Coriander Sparkle Kitten!

This week and the upcoming weeks are so crazy that it requires the help of world-famous superhero kitten, Coriander Sparkle Kitten.

So freaking cute...

And speaking of junk food...

Going to the State Fair today! Woo hoo! I've really been enjoying the TV spots for the fair, the best one involving a giant corn dog on a flat bed semi being hauled down to Salem. I mean, the chicken's good, but there's something about a massive corn dog.

Suffice it to say that Claire will get her fill of nonsense today.

I've been playing with pixelpipe and so far it's really nice. I'm awful at updating folks on photos and now I have a way to send them out into the aether without having to log into everywhere. The only problem is that the iPhoto add-on makes iPhoto crush, but the uploader is just as simple to use...

Be Nice and I'll Stuff you Full of Crap

Overheard recently was yet another parent's plea for polite behavior in exchange for a trip to McDonald's. It struck me this morning that it's a small wonder that we have a childhood obesity problem. It's a question of how you define "treat," of course (and I'm just as guilty as the next dad) but the prevailing custom of cutting deals with your kids struck me as horrifically bad all of a sudden.

It might just be that it's the end of summer and all of the socialization has evaporated in the summer heat, but it seems to me that I've seen and made more concessions to grumpy kids recently. Granted, I'm not the first parent to pray for the return of school, but I'm going to try to find better ways to make bargains - bargains that honor the need for awesome kid experiences but don't resort to Rice Krispie squares all the time. Bargains that engage and inform rather than stupefy.

Yeah. And then I'll make peace in the Middle East.

Summer is all kinds of awesome for PDX Kids

So a planning snafu led to next week being campless! Ack! In an effort to remedy the situation (ha! Might as well count all the sand in Hawaii), I dug up two amazing camps that I had missed on the first pass.

Zenger Farm will put your kiddo to work in the dirt, which we get by driving to the grandparents in Roseburg. But they also do lunches with the kids using the produce that's coming out of the ground, which is a very cool connection to the whole circle of life thing.

Oregon College of Art and Craft has amazing workshops up to and including high school, and like many places they offer year-round options for folks with especially crafty kids.

Suffice it to say that competition is fierce for summer planning, and that in general I need to be a lot more on the ball next February (yes, February) to get all of the ducks in a row. Meantime, it's off to the museums next week...

Large Hadron Rap

Whilst investigating nerdcore, Matt stumbled across the Large Hadron Rap. Awesome.

I am late to this party as usual, but as you'll see below, I am completely blown away by the Front. More in a bit.

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Now playing: MC Frontalot - Secrets from the Future
via FoxyTunes