Art Show

HeightsArts and the local PTA are sponsoring an art exhibition, held at the Lee Rd library, displaying selected works made by kids from the local schools. And our own little miss Thalia had her artwork chosen for the show. So we went down to the library this afternoon, and I took a picture of the artist with her art:


And a close up of her (untitled!) work:


If any locals want to go down and see the artwork -- many good pieces there, not just Thalia's -- it's on display through mid-May.

Cat Science

The girls were combing Nelson (the cat) on the radiator this morning, and they were fascinated that as Nelson shed, his fur rose up in the air rather than falling on the ground.

So we had a discussion about why that was -- I asked them where they were sitting, and they figured out that the warm air from the radiator would rise, and carry the fur with it.

Then they did the experiment of moving Nelson off and away from the radiator, and sure enough, his fur stopped rising!

Science in action -- you gotta take advantage of any opportunity for a home science lesson!

Dollmation Business

This request just came in from #2:



While I'm glad she will clean up the dog's business, and while we will be getting a dog again at some point, I can guarantee you we won't be getting a dollmation. Sorry, kiddo.

Fine Arts & Fine Artists

This past month Abra had ballroom dance lessons in her school PE class, and so the kids had a dance recital the other night. It was very short, and so I actually missed the opportunity to get picture of the kids dancing, but here is a shot of some of the dancers: Katie, Abra, Caroline, and Maddie:


Then the other day when we had snow and Nelson was at the window chattering at the birds outside (like this:


), Thalia pulled out her sketchbook and drawing pencils and sketched a pretty darned impressive picture of him:


She then followed it up with a crayon drawing of all four of our cats:


(the dancing panda is actually on the other side of the piece of paper she used to draw this one.)

Her Aunt Pauli had a role in this one -- you might notice that those cats look like Ed Emberley cats, and sure enough that's where Thalia learned to draw cats, from the Ed Emberley drawing book Aunt Pauli sent the girls last year.

(If you are looking for a drawing book for kids, I can't recommend Ed Emberley's books enough. We had them as kids, and the girls love them...)

Random Picture Dump and Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

Sorry, folks, I just haven't been in blog writing mode recently. Maybe it has something to do with my football teams being pummeled week in and week out, maybe it has to do with busy times at work, maybe it just has to do with being out and out lazy.

So in the meantime, until I get motivated to write more, here are a few pictures:

Thalia and Nelson, watching TV:


Pearl, who just, by sheer coincidence, happened to be walking by the stove while there was a leftover chicken nugget lying around. She swears she had no idea that it was up there.


OK, what the hey, I've started a blog post, so here's what else is on my mind:

• Coming home from Target yesterday we were listening to (what else?) the Rolling Stones. "Let it Bleed" came on. Abra piped up "there's a Glee version of this song!" uh, really? Now I don't know the first thing about Glee, other than it seems like some up-with-people pop soap opera thingie. And I can't imagine them doing "Let it Bleed". So we went back and forth on this for a while, and finally worked out that Abra was thinking of "Lean on Me", not "Let It Bleed". Too bad -- I was looking forward to seeng how are they were going to work in lines such as "oh that jaded, faded, junkie nurse // what pleasant company!".

• Wacko is in desperate need of a haircut, but has gotten too old to deal with the groomer. So the poor dog is going to have to deal with Brenna and I being his groomer. Pictures when we're done, but I am reminded of my kindergarten picture, where my father literally had given me a bowl haircut the day before.... The good news out of this is that as near as I can tell, the grooming clippers are close enough to the ones the haircut place uses on me, so when I'm done with the dog, I'll just start in on myself.

• RichRod.... sigh. Yeah, it's time, Michigan, time to let him go. I'm fine with the progress made on the offense, but watching the defense take backwards steps each year has gotten me at the end of my rope. I'd live with a coaching change on defense, but we've already had that, and still things go worse. I'm not going to beat this issue to death -- volumes are being written online right now about this (and here's one I mostly agree with). But suffice to say: while I'm not a card carrying member of Ann Arbor Torch & Pitchfork, I'm going to advocate cutting our losses on this one.

• The Redskins -- was there anyone on God's green Earth that didn't know the Redskins were gonna lose to the Vikings last weekend once Minnesota got rid of Brad Childress?

• Thursday Lebron comes back to Cleveland. This is going to be interesting, to say the least. I'm not above enjoying watching the Heat struggle so far this season.

OK, that's it for now. Hopefully next time I'll be more interesting....

What Time Is It?

In school, Thalia is learning about telling time from analog clocks. So she had a homework assignment tonight to write out the time based on the clock hands that the teacher drew on the clock. She has to write it two ways, the digital time, and the time using words. Like this:

Sure. Easy enough. Look at the clock, write the time. But, uh, what if the big hand is at the 6 and the little hand is pointing right at a number? That can't be!


Yep, Thalia, that's right -- that doesn't make sense. Well, that's a one-time mistake on the homework, right? Surely it couldn't happen again--


No, that doesn't make sense either!

So I thought about getting her to make a "best guess" at the time on the clock, but you know -- she's absolutely right, those clocks don't make sense. So I signed off on her answers. They look good to me!

Heh, it's a good thing her teachers love her....

School Picture Day

OK, here we go with the obligatory school pictures.

Abra, 3rd grade.


(Dear School Photographer: when posing kids wearing glasses, you might try a little harder not to have the lights reflecting off the lenses, you know? a slight tilt of the head is all it takes. ok, thanks, bye....)

And Thalia, 1st grade:


That one turned out really well, I thought. For once Thalia does not have her "death rictus" smile that she often uses for posed pictures.....

Halloween 2010

So this year the girls were a gypsy (Abra) and a little black cat (Thalia). The fun kicked off on Friday, when they had a Halloween Parade at the school. Here's Thalia getting ready for the parade:


and then Abra coming out with her friend Maddy:


Here are the kids parading down the street:


Then on Saturday, Thalia and I made a scarecrow. Thalia was a bit skeptical about my scarecrow making credentials, but in the end it turned out pretty well! We put a plastic pumpkin on his head, and filled it with lights, and then draped chili pepper lights around him (why? why not!?!). And we topped it off with a "Psycho Killer" baseball cap -- one that previously belonged to none other than Tommy Lee (thanks, of course, to Ant Cat for that one!) -- what could be scarier than that?

Thalia poses with the scarecrow:


And here he is all lit up:


And then tonight it was time to get ready for Halloween parties and trick-or-treating. Brenna applied the whiskers to the little black cat (love that tail!).


And here they are all ready to go!

So off the girls went, first to their Halloween parties, then trick or treating with Brenna. They got quite the haul. I stayed home and manned the candy station with Mr Scarecrow and the pumpkins:

Thalia Counts

So Thalia was working diligently on something last night and this morning. She just finished it, and handed it to me. I think it says volumes about this child.





I mean for goodness' sake, she wrote out all the numbers from 1 to 1000. All of them. I'm amazed not by the counting, but by the determination and will. When she sets her mind to something, by God, she's going to do it.

I have a feeling that it's stuff like this I need to save for the documentary that's going to be written about her life in 50 years......

Early Halloween Project

So the girls appear to be working on an early craft project for Halloween. Last night I found this hidden behind the cats' scratching post.

Now, I must say that, uh, the "craft supplies" they have used are an interesting choice, but I guess you use the things you have that are in abundant supply....


and you open it up and find....


hmm, those ghosts in our house must be drinking a lot of beer....

Wedding Dress Voting!

Next month my dear sister Cat will be getting married, and she and my bro-in-law-to-be Drew have asked Abra and Thalia to be in the wedding. Which of course means that the girls have to dress up in something nicer than the usual "homeless urchins selling newspapers on the street" look that they often seem to sport.

So Brenna took them out shopping on Sunday, and they came home with two options. Well, Abra did. Thalia has her dress picked out. So the question is do the girls kind of match each other, like this:


or does Abra go for a different look, like this:

(Abra looks like she's ready to run the elementary school library in that one -- taking after her Yiayia and her cousin Deby.....)

So everyone gets to vote -- Cat gets a vote, Drew gets a vote*, and everybody else gets an advisory vote.

(My first question was, of course, "well, how much did each one cost?", but it turns out there is no difference in price, so that was of no help in the decision-making process.....)

Oh, and did you notice those glasses on Abra? Yep, new glasses -- here they are, very cute...



* Drew, my man, while you get a vote, of course, be prepared that husbands lose a lot of 1-1 votes....

Thalia's Summer Writings

Just thought I'd share some of the writings of #2 this summer. As always, just click on an image to see a bigger (more readable) version....

In June, she and her sister went to "Circle Sampler Camp", which is a week long day camp where each day they go to different places in University Circle -- the Art Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Historical Society, the Botanical Gardens, etc. They loved it, and kept a journal of what they did each day. Here's Thalia's journal:



Very nice, let's see what they did on Day 1:



Oh my. I certainly hope they didn't push the little old lady down the stairs.

Anyway, on to other writings. I came home one evening and found this on the table, a song that she had written out:



And it goes on to page 2:



I think what sticks in my head about this is the image of her sitting at the table and determinedly printing her words, all of them, carefully and neatly, onto the page. I think if you want to learn what makes Thalia tick, it's that example. That's our girl.

But perhaps what makes my heart want to burst the most is this little booklet she made for me for Father's Day (sorry for the different background levels, the scanner didn't pick things up quite right...):

(my favorite color is grey....)

I think this little booklet is going to be saved, oh, just about forever. Thanks, honey....

Nuthin Good

I bought a new toy the other day*, a Squeezebox Duet player to patch my mp3s into my stereo. So I got it all set up last night, and was happy as a pig in a poke a clam at high tide, being able to play my 55,000+ song list at the touch of a button.

Then the girls came in, and the following conversation ensued:

Abra (coming in): What's that?
Me: My new music player.
Abra: Can it play Justin Bieber?
Me: No.
Abra: Can it play the Jonas Brothers?
Me: No.
Abra: Can it play the Cheetah Girls?
Me: No.
Thalia (coming in): What's that?
Abra: Dad's new music player. But it can't play anything good.

sigh.


* Even as cheap as I am, I do buy toys once in a while. Although the last one was the HDTV in 2005.

Sheep Farming

Thalia brought home some of her worksheets that she does in school. One was evidently about people and their pets that she had read about in a story. There was an additional question on the worksheet that, well, I'll let her work speak for itself:



A sheep? Why a sheep?

There you go.

Harry Potter meets Cheapskate Dad

So the girls are way into the Harry Potter series these days -- thanks to Gramma, who got them the books. They are both reading the series avidly, watching the movies, playing Harry Potter games, etc.

Of course, Dad gets to mess with the story a bit.

For example:

Abra: I'm wearing the sorting hat! I'm in Gryffindor!
Thalia: I'm wearing the sorting hat! It put me in Huffenpuff!
Me: No, I'm wearing the sorting hat: I'm in Cheapenskate!
Abra and Thalia: DAAAADDDDD!!!!

or:

Abra: I'm reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!
Thalia: I'm reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!
Me: I'm reading Harry Potter and the Wallet of Closure!
Abra and Thalia: DAAAAADDDDD!!!!

This is kind of fun....

So Tired....

Thalia had a busy day. Last night she had a sleepover at her friend Lily's house, then went down to Inn on Coventry for breakfast. She came home, watched a Harry Potter movie, then had lunch and went to the park to play with her sister and her friend Nat. When she finally came home from all that activity, she curled up with one of her sister's Harry Potter books, and promptly fell asleep in midread:

I'm yawning just looking at this picture....

Officially Worried

The remaining male members of the household are somewhat concerned with recent actions by the ruling female party.