Tot-kwon-do

We attempted to sign up Sunil for a martial arts class at school.  Actually we tried back in Septemeber and he wasn't interested, now he has asked to join.  We signed him up, they gave him his uniform and let him come to class one time.  The next two weeks they told him not to come.  It may have been more polite when they said it, but translated through the mouth of a disappointed four-year old it sounded rather rude.  After the first time the school said they were investigating the difficulty and I failed to follow up.  It happened again this week.  The school did follow up.  It turns out that we never paid for the class.  We wrote down our credit card information and checked the box requesting that they bill the card but they didn't do it.  Apparently this was true for both the kids that tried to pay by credit card.  I'm still waiting for a call back to work out the details.  There are only four more classes before the end of the school year.  It may just not be worth it.  We've promised Sunil that we will find him a local class as soon as soccer wraps up anyway.

Belo Horizonte

It looks like Brazil might actually happen.  The discussion now is who really needs to go and who just wants to tag along.  The Latin American VP will be there the third week in May.  He'd like me to come while he is there.  The Director of R&D (I think he's going just so I don't have to travel alone) has another trip already planned for that week.  The VP of Finance wants to go and he's available that week too.  So it comes down to whether the R&D guy is neccessary or just my babysitter.  If he's neccessary it may be a month or two before we can reschedule, if he's not I'll be gone the 14-19th of May.

I'm so happy.... and proud.....

my little girl has started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I figured it would be a few more years before she would be ready for it.  I tried to get her to read it out loud to me but we only had an hour before bedtime and apparently reading out loud slows her down too much.  I went back to my own book which wasn't nearly as good.

Choclate Daddy

I placed Mom's picture of the Chocolate Daddy iris to my desk top at work. The picture is so rich that I can smell the chocolate, or so it seems to the general public. I know that there is a bag of Hersey miniatures underneath the scanner. Even without the smell of the chocolate I would still love the picture.

Job Perk

Maybe not a perk but definitely a reward.... Our marketing department runs a contest each year for all off our patients.  They have the opportunity to write up their experiences with our products and win a prize.  It gives us a way to see the difference that we make in our patient's lives.  Here is an excerpt from this year's winner (not from her entry but from the thank you note she sent after receiving her prize)..."I hope that your use of my photos and my story of recovery will help to spread the word about the benefits of external fixation.  I am fortunate to have the use of my foot after what could have been a career ending injury.  I thank Orthofix and my doctor for a second chance."  Its always good to know that we helped.

Midnight finances

Okay, its closer to 3 AM. Sid just remembered that we set up an automatic payment that we need to cancel before it gets paid this month. Most of the payments go out tomorrow so here we are checking on it. This is sort of a good news bad news type thing. The good news is that we did already take care of this (nearly a month ago) and just forgot. The bad news is its 3:00 AM and I'm not asleep and I don't fell like going back to sleep. This isn't so bad for me but I feel sorry for everybody that will have to deal with me while I'm cranky tomorrow.

Fondue

It took us three meals to eat all of the fondue that was supposed to have been Easter dinner. There was just too much food and it takes too long to prep AND cook AND eat. So we had the cheese course for dinner on Tuesday, the chocolate course for desert on Wednesday and the oil course on Thursday (with some left over chocolate course to round out the night). I now have both Sid and Sheela hooked on the shloss sauce that I use to jazz up the steak and mushrooms.

Mom I'm still using the same recipies that we used in Canton 20+ years ago, except I did try a new cheese recipe. It has finely chopped shrimp, American cheese and cream cheese. Definitely a winner.

Play-off Tickets

I almost bought a pair of Stars vs. Avalanche tickets for tomorrow night. They were excellent seats right on the glass behind our goal. A guy at work was trying to unload them for half price. As we were working out the finer details, he realized that they were for a 2PM game and not a 7PM game. I had to back out. Oh well, its not like I had my heart set on them or anything.

Spring Fling

Anderson Elementary celebrated the end of the TAKS testing with their annual Spring Fling tonight. All four of us went this year. Nothing like a 150 kids dancing in the gym surrounded by 150 parents. As TAKS isn't administered until the 3rd grade I didn't really feel the need to celebrate its conclusion, but I definitely celebrated the end of the Spring Fling with a margarita or two after the kids went to bed.

Open House

Sunil's school had their annual Open House last night. Sunil and I went. He selected two works to demonstrate for me. The first is called Color Block II. There are two sets of colored tiles. Each set contains 12 colors. First he has to lay out the twelve tiles in a straight line, then he matched the colors from the second set to the first set and lays them along side. Then he takes the names of the colors and places them next to the proper colors. As a class work he would then color in a picture of the twelve tiles and write the correct names next to the colors. Then everything gets put neatly back away.

The second work was the 100s board. There is a wooden plaque with the numbers 10, 20...100 printed on it which is placed on the floor. Then he opens a box of ten-strands (wires each strung with 10 beads). He places one strand next to the number 10, two next to the number 20 and so on. As he places the strands he has to count the number of beads by 10s. Then he puts it all neatly back away.

I like watching the kids work, but it was more fun to go to the old school when the watching was done during a normal school day with only one or two parents there at a time. The open house was much too loud and too crowded and you don't get to see as much or the true work. I was pleased in any case.

Destination 2006 - Brazil

First a flashback....
Destination 2005 - Italy
Destination 2004 - India
Destination 2003 - Italy
Destination 2002 - England

We seem to have a hobby here at work. It involves telling me to pack my bags because they really need me to go to ____________ (on some super secret project) and then never actually letting me go anywhere. I haven't actually taken one of these trips since 1997.

I've recently been informed that I'm needed in Brazil. They don't know when they need me to go but it is a job that only I can do... (much like the others).

Sailing Triumph

Dad and Eileen should be on their way to the airport for their return to the cruising world. At the last minute I brow beat them in to providing the link to their fledgling blog. It has been added to my links. They wont have much time to work on it before they get underway. Once they get underway they wont have access to work on it. As long as occaisional posts are added I think they will love it when they get back home.

Have a safe journey, and fair winds, K

Dinner Party 2 - Cancelled

We planned on having friends over for fondue on Sunday. I even made multiple trips to the store to pick up those last few items.... and then those that I'd forgotten.... and then some more that I hadn't even thought about..... By mid-afternoon we got a better offer anyway. We went with Rick and Patricia to visit some of their family down in South Dallas. They have six horses and a few acres of pasture. There were roughly 40 people and a ton of food. We just hung out, practiced our Spanish, and watched the kids ride and hunt for confetti filled eggs. It was a really nice way to spend the day.

Dinner Party 1

Brenda and Art Porth came over for dinner tonight. They brought all four kids: Ronni Sue, Taylor, Christian and Alli. We had roast pork with mushroom Swiss gravy, corn on the cob, a green salad and strawberry shortcake. All very yummy. Christian is now twelve years old and six foot two, all the kids are tall but he's the most obvious at the moment.

Our kids are in bed and asleep at last and the kitchen is mostly cleaned back up. Now I get to go hide some Easter eggs and the Easter baskets. Then I think I'll go to bed and hope to sleep really late.

Popcorn overload

Sid and I took the kids to see Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown. Sheela and Sid loved it, Sunil was afraid and I was bored. The upside was the first show was sold out so we had an hour to kill before the next showing. We went to the park next door and rented a paddle boat. It was fun, but it made my legs really tired. The radius for the paddles was about two inches.

Good Friday

Today is a nearly perfect Friday. I'm off from work, the kids are off from school, Sid is coming home early and the weather is GREAT.
I indulged the kids with donuts and a trip to the zoo. We weren't exactly the only ones there but it was too pretty for complaints and the honeysuckle is in full fragrant bloom.



They've opened another new exhibit, Crocodile Isle. It's not very large or very original. It does have three very large crocs, a pond and a sand bar.

Snapdragons

I planted two flats of snapdragons after work today. I ordered them last week from a neighborhood kid's choir fundraiser. They only had to desiccate on the front porch for two days before getting planted. That's actually pretty good for me. If they perk up overnight I'll take a picture of those around the Live Oak.

Abandoned puppies

Brenda and Jeremy rescued four puppies from their property up North. They are awfully cute and big enough to go to new homes. The same day she called to ask for help finding families for them she received emails from two other friends. Each friend had rescued other abandoned pups. Sometimes I really hate people.

Five minutes every other month for a year.

I succumbed to an impulse yesterday and booked a year of laser hair removal (underarms are on special this month) and I had my first treatment tonight. It took less than five minutes and only stung for a few minutes (and not too badly at that). Within an hour all of the pain was gone. Theoretically I shouldn't have to shave again for nearly two months.

Easter egg hunt

Supre Blue Academy ended their Monday practice with an Easter Egg hunt for the girls (and their siblings). It was more of a run-and-grab than a hunt but the kids had fun. I didn't get any stellar pictures..... the kids were running away from me by the time I remembered that I even had my camera. In this picture Sunil is the white shirt back and blue pants on the right, Sheela is the pink pants and the yucky green penny, Claire has red hair and a white shirt back with black shorts and Travis has red hair, a white shirt, blue pants and is on the left. Sarah is wearing the blue penny and Becca is behind Sunil.

The houses in the background are stereotypical Texas: tiny front yards, even less side yard and completely fenced backyards.

Once again with pictures

Dad says he can receive file sizes up to 35000 bits. Let's see how he does with one picture..... this one is from Christmas a year ago. Brian and Tracy sent yukata to the kids.

Soccer update

I missed Sid's coaching debut, but it was a smashing success. The girls played great and Sid says he did very little but cheer. The Hot Wheels probably lost but it was definitely the highest scoring game we've had and at more than one point we were winning by multiple goals. Sunil is rumored to have scored at least one, if not two, of the goals. He denies them both and I couldn't tell through the sea of little brown heads around the goal. Sheela's academy team won their match on Sunday 3 to 0 against girls a year older (but only a little bit taller for a change), usually we look like shrimps. The weather both days was glorious.

Countdown to cast -off

Dad and Eileen will be returning to Triumph in nine more days. This means that they will lose their ease access to the minutiae of my life. So I'm attempting to have the updates emailed to them via their radio link. This will be the first such post to be sent. If it doesn't crash and burn I'll try one with a picture. I'm hoping that I can find a way to suppress the pictures so it doesn't overload the system.

Kite Flying

It's a beautiful day here today. I'm guessing low 80s, and brilliant sun. I forced the family out of the television cave to go kite flying this morning. The winds were a little bit too light so we ended up flying Sunil instead. He's not quite as colorful but he squeals more so he is actually more fun.

Elephant Rides

We went to the circus last night, right here in our own little sleepy town. They come every Spring and set up within two miles of our house. It's not exactly Ringling Brothers but they do well enough. The tickets are relatively inexpensive but then you have the option of paying more for an upgrade, or two. They charge extra for the animal rides and the pictures of the animal rides. Sid, Sunil , Sheela and I paid to ride the elephant, but we didn't get the picture. We bought the cotton candy and the peanuts which are only available for two minutes during intermission (hurry, hurry, hurry) and just about froze to death in the big top when the sun went down. All in all a nice time.

Another not-quite-placement

The foster agency called again today with a 6-year old girl being removed today from the care of a relative. The relative was unable to protect the child from an abusive parent. About two minutes into the call an email came through placing her with another agency. So we miss out again. Drat.

Owl Pellets

The second graders dissected owl pellets at school last Friday. Sheela's pellet contained mostly shrew parts, and a remarkably large number of shrews at that.

Coach Sid

Well Sid has been blessed by the Allen Youth Soccer Association as the Panther's new head coach. Tim's new work schedule wont let him attend either practices or games for the rest of the season and Sid has stepped up to take over. He is not exactly thrilled about it but after he works out the kinks I think he'll be great. Tonight was his first practice, it went better than he thinks. As extra back up I'm getting mine too but I don't plan on needing it.

Blake Rae

Happy 4th Birthday Blake! We wish you all the best, where ever you are.

Shopping

Brenda and I went on an impulsive shopping trip this afternoon. This was the first time I've been in an actual shopping mall in at least two years. Much as I remembered you have to walk along way to get where you want to go only to find that there wasn't anything I actually wanted there anyway. I do not like clothes, I do not like shopping and I do not like shopping malls. Luckily they close early on Sundays and we only stayed an hour and a half. Brenda did manage to find what she was looking for and I managed to enjoy catching up with her life.