A Little Boo Boo

Today we spent the afternoon at the Carter Family Farm. We fed the farm animals, went for a hay ride, had some lunch, and listened to a live band. While teetering about the farm, Kye took a digger against a log and got a little scraped up. He only fussed for a while and then was right back at it. All in all, it was a beautiful day and we had a good time only five minutes from the house.

Monkeying Around

Kye stomped around in the fall leaves with his halloween costume on this afternoon. He sure does make a cute monkey.

Walking, the new fad

Well, Kye seems to be doing exponentially more walking everyday. We left him for 4 days with my parents. When we left he was only taking a few steps at a time. When we got him back he was making 10-15 foot teetering journeys across the living room. Here he is demonstrating his walking skills on less friendly terrain.

Kye's first shuffle

Yesterday the little man left go of the chair he was holding and shuffled sideways for a few steps. Amazingly, we happened to catch it on video.

Kye pics with a mandolin solo

Yes, it has been a year. Here are some pics of the little guy with me on the mando butchering a Chris Thile song in the background. I promised this in the last post, but could not for the life of me figure out how to get just sound onto the blog. Then it struck me, I'll post it as a movie with cute pics of Kye so no one will notice me messing up in the background.See previous post for an explanation of the sub-par recording.

Getting back into the Mando

About 5 years ago we went to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival where I saw the mandolin up close and personal for the first time. It is here I learned the Mandolin is strung exactly like the violin, which I have played since third grade. This combined with the fact that I already played the guitar and knew a little about strumming and picking made it an obvious instrument to start playing. Another driving force was the fact that it is the instrument of choice of one of my favorite musicians, Chris Thile. In his hands this instrument is capable of almost any type of music.

Thus I purchased a cheap used Mando from a friend in lab. I knew the instrument was not great, but I decided to go low budget in case I did not really enjoy it. I quickly got into playing and starting going to bluegrass jam sessions. I found the fact that the instrument is simpler than a guitar, and that I was already familiar with a lot of the scales, made it easier for me to improvise, something which still eludes me on the much more complicated guitar.

I played hard for a few years and then put the instrument down and have not played much since. The other day, while procrastinating from writing a grant, I decided I would get it out and play some. I quickly realized why I did not play the instrument much anymore. It is a bear to play because of the low quality. The action is too high and it is nearly impossible to press hard enough to get clean chords, and most annoying is that you perfectly tune the open strings, only to have it go sharp when you fret any note. You can also forget it staying in tune for more than half a song.

Therefore I decided to prolong the procrastinating by looking on Craigslist for used Mandos. The first one I found was a Mid-Missouri M4 with a hard case for $300. I looked more into these instruments and I found they were solid wood and handmade start to finish in the US. Knowing a little about stringed instruments I had a feeling this was a good deal. After a little more digging I found that they retail for around $700. I began to think all this was fate as the guy had just posted the instrument that day. I went to play it the following day and bought it the day after that. Acting quickly was the right decision since when I picked it up the guy informed me of a line of three other people that were bummed that it was gone.

While the instrument is not fancy in its appearance, it has a lot of great sound qualities and the playability is far superior to my last Mando. I included a clip of me hacking through a song Thile wrote and performed at the age of 12. Forgive the quality as I recorded it through the internal mic of my laptop. However, I did add some effects in Garage Band that are pretty cool and mellowed out some of the harsh noise the mic seems to create.

Nature Explorer

After tiring of the beach, I let Kye crawl around in the grass and dirt. I like to let him explore but it is quite the game to prevent him from eating a rock or a stick while taking pictures. As you can seen in some of these photos, he was tasting some of the local flora.

The Sprayer Game

We went to the beach at Laurel Lake yesterday and Grandma brought a little pressure sprayer. Kye's first reaction was to open his mouth and try to drink the mist of the sprayer.

Hanging with cousin Kennedy

The past two weeks, Kye has been having play time with his cousin Kennedy. First my sister came to visit us in MA and then we drove down to PA for a week of vacation. Aside from minor battles over toys, which sometimes Kye will try and win by biting Kennedy's big toe, they have played quite well.

Afternoon at the beach

We just realized today that we have a nice lake beach a few minutes from our house, so we took the little man to see his first larger body of water. It was a little chilly, but he enjoyed standing in the water watching the waves lap at his feet. He also found a caterpillar to play with.

Swingtown

Good old Grandma found Kye a plastic swing at a yardsale. Yesterday, with a little webbing some eyebolts and a couple clips, I hung the swing on the front porch.

Swim time

Kye likes the bathtub so much we decided to get him a little swimming pool. I set up a little shade cabana and filled up the pool to let him splash the afternoon away in.

Scientist in training....

"Hmmm...It looks these larvae will be ready for dissection soon...."

More pics!

Hi!




I'm eating baby puffs!



Kye and Dad made a copper tree for Mom.
It's beautiful AND functional...for holding necklaces!

Random pics

I have my own giraffe high chair at Grandma Logan's house!



Our favorite post-bath hairdo!

A day at the Zoo

Kye and Cousin Jackson are getting a taste of Africa at the tiger exhibit!


Can you see the sign? " CAUTION: Animals can bite!"....No kidding.

First carousel ride!

Deck facelift/dog & child containment project

This past weekend my parents were visiting and my Dad and I got into my first home project since the bathroom addition. A deck project which included a gate across the stairs for dog and child containment, increasing the height on the road side of the deck to prevent Duff from jumping off and greeting people passing by (more dog containment), and putting a skirt of lattice around the bottom so people can't see all the stuff under the deck from the road. You might think the Duff containment stuff is over the top, but he has been known to take blind leaps over deck gates onto steep icy stairs and take off. He has not done this in a while as there has been no gate to jump, but I am not letting his aging white face lull me into building a normal height gate, thus the 42" balisters. This morning we took Kye (alter ego - Krankmaster K) out on the deck for a staged photoshoot and to try out his new camp chair he got for easter.




The deck is Krankmaster K approved!

Easter '09!

Thanks Easter Bunny!....bawk, bawk!!!

New Talents

This morning, Kye and I were watching the Bruins get destroyed by Buffalo. Kye was less than impressed with the game (i.e.- he was getting cranky), so I set him down on the floor in front of me. Before long, he had figured out how to open the entertainment center cabinet door and spent quite some time fascinated by his new found ability to open and close the door. After his enthusiasm for the one door wore of, he opened both doors and found that there was more fun to be had, ripping out the contents of the cabinet.

What's new

Just a little entry about what Mary and I have been up to lately, before I post pics of the little guy. Most notably, we went to a concert at club passim in Boston. We were there to see Jackopierce, one of my favorite acoustic duo's. Not very well known in the pop music scene, but really, what does the corporate world know about real music. I am always amazed at what makes it big these days. Almost none of the artist I listen to even exist on the top 4,000, let alone the "top 40", but their musical talent greatly exceeds the crap that popular radio plays. I also find it interesting that for the few artist I listen to that do make it to the "top 40", the song that makes it to the radio is usually the worst/one I like the least. I still am trying to deduce what this means about our society and how I fit in, but maybe I am reading too much into this paradox.
Anyways, the show was great and very intimate. We were just 15 feet from the stage and I even exchnaged a few words with Cary Pierce while waiting to go the bathroom. These type of concerts have been the one thing that I have come to enjoy about living in central Mass. Only 1 1/2 hours to Boston, where we have seen Percy Hill and Jackopierce, and 30 minutes to the Amherst/Northhampton area where we have seen Kelly Joe Phelps, Chris Thile, and Great Big Sea.
On a random side note, my hockey team won the Gardner Wednesday night ice hockey league championship. I had a goal and one assist for our 4-2 win over the Stars. Word on the street is that we are getting embroidered fleece's (how exciting!).

New hat!

Thanks Aunt Shelly for the cool hat from Nepal! It's warm AND yummy!

A walk in the woods

Today finally felt like winter is starting to recede, so I put Kye in the carrier and took him for hike. We hiked along a little stream to a waterfall where he was quite mesmerized with the flowing water. He sat with his head flopped to one side in the carrier, watching the water. We were out for almost an hour, with only a few babbles here and there. I think we might go again tomorrow.

First Banana

Kye got his first squished solid food recently, and as you can see, he took to it quite well.