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Roar!

We took Sean Trick-or-Treating tonight - or at least, we walked around the neighborhood in a costume. He did three full laps around the block, but only actually stopped at one house. And I had to trick him into going up to that house by luring him with a peanut butter M&M. But he still had a blast. We don't usually go out walking at night, and all the neighborhood kids were out too, so that made it extra interesting for him. Good times.


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 31, 2006 07:44 PM | Comments (2)

Bedhead

It's official - Sean definitely inherited his dad's hair. Check out the impressive bed-head Sean woke up with after his nap today. Dang, I'm envious of Sean's elite bed-skills, yo!


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 31, 2006 07:42 PM | Comments (3)

Blackmail!

Wow. These strike me as excellent pics to threaten to show his girlfriends when he is a teenager. What do you guys think?


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 31, 2006 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

Philco 40-180

My latest project. I'm restoring an old Philco console radio that I won on Ebay. I've always loved the look of 40's era console radios, and loved the idea of the family gathering around the radio each night to listen to serials, sports, and news from around the world. I've decided to restore the wooden cabinet of an old radio, and put a computer inside so we can use it to play back our collection of music, old-time radio adventure and sci-fi stories, and audiobooks. The cabinet I won is in rough shape, but is structurally sound - so it's a great candidate for restoration. The old tube radio inside is no longer functional. I'll start by stripping the finish, repairing the dents and scratches, and gutting the old electronics. I'm planning to post pictures here of the project as it progresses. These first shots are the "before" pics.


Posted under Projects by Joel on October 29, 2006 09:57 PM | Comments (2)

Baby Face

What a cutie! Now that she is looking less - let us say, 'squished' - I would have to say that she looks more like me, or at least more like a Lord. Of course, she looked like Lori for the first few weeks, while she was bullet-headed and wrinkly. Heh heh.



Posted under Photos by Joel on October 29, 2006 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Scenes from Space #36

As much as I love seeing pictures of the International Space Station (ISS), I've got mixed feelings about the station itself. Has anyone ever seen the Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit"? That's what the ISS is becoming. More and more of NASA's budget is being gobbled up by the station, leaving less and less for research satellites and robotic interplanetary missions. And the biggest problem is that with the budget crunches and shuttle problems of the last several years, we can never afford to put enough people on the ISS to actually do any science, which is the stated purpose for building the station in the first place. Instead, we can only afford to keep people on the station just to maintain it. Which means that it has really just become an example of our technological prowess in space, but does not serve any useful purpose. Which is why I'm torn. I'd love to see us do some science with it, or stop sinking money into it.

Posted under News by Joel on October 27, 2006 05:51 PM | Comments (0)

Shopping Cart Art

Yet more cool sculptures created from junk. These were created by Ptolemy Elrington for a project called RiverCare. I can't seem to find out exactly where they are, but they're near a river in the UK, if that narrows it down at all. heh. The sculptures are created from shopping carts pulled from the river, as part of an awareness campaign to encourage volunteers to adopt sections of the river.

Posted under News by Joel on October 26, 2006 07:23 PM | Comments (1)

Mommy and Me

Lori finally feels 'back to normal' - or at least normal enough to appear in pictures. She's a few nights of solid sleep, and isn't looking so dog-tired lately. What a cute pair of ladies!


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 24, 2006 08:50 PM | Comments (0)

Eyes Wide Open

Finally, a picture with her eyes open! So far, she scrunches her eyes closed every time a flash goes off. This time I managed to catch her unprepared.


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 24, 2006 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

Bowlercoasting

I've been reading Shamus Young's blog for over a year now, and it's great for geeks. Lots of programming musings and ideas, sci-fi discussions, Dungeons and Dragons references, and video game analysis. But recently, Shamus created a small video from a session of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 that has spread his name across the internets and their tubes (heh) like wildfire. Check it out, it's hilarious!

Posted under News by Joel on October 22, 2006 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

Nap Time

The first of this pair was taken last night at 2AM. I went to wake her up for a feeding, and she just looked so cute. Lori took the second one this afternoon. She went out to run a few errands, and when she came back I was asleep on the couch, and Carter was asleep on my chest. We napped that way for at least an hour. It was so nice, we did it again later that night. Sometimes when she gets upset, and she isn't wet or hungry and the binky isn't helping, I'll lay down with her on my chest and it will mellow her right out. She just needs a little cuddle-time with her pops!


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 21, 2006 09:54 PM | Comments (1)

Edouard Martinet

I seem to have a real knack for coming across these types of artists lately. Edouard Martinet is a French scupltor who has been creating animals from scrap metal for the last ten years. Even more amazing, his pieces are created without welding. Take a lot at his work, it is simply amazing.

Posted under News by Joel on October 21, 2006 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #06

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

- Douglas Adams

This one for the benefit of Katie Couric, who recently made some foolish remarks on her CBS news show. How can a woman with so little understanding of science be paid to voice her commentary in such a public forum? Does CBS have so little respect for its viewers to not even bother to fact-check the ridiculous things she planned to say? Astronomer Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Blog) gave her a solid reaming for her ignorance, if you'd like to know more about it. My biggest concern is that lots of people with no science background will treat her words as "news", and the population will be become that tiny bit more confused about what NASA is actually for.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 20, 2006 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Sean's Second Hike

The weather is finally starting to cool off, and Sean and I have a lot of catching up to do with our outdoor activities. Today he went on his second hike. He did great - for such a little man, he's got a ton of stamina. I only carried him at the very end for the fun of it - he loves the view from my shoulders, and if i bounce him around as we walk it cracks him up.



Posted under Hikes by Joel on October 20, 2006 06:41 PM | Comments (1)

Scenes from Space #35

This amazing image is a composite of many images taken by the Cassini spacecraft from the 'back' side of Saturn. With the planet's rings lit from behind by the sun, they take on an amazing glowing quality. This backlighting actually allowed astronomers to discover new rings. If you look for a small pale blue dot on left side of the image, just above the bright main rings, you can see the Earth!

Posted under News by Joel on October 20, 2006 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

Evil Genius

Welcome to Sean's underground lair, deep in Skullcrusher Mountain. His evil plans are nearing fruition. His army of ninja henchmen is almost prepared! Beware his doomsday squad, as they ignite the atmosphere! Ah, the atmosphere! Ah!!!!!

So is just me, or does Sean look like an evil genius in this picture?

Posted under Photos by Joel on October 18, 2006 09:50 PM | Comments (0)

Sleeping Like a ..... Baby

As she's only a couple of weeks old, Carter is still sleeping most of the time. So no open-eye pictures as of yet, but these are still pretty adorable, if you ask me. And check out the wacky hat Auntie Tracy bought her in the picture with Linda!



Posted under Photos by Joel on October 18, 2006 09:43 PM | Comments (1)

Pumpkin Carving

Found something cool on the web today. Instead of the traditional style of pumpkin carving - where you hollow the pumpkin and cut through the shell - this guy carves three-dimensional faces on the exterior of the pumpkin. Not only is his work amazing, he includes a pretty extensive tutorial on his site explaining how to try this yourself. Dig it!

Posted under News by Joel on October 14, 2006 09:16 AM | Comments (0)

Scenes from Space #34

This photo strikes me as very cool. It was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) last week. In the image, you can see the tracks left by one of the Martian Rovers (Opportunity), and you can even see the rover itself!

Posted under News by Joel on October 13, 2006 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

By Popular Request

We've been pretty busy, and haven't taken many pictures yet. By the demand for more pics has been increasing the last couple of days, so here a few to whet your appetite.


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 7, 2006 01:47 PM | Comments (2)

Truckin'

Just a few cute pictures I took while Sean and I were playing trucks on the kitchen table.


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 7, 2006 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

New Arrival

Carter Jean Lord, born at 4:58 PM on October 2nd, 2006. She was 6 lbs, 10 oz, and 19 inches long. More pictures to follow!


Posted under Photos by Joel on October 3, 2006 07:08 PM | Comments (2)

Classic!

Sean had a haircut last week, and didn't like it very much. So in response he staged a protest, in the only way he knew how!

Posted under Photos by Joel on October 3, 2006 07:05 PM | Comments (1)

Reunited

Lori is finally, at long last, able to pick Sean up again. As soon as she did, he snuggled right in and let out a sigh. It was great to see the two of them together again.

Posted under Photos by Joel on October 3, 2006 07:00 PM | Comments (0)