Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Peer goes to work

Well, we moved, finally-- after nine years in our faithful Downey one-bedroom apartment. It's confirmed, it was awesome for a one bedroom, or so agrees the complex's new managers when they looked at it. They suspect it was originally intended as the apartment manager's apartment (#101), but was abandoned because it wasn't centrally located to the rest of the units.

We're now renting a house not 1/2 mile away, a four bedroom that we're sharing with 2 other roommates. We have the upstairs. It'll be nice to have a backyard for Peer to play in. Our habit at the apartment was to wander around the complex grounds, which was essentially one big backyard to play in. He likes to collect pine cones, rocks, sticks, pine noodles (needles)... and he especially liked throwing things in the pool. Which, after letting him for awhile because it was cute, decided to stop that habit before the managers came after us.

So by way of saluting the Brookshire Apartments and our many great memories there, Peer and I went on another photo journey. For his 2nd birthday, he got an awesome little suitcase from Gma and Gpa, which he immediately started carrying everywhere he went. So on this day back in August, Peer ceremonially announced his intention to go outside. "Where are you going?" I asked. "Werk," he said. "Really? I didn't know you worked. What do you do?" "Rocks." Ah, yes. His favorite pastime.


Here we go, out the front door to work! Bye bye!


Let's go in the main part of the apartment complex, just through these double-doors. Come on, Daddy!


"Broken Fountain!" He loves fountains, and recently the new managers have been giving our trusty fountain a little cleaning and re-painting.


Out the other doors and back out on the street. There's Daddy's car on the right.


"Walk," is what he says to demand that we let him out of our arms.


Ooh, look at the fancy animation that Daddy made! Cool.


Ah hah! A rock. Now we're getting somewhere.


Here you go, Daddy! This one's for you.


Ooh! More rocks.


I'll put this one in my suitcase.


There goes Daddy showing off again!


Ah, here's the back door to the apartment complex. Let's go in.


We like to call this little planter full of rocks the "coffin" because of its suspicious shape.


We have a lot of big panels of glass around.


And there's the pool! If Daddy didn't stop me I'd throw rocks in there all day. Even when there are people in there.


Hmm... anything here?


Let's go back this way!


Ahah! A pine cone! Originally known as a "Dee-joo."


Rest stop.


"Daddy! Sit." (as he pats the seat with his right hand)


Picture time!


I'm ready for my close-up!


Let's head back toward the exit.


A quick stop to climb these stairs. It's lots of fun counting stairs!


And back down again!


Sit for a second...


And now run!!!


Here's the main entrance.


And the mail boxes (ours was the upper left).


Contemplate the broken fountain again. It's not as fun throwing pieces of bark in there when it's empty.


And back home!


But first, a quick rest stop on the porch. Daddy! Sit!


Picture time again!


Mama! I'm home from work! Look at all the cool rocks I found!

So there it is. Thanks for watching!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

1 year's difference -- part 2

I thought I'd finally post something here, with a revisit to an earlier motif, of matching up pictures from one year ago to their current counterpart. It's amazing how things change (and a little how they don't).

First, our 2nd annual Christmas ginger bread house kit from TJ's.

2008:


2009:


And now, USC playing in the Rose Bowl-- the only time of the year we watch football.

2008:


2009:

With special appearance by Elmo... as you can see, Peer has developed a nice football slouch.

And as a special bonus, another paid I decided to add last minute, playing the piano:

2008:


2009:


He's just about ready to start writing his own compositions.

For the latest commercials that I've been putting out for the LA Times, check out my YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/awahlquist/

Monday, December 08, 2008

Peer's Guided Tour of Tech Rehearsal

Hello, my name is Peer! I'm going to take you on a tour of the First Baptist Church of Downey during the tech rehearsal for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" that my mommy is directing.


This is Mommy. I say hi to her first, every time. I love her!


There's lots of interesting things to see up on the stage.


It's very exciting.


Let's stop and steal a water from the tech team's secret stash.


This is a door stop. It goes up and down.


Hurry up! This way!


Everybody likes to watch me instead of pay attention to what's going on.


Here are some mic cables, ready to be set up.


Okay, here's one of the windows to the decorative garden on the side.


Oh, everybody's clapping!


I want to clap too!


Okay, let's go back this way...


This door goes to the bathroom area.


Oh wait, I think I see something in the trash can.


Nevermind. Come on, what are you waiting for!?


This is the drinking fountain. Here's how it works.


This door goes to the outside. It's closed right now.


Okay, let's go back this way.


This is the Narthex. Hurry up!


Everybody is on stage listening to notes. Come on down!


Cool stuff, huh?


This is Marsha-- she painted the set and made the stained glass.


This is the piano where Mr. David plays sometimes.


Hey Rob, what's up?


Hm, everyone here seems to be busy.


I'll play a little Hammond B3 organ. Yeah, groovy.


Mr. Ben and Mr. David are smiling because I made a loud noise at the perfect moment. Ha ha, Mommy, I distract everyone from what you're saying!


Okay, back to Mommy. Goodnight everyone! Thanks for playing with me!

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Peer is 1 today!


Good morning!


After work Lana's parents and sister paid a visit (the arm in the background).


He loves to stand on his own, just to show off.


We went to Downey's Wednesday Night Summer Concert Series and heart the Side Street Strutters play some dixieland jazz, along side a picnic of sandwiches.
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Sunday, July 27, 2008

20sec LA Times Commercial

This week my new 20 second length of the commercials I've made for the LA Times debuted on KTLA. It's promoting our investigation on wildfires running this week. It's designed to change out the content easily and promote a different feature each week, and now it has voice-over which we recorded at the Times as well. Here is what it looks like (try to watch it in "high quality" mode).



It's all put together in After Effects, using graphic elements from the archives of the print and web editions of the LA Times.

Here is the 10 second version I uploaded not long ago... also can watch in "high quality" on YouTube: