Month: June 2011

Categories
Family

Rules Are More Like Guidelines

One of the rules for our kids is, during the school week, bedtime is 8 o’clock. No matter how much they push back on us, and as they get older they do push back more, we have held the line. On the weekends, on occasion, we allow that to slip. Of course, there was also this passed New Year’s where the boy stayed up just long enough to get half his body onto (not in) his bed before he fell asleep (he did make it to midnight, just not long after midnight). But on school nights there’s no negotiation.

But then there’s a night like tonight, where school is winding down and the Boston Bruins are playing a game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals. How many times is that gonna happen? Especially since the boy has taken an interest in playing hockey, we figured this is as good a chance as any. Plus, it’s simple. We don’t have to worry about explaining “best of 7” or anything. It’s simply if Boston wins, they are the champs.

So tonight we let them stay up to watch the 1st period. The B’s scored a goal and the first intermission came at 8:55, perfect for bedtime. The kids were both fast asleep 5 minutes after they got in bed.

I suspect tomorrow will come early for them, though.

Categories
Misc

Fish Detective

In response to the post about the fish the boy caught at the fishing derby, my Mom suggested it might be a bluegill. I didn’t think it was, as there is no blue on the fish whatsoever. But what struck me was how similar the body and fins of the bluegill are to the fish the boy caught.

Well, the bluegill is a member of the sun fish family. That led me to this Wikipedia entry. I was hoping for a list of all the members of the family so I could go through it and compare pictures with the picture of the boy’s fish. A potentially annoying prospect, but I was, (Ahem!), hooked on figuring it out. As it happens, at the bottom of the page is a picture of a fish that looked an awful lot like the boy’s.

After clicking through the link under the picture, I have no doubt that I found the boy’s fish: the black crappie. No snickering out there.

So consider that mystery solved.

Categories
Misc

Living Up to the Old Adage

What “old adage” would that be? The one about “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” Last week at this time, we were going through a miserably hot and humid stretch of weather. Then, come the weekend the hi’s never got out of the 60’s. So far this week, we’ve been tickling the 70’s and today it’s supposed to be sunny but on the cooler side with highs in the low 70’s.

Bearing in mind I’ve only been up here in the NE for about 15 years, I can honestly say that this year’s weather patterns have been more schizophrenic than any other year. Anecdotally, I’m also under the impression that 7 day forecasts have been more incorrect than correct, with frequent changes even just a day or two out. Overall, my impression is that’s its been to the cooler and wetter side. But we still have July and August to come.

Just don’t ask what the weather will be tomorrow, ’cause I don’t think anyone really knows.

Categories
Football

Good News and Bad News

The bad news is that the miserable sports season is upon us. After the Stanley Cup Finals end tomorrow, all we’ve got is baseball. Yuck.

The good news is it looks like there will be an NFL season. Sounds like good progress is being made in negotiations between the NFL and players. If that in fact comes to fruition, I predict zero damage done to the NFL’s popularity.

FOLLOWUP:
Here’s a followup outlining the steps that have to be played out. It strongly implies that the timetable as of now means everything can’t possibly be settled until after the start of the season. As such, some things will have to taken on faith. Interesting.

Categories
Family

The Boy Tries to Flex His Muscles

“I want my sister to do something like I have to do karate. It’s not fair.” That was the opening discussion on our way to school the other day. Ah yes, my favorite reason for young angst: it’s not fair. Nevermind that it’s not fair I have to keep hearing that phrase.

He’s upset that the lass has so much more free time than he does right now. Never mind that school is almost over and he’ll be bored about 24 hours later. Never mind that he actually enjoyed all those activities he had this year. All that matters is that his sister isn’t busy enough for his taste. Never mind that he actually wanted to do another sport this Summer. (For the record, we’re making a conscious decision not to get him too involved in camps and the like this Summer.)

The gall of 7-year olds.

The Wife informed me he made the same pitch to her today. She took the “You didn’t do a lot at your sister’s age” tact; I took the “I’m sorry, who put you in charge?” tact. I also pointed out their difference in ages and that, by comparison, the lass is actually busier than he was at the same age. But the boy isn’t one to let facts get in the way of a good snit.

It’s actually in keeping with a general theme of surliness in the boy’s behavior of late. Anything can set him off: his guy dies on the DS, he’s asked to feed the dogs, he’s asked to vacuum his room, he arrives home and we ask him how his day was, we’re having chicken for dinner, whatever. He makes a snap judgment in the moment and decides that life doesn’t suit him- time to lodge a complaint.

Unfortunately for the Wife and I, we’re customer service. Can I get an It’s not fair?

I’m hopeful that time off from everything will positively impact his mood. He has been very busy this year, often times only having 1 day of the week where he didn’t have to be somewhere. It turns out that the line between “professional child” and exposing a child to different things is a fine one. It ended up being way easier to fill up a schedule than we’d anticipated. But with the Summer here, he won’t have many requirements on his time. It’ll be a good chance to recharge his batteries.

Until, of course, that no longer suits him either.

Categories
Family

Hooked on Fishing

That’s the big one that didn’t get away today(If anyone recognizes what kind, I’d love to know. No one at the derby was sure.). But it almost did, and the boy would not have been happy about it. In fact, the fish was able to get itself caught up in some weeds, triggering the drag mechanism in the reel and the boy almost lost his squash because “IT”S NOT COMING IN!!!” Fortunately, I was able to tighten the drag a little, the fish popped out of the weeds, and the boy landed it.

Then, he refused to touch it.

Even so, he was better than the lass, who refused to touch any of the fish. The boy at least tried to bait his own hook, cast his own line, held some of the smaller fish in his hand and even grabbed a couple of the bigger small-mouth bass by the mouth. The lass just reeled the fish in and left it at that. Oh, they both teamed up to get the bait this morning- the lass carried the bucket with the dirt and the boy picked up the worms and put them in a bucket. Notice a theme?

The Wife took the “I’m taking pictures” road. She wasn’t interested in touching fish either. Like Daughter, like Mother I guess. The only mouth she put her fingers in was the boys- to fix an elastic which had come off his braces.

All told, the Scout’s fishing derby was a smashing success. All the kids caught at least one fish. Only the fish got hooks in them and everyone left with a smile. Maybe not the fish, but they were all returned to the water and they got a fat worm for their troubles.

How good was the fishing? For the first 45 minutes or so, I barely had time to turn around after the kids cast a line out before they were exclaiming “The bobbers gone! I think I’ve got a fish!” Sure enough, they had a fish. Overall, the boy caught 8 fish and the lass caught 5. A pretty good day for any angler.

The day wasn’t without it’s life lessons. After the 4th or 5th one, the boy was talking about how great he was at fishing. So I decided to let him down gently. I told him “The number of fish you’ve caught has nothing to do with you.” I then proceeded to explain that it was part luck, part timing, part bait and part hungry fish. And part luck. I even got some backup from an older kid who was fishing with us. To his credit, the boy took the blow rather well.

Despite the fish in the pic, the boy didn’t win the prize for “biggest fish.” Another Scout caught a large mouth bass that was 34 cm. He didn’t win for most fish either- the winner there caught 12 fish. But the boy did win the prize for smallest fish, a whopping 14.5 cm. His award was a super-soaker.

So after all that, one might suspect that both of them want to go fishing again.

They would be correct.

Categories
Family

A Soggy Finale

The final day of Little League was today. The original idea was for the kids to have a couple of games and then some food. What actually happened was it rained, so there were fewer games and mostly no food.

The lass was the luckier of the two. Her games were completed before the heavy stuff started falling. Then she put up some kind of stink about the cookie she was offered. I left the Wife to deal with it because if I’d stayed things would have gotten ugly. I can’t stand it when the pull an attitude over something that is meant as an act of kindness.

The boy barely got a game in. As it was, he ended up playing on a make-shift field because the actual field was so water logged that no one wanted them playing in the mud and muck. Come about the 2nd inning, the skies really opened up and the decision was made for us. Parents were scrambling. Kids were scrambling after their parents. Everyone and everything was wet.

Good times.

Continue reading “A Soggy Finale”
Categories
Family

Sick of His Cr@p

I wonder if there’s a record for “Number of times plugged a toilet in a calendar year” because if there is, I might have to submit the boy’s, er- well, what would you call that anyway?

And no- I don’t know if it’s because of TP or for, um, other reasons. Don’t want to know either.

Though it would be nice if he figured out how to use the plunger. Sheesh.

Categories
Family

The Reading Sheep

The following is a book the boy wrote for Author’s Night, a class activity where all the kids read a story they created. The kids have been keeping a writing journal for the year and were asked to pick one of the stories they wrote to work on it for Author’s Night. The final product was a book. I have transcribed the book exactly as it was written. The horizontal rules indicate page breaks in the source material. There is also artwork in the book, perhaps I’ll get that up at a later point.

The Reading Sheep

Once upon a time there was a sheep. His name was Furryhead and he liked to read.

His favorite books are hard to read but he can read them with a little help from his mom or dad.

Furryhead likes to read in the car, in his bed, and even when he was taking a shower or bath!

Everywhere he goes, he reads.

He reads books because he likes to read books. He reads easy books with no help at all.

He reads big books, little books and medium sized books too. He doesn’t care what size book he reads.

His favorite book is The Tortoise and the Hare. His second favorite book is Superman. He likes both fiction and non-fiction books. He likes comic books too.

He likes any book he sees. He doesn’t care what book he gets. It doesn’t matter to Furryhead.

His favorite books are funny to him, but not really to his parents.

Furryhead really LOVES his books!

The End

Categories
Family

Getting the Message

The lass came home and the first thing she wanted to do was go in the pool. That’s fine- it’s there to be used. But first some lunch and some sunscreen. We made her wait for her food to settle, telling her she’d get stomach cramps if she went into the water to soon after eating. Thus, passing on the urban legend to a new generation.

She wanted to know if I’d go in the pool with her. I told her later.

So after about 30 minutes in the water, her lips are purple. The water temp is probably up to a scalding 60 or so. She gets out and 30 seconds later, begins the questioning period.

Q: Have I warmed up yet?
A: No.
Q: Are my lips still purple?
A: Yes.
Q: When will I be warm enough?
A: When you’re teeth stop chattering.

Recycle this every couple of minutes and you get the idea.

When she finally is warm enough, she asks me to get in the pool with her. But I declined initially. I’m not really sure why, I just don’t feel like going in the pool at that moment.

So she doesn’t go in the pool either. Instead, she follows me around puppy-like. I went inside to listen to Pandora for a bit and she came in with me and sat down quietly to play with the Legos. I asked her why she wasn’t going in the pool. She replies “Because you aren’t.”

Then I notice the song playing from Pandora, Cat’s In the Cradle. Really. I look over at the lass still sitting there with the Legos.

Being around the kids all the time, I tend to get to points where I take them for granted. With Summer vacation coming, that feeling will intensify. To some degree, it’s only natural. I believe that old saying goes “familiarity breeds contempt” and like most old sayings, there’s a kernel of truth to it.

But in the end, it’s just an excuse. The kids are kids only for so long. Then, their interests will expand beyond our family to friends and the like. When that time comes, the opportunities to do simple things with them dwindle. Then, one day, they’re all but gone.

But here and now, the lass still wants to going swimming. And it seems best not to be like the guy in the song.

Categories
Misc

Sun Explosion

Here’s some video of a spectacular explosion on the Sun. The article calls is a “prominence” eruption. According to this definition, that’s just a fancy way of saying “big damn explosion on the Sun’s surface.”

The video is worth checking out. (Hattip Instapundit)

Categories
Football

The Hits Keep Coming

For Ohio St. that is.. Terrelle Pryor was a pretty good Big 10 QB and losing him won’t help Ohio St.’s chances this year. I wonder if that’ll be it?

And let’s not forget that USC was stripped of their ’04 BCS title as well. Though at this point, that’s mainly a meaningless gesture.

Categories
Family

Pool Setup Complete

The water guy just left. It only took him about 15 minutes to fill 3500 gallons or so (about 3 feet). For comparison’s sake, it took the hose from our well about 3 hours to fill it with 6 inches of water.

The water temp is probably 55F or so. How cold is that? Cold enough to chill my arm in the 45 seconds or so it took to hook up the filter. The kids will still jump in without (much!) hesitation. It supposed to be near 90 for the next couple days, so it’ll be a nice way to cool down anyway.

Categories
Family

Water is a Kid’s Best Friend

I setup our inflatable pool over the weekend. It’s one of those pools with an inflatable ring so, as the water fills the pool, the ring floats up and prevents the water from flowing over the edge and emptying the pool. It’s a 15 foot pool and it takes roughly 4-5 thousand gallons to fill, so I don’t fill it completely from our well. Rather, I fill it enough to make sure it stays put and it’s level so that it can be filled completely.

I finished everything Saturday afternoon and put about 6 inches of water in it to make sure everything was OK.

The lass spent all afternoon in those 6 inches of water. She even got her snorkel and mini-boogie board to play with in it. She played in it so long that her lips turned blue. Some clouds moved in so a short time before the boy arrived home, she put on some play clothes.

When the boy got home from school, he decided he wanted to play in the pool as well. So the boy got in his swimsuit and went for a dip. The lass also decided she hadn’t had quite enough of the pool, so she put her swimsuit back on and joined him.

And all it takes is 6 inches of water. Who am I kidding. It probably doesn’t even take that much.

Categories
Family

The Lass’ Day Arrives

With all the end-of-year activities the boy has been participating in, the lass has been over-shadowed for the past couple of weeks. That’s not all bad- kids need to learn they won’t and can’t always be the center of the universe so it becomes an exercise in being happy for someone else. But yesterday, the ‘someone else’ was finally the lass.

The day of her dance recital had finally arrived.

The Wife started getting her ready a little after lunch so things wouldn’t be rushed. Also, it minimized opportunities for the lass to find a mudhole in which to immerse herself. The Wife took her over to the school around 3. The boy, myself, and her Grandparents arrived a little closer to the show’s start time.

Her act was the 4th one to go off. There were 6 dancers for her class all told and they all did just fine. Because of her height, the lass was front and center. If she was nervous, it didn’t show. My guess is the Wife was more nervous than the lass, but she’s allowed. The teacher was right up front guiding them through the routine. The routine lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, the song they danced to was one called “Gee Whiz”- appropriate for a new group of dancers.

The entire recital was about 2 hours 45 minutes. About 30 minutes too long for the boy to sit still. But even then, he managed without any major breakdowns.

The Wife wanted me to make sure I noted that I fulfilled the lass’ request- I dressed up for the occasion, wearing a shirt and tie for the festivities. I’ll also note that I only saw one other Dad wearing a tie, and when the lass changed out of her dress, my tie came off.

While waiting for dinner afterwards, I got curious whether the lass was nervous about her routine. So, I asked her if she had a funny feeling in her belly before she had to go and do her performance. She gave me a distracted “Yes”- she was busily working on coloring her food mat while waiting for her burger. When I then asked her if it felt liked butterflies, she replied “No, it just felt like when I’m hungry.”

Categories
Family

I Know How This Ends

Forgot to mention it earlier, but twice this past week the lass came home from school, laid down on the couch and napped for over 2 hours. On another day, she clearly came home tired and nap-primed, but afternoon activities kept her from napping.

In addition, both the Wife and myself have observed that she’s been eating quite a bit more than usual. The evidence points to the conclusion that some time next week the lass will be looking the Wife in the eye.

Or there about anyway.

Categories
Family

Death of a Balloon

The boy got a very special balloon from the dentist yesterday. It was very special because well, I’m not really sure. But the boy was very attached to that balloon. It had these little knots tied into it that made it look like an animal … or something with nipples. Who knew the dentist was handing out X-rated paraphernalia?

He spent his time with the balloon blowing it up and trying to fill it with water and showing it off to his sister and all the wonderful things that one does with the balloon that is the momentary focus of their being. So it was all the more traumatic when the balloon popped in his face.

(deep breath…. keep going … a little more)

“WHYDIDIBOTHERGETTINGASTUPIDBALLOON!IBARELYHADITATALLANDITPOPPED!WHYDIDITPOP?IKNEWITWASGOINGTOPOPBECAUSETHATALWAYSHAPPENS!IKNEWIT!ITALWAYSHAPPENSEVERYTIMEIGETABALLOON!”

Followed by the tromping around and foul mood that such drama always brings with it. He stomped over to the trash and flung his dead balloon into it. He then stomped up to his room to mourn his balloon.

After several minutes, he found a new balloon. It wasn’t the same as his X-rated-nipple balloon, but he could blow it up and put water into it. The mourning period had ended.

Long live the balloon!

Categories
Family

The Cats Are Away

The Wife just took the kids to school. She’ll be gone with the boy until the afternoon on a field trip to the zoo. The lass will be back at her usual time this morning.

So what to do with my temporary freedom this morning? Almost 4 whole hours…

Categories
Computers

Ubuntu to Test Its Fortunes

Still being a netbook enthusiast, I think it’s worth pointing out this little tidbit of news about Asus and its EEE line. Asus will be offering Ubuntu loaded EEE’s in 3 distinct models. I suppose this could mean a few things. For one, Microsoft may be starting to lose some of its clout with manufacturers. For another it could mean that even with whatever subsidies MS is giving Asus, the margins on their products are flagging and Ubuntu offers them a chance to improve the situation. It could also mean that acceptance of Android has diminished the “fear” factor when it comes to Linux. I suppose it could also mean that only hackers are interested in netbooks anymore.

Whatever the reason, I hope the decision meets with some success.

Categories
Misc

Bruce

The turtle wasn’t our only visitor this past weekend:

Naturally, we’ve named him Bruce. I had a hard time getting a decent picture of him because he’s roosting about 30 feet up on the chimney under the eave.

Hope he gets lots of mosquitoes.