Christmas Playlist

As if there was any doubt....

Beggars' Night

Last night was Beggars' Night for most of Central Ohio. Sam and Abby brought home a good stash, though I'm constantly amazed and disappointed at the number of folks who simply don't participate. Apparently, there were only about 6 houses participating on the street behind ours, and on our street ours was the only house in a span of about 8 participating.

Sam went as fireman and was quite excited to do so. Unlike last year he was able to stay out for little over an hour but was pretty worn-out afterward. He pretty much demanded to go to bed around 8:00 last night.

Abby went as a devil which would have been more menacing had she not insisted on skipping between houses. At one point last night another girl asked Abby, "Why are you dressed as the devil? You're too nice."

I'll post pictures soon.

Catching Up

Ok, I've not been good about keeping this up. I admit it. I'd promise to be more faithful in keeping it up, but who am I fooling? Anyway, since the last update here are the major highlights and lowlight of the past couple months.

• For several years now our peditrician has been worried about Abby's urine samples. Her samples continually showed high levels of calcium, so finally she recommended that Abby be tested at Children's Hopsital here in Columbus and to make a long story short, Abby has a condition known as hypercalcuria--basically her body isn't processing calcium correctly. It's not too threatening, but we have to monitor her intake of certain foods to make sure she doesn't take in too many oxalates, lest she develop kidney stones. What oxalates have to do with calcium isn't clear to me, but nonetheless Abby is not supposed to have much chocolate, peanut butter, and berries, and a whole slew of other foods are healthy. Poor kid.
• Both Abby and Sammy are playing soccer--well in Abby's case playing. Sam's experience is basically a weekly soccer clinic, which isn't too bad a way to be introduced to the game. He's learning the basics of the game in a fail safe environment. He's learning dribbling, kicking, and even juggling in a fairly fun way. It's pretty neat though I'm not sure why we had to pay $75 for the experience. Nonetheless it's a much better introduction to the game than Abby had. As for Abby, she's actually having a pretty decent season. She finally got her first goal and then followed it the next day with another. She's shown more aggression on the field and more willingness to be part of the action. So overall it's been a good season for her.
• School is going well. Except for handwriting, Abby got very good grades on her interim report card. Why handwriting is graded is beyond me, and since most likely most of her later work will be completed electronically I'm not all that concerned. Actually I wouldn't be that concerned even if that weren't the case. Sam is in pre-school 3 days a week and enjoying it a lot. He even remembers the name of his friends there which is a big improvement from last year.
• Cindy's babysitting days came to an end in August. dag....
• As for me, my generals have been finally nailed down somewhat. This winter, Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be taking 3 take home exams on Higher Ed finance, Needs Assessment, and Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

Other thoughts:

• Those calling for Terrell Pryor's benching are being WAY too hasty. It's pretty evident that he does have the tools to be a successful quarterback. That said he needs to start playing better in a hurry.
• The ads both for and against State Issue 3 are horribly disingenuous. Those coming to take jobs in the proposed casinos will be, de facto, Ohioans since they will be paying Ohio taxes. That said the proposal will NOT create 34,000 jobs. The construction jobs "created" by the proposal are temporary, meaning that the only permanent jobs "created" by the proposal are the 15,000 jobs in the casinos. However, there is some debate whether those jobs are created or merely taken from other entertainment venues.

Vacation Pictures

The promised vacation pictures:




Sam, Abby, and me canoeing across the lake



Building a sand castle



Trying to catch a whopper



The whopper



The turtle (in my hand)

Somehow there are no pictures of Cindy.

Remember that time I caught a turtle?

One aspect of the rather mild weather we've enjoyed this summer is that, well, everything has been rather mild. Which in and of itself hasn't been too bad--we've been able to run the A/C less than usual, we've needed to water the lawn and plants less, and certainly we've been able to spend more time outside than usual. However, if you happen to be a 7 year-old girl or a 4 year-old boy cooler than usual temperatures means less chance of swimming. If you don't like swimming or water all that much, then it's no big deal. If you happen to be Sammy or Abby and you're at a lake with a great beach then cool temperatures and frequent rain can prove to be something of a challenge, especially when the power goes out.

Vacation 2009 started off innocuously enough. For the second year in a row we rented a cabin at Pike Lake State Park in south central Ohio. As you may recall we went there for vacation last year and had a great time, and could have, and maybe should have, stayed for a day or 2 more. So when we made our reservations in March we decided to stay an extra night in order to maximize our fun. In hindsight that was a good move.

After making the trek down route 23 through Chillicothe and over route 50 to Bainbridge we arrived at Pike Lake under very sunny skies. Our cabin wasn't ready yet, so we ventured over to the lake so the kids and I could go swimming while Cindy sat on the beach and waited on word that we could move our stuff in. Those who read this blog may remember that in June the water was cold; the condition hadn't much improved much in the intervening 2 months. I felt somewhat like George Costanza but the kids were (like in June) blithely unconcerned about the water temperature. For about an hour they splashed, swam, had water fights, and built sand castles and sand forts, each complete with a moat. They were a bit perturbed when we got the ok to go into the cabin.

The cabin itself was pretty much the same as it was the previous year, which is good since it was the exact same cabin. We quickly moved our stuff in and I set about the task of building a fire in the grill that came with the cottage for our dinner. As I was gathering twigs and wood (lighter fluid is for wimps!) one of our neighbors from the cabin nearby came over to invite us to the campfire they were going to have that night. Evidently his wife, their family and a slew of her friends from her days at Miami and their families gather annually, or at least semi-annually, for a reunion. This year they decided on Pike Lake which was interesting because none of them had ever been to the park before.

So that night after Abby and I went fishing (we got several bites but didn't catch anything) and Sammy's impromptu nap, we gathered up some twigs and firewood and went over to the communal firering in the cabin area. It was a little awkward since, technically, it wasn't supposed to be our fire, but it was getting late and the kids REALLY wanted to roast marshmallows. So off we went to the firering where I set out to build a pretty big fire. Luckily, our new friends didn't mind too much and my new found buddy (who's name I can't recall) even helped build it. After about 20 minutes we had a pretty good size blaze going which eventually settled down into some smoldering coals perfect for roasting marshmallows. Abby set about to roasting the perfect one, Sam set about to burning a goodly number of them, and a generally good time was had by all. The only damper on the evening were the 8 year-old boys, who for reasons unknown, kept trying to make the fire bigger but wound up putting it out, several times. grrrrr....

The next morning was cold and a bit wet, so we opted to go canoeing. On our previous trip the kids decided that they didn't care much for pedal boating, but they really liked “paddling” a canoe—though their definition of paddling and mine are somewhat different. For the most part the excursion was uneventful. We did see a number of turtles sunning themselves little realizing one of them would eventually become Sam's mortal enemy.

Shortly after canoeing rain set in and forced us inside our cabin. After lunch the rain came down harder pretty much ruling out any trip to the beach. To pass the time away we decided to bake a dump cake. For those not familiar a dump cake is one of the true delights of camping cooking, and consists of pie filling topped with yellow cake mix and butter. You can also add pecans or walnuts to the topping if you like. Traditionally this dish is made in a Dutch oven and placed in a camp fire for about 1/2 hour to an hour. Not having a Dutch oven nor a viable campfire (we were inside and it was raining) we baked ours in the oven.

The kids watched Finding Nemo while the concoction baked, but unfortunately they couldn't finish the movie because shortly after we pulled the dump cake from the oven the power went out. You may, or may not, recall that the power also went out on us last year. Unlike last year when the power went out this time it was too cold and rainy to venture down to the lake to pass the time away. So until the rain let-up we read books, played games, and did various other things to pass the time away.

Eventually the rain subsided a bit so we went fishing again, this time with a bit more success. While Abby, much to her dismay, still didn't catch anything, Sam, as is always the case seemingly, caught what I believe was a small pike. It was no bigger than my palm, but when I went to remove the hook, I saw it had a couple rows of teeth. Sam was quite pleased with himself and for the last several weeks has asked "Remember that fish with teeth I caught?" Abby, poor thing, was getting quite frustrated with fishing.

After a ho-hum dinner that night, we went down to the nature center to see the naturalist give a program on snakes. (How many of you are aware that there are rattle snakes in Ohio?) During the presentation, which was well attended, the power came back much to everyone's relief.

That night there was another campfire at which Abby again sought to roast the perfect marshmallow, Sam sought to burn as many as he could, and 8 year-old boys killed a fire in order to "save" it. Our new friends were quite generous with the beer and wine brought with them as well the numerous other snacks and desserts. A good time was had by all.

The next day our new friends departed and all was fairly quiet. It was still too cold for swimming but the rain let up, so we went hiking and canoeing in the morning. Last year Abby and I took a trail that frankly should have come with a warning about its difficulty. It went up a hill, sometimes at a steep slope, and wasn't always clearly marked (the consequences of which Abby has not let me forget for the past year--you may infer that however you wish). This year we took a much easier path around the lake. For the most part she is a remarkably good hiker and I’d like to take her to the Hocking Hills sometime this fall. There was however one part of the path, that wasn't entirely suitable for Sam, so he and Cindy opted for another path.

After hiking and canoeing it still wasn't warm enough for swimming so we went fishing again, and this time Abby had more luck. She was able to land a fairly good sized bluegill which she referred to as a "whopper" and I won't dissuade her from that view. In the midst of her joy and relief Sam somehow managed to catch a snapping turtle. While fish are generally relieved to have hooks removed from their mouths, this particular turtle didn't want to let go. I'd get the hook partly out and the blasted thing would try to swallow it again! It was about a 5 minute struggle to get the hook out of it and at one point I started to wonder what turtle soup tastes like. Nonetheless, Sam found it quite amusing that he caught a turtle and kept asking "Remember that time I caught a turtle?"

The next day, which was our last, was a lot warmer and sunnier than the previous 2. After packing the van we checked out of the cabin and then Abby and I went canoeing again, while Cindy and Sam stayed on shore (Sam REALLY wanted to go fishing). Again Abby and I saw dozens of turtles one of whom I'd swear gave us a dirty look. After canoeing it was time for lunch and Sam and I went fishing again. We got lots of little bites and Sam did manage to catch a baby turtle, but no fish this time. After our fill of fishing we went over to the beach where the kids swam and played and had a lot of fun. In some regards this day was the cruelest of them all since it was our last. Above all else the kids like to swim and play in the water which we didn't get to do until the very last day in the park. But at least the kids got to do it which is better than not doing it all.

A few other odds and ends:

• Cell phones don't work in the park. I think they should advertise this fact more heavily.


• Every so often at the park you can hear sonic booms and see F-18's or F-22's flying overhead on training missions out of Wright Patt. That's pretty cool.


• I'm still amazed at the number of people who have tattoos and where they have them. In fact among the people at the beach I'd say Cindy and I were in the minority of men and women because we don't have any.

I'll add pictures later.

Harvard Hates Socks!

Found this while perusing "The Quick and the Ed"

Harvard Yard

Wanted: Fishing Buddy

What could possibly go wrong?

We've got some work to do

Well so far our biggest catches have nothing on this.

Camping

On Saturday I took Abby and Sammy to Pike Lake State Park in southern Ohio for their first real campout. I was a bit nervous since I was taking them out by myself so that Cindy and her friend could work on their Harry Potter program and because it was their first real campout in the woods. Previously we camped out in the backyard and both kids loved it, so I had some idea that they would both enjoy the real thing. And if they didn't? Well, it would be just for one night.

So on Saturday morning after breakfast I loaded up the van, which took longer than expected as it always does, and the kids and headed down Route 23 toward Chillicothie and then over toward Bainbridge (for those not familiar with Ohio, Chillicothie was the first capital of Ohio and Bainbridge was the site of the world's first dental school.) We arrived at the park a little after 1:00, picked out a camp site which coincidentally happened to abut a creek (which was very fortuitous as it turns out). After a quick lunch we (meaning I) set up the camp. While I was getting the tent up and and getting out everything we'd need for the weekend, Abby and Sammy played in the creek where they made a couple friends from the adjacent campsite--a boy and a girl who looked to be slightly older than Abby and their dog. Needless to say the kids were entertained, which was good, since setting up camp took longer than expected (see a theme developing?).

After camp was set up I asked the kids what they wanted to do. Abby said she wanted to go on a pedal boat while Sam said he wanted to go canoeing. This has become something routine lately where when asked about preference between two things they each will choose different things. After some negotiations we decided that we do a pedal boat ride and then canoeing. So we rented a pedal boat and went out upon the lake. After about 10 minutes of me pedaling and the kids sometimes pedaling but mostly not, Abby declared that she was hot and tired and wanted to go in and Sam decided that he didn't much care for being in the pedal boat. Luckily, I had foreseen that this could be an issue so I only rented the craft for half an hour. After pedal boating we rented a canoe which went much better. I made sure that they each had a paddle and even showed them how to paddle. So we tooled around the lake again but this time they enjoyed it a lot more, and we talked about various things about canoeing including whether it's possible to sink a canoe (very difficult to do by the way), how many times I've fallen out of a canoe (3 or 4)and what I had to do to earn my canoeing merit badge. By the end of that half hour both Sam and Abby decided that canoeing was better than pedal boating with Sam declaring that he was going earn canoeing merit badge some day.

After canoeing it was time for swimming. I'm always amazed at the transformation that takes place whenever the kids get near water, especially in Sam. Introduce him to water and he suddenly becomes a wild man. He was splashing, giggling, and generally having a great time. And when a teenage girl took an interest in playing with him he had a grand time. Abby meanwhile decided that she wanted to go out as deep as she could. As for me, the water was too cold for me to venture out that far.

Once we had our fill of swimming, it was time for dinner, but unknown to us there was a surprise waiting on us. Sitting on a bench on the edge of the lake were Mamaw and Papaw Doll. They had driven over to say hi to us and stayed for dinner, which as it turned out was good since Papaw knew where to find firewood. Papaw and I tended to the fire and cooked hot dogs and baked, while Sammy and Mamaw walked around the campground, and Abby played in the creek and developed a new trick. Her trick was to crawl across a log that spanned the length of the creek, which sounds innocuous enough, except that the creek was extremely rocky, and log at its highest point was about 10 feet off the ground. To her credit she never fell. Again this occupied their time which was a good thing since getting dinner ready took longer than expected.

After dinner we bid farewell to Mamaw and Papaw and went to the local camp store for ice cream. For some reason the kids decided that they wanted to try rainbow sherbet while I had butter-pecan. Let's just say that they regretted that choice while I had no remorse at all about mine.

Abby wanted to see if the Nature Center was open so after ice cream we took a short stroll to it. Unfortunately it wasn't open, but we did see a number of animals on display including several snakes. While looking around the nature center I noticed a notice that the park would be showing a movie that night, something I would later regret.

We went back to the campsite so that Sam and Abby could roast marshmallows, though for Sam it wasn't so much roasting as it was an act of pyromania. He burnt 4 or 5 marshmallows on purpose and then tried to eat them. It wasn't clear to me if he liked them or not. Abby however managed to get quite a few a nice golden brown color. After an hour or so of this we decided to try and find the movie. Unfortunately, we found it. I want that hour and half of my life back.

After the movie it was straight to bed and both kids fell asleep quickly.

The next morning I awoke first and got the fire going again. Abby and Sam eventually awoke and then I made breakfast. I had packed bacon since Sam likes it and sausage for Abby since she likes it, and had intended to make pancakes for us all. Abby though REALLY liked the sausage and didn't care much for the looks of the pancakes. So she ate 2 of the sausage patties I was hoping to have. Dag! Luckily Sam left some bacon for me.

Once we finished breakfast, it was time to take down the campsite which again took longer than expected. For those who are curious I'm a lousy packer. But I did manage to get everything stowed away. We bid farewell to our campsite and headed to the lake to go canoeing again.

And just like the previous day Sam and Abby loved it. Again they each had their own paddle and we went again around the lake only this time we saw more interesting things than the day before--namely we saw a fisherwoman catch a frog and she wasn't too thrilled about it.

We brought the canoe back and then had a quick lunch and then went off to the beach where again Sam and Abby had a great time. There was no teenage girl to play with Sam this time but he still managed to be a wild man. Abby made some friends and played with them until it was time to leave. As we left the beach we got to see some girls driving horse and buggies. The kids thought that was cool.

Before we left we got one more serving of ice cream and this time the kids liked their selection--Strawberry cheesecake for Abby and Strawberry for Sam. As we were getting our ice cream Abby declared that she wanted to camp for a week next time!

On the way home, both Sam and Abby took naps.

Sam's Brush with Greatness

Sam and I went to a Buckeye baseball game a few weeks ago where Sam got to meet Brutus!

Let's Hear it for Cleveland!

Um, anyone in Cincinnati care to explain this?

Abby's Fish

This is the second fish Abby caught last week. The gunk that came up with it was bigger than the fish itself, but nonetheless Abby was rightfully proud of herself.

And for those who are curious this is the whopper that I caught.

Catching Up

Wow, I've been bad keeping this thing updated lately.

In something of a quick update:

• Last month I took Sammy to Children's Hospital to have a doctor check out a potential "boy" problem. We suspected all was well, but his pediatrician wanted to make sure, and sure enough he was. On the one hand I appreciate the concern that the pediatrician had, but on the other hand, it cost us $25 to tell us what we already knew.
• Abby is doing well in school and is currently on Spring Break. I took a day off Monday and Abby and I went fishing at a local pond. Abby caught 2 crappie while I only caught 1--a fact that she keeps reminding me of. I'll post a picture of the second fish later.
• Cindy is again doing programs for the library this summer although not as many as in past years. Evidently, the budget for programming at the library isn't as generous as it has been in past years, so Cindy didn't get as many bookings.
• My generals have FINALLY been scheduled for this summer. I can honestly say this scares me more than anything short of kids, and possibly moreso than that. Still I've been at this so long, that for my sanity, and possibly everyone else's, I need to get this done and soon.
• We broke down and bought a new PC. One of the perks of working for a university is that the good folks at Dell will give you a pretty good discount on a system. We've had it now for about 2 weeks and it's so much better than the old one. I still want to add memory to it, but otherwise we're quite content with it.

An alternative look at the brackets

If March Madness were decided by academics.

Interesting and somewhat disturbing article

Caution, some harsh language

The End of Wall Street's Boom

Tubthumper Skater

Yesterday Sammy and I went ice skating at the OSU Ice Rink. For most people this is a somewhat innocuous and uneventful activity--for Sam though it was a chance to entertain the masses, and entertain he did. As we proceeded around the ice Sam would delight and amuse by falling to the ice and shouting "I GET KNOCKED DOWN" and then as he got back on his feet "BUT I GET UP AGAIN!". The first 10 or so times he did this I found itquite amusing, and the 50 or remaining times he did this I found it quite bemusing. But persist he did, much to the delight of others at the rink.

For those curious why he would do such a thing the link below is to a song that Cindy recently put on a CD because she thought he'd like it. I guess she was right much to my chagrin.

Of Odds and Ends, and Blasts from the Past

What an interesting few weeks. Two weeks ago, like most of the Midwest we dug our way out snow, ice, and even more snow. For reasons that escape me, I've never been quite able to master the art of ice removal. Snow I can move just fine, but ice--that's a different story. Nonetheless I did my level best to keep our driveway and walks level. As you can imagine not much happened that week. Abby was pretty much out of school the entire week and Sam didn't have preschool that week either. Even OSU closed for a day. So for the most part, much to their consternation, they were pretty much housebound though we did make it outside for some rousing snowball fights, fort-making, and other snowy frivolities.

Contrast that with now when the temperatures are expected to be in the lower 60's, most of the snow is gone, and there is a real chance of thunderstorms tonight. Weird stuff.

Anyway, Sam and Abby are still having fun. For the past few Saturdays Abby and I have been going to a soccer clinic close to our house. A select soccer program has partnered with the league Abby plays in to offer clinics at a warehouse facility. Basically, they've placed AstroTurf on the floor of the warehouse so that they can have soccer practices in bad weather. From what I gather a parent of one of the players on the select team owns the warehouse and donated it for this purpose--must be nice to be able to donate something like that but I digress. The clinics focus mainly on ball skills like dribbling, passing, trapping and stuff like that which is good for Abby, since aside from some work we do in the backyard, she hasn't really had much instruction on those sorts of things.

Both kids are still taking ice-skating lessons and remarkably Sam really seems to like it. He can pretty much skate around without falling though he does like to "fall" intentionally on occasion. Sometimes he falls just so he can get back up by himself and other times he falls so he can make "angels" on the ice--he'll lay flat on the ice and start moving his arms and legs like he's making a snow angel. His teachers really seem to be impressed with the progress he's made, though I do sort of feel bad for the one woman he sort of latches onto for his lesson. Luckily she's good natured about it.

Cindy and I have both had recent blasts from our respective pasts. In the middle of December I opened a Facebook account to see what all the fuss was about, but sort of forgot about it until I got a "friend" request during the bowl game (arrrrrrggggggg) complaining about "Tresselball" which is in overstated concept in my opinion. Since then I've reconnected with a ton of people from my past, a couple of whom I hadn't seen in well over 20 years. That's been cool.

Cindy, who is a self-described Luddite and had little idea that Facebook existed, was hit with something like 5 or 6 friend requests in one day last month. So she, somewhat reluctantly, opened an account and since then has enjoyed reconnecting with a good number of her friends.

Of Hat Tricks and Cannons

On Saturday we went to our first ever Blue Jackets game and what night it was! For those who don't follow hockey, and I barely do, the Jackets have been decimated by injuries and have to play a lot of rookies and players recently called up from their top minor league team in Syracuse. So their recent string of victories has been something of a pleasant surprise.

Sam and Abby both seemed to have a good time at least until the third period when Sammy melted down a bit. Until then both Sam and Abby were having a great time, watching the game and the attendant entertainment that came with it, including the future Jackets hockey game at the first intermission pitting one team of 7 to 9 year-olds, and the "blimp" that flew overhead the crowd dropping various prizes on the fans in attendance.

Unfortunately, in the third period things started to go south, especially for Sammy. Prior to the third each team had one goal, both scored in the first. Whenever the Jackets score, the folks at Nationwide set off a "cannon" while blaring AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock". In the first period when the Jackets scored, Sammy loved it. By the third period though the poor guy was pretty tired, which is when the Jackets did the rest of their scoring (3 goals). This time when the cannons went off Sammy wasn't so thrilled with them, and fortunately for the Jackets, not so fortunate for Sam, the Jackets scored 3 goals in the final period to seal the victory. By the last goal he had pretty much lost it.

But in terms of a first game it was certainly memorable. We saw Nikita Filiatov score his first career hat-trick (3 goals) which prompted a five minute celebration which included fans throwing hats onto the ice. And since the Jackets scored 3 goals we could have gotten free chili from Wendy's (I somewhat lament passing on that), and for reasons I forget we could have gotten a free donut from Tim Horton's with the purchase of a coffee. So it was a potentially productive night.

Miscellaneous

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, so I'll try to summarize the last few weeks.

Christmas was pretty good for Sam and Abby who got a lot of cool toys. The best is probably the toy dinosaur Sammy got from Uncle Matt that walks, roars, and looks like the dinosaur that ate Newman in Jurassic Park. It's been known to attack quite a few things in our house, and sometimes I'll even let Sammy play with it.

Abby got a couple science kits and loves to do experiments. I don't mind this so much except that one of the kits has various experiments testing the acidity or basicity of various things around the house (pop, soap, juice, and whatnot) but doesn't explain what an acid or base is, and I'm a bit stumped on how to explain that to a first grader. Suggestions are welcome.

Cindy was pretty ill for most of the Holidays so for her it wasn't such a good time, and I was a bit frazzled as a result, but managed.

Abby and Sammy had their first ice skating lesson at the OSU Ice Rink on Sunday. We were a bit worried about how Sam would react to it, but he seemed to love it despite falling several times. Now he wants his own pair of ice skates. Abby seemed to pick up where she left off last winter, which was also something of a minor surprise since we didn't get to skate a lot in the Fall.

In terms of the Fiesta Bowl, there are a myriad of whatif moments in that game, but in the end not too much to complain about. We had someone in place to stop the UT receiver and he simply didn't. I'm disappointed for the players, especially the seniors who've endured a lot of nonsense from ESPN talking heads and the like, but I'm very encouraged by the effort and the character shown.

Edit: I was wrong above. There is something to complain about. I'm not sure Fox could have botched the coverage any more than they did. From missing plays, to inexplicably long shots of Gatordade coolers, to 5,949 shots of the Texas band, to 1,643 shots of the McCoy family (and none of the Animal sr), it was a horridly amateurish production.