Instruction Manuals

How to Build the Acro Sport: A Custom Airplane explains in just 87 pages how to go about constructing your very own flying machine. 87 pages. That is some efficient writing and diagramming.

Pictured above are the manuals I received yesterday for a new reading series. Count 'em up: six ultra thick spiral bound books. What you can't see are the three CDs sitting on top. Take that aeronautical engineers - based on this data it is approximately 12 times harder to teach reading than successfully build an airplane in your garage.

Or, more likely, some may assume teachers are less intelligent than your average Joe trying to defy gravity.

Too Much Chocolate

Here's a photo of the incredibly tasty chocolate cake the kids and I made Tricia for her birthday. Tricia actually took this photo. She is taking a photography class at USC and has learned what all those buttons and switches on the camera are for. Here you can see she changed the aperture so only the cake is in focus. We also tried taking this photo in the kitchen but learned that the natural lighting of the sun is far superior to CFL bulbs.

Sunday Morning Slosh

One of Ainsley's friends from school e-mailed me a few days ago asking if we could have a "Dads and Daughters Hike" this weekend. That was exactly what she called it. How can you say no to a request like that? Thanks to their being Jewish and our being heathens, we all had Sunday morning free.

As seen in the photo, it absolutely poured rain the whole time we were driving to the park. However, everyone was still game and we were rewarded with a refreshingly cool walk through the mud. It even stopped raining about a third of the way into the trip.

One of the bridges was out and we had to balance our way across the narrow side of a 2" x 6" to get across a deep muddy pass. Later, Ainsley pointed out that there was a sign at the beginning of the trail alerting everyone to the fact that this trail had been closed about a month ago and that we weren't supposed to be on it. The sign had blown off a tree and I missed it. Oops.

Everything In Its Place

A new solution.

Happy Birthday, Ainsley

 

She has spent the day taking pictures of just about everything with her new camera.

Even a matchbox.

Even her feet.

Last week I took a picture of the spigot on the rain barrel. I have numerous pictures of my feet - sticking out of the lake, propped up in a chair, highlighting ugly blisters. I'm just sayin'... we shouldn't judge these things.

Making Up For Lost Time...The Beach

A little further down the shoreline there was a stretch of beach adopted by the closed-minded anti-humanists. You can just imagine what it looked like. I saw one of their members wearing a confederate flag t-shirt that read: If you're offended by this flag,  you need a history lesson!

Sunrise on the pier.

Bad Hair Days

Each of the boys wanted me to give them summer mohawks. Whether it's right or wrong, we don't allow them to have mohawks during the school year. However, once summer rolls around I pull out the clippers and do my very best to shave a couple of straight lines across the tops of their heads. The sides are actually trimmed low rather than shaved so I guess they are more fauxhawks than true mohawks.

When I was little I really wanted to have spiked hair like Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon. Though they weren't thrilled, my parents let me do it. The barber, unfortunately, had no idea what he was doing and botched it pretty badly. In the years since I've had a mullet, chin-length bangs, feathered hair, and a 1/8 inch buzz cut. Suddenly those mohawks don't look so bad.

The Deer

  

This deer was watching us pull onto our street as we came home from running errands this afternoon. I hopped out and tried to get as close as I could before she turned tail and hopped into the woods. Since this photo was taken using full zoom I obviously didn't make it very far- probably about fifty yards or so. 

Did you know that deer are the deadliest animals in America? This is true but like many statistics it is misleading. The vast majority of deer-related deaths result from car crashes. I once hit a deer with my Ford Escort. I'm just sayin'...the deer won.

A Peculiar Book

After a two-day hiatus due to internet issues I was able to snap this shot at the bookstore today. I was there trying to find a book for Harper when I came across this strange title, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The story is told from a collection of photos the author found at various swap meets. I love the idea of using photographs to create a story. On the way home from the bookstore I was thinking about how each of the photos I've posted to this blog could easily become the subject of an essay or other longish piece. My goal this year is to do lots of  photography with my not-so-peculiar kids at school and see what comes of it.