Capricious Communications

Finished!

caseykm — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:33:56 +0000

Kit and I embarked on a crosstiching project that ended up being on more of a microscale than we expected. After many weeks of effort, I have finally completed it. Officially, it is a pincushion. They named the shape biscornu, and the second shot shows the unusual edge.

"Cherry Blossoms" Biscornu Pincushion

The bottom has the same intricate stitches as the top, without the benefit of the thrill of discovery as it comes together.

"Cherry Blossoms" Biscornu Pincushion

Backyard Flowers

caseykm — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:27:01 +0000

Here are a few pictures of the flowers blooming in my backyard today.

Daylillies

These are my favorite!

Daylilly

Cannas

Visit from Josie and Peter

caseykm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:47:52 +0000

My good friends Josie and Peter cut short their vacation to New Orleans to take the train to Houston and visit with us for a quick weekend. On Saturday we went to the Space Center Houston where their friend Scorch dreamed of flying on the Space Shuttle.

Scorch on the Flight Deck

Josie and Peter below the Atlas V Rocket

Sunday, we took them to Brazos Bend, this time remembering the binoculars. We saw not only a lot of alligators but also a new bird for Mike and I – a White-Faced Ibis.

Scorch at Brazos Bend

Alligator

White-faced Ibis

Spring Break

caseykm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:40:35 +0000

For Spring Break we decided to camp for the first half and rent a beach house for the second half. We started at Guadalupe River State Park. We brought a friend of Austin’s, Sam, with us. The boys had a great time exploring along the cliffs and skipping rocks in the river. They even tried to swim, but the water was too cold to stay in long.

Brandon, Austin and Sam

On Monday, we went ziplining outside Wimberly, TX. It was great fun, and not nearly as scary as I expected.
After ziplining, we headed to one of our favorite state parks, Enchanted Rock. We checked on our geocache while the boys hiked around, played badmitten with other teenagers at the campground, and attempted to temporarily redirect the course of the stream which flowed nearby. The area around the park has been experiencing a draught, and it was dryer than I had ever seen it. Most of the grass in the campground was a crispy brown. The only flowers blooming were cacti.

Blooming Cactus

The last three nights were spent at a beach house in Corpus Christi. On Thursday, Mike, Sam and Austin went windsurfing at Bird Island Basin (in wetsuits!) while Brandon and I played at the beach. Friday we visited the Texas State Aquarium in the morning and then rented Boogie Boards for an afternoon playing in the surf.

Saturday we drove home, grateful for our own beds and clean clothes.

Trip to Washington

caseykm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:12:47 +0000

The weekend after Kit’s visit, I flew up to Washington with my mom. We spent the first few nights at Aunt Kate and Uncle Hal’s home. Hal took us to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. They have a pedestrian bridge next door with glass by Chihuly. One section has a wall filled with glass sculptures, while another has glass objects suspended in the ceiling. The organic, sea-life-inspired works were fascinating.

Portion of Chihuly Glass Wall of Scuptures

Portion of Chihuly Glass Ceiling

Hal and Mom Outside of the Hot Shop

Saturday night I got a rare chance to have dinner with some of my cousins. It was wonderful to get to meet their spouses and children.

On Sunday we drove down to Shelton to visit my paternal grandparents. They are doing well. I went fishing with my grandfather at low tide, but found it too cold to keep at it for long. Grandpa caught a beautiful silver trout and we called it a day. The following morning we went for a quick walk before we left for the airport. It is such a beautiful part of the world.

Visit from Kit

caseykm — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:59:36 +0000

For a wonderful long weekend in the middle of February, my friend Kit came to visit. We went to Brazos Bend to see the alligators and birds. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring binoculars. But we didn’t need them for the alligators! This one insisted on sunning himself on the path to the observation tower. After several timid efforts to convince him to move, with only moderate success, we gave up and turned around.

Later that weekend, we explored the tunnels underneath Houston and went to the public lobby on the 60th floor of the JP Morgan skyscraper. Not being fond of heights, Kit only got this close to the windows by keeping her back to the view.

We also spent quite a few hours working on a cross stitch project. You can see a picture of Kit’s on her blog at: http://kitdunsmore.wordpress.com/

I’ll post a picture of mine as a reward to myself for finishing it. Right now, I’m a little more than halfway done.

Some interesting links:

caseykm — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:13:23 +0000

The first one is a wonderful combination of science and art. These pictures are taken of polarized light being diffracted by ice. They are quite beautiful!

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16388-frizions

The second one is even more geeky. It’s an animation of the building of the International Space Station.

http://www.tietronix.com/anim/MoviePlayer.asp?myMovie=movies/assembly640x360.swf

Enjoy!

What I really did over the holiday…

caseykm — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:52:00 +0000

On a whim, Brandon and I got out the LEGO’s and decided to build an elaborate castle. This is what we came up with:

Castle Front

Brandon built an ornate throne room inside, but there was no way to take a picture.

Castle front Close-up

Note the skeleton hanging from the chains in the dungeon.

Castle side

Note the spider web and the ladder leading up to the watch tower.

Castle back

This shot shows some of the defenses Brandon built, from the catapults on the right to the (not actually visible) cannons on the left. And yes, our castle has a stained-glass window!

Holiday Break

caseykm — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:25:45 +0000

During the holiday break, Mike and I decided to tackle redoing our shower. Over the last 18 years, mold or mildew had discolored the grout and caulk. I took some ‘before’ shots, but the camera decided not to work properly, so these were the only ones that turned out:

Grout 'Before"

Caulk 'Before'

Pretty gross, huh?

So using a Dremmel tool, we drilled out all of the old grout (by we, I mean ‘Mike’), removed all of the old caulk, cleaned and scrubbed everything, and basically coated the entire bathroom and master bedroom with a fine layer of white dust. Then we (really, ‘we’) replaced the grout with a new product which is supposed to be impervious to mildew, and replaced the caulk. I then tried to clean the marble floor, with less success. The instructions on-line recommended sanding the floor to remove any stains that regular cleaners would not remove. However, the floor has a texture to make it safer, and in order to sand away the stains, I would have needed to sand the floor completely smooth. Deciding safety was more important than looks, I cleaned as much as I could, and then resealed the floor with Gel Gloss, which seals and waxes it. We took the first showers in our re-done stall this morning, and the floor did not seem any more slippery than usual. Here is the ‘After’ picture:

Shower 'After'

The wall looks brand new! Success!

2008 Christmas Card

caseykm — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:09:17 +0000

Clockwise from top left: Brandon on a tree in San Diego; Austin in Brighton, Utah; me in southern Utah; and Michael in Yellowstone.