Sunday, July 31, 2011
Boy cat pictures
When we walked into the house after church, Maggie Mae was sitting on the table where I’ve got my laptop.
“Maggie Mae… what are you doing up there?”, I asked.
Zane said, “Oooh dad… she’s messing with your computer. She’s looking at boy cat pictures.”
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Ropes course
Zane and I went with our church’s youth group to a ropes course this morning.
This is the group after about an hour of instruction and just prior to actually hitting the course.
There were 3 stations.
The first was a 30-foot pole.
We had to climb to the top, stand up on top of the pole and then jump off to slap the big ball.
Zane was getting ready to start his climb.
And just so you’ll know… I did it too.
The next course was a climb up to another 30-foot high platform for a 400-foot zip line. That first step was a doozy.
The final course was called “the centipede”. It was a 30-foot+ climb straight up some 6x6’s divided into 4 8-foot segments. We just had to climb up and tap the log at the top.
These courses certainly challenged us to face our fears.
I know I wondered if it was good for a 48-year-old heart to beat so hard and fast!
Afterwards we were treated to some time at a church member’s lake house and a cookout.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Pretty toe nails
Karys just said, “Dad, you have pretty toe nails. I wish I could paint ‘em.”
I’ll have to pray about that one, sweetheart.
Now of course, if you had some purple polish…
{extended}Ministry day
Our church’s youth group - students and mentors - had a ministry day today as part of Student Ambassador Leadership Training. Which means they, or rather we, were going to sweat.
Zane participated and I tagged along too since Carmi and I teach the 7th and 8th grade Sunday School class.
The youth worked at the church for a couple of hours this morning cleaning windows.
Then we moved to the soup kitchen to help prepare and serve the day’s meal for the needy in our community.
After a pizza lunch, we headed to our final stop which was the local mission.
We divided into four groups for four different jobs. Zane and I worked in the food pantry sorting canned food and placing the food on shelves.
It was a 7-hour day for the kids and, as usual, they worked very hard.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Dumb stuff
Eliana: One of the camp counselors had to do CPR on a boy at the pool today.
Me: Really? What happened?
Eliana: He almost drowned.
Me: That’s why we want you guys to have swimming lessons. So that won’t happen to you.
Eliana: Boys do dumb stuff.
{extended}The biggest Chinese restaurant in the world
With an official plaque from Guinness to prove it, The West Lake Restaurant in Changsha, Hunan, China holds the title of the world’s largest Chinese restaurant.
With a staff of nearly 1000 - including 300 chefs - and 5000 seats, West Lake holds stage shows in addition to serving food.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Happy Birthday MS-DOS
Boy. I’ve spent some time reminiscing after reading a tech article this morning that said MS-DOS, Microsoft’s first computer operating system, turned 30 years old today.
Radio Shack already had a “business” computer running their own operating system prior to the introduction of “personal” computers that used Bill Gate’s new operating system.
My high school had 3 Radio Shack TRS-80s which introduced me to the world of computing.
In my senior year (1981), I took a computer programming class as an elective and absolutely loved it. I started programming my very own version of the game Monopoly. It was quite cool if I do say so myself.
I scarfed the photo below off of Facebook which shows me, in the background, working on my little personal project.
I enjoyed it so much that I stayed after school some days to hack away.
Check out those fashionable tennis wristbands. And for the record, I didn’t play tennis. They were just awesomely cool.
Good times. Good times.
He has been reading
Carmi and I have been bad.
We’ve not had Zane reading English this summer like we talked about doing when school let out.
Oh, but he has been reading. Every chance he gets. In Pinyin.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Why tuck?
Eliana: Dad, why do you tuck your shirt in?
Me: Most of the time I don’t. But I do when I go to work.
Eliana: Oh. Well, it looks old.
{extended}Monday, July 25, 2011
We’re in trouble
This is a conversation I just had with our humble little girl…
Karys: Daddy, I don’t feel good. Could you take my temperature?
Me: You’re not sick.
Karys: No, dad. Feel my forehead.
Me: It feels cool so you’re not sick.
Karys: Nooooo… it’s hot.
Me: Nope, sorry. You’re not hot. But you are cute.
Karys: I know.
{extended}First swimming lessons
Zane, Eliana and Karys started swimming lessons this morning.
Eliana has had lessons before but it’s been a few years. So this is a refresher for her. And she didn’t even complain.
Thanks to our buddy, Jennifer, for taking the kiddos (along with her son) and snagging some photos.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Working like a champ
A couple of our cats - who are all spayed, by the way - have developed this aggravating habit of peeing on things in the house.
Most of the time it’s towels that have been left on the floor. Or a pile of dirty clothes waiting to be washed.
Lately, it’s been backpacks.
Zane has already had one backpack christened. And last night a cat claimed backpack number two.
I filled the tub in our master bathroom with hot water, poured some laundry detergent and tossed his backpack in for a good soaking.
Then I realized that Zane’s cellphone was still in the pack.
So I pulled it out. And stayed calm long enough to remember a trick.
I filled a bowl in the kitchen with dry rice, took out the phone’s battery and submerged both the open phone and the battery in the bowl of rice.
The rice was supposed to pull out the moisture in the phone.
And it worked.
18 hours later, I put the battery back into the phone and the phone seems to be working like a champ.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Disc skills
Eliana was dying to get outside today.
Didn’t matter if it was close to 100 degrees and we would practically melt in our shoes.
She was determined to work on her disc skills.
Smell my coffee
Karys loves to smell my coffee.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Captain America
I took Zane and Eliana to see Captain America which opened in theaters today.
Whew. That was one testosterone-filled flick.
Makes me want to find some Nazis to punch.
