My kids love Angry Birds.

They love my Angry Birds jammie pants

They love to play (when we let them) on our phones.

They loved it when Lois made them Angry Bird plush toys.

So it was no surprise that my oldest (nearly 10yo son) cracked up when I told him about a comic strip I’d seen on a blog about “what really happened at Stonehenge”:

Now, remember, I only ever described the comic strip as a mingling of an image of Stonehenge “before” and an Angry Bird flying mid-air toward it.

I did not show him the picture.

Again: I did not show him the above picture, nor go into great length describing it.

He’s learned about Stonehenge from history lessons Lois taught.

So imagine my shock, surprise and delight when my two older boys showed me this drawing they came up with entirely on their own:

What was really shocking was that they drew the above using nothing more than Microsoft Paint.

As in the most basic computer-based drawing program in the world in MS Windows (for our Angry Bird loving Hawaii-based blog readers who are also Mac afficionados).

Wow.  Wow.

So cool. Had.to.share.

This is what is called “delight-directed learning.”

I returned to the office today after a (wonderful!) month of paternity leave.

Thanks to coworkers with a good sense of humor and camaraderie, I was greeted by this.

The view from above:

Rather than attempt to evacuate the cubicle, I figured I’d just climb in & get to work!

We had dinner with some friends, and afterwards the children explored the office a bit.  One of our friends assisted in helping them to explore the inside of a storage cabinet!

Any suggestions for a good caption?

A good haircut is hard to find.

I found this guy on yelp that was supposed to be good.

So I swung by in the morning yesterday, only to discover he was booked til evening.

Which is good (means he’s probably excellent, since his appointment log is full)… but bad, since I wanted the chop yesterday for various reasons, not the least of which was cuz I knew if I put it off, my shaggy hair would likely not get love for another week or two.

So I decided to fal lback to a hair salon in the vicinity where I’ve gotten humdrum-quality cuts before, though nothing catastrophic.

The thing is, for this cut, I specifically wanted a different look, a bit shorter, etc.

I’d even printed out a picture of this familiar fellow to give the stylist an idea of what I was looking for:

Big mistake.

Not only did she not get the look right, but early on in the cut she asked me, “Is this short enough?”

What can you say to a lady with sharp scissors who’s holding a lock of your hair?

But inside I was thinking, “WHY OH WHY are you asking me?  Don’t you have a sense of what you’re trying to accomplish already?”

Sadly, the answer to that question was clearly no.

She had no idea.

Unless she was trying to accomplish hackish butchery.

As she wound up, I had very little idea of what to say.  It didn’t look terrible (at that point), maybe cuz she’d gelled down some of the more horrendous angles.

But when I came up, the seriously dampened response and lackluster expression on my lovely wife’s face told me that I had not succeeded in my quest to satisfy her request that I get a “younger look.”

Unless “younger” means “lawnmower ran me over.”

Notice the uneven sides and the poofy rounded top.  The kids even commented that I had a “mohawk” cut:

I think it’s more accurate to say I got a chia pet chop.

At this point, what could I do?  I’d paid for a chop, and cheapskate that I am, I wasn’t about to go get another haircut to attempt to fix a bad haircut from a stylist I’d never met (though he had glowing reviews online).

Was I?

Lois even thought it was absurd.  “Just let it grow out,” she said.

So I waited overnight, and asked Lois again this morning, “Is it bad?  Tell me the truth.”

“Yes.”

Ouch.

Then I looked more carefully in the mirror, saw the above coiffure, and thought to myself, you look like a telescoping duster for brushing cobwebs:

I wasn’t going to suffer this for however long it took me to get another cut, which on average, is 1-3 months.

So I decided, in desperation, to go back to plan A.

I immediately called the first stylist (the one who was booked all day yesterday) and asked if he had any openings today.

He said he was open during lunch hour.

So I made the appointment and brought the wife and kids to the salon.  So as to have a 3rd party observer who cared who could openly say, “NO, STOP, I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THAT MAN.  PLEASE STOP!”

And I was walked into the salon, I told the stylist what had happened.

He looked at me and said, “You got a haircut?” as if it wasn’t obvious from the state of my hair.  Note: he’d never seen me before my hair, so he had no way of knowing that I had.

Then he sat me down and within 3 seconds, I kid you not, said, “This is totally uneven.”

[Note: when a stylist "finishes" cutting your hair and then brings a big mirror around for you to check out his/her work, has anyone other than me ever noticed how hard it is to really tell whether it's actually any good?  It's kinda like knocking on watermelons, you just kinda do it cuz you're copying everyone else.]

Then he got to work.

With clear precision and an artistic touch that was clearly absent from yesterday’s hatchet lady.

And 20 minutes later… my wife was nodding, I was starting to feel better, and all was happy in the world.  I’m no Tom Cruise, but at least I’m not a cobweb duster either.

Here’s the final product.  I’m satisfied.  Scroll up and compare to see the stark contrast.  Yay.

Listening in on kids’ conversations are always entertaining.  I overhead the following conversation between my two boys recently:

7 yo:  “Heaven is a very special place and you can’t get there by airplane.”

5 yo:  “You need a rocket!”

Once again, my 5 yo solved the problem for all those who are wondering about heaven.

A couple of weeks ago, the boys went to bed for the evening in a different bedroom for one reason or another… which happened to have a baby monitor.  So I decided to listen in on their quiet settling down to sleep (not!).  Join me for this amusing clip…

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Most of are you are familiar with the epic trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.  And of course, Peter Jackson made movie history with his grand movie rendition of the tale in three great productions.  The primary characters in the tale are four simple hobbits from the Shire thrust into a great saga of good against evil in Middle Earth:

This year, in the spirit of LotR fare, as enthusiasts of both the books and the movies, we offer to you our Halloween-costumed “hobbits” in this year’s production of The Lord of the Dings, starring:

Matthew Ding as Peregrin “Pippin” Took (as the tallest and most impulsive of the four)

Andrew Ding as Meriadoc “Merry” Brandywine (as the most sensible or at least sensitive of our children)

Emmaline Ding as Samwise Gamgee (cuz she loves to help around the house)

Calissa Ding as Frodo Baggins (cuz she’s least likely to lose the “precious” ring around her neck!)

(click the above to go to a full-sized image suitable for the average LotD fan to use as a desktop background =-p)

The kids gleefully tromped around the mall this morning barefoot.  Most shoppers looked at them with amusement, but one store employee, obviously a LotR fan, inquired as to why their feet weren’t hairy! =-)

OTHER CAST AND CREDITS

The Lord of the Dings – Evers

Costume design and production – Lois

Here are a few more photos from the “set”…

Cheerful hobbits grasping the hilts of their daggers:

Not quite forlorn “Frodo,” Calissa attempts to feel the inner angst of her character:

Donning hood and cloak, the hobbits offer the “monster faces” by which they plan to frighten any Nazgûl that may threaten to either harm the Ringbearer (or take their candy):