From Francesco to Frank

We made a good bye presentation for Frank. It made him cry.

The video is too big to post as one file, so I divided it into 5 parts.

JrNYLC

Patrick was nominated by the school counselor to go to Washington, D.C
for a youth leadership conference know as JrNYLC. He would need to fly out there by
himself. April and I were not too comfortable about it. One the return
trip he would need to change planes because there were no direct flights
in the time frame they required to drop him off. He does have a direct
flight out, and calls after he gets there to tell us it was long and
boring. The conference emails us each day with links to pictures. He
is not in the first days set of 85, which was weird to me because he
is usually a ham for a camera. He does show up about 50 pictures in
on day 2. Of the hundreds of photos, he is in 3. He did have a great
time, going to Harper's Ferry, the American History muesam (which
was closed for renovation the last time we were there), and the
Newseum amoung other places.

The flight back was delayed taking off, and he missed the connecting
flight. April called the airline, and was told the next flight was
full, so they'd send him back. She had to explain that he was heading
home, not leaving. Ok, then they can put him in a hotel. Right, an
11 year old by himself in a hotel. They called about about a half
hour later to tell April he was on the next flight. My guess is
that they bumped somebody rather than be responsible for a child
(takes up one employees time).

Jamestown

Stardate 60062.2
Today we did not start out with Williamsburg, but instead headed the car to Jamestown. Pretty much similar to other historic recreations. The boys had some fun with craving out a canoe (where they burn the inside and you use a clamshell to scrape the charcoal). Patrick was fascinated by the blacksmith.

Stopped by Yorktown again. Patrick and Thomas got to dry-load a cannon, and then see it fired with a charge (no cannonball, of course). April got an education in 18th century medicine.

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Yorktown

Stardate 60062.1
I had intended to go and see a Patrick Henry speech this morning, but Patrick Madden found a trapball game, and I was stuck until April could park the car. I did manage to see some of the speech (I think it was the same actor as Washington, but I can't be sure). He was making jokes, one of which said he had 17 children, over a hundred grandchildren, so if some charlatan was to play him some 230 years in the future, chances are he would be speaking to one of his descendants.

We met with our friends from New Orleans, and watched a street show on the hardships of the population during the Revolutionary War.

I took the boys over to the Yorktown battlefield in the afternoon. We toured the redoubts. I was surprised to find that one of the key positions taken by Alexander Hamilton's brigade was almost gone, washed away by the river. There was also a howitzer installed there in 1681, and used by the British during the siege in 1781. One hundred years old and still usable. I have trouble making a computer last more than 2 years. We also found a cannon with the name 'Thomas' on it.

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Busch Gardens

Stardate 60062.0
Next day it rained. We had looked at the weather forecast and were prepared with umbrellas and ponchos. After yesterdays heat, the cool rain was welcome. We went back over to Williamsburg to see 'A conversation with General Washington'. Patrick again wanted to see that. The actor was good in the role. I think he nailed the 'soul of dignity' that is the usual description of Washington. After that, we saw a reenactment of the reading of the Declaration of Independence, and April and Rachel went on a tour of the colonial capitol building.

After lunch, the kids did not want to go back to Colonial Williamsburg, so we went to Busch Gardens. Our friends from New Orleans were already there. This was a good thing, as Rachel wanted to ride all of the roller coasters, and April and I don't like them. She managed to do all but one, and that was because it had broken down. Thomas tried the kiddie rides, and finally figured out they are too slow for him now. He wanted to follow his brother and sister and the other kids, but he is not ready for the coasters yet. I took him on a few spinning rides, and he did go on the Battering Ram (the same thing as Lagoon's Tidal Wave) with the other kids. I wish I could have gotten a picture of his face on the downward swings; it was screwed up in almost panic. He did say he enjoyed it afterwards. We ended the day with a dance show.

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Williamsburg

Stardate 60061.9
The first day at Colonial Williamsburg, VA, was very hot and muggy. We wandered around for a couple of hours. Patrick found a game that was played in colonial times called trapball. It's a mix of cricket and baseball. You have a leather ball you place on a lever. You hit one side of the lever with the bat, and then hit the ball as it pops up. The people in the field try to catch it, if they do, then they at. If not, the have to roll the ball and hit the lever. Patrick loved the game. The picture shows him playing with other kids (he is the one in the white shirt and red shorts with white stripes.)

After lunch, we decided to head to the water park and cool off. We met some friends who had flown up from New Orleans. The water park was a nice break, and perfect for the day. It had a number of slides, and a lazy river that took about four minute to go through.

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Virginia

Stardate 60061.6
We flew to DC early Saturday morning. We had a stopover in Atlanta, with only a 30 minute delay after 3 hours in the airport. Amazing. Usually I get stuck in Atlanta for 3-6 hours. Arriving in DC, we rented an SUV with a GPS navigator. It was pretty neat to use, but it could not find the address for the hotel we were staying at. We wandered around DC for two hours, calling the hotel twice to get new directions.

The next day we drove to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall. The GPS did much better with that, which is good since I think it should be well know landmark. I loved seeing the Hall. I've seen it in several movies, but nothing beats being there. We then did a Duck Tour. It's an amphibious bus that drives around the sites near the Hall, and then goes into the Delaware River. On the way back to the hotel in DC, there was road construction, so a two hour drive turned into five. The GPS warned of heavy traffic, but not until we were already in it.

Sunday we went to the National Mall. Patrick wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, and we decided to visit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I warned the kids that it was a lot of walking, although Rachel already knew this. April wanted to go see the White House, but we ran out of time. We then drove to Williamsburg. The GPS again did a pretty good job, but again there was a lot of traffic. I think this traffic was normal for the area. Watching the news at the new hotel, we found out the area around the White house had been evacuated because of a threat, so it was a good thing we didn't try.

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Overscheduled

Stardate 60060.5
An email exchange with Carl brought up some concerns that my kids are possibly over scheduled. I don't think so at this point, but it's a concern. Here is the text of my reply:

How would you get that impression? :)
I get concerned about it. They do not get to do more than two activities at any one time, but then that gets multiplied by three. The ones that don't have something to do that day go home with one parent, usually April since I am already out here. The particular blog entry you are probably thinking of reflects April being out of town, and then they didn't get that luxury. They handled it better than I did.

Tomorrow they go home with April; nothing is scheduled. I, however, go down to Bountiful to take my dad out to eat. Friday they are going home after practice, I have SOM. One reason they only get to do two activities is so they don't get over scheduled, and the other is that I don't. They also have to want to do it, I don't like dragged crying kids to something. Next, schoolwork needs to be kept up with. Rachel's lowest GPA in the last two years is 3.95. Patrick and Thomas don't get GPAs yet, but Patrick has to be the best at everything, and gets upset with a score lower that 95%. Thomas struggled the most, due in some part to older siblings BLURTING OUT ANSWERS when we tried to study (stopped when I would put them to immediate chores when they did so), but he now parades 100% on spelling and math in his brother's face. I look at what happens when they don't have an activity. It's a problem if they can't find anything to do. It's a problem if they don't ask me to play; that means they've given up on me. Dinner together with no TV is important, and they need engage in conversation (last night's subject was who shot Abraham Lincoln, John and some name with a W, best guess was John Williams. Nope, he writes music, including the Star Wars theme, the correct answer is John Wilkes Booth).

I try to make sure they have free time. Sundays are usually spent at home and with nothing scheduled to do. Homework for the weekend needs to be taken care of as much as possible on Friday to help with this goal.

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Thomas on the News Again!

Stardate 60051.8
Big Buddha was at Union Station yesterday for Fox 13. Thanks to the Buttschardts of Roosters, the first and second grades of St. Josephs were there. We have it on the DVR. There were several cuts to Buddha. The first you can just see him at the end of the crowd of kids. The second shot has all the kids sitting on the lawn, and Thomas is right in the middle. It's fun to watch and name off all the kids I know: Jack (who was in the middle of every camera shot), Sam, Phillip, Orlando, Conner, etc. I had to drop Thomas off at school by 7:30 that day (he normally goes at 10 to 8). I knew Fox 13 was going to be there, and that he would probably be on TV. Patrick asked why Thomas gets all the chances. I don't know, just lucky, I guess.

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Work, PHP, and Paypal

Stardate 59081.3 (8-13-2005)
Okay, it's been a while. I've been very busy, mostly with work, but some time has been spent with Mountain Con. Work is mainly busy because my boss quit, and I've been taking up some of the work. Someone in another group told me walking in one morning that they were told I was the new supervisor. Flattering, but not path I want to take. The problem is I would be doing what I have been doing for the last ten years. I want something new, something different. I feel a little stagnate mentally, and I'd like a different view of software development. I am doing some training next week, and I will be pushing an agenda for the group I have suggested before, only to be dismissed. There is no one to dismiss it now, so I might as well go ahead.

The Paypal stuff for Mountain-Con was interesting. It took a while because they have two methods of doing online payments. The documentation does not do a good job of delineating the differences between them. It took a lot of searching to find the right information. But it works now. The PHP language is pretty fun to work with, and the site, PHP.net, is well organized. They have version 5, and the stuff on Xmission is version 4. I'd like to see if they have 5 or not.

April has been busy with getting ready for school. She's into in more this year because she is president of the Parent-Teacher Group. So there is a lot of organizing, meetings, and other work for her to do. And there is still Girl Scouts and a full time job. We have given up all the soccer jobs. I will coach Thomas, but that's it. This year will be interesting for that, too. Three kids playing soccer, which means three practices, and three games. Rachel also has tennis lessons, and Patrick needs to start religious education classes. I don't anticipate a night off for a while.

Thomas and Patrick are doing swimming lessons. I think this will be Patrick's last set of lessons. He dog-paddles around the pool now, and can dive under objects. Thomas can duck his head underwater, and is working on floating.

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