Alright.(Some of) you asked for it.

Got some grief that I've been slacking. 

Pull up a chair and pop a 12oz. of your choice: this might take a while.

>>>>>>>

Punahou Carnival

malasadas.whiteelephant.games.midway.rides.booths.friends.nomud.announcements.gyros.hamburgers.ferris.whee.lfun.house.

Oh the lines

Ferris wheel: going up!

Quite the view from up high....

Not actually scared...

Getting too big for this...

Finally! Jake get's to go on the REAL rides!

This is gonna ROCK!

Hey....wait a minute. Why do they lock us in? Um...hold on....

Joy

Aftermath - parents.

OK. While I'm faking, Kim is Boom Boom Out Go the Lights.

>>>>>>

New Year's (Chinese)

Tradition: go to Chinatown and watch Lion Dances

Gotta give them the lychee for good luck ;)

DRAGON!

Couple pics by Jake.

Picture 15 of a 234 part series. 

Pretty girls in Corvettes. 

Jake's favorite photographic subjects.

From on top of Dad's shoulders - quite the crowd scene.

>>>>>>

New Year's (Western)

Tradition: bouliabaisse and hang out.

In you go !

Dad prepares to dig in....

Adding insult to injury.

Lobster + crab + butter + poi + garlic bread (not shown) = mmmmmmggmmfgrgrg*

*Note - sound your stomach makes when quite pleased.

Another tradition. 

>>>>>>>>

Uncle Kahea and Auntie Ying's wedding.

A great wish was granted by Uncle Kahea/Uncle Jacob when Lily and Jake got to be part of the wedding party as  Flower Girl and Ring Bearer. 

We also got to be part of the rehearsal and dinner where O‘ahu was treated to an islandwide....

BLACKOUT! Fortunately for the happy couple, that was pretty much the ONLY thing that went wrong with the ceremony or anything else that weekend....they got it out of the way nice and early.

Got some cool pics out of it though. Not so cool that people didn't complain when I made them the masthead. Fine!

We'll go with the traditional....

Getting hammered on virgin mango martinis

Playas.  

And I don't mean Mexican beaches. Wait. Maybe I do, since should it be Playahs....? Is there a correct spelling for Ebonics terms?

Can you see two things wrong with the gestures in this photo?

Looking handsome

Mom and Kalei do a hula

Signing the cast

Dad goes with the Jackass theme....

>>>>>>>>
XMAS!

An Easy-Bake oven for xmas....


and Lily officially joins American Girlhood.


Xmas present time! Got all sorts of goodies from all over....

Got a Wii from Tutu Kane: Jake in mid-lightsaber duel. 

Reason 1.2 billion why living in Hawaii rules....

....when your Auntie Bandit get's you a Slip-n-Slide for Xmas, you can use it THAT DAY !

>>>>>>>>>

Caution: Nerd Zone below.

Haven't been showing off the models lately vie this venue since I've become a little self-conscious since it's just a bit dorky. But damn! I'm getting good ! 

So suffer.

Kinda proud of this one. Painted to match the plane of an Iraqi defector who flew his MiG-21 to Israel in the last 60's. They put it to use to learn about their opposition and even had it on standby as an interceptor.

What was fun was the painting. Did it all in one fell swoop. Of course that meant a serious job with the...

Masking tape. About 5 hours of work, cutting, planning, testing, for about 2 minutes of spraying.

Kim and I are complete BSG nerds now. She got me a Viper kit for my b-day.

I've wanted to make one of these since I was 10.

Last one promise.

An Israeli F-16. One of the ones that took out Saddam Hussein's under-construction nuclear reactor in 1981. Interestingly, one of the pilots on that mission, Ilon Ramon, was at the controls of Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated on reentry. That's his plane that I made....

First in flight one I've made. Here's a look at the base made from scraps from around the Museum....

An actual quote....

From the new chairman of the Republican National Committee:

"Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job."

Wow.

He's the former Lt. Governor of Maryland - did they privatize the executive branch or something?

Teachers? Cops? Firemen? Road repair? The public sector makes up nearly 20% of the workers in this country.

The GOP today are Hoover redux.

Don't know why....

but watching this video sure makes me want to play music. Would have embedded it but it's disallowed.

What's not to like?

• Electric guitar


• Feedback


• Dune reference


• David Lynch's Dune reference


• A level of seriousness that makes you wonder if in fact what you are watching is meant ironically or not

Way cool

(Yet another reason why) scientists are cool....

Famous far side.

Well, just last night I was reading with Jake. We had gone to the public library and as usual we had walked out with something like this:

• 1 Dvd for Lily - usually a Disney movie


• 1 DVD for Jake - usually something from the "Land Before Time" oeuvre


• 1 DVD for Kim and I to watch that we invariably don't get around to.


• 3 or 4 books for Lily, usually split half and half between picture books (Curious George, eg.) and beginner chapter books (like this generation's Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen*)


• 2 - 4 CD's for me to arrrhsimilate


• A non-fiction book or two to keep the trivia flowing


• 8-10 dinosaur books for Jake

We've been going semi regularly for years now, and at this point Jake has checked out just about every dinosaur related book in the Kalihi-Palama library at least a couple times.

Well, they got a new one in and he found it. A very good one at that - lots of great illustrations and some fairly high level writing (for a kid's dinosaur book) that go into some pretty obscure topics like radiation, cladistics, classification, and more.

Anyway, we were reading about stegosauria and as I was reading I was surprised by the author's description of a fight with an attacking allosaurus. He said that the stegosaur "swung his thagomizer, striking the meat eater".

Thagomizer? No way.

Way.

A paleontologist and fan of the Far Side actually used the term in a peer reviewed journal article and the term has since become accepted scientifically.

*Cam Jansen should not be confused with Tek Jensen.

Kids love to measure things

 

A picture of our regulation issue "door-jamb-with-markings-of-the-kids-heights-over-time".

Nothing too remarkable. Kids (and parents) have been doing it since time immemorial. I'm sure there are caves in France with heretofore unexplained markings that are just this.

Lily just measured Jake the other day and used tape to mark his height.

Well and good.

On the otherside of the doorway you can see this one:



Slayed me.

"Dad ! Wake up !"

A little before 7:00 a.m. (HST) Lily ran in and woke me up.

"Barak Obama's becoming president! Turn on the TV !"

TV went on in time to see the VP swearing in and then stayed on for the good stuff. Kids were late to school. I couldn't stop watching until W was safely out of camera shot. These have been a long 8 years.

I don't feel the same elation like back in 1992 when Bill was elected. Probably because back then it didn't seem like the outgoing prez had completely screwed up, oh, well just about everything like W has done.

Definitely a more sober inauguration.

1-20-09: An end of an error.

Um...well that's strange...

Uncle Bump just pointed out this link to Canadian alt-folk duo...Jacob and Lily

Thanks Mighty Mo

Took Lily and Jake to see the Battleship Missouri with the Brooks'



Uncle Jim tries out the fiddy-cal




Places!



Portrait with 16" guns.



Teak deck!



Looking for likely AA targets. No Zeros today fortunately.



From keel to the top of the tower = 206 ft.
Length: 890 ft.
Crew: 1900



"Galley? This is the Bridge. Two Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches please...."



2 foot thick walls around the bridge.



Insert Cher joke here

Required watching

Then go and download the Planet Money podcast from NPR where they talk with Peter (11/21/08). Scary stuff, eh kids?

Special Guest blogger Uncle Bump with some bad news.

Blitz,

Formerly known as Heineken, and before that BW's Entertainer (I don't know where they get that stuff).

We don't think he ever raced since he was up for adoption at 18months, and we adopted him before his 2nd birthday. Most greyhounds worth their salt will race for 4-5 years or so.

He's showing a bit lot more grey around the muzzle now, but aren't we all? Blitz has been a great companion and friend for the past 7 years, and we'll miss him terribly, but he's got a bad hip that could break anytime, so it's time for him to hang up the collar once and for all. Amputation and chemo just won't buy the kind of time that would make it worthwhile.

I'm sure we'll be in the market soon for another one just like him:

• scared of his own shadow (or at least Chihuahuas and kittens)


• perfect with kids


• quiet as a mouse (we've heard him bark 4 times, and once was straight at the ceiling fan)


• never an indoor accident


• nicest guy you'll ever meet


• no doggie stink or shedding

(if it sounds like I'm selling.... that's because I am)

One saving grace is that the kids aren't really old enough to be too broken up (we think), and now, maybe Amanda has become a 'dog person'.

11/19/1999 - 11/26/2008

Here is a contrast picture.



*******

When we would visit U. Bump, one of the highlights was taking blitz for a walk which inevitably turned into a run, though run is too weak to describe it. A greyhound at full sprint is a beautiful thing to behold.

So send good vibes way this Wednesday to Blitz and Uncle Bump, race in peace.