My New Puppy

Don't get all excited now, we don't have a new addition. Yesterday, Little E told my dad that we were going to get a doggie. And not only were we going to get a doggie, she already had the name picked out.
'What name?' asked my Dad.
'Lightswitch.' answers Little E
'Lightswitch?' replies Dad
'Yup, Sam Lightswitch.'
We hadn't discussed getting a dog, but I like the name she's picked out. I'm thinkinga bout going with it.

We also got Big T the gear he wanted for his Pinewood Derby car. He picked out some pirate themed stickers that are actually for the regata boats, but he liked them because they have cannons. Why cannons? Well, he's going to put those on the wheels to shoot at the other cars. He picked out orange wheels for his car also, and has decided to paint it brown, to be more like a pirate ship. Once it's done, there will be pics.

The Math

Big T's parent/teacher conference went well. Overall, he's doing fine. Just needs to work on his neatness, just like his dad. We saw a little bit of the math that he's doing now and here's a sample problem for the first grade now: 7+X=16, solve for X. Seriously, he's doing algebra. In the first grade. He's solving these problems by creating seven hash marks on one line, and then on the second line, making as many as he needs to to make it to 16, then counting the hashes on the second line. His answers are correct, but his methodology is apparently wrong. They want him instead, to subtract 7 from 16 to arrive at his answer. The idea being that this will help him realize that there are 'Number Families' that are able to live in harmony with one another in addition and subtraction problems. Which he actually does know, because we saw another test where he's given three numbers and has to create two addition and two subtraction problems from them. So, given 2, 8, 10 he figured out the four problems correctly. Also fun for the first graders is the new math standard that they have to know by May. They are two timed tests, one addition and one subtraction. They are sixty questions each, all with answers at 20 or less, and they get three minutes to do each test. So three minutes for sixty addition problems and three minutes for sixty subtraction problems. Needless to say, he didn't complete the test, but the more interesting thing to me is how he takes the test, he doesn't start up at number one and work his way through, he just seems to pick out questions at random and answer them. I guess we'll have to work on that.

On another note, Little E had her 'Holiday' party yesterday, there were five menorah's in her classroom and only one Christmas Tree. I don't get it. But the class did get to meet Santa and she told him that she wants a Barbie house. I was just happy she didn't freak out with Santa, because she hasn't wanted to approach him at the malls. But I guess it's safer with her parents and her trusted pre-school teacher there.

I'll end on a joke I overheard at her 3-year-old preschool class while they were enjoying their party. It's a 'Ding-Dong' joke, I guess because people don't knock on doors anymore because of the doorbells.

Boy 1: Ding-Dong.
Boy 2: Who's There?
Boy 1: Banana.
Boy 2: Banana who?
Boy 1: Banana cracker!!!
Boys 1 and 2: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

I didn't get it, but apparently, it was hilarious.

To West Texas

The last few weeks have been kinda busy-ish. Along with the rest of the nation, we've been decorating for Christmas, and as such, we had to rearrange some of the furniture. I didn't fall off the house while putting up the lights. And more recently, the kids have been creating their own ornaments. They are doing this because Big T needs to take a few over to the old folks home for Tiger Cubs. They're going to be singing Christmas Carols for them on Saturday and taking some special ornaments for their tree. So since the extent of my craftiness is cutting paper snowflakes, I did some online researchery, and discovered a couple easy to make things for him. Also I did the classic candy cane reindeer. So last night Little E made a little snowman also. I'll get pics posted, but some other time.

Along with the Christmas, I've been helping my cousin with his documentary, well not really with the documentary, but the site for it. Check it out at gothedistancemovie.com. Tell your friends. It's being entered into film festivals, but I don't know how that's going yet. And it's possible that he'll be able to get legal clearance to use some music by Explosions in the Sky. And he also found out that to gain rights to use 3 minutes of music from Danny Elfman from the movie The Kingdom would cost $15,000. Yes that's fifteen thousand dollars. For three minutes. In a documentary for a non-profit.

So with that is regular life as well. Last week, I got the first disc of the DuckTales series from Netflix. I thought, along with my wife, that the kids would like it. The second episode of the first season involves Donald going to Egypt and being chased by a Mummy. This caused great concern in poor Little E. I guess at the age of 3, these things are very serious and can come get you at any time. I didn't realize how traumatic DuckTales would be for her, so we didn't finish watching it. It took a few days for her to stop saying that she didn't like the 'mommies'. She still doesn't like the 'mommies', and if they're in Disneyland the next time we go, she's not going to take a picture with them. So if you see these 'mommies' watch out. I had to relocate her nightlight in her room in order to gain more luminescence. It wasn't bright enough where it was, and now it's like having a regular light on in there all night. But she's sleeping fine, so I'm not going to mess with it.

Also I just took this online test and was so satisfied with the results that I decided to post them here instead of Facebook. Also, I don't really post anything on Facebook anymore, I've become more of a lurker/commentator. Which really plays to my strengths.

Which Friday Night Lights Character Are You?

More on Friday Night Lights. Created by BuddyTV

The Teacher

When did Big T's teacher get more credibility than me? It all started innocently enough when his teacher asked the kids to not bring in backpacks due to the lack of space to store them. So unless you rode the bus or went to daycare, no bag was needed. That was fine. I told him one day that if he wanted to take his bag he could. His reply was that Mr. Riley says we don't bring backpbacks unless we ride the bus or go to daycare. So fine. I'm good with that, he listens to his teacher and all is right with the world.

But he came home with some of his math homework the other day and had two questions marked wrong that I was pretty sure were right. They had to do with patterns and circling the correct answer. The two options were ABAB or AABA. Simple enough right? Only two options. He circled ABAB, which was right. The other question was similar, two options ABCABC or AABAAB, only one of two options could be right. He circled ABCABC which was right. These questions were marked wrong because he said Mr. Riley said the answer to the first one was to circle AB and not the ABAB, even though there were four shapes and only two options. The second one was marked wrong because he circled both ABCABC instead of just one ABC, even though, again, there were six shapes in the pattern. The two options of ABAB and AABA were seperated by a space with no space between the four letters. I told Big T that those were the right answers that he circled, and he was adament that he got them wrong because Mr. Riley said so. That he was only supposed to circle the first part of the pattern and not the whole thing. I tried to convince him that the answers were correct the way he originally answered them, but to no avail. Now I have access to the teacher editions of all his books due to my job. I checked the official answer sheet this morning, and lo and behold, I was right, and so was Big T, the first time. I now have proof that his teacher marked these two answers wrong when they shouldn't have been. Well, actually Big T marked them wrong because they correct their own papers. But I won't say anything. Why? Well, he's only in first grade and I don't feel that it's really worth fighting about. You gotta pick your battles, right? And besides, now I know. And knowing is half the battle.

Basic Instructions

This just got installed above the sink by my desk here at work. It's a sanitizer dispenser. Simple enough, and it even comes with instructions on how to use it written on the front. Since the pic from my cell phone is sorta blurry, I'll type them out here.

• ensure hands are clean and dry
• apply 1-2 shots of foam
• rub into hands until dry

Now this is all well and good, but the question  I really have is this:
The first step is to 'ensure hands are clean and dry', now if my hands are clean and dry, why do I need the sanitizer?

Ponder.

Help

I don't know if it's related to Tiger Cubs or if he's suddenly just super helpful, but Big T has taken to being really helpful around the house. He cleaned all the windows and mirrors he could reach at my Mom's house the other day. He even did the dishes for us (sort of) last night. He wants to clean up. It's amazing, and it's also possible that it's my wife's influence. But really, we don't care. It exciting to have him want to clean up and put his things away. The only unfortunate part is that he also has decided that the way I fold his shirts is not good enough for him. So he took all his shirts out, laid them around his room and rolled them up. Like you would make a playdough snake. Just one long shirt taquito. The weird thing is, they don't really wrinkle as much as I thought they would, but I can't tell one shirt from the other. I can, however, stick them into paper towel tubes for easy transportation. So that's nice.

Control Freak

I'm normally one to hold my tongue. I don't speak out of turn. I'm calm, collected, and nice to a fault. Well, so maybe not all of that is true, but having kids has forced me over the last six years plus to create a calmer aura around me. Speaking of my aura, it's gone from a crimson, to a lovely shade of forest green. But although I've mellowed a bit since my hotheaded late teens/early 20's days, I've overcompesated for that by forcing myself to become somewhat of a control freak. Not OCD style psycho control freak. Not all the way there. I just have this urge within me that I know better than whoever's in charge. And yes, that includes my house, where I am probably not the one in charge. This is why, I believe, I've coached my son's T-Ball team, and learned web development, and why I get irritated when things don't go the way I believe they should.

As you all know from following my life so closely, Big T has started Tiger Cubs. He loves it and gets along great with the other four in his den. Well, there's only the one Tiger Cub den, so there's only 5 Tiger Cubs in the whole pack, but I digress. I made a pointed decision with this that I wouldn't be the Den Leader, or even really a major influence on the direction of the Den. However, I'm starting to go back on that little promise to myself and I need to stop. I took Big T to more houses that were prescribed by his Den Leader for the Scouting for Food drive because we got almost 50 door hangers and were told to just cover one court in our neighborhood area. So out of a ten block radius, we were only going to cover 2 with our whole den. I think that my boy has figured out that helping is good because he decided that since the pack leader said that each scout should do thirty houses, he could get rid of all his hangers. So we did. I also volunteered to try to get them set up on a better outing for their communication achievement. They're supposed to visit either a television station, radio station or newspaper to see how things work in the world of communication. The moms were talking about just taking them to a Kinko's because, "They have really nice tours there." Seriously, those were the words spoken. I asked why we didn't try to contact the local paper and see if they would show the scouts around. So I was asked to check into that. Using my awesome contacts, which I met because I watch way to much television. I got the kids set up with a personal tour after hours at the Times here in town.

Of course, since deciding to be less involved, I've come across a few more situations where the old angry me started to come out. You want an example? K.

Whilst taking my kids to the library I saw one of my friends and his wife, who is also someone I consider a friend. We were talking and the kids were standing there patiently by the desk after checking out the books. So my conversation wrapped up and I asked the kids if they were ready to go. They said they were, and I asked if they wanted to go the park. They shouted, "YEAH!! PARK!!" I reminded them to whisper as we were in the library and this older lady said to her friend, but loud enough so I could hear as I walked by. "The children here are so loud." And my protective father instinct shot back, "Yes, and the ladies are so old." She gave one of those, 'Well I never' sort of snorts and we just walked out with my friends, who thought the whole exchange was hilarious.

Another time not so long ago I was in Best Buy, where I used to work and got into my share of arguements with customers, who are NOT always right. And while looking at stuff, I heard a customer talking to one of the associates. To summarize the statements, the customer was looking for a game for the Nintendo DS, but he didn't know what it was called. So the poor associate was playing guessing games with him to try to figure out what game it was. This went on for a few minutes, when the customer finally said, "You should know what game it is, the commercial is on TV every hour!" The associate was still very polite and explained that he was only trying to help and the customer said that he wasn't helpful at all, and that was all I could take. I know that the associates are supposed to just sit there and take the abuse, but I wasn't an associate anymore and so I jumped in and said to the customer that yelling at the kid wouldn't help anything. Customer asked who I was, I said I was just another customer who hated people like him because he took up the time of associates trying to solve his moronic problems when they have better things to be doing. Customer wasn't happy about that and I went on to say that he was mad at the associate for not knowing which game he wanted and couldn't remember even though by his  own admission the commercial for this particular game was on every hour giving the customer plenty of opportunities to either write it down or just commit the title to memory. Customer's elderly father asked who I thought I was. I told him I thought I was someone smart enough to know what I want to buy before I walk into a store and pester others for my own stupidity. Customer said, I'm never coming back to this store again. I responded, they won't even notice. Customer left. I later went up to the associate to apologize for jumping in, but he was cool with it.

So I'm not really sure where I was going with all this, but I think it was related to trying to let go of the urge to control things, and filter my thoughts. Which seem to have come flowing out of me a little much today. But my wife's sister, the husband and their two adopted kids have moved back in with her parents, and that's where my tongue holding will be most crucial. We'll see how long I can do it.

I'm On A Boat

Yup, that's the Bay Bridge, the section that was open at the time, at sunset from the deck of the Bay Celebration. I took this grand photo with my cell phone on this three hour tour of the bay. It was a great surprise and a free ride thanks to a friend of mine who had snagged some tickets. The weather was perfect, we saw the sea lions, even took a detour to the area of the bridge that CalTrans was 'working' on. It was the longest I'd ever been on a boat of that size. I've been on a houseboat before up at Lake Almanor, but I was about 14 when I did that. So it's been a while. And I must say that even though I'm not a big water person, I do love boats. I don't know why exactly, but there's just something about them. Maybe because you can just go wherever you want with no road signs or directions.

In other unrelated news, Big T will be going to his first Tiger Cub meeting tomorrow night. I'm heading out today to get the rest of the patches that I will need to attach to his uniform tonight. He's pretty excited, though I may have really built up the Pinewood Derby. Perhaps a bit much, but it's going to be great. I think he's almost as excited as I am. He did love wearing that Tiger Cub hat.

Catch Up

So I've been promising pics off the good camera for a while now and I've decided it's time to deliver. So here we go.



The most graceful 3 and a half year old you've ever seen, right? She's supposed to be moving along on her toes in the ballet style movements, and yet, she's just walking along. We found out recently that her recital is coming up and will start at 3, it's going to be $5 a person, including us, her own parents.

The first day of his school year. We weren't even leaving yet. Just trying to get that first day of school pic at his desk. This is the closest to a smile he made. It was a very upsetting morning. For me mostly, he was fine after a bit.


And here we are at the pumpkin patch. Where Little E got to hold on to the pony. Very exciting. This was our second year here at the Rio Vista pumpkin patch. It's nice, they have the big hay fort and the food and the pumpkin chucking sling shot. The train ride was great also, although this year I got stung by a hornet on the way back from the pumpkin patch to the van. So that did suck, and it hurt pretty good for a bit. But the hornet was killed by a conductor with a flyswatter, so that was vengeance enough for me.

That's it for now, more talky time later.

Hair

So today is crazy hair day at Big T's school. The normal routine in the morning is him sleeping until about 6:30 when we leave, and I pick him up out of bed and carry him to the van and let him wake up on the drive to whichever house we're heading to on that particular morning. He is usually fine and completely awake after 10-15 minutes. So with this in mind last night I told him that he'd have to wake up early so Mommy could make his hair crazy. I even went out last night and got him some green hair color because he thought that would make it even crazier.

So he woke up at 6 this morning, was dressed in just a couple minutes, and sitting in the bathroom getting his hair fixed by his mom (who also had to get up a lot earlier than normal). He was excited and giddy, he also gets to buy his lunch today. A very big deal indeed.

In other exciting news, some of the thieves who stole my things were apprehended recently. The one who stole my pocketknife had hidden it in my parents couch, and the one who stole my flash drive managed to stuff it into my wife's purse. Unfortunately the one who took my eye drops is still at large.

But now, Crazy Hair!!!!!

One day I'll put the pics from the good camera on the computer so I won't have to keep using my cell phone for these things.

Steal My Sunshine

There's a thief in coming into my house. This particular thief isn't taking anything worth a lot of money. My laptop's still there, my tv, our games, the money. This particular thief is more of an annoyance, a pest if you will. This thief is sneaking into my house and stealing my things. He's taken my pocketknife, he's taken my flash drive, he's even taken my eye drops for my contacts. This last one has forced me to wear my glasses more than I'd like to lately, but there's not much else I can do under the circumstances.

I know it's just a matter of time until this guy starts taking my remotes and then probably my cereal. Because he'll be hungry after all the thieving he's doing. So if anyone has any ideas on how to stop this particular thief, please pass those ideas along. He may be on the move, so be alert.

Good As Ever

Yup, there they are. Well seven out of eight at least. The show was incredible. The music awesome, even the opener was good. We got there about 45 minutes before the doors opened because we wanted to make sure that we were able to grab some chairs. They had limited seating and I just don't like to stand on concrete for the two hour shows anymore. So we were sitting directly stage left, as you can see by this most amazing cellular telephone photographic image. It's always fun to see a live show, and this is the first one with a drummer that I've seen in a really long time. Since they only have the one album, they were able to play each track off of it, plus some of their own stuff and a little Toad for the fans.

This was the second time in one week that I've been to SF. I haven't done that for a while either. And if the plans don't fall through, I'll be there next Saturday for the Blue Angels and Fleet Week. That's a lot of city time. Which is odd, because really, I'm not a big fan.

Finally the text of a letter that my son wrote yesterday. In full on one sheet of paper.
"I want this mailed to Tavion's house. Tavion come to my house."
That's it. He was asking how to spell some words but I didn't know what he was writing out. But I like the directness of this. Simply tell the mailman where you would like the letter to go, and then place your message below. He's basically invented email for the post office. Genius.

Swanky

The Disney Family Museum was pretty incredible. They have some amazing stuff there. Oscars, Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first known drawings of Mickey Mouse, a torch from the 1960 Winter Olympics, and more wonderfulness. We spent almost four hours in there and there were still some things that I would have liked to seen more of. But I loves me some Disney and also enjoys me some history. So the two came together there in a beautiful stew of joy and scrumptious learning. It was also good that we went to a soft opening because it wasn't crazy crowded. Just the purest of the Disney nuts. It only took us about an hour to get there from our house, but it took 2 and a half hours to get home due to a major backup from Van Ness to the Bay Bridge. From when we turned left off Van Ness until we hit the bridge was about 1 1/2 hours of mindless sitting in traffic. Not really super fun to do. But we made it home by 8, just barely.

Whilst the missus and I were there with her parents, my parents took our youngin's to the Kids Faire. Now with it spelt 'Faire' you just know it's gonna be fun, right? Totally right. They kids got some good pics with Spongebob, Scooby Doo, Curious George, Super Why, a stormtrooper, and a few others. But my parents aren't going back there. Why? Not because of our kids, who were great there. But because the booths there were for dentists, chiropracters, and a couple for pleasure parties, and one called "Swanky Moms" where they dress like hookers. I'm not making that one up. According to my mom, they should have called it "Skanky Moms".

And today my van is in the shop at the dealership because the ABS isn't working properly, and apparently they're the only people who can repair this system because it's the computer and not the actual hardware of the van.

But back on the bright side. Only two more games of Fall Ball, and tomorow is the WPA concert! I also just found out that Mike Birbiglia is coming to SF next month, but it's $28 a ticket plus a $10 'convienence' fee. So I'm not paying $40 a ticket to see him, he's hilarious, but seriously, these tickets for the WPA concert were $15 a piece. I don't know who decides how much things should be, but I want that job.

Wonderful

I know it's been a while, but golly if things ain't been busy at the Casa de Wally. Not really overwhelmingly so, but still busy. Little E has taken quite the liking to her school and enjoys every second of it. She seems to really enjoy throwing out her thoughts when I ask Big T how his day at school was. The answer to that one, if your wondering, is, "We played basketball. I was on the yellow team." That's basically it, any further prodding on what he did in first grade is based around what happened during the game they played at lunch or recess. So all in all, school is going well. He has his school carnival tomorrow night, it was fun last year, and should be good again this year, since we know what it is now.

I'm still trying to get him into Tiger Cubs. I think he'd have a great time there and it's simply a matter of where to do it and what time they meet. If it's all by our house, that should work, as long as they meet late enough in the day that somebody could get him there. There's a good 30-40 minutes between our house and his school, not to mention the 50 min or so from my work to home. We're living a very spread out life right now.

There's only 5 games of Fall Ball left including today, that has been keeping me away from other things for a while now. I get off work at 4, make the drive home and back to the fields and it's almost 5:15. The games start at 5:30, end around an hour later, put the gear away and fix up the fields, and we're home around 7:15. Eat, baths/showers/hose down in back yard, and it's bed time. We are for sure not doing this next year. I know I said that last year, but he had no other sports he could play right now. And don't mention soccer. I said no other sports he could play.

Sunday is our trip to the Walt Disney Family Museum with my in-laws for the special sneak preview for people who wanted to be in the special club. I get to go because I got them the tickets when they were in Disneyland. I had to get them the tickets, because they became available whilst they were there with my family. I'm looking forward to that. I likes Disney, I likes histories, I'm okay with museums. So, should be fun.

Next Wednesday is the Works Progress Administration concert in the city. I'm really looking forward to that one. The whole band will be there and I haven't been to a concert in a couple years now. And I really like their album. You can enjoy it over on your right there if you'd like. And you should like.

I also got a new battery for my van last night. It wouldn't start right away when I was trying to leave for lunch. Then it did, which changed my plans from visiting the grocery store for food, to a drive thru. I wasn't turning that thing off away from work. It seemed fine when I got it back to work, but then when I was leaving for the day, the locks didn't work quite right, then it didn't start again. Then, magically it did! And as I was driving out of the lot and had gotten a good quarter of a mile away from work, the battery light came on, and the van stopped working. It was like something out of a movie, the lights went off, the radio quit, the power steering and brakes stopped. and the van was coasting. I pulled over and got it started again and it made it home, thank God. So last night the fam and I made a trip to Kmart to get a battery, but they wanted $120! I wasn't paying that, so we went to Costco, and got one there for $70. After a trip to OSH for a new tool, I got it installed and working. But tomorrow I'm taking the van into the shop because the brakes aren't right. So this van is getting pricier and pricier by the day. Maybe it will work fine for a year or so and not require anything but basic maintainence. Maybe...

But enough of that, PICTURE TIME!!!!! And yes, it's totally worth the caps and sklamashun points.

Little E's first day of school. This is before she went in the classroom and was still superpsyched about it. Oh how soon that would change.

Getting her name tag on the first day, notice the super awesome dragon tattoo on her pre-school teachers arm. Not a good sign.

We went to the Nut Tree in Vacaville, but it's changed and almost non-existant now, but after we went to the outlets and she saw this in the Hello Kitty store and had to get a picture. She's very much in to "Take my picture, Daddy!" now.

There will be more pics of Big T at various places as soon as I get them off the camera. I'm working on it. I can sense your anticipation. I really can.

Cryin' Time Again

Pre-school day one over, another difficult start that ended up being fine. She was so excited to go, she had her backpack with her, she came to work with me this morning because I was going to take her for her first day. She wore that thing all over the house while she was getting ready. Which inspired Big T to wear his again. He hadn't been wearing it, as his teacher asked all students who weren't going to day care or riding the bus not to bring a backpack because there isn't a lot of room in the closet for them all. She wore it into my work and placed it ever so gently upon the table before she ate her cereal and colored for a bit. She watched some Sesame Street videos on my computer at work before it was time to go. She was very excited to get there and I had my hopes going that all would be well. I was very anxious for her and for me also.

When we got to her school she was ready to go and get in line. So we did and we were waiting for the teacher to come open the gate to let us into the playground next to the classrooms. All the kids and their parents were filing in to the different rooms (2 year olds, 3 year olds, and 4 year olds). We got into her room and she hung her backpack up on a hook and started to wander towards the cars to play, and then she came back and asked me to go with her. So I did. She didn't really play with the cars and just started walking around the room and I noticed that the teacher was making name tags for the kids on different shaped pieces of vinyl. So I had her go to the table and pick out her shape, and the teacher asked her name and wrote it on the tag and I put it on her shirt. Then I told her that I was going to have to go back to work and the first look of worry came over her face.

I started telling her that 'Mommy will pick you up.' And tried to distract her with Legos, babies, kitchens, cars, puzzles and other things that were nearby. I gave her what was to be the first of many hugs and high fives and started to leave. She called me back to tell me that "I really miss you, Daddy." and I started to get a little panicky that this wasn't going to be a clean good-bye. A couple goodbyes later, I waved to her and walked out the door and waited to see how it would go. An old classmate from my youth recognized me and we started talking when Little E came crying out the door at a full run yelling for me. So I picked her up and wiped away the tears and tried to take her back inside to the Play-doh table. She said she had to go potty. I thought that this would just be another excuse, but she really did have to go. We washed our hands and the realization that she had nothing left to keep me there hit and she just grabbed onto my hand really tight. One of the teacher helpers tried to help me distract her with a story, but she wasn't having any of that. Finally the main teacher came and got her and picked her up. I said good-bye and left. While I was saying she was straining to get to me with her arms out and crying screaming, "I want my Daddy." It was absolutely heartbreaking, and one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. And she's only 3. Now I knew she'd be okay in a little bit, but still. This was the first time she'd ever been completely on her own. She's always had either her older brother or a parent or grandparent with her. Now suddenly, strangers. Lots of them. And her teacher, though nice, has a couple tattoos on her arms of dragons, and one of the helpers is into piercings. They're really nice, but they're a bit scary looking.

I had to go back to pick her up with my wife to make sure that all was well. The teacher said that she just cried for a few minutes and then was fine. I asked Little E if she wanted to come back on Thursday and she said 'Yeah!', so that's a good sign. Another nice thing about Thursday is that my mom will be taking her to school and I won't have to worry about it as much. She'll be fine, I'm sure. But this was not a fun morning for me. Well, it was fun until about 9:03 when I started saying good-bye. I didn't leave until almost 9:20. I'm not looking forward to her growing up to much more right now. I don't know how much I can handle past this point.

Also, I'll post some pics soon. I have to get them off my phone, since I forgot the camera this morning. But I did remember two kids, extra clothes, two lunches and a snack, plus animals and blankies, hair bobs for Little E and I made her ponytail, which I was very proud of. I'm not really good at hairstyling yet.

All Worked Out

First day of First Grade over. Diagnosis, difficult start followed by uncontrolled bouts of glee due to awesome teacher. It started out fine this morning, Big T got himself up and dressed early and was good to go to school, until it was time for us to leave, then he had himself a little mini-meltdown. Saying he didn't want to stay, wanted me to stay, wanted to go home, you know, anything he could think of. Luckily, First Grade has Legos. Legos saved us this morning. I got him over to the play area with a couple other kids and was able to distract him for a bit. We went over to say goodbye and he started freaking out a bit, but got back into the Legos and was fine.

I picked him up and he said he really liked his teacher, that his teacher is really funny and they played fun games and had a lot of recesses. Needless to say, I'm very happy about this. I was really nervous for him this morning, as the transition from Kindergarten to First Grade is quite a big one. The bathrooms are not in your classroom anymore, the playground isn't just for you anymore, you're going all day long to school, hanging around with the big kids. It's different to be sure. And I was hopeful that we'd avoid the crying, but he really only does it with me. Which my wife likes to point out whenever she can.

But it ended up being a good first day. Tomorrow is the first day of Fall Ball, hopefully we'll get our hats, they didn't come in yet. All the other team hats came in, but not ours. It's also back to school night for Big T and for Little E's pre-school. So the schedule for tomorrow night it busy, and since the kids go to school about 30 minutes from where we play baseball, it's going to be a driving intensive night. Should be fun!

Close to Home

I don't usually post on current events, I figure I'm out of school, and I don't like watching the news as I feel they're all annoying and bothersome. But I was watching the news a lot last night because I saw a bunch of news vans in the area. And then I discovered that the girl who was kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe lived just a few minutes from my house. Now the house was literally on the wrong side of the tracks and not in the same demographic area as my house, but it's another reason to want to leave the city I live in. I looked at the house that they were in using Google Earth and holy crap, it's right by one of the driving ranges I go to. I'm a little stunned by this, but not that stunned that there were bad guys living in this area. It's not the nicest place. It's actually on a dirt road that cuts between two paved roads. I just figured there were meth labs and such there, but never anything like this.

I've never been this close to something that made itself a national news story. Of course, living by San Francisco, there's plenty of nuts there to make news and with Berkeley and Oakland close, tons of stories are told. But this one is almost in my backyard. I have a daughter of my own, as you may know, and I have many thoughts on what should happen to these creatures who kidnapped this poor little girl. None of them are nice thoughts.

What makes it more unreal for me is that I just finished reading a book called "Stolen Innocence" by a girl named Elissa Wall, who was in the FLDS and forced to marry at the age of 14 to her first cousin who was 19. I thought that was sick, and it was, but this story breaking right after reading that book has caused my paranoia for my little girl to shoot up a few notches. I used to say that her room would be her little princess castle, and now I'm thinking it's going to become an impenetrable fortress. So boys beware, this dad's not messing around. I'm going to go get that squeaky porch swing this weekend. It's never to early to be prepared.

On a happier note, we found out who T's teacher is going to be and that he doesn't have to get any supplies, just a pencil box. So that should be good. And Works Progress Administration, who I'm going to see at the end of September has started streaming their album on their site, so go check that out! wpamusic.com it's totally worth the trip.

Elementary

Working for the school district has recently reaped another benefit. They have implemented a policy whereby if you work for the district, and you want your kid in the district, you get priority. I don't know why this wasn't already a rule. But the important thing is that it now is a rule and Big T gets to go to the same school for First Grade that he did for Kindergarten. We're going to the back to school setup tomorrow where we'll find out who his teacher is, get his supplies list, and also find out if he's going to know anyone in his class from last year. The odds of him knowing someone are pretty high since they increased class sizes and eliminated teachers. So there are fewer classrooms this year full of first graders. I think he's excited, but I'm a little anxious, because first grade is where I started not wanting to go to school and would just sit outside the classroom feeling sorry for myself. After a few months I got over it, but I don't want his apprehension from the end of last year to carry over into this year. Hopefully he'll have a few friends and be okay. We've already been pimping his schedule to him. They have three recesses and a lunch, so the longest they're actually in class is only like 90 minutes. The other times it's like 45 minutes to an hour before they get a recess. Which sounds awesome to me. It's like just getting started on something and then going outside to play. Who wouldn't love that?

He also was really good on our golf outing last week. We played all 18 holes, and there wasn't anyone else out there so we were able to take our time. He hit a couple shots out of the sand traps that impressed me quite a bit. I was going to take the ball out of the sand so he could hit it off the grass, but he wanted to try it in the sand, so he just walked in and whacked it out of the trap. It's not that easy to do. He also hit one shot about 80 yards over a bunker to hit the green on the fly. It was one of the best shots I've seen. For a 6 year old at least.

As for me, Oakhurst was great to play again. Brought back many memories of spring afternoons in high school. I didn't play that bad either, so that was nice. I heard they're going to have another one of these days next month, so I'm already stoked to play again.

So bring on next week. T starts first grade, E starts pre-school, Fall Ball is starting again. It's gonna be a busy school year this time around. I hear it doesn't slow down until they graduate. From college.

The Game We All Must Play

I'm going to be playing golf on Saturday and on Monday. As you can tell by reading this, I'm pretty stoked about playing twice in three days. Saturday I'm going with my dad and Big T. It's gonna be his second time out on the real course. He asked me yesterday, while we were over at my dad's house, if I needed to come with them on Saturday. He asked if just he and my dad could go Saturday and then the next time, I could go with him. I asked him why he didn't want me to go, and he said, "If you go, and I go, and Papa goes, will we all fit in the golf cart?" When I explained that we could all fit, he reminded me that there were only spots for two golf bags on the back of the cart. So I told him that if we couldn't all fit, that I would carry my bag and walk so he and Papa could ride. He had to think about it, but he gave in and I'm allowed to go again.

The other awesome thing about going Saturday is that one of my wife's friends is throwing herself a birthday party, and now I don't have to go! Bonus, right? Monday, I'm playing at Oakhurst, which is a private course, but they're so desperate for players there's gonna be a special day of open play. I haven't played there since high school, since that was our home course. So that should be fun. Bring back memories of high school golfing. Walking through the rain, horrible winds, and the nice sunny days also. And there was that one time where a freshman pissed himself on the second tee. That was hilarious.

Something Changed

What changed you ask? Well, last night I signed up Big T for another season of Fall Ball, and in the process signed myself up for another season as well. I realize that previously I had stated that I wouldn't be signing him up. But some interesting information came forward that helped me to change my mind. One is that we won't be playing with the disadvantaged Little League in the next town over. I've also discovered that 'disadvantaged' is the liberal way to say poor minority children who have a career of crime ahead of them because they don't have any father figures and whose mom's are crackheads. Or something similar to that at least.

But we're in for another season. Hopefully it will go well as I already have another dad who wants to help, so that's gonna be great. And last night? No sink pee. So all in all, a productive evening. And I've discovered that he's also on the list of kids to get into first grade. We have to reapply every year, and hope that we'll get into the same school. So we're on the top of the list and unless they get more kids registering late or something, we should be in. So keep your fingers crossed for that one. 'Cause if he doesn't get in, we have to find another school. School starts on the 31st of this month. I'll have another update on this one next Friday, because that's when I was told to call back to make sure he's still on the good list.

Dreaming With My Eyes Open

Everybody is now home. They didn't arrive until a little past 9 on Monday. So they were travelling for almost nine hours. It's really only about a six hour drive. But there were plenty of potty breaks along the way. This homecoming, being so late, really has made the kids more tired than normal. They didn't wake up yesterday until almost 10 am. And at 6:30 in the a.m. I took them to my parents house. So they both slept through the move from bed to minivan, and then from minivan to beds at my parents house. I was pretty impressed that they'd slept so heavy. But this has had unfortunate side effects. Little E was a terror last night, which isn't her fault, she's just exhausted. But when she gets crazy tired like that she just whines and cries a lot. Even more than she usually does. But there came a point in her night where she just became to tired to sleep. So she kept getting up every fifteen minutes or so. Starting at about 8. We kept taking her back to bed, and finally went to bed ourselves a couple hours later. She kept coming out. My lovely wife discovered that there was a little present in her nighttime diaper and so she changed her, thinking that this newly fresh wrapper would help soothe her to sleep. But about 10:45ish, after almost three full hours of her getting up, we thought she was asleep.

We were watching TV (reruns of Malcom in the Middle) in our room when we heard little footsteps come down the hall and stop by our door. We decided to ignore her with the hopes that she'd just go to bed on her own. Then we heard her climbing the stool by our sink, which she usually uses to brush he teeth and put on her makeup with her mommy in the morning. Then we heard what sounded like water trickling into the sink. So I looked over and saw that it was not our little girl, but our six year old son peeing in the sink. He has reached the level of tired that he's been at before where he'll kind of wake up and just wander somewhere because he's gotta pee, and go in some weird place. He's gone in his closet, in the towel closet and almost in the corner of the living room once. But going in our sink was a new one. The thing is, the toilet was literally just a few feet away when he climed up the stool to pee in the sink. After he was done I had him wash his hands and asked him why he just peed in the sink, and he just sort of giggled and said, "I peed in the sink." and was basically asleep again. I don't think his eyes opened once during this whole ordeal. But he did hit his target pretty good. There was some tinkle sprinkle around the sink, which my wife cleaned up whilst I carried our sleeping almost first grader back to bed.

The thing is, it's probably a very environmentally concious thing to do. Peeing in the sink, there's no flushing, it just goes down the drain, and if you wash your hands in the same sink it will rinse it out and get residual soap there. But then again, it is the sink. So probably not something that I'll do on a consistent basis.

Airwolf

I've almost survived the no family weekend. They're all supposed to come back tonight sometime. I did spend Friday with my dad and bro playing golf on what was more or less a farm. Lots of goose poo. Lots of open space. Even saw a crop duster fly overhead. But it was fun, and we saw the Ports game after. Which was a combination AgNight, Raider Night, and Fireworks Night. The Raider night portion of the program consisted of four Raiderettes who would do little routines between the first few innings. I'm guessing these aren't the same Raiderettes who would normally appear at the football games. It reminded me of a high school football game. They seemed to have the same skill level that I remember the JV squad having.

But otherwise, I've rediscovered my mild insomnia, which always springs up when everybody leaves. I'm not sure why I don't sleep much. Well, that's not entirely true, I have a hard time falling asleep at night, but usually I can sleep well into the next day. I got to sleep in until 12:30 on Saturday. That was awesome. I had to shut the window, which sucks because I'd prefer it to be open, but there's Mexican's two houses down from me and they've brought their culture of having a lot of yard animals at their house. So there's roosters, chickens, and other noisemakers that I can't legally just eliminate. Though I've almost bought a slingshot a few times now. I'm getting closer to making that purchase. So that damn rooster starts crowing at around 5 every morning. I can hear it very well with my window open, but not so much with it closed. However on Friday, I discovered a few things. One, PG&E is stringing electrical wires at the end of my court. Two, they work on Friday mornings. Three, they like to be efficient as they do this work. Four, in order for them to be more efficient, they use a helicopter to carry the wires from one pole to another. Five, this helicopter is very very very loud when it's a mere 100 yards away. Enjoy this video of what was happening starting at around 7 in the a.m. I took this from my side yard. None of the cars you see are mine.

So that's what woke me up on Friday. Fun, eh? Thing is, it took me a while to find the chopper as the sound was echoing around my house and it would come only every 10 minutes or so. First I thought it was a medical helicopter going to rescue a horrible driver or something. But it wasn't because it kept coming back and it wouldn't allow me sleep. Which I need. And love.

So I'm glad everyone will be back home tonight. I miss my family and seem to need them in the house so I can sleep well. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be much better rested.

Air Conditioning

My family has left me for the excitement of the Happiest Place on Earth. It's always weird for me to come home to a house that I know will be empty all night. I've lived with people all my life, never had my own place so it's not even something that I can remember the old days. And since I've started working, I've either come home to people, or back before marriage, come home with plans to go see people. So I'm not sure what to do with myself. Luckily the A's are on tonight so I can fill my time with that. I'm taking Friday off work and going golfing with my dad and brother in Stockton. But the weekend? Not sure what I'm going to be up to yet. I'm sure I'll figure something out, maybe hit Chuck E. Cheese.

On a less pitiful note, the vans AC was repaired today. The cost? $285. The problem? A childs sock was stuck in the compressor. How did a sock get sucked into the AC unit? I don't really know. The mechanic said that it's possible that it was up on the dashboard, then fell into the defroster, then made its way into the more expensive part of the inner workings. I think that the kids got bored, T grabbed a sock and dared his little sister to cram it into a vent. She probably said OK, because at this point, she'll still do just about anything he says. And then a distraction was created, and whilst the parents were looking the other way, my three year old little angel broke our AC. So really it's both their faults, because honestly, I can't see a reason why there would be a sock up on my dashboard. Ah, kids. Such fun. Or maybe it was my wife. Hmmm.....

My Next Thirty Years

I've finally arrived at my third decade of life. So far, one day into it, not to bad. My wife took me and the fam to the A's game on Saturday for Rickey Henderson Day. It was really weird. Rickey started playing professional ball with the A's just a couple months before I was born and now he's in the Hall of Fame, and I watched as his number was retired just 30 years later. It was almost like growing up watching him play and break all those records to now has all happened over my lifetime. Sort of marking the era. But to get less philosophical, and more energetic, I've arrived at the big 3-0 as they say. My family took me bowling yesterday. I've realized that, although I enjoy bowling, I'm not that great at it. Also that I'd like to have my own bowling ball. I figure that I'll improve if I have a ball that is my own, it will do as I wish and attack more pins and not be so willing to miss simple spares. Also those balls at the alley have ginormous finger holes and I have slight blisters from having to grip them so tightly to keep them from flying out at imprecise angles.

After bowling we went to Red Robin where I was able to get one of the top 3 unhealthiest hamburgers ever. The Royal Red Robin. It contains the bun and burger, tomato, lettuce, mayo, cheese, bacon and a fried egg. It's delicious if you've never had it, but to make it slightly less deadly, I order it without Mayo. Mainly because I don't really know where it comes from. I know where ketchup and mustard come from, but I've never seen the plant that makes Mayo. Plus, and lets be honest here, mayo just tastes horrible. During the meal the waiter overheard my wife mention that it was my birthday and so at the end they came and sang the royalty free birthday song a la Red Robin. I didn't want them to do this, but I discovered that at Red Robin, you get a free ice cream sundae. And it was delicious. I did share it with everyone, of course. But keep that in mind if you're looking for a free ice cream sundae. They're very tasty there.

And to complete the celebration of me turning into a thirty-something? We bought a children's game called Wii Sports Resort. I enjoy this new game quite a bit. There's something soothing about throwing a Frisbee to a virtual dog. I don't know why.

But now the countdown for my wife, my kids and her parents leaving me for Disneyland is down to two days. I'm not yet sure what I'll be doing, but maybe I'll figure out exactly how old you need to be to have a mid-life crisis. Or get a dog or something, who can say for sure?

Reno

Once again I have neglected to do any typing for a few weeks, and now the info is backlogged. So I'm reduced to bullet pointage. However, I'm totally going to mix it up right now and avoid bullet points, and instead go with more of a numbered list. The following updates are not in any particular order. And sorry for the list.

1. Took the kids camping twice. Once to Lake Tahoe with my parents, which was lots of fun. Kids went swimming in the lake. Well T went swimming out in the lake, Little E walked in for a bit, decided it was to cold, and sat on the shore making sand castles. The second camping trip was just this past weekend at Yosemite. Our first time in a tent. We usually take my in-laws 1967 tent trailer. It's a beaut fer shure, but the tent worked out very well, so now we're in the market for a new one.
2. After Tahoe, we drove into Reno for a couple days and watched the Reno Aces game. That was great fun. We also took the kids to Circus Circus where they won many prizes. Little E won two Snoopy dogs, which she refers to as 'Scoopy', which I like better. T's most proud of a strawberry he won, that he's named Strawberry. Why a strawberry, you ask? Because he won that particular prize on the knock over the bottles game. They stacked three bottles up and I was telling him that he may have a hard time doing that game so don't be dissappointed. He didn't let me finish my sentence when he threw that little beanbag and kocked all the bottles off the table. My wife and I were shocked, I was speechless for a couple minutes. It was great.
3. Little E has gone three days now without going potty in her chonies. A very exciting time, as we think she may have finally figured it out. And all that talk about girls being easier? Lies. And that the second child would learn faster? Also lies. Big, big lies.
4. My van is finally almost fixed from when that guy ran the red light. I've been driving a Pontiac G6 the past few days and though it's a fun car. I miss being up high while driving.
5. My tomato plants are doing well and not dead, though I had issues with hornworms. They are now all gone and my tomatoes are coming in. They are delicious.
6. Big T has taken to waking up at all hours of the night to wander into the living room and play the Wii. This is problematic for many reasons, mostly he's really tired all day, which causes more problems. So last night we moved the remotes into our room and put them on our dresser. Then at 4:45 this a.m. my wife found him out there playing games. He told me when he woke up this morning that putting them on our dresser won't help because he knows how to be quiet when he comes in to get them. So we'll put them up higher and more hidden and see how that goes.
7. My wife, two children and her parents are going to Disneyland without me again. This time, I was being told that her parents are paying for season passes for the three of them, but now I'm being told that this isn't a certainty.
8. I think the reason I'm not invited is the last time we were all there together, the kids wanted to hang out with their parents more than the grandparents, and this caused friction.
9. I'm starting to realize that I thought a lot more stuff happened. Or that a lot more stuff did happen, but I'm just to lazy to write about all the details of things.
10. And because nobody asked for it, pictures will be coming as soon as I get those all organized.

that's all for now folks!

Down to Earth

Well, it's official. The smokestack in the Crossings is coming down. Even more unbelievable than that is that I took these two pictures from my moving van with my cell phone and they're almost in the same spot. It's weird to see this guy coming down as it's been there longer than most of the people in the city. So for those of you who are no longer here. Celltacular pictures.

So here it be Monday afternoon.

And this afternoon.

Heard it on the Radio

As some to most of you know, I live in the eastern portion of the Bay Area in usually sunny California. The local baseball team (and the one I root for)? Oakland Athletics. The slightly farther local team? The San Francisco Giants. My son has taken to listening to baseball games at night on the radio in his room. Geographically we're closest to the A's, and yet we get the worst reception for their broadcasts. Which teams local broadcasts come in better, you ask? The Giants for one, who he's been listening to so much he's decided that next year in Little League he wants his team to be named the Giants. It's a little sad for me. But we won't be doing that, because he can still only be named after minor league teams. And speaking of minor leaguers, he also gets the Sacramento Rivercats games. They come in very clear since they're more or less across the delta from us. But wait, there's more! He can also listen to the Padres games. They come in clearer than the A's broadcasts, and they're coming from San Diego. I know this because I hear the ads for the local car lots and lawyers from down in the Marine Corps. Capitol. And who else can he listen to in his room? Why the L.A. Dodgers of course! Another of my least favorite teams, thanks to 1988 and Kirk Gibson. Damn that lousy gimp. But all this brings us back to the fact that he can listen to four teams who are farther away than our local favorite teams on the radio. Now he can listen to the A's games, but we have to get the dial just right, and angle the radio just so, and be careful not to breathe to hard in the direction of the radio waves so as not to disrupt them and cause massive buzzing and other horrible sounds besides the voice of Ken Korach to come out of that radio.

So I pose to you a question, how do I improve the reception on a simple boombox within a small boy's bedroom to better hear the team we root for? Please leave all suggestions in the specified comment area below. NASA people, I'm looking at you.

Graduate

Today I have nothing really exciting to report, other than Big T's promotion. So here's a blog post, right? T-ball is officially over for the year. Kooni has killed another mouse. And Big T had today is his 'graduation' from Kindergarten. We're took him to school at 8 in the a.m. Usually he doesn't start until 9:50, so I guess this earlier start time is to get him ready for next year when he goes all day. Well, not all day, but for longer than this year. He gets three recesses, I think, and also a lunch, so from 8 to 2:30 he gets almost an hour of breaks. So that should help him ease into the transition right? I also discovered that a number of the onions that I'd planted a few months ago, that I got from my uncle, had flowered. I just found out that this means they're unedible. Inedible. Nonedible. You can't eat them. So I've prepped the rest of the onions to be picked this weekend. Hopefully. So now?? Pictures!!!

Not to ruin your suspense, but he did hit this one. To the outfield.
Getting his perfect attendance certificate for the third trimester. It was a quick shot by me and I was impressed it came out, so I'm sharing it with the world.

Beware! Cougar!

No, not the new pop culture kind, the old kind that's a wild animal. But more on that later. First off, the rain held off yesterday and the infamous water balloon practice went great. Even the kids who aren't the best hitters were able to hit a water balloon and soak themselves. My lovely and beautifully helpful wife was able to make another 140 or so balloons before the practice, and her fingers were paying for it last night. Even the massive water balloon fight at the end between the kids went well, no major injuries and only a few head shots. It was somewhat unfortunate that almost every kid already knew what was coming and so it was difficult to get them to pay attention at the beginning of practice because they were just waiting for the towel to come off the giant tub to start playing. But it did rain just after we finished practice. So well timed.

Also, we may have discovered the secret hiding place of the mice. It would appear that the neighbor behind us has a trail of sorts for them because that's where we saw Kooni snag one the other night. She played with that thing for a good half hour. She either threw it back over the fence or ended up putting it somewhere other than the back porch, but it was fun to watch her stalk that thing all around the backyard. And I learned that a cats eyesight is similar to that of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. If the prey doesn't move, they can't see it. She looked right past that mouse a few times and couldn't see it right in front of her face, until it twitched and then she was able to continue smacking it around the yard. It was a great time for both of them. I'm sure the mouse had fun playing hide and seek. Aren't you?

Balloons

So a quick update on the water balloons. I had made almost 200 balloons and left them here, when my wife got home she sent me this picture:

Only about 20 were left. It was like Jonestown or something. So tonight she helped me fill up almost 200 more. If they don't make it through tomorrow, it's gonna be rough at practice. I can't fill up that many that quickly.

I Want to Tell You

OK, so I know I've been slacking in my postings as of late, and I have some great excuses, but the short story is, I got sick, busy with T-ball, potty training has been happening, accident occured, and I can just be a little bit lazy. So on to the fun!!!

That cold that I wrote about previously? It kicked my behind and turned out to be walking pneumonia. What's walking pneumonia you ask? Well, it's the pneumonia that isn't quite serious enough to make you stay in the hospital. However I wasn't allowed to do much walking so it's a very deceptive name. I was put on what amounted to bed rest as I had to stay home from work and just rest for a week. Not much got accomplished around the house and the grass grew pretty high. I caught it in the early stages of pneumonia as I'd had the cough for almost three weeks before I went into the doctors office. 'Cause I'm a guy, that's why I waited so long. So due to the illnesses and trip to Disneyland I've only played in 5 of the possible 11 softball games this year. (An estimate). I'm really having withdrawls about that. I needs my fix.

We're in the last week of T-ball and then I'm out for a while. I don't know if E will want to play, but she seems like she might. Wednesday I'm having the second annual water balloon practice. Which sounded like a lot more fun until the weather peeps are telling me that it might rain, in June. It hopefully won't and the 300ish water balloons I've filled up won't be for nothing. I'm going to enjoy it anyway. What happens is I have the same practice but we use water balloons instead of baseballs. I do get a little kick out of the kids trying to throw them and I like throwing them back. A good time will be had by whoever shows up.

Little E is finally getting the concept of going in the potty. It's a wonderful feeling for me. I'm one step closer to not changing a diaper for a while. Also, all the stories about how girls are easier? Lies. The stories about the second child being easier? Also lies. Lots of people have lied to us about this potty training thing.

I hit a car a couple weeks ago. It wasn't my fault. It was almost the perfect combination of stereotypical bad drivers, an old Asian man. If it was his wife, I would have had the trifecta! But two out of three ain't bad. Anyhoo, I was waiting at a red light, like good drivers do (foreshadowing!), with my 6 year old boy in the back seat at 6:40 in the a.m. The light turned green and I started across. I'm about 2 and a half lanes across a six lane road when I see a blur coming out of the corner of my eye. Alertly, I slam on my brakes and see a golden 2005 Acura whiz almost all the way by me. Except for his back rear tire, which catches my front bumper, thereby qualifying this event as an accident. He pulls over in the fast lane and gets out, so I do also. After a few minutes of confusion, as I can't really understand what he's trying to tell me, a CHP motorcycle cop pulls in and moves us over and takes down a police report. He asks me what happened and I tell him. Then he asks Old Asian Man, "Was the light red when you entered the intersection?" Old Asian Man replies, "Well, it might have just been yellow." CHP Officer writes on the police report, "Old Asian Man at fault." Well, ok he didn't write that exactly, but on the report Old Asian Man, or OAM as I'm going to call him from now on, was Party 1, and on previously mentioned report, he wrote P1 at fault. SCORE! It's my first accident where it wasn't my fault at all! No possible chance it was me. All him! And all it took was for the other driver to be an OAM. So the check from his insurance company should be arriving shortly and I'll be fixing up the front of my van. Wanna see it?


And to end up this brief, yet long, summary of the past month or so, I leave you with this image:


Kooni the Cat has killed 5 mice in the past week, that we know of. She had one laying out on the back porch last Tuesday when my wife got home from work, and has left us a mouse each of the last four days. It's extra impressive since I've haven't seen evidence of a mouse for almost four years at this house. So go cat go!

Promises Kept

As promised, here are a few shots of the fam from Disneyland. As I know how exciting it can be to view others vacation pics, I've kept them down to a minimum. Enjoy!



Little E and SuperWife got to join the parade. E had been dying to do this from the first day in the park and it took until the fourth day to finally get in there. They would just grab people from in the crowd and form a quasi-conga line around a couple floats.


We just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this one. It was still early in the a.m. so Big T was still waking up and shy. E, however, just ran over to good ol' Handy Manny and gave him a huge hug and posed for this great pic. It's hard to get the characters because the ones in costume are only out for about 15 minutes at a time before they go back on breaks.

That's us in the first row of the horse drawn car. When we arrived at the spot for the pickup, my first thought was, "Front row! Awesome, the kids will love this." My second thought, which followed soon after was, "Hmmm, I get to stare at the ass of this horse for the whole ride. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea." And yes, you could smell the horse from our seat. It was what you'd expect a horse's ass to smell like.

Just E enjoying another ride on the carousel. How can you say no to a kid who wants to ride every time she walks by when you get this face while she's riding? You can't.

Hanging in a teacup. E was still in the bad part of her cold on this night, and that sweatshirt I'm wearing is brand new, as I forgot to pack one. We took a second trip to Company D in order to purchase one for me. I actually ended up with two, and another hat. But at the prices they offer, it's hard to pass them up.

The kids celebrating another birthday in Disneylaned. That's Patrick Edward Cake in the back there. Pat E. Cake as he's known to his friends.

Riding on Dumbo with E next to me. Not much to say about this one, but I thought it was a pretty cool picture.

Flat Tire

OK friends and neighbors, it's time for updates updates updates!!!! I can sense your joy through my monitor. It's almost overwhelming. Almost.

First off, the rest of the Disneyland trip was wonderful. Little E felt much better the last couple days and as such was much more inclined to go on the rides, and she rode Matterhorn a total of four times. Four!! She loves it, which is great because you never know how an almost 3 year old is going to react to something like that. She even put her hands up in the air for the drops on Pirates. If you're not so familiar, there is an initial drop of around 20 feet or so down the waterfall, like a very mini Splash Mountain. So that was awesome. Big T throws his hands up on Matterhorn and Big Thunder and was even willing to ride Space Mountain with his mom, which is a huge step since previously he would only ride with me. And I swear I'll put up a few pics. We, mostly I, took a little over 2000 for that week. It takes a while to sift through them.

We left a lot of stuff in the hotel room and it was quite an ordeal just to get someone to go and get it for us, not to mention the fun of trying to get a hold of the only person who is allowed to ship things back to their owners. We left T's new didj Leapfrog game thing which he'd just got for Easter and loved to no end. We also left all the movies we'd taken down that the kids would be able to watch on the long drive home. Thank God I had Wall-E on the laptop hard drive. That saved us a couple hours. We finally got it all back yesterday. All is well again. And my faith in that hotel is restored, as the last time we stayed there a couple years ago, I left my pillows and they just disappeared.

I also managed to get sick on the way home and am still just getting over the cold which I acquired. And no, it's not the swine flu. But thanks for asking. Everyone else is back in near top form again.

I got my first flat tire on the van Saturday night. So that was fun. Then of course, the tire place we use was closed on Sunday and with E's b-day and me forgetting my wallet yesterday and practice after work today, I hope to get it fixed tomorrow. But things I plan rarely work out, which is why I don't plan things much anymore.

Little E turned 3 on Monday. Happy B-Day to E!!!!!!! She was loving all the attention and her cake as well. My wife's making two ice-cream cakes for the kids for the Super Party coming up on Sunday. It's still easy for us to have one party for two kids with their birthdays being five days apart and all. I'm sure that as they grow this will become more complicated as having to have two separate parties so close together may be less fun for us.

And to wrap up this brief wrap up. I have planted a tomato plant. Hopefully it will bear tomatoes. I am getting more confident in my ability to keep plants alive and it seems that the onions in the front are doing well overall. If all this succeeds, there may be a veggie planter coming. With multiple plants and spices and such. We shall see.

Minnie's Yoo-Hoo

Hello there friends and neighbors. I write to you from a location across the street from The Happiest Place on Earth. Our vacay (short for vacation) has been going well overall. The first day we got here with my in-laws they were sick with the colds my family had been fighting. My whole family, except for Little E who waited to get down here to really get a hold of it. She's been pretty sick with said head cold for the first few days but now seems to be getting over it. This morning she felt well enough to go give Handy Manny a big ol' hug and pose for a couple pics. She has also met Winnie-the-Pooh, Goofy, Tigger, Mickey, and rode the Matterhorn twice. She loves it.

Big T has been rushing us between the Matterhorn and Big Thunder for most of the trip, but we as a family have managed to ride Small World twice, Pirates twice, Space Mountain (me and T), Buzz Lightyear multiple times, Toy Story Mania, Soarin', Casey Jr., the carousel, Snow White, Alice ('cept me), the Teacups, Jungle Cruise twice (once at night with the fireworks which was really cool), Pooh a lot (hehehehehehe), saw Billy Hill, saw Playhouse Disney twice, Tower of Terror (just me so far), and I can't remember the rest right now. But first a few pics from the first few days (except for today and yesterday which I haven't got off the camera yet.)

Well, due to techincal difficulties, pics will have to come later. Sorry. But now it's naptime, we've been staying in the park until 10 or 11 each night, which might not seem that late to some of you, but the kids usually go to bed at around 7:30 and, because we have nothing else to do, we stay home. Walking around and riding isn't part of our usual routine and it can really take it out of you.

See you real soon!

Nostalgic

I helped in my sons Kindergarten class today. It was a fun experience, and good to see that he actually does seem to pay attention and listen to the teacher. And that he's just like all the other kids. Now, I am used to seeing him with other kids his age at T-ball, but it's different being his coach. At T-ball, I know he knows what he's doing and I don't have to spend as much time with him on certain drills because he already knows them. (And not to sound like a bragging parent, but he is one of the better kids on the team.) But I've helped him with his homework and he seems to rush through it. But today at school I helped with what they call 'Stations' which is where the kids break up into three smaller groups and each do a different project. The project for the table I was helping at was making a bunny bag and a bunny ear hat for Easter, even though we don't celebrate religious holidays. They're having a 'Spring Egg Hunt' tomorrow. Why not just call it an Easter Egg hunt? That's what it is. But you gotta be politically correct, thank you very much liberals.

Anyhoo, I remembered how fun Kindergarten was. My job was to read them a story first about the Easter Bunny. His name was Wilbur and he wasn't feeling very good and didn't think that he'd be able to deliver all the Easter baskets. He had a fever and a cough and a runny nose, which prompted two of the four kids at my table to launch into descriptions of their recent illnesses which were very similar to what poor Wilbur was suffering through. Luckily for Wilbur, though, he had a few very helpful friends who were going to deliver the baskets for him. Unfortunatley, they soon discovered that carrying all those baskets was much harder than they thought it would be so they had to go get Wilbur out of bed. Wilbur sacked up and started taking the baskets around but it was almost dawn now and people were out! He had to hide behind trees, and under beds and in laundry while his friends distracted the people of the neighborhood. In the end all the baskets were delivered and Wilbur was able to get back to bed to recover. The End.

After this lovely story the kids were going to make bunny bags with my help. They are paper bags with handles at the top that the kids make a bunny face on with ears, eyes, a nose and whiskers that they had to cut out and then glue onto the bag. Of course before they could glue the eyes and nose on, they had to color eyeballs for their bunny and color the nose. Thus were created the bunny bags. After the bunny bags there was more, now we had to cut out bunny hats. This was accomplished by the kids cutting only along the lines drawn on a giant piece of paper, then having me fold the paper in a very particular way, stapling, taping, hole punching, and stringing yarn through the holes to make was were essentially bonnets with bunny ears on the top. But wait, there's more! After making these hats, and having the kids color some pink in the ears to make them more bunnyish, they got to sort, count, and graph bags of jelly beans. So the kids get their papers, and a bag of beans, and begin to sort out the beans by color. After they're sorted, they color in boxes to show how many of each color, then after this they get to eat the jelly beans. And during this whole hour long process the topics of conversation were just wonderful. We discussed the finer points of such things as Dora the Explorer, Spiderman, Diego, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Spongebob and whether dentists were overall good or bad. And we discovered that one of the little girls grandma actually has no teeth at all. But can put some in if she needs to eat or chew things.

It's almost cruel as the kids get to start out with classes like this, having so much fun and talking and making bunny hats, and then in just 7 or 8 short years, they're algebra, difficult english classes where you'll need to find the adjective, predicate, proper nouns, and subject of sentences.

So drift back and remember the wonders of Kindergarten for yourself today. Enjoy the thoughts and memories of a simpler time, where your biggest concern was making sure you colored in the lines.

And I'm going back in a few weeks to help with the computer lab. That's going to be lots of fun.

Just the Goin'

Since the list making has been happening at my house lately with the preparations for the trip down to Disneyland with my in-laws, I thought I'd run a few things by you. Yes, I'm going to Disneyland with the in-laws. No, I'm not crazy. Why yes, I am staying in the same room with them for the first four nights. I do know that there will be horrible snoring from my father-in-law. I have plans for that. Some of them are legal.

Anyway, all has been pretty well. We're all getting over our horrible colds, with all the juicy mucus and lovely coughs. The ear infection for me, sore throats for myself and my wife, now big T's got himself the cough and had a fever this past weekend. So yeah, health is improving in time for the trip.

He had a field trip, his first real field trip, to the Oakland Zoo today. It rained on them a bit but I guess he was pretty dry. I dropped him off this morning since he had to be there at 8 instead of the usual 9:50. In a stroke of genius, they scheduled the Kindergarten field trip on the same day as the 5th graders are leaving for their week long camp. So as the little 5-year-olds are being led to their classroom with a promise of a wonderful trip to the zoo, they are passing lots of suitcases and sleeping bags surrounded by worrying parents. Now, T knows that suitcases are for packing for long trips as he's done this before. And I just pulled down our luggage this past weekend and he's been trying to get a head start on his packing since Sunday. So he's seeing other peoples luggage and I could see the worry starting to form, as his minds probably wondering just how long this trip to the zoo will be. But I took him into his class and gave him a hug and said good-bye and he ran out to play so I figured all was well. I got into work and had to fix someone's computer problem, because I'm the only one who knows how to make laptops connect to LCD projectors, and a call came in that I couldn't get. I didn't recognize the number and thought nothing of it until my wife called to say that she just talked to the boy and his teacher and poor little T was freaking out. He was crying and said he didn't want to leave because he forgot to give me a hug, but my wife, the Supermom gave him a great pep talk and he was OK enough to go on the trip. I don't know how it went yet as he got home about an hour ago, but my mom said he fell asleep on the 5 minute drive from his school to her house. So I'll find out later. But my little guy is growing up and branching out. Maybe the next field trip, I'll chaparone.

I've ordered my functioning contacts and they should be arriving shortly, which will be great as I'd love to have them for the trip instead of switching glasses all the time. This presents another problem, however, as I only have sunglasses that are prescriptionized. I went into Sunglass Hut yesterday and discovered that the sunglasses that I currently own, you know, those ones with the interchangable lenses? Well, those sunglasses, probably because they're Oakley's, those lenses for those shades? $80. For the black iridium polarized lenses. $80. I asked how much for the whole set including the plastic frames. $160. So this means that the people of the Sunglass Hut feel that the lenses and the frames are both worth the same amount of cash. This is incredible to me. So I'm looking for a more economical pair of shades for the trip. I'm hopeful but not very optomisitic.

I'm listening to the new album by Sara Watkins, it's awesome. Not much to do with anything else, but I thought I'd mention it.

T-ball is still going well, I see a couple kids who someday when they go pro will look back on this time with me as their coach and think, "He was awesome. I'm in the big leagues because of him." And then they'll give me money. Which by then I won't need as much because I have big plans to hit the lotto. I'm putting a lot of eggs into the 'Win the Lotto' basket.

I found a couple games for the old Gamecube system I'd forgotten I had. I never had a Gamecube, but I did work for a period of my life at Best Buy, and that job afforded certain perks, like the ability to get free samples of games that you would otherwise only get by pre-ordering games. So I found out that I have Zelda Ocarina of Time with Master something or other and a Star Wars demo disc with the full original Atari arcade game. Remember that one, where you stood there and did the Death Star trench run over and over with the spectacular linear graphics? Well I have it and went out and got myself a controller so I could play them and the Star Wars game is as fun as ever. I did learn that in order to save games I need a Gamecube memory card, so anyone out there with one of those you don't want anymore, send it on over. We'll be pals forever. Or if you prefer we can be palz 4eva!

I guess that's enough for now, though I'm almost completed with another site team-will.org. And one my brother designed for a construction company in Petaluma buckhornconstruction.net. And I'm still working on the districts new site, which is taking a lot longer that I'd like because you can't do simple things like find and replace, nope, I've got to go through all 300 plus pages, and 1000 plus documents and fix things one at a time. Very tedious.

Also Kooni, the cat is almost fully an outside cat now, which is very exciting. And the onions from my uncle appear to be growing well, if they end up coming out tasty, be prepared for a great barbecue this summer.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.