Photostream

You will notice a new feature to the blog---a photostream. This is a looping slideshow of pictures posted to Flickr. Many of these appear as links in blog entries. If see a picture you like in the photostream, just click on it and you'll bounce to Flickr where you can download it or order a print.

Arizona - One Last Time

This is the last of the batch of highlight photos from Arizona.

Arizona Desert Museum

Photo Safari

Yesterday, Daddy went on a photo safari---a very long hike in the Diablo Foothills in search of pictures. Here are some of his best shots (view as a slideshow for best effect):

Plants

Animals

The large bird in two of the shots is a hawk. The creature that looks like a dog is a coyote. Daddy wants me to tell you that these photos were all taken with his 70-300mm lens, which is amazing. Only with the super powers of zoom can you get pictures this close of a coyote.

Finally, here are some scenes.

All of these are downloadable or you can make prints.

Goal!

I played soccer today and scored a goal. In this league, goals are tough to come by as there are a zillion kids vying for the ball. I got the ball near the goal mouth and kicked it through.

Gooooal!

I also did well as a goalie. I only let in one goal.

Sabino Canyon

As I mentioned before, we went to a place called Sabino Canyon on your recent trip to Arizona. There used to be a tram that wouuld take you all the way to the end of the canyon, where there is a nice waterfall. Sadly, there was a flood in 2006 that washed out the top half of the road, so the tram only goes halfway up. That meant we had to walk the other half of the way.



It was a hot day and for some reason I only wore my Sunday School shoes on the trip out, so my feet got sore fast. I didn't want to go on with the hike. I would sit down in the middle of the trail and refuse to go on.



Eventually, this became sufficiently annoying to everyone that we all turned around to go back.




Still, it was a very pretty place. Here are some photo highlights.

Reid Park Zoo

These are some photos from the zoo in Arizona. I had a great time pretending to be a peacock. Here are the photo highlights.

Marble Run

This weekend we've been playing a lot with my marble run. I really enjoy filling it completely with marbles.




Daddy and I also like to do a version of mythbusters with the marble run. The latest myths we've been studying involve these two "Y" sections of the marble run, where the marbles can either go to the left or to the right. The way the marble run is formed, there's a "Y" early in the run and a "Y" later in the run. The marble has to pass through both Y's to land in the red or green bins but only the first Y to land in the yellow bin. The myth is that the marble is equally likely to land in any of the three bins. We busted that myth--a marble is more likely to land in yellow than either of the other two bins. We also checked that the Y's are "fair" in that the marble is just as likely to go left as right. So, how do you solve this mystery?

Wine Country

Yesterday Daddy and I went to wine country together. Our official purpose was to pick up wine shipments from the two wineries that we are members of. Unofficially, the purpose was to go on a photo safari during the colorful fall season in wine country. We visited Trefethen and wandered around the barrels there. We also visited a new winery--August Briggs--up in Calistoga. Their winery is in the shape of a big barn.



We wandered around the grapevines and got a lot of nice pictures. Next, we went to Duckhorn and found a whole bunch of secret trails around the property.




I also got to take some pictures with Daddy's camera. Here is a nice one of Daddy.


We had a great time. Here's a link to all the photos (run the slideshow in fullscreen mode for best results).

It's Delicious

When I'm having foods that I like, I tend to lavish them with praise. For instance, a Kit Kat bar is "absolutely scrumptious." What I've discovered though is that if I can praise a food not just for its taste but also for its superior nutritional properties, this is even better. I like to increase the odds of getting more of my favorite stuff. My favorite is to offer a rhyming phrase:

It's delicious. It's nutritious!

This is a useful phrase for a host of foods. For instance, Oreo Cakesters are big chocolaty cakey cookies. I proudly announce,

They're delicious. They're nutritious!

No one seems to believe this though.

Sometimes I'm more successful. Chocolate milk, for instance:

It's delicious. It's nutritious!

Happily, this produces some level of agreement.

Back from Arizona

I'm just back from our trip to Arizona. It's a really neat place. I've never seen so many cactuses in my entire life. When we got off the plane at the airport, there were cactuses on the side of the road. I just kept seeing them everywhere. I asked Mommy and Daddy what would happen if a cactus suddenly grew in the middle of the road. Could cars get past it? Later, Mommy got me a book about the life of a saguaro cactus. What I learned is that it takes forever for one of these cactuses to grow.

At various restaurants and stores, I offered my perspective on cactuses:

You guys sure must like cactuses.

I suggested to various workers.



We did a lot of fun stuff in Arizona. We went to a "desert museum", which had lots of interesting plants and creatures. One of the activities at the museum was archeology. I used a duster thing to uncover a fossil of a dinosaur.



We went on a tram (and then on a hike) in Sabino Canyon. I liked the tram ride. I did not like the hike. We also went to the Tucson zoo.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Link here.

Tired

Trick or treating is very tiring. My legs were really sore this morning, and I was generally really tired today. I went to bed early. Daddy took a couple of pictures (above) of story time. One of the stories was called Mouse Paint. I got out the mouse finger puppets that go with this. I had the red one and Mommy had the blue one. You can see the blue guy (he's a bit blurry) in one of the shots. Daddy says that the cool feature of these shots is that they were done in the natural (dim) light of the house--no flash at all. Both of these photos are downloadable. Links here:

First photo

Second photo

World Series Party

This past weekend we had a World Series party. We decorated the house with lots of baseball stuff. Baseball caps lined the living room. Oakland A's bobbleheads adorned the mantle. Also, I made some cutout pictures of baseball players which we taped to the entertainment center. We invited over Roxy and her family as well as Daddy's friend Maria (who was kind enough to provide the awesome A's tickets last year).

As part of the festivities, I designed a quiz for the people between innings. It consisted of trivia questions like: How many all-star game wins does the National League have? How many World Series have the Red Sox won? I memorized the answers from Daddy.

Of course, one of the best parts of the World Series is when a team wins the trophy and all the players pour champagne on each other. Our party was on Sunday---the day the Boston Red Sox swept the series. Roxy, Daddy, and I were all jumping around and hugging each other with the Sox victory. World Series parties are fun. I can't wait to have a Super Bowl party!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of the best holidays. You get to dress up. You get to visit lots of people. You get candy. What's not to like? This year I dressed up as the Shadow Ranger. While most of the Power Rangers are teenagers who have been trained by the Sensei to have powerful crime fighting skills, the Shadow Ranger is a dog-like creature named Anubis "Doggie" Cruger. He retired from being a ranger but then came out of retirement to save the world from the evil General Benaag. In the picture above, I'm with my friend, Christopher, who is dressed up as Vernon Davis, a player on the 49ers.

Daddy did a photo shoot of me showing off my many crime fighting moves. Check it out here.