Kansas Dresners: January 2007

Kansas Dresners

Friday, January 26, 2007

Max's World

	Max sure loves his tea parties! The tea set is his second set, purchased with Great-grandfather gift money at the school store (we do have a great school store!).
	An action shot.
	The large green creature is a germ (an old pepto-bismol bank, actually) and all of the other creatures -- denizens of Noah's Ark and dinosaurs, led by a bold penguin -- are arrayed against him.
	Not only did we take a "dog walk" to the park, but it was threatening rain, so Max was fully equipped for a round of playing "Mary Poppins."
	Being Mary Poppins, he had to spend considerable time "above the clouds."

¶ Friday, January 26, 2007 2 comments

Things seen in Hilo: Acrobats and Rainbows

	The circus was in town! Not the clowns and animals type, but the Chinese acrobatic stylings of the Shanghai Circus. The Civic Arena was full to capacity with families. Unfortunately, my batteries died in the first act, so I didn't get the grand "everyone on one bicycle" finale.
	It's a little hard to tell from the still picture, but these guys are actually taking hats off of their neighbors' heads, and passing the hats along the line by juggling them.
	One thing I liked about the performers was their willingness to do a trick over and over until they got it right. Took three tries to make it though this hoop without crashing into it, but he kept setting it up and running through until he hit it.
	Finally, in honor of the rainy season (which we've gotten a bit of a break from this week) two Hilo rainbows. This one's from the parking lot of Home Depot, and the end of the rainbow's over Walmart... maybe Borders.
	Saw this one on the way to work; the end of it turned out to be my office, oddly enough.

¶ Friday, January 26, 2007 0 comments

Invertebrates and lower forms of life

	Saw this on a stump in the sidewalk on the way to the park one day. Love the color.
	I'm not sure what this is. It looks like a cross between a wasp, a grasshopper and a flying ant, and it doesn't show up in my bug books at all. Closest thing I could find was a mud wasp.
	Lots of these guys around these days. Obviously, they're pests, but the shells are cute. Below are two pictures of what appear to albino spiders I spotted in the stairwell at work.

¶ Friday, January 26, 2007 2 comments

Fun, Historian-style

Right before the semester started, I went to the American Historical Association meeting in Atlanta. It's a great way to start the semester, aside from the jet lag: seeing lots of new scholarship and historical friends.

	I don't know if it was deliberate, but I thought the hotel's choice of toiletries was very appropriate
	There was a small international incident on the first day of the conference: an English historian was arrested for jaywalking (and not responding to police orders). My picture of the incident was picked up by the Associated Press and has appeared in at least one English newspaper.
	I was in Atlanta: I had to have ribs. These were pretty good; actually, the rich cornbread and fried mushrooms were what made the meal, for me.
	One of the high points, of course, was having lunch with some of my blogging historian friends, people I've rarely (never, in most cases) met in person but have great relationships with. The gentleman standing with me is Ralph Luker; the folks in front are Rob McDougall, Tim Burke, Kevin Levin and Rebecca Goetz.
	The last morning of the conference is "fire sale" time at the book exhibit, with many publishers cutting prices to avoid having to ship books back to their warehouses. It works, too: I've already assigned one of these books for this semester!

¶ Friday, January 26, 2007 2 comments

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Seasonal.... sorta.

	Don't laugh, it's paid for.
	It was a nice day, so we picnicked. I love the pose.
	Woody got a new toy! Actually, it's more of a trade-in upgrade, but it's a completely new system, which ought to be more flexible in the future.
	Max has been, with Woody's help, of course, really enjoying the Magic Tree House books. Unfortunately, we've now gone through all the ones available on electronic braille, so we're into scanning territory.
	Max arranged them all like this, he said, "so they won't see the tsunami and be scared."

¶ Saturday, January 06, 2007 0 comments

Friday, January 05, 2007

Flowers From Honoka'a to Kilauea

Let's see if I remember where all these came from....

	Well, this one's easy: it's a steam vent from Kilauea. It was a damp day, though we had a nice interlude for our hike, and the steam vents were very active.
	Nettle caterpillars are a real invasive blight. This guy got Max in our front yard. Third one we've identified in the yard; time to talk to the garden experts about sprays.
	This helliconia was in our backyard.
	From the Volcano trip.
	I love the Ohia Lehua when it's half-sprouted. Great form.
	This is from the backyard, a different variety of Ohia.
	Ummm... Oh, yeah. From the garden store next to Tex's Drive in, where we went for our Hanukkah Malasada fix.
	More in the backyard.
	From the Volcano trip.
	Also from the Volcano trip. Cute little things.

¶ Friday, January 05, 2007 0 comments

Mid-December Visions: Lucky shots

Of course the trick with luck, photographically speaking, is to take lots and lots of pictures....

	Playing around after the Christmas concert of the violin school.
	Spotted this guy in the mouth of the guardian lion at Liliuokalani.
	The Arabian dance has always been my favorite from the Nutcracker. This is older students of Max's dance studio.
	Sometimes the pictures come to you. This was in our backyard.
	I've always wanted to get a good picture of this little tree on a rocky outcropping in Hilo Bay: very Japanese scenery, in the right light. I really wanted to catch a splashing wave, but the tide wasn't cooperating.
	A Helliconia at the airport.
	Ducks at Liliuokalani garden, probably the best shot of them I've ever gotten.
	I was pretty impressed with this "Lava Cake" at our end-of-year Department lunch. Less so when I saw a nearly identical cake mix and/or batter sold in the William Sonoma catalog. Two days later, I saw it in the cake mix aisle at Safeway. But the flaming plate was pretty.
	From a tree at Liliuokalani Gardens.

¶ Friday, January 05, 2007 0 comments

Max and Friends

A few pictures from December

	This is one of Max's old KeikiFun buddies, Wyatt, out at their homestead near Volcano.
	We got some construction paper, and Max did his first collage. He says it's a train: the black things at the bottom are the wheels.
	One sad thing last month was that Max's friend Kaj, along with our long-time Hilo friends Kristen and Arne, moved away to Canada. This is Max and Kaj and Sienna saying goodbye at the airport.
	Before they left, they had some fun, though.
	Max's school friend Lotus came over for Latkes, and Max got out his Halloween costume collection! Remarkably, that 2-year old Wolf Suit still has room in it!
	Max loves his Scramble game, so he let all the animals watch!

¶ Friday, January 05, 2007 0 comments

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