, but Slovanky dum runs a close second -- it's a renovation of the former offices of the Gestapo and the Communist Party.

(What was that "This sounds American!" store about halfway down? Cottonfield and something? I can't remember. Anyway.)

Why bring this up? Well, we took more than a few walks along Na prikope, and started off our third day with another one: breakfast at the Municipal House.

Doesn't sound very nice? Hmm. Well, you can try it in Czech (Obecni dum), but really the best way to understand what the big deal is would be to check out the picture. That picture on the right, there -- yeah... that's the "Municipal House" -- the grandest Art Nouveau showcase in the city. Built during the early 1900's, it's a multipurpose building housing the Prague Symphony Orchestra, galleries, offices, meeting rooms, and a couple restaurants -- one of which, "the plain one", does breakfasts.

The plain one. Right. The thing about those Art Nouveau guys? They can make anything, even bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling on wires look good.

Attached right to the back of Obecni dum is the Powder Tower, a gothic declarative statement with exclamation point built in the 1400s. The name comes from the fact that the government used it to store gunpowder -- personally, after climbing the thing (which we did right after breakfast -- oy), I can't imagine lugging casks of explosives up the spiral stairs, which are steep enough that they've wrapped a rope around the central column of the stairs to hold onto and pull yourself up with -- the closest thing to a handrail you find.

The view from the top is pretty worth it, though. Originally, I'd gotten Kate to take this picture because I was in love with the neat maze of rooftops near the tower, but looking at it later, I realized that it also showed all the 'high points' of the trip so far: from left to right that's Petrin Tower, Charles Bridge Tower, the Klemenitum, Old City Hall's clock tower, Tyn Church, and Prague Castle. It makes sense that you can see all that from the Tower -- back in the day, the Powder Tower was the official starting point of the 'Royal Route' which coronation parades traveled (through Stare Mesto, across Charles Bridge, and up to Prague Castle).

From there, we proceeded to the "Jewish Museum," which is the name of the ticket you buy to see pretty much all of key elements of Josefov, or Prague's Jewish quarter -- home of the famous Rabbi Loew and his Golem.

Now, I'm not going to say much about this portion of the trip. Yes, the history of the Golem is intensely cool. Yes, so is the town hall clock tower with the clock in Hebrew (and running backwards, just like the language does).

But Josefov Jewish Museum is the history of the Jewish people in an eastern European country -- do the math. It is not a fun place.

It is an important and serious and not-to-be-missed place, but no: not fun.

It consists of exhibits in four of the old Synagogues and the Ceremonial Hall, along with the Old Jewish Cemetery, and has one of the most extensive collections of Jewish art, textiles and silver in the world; there are 40,000 exhibits and 100,000 books. It's an amazing collection Jewish history and heritage.

Which sounds great on paper, until you realize that reason most of this stuff survived the Nazi purge was because Hitler intended to turn the whole place into the "Exotic Museum of an Extinct Race" when the war was over. During World War II, Jewish artifacts from all over Europe were brought to Prague and stored in preparation for this museum.

So... yeah. We didn't take a lot of pictures. I'll share two.

The Old Cemetary is positively jammed with gravestones -- literally thousands upon thousands of them, because the city in all of its history never allowed Josefov to expand their cemetery holdings, so the Jewish inhabitants of the quarter had to keep reusing the ground. You're out of space in the cemetery? Cart in enough earth to create a whole new level in the cemetery, raise up all the old gravestones to the new level, and start burying again.

It's a big space, don't get me wrong. It's big. And at best estimate, graves are layered twelve deep throughout the entire area.

This might put the whole Josefov area in perspective -- the Cemetery was probably the most upbeat place we visited, because at least everyone buried there died where they should have died.

Contrast this with the Pinkas Synagogue, which is no longer a functioning place of worship, but the world's largest epitaph; the walls of the building are covered from floor to ceiling in the names of all those who were taken away from Josefov to concentration camps in World War II. Over 75,000, and still only a fraction of all those who died in the camps.

Depressed yet? We were.

So where do you go after a sobering field trip? Somewhere less sober. In this case, Molly Malone's -- a great Irish pub right on the edge of Old Town, with tables made out of old sewing equipment and bed frames. It's great. We had a great lunch and a good chat with the ex-pat bartender ("I'm from the best part of Ireland: Scotland.") while Kate revisited one of her favorite Irish brews, and I investigated Stowford press cider, scrumpy and tasty. We vowed to come back the next night for the live band playing Irish music.

From there, it was back to Nove Mesto via the tempting open air market in Stare Mesto, the disappointing Sparky's toy store, and finally to the fascinating, souvenir-rich, pocketbook-depleting Mucha Museum.

Loot in hand, we headed back to the flat for a rest, followed by a nighttime walk on the Charles Bridge and dinner at Don Giovanni's; Prague's best-known, and possibly best Italian restaurant.

Hit a save point, and that's the day.

We got out the door on Tuesday around 10am, which doesn't seem like much better than noon of the day previous until you realize we'd already had breakfast (cereal and milk -- not buttermilk! -- I ran to the store around 8am and got the right stuff after much consulting of the Czech-English dictionary I'd put in my Palm).

Our flat was really amazingly well-situated -- about five electric trams ran by the front door of the building and there was a metro entrance about half a block away, which is where we were headed in order to start from the west side of town right away.

We navigated the very pretty metro without too many problems, thanks in part to Kate's extensive experience with mass-transit of all kinds and my ability to... stand there and look pretty, I guess.

The metro let us out about as close as it could to Hradcany (Prague Castle), which really wasn't that close at all -- this, the oldest part of Prague, shows a regal disdain for all forms of mass transit. Therefore, before we'd even got too close to the castle, we were set a march up a number of steep streets and those damnable 'public' stairs that are about as wide as a one-way street, three miles long, and comprised of stairs about six feet deep with a four inch rise. Much stair climbing resulted. The best way I can illustrate the climb up to the castle is with this picture. Focus just on the stairs you see curling away from the lens. Picture them going on for about 100+ meters. Then figure you're about halfway up. And you climbed three towers YESterday. Oy.

Now, from the outside, Hradcany really isn't much to look at -- that's why they light it up all pretty at night; it needs the help to look interesting from the outside -- someone or other decided to make the thing 'uniform' by surrounding the whole bloody thing with a wall that faces the city; it's still a working governmental facility, you see -- people have work to do, and the Soviets wanted it to look like a good-and-proper government building -- in other words, boring.

So, you get to the first courtyard, and there's not much there -- just a lot of tourists waiting for the changing of the guards.

You get to the second courtyard, and it's a bit empty there as well -- actually even more so than the first one, because there's no people there -- pretty much everyone just keeps walking through it to the third or Central Courtyard, which is... very very full.

Full of what? this. THAT is St. Vitus' cathedral, which for all intents and purposes comprise all the 'cool bits' that you can see of the castle from a distance. It's a Gothic paean that the guidebooks have the gall to call 'uninspired' -- basically the spiritual heart of the Czech state. It took about six centuries to build; 1344 start-date, with the final phase of construction somewhere around 1929. It boasts solid silver sarcophagi about the size of a dump truck, solid stone tombs decorated with cherubs that seem to be saying "WHAT? *I* didn't kill 'em... I'm just trying to do some cavorting here...", stained glass designed by Mucha, and really tall ceilings.

This is also the home of St. Wenceslas Chapel, which is where they keep the coronation jewels -- behind a door with seven locks (in honor of the Seven Seals of Revelation), the keys of which are in the hands of seven different key (heh) members of the Czech government.

So after wandering around the cathedral itself, we climbed the South Tower, which is about 280 steps in a TINY little stone spiral staircase that is used by both the upward- and downward-bound traffic. Tight and exhausting, but the payoff is pretty darn good. (The stone bridge crossing the river on the left of the photo is the Charles Bridge as seen from this side of the river, so the tower at the other end is the one we climbed, and the verdigris dome pretty much dead-center is the "other" St. Nicolas Cathedral (not to be confused with the one on Old Town Square), which is also a baroque showcase.

Once down from the tower, we took a shot of the thing we'd just climbed (that's it there on the right, with a statue of St. George hogging the foreground -- click for bigger), we took a break, then wandered back into the rest of the castle, taking pictures of the amazing architecture. (Here's a chandelier from directly underneath, one of my favorite shots. I think this was in or near the great hall, INSIDE of which they used to hold jousting exhibitions. Yes, it's big.)

That is to say, Kate was taking shots of the architecture -- I was just taking shots with this crossbow (Kate did too, but I actually hit the (distant!) target. Heh. :)

We exited the Castle ground the back way, past a save point and into the castle gardens, which are a lot more like the castle jungle. (It's from that angle that Kate took the picture up at the top of this post, which is probably one of my favorite ones of the many we got of the cathedral.) To say that the path off the grounds from the backside isn't very heavily traveled would be understating it juuuuust a bit. Pretty neat, though.

The guidebooks that say the castle will take half a day to get through aren't joking. We ate a traditional Czech lunch, but not til about 3pm down in the Mala Strana, forgoing a travel guide recommendation for a nearby pub that actually had people eating there... and according to the sign, has had people eating there since the late 1600s! (As the sign promises -- it's not health food, but it was GOOD... so was the beer.)

Following lunch, we visited the Church of St. Nicholas, which was right next door, and snapped a couple pictures of the understated, reserved decor.

St. Vitus' south tower isn't quite the tallest thing on the west side of the river. That distinction goes to Petrin Tower (which, as you can see, has a predecessor in Paris), on Petrin Hill. We rode one of the trams down to the base of the hill, then took the funicular railway up to the top.

Well, the top of the HILL... the top of the TOWER was our own problem -- the elevator was for handicapped use only, and the (300+) stairs felt like a lot more at the end of a day of climbing. My legs were shaking by the time I got to the top, but at least the tower has two flights of steps -- one for upward bound, and one for down. We (and by 'we', I again mean 'Kate', with me offering unhelpful advice) took a LOT of shots from the top of the tower, but I'll just include this one, on which I will simply comment: "Charles Bridge -- crowded."

Near Petrin Tower, there's a small chapel and a little toy castle, in which you will find a mirror maze and a room full of fun house mirrors. Now... every single thing I've ever seen written about that mirror maze castle says "it seems like it's cheesy, or that only the kids will like it, but they AND YOU will be giggling by the end."

I was skeptical.

I was also giggling by the end.

And why shouldn't I giggle? I've got ENORMOUS HANDS. The one the gives you incredibly long legs was Kate's favorite, but I think the one where we were both midgets was mine.

We walked down Petrin Hill instead of taking the tram, went by one of the entrances for a City of Heroes cave mission, and got back to the flat around 6pm.

Supper was cold pizza (yum!), toasted pb and/or j sandwiches, a nap, then out for a pivo at U Medvidku, or 'The Little Bears,' and that was the day.

A new project at The Job will have me in downtown Denver quite a bit more -- this has it's upsides and downsides, usually hand in hand:

* Less mileage on the car, but more time-juggling to commute via Lightrail.
* Much nicer office, but with no 'official' Doyce-desk (that's in Golden).
* Much increased visibility to the Power That Be on this project, but much increased visibility to the Power That Be on this project. :P

Actually? It's kind of neat -- 31st floor of a fancy building, lots of 'heart of downtown' amenities close at hand, coupled with some stress trying to figure out the lay of the land with the new surroundings and the new project, simultaneously.

That said...

... there are worse views for one's commute home.

You think that's cute? Bah. Try this.

Our first full day in Prague started jet-lag late; it was nearly noon by the time we left the flat. The original plan had been to start with Hradcany (Prague Castle, and apologies for not getting the accents right on the Czech names, but some of them just don't exist in the 'international ascii' list), but the indications seemed to be that the castle itself took at least half a day to get through, we had a dinner with Kate's business associates that night, and we weren't interested in rushing to get anywhere. The Hrad postponed, we opted for a walk from Wenceslas Square (the most well-known part of the 600-year old "New Town" or "Nove Mesto") up to Old Town Square (Stare' Mesto). Along the way, we stumbled over one of the last open markets still running (daily) in Prague, and had to restrain ourselves from buying all our souvenirs on the first day (though as it turned out, we almost could have -- it's really a great market). Between the shopping and the getting lost, it was just after 1pm before we got to Old Town Square, and we'd missed the chiming of the Astronomical Clock. We wandered around the square, taking pictures and marveling, and settled down for Lunch/Breakfast around 1:30 at U Kovarna, right across the square and about 20 yards from the Astronomical Clock. It chimed just as our food arrived, and after lunch we we entered the tower the clock is set in (part of the Old Town Hall.

Oh yeah... totally the stairs (though we did ride the elevator on the way down).

From the top, you get a great view of the rest of the city, most obviously of the Tyn Cathedral right across the square, but also all the way across the river to Hradcany (that multi-spired building up on the hill in the picture linked), and the surrounding rooftops of the square, where you can see all kinds of stuff you otherwise have no idea is there, such as a whole restaurant. Pretty cool.

Once we'd gotten back down to street level, we walked in the general direction of the river and Charles Bridge (Karlov Most), with the intent of checking out the Klemenitum as well. On the way, we realized we'd found the "New" Town hall (only about the same age as most of the British Colonies in the New World), which was funded in part by Prague's then-burgeoning Armorers Guild, represented by one of the key statues on the corner of building -- a very early concept mock-up for Darth Vader.

From there, we made our way to the Klementinum, which runs hourly tours and is, apparently, still usually very hard to get into (we met one guy up at the top of the tower who'd been in Prague for 14 days and had finally managed to get into a tour that day -- we got in the first one we tried -- go us!)

So... what's the Klementinum? Big, for one thing. It's right in the center of Stare Mesto - a complex of buildings that's second only in size to Prague Castle. It was built by the Jesuits about 400 years ago -- a big chunk of Old Town was demolished to make way for the college, the (massive, beautiful) library (chock-a-block with medieval manuscripts and codices) with a gorgeous illusionary-dome-painted ceiling, the Church of St. Saviour, and a replacement for the Church of St Clement.

The tour includes a climb up the 279 stairs of the Astronomical Tower - used as an observatory since the early 1700s - there's a really neat demonstration in the top tower, where the Jesuits managed to determine the Prague meridian (from where they calculated high noon, and signaled Prague Castle to fire a cannon at that moment).

We got that guy who'd been trying to get on the tour for two weeks to take a picture of us up at the top of the tower, and it got a couple cool buildings in the background. The verdegris-domes left of my head are from the (other) Church of St. Nicholas, the Disney-looking ones are the Church of Our Lady Tyn again, and the one on the far right is Old Town Hall clock tower, which we'd just climbed.

Also in that picture, you can see the sort of metal plate mounted on the railing? That's got an etched sketch (heh) of the city skyline, with all the cool buildings labeled, and there's one on each of the four corners -- using that, we were able to identify the closest tower of Charles Bridge, and the Petrin Tower on a distant hill. (The Charles Bridge tower's in the mid-range of this picture, and the Petrin Tower is juuuust visible, almost obscured behind one of the other spires in the Klementinum (I put an arrow on it and blew it up.) More about both towers later (though at different times).

So after that, we wandered down through... K-something Street. The tourist shop honeytrap of which all others are but a pale shadow. This opened up into the square just on our side of the river and the tower that denotes the start of the Charles Bridge. There's great cathedral just to the right of the tower in that shot -- the Church of St. Assisi, my notes say, and we've got a couple pictures from the Baroque interior. Gorgeous. Quote from Kate: "You know what they say: 'If it's not Baroque, don't fix it.'"

((I'm just the messenger people.))

So... right. Let's talk about this next picture.

We climbed up to the top of the Charles Bridge east tower and took quite a few shots. This one might seem a bit plain in comparison to a few of the others, but it's full of information:

1. The Bridge has another tower at it's far end, but if you follow the straight line of the bridge, you won't see it -- that's because the bridge curves. That first shoreline you see at the end of the bridge is actually Kampa Island; the bridge angles about 15 degrees north at that point, so if you follow it that direction, you'll see a black-roofed, high-peaked tower pretty much right in the middle of the picture. That's the other end of the bridge.

2. Charles Bridge is always packed with people. At 2am, you might get a thinner crowd, but it'll never be entirely empty. The mass of people you see in that picture is pretty much the norm, taking pictures, listening to the muscicians playing (the Prague Synchopated Orchestra was playing great big band numbers while we crossed), and touching the good luck plaques along the bridge (Badge Earned!).

3. The arrows to the right and left are, respectively, Hradcany (Prague Castle) and Petrin Hill -- our main destinations for Day Two in the really REALLY old part of the city.

We ambled across the bridge, took a few more shots from that end, and then realized we probably needed to head back to the flat to get ready for the dinner thing we'd planned with Kate's friends.

Now, two days later, this would have been a 10, maybe 15 minute walk. This was our first real day, however, so it took us more like a half hour to get back to the building. Luckily, this meant the sun was still up, so we could actually stand back and see the incredibly gorgeous building itself.

Click on that picture for a bigger version. It's just amazing. Or click on this to see a version where I've picked out which of the windows comprised our flat, and the balcony. Gorgeous. The main door is amazing. The metal work is amazing. It's just a really neat building.

Before we went up, we detoured through the Lucerna "Pasaze" (read: shopping maze) with its wacky decorations and did some grocery shopping, first at the british Marks & Spencer chain for some treats, then the Albert supermarket in the metro station for milk and bread and soda and the like.

However, when we'd got back to the flat, we realized (the hard way) that the language barrier had resulted in our purchasing buttermilk rather than regular milk. Yikes.

By this point we were running late, so we raced around, got ready, found a cab (which we erroneously assumed would get us back to the Old Town Square faster than we could walk it), and got back to the namesti. (Which, I should point out, is also very photogenic at night), and had dinner.

Prague's buildings in Old Town are really interesting, in that most of them have a full flight's worth of stairs leading down right from the street level to get to the "main floor" -- the historical reason for this is that many sections of town used to flood a great deal, so one of the Kings (I want to say Charles IV, because it seems like it's ALWAYS Charles IV) decreed that all the streets had to be raised high enough to prevent flooding. This effectively buried the first floor of every building in Old Town, so stairs were built down to what used to be the front door, which is where the business still does its business, as it were.

The place we ate (whose name I forget) actually had a full restaurant not one, not two, but three floors beneath street level. To say it was quiet and cozy and charming is trite, though it was all those things. Also? Great food, good conversation (Czech mothers get THREE YEARS of maternity leave!), and excellent pivo.

After that, we headed home, hit a Save Point (a joke you'll only get if you've played Prince of Persia, but darn funny to both of us :), and crashed, so as to get an early start on the next day.

Most of you folks have already seen this, but I still thought I'd share.

Kaylee is a dancin' fool. I'm not 100% sure when this started, but these days, certain types of songs (if not certain songs) are pretty much gauranteed to make her shake her money maker.

And I've managed to capture a few of these moments on video. :) ((Open the files with Quicktime.))

One of the first instances, KK gets down with Christina Aguilera.

My personal favorite: dancing to the music from her toys, then running over and starting it again, so she can keep going.

As you can see, she has different styles for different kinds of music. Heavy metal guitar is the funniest -- she spreads her legs way out, clenches her fists at her sides and rocks from foot to foot like sumo wrestler getting set -- all in perfect time with the music...

... and growls. :)

Last week we took Kaylee in for her 1 year 13 months old pictures.

How did it go? Jackie and I both got a lot of prints, that's how it went. I gather that Margie did as well -- Jackie invited Katherine along to take some pictures with KK, and the ladies got some solo pictures of Kaylee's stand-in big sister as well. All very cute, but not my place to post.

What I can post, however, are a few of the shots of the Littlelest Ham in the Studio.

Probably my favorite shot of this session.

"Ha ha! Look! Daddy fell down!

The photographer took one look at the color scheme on this really neat brown&copper t-shirt Kaylee came in with and grabbed all the autumn leaves stuff. There were a lot of fun pictures from this section.

It occured to me, looking at the prints later, that someone might think Kaylee can't walk yet -- all the shots of her sitting, inside something, or being held by (or holding hands with) someone else.

That's not because she can't stand -- it's to hold her still long enough to get a picture taken before she runs off.

Girlie-girl can move.

And finally, one of the rarest moments ever captured on film...

That's right: I'm smiling. Try not to faint.

What started as me stepping in to situate her in a chair turned into "lemme just hold her and you take some pictures." There was, in fact, a lot of girl-wrangling going on to get these pictures taken -- as you can probably tell, Kaylee was really grumpy that evening and was in no mood to have her picture taken.

...

... well, a really bad mood for her.

My folks were out in early July and I just opened an envelope full of pictures from them.

More awesome below the cut...

Early-morning pajama-baby!

Kaylee proceeds to utterly charm my folks.

I'd kill em.

I'd laugh later, maybe. But I'd kill em.

Did the JCPenny picture studio thing again with Kaylee, so... well, pictures resulted.

Fun thing: we took Eeyore back with her again, like we did for the last run of pictures, and we'll probably continue to bring him for at least one shot every time -- it's a fun way to see how she's growing next to the big stuffed galoot.

Couple more pix behind the cut:

... The more they stay the same.

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Not my dog anymore. ;)

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End of the Pikes Peak cog rail.

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... or at least top of Pikes Peak.