The Fair
Cooper and I played hookie last Thursday to spend the day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Beforehand we looked at the schedule and picked out a few items we absolutely had to see/do. The only thing I had to do was buy, and perhaps consume, a deep-fried Twinkie. Check (quite tasty). Cooper wanted to see the Butter Cow and go fishing. Check and check. Cooper asking me to fish, catching two fish, and touching the bait and the fish were personal highlights. It usually takes him a while to warm up to new activities, but he was really excited about it. I see more fishing in our future.
I thought we would last 3-4 hours tops, but we literally spent all day (7 hours) there. We saw Smokey the Bear, dug for minerals and rocks, played games (won a Batman) and rode many rides on the Midway, rode the train, listened to live bands, sat in a big digger, rode a bike. I'm glad to see my fondness for fairs has been inherited.
You can see all of our photos at Flickr.
Our Digital World
Update 08/15/08: I realized after I made the switch that I had our feeds all tangled up, which caused every item to be repeated multiple times. Yikes! I hope I fixed things, but we'll see.
If you happen to subscribe to the RSS feed for our site (Feedburner tells me there are 11 of you) then you might notice a few new items popping up in your feed reader. The truth of the matter is that Julie and I rarely take the time to write up entries here, but we certainly have plenty of online activity elsewhere that we might like to share easily.
We post photos at Flickr, videos at YouTube, links at Delicious, maintain Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Twitter status updates, and so on. There's a relatively new service out there called FriendFeed that allows you to consolidate all of that activity and offer up a combined RSS feed. It's that feed that you'll get from now if you are currently subscribed. If that's too much for you I'll be creating an additional feed for entries here.
I've been thinking quite a bit lately about whether I would have created this site had all of these social networking sites existed in their current forms. Probably not, but it's still a nice place to hang a virtual shingle.
Recap of July
It's hard to believe July is almost over. The 4th was great (pics below) for many reasons, including Todd taking Cooper to see the fireworks for the first time (from a distance). I think Cooper fell asleep halfway through them, but he was excited to say he "went to the fireworks."
Anna, almost 18 months now, has some new fun words. I also realized a few weeks ago that she started taking part in conversations I was having with Cooper. The language change from 13 months (Daddy, Papa, birdie) to this age is amazing. And even though I tried hard to teach her the name of all of the different construction machines (don't we have 50 books on this subject?), she insists on reading about babies, animals, and her new obsession . . . snowmen. Here are her fun words I don't want to forget . . .
Coo-co (Cooper); Yereal (Cereal); Kit-kat (Kittykat); Al-li (Aunt Alli); Ah-pane (Airplane); Ah-C (Grandma C); Rah-er (Uncle Roger); Av-cado (Avocado); A-men (Snowman)
Cooper's new obsessions have focused on being even more independent ("Mom, I'll just stay home today while you go to work") and learning about the weather. He's told us many times he wants a "meteorologist cake" for his birthday. I'll be sure to take a picture of that one. Of course he also told me he wants to move to Seattle and live in a firetruck with a Dalmatian dog. Sounds like every 3 year old's dream.
The kids have really started playing together (and still fighting too!). It's great they can sometimes entertain each other as we try to keep up with life, work, marathon training (Todd), more work, and business trips to Chicago and Cincinnati. Thanks to Grandma C and Papa for all of their assistance and entertainment this month!
1st post kids family 5k
T-shirts made by A&C at Next Gen
Rock band at friend Ethan Kooper's party
Mr. Ebert
Roger Ebert is definitely my favorite film critic. The fact that he is originally from Champaign-Urbana and hosts a annual film-fest here is a check in the plus column, as is his incredibly positive attitude following a number of recent health problems (he can't speak right now). What I like most of all, however, is that he is a true movie lover, not a cinematic snob. Case in point, he just reviewed the movie "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" and gave it 3 1/2 stars. For comparison, he gave Best Picture winning "No Country for Old Men" 4 stars. Heh.
Video: Thunder Rolls
A woman was filming a rainstorm from her balcony when she was struck by lightning. She's apparently fine, and decided to post the clip on Flickr for the world to view. Insanity.
(via kottke)
Fine Aged Entries (Older Stuff)
« Jul-09: The Big Picture
One of my favorite new websites is The Big Picture blog from the Boston Globe. Three times a week the editor selects a current news topic and tells the story using large format (and beautiful) photos instead of words. Detailed... read entry»
« Jul-07: Headline of the Day
"Kidman gives birth Monday to girl named Sunday" - The Associated Press... read entry»
« Jul-01: Mountains to Sound
I just found out my brother-in-law, Brian Bruininks, came in 1st place in the open-male division of the 100 mile Mountains to Sound race on Sunday. The race involves a 23 mile mountain bike ride, 50 mile road bike ride,... read entry»
« Jun-30: Landis Loses Final Appeal
Floyd lost his final appeal to regain his 2006 Tour de France crown. Landis was stripped of the title after he tested positive for a synthetic testosterone during the race. The case against him remains pretty sketchy, but that's the... read entry»
« Jun-19: Out There
Forget global warming, we need to be more concerned about space rocks. Excerpt: These standard assumptions--that remaining space rocks are few, and that encounters with planets were mainly confined to the past--are being upended. On March 18, 2004, for instance,... read entry»
