Sand In My Shorts

Today I came home to a pile of sand at the top of the stairs. No one loves sand more than Erika. A day at the beach or the playground always yields enough silica to construct a dozen solar panels. It just pours from her shoes, her clothes, her ears and her hair. No wonder really. The first thing she does when she comes in contact with sand is to hug it as if it were her favorite blanket. After a lengthy embrace, she begins sampling it with her tongue - "Hmmm, this brand of sand may be light in color but bold in oceany goodness with strong Maui notes and a hint of Cabo. A very fine blend indeed." She has to brush her teeth less when she samples sand and I suppose it supplies some good dietary roughage too.

This Polaroid Land Camera shot was taken in Laguna Beach, Summer 2007, when Erika was about 1 1/2.

Another Holgarific Post

Here's another Holgaroid taken maybe two years ago. Christian and his cousin Annicka at Mimi and Papi's cabin in Mt. Shasta. Okay, so the tree and the house are crooked and Christian's foot disappears at the bottom of the photo. To those unfamiliar with the Holga you might ask why so many obvious mistakes? Any amateur with a digital camera and a little sense could frame a better photo. Well, there is nothing automatic with the Holga. Funny enough, it does have a switch for day and night settings but if you take it apart you learn that the switch is not connected to anything. Flip the switch and nothing, I tell you nuttin' happens. Also, the viewfinder is mounted on top of the camera and does not look through the lens. Even if it did, the Polaroid back covers the viewfinder.

Remember the basement scene from Silence of the Lambs where Clarice is in pitch black and the serial killer Jame Gumb is stalking her with night vision goggles? Gumb sees Clarice stumbling around, eyes dialated, shaking her gun in front of her. Well, that's how it feels to shoot with a Holgaroid. You're never sure what your aiming at and you're lucky if you shoot anything at all.

Pretend

Here's another old Polaroid of Erika. Today she pretends to be a cat, or a dog, or a baby jaguar - all reasonable things to pretend. However, when she was two years old she used to pretend to be dirty laundry. At least that's what I figured. What else can explain the constant fascination with laying in the laundry basket?

Storm Trooper Love

I know there's been a lot of posts about Star Wars lately but let's face it, The Clone Wars just debuted on the Cartoon Network and Thomas the Train is so yesterday. Christian drew this today entirely from memory. Oh, you don't think Strom Troopers carry lightsabers on their belts? Well, this just happens to be Luke dressed as a Storm Trooper from "A New Hope", silly.

Bespin On My Mind

Heather and I just finished reading Christian the mind numbing novellete "Crossfire." He loved every minute of it. Ask him what its about and he'll say "Jango Fett is dead and his son Boba finds himself on the toxic planet Raxus Prime under the control of Count Dooku (aka Tyranus) and his henchmen Cydon Prax. Boba escapes with the aid of CT-4/619 and CT-5/501 who work for General Glynn-Beti. Boba adopts the alias Orphan Teff and befriends Garr. Glynn-Beti and his padawn Ulu Ulix show Boba around the starship Candaserri. After a failed spacewalk, Boba abandons the Candassari at Bespin and confronts Aurra Sing the bounty hunter who stole his ship. Aurra knows where Boba's father Jango hid his treasure but can't open it without Boba's DNA so the two reach a tet a tet. The End." Sound clunky? Christian's recitation is sheer poetry compared to the actual book.

Owen Magic Supreme

I own several Owen pieces. I hope to periodically catalog a few of them in this blog. If you're interested in high quality collectible magic, then tune in. Here's a link to their website.

http://www.owenmagic.com/

Go To Bed Already

Christian and Erika have always been good at going to bed. They're great sleepers too. But like vampires they come alive at night. At least vampires stop when you drive a stake through their hearts. Not so with our two Lucha Libre stars. The darker it gets the more they run, chase, and bump into each other. Meanwhile, our energy levels are plummeting. Christian has lifted the lyrics from "Last Day of Magic" and labeled Erika "little tornado" while calling himself "little hurrican-o", and the hours between 6 and 8 p.m. are official disaster zones. Oh, you think reading a bedtime story might calm them down? By the second page they're tickling each other until someone loses their breath. By page three someone is in a wrestling hold. Thank goodness they can drag themselves to bed because we can barely lift a finger by the end of the story.