Kansas Dresners

Winfield 2011

2011-09-17T17:33:00.002-10:00

Thursday and Friday we were at the 40th Walnut Valley Music Festival, aka "Winfield." Woody's been a few times; I went once before; this is, of course, Max's first trip. Being the 40th year of the festival, there were a great many old favorite performers, so lots of names we recognized. We were only there for two of the four days (the campground celebrations started a week earlier), but it was fun, and Thursday, in particular, was uncrowded. You can see the performers and grounds here.

	The first thing we did was Linda Tilton's Ukulele workshop. Usually, Winfield workshops are more showing than teaching, but this was a solid, hands-on basic class.
	As you can see, we were bundled up: the temperature didn't get much above 60 for two days, and the drizzle and wind kept it chilly. It was a good year to be selling official sweatshirts....
	John McCutcheon is one of the most reliable and popular performers at Winfield, and a great guy. In addition to his own solo work, he invited Notorious up for a few songs, and joined in Bryan Bowers sets at least twice.
	In addition to the main stages, Winfield has a very lively campground jam tradition, with some groups returning year after year, with themes and logos. "Froggy Mountain" is the camp which some of Woody's Kansas City friends maintain, including Mike, who's one of the Kansas City Ukesters.
	More jamming! (Note the official limited edition Froggy Mountain frog cap! Most of the camp groups aren't that organized, but we did see some which involved great effort and focus).
	I wasn't trying to be anonymous, but Max and I were messing around and his hat ended up hanging from my cap. Naturally, he got a shot.

Little Balkans Days and Gutters

2011-09-11T19:28:00.004-10:00

	Our traditional Little Balkans Days observances starts with the train ride. We got some extra tickets along with the family pack, so brought one of Max's friends.
	The next stop after the train is usually the petting zoo, yes. Max is getting a bit big for the pony rides, but the camel holds him just fine. Then we wander through the Car Show.
	This year we checked out the folk-life show, though the music didn't hold Max's interest all that well at times, he found ways to amuse himself.

That was last weekend. This weekend was more a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that, including a little it-might-rain-again-someday home repair (and it rained last night, thank you very much!) which did have the unfortunate effect of disturbing the amphibian below. Max was my spotter, and photographer, while I fixed the back, and helped clean out (and sweep up after) the front gutter/mulch pile.

This is a test of an animated gif. If it's working you should see flashing train lights:

Underhill Academy Takes Shape

2011-07-29T07:28:00.002-10:00

How is homeschooling like moving? Everything changes, and everything has to be moved. Well, maybe it only feels that way.

This is how the Family Room looked at the start of the project. Note the Lego-strewn desk and table, the haphazardly packed blue wire shelves, the piles...

Stage One: Clean out under the desk and table, consolidate legos


	Note the cleared desk, the elimination of piles around the desk, and Max playing with something he hadn't seen in a year or more.

The Legos were a particular challenge, and weren't completely done until the very end, because we kept finding legos up to and including the final floor sweeping.


	Once the Legos were basically organized, though, the rest of the room could start shifting. Note that the keyboard moves from next to the Lego table over to where the pie chest with the games was, and vice versa.

Next, the wire shelves, which had become more or less random collections of... stuff.


	Once the shelves were emptied, we turned them sideways, to make room for that shiny new (OK, we've had it for ten years, but we haven't used it in a while and I cleaned it up) table and new (actually new, thanks to Grandma Marcia) drawers.

With the basic infrastructure in place, it was time for finishing touches: the built-in shelves, and then... putting everything that he was keeping back somewhere. This meant putting stuff back in the wire shelves (saving the top ones for folders) and other places, including a lot of toys and mementoes which needed to go in his room.

So, after a lot of that, the room finally looks like this:


	As you can see, the wire shelves are still mostly empty -- a lot of stuff is going upstairs -- and the balls and games are under control.

Now we're moving on to phase two of the project. Phase two? Yeah, well when you change part of a system -- in this case a major room in a household -- that much, it affects other parts of the system. Look at the office:

Moving Woody's old desk out of there, and making room for school files, meant processing and shredding large quantities of old papers, moving a file cabinet to make room for the desk, and generally reexamining how a lot of things were stored. I went through years worth of bills and papers, sorting and shredding and recycling. We've found things long thought lost -- that second bin for frisbees and balls was full of miscellaneous stuff we didn't know what to do with when we moved, including Japanese chopstick holders in the shape of tops and the instruction manuals to most of the power tools I bought in Hawai'i.

Now we're working on Max's room: moving a few boxes of toys upstairs means that we need room for more stuff, so he's doing the same process there: pull out everything, decide whether it's garbage, give-away or keep, and figure out how to put it all back. And we just bought a few hundred dollars worth of frames for posters and pictures that hadn't been put up yet. We'll be done... someday.

Many thanks to Grandma Marcia for her help getting the process started and moved to the middle stages.

Limericks

2011-04-23T05:25:00.002-10:00

For the Mushroom FM birthday, Woody's making her listeners compose limericks to get a free t-shirt. Relatives not allowed, but Max and I got to demonstrate homemade limericks to inspire them. Max did one he made up on the way to school, and I did two that I wrote this morning:

For Passover, most Jews eat matzo(r)
We eat it plain, sometimes with butter
instead of flour
we grind it to powder
and cook it with eggs, oil, water

People say that they like history
But they just mean the Channel. Not me.
I'm not big on war.
Ice truckers? They bore.
I explain how things came to be.

The scan isn't perfect. Nor the rhyme. But for improv it's not bad.

March Maxness

2011-03-17T18:16:00.002-10:00

	After two snow-day cancellations, the PTO gave up trying to have the science fair, but we didn't. After some communication with the school, and Max's teacher in particular, she decided to stage a 3rd grade science fair, invited the other teachers in the grade to have kids bring in their undisplayed projects, and view the results. Well, only Max and his friend Logan actually did, but they had a blast, showing all three of the 3rd grade groups, one after the other, their science chops. Below is Logan's demonstration of breaking down water to gas with electricity flowing through pencil graphite: you can see the bubbles! Max's project, of course, can be found here.

	The science fair was a nice release after a tense week: State Reading Assessment tests. The tests themselves were about an hour's work, spread over three days, but they've spent the last few weeks getting the kids so worked up about them that it's a wonder any of them wanted to go to school. Last week they did all kinds of 'dress funny to show your spirit' stuff: this was "Dress Up Day."
	Yesterday Max was messing around while we were in the kitchen, and I heard him and Woody joking about getting an updated rocking horse picture.... so I took one. Not the same without the sailor suit, though!
	Our other project this week was the Alligator Cake! We were asked to bring something good for the Purim Oneg, and Max has wanted to make this "Princess and the Frog" cookbook cake since we got the book, so we did. Spearmint-leaf toes and scales, M&Ms, too. Yogurt Pretzels for teeth, eyes. white bundt cake and white icing with a few score drops of food color and a teaspoon of peppermint extract. As you can see below, it's not quite the same as the book, but not bad for an historian.....

Science Fair 2011

2011-01-20T10:57:00.005-10:00

The Flame Game

What Burns What Doesn't

By Max Dresner

The Question: What I hope to Learn

Which dissolvable materials will make cloth fireproof? I want to learn this because I read that alum makes cloth fireproof, and I wanted to find out whether that was true, and whether other dissolvable materials would make cloth fireproof too.

	Materials Water Alum Salt Sugar Epsom salts Borax Baking soda Dawn dishwashing soap Cotton cloth
	Equipment Lighters: high heat and regular Permanent marker Twine for a clothesline Bowl Fire extinguisher Safety Goggles Latex Gloves

The Steps

First, we had to get all the materials. Some were common household objects, but some were harder to get. We bought the last bottle of alum at the pharmacy. The rest was easy to get at Wal-Mart.

	Next, we cut the cloth into squares with 12 squares on a side and labeled them.
	Then, we made the solutions...
	...and dipped the cloth in them. We hung them to dry for a day.
	The next day, we lit one piece of cloth dipped in each solution with a very small blowtorch. We started outside, but it was too windy, so we had to move into the garage after trying the plain cloth and the first attempt with cloth dipped in water. I hoped at least one would explode, but no such luck.

	The final day, we lighted the second batch of cloths with a regular-heat lighter in the garage, with the garage door closed.

Results

Alum makes cloth fireproof if you use a low-heat flame. The same is true of Borax, water, salt, and Epsom salts. With the hotter flame, the cloth soaked in all of these burned some, but not as much as when dipped in the other solutions or when not dipped at all. Baking soda made the cloth burn more slowly than plain cloth with both types of flame, but not as slowly as alum, salt, and Epsom salts. Dawn made the cloth burn more, with both the low and high flames. With the high flame, sugar made the cloth burn much more than plain cloth, but less than Dawn did. With a low flame, cloth dipped in sugar did not burn very much. See the chart for the details.

Conclusions

Borax and Alum were supposed to make cloth fireproof. They did, but not very well. Dawn and sugar were very flammable. The rest were somewhere in between. In the future, we could test other kinds of cloth or other solutes.

	After Treatment		High Heat		Low Heat
Name	Stiffness	Color Change	Flammability	Squares Burned	Flammability	Squares Burned	Notes
No Solute Ø	None	None	Burns a short period	4	Burns some	3	The burn looks like flowing lava
Water H₂O	Almost none	None	Short	5	Almost none	1	The fire starts after the flame is lifted
Alum NH₄Al (SO₄)₂	Stiff	Patchy	Small	5	None	2	Snow-like substance on cloth, turns black, intense smoke, doesn't burn well
Salt NaCl	Slightly stiff	None	Almost none	3	None	1/2
Sugar C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁	Very stiff	None	High	30	Not deeply scorched	1	Almost impossible to bend
Epsom Salt MgSO₄•7H₂O	Stiffer	None	Moderate	22	None	1/2
Borax Na₂B₄O₇•10H₂O	Slightly stiffer	Sparkly	Almost none	5	Almost none	1	Snow like substance covering cloth
Baking Soda NaHCO₃	Slightly stiffer	None	Slightly flammable	4	Crawling ember	1 1/2
Soft Soap (Dawn)	None	Slightly flakey	Highly flammable	134	Tall long flame	12

Little Balkans Days

2010-09-05T19:12:00.002-10:00

I've been remiss in posting summer pictures, but I'll try to get some up. Meanwhile, here's a few from the Labor Day weekend, better known in Pittsburg as Little Balkans Days

	There's not a lot of "Balkan" in the festival at this point, but there's plenty of stuff to do, and all the usual fair foods. This is Max's second year doing the camel ride: it may become traditional, until he's too big.
	Same goes for the pony ride, which Max picked instead of the inflatable toys. I didn't know, at the time, that he was leaning low over the horse for a reason: he'd already decided that he wanted to photoshop it so it looked like he was riding fast through the desert! This is a rough draft....
	The "Heart of the Heartland" train ride is one of the de rigeur events of the weekend. They only ran one train this year, to considerable grumbling, but we got our tickets early enough! It's just a short, slow ride, but still a nice way to reflect on the history.
	Nothing to do with Little Balkans Days, but Max's cherry tomatoes have finally been producing some ripe fruit! Tasty little things, and a dozen or more green ones still hanging.

Visiting Pittsburg

2010-07-11T12:13:00.002-10:00

Pittsburg isn't the tourist attraction that our last home was, but it's closer! Clint, Anne, Jack and Nate came down for the weekend.

	Needless to say, Big Brutus is a must-see for the 6-12 set (and the geek of all ages!), and Max and his cousin made the most of it. You can see the rest of my Big Brutus pictures here.

	No visit to Brutus would be complete without the "everyone in the scoop" shot! And no visit anywhere would be complete without a bug or flower shot (below). After lunch, we dropped by Pitt State, where the cousins went bananas....

	After we got back from our adventures, I did a circuit around the yard with the Nikon. Left, a Zinnia bud in the garden. Below that, one of our ripe (but still largely tasteless) pears. Just below, a young robin in the branches.

Shed

2010-07-05T15:01:00.003-10:00

As I reported back in February, we got a new riding mower earlier this year, and also a shed kit to house it. When my parents were here in Spring, we got the shed up.

	First, of course, finding a flat, open but not too obvious spot in the yard. This is the back corner (northwest, if you're keeping maps) surrounded by cedars on two sides and pear on the third.
	We were too busy putting the thing up to take pictures during the process, but here's a finished view
	Obviously, the first thing to do with a mower shed, is park the mower! The T-Shirts are in honor of Woody's new internet radio home, Mushroom FM. We had a little trouble with one side of the roof, and I 'fixed' it with foam filler and silicone caulk. When we got back from vacation, I discovered that that half of the roof had slid entirely off the shed. Taking the opportunity of the now-half-empty roof, I got up and recentered the skylight piece, and we got the roof back in properly. Now we're slowly moving gardening stuff out of the garage, and the shed is looking more and more shed-like inside!

Postscript: Here's a better shot of the shed in place.

Yard Work

2010-07-05T14:17:00.003-10:00

Aside from the travel, our big adventure this summer has to be Max's garden. Of course, calling it "Max's garden" doesn't begin to describe the work that's gone into it, starting with one set of grandparents (plus a cousin!) helping with the tilling and the other set helping with the initial weeding and planting, not to mention the work his parents have put into re-weeding after our neglectful travels. We had some bad weather luck early: a run of rain which wiped out a lot of seeds and kept us from weekding during the critical early stages, then a run of hot, dry weather right after we replanted the tomatoes (and abandon them, because we were having fun in other states). In spite of it all, we've got some plants growing.

	Stage one, after deciding what the garden would involve, was pre-planting the tomatoes indoors. They got to a few inches high before we replanted them and nearly killed the lot. Below, you can see the initial weeding and laying out of the garden. It looks so neat and promising! And then we planted the seeds and .... it started raining. And raining. And raining. Then we went on vacation!

	As you can see, when we got back from our trips, the garden had sprouted..... WEEDS. The tomato plants had disappeared entirely, which is what you're looking at here. As you can see below, the entire garden was something of a mess. There's almost no evidence of the original lines, except for the morning glory on the right. It was a little while before we actually got back to weeding, as you can see below. By then the pumpkin was showing flowers and some real life.

	The rain has been a bit inconsistent: first that huge wet spell, then a really dry spell. Aside from a couple of times, though, we've not had to water it much: since we got back, rain's been pretty reliable.
	This goes in the "if we'd had time, we should have done this at the beginning of the summer" category. As we've cleared the weeds -- working in roughly half-hour daily shifts in the morning -- we've been discovering what's still living and laying down weedblock. Turns out that we've got a little of everything, almost. The morning glory and pumpkin, true to their viney nature, are growing like gangbusters. There are a few sunflowers now starting to get tall and, much to our surprise, a few carrot tops. I don't think any zinnias made it, though.

	Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the survival of two tomato plants. We'd actually taken the tomato frames out of the garden for a while, but we put them back to support the two that are growing.
	It's me, of course, so I have to share a bug picture! This cute fellow was hanging out on a sunflower.

Postscript: Those "Sunflowers" I was going on about? Zinnias.

Performances

2010-04-17T17:12:00.002-10:00

It's getting to be that time of year: Spring, when all the end-of-year school performances come! So far we've had the school 2nd-3rd grade musical, a multicultural Cinderella event at the library and Max's first judged piano performance. Of course I got pictures...

	Being a musical about bugs, Bugz required costuming: the bumblebee costume from a couple of years ago still fits, but it's kind of skintight now. Everyone needed antennae, though. We experimented with different kinds before settling on the curly ones. Below you can see Max getting on stage with his wings, and singing in the chorus parts with the masks on. He also had two short solos, including a kind of bug-like square dance call.

	Max wasn't officially part of the puppet production of the story of Esther that the congregation youth group did, but he got drafted to help display the illustrated megillah. Below, you can see scenes from the school carnival, inexplicably held indoors on a beautiful day: Max practicing fire safety and Max trying to win a bottle of soda nobody in our family drinks (he failed).

	Max's performance of "Spirit of the Stallion" was a great success -- the judge declared it "excellent" and his teacher was quite pleased as well. He was nervous, but satisfied. (I would have gotten better pictures, but the judge's 'assistant' came in right before Max's turn and sat down right in the middle of the front row between me and the piano.) Below you can see Max and Woody starting Max's garden -- the tomato plants need to sprout indoors for a while first -- which will really get underway as soon as I remember to rent a tiller during the week (no, I don't know why our rental places are closed on weekends).

Passover 2010

2010-04-02T18:42:00.000-10:00

New Year Miscellany

2010-02-06T18:57:00.002-10:00

	We celebrated New Year's in Kansas City, trumpeting in the 2010s. Below, some shots of Max.

Because I always take nature shots.

Around Home

	This is an older picture -- Vivian's much older now! -- but it's too cute not to share.
	When Jim and Marge moved to St. Louis last month, they left a few things with us. Here's Max demonstrating his new rug, and his "keep the floor clean" committment has remained surprisingly strong since.
	The "Candy Cane Invitational" gymnastics event involved honest-to-goodness judging. This is Max's score, after his brief routine. Everyone got medals. Below, Max's Science Fair experiment: cookies with and without salt! No judging this time, but I think a much more successful event.

	Another of the "hand-me-down's" from the Farm: our new riding mower! Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy to get off the truck as we'd hoped. However, I got off it safely, and with a little extra leverage and it came down fine.
	Then, we had to get it into the garage, until we can build a shed for it. Oh, and we also had to get the shed kit into the garage. We've succeeded, but it's going to feel like a very big garage once we get the shed built!

Christmas 2009

2010-02-06T17:45:00.002-10:00

	Christmas proper was in St. Louis, with the Bauer side of the family. Max and Cousin Jack were very proud of their Santa snacks this year. The name is Bauer. Jack Bauer.

	One of the themes of Max's presents this year was construction: a lot of them were "some assembly and imagination required."

	Fun with Cousins: In addition to the Christmas festivities, playing with each other's new toys (like Nathan's eminently wearable Play-doh), we got to spend time at the St. Louis City Museum (more of a parental stress generator than a museum, but well worth the visit) and the St. Louis Science Center (which had lots of real science stuff, as well as astronaut toys)

Preparing for Christmas, 2009

2010-02-06T17:29:00.002-10:00

	While we were in Maryland, we introduced Max to the Dresner-Scherer Tree Trim tradition. I'm not sure whether the highlight for him was the tree trimming, or meeting baby Rachel.

Once we got back from Maryland, it was time for the Christmas Pageant! (Nope, no token Hanukkah songs, or anything like that. Max's big solo number was Elvis's "Blue Christmas." In unrelated but odd news, the winning word in the Middle School spelling bee this year was "dreidel", even though no two Jews can agree on how it's spelled.)

	"Go Tell It On The Mountain" rocked.
	The director of the show is primarily a choreographer, so the staging was fairly elaborate.
	Aside from channeling "The King," Max also got to be one of the Three Kings for a scene where an older girl was singing to baby Jesus.

Catching Up: Newman Thanksgiving

2010-02-06T16:41:00.002-10:00

Before all the snow, it was possible to travel to and from the mid-Atlantic region! Here's the evidence, from November

	Last December was my Grandpa Vic's 90th Birthday. We gathered in Maryland to celebrate with good deli food and cake.
	The Sisters!
	The Grandkids (and spouses). Bek and Sean and Rhyer were represented photographically!
	The Great-Grandkids, of course.

Thanksgiving

	Thanksgiving Dinner was the predictable feast, very friendly. Grandpa Vic was there, and Fellis and Hap. Things got a little odd after dinner, fitness-wise....

Birthday Stuff

2009-11-15T18:43:00.002-10:00

In addition to a magical birthday, Max also had a bit of a medieval birthday, with shields and swords (OK, lightsabers) and castles....

By the way: between the rabbi's visit and cleaning up the family room to make room for the castle project, the house is in really good shape right now! Anyone want to come visit?

Things We Did Recently

2009-11-15T18:23:00.002-10:00

	Woody beat me at chess for the first time. Max helped, by playing me simultaneously.
	We reupholstered the dining room chairs. Well, to be specific, we bought fabric and Marge reupholstered them. Then, because the rabbi was coming over for dinner, we cleaned everything up, so we could even take cool pictures.
	Max was working on his gymnastics at school
	Max was Darth Vader for Halloween. Apparently nobody sells Ewok costumes around here. Below, you can see Local Darth, and our 2009 Pumpkin. We hadn't planned on a sad look; it just came out that way. As always, Max did the design, and I did the execution.

Finally, some local events: the PSU production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, a Family Art night (featuring liquid nitrogen-made ice cream to demonstrate the tasty art of science. Don't ask, but it was fun and tasty!), and the regional ballet version of Prokofiev's Cinderella (fairies, and Max with the Jester).

Autumn Nature

2009-11-15T17:48:00.002-10:00

I'm starting off this series with my nature pictures. First, some mushrooms that I found on campus:

Next, some Fauna

Finally, a sign of the season: Harvest

Summer Fun 2009

2009-09-01T15:30:00.004-10:00

We're over a week into the semester here, so summer is REALLY, really over. So here are some of our adventures from the warmer months:

One of the annual highlights around here is the Four State Farm Show, with tractors and harvesters and silos and cowboy hat salesmen.... It was surprisingly diverting.

	The cousins arrive! And grandparents! And we showed them Pittsburg.
	Big Brutus is one of the biggest steam shovels ever. I've had dorm rooms smaller than the scoop.
	There was a lot at the George Washington Carver museum: the kids may have had more fun in the museum, but the nature walk was pretty good.
	We took the whole clan out to Triple Creek for a visit. The kids, naturally, had a blast on the trampoline.
	Dad and I had fun hunting bugs in the garden

Closer to home, though they moved a lot of the geese out of Lakeside Park, we still have ducks and ducklings. And Max now knows how to play checkers, thanks to his other grandmother!

We also took a short trip up to St. Louis, to see the other cousins and have some fun.

	The Magic House is a big exploratorium-type complex just a few blocks from Clint's place. Max and Jack spent quite a while in the Construction Zone, moving bricks and making walls. Below, a self-portrait in plastic.

We went to the new City Garden sculpture park, which doubled as a water adventure

On our last day we spent a couple of hours at the St. Louis Zoo, then the next morning, on our way home, we stopped at the Merimac Caverns to explore the caves and history

Then we came home and got ready for school.

Summer Work 2009

2009-09-01T14:41:00.000-10:00

One of my summer projects -- which will actually never end, as it's now going to be an ongoing component of my teaching -- is creating a set of images that I can use for teaching. Some of it is going to be scanning art and other book images which I can use, but a big chunk has to do with converting my old slide and print pictures from Japan into digital forms that I can make easy use of in the classroom and (because I own them!) share on the internet for other people to use.

It's been a blast, really, going back into the old collections, rediscovering things I didn't even remember taking pictures of, figuring out what things are, and thinking about what I can do with them as a teacher.

I started out scanning my slides, the ones that I'd pulled out of the collection years ago for teaching purposes, but haven't used in years because of the awkwardness of slide projection in the classroom. I've borrowed Dad's slide scanner, which is producing very nice results. The slides cover our time in Japan in the mid-'80s, a quarter century ago now: they're historical! Once I scan them, I'm annotating them (at least a little, to start) and sorting them so that I can find them again when I need them. Since the semester started, and I've been at work more, I'm using the new scanner I got to scan prints, which cover both my junior year ('87-88) and our year in Yamaguchi ('94-95).

I still have a lot more prints to scan on the first pass, and a lot more slides to look at. In the meantime, if you want a giggle, I've got a set of bad Japanese English examples and if you want to stroll down memory lane, there's the Personal and Family set.

1981, if you'll cast your minds back

2009-07-30T18:35:00.003-10:00

I've been messing around with Dad's slide scanner: I need to find my Japan slides (I think they may actually be at work) but I practiced with a few of my older personal slides. So here are two slideshows: the first is from Grandma Ev's birthday party, 1981, with a few aquatic garden pictures at the end:

The second is labelled "Williamsburg" but I wonder if the first part isn't from somewhere else: it's nature pictures (and family shots), from some wetland (Update: Mom says "Florida") we visited with the Dresner grandparents.

Arkansas Travelers

2009-07-11T18:13:00.002-10:00

	Our Arkansas adventure began in Fayeteville, at the Arkansas Air Museum and Ozark Military Museum, a two-for-the-price-of-one which was a lot of fun. It's not all airplanes: I didn't know, for example, that Model T's came in five colors for the first few years, and only later were limited to black.
	The silver one-seater in the foreground is Sam Walton's first plane, a simplified one-stick model.
	Among the working models donated to the museum were several home-kit craft, including this shockingly basic helicopter.
	The big military stuff was outside, including this F-4 and the Cobra helicopter. Inside the Military Museum were some interesting hardware, as well as some great documents: my favorites were the December 1941 war bond and the Okinawa Invasion Map.
	After the museums, we drove down into the Ouchita Forest, and took a little nature walk. On the way out of the forest, we stopped at a great rocks and crystals place in Mt. Ida. Speaking of nature, we saw a lot of daddy longlegs around.
	When we got to Hot Springs we discovered that the National Parks have been going to new lengths to engage children, including their Junior Ranger program. Max is testing the water from the Spring.
	After a very thorough investigation of the medical equipment and facilities, the decorations and architecture at the old resorts, Max got to be sworn in as a Hot Springs Junior Ranger.
	The Hot Springs Art Museum was small, but interesting. Well, more amusing, but still, we had fun.
	Just because Fort Smith is an historical site, doesn't mean that there isn't a natural side to it.
	In addition to getting his Junior Ranger badge at Fort Smith, we took the historical trolley. The tour ended up being more about the trolley itself -- recovery, restoration, ongoing expansion of the rails -- but we love that kind of stuff.
	As part of the tour, we got to check out a caboose they are restoring, and a few other things. After we left Fort Smith, we visited the Farm, where, before I was felled with illness, I got some excellent vulture pictures.

Summer Theater

2009-06-29T11:27:00.004-10:00

The first half of the summer, it seems, was taken up with Max's theater camps: a two-week broadway revue camp and a one-week mini-camp with singing, dancing and acting.

For the first camp, they did a half-hour show with bits and pieces from several generations of song-and-dance theater. Max's crew had a bit from the 1920s ("Varsity Drag") and "So Long, Farewell" as the closer, plus everyone in the camp did "Wells Fargo Wagon" as a group number in the middle. They also did some cute introduction skits: Max got to utter the immortal segue, "And now for something completely different." These pictures are frame captures from video, part of our recent explorations into video editing:

	Dora the Explorer introduces the Peter Pan number
	Not quite Rock Opera, but a nice scene
	The Wells Fargo wagon is a-comin' down the street...
The Wells Fargo Wagon is Here!
	The grand farewell

The theme of the mini-camp was "Surfin'" ("Surfin' USA" and "Surfer Girl" were the songs) so they ended with a surfer pose:

Though Max missed the first two days, he still had fun and got to be friends with some of the kids:

In academic theater, I went out to southern California and had a lovely conference: I've got a few of the pictures here:

Ferrets and Flowers

2009-05-19T18:05:00.004-10:00

	Max and I went by the park one afternoon last week, and a couple had brought their ferrets out for a bit of fresh air. They let the kids -- who gathered around the portable pen immediately -- walk them, and hold them. Needless to say, Max talked about getting a ferret for a pet all the way home. The picture below is from Parsons, but it could be from anywhere around here: we had some serious thunderstorms and straight-line windstorms: lots of billboard damage, trampolines in soybean fields, and big trees.

	Squirrels! The conclave to the left was on campus: six squirrels all digging for nuts and seeds around this one tree. The two pictures below are from Lakeside Park: First, a squirrel so busy with foraging that he forgot to be nervous when we walked by. Second, the grackle was trying to run the squirrel off, but I'm not entirely sure why.

Cute:

Flowers and Bugs

Update: Northern Harrier (female). This is the kind of raptor we've been seeing all over SE Kansas. This one was in our backyard while I was mowing this morning!

Max and Family

2009-05-06T06:16:00.002-10:00

	Max and Grandad. Max is drawing clues for a guessing game.
	Lakeside Park jungle gym, Spring Break.
	Echo and Karin's, on our quick visit to see "The Witches" at Crown Center. Max fit the hat so well, that they let him take it home!
	Also at Crown Center. Did you know that it's the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz movie? They had a very kid-friendly display: lots of cute stuff to play with, and all the antiques behind glass.
	Prairie Winds! Our yard, unfortunately, is ringed with trees, so the breeze isn't all that steady unless it's really windy. But it was a good first run with the new kite.
	If you put a rubber band across the castle turrets, and attach the playmobile surfboard..... Catapult! Took a few shots to get one in-flight, but Max was patient with me.

	Very recent shot: note the lost tooth, and haircut! We're still wearing sweater-vests, though.

Max and Friends

2009-05-06T06:03:00.002-10:00

	It was a mild winter, but it's been a raging Spring: we had our biggest snowfall -- and Max's first real snowman -- in late March, and we haven't turned the AC on yet, though it's May. Max has only been able to wear shorts to school a few times.
	Purim, done right. Max is a gryphon; he took his wings off, though. His friends are a power ranger and ... I don't remember. Something green.
	K-1 Spring Concert was cute. Max got to do a beatbox solo (I think that's what it was) on the "Seven Days a Week Rap" that got a great reaction from the audience.
	Max's story, "Arcti the Arctic Fox" got him a trip to the Young Authors Conference, where he got to meet with children's author/illustrator Susan Stevens Crummel. One of his teachers was helping run things, so she took him up for a quick meet-and-greet before the official business!
	There were some book characters there, and Max got shots with all of them. His reaction? "Fuzzy!"

Signs of Spring, 2009

2009-05-06T04:30:00.002-10:00

	We don't have ducks in the yard often. Lots of young ones around at the moment.
	The only thing surprising about the young ducks is that any of them were born, given the sometimes exposed and odd places they were laying eggs in Lakeside Park.
	Now that the threat of frost has (mostly) passed, they've put the banana trees back out around my building. It's still odd, yes, but I'm getting used to it.
	I love the Kansas sky. When it's clear, it's really quite a sight. Not to mention a fantastic backdrop for all kinds of growing things.
	It was a mild winter, and the squirrels are still pretty fat.
	I've never seen flowers come up so quickly that they took the mulch with it!
	These were all over the place last month: some kind of pear that's very popular around here. We have two towering ones in our backyard, but we're not sure how much they'll produce.
	Could I do a nature post without bugs? This three-inch locust was spotted at Pitt State; his little cousins are trying to colonize our garage, I think. We have big honeybees, too, but I haven't gotten any great shots yet.

Natural Phenomena

2009-05-06T04:17:00.002-10:00

	It's been a while, so here are some interesting nature pictures I've gotten over the last few months. This was taken about three months ago, just around the corner. There aren't a lot of birds that do hanging nests, but I'm not sure which one it is.
	The donut shop where we go Saturday mornings has the habit of tossing broken bits out the drive-up window. The grackles know this, and show up pretty much like clockwork. One of these days I'm going to just stake them out for a while, because I really want to get more good bird-in-flight pictures.
	Speaking of bird-in-flight pictures, this hawk-in-snow shot came from late February, out at Triple Creek farm.
	March was unseasonably warm this year in Kansas. This unidentified mammal (beaver-sized, but the tail's wrong) was spotted at Lincoln Park. We've seen it there before, too, but this time we spotted some of its tunnels.
	Seen on campus during the same rainy spell that drove the mammal into the open.
	During our last major wind-storm, we had a big flock of something hunkering in our trees.
	Common, yes, but up close it's pretty cool looking.

Some February Shots

2009-02-07T18:26:00.002-10:00

	I'd been trying to work out in my head what MTNS stood for in the PSU seal (yeah, I could have looked it up, but I never thought of it except when I saw the seal, and that was never when I was near a computer). Turns out that the answer was on my building!
	Last night the moon was so bright and the sky so clear, that we just had to get out the telescope. We'd stayed home from services because I'd been short on sleep and fighting a cold. This was more fun anyway.
	That same cold kept me from joining Max and Woody in the pool for the family swim at the end of his lastest swim class session. He's still a polliwog, but he's really enjoying the water.
	This was pretty big on him when Woody started. He's been wearing it a lot since it was done, and that's a good thing: it probably won't fit him next winter....

Just because we're not in the tropics doesn't mean that there aren't bugs for me to take pictures of!

Oompa Loompa Doompedy-doo

2009-02-07T18:06:00.003-10:00

	For the last four months, Max has spent his Saturday afternoons learning to be an Oompa-Loompa. Last weekend, all that training paid off! Though not one of the older oompa-loompas, he was clearly a leading member of the company.
	Memorial Auditorium is one of these nice venues which really doesn't seem to have bad seats, but I really do think we got quite lucky. The first night -- yes, we went to both performances -- we were on the right, about three rows back.

Here you can see Willy Wonka in his finery, Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe. Max is all the way to the right. He was pretty sure that we wouldn't be able to pick him out, since all the Oompa Loompas were dressed and made up alike. He still isn't sure how we did it...

Signs and Seasons

2008-12-25T17:21:00.003-10:00

Just a few notes about our recent adventures:

	Obviously, winter is here. We've had some snow and freezing rain and I've cleaned out the garage so I can park in there. There've been a few days when walking to school was a bit much, but otherwise we're weathering it (and weatherstripping it!) pretty well.
	We had a great quick trip back east for Shawn's Bat Mitzvah: she did very well, and we had a blast seeing the whole family again!
	Obviously, one of the highlights for everyone was meeting the newest member of the clan: Rhyer Michael!
	Obviously.... Did you ever notice how much cuter people look when they're looking at a cute baby?
	We took a quick trip up to KC to see the Magic Treehouse musical. Not sure what the lightsaber connection was, but they were selling like hotcakes in the lobby. Jack, Ryan and Max make quite the Jedi team!
	Max loves the drama and decor of the season, and apparently our haircut place does, too!

Political Fun!

2008-11-02T16:01:00.002-10:00

Living in a non-battleground state (as we have for the last seven years), I've kind of gotten used to the idea that we wouldn't really see much political action. We got an email on Friday, though, saying that Obama would be at a rally in Springfield, MO on Saturday, and we all thought it would be pretty cool, so we went.

It was a two hours drive there, uneventful except for the honking-thumbs-up reception we got when we got on the highway. It took a little time to find parking, but we got pretty lucky, finding a street spot about a block from the stadium. We had, however, seen the line stretching from the stadium down the road, a distance that GoogleMaps claimed was six tenths of a mile. We hiked down the line, picking up some t-shirts along the way, and settled in. We brought sandwiches, snacks and some water, and ate along the way. There was some compression, so we moved about two storefronts before the doors opened at six, then it was another hour before the line started moving consistently, and it was after eight when we got into the stadium, through security (TSA-style [TSA-staffed,too], minus the shoe-removal) and found our way to the last remaining obstructed-view bleacher seats. We sat there for another hour, listening to a carefully selected mix of anthemic songs from all genres and generations (Motown, country, 80s rock, 90s rock, etc.). A bit of speechifying, Michelle Obama gave a brief introduction, the whole Obama family came on, then Obama started speaking a bit before 10pm. Max was, surprisingly, still awake, cheering, chanting and having fun; By 10:15, though, the novelty had worn off, the time had caught up with him, and he was asleep on the bleachers. Obama kept going for another ten minutes or so, and it was over.

The crowd was lively throughout, responsive, having fun, very positive. There were some counter-protests, but it seems to have stayed civil. Max was quite excited, Woody was thrilled, and I had a blast. It took a while to get out: it was after 11 before we were in the car, and closer to midnight before we were on the highway. Got back home without stopping after one, and took full advantage of the changed clocks to recover.

I've embedded a flickr slideshow below: if you click through to flickr you can read my descriptions. I also got some video clips: I'd heard bits and pieces of the stump speech before, through the political blogs, but I got lucky and had the camera rolling when he started the Cheney endorsement bit, which was new today. It was a good schtick: easy target (what was Cheney thinking?) but well-done.

And here's a new feature for this blog: Video! This is a bit showing the crowd, and then he started on the Cheney endorsement, which was new that day...

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T18:07:00.004-10:00

No, I haven't given up blogging, or picture taking. We're all fine, just a little overwhelmed by life. I might get around to posting some summer/moving pictures one of these days. But I thought I'd get back into the swing of things with an easy one: the annual costume-fest!

	Max's pick this year was Peter Pan. He got to show it off to his friends at school Thursday. Oddly, the teachers elected to take their compensatory vacation day on Friday....
	Wednesday, they did Chinese masks at school. We took a walk by the park on the way home and saw...
	Turtles sunning themselves. (It was around seventy degrees, yes. It hit seventies again today, which was kind of freaky. Also, it didn't rain, which makes this the first time we've ever gone trick-or-treating without umbrellas!)
	Also ducks and geese, of course. I'm not sure they're going to leave for the winter. So far, they haven't had a lot of incentive. It's gotten below freezing once, which Max loved, but only once.
	Woody, at Max's request, wore her now-traditional "Aloha Witch" outfit to answer the door. Despite relatively high traffic around the neighborhood, and my students' assurance that we'd need "loads" of candy, I'm going to have to take most of it into the office to distract them from their grades on Monday. Max, however, brought home a good yield, and got lots of very nice comments on his costume.

First Day of First Grade

2008-08-15T04:48:00.002-10:00

Max is very excited about starting first grade! We wanted him to be able to walk to school, and Woody's been working on the routes for a few days.

He's pretty cool about it: he wanted to go in himself, and he wanted to wear something that expressed his Hawaiian background.

Now it's very quiet in the house.....

Up and Down the Mountain

2008-03-22T13:26:00.002-10:00

Max had his first official field trip last week: a hike and Egg Hunt at Bird Park, which is a cute little area near the Kilauea Volcano Park. A few days later we went back to see the Halemaumau vent and did the mile-long nature walk through the kipuka (old-growth area).

Max was having great fun hiding in the tall grass and stalking his parents.

The pavilion/picnic area was surrounded by a stand of Koa trees, with fuzzy yellow flowers.

Wonders of Nature

	The baby bunnies have been a big hit at school, as you can imagine.
	This is the venting gas seen from the Volcano Lodge lookout (and slightly enhanced to reduce the effects of the fog and rain). We couldn't get much closer because the air quality goes down pretty quickly as you move around the crater rim.
	There were a couple of places on the kipuka trail where we saw ohia trees joined together like this. Below, some other sights from the trail: Lichen and some cute little buds (which open into flaming red-orange blossoms)

Lava!

2008-03-08T23:05:00.003-10:00

The Big News on the island recently has mostly been about the new lava flows finally making their way to the coastal plain and to the sea someplace where people can actually get to them! Naturally, lava is a big part of our tourist draw, plus being fun for locals.

Today was the first day that the county officially opened the viewing access road. We didn't make it down there for the blessing and opening, but we got there a few hours later. The crowds were pretty thick, of course, and the aerial tourism, too. They were letting us get awfully close...

Here's a view of the marked path, looking back from near the end. As you can see, it's not an easy walk, though it's mostly smoother pahoehoe, so we didn't have a lot of trouble.

The path roughly paralleled a flow -- not the one that's reached the sea and is forming a delta bench, but a separate finger nearer the old road we were using for access -- which was mostly crusted over on top but still oozing and still moving forward. At the very end of the viewing area, the main action was watching ohia trees burst into flame as the flow engulfed them. The glowing cracks were neat, but the coolest bit was definitely spotting the little breakout flows and seeing moving lava for the first time.

The lava field we were walking on is a relatively young one. Near the end of the viewing area I spotted a lava tree! Well, more likely a lava telephone pole or lava fence post, but it still had the scorched wood in it and the neat cylindrical shape.

We got there a bit before sundown, so by the time we were headed out, it was getting dark. Of course, in the dark you can see the glows better, though it's harder to take pictures....

Max in February

2008-02-27T20:55:00.005-10:00

	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.

Nature, February 2008

2008-02-27T20:17:00.003-10:00

	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.

First Tooth!

2008-02-01T23:13:00.001-10:00

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.

Last Leg: MD and DC

2008-01-18T22:46:00.001-10:00

The last segment of our holiday travels was the East Coast, and we had fun, despite the viral/bacterial harvest....

	First place we went in Maryland was the Double T Diner. Greek food!
	Just Max, chillin'
	We did a day trip up to NY to see Grandpa Vic, and stopped to see Max's other cousins. We had, I'm told, a great visit with Grandpa Vic and my Aunts, but I missed most of it. Blech.
	Back in Maryland, Max and Grandpa Norm built a house. Grandpa provided popsicle sticks, glue and engineering; Max was architect and decorator. It ended up as a small train depot.
	Preparing for my conference appearance: it's been a long time since I had to match ties and shirts.... fortunately, I had access to Dad's collection of ties, as well.
	Max finds my mainland formal wear very amusing.
	Alex, Kim and the cousins came down to Maryland for another visit, mostly while I was at the meeting, but we got to overlap a bit.
	We did DC one day, walking past the White House, going up the Washington Monument, and doing a few turns through the Natural History Museum. Max enjoyed the train rides, too.
	No visit to the Mall is complete without a turn on the carousel! (I remember it being a lot cheaper, though.)
	Woody took the ride, too. It was a very full day, but the weather was great and we had fun.

Finally, here's my versions of the pictures everyone takes:

That was, unfortunately, the last gasp for my camera, whose frame was no match for the gears and levers inside a reclining chair. A replacement has been purchased on eBay and should be here any day now, and then normal shutterbuggery will resume!

Animals on Tour

2008-01-18T21:30:00.000-10:00

	The animal tour starts in Hilo, where we had another mouse. Brazen fellow. Of course, it helps that we're a lot nicer to mice than to rats...
	Doesn't mean we want to live with them, though. Humane trap, overnight in a vase with snacks, then it's off to the woods. Across town, anyway.
	This bird got confused one night and tried to fly through our porch doors. Repeatedly. Took some doing with the broom, but I finally convinced him that open sky was better than roof and rafters. The picture was taken one-handed in the dark.
	This is Daisy, the resident dog at Triple Creek Farm. Max isn't much for big dogs, especially ones that like to jump on people, but by the end of the visit they'd come to an accomodation and Max was very fond of her.
	Among the many things Max had never seen was a proper V of geese.
	We saw this white-tailed deer (two of them, actually) on our walk around the farm with Ryan.
	The Zoo in Independence didn't have a lot of animals -- some of them were wintering elsewhere -- but there were a few braving the cold. And it was cold that day.
	The baby Kinkajou was in a warm building, at least. Along with the snake. The rest of the animals were roughing it, though.
	Though wet and cold, I thought the Emu maintained a quite dignity.
	We didn't get to a zoo in DC, but we did have lunch on the Mall, with the brazen scavengers crowding our table.
	You can shout at them, wave at them, throw things at them... they don't care. They know you have crumbs....

Christmas on the Farm

2008-01-18T19:49:00.000-10:00

We got to spend a lot of time with the Bauer side of the family: everyone came down the same day we did (though we were the only ones who got caught in the blizzard) and stayed for a while. Max got to spend lots of time with his cousins:

	We did some formal pictures the first day, at the end of which we all got hats and the kids got party crackers.
	Though we came in a blizzard, the weather turned quite nice very quickly. One day, the sky was just perfect blue, horizon to horizon.
	Woody and I went for a long walk around the farm with Ryan. There are a lot of thorn trees on the property.
	Ryan and Max spent a lot of time playing. This was a radio-controlled plane thingy.
	We also got to visit with Great-Aunt Mary Jane -- here's Max having a chat with her -- who gave us some lovely quilts and lots of candy to take home.
	Mary Jane always has puppets around: here's Marge and Jack having some fun.
	Of course, everyone wanted to hold Nathan, who's just a couple months old. Everyone looks cute with a baby: Uncles...
	....Grandads...
	.... older cousins...
	....Grams and Aunts...
	In between passing the baby around, there was other fun to be had: Gingerbread Houses! Nobody wanted to eat theirs right away, but we finally got to do some tasty demolition near the end of the visit.
	John was architect and chief engineer.
	In other sticky-sweet news, Grandad put up a bonfire one night, and the cousins all got to have s'mores. Max was having them for what I'm pretty sure is the first time. The reviews were predictably positive.
	The weather was so good that the boys got to spend lots of time outside, and that meant trampoline! Here's Kyle, showing off his moves.
	Here's Max mid-bounce, with an assist from John and Ryan.
	Max even talked Woody and I up there finally.
	After the cousins, aunts and uncles left, we still had some time. this is Max visiting the zoo in Independence. It was a cold, cold day, but that wasn't going to stop Max from seeing everything there was to see and doing everything there was to do. Here he's climbing up a rather slippery castle bridge.
	Here he is coming out of a big metal teepee.
	This is the "Little House on the Prairie": not the actual house, but it is in the actual spot.

Latke Tour

2008-01-17T22:14:00.000-10:00

The Fried Potato Traveling Road Show....

	Hanukkah is here!
	Here are my latkes, made in Hilo. I remembered the pepper this year, but forgot the onion. Still, the texture and crispness came out well.
	Grandad, aka Jim, grating in Kansas. We brought our good graters with us, but kept the quantity down to side-dish levels (only five pounds!)
	Anne helped, too!
	Here's the MD crew, peeling and grating.
	A new generation of Scherer joins the tradition!

Kansas City, Here I Come!

2008-01-17T21:59:00.001-10:00

The first leg of our travels was in Kansas City, where we stayed with Echo and Karin.

	Max was, of course, hoping to see snow on this trip -- for the first time in two years -- and there was indeed snow on the ground when we got there.
	Some of the snow was crusty and icy, which was perfect for tossing about and other experiments.
	Max has also never gotten to help decorate a Christmas Tree, so they left a few ornaments off for him to finish up with.
	They did a Santa Lucia thing at Max's school, but it was in the older grades. But Karin remembered that they had some Santa Lucia robes and electric candle wreath, so Max got to be Santa Lucia for Solstice.
	Also at Solstice, we took turns restringing Woody's Mala Bead necklace, with all the original beads we could recover and spares from a -- coincidentally -- broken bracelet we ran into at Vulcan's Forge.
	The particular version of Father Christmas that Karin is reading is on the grumpy side, but very cute.
	Woody and Echo, hanging out while Max plays on the toys at Crowne Center.
	If you look close, you can see the reflection of the group of us -- that's me on the right -- standing just in front of the toy fire truck.

Love a parade!

2008-01-17T21:30:00.000-10:00

A few old pictures from early December to start off the new year! Sorry about the hiatus, but what with the travel, and the first week of classes, this is the first night in a while I've had the time.

These pictures take us back to the Pahoa Holiday Parade.

	The theme this year was "Show Business" so costumes were encouraged. Doesn't take much encouragement for Max, who combined his elephant with the wolf suit crown and gnome vest to be .... Babar, I think it was. You can just see the flamingo costume next to him: that's his friend Lotus.
	Self-portrait, with Show Hat

The last picture in this set is one I'm quite proud of: Lightning. We had a nasty thunderstorm which went on for hours, but very little rain. Just lightning. So I set up the tripod in the driveway and took bunches of shots on long exposure. This is about the best one, of a couple of successes.

Erev Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T20:29:00.000-10:00

I've been tinkering with settings on my new camera (the old one failed to come on today, so apparently our concerns about reliability were well-founded) to see what it can really do. It's taken about four good clear nights to get the settings where I want them for this:

Here are some mouth-watering shots from our Big Island Candy trip: being the pre-holiday season, the production line was going full-out.

Playing Doctor (actually, I'm the patient):

Now that the theater extravaganzas are over, Max is back in Dance class, but he decided to move up a level "to learn new things." Lots more bar work, for one thing:

Pure cute:

Finally, I won't post it, but you can click through if you want, and see the little slug at [a well-known chain of fast-food....].

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Mr. October

2007-11-06T23:23:00.000-10:00

Sorry, it's been a while since I posted anything. I haven't stopped taking pictures, mind you, though I have switched cameras: I dropped mine, and it did stop taking purple pictures, but when there's a month like October coming up, you want something reliable. So I went on eBay and got a new camera: same brand, bigger zoom, which came in handy once or twice. But enough about me.... I'll be spare with the pictures this time: believe me, there's a lot more where these came from.

What was going on in October? Well, for starters, Max actually got the Munchkin part that he auditioned for back in late August, so we spent good portions of September taking him to practices, and the run was three weekends in October.

My parents came to visit, Max discovered the joys of facepainting, Max turned Six years old, the school had its Medieval Faire and then we ended up with Halloween.

November? Pretty quiet.

Halloween and other signs of Late Autumn

2007-11-06T23:06:00.000-10:00

	Inspired by his "Wizard of Oz" experience, Max picked the Cowardly Lion for his costume. As usual, Gram came through. Naturally, he tried it on as soon as it arrived.
	Here he is, almost ready to go (note the bare feet), with full face paint and a thoroughly decorated pumpkin for his prizes.
	When we saw a house that looked like it was giving out candy I'd say "that looks like a possibility" and Max picked up on it pretty quickly. Here he is shouting "On to the next possibility!"
	The reckoning. We did our trick-or-treating around the corner, but there was a really dense group of houses all doing it up in real style. Lots of little gift bags, and lots of good chocolates. Max has been quite generous sharing his candy, actually.
	Max loves cold weather: he gets to wear all his cool knitted stuff. Here he is with the sweater and vest and hat Woody's knitted for him, plus the sword he made at school. The shield was started at school, but the proper handle and coloring was done at home. The pirate patch came from a friend's birthday party. Woody just read him Peter Pan, too, so pirates are pretty hot right now.
	Snow on Mauna Kea, from a few nights ago. We're getting our first major winter storms this week -- thunder and lightning, too. Here you can see the value of the stronger zoom: I'd never gotten details on the observatories before.

Going to the Faire

2007-11-06T22:56:00.000-10:00

	In the three years we've been going to the Medieval Faire, Max had never gotten to ride the "unicorns": usually the line was just too daunting (and one year they weren't available), but this year we got there early.
	We still had to wait the better part of an hour -- one of the two horses was skittish -- but Max said it would have been worth "twice the wait."
	Max was dressed as Gandalf (that's what the Robe is for), so the face painting lady gave him magic shooting from his eyes.
	We ran into Max's old play-group buddy, Samuel Kai, and they did the Light Maze together and hung out a bit. There was also the Enchanted Trail, baked goods, fire dancers and crafts.

Turning Six

2007-11-06T22:40:00.000-10:00

	Max at school for his birthday, with friends! The school birthdays are pretty cool, with a special cake and ceremony.
	The traditional Ken's Birthday Short Stack with Sparkler! Max looks a little nervous because the sparkler was leaning towards him a little precariously. When we first started doing Ken's for birthdays, he wouldn't eat the pancakes (he'd hardly started on solid food!). Later, he'd eat plain pancakes, but not toppings. Now he'll eat the whipped cream and strawberries, and leaves the rest of the pancake for his parents.
	We had the party a few days later at a local park. Here's the crew, taking a short break from their balloon games (we didn't plan for those: the balloons were just decoration until someone started pulling them down!).
	Here they are, all lined up for destruction and mayhem. Yes, we had the obligatory piñata. The burro survived three or four rounds....
	But you can't underestimate the power and tenacity of children seeking chocolate! All things considered, it was pretty orderly. I was impressed that the pavilion we rented had a crossbeam which seemed specifically designed for suspending things at just above child-height.
	Anyone remember Duck, Duck, Goose?

Many Faces of Max

2007-11-06T22:23:00.000-10:00

	Just what it looks like: Max was messing around with his lenses and I decided to take a shot through one.
	As I said, Max was having fun with his new facepainting kit. Here he is with wolf whiskers. I know the background's blurry: I like the very realistic sense of motion.
	Combining his wolf suit with his bee wings and antennae, plus his birthday crown from school and the sock and mitten concept from his lion costume, you get: King of the Winged Wolves!
	Max made the sword at school: a week's worth of sanding and polishing, and then some. The lollipop was a gift from his misguided parents, in honor of his stage debut. Munchkin Warrior!
	This is Max's first attempt to plan the face for his Halloween costume, the Cowardly Lion. More about him later.

More Dresners in Hawai'i

2007-11-06T22:02:00.000-10:00

My parents were here for almost two weeks. We ate a lot of good food, saw some sights (here we are on the way to the warm ponds):

and did some home improvement:

Yup, refloored the kitchen (Yes, I have a lot more pictures of us reflooring the kitchen, available on request....) Also replaced some light fixtures, some light switches (was this place ever up to code?).

It was a great visit.

The Munchkin Experience

2007-11-06T21:41:00.000-10:00

Not only was Max a Munchkin, he was the center for the Lollipop Guild. Only the smallest, cutest Munchkins need apply....

">	A lot of the practices were closed to parents, but I managed to sneak a shot or two in.
	Max can read a few words (more all the time, it seems) but you have to admire his dedication, carrying the script around at rehearsal, turning pages with everyone else, practicing his lines at home, etc. Of course, all that work came at a cost, especially when the last week hit and rehearsals started to happen at the same late hours as the show would.

	Max loved doing make-up. We got him a face-painting kit as a congratulations for the show, and he's had some fun with that!
	Lollipop Guild, full regalia! After the show ended, they got to keep the costumes. Max has worn it to school a few times now (without the hair and hat, of course!).
	To "preserve the mystery," cast members weren't really supposed to mingle with the crowd in costume, but it turned out that people loved it, so by the end of the show, lots of the cast was wandering around. This is from the very last night, Max with Glinda (whose day job is radio DJ, believe it or not).
	All of the munchkins, backstage before the final, final bows.
	Dorothy, Munchkin and Max (also his friend Elijah in the corner)

Brush with Fame!

2007-08-12T00:04:00.000-10:00

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.

Bonus Tracks: Max and Photoshop

2007-08-09T22:28:00.000-10:00

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.

Summer Routine

2007-08-06T23:58:00.000-10:00

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.

Summer Flowers

2007-08-06T23:35:00.000-10:00

	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.

Max's Parents

2007-08-06T21:54:00.000-10:00

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.

Summer Fauna

2007-08-06T20:49:00.000-10:00

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.

Max about town

2007-08-06T14:24:00.000-10:00

	Summer is traditionally when I catch up on all sorts of yard work. One of the rarest events for me is planting something new: I spend enough time keeping the stuff we've already got from taking over the world. However, we committed to this avocado a while back. It's big enough now, so I cleared some lawn, lay down tarp (ok, garbage bags) to kill off the grass, then replanted the tree.

	They finally finished fixing up Lincoln Park playground. Here's Max, exploring the new play structure, at last.
	This tie-dye floppy hat's been in the Dresner family for a while now, handed down from cousin to cousin. It still fits.
	Max likes playing "pillow" but he's getting a bit big to be a credible throw-cushion.
	Summer brings the library reading program. Not like he ever stops with the books (Woody's reading The Hobbit to him as I type this), but in summer he gets rewards. He picks 'em, too.
	A friend's birthday party.
	Another friend's birthday party. Some wag labelled the helicopter with a DEA/Green Harvest logo.
	Max, jamming with Woody at a goodbye party for our university friends.
	Modelling a just-completed knitting project: in spite of its current position, it's a hat. Max spotted the fuzzy yarn at the kitting shop and was immediately hooked, and yes, he picked the color after considerable deliberation. Woody did the knitting, though.
	The hat in action at a farewell party with a tree swing. Woody also knit the vest, by the way. The lei was from his post-Cinderella stash.

Birds of Summer, Hilo

2007-08-05T23:19:00.000-10:00

	Woody and I were taking a midday walk in Liliuokalani Park and ran into a veritable flock of our state bird, the Nene goose. Being the state bird, they mostly ignore people, so they just wandered up to where we were standing.

	This mother and ducklings was at Wailoa park: we were on the bridge going across the river when we spotted this crew.
	Another Wailoa Park shot, this time a lucky snap catching the flying ducks.
	This African Gray Cockatoo was at a birthday party Max went to recently. The bird lived there, not part of the party.
	Max the Mackaw, from the Panaewa Zoo. When he's in the mood, he'll say "Aloha."
	I don't know if this is Tou-tou or Can-can, but it's a Toucan, nonetheless.
	Yeah, it's just a pigeon, but I've never gotten such a nice wingspread before. The pigeons were flocking to us because Max and I were feeding the fish at Kalakaua Park. Yeah, we fed some pigeons, too.
	This is one of our local Cardinals, taken at Coconut Island one afternoon. We were actually waiting for a ship to come in, but I'll take pictures of anything while I'm sitting around.

Shots in the Dark

2007-08-05T22:06:00.000-10:00

I love a challenge.

	We went over to our friends the Mleyneks for July 4th, and one of their other friends brought along some pretty substantial fireworks, and some poppers and sparklers, which Max had great fun with.
	I don't think Max was trying to spell his name, but the effect is pretty cute.
	I love long-shutter effects.
	Bottle Rockets. I took a lot of pictures trying to get these trails. The fountain sparklers below were easier.... well, they weren't going anywhere.

	This was one of the "big ones" that Tim had, a whole series of really pretty starbursts.
	This was one of the starbursts from the "official" display. We got to the observation point a bit late, but we did see the finale. And we'd seen a bunch up close, so we didn't feel too deprived.
	One of those "Where did you find that and does it really still work?" toys, a souvenir from last October's Medieval Faire. Max ended up using the colors in the lights as the template for one of his recent photoshop sessions.
	Jupiter, and two moons, as seen through our home telescope. I was having a devil of a time getting the camera to capture images through the scope. This was the best of the Jupiter shots.
	The reason I got the scope out in the first place was the full moon. It was frustrating (I know, all I have to do is spend a few hundred bucks for the right equipment....) but this was the best shot I got.
	Or maybe this was.

Summer means BUGS!

2007-07-29T16:24:00.000-10:00

Like I said, my creative outlet is taking pictures, and the harder the picture, the happier I am.

	This is a bee on a star-fruit blossom. I've taken "the best bee ever" before, but this one goes to the head of the list. Look at that fuzz and those "impossible" wings!
	There are few greater challenges than pictures of animals in flight (except, perhaps, children doing anything). I had a good bright day recently with some dragonflies buzzing about the gymnastics parking lot. The picture of me laying in wait is by Max.

	Some very small pictures of very small black ladybug like beetles.

	I'd never seen a spider set up shop in a flower before. It's kind of clever, I suppose, though Hibiscus folds up pretty quickly once it's bloomed.
	If you look close, you can see some of the web building. Below are a spider I saw in the stairwell at school (about an inch across, despite his fierce appearance), and a very small bug I found on my hand last time we went up to Volcano.

Summer Fun: Arts and Crafts

2007-07-29T14:48:00.000-10:00

Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. I assure you, I haven't stopped taking pictures!

I thought I'd get back in the swing of things by showing you some of the creative stuff we've been doing.

	Gram (Marge) has been sending Max recordings of the Thorton Burgess animal adventures, which he loves. She also sent along this sticker book -- not his first, but his first in a while -- which he's been having fun with.
	Max has been helping me learn Photoshop by taking pictures and modifying them, exploring themes, changing things around, etc. This was a picture from a ballet/dance version of Aesop's Fables to which Max has added the butterflies and fish (copied from other pictures and modified with various photoshop filters and recoloring).
	Yesterday Max asked me to print out some of his photoshop pictures so he could color them by hand. After playing with the filters for a while I found several that leave an outline version of a picture, and we produced a twelve-page coloring book. This picture is made up entirely of shapes from the Photoshop library (the angel is a combination of the WALK sign and pigeon wings).
	Free-form painting by Max.
	Sculpie Unicorn. The horn fell off, was superglued back on, fell off again, so I drilled holes in the horn and head and used a toothpick for a peg and this time the glue is holding fine.
	Max took this picture, of his favorite set of dolls.
	Really, really favorite. I included this one mostly for the smile.
	The shirt is by Max's cousin Samantha: it kind of got put aside after it got here, but he rediscovered it and it's now one of his favorites.
	Woody's taken up chess. We all got interested after the Through the Looking Glass experience, and Woody found an online correspondence course. In addition to her assignments, she and I have been playing about every week. I'm still kibitzing pretty heavily, but she's getting better. This is a stalemate.
	Max has been doing a lot of craft stuff at school, as usual. The summer program was a lot of fun, and he brought lots of little projects home.

What do I do for a creative outlet? Take pictures, of course!

Cinderella!

2007-06-08T22:08:00.000-10:00

Max's dance school did their biennial production over Memorial Day weekend, his first venture into serious show business. Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing. One week before the show, just days before the full-scale rehearsals, Max injured his knee on some rocks at school. It was bad enough that he wouldn't put much weight on his leg, which made tap dancing kind of questionable. Of course it was over a weekend, so the only place to get an x-ray was our emergency room.

Turns out it was just a bruise, though the orthopedist wasn't sanguine about his chances of actually dancing by the end of the week. Max was pretty good-humored about all the waiting, both at the emergency room (hours and hours) and the orthopedist.

As it turns out, the bruised knee healed up before the full-scale rehearsals, but it did make the pre-show photography sessions a bit nervous. Here's Max at the solo pictures, waiting in line and being posed by Miss Suen.

And here's Miss Suen posing the whole chicken-and-bee crew for the group shot. Yeah, they're cute.

We weren't allowed to take pictures at the performance itself, but I took a lot of pictures (still, no flash allowed) at the first full run-through. This is the big moment in the farmyard, to the tune of the "Chicken Reel":

	Left: Max, coming on stage at the end of a line of chickens, with Cinderella looking on. Below Left: Max dancing next to their demonstrator/instructor, who's playing the mouse Jacques Below: Max does the end-of-routine flourish.

Here's the final bow: it's a big crowd up there, and Max was loving it. What they didn't tell the kids was that at the actual performances they audience would be invited to come up and greet the dancers, resulting in a wave of humanity rushing the stage.... a little overwhelming for the little ones.

	Left: the actual bow, done very properly. Below: Max gave me a great smile as they left the stage. He's lovin' show biz.

Here are some other pictures from the rehearsal: elegant bridesmaids, Cinderella and her horses, very cute fairies and exceptionally cute mice.

One of the big questions we had about how Max would do had to do with the several hours of waiting backstage with his group. He did OK at the rehearsals, even the one where parents weren't allowed, but the performances were much later, going well beyond his normal bedtime. He had a blast. The "den mother" supervising group parents brought all kinds of games, crafts and stuff.

The performances went very well -- the last few rehearasals really did tighten things up considerably: here's Miss Suen at final bow

We gave Max a lei on the second night: look at that smile! On the first night he got a rose from his teacher. Also, much to our surprise, a lot of the kids in his class brought "congratulations" gifts -- mostly candy in some form or another. On the right is Max -- about to fall over with exhaustion -- with the complete collection of commemorative snacks, flora and one star wand.

He's ready to do it again. By the second night, he was wishing there were more performances. There will be another abbreviated version in the fall, for schools, but it's not sure yet whether the chickens and bees will be part of it.

Water cameras? An experiment in progress.

2007-06-05T22:29:00.000-10:00

A while back I had an epiphany: my old Fuji camera isn't worth the cost of two disposable water cameras and development. So if I can take underwater pictures with it in a sealed bag, I can save money and have some fun.

The results have been.... mixed. The first time I used a sandwich bag and a quart freezer bag, on the theory that it would fit better and offer better protection. But the results are too cloudy to be really worth it. Here's some action shots:

And here's some nature shots. There was a serious stormcloud heading our way that day:

This was, I'm sorry to say, the best of the pictures I got that day. One bright spot, though: the bagging worked perfectly in terms of waterproofing. So, the next time I tried using two sandwich bags, to cut down on the plastic clouding. This time there was a little leakage into the outer bag, and it clearly affected the picture quality (and made me nervous about experimenting with a single layer). Still, an improvement.
First, the wonderfully dramatic anemones, and some very fuzzy looking small fish:

So much for the underwater close-ups. Here's some medium-distance shots. The coral's underwater, a few feet away. The mussels were out of the water, macro shot.

Next, some outdoor pictures. It was a very, very low tide that day, by the way: normally we can't even get to the spot that I'm standing on outside the sea wall, and most of that sand is water.

Finally, some of the all-important family shots.

The leakage into the outer bag is causing a lot of the blurring here. I've gotten a lot better about remembering to pull the bag so that it's tight over the lens.

So, if this is going to work, I need bags that won't leak. Or just one bag that really won't leak.

Rounding Out April

2007-05-19T23:54:00.000-10:00

	One of the biggest events of the year here in Hilo is the Merrie Monarch Festival, celebrating Hula, and the King who brought it back from the edge of extinction. This is his statue, bedecked
	Naturally, we have a parade. And what's a parade without honor guards?
	The Navy group sure could swing! Who knew?
	And what's a Hawaiian celebration without some form of royalty? I have no idea what sort of royalty they're supposed to be, though.
	Yeah, it's a big happy Mac Nut. Yum!
	I've seen this float in a couple of local parades: a smoking mountain.

The last two have nothing whatsoever to do with Hawaiiana....

	Chicken Soup! Came out pretty well, as usual.
	Architectural detail from our downtown post office, which dates back to the '20s or '30s.

Lower orders, April

2007-05-17T22:42:00.000-10:00

BUGS! Actually, I don't think spiders qualify, and that's mostly what I've got. All of these were taken in our very own backyard.

Flowers, of course.

Higher Order Vertebrates, April

2007-05-17T22:24:00.001-10:00

From a performance mixing Aesop's Fables with Saint-saen's Carnival of the Animals, plus some dance and acting.

From our local zoo: Namaste the Tiger, Ring-tailed Lemur, Bearcat, Blue Dart Poison Frog and peacocks.

Birds seen on campus: Saffron Finch (I've been trying to get a picture of the local finches for ages) and Northern Cardinal.

Max and Friends: April

2007-05-17T21:50:00.000-10:00

Costumes! The Bumblebee is Max's costume for the Island Dance Academy's Cinderella; he'll be dancing with chickens. The elephant and flamingo are old Halloween costumes, again. He loves sharing them with friends.

Haircut! Before and during, obviously. It's not easy to get a decent picture of him during a haircut, let me tell you.

Sharing with a friend: These are both pictures of Max and his school friend Elijah. Taking turns riding Max's bike at the park, and playing some kind of animal make-believe behind Max's dresser.

Old and New: Apparently climbing into and popping out of boxes doesn't get any less fun, though it's a tighter fit than it used to be (also, computer monitors aren't as big as they used to be, either!). And Max has become quite the board gamer: staring with Go over break, he's now taken up Chess, Chinese Checkers, and regular Checkers! Woody's even taking a Chess course to stay ahead of him...

Knitting in Paradise: This is Woody's latest project, a sweater-vest, at the "finished knitting" stage and at the "buttons and all" stage. Max picked out the pattern, color and buttons: it's all him. And he's the one who likes to wear it over sweaters in April, yes.

Did I mention his penchant for climbing anything that will stand still?

Plants and animals around the island

2007-05-16T21:47:00.000-10:00

One of the more exciting things we did on our trip was the Glass-bottomoed boat tour of the coral reef. We even got a bonus: a school of spinner dolphins.

This was our boat. The view was better than the pictures came out: autofocus wasn't helping.


	They're called Spinners because they jump out of the water and spin.

And here's some more miscellaneous flora and fauna, starting with a funky bud we saw in Honoka'a, and its full-flowered version.


	Ants eating ice cream.
	Because you can never have too many bright lizard shots. Also at the ice cream place, oddly enough.
	Like the flower above, this was at the Tex Drive-in in Honoka'a. Love the colors.
	Needlenose fish at the Waikoloa
	Also at the Waikoloa. Note the ants in the Hibiscus: I really don't recall ever seeing ants in flowers before we moved here, but it's quite common.
	That little thing poking out of the water in the circle is a sea turtle head at the black sands beach. It's not easy to catch them in the water, even in burst mode.
	Much more sedate honu at the Waikoloa.
	Shield Urchins, we were told, on the Kona waterfront.

What we saw in West Hawai'i

2007-05-16T20:50:00.000-10:00

	We came back by the southern route: Max has a thing for the black sand beaches, after the visit with my folks. He doesn't care for the waves, but he likes the beach.
	This is a model of the brig Thaddeus which brought the first Christian mission to the island. It's in a historic church down by the Kona waterfront.
	This is part of the damage suffered by the Hulihe'e Palace (one of three royal residences in the United States) in our October quakes.
	The inside wasn't much to look at at the moment, but the ironwork on the gates was nice. This seems to be the Royal Seal. The motto translates as "The life (sovereignty) of the land is perpetuated in (by) righteousness," and it's still our state motto.
	From the balcony of the hotel. Yeah, everyone gets a shot like this, but the sliver of sun and colors are too good for me not to share.
	Coffee! This is beans curing in the sun after having the skins soaked off. After a few days of this, they get peeled and roasted.
	Have to keep turning the coffee every couple of hours, apparently, so they dry evenly. This is the Greenwell farm, by the way, one of the oldest coffee operations on the island.

Dresners Do Kona

2007-05-16T20:16:00.000-10:00

Our big Spring Break adventure this year was a two-night Kona Coast trip. We got to do a few things we'd never done before, and had a lot of fun.

	We were staying at our favorite Captain Cook hangout, the Manago; low frills, but a great balcony. We brought the ukuleles obviously.
	Both nights, the ukes came out. Caught Max in a great moment, here: looks like a real rocker!
	Another of our favorite hangouts is the Waikoloa Hilton: we did an afternoon there. Max loves swinging in the hammocks.
	We actually found a whole set of gardens and racket courts we'd not seen before.
	We've been trying for almost the whole time we've lived here to get the Japanese-style room at the Manago: we finally got it! That is a Go set in the corner, and I did show Max how to play. With a nine-stone handicap (and a little coaching), he beat me the second game.
	Max loved the futon beds, and the screens, and the mats....
	And the Bath! The Manago is famous for its no-frills rooms: whenever we mentioned that we'd gotten the Japanese rooms, people said "Oh, the one with the bath!" We all got to take Japanese-style baths (without the clothes, obviously).
	Gotta have an action shot: Max at the playground across from the hotel, early morning.
	Max, taking a picture of Daddy.
	Daddy, taking a picture of Max! A lot of people see me like this....

Max in March

2007-05-07T19:30:00.000-10:00

One of the big events at Max's school is their annual "walk-a-lap" fundraiser. Last year it got delayed twice for rain: this year it was beautiful weather the first time.

	Here we are, at the start of the day, fresh and ready. Max has school shirts, but for an event like this, he prefers to dress up.
	Max, towards the end. Each punch in his card is one lap, which is half a mile. Max made 10 laps, altogether.
	This stump is one of Max's favorite spots along the route.
	Max got ahead of us sometimes. He's still talking about how he and his friends "crossed the street themselves" at the parking lot entrance (with supervision).

Aside from his Aloha wear, Max's tie-die shirt is probably his favorite piece of clothing, particularly with the orange shorts.

	Doing a 200 piece puzzle for the first time at the rental cottage.
	Exploring the woods around his school.
	Up in the tree at school, with his friend Elijah.
	Trying on the sweater-vest his mother was knitting (it's done now; pictures soon)

Miscellaneous Max in Motion

	I don't remember what or when, but sometimes you get lucky with the smile.
	It says "Don't hang on the Barres" but Max can't read yet.
	As always, I think this pinata event is more fun for the parents watching than for the children, thought they also seem to get an unhealthy pleasure from the process.
	Did I mention how much Max likes climbing trees. That's his good friend Lotus with him.
	Sometimes, for fun and to kill time, Max will measure.

Simple Aesthetics

2007-05-02T22:24:00.000-10:00

Here's a bunch of pictures that aren't easy classified in any of my usual categories.

	Start off with some flowers. This is a gardenia I took on my way over to the admin building on campus.
	These are all over the place at Max's school. This one is slightly wilted, but it makes the picture perfect, somehow.
	In the "things I notice now" category: the color/texture contrast is great, and I love the rustic and rough quality. The fibers are from a coconut shell, I'm pretty sure.
	Another shot from Max's school (I'm around there a lot -- sometimes waiting for Woody while she does music with the kids -- and I carry a camera, yeah). It's got a Photography 101 quality to it, I know, but I still like it. I tried B&W filters on it, but it's not the same without the color.

	Without a doubt, this is one of the finest pictures I've ever taken. The rain was just getting going, and rising in the little gully at the front end of the carport. Great moment, great light, lucky shot.
	This was at a birthday party for one of the kids in Max's class. Woody ended up playing mostly old standards for the grownups. Love the smile, of course.

Animalia

2007-05-02T00:02:00.000-10:00

Naturally, wandering around the island with my folks, we ran into a few other living creatures:

	The most surprising sighting has to have been these wild pigs, spotted dashing across the Puna coast road.
	We saw these sea turtles at the black sands beach on the south side of the island. They're regulars at this end of the island, apparently.
	Max is actually the one who spotted them: he and I were walking back from changing out of our beach clothes and he pointed them out to me. I've seen them before, but never three at once.
	This gecko was outside the cottage my parents rented. I've gotten lots of pictures of lizards on walls, etc., but the flowers made it a special shot.
	Also the fact that he was willing to sit there while I took pictures from other angles and close up....
	This one was inside the house. I've got a picture of Max watching Dad take a picture of the same gecko in the earlier post.
	Dead dragonfly, yeah. Great colors and texture, though. This one was taken at the walk-a-lap event.
	Coqui frog, at the cottage. I need to get back to spraying the ones in our backyard; it's starting to sound chorus-like out there.
	Fortunatly, this is a very small bug in real life, less than an inch long. Very distinctive looking, though.

Catching Up: Grandparents in town

2007-04-30T23:08:00.000-10:00

I can't believe it's been almost two months since I updated this: boy do I have a lot of pictures to share! I'll do it in installments, I promise. I'm just about to enter the tunnel of grading, and I won't be out the other side for a while, but a little photoblogging now and then might be just the procrastination break I need.

OK, so back in mid-March, my parents came to visit for a week and change. We had a blast: they rented a cottage out in Pahoa, so we got to see the "country life" up close and personal, not to mention the Puna coast.

	Max tests the rental trunk. It's big enough.
	Mom and Woody at Lava Tree
	Max watching Dad take a picture of a gecko at the cottage.
	My father is the only person I know who takes more pictures than I do without getting paid. These Bouganvilleas are outside of the Black Sands Beach park
	Max took us on a tour of the trails in the woods behind his school. This labyrinth is the centerpiece of the "Fairy Trail" at Halloween.
	Max has become quite the climber in the last few months. This is a set of tree roots from a toppled tree that continued growing anyway.
	More flowers back behind the school.
	To keep Max occupied during one of our dinners out, Mom made this custom crossword!
	When we weren't eating out, we were taking advantage of the kitchen and patio at the cottage, and eating very well.
	The stone lions at Liliuokalani park are some of Max's favorite climbing statuary. Apparently they need safety helmets, too.

OK, enough for now. More later! Lots more....

Girls Day at the Hawaii Japanese Center

2007-03-04T07:44:00.000-10:00

Saturday, 3/3, was Girls Day (Boys day is 5/5), and the Hawaii Japanese Center had an open house with local doll collections on display. Here's an example of a classic Hina Matsuri set -- a complete Imperial court -- from 1932.

Max actually found the second room, which I'd missed, which gave me the opportunity to see this original immigration labor contract from 1900.

You can see the whole set of pictures here.

Winteresque

2007-02-17T14:44:00.000-10:00

	Winter here is mostly wet. Max, however, loves rain, so that's good. There's a lot of covered wandering space at the University, but when properly equipped, that doesn't limit Max in the slightest.
	On our recent wanderings we found an unoccupied classroom for Max to explore. Here's a perspective neither students nor professors usually get!
	Yesterday, a school holiday, Max woke up and decided to dress warmly, in solidarity with his cousins (or something).
	Not one to waste an opportunity, he pointed out that he was perfectly outfitted for a trip up the mountain to the Mauna Kea visitor center at 9000 feet.
	Neither the cold nor the thin air dampened his spirits -- the astronaut snacks helped!
	This is a silversword plant. I was looking at some other people's pictures when I realized that some of my "failed" attempts to get texture instead of color might work better in monochrome.

Friends and Fun

2007-02-15T22:33:00.000-10:00

	Nothing like finding an old toy after a long hiatus....
	Max is still really enjoying dance, and has a particular friend now.
	Max's friends came over, and he broke out the old Halloween costumes.
	Max and Halcy in the wading pool. It's not warm enough for water games, really, but it makes a great "fort."
	I know the resolution's weak, but I loved the expression.

Natural -- including Multi-legged -- Beauty

2007-02-15T22:31:00.000-10:00

What set of Dresner pictures would be complete without some flowers and bugs and stuff?

	From a downtown flowerbox. Not sure what these purple things are, but they're pretty common these days. Cute, too.
	My next photographic quest is flying things. It's not easy with an autofocus camera, but I'm still trying. Anyway, sometimes I get lucky and they land in good light. This is a butterfly in our backyard, and they've been driving me nuts for weeks with their constant unphotographable flitting....
	Last week we let Max lead us around the University, found this. Lovely smell, too.
	This guy is about an inch, toe to toe.
	This guy is a touch smaller. I suspect that they're immature Yellow Garden Spiders.
	I'm teaching a night class this semester, 2 and 3/4 hours, once a week. Got lucky during the break.
	If you can't catch 'em in flight, find 'em when they're dead. I didn't do it: I suspect it flew into one of our hermetically sealed and sterile staircases and couldn't get out. That's where I found it.
	I can't tell you how many pictures I've taken trying to get a good shot of the crabs at Liliuokalani park, but it's a lot.

Messing Around

2007-02-15T22:27:00.000-10:00

	We did a picnic dinner over at Ainaola park a few weeks ago, right at the tail end of our unseasonal dry spell.
	Max wanted Woody to see how much fun he was having.
	When waiting in the car, Max has taken to lying on the back shelf. He won't fit much longer.
	Silly fun after seeing a recital of his friends.
	Odd hood ornament spotted in the parking lot at Ken's. Not sure what they're trying to say, but they're sure saying it! From the condition of the bear, either they only put it on in good weather, or it was a fairly new feature.

Makahiki Luau

2007-02-15T22:20:00.000-10:00

Makahiki is the a Hawaiian festival season, tied to the Pleiades and to the rains. Max's kinderhale joined forces with a Hawaiian school to celebrate.

	Woody did a song with the kids: this is their last (only, actually) practice in the Kinderhale yard.
	Another shot of Max and his classmates.
	The centerpiece of the celebration was the thanksgiving offerings of foods, etc. Max wasn't going to be part of this group, but there was a last-minute opening, so he and his fellow "twinkling star" (not sure if they're ready for 1st grade next year, but considering it) got to be part.
	Kukui nut tops are a traditional entertainment.
	We're not sure which parent constructed these, but they went really quick. The nut necklace that Max is wearing was made by him. The week before, they practiced on a whole bunch of them, so he's got another necklace with over a half-dozen polished nuts on it.

Photoshopping

2007-02-04T07:32:00.000-10:00

Max has been having fun with Photoshop: over the last few weeks we've been painstakingly coloring one of his favorite pictures, and I'm learning a lot about what Adobe can do in the process. Max prefers the full color version; I like the shaded one.

Before
After
Half-tone

Max's World

2007-01-26T11:58:00.000-10:00

	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."

Things seen in Hilo: Acrobats and Rainbows

2007-01-26T11:55:00.000-10:00

	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.

Invertebrates and lower forms of life

2007-01-26T08:40:00.000-10:00

	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.

Fun, Historian-style

2007-01-26T07:51:00.000-10:00

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!

Seasonal.... sorta.

2007-01-06T00:35:00.000-10:00

	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."

Flowers From Honoka'a to Kilauea

2007-01-05T20:27:00.000-10:00

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.

Mid-December Visions: Lucky shots

2007-01-05T19:02:00.000-10:00

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.

Max and Friends

2007-01-05T06:55:00.000-10:00

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!

Gymnastics

2007-01-04T18:51:00.000-10:00

Max has been doing gymnastics for a few months now, but my schedule doesn't allow me to watch the classes most of the time, so it's only during this last break that I got a chance to document it a bit.

	They get to play with all kinds of fun equipment. Last week Max was moved up to the next size of these, which makes it a much bigger flip! A bit scary, but fun, he said.
	This is how much fun he has doing stretches! Can you imagine how much he enjoys the trampolines?
	That's his teacher, Quinn. Max was lobbying to go home with Quinn last week, instead of with us. I think he expects her house to be a lot like a gymnastics studio....
	The backwards roll still gives Max a lot of trouble: he doesn't push off fast enough, and ends up going sideways instead of straight over most of the time. But they're working on it.

Fun With Adobe Photoshop

2006-12-25T11:36:00.000-10:00

I got Photoshop for Hanukkah!

	Here's the original picture (rotated), taken last night in our neighborhood. The Chinese food around here isn't all that good, so we did Japanese, then drove around
	The ability to tilt pictures is a huge step up, just by itself. I can't wait to try the picture skew features on the art pictures I took recently.
	Colors by Max

Winter in Paradise

2006-12-09T22:08:00.000-10:00

	Instead of the obligatory "don't hate us just because we don't have snow" I thought I'd start by pointing out that the noise in our attic is probably rats, again, and this is probably where they like to sleep.
	This is the best detail shot I've gotten of the observatories. The light was just right: shining from the east without being glary. There have been reports of snow on the mountain, but there's been a lot of cloud cover so it's been hard to see.
	This frisbee is a little big for him, frankly, but he's been really good about trying, and about following my goofy instructions.
	I've wanted to get this picture for ages. Finally, I got lucky. ~~However, Blogger doesn't seem to want to accept the fact that I've inverted it. Many times, now. You'll have to do it yourself, apparently.~~ OK, I'm not sure why that worked (saving it through Paint), but it did. Hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon.
	Every few months, it seems, Max has to put on every piece of headgear he can find.
	Just a fun shot, and also to give you an idea of just how large this kid is.
	Max's school participates in the annual Pahoa town holiday parade. It's a pretty free-form event in a lot of ways, with traditions and innovations. Here you can see the Toys for Tots train, a perennial favorite, as well as a woman leading a goat. When I first saw the goat, as we were forming up, I thought it was part of some other float or group. Nope. Just a goat.
	My pick for "best engineered" is definitely this smoking volcano. Max's favorite part of the parade, aside from being in it, is that many of the groups and floats throw candy. We haven't finished the Halloween candy yet...
	One of the parents on the float -- ok, it was a trailer, pulled by a pickup truck, with leaves garlanded on the sides -- was blowing big bubbles. Woody and I were forward of the float, but when we stopped (as we so often did) and the wind was right, they'd come towards us.
	While you're admiring the detail shot of the bubbles, I'll point out that it did rain during the parade, working up from a mist to a gentle rain, then fading away by the time we'd reached the bandstand. Oh, and one thing nobody tells you about marching in a parade? You have to march back afterwards!

Sunday at the Zoo

2006-12-04T00:21:00.000-10:00

Last sunday, Max and I went to the zoo.

	I've seen peacocks display their tails. Hard to miss, with a half dozen of them wandering around the zoo. But I'd never noticed the peahens doing it until this trip.
	It's not easy taking pictures of the frogs through their glass and plastic enclosures, but this funky looking fellow came out just fine.
	Just a nice flower shot.
	One of the prides of the collection.
	The trick to these bird shots is to catch them far enough away from the cage that you can take a picture through the wires.
	A nice detail shot.

Max's Thanksgiving Adventure

2006-12-04T00:16:00.000-10:00

	We didn't have family here for Thanksgiving, so we treated ourselves to a little time away from Hilo
	Max was really excited about the trip. You could say that he "got into" packing: actually, he was finished packing two days before we were ready to go.
	Unfortunately, Max got a little touch of some bug the second night, so he was a bit draggy for some of the sightseeing. Didn't stop him from getting in lots of boat and tram rides, eating well, etc.
	Thanksgiving dinner was Chinese food. There was a traditional Hawaiian turkey and sushi buffet, but we didn't call soon enough to get a good seating.
	Just playing around.
	Max took great pride in his luggage independence, from start to finish, from the early packing to rolling himself through the parking lots. A good trip.

Hotel Cetaceans

2006-12-04T00:05:00.000-10:00

We never caught the dolphins doing jumps and tricks this time, but we did get to have lunch overlooking their waterways. They were having lunch, too.

One of the females was pregnant, and due "anytime" but it didn't happen over the weekend. We did get to see them doing ultrasound, though: