Guest Blogger of Sorts

Originally, I think I was supposed to be the main contributor to this blog. Seeing how my husband has more natural bent toward writing and commenting, I let him blog away with great results.

I would love to have shown you scads of pictures from Christmas 2008, but there were very few to be had. Harry turned 3 on December 23. Harry's birthday is affording him all sorts of great things. He starts preschool in January which I think he is greatly looking forward to. Turning three also gets him out of the nursery at church and into the AWANA group on Sunday nights, so all in a a momentous birthday.

Harry enjoying his Barbara Streisand. He got the Hello Dolly movie soundtrack for his birthday, compliments of WALL-E's favorite movie.

And then...the illness set in to our family and took over like some insidious Disney villain. We naively thought that we would recover soon and drove up to NJ to visit with our family. Where we remained still sick, steady state in fact. But we are thankful for having such gracious parents (Judy and Paul) to host us . The kids had a blast with Grandma and PopPop.

I'm also thankful for the most precious gift of Christ being born into this world so that he might save us from ourselves. Glory to God in the Highest, indeed!

Another Trip to Longwood

We finally made it back to Longwood Gardens. Our last trip is chronicled here.

It was a perfect day to walk (or scooter) amongst the flowers and trees. We met up with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Christin and the fun began.



After the initial flurry of frantic running around, we settled into a more cerebral analysis of the plants. Pepper plants, specifically.



Harry was more interested in the sculptures.



As I type this Harry is saying "Fountain! Picture of fountain!" The fountains at Longwood were pretty impressive this trip. They've been doing a lot of work on the grounds over the last few years, and most of the projects are done at this point.



The indoor areas have also seen significant improvements. Harry continues to be fascinated by water. Eleanor is too, but we can't trust her not to just jump in, so we don't have photos of her.



We ended the day with a good family photo op, ruined by Dad wearing his hat like some sort of punk kid.



Maybe next year...

We be wishin ye a happy holiday

September 19th finally be upon us.



Arrh...

Where are the Iranians hiding their weapons?

The gun shop is all out of the cheaper, "very good" grade, of the Persian Mausers. Blast! Revisiting my post below, I think I am going to go with an Enfield.

This is my dilemma. There are two major types of Enfields: the #1 mark 3 and the #4 mark 1. The #4 is the prettier gun, I can get one made in America in the early 40's, and it is generally a bit smoother and improved over the older #1 mk3.

So where's the dilemma, you may ask? Well, the #4's don't come with this.



That's 17 inches of blade. The British transitioned slowly from the Halberd to the rifle, seemingly reluctant to give up any capability when it came to stabbing. They finally went to a smaller blade for the #4 Enfield because the overall weight of the gun went up quite a bit and reducing the length of the sword on the end was the most obvious place to cut some weight.

Here's a side by side of the guns.


Enfield #1 mkIII


Enfield #4 mk1

So, I can either get a nice rifle or a polearm that also happens to shoot bullets. Decisions, decisions...

UPDATE: I have since learned that I can also get a #1 mkIII Enfield that is wire wrapped. The idea was to reinforce the stock so it could be used to fire grenades. The plain Jane version of the #1 MkIII is ugly but this could take it over the top to bulldog ugly. You know, endearingly ugly.

Birds and Bees... and Butterflies and Flowers

Yeah, that "little discussion" I'll be forced to have with Harry when he is a bit older is likely to be a bit more complex than my parents had to deal with, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about actual birds, bees, flowers, and butterflies.

Last month, the family went to the National Aquatic Gardens, located just inside the Capital Beltway off of 295. We had been there before but this was the first trip when it wasn't scorching hot. It made a big difference.

So yeah, pictures.



The logistics of parenthood.



"Our destination is over yonder, son."



"Flowers? It's just flowers? Where are the snakes I was promised?"



"Well, there are butterflies...



butterflies cavorting with bees...



but it is mostly flowers, yes."



"Flowers, flowers, flowers, a bird!"



"And you can't forget that this place avails us the opportunity to make some obvious observations about the ephemeral nature of life."



"Look Harry, that water lily sinking into the pond after a brief blaze of insane beauty is just like Ophelia from Hamlet."

Historical Firearms I Want

This is a very gun-centric post.

I have the C&R bug bad. There are only two "curio or relic" firearms in my little arsenal and I feel the need for more of them.

What I have now are the Swiss K31 I got from the folks for Christmas and the Soviet Mosin M44 Carbine I bought with the money I got from the folks for my birthday. Both have been refinished to as good a condition as I can get them and shoot just fine. But, bullets cost money and going to the range is both expensive and takes lots of time. So my plan is to continue to build my little collection until such time that I can escape with the family to the hills of Kentucky or somewhere else where land is plentiful and people are scarce. (Mom and Dad recommend NJ.)

So what follows is a list of firearms I want to add to my collection.

Mosin 91/30


This is the long barreled version of the Soviet gun I already have. Those numbers, 91/30, indicate the year the gun was originally developed and the year it was refined. That means 1891 and then 1930. This was the primary firearm of Czarist and Soviet Russia. I think I'd just go for the oldest example I could find that I could still shoot. More info here.

Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE)


The "Smilie" or "Smelly" was the backbone of the British Empire through most of the 20th Century. There are numerous versions of this gun made all over the world, including: Britain, Canada, USA, Australia, and India. Most tempting for my collection would be a WWII era US-made Savage Enfield sent to the UK under the Lend-Lease Act. More info here.


Israeli Mauser


These guns have a certain ironic appeal. They are German Mausers, used by the Nazis, that were captured and then sold to the new state of Israel. Take that, Hitler!

US M1 Carbine - Image from Aim Surplus. Go there, buy stuff!

This is the semi-automatic gun given to truck drivers, tankers, and other guys that supported the infantry in WWII. It fires a weaker cartridge than the full sized M1 Garand battle rifle, but it was still sufficient to send plenty of Nazis and Japanese militarists to their eternal "reward." Alas this gun is pretty much out of my price range, but if I were to come into a windfall, I know which one I would get. How cool would it be to own a gun made by IBM? Yes, that IBM. Gotta love the war economy. Maybe if we can get McCain in office, I can get my Apple iGun.


M1 Garand


I have to get one of these since I am an American. To quote Patton, "Best battle rifle ev-er." Or something to that effect.

But what am I going to get next? None of the above, actually.



I came across a really interesting rifle while perusing the internet the other day. It's the Persian Mauser 98/29. Same deal with the numbers. 1898/1929. This is a rifle designed by the Germans, built by the Czechs at the famous (what, you haven't heard of it?) BRNO factory, for use by the Persians. Yep, it's an Iranian gun from back before they were Iran. It is over four feet long, fires a huge 8mm cartridge, and has a lion crest. And it's not one of those androgynous lions either.



More here.

Dad's 60th (a year late)

What do you get the family patriarch for his 60th birthday? Why a day at the range of course, shooting the gun he grew up with. Unfortunately, it took Jeff and I nearly a year to actually set up the outing. But it was worth the wait. Jeff bought an outrageous number of tosses for sporting clays and away we went.

We had three guns in the line up:



The pump action Remington 870 Express. I always appear disgusted with this gun, even when I am breaking clays just fine. Clearly I have to work on a more pleasant neutral facial expression.



Great Grandfather's Remington 1900 side by side (now in 20 gauge). Dad couldn't hit a thing with this gun and I wasn't doing much better. Since this outing I have concentrated solely on getting better with the old gal with some success.



Jeff's new Beretta "Silver Pigeon" (I think) over-under in 20 gauge. Aside from issues with the safety (you have to disengage it to shoot) Jeff seemed like he had pretty nice gun. However I hear he was not too pleased with his performance so he went back out a couple of weeks later and blew through 300 shots in an afternoon.

Aside from the incredible heat and humidity, it was a great time. Hopefully we won't have to wait another year for the three of us to get back out there.

A Post Devoted to Eleanor's Cuteness

That is all.

Been A While

So that was a nice summer.

Updates:

Harry is a US citizen. ("About time." says Eleanor.) Shockingly enough, it seems one government functionary didn't know what another government functionary was doing and accidentally went ahead and followed the law. Surely s/he will be fired forthwith.

Eleanor is 1 year old.



Eleanor can walk.

Harry still likes playgrounds.



But there have been changes in him too. He seems to be channeling some sort of Elvis vibe, requesting peanut butter toast with cheese sprinkled on top. We're gonna keep a sharp eye out for any strange hip movements or sudden interest in sequins.

And in a distressing turn of events that runs counter to the Elvis theory, cute little girls apparently make him nauseous.

Gotcha Day '08

Another year has passed.

And not soon enough.

Why would I say such a horrible thing? Am I unhappy with my life? Do I not like my kids or something? No, no. It's nothing like that.

It's the unaccountable Federal Agencies I'm not too fond of. We got a letter this week from a three-letter government agency that told us Harry has had his application for US citizenship DENIED. It seems that they recently decided, perhaps on a whim, that parents who have adopted children from abroad have to wait until said child has been in their custody for 2 years before they can legally become citizens. This rule is used for married couples to try to weed out those "green card weddings" that American dupes are so fond of.

I'm pretty sure Harry isn't putting us on.

Oh and that DENIED letter cost us $300. But I'm sure for some nominal fee (say, another $300), they'll look into it again.

Anyway, Gotcha Day #2 is just around the corner and we decided to celebrate today with a trip to Brookside Gardens. Harry enjoyed the place a lot more this year, mostly because he can now say "butterfly."



He spent a lot of time pointing and saying "Butterfly!" He spent a little time running when a particularly aggressive and vibrant swallowtail fluttered at him.

The rest of the pictures can be found at the link below.

gotcha day 08

Camping in Virginia

Not sure what happened to April. I guess we were busy.

I got to go camping with Jake the last weekend in April somewhere in the lawless border region between Virginia and West Virginia. This was real backpack and tent camping. The only running water was in the streams. It was going downhill.

In fact, running water represented our primary adversary during the outing. We parked the pick-up and immediately had to ford a swiftly moving stream. The water came to my waist. It was cold.



Fortunately the weather was mild so we didn't end up with hypothermia or anything. We hiked down some old logging road along a stream inappropriately named "Dry Run." It terminated in the little reservoir shown below.



That's my birthday gun, the Soviet M44 carbine in 7.62 x 54. This was my first time camping with firearms and I liked it. Especially after seeing all the bear crap littering the woods. Being heavily armed also gave me the confidence I needed to wear a hat that silly.

We camped in the hills in the background of the photo. My fire making skills had not diminished any since my scouting days and I even got the chance to get one going after a brief but soaking downpour.

We ate spam...

But not on the first day.

Needless to say I didn't catch any fish.

This be mighty disheartening news... arrr...

We be reliably informed Talk Like A Pirate Day be September 19th. This be a sore blow indeed, me hearties. Me devilish squint to freeze a man's heart be perfected and the peg legs in place. What scurvy dog did decree such a far off date thar? Nothing fer it but to drown me sorrows in grog. Bring me me baba or ye be askin for a keel haulin!

Cimmammammon

I mentioned below that Harry is obsessed with spices but until now I had not provided any video proof. Behold!

Birthday Present

There was long stretch in January and February where I didn't get to see the folks in NJ. Illness and busy schedules got in the way and as a result I just received my birthday check a couple of weeks ago.

Now birthdays are not a big financial deal in the Hart family so I was trying to figure out what to get with my $50 check. Videogames cost $50 but I don't currently have a computer or game console capable of playing modern games. Books? If I'm in bed and the kids aren't crying or screaming, I should be sleeping.

And $50 isn't enough money to get a gun, even an old WWII gun made in the Soviet Union by the tens of millions. Or so I thought...



Allow me to introduce the Mosin-Nagant M44. According to my research, based solely on watching "Enemy at the Gates," this gun or its longer variant, the M91/30, were given to every other soldier in Stalin's army. (The other guy just ran along unarmed.) The point is that they made a heck of a lot of these guns so even sixty odd years after WWII there are a bunch of them floating around. How many? So many that you can buy one for $49.99.

Have I mentioned how much I love this country? For $50 I can purchase, online, a fully functional WWII battlerifle made by our one time ally of convenience turned bitter Cold War adversary turned whatever Russia is today. $50. This thing meant all the world to one or more poor Russian peasants trying to survive the Nazi onslaught and their own officers, but for me it is a fun refinishing project and a few hours at the range, all purchased with discretionary income. Here's hoping I never value it as much as that peasant did.

Grandmother's Birthday

We got to go celebrate Grandmother's (Harry and Eleanor's Great Grandmother) 85th birthday. Unfortunately Harry and Amy were unable to attend the actual party on Sunday, in part because Harry has fully embraced the concept of the Terrible Twos.



Grandmother was in good spirits but a little weak to hold a big girl like Eleanor.

The rest of the weekend was pretty successful, with the kids somehow keeping to their schedules.



In our little language development classes we are taking to help Harry express himself we have learned the various classifications of children based on their language abilities. Harry started off the class as a "First Words User" but is moving on into the "Combiner" phase. Mom got evidence of this capability when she broke out the breakfast food for the weekend. Harry knows "coffee" and he knows "cake" and he quickly realized the wonderful result of combining those two words.



Dad had to do some work from home to make sure the "Exchange" had dealt with the time change seamlessly. This took a surprisingly long time to do but Eleanor was patient.



And after all that tough work was done, Dad relaxed with Harry to watch some Toy Story. (The actual order of weekend events may be altered to aid me in making a narrative.) Harry is completely obsessed with Toy Story (except when he is completely obsessed with spices.)