Kangaroo Bounce and Dawn Arise

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Once more I am coming at you with tales from our trip, sort of. Mostly, it’s just the method which I am choosing to deliver more sounds of the didgeridoo to you. I am really enjoying learning and playing this new to me instrument and every day I find myself facing new challenges. Yesterday, I was working on stronger rhythmns while continuing to maintain a smooth delivery. This first piece uses a sound that is supposed to represent a hopping kangaroo, since kangaroos do not have a particularly defining sound that they make, didge players just use a tongue stop to represent the movements of the animal.

While we were in Queensland; which was easily my favorite part of the trip; we went to an animal viewing zoo. Naturally, being in Australia, there were Kangaroos, a whole herd of them, if herd is indeed what a group of kagaroos are called. TheBubster fed them bread; it was given to us by the curators specifically for the kangas; but her favorite animal there were the wallabies. Wallabies look like kangaroos only smaller. In fact that description can also cover Quokkas if you add “much” between “only” and “smaller”.

With the exception of lots of dead carcasses on the highway in the Tablelands, the only roos we saw were in zoos. EDIT: We actually saw live kangaroos on the side of the highway while driving through the Tablelands. These gave us the best experience in that we could pet them, feed them and observe them closely. While all this animal interaction was going on, The Mommy hung back and fed LittleBud.

Speaking of LittleBud, he is growing growing growing. Already he is growing out of clothes that fit TheBubster when she was nearly nine months old. He is also very busy and loves to lie on his back and play with the mobile bells hanging on his workout mat.

This last piece of music is more ambient and experimental. Hope you enjoy it as well.

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Tags: 02139, Australia, Cambridge, Didgeridoo, kangaroo, mp3

Things the Bubster says

“Buck O’Mama” or “Barap O’Mama” (Barack Obama); “fishing tangle” (fishing tackle); “I just love him, mommy!” (when I pull her off her brother); “That man has a big head.” (when watching Keith Olberman on MSNBC); “I can’t go to school, I have to go ice-skating.” (every morning); “NO. I do it myself.” (about everything)…I am almost four, but I am still very very three” ;  “I need more lasses” (Molasses)

At Last!

as we all watched the balls on the evening of the inauguration, the Bubster said “that’s Barack Obama dancing with the mama!”

I finished cleaning my office area yesterday or the day before, as a direct result of that process, I unearthed a video camera. The camera had some clips from the summer on it, so I threw them together and thought I’d present that here. This is TheBubster having all sorts of fun in and area our house. TheWife was also midway through her pregnancy with LittleBud.

summer_breeze

Tags: Cambridge, climbing, football, TheBubster, video

Fruit Bat Swing

This morning when we woke up the temperature was 6 F, that’s minus 14.4 Celsius; which is cold, trust me. So instead of bundling TheBubster for a ride in the back of the bike trailer; 12 F is my arbitrary cutoff point; I booked another car which meant that I could drop off the whole family. Everyone was so pleasant this morning, as opposed to the previous morning, but they each had a mini-meltdown at their destination. I’m chalking that up to their desire to not leave me!
After the bus driver role was finished, LittleBud and I returned to our warm, well-lit apartment and set about our day. He decided that today was the day he was going to catch up on all that sleep he had been missing out on. That was fine by me, because I got to finish cleaning up my workspace, which greatly relieved me, so much so that I celebrated with some didge playing. This quickly turned into my remembering certain things about our trip to Australia, particularly to Queensland. This is where the Daintree Rainforest is located. I think that was my absolute favorite part of the trip.

There are lots of animals who call the Daintree their home. This fellow is one of those animals.

That’s a Fruit Bat sometimes called a Flying Fox.

So of course, I wrote a little song.Fruit Bat Swing

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Technorati Tags: Fruit Bat, Australia, Cambridge, 02139, didgeridoo, mp3

Tags: 02139, Australia, Cambridge, Didgeridoo, Fruit Bat, mp3

Is it cold enough for you yet?

While the midwest is getting dumped on with mountains of snow, here in the northeast we; aside from our typical liberal elitism; are enduring frigid temperatures. It’s also TheBubster’s first week at school, preschool but school none the less as she is there for nearly eight hours most days. We get up early and bundle ourselves for the 1.5 mile bike ride, which incidentally has a tall ridge creating an interesting altitude profile (read that as literally uphill, both ways). Since she has grown so much that the over the wheel bike seat is too small, I had to buy a trailer to go behind my new commuter bike. Here you can see the poor child huddled inside this flimsy creation trying to catch the slightest bit of warmth.

This photo was actually take outside an Ice Skating Rink, outdoors of course! Where we spent the afternoon practicing our skating skills.

TheBubster is quite good at this skating business- that was slick hard ice and she started gliding a little this afternoon. She is more capable than she allows herself to be- I think that this is a defining part of her character. While we are alone, she takes her time, but as soon as a couple kids showed up, she was trying to teach them how to skate!

Technorati Tags: school, cold, snow, bicycle, Cambridge

Tags: bicycle, Cambridge, cold, School, Snow

Preschool? Feh.

the Bubster is completely happy at school. She goes off with her dad each day - usually by bike, butu today by car since it is soo soo cold here. She doesn’t look back. She comes home bubbling over with happiness and confidence. It’s difficult to determine what she actually does since she isn’t really interested in looking back, but lives for the moment in her almost-four-year-old way. I guess we’ll have to wait for the parent-teacher conference.

Can it be

that we’re really down to just a few days until the end of the Bush presidency? I remember coming to this country at the height of the “Great American Peace”. A scant couple of years after I arrived came Bush and 9/11 and the erosion of women’s rights.

I knew deep down that the United States was the place for me: that it could again become the beacon of social and intellectual enlightenment, so I became a citizen.

And now…I can hardly dare to imagine a life where all women get their basic medical needs met and can choose when and if to become mothers. One week to go! Godspeed President Obama!

He who is greatest among you shall be your servant

From now on, Martin Luther King Day is a day on, not a day off. The President-elect and his family are calling for a day of service. What a wonderful way to celebrate and begin a new year.

I will be providing resume help to low-income jobseekers in my community. What will you do?

Phew!

The Bubster hardly looked at us as we left her at preschool today. She’ll probably go 5 days a week, as we are expecting her to take to it like a duck to water. She will get a full, warm breakfast at 10 am every day. The school is reimbursed by the City of Cambridge: waffles, bacon, juice, etc. It was a hard slog to get there: an hour through the snow.