i have to admit that we were excited to see what odin thought of his third halloween ( how is that possible?!), since it was to be the first halloween where he would have some awareness of the holiday and all its trappings, including of course, costumes and candy. so, for weeks we've been reading books such as mouse's first halloween and he's been watching kris make his frog costume while hearing about how much fun it can be to walk around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

but odin has never been exactly keen on the whole idea and today put his foot down and said in no uncertain terms that he did not want to go out for candy. he's certainly not impressed with the sight of seeing other kids in costumes and the only way we could get him to don his froggie outfit was to tell him that we were taking a picture for grandma and grandpa.

the irony is that we've never been huge fans of the north american version of the holiday and its emphasis on gathering bucketloads of candy. not that it's a national tragedy or anything like that - maybe we've just had too many years of having snotty adolescents not wearing costumes landing on our doorstep and demanding handfuls of candy.

hi. ho. maybe next year.

don't get me wrong, i don't have anything against nascar and i know a lot of people who enjoy watching advertisement-laden cars racing around in circles, but i've never been one to choose to spend much time getting into the motorsport. but odin loves his playing with his toy cars and he certainly enjoys what he calls my coo car so i guess it should come as no surprise if he happens to flip on the television and there happens to be a race on, he's more than happy to take a seat in his rocking chair, wrap himself in his favorite blanket, and narrate the action.

"oh, look, poppi! coo cars! racing!"

and whooweee, it's exciting to watch the cars go into the pit for a fresh set of tires, because everyone knows that taking off tires is Very Big Fun.

"see! tires! taking off!"

and, of course, it's not very long before he yells, "oh, poppi! car crash!"

maybe one or two you might recall that before odin was born things were a little different around here. i've decided to finally retire the old "conflux" format and begin writing about the things other than Odin's Adventures. yes, it's true, i do still have a wide variety of interests. so, if you're interested in all things eclectic, stop on over to the new "conflux", which i guess is just the old "ex machina".

in retrospect, i probably should have guessed that i'd have little chance of finishing my breakfast of smoked trout in peace.

and, yes, the kitty has been officially named truck by odin. if you need help remembering the name, you can just recall the handy mnemonic that it's The Really Unbelievably Cute Kitten :-)

i must say that it's quite a sight to see the skeleton of cropp's new 80,000 square foot, $15 million distribution center rising up on what used to be farmland in tiny cashton, wisconsin. i thought the powers that be might keep the classic red barn on the 40 acre property, but it looks like it's going to be taken down - one small sacrifice necessary to accommodate the almost incomprehensible growth in the organic foods market which seems to be limited only by a shortage in supply.

it's a neat time to be involved with a company that has a pretty unique mission to support economic and environmental sustainability for independent family farms.

while odin long ago mastered simple and complex shape sorting, the elmer 2-sided puzzle has represented a Grand Challenge to his pattern recognition shape matching skills. but today after a long day at work i walked in the door to hear kris exclaim, "odin, show poppi what you learned today!"

"okaaaaaay!"

"see, puzzle." he said as he took the pieces out of the box as we've done many times before. only this time instead of asking for "help. pease." he proceeded to provide instructions on how to put the puzzle together. he ruminated over each piece while repeating "purple border" as he carefully flipped each piece piece over to reveal the most recognizable distinguishing characteristic between the two sides of the puzzle.

and then after a few minutes of putting the pieces together while describing how you must turn the pieces methodically to get them to fit just right, he looked up with no small amount of pride at the results of his hard work and simply said, "see poppi, puzzle finished."

maybe next week we'll try to tackle the new york times crossword puzzle.

i recently had the pleasure of watching a local band, freaks of nature, absolutely tear through some covers as they practice for an upcoming halloween show. if you're anywhere near the community center in gays mills, wisconsin on friday october 27th you won't want to miss their show.

one of the many benefits of moving to viroqua, particularly if you're musically inclined, is that there's a large and welcoming set of musicians in the area, and i suspect it won't be too long before i succumb to the peer pressure to get out every so often and play.

despite appearances, i didn't play drums. there were two kits, the real drummer was banging away to the left.

i guess since we live near odin avenue that it only makes sense that there's a malamute avenue nearby. however, i suspect though that the odds of us finding another snowdeal lane outside of maine are slim to none.

and slim is out of town.

the morning started like any other, with much running around, jumping and chasing of the kitty while i got ready for work. and then the sudden and not terribly unusual THUD! that means he's taken a tumble, followed by the also not terribly unusual brief fit of crying. so, i walked over to ask him where it hurts, not expecting to see BLOOD! ALL OVER HIS FACE! in the end, he had split his lip open, which is not The End of The World, but it turned big and fat within minutes and looked quite painful.

as we wiped him clean and macgyvered a frozen bag of peas to act as a cold compress, he repeatedly exclaimed between sniffles, "all. better. odin, all right. " and "peas. make odin better." if it were me, i'd have been sulking for hours, but within five minutes, odin was back to his usual routine, while still occasionally hollering, "ALL! BETTER!" as he ran from room to room.

the thing that's odd is that i can't really say that we try to encourage his stoicism, and we're actually both quick to let him know that it's completely fine to express his emotions when he's hurt. if fact, we'd probably be a little happier if he didn't seem insistent on so quickly proving to us that he's able to buck up.

the part of me that loves to over analyze things, wonders if somehow despite our best efforts, we're subtly and unintentionally reinforcing old cultural stereotypes about what it means to be "a man". maybe it's not just us, since it's not usual for people to comment on what a "tough guy" he is, if he happens to nonchalantly brush off what might otherwise be a traumatic tumble.

or perhaps, sometimes kids are just born stoics.

nature or nurture?

when we gave odin his nickname, i had no idea that we'd eventually move to southwestern wisconsin which is home to a large norwegian community that seem to be big fans of the Original Odin.

not only is he not the only child named odin in town ( in fact, there were two other odins, but one of them recently moved ), but it's also the kind of place where you can drive down an otherwise unassuming country road and pass odin avenue!

if the sign suddenly goes missing, i didn't have anything to do with it and you won't find it hanging in his bedroom.

we're still taking submissions for odin sightings.

odin really was excited about going to a local pumpkin patch, riding on his first hayride, picking out the biggest pumpkins EVAR, and seeing giant "monkeys" and horses and goats and sheep ( oh my! ).

but as is increasingly the case, he was not terribly excited about having his picture taken, even if it was with his two prized pumpkins.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

apparently, if you're two years old, there is nothing more fun than gobbling down some pizza and then donning the tablecloth that you've dirtied which has magically been transmogrified into a cape and galloping ( quite literally galloping - i have no idea where he learned that horses gallop ) after your mamma.

it's all the more fun if you can convince your mamma that her horse is the kitchen broom. and, of course, much whinnying and neighing is absolutely, positively, without a doubt required.

odin has been kicking his imaginative play into high gear and almost daily he'll entertain us with an amusing glimpse into his Imagination.

he loves, loves, loves(!) to help out around the house doing all manner of chores including sweeping the floor. so we were mighty excited when we found a pint-sized broom from for small hands that he could use instead of wrestling with the Big People's Broom ( as an aside, the broom is extremely well made in thailand by "workers under fair labor conditions" ).

but alas, instead of joyously running around the house sweeping till he couldn't sweep anymore, he was far more interested in the box the broom arrived in. after removing all the storage "peanuts" ( fun! ), he laid on his back and started kicking his legs vigorously.

"see! i'm swimming! odin's bafftub!"

"poppi, try!"

charles darwin may have wondered whether any other animal has played more important a role in the history of the world than the lowly earthworm and organic valley ( my employer ) even has a mascot - ovie the earthworm - who is dedicated to spreading the word that earthworms are cool in terms that youngsters might understand ( "our poop is loaded with stuff that makes plants super healthy" ), but after hearing all the arguments, odin is not quite fully convinced that he should put his new buddy back in ground.

surely, it's more fun to have them wriggling around your hands and pockets!

i wonder how many manchesters there are in the world? i don't know for sure, but i do know that odin has received a postcard from the two most famous locals with that name - manchester, new hampshire and manchester, england.

[ see the postcard project slideshow and the postcard project/google maps mashup; visit "postcards from budapest" for the current postcard project address. ]

andy wicks ( and here ) sent this fine specimen of a postcard of the holland harbor lighthouse in holland, michigan. i guess after sending postcards from such far flung locales as valkenburg, netherland and tokyo, japan , he decided to send one from a little closer to home. he probably doesn't know that i'm quite familiar with the holland harbor lighthouse because i went to hope college for a year before, well, abandoning hope :-)

[ see the postcard project slideshow and the postcard project/google maps mashup; visit "postcards from budapest" for the current postcard project address. ]