December 22, 2007 - Scott
We frosted some Christmas cookies yesterday. I had great aspirations, but then I realized that was tedious. Yes, I did end up crafting guitar-playing angels and a blue Henry Kissinger, but I got sick of it and quit before I could finish my cookie Nixon. You can see some photos here.
December 18, 2007 - Scott
There haven't been many pictures of Odessa up here lately. So here are a few.
December 16, 2007 - Serena
The first weekend in December we had a mini family reunion, of sorts. Emily, Bonnie, and my Aunt Pam were all home for a few days. Emily was a bridesmaid in our cousin's wedding and Bonnie did a fabulous job with all the flowers. While we were in Minneapolis for the weekend, Scott, Odessa, and I were also able to get together for some time with my friend, Britt and her husband, Mark.
Here
are some photos of the weekend.
November 29, 2007 - Scott
Odessa is getting three of her molars simultaneously, and the fourth seems to be right behind. She's been a bit cranky, but it hasn't been too bad. That's about it.
Here's a gallery of a camping trip Serena and I took to Denali National Park.
November 13, 2007 - Scott
Today's two galleries are of Anchorage and Cook Inlet. The photos of Anchorage vary in quality, but are meant to give a taste of the city. The photos in Cook Inlet are dear to me, as most of them portray Turnagain Arm, which is one of my absolute favorite places on Earth. Just going through my pictures deciding which ones to upload was difficult because I really yearn to hop in a car, drive ten minutes and sit on the shore like I used to do so often.
Anchorage
Cook Inlet
November 7, 2007 - Scott
Here are links to two aurora galleries, both with images that I've never posted before and both heavily narrated. I just get long-winded when it comes to the aurora. I wish I could get paid to just talk about stuff I like. I'd just talk about aurora, glaciers, and frosting all day long and make enough money to buy a trip up north where I can lay on a glacier and eat frosting as I watch the northern lights.
September 2, 2005.
September 10&11, 2005.
November 5, 2007 - Scott
Every night for a while now we(mostly me) have been watching the evolution of Comet Holmes. It has been interesting to see it get brighter, then a bit dimmer as it expanded to nearly half the size of a full moon in the sky. I've taken a few pictures of it, which I've combined with the other comets into a comet gallery that I hope will grow in the future. It can be seen by clicking here.
Also, as part of my ongoing effort to work on updating the images to the new format, two new sets have been posted. A winter trip Serena and I took to Homer and a collection of Alaskan glacier photographs.
November 1, 2007 - Scott
On Halloween we decided to forego traditional means of celebration for something a bit different. Last Christmas we received a gift card from Serena's parents for the Kalahari resort and waterpark in Wisconsin Dells. Rather than use it to spend a night, we instead decided to use it to purchase passes just to the indoor waterpark. This way we can go twice and even eat in a restaurant.
It was Serena's idea to go on Halloween and it was a good one. We nearly had the place to ourselves. The lifeguards outnumbered the swimmers and looked really bored. I think I counted about six people in there over the course of the night. No lines, no crowding, and no one bothering us.
If we didn't have Odessa along, I'm sure we would have gone on all the waterslides and such, many of which require two people. But we did bring her because we hoped she would enjoy the kids areas, especially with no other bigger kids around to splash and scare. Well, she didn't really enjoy any part of it at all, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising because she has always had a tenuous relationship with water. She mostly gave frightened looks and shivered from being cold. There were some good parts though.
At one point we hopped in innertubes and lulled about in the lazy river. That was nice because as I held Odessa, she put her head to rest and even slept a bit. It was a really neat experience for me, because frankly she just doesn't do that kind of thing. She is not a cuddly baby, she is an adventurous, curious, active and moving baby and she seldom falls asleep on anyone, least of all me. So I really appreciated those moments.
Odessa did come to life in the hot tubs, though. She didn't have a miserable time by any means, but I'm sure if she had her pick she would have chosen some other method of celebrating Halloween. My guess is it would be similar to how she celebrated her birthday. Here are some pictures from the waterpark. It is possible more will be added in a day or so when we look at what pictures Serena took with her camera.
October 28, 2007 - Scott
Today we impulsively decided to go apple picking again, this time with milder temperatures and no mosquitoes. Odessa was highly entertained by a couple of the goats there. She would reach out to touch one, it would lick her hand, and she would laugh uncontrollably. Here are the pictures from today.
A few years ago I found out that Belleville, WI calls itself the UFO Capital of the World and they have a UFO Day at the end of October, with a parade and everything. Well, that's obviously pretty awesome and I had been wanting to see it for a long time. On Saturday I got my wish as we headed down for the festivities.
The parade was really cheesy, which means it was everything I had hoped for. Floats built to look like UFOs, lots of puns, and acronyms using UFO for various purposes. Yoda even made an appearance.
After the parade we went to get some cheesecurds, but there was a really long line outside of the stand. Serena, however, would not be deterred. She "strongly" suggested we get in line anyway. So we did. After several minutes of waiting we reached the counter and prepared to order only to be told that the people ahead of us just bought their last cheesecurds and they ran out.
Later we did some geocaching at a place which involved going through a fairly long and dark tunnel. It kind of had a spooky air about it, probably partially induced by the geocache name "Tunnel of Terror" and also by the sound the wind made coming out of it. The next geocache wasn't as exciting, but I did get a deer tick. You can view pictures of the UFO parade and the tunnel by clicking here.
I updated Odessa's picture gallery on the website. All of the galleries are being changed over to the new format, and it will look a lot better. Many of the photos of Odessa are the same you have seen, some are also on the DVD, and some are new. The TV makes pictures look more vibrant and color saturated than they really are, so if you see pictures that were on the DVD which had, for example, extremely blue eyes, you will find them a bit more realistic on the website.
October 24, 2007 - Scott
We took Odessa out for her third comet viewing after hearing about the sudden brightening of Comet Holmes. It was clearly visible to the naked eye, but visually unimpressive. It looks like a star with a faintly yellowish color. It does not have a discernible tail. Slightly more exciting was seeing the ISS and Space Shuttle Discovery flying by. Still, seeing comets is just neat.
October 23, 2007 - Scott
I had been wanting to do something with this page for a while. I guess I just like to change things around. I think going with a header image is becoming a bit trite, but it was easy and simple which are two very big things for me. I'll probably change the site again at some point, whenever my whims give rise to action.
There will probably be errors and stuff which I will get to slowly. If anyone has any problems, please let me know. Monkeys.
October 20, 2007 - Scott
Yesterday was Odessa's first birthday. It is hard to believe a year has already gone by. The highlight of the evening was allowing her to do whatever she wanted with a cake. Mostly she wanted to eat it and play in it. Click here to see some pictures.
We made a DVD with some home movies and a picture slideshow from her first year. If anyone happens to want one, we would be happy to mail one to you. Just email us your address and we will send one out.
October 13, 2007 - Scott
I'm really sick of getting lame injuries. It seems every time I have to seek medical attention it's for something lame. You'll recall in Alaska I got blisters all over my feet because I walked for a while. I also got an ear infection, that's pretty sad.
And then a few weeks ago, while eating I bit about halfway through my tongue. And while it hurt a fair bit, that was pretty awesome, actually, because I lost feeling in the end of it and created a cavity large enough to hold a kernel of corn. But neat though it was, the fact that I got it from chewing is pretty lame.
So today I made a visit to the doctor. For a rotator cuff tear. That I got from sleeping.
The X-ray technicians were very serious about their work. They were discussing amongst themselves what kind of shots they should take and would get pretty excited when one of them had a good idea. I fully expected them to say "Let's get one of his shoulder by the flowers" or "I want to get one with him and the capital in the background". Also, as they were finishing developing, I overheard them compliment each other on their respective suggestions. It's nice to see people getting so into their work.
Oh, you want to know more about how someone could tear their rotator cuff while sleeping? Some fascinating story, perhaps? Involving sleepwalking and a barroom brawl? Sorry to disappoint. Half unaware, it happened as I suddenly and violently reached around to grab some blankets at some point. Pretty impressive, right? I bet you don't want to mess with a tough son-of-a-gun like me.
October 8, 2007 - Scott
I am working on adding better pictures to the website. It's kind of a slow process, but only because one of the parts of the process involves me being a procrastinator. If that part wasn't there, it would be done a bit faster.
For starters, I am redoing all of the aurora photographs. Click here to access a gallery of photographs from my first photographing attempt. They aren't all that good, but maybe you will find something worthwhile in there. There are many pictures that have never been shown, and I have done the captions sort of like a little narrative. Maybe someone can find something to enjoy there, or maybe looking at it makes you want to have your limbs fall off. Just don't hold me liable.
September 23, 2007- Scott
I updated my Alaska Wildflowers gallery. It is in the new format, with more than twice as many flowers as the old one. You can find it by clicking here.
September 20, 2007 - Scott
Sorry the website was down for a few days. I had my web host company work on something for me and they sort of messed up some other stuff in the process.
There is some news to report. On Tuesday, Odessa took her first steps. Her first sprint was for two unassisted steps, but then later made it up to six. She is still a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, but she really loves the praise we heap on her. Serena and I now entertain ourselves by playing 'catch' with her in her room. Walk to me, walk to mom, walk to me, walk to mom, and on it goes.
I think there may be some pictures or even video up here at some point, but don't hold me to that.
September 8, 2007 - Scott
We went apple-picking today. Unfortunately we went the same day that the mosquitoes decided to go human-picking. So that wasn't great. But it was still fun.
September 6, 2007 - Serena
Pharmacy school started on Tuesday. Classes sound like they should be OK with the exception of Pharmaceutical Sciences 420. This is otherwise known as "the hardest class you will ever take" according to my professor. I am also not looking forward to my 1 credit running class (to maintain my full time standing). The instructor introduced the course yesterday as "easy" because we're only starting off by running 20 minutes. Yikes!
I am posting some pictures from the aforementioned annual Party with a Pig weekend. It was a lot of fun.
September 3, 2007 - Scott
Responding to suggestions made to me by all of you(by 'all of you', I mean 'my mother') the images page has been tweaked a bit. One of the changes was to increase the size of the pictures. I would still like feedback if anyone has any to give. As before, the page might change a bit while I finalize the setup that I want. Additionally, I more than doubled the number of pictures in the Duluth and Waterfall Tour gallery, so you may want to check it out. You might have to clear your cache if it still loads the old one. Serena also added a large gallery of pictures about her trip with her mother and Odessa to see Emily and Bonnie in Portland, OR.
In other news, on Saturday we went to my aunt Shirley and uncle Kevin's cabin for the annual Labor Day get-together. It was a lot of fun. My uncle Tom amused me with his apparent disdain for the business practices of Kwik Trip("Don't you hate it when you really want a Kwik Trip blueberry muffin but you only have $14.00 and you're .50 short?"). My mother wanted to see a satellite, so at night I looked for, and spotted, one to show her. Minutes later, she outdoes me by spotting the ISS. I did redeem myself, however, by later picking up the faint glow of aurora over the lake.
August 30, 2007 - Scott
Serena and I recently took a trip a bit north towards Lake Superior. We stayed in Duluth because that's where I found the best hotel deal. I planned a waterfall tour for us, including a variety of falls in northern Wisconsin and in the southwest upper peninsula of Michigan. It was a lot of fun. The falls we visited were: Big and Little Manitou Falls, Upper and Lower Amnicon Falls, Snake Pit Falls, Copper Falls, Brownstone Falls, Potato Falls, Superior Falls, Peterson Falls, Gorge Falls, Potowatomi Falls, and Gabbro Falls.
You can click here to see some of our pictures.
Which brings up another topic. We are redoing the way we post pictures here. You will see what I mean if you click that link. If you would be so kind, please let me know if everything displays correctly for you or if you have any problems. Let me know if it is slow, or the pictures don't show up right, or whatever. I know there aren't many people who visit this site, but it would be nice to know that everything is working for those who do.
It may change a bit in the next few days or weeks, but that will give you an idea of the general direction. I'm not one for flashy pages really, but doing it this way will actually make it about a billion times easier to update.
August 16, 2007 - Scott
I don't recall if I ever posted about it much, but one of my summertime obsessions in Alaska was hunting for noctilucent clouds. They are a rare-ish cloud which can only be seen after the sun has set, and traditionally visible only in higher latitudes. For reasons unknown, they have in recent years been becoming more frequent and appearing at ever lower latitudes. This year NASA launched the AIM satellite to study them, which has losers like me pretty excited.
What is the point of me writing about this? Because I found something totally awesome that you have to see. Or, actually, hear. It is an a cappella song about noctilucent clouds and if you don't listen to it you either hate yourself or have some other self esteem problems. So don't needlessly deprive yourself of awesomeness and just go download it.
I bought their album called AstroCapella 2.0. With songs like "Habitable Zone" and "Doppler Shifting" how could I resist?
August 13, 2007 - Scott
Last Friday I went out to observe the Perseid meteor shower. In an hour and ten minutes I noted fourteen meteors, of which I believe twelve were Perseids. When I went out again on Saturday, the sky was cloudy so I took pictures of the oncoming severe storm instead. And finally last night I went out to see the Perseids near their peak. I didn't stay for the whole show as it started to cloud over at around 3:15 but in the hour and a half I was there I counted 43 meteors and I think at least 39 were Perseids. I think I would've seen more if I had bothered to get further away from Madison.
Taking pictures of meteors with the camera gear I have is a near-futile celestial game of luck. I just put on a wide lens and let my camera shoot pictures automatically over and over. In over 400 pictures, I only captured one Perseid. Here it is, from my heart, to you.
August 9, 2007 - Serena
Well, I finished my last undergraduate pre-requisites today. Tomorrow, my mom, Odessa, and I leave for Portland to visit my sister and Bonnie. This summer has gone by very quickly because I made myself so busy. Unfortunately, I spent the vast majority of the summer studying and working. Scott, Odessa, and I had some fun, too.
We went to a Brewers vs. Giants game, mini-golfed, geocached, fished with the Von Rudens, saw the Underdahls, and took a trip to Illinois for my friend Krista's wedding. Odessa also started to try lots of new foods. She really likes things that she can eat with her hands. Cheerios, bread, and blueberries are some favorites.
(Pictures removed, check the images page)
July 25, 2007 - Scott
Finding baby clothes for Odessa that appeal to me is a rather difficult task. Sure there's lots of cute stuff out there, but I don't care about that. Why is it so hard to find outfits with pictures of solar prominences or the aurora borealis? I decided to make some for her, so that she would no longer be deprived.
I dyed a bunch of her twelve month shirt things black, and used some fabric paint to make her a shirt with the aurora on it. It turned out pretty nice, but it has a lot of paint so I'm not quite sure how well it will work in the washer and dryer. I sure ain't going to handwash it, that's too much work.
After that, I was looking at the kit of paints and noticed I had two bottles of teal. Well that's weird. Who needs two bottles of teal? I'd rather have two bottles of white. But then I got a quick thought: How about I make another shirt, only this time I paint the Eagle Nebula! Woohoo!
So if the last shirt used a lot of paint, this shirt used quite a bit more. It weighs about three times as much as a single shirt. Also, the cardboard liner got stuck and some of it ripped off and adhered to the inside of the fabric when I tried to remove it. Haven't figured out what I'm going to do about that yet.
Yes, that's right. I painted the Eagle Nebula for my daughter. I'm not saying that qualifies me for the Father of the Year Award, but that's only because I am pretty sure you're not supposed to nominate yourself. So feel free to nominate me, but hurry, because nominations close on the 27th. Also, apparently you are supposed to be Australian to qualify, but I'm sure they'd still consider me.
July 23, 2007 - Scott
Updating is sparse because there isn't really much to update with. It's not like we live in Alaska and go on adventures or anything. Mostly Serena either works at the hospital too much or she is at school. At home, Odessa and I hang out.
She is getting her third tooth. She has been able to stand free and unassisted for a few weeks and can nearly walk. She eats many kinds of foods now. I understand that my experience in parenting is limited. However, Odessa is the moving-est baby of all time. She has limitless energy, very often not napping at all the entire day. If you are the kind of person who would like to cuddle a baby, this one is not for you.
Here is a picture from today showing her two bottom teeth.
July 06, 2007 - Scott
I moved most of the stuff that was on here to the 'old' page. I suppose six months is a long enough time to go without archiving junk. I left the dramatization between myself and Odessa up here because I think it's cute and I haven't gotten enough compliments about it yet.
Speaking of cute, Serena gave me a haircut a while ago. If you thought I was cute before, and you did, I'm cuter now. Although that has nothing to do with the haircut, which sorta sucked. I'm just a natural cuteness-increaser.
And while I'm on the topic of haircuts, did I ever tell you about the time in Alaska when Serena cut my hair but actually left me with a bald spot on the right side of my head? True story. And she did it with scissors, not those electric things.
Switching topics now. If any of you had any contact with my mother in early June, you would have heard about a baby cardinal who hatched in a nest that is in a tree right outside her bedroom window. Here are a couple pictures of it.
June 26, 2007 - Scott
Following is a completely accurate description of the nightly routine for putting Odessa to bed. Since I spend so much time with her, I can actually translate her baby gibberish into English. It's kind of like a superpower. Anyway, it happens just like this, every night:
Scott: Okay Odessa, time for bed. Let's feed you and get your belly nice and full so you sleep all night!
Odessa: Sweet, food. Let's do this.
Scott: Sit still, quit squirming. Here you go.
Odessa: Holy crap. This...is...milk! I LOVE milk! This is so awesome I think I'm going to explode.
Three minutes and two fluid ounces later...
Odessa: Jeez, what are you trying to do to me? I HATE milk, get this out of my face. Here, I'm going to twist my head around so my messy chin gets all over your shirt.
Scott: What? I thought you loved milk. What are you going to do now?
Odessa: I'm going to stand up.
Scott: Oh, you think it's playtime.
Odessa: I don't think, I know it's playtime.
Scott: It's not playtime.
Odessa: Yes it is. See? I've got your glasses! Haha I got smudgy fingerprints all over them.
Scott: Okay, fine, quick playtime, but then we need to get you ready for bed.
Odessa: Hey, what are you doing? Who can play at a time like this? I'm HUNGRY. Feed me now!
Scott: But you said...
Odessa: Why are you starving me? Don't you like me? I'm going to whine, wiggle, and quiver my lower lip now.
Scott: Okay, here's your milk.
Odessa: Yes! Milk! My favorite!!
Five minutes and four fluid ounces later...
Odessa: Why are you doing this to me? I told you that I HATE HATE HATE milk! I'm standing up again.
Scott: I didn't mean to make you upset, I just thought you wanted milk.
Odessa: Here, let me burp in your nose.
Scott: Ew.
Odessa: Hey Dad, what's that on your cheek?
Scott: It's skin.
Odessa: I want it.
Scott: You have your own.
Odessa: I want yours and I want it now. Give it to me. I want to eat it.
Scott: Ow! No! Ow!
Odessa: Oh, this isn't as cool as I thought. I'm done with it, here you can have it back.
Scott: Do you want to eat some more milk yet?
Odessa: No, I want to get off the couch and chew on some power cords.
Scott: Not a good idea.
Odessa: Yeah I might choke. How about you chew them up first and then give them to me?
Scott: Won't happen. Hey, what are you doing now?
Odessa: I'm blowing spit bubbles on your pants.
Scott: Great.
Odessa: Hey. I want milk now. Quit being negligent. Do you want me to wither away?
Scott: Here, take some milk.
Odessa: Oh beautiful milk, what a splendid thing you are. I wish everything was made out of milk.
Three minutes and two fluid ounces later...
Odessa: Daddy, I'm done!
Scott: Well you've had eight ounces, so I guess that should be enough. Time for bed.
Odessa: Bed...? You're taking me to bed?
Scott: Yeah, just like last night and every other night.
Odessa: Please... please don't take me to bed!
Scott: It's bedtime.
Odessa: Um, but I'm hungry!
Scott: No you aren't, you've had eight ounces.
Odessa: I swear to you I will puke it all out right now.
Scott: I have no doubt that you would, but I'm going to take my chances anyway. Here, I'm setting you down in your crib.
Odessa: See Dad? I'm smiling at you! I'm giving you the biggest smile you ever saw! Don't you just want to pick me up?
Scott: And now I'm covering you with your blanket.
Odessa: Feet, in the air! Arms, in the air! Get this thing off of me!
Scott: And now I'm kissing your forehead.
Odessa: Hmm, let me put this blanket in my mouth.
Scott: Goodnight, Goober.