Unexpected Quandry

Sid and Sheela are off on their adventure. So I planned a day of errands:  laundry, groceries, library, gift shopping, post office, etc.  Now as a last moment sort of thing the Sharmas have taken Sunil with them to visit friends today.  Should I squander my precious alone time on errands and if not when will those errands get done?

Winter Campout

Sid and Sheela leave this afternoon for a weekend of Winter camping with the HATs program.  They will be at a ranch/pecan farm up in Oklahoma for an orienteering competition and two nights of sleeping in the cold.  Actually it could be much worse weather.  It will be above freezing at night, barely but above and up in the 60s during the day.  Sunil and I will fill in those lonely days with a visit from the cousins, Seema and Nita and a baseball practice.

Sunil's Car picture

It must have been lost in Cyberspace.  I'll find the car later and take another picture.

Sheela's entry - sibling division

The derby

Tomorrow is the Pinewood Derby.  The kids (and Sid) helped set up the track tonight and made a few test runs.  When they got home we watched the movie "Down and Derby" about some overly competitive fathers taking over the event.  I enjoyed it.

They've added a concession stand this year in an attempt to raise enough money to add two more lanes to our two lane track.  I managed to. avoid working the concessions by volunteering as the official timekeeper (for the wolves).

Report cards again

It was another great grading period for both of the kids and we are officially more than half way through the year.

Science Fair Projects are due tomorrow

Sheela has been working on the effects of soaking pinto and black beans in water, sugar water or salt water. I'm a little bit miffed that it is due in the morning and she is just now typing it up... it doesn't seem to bother her.

Welcome home to the Sharmas

Grandma and Grandpa came back home today after a quick five month world tour. In addition to the obvious time spent in India they also managed to work in Thailand, Malaysia and Australia this year. It's good to have them back.

Formal Picture

This is the photo (and frame) from the Daddy-Daughter Ball.

Dull

It seems that life has been pretty quiet around here lately.  I didn't realize how few posts I've made (or how little that they said). 

We still haven't packed away Christmas but should have it done today.  We haven't finished the Pinewood Derby cars and the race is next weekend.  We haven't installed the cat door to the computer room (we moved the cat box).  I haven't done any laundry yet this week.  I never did clean out my closet.  Sheela just started to make a white satin cape for her "good witch" costumes (both North and South witches).  We haven't freshened up the Sharma's bedroom and they will be home on Wednesday.

But the sun is shining and it is almost 70 degrees today.  I want to go out to play instead of working.  We've all done too much working lately.

I spent all week in training classes (Design Controls and Risk Management - both very important in Medical Device manufacturing) and then trying to keep production rolling along by going to work before and after class. 

Sid has had a fair amount of hand holding to do to keep his current deals on track plus set up the tax office. 

Sunil is doing his Cub Scouting. He just earned his Wolf rank.  The last activity was cleaning up the creek through town.  His baseball team is trying to practice on pretty days too.  At school he is dissecting owl pellets.

Sheela is working on her Destination Imagination challenge.  Their solution will be a musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" presented in the style of a music video with original lyrics and a grand entrance or grand exit.  She also read nearly 2000 minutes in the last six weeks and is working on her Science Fair project: The effect of sugar and salt on the water absorption of pinto and black beans.

So life here is trucking on along at what we've accepted as our normal pace.  Sheela just left for the movies.  Sid is watching football.  I'm going to start a load of laundry and then see if Sunil will come for a bike ride with me.

Technology stress

Sometime Wednesday our work email system suffered a catstrophic failure. Around the clock support from our IT department and some of our tech vendors cobbled the system back together... mostly. I still can't send or receive messages on my blackberry. This week I'm scheduled for a full week of offsite training (Design Controls and Risk Management) and will have to be working essentially blind. We're taking nearly 20% of our company to this class, which means there will be very little in-house support for manufacturing this week. Email is what makes this system bearable so this week will be a challenge.

Right in the meddle of all of that, my label printing software (that I hate with fair degree of passion) appears to also be corrupted. I've done all I can without access to the main server so I'm at work at 6AM hoping there is even one IT person that is still awake that can get me in to the server to complete the reinstallation before 7AM when I need to leave for class.

Changes

Sheela's teacher turned in his notice today.  He has an opportunity to pursue something besides teaching and has decided that he needs to give it a try.  I'm pretty disappointed.  He was an excellent teacher.  But now that he's said that he is leaving I'm ready to move on.  I want to know who his replacement will be and how the kids will handle the change.

Brimmers

We made a quick trip to Sushama's to visit with the cousins.  Seema is almost as tall as I am now.  We stayed just the one night and then had to hurry back.  Sid and I did manage to ditch the kids for a few hours so that we could go on to the casino in Shreveport and catch a comedy show (Brad Lee and Little Bro').

Maya's welcome home

After leaving her home alone all night Maya was in need of some extra reassurance and togetherness.

Spring?

It is beautiful here today, sunny and 80 degrees.  Sunils's baseball team called an informal practice.  I'm watching the ducks swim in the pond and listening to the "ting" of the bats.  It feels a lot like Spring... it won't last.

A slow start to the New Year

There is not much going on around here. Sid is out and about today doing that work thing. The kids are just here being here. I want to go out to run some errands but I don't want to take the kids (these errands will make me whiney so I won't blame the kids when they get whiney but that doesn't mean I want them with me.)