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Nick is 10!
On Sunday my sone Nicholas turned 10 years old! Congratulations Nick! We had a sleepover party on Saturday night with four other fourth grade boys, and they were up and kept me awake until 1 a.m. Sunday morning. I think our family is still trying to recover. Nick in particular was not feeling well on Monday morning, so we've sent him to bed early the past couple of nights.
My wife Karen and I were chatting last night, and I mentioned how some of my memories have gotten muddled and I "remember" Nick being at certain places with us, when I know darn well he wasn't born yet. Weird. But we agreed it is difficult for us to remember life before Nick entered our lives during the 1998 Winter Olympics, which we remember watching on the television while Karen was in labor.
Posted at 12:51PM Feb 13, 2008 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Happy birthday Sam!
Happy sixth birthday Sam!
Posted at 10:50AM Aug 15, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
My birthday gift
For my birthday last weekend (Svenskarnas Dag, if you must know) my family got me a new lawn mower. Did I need another lawn mower? No. But this isn't just any lawnmower, it's manual reel mower. It's a Scotts Classic reel mower. So I can (mostly) abandon use of my gas powered mower and get a bit more exercise.
Even better than that, my boys (aged 9 and 5) both want to mow the lawn now, and since there's no fast-moving blade and gas engine involved, they're allowed to do so. I just supervise and do the hard parts. Well, actually, I end up doing most of the mowing, since the boys get tired and their enthusiasm wanes. But we mow the lawn together, and that's nice. I suggested to them that we get three mowers so we could get the lawn done in a third of the time, but really, until one of them can mow half the lawn, it doesn't make much sense. Of course, mowing the lawn doesn't take that long, so having multiple mowers going at the same time doesn't make any sense.
Besides not using gas and giving me and the boys a better workout, I like that this mower is a whole lot quieter than a gas mower. The big disadvantage, though, is that reel mowers aren't very effective if you've gotten lazy and let your grass get really high, or you have some tall weeds. That's probably a reason to keep a gas mower around. Or use a weed whacker on those tall weeds.
Anyway, it was a nice gift and another way to help keep me fit and reduce our carbon footprint.
Posted at 01:34PM Jul 02, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Congratulations Nick!
Two big congratulations to my son Nick. First, this past Thursday, he and his friend Nate (they've known each other since they were less than a year old) entered the school science fair and place first for third grade! They did a fun project examining rockets made of water and Alka Seltzer, varying certain things about the combination, like how much water, temperature of the water, water vs. vinegar, tablet vs. powder, etc. Now they get to go on the regional science fair in Austin on Febuary 24. Very cool!
Second, Nick had his 9th birthday on Saturday, and had a good time with a few of his friends doing rock climbing, video games at an arcade, watching movies, eating pizza, cake and ice cream, having a sleepover, and eating pancakes in the morning. From my perspective, nine years seems to have gone by awfully quickly, Nick's only seven years from driving and halfway to being an adult. Wow!
Congratulations on both of these events, Nick. You're a great kid!
Posted at 03:51PM Feb 12, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
