Lots of Pics Incoming!

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog - I've been super-busy at home and work, and we were getting ready for our vacation. So now that we're back, there should be a whole bunch of posts showing up here over the next few days.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 17, 2010 09:17 PM | Comments (0)

I Didn't Die

One afternoon last weekend, Sean and Carter were sitting at the kitchen table having a snack. Lori and I were in the living room, sitting on the couch. Sean was trying to tell us something, and then suddenly started coughing and choking. It was the sort of choking where you can tell something just went down the wrong pipe, and he wasn't in any danger. So we call out to him, "Sean, are you ok?". And Sean responds, "Don't worry Mommy - I didn't die." Something about that tickled my funny bone.

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 18, 2010 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

Names

Sean has been asking a lot lately why certain things have the names that they do. In some cases, it's a decent question - he'll ask about some compound word, live driveway, and we'll talk about how it's called a driveway because you drive on it, and it's a 'way'. Or how a 'swingset' is a set of swings. But sometimes he asks some that are harder to answer - like why milk is called 'milk'. Well the other night, he said, "Why I am named Sean? What if I was called... Johnny Kiki?". It tickled my funny bone that that would be the name he would choose for himself. So for the last few days, I've been calling him Johnny Kiki just for fun.

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 5, 2010 05:51 PM | Comments (0)

Indoor Camp-Out

A couple of weeks ago, it got super-windy and we lost power for about three days. The first night, Lori and Carter slept at a friend's who still had power, while Sean and I opted to stay at the house for an indoor camp-out. It was pretty awesome. We read books by the light of a fire in the fireplace and we toasted mini-marshmallows on toothpicks over a candle. Sean kept lighting his marshmallows on fire, blowing them out, and declaring their burnt outer shells "delicious". He must take after his Grammy on that one. I don't think I've ever seen her actually "toast" a marshmallow - hers always go front the bag right to full-out flame. Right before bed, we played a solid hour of hide-and-go-seek with flashlights, which was ridiculously fun. It is so much easier to find a decent hiding spot when the house is pitch-black. That night he slept in my with me and the two dogs, all huddled together in a huge pile of blankets so we could keep warm. It was awesome - he hasn't had that much uninterrupted and unshared "daddy time" for a long time.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 13, 2010 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

Pledge of Allegiance

Sean tried to recite the pledge of allegiance to me from memory last night. Here's how it went:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the amerit states of America, and to the repumbic for which it stands, one nation, under guard, ini-visible, for May, June, and July!"

I made him recite it several times, so I could write it down to share with all of you. Lori and I were cracking up.

Posted under Stories by Joel on February 2, 2010 08:48 PM | Comments (1)

Christmas Cookies

On Saturday, the kids and I made Christmas cookies. I used too much flour on the countertop while rolling out the dough, and the kids ended up covered with it. They thought it was hilarious that their clothes were all white. Later, while decorating the cookies, they got themselves covered with frosting too. I'm not sure whether more frosting ended up on the cookies, or in their stomachs. They tried to be subtle about it - they were spooning frosting into their mouths when they thought I wasn't looking. But they had fun, and we were headed to Grammie's later - so I didn't care much just how sugared-up they were. Heh.

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 14, 2009 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Twenty Years

		I timed this, our 500th post on the blog, to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the day Lori and I met - November 20th, 1989. I had just moved to town, and was starting over in a new school. We started as a pair of geeky, gawky teenagers, and are now eight years married and proud parents of two sweet, beautiful* children. We have dated off and on since we were thirteen - as you can see in the photo from our high school yearbook, we were voted class sweethearts. Lori says that the first time she noticed me was in 7th grade English class, shortly after I had moved to Epping. I was doodling, seemingly not paying any attention, and the teacher called on me hoping to catch me unprepared. But I answered without hesitation, and Lori claims she was smitten. Eleven years later we were married. She's a very patient girl. Lori has been by my side in everything I've ever done. Before we moved to Texas, she was my constant hiking companion. She always complained on the long climbs, but her bubbling joy and enthusiasm once we reached the top was worth dragging her up there. We're both looking forward to the kids getting big enough for us to pick the hobby back up in a more serious way. When I got offered a job in Texas, she was completely supportive of the prospect - and never once made me feel guilty about asking her to move 2000 miles from where she grew up. Living away from everyone really made us realize how well we fit together, because we had no one else to rely on - and it only made our relationship stronger. Over time, or little family of two grew. First their was Paige. We adopted her from a shelter out by the San Antonio airport, and it was love at first sight. Then Sadie joined us, and enriched our lives that much more. Until the kids came, the dogs slept in the bed with us, and it made our house feel less like a building and more like a home. And then one day we heard that Tracy was pregnant. That's when we said to ourselves "what are we waiting for?" We had been putting off having children, waiting until we were "ready". But the truth is that you are never really "ready" to be a parent for the first time. And when Sean came, it was everything that we hoped and feared that it would be. People tell you that having kids changes everything, but what they don't say is that it changes everything for the better. A year and a half later, we were finally starting to get into a normal routine and our life was settling down again. So we said, "let's have another!" As the ancient Chinese proverb says - "may you live in interesting times". And nothing breaks up the monotony in a household like an infant. As the kids have grown, our lives have just been more and more fun, interesting, and challenging. It's just so amazing to me that the whole arc of my life started twenty years ago, in a small classroom in a small town, from the shy, sidelong glances shared by a geeky little boy and a sweet, pretty girl. * for the sake of this post, please ignore anything negative I've ever posted here about the children and assume that they are lovely, cooperative little angels.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 27, 2009 03:17 PM | Comments (2)

42 Words of Wisdom: #16

"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

- Douglas Adams

I just now fixed a bug in our software at work that has been on my to-do list for a long time. I've dipped into debugging it a few times in the past, and each time I had to leave it unfixed to struggle my way back out of that code while I still could, before I could fall hopelessly behind schedule. But today, I defeated the beast. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 17, 2009 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

Rocket Scarecrow

At school today, the students in Sean's class had to make up Indian names for themselves. His teacher explained what kind of names were Indian names, and then asked the kids to make up their own. But most of the kids didn't get it, though. They said things like "Pilgrim", or "Indian". But Sean got it right away. He immediately belted out with "Rocket Scarecrow!" I think that makes a great Indian name. His teacher was impressed that he caught right on to the idea.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 16, 2009 10:02 PM | Comments (1)

Rocket Boots

One recent night after I came home from work, Sean showed me the Christmas list that Mommy had helped him write. Among the normal things on his list - blocks, spider man action figures, etc. - was something that caught my eye. Rocket boots. So I started asking him about them, to try to find out why he wanted rocket boots. He has playing at the time, so at first he gave me his usual one- or two-word, distracted answers. But after I pressed him for a bit, he finally opened up and told me all about the boots. He said that they were red, blue, and orange, and ran on batteries. He said he needed them to fight an evil sandwich maker on the planet Green (I swear, I am not making this up!), and when he went to the planet Bumblebee, he could use the rockets to "burn up fighter guys". He told me much more than that, but this is all I managed to jot down before it all slipped out of my head.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 14, 2009 08:31 AM | Comments (0)

I'm Happy About You

The kids tell us that they love us plenty often enough, but you always have to wonder how much of that is sincere, and how much of that is reflex. Sean has told me on a couple of occasions that I am his best friend, and I kind of like hearing that too. But those sorts of moments are few and far between. Well tonight we were watching our 'goodnight show' before bed, and Sean was sitting with Lori on the love seat, sort of snuggled in. And out of nowhere, at one point he looks up at her and says "I'm happy about you". I found it more than a little touching - that is not a sentence we've ever said to him, so we know it came from his heart.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 10, 2009 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

Daddy-Daughter Day #2

Sean had a party to go to last Saturday, so Carter and I had another daddy-daughter day. In the morning, we went to Maudslay State Park for a hike. She did great! We did almost two miles total, and she only asked to be carried the couple of hundred yards. She got to see a lot of cool things there - at one point, we were hiking through an area of dense, overgrown rhododendrons that we as big as trees, and that pressed in tightly on the trail. As we hiked along, we came across two pretty little granite bridges that I never even knew were there. And when we came out to our normal picnic spot, she walked back and forth along the top of a stone wall for a solid 15 minutes before I could convince her to move on. We also found an ancient pine tree that had 5 trunks all growing together, which left a cool little hollow in the center about four feet off of the ground. I gave her a boost up into it, and she played up there for a little while. She said it was her nest, and she was a little birdie. When we got the remains of the formal gardens, we spent another 20 minutes playing there. She was racing around the gardens, with me following her. She kept telling me that the whole area was her pirate ship, and that we were looking for the treasure. It's amazing how much she opens up chats my ear off when her brother isn't around competing for my attention.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 9, 2009 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #15

"Today must be a Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays."

- Douglas Adams

Nothing incredibly deep or insightful in this one - just a bit of mid-week silliness. How is your Thursday going?

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 5, 2009 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

Acorn and Oreo

For a few months now, Sean has given the two of us nicknames - he is acorn, and I am oreo. I have no idea where or how he came up with this. He just suddenly started it one day, and he's stuck with it. No deep insights or anything. Just something cute that I wanted to share. Carry on.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 4, 2009 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

The Ladybug Invasion

Two nights ago I came home from work to the announcement that we were being invaded by ladybugs. The day before, there wasn't a single ladybug in the house. The next morning - dozens. I rounded up and released almost thirty ladybugs that night before the numbers got low enough that I could ignore the rest. Carter followed me around the house, serving as my "ladybug spotter". She's got sharp eyes.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 24, 2009 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Subtle Differences

So we are about to start the goodnight show for the kids' bedtime wind-down, when Sean says "Mom, where is my milk?". Lori is outside getting the dogs to come in, so Carter says to him "I will get it for you, Sean." She brings it to him as he's watching the show, and he distractedly mumbles to her, "Thank you, mommy". To which Carter replies "I'm not Mom, silly." So just to keep it going, I say to her "Are you sure? You look like Mom to me!". She looks at me and says "No....I'm not Mom. I have a different shirt!" As though she thinks that the only way that I can tell my daughter and my wife apart is by their wardrobes. So cute!

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 23, 2009 08:47 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #14

"You live and learn. At any rate, you live."

- Douglas Adams

I read an article this morning about new research showing that you have to make mistakes in order to learn. Seriously? This is considered "new research"? This is what I have always believed, and is one of the fundamental principles of the way I raise my kids. To quote the article: "For years, many educators have championed 'errorless learning,' advising teachers (and students) to create study conditions that do not permit errors." To me that doesn't sound like learning, but rather memorization. And how long does memorization usually last? Just long enough to pass the test - that's how long. Being afraid of making mistakes just means that you will never really learn anything.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 20, 2009 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

Carter's Third Birthday

		We had Carter's third birthday party last weekend. We rented a moon bounce and had it at home. We had looked into doing it somewhere else - like Party Playland or Chuck E. Cheese's, but at most places you only get an hour and a half, and then they toss you out. I've been to a few of those parties, and they always feel so rushed. And renting the moon bounce for the whole day was the same price. Every had a great time - even the adults. The kids were all starting to 'help' Carter open her presents, so I went in the moon bounce with all of the kiddos to distract them. I was tossing people off of the walls, flipping them over, starting pig piles - even the kids I don't know as well got into it. Carter got lots of great presents, including a toy mailbox that she's had her eye on for a long time. The weather was cooperative, the food was great, and glorious, glorious fun was had by all.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 18, 2009 06:50 AM | Comments (0)

First Snow

Saw my first snow of the season on my way into work this morning. It wasn't cold enough to accumulate, but still - first snow. I've got mixed feelings about it though. While it makes me think of the holiday season, snowballs, and sledding that are to come, it also makes me think of the shoveling, plowing, and oil bills that come along with it. Hopefully the REAL snow is still several weeks off.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 16, 2009 06:43 AM | Comments (0)

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might...

Last night, Carter was sitting on the potty right before bed, when I noticed an eyelash on her check. I took it off, held it out on the end of my finger, and told her to make a wish and blow it off. She thought for a minute, then took a deep breath and blew. I asked her what she had wished for. Her eyes got all dreamy and far away, and she said in a soft voice "I wished for ... a magic ... booger ..." Good grief, that girl cracks me up.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 30, 2009 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

A Good Day

Last Saturday, we had nothing special planned. We had an appointment for haircuts in the morning, but that was about the extent of our grand plans for the day.

While Sean was getting his haircut, Mary Jane (the woman who has been cutting my hair since I was 13) combed in straight back - which made it stand straight up. Sean was watching himself in the mirror during this, and said to his reflection "oooooh, my hair looks fancy!"

After harcuts, we decided to stop at Memories for an ice cream on the way home. It was super-hot outside, and our ice cream started melting almost immediately. The kids were racing to eat their ice cream before it liquified, and Carter managed to coat herself nearly head to toe with chocolate ice cream. She was wearing the cure little dress you can see in the photos below, and Lori was getting pretty scared that it was ruined. At one point, she dropped a whole scoop of ice cream down the front of her dress (on the inside, I mean). She promptly stuck her hand in there, fished around for it, pulled it out, and popped it in her mouth. By the time we were ready to leave and had to clean her up, she had ice cream in the strangest places - on her ankle...behind her neck...on her forehead...

By the time we got home, it was pouring. But it was still pretty hot outside. So I asked the kids if they wanted to play in the rain for a little while. They almost couldn't believe it - we always make them go IN the house when it rains, not OUT. As you can see, they were racing around, jumping in puddles, and just generally having a grand time.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 27, 2009 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

Peach Jam

Started my canning season last night by making some peach jam from the peaches we picked at Butternut Farm on Sunday. As usual, it took about twice as long to make as I predicted, and I didn't get to bed until pretty late. But it looks really good. The color is a rich golden, amber color - it's like honey and sunshine, right in a jar! I hope it tastes as good as it looks. I can't wait to try it.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 11, 2009 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

First Camping Trip

Sean and I went on our very first camping trip last weekend. It started out a little less than promising (it rained all morning while we were getting ready, and was still raining when we left), so I was surprised by how well everything went.
		On the way to the campground, Sean was playing a game in the back seat where he would cover himself with beach towels, and they he would want me to pretend that I had forgotten him at home. After a few rounds of this game, he actually fell asleep under those towels, and slept until we got there.
		When we first arrived at the campground, it was still pouring. So we put on our raincoats and got our tent up as fast as we could, but we still ended up getting soaked. At that point I just said to myself "the hell with it!", and told Sean to go nuts. He looked confused for a minute, and then he decided to go for it before I could change my mind. He jumped in every muddy puddle he could find, and enjoyed himself tremendously. He was going around showing everyone that he had "the dirtiest socks in the universe!" He was quite proud of them.
The next morning we played on the playground until it warmed up enough to go swimming. Just recently, Sean has finally learned how to swing by himself, so that he only needs a push to get started and can then keep himself going by himself.
		We made s'mores that night - I think this was Sean's first time eating one, even though he's been talking about them for months. All told, He ate three s'mores and I was nervous that he was never going to sleep. But once it got dark, he actually asked to go to bed, in fact.
		When I woke up in the morning, I looked over at Sean, and this is what I saw. Teddy bear on his head, and mouth wide open. So cute. Moments later, he woke up and rubbed his eyes. He climbed on top of me and gave me an enormous hug, then said "I love camping with you, Daddy."
It made me so happy - I love those moments when he and I really connect. Of course, once we got home it was right back to fighting with his sister and getting in trouble, but it was somehow easier to deal with after the wonderful weekend we had shared together. I hope we get a chance to go again real soon.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 7, 2009 02:41 PM | Comments (0)

Magic

I was playing with the kids last night, and tried something I had never shown them before - that trick where you pretend to separate your thumb into two pieces. It totally freaked their beans. They couldn't figure out how I was doing it, and Sean kept trying to pull his own thumb off until I told him that only grown-ups could do it. He then proceeded to try and pull MY thumb off. It was a ton of fun. Now I've got to try and remember all of the other kid-fooling tricks I used to know.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 5, 2009 07:16 AM | Comments (0)

Camping

I took Sean camping for the first time this past weekend. There were a couple of rough moments, but I think it's safe to say that he loved it. Each morning he woke up in the tent, gave me a huge hug, and said, "I love camping with you, daddy!" We played at the playground, went swimming, made s'mores, jumped in puddles - it was just a great time all around. I've got some pictures, and I'll get them posted over the next couple of days.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 3, 2009 07:49 AM | Comments (0)

Congrats Carter!

Just for those who didn't know, Carter is basically done with daytime diapers! Hooray! We've been working on training her for the past few weeks or so, and it's been hit or miss - she was having a fair number of accidents. But this week we took the plunge and decided it was underwear all day, no matter what - and she's been doing great! She's even started to wake up dry some mornings, so even nighttime diapers may not be around for long. She loves talking about how she is a big girl now, because she can use the potty. She is so proud of herself. Of course, her potty humor has cranked up a notch now, too. But that's the price we pay. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 23, 2009 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Who's Your Daddy?

First, some context. Sean's teacher is named Miss Nicole. She's in her early 20's, and quite attractive. Lori claims that she is "my type". So that said, here's the story:

I was home from work yesterday, and I picked Sean up at school after his lunch. On the way home in the van, Sean says to me, "Are you Miss Nicole's daddy?" So I immediately respond, in my euphemism voice, "why...did she say so?" And Sean says, "Yes, Miss Nicole said that you were her daddy!" Needless to say, this tickled my funny bone. When I told Lori the story later, she was howling with laughter. I'm guessing Miss Nicole must have talking to Sean about how I was HIS daddy, and he somehow got the pronouns mixed up. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 17, 2009 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

Tada!

Just a quick story about something funny that happened at home the other night. Lori, Carter, and I were in the living room playing on the floor. Sean had just gotten up to go use the bathroom. So we're all talking, and suddenly Sean comes bouncing in the living room, drops his pants, throws his arms up in the air and exclaims, "Ta-da! Penis!" Lori and I just look at each other, and then bust out laughing. I have no idea what he did that for, but it cracked us up. I joked with Lori that I think it was his very first pick up line.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 14, 2009 07:12 AM | Comments (0)

Take My Picture!

Carter is becoming quite the little ham. This photo was totally staged, but not by us. She was playing quietly in the living room, and found her props, set up the rocking horse, and climbed on. Then she called Lori into the room and said "Mommy, do you want to take my picture?" How cute is that? I remember Tracy being a bit of a ham when she was little, and it's adorable to see the same thing in my own daughter.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 11, 2009 08:11 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #13

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."

- Douglas Adams

Lori has recently joined me in watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. I'm noticing that it's got a lot of religious themes in it. Which is a bit mind-boggling, when you really think of it - robots that believe in God? I find this quote to be particularly appropriate. We're both enjoying the show quite a bit, by the way. I didn't originally ask Lori to join me, as I didn't think it would appeal to her much. But after accidentally watching an episode or two while waiting for Carter to fall asleep, it's piqued her interest. The depth of the characters on the show is really pulling us in.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 8, 2009 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

I Win!

The other day the kids were riding bikes in the driveway, and Sean suddenly got it into his head that he wanted to run. At not just run, but race. So he set up the cones, and talked his sister into running with him. Although in all honesty, she didn't need much convincing. The best part is when he wins a race - he sings "I win! I win!", all which doing some kind of little dance. In one of the shots below, you can see part of that dance.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 7, 2009 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Saco River

While we were on vacation, we told the kids that we were going to rent a canoe and take a ride on the Saco River. We also told them that along the way, we were going to find a nice sandy spot to have our lunch and a little swim. While we were driving to the canoe rental place, Sean kept asking if we could just go swimming without the canoe. So that's what we ended up doing. Both kids did great, but I especially loved Sean's goggles - doesn't he look hilarious? Those were his idea. I also love the photo of Sean trying to carry about five rocks at once. I was cringing the whole time, expecting one of them to end up on his toes. But he didn't drop them. Now as to why those particular rocks were so important - especially considering that the entire beach was covered in rocks - I really couldn't say. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on June 28, 2009 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

Condo Pool

While we were up north, we spent a lot of time at the pool. The first day, Sean was too nervous to go in, even though he really wanted to - so this led to the kind of breakdown we've come to expect whenever we try something new. It makes us sad though, because we know he'd have a blast if he could just get over his initial anxiety and go in. But the second day (and every day after that), he did just fine. By the time we finished our vacation, he was swimming all over the pool in his lifejacket - including the deep end. He tried some swimming in the shallow end without his lifejacket, too. Carter played on the pool stairs, and was more than happy to just climb in and out of the pool for hours at a time.

Posted under Stories by Joel on June 21, 2009 07:16 AM | Comments (0)

Condo Playground

We were up north on vacation earlier this month. It's nearly a three-hour drive for us, so once we got there we took the kids right over to the playground to burn off the pent-up energy they had after the drive. Last year, Sean was afraid to go more than a couple of feet up the climbing wall. But this year, he shot straight up the wall with no hesitation. Unfortunately, Carter had a harder time. She was incredibly concerned about all the bugs - she couldn't have any fun, because every time a bug came anywhere near her, she would freak out. So Daddy pulled her into his coat, which seemed to cheer her up.

Posted under Stories by Joel on June 20, 2009 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

Sit On It!

I'm not ashamed to let you all know that I've taught yet one more thing that is acceptable from a toddler, but probably not from anyone else. I've taught her to make dual thumbs-up, and to say, in a deep Fonzi voice, "Ey! Sit on it!". It's hilarious when she tries to do the deep voice. She ends up pursing her lips up big, like you see in the photo.

Posted under Stories by Joel on April 18, 2009 10:50 PM | Comments (0)

Tricks

The last few days Sean has been into doing "tricks". As soon as I walk in the door, he says, "Hey Dad, want to see my cool tricks?" Then he runs across the kitchen and slides on his stocking feet. Sometimes he crashes into the floormat at the edge of the kitchen and falls over. He'll do this over and over - and he makes sure that I do it, too. I love it. Sometimes he even throws a flourish in there too, with his arms.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 23, 2009 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

Dunkin Donuts

Carter is crazy for donuts. I am talking near-obsession here. Almost every weekend, she asks me if I'll go get some Dunkin Donuts. And just in the last few months we've started giving her her own glass of milk, so that she can dip her own donuts. And she inevitably gets the rim of the glass coated with chocolate frosting, and then tries to drink from the glass - which causes the chocolate ring on her face that you see in this photo.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 20, 2009 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

Coyote Feet

The kids do this a lot - put on our shoes and walk around the house. They find it utterly hilarious. When Sean does it, he says that he has "coyote feet". One time, I told him that Mommy had huge "Wile E. Coyote Feet", to mean that they were long and floppy. They aren't, but I was just being silly. Now, every time he sees big feet on anyone, he tells me that they've got coyote feet too.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 16, 2009 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

936

After dinner tonight, Sean was pretending to be a robot. He started chasing Lori around the house, yelling "Nine-Thirty-Six!" in a robot voice, while walking stiff-legged with his arms outstretched. I have no idea where the number came from, but for some reason it really struck my funny bone. I was laughing so much I was actually having trouble breathing.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 6, 2009 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

You Ruined Everything

I heard a song a few days ago that really sums up what life with kids is like. :)

I was fine,
I pulled my self together.
Just in time,
To throw my self away.
Once my perfect world was gone I knew,
You ruined everything in the nicest way.

You should know,
How great things were before you.
Even so,
They're better still today.
Now I can't think of who I was before,
You ruined everything in the nicest way.

Posted under Stories by Joel on March 4, 2009 07:05 AM | Comments (0)

Ring of Fire

On Valentine's Day, I ended up going to the store three different times, all before 2:00 (and forgetting paper towels each and every time - but that's neither here nor there). On the third trip out, I took both kids with me to give Lori a little peace and quiet while she took her shower. On the way home, Carter wanted to sing. For some reason, Ring of Fire popped into my head.

The taste of love is sweet -
When hearts like ours meet.
I fell for you like a child.
Oh, and the fire went wild.

And guess what? She loved it. She tried singing it with me a few times - which was pretty cute, as she had a bigger allotment of enthusiasm than lyrical accuracy - and then started asking me to sing it for her again and again in an increasingly groggy voice. By the time we pulled onto our road she was snoring like a bandsaw.

I fell into a burning ring of fire.
I fell down, down, down, and the flame went higher.
And it burns, burns, burns - the ring of fire.
The ring of fire.

So what do you know? I can actually sing one of my kids to sleep. It's hard to explain if you weren't there (and you weren't), but it was a very sweet moment. The dynamics of being a father-to-a-son and being a father-to-a-daughter are very different. Sean and I have lots of sweet moments too, but the ones I share with Carter are much more frequently of the "awwwwwww" variety. And I love it!

Posted under Stories by Joel on February 18, 2009 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

Snow Play

		A week or two ago, it was warm enough for Lori to take the kids out to play in the snow. What I like about these pictures is that Sean is giving us actual, genuine smiles. Which is pretty unusual for him. Normally, he's either stone-faced (and sometimes looking drugged) or has some big, fake, toothy smile plastered on his face. But these pleasant little grins really make me happy to see.

Posted under Stories by Joel on February 13, 2009 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

Toe Lint

Carter has acquired a strange fascination with toe lint. Every time her socks come off, she's right in there digging around. We've tried telling that it's gross, but I think that just makes her like it even more. Her favorite phrase for maximum Grammie gross-out is "a booger on toe lint". Every time she says that, she then cracks up laughing at her own cleverness.

Posted under Stories by Joel on February 7, 2009 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

Zonked

The other day, the kids were playing in the living room while Lori and I were in the kitchen. It got awfully quiet in there, so I went to investigate. Sean was watching Bob the Builder, and playing quietly with his blocks. But Carter was completely zonked out on the couch. A few minutes after this picture was taken, she fell over onto her side and woke up, bleary-eyed and confused. It was adorable.

Posted under Stories by Joel on February 1, 2009 07:41 AM | Comments (0)

Wishbone

This past Thanksgiving, I pulled the wishbone out of the turkey for the kids to try. Once it had completely dried out, I explained to them what they should do with it. At first, they looked at me like I had lost my marbles. Why exactly do we make wishes while we break an animal's bones? Once I convinced them what to do, they did seem to enjoy it, though.

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 24, 2009 07:17 AM | Comments (0)

Sean's Birthday

		With everybody sick, we decided not to have Sean's birthday party on his actual birthday. But that didn't mean we didn't still want to celebrate. So to start the day off right, we had cake and ice cream for breakfast, complete with candles. The kids were blown away - they thought that the world had turned upside-down. After breakfast, Sean got to open a birthday present. And once we were all done with that, we got dressed and headed to the bowling alley for a couple of strings of fun. The kids had a great time, as you can see.

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 20, 2009 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #12

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."

- Douglas Adams

We have had quite a string of bad luck over the last few months. Each event taken seperately is not that terrible, but taken as a whole it is starting to seem a little overwhelming. First, I discovered that the framing behind the front porch and the headers over the garage were rotten, and had to be repaired. Then, the ground froze before I could get concrete footings poured for the new porch - so we are porch-less until the spring. Next, we got hit with an ice storm that left us without power for eleven days. When the power finally came back and we tried to come home (two days before Christmas) the heat didn't work yet. Once the heat started working and we were back in the house - which was Christmas Eve at this point - we lost the power again, at 2:00 AM on Christmas morning. The day after Christmas, my laptop died - totally bricked. It's still out for repair (it was thankfully still under warranty), and I have no idea if they will be able to fix it without wiping the hard drive - which contains all the work I've done since my last backup, including our Christmas pictures for this year (which is why I haven't posted them yet, in case you were wondering). And then last week, the whole family started getting sick. Come to find out (yesterday), Carter has bacterial pnuemonia, Lori has a sinus infection, and I've got bronchitis. And to top it all off, we had to bring the van to the shop yesterday, as it had started giving Lori trouble with the power steering. Sweet merciful crap! I thought bad luck was only supposed to come in threes?!? Sorry to post a rant, but it feels better to get it off my chest. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 15, 2009 02:42 PM | Comments (0)

Snooze

Between the ice storm, vacation, and working from home a few days, Sean and I have been able to spend a lot of time together. As much as I hated the complete disruption of our lives the last few weeks, I can't really complain about all of the time Sean and I have been able to connect. Lori took this photo yesterday. I was zonked on the couch, and Sean was curled right up into me playing Sonic the Hedgehog on his Gameboy. He probably stayed there for almost an hour. We've had a lot of moments like this lately, and it warms my heart just looking at the pictures.

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 2, 2009 04:18 PM | Comments (0)

Don't Cry Mommy

During the ice storm, we were out of our house for about 12 days, all told. We spent the majority of that time at my folks' condo up in the mountains. It was Lori, the kids, the dogs, and I, plus my parents, their two dogs, and their two cats. Everyone was trying real hard to make the best of it, but it was a pretty stressful arangement - especially with Christmas looming. So we were all worn a little thin. At one point, I accidentally walked in on Lori crying in the second bedroom, just overwhelmed by it all. So I'm trying to console her, but it was Sean who finally got her to smile. He was headed to the bathroom, and heard his mom crying. So he came in, wrapped his arms around her legs in a great big hug, and said, "Don't cry Mommy, it's ok. There aren't any monsters in here."

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 1, 2009 06:33 PM | Comments (0)

Ice Storm

For those who didn't know, and have been wondering what caused the lack of updates here on the blog, we were out of our house for about 12 days due to a massive ice storm in our area that happened a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, a friend of Lori's father helped us drain our heating system before we took off, so we didn't have any pipes burst. But we are just now finally getting our life back to some level of normalcy. So expect the updates to start rolling out again within the next day or so.

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 28, 2008 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

From the Archives - Spelling Bee

Here is another old newspaper clipping I pulled from that old stack of Lori's stuff. This is from the same year that I moved to Epping and Lori and I met - and started dating. I think it was her goofy haircut that attracted me the most - heh! But seriously, all that spelling acumen has paid off well. We have to spell almost every interesting word when we are in front of the kids, in order to keep things a secret. It's amazing how adept you get at it with practice - I can probably spell d-e-s-s-e-r-t faster than anyone you know. And this is off topic, but it has to be said. Dan, you look like quite the goober in that photo. Get a haircut, hippie!

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 13, 2008 05:37 PM | Comments (3)

From the Archives - Honor Roll

I found this in a stack of Lori's old stuff. It lists Lori and I as being on honor roll in 7th grade. It's weird to look at that list, and realize that I know almost every person on there. Barring just one or two exceptions, I haven't seen any of those people since graduation. It's strange how fast you lose touch, and how "meh" I feel about that. And not to call you out or anything, but - Chris, Dan - where are you on that list? Slackers. :P

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 10, 2008 05:37 PM | Comments (1)

Daddy-Daughter Day

Last Sunday Carter and I had a Daddy-Daughter Day. Lori and I each took one of the kids to do something seperate, to see if a little one-on-one attention would do them some good. Verdict: success - both kids were better behaved, more cooperative, and just fundamentally more pleasant to be around when seperated from their sibling, and with one parent's full attention. In Sean's case, especially, the difference was shocking. I'm not sure what to do with this data now that we have it, though. :) But rather than engage in a little armchair psychology, I'd rather just tell you about the day Carter and I spent together.

First, Carter and I headed to Wal-Mart, to try to pick up some Christmas decorations for the house. While there, we spent a lot of time talking about Santa. I think she is really starting to understand the concept, and is getting excited about Christmas. She's been telling me about how Santa Claus will come down the chimney and eat cookies, and then there will be presents under the tree in the morning. I'm not sure she's figured out that it is Santa who will leave the presents, but I've been trying to explain to her how the two events are connected.

After we left Wal-Mart, we hopped back in the van to drive to Plaistow. On the way, Carter wanted to sing songs with me the whole way. Sean hates it when we try to sing in the car, so Carter was excited to finally get her chance. She only knows a line or two each of about 12 different songs, so mostly it was me singing by myself (with her mumbling and dancing along) - which I'm sure looked strange to other motorists, who couldn't see her carseat and therefore must have assumed I was alone. Although her favorite song is the one she made up herself. It goes like this: *cupcake, la la la, cupcake, la la la*. So cute.

Once we hit Plaistow, we headed to Friendly's for lunch. Carter insisted that we run from the van to the entrance, just for the sheer joy of running (we did the same when we were leaving). When we got inside, she looked over the menu thoroughly, and decided she wanted a cheeseburger. Normally, Lori and I call cheeseburgers "Crabby Patties" (from Spongebob Squarepants) in order to get them to eat them. But Carter told me she was a big girl now, and wanted a cheeseburger. She apparently believes that she has outgrown my ruse. *Sigh*, they grow up so fast.

When the food came, she immediately noticed something unexpected on her plate - a trio of pickle slices. Before this moment, I'm not sure if she'd ever seen a pickle, much less had one served to her. She poked it, prodded it, and said "Daddy, what's that?". I told her, and reassured her that it was in fact food. She then proceeded to lick each of the pickles in rotation, until they had all received at least 3 licks apiece. At which point she decided they were not to her liking (although why that took nine pickle-licks, I'll never know), and gave them no further attention.

And then, the climax of our meal - ice cream time. Our waitress brought us a tall strawberry shortcake sundae, and two spoons with handles nearly a foot long. Now mind you, while seated Carter's eyes only came about halfway up this glass. So she was reaching up above her head, with a very long, unwieldy spoon, and digging around in a glass she couldn't see into. So by the completion of dessert she was strawberried from fingertips to elbow. But damn, was she happy.

By the time we got home, we were both pretty beat from our long day out. She requested an episode of Dora the Explorer, and I obliged. I lay down on the couch, face up, and figured I would take a quick "break" while she watched her show. Within seconds, she climbed up onto me, and lay down on my chest. She and I used to do this when she was an infant, and I loved it, but once she hit about three months old she wouldn't do it anymore. But this day she stayed that way with me until Mommy came home, and the garage door opener woke us both up.

It was probably about the best day I have had with Carter in my entire life. It's good to be a daddy.

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 4, 2008 10:18 AM | Comments (2)

Best Fiction I've Ever Read

I recently received an email from a friend that was one of those "get-to-know-each-other" chain letters. Normally, I would send those straight to the bit bucket. But this one actually made me sit and think for a bit. Instead of replying to the email, I've decided to turn this into a blog post to give me a little more breathing space to explain what I like about these books.

I'm well aware that few (or possibly even none) of you will care about this. If you fall into that mammoth category, feel free to skip this post. But for the few who do care, here is my list, with the books listed in order of increasing wonderfulness. Also note that I've leveraged a self-imposed rule on myself to not include more than one book from any one author. Otherwise I would have to include all three Lord of the Rings books, as well as a slew more from Orson Scott Card - which would make for a boring list.

5. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
This book has been on my radar for a long time. I first heard about it in high school. It was supposed to be "a classic", which in high school I took to mean "incredibly boring". A few years ago, I went through a nostalgic period and began re-reading all of the books I had read in high school, to see if any of them were actually any good (hint: some were). After getting less than an hour into it, I was in love. I can completely conceive of how this book could have inspired a generation of young people to adopt the Beat lifestyle. It made me more than a little sad that I was born too late to have experienced it. After every reading session, it was all I could do to not jump in my car and just start driving. Kerouac's style is more than just energetic - it's frantic.

4. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
This book is a pretty significant deviation from Bradbury's typical fare (which I also enjoy, by the way). This book is more of a collection of Bradbury's actual childhood memories, all mashed into one magical, fictional summer. I read it at least once a year, and I read it much more slowly than I typically read a book. I like to savor the feelings this book triggers in me, and stretch out that rosy nostalgia as long as possible. I always finish this book with an audible sigh. As soon as the kids are old enough to be read "chapter" books, I plan to start reading this book to them.

3. Dune - Frank Herbert
For a long time, I avoided the established sci-fi classics. I think high school had turned me off to anything labeled a “classic”. So even though I was a sci-fi nut, I didn’t read Dune until I was in my late 20s. This book has done a lot to influence some of my views on life, including the realization that self-reliance is one of the most important traits a person can foster in themselves. Conviction, loyalty, cleverness, ability - these are all qualities present in the heroes of this book, and qualities that I am at least trying to build up in myself.

2. Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
Since the day I first finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it has been the yardstick I have used to measure every story touted as "epic" by its reviewers. It was this series that led to my early interest in Dungeons and Dragons - all I wanted was to capture just a little of the grandeur and scale of Tolkien's world and share it with my friends. When it was announced that the books were being turned into movies, I was very skeptical. Almost every other Hollywood-interpretation of a book I had loved had ended in disaster. And while I am not keen on every decision Peter Jackson made in creating the films, I will definitely say that he wrung every ounce of "epic" out of those books as he brought them to the screen. Just writing this now makes me want to go back and watch the trilogy again.

1. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
Much of Orson Scott Card’s work speaks to me on a very fundamental, emotional level. Two of the strongest themes in his books are personal strength and compassion. His protagonists are individuals who discover untapped wells of strength within themselves to overcome nearly insurmountable adversity. This is a trait that I value highly in people, and is also one of the reasons I challenge myself constantly. Card’s characters also heavily influenced by their compassion for others, almost to a fault. Some of his characters are almost completely driven by compassion, as is Ender Wiggin in Speaker for the Dead. Every time I read this book, I reevaluate my personal relationships, and try to reconsider how much compassion I am showing to the people I care about. I’d bet that if Lori kept a journal, you’d be able to go back and guess when I had read this book again. :)

I've found that when it comes to reading for pleasure, there are two types of readers. Some people read a book once, and then are done with it. And some people will read a favorite book over and over. I fall into the second camp. Between every 3 or 4 new books I read, I re-read at least one old favorite. I've probably read each of the books in the list above at least a half-dozen times - some probably many more times than that.

Runner's Up:

Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut: My favorite of Vonnegut's books. For a long time Vonnegut was my favorite author, in fact. Aside from a few odd books, you really can't go wrong with anything he's written.
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk: While I actually like several of Palahniuk's books even better than this one, Fight Club makes a good introduction to his work. Anyone who has seen the movie will already be familiar with his style, which will make the book easier to follow.
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins: My dad recommended this book to me. For the longest time I didn't bother to check it out - based on the title I had assumed it was a non-fiction book chronicling someone's globe-hopping trip. Boy was I wrong. This book was my gateway to modern absurdist fiction, which is a genre I've come to love.
Lord Foul's Bane - Stephen R. Donaldson: I found this book in our attic, when I was about 15 years old. I have since read all of Donaldson's work. He tends to write about anti-heroes, and the depth of his characters are usually quite staggering compared to other authors of the genre. Definitely a thought-provoking book.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams: I've probably consumed the Hitchiker's Guide dozen of times, in its various forms. I've read the book, listened to the original radio serial, seen some of the TV show, and watched the movie. It was this book, read as a teenager, that introduced me to the dry wit of British humor and I've been hooked ever since.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 30, 2008 02:19 PM | Comments (2)

Latent Superpowers...?

I think I may be developing superpowers. As far as I know, I haven't been exposed to radiation, mutagens, spider-bites, or extraterrestrials. But how can I be sure? I wouldn't want to accidentally crush anything with my super-strength. A few weeks ago while demolishing the old porch, I bent my hammer - the hammer I have owned and used for probably 5-6 years now with no problems - nearly in half. A week or two before that, I bent a spaded shovel in half while trying to dig up a horrible-looking (and foul-smelling) bush next to our porch. I wonder if I can punch through concrete walls? Hang on a sec...

Ouch.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 26, 2008 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

Special Rocks

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but last summer we started collecting rocks from the places we visited with the kids. I was hoping that it would give them a trigger to help them remember things we had done as a family. It seems to be working. The rocks are on the windowsill above our kitchen sink. Sometimes Sean catches sight of them while helping me cook or wash dishes, and tells me about them and where they come from. We've got a "special rock from the beach", a "special rock from Maudslay park", a couple of "special rocks from the Saco River", and a "special rock from the mountain". I'm hoping to keep this up next year. Who knows, maybe it will eventually lead to an interest in rock-hunting or geology. At the very least, though, it gives him a way to remember special moments we had, which is enough for me.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 22, 2008 09:53 AM | Comments (0)

Chopstick Assassin Productions

I was digging through some old backup CDs, looking for old episodes of a podcast I used to listen to. In the process of looking through all of those CDs, I found the image you see below. Some of you may remember this image from the old website I used to run, back when I was in college at RIT. That page existed from then until just a couple of years ago, when the hosting contract finally expired. At one point, I had a stack of these made up as stickers. I put one on my old Escort, and then promptly lost the other 499 stickers. I've gone looking for them several times, but have never managed to find them again.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 18, 2008 06:43 AM | Comments (2)

42 Words of Wisdom: #10

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

- Douglas Adams

I know, I know - it's been a long time since I posted one of these. But lately I've taken a renewed interest in increasing my posting frequency. So here's to the resurection of "42 Words of Wisdom"! This one hits especially close to home. As some of you may know, I recently discovered that the previous owner of our house had built the front porch himself, and had botched it. When he attached the ledger to the house, he didn't bother using any flashing. So due to the lack of $10 worth of flashing, water has been seeping behind the ledger for years. Once I tore down the porch and pulled off the siding, I found that a significant amount of the house's framing that was behind the porch had rotted out. At this point I've got all of the rotted wood replaced, and that section resided. But now I've still got to build a new porch - hopefully before the winter sets in. This going to end up costing us hundreds of dollar, and costing me hours and hours of time, just because someone couldn't be bothered to spend $10 and 5 minutes to install flashing - which is not exactly a closely-guarded secret of professional contractors. On the plus side, I was never really happy with the original porch and don't mind the chance to rebuild it the way I'd like to. I just would have preferred to hold off until next year to do it.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 13, 2008 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

Anagrams

I recently came across an anagram generator online, and played around with it a bit. Unfortunately, if the words you put in contain enough letters, you get tens of thousands of potential anagrams - which makes finding the good ones a bit difficult. But after only looking through the first page of results, I did find a few interesting ones.

The Salad Days => A Deadly Stash

I like this one. It makes it sound like the things I am posting here are somehow dangerous to you, my loyal reader. Beware! Pictures of cute children within! Enter at your own risk!

The Salad Days => Dad Steals Hay

This one just struck me as funny. I swear, I have never stolen any hay. I may have "borrowed" hay and forgotten to return it, but that was forgetfulness, not malice.

Sean Lord => Also Nerd

This one resonates with me. I would love for Sean to grow up and be a geek like his Daddy. I need somebody to play videogames with. So here's to our future nerd!

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 12, 2008 01:32 PM | Comments (1)

The Pipes of our Founding Fathers

For those who don't know, for the past few months Sean has had a serious fascination with pipes. He is always under the sink checking out the pipes, talking about pipes while he flushes the toilet, talks about food going down his pipe when he swallows, and hanging out in the basement to check out all the pipes overhead. This story makes a lot more sense if you know that ahead of time.

Last week I had to go to Washington, D.C. to give a presentation for work. The night before I left I was tucking Sean in and talking to him about the trip I had to take, and how I wouldn't see him the next day, but that he would see me the day after. Here's a summary how that conversation went down:

Me: "Sean, I have to go to Washington, D.C. tomorrow, for work. I won't see you, but I will see you the next day, okay?"
Sean: "Okay. Will you see the pipes?"
Me: "Sure, buddy!"

Flash-forward to two days later, first thing in the morning. This will be the first time he has seen me in a day-and-a-half. I have the day off, but we need to wake Sean up to get him ready for school. So I go in, kneel down by his bed, and gently wake him:

Me (softly): "Sean...time to get up, buddy."
Sean (extrememly groggily): "Hi Daddy...did you see the pipes...?"
Me (softly): "Sure did! They were great!"

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 18, 2008 06:20 AM | Comments (0)

Mustache

Last night, about fifteen minutes before bed, Sean jumps up from where he was lying on the floor and says "I need to look in the mirror!" So I take him into the bathroom and he lifts himself up onto the counter so that he can see himself. He strokes his upper lip and says, "nope - no mustache!" Then ten minutes later while I was helping him into his pajamas, he said to me "daddy, can you see my mustache?" And then again, while I was tucking him into his blankets and giving him a kiss, he asked again - "daddy, do I have a mustache yet?" I have no idea what put this idea is his head, but isn't it adorable?

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 24, 2008 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

Knocked ... What?

Last weekend, Sean was running laps around the house. On one pass, he bumped his sister on the way by, and knocked her flat on her butt. So we asked him to stop, come back, and tell Carter that he was sorry for knocking her down. So he comes up to her, gives her a hug, and says "I'm sorry I knocked you up, sister." Lori and I just looked at each other and busted out laughing. Then we told him to say "knocked down", not "knocked up", as the difference is quite substantial.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 9, 2008 09:16 AM | Comments (1)

Goodbye, Diapers!

A few days ago, we decided (based on his pediatrician's recommendation) to go cold turkey on daytime diapers with Sean. After all the resistance he's been giving us over the last couple of months, I expected a disaster. But we told him he was too big for diapers, and that he was responsible for his own potty training at this point. We told him that we weren't going to remind him to go anymore, and that if he had an accident he would have to clean it up himself. And guess what? He's been 4 days now with no daytime diaper, and he hasn't had a single accident. It's been good for him in more ways than one - he's so incredibly proud of himself, and it gives him a new sense of responsibility. I only wish we'd tried this sooner.

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 8, 2008 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

T minus Seven Days

For those who hadn't heard yet, we finally found a new place to live. It's a cute little house in Newton, NH. We close on Friday, and move in next Saturday. It's a little smaller than we would have liked, but it does have one quality that instantly sold me on it - it's on 8.14 acres. A few days ago I bought the AMC's book on trail building, and I'm excited to build some short trails out there. My brain has been going non-stop lately, with ideas for a little campsite for the kids and I to have fun campouts, a picnic shelter, and eventually a sweet-ass treehouse out in the middle somewhere. How cool would that be? I'm still not convinced whether it will be more for Sean, or for me. :) Stay tuned for more news and pictures as we begin to move in.

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 24, 2007 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

We Made It!

This post is a little late in coming, but this is the first time I've come up for air since we started moving. While we look for a new house, we are staying at my parents' place. Which means I've got an hour-and-a-half commute each way between here and work, which is making for 12+ hour workdays, in effect. By the time I get home I get only an hour or less with the kids before they head to bed, and then there is lot's more move-associated work to get done before I can go to bed myself. But some of that is tapering off now, so if I can muster up any enthusiasm on weekends you might start to see some updates here again. Stay tuned!

Posted under Stories by Joel on September 16, 2007 03:27 PM | Comments (4)

We're Coming Home!

Well, it's official! We're coming back to New Hampshire! I will post a more detailed explanation tomorrow - but most of you have already heard about this anyway. I just wanted to get it out there - we're pretty excited, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 29, 2007 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

Code Red - She's Mobile!

No photos or video yet, but Carter has been crawling for about a week now. And getting into trouble already, of course. It's time to search the house to eliminate anything swallowable, eye-poke-outable, baby-head-bumpable, and the like. She can motor around the living room like nobody's business, and we're just lucky that she's not that fast yet - so we've got time to head her off when we see her heading for something dangerous. We'll try to get some video soon.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 8, 2007 09:25 AM | Comments (0)

What's A Matter...?

That's Sean's new way of pushing the limits - he keeps it cute, hoping he can get away with more that way. When he's outside playing in his pool, sometimes he tries to sidle off to go play in the mud under the tree house. Understandably, we'd prefer he not get covered in dirt. So Lori will say "Sean, please stay over here near the pool. We're not playing in the dirt right now." And Sean's response (as he continues to slowly sidle his way over there), is to raise his shoulders and hands, palm up, and say:

"What's a matter? I'm ok."

As if to say, "Hey Mom, what's the big deal? Don't sweat it." As if Mom were asking him to stay out of the dirt, instead of telling him. It's really pretty adorable, watching him try to milk his cuteness instead of throwing a fit. He'll probably be a politician. Heh.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 7, 2007 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

The Great White Tooth

We've got news - Carter is cutting teeth! Her two front ones, on the bottom. No pictures yet, but you can see them coming through her gums. Should only be a week or so until you will see her toothy little grin on this site. We didn't notice them right away because she hasn't been complaining at all about them yet. Hopefully that bodes well for the rest of her teeth to come, but I'm not counting on it. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 16, 2007 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

Beware Tree-Dwelling Bovines

I cut the back lawn today, and we were spending some time back there playing in the dirt. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, the birds were chirping - at least, I think they were birds. Every time an (alleged) bird chirped, sean pointed to a nearby tree and said "a cow, a cow!" It was half anouncement and half question, as though he were looking for confirmation. Needless to say, Lori and I were somewhat amused. We tried to correct him. I said "it's not a cow, Sean." He thought for a minute, cocking his head, and replied confidently - "a pig, a pig!" The whole event was humorous enough to inspire me to draw this simple comic to commemerate the occasion.

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 12, 2007 07:12 PM | Comments (0)

The Number Five

Sean has really been into counting things lately. And just over the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to get him to recognize, or read, the numbers 1 through 5. So most nights we spend at least a little time where I write a number on his doodle board, and he tells me what it is. When we were done, I walked into the kitchen, and I heard him saying "five, five" to himself. When I came back out to the living room and sat back down with him, this is what I saw on the doodle board. It's backwards - but amazing, right?

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 5, 2007 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #09

"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."

- Douglas Adams

I am currently reading a book called The Quantum Zoo, by Marcus Chown. It is sort of a layman's guide to quantum mechanics, and so far it is fascinating. Also, amid the science is also a lot of very interesting and suprising trivia. For example, (hopefully) most of us remember from high school science classes that atoms contain a lot of empty space. But I never really realized how much until I started reading this book. Did you realize that if all of the empty space in atoms could be removed, the entire human race would fit into the volume of a sugar cube? A great read for anyone interested in the science, without being bogged down by the math.

Posted under Stories by Joel on April 9, 2007 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

Rolling Over

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of this momentous event - but Carter rolled over for the first time this past Saturday. My mom was on the phone with me when she did it. She has done it several more times since then, just to prove it wasn't a fluke. We're so proud of her! I will try to get some pics or video soon.

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 14, 2007 08:49 PM | Comments (1)

42 Words of Wisdom: #08

"It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry 'I could have thought of that' is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn't, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too."

- Douglas Adams

I don't have much to say about this one, other than that I wholeheartedly agree with it.

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 6, 2007 07:24 AM | Comments (0)

Anatomy of an Artist

Stage 1: Inspiration
The first step in the artistic process is the search for inspiration. He contemplates the nature of life, the universe and everything - all in the quest for the seed of an idea that will blossom into a masterpiece. He becomes pensive, and withdrawn.

Stage 2: Madness
After hours of fruitless searching, the artist slowly goes mad - riding alternating waves of rage and euphoria. It is in this stage that many artists break, succumbing to one vice or another. This artist resorts to drooling on his canvas, and eventually masters his inner demons.

Stage 3: Enlightenment
Eureka! The artist discovers a subject worthy of his craft, and proceeds to capture its raw essence on the canvas. For this work, the artist has chosen the classic beauty of Euclid's visions - namely, the square and the circle. The first of these two masterpieces the artist has entitled "Three Squares", while the second has been titled "Circle on Paper". Note the artist's unique interpretation of these well-known forms.*

Stage 4: Elation
Ah, sweet release! His artistic energy spent, the artist enjoys the resulting afterglow. But alas this joy will be short-lived, as he will momentarily be compelled to repeat the process - an artist's drive to create shows no mercy.

*In all seriousness, Sean really did draw squares and a circle on purpose. It was awesome. He picked up a colored pencil, repeated the name of the shape he was going to draw several times, and then proceeded to try and draw them. They aren't perfect, but for someone who only learned to identify shapes a couple of months ago, they are amazing. Way to go, Sean!

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 31, 2006 02:49 PM | Comments (1)

42 Words of Wisdom: #07

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

- Douglas Adams

As much as I am not fond of the current administration, this is actually not meant to be Bush-bashing, but just what I consider to be a general truth. Has anyone else ever though about this? The kind of person that can climb their way to the top of the political food chain probably got there using methods that most would not admire in their leader. With all the scandals involving our politicians, is it any suprise that our voters have become so apathetic?

Posted under Stories by Joel on November 11, 2006 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #06

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

- Douglas Adams

This one for the benefit of Katie Couric, who recently made some foolish remarks on her CBS news show. How can a woman with so little understanding of science be paid to voice her commentary in such a public forum? Does CBS have so little respect for its viewers to not even bother to fact-check the ridiculous things she planned to say? Astronomer Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Blog) gave her a solid reaming for her ignorance, if you'd like to know more about it. My biggest concern is that lots of people with no science background will treat her words as "news", and the population will be become that tiny bit more confused about what NASA is actually for.

Posted under Stories by Joel on October 20, 2006 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

Status

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last month - it's been a little crazy here. For those who didn't know, about 3 weeks ago Lori started having contractions, and she is still -way- too early to have the baby. So they kept her in the hospital and put her on meds to keep her from going into labor. She was there about 2 weeks, and is now home - but on very strict bed rest. My mom has come out to help us. But we've finally settled into a routine around here and I'm not scrambling so much to keep on top of everything, so there should be some updates coming soon. Thanks.

Posted under Stories by Joel on September 7, 2006 08:28 AM | Comments (0)

Word Games

I just realized I hadn't added to the record of the words Sean knows recently, so here are all the new ones I can think of that he has picked up since the last update:

Door, Clock, Eye, Diaper, Bird, Dog, Bear, Cup, Fan, Mango, Stop, Go, No, and Bob (in reference to Bob the Builder).

"Apple" is still king, but "Stop" and "Go" are getting a lot of use lately too. We play lots of games where we run around together, or dance, or I push him fast in the shopping cart, and he tells us to "Stop" and "Go". It's so cute. I think he likes that he has control over the game. It really plays into his recent attempts to be more independent and assert more control over his day-to-day stuff. He has been using a big-boy fork lately. (One of our smaller forks. those are the salad forks, right?) He's also going up and down the stairs by himself, getting on and off the furniture alone, and just generally doing his own thing. I love to see what he will do when left to his own devices. Just the other day he climbed up onto the kitchen table to drive his toy trucks around up there. Why that was better than the floor, I'll never know, but it was very sweet.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 25, 2006 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #05

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

- Douglas Adams

I've been reading a book lately called "Origins", by Neil de Grasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, which describes our current understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. In general, it is written for the layman (or at least the college-educated layman, with a bit of physics background), but occasionally it slips off the deep end and it takes me a fair bit of thinking to get my mind around some of the details. When that happens, I agree with the second half of this quote - the universe really can be a bizarre and inexplicable place.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 22, 2006 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

An Apple a Day...

Sean's picked up a few new words in the past week, including 'tractor', 'hello' (which he says every time the phone rings), 'star', and a bunch of others that Lori has heard but I haven't heard him say yet. But 'apple' continues to be his favorite. Here's a cute little audio clip of him saying 'apple' over and over again, while he played with a decorative plastic apple.

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 11, 2006 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

And So It Begins...

Well, it's started. Sean is starting to talk, and is picking up new words pretty quickly. It's like he crossed a threshold, and now suddenly understands that everything he sees around him actually has a name! So in order to keep a record of his vocabulary, so we can look back and smile, here is the list of words he currently knows:

Mama, Dada, Up, Down, Moo, Dig, Duck, Apple, Banana, Yellow, Blue, Flower, Bye-Bye, and Ball.

"Apple" is by far his favorite. Lori's theme in the kitchen is apples, so there are apples on lots of the things in there. He walks around the kitchen pointing at everything saying "Apple! Apple!". It's really amazing. I suspect that this will stay a lot of fun until he learns how to say "what's that?". I've heard that gets old real quick. :)

Posted under Stories by Joel on July 4, 2006 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #04

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

- Douglas Adams

This one is especially relevant for me recently. The past two weeks at work, we have been trying to get a baseline release of the software out, and it has been one problem after another. I spent my whole week putting out fires as one bug after another was discovered. Why don't customers seem to understand that with software there are really only two choices: it can either be on time, or it can work.

Posted under Stories by Joel on June 25, 2006 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #03

"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear."

- Douglas Adams

Our recent trip inspired me to choose this quote. No deep meaning or anything - just an observation. Airports are dirty, ugly places, usually built decades ago. They all look the same, and they all look dull and uninspired. What ever happened to the attitude that travelling by air was exciting and adventurous? THis was before my time, of course, but I've read about it. People used to get dressed up to fly, and the whole thing had a carnival atmosphere that was shared by the passengers, flight attendants, gate agents - everyone involved. Now they charge you more than I paid for my first car, treat you like crap, make you pay for a snack, delay or bump your flights, and expect you to feel special that they decided to deal with you at all. Is it any wonder that airlines are declaring bankruptcy?

Posted under Stories by Joel on June 8, 2006 07:38 PM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #02

"The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks."

- Douglas Adams

So true, so true. There is just something about being able to say that something is "impossible" that is so much more satisfying than having to say that it is "almost impossible". This one also applies well to software development. When debugging code, a typical strategy involves elminating the bits of code that cannot have caused the problem, until you are left with only one bit that therefore must have caused the problem. The challenge always comes from the fact that with any moderately-complex software, you can never with 100% certainy say that it is "impossible" that a certain piece of code is causing problems. This becomes a very irritating fact. The debugging process eventually degenerates into one of two approaches - a "brute force" approach, where the developer systematically disables one bit of code at a time until the problem goes away, or the "inspired" approach, where the developer uses educated guesses and hunches to zero-in on the problem code right away. And of course, that almost never works, and the developer eventually reverts back to the "brute force" approach.

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 29, 2006 06:52 AM | Comments (0)

42 Words of Wisdom: #01

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

- Douglas Adams

Today, is the first of a planned series of 42 Douglas Adams quotations I plan to post. For those who don't understand the significance of the number 42, read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - I promise you won't regret it. Doug Adams was a fount of wit, and is sorely missed.

Today's quote especially applies to the realm of software. I can't even begin to count the number of times I thought I had designed a piece of software to be completely bulletproof, only to have someone unfamiliar with it do something completely unexpected and core dump it within seconds. Anticipating what a user will do is often more art than science, and it's a skill I seem to be developing as of late. Does that imply something about the folks I work with? Heh!

Posted under Stories by Joel on May 23, 2006 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

Tales from the Hood

Ah, the amusing nature of small-town crime. We got a free copy of our town newspaper yesterday, which they hoped would entice us to subscribe. Hmm...tough decision. This 30-page paper includes seven full pages of ads (and lots of additional ads scattered among the 'news', as well), ten pages of classifieds, and two pages of 'letters to the editor'. The front page news was an article on the latest attempt by the town council to raise the wastewater rates. By $1.82 per month (for us, at least). Oh boy. The only redeeming quality of small-town papers is the police blotter. Those are usually gold. Here are a few gems from the Boerne paper - which I swear are reproduced here word for word:

Friday, March 24, 2:02 a.m. - One of two suspicious juveniles sitting in a van outside a complaintant's residence turned out to be her son.

Monday, March 27, 7:41 p.m. - A plastic egg left on a front porch inscribed with the words "Caution, open at own risk" contained animal excrement.

Saturday, April 1, 10:28 p.m. - A small campfire received a verbal warning and was extinguished.

Sunday, April 2, 9:13 p.m. - The ice cream man's cacophony gave the caller a headache, and he asked that the guy chill.

I think they speak for themselves, no?

Posted under Stories by Joel on April 7, 2006 08:06 PM | Comments (1)

How Quickly Time Flies...

A year ago today, a purple, bald-headed, wrinkly man affectionally known as "melonhead" was born. He came into the world six weeks before his time. Some say it was fate. Some say it was destiny. Some say Lori didn't follow the doctor's orders concerning bed-rest. But whatever the cause, a little bundle of happiness came forth to enrich our lives with joy. And poop. But mostly joy.

He was a quiet and introspective child, and spent most of his early months comtemplating this strange new world. And pooping. But mostly contemplating. Bald as a cue ball, and serious as an undertaker, we eagerly awaited a crack in his stony facade.

And then, the deluge. Once he had determined that we were acceptable stewards of his well-being, he graced us with the light of his smile. We were overjoyed. The poops became almost fun, if a smile could be stolen in the process. But alas, the poop-to-smile ratio was still mind-numbingly large.

Over the following months, he surprised us again and again with his ever-increasing array of skills. From sitting, to crawling, and then to standing - he was always ready to try new things before we were ready for him to change. As soon as we could adapt to some new ability, he would move on to the next step. In the baby-raising arms race, Sean was building his arsenal faster than we could keep pace.

As time has progressed, his personality has started to emerge. Lori and I have learned the ins and outs of his sense of humor, and have quite a few techniques in our bag of tricks that will score a guaranteed laugh. He has become very independent. He can play alone without getting bored, but also enjoys a bit of rough play with his daddy. He has inherited him mom's sense of goofiness and good humor. The two of them can get each other to laugh with only a look. Lori has been the cornerstone on which this family is founded, and has become the mom I had always hoped (and expected) her to be.

He also seems to have picked up an affinity for absurdity from his daddy - as nothing seems to crack him up more than the sillier aspects of the world around him. Just today, he had a bout of side-splitting laughter from the mere sight and sound of a goose. Admittedly, if I were seeing a goose for the first time, I would think that Mother Nature had played a pretty good joke as well.

We'd really like to thank everyone who has visited Sean, and those who haven't yet been able to - but have thought about him nonetheless. It has been tough to be away from all of you this past year, and to not have been able to share Sean with the people we care about. The number of times we have said "I wish so-and-so could see this!" can't even be counted. Wish us luck in the coming year!

Posted under Stories by Joel on January 10, 2006 08:01 PM | Comments (1)

SwRI Staff Profile

I had to write a staff profile for work recently - the management claims "it's a good way for us all to get to know each other". Well, I'm not sure whether the profiles actually -do- that, but I wanted to share it with you guys. Some of you may not know all the stuff I put in there, and the rest of you might get a little kick out of it. It's in an Excel spreadsheet, but I assume everyone has MS Office. Enjoy!

My Staff Profile

Posted under Stories by Joel on December 23, 2005 11:40 PM | Comments (0)

Deep Impact - My Brush with Fame!

Hopefully, everyone has heard of Deep Impact - the NASA spacecraft that crashed (intentionally) into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. If not, here's a link to the Deep Impact Mission home page. The idea was to smash a spacecraft into a comet, and have another spacecraft watch this up close and see what happens. Conceivably, This would tell us a lot about what comets are made of. If they are pretty solid, the impacting spacecraft should make a pretty small, unexciting crater. If comets are loose aggregations of dust and ice, the impactor might plunge straight into the comet's nucleus without a trace. But if comets are something in between - as most scientists suspect - we should get a pretty exciting explosion, and a nice-sized crater.

What you probably didn't know about Deep Impact is that I did a little work on that project. In fact, I had somewhere on the order of a dozen lines of code on both the impactor and the fly-by portion of the mission. While my involvement was pretty minor, I'm still really proud to have been a part of the Deep Impact team, and this is the first time in my professional life that I can tell just about anybody what I do for work, and they have heard of the project. Awesome!

Below are a couple of pictures of the certificate of appreciation I received for participating in the mission. Way cool!

Posted under Stories by Joel on August 14, 2005 12:35 PM | Comments (0)