snowdeal.org > ex machina

the eric update - day 2060: last day of cross country skiing.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:20:00 +0000

we've already established that cross-country skiing is odin's favorite winter sport, which he loves even more than - gasp - hockey!

so, we're all a little sad that today was the last day of practice. but i suppose we can take some solace in that fact that that means that spring is coming.

since i'm the guy who can be counted on to have a camera handy and folks were happy with pictures i took on the first day of lessons, i was asked if i'd take a group picture of the inaugural 2010 snowflake cross country ski club crew.

i was more than happy to oblige.

more photos coming soon

on the odds of rolling two successive yahtzees in two rolls ( or life in the driftless region ).

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:42:00 +0000

so, mister koppa ( proprietor of the heavy duty press ) and i ended an exciting evening for two middle-aged guys by playing a round of yahtzee.

it came down to the final two turns of dice rolling and neither of us had rolled an "any yahtzee" ( defined as all five dice have the same value during a player's turn of three rolls of 5 dice).

mister koppa got a yahtzee in two rolls on his turn and i promptly responded with a yahtzee in two rolls on my turn. neither of us had ever seen anything like that happen. ever. and it made me wonder what the odds were of it happening.

most of the yahtzee probability sites seem to agree that the odds of rolling an any yahtzee after two rolls is 1.3% or about 1 in 75 turns, which means you might rightly expect to get a yahtzee on two rolls about every 6 games ( with 13 turns per game ).

but what are the odds of rolling two successive yahtzees in two rolls? isn't it 1.3%*1.3% or 0.02% or 1 in 5,000 turns?

if so, that's just another night of improbability in the driftless region. and, yes, i won.

odin makes the westby times!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:22:00 +0000

some longtime followers of odin's adventures may recall odin in parents magazine and mothering magazine and "above the fold" in the vernon county broadcaster.

and now, some of the pictures i took of him cross country skiing lessons made section B1 of the westby times! w00t!

the infamous note for our wisconsin state senator, left on the organic valley rideshare van.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:56:00 +0000

left for dan kapanke on our organic valley rideshare van.

i truly hope we get more notes like this in the future.

the eric update - day 2044: hanging out at the 2010 snowflake ski jumping competition!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:01:00 +0000

just like we did in 2007 and last year odin and i had a blast hanging out at the snowflake ski club ( the very same place he goes for cross country skiing lessons ( and here ). this year, we missed the continental cup competition which was held on friday night, but we did catch the distance jumping which even featured an amazing 12 year old, trevor edlund who hails from saint paul minnesota.

it's big fun. if you're ever in the area during the competition, you should definitely check it out.

you can click on each image for a brief description.

this year, i took the opportunity to shoot some video!

here's the amazing 12 year oldm trevor edlund, who hails from saint paul minnesota. i think he went 116 meters on this jump.

on his second jump revor went 119 meters on this jump, which is longer than an american football field.

and on this jump, trevor flew 123 meters!

the winds were magical and a norwegian ( wish i knew his name ) broke the 87 year hill record with this 132 meter jump. technically it doesn't count because he didn't land standing, but the crowd stlll went wild.

the norwegian that broke the hill record in this video but didn't "stand it" gives it another attempt. he comes close with this 125 meter jump but didn't break it. clearly he's a crowd favorite. wish i knew his name.

each year, we climb up the looooooong climb to the very top of the ski jump. it's a slippery trek and each year i swear i'm never going to to it again. you do get a nice view of the skiers launching into the air.

as you might imagine, when people jump a longer distance than a football field, sometimes they crash.

the eric update - day 2039: scenes from cross country skiing.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:48:00 +0000

well, its officially official. odin has, at least for this year, abandonded his first love winter sport love - hockey - for cross country skiing.

he's love, love, loving it. he says maybe next year he'll be interested i hockey again :-)

the case of the disappearing chromatophores.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:42:00 +0000

we've had a fish tank with two humble goldfish for nearly ten years. soon after putting both fish the in the tank, one of the fish lost all its color which we thought little of since its not unusual for goldfish to change/shift color over their lives.

the usual explanation offered for a goldfish completely losing its color typically cites the fact that goldfish are born with fixed number of chromatophores and if the chromatophores are thinly distributed on the surface of the scales, they can lose color completely as the goldfish grows in size.

sadly, the white goldfish died a few months ago so we promptly got another brilliant orange and red companion to keep him company ( quit laughing, in the wild, goldfish swim and live in groups so why wouldn't they want company in a tank? ).

lo and behold, after being in the tank for a few months, the new goldfish quickly and nearly completely lost all his color even though he didn't grow substantially over that time. although it's a small sample size, it makes me wonder if the both of the white goldfish changed their color in response to the other fish in the tank.

unnamed, green buddish plant thing that caught my eye.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:16:00 +0000

everyone was so helpful with the hoar frost identification/nomenclature, i thought i'd test my luck and see who wants some bonus points by identifying this plant that was in a holiday arrangement.

after sitting in water for a month the branches have begun leafing out and budding.

it only seems right to give it a good and proper name.

hoar frost and brambles.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:02:00 +0000

raspberry brambles after a foggy, frosty morning.

~~anyone know if this type of foggy, frosty formation has a specific name?~~

update:it's hoar frost - thanks!

the eric update - day 2017: odin's 2010 good energy raffle!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:08:00 +0000

odin's 2010 "good energy" raffle - win $4,000 and an extra special bonus prize ( deadline: feb. 11th, 2010 )

http://snowdeal.org/raffle/

the eric update - day 2014: Odin The Blower of Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:12:00 +0000

only a month has passed but the days of being, Odin The Shoveler of Snow are surely gone forever.

he asked if he could try the snow blower while we were out clearing the sidewalks after getting a 4 or so inches of snow. "sure!" i replied, quite confident he'd tire of it quickly.

he quite happily cleared the entire 50 foot strech of sidewalk with a smile on his face the entire time.

it's about time i began to reap the rewards after five and a half yrs of fatherhood :-)

the eric update - day 2012: odin reads his very first book on his own!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:00:00 +0000

while we, of course, have been reading to odin nearly every day of his life today was the very first day that he read an entire book all by himself. "the sad cat" from the from the bob books series.

i guess to give himself a challenge, he decided to jump right to the 11th book in the series which gets more difficult as you go along.

it seems like just yesterday that we were reading books like "call of the wild and jonathan livingston seagull in the nicu. how time flies.

we made him promise that he would let us keep reading to him.

the eric update - day 2011: cross country skiing at the snowflake ski club!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:02:00 +0000

odin started cross country skiing about a year ago and is already pretty handy at getting around but we thought it would be fun to enroll him in a new class at the snowflake ski club to give him a better grasp of fundamentals while hanging out with friends.

i was suprised at the great turnout even given the bitterly cold temperatures outside.

part of the crowd is shown here getting instructions about not falling into the stream when going over bridges.

odin is in the "polar bear" group of younger kids which is a nice mix of kids he knows well and new skiing friends.

of course, one of the first things you need to do is to get up after you fall down!

then it's time to practice balancing while standing on one ski.

and make stars in the snow with the skis.

and then, finally, it's time to hit the groomed trails before the sun sets!!

odin had a grand time. i think he might have found a new favorite winter sport.

the eric update - day 2007: pretty much a pretty typical new years eve day.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:57:00 +0000

our vacation to visit family over the holidays is winding down. and by winding down, i mean, well, things are getting loopy after a week of living out of a suitcase, and late nights and sleep-overs and no naps.

it's usually at this point that we give up on the Thou Shalt Not Practice Gymnastics on Nana's Furniture commandment.

sigh. but of course, odin getting to spend time with family makes it all worth while and it'll be fantastic to do the same thing all over again in 2010.

happy new year's eve and new year!

the eric update - day 2006: the dude abides.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:09:00 +0000

we went out bowling with odin and a whole bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles and even a grandparent. and while it was a whole bunch of fun, i do think odin could have taken it a little easy on his old man, since it was only his second time bowling and he handily beat me.

clearly, the dude abides.

odin lines up his shot. note the girl a few lanes down.

look at that form!

who knows, perhaps 15 years or so from now, when he's studying dissertations on his dudeness he'll recall the first day he bowled with his poppi :-)

the eric update - day 2005: a quick visit to odin's nicu!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:01:00 +0000

since we were back in grand rapids for the holidays we thought it would be fun to make a quick trip to the nicu where odin was born on the fourth of july. nicu nurses rarely get to see the children they take care of after they leave the hospital and really enjoy the opportunity to see the wee ones as they grow.

it's hard to believe it's been five years(!) since we last visited. odin as just learning to roll over and i completely forgot that we brought a camera and printer as a gift ( amusing since i'm still remembered as the dad who took a lot of pictures ).

it seems the downturn in the local economy has reduced the birth rate which has, in turn, reduced the numbers of premature births, so there were only two nurses on duty when we visited and a mere four beds filled. but we sure were happy to find that those two nurses were two of our favorites during our stay.

in addition to her calming presence, nurse jan, on the right, is the kind of nurse who will take a video for your while you're away from the nicu ( see her giving odin a massage in day 13: the fourth. part two. ). and i still remember nurse cathy b cuddling with odin on our last day in their nicu before odin was transferred to another hospital for emergency surgery.

both are fantastic, compassionate, wonderful nurses and human beings and it was great fun to get a chance to see them again.

kris and i, of course, weren't allowed to go into the nicu, but they bent the rules a bit for odin and took him to bed 4 to show him where he spent the first 78 days of his life (out of 96 days in intenstive care ). odin told us later how he could see the tiniest hands and feet in the bed.

it's hard to get a good picture when you're standing outside a neonatal intenstive care unit but odin does his best to liven it up by sticking his tongue out in yet another attempt to stymie my attempts at photography.

the eric update - day 2003: one of the reasons we travel a thousand miles for the holidays.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:33:00 +0000

so that odin and his cousin ella can play ( and somewhat begrudgingly pose ) during a snow storm.

old timers will recall that a photograph of ella was the first to be uploaded to my flickr photostream about two weeks before odin was born.

thousands of photographs later it's still, of course, a pleasure and privilege to capture moments of them growing up together.

odin takes great pleasure in trying to stymie my attempts at photography. i can't imagine where he gets it from ( inside joke that my parents will get ).

the eric update - day 2001: to the stars, and beyond!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:39:00 +0000

if i were a betting man, i'd wager the planetarium gift from family will beat out both the wooden tracing labyrinth and the race car contraption in terms of sustaining odin's interest and stimulating his imagination.

wonderful gift, thanks

the eric update - day 2001: merry christmas! lets guess which present odin liked better.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:35:00 +0000

ahhh, christmas morning!

santa always brings such nice, simple gifts. often wooden and often preferring gifts that require imagination instead of batteries. gifts like this wooden tracing labyrinth.

we like to think they're easy for the elfs to make up in the north pole.

and then there's always at least one gift under the tree from family members that requires a lot of batteries, makes a lot of racket and doesn't require much imagination; like a race car contraption that propels cars through loops and a gap that, if timed correctly, will collide with a animated dragon causing the dragon to lose its poor head.

day 2001: merry christmas! lets guess which present odin liked better. II. from Eric C. Snowdeal III on Vimeo.

lets see who can guess which toy was odin's favorite :-)

the eric update - day 2000: the day santa visited us in the sauna on christmas eve.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:54:00 +0000

two thousand days.

it really is hard to believe that two thousand days have gone by since odin was born so soon on the fourth of july in 2004. everybody loves round numbers and more than a few have noticed that day 2K was approaching , and on christmas eve no less. a funny and appropriate cosmic coincidence since odin has been the greatest gift we could have ever been given.

i had thought it would be nice to take a supermegaawesome photo on day 2000, but mother nature had different plans and i spent much of the day removing a wintery mix of snow and freezing rain that she dumped on us in anticipation of friends visiting for a christmas eve party with great food, drinks ( this being wisconsin, some even brought their own stash of raw milk as their beverage of choice ) and, of course, saunas for all.

after a very rich evening of listening to children run and laugh through the house, odin and i finally got a chance to enjoy some quiet time in the sauna, throwing steam while recounting the adventures of the day.

"poppi, i love you."

and then, we heard it. faintly, at first. sleigh bells.

"HO! HO! HO!"

"MEEEEEEERRRRY CHRISTMAS!"

wait, what?

i sprung from the sauna bench, grabbed my robe, ran to the changing room, flung open the door and who did i find standing there? santa claus, himself. complete with the beard, the red suit, sleigh bells in hand. The Real Deal.

odin ran out into the sleet, in the buff, and shouted MERRY CHRISTMAS SANTA!

santa wished odin a very merry christmas and turned away, walking back to the street, ringing his sleigh bells while exclaiming, "MERRY CHRISTMAS! HO! HO! HO!"

a very magical sauna indeed. day 2000 will not, i believe, be soon forgotten.

merry christmas to all. thank you for following odin's adventures and believing in miracles.

the eric update - day 1999: 'twas the night before the night before christmas.

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:45:00 +0000

or, otherwise known as the times the try the souls of five and half year olds what with christmas day being so close and yet so very, very far far away.

and the presents are just calling to you. calling. calling. calling.

the eric update - day 1999: partying like it's 1999!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:12:00 +0000

well, at least partying like it's day 1999 ( of course, relative to that fateful day fourth of july ).

and by partying, i mean just hanging out and spending some quality time together while getting beaten handily at chutes and ladders.

i don't know how he does it. but somehow he always lands on the the longest ladder on the board game which takes him all the way from square 28 to 84.

sigh. lucky kid, he is.

'tis the season for ice candles!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:43:00 +0000

i don't know if ice candle making is practiced primarily by yoopers with finnish saunas ( that's where we got the idea ), but 'tis the season for ice candles!

you make them by filling a sauna bucket ( aka a five gallon pail ) with water and letting it sit outside for a few days to build up a thick layer of ice. before it freezes completely through and through, take the ice out of the bucket, clear out the center and put a candle in the middle. a solid ice candle should last till spring and is perfect for lighting the path to your sauna!

odin makes the about.com retinopathy of prematurity page!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:42:00 +0000

odin is now the face of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) page on the prematurity about.com site!

the original image and the story behind it ( because there's always a story! ) can be found on day 1010: odin's first pair of glasses!.

interestingly, one of citations on the ROP page was authored by antonio capone who saw odin on a post-nicu follow up exam.

small world!

for the plaster repair experts - help!

noreply@blogger.com (e3) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:36:00 +0000

i have a bit of plaster ceiling that needs repairing. it appears that a textured finishing coat has been applied on top of plaster "brown board" ( i think that's what it's called, but maybe i'm wrong ).

anyone know how to replicate this finishing coat? what is it? plaster? how do i get that texture? help!

update: i think it's a perlite/plaster mix that's rolled on.