Cold Spaghetti

Remember the Star Wars Lego mural?

Paul found some software to pixelate images into LEGO colors.  He hacked it up a bit and we played around with photographs and priced out bricks and just generally threw around ideas until late last summer… when Will broke his arm and I painted Luke’s X-wing on Will’s cast. It was clear that having something BIG and STAR WARS would be cool in The Little Man’s room, so Paul decided to tackle the original Star Wars poster. In LEGO. 

All four of us worked on it (yes, Kate, too!) during Saints games. Note to prospective LEGO-mural builders: images with lots of one color (e.g.: black) are excellent for pint-sized helpers. Also, black and white 1×1 bricks are among the cheapest bricks and can be found in bulk.

We finished it awhile back.  And after it sat in boxes for another month or so, we finally decided on how to hang it and got it up on the wall.

Because of the size and weight, we were not thrilled with the idea of permanently adhering it to a board, or putting it within a frame.

Instead, Paul used velcro along a melamine board and then adhered velcro to the back of the base plates.   Once the melamine board was hung on the wall, he began adhering the base plates piece-by-piece, starting at the center.

With 20 10-inch base plates, the entire mural is 40-inches wide and 50-inches high.   There are more than 20,000 1×1 bricks.

While the software provided a pixelated image to work from, we still ended up doing some artistic tweaking. The biggest changes came to Luke and Leia. Flesh tones are difficult in LEGO. Particularly when paired with figures wearing light-colored clothing. We played with an assortment of white, off-white, tan (dark and light) and oranges to get the final picture. Paul bought extra in these colors to accommodate the changes we ended up making.

Here is the final result:

Cool AND geeky.

I don’t know what it was like for y’all, but February?  Did it really happen?  I’m having a hard time remembering.

We had the playoffs and then everything sort of goes blurry. I remember that I voted. And there was that event that drew in more viewers than any other event in U.S. television history.

I do have memories of Lombardi Gras née Mardi Gras.  I remember parades and parties and costumes and friends and all that comes with the season, but it doesn’t seem possible that so many things happened in short, stunted little February with it’s 28 days.  I guess February showed us who was boss?

In the meantime, we did read and collect Just Post goodness.  The Best of 2009 is SO CLOSE, we promise.  Just a few more wrinkles in the polling methods to iron out. (Note: Vote in post below!  It’s clear now that it works, but the ice cream flavors are cracking me up, so please chime in if you hadn’t and I’ll present the results.)

I’m hoping for more wonderful in March and have all fingers crossed that you’ll pass on the marvels you read.  Light-up toys and shiny beads could hang in the balance?

—-

• Heather of finding atman with We can do better
• Emily at Wheels on the Bus with You Gotta Fight for the Right to Plie
• Tiffany Sellers of PR Musings of a Clemson Student with The Line Between Charity and Justice
• Eric at It’s the Question that Drives Us with Helping Haiti or Hurting Haiti
• girlgriot at If You Want Kin, You Must Plant Kin with Common Ground
• Country Girl at Country Girl/City Girl with That Slacker Blogger Thing
• Absence of Alternatives and Velva of Tomatoes on the Vine with The Price of Tomatoes
• Morganna of Lizbeth’s Garden with bombs
• Communication for Change with Todays’ Bad Word: Working Poor
• Oh the Joys with Enormity of Need
• Cecilieaux at Antipode with Piling on Muslims
• Barbara of An American in Lima with How to Prepare for an Earthquake in a Third World Country
• Flying Tomato Farm with Sounds Corny to Me and Stockholm Syndrome for Farmers
• Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven with Testing the Ice
• Ilina at Dirt and Noise with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Initiative

• Alejna
• Denguy
• Holly

Be sure to send some love to Alejna, too!

After necessary breaks for crazy work schedules, celebrations, and weather, we’re back on the home renovation wagon.  (Literally.  Stick with me a few and you’ll see what I mean.)

If you’re new here, here’s the jist: we bought a 100+ year old shotgun double almost 6 years ago.  When we moved it, it had no kitchen and no fully functional bathroom.  We’ve been renovating it ourselves (think optimistic D-I-Y) non-stop since then.  It’s a slow process.

With the onset of glorious 60 degree days, we’ve started to dig out the backyard.

Drainage is an ongoing issue here.  Paul dug out the mess the idiot builder of the pillar to ugly created along one side of the house and it works beautifully.  Paul’s now proven method?  Bring the house back to original grade.  This is where the sides of the house were when we bought it almost 6 years ago and finally, the sides are back.

The backyard has been another story.

A good foot or more of soil gathered over the backyard and it’s not draining well in rain.  Specifically, it wants to go into our foundation.  Our plan is to bring it back to grade (and to the same level as the shotgun double next door) as it was originally built.  We found treasure troves of bricks in our various projects, so the plan is to dig out the yard, lay down a gravel bed, and properly install the bricks in a patio — with raised planting areas around it.

The first step is to remove a lot of dirt.

Will has been helping, treasure hunting along the way.  What you can see below represents much of his collection.  Among the loot is a comb, a ninja bone, a square termite house, and various pieces of metal.  (He’s also found glass marbles, but they were washed and brought inside.)

See how much soil we’re trying to remove?  That’s the back of our house.  One day we’ll be able to climb outside without twisting an ankle.

It’s about a foot deep.  Over the entire back yard.

Every crumble has to be carried out of the back.  Paul has been coordinating folks interested in the free dirt — people with trucks and trailers come and pick up from the beds out front or let Paul fill up their trailers.

See what he’s pulling?

This is the helper.  Back on the wagon.  (A moan-worthy joke, I agree.)

Will shows me one of his newest treasure finds.

Treasures are collected near Will’s special stool.  Paul built this with scrap wood while he was framing the back of the house — he needed a place where Will would periodically stay put.  Will provided some decor.

I haven’t a clue what the drawing is representing.

Here’s the little man, hard at work.

And here’s a beefcake shot.  We’ve all missed them.

And here’s a Patootie shot.  Look who’s up from her nap!

Once dug up, the dirt is wheeled to the front.  Paul tells me this is the hardest part.

Will earns his ride in the wagon.

Meanwhile, Kate plays with Will’s treasures.  In this case, the glass marbles Will found.  They were a good foot down, so who knows how old they could be?

The river sure looks cool in the wee hours of morning.  If it weren’t for soccer, I’d never have known.

One practice a week.  Then one “game” that is half practice, half mini-game.  2-3 hours a week.  PERFECT.

Or so I thought.  My lollipop and rainbows perspective of kids sports is that it should all be high-fives and camaraderie.  But in reality, we’ve had to have serious talks about it.  Some of the kids (and coaches, coaches of 4, 5, and 6 year old kids to be specific) are actually out for blood.  I’ll hold the tirade on why adults are encouraging 4, 5, and 6 year olds to attack each other in the hopes that this is just one or two isolated douchebags.  But the fact is that kids pick up on that negative influence, my kid included.

It was horrible.  This is my sweet kid who can’t pass by a baby without making goo-goo faces.

I swallowed my thoughts on how, maybe, kids under the age of 10 should only do dance and art and music and swimming and gymnastics.  Things where competitiveness is really about doing their best, not about beating another team.  Maybe there is something to learn from playing in a team, but it certainly isn’t about winning, and I’m starting to feel like that sort of experience doesn’t exist.

Paul talked me down from the ledge with thoughts that we could make this a teaching moment.  Okay.  Fine.  So we’ve had talks about sportsmanship and the oh-so-not-important scoring/winning thing which is lame.  Seriously, people.  Winning anything in team sports at age 5 is lame.  Let’s be real here.  It’s about not letting down your team and being a good athlete!

We deliver all of this in the most enthusiastic voices.  And deliver our disappointment at those who feel that taking out the other team by knocking them down, or talking trash, or seeing them as anything less than colleagues and friends and other jovial kids in the most decrepit, vile voices.  Bah on them, we say!  Up with peace, love, and happiness on the soccer field!

That’s the spirit!

And then I have to bite my tongue and swallow my questioning thoughts.  I have to secretly thank all that is good and right in the world that he hasn’t come around to question us about all this sportsman-like play stuff.   That his brain hasn’t circled back and recognized the discrepancies between doing and saying.

Because Will was there when we went so crazy with joy every time Brett Favre gazed up at the roof of the Superdome when someone planted his behind to the turf.  Make no mistake, it was awesome.  Every. Darn. Time.  AND HARDER EVEN!  YEAH!

Sure, we can argue it’s different for a million reasons.  (And besides, it isn’t about football, anyway.  I actually am NOT a fan of football, I things considered.)  But still.

We’re still hypocrites.

So if the question comes, I’m just glad Paul will be around to answer it.  Because me?   I’ve got nuthin’.

PS: Alejna has the most recent update about the Just Posts Best of 2009.  Just don’t call them gerbils.

Not sure of the origin of this, but I got it from my friend Amanda.