Max in February

	Arts and Crafts On the left, Woody's music circle, our regular Tuesday contribution to Max's kindergarten. Below that, Max's hand-made Valentines Day cards for his class. Directly below, Max's creation at IHOP's National Pancake Day.

	From a day at the playground. When rainy season ends, it feels like Spring. And the ease with which children who don't know each other will play together is a constant wonder. According to Max, the game was GryphonBall.

Flying Things While Max was playing, I was sitting around messing with my camera. I often try to take pictures of aircraft and birds. This time I got a curious government plane -- actually four of them, or one making four attempts at landing -- that kept me guessing. I looked it up: it's not Air Force One (no presidential seal, etc.) but I couldn't figure out what other branches of government or officials use planes with these markings. Below, Max enjoying a rare ride in the coin-operated helicopter, and a very common flying leap.

  ¶ Wednesday, February 27, 2008 0 comments

  Nature, February 2008

	One of the big highlights of the month was the total eclipse. Hawai'i was too far West to see totality, and the odds of Hilo being overcast on any given day are high. But we drove up to the Mauna Kea visitor center to get above the clouds. It was cold up there, but we did get to see some of it.
	How cold? Well, there's been a lot more snow on the mountaintop this year than the last few, that's for sure.
	Pretty much since the eclipse, we've been dealing with Vog -- that's short for "volcanic fog" -- which has some ash in it but is mostly Sulpher dioxide and other noxious gasses. The lava flow has been very active lately (not in our direction, at all!) and the gas coming out of Kilauea is very heavy. The trade winds should come back by this weekend, and then we can breathe outside again.
	Yeah, it's just another hibiscus, but I have a new camera.... I'm up to 8 megapixels. (What happened to the last one? Well, let's put it this way: don't leave your camera inside a reclining chair. Alternately, when there seems to be a bump in the recliner's action, look under it.) Anyway, here are a few more flowers: some kind of clover from the backyard, and some very dramatic blossoms from the farmer's market, followed by a lemon blossom and something from Max's schoolyard.

What would a nature collection be without bugs? Here are two taken in our very own home! The vicious looking one is a kind of ant, and harmless; the hulking one is harmless, too, and about an inch long.
Finally, a few New Year's Lions from the Chinese New Year.   ¶ Wednesday, February 27, 2008 0 comments

  First Tooth! Yup, Max lost his first tooth today at breakfast. It's in his tooth pillow now, along with a token payment from the tooth fairy (not as much as he's been negotiating for, mind you, since his friends' tooth fairies are loaded, but with a small bonus for the first timer).


Later, since he was staying home from school anyway, he dressed up "to go to a meeting, like Daddy." Click on the picture for the closeup where you can see the missing tooth.

In Arts and Crafts news, things finally settled down enough for us to get out the electronics kit he got for Hanukkah. After I worked with him through the first ten projects -- lights, fans, that sort of thing -- he's actually been doing some of them on his own and some with some coaching from Woody.

Max found a few beads at school, in the playground, and decided to make them the centerpiece of a gift for Momma. So we went to the new bead store, and the craft store, and loaded up with stuff, and he put this together. (Aside from a few kibbitzs, he art-directed this himself) Now I know how to crimp seal things, and we have proper bead wire, so I suspect we'll be doing more of this sort of thing.

  ¶ Friday, February 01, 2008 1 comments