Heard Museum

Sunil and I joined the Cub Scouts for an afternoon at the Heard Wildlife Museum and Animal Sanctuary. It was pretty warm but we managed a short hike past the beaver pond. I didn't see the beaver dam but it was pretty easy to tell that the area is still active. We also saw raccoon tracks, black walnuts and a ton of native wildflowers (Indian Paintbrush and Indian Blanket mostly).

The boys completed the (indoor) scavenger hunt learning about minerals, snakes, dinosaurs and birds. Then walked through the Animals of the world exhibits. It's an eclectic place.

My favorite part is the gemstone window it is made entirely out of naturally occurring gemstones sandwiched between panes of clear glass.

Pottery Class

The class was a huge success (and better for even Sunil than I expected). We each made four items mostly pots, some vases and a few plates. We get to return in a few weeks to glaze them. But her are a few pictures to make you jealous for not being with us....

By the way sometimes a pot is intentionally squishy around the top.. that doesn't mean it was a mistake

Lunch

"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."

"Unattended children will be given sugar and a free puppy". 

"Beware of the Dog, the cat isn't trustworthy either"

The kids and I are having lunch at Chucks.  The burgers are thick and fresh, the shakes are thick and creamy and the signs keep me entertained. 

Daily Good Deed

I'm in the surgery waiting room waiting on a friend.  She is having a minor procedure but they will not do it if someone isn't in the building.  Her folks are travelling and her sister couldn't find someone to watch her kids so she could fly in.  I don't mind, this part of being a friend.  I have M&Ms and a coke, two books and a few hours.  The cafeteria will reopen in an hour and my world will be perfect. 

Presenting...

Sheela with her new glasses...

Clayhouse

We have a reservation for private pottery lessons on Saturday.  We are taking Jaz and Farhana with us.  It should be a lot of fun.

 

Before I forget...

and while the fencing picture is still close at hand.... we spent today creating a flower bed along the side of the shed (the before picture with the fencing). We added five climbing Confederate Jasmines with trellises. They smell like heaven and such a simple chore took all day in the 100 degree heat. We intended to throw in a few rose bushes in front of them too, but we will need to widen the bed and wait for a better rose selection.

Cat nap

Maya spends a fair amount of her day chewing on our toes and climbing up our backs, but she also spends a fair amount of time sleeping. She is a champion, and very sweet, napper. Here Sheela has put her down under her (Sheela's) favorite wool blanket.

I missed this before

Sunil is teaching Grammylynn to fence.

10th Celebration

My cousin's family started a tradition where the kids get to choose a special event to mark their 10th birthday with varying degrees of "specialness".  We liked the idea so much that we've attempted to adopt it ourselves.  Sheela's first choice was to go for a ride on a submarine and discover new species.  We were, strangely enough, unable to pull that off.  However she has selected a back up plan that is workable though less dramatic.  She would like to learn to use a pottery wheel.  I'm waiting to here back from Quiggley's Clayhouse about their private lesson schedule.

Weather

All in all I do love the weather here in Texas more often than not.  It can be cold and miserable or hot and miserable and sometimes both in the same day.  Today we are doing what Texas does best; the sudden storm and these aren't little passive storms but blow-the-windows-out-of-cars type storms.  It was beautiful this morning.  It will probably be beautiful again later this afternoon.  Right now though the wind is whipping and the streets are flooding.  We aren't in any danger of having the building flood but the streets are full right up to the curb tops and the rain just started 20 minutes ago.  I love a good storm.

 

Old eyes

My solution to the age old dilemma "should I or shouldn't I admit to needing reading glasses" is both simple and elegant. I'm going to make Sheela get glasses too! This will shift the attention off of me and on to her. Tricky, eh?

Actually neither of us know whether or not we will end up with glasses. I suspect that Sheela will, for me I'm not so sure. It has been six lovely years since my Lasik and I've been so cocky about my perfect vision that I've really not even gone for an exam in all that time. Now It takes me some time and effort to make my eyes focus, especially early in the day. We'll know on Saturday.

A casual Father's Day

We started with our traditional breakfast in bed... a jalapeno and onion omelet at Sid's request (and mini cinnamon rolls for me and the kids) followed by a family bike ride up to the Sprayground to cool off. We were in the water by 10 AM and back home before lunch. I still managed to sunburn but everyone else did great. The rest of the day was spent mostly laying around and watching movies (The Incredibles again at Sid's request) interspersed with signing sid's favorite song ("Dad is Great! Dad is Great!").

Audit time

It is time again for our annual surveillance audit at work. This year everyone seems to be taking it in stride which is much more the way this is supposed to go. All of the departmental upheavals have settled down and the team's confidence is back up where it should be. I'll be very surprised if any big issues are uncovered.

The 'rents.... here and gone

Mom and John left this morning. They were here for a week or so and we got in a fair amount of family fun. We wrapped up Sunil's birthday celebrations with our traditional night at the ballpark. The 'riders pulled out a win in the bottom of the 13th inning. It made for a long night but the weather, the crowd, the game and the stadium were all great. Here Sunil and Sheela show off their muscles during "flex cam".

We managed to swim before the game and the next day too. We also spent a few hours ice skating before heading back home for naps with the cat.

The Comfort Zone

One thing I don't do much of anymore is attempt to stretch my comfort zone but today I'm going to give it a little tweak.  I'm actually having lunch with a local headhunter that I've talked to off and on for awhile.  She knows I'm not interested in leaving my position but she also knows that I tend to know who would entertain new possibilities.  I've never actually met her but she invited me out to lunch today.  My circle of lunch dates has gotten very small through attrition and illness over the last three years or so.  It's time for a change.  So I'm going to go.  About the time I got comfortable with the idea of meeting her, she sprung another surprise on me.  She is bringing her boss too.  I don't know anything about him.  I'm sure it won't hurt.

Last Day

Today is officially the last day of the 2007-2008 school year here. The kids are thrilled. While I've mostly been giving the kids a hard time about not having to think at school for at least the last week Sheela did have a few large projects to turn in yesterday. It must not have all been fun and games. As an extra year-end bonus Mom and John have come to play with the kids for a week or so. Normally I'd be taking Friday off to stay home and play too but our traditional weekend at the ball park is getting a late start. The Roughriders are out of town until Sunday night. I'll take Monday off instead but it is making today seem even longer than normal.

Memorial Day Weekend

It was a rough work week after the long holiday. I'm just now getting to catch up on our weekend activites. The kids attended a birthday party at the Natatorium Friday night. Sunday we all went ice skating. This was a lot harder than it usually is, the ice was actually frozen. Monday I took the kids roller skating with the cub scouts. Sunil wore his own rollerblades (with training wheels) half the time and traditional skates half the timeSheela, Sunil and Zack (from up the street) sanded the shoe rack/bench that Sid built. We didn't get as far as painting it but it should be done tomorrow.

My Wolf Cub Turns Seven

Yesterday the cub scouts had their graduation ceremony. Sunil has achieved the rank of Wolf Cub. Typically this is when we get to start over with a whole new uniform. Actually, the shirt and belt are the same, the new neckerchief and slide were gifts from the pack. All I have to buy is a new belt buckle. I did buy him the wolf "baseball" cap too. As part of the ceremony his akela gets to change the neckerchief and present his awards. Here Sid does the honors.

This morning the little wolf was treated to donuts in bed in honor of his seventh birthday. The day should be more a less a party from the beginning. Today is Field Day at school. There are 36 different game stations about a third of which involve getting wet. We will go out to dinner tonight too.

Nonlinear time

I haven't mentioned it lately but I love my stackable, energy efficient washer and dryer.  I appreciate them every week but I've noticed that time doesn't work in the same straight forward fashion where they are concerned.  I first noticed it with the washer.  A typical wash cycle is 35 minutes.  It even tells you this when you turn the cycle on plus there is a handy digital display so you can keep track of the time remaining.  Theoretically then 36 minutes after starting a load it should be ready for the next load.  But instead it will get down to two minutes remaining and stay there for 2-5 minutes.  Which isn't too bad, when you get down to one minute remaining it can take as long as 10 minutes to stop.  Actually at that stage of the game it stops frequently according to all outward appearance and sounds but after resting for a minute or two it will rotate one more time before returning to hibernation.

 

What I didn't notice until yesterday is that the dryer has a strange sense of time too.  Again a typical drying cycle, according to the display, is 35 minuntes.  But by throwing a dry towel in with a wet load you should be able to cut the srying time roughly in half.  When I try this the timer cuts off about 15 minutes, this didn't seem strange.  My understanding is that it calculates drying time by humidity levels in the drum.  But after another five minutes or so it will add back ten minutes.  In the end I'm always surprised to find that the machine is still running when I think it should be done or that it is done when I think it should have stopped.

 

On a vaugely related note it does appear that adding the dry towel really does cut the drying time.