The Wrong Carpet

Today we were suppose to get the carpet installed on the steps upstairs, but they brought the wrong carpet. They claimed it was the carpet we ordered, but Ginger says it's thinner than what she ordered and that it's brown, and she hates brown (she later clarified that there was some shade of brown she did like, but that the carpet color wasn't that shade). So it'll be a couple more weeks now before we get the carpet on the steps replaced since they have to order the carpet from the manufacturer.

Nana's up visiting. She came up last night. Evidently she brought the kids some new toys (because it just wouldn't be a visit from a grandparent unless new toys were somehow involved). I haven't seen the items themselves yet, but I've seen them in pictures Ginger took. Looks like they got badmitten racquets and some sort of soft frisbee.

Since Nana was up, tonight Ginger and I went out to eat and let Nana watch the kids. While we were out we stopped by Best Buy and looked at some of the HD TVs. A couple days ago, Ginger actually determined that our current TV isn't as bad off as we thought (someone had changed the display configuration, I'm guessing a little munchkin playing with the remote), so we don't need a new TV as bad as we thought at the present time, we are still looking at the June time frame for getting a new one though. Tonight we were looking to see if we could decide between a plasma and a projection. I have this horrible feeling no matter what we choose, I'm going to think it was the wrong choice. But I always do that with big ticket items. As I was watching a few of the models, you could really see massive pixelation in some scenes on some of the models. We pretty much excluded those models on the spot.

Google Video Upload / Page Creator Bugs

Why is it only me that seems to be able to find bugs in Google's stuff? I think I finally determined the problems I was having uploading videos. So here's the deal. A while back, Google gave out free home pages. I signed up, but quickly noticed that your email address was in the URL, making it pretty darn easy for someone to gather gmail email address (that was my thought anyway). So I created a second account, one that was effectively anonymous just for the web page. I used IE or something to log in and try to make changes, but I couldn't publish any changes.

Fast forward to last night. I uploaded some videos to Google, but they didn't appear in my account after uploading. After 24 hours, the videos still hadn't shown up. So here's what I think is happening. When you log into a google site, there's an option usually that says something like "Remember me on this computer", I'm starting to think that's setting something other just a cookie. I eventually found the videos I uploaded. They had uploaded against my other (anonymous) gmail account. Even though I know I didn't log in on that account in the Google video uploader. So the password for allowing you to upload doesn't actually determine which account you upload videos to (at least that's my new running theory), but instead I think the account and password verification are simply to allow you to upload. The account that it uploads to is determined by where you logged in last (or maybe if you set this remember me option). I think this also explains why I wasn't able to publish changes to the web pages sometimes. Since I was logged in on Mozilla on the other account, the publish was probably all confused (even though I had logged on to the anonymous account, another gmail account was active at the time). This would even explain why I wasn't able to modify my google page from Barry's computer either, since he was probably logged in on his gmail account in another browser (and probably had the remember me setting checked).

I haven't fully tested out this theory. But I think it explains a lot. I'm going to write an email to the Google developers, see if anything I've run into is a known issue. My guess is I won't hear anything back from them. If what I've found is the problem, maybe I can get them to update their FAQ (since it doesn't mention anything about this being a possibility).

Toddler Chicks

The kids invited me into their class this morning so I could see the baby chicks. They're no longer babies though. I would say they're at least toddlers if not whatever designation comes after toddler (preschoolers?). I ended up with another 1 PM meeting today so once again I couldn't go home for lunch. Unfortunately I hadn't brought any lunch in, but luckily I was able to scavenge a sandwich that was leftover from some lunch time meeting.

I came home a bit earlier than usual today so the kids could go play outside (seems to be my normal thing to do lately). I had like an extra 15 minutes outside with them before it started getting dark tonight. Quinn started out on the scooter. After a couple of driveway runs he slammed it into my car as he was doing one of his leg lifting turns. Not too long after that he tried the leg lifting turn thing again and wiped.

Quinn wiped a couple more times, but those were intentional. And after he wiped out he would reenact the wipeout in slow motion, as he said "Just like they show on NASCAR races." Catherine finally made it outside about this time. Quinn took the tricycle at this point and Catherine actually used the scooter. She was very careful though and didn't fall. I tried the motion blur shots again. I don't think I was as successful this time.

Not too long after this Catherine got bored and switched to her bouncing soccer ball. That lasted all of 2 minutes before she got bored and went digging in the mulch again. She found a snake (ok, it was really an inchworm, but she was convinced it was a snake). Quinn switched over to playing football. It was one of the foam footballs, not a real one. He actually did a lot better at catching it than I thought he would. I wouldn't call him a prodigy or anything though, he was probably only catching like 25% of the ones I threw at him that were catchable.

We don't have any cherry trees in our yard. So our trees aren't quite as pretty yet since none of them have really started to open up. Maybe once it warms up a bit whatever type tree this is will eventually start to bloom.

Kids Picnic, Escape Pictures

Once on a rare day something will happen that forces you to completely reevaluate how you see the world and what your purpose is in it is. For me, today was not that day and to be honest, tomorrow isn't looking too promising either.

It was really nice out today, so the kids were able to have a picnic lunch outside. I couldn't join them because I had a conference call at 1 that I had to be available to attend. So you can imagine how I was a little ticked when 1:15 rolled around and I was the only one in the conference call. I found out later it was just an oversight. I get to look forward to this weekly now. Assessment of Week 1: not so good. We'll see how things go after week 2.

I got home a bit after 6 and it was still a little light out, so I took the kids outside and let them play a bit. Catherine dug around in our mulch using a plastic hoe. Quinn did his usual and rode around on his scooter.

I got to watch Lost tonight. Going to need to go back and watch that one scene again (I'm sure there will be a HD picture of the scene I'm interested in on the web soon, so maybe I'll wait and look at it tomorrow).

Grammy and Pop Pop Visit

Grammy and Pop Pop (that would be Ginger's parent's) came up to visit Ginger today. They got here around lunch time I think. I ended up coming home for lunch and got the chance to see everyone. Quinn was scootering around the driveway. Catherine had fallen and ripped a hole in her tights at the knees (she had on tights because it's Tuesday, ballet day). The fall / rip didn't seem to be slowing her down in the slightest though. I was going to snap some pictures, but foolishly decided I would go inside and help clean up the kitchen first. After I came back out the kids were already in the car and playing there. This will be a shock, but Ginger, her parents and the kids all went out to eat at Arties for lunch. I gave Ginger the job of snapping some pics of the kids later with the grandparents, but she forgot.

Ginger's parent's left before I got home from work. The decided they wanted to leave 'early' so they could beat rush hour traffic. So they left at 4:30 (good plan there) and headed back to Richmond. The kids didn't nap, so they went to bed a bit early (they were already in pajamas for dessert when I got home). As I was reading them their nightly story, Quinn was telling me that they went to the Toy Store after lunch (to be honest, the fact that kids conned their grandparents into taking them to the Toy Store really doesn't surprise me). Quinn explained to me that he bought something at the store. And when I asked what it was, he told me it was "The thing that goes with my thing." I tried getting more details, but that was as good as I got. I later asked Ginger about it, and apparently that 'thing' was his second choice, initially he had told people "I already have a Woody, so I want the other Cowboys and the Horse." Obviously a Toy Story 2 reference (one hopes anyway) and he wanted Jessie, Bullseye and Stinky Pete (who apparently from what I was told Pop Pop was going to be the Prospector / Stinky Pete).

No School Today

The kids didn't have school today, so they got to stay home and play. Even though I took lunch into work, I ended up having to come home during lunch since I still had Quinn's car seat in my car. This meant Ginger couldn't leave with the kids (not that she needed to, but in case she did). When I came home for lunch, both kids were downstairs playing. When I went downstairs I got to break up an escalating altercation between the two. Catherine had been trying to get under the covers of the day bed, which she isn't suppose to do. So Quinn decided to stop her by pushing her off the day bed. Then justifying his actions because she was doing something she wasn't suppose to (he's going to make a fine politician one day). After breaking up the confrontation, I read a couple of books to the kids, then headed back to work. Once I left Ginger let them play outside while she cleaned the inside of her car (the kids apparently helped with that task also). The temperature was only mid 50's again today, but the sun was out, which made it seem a lot warmer than yesterday.

After dinner we needed to hit the grocery store to get some snack stuff for Quinn's class at school (it's going to be his day to bring in snack for everyone). You can tell she cleaned the car because the inside now smells like armor all and you slide all over the seats. After putting the kids to bed, Ginger and I finished watching Wallace And Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It's a fun movie, but I'm glad we got it through Netflixs instead of buying it (even though I own the other Wallace And Grommit adventures on DVD).

Hints of Easter

Kids slept late this morning. They didn't get up till like 8:30. Once up we all got ready and headed out to church. Catherine was looking especially cute today, but I was having a really hard time getting her to really smile for pictures. The church is putting together an Easter Extravaganza again this year (I think it's scheduled for April 15th). The kids went last year and really enjoyed it so the plan is to attend this year also.

After church we came straight home instead of going out to get lunch like we sometimes do. Since it's getting close to Easter, some festive decorations have starting popping up around the house. During lunch we were explaining to Quinn how he used to eat a variety of foods, so after lunch everyone piled on the couch and we spent an hour looking at old videos trying to find if we took any videos of Quinn eating. What I've learned is that I used to record stuff for much longer than I needed. Time editing was not in my skillset (much like these days there's no filter for the volume of minute details in the blog).



Nothing much exciting really happened today (I'm still tired from yesterday). Quinn wanted to go out to the park again, but with the temperature being in the mid 50s, it just didn't seem like that good of an idea. We did watch part of the NASCAR race this afternoon. While we were watching the race Quinn brought some of his cars into the living room and was acting out what happened on the TV. Some dude (Busch?) in the number 2 car won. Quinn seemed pretty excited since the number 2 car was one of the cars he had brought into the living room. Unfortunately Jeff Burton (who I now know is guy that's somehow related to Ginger's family) got knocked out late in the race during a wreck where his car slammed into a wall. I'm torn with 'cheering' for Burton though. One the one hand, he's apparently related to us (obscurely, yes, but related nonetheless). On the other hand, he's sponsored by Cingular.

That's A Lot Of Money

Yesterday on our way to the comic book store, we drove through Fairfax and passed the new Court House that's being constructed. There's a sign in front of the construction that states the project is costing 115 million dollars. Quinn and I had a little conversation about it:

     Me: "It says the construction is 
          going to cost 115 million 
          dollars."
  Quinn: "Wow, that's a lot of money."
     Me: "It sure is."
  Quinn: "I have a lot of money in my  
          piggy bank, the silver one."
     Me: "Really?  You think you have  
          a 115 million dollars?"
  Quinn: "I don't know, it's pretty 
          heavy."

Saturday, In The Park...

I slept in this morning. I think I slept till around 10. Ginger said Catherine was up before 7 and Quinn was up just after 7.

Today is Skyler's birthday party and Catherine is going. Skyler is one of the girls in Catherine's ballet class. It's the first party that Catherine has been invited to that Quinn wasn't also invited. Catherine has been pretty excited about the party. Telling us throughout the week that she was going to party, but that Quinn and I weren't going. The party was at a McDonald's that has a play place in it.

So while Catherine and Ginger went to the birthday party, I took Quinn on an adventure. We started by going to Chick-Fil-A. Quinn loves eating there because they have waffle fries (and it doesn't hurt that he likes the chicken), but we don't eat there because of Catherine's allergies (they cook with peanut oil). I was a bit disappointed. It's been probably at least a year since I've been there regularly, but it definitely seems as if the size of the nuggets have gotten significantly smaller than what I remember them being.

After that we went by the toy store in the mall and Quinn pointed out everything that he wants for his birthday. There was a significant amount stuff. It was to the point where I stopped trying to remember things after the first aisle. After that we went by a comic book store. I got a couple of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics for Quinn (hopefully he'll share them with his sister). And then after that Quinn wanted to go to a park near our house, so we stopped at home to see if Catherine was home in case she wanted to go too. She was home, but Ginger was putting her down for her nap, so she couldn't make it. After being at the park for a while, Quinn realized he really should have used the restroom when we were home (I tried to tell him he should go, but would he listen? Nooooo). So it was back home for a restroom break. Then we were off to the grocery store for to get some drinkable yogurt for the kids. Unfortunately they only had one Nouriche in Quinn's favorite flavor (which he thinks is apple, but is really peach).

After that we headed to McDonald's and got Quinn an ice cream cone. I couldn't believe the size of the small, it was a lot bigger than I would have expected. But what I really couldn't believe was he ate the whole thing. After that we came home. It was just starting to get dark out. We went out of the deck and I filled the bird feeder outside while Quinn jumped up and down triggering the motion sensor causing the lights to keep coming on. He also took a couple pictures of me, none of which turned out very good. If you want to see one of the more unusual ones look here. Warning: it's an untouched picture, so it's like 1.5 MB (Nana, that's geek speak for it'll take a long time to load on dialup). And no, that's not photoshopped (even though it certainly looks like it is). I decided since I was out there, I might as well get another sunset picture.



When we came back inside, Ginger and Catherine were waking up from their nap. Ginger told me about how at the birthday party Catherine got upset because one of girls wouldn't talk to her. The party only lasted an hour and a half, which is pretty short. I'm fairly certain when we had Quinn's party last year at "Old McDonald's" they allotted us more than 90 minutes. After the party they went by the used book store and bought a bunch of the newer Richard Scarry books.

When the kids went to bed tonight, we read some of the new Scarry books that Ginger and Catherine had bought. And when it was time for Quinn to actually get in bed, he requested one of his new comic books he got today as his late night reading material. It was pretty amusing to look in on him and see him 'reading' the comic book.

Lunch At Work, When Will I Learn

Ginger's car needed to be taken in to get some work done, so I got volunteered to take the car in while Ginger took the kids to school in my car. Ginger met me at Craven and gave me a ride to work. I stalled at home long enough after she left that she actually got to Craven before I did.

Later after Ginger picked up the kids from school, she called and asked if I minded if they stopped by for lunch. Foolishly I said "Sure", apparently forgetting the reasons I swore I wouldn't do it again after last time. Things weren't too bad. But about 5 minutes after getting there Catherine announced "I have to pee." So Ginger took her to the restroom, then soon as they got back Quinn announced "I have to poop." *Sigh*. They insisted on playing with the Superman I have (and it's noisy). And Catherine really likes my Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) figure (it looks like this), but because it's anime, she thinks he's a girl (probably because of the ponytail). Still, the visit could have gone worse I suppose, so all in all, it wasn't too bad.

Later in the day I got a ride from KennyG to pick up Ginger's car. Craven's crack team had been on the case and discovered they couldn't reproduce the problem, but they did notice a problem with the transmission. They think it might still be under warranty, so they didn't fix it and recommended taking it into a dealer. How much you want to bet the dealer claims the problem isn't something under the warranty? Come on, any takers?

When I got home Quinn woke up (evidently from my opening and closing the garage door). From there Quinn and I put the flags onto his race track. I had been promising to help him do that for a while and had been putting it off, so it was nice to get that done.

After dinner the kids got to watch a movie. We gave them the choice between a couple Veggie Tale movies, Robin Hood, Benji or Toy Story 2. They emphatically went with Toy Story 2. Quinn apparently is related to my Mom. Throughout the entire movie it's just a constant stream of questions. "Why did that man take Woody? Where are they going? Why's he sad? Why is there another Buzz? What's he doing? Etc? Etc?" I couldn't take it and had to leave for a bit. When I got back, he was still asking questions. Ginger has the patience of a saint, because she was calmly answering him whenever he asked. The bad thing about watching the movie was they both ended up staying up a lot later than they should have. Quinn was in bed just after ten and went to sleep almost immediately, Catherine however was still up after 10:30. Anyone want odds on whether they get up at 6 AM tomorrow?

I'm Back Baby!

I can hear it. You're reading this and saying "He was gone?"

It was a multiple day trip to PA, I left Wednesday morning and came back Thursday night. When I left we had just gotten a light snow dusting the Tuesday night (it's supposedly Spring now, right?). There wasn't really any snow on the roads, so it didn't impact the drive. Right as I was leaving, I noticed a bird at the bird feeder and managed to snap this shot. I lost a lot of time on the way up. I made the mistake of going up Rt 28 and I think it took about 45 minutes for me to go 15 miles. This trip up was the longest yet, it took me just over 4 hours to get there. Usually I manage the trip in three and a half hours. Luckily I had swapped out some CDs, so I had some new rotation material in the car for the trip. Making the cut this time was U2 "All That You Can't Leave Behind", Norah Jones "Feels Like Home" and just for grins I included "Invisible Touch" by Genesis (an 'oldie').

The following is a shot of one of the mountain passes I get to drive through on the way there. They literally carved right through the mountain to put in the road. This cut in the mountain is visible from miles away.



Next is shot of one of the churches (hmm, at least I think it's a church) visible from the road as you pass through the speed trap, uhh, I mean Cumberland. The speed limit on I68 drops from 65 down to 40 as you pass through Cumberland.



Once I got our facility in PA, I did a lot of whiteboard drawings, explaining how I think things should work, the usual. Don't have a lot to report. Unlike some of Curt's travels, the hotel (Fairfield Inn Marriot) was more than adequate (not as plush as Barry's mind you, but adequate). And it included a free continental breakfast (free is good). The only negative about the hotel room was I had was the window was eye level with the awning in front of the hotel entrance, so I couldn't see squat out the window, but it's not like I need to see a view of the edge of Uniontown anyway.

Life in PA is a lot cheaper than here. I went to dinner Wednesday night at a Chinese restaurant. The "all you can eat" buffet was $6.50, and $10.25 if you wanted access to the crab legs. So I splurged and had the crab legs. But get this, during the day the lunch buffet (again, "all you can eat") is $3.99. How the heck is this place staying in business? Or is it like this everywhere when you get away from the major metropolitan areas? After dinner I stopped by the Wal-Mart that was in the same shopping center as the restaurant and I felt like I was back home. Is every Wal-Mart laid out exactly the same across the nation? I swear I thought I was in the one by my work back home. After that I headed back to the hotel and watched Lost. This was just an odd experience. Watching TV without Tivo or a VCR. I can't remember the last time I did that. Real time television. It's a very odd concept now to wrap my head around. And evidently they interlace television shows with these advertisement things, I think they're called commercials. Truly bizarre stuff.

I talked to the kids before they went to bed Wednesday night. I heard Ginger ask if anyone missed me and they both said "No". Quinn talked to me a bit and told me about the chicks in his class and how some of the eggs hadn't hatched. And how one kid (Conner) has opened up with lid to the chicks without permission. Catherine got on and chatted for a bit too.

So I left early today after wrapping up a meeting with Hybrid Learning. I took a picture of this lighthouse that's on the side of the road in Maryland (we're not talking near the coast either). Not sure why it's there, but it made for a nice blurry picture through the window as I was driving by. I finally got back home around 6. I think I would have been home half an hour earlier had I not stayed on 28 all the way south. The thing is I even knew it was a mistake when I did it but foolishly thought, how bad can 28 be. You would have thought I would have learned my lesson on the drive up, but nope, you would be wrong.

When I got home, the kids had wrapped up some birthday presents for me (better late than never, right?). I got a new memory card for the Nintendo (Quinn told me he planned on using that too) and they got me the "Ultimate Spider-Man" game for the Nintendo. Now I just have to make some time to be able to play. I took the kids outside and we played for maybe 20 minutes before it got too cold and dark to stay out, then we came inside. It will be nice once Daylight Savings Time kicks in so we can actually be outside 'longer'. Tonight's new game upstairs before bed was "Rollercoaster", where the kids would sit in a laundry basket and have me push them around the room. Everyone except me loves the game.

Baby Chicks

I heard from Quinn that some of the baby chicks eggs didn't hatch and had to be tossed. Here's a quick peek at some of the little guys that managed to hatch.


Baby Chicks

The Unwanted Guest

This morning before I took the kids to school, I caught this squirrel on our deck performing what appears to be an obscene act with our bird feeder. You can tell he was quite embarrassed as he took off as soon as he saw me. I've had to chase this guy (or one of his buddies) off a couple times a day. This has been going on ever since we had a big wind a couple weeks ago and the bird feeder fell. That ended up causing the protective covering we used to have over it to break. Even with the cover, I've seen the squirrel do some kamikaze jumps from the deck to the feeder, sometimes they miss and fall. Seems like a lot of effort for bird food.

When I got to school with the kids, they insisted I had to go inside and see the eggs. Yesterday I reported (based on Quinn telling me) that they had duck eggs at his school. They are actually baby chick eggs. They're a big hit with all the kids in the school. There seemed to be a constant group of kids gathered around the table that had the little chicks on it. From what I saw, they started with ten eggs and so far six have hatched.

Catherine was responsible for supplying snack in her class today, but she didn't even get to have any since she left early (it's Tuesday, so she has ballet class).

Revisionist History Revisited

Quinn has some baby duck eggs in his classroom at school. From the sound of it, the other classes have been stopping by his class to check out the eggs. I think from his description of things that one of the eggs had hatched. It actually sounded rather interesting.

So I've been on a rant recently about revisionist history, and lo and behold Ginger has caught me engaging in it. It's one of those things where I didn't mean to do it, I'm just getting old and don't remember events they way they actually occur anymore. Luckily I have Ginger there to set me straight. Last week I responded to Scott about why Quinn likes NASCAR, check the comments for this post. Ginger decided to set me straight:

Quinn's love of Nascar started with James getting #43 cars out of Cheerios boxes. Quinn has loved the Matchbox type cars since he saw them a few years ago. When adding to his collection I think it was me who purchased him the M&M car (although I am sketchy on that, but buying one like the candy is something I would do). It was an obvious choice given his love of M&Ms. Then one day I noticed that Speedvision shows race highlights early in the week. This was Quinn's first look at an actual race. From then on we have tried to let him see a few races when we remember. While no one in our immediate family has been a huge Nascar fan previously, we all keep up through Quinn now.

So evidently it's all my fault (and the fault of cereal boxes with free toys). When I got home tonight, Quinn and Ginger were playing Picture Link (I can't even begin to describe it, if you're interested in what it looks like, hit the link). Somehow I got sucked into the next game as well. It wasn't too long after I got home that Catherine woke up. Her general crankiness state wasn't too bad, but on par with normal. The prospect of watching TV always seems to help ease Catherine out of her crankiness, so the kids watched today's brand new episode of Little Einsteins. The kids are seen here right before the episode starts with Catherine giving Quinn a hug and Quinn thinking she wants to take the paddle ball he's got. After dinner we went upstairs to play some "Duck Duck Goose" in addition to various 'run through the house just making up rules' games.

Today's interesting tidbit: earlier today Ginger worked some major mojo and got our house's intercom system up and running. So maybe we won't have to buy a monitor for downstairs (although the intercom system is pretty loud, and not really suited for constant monitoring).

More Dinosaur Bingo

Quinn got up bright and early at 6 AM again this morning. I was able to convince him to try and go back to sleep. He called me in again at like 6:40, and somewhere in between six and then Ginger had obviously gotten up with him too since his CD was playing. I guess in a couple weeks when Daylight Savings Time kicks in this will all be moot since Quinn will need to be getting up at what is now 6 AM. He's going to adjust to it easier than Ginger and I will it seems.

I think Quinn eventually just got up at a little after 7. I don't know for sure since I sort of slept through it. I heard after the fact that Ginger took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast and then by Target to pick up some stuff before coming back to get me for church. Problem was I woke up when the garage door opened when they got back, so I wasn't quite ready yet. Ginger had to be at church early today because she was watching the nursery. So she left with the kids while I got ready and drove myself later. Lunch was me getting take out popcorn chicken from KFC. Catherine didn't have any, she doesn't like it, Quinn had a lot of it though.

The kids haven't been able to really play outside for several days now that winter has somewhat returned, it's been a bit too cold to go out. So the kids have been playing inside a lot. So we've played a lot of indoor things, like Dinosaur Bingo. We play that a lot now. And you apparently don't just quit when someone gets five in a row. You keep playing till someone fills up their entire card. In addition to Dinosaur Bingo Quinn really likes playing with his Lincoln Logs. This was him trying to use Lincoln Logs to build an Airbus. He saw the time lapse video on Google of building the airbus and he decided he wanted to build an Airbus too.

Now that the kids have the playarea downstairs and we've retaken the upstairs area for the adults, the kids are constantly going down into the basement, then back upstairs, then down, then up. It's a never ending journey it seems. Think we're going to have to buy another monitoring system so we can hear what they're doing downstairs when they go down without us.

That Didn't Work

When we last left our heroes, they had put the kids to bed slightly earlier than normal since they didn't get a nap during the day. Little did we know that the cunning little tykes would foil our plan. Quinn woke after his normal amount of sleep at night today bright and early at 6 AM and refused to go back to sleep. Lucky me, I was the one he was calling out for, so I got to get up with him. I think we did more before 8 than I do with him in an entire day sometimes. I got to watch him play with his NASCARs, we played Dinosaur Bingo, we played checkers, we built a house with lincoln logs. He tried really really hard to get me to let him play Nintendo, but no way was I going to reinforce his getting up that early with a reward. It was a packed morning. Ginger and Catherine eventually got up around 8:30. And Grammy got up not too long after that. Once Grammy had some breakfast and got dressed, she took off for home.

After that we all got dressed. Ginger had plans for us to go to the grocery store, but the kids wanted to stay home and play. I know why Quinn wanted to stay, he thought I might let him play Nintendo since Mom wasn't around, I have no idea why Catherine wanted to stay, other than she wanted to hang out with Quinn. So I got to stay and play with the kids. We 'cooked' with the kitchen downstairs, played various games, there was a lot of running involved. And no activity seemed to last for much longer than 10 minutes (and Quinn didn't get to play Nintendo).

Once Ginger got home, the kids snacked and then they took their naps. Quinn I think napped for all of an hour, maybe a little more. He's been napping less and less lately. I wouldn't be too shocked to see him phase of out of needing a nap soon (I mean he will be almost 5 in a couple months, most kids are done with needing naps between 3 and 5). Quinn got really interested in the race track he got for Christmas again tonight. Because he discovered by looking at the box there are flags that are suppose to go around the outside of the track that we never set up. So we had to dig through the box and get the flags out. Then we had to put all the poles on the track. On the positive side it kept him pretty entertained, on the negative side, I think it woke up Catherine from her nap. So there was more playing, then dinner, then playing, then bed. As you can see Catherine still likes her ballet class. And she still does some of the moves around the house. I'm pretty exhausted from 'playing' today. And I never even left the house, and the day started pretty early (for me anyway).

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Today started with going to school with the kids. Today was breakfast with Dad day at the school. The school was a literal sea of green. Just about every kid had on green. It's been amusing, Quinn has been telling us for the past couple of days how if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day, "You get pinched!" As he was saying it, in the back of my mind I saw a sexual harassment suit waiting to be filed or Quinn being expelled for unacceptable behavior.

Once we got to the school, Catherine really couldn't eat any of the breakfast since the doughnuts and muffins they had came from Dunkin Doughnuts (which may have traces of peanut, apparently only Krispy Kreme doughnuts are assured of being peanut free). So Quinn got some doughnut holes, and Catherine ate a couple of bananas. They had already had cereal at home before we left, so don't feel too bad for them. After Quinn finished eating, he showed Catherine and me how he's learning to do addition. Then we moved breakfast down to Catherine's class and Catherine show Quinn and myself how she can sew. Catherine got really clingy when it was time for me to leave. Quinn didn't want me to leave either, but he got over it pretty quick. I got lucky in that Catherine didn't break down into tears like some of the kids did when their dads left (of course, it is only her Dad, so it wasn't that bit of a deal for her).

After that I headed to work. Ginger stopped by with the kids after picking them up from school to get the Eppy Pen out of my car (since I had taken it for the breakfast). From what I gather after that, they went to have lunch at Nordstrom. I'm not even sure where there is a Nordstrom's other than at Tysons or Dulles Town Centre, both seem rather far away. I guess that makes sense though since I heard later that the kids didn't nap (if they're being driven out to Timbuktu, who has time to nap).

When I got home, the kids were watching the movie Benji. Catherine actually got pretty frightened near the end (it's a very stressful movie apparently). After dinner the kids got ready for bed. They were suppose to go to bed earlier than normal since they didn't nap, but by the time they were actually in bed, it was pretty late (not late late, just less than an hour before their normal bedtime).

Giant Steps Are What You Take...

Blogger went nuts last night. Every time I tried to publish an entry, I got Java IO errors. So I would wait a while and try again. Evidently I was creating a new entry every time I did that, I finally noticed under the "Edit Posts" that I had like 15 versions of the same entry so I had to go in and delete all those extra posts. The deletes would also have io errors which eventually caused stranded posts. These posts were showing up on the blog, but couldn't be accessed or deleted through the "Edit posts" section. It was very odd. The only way I was able to get rid of the orphaned posts was to republish the entire blog. I think it's all straightened out now. If you looked at the site last night, and there were multiple version of the same post, that's why. Anyway, I doubt anyone cares about this, so on to the good stuff.


Fun in the Moonbounce

I took some video of the kids when they were playing on the moonbounce over the weekend. I've got two versions of the movie, the short / theatrical version (which is be presented here for your enjoyment, clocking in at around 2 minutes 15 seconds). Then there's the director's cut, which is longer (almost five minutes).

Kids Get Spoiled Some More

Took the kids to school again today. Looks like this might become a regular thing. The kids seem to enjoy it, and it forces me out of the house a little earlier than I would leave otherwise. Ginger and her Mom spent some time moving stuff back into the newly carpeted area and arranging what will now be the kids new play area.

As I suspected, since there was no reason to be at the house today Ginger and her Mom took the kids out to eat. Admittedly it was only Wendy's, but that still constitutes going out. When I came home after work Quinn and Catherine were both still napping. I tried to watch part of a Colbert Report and got through maybe one segment before Quinn woke up. He showed me around the new play area downstairs and showed me the new toys he had gotten today (I'm guessing these came from Grammy), a new NASCAR truck for car 29 (no idea who drives that car) and I think three new cars. Because at this point he needs more cars (yes, that would be sarcasm). Catherine got a new Barbie doll or something that she thinks is Cinderella. I'm less sure about this one because I didn't see it, and I only had Quinn and Ginger tell me about it since Catherine was still asleep.

It wasn't too much later that Catherine woke up. It was her typical wake up, extremely cranky and irritable. She eventually got better just about the time we were finished with dinner. The kids played for a bit after dinner while I snuck off upstairs and took a quick nap (I can only pull this type of stunt off if we have company to entertain the kids). I'm trying to recoup some sleep since tomorrow morning is the father's day breakfast at the kid's school and we need to be there by 8:15.

Ginger Replaces Basement Carpet, Keeps Drapes

I had way more fun writing the title for this entry than I should have. Of course, I'm probably the only one that will find it humorous.

Today was the basement carpet installation day. Since we've been burned once before with contractors in the house unsupervised, we decided this time that someone would be here at all times. That meant I got to take the kids to school and pick them up today so that Ginger could be here to supervise. Since these are contractors to a reputable store (Lowe's) and not some cheap fly by night contractors, I sort of doubt there would have been any issues even had we left them unsupervised.

We're having all the carpet in the basement replaced, because it has the faint aroma of cat urine in a couple places. It's had that smell ever since we moved in and because we have cats, it hasn't gotten better (it was the worst in a couple nooks and crannies). Based on how much had been done at lunch (which is when I took these photos), I really didn't think there was any way these guys were going to finish today. Amazingly they did finish, but they were here till almost 10 doing it (during which time we had no internet connection). The trick is now going to be to keep the majority of the basement blocked off from the cats.

Today Grammy also arrived for a visit. Ginger said I needed to point out that Grammy is up for a visit and they didn't go out to lunch. I countered with that's only because Ginger needed to be here to supervise the carpet installation. Somehow I think paying for lunch wouldn't set us back quite as much as the carpet is going to end up costing us when all is said and done. Since I was home for lunch I tried snapping a couple of pictures of the kids as they were playing waiting for their lunch to be fixed. Catherine was playing with some of her ballerina toys, and Quinn was showing me the car that won the NASCAR race he watched the other day.

Quinn was too excited with everything going on to actually nap (what with the carpet installation in the basement and Grammy being up). We tried to get him to go to bed early (you could tell at dinner he was exhausted). But even though we put him to bed at 7:30, he managed to stay awake and not go to sleep till after 8:30. He should be a ton of fun tomorrow. As much as I didn't like last night moving everything into my office for the carpet installation, I'm liking tonight of moving it back even less. Therefore, I've done as I normally do and put off moving things back, so my office is still completely cluttered (okay, okay, it's cluttered a lot more than normal).

No TV viewing tonight really (ok, I may have watched a couple Colbert Reports and a Daily Show interview, but nothing else). And now for your viewing pleasure a video of the kids from last night doing the "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes" song.

Ginger Gets A Migraine

I took the kids to school again today. Not because we were running late or anything, just because they wanted me to. We'll see if that lasts though. I didn't park at the far end and let them run down the hill like they wanted, so maybe tomorrow they won't want me to take them.

Ginger wasn't feeling too good today. She had a migraine. Luckily it didn't get really bad until after she got the kids home from school. I couldn't come home and take over since today I had to attend an engineering review. I had planned on trying to come home after it was over, but the meeting ran late (they always do) and I didn't end up getting free from everything until close to 5. By then Ginger felt like she could make it for a while.

Because Ginger hadn't been feeling well, the kids didn't get to go outside and play today (and by the time I got home it was getting a bit too chilly for them to be outside). I got home around 6, and we let the kids watch the end of yesterday's NASCAR race. The tape started right at a race recap moment, which is great, because you get to see all the wrecks from the first two hours in like 4 minutes. Quinn loved it. The funny part was Quinn had already looked online to see who won the race (it was the "Lowe's car, number four eight"), but when we started watching it, even though I told him it was yesterday's race, when I asked him who was going to win, he said he didn't know. Then at the end of the race, he got all excited that the Lowe's car won, and he actually said "The Lowe's car won yesterday, and it won this race too." So we obviously need to work on what the concept of time shifting means with him a bit.

After we finished watching the NASCAR race, Ginger still wasn't doing too well, so I decided we would go out to eat so Ginger didn't have to fix dinner. And before I get grief for not fixing dinner myself, Ginger was in one of her moods where she didn't feel like eating anything here. We ended up going to Red Robin. I got the Fish and Chips. I don't know why I still order food there. I never like it. Maybe next time I'll just get some soup. I seem to recall I might have liked their clam chowder.

After dinner we headed home and the kids (and me) had a cookie for dessert. I went outside and rattled off a few more moon shots with the sigma lens and a tripod. It's getting closer to what I'm looking for, but not quite there yet. Although I'm not sure how much better I can get it since this was at max zoom and shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second.

Tonight was just loads of fun let me tell you. We're preparing to get new carpet installed in the basement, so we've been moving stuff around for a while now. They're showing up for the actual install tomorrow though, so tonight was the last minute pulling up carpet in places, sealing some cracks and moving this that and the other.

Tornados and Hail? Nope, Sunny and High 80s

I was all worked up last night and couldn't get to sleep. So I ended up watching Boondocks at like 1 AM, and then trying to take some moon pictures after that. I didn't use the sigma lens, but the one that came with the camera (35mm to 70mm). I also tried using a tripod to see if that would change the results. I still used auto focus (to be honest, I'm not sure how to turn that off just yet, I really should read the instructions at some point), but I put it manual mode and changed the shutter speed. I think this shot was done at like 1/500 of a sec. Not positive, but that could be part of a tree branch in the bottom left. These definitely aren't Hubble telescope quality pictures.

Today started weird. After getting a big six hours of sleep, Quinn woke me up by calling out around 8. Now normally on school days Ginger is up by 7:15 or so and showering, but today she was still sleeping. Quinn asked if it was a school day, and since Ginger wasn't up, I figured maybe it wasn't. I looked over at his calendar and low and behold it's Labor Day, so I told him no, it wasn't a school day. With that knowledge in hand he was ready to get up and go downstairs and have breakfast. We went downstairs and I made waffles (I had batter left over from yesterday) and fixed him some cereal and OJ. About this time Ginger yells downstairs that he needs to come up and take a bath and what was I doing not getting him ready. I explained what had happened and she told me that it was indeed Labor Day, but in Australia (oops) and that she hadn't woken up because her alarm was turned off (she claims by me on Friday, which I can neither confirm nor deny because I don't remember). Since Ginger hadn't been able to get ready, I went and showered while she bathed the kids and finished giving them the breakfast that I had made. Then I took the kids to school. We were still late getting to school (we got there at 9:15, after 9 I believe is considered late).

I don't know everything that happened after Ginger picked up the kids from school. Although I have these pictures she took of Quinn with his block tower and Catherine putting a slinky on her doll. I think they stayed inside before their nap and after their nap they went outside. I hear Quinn only napped 30 minutes today. The weather here was fantastic again. It hit around 86 degrees today. It's hard to believe this is still officially winter. It's even harder to believe that there are places in the country having tornados and hail storms. The one really negative thing about this warmer weather was I had been using our garage as a de facto refrigerator for my sodas, that's really not working so well anymore.

I got home not too long after 6, and took the kids outside to play some. It was already getting dark though, I'll be glad when daylight savings time kicks in (anyone know when that will be?). The kids evidently got some new bubble toys that we played with for a while, until they decided they wanted to ride the scooter (Quinn) and the tricycle (Catherine). They switched vehicles at one point, but that didn't last too long before they switched back. Pretty soon it just got too dark to play and we had to come back inside.

I tried watching the new sitcom with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine". Maybe it got better as it went on, but I couldn't make it through the first episode. It's now dead to me.

Bouncing On The Moon...

So the kids got up around 8 today. I gave them their baths and Ginger got up just as Catherine was almost done with her bath. I then went downstairs and fixed waffles for everyone. I almost botched the recipe though by not completely melting the butter. I'm trying that whole Cosby idea of screwing everything up, then I just won't be expected to do it in the future.

At church today Catherine got to switch the Sunday School class she goes to now that she's three. She's now in the same class as Quinn. At first she was a bit reluctant to actually go into the class, but once she was in, Quinn started showing her how things worked and telling her what to do. After church we picked up some KFC popcorn chicken for lunch, not that Catherine actually ate it (she insisted on having a jelly sandwich). I had a leftover hamburger and hot dog. During lunch some birds showed up at the birdfeeder on the deck, so I tried to get some shots again using the Sigma lens. At this point I can't tell whether the lens is just substandard and produces a somewhat fuzzy image or whether the focus was slightly off (I haven't tried to take a pic using manual focus, maybe that's what I need to try to really test this lens). My initial thought is the lens is just substandard, because when I look at the picture I can't find anything in area that looks to be sharply in focus (and even if the focus was off a little, something in the picture like a branch or something should have been crisp). But then the pine cone picture looked somewhat okay, although that one I did shrink versus the birds where I used a 1:1 cropped image from the original photo.

After lunch I attempted to fix Ginger's treadmill. Had to replace the motherboard on it. I only thought I hated working with built at home computers. Working on replacing a motherboard on a commercial piece of equipment is a complete pain in the butt. Took forever to get everything apart. And you ended up having to take apart a ton of stuff just to get access to the motherboard. I did end up using the Christmas gift I got for drill accessories though, so that's been officially broken in now.

While I was working on the treadmill the kids went out and played for a bit. Once I had done as much as I could with the treadmill, I put it back together the best I could (we couldn't actually test it since we don't know where the safety key is though). At this point the kids wanted the moon bounce set up, so I fired that up for a bit for them to play in. Quinn apparently hit his lip somewhere in there because later on I noticed some blood in his mouth. Didn't appear to be anything serious. The bad thing about the moon bounce is there is literally no place where you can take a decent picture of the kids in it. You get low and their heads are cut off when they jump. From up above you can't see into it well enough.

Nap time was... different. Quinn just refused to go to sleep (mind you, I had no such problems myself). So Ginger and Quinn eventually got up and went downstairs and watched some of today's NASCAR race. Once I awoke from my slumber, I headed out to Sports Authority to see if I could find a replacement safety key for the treadmill. This isn't a high "in demand item" and isn't carried by stores, so we'll have to order one online.

Catherine was extremely cranky when she woke up from her nap (this is pretty common these days). She eventually got better, but it always takes a while. Quinn went to bed early tonight (7:30) since he missed his nap.

Whew, That's A Long Way To Run

Today started at 9. Quinn got up at 9 and immediately started asking if today was a school day. He was pretty sure it wasn't, so he was raring to get going and head downstairs to play. Not too long after Quinn came downstairs, Catherine woke up and I brought her downstairs too. I made breakfast for them (bagels, cereal and orange juice), and it wasn't too long after they finished breakfast that Ginger came downstairs.

It was another fantastic day out today (high 70s), so after lunch we took the kids and headed over to one of the local parks. Quinn was riding his scooter and Catherine was riding Quinn's tricycle. Getting to the park took some time. It's not quite a mile away, maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of a mile though. Once we were at the park the kids played around on the monkey bars and the slides. I did some stunts and Quinn called me (and I quote) "a real life monkey". I think we had been there for maybe 5 to 6 minutes when as Catherine was walking across the balance beam, she got real still, and knelt down on the beam, and peed. Wonderful. This was one of her first real accidents in a long time. She's been really good lately (even making it through the night for the past month or so). We didn't have a change of clothes with us, so I volunteered to go back and get the car (which does have a change of clothes in it). I made the mistake of running back. Two things were wrong with this plan. Problem 1) I'm out of shape and as I said, it was over half a mile away so I got winded pretty quick. I ran almost halfway, slowed to a walk for a minute or two and then ran the rest of the way. Problem 2) I'm still not completely recovered from being sick. Once I did get back to the house, I was coughing so bad I thought I was going to hurl.

I hopped in the car and drove over to the park to see Catherine running around sans underwear and pants, but with Ginger's shirt wrapped around her waist and the arms tied like a belt (guess it's a good thing Ginger wore layers today). After Catherine got changed, the kids played around for a bit while I recovered. It wasn't too long before they decided they were ready to head home (according to Ginger the fun is getting to the park, not actually playing at the park). Once home the kids snacked and went to take their naps. While they napped I watched about 2/3 of the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Before I could finish watching, Quinn woke up and we went outside and played (the usual, scooter, tee ball, etc). In the picture, see if you can find Quinn's batting problem. Ignore that the shots are fuzzy / out of focus, that was because it was getting darker and due to the lens I was using (more on that later). They say you have to keep your eye on the ball. He would probably have a better chance of doing that if he kept his eyes open (and no, I wasn't using a flash for the shots). Once we migrated to the backyard, I fired up the grill while Quinn played and started cooking some hamburgers. Luckily around this time Ginger woke up and watched Quinn (he had migrated back to the front yard) so I could continue cooking. Catherine got up about this same time and went out to play also.

Today when we went outside I took my camera again, but this time I swapped out the 'made for the digital camera lens' with one of my older SLR lenses. This was an old 70mm to 200mm lens, and I believe the digital camera introduces a 1.5 zoom factor to non digital lenses which means this lens is effectively 105mm to 300mm. I tried a different couple of shots of stuff, just to see what it could do. It's not an official Nikon lens. It's from back in my cheap days (okay, my 'even cheaper' days) so it's a Sigma lens. It's not too bad. It took this shot of Quinn fairly well. It actually does pretty good provided you have lots and lots of light available to take the shot. I took a shot of the moon and that didn't come out as crisp as I would have liked (it was during the day, and it was overcast / hazy, so maybe that was part of the problem). I still would have liked to have seen more distinct features instead of the fuzziness I ended up getting. Maybe it wasn't focusing correctly. I'll probably try this experiment again sometime. The bird shot was me sitting on my front porch shooting a bird in a neighbor's yard across and up the street, so it's a fair distance away.

After the kids were in bed, I watched the end of Battlestar Galactica. SciFi channel apparently doesn't understand the concept of telling time though since the show ran past the time it was suppose to end and Tivo didn't get all of it. I assume the greedy executives at the SciFi decided to pack extra commercials in the season finales of their shows all night pushing the end time of shows later and later throughout the night. Really quite annoying. Guess I'll see if the show is going to be rerun anytime soon and if not I'll have to try and grab it through a torrent.

Utopia: You Can't Get There From Here

The following was written a couple weeks ago back when I was sick and had a really high fever. Consider it the fever addled ramblings of a madman if you will. That said, the more I thought about what I had written, the more intrigued I became with the idea. It's definitely a deviation from what I normally post not for everyone (no family stuff, so if that's what you're interested in, you can skip this one). Might as well simply throw it out there and let people see what they think of it.

As I mentioned a while back, I watched "The Island" recently. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't want to get too much into and spoil it, but it starts out with individuals in a utopian society, where all the basic needs of people are being met, and they're constantly being monitored and computers keep track of individual's health and activities. Their food, clothing and entertainment is provided. And while they have 'jobs' (tasks? assignments?), none seem critical (or even necessary) to the functioning of the society as a whole.

It made me start thinking about some things. What's the end goal of technological progress? If everything becomes easier and easier to do with technology, at what point do things tip where there isn't enough that needs to be done by the available labor force / people? And what does that labor force then do? Or do they need to do anything? At some point in society's future, there may come a time where there simply isn't enough manual labor required to provide everyone with something to do. This all goes back to automation. And I'm not in any way shape or form suggesting that automation and technological advancements are bad. I'm merely asking what's the next logical step? Hypothetically even if most mundane tasks could be accomplished via automation, there would still need to be some human intervention. While machines could go about diagnosing medical problems, there would still need to be some human in the loop (I would hope anyway, otherwise euthanasia may come about due some software bug or something). The more I think about it, the more fascinated I become with where it leads. Automation for the most part means reduction in the need for manual labor tasks, which are typically the lower wage earning workforce, but would almost necessitate increased or at least the same level of work done at the higher educational level tasks.

So what happens to the people displaced from the workforce. If they were able to get their minimum requirements for existence met free, what happens next? Without a job or purpose to channel their energy, what would people do? What would be the motivation for people that weren't displaced to continue working? Entertainment seems like it would become even more prominent (maybe there would finally be a point in having 500 cable channels). But as a society, what would happen. What happens to money if your basic needs are met for free? What about limitations? If a portion of the labor force isn't contributing, will they still be able to engage in all activities that everyone else can (thinking here basically about procreation). Will those in charge and in power allow and accept those who don't contribute to not have any limits imposed on increasing the population?

The more I consider it, the more it seems highly unlikely / implausible that there will ever be a Utopian society where everyone is actually considered an equal. There really just doesn't seem to be a clear path from here to there. Human nature just doesn't seem to be capable of allowing it. Someone will always believe they're better / more entitled. And as long as some people have more power than others, they will continue imposing their will on those with less power.

I'm sure I'm not broaching any ideas that are new, or that haven't been covered in depth in various articles or science fiction novels. Although most science fiction novels deal with the society after it's gotten to this 'near perfect' existence. I don't think I've seen too many novels that deal with the lead up to the formation of the Utopian society, just what happens after that society is in place.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

I'm coughing less. The cough still hasn't gone away completely, but I feel soooo much better than I have previously. Work was actually fun today for the first time in a long while. I actually felt like I got a ton of stuff accomplished.

I came home a bit earlier than usual since today was another fantastic day. The temperature got up into the mid 70s today. It was just getting a bit dusky outside by the time I got home, but that didn't stop us from going outside and playing some. Ginger came out too. Quinn pretended to snowboard by first just running around the yard, then getting out his scooter and pretending that was a snowboard. Catherine was riding Quinn's tricycle around (I think she's almost outgrown her own) and then switched over to digging with the shovel. Later Quinn started playing baseball. I have to admit, I was quite impressed. When we first started playing he hit five for five balls I threw to him (the sixth one I screwed up and threw to his opposite side). He started using his tee ball set to hit once it got a bit darker. Catherine was our all around outfielder going to get all the balls Quinn hit.



While we were out I tried taking some pictures again. See above for the fourth in the sunset series (at least I think it's the fourth). It was already getting dark though, so no spectacular shots or anything. Although almost got a couple of nice motion blur shots where I took pictures without the flash and tried to stay focused on the kids as they rode by causing a blurring in the background.

The kids have found a new game they like to play online (aside from the Veggie Tales flash games at Big Idea). The name of the game is Mirror Magic. The kids refer to it as the matching game, which is funny considering the goal of the game is two look at the pictures and find the differences between them. I call the game "Find the Photoshop."