1/30 - I C U, Bullseye

I think Bullseye the Robot is trying to blend in.  But I still see him.  Do you?

1/29 - Bullseye takes art class with Frog and Toad

They told him art takes a steady hand.  (Bulleye does not have hands!)
They told him art takes a clear head.  (Bulleye can do this!)
They told him art sometimes requires sweat and tears.  (This will make Bullseye rusty!)

Bullseye decided he would rather look at art instead.  Smart Bullseye.

     * Spelling words in bold.

[fun note for grownups -- the original photo had Frog (or Toad?) male-enhanced by some nice tagger in the BART station.  I have since made the photo suitable for younger viewers.]

Then we had dinner with Jeanine, who caught me up on all the news from my old job, and took Bullseye's name a bit literally...

1/28 - Bullseye thinks it rings a bell

Bullseye thought he would entertain my coworkers by ringing this bell.

It made a horrendous sound!  It was not at all the melodious, carefree moment he thought it would be.
Oops.

       *robust vocabulary words in bold!

1/27 - Bullseye the Robot gets a bright idea

His original idea was to hotwire this lamp at work into some kind of rocket transportation device, but I told him we did not want to anger Accounting.  So he used it as a swinging unit instead.  He found its velocity quite satisfying (until I told him to get down).

2/12 - Army Guy joins the robot parade

I don’t know what kind of car these fancy ones were, but everyone was taking pictures of them, so we did too!

I think Army Guy might miss his soldier buddies…

1/02 - Francesco likes it spicy (and we get pets!)

Happy New Year!  May lucky 2013 bring you all the happy healthy hopeful you can eat.

Francesco started off the new year with me at work.  He liked that the spice sauce jars at lunch were the national colors of Italy – red and green. (We'll count the table as white, for those of you particular about naming all of the flag colors.  David.)

Who says Segways are only personal transporters for humans?

While I was at work, the twins were at Science Camp, inventing away.  What cute and functional robots they made!

After camp, we hit the pet store, where Lil' Guy and Lil' Gal became the proud new owners of two very fancy hermit crabs, named Sheldon and Herbert.

11/28 - Gold Camaro meets a reindeer car

Meet Rudolph the red-nosed…  car?

Gold Camaro and Robot Dog had a race.  It was a really good race until someone tossed a piece of grapefruit on the track…  Whoopsie.

Mark and I had a nice dinner in the Mission (Thai food) and caught up on all kinds of stuff.

And that amazing rainbow full moon was back...

3/30 - Mystery Mommy and the Mega Millions

The twins called me “Mystery Mommy” today because they thought my coat looked like a detective’s.  I promised them that secret camera Trophy and I would spy on my workmates.  So far, nobody suspects anything!

Trophy and I heard there was a big jackpot to be won in tonight’s lottery.  So I put Trophy on my head like a hat and we tried to think like winners.

I like this picture of Trophy next to the lottery tickets… it’s a little affirmation.  Let’s all take a second and visualize my win, please.  If I hit the jackpot, drinks are on me!

I asked Olga the security guard what was happening with our building’s fountain.  It’s going through annual maintenance, being cleaned and getting some new parts.  Trophy was feeling kinda empty (as we wait for the pile of lottery money to roll in), so we visited another building’s fountain.

Unrelated, but super cool – look at this jumping robot!  It can jump REALLY high! http://kottke.org/12/03/look-how-high-this-robot-can-jump

3/21 - TorTay the alien robot likes skyscrapers and construction

It was a nice sunny day in the city today.  I even took off my scarf!!

TorTay wanted to help drive the crane (?), but he didn’t have an Earth driver’s license.  Poor TorTay.

TorTay is a scofflaw... Or maybe he is not good at reading in English.

3/06 - Velma tries to outrun a robot cheetah

Velma (or as we’re calling her today, “Mario”) and I saw a story about a (headless) robot cheetah on the computer.  Watch the video!   

Lil' Gal was asking for a robot cheetah for next Christmas!  Do you think the scientists will let her have this one for a pet?

Silly Velma thinks my M&Ms are dinosaur eggs.  I had to ask her to please not sit on them.

9/20 - Robot Bird goes puddle jumping

Robot Bird consulted the map, but did not see an X marking a treasure spot.  Just some bus lines.

These kids are statues at the park with the redwood trees and the fountain with the froggies by my work.  They are called “Puddle Jumpers.”  Robot Bird wanted to jump, too!

Since when does packaging need to point out that it’s recloseable as a selling point? Am I that much of a mess that I can’t even open a box without proper instruction? (It even tells me to “Open Other End” on the opposite side!)

The continuing saga of me vs. transportation to derby practice continues.  At work, a big need-it-now project came up, and I had to leave work late.  Then BART had delays due to a fire near a track.  Oh, and the air conditioning in our train car didn't work.  Sigh.

6/14 - Forever Bear haz a luv fest

Robots need love, too! Forever Bear and Green Robot both see the world through a windshield. (I prefer rose-colored glasses.)

It's all hearts and smileys for you, my darlings.

5/19 - Tales of Planet Robotron and the Missing Ice Cream Truck

Today was supposed to be a vacation day.  Which it was, but I spent it feeling miserable with the cold I picked up from Lil' Gal.  I held down the fort while Mama went to kindergarten open house.  We played with the rocket, which landed on the red planet of Robotron.  Of course, having a sofa-like surface, it was hard for the robots to keep their balance.

Suddenly, we heard the ice cream truck coming, with its odd song choice of "Fur Elise."  We pulled on our shoes, and waited for it to come back.  On its way back, it turned down the cul-de-sac across from our house (clearly marked "No Outlet").  We sat on the front yard to wait. We waited and waited and waited, but it never came out of the cul-de-sac.  When Mama and the kids finally went to look for it, they discovered that there *was* an outlet to the cul-de-sac of doom!  The ice cream truck had escaped!

This was not a day to learn one of life's little lessons.  Mama loaded the kids into the van and took them to the pizza place up the street, where they got to pick out goodies from the cooler.  Yay for Mama!  She saved the day!