SteelyKid, Future President

We flew down to Florida Friday afternoon, on a Southwest flight to Tampa. While waiting to board, SteelyKid of course struck up a conversation with basically everybody in the vicinity, but mostly an older Asian woman who was behind us. That woman also ended up in the seat directly behind SteelyKid. As this was a… Continue reading SteelyKid, Future President

Thanksgiving 2014

SteelyKid's Thanksgiving card.

SteelyKid’s first-grade class has been doing a bunch of Thanksgiving stuff. A lot of this is the lies-to-children version of the first Thanksgiving, and some of that is a little dubious (they had a dress-up “feast” on Tuesday, where SteelyKid was an Indian with a construction-paper vest and feathered headband, and oh, the parental eye-rolling…).… Continue reading Thanksgiving 2014

Cute Kids Weekend

The Pip as Winnie-the-Pooh, and SteelyKid as a Lego construction worker. From the free caricature artist at Kids Night at LT's Grill in Niskayuna.

It’s been a brutally busy couple of weeks here, what with reading folders for the job searches we have going on, trying to keep on top of my class, and multiple day-care closings for the Jewish holidays. But the kids are still very cute, as you can see from the above caricatures of The Pip… Continue reading Cute Kids Weekend

The Social Event of the Season…

SteelyKid's birthday party invitation.

…if you’re a first-grader in Niskayuna, anyway. We’ve got 10-15 elementary school kids who are supposed to descend upon our house a bit before lunchtime. Morituri te salutamus… Kidding aside, it’s worth it, because SteelyKid is awesome, and she’s super excited to have a whole mob of her friends over. I just hope the rain… Continue reading The Social Event of the Season…

A Rock the Size of Jupiter?

Cassini-Huygens image of Jupiter, from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_by_Cassini-Huygens.jpg

For some reason, the topic of really big rocks came up at dinner the other night, and SteelyKid declared that she wanted to find “A rock as big as the solar system.” We pointed out that that was pretty much impossible, more or less by definition, rocks being sub-parts of the solar system. “OK, how… Continue reading A Rock the Size of Jupiter?

Father’s Day 2014

according to SteelyKid I am as tall as a seeling (ceiling) and as strong as a grilau (gorilla).

Today is Father’s Day in the US, so I got a bunch of little gifts from the kids. The Pip’s was just a construction-paper card mostly made by his teachers, with a bit of scribble on it. SteelyKid’s, though, included a fill-in-the-blank booklet that she wrote on and drew pictures to go with. Some of… Continue reading Father’s Day 2014

Kickin’ Back

The Pip relaxing with some cartoons.

Made it home Friday evening after another bout of airline nonsense– they had replaced the plane for my flight into Albany with a smaller aircraft, so my email boarding pass assigned me to a nonexistent seat. Which had been corrected in their computer, but was never communicated to me, or to several other passengers who… Continue reading Kickin’ Back

Botany for Kids

Kate’s arguing a case in Connecticut today, so I was solo-parenting last night and this morning. which means that while I did manage to watch Cosmos last night, and have some thoughts about it, I don’t have the time or energy to write them up this morning. As explanation, I offer this video from dinner… Continue reading Botany for Kids

SteelyKid Demonstrates Relativity

SteelyKid tosses a ball to demonstrate Galileian relativity.

Before going to the playground Saturday to investigate non-intertial frames, SteelyKid and I went over to campus to do some experiments in relativity. Galileian relativity, that is: What you see here is SteelyKid sitting on a rolling lab cart with a camera bolted to it. She throws a ball up in the air a couple… Continue reading SteelyKid Demonstrates Relativity