Weight Loss

As several of you may have seen, via my Facebook post, Ryan Davis died a couple of months ago. There's no reason any of you should know him, he was a 'web personality' at one of my favorite Video Game websites. He was a riot to listen to and a great writer. He died five days after he got married. He was also fat. You can find pictures if you want, but let's not beat around the bush here; there's not a whole lot of guessing about what killed him. After I read about Ryan dying, I walked into the bathroom and weighed myself. I was 236 pounds. That might be the most I've ever weighed. It was right after the 4^th of July weekend, so it may have been a little skewed by recent munchitude, but 236 was too much.

The next day I started doing something I didn't think I'd ever do: count calories.

I got on a website called MyFitnessPal, put it my weight, guessed at a goal weight and, started trying to keep my caloric intake under the goal number for the day (roughly 2000). As it turns out, calories can sneak in via some pretty circuitous routes. My trail mix? Lots of calories in there. I only ate 5 fig newtons a day, for my daily 'lunch-dessert', but considering the low number I was trying to hit, that had to hit the highway. PB&J after Tyler goes to bed? Nearly 400 calories by my estimation, and that's just too much. I've gotten down to small dinners, carefully measured lunches, and...pretty much the same breakfast I've been eating for years, so that was okay. I might try and throw some more eggs in there, though. They seem like good breakfast fare.

It's made me really reconsider what I want to eat. When you start limiting yourself like this you start to really think about where you want your calories to come from, and when you want to eat them. Especially, too, when you make yourself exercise, and you start to see how much effort it is just to burn off a few hundred calories. Did you know I don't even get to eat fruit whenever I want anymore? Too much energy in most fruit. I can eat veggies at will, but let's be honest, Tyler is right: veggies are pretty gross.

It's a lot of effort, and I never thought I'd spend this much time thinking about what I eat, scrutinizing every meal. I'm not tracking calories every day anymore, I tend to estimate just to keep my sanity, but a couple of times a week I try to keep a solid count, just to keep myself honest.

Oh, and last time I checked, I was at 224 and dropping. So the effort is paying off. I'm just hoping I can keep this up, you know, forever.

Tyler. Is. Wearing. Underwear. Holy crap! This is big news, people, stop whatever you're doing. Well, okay, technically, now he's wearing diapers, because he's asleep and we're not crazy, but we started him on saturday and kept him in underwear most of the weekend. He did pretty well, though we have to lead him periodically to the bathroom, and he won't think of it on his own yet. #2 is also pretty tricky, but it's a work in progress. The point is that we've taken a big step, here, people. One that is going to involve a lot of extra laundry for a while. But if you recall, we had him in cloth diapers for many, many months, so super-gross laundry is nothing new to us.

Today was his first day back at school with underwear. He was a little bummed out when he realized that his pants obscured his totally sweet Lighting McQueen underwear, but for the most part he did pretty good today. It'll be a work in process (and don't be surprised if we totally wuss out for the New York Trip) but the little guy is growing up. Apologies to whichever family members' floor he pees on first. I figure it's only a matter of time.

Tyler is also starting to have full conversations, though for some reason he likes it better when he has a toy and you have a toy and your toy asks his toy what his toy did during the school day. Too modest, otherwise, I suppose. He also is putting together some pretty elaborate play scenarios. On Sunday he got his luggage, some luggage for daddy (a pumpkin bucket) some luggage for mommy (a purse) and then we went to the airport (kitchen) and sat in the airplane (floor) and went to new york. He walked over to the museum (Office) and saw the Dinosaur (actual Toy Dinosaur, I was impressed) and then we looked up and saw the big Blue Whale (ceiling). It was too high up to touch. We checked. And then, after all of that, we went back on the plane, flew back to Texas, and then said hello to the kitties when we got back to the house. Then he did our tax returns!

Micro-News!

Tyler has been taking swim lessons. Next week is his last class and I am coming to watch and see how good Tyler is now.

Tyler is starting to learn numbers and sounds. He'll be writing novellas before you know it.

Till next time, everyone,

-N

Back at the Beginning

It is part of my history that as a teenager, I spent part of a summer in Northern Idaho working for Chuck Waterman, a church friend who was a National Guard pilot who had extensive timber interest that he managed as well.  Chuck needed some property "thinned" of dense second growth fir which was sold in Priest River as pulpwood for west coast paper mills.  It was no fun, hot, dirty and difficult.  The trees were skinny, covered with dense limbs, all of which had to be cut off before we could drag it out and truck it to the rail yard.  I gave it several weeks but I really wasn't any good at it and hardly made Chuck what it cost to support me.  We agreed it wasn't working and I pointedly remember telling his wife Lois that the experience taught me that I needed to "stay in school".

Well, for the last few days I've been inspired to do some maintenance on the common grounds of our neighborhood.  We have a drainage pond that we are obliged to operate since we largely cleared the hillside for our homes overlooking the Snoqualmie River.  It stabilizes runoff and smooths out discharge from rainfall.  Its most recent inspection called out the encroaching presence of multiple Alder saplings which naturally sprout on open ground such as we created at our pond. They needed to go.

I felt like I could make short work of them with my homeowner chain saw, so for the last 2 days I've spent my mornings lumberjacking the pond.  I've given it 3-4 hours both days.  Its been sunny. Its seems remarkably Hot.  Its been hot, dirty, and difficult.  At the end of my shift today, I sat on the tailgate of the truck and wondered if I could get consulting fees for the time and effort I put in. Then I thought of Chuck and Lois and realized I was back at the beginning again.  Still not very good at it. But at least I got that education behind me now.  Graduated from the 25th grade and still combing sawdust out of what's left of my hair. Stop laughing, Chuck.....

It's been a while, here's some thoughts

Tyler is right here on my lap watching me type.  So I have to be a little careful about what I say about him.  He is is really good kid and I love to give him kisses and he is very nice when he is patient and works hard. 

Now he is slipping and falling off my lap, so I can tell you that as a 2 year old, he's kind of a jerk. 

When you learn about what kids are going through in their 'Terrible twos', their behavior makes a lot of sense.  They have essentially been living in a world that, as near as they can tell, they are in complete control of.  When they want things, they get them, and any perturbations from this norm are probably just forgotten.  A two year old, on the other hand, is slowly learning that he is an entity, and the world around him spins with its own rules, rules he is often not going to enjoy.  It would bum me out, too. 

I consider it my duty to frustrate Tyler at least once a day, if not many more. I figure denying him something he wants is just part of the process of teaching him things.  I figure when he gets old and reads this, he'll probably be really frustrated with me, but tough noogies, kid.  If I didn't teach you these things, you'd be completely insufferable, as opposed to the regularly insufferable that I'm sure you've achieved at whatever age you find this.  It's part of the learning process.  Deal. 

Anyway, I figure that whatever I'm doing has to be working pretty well so far, because he's turning into a pretty great kid.  He's super curious about things, fussy, but certainly not insufferably so, and is quickly becoming a candidate for those great one-liners they always got from 'kids say the darnedest things.'  Lets try a few:

How old is daddy?:  One
How old is mommy?: Two
How old is Tyler?:  Four...um, Two!
Where does our food come from?: Ummm...the Pizza man!

That last one isn't true, by the way.  We cook. 

My recent favorite has been from last night.  I was singing him a random song I had been listening to during the day.  Obedear by Purity Ring.  The chorus goes like this:

Oh, but dear the sky is low.
Gather up your harm and gods
with grateful arms. 
Oh, but dear the sky is low...

Well as I was singing, he sits bolt upright from laying on my chest and says to me, with wide eyes: "Sky is low!  We were on the plane with the clouds!  Sky is low!"  He had evidently just figured out how the clouds had been so close to the plane window.  I did my best to explain how the plane goes up near the clouds, and he settled back down, but that's some pretty inspired science from a kid who was about to go to sleep. 

Tyler is in the 'transition' classroom now, which is theoretically a transition between the 'day care' of the younger kids and the 'almost kindergarten' of the older classes.  He seems to be fitting in pretty well, being a fan of running around, playing with sand, and sitting and reading books, some of the primary activities of his class.  I've gotten to join a couple of times.  I got to hang out in his classroom one morning and started reading him a book.  Before too long I had gathered an impromptu circle of all the kids in the class and was reading to them about things that go. 

I also got to visit for 'splash day', which has started up again during the heat of the summer.  The difference between splash day for toddlers and two year olds is primarily that the two year olds don't want to stay on the splash pad.  There is a big playground out there, one they don't often get to visit, and they have as much desire to explore as they do to get hosed down by the teachers.  Though the hosing is also a pretty big draw. 

I 'got' to travel last week, which Jessie always considers a vacation for me (and she's not entirely wrong) but Tyler is old enough to start missing people and telling us about it, which means that I got a couple of videos sent to me of Tyler saying he was sad because he misses his daddy, which breaks your heart right in two, let me tell you. 

We got to spend the fourth of July in Florida with the Florida family, and Tyler thought the fireworks were pretty neat, though he did manage to burn himself on a sparkler.  Does that sound familiar to any parents here?  First son burning fingers on hot sparkler?  Maybe it's genetic.  Anyway, we at a lot of food (Tyler liked the beans) and also got to go to the Miami Zoo, which was pretty horrible.  Oh, the zoo was fine, but it was really, really hot, and we couldn't get Tyler to take a nap while we were there, so he got pretty grumped up.  He thought the giraffes and elephants were pretty neat, but we had to head home in the early afternoon because of excessive grumpitude.  He napped on the way home and was much more personable after that. 

We also spent a lot of time in Aunt Shannon's pool, where Tyler mostly just tried to kill himself over and over.  He was better than he has been, and was a champion at shimmying along the wall, but he was still a little too squirmy for his own good while we were holding him.  He was a big fan of sitting on floaty things and getting pushed around, as well as getting surprised by Johnny and William.  Also enjoyed doing big daddy-assisted slam dunks in the floating basketball hoop.  But since he was still not holding his breath or being safe, Jess signed him up for some basic swim lessons.  It's not super-critical for us, because we don't have a pool, but it would be nice to let him learn more about holding his breath and being safe around water.  It would at least make it easier to hold him. 

I've been playing more video games recently.  Which is odd, because for a while I wasn't playing them at all.  I was practicing painting, or piano, or drawing, or something else 'productive'.  It's become frustrating, though, to spend all my time on things that are essentially just practice.  I'm not yet good enough at those things to have fun just sitting down and playing piano, or drawing, or something like that.  Every once in a while I want to just have some fun.  Ergo, video games. 

I'm trying to loose weight.  Well, that's not true.  Not really.  I've long held that the scale is not my best metric for monitoring my health, after I stared doing more exercise and lost size but gained weight, presumably in these massive guns of mine (kiss, kiss).  Regardless, I measured at 236 at the end of the 4th of July vacation, and that is too much.  I've started monitoring my food intake in an attempt to see where my weaknesses are, and so far I think I'm doing pretty good, with the monitoring, if not with the weight loss, that takes time.  I don't think of it as a diet, though, those end.  I'm trying to create a formula for selecting the things that I eat that will keep me healthy and satisfied over the long term.  That's also called a 'diet', but it's the version of the word that botanists use.  I like that one better.  The main problem so far has been that I'm still pretty hungry a lot.  If anyone has any suggestions for food that keeps you full with a low number of calories, I'm all ears.  I'm eating a lot of tuna, though. 

I mostly did this because I realized my favorite thing about the blog is going back and reading my old entries.  So this is an entry that will, someday, be old, and I'll read it and enjoy it.  Hopefully the rest of you do as well. 

-N

Summer Fun

Yes. We have been busy. Blogging is feeling more like a winter sport, more like watching tv, play video games and cooking in doors. But let you think I've forgotten to blog, or that I might be working too hard to blog (ha!), a brief photo update.

In no particular order, we have:
Taken Mom and Dad to their first Mariners game.
Been to the Olympic National Forest to visit friends from Pittsburgh
Gone camping in the Cascades
Not killed everything in the garden
Gone hiking- even once with Mom and Dad
Gotten a lot of sunshine.

It's good.

A little update from the Boonies..

Seems like this blog has lost some attention since the principle participants are now nearly neighbors.  I just wanted to make a note about our current circumstances before it totally dries up.

As you know, we live near but definitely not in Seattle.  We are actually in the officially rural part of both King and Snohomish Counties.  Our closest community, Duvall, is clearly a Redmond/Microsoft commuting complex but we live across the old 2-lane road from a dairy farm. We all have a couple of acres, we have 4, 2 of which are dedicated to a stream run-off protected area.  Some of the neighbors raise chickens, one keeps bees, we're very much in the country.

It has been a habit of mine to wake before Connie and walk down to the road for my morning newspaper (you know: sheets of paper with stories and pictures new everyday...).  I always keep an eye out for 4 legged neighbors.  I'm never disappointed in that I almost always see some bunnies, often some deer and rarely, the coyote family.  This morning was special.

I started down the driveway just below the house on the relatively long straight-away.  Around the distant corner came something smoothly running right up the middle of the road, straight at me.  Seemed about the size of a dog and for a moment I began to fear I was going to confront a coyote with a grudge about recent fireworks or something.  Still coming, I'm hard to miss. At about 50 feet I speak up loudly, "Who are you?". Ears flick forward, I recognize a small deer! Still trotting along, it comes right to me and stops. A fawn, big eyes, wet fur, nothing but legs, I am close enough to pet it. I sort of bend or bow to it, it gives me another moment of regard, then continues its trot up the hill to go past the greenhouse and the kitchen. I search for a worried or possible hostile parent, but see nothing on the rest of my walk save the usual collection of morning feeding rabbits. 

I know most of us have heard that deer are sort of a modern plague but they charm us here and haven't done any apparent garden damage to change my opinion yet.

Today I got my personalized Washington license plate for the Soobie: XAK IMD.  Feels like we're really settling in.  If only the Mariners could get it together....

Things that Grow Well in My Garden

This is a list for future reference.

Things that Grow Well in My Garden:
Roses
Cilantro
Chives
Beans
Nasturtium
Mint

Also doing well:
Swiss Chard
Rosemary
strawberry
Dandelions

Our new Worm Box

Remember that time I tried to keep worms?  Remember, it was going to be a really enlightened way to deal with kitchen scraps, except I had no idea what I was doing, and the worms had to live in the basement which was too hot, then too cold, then too wet and somewhere in the middle we unleashed a torrent of fruit flies on out little duplex the horrors of which cannot be imagined. Matt (rightfully) banished the worms outside, where they eventually froze, long before turning any quantity of household waste into dirt.  (So yes, there was a bucket for of frozen, rotting food with worm carcasses on our back porch for much too long.)

Anyway, forget all that.  I've gotten from training in worm handing from an experienced vermiculturist- my mother-in-law. She promised us works and send us hardware, and we just recently put together the box.  Just as I was on the verge of caving and buying new wood, Matt decided we could put a box together out of old pallets, and found a bunch being given away. I was all enthusiasm until I realized how hard it is to break apart pallets. Matt soldiered on an knocked together a mighty nice looking box, complete with a fairly solid looking recycled lid (and hinges!).  This weekend, as part of our Mother's Day exchange, we took home a box of worms and some starter stuff for worms.  They got settled in their in the box yesterday (Fig 1).

Fig 1. The new Worm box, made of re-purposed pallets.

So let's discuss some of the design improvements of the current box.
1) It has no bottom.  It will drain directly into the soil, the only barrier is a wire hardware cloth, which keeps out mice.
2) Wood is more breathable than plastic. The moisture thing was a serious issue for the last worms, because they were sealed in a sweaty plastic coffin. We should have worked around that this time.
3) I know what worms eat.  Betty informs me that these red worms don't do much to orange peels or onion skins. Those were the main components of the first box- which, since no one was eating them, drove up the moisture and smell. We won't be sending the worms food the don't like, especially while they are getting settled.
4) The box is outside. The requirements for compost that lives beside the garage are much more forgiving that the compost in your laundry room. This is perhaps the biggest key to success.

And, since I've figure out how to add picture from my phone to the blog, may I present, a rhododendron bush that is ready to explode with color despite a steady diet of clouds (Figure 2), and my first ever rose that I grew in my own garden and it is so big and so red you may think you've never truly seen color before (Figure 3).

Fig 2. Our Rhododendron begins to bloom. It's magenta!

Figure 3. My rose. The image doesn't quite capture a hue of red so deep your eyes ache.

Perhaps more garden pictures can be shared once the rest of the things get settled. I like how lively they look in their little pots on the porch so far, but I'm trying not to get too attached in case I've misjudged what can be grown here.

ReaperCon, Days 3 and 4

Last one!  There's two more below this, so if you just see this, scroll down a bunch and start reading down there.

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Reapercon Day 3

After another early morning and good breakfast, I didn't have anything scheduled until 4:00 in the afternoon, so I took my time in the morning. I read the forums, considered whether or not to bring pizza or other goodies, looked for interesting games, that sort of thing. After a slow-going morning, I headed over to the con to do some stuff.

On the way in, I'm sure, I got stopped and asked about my Backpack. I got noticed for it *all the time*. People were super curious and wanted to know more about it, and I can't blame them. Its primary goal seems to be looking really, really cool. I'm going to change my Forum name to GuyWithCoolBackpack.

My first stop was to talk with Jeremy Bonnot, he's the guy that taught the 'how not to suck' class. Really nice guy, I asked him about getting smoother blends, and he invited me to just sit and watch him paint. It was very informative, and I'm super glad I took the time. I watched him paint for about an hour until they announced they were going to start the VCR teardown competition. That's where you get to break apart a VCR and build something cool out of the components. I was the only one there, at the start, and so I got to tearing it down and getting all the cool parts out. I found the head of the VCR, and pulled out the innards, and made the cool thing that I made. I'm sure you've seen pictures. It took a while, and my paint job was pretty spotty, but it was an absolute blast. I spent a lot of time working on it. Eventually a few others joined in, too. Tonya and Adam, Richard, and another lady named Lynn. There were some pretty good ideas in there, though all the paint jobs were clearly pretty rush affairs. I had a lot of fun doing that.

 

(This is my guy.  the neat metal thing in the middle spins!)

After a lot of that, I joined my color theory class. Yes, more color theory. It was incredibly useful, though. Whereas the beginner class focused on more practical rules, the more advanced class talked about visual design, composition, and other graphic design ideas that really made me think about color and where to put it in really great ways. It was a super-great class.

After that, and a little more milling around, and some dinner, it was time for the awards ceremony. My piece won a Bronze, which was actually right about what I was expecting. A lot of other people won bronzes, slivers, and golds, too. We were all very pumped. Richard, Ben's dad, actually won a Silver Sophie...completely by accident, as it turned out. But he got to take the trophy and hang onto it, and I'm sure they'll just cast another if they need it. It was neat to see one of the Sophie trophies, too. Something to aim for in the future.

After all of that excitement, I went out to dinner with Ben, Aaron, Vincent, Tonya, Adam, and a whole big bunch of other people. We had sushi, and I had a couple sets of crazy rolls. We sat around and chatted, handed around the Sophie, made jokes, and met a few new friends. A very nice ending to the eve. I got back home, did some packing, and then went to sleep.

Day 4:

Got up bright and early, got some breakfast, and packed up my stuff. Managed to get it all in one trip, surprisingly enough, and then got my stuff out to the car. A guy asked for a ride, and I said I would, as long as he would stop somewhere to get bagels for me. We went to one, but it turned out to be at a University, and it was all closed down. So instead we just drove back down to to convention, getting some donuts on the way. Yum.

I got there in plenty of time for my morning class: brushstrokes. I got some more instruction on layering, side-brushing, and plenty of other techniques. I'll have to go over my notes again to make sure I've got it all, but it was a very useful class. Anne Forester, the lady that taught it, had lots of energy, and she's actually in charge of the paints for the entire company, so she is an endless font of knowledge. She gave me some good advice on my minis, the same advice pretty much everyone gets: more contrast with highlights and shadows.

After that I stumbled into a CAV game, a mech-based wargame, and played that for a while. It was pretty fun, but large-scale wargaming isn't something I'm looking to get into anytime soon. Regardless, it was neat to learn the system, and I got some Reaper Bucks out of the event.

After that, we gathered everyone together that did the VCR build, including the guy I gave a ride to the Convention with. He had built something overnight. So we all stood up there while Reaper Brian announced the winner. I was expecting the lady that made the imps tearing through the wiring to win, especially when Brian announced that it was the one that made the judge laugh the most. But in a shocking turn of events...they gave it to me! I was genuinely surprised, and really happy! I got some cool mousesling bar-goers. I really like the mundane kind of stuff, so getting such a nice set was a real treat.

(Myself, ReaperBrian, and the Mouselings I won!)

Then was the Auction. There was a lot of neat stuff, but nothing I was planning to really go after. I figured the really cool stuff would be out of my price range, so I thought I'd bide my time and wait to see if there was anything I wanted. Also, the whole event was a lot of fun to watch. Cool things going, people winning stuff, it was a hoot. After a while, me not seeing anything particular I wanted, Tonya and Adam started bidding on some magnetic character markers that they used in their gaming. Not really having anything I wanted that badly in mind, I just gave them my tokens to see if they could win with it. Turns out they didn't need it, but the gesture was kindly received...

...especially a few minutes later, when something did come up that I wanted. A case for carrying miniatures, something I didn't have but could really use. I bid on it, and it ran up to $220, which was as much as I had. It looked like I was going to get it...until someone bid $230. Tonya just gave me some of hers, putting me up and letting me win it. Very nice of them.

Of course, as the auction went on, people had less and less money, and Vincent managed to clean up on a couple of really cool things. He got to design his own mini, got a bunch of cool figures, and then, in the greatest gesture, picked up a figure case that was going for far too cheap and just gave it to Adam and Tonya. They were quite pleased, and there were hugs and smiles all around.

Then the auction wrapped up, and I was anxious to get back on the road, in case I got to see Tyler before he went to bed. I said my goodbyes, thanked everyone I met, and many people at the company for putting on such a great event, and then got on the road. There was some really annoying traffic, but it was an uneventful drive. I got home filled with figures, painting knowledge, and really, really warm memories.

-N

ReaperCon, Day 2

More of this!  I wrote a lot

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I got up early again this morning, had a nice waffle and some other fixins for breakfast (very yummy) and then went off to the convention space to start the day. I got a nice parking space really close in (parking is at a premium out there) and walked in after everything opened up. My first order of business was to check my class schedule, I didn't want to be late again. Then I went over and got my Vampire bones box set. So excited! It was all dense and heavy and full of fun things to paint. I also got a whole lot of paint, which is good, because I'm still building up my paints at home, and also because I didn't bring any paints with me, and the paints they had available were a bit limited. I also called up Todd and eventually picked up his Vampire set. I'm excited to give that to him. After a little bit more hanging around, I went off to my first class of the day, one on Basic color theory.

The color theory class was great. It went over some basic terms, and gave some straightforward rules on how to know when colors work well on a miniature. In essence, you don't want too many colors that are too close to each other on the color wheel, they don't offer the contrast that you want. You can get around this by muting colors, making them darker or lighter, things like that. Very useful. I took my new found knowledge with me back to the paint-and-take table, where I painted up another guy too see what I could do with his color scheme. After a little bit of Struggling, I went back to Anne Forrester (the lady that taught the class, and also a Reaper Employee in charge of all their paint, she had a lot of knowledge to share) and she gave me some tips on how to make it better. I also took my frog king-and-queen to her, and she gave some tips on things to work on (higher highlights and darker shadows). Very nice.

I also took a factory tour of Reaper on this day. It was really intriguing. Reaper Brian (the production manager, big honcho at the company) took us around and showed us the process. We got to see their fancy new plastic injection machine, look at how they made molds of figurines by pressing them in rubber disks that looked like tires. Then the cut channels for the metal to flow in and the air to flow out, and then the mold was ready to go. If you make your own mini, you can even contract them out to make molds and cast copies of your mini for you. Not cheap, but pretty cool. Then we got to go back to where they cast the minis. They had hot metal all ready to go, they grabbed a mold (asked for a mini that people liked and Reaper Brian just remembered the mold number off the top of his head) and cast some minis right in front of us. We got to ask questions about the metal, the process, how hot everything got, it was all pretty fantastic to do. And at the end, he gave us some of the minis that he had casted. Very nice of him. I can see why the company has so many fans.

I spent a long time after that just working on my mini, painting him very slowly and taking my time with the color scheme, before it was time for me to go to another class: how not to suck. It's widely billed as one of the best classes on offer, and I happen to agree. It was very comprehensive, straightforward, and was focused on techniques that will help you learn how to become a better painter. It was all very impressive and informative.

Oh, and somewhere during all of this (I think it was the day before) I submitted my guys to the painting competition. The neat thing is that they took pictures using their fancy lightbox (making everything look really cool) and then those pictures got displayed on big TVs overlooking the main floor. I'll admit, I sat there for a while and waited until mine came up so I could take a picture.

Oh, and during all of this, I'm making new friends. Just constantly getting into random, mostly effortless conversations with people that just happen to be sitting across the table from me, or what have you. Everyone was very, very friendly, easy to talk to, and made me feel very welcome...even though most of them actually were there for the first time too. I wrote down a lot of names and forum handles, because there was no way I would have remembered it all.

So after some more random painting (working on lining my miniature, something from the previous class) Reaper Brian and some other people from other gaming companies sat down and just started talking about how the whole kickstarter thing went. It was mostly advice about what works on kickstarter, which wasn't really useful to me, because I'm not planning on starting one, a lot of complaining about kickstarter's website (it does need an overhaul) and a few interesting stories tossed in here and there. I stayed for quite a while, then decided I was done for the day and rolled on home. I got to talk with you for a while, missed you greatly, and then actually took some minis outside and primed them. One of the advantages of the new bones minis is that you don't have to prime them, but the paint still, often, beads up and rolls around, like water off a freshly waxed car. It's hard enough for me to paint when my paint does stay where I put it. Having it move isn't helpful. I let them dry off overnight, and then reorganized my backpack and paints, and then went to sleep.

-N

ReaperCon, Day 1

I'm back from Reapercon!  Well, technically, I have been for a while.  I did some daily write-ups like I do when I'm on vacation so that I can remember things better, and since I have all of them, I thought I'd share them here.  Enjoy!

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I drove up on Wednesday, and on the way up I drove up past this big plume of smoke. They were in the process of closing down the southbound traffic, but the northbound traffic was still going, though I suspect I was probably one of the last few to be allowed through. I saw on the news later that I was probably driving past a burning fertilizer plant that exploded massively. Yikes. The rest of the drive was uneventful, though, except that the bombcast I was listening to kept having to restart. I checked into the hotel and was instantly on the lookout for people that I thought would be at reapercon. I saw a couple where the guy had a star wars figurine on his backpack. My people.

I realized that I forgot pretty much all of my toiletries, but the hotel had free backup toothpaste and toothbrush, and they also had some contact lens solution for sale. I kept my lenses in creamer holders overnight, and then in the morning I got some new cases, so I'm set. But I got up really early in the morning because I didn't want to have to wrestle for breakfast and also because I was *so excited* for the con that I didn't want to miss anything. I got my food, did my shopping, and then found Reaper HQ. It's a warehouse building on a normal road, and when I got there the sign that said 'enter here' was pointing at a closed and locked door. It was also raining, something else I hadn't planned for. But before too long, the rain stopped and the door opened for registration.

I was nervous about meeting people cause I really wanted to, but always have trouble just introducing myself. I needn't have worried, the guy right behind me, who is named Aaron, and goes by Adrift on the forums (you have to have both names) started talking me up, and I spent most of the rest of the day just hanging out near him and meeting people he knew. I've also met several on my own, though, it's really easy to just strike up conversations with people you've never met before.

After taking my time looking around the reaper HQ area, including the break room still dressed up like a pirate pub from last year, the metal bits exchange where you can trade random metal from a HUGE table of random parts, and plenty of paints and minis everywhere, I dropped my stuff off and joined a random RPG that needed some extra players. It was a hacked-together system from a bunch of other RPGs that I've never heard of, but it was easy to pick up, and the guy running it was a LOT of fun, very enthusiastic and very flexible. The setting was far more interesting.

For the convention, they came up with a story about a hell-bound slice of Victorian London hosting a dark carnival of the damned. They came up with factions, too, the Carnival, which are all crazy legions of hell, animal trainers, strong men, that sort of thing. The League, which are traveling adventure-types, out for the forces of good. The street thugs, urchins, cutthroats, dockworkers and other Victorian unsavories. And my faction, the stickmen, which are crazed doctors and their monstrous experiments that are looking for the secret of eternal life. Your faction, both in the RPG events using this world and in the actual convention, gets points for particpating in things, and whoever has the most points at the end of the con, and the end of the RPG stuff, wins. Pretty neat little thing. Anyway, the RPG was great, I got to play a Frankenstein monster, I hit a lot of things very well.

After that I went over to the paint-and-take, where you can pick up random miniatures, paint them, and then take them home. It's very nice, and that's where I got the mimic I sent you a picture of. I painted him for a while, and then got some lunch, all while chatting with random people that were coming and going at the table.

Sonic was there, yes, the drive-through place with the onion rings that you don't really like much anymore. They brought a frier, and some hot plates, and a bunch of food, and they stayed open from lunch all the way through dinner. The food isn't *amazing* or anything, but considering that most Convention food is actively junk, the fact that it's pretty decent is high praise.

Anyway, after some more painting and some more eating, I realized I was a little late for my first class. I considered just skipping it, so as to avoid embarrassment (copping out, as I do) but decided to be bold and walk over. I strolled right in, apologized for being late, and jumped right into class. The guy teaching it was Lazlo Jakusovski. If the name sounds familiar, it's the guy that did the Hot Lead DVDs that I was watching that Todd got for me. He was a good teacher, and seeing his technique was a really big help, it gives me a lot to work on, which is pretty good, actually. I messed up the technique on the example minis they gave us to work on, but I understood why I was messing it up, at least, so I have some hope of improving.

After the class, I went back to the painting table to hang out with some new friends, a sensation that was really quite pleasant. I worked on my mimic some more, and then when everyone was going to head off for dinner, they asked if I wanted to come along, and of course I said yes. We got in a few cars, and I carpooled with Adam and Tanya. Adam really, *really* reminds me of Kevin. You remember Kevin and Clarissa in Albuquerque? Adam has the same long hair, same beard, same nerdy shirts, same warm personality and everything. They were fun to hang out with. Anyway, we drove down to Bjs, which is part of a Brewpub chain that they actually have down in Austin, too. We've never been there, though. Anyway, we got there first, and then I went off to the bathroom. When I came back, everyone had arrive, and they were all standing around a 5-year-old who was playing some dungeon game on his Ipad, and everyone was entranced. My people! (Yes, the dad was there too, he kept his eye on us, but he could tell we were all just really being nerds. Totally harmless.)

We had a great dinner and cracked a lot of jokes, told stories, compared convention plans, and generally had a really nice time. I made a great joke about how scatterbrained Aaron was being when he got hungry, and that became a running joke for the evening. I also saw a tiny baby bunny outside of the window. I guess they just live in the city around here. So cute!

When we were done with Dinner, I drove Tanya and Adam back to the hotel. They said they were going to be up for a while, working on some painting. They also asked if I had some 'Green stuff' (Epoxy modeling putty) and I did, and they were very glad for that. They also asked if I had some superglue, and I had some of that too. In exchange, they let me use their paints. I worked some more on my guy, admired their pieces for the competition, and then got sleepy and decided to call it a day. I got to sleep a little after midnight, and had a great, great day.

-N

First 5K of the Year

Matt and I ran (or "ran") a 5K this weekend.  This was Betty's idea, she was going to walk a 5K in Concrete to support the local Lion's Club Booster, and since I'm trying to find ways to support family and friend's communities efforts, we decided to go.  I thought I might walk, but the weather was wet, which made me think I should "run," you know, to finish "faster."

Let's discuss my running quickly. (Or maybe just briefly, since my running quickly doesn't come up much.)  At various times in the past, I've thought, "I should run," and this idea is almost immediately rejected by by lungs and legs. A coworker has been running, and since we have this fitness challenge, at work, I thought I should go with her.  She runs really slow.  And you know what, if I go really slow, I can run.  Or jog.  Or possibly wog.  You know those skinny late-middle aged women who get all decked out in high visibility fluorescent spandex and then go for runs so slow, you wonder why they are even wearing work out clothes?  I'm a little slower than that.  And I'm totally ok with it.

Let's just compare that to Matt's running.  Matt, my dearly beloved, wear a heart rate monitor when he runs.  He will occasionally let his bestie talk him into going into a 5, no oops, 8 mile trail run up a mountain. When Matt saw last year's times for this 5K, he simply said, "I'm pretty sure I could beat that." 

Needless to say, Matt and I never run together.  Matt thinks running together would be nice, but I am much happier running and suffering on my own then listening to his chipper banter about how he is almost warmed-up while I'm already too out of breathe to tell him I don't want to talk about how wind sprints might help me.  It's one of those secrets to our happy marriage: we don't run together.

But, we can run at the same event.  This was an out and back kind of race- run away from the school 2.5K, then come back 2.5K. IT was paired with a 10K, where lean people would run out 5K, and back 5K. Now, I'm a "running my own race" type, but I was hoping to see racers returning, since this would indicate that at least someone made it near the halfway point.  I finally saw some kids running back (yes, actual children), eventually followed by Matt. As he passed, he rolled his eyes and said, "I forgot to turn around." When I got back, 45 min from the start time (a personal best, thank you), Matt was there to greet me.  I got a participation ribbon (Woo!), and we went to get some water before watching to see Betty come in.

We compared notes: I was not passed by the 83 year old trail walker, but I'd been dropped by most everyone else who ran.  After he forgot to turn around (because he was keeping up with people running the 10K), he had to run pretty hard to make up the time.  He had to pass several children, and a guy with one leg.  He has been hoping to post a personal best (since he is in great shape from Mt Bike Racing this winter), but that was not to be.  I finally asked him what he did with his ribbon, and he sheepishly pulled out his SECOND PLACE MEDAL from his pocket.  Yup, second place, behind a 15 year old, and in front of 12 year old and a man running with a blade in place of his foot.

One More Box

Mom and Dad moved the last of their stuff into the Monroe house recently.  While I haven't seen how that is going on their end, the fall-out has been some mid-day deliveries of chairs (the green Papa chair) and rugs at my house.  So I picture it's going great.

Before they left town for Adventure Round 2, we celebrated Seattle's Restaurant week- Price Fixe at restaurants we normally don't have occasion to frequent.  It was a nice chance to catch up before they are gone for a month or something, and to trade a few things.  They brought Nana (to spend the night and convert my garden to a thing of weedless beauty), and "another box of things. Maybe from Nana's?" Now, I am happy to be the only one not downsizing a house, but there has been no small number of boxes of tchotckes that were never worth the effort to ship, and I really thought we had weeded all those out.

Nana and I sat down for a cup of tea last night to see if either of us could figure out if there was anything of value in the box.  Turns out- Bonanza!

This was the box with the last few missing things.  Nana's recipe box has been AWOL since the move.  It was in the box.(!!)  Papa's nearly exotic fleece barret.  In the box.  Classic children's books, a 1950s cookbook and some VHS labeled 1989 Preecs Children.  Papa's Right of Way Association Plaques. His Boy Scout (leader) award. Awesome.

But most of the box was pictures.  All manner of pictures.  Pictures from the last few decades of domestic and foreign travel.  Nana's high school graduation photo.  Her Kiwanis Award (for service). Grammie Jean's baby book (not aging as well as she did). Papa's 65th high school reunion photo.  There is no shortage of cool stuff and rainy afternoons in that box. Next time I make noise about "nothing to blog about" remind me to pull some stuff from the box and start collecting stories.

Before I really get started on it though, I wanted to share this little gem of a newspaper clipping. (Transcript follows for future search ability.) I would love if someone could fill in the ~30 year time gap between the estimated date of the clipping and the postmark.

[ To Talk of Many Things . . . . --By D.H.P.
I have been deeply moved by an act of innate honesty of my fellow man . . . . at all times of course, most of us are careful with out money for the needs it must supply . . . but at Christmas time with this business of gift exchanging, it becomes of particular importance . . . last week a lad of small fry age was entrusted with a sum of money . . . . and somehow lost a bill of large denomination from his pocket . . . . it was a tragic occurrence, so much so that he was plunged into deepest despair because he felt he had ruined Christmas for his family . . . the following evening a little ad appeared in the daily newspaper that "folding money" had been found . . . . On inquiry it was determined that from the spot it was found and being in the amount of the sum lost, it could be no other than the small fry's bill . . . every offer of recompense was refused . . . . the finder of the bill was glad it could be returned to its owner . . . . I think that is a wonderful thing . . . . that a man would find a piece of paper money in the snow and advertise to locate the rightful owner. . . . and at the holiday season time too, when everyone can use a little extra coin of the realm . . . . and truly Mr. William B. Preecs of Pacific Northern Airlines, who must be possessed of the pure meaning of the Christmas Spirit may enjoy his holiday knowing he has lightened a heavy burden from a little boy at Christmas time.]

[Enveloped post marked Baltimore MD 212 12 Nov 1986 from the Thunder Hill Rd House to the Everett House] 

He's growing up

I am also not blogging very much, and I also have an excuse. I have a two-year-old. I haven't had him for that long, but you'd be surprised how often that excuse comes in handy. “You look tired.” “Well, I have a two-year-old.” “You want to come out to the game?” “No, I have a two-year-old.” “Noel, can you help us with a project?” “Sorry, two-year-old.” “Noel, could you pass the ketchup?” “TWO YEAR OLD.” It's a magic bullet.

We kept Tyler's actual birthday pretty low-key. We took him out to the ice rink, one of his favorite weekend diversions, met up with Natalie and Brian and grant out there, and had a great time. Brian had taken a class in ice skating when he was in college, and then hadn't been on skates in the intervening 10 years, so I was better than him for, like, two minutes, tops. Grant got accustomed to the skating pretty quickly, and between the myriad of adults, we were able to cycle through skating children enough to give our backs a periodic rest. Tyler is getting to where he can stand on his own two feet, though he doesn't cover much ground, and mommy is never more than a few inches away.

After skating, everyone came over for pizza and ice cream cake. Did you know that Tyler doesn't like pepperoni on his pizza? What kind of kid am I raising? He was also able to blow out his own candles, which, when you remember that there aren't very many of them, isn't as wild an accomplishment as it might sound. We got him some random presents, neat shirts, cool toys, a book or two. Kid stuff. He thought it was all pretty great.

Easter also happened. We hid some eggs around the house, stuffed with random small things and fig newtons. Those were a hit. We also went out to the park for the big neighborhood easter egg hunt. Got some candy there, too, and got to see a fire truck up close.

And, then, of course, there was Disney Land.

I am...not a big fan of Disney Land. For the price you pay for the tickets, it seems like there's a surfeit of fun and an overabundance of standing in line. There were some definite highlights, and Tyler is still talking about “Mr Toad Ride.” Recalling how it was “Kinda scary.” and “Flashy lights”. Dumbo, Small world, teacups, all hits, though. Also, instead of heading back to the hotel, Tyler just fell asleep on my shoulder for half an hour while I carried him around. That's the thing you can only really do if you're a dad: that critical combination of comfort, upper body strength, and willingness to put up with a lot of discomfort to get some really good cuddles out of your kid.

Nana and Grandpa were also a lot of fun for Tyler. He got lots of hugs and kisses, many nice pictures, and many many smiles. He was a wonderful model grandson for his elders. He did keep waking up really early, though. Stayed on Texas time. Made it so that we got lots done before his morning nap, though. The second day we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Tyler got to touch a stingray and see some really pretty birds up close. After that we went to the La Brea Tar pits, which I never did see while I was in LA. But it was pretty great. We also got to see the big squad of people that we started Raytheon working with, most of whom have kids of their own. Some nice family-reunion sized pictures came out of that.

The one tragedy was when Tyler, being a toddler, tripped and smacked his forehead on the chair I was sitting in. It swelled up really spectacularly, but a quick application of ice seemed to do it a lot of good, and the bruise it turned into didn't seem nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. It's nearly healed up, too.

And in the last bit of Tyler news, some neighbors down the street are moving out, and they asked us if we wanted an extra kid bed. Well the timing worked out great, and after buying a mattress, some spider-man sheets and a Mario Brothers blanket, Tyler is, at this very moment, sleeping in a Big Boy Bed. We also purchased a waterproof mattress cover and a guard rail. Not to keep him from escaping, to keep him from falling out. Kid likes to sleep in corners, and I've definitely found him facing the wrong way in his bed more than once. He's still small enough, for now, that he can sleep sideways in the bed.

The first night in the big boy bed actually went really well. We had been building it up for a while, he got to see us assemble it, and then night came and we put him in bed, tucked him in, and he just waved goodbye and said “goodbye mommy”. Then slept like a log all night. What a good kid.

The only thing I'm up to that is not Tyler-related is REAPERCON! As many of you know, Reaper is a company that makes Miniatures, and I supported a program last year where you preordered a whole bunch of miniatures and got hundres of them for a great price. They're in the process of shipping out now, but last year when I bought into the deal, I decided I should try to see if I actually like painting minatures. I do rather a lot.

The company, named Reaper, has a once-a-year painting convention where there are classes, paints, minatures, board games, and all sorts of fantastic things to do. I have signed up for four classes, amd going to pack up my stuff, and then wednesday evening I drive up to Denton, TX, for 4 days of paining and relaxing, all while Jess takes care of Tyler for me. She's really nice to me.

So, what, is that, 10 paragraphs about Tyler, and one about me? Yeah, that ratio seems about right.

-N

Barely news

It seems silly to blog when I see my primary readership regularly.  Mom and Nana already know we tried to go to the tulip festival, but instead spent all day looking at PACCAR trucks and eating salmon waiting for the rain to pass before giving up and going home.  They know that because they were there.  Even the stuff we have been up to that didn't include being with the family, they know about because we see them often enoguh to talk about it.  Cool, right?

But, this means I have to come up with other content for blogging.  Matt is off at another race today.  He'll be leaving town next weekend for a work trip (to South Carolina and Ohio, he is not excited). Work is getting a little busier for me as we approach a major deadline, but only so busy that my manager finally said it's time for us all to start working a couple extra hours a week.  To me, the difference between 40 and 45 hours a week is negligible, but I understand that they have been very cautious to ask these things, since at this time last year the entire team was regularly working 80-100 hours a week.

Cooking for the shelter at The Landing has gotten me excited to find some new recipes for cooking for smaller groups. So far that hasn't translated into making food, but I think it might.  Speaking of the other blog, the project has been going along ok.  It's been fun for me to try to find new venues to get involved in the community, but it's pretty clear that it's a big goal, with a (comparatively) short timeline.  Raising $30,000 might take me longer than a year, unless I can find more clever ways of getting other people involved.  So far we are approaching 10% in 2 months (awesome!), but at that rate it will take me closer to two years to complete the project.  Of course, it would still be worth doing, even at that pace. But, I still wonder what I can do to get there faster. Anyway, if you've been volunteering/donating, please let me know because I am keeping records so I can see how this project is coming together.

First "event"

So just like after the Superbowl when the hero is asked "what are you going to do now?", we're going to Disneyland with Tyler and those people he travels with. But before they arrive today, we took in a Dodgers/Giants game at Dodger Stadium. I got the tickets online, didn't understand that they were so expensive because we were entitled to a free buffet of real food, not just DodgerDogs from the vendors. This was explained to me by a cheerful young couple seated next to us. Cut to the 6th inning. There's a break, the stadium crew is out with the"Kiss-Cam" for the Jumbotron, Connie is out of her seat, I'm watching the screen, suddenly all the faces around me turn my way. The camera is on my seat mates, the right field screen says "Carla will you marry me?", the left field screen is my neighbor on his knee with a ring and me looking confused on the side. They get their moments of glory and I get to see myself 50 feet tall. Connie misses it all but we explain it to her over and over again when she returns.  Not a bad night, Dodgers lose but the Mariners win. So it's off to see the Mouse tomorrow.

Things I've been up to

We'll start with a Tyler update, being as I'm sure he's the guy you're most interested in hearing about. Tyler's latest trick is that he's starting to have thoughts of his own. Ever since he's been able to talk, he's been really good at parroting, repeating things he's already heard. New to his repertoire, though, is coming up with his very own ideas and sentences. That's right! There's a little human in there after all.

The most memorable example of this behavior has been when we were singing “Wheels on the Bus.” It's always been one of his favorite songs. After a few verses, I asked which sound he wanted to do next.

“Tyler, what else is on the bus?”

He paused, staring ahead, like he does when he's deep in thought (we all know where he gets this from)

“Enui!”

Okay, he technically just said “En-We”, but I think we all knew what he meant.

“Enui? Really? What sound does Enui make?”

Another long pause.

“Boop, boop, boop.”

And so we sang, “The Enui on the bus goes boop, boop, boop.” And he laughed. He laughed so hard, he thought it was just the greatest thing.

It shows up in a lot of smaller ways, too. We'll ask him what he wants to eat and he'll come up with something all on his own. You'll point out something that's big and he'll remind you that Tyler is Little all on his own. He hasn't yet used it to suggest that Daddy and Mommy are always wrong and that he should get more ipad and candy, but give it time, I'm sure.

Work continues apace. I got to travel last week to Patuxent river, again. I was supposed to be gone for the whole week, but we got out there, got everything working in a couple of days, and then everyone went “great, it works, I guess we're done” and went home. Jess has been really busy at work, too, well befitting a person who is so well regarded. And before any of you ask, I'm not worried about the sequester. It may make us trim back a bit, but I suspect that the most likely prospect is that we'll hire new people a little slower. I've been on the test team for maybe 6 months, and there are 5 new people in the group that have joined since. We're busy.

I've also been working on my Minis for ReaperCon. I decided to pull together some of the guys I've been painting and give them a platform to stand on together. Give it some scenery and character, so to speak. Here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy.

I'm also excited because I think I'm going to build a new computer. I've never actually done this before, but I've read some tutorials and it doesn't appear too difficult. The main source of work will probably be selecting all the components, and if you ask any computer-building nerd, that's the best part of the whole endeavor.

-N

Last Day...

Just had my last quiet morning in the office.  A couple of appointments cancelled at the last minute, several easy straight-forward patients, a homeless man cashing in a gift certificate we donated to charity (he had a horrible prescription and was legally blind without specs, now will be perfect, at least visually), several folks stopping by for hugs and good wishes.  The last senior partner in our building has annouced his own retirement today, like its going around or something.

In truth we are ready, more than ready.  Saw the Fletcher Dad known to my kids through his kids.  We discussed wood shops and he advocated for the same store that Mom is starting her chip carving lessons with in south Seattle. Chatted up a retired ship's captain too busy to work anymore.

Had a nice surprise dinner with church/choir friends last night, listened to the current choir director bemoaning the hassles of directing "volunteers".  Did we want to stay for one last Easter?? Trucked out to the apartment and dusted out the last bits of our presence, left the keys on the counter, and closed the door on that final chapter, literally.

I don't know how many ways I can say it, but again, we're ready.  Noticing lots of last times for everything.  Maybe a bit of wistfulness now and then but clearly overcome with excitement.  See you all soon......G

Home Projects

When you move into a house, people seem super interested in "what you are going to do to the place?" We are pretty pumped about the fact that the house doesn't really need anything.  We painted some walls for esthetic reasons.  But nothing is breaking.

However, the out side parts of the house are going to need some help. There are some big, established plants around, which I am excited to watch transform into whatever the turn into.  Will that tree out the kitchen window blossom?  I'm starting to see some tiny buds on things, which will be exciting as the spring develops.  But, I don't see any sign of bulbs, so I am loking forward to putting those in.

I'm also looking forward to adding a raised bed to the back for veggies.  I'm not really sure how that works though, so I need to learn about it.  I also am looking forward to having a worm bin, so I should probably get that build too.  Dad doesn't seem to understand my interest in using reclaimed lumber for these projects. Sure, it is harder to find than a tree currently standing in the woods, but I like the idea of giving a second life to lumber, and garden projects can be forgiving in their dimensions.

I'm also collecting idea for brainlessly easy things to cultivate in the Seattle summer.  I'm thinking peas/beans and some herbs.  If this goes well, we can try more in the future.  This is just the first little baby step in transforming the yard though.

Visible transitions

So today was spent hashing out final details of our retirement settlement with our financial advisor.  As it turns out, he was one of the first professionals we engaged when we arrived in Juneau and sold us some insurance and disability contracts that we needed for our obligations to our predcessor.  Turns out we were one of his very first clients and, according to him, sort of broke the ice and started his business out in a critical time for his success.  Had no idea he was as new to this stuff as we were but he has grown with us all these years.

So, feeling all nostalgic and old, we noticed the old Elementary school is being rehabbed and updated, so we shouldn't be the only ones in the family feeling dated and old, eh??

I want to Master Cakes

I don't think I've really ever baked a cake from scratch.

I'm sure I could. The mechanics aren't that different that other things that I have baked. But I haven't ever taken the time. Now that I have this super fancy kitchenaid that my big brother got me, I feel compelled to bake ambitious things.  Matt and I were brainstorming "things that should be baked" one night, and he started riffing on cakes. Carrot Cake. Yellow Cake.  Princess Cake.  And all with the niave confidence that they will be easy and totally worth the effort.

Now would be a great time for someone to chime in in case this is actually false.

And then I got the crazy idea (I'm having a lot of these lately), that when I recruit people to take part in my 30 for my 30th project with group volunteer things, I should pretend it's my birthday party and offer cake.  I was specifically imagining that I've talked my friends into some trail maintenance which turned about to be a terrible idea, and everyone is brutally exhausted and frustrated, and then I whip out a carrot cake and suddenly everyone is glad they are helping! That could work, right?

As Nana says, if you don't hear about it again, don't ask!

Mt Bike Racing

This is going to be a year of bikes.  I can tell.  Our favorite 3 year old is on a two wheeled (pedal) bike these days, and he bravely rides on trails.  Nearly every day, I'm told.  Since hiking with short legs is a bit harder, it seems likely that more of our group summer adventures will be mountain biking.

And you don't have ask twice if Matt would like to go for a mountain bike ride.  All this talk of "rides" and "trails" and "mud" and "huge scary logs" got him thinking about mountain biking in Janurary this year.  Not that he ever stops riding out doors, he really does ride 12 months a year here.  But other people start organizing events in the late winter.  He started a mountain bike series a couple weeks ago that will last until mid-spring.  These are fun because he gets to ride in different parks, and compare his time to others and improve his own performance. (Or so I'm told. Racing sounds awful to me.)

His first race was in Tacoma.  He made his bestie Jeffrey come with to spectate. The start line was staggered by race class, so all the Sport (faster than beginner, slower than expert) riders launch by age group.  They ride 3 laps in a winding park.  He passes people, people pass him. They had fun, and went to a hearty lunch as soon as Matt crossed the finished line.  Some hours later he pulled up the race results online and said, "Um. Oh. I guess I got third?"

Matt has a fairly binary approach to being competitive.  He can go have some rides with other people and push himself and that's cool. He is pretty laze-faire about going to these events when it's just for a ride. But as soon as he placed, I knew he was committed to the series.  Fortunately, so was Jeffery.  (Bike racing is cool, but it is in lots of different far away places that are nice to have a co driver for,)

The second race was also in Tacoma. Again, the staggered start, with multiple classes on the track at the same time.  I'm told it's hard to pay attention to whether the person passing you has grey hair or acne, so both of the guys felt like they did OK, but couldn't judge their rankings.

When the race results came in, Matt had taken second place. Jeffrey came in the top half, easily. Now there is talk of series points, and the next race is next week.  They guys speculate that most of these riders are road bikers who are getting off the street for a few hours because they both pass other riders on the technical parts (read: rooty, dropsy, chasms). I'm sure it has nothing to do with them both riding this type of terrain for most of their lives.

You can check out pictures here. Most of those people aren't Matt. You can tell some of these riders are out of their element.  How can you tell they are doing it wrong?  Both tires should stay on the ground (#728 is my favorite).  Here is a nice one of Matt just doing what he likes doing.

(I feel I should add the Matt says people crash here because they rode it too slow.  Wheee!)

Finished my mini

Remember that guy I was working on before?  He's done! 

 

Here's more progress shots.  I'm pretty sure on this day I worked on his pants.  It's subtle, I know.

 

Here I'm starting to work on his coat.  I did the green lining inside his coat.  Nice highlighting, yes?  Also his epaulettes, which I also learned how to spell.  

 Worked on the gun today.  Did some shading and highlighting on the wood and metal drybrushing on the...metal parts. 

And here he is, all done!  I did a chrome look for the sword.  Impressive, no?  I think it came out pretty good.  Also did some grass around his feet.  The grass nearer to him is dead, I imagine it's a side-effect of his crazy-evil power.  I'm quite pleased about how well he came out.  I'm going to go get him a fancy little plinth to display him on for the convention.  Next up on the painting queue, a frog king and queen for Ray and Jeanne. 

-N

Wholesome Family Activities

So in case you're wondering what it is that I've been doing with so much of my time that I can neither blog nor call up parents at the traditional time (sorry!), here's an explanation.  In a couple of months there's a convention up in Dallas called ReaperCon.  Reaper is a company that makes miniatures, the kinds I've spent so much of my time learning to paint.  The convention sounds really cool: they will have classes, plenty of places to paint, lots of things to do and see, games to play aaaaaaand...they have a competition for painted miniatures.

 Now I have never been competitive about my painting, but I looked at a lot of entries from last year and by comparison, my most recent work seems to match up pretty well.   At least, it does when I take my time.  Plus, they have a very forgiving grading system: you get graded based on how good your mini looks, not how many better painted miniatures happened to be entered in the contest.  I'm aiming for 'bronze' rank, but even if I don't get that, you get a certificate of merit just for entering, and I would hang that up proudly on my wall. A lot of the highest-end painting really is just a function of putting in really a lot of work.  And so in that spirit, I've begun working on my entry already.  I've been taking pictures at the end of each day, to show off progress and also to give you guys a sense of how long it takes to paint one of these guys so that they look really nice.  Also to show off how good I am at this now.  :)

Here is the end of day 1:

they grey is the primer: so the only thing I managed to get done in the several hours I spent on the first day with this guy is to get down a base coat of red, white and skin tone on part of him.  Told you: long process.  You use very thin coats of paint and paint them on usually around 4 or 5 times so that your guy looks like a little person, and not a tiny figurine covered in plastic paint.  The matte finish takes work, but it's crucial for a good looking figure.

Day 2:

A few more colors make their appearance.   did the gauntlet, mask, and the like in a slightly different red color.  I have a back-story in mind where the guy stole the coat from someone on the battlefield, so the color doesn't quite match.  Also, the accessories were given to him by his evil overlords, they are the source of his power.  It's very complicated, maybe I'll write up a story for him later.

Day 3:

A lot of progress on this day.  It was Saturday, and Jess let me paint a lot during the day while she watched Tyler.  the rest of the base coat has been laid down, and I even did the shading on the back of his coat.  I think I did a pretty decent job, but this is one of my first attempts at this sort of dramatic coloring.  A cape is a pretty good place to start, though.  The places where to put the high-and-low lights are pretty obvious.

Day 4:

Oh man, I really like the progress I did today.  I painted that tatoo-thing in the center of his chest like scarification, and it came out looking really well.  I also added some shading to his gauntlet, mask, loin cloth and chest-skin.  You might not be able to tell in this picture (heck, I can't even tell unless I look under the magnifying glass Jess got me for Xmas) but I managed to individually shade each of his ab-muscles.  I'm pretty impressed with that.

And lest you think I spend all of my time cooped up in my room ignoring my parently duties and painting: here's some evidence otherwise:

There was a nice breeze today, so we got out Jessie's stunt-kite and went out to the park.  There were a lot of crashes, but Tyler thought this was one of the coolest things in the world.

Jessie took Tyler skating also this weekend, Kneecaps be damned!  He thought it was also the coolest thing in the world.  Cutest, too!

-N