USS MIDWAY

Mommy had Book Club on Sunday, so while she was off gabbing with the hens, me and the kiddo's decided to visit one of San Diego's famous wonders... the USS MIDWAY.

The Midway is an aircraft carrier that launched in 1945, and was highly active in Vietnam and Desert Storm. She is almost 1000 feet long, can carry over 4,000 sailors, 130 aircraft, and weighs 74,000 tons. In 2004, the Midway was turned into a museum in San Diego, and for a small fee, you can climb in and around almost every inch of her... and we did.

If you ever get the chance to go inside an aircraft carrier, I highly recommend it. It is a truly incredible creation. Once you get down into the belly of it, everything is very tight. And the rooms just keep going... bunks, engineering, control rooms, flight briefing rooms, and on and on. The kids must has passed (and flipped) about a billion switches, levers, and valves. We got to sit in the cockpits of fighter planes and helicopters -- and even the captain's chair itself.

One of the great treats about the Midway, is that the on-board staff is made-up mostly of retired vets, many of which served aboard her. As you walk through the ship, you see all these historical photos of young navy-men working their various jobs aboard the boat. Then you enter room after room with these old-timers who tell great stories about what life was like on the ship. A very rich experience that I will treasure for quite a while.

Special Day

On Friday, Katie had a very special day. She recieved an award for ourstanding academic performance in her class. She got to stand-up in front of the whole school, take some photos, and really enjoy a bit of celebrity.

Blackout

Work... killing... me...

Will try and post something worth your while soon.

Little Tiger

The kids and I were home alone the oher day so we busted out the ol' golf bag and played around in the back yard. They weren't too bad. I should get some small clubs so they could actually swing without hitting themselves in the face with the other end of the club. Katie cracked me up with her attention to fasion, notice the shoes -- that's how I know she's a true golfer.

Secret Notes and Slumber Parties

Working from home has a lot of wonderful advantages. Probably the best is that I get to see the kids more. However, in the name of sanity and productivity, we have some pretty hard set rules around this:

Rule #1: If daddy's office door is closed he is working. This means there is no knocking and no bothering him.

Rule #2: If anyone is bleeding or if anything is on fire, you can knock.

Rule #3: (Added recently) Getting stuck on a hard part of a video game is not the same as being on fire or bleeding.

Now normally Jen has these guys so busy that its actually pretty quiet during the day. However, Katie was home the other day and wanted to take my lunch order. Being the good rule follwer that she is, she invented a solution to communicate without breaking any rules...



"let me in ples" was quietly slipped under my door, giving birth to intrigue worthy of a good spy novel. You gotta love stuff like that.

While we are on Katie, she got to go on her very first slumber party this last weekend. She was mega excited for the event which had FOURTEEN girls there. I could only conclude that the mother must have been insane for wanting to host that many 6 year olds, which was my second reason for not to want to let her go. The first being that nothing good can come from girl slumber parties, or so the dad manual says.

However, since the dad manual also says that your daughter will always get her way on things that matter most, I was forced to conceede. She had a great time of course, and was a complete monster the next day from the obvious sleep absence. She did however, get some neat hear treatment. Anyone remember crimping irons?

Discovering Wonderful New Things

Me: "Come on Andy, get out of the shower and get your jammies on."

Andy: "Dad?... I have beans inside me."

Me: "What? You ate some beans?"

Andy: "No! I have BEANS inside me... seeee?"

(Not sure how to relate this next part, so I'll just go as clinical as I can. He then grabs his scrotum with both hands, and stretches it out to show that his testicles are clearly inside, and presents this to me with the same demeanor as you might expect when one shows you a new toy.)

Me: "..."

Andy: "See? Beans!"

Me: "Be careful there buddy, you got be nice to those things, you are going to need them later."

Andy: "What are they for?"

Me: "Go put your jammies on."

Naive Narratives

Katie practices reading daily and is getting to the point where she can actually handle a book on her own. Blend that with daddy's Voxie recorder iPhone app and Windows Movie Maker and you too can relive the moment...



I'm sure to most, that hearing a young girl read a simple passage is at best cute and endearing, perhaps even emotional for those close in bloodline. As you might expect, for the father it is a marvel. But what is even more marvelous, is the deep appreciation I have for the vigilant and caring teacher of this gift, who practices reading with Katie every single day. She who finds the time to correct every misplaced word, untangle every knotted sentence, and motivate the thirst for every new page. There simply is nothing more amazing than the power of a mom.

Flashback

Was checking to see if we had good pics to post today and I accidentally clicked the wrong folder... figured I would share what I saw with you.

Someone please slow the whole "time thing" down, I can't help but feel like it's all just going way too fast.

The more things change...

They say, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." One of the upsides to getting older is you get to see more of the style cycles repeat themselves. (Personally, I can't wait for acid washed Jeans to make a come-back.) But today, I got to see my daughter sport a sweet pair of Pink Chuck Taylor Converse Tennies. Aren't they tubular?

In other news, I have been itching to do some woodworking/building... just to keep my hands busy. I love working with woods, and it's been a while since I made anything. I decided to see what was out there on the web in terms of CAD software, (that stands for Computer Aided Drafting for you newbs)... yeah, do remember that I used to be a mechanical engineer. Well I was not too surprised when I saw that Google had a free app called SketchUp. Amazing, easy, intuitive. It's incredible the tools that are avilable for free these days. Im like additicted to it now, making shapes, listening to Gn'R, and stimulating my upper right cerebral cortex. I forgot how much I like to design stuff.

Anyhow, if you guys are ever looking for good free software, check Google first, they have almost everything and it's usually really easy.

Tomorrow Jen and Katie each have seperate parties to go to, so Andy and I are going to be banished to 'who knows where' -- I'm totally pumped about the randomness and unplanned nature of the upcoming afternoon. I'm sure I'll have a good story.

Nighttime Narnia

I've been reading the kid's the Narnia books. A chapter a night. We are alomst done with the second and most famous "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I bought them the collection for Christmas. They are really great, I forgot how much I liked the stories as I haven't read them for about 30 years. The english dialogue is a little tough to work sometimes, but I usually just replace some of the antiquated words with stuff the kids can understand. I'm getting a lot out of it myself too, symbolisim, themes that I couldn't comprehend in the younger years. If anyone wants to borrow the book(s) when we are done, let me know.

Checkers anyone?

The kids have been playing Checkers. I almost forgot how to play it, it's been so long. It's so funny to watch their faces as they try to pick their moves. One thing is for sure, they NEVER see it coming when they get jumped. The first couple times they would freak-out when they would lose a piece. But now they have bent the rules in the name of harmony -- yesterday I walked in and saw Katie and Andy randomly "kinging" each other whenever someone got jumped. Hey, whatever works.

Hula Bowl

Today Katie and I went bowling with our Adventure Guides program. It was a hula theme so we tried to dress accordingly. It was pretty funny to see how a group of girls approached bowling. There was a lot of focus on what color ball you had, and then they would all sit in little circles on the area where you are supposed to 'approach' the lane and socialize -- while confused fathers would try to keep the pace of the game going.

It definitely got a little competitive for Katie as she focused on her score vs. the other girl in our lane. It was a good thing she was focusing on the other girl, cause she whooped me by 22 points. In fact, pretty much all the 6-year old girls beat me today... yes, it's true, I bowled a 75.

It's pretty impressive actually, considering I was trying AND the bumpers were up. It was like a bad voodoo curse or something. I was worried about being mocked until I realized that all the dads in our group sucked at bowling too, just not quite as bad as me. I started to feel really guilty when I realized there were trophies to be won and it was based on combined father/daughter score. Katie came up with a 97 (in case you are bad at math) and I was very proud of her -- but I completely wrecked her chances at winning anything. Mommy is the bowling champ of the family, maybe she can pinch-bowl for me next time.

Fall 2008 Slideshow

We took ooooodles of photos this last couple months. Here's the montage, music compliments of Green Day.

Enjoy.

FALL 2008 SLIDESHOW

Supermom

Jennifer has been going about a zillion miles an hour recently. Teaching, mothering, being a good wife, managing the house... she's like a soccer-mom on steroids. Yesterday I come into the kitchen and finder her tying ribbons to pine-cones. (I see this and I'm thinking to myself, "Don't ask, or it's going to be you tying those ribbons.") Instead I decided to take a picture of my crafty little wife as she was preparing a couple dozen of these bird feeder projects for Katie's daisy troop.

I didn't realize that she was saving the real fun work for me, and soon I found myself drilling about 200 holes into old tennis ball cans for another planting project.

Katie was sick today, but she's doing OK. She's got a wicked cold and we kept her home from school. I think she found the experience pretty dull as she got to see what mom and dad do when she's not around, which is basically work. She asked if she was going to school tomorrow and I told her, "we'll see how you feel." To which she responded, "I hope I get better cause it's boring here."

Grassy Heads and a new Pres

So Nana got us a couple of these chia-type things. (I guess this is the Millennium version with recycled coconut husks or something.) but the premise is basically the same: water the little brown balls-heads and they grow grassy hair. Kinda weird, but definitely fun. The kids have been enjoying checking on them daily. I think Katie is a little self-conscious or something cause she keeps asking if she can cut the 'hair' on hers (hers is the right one.)

On another note: big day for the ol USA today with Obama getting sworn in on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I spent a lot of time during the day thinking about it, and most of that was considering if I would try and explain the event to Katie this evening. I was wrestling with the idea of tainting her innocence with the ugly concept of inequality and civil rights. I mean, shes going to learn about it soon enough, and part of me wants to let her live without that ugliness in her sweet little brain for as long as possible. The other part of me wanted to use the occasion to address the subject and hopefully reinforce the importance of the issue and the event.

I finally decided on the latter. I probed at first and it turns out that she watched the inauguration in school, and had a pretty firm grasp of who King was and what he did, from their discussion. Once again, kids always know more than you think. We talked it through and I was left feeling pretty happy about the idea that our kids might actually live in world that is better than the one we started in.

You know, you hear these words like equality and liberty everyday, and often don't recognize that we still have a lot of work to do in order to live up to the amazing ideals set forth by our forefathers. We are such a young country with such a radical charter. No one has ever tried to do this kind of stuff before. I end the day feeling an increased sense of personal responsibility, hope, and faith in the promise of our children. Good job today America.

Bike Ride

Today we decided to take a bike ride. Normally we just pedal around out in front of the house, up and down the street. Today was different, in that we put the bikes in the car and drove to a place that had a nice sloping downward paved trail, about 1/2 mile long, near the house. Jen dropped me and the kids off at the head, and the plan was that we would call for a pick-up once we reached to bottom.

It was a beautiful day, clear, sunny, warm. However, none of these factors seemed to matter to Andy who decided that it was perfect weather for a complete meltdown. As soon as we had made it about 100' into the ride, Andy started crying.

"My legs hurt!"
"My hands hurt!"
"This helmet itches my head!"
"I'm hungry!"
"I'm too tired to coast!"
"The road is too bumpy!"
"This is too fast!"
"You're pushing me too fast!"
"I want to go home!"

All of these lines were screamed and repeated with accompanying tears, while I pushed Andy on his bike at about 1 mile-per-hour. To make matters worse, he kept the brakes on full the entire time. So basically, it was like this: Katie would ride back and forth like a saint, while I would ride my bike 100 feet, get off, come back and push Andy (who refused to pedal at all) until we got to my bike: rinse and repeat.

You should have seen the people's faces as they passed us going the other way. The non-parents that passed wondered if he was OK, and the parents just looked at me with genuine pity. I stayed pretty 'Zen' about the whole thing and didn't get angry at him, it was my idea after all. I tried to remind myself of some of the tantrums that I had pulled when I was a kid and how my parents handled it. Honestly, he was so totally over-the-top on the dramatics that I had to keep from giggling to myself occasionally, when considering the amount of effort he was putting into being miserable.

We finally made it to the end of the trail. When Andy saw the park at the final destination, he all of a sudden transformed into a normal kid and began to pedal and enjoy himself. The last 2 minutes of the ride were what I had hoped we would have experienced from the beginning: the three of use riding along side each other, smiling in the sun.

We called mommy for the pick-up. We waited for rescue and the kids enjoyed some PB&Js with a few Snickers bars, while Daddy enjoyed the silence and the shade.

Old School Gaming

Before today's post, I must take care of the cliff-hanger loose-end I left in the last post. What was so miserable about Sunday? Well the Chargers got knocked-out of course. Twas a sad day in San Diego after the improbable streak that led the bolts to the second round of the play-offs. But such is the way of the Charger fan.

On to today.

Long, ago, in a land before microchips, Mario, and HD, we used to entertain ourselves by sitting around the kitchen table and playing classic board games. This year we decided to beef-up our board-game collection and get back to the basics of good wholesome family fun at the hands of legends such as "Sorry, Monopoly, and Operation". There is something that makes me feel really good inside when I open our closet and see all these old games. Maybe it's the nostalgia of it all, or maybe it's the anticipation of knowing that each of these simple boxes hold the promise of a lot of great family interaction and important life lessons.

While video games are awesome for quick thinking and problem solving skills, they definitely can't match the old board games when it comes to basic strategy and interpersonal dynamics. The kids are learning quite a bit in terms of thinking about the ramifications of your moves (a little thing I like to call strategy), and also about sportsmanship. We typically play one every other night. Usually its a lot of fun until one person starts to become the favorite to win, and then the tears usually start on the other side of the table.

I have been compensating for the "I'm gonna lose blues" by using a technique my father used to use on me when I was a kid. We used to play chess, and I was miserable -- so most times we would get to a stage where I was heading for tears at the sight of my decimated situation. My dad, being the clever, patient and kind man that he was, would simply turn the board 180 degrees and viola, I was winning!

Instinctively, Kids care a whole lot more about winning than they do about playing the game.

So I try to employ this with Katie and Andy when things get grim on their side of the board. Amazingly, it still works!

Gone Fishin'

Apparently I'm beginning my black-and-white artistic period. It's January, and I think the spirit of Ansel Adams is haunting my photo editor.

Andy got this neat-o Spiderman fishing rod for Christmas from Nana. Unfortunately, it didn't work when opened. So this weekend I spent some time tinkering with it to try and return it to operating splendor. My first discovery was that I now need some kind of visual enhancement tool to do work on tiny things. I was like, "Man, these guys use really really skinny fishing line!" It didn't take long for me to realize that old-age had insidiously played yet another trick on me... yes yes, I needed my glasses. I had gotten a pair for reading a few years ago, but I have always been able to just squint-it-out when I had too. Not this time. Grrrrr, damn you eyeballs! I was ready to poke them out in the name of insubordination.

Actually it's only one eye that has gone bad, my right one. So after I felt that I had sufficiently reprimanded my eye (and gave it ample time to beg for forgiveness) I resumed my fishing pole repair. I am happy to report that the operation was a success. Apparently the boys over at Spiderman Fihsin Pole headquarters are gettin' a little slack on the QC process. I'll spare you any more of this tedious detail, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with some sweat, a pair of pliers, and one good eye.

So we tied a little rubber fish to the line and spent the afternoon casting at shadow targets in the back-yard. I was an amazing day here in San Diego. To call it 'clear' would be an insult to Mother Nature. It almost felt like the first day of spring coming in January, and the colors were vivid, the air was warm. The contrast against the gray-ness of the last month motivated us to go up to the top of Mnt. Soledad and take a gander at the 360 degree panorama. Once we had soaked-in all the beauty we could hold, we headed back to the house for some more fishing and other general goofing around.

All-in-all a pretty perfect Saturday.

Sunday, well that was another story...

Christmas Photos and Picassa

If you haven't yet tried Picassa Web Albums, you should check it out. Yet another awesome free app from Google. I just found out they were automatically cataloging my Blogger photos for easy sharing. You can see I have added an integrated slide-show into the blog based on this functionality.

Anyhow, I am uploading a bunch of Christmas photos to Picassa for you guys to check out if you are interested. Let me know if you can see em...

Christmas 08 Web Album on Picassa

BOO!

Tonight I was sitting in my den, working on my computer. It was about 5:30, and the kids were clerarly getting antsy waiting for me to finish in the office so I could come join them for the nightly routine.

Have you ever noticed that you often don't notice when little things change for better?

For example, when you have a cold, and the symptoms slowly go away until you are well again -- but you don't really recall the exact moment when you felt better? Or when you are really tired and you drink some coffee, and later you are wide awake but you arent exactly sure when it happened?

...or when some irritating background noise (like kids being a little too loud) transitions to gentle silence?

Back to the forshadowed intro: so I was sitting in my Den, and that noise had gone from loud to quiet, but I didn't really notice. When all of a sudden...

"BOO!!!"

My heart leaps out of my chest, I jerk like I had just stuck my finger in an electrical socket, and I turn around half terrified, half furious -- only to find my daughter with her hands raised like a clawing tiger, giggling maniacly.

I was SO stunned that it took a few seconds for me to appreciate the experience. Something inside me wanted to yell, "DON'T EVER DO THAT!" But after I realized that I hadn't actually died from fright (combined with the look on my daughter's face), I found myself beginning to laugh too.

After I regained my composure, I assured Katie that I would extract sweet revenge when she least expected it. Her eyeballs got real big and the smile quickly went away as she contemplated my capabilities.

Now I wonder, is being startled worse than worrying about being startled? More on this later...

Happy Birthday Jennifer

Mommy had a birthday yesterday!

Dosen't she look great for 29?

We went to Corvette Diner to celebrate on Sunday. Was a lot of fun, the kid's loved the 50s atmosphere, especially how the sassy waitresses threw piles of straws and bubblegum at the patrons while we were eating. The kids got some cool baloon animals. Mommy got sang to and sufficiently embarrassed. Daddy got a PEANUT BUTTER and bacon hamburger -- they were offering a money back guarantee on it so I decided to take the risk, I have to say it was amazing and I will definitely try a home-cooked version of it in the kitchen-lab soon.

Afterward we walked over to this cool little leatherbound bookstore and we were very pleased to find that they had just expanded thier selection so mommy did a little shopping and picked out a couple new volumes for the collection, including "The Wizard of Oz".

When we got home, we feasted on the Ex-Bake-Oven-made cake that the kids and I had prepared earlier in the day. You can see in the picture that the 'slices' were about 1"x1"! Not the biggest cake, but it was made with a lot of love baby.

Jennifer, you are a beautiful and classy lady. You get more awesome with every year. We are lucky to have you and we thank you for everything you do for us!

Christmas Report

Well, we are back after a long break for the holidays. It is really hard to get excited about going back to work. Looking at my email today was not a good feeling at all. But we must take-on the new year with gusto, so they tell me.

We had a great time visiting family in Colorado. It was cold, but not snowy, and just enough white stuff on the ground to make it feel like Christmas. There were a ridiculous amount of presents to be opened and the kids got so much stuff we had to leave a bunch of it in Colorado, to be delivered on the next grandma/grandpa visit to San Diego.

It was also a tough year for some of us as we had a number of losses this year in the family. There were some heavy moments for me when I looked around and could not avoid noticing those who were not there with us, for the first time. But with loss comes appreciation for what we do have, and we sure have a lot to be thankful for.



Like my sister and her family... Got to see TL and Woody's new house. It was awesome, and they took us to see buffaloes (sp?), and all kinds of other fun activities. We celebrated Megan's birthday, went swimming, went to the park, visited cousin Mike's family. It was great to be close with you guys. Hope we can make that happen again very soon.



We were also fortunate to spend much time with Chris, Joanna, and Nica. They made this amazing 12-course Polish dinner for us on Christmas eve. We opened presents together on Christmas morning. Nica is so beautiful and smart and growing up fast. All of this was of course surrounded by the opulent meals and decorations of Miss Kari and Grandpa Dick.



As for details on the presents, I think American Girl was the theme of choice for Katie this year. Reminds me of Cabbage Patch Kids. For Andy, it was Batman. If you notice the first picture in this post, you'll see that Santa came to visit us this year, in person! It was quite a surprise I can assure you, as he happened to be next door and offered to come inside to see Katie and Andy on Christmas eve. He promised to come back with the presents after they were asleep. The kids were spellbound and more excited than I think I have ever seen them. Katie couldn't believe that Santa would pay her a personal visit and felt sure that she had indeed been good this year if he would take time out of his schedule to come see her on such a busy day.



In terms of gift creativity, I think Jen wins the award for coolest vintage gift. It's no secret that Grandpa Dick is not a easy kid to shop for, and his daughter decided to go on Ebay and find a 1973 donut making machine. (Apparently grandpa used to make all kinds of donuts back in the days of young-Jennifer.) As you can tell by the picture, she hit a clear home-run. Grandpa had it fired-up and working the very next day.

Ill post some more details in the days to come. Happy new year everyone, good fortune, good health, and good love to you all.

Christmas, Moses & Indianna Jones

Nana came to visit this week, and you know what that means... early Christmas! We decided not to decorate the house for the holidays this year because we were going to be spending Christmas in Colorado. So when nana showed-up with a bundle of goodies, we didn't have a tree to put them under. In typical nana-creative fashion, her and the kids colored-up a tree and stuck it on the wall. We even hung the stockings from my camera tripod for added effect. Note the photo.

Katie came to me just before dinner on the day Nana arrived:

Katie: *Excited* "Daddy, We are opening presents tonight!"

Me: "Who decided this?"

Katie: "We voted."

Me: "But I didn't vote"

Katie: *smiling* "You didn't need to!"

OK: 1) when did this become a democracy? and 2) since when does my vote not count? I guess 3 votes is all you need for a majority around here! No problem, I like gifts, so we did the Christmas thing that night. Lots of great presents, thanks Nana!

Andy got an Indiana Jones Lego set which we built last night. It features the "Ark of the Covenant" from the first movie. Andy asked me what the ark was, so I told him the story of Moses, and the Ten Commandments. The story was a bit long and Andy's eyes began to wander toward the end, he was clearly getting bored by my rendition. So at the end to spice it up, I told him that the Ark had the power of God, and some people say that it can shoot fire and lightening. Andy's eyes then immediately lit up, followed by, "WOW, COOL!"



The next morning Andy was telling Nana bout the Lego set:

Andy: "And snakes drop down here, and there's a skeleton on a chain, and these traps fall down...

Andy: :...and Indiana Jones has LASERS!"

Apparently the Moses story translates to 'Indiana Jones has Lasers' Oh well, I still got a few more chances to work on the details.

Gingerbread, Skating, Bolt and Flooding

Here are the pics of the awesome gingerbread cookies Jen and the kids came up with. Pretty rad eh? Also, note the plate they are displayed on. I made that plate 34 years ago!

Yesterday Katie and I went Ice Skating together at the local rink. The Adventure Guides program reserved the whole thing for 2 hours. I was really nervous cause I had no idea how to ice skate. I think I've done it a couple times as a kid -- it's just not a big SoCal thing! So we got there and laced up and hit the ice. It was funny both Katie and I started-out CLINGING to the side of the rink, looking like total noobs as we tried to find some way to stand on our own.

I found it's not too different from roller-skating and was able to get some stability after a few minutes. Then we took each other's hands and started venturing out into the traffic of skaters. After a few laps, I must say we were looking pretty good. Katie would occasionally lose her balance and daddy would pull her back-up, never letting go all the while. By the end of the 2 hours, we had progressed to "advanced-noobs".

Also we participated in "Roostisha-on-Ice", and were treated to a performance from one of the local ice-ballerinas. I think Katie's favorite part was when they turned off all the lights and we skated on the crazy dark disco colors to High School Musical Songs. It was a lots of fun to be sure.

Also earlier in the day, we went and saw Bolt. I was totally happy with the movie and would recommend it. Funny, clever, and a nice new take on a tired genre of dog-based kid's movies.

Unfortunately I came down with a rough cold today. On top of that, it rained like crazy here today, and our driveway started flooding. Jen and I frantically tried to bail out the water, that was pooling in our driveway and called the emergency drain people. We seem to have been successful in thwarting what could have been a major disaster if no-one was home.

Exciting 24 hours.

Digital Natives

A number of things have happened recently to contribute to this post. At work, I have been spending a lot of time trying to figgure out how to identify the next big thing in consumer electronics. One of the perspectives regarding the youth of today, is that they are Digital Natives. This term refers to someone who 'grows-up' in a world where everything is digital... i.e. our kids.

Examples of this mind-shift between us and our kids are common. I am reminded of times when I have to explain to Andy why we can't 'fast-forward' when watching a show because it's 'live TV'. Or when Katie looks at me like I'm lying when I tell her that we can't just watch anything she wants on TV, whenever she wants, that some shows aren't available.

This notion of 'on-demand' pervades the little-tykes heads. The idea that everyone and everything is always available whenever the whim presents itself. It's a bit frightening actually, and I'm sure our parents said the same thing about us when the PC came about, or the Internet.

OK, so what's my point, why all the tech-talk? Hang-on, still more preamble... Well, I was talking with a buddy of mine the other day. He has a few kids who have taken on the video-camera as a new toy. They are making movies and uploading them to YouTube. His kids are scarcely older than mine. They actually have some pretty entertaining stuff. So we have started messing around as well...

Then earlier this week we were getting a new tape in the camera to get ready for Christmas. We decided to watch the old tape that was in the camera for giggles and came across some of our Hawaii video from May. There was one scene in there where Katie did the filming. Katie was emulating the kinds of things her parents say when they interview you on film. It's pretty cute, I especially like how she moves the camera around. Notice how Jen wrestles with either a) to tell her to hold it still, or b) to try and move her face to the center of where Katie is pointing. Check it out.



OK, so to my point, finally. Well, actually I didn't really have one. Just a bunch of semi-related video type stories that I thought might become interesting if spewed forth on the blog. Hey, not every post is a masterpiece.

Suzie Homemaker

I gotta give cred to the wife when it comes to cooking. One of the many things I need to continue to remind myself not to take for granted. This christmas, mommy has been furiously baking for the many Christmas events we have been a part of. Ill post some shots of the masterpieces soon.

Christmas Parade

Last weekend we had the annual La Jolla Christmas Parade here in the village. It's a pretty big deal for our little community, and it feels like the whole town shows up for it.

This year, Katie was supposed to be in the Parade for BOTH Brownies and Adventure Guides. Well, since you can't be in two places at once, we decided she'd walk with the Brownies this time around. Her and Mommy spent all morning making her a 50's costume, and then daddy and Andy sat on the curb and waited for the big 'passing'. It was pretty neat. I think this was the first parade for us where a kid was in the line-up.

Andy and I had a fun time checking out the stuff before the parade, and we got to see the Nativity camel up real close, which was a thrill. Those camels are some funky animals for sure. Good stuff!

There was also this one really strange and wonderful moment that also happened during the parade. Well, let me back-up. So during the parade, the people walking down the street throw a lot of candy at the kids on the curbs. Andy was delighted by this fringe benefit (like most kids) and pounced on the showers of sugar as soon as they came near him. Being the strict dad that I am, I let him eat 4-5 'fun sized' treats in the course of about 10 minutes.

Then the sugar rush took over.

The parade came to a halt and there was a band nearby that was playing some typical marching music, heavy on the drums. The beat and the sugar triggered a reaction in Andy's brain and motivated him to get up and start dancing in street. Like, WAY out there. I think he kinda 'became' part of the parade for about a minute, completely entertaining me, and about 2-300 other watchers. He was seriously shakin' his stuff. I think I saw renditions of the robot and a few other moves that have yet to be invented. The crowd was literally clapping and cheering him on. I was so stunned that I totally neglected to take any pictures!

Anyhow, it was a classic Andy moment that will go on his list of 'very cute things I did when I was a kid'.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Tonight Jennifer went out for dinner with her girlfriends. The kids and I decided to make the most of our 3-some quality time and did a bunch of fun things. After we finally got Andy to eat his dinner, we did a scavenger hunt for dessert. I made a bunch of clues on paper and hid them aroound the house. As Katie is now reading, she would struggle through the clues and the two kids ran all over the place until they finally found some lollipops and candy at the end of the trail.

We then did a reindeer craft that we had picked up last week in Palm Springs, and then finally settled into watch "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" on the DVR. You know, the old animated puppet version with Bing Crosby.

The kids are really thinking a lot about Santa right now, and there were lots of questions from the get-go. I found myself really enjoying the show as the kids would ask questions about Santa and the show was answering them as they went along. They have 100% faith in Santa and are ready for him to come visit. Katie was especially curious aobut the naughty and nice part, and kept asking is she had been 'good' this year. You could tell she was worried about some of her less than perfect moments. I told her that Santa is always watching, and that he knows we aren't good all the time, but the more-good we are, the more presents he is allowed to bring us on Christmas.

As I tucked the kids in for bed, I first put down Andy, and then Katie. As I was leaving the room and turning off the lights, she started to get out of bed...

Me: "What are you doing Katie?"

Katie: "I'm going to say a prayer."

(I smiled and nodded, and walked about the door. Of course I couldn't help myself but to linger and eavesdrop a little... her prayer was something like this...)

Katie: "Dear God, thank you for making me happy, and thank you for my friends and my school. I love Andrew. And I love all my family. I will be really good and I will not fight with Andrew. And he will be good too. I promise to be nice and to sing Christmas Carols..."

At this point our noisy heater came-on and I couldn't hear anymore! Realizing that god was probably trying to tell me to stop eavesdropping on a private conversation, I walked off feeling pretty good about life, and thankful for my kids, and for Santa himself.

I am ready for Christmas now, it's gonna be awesome!

Here's the youtube on the show we watched in case your own Chrismas spirit needs a little kindling...

Upside Down

Katie is definitely developing her motor skills. I see her climbing trees, doing the monkey bars, and most recently... cart-wheels. Oh and how can I forget, climbing counters and cabinets... The last ones are becoming quite a concern as you can imagine. We can officially say that nothing is out of reach in the house anymore and we are needing to get more creative and resolute with hiding things in the name of protection.

Also last night our Indian Guide's 'vests' arrived. These are suede vests that Katie and I wear for our events, we put patches on them, and so on. They are kinda cool, however, they arrived pre-assembled! So daddy busted out the needle and went to town on the sewing last night. I was up into the wee hours of the morning stitching these things together. My fingers are so sore today I can barely type on my PC! However, those home-economic classes from high-school really paid-off as I can say that the look pretty sweet.

Thanksgiving

We decided to have a rather non traditional Thanksgiving this year. We packed up the kids and headed out to Palm Springs for a few days. Our room was super tiny so we crunched-in and tried to spend most of our time at the pool and outside. The weather was great and there were all kinds of fun events going on at the resort where we stayed. Each day they would bring in some fun activities for the kids, right on the front lawn. Here were some of the activities: Jumpie-jumps, hula hoops, carmel apple stations, petting zoo, reptile show, train ride, mini-golf, bubble making stations, craft stations, and more.

Thanks mommy for arranging it all!

Summer 2008 Slideshow

With my new PC, I find it a lot more convenient to blog since we have all the media stuff in one place once again -- so I've been on a tear here, trying to make-up for my weak-sauce posting frequency. Hopefully my small but dedicated readership can keep up!

I made the Summer 08 Slideshow tonight. Watching it, I guess I don't feel too bad about slacking with the posts. We did a LOT over the last few months. I didn't even relize how much less stressful life has been, but I guess it has. Kinda like when you have a cold, and you don't notice when it's finally gone... it's like that.

Enjoy the show.

Summer 2008 Slideshow

Legos and iPhones

Cool new app on on my iPhone called Voxie lets me do voice recordings. So I got one of Andy today talking about his Legos and why he likes them.

Click here to hear Andy talk about Legos

Along the lines of amazing innovations like Legos... Thos of you who know me, know I'm a gadget guy, but I gotta say, the iPhone is by far the most awesome peice of technology to hit the planet since the PC. It's really amazing to have the Internet at your fingertips wherever you go, and the open source app development is making for some very useful capabilities. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Top things I use my iPhone for other than making phone calls:

Driving Directions - Integrated GPS and Google Maps
Text - Keeping tabs on my homies during a boring meeting
Music - Integrated iPod
Flashslight - iPhone Flashlight works great late at night
Alarm Clock - The Phone is now my default alarm clock, with lots of different preset times
Calculator - I know, I still do some math in Marketing
Email - Both work and home emails (Try to stay away from this as I need to de-tether)

Thankgiving Sing

Katie had her Thanksgiving sing in class today. Mommy brought the video camera so I ripped a little clip for you guys. While I realize that watching other kid's school performances are often similar to going to the dentist, I tried to keep it short so you get the highlights.

Video of Katie's Thanksgiving Sing

an Oldie but a Goodie

Found this file of Katie singing one of the songs from The Little Mermaid when I was cleaning up the hard drive. Ill add a photo here from the same era to complete the experience for you. I think we took this when we were at a playground in Santa Barbara.

Click here to hear Katie sing The Little Mermaid

Turkey-Head

Andy just had his Thanksgiving "sing" at preschool. As you can see, the little guy wasn't too pleased with the wardrobe element. He was very nervous about having to get up in front of the school and sing the Thanksgiving songs with his class, but his mother bribed him with some pizza and video-games. This gave him the needed motivation and confidence to belt it out like the best of em.

sandpics 2.0

Updated to the new blogger template. Fixed the slideshow links, try em out and let me know if they work.

Adventure Guides

Katie and I have started the Adventure Guides program.

Its the same thing as the old Indian Guides program, and it's set-up for fathers and kids to spend time togehter, kinda like the scouts. I have been really looking forward to this thing since I had such a great time at it when I was a kid. The program asks each person to name themselves with an American Indian name. Katie's name is "Fluffy Fawn" and my name is "Big Buck"... (try not to laugh too hard)

So anyhow, we went up to Warner Springs for our first outing a few weeks ago. Its a really neat place with a natural hot spring. While there, Katie got to ride a horse for the first time. Of course she asked me to buy her one when she was done. I told her to talk to her Auntie Tanya to find out how much work it is but somehow I don't think hat's going to discourage her.

Pretending to be July

It has been spectacular in San Diego weather-wise. We have had these amazing clear days, perfectly still, with 80 degree weather. Yesterday, Andy and I went up to the top of our little mountain here, to the memorial on top of Soledad. you could see so far it was overwhelming. I could see Orange County, Catalina, San Clemente Island and clear to Mexico past Tijuana. It was one of those special days that I will definitely remember for a long time.

The memorial is also a special place, there are thousands of plaques of solders from all branches of the military, young and old dating back to the turn of the century. Again, overwhelming to think of the span of time and people who have fought for this country and its beliefs. Andy was mostly concerned with where these beople were buried. He has seen my dad's resting place and thought the same thing was true here... I had to exaplin to him that this was just a place for remembering those people, and that they were laid to rest elsewhere.

Andy seems to have a special insight when it comes to history and people who are no longer with us. He is always asking me about my dad, and my grandfather, our relationships, and the things we used to do togehter. When he sees me doing things, he often asks, "Did Papa teach you that?" I realize his grasp of this stuff is limited, but it brings me a great satisfaction that he is curious about it. Helps me feel like those people are continuing to live-on in ways that I hadn't anticipated. I guess I didn't have that same interest as a kid and it's great to see improvements on the gene pool.

So later in the day we headed down to the beach. The water was a miraculous 80-something and we set-off to climb around in the tide pools. The kids are getting big enough now to where they are climbing on the rock and gettting pretty adventureous. We saw lots of starfish, sea anenomes, hermit crabs and the like. Katie is definitely the little oceanographer of the family -- she sticks her fingers RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of those giant anenomes and squeals with delight as they close-up and suck on her finger. Man, even I'm not that brave...

Halloween!

Here are the goblins from this year's Halloween. Katie was a flapper (and so was mommy!) Andy was Wolverine from the X-men. Daddy was a disco country rock star. We trick-or-treatred here in LaJolla. Fun as always!