This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Pics from Oct 2014

941 pictures for the month. First cut got it to 45 pictures. Second cut got it to 27. So then I added some others to get 33. Then one last cut down to 31. :-)

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2014-10-03 01:21 UTC – Alex still “arting” whenever he gets the chance. This is a nice swirly one.

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2014-10-05 00:23 UTC – Roscoe REALLY needed a bath.

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2014-10-05 23:59 UTC – More art. This time something more realistic. It is a plant growing out of a pot.

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2014-10-06 20:15 UTC – October was also a big comeback month for Portal and Portal 2. Alex had taken a break from them for a few months, but spent MANY hours on them this month!

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2014-10-10 02:46 UTC – We played through both Portal and Portal 2 from start to finish. In both cases Alex did most of the early levels, then handed it over to me. This is right as we finished up Portal 2 and the turrets were singing.

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2014-10-11 03:12 UTC – Alex took my phone and took a bunch of pictures of himself and of his trains. This was the best of the bunch.

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2014-10-11 15:38 UTC – It is important to Alex that his hair reaches his mouth.

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2014-10-12 04:17 UTC – Tortilla Face

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2014-10-13 19:56 UTC – Hat Head

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2014-10-14 05:11 UTC (picture by my mom, time is when I got a copy of this, not when it was taken) – Mom Selfie

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2014-10-14 06:39 UTC – The boys sleeping

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2014-10-15 01:08 UTC – Rainbow from our front porch

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2014-10-15 16:52 UTC – Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!

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2014-10-15 16:53 UTC – A friend from school leads Alex to the good pumpkins

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2014-10-15 17:01 UTC – Alex didn’t want to pick

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2014-10-15 17:10 UTC – So we helped pick one

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2014-10-15 17:59 UTC – Here’s the crew that came in our car as we were leaving. They look thrilled, don’t they?

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2014-10-18 21:35 UTC – We had been talking about how he needed a haircut, so Alex started doing it himself. We caught him after just one cut though. Amy had to take pictures.

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2014-10-18 21:35 UTC (picture by Amy) – One of Amy’s pictures of Alex and the hair he cut off

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2014-10-18 22:18 UTC – Of course, after that, Alex had to cut my hair too.

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2014-10-19 17:55 UTC (picture by Amy) – A squirrel came to visit our back patio

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2014-10-20 02:02 UTC – My mom and Alex work together on an activity book

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2014-10-21 01:24 UTC – If you look REALLY carefully, you might find Alex hiding from us at the store. Hint: Look closely at the four manikins, one of them might not be the same as the others.

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2014-10-25 03:24 UTC – Amy and Shane at Amy’s birthday dinner a few days after her actual birthday

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2014-10-25 05:17 UTC – Amy glares at me as I take a picture of her birthday outfit

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2014-10-25 05:24 UTC – Amy’s birthday cake, made by Brandy

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2014-10-25 05:37 UTC – Alex and Amy eagerly await the presents. Maybe one of them is more excited than the other.

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2014-10-26 05:14 UTC – Crazy Alex attacking me

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2014-10-27 01:58 UTC – Grandma Ruth watches Alex make a drawing for her

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2014-10-27 06:24 UTC – Someone fell asleep in my lap.

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2014-10-31 01:59 UTC (picture by my mom, time is when I got a copy of this, not when it was taken) – Alex getting ready to come home after carving a pumpkin at Grandma Ruth’s house. Ready for Halloween night! (Which happened on November 1st UTC in Seattle, so that will be in next month’s pictures…)

Pics from Jun 2014

30 pictures selected out of 481 for the month. It was a slow month, with no big “events”, but the final narrowing was still hard!

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2014-06-01 02:31 – Mom singing with her church choir.

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2014-06-02 15:51 – Mornings are hard. Someone really doesn’t want to wake up for school, and often doesn’t until we are already there.

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2014-06-03 02:44 (previously posted)- If June had a theme, it was probably home improvement. It started small, with me changing the battery in a smoke detector after it had been beeping for YEARS.

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2014-06-06 02:22 – At the end of year ceremony at Alex’s school, Alex was not thrilled about standing up front to sing.

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2014-06-06 02:28 – But he would pose for a picture with his teacher.

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2014-06-06 02:28 – Picture taking patience was exhausted when it was time for the picture with the assistant teacher though, so time for a duck face!

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2014-06-06 04:28 – This thing is a microphone, right? The school presentation is over, NOW I can sing!

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2014-06-07 18:09 – A typical pose with Roscoe and Alex together while Alex builds worlds and trains on the iPad.

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2014-06-07 19:15 – Joining the new fridge from January, the new oven/microwave combo is finally complete. Brandy has been very excited because it is an INDUCTION stovetop, and the Microwave also has a convection oven mode. And they are shiny.

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2014-06-08 20:29 – Sometimes, when the weather is agreeable, Alex rides his wagon to and from school instead of taking the car.

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2014-06-09 01:56 – Alex “reading” a Magic School Bus book in the car.

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2014-06-10 00:41 – The weather has finally warmed up enough to play in the sprinkler! When properly bundled up of course.

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2014-06-10 05:07 – Playing with Daddy’s glasses

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2014-06-12 20:27 – I moved to a new desk at work. It has a view.

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2014-06-13 02:54 – Next home improvement thing. Brandy put up a ceiling pot holder thingy. These were just the starter pots. It is much more heavily loaded now.

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2014-06-14 01:18 – Alex and I sat outside and watched while my car windshield was replaced after a flying rock cracked it. (I’ve been meaning to post a timelapse of the repair, but haven’t gotten around to it.) The beginning was exciting, but toward the end Alex was getting bored and sleepy.

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2014-06-16 05:48 – OK, you can’t tell from the picture, but this is me working on the next home improvement project. The projector we used as our primary TV died, and this is me up on a chair getting the new replacement projector all set up.

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2014-06-19 21:50 – Amy and Alex hanging out on a sunny day

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2014-06-19 21:5? (Photo by Amy) – Amy takes advantage of the moment to grab a quick Alex portrait.

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2014-06-23 01:11 – How do we play with the dog Alex? Well, obviously, put a broom on him, then LIMBO!

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2014-06-23 03:18 – Alex asked for a rainbow cake, so Brandy made one.

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2014-06-23 05:17 (Photo by Alex) – Sometimes Alex takes my phone to take his own pictures. He took this portrait of Roscoe. I chose not to include the pictures he took of the floor, the ceiling, or his foot.

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2014-06-25 22:38 – Another home improvement pic. No, not the coffeemakers. No, not the lazy susan under them, although that is new too. I neglected to get a really good picture of it, but the tiled backsplash on the wall is all new. Brandy put it in by hand over the course of a few days, replacing the plain wall that was there before.

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2014-06-27 15:56 (Photo by Amy) – Selfie by Amy

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2014-06-28 06:40 – Alex can draw people now!

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2014-06-28 06:47 – And not just ANY people. Alex is very clear… this… is… BATMAN.

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2014-06-28 06:51 – He is getting pretty darn good at writing his name too!

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2014-06-29 02:49 – Making new train levels again, this time on my iMac. He starts from scratch and builds the track, adds trains, and then builds the landscape with mountains and lakes and buildings and all. His software of choice is all from the Trainz family.

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2014-06-29 23:31 – For the first time in forever, Roscoe gets a BATH. (Alex insists it was a SHOWER though, since we used the hose and didn’t actually put him in the tub.)

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2014-06-30 07:32 – Of course, at the end of each day, it is always nice to cuddle and fall asleep.

Cake and Cube and Amy

Back when it was free last month I downloaded Portal, because I’d heard good things about it from a couple people in a lunch conversation at work awhile back. But I hadn’t touched it until this last weekend. Sometime Saturday I brought it up on my computer on a lark. I hadn’t been playing it more than 11 minutes when Amy came in and said “What is that, can I play?” So she sat down and started a new game. Rather than play myself any more, I just watched her play, offering suggestions at a few key moments. :-)

Ten hours of game play later, spread over four days, Amy just beat the game. (Awesome song at the end by the way…)

She had a blast. And I had fun backseat driving.

Great game. Great fun. I haven’t enjoyed a video game like this in many a year. (Mostly because I haven’t spent any significant amount of time playing anything more involved than Doodle Jump or Peggle for decades.) Of course, I didn’t actually play this one either. And given the nature of the game, having watched it played through from beginning to end sort of gives you enough spoilers that I’m not sure I’d have fun playing it myself at this point. But still. Fun.

Of course some of that was the game, but a lot of it was just sitting and spending time with Amy, which was great.

And now of course we know that we’ll be getting Portal 2 as soon as it comes out. I gather it will have a 2 player mode. I think Amy and I will be all over that.