Best of...worst of

Best of New Years Eve?:   playing Cranium and Uno with the family

Worst of?:  that Cranium game can be really unfair when cards like this come up!

damned geography genius!

Iphone....

With all of the flying I've been doing, it had slowly become apparent to me that it was damned annoying to have to carry around my ipod and my phone, when, I had given Suzanne an Iphone for her birthday and could see how cool it was etc.....

But, the Iphone couldn't work with work, so, that was a problem.  So, I started looking around at the newer Blackberry's, the Bold, and the Storm.  And those would have been okay too, but, they wouldn't have sync'd up with Itunes very well, and that would have been annoying given how many podcasts I listen to now.

In December, work announced that they had reconfigured/updated their systems to work with the Iphone....and that was it, I was off to upgrade to the Iphone.

It's the best thing.......ever.

I never knew how many apps there were for it; that's been the thing I've learned since I've had the phone that's been the neatest.  There's an app that allows you to track live sports scores on the internet; it's pretty cool.  There's games games games; the variety is endless (and the boys love this feature...we're at the restaurant, and they clamor for the phones.  The ipod features are great....just sync'ing up with my podcasts and my slow but steady march to video podcasts.  We can Tivo stuff and convert it over to be seen on the Iphone.....just figured out how to do this yesterday in fact and will probably start Tivoing more in the belief that I'll get a chance to watch in on the Iphone eventually.

I've been, slowly, adding album cover art to my music library...it's been a pain in the ass matching up the stuff that Itunes hasn't been finding automatically, have to open up amazon.com, find the album, and update all the info for those songs.   So that's cool now, seeing the album artwork when I never cared about it before. 

And the price, and size, of portable hard drives has come way way down.....using some Christmas gift cardage I just ordered a hard drive (the one I've had for 6 years, at least, that I've stored my music on, is full...it was 80G and cost about $350 and is about 1/2 the size of my closed laptop....I just ordered a 320G for $90 and it's about the size of my Iphone.    So, I'll be able to carry my music (and video) around now.

Eastern Poetry

Some haiku's, submitted for you approval:

Another year ends
Cleveland Browns go home go home
Yes, you suck again!

Nothing game Sunday
Tomlin plays Ben; why Mike why?
My brain hurts; Ben's too!

Congress give automakers money
Needs to bail out the Lions!
Worst team ever? Oh yes!

Best o' the Presents

Maybe not the actual 'best', but, the one each that I'm going to comment on

Kevin - Sibelius 5 Student Edition.  Music composing software....we'll see what comes of this

Christopher - Star Wars.  The big guy had a very very Star Wars-y Christmas.....but, he probably hit his cutest when he spends a lot of time looking over this book.

Matthew - Nerf Vulcan First Strike - Haven't yet loaded the batteries into this puppy....am kind of afraid too...don't know if this kind of firepower is legal!

Suzanne - Santa might be arriving late and bringing this soon, so, that would definitely jump to the top of the list. 

Scott - Suzanne, sometime during the kitchen reconstruction, went to Home Depot and took Christopher along....Christopher saw this book and insisted that this would be Dad's Christmas present (along with a Home Depot gift card).  I'm sure the look on my face was priceless....

Post-Christmas Blah

Spending Saturday morning at the Honda dealer getting the 'service' on Suzanne's Odyssey....blah.

Raining steadily and all the snow is going going gone.....blah.

Went to Selfridge yesterday......I-96 between Howell and Brighton was an ice sheet....got to watch two cars spin out and cross three lanes of traffic to end up in the ditch, one collecting another car while doing so......blah.

Enough blahs....

Boys are happily enjoying the Christmas 'goods'......Santa brought a Wii Fit for the family, trotted that out the other night.....pretty interesting.   Took the boys to Zap Zone last night for a late-Kevin-birthday outing; boys had a good time blasting their opponents into oblivion. 

Sunday's a big football day.....Dolphins (Suzanne) and Chargers (Grandma) are playing in win-and-you're-in games; Matthew ought to be in seventh heaven for those 8 hours.   Happily, the Steeler fans in the house are content with letting the JV beat up on the Browns....

Blah. 

Weekend Update - Late Edition

Friday:  Wake up to 5 inches of snow with more coming....school is closed; Christmas break comes a day early.  Boys are overjoyed by this development.  I had planned on taking the day off to try and get various parts of the house to completion anyway, so, the school closing was another potential delay...happily, the boys either played outside or were overjoyed to see the Wii hooked up again and busy doing that, so, they weren't that big of a pain. 

Friday and Saturday and Sunday:  Suzanne and I have spent a lot of time over the last week painting, and repainting, the basement.   Both colors of blue are very prone to having some white patches come through if you are too light with the roller, so, a 2nd coast was a necessity.  Spent a lot of time doing paint around the trim only to have the contractor come through with a messy caulk job that forced us to go back over those sections again.  Anyway, I think we're finally done with the painting.

looking down the stairs

 

looking from the stairs across the room

looking back towards the stairs (the couch is not long for this house....we're scouting replacements)

towards the walkout

Saturday we finally began putting together the Ikea-closet for Kevin's new room.  This wasn't the easiest of chores...the sliding doors, in particular, were a very frustrating Swedish-engineering moment.  But, the unit is up, and we've installed some drawers and baskets and such.

Also spent a lot of time trying to get the kitchen to a more complete state before the Christmas cookie party on Sunday, so, we installed the last cabinet (a set of shelves) and put the hood over the oven (that was another pain in the ass) and put handles on almost everything (we're still short handles on the cabinets over the refrigerator from the beginning of this project, but, those handles require disassemble of the cabinet, so, we haven't been in a rush to do this).

Cleaning the house before an event is always a chore....starting from the point we did, most of the basement items in the sun room, most of the kitchen stuff in the living room.....I'm in no hurry to do that again, we definitely over-committed ourselves.  But, it's all closer to being done and put away, so, that's a good thing. 

We won't talk about the junk and trash piled in the garage!

Boys had a soccer game on Saturday....they lost 2-0 and certainly had plenty of chances.  For some reason, the team didn't want to crash the net, so, while we had a lot of offensive pressure, it was usually pretty easy for the opposing goalie to scoop up the ball.  Oh well.

The aforementioned cookie party went well; the cousins all had a good time and reacted well to Wiley (who, for the most part, was pretty well behaved, and, very quickly realized that the younger cousins were a sure bet for crumbs on the floor).  Everyone seemed to have a good time, the chicken curry was great,the cookies turned out well (after a few false starts) and Suzanne and I did nothing Sunday night but relax!  

Weekend Update Delayed

Just too pooped to post.....spent a lot of time the last three days getting the basement and kitchen to a complete state for the Christmas cookie party this afternoon.

Quick Update:  Snow snow snow....soccer loss, 2-0, on Saturday.  Shelves, oven hood, and handles installed. 

Pictures and more tomorrow sometime.

Metallic Content

Kevin's ratio of metal to bone in his mouth has dropped quite a bit.  First, surprisingly, he lost a tooth last week; it's the first one to come out via natural causes in ages (I think the last eight have been removed at the dentist's office).  Then, today, the braces and expander came out.  Last Thursday we had the appointment where the orthodontist said "we're good"....and wanted us to come back in five weeks to get everything off.   Luckily (for Kevin!) someone had just canceled two appointments this week, so, today they are off and on Thursday he gets his retainer.

 

Kevin, with Daphne, watching Kevin's favorite show, "Seconds from Disaster" on the National Geographic channel.

Weekend Update

Whew!  Been a busy weekend.

Friday:  It's official; there's a teenager in the house.  Kevin had a great birthday.....  Perhaps one of the sweetest moments was the boys getting some of the cash they've been hoarding in their rooms and giving it to Kevin.....

Saturday:  Kevin 'gave up' tennis for cross-country, but, he also gave up tennis for the chance to ski every Saturday.  Community Ed offers a skiing program; you pay a membership fee, and you pay some bus charges, but, they'll take the kids every Saturday down to one of the three local ski areas.  Saturday was the first event, so, Kevin took his new birthday skis and off he went.  Had a great time, it was cold, but that's good, because today it was warmer and all of the snow would have been slush or gone....

Boys had a soccer game....we lost 4-3.  It was a really good game, and you could chart the team's progress by looking at how we've done against the team we faced Saturday...they were the first team we ever played on the big field, and we lost 10-0.  The second time we played them, we lost 4-1, and the game was tied 1-1 in the third quarter before we tired and gave up some goals.  Today, it was 4-3, and it could have gone either way.

Spent a lot of time this weekend trying to get the basement up to speed before we start putting stuff back into the basement.  Hopefully, the contractor will finish Monday...he just has some trim work and minor electrical work to do.  A lot of paint applied both Saturday and Sunday

 

 

A view from the door of Kevin's room into the room.  The walls are primarily dark blue, with the lighter blue as the highlight.  There will be a white shelf under that window when we are done

Towards the sliding door; in the 'outer' basement, the colors are reversed, dark blue is the highlight. 

The view towards Kevin's door.

Sunday:  More painting.  And then we went over to Eastwood to get the Christmas pictures done.  The main pose will appear in Christmas cards in the near future, but, we ended up purchasing two other poses....you can see them below.

We went in to the pictures knowing that we wanted specifically to take a picture with the boys in the pose above.  Because that pose was the highlight of the last pictures, 2 years ago.

Truth in blogging laws require me to point out that in the newer picture, Christopher was asked to stand on a block.  He's tall, but, he needed a little help to get his face above Matthew's head.

Another soccer game today as well....we lost 7-4 to the best team in our group....we've done surprising well against them, they have no losses and one tie (against us) and today was close for about half the game.  Matthew had two goals and Christopher finally cashed in, which was pretty nice to see. 

Watched the Steelers when we got home...the soccer game was at 5:40 pm, so, missed most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters.  Matthew was really into the game at the end, and went to great lengths to show Mom just how Santonio had both feet in the endzone and that it was going to be a touchdown (when, it probably shouldn't have been).  But, we celebrated, and all's well. 

Commercials

This was number 3 on Time's list of Top Ten ads for 2009.  I don't think I had ever seen the full version until I clicked on the video that I've embedded below.

You can see the whole list here. I'm not sure about the choice for #1, but #2 is pretty good...

Of course, they are remaking the greatest commercial of all time as well.

Visitors

I haven't done a post describing the visitors to the blog in a long time....really, it's the same stable of folk now for the most part.  Grandma and Aunt Melanie; Niceville; a few Lansing IP addresses (Aunt Christine, Kathy) every now and again.  Those are the regulars I know...you walk into a bar I guess, and the same gang is always there.

There's a fair smattering of random visits that don't last that long related to internet searches.  Been a few recently looking for 1st grade spelling tests...I think there was one for "Babenhausen elementary school"....had a run on "dangers of tubing" searches for a while that referred people to the infamous Crab Island post.  Not so many visits from far off places due to the 'next blog' button....that only happens about every 6 weeks now.

I guess the most interesting thing on the visitor front gets to the casual approach I've taken towards the blog over the last 13 months.  At first, I took great pains not to mention certain phrases....the home town, the last name, the schools, because I knew, search engines would pick those names up, and I might get visitors from the community who know us and thought that avoiding that was a good thing.  But, over time, I relaxed, or, got lazy, or whatever, and those words began to creep in (the basketball post a few posts down has the school, for example).....it's just harder to always remember to write generically.  And I may have to dump the blog at some point if the worst case happens and someone from the community gets out here, discovers it, and somehow someway it turns out to embarrass Kevin or something like that.  But, I guess the chance of that is pretty remote.

That being said, there's the regulars I know, and there's the regular, now, that I don't.  98.208.53.130.   Found the blog after doing a search on the busing cuts and saw my post to the superintendent that went nowhere, and now, not every day, but, every couple of days, there's a visit.  So, we have one fan in Okemos at least.

Welcome to our corner of the internet.  Say 'hi' if you see us at the Meijer or something!

Washington - Video

The video camera, at least for me, isn't the best way to capture a sight-seeing trip like the recent trip to Washington (in fact, in Europe, it only really came in handy on the river tour...the rest is better captured through photographs).

It's good for catching moments (I wish I had taken some video of the Schoolhouse Rock songs) and this is one of them...it's the first day, we're on the way to the Capitol, and have stopped at the Grant Memorial.

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

Weekend Update

Friday:  Kevin had his winter recital.  Kevin was going to do the fourth movement of the Telemann concerto that he's been working on, but, due to some miscommunication with the accompanist, he ended up doing the 2nd movement again.  I think this was a good thing, because, now I have a version of that movement on tape that isn't dreadful.

 

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

Saturday:  Boys had their first soccer game in a while, won 6-0.  Both boys played well; Christopher, I thought, really had a good game and did exactly what I wanted him to do, so, that was a good thing.  Matthew, I hear, scored a goal, but, I didn't see it (I think I was too busy tying shoes...oh well).

Finally got the plumbing connected on the sink, so, that's operational.  Need to make a tweak to the hot/cold supply lines (I did it exactly how the directions said, but, Suzanne would like to push the faucet backwards for hot, not forward, so, I'll have to make the switch).  Disposal is installed...plumbing is a little bit goofy, especially the drain from the dishwasher, so, I'm going to have to look at it a bit more in the coming weeks.

Sunday:  Most of today was lost to trying to get the basement ready for baseboard and casing installation; we've been trying to get the bulk of the painting done.  Ripped out the carpet on the stairs (20 years of dirt under that!...yuck).  Been painting the doors, etc.  We got our Christmas tree last weekend; finally started putting lights and ornaments on it this weekend. 

Basketball

Well, today was Christopher's first basketball practice.  You might have thought it was the end of the world.....or close to it.

The big guy came home sick from school Monday afternoon, and spent the next 8-10 hours alternately drinking Sprite and water and puking his guts out.  So, even getting to basketball practice Tuesday night was in doubt.  But, he woke up Tuesday, exclaimed "my tummy doesn't hurt!" (he was literally writhing in pain Monday evening..) and, after spending the morning at home, went to school at around 11 am.  The last thing I told him was "I'll be getting you at Kids Club and then we'll be going to basketball.  I know you don't want to go, I know you've been complaining....let's not have any problems."

Hah.  Like that was going to work.

So, I get him, and immediately he's at it..."I don't want to go...you can't make me go....I'm not going to do it...I'm not going to do it"....and on and and on as he gets in the car...he hits me with his backpack, he pouts, he yells, he's not convinced by Kevin, who played 4 years of rec basketball and liked it, and is not swayed at all by understanding that Kevin had to try all the sports...that's the rule.  Remind Christopher that we went through this before we went to the basketball clinic he wasn't happy about it and afterwards he said he had fun....no dice.  No No No No NO!  No means NO!

Steadily goes downhill from here....Christopher gets increasingly nasty towards me on the drive there and then, we arrive.  He's still saying he's not going to do it as we walk in to the school and he barely can acknowledge the coach.  He stands, on the side of the court, and doesn't participate for 10 minutes.  He threatens to leave...I threaten him with a punishment of no TV for all of basketball season, and, that threat convinces him to stay.....I leave the gym for a while to leave him there by himself just watching and then, eventually, he goes over and begins to participate.

Let me backtrack here....the team, I see upon arriving, is a 2nd grade / 3rd grade team.  Christopher knows some of the 3rd graders from Bennett Woods, but, that's about it.  He's still the tallest kid here.

They start off doing suicides.....there's three pretty athletic third graders, they finish 1-2-3 and Christopher is 4th of the 7 that are there.  They do a dribbling drill, he does ok....they do another dribbling drill with switching hands and he does, to me, awesome, some very nice switching of hands and moving through the slalom they set up.  They do a passing and shooting drill and he scores a basket.  And practice ends, and we go home, and I call Mom...and he takes the phone and tells Mom that he scored a basket(!) and had fun.  And after the phone call ends, and the car is quiet for a moment, and we're listening to the radio, the big guy reaches over, takes my hand, and says "I'm sorry Dad"....

Flomax anyone?

For many men, Flomax, can make a difference in just one week.  That's what the commercial says at least. 

Matthew, who is slowly but surely learning to "hold it" a little bit longer each day, is utterly fascinated by this claim.  These commercials come on, and he's asking Mom and Dad if we can get these magic pills for him ("Come on Mom, they help you to hold it for 12 hours!").  Suzanne and I bust out laughing when he starts asking for the medicine for old men

Most road trips are dominated by the need to stop on Matthew's behalf.  Typically, at least once, there's an 'emergency' where he didn't give us notice and we're struggling to stop before an accident.  This latest trip, despite visiting the bathroom in Warren right before we left, we weren't even to Akron before having to pull off the road (literally, he told right as we were passing an exit, and the next one was a ways off) to find a tree with his name on it. 

Washington - Epilogue

(blog note:  This is the first post using Windows Live Writer as opposed to Blogger's online editing tool.....we'll see how it looks and whether this is an improvement or not.  Posting images with Blogger's tool is a complete pain-in-the-butt....I'm hoping using this is a lot easier.)

Forgot to mention two things that we'll always remember about the trip.

1)  The boys were really really really taken with the songs from the musical.  So much so that they were memorizing them the second night, and so much so that they would walk down the street with Kevin singing the songs.  This was cute, and nice, as any time spent singing was time that wasn't spent bickering and fighting with each other.

2)  Kevin was really really really fascinated with the Washington Metro system.  He begged (and begged, and begged, and frankly, grew to be damned annoying about this) to take alternate routes home from certain places.  He had a map of the Metro system and laid out a new line, the Gray Line.  He cried in anguish as Suzanne and I told him that the Underground and Metro in London and Paris were way more advanced and cooler than Washington's system.  I finally relented and let him go by himself once and take a different train (red) to a different train (green or yellow) to the train we started on (orange/blue) to get back to the station near the hotel.

Oh yeah, this Live Writer is way better than the Blogger tool!

Chocolate Cognac

Suzanne's Christmas Present Arrived Today!

Installed by two Eastern European gentlemen. The smell of glue and epoxy rules in the house.

from the doorway. No lights on, no flash

the picture above, and the rest of them, have the overhead light turned on