Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Greyer Than Gray


Ever wonder why there are two ways to spell gray/grey? It's simple really, grey is the original English spelling, and gray is the Americanized version. Many words got jumbled letters as they traveled/travelled across the bumpy and wavy Atlantic.

So, I guess you could say that

Gray is a color

while

Grey is a colour

Although I am aware that neither of these is really a color/colour, as they lack any chromatic component.

I have always liked the English version better, grey seems to me much more greyish than gray does. More dusty and ancient. Grey Poupon, Gandalf the Grey, Earl Grey, Grey's Anatomy...all the classic greys are grey and not gray.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Gettin' Some Luvin'

Ecosystem


We have quite a wildlife collection around our house. Aside from the usual raccoons, ground hogs, squirrels, and skunks, we have some bunnies and even a deer!

Here's Bucky, one of our regulars.

Runner

Brooke, With Accessories

Doc Sweets


We've been on a summer sugar run lately, so what better place for Heather to take the kids Saturday (while I was off shooting a wedding), than this incredible candy store that carries everything your sweet tooth could ever crave and more.

Chocolate coated pop rocks? They got 'em.

More Redpop!


Ok, we're trying to get a good shot for the Faygo contest, although I'm not sure why I'm bothering - it's a popular vote contest and we all know how much I like those.

I think this is the one...

Stuffed Devils


Look at these cool stuffed creatures Brian and Carol made! I'm putting in an order for three!

Grasspoppers


In the car driving home from day care:

Mads: "Grasspoppers eat yucky stuff like leaves & benchtables (vegetables)!!"

Dora Gas


Mads: "I gotta poop & I got Dora gas"

Mom: "What's Dora gas?"

Mads: "I don't know, it's like when little kids have gotta poop and they have little gas and it's kinda pink and stuff"

Friday, July 24, 2009

All Over The Place, Yo


Question: Why can't somebody just combine the Dictionary and the Urban Dictionary and make a real dictionary already?

I'm tired of my words being spread out across two volumes.

Redpop



You can't really be a kid without abandoning yourself to Redpop every now and then.

Maddie's Moose!


Maddie drew a moose!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Roommate


I saw a nasty-looking ticky-beetle on the floor in my bedroom, traveling away from my bed and as close as I can tell, towards I-75 South. He was one of those really tough little critters with digging machinery up front, and he was still reasonably spry even after I popped him between my fingers (with appropriate Kleenex protection of course).

An encounter like that is really unsettling, to have a (possibly) carnivorous insect so close to my bed. I wonder if he has peeps in the vicinity.

Gidget


Farewell Gidget, you tiny furry TV star, best known to millions of adoring fans as the Taco Bell Dog.

After the commercials ended Gidget suffered the same fate of many great actors, she was typecast, only able to get movie roles expressly written for Chihuahuas (Legally Blonde 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, etc..)

But we will all remember her for the role that made her a star, and made us hungry.

Gidget died of a stroke yesterday at the ripe old age of 15.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Redwood Titans


They are the tallest living things on Earth. Some are so old that they were standing when the Parthenon was built.

They are the Coast Redwoods of Northern California, Sequoia sempervirens. They stand side by side in the cool foggy valleys near the ocean like giant sentinels. Some climb 380 feet from their massive trunk bases to their airy canopies.

If you've never seen these trees, you really need to. They are wonders that will take your breath away.

I have started reading The Wild Trees, by Richard Preston, a book that seeks to illuminate the mostly unknown worlds that exist at the very tops of these incredible giants.

There are entire ecosystems alive up there, out of our view, lost in the mist. A few brave people climb these trees regularly to study them, and they have found new life and amazing vistas at the top.

So beloved and unique are these trees that most of them have been given individual names: Hyperion (the world's tallest tree at a hair under 380 feet), Stratosphere Giant, Helios, Iluvatar, Lost Monarch, Zeus.

California was once rich with trees like these, before "modern" civilization came along and cut about 90% of them down. Forty years ago there were hundreds of other trees as tall as Hyperion but they have mostly been destroyed. A last-minute expansion of Redwood National Park in 1978 is the only thing that saved Hyperion from a similar fate.

So, score another one for the National Park Service. I sometimes wonder if we'd have anything natural left if it wasn't for those people.

Why Are They Not Called "Bakies"?

"Remember When You Were A Kid?"


Check this out, good old fashioned red pop just like we used to guzzle in the 70's. Faygo has reintroduced the classic version of this most wonderful of drinks with all the goodness of the original: 100% cane sugar, original labeling, and even the glass bottle! And no, it's not a twist-top!

If this doesn't bring back my childhood, nothing will.

Oh, there is one difference from the original...no Red Dye #5. Some things are better left in the 70's.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Uplifting Image Of The Day


Rabbit being used for detecting leaks in a Serin nerve-gas manufacturing facility, 1970.

He's still alive...no leaks!

Hitting The Bubba!


Lisa + Mammals

We went to Lisa's house for a BBQ this weekend. Here's our lovely host interacting with a variety of cute fuzzy mammals.


Cross Processed Flowers

The Tyrant Chicken

Tyrannosaurus rex.

The mere mention of its name brings a profound sense of fear and awe to children and adults alike. The Tyrant King. The great theropod from the late Cretaceous. Everyone's favorite dinosaur. The biggest, baddest land carnivore in history...

...right?

Well, not exactly.

T Rex is a very well known carnivore, with several nearly complete skeletons found and a grip on popular imagination that will probably never be broken. And it was a fearsome killer, for sure. One of the biggest and strongest and most fearsome that ever walked on this planet.

ONE OF the most fearsome. Not THE most fearsome. In fact, there were several dinosaurs that bested the mighty T Rex in that arena, including Gigantosaurus carolinii and Carcharodontosaurus saharicus.

But the title of biggest & baddest, at least for now, goes to another meat-eater from the Cretaceous, a horrifying killer from what is now North Africa called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.

This was one bad-ass rock & roller, this guy. At 59 feet long and almost 10 tons, this crocodile-mouthed monster was significantly bigger and stronger than T Rex, and if there were any doubts left of his bad-ass-ness, Spino had a giant sail on his back, 7 feet tall and probably colored vibrant red or purple.

Nothing would have gone anywhere near this thing on purpose, let alone try to take it on. No, Spinosaurus was the real Tyrant King. I hate to admit it, but my childhood hero has been demoted.

Zero Scoville Units


Lisa, the proud mother, with some of her bumper crop of peppers.

Jewelry



Here is The Princess, wearing the Royal plastic jewels.

Hat + Sun

Monday, July 20, 2009

Raspberry & Cheese


Madison spits when she blows her food off. It's just a fact of life at the Wild house. If you are close by her at dinner time and we have something hot, you're going to get doused by a flurry of saliva and steam.

The other day she was eating Mac n Cheese and thought it prudent to explain herself:

"Mom, first you have to spit on it, then you have to blow on it really super hard & then you can eat it cuz it's really really hot!".

Nonetheless, you have been warned.

The Incident

This weekend I was watching a movie with the girls while Heather was working. Brooke was on my lap and Madison was sitting right next to us. At one point Madison leaned down in front of Brooke and all of a sudden Brooke started to scream at the top of her little lungs. She cried hard and tears rolled down her cheeks.

I looked at Madison and said something like "Maddie, what did you do?"

Maddie gave me a very sheepish look, and didn't say anything.

I asked again: "Madds, what did you do?!?"

Finally, reluctantly and in a very quiet voice, she said:

"I didn't bite her".

Three Times Cute



Smurfs On Turfs





We hadn't been to a Beaumont Parenting Group meeting for quite a while so we decided to meet up with everyone at Booth Park in Birmingham Saturday afternoon. The kids had fun (and really, isn't that what it's all about?) sliding on the astro-turf hill and running on the hills.

One Small Step, Plus 40


Forty years ago today, we first set foot on another world.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Erik!!!


You've come a long way!

Facebrook


Brooke likes to keep up on all of her friends...

The Voice


Farewell, Walter...you were the best there was. I can't think of any of the big events of the last 50 years without hearing your voice.