“What a party night! Listen to my song, it’s a lovely little song! Oh boy, playing with cousins tomorrow! I’m so excited my hair bands might pop off!”
— Tke kid, while simultaneously watching 5 fireworks displays, airplanes taking off, and waiting for room service from our room on the tenth floor of the Hyatt Regency at Pittsburgh Int’l Airport.

Here are a few pics from our trip to Sugarcreek, Ohio. The kid’s been having lots of fun getting to know her brand new (to her) cousins. Additional pics can be found here and we’ll definitely be posting a lot more very soon.

A kid-sized town.

Our kid-sized rental car, a Fiat 500.

The kid and her cousins take a swim. Spending time in an Amish buggy.

The kid’s dreamhouse, in her favorite color of course.

The kid and Gpa.

“Going to a party in the bathroom!”
— Lucy singing in the bathtub

Lately, I’ve been scanning lots of old family photos at my mom’s place. Here are a few from Oklahoma in the mid 1950s when dad was stationed at Fort Sill.

Mom’s own father actually drove her from CA to OK in mom’s first car, a Studebaker. He then took a bus back home once he had dropped his daughter off in OK.

Above Left: my mom and a neighbor. Above Right: My dad and a neighbor’s kid (at this time my parents didn’t have any children.)

“With James and teacups with Wubie kittens popping in and out!”
— Lucy describing her dream (James is a cloud)

When driving around, we usually play little “road games” with the kid. One game we play is “spot the banana car” which involves calling out any yellow vehicle we see on the road.

Earlier this month Jill had to drop her Mini Cooper off at the shop. When she was offered a loaner for the day, she was delighted to discover it was a shiny new yellow convertible Mini. Yep, a banana car of her own (for the day, anyway).

When Jill showed us the car we immediately took it for a spin, deciding on a trek to the Palo Alto Creamery (Lucy calls it “Milkshake Town”) for lunch.

Later we made sure to take a drive at night with the top down. It was a lot of fun, especially for Lucy who’d never been in a convertible before.

Daddy: “What’d you think of that house we looked at?”
Lucy: “I loved it! It had so many weird rooms!”
— Looking at houses w/ Lucy

Friday Morning (Again) from Mike C on Vimeo.

Late last year I made a post about shooting video of a typical morning. From the post:

I thought it’d be interesting to shoot a video of a regular day, so I placed my little pocket handheld on my nightstand when I went to bed and started shooting video as soon as I woke up on Friday morning.

By the end of the day I’d decided against posting the video for all to see because of an assortment of reasons. However, I re-watched the video recently and thought it’d be OK to post an abridged version. I basically chopped out everything that followed my drive to work.

Music Used:

• “Sidewalk Flight”, “Drive In”, “Main Title” from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack by Jon Brion
• “Rusty Cage” from The Legend of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash

“Now you need to wash your hands. And by washing your hands, I don’t mean licking them. I mean actually going to the sink and using soap and water.”
— Lucy’s mom, sidestepping a Lucy loophole during a pre-lunch negotiation

I thought it’d be interesting to shoot a video of a regular day, so I placed my little pocket handheld on my nightstand when I went to bed and started shooting video as soon as I woke up on Friday morning.

However, as the day progressed, I realized I’d have to scrap the project because of a variety of issues. I ended up only shooting a few things from my morning. Above are a few video caps from the footage I shot.

So it wasn’t a total waste of time, I edited the footage I shot and password-protected it on Vimeo. I like posting all of my stuff on Vimeo, even the stuff that’s private, because I see Vimeo as a type of backup service in addition to being a regular video hosting site.

Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to revisit this project. I think something like this done annually (“A Day in the Life – 20??”) would be fun to look back on as the years go by.

Friday Morning from Mike C on Vimeo.

I may have spoken too soon about the neatness factor of my Flip Video camcorder. It’s starting to act a little funky, which you’ll see in the above video. Anyway…

Last week we had to bring Wubert to the vet. Lucy was such a good girl, constantly telling Wubert (who’s a mega-crybaby) “It’s OK” throughout the entire ordeal. Fortunately, though Wubert ended up spending nearly six(!) hours at the vet, his ultimate diagnosis was fairly benign:

DOCTOR
I think he’s constipated.

US
We think we’d like to get a second opinion.

DOCTOR
He’s overweight too.

WUBERT
(on table)
I can hear you!

Camera Used: Flip Video Ultra 60. Soundtrack:

• “It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career” from The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian

Wow, this is our 300th post! Yep, our first post was way back in December of 2006. How time flies, huh?

We had a good day today, drove up to SF to visit w/ Lucy’s Auntie Laura (and Izzy/Omi/Luna) and see Gpa Tom and Gma Karen. Lucy got a chance to play at the beach and do a little cat-chasing at Laura’s. I’m sure we’ll post some pics in the very near future. Right now it’s a little past midnight. The two girls are fast asleep and I just finished vegging in front of the TV watching UFC 95. What better time to post a quick video and scribble a little nonsense?

Anyway, I got a Flip Video camcorder off Woot recently. The specs are pretty meh compared to my main video camcorder. However, it’s way small, so it’s perfect for keeping in a pocket or glove compartment (or in Jill’s case, bounty hunter costume utility belt) just in case.

Also, since it was so inexpensive, I can take chances with it (take it to the beach, hand it off to Lucy to use, toss it in a backpack, etc.) All in all, I’m pretty happy with it. I used it to shoot the above video of a trip we made to Gma Vita’s last weekend. In the video, from all the hacking involved, you’ll see we’re all still getting over our colds. However, you’ll also see that Lucy doesn’t let a dumb cold stop her from having fun! Stuff from the video:

• Mailing a letter/netflix at the post office (yep, it was as exciting as it sounds!)
• Lucy munching on rice cakes
• Lucy and Jill exploring the backyard
• Lucy playing w/ her “mini” car
• Lucy dancing in fast motion

Music used:

• “Freight Train” and “Nine Pound Hammer” from Guitar Country by Chet Atkins
• “Cannonball Rag” from Atkins-Travis Traveling Show by Chet Atkins and Merle Travis

Yep, that’s Lucy singing her own song in the back seat of the car! Nope, I was not driving at the time…Auntie Laura was. (I added the music afterwards…she was singing and dancing to her own tune.)

This was filmed during a visit to Auntie Laura in San Francisco, we were coming back from the pottery studio where Lucy made hand and foot prints a month or so ago (see video here), this time we glazed and painted them.

Music is “Raindrops Are Falling on My Head,” by Burt Bacharach and B.J. Thomas.

When she was really little, we couldn’t complete a drive without the kid having a crying fit. Something about being shoved into a Camry and strapped immobile into a plastic seat never seemed to agree with her.

Fortunately, she enjoys going out for drives now. Whether it’s a trip to see Gma, or just a quick trek to the store, I think she sees drives as little adventures now. Adventures full of promise!

Actually, she’s so jazzed about a ride in the car now that she doesn’t even express disappointment when it has to take place in her Mom’s ho-hum Mini (rather than Dad’s super-cool Camry.) That, and maybe she doesn’t want to hurt ol’ Mom’s feelings. Whatta good kid.

Here are some pics of Lucy behind the wheel of her mom’s automobile.