Catsup? Ketchup? Catch Up!!!

The car looks like new on the outside after we got it back from the body shop. Now we just have to take it to another shop so that the a/c defrost can be fixed so that I can see out the windshield as I drive to work in the morning. Levi did get better but is recovering from yet another illness now and we have our Christmas party tonight which Erin and I are in charge of the program for. Should be good.

I'm so surprised at my children lately. It astounds me how they can cry and scream like I've mortally wounded them by telling them to go to bed and how dare I use such language? "Bed"!?!? That's a four-letter word! sort of. and then the next day when I come home from work they yell "Daddy!" (in emma's case) or "DADADADADADADADA!" (in levi's case) and almost knock me over they're running so fast to welcome me home and hug me. Why can't adults be as forgiving and loving? Why can't I?

I'm so excited for this weekend! only 5 hours or so until the fun starts! we have our aforementioned holiday party with my fam tonight and then something with erin's family on sunday and then erin and I can play santa at night and then it's christmas morning and I get to see the faces of my wife and children as they see their gifts. I CAN'T WAIT! now if we could just freeze time on christmas day and not get to january and feb when I have to work 10 or 11 hour days helping people figure out their new outlook system....

What doesn't kill you .....really hurts.

What a week this has been!!

On Monday I started my new job and things went pretty well. after work I hurried off to school in really gray weather where people seemed afraid to go the speed limit and kept braking hard at the last second. When I got to school, the first snowstorm of the season to actualy have snow stay on the ground had started. (how's THAT for a run-sentence??)

I was late for school and drove around the parking lot, trying to find a space. when I finally found one, a car was just leaving it. I waited and turned in, only to almost be hit in the side of my car. I stopped and he stopped, then I parked. I got out and got my stuff from the trunk only to find that the truck that had almost hit me had driven back around long enough for the driver to scream obscenities at me and that he was waiting for the space. I shouted back that he was behind me as he drove off.

Fearing that I'd get back out of class and find my winshield smashed, I headed for class where I found that I was late for a surprise comprehensive final. I guessed my way through the test and so, it seems, did the rest of class. We all failed. After class, I got out to find that the condition of my car had not changed and headed home, very tired and still shaken up by the hot-head.

As I drove home, I was slowing to stop behind a truck at a red-light. I was almost stopped when a siren went off nearby in an on-off-on-off pattern the ambulance drivers use to tell other drivers to get out of their way without just leaving the siren on. Naturally, I tried to stop quicker to figure out where the siren was coming from and get out of its way.

Stopping quicker was my mistake.

As I hit the brakes hard, I slid on the half-slush and half-icy roads , right into the truck ahead of me. No one was hurt but my car, thankfully and Progressive was quick to get us the money for repairs, thankfully. the rest of the week went by mostly uneventfully, but monday's crash inspired Erin and I to get cell-phones, which came on friday and have been fun to play with. I finally figured out how to successfully get music on them last night.

Thursday night was the highlight of the week, though. I had to stay late at class to get help with my final project and came home worn out, but happy to finally be home and done with class, except for the final that is still to come on the 7th. As I walked in the door, Emma rushed up to me like she hasn't in probably months and gave me a huge hug, exclaiming "Daddy! I KNEW you would come home!!!" funny how such a small and simple act of love can warm and energize you.

I love being a parent. Another fun time was going to Erin's parents for dinner tonight. We don't get to see them often, so levi's somewhat afraid of them. My little Daddy's boy was just as cuddly and clingy with me as ever and I got to spend most of the night holding and cuddling with him. I love it!

I have such wonderful kids. It's too bad adults can't show love the way kids do.

"There is no cure for the Common Birthday" - John Glenn

Gmail has an ad/news ticker that you can have at the top of your inbox if you wish. Right next to the link for "Birthday greetings" it had a link for "Death notices". How nice. "Happy birthday! Be sure to look here to see if you're dead. or to tell people you're dead." I'm only 28!

"Or! I'm a pirate! Or!"

We were reading stories and singing at bedtime and emma stretched her boots figure across her eyes and out of nowhere busted out with "Or! I'm a pirate! Or!".

Lions and Tiggers and witches, oh my!

And now, right on time....the halloween pictures!

Emma refused to let Mommy help with her whiskers. Levi was more willing to let mommy help, though.

Baby Tigger!

Emma, Levi, and their Tribe cousins after trick or treating and shortly before the sugar rush.

"I love you like people at fat camp love Pizza"

Remember that little illness that flattened Erin and I for about a week? Levi may have it. Poor kid was ULTRA clingy and cried a lot until we got him some warm hot chocolate. If only he'd let us look in his mouth so we could see if his tonsils or throat look irritated or infected. More than Usual yesterday, if I was home he HAD to be in my arms or on my lap. Poor kid. Emma might be getting it too since she was unusually clingy and desperate for attention as well.

Good thing my Programming test only took 20 minutes so I could have more time to be with them. Too bad I didn't get any homework done. Actaully, no it isn't. I'm so apathetic right now about schoolwork it's pathetic.

Naked Club

Yesterday was kind of a rough day for Erin. She spends a lot of her time tending a nephew of ours while his parents work and his brother is at school. She came out of the kitchen to find Emma and her cousin Scott (who is only a year older than Emma, at 4) completely naked standing between a box springs and king sized mattress that had been propped against a wall. When Erin asked what they were doing, they said they were playing "Naked Club". I had to laugh. I told my Friend Shaun about it and he said that in College he found that cold weather was good for "Naked Club" problems. Good thing erin took the kids outside to play after that.

I'm alive. I'm ALIIIIVEE!!!

What started out as a tickle a week or two ago was diagnosed as bronchitis, pharyngitis, and an upper respiratory infection. The doctor told me that with the medicines she gave me, I'd be feeling better in about 24 hours. It was more like 30, but I'm so happy to have been downgraded to "bad cold" level that I could sing. well, if not for those coughing fits...but at least I have my appetite back and can swallow without pain clear up into my ears!

The Caring Musician

"Tonight I wanna Cry" by Keith Urban was immediately followed on my internet radio this morning by James Taylor's "You've got a friend." How nice of James to care that much about Keith. I imagine that after James wraps up serenading him, they'll go out, have a drink or two, and poke fun at all their Exes. After a few hours of laughs they'll feel much better and part their ways, James to go "Up on the Roof" and Keith returning to his egocentric life where he thinks everyone wants to be him.

Fun Coversation

The other day I walked into my friend Shaun's office at work and saw that he was putting a book on CD onto his MP3 player. The book was called "Great figures in the New Testament"

Me: So who has the greatest figure in the new testament.
Shaun (nodding and grinning and eyebrows bouncing): Ruth! Wait....that's old testament. Paul! (grinning and giving the thumbs up.)

The LeakyMug theory

Okay, I'm not going to try transcribe the theory after all, but the gist of it was that James gave the invisibility cloak to Dumbledore to add protections to for Harry and perhaps the whole Potter family. One of these protections was possibly a tracking device.

In the defense of this, the theorist inteviewed sites that whenever harry loses his cloak or leaves it somewhere and doesn't retrieve it himself, it's always dumbledore who brings it back. Left on the tower in Sorcerers/philosopher's stone? Dumbledore brings it back.

Also, in book 6 when dumbledore commands harry to keep the cloak with him, could it be so that if harry is whisked off by another port key or gets himself into some sort of other trouble, that dumbledore can find him immediately? Also, why does dumbledore always know what kind of trouble harry is in and where he is to save him at the last second, and yet not know about fred and george's many exploits and explorations or the marauder's map?

What else could have been added to the cloak? Could that be why JK Rowling described this question as "Crucial"?

interesting. Not only does it allow harry to get into trouble, it protects him and prevents him from getting in too much trouble.

Reggie Black and the mystery Cloak

for this entry, I've just copied my post from the Harry Potter for Adults Yahoo!Group. Next entry, I think I may try to transcribe a theory I heard on a leakymug podcast (www.leakymug.com) about how maybe Dumbledore was "tweaking" the features of the invisibility cloak for James and Lilly. I think I like that theory too.

The question about when/where the cloak was used by Dumbledore is interesting to think about. So far, all I've come up with is that it may have been for hiding and/or moving Regulus Black. Dumbledore is not thetype of man to offer to do something he doesn't know he can do, so itstands to reason that when he offered to hide Draco and Narcissaby "Killing" them, that he had done it before. Whose death would he have needed to fake in the past? We also know that he is a very kind person and is forgiving of those (like Snape) who he believes to have turned from Master Riddle. And if he's faked a death before, why couldn'tit be Reggie's?

The next little bit of this theory comes from Red Hen (http://www.redhen-publications.com/Potterverse.html). PerhapsReggie turned his coat and snape and dumbledore helped hide him. Snape would take the credit for killing him, thus moving up in the Death Eater hierarchy, and Dumbledore would hide reggie until he (dumbledore)felt the threat of LV was gone for good. And what better way to hide someone than in an invisibility cloak? This also makes sense on how Harry will find the rest of the horcruxes in one book when it has taken 6 books to find the ring, thediary, and (possibly) the locket. He could just ask the one man(Reggie) that knows for sure about the locket and possibly a few otherhorcruxes as well. The snag to this theory, though, is the question of why Reggie would have stayed in hiding in the years between Voldemort's downfall and his return to power. That's why I think maybe the Theory from the LeakyMug is a little more acceptable, though as you'll see it's a big "Big-Brother"-ish.

I'm not dead yet!

I know its been over a week. When I can get some time, my next entry will be about trying to figure out the mystery surrounding why dumbledore had James Potters cloak in the Harry Potter books. Just gotta find the time...

The Dangers of Djibouti

We were at a family reunion the other day for Erin's dad's family and I was quietly eating dinner listening to a relative whose name I can't now remember (so we'll call her Random Relative) talk about how her daugher is in the foreign service and working at the US embassy in Djibouti (pronounced, at least by RR as Ja-booty). With a name like that for a country, I just had to join in.

me (looking up from my dinner): So do they get a lot of earthquakes in Djibouti?
RR: no....I don't think so....
me: Good! You cause a lot of damage when you shake Djibouti.

RR smiled sympathetically. Erin's mom "kicked" me under the table with her knee.

Look who's one!

What's in this place that we can't weather? We're together. There's nothing we can't face. Except for bunnies. -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This little guy was discovered in our garden yesterday knawing on some weeds. We thought it was rats eating our Tomatoes (which doesn't bother me anyway because tomatoes are nasty). I haven't seen him except in these pictures but I totally want to catch him in case some poor child in the neighborhood has lost their pet. Hopefully he sticks around long enough for me to find time to catch him.

anyone got an advil? or 8 spare hours I could have each day?

I. am. so. tired. and every responsibility in my life feels like I'm getting a freight train dropped on me.

Oh, the symphonies these two compose!

Child rearing from the "experts"

From babycenter's weekly e-mail for 11 month olds: "Many can babble in short sentences that sound like a foreign language, too. Keep talking to your child, naming and labeling objects and people. The more you do, the faster his vocabulary will grow."

I can just see it now:

Me: "Look Levi. That's a loser and that's a druggie and that's a weirdo...."
Him: "akdjlkjadkljflakdfkafiivlll....loser. kadfkadjfj....bruggie. a;ldhalhdiha....weirdo."

If you think sleep walking is fun...

try sleep driving. There's nothing like putting all your attention and energy into forcing your eyes to stay open and focus, only to realise that they're not open at all. and the car you're driving is still moving and hasn't hit anything yet.

I can't seem to sleep well at night anymore, but that's kind of just how life is. Anyone have tips for making yourself stay awake and alert on the road (besides "get enough sleep" and "caffein." neither of those is gonna happen.) besides windows down and radio blaring?

in other news, Levi has come close to giving himself a black eye twice in the last week. Last week he fell on a cell phone and split his eye open in the corner. it bled a lot, but it's a little enough cut that he's healing without the need for stitches. the other time he did it we had forgotten to buckle his carseat to the bench in his grandma's van and he tipped backwards and scuffed up his cheek on his eye socket a little. poor kid. We're lucky that's all that happened. One thing's for sure: he's ALWAYS going to be buckled now. (Not that he shouldn't have been before...)

I love to see the temple, I'll dance inside someday...

Emma (over phone): Daddy, when you come home (from work), you will go to the temple. and I will go to the temple. And Levi will go and Mommy will go!

Me: The Temple? What would we do there?

Emma: Uhhmmm.....Dance!!!

I wonder who she's been talking to about what goes on in a temple.

"Bedtime Cuteness" or "Mark doesn't have anything funny to say but likes to look at his cute kids"

Yup! That's daddy's girl. She played Video games until she fell asleep. :-D




For Levi, there's very little better than a bottle and a soft frog to cuddle with at Bedtime.

Not so bad after all

Well, it seems that school won't be nearly as bad as it was last semester. my teachers are more personable (and better yet, they speak and understand english!), the subject matter is more interesting, and they don't want to be there for the full class time any more than I do.

The Intro to programming class should be fun. The teacher sounds like he's also a motivational speaker. It's kinda funny.

My Computer Operations/A+ Certification is going to be a BIG challenge with LOTS of work. But, like I said before, at least the subject matter is interesting and applies to my career. Even if it is 3 hours long twice a week.

Buzzkill

The between-semesters vacation is over. Today I go back to school. I finished my Associates Degree over the summer, but it doesn't quite feel real because I'm still going to school to get my bachelor's now. Maybe the associates will feel more real when I receive the certificate next month.

So once again school has taken that hated second place slot of things that keep me away from my family most of the time. The first place slot has always been work.

I figured out this morning that the way my school and work schedules work out, I won't really see my kids between Sunday and Friday nights from now until christmas. And I may not even see Erin that much in those times either. I absolutely hate that. I hope it's as worth it as everyone says and that I can get us into a house when (or hopefully before) this is all over and I have my bachelor's degree in a couple years.

At least it's not hated classes like Trigonometry or Chemistry or Statistics anymore. Because I finished my generals with my associates, I can now focus on the fun stuff like computer operations and intro to programming.

Dear Stinky McGee,

To the person who dies in the bathroom by my desk 1-2 tmes a day: Knock it off, you stink and I can taste it.

Thanks,

Mark

two-year-old-ese

Erin: (makes a short c sound) car? as in (short c-sound) or-rect?
Emma: Tar. Tar-Wrecked.


Two year old speak is funny sometimes. escpecially in construction-plagued summertime.

"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep." -fran lebowitz

A Lot of life has been happening lately.

For the past week or so, Erin and I have traded between the bed in my parents guestroom, the floor in our living room, and sharing a twin with our sleepless two year old. Finally on Tuedsay the long-awaited wonderful hide-a-bed with the feels-just-like-a-real-bed slumberair mattress arrived! We couldn't have been happier. Except maybe if it fit through the door. the delivery guys couldn't get it in, so we had to send it back and get a refund. We now have a Futon which claims to be a queen size, but the first night felt like a double with erin, me, and levi all in it. The second night, last night, was better though, once we the mattress on its frame and Levi slept in his own bed.

Nothing really funny to report on the blog, just wanted to add something so that I stay in the habit.

and because the post was so negative, here's a happy: My beautiful family!

Funny

I Read this in the Operating Room newsletter the other day and thought it funny enough to re-type on here:

"After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then the pilots review the gripe sheet before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a 'P') and the solutions recorded (marked with an 'S') by maintenance engineers.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land is not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on the windshield
S: Live bugs on back-order

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear
S: Evidence removed

P: DME Volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME Volume set to more believable level

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick
S: That's what friction locks are for

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode
S: IFF is always inoperative in OFF mode

P: Suspected crack in windshield
S: Suspect you're right

P: Number 3 Engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to: straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target Radar Hums
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit
S: Cat installed

And the best one for last...

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget. "

"The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down in rushing,rising rivlets...

Or the hail did anyway. we got HUGE hail yesterday that made my giant pumpkin leaves look like they got hit with Buckshot. And our basement flooded. It came down the outside wall and crept in between the wall and the floor. We spent a very late night moving boxes and furniture, pulling up the carpet, and cutting out the pad underneath to be taken out back to dry. I think it's still moist, but I've been wearing my shoes just in case so I'm not sure.

Just more adventures in dealing with having 3 families under one roof, I guess.

updates already?

Erin and Levi.

Yup. Updates already. Thanks to my sister Amber pointing out that the link to the leaky cauldron didn't go to the right place. I also added Stephsterr's blog. Stephsterr's another poster on EricDSnider.com.

My two year old daughter, Emma, was singing today. She said it was "Shoo fly, don't bother me" but it sounded suspicously like "Levi don't bother me". Levi, of course, is her 10 month old younger brother.

The world is toddler hugs and puppies once more

As I floated away on cloud 9 from my statistics final last night, I felt like shouting "FREEDOM!" at the top of my lungs and jumping into the air like I was braveheart in a 1980's Ford commercial. But since I'd rather take the stairs to get to the main floor of the school and most of my class was still testing, I restrained myself. I also kept thinking "Dobby has [taken the final]. DOBBY IS FREE!!!!" I'm such a media addict. Looking back on last night, I can still hear in my mind the most stirring rendition of the hallelujia chorus the mo-tabs have ever done.

In addition to all of that, Erin tells me that Levi once again decided to be brave and take a step while not holding onto anything yesterday. He'll be walking soon and he's not even 1 yet!!

How to tell if you're not getting enough sleep

I picked up the phone yesterday at work and said "Surgical Preadmissions, this is Mike." um, yeah. only 2 of the 4 letters in my name were correct. That's what I get for working 6am-2:30 then going to school until 8:30, then Moving furniture until 10:30 or 11.