Callies Adventures

I asked McKenzie to count the number of planets on this...

November 16, 2011 1:46 PM

I asked McKenzie to count the number of planets on this playground exhibit. “Eight,” she counted. I explained to McKenzie when I was young, her age, there were nine planets. Gone is Pluto.

Putting Away Her New Tools Last night, I took McKenzie to...

November 6, 2011 10:04 AM

Putting Away Her New Tools

Last night, I took McKenzie to Harbor Freight to buy her tools for her storage bin at MakerCave. With hand basket in hand, she wandered through the aisles, grabbing tools that caught her fancy and sparked her imagination.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to..."

October 5, 2011 11:49 PM

Finally! I finally got around to assembling the Ladyada...

August 9, 2011 8:13 PM

Finally!

I finally got around to assembling the Ladyada Ethernet Shield for the Arduino and tested the connection. Success is so sweet…

McKenzie and the Moon

July 8, 2011 11:04 PM

As we drove home tonight, McKenzie watched the moon follow her home, and before we pulled into the driveway, she asked if we could look at the moon with the telescope. From my office, into the backyard, I dragged out the telescope, aimed it at and focused upon the moon, with all of its craters and “oceans”.

I pulled her stool under the eyepiece and covered her unused eye, and McKenzie peered into the eyepiece with her other eye.

“Do you see it?” I asked her. “Do you see the moon, McKenzie?”

“A-huh,” she answered.

“The dark patches are what they call seas,” I explained.

Then she flitted away as 5-year-olds tend to do, and I scanned the sky for another prize. Using my iPhone and the SkySafari app, I noticed that Saturn was not far from the moon, and after fiddling with the telescope’s adjustment, I finally focused upon Saturn, and just as I had, McKenzie had flitted back in.

Again I set her on the stool and covered her unused eyes, and she peered back into the eyepiece.

“See that bright oval spot?” I asked and, not waiting for an answer, immediately replied. “That’s Saturn.”

“Saturn has rings, McKenzie. That’s why it looks like an egg.”

I pulled out my iPhone and then showed her an image of the ringed planet taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

“Wow,” she said as I could see her mind reconciling the image on the iPhone with what she had see through the telescope.

I can only hope that I can inspire and encourage just a fraction of such wonder and exploration of the universe around her.

On my dining room table still sits the mystery box I dragged...

July 4, 2011 9:31 AM

On my dining room table still sits the mystery box I dragged home from Maker Faire 2011. My problem is that I need twelve hours to assemble its contents, and time these days is a rare commodity. As you can see from this snapshot of the instruction manual, this will be a slightly complicated build.

McKenzie's Schooling vs. Traveling

July 3, 2011 6:46 AM

Last week, I debated whether or not to return to southwestern Wisconsin at the end of September to catch the end of this trout season. I had a week-long stay at the Stein Vatten cottage across the street from Rullands Coulee all planned out. Then it hit me. This August, McKenzie begins kindergarten at St. joseph’s, and so end of our carefree we’re-going-damn-it traveling ways.

Now I had my moment. What’s a couple of weeks of school, I asked myself. I could be one of those cool parents, I told myself, who takes their child to unique and interesting places. In the name of her overall education, I convinced myself. Then I realize that our commitments as parents truly begins.

No, McKenzie will be going to school.

Motorcycles

June 30, 2011 9:52 AM

McKenzie,

As we drive to work today, we passed two BMW GS motorcycles, and I, momentarily, taken back to a time, before your mother and I were married, when we drove up to Beaver Dam and test rode a BMW GS1100R motorcycle. For awhile, my sweet daughter, before you were ever a notion and right after I had read Investment Biker, this was our dream, to buy a motorcycle and circumnavigate the world on its back.

Things change, along with dreams, but I am happy with how things turned out. However, I wanted to seed inside your mind the idea that your parents weren’t always sticks in the mud.

Dad

The Beginning of the Next Adventure Straight from Maker Faire...

May 24, 2011 8:15 AM

The Beginning of the Next Adventure

Straight from Maker Faire 2011, inside this hard-shell suitcase, which we bought especially for its contents, is something cool.

McKenzie’s Art On the way from the airport in Portland to...

May 23, 2011 2:21 PM

McKenzie’s Art

On the way from the airport in Portland to school this morning, after our trip to San Francisco for Maker Faire, McKenzie drew this for me and Jill.

Being a biased father, I think it’s quite good.