Eric and Dane in the recording studio

...This is the one!
Eric and Dane have been fixing up the garage into the recording studio of their dreams (I think). They have not been listening to Pet Sounds while doing so, more fools they. They also spent at least an hour looking at foam panels for the walls to create an echo chamber. Foam is expensive!
They've made it quite cozy out there, a nice den and dad hangout.

flavors of the alphabet

Oscar got some magnetic letters from his baba yaga. The O is preferred at the moment, because he can try to rip it apart with his sharp little teeth (he has four teeth now). His favorite game is to drop the O while sitting up somewhere high (the bouncy chair, the high chair). He says "Eh!" and then I pick it up for him. How do they know that this is what to do? 

Drummer boy inna box

When Eric starts playing on the drum, Oscar will stop what he's investigating, turn around, and come crawling full tilt until he can put his hands on the drum head and stop the noise! But then he takes on of the sticks from Eric so that he can start making noise himself. They are quite a team.

ooo!

We're trying to teach Oscar to play the harmonica. Going "hoo!" seems to be the first step.

Kilroy

Escape from the Fort!

We went on an adventure today to view fall bonsai at the Denver Botanic gardens. On the way in we were assaulted by Greenpeace people who Eric foolishly talked to, having forgotten his training from CSU of never, ever, talking to someone who says "Do you have just one minute?"

But we extricated ourselves and made it into the gardens. They are beautiful and worth a second visit, especially to the tropical house in the winter I think.

Here I am "trying my best to be Japanese" as Eric says. That's a 250 year old ponderosa pine behind us.

The Monet garden. Lilypads galore!

Lunchtime blues. No one is having any fun.

Ta-da! Lunch makes everything better!

Oscar got many compliments on his Colorado hat from Laurie, which now fits him perfectly.

After lunch Oscar tried to make a break for it himself. As far as we know he hadn't encountered stairs before.

yarn baby

Clearly working full-time is hindering my blogging! At least I'm making lots of progress on my research.

At any rate, my friend Barbara gave me a box full of weaving yarn that her neighbor had given her. And Oscar decided to investigate.

I think he liked what he saw! Also, the outfit he's wearing says "Little Space Monkey". I like it, but who decided that was what a baby outfit needed? Baby clothes often baffle me. Why do they all have pockets? Have you ever seen a baby use its pockets? What have you got in your pocket?

splishy splashy

We're Brothers!

I wonder if my brother felt this way when i got married

upright posture

He'll do anything for a cell phone.

weekending

Saturday morning this is what we saw:

Future pope?

Hell no!

Then he went crawling around on the floor even though he's in a sleep sack. 

We also saw some nice creatures in the back yard.

We went to the garden store that's open now even though it was flooded, and bought lots of bulbs. Then I had to make a new garden to put all the bulbs into. Oscar helped. He ate a lot of dirt, and sucked on a lot of mulch.

Last night there was a thunderstorm, and now the wind has changed. Goodbye Mary Poppins - hello fall.

further progress

Oscar now has two teeth, definitely. He even seems to have paused in drool production for the moment. Not only that, but he thinks he can stand all by himself. He's wrong, of course, but we indulge his delusions.

Just drove past this on my way home

~20 miles down the highway.

interesting times

What's up with the extreme weather, Colorado?

Eric's stuck in Castle Rock for the near future. Whenever the sun peeks out he might get some painting done. I'm ensconced at home - I definitely don't want to get stuck at school! The roads have all been dry, with no gigantic puddles. I think nothing should happen to our house. There is no indication that Horsetooth Dam is in trouble. The sun is out right now which makes all the talk of 5 inches of rain in an hour sound absurd, and yet I do hear that this is in our forecast for tonight.

Right now I'm working on a fellowship proposal that I do not want to do. But since I'm at home anyway I guess I might as well... It will not incorporate any of the nice images I've been taking. And, when I went to the store, which I only did because our cupboards were empty, and which was so full of people buying jugs of water already at only 10am, I forgot to get any candy!!! I've been eating Oscar's arrowroot cookies instead for brain fuel. I hope he won't mind.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Oscar sleeps in many goofy positions, which we can see thanks to the video baby monitor. Eric likes to document these. It used to look a lot like an ultrasound when the camera was pointed at the side of the crib and you had to interpret whether the lump was Oscar's head or his butt, or just a wadded-up blanket.

Eric also likes to make fun of Oscar's robe, because it's ridiculous for a baby to have a robe! That may be true, but he does look adorable in it.

I have a suspicion that he's getting a second bottom tooth to keep the first one coming. Stay tuned! Further updates as events warrant!

tomato sauce

Eric's parents can grow some righteous tomatoes. Eric brought the ripe ones up with him last week, since they were on vacation, and I used them to make a just-right tomato sauce. The recipe is here:  http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/08/naked-tomato-sauce/

In brief, blanch, peel and de-seed three pounds of tomatoes and let them simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, slowly (like, over 45 minutes) bring 1/4 cup of olive oil to a simmer with a clove of thinly-sliced garlic, a pinch of CRP, and a bit of shredded basil. Strain the olive oil and add to the tomatoes.
Cook the pasta until it needs one more minute to be done, so super al dente. Add the pasta to the sauce with a bit of pasta water and cook for that one more minute. Add a glob of butter and more basil and dinner is served!

The peeling and de-seeding part did take forever. However, the results were just right! I can easily see how people become obsessive over certain foods (Jiro and his sushi, for example) since it is unclear which of the many variables involved is crucial for achieving just-rightness. I am going to investigate the canned tomato avenue and see if that saves any time...

These are the hair cells (trichomes) on one of my transgenic plants. They're polka-dotted! Since the fluorescent protein is called tdTomato I thought it was appropriate to include here.