Wednesday Feb 13, 2008
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.
Wednesday Aug 15, 2007
Happy sixth birthday Sam!
Monday Jul 02, 2007
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.
Thursday May 17, 2007
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my wife Karen to say that
our 5-year-old son Sam had fallen from a neighbor's playground
equipment and come home crying about how much his arm hurt.
Additionally, he couldn't seem to stop whimpering, even when he
fell asleep. She was pretty sure his arm was broken, and was
going to take him to our provider's after hours clinic to get it
checked out. And could I please come home now?
Sure enough, she called me after the appointment, and Sam had
broken one and possibly two bones in his forearm, near his
wrist. Poor kid.
Right now, Sam's arm is all wrapped up while we wait for the
swelling to go down, and tomorrow he'll get a visit an
orthopedist and get a cast. We kept him home from school today
because he got to bed late and was up in the night.
The timing of this is both good and bad. Bad, because today is
Karen's birthday and she won't be getting a day off to go play.
From Sam's view, we have 5 days of the school year left, so this
won't much interfere with school, but on the other hand, it will
interfere with having fun during the beginning of summer
vacation, at least until he gets used to the cast and the pain
subsides. It might keep him out of the swimming pool too, not
sure about that yet.
Monday Feb 26, 2007
I previously
mentioned that my son Nick and his friend Nate has won the
third grade division of their school science fair. On Saturday,
February 24 they participated in the Austin Energy Regional
Science Festival in Austin, and got another first place ribbon!
For now, though, this is the end. There doesn't appear to be
any place else to go for third graders. If I heard correctly,
fifth graders and beyond can participate in another level of
science fairs, but for third graders this is the end of the
road. Too bad in one way, but on the other hand, I'm not sure
we need another science fair weekend this season.
Monday Feb 12, 2007
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!
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