Crazy Bored?

It Goes On and On

2010-10-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, hello internetians. Been awhile, huh? I must say, things have been happening, I just have been negligent in posting such happenings to the world. Some of it I can't speak of to much due to possible impending litigation, but I will say this: Some people deserved to be kicked right in the ear. Very hard in the ear. Moving on to less secrety topics. . .

Big T had his first Raingutter Regatta this past weekend, in the rain. The person checking in the boats remarked that he'd never seen a modified boat before. Which makes me more certain than ever that the people in this pack don't know how to properly utilize this newfangled contraption called the interwebs. We found T's design on a scout site and set out to make it, as he felt it looked, "cool". See below:

The other Wolf in his den helpfully hid his face from the image,

but you can see the 'regular' boat in his hand.

It seemed that others had never thought to apply the 'catamaran' style to the boats that are handed out. Or it was against the rules that nobody told us about. But I'm thinking it's less the second one, because nobody but the Webelos that Big T destroyed in the races complained. And yes, I am den leader of a two scout den. We had three but one of them quit. Which really is fine, because he didn't really want to be there anyway.

Also, in the fun stuff land of information. I went to SF two weekends in a row, which is huge for me, because I really, really don't like going to the city. (Go TEXAS!!) But the first weekend we went for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and saw Randy Newman, Rosanne Cash, and my new fav band, The Avett Brothers. It was fun and horrible all at the same time. The music and the artists were great, but I felt like I was trudging through a homeless encampment most of the day. Way to many poser hippies there. Also a drunk, probably homeless guy wanted to fight me because he ran into the wagon I was pulling with our stuff in it, and I wouldn't give him a beer to apologize. Also, I didn't apologize anyway, if you don't see the giant red wagon with coolers and chairs in it, and you run into it? You deserve the little scrape on your ankle.

The second week was for Fleet Week, and this time we got to see the Blue Angels fly because the fog didn't come in and ruin everything. Of course, the kids could have not been less impressed by that, but I thought it was cool still. Everytime I saw them flying over the Golden Gate towards show center, I thought of 'The Rock' when they dropped the napalm on the island and blew up Alcatraz. Yes, I may have a bit of geek in me, but so what, that movie still kicks ass.

Anyway, things just keep on a-rollin' along. The web jobs are coming in a little more frequently now, so that's nice, always good to have a little extra cash. Even though not much of it is extra. These two kids are going through some clothes. At first I thought it was great to have their birthdays only 5 days apart, but now it's starting to hit me that they both run through their clothes at the same time due to their growth spurts being coordinated. And right now, they both need a lot of pants. Which for Big T isn't that big a deal. If they fit, he loves them. But Little E is 4, and she's a girl, and she's getting picky. I guess you gots to look good in preschool.

So that's it for now, I'll see you guys shortly after Halloween to show off the pics of Indiana Jones and Supergirl. Little E will be Supergirl.

The Perfect Space

2010-08-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

Big T started school today, grade number two. He did great, no tears, no crazy nervous behavior. All went well. It was great. We also went to the Ports game for Scout night this past Friday and it was also great. Great being the word that I shall continue to use to describe how things were. Great.


Big T getting ready to spend the night at Banner Island Ballpark with his ever present Black Puppy. Black Puppy is the name of the dog. It's a great name, don't you think?

Our tent in the outfield. Big T picked the spot so he could watch the movie that was shown on the big screen while lying in his sleeping bag in the tent. It was a pretty great spot.


The shantytown the morning after. You'll notice some of the scouts just laid their bags on a tarp and slept under the stars. It was a beautiful night and didn't get too cold, which was great, so it probably wouldn't have been that bad without the tent.

It was a great night and the Ports destroyed the Jethawks 13-1. Unfortunately the high score and post-game fireworks meant that I didn't get the tent set up and Big T in there until almost midnight. So I didn't fall asleep until around 1am, then woke up at 6 and started driving home at 7. I've been tired since then. While we were at the game we took a little stroll around the park and Big T wanted to hit in the cages they have there. So while we were waiting in line, a foul ball landed almost exactly where our seats were. Big T's den leader, who was sitting in the row in front of us, was able to get his hand on it, but couldn't haul it in.

So all in all, if you ever get a chance to sleep out on a ball field, I'd highly recommend it. It's a great time.

Holiday Road

2010-08-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

So that idea to have weekly blog posts has turned into a month since the last one. Pretty close, I say. The kids finished their swim lessons, and Big T has turned into quite a little fish. He's doing much better than I thought he would. Little E can also swim enough to get herself to the side of the pool if she falls in, which is the goal that I had set for them, but she doesn't have the form that her big brother does. She looks more like a poodle going along, all you can see is the top of her head and her face and it sort of bobs as she creates a typhoon just under the surface to keep herself going.

They were able to finish their lessons with enough skill that they got to swim around in Lake Tahoe and Donner a lot more than they would have otherwise. They also got to go on their first boat ride, which was a thrill for them, as that's the best part of our trips to Bass Pro Shops. Pretending to ride in the boats. Unfortunately, the hours that my brother had reserved the boat for were from 12-2 on Donner. You wouldn't think that it would rain in the end of July, but then, you haven't been on vacation with me either. I have this uncanny ability to pick days during the summer when it will rain, usually the only days during the summer when it rains. This particular trip, we picked the only 30 minutes it rained. It started just after 12 and the kids were in the boat and we had to cover them with their towels and put their goggles on, so they could see, and for 15 minutes we drove them around in the freezing, pelting rain until they'd had enough. We turned the boat back in and went back to the cabin my brothers girlfriends grandparents have, and 5 minutes after we got back there the sun came out and it was beautiful. So they missed their boat trip, but still had a good time.

We went to a Stockton Ports game not that long ago and Big T had the honor of receiving two baseballs. The first one, he just got for being adorable and a little boy with a glove at the game, as the pitching coach for the Modesto Nuts was walking his pitcher back to the dugout before the game, he took a ball out his back pocket and handed it to my son. So awesome, game hasn't started and he's already thrilled beyond words because he got a ball. Then later on in the game, while my wife was taking Little E on a walk around the park, The third baseman came over near us and caught a foul pop for the third out of the inning, looked over at Big T and gave him the ball. It's amazing really, I've been going to games for as long as I can remember and I've never got a ball. My 7-year-old son has now got 3. And 2 at one game. It's just crazy. We're heading back again next Friday for the Scout sleepover. He now attends games expecting to get a ball, I don't know what he'll do if he doesn't get one.

And last for this little post, I finished filming my starring role in the upcoming Brad Pitt film, "Moneyball". Well, more accurately, I finished filming my overnight role in the film. Okay, so really me and my cousin were unpaid extras in the stands during one of the sessions of filming the movie. But Brad Pitt was there with some of his kids, I don't know which ones. Jonah Hill was there and did a mini-routine that was pretty funny. The night we were there, 10:30 pm to 5:30 am, they were filming the scene where Scott Hatteberg hit a walk-off homer to win the 20th straight game from 2002. It was a lot of fun to see it re-enacted since I remember watching that game on TV. So now I can say I was there. According to the director, we will be CGIed so we fill the stadium. There were around 300 of us there, so in the movie I should show up 40-50 times. So make sure to go see the movie and watch for me. I'm the one in the white hat with a green bill. And the A's jacket. The other bonus for doing that is that I got free tickets to attend the A's game on my birthday, and got to see Cahill pitch his first career complete game shutout. It was a good one.

Car Trouble

2010-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

We had ourselves a pretty big weekend. My mother-in-law turned 60, so I got to go hang out at my wife's sister's house. It wasn't so bad after a few Longboards. They set up the old Super8 projector and were watching old home movies, so that was awesome for me. The kids got to swim for a while in the doughboy in their backyard and play the Wii and watch Toy Story 2 and get ice cream cake, so it was a great party for them.

They have now completed one week of swim lessons and are going to be starting their second and final week of this session today. Big T may just be able to swim by Thursday, according to the teacher. Little E, probably not. But then, she's only 4 and this is her first time trying, so maybe a couple more lessons and she'll be okay. Just have to wait and see. It's frustrating for me, because I want them to be better faster, and I'll watch them in there with the teacher, and they're fooling around and being goofy, and I want them serious and focused because they're only getting 25 minutes sessions 8 times. Less than four hours of lessons to make them swim and they're not progressing at the pace that I'd like them to. I will say that Big T is much farther along than I thought he would be as he's dunking his head for a long time and really enjoys those diving rings that sit on the bottom of the pool. He loves trying to pick those up.

In other exciting news, Big T Finally lost his first tooth!! It took over seven years, but it finally happened. He was crazy excited about it and couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to come, and come the tooth fairy did. He was thrilled to find his tooth replaced by money this morning and the first thing he told me this morning was about this very magical and long awaited transformation.

Little E also picked her first peapod off her plant yesterday morning. She was also very excited about this development and can't wait for more of them to be ready to pick and eat.

In other exciting, but not nearly as welcome news, my vans transmission started to crap out on us as we were leaving for the 'local' Bass Pro Shops in Manteca. It would slam so hard from first to second that it felt like we were being rear ended. Checked everything out later that night, (we went to Bass Pro still, just took the wife's car instead of my van) and everything was working fine. Called my mechanic this morning and discovered that this kind of thing can happen and when you turn off the vehicle and then turn it back on, it resets the computer, which is what could be causing the problem due to not reading the engine correctly and shifting when it should. So he said it was cool to drive and if it started happening again, I can simply pull over, turn the van off, turn it back on and it should work again. Of course, I'll still have to take it in to get it checked out. Which is super because I just got the A/C fixed on Friday. So back it goes!! But at least it's now and not while we're gone on vacation.

And since you're wondering, Bass Pro was fun. The kids got to make a picture frame, hang out in the boats, got new fishing poles, the shooting gallery was free. All in all, an interesting Sunday.

Bullets

2010-06-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. So, three months have passed and such wondrous things have happened. I cannot possibly keep you up on all things Wally, but bullets are always fun, right? Plus this is good typing practice. So what has happened since we last communicated?

Little League has come and gone. There are no scores kept at the level we were at, so as such, no places or record. But all in all it was a good season. The kids got a lot better as the season went along and there were no major problems with anyone. Next year, we'll be playing almost real baseball, the kids will pitch to each other and there's a hardball involved. Should be fun.
Little E made it through her first year of preschool and loved it. She's all excited to be starting the 4-year-old class next year. She can identify most of her letters and is attempting to write her name. She does pretty good except for the 'y'.
Big T survived first grade and had a great time. He won't have to go to summer school and the teacher he had was wonderful. I got to go on his field trip this year to Smith Farms and played the gut bass up on stage with the kids. It was quite an experience.
Our kitty Kooni disappeared the day before Easter and we haven't seen her since. It was a tough thing to try to explain to the kids as they've never had to deal with real loss before this. Little E seems fine, but Big T has had a few moments of sadness with it.
We got a new Kitty named Zumi just last week. She's awesome and the kids love her and are helping them get over the missing Koonster. But it's an adjustment for them.
My awesomely old laptop died on me, just crapped out with no warning. We lost all our pics from late August through Aprilish. So the lesson there? Backup, backup, backup, backup.
I got a new laptop and my wife got one also, as I had been hogging it due to gaining some more business with the web development stuff. It's been nice to have that little bit of extra cash now and then.
Some of that extra cash was used to buy a new DVD player as the old one died on us. They only last a year or so for us anymore before they're no good. I don't understand it, as I bought one over 10 years ago from Good Guys when I worked at Circuit City (remember those two stores?) and it still works great.
We have had two birthdays and the kids are now 4 and 7. Little E is already looking forward to being 5, because then she gets to go to Kindergarten.
Big T graduated from Tiger Cubs and is now a Wolf Scout. I have somehow become one of the pack leaders and got a little certificate at the graduation ceremony.
I played Mare Island Golf Club for the first time. The front nine are the oldest nine holes west of the Mississippi. The back nine are much, much newer.
The air conditioning is out on the van again. Well, not actually out, as it just won't blow out of the front vents. So that will be fun to fix.
The kids will be starting swim lessons next week. So that's something that hopefully will go very well, as we're planning to visit Tahoe in a while and I would like them to be less reliant on me and floaties in the lake.
I have planted tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and onions this year in my quasi-garden. I got the zucchini, onions and tomatoes from my uncle, he with the amazingly large garden with enough produce to go to farmers markets with. Also he makes the kick ass salsa. They're all growing pretty well, except that i can't seem to get any strawberries off the plant, I think the bugs are getting to them first.
My cherry tree this year was awesome. I got a lot of great bings off of it. They were delicious and sweet and the birds didn't get all of them
They did however, get all of the other cherry that grows on that tree, the Rainiers. Those babies didn't make it far enough along before the birds ate them all. This won't happen next year, however, because Zumi will be able to protect the tree.
They have also become obsessed with two tv shows: Phineas and Ferb, which isn't that bad, and Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, which is horrible.
They are starting soccer today, so that's gonna be something. I'm not looking forward to this at all, as I think they're more than coordinated enough to just play real sports.
Also, I hit a bird yesterday with my van. I was driving along at about 50ish or so. A bird, who has the ability to fly significantly higher than 3 feet off the ground, wasn't and I smacked it with the right headlight. I don't know if the bird died or not, but I didn't see it laying along the side of the road when I passed back by 30 minutes later. But it did crap all over my headlight when I hit it. So I literally scared the crap out of that bird.
I have set a new goal to not leave this for another three months, maybe I'll shoot for weekly and see how that goes. Set realistic goals, right?

So reading back over this, maybe i didn't need to keep updating as much, but I swear more happened, just don't remember it all now.

Till next week, maybe.

Eye of the Tiger

2010-03-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

I thought that I should update those who don't already know. Little E's eye is better and my wife's car is back in the shop today. Little E had another adventure the night that I last posted as she went into the emergency room due to the eye that was poked swelling up quite a bit. This worried us enough to call the advice nurse who told us to get her into the ER. So a four and a half hour trip later, she came home feeling a little better with a bottle of Tylenol with Codine, but still swollen and with instructions to get an appointment for the next day, which was Friday.

So Friday she got an appointment at 10 in the a.m. and I took another day off work to take her. Her eye seemed to be getting better and while we were getting ready to leave for the doctors I got her to open it. I'd given her some of the Tylenol earlier that morning and she must have felt well enough to finally give it a shot. That was a half-hour before her appointment. We got to the doctor and now that she could see again she was pointing out all sorts of things to me in the waiting room. Like the color of the chairs (red and green) the pictures of flowers on the wall, and the really big belly on the lady just a few seats down. I think the actual quote was, "Daddy, we're sitting on red chairs, that lady is sitting on a green chair, and she has a really big belly." I don't think the really big belly lady heard her because she didn't move, of course she did have a really big belly and it may have been to much for her to swing her head around.

The doctor said that it was probably just swollen because she had been rubbing her eye. So Little E got herself an eye patch. An eye patch to keep her from rubbing her eye. It was like when they give dogs those cones around their necks so they won't scratch or bite their stitches. Same thing. She spent the rest of that day actually watching movies and resting. And the next day she was almost completely better and now she's fine.

My wife's car was fixed from it's major problem and now has a minor problem that may or may not be related to the first problem, it's in the shop right now, and I'm waiting to hear what's wrong.

In other good news, (actual good news) Big T was offered and accepted the role of reader of the Little League Pledge on opening day for the league. He read it along with a little girl from another team and did great. I didn't know how he would do with something like that. But he was fine in front of the big crowd. I was one very proud papa, I tell you what.

Ay Carumba

2010-03-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

So Little E was just recovering from her parachuteless skydive off the jungle gym when I went and poked her in eye with an umbrella. That's what the nurse put in the computer, 'Dad hit her in the eye with an umbrella.' Before you get all bothered about abuse and such, let me set the scene for you.

Yesterday morning about 6:45 in the a.m., it was raining pretty hard. It was one of my wife's parents days to watch the kids. I've been driving my mom's car instead of my van because my wife's car is in the shop because of a blown head gasket. So anyhoo, I've got my boy in the house and have come back out to get Little E out of the car. She says that she wants me to use the umbrella so she doesn't get as wet. So I pop it open and have it resting over us using the roof of the car and the open door to hold it. I get her out of her seat and am turning her around, so she's facing away from me, when the umbrella starts to fall. My former cat-like reflexes grab for the umbrella, but because my hands are trying to hold on to my daughter, my arm goes out and hits the umbrella in the middle of the handle and flings it upward toward her head. It hits her in the eye with one of the metal prongs (which seems like a very major design flaw) and she starts crying because it hurts.

I get her into the house and look at her eye and don't see any blood or discoloration so I think that maybe it just hit her near the eye and she'll be fine in a bit. I get my hugs and hi-fives and head out the door to go to work. About 10, I get a call from my wife who is heading over to her parents because her mom is freaking out because she can't get Little E to stop crying. I get a call 20 minutes later telling me to come and get Little E because she's just sobbing non-stop. I go get her and bring her home at around 11:15 a.m. My wife gets her a doctors appointment at 2:50 that afternoon. When we get home, she says that she wants to watch Toy Story 2, but what she really wants is to listen to it because she won't open her eyes. She falls asleep a bit after the movie starts and stays down for a good hour and a half. Once she wakes up she has a snack and lays back down and sleeps for another hour or so. In between all this whenever she has to pee, I have to carry her to the bathroom because she won't open her eyes to see where she's going.

We get to the doctors and she's not thrilled to be there, but the doctor gives her an eyedrop that numbs her eye for a while so she opens it up and the doctor sees a small scratch on her cornea. She should be better hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Overall, she's not feeling well because she's had a nasty head cold for the past few days to go along with this new injury. But I'm hopeful that she'll be fine again soon.

On a lighter note, part of my job is to type up reviews that librarians write up for books that they read. I just got another doozy and thought that I'd share it with you.

I don't know how well you can see this as I've discovered that I'm not a great photographer with my phone, but the librarian has misspelled 'intelligent'.And people wonder why our kids don't get a good education.

Free Falling

2010-03-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

Well electronical friends, it seems like these gaps are becoming more and more common, yes? And yet, things are happening. This past weekend was birthday weekend, with my little brother coming down from Petaluma to the family get together/birthday party for him. My dad made ribs and potato and macaroni salad, and it was a great food day. It's always nice to have the family get together, and my aunt and uncle came down from Lower Lake and I got my uncle the dimensions for the area of my upcoming garden and he let me know that he has two kinds of squash, zuchinni, bell peppers, beans, three types of tomatoes and onions ready to come down in a couple weeks. So that means that me and the fam will make a pilgrimage up there to get the plants and set up with the materials that I'll need for irrigation and weed control. It also means that I should probably start building that raised planter. Soon.

Sunday was spent over at a friends house, whose daughter was celebrating her 8th birthday. Our kids are pretty close in age, so they enjoy playing with each other. They also have a play structure deal, like the ones from Costco. The kids love playing on that thing, there's swings, and a slide and a couple ladders. I'm not sure exactly what happened, as I was inside talking to people, and my wife was talking to someone else outside so she didn't see it right away, either. But I poked my head out the door just in time to see my little 3 year old girl helicopter spin off the top of the ladder and fall face first onto the safety mat seven feet below. She landed in a belly-flop manner and you could definately hear the thud. It seemed to happen in slow motion, and Thank God she landed on the mat and not another foot away where the cement patio was. I picked her up and she was trying to cry, but having a hard time, as the wind was knocked out of her. Once she caught her breath back, she cried for a while, and my wife took her from me, because I guess I wasn't doing a good enough job soothing her. I found them a few minutes later in the bathroom, with my wife cleaning my daughters face off. My son was pretty freaked out about this, as he suddenly became very shy and didn't want to leave my side.

Soon after this episode it was time for the kids to decorate their cupcakes, and she did this with her big brother and all was fine. She ate her hot dog, and about 15 minutes later was asking if she could go play on the playground again. So we let her, just disallowing her up the ladder she fell off of. So either the memory was gone, or she just didn't care. My kids are pretty tough. I say that, because the only other explanation is that they don't learn. And I'm pretty sure they learn.

It Takes Time

2010-02-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

Well my electronic friends, it has been a while hasn't it. There have been some happenings, but to avoid a long windyish post, I'll condense.

My cell phone broke about two weeks ago. It's a slider phone, and it stopped sliding, then it started sliding again but the screen went out. So I've had a phone in my pocket that was nothing but a phone, no texting, no caller id, no confirming that I hit the right keys to dial a certain number. It would have been more upsetting, but we were eligible to upgrade our phones a couple days ago, so I just willed myself through the past 12 days with a semi-functional phone. We went to see Lady and the Tramp at the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in SF on Monday, which was the same day we were able to upgrade. It was a lot of fun to see the movie on a slightly larger screen with the kids and both sets of parents. There was a little girl there who was probably about 9 sitting behind us and she had to ask her dad a few times, who the characters were. Which I found amusing because my little 3 year old whispered to me at one point in the movie, "Here come those cats, Daddy. They're not nice." and then we were treated to "We Are Siamese" so that was fun. The day in SF ended and we drove home to get our new phones.

We discovered upon arriving at the former establishment of my employ, that in order to get any of the phones with full keyboards, which is what we wanted, we had to now have $20 in data/messaging on our plan. We went back and forth on this for a long time, during which the kids were bored out of their skulls, until finally deciding to bend over and let AT&T shove their newly inflated plans up the exit only chute on our backsides. I have to admit, I enjoy playing with the features, and the ability to watch TV on the phone is fun, although the quality sucks, but it's growing on me. We'll see how much fun this all is when that bill comes with the extra $30 tagged onto it. I'm gonna guess not as much fun as the playing.

Meanwhile, the first practice for the new baseball season is coming in a little less than three hours. I'm really excited about getting back into the world of baseball again. I miss it a lot during those dark months of football. But we should be able to have a good season, limit the injuries and such. I have 12 players, only one of whom is a girl. They usually try to put at least two girls on each team, so they don't have to hang out with the icky boys, I guess. But this year the second girl's parents decided not to let her play because there weren't enough females to require a softball team at the 7-8 year old age range.

And lastly, we found out that Big T does have grown up teeth hanging out behind those baby chompers of his. He has yet to have so much as a loose tooth, but we've received X-Ray confirmation that all is well in the gums of our boy and that we can expect loose teeth to come forthwith.

And Lost has been awesome this year. I'll see you real soon!

The Job

2010-01-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

There was a small scare recently with regards to my wife's job. A little one with mine also, but happily both seem to have worked out fine. First mine, because the story is shorter.

The school district has two positions with my job title, and the other person has decided that the time has come, after over 30 years, for her to retire. So her job is being eliminated after June, which is the end of the fiscal year. The only reason this could affect me is if she changes her mind on retirement, which would then push her to my job since she has seniority, but there are hopes for me to have my job reclassified in order to account for all the web development that I do for the district.

My wife's job is going to be eliminated, however, there is a new position being created that will oversee two other people putting her into a supervisory position. There is no pay raise at this point, but she'll be pushed into a new bracket. Right now she's actually being paid above what her position is capped at. She will be working some nights and weekends now, but this will allow her to spend more time with the kids on school days and take them and pick them up occasionally. Which is very exciting for the kids who are almost always shuttled to and from their schools by our parents. Except for the very special occasions where either my wife or myself will pick them up. So what started as stressful news ended up being happy news. Nothing will be official until around the 23rd of next month and as I understand it, the actual job won't change until the 7th of March. So we'll see how things go until then.

In other news, baseball is starting up again. I should get my team on Tuesday, which is the season premiere event of Lost. I gave an interview to the local paper about the new season about a week ago. I talked to the reporter for about 20 minutes, and out of that 20 minute conversation, one line made it into the article. It's kind of disappointing, but I've known the reporter for a while now and have had my fun being in the paper a few times now. And since I don't actually subscribe to the paper, I really shouldn't complain at all.

And just to document this, Little E is still determined that we will be getting a dog soon. We'd love to get a dog, but if it was up to her, one would come home with me today. I think she still wants to name it Sam Lightswitch. Which I guess could work as a girl dog name also.

Finger

2010-01-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

Post number 200. And to mark the occasion. Some photos of the marks on my finger. These are up by request, so a couple warnings. One, these are blurry, they were taken with my phone, and it's not great at close-ups. Two, they could be disturbing if you're really, really, really squeamish. So here they are. Four images of my finger injury.

Taken the night of the injury in poor lighting, but I was lightheaded and woozy and didn't take the time to go to a more well lit area. I had stopped the bleeding at this point.

48 hours after getting my stitches in. This is the first time I removed the bandage that was put on at the hospital. You can see the stitches fairly well here.

Took this one in the hospital just before getting the stitches out. You can really see the improvement in the finger here. I was told just three days prior to this by another doctor, so seven days after getting them put in, "Wow, you're healing really well, it looks great. Come back in three days to have those taken out."

Later that night. My finger, stitch free.

So I hope you enjoyed this little scrapbook journey. And if you didn't, not my fault. I didn't do this for your enjoyment. I really didn't.

But to end on a high note, here's the boy with his winning car, and all the loot he got at the derby. Three ribbons, trophy, and a medal. Not bad for his first time.

On The Mend

2010-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Well, my hand is healing pretty well, I'm typing a bit better with a few more fingers, the car is no longer in need of cutting, and the first paint job has been applied. Things are moving along fairly smoothly. The cutting of the car was done by my dad, as my wife and my mom both are trying to keep me away from sharp things for a while. I think my dad's in on it too. Even though I learned how to injure myself with common objects from him.

We are on a bit of a time crunch now with the car as we're supposed to take it to somebody's house this Friday to have it weighed, measured and impounded until the race on Saturday. I figure that if he doesn't win something, then I must be a fairly big failure, since I've literally put my sweat and blood into this little block of wood.

In Stitches

2010-01-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it over 30 years without a broken bone or stitches. The broken bone streak is still intact, but, the stitches streak ended last night.

I was working on my sons Pinewood Derby car with a wood chisel. I was almost done with it when it slipped through the back of the car and through a couple inches of my hand. It started bleeding pretty good, and because my daughter was playing in the back of my van in the garage at the time I cut myself, I ran into the house yelling for my wife to go get her. My wife came in and followed the trail of blood to the bathroom where I was pretty near passing out and asked if I still had my finger, so apparently, there was a lot of blood, because my wife doesn't freak out that easily. So I got a towel on it and was able to stop the bleeding after a couple minutes. My wife called the advice nurse and after talking to me, they gave me an appointment at the minor injury clinic at Kaiser. I cut myself around 6 or so, and the appointment for us was at 7. My wife called her parents, who were over by our house trying to escape the Texans currently holding her house hostage, and they agreed to come watch the kids so I could be driven to the hospital. There was nobody at the minor injury clinic when we got there so we got right in and they put some numbing stuff on my hand and took my blood pressure on the arm without the gash and sent me in to see the doctor in the same room I had just recently taken my son to for his foot. I was far less anxious this time even though it was my own hand that was going to get that shot of Lydocane and stitches.

Now,since you can't see my hand and I don't think you want to see the picture I took with my phone, I'll describe it's location. If you were to lay your left hand on it's palm, and then notice where your index fingers knuckle is, the knuckle closest to your hand, the cut runs from near the palm most of the way up to the knuckle, and about a half inch deep, according to the doctor. But also according to the doctor, I was lucky enough not to sever any tendons or nerves and I still have full motion of my finger. I also have four stitches holding it together now. It was going to be three, but in conversation with the doctor, he asked me what my lucky number was. I said 14. I don't know if that really my 'lucky' number but it's a favorite of mine. He said that made my lucky number 5, because 1 + 4 = 5. H sait that there wouldn't be that many stitches. He said that three might be enough, but since 4 was his lucky number, that's how many I got.

I didn't get a pic of the stitches right after he put them in, but I wish I would have, since I have to leave the bandage on until tomorrow night. But I'll take a pic when I change the dressing and hopefully it's not getting infected right now. It does hurt now, but it's kind of a burning sensation with some bruisish aching with it. I can't type really well because I can only really use one hand to do it. Otherwise, thankfully, I'm fine. I hear I'm going to get a scar from this. It will be a lasting, loving reminder of my sons first Pinewood Derby, which is much better trophy than anything he could win at the race next weekend.

Explanation

2010-01-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

So it's a day or so later than I said it would be, but it's been busy lately. Seriously, it has been. Not just making excuses. This past week I was off from work was great. We went somewhere everyday, and since my darling wife had to work during the week, most of these trips were just me and the kids. We saw Princess and the Frog last Sunday, went to Pump It Up on Monday with my wife's brother-in-law and his kids, golfing Tuesday and Wednesday, where I spent money to have Little E hit range balls off into the distance with her brand new pink putter. Thursday took us to Chuck E Cheese, we went bowling and Big T bowled a 99, which is his new high score, and then we went up to Big Trees with my parents, which is where those pics came from.

My parents brought their dog, Tule, up with them, and she'd never been to the snow before. She's only 8 months old, though. One of the greatest things I discovered about her is shown in one of those pictures, where I'd make snowballs and toss them to her and she'd leap into the air to catch them. She also pulled the kids around on their sleds, Iditarod style. And that face that Little E's making? That's her Evil Queen face. She also used it at Pump It Up when she became Queen of the Mountain after fending off a boy with a pugil stick. She raised her hands and slowly turned to see if anyone else would dare try to remove her from her perch. No one else did.

And my wife's sister and brother-in-law and their adopted twin sons are still living with her parents. This is two months now. And as Thumper said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." So I guess that's all I have to say about that.

No Explanation

2010-01-05T15:20:00.000-08:00

Today some fun pics of our day at Big Trees in the snow. Tomorrow (hopefully) some explanations and a little report on what we did over our Christmas Vacation.

My New Puppy

2009-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T13:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-29T11:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-28T14:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T11:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-03T10:58:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

2009-06-17T17:25:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

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'

2009-04-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

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.

I Can See Clearly Now

2009-03-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

I got my contact for my right eye, again, and this one finally works! It's such a thrilling sensation, and quite a relief, to finally be able to see without spectacles. Well, to see without spectacles with frames at least. Now the only issue is the left eye, which I don't believe is actually a problem, since I've had that particular lens now for almost three months. And to be honest, it's probably just old. So now, here I am, finally with the ability to use contacts that seem to work perfectly, and it only took 8 months. We could have almost had another baby by now. Now the only question is whether I'll have my prescription filled by the time I leave for Disneyland. I'm hopeful.

I have a news story to share that you may or may not have seen. But it's hilarious to me, so here you be.

Police: Naked boy, 14, on walk with dog, pushes woman, breaks phone

Jennifer Linn - Staff Writer

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A 14-year-old Saginaw boy has been charged with strong-arm robbery and assault in juvenile court after he pushed a woman and broke her cell phone while taking a walk naked with a large white poodle in Hart Township Monday, police say.

Lt. Craig Mast of the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office said a 14-year-old youth walked away from a youth behavioral treatment facility Monday morning, stripped down, and was with a “giant” white poodle when he approached a woman working in her yard just after 11:30 a.m. Monday in the area of Oceana Drive and Lake Road.

“The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar,” Mast said.

When the woman asked the boy if he was all right, he told her some statements that didn’t make much sense, Mast said. The boy said his mother had kicked him out of her home in the Saginaw area.

When the woman, 53, of Hart Township, got out her cell phone to call for help for the boy, he assaulted her, pushing her in the upper chest, and took her phone. He fled the scene and broke the phone in half, the sheriff’s office stated.

The woman went to a neighbor’s house and called 911.

Deputies responded to the victim and shortly afterwards they located the boy near Oceana Drive and Lake Road in Hart Township near the American Legion Hall.

Mast said when dispatch gave information about the boy, deputies had an idea of who they were looking for because he had showed up naked along a roadway a few days earlier. He was picked up by a reserve officer and brought back to the placement facility after that incident.

He was taken into protective custody Monday and has since been moved to a more secure facility out of the area.

The boy is being charged with strong-arm robbery and assault and battery as a juvenile through the 10th Circuit Court in Saginaw.

Mast said because the boy is a juvenile he is referred back to his jurisdiction of residence, which is where the incident for his original charges occurred.

The name of the suspect and past charges were not released.

jlinn@ludingtondailynews.com

843-1122 x309
Date published: 3-19-2009

Me again! So how awesome is that quote, "The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar."? How great is that? I think I'm going to put that one on a T-shirt.

Not Sure

2009-03-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Practice number 3 was successful tonight. But it's fairly obvious to me that we'll need more. But luckily there are no scores in the wonderful world of T-ball. So the worry level isn't very high. But it would be nice to get more time with the kids so they won't be completely lost when the game starts. Most of them do know which base to run to first, so that's something. In other news, my daughter is pretty good at kicking a moving ball. So, if there's a 3 and under kickball tournament anywhere that you know about, lemme know 'cause she's going in. My wife is thrilled that she's taken to kicking a ball like this as she says that she can play soccer now. Now I won't tell you all my reasons, but soccer isn't really a sport, so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm glad that she's good at kicking and if she does play next year she should come home from the games good and tired, as when they're that little, I'd imagine that each kid just chases the ball around the field for 30 minutes or so and then they get their little orange slices and fall asleep in the car on the way home. And that is something that I'm all for. It's the same reason that I have my team run the bases three or four times before I send them home, it's a courtesy to the other parents to tire out the kids.

And I know you're all very concerned, staying up at night, holding candlelight vigils to improve my recently failing health. And I'll ask you to continue your prayer groups as I'm still sorta down. I've been back at work and overall I feel ok, it's the ringing that still exists in my left audio canal, and a wonderful smoker's cough that won't go away, and has the ability to wake me up some nights. Now I haven't smoked in almost 30 years, so I don't feel that this cough is from excessive cancer stick use. But it is very annoying.

And now I've just finished giving an interview for an 8th grade girl who wanted to know about safety on social networking sites. It seems like her goal is to be able to get a MySpace account and is having to prove to her parents that it's not going to be a bad thing. I'm not an authority on this by any means, so hoepfully I'll help out her paper. In related and also uninteresting news, I got an email this morning from someone who had worked with my cousin asking me for help with Dreamweaver. I offered my services as a tutor and really wanted the cash that would have come with this session, but I only had two open days this week and he's gone each weekday night and doesn't want to do it the day before it's due. I'm not sure why he waited so long to start this project that he seems to need to finish so he can pass this class. The guy is, according to himself, "in his 50's and going back to get his Masters." So if he's going for his Masters degree, shouldn't he be a better student? Perhaps.

Tell Me What the Doctor Said

2009-02-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

I've completed the 10 days of antibiotics prescribed by my doctor. Yes, thank you. Unfortunately, I still have a wonderful ringing sensation in my ear. It arrived on Monday and has yet to dissipate. If you're curious what it's like, I'll tell you. It's like my left ear went to some super awesome concert and was placed a bit to close to the speaker. And now it can't hear anything but ringing. My right ear, however, wasn't invited to the concert and so is fine. I called the doctor yesterday and the doctor said that this wasn't abnormal when you get ear infections, which was great to hear. She also said that it could last from two to six weeks. this news was not as wonderful for me. I will say it would suck to have this going on for six weeks. I'm no longer hearing in stereo so my depth perception on sounds is horribly off. I also say "What?" a lot now.

In other news, my boy's received an ear infection also. Like father, like son, eh? He doesn't take the pills 3 times a day, he gets the good ol bubble gum flavored liquid amoxicillan. We were wondering what was wrong as he had a fever of 104.5+ last Sunday, and it stayed for a couple days with no other symptoms. Then it left on Wednesday, so he went back to school, which may have been the mistake that brought it back. Because Thursday his fever was back and better than ever. Well, it was back at least. He went in yesterday to the doctor because it had been more than five days, and ear infection was the verdict.

In other news, due to the weather, I've only had two 45 minute practices with my new T-ballers. This is unfortunate as our first game is in three weeks and I haven't been really able to work on anything with them. Which could push back the development back a lot. Which could make this season a lot longer. But we'll see. I've only got 11 kids this year, I had 13 last year. So that's going to make some things easier. Hopefully.

Do You Hear What I Hear

2009-02-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

I learned something interesting. Ear infections are only supposed to happen to kids, and once you're older, they no longer appear. However, I seem to be some sort of crazy exception to this crazy rule, as my left ear has become infected. My two little kids are fine. And somehow I've got an ear infection that's caused my ear to lose all sensation and hearing. Which has in turn caused me to have all the volume turned way up as I'm laying on my good ear, and can no longer hear out of my other ear. It all started with just a cough, and now I'm a grown-up with an ear infection. The little pamphlet the doctor gave me was written for parents about their children. She said that this was the only information they had on ear infections, as once you're older, they go away. I don't know how I'm getting them, but I am. I think I'll use my time at home today without the kids to rest and perhaps create a better page for my little web studio site.

We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things

2009-02-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

The Casa de Wally has recently received a couple technological improvements over the past weekend. Due to the horrible state of the economy and the $ we're going to be getting back from taxes, and from my wife's place of employment's class action lawsuit payout, we had a bit of extra cash to blow. So we did what any normal person would do to celebrate America's Superhero Wakkabama setting the world free from the depression. I went out on Valentine's night and bought us a Wii. It's quite exciting still at this time. And T really loves it. He's pretty good at the baseball and bowling. His form isn't great, but the results are there. When I returned home, my wife pointed out how I must have looked walking into Best Buy on Valentine's day at 7 pm to buy a video game system. Even the guy that sold it to me asked if I'd need an extra controller. Which is something they're supposed to ask, but still, seemed funny.

So while enjoying the wonder of the Wii on Sunday morning, we were perusing the advertisements in the local news ledger, and my wife noticed a special at Staples where you got an 8 GB iPod Nano, case, screen protectors, splitter, FM transmitter, AC and DC charger for $160 after a ten dollar rebate. She had a $50 off coupon that was supposed to be online only, but after the purchase of our cordless telephones a couple months ago, we now know to just go into the store and do it all there. So she was in the Staples completing this online transaction when the manager came up and asked if she'd rather take it home today. So he proceeded to ring up her purchase in the store. She gave him the online only coupon and through his grandness, he rang up the package for $43 and change. So with the ten dollar rebate, this iPod plus will only cost $33.

So since she needed to add songs to it, I realized that the portable hard drive that I have all the songs on has many, many corrupted folders. So now most of those songs are gone. Unless I can manage to get them off my iPod onto the computer. This is a feat that I know is possible, but I'm hesitant to do it because i don't want to lost all my tunes. Please don't let all my songs be gone. Of course, there's always a chance I can get all these songs from family members.

No Use For a Name

2009-02-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome back palorinos! I have been MIA for a while, I know. Hopefully the lines of communication haven't been permanently severed. I do have plenty of wonderful excuses as to why I've been remiss in putting the words down in the cyberspace, but some of those excuses, er, reasons, are good, the rest of them will be explained with very little detail below.
First off, I would like to mention that I now have almost fully entered into the geekdom that is to much technology as I've purchased my very own little corner of the internet. This is one of the reasons that I've been otherwise occupied on the internets, I had been trying to find a good name. I don't know if I succeeded or not, but I found one that will eliminate the need for confusing tax forms to be filled out. I originally settled upon the url of sterlingfalcon.com. Which is still active, and when I was initially researching the Google results for this name, it was mostly sales of jewelry, which I was cool with, figuring that eventually I would work my way up there and stand apart from these other options. I originally wanted to use a version of my name, however with authors out there writing books that are turned into movies, that became impossible. There are also musicians and realtors who have also stolen versions of my name and even shortcuts like my initials or dwall were unavaiable. All these reasons led me to sterlingfalcon. However, what I discovered once I added the words 'Web Studio' to the end of my little company name, and googled for those results. I discovered that one of the biggest (according to Wikipedia) gay porn producers uses the company name of Falcon Studios. So that causes all searches for Sterling Falcon Web, or Sterling Falcon Web Studio or the like to bring up the world of gay porn. And as that isn't my target audience, and I am using the site for my T-ball teams, I didn't feel that this was the best way to go. So the past couple weeks have been spent in methodical and detailed hunts for ways to have a name that would stand out a bit, and also not result in gay porn appearing towards the top of the results page. And so I settled on wallacewebstudio.com this site still has the image up for Sterling Falcon that I was going to use, but I'll get around to that one someday. This leads us into the other uses that our internet has been getting lately.
As you no doubt recall from studious reading of this fastasmagorical blog, my wife and I had been having issues receiving our certificate which got us three nights in Vegas. We had been planning to use these nights to celebrate our anniversary in Sin City, and called recently to get our accomodations set up. And we were told that the two hotels that this particular time share company used to tempt you to buy are the Wild Wild West Hotel and America's Best Value Inn. Now, without going into many details, these hotels are not 5 star establishments, I don't know if they even have any stars. They do have plenty of drugs and prostitution, which would be great if I wasn't going for my anniversary, but I digress. The stories on TripAdvisor are simply wonderful, if you have some time, check them out. And you must have time if you're reading this. So we're not going to be using them for our Las Vegas hotel stay. We may just purchase our own way down there as tickets on Virgin right now are $225 with taxes. Which is half the price of anyone else.
So along with that one, we're also trying to plan a trip to Disneyland with my in-laws. During this planning we're trying to figure out if they would be willing to be there for the first two days and then kindly leave. So we could have our little family trip also. I don't know if that's going to happen, but we're hopeful!
And next Tuesday I'm going to try to enroll Little E in preschool. She's been asking to go ever since T started Kindergarten. She wants to go and make things in school to bring home and put on the fridge like her big brother. So hopefully I'll be able to get there in time to sign her up for the class and get her a spot. The one thing is she needs to be potty trained, and we're not really pushing that at all right now. Although she does know that once she's going in the big girl potty she gets to go to school and will get her Pony Chonies from grandma. As she spotted some My Little Pony panties in our local Kmart and has been asking for them since. And it's great to hear the lilting rhyme of pony chonies. And if you arrived here after a search for pony chonies, you've come to the wrong place. Type in Falcon Studios!! That'll take you where you need to go.
So anyhoo, that's the quick rundown. I'm hopeful to get going with this again in a steady manner, but we'll see. T-ball practice starts up next week for my newest run with the world of 5-year-old ballplayers. And though I'm looking forward to it and the excitement it should bring, it's still going to be rough for the first few weeks while I try to figure out where everybody stands on the talent level. Ah well, I will leave you with the name of our president as spoken by my Kindergartener. "Wakkabama!"

Elements Combined

2009-01-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

So I've been a bit busy lately. Baseball is starting up again soon, but most of my time has been taken up by the world wide web. I've just completed building a new site for a great cause that has the ability to inspire and depress me at the same time. As soon as they get all the information to me it will be all done, but until then, it's a-running. The district is also in the midst of a pressure run towards their new site going up which I am apparently making sure will happen. I'm being asked to push my actual job for which I was hired aside in order to get everything up and going in time. They want to launch on Feb 23rd. There are many many people in the district who are supposed to be editing their sites who have not even received training for this new site. So we'll see how that goes. I'm also prepping work for a site which my little bro is designing. I'm not exactly sure when that will be ready.

And yesterday I purchased my own little corner of the internets. I'm not exactly starting my own company, but I'm starting something. As the great MJ said, "Wanna be startin' something." So if you're curious to see what it is, which at this point is nothing more than an image I threw up with Fireworks. But if you venture over to sterlingfalcon.com you can see the wonders for yourself.

And because it's funny, you can see my daughter attempt to take off her shoe using only her foot. She spent about two minutes trying to get her first shoe off. This is a partial recording using my cellular telephone device to capture the second shoe's removal. And if you wanna see the other site I've been working on, go over to team-will.org.

Pancake

2009-01-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

And now, as promised, T.H.W.'s Pancake Recipe

1. Put some pancake mix in a bowl
2. Add some milk
3. Stir it up
4. Sometimes I add cheese
5. A lot of time I add pineapples
6. Sometimes I add ham
7. Sometimes I put in tomatoes
8. A lot of times I put in peas
9. A lot of times I put in juice
10. And then I mix it up
11. Then I'm done!

And if you notice some vague similarity to a pizza? You're just crazy.

The Interview

2009-01-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

I had my interview to become a manager last night at a local Straw Hat. I showed up a little before 7, as that was the time that it was to commence. There was one board member there, our of the five that were supposed to show up. The second guy showed up about 5 minutes late, at which point he handed me a sheet of paper and let me know that these were the questions that I would be asked. There were 8 questions and there only needed to be about 4, maybe 5. There were two questions about what I would do if we lost an important game (no score in T-ball) and a parent became verbally abusive. The second version of the question asked what I would do if the parent was from the other team. As they were reading me these questions, they were debating with themselves as to the quality of this particular interview system. They seemed to feel, as did I, that it was not the best way to evaluate incoming managers. It was more of a test to see what your emotional state would be instead of what you knew about the game. It would work fine if there were both. But there wasn't anything about what I would do to make the kids better players.

At the end of the 10 minute Q and A session, they informed me that I was going to get a team. Since I coached last year and was the 'coach-pitch fall ball' manager, it wasn't a problem. They also asked if I had a name picked out for my team. I don't. I'm going to do the same thing I did last year. I'm going to pull up some cool mascots from the Minor Leagues and let T pick which one he likes best. I also have my first managers meeting tomorrow night. At which point I'll get my team. Things are going to be a lot easier this year, mostly because I've done it once before now. But also because this time last year is when my wife started having a real hard time with the gallstones. Which we didn't know were gallstones quite yet.

So I'm well on my way to another adventure with the kids learning to play baseball. I'm looking forward to it and you can be sure that something exciting will be happening this year. T's playing as a 5-year-old now, and next year, Little E will be old enough to play if she wants to.

Join us later tonight when I'll post my sons pancake recipe. It's thoroughly enjoyable!

I Wanna Go Home

2009-01-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

So my wife is now ready to try to come home on Sunday instead of Monday. They were not actually invited to the out-of-towner dinner that they were planning on attending, and let's be honest, there's not much to do in the middle of January in Spokane. I'm holding down the fort here pretty well, no major fires. I have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow. It's between the Oakland Zoo, the Sacramento Train Museum, or maybe the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. We can get into the zoo and the wildlife museum for free. So those are leading contenders. Perhaps we'll just take a ride to the top of Mt. Diablo. Little E's never been up there and T hasn't been in years. That may be fun?

Well, since I don't really have much else to talk about, and because this video is awesome. Here you go.

The game's awesome, too.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

2009-01-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

My pretty little wifey is leaving for the wonderful snowy world of Spokane, Washington for a wedding. Which is directly following three overnighters she's working. Which means I won't really see her much again until the 20th. And because she's going with her parents (superfun!) and sister, I'm going to be taking care of the kids a lot and visiting my folks. It wouldn't be so bad if when I put Little E down to sleep, she stayed there. But instead it's a 90 minute to two hour ordeal of her popping out of her room with questions, concerns, and needs. It seems that she knows how long 7 minutes is, because that is about the time between her visits to the living room. I'll put her in bed, tell her to stay there. And about 7 minutes later she comes out with something. Sometimes she'll be to cold, other times to hot. Sometimes she needs water, or a sucker, or her blankie, or her dolly, or another story, or to ask where Santa went, or where our kitty Kooni went, or where Mommy is, or what I'm watching on TV, or about those pesky monsters, and then she's cold again, or Kooni's in her room, or where Mommy is. and it just goes on like that. With her coming out with something, I take her back to bed, she comes out and I keep taking her back to bed. The other night she got me so well trained that she came out once, just stood there until I came to get her, never said a word, but just held her arms above her head so I could pick her up and take her back to bed. So we started walking back to bed after that one. So anyhoo...

I'm also hopefully starting a few new sites. At least one is confirmed and the other two are nearing confirmation. Once I get control of those, I'll post some links so those who are interested can see some sites I make for people who aren't directly related to me in some way. (But seriously, if you like good salsa, try my Uncle's. It's amazing.)

Remind me later tonight and I'll post a picture that my wife took of Kooni stuck up in one of the trees in our backyard. She's becoming braver and more excited about being outside now, (the cat, not my wife) and is giving me great hope that in a month or so, she can become a full-fledged outdoor cat. Because, honestly, she'll drive me crazy if she stays inside all the time (again, i mean the cat).

What's Going on in Your World

2009-01-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hiya folks! And now for your enjoyment, a lovely bullet list of exciting moments from the Wally household.

Merry Christmas all!
Happy New Year also.
In contrast to what 'A Christmas Story' would lead you to believe, a football can make a very good Christmas present.
I finally got a set of contacts that are almost perfect. It was a nifty early Christmas present from Kaiser. Or a birthday present that was delayed five months. You decide.
In the late Christmas category, check this out...That's right folks, a full tank at 99 cents a gallon. Of course this was including a 80 cent discount at the local Safeway gas station. But hey, it was pretty neat-o.
During a trip to the local sporting goods store. T had to pee, so while in the bathroom, he asked me, "Dad, how come every time I pee my butt pops?" And so in order to avoid the discussion on the finer points of the symbiotic nature of the pee/fart dynamic. I just said, "I'm not sure, let's ask your Mommy."
T got a guitar from his Uncle, it's a full sized guitar and I thought it was a nifty gifty. However, the little five-year-old boy told his Uncle Adam, "This is not a good Christmas present. It's too big for me." Ah, to be five again.
He also got a headlamp from his Aunt a la 'The Amazing Race', his reaction to that present was, "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!" His grandma asked, "What is it?" His response was, "I don't know."
Lego Indiana Jones is almost as cool a game as Lego Star Wars II. I likes it anyway.
T's newest fav song is 'America the Beautiful' by Lee Greenwood. Ponder that one for a while.
Being back at work after two five day weekends is like going back to school after Christmas break. It's not fun and it's really hard to get up in the morning

I'll see ya. Hopefully sooner that two weeks from now.

I Told the Truth

2008-12-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-08T07:56:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T21:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-22T19:57:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-21T20:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T20:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-18T22:10:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-15T23:41:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T22:58:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T23:37:00.000-08:00

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

Happy Birthday to You

2008-11-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T17:47:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T13:33:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-11-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-06T14:49:00.001-07:00

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.

Crazy Bored?

It Goes On and On

The Perfect Space

Holiday Road

Car Trouble

Bullets

Eye of the Tiger

Ay Carumba

Free Falling

It Takes Time

The Job

Finger

On The Mend

In Stitches

Explanation

No Explanation

My New Puppy

The Math

To West Texas

The Teacher

Basic Instructions

Help

Control Freak

I'm On A Boat

Catch Up

Hair

Steal My Sunshine

Good As Ever

Swanky

Wonderful

Cryin' Time Again

All Worked Out

Close to Home

Elementary

The Game We All Must Play

Something Changed

Dreaming With My Eyes Open

Airwolf

Air Conditioning

My Next Thirty Years

Reno

Down to Earth

Heard it on the Radio

Graduate

Beware! Cougar!

Balloons

I Want to Tell You

Promises Kept

Flat Tire

Minnie's Yoo-Hoo

Nostalgic

Just the Goin'

I Can See Clearly Now

Police: Naked boy, 14, on walk with dog, pushes woman, breaks phone

Not Sure

Tell Me What the Doctor Said

Do You Hear What I Hear

We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things

No Use For a Name

Elements Combined

Pancake

The Interview

I Wanna Go Home

Leaving On a Jet Plane

What's Going on in Your World

I Told the Truth

The Wanderer

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

Graded on a Curve

Candy Cane

The End

Thankful

All Together Now

All the Cats Join In

One More Day

Kitty

Secret

The Trial

Silent Jury

Good Intentions

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