Pats skin Washington 41-zip

Okay, so the Pats lost no-meaning game with our backups playing against the Giants last night. That's not the point. Everyone knows the goal of the last game of the pre-season is simply to make sure that your key players don't get hurt. The Patriots took it even a step further this year by not even sending Tom Brady to the game last night (protecting against the freak lockerroom accident apparently).

However, game 3, still overall meaningless, is still considered the main preseason game where you get a real feel for a team because the starters play the majority of the game. Well, game 3 this year brought the storied Washington Redskins to Foxboro. We had great weather to tailgate, unbelievable seats, and one dominating performance by the hometown team.

8 days to opening day against Buffalo. I'm starting to get chills now just thinking about it, so let's go to the pictures.

pre-game nap

pre-game tailgating with Josh's kids, Max and Philip (left to right)

Pre-game adult beverage consumption

Before every game, the excitement shows on everyone, regardless of what team you are rooting for

Pre-game NON adult beverage consumption, but with an adult consumption method

When we found our seats, we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the FRONT ROW.

New definition of 'obstructed view' seats. Josh, you couldn't do any better than this shot? Next time I'm working the camera....

At the start of the game, still everyone smiling...

Halftime, 21-0 Pats. Still smiling....

Third quarter, Joe not so much smiling anymore.

Fourth quarter, smiles from everyone but Joe. Great seats though eh?

We're number 1!

A night at home

One of the things we are realizing is that parenting is a non-stop job. Wake up, he's there looking for food. You carry him everywhere while you get ready for the day. Go to work, he's in the backseat. Come home from work, he's with you. Eat dinner, there again. You get the point. The only vacation we get is when Brady is with his friends in daycare and even then we spend that time wondering what he's doing and if he's okay. Fortunately, I have the benefit of getting my Brady-fix any day I want by simply walking downstairs from my office and visiting the daycare center. Irene does not have that opportunity though, so after work she spends as much time with Brady before he has to go to bed.

Reading time

"Holy cow! He's holding his own bottle!" Another advantage of our new camera is that it starts up fast so we catch his 'first times' on things like this.

A Russillo Visit

This was a busy weekend at the house. Friday night I had to work until 11pm with my team while we did some application fixes and then Saturday started bright and early at 7am. Irene took care of Brady while I worked on installing some recessed lights in the basement. Then our friends, the Russillo's (Joe, Sal, Michael and Enzo) came to visit. Joe and I had tickets to go to the butt whoopin' in Foxboro, more commonly referred to as the Patriots vs Redskins pre-season game. Much more to follow on this event, but I have to collect all the pictures first.

For now, here are some pics of the boys from the weekend....

We learned this week that Brady has a super power. One second he looks like this....

And the next minute he starts to move really fast and look like this. Only a keen eye can catch him he's so fast.

Michael enjoyed holding Brady

And like any good guests, the boys helped us sweep up the floors (with their chests)


And Michael showed us a magic trick where he make his nose disappear....

...which mesmerized Brady

A day in Beantown

This past weekend the weather was so nice we made an impromptu trip to downtown Boston. Brady's first trip to the city for touring around and boy did he enjoy the trip. The daycare teachers say that he loves being in the middle of all the other kids and the only time he is fussy is when there is nothing going on (like when the others go to nap). He is a classic Voyeur in training. I'm not so sure if we should be concerned about this, but right now it's cute and exciting. If he's doing this at 40 then we'll sit him down and have a talking with him. It was fun for the adults too because we haven't had the chance to walk around the commons or faneuil hall leisurely for say, 18 months.

For those in the area, we highly recommend taking a day to remember the days when you were younger and prowling the downtown scene. For those that have moved away, here are some pictures to bring back memories.

Irene at the 'Frog Pond' which is open as a wading pool in the summer. What fun this looked like! We're definitely coming back to this next year!
Irene and Brady strolling along the Frog Pond. In case you were wondering, yes, I am standing in the middle of the pond to take this picture.

Trip or no trip, he knows when it's feeding time

Another fine example of the benefit of a 12x optical zoom - this was taken from 60-70 feet away.

Voyeur in training. For most of the walk, this was his pose. Basically he tried to crawl up out of the carrier to get better views of things. He was completely fascinated.

Irene and Brady enjoying a refreshing walk in the Frog Pond.

Camera Review

Last week Irene and I decided to take the plunge and invest in a new camera because Brady is simply growing up too fast for us to not try to save some memories in high resolution. So we finally executed on the research that we had been doing and purchased a Canon Powershot S3 IS. We looked at a few different cameras, but settled on this one. Here are some pictoral reasons why we like this camera so far.

First, even though it's got a trillion things to tweak and play with, it's still pretty easy to put the camera into burst mode and it takes 2.5 frames per second, and will do so as long as you hold down the button or run out of memory. Here is our first attempt at testing the continuous burst mode....



And no, Irene was not drunk during that sequence, in case you were wondering. The next thing we like about the camera is the clarity of the picture. It has Image Stabilization, which I have no idea how to configure yet, but it basically adjusts for an unsteady hand in taking the picture. The camera also has various resolutions and over 6 megapixels so we can blow up any good pictures we are lucky enough to capture. Here we were able to capture Brady watching the Patriots game (okay, not really. He slept through the game but we did a simulation for him prior to his bedtime)....

The start up time (the time from turning it on to it being ready to take a pciture) is pretty solid too. Much faster than our older camera. This comes in handy when you come home from a long day at work on Friday, looking forward to enjoying a homecooked meal from your beautiful wife, but find a bondfire in your backyard instead. Notice how Eleanor thinks this is a riot. I should be thankful that she moved the grill away from the house before starting to "cook."

This where my father, a world renowned fire charring, err, cooking expert came over to give Irene tips.

Lastly, and probably one of the most important features in our purchase, is that this camera has a 12x optical zoom. If you don't know what this means, then it basically means I can zoom in REALLY close on things. Sometimes it zooms so fast that I can't make out what I'm looking at because I'm looking at Brady's nostril when I'm trying to get his face. There will be more on this in another posting, but here is a sample. I am standing a good 20 -22 feet away from the grill but still could capture the aftermath of the flame broiling. Ironically, the searing sealed in the meat juices well and it turned out great!