The McLaughlins' Blog

Happy 1 month Birthday!

2008-11-05T21:45:00.006-05:00

Wow its amazing how fast a month goes by!

Sean is growing like a weed, we think he is between 9.5 and 10 lbs already, but will find out exactly on Friday at his one month pediatricians appointment.

We have enjoyed all of the visits from all of our various family members, and we are planning our first flight down to Charlotte, NC for Thanksgiving, and long car ride to Bloomsburg, PA for Christmas to spend both with family.

Lets see... milestones.
*Sean has been able to lift his head on his own since he was only a couple days old, and he has gotten much more adept at it ever since.
*Sean has graduated from sponge baths to a baby bath tub, and he loves sitting in the warm water.
*Sean actually has a bedtime routine, which is such a relief for Brian and I.
*Sean has outgrown his newborn size clothes, and is now permanently in 0-3month size.
*Sean has outgrown newborn diapers, and is now firmly in size 1.
*Sean is able to recognize Mom and Dads voices, and follow us across the room with his eyes.

We are completely in love with him, and can't believe how quickly he is growing up, the time goes by far too fast. In the mean time, here are some of our favorite pictures from the month.

Happy 1 Week Birthday Sean

2008-10-12T21:18:00.008-04:00

The baby ticker is down.
The hospital has billed the insurance.
I have changed diapers.
I know the true meaning of sleep deprived.

This can only mean 1 thing...

Last Sunday at 3:57 pm, Sean was born. He surprised us by deciding he wanted out a week early. He was 7 lbs 15 oz at birth and 19 inches long. Helene had a relatively quick labor and is an amazing and very proud mommy and I, well I am just beaming with pride. Over the last week the three of us have gotten to know each other better, we are settling into a nice schedule, and getting more and more sleep and rest.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support. I present, Sean Patrick McLaughlin...

Maternity Pictures

2008-09-01T20:09:00.002-04:00

Belly Side Shot
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

There are some new pictures of Helene up on Flickr. There has been some demand for maternity pictures so Helene and I are working on getting some pictures. We took these today outside and we are going to do some studio shots later this week. Click through to my Flickr site to see all 4 that I have posted.

A Small Update (On our not so small son)

2008-08-27T20:52:00.002-04:00

We had two appointments today, the OB and the special case OB with an ultrasound. No new pictures as he wasn't in the best position to get a 3D picture but they got all of the measurements they needed. Sean is measuring at 35 weeks but is only 33 weeks in, which means he is a big boy. He is estimated to be around 5 lbs and is the picture of health. One of the more amazing things at this stage is being able to see all 4 chambers of the heart on the ultrasound. Really just incredible. He is head down in what the ultrasound tech called the "launch position" and kicking Helene with some real strength.

All is well and we are counting down the days.

A Little Heartbeat

2008-08-14T15:56:00.002-04:00

I know, it has been a while since I posted. Many things kind of happened at once after we were in the hospital. Baby stuff started happening faster, a trip to Charlotte, basement was still flooding, had basement waterproofing done (which consisted of them jacking hammering the whole of the perimeter of our foundation and putting in a new drain system), etc...

Finally starting to see the light. The nursery is coming together (big thanks to Helene's family for the phenomenal paint job) and I will get pictures of that up soon. The drywall and framing that had to be pulled apart for the waterproofing job is getting fixed right now. New carpet for the basement should go in sometime in the next 2 weeks. Once we get there, we will rapidly get back to starting to feel like we have a normal life, which, within about 8 weeks, will include our brand new son.

Speaking of Sean. Wanted to post his latest ultrasound picture and a clip of his heartbeat. Both in the embedded YouTube video below. Enjoy!

Thats No Moon...It's A Kidney Stone

2008-06-13T18:18:00.004-04:00

For anyone who hasn't heard, it has been an interesting week for Helene and I. Helene was admitted to the hospital on Monday night with bad back pains and some other nastiness. The good news..the baby is fine. The bad news...Helene has a 2 centimeter kidney stone and they don't want to remove it till after the baby is here. Any procedures to take it out are risky for the baby. So that leaves Helene on percocet for the rest of the pregnancy. This also means no driving, for some reason they don't really like people driving on narcotics, and work is an unknown. She is, at least, not on bed rest.

Thanks to everyone who has given us love and support over the last week. Oh, one other thing you may not have heard...

The baby's name is Sean Patrick McLaughlin.

Too Bloody Hot...

2008-06-09T15:06:00.002-04:00

This is just not right for early June. It is currently 104 dgF at the weather reporting station closest to our house, heat index of 119 dgF....

Don't believe me, see the screen snap from Weather Underground...

The People Have Spoken

2008-05-28T19:25:00.003-04:00

Well, the votes have been tallied, the sonogram has occurred and apparently our little one likes to go with the popular vote. It's a boy!

Everything went very well today. Both Helene and the baby are healthy. They checked all of the vital organs, counted 10 fingers and 10 toes, and the baby measured right where it should be for timing, 20 weeks, 3 days. We are extremely excited. His name is classified and under tight wraps until he is born. Enjoy the pictures below!

The Great Backyard Upgrade: Stage 4 Complete

2008-05-25T20:44:00.003-04:00

So the inevitable stage 4 has followed the completion of the patio. Rapidly after the patio actually. The grill is up and has been broken in with a cheeseburger dinner and a beer. Well, I had a beer, Helene had water. I enjoyed it for both of us. I am really happy with the picture of the beer on the grill that is here and I have posted that to my flickr account. I realized when I did that and was looking at pictures of Germany and Austria that I really need to get out shooting again. Hope to have some more photography up soon. Enjoy the pictures and if you come by the house, you can enjoy a cheeseburger yourself!

The Great Backyard Upgrade: Stage 3 Complete

2008-05-25T08:26:00.003-04:00

Hello there loyal readers. After some delays due to various schedule and rain issues, stage three has been completed in the backyard. We are getting closer to completion of the backyard and hope to be completely done by the end of next weekend. That will depend on if I can go with sod or not.

Stage 3 was the installation of the new patio. The back is now more patio than soil/clay/grass, but that is exactly what we were looking for. A little green and a lot of usable area that we don't have to mow :-) These guys did a great job and I can practically taste the burgers already.

The Great Backyard Upgrade: Stage 2 Complete

2008-05-03T20:22:00.004-04:00

Stage 2 of the work was completed today. Took almost all day, but we are very pleased with the results. When all of this is done the backyard will really be an extension of our living space when the weather is nice. It is also nice to be able to step out the door and not feel like you are just going to fall. Including a before picture as a reminder and a picture of the lovely Helene.

The Great Backyard Upgrade: Stage 1 Complete

2008-05-02T16:51:00.008-04:00

So, the first stage was completed this morning. We have a brand new fence in now. Honestly, this is a project I could have done myself with some help, but it would have been a few days, at the least, probably a couple weekends in reality. However, as I have a number of other household jobs I am going to be doing in the coming months to prepare for Us v2.0, the backyard is being contracted out. Oh please note the lack of rope holding up any of the fence.

Enjoy the pictures of the new fence. New pictures should be up by tomorrow night with the new deck (more like a nice landing just off the door) and new steps going in tomorrow.

Oh, and if you missed it, check out the post below with the before pictures.

The Great Backyard Upgrade

2008-05-02T16:37:00.007-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Our backyard is undergoing a major renovation. What follows will be a series of posts documenting the changes. Let us start with the baseline. The backyard as it currently exists. Well, as it existed at 8:00 this morning.

Please note the gate that has practically fallen off its hinges. Ok, I will be honest here, as I opened it for the last time yesterday, it actually did fall off its hinges. Also, you will notice that there is a section actually being held up with rope. Boy Scout skills to the rescue!

Look for the next post (ok, posting it immediately after this one) with stage 1 completed, the new fence.

A Little Starstruck

2008-04-10T19:07:00.005-04:00

I must admit, I am a little starstruck. For those of you who are fans of Toad The Wet Sprocket (well, lets face it, even if you aren't a devote follower, you have enjoyed at least some of their music) and are familiar with their frontman, Glen Phillips, you will know that he is a great musician/songwriter. Well I had the pleasure of meeting him personally last week. Even helped give him a tour of Goddard. He is a really nice guy and I must say I was really impressed with his knolwedge of space and engineering. He held a concert at the Goddard cafeteria and it was great seeing a room of engineers rocking out. I highly recommend his latest solo album! (you can sample it on his website and buy it there).

Picture is of me with Glen in front of a model of JWST, credit is Glen Phillips and from his website. He has a post up on his blog about the visit (and mentions me by name :-))!

Baby Update

2008-04-02T14:08:00.003-04:00

So we had another ultrasound today. Always great to get another chance to see the baby and hear that wonderful little heartbeat. The baby is very healthy. The scan today was to check a risk factor for a number of potential developmental defects and the baby did wonderfully and we are in the low risk group.

The baby was also active and showing off for us, bouncing and jumping around in there. We have also scheduled our next ultrasound for May 28, which is now the close date for the gender poll. Get your votes in!

The picture from today isn't as clear as some of them have been as we are now using the standard ultrasound so we are on the lower resolution end right now, but in 7 weeks the baby should be getting pretty big!

BIG Announcement

2008-03-29T17:10:00.004-04:00

Well, we have some BIG news. I think most people that read this blog know this now as we have been getting the word out but just in case we missed you (sorry if we did)...

We Are Having A Baby!

We have been working on this for some time now and we couldn't be more excited. Our due date is October 12.

Thanks to everyone for all of the support and care!

Of course, now this blog will take on a bit of a new life! First up is of course the picture here. First baby picture post! This is our little one at 8 weeks. We could clearly see the spine (although you can't see it here) and even saw the baby move! The heartbeat was very strong.

Also, if you look on the bar on the right --->
you will see a survey, first of many, to take a guess at the baby's gender. We are going to find out and announce once we know. I will close the poll just before we put up the announcement!

Definitely exciting times!

I Can't Allow That To Happen Dave

2008-03-18T21:10:00.002-04:00

Rest In Peace Sir Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008)

Personal Beliefs Do Not Change Scientific Fact

2008-03-10T16:07:00.003-04:00

This kind of thing drives me completely insane.

Oklahoma: One Step From Doom

The Lost Viewing Center

2008-02-17T20:59:00.003-05:00

Oh yes, dear readers, another post. This is a celebratory post. We just upgraded our home to HDTV. I just felt the need to share. No words...no words can describe...should have sent a poet....

(Bonus points to anyone other than Helene that gets that...)

Old School Gaming Tunes

2008-02-15T19:35:00.002-05:00

I know what you're thinking...2 days in a row, is he serious...what can I say, maybe I am a little update happy...

I don't know how many people that check this blog knew me in high school and college when I used to be a singer, but I was in a couple of the choral groups at Charlotte Catholic and at NC State, so I have an affinity for college singing groups. Like any good geek, I also love me some old school video gaming. What happens when these worlds collide?

Muppet Fun

2008-02-14T19:23:00.003-05:00

You know, when I think back on the Muppets, I think of the lovable mop/puppet characters. As an adult (I do find it difficult to call myself that), I am getting a better appreciation for the guests they had on that show. Expect to see a few more gems like this on here. This is Johnny Cash performing Ghost Riders In The Sky, which is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Totally a Brian Entry

2008-01-11T19:02:00.000-05:00

So, I dumped Comcast as soon as I could when the Verizon Fiber service became available here at the house. Really had lots of frustrations with them. They have, however, done something wonderful. In keeping in line with some other services, however, they have provided some free TV content with a little advertising thrown in. Not just new shows either, there are some great old-school shows. For example the A-Team pilot, or the Airwolf pilot. The service is called Fancast, and I must say, I am enjoying...

Back on the Air

2008-01-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

As part of the New Year, I am going to make a real effort at keeping the blog up again. It has been a long several months for Helene and I with ups and downs and for those of you out there that know about the downs and have kept us in your thoughts, thank you so much.

To get this kicked off, check out the Flickr site and see the blast of new images I posted today. Among the pictures are some pictures from our trip to the beach back in September, my trip to Germany in October (Salzburg and Nuremberg were really neat places), our holidays, and some other pictures.

Also, my darling Helene gave me an iPhone for Christmas, so there might be some on the fly posts complete with pictures.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Neat Map

2007-08-13T19:10:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to post what I thought was a neat snapshot. This is from my Flickr map page zoomed in on Ireland. Gives you a good idea of the different places we went in Ireland. Something interesting to note, there is a motorway that crosses Ireland from Dublin to Galway called the M4. If you look at this map you would think this is what we would call an interstate all the way across the country. Not so. It is interstate class for a good bit, but at least half of that is 2 lane road through little villages and the countryside. It really was neat though, gave me more of an idea of what it must have been like in the states before the interstates and people traveled roads like Route 66, Highway 17, or US 1.

Could It Be....

2007-08-12T16:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, I finally got the last of our pictures up from Ireland. Well, this is the last of the pictures I am putting on Flickr. This is 131 pictures of Ireland and 7 of London out of the 525 keepers from the trip.

You can click here for a link to my Ireland '07 picture collection on Flickr. This collection has photo sets for each of the days from which we posted pictures.

Hope everyone enjoys!

Harry Potter and the Midnight Release...

2007-07-21T01:02:00.000-04:00

We just got back from the Midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We will start to tear through it in the morning...

Transformers

2007-07-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

Pictures coming soon, I promise. Hopefully a bunch tomorrow night.

In the mean time...

We saw Transformers tonight. I was anxious about being disappointed and I was not. One little item to note...Starscream as a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor....I am just going to let that hang on out there...

Back in the US of A

2007-06-20T21:43:00.001-04:00

We are back in our home, safe and sound. Long day of traveling today, but we did pull of lunch in London. Helene has her Washington monuments tour, Brian has his London in an hour tour. We saw the Millennium Wheel, The Big Ben Clocktower & Parliment (look kids, Big Ben, Parliament), Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. Also a nice London Underground experience and Paddington Station.

We saw approximately 21 hours of daylight today.

We are off to bed now...pictures to follow soon...

Another Quick Post

2007-06-19T15:53:00.000-04:00

We are back in contact with the world after 5 days in the western part of Ireland. All we can really say is that it is more beautiful than someone can really describe. The best way to show someone would be with pictures...lots of pictures. We have taken over 500 since Friday morning, so...

Pictures will be up after we get home and I have a chance to work through all of the pictures and cull them down. We are flying back tomorrow morning and go to London first for a several hour layover, and then a late afternoon (London time) flight that gets us back to DC tomorrow evening (DC time). Next check-in will be from home and new pictures will be soon to follow.

Off we go....

2007-06-15T01:28:00.000-04:00

We have been surprisingly busy so we don't have pictures. It actually takes me a while to get pictures ready. With the new camera, to get the pictures to look really good I have to do a form of digital developing. Let me just give a quick update of where we are and where we are going. The picture is of Helene and I at the workshop (that is me in the light shirt and Helene in the green shirt standing up, thanks to Laura!).

First, Wednesday night. Wednesday night was amazing. One of the Irish, government funded, technical organizations sponsored the whole night. Buses picked us up at our hotels and chauffeured us to the Guinness Brewery. That place is huge. Of course the whole time we are driving around it, I am whistling tunes from "Willy Wonka". We pulled up to the entrance to the museum/storehouse to find that our guess was right. The place was cleared out and the JWST project had the run of the museum. I kept looking for the Ooompa Loompas. While I didn't see any (they must be quick little buggers), there was a waterfall. It was mixing the water....actually churning the water (you know, no other brewery in the world mixes its water by waterfall). In all seriousness (well a little seriousness anyway) the tour was neat and fun to learn more about what makes a Guinness a Guinness.

As we moved through the museum, we were working our way upwards in the building till we reached the banquet floor. As we came up the escalator, servers were waiting with pints of Guinness. That is the life. The dinner and Guinness were fantastic and they had a live band with an Irish dancer. Helene and I even learned a traditional group dance. I am sure there are some pictures of this floating around that I will try and get up at some point. We had a great time and can't thank our hosts enough.

Yesterday I worked some in the morning. A little more than some really. Helene took the chance to walk around Dublin some more. We met up for some lunch in Temple Bar and yesterday evening went to the taste of Dublin with our friend Curtis and his in-laws. It rained a little. Just a little. Ok, a LOT. I would say we had a plethora of rain. By the time we walked back to the hotel (for those of you that know anything about Dublin, that is a walk from the south side of St. Stephen's Green to the north side of the Liffey by the Ha'Penny Bridge) we were SOAKED. I am talking drenched here. We had rain jackets on, but it was the kind of rain that just penetrates everything. After a hot bath/shower we were both feeling much better and got a good nights sleep. Oh, Helene asked me to mention the cold. Now, it wasn't anywhere near freezing, but for the middle of June, a pouring rain in the upper 40's/lower 50's was really chilly, chilled you to the bone.

This morning we bid Dublin adieu and head off to the west coast. Today we are destined for Clifden and on Sunday we head to Doolin, on the north and south sides of Galway bay respectively. This will be my first time driving on the left side of the road so there should be some interesting stories coming out of that little adventure. We don't know if we will have internet again before Tuesday so we say farewell for now and will post when we have the ability, hopefully with lots of great pictures!

A Little Work...A Little Play

2007-06-13T04:39:00.001-04:00

Christ Church Cathedral
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

Yesterday we attended some meetings in the morning but then skipped the rest of the day's discussions that we weren't involved with. We first took some pictures out by the full scale model here at the conference site. It really is amazing to see. It was on the front page of the Irish Times yesterday which was really amazing to see.

After the model we walked over to the Kilmainham Gaol (prison). This was a humbling place. Incredible to think of all of the ways people were poorly treated. Stealing a cow was considered a sentence punishable by death. During the famine people were trying to eat grass and would be imprisoned for stealing the grass of the landlords. Most humbling are the stories of the revolutionaries, particularly the 1916 revolutionaries.

After the jail we went over to the Brazen Head Pub for some lunch. This is said to be the oldest pub site in all of Ireland. There has been a pub on that site since the 12th century.

After lunch we went to Christ Church, another place that has been there since the 12th century. The statuary and stained glass are remarkable as well as some of the antiquities that they have at the church.

Finally, before we headed in for a little food and a quiet evening, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The highlights here are the nearby location of the well where St. Patrick baptized many people, the tomb of Johnathon Swift, and an organ played by Handel.

We continue to have a great time. Today I (Brian) am in meetings most of the day and Helene is touring around Dublin some in the morning and then answering questions on the JWST model for the general public this afternoon. Tonight, our hosts are providing private tours (after hours) at Guinness as well as a catered dinner at Guinness with live music and I am guessing some kind of beer...

Ireland Pictures Day 6

Working For A Living

2007-06-11T17:06:00.000-04:00

We were both actually busy today with work. We both attended the JWST Partner's Workshop. It is really neat to see how many people it takes to build something like this. There are around 300 of us here, truly from all around the world, and we represent only a fraction of the project.

There was actually a press release that news groups are starting to pick up about the meetings and the presence of the full scale JWST model on display here in Dublin (see my pictures of the same model on the National Mall). Aviation Weekly was also getting some pictures today.

News Article

Tomorrow more meetings but I think we are going to get some time for sightseeing and hopefully more pictures.

Oh, our room...

We knew The Morrison was a nice hotel to start. I called a few weeks ago and asked if we could have a room in our reserved room class with a river view. Ask and ye shall receive. We are on the top floor, the only floor with huge, almost full wall size windows, and we are two doors over from the penthouse suite. The penthouse suite where Beyonce stayed the last couple nights. Jay-Z was over partying last night. I'm hip, I'm with it...

Cliffs on the Coast

2007-06-11T01:33:00.001-04:00

Cliffs on the Coast
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

Finally getting Saturday's pictures up. Not easy culling 200 pictures down to the 84 keepers and then below 30 to post. You can see the various pictures from Northern Ireland now. Some of the highlights include the seaside town of Carlough, the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, and the Giant's Causeway.

Everyone needs to congratulate Helene on crossing the rope-bridge. That was a really neat experience. A rope bridge that runs from the mainland to a small island where fisherman used to work salmon traps. It is pretty high above the rocks and the sea and Helene crossed it, twice (out and back). It was well worth it, amazing views out on the island.

Bushmills was a really neat tour. The 12 year old reserve whiskey was delicious. Helene wasn't really a fan but I still love her.

Giant's Causeway is also an amazing site to see. One of the most astounding natural phenomena I have ever seen. Additionally, the views from the Causeway are amazing.

Not much from yesterday. Yesterday was more hanging around Dublin and meeting up with friends attending the workshop this week. We did walk by the conference site to find them putting the finishing touches on the setup of the full scale JWST model. It was great to see the groups of locals looking at the model and truly interested in what it is going to do.

Enjoy the pictures!

Ireland Day 3

Quick Entry...No Pictures

2007-06-09T17:57:00.001-04:00

We just got in from a whirlwind day in Northern Ireland. Amazing sites to see and great pictures will come tomorrow morning (well, our morning, middle of the night for most of the rest of you). For now, rest assured that I will get some of my ~150 pictures from today on Flickr. Tomorrow we start meeting up with friends coming in for the JWST Partners' Workshop and see some more sites in Dublin.

Old & Then Older

2007-06-08T18:42:00.001-04:00

Looking Up At Newgrange
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

Today we started our day by lounging about our hotel room a little longer than planned, so we skipped the walking tour and went to Trinity instead. We didn't skip a great big Irish breakfast though!

At Trinity we saw the Book of Kells. It is amazing to see this book, at over a thousand years old, and other books that date from nearly a century to well over a century in such wonderful condition. The artistry and scholarship it took is astonishing. The school and the Library themselves are great to see as well.

After Trinity we hopped a bus to Newgrange. We thought we had seen antiquities at Trinity! The site at Newgrange is astonishing. There are lots of questions unanswered about the people who built the tomb, but they know they were a well organized and intelligent society. The tomb itself was built 500 years before the pyramids. You can stand inside the chamber and marvel at the construction skills, sheer determination, and knowledge of the sun that was required to build the tomb.

Once we returned to Dublin we had a little food, walked around Temple Bar, realized which room was ours at the hotel (we have a really awsome room, but more on that later), and in for a relaxing evening.

Helene is asleep already and as we are up early for a Train/Bus tour up to the northern Irish coast, I had better follow suite. Pictures tomorrow from the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills, and Belfast.

Thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming!

Ireland Day 2 Pictures

Greetings From Ireland

2007-06-08T03:11:00.001-04:00

A Beautiful Sight
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

We arrived yesterday safe and sound in Dublin. Neither of us slept great on the flight so there wasn't a ton of energy left for tourism. You'll notice that a few of the images for the day are from our Hotel room.

Speaking of which, we are in a beautiful room right on the Liffey river and have a great view of the city, the river, and The Clarence hotel directly across the river. This is the hotel owned by U2. Helene is really hoping to see Bono...REALLY hoping to see Bono...

We are getting ready to head off to breakfast now. We are going to take a walking tour of some of the monuments this morning and then it is off to Newgrange this afternoon.

Oh....and the Guinness really is better...

Ireland Day 1 Pictures

Off To Ireland

2007-06-06T07:15:00.001-04:00

Annapolis Irish Door
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin

We are off to Ireland today. We get into Dublin (after a brief layover at Heathrow) at around 10:30 tomorrow morning Dublin time. We will take pictures and update the blog as we get a chance.

Seriously. Stop laughing. I am going to update. You watch.

Cape May Daytrip

2007-04-30T11:42:00.001-04:00

Cape May From The Lighthouse
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Hi all!

I am getting better, I think, about posting more frequently. Helene and I took a day trip the other weekend to see Aunt Babs and Uncle Dave and have a relaxing day at Cape May. As always, follow the links to more pictures.

More Cape May Pictures

The Latest From Apple...

2007-04-25T22:28:00.000-04:00

This is great! If you are a Bush fan, I wouldn't watch.

glumbert.com

Thanks to Curtis for the link!

April Snow

2007-04-07T15:45:00.000-04:00

Thats right. We woke up this morning to find everything outside with a light coating of snow.

We have actually had light snow flurries on and off since Thursday morning. It produced a beautiful sunrise the other morning.

Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous though. In the 70's and 80's. Helene and I went over to Freeway Airfield and got some shots of the planes there. Really makes me want to get my pilots license.

This weekend has been pretty quiet thus far. We went up to a neat camera store in Baltimore and bought a flash unit for the camera. Helene has been working on a cake for Easter dinner that looks great, also gave me a chance to try the new flash.

We hope everyone is doing well and has a wonderful Easter!

Odd Directions From Google

2007-03-29T19:53:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post. Ever wonder how Google maps would route you to Europe?

Check this out. Especially Step 22!
Hope you're in shape!

Annapolis

2007-03-25T17:08:00.001-04:00

Annapolis Docks
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Woke up to beautiful sunlight this morning, so we grabbed the camera and went down to Annapolis. Hope you enjoy!

Annapolis Pictures

More From The New Camera

2007-03-24T19:06:00.001-04:00

SpaceShipOne
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

I was requested to post some more pictures with the new camera. Helene and I went down to the National Mall today. Pretty cloudy and nasty so most of the pictures are indoors at the Air & Space Museum. Hope you enjoy!

More New Pictures

Also, some stats on the camera for the interested:
Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D)
Sensor: 10.1 Megapixels
Lenses:
Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Canon EF 55-200mm
(Effective 88-320mm for XTi)

New Camera

2007-03-21T17:43:00.000-04:00

I know...I know...more updates...as soon as we are out of the crazy time we are both having at work, I will get better about posting. In the mean time, I thought I would share with everyone the preliminary results of our new camera! Notice the improvement in the pictures of Helene, one with our old camera, one with our new camera. Wait till we get some pictures in Ireland!

Out Of This World

2007-02-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

OK

I know it has been forever since I posted something. I promise, more posts upcoming.

In the mean time, I know we have all known that Helene is really out there, but I don't know if we all thought she was THIS far out!

Saturn's Moon Helene

Wikipedia Entry

Retro-TV

2007-01-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Be sure to check out www.retrojunk.com. TV shows and other great memories for those of us alive in the 70s, 80s, & 90s.

This one is for Nik:

Klingons In The Whitehouse

2007-01-18T18:39:00.000-05:00

This is almost unbelievable.

Tree & A Wii

2006-12-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

Christmas Tree
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Hi Everyone,

We know it has been a while since we posted anything, just wanted to let you know that we are still here and kicking. I am also starting a New Year's resolution to update the blog more often. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a wonderful New Year! Pictures in the Photo Set include our Christmas Tree, a little of our decorated living room, and Brian's new Wii :-D.

Cheers To The Bride & Groom

2006-11-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

Cheers To The Bride & Groom
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

This is too long coming, but promised to get some pictures up for Nik & Erin from their wedding. Hey, only 2 weeks late. We all had a great time and the happy Bride and Groom had a wonderful time in Paris for their honeymoon.

Some Wedding Pictures

Hubble Saved

2006-11-08T09:15:00.000-05:00

Thought we should get a post up on the Hubble Servicing Mission. Helene and I are both very happy that they are going to keep Hubble going. Helene is of course thrilled because she is still working on Hubble day to day. I am very happy because I worked extensively on the two instruments that are being added with the servicing mission, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3 and will probably work some overtime from JWST to help get ready for the mission. I was present at the press conference where the mission was announced and was sitting about 10 feet from the Administrator and was fortunate enough to shake hands with Senator Mikulski. Helene was up-close to the Senator at a party that followed at the STScI.

Expect some pictures soon of a cake we baked for Gina's birthday and pictures from Nik's wedding.

Homecoming '06

2006-11-02T07:23:00.000-05:00

No, not our homecoming. We are young, but not that young. Although, Brian is noticing an

increase in the number of people who call him "sir". This was Helene's sisters' homecoming and they got decked out to the 9s. Helene had a great time getting them ready and I had fun keeping their dad distracted.

Efficent Sorting

2006-10-24T20:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is for our friends out there who are computer science savvy and liberal minded (if you believe in intelligent design, you might not find it as funny).

The Intelligent Design Sort - Found on an Esoteric Programming Language website. If you find this at all funny, you might also get a kick out of the OoK! programming language described on the page. To find Ook! interesting you would have to be a real computer science weeny.

Brian Visits JSC

2006-10-24T09:22:00.000-04:00

MMU
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Yes, we know, we have been blog slackers.

The other week I was down at Johnson Space Center in Houston. That was a really cool experience. The picture here is me trying on the Manned Maneuvering Unit. This one was used for testing there at the space center. The picture behind me is of astronaut Bruce McCandless free-flying out of the cargo bay of the space shuttle with one. If you follow the image to my JSC photo set, there is also a picture of the REALLY big chamber that we are going to be testing part of JWST in.

I also got a wonderful visit to my cousins in while I was in the Houston area, always great to see fun family. On the way back to home I had a stop over in Raleigh to celebrate the bachelorhood of a certain friend and saw an NC State game. - GO PACK -

A Little More Baking

2006-10-01T20:24:00.000-04:00

We have made another attempt at baking and decorating. I must confess, the last time we gave it a try, I made the cupcakes from a mix. You have to crawl before you can walk. Helene did make her own frosting from scratch last time, and continues this time. However, this time I made the cupcakes from scratch. A standard recipe for white cake found in a book. Helene made a delicious chocolate-kahlua butter cream frosting. We are very happy with the results (pictured).

Go To A Museum

2006-09-30T10:36:00.000-04:00

If you read our blog in the morning (I know you all do, we have a readership like the NY Times) and are looking for something to do today, we may have a good lead for you. Helene and I are lucky to live in the Washington D.C. area where we don't only have a plethora of museums that we can go to, but we can also go to the Smithsonian museums for free any time. Well, today, the Smithsonian is bringing that to the rest of the country. Today is Museum Day, sponsored by The Smithsonian and TIAA Cref. A number of museums around the country will have free admission today with the printable coupon found on the website. We are going to take advantage of this and hit a train museum up in Baltimore we have never been to and maybe the small aviation museum in College Park.

The Best Chocolate In The World

2006-09-29T22:07:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. This sounds a little over the top...but I am dead serious. So last Friday night, when I was in Munich, I was escorted to a place that was claimed to be the greatest chocolate on earth. Now, the guy that was leading me here really has traveled all over the world, so I knew that there might be some truth to this claim. I, however, am a fairly large fan of chocolate, and Curtis is known for both over exaggeration and under exaggeration (he was the one that said "oh, the Alps"). I ordered a little tort called the Sinfonie. Dark chocolate covering a chocolate ganache. I was almost brought to tears. This truly was the greatest chocolate I had ever had the pleasure of tasting. For a chocoholic, this was a religious experience. The picture with this post is the Sinfonie, exactly what I ate. Dear reader, truly I have had the greatest chocolate in the world. If you can read German or just want to click on links to see the chocolate, you can go to the website for Maeser Luksch.

Take Your Fish For A Walk

2006-09-24T08:56:00.000-04:00

From the website Hacked Gadgets, a fish controlled robot. Give your fish the chance to move about the earth. If only Pub could have lived to see this wonder for fish everywhere.

Late From Munich

2006-09-22T17:32:00.000-04:00

The Cathedral Church Towers
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

So, haven't posted much throughout the week. Was a tough week of work and I didn't get out much other than Oktoberfest one night, which was amazing. Got to head out this afternoon and enjoy an evening in the Old City in Munich. Pictures have been added to the Germany photoset on Flickr. Flying home tomorrow. Long flight but will be very glad to be home and with my wife.

What A Castle

2006-09-18T00:54:00.000-04:00

Neuschwanstein From Below
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

We went to Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein yesterday. A really magnificant site to see. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I also accidently navigated us into Austria, so now I can check off having also been in Austria. We have been doing a lot of traveling into some really neat German villages. Neat to see the consistency between villages. They all have the central big steeple for their church and they all have Maypoles that are several stories high. Thats all for now, have to head into work. Not sure about tonight, but Oktober Fest tomorrow!

Oh, The Alps (Oh, Die Alpen)

2006-09-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

Seeing The Alps
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Had to get a post in for the day. My flakey internet connection at the hotel is working now so I am going to go ahead and get some pictures up to Flickr. Hope everyone enjoys! The title for this entry comes from the fact that when we turned a corner on the Autobahn, suddenly the alps came into view. I said, "Ohh! Wow! That is gorgeous!". To which my cohort's (who has been all over the alps) simple reply was, "What? Oh, the Alps".

Time to get some much needed sleep to eliminate my jet lag. Off to Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow. I will definitly get pictures of that. Everyone would probably recognize it as looking similar to the Disney castle, which makes sense since it was the inspiration.

14 hours of flying down....

2006-09-16T09:33:00.000-04:00

Brian survived the flight!!! He even got a little sleep on the way there.

I just heard from him, and he said he was eating lunch and drinking a beer in the Alps outside Munich.

Seeing the world....

2006-09-15T19:54:00.000-04:00

So Brian is on he second of two flights right now. Today alone he will have seen the following things:
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Sierra Nevada Mountains
Rocky Mountains
Appalachian Mountians
The Alps
North America
Europe
USA
Ireland
England
Germany
LA
DC
Munich

He said he survived the first of his flights, but was annoyed that Dulles didn't have more power outlets to charge his ipod and laptop. Oh and United didn't put him as Frequent Flyer standby for business class, so he didn't get the upgrade that he was hoping. But he still got a good seat(exit row near the front). He was talking about visiting Strausburg sometime this weekend.

As for me I have no real plans for this weekend, just cleaning house and mowing the lawn(if the rain lets up). I might go see my sister's marching band competition in Westminster tomorrow. Talk to you all later!!!
Helene

Congratulations Are In Order

2006-09-14T23:38:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to David and Julia on their Engagement!

Leaving LA

2006-09-14T23:24:00.000-04:00

Off to Munich early tomorrow morning. Well, not so early Mountain or Central time, and definitely not so early East Coast time, and downright late Munich time. I leave LA 8AM PDT, which will be 5PM in Germany, and I get into Germany 8AM there time on Saturday. This could be really interesting. Ich gebe mehr von Munchen bekannt!

Long Journey

2006-09-11T12:08:00.000-04:00

Okay. So today I (Brian) set out on a long journey. I fly to LA today, I am in LA till Friday morning, and then up to Munich, Germany till the following Saturday. I know Helene would love to hear from folks while I am gone. Look for pictures from Germany starting next weekend!

Renn Fest

2006-09-11T08:37:00.000-04:00

Helene At Renn Fest
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Helene and I went to the Maryland Renn fest yesterday. We had a great time, as we always do at the festivals. Enjoy our pictures!

Baking

2006-09-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

So if you looked under our interests you will have seen that we have baking as an interest. Well, we actually have two different interest. I am interested in trying to learn about baking. Making the actual cakes and that kind of thing. Alton Brown really shows the science of baking well and it has caught my interest. Helene has been watching these big cake decorating shows on The Food Network and has really taken an interest in that. So, we find we might have a crossing of hobbies. I am going to try my hand at baking cakes, and Helene will try her hand at decorating. These pictures are our first attempt, we started with cupcakes, figured we would start small.

Begin At The Beginning

2006-09-09T09:57:00.000-04:00

Antigua - Helene & Brian At The Fort
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

The first post. Wanted to let everyone know that our blog will have a perpetual link to our Flickr photo sets. The link can be found on the right sidebar. Check out the pictures on a map link too. Shows where we took pictures and you can zoom in to see a spread of photo over an area (like if you zoom in on the Caribbean you will see which islands have pictures, and some even where on the island). There is also a link to a "favorite links" area. These are really my (Brian's) bookmarks but you might find some neat little jems in amongst them. I post new links all the time.