Blogrilla

My father-in-law arrived yesterday afternoon via Delta. When asked how the flight was he said that it couldn’t have gone better. He was cheerful and chatty as we waited a very long time for his baggage to arrive. He eventually needed a wheelchair but that was ok. He was very chipper the whole way home and got along just great with the kids. He played chess with the kids and “my little pony” and “life”, I think. Dinner went well and he slept right through the night.

He’s been very little trouble and none of my fears have come true. How great is that?

The long weekend is coming up. I think we’ll go visit the puppies tomorrow. We have to make a selection on behalf of my sister-in-law soon. We might keep one for ourselves too. We’ll see.

I will probably have to work over the weekend, but it won’t be all weekend. It will be more on the order of “a couple of hours” here or a couple of hours there.

The weather should be good. The father-in-law wants to go geocaching but he doesn’t really seem like he’s up to very much walking. I will have to select one that isn’t far from the car.

I think we will still go to Halibut Point, near Rockport and Stage Fort Park in Gloucester. We will probably go to Salem and Marblehead on a different day. There’s some kind of fishing festival/competition on Wakefield on Tuesday morning. I think all the kids will get a trophy which would make my kids feel pretty good.

Monday morning I need to be more or less available because my employer’s new SAP Finance system goes live in France then. And I am positive they will want something.

Tuesday evening we will go to Wakefield for the fireworks. They always put on a good show and we always have a good time there.

The kids are all happy and healthy.

So, all is well. Have a good independence day weekend!

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

So I got a message on my blackberry last night from the director of corporate finance at my new employer. Let me just say up front that I’m new to the blackberry and still learning the finer points of operation.

He wanted to know if he could have his username/login for the new project that’s about to go live next week. We’ve been keeping those away from the general public to limit mischief.

I forwarded the message to my boss asking if it was ok.

Only I didn’t forward the message.

I replied to it.

So the director of corporate finance got a reply from me asking if it was ok to give him his user ID and password!

I had made a huge mistake! D’OH!!

I found this out when he replied to me:

“I don’t know if its ok with your boss, but I think you should give me my username and password.”

geez.

I didn’t call him any names (fathead) or say anything derogatory (smells like rotten fish at a willie nelson concert on the fourth of july) so at least I have that to be thankful for.

Yeesh. I need to get my blackerrying under control!

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

So a few months ago we set up Peterman on a “date”, of sorts. Well, actually it was more like four dates with a female miniature australian shepherd. Her name was “Blue”. She has a “red merle” coat which is sort of the opposite of Petermna’s blue merle coat.

Everything has been going fine and we were expecting her to give birth in a couple of weeks. I’ve gathered up nearly all the supplies I need to build a whelping box. It was as a favor to Blue’s owner.

So last night at 12:30am we got a call that Blue was giving birth! She’d had one healthy looking puppy and her owner was very excited. She invited everyone over who wanted to come.

So Liz went over and helped out. She came back a few hours later reporting that Blue had given birth to EIGHT healthy puppies! I think six of them were blue merles and most were males.

So Peterman’s a father! He also celebrated his first birthday this month. He’s has a busy year, hasn’t he?!

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

The weekend turned out to be moderately busy. It rained the whole time and on Saturday I avoided the rain and stayed inside most of the time. On Sunday I couldn’t avoid my chores any more and had to get some things done. I made some trips over to the storage unit and got soaking wet going back and forth between the car and the house. I never did really dry out either – well not until the evening. Chloe tagged along and was actually an honest-to-goodness help! Isn’t that great?! She was good company too.

We went to home depot and bought a swing – you know, for grown-ups. It’s a very sturdy love-seat sized swing that comes with a roof. The very cool part is that the back folds down, like a futon so you can get really serious about your nap-taking. They only had the floor model left and I got a great price on it. They didn’t want to disassemble it for me, but I charmed the crap out of them and they took it apart for me. I also bought a bunch of steel L-brackets that I will use for the whelping box I’m planning.

We spent some time at Barnes and Noble after our home depot time and everyone bought some books. Then we went to Applebees for lunch. Afterwards I dropped everyone else off at home and me and Ben went back to Home Depot to get the swing. He actually was a great help. It was good to have him along.

When we got home Liz helped me assemble the swing – which wasn’t easy because we didn’t have any instructions. Fortunately, she’s a whiz with those sorts of things. The rain held off until seconds after we were done. Isn’t that great? But it was still hot and humid and I was still soaked to the bone with sweat and a little rain.

On Saturday we babysat the neighbor-kid, Adam. He’s about 3 months old and Liz LOVED holding him and playing with him! She didn’t want to give him back to his parents. In the afternoon I took the kids to a birthday party at one of these indoor playground places while Liz went shopping at the mall. I sat down with Ben’s cub scout manual and tried to layout an achievable plan to get some badges earned over the summer. I think we’ll have a good time with it.

This morning I went to the doctor’s for a followup visit from the gout medication I got. The nurse practitioner noticed that one of the blood pressure medications I was on is a diuretic. And that my blood pressure was a little low. So she wants me to knock off the hydrochlorothorazide (50mg, which she says is a high dose anyway). They sent off some blood work, too to see how my liver is doing and how high my uric acid levels are. Finally she said she wanted me to lose five pounds before my next visit in six weeks. She made some suggestions like not eating red meat, or cutting it down to once or twice a week, but that was really part of the gout-conversation and not so much part of the diet-conversation. She wants me to walk for 15 minutes a day and increase my consumption of fruits and vegetables. And don’t eat after 7 or 8 at night. She thinks I should have half a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast instead of the whole one with cream cheese I normally eat.

These all seem like reasonable suggestions. So I will follow them. I’ve walked for 30 minutes today and bought a couple of apples. Liz helpfully had supplied me with a fruit bowl – I just need to start filling it. Liz also thinks I eat too much, even though I’ve never thought it was that much. I usually “clean my plate” and don’t have any desert. And I guess she thinks that’s too much. And maybe it is – I understand American restaurants keep increasing the sizes of their portions and its slaves to habit like myself who just keep eating whatever is on their plate regardless of the quantity. I saw one article that suggested eating the child’s size of whatever you want to eat.

So I’ll have to work some of that out. At my previous job I was able to work out during the day – I can’t do that now. I was able to increase my activity-level and lose weight. I think these days I need to come at it from another angle – I need to eat less to lose the weight and ignore the fact that I lead a very sedentary life.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Soccer was so frustrating this year. It rained and rained and rained and they only got to play a few games. On the upside I got to watch the whole team make real progress.

Ben and Gabe’s last game of the season was last night and I have to admit that I think they played their best game ever. Sadly, they still lost 7 - 1. Nonetheless, they PASSED THE BALL! I mean, they finally started playing with the forwards staying forward and the full-backs staying closer to the goal. And miracle of miracles, they PASSED the ball!

To each other!

On purpose!!

Ben had a couple of good saves in goal and showed a lot of thought on the field. By that I mean, he didn’t just kick the ball up the field without regard to who was there. He looked for people to pass to.

And Gabriel was a mad man and managed to be in all places at once. He had some trouble in goal but only let three get by him.

They all seemed to have a pretty good time too. We posed for pictures afterwards and the coach’s wife brought cupcakes for everyone.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

So I mentioned that I’m working on the demonstration robot that comes with the Vex robotics kit. About half an hour before the kids were supposed to go to bed I got it out and started work to finish the chasis.

yes, I know I said it was done — I was wrong. I still needed to add a platform for the battery case. So Ben wanders over and starts helping. I had him screwing things together and bolting things on.

He loved it. He sat there quietly with a grin on his face. He’s so good — after a few bolts he pushed the whole assembly towards me and suggeted I put some in because it was really my robot. He wanted to take turns to make sure I didn’t feel left out.

How considerate!

It made me happy to hear that. I declined and told him to finish up what he was doing so he could move on to the next piece. He added the platform and bolted on the wheels. Then he bolted on the front bumper sensor. Its really just a button that will get pressed if the ‘bot runs in to a wall. There’s one on the rear bumper too.

He’s a good kid and I’m happy to help him with things he enjoys — like this robot. I’m going to see if Gabriel wants to give me a hand tonight. I know Chloe wants to help — she came by while Ben was adding bolts and asked if she could do the next one.

If she sees someone enjoying themselves she immediately has to get involved. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes, not so much. Its good when you’re looking for a buddy to do something with, but its not so great if you’re just having fun doing your thing.

She’ll learn.

Liz got the kit for half-price and I’m looking at all the pieces I’ve used up already and I think I might need another starter kit! or maybe I’ll just b buy the add-on kits. There’s an additional chasis kit and bunch of sensors that are interesting. There’s an extra kit with catipillar treads that could be handy.

But I think that if I want to add arms and things I’ll need the additional chasis kit and probably the hardware kit (nuts & bolts).

I wonder if they sell a wireless camera for it. Hmmm..

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Political Punch

This is Jake Tapper’s blog. He’s one of my favorite news guys. He wrote a book a while back about the 2000 Election and used to work for Salon.com.

What he has to say has a truth to it that I trust.

He’s one of the good ones.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Work continues as always. I’ve finished a kind of painful installation. The best part about it is that its over and I can move on to the next emergency.

School is winding down. I think they’re all done on Friday. I think the boys have the first week off while Chloe has a 1-week volleyball clinic coming up next week. I think its really only half a day for all five days, but she seemed excited about it and since its only for a week, why not? She’s also the only one who will be playing soccer next fall. Maybe she will get in to sports! That would be fun.

Last night, after supper I took Pete and Chloe for a walk down to Pine Banks park where we watched the boys play baseball and a soccer team practice. We took a short walk through the park up to the playground, which was packed solid! I got several compliments on Peterman. Everyone always wants to know what kind of dog he is and they admire him and offer compliments.

It was a nice walk and I think I’ll do it again tonight if I have the time. I didn’t make any more progress on either rockets or robots last night. This is a picture of the rocket Gabriel picked out. I really have to get moving on that or I’ll run out of time.

I’m fairly certain that Peterman did his job and that his lady-friend “Blue” is pregnant. I tried to stop by last night to talk about the whelping box. Liz talked me in to volunteering to build a whelping box and Blue’s owner thinks its a great idea! Naturally. Somehow she also thinks I know something about breeding dogs and she won’t believe Blue is pregnant until I grope the dog’s belly and confirm it.

So I need to get a look at the space for the box and figure out the dimensions so I can get the supplies. Wow, that’s another thing I HAVE to get done over the next couple of weeks. She’s due in about three weeks, I think. Also, Liz’s father is coming up for his first visit to Melrose … heck, to Massachusetts since we moved up here. I wonder if I can con him in to helping the kids with the rockets…

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

Mythbusters Test The Vex Robotic Design System - page 1

The MythBusters team digs the Vex system! So far, I like it too… I just have to actually DO something with it. I have a lot to do in the near future so it may take me some time to build their demonstration robot.

I have to clear the dungeon spiders, webs and dust. I also have to help the kids build their rockets in time for the rocket launching.

I don’t think I will have much time over the next few weeks for this exciting robot-building kit.

But soon!

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »

How was Father’s Day? All things considered, it was pretty good. As you might recall I had promised Chloe that she and I could sleep out in the tent this weekend. On Saturday morning I set up my tent in about 10 minutes – they boys will have no trouble with this when it’s their turn. And let it air out for the rest of the day.
The big project for the day was getting the air conditioners installed. This may have come up in the past, but this day comes once a year and the only good thing about it is that I don’t have to worry about the AC units for another 3 months. I hate this job. It has to get done and there’s nobody else who can do it, so I have to get it done, but I can’t stand it. Nonetheless I got it done in record time with the help of Chloe. She followed instructions well and only made a couple of mistakes in getting in my way while I was holding 75lbs of AC over her head.

After I got cleaned up, me and Peterman walked Gabriel over to a birthday party and came right home so we could drive Ben to an end-of-the-year/birthday party at the house of a girl in his class. What’s interesting about this is that she and her friends have discovered boys. But the boys have no idea what they’re up to. So she invited all the boys she and her friends liked to this pool party, but in a drastic change from tradition she didn’t invite everyone from her class. I was just pleased that Ben was invited to go while none of his regular buddies were. I don’t think he noticed that. Because this was also a beginning of summer party for the hosts friends and family they did it to the nines. They had a DJ, half an acre of pizza, burgers/hotdogs. But they also hired someone to do cotton candy, sandart and midway games of chance and skill. Holy cow, they had EVERYTHING there. They really went overboard. But I have to confess that it looked like a pretty rocking party!

Afterwards I took the girls over to their babysitter’s house because she had a wild turkey and 7 hatchlings (chicks? turkettes?) stuck in her yard. They wouldn’t leave. The gate was wide open and everything but I guess they’re just stupid birds. So the girls loved the turkeys and chicks.

When we returned home it was time for Liz to go get Gabriel from his birthday party. She brought the girls and his swim-trunks and brought them all over the local swimming pools. She said later that it wasn’t that much fun bringing ALL those kids who needed attention to the pool. She wished I had been there to help.

See, I didn’t go because I had to bring Ben over to his SECOND birthday party of the day. When I picked him up, the little girl’s mother jokingly forbade Ben from leaving because he was her favorite. The funny thing is that I know she likes Ben a lot and he really is her favorite of her daughter’s friends. She said that if his other party got boring that he should come back.

His buddy Finn was having several of his best friends over to LaserQuest for a couple games of LaserTag. This was a birthday party that had no girls and was 100% 10-year-old boys. It was a perfect birthday party for them. And this was a group made up of Ben’s regular friends. He later reported that he liked both parties a lot and that they were equally fun.
While he was doing that I went to Bugaboo Creek steak house and watched the USA tie Italy in the World Cup. I had a beer and some good BBQ Chicken Nachos. All in all, it was a very nice way to spend 90 minutes.

After dinner I took the kids to the local arts & crafts supply store where they have a good selection of model rockets. I bought each of the kids a model rocket and some engines in preparation for a rocket launching that the cubscouts are arranging in Amesbury. I guess there’s a model rocketry club up there who owns or leases or borrows 500 acres of fields. They’ve poured proper concrete launch pads that people can use and July 8th there’s going to be a big event there. So we have to get ready for it. I think I have a lot of model-building to oversee before then and I accidentally got some rockets that weren’t at skill level 1. So I have to cut out the balsa tail fins and carve notches and things. Its going to be some work to oversee this!

When evening rolled around Chloe started getting the tent ready by unrolling the sleeping bags and the self-inflating air mattresses. She kind of decorated the inside of the tent and got all hear gear situated. She also thought it was stuffy with all the windows open and the rain fly on. Since there was no rain in the forecast I took the fly off so we could sleep under the stars. Sadly, Grace couldn’t keep from crying because she knew she wasn’t coming too. I couldn’t bear to see the tears so I brought her along. What a softie, huh?

It was a mistake.

While we all three fit ok, we didn’t fit great. Grace is kind of a mobile sleeper and she wanders all over the place in her sleep. She and Chloe kept each other up for quite a while. There was bickering and tent-etiquette that needed to be learned. I eventually managed to doze off despite all this. But around midnight it started thundering and lightening. It was the rain on my face that woke me up though. And I can tell you I was in a lousy mood about having to get drenched while putting the stupid rain-fly back on.

The good news is that the girls weren’t disturbed a bit. They were passed out cold and have no recollection of foul weather. I had a hard time sleeping on the overly firm ground. I think its been too many years and too many twinkies since I last slept on the ground because I tossed and turned all night. At 4:30am Chloe decided it was morning time and she started to get up and go in the house. I told her to forget it and go back to sleep. But I was too late. Grace was awake and wanted to go in the house too. I fought it for about half an hour.

Then we all went in and I decided this would be a great time to more fully appreciate my own bed. It’s a good thing I have Peterman to wake my ass up at 5:30am to feed him and let him out. What a good and loyal dog. Well, he’s a loyal dog, anyway. I napped for a while on the futon in the basement but never quite felt like myself for the rest of the day. I was wiped out from the “camping” and some allergies flared up. These things combined to make me a very tired daddy.

We cancelled the fishing I had talked about and went to pick strawberries. I hate picking strawberries because all the berries are so close to the ground and I don’t like bending over and picking them. So I chose to stupidvise instead. We had a fine time at our favorite you-pick farm.

But I was pretty happy to go to the Outback Steakhouse for my father’s day lunch. We decided that Grace would probably not be able to behave at 5pm so a lunch would be better than a dinner. It was a FINE lunch and I enjoyed the daylights out of it.

Liz and the kids all went in on a VEX starter kit. Remember this thing? Well now I have my very own robot-kit and I can’t wait to get going on it! I spent the afternoon sorting out the documentation and getting the three-ring binder loaded up with the appropriate literature. Considering how sleepy and grumpy I was this was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Tags: Uncategorized by Private Idaho
No Comments »