Sitting

I'm at my sister's house sitting for the girls while she and her husband are out at dinner with some friends. When I got her Ame' was super crabby, and wouldn't even talk to me while Ceri was doing story time, even after I showed her the Dora purse and Mt. Rushmore book I'd brought her from Eryn and Pooteewheet.

LissyJo and Mr. LissyJo left, and there was a total meltdown. It went like this...

Cry (quietly). Cry (louder). Cry (really loud). Cry (excruciatingly loud). Next phase was, between crying, "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy!" Louder crying. Pause, seemingly for a reaction, then... "Ow!" Cry. "OW!!!!" I read my SCJP and drank the Dortmunder Gold I'd been left. Super loud crying and back to "Mommy", closer now, top of the steps.

Finally, "I....need....my.....mommy.....cuddle."

At which point I finally said something. "Mommy's not home, A. She's out for dinner with her friends. She won't be back for a few hours."

There was more sniffling and crying, and then finally A said, "I need a cuddle when I'm sad."

So I said, "C'mon down and sit in the chair and cuddle if you like."

So she did. And we talked about school and math (4 apples and 5 apples) and media class (singing only, no instruments), and Spanish after school (she had it today), and Eryn's homework (A says she doesn't have any yet). We talked some more and some more until she finally announced, "I'm tired now. I should go to bed."

As she walked upstairs, I said, "Night, honey. Thanks for talking to me about school."

"Night, night. Thank you for the cuddle. Love you."

Aww....sweet.

A Few Favorites

Most of my favorites things to read/watch today came from Pharyngula:

• Christine O'Donnell on evolution
• Richard Tillman on his brother's relationship with God
• The bad science of evolution in science fiction, including the Star Trek Voyager episode, "Threshold", that was apparently incredibly bad that I never saw.
• In combination with the Badger Trail coming out of Madison, the Grand Illinois Trail may be my bicycling target of choice for next year.
• Erotic Monster Manual entries via Boing Boing.
• 2010 Hugo Award Winners

Franconia Sculpture Park

On Friday I took a day off to hang with my wife while Eryn was at school. I took a half day off last week so we could go to Devil, but Devil really sucked (reminded me a lot of 70's horror movies and I agree fully with the reviewer who said that if you have a locked room movie, you should never cut the action away from the locked room. I preferred Fermat's Room which is a similar movie, but without the supernatural aspect). Even a full day off is a short day, as Eryn needs to be picked up by about 3 p.m. on Fridays after school, but it was long enough to drive up to Franconia Sculpture Park, find some breakfast, and visit a place near Stillwater to get some discount prairie grass for the back yard. We tried to stop by Nelson's Ice Cream as well, but its hours didn't jive with getting back south of the river by 3 p.m. I went to the Franconia Sculpture Park with Ming and Kyle last year when we went to ride the Gandy Dancer trail, almost to the day and I wanted to revisit it this year as, unlike the Walker, their selection of art almost completely changes annually.

This is where we ate breakfast, Joseph's, just off Highway 36 as you head into Stillwater. The food was great, the waitress pleasant and talkative, the selection of homemade pies extensive (we took home their signature raspberry swirl, which was more like a pie-sized cheese cake), and they have a food challenge. The Paul Bunyan Burger. It looks to be about 2.5 pounds of burger and fries and accouterments. The t-shirt was free until the 25th, but after that it costs $5. I have challenged Ming to eat one, head to head, via Facebook.

As you can tell from the last picture. It was overcast. Not an ideal day for a stroll around a sculpture garden. But it was a better day for us than it was for these artists setting up their sculpture balloon. Because what you can't tell from the picture was that it was incredibly windy. Watch a video or two below and you'll hear it, because the noise of the wind completely overwhelms whomever is speaking.

This is what the sculpture looked like by the time we left.

I'm not sure what this one is called. It might be PART of Montenegro by Zoran Mojsilov. Hard to tell - we couldn't find the sign/plate. There's a nice picture on Flickr (or click the title) of Pooteewheet touching one of the plant things, as well as an interesting close up.

This is where hobbit programmers hang out. 10 Minutes Towards Enlightenment by Steven Kuypers. I like the moat, although given how much water was around it was difficult to tell if it was intentional. There's a computer screen and keyboard at the top of the hill, although they don't actually work.

Spurl, by Paul Howe. Sort of disturbing close up. Looks like a really gross scorpion. The rocks are actually cement formed in bags, and you can see the striations if you're standing there. Made me think of the pictures of scorpions with their babies on their backs (ew...ick...).

Three. THREE. Ahahahahahahahaha.... The Count from Sesame Street's favorite piece, Bon Chance by Andrew Macguffie. Like Elmo, he had a duet with Katy Perry that he filmed near here, but it too was axed.

But if they popped a three out of the sculpture, then why is the cut out piece a 5??? Must be the part of the art that makes you really think.

It was a little more interesting from inside.

1994 Oldsmobile Achieva S by Tamsie Ringler. A flattened car made out of concrete, right down to the license plate. Seemed like a cool idea for a playground.

Quaker Cannons by Paul Linden. Are they Quaker because there's no iron, or are they Quaker because they're obviously non-functional as implements of war?

One of several fish by Robert Ressler, such as Gar and Lamphrey and Mudpuppy and Catfish. Pooteewheet and I both thought it would be interesting to have one of these in the back yard.

Pooteewheet on the swing in Bridget Beck's Playstation.

A bit of swinger video. You can see what I mean about the wind.

Me, on Playstation. If it weren't for the rusty metal, or that the birds in the many birdhouses would poo all over, it would be an almost practical playground for kids. It had lots of little nooks with tables and chairs for just hanging out.

Playstation from a distance. Pretty sizable. I think the Walker should move this one to their space. It would complement their bridge.

I believe this was called "Tongues of the Masters".

You can appreciate it more when you're close up.

Johnny Appleseed by Mark di Suvero. I'm not sure why it's Johnny Appleseed. I would have called it Mary Anne.

The Big Game by Kari Reardon. We gave it a quarter because it was so funny. There's a gun and you can pull the trigger, at which point it mocks you about not giving it a quarter and your shooting prowess. At one point it broke into maniacal female laughter. I tried to catch it in the video below and maybe you can catch just a piece of it if you have your volume cranked up enough to hear it above the wind.

Here you go...listen carefully.

Baseline by William Ransom. Reminded me of another piece called Skinscape that's still there (it's basically a concrete patio, so it would be difficult to move), but that's by a different artist, Trevor Nicholas. I'd like to see Tall Brad and Klund play head-to-head on this court.

Trying to show a bit of how wet it was. About 60% of the fields were covered with water. The rest was just soggy.

The ducks liked it very much. Practical art if you're waterfowl, until the house falls on you while you're eating some weeds.

Rocco by Amy Toscani. The strong wind meant it was actually spinning like a giant amusement ride, although you couldn't ride it.

Live spinning action...

Tractor Fin by Kurt Dyrhaug. It was interesting from this angle, but then we passed it again from the back...

...and discovered it had a seat. I think the artist should just have it in his front yard and sit on it so that when people drive by they're incredibly confused about whether it's a real vehicle.

Evening by James Payne. It's like Dexter's shipping container, but without the serial killer paraphernalia. I thought it would be difficult to take a picture, but it turned out very nice. If I had been thinking, I'd have done something like this picture by Dan Anderson on Flickr. Very nice!

Great day trip if you like art and getting out in the Minnesota fall. I wish the colors had been a bit further along in the river valley, so a week or two from now might be optimal.

Fischer's Orchard

Eryn went to an orchard with school and came back convinced that she needed Chestnut crab apples for her lunch. As she doesn't eat much in the way of fruit beyond apples, I'm all for substituting apples for goldfish crackers, even if it means a trip. So we went down to Fischer's Apple Orchard which, according to the webs, has Chestnut crab apples.

And a train. This looks very much like the Nisswa train I rode on the Paul Bunyan bike ride with Ming and Adam. Some of us never grow up.

Hey. Little girl. Yeah. You. Gimme that head baaa-nd. Hey. We match. See. We must be siblings. We can share stuff. Like your head baaa-nd. C'mon sis. It's my turn. I'll return it. Honest. After I ea....wear it.

Hey. Little girl. Don't trust that goat. Do you know what's black and white and full of lies? The Star Tribune! Oh, man. You thought I was going to say "The goat" didn't you? That shit is priceless. That's right, I'm a Republican you liberal hayseed. If we had a donkey, I'd argue with him, or get the elephant to stomp him, but they don't live here, so you'll have to do. This farm is my tea party. Red barn, baby. Red barn. None of that shades of purple crap. You can have an apple a day to keep the doctor away, but only if you approve individual health accounts and repeal O-baaaa-ma's law.

Whoa. I'm going to take this idea back to work. Multi-level cubes with a feed chute. I could just crank Mountain Dew up there a couple of times and day and everyone would be happy. The goats definitely understand the end result of the conveyor belt, if not how to build one.

Apples are actually very pretty in the fall. The trees were very full.

Not Chestnut Crabs (which are good), but some pretty fruit nonetheless.

Tater Tour

My pictures of the Tater Tour.

Oops. Maybe there won't be any pictures as Eryn went up to Maple Grove with me and it was about 45 degrees and raining. We stalled for a while at Kyle's, then decided it was just too wet and too cold. I might have braved a bit of hypothermia if I had been on my own, but not with her along. We went out for a nice breakfast instead and she spent the morning playing with Kyle's iPad, enjoying Carcassone, a virtual pottery wheel, Scrabble, and a touch-driven screen saver . She's pretty sure she needs one. I'm pretty sure I need one, and she could just use it. But if I make her feel like it's her iPad, maybe she'd give up on the American Doll treehouse.

Vacation, Day 6-7: Glacier Park

Maybe I won't go on any more two week vacations. That way I don't have to deal with pictures and so much writing. While I'm sitting here, Eryn is agonizing over her writing assignment, "What was your worst day ever?" and "What was your best day ever?" To write five sentences has taken her 70 minutes so far, and she's only answered the first question. She's been missing recess because she can't finish her homework at school because she keeps going back over it obsessively to correct the letters and the spelling and think about what she's writing rather than just writing it. I watched her take two minutes to write a four letter word (bike) which, if no one was around and she was in a good mood, she could write in a few seconds. Serious performance anxiety. So, I have it easy. I can turn out 30 pages straight on almost any topic when it's necessary. It's just an urge to dick around that keeps me away from churning out what I want to get on paper. Or on bytes. I should take a lesson and quit diddling around on Facebook and Call of Duty and finish that book I've written twenty pages of notes and thirty pages of text on. Maybe it's something Eryn inherited.

After our cross-Montana trip, we were only forty miles or so from Glacier National Park. We thought about going to the many glaciers area on the northeast end and, if we had, we'd have probably seen a few bears (Pooteewheet had an unpleasant discussion over dinner with some people who had been up there but were apparently very crabby about the majesty and grace of the mountainous west), but we took the Road to the Sun that cuts through the center of the park, with a brief stop in St. Mary to have some pie at the Park Cafe (pie for strength!), which is where we heard that the fugitives had possibly been sighted in St. Mary the night before.

Here I am at the entrance to the park. Probably the shortest haircut I've had since I was 18. I only just got it cut the other day. I remember being annoyed at this stop because things like the camera were in the suitcases. Trying to get the camera out a suitcase in a packed Ford Focus isn't something you want to do on the side of the road.

The first lake we stopped at. Eryn told us this was one of her favorite parts of the trip. She really likes just hanging out on the edge of the water.

If you're familiar with Ansel Adams, this might be a familiar picture. If you think black and white and get rid of the little girl. Behind the tree there's a guy kayaking out to the island. That looked like a perfect way to spend the day.

One of the streams in the park. Even the rocks on the bottom of the streams are beautiful. Nature's mosaic.

Eryn and I crossed this stream to check out the waterfall close up. I waded. It was COLD. You'd think that would be obvious, as it's glacier runoff, but that didn't really occur to me at the time.

In the middle of the park is Logan Pass, where you can walk up to the glaciers. It's a bit of a hike, particularly on the way out as it's up the wooden stairs for a couple of miles.

These wooden stairs. It was amazing how much wildlife wandered up to the stairs or galloped past. Big horn sheep. Hoary marmots. Mountain goats. There were animals all over the damn place.

Eryn was excited when we actually got to the snow. As a kid, I remember going with my mother and brother to the park and playing in a big field of snow we could drive right up to. It wasn't winter, so I think I have an actual memory of global warming at work. She's holding on to her goat, one of the many stuffed animals she bought with the money grandpa and grandma gave her (plus the nature books). So her mountain goat from Glacier has actually been up and down the mountain.

Eryn's always looking for hidden Mickeys. I, on the other hand...

Family photo! There's a place to hang out up here at the end of the trail. Perfect place to sit with a book for hours.

When we turned around to go back down, I told Pooteewheet, "I'll catch up with you! I'm going down the other side!" She looked at me like I was crazy. And perhaps I was. This is just part of the down that takes you to Hidden Lake. That last picture and the next one should give you an idea of how far down it was. I literally ran down the mountain. Hung out at the bottom for a few minutes, and then ran back up. Down wasn't too bad. Up nearly killed me. I forgot that there isn't as much air in the mountains and that there isn't as much air in me now that I'm older. Midway I had to lay down on a big rock and pant and pant and pant and pant and pant until minutes later I finally had enough oxygen to continue. I almost caught them. Pooteewheet said I was only about 10 minutes behind them. Not bad for adding a 3 mile jog.

Overlooking Hidden Lake from the other side.

Closer to the bottom (actually on the shoreline) in black and white. Despite that it might not have been the best idea to jog down a mountain of loose rock, I'm very glad I did it. I was incredibly happy hanging out on the trail by myself, taking in the mountain air, and just staring at everything. One of the highlights of the trip for me.

At the bottom. This guy was fishing. To the left was a painter. I'm not so sure the fishing was very challenging, because these big trout (?) would swim right up to the shore. They were about as long as my forearm and perfectly visible. The guy with the pole would look around, cast, and then real in a fish a few seconds later, and let it loose again. I suppose it made him feel like a world class fisherman.

Eryn taking a break. She needed lots of breaks. Climbing up the mountain made her sense of injustice hurt.

Another glacier picture. I'm not sure what's she's doing here. Maybe Hamlet? Get thee to a glacier!

On the way back up the mountain I met a goat and her kid. They could have cared less about me. I gave them plenty of space. Those horns look sharp and I suspect their heads are like my dog's head, just bigger and harder.

You didn't have to leave the parking lot to find wildlife. Mmm...antifreeze.

Eryn at the first lake. Funny picture. Apparently she's claiming her place in nature.

Close up of her at the Ansel Adam's spot being a cutey.

One of the ladies of the evening at Glacier. In this photo I'm giving her $60 for services rendered.

On the second day we doubled back a bit and hit the lodge and the boat tour. Incredibly relaxing, even with an old ranger telling tales the whole time.

I like this wide angle lens with just the boat's flag sticking up.

Eryn on the boat. She looks sad, but she was super excited she got to run all over.

Stream along the hiking trail.

Ah...I mentioned before where I got my toes cold. This is the photo. It was colder on the way back for some reason.

The lodge at Glacier had these beautiful lamps. I took a bunch of pictures of them, but this one was my favorite. We got Kyle his Glacier bread in a bottle near here and Christy her huckleberry gummy bears at St. Mary's.

It's not all global warming. There are some glaciers still hanging around.

Who's got moose feet? Eryn has moose feet!!!

I was there was a way to dress up as this picture for Halloween.

Just a beautiful hiking area. You could go back into a glacier fed lake if you went back far enough, but on day two Pooteewheet and Eryn were wiped and I'd already seen what I was sure was a much more beautiful lake during my jog of the previous day.

Me getting all Zen. Or maybe Eryn is, as she has the Glacier Park walking staff. Oh wise one, what is the meaning of life?

This is the meaning of life... Actually, I didn't draw this. And I don't know what it means. It could be a swear word. We were hoping Ming or She Says know, depending on what language it is. It looks more Japanese to me, but I can't be certain. Despite the pictographs in the dirt, Glacier was a MUCH better park to visit than Yellowstone. There were about a tenth the tourists, and most of them were families and individuals out for a hike or a boat ride, not people shoving and pushing to get a good view of a geyser. I think I could have spent a week there if I was in better shape just walking the trails. A big recommendation from me if you're into the park scene.