Rack!

We watched a good documentary last night called "King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters." It was about retro videogames and particularly the world record score for Donkey Kong, long held by a fellow from Florida named Billy Mitchell and threatened to be overtaken by a guy from Redmond, Wash. named Steve Wiebe.

I play videogames, review games, and used to work in old school arcades back in the day (early 80s). On some level, it's a good slice of my life. In honor of that slice I'm going to start occasionally posting some video clips of my retro game play. It's amazing the patterns that run through your head years _ in some cases two decades _ after you've last played a game. If any of the clips I post rings a bell for you, feel free to chime in a tell me your past gaming experiences.

Enjoy this clip of me racking at Zaxxon. (There's no game sound, so I dubbed in some music.)

- Ron

Valentine's Couch Potatoes

On Valentine's Day we had our regular Lunch and Play Mom's Group meet-up and we did the usual photo on the couch. As you can see from the previous couch line-ups pictured below, there are seeds and then there are roots, and they sure are becoming rooted!


Summer is hardly wobbly anymore. She is climbing and running all over the place. Ron noted yesterday that as Summer raced from one activity to the next, she came to a tricky spot to maneuver and very carefully side stepped between two objects to avoid tripping.


Back to the couch photo... It's getting much easier to line them all up on the couch without the usual fear of someone falling off or somebody's hair getting pulled or all the babies harmoniously breaking into tears.


It is also nice that the group has mainly stayed together. In fact, a few new moms and babes have joined us which is always great. I know Summer really loves the play and I have made some close friends through the group which I am so very grateful for!





from left: Larkin, Lillian, Summer, Julia, Emily, Asha, Devon and Chance.

Lunar Eclipse

Julia, Summer, Ron and Buster went out and watched the total lunar eclipse Wednesday evening. The bulk of the "action" lasted from 7:00 p.m. until 7:52 p.m. It was a little cloudy, a tiny bit foggy, and we were in Mountain View, hardly a pitch black hillside which is better for viewing the night sky. Still, it's neat to see something that won't occur again until 2010.

Here's Ron's lunar eclipse explainer for those in need: Sun >>> Earth >>> Moon. (Earth's shadow gets cast on moon; moon looks red because of sun rays traveling through our prism-like atmosphere and ... presto! Lunar eclipse, in red.)

Ron took these pics. Enjoy.

We miss the snow

Here's some old footage of Julia snowboarding. Hopefully we can go at least once this year.

Visit to Hidden Villa

OK, so it's not so hidden if Hidden Villa farm has a web site with directions, but it's a great little farm for kids. We took Summer there on Saturday. Pigs, goats, chickens, you get the picture.

View From Fort Point

Found myself at Fort Point on Friday. Here's the view.
- Ron

Project: Skate Again!

Summer is going to help daddy skate. Here she is breaking in the board. All we need are trucks and wheels and grip tape and skills. It's been a while, but daddy's getting the urge to shred.