Dissertations on the Inobvious

My girls have always been fond of explaining how things work. Sarah once gave one of our friends a twenty minute lecture on how tuna gets in the can. It therefore came as no surprise when my dad sent me this email today (Sarah and Lily spent the night there last night.)

At breakfast, Sarah and Lily and I were watching robins out
on the lawn, getting worms to eat.  I told Sarah that a
saying "the early bird catches the worm" actually applies
to humans who are rewarded for being the first to arrive at
a good opportunity.  Her response was that if she was a
mouse, she would rather be late to arrive at the cheese.
We then discussed why a trap causes this to be good sense,
and how bait connected to a trigger works.  Sarah then
described a manually-triggered mouse trap, and then ant
traps and also reasoned with me about using bait as poison
to be carried back to the ant nest.
Lily then drew how spiders can be killed by a poison fly
that when caught in the web is eaten, and the spider dies.
Her next trap design was for a flea.  After I left the
table, she continued on showing Diane how to trap a mantis
and then a scorpion.
Dad

One of our favorite "explanation" moments came when Sarah was about four. My dad noticed the squirrel feeder on our deck, and said "You have pet squirrels. My mom and dad used to eat squirrels." Sarah replied, "If you eat a pet squirrel, you will be filled with squirrel love."

Wow

A Games Workshop corporate store opened in my neighborhood. I decided to paint a figure for the single model category of a painting competition they were hosting, despite the fact that I had no entry prepared and less than a week to create one. I chose a Space Marine Captain in terminator armor that I could use with my Blood Ravens army, and ... drum roll please.... he won first place in his category! I've never won a painting contest before! Hooray for me! The "Best Overall" went to a squad of "Sisters of Battle" which were wonderfully painted in a turquoise scheme. They had amazing consistency and the faces were neat and varied and the prize was quite deserved. I need to get pictures of this fellow to enter into the Golden Toadstools this month... he's in the display case at the store so I don't know when I'll get a chance.

Eldar are, for all intents and purposes done. I have a single model to finish. Everything else is packaged and will be turned over to Angelos next time I see him.

I Love This State

It would have been nice if Christmas had been this white.

Some people complain about South Eastern Michigan's weather. They claim that it's too volatile and that the skies are gray almost all year. They complain about the fact that the temperature bounces around freezing all winter, which causes the roads to fall apart.

Personally, I like gray skies. I feel at my best when I don't have to squint. I like my light to be ambient.

Another mini... and false encouragement

I painted a Khador "manhunter" mini, and was pretty pleased at the end result. He is currently posted on CMON and getting savaged in the voting.

Stef and the kids were over at our friends' house for the night, and it was just me and the dogs. As I was pulling a handful of Harry & David multi grain tortilla chips from the bag, both dogs sat on the floor looking expectantly at me.

"I don't know what you're looking at, 'cause I'm not giving you anything," I said to them. At that exact moment I pulled a chip out of my handful of chips to eat, and two others accidentally came flying out of the handful to land exactly at the feet of each of the dogs. They each gobbled their chip, then followed me around until my chips were gone.