pirate sketch

Some of my very good friends have been doing some amazing artwork recently and I was feeling left out so I picked up my pen and drew this --- on my computer, which is almost a first for me. I do some paint work in my job, but nothing really meant to be noticed, if you know what I mean.  Thank you, DS and CC!

Colophon: Drawn in GIMP with a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

More from Oaks Park

Some pictures that I overlooked in yesterday's post: Son's favorite "ride", the giant slide - he did it again and again. Not shown, Daughter favored the carousel, riding several times: I think we both enjoyed the fact that she enjoyed such a low-key ride when there were so many thrill rides nearby. Also, one of the few photographic proofs that I was there that day, riding the rails with Son. And an "artsy" photo of Son on the train - I don't remember taking the photo this way, though I've done similar shots in the past ....

Oaks Park Amusements

This weekend past was the company picnic at the Oaks Amusement park. Along with the rides pictured here, we also enjoyed snow cones, popcorn and cotton candy. It was really hot, so we were happy we brought our water bottles-on-a-strap that we got at the Washington County fair. The park is along the Willamette River, which made for some nice scenery and looked very inviting (except for the over-supply of power boats). After a fairly rocky start involving the Lewis and Clark ride, I think both kids enjoyed their rides a lot --- there were quite a number of repeat rides. The company supplied wristbands, so there was no stressful deciding where to spend a limited supply of ride tickets as at the County Fair. Later in the day, as we enjoyed our snow cones, we ran into a couple kid-friends and Daughter got to do some rides with them which probably helped her enjoy the day. If you look really closely at the pics of her in the fast rides you'll see a face that looks far from happy but she insists they were good rides ....

Narnia

As in, the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Daughter finished it off this morning. Her verdict: "Boring. Harry Potter is more exciting."

Worn a Good Snake Lately?

For weeks Daughter had been pushing to attend the Reptile Man show at the library (did you know libraries hosted things like Reptile Man shows?). Come the Day Of and suddenly she's not so excited about it: paraphrasing, "What if I don't want to touch a snake and people think I'm chicken?" Kudos for being able to articulate the issue, but perhaps we have some work to do on self-actualization. Anyway, she stayed away and it become a Father-Son event, and this guy does quite a good show! Highly recommended if you get a chance. He calls on lots of people from the audience, and toward the end Son was putting his hand up and got to wear this snake (which alas I don't know the type of). He was grinning ear to ear as he sat down.

OMSI and Trains

Mother and Daughter spent some time at OMSI, the local science museum, with a friend. Later, Dad and Son played with the wooden train set (mostly, I built and he played, but I'm okay with that). Everyone had a good time.

Custom Pokemon Cards

Daughter asked one morning if she could read her deck of Pokemon cards as her "productive" (activity) before moving on to some vegetative non-activity such as watching Netflix or playing a computer game. One look at my face and she amended this quickly to "can I draw some Pokemon cards?" to which I agreed. Some of these came from later sessions but I'm grouping them all together here. I love the "grrl type" card, with the special power of confusion (1st in top row). Also note the "Boatte", 1st in bottom row, because I love anything to do with boats! No playing to the judge here. Also of note is the 3rd in the top row, the only one that came from our encouragement: she mis-read "intimidation" on a card as "animation" so we suggested she make a card with the special power of Animation: to all my friends in the animation business, you now have your own Pokemon! With a *lot* of HP, I might add. And that's not beer, 3rd in bottom row, but I think an attempt at Bee-ie, the -ie or -e suffix being the generic diminutive.

Shakedown Cruise

I bought this dinghy from my neighbor on the dock in Richmond. Over the last year, I added a sailing rig with bits from a variety of sources. The sail is cut from heavy-duty polytarp and "sewn" with high-test duct tape, the spars are 2-inch dowels, the rudder came from a marine second-hand store. With a final push over the wekend involving buying and assembling a small trailer from a local chain store (they're not kidding when they say "allow six hours for assembly") it was time to head to the lake! Knowing this one would be a little rough, the family wisely chose to sit this one out. Instead I had my Aunt and Uncle along for moral support and to help with carrying the boat to the water when my dolly arrangement failed utterly. Once in the water, things went pretty well: the sail rig set in easily and wasn't too much in the way. We had a bit too much wind at first but it moderated to a "just right" breeze. I took her out under power (oars) before hauling the wind. Under sail, she handled herself nicely, even with the leech not nearly tight enough. The sheeting angle is a bit awkward, I need to add something on the stern quarters. Then there's the leeway: I was hoping that the external chines would provide enough lateral plane to at least bear cross-wind, but no such luck. She makes almost as much way to the side as forward. From this shake-down cruise there are a few minor new items on the to-do lists --- improvements to the trailer and the tie-down arrangements, tuning of the rig --- but most of all I will need to rig up a daggerboard or leeboard. But I had a blast, and was grinning ear-to-ear.

First Kayak Trip

They say that the most fun is had in the smallest boats, so when my grand plans of taking the family on a bareboat charter in the Puget Sound ran aground on the rocks of economic reality ($1000 for two nights?) I was happy to recalibrate the plans toward this more reasonable adventure. We rented two double kayaks with a guide for two hours' paddling in Scappoose Bay and river. We had varying degrees from "it was okay" to "that was great! let's go again!" and I'll let Dear Reader imagine who was where on that scale. We got to see a Bald Eagle, multiple Blue Herons, Blackbirds, an Ospray and Canadian Geese. One fish jumping, two ruins of boats, a very high high water mark, evidence of beavers (Daughter was not impressed, she's an Oregon Ducks fan). Nothing much deeper than a kayak could have made it through the thin water we explored, and the trees overhanging if not exactly Everglades at least made for some fun head-duck moments. We had great weather: calm to light breeze, overcast, not too hot. I can recommend the nice folks at Scappoose Bay Kayaking, and particularly Very Nice and Patient Guide Dave (thanks, Dave!) Map

Summertime in the Backyard

We've had a small wading pool in the backyard but it's a couple years old and leaks like crazy so when these came on end-of-season sale (this year, the weather's been such that it's pretty much beginning-of-season!) we picked up a new one, in a new style hoping it will work out better. Even as we fill it the kids are having fun. As for the old one, anyone out there need a few square yards of heavy plastic for a project? Also, in the background I've finally gotten my new polytarp sail set up on the dinghy! I think it might just work. Still to be arranged is a means of transporting it to the local lake.

A Miscellany

A few random shots today: me at my desk (note how glamerous my work is!) with Bee --- Daughter's been asking me to take various animals to work lately. Son enjoying this terrific drum set created by Daughter and the indispensible Hot Glue Gun --- how did we get along without a hot glue gun before?! And both kids going over their Summer Reading Program entry forms from the library.

County Fair, Part 2

As promised, here's part 2 --- the games and rides. I selected some of the more "expressive" faces from my pictures, from which you might conclude that Daughter was having a miserable time and Son was having the time of his life. I think Daughter had a lot of fun too, but she does wear her worried expression a lot! We made no effort to guide their selection of rides, and you can see the significant difference in choice; but both seemed to really enjoy themselves. With one exception: on the last ride of the day, Daughter, riding by herself, had to share a car with a (somewhat older) male, and was so clearly unhappy with this arrangement that it almost broke my heart to watch her. I very much hope she remembers the fun parts of the day instead of this. We had one snafu when we separated for rides, and each waited for the other group to come over! The kids were amazingly good as we waited for a long long time in the heat until we finally managed to regroup. As for the games, a pox on their house: I'm used to carnival games being rigged so they rarely have to pay off, but at $5 a go it borders on criminal in my opinion. Thankfully we set kids' expectations that we would only be playing a small number of games. The rides were similarly extortionate, but we got some comp tickets by participating in the library's summer reading program --- you should have seen Daughter pulling out all the stops to fill out her book list!

County Fair, Part 1

This weekend past was the county fair. I couldn't limit myself to just a few pics so I'm doing this in two posts, one today and one tomorrow.

First up: animals, exhibits, crafts, and Fair Food. The lead pic? a demonstration of the Bernoulli effect, in the Intel booth.

Next, sheep. We also saw chickens, ducks, goats (regular and pygmy), cows and miniature horses.

Three: Playing with an endless pump: four buckets connected by pumps and rain gutter. Great fun.

Four: When it comes to Fair Food we're not in the same league as Certain Persons but Daughter finally got her Dippin Dots; Son had a Sour Apple Italian Ice. Not pictured are the fried apple slices with whipped cream that I had (verdict: don't bother).

Five: Watching the cattle judging.

(It was also hot, noisy, dusty, crowded and really really expensive --- but let's try not to remember that part ....)