A beautiful day to be outside...

or so it seemed from the inside looking out. In the end I relented and let the kids move the easel back inside. It was sunny but also cold and windy. The cold wasn't much of a problem, but the wind kept tearing the thin paper sheets.

There is some extra stress associated with letting the kids spill paint and wash water in the house but it was worth it. They had a great time and no permanent damage was done. This must be the first time they've really gotten to mix their own colors (we used acrylics instead of water colors). They did a few more later in the evening but the "art wall" only holds so many at a time.

IMAX

We all went to see the movie Mystic India at the IMAX theater today. I love the IMAX movies, all of them, every single one has been wonderful. This one follows the experiences of one of India's most famous yogis. He leaves his home to begin his solo journey at the age of 11 by throwing himself into a river at full flood and then walks 8000 miles over the course of seven years.

Sunil was a riot during the movie... he has a comment about everything, is easily terrified by the dramatic scenes and so moved to joy during the uplifting scenes that he has to kiss somebody.

Lost one

Super Blue lost their game this week (2-0).  We finally played against the other first place team.  It was by far the most fun to watch of any of the games so far.  Both teams were really pretty even in terms of skills.  Not to be too snotty about it but we play a much cleaner game, they were big on tripping, pushing and shoving.  We are still tied in terms of points because we've played one more game than they have, our bye week is the last week.  But unless there is a mojor upset somewhere along the line we'll end up in second place.

Another audit

has been successfully completed.  This should be the last of our external audits for this year.  It lasted three days and we rated only a few minor non-conformances.  Unfortunately, two of them were in my area of responsibility.  In my defence, they've only been my job for a month and a half and the problems are years old.  But instead of fixing it myself I was waiting for our new quality director to start (its normally a quality function) so that he can make his mark on the system.  C'est la vie.  Over all it went really well.

We have passports...

and birth certificates back for the children.  I was a little bit worried that they wouldn't arrive in time.  But it worked out beautifully.

Rising Stars - Challenge

Sunil has been assigned to a Destination ImagiNation team. In his age group (4-7) he is a Rising Star. Their challenge is to: write and perform an eight minute long play, featuring a landmark and an invention. At some point they must use the invention to modify the landmark in some way (and it must make a sound of some kind). The land mark that they build must be large enough for at least one of the kids to get in and one of the characters in the play must wear a hat made out of newspaper. They must present at least three facts about the chosen landmark.

They have to do their own research, story writing, set design and building and make their own costumes.

The team manager is a 4th grade teach. She is lobbying to have the meetings after school in her classroom. From my point of view this is perfect! There would be no extra commuting to arrange, when its time for a meeting he can leave Kids' Club, afterwards he just checks himself back in.

Sheela's team manager hasn't contacted us yet to talk about times/locations/ or challenge selection.

Team Photographer

One of the player's parents is sports photographer so we are getting some really good game photos. This is from three weeks or so ago. The team is still undefeated with only three weeks left to play.

Semiannual Golf Tournament

Once again I joined in the IS Department Semiannual Golf Tournament and once again my team came in last (but this time we tied for last). The weather was cool and windy. Apparently the wind is only a factor if you hit the ball up in the air... when you dribble it off the tee and across your toes the wind isn't a problem.

The Hawkeye is very near and dear to the heart of our golf co-commissioner. I thought he was photo-worthy.

Dog Tails

Friday night I took the kids (and Analeise) to the Dog Tails Kid's event at our local hospital. There was free food, free bounce houses, dance performances, martial arts performances and best of all a chance to get a look inside of the Careflight helicopter. I believe the event was supposed to raise our awareness of children's cancer.

Parent Teacher Conference Number 2

We met with Sunil's teacher today. The highlight for me was getting to watch how quickly his daily draft book writing has improved... that's not to say he doesn't have a long way left to go to be considered a writer. He started off with a picture described by random groups of letters. Then as each week's new "hot" word was learned he worked in some recognizable content. The hot words have been: I, me, you, like, to. Each one useful in almost any kindergartener's every sentence.

He also did very well on his basic skills assessment, including correctly answering all five of the comprehension questions, both implicit and explicit, following a passage that was read aloud to him. Apparently that is quite a feat.

Parent Teacher Conference Number 1

I spoke to Sheela's teacher today. I just love these meetings. Sheela is doing very well in everything and is a pleasure to have in class. She's cheerful and cooperative, polite and attentive, enthusiastic and supportive. Her reading fluency increased over the summer by leaps and bounds (usually kids regress slightly over the summer).

Color me the proud parent.

Nearly complete

Sheela lacks only the hem and the application of the frog (as in a frog closure and not an actual frog) to complete her witch's cloak. I think it looks pretty darn good.

Down on the field...

One of the unexpected perks of the evening was getting to run around where the cowboys play. All four of the kids took full advantage of it.

All dressed up...

Diwali

Diwali is a five day Hindu festival which occurs on the fifteenth day of Kartika. Diwali means "rows of lighted lamps" and the celebration is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. During this time, homes are thoroughly cleaned and windows are opened to welcome Laksmi, goddess of wealth. Candles and lamps are lit as a greeting to Laksmi. Gifts are exchanged and festive meals are prepared during Diwali. The celebration means as much to Hindus as Christmas does to Christians.

 

Tonight we went to a Diwali celebration at Texas Stadium. We estimated that there were 25,000 people there. Six or seven dance programs and a drama depicting the victory of Lord Ram over the ten-headed Ravan were to be the main entertainment.
Typically at the end of the program an effigy of Ravan is set aflame. Due to the number of people there tonight they had to modify the program some and we ended up coming back home before the roasting. Here is a picture of the effigy as we saw him.
While we were waiting to get the festivities underway Sheela, Sunil and I indulged in some henna tatoos. When the henna is applied it looks like a chocolate paste. After it dries it flakes off and leaves an orange pattern. The pattern will wear off over the next week or so.

State Fair of Texas 2006

What a wonderful day. The kids and I went with our friends Alma and Kristina to the fair. We spent a small fortune but it was worth it. Alma ate until she was sick and the kids each came home with a velvet rose and a small stuffed bird.

Sunil was a lion in the Backyard Circus. He got to bare his claws, roll over, and jump through the ring of fire. Kristina was a mother butterfly. She got to help the 22 junior butterflies twirl around on stage. There was also a tightrope walker and a human cannonball.


We ate turkey legs, corny dogs, funnel cakes, grilled corn on the cob, nachos, ice cream and snow cones. Not all of us ate all of that but we did okay. This year's specialty is supposed to be the fried coke but I heard that it wasn't worth it. It's actually coke flavored fried dough rolled in powder sugar and something else sticky.

Sheela and Kristina rode on the Skywheel ride (they are in the orange car in the top ring) and on the baby roller coaster. Sunil and I did the roller coaster too but he was not a fan. The girls also came down the huge slide but didn't think it was worth the money.

I'm playing hooky...

and its wonderful. I slept late. The kids slept late. But by 8:00 AM I was ready to drop them off at Kids Club (this is their Fall Break from school). In my original plan I was going to take the whole week off to play with them, but that didn't work out. I get today and Friday. Friday we will go to the State Fair of Texas. This year the star food attraction appears to be fried coke. It doesn't sound like much of an attraction to me but I'll at least take a look if not a taste.

Today I'm catching up on household chores. Its not that I can't do this while other people are home but I don't. So this is working out well. The Sharmas are still in San Jose, CA. I've dusted the tops of the kitchen cabinets, I've rearranged my closet and the extra bedroom closet. I've culled the kids rooms for stuff they don't remember that they have and I am hiding it until I can drop it off for a garage sale. I've cleaned behind the couch (that wasn't in my plan but Sid moved the couch this morning to find something and I took a look... yuck!) I was going to clean the inside of the refrigerator but I think I'll go get a haircut instead. Then I may spend some time filing our mountain of paperwork... or not.

Surgery for Opa

Today is the day that Dad is undergoing his rotator cuff repairs. The best thing about this is that it is minimally invasive, this is one of those surgeries that used to be MAJOR. It still has a potential for long rehab. I'm sure Dad will follow his Dr's and his therapists orders and will recover rapidly. Good luck Dad!

A old era in reading (revisited)

I've started checking out books from the library again. The thing is that when I take the kids to the library I'm not allowed to leave them in the children's area unattended (at least not Sunil and Sheela is not old enough to count as "attending"). I'm not getting to go up to the main section of the library to look for books for me. So I'm making do with the "kid's" books. I've recently read Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw and Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons. Sunil actually picked them out. They are both Newbery Medal winners and were wonderful (and of course really easy to read). I'm hoping that Sheela will read them before we take them back but she is still working her way through the fourth Harry Potter and has a quite a ways left to go.

Little Man

Sunil is not feeling very well today. He's still so little that I'm afraid he'll waste away to nothing if he skips a meal and when he coughs his body doubles in size and then caves in on its self in a most alarming manner. In the last year or so he's moved from twirling his hair and sucking his thumb to twirling MY hair and sucking his thumb when he needs a little comfort. He says that he only sucks his thumb at home these days but I can't tell because I only see him at home.

Cruise wear

The kids finally got to checkout their dress-up duds and they took these pictures of each other.

What a busy week

Work has gotten to be pretty intense. We had some really good things happen this week. Including announcing our partnership with Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and our intent to distribute the True/Lok product in only six weeks. I may not get to sleep for the next six weeks but its going to be fun and I really like the product.

We also finalized our acquisition of Blackstone Medical and passed our microbiology audit. I didn't have anything to do with the Blackstone purchase but the audit was a big thing for me and I'm glad that it went so well. The auditor made a few very good suggestions all of which I think we will incorporate. More importantly there were no real surprises that means we have a pretty good idea of what we are doing and we've already identified our few weaknesses and have plans in place to correct them. Of course some things still have to wait until we get a Quality Director but he should start within the month.

I also had to train myself to implement some of our changes because of a pair of unexpected events in the lives of our documentation department. I like to know that I can step in when they need me somewhere but I'd rather step in to train someone else to do this particular on a regular basis. We need a full time back up for that department and no one seems to want the job. I don't know why its such a hard job to sell. The other operation people consider the job to boring (its data-clerk-type-stuff) and the people outside of operations appear to be intimidated by the federal regulations. Oh well. One of the two women should be back in the office by Tuesday and maybe both of them.

Little Suit

I managed to pick up a boy's two-piece blue suit at lunch time today.  I hope it fits Sunil.  He gets to dress up for dinner on the cruise.  I found it at the Kid to Kid resale shop for less than $9.  Now I'm glad I didn't cave yesterday and spend $28 on a tuxedo.  Ebay has a slew of them listed for $13 (plus $15 s/h).  It sounded like a bargain, but then I'd have to buy Sid a tux and Sheela and I would have to go a little bit more upscale too....  you just can't let the five-year old show us all up. 

I managed to get a very pretty dress for Sheela too, even though I think Jaz has her covered.  It was a bargain and is very pretty, black with red roses.

Kid to Kid was the franchise that Sid was looking to buy before I was transfered to NC.  Amazing how many different turns that life can make.

First Place

SuperBlue held on to the first place spot in the girls 3rd grade select division.  They've won their first three games, but the other undefeated team had a bye this week so the field isn't quite level.

Singer Sewing Machine

Sheela is borrowing Her Grandma's sewing machine to make her Halloween costume this year. I'm glad that she wants to try this for a couple of reasons...I'm not wild about the store bought costumes though they are more elaborate and cheaper than what we will probably make and Sheela wants to compete in Destination Imagination this year. DI is a team based creative problem solving competition that usually involves making costumes from scratch (along with some math, science, research and playwriting). During the actual competition the kids have to do all of the work and research. I figure this will be good costuming experience. She wants to start simple, just a black cape with a hood (she will be a witch when its all said and done) she may or may not make a gown to wear too.

We bought an actual pattern instead of freehanding something. I wanted to show her how to choose a real pattern and the how to figure out what to buy. The pattern that she choose had a couple of extra frills like a tassel hanging from the hood that she chose to omit.

With the sewing machine we started with following lines on paper: straight, curves and corners. Before moving on to small pillows. She made a very cute pillow for Sunil. Tonight we will learn how to wind the bobbin and then layout and cut the fabric. The actual assembly may have to wait until next week.

Portraits

Fall school portraits are back.

Rec-n-Roll

The 3rd-6th graders have a Saturday Night out option up at our local recreation center. They call the program Rec-n-roll. From 7-11PM on Saturday nights the facility is closed to everyone except the registered kids (and a hefty number of chaperones). Sheela went last night with a group of her friends for the first time. There is a room for dancing, a room with bounce houses, some arts and crafts stations and pizza is brought in for a small fee.

Sheela and her friends had a blast until one of the boys attempted a more adventurous maneuver in the bounce house and landed wrong. In Sheela's words "he broke his back and was petrified." He had to be strapped to a back board and taken away in an ambulance. The girls didn't see the boy get hurt nor do they know him. All of the kids got herded together to keep them out of the way while the ambulance was there and the story got passed from kid to kid. Lisa was so upset that she decided not to spend the night with us. Sheela was still shaking when I got home (about an hour after it happened)and had trouble falling asleep.

Passports - Second Attempt

I managed to get the passports on order. Now we just have to hope that they get them back to us, with the birth certificates, before we leave in November. They should make it with at least a week to spare but I get nervous. The "unexpedited" cost was $82 a piece and they are good for five years.

New Camera

I must not have mentioned it but Sid bought me a new camera for our anniversary (along with a diamond necklace). The camera is as small as the old one it fits in the front pocket of my purse but it has a much faster action and a stronger zoom. Its a Nikon Coolpix S5. Here is the first picture that we took in the hotel...

Here is a picture from last night's soccer party at the coaches' house. Chris and Stacy (the coaches) have three black labs. Two of them spent the majority of the evening playing fetch in the swimming pool for the entertainment of the kids.

I also did find the cable for my other camera, so the kids will be able to use it when we go to Mexico.

Balloon Festival Weekend

Its time again in the Metroplex for the Plano Balloon Festival. We wont make it over there tonight (dinner party for the soccer team) and we wont make it over there in the morning (8am soccer game), but tomorrow evening looks like a winner. My favorite part is the "glow" after dark anyway. The kids aren't old enough to go up in the balloons, and the bounce house/face paining/midway games section is just too pricey to be worth it for me.

Celebrity homes

Sheela's soccer team has moved their practices to a new location. There is a very famous soccer player (from the 90s) that still lives here in McKinney. He is known as Tatu. He has a series of soccer fields at his house that he rents out. He coaches for the Sting Soccer Club (SuperBlue is Sting's Academy Program). Anyhow Sheela says the fields are nice but they are nothing compared to the house. I snapped a picture of the house last night when I picked her up. Its beautiful and slightly larger than your average Texas home, but not as ape sh** as Deion Sanders' house. We drove by it a few months back (I didn't think to take a picture). It was at least twice as big as this one.

Career Day

This is Sunil's class all dressed up for career day...

Officer Sharma

Today is Kindergarten Career Day.  Sunil has been planning all week long on dressing up as a Kindergarten teacher for school, but at the last minute he decided he just had to be a policeman.  This is why advance planning is a waste of time.  So he chose to wear navy blue shirt, shorts and socks.  He wore his hiking boots (no PE class today so they're allowed).  He accessorized with a junior ranger badge and Sid's navy cover (that would be a hat to us civilians). I still can't find the cord to transfer pictures off of my camera so you'll just have to imagine the overall effect.  Mighty cute and pretty easy. 

15 Years

Happy Anniversary to Us!  We've been married 15 years today.  That's pretty good if I do say so myself.... especially as I was talking through the preliminary custody arrangements for my friend's divorce first thing this morning.  I'm ignoring their situation for the rest of the day and focusing on us.  We aren't going to do anything special tonight, but tomorrow we are going to stay at the Marriott on the rail line and take the train downtown for dinner atop Reunion Tower.  We went there for our 5th and 10th anniversaries too.  It is easy for me to picture us married for 15 years but not easy for me to picture living in Dallas long enough to celebrate in the same place so many times.  I managed to pick up the first of Sid's presents at lunch today and I'm hoping to get the second on my way home tonight.

Birthday Wishes

Yesterday was Mommy's 70th birthday.  We didn't do too much but we did hit Macaroni Grill for dinner.  It's one of her favorite places and has been for years.  We did the big celebrations in Tennessee over the Summer.

Passports - First Attempt

I will be more comfortable taking the kids out of the country if they have passports than if I take them just with their birth certificates.  So I've gotten their pictures made, I've filed out the forms and gathered up all the extras.  I left work at 2:30 in order to pick them up from school and get all the way back to the Post Office here in McKinney (where I work) to file the forms.  I've done my reading and I'm prepared.  The US government prefers that both parents be present but with a notarized letter of acknowledgment I can get around that.  I have my notarized letter from Sid and I'm ready to go.  At the last minute I swing by the house and grab my passport and Sid's just in case.  The kids and  I wait in line and got to the counter with about 10 minutes to spare.  So far so good.  Unfortunately, I only have one notarized letter from Sid with both kids names on it.  I need to have one letter to put with each application.  We are rejected. 

Bringing the IDs was a good idea though, I need to have copies of both of our ID to send along with the applications too.  They don't tell you that on the website, but the clerk explained that sometimes, but not always,  the paperwork gets rejected if its not there.  Better safe than sorry.

If that wasn't enough fun, I found out from a friend that she has tried to travel with just the passport for her daughter and they wouldn't let her on the plane.  They had to go back home and get the birth certificate too.  She was born overseas and its something of a hassle for her to get additional birth certificates if this one gets lost, that was the whole reason she got the passport in the first place.  She wants the passport to stay safely at home.  Now she travels with both.

Mad Science

Both kids enjoyed their first "Mad Science" class yesterday after school.  The program is eight weeks long and the theme is "NASA".  The classes are held in the school science lab after classes are over.  Then they just walk back to Kids Club. 

Sheela is in the "old" kids section.  They made meteors out of superballs and streamers.  They are pretty and cute and they learned a lot. Sunil is in the "young" kids section.  He built a two-foot tall rocket, with fins and detachable nose cone and a parachute.  It seems like he got the better project.

Happy Ending

I screwed up.  I reserved flights for our trip to Florida a week or so ago but I completely forgot to confirm the tickets.  I figured it out about five o'clock this morning.  It was a real struggle to book the flights the first time since our return is so close to Thanksgiving.  I was pretty well panicked this morning.  We cut short our bike ride (our first in a week) so that I could begin piecing together a new itinerary.  It worked out to be okay.  We are now flying out on Sunday morning instead of at noon and its a connecting flight instead of direct.  This is a small price to pay for sleeping last weekend when I was supposed to be taking care of details.

The A Team

This is the logo for our new Internal Auditor shirts. We now have a trained crew of 14 auditors in a copmany of 300 employees. That's a pretty good ratio. Most of the auditor will only perform 1-2 audits each year. The lead auditor will do 3-6. I've already done three and have three more to go. I'm training to be a lead auditor, so I've doubled up this year. We all wore our shirts today and got to sit for a team picture for the next company newsletter. I really like the shirts and the team.

Let the season begin

Tomorrow is opening day for youth soccer in North Texas.  Sheela leads off with an eight AM appearance in the 3rd Grade Girls Select Division.  Luckily we only have two early games scheduled this season.  The early games used to interfer with getting to sleep in, now they interfer with getting to go for our morning ride.  The weekend rides are the fun ones.  We've seen toads, frogs, armadillos, swans, vultures, great blue herons, cattle egrets and now peacocks.  Technically they were peahens flying around wild or I guess ferrel downtown Allen.  Anyhow, I'm ready for the season to start.  Sheela has only played one game since June and I've missed it.

Cell Phone Woes

For the first time in nearly two years I'm having problems with my cell phone.  It's a fairly outdated Samsung flip-phone.  Today it doesn't want to flip.  I can still open it but it feels like I'm grinding up glass in the hinge.  This is not a good thing.  I was hoping to make the phone last until April.  We've been trying to get out from under the oppressive thumb that is Verizon for a year or longer and I'm only a few months shy.  I might be able to wrest Sid's old phone away from Sunil and use it for a few months.  Part of the reason that the phone belongs to Sunil and not Sid is that it lacks the battery power to last all day without charging.  Stay tuned...

Labor Day

The Labor Day holiday was very well timed this year.  Work has been rather frustrating the last couple of weeks.  I've come to accept that I'm not going to be promoted to the departmental manager... in fact it looks like they aren't intending to allow us to have a manager at all.  We've been without a Quality Director for six months and without a President for four months.  The big decisions that we keep putting off as not ours to make are all becoming critical.  We are finally being allowed to make them, but the delays have cost us.  The layers of indecision and the apparent corporate direction shifts are just beginning to surface just as next years budget cycle has begun.  We don't know what we will be doing next year but we have to set in stone how much its going to cost us to do whatever it is that they ask us to do and of course to justify our numbers.  Our third quarter audits have gotten underway.  I ended up on four audit teams instead of one so that I will have the experience to lead all of the fourth quarter audits.  Our independent lead auditor quit, he was the one tasked with auditing the audit system, the corrective and preventive action system and the complaint files.  These three systems are all under the direct control of our other lead auditors.  They are not allowed to audit themselves.  As an added bonus our most problematic product line of the year had another major incident.  We've been very lucky in that these issues have all been brought to light prior to patient involvement... which means that no ones been hurt.  But every issue makes us dislike working with this supplier just a little bit more.  We did not get to choose the supplier, he was part of the package deal when we bought the product line and it has been the biggest draw back.  We also had another labeling issue (internal only but that's about five too many this year).  I want to fall back and revamp the whole system but I am much too close to it to see it clearly.

The three day weekend was a glorious time of doing NOTHING.  I think I read three books this weekend, all of them so low on the intellectual scale that I may actually be dumber now than I was before.  Escapism is for lowering your stress level and it seems to have worked well.  I'm back at work today with a new and improved attitude.  I took all of the papers off of my desk pushed them in to an empty carboard box and I'm taking them out to the parking lot to use as a small fire for roasting marshmellows. 

Its still raining too much to start a fire so I guess I'll just organize the pile by priority and get back to work.  I'll go buy a s'more flavored candy bar out of the vending machine to keep me company.

Rainy days are here again

Last weekend we had a few hours of drizzle, it didn't do much for the lawns but it definitely cooled things off. Most of the week was dry again but in the low 90s. Its raining again this weekend, but longer and harder. Today its only in the low 70s. I love it! Of course Sheela was planning on spending the day swimming with Aneleise so she's not quite as happy about it as I am.

Sunil earned his bell

A few weeks ago we bought hand bells for the kids' bikes. Sheela earned hers for some rather dramatic room cleaning that was long over due but Sunil had to learn to ride his bike to earn his. Technically, he starts, rides and stops without assistance. In reality the stops are controlled falls but I think that the control is important. He is also better suited to riding in large open parking lots rather than to narrow trails. But he made great progress this week and we put the bell on yesterday.

I have some half decent pictures of both Sunil riding and of Sheela riding her new bike. However they are trapped on my camera. I can't find the cable to transfer the pictures. I've apparently either worn out or damaged the chip I usually use, so I switched back to using the camera's internal memory.

Picture Day

The kids are having pictures taken at school today. I learned a valuable lesson last year about putting too much effort in to picture day. This year I didn't try to influence the backgrounds choosen or the clothing worn. I just let 'em go. Sheela chose her favorite white blouse, a gray background and to leave her hair down. Sunil chose a green background, his new red t-shirt and I think his hair was down. It has recently been cut and so we've been spiking it for him.

If I get off work early enough (think three o'clock..... think three o'clock) then I'll take the kids to Wal-mart to have passport photos taken today too.

I just got back from Wal-mart where I picked up the portraits that we had taken a few weeks back. There are seven poses. I've selected my favorite seven to share.

Dress shirt, shoe box and paper bag....

What do these three items have in common?  These are the requests from school this week for Sheela to bring in.  The man's old white dress shirt is supposed to serve as a lab coat for the science lab.  The child's size shoe box is to become a diarama of ancient Greece.  The paper grocery bag's function is still a mystery.

 

Sunil surprisingly went a whole week without needing to scrounge up anything.  I'm sure he's teacher will get back in the swing of things next week.

3rd Grade Curriculum Night

I got the low down on the educational plan for Sheela and her cohorts tonight. It sounds like a fun program. They put their primary focus on critical thinking and reading skills and are working on algebra without telling them. I'm pleased with all of this.

They've started a school-wide bully-free school policy that I whole heartily endorse. They test drove it last semester with the 3rd grade class and have now rolled it out K-6th. They actually spend time with each child teaching them how to recognize the three types of bullies: physical, emotional and social and how not to give them power. This is also a love and logic concept and its impact is huge.

Sheela hasn't said much about her teacher this year. I like her but she isn't nearly as powerful a presence as Ms. DeWaters. Sheela still goes to Mrs DW's room every day after school to help her out.

How could I not be proud? (or not)

Sunil's teacher had to write to me today. Sunil attempted to smuggle a toy car out of her class room for his personal collection. One of his classmates turned him in.

He's pretty tired of talking about it by now. I had a go with him and then Sid got to do it again when he came home. Of course Ms. Barr got to go through him with it first.

Sunil made a card for Ms. Barr that says "I'm sorry" he decorated it with a shark.

I seem to recall stealing a rag rug when I was five years old. I just knew that it would look great in my room in Oklahoma on top of my little red bedside chest. I can't remember which of Mom's relatives I took it from.... I think it was cousin George Phares from Oklahoma City. I didn't do it again.

Jr Sprint

The Plano Pacer's race club holds monthly races at a nearby park. After the main race they hold a 1K sprint for the kids 12 and under. Since the fall soccer games haven't started yet Sheela's soccer team planned to go. However the Allen Eagle's Warm-up Soccer Tournament was also scheduled for this weekend. SuperBlue didn't do the tournament because our coach was out of town. But most of Sheela's teammates play on two teams and they ended up being double booked. Sheela was the only one that showed up to run. To see how she did you'll have to go see her blog. If you don't have the link drop me an email.

The nieces....

Seema and Sunita both came to town to compete in the Texas Tornado Tae Kwon Do tournament. It was held over at Southfork Ranch. I didn't get to go but I'm hoping that Sushama took some pictures that she will share when she gets a chance. Both girls placed first in their respective age categories and won medals. I'm pretty proud of them both! Sunil got to go and watch but it wasn't enough to rev him up on the tae kwon do thing. He's finished his three-week introductory special and we are going to let it drop for now. Its too late to get in to either soccer or football for the fall season. I'm hoping I can fill in with some more swim classes, but if not we'll just get to spend some time working on bike riding.

Another handy weekend

Farhana's AC condensate line backed up and did some damage to her kitchen ceiling. She caught it before it got to be too bad but it left an unsightly stain. Saturday afternoon we scraped, textured, sealed and repainted her ceiling. Here Sid is appraising the damage.
Here Sid is showing off our clean repair. We did tear up the edges of her wallpaper pulling down the painter's tape. She insists that its okay because her next project is to pull it all down and paint the kitchen instead. That's a good news-bad news sort of thing. The paper that we pulled down came down because its a nice stripable paper that will be easy to remove. The bad news is that it was put up over a more tightly adhered paper. I suspect that layer went up on the un-primed drywall. That will be at least a weekend project for us at a future date.

After we got back home we had to change out the guts in the downstairs toilet, pull down the lower two laundry room shelves, put up a low clothing rod (in place of the shelves) and replace the shower wand in the kid's bathroom. I managed to respackle but I still have to paint behind where the shelves were and I want Sid to put the shelves back up .... above the ones that are left. I can't reach that high even on the folding ladder and I'm two lazy to pull the big ladder out of the shed.

I love this place

This is the sign for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. They do some phenomenal work here and I'm thrilled to have such wonderful access to their orthopedic department. I spent two days here this week preparing our new product line for shipment to our dock. In the first three hours that I was there they described two modifications that they have been waiting to make (as part of a joint design effort we hope to start this Fall) and thought of a third. I love creative people (it fascinates my overly analytical, engineering side).

One of the unique things about this hospital is that it doesn't smell like a hospital. They pop popcorn in the lobby to make it smell like a movie theater or a carnival.

Start the presses

The 2007 World Book Encyclopedia can now go to press.  The solar system has officially been redefined to include only eight planets.  Pluto is now a dwarf-planet.  I'm surprised to find that I do care.  I was always bugged by the discussions back and forth whether we had nine planets or ten, then Pluto and Neptune switched places and that made even less sense to me.  I may even sleep better tonight... well, that may be stretching it but I am happy with the new definitions.  I will leave Pluto on Sheela's mobile though, for old times sake.

Children's choices

One of the basic tenets of Love and Logic parenting is that you let your kids make their own mistakes so that they can learn from them. But when the temperature reaches 106 and Sunil comes downstairs dressed like this all I can see is CPS driving Sunil away in the back of a station wagon because we are so obviously negligent.

Lake Lavon

Lake Lavon is the source of all of the treated water in the North Texas Municipal Water District. As water reduction efforts across the district aren't showing the conservation that we are looking for we may have to go to more severe restrictions.

In the meantime we took a drive out to Princeton yesterday to look at some land that is for sale. Princeton is on a peninsula that sticks down in to Lake Lavon. I took this picture of the lake as we drove across the bridge. There is still water in the lake, but Princeton is no longer on a peninsula its just plain North of the lake.

Again

Its been another hard week at work. Judy's husband passed away Tuesday morning. He was in his 50's but he'd heart trouble for some time. Judy, and her husband's sister, Linda, both work on our manufacturing line. They've been here ten years or more. Yesterday we shutdown manufacturing allow everyone to attend the funeral. Last night Theo's husband passed away. He was in his early 30's. He was watching his oldest son practice football in the 106 degree heat when he started to feel ill. He went to a friend's houe and they called paramedics. They rehydrated him and said he was fine. He went home and was ill again before he got there. His wife took him to the ER where he died. The oldest son is two years younger than Sheela. Deanna's brother passed away yesterday too. We don't know anything about that situation. This has been a rough year for the Orthofix extended family.

Competition

The point of playing a competitive sport as a child is to be to learn a number of important life lessons. Some times you win. Sometimes you lose. Either way you should do it with grace. Either way the world continues to spin. You get better if you practice. You get even better if you practice a lot. You are expected to do your best no matter how good you are... or aren't. You always treat others with respect. If you are not following the rules you aren't really playing the game. I could go on and on. The gist of it is that I'm really glad that Sheela is playing Academy ball... but I'm feeling really petty for being so proud that Sheela made the team when most of her friend's got cut. I was thrilled to find that their were so many girls from her school on the team, but we ended up three players short of being able to field two teams so they had to cut ten girls from the team including ALL of the other girls from her school.

Reunion Pics

Here Sunil and Samantha spend some time together.

Sid and the kids after cooling each other off on the bumper boats.
Our whole River Rat crew after our first float down the river.


Sheela, Seema, Katie, Grandpa and Samantha are across the back. Sam, Grandma, Sunil and Sunitha are in front. Rachel was at home testing for her black belt in tae kwon do.
Renee, me, Daddy, Shashi, Ravi and Brian are in the back. Sudhir, Mommy, Sushama are in the front and Lee was at home taking care of her father (who came through his surgery easily).

A rainy day....

Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful, gray, overcast day with actual drizzle. We delayed our morning ride by two hours but the drizzle didn't let up so we went anyway. As it was a weekend we didn't have to stick to our normal path around the park. We ventured out to Northeast Allen to see what we could find. Mostly new construction for half-million dollar homes, but mixed in with the lot was an exotic bird breeder: White swans, Black swans, dozens of exotic ducks and at least one annoying rooster. The rooster reminded me of our house in Winston-Salem. We left the sidewalks for just a few feet but got nice and muddy in the process. As long as we were muddy anyway we walked up close to the enclosures. The swans were beautiful but they smelled suspiciously like the elephant cage at the zoo. There was also a flock of small white birds. I initially thought that they were white egret chicks, but by the time we found chick number six, I figured I was wrong. There could have been 200 of them all told. I forgot to look them up when I got home. They had long slender necks and long legs but weren't really very tall. The were in fields but looked like they should have been wading in shallow water.

There were actual storms up at the airport with rain delays and everything but the rain never really came down in Allen. Under the trees and bushed never got wet. It stayed damp out all day and at 90 degrees it actually felt cool for a change that should count for something.

Istanbul

Dad and Eileen should be enjoying themselves in Istanbul, Turkey today. They have two more days before they begin the trip back to Florida. I can't wait for the pictures!

Black Forest Cafe

We went to dinner last night with Sid's boss, Hudson and Hudson's girlfriend, Kim. They took us to a really nice German restaurant in Dallas. Their aren't too many German places around here. In addition to the good food and the accordian player we were entertained by a Bavarian Culture/Dance group celebrating a three year-old's birthday. The men in the group (and three year-old Ethan) were all wearing leiderhosen, most of the women were wearing Bavarian dresses. It was a very good time.

Nearly Complete

The upstairs renovation is nearly done. We are putting a stackable washer and dryer in the master bathroom (in the shower enclosure). So we put a shower in over the garden tub and enclosed it with glass blocks. Here are a couple of pictures.... The glass wall is my favorite part. The only major change left to be made is to replace the scuzzy-old window with glass blocks. The tile is a good match to what we already have on the floor. The other thing left to be done is to hide the new tile behind a glass door... and of course take delivery of the washer/dryer combo.