Sunday, August 18, 2013

Our lousy vacation, part 2 (low resolution)

Per Katie's request and Reg's desire, Two Step, Big Island.

Date Night, Two Step, Big Island
(You can hear them)

Broken Wing (?), Two Step, Big Island
(You can hear them)

Close Up, Two Step, Big Island
(You can hear them)

Fun, Two Step, Big Island.


Friday, July 19, 2013

Our lousy vacation, part 1 (low resolution)

Honu (Green Sea Turtle), Three Tables, Oahu.
 
View From A Grotto, Two Step, Big Island.
 
Fish Action, Two Step, Big Island.

Friday, March 22, 2013

R's Quest Story


A long time ago, about 2000 years ago, in a mountain on the edge of Nightshade’s evil kingdom, there was a group of rebels preparing for battle. There was an underground river there for drinking water. The underground river was also a secret passage into Nightshade’s castle. Because the people called the Rebels were not able grow their own food, they made allies to trade with.


First of all, Nightshade took over the country by force. Second, he tortured people. Third, if the Rebels didn’t win, Nightshade would become King of the world. Nightshade hopes to rule the world and wants to become immortal. Nightshade had an object called the immortal stone, but he could not figure out how to use it. If he figures out that the immortal stone will turn him immortal, he will never die when he takes over the world.

The Evil King Nightshade was born evil. He had allies. Some of them were monsters and some were humans. He ruled forests, isolated villages, farms, and big towns.

He was preparing to destroy the Rebels. It would take at  least three months of training for his army to become ready for battle. The Rebels were training for the counterattack.

The Rebels stashed many weapons made out of metal and other things that could be made into weapons. They had several sharp things including blockades, spikes, and other stuff. They also prepared for battle by training dragons to carry them into the battles. They hoped that the fire breathing dragons would roast and eat Nightshade’s Army.

Meanwhile, the Rebels also had several spies who were trained to listen in on Nightshade’s conversations and meetings. When they heard something interesting, they went back and told their high commander.  The Rebels also changed the direction of the underground river by mining the ground  and changing the path so that it flowed directly to the Rebel’s mountain and to Nightshade’s castle.

They also made a tunnel inside to the King’s castle so that they could get water because they could not grow their own food without water. After all they have allies elsewhere who they traded with for food, metal and also information.

On the battlefield, a group of three rebels were preparing for battling. They were just practicing.  One of their swords broke. When they were fighting, it just cracked.
“Too bad, your nice sword broke.”

 A very large noise interrupted their conversation. “I saw soldiers are attacking the archers. Get to your positions!”

Chapter 1

        
The soldiers are prepared. But the Rebels have made spikes and blockades.

A Minor Battle
“Soldiers approaching; soldiers approaching” There are at least a couple hundred. Get to your stations. We’re under attack!”

 The Rebels have cannons. My colleagues and I got onto our dragons. With a mighty battle cry, we all charged at the soldiers. We shot at the first couple of rows of soldiers. They fell dead while some of the backup soldiers took their place. Meanwhile, the ground shook while cannons took out rebels by the tens. Me and my colleagues rode our dragons and toasted many soldiers as they retreated.

We rode our Dragon. This was a BIG mistake. We charged at the retreating soldiers. They fired their cannons at us. Our dragons were forced to shoot upwards. We flew back to the base. The soldiers were retreating faster and were out of range. Soon they would be out of sight...Victory!

Fifty or so Rebel soldiers entered the small underground walkway. Each soldier brought a dragon with him or her.  Thirty of our rebel men became guards and a door was closed behind the group. They waited for their orders to stand and guard or to fire on the enemy.

Now there are only 20 of us and we were about to enter the Kings greenhouse. Little did we know, things are about to go really bad.

As soon as we entered, there were 200 of the evil King’s soldiers waiting for us. They started firing arrows at us. We were heavily outnumbered. But the dragons roasted the soldiers and toasted the canons. The Rebels launched arrows and spears at newly arriving soldiers. Now sadly, only 17 of the Rebels were left alive.

A new battle is starting. As more reinforcements came, the rebel’s numbers started to drop. Even though we were some of the best fighters in the land, we just couldn’t hold off that many soldiers. We starting losing more people: 17, 16, 15, 14, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. They just kept firing arrows so I got on a dragon and ordered the rest of the riderless dragons to charge. The 17 dragons charged and started eating and toasting and flattening soldiers.

The soldiers started setting up spikes but our dragons were able to fly over them. I picked up a random shield and blocked five arrows. I picked up a random sword and speared a soldier. I picked up three spears and chucked them randomly at canon operators. I ducked behind a wall and many spears hit the wall. The guards now charged the remaining 3 soldiers. They started firing at us. We were outnumbered by the King’s 2000 soldiers.  

We retreated. But there were more soldiers around the corner.
 “How many of them are there?” asked my colleague.
“I’m not sure- just that there are more of them than us.”
We ran down a hall back into the greenhouse. We went down a passage, all the time shooting arrows at the oncoming soldiers.
“We’re dead!” said my colleague.
A Rebel soldier grabbed a lit torch and tossed it into the crowd of King’s soldiers. Instantly, flames began erupting and the soldiers were on fire and were dying. Eventually the flames went out and the King’s soldiers, that were still alive, were madder than ever.

We saw the door we had previously sealed. I noticed a little clayzone by the door. I shot several arrows at it and it broke. I ran towards it and the door was bust open by the charging rebels. I grabbed the alarm and yanked. Alarms went off and the rebels grabbed their weapons. Spikes appeared out of the ground. I grabbed a dragon and flew over the spikes. I started firing arrows at the rapidly approaching King’s soldiers. I turned around and saw a couple of thousand of my rebel soldiers. Thank goodness they heard the alarm and came to fight.

The Final Battle

Our arrows hit the shields of the King’s soldiers, but they fired back and knocked out a couple more hundred rebels. Luckily we were ready. We hid behind some houses that were circled around the castle. It wasn’t long before the houses were overrun by the soldiers.

The next time we looked, we saw the evil King Nightshade riding his pitch black horse who had golden armor and weapons hanging off the saddle.

My colleagues fired arrows to damage Nightshade’s armor, but he chopped the arrows out of the air. Nightshade threw three black sharp knives at me and I dodged them just in time. I bumped into a lever on a nearby wall and it released boulders. We didn’t know it would cause so much death, but Nightshade and his evil army was crushed flat into pancakes.

THE END

We survived!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Droid Liberation Circus




Bringing peace and entertainment to the galaxy through yoga, acrobatics, and refreshments

Dec travel to GA














Dec travel to NJ






Saturday, January 19, 2013

children singing down in the river son

song
dont know if you can see this link.
you might be able to see it on facebook.
but you might not :-)

Celebrating Uttarayan Minnesota style

The holiday of Uttaryan is celebrated in Gujarat, especially in Ahmedabad on Jan. 14.
Uttarayan is a festival of kites where folks go up to their roofs (agassi) to fly their beautiful paper kites.
the strings are prepared with rice flour and ground glass. And kite flyers try to cut down other kites. I have not seen the holiday as an adult but hope to go with the kiddos one day soon.

MN has its own winter festivities. And the kite festival happens to fall in mid-January. Perhaps it was started by someone who has been to Gujarat. Let's see if you can guess which picture is of MN and which ones are from India...

So K and I went to the kite festival at Lake Harriet today. It was pleasant when we left ~about 35 degrees. The arctic weather was scheduled to arrive in the evening. K and i rode in a horse drawn carriage part way around the lake which she enjoyed immensely. There were two horses -- Percheron quarterhorses names Clarissa and Cathy. After we finished our ride, we wanted to try the ice fishing sponsored by the DNR. But as we approached the tent on the lake. An announcement was made that the ice fishing was closing because the wind was picking up. What wind is good for flying kites is not so good for freestanding tents.  Soon after there was a second announcement stating that folks should not stand east of the ice fishing tent. And sure enough the tent started blowing across the lakes like a large red and white striped box kite. By the time that K and I finished flying her kite, the tent had blown across the lake. K and I got our kite string attached to our kite and took it for a spin. Unfortunately, our kite was not designed for strong wind and get diving down. We managed not to hit anyone and keep it control as it dozens of figure eights and loop-de-loops. At this point we were quite cold as we had not brought our boots our snow pants. Also the front came in early and not only did the wind pick up, but the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. So we walked back off the lake to the grandstand area for hot chocolate and marshmallow roasting. K and I had a lovely time. And i have promised to take her kite flying again with a better kite. I also told her that the expert Nana might have to take the kite for a spin with her...






Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Talking Baseball by R

Talking Baseball (inspired by Calvin and Hobbes)

Beware the talking baseball
Remember to feed it
Yellow catfish stew every day

Make sure it gets two minutes of sleep on
a spiky bed or it will get chattery
Keep it happy by letting it jump around in
blue flamed fire

Show it you love it by giving it boiling lava
to drink
Be careful of the volcano!

If you don't take proper care of your
talking baseball
It will use its mouth to rip your arm off
It will bite your bones until they are
demolished
Then it will laugh its evil laugh
So beware the talking baseball