Hey, stop calling me Lucan! Call yourself Lucan!
— Lucy’s rebuttal upon being compared to a 70s TV character

Occasionally the kid lets her freak flag fly and expresses her general disagreement with the concept of clothing by running around in her underwear shouting, “I’m half-naked! Can’t catch me!”

Picture a 3′ 3″ blur of hair, undies, and attitude. She basically looks like a miniature caveman with a Pampers sponsorship running amuck. Invariably, I’ll start calling her Lucan, no doubt because the most accessible (and least cluttered) filing cabinet in my brain is labeled:

“Old TV Show/Comic Book/Movie/Music (60s-80s) Trivia—VERY IMPORTANT!”

Lucan was a short-lived TV show in the ’70s that my little sister and I watched semi-regularly. It told the story of a dude who spends his childhood out in the forest and is raised by a bunch of wolves. He eventually gets reclaimed by society as a dirty, snarling, crazy-haired wild-child (the Bundle connection). He then grows up as a guinea pig in some government-sponsored research lab until his inevitable escape. Action and stuff ensue (at least for the season it was on). I’m actually startled by how much of this I’m remembering.

  Lucan Attacks!

Anyway, like a lot of useless info, the tale of Lucan is permanently embedded in my brain, probably hunkered down in my hippocampus, shooing away frivolous thoughts regarding the placement of car keys, wallets, and PIN codes.

So this is why I call the kid Lucan. And the funny thing is: this kid, all of 42 months old, takes much umbrage with this label. “Stop calling me Lucan. YOU’RE LUCAN!” she’ll yell as she dashes away from the 30+ year TV show aspersion. I get a kick out of that.

Lucy: Tell me a pretend story about how Wubie doesn’t like Christmas lights and it’s Christmas.
Jill: Does Wubert get a present?
Lucy: Yes, a catnip mouse…but he doesn’t like it!
Jill: What would he rather have?
Lucy: A sardine sandwich!
Jill: OK. Wubert gets a sardine sandwich. Did he get a present for you?
Lucy: Yeah, a poop! Yech!
— A conversation overheard in the car

Academy of Sciences from Mike C on Vimeo.

I’ve been cranking out the videos lately in an attempt to get caught up with the mountain of footage Jill and I shoot on a continual basis. So with that said, here’s another gem from my “Getting Caught Up/Making Room on the Drobo” series.

Jill shot this video in April when she, the kid, and Auntie Laura visited the Academy of Sciences. It’s full of penguins, fish, stingrays, and seahorses, with a couple of squirrels thrown in for good measure.

It also features a little kid having a most fun and memorable day, courtesy of her mommy and auntie. Check it out and see if you can spot where Jill encounters the elephant butt.

“Nice hairdo, Daddy!”
— Lucy smiling (after I’d made an effort to look less unkempt). When I asked if she was making fun of me, she said without hesitation: “Yes!”

Last weekend we met some good friends at the San Jose Obon Festival.

Lucy’s been to a few Obons in her time (she’s 3 and a half, ya know) so she’s an old pro now. (She even has her own yukata.)

In addition to seeing the sites, playing games, having her parents chase her to and fro, and chowing down, Lucy participated in her first Bon Odori dance. She was very excited about it.

The San Jose Bon Odori was huge, with hundreds of people. Lucy had a blast attempting to duplicate the movements of all the dancers. I think she did an admirable job, though her concentration may have wavered a bit in parts.

Pics:

The kid will be busting her yukata out again this weekend for another festival. Actually, I think she also has a birthday party to attend, so her dance card will be full for the next couple of days. I’ll make sure to bring along my trusty camcorder.

Video:

SJ Obon Festival from Mike C on Vimeo.

“Let’s do it again, she said.”
— Lucy acting as her own narrator

Birthday Party from Mike C on Vimeo.

Last month we brought Lucy to a really fun birthday party. There were lots of kids, a bouncy house, balloons, toys, a piñata, and cupcakes. Needless to say, the whole experience got a hearty thumbs up from the kid. This is a video from the party.

“We’re going to make a pumpkin pie. It’s going to be very tasty. Why don’t you have some when you are done with work? It’s going to be very tasty!”
— Lucy, upon waking from a dream she had where she’d been baking

“Wubie drove me to the cupcake stand and picked out which cupcakes I wanted.”
— Lucy at the breakfast table that same morning

Wedding Video: Extras from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s more video from my niece’s June wedding. This one is mostly the kid just running around and acting goofy.

Year 4 (Part 1) from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s the latest episode of our “Life with Lucy” series, where I post a video collage of pics and video snippets from the last six months. (A picture collage can be found here.) Previous “Life with Lucy” installments:

1. Year One: 2007 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
2. Year Two: 2008 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
3. Year Three: 2009 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)

All pics and short videos used in this collage were taken between January 1 and June 30, 2010. Noteworthy happenings from the last half year:

• January: Lucy’s third birthday
• February: Valentine’s Day, My big garage clean-up project
• March: Grass Valley visit in the snow
• April: Meeting BJ Penn, Easter
• May: Lucy’s first ballet, last Lost episode
• June: Father’s Day, Michelle’s wedding, a new nephew

Music used:

• “Maggie May” from Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart
• “Life’s Lonesome Road” from A-Town Blues by Wayne Hancock
• “Let’s Stay Together” from Let’s Stay Together by Al Green

In addition to shooting the ceremony and dinner, I made sure to pester people into making quick “congratulations!” videos for the young couple. Though I haven’t gotten around to making a video of the ceremony yet (it’s coming!), I did manage to spend some time making the “congrats” video. Here it is:

Congratulations to Michael & Michelle from Mike C on Vimeo.

Palo Alto HS Flea Market from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick video I took of our trip to the flea market yesterday (May 8th. I get the date wrong in the video.) This one’s held at Palo Alto High School the second Saturday of each month. I like it because it’s pretty small, easy to get to, and is my idea of a “real” flea market (i.e., a lot of real people selling used stuff, rather than outdoor retailers selling the kind of stuff you could pick up at any big box retail store.)

Though the kid was a bit sleepy at the beginning, she perked up once she saw stuff that interested her (toy mice, dollys, wagons, etc.)

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but wound up with a ball and mitt for $5. From the age of 8-11 I don’t think a day went by where I didn’t have a mitt on my hand at some point, probably pretending I was Campy Campaneris or Willie Mays (showing my age!) The $5 mitt brought some of those memories back when I slipped it on. And it was already broken in too—no need to stick it under the bed post! It’s funny, the stuff you wind up with at the end of the day.

Music Used:

• “How High the Moon” from Chet by Chet Baker

Bike Commute from Mike C on Vimeo.

I’d always thought about biking to work. I’m lucky in that my commute is only 10-12 miles roundtrip, so physically it’s very doable. However, I’d never actually gotten beyond just daydreaming about biking because I knew my regular car commute involved some very non-bike friendly streets with lots of traffic.

Recently I discovered Google had added bicycle routes to Google Maps. For fun I popped in my home and work addresses and was greeted with a much more bike friendly route I hadn’t considered before.

“Hmmm. This looks very doable,” I thought. I tweaked the suggested route with a bit of dragging and dropping and soon had the best possible bike route to my work.

“Man, I think this could work!” I said to a nearby (and nearly comatose) Wubert. He breathed in and out a bit in agreement.

“Now all I need is a bike.”

So I spent some time doing bike research. I went to half a dozen shops. I test-drove 6-8 bikes, and finally picked one up last week. I spent the past week doing a little riding around the neighborhood to get used to the bike. I also used the time to figure out what I’d need to make the bike (and me) ready for an actual work commute. Some of the extra stuff I picked up:

ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED

• Side Handlebar Mirror (I realized I needed this the first minute I rode the bike)
• Rear Rack (My work backpack would be heavy with a laptop, notebooks, gym bag, bike stuff, etc., and my research had turned up lots of backpack wearing bicyclists with back problems)
• Milk Crate (w/ a cargo net the cheapest, easiest way to hold lots of stuff on a rear rack)
• Helmet
• Safety Vest (‘cuz I needed something to make me look awesome)
• Patch Kit, Pump, Lock, Spare Tube, Multi-Tool (some of this stuff I already had)

NOT ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED (BUT I GOT ‘EM ANYWAY!)

• Bike Computer (about the size of a pack of matches, displays speed, distance, elapsed time, clock)
• Lights (though I don’t plan on riding at night, I wanted them in my backpack just in case)

Friday was my first commute (I figured there’d be less traffic). I even strapped my pocket camcorder to the back of my milk crate and shot some video (see above).

The ride went pretty well and was actually fun in spots, though I’m already looking for ways to lighten my 17+ pound backpack. I have a goal of putting a minimum of 500 miles on the bike by the end of the year (that’s how I justified getting the bike computer—to keep track of my miles.) I think I can do it. Wubert snores behind me in support.

Music Used:

• “Aerial Boundaries” from Aerial Boundaries by Michael Hedges

Parsley, Racing, Etc. from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of from last weekend of me and the kid just goofing around. Though it starts innocently enough with Lucy introducing me to some parsley from her garden, things get competitive when the kid issues a challenge to a race. She takes her racing pretty seriously! Keep an eye out for a Wubie cameo!

Music used:

• “1979 Semi-Finalist” from Give by The Bad Plus