Thursday, March 31, 2011

PSA

Don't text and drive...



Especially with a fruit basket on your head.



(Bridget...that's the basket y'all gave him for his birthday with the fruit in it!)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Trip to Seattle - part 1

We had a great trip to Seattle for the AACRAO 2011 annual meeting. This group is the primary professional organization for college and university registrar's. It involves several days of small meetings and seminars on best practices in the field and solutions that people have found for common problems. Sometimes, it gets a little too big school centered, but I always learn a lot while I'm there. and of course, this year it was in Seattle, one of my favorite cities to visit. I may have to take a stab at living there sometime, but for now a visit is great.

There are so many things to see and do there. and the view is simply incredible (when it's not too cloudy!). One of the things I really wanted to do this time was to visit the Science Fiction Museum/Experience Music project. Yes, you read that correctly. They have a scifi museum and music museum all in one...a truly interesting experience (http://www.empsfm.org/).

Of course, my bad luck, the main scifi exhibit hall was closed for renovations, so I had to settle for the Battlestar Galactica special exhibit. but they did their best to make it up for me since it was the primary reason for my visit.

I did not really view the music stuff, but the sculpture in the entry way was quite amazing. It is a 35 foot tall tornado made up of hundreds of guitars.
And of course, there was Battlestar Galactica. I won't post all my pics here, maybe on facebook. but suffice it to say, it was a quite impressive collection of both the recent SciFi Channel series (I know they changed their name, but I refuse to acknowledge that ridiculousness beyond merely mentioning it) and the old 1978 series. Here are a few selected images.


And perhaps my favorite part of the exhibit was not even part of the exhibit at all. These signs surrounded every display. :-)


Stay tuned for more from Seattle. In our next episode: where will the concierge send our intrepid hero for good local food?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Julian's Crew

Julian loves...absolutely loves...to read books. He chooses to read over just about any other activity right now. You can tell him to pick out a book..."Julian go get me The Little Blue Truck." And he runs right over to the shelf, grabs the aforementioned book, and brings it back to you to read. (I don't know if this is unique to other 16 month old kids, but it certainly shocked me the first few times he did it.)

Lately, though, he has started wanting others to sit with him while he reads...namely Yoda and Moses. (No, I don't yet have a picture of this phenomenon. I've usually been the one doing the reading. But don't worry; I'll get one soon!)

Yoda you all know from Julian's month-at-a-time pictures during his first year. (Yes, I'll post another one at 18 months.) Moses is a doll that our friends Joey and Maiko gave to Julian when he was born, and he's also the leader of the Israelites. Moses is actually a reversible doll. One side is Moses holding a staff and the ten commandments, but if you flip it over, you see Pharaoh's daughter holding a baby Moses in a basket. It's a pretty cool doll.

Anyway, one day about a week ago Julian grabbed a book and brought it to me. He no longer wanted to sit on my lap, but he begged to sit next to me. Fine. Then he started pointing to the window sill where Yoda and Moses sit. (Those two are always hanging out together. Spiritual leaders, you know.) I grabbed Yoda and sat him next to Jules, but that wasn't enough for him. Then I grabbed Moses and sat him with us as well. Julian looked over to them, then looked to me and smiled. He then settled in for the reading of Quiet LOUD.

We're heading to Seattle tomorrow, but when we return I'll try to get a shot of the three musketeers.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Mardi Gras



Happy Mardi Gras!

Peekaboo!