Why I Oughta...

I'm not exactly sure WHY I started to try to learn how to solve - after all these years - a Rubik's Cube, but over the past three-plus weeks, I've been working on scrambling and solving whenever I'm sitting on the couch and have a little time to waste.  Thanks to YouTube - and the fact that you can slow videos down playback speed-wise - I have gotten pretty good at solving a lot of the cube by memory.  I still don't have the last few steps memorized, but I'm continuing to work on it. The video that I used was this one that features WIRED's Robbie Gonzalez showing the steps he learned.   What solves and algorithms do I have down? Bottom white face.  Done. Bottom two rows.  Done. Yellow top face.  Done. What algorithms don't I have committed to memory (just yet)? Setting the corners.  Sometimes this just happens naturally, so I skip it.   And doing the final solve.

I spotted this lady Loki at Graham Cracker Comics in town right before Christmas.  Did she come home with us?  Nope.  But, that doesn't mean we can't appreciate her existence.   Loki is one of the kid's favorite member of the MCU, but I think they prefer Alligator vs Lady Loki in whatever version of the multi-verse is appropriate.

This isn't part of *my* Christmas Haul (like the padded espalier training wire from last week), but I still wanted to post a photo of this gift that was received in our house by the Bird.  One of the things that we've done over the past year-plus is to watch ALL of the Marvel MCU movies as a family.  As part of that experience, some of the characters in the MCU have become family favorites. One of those is Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.  The Bird (now) has some Groot shirts and even a little magnet shoulder-sitting Groot that she'll wear around .   But, when I think about all of the kids, the one that has the MOST interest in nature and plants and gardening (with me) is the Bird.  So, I'm thinking that is part of the draw to Groot:  he's organic and is plant-based.    For Christmas, we came across this set of Groot planters on Etsy and knew that she'd love them.  There are four in the total set, but you can buy just one. Note: the...

This post is two months late, but I still wanted to get around to posting these photos of a litter of baby bunnies that were born and raised in little burrow that their mother dug out RIGHT NEXT to our backyard patio this Spring.  One day, I noticed a little disturbed section of grass right by our patio, but thought nothing of it.  Until I came out a day or two later and saw a rabbit DART away from the patio.  I wandered over to see what the rabbit was doing and I saw a squirming pile of VERY young bunnies piled on top of each other.  They were purple and hairless.  And they were so young that it seemed like I could see through their skin to see the electricity going on in their brains.  Super weird.  But, also concerning.  Did I just scare away the mother and was she going to abandon these little bunnies?  I didn't know what to do, but Nat started to search for answers and we decided to just simply top these very young bunnies with the loose...

We packed the kids and their sleds in the car and spent an hour or so out at the White River County Park in Walworth County a couple of weeks ago .  The photo at the top is the hill that greets you as you walk down from the parking lot towards the river.  If you look closely at the top of the photo, you'll see the river winding around the bend.  If you were pretty streamlined and had a good push, you could *ALMOST* reach the river by sled from the top of the hill.   This is the county's largest park and is located just 10 minutes or so away from Lake Geneva. From the county's website : After we hit the hill a few times with the sleds, we took the kids for a little snow hike down the trail that is adjacent to the White River.  We didn't get far, but we did see people doing it right - with snowshoes and cross country skis. Back near the parking lot, there's a large barn - not sure if it is in service, but it looks like it was original the property.  Here...

We've had the Nintendo Switch for a year or so now and it finally suffered some damage at the hands of the kids.  Just to be perfectly clear:  they're TOTAL screen-time addicts.  At least two of them.  And the Switch - with Animal Crossings New Horizons - had made them lose their minds on the regular.  So, it wasn't a surprise to me that they would drop the thing and break off one of the joycons.   Here's a look at it - the front above - and the back below.  I was able to pry the battery out and unplug it from the controller.  Not sure what we can do with it, but I figure we can hold on to the battery and toss the rest, right? Seems like Goldie - our elf - might have to bring a new JoyCon to the house this Christmas season?

On a recent hike up in Wisconsin at Big Foot State Park - right on the coast of Lake Geneva - the kids and I came across a Geocache box.  We, umm, stumbled upon it.   We were walking on the "Nature Trail" (there are a few different trails there - red, blue, yellow, etc...including a short "Nature Trail" that takes you from one of the main lots down to the bogs/ponds on the shore of the lake. Here are the two kids holding up their treasure: We're (currently) not geocachers.  But, I looked up this package on geoaching.com .  There's this listing : This geocache has been hidden as a part of the Wisconsin Geocaching Association's State Park series. This geocache is hidden on the Nature Trail, just off of the Red Hiking Trail. I wonder if I'll ever amend that (currently) to the description above.   We'll see if the kids want to find more. 

Last Summer, I posted about how we were kicking off a new LEGO build of the Walt Disney World Cinderella's Castle with the kids.  In that post - dated July 9, 2018 - I mentioned that we had started the project seven days prior (July 2, 2018) and talked through how we had encountered some trouble with the early steps in the build due to lost parts.  One of the kids received this as a birthday present a year or so ago and I made the mistake of putting the big LEGO box in the room with the rest of the LEGOs at our house.  With young, curious kids around, they couldn't help themselves and opened the box to look at the parts.  That lead to opened bags and, ummm, missing parts.  From that July 2018 post : Also, Step 3 is where we already ran into trouble. Why? Because why wouldn't a seven year old who has this Castle set in her bedroom for seven months open up bag one and tinker around. The only problem? When we sat down to do it together, we had to scaven...

My personality is such that I wasn't able to fully enjoy the Sunset Cliffs as much as other people when we were *close* to the Cliffs.  From a hundred yards back?  I was totally fine, didn't have to grab ahold of which kid(s) were close to me for fear that they'd run and leap over the edges.  And, I enjoyed them.  Saw a few sunsets from the front deck there, too.  It is no Hotel Del Coronado , but...as LD would say:

There we were, minding our own business, walking back to our car after a movie at one of the local movie theaters when one of our kids shouts out that they see the Ghostbusters car.  Sure enough, some creative soul has outfitted their four door sedan with a roof rack that holds a custom-built Ghostbuster rig with lights and canisters and pipes and other what-have-yous.  The decal on the door seals the deal.  "Take my picture" was the request.  Request approved. 

Here I am sitting in the line on drop the King of the Ball Tossers off at pre-school one morning recently when I see in front of me this Dad dropping off his toddlers LIKE A BOSS in his Tesla Model X with Falcon Wings.  Talk about winning the whole drop-off line, amirite?  No fancy grocery wagon from Volvo or Infinity can shake a stick at this guy.  Sorry to my kids...I have good news/bad news.  The good news: for the older girls....you're taking the bus.  The bad news?  When we drive you, you're rolling out of the Swagger Wagon .

There are hundreds of unique things about Disney's Aulani Resort in Hawaii that we encountered during our stay and many of them were 'traditional' or true to Hawaiian culture.  But the most interesting ones (for me at least) were the activities and experiences that kind of sat at the intersection of Hawaii AND Disney.  And, I think that's what makes Aulani such a special place.  You get all the awesomeness of Hawaii PLUS the Disney experience.  That means great service.  Great 'show' (landscaping, buildings, etc).  And sometimes you get a little bit of Disney theme'ing.  These Mickey Mouse shave ice cups that you see in the photo above is one of those things.  Aulani has a place that serves shave ice (not "shaved ice") called  Pāpālua Shave Ice that is kind of situated on the island in the middle of the pool area.  The entire middle grounds of the resort - which includes the pool area and some restaurants is called the Waikolohe V...

Marking the seasonal shift through the introduction of Halloween stuff at our local Menards.  And documenting it with a photo of the kids.  Here's all three of them:  The Babe, the Bird and the King of the Ball Tossers.  Halloween @ Menards photo of two of the kids - 2017 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of two of hte kids - 2016 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of just the Babe - 2015 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of the two girls - 2012 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of just the Babe  - 2011 version . *Blink* They've grown up so fast. 

  Of course, we saw all the highlights.  I've posted other art here on the blog.  Here's some art from a stop in Philadelphia .  And of course, I've posted about the art at Disney.  Here's one shot from the Polynesian .  But, we also spent quite a bit of time in the kids artist's studio where the kids and I used crayons, markers, colored pencils to make some original art.  Here's my still life featuring a blue flower in a red vase on a small table.  I call it:  Blue flower/red vase. Back in the aughts, I spent quite some time in my parent's basement working with acrylics and doing some painting.  Mostly on the weekends, while listening to some of my record collection.  It was really a therapeutic experience for me and something I did to express myself.  The medium was always paint and because I didn't have time or money for canvas, I mostly used manilla folders.  Or...frankly...half of manilla folders...

A few blocks over, the neighbors on Fairmount Street host an annual block party in September that features a Soapbox Derby.  This was our first time attending.  And it was great fun.  You can see the Bird riding along with one of the girls from the block in the video above to get a sense for the setup.  The neighbors on the block come together and put together quite an event starting with the starting gate/ramp.  There's a DJ and they had a food truck come out along with a keg, a snow cone maker and a lot of food.   Nat and I know just some people from our block, but we didn't know many folks from the neighboring streets - but we took the time to get to know a few new people and they couldn't have been more inviting.  This is a real, authentic family event.  It was really enjoyable.  The kids - and I am assuming - their fathers really showed a lot of creativity in designing the various cars involved.  There must have be...

We're now all set up with fishing rod and a little tackle box up.  We went off to Walmart and came home with a few little poles (for the two younger kids) and an intermediate one for the Babe and I even bought my own rod.  When we were picking out the equipment the lady at Walmart was very helpful and encouraged me to get a license.  After answering a handful of questions, she printed out this barcode license that says that we are supposed to carry this with us when we fish.  We didn't buy any stamps because, well, we're just beginners and we're catching a lot of little things and tossing them back. The Babe has had the most luck of the bunch.  She throws her line in - usually with a wax worm on the hook - and most sessions, she pulls out a fish.  A lot of panfish (bluegills) and a few bass (not sure if they're large-mouth or small-mouth...again....we're beginners!) so far.  The King of the Ball Tossers is currently using a casting practice weight...

Even though our #NewOldFarmhouse is still under construction, that isn't stopping us from having an impact on the backyard.  And that started with transplanting some of the ostrich ferns and now it includes the planting of the Dawn Redwood tree that I posted about last week .  I was lucky to have a little bit of help from my crew getting this tree in the ground.  All three kids helped decide where we should put it and then helped me (kinda) dig the hole and backfill the rootball. We placed it close to the north property line, with enough room for it to grow while being able to put a fence in behind it.  There was an opening in the tree line that I think this will fill in nicely over time. It also is on the low side of the property, so it will enjoy whatever groundwater we get over time.  My experience tells me that this thing will go through a little shock soon, but I'm hoping that with some care and watering, it will weather this first year and begin to ...

(image removed by me in late 2022 because it showed kids faces) Six years ago today, I posted her on the blog about our friend and neighbor Dannee Polomsky winning her first seat on the Elmhurst City Council and I showed a photo of the then 2-year-old Babe who came with us to vote.    Fast forward those six years and you'll see this animated image above of me and all three kids outside of our polling place from Tuesday.  We didn't get to vote for my sister (she's up north from here), but we did have a handful of races that were contested. Glad to have brought the kids along and they got to wield their own dry erase ballots to vote between the Cubs and Sox and Leno and Letterman.  I think we've brought them to the polls every time we've gone, so we're doing our little part to do as Neil Steinberg called it yesterday : our little 'act of faith' in democracy. My little sacrifice of time, some drops of routine life sprinkled on the altar of democracy...

Well...actually from my daughters.  But the sentiment sticks.  Maybe I'll wear it around the parks on our next trip, but hopefully I won't run into any of the guys from the Mandelbaum clan . "You think you're the #1 Dad??!?" "I'll show you who's #1." "It's go time!"

Last weekend, we braved the crowds and attended Brookfield Zoo's Holiday Magic event that they put on each Christmas season.  And when I say 'crowds', I'm not referring to the crowds in the actual zoo.  Nope.  They're quite manageable. But what isn't usually manageable?  The traffic congestion that accompanies this event at the zoo. I posted about our visit to Holiday Magic ahead of Christmas 2013 here and I believe that we took 2014 off based on that visit.  That time, we drove to the Zoo - which took about 20 minutes.  Then proceeded to sit in our car in traffic just trying to get into the parking lot for more than an hour.  Seriously. This time, however, wasn't as bad.  Maybe because we went in early December?  Or, maybe because Nat's a member and knows about the South Gate?  It still was backed up, but instead of taking 60+ minutes, this time it was more like 20 minutes. We bundled all three kids up (2 in the stroller) an...