Small Thoughts for Small Minds

Dyson has been struggling with learning to read. Since Kel is currently "between jobs", she’s been working with Dyson every day after school. (I blame his school more than I blame him - I was unhappy with how little they worked with him on reading last year…)

Last week, Kel was talking to Dyson’s teacher and she said that maybe Dyson was "mildly" dyslexic and/or ADD. His teacher told Kel that, even though the kids go to a private school, we can get Dyson tested at the county school system (since we pay county taxes after all). Before doing that, we had to have a current physical checkup. As such, Dyson went to the doctor today.

He was very concerned about getting a shot. Obsessed with it. Constantly talking about how he did NOT want to get a shot…

While we were in the examining room, Dyson got bored quickly (I don’t know why I never think to bring some of his toys…) He decided that he wasn’t going to get a shot and he hide under the examining table. (Just being silly…)

Once I pulled out my camera, the clowning was notched up a level…

Here is the terror:

Here is the resignation to his fate:

Luckily they had the nose-spray version of the flu vaccine. He was happy in the end.

Now to get the testing…

Personally, I think he’s fine.

Apparently, on Oprah the other day, they said that women have a larger portion of the part of the brain that is devoted to worrying then men have. Kel’s seems to be especially well developed…

During dinner, Haley was talking about someone she knew that got in trouble for drugs. The conversation jumped all over the place, including a brief discussion about legality and enforcement in Amsterdam. After quite a bit in that vein, Dyson piped in asking why we were talking about dancing hamsters. We were a bit confused until he said, "You know, the hamsterdance."

Ahh, gotcha buddy…

It’s all about context.

Especially since he was familiar with something actually called the Hamster Dance. (Which I wasn’t until just now…) Here’s the version of it he likes…

Unfortunately, now it’s probably stuck in my head…

More miscellany…

For some unknown reason, Haley and Keira decided to convert the stairs into a slide. Using blankets, pillows and a lack of good sense, here we are!

(The girls insisted that I document their insanity…)

Haley got lucky with the placement of the pillow. Unbeknownst to me as I was snapping the picture, while sliding down the not-so-slippery slope, she almost completely lost her pajama bottoms…

Keira laments her nearly straight hair. One night she marched into the basement TV room and demanded that I braid her hair (while it was still damp so it would be wavy in the morning when she took out the braids).

Not a single "thank you", by the way…

I was in London for a couple of days in December. I took a LOT of pictures of different cask ales (provocatively posing by their pull handles…) but very few other pictures. Of course, I still have a LOT of pictures from my previous trip to London in September that I haven’t bothered to post…

I have no idea what the back story (if any) is on this building. Just caught my eye as I was walking back to the hotel…

This is the Natural History Museum.

I had an overnight flight to London (as is typical in that direction). I got to the hotel at 10 a.m. (London time, of course). Naturally, I couldn’t check in until around 2 p.m. I left my bags with the bell captain and took a walk. (Exhausted since, as usual, I barely slept on the flight over. Coach seats are NOT conducive to relaxation…)

Just a couple of blocks from the hotel I found the Natural History Museum. It is pretty impressive - both the structure and the displays. I spent a couple hours there, mostly looking at the dinosaur exhibits. Dyson would’ve been TOTALLY pumped…

A view of the Tower of London from the train (on the way back from a dinner with a customer in Essex)…

Jerry and Karen came down to the dungeon to watch the Steelers/Jaguars playoff game (5 January - wild card weekend). Karen, being a native Pittsburgher proudly displays her Terrible Towel.

Note: the guy who came up the the Terrible Towel, Myron Cope (infamous broadcaster for the Steelers and sports writer), died just a couple of weeks ago. In an interview after he retired in 2005, Myron Cope said:

"I’ve often thought that, when I kick the bucket, there’d be a story that said, ‘Creator of towel, dead.’ I would like to be remembered as a pretty decent writer.'’

As for the chip clip on Karen’s bangs… well… umm… Nope. I just can’t explain that one…

For some reason, Keira wanted to pose with the stuffed animals she got for Christmas. (This was not long after New Years - after Kel & Donna stripped the tree of ornamentation and before my lazy butt dragged the tree to the roadside for removal…)

Of course, monkey-see monkey-do…

I somehow managed to copy this picture into the wrong folder on my hard drive when I was putting together the post with the turtle pix from Hawai’i. This turtle was quite memorable because of the polyps growing around the point were its flippers emerged from its shell. Both front and back flippers…

Whew! A lot of posts the past couple days… Let’s see if I can keep up the momentum…

Keira’s been taking horse riding lessons for several months. Recently, Dyson decided that he needed to be just like his big sister.

So, on the 5th of January, Dyson went for his first lesson.

Keira and Kel get all the credit/blame for the pictures. Since I’m a pitiful father, I didn’t even go along for this milestone…

As you can tell by his expression, he’s questioning of the wisdom of his decision…

I’m sure he’s thinking something like, "Little boy. Big horse. Hmmm…"

That typical nervous laugh/grimace (usually accompanied by talking in a strained, high-pitched voice)…

In action…

Keira used my camera to shoot a couple of videos. I don’t have any software for video editing, so you get to see the unedited "raw" footage…

Also, it doesn’t seem to be possible to embed the YouTube videos into this blog format. Poop. So click on the links below to see the clips…

Here’s the first video and the second video.

…that don’t justify individual entries…

Even an old dog (Barley will turn eight on Monday) needs a bit of comfort now and again..

Dyson and I went down to Martinsville to see the Virginia Museum of Natural History to feed his current insatiable demand for dinosaurs. Not much of a museum, but he was pumped.

Apparently, as part of the grand opening (reopening?) of the museum, Martinsville played on the dinosaur theme and had local artists and volunteers paint fiberglass dinosaurs which were placed all around town. There are still a few around town, including this one just outside the museum. (Seems to be a spreading meme in urban America - I’ve seen pigs, dolphins, cows…) Anyway, Dyson was enthused:

A few brewing pictures from my February 2nd batch - my only brew session since early September 2007 (and I split that batch with Dave).

After pumping the bitter wort into the fermenter, there were a few hops left over in the kettle. This goes up to about the three gallon mark. Yes, I like hoppy beers…

One problem with putting eleven gallons in a 12.5 gallon fermenter, especially using a relatively powerful pump, is that the bitter wort foams quite a bit. (This is before I aerated with oxygen.) Makes it a bit difficult to put the lid on…

Even with the lid clamped on (in three places), the pressure of the fermentation forced some of the foam out through the seal. Despite the one inch ID (inner diameter) of the blow-off hose…

After two plus weeks of dry-hopping and a few days chilled to 40 degrees F (to generate any chill haze and then applying the gelatin to clarify), I’m ready to keg this batch tomorrow. Can’t wait to have some homebrew again!

When we were up at Wintergreen for our annual ski weekend (with Anne, Dave & Julia (plus Julia’s friend), Donna, and Matt & his daughter Maddie), I volunteered to make dinner on Saturday night. (Since I wasn’t skiing, it gave me something to do other than sit around and drink beer and snack…)

I started off with a creamy potato/leek soup with smoked salmon. (Slightly amusing story - I was surfing the web for a recipe. Usual procedure - looking at each recipe and doing a quick evaluation on whether or not I would like it. As I was clicking on the results, I realized that one of them (on the first page of results even) was from this very blog! I forgot that I had included the recipe when I posted about making it… So, of course, I made MY version of it…)

For the entrée, I made one of our favorites, seared pork tenderloin with a cocoa spice rub. (Make it TONIGHT - it is soooo easy and soooo good…)

I also sautéed some asparagus (in olive oil, with plenty of garlic, naturally). After I was done sautéing the asparagus, I put it in a backing dish and grated some Parmesan over it. I washed the skillet and dried it off with some paper towels. With my left hand, I set the pan down on the counter and with my right, I used the damp paper towel to wipe off the glass surface over the stove’s eye (still very hot). By trying to do two things at once (while talking to Anne as well), I failed to do either very well. I only managed to get the pan less than half on the edge of the counter. As it, inevitably, fell, I put my (bare) foot out to break the fall. At the same time, I tried to keep my balance by leaning on the stove, burning my hand on the eye. The handle of the pan, of course, pointed straight down and hit the top of my foot.

My foot immediately bruised, swelling up to a half-golf-ball-sized welt.

Over the next week or two, the loose blood from the bruise gradually followed the influence of gravity. At one point, it pooled on the tops of my three middle toes:

I visited Wilmington, North Carolina, a couple of weeks ago. One of our field service engineers, Paul, was up from Charleston for a couple of days to do some "clean up" work on the new cranes. For the heck of it, he decided to stay in Carolina Beach instead of Wilmington (it was only a 15 minute drive to the port). I couldn’t complain - my friends, Esther and Kelly, live in Carolina Beach. Plus, the Fat Pelican bar was just across the street from the hotel. (Kelly used to own the place years ago. Back then, it was a wine & beer store, not a bar. He bought a used 40′ reefer (refrigerated shipping container), refurbished it and used it as a walk-in cooler. It is still in use in the bar. Want a non-draft beer? Walk in and pick one out from the generous selection and, upon exiting the reefer, show it to the bartender to add to your tab.)

Paul headed back to Charleston on Wednesday afternoon, but I stayed to have dinner with Esther and Kelly (their house was less than a mile walk from the hotel). We sampled all of Kelly’s homebrews and Kelly made a fantastic shrimp scampi. We then walked to the Fat Pelican for some after-dinner drinks. Good times were had by all…

February really isn’t the best time to visit the beach in North Carolina. But the view from my hotel room wasn’t so bad. Actually walking on the beach, with the temperatures just above freezing and a strong wind, didn’t seem terribly attractive…

One of the things that Jerry, Karen & Haley brought with them was Haley’s trampoline. A few days ago, Dyson was tumbling head over heels, and the contact with the nylon surface seemed to electrify him…

That’s all for now. Gotta do some laundry and take a shower - Dyson and I are going to the Science Museum of Western Virginia (Roanoke) after he and Keira finish their riding lessons. (Kel & Keira, along with Donna, are going to a movie…)

Exciting stuff!

Snow isn’t guaranteed each year in SW Virginia. Personally, I’d be happy if we had none at all, but then I’m a grumpy old man. The kids, on the other hand, are as enthusiastic about snow as you might imagine…

Yes, a lot of these pictures flat out suck. Poor focus. Odd coloration. Doesn’t matter - they’re good enough to see how silly and cute Dyson and Keira are…

The odd coloration is from trying to compensate from the overly gray hue in the originals. The lack of focus is from ??? Sigh…

Some day I’ll have multiple cameras for multiple purposes. Just use the point-and-click for situations where having a pocket-sized camera is useful…

This is a typical expression for Dyson - the false hilarity somewhat masking the fear. Usually accompanied by a manic giggle…

Pricker bushes in the way? Bah!

The area they in which they are sledding is not actually part of our lawn. The neighbor to our back has a line of pine trees (see above picture) between their house and ours - but it is about 30′ from the edge of his property. There is a little hill that comes down to a dry wash between their property and ours. The big trees keep the sun off of that hill so the snow sticks around there even when it has melted in the majority of our yard.

Miss Drama needs to pose, of course…

Keira doesn’t mind giving Dyson a hand - especially when that hand is used to give him a push…

Surprise, surprise. When the snow runs out, the saucer comes to a stop. The shadow of the trees only extends to (about) the dry wash ditch.

Hopefully spring is on its way and we don’t see any more of the cold wet stuff…

Bah humbug!

While we were all together in Hawai’i, we decided to have our pictures taken professionally. Erin Schwamb, Bella Vita Photography, did the honors. Here is her account of the day. Hopefully she won’t mind my including these low resolution copies (these were the proofs from which we selected our prints…)

She presented almost all of the pictures in both color and black & white. So, of course, I’ve included both versions.

No commentary. No editing. With a couple of exceptions, each picture is hot linked to a slightly larger version.

The pictures were all taken on the grounds of the J.W. Marriott Ihilana Resort & Spa at Ko Olina.

We’ll start with the whole group together…

Kel, Keira, Dyson & I…

Eric, Sherri & Blake…

Heidi & Luis…

My parents…

The three cousins…

Grandma & Grandpa with the kids…

I have no idea why I put the two of these together. I guess I was getting lazy at the end of a long session of "screen capture", edit, etc…

And to top it all off with a picture Erin is using for promotional purposes, my beautiful daughter…

Okay, obviously I really enjoy taking pictures underwater. But I did manage to snap a few shots of the family as well. Mostly Keira and Dyson of course. (I am a father after all…)

Since Keira and Kelleigh arrived a day before Dyson and I, they were able to greet us at the airport (with help from Heidi) in the typical fashion:

After Dyson and I arrived, we all went to Eric’s ship (the USS Chung-Hoon) for pizza in the officers’ mess, followed by a nice tour. I didn’t bring my camera with me, so….

The next day we went up to the North Shore to see the BIG waves. At Sunset Beach, swimming was prohibited (but surfing was okay, I guess). A few of us got a bit wet in the waves…

Initially, Dyson was terrified of the waves. Dad & I held his hands and tried to walk him slowly to the edge of the water. He kept dropping to his butt and trying to scoot backwards. After a bit, the allure of the waves started to overcome his fear. I finally had to stop his forward progress when I my shorts were soaked to the point of shrinkage…

Heidi & Luis live in Ko Olina, next to the J.W. Marriott. Apparently their group of condos has rights to use the J.W. Marriott’s protected beach (no waves) which gave the kids a chance to do some swimming.

That’s our group in the middle (well, a bit to the left - between the thatch umbrella and the water)…

Because of frequent flier mile seat availability, my parents had a flight back to Kansas at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. To reduce stress, we had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday.

Here we all are (excepting me, of course) together for our feast on Eric & Sherri’s back patio.

Afterward, the kids played for a bit.

Uncle Eric showed Dyson how to fly the mini-helicopter (follow their eyes - it is hovering in front of Eric’s shirt).

The rest of us chilled with good company, good beer, good wine, and some nuts (and I don’t mean Dad, Sherri and Luis)…

On Thanksgiving proper, we headed out to a beach for a bonfire and some hotdogs and marshmallows.

Keira, Mom & I explored the tidal pools along the beach, and Dad and Eric dug a pit in the sand for the fire…

…while Dyson and Blake played in the waves. Of course, they were both told, very clearly, that they didn’t have any dry clothes so they weren’t to get wet. Right…

Blake tries to rescue Dyson from the waves…

…while Keira tries to convince Dyson to get in trouble by going further in…

Keira contemplates the waves, overcome with satisfaction at a job well done…

Just as we were getting ready to get the fire up and roaring, a park ranger (I guess) came along and shut us down. Apparently, they just started enforcing a ban on beach fires…

…so we mostly sat around and watched the boys get soaked.

Well, Eric & I took pictures. Lots of pictures.

The boys didn’t stay dry for long…

I don’t see any repentance in their countenances…

The "director" back at work…

Dyson runs boldly toward the retreating wave… (And runs just as boldly away from the oncoming wave…)

On Friday, the rest of us (sans my folks) went to the beach at the Hale Koa military hotel on Waikiki Beach.

After we hung out at the beach for awhile, Kel, Keira, Sherri, Eric, Blake, Heidi & Luis wandered off while Dyson and I were swimming around. We waited and waited and waited. Of course, we managed to entertain ourselves while waiting…

Dyson enjoyed letting the (bitty, gentle) waves wash over him. Again and again…

Kel and Keira finally came back and Kel ‘fessed up to the fact that they had gone to the nearby pool (where they could see us through the bushes) and gotten lunch (and drinks - without ME!).

I collected all of the belongings and tracked them down.

With a stop on the way for some shaved ice, of course… (Note the color coordination…)

No-one seemed terribly concerned with my plight, though…

Have you ever seen a nature documentary when the alligator, lying still as a log, suddenly bursts straight up out of the water and catches a low flying bird?

Just asking…

Kel & Luis shared my lack of interest in getting in the pool with the kids…

Later that evening, Heidi & Luis took us to the local lu’au at Paradise Cove (also part of Ko Olina). Plenty touristy and pretty pricey, but what the heck…

Keira got a headband woven from some palm fronds…

…while Dyson and Kelleigh paddled an outrigger canoe (with some help) around the cove.

In addition to getting her picture taken with some parrots (and I wish I knew what she did with that picture that we paid $20 to have taken), Keira wanted a Polynesian "tattoo"…

Dyson seemed to enjoy the desert…

Keira got up on stage to shake her moneymaker…

Saturday, after Keira and Kel left, Eric, Blake, Dyson and I went for a drive around the east shore.  We stopped at the "punch bowl" (the National Memorial Cemetery).

Later that night, Blake & Dyson watched a bunch of Sponge-Bob Square-Pants. Well, Blake, Dyson and the pineapple that Dyson liberated from the Heidi & Luis’ table…

The next day, the week’s toll on Blake was clear…

Next post: scenery & flowers.

And then, maybe, I can start to post some pictures from the past three months…

For some reason (read "TV"), Dyson started bugging me to build a rocket for him. Since Kel & Keira were doing a "girls’ day" on Saturday, I promised Dyson that we would build a rocket.

Not a rocket that could really fly.

And not a rocket with a little door that he could open and put in SpongeBob and Patrick. And it wouldn’t include miniature figures of SpongeBob and Patrick…

So, we went to Lowe’s and I picked out various sizes of schedule 40 PVC pipe, associated fittings, some 1/4" poplar project board and a "For Sale" sign.

Once we got home, Barley (who had joined us on the ride) jumped out of the truck, ran into the garage and immediately peed all over the ramp. Dumb ass dog…

After I cleaned that up, gave Dyson the McD’s Happy Meal, and set up the new wireless router, we started building the rocket.

By "we", I mean that I started working on it while Dyson continuously whined about wanting to go inside and watch the SpongeBob DVD that we picked up at Best Buy. I told him that if he didn’t want to "help" me, then he wouldn’t get a rocket. (What a mean daddy I am…)

The "For Sale" sign formed the nose cone and the stabilizer fins on the final stage (which can be removed for convenient play - the final stage, that is, not the fins…).

The main fins are cut from the project board. Since I don’t have a jig saw, I had to use the table saw to make a bunch of parallel cuts, break off the "comb teeth" and use the Dremel grinding tool to reach the pencil line.

While I was doing all this, Dyson was shredding a piece of Styrofoam. I convinced him to participate in the cleaning up portion of the endeavor…

(Kel took Dyson away during the "cussing loudly" phase as I tried to superglue the top stabilizer fins on - plastic on plastic dries slowly - no absorbtion - but it dries quickly on my fingers…)

He’s played with it quite a bit since I finished it. That should end soon…

Last week Keira participated in a "creative performing arts" summer camp. As part of the week, they took "head shots" for the kids "portfolio".

Here’s Keira’s: