Aimless ruminations, mercurial cogitations and other random musings of a singular sapien. For Zechariah-Bumblebee & Miranda-Panda: may you always know peace, love and joy.
Friday, May 30, 2008
New Icon
In other news, the lizards now have names: "Alley" & "Gator." Miranda still wants to call Gator "Alice" but it's a male and we don't want the poor beast to get confused. We marveled at their ability to change colors the other night and had great fun feeding them a big bag of crickets. Stay tuned!
Testing 123
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Two More Souls
Back to the deck scene - so I mentioned to those present that Miranda has been wanting a lizard and my nephew, Spencer, pricked up his ears and offered to catch one for me. Before anyone realized what was happening (including myself) I had placed a $5 bounty on the head of a lizard and Spencer bounded away to bag one for me.
Now I used to be a pretty good critter catcher back in the day - often spending entire days in the woods stuffing hapless salamanders into mayonaise jars, capturing crayfish and baby birds, maiming arachnids, etc. - so I knew just how speedy these little lizards are and how difficult they can be to corral. But either I underestimated Spencer's talent or Carolina lizards are just way more laid back - whatever the case - he had a nice big one inside of four minutes and was looking for his cash.
I paid him and sent him (and several of my nieces who had joined the hunt) out looking for another. $3 (one for each kid) and five minutes later the kids produced another fine specimen and I was out of money. Spencer's parents thanked me for turning their son into a poacher, but I pointed out that 1) he was really good at it, and 2) with the recent demise of the Crocodile Hunter perhaps there was a void to be filled. I was, however, still left with the problem of how to get the beasties home to Brooklyn - hmmm?
Enlisting the help of my brother in-law Wayne, we poked air holes in a Gladwear container, put grass and twigs in it (to simulate their natural habitat), plopped the lizards in, sealed it up with tape and stuffed the whole mess into my carry-on bag. I had great fun at the airport anticipating the TSA screener's expression as the lizards went through the x-ray machine, but I was disappointed and guess they didn't show up, though I imagine they are sterile now. The bottle of water in the bag of the person behind me on the other hand, raised all kinds of Hell! - go figure. They stayed in my bag in the overhead compartment during the flight, on the bus, and on the subway ride home from LaGuardia.
Fortunately for the lizards, World of Pets on 86th Street was still open and I bought a plastic terrarium to put them in - eminently more comfortable than the Gladwear - and a bag of live crickets for them to eat. This was kind of weird - I don't recall ever spending money to buy bugs before, but I imagine I'll be a regular bug-buyer for the duration.
Anyway, it will all be worth it tomorrow night when I get to see the joy on my kids' faces at the sight of their new pets. I'll try to capture the moment on "film" - stay tuned.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Science vs. Religion
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Family Art Museum
Thursday, May 22, 2008
VerveEarth
I got invited to participate in VerveEarth and, after checking it out a bit, I decided that it was a worthy addition. Verve presents the blogosphere in terms of geography, which is kind of cool because it enables you to see who is doing what around you. This service is only a month or two old, but is growing fast. If you know any bloggers tell them to check it out!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A Call From My Bumblebee
I talked to Zachy on the phone and told him that I was still at work and was working late so that I could make money to buy more toys, but that I missed him and loved him and that he would come over to Daddy's house tomorrow night (I have them on Wednesday nights). It was kind of heart-breaking, although it made me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that my little guy was thinking of me.
Fairgrounds Monkeyshines
Here Miranda rides the merry-go-round while Zach and Daddy cheer her on.
Both little monkeys enjoyed the Pirates' Den.
The biggest hit was the Skiball (see posted video) - and Zach proved to be fiercely competitive. We all won lots of prizes.
Afterwards we went down to the park to finish the exhaustion therapy for the day.
On Sunday we went to Zach's horseback riding session and while Zachy did the equestrian thing Daddy painted Miranda's fingernails with beautiful purple sparkly nail pollish.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Back Dated Post
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Monkey Night
Just Noticed...
Friday, May 09, 2008
More May Monkeyshines
The first four of these photos were taken at the riding academy while Zach was busy riding a horse named Funtime. It was a nice day so Miranda entertained us while Zach did the equestrian thing.
Saturday was a rainy day so we did some rainy day stuff. Among other things, we went to a toy store called Lala Land which has a playroom in the back with all sorts of fun things to do as you can see here.
Zach and Miranda hold hands as they walk down 86th Street on our way back from breakfast.
Miranda has taken over the responsibility of caring for Baby the fish - she's turning out to be a good little fish-mommy.
That's it for now - more next week!
Wednesday Night = Monkey Night
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Photos From Zach's Award Ceremony
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Zach's Award Video
P.S. If you click on the "YouTube" logo it will take to the site and the video may run a little faster.
P.P.S. Or, go to http://zmmiller.podbean.com/ and click on the video player.
P.P.P.S. Oops, I just noticed that the Podbean player below (previous post) just updated with the video - try it.
Enjoy!
Just Testing
Much thanks, Mark
Monday, May 05, 2008
In Memory of Handshakes
Didn’t anyone else watch Super Friends? Is it some germ-a-phobic thing? Can’t they see that we’re compromising our values? Aren’t we really saying, “well, it’s too much work to live up to the standard that Batman set for us – I’ll just settle for the Wonder Twins”? I don’t get it, and I don’t want to – the world still needs a good firm handshake.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Mayday!
Let’s see what a quick scan of the usual sources turns up:
As a day of celebration May Day has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times. Many of these customs are due to May Day being a cross-quarter day, meaning that it falls approximately halfway between an equinox and a solstice.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1st was the first day of Spring, May 1sst was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers, often roses. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.
Hope that helps clarify things a bit!