On March 7, Caitlin had her annual birthday party. We jokingly called it her “9 and 1/12” birthday, because it was one month after her actual birthday. Things were a bit busy in early February. Anyway, the celebration was held at a local venue that has an indoor playground, arcade, and party rooms. The Culpeper area needed one of these, truth be told. Ten kids showed up, and a good time was had by all. Even the parents liked the place!
It’s Time to bolt!
One day I came home from work, and discovered that my daughter had been building with the Erector set. A few days earlier she had asked me about using it. I suggested that she start with some of the simpler models designed for the smaller sets, like the 1 or 2 level sets from the Renaissance era. (The bulk of my Erector is Renaissance-era Class-II.) This is exactly what she did, and she even made up a few freelance models. A group portrait of these models is featured above.
From left to right to right we have a truss bridge, a four-wheel horse drawn carriage, an elevator (background), and mobile cargo crane, a two-wheel horse drawn carriage, a covered bridge, and a… whirligig flying machine thing. We never really decided exactly what to call that thing.
As you can see, she made use of the customized carousel horse parts that were created for an earlier model.
This is one she made a little later, after looking at some photographs of horse-drawn sleds. She really likes the carnival horse parts, both official and custom.
This one dates from a bit earlier, and it’s supposed to be a “steampunk recreational vehicle.” It’s supposed to be powered by the two steam boilers on the roof. I did the actual building of this one, but she designed it. She made up a few drawings (blueprints!) which I used to build this. She then pimped out this ride with furnishings made from Legos, and sent some Little Ponies on a cross-country adventure.
She’s a Lego master builder, who dabbles in Erector and other building toys. Damn, I’m proud of that girl!
On Saturday, February 7, 2015, my daughter Caitlin turned nine years old.
Two days old.
She was born on a cold morning in Takoma Park, Maryland, at Washington Adventist Hospital. She has always been an easy-going, high energy girl, and she tends to light up whatever room she enters. She is sort of a celebrity in the extended family, because she was the first Pugh girl born in over thirty years. There is a running joke within the family the Pugh men “don’t throw girls.” Generally the Pugh line is very male-heavy, so there may be something to that.
I broke with tradition.
Caitlin’s interests include Tai Kwon Do,
building toys,
Girl Scouts…
and just having fun!
Being in the third grade, she has had some exposure to the less savory aspects of growing up. I suspect she’ll have some rough patches, but I know she’ll manage.
Greetings, gentle readers! Yes, today is my birthday, and to celebrate that, I have gathered some pictures from my past, including some of the absolutely worst pictures of me ever taken.
I was born on February 6, 1967, at Cortland Memorial Hospital, in Central New York, at roughly 7:35 AM. I was born in the middle of the coldest, most bitter winter on record up until that time. (The winter of 1977 broke any and all low temperature records for the area; it was a doozy.)
As a boy I lived in the town of Homer, New York. I did most of the usual kid stuff, though not as much as most other boys, because I had an almost pathological hatred of High School. Why? Well, I was what we would now call a “nerd,” and Homer Central was a school where (at least at that time) athletes were demigods. Need I say more?
I went to college at St. Bonaventure University, in Western New York. and those were among my happiest years. During this time I experimented, unsuccessfully, with facial hair.
Gads, I look like Leon Trotsky!
After working a various jobs for two years, I returned to school at SUNY Albany, for a Master of Science in Information Studies. That’s a fancy name for a Master of Library Science.
Had I been drinking earlier that day? I look like I’m about to fall over.
I had some good times at SUNY, and I made some lasting friends. But on the whole, those two years were part of my job.
Career developments moved me to the Washington, DC area in 1996. I met my future wife there, and we were married in 2003.
I started working for the Library of Congress in 2003, and in 2007 I took a lateral move to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia. My daughter Caitlin was born in 2006, and somewhere during this time I went prematurely grey. I’m certain there is a connection.
In 2009, Lisa and I bought our first (and so far only) house, and in 2012 our son Michael was born.
Definitely the worst picture ever…
Last year, Lisa made me these cute Welsh cupcakes for my birthday.
And here is one good picture of me, just to show that it can be done:
And that concludes that. I have now completed forty-eight solar laps. I’ve done many of things I set out to do, and believe it or not, I think I’m in a pretty good place these days. Some things could be better, of course, and some things are a work in progress. And for some things, I’m just getting started.
