I Told the Truth

So, remember that old Mormon commercial where the little urban kids are playing baseball in the street and one of them whacks a ball through the curmudgeonly old mans front window. His friends encourage him to run, but he chooses not to. He bursts into song to declare that telling the truth is what he did, and he's very proud of this. The old man softens and they go off to get ice cream and discuss the inner workings of the game of life.

This is more or less exactly what happened a week or so ago when my little boy T busted the window of my parents neighbors house. The part that isn't shown in the commercial is where the dad goes over to offer to pay for the window. Then the neighbor gives the dad's mom the bill for a 4 foot square pane of glass that, with installation, comes to almost $350. And then the dad takes back all his sons Christmas presents in order to teach another life lesson. Ok, so I didn't do that last part, but it did cross my mind. And I'm wondering why it cost $350? I think the guy got scammed, but didn't care because he knew that it actually was I who was being scammed. Not that I'm bitter, but if I knew it was going to cost that much, I would have chucked a few rocks through the window too. But I didn't. And I don't regret it. . .really. . .well, not much at least. But it proves just one thing. Replacing my parents neighbors window has occured, and the one that T broke on the back of our house a couple Easters ago still hasn't. It's kind of a bummer.

In other news of the kids doing things they're not supposed to be doing. A couple days ago they opened a combined 10 or so of their Christmas presents. They put them away after they opened them, so that was nice, but they didn't try to be sneaky about it at all. They just told my wife they did it, and they were very excited about getting the few things they saw. Little E opened her Cinderella Barbie doll and threw a mighty fit when it was taken from her to be rewrapped. But they haven't done it since. Or if they have, they've moved onto step two of the gift sneaking, where you just poke holes in things, or gently tear back around the tape to see what's inside. And just don't go whole hog on it and take all the wrapping paper off. Then throw away the paper, then put the toys away and tell Mom what you've received for Christmas.

One more thing I must mention. T has been playing this rhyming game with us in the car for a long time now, too long really. Where you have to say two words that rhyme, and we take turns rhyming things. It's super fun. Next time you're at home with your family and there's nothing on TV and nowhere to go, play the rhyming game. I'm telling you, it's non-stop fun. So lately, Little E has been trying to get in on the game, but at this point, she hasn't really figured out how to get two words that rhyme. So she'll just say two words that pop into her head, like Puppy, and House. For a while T was trying to rhyme any word he could with 'Hole' like pole, and toll, and whole, and bowl, and foal, and. . .well, you get the idea. So Little E had been taking it upon herself to find a word that rhymed with hole and was very unsuccessful. Now lately in the morning it's been very foggy, and as such, has inspired T to rhyme words with Fog, so he'll say things like, 'Fog and dog' which is a rhyme, or 'Fog and Frog' again, also a rhyme. Well, Little E had been having a hard time rhyming hole, so she thought she'd try it with 'fog'. This obviously doesn't rhyme, however with her 2 and a half year old enunciation skills, when she yells out, "Fog and Hole!" It doesn't sound like fog and hole at all. As a matter of fact, it sounds much more like what you'd call a trampy female. Or perhaps as an insult thrown between women. Yes folks, if you haven't guessed it, she's yelling out something that sounds exactly like, "F#&*ing Ho!!" Which is at the same time hilarious and horrifying. Because I don't want my little girl yelling out this phrase. Of course, she has no idea what she's saying, but once my wife and I started laughing at this, she realized that this phrase got a wonderful response, so she started yelling it out over and over. I'm going to get it on video, and then try to get her to stop saying it. Don't want that one being yelled out in chuch.

The Wanderer

I had ideas to talk about the ongoing saga that is my search for contacts for my eyeballs. Which is still happening, apparently the contact that I'm waiting for was never ordered. I was going to discuss my children opening a bunch of their presents this morning after I left for work and before their mom got up. I was going to talk about how our little kitten has gone from shy, sick little orphan to triumphant, healthy, attacky Bobcat. But then I saw this story in the paper and had to share. And I had to drop in my thoughts as I see them fit. Which shall be placed within these symbols -* *-. And we're off.

Boy, 4, breaks into Texas -*already good*- store, plays with toys

The Associated Press

Posted: 12/15/2008 12:44:45 PM PST

Updated: 12/15/2008 12:49:24 PM PST

BEAUMONT, Texas—Police called to a variety store by a burglar alarm overnight found a toddler inside, playing with the toys. -*como what? *- Police said store surveillance video showed the unidentified boy trying to open one of the front doors to a Family Dollar store -*not to be confused with the Adult Dollar stores*- about 3 a.m. Monday, only to find it locked. -*The dollar store has surveillance video...to stop thieves from stealing the crap found at the dollar stores. *- But the second door was unlocked -*whose responsible for locking the doors? And why weren't they able to lock both of them?*- and the child went inside.

That triggered the silent alarm.-*Again...silent alarm? At the Family Dollar store? WTF? *-

Detective Randy Stevens said the child apparentlyunlocked a door at his nearby home, got out, then crossed a multilane street to reach the store. -*Apparently? Well, he did or he didn't, police work should have been able to ascertain that information. So whose locking the doors at this kids house? Perhaps it's the same person who should have locked up the Family Dollar store?*-

A canvass of the neighborhood turned up a family member searching for the child.-*A family member? Like a second cousin? Who noticed the kid was gone at 3 in the morning? Were they doing a sweep of their house after making their last batch of Meth and discovered, "Hey, didn't we have a small child living here a few minutes ago?*-

CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said Child Protective Services claimed oversight of a 4-year-old boy during a review of the incident. The boy will be allowed to stay with other relatives, not the parents, during the CPS review period.-*Possibly these are the family members who were searching for the child at 3 in the morning!*-

And scene.

It's really a story that warms the cockels of your heart, no? So to make up for those who feel sorry for the kid. (Which I do, but hey, he got to play with toys all by himself for a while. Who didn't have dreams of breaking into a toy store and playing with everything there.) A smile inducing picture of my kids, who haven't yet wandered off into a Family Dollar store. But they did laugh with mirth and joy when they heard about this story.

Graded on a Curve

We made our parent/teacher conference yesterday. And I'm pleased to say that our little guy's doing fine. He's either at or above where he should be except for two little pieces. One is his art, which is mostly because he goes so fast that he's not concerned with neatness. The other is his storytelling abilities can sometimes interfere with the flow of the class. But for the coloring, the teacher said, "He's a boy, though." And when she was talking about the neatness of his handwriting, she said, "He's a boy, though." So I guess because he's a boy, we don't have to worry about neatness. It's possible that's hereditary, however, because if this wasn't typed, you probably wouldn't be able to make it out with the way I write.

So it was a good meeting and all in all, he's doing just as he should be for a Kindergarten student who only spends three and a half hours in class each day. He's not the smelly kid, or the annoying kid, or the bully, or the idiot, or the goofy looking one. He's just another kid in the class who tells some involved stories. And I'm good with that.

Candy Cane

Well boys and girls, it's been a few days now since we've last spoken monitor to monitor. There hasn't been much happening of late. T was throwing rocks over my parents fence and broke one of their neighbor's windows. So I got to be the dad and go over there and meet them and offer to pay for the broken window. Unfortunately they seem to be willing to let me pay for it. I was hoping that they'd say, "Oh, no it's cool. Kids will be kids. Don't worry about it, we were planning on replacing this window anyway." But they didn't. I don't suppose I would either. Of course, this means that we now want to replace the window that T broke a couple Easters ago. That one was from him hitting a small plastic golf ball from across the yard and splintering the outer pane of glass. He managed to put a hole in the outer pane of the neighbor's window. It's a decent hole also.

Also, the cat's feeling better. Or if she's not feeling better she seems to be on the road to recovery. Which is good since I'm almost out of the antibiotic and it seems to have gone bad. I don't know why. But now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I was supposed to keep it in the fridge or something. I dunno. But her eyes aren't nearly as gunky and she's much more energetic now. So all is going well.

I also found out last night that my kids don't like candy canes. T had been working on me to get one off the tree since last Thursday. So I told him that if he was good all weekend and ate all his dinner he could have one. So he ate all his dinner and was pretty good through the weekend, and as such he got his candy cane. And since his little sister can't bear to just watch him eat something, and since this particular candy cane was fairly big. I split it not so evenly for the two of them. Little E took a huge bite of hers and just started chomping away. T was a little more delicate and went the route of trying to make it into a small spear. About five minutes later, T comes over and tells me that he does not, in fact, like candy canes. So he threw it out. Shortly after him, Little E came over and informed me that she also, is not a fan of the candy cane. So now I'm the only one in my house who actually likes candy canes. How strange. I thought all kids would love those things. It's a stick of sugar, what's not to like? But I suppose that it's better that they don't. It's one less thing I have to worry about them trying to sneak while I'm still sleeping on the weekends.

The End

Well boys and girls, I didn't make it, and as such I've updated the little pic on the right. It's been a long month and I did a lot better than I thought I would, but there was a lot of filler in there. The trial made things a bit more difficult as I wasn't allowed to say anything about it. And now with our new kitty, who has a bit of a bacterial infection, things have been busier than normal. She went missing for a while a couple days ago, then she turned up in our pantry. Also, we have (and by we I mean I) to give her eye drops that aren't actually drops, it's a gel that needs to be applied directly to her eyes. This is a difficult thing to do. That's supposed to be three times a day, for her kitty pink eye. Then there's the oral antibiotic, which is also difficult to get her to swallow. This is given to her with a small syringe into which I load .3 mL and have to get into the corner of her mouth so she can't spit it out. I only have to do this one twice a day, for the sneezing, which is kinda funny, and also kinda sad.

I hope you enjoyed this almost perfect posting month, I'll write back if something exciting happens. I'm hoping to plant around 100 onion plants that my uncle gave me soon. Ponder that if you dare.

Thankful

I'm really falling apart with this posting thing now. But it's the day before Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for. One is that the trial is over. The defendant was found guilty of second degree burglary. It was second degree because nobody was home. It was quite an experience and I actually didn't think it was horrible. I enjoyed it and hope I'm never sitting in that defendants chair. It doesn't look comfortable.

In other news...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy the turkey tomorrow and if you're travelling, drive safe.

All Together Now

Well, it seems that I've missed a day. But with the craziness that is now my house, I should be forgiven for this misstep. And now, for your viewing pleasure, our newest family member. It's a Girl!! Who is still unnamed.

All the Cats Join In

In order to keep the streak alive, and since I don't have anything particularly witty to say tonight. Here's a bad picture of the cat scratching post me and my dad made today. Again, the cat should be coming home Monday. And no, we didn't go visit her today, because they said that even though we've paid for her and agreed to take her home, we can't go and bond because she's somewhere else at the present moment.

So the picture...
Ta-da!

One More Day

As they say, I still can't talk about the trial. I can say that Monday morning should bring the case to us, the jury, and from there it's gonna take whatever time we take to make our decision. In kitten news, we got more toys tonight, utilizing our 20% off coupon from the shelter. Which allowed us to purchase an actual, real carrier for my little brother to bring our new family member home in. We also got a bunch of little balls and the like, because they were 25 cents each. Instead of a dollar each. I know, total bargain hunter, right?

On another note, I saw a sign today in Martinez for a Jim Jones Realty. Now I ask you, when you hear the name Jim Jones, do you think to yourself, "Hey, here's a guy who's got his head on straight and could totally find me the house of my dreams."? Or, do you think, "Hey, isn't Jim Jones that guy who made everybody drink the cyanide Kool-Aid in Jonestown?" I think of the latter, which is why I find it difficult to believe that a man named the same as a man who set up a village in a South American jungle to bring people to in which to die, would do well as a realtor. But I guess anythings possible.

Kitty

Remember that first rule about Jury Duty? Well, still applies. However, I'm told by our Honorable Judge that we're ahead of schedule and we may begin deliberations as early as Monday. This is wonderful news as previously we had thought we wouldn't get the case until Wednesday. I'm going to have the joy of being able to go to work in the morning tomorrow, as Jury Duty won't start until 1:45 tomorrow. But there I go, almost breaking that second rule.

On a happier note, we adopted a kitty today. We won't be able to actually pick up the kitten until Monday as it needs to be spayed. And they're booked until that morning. I can't find an actual picture of our cat, but it looks similar to this one:

It's not this one, but it looks very similar. We did look at this little lady also, and as awesome and playful as she was, it was, we thought, a bit much for our little guys to learn that when this one scratches and bites at them, she's just playing. So the other one was much calmer and is a-comin' home on Monday. We're still thinking of names, if you have any good ones, throw them into the hat by utilizing that comment link below.

Secret

I'd tell you about what happened today during the trial, but court is like Fight Club. And the first rule of Jury Duty, is that you don't talk about Jury Duty. I was able to take T to school today, so that was nice, we were almost on time. I probably contributed to his first tardy of the year. And on the way over he and E watched Wall-E on my iPod for the van ride. It came with the special edition of the DVD we purchased yesterday. It's kinda nifty, but the screen is extremely tiny for a movie that big. I also am thinking that this may not be good knowledge for them to have. The ability to watch this particular film on the ride anywhere. My van is pre-DVD in seats.

On a similar, yet totally unrelated note. We're closer to getting that pet cat, and it now may be a kitten.

The Trial

Well folks, I am a trial juror. And as I'm not allowed to speak about the case until it's over (and if you want to pay me for the story, that's cool, but we have to wait 90 days from trial's end.) So it's supposed to go until the day before Thanksgiving. So I have a week or so of this to look forward to. And you, poor suffering readers, do as well. I'm going to keep up this daily posting, if for no other reason that it's become sort of a personal challenge. And I've made it over halfway through now.

Silent Jury

I'm learning the intricate funness of jury duty. After spending the morning in a courtroom I was excused at 10, but needed to return at 1:30. At which point I commenced to stand, sit, and even crouched catcher style on the floor. Why the floor? Well, dear amigos, because there were more people than seats in this particular jury selection process. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that there was one extra person there because she just wanted to come with her husband. Her husband couldn't speak any English beyond being able to let people know he couldn't speak English. So that sucked.

And now, because the first round of jury selection isn't yet complete, I get to go back there tomorrow morning for the end of it. I don't know if I'll be serving on the jury yet or not. But as I know you can't wait to find out, updates tomorrow folks.

Good Intentions

We got a bunch of new stuff for the left behind cat by my in-laws house. Most of our day was spent at stores getting these essentials, like food and bowls for the food and a couple toys to make our house fun. All this went well and I got over to their house to get the cat and I discovered that this cat didn't really like me much. Which was odd for me, because usually animals are fond of me. However this one attempted to amputate my hand. Twice. And it spent a few minutes with its ears back hissing at me.

So since this cat was attacking me and showing me some fairly hostile signs. It didn't come home with me. Now we're looking into the shelters. We'll see what happens. But we both want a cat now. I'm disappointed that this one didn't work out, but excited to get maybe a kitten for the kids to play with.

Gather

Keeping this amazing streak alive tonight will require a bullet list. So here it is:

• Little E's still sick, but almost better, but now she sounds like that 90 year old lifetime smoker.
• T's all better now, and today got a donut for breakfast, chocolate and sprinkles, so it was a fun hyper morning. Thank God it was nice outside today. Getting him out of this house helped for a while.
• Lovely Wife went with her mom to the holiday craft fair today, but it's one of those things that spells fair, 'faire' which makes it worse. But she spent the whole day away from home leaving me in care of the kids.
• I get to go to jury duty on monday. And i'm stoked about that one. 8:30 in the am isn't that early when i normally start work at 7:30. but since it's by the courthouse and there's no parking, it means i'll have to get there even earlier.
• there's a possibility that we'll be getting a cat soon. my in-laws former neighbors have a cat that they've left behind. they moved out about 6 months ago and have neglected to take their poor cat with them. the cat loves the kids and is really cool. so we'll see how it goes. we may have a cat soon. something to try to eat our fish, which is still alive

• 'till next time.

Growing Pains

A shorter post than normal tonight. Our son has what I believe to be growing pains. Which sucks because I remember having them, and it's horrible. You can't do anything about it and it wakes you up at night. Just misery. Also, he's such a good sharer that he's allowed his little sister to have his old cold. So she's got herself a little fever and a nifty sounding voice and cough. So I'm going to be caring for their welfare for a while and probably a few times throughout the night.

Everything's Changed

I got an email from my Uncle today who let me know that not only was that Mervyn's closing, but the Long's next door was turning into a CVS, and the Circuit City where my cousin had his first, and to this day only, real job was closing down. I worked at that Circuit City for a few months also. He was sad that these small parts of his life were coming down. He's shopped at these stores for years and had made some friends at the Long's. I know what it's like to lose a physical location that's a part of your past. The first house I ever lived in was purchased by a local Salvation Army church and turned into a parking lot. So what few memories I have from that small little house are now unable to be recreated by a simple walkthrough, or mosey past.

Also the beloved ol' Chevy was destroyed by some idiot drunk kids. So that sucks also. Almost more than the house. Ah well, it's all in the past now.

Takin' Care of Business

I just saw this when I was out at lunch, and decided to share it with anyone who happens to stop by here. This is a picture of the Mervyn's outside the local mall, and like all the others, it's going out of business, as the giant banner under their name would indicate. However, unlike most of the others, they're still hiring, as the sign under the giant banner indicates. So if you're looking for a temp job that's guaranteed to end soon? This is the place.


I'm not sure who the lady on the cell phone is, but I took this out the window of my van, and she wouldn't move. I guess it gives a sense of scale or something.

The Day Off

Had the day off today. I thought it would be nice to relax, what with the little guy no feeling well and all. But instead, he was feeling much better today. It's good that he's well again, but he had 3 days of pent up energy inside him that had no outlet but crazy, crazy destructive force. His sister has the ability to counter most of his attacks. This led to instances of her crying, followed closely by him crying.

Luckily, we've just all discovered a wonderful game, Lego Star Wars 2. We, especially me, have been having an amazing time playing. It's great for T also, because it's really simple game play. Also it's hilarious. And it led me to find this great little movie.

All Things in Time

T's officially got a decent cold for himself. It's rough to hear your 5-year-old sound like a 87-year-old lifetime smoker. He did feel well enough yesterday with the rest of the fam, joined by my two little bros. Unfortunately when we got to the bowling alley (where we had a certificate for two free hours including shoes) we were informed that although there were about 30 open lanes, all of them were being reserved for league, and it would be a wait of around an hour. This was a problem as that meant we wouldn't be done until almost 7. So we had to try to explain to our little sick guy that even though there were so many empty lanes, we couldn't use them because the people who worked at the bowling place had confusing rules. So we bribed him with Mini golf instead.

It was a fun time for the most part, T just went through the holes as quickly as possible, and after hole 7, Little E no longer had any interest in playing. So she just wandered around the holes and got our balls out of the cup. We skipped a couple holes and finished early, as T was sounding worse. One of my brothers got himself a hole-in-one on the last hole. We thought this meant a free game, but all he got was a coupon for one dollar off the next time he comes. It's $7.50 a round. We get coupons for a buy one get one free round in the mail. So to sum that up, this place is a rip off. Severe rip off. T enjoyed it, and asked if we could come back again someday. So I told him, "Yeah, of course." And I meant it, but we're bringing more coupons next time. Or hopefully, the bowling alley will just let us play.

Good Intentions

I had this great plan today to fill out this post with wonderful information about our night out for the wife's birthday, which got us back home at a little after 9. I had ideas about talking about the great times that were going to be our bowling fun, that turned into mini-golf. I even had ideas about how awesome I've discovered Lego Star Wars 2 to be. And of course, T's got himself a nasty little cold. But it's late, I'm tired. And I'm going to bed. But keep your fingers crossed my friends, if you're good, and you're lucky. I'll regale you with all these wonderful tales tomorrow. Or sometime later this week. I've got Tuesday off, and I'm thrilled about that.

When I Think About Cheating

Not that I'm a cheater, but this is an awesome cover by one of the greatest bands ever.

Happy Birthday to You

I want to take this opportunity to wish my beautiful wife a Happy Birthday! She's now caught up to me in years, and if I don't watch my back, she'll overtake me.

Meet Me on Main Street

I just read that Disney shares have fallen due to poor attendance at their theme parks. However, my in-laws are doing what they can to help out as they left today for Disneyland. Again. They had some unfortunate timing in their lives as they scheduled their wedding on the same day that their baby girl would one day be born upon. So since my wife grew up sharing her birthday with her parents anniversary, she's grown accustomed to them leaving her on her birthday to celebrate their anniversary. And for the past 10 years or so, they've been celebrating in Disneyland. I don't know what makes that any more special than the 14+ other trips they take there during the year. But I guess it is. And I'm not kidding about the other trips, they have friends that work at Disneyland that will take them to the employee only store.

(My wife is reading over my shoulder and has informed me that 10 years isn't entirely accurate. She has been invited to three of their anniversary celebrations in Disneyland and so was with them on her birthday. I'm all about accuracy.)

Blind Sight

I got my third or fourth set of contacts today. I'm wearing now, and they work better than any of the others I've had so far. Maybe these will finally work. The one thing I don't understand is that I have to wear them for at least 3 hours before my appointment with the eye doctor. And that is so they have the opportunity to fit as good as possible. If that's so, then that would mean the first three hours will be filled with horrible vision. This is not good as I'm not a morning person and anything to make me more cantakerous in the a.m. is not always a good thing. So keep the fingers crossed...although if you don't, I won't be able to see it very well. Not with these contacts in. I really don't want to be stuck with glasses as my only option for good vision.

Political Science

People are out voting. And a bunch of them are here. At my work. In two separate rooms. And the most annoying part of this is that people coming to vote have been parking in my employee spot. I'm unable to get there because of these idiots. I may have keyed the first car that was there just a bit, but if I did it was totally on accident. As is the dent that my van door may have put in the little Scion. Because not only did they park in an employee spot, but they were over the line just a bit.

I used to work with the public for a long time, and one of the many things I learned was people are stupid. In general, they're not smart. To paraphrase Agent K in Men in Black, a person is smart, but people are dumb. And judging by the way the polls are shaping up, I'd have to agree.

I'm extremely happy that today is election day because now I won't have to be bothered by all these people campaigning for my vote. I've known what I'm voting for quite some time now and want the world to go back to normal. It looks like Obama will probably win. Which I'm fine with, I've resigned myself to that outcome. My question now is, what will all the problems be blamed on in a couple years. He's not going to fix everything, and already has backed off his previous stances on Iraq. I'm not saying that McCain would fix everything, but since he's a republican, everyone would still be able to say, "See, that's why we shouldn't have voted for him." But with the chosen one coming into office. The blame stops at him. I'm already noticing a lack of satire pointed at him, when I see SNL they go after McCain, Palin, and Biden, but they leave Obama alone. This may be because Fred Armison does a crappy impression, but still. And where will the Daily Show go now? They're losing their cash cow in W. and will now have to find something to say about Obama. It should be an interesting four years. And for the sake of our nation, I hope he can do all the things he says he can. But I seriously doubt it.

And that's about as political as this blog will ever get.

Meet Me In the Bathroom

It's been a slow start for us to try to potty train our Little E. And this morning at about 6:20, while I was still waking up and getting ready for the day, she dropped a delicate little deuce in her princess potty. It wasn't all her idea. And to be totally honest, the thought probably never crossed her mind. I was getting ready to head out the door and she told me she had poopies in her diaper. So since my lovely wife was taking a shower and unable to help her at that time, I started to change her. At the point where I got her diaper off, I noticed that the little poop factory was still churning out product. So I ran her over to her little potty and she was very hesitant about it. But once she laid that log in there, she was feeling pretty good about herself. So we got her potty sticker book out (in which she gets to place a sticker for each attempt, whether sucessful or otherwise) she spent a good 5 minutes picking out her stickers and placing them ever so carefully on the construction paper that makes up her binder. I know that the completion of her potty training is still quite some time off, but this was a big step for her, to realize that she's not going to explode or anything when she goes in the potty. I've read that there can be some fear of the ol' number 2 in little kids. Something about the fact that a part of her body is disappering forever...or whatever. But now with this big step out of the way, perhaps she won't be as hesitant about these things. The sooner we can stop paying for her diapers the better.
Also, if you're eating or anything, you may not want to read this post.

Daughter

My wife took T to Marine World today with her parents and left me with Little E. So I took her for a little Daddy/Daughter bonding special time. We had a great time going to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. I hadn't been there in years, and honestly, I think I used to go into a different building. It's a lot of fun to see all the animals. They had hawks, owls, falcons, foxes, and a bald eagle. They also had two brown bears taxidermied and standing on their hind legs. This was enough to make her a bit uneasy around them. I asked her to stand by one so I could get a picture with my phone and instead she chose a less imposing animal.
I know that the photo isn't that spectacular, but it was just my phone. I was able to get her to leave the museum by promising her she'd get to go to the park right next to it. And then was able to get her to leave the park by promising her to take her to the Disney Store, and got her out of the store by promising her food. And I delivered. And now with the time change, I'm somewhat beat and it's not even 9 yet. Of course, my body believes it's almost 10. I'm always in adjustment.

Be Prepared

So I thought I'd give this NaBloPoMo thing a shot. I've seen bloggers I respect have trouble with this, and as someone who only has a little over 80 posts for the entire year, this may be somewhat complicated. But what the hay? It hopefully will happen. So for my dozen readers, be prepared for some fluff style blog pieces. Or maybe some hard hitting think pieces. Either way, it should be fun!

Jovial Costume

My little trick-or-treaters. Both good guys still. A Care Bear to fight the forces of animated evil and those who refuse to care. And a cop to protect and serve. I hope he doesn't go the other way when he's older. We walked farther this year than we have in the past. They made out extremely well. One house was giving out full size bags of Skittles. They even got their choice of regular or sour. T took regular for himself and chose a sour bag for his sister.
This was after the parade at his school. He claims not to know who this little girl is. But I suspect otherwise. What is he learning in that Kindergarten class?

Homework

I've discovered something very interesting about my boy. It seems that he loves his homework. It's gotten to the point now where we went and got him a ginormous workbook from Costco which has about 700+ pages of worksheets for him to do. These range from the simple letter tracing to the more complex word sounds and such.

His teacher gives him a packet of homework on Monday to turn back in on Friday, but these four or five sheets simply can't hold him over. So he'll ask if he can do more homework. We, of course, allow this as we want to encourage the doing of homework. It has gotten to the point now where we're starting to use the doing of homework as a way to get him to behave. Like it's candy or something. So when he starts throwing his fits, I now get to say, "Stop that, or no homework." And I actually get to say that seriously. It's very odd. And yet, somehow, satisfying. One thing to remember is that this is only Kindergarten, and honestly, I don't know anyone who didn't like Kindergarten. I'd love to be back in that class. But instead, I'm all grown up and having alternators replaced in the minivan I drive. Yup, it's pretty sweet. The bonus of that is it should take care of the battery issues I've been having lately.

Of course all this pales in comparison of the problem that we may be having in a couple days as it may be raining on Halloween. This has the potential to be one of the largest disasters in the history of my young boys life. He's been counting down the days for over three weeks now and we're going to be going one way or the other, the only question is now, will the weather hold out. I'm hoping so, because I don't want to carry Little E around while holding an umbrella. I also don't want to walk the mall again. We did that a few years ago and it wasn't pretty.

Sleepwalk

A new phenomena is happening at my house. My children no longer go to sleep at night. I believe that it's mostly being caused by my 2-year-old daughter who, a few weeks after getting her Big Girl Bed, discovered that she could get out of it on her own and wander around the house. So now, when we put her down at around 7:30ish, she'll have her candy (Flintstone vitamin), her milk and stories read and lay there for around 25-30 minutes. Then, she starts a-wandering. She'll usually come out first down the hall into the toy room and explain that she needs some random toy. We'll usher her back down the hallway and put her back in bed. About 5 minutes later, she comes out to say she can't find something. Most of the time it's one of her plethora of animals or dolls she sleeps with. We'll put her back to bed. Another five minutes or so later, she'll come out and by now, T's noticed that his little sister is out wandering and will come join her. They don't really want anything at this point, so T comes up with some type of story to explain why he's out there. Last night it was because he wanted to make sure that he'd get his Transformer fruit snacks in his lunch for Kindergarten the next day. And back to bed they go. Last night, she started something new. She pushed her little stepstool out to the hallway light switch and just stood there flipping the light on and off, waiting for someone to come and get her, because by 8:45 or so, it's just a fun game. By 9, she's out of excuses and reasons to get out of bed, so she'll just wander out into the living room and stare at us until we come put her back to bed. She will eventually fall asleep. Around 9:30-10.

She can then get up at about 2 in the morning and come into our room and very quietly say, Mommy? over and over, then she'll come over to my side and say Daddy? I'm awake. until I tell her to go back to bed. Then at about 5 in the morning, she'll come back in and let us know she can't find her sucker. So we'll tell her it's in her bed and she needs to go there and lay down some more. Then at about 6ish, she'll come find me to let me know she's awake. And at this point we'll put her in our bed and turn on Pooh, or Mickey or Ses or something so she'll lie there and be still.

Of course, if I got to take a nap between 11 and 3 in the afternoon, I guess I'd be able to stay up later and wake up early too. But I can't sleep at work. Not really, anyway. Thank God for DVRs.

Pretty Picture

You may be asking where I've been lately. But more likely, you're not. We had our last game on Friday and it went well enough. The other team only had 5 player show up, so we took those 5 kids and brought them over to our dugout and combined the teams and I got to pitch the whole game. Of course, since there were only 5 kids, they didn't have either one of their two main coaches either. Another reason I'm not coaching next year.

And so to make up for the lack of typing here, I'm just going to put some pictures up. Enjoy!

Little E's new bed. Which she enjoys and shares with all her little animal friends. Like Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Or Cinderella, or Snow White, or Giselle. Hmmm, they just keep coming along, eh? This was taken back when she first got the bed also. Now? She's got two more dogs, Snow White, Cinderella, and a Care Bear.

Remember that black eye he got by jumping into the windowsill? There it is. This is the eye that caused his teacher to ask if he was okay and what had happened to his eye.

Cookies at the Pumpkin Patch. I like this pic, because it proves that they love each other. At least right at this particular moment. We'll see how it goes in another 10 years or so.

Family Coach

Two games to go. One tonight, and the last one on Friday. I had one of my players at the last game tell me something interesting, but before I get to that, some important information. I have as many parents as I can help me out during these games, and a couple have helped every game, which I appreciate very much. They are the mother and father of one of the players. Their son is a Junior. It seems to me as though the father is a bit to preoccupied with the direction of his sons baseball career. Towards the beginning of the season, I'd asked if anyone wanted to play with the other team, as they were short players. Junior volunteered and then had a talking to by his dad, after which he came back to the dugout and told me that he "wanted to play with his teammates and not desert them." I don't know any five-year-olds who would ever say that they don't want to desert something, or even that they don't want dessert. So anyway, Junior's dad is always trying to get the kids to do drills that are a bit to advanced for their skill level. He's also got this habit of trying to run infield before the games. And during these little pre-game warm-ups, he's got Junior at shortstop each and every time. So apparently, he feels that his boy will be a shortstop when he grows up. Which is fine, but kids that small can't make the throw from short to first. This always seems to discourage his dad who then tells him to get more on his throws. As if just yelling at him will somehow make him throw the ball farther. So he's a bit of an overinvolved, living through his son type of father. This little preamble will make the next part of this story a bit more interesting.

His son told me at the last game that he doesn't have to listen to me because I'm not really the manager. I asked him who the manager was and he pointed to his dad and said, "He is. He signed up to be manager and wanted it, so he should be manager. And since he wanted to be the manager, I don't have to listen to you because you're not really the manager." I found all this very interesting as I was told by the VP of the league that there weren't any managers for this particular team, which is why I was called the day before the first meeting to sign up my son and run this team. So either he didn't really sign up, or they decided that they'd go outside of the kids who were actually signed up and ask me back. I'm going to go with both of those options. That being that they didn't want him running a team (for reasons I totally understand), and with the requests for me as a manager, they asked me instead. This also helps inflate my little ego. But really, it's not that little. Anyhoo, I didn't bring this up with the parents of this particular kid, as there's only two games left. One more after tonight. One more game and we're not playing fall ball ever again. It's going to be time next year to branch out into other sports. Perhaps basketball. Maybe there's a nice 6 and under lacrosse league out here somewhere. Or if he doesn't want to play sports, he can try soccer. Two more games.

This is an Advertisement

We went to the Western Railway Museum on Saturday to visit the pumpkin patch they have. The pumpkin patch was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time playing in the hay fort and running around playing the games. The main reason we went to this particular patch is you take an old electric train from the 30's into and out of the patch. You get unlimited train rides for the day and these trains have authentic ads from the 30's up along the top of the car. This is where I saw what has to be the greatest ad ever. EVER! And here it is:


You may have to view the enlarged version, but the product is called Hexol. Along the top of the ad, it shows your typical 30's housewife cleaning her bathroom and pouring some Hexol down her toilet for cleaning. The third panel at the top shows her cleaning her kitchen counters with it. The text on the bottle says, and I quote:

For Cuts, Burns, Skin Irritations, Feminine Hygiene, Tired Feet as indicated.
A pleasant Germicide, Disinfectant, Deodorant for Bathroom and Sickroom use.

At the bottom in fine print is says that it's "Non-poisonous if used as directed." It also has "a distinctly pleasant odor." So really this thing can do it all. It sounds spectacular to me and the best part is, you can still buy it. Although now they've taken some of the claims away. It may not be so good for feminine hygiene anymore.

Hit Me Baby One More Time

We played our last game in the horrible scary field last night. Thankfully the last three games of our season are being played on our own field. We did manage to get in three innings last night, which allowed everybody to get three at-bats. I also brought out the tee so that the kids who have been having trouble hitting would get a chance to. For my boy, however, all this meant was a chance to hit off the tee, which he really enjoys. So instead of hitting the pitches I threw in, he just slowly moved the bat around until the predetmined amount of pitches had passed and then took his whacks off the tee. Before his last at-bat I asked him to hit one of the pitches instead of hitting it off the tee. He said fine, and then whacked the first pitch right back at me and I wasn't quite nimble enough to get out of the way in time, and it got me on the foot. T apparently found this hilarious, as while he started running down to first, he pointed at me and laughed. Hard. And with that, I provided the humorous moment of the night.

Then last night before he went to sleep (but after he went to bed) he came out and asked if he could come to work with me again. So this morning, for the second day in a row, he came here before his Kindergarten day. I think this will be the last day for quite some time, as he only has two levels of voice, really loud or not speaking. So it's fairly loud and hard for me to be as productive as I'd like. Plus, if he starts coming every day, it won't be special anymore, and I'd hate for that to happen.

Headbanger's Ball

Well, my son is at it again. He was jumping on the couch on Saturday, which he knows he's not supposed to do. And he should remember this because the last time he did it, he cranked his head on the window sill and got a decent gash on the top of his head. But my little man didn't learn. And so on Saturday, he gave himself a black eye doing the same thing. It's a really good shiner, and as soon as I get the pics off the camera, I'll post one. None of this seems to affect his memory any, which is good, however, it seems to be slowing down his thought process some. I brought him to work with me this morning, which he loved. And before we left the house, he did his usual lunchbox check to take an inventory of what he'd be getting later that day at Kindergarten. We'd left the house and were about 20 minutes into our 45 minute drive to my work, when he asked me why he didn't have any fruit snacks in his lunch. I assured him that I'd brought some along separately, which I had, and that he'd be able to have them for his snack. I'm not sure why it took him a half hour to think of asking about that or what was running through his mind when he blurted that out, but I think that's mostly the ill effects of his constant head bumpings.

But he enjoyed going to work with me today. Of course, he spent his time eating cereal and watching Curious George while coloring and waiting for Kindergarten to start. So I suppose if my days at work were spent in the same manner, I'd be happy all day also. He may get to be happy the rest of the week, we're not sure yet. But the best part of the whole experience is the meeting that I missed most of because I had to take him to school at 9:30. So that was nice. And since you're all here, my little bro has decided to start his own little graphic design company. There's not much to the website yet, as he just purchased it today, but go check it out, bookmark it and spread the joy.

Almost Doesn't Count

Well with four games to go the season is almost over. I'm hoping for a couple rainouts in the next couple weeks to prevent some of these games from happening. I had a managers meeting last night at which the opposing manager attended. He said that this was the best season of fall ball that he'd ever been apart of in his 12 years of Little League service. That was a very disheartening thing to hear, as I think it's disorganized and pointless. We're totally signing up T for basketball next year. Or if there's no sports happening, I'll let him play soccer. The bonus there is I don't know anything about soccer, other than it's boring and also sucks. So I'll just get to sit there in a camping chair and enjoy some delicious hot chocolate while I watch 20 six-year-olds chase a ball around the grass.

On another note, I'm no longer parking in the garage. It has become obvious that it's causing to much clutter in there and I'm unable to do much of anything in there. So I've been spending the past week slowly going through everything out there and trying to gain some space to have a mini-gym in there. This process has made me tired and causes me to fight sleep off on the drive home from work. It's a dangerous thing for me to be trying to stay awake on the long boring ride home and nodding off at each stop light. I need nap time at work. That's what I need. It would help the most. But to bring this back around, I want to finish that project but can only really work on it during the weekends, as with baseball and travel time between home and all my other destinations, there's not any time during the week. It's also supposed to start raining next week, so we'll see how that goes. I haven't had to put the kids in the van in rainy weather for a while now. I need to get an umbrella.

Crazy

Seven games down, five to go. I've discovered that the real problem of this weird setup, is that the coach for the opposing team is a tool. Yup, that's mainly it. Not that I'm one of those people who spends all my time judging people using the brief interactions I may or may not of had. I'm more of a profiler hobbyist. But that is neither here nor there. We managed to get three innings in last night in a wonderful part of the downtown area. Luckily, there's only one more away game for us. We had a small show before the game yesterday, as a 350 pound black lady was sitting in front of the low rent apartments across the street from our field yelling out for the world to hear, "Help me! I'm dying!" I think that it may have had something to do with the 3 cans of 40 oz malt liquors she had laying at her feet, but that's just my unprofessional opinion. Then some of her crazy friends came out to try to help her, and were looking for someone named Johnson. I know this because they were walking up and down the street yelling, "Johnson!" Or maybe it was a lost doggie, I may never know, because finally the cops and an ambulance showed up to take the crazy screaming lady away. Which was good, because it was very distracting and confusing for my team of 6-year-olds. I'm not doing fall ball next year.

On a happier note, my wonderful 2-year-old daughter came up to me last night in her jammies and asked me if we could watch Star Wars. It's the little things like that which make her so awesome. Of course, while watching it with her, I have to take a test. But it's okay, because there's only one question. But it's repeated over and over. That question is, "Who's That?" Which is a different question from T who usually asks me why people are doing the things they're doing. So while watching, all I say is, "R2-D2. Luke Skywalker. Han Solo. Wicket. Because they're the bad guys. Darth Vader. Because they're the good guys. Ewoks. Han Solo again. X-Wing." and so on. But the key here, is that she wants to watch. And that makes me happy.

We Are the Champions

And now for something not quite as similar as the past posts. I took the kids to the library to get new books yesterday, and whilst I was there, I looked for a book on Catfish Hunter that I've been informed was a good'un. I didn't find that one, but I did find a book written a few years ago about the De La Salle football teams winning streak, which at the time was still intact. There are a couple reasons I checked it out. One, I almost went there. And that probably would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life. It's a good academic school and probably would've been fine for me. But I went to a private Catholic school from K-8, and at the interview for admission into DLS, yup folks, there was an interview for us 8th graders to get into the school. I was wearing some very stylish high top Jordans and really short socks, and was told by the person interviewing me that socks were required to be worn on the school grounds. When I told him that I was, in fact, wearing socks, he just said, "Oh." And after eight straight years of uniforms, I wasn't about to enter into a school that was going to get picky about my socks. And I know that K-8 equals nine years, but in Kindergarten, we got free dress every day. And besides that, there were no girls around anywhere until you hit Jr. and Sr. years. And I didn't need two years of nothing but guys in my classes.

The second reason I checked it out, is because it had the high school I did go to on the cover chasing a DLS running back. It's about 5 guys from Clayton Valley running after this guy in a futile attempt to catch him. Then I went to the back of the book where it shows all the DLS football scores from 1979 through 2003. The biggest win in that time frame was a 75-0 blowout over CV at a game I went to in my Senior year. I vividly remember how brutal that game was. And the DLS team during the third quarter had no starters in there anymore. They actually let CV start at their own 45 yard line on one play, and they couldn't get past the 50. It was just sad. Their second biggest blowout came against Northgate, a 70-0 victory. The 75 points is the most points they'd scored through '03. So I figured since I'd seen a small part of history, I may as well read about the team.

And also, Tony LaRussa wrote the forward, and since I'm close personal friends with one of the greatest managers of all time. . .well, I've met him a couple times and once told him about the wonders of the laptops we had at the store I was working at. Anyhoo, I figured if he thought it was worth reading, I'd give it a whirl. And since you're wondering, so far it's not that bad. But I'm only about 70 pages in right now.

Shake Your Bootie

So last night was the first step for me towards locking my little girl up in her room until she's 30. It was harmless enough to start, my wife was trying to email some pictures to her mom and there was one of those insurance ads where the girls dancing like an idiot. She saw the ladies dancing and jumped back and started imitating the little shaky style dance. And it was fun and adorable and all, then she took it a step further and shouted, "Let's dance! Look at me shake my butt!" And that's when my wife started laughing hysterically and I decided that my little girl wouldn't be allowed out of the house until I get that squeaky front porch swing, and the sawed off, rusty shotgun. Or maybe it won't be rusty and sawed off, but large and shiny. I'm not decided upon that yet. But I do know that when my 2-year-old daughter starts yelling out, "Look at me shake my butt!" It's time to start getting prepared.

And here I thought that the Britney Spears era was turning over a new leaf. Well, actually maybe just she is as I saw that a new illicit photo of her little sister breast feeding her baby is on the loose, because her boyfriend took the pictures on the memory card to the local Wal-Mart for development. Which begs the question, why are they going to Wal-Mart? Can't the Spears family afford something better? Like Target? But I guess once a redneck, always a redneck.

In other news, I showed up for a dentist appointment this morning that wasn't actually until tomorrow. It's not a fun one, as it's where they numb me up and then scrape my teeth below my gumline in order to remove plaque that I can't possibly remove myself. It's super fun. So I'll leave you with that thought for today.

Countdown

What's been happening, you say? Well, Fall Ball has been going pretty well. There's four games down and 8 to go. So I'm almost halfway through this experience. After our last game on Friday, which ended at around 6:40ish, I said good game to my kids, had them grab their stuff and sent them out to get their snacks. Meanwhile, the other team, who is comprised of mostly 6, 7, and 8-year-olds, is sitting on the bench while the assistant coach is telling them all the different things that they need to work on and that there will be a practice on Wednesday. This is in addition to the games on Monday and Friday of this week. Then, since they must not have been getting the message about their performance at the game, he had them run around the warning track. At least twice, this is after 7 now. The game has been over for at least 20 minutes, I've loaded the van up at this point and started driving away. And they were still running. Keep in mind here, that during this fall ball league, there's no umpires, no score kept, no stats, everybody hits every inning, so there's not really even any outs. The teams play without a catcher because it's coach pitch. And he's running them in the dark. Crazy stuff.

Yesterday, my lovely wife took the kids to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, formerly known as Six Flags Marine World, formerly known as Marine World Africa, USA. I didn't go as I had a tee time with my brothers and a couple of my brothers friends to play at Eagle Vines Golf Course in Napa. It was a great round and we had a blast, and I had three legitimate shots at an eagle, but missed them all. One was a par 4 that I drove the green on. That was a great drive, and a horrible putt that followed. But before I left, T wanted to know if I'd be accompanying them on their trip to Marine World. I told him I couldn't and he asked if I'd ridden the spinny roller coaster yet. I said no, and I'm not sure which one he's talking about, but he asked if I knew how it was built. Since I didn't he told me, and because I know you're curious, I'll tell you.

They go to the roller coaster store and buy the coaster in a big box. Then when they get it to the park, they take it out of the box and look at the picture of the finished coaster that's on the front of the box. Then they try to match the picture on the box with the pieces that came in it. Then once they have it all put together to match the box, they ride it. It's just that simple.

Tuesday's Gone

Good news, everyone! T's officially in his class for the rest of this year. As I believe Monday was the last day for them to bump him for someone else, I waited until after Tuesday to really enjoy our small victory. This one issue has been stressing me out slightly for the past few months as the uncertainty of my son's educational location was causing problems for us. Now, however, all is better. We'll get him a couple 'spirit shirts' buy the yearbook, join the PTA. It's gonna be a party. But not a real party, just the kind that you have in your imagination. You know, where there's confetti, and you're riding in the hot tub in the back of a limo while an adoring public toss you hundred dollar bills. Or, maybe we'll just buy him the shirts.

In other news, I'm apparently still going to be updating the Yoga site. I had determined from that email that I wrote of previously, that I was off the site. It would seem, though, that she's not to thrilled about the abilities of the new people or the way their site is set up. So I'm back on the case. Which is nice, because I like money.

Habanera

With all the goings on with politikin' right now, and all the crap that counts for cable news. I've found something that made me feel good to be an American, good to be connected to the world that dispenses news in such a manner that world news gets just as much importance as how Britney did at the VMA's. I'm also posting this just because the Muppets are awesome.

Enjoy!

I Dig Rock 'N' Roll Music

Friends, I know you are all waiting to hear about the game last night, and it wasn't nearly as smooth as I'd been promised. The other team only had nine show up, I had 16. Most of their kids are 7 and 8, most of mine are 5 and 6. It's like we were the Kindergarteners playing against the Second Graders. I had one kid who probably only stood about 2 and a half feet high and must have weighed no more than 16 pounds and had never played before in his life. He's a real nice kid but it took a long time for him to get his hit the second time. There's no tee allowed in this league, but I'm bringing one next week. This is supposed to be the instructional, sandlot style, laid back league where my kids are getting ready for their first view of coach pitch hardball. With outs and everything. Last night was the first time I saw any of my players. They have been practicing three times a week since the middle of August. Which you're not supposed to do. The only time you're supposed to see your team is at the games. So hopefully things will improve on this front soon. One of the players on the team has a board member for a mom, and she's going to talk to the coordinator for me first. I'm thinking I'll contact him tomorrow.

On a lighter note, T is apparently becoming aware that a thing called 'Rock Music' exists. And he also has enough knowledge about this where he knows that "It's supposed to be played loud." This is disrupting his bedtime ritual because he's blaring rock before going to sleep, and he is unable to sleep because of it. But I've learned his knowledge is probably of a more current nature, as the ol' iPod was shufflin' the tunes and Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song" came on. While this was playing, T asked me if I had any rock music on my player. When I informed him that this was, in fact, rock music, he asked me to turn it up. So I guess we're slowly getting there.

Eighteen

Well, she loves her new big girl bed. Even though she's already managed to fall out of it once. However, I believe that she was reaching for something when she fell down and wedged herself between her bed and the toy chest. But other than that, all is well with her sleeping through the night and enjoying every minute of it.

The biggest issue with it so far was naptime yesterday. She didn't feel like sleeping and was able to sneak out to get her big brother and the two of them ended up just playing around in their rooms for a couple hours. Which backfired on them that night when she hit the wall with her lack of energy and became a screaming mess. But back into the big girl bed, and all was well. Sleeping two year olds are the best.

Tonight is the first game for fall ball, the total roster count now is 18. That's right eighteen kids. If all of them show up, I'll be able to play them as two teams. We wouldn't need the other team. The league we're playing against was also only able to field one team, so we're going to be playing the same team twice a week for six weeks. It's going to be interesting. Hopefully the kids will keep their energy up about playing against the same kids all the time. Maybe they'll all just become best friends and I'll have to invite 36 kids to T's next birthday party. And then 32 more from the Kindergarten class. (Almost there on this one also. Just need to make it until the end of the week and we won't have to worry about this again until next year. When the whole process starts over.

Down on the Farm

Friends, I'm coaching Fall Ball this year. It's the one thing that I didn't totally want to do. I was warned by one of the more experienced T-ball coaches last season that it wasn't a great idea. However, I got a call from the guy running it asking why I hadn't signed up my son yet and if I was going to coach. Of course, this technically isn't T-ball as we've moved up a division to Farm League. Which means that the Tee is no more. They have to hit the live pitching. That's gonna be different. I had four families request me as their coach, which I guess won the pool. So about a week ago, I signed up my little guy for Fall Ball and at the same time got my team and our name. The Muckdogs. It's a pretty neat-o hat as evidenced by the logo.

So with that starting next week, we're playing 2 games a week for six weeks, but there's only one other team. So that's 12 games (for those of you who aren't math inclined) against the same opponent. This probably will be interesting. And to make it more interesting I've got 17 kids on the team. Ranging in age from 5 to 7. It isn't a great thrill for me to try to figure out how to get all those kids involved and keep them entertained at the same time. The other team, from the next city over, also has an enormous team. So these games that start at 5:30 are supposed to get three innings in, but I'm not sure if we'll be making it through 1.

I also heard from one my parents from last season that her nephew is going to be on the team this year. Her son was the one who had a High School Musical themed birthday party last year when turned 6, and she tells me that her nephew is mildly autistic. Now I'm not sure what mildly autistic means, as I have no real experience with this. Honestly the only exposure to autism I have is Rainman. I know that it's not that severe, but mildly autistic is kind of a general term for me. Hopefully one of this boys parents will be able to inform me as to what I need to look out for or if I need to be cautious of anything. Because honestly right now, I'm mildly tired, and mildly curious, and mildly looking forward to this Fall Ball season.

Let's hope that mildly autistic simply means that he isn't that great of a hitter. Because I don't think it would be any worse than the rest of the team.

Big Girl

Hello friend. It's been a while since I last spoke. T's surviving Kindergarten well, he'd rather be there than at home. We've also learned about his teachers way to show if he's supposed to go to school that day. On the calendar in the classroom, there are green apples and red apples. On the green apple days, we go to Kindergarten, on the red apple days, we don't. Which is such a great idea, we're going to get some stamps and begin that process at the house with his calendar in his room. And bonus! We're still in the class, and only have to make it 11 more days until they can't kick us out.

And since having our first born go off into the world of Kindergarten isn't enough to get us feeling like our kids are growing up, we ordered our little girl her own big girl bed yesterday. It's not coming until Friday, so I have this last week to get her out of her crib every morning, and all her animals. Which, in case your wondering, include her Pooh Bear, a Care Bear blanket, her Cinderella and Cinderella's horse, the monkey, her baby, her puppy, and her blankey. It's quite an ordeal getting them from her one at a time out of her crib, so having them on a bed that she can readily get out of will certainly make that portion of my morning easier. But the part where she's getting bigger and more grown? That's a little tougher.

The Next Day

Well, we made it. The first day of Kindergarten was survived by all. He walked right on into the classroom and the only thing he turned around for was to ask us where to put his backpack. It was a strange feeling seeing him go into a real school and not having him turn around to wave goodbye one more time or anything. It's good overall. You want them to want you, but not to need you. His teacher helped him find where to put his backpack and then he wandered over to the carpet and joined the other kids. He found one of the kids from his pre-school last year and sat next to him. The first thing he said when he came out of the class was, "Why didn't you put a banana in my snack?" So with that, I figured that everything went fine.

He was exhausted when he got out of the class and crashed when he got back to my mom's house. Last night was the Back to School Night for the parents of the K-2 kids. So we met his teacher, and found out about a couple field trips. I asked if there was a supply list that showed what we should buy for him. She said all he needs to bring is a backpack and a snack. Everything else, apparently, is provided. Which is awesome.

We also had our first ever PTA meeting after the BTSN with the teacher. That was a very interesting experience, and my lovely wife in all her glory is already helping them out with some fundraiser stuff. The hope is now that we'll still be going to the school in three weeks. Since we're an inter-district transfer, we're the first to go if someone who lives within the schools boundaries shows up to register. There are two open spots before that would happen, so three kindergarteners would have to register after school started to get him kicked out, so we're hoping that doesn't happen as it's a really nice school with a neat-o playground for the kids. I will have the customary picture of him standing in front of the house ready to go to school tomorrow, as I didn't have a chance yesterday to get the pictures off the camera.

First day of school down, only about 18 years to go.

Waiting

The wait is actually over!!! T's got a school!!!! And he gets to start tomorrow!!!!

After a long and arduous (yeah, check that word out) process, T's gonna be able to start school tomorrow with the rest of the kindergarteners. It's not going to be the school we had wanted as there was one open spot, but if anyone else wanted to go there that lived in the area, we'd be the first ones bumped out of the school. So instead of hoping for the best for three weeks, and then having him move to another school, we're just starting where there's room.

This is a huge relief for us, as I've been trying to this figured out for a long time now. And with school starting tomorrow, it's nice to finally know where he's going and that he's going to be able to start. I hope this isn't the way it will be every year.

What's Goin' On?

Hello dear friends of the internet. I realize that I've been quite lacking in the posts for the past while, and I have a great excuse. And it's that I've been busy. Yup, busy. With what? Well, I'll tell you all in short sentences which possibly will not be grammatically correct as I'm good at making the talky, but at the writy, me not as well at.

First off, we're still waiting to find out if T got into the school we're hoping for. And yes, school does start next Tuesday. And with that the next 18-20 years of his life will revolve around that school schedule. And the rest of his families will also.

We had a great time in Yosemite the past few days. It was clear and warm, but not hot. It's amazing how a two night stay in the park with two little kids can seem both way to short and way to long at the same time. We did get a site that had a great view of Half Dome, so that was very nice.
I'm on my second set of trial contacts. They're still not right. These don't hurt my eyes like the last pair, but everything still is fuzzy. Kinda like my thought process.

The Ca State Fair was great, we were there from 10:30 to 7, it was a very long day. We saw the Doodlebops, the kids loved 'em. I wasn't so thrilled. Worst part was waiting all day until the 7 pm Freestyle Motocross show where the motorcycles were going to be jumping a 75 foot gap 40 feet in the air throwing down the sickest tricks. T was really excited to see this as he'd been watching the X Games and couldn't properly express his joy for this particular piece of the day. We got to the stands at a little after 6:30 pm and picked a prime spot for him to see the jumps. Then when 7 rolled around, they said they wouldn't be jumping because it was to windy. He started crying and couldn't understand why they wouldn't jump. I explained that it was to windy and they might get hurt, and his reply was, "But they're wearing their pads!" So we went to meet one of the jumpers and he looked over at T and said, "Sorry we couldn't jump for you buddy." And T started crying all over again. Which made the dude feel bad, so we got an autograph. I'm not sure who he was and so we thanked him and went home.

I received the DVD I worked on for the Yoga lady, I haven't watched it all yet, but it's not as impressive as I'd hoped so far. But then again, Yoga isn't totally my thing.

I just got off the phone with the school district and apparently I won't know for sure if he's getting into the school of our choice until after school starts. So he won't be starting Kindergarten with the rest of the class. Which is kind of a bummer, but for him, he doesn't really get it anyway so if he misses a week or so, it won't screw up his social life.

Enjoy my next post where I display pics from the past couple weeks for all to enjoy!

Gettin to Know You

Ok, so because I'm a fairly lazy person by nature. And I've got a few minutes left in my day here at work. I'm gonna cheat and throw up this as a post. It's my first truly cheat at something as it's long, and I didn't come up with it. It was emailed to me and so I'm gonna put my answers here. You may actually learn about me, but probably not. Scary, eh?

And we're off...

1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? 6 in the am, but it was supposed to be 5:30.

2. DIAMONDS OR PEARLS? I don't really wear either, but I have diamonds on my wedding ring and not pearls, so I guess diamonds.

3. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? Cinema? really? I guess this baby's from the wonderful UK. But the last film I saw at the cinema was Step-Brothers. And yes, it was hilarious.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? Hmmm. Office, the American one not the crappy British one. And also 30 Rock and Lost.

5. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? Banana Muffin, courtesy of Jiffy

6. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? David

7. WHAT FOOD DO YOU DISLIKE? Ese's, like Chinese and Japanese.

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CD? Just one? That'd be probably Nickel Creek's 'Why Should the Fire Die?'

9. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? A kick-ass 2000 GMC Safari. Yeah, that's right, a minivan, suck it!

10. FAVORITE SANDWICH? Turkey with mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and a bit o' red onion. That's some good eatin'.

11. WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU DESPISE? Arrogance and materialism. Yes, I read the question, I feel that just one isn't enough.

12. FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? Baseball hat.

13. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON HOLIDAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? On Holiday? Well, I'm going to Yosemite soon, but that's not the top spot. Were my fantasy fulfilled, I'd probably end up on a luxurious island somewhere.

14. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM? Mint Green, it's awesome.

15. FAVORITE BRAND OF CLOTHING? Well, being the brand whore I am, I guess it would be something like Russel Athletic? Or Hanes. Yeah, Hanes.

16. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO? This is different than the Holiday question? I guess it'd be somewhere on a really nice golf course. Hopefully my wife would come with me.

17. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? 21. Got to go to Vegas, got free money to play with, had my picture taken at the tables. Generally treated as some kind of mini-celebrity. I think it may have been to get me to lose all my money, but my luck was good that trip and I came out ahead.

18. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Baseball.

19. FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? Who knows? As I'm not emailing this, but I have a friend in the great state of WV who may read it, so I'll go with that.

20. WHO YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? It was probably me, and they'd be right, as I'm not actually sending it to anyone.

21. PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK FIRST? I dunno. Pete's the only one who comments, so him.

22. FAVORITE SAYINGS? Ah, a plural. They would be, "I'll take the twenty year payout." and "Yes, this is a solid gold car." I haven't actually gotten to say them yet, but hey, maybe someday.

23. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? August 2nd.

24. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? Night, the morning is evil.

25. WHAT IS YOUR SHOE SIZE? 12. oh yeah baby.

26. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? Nope.

27. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE? Shortstop for the A's. I almost made it.

28. HOW ARE YOU TODAY? Meh, ok.

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD : Baked Chicken breast with Bisquick, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and garlic bread. Or failing that, a good corndog.

30. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Any flower I haven't killed is good with me.

31. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? Getting home and having my kids still think I'm the greatest. They may not feel that way in ten years.

32. LAST THING YOU ATE? Medium vanilla cone dipped in chocolate from Dairy Queen. It was snack time.

33. DO YOU WISH ON THE STARS? No. What are they really gonna do?

34. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Pine Green

35. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? 105 and sunny. But inside the air's on and it is awesome.

36. FAVORITE SOFT DRINK? Sioux City Sarsparilla

37. FAVORITE RESTAURANT? Back 40 Texas BBQ. A close second is Cracker Barrel. But that may be because I've only been a couple times and the closest one to me is a good 12 hour drive away.

38. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR? Birthday

39. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer

40. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs

41. MORNING COFFEE or AFTERNOON TEA? No thank you.

42. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate

43. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO E-MAIL YOU BACK? Well, if you want to comment, feel free!

44. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? When my dog died.

45. WHO IS THE FRIEND YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? Greg

46. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? Watched Olympics, more swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball. Where's the fun stuff?

47. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? Being bit by a black widow, or a brown recluse. Though I do enjoy killing them.

48. HOW MANY YEARS AT YOUR CURRENT JOB? 4

49. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK? Saturday

50. DO YOU MAKE FRIENDS EASILY? I think so.

51. HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU SEND THIS TO? Who knows??? At least 5 people.

52. HOW MANY WILL RESPOND? I'm gonna go with possibly one, but probably less.