1.03.2011

Don't Call It A Comeback

Five people have complained to me about the lack of posts here. I'm going to call that a mandate for change in 2011. Also, I have a Kindle now, so I'm a real live twenty-first century boy. (Sorry, locally owned and operated bookstore. I'm still a sucker for paper, glue, and stitched binding. Don't give up on me.)

Sam and Caleb begin the new year with strep throat and scarlet fever. We're bringing back the good old fashioned 19th century American diseases. Watch this space later in the year for the ague, bilious vapors, and trench foot. For now, though, let us enjoy the boys in the hale and hearty days of November and December:


IMG_3870
At the Model Train Fest 2010 at State Fair Park, which I'm pretty certain is also the Adult Autism Spectrum Disorder Fest 2010. O my people, O my people. Says Walt Whitman: "Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you are to me!"

IMG_3874
Cool Lego train set. This picture probably represents upwards of $1000 in Lego, which are outrageously expensive for little pieces of plastic that end up in the vacuum bag, if they aren't first dropped down the heat vents. (According to BusinessWeek, the Lego Group company of Denmark is the world's leading producer of tires, producing 306 million tiny rubber wheels, one of which has gone missing in our dining room and rendered a firetruck unusable.)

IMG_3877
Caleb (here, with Grampa Jim and Grandma Cathy) can do this for HOURS. When I say we have to drag him kicking and screaming from the train show, I mean SCREAMING. Also: kicking.

IMG_3879
Sam has had enough of all you train nerds, and is going to chill out right here with a comic book.

IMG_3882
Karina, Cathy, and Sam prepare for pie-making.

IMG_3888
The annual pie-making Assembly Line assembles. Note foreman.

IMG_3899
The site supervisor demonstrates, again and with great patience, the right way to peel the danmned apples. Grandparents today, I tell ya.

IMG_3901
At the sugar and cinnamon station, Sam demonstrates how the Charles Atlas program has turned him from a 24-lb weakling into a raging hunk of man in just fifteen minutes a day.

IMG_3905
Caleb emerging.

IMG_4050
Caleb and Ainsley at Aunt Mary's on Thanksgiving. Ainsley is one of Sam's secret crushes. Just after Thanksgiving, Sam planned to one day marry Ainsley, though he has since pledged to marry both his auntie Tara and the female Transformer known as Black Arachnia.

IMG_4290
After Ainsley gave a rousing post-turkey singing performance, Sam decided he would take over as stage manager. When his aunt Karina refused to sing a song, he told her, "Arina, you're FIRED!!!" (Though he works hard in speech therapy, Sam is not yet friends with the hard-K sound, so his aunt is Arina, his brother is Aleb, and Santa Traws comes on Ristmas.)

IMG_4316
Caleb's self-portrait #1, with our camera and Ainsley's older brother Ian.

IMG_4453
Sam is ready for Ristmas!

IMG_4458
In their Christmas 2009 sweaters, the boys stir apples for the Christmas Eve 2010 waldorf salad.

IMG_4463
Assorted Hinshaws at the Lathrops house on Christmas Eve. (You did see all those bottles in the foreground of the last picture, didn't you?)

IMG_4515
Caleb's self-portrait #2, on Christmas morn.

IMG_4538
Opening presents with Uncles Tim and Mark and Aunt Julie.

IMG_4545
High five, baby!

IMG_4595
Sam tries out the foot massage contraption that his mother received for Christmas.

IMG_4606
Caleb's self-portrait #3.

IMG_4611
Caleb's picture of the stoic and ailing Maggie the Cat, at Grandma Glenda and Gradpa Gary's house.

IMG_4637
At Wilderness water park with their cousin Abe.

After a fantastic three day vacation in the Wisconsin Dells, hail the conquering heroes: Auntie Tara, Sam, Cousin Abe, Uncle Eric, Mom, Caleb, and Yr Obed. Corresp.