No new pictures to post today, so I thought that I'd dip into the archives a bit and put up a few pictures that we have "laying about" on the computer.

Here we see Madelyn at Halloween being tortured by her Mom, who has her dressed for ridicule in a pumpkin outfit. Madelyn is not happy about this at all.

In this picture, Madelyn and Dad, the great debaters argue over the relative merits of early bedtimes.

Harry the hippo stares down Dad after a hard day.

"Who the hell is that, and what is he doing here?" Madelyn makes early notes on Dad as Grandma helps her get a better view.

Grandma King assures Madelyn that she is gearing up to do some serious spoiling.

Why settle for just one stuffed friend when you can have two? 

Just what every girl needs: a bear as big as she is. 

The mighty bear vanquished, Madelyn laughs at the simplicity of her foe and demands the minivan's finest meats and cheeses be brought to her. 

On the ride home Madleyn grapples with a stuffed dog and a stuffed bear locked in mortal combat. 

A view from the top: Chicago's finest look down upon the masses and decide their pitiful fates as they soak in a game of baseball. Not really, actually we sat in the box and sampled as much free food as we could. 

My view from the 'box at Comiskey Park (U.S. Cellular Field). 

The Akins: My gracious hosts at the White Sox game. 

Andrea, Lili, Laura and Nick look down on the plebians from the skybox.

Madelyn takes a break from vigorous slpashing of her parents to strike a happy pose for the camera. 

"I said I wanted to see fireworks!!" 

A happy Mom and her happy little girl. 

Being a little girl can be hard in a big world; Afraid of the wind, Madelyn snuggles in next to Dad as we watch the orchestra rehearse. 

Mom and Madelyn watch as Dad imitates the paparazzi 

The picnic site. 

Madelyn shows Mom how to properly picnic. 

Without proper time to prepare, Dad reveals his inner nerd on on display by the grill. 

Madelyn holds down the picnic site on her first 4th of July. 

Mom has a monkey on her back. 

The lay of the land

In my ongoing pursuit of milking the internet for interesting and cool things, I've finally come across something that would be considered cool by just about anyone.

For those of you who have not come to visit Erin and I in beautiful, stunning, and glorious West Lafayette, here's a quick bird's eye view of the town. You can see the Bowen Lab in the foreground, and in the distance (upper left) you can see Erin and my apartment.

FYI, you can get these images for free from Google earth. Very cool stuff. I recommend downloading it as soon as possible as there was about a week wait while Google got themselves caught up with the demand. Here's the link if you're interested.

http://earth.google.com/ Enjoy!

This is the face of a highly mobile baby. 

"C'mon Dad, Let me take just one..." 

"Is that a camera you have there??" 

A girl and her tiger-xylophone. 

"Someone told me that drumsticks were dark meat, but I'm not finding this one all that tasty." 

"I went to ER and all I got was the measles and this Xylophone from Dad."