Recent [favorite] images from Skype & iChat sessions

Green Goblin 1

2

2 favorites: Kristine & a pomegranate – 3 if Stanley was present.

Kristine: when can we read your superhero adventures?

Real men iron…and use hand salve.

Teen Wolf

Scott Howard?

Wee-Wee – sp? It is Kristine’s Word

Stanley is a dirty dog, he always has his wee-wee in sight! I was calling Stanley (the dog) out during a recent Skype session for flashing his wee-wee again…

Kristine decided to fill the screen with …um, wee-wee…

Wee-wee 1

Wee-wee 2

Wee-wee 3

I love Kristine and her pet (hybrid) fat seal/pig.

I love these two very much…

Stanley beached on Kristine!

Stanley flashing his wee-wee!

Skype Frames

Kristine, a hoody (with fat drawstrings), and a winter cap. Me and a ShaggyMac.

I must be cool with my ShaggyMac styles because Kristine, following the above images, made her ShaggyMac an element of her personal fashion!

Chin!

Peep!

Stanley and Kristine, inventors of the Pug-Rub, demonstrate the classic “nose-Rub”.

I remember GarbagePail kids and Pound Puppies, but not Pillow People.

Pug rubs!

Stanley enjoying a pub rug, as always.

Tonight Stanley preferred his pink octopus over my pink hand.

Skype and Stanley

Stanley decided to streak across the the background and then jump into the conversation…

We missed the hippo…but we did see a wolf with a limp!

Kristine: this post is unfinished, I need to make a few edits…I am tired and want to go to bed…can you add some stories from the day?

Friday evening was a nice drive into Chicago with almost no traffic! I arrived around 9 or 10, we brought Stanley out for a walk and relaxed with a Sam Adams -that I did not finish.

Saturday was dedicated to visiting all sorts of animal specimens at the Brookfield zoo! The trip to the zoo was motivated by their current exhibit, a stingray petting-pool! The pool is a shallow and has a population of 20 – 30 stingrays that swim in a clockwise pattern in the pool. The infrastructure of the pool has a thick exterior wall [maybe] 3 feet high and 10 inches wide. Zoo docents suggest the optimal petter experience requires one to lay on their stomach and then reach into the pool.

To my left was Kristine, to my right; an overly hyper ray-grabbing child whose gestures mimicked possible primitive fishing techniques. I feared ray-grabber would eventually infuriate the local ray population with his sudden haphazard thrusts into the pool that would end up with the molested ray biting me…luckily the fish were accustomed to the petting-pool and kept swimming.

Our other motivation was to visit Karen, Kristine’s little sister , who was supervising one of the snack-shacks. Our lunch: 2 hotdogs + small (kid cup size) cherry Icee + french fry.

Karen ‘Soprano’ brought out her minions to our table and directed us to Marco to ‘take care’ of us with complimentary snacks. What was really funny was the fact that there was really no introduction at all, just a point and command from Karen. Matthew experienced a free Lemon Chill out of it.

Listening to children explain their observations to their parents and/or parents explaining exhibits to their children can be a very entertaining activity.

In the African Plains exhibit there was a pen featuring red pigs and piglets (between the two trees in the left of the image). Our wild pigs were facing away from us, laying down, moving only their tails (swatting bugs?). The child next to us began to point out objects within the exhibit to his mother: [citing the ball to the left of the sign along the right-edge of the image] That is an egg, I see an egg!

Sadly, the parents neglected to mention pigs are from pigs, not eggs.

Other animals:

Gorilla

The baby gorilla in the photo spent the majority of our monkey house visit jumping on the dad(?) gorilla. The adult gorilla was intending to sleep, baby gorilla was awake and needed to be entertained. Baby gorilla would attempt a playful assault on the adult, usually ending up in a playful struggle or a series of hugs from the adult.

Polar Bear

the baby polar bear’s behavior reminded us of Stanley.

Rhino

I missed the posted sign declaring Rhinos mark their territory by urinating in ALL directions. Rhinos, I found out, interpret a person taking their picture is a threat to their territory!

Following the baby gorilla’s playing and the petting of live stingrays, thee highlight from my first visit to the Brookfield is…Banana Split Dippin’ Dots! Kristine introduced to me to this super tasty freeze-dried [BB sized] pellet-based ice cream eating experience; upon entering your mouth, the pellets melt into a creamy banana or cookies-and-cream dream.

The following day, while walking around Lincoln Park looking for soap and other treats, we decided to try bowls of vegan pineapple and mango ice cream from a local vegan cafe-store. Pineapple was tasty, while the mango could have been a ball of kite twine. I longed for banana split Dippin’ Dots!!!

Limpy Wolf

During our visit to the wolf den the animals were obstructed from view by a tree and other vegetation. As we began to leave the exhibit, the limp wolf, with a less than menacing stride, ran from one tree to another. This short burst of movement crushed any Jack London fantasy of the mighty wolf.

Turtle

My favorite critter was Kristine as a turtle…currently functioning as my desktop wallpaper.

Later that evening…

Kathy and John kindly met us in Oak Park for a drink or two (Fat Tire!!!). While walking we began to notice a series of fiberglass elephants extending the Chicago Cows project almost 10 years ago. One of the elephants was stolen!

An information poster regarding the stolen elephant prompted Kristine to attempt a re-enactment of the crime.

Update 6/19/07: This morning on WGN TV news, there was a story about the missing elephant. They mentioned that it was approx. 200 lbs. of concrete. There was no way I was actually going to budge that thing by myself, so at least I’m in the clear of anyone suspecting me.

A chalk line-drawing of an elephant on the adjacent sidewalk may reference the position once inhabited by the stolen elephant. The chalked pachyderm recalled images of place-holders on display since the 1990 heist from the Elizabeth Stuart Gardner Museum (Boston).

Pugs and Plugs

Audio problems at first.

Playing with pugs and plugs.

Following Kristine’s visit this weekend we had our first video chat using Skype. I am addicted to the [amazing] Panda Cam widget featured on my dashboard -in developer mode I can move it onto my desktop. Throughout our conversation I was imagining a Stanley cam, the only other cam able to compete against the panda cam for my attention!