Monday, May 07, 2007

More to come

I still have some kooky pictures from around the house and more birthday weekend pics to share, but I don't have time to do them right now. Some time later in the week. . .
Jack and I spent a day at the Long Beach Grand Prix a few weeks ago. At first Jack was frightened by the loudness of the cars, and my God they are thunderous! I tried to give him earplugs but I would get one in and he would have it back out by the time I inserted the second. Anyway he soon got into it. When he saw the cars coming down the stretch he'd point and shout, "CAR CAR CAR CAR!!!!" Cars would roar past and he would wave his arms around shouting "YeeeeeOOOOOOOOOWWW!! Go! Go! Car! Car! Car!" And then it would be silent and he would turn to me, palms upraised. "All go?" he'd ask. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The cool part (see above) is that the convention center served as the garage for the many different styles of race cars, from LeMans and LeMans GT cars to little import drifting racers like the Subaru pictured above. You can walk around and check out the cars and even talk to the mechanics, and the drivers if one happens to come by. I liked getting a shot of Jack with the car driven by a guy named Sheehan.



Day Out With Thomas

During the big birthday weekend we headed way up north of LA to Santa Clara to spend a "Day Out With Thomas." Thomas being Thomas the Tank Engine, of course. And all his friends as well as everything that you can slap the word "Thomas" and a picture of a train on and sell.

Well, that's not really nice, I suppose, as these Thomas events, usually hosted by rail enthusiast sites or societies, often provide the crucial revenue they need to keep running. But it is telling that the page featuring "highlights" of this year's event features, mostly, pictures of the merchandise tent. Must be prior to opening because it was utter chaos when we were there.

We had fun, though the promised train ride was less than exhilarating even for those grown-ups who love trains (read: Daddy). It was clear Thomas himself was not a functioning steamer but a shell on a car with a steam whistle built in. He also had an oddly distended head and was seriously off-model.
But not as badly as this horrifying inflatable Thomas who appears to be bleeding from the mouth and to have suffered a massive bee-sting to the face :
But the web is awash in cheesy Thomas imitations. Less so "Pied Pipers of Percussion" but based on this man I'd say the world is a better place for that.

The actual train ride consisted of being pulled backwards by a diesel engine a couple of miles, and then pushed back into the station. Not at all worth the $16.00 each (including Jack!) thought Jack enjoyed it. I don't know that he got $16 worth of fun out of it, though; that 80 bucks would have been better spent on the ample supplies of Thomas knick-knacks available for purchase.

The day's big purchase.



Jack was pleased to receive his official photcopied Jr. Engineer Certificate.


Jack surveys the vistas of the Thomas wooden railway, available for a princely sum at a merch tent near you.

Jack met with Sir Topham Hatt. If you have to ask, you don't want to know. Jack's at a stage where he gets very shy around large, costumed figures. Especially ones with weird, stunted little hands.