We're back...

Nicki, Kate and I got home mid afternoon on Tuesday from our week in Wisconsin.

It's good to be back, but it's been something trying to get back on track after Dad's funeral.

I've been catching up on editing, creating slideshows and posting them online for clients to see, so that's helped me a bit.

I've got quite a few photographs that I made on the trip of family and friends...Kate's godfather Pat Murphy-Racey shocked us by not only showing up for Dad's visitation (he happened to be in Chicago that weekend as it turned out for a friends' wedding) and he showed up on his motorcycle, having driven all the way from Knoxville.

Thanks Pat for being there. Pat is nearly finished with his training to be a deacon in the Catholic Church and the weekend of Kate's baptism, back in June, he got a chance to meet my Mom and Dad (for the first time) as well as getting to meet Nicki and Kate without me being there (I was in Mississippi for a wedding, making it back just in time for the baptism).

John, Lisa, Johnny and Georgie Kringas made the trek up from Chicago and it was so great to have them there as well. John's been a friend of mine since 1984 when we both happened to be going to the Missouri Workshop -- a weeklong course of study in how to shoot photo essays. That could the subject of an entire post, so I think I'll save that for later. But suffice to say, Kring somehow survived that week and the wrath of Ken Paik -- a madman Photo Editor-- and still stayed in photography.

John was one of my groomsmen in my wedding, along with Don Winslow who was best man. (Don would have been at the funeral but has been teaching in Europe and could not get away). I'm little Johnny's godfather and Georgie's godfather in spirit. They're good kids and they have grown up so incredibly fast. I have a little sense of what is in store with Kate by watching them grow up (plus Mary and Scott's kids too!)

I wish Kate, Pat and Nicki had gotten to know my Dad before his stroke. I think they really would've appreciated the level of conversations with him about politics, history and even sales. He was very well-read and before the stroke, you had to basically hit hiim over the head to get his attention, he was so engrossed in his book or paper.

I've got some editing to do of images leading up to the funeral and will be posting them soon.

As much as we loved being hosted by my sister Mary and her husband Scott and the kids, I think it was wearing on them. I think it would wear on anyone, and after the funeral, I think all they wanted to do was try and find some semblance of a normal life.

Thanks guys for letting us stay with you...it was great that Kate got a chance to get to know Stef and Jake.