Pacers Run in the Rain

In spite of the cold and the rain both kids chose to run in the Jr Sprint. Because of the cold and the rain most other kids didn't. Sunil took first place in the boys under 8 and Sheela took third in the girls 12-9. Sara finished second and her little sisters managed to be first and second in the under 8 girls.

The labor continues

It is pretty cold today but Opa and Sid are attempting to level a spot for the hot tub. Both the kids and I took a few turns at shoveling up the turf so we were extra pleased to see the rototiller show up. Oma stayed inside but she is preparing turkey soup so it is a pretty good trade.

Thanksgiving Lunner

We enjoyed a wonderful, traditional Thanksgiving meal late yesterday afternoon. We cooked a huge turkey, made stuffing, green beans, fresh cranberry jelly, gravy and pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. Everything was delicious. Afterwards a managed a few hours of the nap game with Sunil while Sid slept in front of the football game. We topped off the evening by watching The Incredibles on TV while eating turkey sandwiches.

Bonus week

I ended up getting to take the whole week off from work. Yay! We've been way too bust trying to rearrange stuff in the house so the extra time came in very handy. Plus it let me take Sunil to the doctor (it's his turn to have bronchitis) and do the frequent breathing treatments over the first few days. He's fine already.

Dad and Eileen are here for Thanksgiving and we've come up with a ridiculously long list of potential projects. All of our computers are ready for some serious maintenance, we need to network the printers and the copier, the file cabinet had to be disassembled to bring it back downstairs and we don't actually know how to reassemble it, we still need to level and install the hot tub (hey, we bought a hot tub last week), I'd like to re-wire the lights on the trailer so it can be street legal again, we need to rehang all of the pictures in the olf family room/new computer lab (we just repainted), and hang pictures in the reclaimed guest room.

In genral I'm thinking this won't be our most relaxing vacation ever but I love getting these projects done. Every one completed just seems to lighten the background load.

Indoor soccer outdoors??

When Sheela signed back up to play indoor I had some basic expectations, they mostly involved heat, bleachers and indoor plumbing. But the indoor team arranged for a scrimmage last night against a crosstown rival and the game was played outside, at the edge of the practice complex with only half of the field lit and a wind chill of about 50oF. Aside from being cold (and therefore cranky), I was tired and the field is a size larger than when she last played as we've aged up again so I couldn't even really see the game. It wasn't as much fun as games gone by. Color me nostalgic already.

The sun surpassed

Comet Holmes is now the largest thing in our solar system even larger in diameter than the sun by only a few hundred million miles.  I'll have to take a closer look this evening to see what I can see from here.

 

Girly Things

The boys went camping this weekend with the cub scouts, leaving Sheela and I to our own devices.  This time we spent the time together just the two of us.  We caught a movie, Fred Claus, went for a bike ride, baked cookies, worked on her choice board projects and spent hours playing with makeup.  Luckily for her, Sid took the camera with him.  Usually she came out looking beautiful, but towards the end we began to indulge our more dramatic sides.

 

We chose to skip the family campout because we were told that the siblings wouldn't get to do some of the more fun activities like the archery.  It turns out that they did let the siblings have a turn.  Oh well, now we know.

One of the many things......

that I love about our little town is its ethinc divirsity. I picked Sunil up from his DI meeting last night. Posted on a white board were the names of his teammates: Raena, Takeyoo, Kim Le, Vanil ..... bummer, I forgot the other two names. In any case there wasn't a Mark or Susie in the bunch and I'm the only one of the parents for whom English is not only my first, but really my only, language.

A low key birthday

Sheela baked Sid a "Thunder Cake" and decorated it herself. Thunder Cake is the name of a children's book about a little girl that is afraid of thunder. Her grandmother helps distract her during the coming of the storm by getting her to help gather the ingredients for baking this cake showing her how brave she is along the way. In the end the girl is too busy eating the cake to be worried about the thunder. The unique thing about this cake from my perspective is that it is made using tomatoes (in an essentially chocolate cake). It was very good but the frosting that we made to go with it was an overly sweet buttercream. Still it was a nice gift and it came from her heart.

School musicals

Our friend Jazmine is now in the 7th grade. She will be starring in her school musical this weekend. They are doing Mulan. She has been singing on stage forever and is definitely a ham, this should be right up her alley. I can't wait to see the show. If you've never seen the movie this is a must see. It is one of my favorite animated movies.

Weather

This is the time of year that makes people choose to live in Texas. Our days are in the low 80s and our nights in the upper 50s. The skies have been clear and blue during the day and clear and twinkling with the light of hundreds of stars at night. There is too much light pollution for the 1000s and 1,000,000s of stars seen elsewhere but ours are pretty just the same.

The drawback to the time of year is that allergies have given way to sinus infections and bronchitis. Sid is finishing up his course of antibiotics and Sheela is just starting hers. This year she has also been given an inhaler. Sunil and I seem to be hanging tough (knock on wood).

Creek Clean up

The cub scouts spent their Saturday cleaning up a nearby creek. Here Sunil, Sid, Ben and Troy pose with a coil of really old barbed wire that they retrieved from the banks.

4th Grade Musical

 

Every year each grade puts on a show for the school and again for the parents.  The fourth grade this year chose a baseball theme and arranged their show to fall between games five and six of the World Series.  The season ended a little sooner but the show went on as planned.  The kids wore baseball jerseys from any team they could find (or their school grade level shirts) and baseball caps.  The show was filled with song and little known baseball facts and stories.  There were popcorn, peanut and coke vendors and even a dot race.  A good time was had by all.

 

Halloween

It was low key on the Halloween home front this year.  Sheela went with her friend Anna and was a vampire again wearing last year's costume.  Sunil went with his friend Hunter and wore last year's Darth Vader costume (without the mask).  I was so pleased with the way his pirate costume came out but at the last minute he apologized for hurting my feelings and asked to switch.  My feelings weren't really hurt.  He's gotten a ton of use out of the costume over the last month or so.  I stayed home and passed out candy to the dozen or so groups of trick-or-treaters.  Sid was sick and about halfway asleep upstairs.

I did enjoy the holiday at the office however.  Our department is all about the food and we are known to have the best food at the potluck.  We wore chef hats and focused on what we do best. I ate my weight in goodies before lunch time.

This year the first place group skit went to our Insurance Administration Department.  They built a flat screen TV and living room.  Their skit was a broadcast of an entertainment news show complete with commercials and live coverage of the California wildfires, a Marie Osmond interview, a Whitney Houston/ Bobby Brown interview and a few commercials

Second place went to the Clinical department with their French Bistro complete with small tables, mood lighting, fresh homemade pastries and a complete wait staff.  I particularly enjoyed the chocolate croissants

Third place was a take off on Vision 2010 with a road crew paving the way to a billion dollars over the bodies of the competition.  Vision 2010 is our corporate rallying cry

They turned off most of the lights and cranked the A/C up.  The room was chilled to about 65 degrees.  Everything was draped in black trash bags and Dr. Death was performing autopsies on a variety of "corpses", some living some dead.  Random bodies moved at various times

Other skits included: Dog the Bounty Hunter meets COPS, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, The Ofix Raisins, A Day at the Beach, The Fashion Police. 

Favorite flower

As of about 10 minutes ago I have a new favorite flower.... the plain old tiger lily. Our office is very bland, cream walls and moss green cube walls (as far as the eye can see), but today Deb has a bouquet of tiger lilies sticking up over the cube wall in the main hall. The orange is very striking in the sea of green and cream. I took a really lousy picture but I'm going to share it anyway..... and then get back to work.


I told you the picture was lousy.

This is Texas after all

A friend from work bought another horse. Tre, the one on the left, is five months old and newly arrived here from Canada. Jamie, the one on the right, is five years old and is Texas born and bred. Shannon has a third horse named China. His temperament doesn't lend itself well to being on the welcoming committee. Aren't they beautiful?

Book-free weekend

I'm so proud of myself.  I went all weekend without reading a single book, not even a chapter (except for the Boxcar Children # 5 Mike's Mystery that I'm reading to Sunil).  This meant I had much more time to accomplish household stuff and spend time with the kids. We cobwebbed the hedges in the spirit of Halloween. I made a vest for Sunil's pirate costume, we bought and carved pumpkins, bought poster board and twine for a math fact family mobile, went to the Plano Pacer's Run.  Sheela finished fourth.  Sunil went with Dad to a Cub Scout event called "CUBE".  I have no idea what it was or what they did aside from launching model rockets made out of empty soft drink bottles of various sizes.  We started to clear the family room walls in preparation for drywall repair and repainting.  Sid conned Sheela and Zach into washing his car for free.  You get what you pay for.  Sunil had a school friend over to play.  I bought a bunch of new clothes for me and new jammies for the kids.  They both still love foot pajamas but it isn't quite cold enough at night to wear them comfortably.  I bought them anyway by the time it is cold enough they won't have any at the store.  In another episode of "I'm Turning in to My Mother" I bought Sheela the same pair this year that I bought her last year.  For some reason I can just see her in that fabric when I close my eyes……. go figure.  At least they are pretty and she does like them.  They are bright red with glittery snowflakes on them.

 

Surgical Steel

After extensive human testing we have determined that Sheela can only
wear 14k gold (or better) and surgical steel jewelry. I didn't worry
about it too much before as she rarely wore anything besides her studs
but here lately she has attempted short time wear of some of her
favorite fashion styes with disasterous results. In preparation for
giving away her entire earring collection we have purchased a variety
of replacements. Some of them are really pretty but there aren't too
many styles made with the surgical steel and they get lost too easily
to invest much in gold.

In a related blunder she wore a necklace for two days and ended up
with her neck ringed in red welts.

My Bobcat

Sunil has earned his first rank and the award ceremony was last night. There are no pictures because the parents actually confer the award so the cameras were left unattended, besides that the ceremony is candlelight event so the auditorium (well, the cafetorium) was dark. The Bobcat badge once earned, is work pinned on upside down until we catch him performing a good deed. At that time we turn the badge right side up and stitch it on..... more sewing for me.

PT Conference Round 2

We finished out the conference season with a double whammy. We spoke with both of Sheela's teachers at the same time. There weren't really any big surprises. She reads very well, catches on quickly to new material and likes to have a lot of reassurance that she is doing what is expected. They would like her to read more of a variety of styles. In math they have just introduced double digit multiplication so they are keeping an eye on her for signs of stress (apparently this is one of those hurdles that don't come easily and the kids that are used to it being easy are at risk). She gets along with everyone but spends the most time with her friend Bo. He is in her AIM class also and they work very well together.

PT Conference Round 1

Sid and I had our Parent Teacher conference for Sunil yesterday. Sunil is a strong and enthusiastic reader at school. The teacher has to frequently hold him back so that others can read too. I found this gratifying since it is difficult for us to get him to want to read at home. Apparently he loves it at school. He has begun using the accelerated reader program. This program allows him to select books based on the color dot placed on the spine and then perform an independent comprehension assessment on the computer. This helps him control his reading level and advancement rate. Apparently he did not test very well the first time (the intimidation factor). The upside to this I guess is that he gets to start with REALLY easy books. He should be able to get his confidence up pretty quickly.

He is right on track in math, spelling, reading, etc. He tends to write too quickly so that it is illegible. He has already been prepared to get the answers marked as incorrect if they can't be deciphered. This should encourage him to self correct.

The approach to the math is one that I like. They divided all six of the 1st grade classes up based on how quickly a child gets through a lesson and work sheet. So that the class is tailored to the pace of the teacher. This reduces the number of kids left behind or sitting bored at the end. The make up of the classes changes week to week as the kids start to catch on faster or more slowly.

Official photo

Here Sunil is pictured with Mrs. Norris accepting his Shooting Star Award at school. Even better than the picture and the (suitable for framing) certificate is the "bag tag" he earned. Each student earns a collection of plastic dog tags during their elementary career. Perfect attendance, honor roll, Pride Council, etc are all good for a special tag. So that no one is left out they also earn tags for more mundane activities like having a birthday and pledging to live drug free.

Round Two

I launched another biologic product today.  I'm enjoying these new products and their potential benefits to the world at large.  Take a look at a company called Osiris that does adult stem cell products.  There are some amazing products coming in the next few years.  I was particularly interested in the studies for Acute Graft vs. Host Disease.

 

Harry Pumpkin

Sheela has added her finishing touches and is turning Harry in to the judges today.

DI 2008

Sheela has been placed on a Destination Imagination team with five of her classmates.  It is an all girl team this year.  One was on her team last year, one is my favorite of her friends, one is her favorite of her friends and another is a really good friend.  The last girl I've never met, but I really like her mom.  Overall Sheela is very pleased with the team (and so am I). 

 

Sunil unfortunately has not been placed on a team.  No one volunteered to be the team manager for the little kids.  I'm right on the cusp of volunteering myself, but keep pulling back.  It is a ton of work and I don't know if I have the time.  I've been trying to pressure the other parents to come up with at least one other co-manager but so far no luck,

 

Charles River

Here I am standing in front of the Charles almost directly across from MIT. We didn't actually go over but spent a pleasant hour walking around in Boston and along the river park before heading back to the airport for a late night return to Dallas.

Trains

The cub scouts "Go See It" this month was a light rail trip to the Children's Hospital where a very impressive collection of model trains run through hills, mountains, deserts, canyons, cities and towns. Apparently watched over by an equally extensive collection of superheros. Here is a self portrait of our little cub taken on the light rail.

Fall Pictures are back

Hit by a hawk?

After getting in to my car and closing the door at the library today I noticed a hawk swooping down outside my window. He flew down below the level of my window, misjudged the angle and bounced off my front quarter panel. He proceeded to spin around and swoop back down under the window and then up into the shade tree where he paused for a breather. After a minute I got out to get a closer look, he was only ten feet away but behind the leaves. He flew over a couple of trees when I got closer. He was definitely a hawk and didn't appear to be injured.

Boston

I'm leaving for the airport. I'm making a quick trip to Boston. I'll arrive tonight and be back home really late tomorrow. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the thunderstorms and killer winds hold off until I'm out of range.

Srinigar

The in-laws sent a few pictures today. They have been travelling in Kashmir. It is very beautiful. Here is my favorite picture so far.

The hairy Harry wig

Sheela came up with a great use for the nasty Halloween wig that I bought last year. It was too awful for me to wear and yet I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. It has been hanging on the edge of my mirror for a year.Sheela is entering a storybook pumpkin contest. She has chosen to create a Harry Potter pumpkin. But she had to give that wig a severe trim. It looks much better but still not isn't something I'd want to wear. She also had to cut off the nose and eyebrows off of the toy glasses. She still has to paint the face and scar, whittle a wand and create a robe.

Storm Cells

Once again we have been visited by severe weather here in North Texas. The lighting started while Sheela and I were on our walk yesterday evening. The weather was perfect all weekend.. high 60s at night mid 80s during the days with clear blue skies. The storms held off until we were all in bed but they were very dramatic. We do storms well here. Another cell moved in this morning and just sat over the house for an hour or so. The water in the streets overflowed the curbs all the way to the freeway. It has moved on now... it followed me all the way to work and stayed up here for an hour or so too. It has moved on now to make room for the next line of storms to come through.

Grading Period One - Complete

Report cards came home today for the first grading period. Both kids are doing very well. I love report card day, but I'll try to keep the bragging to a minimum. Parent - Teacher conferences are only two weeks away... I love those too.

Gina returned

A month or so ago we took Gina out for flea dipping. This is easily one of her three least favorite pastimes. Unfortunately, her other least favorites include riding in the car and visiting the vet so this was a triple whammy for her. Our bug bombing of the house was only a partial success so we eventually caved and started spraying flea spray on all of the carpets, mattresses, curtains, etc. All of this combined was too much for my timid kitty and she went in to hiding in the laundry room. We rarely saw her but eventually the fleas drove her out of there and back in to the kitchen allowing us to get close enough to check her out. She was pretty well covered in bites and bugs. Sid gave her a flea bath at home which made a big improvement and went over better than I thought it would with her. For the next week she lived in our bathroom away from carpets and still hosting a small contingent of fleas. Last night she received another bath and was finally allowed to rejoin the household. She slept last night (still wet) between Sid and I in our bed. Today she appears to be flea free and quite happy. I'm glad to have her back.

Memory Lane

One of my college roommates sent me a few pictures of us from our Freshman year. Here we are with her mother at Easter in Lafayette, LA.

Shooting for the Stars

Sunil was honored this morning as a Shooting Star at school. This is a citizenship award by his teacher. The official picture and certificate will come home next week. This is a good thing because we had the flash off for this one and no time for a retake.

20th Semi Annual Golf Tournament

Yesterday was another beautiful day for golf here in the Metroplex. The temperatures were in the upper 80's and the skies a beautiful, clear blue. Once again our IT department hosted a scramble followed by a barbecue dinner. This year saw a three team tie for first place (none of which happened to be my team). Best score on a randomly selected hole chose the winning team (it was too dark for a playoff hole). In honor of the 20th IT outing we were all awarded commemorative golf shirts and a special edition of company golf balls.

Big Tex Welcomes you

to the 2007 Texas State Fair. Monday was Fair Day for most of the local school districts. Instead of a full week of Fall Break the new academic schedule only has a quick break. Unfortunately almost every school district chose the same day. Then they give all the kids free fair tickets that are good any weekday after that day off so the only real choice is to go on that day with everybody else. Big Tex is the Fair mascot and the world's largest cowboy. He's 55 years old now. In his younger days he was Santa Claus. Who says you can only have one career?
The food was good as always. This year's winner for the most creative new fried food was "Fried Latte", I think best taste went to "Fried Frito Chili Pie". We stuck with the traditional fried foods: chicken on a stick, corny dogs, etc.
The kids rode only a few rides but made a point of hitting the bubble house, the glass house and the haunted house (all variations of fun houses). Sheela escorted Sunil on a child's airplane ride rather than join Anna and Kristina on the roller coasters. We rode the skyway tram over the Midway for some stellar views of the chaos below. The extra attraction this day was a concert by the boy band "The Jonas Brothers". Two hundred girls had to be treated for heat exhaustion as a result of the humidity, heat and the crush.

Christmas Trip

We bought (or redeemed miles for) plane tickets to fly to New Jersey
for Christmas. I'm excited about this trip we will get to see Sid's
oldest brother, Ravi, and family. We are hoping to spend a day or two
in NYC and then we are going to drive up state to visit Gramma and any
of the NY cousins that we can track down. It's been a couple of years
since Gramma has seen the kids and I've not seen the NY cousins in at
least a decade... or their kids ever.

Three signs of October

I finally got to flip the page on the otter eating his dinner.  I'm now being watched over by a beautiful big horn sheep.  The kids brought home their state fair tickets last night.  But the truest sign of the new month is that I've mailed off for Christmas Parade tickets.  The parade will be early this year, Dec 1^st.  It is also the 20^th anniversary of the parade and our 10^th time attending.

Bowling

The kids talked us in to going bowling Sunday night. It's a good thing that they had a good time.... it was probably the worst I've ever bowled and I'm usually pretty bad. They should have let me use the bumpers instead of the kids.

3:00AM

Sheela and her three little friends stayed up until 3:00 AM Friday night. I'm counting that as a successful sleepover. Sunil and Sid returned home from their overnight with the Cub Scouts around 8:00 AM. Then I had to try to keep the ever talkative, ever cheerful Sunil quiet for another two hours while the girls slept. It was not an easy task as I was still trying to sleep at the time.

Little president

Sheela brow beat Sunil in to dressing up for picture day yesterday. She did not approve of his t-shirt and shorts so she upgraded him to an oxford shirt and tie. I didn't actually get to see him all dressed up but now I can't wait for the pictures to come back. He liked dressing up so much that he did it again. He thinks he looks like the president. I just think he's cute.

Follow Up

Sheela did not get elected to the Pride Council but then neither did the girl that she thought would be a shoe in.  Zach did get elected and he did not get to run unopposed.  Sheela decided not to turn in her application for the puppet team so now she will have to go outside and play with everyone else during recess.  Oddly enough she does not like recess.

50+ Balloons

We managed to wake the family up early enough on Sunday to get out to the balloon festival in time for the launch. I've never really gone there for the launch (when they didn't have to cancel due to high winds) so I was surprised to learn that they take off from a dozen different locations. That was my logical assumption until we went to the glow one year and they were all clustered together on the one site the map designated as the launch field. We watched first from a nearby school/park and then a future subdivision development in the middle of the launch fields. The kids counted at least 50 balloons but the photo ops weren't great, everything was pretty much gray in the early morning light.

Tiger Cub and Akela

Sunil and Sid had their first cub scout meeting last night. Aren't they cute?

Dallas

This skyline picture was taken from the train monrail (South of downtown and looking at the western edge of the city) and is included just beacuse not everyone is familiar with it. "The Ball" is Reunion Tower.

Birdfeeders, umbrellas and crocodiles

Last weekend we took a family trip back to the Zoo. We used to be there a lot but we haven't been in months. It was a good day to go. The rain moved in early enough to scare the crowds away but was gentle enough to not be a problem. A number of new small exhibit have opened one of which is a Children's Aviary. For a small donation the kids are able to feed the birds.




The crocodile exhibit was there last time I took the kids but was new to Sid. The crocs were all up to their eyeballs in their pond so we took this picture instead.

Flashback

Sunil is required to bring a baby picture to school for a project next week. Here is the picture that he selected...

I'm partial to this one for many reasons. First we customized his "Special Delivery" shirt with his name, birth date, weight, city, etc. Second he is toothless much like tonight. He lost that second tooth (twice) today. The first time it came out and he was finally able to obtain a coveted plastic holding tooth from the school nurse. Of course the plastic tooth is most effective when you leave it closed. He opened it and lost the tooth for a second time. Instead of a tooth he left cookies for the toothfairy. Third reason, of course, is just how adorable he is.

CT

I’m in Connecticut tonight and the weather is beautiful.  I was told that the leaves were already changing but everything is still looking mighty green to me.  We arrived about 5:00 PM so we pretty much settled for our rental car, checking in to the Hotel (fresh hot cookies by way of welcome) and then out to dinner.  Aunt Izzy (my co-worker) had a salad but I went for the full seafood stuffed shrimp and it was worth every calorie.  I skipped desert but had an extra glass of wine to make up for it.  I think I’ll turn in early but get up early enough to work out before breakfast.  The hotel includes a complimentary breakfast bar but we will probably toss that aside in our scramble to get out to Dunkin Donuts (my favorite kind of donut).  We are driving up to Springfield, MA for the day but will be back here again in the evening.  We leave really early on Wed.

Mr Shoba Shoba

Our original plan for our 16th anniversary was to relive our college
days, with cheap chinese food and a dollar movie. The dollar movies
have gone up to two dollars (but are still the best deal in town). We
figured that we would just cruise around the nieghborhood by the
theater until we found a a place for cheap chinese. It is right next
door to a pretty popular asian market complex. The first place we
found was asian bbq with whole chikens and octopi prominetly displayed
in the windows. I convinced Sid to look a littel farther.

We ended up at Mr. Shoba Shoba for shoba. Apparently this is the
asian version of fondu. We each had our own boiling pot, mine was
just water but Sid's was some spicy red liquid. Then they brought us
each a platter of vegetables, and seafood bits. You throw in what you
want and boil it in to soup. Then they bring a platter of raw shaved
meat to boil. Mine was beef and Sid's was lamb. I didn't care for
their choice of bean sprouts and there was a lump of seafood that was
too rubbery for me to chew but over all it was quite tasty.

Busy, busy, busy

It’s nearly 10PM and I’m still working.  It is budgeting week and I haven’t even started to look at next year’s needs.  I was out of the office for training one day and at a vendor one day.  Then instead of focusing on the budget we launched our live tissue product (yay!) and all of the systems were untried.  But all of the documents ended up where they needed to be when they needed to have them.  I have reason to believe that the product will arrive tomorrow on schedule and be received and stored appropriately. The transportation and handling of the frozen product was definitely a tried and true process.  The surgeries aren’t until next week but this is a huge accomplishment.  I’m traveling up to CT Next week to visit our sister company and make sure there incorporation of our systems went as smoothly as they did from our side.  In October I’m going to Boston.  In November I’m going to NJ.  I think I will stay pretty busy.

Hoax

The reported kidnap escapee admitted that it was a hoax to avoid getting in trouble with her parents for coming home late. I can't decided if I was angrier before or after. Oh well.

Options

I love the beginning of the school year, there are always so many different activities that the kids can try. This year Sheela is running for Pride Council (student council). There are two reps from each class (4th, 5th and 6th grades). It is supposed to be one boy and one girl from each class. There is only one boy running in her class and four girls, they are considering making Zach run against the girls. They don't want him to get it by default. Of course, no one has a problem with him actually doing the job. He's been one of my favorite students since 1st grade. He won the science fair and does experiments at home in his spare time. Elections are next week.

Sunil would like to join the cub scouts. I'll be going to the information session on that tomorrow night. Since the boys don't get to join until 1st grade I hope that Sunil will be in the "main" school troop. Sheela transferred in the girls second year and was placed with an after thought crew. The girls were still fun and the experience good but the location was difficult and she didn't get to bond with other kids from school. She did get to know some home school kids. Keep your fingers crossed for a den that meets at the school, right after school so we don't have to worry about the commute.

Payday

Payday is not my favorite candy bar.  If I'm paying for candy I can almost always be relied upon to purchase chocolate in some form or other.  However there is something really yummy about the salty peanuts with the sugar so it's fair to say that I won't turn one away if it is offered to me.  That is just one of the many things that I appreciate about National Payroll Week; our "payroll Princess" passes out Payday candy bars with our paychecks in honor of this annual celebration.  Okay it may be the only thing that I actually appreciate about National Payroll Week but it's a start.  See, bribery really does work!

 

Languages

There are 54 different primary languages spoken by the families of the children at the kid's school this year.  This is up a few from last year.  I'm pretty impressed with the variety and with the children and families that speak multiple languages.  The focus around here is of course on the working with children from Spanish speaking homes.  That still leaves 53 other languages scrambling.

 

Attempted Kidnapping

Tuesday after school a man tried to abduct a nine-year old girl from the playground next to an elementary school near our house.  The girl got away and gave a fairly clear description of the man and his truck to the police.  The guy had been reportedly cruising around the area blowing kisses to the little girls the day before (the first day of school).  There is no punishment severe enough….

 

The tooth is out

That took a whole lot longer than I expected. You can hardly even tell that there is a hole since the replacement is already so large. The credit goes to Sheela for finally wrenching it out of there. Sunil wouldn't let the rest of us even touch it.

Family History

Dad's cousin(?) Jonnie has finished assembling her book on her family history.  According to her crib sheet it lists 2600 individuals going both up and down the family tree.  The final product should be here in October.

September

I may be jumping the gun by switching to the next page in my calendar this morning but I really use the calendar to look ahead and not behind. I was also tired of looking at the bull moose. I bought a cut rate wildlife calendar for the office this year. The pictures are technically perfect and they depict a variety of different animals but they aren't all appealing. For the month of September I get to share my snoffice with a cute little otter chewing the tail off a fish. Charming.

Itchy!!

I made a rookie mistake while celebrating the end of summer with the kids last week. We went to the local waterpark for the day. It was fabulous! We ran in to two of Sheela's friends while still in line to enter. She spent the day essentially with Brooke and Ashland leaving Sunil and I play together. We rode the Pineapple Express water slide a bunch of times (It is the only real "ride" for which he satisfies the height requirement), the lazy river most of the day with an hour or two in the wave pool for variety. But back to the mistake, I changed bathing suits late in the year and the previously unexposed skin around my edges turned purple in spite of the sunscreen. "Purple" may be an exaggeration but I was plenty sensitive for a few days. Today we've entered phase two of the that-is-what-you-get-for-being-stupid punishment... itchy, peeling skin. I have meetings all day. I bet I'm the wiggliest one in the room.

School is in

Welcome to the first day of the 07-08 school year here in Texas. This year Sunil is in the first grade and Sheela is in the fourth. Time flies. I like the new grade level t-shirts. The color for Sheela's is much better than the washed out blue she had the last two years. Sunil's is very pretty but I did like him in the orange from last year. I assume that they will get new shirts every year now (since they put the grade level on the back). Best wishes to my kids and to everyone else's too.

Texas Tigers

Claire, Sarah and Sheela ran in the Dog Days 3 x 3K relay race this morning. They finished first in the 45 and under category (cumulative age). Sarah also placed first in the Jr. Sprint and Claire finished 3rd (girls 9-12). Travis placed second for the boys (8 and under).
Here Sheela is finishing the third leg (with the baton) and Claire and Sarah are running back with her.

Fleas

Gina is suffering her first flea infestation in 10 years or so.  It isn't too bad yet but she isn't as limber as she used to be so she can't scratch her back.  At this stage in her life she rarely even comes downstairs so that she can look outside (she hasn't looked out from a window in years either).  So I was a little bit surprised that we are even having this problem. She is spending the day at the vet getting a flea dip and bath along with standard yearly check-up type stuff.  The vet told me not to take the fleas personally -- the rain has allowed for a huge increase in the flea population.  While she is out and the kids are with friends for the day we will bomb the house that should get us through the rest of the fall flea free.

 

Back to school

Both kids received their "letters" this week. The letters come from
their new teachers as an introduction and an invitation to come to
"Meet the teacher" night. Sheela is thrilled to have her first choice
for her main teacher. Ms. Oonk will teach math and science. The
second half of the teaching team Ms. Nortman. She will handle
Language Arts and Social Studies. She is also Jack's Mom. Sunil
considers Jack to be his best friend (most of the time).

Sunil has been placed in Ms. Hayden's class. I don't know Ms. Hayden
but she lives just a few doors up the street from us and my kids play
with her kids sometimes. I met her husband the day we moved in here
but still haven't managed to meet her. Sunil was thrilled to find out
that he needed to purchase a binder this year. Last year he did not
need one. Obviously this year is going to be pretty cool.

Meet the teacher night is only three nights away. The kids may expire
from over stimulation before then but we'll try to hold them together.
Sid is staying home with them for a few days, then they will have a
day with some friends. I will take off Thursday and Friday. Thursday
I hope to take them to a local water park for some end of the season
fun. Friday we will keep friends for the day.

Saturday Sheela will race in the "Dog Days" 3 x 3K relay race with two
of her friends. I think they will do okay, but their age category is
actually 45 and under (or an average of three 15 year olds) so I doubt
they will win any awards. I'll be impressed if they all finish.
Sunil and his friends will be running the Jr Sprint again afterwards.

Sunday Sheela has her last official soccer game (I think). But if it
goes like last week where she was supposed to play two games and they
were both cancelled we may have to alter our plans. The first game
last week was a forfeit by a team that hasn't showed up even once all
season. In order for us to earn the win we have to show up anyway.
We filled in with a scrimmage against a team of boys a year younger.
Our girls really had to hustle to keep up on speed. Ball handling
skills made the difference -- we won but it was pretty close.

The second game was against one of our two sister teams. We only had
two members and they only had three. We are supposed to be playing 4
v 4 with 2 subs each. The third sister team was stood up by the other
first place team (only two players showed) so Sheela and her teammate
played for the competition. That was an excellent game. The other
girls are all at least 6" taller than any of our girls and very quick.
It was hard to root for the red team when Sheela wasn't actually on
the field but they did manage to win in a very even match. Those are
usually more fun to watch than a blow out. They will make up the
inter-team game during practice this week.

Monday is the first day back to school!

Perspective

I'm preparing to have my "baby" lose his first teeth (they still
haven't let go) and start 1st grade. My cousin (only two years my
senior)'s oldest just became engaged to be married. I guess
everyone's life moves at its own speed.

The grandparent switch...

On the outbound side we have the Sharmas leaving today to go to India for six months.  They will finally get to see their new apartment.  It has been under construction and in the planning stages for quite some time now.  It has two bedrooms and a balcony and is located in the city or Pune about two hours Southeast of Mumbai.  They will stay in a hotel for a few days before settling in.

 

On the inbound side we should have Dad and Eileen back from Turkey.  I've not heard from them yet but they should be in Florida by now.  I hope to track them down tonight.

Life in the suburbs

Well, I’m up early and watching the man across the street get arrested.  We now have four police cars (no sirens) and six policemen standing in the yard across the street.  The neighbor at whom they were actually pointing rifles is now handcuffed and standing on his front porch talking to the first set of officers to arrive.  His wife is around the corner with the second set of officers.  The remaining two are sitting in the police cars in the street.  Both their midget dogs are out here too.  The only one missing is baby Love – I hope that she is still asleep.

Retirement

We held another retirement party yesterday.  This time it is my friend Brenda who's leaving.  She's been here our document control clerk/supervisor for 11 years, which is almost my whole career here.  Oddly enough she took early retirement from her previous company two years before she started here.  She is our second retiree in two weeks and fourth ever in the company (according to our unofficial-we-know-everybody-and-everything network).  I wish her well.  I think she choose a good time to leave, her area is about to undergo some major modernization and it will be pretty stressful.  I can't wait to see it when it's done, but she would have missed the old ways.

 

Their days are numbered....

Sunil's center two bottom teeth are both very loose now and his first adult tooth has broken through (well inside of the tooth line). I will be surprised if he doesn't loose one tooth today and both by the end of the week. Stay tuned for an "after" shot.....

Fixed

It turns out that I had a small problem with my lovely new dryer.  After I posted the pictures I couldn't get the dryer to turn on (or the interior light to turn off).  Even when it wasn't working I still loved it.  The soonest the repair man could come to fix it was today, so Sid spent sometime fiddling with it over the weekend.  The top latch wasn't catching, it could be pushed closed by pushing on the top of the door.  So I did manage to dry clothes all weekend long.  I did not call to cancel the service call.  The gentleman came out today and reversed the door (the original installation guy started to and then chickened out -- it isn't an easy door to switch).  When he reversed the door he lined it up correctly and now it closes properly.  Once again all is right with my world.

Yay for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Behold my new washer and dryer.... aren't they lovely?!?

Indoor begins... sort of

Sheela's indoor team played last week before we returned from vacation. Yesterday's game was a forfeit by the other team for a lack of players. Sheela's team (Brazil) ended up scrimmaging against itself, 3 v 3 with no subs. They had a good time and everyone was playing well, if much more politely than usual. The other two mini-teams (Italy and Germany) from her team played against each other and I never did figure out which one won.

Another Jr Sprint

Sara took first in the 5K and in the 1K. Claire placed second in the 1K. Amanda, Katie and Sunil all finished the 1K. I thought that attendance might be low because of the rain but they had record crowds and the weather was really very pleasant. We didn't arrive until the rain had moved on past the course.

The Order of the Phoenix

Sid and I finally managed to take Sheela to see the latest Harry Potter movie.  It was my favorite of the books but the movie ranked somewhere lower in my estimation.  The richer and more elaborate the plot and the imagery in the book the more they have to cut out to make the movie.  Personally I'd rather they suck it up and make a four hour movie.

Deathly Hallows

I did manage to buy the last of the Harry Potter books Saturday on our way home from TN.  I finished it just before walking in to work on Monday morning.  This was good, I figured I’d have to stay up all night or call in sick to get through it.

Token me pictures

Apparently I did not include any pictures of myself when I posted all of those pictures... so here we go.... a few shots including me. This was cropped out a particularly unflattering picture of me. I do like the way the colors in my eyes show.
I went on the hike too.
I even took breaks.
It was pretty overgrown in spots and I loved it.
Wading at the end of the trip is a good way to get back on friendly terms with your own feet.