Photos: Max's Pre-K Graduation

Today Max graduated from Mother's Day Out! It was a fun event and I've got some photos from it, titled Max's Pre-K Graduation. Bek, Granny, Emmett and I were there to see Max at the ceremony. First the kids sang 6 or 7 songs, with a brief intermission between sets. Then they put on a performance of the story "The Mitten", which Ms. Sharon said was one of their favorite stories. Then there was the procession, and finally lots of food was served with pizza and subs as the main course, pasta salad, fruit (including watermelon which we provided), a cake with all the kids' pictures on the frosting and other deserts.

Glass Menagerie

First I slam Apple's iTMS, now this link showing what went wrong with their glass cube store. Ouch.

Hunimals

I can't now remember what the context was, but Emmett used the word "hunimals" the other day and I've been meaning to write about it. Eg, though not exactly what he said, "One similarity between monkeys and hunimals is their largely ineffective use of typewriters." I like the word.

Voluntary Unwanted Privacy Invasion

I recently discovered emusic.com (see: better sign-up deal) and have been quite thrilled with it. I'll spare you, at least for now, a discussion of why I think emusic is good and Apple's iTunes Music Store is not so good (and you thought I was an Apple fanboy!), instead I'll just note that you, the reader, can spy on my music downloading habits! Probably there's a way to turn off the ability of others too see what you've downloaded from emusic, but, as you know, I'm a exhibitionist, so I'll let you do it. In fact I'll dedicate a link in the sidebar of this blog to this bit of unexpected personal privacy invasion. Check what music I'm acquiring (at least of what is available on emusic) and attempt to draw conclusions from it, for fun and profit.

Photos: Ellicott City - May 13, 2006

A new photo set is up and blog readers get first dibs! This one is titled Ellicott City - May 13, 2006 and chronicles our failed attempt to walk and ride on the trolley trail on a rainy day.

Small Time

I picked up a nifty little gadget a number of years back - an Intel-branded USB microscope. I only found out about it and bought it when they had already stopped selling it and had abandoned that market. A handful of places still had stock and were selling them at fire-sale prices. It became such a popular item after Intel abandoned it and the prices had dropped, that the prices went back up and it was later resurrected by a different company. It wasn't advertised as Mac compatible, but a resourceful programmer created a nice program that made it work great on the Mac. Rather than looking through an eyepiece, you see the image on your computer screen and can control the microscope from the computer (with the exception of magnification and focusing, which is done manually). You can turn overhead and underneath lighting on an off. You can take snapshots, record movies, etc. It has three magnification levels, 10x, 60x and 200x. Being low-speed USB based, it's pretty slow and so you have to adjust focus slowly because the image on your screen lags behind your actions, but it's still quite fun and it is indeed a real microscope. The software even lets you set up a "web cam" using it. Maybe we'll take it with us to Iowa and have a microscope-cam for all to view while we're there....

I got the microscope out, of course, because I thought Max would like it, and he does. Not only does he like the microscope, but he really loves the little plastic collection jars, tweezers and bulb-sucker thingy for collecting specimens that came with it, probably more than the microscope itself. He was very excited when I told him he could keep them. He put them on his bedside table last night, and is planning to collect some things today to look at under the microscope. It also came with some sample slides containing various things to look at. We looked at shrimp eggs and some wierd looking bug. We also looked at some things we had in and around the house - we looked at a slice of green pepper and a slice of carrot. Max went out to our walkway and picked up some small stones to look at with it. Of course Max is really into taking pictures with it. I told him we need to get a sample of pond water to look at as we should see microscopic living creatures in it, good for making videos with, so hopefully we'll find time soon to go to a pond and do that. It didn't come with real microscope slides (other than the ones with things already permanently in them), so we'll have to go to an education store and pick some up.

If Saturn does crash into the tub any time soon, Max will be there, with plastic tweezers and specimin jars in hand.

Totally Boring Trip Report (the Report, Not The Trip)

After lunch on Sunday, we went to Mariner Point Park, in search of fun and exercise. We loaded up the boy's bikes and Bek gave Liz a call to see if she wanted to join us, but just got the machine and left a message. We made our way to the park slowly, and got a bit lost because we thought Kearney Drive was off of Rt. 40. A stop at a gas station both to deal with a back seat "emergency" and to get directions, found a geniunely friendly and helpful attendant who gave us directions that proved only to be off by one light. We figured it out and made it there, finding Liz sitting in the van with Olivia and Elise in tow. Was she looking bored? Frazzled? I'm not sure. We apologized for our leisurely pace.

We unloaded everything and set foot on one of the trails. Olivia and Elise weren't too fond of being anywhere but right next to Liz, Emmett was sleepy and rode in Liz's stroller and Max rode his bike. We had to carry Emmett's trike and the scooter. We made our way along the path and stopped at one of the fishing spots. We saw a couple fish get caught, then set back out on the path. We got to one of the playgrounds, which Max quickly tested out. He reported that the curly slide was slow, and Liz said there was a better playground elsewhere, so we crossed a parking lot, heading to another trail. Max switched to the scooter for a bit, then back to his bike. Once reaching the playground, Olivia and Elise took to it, while Emmett was still in the stroller. Max wanted to keep riding, so I set off with him while Bek and Liz stayed with the others at the playground.

It wasn't long before we spotted a bright red cardinal. Max took a photo and then we moved on, shortly finding a matching brown/red cardinal. The male is colorful and the female less so, or is it the other way around? I took a photo of a squirrel at Max's request. The batteries in my camera were dead, so we shared Max's camera. Not long after this we heard Bek calling "Hold up guys!" We turned and saw her and Emmett, Emmett pedalling furiously, heading toward us. There were more stops to see fishing, and more birds.

Our last stop was at a fishing spot that also gave us a view of a train bridge in the distance. We stayed for a while hoping to catch a train crossing the bridge, but none passed. We saw a pair of quite large birds with long legs flying over the water. We weren't sure what they were - we need to get a good bird guide. Finally we walked back up to the trail when Bek heard a train! We ran back as fast as we could, but we were too late - it was a short train.

The wind was blowing mightily at this point and there seemed a risk of rain, so we headed back to the playground. By the time we got there the sun was shining again. There is a beach volleyball court at the playground, and the kids use it like a sandbox, so we stayed there for a while. Many kids had brought sand toys, and toys at sandboxes tend to be communal. Emmett wanted to play with a bulldozer he saw sitting unused, and he got the OK from the Mom of the owner, so he picked it up and took it to a corner and started pushing it around. The owner then ran over, grabbed the 'dozer and ran back to the spot he had been playing in. Emmett had a gruff look on his face but said nothing. The Mom walked over and got the 'dozer back for Emmett, and so he went on 'dozing. After a while Max complained of being cold and we gave a 5 minute warning. After the time was up we headed back to the trail and found our way back to the cars, Emmett taking the lead, pedalling furiously again, stopping at every intersection to ask Liz which way to go. We loaded up the car and van and parted ways.

Our next stop was Granny's house. I made paper airplanes upon request, the boys watched the (much, much) lesser Buzz Lightyear video 2 or 3 times, and we had supper. Emmett ate an ice cream sandwich, a cookie and two whole pieces of pizza, in that order. He ate more than Max did. Afterward the boys wanted to go to Liz's house and so I took them there while Bek stayed with Granny, and that's how we finished out the day.

A Bad Thing

I overheard a conversation between Max and Emmett today in which Emmett said he wanted Saturn to crash into the bathtub while they were taking a bath. Max told him that wasn't a good idea because the gas would be bad for them. I missed whatever it was that got them to this point in the conversation.

We've had a slowly dripping faucet and a slow drain in our bathroom sink, so I tried to do something about it. You can't just pull the drain plug out - it will only come out so far. I figured out how get the thing out - it involved removing a nut holding in the lever that raises the drain plug up and down. Then you can pull the lever out of the side of the pipe, and that frees up the plug which you can then pull out. I used a long screwdriver to get a lot of gunk out, and there was a ton of it, so I was feeling pretty good about the whole affair. I put it all back together and... now we had a leak under the sink, and it was still draining slow! The leak wasn't at the nut I'd removed and retightend, rather the leak was from the main pipe going down from the sink, just below where the drain plug lever goes into it. In retrospect I think the connection at that point on the pipe was pretty shoddily done, and in untightening and tightening that drain lever nut, I moved the main pipe back and forth a bit and broke something. At this point I'll cut the story short, and just say that in my attempts to fix this, I ended up with the entire length of pipe going from the bottom of the sink to the wall sitting on the floor, and I'm unable to reattach it to the bottom of the sink. There are no threads on that end of the pipe - it looks like they had tried to attach a small threaded portion to the end of the pipe, and that threaded portion had pretty much disintegrated. Sigh. Is Saturn in the sky tonight?

Card Carrying Member Of The PLi

Max did his first book report yesterday and he wrote the whole thing himself. His report was on the book "Shark in the Park". Max had to write down the name of the author, then had to write down who his favorite character was (the shark, of course), and then write what his favorite part of the book was (when the duck said "Quack".) Max told Mom what he wanted to write, then she wrote it on a separate piece of paper, and he used that as a guide for how to write the words. In the past Max hasn't shown a lot of enthusiasm for writing, but he did the report in one sitting. It was most impressive!

Max was also quite excited because he got this book out on his very own library card. He had seen in school that some of the other kids had their own library cards and so he wanted to get one too. Mom took him to the library yesterday and they signed him up. Not only did he get a nice "My First Library Card" card, but he also got a matching backpack, though he insists it is not a "backpack", but rather a "book bag". It includes some pockets where he can keep his card. What a great program!

Cans As Art?

Mary (the sister) sent an email containing a cool set of photos of can-building art. I thought I'd toss them on a web page so I could pass that on to people instead of an email full of photos. I think it solidly lands in the art category.

Glass As Art : Glass Vs Art

We all know I'm an "Apple fanboy", but come on, their new "glass cube" Apple store in New York City is quite unique and pretty astoundingly beautiful. I can't help but compare it to the hideous glass monstrosity that is the "Brown Center" at the MICA in Baltimore. Bek and I recently saw a film there that was part of the Baltimore Film Festival. We really liked the movie ("Hamilton"), but man is that building ugly. It's a dirty green color, and seems pointlessly angled this way and that. The inside is certainly much better, but to a large extent it was nothing new, and just trendy, even a bit like the interior of the chain tex-mex restaurant Chipotle (and many others that have used a similar industrial looking interior with exposed ventilation shafts and such). I suppose I ought to see the exterior of the Brown Building as a work of art, but I just can't get around the fact that it is an eyesore, especially compared to everything around it. Plus you can't buy one of those beautiful MacBook's there, and what fun is that?

Guess The Baby!

Slow blog weeks necessitate something cheap to tide readers over with, so here it is... Guess The Baby! This is an easy one! Post your answer in the comments.

Never Fear, Blog Fans!

I know, I know - slow blog news week. I've been busy and tired and lacking in inspiration, but it's only temporary. I'll just note a few news items.

In theory, at least, the photos and photo albums on my web page should now load faster. I can't guarantee any substantial improvement for dial-up internet users, but it may be worth a shot if you previously had difficulty getting the photos to appear. Hopefully you can see them now!

I'm planning to join the "Voice Over IP" revolution, at least temporarily, while in Iowa, such that we'll have a "local" phone number (local to Maryland!) even though we reside in Iowa for about 7 weeks. So you'll have lots of opportunity to call us and make us feel less homesick for free (presuming you're in Maryland)! I'm going to test out using Skype, which is (allegedly) offering free outgoing calls to anywhere in the US through the end of the year. I say "allegedly" because there appears to be a catch 22 in actually getting these free outgoing calls, but I hope to work that out. This is a service that works on your computer, but with "SkypeOut" you can call regular phones, and with "SkypeIn" you can receive calls from regular phones, on your computer. You guys will call us on your phone like normal - no computer needed - and it will be a 410 area code number, so it will be free (to Marylanders) and very cheap to us (10€ for 3 months of incoming call service - that's currently $12.64 for 3 months service.)

Speaking of that, we are going to have broadband internet at our apartment, so email, chat, blog entries and photo albums will be possible on the trip, not to mention visits to pbskids as needed. Yeah! It should also be possible to video conference with us (voice with video) via AoL Instant Messenger (AIM) on Windows (make sure your copy is fairly recent) and iChat AV on Mac OS X. I'm hoping to have a new MacBook laptop in time for the trip that has a built-in webcam, precisely for this purpose. Maybe I can even set up a webcam webpage for you guys to spy on us with. Uh... err... or maybe not!

Two Can Play

Max and Emmett aren't terribly big on cleaning up. They also have a habit of simply dropping a toy they are done with, wherever that might be, or even tossing things they had on the table on to the floor, especially Emmett, I think. When we try to get them to clean up toys inevitably they both use the delaying tactic of turning it into play. Instead of them picking toys up, they try to use, for example, Muck to pick toys up and carry them to the bin, one toy at an (agonizingly slow) time. We always end up picking 99% of the toys up even when they are participating.

Today I tried to get them to really clean up by saying that any toys they didn't pick up right then and there would go down the basement. This worked for Max. He started cleaning up toys with abandon. When he started to look like he was going to stop, I picked up a toy and said, "I guess you guys want this one to go down the basement." That would immediately get a "I do play with that!" and he'd come over and take it from me and put it away. Emmett the avoider, however, knew how to play this psychological game. Instead of picking up toys and putting them away, he started picking out toys that he said he wanted to go down the basement, carrying them to the cellar door! Of course Max didn't agree with Emmett's choices and he'd shriek with every one.

Emmett... I must concede... I salute you!

Photos: An Early Start To Summer

I've got a new photo set up on my web page, titled, An Early Start To Summer. In a cheap attempt to drive up readership, readers of the blog will now get early notice of my photo pages!

Bird Studies

Max's friend Margaret has gotten into "bird studies", as she calls it, and Max is now interested in it too, so he wanted a pair of binoculars. At his kids birthday party he had received a duplicate toy, and yesterday we finally went to Target to do an exchange. With the return gift card he was able to get not only the binoculars, but the other thing he has recently wanted, a kids toy cell phone that flips open. Several days ago I, foolishly, let Max and Emmett play with my cellphone, and since then they keep wanting to play with it - my old cellphone, which didn't flip open, just wouldn't do. I can't say I blame them.

The "National Geographic"-branded binoculars are self-focusing and seem to work pretty well. They came with a pocket bird guide that shows about 12 different birds. This morning Max, Emmett and Mommy set out on their first bird-spotting trek, this time just up the street. They spotted two birds from the guide, a robin and a sparrow. In this picture you see Max marking their finds in the pocket bird guide. It's fortuitous that Mom-Mom mentioned Mariner's Point in the comments on my last blog entry, as I seem to recall she said this was a good bird watching spot. We are going to have to make a trip there soon, perhaps toting a better bird guide with us.

In Search Of The Perfect Wafer

I buy Heritage Wafers' "Golden Batch" chocolate wafers almost every day at work. They are cheap at 45 cents for a pack of four at the "GEWA" store at Goddard, a little discount store for Goddard employees conveniently located right near the cafeteria. Unlike a lot of chocolate wafers out there, including all of the much fancier packaged ones sold at the same store, there's no artificial flavor in these babies. They're flavored only with cocoa and chocolate liquer. 45 cents - that's pretty cheap, especially given the quality, but I want to save more. Surely there is a source for "Golden Batch" chocolate wafers in bulk on the web? My searches have turned up little, though. Nothing at amazon.com, and searching google only turns up company listings. It does show that the company is perhaps sometimes called "Bremner". I suppose I ought to call Heritage Wafers and see if they'll sell to me direct. Ten cases of Golden Batch chocolate wafers? Where's my credit card?

We had a busy weekend, starting with the previously mentioned sleepover at Granny's house on Friday. This was a sort of consolation prize, but don't take that the wrong way Granny! We were planning to go to an overnight camping trip with the Click's (and others), but we didn't get signed up in time. That was a huge disappointment to Max, but a sleepover at Granny's house made for a more than formidable replacement. The boys rode bikes outside, we made paper airplanes, etc, and the event was capped off in an exciting way for Max and Emmett with them getting to eat breakfast the next morning at the TV dinner tables while watching a Buzz Lightyear video (no even remote match for the full-length buzz-lightyear movie)

Saturday morning we, scrambling to get out the door in time, went to see Nicholas play baseball at some park that Bek navigated us to. We arrived in time to see the 2nd half of the 2nd (of 3) innings. If I understood correctly, every child gets a turn to bat in each inning, regardless of outs. Each kid gets 5 pitches in a chance to get a hit, with the coach pitching to his own players. We missed Nicholas' turn at bat in the 2nd, but did see him hit in the 3rd, and he did get a hit and scored. Nicholas made three good plays at first base in the 3rd inning, with clean catches and tagging the base ahead of the runner. Or maybe only two of those were ahead of the runner, but they were all good plays. Max had a good time watching the game, I think, and I know I did - I got pretty excited at the game and was *really* close to getting into a shouting match with the umpire. Fortunately there wasn't an umpire.

After lunch and some down time at home, we went to the Trolley Trail in Catonsville/Ellicott City. We had the usual life-or-death-struggle-resistance-to-leaving-the-house, but once there the boys ate up the bike ride down the trail with relish. Max was on his bike and Emmett on the tricycle. One part of the adventure that day was investigating the mysterious giant mounds of cement that appear periodically along this trail. I'm guessing they are for sealing in illegally disposed of nuclear waste canisters, which is probably the only thing that can explain Ellicott City, but Bek thought maybe it was for a raised trolley track. Of course it's better for it not to be solved so we can investigate it again next time. At one point Emmett was a ways up ahead. He was peddling and peddling, and chatting and chatting, on some adventure of his own.

The next day we started things off on the right foot, with Bek and I taking turns going to the gym. It was all downhill from there. There was some playing at home, inside and a little outside, and then we, fighting the good fight again, headed to the Inner Harbor. Emmett fell asleep on the way, but Max was awake and he and I rode the carousel there. That thing is a bit dishelved, but it goes fast and you've got to like the frogs and roosters. Max rode a frog. Next up was a stop at harborplace. Max got a frozen custard - the Kohls is gone now, replaced by another place that I can't think of the name of, but it was still good. Bek and I shared some fries. After that we walked around a bit and then Emmett woke up and we took the guys up to the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. I think they were hurtin' for business because they told us it was a two-for-one, and then they didn't charge us for Max either. It cost us $5. Max loved it, but Emmett was a little scared. From there I spotted what I was looking for... "Power Dogs", a hotdog place near the B&N and ESPN Zone. That is, hot dogs, which the days events, and the fries, had gotten me in the mood for. Alas, we found it to be closed - not yet opened? Out of business? Don't know. We went back to harboplace and there Max, Emmett and I got hotdogs from the deli stand upstairs. They were quite good. Bek got a crabcake from Philips which she wasn't too happy with, though. The deli stand had a "slush puppie" machine and the boys both wanted one for desert. If you want to find out just how bad a Slurpee immitator can be, you need go no further than that deli stand. Truly vile. None of us could drink it. Last but not least we went back to the Carousel so Emmett would get a turn. He opted to sit in one of the bench seats. He seemed a little nervous about the speed, but he also laughed with joy whenever we went by and waved at/were waved to by Max and Mommy.

Whew! Thanks for listening.

Somebody

We were driving in the car yesterday on the way to a sleepover at Grannies house, and Max mentioned that one of the other kids at school told him that he was too old to be listening to Thomas music. I said that wasn't a nice thing to say and Bek told him she didn't agree with the boy. Emmett then spoke up with a similar story, as he often does, saying that "Someone at school said 'poo poo'". Of course I said that wasn't nice either. We started talking about other things, I forget what. Emmett was then saying, "Me and Garret" about something, but it was unclear what. Garret is one of his classmates. Bek asked him, "What about you and Garret?" He said, "It was me and Garret."

A Match Made In Heaven?

The japanese come up with some great gadgets. Who wouldn't want to fire a pink teddy bear from a gun?

Hang (With) The D Jay

I watched the movie Hustle & Flow on the quite high recommendation of the Cinecast folks. Not an absolutely perfect film, but my issues with it are all pretty minor. This is a movie about a pimp trying to break out of the life by making it as a rap singer. This may not sound interesting, but it proves to be compelling stuff. It doesn't shy away from any aspect of the pimp life including the language and the treatment of women. If you don't like movies where the main character isn't, as you can imagine, entirely likable then you will want to skip this film, however you'll be missing out. After watching each segment I was anxious to see the next (on the train I see films in about 30 minute portions, which is actually a pretty fine way to watch movies - you know you're liking a movie if, after the evening segment, you can't wait to get back to the train the next morning to see the next.) Even though you don't like a lot of what the main character D Jay does, you still see in him a glint of soul and a source of art, and you want him to succeed and get out. The movie also does a great job of showing the creation of music. And... damn... that beat!

I've been no fan of rap music. Indeed I'd venture to say that I have always pretty substantially disliked it, but after seeing this movie I tried to find some equally infectious stuff on internet streams. I didn't have much luck, though I'm sure I came closer than had I tried listening to the air-waves stations. I need a chaperone when it comes to Hip Hop. The music in the film is all original, and performed by the actors. Pretty great stuff.

It all makes me "get my mode on" and "flow" like this (censored to avoid marital strife):

So my girl, she's applied for a po'try workshop.
If she's in, she'll be flowin', she'll be flowin' for non-stop.
Startin' June of this year, for six weeks, dear Momma.
Ya got that right, we'll be downin', we'll be downin' I'wa!

Yes, my day job is safe, but you have to admit that wasn't so bad!

Cross Promotion

I've got a new web page for our photos up at http://web.sjonke.com/

An Early Start To Summer

I think you'll agree that nothing need be said about this picture.