Campanile

Here are some fall pictures of the campanile at Daddy's work. Check them out here.

Pebble Beach

Daddy recently went to Pebble Beach for a conference. He also got to play some golf. He said it was the most beautiful golf course he'd ever seen. Here are some highlights.

The Price is Right

The newspaper is surprisingly interesting. I like to hear about the A's notebook, which tells what's going on with the Oakland A's. I also occasionally like to hear about the Raiders and the 49ers, but only to hear about the injuries. But one of my favorite parts of the newspaper is the "guess the price" game. Daddy will look at the car ads and tell me the names of two cars as well as some descriptions. My job is to figure out which costs more. For example:

New Toyota Camry versus new Toyota Prius (I know the Prius costs more)
New Camry versus new Toyota Pickup truck (I know the Camry costs more)

My favorite is the 2005 Hummer H2, which has been in the paper for the last couple of weeks. It costs more than ANY other vehicle---even more than the high end Lexus, which used to win all of these contests. Why do people pay so much for Hummers?

Weird Phrases

I've picked up a bunch of phrases, mostly from movies (none of which I've seen) that I like to say. Here are my top 5:

1. "Give me a little room to breathe" (Col. Bill Kilgore, Apocalypse Now)
2. "Brains...brains" (Night of the Living Dead)
3. "You do X like you fix roads...lousy" (Doc Hudson in Cars)
4. "It's not the worst X I've ever seen. It's not the best either." (David Feherty, Tiger Woods game)
5. "Destroy the Humanoids" (Robot words from video game Berzerk)

More Games

Daddy and I have played a bunch of games lately. I've learned some new poker variants. I like 5 card draw poker the best. It might even be better than Texas Hold 'em. I've also learned seven card stud poker with lots of crazy wild cards. My favorite variant is a game that Daddy's grandfather taught him---the wild cards are kind of a rhyme---deuces and jacks and kings with an ax. Of course, there is only one kind with an ax (the king of hearts).

We also played a game of Risk, which I won. We played the yellow team versus the green team. I was green. I managed to take over South America and stopped Daddy from taking Africa. Then I expanded into Europe and Australia and finally wiped out the last of his guys in Asia and North America. I like it when I have lots of guys. Daddy and I make tank noises as I roll across the countryside.

This Week in Sports

It was a sports filled weekend for me. On Saturday, I played tee ball. I'm getting really good at catching the ball and I'm a really fast runner. In fact, I'm almost too fast. My friend Christopher was on base in front of me, and I kept passing him as we rounded the bases towards home. I like to go into home with a big head first slide. I also like to root on my team, the Cheetahs. I started a chant:

Let's go Cheetahs. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap

I couldn't get the other kids to go along though.

Daddy and I played a bunch more tee ball after the game. Interestingly, even though the game is called tee ball, we only hit balls out of the air rather than off a tee.

Sunday was golf day. We went to San Ramon Royal Vista (aka the "green golf ball") golf course for some practice. I hit a zillion range balls and even got a reward from daddy for hitting a ball about 50 yards into a bunker on the driving range. We also played "crazy golf" by choosing different random spots to putt from and trying to make putts. Finally, We did some chipping practice. We each had three balls and the person coming closest to the hole won. I managed to win two of the games! I still don't like to hit the normal way, but am getting more used to it. Hooray for golf.

Of course, we also engage in blocking drills almost every day. I'm getting very good at getting leverage low and keeping my feet moving forward to push the offensive line (Daddy) out of the way so I can get to the quarterback. I'm also improving in my "swim move" to get past the linemen. While I don't want to play football for real (too much chance of injury), I do like pretending.

Sox to World Series

As you know, my favorite team in the Oakland A's, but, since they were eliminated, I've decided to root for the Sox with Daddy. It was a great night last night as the Sox won and went to the World Series. Both of us were jumping up and down, high-fiving, and hugging one another at the Sox victory.

I even got out my Sox cap to help root them on. I like to do lots of cheers, so Daddy and I were hoarse from yelling

Let's go Sox. Let's go Sox!

at the TV. Mommy, of course, thinks this is all rather silly.

I also liked how the Sox got two trophies and how they poured champagne on one another. Celebrations are great. I'm really hoping they win the BIG trophy. Go Sox!

Pixieland

After church, we went to Pixieland. It's about at the end of the season and Pixieland is only open on weekends. After October, it won't be open at all. I really enjoyed driving in the cars. I try to time myself in line so that I get the yellow one. The shot up above is using something called a "panning" technique. Daddy sets a slow shutter speed and follows me with the camera as a drive in the car. The result is a motion effect.

I also "won" a new stuffy---a cute white bear. I love him very much. It's the lead photo in the "highlight reel" entry below. Daddy intends to put one of these up in his office.

Mommy Joins a Church

Today Mommy officially joined the United Methodist church in our area. She had to go to a special class to join. She also got a cool magnetic pin with her name on it. After the service, Daddy and I went exploring up and down the stairs of the church complex. We took some pictures of Mommy looking down from a little balcony that we found. Daddy also took some nice pictures of Mommy and me at a table after I had some cake and juice. Daddy thinks these are some of the best Mommy and Aidan pics in a while.

Trefethen Harvest Festival

It's harvest time in wine country. The leaves are strarting to turn---even the leaves on the grapevines. We got to visit our friends at Trefethen last weekend. I carved some pumpkins, got a whole bunch of corks, and generally had a good time visiting all the niftiest spots in the winery. I also got to visit with my friend Shannon. It was lots of fun.

Hawk Hunt

Two weeks ago, Daddy and I went on a hawk hunt. At first, it was looking like a pretty unsuccessful one as we only saw one hawk. But, in the end, we saw 6 hawks, a couple of ducks, a whole bunch of bulfrogs, and a bunch of squirrels. I also liked trying to figure out the types of trees by looking at the leave and the seeds and comparing them to Daddy's tree book. We saw a bunch of oak trees and couple of other kinds like manzanilla as well.

Photo Extravaganza

Daddy's been taking lots of photos. Here's a full sized slideshow highlight reel for those in a hurry.

For those with more time or if you're looking to make some prints, here are some Shutterfly collections:

Aidan putting on jammies

Harvest Festival

Church Membership

Pixieland

Note: Shutterfly now has a full screen mode for slide shows. This is a huge improvement in judging the quality of prints. you lose a lot of the detail at the small size slide shows that Shutterfly used to have. You should check this out to see the pics in all there pixel glory. There are a number of really great shots in this mix. The shots of me with my friend white bear are highlights. Also, several of the shots of Mommy and me (particularly IMG_7200.JPG) are also really good. For Mommy fans, the solo shot of Mommy is super crisp.

Mommy's Plant

Daddy liked this photo so much, he wanted me to make an entry just for it. Here's a picture of one of Mommy's plants in the evening light. Click on the image to see a full-size version. Order prints (if you wish) here.

Flying Solo

Today was my first "solo flight" at homework. As you know, each week, we have to memorize a poem about the letter of the week. This week's letter was "R". Normally, I have my friend Christopher do the poem with me in case I forget anything, but Christopher was away from school on a trip today, so I was flying solo.

At breakfast, I recited the poem for Mommy and Daddy and totally nailed it, so I was pretty confident. I recited the poem in school all by myself and I got...starry eyes---the highest grade. Hooray for me!

Bedtime

I like to prolong bedtime as long as possible. I've decided that staying up is lots of fun, while getting up for school the next day is less fun. Making bedtime last fulfills both goals. One way to stay up late is through comedy. Check out these funny poses.



Aidan at night

Writing

I've been adding a lot of writing to my cards and other things I make for Mommy and Daddy. What I like to do is to figure out the first letter in each word I want to say and then write this on the card---sort of like texting. For some words, I add a couple of letters. Here's an example:

T hdr
F Aidan
D u n ur n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ...

Translation:

To Heather
From Aidan
Do you know your numbers? 1, 2, 3, ...

Writing seems pretty useful.

The Letter of the Week

This week's letter is "r". We get a preview of the letter of the week on Friday and then get our homework the following Monday. The main part of the homework is a poem using the letter of the week. Over the weekend, Daddy and I speculated about what this poem would be. We came up with

R R for Rodney Rat
Rooting through rubbish
Rotting rubbery
Radishes. Rusting
Roadster
RRRR for Rodney Rat

The poem is of a specific form---the first line is always the letter twice repeated followed by the name of the animal. Then there are four words starting with the letter. Followed by one more word. Then the animal again.

Urban Planner

I've been making lots of urban planning pictures. I like to make pictures of towns, cities, farms, and even baseball stadiums. You can see my latest collection here.