tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16286763020535291242024-02-18T22:11:58.901-08:00Belfry DispatchPetra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-22988242586777769742011-04-25T11:18:00.001-07:002011-04-25T11:18:20.984-07:00Easter 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUt8E_J-yQ5N7TrOQLcJmjtW9APjdBFWk7O9WMYmHIDlIr3mJhp8KaRuGeilm1nKfE9R79_MP05ry4vCyD_6I5BK084uXVbdFuD6cShOADuw6N6ft0p9GFFo2JcHOo7Rdt51IaIg1kIs/s1600/DSC_0072.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUt8E_J-yQ5N7TrOQLcJmjtW9APjdBFWk7O9WMYmHIDlIr3mJhp8KaRuGeilm1nKfE9R79_MP05ry4vCyD_6I5BK084uXVbdFuD6cShOADuw6N6ft0p9GFFo2JcHOo7Rdt51IaIg1kIs/s640/DSC_0072.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We started the day coloring eggs.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmq_TFdr0uCzmFAyG7tst03EVgNHXMoW7kKOfHDv8k5TOACMCVdC9Tfl7PbbZ60MsMLPtas-0BUBiwGBMDI3oIVkjjIevhmEildzQo7qJth7rk9GHR8eoSYuYlesnaBbT3Ylz3HXV_YCo/s1600/DSC_0074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmq_TFdr0uCzmFAyG7tst03EVgNHXMoW7kKOfHDv8k5TOACMCVdC9Tfl7PbbZ60MsMLPtas-0BUBiwGBMDI3oIVkjjIevhmEildzQo7qJth7rk9GHR8eoSYuYlesnaBbT3Ylz3HXV_YCo/s640/DSC_0074.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">We heard there was a bunny parade and ran over to Occidental to see.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hq8e17Mb7WVGg4ABZNCjxPYIsGFuIUqnuvCo_OwdRKBcmWtG9IuFPxkryOJmACzGrgA9xTTC6k26IG2d-iQRwglcQsg6qD987Sx-x__fa7gprvOlDZ-lFuI240ZzeXs2T7dgEyOhUl4/s1600/DSC_0076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hq8e17Mb7WVGg4ABZNCjxPYIsGFuIUqnuvCo_OwdRKBcmWtG9IuFPxkryOJmACzGrgA9xTTC6k26IG2d-iQRwglcQsg6qD987Sx-x__fa7gprvOlDZ-lFuI240ZzeXs2T7dgEyOhUl4/s640/DSC_0076.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Naomi left directions for the Easter bunny. Hopefully we will come by again.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOvrm_490lvqs-MWd4j7rfHMX0va8A1LSI2JvLAJjC-2gwBMCNtKWZpkZhkDlAVwliEkICT1_YSmiKFtExKANhORQZaA6n736UEhfCDmGyTL9zemIMyqWAfDC1GEW2m5HwfghehLof9E/s1600/DSC_0078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOvrm_490lvqs-MWd4j7rfHMX0va8A1LSI2JvLAJjC-2gwBMCNtKWZpkZhkDlAVwliEkICT1_YSmiKFtExKANhORQZaA6n736UEhfCDmGyTL9zemIMyqWAfDC1GEW2m5HwfghehLof9E/s640/DSC_0078.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The parade arrived with a wolf, some carrots and bunnies.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoni6YNWDFDWqOYneWSX231sqEqRZMzpGp-eQOFy4XgdZerz5C561mlJzk-GMX9TqEqywzNrvnnzR6o00mfsnEqOIU0pqscrTv967thFUJ17BMnc6p-hv3DZ43-N7P5WSySMDjW1EqkQI/s1600/DSC_0079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoni6YNWDFDWqOYneWSX231sqEqRZMzpGp-eQOFy4XgdZerz5C561mlJzk-GMX9TqEqywzNrvnnzR6o00mfsnEqOIU0pqscrTv967thFUJ17BMnc6p-hv3DZ43-N7P5WSySMDjW1EqkQI/s640/DSC_0079.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Next we headed to Anselm, Eliot, Adrienne and Blaise's house on Capital Hill for an egg hunt. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaRaJcEfugpuiPssR1_C3PgZQ37R8_MuM2R7ywsePhgS9Yg6L-TBVhOVUyktZuumlka3gDhUhpe2nt78Z-0flFm0y8YxdnqOMEuhR0wuS4gdsZRU5pFZBWTdy21MGpzuw8wR3IJKORZfM/s1600/DSC_0091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaRaJcEfugpuiPssR1_C3PgZQ37R8_MuM2R7ywsePhgS9Yg6L-TBVhOVUyktZuumlka3gDhUhpe2nt78Z-0flFm0y8YxdnqOMEuhR0wuS4gdsZRU5pFZBWTdy21MGpzuw8wR3IJKORZfM/s640/DSC_0091.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It was a wet Easter. Naomi kept her bike helmut on.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf324fBGukoHNi12MUVVKIzNR1uf0cnhoT-P3-6L0kYW-CBfOrBde9EmPMjYZGMj2NBQr4ryWWY12o4EIWr_LnA10dF9hlvbFnX_2A_YgUxY5ZhvO0Z72J9mW7aLuDbJhi1X-O0W-KQho/s1600/DSC_0102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf324fBGukoHNi12MUVVKIzNR1uf0cnhoT-P3-6L0kYW-CBfOrBde9EmPMjYZGMj2NBQr4ryWWY12o4EIWr_LnA10dF9hlvbFnX_2A_YgUxY5ZhvO0Z72J9mW7aLuDbJhi1X-O0W-KQho/s640/DSC_0102.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf324fBGukoHNi12MUVVKIzNR1uf0cnhoT-P3-6L0kYW-CBfOrBde9EmPMjYZGMj2NBQr4ryWWY12o4EIWr_LnA10dF9hlvbFnX_2A_YgUxY5ZhvO0Z72J9mW7aLuDbJhi1X-O0W-KQho/s1600/DSC_0102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Adrienne had hidden tons of eggs inside crevices, in trees, nooks, flower. </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The rain didn't deter the hunters. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-GN34vaCLWe3bOVO8_0UQrtV7kZdlMdo4REi1VK1-VWwi-uxZhxpMqwUvCQGqMUAexY8KDl65YpNoME9miYRdAU_TSAFav9KtlDrdb4WR7PgJZHDXxBmrC8awjW_G1Y6DgnL1K5e2Os/s1600/DSC_0095.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-GN34vaCLWe3bOVO8_0UQrtV7kZdlMdo4REi1VK1-VWwi-uxZhxpMqwUvCQGqMUAexY8KDl65YpNoME9miYRdAU_TSAFav9KtlDrdb4WR7PgJZHDXxBmrC8awjW_G1Y6DgnL1K5e2Os/s640/DSC_0095.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Circling. So many eggs! </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0_QkhBM43A3LJymMK7OdGd560uti-sozVMGnY3daZESIqISyF4GkseUNgtP60bSYCg1Ib3mOi7YHOu23Kuo3zM2LlBKWZmaKpzC9Br_WmFbFSv-z8wWublz91L2XQayAk4OXAiFMtJc/s1600/DSC_0103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0_QkhBM43A3LJymMK7OdGd560uti-sozVMGnY3daZESIqISyF4GkseUNgtP60bSYCg1Ib3mOi7YHOu23Kuo3zM2LlBKWZmaKpzC9Br_WmFbFSv-z8wWublz91L2XQayAk4OXAiFMtJc/s640/DSC_0103.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Some were in trees.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCMM-SUq8ULJ7sszaQegVzhCdWziKTNjRFDrIwCRC1qLmGOeReZZGlsQkwXeJXJCmo4ECU0GYHvJZxzocEK4aBa-Qh3wH-buKSaaWLbv3G-2MIut3-fLP4YVL273RgE6Q1-axeJdy8ZU/s1600/DSC_0106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCMM-SUq8ULJ7sszaQegVzhCdWziKTNjRFDrIwCRC1qLmGOeReZZGlsQkwXeJXJCmo4ECU0GYHvJZxzocEK4aBa-Qh3wH-buKSaaWLbv3G-2MIut3-fLP4YVL273RgE6Q1-axeJdy8ZU/s640/DSC_0106.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Think like a giant bunny. Where would he hide eggs?</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPo8qIexDxzo-HGmR5VFP4B5RHDRhLH0YjeOy5ZhkXHMFyZ1Gn9Egez4rlVgodzx9ERUQ9lyog9CAZ59bQ3KLz7EpKbfa7HnKbQuiKogHOQ5GegroXmNX0KXzCvabRPouEGDHAfYpjoA/s1600/DSC_0108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPo8qIexDxzo-HGmR5VFP4B5RHDRhLH0YjeOy5ZhkXHMFyZ1Gn9Egez4rlVgodzx9ERUQ9lyog9CAZ59bQ3KLz7EpKbfa7HnKbQuiKogHOQ5GegroXmNX0KXzCvabRPouEGDHAfYpjoA/s640/DSC_0108.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I've got enough. How about you!</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FfXPkT_MmQa3Umfu5O2Cay7RXgIp4ZKWgIYibsIj1xaYafUeoIoETpbmu3op5D5K6RnEQEDDxHpwf80mmjWFS5Zl-9BN-w9IlQ_iO3V7lBtw3FbuPTUrt15u0u5tiPf_CiBNH-Cf4No/s1600/DSC_0111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0FfXPkT_MmQa3Umfu5O2Cay7RXgIp4ZKWgIYibsIj1xaYafUeoIoETpbmu3op5D5K6RnEQEDDxHpwf80mmjWFS5Zl-9BN-w9IlQ_iO3V7lBtw3FbuPTUrt15u0u5tiPf_CiBNH-Cf4No/s640/DSC_0111.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Hmm. The chocolate ones are the best. Delicious. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fyZcHButrQBevvW5p9e8Ac64cHlCysHmtH3pzVIOkr7VN0aAvWBcvfLT5GWBqoe1yW4LtowbfCGvyKK_sVmYc_7b1EA1bPdmjDL9xVpebDbP2d6no7y-x5TLLPdN0YwsL1dVSQ9G2Sg/s1600/DSC_0113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fyZcHButrQBevvW5p9e8Ac64cHlCysHmtH3pzVIOkr7VN0aAvWBcvfLT5GWBqoe1yW4LtowbfCGvyKK_sVmYc_7b1EA1bPdmjDL9xVpebDbP2d6no7y-x5TLLPdN0YwsL1dVSQ9G2Sg/s640/DSC_0113.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Hey lets re-hide them. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWFY46G0MRMBVG1qqeVF20y-hbEFPSBlxuAG7AfZeGxLW0Qxwk1BUt8uFMuWfDD5o9VxRqiknqx3AMdYNYPsPazGYp_GYSdlTJ43TbM9ATI8skqvAcmt6G1ZcNLSeuVD9QjhjscPSGfU/s1600/DSC_0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWFY46G0MRMBVG1qqeVF20y-hbEFPSBlxuAG7AfZeGxLW0Qxwk1BUt8uFMuWfDD5o9VxRqiknqx3AMdYNYPsPazGYp_GYSdlTJ43TbM9ATI8skqvAcmt6G1ZcNLSeuVD9QjhjscPSGfU/s640/DSC_0117.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Adrienne, Blaise, David and I passed hours at the table enjoying a </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">leisurely repast while the kids created games indoors and out. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5pTm-6o3wM7nmg56Dq39DeegGKKH8T-Jid-aseWfGAaOQvxck0-q71SIbFg1izpIZbTRzVGTzvxcweSM312yG4SvDj1T7jR_Eq9DSwQbTw8U55m13m8vtGx-oVCmSAxhSOwgCwWtpF4/s1600/DSC_0122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5pTm-6o3wM7nmg56Dq39DeegGKKH8T-Jid-aseWfGAaOQvxck0-q71SIbFg1izpIZbTRzVGTzvxcweSM312yG4SvDj1T7jR_Eq9DSwQbTw8U55m13m8vtGx-oVCmSAxhSOwgCwWtpF4/s640/DSC_0122.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Anselm, here is a dark chocolate one for you. Lets do this again tomorrow!</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-9494943160154637252011-04-22T14:45:00.001-07:002019-01-18T22:59:22.632-08:00The Artist Toolbox - NOW for Season Two!<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I can barely believe it. The </span><a href="http://www.theartisttoolbox.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Artist Toolbox</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> is running 2 to 4 times a week in 227 PBS markets. We were the LA Times “Pick of the Week” </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">again</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (fifth time) as well as covered in Time and Newsweek. We have the right to distribute outside of PBS and thus are putting the 13 episodes on airline inflight entertainment (digiplayer has us now) and soon you will be able to download us from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=amazon+instant+video&tag=googhydr-20&index=amazontv&hvadid=8960537969&ref=pd_sl_5brtmmu9tt_e">Amazon's Instant Video</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Watch the full </span><a href="http://vimeo.com/20088535?utm_source=Video+Exclusives&utm_campaign=edad80be90-Isabel_Allende_Freebie4_10_2011&utm_medium=email"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Isabel Allende</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> episode below or with this <a href="http://vimeo.com/20088535?utm_source=Video+Exclusives&utm_campaign=edad80be90-Isabel_Allende_Freebie4_10_2011&utm_medium=email">link</a>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My focus now is on finding underwriting for Season Two. We have Helen Mirren, Angela Lansbury, Bon Jovi, David Brubeck, Carolina Herrera, Jules Feiffer and Sally Mann lined up. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are two 30 sec ad spots in the show. Those spots are powerful, as PBS is a clutter free advertising environment.</span></div>
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Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-73766309980021497072011-04-01T11:57:00.002-07:002021-06-09T12:13:28.067-07:00Why they were saying among themselves that it cannot be done, it was done.<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit." - Helen Keller</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eXdi4aOx53hQGEqGLmaZ1UtEPapRvPpR4OStHSqlxeqRPGbxYDYFTbKuHNMp9rbxIjHdgbC-x_XclqLrghWXf61GqioVUaTdSihMPUwQY4rInLGrso9W_4qwVmiBgSOFSIDI1W2zt-Ui/s1600/DSC_0012.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="449" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9eXdi4aOx53hQGEqGLmaZ1UtEPapRvPpR4OStHSqlxeqRPGbxYDYFTbKuHNMp9rbxIjHdgbC-x_XclqLrghWXf61GqioVUaTdSihMPUwQY4rInLGrso9W_4qwVmiBgSOFSIDI1W2zt-Ui/w363-h449/DSC_0012.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="363" /></span></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Naomi building up the courage for a big leap.</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Times; text-align: justify;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Simone is working on a report about Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. Though Helen left a legacy of accomplishments, co-founder of the ACLU, activist, and renowned author, Simone found herself particularly interested in Helen's tutor, Anne Sullivan and focused on her life and their relationship.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anne Sullivan became blind when she was five from untreated trachoma. By eight, her mother had died and her abusive father had deserted both her and her brother Jimmie. At ten, they were sent to a horrific poorhouse, and soon after Jimmie died.</span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was brutal but Anne was able to prosper. One day when</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; border-spacing: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Frank Sanborn, the chairman of a charity visited the Tewksbury orphanage, Anne threw herself in front of him pleading, "Mr. Sanborn, I want to go to school!"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Not only did she go to school but in 1886, when she was 20, she graduated </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; border-spacing: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">as the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> class valedictorian. She was able to regain enough of her eyesight to read normal print for short periods of time through a series of operations but her vision was still quite minimal and that made it difficult for Anne to find work. When she received the offer to teach Helen Keller, a deaf-blind mute (although she had no teaching experience) she accepted and gave it everything she had. Unlike many before her, she was able to break through to Helen and her progress was extraordinary. It also became a lifelong friendship. The two lived together until Anne died in 1936. (<i>Edited and transcribed from Simone doing an improve dinner performance of Anne's story.</i>)</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Helen Keller Quotes:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div></div><blockquote><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am only one, still I am one. I can not do everything, still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; padding: 6px; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozX4Leitx8cp94n1XbsVxhMeiZWne_U5zteEqovkVHqmJgg9jA1k85OBvnmexjFdEMwW7cmVo-GcUn0q1HRh1zedtKVgfrDASdvsK7NWKl5aiswzKbrNHywxiqLYnQ7Voz1Zotn5WGknO/s1600/DSC_0215.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozX4Leitx8cp94n1XbsVxhMeiZWne_U5zteEqovkVHqmJgg9jA1k85OBvnmexjFdEMwW7cmVo-GcUn0q1HRh1zedtKVgfrDASdvsK7NWKl5aiswzKbrNHywxiqLYnQ7Voz1Zotn5WGknO/s640/DSC_0215.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Madeline is performing the role of Helen Keller, Simone is Anne Sullivan and Lola is </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">covering two roles, Jimmy Sullivan and Mr. Sanborn. In the Chinese Room "theater".</div></div></td></tr>
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</tbody></table></span></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-25223977991161460082011-03-29T14:06:00.000-07:002011-04-22T14:47:20.089-07:00The Artist Toolbox<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fkRDLjsOUtw" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe><br />
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I am having so much fun! I'm working on the television series, "The Artist Toolbox." <br />
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To find out when it is playing in your area, put your zip code in <a href="http://www.theartisttoolbox.com/index.php/tvschedule">here</a>:Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-92041101174819428432011-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:47:02.502-08:00Which moments do you remember?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnaY2YrFIbV88jEpoRH_6ZEnlDu8VdMRfPLMycqIXzRp-vTFXClc5FB-k4WObDXXy4z9Qj602mI35lT1JPzGEC57Lkloyos4Rfj_hs7GAc8CcUeH8-PfO4bkizRX-ByE6_YwdwjJz2sM/s1600/Annie+laughing+in+kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnaY2YrFIbV88jEpoRH_6ZEnlDu8VdMRfPLMycqIXzRp-vTFXClc5FB-k4WObDXXy4z9Qj602mI35lT1JPzGEC57Lkloyos4Rfj_hs7GAc8CcUeH8-PfO4bkizRX-ByE6_YwdwjJz2sM/s320/Annie+laughing+in+kitchen.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My neighbors and good friends, the Strains, were written up in the Seattle Times <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2013908323_pacificpnwl23.html">today</a>. Jeff believes that living downtown proffers more family moments..those revelations, discoveries and "good times" that you stumble upon together during a neighborhood romp. He says, these are the times likely to be remembered decades from now. I, of course (not biased or anything) agree.</div><div><br />
</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-12952210179911596042011-02-17T17:16:00.000-08:002011-02-28T15:31:31.002-08:00Rosa Parks PlayNaomi's PreSchool class did a play about Rosa Parks today. Here is Naomi describing the play.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xvtZBMj6M_o" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br />
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And here is how the play turned out.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/U4lakE1cUPw" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-89497897210410858432011-02-17T16:14:00.000-08:002015-02-25T17:48:47.330-08:00Half the Sky is both a brutal awakening and an unmistakable call to action. -Melinda Gates<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipe5Z7Ahnd7SSw7MUxxWayABMnhMWwMoKMZ8SmxV8CEYgGJW1hIevCXCyOb6djCoepKwZGoiV7W2xKzodIza3a0zgBUWulbQukLZCsBG2bYta_OnIq3pR2NLjEsNLxoWAHa6abic59SWQ/s1600/DSC_0487.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipe5Z7Ahnd7SSw7MUxxWayABMnhMWwMoKMZ8SmxV8CEYgGJW1hIevCXCyOb6djCoepKwZGoiV7W2xKzodIza3a0zgBUWulbQukLZCsBG2bYta_OnIq3pR2NLjEsNLxoWAHa6abic59SWQ/s640/DSC_0487.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="margin-top" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 30px !important; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our friend Amber Vandermeulen, a third grade teacher in the Kent school system, said that she and her husband had just read Half the Sky to one another on their last road-trip and she thought I might like it. Knowing nothing about it, I cracked it open. ...everything was forever changed.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Half-Sky-Oppression-Opportunity-Worldwide/dp/0307387097?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Half the Sky</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307387097" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is a collection of stories about heros, written by Pulitzer prize winning NY Times columnists and authors, </span></span><a href="http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nicholas Kristof</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and </span></span><a href="http://www.halftheskymovement.org/resources"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sheryl WuDunn</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. The two are married and often write that treasured breed of articles....the kind that are full of facts that once heard, leave you seeing things that were invisible before. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: normal;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. -Helen Keller</span></span></span></em></span></strong></em></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: normal;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-25792697428997417072011-02-14T15:53:00.000-08:002011-03-27T10:58:42.756-07:00"Bringing science to Science Fiction"<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQH2T4d7VwiMXIi62WzeSm-R-rzLuhh7ueUgQzqUmasKIJ4BX-6ilzv4m3aznYJFjKfCh_HyQps0pk9y-4Sg3DAeCqZVhRWlYqeUCaYBYM6RnPLKDkCP236APhvjl-QAUa_DMjO-XwAL9-/s1600/dalton+1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQH2T4d7VwiMXIi62WzeSm-R-rzLuhh7ueUgQzqUmasKIJ4BX-6ilzv4m3aznYJFjKfCh_HyQps0pk9y-4Sg3DAeCqZVhRWlYqeUCaYBYM6RnPLKDkCP236APhvjl-QAUa_DMjO-XwAL9-/s1600/dalton+1a.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Larry Dalton</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 2000, </span><a href="http://depts.washington.edu/eooptic/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Larry Dalton</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> came over to the tower apartment to share his idea of creating a Research Center for "Materials Science and Devices" that would bring together material scientists from across the country to solve the hardest and most exciting modern problems. The National Science Foundation was launching a new program called "Science and Technology Centers."(STC) They aimed to make America more competitive by funding research institutions to work together for common goals. Larry jumped at the opportunity. He and Alvin Kwiram applied and in 2002 the NSF STC was funded and I went on the advisory board. It was called CMDITR which stood for the unwieldy, <a href="http://www.stc-mditr.org/">Center for Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research</a>. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsS-Auq4PCIx3FCcQYm205x94Iy4s3fWyNpc3UMuxKRTYvypFriMp3exAsViegu2ShAm275U5f5gOs61n7DXRkAOyaRKNDyyXQ09D2Dg0GOUfM8T9_Sw6fgswFSWsU5R0vGB7tly-vG5ZQ/s1600/JeanneSmall.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsS-Auq4PCIx3FCcQYm205x94Iy4s3fWyNpc3UMuxKRTYvypFriMp3exAsViegu2ShAm275U5f5gOs61n7DXRkAOyaRKNDyyXQ09D2Dg0GOUfM8T9_Sw6fgswFSWsU5R0vGB7tly-vG5ZQ/s1600/JeanneSmall.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeanne Small</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nine years have passed,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> the lead <a href="http://www.stc-mditr.org/people/CMDITR_OrgChart.pdf">directors</a>, Larry Dalton, Phil Reed and Jeanne Small and I sat down together over coffee and the first thing Larry said was, "I think we brought some Science to Science Fiction, don't you? ...What's next?" We reviewed the accomplishments to date:</span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">229 patents filed and 32 awarded.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">42 of those patents have been licensed to companies bringing in a total of $26.8 million from 43 companies. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7 start-ups, 2 of which have been acquired. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">$31 million has been received from private industry investors and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 newly funded research centers have spun out.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Educational outreach events have continually grown, recently there was one with 3000 attendees.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Industrial partners have matched and are now exceeding the annual investment of $4M from the National Science Foundation. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">CMDITR’s ethics training modules have been adopted by over 91 user groups at dozens of institutions across the US. The p</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hotonics wiki receives as many as 3000 visitors a month.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">19 educational videos on the what-why-and-how of researching have received 1600 views.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Highly organized and charismatic leadership and administration of this complex center. </span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phil Reed</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are other items I am in awe of, such as the massive number of students now deeply committed to expanding the body of scientific knowledge, or the sophistication, growth and cohesion of each research department involved, but perhaps most of all, I can see how the center’s formidable accomplishments in diversity delivered across the board to their success as innovators. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Although the "external" board, which is what we have evolved into, has negligible impact on CDMITR, it sure has been a thrill to be front and center watching the action! <br />
</div></div></span>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-74112811428119797352011-01-31T15:08:00.000-08:002011-01-31T15:08:41.213-08:00The girl effect<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1e8xgF0JtVg" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-6001385892375021692011-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:002011-02-17T15:39:43.327-08:00A half century of kids playing with Circuitry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5XWpg94JPREqzj461nBgbj4buUQE7QYrbrZqNGGBnxZL0ujEpSPZYRKiU2U4jIEWWiZFely7l7lusWtJRJtG6ni7My-G1WQKJ_XXU5fhg6LTxhjiKYsll2s_8QuPdOxqcWkwhVdOycaJO/s1600/ei-sept67.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5XWpg94JPREqzj461nBgbj4buUQE7QYrbrZqNGGBnxZL0ujEpSPZYRKiU2U4jIEWWiZFely7l7lusWtJRJtG6ni7My-G1WQKJ_XXU5fhg6LTxhjiKYsll2s_8QuPdOxqcWkwhVdOycaJO/s640/ei-sept67.gif" style="cursor: move;" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
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<div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Consolas; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A toy, similar to "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-SC-750-Snap-Circuits-Extreme/dp/B0002AHQWS?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Snap Circuits</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0002AHQWS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />"<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0002AHQWS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> was covered in the September 1967 issue of Electronics Illustrated. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then and now what you get is a box of domino like magnetic pieces that allow kids to snap together such cool items as a radio, a light activated multi-vibrator, a voice activated switch, a solar panel, a burglar alarm and many more. The toymaker today is Elenco Electronics but originally it turns out it was Raytheon, the inventor of radar and the fifth largest military contractor in the world. Revenues of 25,000 billion, employing 75,000 today. An article by Emer Carlson about the 1960's product is below. This toy is equally fascinating today. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">(Thanks for the link Hal!) </span></div></div><div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-43.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</a><a href="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-43.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img align="LEFT" border="0" height="340" hspace="10" src="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-43.gif" style="cursor: move;" valign="TOP" vspace="10" width="400" /></a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Instant is the word of the jet age. Time grows more valuable every day. Once we spent six days in leisure travel from New York to California by train. Now we can't wait for a supersonic jet to get us there before we leave. And so it is with electronics. There's a mountain of information to learn in what always turns out to be too little time.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">To help grease the skids of learning basic electronics and get your hands into practical working circuits, there's a new kit of domino-like plastic electronic boxes. Now, this isn't just an electronic game. It's the way to instant learning.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Big drag when studying electronics is putting circuits together. It's time-consuming to cut and twist component leads, connect them, solder them, support them and keep them from shorting. You have enough to do just learning how a circuit operates. And then think of the mess when you take everything apart for another experiment. Solder drippings, burned finger, broken leads, sloppy layouts, heat-damaged semiconductors - all of this makes you wish you'd never started</span>.</blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">But now it can be as much fun to put electronic circuits together and to learn fundamentals as it is to put words together when you play Scrabble. The Egger-Lectron Model 8400 learning aid is imported from Germany and will be distributed by the Macalaster Scientific Co. (a subsidiary of Raytheon), 186 Third Ave., Waltham, Mass., 02154. In this country they will be called electronic dominoes.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Just about anyone can put together an operating circuit as easily as they could play real dominoes. Each of the plastic boxes contains one or more electronic components or an interconnecting part. The kit supplied to us by Raytheon contains a carefully-selected collection of components, all neatly done up in plastic boxes bearing a schematic symbol of the contents, a manual of experiments and two work boards. Even a 9-year-old child can match the marked dominoes with those on the schematics to build and demonstrate a light meter, electronic thermometer, tone generator or radio - to mention a few of the 90 experiments in the manual that accompanies the complete set. For the high school student, there are more advanced projects such as a three-transistor reflex-AM radio, metering circuits, transistor-testers and simple computer flip-flops.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img hspace="10" src="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-44.gif" style="text-align: left;" vspace="10" /></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The three-transistor reflex-AM radio and several smaller circuits were put together in about an hour the first evening we worked with the set. And that included time for experimenting - which is at least half the fun of building the circuits. Of course, if you want to snap the boxes together really fast, give the circuit a quick test, then pull it apart and snap together another circuit. You could do eight or ten circuits in an hour.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The set we show here contains 108 plastic boxes. Sixty-five contain such components as resistors, capacitors, transistors (with and without a bias resistor), a meter, a relay, a thermistor, potentiometers, rheostats, RF transformer, speaker, push-button switches, diodes, variable capacitor, photocell and battery packs. Eight are blanks in which there are small contacts that accept the leads of resistors, capacitors, inductors or transistors for supplying values not included in the set. Jacked boxes will accept special inputs or test leads, for example. Other boxes contain connectors to join boxes to boxes or to ground a component to the work board.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">How Does It All Work? In vaudeville they used to say it was all done with mirrors. In Dominoes it's all done with magnets. Instead of using clips, binding posts, or springs to hold parts together, each box is equipped with small magnets at the pointswhere it is ot contact another box or the board. The sides and the bottom of each box are made of clear plastic so you can see what's inside. The top of each box - carrying the schematic symbol - is opaque white.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Some of the circuits can, incidentally, be a little touchy. Squeeze a little here, apply some pressure there and suddenly the circuit works like a charm - a light blinks, the meter needle moves or the speaker sounds. The longer we used the set, however, the less we seemed to have contact problems.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img hspace="10" src="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-45.gif" style="text-align: right;" vspace="10" /></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The work surface of each of the 13 x 15-1/2 inch work boards is covered with a plated ferrous metal sheet forming the ground or common connection for all the circuits, just like a radio chassis. Since two battery boxes and two work boards were included in the set, it is possible to put together two circuits at the same time - provided you don't have too many components in each circuits. The concept has great potential as a teaching tool. In only a few seconds it is possible to set up a practical circuit that would only be schematic symbols in a textbook. The work boards can be propped up on their built-in stands or hung on the wall so that a whole classroom can see the demonstration. Componenets in any circuit can be changed instantly to show their effect on circuit performance. Special experiments in the manual demonstrate the characteristics of components - resisitance, inductance and capacitance; how tuned circuits affect radio reception; effects of base current on emitter-collector current flow and other electronic principles.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Okay, let's open the manual and see what we can learn. Believe it or not, the first experiment is a multivibrator flasher made with 21 boxes. Now this is hardly the sort of experiment and the 19 that follow is simply to give you a taste of some of the interesting things to come.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Experiment No. 21 is about as simple as you could want. It consists of a bulb, battery and switch in series. This is basic. In the next two experiments you put resistors in series with battery and lamp to note the effect of adding resistance in the circuit. The lamp, of course, gets dimmer. From there the experiments go on through multivibrators, audio, photocell applications, relays, etc., ending with a burglar alarm.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img hspace="10" src="http://www.decodesystems.com/ei-sept67-46.gif" style="text-align: left;" vspace="10" /></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Everybody who has seem the dominoes has found it hard to keep his hands off them. Their arrival in our New York office threatened to play havoc with production schedules, in fact, until some killjoy remembered that they had been designed for kids. So we sheepishly carted them off to a household that included a bright 14-year-old. He was delighted.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Frist project on the agenda was, of course, the AM radio circuit - even though that's toward the back of the book. It worked and he was hooked. He and his father (who was also hooked by this time) were having a grand time trying circuit after circuit when the eight-year-old kid sister showed up and wanted to play, too. Now this is not quite cricket, according to Raytheon, because the dominoes are geared to high-school instruction. Nothing daunted, she abandoned her numbered painting and pitched in.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">It's a good thing that battery packs and work boards supplied in pairs in the set they were using. Otherwise we would have been responsible for introducing dissention into a happy home. As it was, both kids ended up pushing Dad aside and going their, merry, electronic ways. Numbered painting? Who needs it?</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Next of the priviledged junior set to get his grubby little hands on the dominoes was a five-year-old. Now we were really on unspoiled ground since this boy had never even heard of a circuit. We tried experiment No. 21. The chocolate-smeared finger gleefully pushed the button of the push-to-close switch while the bulb flashed on and off. Fine - audience participation! But what was he getting out of it, we wondered. Next he wanted to see the meter work so we set up the battery-tester circuit with the same push-to-close switch. More delight.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The experience of a five-year-old can't be expected to add up to a hill of beans, electronically speaking. But it does demonstrate the appeal of the dominoes. It's hard to imagine any other means by which you could get across these basic concepts so quickly and so vividly. The fact that kids can put the parts in place themselves and see immediate results from their efforts beats fussing with Fahnestock clips and interconnecting wires all hollow - to say nothing of messing with soldering irons.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">All this is fine in the school. Homebodies may have reservations about the cost, however. A basic starter kit, the Mini Lectron, having pretty limited capabilities, is expected to sell for $19.50. While the way will be eased to biffer and better things by the availability of individual blister-packed add-on units, cost of a full set like the one we had will probably be $128. Two intermediate sets are also planned.</span></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Still, considering the way the Lectron can put across ideas (even to our five-year-old, who corrected a mistake of his father's after only ten minutes with the darn thing), it's got to be one of the grandest educational toys, ever. -Elmer Carlson</span></blockquote></div></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-17869044690222333052011-01-28T11:50:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:30:29.361-08:00Simone's take on Dolphins<i>Simone gave a presentation in her classroom today about Dolphins. She used questions to start the talk and to lead the way through it. Her peers listened avidly and raised their hands to ask questions or add a note from their own experiences. Here is her talk:</i><br />
<br />
Last summer when my family and I went boogie boarding in California, a pod of dolphins came by and started leaping around us. Then, over the holidays we went to a dolphin park in Cabo, Mexico. Ever since then, I have wanted to learn more about Dolphins. Today I am going to share what I have discovered with you.<br />
<blockquote><br />
<ol><li><blockquote>What are “Curtains of Death?” </blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>How are Dolphins like bats? (Or…What is echo-location?) </blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>What are nursing grannies?</blockquote></li>
<li><blockquote>How do Dolphins Sleep? </blockquote></li>
</ol></blockquote>Here are the answers to those questions ….and a few others.<br />
<br />
1.) Dolphins are Mammals just like us. They are not fish. Mammals are warm-blooded, breathe air, get milk from their mothers', are born alive and have body hair. (Yes dolphins have just a few hairs by their blowholes.)<br />
<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiguFRsrhSLwJIHlvY-Fqdkf2Mt0wMhg5GbmQiR9q5vkYM8F6ivwbcAsXM3sNq4VRC_PrtefPq8fcBANLOzyxJ6aEp0S2JzhB51zeAk8_mr-CDZQweKHpCPz5Jqj1wJJnKE2vi35Ave-icG/s1600/1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiguFRsrhSLwJIHlvY-Fqdkf2Mt0wMhg5GbmQiR9q5vkYM8F6ivwbcAsXM3sNq4VRC_PrtefPq8fcBANLOzyxJ6aEp0S2JzhB51zeAk8_mr-CDZQweKHpCPz5Jqj1wJJnKE2vi35Ave-icG/s200/1a.jpg" width="151" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlkeioc6aQ_PvyMc1qslrt8xTgZWhqoHNmcNVCLgAFkv2B2hBOBQmIIdZSHyhlBBkyE-BW0EKb2uUX-ynFzpZaTV3zoLXsnnpEnzuhhe6OY6QB0ijokbt3fZ1jueLLJpnkikZX-5awSMz/s1600/1b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlkeioc6aQ_PvyMc1qslrt8xTgZWhqoHNmcNVCLgAFkv2B2hBOBQmIIdZSHyhlBBkyE-BW0EKb2uUX-ynFzpZaTV3zoLXsnnpEnzuhhe6OY6QB0ijokbt3fZ1jueLLJpnkikZX-5awSMz/s320/1b.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zXxKhaql_du1KOUh6F1EmZ_y5Oe2yiXaL0CPgHlStAdYk7rCnbcCIAh14cS3VVW87eL5KuTQK15BkLXIuZ74003fyLCFVPGAr9SLCTyqEb4gv7Tx3uyGSTJhThcbzq9Cgi46Iu3TRQky/s1600/1c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zXxKhaql_du1KOUh6F1EmZ_y5Oe2yiXaL0CPgHlStAdYk7rCnbcCIAh14cS3VVW87eL5KuTQK15BkLXIuZ74003fyLCFVPGAr9SLCTyqEb4gv7Tx3uyGSTJhThcbzq9Cgi46Iu3TRQky/s320/1c.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KZqdG-uhy_8rBk5rIxP2Bb-Uyq81Rs9BOumz9Q3UFwCCTs9QhzjSM1BmWg192ti2AJkVrc3dM6rkcUbc56dPUiQqlCLbuFqHqojx54muboVOsDEm56NN_WOGMbBny6T4NDl4f68QWUMw/s1600/1d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KZqdG-uhy_8rBk5rIxP2Bb-Uyq81Rs9BOumz9Q3UFwCCTs9QhzjSM1BmWg192ti2AJkVrc3dM6rkcUbc56dPUiQqlCLbuFqHqojx54muboVOsDEm56NN_WOGMbBny6T4NDl4f68QWUMw/s200/1d.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>2.) How are Dolphins like bats? (Both use Echolocation or sonar to see in the dark. )</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyT7o0sqVZjD1Jf-6dkoTxNKlBMxpzqHB9hqyszD3bWQ-xwrEBBsJissvcxi8UGpn7IicFzWnlkHH2Qgua-uucjrfIidVN1J3sw1VdYVLSDzsJE8mEvXLTfLNAwDWQMXo7I99f8C_5kdTi/s1600/2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyT7o0sqVZjD1Jf-6dkoTxNKlBMxpzqHB9hqyszD3bWQ-xwrEBBsJissvcxi8UGpn7IicFzWnlkHH2Qgua-uucjrfIidVN1J3sw1VdYVLSDzsJE8mEvXLTfLNAwDWQMXo7I99f8C_5kdTi/s1600/2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBA5B1prFLjVCUYtTYn1rvSq71fvip_E3PnpAJuVv2MELU8mUXRddoqXRK0D0wcCRaCnHRMkPMQWxFrCLUuab0K5GPtRXgQ0MKlffsb8J6zy4VJFYRq9dnag2I3lLIqdr0w39FNPimaU_/s1600/2b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBA5B1prFLjVCUYtTYn1rvSq71fvip_E3PnpAJuVv2MELU8mUXRddoqXRK0D0wcCRaCnHRMkPMQWxFrCLUuab0K5GPtRXgQ0MKlffsb8J6zy4VJFYRq9dnag2I3lLIqdr0w39FNPimaU_/s200/2b.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyT7o0sqVZjD1Jf-6dkoTxNKlBMxpzqHB9hqyszD3bWQ-xwrEBBsJissvcxi8UGpn7IicFzWnlkHH2Qgua-uucjrfIidVN1J3sw1VdYVLSDzsJE8mEvXLTfLNAwDWQMXo7I99f8C_5kdTi/s1600/2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyT7o0sqVZjD1Jf-6dkoTxNKlBMxpzqHB9hqyszD3bWQ-xwrEBBsJissvcxi8UGpn7IicFzWnlkHH2Qgua-uucjrfIidVN1J3sw1VdYVLSDzsJE8mEvXLTfLNAwDWQMXo7I99f8C_5kdTi/s200/2a.jpg" width="200" /></a></blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBA5B1prFLjVCUYtTYn1rvSq71fvip_E3PnpAJuVv2MELU8mUXRddoqXRK0D0wcCRaCnHRMkPMQWxFrCLUuab0K5GPtRXgQ0MKlffsb8J6zy4VJFYRq9dnag2I3lLIqdr0w39FNPimaU_/s1600/2b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></blockquote><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlEgEImYKNTFchFYWY7J_3z1bXFDDWy3_G4VjuWsWS6uW0_cFRlUdKOxPor7dK3cWYaUS0aZVDxBfnEctfrcd_8E4eem1WJoRZlzVsWGIsk9DAYW1KWpxnHJ51lPaApVD5jDBm1B0m1rq/s1600/1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlEgEImYKNTFchFYWY7J_3z1bXFDDWy3_G4VjuWsWS6uW0_cFRlUdKOxPor7dK3cWYaUS0aZVDxBfnEctfrcd_8E4eem1WJoRZlzVsWGIsk9DAYW1KWpxnHJ51lPaApVD5jDBm1B0m1rq/s1600/1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB44ApqmHejSMHlNN_u0-4usDBUiu9efRdkoF4nrAxO8i03JDDVo86GvP0aM17QmFGSYHWuczmvZ2TUhmL4jasE-rCEIXjKlSiCF5mXuMHw03-6Zla53LeqTQoH4WraPVsptNFmVXPftCU/s1600/2c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB44ApqmHejSMHlNN_u0-4usDBUiu9efRdkoF4nrAxO8i03JDDVo86GvP0aM17QmFGSYHWuczmvZ2TUhmL4jasE-rCEIXjKlSiCF5mXuMHw03-6Zla53LeqTQoH4WraPVsptNFmVXPftCU/s200/2c.jpg" width="196" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlEgEImYKNTFchFYWY7J_3z1bXFDDWy3_G4VjuWsWS6uW0_cFRlUdKOxPor7dK3cWYaUS0aZVDxBfnEctfrcd_8E4eem1WJoRZlzVsWGIsk9DAYW1KWpxnHJ51lPaApVD5jDBm1B0m1rq/s1600/1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlEgEImYKNTFchFYWY7J_3z1bXFDDWy3_G4VjuWsWS6uW0_cFRlUdKOxPor7dK3cWYaUS0aZVDxBfnEctfrcd_8E4eem1WJoRZlzVsWGIsk9DAYW1KWpxnHJ51lPaApVD5jDBm1B0m1rq/s320/1e.jpg" width="320" /></a></blockquote><blockquote>Dolphins have individual sounds just like we have names. They make clicks, whistles, squeaks and moans. When they are searching for food in dark or murky water, they make those sounds and then they listen for the echoes that bounce back. In this way, they can find fish hiding under the sand or in a murky stretch of water. </blockquote><br />
3.) Calves, Nursing grannies and Pods.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5d_RJqO9B1xxpRzAHWG3yFmvbBnU0GpUhvWhuM7dSViGQ18Kj5lUctZiTOZItiob5W-kPXyAKiEgsYw3LSPAyhqZchH98UxU9_OH23qAcSfDIH2GIyQna6TMPZ94-OdY5VUOVYs5pTasr/s1600/3a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5d_RJqO9B1xxpRzAHWG3yFmvbBnU0GpUhvWhuM7dSViGQ18Kj5lUctZiTOZItiob5W-kPXyAKiEgsYw3LSPAyhqZchH98UxU9_OH23qAcSfDIH2GIyQna6TMPZ94-OdY5VUOVYs5pTasr/s320/3a.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Baby dolphins are called calves and 50% of them die in their first year of life. In the beginning the dolphin mother has to push the calf up to the surface with her nose every time it needs a breath. Often two or three dolphins from the “pod” help protect and care for a newborn. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4jI-WbwPcwbQ0R-y3mzwgR0DEqsZNEjL3uvVNASeRJOW1Ne_1svNUt31rVp8WoZVzgSBDs3vTkjUtlUi1_bTcXAjLNhKM4oWAxelE19SENAT0xPNzQ31zrmRylLFskIju_uQDixw3RHd/s1600/3b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4jI-WbwPcwbQ0R-y3mzwgR0DEqsZNEjL3uvVNASeRJOW1Ne_1svNUt31rVp8WoZVzgSBDs3vTkjUtlUi1_bTcXAjLNhKM4oWAxelE19SENAT0xPNzQ31zrmRylLFskIju_uQDixw3RHd/s1600/3b.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Later when the dolphin is older but perhaps not quite strong enough to swim to depths of 2000 feet where a delicious squid might be, they stay on the surface with the “nursing grannies” and if they get hungry waiting for the others to return with squid food, they nurse from the older moms. This is one of the many ways that a pod of dolphins works together.<br />
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Pods can be as big as thousands but usually have about 300 members.<br />
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4.) How do Dolphins sleep without drowning?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQWnkv_JLk4cGEpd5DTHE5OHN8UXmvTshVc_rGi88j5bGnRFz_2R8-h11b4Gkt5Yc5ERQRCcxrtB722ZPG8nQuSdAVI0g10fTm72nxJ9dfx4jOEL35Xnp7780SV_bhZ00148tstR-eItS/s1600/3c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQWnkv_JLk4cGEpd5DTHE5OHN8UXmvTshVc_rGi88j5bGnRFz_2R8-h11b4Gkt5Yc5ERQRCcxrtB722ZPG8nQuSdAVI0g10fTm72nxJ9dfx4jOEL35Xnp7780SV_bhZ00148tstR-eItS/s1600/3c.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Dolphins do not breathe like us. They have to remember to take a breath once or twice a minute. Our bodies do that on their own. Because of this Dolphins can’t go to sleep, so what they do is rest one half of their brain at a time.<br />
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5.) What are “Curtains of Death?”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qxrIZLzUICkhYOUmHOG0r3PU9bcd_VrRkDpwV_Q3Q-DmnilYiffmxBlO_6_1kAmnlD6p4UfwriC2203UJ3brhmWookZRHOUoAtpJtLp-6fpwm7o2I_lbHOLv-P-Mj4swUOtj4whMn2A5/s1600/5a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qxrIZLzUICkhYOUmHOG0r3PU9bcd_VrRkDpwV_Q3Q-DmnilYiffmxBlO_6_1kAmnlD6p4UfwriC2203UJ3brhmWookZRHOUoAtpJtLp-6fpwm7o2I_lbHOLv-P-Mj4swUOtj4whMn2A5/s200/5a.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwqk5Foy7p14YdfQpm-XShookUqBHzB8CaomtH9JFQ-bzljLXhpPe_vLWTaoxk_LacJngktJ5Wlxx-0c7oVsNfOU2mliN8ukl_3oDz5aukGTiyr5_1STd4IONEvyEhoLj4H9oFWmxVK4h/s1600/5b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwqk5Foy7p14YdfQpm-XShookUqBHzB8CaomtH9JFQ-bzljLXhpPe_vLWTaoxk_LacJngktJ5Wlxx-0c7oVsNfOU2mliN8ukl_3oDz5aukGTiyr5_1STd4IONEvyEhoLj4H9oFWmxVK4h/s200/5b.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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Tunafish and dolphins often swim together in the ocean. The Dolphins swim closer to the surface and the tuna swim below them. Fisherman know that when they see a dolphin leaping about in the ocean, tuna-fish are likely to be below.<br />
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When the fisherman dropped their nets they would trap dolphins too and they would die by the hundreds of thousands and thus the nets were named “Curtains of Death.”<br />
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<i>(Pull out the can opener from your holster)</i><br />
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My mom said that when she was younger there was an ad on TV where a bunch of kids dressed up like cowboys said, “how do you kill a dolphin?” and then they pulled out can openers from their holsters. The ad got people to stop eating tuna and forced the fisherman to figure out another way to fish!<br />
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Today most fisherman use a net that they can drop down so that it closes only over the tuna and lets the dolphins swim out. Today most people are careful to eat cans of tuna that say “Dolphin Safe” on them.<br />
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The last thing I want to share is that Dolphins are fun to play with. There skin feels a little like the leaves of this tulip flower or like the thick rubber of this oven glove.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhonntlhr1bvbBrJpMVN4yQIU-zu3PMAQxImTyvkUaAN4DZG8ncS_LoZEOHm4R5Qal9vxYn4bas7kxj2B1Gqs0zwUXniyK6_hug19dCGtKaj121rz94z8QH4Gf4j7FaMaCDkfUnuSP-l75f/s1600/6c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhonntlhr1bvbBrJpMVN4yQIU-zu3PMAQxImTyvkUaAN4DZG8ncS_LoZEOHm4R5Qal9vxYn4bas7kxj2B1Gqs0zwUXniyK6_hug19dCGtKaj121rz94z8QH4Gf4j7FaMaCDkfUnuSP-l75f/s1600/6c.jpg" style="cursor: move;" /></a><br />
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When I rode on the dolphin it felt secure and easy. I held onto the flippers.<i> (Pass around the rubber glove that feels a bit like Dolphin skin.)</i><br />
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The dolphin went about 5 miles per hour but if a dolphin was being chased it can go as fast as 55 miles per hour.<br />
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This was fun to share! Thank you for listening!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgh_HehdJRuGr_PQWK7UNjrSaLl0AH39Ijh6-n1L_p1kW90Pi4Gd4Sp2h9qJPOUZkVcqM1GWku4naZ6LNXGHCypoGXUBmBBZlum7azZ74yvjpw-A_DJhdg2qqV3kVsPNBTNQQMKosV59U/s1600/6b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgh_HehdJRuGr_PQWK7UNjrSaLl0AH39Ijh6-n1L_p1kW90Pi4Gd4Sp2h9qJPOUZkVcqM1GWku4naZ6LNXGHCypoGXUBmBBZlum7azZ74yvjpw-A_DJhdg2qqV3kVsPNBTNQQMKosV59U/s1600/6b.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HPjj4vjLTkHsPKbp6BsEZWJnpypFBvmhbC9qL3EAHS-DvI6RrqaVu8A352iele4e50zH2a6t5eaA8XTs7kHlSa6MsnPXsug9rY8WXKKVtga2-tD3P7W7FNtbWJcl-Dyon7uKLfOehBRK/s1600/6a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HPjj4vjLTkHsPKbp6BsEZWJnpypFBvmhbC9qL3EAHS-DvI6RrqaVu8A352iele4e50zH2a6t5eaA8XTs7kHlSa6MsnPXsug9rY8WXKKVtga2-tD3P7W7FNtbWJcl-Dyon7uKLfOehBRK/s200/6a.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-9778502252938021692011-01-22T23:57:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:47:57.771-08:00BirthdayWhat a great birthday! Thank you! Breakfast in bed, the 1st grade book club and then friends over for a party. <br />
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</div><div>Debbie and Peyman, Monica and David, Margit and Ben, Andrea and Dana, joined David, Naomi, Simone and me for salad, a variation on the cumin rich Judge's stew and scrumptious dark chocolate cake. (Oh and a lovely flan from Margit.) <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKTTfcm4QbSz94pO3WEE_yGBBUSTU2JfBkMDf2XgymcGiqDcmDcospNOuPrQm6SKeVtkxWUgE98FTt942FtK1mZCA30xl4_ch8dUrSL5dwI3_F9DPcoOGIl4QnUKkF-R6odKw5tQlwaMc/s1600/20110123-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKTTfcm4QbSz94pO3WEE_yGBBUSTU2JfBkMDf2XgymcGiqDcmDcospNOuPrQm6SKeVtkxWUgE98FTt942FtK1mZCA30xl4_ch8dUrSL5dwI3_F9DPcoOGIl4QnUKkF-R6odKw5tQlwaMc/s640/20110123-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">A delicious take on the Judge's Stew...perhaps I'll call this version the Probationers' Stew.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31F_6a-cBPSP-hE1rCf6Erm_5OBYDycxFyusZ8U1MDS_Yk1bwsLwcs9Aoh3T7zR0ycbBqLrgz2l4fJNxkgJb4_YXght_zyTgxl2j4qchMQ4CFEX8NT7uUMgBN-EQaOd41J_5T3OL2kGXf/s1600/20110123-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31F_6a-cBPSP-hE1rCf6Erm_5OBYDycxFyusZ8U1MDS_Yk1bwsLwcs9Aoh3T7zR0ycbBqLrgz2l4fJNxkgJb4_YXght_zyTgxl2j4qchMQ4CFEX8NT7uUMgBN-EQaOd41J_5T3OL2kGXf/s640/20110123-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The fennel, raspberries, goat cheese, soft garden greens and balsamic dressing made this a great salad.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWA8zs-obD0gFoVx4Oo_JDIKRpX2Eeb5bCiONQCm5yFCOabWmOpI4ouAx3HFw5lMI7EeljaY_JS_dpxjHC3wCfrI9Nn-tmUOMJPy18rymekxzgcsRt_gip0rJEoLfppzSs4Azk2LnbG5Ah/s1600/20110123-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWA8zs-obD0gFoVx4Oo_JDIKRpX2Eeb5bCiONQCm5yFCOabWmOpI4ouAx3HFw5lMI7EeljaY_JS_dpxjHC3wCfrI9Nn-tmUOMJPy18rymekxzgcsRt_gip0rJEoLfppzSs4Azk2LnbG5Ah/s640/20110123-8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div>Debbie baked the darkest richest chocolate cake. I saw her 10am post on Facebook about it cooking in her oven, I dreamt I was smelling it for the rest of the day. Finally the moment came and it was even better than my imagination. </div></div></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-12490088393769265292011-01-18T11:19:00.000-08:002011-01-18T11:19:31.582-08:00Selling pigs off a bike<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhox2PepwMj6R056Y6LumxbXZCjK5Bk_qzWaRnKnFCIMKmKfQKD61y2dDb7Dipnuc_PpsetUxPRbO3SdQSSd6MZQzi-VzQSUQC8zjQgZTAxG9qENyksI-hKboIXO_NGmjv8GMtHfOpisqZo/s1600/Petra+Hong+Kong+2000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhox2PepwMj6R056Y6LumxbXZCjK5Bk_qzWaRnKnFCIMKmKfQKD61y2dDb7Dipnuc_PpsetUxPRbO3SdQSSd6MZQzi-VzQSUQC8zjQgZTAxG9qENyksI-hKboIXO_NGmjv8GMtHfOpisqZo/s640/Petra+Hong+Kong+2000.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hong Kong trip 2000</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
These roasted pigs are barely tied on. There is no hopping curbs or steep hill short cuts for this cyclist. The bike itself becomes the vendor stand at the market. If the pig doesn't sell outright (usually they do) then the vendor cuts off pieces for hungry folks. The grisly ears are popular.Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-84746360318486991162011-01-17T13:36:00.000-08:002011-01-18T13:44:45.265-08:00STUFF<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/annie.php">Annie Leonard</a> blogs about what went on inside Martin Luther King as he weighed the case at 5AM as to whether or not he would get involved, does he take on the Rosa Parks bus boycott? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">She asks every reader to think about whether or not we are going to get involved in making the world a better place and then she makes the case for getting involved. Her mission is the <a href="http://storyofstuff.org/blog/">story of stuff</a> and if you haven't seem her project, you are in for a treat. She is funny, keen and full of solutions to the most deadly issues our consumerism has created.</span><br />
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I love my laptop! ...till it runs out of room.<br />
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My eyelids have just a wee bit of liner on them. Just a wee bit.<br />
<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pfq000AF1i8&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><p><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pfq000AF1i8&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640"></p></object><br />
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Want to barter with me?<br />
<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pA6FSy6EKrM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><p><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pA6FSy6EKrM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640"></p></object>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-39031020766860046152010-12-31T22:41:00.000-08:002011-03-03T16:43:19.983-08:00A sheet holding confetti and balloons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJCLjscs2EjFmgNV88_BCcU1TDHHTl9XbMyLFZwbIJ4s75zMnprzvrrdUkJdyxZs_UluwWYfrqasyRPSO0QYevPiOKUY9s5mP_Wg9cmuXMYDRCh0Y-qb7VxCrFLBj5UmIbL8WVYuYZKI8/s1600/Disco+news+years+party.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="547" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJCLjscs2EjFmgNV88_BCcU1TDHHTl9XbMyLFZwbIJ4s75zMnprzvrrdUkJdyxZs_UluwWYfrqasyRPSO0QYevPiOKUY9s5mP_Wg9cmuXMYDRCh0Y-qb7VxCrFLBj5UmIbL8WVYuYZKI8/s640/Disco+news+years+party.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">The girls went over to Trixie and Vivian's house for a Disco New Year's Party. Sarah and Scott Miller have been doing this for a few years and the kids love it. At 7pm there was a huge countdown and then balloons and confetti hung in a sheet from the ceiling rained down on the kids. They loved it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UCJbgM6nMYjOUDnfeXkwIm-kuq1G_Rxhx9zA_9drqFGti58v6EJdwcuu-3pFcW1Y7gr9Sf-ZKVBWEel-ygDgSZb3JH9eJtBV9ZCEbeWK177diS-WQOLVvlyyJtFqd72q0L764il-New/s1600/disco+new+years+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UCJbgM6nMYjOUDnfeXkwIm-kuq1G_Rxhx9zA_9drqFGti58v6EJdwcuu-3pFcW1Y7gr9Sf-ZKVBWEel-ygDgSZb3JH9eJtBV9ZCEbeWK177diS-WQOLVvlyyJtFqd72q0L764il-New/s640/disco+new+years+3.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> A disco ball and tunes from the 80's played for a couple hours.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJaeyDps7wbbrts7GctGigxkql6hLOMBHR6LxwIopmQB4IDmhxC2w2JVbD3mLrDkswho43II0AAc05jQoTeNNr9axad1Xb4GTHmRS2MWrfRjPzpxeiD603W-bESGLWwP6Au6Uhi4MUGVI/s1600/disco+new+years+party4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJaeyDps7wbbrts7GctGigxkql6hLOMBHR6LxwIopmQB4IDmhxC2w2JVbD3mLrDkswho43II0AAc05jQoTeNNr9axad1Xb4GTHmRS2MWrfRjPzpxeiD603W-bESGLWwP6Au6Uhi4MUGVI/s640/disco+new+years+party4.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Let 2011 begin!</div></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-34004599948578375772010-12-25T08:49:00.000-08:002010-12-26T14:56:20.126-08:00Simone's on the cover of Life Magazine in Shanghai<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YNHyEj0TOw9ezjlQh-BmsDbjpX0hI4ep9-s4QBCgz1faZ_VaBZsanrrq8H9UBzr0rtnFUqQ2yuENqgcjCsxkKhtmyCs5n8V_pbzKF1cB67KyVGQLw0t_-PDwP6HECf1Hb1MSCc_duwwG/s1600/%25E7%2594%259F%25E6%25B4%25BB1125LifeCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YNHyEj0TOw9ezjlQh-BmsDbjpX0hI4ep9-s4QBCgz1faZ_VaBZsanrrq8H9UBzr0rtnFUqQ2yuENqgcjCsxkKhtmyCs5n8V_pbzKF1cB67KyVGQLw0t_-PDwP6HECf1Hb1MSCc_duwwG/s640/%25E7%2594%259F%25E6%25B4%25BB1125LifeCover.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.peterlundberg.com/">Peter Lundber</a>g, the sculptor of massive concrete works, and Graceley, the curator for the Chinese Olympic sculpture collection, came to visit last week. Gracely brought a copy of Life magazine from Shanghai (The Bund). Would you believe that Simone was on the cover, happily enjoying the first bite of a biblically rosy apple in a sunny spot. I did the interview a couple months ago and was aware that the story was to be published but I had not seen the actual magazine and it was large and glossy. It showed off the powerful photography of <a href="http://www.isett.com/">Stuart Islett</a>. His images unfold like stories. Here is the link to <a href="http://www.bundpic.com/link.php?linkid=12981">The Bund article</a>.</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-37029499631893774552010-12-24T16:10:00.000-08:002011-01-05T10:56:04.146-08:00They are so much fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5vlXiuKvJcuMrxiqwDJlpaBB7ygqy1Ggo64Qu-YHubkmvzCFKqbqonrFiVVcMjbDtyeQ0_Vdr-4OmuLUoSb4cvgsTZY38jwsKHOCG_7Dt_unxMl2e3xuZ2LLgil4a5c6MHsK8zRmGdYR/s1600/funny+girls+in+the+car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5vlXiuKvJcuMrxiqwDJlpaBB7ygqy1Ggo64Qu-YHubkmvzCFKqbqonrFiVVcMjbDtyeQ0_Vdr-4OmuLUoSb4cvgsTZY38jwsKHOCG_7Dt_unxMl2e3xuZ2LLgil4a5c6MHsK8zRmGdYR/s640/funny+girls+in+the+car.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Goofy as can be whether we are in the minivan...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssM7IUgPOdhF3_n8slSDAYn7KOhnSZSTmo2eQVHc42ZCXj9jy6IOliRZw-oYyOdCO6CbkbZ9EYT4h_wH4WlsxLHV_Lxwmx4LBQazkrjcgh65iaJPTIzFfU35IPcQwDimBdYz_hXquBJBL/s1600/upsidedown+in+the+car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssM7IUgPOdhF3_n8slSDAYn7KOhnSZSTmo2eQVHc42ZCXj9jy6IOliRZw-oYyOdCO6CbkbZ9EYT4h_wH4WlsxLHV_Lxwmx4LBQazkrjcgh65iaJPTIzFfU35IPcQwDimBdYz_hXquBJBL/s640/upsidedown+in+the+car.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUx5ojQyMyr6GdEqrs4eaD91VBTrluICsairwqt6ytUrl8cUV_wWiR4Yr4xEIMGUOvhSOZ-UsSeklX6QQr0POcDZAXeHaKzFqL1FsaW9czKY9zlzxdgVWczn6yHD8PtFKBaFn15pVauFTf/s1600/thumbs+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUx5ojQyMyr6GdEqrs4eaD91VBTrluICsairwqt6ytUrl8cUV_wWiR4Yr4xEIMGUOvhSOZ-UsSeklX6QQr0POcDZAXeHaKzFqL1FsaW9czKY9zlzxdgVWczn6yHD8PtFKBaFn15pVauFTf/s640/thumbs+up.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Or the apartment.... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHdY7M-PxBmaY9eaMP47sCOlH_IlKulkMQ6b52cR9UH0b9yEXDnR31dzNx7Vku1HTpqfGQghlt5jdsvrjQQVYQlQ76qwGJ1CXQ10VapGTwNcS-Roig6Me8ZGOU-SDsbBcisRs8v_e_teR7/s1600/DSC_0245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHdY7M-PxBmaY9eaMP47sCOlH_IlKulkMQ6b52cR9UH0b9yEXDnR31dzNx7Vku1HTpqfGQghlt5jdsvrjQQVYQlQ76qwGJ1CXQ10VapGTwNcS-Roig6Me8ZGOU-SDsbBcisRs8v_e_teR7/s640/DSC_0245.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At the park...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYFKNcAIPBCcGDPmEbOiMxzC_C0e_i_mjubPF_UlAoIh4BVpFqEfE4J1CX9OinBS-2-uOu_MT-J8NRlOjhCI4RqE5AgICJX1EUeyZgCN35ac6OLOQpKL1sxvVE_zqSd03_VhgLTLIAzUC/s1600/IMG_0319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYFKNcAIPBCcGDPmEbOiMxzC_C0e_i_mjubPF_UlAoIh4BVpFqEfE4J1CX9OinBS-2-uOu_MT-J8NRlOjhCI4RqE5AgICJX1EUeyZgCN35ac6OLOQpKL1sxvVE_zqSd03_VhgLTLIAzUC/s640/IMG_0319.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">On writing on our sidewalk. Playing is an art form, mastered by kids. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HPuue5YUwJoniZxuF8a6dwy9PJKubD4QsJJgt4KsdpCi9Zi0Cq-dF4Xo2Pz0LUxeqFN_8vt6olmTM2msgOrOeByVN6MBNZXIezDyHmdTPRxCkF-rG5fdo_n2mDOaQ9cGhEEg8rYAh32P/s1600/Silliness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HPuue5YUwJoniZxuF8a6dwy9PJKubD4QsJJgt4KsdpCi9Zi0Cq-dF4Xo2Pz0LUxeqFN_8vt6olmTM2msgOrOeByVN6MBNZXIezDyHmdTPRxCkF-rG5fdo_n2mDOaQ9cGhEEg8rYAh32P/s640/Silliness.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They crack themselves up...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSE6LyPo8KDDh-tme_rLhSdvR6Zk5mZHMYzEQ3jFG9XmqHorFmdRG9lzRbgZgzYxOX5m0L569EpB_3u3Oq6a1lMbwGXAjuzoxhSTYRljbKnYcSIAVPdkeum6UGR8R8Fe87yxXIuG1TXd40/s1600/sillyseries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSE6LyPo8KDDh-tme_rLhSdvR6Zk5mZHMYzEQ3jFG9XmqHorFmdRG9lzRbgZgzYxOX5m0L569EpB_3u3Oq6a1lMbwGXAjuzoxhSTYRljbKnYcSIAVPdkeum6UGR8R8Fe87yxXIuG1TXd40/s640/sillyseries.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...and, of course, I'm in stitches by then.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeU2sCqteCNxLlCrtkwxojtbPKL34rhlVFCI-xljVPaK6MJ2uM8jiCWCDOlaoSv_-lhqEt8T-fesIWbFfFVp3McTIF21EkuRPfHmNNJQTA5ZBTFXM2VIhbvZ3SuDJMZ7IGYoXKiK9OOH2p/s1600/sillyness+unlimited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeU2sCqteCNxLlCrtkwxojtbPKL34rhlVFCI-xljVPaK6MJ2uM8jiCWCDOlaoSv_-lhqEt8T-fesIWbFfFVp3McTIF21EkuRPfHmNNJQTA5ZBTFXM2VIhbvZ3SuDJMZ7IGYoXKiK9OOH2p/s640/sillyness+unlimited.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Such explores. Such abandon! Simone and Naomi relinquish themselves into what ever they are doing. This shot above is Naomi resting between moves. Naomi started flipping herself around this bar over and over and over and over...till she got whatever it was she was trying to do and then many more times she flipped herself about clearly having a great time. It looked like she was intent on figuring out all the moves she could do with that bar in the middle of a packed playground. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJU80Rby5z4I3EsC2okKG0622CIwrN4c2v8QmXjSIMKPU7XEiKOEGFvK_lcXUVBMcXOid4FqbWRX60PEsX_EyfPdkw37AcxM0AYP-dl8ANsbLsG_c6eB8b0aY5rtrXfdel62c9eClA_dm/s1600/IMG_0330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJU80Rby5z4I3EsC2okKG0622CIwrN4c2v8QmXjSIMKPU7XEiKOEGFvK_lcXUVBMcXOid4FqbWRX60PEsX_EyfPdkw37AcxM0AYP-dl8ANsbLsG_c6eB8b0aY5rtrXfdel62c9eClA_dm/s640/IMG_0330.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They sure are fun to travel with!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqhtCtDtDUx5BZ6Pj7VWCi86m5beNBuMwR6YYIKkgSkzOYDlKLMC7J_d_veywTnlPCkRprejzKYZmqXLyc1YVZJP3c4L5de6RMszhpO6NENiXdyNTPGaDR7QhZGetTSFlvaxmEETLCPNM/s1600/DSC_0060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqhtCtDtDUx5BZ6Pj7VWCi86m5beNBuMwR6YYIKkgSkzOYDlKLMC7J_d_veywTnlPCkRprejzKYZmqXLyc1YVZJP3c4L5de6RMszhpO6NENiXdyNTPGaDR7QhZGetTSFlvaxmEETLCPNM/s640/DSC_0060.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Heave Ho!</div></div><span id="goog_1204688273"></span><span id="goog_1204688274"></span>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-30680067036241699772010-12-24T09:03:00.000-08:002011-03-27T11:31:22.868-07:00Ten favorite toys<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are Simone and Naomi's favorite toys:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1.) CONSTRUCTION BOX that consists of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a canvas bag of assorted wood pieces, four clamps, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roylco-FANCY-PAPERS-ORIGAMI/dp/B002A2OY6M?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">fancy paper</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, felt, wood glue and various do dads that can be made into doll house furniture. The local lumber yard gave us bags to fill up with free scrap wood (you can also get that from <a href="http://www.enasco.com/product/9703183">enasco</a> for $3.75) then I ordered bags of little<a href="http://www.enasco.com/product/9707203"> wood turrets and other turnings</a> and <a href="http://www.enasco.com/product/9721900">wood shapes</a>. To date the girls have made a swing set, two minaret enhanced bookcases, a sculpture for the front yard of their doll house, a bunk bed, a garage, a water trough for the animals in their wood barn and a little tent for camping out. If you have older kids, this</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/House-Furniture-Woodcraft-Construction-Scale/dp/B000HWQDFW?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Doll House Woodcraft Kit</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000HWQDFW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> would be appropriate</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I helped out with a hot glue gun at one point...but the rest of the time the girls have used wood glue. They love playing with their WOODEN DOLL HOUSE and WOOD BARN and often start-out doing that and then migrate over to the "construction box" to build something they decide they need for a particular scene in that day's doll drama. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2.) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-SC-500-Snap-Circuits-PRO/dp/B00008W73Z?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Snap Circuits PRO</a>. This is an amazing toy! Stop the presses for this one! We <u>all</u> love playing with this and every time we have playdates, Simone takes her friends over to it and explains how you can snap pieces together to make dynamically working electric circuits. The instructions are easy and everything is color coded. Even 3 year old Naomi could put together the first book of 100 projects. We made fans, an FM radio, lights that are voice or clap activated and various spacey noises and we've ad libbed to create a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">vibration detector and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">oscillated strobes and used battery or solar power for these and various switches. There is a great deal to learn and with each project the workbook succinctly sums up the lessons learned. Various kits, all worthwhile ranging from $10.99 to $72.51. We did the giant box and will clearly be working on the 750 projects till the saints come marching in. We could have easily started with the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Snap-Circuits-Jr-100-in-1/dp/B000S10F4W?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Elenco Snap Circuits Jr. 100-in-1</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000S10F4W" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> that is $30 dollars and upgraded as we complete each series of projects. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-SC-100-Snap-Circuits-Jr/dp/B00008BFZH?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B00008BFZH&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00008BFZH" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We learned about Snap Circuits Pro from <a href="http://www.deliciousbaby.com/">Debbie Dubrow</a> and <a href="http://www.astorybeforebed.com/">Peyman Oreizy</a>. Their kids, Everest (5), Darya (3) and Alon (1) were gathered around the snap circuits board when we were over there for a playdate. I can't thank them enough. It is such a powerful way to learn how electrical circuits run the everyday devices we're familiar with as well as allow us to invent some of our own. (Yes, I have as much fun playing with this as my kids do.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3.)The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F7AF5M?ie=UTF8&seller=AEFE8H4LP54YU&sn=Secret%20Deal">K'Nex Super Swing</a> was a ton of fun to build and we love that K'Nex works well with legos so we were able to build out the seats of the motorized swing and add lego people and clowns and doll up the final creation to our hearts content. As with all K'Nex sets, after you build the design, you can take it apart and create an infinite number of other motorized structures as the gears in this kit are especially versatile to play with. I do think this was a bit complicated which is why this is a parent and child project. This kit was $20.99. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><img alt="51cM0MN6drL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" src="webkit-fake-url://B8819BC6-9F44-4206-9746-E8DDC76E6E9F/51cM0MN6drL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></div></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4.) Ellyn Hennecke and Bob Nelsen came over for dinner a couple weeks ago and brought boxes and boxes of Playmobile kits. We had never checked these toys out. What a surprise. Simone and Naomi play with them for hours and hours. We brought them with us on our holiday trip to Mexico and again they were rich foder for daily make-believe stories. I love listening as the stories unfold. Often Simone lays out the parameters, "Naomi you are this boy and he is little and needs a lot of help but he does know how to fish. You can also be this pirate." "I'm going to be these five ladies over here with all this stuff." We managed to put almost everything inside the take along box when we headed to Mexico and it was great.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here is some of what Ellyn and Bob brought over! It was truly amazing! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-Take-Along-Princess-Fantasy/dp/B001RHAF82?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Playmobil My Take Along Princess Fantasy Set</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001RHAF82" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-Animal-Vet-Operating-Room/dp/B0012K1UMO?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Playmobil Animal Vet Operating Room</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0012K1UMO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-World-Marine-Research-Unit/dp/B000NNFA7C?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Mighty World Marine Research Unit</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000NNFA7C" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-4254-Royal-Nursery/dp/B0007VDOB4?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Playmobil 4254 Royal Nursery</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0007VDOB4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-4343-Animal-Clinic/dp/B0012K0QCO?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Playmobil Animal Clinic" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0012K0QCO&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-World-Marine-Research-Unit/dp/B000NNFA7C?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Mighty World Marine Research Unit" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B000NNFA7C&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000NNFA7C" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-Animal-Vet-Operating-Room/dp/B0012K1UMO?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Playmobil Animal Vet Operating Room" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0012K1UMO&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0012K1UMO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0012K0QCO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-Take-Along-Princess-Fantasy/dp/B001RHAF82?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Playmobil My Take Along Princess Fantasy Set" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B001RHAF82&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001RHAF82" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5.) Thrift shop wedding dresses with veil. Yes exactly that..and a pair of sharp shears, threaded needles, as, of course, quite a few alterations were needed. It looks sketchy at this point...but I can tell this will continue to get lots of use. This is the latest addition to our overflowing DRESS-UP CHEST.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">6.) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magna-Tiles-Translucent-Colors-100-pieces/dp/B000CBSNRY?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Magna-Tiles</a> are a bunch of colorful isosceles triangles, equilateral triangles, right triangles and squares of various sizes. All of these go together to create two-dimenstional and three-dimensional structures. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These work for nearly any age as they are indestructible. They come in opaque or transparent colors and work with another magnetic building toy called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magformers-Carnival-Set-63074/dp/B002U6HMEE?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Magformers</a>. Magformers have a few more shapes, diamonds and hexagons, rectangles and are not solid so they can be the windows for the Magna-tele creations. This toy is a bit heavy to take on a trip but we did bring them to the Hamptons last year and they were endlessly fun to design with. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magna-Tiles-Clear-Colors-piece-set/dp/B000CBSNKQ?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 32 piece set" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B000CBSNKQ&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000CBSNKQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magformers-Magnetic-Building-Carnival-38-piece/dp/B002NGOOS8?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Magformers / Magnetic Building Carnival 38-piece Set" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B002NGOOS8&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002NGOOS8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7.) Our mobile painting kit. This small red round suitcase has been dragged all over. It has everything the three of us need to set up shop in a park, at an outdoor table, or on the deck. Inside the suitcase is the following:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"></span></span><br />
<ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Water bottle.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two plastic cups. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">12 tubes of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reeves-Gouache-12-Set/dp/B000KNPFYS?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Goache</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000KNPFYS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> paint. ($7.95) </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two 5 dollar watercolor kits, one <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Art-Time-Watercolors-8-Color-Standard/dp/B000F8XJXC?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">regular</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000F8XJXC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and one <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Yasutomo-Pearlescent-Watercolor-Set-21-Colors/dp/B001DJBV1E?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">pearlescent</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001DJBV1E" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A pad of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Academie-Watercolor-Inches-Sheets-54094/dp/B00123AI4W?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">watercolor paper</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00123AI4W" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($5.99) and a pad of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-4108-Drawing-Pad/dp/B000IFZ6LA?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">drawing paper</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000IFZ6LA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($4.00)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A set of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Washable-Super-Silly-Scents/dp/B00004UFOO?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">50 washable color markers.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00004UFOO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($12.25)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pencils and a pencil sharpener.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oversize cardboard letters and cardboard people.</span></li>
</ol><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbGTkjK4VH_aj7Fh1ORgbOiuQkyYT6MjgolBDqU3EfugjBGUfgmP_2jFBMaY9FL4fQ2aHHEFfOTtsJhM-VkRwrTCCrnfTKWV6cI-GbEDxz16Zc69hL1B8J9oIep-x6Cl3oT9-Jmw0qTKR/s1600/DSC_0176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbGTkjK4VH_aj7Fh1ORgbOiuQkyYT6MjgolBDqU3EfugjBGUfgmP_2jFBMaY9FL4fQ2aHHEFfOTtsJhM-VkRwrTCCrnfTKWV6cI-GbEDxz16Zc69hL1B8J9oIep-x6Cl3oT9-Jmw0qTKR/s640/DSC_0176.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Though the mobile painting suitcase is light and small...On Naomi, hmm not so much.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>8.) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Schylling-RBP-Rocket-Balloon-with/dp/B000ELQV76?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Rocket Balloon with Pump</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000ELQV76" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> We spend much of the summer beach side carting a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Road-Trip-Beach-Shade/dp/B0009PUTIE?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Shade tent</a>, a gardeners shovel, a water bucket and this rocket ballon toy. Our rocket balloon ($9.99) is a piped piper. Kids magically appear when we take it out. The pump attaches to the balloons and makes it possible for a small child to blow up their own, then you release them and they make a big noise and spiral high into the air. Lots of running ensues as the kids try to figure out where they will fall. We used it at the sculpture park not long ago and when we arrived there was not a child in sight, suddenly a dozen appeared to pursue the noisy balloons.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Balloon-Dual-Action-Pump-Colors/dp/B000BNC9LE?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Rocket Balloon with Dual-Action Pump (Colors May Vary)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B000BNC9LE&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000BNC9LE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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9.) A Game Cabinet. Our cabinet is packed with box games..some tradition ones I collected from thrift shops: Life, Clue, Scrabble, Sightword Bingo, Mathable, Blokus, Apples to Apples Junior. Others are from Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-4800-Guess-Board-Game/dp/B00000IWDR?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Guess Who</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00000IWDR" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($24.79) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-1530-ThinkFun-Chocolate/dp/B000Y8EQ8K?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Chocolate Fix</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000Y8EQ8K" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($13.71) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bananagrams-BAN001/dp/1932188126?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Banagrams</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1932188126" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($12.95) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-41722-Guess-Where/dp/B0001IA7N6?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Guess Where</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0001IA7N6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0001IA7N6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />($86.95).<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-4800-Guess-Board-Game/dp/B00000IWDR?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Guess Who? Board Game" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B00000IWDR&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00000IWDR" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-1530-ThinkFun-Chocolate/dp/B000Y8EQ8K?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="ThinkFun Chocolate Fix" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B000Y8EQ8K&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000Y8EQ8K" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bananagrams-BAN001/dp/1932188126?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Bananagrams" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1932188126&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1932188126" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-41722-Guess-Where/dp/B0001IA7N6?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Guess Where" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0001IA7N6&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0001IA7N6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
10.) Our <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pony-Pal-Tire-Swing/dp/B0015QUNB4?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">horse tire swing</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0015QUNB4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ($79.99) We've tied this swing up on a zip line across our living room and use it everday. Sheets get thrown over the zip line to create a scrim for plays and when the horse arrives on the set...in it swings...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijuC6ycPsqN1J_1PDNa1US4zpk6aPqkEnMvleSoRRin0-lg1e-FrrudVRDxnJXYTWe-iqlxXUJQLtD4H2-apXwmAZbF6Pkgzevr02V5aaNe-Ei1bw3X0ukY1-Ahsckjx-ncrBkOFHmHWMa/s1600/pony+swing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijuC6ycPsqN1J_1PDNa1US4zpk6aPqkEnMvleSoRRin0-lg1e-FrrudVRDxnJXYTWe-iqlxXUJQLtD4H2-apXwmAZbF6Pkgzevr02V5aaNe-Ei1bw3X0ukY1-Ahsckjx-ncrBkOFHmHWMa/s200/pony+swing.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wildlife-Creations-Tire-Swing-Horse/dp/B0002OQN3W?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Tire Swing - Horse" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B0002OQN3W&tag=belfrdispa-20" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-20504642407801456542010-12-23T08:30:00.000-08:002010-12-26T14:02:52.605-08:00Airport Santa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDD6kJh_5zVLAsrxakqh0grJSyWP5TKXRUEUPhVtlLZMFqVJy0oqfyFT3H-WRwsa52JKYiTwwhq8MXeXf4K1e8GmA6a6RD0zVIFOFbf1jM1hiht6AwjdI4gQZEFWrlSVe7ZnOSlnr7Xz8N/s1600/photo%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDD6kJh_5zVLAsrxakqh0grJSyWP5TKXRUEUPhVtlLZMFqVJy0oqfyFT3H-WRwsa52JKYiTwwhq8MXeXf4K1e8GmA6a6RD0zVIFOFbf1jM1hiht6AwjdI4gQZEFWrlSVe7ZnOSlnr7Xz8N/s640/photo%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">We're headed to Cabo for a w<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">eek at Cascadas del Baja. Yahoo.</span></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-23553695076089052682010-12-21T21:05:00.000-08:002010-12-26T14:13:52.898-08:00Do them both. or What does he like to eat?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC3PrlFxCYHgFaMsJ79de2RdnnldU_ohDt_8GlC1XG6eKtXAoAT3MLZUu9Lf4cmPR9w_ObhOgvj60VqxnrK3mj6pdvXFA63vARd04WEAsBLKfKbX0gEQZviprdTAYxip3UOQoEOSZGH21/s1600/photo%255B2%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC3PrlFxCYHgFaMsJ79de2RdnnldU_ohDt_8GlC1XG6eKtXAoAT3MLZUu9Lf4cmPR9w_ObhOgvj60VqxnrK3mj6pdvXFA63vARd04WEAsBLKfKbX0gEQZviprdTAYxip3UOQoEOSZGH21/s640/photo%255B2%255D.JPG" width="478" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We do Hanukah and Christmas. Though the later this year was about a few days early, on the 22nd of December. Above is the note Simone left Santa. It is a two-sided plea to find out what it is Santa likes most to eat. We left blackberries and blueberries for the reindeer and home-made anise cookies for Santa with a glass of milk. One of the reindeer walked right over David who had fallen asleep on the couch and left a few footprints. Santa left Simone a note on the plate itself thanking her for the delicious snack. I was relieved as I feared Santa might order up a steak for next year while he had the chance. </div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-71813904227712225862010-12-21T09:28:00.000-08:002011-03-30T14:56:06.798-07:00A party about stories<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This party started off with the adrenaline and excitement of being together with good friends and conversations in the globe to catch up and share confidences, ambitions... the view. BUT Then, <a href="http://www.thefilmschool.com/index.php/tom-skerritt/209">Tom Skerritt</a> handed out movie scrips and assigned parts to guests randomly. Those who were tagged to be directors or actors went off to practice a bit. The rest of us enjoyed hearing <a href="http://www.thefilmschool.com/index.php/john-jacobsen/211">John Jacobsen</a> describe the shape of a great story. The cave that the main character falls into and climbs out when ready to face the greatest realization of all. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The actors were ready. Ann Dornfeld & John Hempelman directed by Kathryn Hinsch and Tom Skerritt started us off with a classic scene from The Graduate. Then Jeff Seely, Blaise Arcas and Monica Stephenson has us in stitches as they performed a couple pages from The Sliders.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then we circled the room telling our own stories and what storytellers we turned out to be! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRIvOH-zN11Ia22d4qyFpjyO4zv5KPNHnOT9qNDy9kbGfsVHBGru80oBYRhCly7JBguro5h5F0Q07G6wfb0I5Z9Eh5hqJetJcsMsUHIwvHhPIxSidDnECO2XkTENJbLUb19oGcz9noeU1/s1600/tom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRIvOH-zN11Ia22d4qyFpjyO4zv5KPNHnOT9qNDy9kbGfsVHBGru80oBYRhCly7JBguro5h5F0Q07G6wfb0I5Z9Eh5hqJetJcsMsUHIwvHhPIxSidDnECO2XkTENJbLUb19oGcz9noeU1/s640/tom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlNN-zZbE3c0NiZ_53NZPPeBofRToTZ6oY1A74RMWXKvq4t5VWoEM_5dp86YayM0TjPf0CWHNp9BSnFIfpnQWb64017whXkYKaWkzyvPTe0W9dD_sfjPPNirFks0LaP65yYnFmLma2kjD/s1600/eveanderson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlNN-zZbE3c0NiZ_53NZPPeBofRToTZ6oY1A74RMWXKvq4t5VWoEM_5dp86YayM0TjPf0CWHNp9BSnFIfpnQWb64017whXkYKaWkzyvPTe0W9dD_sfjPPNirFks0LaP65yYnFmLma2kjD/s640/eveanderson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSnCzV2QQJz8cPMR97WXrN0bpXDSNvGelm8wEBo6nNnycnbzlRqqNFZ2WB0A_bC_9jvd-hcHk04YSENQYsa-jfkqoBd1SQ3i2WHcbxu-9-MkSRPSE7e4vkRial2VEWHmau2Fzs3xRUxhvq/s1600/graduate+early.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSnCzV2QQJz8cPMR97WXrN0bpXDSNvGelm8wEBo6nNnycnbzlRqqNFZ2WB0A_bC_9jvd-hcHk04YSENQYsa-jfkqoBd1SQ3i2WHcbxu-9-MkSRPSE7e4vkRial2VEWHmau2Fzs3xRUxhvq/s640/graduate+early.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPiCwvGB4afJAOpDf2KxKhhLfa4VnRWzvOeUosWMOUBfFDjkemvNoxSqGTftMVr4guCH3fxHkjVFjuVervxQJIckyTR3YM4I5vf7aFtPKAHzGjSh7zS4JeeXZKPtCMiiAKTt0L1Iio53C/s1600/helenday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPiCwvGB4afJAOpDf2KxKhhLfa4VnRWzvOeUosWMOUBfFDjkemvNoxSqGTftMVr4guCH3fxHkjVFjuVervxQJIckyTR3YM4I5vf7aFtPKAHzGjSh7zS4JeeXZKPtCMiiAKTt0L1Iio53C/s640/helenday.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdakYIWoOqf_nPisv36LvOAjVl91E277IOJPsXE_tEeG89ZtG7LwCxx3j-in4Kf9UFbBkWKWuuapm68DBOi9kK9nzgLSsVloeA0pO8TrqTe2AsnOnB7EgefQ7MKReq3IztwPYiXlOyWSa/s1600/jd+delafield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCdakYIWoOqf_nPisv36LvOAjVl91E277IOJPsXE_tEeG89ZtG7LwCxx3j-in4Kf9UFbBkWKWuuapm68DBOi9kK9nzgLSsVloeA0pO8TrqTe2AsnOnB7EgefQ7MKReq3IztwPYiXlOyWSa/s640/jd+delafield.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLga3Mc_Wdvisb7rxEG6XseiM2huFEJf6V_43NuXEc1KU97960hOWiGSR1Ov77pukGSGqUCe7_9tQWCaF3N2cwSbQTqeFoJm0S0iLTdL1l0omcYzHyOeQeplKur2MHw37dpWVm43HtaSv/s1600/petra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLga3Mc_Wdvisb7rxEG6XseiM2huFEJf6V_43NuXEc1KU97960hOWiGSR1Ov77pukGSGqUCe7_9tQWCaF3N2cwSbQTqeFoJm0S0iLTdL1l0omcYzHyOeQeplKur2MHw37dpWVm43HtaSv/s640/petra.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="512" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQ56FERF69zIuAPUhrgshQgenBr9hodb12NfhJelYmWj6yPFpVSpD_5Op2vWJBIFppXPnmABU-PSXh0j2L45KKmqmauQIg4Vtun8IDdL5NeWWnxT22qeBqkxwLzE90VSBDtoRftFIMucs/s1600/kitchen+team+sarah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQ56FERF69zIuAPUhrgshQgenBr9hodb12NfhJelYmWj6yPFpVSpD_5Op2vWJBIFppXPnmABU-PSXh0j2L45KKmqmauQIg4Vtun8IDdL5NeWWnxT22qeBqkxwLzE90VSBDtoRftFIMucs/s640/kitchen+team+sarah.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="424" /></a></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-27246675998536167872010-12-20T11:56:00.000-08:002010-12-26T14:15:16.730-08:00Santa stopped by the tower.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlR8BuQK6H0LqgLnUdev09QD2rqVmTGHH_YV7rBT3BgVOK3FnC97nBSQfJ-7rtnzGjJJAkx6NaMpwAVA7UgzpvU4aoTytLeHG5Ch68ioanmrrdX5x3TA4iMLyyvR6JTvzhqaPlwHauxVlo/s1600/Smith+Tower+Santa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlR8BuQK6H0LqgLnUdev09QD2rqVmTGHH_YV7rBT3BgVOK3FnC97nBSQfJ-7rtnzGjJJAkx6NaMpwAVA7UgzpvU4aoTytLeHG5Ch68ioanmrrdX5x3TA4iMLyyvR6JTvzhqaPlwHauxVlo/s640/Smith+Tower+Santa.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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Naomi saw this image and asked me, "Mama, how cold was the North pole? Did you like working in the toy shop? I'm glad you are back, Mama."Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-45258730930514698792010-12-19T14:15:00.000-08:002010-12-26T14:20:42.393-08:00Round and round<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUaJfH8EUQlIAps4hyphenhyphenWHL_xfvxt8wxkv3DmU2BEOJYT6TMCBmQmyZkqaMnyQUycnDaM5ba9B_n8J6d2l1hgPAMV63Mm6U-8wuH2yTPcCO9fZklsRgeyZ8rdXiImUwgjaahx7UL87rJzHp/s1600/photo%255B3%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUaJfH8EUQlIAps4hyphenhyphenWHL_xfvxt8wxkv3DmU2BEOJYT6TMCBmQmyZkqaMnyQUycnDaM5ba9B_n8J6d2l1hgPAMV63Mm6U-8wuH2yTPcCO9fZklsRgeyZ8rdXiImUwgjaahx7UL87rJzHp/s640/photo%255B3%255D.JPG" width="478" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Every year we do this gig. It's the downtown carousel. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Arrives when December rolls around and the girls love it.</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-75408247829455180752010-12-09T18:00:00.000-08:002011-01-24T11:56:31.130-08:0014 GREAT Children's books (7 for a 3 year old and 7 for a 6 year old)<div style="text-align: left;">All 14 books have a few things in common. They have kooky unpredictable plots. They have terrific illustrations. They have marvelously moody characters that evolve and transcend their predicaments. Naomi and Simone each received a book a day during the first seven days of Hanakkah.<br />
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Naomi who is three years old, started out with three of the extraordinarily well written and brilliantly drawn books of <a href="http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/">Berkeley Breathed</a>. </div><div><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=belfrdispa-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0399250824&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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Iggy Peck is one of Naomi's favorite books of this list. She can recite most of the pages and has built many a wild structure after reading it.<br />
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Library Lion is a beautiful book by Michelle Knudsen. <br />
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Things go frightfully wrong for Chico Bon Bon, but he can build anything and little by little he figures out a way to use his craftsmanship to get out of his terrifying situation. This book was a little too scary for Naomi at first but she talked about it and got herself through it and now wants to hear it again and again.<br />
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For Simone who is six years old and just getting her reading legs, we started with "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. My friend <a href="http://www.belfrydispatch.com/2010/10/mieraye-obama-and-murray-or-president.html">Toni Redmond</a> suggested this book for the launch of our 1st grade Book Club. (It's going great.) What a deep and lasting read! Simone quotes parts as well as pulls ideas from it to help illustrate what is going on in her world. I teared up a few times and of course laughed too. Superb book. Enjoy!<br />
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The next six books are about 10 year old mad-scientist named Franny K. Stein. Franny's creepy perception of the world, heartfelt concerns for the fate of others and madcap adventures captured Simone's imagination. These well written books are by Jim Benton who did the Doonesbury series. A friend of ours, Joan Pedersen, a reading tutor, recommended these as they crack kids up. Simone literally laughed out-loud as she was reading and her younger sister Naomi was in stitches when I shared them with her. <br />
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In "Attack of the 50-Ft Cupid" quirky Franny is trying to understand Valentine's Cards so that she can create homemade cards both her teacher and her classmates will enjoy. After many hilariously inappropriate valentine cards, Franny does succeed and she does so while also juggling her mom's present of a lab assistant. Nice thought for sure and she does need help in her laboratory making things like miniaturized cows you can put in your pocket for those milk-on-the-go days. Unfortunately, her new assistant is not particularly precise and accidentally creates a 50 ft, flying baby who can't stop shooting arrows at everybody. Suddenly, Franny needs to think fast so she can rescue her home town from this cute monstrosity. Suffice to say, in the process of saving the day, she discovers a few surprising things about herself.<br />
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</span></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">This search for GREAT new books came about when my friend, Nicole DeWolf, put a moratorium on trinkets in her house. So for Hanukkah, she gave her three boys 24 books. We decided to follow suit, at least for the first 7 days of Hanukkah, and it was a huge success! On the last day, the girls begged me for lego people to populate the K'Nex Super Swing and so wrapped up a couple mini lego sets. As we were building the legos, Simone asked, "So, ah, Mom, what do you have for us to read tonight? " "Ahem." Luckily these books are the kind you can devour time and again! "Let's start with <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Everything-Junior-Library-Selection/dp/0689869223?ie=UTF8&tag=belfrdispa-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">When Dinosaurs Came with Everything</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=belfrdispa-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0689869223" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></u>."<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Enjoy!</span></div></div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1628676302053529124.post-71406759903452517602010-12-08T16:27:00.000-08:002011-01-18T16:33:05.309-08:00Violin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlpA639-rUkZuaPyVrWIb1mpuwhFwxPNIbo93z1aq5b31H7y0sv1790iz9gTRx2Xxzf8iuwD_64G0FnGuCm9fpVNCPdo0a7AUdp69i2l-w0lfkM8HobrXg3HeBSstaWc3V08PCW-9H-xh_/s1600/DSC_0063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlpA639-rUkZuaPyVrWIb1mpuwhFwxPNIbo93z1aq5b31H7y0sv1790iz9gTRx2Xxzf8iuwD_64G0FnGuCm9fpVNCPdo0a7AUdp69i2l-w0lfkM8HobrXg3HeBSstaWc3V08PCW-9H-xh_/s640/DSC_0063.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It was nerve wracking for sure. Simone considered not even going to school the day of the recital but when the time came for her to play...she did it.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We did it.</div>Petra Franklinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03746478143058824794noreply@blogger.com1