Dave Marquardt's WeblogToday's Page Hits: 168
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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 |
Oops, it's broken!
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.
Posted at 10:56AM May 17, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
Science fair part 2
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.
Posted at 02:33PM Feb 26, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Science |
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 |
