Nelsons In Space

My Poke' Ninjas

2012-01-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

Christian here. Can't I post something too? Well, here it is - my latest drawing of Pokemon Ninjas. This is Oshawott and Dewott. I made these two drawings of Pokemon as Ninjas instead of the regular look because I like to combine my two favorite things. These two Pokemon are water-types and I'm kind of into the water-types. I also like to combine peanut butter and Nutella.

Just You Wait

2012-01-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

A lot happened in 2011 and I didn't blog about it. But it's never too late to start anew. So stay tuned.

The Speedzone

2011-12-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

Love that Speedzone in La Puente. Dragged the entire crew for a couple of hours of racing and putt-putt golf. Here's Heather and Erika readying to pass me, once again. I can't tell whether their smiles are from the speed or the gas fumes.

Court of Honor

2011-12-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

The family held a Court of Honor in grandma and grandpa's backyard for scouting's newest Eagles - Andrew, Jack, and David. It was the best Court of Honor I've ever attended. All the scouts wore their uniforms including our little Cub Christian. Each of the boys explained their Eagle project. Their parents beamed as they described the importance of scouting in their lives. And then the boys gave a pin to their hero grandpa.

Erika's 6th Birthday

2011-11-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

Erika celebrated her 6th birthday at Mimi and Popi's in Mt. Shasta. She says the highlights included the chocolate cake and her new stuffed Chihuahua which she named "Hinca" because "It sounds Spanish."

Thanksgiving in Mount Shasta

2011-11-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving and its snowing in Mt. Shasta. This is going to be a great year for snow.
UPDATE: Now it's New Years and it hasn't snowed in Mt. Shasta since that Saturday before Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

Oh, the weeks of preparation. And the many Halloween parties (the Church Chili Cookoff, Loma Portal Elementary's Monster Bash, Sunset Elementary's Carnival, Sea World's Spooktacular, and of course Halloween itself). We are exhausted and it was all worth it. Look at these kids!

Justice League . . . For Bunnies

2011-05-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

Erika left this drawing sitting around. She didn't think much of it but I was amazed. She's five years old, people, five years old! And I thought the action poses of her super hero bunnies was spectacular.

With Erika's permission, and under her direction, I copied one of the bunnies. Every line and emotion is her's. I just isolated the character and cleaned up the edges a little. And now it hangs on our craft room's wall.

Tickets To Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

2011-04-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Heather and I Tivo Late Night With Jimmy Fallon every night. She had the foresight to order tickets and the show ended up as one of the highlights of our trip to Manhattan. The ticketing process is a little strange so let me share what happened to us.

First, Heather ordered the tickets 30 days in advance by telephone and we were emailed a confirmation. No tickets. Our name was simply placed on a list. I've attended enough television tapings to know that the producers just want bodies in the seats. They often overbook. So even though we had a confirmation we feared it really meant "This is the first of several flaming hoops you must jump through."

Second, on the day of the show we lined up, as instructed, at 3:15 pm in the NBC Store Cafe (2nd Floor). It's an odd place to meet because it was small, crowded, and there was nothing to indicate "Pick up your tickets here." I pitied the staff manning the studio tour next door, or the many shop clerks who were constantly being asked by a hundred other people "Where do we line up?" Eventually a line formed inside the cafe and everyone looked at each other quizzically, "Is this where we line up?" A few producers arrived and then started taking our info. After and ID check we were issued our wristbands and released with instructions to line up at 4:30 by the escalator.

Third, big surprise - there was no clearly marked area where to line up by the escalator. Suddenly we saw others with wrist bands heading to another escalator and we blindly followed. They didn't know where they were going either but got lucky when a producer yelled "Over here."

Fourth, we were lined up in groups in different corridors. Apparently, 30 Rock doesn't have an empty room with folding chairs to temporarily house the many audiences that go through there every day. The hallway was hot and loud. No one could tell what group would be taken first so everyone was a little apprehensive if their group was going to make it or not.

Fifth, at 4:50 we were ushered back downstairs for a very thorough security check and then ushered up elevators.

We entered the studio at 5:00. We hit the jackpot - center section, second full row, next to the aisle. The stage was small, almost cramped, but clean. I say clean because I've been to enough TV show tapings to notice a pattern - most sets are thick with dust. Have y0u ever been to the Price is Right? If snow were dust you'd say the set was hit with a blizzard.

At about 5:30, The Roots took the stage which looks half its size in real-life. It seemed like they were playing on top of each other. But that didn't affect their play - they were amazing live. The room was rockin' with excitement created by their music. After an opening song, the warm-up comedian Captain Zog from Yacht Rock came out. Love Captain Zog. He's very funny, he flirted with Heather, and he fulfilled her special request - that he show some of his dance moves (a man that age shouldn't hip-hop dance that well). Zog and The Roots did a little dance contest with some members of the crowd. Jimmy was peeking through the curtain at the back of the stage. Then Zog gave us a few instructions about how to behave during the taping.

The show's announcer (and famous SNL producer) Higgins came out to everyone's applause and he gave some instructions too. "Be over enthusiastic." And then . . .

Boom!, The lights went down, the music came up, and the monitors rolled the opening. I couldn't hear a word o the show's introduction that Higgins was yelling. Then out came Jimmy. He stood just a scant six feet from the camera. It always amazes me how close TV cameras get. For example, when the Price Is Right crew is shooting a model next to a car, they are literally eight feet away nevertheless they get the entire car in the shot without distorting the picture too much with their wide angle lenses so as to make the car look like a jelly bean (or the model to look 50 pounds heavier). Jimmy's camera crew was no different; they were on top of him throughout the show.

The guests were average - Helen Mirren and Damon Wayans. The head writer A.D. Miles wandered around a bit (we're big fans of his Glen Tennis character). Elvis Costello arrived just in time to see the musical guest - Paul Simon. Simon was amazing. He performed twice, once for the show and again for the web. We're not big fans but he was just so good, so professional, and so on it. It's no wonder Costello walked in just to watch his set.

But the highlight was The Mets Bucket Hat Guy. After the first segment, a writer from the show named Deetch sat immediately behind us. A producer made Heather and I switch places, then he squashed me into my seat so the camera could see Deetch over my head, and then Deetch launched into his "How do you like me now?" routine.

At the end of the show, Jimmy ran up and down the aisles and shook Heather's hand. She turned to me and said "Butter soft."

Below you can see my notebook entry about our trip to Manhattan. You'll see that we did a lot of great things. Late Night consumed a lot of time. We could have spent the same amount of time going to a museum, sight-seeing, or eating at a nice restaurant but, in fact, Late Night was one of the best things we did the entire weekend. I'm already looking for an excuse to return to New York, and when I return I'll definitely see Late Night again.

Manhattan Polaroid Land Camera

2011-04-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

10 Year Anniversary

2011-04-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Manhattan Instax

2011-04-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

Don't Even Try

2011-03-19T23:02:00.001-07:00

Don't even bother trying to rip this family off. If you're lucky enough to make it past the hidden cameras, door alarms, lasers, moat, and crocodiles, then you'll have to contend with our children. Step a little too loudly and you'll awake our little ninja. Christian will spring from his dojo, crawl on the ceiling, and smother you like a blanket within two steps of our front door.

Then there's the Pistolera. For fun she pours a little honey on the fence and then shoots the wings off of any approaching flies - from near 50 feet away, no less.

But the deadliest of the bunch is Little Pixie. She looks harmless enough, but she'll kill you with her charm.

PS - the middle photo is the last of my expired Polaroid film. The other two were taken from a new pack of Fuji3000. I punched up the darks a little in Picasa and nothing else. You can see the Polaroid has a brown tone while the Fuji is more clinically B+W.

All The News That's Fit To Print

2011-03-16T23:03:00.001-07:00

Christian ran upstairs, grabbed a pencil and a stack of paper, and then disappeared. Erika came up a bit later with a wide grin on her face and bragged "We're watching the news, just like you." Heather and I collectively thought "Oh great, now you can be as depressed as we are."

Heather went downstairs and saw mini-Woodward and mini-Bernstein engrossed in the day's headlines. Heather intervened and said "Hey, uh, you don't have to watch the news, watch some cartoons." Too late. Christian adjusted his hat, bit down a little harder on his cigar and mumbled "Not now, Ma. Gotta a deadline to meet."

Tomorrow I'm going to outfit our little Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane with one of my old Polaroid cameras (the one with actual flash bulbs, yep, I've got one of those), a flip notebook, and a pencil sharpened down to its nub and put them on the most pressing issue of the day - who left the Hostess wrapper in our front yard.

Expired Polaroid Film

2011-03-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I pulled out my Polaroid 600SE. Remember it? That's the camera I got for a song because the eBay seller made the mistake of writing several lines about its damaged housing when what matters most is whether the lens (which contains the shutter) works. And it does. It's a wonderful camera but it's about the size and weight of a microwave oven. To make it work you have to perform a mental checklist which is about a long as the Space Shuttle's. The focus mechanism was probably state of the art when it was manufactured but if you use it long enough your sure to develop a stigmatism. The Polaroid film inside the camera expired in September 2009. I feared that its magical chemicals might have turned to dust. I focused, pulled the trigger, squeezed the chemicals through the camera's rollers, and presto. See the results below.

Instant Back for Lomo LCA

2011-02-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

The blurry goodness of the LCA lens has finally converged with the squishy colors of instant film. Behold the instant back for the Loma LCA. Just don't behold too long or you'll strain your eyes.

You turn on the instant back and a blue LED lights up while the film slowly whirrs out. It uses Fuji's Mini Instax film. Nice film but a little small. Then comes the anticipation - what will develop? And will it be any good? It reminds me of the Polaroid I-Zone Pocket Camera which produced stamp size instant photos. Oh, you don't remember that camera? Neither does the rest of America. And that's why Polaroid went bankrupt.

Indulge me for a second while I take a little jag - who are the wizards who run Polaroid? Honestly, I think they are actual wizards with no business experience or sense of pop-culture. Wizards and their stupid pointy hats. I mean honestly, within the last 10 years the Lomographic company made horrible analog cameras hot despite the robotic rise of digital cameras. They carved a niche for themselves among hipsters and lazy photographic enthusiasts who refuse to read the manuals that came with with their cameras (I fall in the latter category). Now Lomographic is worth a bazillion dollars and Polaroid is . . . is uhm, not.

Meanwhile, I watched as Polaroid stopped making one specialty film after another as their fans wept loudly on the interblogs. Now Fuji owns the instant market. Polaroid is trying to make a comeback. But instead of making what people yearn for (instant film), the wizards have partnered with Lady GaGa to produce sunglasses with pictures in them. I guess the partnership makes perfect sense - whether you're looking at Lady GaGa or these new sunglasses you walk away scratching your head thinking "What was that?"

A Dandy Week

2010-12-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

I must have done something right lately because Heather let me see two, that's two Dandy Warhol concerts this week. Then again, she might of resigned herself to the fact that I was going one way or another. They tour so little. Well, they tour as much as any band but that's just not enough for me. I check their blog regularly waiting for the slightest hint that a new album or a new tour will be announced. And then I pounce. You know that guy who waits in line a couple days before tickets go on sale? Well, I'm that guy when the Dandys release anything.

The top pic was taken at the Belly Up with the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. The DEC 80 date is Hipstamatic's annoying inside joke for hipsters. "We've dated it 30 years before, cool, huh?" No, not cool. And there's no way to adjust the date - very not cool. Spencer joined me at the Belly Up and we had a good time talking family, work and surf. Bummer he doesn't live any closer to San Diego.

The second pic was taken at new Club Nokia near the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Another good venue, and as you can see, I scored a good spot near the stage again. Lee came along for the two hour show and the two hour drive home. LIvely conversation kept me from dozing off at 2:00 a.m.

I think that makes nine live Dandy shows I've seen. Maybe I'll go to their turf, Portland, for the tenth show.

Here's A Smile

2010-12-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

After reading the blog entry below I thought it prudent to show that indeed Juliet can smile for a photo. Just make sure the stars are aligned before you press the shutter button. And act quickly. She's easily distracted.

Someone's Had Enough

2010-12-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

I love this photo. Heather dressed the kids in white, dragged them to Ocean Beach, and tried to take a Christmas photo. No easy feat. And don't forget, the kids have to spend an hour in the tub after each jaunt to the beach. So a quick beach photo can easily turn into hours of work. But Heather pressed on. With the sun fading fast she knew she only had a minute or two of good light left before this beach photo turned into a night photo that could have been taken anywhere. Christian and Erika performed like the pros they are but young Juliet just wasn't up to the task. Should've studied her biorhythm charts a little longer I suppose because this was clearly not the time for Juliet to shine. Well, by the time this photo was snapped Juliet had been fussing and uncooperative for a solid five minutes. After trying every trick in the book Heather tried bribery. She pulled a piece of candy from her shirt pocket. But bribery only works against a calculating and corrupt foe. Juliet is neither calculating or corrupt. She's a two year old and when she wants it, she wants it now. She leapt from her sandy seat and made way to the candy. Snap! By the looks of it, Christian and Erika decided to check-out rather than add to the turmoil. Heather came back home, bathed the kids, and pieced together a montage of our smiling kids walking through the sand for our Christmas card. I only wish this picture would have been on the reverse side.

Process Or Results

2010-11-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

I love plastic film cameras. To most people Holga, Lomo, Smena and Diana sound like waiters at a Prague cafe. To me they're the Plastic Fantastic Four. Working with these cameras is about the same as talking to a Prague waiter too. They're tempermental, slow, unreliable and occasionally, just occasionally, bring good results. I'll take a month to shoot a roll of film, wait for it to be processed, pay real money to develop the negatives (when was the last time you did that?), only to realize that 33 out of 36 shots were overexposed. Frustating? Yep. And lest ye forget, these cheap plastic cameras don't come with cheap prices. Oh no. I pay premium European prices for these toys.

Then along came Hipstamatic. For a mere 99 cents I uploaded this app onto my iPhone. For a little more I added different electronic "lenses" and "films." Suddenly, my iPhone is like a dozen toy cameras all rolled into one. No need to rely on plastic lenses, the distortion is built into the programming. The prints come out already scratched and blurry. I love using Hipstamatic in a pinch. The results are to my liking. But they're so much less satisfying than the pics from my plastic cameras.

When it comes to hobbies, I'm a process guy more than a results guy. Examples? - I build my own furniture when I can buy a better product at Ikea for less money. I'm more interested in how movies are made than how entertaining they are. I tinker with the finest magician's apparatus (you call them "tricks") but I don't perform them well.

Sometimes I fool myself into thinking that the right camera, the right tools, or the right equipment will make me happier but "Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium" - Henri Mattisse. For me, it's not the results, it's the attempt. I've also realized that Mattisse's words "limited medium" apply equally to my tools and to my imagination but I still plug along. Luckily, I have a wife who is not bothered by my distractions. She pats me on the head and says, "That's nice."

If you put a thousand Doug Nelson's with a thousand plastic cameras in a room, then maybe, just maybe one truly beautiful picture might arise. I'll let you know when that happens.

PS - The top pic was taken with a Diana Mini, 400 speed Kodak color film, punched-up a little using Picasa. I shot it two months ago and developed it last week. The bottom pic was taken the same day as the top pic using the Hipstamatic app. It "arrived" instantly.

I Promise

2010-11-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

I promise this is my last Halloween post. I have more pictures of Halloween than were ever taken of the Grand Canyon. Here's a select few from my church's Trunk of Treat.

Never heard of a Trunk or Treat? Me neither until a few years ago. Each Halloween the local church throws a Chili Cook Off followed by a Trunk or Treat. Individually the chilis are delicious, but combined they can kill a horse. So go easy on the chili or they'll end up on the front of your costume. And the winner this year was . . . I dunno. I ate so much cornbread it clogged my ears.

After the cookoff, the kids hobble to the parking lot in their costumes. The parents decorate their vans, trucks and cars with spiderwebs, pumpkins, and ectoplasm. Some have games, some have spooky music, but the best experience was a Ford pickup with two long card board boxes connected at the end inside the bed of the truck. The kids crawled down the cardboard tube, and then back again. That was it. And they loved it.

These pics were taken by Russ Fill. Don't recognize his name? Well, I guarantee you've seen his camera work on dozens of shows, from Oprah Winfrey to Survivor. I thought it would be nice to make a photo booth where parents could snap pics of their kids' costumes. Fresh from a shoot in, I dunno, Antartica or somewhere Russ took it to the next level by providing a backdrop, a camera, lighting, and a little expertise - all for free.

Heather cut out the background lettering with her Cricut. Yeah, we have a Cricut. Jealous? It was a gift from my legal secretary. This was our first attempt at making lettering. "Its maaahvelous" says Heather.

Halloween Night

2010-10-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Three straight nights of school, church, and Halloween dress-up. I'm done.

The strangest thing about Halloween this year was the kids nonchalant attitude about receiving candy. As a child I started trick or treating just before sunset and only stopped when the neighbors said "Shouldn't you be home by now?" My goal was to fill a pillow case with as many Smartees and Necco Wafers as possible. Then I'd pour the candy on the carpet and sort it, organize it, deliberate, and answer the most important question - "In what order shall I eat my precious treats?" After two days my mountain of candy was reduced to Brach's Neapolatins and butterscotch hard candies. Blech. But they were still candy so I felt forced by nature to eat them.

Now the kids are given top shelf candy, I mean the good stuff like Almond Joys, Milky Ways and Baby Ruths. We have neighbors who hand out full size Snickers and party size bags of peanut M&Ms. And our kids have the gall to come home after a night of trick or treating and say "Eh, that can wait until tomorrow." The one bonus is that the kids are so blase about candy Heather and I can sneak one or two, or twelve and they don't even notice.

PostScript - this was Erika's first choice.

Haute Couture, Lego Style

2010-10-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

Just prior to completing Christian's minifig costume, I expressed concern that he would quickly tire of its restrictiveness. Within 24 hours, Heather hand-sewed a soft version of the Lego Hoth Rebel Trooper shirt. I particularly like the ascot sown on the front which is a perfect real-world match to the Lego minifig version.

Here's Christian Halloween night ready to run from house to house. Lucky kid - two versions of the same costume? Really? Yeah, really. Don't feel too sorry for Erika and Juliet. They got the costumes they wanted. And November is Erika/Juliet month. Both celebrate birthdays in November and I have two heirloom type projects in mind that they can keep for the rest of their lives.

One last note about Christian's costume - he won "Best Overall Costume" for the 2nd graders. Moments after this picture was snapped, they announced that he won. He was so happy he jumped up, lost his balance, turned a little to his right, began to fall, and knocked over five other kids like dominoes. The audience roared.

Lego Star Wars Hoth Rebel Trooper

2010-10-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Lego Star Wars Hoth Rebel Trooper. Say that three times fast. Now try and build it for Halloween. Not so easy, is it? If you have to ask what a Hoth Rebel Trooper is then you're not my friend.

Christian and I had a blast building this costume. Okay, I mostly built it and he ran circles in the garage. Here's a pic of the real thing.

Not only do they look similar, Christian moves about as easy as the real minifig - you have to pick him up and place him where you want him.

It's hard to imagine a seven year old running around all Hallow's Eve in such a restrictive costume so Heather made a second matching soft version which goes underneath the foam version. Yeah, Heather's cool like that. I'll debut it tomorrow.

And compare that face to the minifig. The eyes, the smile - we tried to make a perfect replica but Christian is, hands down, more handsome than the original.

And the gun? Remember, you can see how I molded that from a silicon mold in black acrylic plastic here. http://nelsonsinspace.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post.html

Halloween Fast Approaching

2010-10-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Crunch time. Christian's costume is nearly complete. I offered to make Erika any costume she wanted and she said "Leopard." We already have a Leopard costume so instead of working until midnight on another elaborate costume I breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. As for Juliet, well she's almost two and we have half a dozen costumes that will fit her. Care to guess what I'm making for Christian?

I found a child's motorcycle helmet for a couple dollars at a second hand store and applied some foam strips to it. The foam is easy to work with but its not easy to paint. I thought I would flood the foam with several coats of primer, sand it, and paint it, but it was a lot more work than I anticipated. Next time I'll use Apoxie Sculpt because its pliable, dries hard, and is easier to paint.

The backpack is made from foam flooring I purchased from Costco. I hardened the backpack by applying some fiberglass resin because I expect Christian will play with it long after Halloween. Another lesson learned? - I thought the resin would be enough but next time I'll throw a little fiberglass cloth in to strengthen it.

Here's a leg. You can see I turned the diamond plate pattern inward and used the smooth bottom of the flooring for the exterior. Straight cuts are easily made with a bandsaw. I also made a jig to hold a razor blade on a perfect 45 degree angle and cut the corners where the pieces joined. Gorilla brand instant glue worked best for joining the pieces. I later reinforced the corners with thing foam and a more glue. No resin on the exterior - I want it to remain flexible so he can walk.

First coat of primer. I brushed on primer to the boxy peices because I really wanted it to soak in. The backpack and helmet were sprayed. Stay tuned for the reveal!

It's Almost Too Easy

2010-10-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Decorating for Halloween is almost too easy. I could cover every wall, ceiling and floor with the ideas that haunt my head every October. When I was in the second grade I was blessed to live in LaVerne. Not just any house in LaVerne. I lived in the house where the bookmobile parked each week during summertime. I remember walking out our front door, across the crab grass, sun cooking the top of my head, and then suddenly stepping up the stairs of the dark, air-conditioned mobile library.

I rotated through the same books week after week - Movie Monsters, The Legend of Loch Ness, and Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic. Few seven-year-olds knew as much as I did about Lon Chaney, Nessie, and Harry Blackstone, Sr. Consequently, my mind now gravitates to all things Halloween especially classic horror figures, urban legends, and mystery. I could easily spend more money on Halloween than Christmas but that would be lame.

So Heather and I edit our natural inclinations to surround ourselves in all things Halloween by following one rule - make it instead of buy it. This naturally limits our decorative ambitions because after working and raising three kids, there is so little time left to devote to Halloween projects (exactly 7 1/2 minutes a day). I spent a few hours working on the Skull display below. Here are three new projects made by Heather. I love her simple mod of our rabbit portraits - the Zorro masks; the bat sewed from a sock; and her delicious spiderweb cupcakes.

Skull-y

2010-10-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

I saw these little skulls at a Halloween store and bought a bag of them. I didn't know what I was going to do with them. I just knew I'd put them to use somehow.

I thought of stringing them or make a ball out of them, but they'd go unnoticed in those forms. A shadowbox would work best.

I wish I had a few weeknights to work on this but I only had couple hours this morning.

After gluing up the pins, I placed one skull dead center in the shadow box and thought "Argh, one head looks better than the whole bunch."

I had already committed to my arrangement so instead of creating high-art I settled on a nice Halloween arrangement.

Niederfrank's

2010-09-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

Niederfrank's. The name alone makes you want to try this ice cream.

Mint and chip.

Peppermint.

Chocolate.

I shot these with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Nice app for 99 cents. Note the date - SEP 80. Hipstamatic thought is would be cool to time stamp their pics 30 years ago. Clever and stupid at the same time. Much to my chagrin there's no way to go into the settings and make the date current. I've researched the issue online and apparently I'm not the only Hipstamatic user who is annoyed by the 30 year old date.

LIfe Size Lego Star Wars Blaster

2010-09-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I used to work for a prop shop manufacturing magic tricks/illusions for some big time magicians like Doug Henning and Siegfried & Roy. Granted, my main job was to sweep the floor but the boss, Les Smith, soon realized that I had some mechanical skills instilled by my father. My father, the dentist, never shied-away from tackling a difficult project from repairing teeth to customing the interior/exterior of the family van to rebuilding the engine of an MG Midget. Everyday after sweeping the floor I was put to work building props - sawing, soldering, grinding, polishing, and sewing - anything to complete the prop. Well, I've always been fascinated by one prop building technique that I never learned - molding and casting plastic resin.

Inspired by Harrison Krix, an amateur prop builder at http://www.volpinprops.blogspot.com/, I decided to try a relatively easy mold/cast job - a life size Lego Star Wars Blaster. Anyone with a boy under 10 knows how popular this item could be. After scouring the Internet I found that no one had attempted a life size version of the ubiquitous blaster. So why not me?

This was also an excellent project to turn on my new Jet mini lathe. I chose soft, finely grained basswood because it's easy to shape but in the future I might choose maple because basswood tears out whereas maple is easier to machine.

My template was simple - a blown up picture of an actual Lego blaster. I glued up the shaped pieces, applied some car body filler, and sanded the piece over and over.

Using alternating colors of primer I was able to sand, pinpoint any flaws, then fill and sand them out.

I wet-sanded the final black coat of primer to 1000 grit. Then I waxed the master with car wax. Heather was surprised by the smoothness of the master's exterior. It felt like plastic but it was just wood, filler, and paint. Next time I mold an item I'll take the grit even higher because the silicon picked up every minor scratch of the 1000 grit sand paper.

I built a simple mold box, filled it with clay, and embedded the master half way. The dots you see are simply registration keys so that the two halfs of the mold would mate well together.

I filled the mold with Mold Max silicone, nice and slow in the beginning to make certain that no bubbles formed on the surface which might come through in the casting. Then I filled the rest of the mold with more silicon.

After the silicone dried, I flipped the mold over and removed the clay. Leaving the master in the mold, I applied a "release agent" (a must) and then poured the second half of the mold with silicone. After the second half dried, I peeled the mold apart and took out the master. Using white plastic I "slush cast" the first copy. The white resin set up in about 10 minutes.

I bought some black resin which sets up very quickly and molded a black version. The black resin has a shorter "open time" and heats up quickly. My first black copies came out warped. Apparently, the heat initially expands the mold and, as it cools, it sucks the sides of the gun inward. I solved the problem by demolding the copies just after they hardened (still warm to the touch) and drilling a tiny air hole to allow the hot air to escape as it cooled. The pink copy is simply white resin with a little red dye.

Above is a pic of an original Star Wars Mini Fig (Clone Trooper) holding a blaster - tiny, huh? My life size copies usually come out with a little flashing attached. I trim it off with a razor blade and polish the plastic with an electric buffer and jewelry buffing compounds. Voila!

Christian Draws Dad

2010-08-31T12:09:00.001-07:00

Christian_Dad
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Erika Draws Mom

2010-08-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

Erika_Mom
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Papercraft

2010-08-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

Spent Monday night conducting a little Family Home Evening. This week's project? A little papercraft from Monkey Design. Fun project but a little too much for my young kids. I sat around the table and tried to keep them involved. The cutting, bending and gluing was just beyond their dexterity. I wanted to use Superglue because it dries to quickly but I feared the kids would stick their fingers together. So we used Elmers and a little tape to keep them together while they dried. I'll have to break some more of these out in a couple years when they're old enough to assemble them by themselves. Check out the designer's website for another 100 or so projects.

http://monkey-design.com.tw/

Craft & Commerce

2010-08-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

Its dusk at Craft & Commerce. Heat and humidity turning to cool blue darkness. Stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. Citrus, avocado and a boiled duck's egg. Fried chicken with slaw. Menomena plays in the background. I can hear five slow bass notes, haunting vocals, and an engaging drum beat over the din of the crowd. Good company discussing family, work, design and art.

Website
http://www.thrillist.com/links/150727

Menomena (listen with headphones)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24nM-K5jlI&feature=search

Test

2010-08-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

ErikaRobotEE
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Slightly Crisp Holga 135BC Photos

2010-07-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Found these photos in my Holga 135BC. I took them Summer 2009 at Knott's Soak City. I used Kodak slide film and asked that it be processed using print film chemicals. Cross-processing Kodak amps up the yellows and reds making the pictures feel more, I dunno, Summer-y. If I'm shooting at night, I prefer cross-processing Fuji slide film because it results in more intense greens and blues.

First DianaMini Pics

2010-06-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

Want to buy me a Father's Day present I love? The solution is easy - either a toy camera or a magic trick. No matter how cheap, I'll love either. Heather bought me a DianaMini (looks cheap but not cheap). It's a camera with a plastic lens designed to take unclear, vignetted photos. The best camera is the camera you have with you, and this compact wonder is easy to take anywhere. These are the first pics from the Mini darkened just a touch with Picasa.
http://microsites.lomography.com/dianamini/

ERA at the NPRA

2010-05-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

In order to foster Christian's future career as an intergalactic bounty hunter we've purchased the world's best collection of lasers, blasters, sabers, and electronic tutu guns. His plastic arsenal is enough to wipe off every annoying Ewok from the second moon of Endor. Snark Snark.

I found an old Atari pistol at the Salvation Army and decided to re-purpose it. However, Christian's gun cabinet was full. So, in the name of Equal Rights, I painted it pink and white, bejeweled it with genuine plastic power crystals, and presented it to Erika. Erika loved it. She said, "Thanks dad", then dropped it on the ground and played with her stuff animals.

Whoa sister, careful where you point that! The red LED from RadioShack can do some serious damage. I've enrolled Erika in the National Plastic Rifle Association for a six-week course on blaster safety. She's learning some of the fundamentals such as:
1. Know your target and what's beyond it,
2. Wear eye protection, and
3. Store blasters so they are not accessible to children.
Okay, ignore that last rule.

Six Grand? Yeah, Just A Tad Beyond My Budget

2010-04-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Heather and I have been shopping for a dining room table since, well, how long have we been married? Anywho, we found a modern walnut table by Calligaris named the Trotta but Bloomingdales wanted a whopping $6,000. Why so much? I couldn't rationalize the price unless the top was made of gold embossed to look like walnut. We found the same table at Hold It - a local store we love but they only had a picture of it in their catalog and the price was still north of $3,000. So, everytime we dropped by Hold It we looked longingly at their catalog hoping that the price would magically be cut in half.

One Friday night, a designer at Hold It said "You're in luck, I think we have a damaged Calligaris in our warehouse and tomorrow we're having a sale." We arrived Saturday morning a half hour before the sale believing the table would be snapped up before we could make an offer. Well, there it was, with two seriously damaged corners; offered at $699. Golly. What a bargain, but the top was way beyond repair. As we turned away my mind began doing the math - $300 in walnut planks and a day or two laboring in my garage to fix it. Heather and I shopped lumber and imagined what could be.

Hours later we went back to the sale and no one, not a single person, had given the Trotta a second look. I said to the store owner, "We like the table but I'm gonna have to sink a lotta time and dough to make it worth my while, I mean, its only good for the legs and hardware, right?" He knew the table was either going to the trash heap or he could sell it to me. He offered it to me for. . . well, let's say I've spent more money on a dinner for four at a nice restaurant than I spent on this broken table. I was ecstatic.

Voila! Look at the corners now. Solid walnut top, matching finish, and the table extends from 6.5 to 10 feet with two grain-matched leaves (photo below is without the leaves). By the way, Hold It has now earned out loyalty. We've purchased a matching credenza and we plan on buying a new custom sofa from they soon. Now for a new dining room rug . . . hmmmmm, how hard would it be to tuft a modern throw-down in my garage?

http://www.calligaris.us/home-solutions-furniture.html

http://www.holdithome.com/

Juliet Grows Up

2010-03-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Juliet is 16 months. Here she is at SeaWorld (we recently purchased season passes for SeaWorld - buy a year get a second year for free). her personality is really coming through. She loves to organize and clean, she eats anything, and she pro-actively tries to potty-train herself. Her likes? Purses, necklaces, and bathtime. Dislikes? Bows in her hair and whenever anyone leaves the room.

Baby Bat and Sky Spy

2010-03-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember these? Baby Bat and Sky Spy - the best kites a child could own. I grew up with these kites, flying them over La Verne, adding spool after spool of string until it became so heavy that the string dragged on the ground. Eventually the string would snap and we would chase them for what seemed to be miles. Don modified his kite by adding a battery and a light so he could fly it at night. I don't know what made me remember these kites but, thanks to the internet, I was able to find them online. http://www.skyspykites.com/. They're cheap, look great, and fly like no one's business. There's a near-constant breeze at the park near our home. We watch as the other kids try to keep their kites in flight while Baby Bat and Sky Spy simply shoot straight up into the air. Today Christian and I added two spools of string to Baby Bat and tried to take a video of it, but the kite was so high the camer couldn't detect it. Awesome.

First Day of Spring

2010-03-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Winter ended yesterday and today the temperature climbed to the mid 70s. We couldn't resist going to the beach.

Happy Valen-Birth-A-Tino-Day

2010-02-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

The Nelson's Season of Celebration has come to an end. We celebrate all of our birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Valentines Day within the space of three months. The last week includes my birthday, Heather's birthday, and Valentines Day. By February 14th we barely have enough energy to untie the bows on our gifts. However, this year we had a special guest - Cardboard Liberace! He was a splash at the party but now he just stands in a corner. Its a little startling to wake up in the morning, stumble into the next room, and see the figure of a man standing in your home. In a nano-second, your basal ganglia snaps to attention and says "A man should not be standing there." A tiny shot of adrenaline hits you just as your frontal cortex says "Relax, its just Cardboard Liberace.

I'm a big fan of Berkley Illustration's series of animals dressed in clothing. www.etsy.com/shop/berkleyillustration. All prints are signed, numbered, and very affordable. I couldn't wait until Easter to give these to Heather.

Heather bought Taschen's Magic, 1800s to 1950s. This picture doesn't do the book justice. It is enormous. Six-hundred and fifty pages of full color vintage posters, photographs and handbills. Christian struggled just a little to hold it up for the photo. www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/00378/facts.magic_1400s1950s.htm

Heather decorated these gems for Valentines Day. They measure nearly four inches across. Christian handed them out to his class. By the way, stock up on your old Sweetheart's Valentine Candy. After 145 years, they changed the flavoring and the recipe. Now they come in fruit flavors. What a terrible idea. www.necco.com/OurBrands/Default.asp?BrandID=8

What The Kids Are Up To

2010-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

Tip toeing through the tulips.

Everyone stops Erika on the street when she wears this sweater (thanks Jane).

Messy sundae at Samy's.

Juliet hijacking Erika's bed.

Solving the world's problems or playing SuperMario Wii, I forget which.

Caged and confused.

Time to make the donuts.

Slam poetry.

Me Circa 1916

2010-02-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky to have a youthful appearance despite my age. Here I am during my first tour of duty in the Great War. That conflict could have been avoided if the Archduke had only followed my advice - "Duck."

After a particularly nasty day of fighting in Somme, we watered our horses and rested for the night. Gypsy vampires attacked our camp, bit me on the neck, and voila - immortality. I've been collecting veterans' benefits for nearly a century.

Actually, these pics are Grandpa Nelson. When I showed them to other people three of them said, without any prompting, "You even stand like him." Really? Palms backward, one foot pointing North, the other East? "Uh, yeah, that's how you stand - straight legged and awkward - just like him."

I used to have this haircut in highschool. I remember dad driving me to school in our yellow van the day after the barber committed malpractice on my scalp. My kind father was never one to laugh at or ridicule his kids, but he looked at my shaved sideburns and couldn't contain his guffaws.

Another Snowy Surprise

2010-01-11T20:37:00.001-08:00

Heather hit it out of the park again - another great party for Christian's seventh birthday. We sent out invitations which said "Its A Snow Party" and told them to bring an extra pair of warm clothes. The parents were a little skeptical - "Snow in San Diego?" My friend Sabah Toma of San Diego Ice came through with snow - lighter and fluffier than shaved ice. We sculpted a 35 yard track for the kids to sled down, put out the beach umbrella, and slathered on the tanning lotion. The first few kids ate a little pavement at the end of the run but that didn't stop them from sledding and sledding and sledding some more. Everyone was pelted at least once with a snowball. Our neighbor Josh ran around decked head to toe in ski gear but without shoes or socks. No one was going to put shoes on him. Below is a pic of just some of the kids from the party. All of them raved about it. Christian wanted "Mom's Texas sheet cake" - easy to make and delicious. Later we topped off the birthday with a late breakfast at Kono's by Crystal Pier.

That Dog Will Do

2010-01-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

Christian noticed some empty gift boxes from J Crew and pleaded with us "Please can I have those?" Sure, why not. An hour later he had converted them into a "dog." We loved his creativity but grimaced at the thought our kids were itching for a dog. We're just not ready to make that commitment. At least let baby Juliet be potty trained first.

Erika wanted to make a cat so Christian sat down and wrote detailed instructions. Read them carefully. Its full of wisdom such as "Write the name of the pet on the head" and "Make a photo to remember." I love the instructions more than the dog. Oh, are you wondering why Erika is dressed as a leopard? Beats me.

Two Years In A Row

2010-01-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

He did it again. The school photographer snapped another winning photo of Erika. I praised his work last year here - http://nelsonsinspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/give-man-medal.html

When I saw this year's photo I nearly called the school and accused the photographer of PhotoShopping last year's photo into a new background. I must learn his secret to posing kids, especially kids who love to mug for the camera. She the photo below? That's what I'm used to.

Christmas Photo Extravaganza

2009-12-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

Monkey Bars

2009-12-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

Move Over Geodesic Dome

2009-12-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

Check out the new addition to the neighborhood. One day they moved the old cracker box-style home, poured a round concrete foundation, and broke out the erector set. No, I don't know what it is but I suspect Buckminster Fuller would be jealous. Heather says the workers seem apologetically polite when she drives by. You know, they wave a little too hard and smile a little too wide. Just a tad too much enthusiasm. Heather's not a fan but I like it (I hope she doesn't read this blog). Yep, I like it a lot. It brings a little character to the neighborhood. Growing up in La Verne I remember there was a family across the street that practiced witchcraft. They tinted all their windows purple and adorned their roof with bedposts. Definitely an odd family but they made the street a bit more interesting ("Nevermind that woman staring, muttering and pointing at us from her front lawn - she's just casting a spell on us.") We've speculated what the dome might be:

The Brown Derby

Nuclear Power Plant With A View

Igloo

Scrubbing Bubble

The Tip of a Ballistic Missile

Michael Jackson's Mausoleum

Hostess Coconut Snowball

Feel free to enter a guess.

My Wife Is Better Than Yours

2009-12-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

So, after a 12 hour day I came home and put a couple of warm slices of pizza on my plate. I walked into the bedroom and began to sit on the bed when the pizza slid off the plate, flipped over, and landed cheese side down on our white 400 thread-count Egyptian cotton duvet. Did I mention it was barbecue chicken pizza? Uh, yeah. Heather witnessed the entire disaster too. Before I could pick off the saucy onions and chicken bits, Heather said "Its no big deal, don't worry about it." How awesome is that! Maybe she took pity on me after a long, rough day of work. Tomorrow I'll be back in the salt mines for another 12 hours and, no doubt, she'll have those stains removed. She's a Houdini with a bleach pen.

Erika's Princess Party

2009-11-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Erika turns four this next week. Her birthday falls so close to Thanksgiving that we throw her party early. She wanted a princess party. The princess market must be worth billions - every four year old invitee showed up in their own princess dress usually with shoes to match.

Heather didn't disappoint Erika. The bubbles, make-your-own-tiaras, games, pizza, and cake were just what her majesty wanted.

Christian was an excellent helper too. He politely stayed out of the way most of the time, and jumped in when called on to do so.

Each guest was given a scepter, a ring, and a pair of white gloves.

Heather made the cake the night before - confetti yellow cake, buttercream frosting, and ice cream cones decked with sprinkles.

Look Slimmer, Stand Taller, Feel Younger

2009-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

Oh where to begin. You might think I pulled this out of an old LOOK magazine but I didn't. It was stuffed in last Sunday's coupon section. Instead of "Look Slimmer" it should say "Look Like Your Torso Is Being Squeezed Out Of A Toothpaste Tube." Lose 25 pounds as it slowly cuts off the blood supply to your lower digestive tract. Apparently side effects may include dead eyes, Michael-Jackson-nose, and a bad neckache. Celebrity John Schneider from the Dukes of Hazzard endorses it so it must be good. Without it, Bo Duke would look like Boss Hog. And look at that lifelike illustration to the right. Can you see the the progression? From pooch to perky "right away!" Act now because the last batch of slimmers was made in 1968 and they're nearly gone. I feel for the agency that created this advertisement. Apparently it was so effective that Cosmetic Laboratory Sales never felt compelled to update it. As they say "The best ads leave agencies with nothing more to do."

Red Velvet Cake

2009-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Heather introduced me to Red Velvet Cake a few years ago. She's made it for each child's first birthday. RVC is a southern dessert with deep red color, a little cocoa, Crisco (not butter) and a slightly bizarre white frosting recipe (cold butter combined with sugar and cooked milk and flour cooled to room temperature). Then there's the ritualistic sprinkling of baking soda over the cake batter and the splashing of apple cider vinegar over the top to make it fizz. Oh, and don't forget the two bottles of red food dye. Not one bottle, two bottles. One time Heather skipped the second bottle of dye and a RVC connoisseur from Texas glanced at it and dismissed it by saying "That's not red cake." And never ever put nuts on your red cake (I'm talking to you Bobby Flay). Heather's mother heard she made RVC cake this weekend and said "I just want to go to the store and get the ingredients to make some."

Heather is a little annoyed with the recent popularity of RVC. Its not that she wants to horde it all to herself, rather she complains that no one makes it right. "Cream cheese, pu-leeeeze!"

Heather says you either love RVC or you hate it. I guess I'm the exception to the rule - its a fine cake but it doesn't hold a candle to German chocolate cake. The chocolate, the coconut, the nuts . . . that's what I want for my birthday.

Juliet @ One

2009-11-07T22:03:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Juliet! I snapped these photos after returning from the mall. Heather spent the day practicing for Thanksgiving (see post below) so we postponed cutting the Red Velvet cake until after dinner. But half the family was asleep before we could cut the cake so we'll cut it tomorrow and snap some more pics .

All our babies have been wonderful and Juliet is no exception. We always believed that infants have to learn to sleep in their own beds and Christian and Erika learned that lesson pretty quickly. But somehow Juliet seems to make it to our bed more than the other kids - about 50% of the time. I think there's a secret part of Heather ignoring how to train Juliet to sleep in her own bed. She knows Juliet is our last baby and she won't be nursing her for much longer. I suspect Heather is subconciously extracting as many motherly moments as she can from our last child, and I don't blame her one bit.

Good Saturday Morning

2009-11-07T21:20:00.001-08:00

This is the first Saturday in a long time when I had nothing planned. Usually, I have some enormous project and only eight hours of energy to complete it. But today? Nothing to do but coast until Juliet's One Year Birthday Party. I was completely rested by 4:30 a.m. but laid in bed for another hour just because I thought it would be wierd to rummage around the house so early in the morning. Then I washed the cars, worked in the yard a bit, ran some errands, and polished-off the box of Boo-Berry cereal. The box was too kitschy to throw out so I cut the face off the front of it, added some elastic and made some holes for the eyes. I thought the kids would love it, but Heather was the only one willing to wear it long enough for a photo.

The kids were in a great mood too. Everyone was anxious to eat Heather's Red-Velvet Cake but would have to wait until later. Heather is in charge of the Thanksgiving turkey this year so she thought she'd practice by making a complete Thanksgiving dinner. Yup. I had Thanksgiving dinner today and it was nearly perfect. I say nearly perfect because she grabbed the salted consumme instead of the unsalted and the gravy turned out, well, salty. The turkey was cooked to perfection. She's going to add an apricot ginger glaze/chutney to the mix on Thanksgiving day. Can't wait.

While Heather cooked, I took the kids to the mall for a little early Christmas shopping. I came away with some good ideas for Heather but strangely, for all the time we spent in the toy store, the kids added nothing to Santa's list. Unless they start expressing their desires, I'm gonna re-gift that lump of coal I received last year.

Christian is doing much better. He has no signs of last week's strep. Yesterday he submitted a picture of his latest creation (not pictured) to Lego's monthly newsletter. They feature a handful of kids and their Lego spaceships each month. I'll let you know if he makes it.

The Longest Halloween

2009-10-31T21:39:00.001-07:00

When did Halloween become as great a commitment as Christmas? Retailers put Halloween decorations for sale on August 1st. Kids hit the pumpkin patches in early October. Halloween parties begin in the middle of the month. Church, school and friends all throw parties. The building where I work sponsors a costume contest. We added a trip to Disneyland's Halloween Time and reached complete Halloween saturation by October 29th. I was done, done, done with Halloween two days ago. I braced myself for the local school's Halloween Bash and for Halloween itself.

But then Christian fell ill in the middle of the night with a terrible stomach ache and a low fever. Heather was wiped out taking care of Juliet so I spent much of the night with Christian. He missed the school bash and was in sad shape Halloween day. He rallied in the afternoon and carved his first pumpkin start to finish with minimal help from dad. See below - second from the right. Come time to don his outfit, Christian fell sick again and just couldn't go trick or treating. I took Erika out with the neighborhood kids and she had a great time.

Funny thing - I lost Erika for a minute. She and another 4 year old neighbor named Josh ran ahead and became mixed up with another group of trick or treaters. I found them in front of an old woman's house and dragged them back to our group. We returned to the same old woman's house a few minutes later but Erika and Josh wouldn't leave the woman's porch. I approached and poor Josh was crying loudly pacing back and forth on the porch. Erika looked stunned. The woman looked at me and said "They've been here before - only one per child." I politely chortled "Oh yeah, they got mixed up in another group that was here before and now their back, sorry abou. . ." She interrupted me and repeated "Only one per child, I've seen this Red Riding Hood and Superman before." By then Erika was walking away but Josh was so distraught he kept crying on the Grinch's porch. She looked at him again and said "Only one per child." Really lady? Are your Smarties that precious? The kid is bawling in your face, obviously doesn't understand why everyone except him walked away with candy, and you're going to stand on principle? Fine. On the way home I saw Heather with Christian. Apparently he rallied and hit a few homes before retiring to bed. At the end of the night I told Heather about the Halloween Grinch. Her reply? She sighed and said dismissively "Old people."

UPDATE: Someone stole four of our five pumpkins. Okay, so maybe some kids threw them down the hill or squashed them on the street but I searched and found no evidence of such hijinks. They are just gone. I suspect the paperboy. Erika was nearly unconsolable when she found them missing.

Halloween Time At Disneyland

2009-10-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

Heather described Halloween Time at Disneyland as "The longest candy line eh-ver." Disney closes California Adventure at 5:00 pm, pushes out all the guests, and then reopens from 6:30 to 10:30 pm for all the costumed guests. The event was sold out but not too crowded. Disney cast members stuff handfulls of candy in the kids baskets. Erika loved her red velvet cape which grandma sewed for her. We feared the kids would conk out before 10:30 but they made it to the very end.

Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, My House

2009-10-29T21:21:00.001-07:00

I was never a big fan of Daft Punk until 1) I heard LCD Soundsystem's song Daft Punk Is Playing At My House which caused me to give them a second look; and 2) I saw them at Coachella. All they did was DJ atop a lighted pyramid. I couldn't tell whether they were actually doing something because their hands were hidden behind the staging. But it was the best show that weekend by a mile. Here's a Youtube clip that does not do the concert justice, but you get the idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a5dBJDz2vs . I have yet to buy one of their albums but I'm a fan of their songs Robot Rock and Technologic. I'm also a big fan of their robot helmets. You can buy an official replica for $65,000 (no kidding) or you can make your own for $30 with a little cardboard, acrylic, and body filler.

I downloaded some cardboard patterns and started making my own. Patterns can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmbMj-NFFQg&feature=fvsr . Normally I would have used Bondo but I discovered a new lightweight premium body filler name Rage Gold. I love this stuff. Easy to mix, easy to sand, dries quickly with fewer pinholes, and stays cool (Bondo heats up when it cures). I made the helmet Christian is wearing in this website's splash page out of paper maiche. Then I graduated to paper and spackle and made the Boba Fett helmet. http://nelsonsinspace.blogspot.com/2008/10/boba-fett-fini.html . But nothing beats this body filler. I'm already looking for another project to use this stuff again. Any suggestions?

Name That Character

2009-09-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Erika (3) loves a certain cartoon character so she made a Lego version of it (picture on the right). Christian (6) followed suit by making his own version (on the left). I love these Lego characters. I consider both versions rather sophisticated for their ages. I also love Erika's abstraction compared to Christian's more literal view. Can you tell who this character is? Don't all comment at once . . .

Update: Thaaaaaank yooooouuuu for all your guesses (sarcasm). No one got it right. The correct answer is Tweety-Bird

Nice Gnomes

2009-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Christian sitting on Attila

Erika and Napoleon

Juliet and Esprit

Dutch Baby

2009-09-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

A year ago we went to Richard Walker's Pancake House on Front Street and Heather ordered a Dutch Baby - a pancake souffle served with nothing but powdered sugar and a lemon sliced in two. The sugar and lemon combine on the pancake to make a perfect lemon syrup. Why had I never heard of this before? The Dutch Baby makes pancakes look and taste like foam rubber. Then Heather said, "Oh yea, I know how to make these." Know how to make these? We've been married for seven years and you've been hiding this delicious secret from me? Heather has served me aebelskivers a hundred times but somehow conveniently forgot to share her recipe for the most delicious thing on Earth. It makes me wonder what else she's holding back.

Anywho, the Dutch Baby is nearly the same recipe as a pancake save for the extra cube of butter. Its made differently too - cooked for a minute on the stove and then placed in the oven for 12 minutes. Make sure you leave the oven light on so you can see it rise five inches above the pan. Then it collapses all over your plate as it cools and waits for the sugar and lemon.

If you want a good Dutch Baby, then go to Richard Walkers (richardwalkers.com). If you want a great Dutch Baby, then ask Heather.

Labor Day

2009-09-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

We spent part of Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles. We thought we'd take the kids to see some dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. On our way we noticed many cars with USC decals and license frames traveling in the same direction but none of us put two and two together - Exposition Park is next to USC and there was a game that day. Exiting the offramp we had already given up on parking and decided to go to the La Brea Tarpits instead. Good thing too - two lots advertised "Park Here $60." Yep, 60 bones, and they were already three-quarters full. Dad went to USC in the 60s and reminisced about the neighborhood before the Watts riots. We took surface streets to the tarpits and the kids had a ball. The black-topped pond was bubbling with gas and the kids loved the elephant stuck in the tar.

A colleague from work recommended we try Clifton's Cafeteria for lunch in the middle of Los Angeles. In its heyday, Clifton's was supposedly the bees knees, a mini-Disneyland you could enjoy during your lunch hour. Well, how times and changed. It was hot and humid in downtown LA and Clifton's air conditioner was on the fritz. I don't know when the picture below was taken but apparently no one has dusted the place since then. I expected the kids to be saucer-eyed and mesmerized by the decor but it was so dark and weird we all preferred to gaze at the floor. I could live with its dankness, even revel in its poor ambiance if the food was any good. Everyone loves a dive that serves great food. I used to drive to a roach coach parked in a vacant tire store in Azusa because the tacos were so delicious. But Clifton's starchy, flavorless food provoked only one reaction in my mind - "Ew."

However, all was not lost. We went to Don and Angies' and watched the Cougs beat the Sooners. Can you feel the power of the Wasatch? Oh yea! Erika rolled down an entire flight of stairs, cried for a minute and then bounced right back. The next day we went to church and then mom served another classic Sunday dinner at the formal dining table - roast beef, potatoes, cream corn, green beans, salad, rolls, and about 25 pounds of peeled fruit. We returned to San Diego Sunday night and spent a spectacular Monday morning at Ocean Beach (air temp - 80, water temp - 73), grabbed some deli sandwiches at the Olive Market, and spent the rest of the day relaxing with our new best friend - our just-installed air conditioner.

Hat Night at the Padres

2009-08-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hat night at the Padres. We bought seats in the park bleachers and brought some Subway sandwiches. I spent most of my time chasing the kids all over the picnic area, through the playground, and rolling down the hill. We made it to the 6th inning before the kids were warn out. Had a difficult time focusing my polaroid. It was getting dark, I had it wide open at 4.7, and the depth of field was reduced to about an inch.

Some San Diego Favs

2009-08-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm near Los Angeles' Union Station I drop by Philippe's, Home of the French Dip Sandwich.
http://www.philippes.com/
My parents used to take me there when I was a child. The menu was a little too mature for my young taste buds, but I loved the atmosphere - the sawdust floors, the signs advertising a cup of coffee for a nickel, the brick and mortar walls, and the bustle of the deli counter.

San Diego has some terrific, reasonably priced food haunts too. Let me take you on a little tour. I'm trying to implant the same memories that my parents gave to me by taking my kids to some of these local San Diego restaurants. Recognize this first restaurant? Let me pull it into focus.

Yes, its Filippi's Pizza Grotto in Little Italy. The name is similar to my L.A. fav, but the food is entirely different. It has all the ingredients to make a memorable experience - a long line through a narrow passage which surprisingly hasn't been cited by the fire department, racks of oddly packaged products direct from Italy, the smell of anchovies and fresh cut parmesan cheese, confusing and dank eating areas, wine bottles wrapped in wicker hanging from the ceiling, waitresses too busy to care, and large portions of simple but tasty Italian food.
http://www.realcheesepizza.com/

Have you ever met anyone who didn't like Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Desserts? This quaint little shop has the permanent smell of chocolate and coffee. You'll get type II diabetes just by looking at the many desserts on display. Extraordinary Desserts is best enjoyed late at night after a play. Head to Hillcrest for the quaint cottage or go to the stark and modern sister shop which serves a lunch and dinner menu. Try the Surfing Goat Ping Pong Cheese Chutney Bruschetta with Maui mango chutney. Yeah, that's a real item and its reeeaaaal good.
http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/

Nevermind the little boy in the bottom of the photo - focus on the cracker box in the background. Mexican Fiesta looks like a real dive, and it is. But the beef tacos are the unhealthiest and therefore the best tacos in San Diego. They really should be called salty lard bombs in a hardshell. Within 60 seconds they'll turn the brown bag transparent. Heather and I will buy two each and eat them by the wharf. The only problems with these tacos are 1) you can feel your heart struggle as you eat them, and 2) the smell of greasy-goodness stays with you all day.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mexican-fiesta-san-diego

Can you still make out my image? Forgive my lack of depth of field but my Polaroid lens is a far cry from a professional SLR. I like El Indio. Its more "healthy" than Mexican Fiesta but that's like saying one hole in the head is better than two - there still both bad for you. The only place you'll find any frills at this restaurant are in the ornate sign and the umbrella'd picnic tables. Awkwardly stuck next to two busy streets and Highway 5, its a miracle anyone bothers to try and find a parking spot just to eat at this place. But the food is good, dependable Mexican food. Skip the lunch hour and wait for dusk. The orangy sky just makes the entire experience that much better.

http://www.el-indio.com/

Celadon. The exterior is certainly nothing to talk about, but the interior 's black & white/mod-baroque mix is very cool. Better yet, the bowl of red curry with shrimp is just plain good, good, good. I salivate just thinking about its milky, brothey, spicy mix of crunchy vegetables and jasmine rice.

http://www.celadonrestaurant.com/

Or you could just stay in and eat a bowl of Lucky Charms. The new hourglass shaped marshmallows not only taste great, but they allow you to control time. Don't believe me? Click below.

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/product_image.aspx?catID=69&itemID=756

And There You Have It

2009-08-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Voila! We couldn't be happier with our remodel. Heather deserves the greatest thanks for her perserverance and vision. This simply would not have happened without her drive and tenacity. She served as project manager, and mother to two kids while having a third kid in the midst of the construction. And she lived in the home during the remodel. Amazing! Thanks to Heather's architect father Gene Nichols for the exceptional design. Gene was given a near-impossible task of squeezing in several spacious rooms between existing steel posts and an enomous foundation while meeting all of San Diego's confusing building codes. He must have re-drawn and refined the plans a hundred times before finding a solution for our every need. And thanks to Phil Milana and his construction crew for their ingenuity and attention to detail. Phil's expertise and professionalism made the entire experience a thousand times better than we ever expected. What was my contribution? The exterior design. Yep, I whipped that up in about 30 minutes at the kitchen table, thank you very much. Check in next year for some new landscaping.

Here's a view of the home before the remodel. http://nelsonsinspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/remodel.html

Architect http://www.nmrdesign.com/

Builder http://www.philmilanaconst.com/Nelson/

La Jolla Cove

2009-07-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

Disneyland Overload

2009-07-08T21:55:00.001-07:00

Disneyland's offer of 3 days for 99 bucks was irresistable. I spent the first day enjoying the rides, the second day examining the architecture, and the third day memorizing the landscaping so I can copy some of it on my hillside. Erika loved California Soarin'. We road it at the end of the night and she fell asleep before we could reach the tram to the parking lot. I lifted her sleepy body out of the stroller and passed her to grandma so I could collapse the stroller when suddenly, half asleep, she ralphed everywhere. Grandma bore the brunt of it. Yeah, the throngs of persons pushing us onto the tram, the cumbersome strollers for all the kids, and poor Erika covered in sick almost made me never want to go back. Amazingly, Heather scored some tickets from Dale and Leslie and she's going back to Disneyland tomorrow. Wowzee.

Swimming at The Neighbor's

2009-07-08T21:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo drop of several pictures taken during the family reunion. I particularly like Jack walking on water with two seraphims because it was completely unplanned.

Doter

2009-07-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Its hard not to dote on your kids when they compose adorable notes like this one. Christian awoke early and saw Heather sleeping. Instead of disturbing her, he pulled out his crayons, went to his table, and wrote this little masterpiece. Then he left it next to Heather's bed so she could find it when she woke up.

PS - the doodle on the bottom is Christian's arm holding a sippy cup full of chacklate milk.

PBK's Portrait Studio

2009-06-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Remember those beds Heather worked so hard to find and buy from Pottery Barn for Kids? PBK threw in some free portraits of the kids for purchasing the furniture. They set up a photo booth in the baby section and snapped these lovely pics. I forget the photogs name . . . Annie Liebo-something.

Celebrity Sightings

2009-06-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Saw Fred Armisen at Disneyland. Big fan. Most people know him for his lamest impression - Barack Obama. I much prefer his Governor of New York David Paterson impression or his imitation of a Native American comedian. In my book Armisen makes a great celebrity sighting - not too famous and not in a place where you'd expect to see him. I've seen more famous people walking the streets of La Jolla or at a Hollywood cast and crew party. But none of those sightings compare to, let's say, Tom Waites racing to the airport with a panicked look on his face in a rented Geo Metro. Tom Waites, panicked, Geo Metro. Really.

Dandy Land

2009-06-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

We had quite a weekend. Friday night we went to the grandparents, dropped off the kids, and saw the Dandy Warhols in concert. We were three rows from the stage, dead center. Another great two hour set. I can't enough of this band. I'd see them anywhere but what I'd like to do most is see them at Roseland or the Odditorium. The opening act, The Meek, were kinda funny. Lead by a charismatic emo, the rest of the band were trying their hardest not to have any fun. The guitarist/keyboardist did his best impression of Anton Chigurh to no effect. He was so wrapped up in himself that the lead singer had to lean over during the middle of the second song and turn on his keyboard - I kid you not! But it didn't matter. We just wanted to see the Dandys and they were amazing.

After four and a half hours of sleep, we awoke Saturday morning, dressed the kids, and ran off to Disneyland. First to arrive, we ran around the park for two hours never waiting in a single line. At 10:00 a.m. we went to an empty California Adventure. The lack of a crowd was, well, a little sad. We rode the bumper cars but there were only a few other cars to bump into. The crowds picked up in the afternoon and the kids were pooped by 6:30 p.m. We took them to the grandparents and Heather and I went back for another three hours of adult rides. That's right 8:00 a.m. to midnight coz that's how we roll.

Juliet @ Six Months

2009-05-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

According to Juliet's pediatrician, she's 50% for height, 30% for weight, and 100% for adorableness (the doctor's words, not mine). I'm surprised by where she falls on the size charts because she looks plenty big to me. I guess all those obese kids in the news are skewing the charts. Maybe we should feed her real pizza instead of that fake stuff laying next to her head. Juliet's latest feat? Crawling backwards.

What Would You Pay For A Profiterole?

2009-05-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Each year Heather makes a dessert for the Young Women's Dessert Auction at church. The money raised is used throughout the year for activities. Her desserts always receive rave reviews. This year she was almost embarrassed to submit her profiteroles, a choux pastry filled with cream and topped with chocolate ganache. This is an actual photo of her dessert. Why the embarrassment? Because she said they are too easy to make. Too easy? I could split an atom before I could make a profiterole. And Heather's profiteroles are one of the most delicious weapons in her baking arsenal. I love them, and so did the bidders. Sister Lee, bless her heart, loves a bidding war. She'll push you to your limits, bid $5 more than your willing to pay, buy the dessert, and then hand it to you. One plate of Heather's profiteroles raised 45 bucks. Sister Lee must have purchased 10 desserts and then gave them away. I tried to share a dessert with her with her but she said "I don't eat sugar." I would guess that Sister Lee's generosity is responsible for a third of the Young Women's budget and a third of the congregation's cavities.

Oui Oui On The Bed

2009-05-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

Erika loves her new bed. Our home is mostly modern but we've decided to make her room French frilly chic. We're going for that obnoxious mix of modern and baroque found in 70s Hollywood homes. The room is pink with a white chandelier and the Olivia furniture set from Pottery Barn for Kids. We planned to buy the Olivia set for months. Suddenly the set went on sale but we pulled the trigger a day to late. The entire stock was sold out nationwide with no plans to offer it again. Our pleas to purchase the display set fell on deaf ears. We searched for a replacement without success. But Heather does not give up that easy. She called Pottery Barn again and they remembered her immediately. In fact, they had contacted corporate headquarters who agreed to sell her the bed, but they had failed to take her contact information. By luck, she called before they gave the bed to another buyer. She found a second display model Juliet at the Manhattan Beach store. The sale price less the discount, less the display discount, less shipping added up to huge savings.

Who Thought Instant Cameras Were So Hard To Use

2009-05-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to dial in my Polaroid 600 SE. Here's two more recent photos.

Coming To An Artery Near You

2009-05-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Behold. The breakfast cupcake. Step aside Egg McNothin, there's a new cholesterol bomb in town. A month ago I dreamed of a breakfast cupcake and blogged about it. My chief imagineer Heather and I set about realizing that dream; a pan-cup-cake wrapped in bacon, topped with a fried egg, and soaked in maple syrup. The sausage link is an extra 39 cents. Best served with an icy cold glass of white gravy. Mmmmmm.

New Addition To The Family

2009-04-28T21:32:00.001-07:00

What weighs nearly nine pounds, is a little temperamental, and makes people say "ooooooh?" My lastest eBay purchase - a nearly new Polaroid 600 SE. Look at the size of this thing. Built like a Sherman tank, this best of the best Polaroids promises to be a very fun camera. There is nothing automatic about it, no light meter, no flash, nothing at all to help you expose the film correctly. Ergo, I'm re-learning f stops, depth of field, and exposure times.

When Polaroid announced last year that it would no longer produce film, I hoarded a bunch of film in a cool dry place. Luckily Fuji film has no plans to end its production of peel-apart film. I got this sucker for a great price too. The seller made the amateur mistake of being overly critical of his own product and pushed away many potential buyers. Scratching his head he wrote "I dunno much about these" and then added on the very last line of his dire description "the shutter and lens work fine." That's all I needed to know because that's all that matters with this style of camera. I placed a low bid and won this baby for the price of a nice dinner for two (a used but good condition 600 SE can easily sell for $500 to 600).

I pulled it out of the box and this is the first shot I took - Heather unpacking from a Costco run. Expect some interesting Polaroid shots soon.

Caption Contest

2009-04-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Alright all you faithful NelsonsInSpace blog followers (all three of you). Study this photo of Juliet and her cousin Alex and submit your own caption. First place gets a free breakfast cupcake (see below).

UPDATE - THE SUBMISSIONS. Below are the submissions.

"I told you gravity is relative" - Albert Einstein

"Earthquake!" ~ Irwin Allen

"This milk has gone straight to my head" ~ Hunster S. Thompson

"Oooh, I love the nightlife, I gotta boogie, on the disco' round, oh yea" - Alicia Bridges

"Now if we could just get the chair to move it would REALLY be like a roller coaster" ~ Marissa

AND THE WINNER IS: Marissa. Clever and besides, she was the only real person to enter the contest. Marissa - you can collect your Breakfast Cupcake now. See above.

The Breakfast Cupcake

2009-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Heather's visiting teacher Doris Fill left the most delicious chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and silver sprinkles. Erika occasionally awakens from her nap in a sour mood. The cupcake turned her mood right around.

I thought cupcakes had hit their fever pitch last year but they continue to be popular. Heather has a friend named Denine Shern who was featured on Good Morning America after winning first place in a cupcake contest for her s'mores cupcake. Check it out here. http://www.duotoneonline.com/crumbs/

An old friend Chrissy Ladd seems to publish a new cupcake idea every week. http://laddsandlasses.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-cupcake-of-month-1.html

Can I put out a challenge to all you cupcake bakers? The breakfast cupcake. Wrap a strip of fried bacon inside the muffin tins, fill with pancake batter, and top with a dollop of emulsified maple syrup. If you're feeling a little crazy drop a quail egg on top during the last minute of baking and then shove a sausage link in the center. Serve with milk. After breakfast rub your heart vigorously until it starts beating again.

My Ears Hurt

2009-04-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Juliet loved her first Easter despite having an ear infection. Her ears weren't the only ones that were hurting. Doctors Heather and Doug didn't diagnose her ear infection for a day or two because Juliet is a generally a patient patient. She doesn't push her way into the emergency room demanding a specialist stat. Rather, she spends her day looking sad and occasionally wimpering then at night she lets her displeasure known to the entire neighborhood. By 6:00 a.m. our ears were killing us.

The Scrappy Indiana Jones

2009-03-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Christian just completed all three "movies" on the Lego Indiana Jones Wii game. Occasionally Christian would put together his own Indy get-up but he always refused to be photographed until now. My favorite part? Look at Christian's crooked smile - just like the Lego character.

Erika's Self Portrait

2009-03-22T21:50:00.001-07:00

Our three year old Erika buried herself in our art studio the other day. By "buried" I mean posting a "do not disturb sign", locking the door, blacking-out the windows, and refusing to come out for 24 hours. Occasionally she would make demands on Heather like "More Paper NOW!" and "I'm out of gummy bears, WHERE ARE MY GUMMY BEARS!" Heather gently complied by slipping more art supplies and Haribos under the door. I awoke at 3:00 a.m. and pressed my ear against the studio door. Erika was muttering to herself "no, No, NO!, its just not right" as I heard paper crumpling and falling to the floor.

The next morning, just before I left for work, Erika burst from the studio panting and exhausted from a hard night's work. She was delighted with herself. "I did it, I really did it this time!" she exclaimed. I peered behind her into the art studio and saw literally mounds of scrap paper and empty art pens littered across the floor. In her hand she held her first self-portrait, and her first foray into photorealism. She gently layed it in my hands and stared intently at my eyes waiting for my reaction.

I wept. Just look at the structure of her work. You can almost see her cheek bones and facial muscles laying beneath her semi-translucent skin. The effervescent smile, the glisten in her deep brown eyes, even the faint scar above her left eye from her recent accident were spot-on. I think I'm going to fire her manager and rep her myself. I'm going to be rich!

My Christmas Shopping is Done

2009-03-22T20:59:00.001-07:00

To everyone I shop for, your 2009 Christmas will be the most memorable yet. There's been so many great products this year like shamwows, snuggies, slap chop, and Little Umi - the lifelike monkey doll (http://nelsonsinspace.blogspot.com/2009/02/most-incredibly-likelike-baby-monkey-eh.html) that it would be silly not to complete my shopping early. I had a few difficult persons to shop for, you know, persons who already owned snuggies, and I was clueless as to what to buy for them until I opened today's coupon section of the Sunday paper. Our friends at The Bradford Exchange Collectibles have announced the release of their latest blockbusting product - The Three Stooges Wacky Talkie Plate Collection. Does it get any better? Yes, it does. Squeeze their ties and they say "Oh, a wise guy, eh?" and "Woob woob woob!" Just three easy payments! Who might be so lucky to receive these plates? Well, I don't want to give that secret away but let's just say a few lucky ladies are going to receive these heirlooms - women love the stooges.

Holga rama

2009-03-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

My second set of Holga 135 photos. I love the photo of Christian jumping through the rope. Holgas make persons look different. The photo of Heather below doesn't capture the real Heather. Some people would say that a camera that can't accurately capture a person's likeness is not worth the plastic its made of. I disagree. I like the surprise.

Outlook Not Good

2009-03-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

I've moved my office from the 16th to the 19th floor and immediately decided "Hey, this would be great time to ruin my computer's continuity and send my practice into a tailspin." Hell bent on ruining my life, I bought a new computer with Vista and attempted to load a new copy of Microsoft Outlook this morning. I've tried Yahoo calendar and Google calendar but they're just too slow. I search, edit, and bang away on my calendar all day long. Outlook's compatibility with X1 Desktop Search was too valuable to ditch for an online calendar. Well, Outlook wouldn't install. It wouldn't install! On a brand new computer running Vista it wouldn't install! After an hour on the phone to Microsoft support, buttons suddenly started disappearing; you know, important buttons like email's "send/receive." Well after another half hour of remotely tinkering with my computer the tech got it running. I can't wait to walk into work tomorrow and find it not working.

The Juliet Chronicles

2009-03-08T22:30:00.001-07:00

Juliet continues to put on the pounds. She's easy to make smile and laugh now except when she's on camera. She's a very good baby. Now's she fighting to turn over onto her tummy. Right on schedule.

Why Church

2009-03-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Any regular church goer can list a thousand reasons why he or she attends services. I don't need to repeat them here. But occasionally I'm going to add some of the great wisdoms and witicisms I hear from regular members of my congregation. Today we were discussing the dangers of pride. Not the pride you have in your child's accomplishments, but the harmful pride summed up by Ezra Taft Benson as "[pitting] our will against God's. . . The proud wish God would agree with them."

Then Patriarch Jerry Kinison added, "If humility is to see things as they really are, then pride is to see things as they are not." I asked the Patriarch whether the quote was his and he said that it was. An excellent quote. I might reduce it to "Humility is to see things as they really are" and I hope I always remember to attribute it to Patriarch Kinison.

Orchid or Onion

2009-03-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on the exterior of the house. As you can see, there's a lot more siding. The near-black stucco accents should be finished soon. The interior is being painted. I expect they're going to stitch the new and old wood floor together this week.

San Diego has an architectural "contest" each year where they announce their favorites (orchids) and their not-so-favorites (onions). I'm sure our home might make some eyes tear but to me it looks as pretty as a terete vanda (papilonanth).

Pinewood Derby Mayhem

2009-03-08T21:53:00.001-07:00

Last night the local cubscouts held their annual Pinewood Derby. I had made pinewood derby cars for the kids to play with a year ago. Shortly after last year's derby I made a third car out of clear Lucite. Yep, I glued a couple of blocks of plastic together, carved it, and polished it. It smelled like Dad's dental lab. I dubbed it the Ghost Car. I thought the audience would go wild when I pulled it out of the bag and layed it on the judging table but for the life of me I couldn't find it - argh!

Well, we had enough cars for Christian and Erika. They entered the unlimited class which allowed non-cubscouts to race. Neither won their races, but both would have tied for first place in the design category had we stayed a bit longer. The kids loved it but the mayhem was a little too much for us to take. We split as soon as the crowd gobbled up the last of Heather's chocolate sheet cake. Exhausted by the day we hit the hay around 8:45 p.m. and all fell asleep by 9:00.

Now I'm planning a pink car for Juliet. I have some left over cocobolo and walnut for some new models.

Commander Christian

2009-02-28T22:13:00.000-08:00

So here's a story as imagined by Christian. Commander Cody played by Christian. Princess Amidala - Erika. Photos - Yours Truly.

Alone, Commander Cody is dropped off by a troop transport and attacks Ziro the Hutt's lair. It is his mission, and his mission alone to save Princess Amidala from Ziro's clutches. Out numbered 10 to 1 by battle droids, Cody jumps from building to building picking them off one by one.

Having dispatched the tenth battle droid, he moves toward Ziro's lair. He is cautious, taking cover where he can find it, surveying the landscape in front of him for more battle droids. He hears the air move above him and sees a surveillance droid almost directly overhead. He turns and shoots it square in the center, likely disabling all of its comm links. Did he fire before the droid transmitted his position? He could not wait to find out.

Cody runs inside the lair and finds Amidala sinking into Ziro's private quicksand pond. "Behind you!" Amidala screams. He turns to see Ziro bearing down on him with his blaster. Cody spins. They both shoot. Ziro is struck in the midsection while Cody's thigh suffers a glancing blow. Ziro shrieks and ducts away. Cody is hurt but focuses. He pulls Amidala to safety while scanning the door. Is Ziro dead? Or is he merely lying in wait? He looks out the window and sees the coward Ziro speeding away.

Satisfied with his rescue of Amidala, he surveys the landscape from atop the lair. A transport has just arrived. He is tired and needs a rest, but he cannot stay. If the surveillance droid pegged him, then more battle droids would be arriving shortly. He must move Amidala before they arrive. He boards the transport and stands near the large door. The sun is setting. He hopes he never has to return to Ziro's lair again.

No Really, It Was A Happy Birthday!

2009-02-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

Our good friend Scott celebrated another year's passing last Friday with some good sushi, some extra olives, and some terrific company (me).

The Most Incredibly Likelike Baby Monkey Eh-Verrrrr!

2009-02-23T20:29:00.001-08:00

Under the stimulus plan Americans are expected to receive a whopping $30.00 reduction in their payroll taxes each month. What will you do with your windfall? Might I suggest stimulating the Ashton-Drake Galleries' economy by purchasing a "Little Umi" of your own? Yes, for just $27.99 for the next five months this precious gem can be yours. The manufacturer promises "you'll want to cuddle and nurture [her] the moment you see her" gair-ohn-teeed.

Heather has a knack for finding odd things in plain sight. I clip the coupons each week and this precious doll just slipped right past my radar. Yes, I love clipping and using coupons. I'm always trying to beat my personal best - saving 60 bucks on a 100 dollar food bill. Concerned that I had missed a $1.00 off Pampers' Swaddlers coupon, Heather perused the paper again and found Little Umi. Between the latest offering from the Franklin Mint and a super deal on Calcutta Cloth slacks lay this "masterpiece of amazing realism."

I love the finger-wagging in the fine print - "This baby orangutan is not a toy; she is a fine collectible to be enjoyed by adult collectors" - as if an inspector from Ashton-Drake will visit your home to make certain you're not playing house with this vinyl monkey.

Monkeys not your thing? Then might I suggest Ashton-Drakes' collectible alien babies. Think I'm kidding?
http://www.collectiblestoday.com/ct/product/prdid-301281001.jsp?RecentlyViewed
I kid you not.

Nausea - Now In IMAX

2009-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took the kids to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. The kids loved the "Tinkering Exhibit" which allows hords of children to leave sticky fingerprints on do-it-yourself science experiments. Christian loved the powered-paper-plane-launcher which was both shiny and gooey from all the young boys handling it. Christian made a classic paper plane with a pointed end and proceeded to launch it right into Erika's face. She laughed and ran out of target range. Erika giggled with delight at the beach ball floating on a cushion of air until a boy took the ball and began a soccer match with his older brother. And Juliet mostly ate and slept.

While waiting in line for IMAX's Wild Ocean to begin, I struck up a conversation with an off-duty mall Santa. Yep, white beard, spectacles, and a red shirt. He explained the difficulties of working the malls, and how he preferred to do private parties. I actually thought he might be angling for some business but Christmas is still, let's see, 10 months away. I whispered to Chris Kringle that Christian received Legos for Christmas. He leaned over to Christian and said, "Don't tell anyone, but I'm on vacation. Did you like the Legos I brought you?" Christian, suddenly wide-eyed and shy, said, "Yes, I got them" and slinked away from Santa's greatness never taking his eye off him.

San Diego's IMAX is the dome-type which completely envelopes your view. We found good seats next to the projector in the middle of the dome however an usher told Heather that she would have to sit down front if she was going to hold the baby. Off she went. I spent the next 30 minutes monitoring Christian and Erika to make certain they weren't kicking the chairs in front of them. They were constantly fidgeting, changing positions, and scanning the dome as dolphins, seals and sharks swam by. It was, well, maybe a little too realistic. Suddenly, my eye detected a sudden stillness to my left. Two seats over laid Erika on her back, saucer-eyed and still. Her arms and hands formed a bowl over her chest and tummy and her pink sweater wasn't pink any longer. I leaned over to Christian and said, "Don't move" and I whisked Erika out of the theater.

I rushed into the restroom with Erika. Actually, it was the lady's room. Oops. I politely excused myself and then cleaned Erika up in the men's room as best I could. The pink sweater was a complete loss so I ditched it. Two minutes later I went back to drag Christian out of the theater. There were only a few minutes left. A crack cleaning crew was waiting at the door with their cleaning kits at the ready. They were old pros at handling seasickness. I felt like I was going through a triage as they asked "Sir, where is it, aisle or seat? Large or small? Will people step in it? Shall we go now or after the crowd has left?" After the debriefing I went inside and motioned Christian to come with me. The movie was nearly over. We went straight to the car, stripped Erika, buckled her into her seat and turned up the heater. Heather called soonafter with a "Where are you?" I didn't tell her what happened. "Just meet me at the car." I thought I would surprise her with the smell as she opened the car door. Surprise!

PS - Erika's stitches from her accident last week have been removed. As shown in the picture above, she has a bit of surgical tape on her forehead. She's healing very well.

Valentorino

2009-02-16T08:39:00.001-08:00

Heather and I spent Valentine's Day watching an old racist wax his vintage muscle car. Yes, we saw Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. Apparently, by the size of the audience, a lot of couples thought watching GT was a good way to spend a romantic evening. Actually, we celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentine's Day between February 8 and 14th and by the time Valentine's arrives our constant expressions of love and appreciation begin to fall on numb ears.

I love movies. I love talking about movies. But I've resisted writing about movies because let's face it, no one really wants to read what I think about movies. That ends today. Clint Eastwood is one of the finest, limited range, one-note actors in American history. He's not alone either. Many actors strike the same note over and over again with great appeal. Ever watch a Cary Grant movie? Clint's movies are usually good (not great) but after watching GT, I'm recategorizing some of his past work as mediocre. The use of the same plot devices and delivery are becoming a little hackneyed.

Our post-movie wrap-up (the ride home) was spent criticizing the movie rather than philosophizing about its content. GTs greatest flaw is in the casting. Heather accurately described the supporting actor's ("Toad") performance as "worse than community theater." There was an almost audible clunk as Toad's lines came out of his mouth and hit the floor. I speculate that Clint and his crew have bought the hype that surrounds his movies so much so that they said "Nah, we don't need to review the dailies this time."

If you want to see a good movie, see Doubt. My fears that it would be anti-Catholic or a gutwrenching tale about child molestation never materialized. Instead, it was a perfect script, with perfect performances, perfect staging, and perfect photography. It also led to many interesting discussions about compassion vs. the rule of law, the importance of faith, and the importance of doubt. Yes, doubt is very important - you have five minutes to discuss amongst yourselves.

Nelson Baby Photos For Sale

2009-02-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Star Magazine? US Weekly? Parade? Here's a sample photo of 3 month old Juliet. The rest of the roll can be yours for a mere 1.5 mill. How is Juliet doing you ask? If you love babies who eat, spit up, and giggle then keep reading. Juliet eats, spits up and giggles, and we love it!

Human Tailoring

2009-02-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

Upon leaving an asylum interview Friday in Anaheim I received two matter-of-fact but slightly panicked voicemails from Heather - "I’ve been called to the preschool because Erika split her head open" and "We’re at the emergency room now, call me." I called and Heather explained that the doctor had just stitched an inch long cut on Erika’s forehead. Mind you, I had just spent several hours presenting medical evidence to prove that the visible scarring on my third world client’s forehead was caused by a persecutor’s rifle butt. I imagined Erika as a young adult having to explain her scar in social settings, "This one? Oh yeah, preschool playground." That’s okay for a boy. I expect our boy to sit around with his buddies and compare scars, but Erika? Not so much.

I worried that a recent med school grad (who’s only experience with suturing was watching Rambo; First Blood) had mistaken dental floss with #00 sutures and stitched my daughter’s forehead with all the care of Dr. Frankenstein. I said, "Take her to a plastic surgeon." Heather’s brief silence said, "How do I find a plastic surgeon at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon?" But, as usual, Heather makes things happen and within minutes she called back to report she had found one. Fortunately, the plastic surgeon was impressed with the stitchery and gave Heather some tips on how to keep the scar from turning into "train tracks."

I finally made it home through the rain soaked SoCal traffic. I ached to comfort a sulking little girl. I opened the front door and Erika stuck a sticky, heart-shaped lollipop in my face and grinned with cherry-stained teeth. She was oblivious to the large flesh colored bandage on her forehead. The blue sutures protuded slightly above and below the bandage. Finding no reason to ruin her good mood, I ignored the stitches and just asked her how she was doing. She looked at her sticky fingers, grinned again, and ran off.

Erika hasn’t complained a bit. She’s as happy as she's ever been. Today I peeled back the bandage to reveal the blue sutures. I expected to see the finest tailoring but sutures are never pretty. Erika looked in the mirror. Then she smiled and raised her eyebrows as if to say, "Like my new threads?"

UPDATE: Heather was not as amused by the Frankenstein photo. Here's the real "after."

Feeling Orange, Feeling Blue

2009-02-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent random Polaroids. Nothing spectacular. The orange photos were taken one minute before sunset, the blue photo taken one minute after. The sun sets quickly where we live. There are no trees or homes to obstruct our view, just the hard line of Point Loma's peninsula spread before our windows. I like observing the contrast in light just before and after a sunset. The warm, citrus light which illuminates every West-facing surface suddenly disappears into a blue dreamy calm. The B&W on the bottom is from Sofia Rose's baptism at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla last week.

ArtNet Keeps Calling

2009-02-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

How many times must I say my children's art is not for sale before the Getty, Gugenheim, Norton Simon and the Thomas Kinkade Galleries stop calling? Rather than restrict their enlightening and sometimes controversial pieces to the confines of a museum, we have opted to share their work with the unwashed masses through this blog. Erika's latest maestroverk entitled "Juliet; A Study in Contrasts No. 1" (abstract; medium - Hammermill 20 lb white and Crayola brand ink) evokes the anguish of middle surbubia and its relationship with the shaping of every infant's id.

Christian's "Indeanu Jon's" (photorealism; medium - Dunder Mifflin 24 lb cardstock and non-toxic Marks-A-Lot ink) implores the viewer to examine Hollywood's evolution of the 2 hour analog celluloid adventure into today's never ending 64 bit, self-involving digital gameplay.

If you dismiss these pieces as merely the musings of children, then let me speak to you in your own vernacular - "ya jus' don't git it and never you mind tryin." For the rest of you, send your donations to Erika and Christian's business manager (have you seen the price of paper lately?)