You know that William has followed into the art… With Vigor.

What you DON’T know… is that the newest member of the Family aspires to greatness! Anne Carroll hasn’t seen him yet, but I expect that the application will be processed quickly and accepted. Click the pictures to get more detail.

Here, we have the initial greeting and setup:

Dominance is tested, and we begin the Ballet.

The leap, executed although the stretch doesn’t fully extend… 1 point deduction.

Check your partner’s position, and prepare for the grand finale.

It’s the Flying dog duo! 8 paws, 7 airborne.

Perhaps the dance should be left to the children. I hear the flying squirrels have some openings.

But they have some winters, and they knew how to keep from freezing to death.

Fashionable… well, maybe not. However, you fold the flaps down, and it’ll keep you warm. ….ish. 8 degrees out there, and puppy had to go for his walk.

I’ll spare you the photo of me wearing it. I didn’t want to break the new camera.

Everyone stay bundled up! (Unless you’re the Dog… in which case, stop wanting to go out!)

You don’t remember the pain (oh, you remember that there was, but no details). The puppy teeth. The incredibly SHARP needle like puppy teeth. The potty training accidents. The Chewing. The middle of the night whining.

But then again, it’s some of those things that tend to bond you with the puppy in question. This post is not about any of those things.

First picture. Look at the Fuzzy ball of Fluff!

We thought for sure that we were getting a black dog. A spiky, black dog. You know, you wake up in the middle of the night, and all you see are two eyes, white teeth and a pink tongue.

Fast forward a few weeks: Where is the black?

It’s still there, but Tan is coming through… And spiky? Not a chance.

Forward another couple of weeks:

This actually shows the black is still there, but it’s fighting a battle with Tan.

Current theory… The Black isn’t going anywhere, but the Tan is filling in the spaces as he grows. Paws, Legs, Chest, EARS all seem to be expanding exponentially, and the tan coloration is all there. He’s still dark, but it’s not the pitch black we thought it was going to be. Look at the first and last picture. It’s comical how different they are, and in about a month.

Mary woke up in the morning wanting to go back for a Volcano… It’s obviously going to be a challenge to keep this a special treat.

Today has been a good day. A cold day, but good none the less.

You’ve heard of the Dog days of summer?

These are the dog days of Winter. It’s a bit different than yesterday.

It’s off to the dog park in Franklin! Jack having no clue, the kids little more… Oh, and it’s 30 fricking degrees outside.

This is MY ball. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

I want to play with everyone. Socialization is good for Dogs, and Jack is definitely working that one through. We stayed for about an hour, and during that time, Jack attacked, was attacked, and generally made a mess of everyone and everything. Needless to say, he had a blast. Until the Bath.

Look at those Paws! He’s gaining weight all the time, and it’s ALL in the paws and ankles! Oh yeah.. and the ears. Radar dishes.

William was not pleased at the decision to leave BEFORE everyone turned to ice. But leave we did. Things to do, Puppies to bathe. Oh, there will HAVE to be pictures of the puppy being bathed, but not this time. We aren’t exactly pleased at the concept of water being poured all over us when it’s freezing outside. Of course, you have to pull the dog away from the pond continuously, but that’s irrelevant to the bathing thing.

Bath over with, Puppy dried. Kids in quiet time (William asleep, Mary.. yeah, right). But the day is not over. Dad set up the studio stobe upstairs, and it was time to goof off a bit before bed.

I had to try out the new camera body with some controlled (sorta) situations. Lots of light, fast sharp lenses… And a daughter and puppy ready to go after a bit of rest. I’m pretty impressed with the resolving power. Anyone want a 40 inch picture of a Puppy where you can see individual hairs?

The remainder of the album is here:

We’ve been twice in the last week, which is surprising to me. But then again, it’s a large playground to them… It’s not like they are going to actually spoil the fun learning anything.

Part of the attraction of the Science museum for me was obviously trying to get the kids interested in Science. That actually wasn’t very difficult. William isn’t showing preferences.. It’s all good. Mary is 5, so therefore EVERYTHING must be answered. If we can get the scientific method involved there, we’ll be ahead of the game.

So, we went for the Winter wonderland exhibit… Which, frankly, was an artificial snow machine (soap suds). Joy. And a Planetarium movie on Ice Worlds.

Color me unimpressed.

MV and W, however, were thrilled. 2 hours later, as we were leaving that afternoon (New Years Eve), it was decided that we would come back.

That turned out to be Saturday. Quicker than anticipated.

At this point, Daddy is reeling from a Camera body that he’s been waiting months for…. and it doesn’t focus. At all. The motors don’t click, nada. Disappointing is not really the word. So we’re taking the old one (which, truth be told, is still a good body. It’s just not … ), because the only place I could get stock on this was from a shop out of New York that I’ve done business with before. So there wasn’t going to be any resolution to this problem this weekend.

I’ve decided to limit myself even more, using a single 50mm prime lens.

Good news, it’s cheap.

Better news, it’s fast, which helps since there isn’t any LIGHT in this place.

Best news, it’s sharp, light, and makes a camera package that I can weave around the center without worry.

The Center of the Adventure Science Museum is a multi-story tower filled with various activities. It’s actually one of my biggest gripes, because it simply hasn’t changed since we first went there several years ago. A refresh would not hurt it one bit.

The kids didn’t care, so long as they could climb to the top!

The other area that seems to be static in time is the Body Quest exhibit. For William, the slide out of the lower intestine, complete with bodily noises was the best ever…

Unless you count the Ambulance.

Mary, who apparently maintains that a flower in the hair is perfectly sanitary in an OR, was intent on surgery. With Ketchup as the main tool, obviously. Apply directly to the retina.

Scattered around the center are various activities, including the ever popular coin eating spiral of death! Every aquarium, museum, and shopping center was one of these, and we have to hit it each time. The Adventure Science center was no different.

Or was it?

Yes, they plugged the hole at the bottom, so you could repeat the coin rolls over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. With Sister’s help, William was quite enthusiastic to do exactly that.

The newest exhibits were relating to the Sudekum Planetarium. The Kids really enjoyed this. 2 liter air pressure Bottle rockets, planet displays, stars, and weightlessness displays were all fun.

If they would only let Mary do them.

She’s big enough! Look!

No, NOT at the feet! Maybe in the summer.

And to close it out…. Jack stayed at home. Doing this.

(taken with the new body, manually focused, but in the dark! 2 stops better than the best the old could do! The replacement should be here this week.)

Laserjack from Greg Nicholson on Vimeo.

(No realtime imagery this time)

Although we considered various names, the short list was really down to two.

We have a good tradition of non-standard names (Sample size of one). Kosh, our previous German shepard dog was named form the Vorlon ambassador from Babylon 5. If you don’t understand that sentence, I’m not going to explain it to you now. Suffice to say that explanations seemed to be a continuous thing. So, with that in mind, we immediately hit the video archives for inspiration (shortly after I acquiesced on the acquirement).

Vash – this one is from Trigun – A Cute, utterly lovable character that goes well and far out of his way to prevent anyone from being hurt, even to the point of taking the pain himself. Of course, the other side of this is that it seems that for some strange reason, entire towns and regions are utterly devastated and destroyed whenever his presence is even rumored to be in the area. I thought this would be extremely fitting.

It has everything – Great back story, meaning, Cuteness, short…. Uncommon. I still like this.

And on the other hand we have this rag-tag bunch as well as a decidedly NORMAL name.

We have Jack Skellington – Nightmare before Christmas being the classic at our house for two holidays as well as good general watching.

Jack Sparrow. The Pirate, played by Johnny Depp (Which was probably Jeff’s deciding vote)

Of course, the actor Jack Nicholson, which strangely enough, gives him the FULL name.

Several other names have floated through… Vlad – Remember the sharp little baby teeth?. Meathead – ceremoniously dropped without discussion. Alucard – From the Anime Hellsing, another Vampire that has been known to shift form into a very large dark black dog. Fitting.

However.

Normality has won the day. Vash has been vanquished, Jack has won. Mary has chosen, and it seems that a bop on the nose, and, a stringent evocation – currently, ‘NO JACK’. It will be interesting to determine if his name stays at ‘NO Jack’, or if it makes the eventual shortening to the original expected ‘Jack’.

So, in summary, it would appear that “you just don’t know Jack.” Neither do we, but it appears that we are going to have fun finding out.