Hyrum's Top Ten May/June

This was a very slow month musically for Hyrum. Most months, he has to listen to a song over 30 times to get onto the Top Ten list. This month ... 14 is the cutoff. Lots of time traveling and with family must be to blame, I reckon.

Also for the first time in months, the #1 song is NOT Tarantara. Mary Poppins has supplanted Tarantara AND Bob the Builder thoroughly.

1. Semper Fidelis - 89
2. Feed the Birds ("Tuppence" a Bag) - 76
3. Let's Go Fly a Kite - 59
4. Praise to the Man - 40
5. Tarantara - 39
6. Mickey Mouse Club March - 33
7. Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious - 27
8. Handel's Hallelujah Chorus - 15
     Seventy-Six Trombones - 15
10. Imperial March - 14
11-13. With Cat-Like Tread - 10
     The Spirit of God (Like a "Fire" is "Burning") - 10
     High on the Mountain Top - 10
14-20. Bob the Builder Theme; Little Drummer Boy; Pines of Rome; You've Got a Friend in Me; The Egg; Joy to the World; Singe Praise to Him - 9

All time Top 10:
1. Bob the Builder - 846
2. Handel's Hallelujah Chorus - 461
3. Tarantara - 318
4. Seventy-Six Trombones - 159
5. Praise to the Man -148
6. Mickey Mouse Club March - 128
7. Little Drummer Boy - 124
8. Pomp and Circumstance -117
9. Feed the Birds - 99
10. Star Wars: Imperial March - 97
11. Ten Little Indians - 92
12. Semper Fidelis - 89


And the usual stuff for my records is after the break

Random May Picture 2

Another example of Finnish architectural touches.








NY skyline from the Statue









At the Statue they have a series of small statues of famous people involved in her design, construction, and placing. Among them is Monseieur Eiffel (and his tower) who designed her support structure so that her skin can be moved independently but she still remains upright.




Joy tried to look serious like the Lady, but couldn't keep from smiling with her carrot-torch.








I mentioned that Times Square has an M&M store. Check out their greeter.










The prime attraction in New York was going to see Mary Poppins on Broadway in the New Amsterdam Theater off Times Square.

Here is Joy, believing in the magic.





Memorial Day, we joined my parents at the Corning Glass Museum, which was our second date ever back in the day. This was one of Joy's favorite pieces. The vases/spheres were three dimensional in part because the glass is and in part because of multiple layers of glass held suspended within other layers of glass.






I liked this piece of glass because of its shadow. Even though it's just a hook holding up a piece of blue glass, it looks strikingly to me like a woman selecting a dress to wear.









If you don't want to spend the money for a ticket, the gift shop by itself is worth a visit. This is all glass. Move over plastic fruit: here comes the glass dessert tray.






And another Hy-5.

May Pictures 1

Far too many wonderfully fun, interesting, exciting, picture and note and blog-worthy things have happened in the last month so we've had no time to blog about ANY of them properly. Just a couple pictures of Hyrum to keep the grandparents mollified. ... And I still don't have time to do anything justice (I really wish more people had my problems) so here are some random pictures of our adventures this month. A faster way than trying to remember and comment on everything.

FINLAND - Derrill's work conference, May 14-16




An example of the architectural touches and colors that are everywhere (in the part of the city where I wandered anyway).






In the city hall (where we had dinner one night) is this fascinating interlocking finger statue.







The roof of the dining, exhibition, cultural hall of the city hall. It was actually my least favorite dinner there - too many very unusual spices: I couldn't have more than a bite of the tomato salad and I was with a Hindu friend who couldn't eat the meat (oversalted salmon and beef) so I pondered what a South Beacher does when the only thing he could really enjoy is the bread....

NEW YORK CITY - For our 5th anniversary, Joy and I left Hyrum with Pop and Boo (Thank you!) and joined Steve and Emilee (thank you!) for a day in the Big Apple.



Attraction #1: The Statue. We had a lot of fun in line listening to the steel drum players, the trumpeter with a stereo system for accompaniment, the contortionist, and the proselytizers. Tickets to the crown are sold out months in advance, so we missed out on that. But I got to touch the base of the statue! Look for pictures of everyone posing as The Lady a bit later.




Miss Liberty's Book: July 4, 1776. A pretty good book. Have I mentioned I like my camera's zoom?





We wandered randomly around Chinatown. Each of us took turns choosing which direction to go when we came to an intersection. We explored stores, bought local foods, gave some grapes to a guy who was hungry, and had fun soaking it in for a little bit.




We made our way to Central Park where a family who didn't speak any of the 5 languages we speak took our picture.






Times Square. A more wretched hive of scum and villainy I hope I never meet. But we did explore the M&M store!




To the Subway!

SIX FLAGS
And here's some more fun for Hyrum at Six Flags.

Hyrum's Newest Word

"Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious."

I'm totally serious. (Okay, he's got some diction problems and he treated each syllable as a word. It counts.)

From Six Flags with Hugs

We went to Six Flags: New England with my brother and his wife last week. They had free tickets for us thanks to their season passes, so we got to enjoy a nice day together at the park with almost no one there. The first advantage to the small crowds was that Hyrum got to meet the characters with no wait. Actually, they were vying for HIS attention!

His first character hug was Granny (owner of Tweety Bird), but Daffy scared him a little. We had neglected to introduce him to ANY of the Loony Toons characters before. But he liked Bugs. He ran right up to Bugs, gave him high fives all over the place, and lots of hugs.

He ran back and forth between Bugs and Scooby to give them hugs, and with no one else trying to play with them, he got their undivided attention. There was also some weird green alien/dinosaur/dragon that wanted a hug, but Hyrum said no.

We smiled a lot, proud out our Is-This-OUR-Son hugging all around, and said, "Yup, he's going to be ready for Disneyland!"

Lawful Good Vampires

While getting ready for bed, I thought about the poor, cliched 'good' vampire. There is exactly one way to identify a good vampire: he or she struggles to control the urge for human blood. Good vampires eat animals. Cutesy vampires eat chocolate or are vegans.

Blekh.

Can't we come up with any arrangement for a vampire to be good and still get a daily dose of vitamin A-postive? Oh sure, vampires can also rob blood banks, but that isn't lawful. With all the nice, decent people being turned into vampires by the chaotic and lawful evil vampires out there, how about a Lawful Good abomination for a change?

Well, Derrill, says I, how could it work? I came up with a half-dozen good ideas before drifting off. If you would like to use any of these vampires which I have never seen in print, please stick in an acknowledgment and send me a free copy of the book. My five best ideas in my order of preference:

1 -  Drac Locke (named after this guy, not this one) arrives in a poverty-stricken community with severe social tensions where the national government is completely ineffective. Transylvania, Somalia, California, take your pick. He offers protection, social order, and prosperity in exchange for feeding rights with the rotating "host" family. He keeps away predators, establishes justice, secures property rights, sets up local councils, teaches them new technologies and production methods, serves as international intermediary, and with his hypnotic powers prevents corporations' use of market power against them. The town prospers and they protect him against would-be vampire hunters.

2 - Dracscalante (this guy) becomes the local sorcerer/alchemist/scholar. He takes in children of willing parents and gives them an education compiled over his thousands of years of life, enabling them to escape from poverty. The price of tuition: a pint a day.

3 - Drac Grandin (this gal) domesticated a group of humans centuries ago for feeding stock. The conditions are as humane as possible, but c'mon, they're livestock. That's what they were born and raised for. The hero's debates on what constitutes "humane" treatment of livestock probably occupies a central part of the book. [By the by, I chose Ms. Grandin only in respect: "I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect." Now just think of a vampire with that attitude.]

4 - DracMan, caped crusader, makes criminals pay for their crimes in blood. [Granted, the lawful part is in question here.]
4b - Drac Norris fights the Taliban against the evil vampire bin Dracula.

5 - Dracenerny (this guy) is a grad student who lives in the basement of his university so he never sees the light of day whether he works or not. His hypnotic powers would explain how he's gotten funding for research for so long without ever producing a paper and why grad students feel like all the life has been sucked out of them. It's not grad school: it's Dracenerny!  [This is the least lawful good one of the group, but probably the easiest to turn into a comedy. Dracbert, anyone?]

Propaganda's Unintended Effects

When we got Hyrum the Buzz bed, we told him it was his Big Boy Bed, and Big Boys stayed in their beds.

On a rare occasion, I remind Hyrum that he is getting to be a Big Boy and should therefore do x.

Grandma reports that she asked him why he hasn't been taking his naps anymore, and that he responded something like "No nap. I Big Boy."

Where he would get the idea that Big Boys don't nap, I'm sure I don't know. He still needs one and takes one within minutes of setting out in the car if the time is right, but (big) boy he struggles and resists most days now!

(On the other hand, we got him some shoes that have Buzz Lightyear on them this week and yesterday he told us he wanted his Baby shoes... Curious.)

He not only reads, Hyrum Writes!

Hyrum's doodles have moved from just circles to ... numbers and vaguely cursive handwriting. This he identified as 6.










And here is a 2.



Hyrum reads a few words and now he can write two numbers.

UPDATE: Today while the missionaries were over for dinner, Hyrum drew the letter A.

Money!

My inner economist laughs with delight.
My inner Christian trembles at that whisper.

Hyrum has discovered coinage.

Don't Hear That Every Day

Ithaca has a semi-annual book sale with some amazing sale prices, so we try to go. The only problem is that it's no fun for Hyrum, and that means no fun for whichever of us is caring for him. Tonight I asked him at one point if I should sing to him. He wanted "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins. Not too surprising given this is one of his most requested songs recently. So I sang the words I knew a few times ... and a few more times ... and a few more as we wandered through the mystery/thriller section. Hyrum was happy and peaceful so long as the bard kept on singing.

When we rounded a corner, we were stopped by another shopper who wanted to tell me what a golden, beautiful voice I had. She had always liked that song and I sang it so well. It was just a pleasure to hear, she added.

Don't hear that every day. She said it so warmly I could do little but thank her and return to the song when she urged that she hadn't meant to interrupt.