a hundred degrees

Handyman

I acted the role of a proper husband today replacing the light fixture on the ceiling in Maddie's room and installing our new dishwasher.

The Ugliest Angel

My daughter brought home an ornament she "made" today at daycare. I took a picture, but it doesn't do it justice. This thing is much uglier than it appears in the photo. It will probably be our most treasured ornament of the season.

The Future is Now

Kevin has up until this point shown very little interest in live action shows. Even kids shows. He'll watch "Zoom" but that's about it. And that's only because it comes on after "Cyberchase" which is his favorite cartoon.

Tonight though, he got interested in a movie all on his own. We caught it right at the beginning, but Lexie and I went to work on the new shelving we bought today for his room. Kevin wandered into the living room and was transfixed. He was thrilled and was repeatedly calling out "Cool!" and "Awesome!"

The magic film: 1985's "Back to the Future"

He mostly loved the Delorean. But he knew the characters' names and was following the story pretty well.

Oh the places we'll go...

Splash and Sting

I took the afternoon off yesterday to accompany my family on the last fling of summer to Splashtown. We actually had a good time. We were there from one to about six thirty. But around 2:30 we ran into Kevin's good friend Thomas, who he's been in daycare with for nearly five years, and stuck together for most of the rest of the afternoon. Thomas will be attending kindegarten in public school next year, while Kevin goes on to first grade with the same private system he's been in.

We took a break a little after three to have snacks. The designated snacking area outside the park is home to many bees who enjoy the many sugary leavings in the area. The bees were landing on our bags and foodstuffs and we were continually, but carefully trying to shoo them away.

As we were starting to gather our stuff to return to the water, a bee landed on Kevin's ear and began to climb in. He was understandably distressed and reached up to dig the invader out. This in turn frightened the bee with the predictable result.

The good news is that there was no swelling, so we have at least learned that Kevin is not allergic to bee stings. His pain, while intense at first, seemed to be fully gone (or at least forgotten) after ten minutes or so.

The rest of the day was pretty enjoyable, for Kevin and me anyway. Maddie wanted to play with her brother more. And Lexie was stuck with her while the boys and Thomas' dad and I rode lots of slides. I managed to ride every major slide in the park. The boys did everything but the three no-tube/no-mat slides that required about four more inches than they had yet achieved.

Housework

Last week Kevin stayed with my folks in Houston. Maddie and I went over to pick him up and I got to go cheer with the Texian Army and El Batallon as la Naranja held the Revs to zero shots on goal, yet still drew due to an own goal that bounced off Craig Waibel.

During that week, Lexie repainted Kevin's room twice, selected, purchased and took delivery of a refrigerator for our garage, demolished a section of shelving in the garage, and selected, purchased and helped me install new shelving in that space.

Rainfall totals are so low in San Antonio that we have gone into watering restrictions. This meant that my Monday night this week was spent trying to do enough watering to hold the lawn for the week.

Rewire

Paul provided great material and manual and administrative help for the networking shift in my house today. We needed to get the last vestiges of my study removed from Kevin's room so we can finally start redecorating for him. There was cable dropped to the cable modem there, which connected to the wireless router, which connected to the telephone router, which connected to the phone lines in the house via a long wire that ran halfway around the room. This whole bunch of equipment now lives in the space above our refrigerator.

The splitter was over near the current TV drop and from there it was a short distance to the internet cable drop in Kevin's room. We replaced the splitter with a barrel connector (female on both ends) and connected to the old TV run which terminated on the living room wall on the back side of the fridge. Then we pulled a new cable up that hole with a barrel connecter temporarily binding the cables. The cable would not come out of the hole in the wall header that also had a couple of power cables running through it while the terminator was connected. The cieling drops down above the fridge, so the wall header is exposed and I could see the cable connection below the wood, but wasn't sure how to get down there and reach it. Kevin, who "Uncle Paul" must have authorized to climb around in the attic was sent into the tight space and returned successfully with the cable joint. I then pulled up an appropriate amount of the new cable and cut the terminator off the old one so I could get it out of there. The new cable end was sent down the hole above the fridge.

We pulled new cable from the fridge hole to the current TV drop. Using the barrel connector with the existing cable eliminated the need for fishing there. We pulled network cable to from the fridge area to Kevin's room per Lexie's request for future computer possibilities. Then Paul had to run for a couple hours. I got everything hooked up and working so that we were back to the same functionality we'd had before except with Kevin's room clear of the modem and routers.

After lunch we pulled both types of cable to my recently reclaimed study. This was in a fairly difficult part of the attic to reach, but I had been up earlier in the week to lay out some plywood sheets for platforms that made it doable. After a couple wrong placed holes, we got one in the right place. Then there was a moderately challenging drop and fish session, but we got the stuff there. I hooked up the network cable and was happy to be back to full speed on my desktop. We dropped the TV cable but did not hook it up. I anticipate buying a TV card for my computer and at that point will get another splitter for the cable behind the fridge. That cable and the one to the old TV drop are both disconnected.

We hope to get a little more slick with the telephone hookup soon, too. This will help clean up the look of the cables in the kitchen.

We finished right at two. Perfect timing to watch Germany beat Portugal.
Later I mowed the back yard in which the bermuda had grown quite high with the odd bits of rain we've recieved over the last week. It put quite a strain on the lawnmower and only through careful and patient work was I able to finish the yard before the battery had totally drained.

I also found time to watch the second half of the Dynamo's dismal July fourth draw with Columbus, kick the ball with Kevin (he actually let me work with him on new skills --his first headed goals-- tonight), order and retrieve a pizza, bathe Madeline, read to both kids, and write all this stuff.

Counting Right

Jill is out of the country with her two oldest girls. We took Micah and Sara off of Rob's hands last evening.

On the way home from the Wednesday night church social a reference was made to thirty of something that I can't remember.

Micah, impressed, wonders, "Whoa! Thirty? That's right after twenty!"

Kevin, (mini-me) the junior legalist, jumps in "No (uh)!" Then checks as he finds a rule to help his friend out of his mistake, "Well, yes, if you're counting by tens."

My boyhood friend Jeff, always used to tell me to "quit being so technical." It never bothered me that it bothered other people. Now that my son is following in my footsteps I wonder what I can do to lead him into a more generous spirit.

Christ hated legalism. The Way has never been about being right. We can't be right. We will fail the law. The presumption to discern right and wrong is still the big relationship killer between us and God. Not throwing good money after bad gets high marks. Life abundant is all around for those ready and willing to abandon the bad investments. Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.

Being ready to serve instead of to assert my own structure is the only path to life, to hear the prophets tell it.

Scary stuff. Could turn out that thirty comes right after pie.

Come to Fibber Island.

Parties and Soccer

We had a full schedule this weekend: party - sleep - drive - shop - tailgate - cheer - sleep - drive - party - soccer party.

On Friday night we had nine adult guests show for an barely planned party. There was mexican food and beer. We had preachers, musicians, actors, teachers, a poet earning a living as a librarian, a guy who'll sell anything, and an ex-soldier. If more of us had been single it would have been a real Dostoyevskian gathering. Instead, there were so many stories of fecal matter that Lexie instigated the term "rectal turretts." We laughed as we showed our spotty knowledge of pop culture as defined by the makers of Trivial Pursuit. We got our children back around 9:30, just in time for everyone else to race home to watch the Spurs win game six and the series with the Kings.

Saturday morning we drove to Houston. There was some pretty severe rain just before eight o'clock but it broke in time for us to leave a little before nine. We got to my folks' house about twelve-thirty and ate spaghetti, cream corn and green beans. My mom was playing it safe with foods the kids were known to eat.

While my dad played with the kids and Mom got a nap, Lexie and I went to IKEA and spent a couple hundred dollars on various stuff for the house. We got some shelving bins for Kevin's room and some drapes for my study. We tried to go to Toys 'R Us, but the traffic was horrible and we just turned around and wound our way back to my parents' house. While we were stuck in traffic, the folks in front of us opened their car door and dumped a bunch of trash on the street. Lexie was very unhappy with this flagrant act against the public motorways. Beware the folks in a little red Toyota, Texas license plate 575-KLJ, for they show no regard for the law.

When we got back I had a few minutes to lay down and rest. Then my mom kept the kids while Lex, Dad, his co-worker, and I went to the inaugural Texas derby. After getting our T-shirts, which were a package with the tickets, and wandering around a bit, we found the Texian Army tailgate and got some beer and dogs. I chatted with a few people and asked after the guy who had gotten me the info on getting tickets in the supporters' section. Never did find him but was assured repeatedly that he was "just here." Our little group left a little before the Texian Army marched in. I wanted to leave my other T-shirt in the car and I told the other three that this might be their only chance to sit down for the next couple of hours. I shopped a little before the game and got a pennant and a little T-shirt for Kevin. Then it was an hour of noise making, with a little break and another fifty minutes of noise making.

As often happens in soccer matches, the teams appeared to switch uniforms at the break. Houston had the run of the pitch for the first half and scored three goals to nil. In the second half Dwayne DeRosario (DeRo) was the only man in orange who appeared interested in attacking. Sitting back doesn't work for the Dyanmo and Dallas got two quick scores. DeRo got us back to 4-2, with the only goal scored on our end of the pitch all evening. Then they got a third and we had to hold on. Ching almost put in a fifth on a volley, but it went wide.

After the match, Dad's co-worker had out his imaginary life check list and was marking as completed "sitting with hooligans at a soccer match." Hooligans? Hardly. But then I was in marching band and we cheered for our team more than most folks. Also I've recently seen Football Factory and Green Street Hooligans and have a more specific definition than he does. I actually thought it was a little tame and not very imaginative, but this is only their fourth home game and the keg ran out before I was entirely prepared.

Sunday morning we had an uneventful drive back to SA. We caught lunch at Burger King on Rittiman on the way in to town. Maddie was looking pretty tired and had a fair amount of nasal drainage. We decided that she should get a nap rather than go to the swimming party at two. I've been blowing green for a while too, so Maddie napped and I cut and pasted the pictures together for the previous post. Lexie and Kevin went to Wal*mart for the gift we didn't buy at TRU in Houston. Then off to the birthday party for a six-year-old (scheduled 2-4pm).

They got back about four-twenty and we zipped out to the soccer fields for the coaches appreciation barbeque (scheduled 3-7pm). It turned out to be great timing, because they had apparently not done anything until we got there. I just had time to set up our chairs when they started calling for the kids versus adults game. I enjoyed my time running around playing. If they had a league for fat slow careful nearly-forty's I'd be all over it. Especially if we just played against U9's. Kevin only got to play for a little while due to some misunderstandings. Fortunately there were a couple of bounce houses and he and Maddie jumped for ages.

The good news about returning home was that we had spent enough time cleaning up for the party that the house was still on the moderately clean side and was pleasant to enter.

After the kids had gone to bed and we settled in to watch Grey's Anatomy. As Lexie turned to put her glass on the counter behind her she got something like a musle cramp in her neck which caused her a lot of pain and threatened to close her throat. It lasted nearly a minute. We need to get her to a neurologist or something to figure out what it is, since this is not the first time, but might have been the worst occurence yet.

A full weekend. Lots of hot dogs and burgers.

This week my parents will arrive on Tuesday and take the kids Wednesday to go stay in a cabin by a creek for the rest of the week. We will be joining them with Kevin's church friend, Steven, Friday night and staying all day Saturday. This precludes my making a trip to Dallas for the second leg of the derby. I plan to get a few more cable channels this week, though, so I can at least tape the game.

Steaming Happy

I don't know how much time and energy my wife and I have spent trying to get wallpaper off of walls. Yesterday she bought a steamer and we were amazed. For fifty bucks, a six hour job that would never be satisfactorily completed got fully done in a little over an hour.

During the prayer request time at church on Sunday I had asked for patience during our musical rooms project (Kevin to the guest room, Maddie to Kevin's room, the study back up front). I think the big wise God replied that we weren't ready for patience, but was pleased to present us with convenience.

Winning By Gift

There is an incident with my dad and a game which is important for me to comprehend. If I knew how to beat it, my son might be healthier.

Only Dad and I were playing Boggle when the dice landed so that it was possible to spell the words "balloon" and "balloons." I called dibs, warning Dad that he should not write down the big obvious words. I mean, how often do you get a chance to see twenty-two points in two words?

When it came time to check our lists, he called out "balloon" and I threw a screaming crying fit. I was betrayed. I'm supposed to get my way. I'm the special one. How dare he not give me the best? I was so angry.

Later he showed me that he had written "baloon" and "baloons" on his list while I had spelled the words correctly. (It only occurs to me now to question whether he had misspelled them on purpose.) He wanted to show me that I had fairly won the points. But I didn't care. So what if he was stupid? What mattered was that he didn't freely give me the big points. The big meanie.

---

This is just a clear example of my desire to be given the trophy rather than to win it. I look for small pools to dominate rather than compete in a larger crowd. I made friends with kids who were older or younger than me. I don't want peers. I'm not a joiner. I don't understand in my gut that there are other people. I seek situations that reinforce that view.

I'm actually a relatively bright person. When I was younger I had some genuine physical abilities. Never a genius or pro-athelete, but able to do more than I did.

I don't like being tested. If it's not easy I get frustrated and spiteful. Then I drop it.

---

So how do I redirect Kevin? I see the same selfish brat developing in this sweet kid. How do I help him reframe challenges so that whatever the outcome it is acceptable?

I wonder if Volunteering In The Community would make a difference. If we act like there are other people, will we come to believe that they exist? Or will it just feed the superiority complex?

I don't know how to get myself to put time in on the basic skills, so I'm not able to share this with him. Whether it's learning the "identities" to help you do advanced math, or improving ball-handling skills so you can beat your opponents we're just impatient. Tell us the trick so we can cheat on by and get to the end.

When I win fairly it doesn't bring joy. I'm entitled to win. The joy is in putting one over on the big mean unfair old world. Turning it's rules against it and proving my uniqueness. The best is not safe enough: who will be best tomorrow? I want to be the only.

So enough about me, let's get back to little me, I mean, Kevin. He's got a little more society to start with than I did. Day care since he was a few months old. Still he holds himself apart and aloof.

I don't believe the condition is fixable in me, so I have no idea how to help him. Yeah, yeah, Jesus. But what does that look like? My current guess is that I've got to hate this self so much that I put a stranglehold on the next passing angel and quite literally hold on for dear life.

Jacob was the king of cheaters. Actually there's quite a lot of cheating in the bible. If I could just make it jive with the whole "fruits of the spirit" thing I'd feel a little more comfortable.

Cat Loves Bear

The stuffed bear chair that Kevin got for Christmas three years ago has got to go.

Notice how he looks away from the camera. This is because our kitty boy, Luke, has had his way with him.

We noticed several days ago that Luke was doing a lot of kneading and seemed to be straddling the bear's leg in a very sexual way. Knowing that the boy had been neutered more than five years ago, we just didn't believe that what looked to be the case actually was. Surely he was just trying to find a comfortable way to sit on the "pillow."

Lexie reached down to swat Luke tonight while he was doing this kneading and mounting thing, to shoo him off, and felt something unexpected. When she finally shifted the cat off, the head and arm of the bear chair were damp.

When she came to tell me about it (and require me to write about it here) she asked how this could happen, "Didn't we get him fixed?" I replied in my best John Cleese (She's a Witch scene from The Holy Grail), "I got better."

I guess that we'll tell Kevin that Luke made a mess on his chair. That's truth enough. Though if he asks specifically if he puked on it, we may be forced to lie.

Stuff continues to happen

My wife chid me for not writing anything all month.

This month was Kevin's birthday. All month. At least he wanted it that way. Just before his birthday I traded in my 1995 Ford Escort Wagon for a 2006 Toyota Sienna. He's okay with the van, but keeps asking why I opted for that instead of a red pickup.

We celebrated his birthday at Mr Gatti's pizza place. He had a good time and we didn't have to clean the house before OR after the party, which was good for us.

We took the van out for an inaugural road trip for Thanksgiving. We drove to Longview on Wednesday and to Comanche on Friday night before returning home mid-day on Sunday.

Longview and Thanksgiving were more fun than they have been in some time. I blame "Apples to Apples" and Aunt Terry's hospitality. Kevin got a little birthday celebration, along with Jacob and Gayland Friday evening just before we left. He got another set of gifts at Comanche, the best of which was a scale model John Deere tractor.

I continue to be overly interested in soccer, but it's starting to mellow a little. I'm not quite so giddy, and my wife will occasionally listen to my comments and watch a little when it's good.

Blackbird

by Kevin
about 5 weeks shy of 5 years old.

Thirty-Eighth Trip - Sendoff Party

Last night we had a bit too much fun at Double Dave's celebrating the thirty-seventh anniversary of my birth. The church's website could use updating. Maybe this shot would be good.

Reports from Houston

My mom has been home sick with a nasty virus for several weeks. Her voice is shot, so she's communicating with family by email about their preparations for Hurricane Rita.

She gave me permission to post those emails here, but I decided that I'd create her own forum. Swing Smile Savor is the name I gave to the blog I created for her transmissions.

Some Enchanted Evening

Last evening was wonderful. I held my first soccer practice of the new season and then just had time to race home, shower, and jump in the preacher's van to head over to the beer tasting at Double Dave's.

I've got some cool little kids playing soccer with us this time. Kevin and Jackson return from the spring season. With mid-November birthdays, they're the oldest ones on the team. In addition we have Kevin's good friend Micah, another strong player called Trey, and Aubrey, a ready little girl who only turned four in mid-June. Aubrey comes from a soccer family. Her dad, Sean, will be my official assistant coach this time out. We also have a little girl named Crystal on our team, however, she got spooked and sat on the sidelines for last night's training session.

I was much more at ease with running a training session this time out. It was nice to be well equipped and ready to go from the beginning. Like the old-time-radio Camel cigarette ads said, "Experience is the best teacher." I had goals, extra balls, extra shin guards, lots of cones and a sense of what to expect from this age group. I forgot my whistle. But this actually provided one less distraction. (Getting to blow the whistle is a treat to four-year-olds.)

Aubrey had to go to the restroom just before scrimmage time, so we played 2v2. She didn't have shin guards yet (I had already lent out my two extra sets when she got there) so that was just as well. These boys played aggressive ball. We're starting from quite a nice baseline. I have hopes of actually getting some marginal advances from them in the next nine weeks.

The beer tasting at DoubleDave's PizzaWorks was decadent and glorious. For twenty-two bucks a head, this was a super gastronomical delight.

We began with a milk stout from the new Texas brewery, Left Hand. This smooth creamy sweet beverage was complemented by portobello mushroom and brisket pizza with a barbecue sauce. Next we made a jump to real highbrow: St. Bernardus Brewery's Watou Tripel with caramelized onion and asparagus alfredo pizza. The tripel was my favorite beer of the evening: light, crisp, clean, and yummy. Both of these first two pizzas were superb.

We took a little break from food and enjoyed our first Lindeman's lambic of the evening: the Cassis. This beer was currant based and as sour as it was sweet. Gordon, who was driving and not generally imbibing, really liked this one and Tim, happily got him another glass since it has less alcohol than a domestic light beer.

Next up was Tim's favorite of the night: Great Divide's Double IPA. Tim isn't a big fan of sweet. I'm not a big fan of bitter. This, the beer with the highest alcohol content of the night, was served with a "Turkey Fiesta" pizza. A competent pizza, but not as rich and artery hardening as the first couple.

We finished the evening with Lindeman's Framboise lambic. This is the popular raspberry drink that Lexie enjoyed at the Map Room in Chicago while I suffered through a Rochefort 10 and a DeKonick. A peach tart-like dessert pizza accompanied this final sweet beer.

The crowd apparently drank the store out of the Lindeman's Cassis, but Gordon bought a couple of bottles of the Framboise to take home and share with his wife. I just took home happy feelings of good will toward all.

Appearances Can Be Manufactured

When we were driving home from church on Sunday I looked at Kevin in the back seat. I saw a little boy with a rich tan (despite the pints of sunscreen he's been doused in this summer), athletic legs and a slim healthy body. I asked him, "Kevin, how did you get to be so good looking?"

His immediate matter-of-fact reply: "Mom fixed my hair this morning."

School Starts

Kevin started school today. This is private kindergarten at his day care, since he won't be five until late November.

Lexie's kids started today too. As usual there are things to like and things to dislike about the beginning of the school year.

Next Generation Action Hero

Look out Uma and Carrie Ann, Mad Rae's ready to kick yo' butt!

Put her on your desktop: 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024

Mom's Ministry

My mother writes for a living. She's a grant writer for M. D. Anderson, her audiences are varied, but usually she has to dig technical information out of snobby superior doctor types and use it to appeal to whoever the bosses are trying to pry money out of. More than once I've heard her say that she'd like to just say, "People are dying! Give us your money!"

Mom sent an email to a number of folks that I wanted to share. She's not likely to start a blog, so I'm just going to stick it here.

Volunteer Removal

Two trees of the same variety were growing in our flowerbeds behind the house. One was a little over six feet tall, and the other one a little over four feet. I don't know what variety of tree they were, but I didn't feel good about them growing so near the house. With Lexie and the kids off to visit her mother, I decided to tackle the project of removing them.

Here's the first tree fully removed:

You can see that it is in three main pieces. After digging for a while I decided that the tree was in the way, so I cut it with a hacksaw at ground level. When the top of the shovel needed to be shoved below the level of the remaining trunk, and was causing interference for my foot, I cut it again.

Here's the hole:

That thing sticking out of it is a yardstick. See it from a closer point of view:

Yep, I dug over two feet down to get the tree out. At that point I was able to pull the remainder of the roots out. The whole root section was a little over a yard long which equated to right at half the exposed part of the tree's height.

This lulled me into confidence about removing the other tree. It was growing in the flowerbed on the opposite side of our patio. At only about fifty inches, I figured that the whole root would be about two feet and I could pull it after only digging a single foot into the ground. As I cleared the area around the tree, I began to suspect that things would not be so easy. Apparently I had taken the lazy approach with this plant before. It was new growth on an older (read bigger) stump.

The root seemed to get fatter, rather than thinner as I dug. The digging itself was harder, though, because the ground in this bed was much rockier. Rocks are a real pain. After digging for a while I noticed something else:

What's that yellow thing? Closer inspection showed it to be a severed cable. Great. I went in the house and there appeared to be power. I turned on the TV and heard Timmy Turner's voice, so I knew the cable was still working. On retrospection, I didn't remember seeing any cable in the earth that I turned over. I decided that I had just stumbled on someone else's buried hacking and went on digging.

Unlike the other tree, I did not cut this one off as I worked. I just moved the tree to the opposite side of the whole from where I was working. This ended up causing me to fail to remove the entire root. Because of all the rocks I moved the tree a lot. This bending back and forth caused it to weaken and separate. When I tried to pull, it just broke off.

I was already about twenty-one inches down and every inch was costing an enormous effort. I knew that I'd have to expose at least six more just to get a hand hold. I made the executive decision to quit. If it is willing to grow through nearly two feet for light, I'll let it. At least that will give me something to pull on the next time.

In each of the holes I found a big white grub. I don't know what they were or if they were harmful or beneficial. I split the difference by leaving one be and stranding the other on our patio.

Macro Quantum Mechanics

My wife and I thought that we thought we were doing well with our finances. A recent "couple quiz" failed to bear this out. It didn't say we thought we were doing poorly, it just didn't register as high as other things. This perception gap initiated some conversation and I agreed to start recording our spending on the computer again.

I haven't used Microsoft Money in a while, and the version that came with the laptop we bought last year is about five years newer than the last one I used, but the interface was familiar enough to jump right in. I haven't bothered to enter all our accounts yet, just enough to record transactions beginning this month. My wife declared that she was not interested in setting spending limits, just in seeing where the money went.

If I remember correctly what I've read and heard about quantum mechanics, which isn't much, the act of observing changes the thing being observed. I'm guessing that this is linked to the uncertainty principle, but there my knowledge ends and I'll spare you the Dave-Barry-like goofy fabrication.

This morning I was walking to the mini-fridge to get one of my Diet Dr Peppers and then reversed direction, intending to go ask my co-workers if they'd be interested in my making a taco run. The idea continued to trickle through my brain and I realized that I would have to record the transaction tonight. My inner jedi spoke through my lips, "You don't want a taco." I turned back around and headed for the fridge (with the sodas I paid for last month) obediently replying, "I don't want a taco."

Watching Basketball

In January there were five Mondays. Gordon was a little put out by the fact that our third Monday guy night would be put off by an extra week in February. Wise man that he is, he declared that we should make guy night happen on third and fifth Mondays. Today was the first fifth Monday since then. It wasn't exactly guy night, but we had a really good time.

Originally we were going to make it "invite a friend" night. I invited Rob and Tim had somebody in mind but then things changed. It turned out that Tim was going to have his kids when he hadn't realized he would. Lexie to the rescue. We just invited everybody over to our house. Rob and Jill brought their two. Tim brought his three and Gordon and Jeanene brought their two younger ones. This worked out great: two toddler girls, three four-year-old boys, two grade school girls, and two middle school girls.

We bought a Slip-and-Slide and set up our little pool that my folks bought for the beach trip last year. We also got four new water guns. These are short lived devices here where our water is so full of deposits that gunk up the works. It was worth it. The boys, in Kevin's words, "played and played and played and played and played and played and played and played and played and played." The little ones had fun, too. The bigger girls didn't all come with swim suits. They all ended up getting wet. The really fun part was dressing them in my ancient t-shirts (Stryper '85 Tour, Epcot Center circa 1983, Camp Beechpoint high school mission trip to Michigan, and DA Who Are the Real Girls?) and bike shorts while their clothes ran in the dryer.

The Spurs were playing tonight and, for a change, the game was being shown on a broadcast network. The idea that folks would gather at my house to watch a basketball game is not one that I would make up. Given the outcome and superstitions of sports fans during the playoffs, it may not happen again. The game didn't start until seven-thirty and we got going at about five which gave us plenty of time for fun prior to tip-off.

Football Fan

I caught a segment of Blue Collar TV the other night where the lead guys were declaring silly beliefs. Jeff Foxworthy, for instance, professed, "I believe that you can not study for a rectal exam." Ron White's drawling smoking drinking West Texan persona, so far from my own, nonetheless provides a consistently amusing performance. We showed our differences, though, when he proclaimed, "I believe a bad halftime show at a football game is still better than a soccer game."

I'm not so discriminating. I just like to watch football. I like real football with the amazing displays of skill, speed, and stamina and I like American football with the amazing exhibits of breeding, chemicals, and violence. I'll even put up with the weaker variations. The NFL ended it's season at the beginning of February, but the Arena Football League has been showing up on NBC in the weeks since then. Today I even caught some NFL Europe on Fox.

I've been tuning in to Azteca America and Univision and Telemundo to catch le Liga Mexicana and regional qualifying games for the 2006 World cup. The language barrier means that I miss some subtleties. Like the semifinal game yesterday between the Monarcas and the UAG Tecos ended in a 1-1 tie. The Monarcas were the home team, but the Tecos advanced to the finals. In American sports we tend to give the home field advantage to the higher seeded team. I don't know what the conditions were that gave Tecos the advantage and I wondered until the end why they weren't more aggressive in the second half of the match.

When I was at my mother-in-law's satellite subscribed home I found two or three separate channels dedicated to the world's favorite sport. Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV are two of the names I remember. I got to watch lots of matches from lots of leagues, including the English Premiere League, Ligue 1 (France), and La Liga in Spain. Plus highlights of Asian regional World Cup qualifying matches. I even sat through bits of an MLS match or two. It was handy to have an injury as an excuse to lay on the sofa and hog the TV.

Since I don't keep up with news almost at all, I wasn't aware of our exiting mayor's push to bring an MLS team to our town. Apparently he was attacked a lot for trying to do this. I'm sorry to hear that. But from the big laugh Ron White got, I can see that getting support for world class football will be a long uphill battle.

Novel Weekend

We found something new to do every day this weekend. I've written about the first two: horse races, and the church picnic (a first for my little family). Tonight was perhaps a little mundane, but we did go to a new restaraunt. The food was okay. The service lousy. The prices about in line with places like Salsalito. Still, it was a new thing.

And over dinner we talked about a couple things that mattered to us. That was good. And somewhat novel.

Fifty Cent Friday

Retama Park runs a special cheap night several times a year. This was the first "Fifty Cent Friday" of the 2005 racing season. These nights feature fifty cent hot dogs and sodas, dollar draft beers, free pony rides, free face painting, free balloon animals from clowns, a live band, and free admission. Two dollars to park.

None of the four members of my little family has ever attended a horse race before. There wasn't really much to lose by giving it a shot tonight. Especially since we had no idea of how to place bets or any desire to learn.

We got there at about ten till six, a little less than an hour before the first live post of the evening at six forty-five. We looked around a little and then Lex and the kids hung around by the track to watch the tractors and water trucks preparing the ground while I went to get dinner. I spent four dollars on dinner (including a dollar tip) and then went to join them.

I was a little surprised when they opened the evening with the National Anthem at about six twenty. Finally the first race ran and the kids and I watched from trackside, while Lex sat in the stands. After the race we went to see what was happening out front. All the free stuff had crazy-long lines, but we were able to walk over and see the horses displayed for the second race. Number two was particularly frisky and the bettors noticed. That horse was given the best odds for the race at five to two. I intentionally did the girly thing and picked number six because it was pretty.

Then we walked back to the track to watch the race. Both of the first two races were short: 330 yards. Post time for this one was seven eleven. We all stood at the rail near the finish line and passed the time watching the odds on the big board. The two horses I picked on looks, six and eleven, were showing odds of about 6:1 and 21:1 respectively. Shortly the horses were all in the gate and then they were away. A longshot (14:1), number ten, won. The frisky number two placed second. My number six was fourth. We left just after the second race at about seven twenty. They were going to run ten races tonight, and Kevin was whining that he wanted to stay and watch more.

Kevin wasn't hungry when I bought food at the Park, so we stopped at Wendy's on the way home and got him a junior burger for 92¢. The whole big fun evening cost me $6.92. It would have cost a lot more if the rest of us had eaten at Wendy's. I have a feeling that we will return to the race park on other cheap evenings.

Payback

It was very sweet to have the kids give me a little something, if only their autographs.

The trophy and Academy gift card were nice, too, but the card was the best.

Season Finale

The Jackrabbits' season came to an end tonight. Kevin scored two goals. Were having a little party at Peter Piper Pizza on Tuesday night, but one of the kids won't be able to make it. Don't get sad: she'll be on a cruise.

The game is over. Long live the game.

I signed us up for the fall season. Practice starts August 29th.

Lexie and I surfed the web a little tonight to see if we could plan a Dallas trip soon where we could go to an MLS game. The most appealing date on the FC Dallas schedule happens to be their first ever in their new facility in Frisco. Frustratingly, there didn't seem to be any way to order tickets for a single game. Also, all the prior games (at the Cotton Bowl) were being sold through Ticketmaster, so we could probably figure on three tickets running us an extra twenty or more dollars for that "convenience."

Baby Driver

My girl is pretty anxious to get in the driver's seat. There's no lack of independence or determination in her personality. She was also pretty hungry and ready to leave the park. The Jackrabbits' last practice was today and our last game is on Thursday night. Lexie is encouraging me to get back in the habit of daily blogging when the season is over.

Familiarity -> Contempt

The kids on my soccer team are getting a little too used to each other. There's a lot of infighting at practices. Hitting, pushing, pulling hair. Yeah, they are pretty comfortable with each other.

Perhaps I'm not keeping it interesting enough. I really don't understand anything about instilling discipline as a father or a coach.

When I started I was super scattered. I probably played seven different games with them on the first night. Wacky crap really. All of it useful if they actually followed my directions. But none of them did. Tonight I practiced one play, the goal kick, and then scrimmaged.

We don't have a game this weekend. It's the only Saturday in March and the only week in April we don't have a game. Apparently the league had a conflict for April 30, so our last game will be on the night of Thursday the twenty-eighth.

Net Settling

I called around and nobody has big fishing nets around here. I went ahead and bought the 6'x8' nets from Academy. They're a little small, but they'll do well enough. Perhaps when we go to the coast this year I can shop for some big netting I can cut to fit.

Building Goals

When we were out this weekend I noticed that Target had 4'x6' soccer goals priced at forty dollars each. Pursuant to my team's lack of scoring on Saturday I was in the market, but not at eighty bucks for a pair. I mentioned it to Paul at lunch and he suggested that I could put my own together much more cheaply. He found a plan on the internet that looked easy enough that even I could handle it, so I went and bought some PVC pipe and some joints. Including tax these materials cost me just under twenty-five dollars. I finally put my miter box to use and got the things put together in about three hours.

I went to Academy this evening to see if I could find a fishing net to use with my frames. They didn't have anything in the fishing department. Over in the team sports area I found a mulit-use net that was about 6'x8' priced at $8.88. This would bring the cost of my two goals up to about forty-five bucks. In the same part of the store I found 4'x6' soccer goals for twenty bucks apiece. Yeah, they were metal, and so would not suffer injury well, but they had carrying cases and were ready to go. If I had seen them before I had built my own, I would have bought them.

Tomorrow I may be doing some hunting for nets. I also need to scout the park and see if practice will even be possible after the big rain and hail storm this morning.

Superguys

Naming the Team

I mused for a while about the team's name.

I sort of wanted to go with Jackalopes. I normalized it instead.

We don't stand out too much in the list.

Reframing the Position

As I sat in the coaches' training meeting on Saturday, I began to feel a little put upon. There are a lot of things to put together and expectations to meet. The coach's job at this level has a lot to do with making the practices and games fun enough to encourage the kids to want to come back next year excited about the game. There are people to coordinate, skills to master and impart, and responsibilities to be aware of. There's just a lot to do.

Then I suddenly saw it in a new way.

This is a game I get to play. It is hard work, but a lot of the games I have traditionally been drawn to require a lot of preparation and time to play. If I tried to devote the kind of time to a computer game or RPG that I'm going to be spending on coaching, I'd be a crappy husband and father.

It is not a stretch to view acting as a coach as role playing and game mastering. There are specialized playing pieces to buy. There's no simple player's handbook to reach for and master. This will require time preparing my character: mentally, physically, and spiritually. There is a certain amount of authority and responsibility and a perk or two. Like the fact that I get one of the biggest roles, but don't have to pay to play.

"I hate it."

Not the words any guy wants to hear on Valentine's Day.

Real love is just accepting that you'll be painting the walls again.

Lexie has decided that the color she thought was "fun" is just too bright. We need to tone it down. We're out of practice with the painting thing. I guess we forgot how much brighter a color is when you've got a wall full of it than when you just have a little swatch.

So this thing will drag on a bit. But probably not this week. We'll just clean up and deal with it for a while. I hear that Paula is practiced in living with bright colors.

Perhaps it Will Let Up in May

Did I mention I was going to be busy?

Tomorrow night we will romantically add a second coat of paint to the bathroom to celebrate the feast of St. Valentine. (Is it a feast? Any overinformed folks out there want to share?) We got the first coat on today and it's no longer peach in there. Lexie has referred to it as swimming pool blue and Miami Vice blue. It is not baby blue. No, really, it isn't.

Tuesday night I have an elder's meeting to attend. Wednesday night we will go to church for (since we're in the Lenten season) soup and fellowship. Thursday is the coaches meeting where we will get our rosters. Friday we will try to get enough stuff into hiding that my folks will be able to use the guest room (currently strewn with things that belong in the bathroom and other stuff that just hadn't yet found its home). Saturday for most of the day (eight to three, if I recall correctly) I will attend the coaches' training session. That evening is the Second Chance Valentine's Dinner at church. Childcare is included in the price of admission, so we'll encourage my folks to come, too. Sunday we have church and leadership elections. Monday is a federal holiday and my night with the guys. Tuesday I'll hold my first practice. Wednesday we'll go to church. Thursday will be our second practice. Twice weekly practices continue through March and April. Games happen on Saturdays starting March fifth.

As far as "OFF ClOSE" goes, I did tell our lay music minister tonight that I would probably be reducing my involvement in the music team on Sunday mornings. We're starting to keep Kevin in "big church" and he needs a couple of parents to help him make the adjustment.

Bathroom Renovations In Full Swing

We floated a piece of sheetrock over the hole next to the new heat/vent/light. We need to texture over the plaster and paint the cieling.

The border that is just under the cieling was seriously glued to the wall and all we could get down was the printed layer, not the paper underneath. We're going to just texture over it and hope for the best. Lexie has taped off all the molding and switches and countertops. She's also trying to get the texture applied to the walls tonight.

My folks are planning to visit us next weekend, so we will be trying to get this knocked out by then.

One in Two Twice

On Tuesday night I got the heat/vent/light put up in our bathroom cieling. I thought I had the wiring all lined up. I paid particular attention to how the old one was wired before I took it apart. There are two main cables that come from the switches on the wall to the fixture. Each of these cables contain a black coated wire, a white coated wire and an uncoated ground (the wiring in my 1975 home is aluminum: all the copper was in Nam). The box has three pairs of wires (red & white, blue & white, and black & white), one for each of the functions, and a green ground wire. The way this is supposed to work, all of the whites from the box go to one of the big whites, each of the colored three are singly paired with the other three coated wires from the wall switch, and the grounds all go together.

Before I pulled the old one apart I noticed that the cable with the white wire that all three box whites went to was marked with green lettering and the other cable was unmarked. This struck me as surprisingly fortunate. I checked three times, turning the other cable in the light, but could find no markings on it. When I went to wire the new one in place I found, of course, that there were markings on both cables.

Trial and error are familiar companions in all my home maintenance adventures. I hooked the white and black from one cable to the white and blue pair that the documentation said ran the vent. Have I mentioned that this bath is on the far side of the house from the attic ladder? Every trip is a pain. I went down to the fuse box and turned on the circuit. Then I went to the bathroom and flipped the switches one at a time. Lexie asked why I could not leave all the switches on and just flip the fuse to check. The problem is that if I had the wrong pair I might have two hot wires joined and my knowledge of electricity is just enough to be afraid of anything where I can't be sure of the outcome. Nothing happened. Okay, the white I'm looking for must be in the other pair. I went back up and hooked up the other pair, came back down, turned the fuse back on and tried each of the switches. No vent motor humming to life.

At this point Lexie told me to quit for the evening and get a shower. After I got out of the shower I had an idea to try. I went to the unit and screwed in a lightbulb. I turned on the light switch and there was light. Well that was extra lucky. The docs were wrong about the blue wire, but it was the light switch that I had connected to the light. I had both the right white wire (a fifty-fifty shot at that point) and the right "hot" cable wire matched to the function.

Tonight I was able to get up there and finish the job. I got the other two "hot" wires matched to the right functions the first time. Another fifty-fifty chance that fell my way.

We'll see how long it takes us to float new sheetrock, retexture the cieling and paint it.

Bathroom Fixture

I spent some time tonight working to replace our heater/vent/light fixture in the hall bath. I've got it in place and the greater part of the wiring figured out. We just have to float some sheetrock to fill the old hole.

Accidental Art

While I'm posting pictures, here's a couple of the family.

Soccer Coach

Kevin wants to play soccer. So he says, anyway. So we went to sign him up today with SAYSAT. He's actually a little younger than they publish as the bottom end of the eligible ages, but they said that he could play.

There's just this one thing.

All the teams are full. So they could put him on a waiting list, or they could register him for a new team if I would agree to coach it.

"Yeah, okay."

For this age group they only have five or six kids on a team and the coaches are on the field with the kids during games. They say that most of the time I'll be trying to remind them that they're on the "Same team!" or that they're going the "Wrong way!" I have a couple meetings to attend and then twice weekly practices start the last week of this month and games are on all the Saturdays in March and April with the possible exception of Spring Break.

So, which creates the greater disconnect in your mind: someone calling me "coach" or my volunteering to work with preschoolers?

Mexican Sweat

I never learned to play poker for money or chips. We didn't do that in my family. I'm a lousy liar anyway. We just played hands. There was no overall winner, just a new one each hand. I remember playing enough that I learned the ranks of the hands fairly well. I also remember loving wild cards. I'd call goofy things like Dr Pepper (2's, 4's, & 10's) and Baseball (3's, 6's, & 9's) in the same hand.

In addition to five card draw my dad taught me to play Mexican Sweat. This is a variation where everybody gets seven cards face down and you take turns revealing one card at a time until you have the best hand on the table. There is no thought or skill here. Even in the betting version I imagine it is somewhat like betting on a horse race since everything is played in the open. Well, on the theoretical unrigged horse race, anyway.

School Ahead

Lexie and I went to an informational meeting tonight at the day care our kids attend. They'll be starting a kindergarten program in the fall using the A Beka curriculum. If we start Kevin in the fall, then he'll either have to repeat kindergarten in the public school or stick with private school for first grade as well. His late fall birthday that will make him one of the youngest in his class if he takes the second option. We will just have to see how his skills develop to make a good decision.

Mini-Blog

We've been writing something on Kevin's calendar every day. It's his own little journal that we can look back on and review. It's a fun exercise to reflect on the day and pick out the defining event.

Babysitting Barter

Last week we had the pastor's eldest come babysit for us while we went to dinner. She's the one I lent my electric guitar to. Her dad told me that she wasn't playing it much. When I asked her about it, she said that she had frequent insomnia and would often practiced with her headphones on. She said that she tried finding tabs and trying to play them but really felt that she needed some basics to start with. She told me that her parents were busy, and did not seem to be able to find the time to take her to the bookstore to find a guitar book.

When we got home from our dinner I proposed that I pay her by buying her a guitar book. She thought that was a great idea, so I got on Amazon and found something that appeared to be the sort of thing she was looking for. I ordered a couple other things to get the free shipping, too.

The order arrived in the mail yesterday. Lexie went out with "the girls," the pastor's wife and the poet, and she handed off the book to be passed along. I'll ask what guitar girl thinks about it on Sunday.

Like Him

Madeline climbed up the plastic "rock wall" at the playground and went down the big slide all by herself. She did choose to go down feet first on her tummy. This worked out well for her dismount. She wants to be a big kid just like her brother. With her improved climbing skills it is just a matter of time before she figures out how to get out of her crib.

New Phones

Lexie has been wanting a new mobile phone for a while now. Sometime this weekend she lost her phone and so we finally got out to make it happen. Well, it seems that our service is no longer available, so we both had to get new GSM phones. The numbers will stay the same. She'll have her flip phone.

We also decided to change over to VoIP service at home. Since we've never signed up for any Do Not Call lists we get a lot of unwanted calls at home. We will have a new number for home service which we will not list publicly. It's a lot cheaper than plain old telephone service. Unfortunately I did not realize that there was a reference special going on, or I could have saved myself and my friend who recommended it to me some money. Let me know if you're interested...

Plumbing Continues

This afternoon I replaced the faucet on the sink in the kids' bathroom. The old one was really hard to pull on and off. This resulted in Kevin frequently leaving it dripping.

I ended up having to replace the shutoff valves and supply lines too. The left one had no compression ring. It's a mystery how the thing stayed on for the last thirty years. I couldn't get the ring off of the other one so you can see the older, non-shiny nut on the right.

Firmly Attached

Finally some closure to this story.
We handled it pretty much like Paul suggested.

In addition to getting this done this weekend (Lexie applied the joint compound and paint), I reattached the other towel bar (just some bigger anchors and some hot glue this time), and replaced the valve in the shower. We're starting to talk seriously about a water softener. It's getting annoying replacing these valves every two years.

Pseudostrabismus

The word from the eye doctor is that Madeline's eyes are not crossed.

... the eyes appear to be crossed but are actually straight. This is a common condition in infant's facial structures. The wide bridge of the nose and small folds of eyelid skin on the nasal side of the eye contribute to this appearance by covering the "white" of the eye. This especially will become apparent when the infant looks to the right or the left. Then nearly all of the "white" is covered and the eyes appear crossed. As the infant's facial structures mature, this appearance of crossing will improve, and oftentimes disappear.

The doctor did note that she had slight far-sightedness, but said that was a normal condition at her age. He recommended a follow-up exam in one year, but told us to come in right away if we saw signs of true strabismus, which is recognizable by observing an asymmetrical reflection of a flashlight on her pupils.

This picture from October shows the phenomenon that caused us concern.

Sleepover

Kevin went to spend the night with a friend. He spent the week at Granny's and the the two of them had a great time this past summer, but this is his first time to just go and visit a friend. He was thrilled and we were glad for a little change in the routine. These are church folks, so they'll just bring him with them in the morning.

Race Game Idea

Kevin wanted to show me that he could put together a Heroscape layout last night. He just started building it and got some help from me only when the spaces got tight. Maybe we will get to play on his layout this evening. Maybe we'll do something different.

While Kevin was building the layout he said, "I want a new thing. I want a racing car game." Okay. Let me think about that.

Car Wars is probably at least seven years in his future. Even Mille Bournes involves gameplay and math that is a little harder than he can handle, plus I have the feeling that it may be too abstract. He wants to play with cars.

I have a really simple idea that I'm going to give a try. We'll race across the house with Hot Wheels, dice, and rulers.

Our House Speedway

Each player's turn will consist of three moving actions.

Moving Action: Roll a pair of six-sided dice (2d6) and move ahead that number of inches.

Handling Check: If during your move you change direction or driving surface (eg. carpet to vinyl) then you must roll the amount of your current move or higher on a twelve-sided die (1d12) or forfeit the rest of your move and your next moving action. If the handling error occurs on a player's third action then his car is reversed to remind him that his first action on his next turn is forfeit.

The first one across the finish line wins.

I'll throw a number of obstacles on the floor so we have a more interesting course than just a few straightaways. I'm also thinking about allowing a "Push" action that would cost a full turn, and extra turns if the push resulted in the car colliding with an obstacle or flipping over.

Gift Report

I haven't said much about Christmas. I might get around to it when I get some time. I did want to note that Lexie got me Mythology which was the subject of my tenth post to this web log. It's still very pretty and I'll tell you more about it when I've read some of the text.

Purges Begin Anew

The holidays are ending. We can finally put things back in order. Or at least attempt to. We have our last gift exchange tomorrow afternoon, but it's not at our house.

We have too much junk we'll never use again. We have things falling apart. We have kids growing and changing their needs and demands. We have growing (and shrinking) to do.

It's the new year and we have goals. Lexie is making lists. I'm looking at things with an expiration date in mind. The second half of my three score and ten has begun to have an affect on my framework.

Lexie gave me a book for Christmas that collects short selections of writing from authors who influenced C.S. Lewis. In the introduction the editor tells how the books in Lewis' personal library show clear evidence of Lewis' engagement with and like or dislike of the author and content through the many notes he made in the margins.

I'll never be a Lewis, but a personal library only makes sense if it is indeed personalized. On top of this my wife reads my book reviews on this site and tells me, "It sounds like you're just reading crappy books." And my pastor goes on about how he has become very intentional in his reading, choosing only high quality pieces: aware of his limited time.

So I found a little over two feet of books to let go. I don't know if the used store will want any of them, but I'll try there before they go to the next donation pick-up.

How cliched to use a new year's day entry to talk about the passing of time and looming exit ramps and resolving to do better with the time we have. Cliches and stereotypes don't come from a vacuum. Though we may not believe them in our youth we find them coming out of our mouths just as we feel we have the wisdom to express something new.

Friends for Her

Lexie got to go out tonight with some gals from church. She had a good time and they'll likely do it again.

I slept a little late today and didn't get to work until eight. It ended up being okay because when I checked my calendar I learned that my meeting today was from three thirty to five. This meant that I got to see my wife for about five minutes before she left, so I'd like to spend some time with her now.

Christmas Season Sick Day

Stayed home with Madeline today. The idea was for her to get some rest. She refused to sleep. She was down for maybe fifty minutes this morning. That was it.

Did some shopping this afternoon. Gift certificates for various family members whose names we drew in this year's exchange. A few other items. Hopefully a surprise or two.

Decorated the tree tonight. Stopped about 9:30. Lexie is reading to Kevin now, she'll probably have him down a little after ten.

Scary Medicine

Madeline's nose has been runny for a few days and in the last couple she developed a bad cough. Today I took her to the doctor. He heard a little bit of what he alternately called rasping and wheezing in her breathing, so she got an air treatment. This involved me and the nurse spending ten minutes trying to keep a breathing mask on a fighting screaming scared inconsolable little fifteen-and-a-half-month-old girl. The nurse, speaking for Madeline, said that this was an awful way to get medicine.

Her ears are infected, so we got a prescription for Omnicef. The doctor also gave us a prescription for inhaler medicine (albuterol?) if we heard more wheezing. I think that she had the infection, which led to heavy sinus drainage, which got her coughing and roughed up her throat a bit. If we can beat the infection, we'll be most of the way there. But I'm clearly not a doctor and have misdiagnosed lots of things before.

Oh, and since she was crying anyway, we went ahead and got her a flu shot. I don't think she has ever been happier to leave a place than the doctor's office today.

Easy Tree

This year we went to Home Depot which is where I got our very nice tree last year. We cut open two trees. The second was a winner. An employee carried the tree to the front of the garden section for us, we paid in the self pay lane, walked around front and moved the car to the loading lane. We waited only a couple of minutes for them to cut the trunk and wrap the tree. Three bungee cords held it to the top of the car and we headed home.

Only one limb was required for sacrifice to the god-of-getting-the-bloody-thing-in-the-stand. Fortunately, this year, it was one of the tree's. We got it inside and had to do one reseating to straighten it up.

This was an amazingly easy experience. Many years I have fought the tree for hours and days. I'm pretty sure that the trick is the stand. The stand we bought last year is better than the variety of other stands that have usually only lasted for one tree.

Practical Anatomy

Kevin is noticing things. He's also noticing that some things affect other things. That second part is new. It's caught us a little flatfooted and we do a little scrambling.

You know what I mean. Like when we pray for sunshine and it rains instead, he concludes that God doesn't listen to us.

We've been bathing the kids together. He recently noticed that his sister doesn't have something that he has. We shared with him the general case of that difference and he will now gladly repeat to you that "boys have penises and girls don't." We wondered briefly if this awareness meant that we should start to bathe them separately, but decided that it was not that big a deal.

Tonight he took it to the next step. "Where does Maddie pee from?"

"Um, well, from the same general area you do, from her crotch."

Female anatomy remains a bit of a mystery to me. I wasn't all that crazy about biology class and I didn't have anywhere else to learn it in high school, if you follow me. Marriage and a couple childbirths have put me a long way ahead of where I used to be, though.

Back then I vaguely understood that girls had two holes. I just kind of figured that one was for sex and the other was for everything else. This messy arrangement explained why they always had to have toilet paper, since there was no clear distinction for them between number one and number two. Girls don't usually give specifics about the particular call they're receiving from nature, but occasionally one would make it clear that they had to pee. I wondered how they knew it was just that, but you can't ask those sorts of questions.

Kevin was unsatisfied with my vague answer. I didn't want to make a big deal about it since I knew that would only increase his interest. Anyway, I don't believe that my lack of knowledge about female anatomy is what kept me out of it prior to my wedding night. So, I gave Kevin a quick look and he was satisfied. "Oh, she's got a little penis down under there."

Well that's close enough.

I told Lexie about the incident. She asked what we were going to call it. It hadn't occured to me until then that I will be engaged in talk about female anatomy with my daughter. I figured, "Wipe yourself off" would pretty well cover me in the bathroom. Experience with Kevin should have informed me otherwise. I don't think either of us knew the proper name. Lexie suggested "pee hole" and I offered "tinkle spot." Maybe it's a good thing that Madeline isn't talking yet: we need a little time to get our act together.

Dinosaur Picture

Kevin handed me his Magnadoodle and asked for "a dinosaur going to school."

"How will we know that he's going to school, Kevin?"

"He'll have his backpack on."

Of course. How silly of me to ask.

This request was a pretty good distance from the trains and S.U.V.s he usually asks me to draw. Before you overestimate Kevin's imagination you should know that he owns this book. I gave the drawing a shot and when Lexie saw it she was so impressed she told me to get a picture of it. Not that the drawing was impressive, just that I managed to make something that looked anything like what my son demanded.

I don't know what I'd do with this goofy picture of a schoolbound dino if I didn't post it here.

Heroscape - Up the Tower

Kevin and I got a couple of games of Heroscape in this weekend. I set up a nifty scenario called "Up the Tower" that some folks posted in the scenario discussion area of the Heroscape fan site. This scenario has a long field with the players starting their armies at opposite ends. There is a token on the top of the water-surrounded tower in the middle of the field. You can win by either killing off the other player's army or by grabbing the token and bringing it back to your corner.

Since he's four we use the basic rules and I walk Kevin through a number of things, but he loves to roll the dice.

The first time we played I arrayed Syvarris, Carr, Ne-Gok-Sa, and Sgt. Drake against his Grimnak, Deathwalker, Airborne Elite, and Finn. I got first blood by eliminating Grimnak, but his Airborne Elite wiped me out pretty quickly. The last roll he got two on four dice and I got no shields on seven dice losing Ne-Gok-Sa.

Tonight I went for a bigger fight. I traded Carr and Drake for Viking Warriors, Krav Maga Agents, and Izumi Samurai. On his side I pulled Deathwalker and put in the Marro Warriors. He saw the setup and insisted I play with the dragon. So I pulled Ne-Gok-Sa and the Viking Warriors and put Mimring into play.

I just kept sending the Samurai up the tower. This gave him the opportunity to bring the Marro Warriors over to my side of the field. The Krav Maga killed only one Marro before they were all down. Syvarris never even got activated. By this time my Samurai were headed down with the prize. Amazingly they survived multiple attacks and were able to get the token back to base for the win.

Shots and Pictures

Lexie lined up some appointments for today. Shots for Kevin and Christmas pictures at the mall. Then she got sick. So I got to stay home today and run around with the family. This means I'll work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week. Feels a little silly.

A Four-Year-Old

Unfortunately the big engine that supposed to pull passengers several hundred yard out-and-back once an hour was having battery troubles and was not running. A bit of a bummer. Still the pullman cars were pretty cool and the kids had fun running around and climbing on stuff.

Learning to Fly

My cousin Kate's wedding and reception were in McKinney, Texas this weekend. That's somewhere north of Dallas. My parents offered to buy us plane tickets as their Christmas gift to us this year and we took them up on that offer. Four plane tickets for trips to and from Love field from San Antonio International were $370 on Southwest. A pretty good deal and a nice gift. Thanks, folks.

We haven't flown since our honeymoon back in 1997, add to that an almost four-year-old and a fourteen-month-old and we approached this venture with fear and trembling. Well, at least with a lot of apprehensive preparation.

Tree in the Ear

Kevin told us last night that a kid at daycare had stuck a little piece of a toy way down in his (Kevin's) ear. He said it was a red and green piece of a play tree. We didn't see anything with a flashlight, but I'm going to run him to the doctor this afternoon for a quick look.

UPDATE: Well, scratch that. He says it hasn't bothered him all day.

Free Day

It was one of those great days when the school and the bank were closed but the daycare was open. Thank you, veterans!

Lexie and I slept late -- after an initial interruption to get the kids to daycare -- and went to see "The Incredibles." Cute show. Some really great superhero action. Nods to Star Wars as usual with a Pixar flick. A little bit of a "Spy Kids" feel.

I tried to play a little disc golf, but the wind was really playing havoc with me and I quit after ten baskets. I did, however, find somebody's disc with a name and phone number. I called the guy and told him I'd leave it at Nick's (the local disc geek's supplier) for him. I sure like it when that happens to me so it's good to return the favor to the community.

Play Date

Rob and Jill came over with their kids tonight. Their son is two months younger than Kevin and their daughter is a month older than Madeline.

Sarah slept the whole time they were here. Kevin and Micah played well together unsupervised. Madeline was uncommonly good. The result was that we got to have a nice dinner and gaming session.

We played Carcassonne. Rob or Jill won depending on whether or not we counted the right things. We had simple adult fun. Amazing.

Hissy

"Five friends I had, and two of them snakes." - Godric - Frederick Buechner

When Lexie was cleaning out the shelves in our bedroom yesterday she found the beanie baby snake that I bought some years ago. Kevin asked if he could have it. He has since proclaimed that it is his best friend.

Kevin named the snake "Hissy" which may well be the same name that Ty gave the toy, but the tag is long gone and I don't know for sure.

A dear lady at our church is in the final stages of cancer. On the blanket this morning the kids were told that she is sick and very likely going to die. They were given a posterboard to decorate that would be taken to her immediately after church. A few of the kids, including ours had already worked on it on Wednesday night.

Today while Kevin was out on the disc golf course at me he started pretending about Hissy. He told me that Hissy is sick. In fact next year Hissy is going to die. He went on to say that Hissy went to see the doctor and got a shot and now has a band-aid.

Is this one of those "teachable moments" or is it just a little boy playing with concepts that he's not really ready to understand yet? I took a middle path. I told him that I was sorry about Hissy's impending doom and encouraged him to spend time enjoying his sick friend and playing with him any way that he could in the time remaining. I asked what would happen when Hissy died. Would there be a coffin? funeral? burial?

When Lexie heard about it she had a simple response: "They're talking too much about Barbara to these kids." Maybe. Maybe they're just keeping us parents on our toes and aware of just how much each kid is able to process. It's tricky to tell the truth in a way that fits the schema of a nearly four-year-old.

Heroscape

The basic game is easy enough for him to be led through. At least a few rounds. He did very well finding the appropriate numbers on the unit cards. I would say, "Find the blue number on the dragon card" and he got it right from the first time.

We got kind of a late start and his rolling was not terribly lucky. The very first attack of the game, I killed his dragon. We re-rolled. Eventually he succeeded in killing one of my airborne elite with the dragon, but on the next turn one of the dead guy's squadmates rolled three skulls on four dice to Mimring's (the dragon's) two shields on eight. It was eight-twenty so we called it quits for the night.
 

Kevin and the Seven

Drew and Sarah and their three girls came to town for Alumni Weekend. Last night we kept their three girls and tonight we left all five kids with Gordon's three girls to watch and play with. If you count you will find that we left Kevin with seven girls tonight. Better when he's three than fifteen.

According to the baby sitters most everyone got along quite well. The problem child was Madeline who we suspect to be cutting yet more teeth.

We four adults had a nice dinner and mini golf game. Drew and Sarah are wonderful folks. We are blessed to be even long distance friends.

Pictured below are Emily, Grace, and Kevin as, respectively, a nurse, a police officer, and The Edge.

Mr. Conductor

Kevin's Grandma provided this year's costume.

Self Portait

Bad Gas

Lexie's mom is home. It turned out that she just had a lot of gas in her tummy, likely due to really bad acid reflux. She will return to the hospital in a couple weeks to have a few things checked out, but in the 'tween time is feeling much better.

Eclipse This

It has not been an easy day.

Lexie called me mid-morning stressed out by the way grading the TAKS essays was going. The rubrick samples were so specious and contradictory that the folks participating in grading today argued over them for over two hours before they began looking at the actual student essays.

She asked me to pick up the kids so that she would have more time in peace tonight for the sixty essays she was bringing home. I came home to change first so that we could go straight to church from the day care.

I had the kids in the car and had just passed HEB when Gordon called from church asking if I could pick up some paper plates for tonight. He was going to be driving to get the pizzas soon and didn't have time for the additional stop. It was only about five fifteen, so I told him that we could easily turn around and get the plates. Before I could get back to HEB, Lexie called.

Her sister had called to tell her that her mom was in the hospital. They don't know what's causing it, but she's got some vague pains and is vomiting. Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow, but my wife is, by her own admission, no good at waiting.

Returning to the car with the paper plates I noticed that my cell phone, which I had inadvertantly not returned to my pocket, showed "1 missed call." It was from Gordon and when I returned it he told me that his car had overheated, but he had since reached Michael who was going to pick up him and the pizzas.

Finally we headed for church. As we were driving the last half mile I smelled a foul odor. I wondered aloud if Madeline had pooped her pants, but when I looked around I found her covered in vomit. Lexie had not packed any spare clothes in the bag she put together for me to care for her at church with, so I had to call her and ask her to come to the rescue.

Just one thing after another.

Between breaks in the clouds we got to see a couple stages of the lunar eclipse tonight. I knew how she felt. Something came between us and the sun today, too.

Eight Hours without Power

Yesterday I got both kids down for a nap within a half an hour of each other. I raced to the park and got five holes in (021 00) before the rain started coming down. By the time I got home, the power was out and I had to phone Lex from the driveway to manually open the garage doors from the inside.

The backyard swale was full of water running like a little river. The flow ran into a kind of dam created by the fence and backed up in a mini-reservoir. I took these pictures just before five o'clock when the power had been out for about an hour. Madeline got up at 4:30 and Kevin about an hour later. The power company had its hands full and was not personally answering calls, but using its automated system which gave no estimated time of renewed service.

At six-thirty we hit the road and got dinner out. We arrived home at eight-thirty and still didn't have power. The kids got baths by candlelight. When I called the power company at ten I was informed that a primary line was down and that a line crew had been called to the area. They expected our service to be restored in an hour. At 12:23 it kicked back on.

It might have been worse. A guy in the office didn't get his power on until 7:30 this morning.

Surprise Visit

My dad called from a pay phone at 5:03 this evening. He told me that they were in Uvalde and asked if they could stay with us tonight. They've been in Big Bend this week and are on their way home to Houston.

They arrived a little before seven and ate some pizza. Kevin and Lexie made some banana nut bread which we ate hot out of the oven at about 8:30. They'll head out tomorrow soon after lunch.

A Hat for the Girls

At Toys'R'Us tonight we found a princess hat. See it modeled below.

Sorry! A little.

Lexie, Kevin, and I played Sorry! tonight. We didn't finish the game, but Kevin was kicking our butts when we quit. He had no problem with the counting. He was very upset when I bounced one of his pawns back to "Start." He didn't have a problem when it happened with a "Sorry" card, but when he and his mom were both on a slide down which my pawn slid, knocking them both off, he angrily declared, "I was there first, Dad!"

When his attention began to wander we called the game. This made him angry, too. We tried to assure him that he had won. He was clearly ahead (we each had one pawn in play, he had one home and the other three in play) but he stubbornly fussed about wanting to play some more. Clearly he was tired. Well, clearly to his parents. Applied insight isn't always well recieved, no matter how correct.

Towel Bar Saga Update

It turns out that a one by two is thicker than my sheetrock. I think that some plywood I have is the right thickness, but it is a two foot by four foot sheet. This means I'll need to cut a straight line. I think that I'll try to find one of my friends who has professed prowess with woodworking to make this simple cut for me. Some of my limits I do know.

Halloween Season

Kevin saw the decorations in our neighborhood three weeks ago and informed us that it was Halloween season. Toys'r'us started decorating with "Spooky Stuff" in August.

Two weeks to go and I'll acknowledge it.

 

I also got this shot that looked like an album cover. I've included one for comparison.

More and Less

The electrician said that the damage I did was pretty superficial. He just taped up the wire and charged me thirty bucks.

The damage to the car was also pretty minor. The bill there is about $3,800 dollars of which I'll pay a $500 deductible. We rented Lex a car today. The difference over what the insurance will pay is only about $2.50/day.

The hole in the wall remains. I hope to do something about that this week.

Molehills Continue to Become Mountains

The spring on the fuel door to Lexie's Camry somehow got broken off. This required two people to be present to put gas in the car. One to pull the release next to the driver's seat, and one to lever the door open when the latch was retracted.

I took Lexie's car today to try to solve the "pulling to the right" problem and get the fuel door repaired. I spent $65 on an alignment, which needed to be done as all four wheels were out, but the car still pulled. After several different tire rotations we determined that one of the tires was the problem. After crossing the fronts it was now pulling a little left. I was out of time for the tires today and planned to keep her car tomorrow to get that sorted out.

I headed to the dealer to get the fuel door fixed. As I made the corner off the access onto the crossover bridge my cell phone rang. I looked around to find it and answer it and when I looked up the traffic in front of me was stopped. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late.

Saved By Plastic - or - The Most Expensive Towel Bar Replacement Project Ever

The towel bar by our shower has been loose for a while. Accordingly I was always very careful when I placed towels on it or removed them. Recently we got rid of our glass shower doors which have been cracked since we bought the house in 1998 and were beginning to drop splinters. Lexie had always hung her towel on the outer bar of the shower door. Since she began using the towel bar its inevitable release from the wall accelerated quite a bit.

The towel bar's failure did not surprise me too much since it was relying on nothing more than simple anchors in the sheetrock. There were no studs to hold the bar's ends more firmly in the places where we wanted them.

Obviously I was the first person in history to encounter this problem, so I invented my own solution. Here was my thought: The towel bar is a little over two feet long. In that distance it probably crosses in front of a couple of wall studs. I'll simply cut out the sheetrock the width of the towel bar an inch and a half high. I'll fasten a one by two (three quarter inches by one and a half inches for those with rules) to the studs, putty it in, and paint over it. Then I'll screw the towel bar to the much-sturdier-than-sheetrock one by two.

Monday night I got out my stud finder and found that the battery was dead. I replaced the battery but couldn't make any sense of the readings I got as I passed it back and forth along the wall. At this point I almost went up to the attic to take a look and see where the studs were. Instead I made the nearly fatal decision not to, deciding that it didn't matter where the studs were since I was going to be cutting a long hole in the wall no matter the lay of the land.

I began by using a utility knife to cut a small strip about half an inch wide between the screw holes left by the fallen bar. After I had cut away over a foot of sheetrock I still hadn't found a stud. I began to despair, but finally a few inches further I uncovered it. It was right in the middle of the span, so I knew that I would not find another one. This was going to complicate my plan a little. Now I'd have to invent some way to stabilize the one by two so that it wouldn't rock back and forth and break loose from the surrounding sheetrock.

Using the utility knife I finished my half inch wide slit. That was an awful lot of annoying work and I knew that the rough edges it left were going to be a pain to work the piece of wood into. After I'd marked off the lines for the full width, I walked into the living room and told Lexie that if I were a manly man I'd use a circular saw set for the proper depth to widen the slit to and inch and a half. That might have been safer.

I opted for a jigsaw. It was lighter and easier to maneuver at shoulder height. Also I would be able to cut from edge to edge only having to leave the portion above the stud to trim later with the utility knife. I started on the right hand side of the slit arcing up and over onto the new higher line. The cut went easily and looked smooth. I felt pretty smart. That feeling lasted about ten seconds.

I moved the blade to the left hand side of the stud and began to trace the same arc up and over to the left. Suddenly the sound of the blade changed. This was followed almost immediately by sparks shooting out of the wall at me. I stopped the saw and removed it from the slit as quickly as I could.

I looked down at the jigsaw blade and saw that I would not be using it again. A little smoke puffed from the wall but it was associated with the sparks and those stopped as soon as I backed the saw off of its leftward path. I had run my power saw right into an electric cable and lived to tell the tale. This was because God wanted me around to help with the kids and Sears housed their ¼HP Scroller Saw in plastic. I didn't feel a thing, except a little surprised. I had only thought this was getting complicated with only one stud. Now I had a real complication.

Laughing a little I walked out to the living room and asked Lexie if anything had flashed or blinked. She looked at me blankly. I told her about the sparks and she got a little bit upset.

I went back and excavated a bit more of the wall so that I could see what I had hit. It was a pretty big cable. Since there is no plug on that wall in the bathroom and our power cables drop out of the ceiling I figured that it must be something on the other side of the wall. I walked around and found the oven. I went out to the breaker box in the garage, but could not find a fuse labeled "stove" or "oven." I tried several that seemed like they were in the right general area, but every time I walked back in to the kitchen the stove's digital clock still shone clearly.

Before Lexie could help me deal with this problem we had to get the kids to bed. Once that was done Lex stood in the kitchen and watched the stove clock as I flipped every breaker in the box one by one. The clock never went dark.

About this time Forrest called. He informed me that not only had other people actually hung towel bars where there was only sheetrock, but there was an accepted method and appropriate fasteners. He chided me for not consulting him on home improvement matters. Okay, show of hands from all of you who think of Forrest when you think of household maintenance.

While on the phone with Forrest I pulled out the pan storage drawer beneath the oven and laid eyes on the big triangular 220 volt plug and a portion of the wire which I had seen a little bit of on the other side of the wall. I also climbed into the attic, dangerously balancing a flashlight and the phone as I stepped from rafter to rafter. There I clearly saw the cable running down beside the stud, a sight that would have saved me a lot of trouble if I'd seen it earlier. The cable did not head for the fuse box in the garage, but instead took off toward the far side of the house. Climbing down and heading outside I found the big breaker box. Forrest suggested I call my dad or google for information about big breakers.

Dad, I knew, was in bed. Google was not going to yield anything fruitful quickly. Paul is in Hawaii for the week. So I called Rob. After I explained what had happened to him, he said that he figured that the stove was on its own circuit from the big box and I should just click them off one by one until I found it. He also said that from what I had described, he guessed that we could repair the wire and he would come over Tuesday to help.

On the third of the four big breakers I found the one that killed power to the stove. It was a pair of breakers connected to move as one, each with a "50" label. I had my Sharpie with me and wrote "Stove" beside the breakers.

When Rob came over last night the first thing we did was to cut away more of the wall so we could get a better look at the wire. Then we had to strip away some of the insulation so that we could get a better look at the damage. We found that the cable was constructed such that the ground wires were just under the insulation wrapped around the interior two main wires. It appeared that I had cut more than a few ground wires and made a pretty good headway into one the wires. The sparking had probably been across the jigsaw blade between the ground and that one wire.

Rob adjusted his position. He recommended that I have a professional electrician evaluate the situation. "He may say that there's plenty there to run the 220 volts and 100 amps, but you're safer having him make the call. More likely he will need to take out yet more of the wall and either end up splicing some good cable in or, God forbid, running a whole new cable."

Rob told me that he knew a good guy who did the electrical work at his office that he would get me in touch with. When I checked in with Rob this afternoon I learned that the electrician dude was out of the office today. Rob had left him a message and expected a call first thing in the morning.

Meanwhile we're without a stove. Which isn't that big a deal for now.

Dangerous Stories

Tools can become unintentional weapons in the hands of the incautious. In my middle school they classified hacky sacks as weapons so that they could be confiscated at will. Strangely the textbooks were still allowed. Setting aside the injuries possible to inflict with these heavy blunt objects, they're full of information. What might unruly youth do with ideas?

Filling a Rainy Day

Kevin climbed into bed with me around five this morning and Madeline woke and started crying half an hour later. We have to drag them out at six on weekday mornings. Ugh.

The rain came down and I still havent caulked up the AC vent pipe. I tried various activities in the attic on the underside of the problem and none of them worked. Finally, I climbed on the roof in the wind and rain armed with an old inflatable swimming pool and three bricks. I wrapped the plastic pool around the offending junction and weighted it down with the bricks.

I made two trips to Whataburger for tacos. The first time I got in the drive thru, ordered, pulled forward, and then had to back up and cancel the order because I had gotten out of the house without my billfold.

Kevin and I played a round of Hisss and I won primarily on the strength of a record twenty-two segment snake. We started a game of Carcassonne and when Madeline finally went to sleep, Lexie joined in. Final scores: me 103, kev 77, lex 71.

We went to the bank to deposit a couple checks and the post office to send the RSVP for my cousin Katie's wedding in November. We ate at McDonald's so Kevin could get a little physical running around time. Then we spent a half of an hour at the Train Store and another hour at the mall.

By the time we returned from the mall it was 3:30 and Kevin had fallen asleep in the car. Madeline went down a little later. Lexie read her paperback novel. I slept until six.

Then there was dinner and grocery shopping. Put the kids down. And round about 9:30 I started picking out music for tomorrow. I think that this will be me and Lex singing accompanied by my guitar and Adrian's drums. Lex and I figured out the 1, 4, 5 chords for the Lost Dogs' "Moses in the Desert" to sing for the offertory. I also had to write in chords on the two hymns as there will be no pianist.

Now I'm blogging and soon it will be tomorrow.

Wheee!

Gaming with Kevin - Happy Birthday to Me

I used some birthday money from my mother-in-law to buy some games yesterday. I purchased a copy of Once Upon A Time. I've bought this game twice before but gave away those copies to friends and relatives. The publishers have a new expansion pack for the game called Dark Tales which I also picked up.

Last night I selected eight cards at random from the deck and used them to tell Kevin a story. His mom wasn't in the room at the time, so we gave her the same cards to see how different her story would be. Kevin tried his hand at it, but he mostly just repeated his mom's story. He really enjoyed the storytelling. He asked me to do it again tonight.

Tonight we played the other game I bought.

Carcassonne is a tile laying game. You have to match up edges of pieces that have either a field, a road, or a city as you build the playing field. You also have a limited number of markers you can play to score points in the unfolding geography. I read some reviews and other stuff that led me to believe that this would be a good game to add to my closet because it was simple and appealing to kids and non-gamers.

I figured that Kevin and I would just play with building out the terrain and not worry about the markers. It quickly became clear that he had no problems understanding the side matching stuff at all. His skills with Hisss and puzzles translated well for this part of the game. So we started placing the wooden "meeples". There was no way he would understand all the scoring and strategy, but he could count tiles in a completed city or road.

He actually finished out the game with me. A couple of times he decided he wanted to change colors, so we switched out all his yellow pieces for black, and later for green. I was still pleased that he remained focused for so long. After the game, he sat and put together the 12 "expansion" river cards on his own and proudly showed me his work before joining the family in the backyard to play on the swingset and with the kickball.

The game box recommends ages 8 and up, but clearly younger kids can get enjoyment out of it too. Kevin doesn't count by two yet. He doesn't even start counting from any number other that one very well. But just because he can't understand all the rules, doesn't mean he shouldn't play.

Hopefully there are many more nights of gaming around the table with the family ahead.

School Picture

Lexie saw this picture and began to inform everyone that she is going to have Madeline's ears pinned back when she gets a little older. I love the fact that she looks to have a mullet.

Day Out with Thomas

The Thomas "engine" was full sized, but not a working engine. The train was pushed from behind by a diesel. The ride lasted about thirty minutes and moved very slowly.

Besides the train, there were lots of fun things happening at the convention center. Kevin really enjoyed the large inflated slide. My folks tell me that it was about twenty feet high and not easily surmounted. After a cautious first climb and descent, Kevin gained all the confidence he needed. After about nine times the attendant gave my dad his card saying, "We rent these." Kevin went on the slide well over twenty times. My folks say that they considered just letting him keep going out of morbid fascination, but finally gave him a "three more times."

He also got a big kick out of the puppet show. The puppeteer called himself "Stinky" and pronounced Mr. Puppet's name "Mister Poopie." Kevin laughed and laughed.

He had a great time. On Saturday he asked to go back and we had to explain that it had been a special event.

Tonight in his prayer he thanked God for my folks. "My grandparents love me and I love Thomas. So they took me to see Thomas. And I had a really good time."

Scrub a Dub

Lex and I spent about an hour this evening scrubbing the mildew off the siding around our front porch. We really need to paint. It can't be that hard, can it?

We're all Sick, So to Heck with It

Over dinner last night I mentioned that one of the crappiest things about being sick was that all the things that are usually relaxing and pleasurable are generally bad for the constitution. Beer and sex and fast food and playing outside all are rough on a body already suffering. The reaction around the table was that I was crazy for abstaining from such stuff. So today we played.

We did a little house cleaning this morning. Around ten we all got in the car and went to Toys'R'Us to get a gift for one of Kevin's classmates. We proceeded from there to her birthday party at McDonalds. There are some definite advantages to this kind of party. You don't have to clean up the house before or after the party and you don't have to feed the adults strike me as two of the biggest. When we got home we all went down for naps.

This evening I mowed the backyard and we filled the pool. Kevin, Madeline, and Lexie played for a while. I've got a frozen pizza in the oven. I'll do some plumbing repair later. The hard water we get in this town ensures that I get lots of practice.

We're all coughing and blowing ugly phlegm. Nobody has a fever. So we're going to just get on with life as much as possible. Our voices are somewhat shot, so I'm not doing a lot of reading aloud, but I should be able to drink some beer.

Concert Night

Back in March I bought tickets for the Sting & Annie Lennox concert tonight. It turns out that Cyndi and Adrian got tickets too and they're taking Gordon and Jeanene. G&J's older girls are coming over to our house to babysit.

This will be kind of a late anniversary date. Lex and I met at Karen & Adrian's wedding thirteen years ago September fourteenth.

One Stone Even

Madeline had her appointment with the doctor for her one year checkup and immunizations today. She's twenty pounds even and twenty-nine inches. This puts her right in the middle of the bell curve for length and between the twenty-fifth and fiftieth percentiles for weight. The doctor says that in the coming months she will eat a little less and get longer and leaner.

She has had a runny nose for several weeks now. The doctor found a little fluid in her ears and gave us some Omnicef. Thank God. This is the only medicine that Maddie will take. She screams and spits everything else out. This she likes and will take willingly.

A Little Man to Man

When you have one kid you can tag team. With two you're both on all the time. At three they tell me you shift to a zone defense.

This morning I took Kevin to the library and the train store. Lexie took Maddie shopping for clothes. We met for lunch at Chik-fil-a. Then I brought Madeline home and Kevin went with his mom to Garden Ridge Pottery. They were supposed to go to the grocery store too, but they were too tired.

I felt mild effects from the strep last night and this morning. A little light-headedness mostly. I think the antibiotic is pretty well knocking it out. Unfortunately Lex, Maddie, and I have some secondary infection that must be viral that is causing some unpleasant sinus drainage.

And Now I Have It

The strep got to me. I recognized the sore throat I had today as the same as what Lexie had on Sunday. Rather than try to survive the weekend on Motrin alone I got myself to the doctor and got an antibiotic.

One Down to Strep

Lexie's bad health grew worse. Last night she didn't sleep much. When I woke up at 5:30 she was getting out of the shower. She told me that she had already done her lesson plans for the substitute and would not be teaching today. She dropped off the kids this morning and took her stuff to school, then went to a MedClinic since we don't have regular internists.

She found out she had strep and they put her on amoxycillin. She can barely talk or eat. Her rest is constantly interrupted by pain like needles and sandpaper in her throat whenever a swallowing reflex goes unchecked. I hope the antibiotics get to work fast. She's planning to try to go back to work in the morning.

Sporting Weekend

We managed to get athletic this holiday weekend. We celebrated Labor Day with sweat.

Friday night we went to see Copperas Cove play at Judson. We got there about halfway through the first quarter and left right after halftime. Apparently we didn't miss much since the only scoring after we left was a Bulldog field goal. Lexie taught her first year at Copperas Cove but we never went to a football game up there.

We sat on the visitor side since the home side was full. This meant that we could see the bands, but not hear them very well. Of course more than half the time was wasted by dance teams and drill squads anyway. Who besides these girls parents and boyfriends cares about these things? Couldn't they just do their routines on the sidelines while the band plays and marches? They could even be integrated like flag corps and improve the show.

Sunday night Lex and I got a date in. We went to Cool Crest and tied at mumblemumble over par. We actually didn't sweat too much. It was not that warm a night, though on the back side of the course the breeze does get cut off a bit. The plants were beautiful and lush. Some of the carpets were new and surprisingly slow.

This morning Lexie was feeling bad and I took the kids out for some disc golf. We played nine holes. That's one to ten at Live Oak minus the defunct seven. I threw three bogies and one birdie. (010 901 x01 - 0 ) Kevin put it in at one with seventeen throws. He could have had fifteen, but instead of dropping the disc in the basket when he was right next to it he kept trying to throw it in. It was pretty humid and in fact by the time we got home and got cleaned up it was raining.

Playing Together

Happy Anniversary!

My parents go to bed too early. By the time I've got my kids in bed and my wits about me they're already down. So since I didn't call, I'll take the time here to say that I did think of you both today on this thirty-seventh anniversary of your wedding. I hope you have a nice long weekend planned to celebrate!

Ees backwards

Kevin is having trouble with his "e"s. He wants to make them backwards. Actually it's a pretty great that he's writing at all. He can barely color in the lines. Tracing's going better. Neither Lexie nor I have patience for little kids who won't pay attention. Homework is harder for us than it is for him.

It shows that I'm really sleepy doesn't it?

First Birthday Pictures

Curses

I have passed something from my father to my son.

We were racing Hot Wheels down the driveway this evening. The surface seems pretty smooth until you try running it with quarter inch high wheels. The relative bumpiness makes for unpredictable results. Which is just what you want in a race.

Kevin managed to win a lot of the time. Occasionally though, he wouldn't. It was on one of these occasions that he expressed his disappointment, "Dad gum it!"

I don't know how many times I've heard my dad use that phrase. I'm sure that it's a lot more than I've used it myself. Still, it was enough to give it to my son. Makes me aware of just how well he's listening these days.

--

We've got to adjust to being just the four of us again. Our parents left after church today. It's been two weeks since we were without their assistance in one way or another.

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Nearly thirty people were at our house today during Madeline's party. We had hamburgers and cake and ice cream. She got a lot of clothes and a couple of toys. I'll be sure to post some pictures later.

Growing Sophistication

Kevin's Granny brought him home yesterday. She's done nothing this week but play with him. I walked in the door and said, "There's my boy!" He replied, "Daddy will you take me to the train store?" I got back at him by telling him a scary story at bedtime about a monster in the closet. I had to make immediate reparations by telling him our special version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (they eat her at the end).

It was during the Goldilocks story that he gave me a surprise. Baby bear was upset about his oatmeal's disappearance. Kevin remarked that baby bear is whiny. This was just repeating a remark I've made a few times. I reminded him of the second part of that comment, "You're whiny too."

"Sometime I'm whiny, sometimes I'm not."

You've got to love him. I was so blown away I told him, "You're right. You've been a pretty good kid tonight. There were only a few times when you tried crying to get your way."

This is getting more interesting.

Meanwhile Madeline is stringing more steps together, eating with her fingers, drinking from a sippy-cup, and starting to make her opinions known more clearly.

Down to Three

Kevin left with his Granny today for Comanche. They're coming back on Thursday. Strange to have him gone. We felt free to move about the city tonight. No one there to tell us "I don't want to go there! I want to go to the toy store!"

We'll miss him, but it will be a good time for Madeline to get extra parental attention.

Revolving Moms

Since Lexie's fall she hasn't been able to do a lot of work around the house. I was pretty busy Saturday night. My mom came in early Sunday afternoon. Today she left shortly after Lexie's mom got here.

Mom was a huge help. Cooking, washing dishes, and mostly caring for Madeline took a great burden off of me.

Wanda's planning on being here through Saturday. She's talking about taking one of the kids home with her. She'll be back next Thursday to prepare for Madeline's birthday party on Saturday.

Homework

The big new thing in our life is homework. He now has an assignment to be done every Monday through Thursday night. This usually involves some coloring and letter tracing. At least in the first two days.

Sprain

Lexie got her room put together as planned this morning. As she was leaving, she fell down the stairs. Nothing's broken, but she's sprained it badly. She will be on crutches for a few days. This will make the first few days of school pretty difficult.

We have Grandmas coming to help. My mom is coming tomorrow and staying through Tuesday. Wanda is coming Wednesday.

I have been busy all day. I still need to get music together for tomorrow.

Still Life with Fart Poopie

"There's nothing to do now but wear this SuperCold down with many hours of daytime television." - The Tick

Kevin got a virus that's going around the day care. The symptoms are fever, vomiting and diarrhea. We're two for three. No puking.

I stayed home with him while Lexie went to put finishing touches on her room. There's apparently another four hours or so of touches to put on tomorrow. I'll have both kids in the morning, I guess.

Kevin spent most of the day prone in front of the TV or sitting on the pot. I wiped his backside a lot of times today, but I'll take that over vomiting any day of the week. I taught him the word "diarrhea" today. Previously he has referred to it as "fart poopie." I believe his only other named excrement format is "snake poopie."

Happy Birthday, Sarah

Sarah, Rob's youngest, celebrated her first birthday today. Her actual birth date was on the second. My folks got into town just in time to go to with us to the party. Then we all came home and napped.

Lex and I caught dinner at Canyon Cafe and did some shoe shopping. It's tax-free weekend here in Texas. This is a legacy of George Bush's time as governor. All clothing items under $100 are free of sales tax on a weekend near the start of school.

San Luis Pass

Mom rented a beach house for us down at San Luis Pass right next to the toll bridge. The nearby beach was practically private until the fishermen started showing up on Thursday evening.

We didn't try to do much and we didn't spend any time bored. Nobody got sunburned. It was good. We will do it again.

Long Trip for a Nice Ride

Lexie had pretty much given up on going to see her mother before going back to school. I was encouraging her to go at every turn, but with the kids a bit sick and so much to prepare for the beginning of school she didn't think she could get it in. I admit that the main reason I wanted her to go was the peace and quiet she'd leave behind.

Yesterday morning we made our list of things we could accomplish while the kids were awake. Mostly just some cleaning up around the house. I got on my bike for an early ride like last Saturday. I started thinking about the lack of traffic around Comanche and called Lexie before leaving the neighborhood. She didn't pick up so I left a message and looped around back by our house. I made a couple more laps before she decided that it would be a good idea.

We quickly packed and made Marble Falls for lunch. Kevin played in Granny's sprinkler in the afternoon sun. Chris and Bill and Debbie and Ruth came down for dinner.

This morning I rode while Lex took the kids to church. I rode somewhere between seventy and seventy-five minutes without having to stop. The loop was about eighteen miles and only about three cars had to pull around me the whole way. I'll be sore for a few days, but I'm glad I got to go.

We got home a little after ten to some fairly hungry cats. They didn't turn over any plants or puke anywhere though, so they must not have been too mad.

Bleah

Madeline has had a fever since Sunday, but we thought it was just teething. Today she began puking in earnest. Once again our doctor was on vacation and she had to see doctor "Friday." As usual he was behind. I arrived at 11:25 for the 11:30 appointment and we saw the doctor at 12:20. She has an ear infection and this time we're on Augmentin.

Kevin feels a little warm and has a stuffy nose, Lexie and I have sore throats and I'm starting to get some mucus. Lex was planning on going to her mother's tomorrow through Saturday. Now she's pushed it back a day at least depending on Kevin's health.

Other Corner and Shower

Usually on Saturday mornings Lexie will let me sleep in and then I will give her a long morning nap. Today was different.

I've put a few pounds on with vacation, general inattention to my diet, and lack of exercise. This morning the streets were dry and there was no wind blowing. I decided to give up sleeping late for a bike ride. Lexie had plans too. She mixed up pancakes and I cooked them in the skillet. Then I sprang the cycling plan on her and she accepted it with good grace. She had planned to get some work done in the yard.

Cirque de Baño

Lexie went to meet with some of the women from church tonight at Joann's house. So the kids and I went out to eat and shop.

Eating out with a three-year-old and an infant with no adult help is not for the timid. We went to Taco Bell and ordered our food. I got Kevin's drink and sat him down at a table while I went to get a high chair for Madeline. I was just putting Maddie in the chair when Kevin said the fateful words, "I need to go to the potty." Sometimes I can send him on ahead and just show up in time to help him dry his hands. I was pretty sure this wasn't going to be one of those times, so I picked up Madeline and we all trooped over to the bathroom.

Sure enough, the urinal was just a little too high for Kevin. Our solution to this common problem is that he will stand on my feet and I'll hold him under the arms to steady him. There was of course nowhere I could put Madeline down. So I put her on my shoulders and held on to her with one hand while I held Kevin with my other hand under one of his arms.

I hadn't locked the door to the bathroom when we walked in. I almost wish that someone had walked in to see us, but no one did. The world will have to live with only the mental image of this farcical feat.

Thanksgiving and Exposition

I like the way that Kevin prays.

He says, "Thank you, God, for the wonderful day." Then he tells God what happened today. This description of the day's events usually includes the phrase "played, and played, and played."

Windowsailing

Kevin pointed out a building that he described as "cool." I asked him if he could count how many windows the building had.

"One, two, three, four, five-six-seveneightnine. Nine windows!"

"I think there are more than that."

"There's too many to count: a whole fleet!"

This aggregate comes from Curious George Rides a Bike in which the titular monkey makes a large number of paper boats.

Cable Drop Detail

We get broadband internet service from our cable provider, so there's a Y-splitter in the attic where the incoming cable is divided to go to the TV in the living room and the computer in the library. When we moved the computer from the study to the library I ended up having to make four holes in the wall header. The problem was that particular library wall is shared with the bathroom. There was a crosspiece between the studs where I was dropping the cable. I think it had something to do with the sink. Anyway, there was a hole for the cable, a hole for the coathanger to manipulate the cable with, a hole for the flashlight, and a hole for me to look through. Meanwhile Lexie was down below with a flashlight looking through the hole we'd made for a sight of the cable. It was an event fraught with learning experiences.

This time I got away with a single hole through the header. I purchased a new cable and a couple of new cable wall plates which have female coaxial connections on each side of the plate. Coaxial cable male terminations have that pointy single pin in the middle which is easy to damage or be damaged by. Whoever originally installed the cable in the living room put the cable through a plate with a hole only large enough for the actual cable and terminated it on the outside. With the new arrangement of furniture, this would leave that male connection relatively exposed. I didn't feel comfortable leaving this dangerous and unattractive connection where it was. So I broke the old plate off the cable, attached the new plate, and shoved the excess cable up into the wall. I unscrewed the connection to the old cable at the Y-splitter, but left the unattached end nearby. That way, should we decide to move the furniture back, it will be a simple matter.

The Y-splitter is within a few feet of where I put the new drop. I could have gotten away with a twelve foot cable, but wanting flexibility, I bought a twenty-five footer. I straightened out about eight feet of the coiled cable and paid it through the hole I drilled in the pair of two-by-fours that head the wall. I relied on the resistance of the cable to tell when it had reached the floor. I attached the cable to the Y-splitter and trusted that I had done everything correctly and took all my tools back downstairs.

After drilling and widening a hole in the sheetrock where I wanted to pull the cable through, I fished with a coathanger for quite a while, but never felt the cable. By divine providence, all my manipulations were rewarded. After coming back empty a number of times, finally when I stuck my finger in the hole I found the cable and snagged it. The trick was getting the end of the cable off the floor and up to where the hole was. The cable was too thick and stiff to bend back on itself to pull double through the hole. Only being able to fit one finger through the hole I'd made I would grab a little cable and lift it, but friction on the backside of the drywall was insufficient to hold it in place while I slid my finger back down the cable for a new grip. The cable kept sliding back and I was making no progress. I ended up borrowing a pair of needlenose pliers from the neighbors since I could only find one of our pair. With two pairs of skinny pliers I was able to work it up inch by inch until I reached the end of the cable and pulled it through the hole.

Lexie called to tell me they were thirty minutes away when I was still fishing for the cable. I managed to do the rest, vacuum up the sheetrock dust and put away all the tools before she got in. It felt a little like the surprise home design show "While You Were Out." It would have been a little cheesy to have moved the furniture, but only be able to say, "We can watch videos for now until you can help me with the cable drop." I proudly had Nickelodeon tuned in playing when they came in the door.

Cable Drop

Lexie's been talking about rearranging the living room. This talk is always accompanied by talk about purchasing new furniture. While she was away I rearranged the furniture. Because she wanted to move the TV, I had to drop the cable in a new place. This went surprisingly well. I amazed myself by accomplishing this task alone.

New Turbines

I replace the turbines on the roof today.

This morning I went to Home Depot with three things on my list: new turbines, a lawnmower blade, and liquid nails. I was frustrated in the attempt to get the lawnmower blade. I guess that the electric mowers have fallen out of fashion. I'm going to have to make a trip to the Black and Decker store to get a new one. Neither Home Depot nor Lowes carries the blade. Nor did I find NP-1 or Liquid Nails in their roofing departments. I ended up getting some other brand of patching stuff.

Replacing the turbines wasn't a huge job. There were only three real frustrations. One was that after taking the four screws out of the collar, it was still too tightly bound to the upright pipe to come off, so I had to take the four bolts out to disassemble the mechanism before I could get the old stuff off. Second was that the old one attached in four places and the new one in three, so I had to figure out how to punch holes in a pipe that was thin enough to give under pressure but thick enough to make a swift attack with an ice pick seem unlikely to succeed. I ended up putting my smallest bit in the oversized cordless drill. The second one went on quicker than the first since I had solved these problems already and the two extra trips down the ladder were not necessary. The problem, and final frustration, was that it did not turn as freely as the first. As I removed the baffle, which kept it from spinning while I was installing it, the turbine gave a little groan as it began to turn. I hoped it would get better, but it never did. Finally I removed it and exchanged it for a new one at Home Depot. This one spun better.

I think we still should get a ridge vent. One of the turbine is fed by a pipe that I think, due to sounds I've heard from there, is connected with our stove vent. The other is above a portion of our living room's vaulted cieling which puts it maybe three feet from the rafters. This one turbine and the two gable vents then are all we have to get the hot air out of our attic. We don't even have soffet vents to pull cooler air in.

On the plus side, in two months we will owe less than half the purchase price of the house. If we continue to make the extra principle payments that we've been making for the last 15 months or so then we will be sole owners by June 2009. Eleven years doesn't seem too bad to pay off our first home. Admittedly, we did start a little later on the whole marraige and family thing, which gave us time to get our finances a little straighter.

Liquid Nails

The roofing guy came over today. He told my my roof was in decent shape and that I should just buy some NP-1 or Liquid Nails to caulk around my pipes and flashing. He told me that the previous roofers had obviously not replaced the flashing when they replaced the roof.

Let's see, I guess that moves painting the house to the head of the list.

Let's Pretend

Madeline and Lexie went down for naps at 10:00 this morning. I figured the best way to give them some peace was to get Kevin out of the house. We went to the park. It rained yesterday and the day before, but I was hopeful that some of the stuff would be playable. When we got there we found that the slides were too wet, but Kevin could climb on stuff and swing. We were the only people at either playground the whole time we were there.

We played for a while at the new playground up by the pavillion. The grass was wet which persuaded against playing a few baskets of disc golf. Mostly we ran around the sidewalks playing tag. Kevin then told me that he wanted to go play down at the "purple park" - the older playground area.

One of the play structures has a steering wheel attached. Kevin told me he was driving a truck as he turned the wheel back and forth. When I asked to come along, he told me I would have to ride in the trailer - indicating the bridge and attached structure.

I asked where we were going and when he didn't have any ideas I suggested the movie store. He agreed and drove us there. We climbed down and walked around to where we said the movie store was and then looked around for a film we wanted to watch. He agreed to "Around the World in Eighty Days" and we got back in the truck.

Next he wanted to go to Reiley's house. He stopped the truck several times and we climbed down only for him to announce that he was mistaken. "This is not Reiley's house." About the fourth time I told him that I would wait in the truck while he went out and made sure we were at the right place. This time, of course, he had brought us there. We knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. She invited us in and we sat on the sofa (a park bench) and watched the movie. Kevin said he liked it. Finally it was time to go. We thanked Reiley for a nice time and went back to the truck.

We had barely got the engine running when Kevin noticed a hole in the truck. He told me that we needed some tape to fix it. I told him to drive us to the tape store. When we climbed out of the truck and I switched into the role of tape-store-sales-clerk. After querying him about his particular tape requirements I asked him to wait while I went in the back and got what he needed. I charged him $16.45 and wished him good luck with the repairs.

He returned to the truck and we fixed the hole. Before we could pull away, another hole opened up. We used all the tape he bought on the first hole, so I volunteered to go get some more. This time he was the clerk. He repeated my act but only charged me fifteen dollars. I asked if I could have it in a bag. I guess that not too many folks buy tape in bulk, because he had to go in the back to find a bag.

I took my purchase back to the truck but found that I could not reach the spot that needed repair. I told Kevin that we would need a ladder. He knew just where to go and drove us to the ladder and fire truck store. I purchased a new ladder and it only cost me fifteen dollars! The salesman was pretty pushy though. He kept trying to sell me a fire truck. I told him that I only needed the ladder right now, and couldn't actually think why I might need a fire truck. "We have lots of fire trucks!" "I'll be sure to remember that if I need one."

Finally extracting myself from his strong-arm tactics, I returned to the truck and made the repairs. I stored the ladder in the back. Kevin hadn't been there when I returned, so I went out to look for him. Of course the first person I ran into was that pushy salesman. I turned to point the truck out to him, hoping to convince him that I really wasn't in the market, only to find that it was engulfed in flame. "I need a fire engine, quick!"

He moved quickly and even helped me spray the hoses at the fire. When we got the fire put out he charged me sixteen dollars for the use of the fire truck. Unfortunately our truck was a total loss. The salesman perked up: it just so happened that he had a lot full of SUV's. I ended taking delivery of one in purple and yellow which was represented by a bright green leaf about two inches long.

This was the first time I'd engaged in such imaginitive play with Kevin. It was truly delightful. We had a great time playing together and I even managed to enjoy the present fun. Only once or twice did I grin inwardly at the thought that I was laying ground work for future role playing adventures.

When we got home Kevin ran to show Lexie the leaf saying, "Look Mom, we got a new SUV!"

Ramps! <Advertisement>

The Geo-Trax product line has grown: Up! Fisher-Price has added new products to their kids rail system which give track builders new options. I had no idea this was coming.

Lexie met with another teacher last night to work on tests and curriculum so I had the kids. They were remarkably good, but then I did take them to the toy store.

Thomas Thursdays is now a thing of the past at Toys'R'Us. It was make a flower day, with tissue paper and pipecleaners. Fortunately they had a couple of little tables filled with sand and plastic dinosaurs and shovels. When this failed to hold Kevin's attention we walked around to the Thomas table that stays up all the time. I got Madeline out of her stroller after a while and she pulled up on the table edge and snagged some of the engines.

After we took a potty break there was a big group around the train table, so we went looking for the Geo-Trax stuff. I was trying to push the three dollar items on Kevin. Then I noticed the ramps. All they had in stock was two of the elevation track sets - Ramps and Flats. Flats do you no good without the ramps to get up there. After checking the website I found that there was another set called Ramps & Straights.

The ramps are the length of two and a half of the straight pieces. One of the cool things about the new track is that it includes half piece lengths. With these new small pieces you could actually use both parts of a cross piece in the same run of track. The Ramps set comes with four ramps, two curves (with guard rails), two half pieces, and eight elevation supports. The supports are stackable so that with a real outlay of funds you could create some extremely tall and twisted layouts.

Before Kevin went to bed we created a simple square loop that climbed on two sides and descended on the other two. It was fun to have the vehicles race down the big ramps. We quickly found that the guard rails were a necessity and not just a cute decoration.

Later I built a layout incorporating the new rail and all of the other rail we had. The only piece that went unused was a single elevation support. In misbuilding one of the layouts shown in the manual with the original set we discovered that if you point the single ends of two switch-tracks at each other then the train will automatically switch directions and run the track alternately in each direction. This is a recipe for collision with more than one vehicle on the track. But I like the reversal more than multiple trains, so I built my track layout accordingly.

I haven't worked with Visio much, so the picture is pretty primitive, but I've put this Geo-Trax layout in a PDF file if you want to take a look.

There is no question that I bought the ramps for me more than for Kevin. You need not point out the obvious.

Wet Switch

The air conditioner folks came out and did our checks and cleaning service. The problem with the compressor not starting has to do with our leaky roof. Apparently the ac has a switch that will cut off the compressor when it gets wet, since that is a symptom of the line backing up. If it was the line backing up and it went unnoticed, the water might just keep coming out and pour all over the carpet. Our line was fine. It's just the roof that we need to get fixed.

"The torture never stops." - Frank Zappa

Father's Day Gifts

We've kind of been working a Father's Day weekend thing. On Thursday we took a little shopping trip. With my 40% off coupon, I got the DareDevil DVD for $5.99 at Half Price Books. I also got four single beers at World Market. I've drunk the Loft from the New Belgium folks. It's just a clean lager, good for lager, but not really my thing. I also picked up a Delirium Tremens, a Chimay Red, and something called "Old Speckled Hen" from Morland which claims to be fine English ale. The guys at the store said that they had just gotten the Old Speckled Hen in that day, so it should be as fresh as I can hope to get it. Tomorrow is church guy beer night and were drinking at Tim's place rather than at a bar, so I'll bring this stuff and the Ommegang and 1554 along.

Lexie went shopping on Friday and got me some shower gel at Bath and Body Works. It's the same scent as the cologne she got me for Christmas.

I received wrapped gifts last night after dinner on the patio. The previously mentioned DVD and shower gel were in the box, along with Sam Phillips' A Boot and a Shoe. I also got the one gift I requested which was A Mighty Wind THE ILLUSTRATED SONGBOOK. Expect this to figure heavily in our preparations for the church talent show on August fourth.

On the blanket this morning, when Gordon asked Kevin what he liked about his Dad he said, "That he plays with me." Madeline looked pretty in her yellow dress with the daisies around the collar that her Granny made for her. The biggest gifts on Father's Day are the ones who made you one.

And, Dad, thanks for being you, too. I still like playing with you and sharing books and love.

Low Key Day

No big plans for today and no regrets about the way we spent it.

Did a little house cleaning this morning. Laundry and vacuuming mostly. Lunch at CiCi's pizza. Kevin and I played air hockey, spent a little time at the toy store playing at the Thomas table, returned some library books. After naptime Lexie and Kevin played in the little wading pool while Madeline watched from the swing. We had chicken nuggets and cole slaw al fresco on our back porch.

Just a day with the family.

Lost Tooth

Lexie took Luke to the vet for dental work today. They had to extract one of his teeth. Now he's on Amoxycillin too.

We've got him isolated in the guest room for now. He was under general anasthetic and is not yet fully recovered. His eyes are still widely dilated.

At first he was doing a lot of hissing and growling. Now he's being aggressively loving. We're going to try the medicine in his food. If he won't take it that way, I guess we'll have to choke him with it like we did with Madeline on Friday night.

Mostly as Scripted

Our "vacation" to Arkansas went pretty much like it was planned. A whole bunch of driving and sleeping in different beds.

Lexie's family had their biannual reunion at Petit Jean State Park this past weekend. There were about forty-two family members who attended this one. We ate dinner together on Friday and Saturday night and shared breakfast on Sunday morning. That was the extent of the planned events.

Sid would not have been able to make this trip, but with his passing, Wanda was free to go. She invited us to share her Chevy Suburban for the trip and we gladly took her up on the offer.

Daddy Needs a New Pair of Shoes

I've never had much luck with shoes. My right foot is just a little bigger than my left. That's normal since I'm right handed, so there must be more up than that. Whatever the case, I am never entirely satisfied with any pair of shoes.

Lexie set a deadline of tomorrow for me to have a new pair of tennishoes. I went to Academy yesterday and tried on practically every 10.5 or 11 running shoe that they had. I ended up coming home with two pair. They both seemed to only have minor problems in the store, but some of the other shoes I tried on caused enough pain from the ball of my foot to my knee to my hip that I wasn't really trusting my judgement.

Hopefully I'll have enough time over the next couple evenings to get a sense for their more long-term feel and choose the less uncomfortable of the two. Lexie suggests that I just keep both pair. At $50 and $65, if neither is really painful, I may do just that.

Mixers

During the first conversation that I had with Lexie (Sep 14, 1991) I lamented that no liquor went with Dr Pepper. Probably a tactic to make sure that she wouldn't try to carry on any further conversation with me. She wasn't having any of it. She was flirting for all she was worth and wouldn't be put off so easily.

Back then my sweet tooth knew no bounds. I liked Southern Comfort and Cherry Coke. I had my first beer only four months prior: after my last final exam of my college career. Any taste for bitter things was quite a ways off.

Heck I still like sweet things. Just a couple of weeks ago Lexie suggested we put a little rum in the strawberry lemonade we keep in the fridge and call punch. It was not a bad idea. Of course rum mixes with nearly anything. I remember being new to alcohol and trying it with iced tea. Yum.

Not A Plain Plane

We've been teaching Kevin to sing "America the Beautiful." He's learning it pretty quickly.

Tonight, while driving home from buying tickets for the 1:10 showing of Harry Potter III tomorrow, Kevin spotted an airplane silhouetted against the evening sky.

He called our attention to it, "Look! It's a foo·ted plane!"

Summer is Here

  The temperature gauge in the shade on my back porch read 102° this afternoon. My A.C. was able to hold the line at 78° in the house.
  My folks returned home this morning. It was very nice of them to come visit. Particularly last night. Lexie and I stayed out from about five until eleven.
  Our big night on the town included stops at the pet store, the shoe store, the music store, the book store, the large electronics store and the deli. After shopping we stopped by the grocery store and picked up brownies to take to the pastor's house.
  Realizing that my folks would be in bed when we got back, I blogged from their house last night.
  I've put my comments form back online. If I get spammed again it'll disappear again.

More Good Days

  Kevin got the first add-on for his Geo-Trax stuff today. He's been consistently good at school since he returned last Wednesday. The only hiccup was yesterday afternoon. He was supposed to get the toy yesterday, but on the way in after playing outside he punched a girl. We would have delayed the reward more days, but he fessed up and apologized and showed what passes for real remorse in a three-year-old.
  Of course, after getting the fire truck he began bouncing off the walls. I very nearly took the thing away tonight. Well, the grandparents are coming tomorrow. Lexie is finishing duties at school in the morning. Summer is here. Pity Lexie: Home with the kids. Well, not right away. They'll be in daycare next week.

Visiting Time

  Drew, Sarah, and their three girls (7, 5, & 2) were here for about two and a half hours tonight. It was a really nice time. I think that it worked out great for them to have a place where the girls could play with some different toys after a long trip in the car.
  The kids were great and Lexie put together a very nice dinner. Drew and I even threw a few discs in the backyard while the children were all over the swingset. We could use some serious bug control back there, though.
  I only wish that we could have had a little adult time. It would have been nice to spend a couple hours after the kids were down, just relaxing and chatting, but that will have to happen some other time.
  I'm starting to wonder if I need to begin investing in trips. Forrest is right: face time is important.
  It is very difficult to travel with little ones, but there are things that can be done to mitigate the challenges. I could get a minivan and a video system. I could just prioritize this stuff over some of my other distractions.
  Of course I can't let the house fall apart. We need to paint and fix the roof and replace the back fence et cetera. But I wonder if we might go greeting more often. It's a pleasure to have folks visit us, so why should I expect any one else will find us an imposition?
  It's just a thought. I know that our parents would not object. And while we might visit them more, it would be good to see friends that we usually consider too far away.

Cleaning and little steps

  Drew and his family are coming to San Antonio to spend some time at the amusement parks. They home school the girls and so they are coming this week before all the public schools let out.
  Drew called the other night to see when we might be free to meet them for dinner. The last time they came, they stayed the night with us. I think we both knew that just isn't possible any more. I mean, we could do it, but it would be tight to squeeze the nine of us into the house and once you start thinking about washroom accomodations, well, maybe they ought to stay at a hotel. Besides they're meeting Sarah's parents here in town and we cannot put up an extra two adults anywhere near comfortably.
  Anyway, we've made some efforts to do a little extra cleaning around the house. Lexie's in the kitchen now, mopping for the first time this year. I got the second plate display rack hung.
  We also made a quick pass over Kevin's walls where we had nearly a year ago pulled down the border. The one wall next to his bed we painted completely blue. The short wall at the head of his bed we just filled blue to the height of the border in the rest of the room. When we did his room, we did not make a point of painting straight lines at the top of the blue section, because we knew that the border would cover the slop. So, Kevin's walls have been particularly ugly for a while now.
  The plan is to go back and paint some roads and hills for various vehicles to drive around on his walls. Right now, I'm just happy it's not so sloppy, and that we've made a small step in the right direction.
  Speaking of small steps...
  Madeline is starting to make some forward progress with her crawling. I think that if we dress her in pants for a week, so she doesn't get carpet burns, she'll have it down pat. She will be nine months next week. Kevin started walking at eleven.

They've Moved On

  Well, sometime in the last hour, the swarm left our house. There are a few stragglers still crawling around the spot on the eaves, but no sign of the massive mound. I'm refusing to consider the possibility that they all moved into my attic. I think that the afternoon sun finally found their resting spot and they realized there were better places to be.
  The funny thing is that now I feel kind of lucky to have witnessed it. We could very easily have never known they were there. In fact this could have happened 1200 times since we moved into the house and we'd have no way of knowing. If we hadn't been outside when the swarm was moving, I'm sure we would not have noticed them on the house during the following three and a half hours.

The Bees Come Down

  Around 11:45 this morning Kevin and I were in the backyard putting fertilizer stakes in the ground around my eighteen crepe myrtles.
  Kevin said, "Dust! Look, Dad, dust!"
  I figured that he was making a mistake about a dark cloud. That's all I saw when I first glanced up. Then I saw what he saw. "That's not dust, Kevin. Those are bees."
  Flying from behind my backyard over my rooftop were thousands of bees. I have a better feeling for the word swarm now. They were not descending into the backyard, so I didn't feel any danger watching them, just a kind of uneasy fascination.
  We had spent the morning cleaning and working around the house and I knew that Lexie was just getting out of the shower. "Go see if Mom is dressed. If she is, tell her to come out here," I instructed Kevin.
  Lexie came out a few minutes later. "What?"
  "Look over the house."
  "Oh my gosh. Are those bees?"
  After a while they seemed mostly to have moved on. We went inside the house and opened the front door so we could watch through the storm door. The bees were darting about in lower airspace in our front yard.
  Lexie went to Madeline's room and pulled up the shade to get another view of the front. That's when we got the big surprise. The swarm chose the corner of our eaves between Madeline and Kevin's rooms, in the shade of the ligustrum tree as their destination.
  They are all over each other. There's a lump of them descending a good six inches below the big horizontal beam that sticks out there. If I had a digital camera I would show you pictures. There's a lot of bees out there. You can see them from both kids' windows.
  I called our pest control people, but they're out of the office. The answering service said that they would call us to make an appointment during the week. I called a bee removal company and the guy I spoke with said that the best thing to do was to wait. He said that most pros want you to wait at least 24 hours on traveling swarms. Apparently it is too common for them to get a call only to find the bees gone when they arrive. He recommended that if they were still there tomorrow evening that I could set up an appointment with them for Monday.
  Well, the bee problem would be included in my regular pest control service with the company I feel like I'm paying lots of money for as it is. If I can't do something immediately, then the difference between Monday and a day or two later doesn't seem that significant.
  Meanwhile, my house has several thousand new residents. I only wish I could claim them as dependents for tax purposes.

Back to Routine

  Kevin and I returned respectively to daycare and work today. He had a good day. I spooked everybody with my horrifically red eyes. You look like this and nobody doubts that you've been out for good reason. Both my boss and his boss told me not to push it and to go home if I got tired.
  I felt pretty weak around lunchtime. The chicken salad sandwich didn't seem to perk me up much. It was the double layer pumpkin cheesecake that finally got my motor running again.
  I got the little HR app put together to the point that I could show it to Debbie. Tomorrow I'll move it to the production servers.

The Boy Who Hasn't Grown Up

  I rented the new "live-action" Peter Pan last night. Lexie had sent me for pizza and a family-friendly movie. The picture failed to hold Kevin's attention.
  "It's got pirates, and indians, and flying, and swordfights. What more could you want?"
  "Does it have trucks?"
  "Um, well, no. But it does have a big pirate ship and a castle!"
  "Does it have trains? Harry Potter has a train."
  Sigh. "Why don't you go play in your room so Mom and Dad can enjoy the movie?"

Not Strep

  I called and left a message for Kevin's pediatrician's nurse at 8:15. Usually they return calls within 15 to 20 minutes. I called again at 9:30 wondering whether I had left the correct phone number for them to reach me at. When I still hadn't heard anything by 10:40 I called the receptionist to see if they might know what the holdup was. They connected me with the nurse.
  It turns out that they had passed the call to the doctor Kevin saw on Friday. Kevin's doctor is out of town to see two of his girls graduate college in North Carolina and Tennessee. "Dr. [Friday] doesn't work as quickly as Dr. [Out of Town]."
  "We noticed that on Friday."
  "Oh? Well, he's behind on his patients and probably won't even address phone calls until after noon."
  I told her that I was concerned about Kevin possibly having developed an ear infection with the cold symptoms that came in the wake of the strep. I mentioned his continued fever and cough and congestion.
  When the nurse passed this on, the PA said "When can you be here?"
  The clock on the VCR said 10:47. I had on jeans and Kev was still in his pajamas. I said, "11:15."
  "We'll see you then."
  We dressed in a hurry and got on the road. When we arrived at the doctor's office there were no parking places. We ended up parking down at the end of the road -- at least two-tenths of a mile away. Of course the jeans I had dressed Kevin in were too big so rather than have him try to hold them up for the entire distance, I carried him.
  The nurse used the ear thermometer to take Kevin's temperature. She got 102 in one ear and 101 in the other. "These things are about as accurate as feeling their foreheads." She used it to take my temperature -- "You look worse than he does" -- and it read 102.4.
  When we got to see the PA I found out why she had been in such a rush to see him. The symptoms I described, made her think "pneumonia." Well, Kevin's ears, lungs, and nose looked good. She swabbed him for strep and I talked her into swabbing me too. We were both negative.
  "What you've got is Adenovirus. It looks just like strep, but since it's a virus there's nothing we can do to treat it. Continue the motrin and tylenol to control the fever. The fever will run three to five days during which time you're highly contagious. The eyes can stay red for a couple weeks afterward."
  So, I guess I better call the office and tell them I'll be home at least for tomorrow. I may be up to doing a little work at home.

Still Sick

  I'm going to stay home with Kevin tomorrow. He has had fever today, so I can't send him to daycare. I'm still feeling crappy too. I'm going to see if his nurse will send in a oral antibiotic prescription for him, since he's no longer nauseous. I'll ask if she'll get me one too since it's clear I have what he has. If that doesn't work I'll see if a phone call to my sometime internist will do the trick. As a last resort I'll make an appointment.

Sick

  I've got Kevin's strep. I probably should suck it up and go to a doc-in-the-box so I can get started on some antibiotics. The doctor described strep as pretty wimpy, but I've been achy and low feverish since last night.
  I'm sending some church folks to Sea World tomorrow in our place for the company picnic. I hope that they try to go into the picnic. HR sent an email encouraging those of us who had signed up to come so that there would not be a lot of food going to waste. I don't want to be responsible for food waste.
  Kevin is not entirely better. He had high fever last night and has not been at his peak today. Madeline is mostly well. Lexie is just tired and feeling pretty put-upon.

Too Long in the Wasteland

  We got to the doctor's office at 2:30. I sat Kevin on the counter while I filled out the paperwork. As I was signing the credit card slip for the co-pay, he said urgently "Dad. Dad!" I figured he wanted me to hold him again, so I picked him up.
  The vomit went down my back and all over the floor at the sign in area. Fortunately this area was tiled. Unfortunately they didn't appear to have a mop. The male receptionist wiped up the majority of it with handfulls of paper towels. I had no other shirt with me so I just dealt with it.

Rewarding Bad Behavior

  I only waited 15 minutes this time and, whaddayaknow, the computers were up. We've got an appointment for 2:30.

If it's not one...

  I am now home with a sick boy. He's a little feverish and a lot puny.
  The stupid pediatrician's office is not taking appointments at the moment because their computers are down. "Call back in half an hour." I've been calling since 11:30. When I called a couple of minutes ago I suggested that they take down my information and call me back with an appointment time.
  "We're not making any lists like that at this time, sir. Due to the large number of calls we are recieving for the rest of the day's open slots."
  Did they ever think that maybe the heavy load of calls is the same four or five of us calling again and again? No. I'm sure they didn't. Instead they give the impression that there are lots of people vying for the slots, so in order to get my sick kid some medical attention today I should probably call back more frequently.
  Nitwits.

Good Days Add Up

  About two weeks ago I made a deal with Kevin. He had started to act up regularly at school and I was looking for a bribe to change his behavior.
  During his bath he once again bemoaned the loss of a silly little squirting toy that we threw away when it began squirting mold. Here was my opportunity. I told him that if he could be good for a week then we would go to the store and find him a new squirting car for the bathtub. My deal was only for school days.
  I drew a picture of a car on his calendar on the target day. As the days went by I put a big smiley face on the days he was good. We got three good days before our first frowning face. I exed out the car and redrew it two days later moving it from a Thursday to a Monday. Two days later was the biting incident. So I moved the car three days further away to today.
  He has recorded five straight good days since last Friday. Along the way he decided he'd rather have a new bedroom toy than a bathroom toy.
  Still, we went a little overboard. We got him the big forty dollar GEO-TRAX train set. It's pretty cool. The really nifty thing is that it is the same gauge as his old track, so the old vehicles work. The track itself is entirely incompatible, however that's not too awful since it was always hard to put together.
  I'm wondering if I need to set another toy target date out about the twenty-fourth or so. After all, we need to have an excuse to get expansion packs.

Omnicef Does the Trick

  Madeline is finally getting better today. She's been sick for nearly two weeks now. We took her to the doctor after hours on Friday the thirtieth. He found that she had raging ear infections and prescribed Amoxycillin.
  Kevin has always responded to antibiotics by getting better almost immediately after the first dose. Madeline however did not get better all weekend. I stayed home with her on Monday. Tuesday morning at 12:30 am she had another high temperature. When we got up for the day her fever was gone. I stayed home long enough to call the nurse and ask if it was possible that it took longer for the medicine to work with her than with Kevin. She confirmed that this was possible, but if her fever continued to tomorrow (Wednesday May 5) we should bring her in. Madeline's fevers took a two day hiatus and started coming again mildly on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile she has developed a cold and is an incredible mucous factory.
  Lexie thought that the cold symptoms looked like allergy symptoms. This led us to wait on returning to the doctor. Over the weekend the fevers returned to their higher levels.
  Yesterday I took her to her pediatrician. He found that her ears had not cleared after nine days of administering Amoxycillin. He gave us samples of Omnicef.
  Since she did not have a fever that morning I figured that I could get away with taking her to daycare for the rest of the day and starting her medicine in the evening. Of course she got fever there and threw up her lunch. So I got all of about three hours in at the office before I had to turn around and go back to the daycare.
  I stayed home with her today. Naturally she was cheerful and healthy all day. She responded to the Omnicef like Kevin has always responded to antibiotics. If only I had not tried to push it yesterday, I could have been back at the office today. You live and learn.

Please Change Your Desires

  Tonight Kevin ate his dinner well (okay it was pizza, but I'll take what I can get) so when he asked for candy afterwards I gladly obliged. I brought him two jellybeans, one green one purple.
  I guess that he was full of goodwill because he wanted to share his candy. He offered one of the beans to his mom, but she declined. I also declined his offer. He would not take no for an answer, though.
  "Dad, please may you want this piece of candy?" You parents out there know that if you're going to say "no" when the kid uses the magic word you better have a damned good reason. I didn't want that jellybean, but that didn't meet the previously mentioned requirements.

  And isn't this like Jesus? "If you'll want what I want you to, I'll give you whatever you want." Certainly my three-year-old doesn't have the same resources at his disposal, but he can change actions if not hearts.

Downtown Downtime

  Lex and I had Riley come over to watch the kids tonight. We went to Tomatillo's and Half Price Books. After purchasing Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and Walter Tevis' Mockingbird we thought we'd go to Madhatter's for caffeine and desert.
  I remembered that they had moved, but I thought it was just down the street to Broadway and Josephine. When we didn't find it there I got an inkling that it was actually down in the King William district. We had turned onto Josephine so we just followed that up to St. Mary's.
  We took St. Mary's all the way through downtown to South Alamo. We do not travel downtown very often. We were talking and didn't have the stereo on. The drive was strangely relaxing. Just chatting about idle things and taking in the beauty of brick streets and old buildings. It blessed our souls somehow.
  When we got to King William we found that it was packed with people. The First Friday Art Walk was in full swing. We did locate Madhatter's for a return trip, but didn't want to go somewhere noisy and crowded.
  We ended up driving back toward home and stopping at Sonic for a vanilla flavored Diet Coke to kill a few more minutes in order to try to get Kevin in bed before we got there. No luck on that front. Not only was he still up when we got in at 9:30, he still needed to have his teeth brushed and a couple of books read to him. He did have a good day at school today, though.

Giving Bad

  Kevin bit a kid at school today. Nothing major. They say there was barely a mark on the kid's shoulder.
  They also confirmed what we've suspected for some time: Kevin is the cause of a lot of his problems. They gave the example that he knocked over some blocks another kid was building with, the kid hit him, and Kevin cried loudly. Apparently he is good at protesting.
  The really challenging part for us was that Kevin would not admit to what he had done. When she picked him up, all Lexie got was the incident report that said he had bitten another child while they were lining up to go to their room at 8:25 this morning. I eventually had to call the daycare for more details to confront him with. Finally Kevin admitted to me what he had done. When his mom came in the room and I told him to tell her what he had told me, he reverted to claiming that he had not bitten anybody.
  I can already hear my mother chiming in about how well children present the facts of our sinful nature. We are not naturally good creatures. We are selfish in the extreme. Sympathy, empathy, humility, kindness, generosity, self-control, and such are not natural, but learned from civilized elders.
  I don't think this episode or set of behaviors contradict the idea that he may be bored with his class. He responds well to structured time and appropriate challenges. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior may convince the folks at the daycare that he doesn't belong in a class with older kids.

Thomas Play Day

  Every Thursday at the Toys'R'Us they have lots of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff out in their play area. There's a small table that's out all the time as well. The Barnes and Noble bookstore across the highway from North Star Mall also has a Thomas table. Kevin has enjoyed all of these free play opportunities at times.
  Today they were eclipsed by the Thomas Play Day at Lone Star Trains on Naco-Perrin. Wednesday night I heard Gordon telling Tim about this place. He said that he and one of his daughters had wandered in just to look and ended up spending the better part of an hour there. There's a big train setup including an engine that puffs steam and they love to run them for the kids to watch.
  When the weather turned rainy this weekend, I thought that this would make a good place for us to have an outing. Also it is right near La Botana and it's impossible to have too much mexican food. Kevin and Grandma finished their lunch before the rest of us and headed down to the train store. We followed just a few minutes later. On the door was a sign that said "Thomas Play Day Today!" Lexie read that and said, "Oh Kevin will be in heaven." But she wasn't prepared.
  When we walked inside and she saw all the trains and heard Kevin delightedly narrating every event on the display table Lexie got choked up. She was really happy for him. The store was bigger than I had anticipated. I had figured that it would be for the serious model railroader, and it was, but there was a large selection of Thomas stuff too. The prices were a little higher than at Target and TRU, but our consciences prefer it when we support small businesses.
  We left shortly after 1:00, but Kevin and his grandparents were there until nearly 2:00. Kevin talked Grandma into buying him Donald in the wooden version. The wooden stuff was 20% off, but this single engine and tender is regularly $17.99. We've been happily doing the die cast versions which are considerably cheaper, (we bought him a caboose for $5 before we left) but Lexie admitted today that she liked the wooden stuff better. I suggested that we stick with the diecast until he was ready for an electric train, rather than make the incremental upgrades.

Parents Weekend

  My mom and dad took off a little early today so that they could spend this afternoon and evening with us. They are a pretty tired and my computer is in the guest room, so this will have to be short.
  Single parent nights were one of the ideas that came out of our trying to figure out how to have a more healthy life with toddlers. Another was to have a date night every other weekend. Three weeks ago was our anniversary and we haven't been out since so we're a little behind. With the folks here we'll get to go out tomorrow.

Getting Mobile

  Madeline is mobile. She has finally begun to roll and scoot about. She is currently only able to scoot backwards by pushing with her arms. But this evening we found that the living room was littered with things that would have to find a new home. We're going to have to baby proof the house again. The trick will be getting Kevin's cooperation.
  All the things that we do not wish to be chewed upon will have to move to higher locations. Kevin will have to be diligent about not leaving out his toys with small parts. We will keep some doors shut and get the gate on the doorway to the utility room. We all just have to increase our awareness and vigilance.
  Here we go again.

Baby Girl Weekend

  Tonight we went to Rob and Jill's place for dinner. The priest was there to explain what would be happening tomorrow. Sarah is being baptized at St Sophia's Greek Orthodox church. She's about a month older than Madeline. The service is fairly lengthy, so I think we really ought to leave the kids with a sitter, but since that has just occured to me it is too late.
  After the baptism in the morning, we have to run off to the northeast side of town for Emily's first birthday party. I hope there's something to keep Kevin occupied there. Tomorrow could be a really long day.

Living Large

  I've lost enough weight that I can wear my old Large (L) sized tee shirts again. I had stored a number of them in a drawer in the guest room. These are generally pretty old shirts, mostly dating from my college years and shortly after. Tonight I wore my Michael W. Smith "Eye 2 I" shirt to church. I rejected the Sandman shirt because I didn't want to have to explain it (it pictures Morpheus and his pale sibling beside the question "How would you feel about life if Death was your older sister?")
  There are some mediums in the drawer as well, but I think only my kids have any hope of wearing such items. Yes, in just a couple years Kevin can wear my Stryper shirt (according to the tour dates on the back I acquired this on Decemer 3, 1985) as a night shirt.

Second Single Night

  Lexie's friend, Heather, couldn't do Thursday this week, so the girls went out tonight. They went to NIOSA (Night in old San Antonio, part of the week long city party we call Fiesta) which is an event where you walk around and buy overpriced alcohol and food onnastick for charity. Your ability to choose your own path and speed are inversely related to the lateness of the hour and the proximity of a beer booth.
  I didn't have nearly so rigid a plan for tonight as last time. The main reason was that Kevin has developed a little cough and I didn't know how well he would be feeling.

Corner Work

  Lexie has decided that she wants to angle off the back corners of our backyard and plant some flower beds. This evening when I got home from work she was already working in the backyard. Kevin was running around "helping" and Madeline was in her little walker.
  I got the back right corner cleared and we rearranged the "corn plants." I don't know what these bulb things are really called.

Saturdays

  Saturdays are getting better.
  We get the kids up before six on weekdays. They don't seem to want to sleep in the way we do on weekends. However, the last couple of weeks have gone okay. We've been able to tag team. Lexie will get up at six with the kids and get them breakfast. About 100 minutes later Madeline will be ready for a nap. She'll tag me, and I'll get up and get Kevin going with a movie or something. This allows her to get that hour and a half that I got as well. If Madeline sleeps and Kevin is content, I can crawl back in bed and get some bonus rest.
  Saturdays are still a bit of mystery to Kevin. He asks, "Where are we going today, school or church?" This is the one day we go to neither place. We do a little shopping usually. Today we hit a couple of kids resale shops.

Playing

  "Kevin, let's pray.
  "God, thank you for Kevin. Thank you for our family. Bless Mommy and Daddy and Madeline. Bless Granny. Bless Grandma and Grandad."
  "And Papa."
  "God, thank you for Papa. Thank you for taking care of him in heaven."
  "There's toys in heaven."
  "You think Papa is playing in heaven?"
  "Yeah."
  "Thank you, God, for playing with Papa. We're glad he's having a good time with you."

Wildflowers

  A couple years ago somebody gave Ray a bunch of wildflower seeds. He had some of the guys sow it down on the hill by the entry to the house. Last year it didn't do much, but this year it's a beautiful hillside. Every time we've driven by the spot in the daytime there has been someone out there taking pictures.
  We brought the kids down for our own picture time.
  "Kevin, climb out of the car we're going to take pictures in the flowers."
  "In the bluebonnets?"
  "Yes."
  He got out and looked at the flowers. "And the red-bonnets?"
  "We call those Indian Paintbrushes."

Happy Easter!

  Crazy day. Pray for our safety and sanity.

HE IS RISEN, INDEED!

Gone

  My father-in-law passed away this morning. He was at home. He got up to go to the bathroom a little after four and fell. He told his wife he had fallen and she went to get the gate-belt to help get him up. By the time she got back from the kitchen he was unresponsive and had gone from propped on his hand to propped on his elbow. He didn't have his hearing aids in so she got down and spoke in his ear. Then he went the rest of the way down. He heaved three big sighs and it was over.

Darkness and Worms

  My mother has what appears to be a children's book by Gary Larson. Yeah, the Far Side guy. That should have been my first clue. The book is called, "There's a Hair in my Dirt." For all I know we gave her the book. There was no inscription, but I'm bad enough about such things that that's not a guarantee one way or the other.
  Anyway, we read the fool thing to Kevin when we were there last weekend. As he continues to ruminate upon it, he occasionally reminds us, "When we die, worms eat our bodies."

Single Parent

  As part of our bid for more sanity at home, Lex and I have instituted One Parent nights. The advantage goes to the person who wants to go out. Lexie's night with the going-out option is Thursdays. Mine is Mondays. The parent skipping out for the evening must give the other one at least a day's notice that they intend to leave them alone with the kids. The parent with the kids must give two days notice for nights when this won't be possible. Emergencies are part of life and will be handled without venom.
  So, I'm about to run home, change, pick up food for Madeline and a juice box for Kevin, pick up the kids, take them to the park, feed Madeline there, let Kevin play for a while, possibly throw a few baskets, go to McDonald's for dinner, let Kevin play for a while, go home, give Madeline a bottle, drag the Pack'n'Play on the back porch, put Madeline in it, mow the back yard, put Madeline to bed, bathe Kevin, brush his teeth, read books, pray, sing, wait 3 minutes, acknowledge that he is going to poopie, assure my availablity for wiping duty, wait five minutes, wipe him up, pull up his undies and send him to bed again, collapse in a heap on the floor, and maybe sometime later get on and let you know just how much of this really happened.

Palm Sunday Weekend Visit

  Last year we went to Houston for Resurrection Sunday. We didn't want to miss Easter at our home church this year so we went to Houston this weekend. Mom was a bit under the weather but still managed to take Kevin to Memorial Park to ride the train. Dad and I played a round at Agnes Moffat, and I conveniently messed up the scoring somewhere around nine, so there was nothing to take away but a pleasant morning in the park. Lexie and I had a truly non-diet-conforming dinner at Bennigan's on Saturday night.
  We went to services at Christ the King Presbyterian with my folks this morning. I think Kevin enjoyed the Sunday School class and the folks there told me that he did very well.
  One of the nicest times this weekend was when all six of us were in the front yard throwing discs and chatting. It sure is nice to have parents who love our kids and enjoy playing with them.

Inklings of Sibling Rivalry

  "I don't believe her! She's gonna eat it!"
  Kevin is having to learn to share his toys. Madeline has learned to grab things, and of course the first place they go is in her mouth.
  I think that we have convinced Kevin that baby saliva is not corrosive (or at least not noticeably), but he's still not too happy about letting someone else play with what is "his." I think this is probably a lot of his problem at daycare. He's possessive and bossy. He's whiny and not far from mean.
  It is difficult to model not bossing when we are indeed his bosses.

Clothes from Granny

  Kevin and Madeline got their clothes in the mail today. When Lexie and the kids went to visit her mother over spring break, Lex took fabric with her. Kevin now has a custom made set of pajamas with trains steaming back and forth on them. Wanda made both long pants and shorts, so that they would not be confined to one season. For Madeline she made a sundress and hat. She's very cute in it.

Taxes

  As usual, we have overpaid our taxes. If we decide to make IRA contributions, then it will be even more dramatic. I installed Turbo Tax tonight and was surprised that I was able to go through the whole sequence with only a couple of short stops to hunt for documents.

Thatching

  I hate the first mow of the season. I drop the level of the mower down to just above the snails' shells in order to pull out the old dead thatch and make room for new growth. So that they don't just fall back where I cut them from, I bag the clippings rather than mulch them. The problem is that the thatch is so thick that it quickly clogs the tunnel in the mower where it's supposed to go to the bag. I end up making a pass each way across the yard, stopping, unhooking the bag, clearing the tunnel, reattaching the bag and restarting the mower. Plus the bag fills up about twelve times in our front yard and so I've got to dump that into a yard bag. Fortunately I've got an electric mower (with a big heavy battery) so restarting is as easy as flipping a switch.
  I've completely neglected my yard since the end of last summer (that's mid-November here in South Texas) and it shows. I've got some truly dead patches that I need to dig out by hand and get some dirt to fill. I need to put down some fertilizer. Everybody I talk to is big into organics. These people also tend to be raising lawns instead of children.

The Cursed Hours

  Lexie and I are plotting how to get a little more structure in our evenings. When we spoke the other night we talked about feeling a little stagnant. The main symptom was that we dreaded (or at least felt we just had to survive) the hours between four and nine: when the kids were awake.
  Being aware of the problem and sharing that awareness with each other is half the battle it seems. The last couple of evenings have been pretty good. Admittedly, last night Madeline crashed early and slept the whole night (seven to five-fifteen), and tonight she was very good. So it may just be that not having an inconsolable child whom the pediatrician can't help is half the battle.

Discernment of a Three-Year-Old

  Kevin was playing with some toy vehicles on the back porch tonight. He made his motorcycle jump over some of the other cars and fly around a bit. Then he told me, "That's not real, Daddy, it's just an advertisement."

Game Night

  Lexie left for Comanche yesterday morning. I called her this morning to wish her a happy birthday.
  Back when I put in for vacation days I requested today off. Then Tim and Gordon and I planned to get together for a game night over at Tim's place. Then Lexie planned to be out of town. So it really started to come together.
  Unfortunately, Gordon had to visit his in-laws, so it was just me and Tim. Still we had fun listening to Stryper and other old music, and playing games. Tim has an enormous collection of the Star Trek collectible card game. We played one game of that. Then we played Axis and Allies. I left around 1:30 this morning.
  I took a few nice beers with me. We each had and Ommegang, and a McEwan's Scotch Ale. I remembered last time and switched to water at that point. Like Bill Blake says in his Proverbs of Hell, "You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough."

Lexie's Birthday Dinner

  Tonight was my last chance to take Lexie out for her birthday. She's making soup for church tomorrow night and leaving Thursday morning. She and the kids are going up to Comanche, returning sometime Sunday.
  She took her car to the dealer today for the 75,000 mile service and learned that the clunking sound we'd been hearing was coming from our nearly failed struts. She left the car there and had the shuttle take her home. She told me several times how nice the Sienna was. I left work at three, went home to get her, and took her to the dealership. Then I drove back home and changed and biked to the park. She paid the dealer $658, went home, got the rack, kilt and change of clothes I'd left out, picked up the kids, and met me at the park.
  I didn't feel good about leaving the bike on the car at the restaurant, so we dropped it off at home. We then went to Chili's. Lex had ribs and chicken, and I had beef fajita caesar salad. All three of us split chips and queso.
  After the meal we went to Target. I bought Kevin a new little die cast train from the Thomas line (Douglas to be precise). Lexie got some clothes for Madeline and some plates for the new racks we've put on the kitchen walls.

Bad Teeth

  Kevin got bit at school. It is a pretty nasty bite on his back. Apparently he and the girl who bit him were quarreling over a pillow. We're sending him his own pillow tomorrow.
  He hasn't been bitten in quite a while. His usual teacher was watching another class today. The woman watching his class has struck me as pretty useless every time I've encountered her. Lexie will talk to the administrators tomorrow.

Kevinism #17

  Kevin wanted me to stop washing the dishes and play "the train game" with him. I've told him, and he's repeated, the name Railroad Tycoon a couple of times now. He couldn't remember the name, so his mom prompted, "Rail..." and he completed "...Racoon."

The Kilt Put to Use

  A few Christmases ago Brian bought me a kilt. Not the actual 12 yards or whatever it is of wool, but a sport kilt. It wraps around me about one and a half times and fastens with a couple longish strips of velcro. He had long promised to find a kilt for me, and finally made good on the promise.
  I called and left a message on his answering machine from the park yesterday immediately after I used the garment for its intended purpose. I rode my bike to the park and Lexie met me there with the kids. She had the bike rack and a change of clothes that I had left her, as well as the kilt in the car. When she arrived I donned the kilt, which is a bright red tartan, and doffed my bike shorts there by the car. I was able to put my boxers and shorts on, also without public exposure.

Trains on the Computer

  I downloaded the Railroad Tycoon 3 demo a few days ago. Hey, I have this zippy new computer, I want to put it through some paces. I chose this particular game because I figured that trains would be of interest to Kevin.
  The game has a "sandbox" mode where you can just build track and trains and manipulate the landscape and not worry about money or competitors. It's like having a big model railroad on the computer. The interface lets you fly all over the landscape zooming from a satellite height down to ground level.
  When Kevin came in last night and asked to play Freddie Fish I showed him the trains. I let him pick out a new one to build and then we locked the camera on it and watched it make its run from station to station, stopping at the water tower and maintenance stations along the way. I had enough trains going that sometimes others passed us. He lost interest when I started trying to lay some new track.
  This morning he told me that he wanted to see the trains again. Wednesdays are a little difficult lately. We tell him that we will be going to church in the evening after school. He in turn fixes upon the idea that we're going to church and gets upset when he is taken to school. So, now I had one more thing that we had to put off.

Cost Comparisons

  I ran some errands today at lunchtime. I stopped by the comic shop (just one today), renewed my book on cassette at the library, and went to get cat food. We buy Science Diet Adult Light food in the twenty pound bag. I went to PetCo since they have historically had pretty good prices. Today they wanted $28.99 for the bag. I have paid twenty three bucks for this sometime in the past. I swear it. They were offering $3 off the 10 lb bag which was regularly $19.99. Hmm $17 times 2 is $34: a really bad deal. I figured we'd take the long way (up I-35) to church tonight and get it at PetsMart.
  It was only a little cheaper: $26.49 there. So was the extra trip in time and gas money really worth two and a half dollars? I don't really know. It's probably a push.
  Paul and I were talking the other day about the price of gas. It reminded me of Rob's comment that the amount spent on gas over the life of a car does not make fuel economy a very significant factor in deciding the value. I think it may depend on just how low the mileage per gallon we're talking about is and how much the base price is, as well as the price of gas.
  I'm actually too sleepy to get into this like I want to now. I just wanted to fulfill my daily commitment. Funny that I should choose to talk about inflated gas.

Pace Folks at Lulu's

  Paul and I met Donna and Rachelle at Luby's downtown today. We noticed that Lulu's (formerly Jailhouse Cafe) was right across the street so we went over there instead. Everybody ordered the chicken fried steak except for me. I had the grilled chicken salad. I was the only one to finish my meal. They all took home the other square foot of their steaks. I bought one of the 8"x10"x6" cinnamon rolls to take back to the helpdesk.
  I had to laugh at one point. I didn't tell why then. It's just that I remember going to lunch with Charles and Rachelle when he was interviewing her. I had absolutely nothing in common with this girl. Charles at least had softball. Which was seemingly all she had at the time. Today we were chatting easily about our kids. Her girls are as near in age to Kevin and Madeline as Micah and Sarah.
  There's no getting around the social norm of childrearing. If for whatever reason you're not in the game, then it's going to be rougher for you in spots.

Leaping

  Its that extra day. The one we get every 1460 days or so. Seems a good excuse to skip a day of blogging. The pastor reminded us about slippery slopes today. It's the first Sunday in Lent which means the text was Jesus' temptation in the desert.
  Kevin attended two birthday parties this weekend. Both at Live Oak park. Lexie took him yesterday and I took him today. Both were for kids at his class at daycare.
  Several folks at church today said that they wouldn't trade older kids for younger ones. The bills maybe, but the independence is great.

Re:Lent - Repent

  The season of Lent starts today. Most of the year we eat grilled hamburgers and sausages on Wednesday nights at the church. During Lent we share soup, bread, and water. The soups are usually great.
  We attend a relatively odd Baptist church. We devote an entire service to the dedications to one child, or the commission of a missionary. Communion Sundays are likewise restructured. Our pastor preaches from the church calendar. We light candles each week of Advent. Tonight we will be reminded of our own mortality as ashes are applied to our foreheads.

Paul's Dedication Pictures

  As promised here are a couple pictures that Paul took at Madeline's dedication. Click on the little pictures to see full sized ones.
        
  The dedication service at our church, being Baptist, is not calling on God to accept the baby as is. Instead, family, friends and the church vow to show the child the way to God and godly living. It is part of our tradition to pass the baby around the church, in part I guess so that the people who verbally dedicated themselves to the child will have a tactile memory of the day and promise.

Folks Here, No Chris

  Well after a week of picking up and cleaning, Christina decided she wasn't going to come. Chris has never visited us. She seems able to drive 10 hour round trips in a day to gambling destinations, but will not drive the three and a half hours to come visit us. Maybe I should tell her that if she comes to visit I may give her $200 or she may have to give us $250.
  The clean house is not wasted effort. It is pleasant for us. And the many guests that are coming for lunch tomorrow will appreciate it too. Both sets of our parents are here already. Lexie's folks are sleeping in the guest room, and my folks are sleeping on the fold-out sofa in Madeline's room.
  Debbie, the girls and Kelly are driving down from Austin in the morning. Carol is supposedly driving over from Houston. The Rosseaus and the Guidos will be with us too.

Cleaning and Stuff

  With Madeline's dedication looming this weekend, we need to clean up the house. Lots of family and friends will be over. Chris is making what may well be her only trip ever to our house.
  Went to a free MSDN event today about ASP.NET. Got a free t-shirt. Learned a little more about implementing security.
  Did a little work on the tiny site I've been asked to create for a conference that the bank is hosting.

Sick of Sick

  Madeline is still not well. She is not feverish or puking except when she gags herself with the excessive coughing. She's not eating a lot, but we still get wet diapers. In other words sick enough to be unpleasant for everyone, but not the kind of sick the doctor can do anything about. We got her to take a little Motrin last night and she ate a good deal (about 5oz. at once, which is a lot during the sickness, though before she was regularly downing 6oz.) and slept pretty well.

Really Good Timing

  "I need to go potty." Dreaded words from the backseat when you're on I-10.
  So what was really amazing was that we were about two miles shy of a nice big rest stop when he said them. This is one of those red letter days.
  Sure, I had to endure being stuck in a stall for what must have been 15 minutes with a chatty three-year-old ("Who's that Daddy?" "Someone else who is travelling on the same road we are and using the same bathroom we are." "Why?") casually moving his bowels. Let's just say that it could have been, has been, and will yet likely be much worse.

The Shower Drain

  None of us got to church today.
  Last night after Kevin's bath the tub didn't drain. Dad said he'd get up on the roof with the snake in the morning and clear it out. He went up there about three times unsuccessfully trying to clear it. By this time it was too late for us to make church.
  We got Maddie back to sleep and Lexie and I took a nap. Kevin and the folks took a long walk. They got a call from Patty that the family was meeting over at DeeDee's house at about 1:00 and that they had lots of food. So, we're heading over there pretty quick.
  Meanwhile, the drain is working so Lex is in the shower, and I'm following her shortly. Mysterious ways.

A Tooth!

  We seem to have found the source of at least some of Madeline's malaise. She's got a tooth breaking through her lower gum. She was immediately happier after we got a teething tablet in her mouth. Subsequently we have all made the trip to Houston. We'll be going home late tomorrow after the viewing.
  Mom and Dad offered to keep the kids while we went to dinner tonight. We went way off the diet. But it was very nice to get out together on Valentine's Day.

Sleep is hard to come by

  I was up every hour with Madeline last night. Unlike Kevin, she doesn't like medicine. It's very hard to get the decongestant/cough medicince she needs down her. So she stays congested and coughs and wakes up and cries and cetera. I was home with her today. I'm pretty well beat, but Lexie seems worse off than me.
  Daryl's funeral is on Monday at 1:00. The family time for viewing is the night before from 5:30 to 7:00 or so. With Madeline doing so poorly, I'm guessing that Lexie will stay here with her, and Kevin and I will make the trip.

Sad Again

  My cousin's husband died today. DeeDee is the only cousin on my Dad's side of the family who is older than I am. Daryl was in his late forties. He had colon cancer. Back in November, we weren't sure he'd make it through the holidays. He hung on pretty well. Their son Ryan is eight.
  I was eight when I lost both of my grandfathers. I don't remember them very well. Though as little as we visited extended family, that doesn't really compare very well to Ryan's situation. He's a smart kid. It will be rough.

Kill My Television, Reason 43

Here's a quote from an ad I saw last night:

"Erections lasting more than four hours, though rare, require immediate medical attention."

I Heard The Call at H.E.B.

  I worked a half day today, and will probably stay home all day tomorrow. The day care thinks that Madeline has pink eye. I called our pediatrician's nurse and she said that she'd have the doctor send a prescription over to H.E.B. I picked up Madeline at about 11:45 and stayed home with her for the afternoon. After Lexie got home she made me a list of the other stuff she wanted me to get at the grocery store while I was getting the prescription.

Goodbye Grandma Rose

  My grandmother gave up her body this morning between seven and seven-thirty. Tomorrow would have been her ninetieth birthday.

Keeping up with the Joneses

  Tonight at church, Cathy told us about how Steven (who is about six months older than Kevin) had peed in his pants at school today while watching a movie. "His first 'accident' in, like, months."
  Not to be outdone, Kevin pooped in his pants less than an hour later. To his credit, he probably guessed it was going to be gas, but it was not a fun scene.

Dead Again

  Today Kevin is not feeling well. He threw up snot this morning and then I fed him breakfast. That came back about 75 minutes later. He seems better since then. We'll see if the fruit and milk he just asked for stay down.
  I'm at home so I thought I'd try to get the VPN connection to the bank working. I couldn't get it going under WinME so I thougt I'd install XP on an old hard drive I have. As I was running a search of the CD, the CD-ROM drive failed. So, maybe I'll spend some time today shopping for a new computer.

Passing Sentences

  I finished a couple books this weekend. I traditionally read Terry Pratchett's Discworld books aloud to Lexie. We've had Guards! Guards! in the car for some time. We had just quit the reading aloud thing for a while. Not too long ago I started back into it. Anyway, we finished up just this side of Marble Falls on the way home today.
  Kevin mostly talked or sang to himself or drew on his Magnadoodle while I read. He was generally very good. Occasionally he wanted some questions answered about things he saw on the road or on his Magnadoodle and he would interrupt.

"Guys! Stop!"

  Lexie and I were singing in the front seat of her car on our way here to Comanche. Kevin expressed his displeasure, "your singing is hurting my ears!"
  Madeline had a hard night. Finally we sucked remorselessly with the bulb syringe and got enough stuff out that she could breathe. She seems to be doing better now.
  Mom got here about noon. Wanda had baked her a cake and Kevin gave her a little gift. She's pretty tired, so she's going to stay the night. This means that Lex and I can go see a movie in Brownwood. From what Mom says about Grandma Rose, I've decided not to make the trip up there.
  I'm not entirely sure that regrets aren't sweeter than disappointments.

Going Silent

  We're travelling to Comanche this evening in order to meet my mother on her way home from Abilene tomorrow. If I can't get to Chris or Debbie's connection then I'm going to miss my first day of posting. I'll try to make it up. Madeline is still not well, so keep her in your prayers.
  I haven't decided whether or not I need to visit my grandmother before the funeral. I don't have anything to say to her and I'm not sure she would know who I was. Perhaps our time would be better spent seeing a movie in Brownwood. I can't imagine it, but regret doesn't have to be rational.

Different Priorities

  "When you come in my room you will tell me some more Luke tomorrow." (Say this in your best three-year-old jedi-mind-trick voice.)
  I asked Kevin if he wanted to hear more about Bilbo tonight.
"No. I want a different story."
  So, I told him Star Wars.

Family History

  Last night Lexie put Kevin to bed, so I wasn't involved in story time. While I was bathing him I gave him a pop quiz: "In a hole in the ground lived a ..."
  He didn't remember. He took some guesses, but eventually I had to tell him. He didn't remember Bilbo's name either. After I reminded him he stumped me with, "What's his mom and dad's names?" Nice one. I mean I can dredge up "Frodo, son of Drogo" but to find Bilbo's parentage I'd have to go to the appendices in the Return of the King.

Day at home

  Lexie insisted that I take Madeline to the doctor today. I got her in at 9:15. The doctor said it was just general cold stuff and that we couldn't do anything but live with it. He said we should expect similar stuff for the next couple months and to just hope for an early spring. I took her to daycare at about 10:30, but I stayed home the rest of the day. I am still not feeling tip-top.
  Madeline is, of course, worse again this evening. Her cough is worse and she's nearly drowning in phlegm. I hope tonight that we get some sleep.

busy day

  Lexie woke up about the time she wakes me up to get the kids ready. This was about 5:40. She usually wakes up at 5:00. No freshly cooked breakfast this morning. Even I ended up about 30 minutes late to work. I just ate at my desk to make up the time. I was busy putting together a query in the card system regarding overdraft limits on ATM and debit cards.
  This evening Lexie cooked some chicken in a balsamic vinegar sauce of some kind. We had a salad and some asparagus. Then we went shopping. Lexie bought a printer cartridge and a hand held tape recorder at Best Buy, some shoes at DSW, a lacing toy for Kevin at Lakeshore Learning Center, and an ACT prep guide at Barnes & Noble. I bought a portable CD player at Circuit City for our stereo in the bedroom, and a National Review at B&N. Kevin played with the Thomas set-up at B&N for quite a while.
  When we got home, manasclerk called. We talked for over an hour and then he talked to Lexie for another half hour. Now I'm really tired and want to go to bed. I just didn't want to miss a day posting. Couldn't leave all three of you readers high and dry.

"Yes"

  Last night Lexie and I were talking in bed. I told her that my review was coming up and that Bob (my boss) was making a real effort to get me a promotion rather than the usual cost of living raise. I also told her that I wasn't holding my breath. She asked how work was going and if I was busy. I told her that while I had done a lot this year, in the last couple of weeks things had been kind of slow. She told me that I should get back to work on certifications and not stagnate in my position.
  "Yeah, I should just go ahead and get that Oracle book I wanted and start going through it," I replied.
  Then, out of center field, she asked, "Have you started a blog?"
  I thought, what purpose would it serve to lie? "Yes."
  "When were you going to tell me?"
  "When I had more than a couple entries."
  Fact is, I'm not sure what would have made me tell. I guess I hoped that at some point the quality would be at the level where I would want to share. Like that eighth batch of beer that I made.
  Well, here it is, sweet. I couldn't hide my faults from you if I tried. Sure is good to love and be loved by you!

Eating In

  When I was growing up we just didn't eat out that much. There was every Sunday lunch at Monterrey House for mexican food. And occasional burgers, but never fries. Frozen pizzas were much more common than pizza out, and I don't recall delivery at all. Mostly this dining at home was of necessity. My folks just didn't make much money. Instead of soda I drank iced tea. So much in fact that my dental hygenist inquired whether I smoked. And instead of potato chips we always had a crunchy vegetable on the table such as carrots, celery, bell peppers, cucumbers, cauliflower, and occasionally broccoli.
  It hasn't been like that for my family. We've eaten out more frequently than in. Admittedly, Lexie is working at a time in the kid's lives when my mom wasn't. She doesn't have the time, energy, or convenience a stay-at-home mom might. It's just been less draining to grab fast food than prepare a meal at home.
  This diet has required a lot of food preparation. Lexie has done practically all of it. I'm betting that if I had suggested we go on a diet which required her to spend two or more hours a day in cooking and cleaning, that would have gotten little more than a contemptuous laugh. Necessary then, that this was her idea. Nonetheless, I am enjoying home cooked meals. Yes, they would be better with bread and beer, but I'll take what I can get.
  I'm down three pounds since Sunday.

Hummus

  Who knew they sold hummus in so many flavors? Cucumber dill, spicy three pepper (red and green bell and jalape񯩬 pesto, roasted garlic, and roasted eggplant were all available. Well, I figured I'd go for the pesto. Meant to pick up cauliflower, but forgot when I got there and bought a cucumber. I'm going to have to bring a paring knife to work to do cauliflower anyway. I'm sure my pocketknife can handle the cucumber.
  No Laughing Cow brand cheese, sorry love.

Free to Fast, Free to Fast...

Happy MLK day!
  As I mentioned yesterday, my wife has put us on the South Beach Diet. It's similar to Atkins but only gets real anti-carb in the strictest phase. The author recommends not exceeding two weeks on the strictest phase as you will likely get burnt out on just how boring the foods you are eating are and will throw the diet out the window. In the second phase the carb denial relaxes down from Nazi to Catholic Schoolteacher levels. If we stick with this I recommend looking in to lettuce futures.
  The book for this diet sucked. Lexie agreed, "What do editors do, anyway? 'Cause it sure isn't editing." The author repeats some ideas (read paragraphs) several times. He makes references to what he has already covered, but hasn't. He leaves a number of points unfinished and unsupported. It doesn't cover enough about what the diet will do to your whole system. Caveat Emptor.

under the weather

  My sniffles aren't any better today, and I've got a headache. Not a good time to stare at the computer screen.
Maybe tomorrow will work better. It's one of those good holidays where the daycare is open.
  Oh, and Lexie put us on the South Beach diet today. More on that soon.

Each Other's Angels?

  Sara Hickman's Newborn album was playing in Madeline's room tonight. There's at least a couple songs on there which refer to babies as angels. People are wont to do this. I was singing along as I went to check on Kevin.
  He was busily forcing pink play-doh through the Stitch toy from McDonalds causing the alien's tongue to extrude.
  I asked him, "Are you an angel?"
  Immediately and forcefully he replied, "No!"
  Then he ventured some apologetics for this theological declamation, "I'm a child!"
  Yeah, he's right. I keep expecting his behavior to be perfect. But that's not even appropriate. He is acting his age. If only molding children were as easy as forcing play-doh through a toy...

"Look at Me! What am I doing?"

  Kevin says things like this. He means "what do you call what I am doing?" Its funny and charming. Example: He got a Magna Doodle for Christmas. He drew some vague shape on it and Lexie told him that it looked like a car. So he added a squiggle and enquired "What did I draw now, Mommy?" Repeatedly. Or when he interacts with something that he doesn't know the name of. "The train hit the... what did it hit?"
  Reminds me of the old Dilbert cartoon where they talk about how brain research shows that we act first and then rationalize our behavior afterwards. Seems like it ends with one character trying to strangle another while saying, "arguably, I can't help myself."

Compensating?

I just noticed in the mirror that my tie was a little long today.

"Simba is the bad guy too, Daddy."

  Kevin got a Lion King cartridge and book for his Leap Pad for Christmas, so this week I rented the videocassette to kind of fill out the story for him. At the end of the movie is a violent confrontation between Scar and Simba. The resolutions in the Toy Stories, Monsters Inc, and even Bug's Life hadn't prepared him for the idea that the good guy might start a fight.
  Last night he was playing with the Batman toys he'd gotten in a Burger King Kid's Meal Justice League tie-in. He has two Batmans. He wanted me to play with one while he played with the other. I was trying to figure out how to play with them. Batman doesn't fly. He doesn't even jump like the Hulk. ("I like the Hulk, too, Daddy.") I enumerated these deficiencies even as made my figure perform those operations. Then I asked Kevin (with my usual lack of forethought), "Does Batman beat up the bad guys?" He looked at me trying to read the answer I wanted on my face. He guessed right. But he followed it with a rationalization that I couldn't follow and so can't remember now.
  He's three. He knows that he's not supposed to fight. He's stubborn. He's greedy. He starts fights without violence. He's not going to walk up and smack a kid to get a toy, he'll just take the toy. He got bit again yesterday. Good behavior is a long, and sometimes weird, road. At some point, I hope he'll take up some feelings of protection for his little sister. Maybe even be willing to wade in swinging if the situation calls for it. I've never been much of one for physical violence, so I don't know how to teach that.
  There's an awful lot of comics in my closet to show violence as a means of apprehending evil. Not to mention the action movies we guys love so much. I guess I can let the world teach him that and concentrate on teaching him peacemaking and generosity.

Thomas and the mouse

I was messing around with trying to get comments set up and Kevin came in and wanted to sit in my lap and mess with the computer. A number of months back, I had bought him a Thomas the Tank Engine game. He was able to do some things, but his understanding just wasn't very well developed, nor were his smaller motor skills.