Free Comic Book Day With The Kids
Posted: May 6, 2013 Filed under: Family, Out and About | Tags: bat man, carnival comics, cat woman, dad, downtown comics, family, fatherhood, free comic boom day, Kids, robin Leave a comment »
Had a fun weekend. There was soooo much to do. It was a full day, Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars event at the Indiana State Museum, and Cinco De Mayo party. The kids really loved the free comic book day. MaM was on the search for an unicorn comic book. The Fox was good with anything. That’s the beauty of a four year old mind. They go with the flow. They are just happy to be involved.
The first comic book store we hit was Carnival Comics, on Keystone. First thing we asked when we walked in the door was “Do you have any unicorn comics?” A phrase I never thought would ever come out of my mouth. At least with people who do not follow me on Twitter. The guy behind the counter, who looked nothing like the comic book store guy on The Simpson’s, said no, but I may have something else. This was something MaM was ecstatic to hear.
This place had a large selection of free comics. There was Batman ans Superman and many others I had never heard of. The kids loved looking over the selection. Each person was limitied to four comic books. So that meant The Fox got five comic books and MaM got seven. As long as she got more comic books than The Fox, she was happy.
The second shop we visited was in Castleton, Downtown Comics. There was a line outside the door stretching all the way past the three neighboring stores. That was a little too long for me. There were a couple of people walking around in costume. Batman, Robin, Poison Ivy, and Cat Woman. MaM’s first reaction was “That’s Cat Woman, she’s evil.”. That’s when MaM’s world got rocked. Cat Woman walked up to Bat Man to get a picture with some people. MaM froze when this happened. I not sure what was going on through her head, but she didn’t like it. I think she wanted Bat Man to do something to her.
When we got home, the kids couldn’t wait to run into the house with their comic books to show their mom.
It was a fun day. I’m lucky that I got to spend it with them.
LKM
I Was A Donut Man
Posted: June 4, 2012 Filed under: Doing Good, Out and About | Tags: charity, Donut Day, Donuts, Dunkin Donuts, Salvation Army 1 Comment »
In donut heaven.
Last Friday morning, I got to live two life long dreams. I got to dress up as a donut and hand out donuts to total strangers. I got to join the Indiana Division of the Salvation Army and help say thanks to some of the companies who have donated their time or materials over the last year.
With strangers on Monument Circle.
We stopped by a couple businesses to deliver donuts. Everything went well except for our visit to the radio station. I think I got “bad touched” while there. We came out of one business downtown, and we were getting back into the van. As we stepped back into the van, a group came up and asked us for a picture. We got out and put the donut back on and took some pics. In all the excitement, we forgot to close the back of the van. As we were driving away, I noticed the rear door open and that we almost lost the donut costume. That would have sucked. A lost donut costume. That would be a tragedy.
At the WZPL studios.
The greatest part was seeing the look on people’s faces as a giant donut walked into their office with two dozen Dunkin Donuts. That costume was DD has one thing correct, America runs on donuts. The sad part of this adventure was that I only got to eat one donut of all the donuts we delivered.
From inside the donut costume.
Hot Wheels Exhibit at The Children’s Museum
Posted: May 30, 2012 Filed under: Family, Out and About | Tags: Bone Shaker, cars, family, Hot Wheels, indiana, Indianapolis., Kids, Larry Wood, sites, The Children's Museum Indianapolis, toys, Twin Mill Leave a comment »
Last week we visited The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to take the Little People to the new Hot Wheel’s exhibit. We were sure they would love it because their grandpa brings them Hot Wheel cars every time he comes over for a visit. I wasn’t sure it @GotChaBaby and I would because of all the cars we have stepped on in the dark. Come on parents, you know what I’m talking about. If it’s a small toy, you’ve stepped on it in the dark.
They have six full sized cars in the display area. All of these cars were either actual cars created into Hot Wheels cars or Hot Wheel cars fabricated into full sized cars. The centerpiece display is one of the cars designed by Hot Wheels Chief Designer, Larry Wood, called The Bone Shaker. It was cool to see this roofless vehicle with it’s skull grill because my kids have this car in their collection and I had one growing up as well. They also have a full sized version of the first Hot Wheels car that was made into a real automobile, the Twin Mill. We saw this car for the first time at the Indianapolis Speedway a couple years ago at the 35 th Anniversary Hot Wheels stop a couple years ago. Then, it was green, now it’s blue.
MaM took a liking to the exhibit right away. She loves cars. Her dream car is a sparkly blue Corvette The highlight for her was the twenty plus foot Hot Wheels ramp that had a loop in it. She figured out that she could line up ten cars and send them down the ramp at the same time. I caught her filling up her pockets with cars and waiting in line to send the cars on their way. She so liked the area that let her trace the parts of the car on paper. The museum had a similar display during the Barbie exhibit.
AfM liked the smaller track exhibits. He was happy to keep sending the cars down whatever ramp he was standing in front of, just going from ramp to ramp.
The workers in the area were really good with the kids and answered questions for the adults such as “How many cars do you think you’ll go through?” I was told that she wasn’t sure but it amount looks considerably less than what they started with that morning. GotChaBaby asked @TCMIndy the same question, via Twitter, and found out they started with 3000 cars. I wonder how many are left now?
The Hot Wheels For Real exhibit is at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis until January 27th, 2013. If you haven’t taken your kids there, you should, this is one of the best “hands-on” museums for little people.
@EpiclySteve Skateboards Across Indiana
Posted: May 29, 2012 Filed under: Doing Good, Out and About | Tags: Africa., charity, indiana, Skateboard, Steve Hill Leave a comment »On June 8th, a friend of mine will attempt something that has never been done before. Steve Hill is going to attempt to skateboard 160 miles across the state of Indiana to raise money to fight AIDS in Zimbabwe and Zambia. He will start on the Illinois/ Indiana border and head east towards Ohio following a route similar to the Ride Across Indian route. He told me that he hopes to hit Carmel by the evening of June 8th and hit the Ohio border by the following night.
If you can help Steve on this never been done before feat, please click here to donate.
Click here to follow his progress on Twitter @EpiclySteve
Thanks.
LKM
Mmmmmm Donuts.
Posted: May 28, 2012 Filed under: Out and About | Tags: Donuts, Food, Good Food Leave a comment »Who doesn’t like donuts?
These are my favorite.
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Dario Wins the 96th Indianapolis 500
Posted: May 27, 2012 Filed under: Out and About | Tags: Indianapolis 500 Leave a comment »Dario wins under caution after Tony K crashes into the wall with two laps to go.
So bummed. I was rooting for Tony M.
Pit Crew Thing- The Wrap Up
Posted: May 25, 2012 Filed under: Doing Good, Out and About | Tags: charity, Community Day, Indiana Business Journal, Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis., INDY Car, Pit Crew, School on Wheels, social media, WJAA, WLHK Leave a comment »
Being on a charity pit crew for the Indianapolis 500 Community Day was a fun experience. It was AWESOME! I still don’t know how I was on a media team competing against eleven local media stations. But, I accepted the challenge and tried to win it with the team I was with.
There were two cars were set up in front of the pagoda. Twelve teams of five lined up in front of the cars to be taught now to change a tire on an Indy Car. The teams consisted of two drillers, two tire people, and one driver. The driver was a representative from the charity. In our case, it was Sally Bindley, CEO of School on Wheels. School on Wheels assists school aged children affected by homelessness. SOW tries to keep the children’s education constant during the turmoil of homelessness.
Brian and Lance practicing.
Our goal was simple and broken into four steps
Lug nut off
Tire off
Tire on
Lug on
That’s it. Four simple steps.
The difficult part was the pressure of racing against the clock. During the first heat against a Kokomo radio station, K 92.5, they completed the task first, but didnt completely secure the tire. That mistake earned them a 10 second penalty. Because of that. We won. We were watching the other teams like hawks. Last years winners, the WIBC team made us a little nervous. We were a little excited to see them get knocked out in the first round.
The second heat was pretty straight forward. We raced Indiana Business Journal head to head. We won again
The third heat, against two other teams, was a race against the clock. The first team, WLHK, had some issues getting the lug on and took extra time. We went second and finished in 9.64 seconds. The last team, WJAA, knocked out of the park with a time of 7.64 seconds. We had a small issue with the first tire bumping the new tire. Caleb thought that I was going to throw the tire fifty feet away from the car. Maybe I was a little more intense than usual.
We were a little bummed that we lost but also surprised that we got as far as we did on our first attempt. Sally Bindley was already planning for next year by trying a hire a professional pit crew member. It was a great experience. I started laughing a couple hours after it because I still couldn’t believe that we got to do this.
The funny part was competing against all the tv news people. I have seen all these people on the television and here they were, in front of us. I sensed that they didn’t care for the no name team, us, at first. That feeling turned to hate when we kept winning and yelling.
Well, take care until the next event,
LkM
I Get To Be Part Of An INDY Car Pit Crew
Posted: May 23, 2012 Filed under: Out and About | Tags: IMS, indiana, Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis., INDY Car, Naptown Buzz, Pit Crew, School on Wheels Leave a comment »I am getting to do one of the coolest things ever. And I have been to two state fairs. I am part of a media pit crew for Community Day being held at the Indianapolis 500 race track. This is going to be legendary. Possibly EPIC.
I was asked to be on the team by NaptownBuzz with CS_INDY, and Lance. We are going to try and raise $5000 for School On Wheels ( @IndySOW on Twitter). School On Wheels helps kids, impacted by homelessness, keep their education on track. We are competing against eleven other local media teams.
If you want to drive your car on the track, enter off of 30th street. I did this last year, its pretty cool. A couple years ago, I got to drive on of the parade truck around the track for the Brickyard. Circling the 2.5 mile track is pretty cool.
I hope that we win the for School on Wheels.
Bike To Work Week.
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: Out and About | Tags: Bike to Work, cycling, Indianapolis. 5 Comments »
Today, I rode my bicycle into work as part of bike to work week . It’s only two miles. But, I did it. Me thinks I should ride into the office more often.
Did you ride into work today?
Before Camera Phones
Posted: May 18, 2012 Filed under: Out and About, Photography | Tags: camera phones, Photography, technology 1 Comment »What did we do before camera phones?
How did we survive?
I remember my first camera phone, a Motorola v400. I thought that was the bomb. It took ok pictures. But it took a digital snap shot. You had an instant image that could be sent almost anywhere on the planet. Before that, you had to transfer everything to your computer and then you could send it. How ancient is that.
Now, we can shoot in almost any environment. Any condition. As long as you have a cell signal, you can beam it to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or where ever you display your work. You can even modify the print via an Apple iPhone/iPad photography app. If you’re old like me, this is amazing. It’s amazing to be able to do this on the fly when you’re out and about.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love this new photography technology.
What was your first camera phone?
Take care,
LkM
