Thank You "Angry Asian"!

I know that I already sent you an e-mail expressing my thanks for the stuffed animals that you made and sent to my kids, but I thought I would follow up with a blog posting since I saw that you had the animals featured on your blog.

My kids  (well, my girls anyway)  saw the pictures on your blog and reported back to me, "Our animals are famous!  Their picture is on the computer!"

First there's Zack.  I picked the horse for him, before his sisters had a chance to pick out any of them for themselves.  He's one boy among lots of girls, so I have to look out for him.  :-)  I tried getting a better shot of him with the horse, but he was having too much fun grabbing it and slinging it down to the floor.  Unfortunately, he hasn't taken to it.  He's got lots of toys, and has focused on other things that make more noise when they hit the floor.  Fortunately, though, that means that he's giving the horse every chance to survive, and keep from getting sent to the glue factory.  Or at least the recycled fluff factory.

Next, Ella.  I think she was next to pick an animal, but only because she was home and the older two had not returned from school, yet.  As you can see, she loves the pink pig.  What you can't see is that the pink pig now has a cape on it.  I think it fits quite nicely, and is a welcome addition to the pig's wardrobe.  The pig thinks so, too.

I don't recall at the moment if any of the animals have gained names, yet.  I'll have to write you back  to let you know if I find out.

Now for Emmie.  She chose the monkey.  The picture on the left was taken at the bus stop one morning.  Emmie can take a "friend" with her to school for nap time, and I think the monkey has accompanied her each day since his (her?) arrival.  Some of the stitching on one, maybe both, of the arms is coming loose--I think I can sew it back up if I can ever get the monkey off her back.  Ok, sorry, bad pun.  But you know what I mean.

I don't have a picture of my oldest with the cat.  But if you would,  imagine that there is a picture of the most beautiful 9-year-old girl here with a big smile on her face, similar to Emmie's or Ella's, or Zack's for that matter, holding the stuffed cat.  Truth be told, that's a bit contrived--she's more into her American Girl Doll at the moment, but did think it was cool to see pictures on the famous animals on your blog.

And for any of my two other readers of this blog, the story I'm referring to (if you've made it this far) can be found here.

Phun is, well, Fun!

I first heard about Phun a couple of weeks ago, but finally downloaded and installed it a couple of days ago.  Be warned, it is addictive!

I have barely started learning what all it is capable of modeling, but already have created a scene (not the one pictured--that one actually comes as part of the download) with an incline, rolling ball, a platform with a spring, and a few other things.

It's phun to watch thing "come alive" once you click the play button.  Sometimes you get unintended effects, like once when I didn't balance a large ramp that I drew freehand.  It ended up falling over, when in fact I was expecting the ball I placed on top to roll down its side.  (That was easily fixed by "fixing" it in place with one of the controls from the toolbox.)

From reading the web site (link is above) it appears that there is a lot of work planned for this free download.

Take my word for it, download it and start having phun!

Birds (but no Bees)

These birds have built a nest in a pot we have on our side door for the past several years. Actually, they may have been absent last year, but they're back this year. If you can tell me what kind they are, please do. Oh, and I say "birds", but you only see one in the video (shot with my phone). They take turns--the other one hangs out by the deck railing. I guess he (or she) is the lookout. Anyway, here goes:

This was the third video I shot in a span of about 5 minutes. I stood very still on the inside of the door. In the other two videos you see mostly pot but no bird. As they say, third time's a charm. I guess the bird got a little used to me by this time.