snowdeal.org > ex machina

the eric update - shorter hair. still a rockstar.

2008-05-08T22:03:00.000-04:00

although we liked his long hair, odin decided that he was tired of trying to keep it out of his eyes.

so off the barber we went.

i told him i wasn't sure he would still be able to play the drums with short hair as it's clearly stated in the rule book that one must have long hair to play effectively.

he was only too prove me wrong.

the eric update - day 1408: odin's new bike!

2008-04-29T21:44:00.000-04:00

the easter bunny gave odin a bicycle bell which was a little curious since it didn't come with a new bicycle. but we rectified that situation in short order and odin is now very happy to wake up at 6 a.m. and ask to go for a bike ride. every. single. day. i have no doubt that one big reason for wanting to go for a ride so early might have something to do with all the construction equipment nearby.

our local bicycle shop, bluedog cycles carries a model made with easily removable pedals so the child can learn to properly balance themselves without teetering on training wheels.

but alas, odin would have not ride the bike without training wheels, stating emphatically that that is how you learn to ride a bike ( and perhaps implying that we were really silly for thinking that he could learn withouth them! ).

spring, southwestern wisconsin style.

2008-04-28T22:59:00.001-04:00

the eric update - day 1402: odin strikes a familiar pose in his new, handmade sweater.

2008-04-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

i wanted to take a picture of odin in his sweater made with lots and lots of love by his mamma and was amused to watch as he put his hands in pockets, slumped his shoulders with hair hanging in his face, stricking a pose that his grandparents will certainly recognize as the pose de rigeur adopted by myself when i was a teenager.

happily, he shows no signs of inheriting my adolescent surly attitude. yet.

the eric update - day 1399: spring! swing!

2008-04-20T20:27:00.001-04:00

yes, indeed, some of us couldn't be happier about being able to swing into spring and finally wear our comfortable shoes and short-sleeved shirts :-)

april showers bring may flowers.

2008-04-17T23:50:00.000-04:00

and april dandelions, which odin does not think of as weed, but as a very real indicator that spring has sprung that should be cherished on display in the house.

i'll happily put him on dandelion patrol this spring. maybe we'll brew a batch of dandelion and burdock.

the eric update - day 1396: odin's enjoys his most favoritest breakfast.

2008-04-17T22:21:00.000-04:00

we'd like to think that french toast is pretty much the most perfect concoction of carbohydrates, protein and fat ever invented, particularly when it's made with organic, local eggs and whole milk, a smidge of vanilla and sprouted grain bread.

of course, all odin cares about is topping it with a nice layer of maple syrup :-)

a sun kissed panorama

2008-04-12T23:26:00.002-04:00

i avoided thinking about taxes by playing with macro lens, an orange and panorama stitching and produced my first panorama. i think this will do nicely as a super-sized print for the kitchen.

autostitch/calico is sufficiently advanced to seem like magic.

update: interesting. the uploaded version is washed out compared to the orangetastic version on my desktop. hmmmmmmm.

update 2: well, i'm learning more than i ever wanted to know about color profiles. view in safari to see the orangetastic version until i figure out how to fix it :-)

update 3: so, how come i can't use colorsync to match the srgb gamut? i've tried match to "sRGB Profile" and match to "sRGB IEC61966-2.1". both appear to change the profile name ( "get info" shows the profile name has changed ) and matching the profile is supposed to convert it, no?

and yet, color still washed out.

what am i missing? i should be able to do this with colorsync directly ( or via automator ).

the eric update - day 1389: the ambulance chastises thomas the tank engine for speeding around corners.

2008-04-10T20:04:00.001-04:00

the eric update - day 1373: visiting 6,000 butterflies.

2008-03-25T22:20:00.001-04:00

someone's a bit behind on uploading photos! ( hint: these days if you're paying attention to twitter maybe you could have met us for lunch )

over easter we trekked to meijer gardens in grand rapids, michigan to catch the largest tropical butterfly exhibit in the nation with over 6,000 butterflies. i had imagined that we would be surrounded by hundreds of butterflies at any given moment, but - alas - it wasn't quite like that. more like, if you looked carefully you could see a butterfly here and there. still, more butterflies than odin has ever seen which made it all worth while.

the neatest part was watching the butterflies hatch from their cocoons in the breeding area just like we've read a bazillion times in the the very hungry caterpillar.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

the eric update - day 1371: odin deconstructs a gift from the easter bunny.

2008-03-23T23:05:00.000-04:00

"what iiiisssssss it?" he asks as he turns one end, hearing a cling! cling! cling!

eventually we all decide that it must be a bell for a bicycle.

which is curious, indeed, because he doesn't have a bicycle. yet.

the eric update - day 1371: happy easter ( very belatedly )!

2008-03-23T22:51:00.000-04:00

we drove over a thousand miles, round trip, to visit family ( part of through a tricky snow/ice storm ), caught the flu and the common cold, cracked into easter baskets, ate too much candy, had fun visiting grandparent, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. all while one of managed to not take very many pictures and somehow still get very behind on uploading them so others could enjoy :-)

the eric update - day 1363: odin's not so successful first trip to the cinema.

2008-03-15T22:28:00.000-04:00

it started as the first lazy saturday afternoon without hockey to keep us preoccupied. i read a good review of "horton hears a who and thought, "oh, how fun would it be to take odin to his first movie!"

odin was immediately skeptical when we told him it would be dark, except for the reeeeeaaaaaalllllly big cartoon.

"will it be loud?"

well, yes, it might a little loud we told him, but we'd be there and it would fuuuuuuuunnnn!

we tromped off to the theatre and made our way to our seats as the lights dimmed and the giant television started to play previews. speedracer was tolerable because it had racecars, but we could sense from odin's body language that it was all a little too much. unfortunately, next up was a preview for "ice age: dawn of the dinosaurs that ended with a surprise dinosaur schreeeching. loudly.

odin trembled, crawled up in his mamma's lap and asked if we could leave.

we convinced him to try watching a bit of the main feature and if he still wanted to leave then that would be fine. he hesitatingly agreed.

jeez louise, i guess i should have taken the quote, "A bit too much on the frenetic side" a little more seriously from the rotten tomatoes review snippets that i read before heading out. frenetic? that's an understatement.

we made it through about 20 minutes of frenetic before deciding to it quits right as horton attempts to cross a very rickety, crumbly bridge to thunderous music.

lesson learned? the next time we get bored, we're going for a walk to the park.

the eric update - day 1358: a boy of letters.

2008-03-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

odin has been able to identify letters for eons, but he's recently gone into overdrive questioning us about how to spell words and wanting to practice drawing letters.

today he was practicing his name and the letter "a".

after drawing a giant capital 'A', a few 'O's', an upside down 'd' ( unsure which side of the circle to put the vertical line so he put it on both sides ) and a 'i', he looked up mischievously as if we wouldn't catch that he didn't finish with an "n" and said, "look! a Q!"

trickster.

the eric update - day 1357: the last game of hockey for the season!

2008-03-09T22:21:00.000-04:00

the second day of odin's first hockey tournament he played in his very last game of the hockey for this season "against" other kids who were in his same "learn to skate" program.

he made some good friends along the way. it's hard to imagine it's all over until next year.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

the eric update - day 1356: odin's first hockey tournament!

2008-03-08T22:06:00.001-05:00

just over four months after first stepping on the ice, odin played in his first hockey tournament which marked the end of his "learn to skate" program.

there's no doubt about it, he definitely learned to skate!

the opposing teams proved formidable opponents and some parents wondered if their coaches were sneaking in older and more experienced kids on the ice, but odin the time of his life, which obviously makes it all worth while.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

the eric update - day 1352: lest you think it's all hockey all the time around here.

2008-03-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

there are moments when we're not talking about hockey.

like when we're playing with silk scarves, laying them down like they're colored patches of ice :-)

expedition to the ice caves!

2008-03-03T23:01:00.000-05:00

i went on a trek to visit some ice caves in the kickapoo valley reserve with some friends. we went without guides but they aren't kidding when they describe the trek to the caves as moderate to difficult.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

the eric update - day 1350: the unhappy conductor.

2008-03-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

someone is unhappy that their poppi decided to interrupt their imaginative play of playing train conductor with the kitchen chairs by taking a (gasp!) photograph.

someone else is unhappy that they overexposed the photograph.

the eric update - day 1349: poppi learns to run the clock.

2008-03-01T12:38:00.000-05:00

one week we're innocent parents watching their child learn to skate. and the next we're volunteering at concession stands. and then we're learning to run the clock and keep score for an upcoming tournament.

i wonder if we'll look back years from now as the year we officially became "hockey parents"? who knows. if it happens hopefully we always remember it's about having fun.

the eric update - day 1349: odin's first scrimmage!

2008-03-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

was it really only two weeks ago that odin first picked up a stick and hit a puck? indeed, it was.

today he was in his very first scrimmage in preparation for the big "tournament" that marks the end of the season. i'm going to have to shoot some video next week because watching the kids scramble for the puck is priceless.

i'm impressed with how conscientious everyone seems about keeping their sticks on the ice and i'm happy to report that nobody went to the penalty box for high-sticking :-)

the eric update - day 1343: someday i'll get the hang of this sports photography thing.

2008-02-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

i rectified the egregious error of not taking my camera to the "open skate" races. but as i was skating back after retrieving the camera from kris, bringing the camera to my eye, i missed catching him rounding pylon 2 and slowing down to give a big wave to his fans who were shouting "go odin! go odin! go odin!"

sigh.

as they should be, the rules for racing in the "4 and under" age group are rather laid back. everybody is a winner, of course. technically he came in second place, "losing" by inches. but his "adversary" was older than him and pushing a chair.

who won or lost really became a secondary concern as he graciously accepted congratulations from the big kids on his way to the snack bar.

the eric update - day 1343: drawing poppi a smiley face. with a unibrow.

2008-02-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

he said he wanted to draw me a smiley face and looked up at me for inspiration. i'm happy that he then included the biggest of big smiles.

but i'm not sure what to make of the unibrow ;-(

the eric update - day 1335: pushin'the puck.

2008-02-16T12:55:00.001-05:00

coach said they should work on pushing the puck around the ice.

after a few attempts at moving it along with the bottom edge of the stick as would be typical, odin invented a better technique which game him a little more control over the puck :-)

the eric update - day 1335: on handedness and hockey.

2008-02-16T12:48:00.001-05:00

i'm left handed but i "shoot right" which means my right hand is lower on the stick and my left hand is on the top. i'm fairly certain when i was younger that i was generally considered to be "backwards" - that right handers should "shoot right" and left handers should "shoot left" ( as with most sports, i was taught by right-handers and played with whatever right-handed sticks happened to be around ).

so, it was interesting to me to see that when odin picks up a stick he naturally wants to "shoot left" which made me think he might be left-handed. but odin's coaches said that over the years, the theories have changed and now it's completely opposite - right handers should "shoot left" and left handers should "shoot right":

"Way too many players are right-handed. Too many people are not being taught the very basic idea that the top hand provides all of the control and touch, so it should be your dominant hand. I have a whole team full of righties who can all shoot hard, but can't hit the net, catch a pass, or handle the puck."

"shooting left" seems to be working for odin, since he already has astounding accuracy at quite a distance from the goal!