Easter, 2025

April 21, 2025

Happy Easter! Chloe and I got busy.

Chloe like to make funny faces for photos.
This egg is actually one of mine.

Then we took a walk. A downside of the new neighborhood is that it is 90% canyons of sterile, characterless suburban housing. There is actually nothing one can get to by bike or walking except your parking space. But we did manage to find one road that borders some remaining farm land and is quite pleasant.

We found a log tiger!

Then we turned our attention to making a scary lamb cake.
Chloe enjoys making these disturbingly weird cake objects.
Click here if you’d like to see some other examples.

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April Updates, 2025

April 21, 2025

Big news in April! Chloe completed and presented her 9-month project on the history of animation. All the 8th graders at the Swallowtail school tackle a big, independent project like this and Chloe knocked it out of the park!

The other big news – Lisa and Chloe moved into a new place! It’s pretty nice.

Chloe has been making posters and putting them in the building’s elevator.
She also wonders why they keep getting taken down…

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Welcome

March 12, 2025

Phil’s Fabulous Subs – Forest Grove. A great place to have lunch. http://www.phils1500.com

Welcome to Goodwill. A place where Karl Marx is also a piggy bank.

Dad finds a way to have a monopoly over fish.

Spider thing, spider thing… what the heck is it?

Chloe is through being cool.

Chloe is also creating a series of characters. She’s calling them “Krunkles”.

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Snow!

February 16, 2025

Chloe has been flushing ice cubes down the toilet for weeks, because it’s a thing with the kids these days that this will make it snow. Either way, it did snow!

Chloe went on a rampage as “The Buttcrack Bandit”.
That is, adding butt cracks to any snowmen she could reach. See?

Meanwhile, she’s been enjoying mutating more stuffed animals.

In this photo we’ve left The Bird of Regret in a tree in the park for some unfortunate child to find…

Meanwhile, Chloe has inexplicably developed an appreciation for vintage 80’s Garfield stuffies.
This lead to us making lasagna. As one does.

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New School for Fall 2025!

February 8, 2025

Hey, big news! Chloe got into “ACMA” – Arts & Communications Magnet Academy for 9th grade. This is something of a big deal as it means she’ll be able to spend more school time exploring art and animation. If you’d like to know more about the school, here you go –> https://acma.beaverton.k12.or.us/about-us

Here’s Chloe dancing in the hailstorm that came down last weekend:

Squid-flavored chips are also a hit:

And she’s been busy with more mutants:

Here we are play-testing the board game we’re making. It involves eels. Also cacti, some sharks, the occasional cop, some spies and of course Crime Snail.

Somebody is going to be getting a birthday candle at the next birthday party!

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Fun with Art

January 13, 2025

We’re working on getting Chloe into the arts high school in Beaverton so she has more opportunity to focus on her animation and art skills. Here’s two of the things she submitted as part of her application.

Someone’s demented sense of humor seems to have filtered down to the child, as shown by these mutant stuffies she’s made. Yes, I guess this is ultimately my fault, but even at a much younger age she was already drawing things she called “underpants aliens”.

Chloe vs. Batmobile!

The Batmobile could be yours! Only $10!

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Christmas 2024

December 25, 2024

Merry Christmas, everyone!

That’s the present Chloe knitted for her mom.

And a doodle!

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Thanksgiving, At The Beach

December 24, 2024

Grama Diane came out to Oregon for the week of Thanksgiving. We took the opportunity to spend two nights at the beach in Seaside, OR.

Of course, we zipped down the highway a bit to visit Cannon Beach. That’s Haystock Rock.

We also went north a bit to wander around the shops and historic district of Astoria.

That’s the Astoria Column. It’s big! It’s tall!
You can buy balsa wood airplanes at the gift shop and fly them from the top!

Chloe walked to the top of the tower.
Mom and I decided to save our knees for later. That’s us there taking in the view.

Presenting, one teenager.

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Brock, The Rock

November 28, 2024

What will happen with Brock, the Rock? This is a video Chloe made on her phone while we were in Astoria. YouTube detected a copyright issue with some of the music Chloe used in this video, so I had to add it to the site another way. If you have trouble with it, you can download the movie file itself here.

Chloe planned a movie about Brock the Rock’s cousins.
We shot some footage, but due to time constraints the movie remained unfinished.
Until now.
The footage was rescued and jammed together into a art film that will shake the the art world for perhaps as long as 30 seconds. Here you are now. Sit down and tune in.

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The Great Pumpkin Hunt

October 31, 2024

Holy cow, Batman! It’s time to go find pumpkins to carve!
(new painting by Chloe)

First stop, the Giant Pumpkin Regatta

Take a giant pumpkin (above), carve a boat out of it (below) and race!

Paddle, paddle, paddle!

My personal favorite was the guy in the inflatable chicken costume.

Afterwards… chicken bake for dinner!

Step two: head out to the Jim Dandy farm stand.

Negotiate with the proprietor.

Shop!

Afterwards… hunt for frightening stuffies at Goodwill.

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