Day 35 seems like such a nice number. The spouse had the day off so we took the child to Nickel World in Machesney Park, Illinois. Nicer than I thought a place run entirely on nickels would be. Lots of skill games, ski ball (my favorite) and a whole row of free old style video games. I still suck at Pac Man. And centipedes. And well really any arcade game out there. There is a cover charge, but it’s just $2, so who can complain?
31
Dec
09
Nickle World 35/365
29
Dec
09
31-34
I’m a little behind posting on the 365 project. So the photos are on the Flickr site. Going to watch Blades of Glory now so I can send it back to Netflix and get something better.
27
Dec
09
Cancun 25/365-30/365
We spent Christmas in Cancun Mexico this year. It was a short trip, just 5 days. The first day it rained, but we had perfect weather for the rest of the trip. Most of the days we just hung out on the beach at the hotel sipping fruity drinks and making sand castles.
One day we did go for a drive down the coast and inland to see the Coba Mayan ruins. I had read it was the only close ruins that we could climb to the top. A little scary, but very cool. We also stopped at Grand Cenote to do a some easy snorkeling. A cenote is a limestone sink hole, so it’s freshwater. Grand Cenote had some small fish and some bats.
We spent Christmas day snorkeling at Yal-Ku Lagoon in Akumal. There we saw a lot more fish. Jack did really well without any flotation device help. It was probably the highlight of our trip.
The rest of the pictures are on Flickr for days 25-30.
20
Dec
09
Air Cannon 24/365
Today Jack had his first hockey tournament. His “team” was completely trounced during both games. But he himself did quite well and picked up a lot of new moves. It looks like he will be moving up to the world of league hockey when practice resumes in January.
His first game was at 9:30 am and his second was at 4:30 pm so we had some time to kill. We hung out with grandma and grandpa for a while for lunch and then wasted some time at the Rockford Discovery Center Museum. It was pretty empty for a Saturday, so we got to play with all the exhibits. Which is always nice.
20
Dec
09
Wii 23/365
Wii 23/365, originally uploaded by laurasjoquist.
We spent a nice night with John’s parents playing Wii and eating snacks on Friday. A little pre-tournament down time with the grandparents for Jack. Which was nice because the hockey tournament didn’t go that well for his team.
18
Dec
09
cardinal painting 22/365
DSC07640, originally uploaded by laurasjoquist.
Anytime I don’t take a photograph of anything interesting for the day, I’m just going to take a photo of something I made. Maybe cookies, maybe a painting. Most likely a scribble on a napkin I made while waiting on hold.
16
Dec
09
bread 21/365
I used to think that making bread was the hardest thing to do in the kitchen. The directions are always so intense, like trying to replace a car engine or put together an Ikea dresser.
But baking bread, even really good bread, is surprisingly easy if you ignore all the extra advice and just put flour, yeast and a little salt and water together. Oh, and use a stand mixer. You’d have to be crazy to knead it by hand.
16
Dec
09
Hot Chocolate and Uno 20/365
I try not to complain on the internet. Everyone has bad days, but not everyone has to know about them. But it was nice to come home and have some hot chocolate and a good game of Uno with the spouse and child.
14
Dec
09
thread 19/365
I finished up my last recycled wool sweater christmas present today. Jack gets a hat with Jack Skelington on it. Lucky boy.
14
Dec
09
Hockey Game 18/365
Maybe it’s because Minnesota shares a border with Canada, eh? Or maybe it’s because I grew up in the mullet haircut, big truck, hockey lovin’ town of Blaine. But I was totally stoked when Jack took to hockey like a duck to water. Or maybe that would be a duck on skates to a frozen pond.
Today he played his first hockey “game”. His team lost, but at least he scored a goal.
