"Sometimes you feel like a nut..."

sometimes you feel like cake. Sheela was having a cake mood today. She talked me in to letting her buy and bake a cake with frosting and icing. I can't wait for dessert.

Glenville

Another one of Sid's rehab properties is ready for sale. Here is a picture of him outside of the house showing off the mound o' trash accumulated during the rehab. He enjoys this more than any job he's ever had.

Some catch up photos

The Annual Pinewood Derby was held last month. both kids made cars but I don't seem to have the pictures of Sunil's. Her Sheela is showing off her version. It is decorated with a large compass and a casino poker chip. Sunil raced in his division and had a great time. I was too late getting Sheela back for her to enter the siblings division so she had to race in the "Outlaws" division. The only other two cars entered were made of solid metal and outweighed her by about 4:1. She didn't have a chance. But she did still have a good time.

Pinball

Sheela is still enjoying her antique pinball game (with your host Keith McTeeth). It was a birthday present from Sid. She holds the high score by a couple of million points.

The week of the Bike

This was the week that we read The Bicycle Mystery, Boxcar Children #15 (not to be confused with The Great Bicycle Race Mystery, Boxcar Children #76) as our bedtime story.  In keeping with the theme Sheela convinced Sunil to dust off his bicycle and actually ride it.  While denying that he was afraid to ride he has made no secret of the fact that he would rather do anything else since proving that he could ride without the training wheels nearly a year ago.  He is now quite a little show off and he is pushing us to arrange the family bike ride through Dinosaur Valley that we've been using as a carrot.  We've finally managed a few family bike rides in the evenings.  Sheela and I rode our bike to dinner on Friday (while Sunil and Sid went fencing) and to lunch on Saturday (while Sunil and Sid were cubscouting).

Red Dot

Today Sunil advanced to the next reading level... the Red Dot level. This is part of an independent reading program the school uses. The kids read a color coded book and then give themselves a test on the computer. When they get a five perfect scores they get to move to the next level.

Travel two

I'm getting on a plane with a businessman with a spider tatooed on his forehead.  Oddly enough he isn't the only one, there is another spider-bedecked brow in the restaurant behind me.  It is not attractive.

Travel

I'm entering hour number 4 hanging out at the airport.  Storms in Chicago have disrupted air travel.  We are fortunate to have seats leaving tonight.   I 'm really ready to be home.  The trip was a sucess and I've enjoyed my co-workers company but enough is enough.

Health

Take a minute or two to appreciate your good health. Not everyone is as lucky as you are right now. One of my friends (and lunch buddies) had her gallbladder removed yesterday. This should make her life much more comfortable (and lunch much more fun). A favorite co-worker is in the hospital suffering multiple (thankfully mild) strokes.

Vacation plans

It looks like our next family trip will be the Everglades (and surrounding area) this Spring. We are planning a two week trip, with the kids missing a week of school. That makes the school officials a little twitchy but they'll live. We will get to see both sets of my parents, plus the Everglades, Big Cypress and Biscayne Bay National Parks. We have high hopes for alligators, snakes and bugs. I'm warming up to the idea of kids in canoes and trying to figure out the logistics required to camp on a platform in the swamp. We'll start to lay out the details next week I hope.

Welcome to the current millenia

I'm finally stepping up and getting a Blackberry. This one is work issue so it represents another piece of my independence slipping away. I actually requested it so this is my own fault. I'm travelling again next week (my third consecutive winter trip to Minneapolis) and with the current pace of work I need it. Now I just have to find someone to teach me remedial communication skills.

Sleep

Usually I de-stress after work and getting the kids settled for the night by hiding in a good book (or any book that is close at hand) but the last few days I've been coming home from work and just going to bed. Last night I was asleep by 7:15. I didn't even eat dinner. I didn't actually even know that I was tired. I've been on the same chapter in my book for three days (and it's a good book). I need a few stress free days to regain my equilibrium... this is a good time for a weekend.

Busy, busy, busy

There is so much going on right now that I've hardly had a minute to catch up though when I look back on it nothing seems very noteworthy anyway. Here are the highlights such as they are…. I've worked both Saturday and Sunday two out of the last three weekends.  I will probably work this weekend except for the part where we try to sneak off to visit Sushama et al.  The Sharmas returned form India Monday afternoon.  It is good to have them home again.  Sid built stairs up to the hot tub the afternoon before.  We still need to do some sanding and weather treating.  Their bathroom remodel finished up the Friday before and the morning of their arrival we finished trimming out the wood floor in the office (the "wood" was put down two years ago but hadn't trimmed).  Last night I went to dinner with one of our vendors but the rest of the family celebrated Daddy's birthday.  Today the Sharma's bought a new car (we sold theirs right after they left). 

2008 Texas Tigers

Sheela's new 4 v 4 soccer team started their indoor season late but they are underway. They had to forfeit a few early games in order to join a season already begun. They will play only 7 games mostly against other girls but a few will be against a younger boys team. We hurriedly tie-dyed the team shirts before leaving town for the holidays but hey came out well enough and the girls like them. Here five of the six are warming up before their first game. They won 12-10 in an extremely even match.

Holiday Tradition

The Friday before our Christmas holiday we are graced by a pair of festive visitors. They pass out chocolate, pose for pictures, and this year passed out iPod raffle tickets.

the mundane

It is kind of nice to return to work after a nice long break to find that the place has fallen apart in your absence.  It makes you feel valuable and needed.  Actually, the place didn't fall apart, it never really does, but we have our share of standard manufacturing challenges each year and this year we lead off with a doozie.  Luckily, I wasn't here, even better it was handled the same way I would have handled it if I had been here.  We may have a few more tense days before we get clear but we know where we are going and how to get there.

 

I say all that just to say, that I'm really behind on my intended posts but I worked all weekend and haven't had a chance to catch up.  So imagine us in front of the Statue of Liberty, imagine the kids playing in Battery Park, imagine Sunil making friends with Ravi's dog Lacey, imagine Sheela on her new bike (way cool) and Sunil fencing in the backyard with Sid (way cool), imagine Sheela's miniature golf course (velvety green greens, sugar cube walls and a craft store theme), imagine Sunil's first pinewood derby car (sanded by hand and painted a deep forest green (reminiscent of the velvety green greens of a miniature golf course)), imagine Sheela's new soccer team wearing tie dyed t-shirts whooping up on Andromeda.  Whew, it feels good to be finally all caught up.

 

Back to the grind

After a wonderful vacation we sent the kids back to school and I returned to work. We all eased back in by coming back late (there was some drama on our return trip) and ended up making the transition smoothly. Work can best be described as "chaotic" but that is what I like about it.

I was hoping to have pictures to post today. I took so many that I wore out the battery on my camera (without bringing the charger) so most of the pictures are on Sheela's new camera. I don't want to swipe any of the pictures before she has a chance to blog her own. So I have to content myself with pictures from the first half of our trip, luckily, that includes the Neilans/Blair side of the family and the wearing of the Hannah Montana wig. Unfortunately I forgot to quit charging my camera this morning so the pictures are still at home. Let's all take a moment to imagine Grandma Montana.....

Manhattan

Next we went on to NYC to spend the weekend seeing as much as possible. We started off by taking the train in from NJ, followed by a subway ride to Battery Park. We walked around the Southside Seaport, ate in a deli, walked through Chinatown and Little Italy then went back up to Rockefeller Center intending to skate. Oddly enough the weekend before New Year's Eve in Manhattan is really crowded. We couldn't even get get close enough the see the ice. We did see Radio City Music Hall. We went up to the "Top of the Rock" instead and viewed the whole city. Then we walked through Times Square, toured the four story tall Toys R Us store (complete with indoor Ferris wheel, had dinner at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and took a cab back to our hotel.

The next morning we got up early, rode back down to Battery Park, caught the ferry to Liberty Island. The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges. We went through the base of the statue, and got to look up inside the statue, then headed on over to Ellis Island for even more history. Sheela will be posting her pictures on her blog and hers are the only pictures as my battery ran out long before this. Late in the day we went through Central Park, had a late lunch and then caught the train back to NJ.

Western New York

Sid, the kids and I drove up to visit Great-Gramma, et al, in western New York for a day. We haven't seen Gramma in years and the cousins in decades. We had a great time catching up, meeting each other's families, doing puzzels, swimming the kids in the jacuzzi tub and walking around in Skaneatales.

There was a little bit of snow but not quite enough to satisfy our southern craving so after the visit was over we headed just a little bit farther north. We stopped in a small field to stretch our legs, build a snowman and make snow angels.

Where's Sunil?

Here Samantha and Katie are opening their gifts on Christmas morning. Can you find Sunil in the picture?

The H2 - revisited

Sunil's H2 was successfully replaced and has turned out to be a lot of fun. We managed to play with it for a few hours before leaving town.

Christmas comes early

Our little family celebrated the holidays here at home this weekend. The kids opened a gift each on Saturday night which then necessitated staying up late to play. Sunday morning we finished up with the home gifts. We did manage to space the goodies out over a couple of hours to better enjoy the individual gifts. In my mind the highlight was going to be Sunil's remote controlled, one-tenth scale, H2 Hummer. It was however an "out of the box" failure which then required us to actually go to a shopping mall two days before Christmas to complete the exchange. Our local Radio Shack, and all the others in a 20 mile radius, had already sold out. It actually worked out pretty well in the end, the mall had them on sale so I recouped some Christmas cash.

Sunil's favorite gift turned out to be his new Razor scooter with the red handle grips and the wheelie bar. Sheela's favorite has to be her new camera.

Tomorrow morning we are off to the airport. We are flying to NJ to visit Ravi, et al. Happy Holidays everyone!

Cowboy cubscout

Sunil and his Akela (Sid) went with his den to visit a local farm. It has been in operation for 116 years. A good and informative time was had by all. As we'd had rain nearly constantly forever before hand I convinced Sunil to wear his cowboy boots instead of his only pair of tennis shoes. The cowboy hat rounded out the outfit perfectly. We even convinced Sid to wear his cowboy boots. He bought them on a whim a decade or so ago and never wears them. Apparently they are a form of torture. I bet he doesn't wear them again for another decade now.

Lost and Found

Well I've had a picture that I wanted to post for almost a week but my camera went missing. Now I'm really pretty good about keeping track of it so I don't need to hear any lectures about having one spot to keep it in and ALWAYS remembering to put it back away. Really that was the whole source of the problem anyway. I'm so accustomed to putting it away that I did put it away with out even realizing it. I've spent days poking through the other junk (that doesn't have a permanent home) in our kitchen (where the camera was last seen) looking for it. I found it last night in the "camera" pocket of my purse where it always lives.

Irish Blessings, Scottish Pipes and Catholic Mass

I went to another funeral today. This time the mother of a co-worker. I've spent more time in church in the last three years than in the last decade and not a single wedding to make it fun. Mrs. Simpson was apparently quite Irish which made for a very nice Mass. I really enjoyed the bagpipes, the Irish ballads and Theo's rendition of Amazing Grace.

Handmade with care by Sheela

For Sheela's birthday she received a pattern for pants and as much fabric as she wanted to choose for her use. She selected three fabrics and began making her own clothes last night. The first pair will be denim with a silver under layer. She cut out the fabric, sewed the button holes and joined the side seams for the legs. Tonight she will join the legs, create a wist, thread in the elastic, add the fake tie/draw string and hem them. They should be wearable by morning.

She has some super-soft plain denim and black fleece to choose from for the next pair.

Christmas Cashews...

Two weeks to go until Christmas and I've already eaten myself sick.  One vendor sent tins of cashews to all of us that handle their products, one vendor sent tins of Belgian cookies dipped in chocolate to all of us that handle their products, our Italian sisters sent a selection of gourmet, Italian cookies and chocolates, the baking ladies are making fudge, cookies, tartlets, cakes, popcorn balls, salsa and tamales (it is Texas after all).  Yesterday was a vendor lunch and a vendor dinner, today was lunch with a co-worker, Thursday is a departmental lunch, Monday is a holiday luncheon, Wednesday is a baby shower (lunch and afternoon cake) and Saturday is the holiday party complete with dinner and dessert buffet.  All of this does not even take in to account our baseline assortment of chocolate, candy and birthday cakes.  It would be easy to gain a pound or two everyday around here if you don't exercise willpower.  Luckily, I ate so many of the cashews that I can't even look at the rest… except for maybe one chocolate dipped profiterole…… and maybe some divinity…..

Miscellany

Sid bought a new car this week. A slightly used 2007 Nissan Sentra in a pretty pearl grey metallic. He is suffering some adjustments to the smaller vehicle but the savings in gas money should help cushion the blow.

Mom and John have taken water samples from the hot tub to have them analyzed. It appears that we mixed brands of treatment chemicals with a negative effect... more to come on that after we get the results and recommendations.

I finally caved and went to the doctor last night (after sleeping all afternoon). I decided I had strep but as I don't know any one with a confirmed and antibiotic prescriptions and went back home to sleep. I feel great again today but given 10 minutes in a quiet place I'm pretty sure I could still fall asleep.

Sheela woke up to our traditional breakfast in bed in honor of her 10th birthday. We made her fresh cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, marked her new improved height on her giraffe and sent her off to school where she was featured on the morning announcements. Her birthday traditionally concludes with dinner out at the location of her choice but this year she has requested that we have chinese food sent in and watch the Polar Express on TV. Works for me.

This weekends adventures include a DI workshop for Sunil and a shopping spree for me. I've been elected to buy the door prizes for our holiday party. My goals are quantity, diversity and sheer bulk. The prizes will be displayed at the party and a larger display is more impressive. We've already purchased most of our technological gadgets, so I get lower tech and mass appeal items.

We also plan to pull down the Christmas decorations and get the house set up. Luckily the housekeeper came today so we are staring with clean floors and neat surfaces.

Tubbin'

We took the inaugral dips into the hot tub last night. It was pretty nice, the air temp was in the low-50s and the water just over 100. It was dark enough to have a good view of Mars, some stars and the comet.

Bonus

One of the bonuses of having Grammylyn come visit is that Sheela gets to ride her bike to school. Grammylyn goes along too. It was pretty chilly this morning but they suited on up and headed out early.

Party 2007

Sheela celebrated her 10th birthday with a few friends at a local mosaic studio. Each child made a project (mostly vases) and ate cake. It was a lot of fun for the girls.
In keeping with the theme we tiled her cake with Jell-O . I can't believe she is going to be 10!

Parade 2007

Here are a few pictures from Saturday's Children's Parade. Sunil ended up with a reindeer that really flies (with a pole and some help), Sheela chose a light up Santa hat. The Santa float marks the end of the parade and the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in Dallas.

Renewed Energy

I took a look nap after work yesterday while Mom and John fed the kids and took Sunil to his Pack meeting.  Then I sat up for an hour to talk with Mom and went back to sleep.  Once again I skipped my workout but I feel much better today.  I'm almost perky, much to the annoyance of my cube neighbors; if I start singing or anything they will stuff me in to a closet somewhere.  Apparently their colds/allergies/winter blahs have not lessened.

 

I'm going to run home at lunch to pack for parade weekend.  We will stay at the Hotel Indigo tonight and watch the Children's parade in the morning.  Then Sid will run off to work and Sheela will run off to an Instant Challenge Scrimmage with her DI team, I will go home and start to bake Sheela's birthday cake.  We are decorating it with Jell-O mosaic squares.  This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Sleepies

I can't decide if my new vitamins aren't as powerful as my old brand, I'm catching a cold or the cold weather sapped my energy but I am on the brink of falling asleep all the time.  I slept in the car during soccer practice last night, went to bed as soon as I got home, slept through my morning workout and now I'm nodding off at my desk.  Today is going to be a long day.

 

One last picture

before Oma and Opa head back to Florida. We had a wonderful visit and are looking forward to seeing them at their house in the Spring.

Grandmother Bishop

Dad and Eileen brought an entire duffel bag full of Grandmother's stuff for us to sort through. Her jewelry box contained not only all of her stuff but a bunch of Granddaddy Bill's stuff. His high school ring, a bunch of his masonic rings and cuff links, even a tie clip. It took us hours to go through it all. Then there were the stacks of photographs and photo albums. I've left it out for now so I can sort through it again. I went and bought an acid free marker to label the photos that I can. Most of them are not labeled.

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.