odds and ends

taking a moment to blog from Panera (aka my remote office). Not much blogging lately because: (a) I've actually been working a bit (!) and, (2) I have been involved in a long-term architectural project, related to the Widge. See, For quite some time I've run a sideline business of sand-castle-tower construction, specializing in towers shaped exactly like the buckets we got at Target. My towers have the low levels of structural integrity and surface tension that are prized among young boys and small plastic trucks alike. Recently, however, I have been contracted by a certain porcine client to build a sturdy home out of wooden blocks. I have, over the past week, constructed many elaborate dwellings for Mr. Pig, in a variety of styles: Greek Classic, Georgian (that one featured a cupola!), Italianate Villa, Modernest Egyptian, Cubist, Minimalist, etc. (yeah, I made up at least one of those titles to fit the structure at hand. But most of them are genuine architectural styles). Mr. Pig, however, is a bi partier, and has very destructive tendencies, which leads me to wonder whether the huffing wolf might have been framed. At any rate I can't complain too much, because through Mr. Pig I met Mr. Goat, who is apparently also in the market for a new estate, and just yesterday Mr. Pig had his friend (also Mr. Pig) around for a home tour, which may lead to a future contract. Mr. Pig has also set me up with the Living Room Municipal Works, and I've been constructing shelters for some of their prized trucks, including an ambulance, a combine harvester, and a loader. The trucks, like Mr. Pig, prefer a high-ceilinged, elaborately designed dwelling place, and I can confidently say that mine are the only firehouses that feature Greek columns and soaring arches. They're not especially sturdy structures, but the clients seem delighted, and I keep getting new building assignments ("Mom! Build house!")

Anyway, back to work. Somebody is watching Wall-E. Reviews later.

Zoo!!!

Trip to the zoo today!
W went to the reptile house, and then somebody got a rubber snake. See how he's sticking his tongue out? (The Widge, not the snake)Although its somewhat hard to tell, this is a bear statue The Widge is explaining that the baby bear rides on the mommy bear's back, and, further, that the baby ear has a nose, which the Widge is helpfully pointing out. Many animals have funny looking noses, but most of them do have identifiable proboscises, unlike ears, which many creatures appear not to have. Locating the nose, therefore, is a fun and not overly stressful occupation Try it at your local zoo.
Bamboo has a funny name, plus we saw some gorillas eating it. To round things out, its growing all around the zoo. Hooray for bamboo!
See, this bear has obvious ears. Bears are great, they actually look very much like your garden variety local hound, in that they have an elongated nose, obvious ears, fur, teeth, and a tail. Having a garden-variety hound around the house to serve as a reference is good preparation for zoo-going, and even at my advanced age I tend to rate animals in their relative level of hound-like-ness The Komodo Dragon, for example, is very houndlike at rest: still, sluggish, droopy. Apparently in a frenzy, however the two are vastly different: the dragon will kill you, whereas the hound will whine repeatedly until you feed it.We did see other animals: birds, small mammals, elephants, etc. If the Fork ever publishes his photo blog, he has photos of us viewing other creatures, as well as, apparently, a photo of me taking the bamboo photo, in case you should want to see such a thing. At any rate, the Widge had such a good time, he actually reached a point where he was no longer capable of viewing animals, and sat calmly in his stroller until he fell asleep. With, you'll note, his beloved rubber snake. The snake later had to sit with him at the dinner table, and was even offered bites of dinner. I'm pleased to report that this specific species seems to enjoy he Hamburger Helper, and so will hopefully not be gobbling birds (we have a yard full of birds, and Grandma would be sad to lose them to a rubber predator).

so apparently, in spite of the total lack of cannon, it was a good day to be a little boy.

Even More Civil War

yup. We went to the Civil-War era (what other era is there?!?) earthworks fort at Mayfield. Here's a helpful map:
see, that totally clears everything up. Here we clearly see all the important information we'd ever need to know about Mayfield: theres a railroad nearby, and also some wavy lines indicating elevation change. Up? Down? We don't know!! Thumbs up, geographers, for the exceptional clarity of maps in general. (Actually, there is a geographer who tends to read this blog. Like most normal people, I had assumed the last actual geographers were Lewis and Clark, but apparently we still train these people in our universities, in spite of the fact that theres already a map to everywhere worth going. I'm not entirely certain what a modern geographer does, and they don't seem to be either: they can tell you in great detail what they don't do, but I've never once heard a clear description of what the function of a geographer is. Personally I think they should put some time into making mapquest run accurately, rather than directing me to turn the wrong way on one-way streets, or go 10 miles out of my way for no apparent reason. On the other hand, as far as I know there are roughly three geographers left alive in the world: the one I married, the one I'm friends with, and someone to train the other two. This is why I can post such a lengthy musing on them: even if the full force of geographer wrath descends upon me, I'm pretty sure I'll be just fine. What can they do to me anyway? post bad directions on mapquest?).

Mayfield is in Manassas, on a high place overlooking the old town. If you study the map, you'll see that adjoining the Mayfield fort is a place called Hooe, that used to be a plantation belonging to the Hooe family. Here's their cemetery:
Seriously, my new hobby is going to be cemetery photography. There are plenty around, some of the gravestones are quite lovely, its easy to pose the subjects, they don't wiggle during the shot, and they never complain. (How many of you noticed that the Widge wasn't wearing pants in the Gettysburg cemetery?). Anyway, although I have no pictures of the actual earthwork fort, because it was bascally a high, grassy place with a Napoleon gun on it, and honestly, haven't we seen enough cannon lately (I sure have), but I do have a photo of me!
aliens took the photo! Well, actually Mr. Forkman took it, but he told me I didn't have to credit him, I could make up a story if I wanted to.

and after that, we went to old-town Manassas and saw a train!!! TRAIN!!! it had a CABOOSE!!!! Widge got to climb on it!!!!! I cannot stress the excitement of train viewing enough.
Look at the Widge, he looks like he's running for office.

Adventures in American History

According to the Travel Channel, I've been to four of the top ten creepiest destinations ever: the Mutter Museum in Philly, the Tower of London, Salem Massachusetts, and, key to this post, Gettysburg.

Since we just got back from Gettysburg today, and I saw the creepiest places show just now, I'll include my cemetery photos here.

Now look, I don't want any comments about it being disrespectful for the Widgie to run among the graves. He's 2. Aside from that, don't you think each poor, deceased soldier would have loves to hear a child's happy laugh just once more? Didn't these guys all fight for the sort of freedom that allows us to leave our hometown and travel across state lines to visit historical sites? The point here is, here's this town who's very name is synonymous with death, misery, tragedy, but here's this little boy, just so happy o be alive and running around in the sunshine.


an unknown Zouave from PA. These markers are laid out in semicircles by state, and I was stepping over this one to grab the Widge or check out a monument or something, and I glanced down and saw this, and thought it would be a great photo. I don't usually take photos that don't include people I know.so here's the last one, the Widge enjoying a "boomy gun"

Adventures in American History

Ordinarily the Manassas battlefield is a place I drive through on my way to Barnes and Noble. But today, like a tourist, I went. (Manassas is the site of the first and second battles of Bull Run, for my fellow northerners. This would be during the Civil War [War Between the States, or even War of Northern Aggression, for my southern friends], not my war of expertise, to the extent that I had to wiki the year of the battle).
Look at that cute stone house in the back of the photo. Its the Stone House! Those crazy southern landowners and their inventive place names!

luckily for us, there was a little reenactment going on.

The Widge and his Uncle/Hero inspected the mighty Bull Run. Clearly this is a Force of Nature, totally worthy of not one, but two battles being named after it.


I'm pretty sure this is how the Union Army forded the mighty rapids in 1861.

Of course the cannons were the highlight. The Widge carefully counted each one: there were ten, because thats how high he can count. All in all it was a great day, and we've planned even more great treks into history, so stay tuned. Meanwhile I bought a comic book about the first battle of Bull Run, so hopefully I'll actually learn something.