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?