Fitlinxx

The new gym is equipped with an electronic personal training system called Fitlinxx. Everytime we use one of the machines it logs our reps and weight, the same is true for the cardio machines, we can also log in excercise that we get at home, swimming, skating, running, whatever.

New Pacers

The whole family joined the Plano Pacers running club today. It was cheaper than paying by the race. Both of the kids ran this morning and would like to make it a habit. One of Sheela's soccer friends runs with them and she has younger sisters that idolize Sunil. They usually come to the races too. The friend won in the Eight and under girl's category. Sheela finished fourth in the 9-12 girls (she would have been second in 8U). Sunil ran most of the race and refrained from decking the kid that hit him for passing. The kids was probably four so the punch wasn't too hard and it didn't slow Sunil down much.

I can't actually say that I'm intending to run but we did get the family rate.

Books on tape

Last Spring my friend Lynn gave me two of the three Tales of the Otori on CD. I enjoyed them both so much that I held off buying the last book because I wanted to get it on CD too. But I found it at a great price at our local used bookstore, better even than that they had the second book two. Someday I'll buy the first one and complete the set but for know I "re"reading the second and then moving on in to the third. All of this set up was to say that I'm enjoying the second one every bit as much reading it myself as I did having it read to me, but because I heard it first the voices in my head and the rhythm of the words aren't mine. The voices alternate between a man and a woman both of whom have Japanese accents and the rhythm is much more musical.

On a related topic there was a segment on NPR the other day about the death of woman in the Seattle floods last month. Hers was a well known voice, she had recorded hundreds of books on tape. I did not recognize, or remember, her name but they played a voice clip of some of her work and I could immediately think of three books that she surely did.

Coach?

TFC (Allen)'s last indoor game was yesterday.  Sheela played six games with team and the coach was only there for 1.5 of those games.  It was okay early on when his older kids made the play-offs -- there were scheduling conflicts.  During the last two games the older kids were on a break and he neither called nor came to the games.  The girls aren't nearly as offended as the parents.  They played a great game yesterday anyway.  The final score was a tie (3:3) which doesn't always mean that the teams were on par but in this case they were very well matched.

Exercise

Sid and I finally agreed to go join the gym/natatorium up the street. We stopped taking our morning rides when he hurt his arm and haven't been able to get back in to the groove. The weather and the darkness have made convienient excuses for us to sleep in. But we popped up and out this morning at 5:00 AM and were on stationary bikes by 5:15AM. We "rode" for almost half an hour before giving the fitness machines a go. While we weren't the only ones there it wasn't very crowded. This should work out just fine.

A morning off

With my last few hours of holiday I spent some time playing cowboy/farmer with Sunil again this morning. I can't help it, he's just so darn cute. He worked so long and so hard that he needed a quick nap... so I taught him to sleep under his hat.

Then we went over to the park to play and found that the rain from Christmas Eve was frozen into sheets on the slides. Actually we thought it was pretty warm out there.

Catch up sleep

It is already 9:30 AM and the kids are still in bed... both of them. This is just what they needed. We kept them up late three nights in a row but they kept popping up by 8:00 AM. Then by mid-afternoon if you just looked at them wrong they would dissolve into tears. After an hour or two of that I end up in a foul mood and start to go out of my way to look at them wrong but after an hour or so of that the fun wears off.

Even better Sheela's best friend is no longer grounded as of this morning (she punched a fifth grader on Thursday and has been on restriction through the whole holiday weekend). So they have plans to play together this afternoon. I was hoping to arrange for Sunil to go play with a friend this afternoon while I'm at work too but I haven't have any luck.

Greetings of the Season

It's a cold and blustery Christmas morning here in Texas (using Texas standards of course). Sunil is looking mighty cute in his new cowboys boots and hat (he even has me wearing my new boots), Sheela is playing a new video game and Sid and his folks are making the calls to the family. More later.

Holiday Weekend

I have big expectations for this long, lovely weekend. They sent us home early today from work. I picked up Sheela on my way home. I would have brought Sunil home too but the attendance was so low today that they took all of the kids on field trips again today (yesterday only half the kids went and half were supposed to wait until today). Sunil wasn't back yet. This gave Sheela a chance to finish her gift for Sunil.

I did remember to go back and retrieve Sunil. I have only two more items scheduled between now and noon on Tuesday! We are going to visit family friends on Sunday afternoon and then going to spend Sunday evening with another group of friends. That's it. No trips to the store, the library or the skating rink. No soccer games, practices or meetings. No drama days, DI meetings or plays.

This is not to say that we wont do ANYTHING over the holidays, it just means that we can go with the flow. It sounds like heaven.

Cinnamon Bread French Toast

Grammylyn returned from Granbury, TX with two lovely loaves of cinnamon bread. She used the first loaf to hook my young and impressionable son on french toast (she also fed the rest of us). Since she has left for NY it has fallen on me to use up the other loaf. As Sunday was an early morning for us all we had to wait for lunch. Today (Monday) we couldn't even make lunch work but he talked me into it for dinner. I'm down to two eggs and two slices of bread.

Unnoticed Bonus

Apparently for the last two years the company has inadvertently failed to deduct my insurance premiums from my paycheck. That's a couple thousand dollars that they didn't mean to give to me.... but they are letting me keep. They will however will be taking their deductions from now on.

Bonus Day

Today is bonus day.  Only now we call them "objective based incentives" instead of bonuses.  If we achieve our selected "stretch" objectives by the end of the year we are rewarded with a nice little check.  This was a good year.

Twin Cities

I’m in Minneapolis/St Paul today. I flew up for a meeting this morning. I was expecting the weather to be terrible, but it was in the 40s today and really quite pleasant. I guess it didn’t really matter, aside from the walk to the rental car, to the office and to the hotel I wasn’t outside at all. All of the ponds are frozen over and from the air you could see skating rinks in backyards much the way we have swimming pools in Texas. Today we were meeting with a foam fabricator. I learned a lot and I think we’ve identified some good compromises to improve our yields. I’ll stay one more day for a meeting with our circuit board vendor and fly back late tomorrow night. I’ve been few a few other board shops but I’m looking forward to that one anyway. They use an interesting mix of automation and hand assembly work.

Coach Sid... again

Sheela's second soccer team (Texas FC) played an outdoor tournament today. She missed the first two games but made the night game. Unfortunately the coach had a conflict and didn't arrive until the second half. In the meantime Sid stepped up to the plate and coached again. He did a great job, but the girls lost the game in the end. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game...its indoors, with bleachers, bathrooms and a snack bar and let's not forget the HVAC system. Pretty luxurious comparted to tonight.

Sheela's Birthday

I failed to mention it earlier but my baby girl is nine years old. How is that even possible? This year all she wants for a birthday party is to have a few friends come by the house (in costumes), watch a movie and eat a chocloate chip cookie cake. It sounds simple and yet we've already had to reschedule it twice because we can't seem to invite people far enough in advance.

Just when I needed something to do....

Blogger came through with a new version. I am home alone for the first time in months. Mom, John and the kids have gone to lunch and to see the Velveteen Rabbit at the Children's Theater, Sid is taking care of the rental properties, Mommy and Daddy have gone Christmas shopping. Its just me and the cat for a few hours. Usually I have a list of things I need to do already and waiting for these occasions but today found me unprepared. So I started some laundry and came to check on Brian and Tracey and what did I find... upgrade potential. So here I am contemplating Blog template changes and adding privacy restrictions to Sheela's blog. Later I may walk to the store and buy something for lunch just an excuse to get out and about.

No orphans for us this year

Sid and I had a reality check last night and have opted to pass on the Ukrainian Orphan this year.  We have already committed to too many other things and it wouldn't be fair to the child.  Maybe next time, with a little bit more advanced planning, we will host a child.

Pegasus

Pegasus is one of the symbols of Dallas. Here a floral paint job decorates a pegasus in the Farmer's Market. After the parade we walked to the market for lunch and to buy fresh berries and roasted nuts.

Tie Shoes

Sunil keeps getting bigger all the time.... this time it is his feet. Here he shows off his new tie shoes (size 11.5). He has been able to tie for quite awhile but there is so much to be said for the sped of velcro. He'll get faster with practice, right?!?