my next adventure

The Mount Mitchell Challenge... this is gonna hurt.

my dream house

Amalia's new bike

So we (I) decided Amalia needed a new bike. Her age suggested she needed a 12" (defined by the wheel size) but the local shop had a 16" that was half price because it was used, but hardly. Since Amalia is tall, I went for it. She loves it! Yesterday we spent a lot of time riding around the neighborhood. You might notice she is wearing cycling gloves. We got those for protection from crashes. She is also wearing her new Argentina jersey that I found on ebay. Its a bit big but she loves it, even wanted to wear it to school today. Anyway, she loved riding. She has mastered going fast, is getting used to brakes (likes to skid), but doesn't really understand steering. That said, I might be wrong. I would say 'turn left' and she would go right, or vice versa. I thought she just didn't understand me or how to steer. But upon further thought, I think she was counter-steering. Car drivers may not understand it, but on 2-wheels counter-steering is everything. She's got 'it'.

driving fast

My brother and I used to debate who was faster, him in any car or a F1 driver in a VW Vanagon. I always claimed that the driver makes all the difference in the world so the VW would beat him. He always said he would be faster. Well, here is part of the answer. This clip is from Top Gear, a british car show in which a lady drives a Ford Transit van around Nurburgring, check it out.

Amalia gets in touch with her roots

Below are some recent pics of Amalia getting in touch with her roots. How so? Well, first are the pics of her next to the cactus flower. The cactus is a night blooming cirrus that my grandfather, her great-grandfather, grew from seed. For some reason he loved growing these cactus and we have a few. They only bloom once/year for one night. Amalia seemed to like them. 

The other occasion are of us using an apple cider press that belonged to Lisa's great grandfather, Amalia's great-great grandfather. This cider press left the family but made it back. Turns out a local organizer of a community garden saw it on our porch and asked if he could use it. They were having a picnic at the garden and wanted to press some cider but his press was broken. So he cam and got Lisa's and cleaned it up. He taught me how it works so I plan to use it in the future. Its pretty simple and pretty neat. The cider was really good and Amalia loved it!

good news

My folks are celebrating their 40th anniversary today. Pretty impressive. I think the odds are that it will last...

On another note, Amalia went her second full day at school today wearing big girl underwear and no diaper. Wow, what a great thing! So it seems that diapers are part of her past. I'm sure there will be some accidents but its so nice not to change diapers.

science rap

This can even make physics cool.