I'll write more later about everything that happened, but this is just a quick post to show off the family again. We were missing Jon, Aaron and Wayne Isaac, but most everyone else made it and we had a grand time. You won't see me in the shot because I was conducting and the camera was to my right to get all the faces of the choir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-zkZc7L9U
I like my family.
***** Added Feb. 03 *****
Forgive the lateness of this entry. I'll skip explanations and just get to it.
While out caroling this year, I realized why it is that we do it and why it is so important that we put up with the hassle. Let me explain the hassle part of it first.
My parents had 10 children. That's a brood by any measurement, and when we were younger and my parents began this tradition of caroling every year, it was a feat to get us all wrangled and transported from place to place. Since then, all but one of us has gotten married effectively doubling the choir, and of those that are married, only one is without children to date.
What was a mass of humanity has grown into a mob of strong willed adults, crying children .... well you get the picture. Each year it gets harder.
We start the night around 6pm (although every year the plan seems earlier and earlier and the actual start time gets later). Cramming around the piano in my parents 20x20 living room we have a practice of the songs that we will be singing. This lasts about 1/2 an hour then we get packed in the car and on to the first house.
We go to about 8 different houses that are miles apart, so every visit requires unpacking the children, arranging them in front of the house, repacking and driving to the next house. By the time we get to the last house around 9pm, the youngest are falling asleep in their parents arms, while the group just older is complaining of their feet hurting and hunger is setting in for all of us.
So why do we do it? That question gets asked by at least one brother or sister every year. This year it finally struck me what the answer is, while we were at our second house.
An older couple who has been on the route for as long as I can remember invited us in to their house and positively beamed as we all filed in through the front door. Shoulder to shoulder we crammed into their sitting room and belted Jingle Bells, Silent Night, Rudolph, and Carol of the Bells. When we were done, the wife was weeping. As we left, we exchanged hugs and handshakes with each of them. Then my sister said to me "See? That's why we do this every year."
We aren't doing it to show off how great our family is. It's not even so that we can feel close as a family by continuing a rooted tradition. While both of those are nice, it's become a service. Caroling is not just our tradition anymore. It's theirs. These families that we visit every year now have a tradition of inviting us into their homes. Hearing us sing is now part of their Christmas and they look forward to it. We do it because, they love it, and we get to show our love for them.
Don't click the links until I say otherwise you'll miss out on the experience.
This could be a subject I've blogged on before but I'm really not sure. If I have, I couldn't find it on this site anyway.
I'm not sure whether this is bragging or not, but I have the most talented family in the entire universe and possibly beyond. I'm not kidding. Not to oversell it but musically the Fam is just oozing with concepts and execution of composition of musical themes that are both innovative and auditorially pleasing. (What auditorially isn't a real word?)
See I can say it's not bragging simply because I'm not including myself in the bragging. Additionally I have proof of their brilliance listed. I've heard it said thousands of times that "It's not bragging if it's true".
Alright, I may have oversold it a bit but the songs that you're going to hear are really good IMHO.
Ok. You can click the first one. On her MySpace page click the second song "Home" in a new browser (Right-Click and select "open in a new window" for the noobs), then come back and read.
http://www.myspace.com/nellieriddle
Ok. This is a simple intro, but just wait it gets good. Listen to the lyrics and imagine the sweet little girl that singing.
Now we're getting to the Chorus. Great theme. And then the hook. At this point you should be getting chills. I do anyway as I listen and write this.
Nellie is the youngest in my family and she's had a little bit of a rough time. All the older siblings want to keep her safe and she gets frustrated that we don't think of her as a grown up capable of making good decisions, even now that she's married.
Back to the chorus. How can anyone listen to this and not be inspired. The message is great. Even the weakest amongst us can succeed and even excel when we get the help from those around us that feel personally invested in our lives. We all get to support each other. "Home" of course takes on a deeper meaning when it's thought of in a spiritual context. But the concept of being edified through lifting someone else is a universal one.
Ok. Now on to Aaron.
Same as before, open in a new window and listen to.... let's see. 3rd song "Time won't wait"
http://www.myspace.com/amicuscuriaeband
My favorite part of Aaron's music is the minimalism of it. Just him, a guitar, and I think some beat boxing. The harmonies are all him if you couldn't tell. But the choices that he makes for the harmonies blow me away. Instead of making it barbershopy or fifties-ish he adds them together in a fashion that sounds almost new-waveish.
Let it keep playing to the next song Stars.
Now this song could be on Scrubs. Just mellow and like Nellie's song, inspiring.
Don't forget to look into the stars. The idea being, let yourself be encircled by the awesomeness of creation and realize the duality of your insignificance in the vastness of an endless universe, and the importance of your existence as part of this universe that is so amazing.
Songs like these impress me so much because these are the two youngest in our herd of 10. You expect wisdom and depth from folks that are older by virtue of their experience. These youngest though ..... I'm just so lucky to have them as family. That I get to associate myself with them makes me feel like the message that their music conveys, better than I am because I'm a part of something better.
One last one.
Wayne has one of the best male voices I've heard. Here he is doing Les Miserables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdaNF8WBC_0
You may or may not know that the oldest recieved a tortoise for his 7th birthday. He named his little russian tortoise "Tuck" after a turtle on a kids TV show.
Anyway, we took good care of our little tortoise, making sure to feed him daily and give him plenty of water. We kept a heat lamp over his terrarium so he would stay warm during the cold winter nights. Every once in a while we'd take him outside to stretch his legs and get some exercise.
One of these workouts ended sadly with the children forgetting that he was out back, and they came in without him. 30-45 min later I asked where he was and neither of the boys knew. It was very frustrating not only because this pet came with a $90 price tag, but because he was really more a family pet.
*Edited. I forgot to mention earlier that the losing of Tuck and the finding happened 3 months from each other, and that he had apparently stayed in the backyard that entire time.
Today, the boys and I were out front playing "throw a tennis ball against the garage door" and Meg came out front.
"You'll never guess what I found outback," she said as she pulled Tuck from behind her back. She explained that she had heard some scraping on the back wall, gone outside and he was between the fireplace and the sun room's outer wall. We were very glad that he was back. He'd gone for months and we'd all just figured he was gone for good, but it turns out he never even left the back yard.
When I thought about it I realized that there were vegetables in the garden that had obviously be gnawed at, but I always assumed it was an opossum or worms eating them away. Now I realize that we were keeping Tuck fed without even realizing it. Thank goodness for the garden.
We had a parent/teacher conference with the oldest boys teacher on Wed. Meg was really not looking forward to it and truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to being told that my son is a holy terror and we're horrible parents either. If history was any indication, that's what the conference would have been.
I calmed myself the best I could and tried to reassure Meg that it wouldn't be that bad, even though I only half believed it myself.
We sat down with his teacher, for the first time together, and talked over the behavior problems he's been having. He won't stay on task, and when he's asked to get back on track he'll often refuse and even throw little tantrums. To date he's pushed his work onto the floor when the teacher was standing there, crawled under his desk and just whine sometimes.
He's also complained often that it's too early to go to school. We let him sleep until 7am and school starts at 7:45. Even though we get them in bed by 9pm at the latest, he still complains about being tired.
His hand writing is very poor, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but with all of the other factors does send up a little bit of a red-flag. There's a technical term "dysgraphia" for it, but it's basically a physical sign of a mental disconnect.
Finally, he's having lots of trouble making friends at this school.
All of this we'd heard before, but then his teacher said something that really caught our attention. "Even though he has been disruptive in class, I'm willing to deal with that. I'm more just concerned for him." This was great. Where we were expecting judgment and criticism of our parenting skills, we instead received honest, genuine concern for our little boy. From there the entire tone of the discussion (a conversation that has been ongoing for months now really) changed from "What are you two doing to him?" to one of "How can we help him?".
We expressed our concern that he has previously taken medication and the side-effects were unpleasant and that we'd rather not go down that route again unless we absolutely have to. She offered to talk to the school psychologist but was very honest about our chances there. The Dr. is only at his school 1.5 days a week and likely won't be able to see him. She suggested we should look at our insurance and see if there was a private psychologist that might be able to help.
In short, we're very hopeful. Being our first, he's really gotten a raw deal on the parent side of the equation. As much as we care about him and his development, neither Meg nor I was properly prepared to raise a child when we had him. I suspect no parents really are and just try their best. In any case I really feel good about the track we're on now and hopefully the boy will benefit from the combined efforts, and I'm really grateful now that he has a teacher that was willing to stick with Meg and me for his benefit.
If you don't think you know who "The Lonely Island" is (are?), chances are you know their work. The front man for the group is Andy Samberg. He's the guy on SNL that's responsible for such skits as "Lazy Sunday" (the Chronic "WHAT?" - cles of Narnia), Lazer Catz, and stars in most of the other Digital Shorts on Saturday Night Live. All pretty funny huh?
The rest of the group does the work. They shoot/write/direct all those sketches. They've always been a little off their rockers, but it's understandable since most of comedy is leading the audience down a path of thinking one way, then at the appropriate time making the course correction that makes them laugh.
Shocking is the easy way out for comedians. The most recent Digital Short is an example of the end of the line for these guys. The sketch is Andy doing a painting of Paul Rudd naked, then Paul Rudd doing Andy, then both of them taking the painting to an art auction, where it's so horrific that the entire group commits suicide in more and more disgusting ways.
Even being as desensitized to this kind of humor as I am, I couldn't watch it and not only because it was gross either. I was just disappointed that it wasn't funny. Instead of putting in the work to bring a concept that will work to an audience, they decided to make something that they could laugh at and give the finger to everyone else.
What artists like this do (and I use the term artist loosely) is just pure ego. To get the joke the audience has to look at it from the perspective of the creator instead of the creator tailoring the joke to the audience. Call me lazy if you like, but I would like my entertainment to be entertaining. I don't want to have to start thinking like you to get your joke.
From here on out I will no longer recognize the English alphabet in it's current order. If the inventors of the QWERTY keyboard are to be believed, A is not the most recurring letter in the Alphabet. It is either 'g' or 'h' judging by the location each holds.
I will order all my lists Q-/ though I doubt anyone but myself and possibly the Artist currently known as Prince would choose a symbol instead of a name. On second thought, there is that guitarists from Guns 'n Roses. Does it count as a symbol still if you spell it out phonetically?
One of the great things about this order is that all the Andersons, and Smiths will be called nearly at the same time. And who knows, maybe that rascally coyote will start ordering his gadgets and gizmoes Quixtar instead of Acme.
Suzie, Ben, Kellie, Wayne, David, Jared, Jonathan, Sharon, Aaron and Nellie becomes.
Wayne, Aaron, Suzie, Sharon, David, Jonathan, Jared, Kelli, Ben, and Nellie.
For this election I find myself torn between voting for two candidates. Neither of them however is Obama.
I live in California, and it's pretty well understood that because of the masses of Democrats living in San Fransisco and L.A. that the rest of us have basically lost a voice in the Presidential Election. I accepted months ago that my vote will not count this year. Since I'm not supporting a candidate whose views are shady at best I'm left with the other guy.
I honestly believe that Obama is going to win this election. Not to sound prophetic or anything, but it's kind of been apparent that he would ever since he gave his address at the Democratic National Convention 4 years ago. The press loves him and has been behind him from then on.
Sadly, my Republican party couldn't see the value in their best candidate. And so comes my decision. Do I write in my real preference for president? In other words, do I vote my conscience? Or do I instead resign myself to voting for the lesser of two evils?
I haven't written a new blog in what seems like a very long time, and before reading this one you should know it's going to be fluff. No deep realizations or great information/discoveries/insights, although as I'm saying this I am realizing that prior posts may not have had any of those either and I've just revealed how incredibly egotistical I am. Anyway, the warning should allow you to act accordingly. To read or not to read, that is the question. Or for the geeks in all of us "Run Away, Run away!".
Begin.
The other day I was watching TV. I know Shocker! Animal Planet has this show called Dogs101. It goes over different breeds of dogs and ranks them in key areas to help potential pet owners make an informed decision. Each breed they are covering for the episode is graded by things like "Weather Tolerance", "Good Family Dog", "Health", "Grooming Requirements" and "Exercise Needs".
As I was watching it I found myself wanting to get a dog. I've never had a dog of my own. In fact growing up we only had a few pets ever and they were mostly cats that died and usually it was euthanasia (word of the day, ten points). There was a bunny that I won't go into, and David had an albino rat that escaped, became wild again and bit him. There were two dogs "Buster and Snaps" but they were Ben's dogs and not the rest of the families. To put it more succinctly, I personally, as an adult have never had a dog.
Judging by my pet skills to date, that's probably a good thing. We as a family have had some fish, and I had one in my office. Notice the 'had'. Hyrum had a $90 Russian Tortoise, which the boys played with in the back yard and never brought in again. Who knows where he is now.
But I've gotten off track. Regardless of how good an owner I would be, the show got me thinking about wanting a dog, and what kind I would like. Mostly I know what kind I would want. I want a Charlie dog.
My sister and her husband have the best dog in the world in my mind. His name is Charlie after "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" due to his sad eyes and the song "Cheer up Charlie" from the original, not Johnny Depp creepy version. Charlie is a little dog. I'm not sure what he is, but if I had to guess he's a mix between a chihuahua, Daschund, beagle and a ..... let's say Great Dane. No ... let's say Bull Mastiff, just because it's a funnier thought. He's kind of a longer dog, with short ears, short hair, and an aerodynamic head that makes him look really fast. Oh, and he sprints like he's on crack if you get him whooped up, and jumps twice or 3 times his own height when he wants to be held, and is a great lapdog. He'll climb up and let you pet him for hours.
Barring a Charlie, I would settle for these traits.
Good with children and babies.
Barks at strangers but wouldn't bite.
Good with other dogs, wouldn't bark.
Has own fax machine.
Smells nice.
Has short hair.
Is on the medium-small side (like a boxer or small bulldog)
Long nose because all dogs should have long noses. A dog with a squat face is rediculous.
Wants to be walked a lot. (more for my sake than his).
If any of you know what kind of dog fits all those criteria, let me know and I will take him.
This post is very possibly in bad taste. Beware you may be offended. But these are the three most influential non-scriptural books in history. Each promoted a particular political ideology.
Communism
Let the hate mail begin.
So this morning I was taking a shower and it's not really anything out of the ordinary. I adjusted the water so that it was a good temperature. I got in and soaked my hair and face, and started singing "Five Dollar .... Five Dollar ... Five Dollar foot-long". Stupid jingle. I dare you to get that song out of your head today.
After the soaking of the head I pushed all my hair out of my face. I reached for the shampoo bottle, put some in my hands and put the bottle back then it happened. I caught the fine print on the bottle and it said "This product was not tested on animals". Ok so that's really not that out of the ordinary, but it did get me thinking about that statement.
The idea is supposed to be that the consumer can feel good about purchasing and using this product because it hasn't caused a poor little monkey/mouse/cat any pain. Crap, now I want a Monkey-mouse-cat and doubt I'll be able to think of anything else to write. Pooh. Pushing through to my point.
First of all, I'm not that compassionate when it comes to animals I guess. Sure I get sickened by the Michael Vick's of this world, but even that isn't because of the pain the animal is in. Rather it's the pain that there exists the kind of violent natures in some people, that this would be considered entertaining. But again that's not the point of this story.
The point I'm trying to make is about the claim. I don't see how this shampoo or any other product that would make a statement like this, can make that claim. I will concede that the stuff that was put into this bottle was never tested on an animal. Claiming this batch of shampoo, or even this exact formula of shampoo was never being tested on animals is plausible, but here's the rub. The knowledge that these chemicals, combined in this would do no harm to your consumers was built on the work of multiple chemists and researchers, some of whom at one time or another did tests on animals. The point is this.
No knowledge is achieved independently. There is an inter connectivity between social beings and to expand the concept, between the entire universe. No man is an island. United we stand, divided we fall. We must live together, or perish alone. You can take the boy out of Clairmont, but you can't take Clairmont out of the boy. Ok that last one was a little week but watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0sRtwgn36w and you'll understand.
Now to internalize. Think of how much work it took for a jetliner to get built. One person couldn't have done it. Terry can attest to the amount of work that it takes, and the amount of people that it involves. Now add to the people that worked on it directly, the people who's innovation, learning, and sweat contributed to the effort before that plane was conceived. Just like people, knowledge has a genealogy. Before the 747 was the Jet Engine, based on the propeller, based on wing structure worked on by the Wrights who got their ideas from a glider club they were in, which club probably got ideas from DeVinci who probably got his idea from some unknown ... who in turn got the idea from watching birds which were created by .... well God.
It's really awesome. The epiphanies you can have in the shower.
I came to a realization recently that I haven't made any new friends in a very long time.
Somewhere between the time that I got married and now, I just stopped making friends. This isn't an epiphany in the strictest sense because I've thought of this topic before now. In fact I remember about 5 years ago saying to my Aunt that I didn't want to make any new friends because it's just too much work. How sad is that? The intentional denial of human contact and expansion of horizons due to laziness or fatigue shall no longer be the definition of anti-social tendencies. It shall be the definition of my social life.
Recently I've been connecting with old friends instead. Facebook and the Interwebs are amazing things. Facebook has me reminiscing with all sorts of old High School buddies. The rekindled friendship that has prompted this though is that which I had with an "Army Buddy". Recognize the minimize quotes here. We were both in the Army when we met but it's not like we were in the trenches together. In fact if it hadn't been for our church connection, I doubt we would have even met. In any case, we were pretty good friends. Without lingering too long to validate this statement, I would say that he is the newest friend that I made who I consider a friend, and a good friend at that.
I mean sure, there have been co-workers that I'm very fond of and would even consider close confidants, but I don't 'hang-out' with any of them. During non-work hours I am nearly always with my family, and my definition of a friend includes the criteria that he/she must be non-related either by blood or marriage, and be someone with whom you associate by choice rather than obligation.
Before I get an onslaught of emails and comments decrying my lack of gratitude for my family, both close and extended, I should mention that one of the reasons I haven't felt a need to have friends is that I am so edified from the familial relationships that I have. Of all my siblings and in-laws (and there are many) there are none that I would shun. *aside "Shun.... shun the unbeliever". I mean to say, I would chose to spend time with any or all of them.
Alice, Beth, Brian, Aaron, Jennie, Ben, Joie, Suzie, Rusty, Wayne, Kelli, David, Juniper, Elise, Sarita, Daniel, Katelyn, Nellie, Cliff (yes even Cliff), Evan (family nod), Kristin, Jon, Sharon, Fred, Mom + Dad, Dad + Mom, Grandmama, and too many cousins to name individually (I'm sorry), are all some of my favorite people in this world.
We got a call from Hyrum's teacher yesterday. I feel really badly for him because it seems he is too much his father's son.
While he's in class he does absolutely nothing. The teacher called us to have a talk with her to discuss what can be done. It's unfortunate that we have to make up for her short-comings, but I am glad that she was willing to ask us for help instead of just complaining that she couldn't do her job of teaching our child.
Last night I had a talk with Hyrum about doing his work in class and tried to listen to him as best as I could to see what it is that's keeping him from doing it. He started out talking about the heat, and feeling distracted and eventually opened up and told me how one of the girls in the class called him a "Know-Nothing". I tried to explain to him that I would bet that he's the smartest kid in the class. To which he responded, "I'm just a blob of gunk". Or something to that effect.
I told him that if he wants people to think that he's smart he should finish his work first, before anyone else. In the minds of 3rd graders, the quality of the work isn't really evaluated. The speed at which you complete work however is easily observed and can be a much easier measuring stick for the 8 year old mind.
This morning when I dropped him off at school, I stayed to talk to his teacher and sat in the room with them for a while. The first thing that made my heart sorrow for his sake was his seat. All of the kids sit at tables that are pushed together so they are facing each other during the day, except Hyrum. He sits at a desk separated from the rest of the class, right next to the teacher's desk. He's ostracized in the minds of these kids. Not good enough. It's no wonder they think he's dumb and he thinks of himself as worthless. That's me putting a word to his phrase "I'm just a blob of gunk" but I think it's accurate.
With me there, he stayed on task fairly well. I had to remind him once or twice that he should be writing when he was looking at the board, staring into space, or figuring out what all pictures were. My visit only lasted 30 min. or so and I can see how for the teacher it would get overwhelming to have to remind him to work every 10-15min when there are 20 other students to work with.
When he was finished with his first assignment and turned it in to his teacher, she turned to me to say "He never finishes this quickly. And I know that he's capable of it. He'll spend 40min. not doing an assignment, but if I keep him in from recess, he'll get it done in 5." I also know that he's capable. I think I might just have to make it part of my morning routine. Get up, shower, take the boys to school and sit with Hyrum for the first part of his day.
We'll see if it helps for the rest of the day.
With the absence of anything else to blog about I am going to blog about a movie (*Booooo). Quiet down, believe me I know how lame that is. The lamest part is the the movie that I'm going to be blogging about wasn't that great. It literally gets 2.5 stars out of five in my book. Meg and I subscribed to Blockbuster.com's movie rental service because, well it seems we pay about $20 in movie rental's every other month or so becasue of late fees and such and it will end up being cheaper this way. Go fig.
Now for the big reveal. Can you feel the anticipation? We most recently watched "21". This 'heist movie' and I use the term loosely, follows the formula pretty well with the appropriate twists that catch you almost off-gaurd. But what it lacks in suprises, it makes up for in ... um, getting a good actor to play a supporting role?
The K-Pax dude who's name escapes me and I'm about to imdb him was really good. Spacey!! That's it. Kevin Spacey. A quick aside to note how big a loser I am. I just imdb'd K-Pax to find out who it was that was playing the role in "21". Why didn't I just search for "21" and find him? I don't know.
Anyway, Mr. Spacey plays the former card counter turned MIT professor and leader of the new generation of young card counters. And he plays it well.
The other supporting actor "Lawrence Fishburne" (I didn't have to look that one up so suck it imdb) did a really good job too.
The rest of the cast however, did their jobs fine I guess, but overall the story was a little flat. This is one of those cases where you can tell the book by it's cover, or in this case DVD. By the by, I would bet the book is probably way better. If I ever read books, you could take solace in my critique of it.
A quick word now on Blockbuster.com. They've managed to make it even harder to find a decent movie than it is in the store. I don't know how these big chains operate but I suspect that they have contracts with only certain movie studios to exclusively stock that studios new releases. The selection is HORRIBLE. The only other movie we've ordered was "Bruce and Loyd ... something something" which is basically a promotional straight to DVD movie made up of footage that didn't get used in "Get Smart" thrown together and turned into a story that follows the timeline of the actual "Get Smart" movie just told from the point of view of the gadget makers Bruce and Lloyd. Oddly enough, even though it was pretty obviously an afterthought, there were enough funny parts and comical performances from Bruce (played by the guy that plays Hiro Nakamura on Heroes) and Lloyd (who I'm sure I've seen in a commercial or something but I'm not going to IMDB him since you can do it yourself) ...... what was I saying? Oh yeah, their performances are comical enough to keep you watching through the painful cheez.
Only geeks like myself are probably aware that Google has entered 'The Browser Wars'. It's really not much of a war anymore. I'm under the impression that if you're a Mac user you stick with Safari. Windows users stay with IE with Firefox getting a little bit of the action, but you hardly ever hear about Netscape, Opera, Konqueror or Lynx anymore.
Since I'm a huge nerd and on the outer edges of the 'tech' field I was excited to give it a try. It pretty much sucks. I'll say that again. Google Chrome pretty much sucks. You would think that it would work better with the google services at least, but it doesn't even do that.
Being a regular user of Gmail, Google Maps, Google Finance, Picasa, and obviously Blogger, I expected to see some better performance or neat features that would be available only to Google Chrome users. But alas, Google Chrome actually does either the same or worse than Firefox for all those services.
In fact the last post that I wrote (Monterey Trip) was originally done in Chrome, but I couldn't publish it. Luckily it didn't crap out completely like it has at other times so I was able to copy it open Firefox and get the post ... posted.
My only hope is that since it's still in Beta, they'll get all the kinks worked out in a timely fashion so that I'll be able to see what all the fuss is about.
I love Monterey and Meg will testify to the depression and anger that I felt at having to leave paradise. It is the only town that I enjoy more than my own city.
Although the reason for our trip was to see the wedding of Taylor to Melina (spelling?) we really only spent about 3 hours in close proximity to them, and I still haven't actually met my newest cousin-in-law.
We did however get to have some other great times. Randy's Sandwich shop (which can be seen with google.com/maps street view feature got our money twice and Compango's (My other favorite sammich) got my money once. The Bagel Bakery was breakfast every morning but one, when Granmama made everyone pancackes. I swear I will steal that skillet someday, because I've used the recipe and they never turn out quite right.
In lieu of photos of the trip on the blog (isn't it interesting how picasa, flickr and the like have become the new 'slides of our trip' forum) Meg uploaded them to picasa and I post for you here the graphic evidence of our travels.
http://picasaweb.google.com/margaret.riddle/MontereySeptember09#5244081233183503026
Wait that's just my favorite shot of Logan.
http://picasaweb.google.com/margaret.riddle
Try that one.
I'm watching "The Love Guru" right now. Every joke is semi-crude and obvious. It's the whole reason that Mike Myers is not funny. Every joke he tells gets told about 3 seconds before the punchline.
In other words he telegraphs his punches worse than an amateur boxer. The one thing he does well is put funny people on screen. People like Daniel Tosh, Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan are of note.
He puts himself on screen way too much though.
Today is the first day back to school for the older boys. That's weird to be able to call them the older boys now. We're going to have two sets of boys. The 'older boys' and the 'younger boys'. Huh. But back to the point.
Today the older boys started a new school which is convieniently located about 2 blocks from our house. I have to say I am just busting with pride for my boys. They both had voiced displeasure in having to go to school over the last week, but today when it came time to go to class, Sean went right in, grabbed his name tag and sat down with the other kids. We didn't have to coax him at all. All we had to do was point Hyrum towards his new classroom and he went straightway as well.
For some reason I was really nervous for them, but they seemed to be taking it all in stride. They are some great kids in spite of Meg and I.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jared.riddle/ParsleyCaterpillars
Parsley caterpillars turn into really pretty butterflies. I wasn't that excited about the notion of keeping the caterpillars, but as you can see the boys went absolutely bonkers. Watching little boys completely fascinated by things that I'd lost interest in re-kindled that fascination in me. Also, it really was cool to see the third cocoon wiggling.
Let me back up. About a week or so ago, we found some bugs chomping our parsley. At first I was annoyed because we already have bunches of little white flies eating our tomato plants and I can't tell if the weeds or watermelon are winning the "battle of neighbor's hill". But on looking at them, all fat and squishy, it made me think of baby cheeks and you can't harm baby cheeks. When the wife saw them, and googled their images she suggested getting a mason jar to keep them in with 'a stick and a leaf to recreate what they're used to' the boys were jazzed.
The boys were very conscientious in providing new parsley daily per the instructions. It only took a day or two for the first one to form a chrysalis and another 2 days for the other two.
Finally this morning when I was getting ready for work, I got to see one of them was already a butterfly and the other was struggling to get out of his cocoon.
Here's the first vid with Sean commentary.
I'd like to put all of the pictures of this morning on this blog, and there are some really good ones but instead I've just uploaded them to picasa for your viewing pleasure.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jared.riddle/ParsleyCaterpillars
You might not be able to tell unless you look at the two photos side by side, but the garden actually has grown. The watermelon is growing up the hill and onto the 'patio' area. The corn is much higher now, almost as high as the fence. In the photo below, you can see the tops are ready to drop pollen to the silk to produce the actual vegetable.
This is the stuff that falls onto the silk shown in the picture below. The corn is going to grow right where that silk is showing. Awesomeness.
Dad told us a story about my little niece that was really cute. She calls a piano a plano so now that's what it will be known as from here on, and we have one now. Hooray! It's not nice or anything, but it was free and I need to find out how much it is to get the thing tuned since we just moved it. I'm hoping we cn have it restored to the point that it's nice to play. Making it nice to look at will be more work than it's worth, so nuts to that.
My oldest son (age 8) is excited to learn how to play, and I'm excited to get him lessons. In fact I've just gotten off the phone with him and made him a deal that if he promises to practice 15-30 min. a day, that I'll buy the books to teach him. I've always felt that having a piano makes a house more of a home. I used to love when my little sister and older brother used to play on Sundays as I was growing up. Ahh nostalgia. My sister had offered to give him free lessons a year or so ago and I expect she'd still be willing.
It was also nice to be able to have that quiet room in the house where it was just the piano, fireplace and couches. We called it the living room although was really more of a sitting room and was always more sedate than the 'family room' or kitchen/dining room which were the other two common areas of the house. Of course with ten kids the sharing of bedrooms was unavoidable as well, so having one quiet room in the house was very welcomed.
I took lessons when I was 5 and 14, but never really got to the point that I could read a piece of music and play it right off. Even hymns are still a struggle for me unless I only play one hand or one note at a time. Still, the few songs that I've learned by heart still give me some pleasure when I sit down. I really should learn to play for real. I think the wife would like it too.
We got some and they're going to turn into beautiful butterflies. Did I already write about this? Well I'm gonna again if I haven't already.
On the parsley in our garden, which by the way we haven't eaten any of, we found some caterpillars. They're green with black and orange spots and super fat like caterpillars are. They looked a lot like the one on "Bug's Life" actually. Meg looked them up online and found out that they are called parsley caterpillars. Go figure.
The boys got really excited about seeing them turn into butterflies so Meg found a mason jar and put them in it with a stick and some parsley then covered it with some nylons. One has already made a cocoon and the other two (did I mention there are three of them?) are starting on cocoons as well. Meg's taken pictures. I'll see if she'll add them to the post here.
We had another ultra-sound today to make sure the baby had all his parts and learned the gender of the baby. It appears that I only produce Y chromosomes becuase 4 for 4 we're having boys. Meg and I are both a little disappointed that we won't get the little dark haired Meg clone that we were hoping for. She took it pretty hard and couldn't be around the other boys for an hour or so. As much as I love my boys, I was really looking forward to experiencing being the daddy in the "Daddy's little princess" equation.
We're grateful that we're going to have a healthy little guy though. This opens up the discussion for a fifth child.
I too enjoyed reading these questions and answers. Alice, can I do them too? Before you say 'no', look below.
What where you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I had just met the girl that became the woman I'm married to. I was in the Army, as were all my best friends. I had just won a "Talent Show" and was feeling like pretty hot stuff. I owned a Blue Toyota truck that was handed down to me by my older brother Ben, and would eventually be handed down to my younger brother Aaron (via my Dad) and from him to my nephew Jack. Still runs.
5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Oreo cookies
2. Mother's Iced Raisin cookies
3. Chocolate No-Bake Cookies
4. My own Chocolate Chip cookies
5. Flan
5 things on my To-Do list:
1. Find out the gender of our baby to be
2. Sell my motorcycle
3. Ride my bicycle to work (on a day I work)
4. Weed the garden, trim back the areas that are inhibiting the growth or our watermelons, seed the front lawn, and plant a flower bed off our back deck. That's all one thing. Really!
5. Check in to a methadone clinic and get clean from the monkey on my back. (Sorry I couldn't think of a 5th thing)
If I suddenly became a Billionaire, I would:
Pay off my parent's mortgage and buy my dad a Cadilac. Take that Ben! I beat you to it ;) . Buy a ranch/farm/compound/commune or island that all the Riddles could live on and that select other family members would be allowed to visit, effectively seceding from the union. We would have a landing strip and a couple of planes for family vacations.
I'd start a Web show chronicling getting fired from different jobs in creative and humorous ways. ie Get a job as a bus driver and drive somewhere completely off the route and eat lunch with passengers still on the bus. Or get a job as the cotton candy guy and label the candies "strawberry navel lint" and "actual cotton, not candy", or just replace one of the candies with real cotton that has powdered sugar poured all over it.
5 jobs that I have had:
1. Family Fun Center (Arcade/Batting Cages/miniature golf)
2. Cell phone dealer
3. KFC Delivery Driver
4. Arrowhead water delivery man.
5. Cutco Salesman
5 things that you may not know about me:
1. I used to write decent poetry
2. Sometimes at night I get so afraid of dying that I actually feel cold.
3. I wanted to be homeless before I went on my mission, or at least I wanted to live in my camper and travel the country with no particular destination in mind.
4. I wish I was a hippy.
5. After a year and 9 months working where I work, I'm still not totally sure what my current job is.
All in all it was a good party. Good cake, soda, hamburgers and hotdogs plenty of swimming and only a few tears.
All the boy wanted for his birthday was a pool party and grandma's house with all his cousins. Easy enough. He also got an AirHog plane, Pool toys, an "Omnitrix" from his favorite show "Ben 10", some Transformers and some tennis balls.
I've been meaning for a long time to try to ride a bicycle to work. Since I didn't know how long it would take so I wanted to do it once on the weekend first. Long story short, I just did. In fact I arrived at work about 10 min. ago. It took me 1:15 aproximately to ride the 11 miles to get here. I had to walk up all the hills, but there were really only 4 total, and only 2 of them were killers.
I'm sure when I get more in shape I'll be able to make it in right around an hour maybe less. But I'm pretty proud that I was able to do what I just did. Meg's here to pick me up but the proof is in the pudding. Here's the picture.
See, that's me, that's my bosses lab bench and that's my bike. Notice how completely drained I look.
And below is the path that I took. It was 11.1 miles. and it was Haaaard. *aside (that's what she said). Sorry I couldn't resist. (that's what she said). I'll stop now. (that's what she said). Ok seriously that was the last time.
View Larger Map
That's what she said.
This is my Garden in completion. Notice the little American flag? It's a very patriotic garden. USA! USA! I'm very excited about this garden particularly because it's the second one I've tried. The first was a miserable failure. The second one I took the advice of people smarter than I am and things actually grew. Go figure.
This part shows the sad little tomato plant, and right next to it, the squash and zucchini that are mocking it with their might. And behind them is the corn which though I know I shouldn't have favorites, the corn is.
My watermelon is doing well too. I have other pictures on my web album that show how each of these plants are already producing small fruit. The fruit is not yet ready for consumption of course, except for some of the tomatoes.
This isn't the easiest to see probably and for that I'm sorry, because watching Sean (red dot vest) sparring is one of the cutest/funniest things I've ever seen.
I captured it with my phone so it's meant for a teeny screen. I really have to get a phone that can capture better video so I have it available all the time.
Seems like everyone I know is starting a blog about their comings and goings. Meg thought it would be a good idea for us to start one too so, here it is.
I watch way too much television. So do my kids.
The Avatar finale was enjoyable.
The garden is going well. I should really put some pictures up of what it looks like now. The corn is doing much better than last time but still not as well as I'd like. The beans are growing but need a better trellis. The Watermelons are doing OK. There were 6 plants originally but one died and now we have 7. I know that's backwards, but it's true. Lemme 'splain.
The first time we tried the garden, we planted one mound for watermelon and put a bunch of seeds in it. They never grew a bit. This time we started with small watermelon plants instead in two mounds. One of the 6 plants died. The other five are doing fine, and apparently some of the original seeds from the failure garden were still hanging around waiting to germinate.
When Rusty and Jack came over to turn the soil with us and put in all the manure, we must have moved one of the seeds, and also planted on top of the old mound because two of the seeds germinated and are teeny little plants coming up. Cool huh?
I'll post Garden Pics later.
