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Thursday, March 29, 2007

There are days...

Stardate 60032.9
Pretty much a sight I didn't want to see and would pass on seeing again. The police chased a man and woman from West Haven and managed to stop them in front of St Joseph. The man ran into a house and kicked the occupants out with a gun. I hear about this in a frantic call from my wife. I head down there and park up the street looking at all the cop cars around the school my older kids are in. I asked what I needed to do to get my kids, and went around back and picked them up from the gym. Patrick was excited over the events, but Rachel was shaken. Later I found out that the third grade was in the library and just told to go to the auditorium, but the fifth grade was in the classroom, which is at the end of the building closest to where the guy was hiding. So the staff burst in to the class and rushed them all out.

Rachel was upset because she tried to call me, but got two of the numbers mixed up. The school did call, but I was already on my way there. So I need to work with the kids so that they don't even need to think about my number.

Fortunately the guy surrendered without a fight.

End of Entry

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

5 seconds of Fame

Stardate 60032.7
Cool! I took the Tiger Scouts to a channel 4 weather school. We met Marti Skold, Ross Becker, and Dana Greene. They showed the scouts how the weather was done, and the green screen used to display the graphics in back of Marti. She let the kids try it all out. Dana the sportscaster stole the spotlight from her, though, after he said he had talked to people like Michael Jordan and Yuo Ming among others. The kids had a great time, and channel 4 ran a short clip of us just before the weather. You can see Thomas and myself with the rest of the scouts very clearly. I have it on the DVR; now I need to transfer it to DVD. The clip of the scout in the red jacket was also shown. I don't know who he was, but he did a good job with the weather.

End of Entry

Monday, March 26, 2007

One more note....

Stardate 60032.6 Supplemental

I would be remiss to mention that I am on a three game losing streak against Matt in chess. Not doing very well against Robert, either.

End of Supplemental Entry

The week in Review

Stardate 60032.6
Here's last weeks planner, excluding work and Orthodontist.

Monday: Dinner with Dad. I took him to an IHOP in West Valley. He hasn't been down there in years, and I have not been there for months. He had a great time. The week before I drove him by the old houses. He didn't recognize either one, and if I didn't know where I was, I would not have either.

Tuesday: Scout Hike. I went with Patrick's Bear troop up Beus trail. Well, most of it. I was out of breath within the first few minutes, and sat down about three quarters of the way up and waited for the kids to come back down. I have had a cold for the last few days, and I am out of shape.

Wednesday: Patrick had soccer practice at St. Joseph High School. After that April and I went to a meeting at the elementary school. They made an announcement that they will be closing the St. Benedict campus at the end of the year. I was a little sad, it's a much better looking school than St. Joe's. But the roof is leaking, and it will cost a ton to fix. They are not seeing the enrollment necessary to justify keeping it open. After thinking about it, it won't make much difference to me. Thomas would have had one more year there. I was not happy with having to drop Rachel and Patrick off before they closed the gates (a security procedure after the school shooting back east), and then going to St. Ben's and waiting for the teachers to come out for the kids there. Thomas does not want to wait in the car. So next year I can drop them all off at the same place. It's also inconvenient to have to pick one up there, then go get the other two. The one point I wanted to get out was Patrick's complaint about the playground. It's too small for the number of kids. They stopped going over the the park after a child was killed by a stray bullet from a gang shootout. The meeting then devolved into a discussion of school vouchers. That doesn't have much effect on us. Our kids are already in private school

Thursday: April and Rachel had a Girl Scout activity, so I picked up the boys and went grocery shopping. Cooked some burgers on the grill (the kids prefer that to getting take out).

Friday: The Ticonderoga senior officers meeting, where I did a quick report and then heading to Mount Ogden Middle School for volleyball. We had three best of three games. In other words, we played six games because for each set of best of three, we lose the first two obviating the need for a third. Got home at 11. Rachel's friend Audra stayed the night.

Saturday: Another soccer training at nine in the morning at Mount Ogden park. I took the dog along because I felt guilty that we had been gone for most of the week. He dragged me around the park for a half hour and I now know every nook and cranny. He then wanted to leave. The practice ran for two hours. The parent/teacher group had a skating party that morning. Rachel, Audra, and Thomas went to that. Patrick went to a friends house after practice.

At two, I sat down on the bed to change clothes, laid back for a minute, and glanced at the clock; 4:30 PM. I had fallen asleep for two and a half hours. Sorry, Carl, I didn't mean to miss Command School. At least you didn't hear me snore.

Sunday: Took advantage of the good weather by cleaning the sprouting weeds and grass from the garden. I planted some pumpkins, peas, carrots, onions, and various flowers in pots to plant outside later. The pumpkins and peas are growing out of the pots already, and the rest have sprouted. The weather is supposed to turn cold this week, so I can't plant anything outside year.

So that's last week. This week looks to be the same, except AYSO soccer occupies all of Saturday.

BTW: I finished The Winter King, and The Pale Horseman, and am halfway through Heretic!. I think I might find some Star Trek novels to read next.

End Of Entry

Humor: Statistics and Nutrition

A coworker who also teaches statistics sent this around. He said one of his students turned it in a few years ago.

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on
nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those
conflicting nutritional studies.


STUDY PARAMETERS
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Beware the Ides of March

Stardate 60031.5
Yesterday was PI day (3.14), and today is the Ides. Not really sure what that means except that was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. March does have a lot of special days, it seems. The Ides, PI, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day. Wait, Ash Wednesday was in February.

I finally did my achievement for the Bear scouts Tuesday. Not all of it, though. The den leader wants to do more electives, so I was told to 'just to the computer part'. That was a small part of the achievement, because it's boring. And I was right. But I did the airplane elective at the end, and brought balsa wood planes for the scouts to build. That was a hit.

Patrick started outdoor soccer training on Wednesday nights. He is still having fun with it. We are going to Boise in April for a tournament, and I guess the coach wants to spend as much time as possible getting them ready.

My dad finally managed to get rid of his van. He lost his license last December because he can't read the eye chart anymore. He also could not find the title to the van, so it took a while to deal with that.

End of Entry

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Pets

Stardate 60031.1
We had a discussion on pets Thursday night. We have toads, fish, a cat, and a dog. Thomas wants a lizard, Rachel wants a turtle, and Patrick wants a puppy. My question to the kids is who cleans the aquarium the toads and fish live in? There were six fish originally that Thomas brought home last spring, only two are left. I think I spaced feeding them a couple of days and they ate each other. Anyway, who feeds the cat and dog, and takes the dog for walks? But the other pets they want would be fun, they say. My counter-argument was that you can't hold the toads or fish (the toads can pick up diseases from you, and are poisonous. Not enough to kill you, although you can get very sick if you eat them, but if you touch them and then rub your eye, it can burn.) We already have a dog, and Patrick is allergic to cats.

The dog is named Leonardo, or Leo for short. I pointed out he is always willing to play, lets any kid pile on him, or pull his tail. Pull out the leash, and he leaps a couple of feet in the air in excitement. Grab a ball, and he is right there waiting for you to throw it. Patrick and I both have R/C cars, and he loves to chase them. I wonder why we need any other pets? The novelty of new pets wears off, and the pet lives on.

End of Entry

Short Game

Stardate 60031.1
One o the shortest chess games I've had against Matt. Congratulations.


Game complete: white wins

You're playing black against m0smith from UT

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6
3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 Bg4
5. Nf3 Na6 6. h3 Be6
7. c5 b6 8. Bxa6 g6
9. Nc3 bxc5 10. dxc5 Qa5
11. Bb7 Rb8 12. Bxc6+ Bd7
13. Qa4 Qc7 14. Nxd5 Nxd5
15. Ne5 Rb4 16. Bxd7+ Kd8
17. Nxf7#


It's Your Turn


End of Turn (oops, Entry)

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Why didn't you just send email?

Stardate 60030.8
Picked this up on Wil Wheaton's blog. I've had similar conversations with my own kids.
http://blog.cleverly.com/permalinks/283.html

"We had to get up to change the channel." (You had TV back then? Actually, it took less time than searching for the remote does now.)
"We only had three channels. And no, one was not Disney."
"We did not have DVD players in cars on long trips."
"We had to use encyclopedias on printed books to find information." (One of my annoyances growing up was that we had an encyclopedia published in the late '50s or early '60s. It did not mention moon landings or space exploration in general. I don't think Sputnik was in there. There were a growing number of omissions as time went on.)

Usually I end up quoting Bill Cosby, "We walked 10 miles to school. Through 8 feet of snow. Uphill. BOTH WAYS!"

End of Entry

Update 60031.1 (03-12-2007)
I didn't get this from Wil Wheaton's blog, but from one of Matt's.
Romantic Tips for Married Couples

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Scott Adams Dilbert

Stardate 60030.7
Scott Adams set up a Google Alert to message him on these key words. I'll be one of 25 people to try.

too frickin cool




End Of Entry

Monday, March 05, 2007

Stardate 60030.4
Thomas had his birthday party at Lazer Zone last Friday. It went pretty good. The guests played three rounds of laser tag, did their own pixie stick with colored sugar sand, and bugged me for quarters to play the video games.

Saturday I overslept and so Patrick missed the last indoor soccer game. There was supposed to be a practice after the game, but it got canceled due to all the snow. The soccer ball just doesn't move very well in it. I took Rachel to a friend's house so she could practice a P.E. dance with them. We all then went to the Cathedral of the Madeline to see Thomas and Patrick get Catholic scouting awards. We were hoping the new bishop would be there (or bishop to be, or bishop in waiting? As Rachel kept reminding us, he doesn't officially take office until the 14th), but he was not.

I am now reading 'The Winter King' by Bernard Cornwell.

End of Entry