Lights 2010

People are driving by our house so slow now. Every year my neighbor sets up the light display in our block and we're a part of it. He owned his own business, they make light displays for towns, companies, and our neighborhood. He's retired and now his son runs the business.

This year with he passed out flyers with the start date. The whole family drove their trucks and hauled the light displays from storage. We were there to help, the girls love it. Now it's almost all working, they're still tinkering with some of the more intricate parts of the setup. Friday, someone was taking a picture of his family in front of our house.

Each house has a plastic container that houses a circuit board that controls about 24 relays. The circuit board is connected over ethernet to a central computer. There are about twelve of the plastic containers that all are synchronized with music that control when the poles, candy canes and snow flakes go on or off. The bigger displays are just on timers, they are on all night.

We got the train this year, previously we get the snow men. The train is my favorite; Jack and the girls agree.

Fire and cream

How many times can you use a torch while cooking?

I am a sucker for Pappas Deaux since eating there seven years ago. I take a few trips to Albuquerque (where we have a Pappas Deaux) and so I have had the opportunity to visit again since the first time.

Last month on our trip to Austin we stayed the night in Dallas. Part of the reason to stay in Dallas was to give the family a break from driving, and the other (not so equal) part was so Dad could eat at Pappas Deaux and Mom could finally taste for herself all the good things I'd been talking about for so long.

My favorite desert has been the Creme Brulee, and I've always thought it was out of my reach, until this weekend. Mom was practicing for Thanksgiving dinner deserts and delighted dad with the debut of creme brulee.

I never thought something like that was achievable at home, until recently. I got the creeme brulee home style and it was delicious, as good as the ones at a restaurant. Misty found the recipe and I was delighted. Madeline tried it, and liked, but wouldn't admit it.

put that kid back in diapers

"Put that kid back in diapers!" I exclaimed to my wife while picking up a particularly nasty bowel movement from the floor that fell out of the pull-up. These girls!!!

Just kidding. This particular BM came from the boy. Doggone it, if he isn't stubborn. Madeline and Terra have more patience with him than I am able to muster. In fairness, however, I have picked up more than they have.

Despite my complaining, my wife's perseverance is paying off. "I got to go potty," Jack runs to us clenching himself as if he's holding the solitary finger in the dam that's ready to burst. Jack's finally ready to get out of the diapers and move onto the bigger, more cottony things. He's done this in a much longer time frame than both of his sisters.

Maybe that means it will stick longer? Somehow I don't think so, and I'm positive it won't be my problem.

the shredder

I have a shredder. Doesn't every paranoid person worry about fruit flies, identity theft, and pink shirts?

I shredded some papers after paying a few bills today. Jack helped. I went upstairs to find out how the delicious dinner I smelled was progressing.

Then from the downstairs I heard, "grrrrrrrr," from the cutting head on my cheap shredder.

"What the heck did Jack shred?" I thought. I still don't know. Hopefully not something I needed.

Trains

I mentioned before that Jack is in love with Thomas the train. Well, the sad thing is that Jack's dad is a little obsessed with the toys as well.

I used Thomas to deter Terra from Barbie's for as long as I could. Now it turns out that a few of the toys I bought a few years ago (and had some enjoyment) are worth characterized by words like "rare." Totally new to me, I feel almost like I bought the very first Superman comic book.

Next, a word to the wise, "Never buy Thomas the Tank Engine stuff new." The toys are wooden, so they hold up well. Compared to a Polly Pocket or a barbie shoe, a Thomas the Tank Engine toys is like a diamond compared to a mood ring, they just hold up.

Now, Jack and I are watching every Thomas the Tank Engine episode I can get my hands on, almost every night. We've bought the DVD's, we've watched on Netflix, and on YouTube. However, once you get into Thomas, you quickly learn there are a ton they don't make anymore.

I'm not talking like Mattel stopped making Duke, for GI Joe, here. I'm talking about super critical stuff like the NW Brakevan, or Toad, and China clay cars, and Diesel. These are crucial characters to some of Jack's favorite stories (and his dad).

So, naturally, I went to Craigslist. Initially, just to get stuff like more track, but then I saw this sweet deal. It came with a lot of trains, and now we have some pretty cool stuff that isn't available anymore. We have Mavis with the green stripes. We have the first Bertie, and the Crosby Truck with no writing on it, which means it's a prototype.

"Dad, please go my room," is what Jack says, now. We moved the train table to his room. We got to his room, we setup the track, and we rehearse some of Awdry's stories.

The next best part is the girls are totally OK, with this. They know a little bit of this is my obsession. Then the next part is, "Hey! Wow!! Jack got Henry's forest car, let's go up stairs buddy!"

Labor Day

We had Jack's birthday party schedule the second weekend in August, but guess what? That boy decided to get strep throat, aka striped throat, as one of my daughter's called it a few years ago. Jack was sick, with a real fever, so we had to reschedule the party. Labor day weekend was the day.

What a blast! Unfortunately, since Jack didn't have his real birthday party, he got several from us this past month. He finally had some closure though.

First, the girls were determined to dress this party up. They went with me to the store and we bought some balloons. They taped them to the hallways and Jack's steps.

Then, what almost brings a tear to my eye, they made Jack a crown, for the birthday boy. I thought to myself, "That's very sweet, but he won't wear it." Lo and behold St. James wore it the entire birthday party. He loved it. It had his favorite things on it: cars, trucks, and trains. We actually kept the crown, and I'm not a super sentimental guy, usually a picture is good enough for me.

It was all very fun. Jack knew about his presents, his sisters genuinely made it very clear that it was his birthday and he enjoyed every minute of it.

Then the fun moved outside, after the presents were opened. We played on the tire swing. Sarah, the eldest girl wound up the tire swing and had everyone spinning on it, she got the most turns. Later, she threw-up, but despite that, had a great time.

And I borrowed our neighbor's steam cleaner, and now we have super clean first level floors. (Once you clean up one spot, the rest of them just need it.)

postponed birthday party

Jack's got strep throat, poor little buddy. He needs a new cranky to make him feel better. I've watched more Thomas the Tank engine movies than I ever have this weekend. We bought season one on iTunes, and I bought the A/V cord to connect it to our TV's. I know the exact minute and second the "Donald and Douglas" episode runs, it's Jack's favorite.

Madeline's been very sympathetic. Although when Jack cries for no reason, just because she's around, she looks a little perplexed at me. "He's sick," is all I can say in his defense.

Misty's picking up his prescription presently. He weighs in at 41 lbs.

lots of time on wheels

Last time I ranted about carrying a silly tricycle up the hill, and how Jack couldn't go fast enough now that we all have new bikes. Two new things.

Yesterday we went for a bike ride where Jack rode his tricycle the whole way. We went to the playground, jumped up and down on the slides, we swinged on the swings, and made it all the way back home. I've just got new way to manipulate inspire the young lad.

First and foremost, avoid the hills. We went the long way to the playground, but there are no hills. Second, take water. It's hot. Transporting water's easy. Third, let his sisters get ahead of him, Jack is fiercely competitive with them, he keeps up.

Then fourth, get an awesome Burley bicycle trailer. That thing is AWESOME. We went really fast down the hill (and really, really slow back up). I can think of a hundred scary things with a bicycle trailer, like turning, wiping out, knocking over something because the trailer is wider than the bike, the trailer tires getting stuck, disconnected trailer from the bike, least of all that it's heavy. The Burley eases these. It's super lightweight, it has what's basically a rollover cage, uses a pin to mount to the bicycle, and a canvas strap, super big tires at 45 psi. Jack likes it a lot, "Whoa dad, that's pretty cool."

It can support the girls' weight. Madeline didn't like going very fast.

I'nna hold choo

This is Jack's saying, "I'nna hold choo, [mommy|daddy]," the last noun is either mommy or daddy, it depends. And that "depends" is what I'm going to gripe about right now.

Mom gets the "I'nna hold choo, mom," at the dinner table, or just before bed time, watching a movie, or when Jack gets hurt. Dad gets the "I'nna hold choo, dad," walking up a giant hill, that Jack has decided he can't traverse on the tricycle. It's not enough that Dad has is required to hold the tricycle, but Dad also has to carry the almost three year old boy up a hill, while carrying a tricycle, after riding said tricycle all over the neighborhood and playing at the playground for 30 minutes in 100 degree (heat index) weather.

Jack -- in 30 years, "I'nna hold choo, Jack." He'll hold his Mom, I know, not his Dad.

Summer almost over

Oh, man. The summers can never be long enough, I think. The girls stay up late, I don't have to shovel snow, lots of grilling, outdoors, and birthdays.

We've gone through three of the four summer birthdays. Terra had a slumber party with our neighbor's kids. She got a new bike. Madeline had her birthday party this weekend (they stayed up until 5AM Saturday morning). I came down stairs to scold them into sleeping and noticed one had evacuated herself upstairs to the couch in the family room. There were five girls in all, minus Terra (not with us this weekend).

Misty's birthday was my favorite, we were able to go to the Blue Stem (sigh, love the Blue Stem).

We all now have bikes. Madeline got a new 10 speed with her birthday money from Grancy and Big Daddy. Misty's had a Cannondale since college, and I just bought a Diamondback Sorrento. It's a hybrid. I hate the "Mountain Bike" phenomenon. I did'nt want shocks.

We tried a test run of us all going out together, however, Jack's Radio Flyer Tricycle doesn't cut it, he gets behind and gets mad when his sister flies past. I'm looking on Craig's list for a trailer now that Jack can ride in and I will hitch onto my bike.

We went to the water park last Thursday, I'm still recovering, but we met up with family there and had a blast. Lots of fun. Some guy Madeline met in line, Tyler, ended up with a little crush that I had to scare out of him.

Flies

I killed eleven flies this weekend, all in the house. Little fly-bags.

Tire Swing

Wow. What a difference a tire swing makes. I'd like to take all the credit. However, whilst running to the garage to pick up a tape measure I handed my beautiful wife the rope that was hanging the tire swing in mid-air. I wanted to get a few measurements before cutting the rope and the chains.

I arrived back to see a perfect slip knot (no, not the band you punk losers) tied to the lawn chair my wife was using.

"How did you do that?" I asked incredulously. Everything with knots escapes me. I'm a pre-boy scout, pre anything useful. I've watched Terry tie a few, and it's completely over my head.

"What?" my wife asked indignantly, "I know how to tie a slip knot," answering my question as if I knew the answer. I admitted my ignorance immediately. My wife showed me how to tie the slipknot and while I still stared with complete bewilderment in my face, she said, "Let me climb the ladder, I can tie the rope off."

Whew, I thought. The design for this tire swing is different than the grandparent's. I think with this one we should be able to get all three kids in at the same time, although I'm not sure about the branch. The equipment from the hardware store will sustain 420 lbs at it's weakest point (that's the S-Hook the three chains connect).

New Compuer. w00t!

The Dell desktop was taking forever to do anything. I'd been having problems running applications on it for a while. I think it could use more memory and a rebuild, probably an upgrade to Windows 7 would have been good, too.

Instead of doing all that I decided I needed to get a new computer, along with a new monitor, and a much needed new router. The old router was years old, ancient by computer standards, I couldn't do WPA, and I blamed it for all my devices being slow. Now I can walk anywhere in the house with an iPod touch or Nintendo DSI, let alone a laptop, and the performance is great. Plus, I don't have to type in some useless WEP key that can easily be deduced on local traffic observations.

I'm going to rebuild the old systems with Linux and build a squid proxy server. The girls are getting pretty Internet savvy. They're using the laptops to go most places.

I've been geeking out all day moving the stuff from my "legacy" computer, to the new computer.

Another Movie Story

The girls invited friends and we all went to see a movie. We got the girls kid's packs that include Skittles, popcorn, and a coke. Lauren, Madeline's friend, brought her own money and bought a big, huge pack of candy. The movie wasn't keeping the attention of the girls and those movies rarely keep Jack's attention at all. He was wandering up and down the aisles, I had to grab him a couple times. The girls were talking very loud and I had to scold them to be quiet so the other family in the cinema could hear.

Jack was going back and forth to Lauren who still had some candy left over after everyone had finished her/his kid's pack. He was totally riding on a sugar high and marched up and down the aisles. He sat down on steps near where I was sitting and was actually calm. He handed me what I thought was a green skittle and said "Thank you," and put it in my mouth.

Chocolate. It wasn't a Skittle! I was tasting Chocolate and Jack had been combing the floor. "Who knows what he picked up off he floor?", I thought. I spat it out, and started to scrape my tongue. I leaned in to my wife, "Jack just handed me an M&M that he picked up off the floor," I told her. She replied, "Oh, no, Lauren bought some M&M's." I was so relieved.

band hero's

We got band hero last weekend. Terra's in love with it, she's really good on the drums. I'm terrible with the drums. I can't figure out how to use my hands on the drum and cymbals and by foot on the bass drum at the same time.

Movie Weekend

Madeline went to camp with girl scouts this last weekend. Terra stayed home. She gave Madeline a giant hug when Madeline came back home Sunday evening, "Madeline! Don't ever leave again!"

We went to see the movie "How to train your dragon." Terra invited a couple friends to go (Madeline went to see it Friday night with another friend of hers). Jack was restless. He was moving throughout the picture, but when a spot showed that caught his interest he would stop his wandering and look up at the screen. Then he caught the bucket of popcorn of the gentleman in front of us. Jack reached over, Mom stopped him. "Jack, sshh. Watch the movie. Sorry, sir."

Jack saw his moment later. He reached for the bucket, lifted it off the seat in front of him, then over the seat, and SPLASH. The popcorn landed everywhere. I had to go get another bucket of popcorn for the guy, and Mom's purse was filled with it.

Jack is standing in front of me now with his shirt off, holding a book. "Read book, Daddy."

"No, Jack, we've read that book three times already."

I don't think it's wrong to say, "No," even if it's a book. Whoever bought him the "Cars" (the movie) books for Christmas is EVIL. I've read those books a million time, and that was last Saturday.

Sick, Sick, Sick

zomg, everyone has been sick this Winter, it's been awful.

Misty and I were both sick, terribly sick, in the middle of January. Terra was sick the end of January, went to the doctor's office, and ended up missing school. Madeline wasn't feeling well that same weekend and had strep throat the next week. She was throwing up and missed almost a week of school. I was away in San Diego on a business trip, where I thought I was going to enjoy the warm client, away from a sick family, and I got sick -- again. Misty had almost the same thing I had, so I'm guessing we both got it from Terra. Then last week, Misty came up with a cold, aching sinus-like infection, and I fought through the same thing a few days later.

No more sick. This weekend has been nice and we spent as much as we could outside. I could still feel the sun on my face yesterday evening, I pushed Jack in a swing on a treeless school playground for almost an hour. That child loves the swing.

Trains on tracks

Have you ever seen your kid play gleefully with trains at book or toy stores? Enjoying every minute, right? We've got all the ingredients for that to work at home. A nice table, tons of track, lots of trains, other little houses and people that can you can setup around whatever track layout you can think. But here's the deal, I've never seen the kids really enjoy it.

Jack gets extremely frustrated. He tries to put the track together himself, which is awesome, but then of course it doesn't mate up, there's an upper elementary school level of geometry in the curves and length. or he'll use a track that I've put together and the whole track gets disconnected and comes apart. He gets angry, he grunts, he yells at the Thomas trains. It's sad to watch.

The difference is the track at the stores is completely glued down with bondo. Try lifting one of those tracks up, you'll lift the table before that track comes undone. So, we glued our track down. I bought some hardboard, cut it to size, and glued it on a 1/4" plywood sheet, also cut to size. Then the track went down and when I was happy with the form, I used some hot glue and a glue gun and cemented those suckers on the hardboard. It's great, less than $20, too. It has two bridges, two lifts, a couple circles; Jack (and the girls) can push Thomas and a massive number of trucks along the track and guess what? It doesn't come apart. They don't get frustrated.

The glue comes off easier than wood glue, but it takes some work. Jack still sets up the extra track on the floor or in the spare spaces around the table. He still gets to use his imagination, it's just now if he wants to play with a train on the track, he doesn't have to use his imagination that an earthquake came and superman had to put the thing back together.

Next I'm going to ask the girls to paint some landscaping with streams, trees, bushes, and the like on the hardboard. Then we'll scrape the glue and make a new track design for it and throw away the old hardboard, less than a few dollars. 4' by 8' sheets of hardboard are like $9.00.

Found the penny

In response to a recent post, we've also found the penny! Who can get a picture of the year on the penny first?!