Merry Christmas Mommy!

Adam is 5

We recently celebrated Adam's 5th birthday, this meant a lot of fun baking adventures for me and a lot of sugar and presents for him. He began his day by dining on the sugar cereal he had specially selected for his birthday, Tootie Frooties by Malt-O-Meal. This is the only time of the year that I will buy it for him, so of course he went for the most colorful and frosting-coated kind he could find. Interestingly, he hasn't shown much interest in it since his birthday breakfast, but Seth is steadily making his way through the bag.

After breakfast it was off to preschool with a batch of sunshine cupcakes to celebrate with at snack time. Although they were hastily assembled that morning, a lot of thought and planning went into these cupcakes. We have been hoarding the candy corn since Halloween, that took a lot of willpower on my part.
That evening Adam chose for his special birthday meal: Hot dogs with pork and beans and for the grand finale, a rocket cake, shooting off of a planet, with him in it.
As I am writing this I realize that a lot of the special rituals that surround his birthday are about food, I'm not sure what that means....maybe next year he will pick a salad for his dinner...

But here he is, five years of inquisitiveness, excitement and adventure: ADAM

Refrigerator Art of the Month

Month 8

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

Due to the generosity of a patron of the arts, our stable of talent here at the Refrigerator Art of the Month Club was able to put forth a collaborative effort for the featured work this month. Masters Adam and Seth melded their individual styles to forge an edible sculpture informally titled “Gingerbread House and Tree.”

The necessarily transient aspect of this work forces the viewer to acknowledge the fleeting nature of the spirit of the holidays. This is perhaps a subtle plea on behalf of the artists to “make it last,” for why should we limit ourselves to sculpting with cookies and candy once a year? The artists’ desire to immediately devour their work is also a testament of the need to live fully present in the moment, to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,” or grab it in your fist and chew it to crumbs as the case may be.Adam Bucaria Wargo

Perhaps due to Master Adam’s additional years of training in the arts, he was most preoccupied with accuracy and realism in the representation of the house. He wanted it to look exactly as depicted on the box. This desire to remain true to life resulted in an interesting dynamic between the two artists as it was in direct conflict with Master Seth’s approach to the edible sculpture (“Seth ate some of them” was Master Adam’s dejected comment).

Seth David Wargo

The realm of edible sculpture was difficult for Master Seth. It seemed counterintuitive to use the materials before him to create art rather than taste and digest. For Master Seth the house symbolizes the mysterious excesses of Christmas tradition, in which one must labor over a beautiful confection, and then sit back and watch it go stale as time passes, taking pleasure at first only in the viewing rather than the partaking. The house is also meant to remind the observer of the difficulties inherent in any exercise of self-control or delayed gratification.

I’m Dreaming of a White… Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family!  I hope your day was full of turkey, tryptophan, and plenteous servings of stuffing and green-bean casserole.  As this title suggests, it’s snowing today here in our corner of Alaska.  This is nice, as we’ve had several days of icy rain, which isn’t fun at all. 

 

Being Thanksgiving, I want to list the things I’m thankful for.  This may be cliché to do on this day, but it’s a good cliché.

• I’m thankful for my wife.  Hot dang! am I lucky to have her – she is everything!  Not only is she the Laundry Fairy, the Food Fairy, the Dishes Fairy, and the Keeping-Order-and-Sanity-In-Our-Home Fairy; she’s also the Good-Advice Fairy, the Inspire-Me-To-Be-a-Better-Man Fairy, and the Best Friend Fairy.  And she’s gorgeous. 

• I’m thankful for my kids.  They’re crazy.  They’re totally hyper (I haven’t seen Adam be still, except while sleeping, in over two years – there is always some part of him in motion).  They’re “creatively disobedient.”  They’re also inquisitive.  They’re creative.  They’re fun.  They’re naturally open to the Spirit.  And they’re two of my greatest teachers.

• I’m thankful for the rest of my family, here in Alaska and scattered throughout the country.  What fun would life be without you?
• I’m thankful to live in Alaska.  True, every time I see pictures of Julie and Dusty’s tropical paradise home, I yearn for warmer climes.  But these yearnings usually leave once I get outside and take in the mountain scenery around me here in Alaska.

• I’m thankful for pasta.  I love all food, but I especially love pasta.
• I’m thankful to be a teacher.  I seriously have the best job in the world.  I enjoy myself every day, and when I leave my classroom to go home I feel like I’ve done my small part to make the future a better place.
• I’m thankful for the Church.  The Church is, as my bishop always says, the Kingdom of God on the earth.  A big thing to say, but true.  Need I say more?
• I’m thankful for my Savior.  Without Him, I would not be able to enjoy any of the blessings I listed above.

Shorn

Well, I finally did it. The day had to come eventually. I know there are those of you who will say I waited too long, and those of you who will say I should have waited longer, but here are the before and after shots:




The haircut experience was a bit traumatic for Seth. Even with a sucker crammed in his mouth, sitting on my lap, both of us draped in capes he managed to cry the whole time. But I think it was the cutting of the hair he didn't like, not the result. Now he doesn't have to endure the tangles being combed out in the mornings, and I don't have to hear "Don't play with my hair, Mommy!"

Little. Super. Men.

Halloween is already over a week in the past, and we are yet to post any pictures of the boys in their costumes.  Mea culpa, and may I offer these late pictures of the boys in their costumes.  Also, may I make a special note to our friends that these are quite manly costumes, without even a hint of anything remotely like a tutu. 

True to form, the boys both had to have the same costume, since whatever one has, the other has to have, too.  And since Adam is in his superhero phase, and since no superhero can match Superman (Come on, as adults we can admit that all the rest only have limited powers or cool toys, while Superman only needs the absence of kryptonite to be awesome.  I mean, Spidey’s webs only last an hour, and sure he has spider senses, but can he freeze things with his breath?  And Batman - what would he be without his gadgets?  That’s right, nothing, just a rich guy who likes to hang out in a cave and has a butler.  But Superman, he’s got it all, and he doesn’t even have to hide behind a mask!  But I digress…), the boys were Superman.  I think Adam chose it first and Seth followed suit, but it could have been the other way.

So, here they are!

 

Our heroes!

 

In this shot, we told the boys to make muscles with their arms.  Adam may have misunderstood and thought we wanted him to do “I’m a little teapot.”

 

 

As you can see, Seth was really into doing splits, or trying to, anyway.  I think he thought that’s what Superman does.

 

Hey, even Superman needs to pick once in a while…

Shameless Use of Children as Political Tools

 

Am I a bad father because I used my son as a political tool?

Perhaps some background is called for.  I am a teacher, and a member of my local teachers’ union.  We’ve been in contract negotiations for about a year, and have been working since August on an expired contract.  Needless to say, negotiations haven’t been going well, or rather, they haven’t been going at all, from our point of view.  The district’s plan was for us to get a pay cut, and that didn’t make us happy.  So, the union called on all of us members to show up en masse at the last school board meeting.  We got bright yellow t-shirts printed with a message letting the board know we wanted to get a fair contract or we would strike.  Somewhere between 500 and 700 of us packed the gym that night, a bright sea of frustrated yellow.

Being that the school board meets on Wednesday nights, and that is also the night Mary goes to Young Women’s, I needed to either bring the kids with me or get a babysitter.  Grammy and Grampa had watched the boys a lot that week, so I thought I’d just leave one with them.  Since I thought Seth probably wouldn’t be good at loudly chanting union rallying cries, I left him with the in-laws and brought Adam.

This would be great, I thought, a real-life chance to introduce Adam to the struggle against the Man.  Before we left, I even printed up a protest sign specialized just for him.  It read “My Daddy Needs A Fair Contract.”  (Good thing I brought three of them, since other parents with kids there really liked them.)  Cute little kids pleading for a fair deal for their daddies – how could the school board resist?

When we arrived, we got our yellow protest t-shirts.  Adam got one big enough to fit over his winter coat.  We were handed a big sign to wave.  Adam was very excited about this, and handled it the best he could.  He ended up spending most of the time perched on my shoulders.  He seemed to enjoy the view from above, getting to see the whole crowd instead of being waist-high to 500 teachers. 

Sitting up on my shoulders, carrying his personalized sign, Adam was a little organized-labor child celebrity.  He got lots of comments about how great he was with his sign, and he seemed to enjoy himself.  When the meeting started, he even paid attention until we had to leave.

So, back to my original question… I brought Adam with me because it significantly eased the babysitting burden of my in-laws, but I got excited about it when I realized I could make him his own sign, teach him how to respond to the call: What do we want?  CONTRACT!! When do we want it? NOW!! and get him an early start in the global struggle of the proletariat for fair and equitable working conditions in the face of increased class differences and global bourgeois anti-labor sentiments.  Okay, maybe I got a little carried away on that last one, but the point is, I knew that having my son with me waving a cute sign would help our cause, not just make it easier on the babysitter.

Was this selfish?  Was this the shameless use of a child as a political tool?

In the end, as I sit typing this, I don’t feel too bad about it.  I think I can have it all ways – I can bring Adam with me, the babysitter gets it easier, I get to teach my kid about participating in politics, and the union gets another cute sign-waver.  We all win!

As a postscript, the day after the board meeting, I got an email from our union president saying that the school board wanted to talk again.  They met earlier last week.  While nothing has been announced, the word is that we’ve been offered a contract and that it looks good.  Finally, after a year of stalling, the school district got serious with us.  It must have been the preschoolers waving signs.

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

Month 7

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

Adam Bucaria Wargo

Master Wargo practiced the fine art of collage for his piece this month. Both selections showcase superb cutting skills and attention to detail, note the jagged edges cut into the larger elements of the collage, perhaps an attempt to juxtapose the clear simplifications of the advertised messages with the rough rawness of the real world. In the piece informally entitled “Save the Suede,” Master Wargo was especially concerned with the absurdity of the advertised message “Look at how big the boots are!” he commented. His placement of basic food items near the boots is meant to remind the viewer of life’s true essentials especially when contrasted with the commercialism of modern society. Of his second piece (the original selected for Grammy) Master Wargo had this to say “Why are they dirty?” and “I was showing her that is candy because she gives us lots of candy.”

Seth David Wargo

Master Seth took a severe departure from convention in this month’s mixed media (crayon and marker) mural in Adam’s room. Without seeking the approval of the room’s resident (or his parents) Master Seth created an exuberant swirl of colors against the white palette of Adam’s walls. As Master Seth defied the studio rules here at the Refrigerator Art of the Month Club, he also proclaimed his belief that art should not be limited to a sheet of paper, but that it can be life size and literally surround the intended viewer. Unfortunately, Master Adam was not appreciative of the offering and Master Seth had to learn the consequences that come with defying societal conventions: the disapproval of others and the difficulty of making amends.

Mr. Independent I’m Not

Mary recently took a trip to see her sister in Salt Lake City.  The timing was close to General Conference, so I encouraged Mary to extend the dates of her trip, attend Conference, and enjoy herself.  I didn’t have to persuade her much.  I knew she could use a break from being Mommy and that she’d come back happy and ready to dive once again into the bottomless pool of motherhood.  While I much prefer to have my sweetheart in the same state as I am, I admit I also wanted her to take a longer trip for another reason: this week alone with the boys was the perfect chance to prove my Daddy mettle.  Sure, Mary can withstand the rigors of stay-at-home-parenthood.  Well, so can I, and this was my week to prove it.

The plan was in place.  Mary left on a Friday afternoon and would return the next Thursday.  It was Conference Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, I was taking Monday and Tuesday off from work, and Grammy and Grandpa would have the boys Wednesday and Thursday.  Those first four days were my days to prove that I, on my own, could handle parenthood on my own.  The last two would be my stint as a working single parent.  I could do this.

These were my days to prove I could be independent.  God, though, had other ideas for this week.  As many other plans that go awry, they started in my sinuses.

The day Mary left I felt a familiar aching in my left front tooth.  It was my maxillary sinus, infected and swollen, pressing on the roots of my teeth.  Since this had already happened to me around this time of year for the last two years, I recognized what was going on.  No big deal, a few naproxen and I’d be fine.  I decided to wait it out, hoping that it would go away on its own.

It didn’t.  Come Sunday, I could tell that the infection wasn’t going anywhere, except, perhaps, to other parts of my body.  The first sign was that the left side of my face was swollen like a balloon.  (Unfortunately, Mary had the camera.)  Adam said to me Monday morning, “Daddy, your face is creamy.”  Creamy? I asked.  “Yeah, because cream is soft and puffy, just like your face.”  I called and got a doctor’s appointment Monday.

A swollen face alone wouldn’t keep me from showing my fatherhood awesomeness.  But the rest of the infection did.  I ached, I was tired, my bed beckoned, but so did my “strong spirited” sons.  My in-laws, ever astute, offered to take the kids.  Actually, they began offering on Saturday, when my face started growing.  I had refused, but by Monday, my pride was gone, lost in an infected sinus.  I called them.  And then I slept away the afternoon, oblivious to the sounds of Grandpa warning the boys not to hurt themselves.

The same thing happened on Tuesday.  I called in sick to work on Wednesday.  Thursday, the last day to show I could make it on my own, I had enough energy to get through the day.  Plus, my face wasn’t quite as “creamy” as before.  I went back to work, and like it was planned originally, the kids went to my in-laws’. 

So there I was, at the end of my week without a stay-at-home wife, and I hadn’t shown my independence.  In fact, I had shown just the opposite.  Or rather, I had been shown just the opposite.  I had wanted to prove something to myself, or perhaps to make a vain show to those around me that I could be independent.  But God, in his ever-creative ways, used this as a chance to teach me how much I need those around me.  I couldn’t have made it without my in-laws.  I would have been wiped out physically and emotionally, and I would not have recovered by Thursday.

The truth is, independence is great in many things – finances and national sovereignty, to name just a few.  But I don’t think that we were ever meant to make it through this life on our own.  We sure can’t make it through life without God, or rather, make it through life well, so he gives us friends and family around us to help us.  I hadn’t paid enough attention to this.  I needed a swollen sinus to remind me.

Refrigerator Art of The Month Club

Month 6

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

This month our artists expressed themselves using washable neon finger paints. The artistic renderings from this painting session are made even more valuable due to the rarity of this experience since the “establishment” (i.e. parental unit) seldom chooses to expose the artists to this medium (“washable” is apparently a relative term in the world of finger paint).

Masters Adam and Seth Wargo attack their palette.

September 27, 2010

Adam Bucaria Wargo

Master Wargo used this painting session to explore the intricacies of the world of racing. Note the significance of his choice to use finger paints to depict the race track. With the use of his hands he boldly confronts skeptics who may assert that auto racing, as a sport, is not valid because of the almost total reliance on machine. By Master Adam’s use of his own hands to trace the track, he symbolically reminds the viewer of the way that a driver and his car come together in one seamless unit so that even the car becomes an extension of the body. Through this he makes an even broader commentary on the relationship between man and machine in today’s society. He has, appropriately titled his offerings this month “The Race Track” and “The Big Spinout.” For further insights into the influences behind Master Adam’s work, interested viewers should watch the “Cars” movie and check out several books about auto racing from the children’s section of the library.

Seth David Wargo

Master Seth approached the medium of finger paint by focusing on the tactical and sensory experience rather than depicting a specific image. His selections for this month should therefore be viewed with this in mind, as a visual representation of the feel of thick paint between ones fingers and (on occasion) toes. The use of thick finger strokes and blending of color allows the viewer to almost participate in the experience themselves, a synesthesia of the senses if you will, with the visual pathway created by his art leading to an almost tactile experience. Although his feet were not used in the creation of this artwork, Master Seth was nevertheless able to experience the paint with other appendages. Master Seth had this to say about his paintings: ummm Blue! ummm Green!

Cowboy Story Time

This week's theme at Toddler Story Time was the cowboy. I managed to get these pictures of Seth in full cowboy regalia at home before story time.




When it came to the big moment, he refused to wear the hat, so I wore it. Ms. Kay had Seth come to the front of the group so she could tell the children about cowboy wear. Did you know that the fringe on the vest was actually functional? Apparently it wicks away water or can be pulled off to be used to tie things if one is out of rope. And I thought it was just a decoration.

Free Money!

For those outside of the Great Land, the amount of this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend was announced today.  In a few months, we’ll each receive checks of $1,281.  Until the recent federal government stimulus checks, getting a check from the government simply by virtue of your existing seemed a bit odd to those outside of Alaska.  But here, we get it every year.  For an explanation of how we in Alaska can have no income tax and get a check from our state, I’ll refer you here for a lesson on this Holy Grail of Alaska politics. 

On this day each year, my thoughts always go in the same direction.

Is this free money good for us?  Aren’t we told as children that anything good is worth working for?  We don’t work for this money, yet it comes every year, magically deposited into my account.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the extra funds.  They go right into my savings, as do the PFDs of my wife and kids.  Thanks in part to my wife’s PFDs and her father’s investing them, she paid for her graduate school and we put 20% down on our first house.  Things that have put most of our peers into deep debt were paid for thanks for the oil revenues of the State of Alaska.  So, the PFD has been a great blessing for us.

But what of the other side?  Teaching at an alternative school the weeks that the PFD was rolled out weren’t always the best times for my students.  There were many kids we didn’t see because they were on a weeks-long drug-or-alcohol trip.  There were kids whose parents took the kids’ PFDs and used them for alcohol or drugs themselves.  Magnified across the whole state, what is the true cost to all of us of the PFD?  I don’t think this was the intention of those who founded the Permanent Fund. 

Yes, I take my cut of the Permanent Fund Dividend.  I apply each year, and I let the money roll into my account.  I do so because I believe in it – I know where the money comes from and I have seen the vast potential for good that it has.  But I have also witnessed the wreckage, the pain, and the heartache that a large amount of free money can have on those unprepared for it.

In the end, what does the PFD cost us?  Does the good outweigh the bad?  I honestly don’t know the answer.  I believe someday we won’t have the PFD, and we’ll be able to look back and figure all of it out.  Until then, though, thank you Alaska!

I Got Sarah Palin’s Mail

Now here’s something to add the random occurrences list: we got mail for Sarah Palin.  No, we don’t have mail to send to her, not exactly, but we actually received her mail.  Here’s the proof (that’s my hand, by the way):

Notice, there is no street address.  So, what else to do with it but send it to the Wargos?  I mean, both the Wargos and the Palins live in Wasilla, so it makes perfect sense…

After amusing ourselves with theories of how it ended up here, and thoughts of how this must be an absolutely urgent epistle, owing to its lack of street address and “please forward” note on the bottom, we threw it back into the mail.  Maybe we’ll see it again in a few days.  We’ll keep you posted.

Thank God I’m a Country Boy

There are many teachers who spend the summer months vacationing, relaxing, or preparing for the next school year.  This summer, I was not one of them.  Budget realities made it clear that this year I would have to get a job.  I thought it would be easy to find a summer job – after all, I’m educated, mildly competent, and both my wife and mother say I’m sort of good-looking.  Be that as it may, it wasn’t until I remembered that getting a job is often more about who you know, and not what you know, that I landed one.  One of my colleagues seemed to be pretty well-connected around the Valley, and I asked her if she knew of any people or businesses that needed summer help.  Immediately she thought of a the Vanderweele farm, where she worked summers growing up, and still kept in touch.  She said she’d call them and let me know.  A week later, I had a job.  Nice!

A farm?  In Alaska?  I usually tell people that we grow melons and citrus fruits, but no, it’s a vegetable farm.  That means lots and lots of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and I believe I have also seen brussels sprouts.  Basically, anything that doesn’t need tropical temperatures and can withstand lots of rain.  So, while the growing season is relatively short, don’t forget that we get lots and lots of daylight up here in the summer.

My job has been as a crew chief.  We have a crew of local teenagers, and I’m their chief, driving them from field to field, working alongside them, and making sure they’re on task and getting them job done right.  These last two things were pretty easy, owing to their being a great bunch of kids.  Over the summer we planted, we weeded, and we harvested the veggies – basically everything migrant farm workers do in the Lower 48, except that we live here all year.  Here’s a short video of the crew transplanting lettuce starts.  You can’t see it, but I would be the guy walking along in back making sure the job is done right.

I’ve learned a ton this summer at this job.  Here are the highlights:

• There are way more types of lettuce than iceberg and romaine.  There are red leaf, green leaf, red romaine, green romaine, lola rosa, frise, bibb, and head lettuce.  Who knew?
• Oh, and by the way, lettuce can permanently stain your clothes.  When you harvest lettuce, the bottom bleeds this white, milky liquid from where you cut it.  If you ever happen to see this, don’t let it anywhere near your clothes.  It took me two tee-shirts to figure this one out.
• How to operate a forklift.  I got the assignment from the big boss to take a kid and load up 40 boxes of lettuce we had harvested, transport them back to the barn on the back of a pickup, and use a forklift to unload it into the barn.  He didn’t ask if I had ever used a forklift, he just told me to get it done.  I’m not sure what he was thinking, but this sort of assumption of competence seems commonplace on the farm, and my goal was to make sure the assumptions were correct.  After loading up the boxes and defying several laws of physics by not dropping any of them driving off the field and to the barn, I found the forklift and hopped in.  I can do this, I thought, I have a master’s degree and can figure things out.  After about 45 minutes of trial and error (heavy on the error), one of the more experienced adult workers had pity on me, gave me a two-minute lesson, and unloaded the boxes for me.
• No matter what else I do this summer, I’m cool to my son because I have operated a forklift.
• Some weeds are edible.
• John Denver was wrong.  Life on the farm is anything but “kinda laid back.”
• How to install and operate soil moisture sensors.
• How to set up and move irrigation pipes.  This is kind of nice because at church I’ve heard several talks about learning the value of hard work, and the person giving the talk often refers to his childhood on the farm or ranch.  He invariably mentions “moving pipe” as being a difficult task that had to be done.  Perhaps they’re referring to something else, but the chore I did was pretty easy – Vanderweele’s pipes are made out of aluminum.  The others must have been made out of lead.  Or concrete.

One last thing that was great about this summer is that I felt a little more connected to my grandparents on my mother’s side.  They were potato farmers in Maine.  I doubt they grew lettuce (did people eat salads before WWII?), but every time we drove past the potato fields, I felt a kinship to my Memere and Pepere.

Low Tech to High Tech, in Two Days

After too many weeks of not doing it, we finally threw the boys and our gear into the back of our minivan and went camping.  We were a bit apprehensive at first, since sleep hygiene is a very high priority in our family, and sleeping is not something that typically happens anytime before 11:00PM or midnight on camping trips around here. (Remember, the sun doesn’t go down until 10:45 these days.)  It seems that something has always been happening each weekend that got in the way, so this weekend, camping was our priority.  Luckily, we didn’t have to go far.  Lake Lucille Campground is a whole ten minutes from home – Mary actually was able to go home and get a few items we forgot.

 

For the boys, some of the greatest joys of camping are purely culinary.  The ritual of roasting the great American camping weenie was definitely a high point.  This, of course, was quickly followed by the ritual of roasting the great American marshmallow.  Mary had some extras from Young Women’s camp.  These were not your run-of-the-mill marshmallows.  These were huge, fluffy balls of vanilla and strawberry-flavored hyperactivity-boosting marshmallow goodness.  Conscientious parents that we are, the boys each had several.

Another highlight was the playground.  We liked this, especially after eating all those marshmallows.

But, the real excitement began when it came time to go to bed.  This was Seth’s first time camping, and he was totally jazzed to be getting into a sleeping bag.  Mary and I had to sleep in the middle, with the boys on either side of us, otherwise sleep would never had happened.  Luckily, by 9:15 or so, the boys were both fast asleep.  Perhaps it was the sound of the rain on the tarp over our tent, perhaps it was the barking dog a few sites over, or perhaps it was the playground, but those boys were fast asleep.

 

The next day was the bi-annual Arctic Thunder Air Show at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.  Adam loves this because he can get in the cockpits of most airplanes on base and play with just about every control  and button within reach.  I love it because, well, it’s just plain awesome.  And, it’s just plain loud.  I mean, L-O-U-D.  The F-22 is a loud airplane when it flies over and we can’t see it because it’s so high, but we can hear it.  Being about 100 yards from it as it performs a high-speed flyby with its engines completely opened up was, well, AWESOME.  Thank God for earplugs.

Taking these pictures above, it struck me that if I ever saw this sight while on a flight, I would be terrified.

Adam and Seth seemed to enjoy the armored transport vehicles the most, despite their simply being really heavy SUV’s.  Perhaps it was their simplicity – the boys could grasp it.

They boys were also very impressed by the helicopters, and their associated helmets.

As I mentioned before, the show was, beyond all other things, loud (at least when there were jets flying overhead.  I tried to capture a little of that in a video, so we’ll see how it works!

Air Show Video

We took some video at the air show, and put together these clips. Let's see if the video upload works...

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club Month 4

Month 4

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

A Fujifilm Finepix 6.3 megapixel camera was the tool of choice this month for the artists here in our stable of talent.

Adam Bucaria Wargo

Master Adam’s photographs came together in a beautiful collage featuring some of his favorite things. Note his inclusion of a self-portrait among the myriad of material objects, perhaps symbolic of the dangers of losing oneself in the pursuit of possessions. The color red is also featured prominently in this work, a reminder of love and the life force that pulses in all of us. Also note the interesting juxtaposition of the imaginary hero figure (Spiderman) next to a real life hero(the fireman).

Seth David Wargo

Master Seth is new to the camera, but his inexperience left his artistic muse untainted by the influence of outside tastes. This is evident in his unconventional use of perspective in all of his shots. The traditional forward facing view has been discarded and Master Seth’s work focuses on a much neglected examination of the floor, encouraging the viewer to look at life from a radically different angle. Notice how human subjects are incorporated only peripherally, as random body parts rather than a whole figure, reflecting the dehumanization of modern society.

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club Month 3

Recipients of a fine gift subscription to the Refrigerator Art of the Month Club receive a monthly mailing of a selection of artwork from our artists in residence, Adam and Seth Wargo. The art can grace the refrigerator and beautify the home until the selection for the next month is received.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from our Refrigerator Art of the Month Club, we have decided to post the most recent work here. Enjoy!

Month 3

Refrigerator Art of the Month Club

This month our artists delved into the world of three dimensional art using the medium of Play-Doh modeling compound. Due to the transient nature of these sculptures, and the difficulty of displaying three dimensional art on a refrigerator, their work has been preserved photographically for your enjoyment.

Adam Bucaria Wargo

In continuing his series on modes of transportation, Master Adam sculpted an orange rocket bursting from the shackles of gravity amidst vibrant pink tongues of fire. This appears to be a subtle commentary on the male dominance of the space program. The reckless exuberance of this work is tempered by the yellow-green circles surrounding the rocket. Master Adam explained that these were to warn people not to get too close. A pertinent reminder of the dangers that coexist with all forms of discovery and exploration.

Seth David Wargo

Master Seth used the sculpting tools available to experiment with color mixtures of modeling compound. The result was a visually pleasing multi-colored plate of spaghetti and/or green beans. With his non-traditional depiction of everyday foods, the artist appears to be giving us an abstract representation of the diversity we are confronted with in our daily lives, even on our very plates, as it were.

Trip Back East, Part 2

Miraculously, we all made it through our first night at the Rockville Chase Suites Hotel.  Well, the survival of Mary and me was never seriously in doubt.  As for Adam, the same can not be said.  Many thanks to my mom, who, after a few hours of Adam screaming and banging on his bedroom door, let Adam lie down with her in her room.  Unfortunately, this set a precedent for later nights, when all Adam wanted to do was lie down with Memere and watch monster truck rallies on the Speed Network, just like on the first night.

All well rested in the morning, we set off for our day’s destinations: the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles, and the National Zoo.

First, the Air and Space Museum at Dulles.  This, of course, is not it’s full, official name (which is much too long to type), but it’s what I'll call it.  This museum was my personal highlight for a few reasons.  First, it was well-air-conditioned.  For this Alaska-acclimated boy, that was a huge plus.  Second, this museum is far from downtown DC and not on the Metro lines.  So, as you can see in the pictures, the place is practically empty.  Third, it was Dirk Pitt’s garage (for those of you unfamiliar with the Clive Cussler hero, check here).  This place was packed with airplanes, hanging from the rafters, on the ground, you name it.  It was like being surrounded by airplane royalty: the SR71 Blackbird, a Concorde jet, the Enola Gay (that one was sobering…).  Fourth, included in the collection is a real space shuttle.  Seeing the shuttle was like a religious experience for me.  Honestly, I felt like I had reached Geek Nirvana.  Here I was, the kid who had a giant wall mural of the shuttle in orbit put up in my room, and I was within feet of the actual thing!  It was just icing on the cake that it was the space shuttle Enterprise, which touched my Trekkie heart. 

 

Remembering that our museum visits were being timed with the attention span of a four-year-old in mind, we had to move pretty quickly.  So my time in Nerd Paradise was brief.  With any luck, I’ll be back there someday (perhaps when the Discovery joins the exhibit, and I can be in the presence of a shuttle that’s actually been in space) and I’ll take my sweet time.

 

 

After the Air and Space, we went the National Zoo, which Adam later commented was his favorite.  Unlike the Air and Space, though, the zoo is smack in the middle of the city, very accessible, and very un-air-conditioned.  As you can see by Seth’s face, the place was like an oven.

Seth, by the way, was a little let down by the lack of giraffes at the Zoo.  Can you believe it?  What zoo doesn’t have a giraffe?  Luckily, he saw two stuffed ones the day before at the Museum of Natural History.  They had been alive at one time, and Seth seemed to think they still were.  He loved them.

Adam and Penelope had a great time with this giant salamander.  No, it’s not real, but we did scare some little girls behind us by pretending it was.

The real highlights of the Zoo, though, were the bird house, the panda house, and Memere’s generous purchase of fruit smoothies, as all of these things brought relief from the heat (honestly, it must have been over 85, really).

 

 

Another exhausting day done, we went back to the hotel, looking forward to a relaxing dip in the pool.  This, though, was thwarted like a good night’s sleep around a toddler, since Memorial Day wasn’t until Monday.  Go figure.  The attendant said some words; I understood something about “Maryland state law” and “chemicals.”  While I almost cried, Adam seemed to take it pretty well.  He still had monster trucks on television to look forward to.