Happy Birthday to Blog
I will take this occasion to wish my blog, and me, a happy birthday. It is now 4 years old. I am somewhat older. Recent milestones of my blog include the migration to Wordpress in the spring and my 1000th post a couple weeks ago. Lots of things going on other places, so check out my other sites at the right and my social profiles for a fuller picture of what’s going on. Cheers.
Girls Rock North Carolina
Last week Grace attended Girls Rock NC. The girls were put in bands at the beginning of the week, and they chose a band name, wrote a song, made posters, t-shirts, learned instruments, practiced their song, and made rock zines. She had a great time. This is a tremendously empowering experience for these young girls. Below is the video of Grace’s band in an extra performance. Tonight she performs at Cat’s Cradle, a well-known indie rock club in Carrboro.
Here are photos from the last day of camp rehearsal and here are photos from the Pittsboro show.
I Lego NY
Illustrator Christoph Niemann blogs for the New York Times blog, Abstract City, and he recently posted a series of representations of New York using Lego. He currently lives in Berlin and he posted “During the cold and dark Berlin winter days, I spend a lot of time with my boys in their room. And as I look at the toys scattered on the floor, my mind inevitably wanders back to New York.”
My initial expectation when I clicked on the link was that I would see a series of notable NYC landmarks or complex Lego cityscapes. But what he did was create the smallest details of New York in Lego. Anyone who has spent any time in New York will recognize the difference between Starbucks and street vendor or deli coffee cups above. And just a note, regular coffee in NYC comes with milk and sugar. This post is a reminder that even the biggest things are made up of a series of minute details. Here’s a link to the post.
Arizona Quarter Completes Collection
In 1998 the US Mint started its 50 State Quarters program. They changed standard quarter designs to ones honoring each of the 50 states. The designs were created by each state and produced five per year for ten years. Early on in the cycle, I got 2 coin books to keep all the quarters. My son had just been born and I got a second for his future sibling.
A few weeks ago we went through a tin of state quarters and finished out the books with the quarters from 2007 and 2008. We were missing one single quarter: Arizona. Well, yesterday I got an Arizona quarter as change to finish off these the second of these two books. I showed it to Grace today and she was excited.
A ten year collecting project is finished. The US Mint has started releasing District of Columbia and Territory Quarters. There is no room in the book, so we will not be collecting those. Do you have a ten year project that you have completed?
Grace Wishes You a Happy 4th of July
Grace offers Happy 4th of July wishes.
Do You Have What it Takes?
Grace offers me a real life challenge.
Happy 4th of July 2009
I have always been a fan of Carrboro’s Family 4th of July Celebration. This year, like most others, we arrived early at the Weaver Street lawn, decorated our rides, a scooter in Grace’s case, and lined up for the parade. Here’s a short video of the parade.
The parade ends at the Carrboro Town Hall and Farmer’s Market with lots of free games and fun. Grace wanted to be at the front of the parade so she could get to the fun before the lines got too long. She went on the bouncy obstacle course first and then she climbed the climbing wall. She also tried her hand at the “Ring the Bell.”
Here’s a link to more pictures on Flickr.
My Phone Rang
Yesterday my phone rang and it was Grace.
“Hi, Dad. Can you give me Peter’s cell phone number?”
Peter is at the beach with his friend and their family. I gave Grace the number and said goodbye.
My phone rang again.
“Hi, Dad. Can you give me Peter’s number again.”
I asked her why I needed to give it to her again.
“I was in the garage and didn’t have anything to write it down on.”
I decided to ask her why she needed Peter’s number.
“Well, we were playing with Peter’s water balloons and I can’t turn the hose off.”
I asked her if she tried to get someone else to help her. The kids of one of her mom’s friends are staying with her this summer.
“Yes, they tried and they can’t turn it off either.”
I asked why she wanted to call Peter.
“He has more experience with the hose.”
At that point, I asked her if she wanted me to come try to turn the hose off.
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
As I was on my way, my phone rang.
“Hi, Dad. We got the water to stop. We put a clamp on the hose.”
Peter’s Summer So Far
Peter has had a busy summer so far. As soon as school ended he left for UNC Basketball Camp. This is the third summer he has attended this camp in Chapel Hill. He stayed with his best friend in an off campus dorm and played basketball all day, every day. This is a perfect camp for gym rats. There are no filler activities like swimming or crafts.
The kids are divided by age into gyms for the length of camp, so Peter was with a group of nearly 50 kids who had just finished 5th grade. The boys are divided into teams, who play against each other for week. Peter’s team did not do very well in the championship games, but that’s because, according to Peter, players on his team were ball hogs and didn’t pass enough. Although in the end, it did not bother him that his team came in last in his division.
There was a free throw competition each day, and Peter won for his gym the first day. At the end of camp there was a a competition of each day’s winners. It came down to Peter and a kid whose dad played basketball for UNC. The kid was wearing his dad’s actual Carolina jersey. This was not intimidating to Peter because he didn’t realize it was real jersey. Anyway, Peter won the competition, so he was the free throw champion for his age group.
These are the kids from Chapel Hill who attended basketball camp with Peter.
He was home for a few days before heading off to Boy Scout camp at Camp Bonner on the Pamlico Sound. He had an okay time, but he needed to participate in the new Scout program to check off lots of the Boy Scout achievements. This meant he did lots of boring things (his words), rather than the fun stuff that the older boys were doing. He also came home with lots of mosquito bites. We were told it was 69, but no one really counted. And yes, he did have bug spray and use it. The bugs were just that bad. So he had a good time, not a great time, and it made him look forward to Scout camp even more next summer. And yes, they will be going to a different camp.
Thanks to Glyn Tomkins for the Scout Camp photo.
And today Peter left for the beach with his friend Blake. He was home long enough to unpack, wash clothes and pack for the beach. But when he gets home next weekend, he’s around for the rest of the summer.
Best of the Triangle at Golden Belt
Last night was Third Friday, an arts celebration in downtown Durham, and the biggest party of the night was at Golden Belt, a renovated mill east of downtown. The Independent Weekly, our local arts and alternative weekly paper, celebrated their “Best of the Triangle” results with a party in the Cotton Room, where samples were served from the Triangle’s best restaurants, as chosen by The Independent’s readers.
I went with some friends and ran into several others that I knew. We tried food from restaurants like Chubby’s Tacos, Lilly’s Pizza, Revolution, Tyler’s and The Mint. There was beer from Big Boss and Carolina Brewery and desserts from Sugarland and Gugglehopf. I met one of the guys from Wine Authorities and talked to him about North Carolina Wine TV. He knew who I was (those 2 guys who talk about wine) and I found out that the store does not carry NC wine, but has something called an endomatic, a self serve wine machine. I definitely need to check that out.
There was music inside The Cotton Room, ambient weirdness by Brad Cook, from the folk band Megafaun. There was also a stage outside where Thad Cockrell and Hobex performed. Since this was a notable Durham event, my friends from Onlyburger were there too.
Here’s a link to a few more pictures I took.