Live & Kern

I don’t remember dressing up (or being dressed up) as a Raggedy Ann doll. But it doesn’t surprise me. I do remember that wallpaper-carpet combination at my grandparent’s house. Oh my.

It has been an incredibly geeky weekend.

As I said before, one day of my week is pretty much dedicated to scanning and saving family photos and letters that were found at my grandmother’s house after she died. Mostly photos. Several Polaroid snapshots. A few that are a little more significant to family history. It can be a slow process. So I usually play movies or a TV series in the background to help amuse myself.

This weekend — two days thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday — included “Firefly,” which I’ve seen too many times to count, all three seasons of “The Guild,” and season one of “Valemont.” True geekery. But if you haven’t seen them, then you should.

“Firefly” was a fantastic western that took place in space. It started and, sadly, ended in 2002. In 2005, the characters were brought back to life in a movie named for the crew’s ship, “Serenity.” “Out of Gas” is my favorite “Firefly” episode:

“The Guild” is a made-for-the-web sitcom that debuted in 2007. It’s one of those things that I’ve heard people talk about, but hadn’t watched. And then I came to own the first two seasons on DVD. All three seasons are online. The series is built around an online guild — a group that plays “World of Warcraft” somewhat religiously. Season 1, episode 1 offers a great introduction:

“Valemont” is a MTV miniseries that debuted a few months ago. And when I say miniseries, I mean it: Each episode is about 3 minutes long. A girl’s brother is murdered while attending a fancy university, Valemont. So, of course, the girl decides to go undercover at the university to find out what happened. Oh, and it’s a university for vampires.

I’ve spent about one day a week for the past year scanning and saving photos and letters that were found at my grandmother’s house after she died. In a somewhat timely fashion, I came across this Christmas card from 1959:

I don’t know who these people are. It’s signed by Elva, what looks like Ribs, Earl and Robert. It’s a lovely family photo.

But do you see him? The kid in the background? Making faces?

This is now my favorite Christmas card.

For the last month, I have devoted one day a week to scanning in old family photos. It’s part of the squabbling over my grandmother’s estate — if the photos are scanned then everyone can at least have a copy of them.

On Sunday, I scanned and saved more than 200 photos. That’s one photo every 3 minutes. This week, most of the photos were Polaroids. They included vacation snapshots, naked lady paintings, naked man sand sculptures and a few historic family photos. And this:

I don’t remember the photo, but look how cute! (That’s my mother, sister, brother and I.)

There’s about a year of scanning left — I’m sure there will be other cuteness to post.