years and years and years and years and years...

not sure that I'm going to start using this blog again, but glad to reclaim it.

Washington, DC

So, spent a week in DC with the extended family. Contrary to the expression on H's face, it was a lot of fun. So much to do, I think the boys are having a post-urban-vacation letdown. R pointed out the window yesterday and said, "A taxi! Just like in Washington, DC and Chicago! [thoughtful pause, and then] I want to go back to Chicago or Washington, to, you know, just hang out."

We had some good museum visits, plenty of sightseeing, a great condo, plenty of sweat, and just a little touch of illness to begin the week. There are some stray pictures up at Flickr.

Raleigh

Took the day off and went to Raleigh to visit a couple of museums, eat some really great barbecue, and — most importantly to H + R — visit the Lego Store. Now H is about 4h into the the construction of the AT-TE Walker. He should be finished up by morning. Photos (not of the Lego construction, which doesn't really photograph well) here.

Winter Strikes Back!

Hunting for Spring

The weather here is mild, absolutely nothing to complain about. But, I think everyone in our house has been affected differently by seasonal affective disorder, and spring here is really quite dramatic. So, today, we went to the Arboretum with our cameras to hunt for the first signs of the changing season. R said you "can feel spring on your skin." I asked what it feels like, and he replied "warmness." True enough. They found all sorts of chutes, buds and blossoms and particularly liked the Okame Apricot tree, and the Arnold Promise Witchhazel. While the Bloodgood Red Twig Dogwood is very striking, I think we were more interested in the name, which is fairly difficult to say quickly.

You can see the highlights here. Also, while you are there, take a look at our frigid (note the Merry X-mas in ice on the inside of the hotel window) but enjoyable Christmas in Chicago, about which I haven't written a thing. Busy times. Good times, though.

More to come.

a walk in the woods

On Sunday, we all took a walk in the GC woods. We sat on a log and talked about the changing seasons as the boys fought each other with sticks. Nice time...

whew!

So, for years I have had a low-level worry about what might happen if, as my children grew older it became clear they did not share my political viewpoints. Of course, I would love them the same, but there is the Alex from Family Ties model.

Well, tonight, H said that there was a girl at his school who would like to vote for McCain if she could because if Obama becomes president, he will "take all our taxes and give them to homeless people." H got a puzzled look on his face and said, "but that's a good cause, right? I mean, what is the problem with that?"

Thats my boy.

More to come

Charlotte

Greensboro is a fine place to live. The locals like to say, "a great place to raise a family," which usually means, it has great parks and no nightlife or culture to speak of... Anyway, we are quite happy here, but occasionally get the urban jones, e.g. nice Italian restaurant, classy hotel, traffic, tall buildings, good brunch, a museum or two... So, this summer, on the spur of the moment, we took off for a weekend in Charlotte. Thankfully, our boys love hotels and all the accoutrements associated with them. So, we hung out in our room in the Omni, watched a movie or two, wandered around downtown, watched a bike race, ate at an Osteria, and went to the Discovery place. A good weekend.

Here are a few pictures.

Facebook ate my blog

So, looking back over my blog, I realize that I haven't posted anything for quite some time. The main culprit is facebook. Not sure why, but I really began to use facebook a lot more this summer — perhaps I hit the critical friend mass... Whatever the case, it ate up the limited amount of computer doodling time I had. But I have a series of posts which have been simmering and which I will get up soon enough.

Lego Platform

This is the platform H+I built for his Legos. It slides (thanks to H's clever design) right under the bed.

these aren't very good pictures...

but people have been asking me what we have been up to recently, and this tells part of the story. We moved — within the house that is. Our friends who were living with us temporarily moved out, and so R graduated to H's old room, H graduated to the larger bedroom, and I got a home office. We bought new furniture for all three rooms at IKEA — 16 boxes / 2 days worth of assembly. L repainted both rooms while I turned assembled. Everyone is pretty happy about the move, except now our bedroom looks pretty lame.

Other things about which I will post in the near future:
- a weekend getaway to Charlotte
- one year in Greensboro and a party to celebrate it
- a new semester, which begins at 8:30a tomorrow.

From Smythe's The Conquest of Arid America (1900)

The Conquest of Arid America By William Ellsworth Smythe: ""

a trip to the museum

LEFT: Barkley Hendricks, "Self-Portrait"



Took the boys to the Nasher Museum at Duke. The purpose was as much to make art as to look at it. I wanted to see the Barkley Hendricks exhibit before it closed. It was interesting, although the boys took some time to get used to his portrait style. At first it was a bit underwhelming.

But the real highlight was taking pictures. Everyone had at least one camera, and we took lots of shots. Both the boys were pretty diligent, but each pursued a different artistic methodology: R was unabashed, taking pictures of everything, pretty rapid-fire and switching between two cameras. H was much more focused, taking multiple shots of the same thing with a lot more attention to color (he has always favored the blurry, color field shots) and composition.

The pictures really should be viewed as a whole to get the effect. So, rather than post a couple of images here, just visit the flickr site for the full effect. And while you are there, also check out R's home series.

A fun Sunday.

well...

Sorry for the interruption in posting. I've been busy writing. I am now back down to a normal workload, and trying to get caught up with everything.

This is really just a message to let those few readers who remain know that I am still here and intend to become more regular in my postings in the future.

Took H the Weatherspoon Art Museum, where they had an exhibit on Latino / Latin American art, which was pretty interesting. One of my favorite pieces was "1492 Indians vs. Dukes," by Rubén Ortiz Torres. He is from Mexico City, but lives and works in Los Angeles. His work plays with a number of popular stereotypes, such as the low-rider lawn mower. [see below]




H did a little sketching, particularly of a tiny sculpture of a woman, sitting on the edge of a 2in square wooden block, staring at a gold earring stuck in the wall. I didn't get the artist's name, but he took a shine to it.

Next up, SECCA in Winston-Salem to see Maggie Orth's exhibit on electric textiles, capable of changing color and patterns.

I should be happy, and I suppose I am...

but at this point, the process overshadows the outcome. This summer, my office has been gutted for major renovation. It will be great when complete, but that means that for the summer I am officeless.

Baby A

So, we have a one year old in our house now — baby A — and he is a hoot. A very happy and outspoken child, determined walker, and amenable deliverer of coasters. Our bric-a-brac has migrated upward to the mantle + top shelf, and we now have baby gates at both ends of the stairs. The boys have really enjoyed it, and it is fun to watch them interact. A now knows where all the good toys are, and H+R enjoy playing the part of the elder statesmen.

Two Teeth

H lost a tooth one week ago [see post below]. Without that one for support, the adjacent tooth quickly began to wander. We started calling him "snaggletooth" — much to his chagrin. We urged him to get the other one out as well, as it was hanging and sort of creeping us all out. So tonight, I tied some dental floss to the tooth on one end, and to a belt clip on the other. We joked about clipping the floss line to the dog's collar and throwing a piece of bacon across the yard. H thought that was so funny, he threw his head back laughing, and out popped the tooth... Alas, we didn't get the snaggletooth pirate picture we had joked about — H in pirate garb with that tooth. But I can doctor the one I have up to create the effect.

Bozo Texino

Monday night had the chance to attend a showing of "Who is Bozo Texino?" — a film by Bill Daniel, which was showing at Elsewhere, a local artist collaborative. Very interesting film — he spent sixteen years riding the rails across the west, tracking old car markings and the people who made them. Almost made me miss being in Texas, almost. Elsewhere is always worth a visit on its own, as is their website.

School Carnival

The elementary school down the street had a carnival today. I gave each of the boys some tickets and let them go. They had a blast — both boys wanted to BE dunked in the dunk tank, although R gave a few shots at dunking the teacher who was taunting everyone.