Fashion Tennis

When I was a kid, we were lucky to have our $1.50 tennis racquets. We wore whatever we had, like cut-off jeans, on the tennis court, and we considered ourselves fortunate if we could keep the ball inside the 15 foot high fence surrounding the court.

These days, you must dress fashionably, with a color-coordinated outfit, and matching pink tennis "shoes" too. Emma shows us how it's done...guardin' the net.

Big Sister is more the action type, although she is also very fashionable. She actually reminds me of a high school girl I used to watch on the tennis court about forty-three years ago. That girl was fashionable too, with very quick reflexes.

Beach Vacation

We spent a week at the ocean during the record-breaking heat wave in the Puget Sound area. It was a mild 85 degrees for the high during mid day. The sand burned the bottoms of my bare feet, and the sun burned the tops of them. Here's a photo of all of us on that hottest day.

The boys and I dug a pit at the top edge of the surf and tried fruitlessly to drain the water out of it. We built sand towers to protect our pit from the waves, then decorated them with discarded shells from molting crabs.

The boys body-surfed in the cold waves, then needed to warm up quickly. I buried them in the hot sand.

At a remote beach that doesn't allow motorists, we found more sand dollars than we could carry. The last time I remember finding sand dollars like this was about fifty years ago.

On our last day at the beach we dug a pit that could stop a 4X4. We decorated it with a dragon, to entice some wild sandcastle-smashing vandals into the trap. We'll never know what happened to that dragon (or the pit behind it).

Kayak Paddling Again...at last!

My friend Sunil has only paddled a kayak once, many years ago. So I invited him to go paddling in mine. He was apprehensive at first. My boat is more temperamental than the typical rental kayak. I was cruel and didn't help him get right back out. That Cedar River water was very cold. In this photo, he is balancing the boat with the "ripple" technique.

No more than five minutes later, he was out in the open lake, heading for Mercer Island. Sunil encountered his first wind waves on a lake. We went aground in some gravel, and I was temporarily hung up on a sunken log. We intentionally steered away from the anchored speed boat with the sunbathing beauties aboard.

We took a break from paddling to walk around on the river delta. We checked the bottom to make sure it was sand, not mud. Six years ago I took Kevin W. out there and we came to shore with a boat load of leeches. Look ma, no leeches! Aren't waterproof cameras wonderful?

Returning to the river, Sunil was very much more confident and stable.

In fact, he was confident enough to put down the paddle and take a picture of me.

Note that my new blog header photo was taken by Sunil.

New Coat of Varnish

After about four years of procrastination, I finally put a new coat of varnish on the kayaks. Hopefully I will get a chance to use them this summer. I want to take some under water photos, in shallow salt water, of marine creatures, while paddling in the kayak.

Sticking to the Theme

From now on, this blog will revert to my Renton Kayaker theme. It may not always be kayaking, but at least it will be mine.

No more pottery, no more china, no more jewelry, no more antiques, no more furniture, and no more wedding photos.

If you would like to catch up on the above subjects, please check out Monya's new blog at http://monya-momsie.blogspot.com/

Teacher

We went to see the mermaids in their ballet recital last weekend. We met the kindergarten teacher there.

Amboy Quick Visit - Revisited

Finally, I may have figured out how to make a video upload properly.

This short sequence had Monya laughing so hard she couldn't hear what the boys were saying. I had to play it over four times.

Livestronge Challenge

Today Lief rode 116 miles to support the Livestrong Challenge. So yesterday BeeBoo and Arthur helped me paint a sign to encourage Lief. Arthur is polishing up his signature here: a set of traced hand prints.

This afternoon, Monya and I waited, holding the sign at a "power stop" in Renton.

Lief arrived an hour later, after riding about 100 miles, fighting off leg cramps, and climbing two of the "stoopidest" hills in the area. After this photo, he endured the downpour of a thunderstorm. Notice the tributes to cancer victims he posted on his windshield.

Quick Visit in Amboy

Yesterday I spent a whirlwind day in Amboy. I arrived in time for breakfast, played a round of tennis, helped paint a sign for Lief, helped set up a huge swimming pool, and filmed some amazing trampoline techniques. I slept in the car, then drove home at O-dark forty-five. I needed to be home by 0700 so I could see Lief in Newcastle, riding 100 miles for the "Livestrong Challenge" bike ride.

So check out the cat tail sticking out from under the flattened toy tent.

I have an excellent trampoline video, but that will have to wait until I can edit the original into a reasonable upload size. (The cat tail video took 30 minutes to upload.)

In Memory of Pompi

Pompette Kartoffelpuffer, aka "Pompi" aka "doodle" was an unsociable cat. You were only allowed to touch her on the head, neck or back. Never, ever touch her tail. She would scratch or bite anybody who violated that rule, and especially knew when she could get away with scratching children. Children were fascinated with her, probably because she was so fluffy and soft looking.

She preferred to stay outside all the time, except when it was freezing or heavy rain outside. She would come inside only to eat, then meow a request to open the door so she could go back outside.

She was always finicky about eating, and was always skinny under all that fur. When I gave her a flea bath once each summer, I was always surprised at how thin she was.

Over the last two weeks she was more finicky than ever. She seemed to be thirsty all the time, and only wanted to sleep in one of her hiding places in the yard. I found her several times, picked her up gently and carried her to the water and food dishes. She would drink some water and then wobble off to another hiding place.

About four days ago she disappeared. I have searched all of her known hiding places to no avail. The last time I saw her I didn't understand how she had enough strength to wobble away like that, so I'm certain she died in her sleep in some secret hiding place. She was about 18 years old.

When I Am Grown and Can Have What I Please...

Last night I came home from work starving, and in desperate need of a bath. This has frequently been a problem for me since I like to soak in the bath for an hour or more, coordinating with dinner preparation is always difficult. But last night was different. Monya suggested that she bring my dinner into the bathroom and let me eat it whilst soaking in the tub.

It sounded gross to me, but I was hungry, so I acceded to the offer. She brought a plastic plate containing three sausage patties, three pancakes made with coconut milk and drenched in home-made maple syrup, and a plastic sippie-cup full of orange juice. I quickly discovered that the angle of the tub back-rest made it difficult to eat neatly. The hot syrup was thin and easily ran down my chin. But I noted consciously to myself that I was not wearing a silk tie, or even a clean white ironed shirt, so I just stuffed the food into my mouth and happily let the drips fall where they may. When I was done, I simply scooted down into the hot water and rinsed off.

That was better than breakfast in bed! Sorry, no pictures.

Hauling Lumber by Bicycle

Last weekend I bought two 12 foot long 2x6 boards, two 10 foot long 4x4, and one ten foot 2x4. I needed to haul them from the lumber store three blocks away, and just refused to start the car to run that short errand. Besides, I have an XtraCycle now.

So I loaded up the bike with plenty of rope, and the kayak wheels for a trailer, and this picture shows how I got the load home.

It was a successful trip, but I don't recommend hauling this much weight with a bike. The inertia in the load made starting from a stop very difficult. Balancing the bike at the initial slow speed was the problem, and the toe clips did not help.

Two Movies

BeeBoo had a great idea: we should make a movie featuring two of his stuffed animals. We cleared out a theater on the living room carpet, set up the "movie" camera on a tripod, then set the stuffed animals into motion.

I named the first movie Attack of the Tiger then BeeBoo said we should make a second movie and call it Revenge of the Horse.

We had fun making these movies, and hope you enjoy watching them.

Missing Teeth, Bookshelf, Birdhouses and Bunny

Last weekend we had a wonderful time visiting in Amboy. We discovered that Arthur had lost both of his front teeth.

We brought a new bookshelf for BeeBoo so he can store his huge collection of books.

We built two bird houses.

One for a Robin...

...and one for a Flicker

We were sad when it was time to go. The bunny came out to see us off.

Comet Lulin Incoming

Watch the pre-dawn skies whenever it's clear for the next two weeks. There is a new comet named Lulin currently inbound. It's orbit nearly matches the plane of the ecliptic, meaning it's aligned with Earth and the other planets, but it's traveling in the opposite direction.

The comet will be closest to Earth on February 24 and will be at opposition (opposite the Sun) on February 25. That should be while the moon is new, so the skies should be as dark as possible, and excellent for viewing a comet. During opposition, Lulin will be visible all night.

The comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) is inside the orbit of Mars, but outside the orbit of Earth, so we will never be able to see a "fan" shaped tail. In fact, since the tail points away from the Sun, and the Earth in this case, and because the comet's orbit is aligned with the ecliptic, we will only see a thin tail extending from both sides of the comet. It's close approach to Earth in a dark sky is what should make it interesting.

For more detailed information, see the description at Sky and Telescope.

XtraCycle FreeRadical Bicycle

Last weekend Lief and Abby helped me assemble my new XtraCycle. It was a fun project, and a lesson in how complicated a simple bike can be. We had to use a Dremel cut-off wheel to cut the new cable housings to the correct length, but other than that we used only typical mechanic's tools.

As you can see in the photo, I got the wide-loader option, but now I'm wondering why. It adds so much width to the bicycle that I wonder if I'll fit between posts at the ends of bicycle trails, and between light poles, fire hydrants and street signs on sidewalks.

With the XtraCycle FreeRadical extension, I am one step closer to having a StokeMonkey electric assist motor.

No worries about putting this bike on a Metro bus either. The friendly people at RideYourBike.com have posted photos of Seattle area XtraCycle owners, including proof of how to load one on a bus bike rack. (Click on the advertisement for XtraCycles to see the photos.)

Bicycle Reflecting Sidewall Tires; Part 2

Yesterday I put my new reflecting rim on the rear of my bike. The reflecting white sidewall tire is still there, but it's hard to see in the glare of the rim.

Raccoon Visitors

Part of the reason I like snow is that it maintains a record of what happened in the night. A family of raccoons stopped by to see if we left any cat food out.

Igloo Rebuilt

Some bad boys smashed my igloo in the night, so I was unable to get any daylight photos of it. Luckily, a team of hard workers volunteered to help me rebuild it. The only requirement was that the new design would have enough room inside for two children to sit in there. You may have to look close to see Bruno because his grey whiskers are the only part of him that shows.

The second photo proves that Evan can crawl through the tiny doorway. He told me, "I'm only eight and I'm as tall as an eleven-year-old."

Notice also that Lillie is leaning on the igloo, showing the strength of the structure. She is heavier than she looks, weighing in at nearly 18,000 grams.

The final photo shows both Evan and Lillie inside the igloo, taken by pointing the camera through a tiny window in the back of the igloo. The window was a design requirement provided by Lillie. (Every playhouse needs a window. It doesn't matter that windows are not typically found in igloos.)

Igloo 2008

I just can't pass up an opportunity to build something in the snow. Here's my contribution for this year: a miniature igloo. It's sized appropriately for fairies and elves, or maybe a cat or dog. Monya wanted me to cover up the opening so a drunk/homeless person doesn't take up residence, but I insisted that the doorway is too small for a drunk/homeless person. Lief and James might be able to identify one of my construction implements by noticing the shape and size of the opening.