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.

Dec 18, 2007 ∞

Christmas Tree 2007

We’ve been a bit slow getting our Christmas tree up this year. We finally got one today and I figured it was a great time to do another time-lapsed video!

You don’t get to see much of Mazie because she’s blocked by the table most of the time.

Dec 15, 2007 ∞

OLPC XO-1 Arrived

My One Laptop Per Child XO-1 arrived today! I haven’t had any time to work with it so you will all have to wait to hear my thoughts on it. Some things that jumped right out though include…

The keyboard was designed for children (duh!) and is really small. Wow!
~~So far I haven't been able to get it to join a WPA2 WiFi network.~~
It’s really cute.

To tide everyone over, here are some pictures of Mazie holding it. She’s a kid after all! :-)

Nov 4, 2007 ∞

Sous Les Sapins

Photos from our weekend in Eastern Iowa staying at Sous Les Sapins Guesthouse with friends.

A family of three sits on a stone platform outdoors, with trees and a red wagon in the background.

A child with blonde hair walks on a grassy field covered with fallen leaves, while another child in the background holds hands with an adult.

A child joyfully runs towards the camera on a grassy field, with another child in the background near trees.

A child with long hair is running across a grassy area covered in fallen leaves, with the image appearing slightly blurred to convey motion.

A young child is lying in the grass while wearing a blue shirt and pink pants.

Two young children are sitting on wooden steps, holding hands, surrounded by small pumpkins and a metal watering can.

Two children in winter hats are sitting in a small wooden wagon labeled Town & Country, with one child holding a stuffed animal.

Two children in jackets and hats sit on wooden steps in front of a white house with a porch, surrounded by plants and pumpkins.

A sunlit grassy landscape stretches under a clear blue sky with a bright sun overhead.

Two children in pajamas are sitting on a floral armchair, playing with toys in a cozy room.

A person and a child walk along a rural dirt road under a clear sky.

Two young children are walking hand in hand on a gravel path.

Two young children, dressed warmly in hats and jackets, sit together in a wooden wagon on a grassy area.

A young child is walking outdoors on a patch of grass with a backdrop of trees.

A man and a child walk hand-in-hand down a gravel road on a sunny day near a farm.

Two young children are sitting on wooden steps in front of a white door, with small pumpkins beside them.

Oct 28, 2007 ∞

2007 Block Pumpkin Carving

The annual block gathering to carve up some Halloween pumpkins. We got a great one this year!

Oct 26, 2007 ∞

Having lunch with Mazie at Yum!

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

Oct 26, 2007 ∞

At the Dolphin Show with Mazie!

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

Oct 19, 2007 ∞

Mazie and I having a great time at Mill City Farmers Market. Great music today!

Oct 11, 2007 ∞

Watching Charlotte’s Web with Mazie.

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

Oct 6, 2007 ∞

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!

Sep 3, 2007 ∞

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.