Happy 2010

Now that it is almost February, and the snow is (almost) all melted, I'll go ahead an put up a new post. I was going to make a New Years resolution to blog more often, but then I remembered that I don't do resolutions. Too much work.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas, surrounded by all manner of friends and relatives. New Year's Eve was a night to remember as well, if only we could remember all of it.

The Kid, being 2, really cleaned up this year. Loved everything she got, especially her new rocking horse, which she promptly dubbed "Midnight". Oh, how she loves to gallop along.





We spent time with our Midshipman, to whom The Kid is becoming more and more attached.



Graduation day in 2012 is going to be tough. On all of us, methinks.

Now, for no particular reason, The Kid, with donut. And a donut shirt. Very po-mo.



Lastly, The Wife was out of town last weekend, leaving me to watch The Kid for 3 entire days. Haven't done that in over a year. Saturday was crummy weather-wise, so that meant a lot of playing in the house. On Sunday, I decided to take The Kid where all little girls love to go and probably dream about. That's right, the Greater Washington Model Railroad Expo. We rounded up Grandma and Grandpa and then made our way to the Dulles Expo Center.

Before I get to the pictures and (gasp) video, a quick warning to reader Toolbox:

Please, please try and contain yourself, especially when you realize that your granddaughter absolutely LOVED all of this. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Back to the expo. The place was packed, and was quite impressive.



All the different scales (HO, N, Z, etc.) were represented by some truly astonishing layouts. Here's a switchyard in (I think) N-scale.



Thomas was there, of course, in may different forms. There was even a Thomas that the kids could ride, but the line for that went pretty much all the way around the building, and could have ended somewhere in West Virginia for all I know. We kept The Kid away from that particular part of the exhibit hall.

One of the modelers had built a special Thomas track that the little ones could see. Nice touch. Note the Lexan sneeze/drool/booger shield.





So yeah, she liked it well enough. She liked the big ones too. Here's a representative example.

After we got home, The Kid apparently decided that she wanted to hypnotize me into getting her a train set.



Like I would ever refuse...