Traditional Carving 2

Traditional Carving 1

Addams Family 2008

Here I am helping Cousin It prepare to meet her fans.

Here I am as "thing".

The rest of the family

Corporate Culture

One of our most anticipated events each year is our company Halloween Party.  This year was probably one of the top three based on over all participation, creativity and style.  Our department theme was the Addams Family.  I was "thing".  But it wasn't as much fun for me as when we don't participate.  Usually I'm free to watch the skits with the judges -- this year I only saw two skits.  This picture of a senior executive reclining in his Turkey Suit during the award ceremony is the only pictue that I took myself.  As soon as the everyone else's photos are available I'll throw out a few more.

CUBE 2

He didn't actually hit the targets this time but he had a lot of power behind his shots. With a few more chances to practice he'll be right on. Luckily he'll get to try again at Camp Wisdom next weekend.

CUBE

CUBE is a district wide Cub Scout event. Each pack is responsible for one activity. Sunil's fencing class is now two hours long and doesn't end until noon so we made a late start. He did manage the riflery range and the archery before it was over. He wanted to launch his plastic bottle rocket (his own pack's activity) but we didn't make it that far. He'll get that chance again at the campout next weekend.

A few Sky Ranch Photos

This is my primary group of girls from our trip to Sky Ranch. We shared a cabin with another group of eight and paired up with a group of eight boys for the classes. Here the girls show off their Chicawa face paint and their Indian names. Sheela is known as Magnolia Flower.

The baby red eared sliders were a highlight

but my favorite activity was dipping "stuff" out of the lake and then trying to identify it.

5th Grade Camp

I survived 5th grade camp as a chaperon (many years over due but a heartfelt "thank you" to anyone that ever signed up for this type of trauma!) I took a million pictures, very few of which will be appreciated by anyone not in them.  I will post a few later.  We are still an hour away from home.

The camp is in East Texas on the shore of a very nice lake.  The lake was officially declared "healthy" based on its optimal pH, turbid color, diverse macro invertebrate organisms including those sensitive to pollution.  That was the second afternoon.  The first afternoon they learned about a native american tribe called the Chicawa.  They ground corn, used a bow and arrow, and tried to use flint to light a fire.

The next morning was dedicated to the "Forces of Nature".  They raced their teachers down zip lines and then tried to speed them up and slow them down with tarps, rocks and ropes.  They covered errosion, friction and gravity.  Today we finished up with mammals, arthropods and reptiles.

I'm ready for a nap in a quiet room.

Covered wagon

Animal Skins

Sunil checked out the fox and bear skins in the teepee at the arboretum.

IMG00100.jpg

Sunil and Jaden at the park, bright and early this morning.

Fall Photos 2008

School photos are back.  If you look closely you can see Sunil's American Flag label pin with his "president suit".

Try-outs

Sheela just finished auditioning for the district honor choir.  It is made up of 5th and 6th graders from all 14 elementary schools.  She won't find out for at least a week whether or not she made it.

The bike rack

loaded. This shot is was taken prior to our check out run with the bike rack. It works well enough but the smaller size of Sunil's bike was difficult as was the bar configuration on Sheela's bike..

Blood Pressure Revisited

Well I've been checking my self religiously for at least a week. My BP usually runs in the low normal range. I've not had a single reading that was in any way alarming.

Time to Brag

Report cards came yesterday for the first grading period.  Both kids did very well once again.  To celebrate they chose dinner (Boston Market meatloaf) and movies (The Incredibles and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).  I baked brownies for dessert.

Interview clip

If you need a good laugh, scroll down to my links and visit Ida’s blog (There “I” Was).  She posted an interview in her entry “The Front Fell Off” that made my whole day.

Fall Classic

Yesterday was yet another IT golf tournament this time I really only had three good drives, one good chip shot and one decent put.  As a team we finished in the middle of the pack.  The highlights for me were a young Texas Brown snake that I picked up on the fairway and a promise from the IT VP in San Diego that he'd get me a free pass to next year's Open World.  Today I'm moderately stiff but not sunburned.  The weather was great, we started off in the high 80s around 3PM and finished in the low 70s around 7PM.  It cools off in to the 50s at night now.  Perfect from my point of view.

Damage

The hairline cracks in my blackberry have deepened and spread.  I actually lost a chunck of it at lunch.  I have to ask the IT department to replace it.  What if they take me off the list?  I'm already addicted.

Paint by numbers

Sheela bought Sunil a paint by number set back in May. It was a little more difficult than the "beginner" rating led us to believe. In the end I painted most of it for him. Here is the completed picture. Up close it pretty much looks like a child's paint by number picture, but it was fun to do.

Sheela chose a tiger for herself. She is still plugging away on it but it was at least one level more advanced if not two. Most of the areas are smaller than her smallest fingernail. It could take awhile.

Rock climbing

Playground style

Morning Ride

Passing of the phone

For the last six months I've had my work phone as well as my personal cell phone.  I've slowly tranistioned folks to the new number... and started letting Sheela think of the old one as hers.  It now has her name on it, her picture on it and her ringtone selections.  The only thing I haven't let her do is change the message and voice mail passwords.  I guess I'll let her do that today.

Fluke

Wednesday while showing a co-worked how to check her blood pressure I took mine and was surprised to find it really high.  I've never had high blood pressure.  It stayed high all day (and on four different monitors).  That evening it dropped back down to a reasonable level and was nearly perfect by Thursday.  I dutifully checked it every few hours.  This morning I finally went in to see my Dr.  BP is still looking good.  I'm supposed to check it daily for two months and then go back and talk about it some more.  At the moment we are calling it a fluke.

Rodeo

Saturday night we went to the Rodeo with the cub scouts.  It may be a stereotypical Texas past time, but Sid and the kids had never been.  I last went when I was five (it's also a stereotypical Oklahoma past time).  It really was a lot of fun.  There were no real surprises: bronco busting, bull riding, barrel racing, team roping, chuck wagon races and trick riding with a short round of mutton busting for comic relief.  If you aren't familiar with the mutton busting it is very much like the bull riding.  The contestants wear full face masks, chaps and gloves.  But they ride completely docile sheep and are randomly selected from the audience.  They must be more than 4 years old but weigh less than 55 pounds.  Most of these kids didn't last six steps but they all won trophies and were cute.