Teach your children….

Let this image inspire you. Apparently we’ve inadvertently trained our 2-year-old to document our 4-year-old. I’ve delegated the family photography duties to the kids, and I’m OK with that.

Meg and I, however, still manage the video recording. When G runs the camera it’s slightly reminiscent of Cloverfield.

Vacuums at Lowe’s

Today the girls of the house had something birthday and princess related to do, so G and I ended up at Lowe’s with some quality time spent in the vacuum cleaner section.

Seriously, I’ve never seen a kid love vacuums more than G.

Running visuals

I’ve been running more these days. From where I live I gave east access to Hwy 81 and so that’s typically my route with minimal variations. What’s been interesting is that I start to notice the same random objects along the path each time I run. Here are a few things I notice each time.

1) one single Rainbow sandal.
2) a multitude of cigarette butts.
3) a decayed, complete arm of some road killed creature, nearly dried and preserved.
4) The Mulch Mart sign (slogan rotates weekly)
5) an oblong neon green object I’m scared to attempt to identify.

What about you? Do you run? What do you consistently notice?

Crowd sourcing trees

I took this photo today of our beloved Bradford Pear tree that gave up and split with the recent winter storm. Now the question remains, what kind of tree should we replace it with. The main issue is that this tree (and its considerable size) blocked and shielded our bedroom window from the front of the neighborhood. I liked that.

I need something that will survive the South Carolina climate and will fill in relatively quickly. I’m game for a multi-tree’d approach. Any suggestions? Anyone out there a landscaper?

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Ft G.

This weekend my parents came over and helped construct phase III to the fort project. This week’s additions, a canvas roof and a bucket and pully system for transporting materials up and down. My favorite addition was the use of i-hooks to add adjustable tension to the bucket’s rope. It slows the descent down to a smooth drop. (farm engineering at it’s best).

Bedtime story

The G and I are continuing our journey through the Chronicles of Narnia. Granted he’s four and the story can get a bit over his head. Still if I think he’s spacing out and isn’t paying attention I’ll give him the “buddy, want me to stop for the night?”

G: “NOOOO! Keep reading.”

I’m not sure if it’s the story or the quality time he (and I) enjoy most, but it’s very much worth it. What are you reading? What are you reading to your kids?

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Duck time

This afternoon we decided to take advantage of the good weather, plentiful freezer burned bread, and an hour of spare time and we blessed the local ducks with a plethora of carbohydrates. To this contingent of geese I say “you’re welcome.”

Valentine’s Day morning

This is how we’re spending our V-Day morning. Ken at the oven, mmmm.

Swing time

Today Dad and I finished up phase II of the fort, the swings. Truth be told we only spent about 30 more minutes finishing up, but I did get to use my Dremel to cut some chain (15k RPM, oh yeah) so I believe that qualifies as serious heavy labor. I saw sparks.

GnR seem to be enjoying it.

Like Father, like Son (Santa ed.)

Yesterday as I put my son to be he asked me “Dad, what did Santa bring you?”. This launched into a conversation that Santa brings presents only to kids, but he did visit me when I was a boy. “well, what did he bring you when you were a boy?”

As I mulled it over (via the wikipedia app, mind you) I came up with two items that I distinctly remember. Then I thought about the items G received and realized (not that I didn’t already know) how similar we really are.

(his packages were stuff with various mechanical items such as Robosapien, magnetic fridge gears, and lite brite for good measure).

Here’s mine:

Tree time

After much attic digging and copious amounts of super glue the Wilson tree is up. Also a sidenote: I tuned the vinyl decks and with the exception of some jazzy modern beat tunes most of this year’s Christmas music will be supplied from the original vinyl. (pictured record is just for example and won’t be shown again until January when the vinyl becomes a 70s rockfest).

Thankful

This year I am thankful for so very very much. Thank you Father for the life you’ve given me.

Pre Thanksgiving day

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. It’s going to be great just chilling at the house. I plan on a Pre Thanksgiving day run to get my appetite ready.

To point, I’ve cooked a good Southern breakfast of Timms Mill stone ground grits and eggs (scrambled for G, over hard for me) and watched the Today Show. I believe I have a last minute store trip and some putzing around the house. Glorious. You can follow me on Twitter for the weekend’s play by play (www.twitter.com/avclub).

G’s Halloween costume

This is a little late (sorry), but I’d like to share a few images of G and his robot costume. If you look closely on the corners you’ll see two old iPod headphones. Internally I’ve wired up an old iPod mini and set it to loop a short soundtrack of robot sounds just to add to the effect. If you’d like to duplicate the effect, you can download the file, or just listen to it here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Special roast

It’s a wonderfully cool morning, right at 46.6 F according to my little digital temperature probe in the kitchen. I expect to have a stellar day off with my family, and it begins with this.

Seemingly shiny. (repost)

If you get a chance take a moment to enjoy a glimpse into why I love this woman. Meg’s post from yesterday is extremely well composed and probably one of the best things I’ve seen her write.

Catalyst

This has been my first experience attending Catalyst and I’m really digging it. There is no free Wifi however and while my phone gets data signal this year I’m opting to take hard-copy notes, digest them, and post them later next week. In the meantime, here are a few images that show the scope of this event.

how the Wilsons roll

Forgive the slightly off-motion-graphics-and-video topic but I just happen to find this to be the cutest thing ever. (and yes, that’s me praising with a “YEAH!” in the background). A few things to note beyond the obvious cute girl singing:

(1) She still rocks the glasses, even indoors.
(2) I married way over my head
(3) You can clearly make out the two wingback recliners in my kitchen in lieu of an actual kitchen table. It’s where Meg and I have all of our deep conversations.
(4) She’s a spunky one (and my daughter is, too)
(5) Through the window you can make out the Fort Gardner project

R singing the alphabet song from Meg Wilson on Vimeo.

Twitter fast response

I love Twitter, and it’s fast become more fun than blogging (no worries, still love the blog, too). This weekend, I twittered about a teenage speed demon who lives in my neighborhood. He uses the route past my house as a drag strip tearing about with little thought to those he disturbs or those he endangers.

I’ve seen him and heard about him from my neighbors but I’ve never directly faced him until yesterday. As Gardner and I were walking around a blind curve in my neighborhood I heard him enter the neighborhood. It’s a good thing I did as he was flying. I waved my arm and motioned for him to stop. I’d planned to use that opportunity to confront him face to face, to ask him to slow down in the neighborhood.

At that point he swerved to the other lane and SPED UP, revving his engine and tearing past me. I’m thankful there wasn’t a child in the way (they play in that area of the street… there are several families down the street with small kids).

In the end I’ll end up confronting him directly to protect my family and my neighborhood. But for some input, I put it out there to my twitter peeps to see their advice / suggestions. I must say, the comedic response did make me a little less angry, but there were some good offers I might take them up on (the legal, Godly ones of course).

robinsc @avclub ive got egg throwers and paintballers. If you get any good ones i’m listening. I got recourse but it aint legal or christ like.

jodicwilliams @avclub do his parents not care? yikes!

trevorcox @avclub ask one of the sherif deptuties that help at newspring to scare the :&+-! out of him.

Mingpd @avclub my uncle is an Anderson Co Police Officer.

SpencerTucker @avclub Shotgun usually works.

navets @avclub try one of these – http://tinyurl.com/3mn5pb

dnimmons @avclub However, I do like the idea @jaysizzle suggested! You are a pretty “buff” man you know.

mcdzl @avclub midnight tire slashing. Or burning bags of poop.

dnimmons @avclub A box of roofing nails will do the trick. They stick upside down rather effortlessly . ( Just saying )

garylamb @avclub I recommend the ass whipping that @jaysizzle mentioned.

jessejanderson @avclub some of these are a bit extreme, but maybe a good starting place http://is.gd/3uPV

thejrod @avclub You could get a bb-gun and start sniping him as he flies by

Soundman460 @avclub get a cop to sit in the neighbor hood to pull him over

thejrod @avclub I agree with @jaysizzle…Spike strips in the road would take care of him

jaysizzle @avclub I suggest walking down the street and whipping his *!#. Or spike strips.

jessejanderson @avclub egg his house!

kjellnygren @avclub find a police car at a junkyard and park it in driveway. That always gets people to slow done. Or spike strip. wait, legal? hmm.

Self check out

You know how they have those self-checkout stations at grocery stores? Every time I use one I think it’s funny when you buy produce and it identifies the produce for you. Then it asks you to move your [insert produce name here].

When I buy bananas, it says “move your bananas.”. Man, that just cracks me up. Every time.

Maybe it’s just me.