Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
- Mazie at her very first movie - Ratatouille. We’ll see how this goes.
- Made it through notably loud previews without issue.
- Mazie doing great so far!
- Mazie made it all the way through her first movie!
- The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir absolutely knocked my socks off. First of all, these guys aren’t a choir. In fact, their name is pretty misleading. Think of Tom Waits with more pep and bluegrass mixed in. These guys were my favorite new band out of the festival.
- We didn’t get to see Todd Snider play, but liked what we read and are really enjoying his CD we got.
- We saw Ndidi Onukwulu play a couple of workshops with other bands. I wasn’t digging her stuff at first, but Tammy started liking it and it’s pretty good. She has some really nice vocals.
- Elliott Brood, besides having 3 sets of double letters in their name, plays some really nice music. Tammy briefly heard them in a workshop and figured I would like their stuff a lot, and I do. She describes them well as a bluegrass Jane’s Addiction. You know…
- We didn’t see Carolyn Mark, but also picked up a CD of hers and are liking it.
- Buille is an Irish group that came over for the festival. If traditional Irish music is your thing, you’ll like them a lot.
- The Carolina Chocolate Drops intrigued me for a number of reasons. I like their traditional music, and they learned with some of the most significant southern musicians ever.
- Michael Franti & Spearhead closed the main stage out on Friday night, and they just blew the place up. Franti’s politically motivated, reggae inspired performance made you want to be a better person. Great stuff.
- The Ponys hit a groove of Americana, Rootsy music that is in my sweet spot.
- Ben Weaver proves again that sometimes I have to go to Canada to find someone in my own city. Weaver is a Minneapolis local that is putting out some really great stuff.
- I really wanted to see Romi Mayes perform but there were always conflicts, or too much sun! She has a great folksy, Americana sound as well.
- When Indio Saravanja did his “tweener” set we all looked at each other because we thought Bob Dylan had taken the stage. Saravanja has an amazing voice, and some great songs to go with it.
- Riding on school bus with Mazie 09:44 AM March 29, 2007 from txt
- 5 hours as solo parent and all is ok. 12:47 PM March 29, 2007 from txt
- Just put Mazie to bed – whew! 07:34 PM March 29, 2007 from web
- Gave Izzy a real, honest to goodness smoked bone. She’s completely obsessed. 07:37 PM March 29, 2007 from web
- Sitting down to have some fun in Lightroom. 08:45 PM March 29, 2007 from twitterrific
- Still playing in Lightroom after a break to blog. 10:22 PM March 29, 2007 from twitterrific
- Ran the morning gauntlet and now heading out with Mazie for a bit. 08:57 AM March 30, 2007 from twitterrific
- Getting a fly rod. 11:16 AM March 30, 2007 from txt
- Mazie in crib, cleaning up dog sh**. Exhausted. 07:25 PM March 30, 2007 from twitterrific
- Reminding myself that I like my dog. 07:35 PM March 30, 2007 from txt
- Noting that my dog seems to not want to go out in the rain only slightly less than I. 07:49 AM March 31, 2007 from twitterrific
- Made it to lunch without Mazie falling asleep! 12:29 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- Very excited about kitty and lion getting a sticker! 12:33 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- At Apple Store. Feeling bad for Jim. 03:39 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- Why does my dog think she should be able to dig through the rug in the living room? 07:59 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Posting on my blog. 08:51 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Struggling with how to manage my digital media assets best. 11:36 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Everyone ate. Kitchen cleaned up. Not so bad. 08:00 AM April 01, 2007 from twitterrific
- Mazie’s been in crib for almost an hour and not asleep yet. Not sure exactly what to do. 07:45 PM April 01, 2007 from web
- Decide to go see if she has a dirty diaper. Wish me luck… 07:47 PM April 01, 2007 from web
Iconize Me Avatars
I’m giddy! It’s like Christmas around the Thingelstad house. Why? We have new avatars!
Several weeks ago a friend of mine clued me in on this service at Iconize Me! Iconize Me is the brain-child of Paul Sahner who decided to start creating caricature based avatars for people online. Iconize Me! is a great service, but it’s completely overloaded. They’ve stopped taking pre-orders again. Huge plus, you get vector images back. Can’t wait to make my 10 foot poster!
I think this is brilliant. I’ve always just used a head shot photo but using a real photo is, well, a real photo. A drawing is a little less personal but still gives you that individual identity. Enough of the words, here is my new avatar. (These images are all much bigger than would be typically used.)
Of course I didn’t want to be the only one around the house with a cool avatar, so we got them for the whole family!
Here is Tammy’s
Mazie got one too of course. She does have an account on the iMac after all.
And lastly I as trying to find a good option for an image for this website and to use as “cover art” in iTunes for home movies. Voila!
Mazie's First RenFest
This weekend we were adventurous and decided to take Mazie to her first Renaissance Festival! And just to keep things really interesting, we brought Izzy along as well. It was awesome. Everyone had a great time. Mazie really enjoyed it and had fun with just everything going on. Izzy did well, and was very interested when she realized there were bones laying around.
Went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with Mazie and Izzy. Was a total success! Yeah Family Thingelstad! 🙌
Last week I called home while on my way to a meeting in New York. To my surprise when the phone was answered Mazie was on the other end saying “Hello Daddy!”. Immediately beaming, I responded with “Hello Mazie! How are you doing?” Mazie isn’t much of a talker on the phone but I coaxed out of her that her babies were up already and that she had slept well.
Then I heard Tammy’s voice. I figured Tammy had answered the phone and had given it to Mazie. Nope! Turns out she picked it up and answered it herself. Tammy had stepped outside for a moment. How cool. Mazie’s first phone call. 🙂
Got a Message
While I was in Canada fishing I was without any means of communication. The only thing that would have worked was a satellite phone, and while I considered it I figured I was being ridiculous. I did know that the camp had a radio, and I figured that with enough work you could get through via the radio if there was an emergency. I had visions in my head of Radar in MAS*H patching calls through for Hawkeye to talk to his Dad. It all seemed very do-able.
On only the second day of fishing, after we came back in from the afternoon session there was a message. Everyone was pretty confused since it was so unexpected. George, the Native American that ran the camp had left a scrap of paper for us. The message, exactly as it was delivered is below.
Nobody knew what to do with it, until someone figured out whose phone number that was. It was mine! Obviously there is no message there, so I went to find George a bit anxious about what my message was. George spoke very little English. It turned out, that was the whole message. That was all he had for me, my phone number.
Now, imagine yourself in the middle of the wilderness the recipient of an envelope with no letter in it. It drove me nuts, and of course my mind started going crazy. Was something wrong with Mazie? Tammy? Was there an accident? What’s going on? Argh!
We put the radio to work and it turned out that Radar O’Reilly was nowhere near. The radio couldn’t even reach the nearest village without relaying through another person in another camp. All radio communication was in Ojibwe/Cree so I had no idea what was being said. Theoretically they were going to relay a message and try to call my house to find out what the message was. According to caller ID nobody ever called the house. After a day nobody had flown in to get me, so I figured that it must not be an emergency. It was 4 days before we would leave.
I never did get the message until we flew out of camp on the float plane and got to the nearest airport. I immediately called home to find out what was going on. The message was that my Grandpa had been in the hospital and that they did not think he was going to make it. His health was very poor, and cancer was getting him. But he had recuperated a bit and had returned home. Unfortunately, time was against me and my grandpa passed away less than 24 hours after I got home.
Going on a bike ride to get Mazie!
Cargo Shorts Banned from Cycling
Tammy, Mazie and I went on a bike ride today. Tammy is prone to comment about how great it is to just “ride your bike”. What she means by this is to disregard the crazy gear of cycling – special shorts, shoes, shirt, socks and everything else – and just ride your bike. Street clothes. Normal shoes. You know, like “normal” people do. We were riding to Yum for lunch, about 17 miles round-trip with a long lunch in the middle. So I went with normal shorts like a normal person.
I have no option to not wear my cycling shoes since all of my bikes have clipless pedals (a must!). But I decided to go ahead and just wear my normal shorts and spare the world me in lycra. This was horrible. It’s not just that the cycling shorts have padding that make the saddle more comfortable. It’s that regular shorts are hot. They are baggy and restrict leg movement in odd ways. They bunch up all over. It was absolutely horrible.
I’ll never ride my bike over 2 miles without cycling shorts again. I’ve learned my lesson.
2007 Winnipeg Folk Festival Recap
Last weekend I made my fourth visit to the Winnipeg Folk Festival (previous years were 2006, 2003 and 2001). Tammy was at all of those except 2001. We left Mazie with Grandparents this time. We continue to plan on bringing Mazie every-other year.
This years festival was great as always. There were a number of firsts this year too. It was the first year I’ve been there that my mother wasn’t able to go. She’s been going to the festival for many more years than I, so it was odd that she wasn’t there as well. We preserved the tradition of getting an evening Whale’s Tale every night in her absence.
It was also the first, and last, year that we stayed in Festival Camping. In the past I’ve either camped in the quiet campground, or stayed in a hotel in Winnipeg. The appeal of festival camping is that you can walk right over to the festival grounds. It’s also a full party, with pretty loud “festivaling” going on until about 6am every night. Not my thing these days.
Here are the musical highlights from this years festival for me:
Check out these musicians and pick up some of their music. It’s all great, independent stuff.
We’ve already blocked out July 10-13 of 2008 for the next festival. Next year Mazie comes along again.
Checking out Tammy and Mazie’s 2008 Folk Festival chairs. Tammy has a footrest!
Mazie's First Baseball Game
Grandpa Bruce came into town for the Memorial Day weekend. It was a nice time, and the most time that Mazie has gotten to spend with Grandpa Bruce since he lives so far away. I think the highlight of the weekend was the Twins game. Mazie’s very first baseball game and the Twins put a “W” on the board for her.
Alona, Bruce and I went to the game and Tammy hung out with Mazie while she finished her nap. Mazie and Tammy joined at the top of the 7th inning which was perfect timing for her. There is just no way she could have sat through an entire baseball game. I got to have some great Dad time with Mazie on my lap. I explained that our guy throws the ball to this other guy and that one of their guys stood in the middle and tried to hit it with the bat. If he did hit it, our other guys out there would try to catch it. Baseball redux for a 2 year old. I brought my crazy camera lens and got some great photos.
Shortly after she arrived the Twins had a big play and drove 2 runs in. The crowd roared with enthusiasm and Mazie was a little freaked out but held it together with a lot of thumb sucking and me holding her. I think she actually had a pretty good time, particularly when we got some ice cream. 🙂
2007 Olson Family Weekend
This year was the 4th annual Olson Family Weekend! This year was Angie’s turn to plan and there is only one more year before we loop back around for the next round of trips. It was a great weekend and Angie did a great job putting it all together.
We had a great weekend up at the Lundeen’s cabin (huge thanks to Lundeen Sr. for allowing us to overtake their cabin!). The cabin was cramped with 11 people and 3 dogs, but it added to the fun actually. The weather was sketchy but that didn’t slow anyone down either.
Rather than reading, go take a look at the pictures from the
weekend, or
watch a couple of videos of Mazie from the weekend (thanks for the
videos Angie!) [I removed the videos from YouTube].
Assembling Mazie's Birthday Present
One of the cool features of my new Canon SD750 is a brain-dead simple way to do time-elapsed movies. I just had to play today while putting together Mazie’s birthday present. In case you are wondering, it isn’t Mazie’s birthday today. That’s a few weeks away but the present we got her had arrived and we decided to let her have it now. Fewer things on her actual birthday make it easier for her little 2 year old self.
Anyway – here in 48 seconds is Mazie and I putting together her new table and chairs. I love it.
Weekend Away to Birdwing Spa
A couple of weekends ago Tammy and I went on a weekend getaway for her birthday. Now that we have Izzy, getting out of town was a little more complicated than before. There was a careful choreography of hand-offs for both Mazie and Izzy between relatives while we were out. Thanks to everyone for being so helpful!
I booked a weekend away at Birdwing Spa to celebrate Tammy’s birthday. A weekend away, at a spa, seemed like the perfect thing for her. We were a bit underwhelmed with the spa, but the weekend was still really great. Just getting away and having time to read a book in silence was really nice. Tammy read a book I got her for the weekend called Wild Trees, and I finally read Into Thin Air. We both finished our books on the trip, and even got a little ways into the next books.
The spa itself was okay. The facility was dated and the all-inclusive meals, while obviously focused on healthy eating, were a bit too skimpy for me personally. The property that it is on is great, and we hiked pretty much every trail on the place, some twice. While tromping around in the trees we ran into six snakes. Did I mention Tammy hates snakes? Yeah, she jumped out of her skin a couple of times.
It’s funny that now being a parent my expectations of a weekend away are so different. They have simultaneously went up and down. On one hand, simply getting away for the weekend and having some relaxation, regardless of surroundings, is great. On the other hand, it’s really hard to get away so when you do you want it to be exceptional! So, in that regard it was a great, not-so-great weekend. 🙂
Mr. Mom Weekend Wrap!
I’m late writing my wrap-up post from the 5-day Mr. Mom Weekend adventure. Mazie and I spent our final day with Aunt Alona and went to the Minnesota Zoo. It was a lot of fun and Mazie was definitely liking the zoo a lot more than ever before. She just stared at the Dolphins during their entire show mesmerized. It was really cool. We had lunch at the zoo and then went home.
Aunt Alona hung out with us for a little while and then took off. We just stayed around the house the rest of the afternoon and then Tammy surprised us by calling around 6p with news that she was only about an hour away. I was expecting her closer to 10p. It was nice that she got home earlier and we got to catch up before the week began.
The Mr. Mom Weekend was really a great time. The most stressful thing was really taking care of a puppy for the first time ever. Mazie and I had a really good time. Tammy is talking about taking an extended weekend trip like this every year now, and I think that is a cool idea. We all made it through the other end of the time in great shape!
Mr. Mom Weekend via Twitter
I’ve been a bit enamored with Twitter for a bit now. Mr. Mom Weekend was a great time to do some “tweeting”. For posterity sake, here is the Twitter stream from the Mr. Mom Weekend.
Per the last line there, her diaper was fine. She just took a really long time to go to sleep.
Pay Attention to Snacks
Mazie and I had a nice Sunday. We ended up skipping swimming class. Mazie wasn’t feeling very well and was pretty congested. I imagined being in the pool and having Mazie sneeze and snot shooting right into the pool. Nah. We’ll skip this one. Grandma Rosalin and Aunt Alona came over in the morning and Mazie had a great time playing with them while I got a shower and took Izzy out. A highlight of the day was that there were no Izzy “accidents” today! Yeah!
We had lunch at the Good Day Cafe (highly recommended by the way) that ended up taking us way too late and Mazie nearly fell asleep waiting. Lunch was challenging with her being so tired, but even with her nap near she was pretty excited to see the chocolate cupcake that she got after her pancakes. She feel asleep promptly on the way home, and unfortunately she didn’t get a very good nap. She woke up really groggy still.
Aunt Angie and her dog Louie came over in the afternoon and pandemonium resulted. Izzy and Louie were insane, chasing each other around with abandon. Izzy was all puppy – just going crazy and jumping, leaping and sprinting everywhere. We had to pull them apart a few times just to keep it civilized, in dog terms.
With all the craziness I missed a critical item and forgot to give Mazie her afternoon snack. This became a problem when she realized she was really hungry about an hour before we went and had dinner with our neighbors. It was real touchy from 4:30pm until an early bedtime at 6:45pm, but we made it.
Tonight was a relaxing evening of discussion with my neighbor on a variety of topics, mostly consumer electronics related. Tomorrow is our final day of the big adventure.
Parenting a Puppy is Hard
We had a pretty good Saturday. Even though I was up way too late I woke up at a reasonable time with enough of a gap to get Izzy out before Mazie woke up. We got up and made it through the morning routine pretty well. Mazie was pretty happy this morning and we had some fun playing and getting ready. She was an angel reading her books while her Dad took a shower. Izzy even laid there and took a nap. I think Izzy was pretty tired this morning since she was up much later than usual.
My friend Dan and his son Henrik came over in the morning and Henrik and Mazie stared at each other for a while before finally deciding to play for an hour or so. Mazie showed Henrik her shopping cart and then she took her stroller and they walked circles around the house having a great time. Izzy was good with both kids.
After they left Mazie and I went to Yum for lunch and had some great macaroni and cheese. Mazie was pretty awesome at lunch. She really had a great time. We got a cupcake for dessert which she was really excited about that.
I have come to two conclusions at this point in my Mr. Mom adventure. First, the puppy chores and Izzy are way harder than Mazie. Mazie listens, can entertain herself, doesn’t crap in the house and has never attempted to dig a hole in the rug. I can’t give these same qualifications to Izzy. My second conclusion is that 5-7pm is horrible. Mazie is starting to get cranked up and a bit tired. Izzy is usually wound up like a top. There is a lot going on with everyone eating and Izzy needing to go outside about 5 seconds after eating. It’s a 12 on a 10-point scale in my book.
Izzy only goes out two more times. I sure hope that when she’s a bit older she doesn’t need to go outside so often. Seems constant at this point. I’m hoping to relax a bit and get ready for tomorrow. Grandma Rosalin and Aunt Alona are coming over and going to swimming class with us and then out for lunch tomorrow morning.
Running the Gauntlet
Today was a challenging day for Mr. Mom. It started right away. Somehow I slept until 7am and woke up to Mazie saying “Get out” over and over on the baby monitor. Izzy was also very eager to get out of her “house” and do her business outside. I got Mazie first, before letting Izzy out, then brought her upstairs and took Izzy out before Mazie got her fresh diaper. This set the tone for the most of the day it seemed.
Granted I think I brought some of this on myself by planning a lot of things and not scheduling it quiet right. We met up with Grandpa Don in the morning which meant a lot of driving, including a trip into my office, and Mazie fell asleep during all the driving — way too early! She did another nap in the afternoon after we made a trip to the grocery store to balance it out.
Today was a hot and cold day. The high point was Mazie cuddling up with me on my lap with Izzy hanging out on the couch. Totally cool. The low point was me on my cell phone for a business call, Mazie demanding yogurt in her high chair and Izzy crapping on the floor — all at once. Ugh! I was getting a bit too frustrated at one point and decided to just put Izzy in her house. Mazie wanted to nothing more than to give Izzy her food. Izzy wanted nothing more than to have it. Dad was right in the middle of it!
A couple of friends came over with dinner, Guinness and cigars tonight along with some much needed relaxation. I’m up way too late, but I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. I’m hoping to wake up before Mazie and avoid the gauntlet tomorrow.
First Day as Mr. Mom
I’m taking a moment to relax a bit and plugging this post up on the blog. The photos from the day are uploading right now as well. Today was the first day of Tammy’s 5-day trip with her Mom. They are going on a Heifer Ranch’s Women’s Lambing Weekend. Mainly they will be working on a ranch with the animals, and help deliver a number of newborn lambs. They are going to ride a water buffalo at some point. I can’t wait to see the photos from the trip! 🙂 I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. I’m taking today, tomorrow and Monday off of work and Mazie and I have a lot of fun things scheduled. However, the addition of a brand new puppy has greatly complicated things and added a bunch of stress. On the plus side though it will give Izzy and I some good quality time together. Mazie also came down sick yesterday with a high temperature. She did okay today with some medicine, but we’ll be skipping ECFE class tomorrow.
Tammy and Grandma took off at 9am this morning after many hugs and kisses. Mazie and I wished them off from the door and immediately got ready to head to our big event for the day. We headed to the location of her ECFE classes to join the group leaving for the state capitol. She seemed good enough to go on the trip, and unlike ECFE class there wasn’t going to be a lot of playing with other kids so I figured it was fine with her being a little sick.
The event today was the Voices for Children Advocacy Day at the State Capitol. This is a pretty simple event that seems to fulfil two objectives. First is for parents to come with their kids and express their continued support for ECFE and other early-childhood programs. The second is for state legislators to get photo opportunities with young kids for the next campaign brochure. It’s very lightly organized, and mostly Mazie and I just spent an hour wandering around the capitol and having fun.
The main draw of the event really was the bus ride. Mazie loves school buses, or “big trucks” as she used to call them. We boarded the bus and her glee turned to fear. She kept repeating “don’t like” while sitting in the bus, feeling a bit scared. I was pretty worried she would totally melt down when the bus started going but she did okay. She was fine the 2nd time on the return ride. We sang “Wheels on the Bus” about 114 times. 🙂
That was our only big event for the day. We went and got groceries. Mazie was able to have toast for dinner, one of her new favorites. I got a super-great real-bone for Izzy that she has been fascinated by all night, making me happy to have some time to relax.
Tomorrow we are going to make a short visit to my office and then visit Grandpa Don and Rusty!