Brush with Fame!
Woody got, as she so often does, the challenge to last week's NPR sunday puzzle, along with a few thousand other folks, but this time she got picked to play the puzzle "on air"! They called Thursday, and taped the segment Friday. The picture, of course, is Woody on the phone with the NPR producer, getting ready (after that, Max and I hid at the other end of the house so that we wouldn't make any unnecessary sound). You can see the description of last weeks puzzle and next week's challenge here, and you can listen to Woody's performance starting about noon eastern time (if you didn't catch it on the radio).

Also, Max auditioned! His first formal audition, for Wizard of Oz (as a munchkin, of course). They learned a few dance steps, sang, said their names for the camera, they'll call us after the next open audition on Wed. Oh, and I forgot my camera, but Max's first audition went quite well: he was focused and did a good job, for five years old. Certainly one of the better boys in his age/size range.  ¶ Sunday, August 12, 2007 1 comments

  Bonus Tracks: Max and Photoshop Max and I have a new tradition: when a new calendar arrives, we take it out, scan the good stuff -- animals -- and start photoshopping. Today it was the new World Wildlife Fund Animal Families calendar, which Max turned into the "Baby Coyote's Birthday Party"

The backdrop is our back yard, stretched to make a suitable canvas. The Birthday Party in the Backyard thing isn't a new theme, but before we did it mostly with the animal shapes available in Photoshop, with other shapes for decorations. It was actually quite fun: I learned a lot about the shape tools and Max learned how easy it is to make copies: Everyone's got cupcakes.

I'm not entirely sure that I remember the story behind the next one. The King and Queen (chess pieces, with Photoshop crowns) are in their coach (Thai bronze statue, from the Waikoloa collection) heading for their castle (Scottish, which we got via Google images) which has a side stable (that's the brown outline with the animals) under a magical inhabited moon (I took the moon picture; the moon-animals are Photoshop). The backdrop is also from Photoshop: it's amazing what they've got tucked into their little archive.

The piece-de-resistance, the first calendar project Max and I did, is the Rainbow Kentz. Actually, it's the Bear-headed, pink-eyed, wren-beaked, goat-horned, rabbit-eared, bat-winged, long-necked, bunting-bodied, coyote-footed, oriole-tailed, Rainbow Kentz. Max says it's usually friendly, and an omnivore.
  ¶ Thursday, August 09, 2007 0 comments

  Summer Routine Some of Summer was a lot like the rest of the year, at least as far as Max was concerned.

	Max had six weeks of "summer camp" which is pretty much like his regular preschool, but with a bit less structure, and they have to bring lunch. Max loves bringing lunch, though he ended up eating a surprising amount of it in the car on the way home.
	Dance classes continued. This month we get to gear back up for the Fall school versions of Cinderella.
	Speaking of Cinderella, here's a picture I took during some of the rehearsal down time.
	Gymnastics kept on moving, too. They opened up a class just for 5-6 year olds that Max has been enjoying a great deal.
	Considering the distance and light involved, this isn't bad. I got some better jumping/tumbling shots today when they set up the course right next to the parents and the door. Maybe later.
	Max still loves the horse at the barber shop.
	Long, but still pretty fine. The ponytail worked, but we haven't made it a regular feature.

  ¶ Monday, August 06, 2007 0 comments

  Summer Flowers

	I still can't get over how frequently I see ants in flowers here. Nobody ever mentioned ants as pollinators before; maybe they don't actually do that?
	No, I don't know why these trees turned color in May. Closest thing to fall foliage I've seen in years.
	From a planter at Max's school. These are a bit curled up, but I thought they looked more dramatic that way.
	I still don't know what they're called, but they're one of my favorites around here. These grow in the fish pond at Kalakaua Park.
	Guava blossoms. I don't think much of the fruit, but the flowers are cute.
	This is some kind of orchid at Liliuokalani Park. It's a little past prime, but the internal structures came out most clearly in this picture.
	Mulberry blossom.
	Normally I don't take pictures of flowers in offices ... ah, who am I kidding? I'll take a picture of anything anywhere if I think it'll look interesting. Anyway, this orchid was on the front desk in the division office earlier this Summer.
	This lotus blossom was in a bathtub being used as a floating planter behind "Aloha Luigi's" restaurant (which serves Italian and Mexican, not Hawaiian, food).
	This one was at the Zoo, in the small pond near the front entrance.
	I'm fairly sure this is some variety of Torch Ginger. Also at the Zoo.
	I think this one was from Max's school, but I have no idea what it is. Love the center star, though.
	Finally, though they're not particularly Hawaiian, I did like finding this sequence (different flowers, but you get the idea) of sunflowers from the school garden.

  ¶ Monday, August 06, 2007 0 comments

  Max's Parents Two recent mug shots of me. The first is a self-portrait experiment with a car mirror (you can see the camera in the upper right hand corner); the second was taken by Max while we were waiting for his gymnastics class to start (yes, I arrive early sometimes).


Woody's Birthday: opening presents, and the traditional Ken's Birthday Pancake stack.
  ¶ Monday, August 06, 2007 0 comments

  Summer Fauna It's been a good summer for animal pictures.
Let's start off with a few lizards: a common outdoor one caught at Max's school, and a prehensile tailed skink at the zoo.

Here's a couple from home: two very small juveniles from the living room and two medium-sized kitchen lizards (that's PBJ it's licking off the knife).

	While we were hanging out on Coconut Island waiting for a sailing ship to come in, I spotted this sea turtle next to the island. I've seen them there before, but this time the light was right, there was no crowd nor anyplace we needed to go, so I photostalked the turtle.

Mammals Great and Small.

	The mongoose was annoying the nene flock I posted pictures of earlier: nene, like most Hawaiian birds, never got in the habit of building nests in trees, so when rats and mongoose were introduced to the islands, their eggs became favorite snack foods. The nene were not happy to see this fellow, but he hung out in the open for an unusually long time.
	Panaewa Zoo's big pig, in an usually wakeful moment. Below, of course, is the pacing white tiger, Namaste. (Whose name, I recently learned, means "I salute you" in Sanskrit, and was popularized as a secular alternative to religious greetings in India.)

Other Orders of Fauna

	Monarch Butterfly cocoon, from the zoo butterfly house. I couldn't seem to get the focus to fix on the cocoon instead of the cage, though.
	This was the largest crab I think I've seen in the wild, at least in a very long time. Small versions of this variety are very common along every coast of this island, but I didn't know they got this big. This one's a good four or five inches across the shell.
	A very small fish feeding frenzy. We were tossing bread bits to the koi and their friends in Kalakaua Park.

	Some fish we spotted in a particularly clear section of Hilo Bay during a nice low tide. I just love the distortion of the ripples.

  ¶ Monday, August 06, 2007 0 comments