Whereupon Nikola creates a toboggan run outside our front door and Alton becomes the fierce and ferocious snowcat. Yes, this is a very delayed post, but it has taken this long for me to figure out how to rotate video by 90°! *using a combination of AviDemux and Handbrake.

Der Chunderblog has been updated with wintery effects. Falling snow, just like the old days of Geocities homepages (though does use up some CPU time). [ed: Falling snow removed due to undue CPU load] Shaynee has completed the interior transformation to a Christmas wonderland. TC has done his part for the exterior. Unfortunately, it never …

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Holiday time in the Chunderhaus.

It is time for the Thanksgiving push. The pumpkins managed to mostly survive our squash-vandalizing squirrels (only one pumpkin had a tooth gnawed off). Ultimately, they will all end up in the garden triangle where they will re-enter the great squash circle of life. You would think that we would have grown at least one …

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Shaynee found this RadioShack electronics kit at a garage sale for $2. Nikola and Alton want to “do electronics” every night. This is a circuit that Nikola built herself, based on some other projects from the manual (launches the propeller into the air). I especially like the juxtaposition of princess and maker.

Alton: I’ve got the egg! Shaynee: What egg? Alton: The egg to make babies! Shaynee: Well, actually, you’ll have the sperm. But not until you hit puberty. Alton: What’s pewberbee? I think that Shaynee just nominated herself for that conversation. Then again, I’ll get the “Father of the Year” award for feeding my children 4-year …

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The saving grace of the water heater going kaput was that it gave us a reason to do the massive overhaul of the “finished” basement that we’ve been contemplating. We’re attacking the water problem from many fronts. External: Sill plate was found to be rotted. REPAIRED. “Weight bearing” post was not actually touching the ground …

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Nikola’s class is learning about the properties of materials (wood floats, paperclips sink) and this apparently involves categorizing things. When I saw the first tag on Alton’s African drum, it seemed quaint. Then I realized that it was everywhere. It could have been a lot worse — such as if she wrote this out on …

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Today was the annual daddy-daughter outing to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s performance of “The Nutcracker”. We were joined again by Grace and her daddy. Nikola loved the music and loved both the ensemble dancing as much as the solo parts. Nikola still was pretty squirmy and fell asleep during the second act, but she …

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Overheard today: Shaynee: “Alton, when are you going to start using the potty regularly?”Alton: “In three minutes.”Shaynee: “Hm. Somehow, I don’t believe you.”