The temperature at 8:00am this morning? A balmy 16F!

Normally I equate malls at holiday time with things like hemorrhoids and the Plague (white or black, your pick). However, this evening we decided to meet Alan and Val down at Phipps to hopefully let the kids visit Santa. We got there right about 5:15PM, and apparently Santa is a member of the Local Jolly Old Elves 403, because at 5 o'clock he was outta there. Luckily we caught him as he was walking away and he stopped and said "ho ho ho" to the twinkles. As I suspected they were not really sure what to make of him, but he was a swell Santa: his beard was fluffled and curled, and all white - no grey or yellowy blond at all. He had a lacy collar reminiscent of a Victorian Santa. It was rather neat.

We had even more fun riding the escalator! This is trip #2 out of about 10 total.



















This shot almost didn't turn out, but a turn of events helped a little boy's demeanor.














Thanks Alan and Val for meeting us at the mall!

Wildlife at Tritt Springs

But Maya is willing to give it a try.

Here's the engine from my newly-acquired LGB set.

I took a few minutes during lunch today to clarify, crop, caption and clean up the photo library my Wildlife at Tritt Springs photo album. There are a few newcomers that I haven't identified yet, so proceed with all haste and help me out!

Note: I've ordered the photos according to the subject - e.g. all the Tufted Titmice will appear together in the library, but I noticed that the order didn't translate to the online album. I'll work that out soon.

Click the pic below to enter the library!

Wildlife at Tritt Springs

So, first things first. Devin can climb out of his crib and open his door. This is usually the sign of Drastic Changes In Your Morning Routine. This morning, I was still lying in bed when I heard Devin open his door and close it, and usually he makes his way upstairs to see us. Lately, however, he has shown more interest in Things Downstairs, since that is where we use Skype to do some video phone action with Grandma. This morning was no different. We left the downstairs gate open, so the dogs could go in out and (mental note: dogs stay in bed with us until we get up) as such, Devin decided he would go downstairs.

Things were quiet for a while, so I got up, walked downstairs and didn't see Devin, so I assumed he got up and broke into Maya's room for some morning fun. Not at all. I got Maya up, started getting her dressed and then I saw Devin poke his head up from the stairs. He ran up and said good morning, and I got him changed. I didn't really think anything of it, rather than needing to close the gate at night.

Then, as I started getting Devin changed, I felt the footies on his pajamas were all wet.

I looked him in the eye and asked, "Did you go downstairs?"
"Yes," he replied, rather matter of factly.
"Did you go into daddy's office?"
"Yes."
"Did you go outside?"
"Yes."

Mental note now made to *really* make sure I close the gate at night. I verified by looking out of my office window, and sure enough one of his toy cars is laying out there. Life changes yet again.

Oh, and speaking of the toy airplane - I got a neat little toy airplane that makes take-off and cruising noises and has some blinky blinky lights. I didn't expect to get one for Maya, as I was hoping to get something different for her, maybe some sort of Ben Franklin doll, or maybe a replica Liberty Bell, you know, something appropriate for a 2 year old. Well I didn't find anything in the airport, and I knew I had stashed a few unopened Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars in a cabinet for future use, so I figured I'm ok with just the one airplane. Fast forward to today at lunch, when I go upstairs to have family lunch and I produce the airplane and the car. The airplane? Huge hit. *HUGE*. Sidebar: I watched Devin playing with the plane in his crib for about 30 minutes before he fell asleep.   Rewind to lunch time, and all hell is breaking loose because Maya is not even the least bit interested in the Toyota Truck with raised suspension and Baja-style body work and spare tire.  No, even Devin pushed away Ramone in favor of the Ja-Ru toy Delta airplane, and Maya was none-too-happy about it. In fact, her only consolation was to be removed, after lunch, to Steph's computer where she and Daddy watched a few videos and played some games on SesameStreet.org.  By the way, if you haven't experienced that website, you should.  The indexing on videos has quite a few notches on the Belt of Awesome.

My last-ditch effort was to call a colleague who is on a return flight this evening, and have her pick up another plane from the airport... Here's hoping she isn't delayed.

It's holiday time, and that's when I break out my collection of G-scale trains, which is a family custom of the Littles that stretches back 2 generations. Well, it's not really that much of a stretch, but myself, my brother, my father and my uncle are into it. As a family we used to acquire a new LGB piece about every year. I got my first set a few years ago and have been adding once a year or so ever since. Here are a few from my childhood, that I remember quite vividly.  I’m sure BJ and Dad will get a kick out of these:

 

It's the Rio Grande caboose, No. 4065 and the Shell Tanker, that contains a working valve. What great cars! Anyway...I struck the mother lode two years ago when Uncle Joey and Aunt Mary saw fit to bless the family with a boxful of rolling stock. That added about 7 cars to the train.

This year, in my semi annual quest to add LGB stock to my collection, I found out that LGB of Germany filed for bankruptcy back in late 2006 and production had stopped. That wouldn't normally bother me at all because I don't usually by brand-new stuff, but lack of replacement parts could be problematic. What's more is that the recently-spun off LGB of America (LGBoA) was unable to provide service and parts after their agreements expired and local stock ran out.

LGBoA made a bid to purchase the defunct LGB Gmbh's assets, but lost out to Marklin, another Germany model train manufacturer. Marklin got rights to the LGB brand and distribution channels. Marklin started producing and shipping again in 2007, and signed an agreement with LGB0A for existing product, however that agreement has expired and LGBoA retains rights to distribute LGB-branded product in the US. The president of LGBoA formed a separate company as a hobby distributor and bought the stock from LGBoA, and has resumed distribution of said stock. In the meantime, Marklin will be distributing new LGB product in the US in January 2009.

Who knows what will happen after that, but I was able to get some new-to-me stuff from eBay this year, which has me quite jazzed! Specifically, a vintage box set, which appears to be missing the original track, transformers and people, but has an engine and two coaches. The exciting part? This is the exact same set that I had growing up, which my uncle gave to the family way-back-when. Here are some pictures of the set, before it gets into my hands:

*My apologies to Daniel Handler.

Wildlife at Tritt Springs

On our way back from Sanibel, we passed through what I’m certain is the meth capital of south Georgia.  I’m referring, of course, to Barneyville.  In the latter half of 2006 we drove down to Sanibel with our young twinkles, and had to stop here in Barneyville at about 7pm to feed the kids.  We stopped here, as it’s in the middle of nowhere and the kids where hungry and not going to wait another minute or mile.  We chose a Ramada Inn to park and pursue milk ingestion.  It didn’t turn out to be a Ramada, it was something else.  If I remember correctly, it was the Relax Inn.  Across the street, there was a disused service station that apparently serviced only drug traffic.  I saw a car parked outside the facility, with no lights on and the engine running.  Several times, different cars would drive up, exchange a flash of their lights, park aside the “dealer” for a few moments, and then drive off.  I can only assume what was going on was not a simple transaction for exchanging directions.  Anyway, if you are passing down I-75 in mid-south Georgia and have to stop – don’t do it in Barneyville.

Devin and Maya appear to be summoning up a leviathan from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, but really they’re just tossing shells into the water.  Or are they?

Day 3 begins and already we can tell it’s a day to do interior-based entertainment – the skies are intermittently dropping some rain on the streets.  Unfortunately it’s a Tuesday and the Louvre is closed, so we decide to head down to Ile de la Cite and take in the sites.  Apparently other folks had this in mind as well, as it was pretty crowded.  We took the Metro line 2 from the hotel at Courcelles over to Barbes-Rochechouart and then transferred to the Metro line 4 to Cite, and popped up right at a floral market. 

Our intent was to visit the church at St Chappelle, which houses some magnificent medieval stained glass – in fact, the oldest and probably the best of that in Paris and perhaps Europe.  As luck would have it, the chapel was closed from 1300-1415, so we crossed the street to Cafe American for a warm cup of cappuccino, a croque monsieur, a salad, and to pass the time.  The cafe was bustling with activity.  Waiters dashing about, people coming and going, the general din of two dozen indistinct conversations in English and French, and of course, eating and drinking.  Thus far on the trip we haven’t found many rude Parisians, but perhaps that’s because I at least attempt some French, which they seem to appreciate, and I happen to enjoy.  Around five past the hour, we headed back across the street to resume standing in line for St Chappelle.   Incidentally, my recollections of Paris from 1998 were that the crowds were non-existent, however this time around it is definitely mobbed.  Probably not as bad as during the spring and summer, but we are definitely not alone.  We were about 40 people back and the line was pretty quick-moving, once the place was open.  Let’s just say that in France, opening times are much less exact than closing time. 

The Inside of the chapel, which was once the private chapel of the medieval royalty and courtiers of Paris, is definitely not an active church.  The lower level consists of a shop selling books and tourist what-not, and some saint effigies.  Upstairs, things get much more interesting.  The upper chapel is lined with glass which illustrates scenes from each book of the Bible, and an imposing high-set blue altar which at one point held some saintly relics and supposedly some wood from the Cross and the Crown of Thorns.  Seems every church has that stuff. 

If you find yourself wanting to study the stained glass in detail, bring a pair of binoculars or a really good telephoto lens on your camera.  I have a 300mm lens and was able to get the detail shot above.  Also, if you can make it on a sunny day, the lighting inside is even more spectacular. 

After exhausting the sights in St Chappelle, we crossed over to the most magnificent of all the Gothic cathedrals, at least in Victor Hugo’s words.  Interestingly, when I was here last, the cathedral was rather drab, what with hundreds of years of weather and most recently, pollution.  Not so today – as we found out much later, there has been a years-long process of cleaning to remove the crap from the cathedral using lasers of all things!  These days the cathedral is quite a sight to behold in all its clean splendor.  This time around we made it to the archaeological crypt, which is fairly interesting, and to the interior.  We did not venture up the towers to see Quasimodo or any of his gargoyle buddies, unfortunately.  It just wasn’t in the cards for this trip.  I’m not too sad about it as I did that back in 1998 so I wasn’t missing the 400+ steps to get up there.  By the way, that still isn’t the most steps you can climb in Paris.

The Crypt of Notre Dame is interesting if you want some history on the original settling of the area, and the founding the island city of Lutecia (as called by the Romans), and then later the unification of the location people under Clovis I, who renamed the city Paris for the Parisi tribe.  It appears to be an active archaeological dig to some degree and shows bits of the original Roman roads and the pre-medieval roads and buildings on up to middle ages and beyond.  Photographically it’s not too terribly inviting, and most of the signage is in French/English which is helpful, however the special signage is all in French, which is not helpful.  Let me also point out that, in general, most things are not bilingual in France.  The French are very proud of their heritage including the language, and there is probably still lingering resentment over the fact that French is not the lingua franca of international politics as it once was.  We also found out later that the Academie Francaise has 50 members which are appointed for life, get to wear green jackets like PGA tour champs, and decide on the grammar and etymological definitions for all things in French (e.g. coming up with French words for new terminology..  I hear they are still upset that the people are still using “hot dog” and “weekend” (e.g. “bon weekend! au revoire!”).

 

Anyway, I digress.  The Crypt was a nice hour diversion from the crowds as it was nearly devoid of people, save for about 20 folks interested in the goings-on underground.  After we completed the circuit there, we popped up in the Notre Dame parvais, and decided to wander into the church, which by the way is still active.  Here, I ran into one of only a few rude Parisians – I asked the clerk behind the desk what time the church closed for visitors and she replied, “it’s closed.”  This was confusing as there were throngs of people going in behind us, so we just continued in anyway.  I guess in retrospect she might’ve thought I was asking about the audio-guide rental facility.  Oh well.. we wandered around the interior of the cathedral, which was as I remembered it, except this time it was utterly crowded with people.

We paid an extra 3 euro to check out the Treasury, but let me tell you that it is so meager in comparison to the treasury at St Peter’s in the Vatican.  If you are a Notre Dame history buff, or a Napoleonite, then it might be worthwhile, as there is some sort of vestment worn by Napoleon and some gifts bestowed by him.  Otherwise, there are some bits and trinkets to look at, but nothing really exciting.  There are also some relics here if that’s your thing too.

What was more interesting were the goings-on inside the church itself – seems there was a service going on right at the time we exited the Treasury!  We went in and sat for a bit but it was all in French and was not the usual Catholic mass setup I’m used to; there was a singing introduction and procession, and then a lack of activity for 15 minutes until something else happened.  So basically we sat in for the intro and then bailed.  It was pretty interesting, hearing the organ going and watching this mass in a medieval cathedral!

 

Afterwards we hopped out back and walked around the gardens and admired the flying buttresses, and also got a cheese:

That was it for the evening, so we made our way back towards our side of the Seine for dinner and preparation for our trip to Amsterdam!

As we continue to get ourselves unpacked (not even close), set up (sorta) and settled in (not really), I've taken some time out to prop up some wildlife feeders around the house. The previous owners were very much into birds, so I suppose that works out well for us as the critters might continue to forage for seed around the house. I placed two feeders outside of our front windows, which afford a fantastic view of the front yard and any visitors to the area. So far, I've identified several bird species, and we get the occasional chipmunk and squirrel as well. We might even have a chipmunk that's burrowing in between a few rocks in the yard, but time will tell if that's the case. Here's a link to some pictures I've taken - if you're a subscriber to Bird Fancy, why don't you help me out in identifying some of the unknown species I have, will you? So far, I have pictures of a Tufted Titmouse, some type of Wren, American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadee, and an Eastern Chipmunk. There are a few unidentified wingers in there too. I've also seen, but not photographed, a few woodpeckers. That has been remedied by keeping a camera close at hand in the kitchen :)

Wildlife at Tritt Springs

So, as most of our fair readers know, we've moved. Most of you also know it was a decision based entirely on school district. Well, it became a lot more than that when we spied this cute li'l number (3540, to be exact). I'd just like to tell you that our new house is so "us" it is crazy. We have and will have many projects, as it is a twenty five year-old pad, but we will do each one lovingly, knowing that our sweat equity is going into something fantastic! So, besides the excitement over that (and being in the home stretch of another semester at SPSU), I am truly overjoyed and hopeful of the direction in which our country is headed. The win for President-Elect Obama was not just one for him, Democrats, or even our country. The world is celebrating this victory with us! We are on the path to regaining our respect and credibility globally, and that is, in fact, something we were never safe without. It is indeed a time for celebration!!!! Just wanted to share. :-)

We went trick-or-treating with cousins Kyra and Wyatt, and some of their friends, down in South Carolina this year.  Steph was at our new home getting as much done as possible to get the kids’ rooms prepared and furnished, so she missed out on this year.  I have a few pix from the festivities, hopefully Jamie will send some more I can add.

Maya the tentative bumblebee.

Devin the not-at-all-cowardly Lion 

The procession prepares to..er, proceed.

Wait, we can’t leave without everyone!

Maya somewhat hesitant at the first door.  

Everybody’s having a good time now!  Especially since Devin didn’t want to carry his own bag.

Afterwards the gang is tired and ready to obtain a sugar buzz.

“C’mon, Dad, dole out some treats!”