As part of our little B-day date, we went to the NYC Ballet. Apparently all of Reagan’s famous clients aren’t just on TV and stuff. She has some that are in the fine arts, as well. One of them happens to play in the orchestra for the NYC Ballet, and gave her some pretty amazing tix for her birthday. Here is a shot of Reagan after she got all dolled up for the show:

I mean, we were literally on the front row. I have never had such great seats at a show that wasn’t GA.

I actually felt kind of white trashy sneaking these shots inside of Lincoln Center, but I had to do it.

Since we didn’t really get to do much fun stuff on Reagan’s birthday, I told her that we could do whatever she wanted on Saturday. She chose to go to the Brooklyn Flea Market. It was quite a site to behold. The market is traditionally held outside. But for the winter, they moved it into the old Williamsburg Bank building. It is like a gigantic hipster garage sale.

There were a couple of things that I thought were pretty cool. Almost all of the booths had some vinyl LPs for sale. I found the original “Breakin’” soundtrack on vinyl. In the end, I decided that $5 was more than I was willing to drop, for that beauty. I still thought it was a pretty cool find.

Sorry for all of the lengthwise shots. Here is one more of my favs.

Here for plenty more.

Reagan asked me to take some birthday photos of her.

We decided to go up on the roof and try to get some cool backlit stuff, since it was late afternoon. It was kind of a warmish afternoon (above 34 degrees), so we had kind of a fun little shoot. It is so cute the way that Reagan just kind of tells me how she wants the photos to look, then she just walks around looking adorable.

Here are a couple more.

We had such a great weekend with Piper’s Baker grandparents in town. It was tough to send them off today. I’m not sure if Piper is going to like Reagan or me as much, unless one of us gets some glasses for Piper to mess with, while we are holding her. We had a really great visit with her this afternoon. Of course she went completely nuts over her new birthday videos.

After hanging out with her grandparents for a few days in a row, she wasn’t being shy anymore. She was giving away little grins left and right. Thanks again to everyone who helped make Piper’s 2nd B-day such a great one.

More photos here.

Reagan put together a pretty sweet party today, so that Piper’s friends could come celebrate her birthday with her. It really turned out great. I didn’t take nearly as many as photos as I should have. We have such an awesome group of friends, who were willing to spend such a nice Saturday driving up to Westchester to come to Piper’s party. Reagan made cupcakes with custom little decorations in them. I’m sure that she will write about it, so I don’t want to steal any of her material. Anyway, we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to have a get-together because of Piper’s recent illness. Everyone scrambled on very short notice. We had a blast. I hope that everyone else did too.

Alexa updating Piper on the current noteworthy items concerning cute little girls, etc..

Getting some quality time with Grandpa Baker.

Opening presents with Addie and Stella. Go here for some more photos.

I can’t even believe that she is 2! Reagan’s parents are in town today, for the rest of the week. It should be a pretty good time. I won’t be working today or Friday. So if the blogging gets a little sparse. You will know why. For those would like to join us in Westchester on Saturday afternoon, give us a call. Reagan is trying to get an idea of who is coming.

Happy birthday, Piper!

Reagan and I had a very enjoyable weekend. In addition to the Piper visits, we paid a visit to Brooklyn Industries, so that Reagan could exchange one of her Christmas presents (above). Then, Saturday night we had a little get-together for Reagan’s birthday. It was a lot of fun. I ran to grab the camera, so I could get a picture of Reagan blowing out the candles. Let’s just say that the pic didn’t come out so great. I’m not going to post it on here. But you can check it out here, if you would like to see some photography skills at their finest.

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Sunday, which didn’t stop me from taking a 4 hour nap after church. We went for a quick walk in the evening then watched a movie. Pretty much textbook.

Reag, Piper called and wanted me to tell you she says happy birthday. Oh yeah, and one more thing: I want to say Happy Birthday!

I’m not really sure when the whole digital v. analog debate began, but it has certainly gone the rounds. Vinyl v. CD/Mp3; tube amp v. solid state; 35mm v. 12mpx; Super8 v. HDvid; and the list goes on forever. Something that I have found interesting is the way that society has clung to the analog format, refusing to let it disappear into obscurity. The fact that one can still purchase LPs and turntables is one example of this. I thought that for sure, after Pioneer first developed the jog-wheel CD player that turntables would go the way of the dinosaur. Then, there was Marshall, bringing back the tube guitar amp. For whatever reason, you just can’t digitally imitate that tube sound with solid state amps. In the last couple of days, I have been reading about a VC group that bought all of the the old film making equipment from Polaroid. They are going to try to develop a new type of instant film, to keep the format alive.

I personally try to enjoy the benefits of both digital and analog. I am a huge fan of vinyl records and tube amps. But I have found myself on the opposite side of the argument when it comes to photography. I have been wanting to get a really good DSLR for a while now, and I think that Adobe Cs3 is pretty much the coolest thing ever invented. Good thing I have Reagan to balance me out. Her birthday is just around the corner. One of the gifts that she has been asking for was a Polaroid camera. I talked her out of it. Then she started asking for a Holga. I didn’t even know what that one was at first. She had to educate me about them. They are cheap plastic Chinese built toy cameras, that produce funky images. I couldn’t wrap my head around why she would want to waste money on such a piece of crap, especially since it requires a weird format of film and you have to go through all of the trouble of getting it developed etc.. After she educated me a bit, I understood why she wanted one. We watched a couple of podcasts last night about the different mods that you can make to them and some of the different effects that they can produce. I got really excited for her to try it out. She ordered it last night.

Despite the diverging opinions that Reagan and I have stylistically, I feel like our personalities complement each other enough, that we will most likely never become bored with life. Hooray for that. Thanks for bringing it back to the roots, Reag.

I received some pretty awesome email messages on my birthday. Here are a few of my favorite:

-Hello Jesq, We at Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum would like to wish you a happy birthday today! If you do not wish to recieve this message anymore, go to your forum profile options (URL) and then uncheck “Receive board greeting on your birthday”

-Hello Bootysmak, We at Beastie Boys Message Board would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

-Happy Birthday from ING DIRECT!
We want to help you celebrate your October birthday with 15% off at the ING DIRECT Shop.
You’ll save big on items like:
The QuickFinish Shredder — protects your identity as it quickly shreds documents, credit cards and CDs.
The Savings Machine — a great learning tool that works just like an ATM machine and teaches kids how to save.
The book, Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck — a simple and easy to understand guide to financial success by Michael B. Rubin.

And last, but not least–