Reformation 2006

Strawn Mad Carving Day 2006

Sarah and I have begun a tradition of carving pumpkins on the day of Halloween. After my Letterman disaster last year (see October2005 blog) we have decided that the day of will be fine instead of carving ahead of time. Fortunately our carving skills are improving which makes for more interesting designs. Unfortunately that means it takes more time. Here are our attempts this year. Enjoy!

Comedy and Tragedy (those wacky theatre masks) carved by Al.

Ghost Rising from Grave carved by Sarah


Luther's Rose (note the attempted use of food coloring in the heart and background) carved by Al (template homemade) I also attempted to use a Dremel grinding wheel to remove skin and flesh from the outer pumkin to allow more light to shine through. It worked well, even though it left pumpkin residue all over my glasses, face, sweatshirt, etc.


Headless Horseman carved by Sarah

This years attempts were hampered by freezing weather that did a good number on the pumpkins (interior ice and shriveling) and made our hands very chilly. Sarah's first attempts at more detailed carving came out very well and she has much to be proud of.

The pumpkins, adorned with great holiday music (Bach's Taccotta and Fugue in D Minor, themes from the X Files, Psycho, and other halloween favorites) once again garned comments from kids and adults alike.

Next year Al will attempt a 1973 Corvette, pumpkin style, and the famous painting of Jesus' profile. Stay tuned. :-)

Happy Halloween

Meet our little Tucan.

Al took Eden out for her first real Trick or treating adventure this year. They went all around town in freezing temperatures, layered in three sizes of clothing, but cute as ever.

She came back with a few pieces of candy for us, and a couple bags of cheerios for herself. She seemed indifferent, but we were well pleased!

Happy All Saints Day tomorrow!~

Rome wasn't built...

Everyone needs a hobby, and one of mine is building cardboard buildings. My recent endeavor was to build a complete modern day urban city for the game Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction. Here are a few photos of the progress of many hours of designing, printing spraying, folding, and cutting.

This a general overview of the city. All the buildings are made out of cardboard (cereal box weight material) with paper glued to the outside. The images are building found online, and some that I created myself using templates found online. All the buildings are approx. "N" Scale for you train buffs out there. After cutting and pasting, the corners are scored with an Exacto knife to ease the folding.

While many of the buildings are simple rectangles, some have multiple folds. The church on the left of this picture of nearly 20 pieces of cardboard folded in multiple directions. To make it even more fun, it was found on an all Korean site with no English instructions.

One of the tasks in creating a city is not only to make it to scale and unique, but to also make it usable for the rules of the game. That means some buildings need a flat roof to be usable, others need doors, others may need to fit into certain size specifications. It also means that there needs to be certain spacing between buildings.

Some future developments may be several communications towers, an overpass, and maybe another church.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my city!

Eden's New House

Eden recently got a new house and we thought the world might like a peek. It needs a bit of remodeling and the elevator needs to be fixed, but it'll be ready by the time she's old enough to reach the first floor! (I vote for a hot tub on the garden-roof.)