Piesport, Germany

After walking around Detzem, we drove to a scenic overlook of Piesport on the Moselle River:

From Sluggo is YoYo

You can see the winding road we took through the vineyards:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Just some proof I was there:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Another view of the vineyards:

From Sluggo is YoYo

I think we could have stayed there all day and watch the water flow by. We ended up going for schwenkbraten at a weinfest in nearby Minheim.

Detzem, Germany

One of the guys on our trip to Germany was actually born in Germany to an American GI and his German wife. He still has relatives in Germany and they agreed to be our tour guides for a day. We went for lunch near Trier at an uncle's house and on to Detzem to meet up with a cousin. Detzem is on the Moselle River and in wine country.


This was the sign on a winery storefront:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Another replica of a Roman mile marker:

From Sluggo is YoYo

A sculpture of a still:

From Sluggo is YoYo

A church in Detzem:

From Sluggo is YoYo

I liked how the vines grew on this old building:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Still more Germany pics...

This is a view of a vineyard from the tower of Klopp Castle, Bingem-am-Rhein:

From Sluggo is YoYo

The Coat of Arms of Klopp Castle. Stadtverwaltung has something to do with city government:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Replicas of Roman mile markers found in the area:

From Sluggo is YoYo

This is the vehicle entrance to Klopp castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Trying out the new camera...

I've been wanting to buy one of those little HD video cameras like the Flip. The cameras on our phones don't do very good video and neither does our digital camera. So while we were doing our grocery shopping, I went over to the camera section and looked at the limited selection. There were only about four different styles of these video cameras and not a lot of information about each one. I tried to Google the different models on my Crackberry but for some reason it wouldn't connect to the internet.

I ended up going with a Samsung HMX-U10 because there was a lack of information on a JVC model, the Flip was more expensive, and a Sony Webbie just look like it was asking for trouble. I charged up the Samsung and played around with the controls a little. It's all touch control which frankly I'm not too sure I like yet. Instead of being buttons that get pressed, they are buttons that respond to touch. Well, if you aren't careful you will inadvertently touch a button and cause a function to start or stop when you don't want to.

Here's a sample picture taken with the new camera:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Next I need to learn about the video part of it.

Bingem Am Rhein, Germany

More Germany pictures.

We were in Germany for almost two weeks in September last year working at Ramstein Air Base. We had one full weekend there and on the Saturday we wanted to go somewhere and look at some castles. We were given some vague directions and we ended up in Bingem-am-Rhein. We parked and just walked along the Rhine (Rhein) River for a while then walked up to Klopp Castle.

This is part of Klopp Castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

On the grounds of Klopp Castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Tower of Klopp Castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Looking at St. Martin Basilica from an archway at Klopp Castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

Flag with the coat-of-arms on the tower of Klopp Castle:

From Sluggo is YoYo

German Taint Cheese

We ate two different times at the restaurant at Nanstein Castle. There were tables outside overlooking Landstuhl.

From Sluggo is YoYo

You can see Ramstein Air Base in the distance in this picture.

From Sluggo is YoYo

A suit of armor on display in the restaurant.

From Sluggo is YoYo

The food at the restaurant was really good with a couple of minor exceptions. One time Glen ordered the Knight's Platter which was various cured meats/sausages. Most of it was quite good but one tasted like an old leather boot (or how I suspect an old leather boot might taste). The other time, Greg (not Deb's Greg) order a cheese platter. It was quite good save one particular cheese we took to calling Taint Cheese due to its taint flavor.

More Germany Pics

More pictures from my trip to Germany in September 2009. These pictures are of Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl. We didn't get to go in to the castle because both times we went, the castle itself was already closed. However both times we did enjoy eating at a nice little restaurant on the castle grounds.

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

A No Crap Post

Germany, September 2009. We were all tired from work and wanted to eat something. I told the guys lets just go off base and find something to eat. We piled in to the van and went to Landstuhl. I decided to follow the signs there for the castle. The gang didn't know that's what I was doing, but it was a spur of the moment decision. We walked the grounds of Nanstein Castle and decided to eat at the restaurant there. My favorite picture was this:

From Sluggo is YoYo

More pictures to follow.

Germany 2009

Last fall I had the pleasure of going to Germany for just under two weeks to do postal duty at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Over the next few days, I'd like to post a few of the pictures I took of some of the places we visited.

This is Ehrenfels Castle Ruins in Ruedesheim, Germany. Picture taken from Bingen-am-Rhein, Germany

From Sluggo is YoYo

Six more weeks of winter?

Punxsutawney Phil supposedly saw his shadow today and that means six more weeks of winter. I'm ready for spring.

A few days ago I posted some pics of plants and flowers from Paraguay. It was my little way of bringing a bit of warm weather to dreary winter.

So with today's groundhog day prediction of a longer winter, I bring you more pics to remind us of the nice weather that we will eventually get. I took these pictures in Germany last fall.

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

From Sluggo is YoYo

Pon-toof-lahs

I rarely know what I want to blog about and today I'm still rowing that boat. I saw bedroom slippers on the floor and they made me think of the Spanish word for slippers - pantuflas. Say it! Isn't it funny to say? Yes, yes it is funny to say.

Living in a semi-bilingual home is quite an experience. Sometimes I think of the Spanish word for something before the English word. I know that on more than one occasion I have thrown out Spanish words or phrases in conversation at work. My coworkers just laugh at me or look at me like I'm stupid.

Raquel and I speak Spanish to each other almost exclusively. So much so, that tonight she said something to me in English and I couldn't understand her because I'm trained to think that she's speaking Spanish to me. That poor girl must be all kinds of confused. Paraguay has two official languages - Spanish and Guarani. Languages change over time and are influenced by many things. Paraguayans have transformed their Spanish and Guarani into a sort of platonic relationship that has almost created a new language of its own called Jopara - not quite Spanish nor Guarani in their purest forms but related to both. Often its a Spanish word that gets conjugated according to Guarani rules becoming a new word.

As I said, Raquel must get all kinds of confused. She throws out Guarani words to me sometimes and English words to her parents and here in the house she'll mix English and Spanish in one sentence. The kids just roll with it all and seem to understand.

Now go ahead and say PANTUFLAS - you know you want too!

100th day of kindergarten!

I had mentioned recently that Lourdes will be celebrating her 100th day of school soon. Today we bought two bags of Hershey's Kisses and Lourdes counted out 100 of them for her to bag up and take to school for the celebration. I think she still needs a little work on her counting skills when it comes to large quantities, but I'm sure it will come along. I had her organize the candy in rows of ten and we tried working on counting the established rows by tens. She did pretty well at counting by tens and by the time we were done she understood that putting just one candy in the next row didn't increase the tens yet.

I think her favorite part was eating some of the extra candy!

From Sluggo is YoYo

DQ Blizzard

The Rivermen have a promotion with Dairy Queen that if the Rivermen score 4 goals in a home game, everyone is given a coupon for a free Blizzard at Dairy Queen. Well tonight Derek Armstrong of the Rivermen scored a "natural" hat-trick (three goals by one player in a game is a hat-trick, a "natural" is a hat-trick where the player scores three goals in succession with no other goals scored in between his goals). In fact, Armstrong went on to score a fourth goal, giving the Rivermen a 4-0 lead and giving the fans a free Blizzard.

I started thinking the Rivs were going to not only get a win, but possibly even a shutout!! Well the Houston Aeros threw a monkey wrench into the works. They scored a goal in the third period. I can live with that. Then they sored again. Okay, 4-2, let's close this out. Then again! 4-3! This can't be happening! Oh no, another goal - tie game!! So the game goes into overtime and no more goals; this one will be decided in a shootout.

First up for the Rivermen, Derek Armstrong- he shoots, he scores!! Wow!! All Rivermen goals scored by the same guy. Unfortunately that was the only shootout goal by the Rivermen and the Aeros got three so the Rivs lost 5-4.

A lady behind me said "Well at least we get free Blizzards!"

Her friend said "Yeah, but they'll taste like defeat!"

Flora from Paraguay

Let's face it, winter can be pretty blah! So I dug up these pictures of plants around my mother-in-law's house in Paraguay.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

Spring is only a few months away!

She's a model - another picture post

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

Photo Post

From Blogger Pictures

Bless you

Teddy just hit 19 months old yesterday. It's really neat to see him growing and changing. He's been chattering for a while now, but most of his words seemed to be gibberish to most people including me most of the time. But now, some things are starting to be more intelligible. If you happen to sneeze around him you're likely to hear a very clear "Bless you!"

I know several posts have mentioned New Super Mario Brothers, so why change now. When Luigi loses all his lives, he is given another five lives and he proudly announces "I'm back!" Teddy has heard this so many times that he chimes in as well.

I think his favorite sentence now is "No Mommy!"

Teddy is quite helpful, or at least tries to be. He helps Raquel with some of the housework. He often will take my empty coffee cup to mommy for a refill. When I arrive home from work, he comes running to greet me and he immediately pulls a chair out and pats it motioning for me to sit. The routine is that I sit down so that he can help take my boots off. After the boots come off, he wants to help remove the Velcro blousing straps that help keep the pants tucked into the boots (tucking the pants into the boots will be mandatory later this year). He gets extremely upset if he's not allowed to help.

Hopefully he will continue to be a helpful little boy.

Colds and cold

After a reasonably warm weekend with lots of rain, it has turned cold again which brought snow. I know that cold temperatures don't cause colds, but it sure seems that colds come with cold temps. So now Teddy has a head cold, Lourdes has the slightest of colds, and I feel a little run down. Hopefully a little rest and over-the-counter medicine for all will keep things in check and let us all recover.

Teddy actually had the croup at the end of November. The good thing about that was that we now know what it is and how dangerous it really can be. Infants and small children have small windpipes and croup is an inflammation of the windpipe caused by a viral infection. This inflammation causes difficulty breathing and causes a barking sound when they cough. Usually croup will go away in a few days, but a severe case can require breathing treatments, steroids, and hospitalization. Teddy was close to being admitted. We didn't realize how distressed his breathing really was. Now we know what to look out for and what actions we need to take. For more information on croup, check out kidshealth.org.

Greg is a pusher

One time Greg and I were in his BMW and we came across a guy struggling to push his stalled vehicle to a side rode. Greg and I dutifully got out and started pushing to help the gentleman out. It just so happened that the side road had a bit of an incline to it but it was no challenge to the three of us. The man thanked us and we got back into Greg's bimmer and were on our way. I remarked about how easy it was and that I barely had to push. Greg looked at me incredulously. Turns out I barely had to push because Greg was doing all the work!

Good times, good times! Another time we were going to the mall in Greg's bimmer to buy a wedding gift for a friend. On the way back from the mall, I had an unfortunate gas attack. Something so foul that even the deepest bowels of hell itself couldn't produce the equivalent eked out of my bottom. Greg almost had to pull over due to retching. I'm sure Greg can't tell the story without throwing up in his mouth a little.

Another time I had the pleasure of driving the bimmer. I think I needed to run home to get something and Greg was gracious enough to let me borrow it. On the way to my house, a squirrel darted right out in front of me and I had no time to react. There was the sickening thud of flesh and bone against steel. Yes, that squirrel committed suicide by bimmer.

I don't know why Greg ever got rid of that car.

Productive day, lazy afternoon

I spent some time today paying bills, going through the week of mail, and filing federal and state income taxes. Once that was all done, it was time to be lazy. We played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii for a while making it into World 8 and then lounged in front of the TV. But it wasn't mindless TV, it was some Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel while playing MegaBlocks with Lourdes and Teddy. After the kids were in bed, it was time for some quality time with the wife - playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We made it to the first fortress and defeated Kamek and were able to save our progress.

Now it's time for bed.

PS Rivermen defeated Chicago on Saturday night - awesome game!!

100th day of school

Lourdes is closing in on her 100th day of school and they will be celebrating this on 1 February. All the students in her class have been asked to bring in 100 of an item. The teacher has even provided a small plastic bag to take the 100 items to school. The bag has some pictures of suggested items, like buttons, paper clips, jelly beans, Cheerio's, and Hershey Kisses. I asked Lourdes what she would like to take and she replied "Butt Kisses!"

REF YOU SUCK!!

Rivermen lost 3-2 in a game where two goals scored by the Rivermen were disallowed by the referee, one with less than a minute to play. The ref got an earful from the crowd on the first one. The second blown call had the crowd beside itself and the chants of "REF YOU SUCK!!" rained down for a long time. As the ref left the ice, a paper wad and a "chuck-a-puck" foam puck also rained down on him.

Now to be fair, being a referee or umpire (or whatever your sport calls the official in charge of rule enforcement) is a tough job. And sometimes the fans see (or think they see) injustice when in fact they have a different perspective. The ref is often in a better position to make the call and has training on the rules. For example, a hockey ref has an obligation to whistle a play dead when he loses sight of the puck. The first disallowed goal fell in to that category - a pile of players blocking the refs view of the puck so he had blow the whistle. No goal for my team. I hate that it happens like that, but I'm sure my team has benefited from that type call at the other end as well.

The second disallowed goal tonight I'm going to have to go right now with the "REF YOU SUCK" crowd. I'll have to see if there are any replays and I'll have to read what the local sports writer writes. But for now, once more "REF YOU SUCK!!"

Darn you Mario, and the Wii you rode in on!!

When I got home tonight, one of the neighbor kids was over playing New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii with Lourdes. I played a little before eating, and with the boy's help we made it through the final stage of World 5. I had supper and the neighbor went home. After supper, Lourdes and I played more and we managed to make it to the end of World 6 after I managed to find a shortcut that let us bypass several stages in that world. Then Raquel took over for Lourdes and we managed to get through that final stage and in to World 7. We made it to a stage that if you win, you can save your progress. It took lots and lots of tries, but we finally made it. We basically played about 5 hours of Wii. Is it wrong to do that?

When it rains, it freezes

Yucky weather today - freezing rain. It was quite bad for a while. We put out ice melt but it just melted small pellet sized holes in the ice. It was very slippy and one had to walk like a penguin to avoid falling.

Ever notice that when you really need to buckle down and focus on something you seem to get more interruptions that keep you from the important task or tasks? Especially when you're shorthanded! I needed to do some fine-tuning on our network switches at work as we are going through the initial phase of a security certification. I wanted to look at the configurations of the switches to prevent some simple findings. For example, every network device has to have a warning banner at the log-on screen kind of like a "no trespassing" sign. So I wanted to make sure every switch had the appropriate warning banner. Every time I started, something would come up that couldn't be ignored and there wasn't anybody else to handle the issue. A company came by to pick up a storage pod that one of our contractors had used. That was a good hour in the freezing rain. A person called with a computer issue that diverted me for a little bit. Someone else complained about a radio not working properly. A contractor needed help troubleshooting an alarm system that uses our fiber and copper infrastructure. Several other minor interruptions happened as well.

Long story short (too late!), I was finally able to check about seven or eight items per switch stack on nearly 30 switch stacks. I was surprised to find that several switch stacks needed the tweaking. We've had major infrastructure changes over the last year that involved moving/rotating switch stacks. We reconfigured the switches during the moves (updated firmware/software) and somehow overlooked some items. I need to update my cheat sheets for my people on configuring our switches and implement some preventive maintenance/security maintenance checklists.

When it rains, it pours. When it rains when it's really cold, it freezes.

15%

What is 15%?

Perhaps a decent tip for good service at a restaurant...

Maybe the return on an investment...

Or how about the amount of your income you are stashing into your retirement fund...

Could be those things and more. For me 15% is none of the above. I've had this blog since July 2003. I've never been very good at the upkeep of this thing. It's often hard to post - I've even posted about how difficult it is to blog on a regular basis. In fact, I didn't post one single time in 2009, causing me to tumble from Dan's Blogroll. I was tempted to blog a few times last year and just lost the urge. As the year wore on it became a personal challenge to not blog just so I could say I didn't post in 2009.

Now, 2010 I have posted every single day, even a couple posts on one day. The 20 posts this month represent 15% of the total number of posts on my blog!

Okay, so what to post about today has been solved. Maybe tomorrow I can post about how long it took me to come up with the idea for this 15% post.

Another exciting day, another exciting post!!

I'm a liar! Not a very exciting day overall. We did get some laundry done, Raquel cleaned the basement a little, and I changed the filter on furnace. Lourdes was counting down all day to watch iCarly to see Freddie and Carly kiss. We also played on kongregate.com. There were a couple games I found quite interesting - Music Catch and Red Remover. Don't blame me if you check them out and lose 10 hours on the computer.

I also read a little on the computer today. I try to follow Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay. One guy just got assigned to a small town very close to my in laws' home. My wife has lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins in his town so I left him a comment about how to get in touch with us and maybe we can help him from afar. Volunteers have to stay with various host families for the first three months in their site before they can get a place of their own. Sometimes it can be really difficult for them to find a suitable place so I figure that my wife's family can help if he wants.

We played a little Mario on the Wii this morning and a little this evening. Teddy wants to be so much more grown up and when Lourdes didn't want to play anymore, she gave him the Wiimote. The only problem was that he kept hitting pause!

Back to work tomorrow after a four day weekend. Sometimes life is really rough!

Mario, WalMart, Taco Bell, and Eli

Today was a mostly relaxed day. Lourdes, bless her heart, has been going through her terrible twos for the past four years. She was sent to a five minute time-out that actually seemed to work for a change. I'm trying to get back to time-outs because yelling doesn't seem to work, just gets me madder, and is a bad influence/role model for the children. By the way her acting out was minor overall, but needed correction because it involved tossing things at her little brother.

Sometime after the time-out, we played some Mario on the Wii until it was time for Lourdes to take a bath so we could start getting ready to shop. While she bathed and Teddy napped, Raquel and I actually played on the Wii. Raquel had not played Mario Brothers on the Wii yet, but loves playing it on the Nintendo DS. She's probably going to addicted to it now.

We eventually got ourselves together and made it to WalMart for the weekly shopping. I wandered off to look at guy things while the rest of the family shopped. Turns out that Teddy was completely grouchy and as I went to look for them I could hear a kid/baby crying. I hoped it wasn't my offspring, but it was. I took Teddy for a walk in the store hoping it would blow off some steam but I think it only served to make him more determined to be cranky and not want to sit in the cart. I don't blame him, but it makes everyone on edge.

We made it out of there and hit the Taco Bell drive thru for supper. After getting home, unloading groceries, and eating, I took off for the movies to see The Book of Eli. I really enjoyed it and there was a big twist at the end - turns out he's an ALIEN!! Just kidding! There was a big twist at the end that I thought was clever. I'll leave it to you to either see the movie or find someone on the internet to reveal it for you. I'm wondering if there are plans for a sequel because they definitely set the very end for that option.

Okay, enough is enough - it's bedtime!

Late start + overtime shootout = not much of a post

The Rivermen started 30 minutes later than normal due to another event happening. The game was really exciting with the Riverman coming back from being down 3-1. They were able to tie the game, force an extra period, and win in a shootout.

I'm beat and want to get ready for bed.

Boom Boom Pow

Teddy loves music and loves to dance. I think he has some pretty slick moves for an 18 month old toddler! Here he is dancing to Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas:

Dick, Jane, Mario and Luigi

I've mentioned before that Lourdes is starting to read and is doing a good job. She read another Dick and Jane book to me this evening that was much longer than the some of the previous ones. She only needed help with a couple of words and read the whole book in very short order. I'm very proud of her progress. She's also using little tricks to help her figure out words that she doesn't know like looking at the illustrations to get clues.

After she read to me, we played a little New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. I mentioned earlier this week that Lourdes is a clever Mario Brothers player. She's also quite skilled in moving around, jumping and shooting. We played for almost an hour and got through several stages, but alas didn't get to a stage where we could save our progress. So we'll have to do it over again next time. Since we have a long weekend, I'm sure we'll make a lot of progress.

What's in store for the long weekend? I've already mentioned the Wii and yesterday I mentioned seeing a movie. I think I also mentioned going to a hockey game on Saturday. No other hard and fast plans at the moment.

Okay, time for bed!

Scoring and fighting

We went to an NHL game in St. Louis last October. It rained all the way there and all the way home. There were five of us cramped in a little car that is only meant for four. The seats we had for that game were really high up, not horrible seats but you could see the horrible seats nearby. The Blues played an uninspired game that night and lost quite handily.

Yesterday was a different story. The weather, while not warm, was mild. There were only four people in the four-person car. The seats were really, really good (well except when the action was down on the far end). The Blues were on fire, scoring three goals in the first period. There were also four fights in the first period. Exciting. The Blues went on to win 4-1. We thoroughly enjoyed it! Now I'm looking forward to a Rivermen game on Saturday night.

I'm also looking forward to catching a movie this weekend. The Book of Eli will probably be on the top of the list. I've really enjoyed the last three movies I've seen. I went to see Avatar in 3D when it came out. I must say 3D is the way to go. That movie was visually stunning and the plot wasn't bad. I also saw Sherlock Holmes which I thought was quite good as well. Rounding out the trio was The Blind Side and I found it to be the feel good story of the year. So I'm hoping that whatever movie I get to see continues my little streak of enjoying movies.

Got the Posting on the Road Blues

Driving while blogging or blogging while driving is tough. Plus it's illegal in Illinois. That's why I'm in the passenger seat, which frankly makes it difficult to drive. We're on our way to St. Louis to watch the Blues play Columbus. It's gonna be a late night. The last time we did this I got home late plus I had to make a late night run to WalMart for juice for Lourdes to take to school. I don't think I'll have to do that tonight, so I'll probably make it home at about 1 AM. Well that's all I'm writing tonight. I don't do well reading and riding.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease?

Lourdes woke up this morning complaining about her hands burning. She had some red splotches on her hands but we didn't know what they were. She kept complaining about her hands hurting but we thought she was just being a morning grouch. We sent her on to school and apparently her hands got worse. After a couple of visits to the school nurse, the nurse called us. I took Lourdes to the doctor and he said Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease - a viral infection. She doesn't have any signs of it on her feet and she doesn't have any sores in her mouth. The doctor did say her throat was a little raw looking. She didn't complain about her throat any. So she's out of school for two days.

So Lourdes and I spent the evening playing New Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We busted in to World 4 and got to the first place you could save. Lourdes is a really good player. Sometimes I have to remember she's only 5, because sometimes she thinks better than me while playing the game. She's got some great hand-eye coordination and uses innovative strategies to get through the levels. In this variation of Super Mario Brothers, there can be up to 4 players playing at the same time. Lourdes and I have chosen to work together when we play. We call out "Bubble!" to each other when we think it's appropriate for the other player to activate a protective shield. If one player gets too far ahead of the other, the one that is too slow can get pushed off the screen and easily dies. But if the person "bubbles" then they are protected and can float towards the other player. We try to be apologetic when one of us causes the other to die. If you have a Wii and were contemplating a fun game for the family, I think the New Super Mario Brothers should fit the bill.

Side note, how do you get your kid to listen? For example, if your child is jumping on the bed and you tell them to stop and they don't what's your course of action?

-12F

Driving to work this morning, the thermometer in my truck was showing the outside temperature to be -12F (-24C). That's freeze-the-snot-in-your-nose cold!! At work, there are public address announcements to let us know the current wind chill (or real feel temperature) and appropriate work/rest cycles for those who have to work outside. It seems that the work/rest cycle is always 40 minutes work / 20 minutes rest (warming) once the temp is below about 25. There have been a few times when I think it's too cold to walk from the parking lot to my office, let alone work outside for 40 minutes. I'm glad my primary duties don't take me outside for very long!!

The Rivermen lost this afternoon to Milwaukee. That's two losses in two days. Hopefully they'll get there act together. December was really good to the Rivermen (or rather the Rivermen were really good in December).

It's bedtime now, night night!

18.6 Stone

I weighed in today at work for our Biggest Loser contest. I rocked the scales at a whopping 18.6 stone! I've really let myself go and there's the proof. Our contest runs until the beginning of June so I hope to lose 2-3 stone in that time.

All right, I don't know the proper grammatical use of stone. What is the plural of stone? Stone or stones? I know one stone equals 14 pounds, so I weighed in at 260 lbs and hope to lose 28-42 lbs.

I'm going to lose the weight in a radical manner - I'm going to eat foods that are good for me in the appropriate amounts and exercise!! Novel idea, huh?

Rivermen

The Rivermen lost in Chicago tonight. They play here tomorrow against Milwaukee but I have to work and will miss the game. Next home game I can go to is next Saturday against Rockford. One of the actors from Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place is expected to be there to sign autographs.

Good night!

Quantity or Quality?

Okay, I know my posts have been lame, but at least I'm posting something!

We just got back from a Rivermen game and they won 5-1, woo hoo!! There weren't any fights but there were a couple of times when somebody on one side or the other was ready to go at it. The Rivs put the game out of reach with an empty netter with under 2 to play. Then the Marlies got a penalty and we capitalized on it in just a few seconds.

Lourdes generally plays her DS at the games while Teddy watches the game a little, dances to the music, and looks around for the team mascot. There's a game Sunday afternoon, but I have to work. Bummer!

Well I could probably just go on and on, but I need to get ready for bed. The important thing is that another day has gone by and the streak continues!

Hurry up Saturday!

This Saturday we will start our Biggest Loser competition at work and it can't get here quick enough. I feel so bloated and run down. If things get much worse, I'm going to have to hire someone to tie my shoes for me and take care of the nether region hygiene. Seriously, I'm at the point that if I drop money on the floor, it has to be at least a fiver before I consider bending over to pick it up lest I risk the ridicule of my coworkers. "Look at Sluggo! I bet if it were a twinkie he'd pick it up!!" Ironically, we weigh in on Saturday morning and then have a large holiday meal.

We did get quite a bit of snow and now we're supposed to get a lot of wind to blow it all over the place. At least it's supposed to warm up to the 20's. Hopefully our parking lots get cleaned well or we'll have the same old skating rink we always have.

This is the 7th day in a row that I've blogged. Take that you naysayers. Now if I can only liven up the entries, maybe I'll make it back on Dan's blogroll.

Posting from the crackberry

I'm sitting on the couch watching Man vs. Wild on Discovery Channel and updating my blog from my crackberry. I'm using Opera Mini as my browser and it is quite adequate. I don't think I can do the brackets to do HTML so this will all be one paragraph. But at least I'm feeding the blog. It's currently snowing and we could get up to 8 inches.

Two posts in one day, is the world ending?

Well, close. We just experienced a small fire in the kitchen. Everyone is fine, thanks for the concern. It seems that our little Teddy is so eager to be a big boy and do anything he sees the big people doing. So he has learned to climb up to the microwave and turn it on. And he's quick at it too! Turn your head for just a moment and in a flash he's up there turning it on. So tonight, he was playing with the cordless phone. Next thing you know, it's on fire in the microwave!!

Luckily it was caught in time and the fire was contained to pretty much the phone inside the microwave. I was able to grab the phone and throw it into the sink. Obviously it was a total loss and the microwave is no good either.

I'm not too upset about the phone, it's been doomed for a while. The phone was originally a base station, a satellite station and two cordless handsets. Shortly after getting the phone, I had one of the handsets with me outside in the garage. I put the handset on the hood of the truck towards the base of the windshield (frontal glass to you Englatarians) and worked on whatever I was working on. After a while, I needed to go to the store for something and took off. On the way back home, I saw a phone laying in the street at the turn in to my alley. I laughed at the poor sucker who lost a phone as I ran over it pulling into my alley. Then about the time I heard the crunch I realized that it was my phone!!

The microwave has been on its last leg as well. The carousel made an awful noise, like the sound an accordion makes when it's thrown into a dumpster full of banjos (or ukuleles). I'm surprised it's lasted this long. Years ago, a pop tart on a plastic plate was meant to be heated for a few seconds, but some carelessness resulted in a completely melted plastic plate and a pop tart reduced to a charcoal briquette.

We already have a spare cordless phone to take over phone duties, but now I'm in the market for a microwave.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....Nevermind!

We've got a few inches of snow on the ground and we've been in a deep freeze for a few days with lows in the minus single digits and highs around 10. For those of you in England, that is between 1 and 6 stone I think.

Tomorrow the forecast is calling for 3-5 more inches of snow to start falling. Again, for the non-american, that's like 7-11 deciliters or something. We'll see how it turns out.

Read with Dick and Jane

Lourdes is halfway through kindergarten and will be six years old in a couple of months. She had really great teachers in her pre-k and currently has a terrific teacher that really loves her students.

I have been reading to Lourdes for a while, but now the tables are turning. She started reading to me. She started with some books that focus on a particular letter or sound and then progressed to Dick and Jane books. As long as she stays focused, she can read really well and I thoroughly enjoy listening to her read. I'm proud of her.

As I type this, I'm eating Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream and it is yummy. I'm trying to pack on a few pounds before this weekend. We'll be kicking off a Biggest Loser competition this weekend. I absolutely plan on winning as well. I've really let myself go and need to use this competition to jump start a change in my eating habits and start working out again. I hit the gym for a couple months in 2008 right before we went to Paraguay and it worked wonders for me, but I've lapsed in to a steady stream of late night cookies and milk and little to no exercise. In the mean time, I've got to finish this ice cream and pass out.

Historic Antarctica plane remains 'found' by expedition

This is the title of a story on BBC News. The way I read this headline was more like "Historic Antarctica plane still  'found' by expedition". Kind of like Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead of SNL fame.

In general I'm a descent decent reader and righter writer, but sometimes I just reed read words wrong. So the story about the plane explains how some Australian conversationists have found the remains of a plane in Antarctica. I wondered what the heck were conversationists, only to find out the word was actually conservationsists.

Now get this, it just dawned on me that Antarctica is the continent around the South Pole. Again my attention to detail had me thinking of the North Pole and that these Australians sure are adventurous and were a long way from home.

Two days in a row, say it ain't so!!

I'm sure I have lots of interesting things to catch you up on but I just don't have time right now. It's late, the kids need to get to bed and I want to get to bed too.

I just needed to post something so that I don't break my streak.

Here's a tweet from the Rivermen Twitter page today: "Bishop makes a face save. The shot was hard enough to knock the strap loose. I'm sure his head is ringing a bit after that laser."

Maybe I'll post something original tomorrow, maybe not.

The Year Without A Blog

Happy New Year!

See, my blog isn't dead!

Pig shopping and ground breaking....

Time seems to be flying and crawling here in Paraguay. We´ve finally got a temporary 4x4 and treated it like a rented mule. It responded well and ate up all the rain and mud we could throw at it. Now we have a different 4x4 and so far it´s been a keeper as well. It has a little more clearance and that means a lot here. We´ve been taking lots of pictures and some video clips as well. Unfortunately we have to wait till we get home to post them as the internet is slow here. Besides I´ll have to edit them first (for size, not necessarily content).

Yesterday Raquel, her brother, and I went pig shopping. We bought one for about $70 and hauled back home. The plan is to slaughter it and cook it this weekend. Raquel plans to invite all the kids from Portrero Guazu to come over to eat. I´ve been around two pig preps here so far and it´s not a pretty sight and the sound is horrible. Reminds me of Silence of the Lambs. I prefer to go to the local supermarket in the US and buy the meat and poultry ready to go.

I guess the big news is the ground breaking on a little house here for us. Yep, a house. My father-in-law gave us his property and house to do as we see fit. The current house is old and a little disheveled. We contracted a guy to come and build next to the house the beginnings of a house. To start it will be one bedroom with private bath and a small all-purpose room. As money becomes available, we´ll add on to it. Anyway, this will be our comfortable place to stay instead of getting a hotel. Also we probably won´t need a rental vehicle anymore on the next visits.

Well, I´ve got to go for now. More soon.

I´m a bit behind....

Somehow I´ve let the days, weeks, and months slip speedily by without an update. Well, I did post a few photos on the flickr thingy.

I knew some might suspect something might have been wrong because my last post was in June and we were expecting our baby in late June or early July. I apologize for not posting - I just kept thinking I´d get to it sooner or later.

Anyhoo, we were blessed with a wonderful, healthy baby boy on June 26th. Everything went pretty smooth over all. Richard Theodore was born in the early afternoon and has been growing rapidly ever since.

Lots of things have happened since, but just a couple really stand out right now. First, Lourdes started her Bright Futures (pre-school) and seems to be enjoying it.
Second, a friend´s mom died recently, but it was really great to have some friends get together to celebrate life.
Third, we lost two of our three dogs. The dachshunds escaped and one was hit and killed and the other just disappeared.
Finally, we´re in Paraguay on vacation.

We´ve been here for just over a week and it´s been great over all. The family all seems to be doing well. We wanted to rent a four wheel drive vehicle, but one wasn´t available from our agency when we arrived. We´ve been getting around in a nice little sedan that was doing really well over all. Then it rained. We were out in the country visiting my wife´s parents at the time. It rained really hard. We waited for it stop raining and hoped the road wasn´t a disaster. Our trip back to the city started off a little squirrelly with some difficulty getting up a slight hill. But I made it up that hill and thought about turning around. Against my better judgement, we went for it. I drove like a champion rally racer for a long while, sometimes suprising myself with my skills. The Corsa was eating up the mud for the longest time and then we finally hit a really bad spot. I think that if I had stayed out of the ruts caused by a previous vehicle (a truck no doubt) I might have made it (probably not). We sunk up to the frame and couldn´t go forwards or backwards. Luckily we were very near a house and Raquel went to ask for help. She ended up getting a man to come with a tractor and pull us quite a distance to where we knew we were safe. Lots of things go through your mind when you´re stuck in the mud in the middle of nowhere. Oh well, we made it out and it´s just another sidenote in our Paragauyan adventure. By the way, we should be getting that four-wheel drive rental tomorrow. The roads should be dried out enough to make it out to the in-laws for a visit.

More some other time.

"verbosity - it's common sense" but I beg to differ...

In my last post I mentioned Games With A Purpose. It's a website where you can play a few different games that have a purpose. For example, one of the games is basically designed to tag pictures. You and your partner are shown the same picture and you have to use "ESP" to determine what your partner types based on the picture. For example, if the picture is of a yellow puppy with a red collar sitting in the green grass, you might type "dog" and your partner might type "green". You keep describing the picture until you and your partner have at some point used the same word. Oh yeah, you play for about four minutes and earn points for every match.

Another game is called "verbosity - it's common sense." In this game, you and your random partner take turns giving clues for the other to guess a "secret word". There are preformatted phrases that the clue giver has to use to plug in up to two words to form the clue. There are about six of these phrases, like "it is the opposite of" or "it is related to" or "it has" or "it is". For example, if the secret word is NEST, as the clue giver I might use the "it is" and fill in BIRD HOME. Hopefully my partner will understand and guess NEST.

"Verbosity - it's common sense" is kind of a bold statement. I've played this game a lot over the past week and sometimes I've been frustrated by the lack of common sense that I've encountered. Let me give you an example.

For the secret word in question, my partner's clue was "it is a kind of" SHEEP FUR.
I guessed FLEECE, which wasn't right immediately followed by WOOL which also wasn't correct.
My partner said "it is a type of" SWEATER MATERIAL
I guessed CASHMERE which wasn't correct, then YARN which also wasn't correct.
My partner said "it looks like" FOOL
I guessed WOOL again thinking that maybe I misspelled it or it didn't transmit (this is an internet game after all). What more could I guess?
My partner passed and we finished playing. After you play a four minute round you can review the game. It shows the clues given and the guesses and the secret word.
Guess what the secret word was that dealt with SHEEP FUR, SWEATER MATERIAL and looks like FOOL?
It was WOOD.
It's common sense but I beg to differ.

Assault with a deadly confectionery

Article in the Peoria Journal Star: "Galesburg man, 84, assaulted with Moon Pies." Dan, are there Moon Pies in England? I'm sure the industrious crooks, thieves and nardowells of the UK are always on the watch for a new weapon since they can't have guns there.

I posted a few (okay, I think there were 10) pictures from the last few months. The next time I post any more pics will probably be when our son is born.

I read an email from H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) about the 1,000,000 Mile Monday. They want Harley owners to get out on Monday for a ride on their Harleys and then log on to the H.O.G. webpage to log their miles. They're hoping to get 1,000,000 miles. So I dutifully got onto the beast and rode her for just over 100 miles despite the threat of rain. At one point the skies darkened and I just knew it was going to pour. I pulled in to a parking lot and donned my rain gear and continued on. It seems that as soon as I hit the road again, the skies pretty much cleared up and we had one of the warmest days of the year. But, I pressed on in my gear. I figured if I continued, I would act like a rain preventer and everyone else could enjoy the weather while I semi-roasted in my suit. Doesn't matter, it was a good ride. So when I got home, I logged on to post my miles. Don't you know the devil is in the fine print: the H.O.G. Million Miles Monday is 30 June. Like I said, it was a good ride. One of my objectives was to find a german restaurant (The Alpine Village Restaurant) in the small town of Minier. I met that objective, so now I just need to get a handful of us together to head over there and eat sometime.

This was a long weekend for me. Friday we goofed off most of the morning, then dropped Lourdes off with a sitter so we could enjoy the latest Indiana Jones movie, something about crystal skulls. It was as good or bad as any of the other 3 Indy movies, but it was funny (in a sad way) to see Indy kind of hobble around like he needed hip or knee replacement surgery. I watched parts of a couple of the old movies and they weren't as good as they were when they first came out. This new one was a mixed bag of rubbish and classic entertainment. But I must agree that the CGI gophers were unnecessary.

Saturday, I went for a 160 mile ride with my friend Greg (not Wisconsin Greg). He recently got a newer motorcyle (03 Dyna) and he was itching to get some saddle time in. I guess I should specify that I went on my Sportster and he went on his Dyna. Good times. After I got home Raquel, Lourdes and I went to the Legion with Adam and his family. We ended up at his house for the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Sunday was a lazy day until we went to a cookout that evening.

Greg (Wisconsin Greg) has read WIRED magazine for a long time, but I never got into for some reason. Then I got a free subscription to it last year and I've been hooked ever since. I read a few months ago about a website that had the intent of letting people play games with each other over the internet while collecting the data of your play to catalog words and pictures. The website was not working when I read the article and I checked back every so often to see it still not working. It looks like it finally launched and it's kind of addicting. There are a few different games to play. Check it out, but don't blame me if you stay on it for hours: Games With A Purpose. I'm looking at you Greg and Dan.

On the family front, we had a sonogram on Thursday. It was supposed to be the last one, but baby is breach at the moment. We'll get another sonogram in 2 weeks and see what's happening with him. If he's still breach, the doctor is going to ask us what option we want to take: schedule a c-section or schedule a manual inversion. The manual inversion could lead to a normal delivery or an emergency c-section. We'll see what happens.

Lourdes was screened for Bright Futures on Wednesday. I was suprised that the tester classified her as "English As A Second Language". We've been trying to get her to understand that there are Spanish words and there are English words and that she shouldn't mix them. She really understands the concept, but I guess there are some words that flow easier for her in Spanish. What is really funny is that Lourdes used ONE Spanish word during the screening and a couple of made-up words. Oh well, if it puts her higher on the priority list to get in a class, I'll take it.

Not Twit Enough to Twitter

-Greg updated so I must.
-Took Raquel to OB today, all is well, sonogram in 2 wks, then go to weekly visits.
-Got economic stimulus money last week, bough tank of gas.
-Dogs are sleeping in basement instead of our bed, they're taking it better than I am.
-How cute is Lourdes? "Too cute!"
-Recent headline in The Onion "Charlton Heston's Gun Taken From His Cold, Dead Hands".
-Survivor ending this week, why do I watch?
-Gotten hooked on Ghosthunters some how.
-Signs of the apocalypse??: Thundersnow in February, Earthquake in mid-April, then Snow, hail, rain, and sunshine all within an hour in late April; now gas getting close to $4/gallon and Britney gets visitation rights.
-Picked up sticks from the yard last night and burned them, don't be jealous.
-After this post I will go push my daughter on the swingset, just trying to be a good dad.

EARTHQUAKE!

This morning I woke up because the bed (and the whole house) was shaking. I knew right away that it was an earthquake but I wasn't worried because it was so mild. In fact I went back to sleep and forgot about it until I talked to my friend about 10 AM and he asked if I felt it. It was originally reported as a magnitude 5.4 but was later revised to a 5.2. The epicenter was somewhere in southeastern Illinois and was felt all over the midwest. No injuries or major damage were reported.

Thundersnow and earthquakes! What's next?

The Practical Joker

Yesterday Lourdes found a red Sharpie permanent marker and colored one of her fingers. Then she put on her best sad, concerned, and frightened face and ran to her mom clutching her finger. Of course Raquel thought that Lourdes was bleeding and it scared her to death. Fortunately Lourdes announced that she only joking. I swear I had nothing to do with it. Honestly.

No more THUNDERSNOW!!

Okay Greg, your post prodded me into posting. Well that and the fact that if I comment on Dan's blog, there's a link back to my last post which has been stuck on Thundersnow for a little while. I had many witty and insightful comments to Dan's posts but frankly I was too ashamed because I haven't updated in so long. But now I can comment with pride!

Everything has been going well with Raquel's pregnancy. We have less than three months left to go until our little boy joins us. That's right, we're having a boy! Time has been flying by. We'll have to do a birthing class sooner or later, hopefully not too late. We could probably get by without a class but I want to make sure there haven't been any changes to the basic techniques: the men wait in the waiting room and the women do all the work.

I'm typing this post on my OLPC XO laptop computer. I'll leave it to you to google that if you aren't familiar with the OLPC foundation or the XO laptop. It's small and difficult to type on, but it's also small and pretty cool. I use it a lot to sit on the couch and surf the internet. I'm hoping to learn some cool modifications to make it a little more usable. For example, the built-in browser was slow and didn't have many features, but I put Opera on it and works great.

I'm sure I've got more to say, but it's getting late.

THUNDERSNOW!!!

A snowstorm hit late this afternoon with nearly whiteout conditions. As I was walking to my truck to leave work, there was a flash of light in the sky followed by a loud boom. I can't recall ever seeing lightning and hearing thunder while it was snowing.

Thanks for the Christmas present!

"Ground to a halt" or "Busy as a beaver"

I was impressed by Dan's prolific blogging in November when he took part in something called NaBloPoMo and posted everyday for a month. I was on the opposite end of the spectrum and only posted a few times all year. I wanted to change things around in December and started strong with 4 posts in a row but the world conspired against me. I had a 19-hour shift at work on Wednesday, a supper on Thursday, Rivermen hockey on Friday, and Saturday was packed with gymnastics, paying bills, a little work, and finally another hockey game. I thought I'd squeeze a post in before going in to work a little bit today.

The Pregnancy

As soon as we knew that Raquel was pregnant, we told Lourdes that she was going to be a big sister and that mommy has a "baby belly". She has been quite excited and wants a little sister, but she knows mommy wants a little boy. The day we went in for the sonogram, Lourdes told Raquel that there were two babies: a little girl for Lourdes and a little boy for Raquel. We took Lourdes with us to the appointment for the sonogram and she thought it was really neat to hear the heartbeat despite the strange sound. The two baby theory went out the window with the single beating heart. If anybody asks Lourdes if she wants a brother or a sister, she says there's only one baby and she knows that it is a sister. We'll see what the next sonograms reveal.

Work, work, work

I've been very busy at work lately. We're in the midst of some projects and also trying to prep for an inspection. One huge project that I've been heavily involved in has been the upgrade of our data network infrastructure. There are so many details to take in to account and a lot of prep work. I got so much help from so many people, I could do one of those endless award thank you speeches where they start playing the music in an effort to wrap it up. There's a lot of work remaining to complete this phase so I'll be busy for a while longer.

Rivermen woes
The Rivermen lost back-to-back home games against a team they have dominated. They really should have won. You hate to blame a loss on a referee who makes a questionable or outright bad call. A team should play with intensity for the whole game so that one call is not the reason for success or failure. However, an endless series of bad calls can easily be blamed for a loss, or back-to-back losses in our case. This particular ref was officiating youth league hockey last year. This year he's in the AHL and we had him Friday and Saturday. He didn't get any better as the games went on. Hopefully, some review process will get him the feedback he needs to be an official at this level or send him packing.


Well I need to get ready to go in to work for a little bit today. Tomorrow we have another appointment and another sonogram. Will try to post tomorrow.

Bun in the oven...

That's right. Raquel is expecting and here's the proof:

There's a 1.45 cm little person growing there. Of course the picture is about 3 weeks old so I'm sure it's much bigger already. We go in again really soon for another sonogram so we'll see how our little person is growing. By the way, the due date is 29 June 2008. And in case you are wondering, this is quite unexpected but very much welcome.

It's kind of funny because I blogged back in July about Lourdes needing a playmate but not a sibling. Look at me now.

Santa Photo as promised

We hope to go see Santa at the mall soon and get some proper pictures taken.

She's such a girl!!

We were shopping for a Christmas outfit for Lourdes the other day. We found her a pretty dress and boots to wear to see Santa. Her shopping genes kicked in and she said she needed a new purse to go with her new outfit. How can I resist a pretty girl?

Later I noticed that on her new boots there are some decorative pendants (I don't know how else to describe them) and they say "I LOVE SHOPPING". Folks, she's only 3 years old. I'm in trouble!!

Her visit with Santa at the base went really well. She was very happy to see him, was not shy, and talked to him a little. Santa rewarded her with some girlie walkie talkies. Thanks to Greg and Dan for the gift idea.

Look for Santa pics soon!!

Cursing like a sailor

We had a bit of an ice storm today. I was at the base this morning when it started and my truck got covered in ice. In the afternoon I went home to pick up Raquel and Lourdes to bring them to the base for a Christmas party. When I got there, Lourdes was looking at all the ice on the truck and said "What the hell is wrong with the window?"

Happy Birthday to Greg!

Today, September 14th, is Greg's birthday. Forty-one years ago, Greg's mom went to the hospital to give birth to a son, but Greg came out instead. He was 4 weeks overdue, weighed 17 pounds, and came out breach. His mom has hated him ever since.

Greg's childhood was far from normal, yet somehow he managed to turn out far from normal. The youngest of 12 sisters, Greg got all the hand-me-down clothing. When he was 8, he realized he wasn't a girl, just a dress-wearing sissy.

His adolescent years were trying times. Greg discovered his body and there was no stopping him. Morning, noon, and night, he had to "get the poison out" as he referred to his continuous cranking. All his teachers had special bathroom passes at the ready so Greg could take care of his urges. Greg's a lefty and his grip can only be described as vise-like. Of course his right hand is as limp as Greg is dandy.

Greg went to a small college in Ohio or West Virginia or was it Washington, I forget, where all the girls were homely. This worked in Greg's favor as his social skills with the opposite sex were less than nonexistent. Slowly but surely Greg let his left hand relax and he became quite the ladyman, I mean ladies' man.

When Greg left college and entered the working world, he didn't let his higher education determine his course. No, Greg rolled up his sleeves and became a copy boy. Or was it a newspaper carrier, I forget and details are sketchy. Eventually Greg worked his way up to...well I'm not sure what he's up to, but he'll tell you it's important.

Along the way, Greg found a wife, some kids, and a mortgage. He seems well adjusted, but it's a little known fact that Greg still wears Batman Underoos and pretends his motorcylce is the Batcycle as he dodges traffic on his way to see the commissioner.

So Greg, it's your special day. Always remember that you have family that loves you (because they have to), friends that tolerate you, and coworkers that fear you. Happy 41rst you old fart!!

"Saddle sore" or "Rode hard and put away wet"

I got up fairly early today and went for a long motorcycle ride. I left the house at about 7 and went north for a couple hundred miles. I stopped once along the way to refuel and get a drink. It seemed like I had the road all to myself. I was really into the ride, but I was concerned that it was going to be long day. After all, not only was I going north for a couple hundred miles, but I was going to pretty much turn around and go right back home in the same day (400 miles round trip). Oh, yeah, the temperature was going to be in the 90's.

Fairly early, I saw a large deer meandering across the south bound lane and I saw a carcass on my side of the road up ahead. The live one kept me on my toes even though he was really far away. Deer tend to travel in groups and I didn't want to find any stragglers. I saw several dead raccoons, skunks, opossums, and even a large bird. Anyway, I tried to keep my eyes on the road and not take in too much of the scenery.

I arrived at Greg and Deb's house at about 11:30. I had been thinking about how I wanted to greet them when the answered the door. "Can Greg come out and play?" "May I use your restroom?" "Guess who's moving in?!"

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use those or any other greetings because Greg and Deb weren't home. Oh, I didn't mention that I didn't coordinate with them. I decided it was going to be hit or miss and I missed. I went over to Culvers and had lunch. Then fueled up again the bike and bought a Sobe Pomegranate Cherry Life Water. I went back to Greg and Deb's and waited for them and drank the Sobe. I waited on their porch for about an hour. They didn't show up. I couldn't wait any longer so I left the bottle under their table and the lid on top as a little mystery (should they find it) as to how it got there.

"A grown man shouldn't have to play with dolls" or "Spinning Strawberries Sicken Sluggo"

My Little Pony Hell When I'm sitting on the couch playing with dolls (mostly various princesses) and/or horses (mostly My Little Pony or My Little Pony knockoffs), and the occasional other toy, I really wish Lourdes had a companion to keep her company/occupied. A companion that we aren't responsible for. A companion that does exactly what Lourdes wants/needs done. A companion that's always there for her. A companion that is not a sibling.

Now don't get me wrong, I love spending time with her. I love that she almost exclusively chooses me to play these things with her. In fact, sometimes Raquel is a little jealous that Lourdes wants to play things with me instead of her. The problem is that it is typically the same scenario over and over again: "Hi, what's your name?" (repeat the introduction process several times) followed by someone falling into the "fire" or getting stuck in something, getting rescued and promptly falling or getting stuck again. Oh it's fun for a minute, but the fun wears off fast.

Once, I tried to change up the routine by throwing my pony into the adjacent room. Lourdes retrieved it and I threw it again. She retrieved it again and admonished me. I threw it yet again. She retrieved it yet again and closed the door so that I wouldn't be able to throw it. I was very impressed with her solution to a problem.

This airman doesn't fly well About 10 years ago, I flew on one our C-130 Hercules cargo planes. The flight was kind of an incentive flight for those of us in the Air Force that don't get to fly on the planes very much. It was a warm, strike that, hot summer day in upper lower Michigan (sounds funny but look at Alpena, Michigan on the map and tell me a better way to describe it!). The pilot put the aircraft through the wringer and I was enjoying it until motion sickness set in. The ride was not even close to some of the more thrilling roller coasters I've been on, yet it took its toll on me. I managed not to "lose my lunch" but I felt awful for several hours after. Something about turning 30 that year caused a physiological change in me and I've suffered from motion sickness ever since. I'm fine as a passenger in a car under normal circumstances, but air travel requires medication. Now I just want to make it clear, I don't have a fear of flying, I just suffer from motion sickness.

Last weekend, there was a carnival in town. We took Lourdes to the opening night because they have wristband night so for a flat fee you get to ride as many rides as you want. Lourdes and I did the merry-go-round first. I was fine with it. Then Lourdes went on some smaller go-round-in-circles rides without me. She really wanted to ride the strawberries. This ride has giant strawberries that you sit in and can spin them if you want, while the whole ride spins in a bigger circle. I had hoped we would get our own strawberry so that we wouldn't spin, but that was not the case. The two little girls in our strawberry made it spin. Fortunately they didn't make it spin too fast. Unfortunately they made it spin fast enough to bother me. It was hot in the strawberry, and got hotter by the minute. The little girls kept it spinning steady and complaining that they were going to get sick. They were obviously brain-damaged to not associate their spinning of our strawberry with their onset of nausea. I put it together right away, spinning=nausea. By the time the ride was done, I was done. I was sweating, I was nauseous, I was pale. Lourdes was fine.

We went on to do some "safe" rides (read non-spinning). The giant slide was great, although it reminded me of my suspicion of heights. Okay, fear of heights. Well not so much fear of heights, but a fear of being up more than 15 or 20 feet in the air on a platform that I don't have confidence in, especially one put together by "carnies". We climbed the stairs to the top of the slide, Lourdes had no fear at all. She looked down over all the carnival and enjoyed the view. I looked down and hoped the "carnie" had bolted everything together properly. We each had our burlap bag to sit on and slide down. Lourdes sat next to me, we held hands and slid down with great excitement. All in all, it was quite fun except the last drop was steep (not a problem), with a not at all subtle transition back to horizontal (a problem). If you want to simulate the last part, try this: Stand up on your sofa, jump up and away from the sofa, as you are free falling, put your legs and feet out in front of you while your trunk remains vertical, land on your bottom and see how your lower back deals with the stress. I think the carnies were getting kickbacks from local chiropractors trying to drum up more business.

Eventually Lourdes wanted to ride the ferris wheel. I hadn't fully recovered from the strawberry incident yet, but decided to ride the ferris wheel with my little girl. Remember I said I have a fear of of being up more than 15 or 20 feet in the air on a platform that I don't have confidence in, especially one put together by "carnies". By the time we got the ferris wheel loaded, I was not doing very well. I had one hand "white knuckled" on the bar and one clutching Lourdes tight to my side. It seemed like my mind and body were conspiring against me. Fortunately there was a bit of a cooling breeze that helped me considerably. I was definitely not in good shape and felt like I was on the verge of passing out. I toughed it out, aided by the breeze, knowing that Lourdes was having a good time and that if I passed out, it would be equal parts 1)dangerous to her health and safety (she could have easily slipped out of the carriage if we weren't careful) and 2)extremely embarrassing. Once we reached terra firma, I knew I was done. Lourdes wanted to ride more spinning rides that would require me as her chapperone/copilot but we were able to distract her from those. I managed another ride on the slide, this time more prepared for the backbreaking finish. I was impressed by the sheer fearlessness exhibited by Lourdes. I hope she keeps quality (for the most part), although a little fear keeps some of us from accidentally killing ourselves.

Like you're gonna goad me in to posting!!

Deb "tagged" me to post my favorite toddler books. So here goes:

1. "Which way do you swing Mr. Froggy?"


2. "Don't Tickle Me There!"


3. "Leather Pants, Leather Undies"


4. "Don't Bogart the Jesus Juice!


5. "The Riding Crop Goes Whack, Whack, Whack!!"


6. "My Friend, Mr. Matchbook"


7. "Under the Sink"


8. "Make the Dogs Stop Saying My Name!"


9. "Mommy's In Heaven and Daddy's In Jail"

And for the pre-teen and teen:

1. "The Monster in my Pants"


2. "Altar Boy, Alter Ego"


3. "The Scoutmaster's Wish"


4. "The Magic Weed"


5. "NAMBLA and You"

My favorite fiction/horror: "The Clinton Presidency:The Hillary Years"

Okay, if it isn't obvious, the lists are satirical and I have no intention of taking part in getting tagged. At least not right now, not this topic.

Britcom Saturday Night

I'll be forced to record Keeping Up Appearances and Last of the Summer Wine. We'll be out of town for the day and come back in time to see a Rivermen game tonight. Maybe we'll enjoy them Sunday morning.

Why do I like Last of the Summer Wine? Well, mostly because it's funny. It's similar to Seinfeld in that it is a show about nothing, yet a lot happens. I like the recurring gags and the subtle humor. Then there's the physical humor. I know they use stunt doubles but it's still funny to think of an old man losing control of his bike and crashing into a hay bale.

Also because it's a nice show to watch on a night that broadcast TV offers nothing.

So I look forward to the eventual receipt of whatever tat Dan can manage to throw across the pond, whenever he can manage it.

I have to shower now so we can hit the road. GO RIVERMEN!!

Where's my tat?

Well the brits have come and gone and failed to deliver the "tat" they promised me!!

Sorry Dan, I had to say that because it made for a good post title!! Don't worry, I'm not upset. Unless you really bought the tat and Greg kept it for himself! And if that's the case, I'm not upset with you. Greg, you better 'fess up!

It sounds like the visit was a great time for all. I honestly thought Greg and Deb had visited you when they went to Europe, but they set the record straight. When they do come to your house, perhaps they can be of some assistance with your garden project? Maybe a deck on the house? Painting? You can always tell them it's a tradition in the countryside to leave the host's home better than you found it. They wouldn't know any better (I don't know if you realized that they aren't very well educated, but they fake it rather well).

Pancho We bred our boy Pancho with a beautiful black and tan dachshund in late February. If it took, the litter will be due at the end of this month. This particular female delivered 7 pups in a previous litter (not with our Pancho), so I hope she does the same with Pancho.

Lourdes is in gymnastics and is having a good time. She's quite strong on the rings. I should post a video of her on You Tube.

Gotta go.

Paragon Harrow Wiper allows safe recycling of difficult disks.

I did a Google search for something today and ended up looking at the page of a software company. I glanced through some of the descriptions of some of the software and one said Paragon Harrow Wiper allows safe recycling of difficult disks. I thought about it for a second and realized that difficult is another word for hard. It made me chuckle.

Dan and Kerry
Welcome to the US! I hope you enjoy your stay. Your hosts are terrific people despite their tendency to swing! Dan, if Greg invites you to go to the "store" with him, DON'T GO!! And Kerry, watch out if Deb invites you "downstairs". Be sure to ask Greg about the "ether bunny".