Chip: March 2009 Archives

Yes, Hanover County has a rural character to it and more than its share of hunters, but last Saturday, we did not need a license to go on a hunt. Rather, it was time for the local Easter egg hunt. This is actually the first time we’ve taken Will to this event, and despite the overcast skies and rain for much of the preceding week, it actually went well.

Kids up to age 8 can participate, but they break them into waves. Ages 7 and 8 felt almost like a scrum, though no one really pushed up against each other. Rather, it was just a frenetic pace. Ages 5 and 6 (which Will was in) was much more laid back and non-competitive. And ages 3 and 4 was just rather sweet, as the kids were probably trying to figure out what all of the fuss was about, although they could at least see the candy and understand a reason to get that. 2 and under was done with adult supervision.

So Will got a decent amount of candy. He’s been parading around the house with it, though he hasn’t really broken into it much to eat it. And I’m cool with that. My parents were also down visiting this past weekend, which allowed Kellie to get on my dad’s mobile ham radio gear and make some contest contacts.

OK, here is the long-awaited multimedia documentary of Sean’s and Daniel’s introduction to their new beds last Saturday. Yes, it took a while for us to do this — they should have been in them long ago. But they’ve got them now, and they certainly enjoy their “new beds.”

Now, the video helps anchor it all. The first clip shows them walking in the room the first time with the new arrangement. After putting them to bed, we had to check back in on them about an hour later. Needless to say, things had not been too quiet in the room.

(No, Will, this was their afternoon nap. They won’t be sleeping until morning.)

Needless to say, after the second half of that video, we stripped the room further of excess toys and stuffed animals and books. We had a feeling it might happen, but after seeing them strewn everywhere, we knew we didn’t want to be picking that up after every rest.

And right now, Sean is the one who gets out of bed after we leave the room, while Daniel stays in bed. But don’t let the video fool you. Sean was also out of bed during that time. We just happened to walk in when he had gone over to his bed for a moment.

Will is excited that today is the first day of spring. And it definitely seems like it is closer — the weeping cherry tree has started popping some cherry flowers as of Thursday. Anything to chase away these colder days and nights.

And yes, the video and pictures from last week are coming. Almost done with them.

As I take a break for working on some documentation for work while watching March Madness, I just had to share this image with you. Apparently this is a weekly online series of pictures for The Telegraph (in the UK), with images from around the world. While this one caught my eye, there are many others to be enjoyed.

And speaking of enjoyment — enjoy spring, now that it is here.

Just had to get a couple of these pictures out there for you. The little leprechauns had a fun time at dinner time, getting a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, and green shamrock sugar cookies. Yum!

(And if you pay attention, you might be able to see the gap where Will’s sixth tooth used to be.)

Also wanted to share with you a classic tune from the original “Irish” tenors. Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

I thought we’d start your day off right with a toast (hopefully, that’s just orange juice in your glass and green milk on your cereal) and a reminder of what it means to be Irish. (I may resemble some of them.)

What It Means to be Irish

1. You will never play professional basketball.
2. You swear very well.
3. At least one of your cousins is a fireman, cop, bar owner, funeral home owner or holds political office. And you have at least one aunt who is a nun, or uncle who’s a priest.
4. You think you sing very well.
5. You have no idea how to make a long story short!
6. There isn’t a big difference between you losing your temper or killing someone…
7. Much of your childhood meals were boiled. Instant potatoes were a mortal sin.
8. You have never hit your head on a ceiling.
9. You spent a good portion of your childhood kneeling in prayer (Catholic guilt forever!).
10. You’re strangely poetic after a few beers.
11. You are, therefore, poetic a lot.
12. You will be punched for no good reason…a lot.
13. Some punches directed at you are from legacies of past generations.
14. Many of your sisters and/or cousins are named Mary, Catherine or Eileen …. and there is at least one member of your family with the full name of Mary Catherine Eileen.
15. Someone in your family is very generous. It is more than likely you.
16. You may not know the words, but that doesn’t stop you from singing.
17. You can’t wait for the other guy to stop talking before you start talking.
18. You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are … but what you lack in talent, you make up for in frequency.
19. There wasn’t a huge difference between your last Wake and your last keg party.
20. You are, or know someone, named Murph.
21. If you don’t know Murph then you know Mac. If you don’t know Murph or Mac then you know Sully. Then you probably know Sully McMurphy.
22. You are genetically incapable of keeping a secret.
23. You have Irish Alzheimer’s… you forget everything but the grudges!
24. ‘Irish Stew’ is a euphemism for ‘boiled leftovers.’
25. All of your losses are alcohol-related ( loss of driver’s license, loss of money, loss of job, loss of significant other, loss of teeth from punch…) but it never stops you from drinking.
26. Your skin’s ability to tan…. not so much.
27. At this very moment, you have at least two relatives who are not speaking to each other (not fighting, mind you, just not speaking to each other).
28. Childhood remedies for the common cold often included whiskey.
29. There’s no leaving a family party without saying goodbye for at least 45 minutes.

Yes, today is Pi Day. No, that is not a mispelling. You know — 3.14159 etc. You can even celebrate Pi Second: 1:59:26pm on 3/14. (That’s pi to the 7th decimal place.) Our US Congress even got into the act with a non-binding resolution honoring Pi Day 2009. Yes, our leaders truly are watching out for the most important issues of the day.

On a more serious note, I have a few things to post, but not the time yet to pull together the multimedia aspects. Cool stuff this week include:

1. Will lost his sixth tooth on Tuesday, almost 1 year to the day after he lost his first tooth (3/8/08). This was in the lower left quadrant, second from the midline. (Whatever it is called.) He had lost the one on the right previously.
2. Will had an after-school event at school yesterday called Gator Rock, which is basically an activity to get kids moving, mostly with semi-organized dancing. I was able to join him for part of it, and I think he had a good time.
3. Today was bed day. Sean and Daniel no longer have cribs. The twins now have twin beds. (No, not bunk beds.) Needless to say, getting freed from the “fences” made for interesting sleep times. We have the video to prove it.

Hope everyone is counting down the days until spring. It’s less than a week away, right?

Well, we got quite a shock for ourselves this afternoon, driving around with the kids after getting the twins new shoes. (Have you ever seen velcro go bad? Neither have we, until now.) We were going to try out a new restaurant (Riverbound Cafe — very nice and good food), when we saw the Wienermobile parked next to the Kroger.

Of course, we had to see it. You cannot climb into it, but you can look into it from the steps. Definitely an interesting looking ride. And if you’re getting ready to graduate from college, you can become a Hotdogger and drive around in it. What more could a recent college graduate want?

Apologies about the photo quality, but taking these pictures on a cameraphone resulted in all sorts of washed out colors that I couldn’t quite compensate for (with my limited skills).

Everyone else is resting now. It’s a good thing, as daylight saving time starts tomorrow. You remembered that, right?

Everyone had fun in the snow on Monday. I promised some shots and video, and this is what I have. Of course, the photo to the right isn’t in the snow, but shows the boys trying share Cookie Monster between their cribs. Caught in the act, indeed. At least Sean isn’t throwing the stuffed animal into Daniel’s crib, like he’s been doing a lot recently.

And yes, they need to get into their beds.

Did you notice in the album that one of the adults was caught sledding? Well, they didn’t get a shot of the other one sledding, too. Their loss. In the afternoon, we set up a different run heading into the other cul-de-sac, as you can see from the later pictures. Our best hill is in our backyard, but it ends in our shed, so it’s not prime sledding real estate for the young and inexperienced.

We got quite a snowstorm last night. It was done by around 8am this morning, and when it was done, we were looking at just over 10 inches of snow. Unfortunately, the snow isn’t wet enough to compact well for making a snowman. Some snowballs were tossed around this morning (Nana vs. Will; Sean vs. Daniel), but otherwise, we were stuck making a mound for the base of the snowman. No rolling snow today.

We did break out the toboggan and saucer for some runs down the front yard slope. Once we got a nice little path packed down, all three of the boys were able to get things going. They all loved riding, whether together or alone. Sean has even figured out who to rock the body to get going if he gets slightly stuck or slows down. I hope to get a chance to post some pictures and video shortly.

Here are some outside shots taken right as the snowfall was ending this morning.

For those of you on the east coast, I hope you survive your own dustings of snow. School is already closed tomorrow, not that I’m surprised. When I went to my doctor’s appointment this morning, the main roads still weren’t well-plowed and were mostly packed ice. However, they didn’t feel slippery under-tire, but it will take a while for enough roads to be cleared to make it safe for school buses.

And yes, the hand surgeon gave me the all clear today. He’s very happy with the final result — not perfect range-of-motion, but you almost cannot tell. Looks like he and the physical therapist did a good job.

We are finally getting the snow that Will has wanted all winter — something we can build a snow man with. In fact, we’re getting much more than is minimally necessary. School has already been canceled for tomorrow, even though the snow had been coming down for only about 3 hours. (It was the smart decision.)

As you can see from the picture to the right, that was taken only 90 minutes after the first flakes started coming down (after a long period of rain before that). The grass was already largely covered at that time. And that takes us to the pictures below, which were taken about 5 hours after the snow had started. The temporary spotlights on our front door are already covered (the glow in the snow), and you can see the snow piling up on the stoop railing. And it still continues to come down.

I’m getting this posted between power surges/outages (we’ve already had the computer shut down four times because of a long-enough power “outage” to flicker the lights). I was supposed to see the hand surgeon tomorrow to get final clearance on the hand, but I’m not so sure they’ll be open. We’ll see.

Tomorrow should be lots of fun, playing in the snow. Hopefully, we don’t have incidents quite like this.

At least he was a trooper for signing off on the live feed.