The Lindenbergs

We've been getting a lot of snow this winter. Most of its been on the weekends, so there hasn't been too much missed school or work. And we've been able to enjoy it. We've had multiple sledding expeditions to the local community college (lots of hills). We even found our "super-secret" place, a bowl-shaped depression that allows us to sled in from all sides.

So far, our biggest disappointment has been that every snow has been very dry; great for sledding but not good for snowmen. Anna's been desparate to make a snowman, and I've been wanting to make a new snow car -so we've been a little disappointed. Out of desparation, I used a snow shovel to make big piles of snow to "mold" into stuff. Anna and I made a "sleeping" snowman lying prone on the ground (Anna made the face). Here's a couple of pictures:

I made a quarter-scale version of a convertible coupe. It came out ok, but got destroyed pretty quickly. Here's a few pictures:

With Pierce being in cub scouts (he's a tiger scout) we're approaching our first pinewood derby. Pierce picked a Matchbox car that he really likes as a model for his car. We got a couple of pieces of paper and designed his car together. Then Pierce used his "blueprints" to draw the cut lines on the car. To save time, I used a jigsaw to cut the car, then we both took turns with a hacksaw to add some detail. Pierce had a great time. For safety, he wore leather gloves and safety glasses and he just thought the whole outfit was "cool" (sorry, no pictures).

Finally, I took my brand new dremel (Nora's folks gave it to me for the holidays) and added detail to the car. I got some scrapwood for Pierce and me to practice on (even with me holding his hands and the dremel, I'm still not sure how smart I was to let him handle the tool). Anna and Pierce both, with my help, got to spray paint the car with primer and high gloss black paint. Pierce nailed the wheels on (with a little assistance from me). Here's the final result:

The race is scheduled for next Saturday. Pierce is very excited and "hopes he wins". Having grown up entering blocks of wood painted blue, I figure he's already way ahead of the game. But I'm glad he's got a competitive spirit.

Anna and I added another "piece" to her dollhouse. She's been lobbying for a fireplace for awhile. Much like Pierce's pinewood derby car, she and I got a couple of sheets of paper and designed it together. Its modeled after the fireplace in our home with some adjustments to make it a little easier to cut and build. Anna has named the fireplace (course I've forgotten the name). Its currently painted only with primer. Anna said she'd like to handpaint it, but we haven't gotten there yet. As we (I) was building it, Anna told me not to worry about making the fire or lights for it, that she'd do it herself. Once we got it finished she cut "firesticks" (firewood) and fire out of construction paper. The fireplace place has taken up residence in the dollhouse's attic (her horses have been moved out of the attic to a nearby Nora and Anna-built stable. Here's a few pictures:

I'm still working on listing the Ghostbusters Proton Pack I made on eBay. Lizz and Mike came over and took some fantastic pictures that I'll use in my listing. I'm a little paranoid about listing the pack after Christmas for fear of not getting the kind of bids the packs were getting earlier. Given the amount of effort that went into the pack, I want to try and maximize my price -so we'll see what happens.

Nora's been very dedicated to scrapbooking lately. Her goal has been to get all of our Hatteras/Corolla pictures completed and assembled into a book. Last weekend she pretty much hit the mark. She "claims" that she still has a few pictures she needs to add, but from my perspective the book she's assembled looks fantastic. And here's some pics:

Nora and I had a nice Friday night out with a couple of friends/neighbors. They had invited us to join them for a movie on a night we had season tickets for a play at American Heartland. We had a couple of complimentary tickets to share, so we counter-offered with those. We had a very nice time with Rita and Tony, but the show was a real stinker. The cheesecake we had afterwards was pretty good though...

-Eric (Dad)