Rain-fade

so, one of the downsides of satellite TV is rain-fade; if the storm is strong enough, you don't get signal, and, well, no tv for a few minutes. Doesn't happen very often, but, during very bad thunderstorms, you get it.

Came home from work Monday night...no tv...satellite signal is low. It's snowing, but, not all that hard. Call Directv, go out and look at the dish, and there's a light layer of wet snow that's stuck to the dish...it's been 2 winters with dish, so, first time in that long that this has happened. But, no tv until the snow is removed.....

So, really can't go out on the roof to clean it off....what do you do?

Answer: go to the garage, get one of the super soaker water guns the children have spent the summer soaking me with, go up to the bathroom window, fill the gun with hot water, and shoot the dish (20' out) until the snow drops off.

Problem Solved!

Trill?

I don't know what to call this noise, I guess 'trill' works ok. He can do it all day long........always with a smile!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Boys Soccer - Saturday Game

Highlights(?) from this weekend's 10-4 loss. Tripod used for the first time...jumpy picture problems much better. Kevin did miss two events: A Christopher breakaway that didn't turn into a goal and a Matthew goal (he scored from midfield right as the quarter began).

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Christopher P/T

The over-promised under-delivered post is here...but, it's sadly anticlimatic, there's no "zing" commentary like Matthew's provided.

Christopher is doing great. His behavior is excellent (apparently he chooses only to act up at home!) and has many (many!) friends. Reading is coming along very nicely, he's very quick with math, and he's definitely taken the encouragement he received in kindergarten to heart. Christopher would often finish his work (specifically art, coloring, etc.) early and his teacher asked him, if he did finish early, to go back and add detail. So, almost all of the time, when he brings home art, there's a lot of detail in the surroundings. I'll try and find a good picture that shows this and scan it in soon.

Speech therapy is going really well.... 'th' sounds are really really good! Preview of things to come....Christopher can make a noise (like a spanish 'r', but way faster, almost a trill) that both Suzanne and I can't even hope to replicate. I'll post it, and we'll see if there are any more genetic 'anomalies' out there.

Ignore the stiff-arm (pushes)

the ref did.....I didn't even notice them until I "went to the tape"....

PS: Kevin provided the camera work for today's game; glad he enjoyed doing it.

PPS: Christopher was sitting near Kevin during one goal. You'll hear it.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sorrow Looms

Today Kevin finishes off "Where the Red Fern Grows" for his latest book report...he's on page 210 and it ends at page 240. And in the next 40 pages the tale of a boy and his 2 coon hounds turns into a tale of a sad boy and a fern planted on the graves of 2 coon hounds. :(

Went out with Suzanne last night and saw "American Gangster". Good, but if either of us would have realized how much of a drug-focus the movie had, we probably wouldn't have went. Oh well, should have known better.

Current book: "Gettysburg" by Stephen Sears. Have slowly been working my way through Sears's books after having "Chancellorsville" recommended to me. Wish I would have done the books/battles in order, but, oh well.

Matthew plays soccer at 1 pm....Christopher had 2 goals in a close loss yesterday.

Will stop now....Christopher wants to play chess.

Here we go Steelers Here we go!

or something like that!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Stay, we must not lose our senses

Kevin's daughter bride is an 8th grader.....gotta like the 'older woman'!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

With Cat-Like Tread

With cat-like tread,
Upon our prey we steal;
In silence dread,
Our cautious way we feel.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I say "_____", you say "Lion"

Christopher and Matthew's parent/teacher conferences were last night. Matthew's conference featured:

• his picture journal (1st entry: football players, 2nd entry, football players, another entry..."da lions and da vikings"),
  
• his handwriting (doing well),
  
• his social acumen (he has two best buddies, Ali and Noah, and they do everything together). Teacher has learned not to seat them together....when they tell the class to take seats, if the teacher say "Sit responsibly, where you won't get into trouble" the three of them know to sit apart from each other, but, if the teacher forgets to say that, they're together like glue.

And, the highlight of my evening, doing well in participation. Just yesterday, the class was learning about the letter 'N'. One of the activities is to sit around and tell the teacher words beginning with the new letter, and she'll write them on the board. First up, hand in the air excitedly is Matthew, who says "Nittany!". Teacher looks at him funny, says, Matthew that's not a word, and the student intern speaks up and corrects her, saying it is a word and she'll explain it to the teacher later.

Woo hoo!

Christopher entry next.

Pirates of Penzance Jr. opens tonight for a 2-night tour.

Halloween Recap

No school today; think that teacher's union wised up and said "we don't want any part of your sugar-hyped over-tired kids"....

So, as you can see, Kevin went as Freddy Krueger. Kevin's been fascinated by horror movies, reads the recaps of them on Yahoo, etc. But he really hasn't seen any of them. We told him, if you want to be Freddy, you have to watch Freddy...but, that didn't happen, and last night he went out.

9 pm last night, boys are settling in for bed, Kevin walks into the room, and I put on the Nightmare on Elm Street showing that we had Tivo'd a few months back. Movie starts out with this girl wandering around in this furnace area and Freddy stalking her and getting ready to do his thing. Kevin is freaking out...this part wasn't in any of the recaps or reviews that he's read, he doesn't know what's going to happen. "Dad, what's going to happen?" I don't know. "Dad, can you watch it and then tell me what happens and then rewind it" No. "Dad, I don't think I'm old enough for this'. Ok, don't watch it.

We never did get to the end of that scene....he slowly edged out of the room, was watching the TV through the crack in the door, and then left before Freddy got close enough to do ???? (I still don't know, and don't remember, what happens next!)