Note To Future Self

In anticipation of our impending trip to summerland, I hit up ye olde poncy fabric emporium for a couple of loose ends. Before you could say bam!, the grizzly bear had a couple of new skirts.

Coming soon to a grandparental lap near you.

Of course, she’s wearing this one at school today, so who knows whether it’s fit to be seen in public anymore.

Somewhere, deep in the bush of Westland, a Kiwi is shedding a tear for his poor, lost nation.

A fruit pie has won the supreme pie award.

What’s next for this poor wayward nation? Holden drivers that don’t hoon? Rugby shorts in mid-thigh cuts?

Here’s a proper pie for ya (with some friends):

As if we don’t have enough troubles, yesterday we were hit by the worst snows in 15 years.

It’s easy to get sniffy about 6 inches of snow and temps in the mid 20s, but in a city of broken homes, collapsed chimneys, and chemical toilets it just makes everything that much worse.

It was wonderful snowball and snowman snow, though. Today it’s just icy.

The camera will reveal the true grizzly bear!

You’re a pirate! Ar!

You smell stinky cheese. Work it.

Aaand, we’re done.

You should see her blue steel.

p.s. It’s winter. We’ve gone really quite loopy.

It’s winter and our video watching has gone up. Most, of course, is “the man.” (What’s the man doing, mama? Where is the man, mama? What’s the penguin doing, mama? Where is the man?) And despite our strong objections, she really wants to see more of the cars with the eyes.

But most importantly. I’ve also taken it upon myself to introduce my daughter to the joy that is internet videos.

We have two favorites right now. On Friday we always watch the new product post at Sparkfun.

And she likes biking videos. Mostly mountain biking and an occasional artsy-fartsy road video. Road racing is a bit too sedate for her, and I had to exercise some parental control on the bike courier/alley cat/BMX/fixed freestyle content because they were, uh, generally poor role models w.r.t. the flaunting of personal safety and traffic laws.

More than anything else, though, we enjoy dancing to “Raindrops”:

Raindrops from Filme von Draussen on Vimeo.

Which combines my two favorite things in the world: mountain bikes and, uh, a capalla-and-vocoder renditions of Basement Jaxx songs.

See the resemblance?

(image courtesy the Portland Mercury)

Yeah, baby.

Little girl, what are you doing?

I’m texting my robot.

Ohhh-kay, glad I asked.

Dad,

get me off this thing.

I want out of this family.

Winters here aren’t particularly severe, but we do get a bit of the, uh, clear stuff in the old paddling pool.