The Adventures of El Destructo (and Family)

Quin's WoG Levels

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:00:51 -0400

Quin looooooves World of Goo. He doesn't even have the full version yet (for his birthday, shh-don't-tell-he-already-knows-shh-shh).

Anyway, he spends most of his day, when not playing WoG, creating WoG levels on paper. He's even given them names, and pretty good names, actually. Here are some:

Quin's Big Level

Big Rockfall

Do Nine Tries Before You Can Get the Hang of It

The Big Pop Goo Tower

The Goo's Adventure in Time

I am looking for some smart Goo hacker to turn them into real levels, But Quin will be that Goo Level Hacker himself, soon enough.

Wow, we really let this site's maintenance slide

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:03:02 -0500

Pictures from Snowmageddon. Day one, the first storm was pretty impressive.

After the blizzard stopped, the next day was beautiful!

Then came storm 2, possibly even more impressive.

The day after, beautiful again. But so much snow I have never seen anything like it!

Well, that's all for now.

Quin's Birthday Amazon Wish List

Sat, 23 May 2009 14:40:27 -0400

http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/1D93NK9NI2A2Z

Holiday gift ideas for the boys

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:29:55 -0500

We seem to keep getting asked "so what do the boys want for the holidays?" (well, actually, the holiday part tends to be more specific but you get the idea) and so I think a gift list is a good idea. Here goes...

Important Unit Specifications

Child, boy, unit 1, is 42" tall, weighs about 40 pounds, and wears a size 10 shoe ("toddler" ten? it is the 10 that is actually pretty small). He has outgrown all of his size 4T clothes! He cannot get any clothes smaller than 5/5T. (Long sleeve shirts should probably be kid's "S" by now, as he will be able to wear those next year also.) His system name is QUIN.

Child, boy, unit 2, is 32" tall, weighs about 27 pounds, and is 21 months old. He still wears some 12mo clothes, but those are almost entirely too small. He fits real well into his 18mo clothes. But that is NOW. He must not get any clothes smaller than 24mo/2T. He wears a size 6 shoe. His system name is OLIVER.

Please, to prevent duplicate acquisition of Recreation and Assorted Activity Devices, consult with Adult Units 1 and 2 to confirm existing stock. (i.e. call Kim and Jeff to see if we have the thing already)

Potential Unit Recreation and Assorted Activity Devices
Unit 1

Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars
Books that may teach simple reading. Suggestion: Mo Willems' "Elephant and Piggie" series. (Actually, any Mo Willems book is great!) Suggetion 2: Any "David" books by David Shannon.
Kid's board game(s). Trouble, Chute's and Ladders, Candyland, etc.

Unit 2

Stuffed animals. Especially cute or unusual ones.
Board books (that we don't already have, not that we even know what we have at this point)
Big chunky safe-for-2-year-old cars. For example, the "Chubbies" by Vikingtoys [Viking Toys at Amazon]

Wow, I was really trying hard to keep updating this thing.

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:01:49 -0500

Okay, so I missed a lot of updating. Sorry! Looks like last we tuned in it was an a-maze-ing conr adventure in the beginning of October and it is already Thanksgiving! Whew, time goes fast.

Well, since I don't have a digital camera anymore [1] I have taken to using my phone more and more. Luckily, the thing takes not-too-bad pics and videos that are pretty easy to upload. So here are some VIDEO UPDATES! Yay! In no particular order.

Last week, we went to the Inner Harbor for a little while. Actually, we really went to the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which has some great (and FREE) kids activities on Saturdays. After that we weren't really all done being out, and we had brought lunch, and it was turning out to be kinda nice after being kinda rainy, so we went to the Inner Harbor to eat and walk around for a little. My parking carma was in full effect as I was able to park extremely close and for free. So here are some vids of the boys chasing pigeons.

I wish I had taken more! I also have a couple of videos of the boys at a typical dinner time, chatting, winking, smiling, laughing, and being normal. Warning: video content only interesting to parents, grandparents, and possibly some other next-level relatives of said children. You have been warned.

OKAY SEEYA BYE!

The Olympus E-420 is available for as little as $449. Hint hint nudge nudge.

CORN MAZE!!

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:54:09 -0400

Hi, so, we went to this amazing Corn Maze today. It was a lot of fun. The farm had a pumpkin patch, animals, and a corn maze. The maze was, to quote Quin, "Ginormous!"

Anyway, I took some picture phone pictures. My camera is dead. Like I said before, this is the perfect time to buy Quin and Oliver's Daddy a new digital SLR. Prices have come way, way down. So with that said, first some links to a couple of great DSLRs, and then, some great pics of the boys.

Okay, enough of that!

So, Quin and Oliver liked the Corn Maze. Here is them getting lost in it:

And a quick peek behind him:

Also, I grabbed a vid of the kids. My phone is pretty good, but not as good as a real digital SLR. Not sure if I mentioned that already.

I thought this was pretty funny...

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:17:54 -0400

So we're eating dinner. The radio mentioned "blah blah blah by twenty-twelve blah blah" and Quin picked up on the 2012 part.

Quin: "Twenty twelve??!"
Daddy: "Do you know what that is? It's a year, a date"
Q: Oh
D: You will be EIGHT years old in 2012. You'll be able to read, and be in school [etc etc]. Do you want to learn to read?
Q: Yes! But not right now, because I'm eating dinner!

I thought that was funny.

BYE!

Video Updates From The Pool

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:37:58 -0400

So, yes, been at pool a lot. They have a nice snack bar (nice as in that it exists and has a large-ish selection of deep fried food items and ice cream, but it is run by slow, indifferent teenagers with generally poor customer skills).

Anyway, July 3rd we went and got some ICE CREAM. In cones. Oliver loves it, but is a little uncertain on the proper eating technique. Quin loves it but is a little uncertain on the proper eating technique, but different aspects of said ice-cream eating technique than Oliver.

OLIVER EATING ICE CREAM

So, do note that Oliver eats ice-cream cones from the bottom up. Yes, we know, it is not really the most effective technique, but it worked for him, and that's all that really matters, now, isn't it?

QUIN EATING ICE CREAM

Oliver in Pool, Quin is Nuts

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:14:26 -0400

Hi, everyone. Just some wee updates for yins. File under "Mommy and Daddy Notes," as this is Daddy spekkin. Lessee here...

So, been spending a good bit of time at the pool lately. So HOT out! Oliver loves, and I mean loves the pool. He is a bit more of a water baby than Quin every was, as Quin still doesn't like getting his face wet. I often wonder if that is a parenting issue -- did we jump in too quickly on our poor baby when he was a wee one, oh no, fell in the water oh oh oh! and condition him to be afraid of putting his head in the water -- or is it just his personality. Like most things in life, then answer is probably somewher in between, but my parental guilt assures me that it leans towards the "our fault" side of the spectrum.

Anyway, Oliver, who has pretty much converted into full walker-hood this week, loves the deep pool. The one that goes up to three feet. Mind you, Oliver is two feet tall. So, that is a bit of a problem. (See diagram).

He doesn't care about that, though. He just barrels on down into the deep end, laughing all the way. Oops! Too deep! Under water! Glub glub!

Quin, on the other hand, who is now tall enough to cross the entire big-kid's pool with his head above water, still insists that I hold his hand for the whole trip. "Close your mouth, Quin!" But it is pretty hard for our very active boy to keep his mouth closed for more than three seconds. But he'll get it eventually.

Right now, Quin is standing next to me saying a rhyme.

Gomikka pikka pickle man
a fna a man oh stan o lan
chacka bocka ban, a wakka wakka wan
oh stan oh man oh chokca locka fan

etc...

Argh, broke my camera

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:18:48 -0400

So, I broke my camera. Zowie. Not sure when I'll get a new one, so expect crappy cell-phone pictures for a while. (Actually, my phone takes rather decent pictures. Also, still got the video camera!)

So, Oliver is pretty much a full-on walker now. He roams around the house, this way and that, like drunken Frankenstein's monster. Or maybe The Mummy. But he is so funny; he will walk and wobble all the way across the room, stop, look, pivot, wobble, and turn, and then go back to where he was. The destination, the journey is, my young padawan Oliver.

So, anyway, no more good quality pics for a while. (The Nikon D40 DSLR is only $489.99 at Newegg.com hint hint birthday birthday hint) But I do have some more video clips I created for posting! I hope I get a chance, soon, to prep and upload them.