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First Trip to the Playground

Today we took Sean to the playground for the first time. He's -seen- playgrounds before, but we've never tried to actually get him to -play- at the playground. So we took him today. It was about 75 degrees out, clear skies, and a nice, stiff breeze. Beautiful! Sean loved the swings - he started laughing and smiling as soon as he got his first push!

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 27, 2005 06:28 PM | Comments (0)

Scenes from Space #15

NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of the western coast of Mexico on November 19, 2005. The red boxes in the image mark the locations of wildfires in the dry shrub lands of northern Baja California. The Santa Ana winds blow hot, dry air from the deserts to the east, which dris out the plants in this area. Once a fire starts, the winds fan the flames into an uncontrollable wildfire.

Posted under News by Joel on November 25, 2005 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

Hangin' in the Back Yard

Hey all! Here are some pictures we took this afternoon while hanging out in the backyard. This set even includes a couple of rare "family" pictures - usually I avoid getting my picture taken like the plague!

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 20, 2005 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

Grampy's Visit

Grampy came to visit us last week, and we had a blast. Sean can be a tough nut to crack, but Grampy was tenacious, and eventually broke through Sean's defenses and had him cracking up. It was a happy weekend for all of us!

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 19, 2005 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

Funny Faces

A collection of weird faces Sean has made in the last few days.

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 18, 2005 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

Scenes from Space #14

This image of comet Tempel 1 was taken 67 seconds after Deep Impact crashed into its surface. It taken by the high-resolution camera on the mission's flyby craft. I actually did a little work on the Deep Impact mission, and had a tiny amount of code on both the impactor and the flyby spacecraft. Way cool!

Posted under News by Joel on November 18, 2005 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

C is for Cookie!

Sean got his first Oreo cookie today! What a mess! But he sure did love it.

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 14, 2005 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

Pawtuckaway Night Hike

Mike, Dad, and I went on a night hike in Pawtuckaway State Park. It got down into the 20's while we were out there, and we could see the frost forming on the fallen leaves. We took the boys with us (Dugan, Bailey, and Cody), and they had a blast. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got. :)

Posted under Hikes by Joel on November 12, 2005 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Long Time No See!

The last time I saw Ryan, he was less than one month old. Now, he is 16 months old! He has such a cute little personality, and is motoring around the house like a champ. It was great to see him!

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 12, 2005 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

Will the Real Slim Shady...

Please stand up!

This post marks our 50th, and what better way to celebrate than with some cute photos of Sean doing something new. Check this kid out! He's just getting the hang of crawling, but he is already trying to pull himself up on things. It started with him pulling himself up onto his knees, and playing with his new toy while kneeling. Then he figured - 'what the heck, i'm halfway there' - and got onto his feet instead!

Posted under Photos by Joel on November 6, 2005 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

Kite #9 - Double Delta-Conyne

Kite #9 has been finished for a while, bit I have had no luck getting it to fly until this morning. This kite is a double delta-conyne, which is basically 2 triangular cells with delta wings on them. This is the first kite I've tried to make with a 'fancier' design. The wings are made of different colored stripes - black, blue, green. yellow, and white. I had to use the Trefoil Dragon's tail to get this one stable in the air, but once it was up there it flew very well. This kite is about 7-8 feet wide and about 3 feet tall.

Posted under Projects by Joel on November 5, 2005 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Scenes from Space #13

Believe it or not, this isn't the Death Star! It is actually Mimas, one of the moons of Saturn. The huge crater on Mimas (known as Herschel) is 80 miles across - almost 1/3 of the diameter of the entire moon. Herschel's walls are 3 miles high, parts of its floor measure 6 miles deep, and the central peak rises 4 miles above the crater floor. The impact that made this crater must have nearly destroyed Mimas. Fractures can be seen on the opposite side of Mimas that may be due to the same impact.

Posted under News by Joel on November 4, 2005 08:47 PM | Comments (0)