HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY, SOPHIE!

birthday girl!

this weekend we celebrated the bunny's 6th birthday party, which was held in the backyard and ravine.  we FINALLY got the play structure built (2 years late, but with 48 hours to spare before the big event...) and the kids definitely loved it.  even gus still plays on it--he and his friend, gabe, served as big-kid chaperones for the party and they both totally got into the fun.  the kids all played in the treehouse as well.

after the party my friends chloë and marge stayed and had a beer with me while sophie and her friend, lucia, opened all her presents.  it was an absolutely perfect 6th birthday party for both me and soph--i couldn't have planned a better afternoon (except for rich to have been with us).  looking forward to next year's party already!

crazed party children

more crazed party children

cheetah in the icing

we found that if you give gabe sugar, he starts doing some pretty cool party tricks

moustachioed madeline and sophie (super fly girls)

the two best big-kid chaperones in the history of ever: gabe and gus

paco's world

paco's world

it's almost wyethesque...

andrew wyeth, "christina's world," 1849

how to and not to behave around a $150 million object

how to behave, properly, around a $150 million painting

honestly, i've been nothing but disappointed with the actions of the university of iowa museum of art since moving back to the paris of the prairies.   i was offered a job as curator of academic affairs before we even agreed to return (three years ago now) and not only did that job never materialize but the defrocked acting director tried to claim the job for herself.  and the new director, who suggested i would best serve the museum as a docent (i started teaching docents in 1992 at the dallas museum of art...), has sent the single most expensive object in the entire state of iowa on a meet-n-greet to the big city of...des moines...to a non-AAM accredited art space.

in my experience, objects do not return from being loaned in better shape than when they left, and the "care" being taken of jackson pollock's "mural," shown below in some recent photographs, is sub-par.  the university of iowa is taking massive undue risk with an incredibly valuable object--i wonder why they are willing to do that?  why move such an object 150 miles to a city with HALF the population of the region from which it is coming?  i could *almost* see the reason behind a trip to new york city, dallas, houston, LA, SF, chicago...but this is absurd.  i have a feeling the only thing this meet-n-greet is going to accomplish is a renewed interest by the iowa state legislature in selling the object.  from what i see, i'm not sure it's a bad idea anymore.

how not to behave, version 1.0 (ladders tip over all the time...)

how not to behave, version 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 (this sucker is top-heavy and liable to tip over, it is rolling on insufficient carriers, and the handler isn't wearing gloves)

how not to behave, version 1.4...does this actually need an explanation? thought number one: measure all hallways and staircases before moving an object. thought number two: do something other than this as the number of things that could have gone wrong here are too numerous to contemplate

how not to behave, version 2.0 (you don't massage a $150 million painting for a photo op)

miniature rodeo

more goodies from the houston livestock show and rodeo...this time in miniature.  enjoy!

miniature sparkly lady

miniature cows

miniature calf roping

miniature bronc riding

miniature lone cowboy

miniature cowboys and stock

miniature calf scramble

miniature chuck wagon

miniature bull riding...on the miniature big screen

miniature angry bull

miniature the band perry

you're clearly not appreciating that doughnut...

...and therefore it should be mine.

houston livestock show and rodeo

beautiful pink bunny

during our texas spring break adventures, we scored some righteous seats to the rodeo! we were seated on the ultra-posh level (which we thoroughly loved, and where rich finally felt properly appreciated), but before the big show we spent a few hours at the carnival and fat stock show. it was a giant dollop of texas fun!

an actual houston rodeo beauty queen + entourage

lazy beef on the hoof...

...and there is a VERY good anatomical reason i shot this bull from behind

ring-o-bottle!

(unfortunately, they didn't ring-o-anything)

rich explicating the finer points of water pistol pointing

i love this--he doesn't even bother with tokens...quarters only!

beautiful, happy gus and his *almost* shot out star!

a soon-to-be-cotton-candy-crazed sophie with her new snakes (and daddy)

museum of osteology

raccoon having a late night snack

i am tremendously fond of this museum--the museum of osteology in oklahoma city. i've been twice now and i can't wait to go back again. i don't know what it is about this site, but i find all their displays fascinating--especially the new hummingbird skeleton. i honestly didn't know snakes had so many bones before i went here...

next time you are in oklahoma, do yourself a favor and spend an hour or two gawking at some mighty cool bones!

they also have a cabinet of curiosities upstairs, which is always a good thing

a masterpiece of children's art

this is "the robot and the butterfly," created by the students of lincoln elementary and lemme elementary in iowa. gus and sophie both contributed to this amazing work. i could cry this is so good--i've never seen anything like it. massive, massive congratulations to the students who worked on this and a HUGE thank you to their art teacher for directing such a project. i couldn't be more impressed!

dr. elias h. sellards: now with more distinction!

dr. sellards and his trusty pickaxe--it's like someone just googled "image of geologist"

this past thursday, my great-grandfather (also known as gus and baby zane's namesake), elias howard sellards, was inducted into the university of texas jackson school of geoscience's hall of distinction. we were all kindly invited to the event, but being in iowa made it difficult to attend. i do wish we would have, though.

he had a very, very prolific academic career: he determined the legal boundary between texas and oklahoma, he identified very early human remains at vero (now vero beach) florida that completely reset the date for human habitation in america--a good synopsis of such can be found here, he was director of the texas memorial museum during the years before and after WW2, was the director and (later) director emeritus of the bureau of economic geology at the university of texas, undertook significant fieldwork in texas, florida and kansas, wrote scores of papers and books, and was just a general all-around bad ass in the field.

congratulations, dr. sellards.