Oleg Dulin

DSCN0341, originally uploaded by Oleg Dulin.

I took this picture back in January.

Here is another deep conversation with Miriam.

We had to buy her extra stainless steel water and milk bottles for her school lunches. She lost one and we bought a few extras. Last night over dinner we had this conversation:

Miriam: "Mommy bought me new cups."
Daddy: "That's right!"
Miriam: "You buy me presents and mommy buys me cups."

And that is how kids grow up spoiled these days.

As I was driving Miriam from the school last night the sun was shining in her face. Here is the conversation we had:

Miriam: "There is too much light on my nose"
Daddy: "Do you mean the sun is shining on your face?"
Miriam: "No, the sun is shining on my nose and my nose is shining on my face."
Daddy: "Ok, but it is the sun and there is nothing we can do about it. You can cover your eyes with your hands if you want."

Five minutes later:

Miriam: "I want to kick the sun with my foot"
Daddy: "That's not nice to kick things with your feet, but just this once you can try kicking the sun with your foot."

When we got home:

Miriam: "I want to kick the sun with my foot."
Daddy: "Ok, but that's it, no more kicking"

She tries to kick, that obviously doesn't work, and the evening of the whining toddler begins. We later found out she was sick with fever and just about everything was making her cranky.

I took this picture when I came to pick her up at the day care:

Miriam loves the snow:

• I want to grill
• I want to build the playground for my daughter in our backyard
• I want to plant vegetables
• I want to mow my lawn
• I want to plant some trees
• I want to repair the crawlspace vents
• I want to renovate my daughter's big girl room (currently unused bedroom)

I have many more ideas for when it warms up.

I am ready for summer. I want to be out on our patio having a beer and grilling steaks on my brand new grill.

To make a perfectly grilled steak I sit by the grill and have a beer. I grill one side of the steak per half a bottle. It takes me about 10 mins to leasurely drink half a 12 oz bottle of Chimay. As I drink I contemplate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Half a bottle later I flip the stakes over on the other side and close the lid. I sit back down and slowly finish my bottle. Sometimes I have a Nat Sherman's with my beer.

A nice American cigar with a Belgian beer... Mmmm... and then a yummy New York strip steak for dinner.

As I contemplate, think and enjoy my beer the steaks come out just right -- medium-well -- and I get to enjoy the smell of burning steak juices.