February 1st, 2009
So somehow I ended up with a second dog. Well maybe 1.5 dogs since Mocha doesn’t quite qualify.
Cathy had been wanting a “real dog” that will play with the kids and be less of a cat than Mocha and so we visited PetSmart in Reston where the Lost Dog Rescue was having an adoption event. We saw a dog walking around who was calm, very tolerant of the kids and generally seemed like a good fit. And of course we went home with Sunny.
We thought Sunny was a mix. Turns out he’s very likely a pure breed Catahoula. He was supposed to be deaf but he’s certainly not completely deaf though we’re not entirely sure how well he hears. He was supposed to be calm. Turns out he’s got kennel cough and will very likely perk up a lot when that’s cured. Despite what Drew though he didn’t actually catch kennel cough from Sunny. Though Sunny does have giardia which is a fun little parasite that humans can catch. Oh and Sunny is not allowed on the furniture but you can see how well that’s going.
So far though Sunny seems to be adapting well. Mocha doesn’t quite love him but is quickly working toward tolerance.
As for the title? Right after we took Sunny home we had a nasty series of snow and freezing rain. Emma went out to walk the dog with mom and fell and scraped her knee. She was bleeding (and crying) and I offered to have Sunny lick her wounds. Emma declined because “If he licks it he’ll turn into a vampire dog”. Quite logical really and so Sunny’s help wasn’t needed.
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October 27th, 2008
I don’t have a cool Iphone or equivalent (yet) but I just recently learned about some cool stuff you can do with a regular old cell phone. Send a text to 466453 (”google”) with a simple query and you get back an answer. I’m not sure all of what you can ask but the real trick is that you don’t need to know all sort of special formats or anything. Send “penn state score” and in seconds you get the latest score of the game in progress. When you’re team is in contention for a national championship and you’re forced to be out on a Saturday this is golden.
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September 26th, 2008
So Nickelodeon has this kids vote for the president thing they do where kids get to vote online for who they think will be president. I was watching the end of a show with Drew when the commercial for the kids vote thing popped up and Drew announced: “I want to vote for Rocco”.
Dad: Who?
Drew: Rocco. I want to vote for Rocco.
Dad: You mean Barack Obama?
Drew: Yeah. Muh Rocco Bama.
Dad: Why do you want to vote for him?
Drew: Because he has a cool name.
So there you have it. All those who were afraid that Barack Obama would be a tough name for Americans to swallow just need to poll the under 7 set.
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February 17th, 2008
Jumper
Jumper is a sci-fi movie about a geeky outcast guy who suddenly discovers he has the ability to “teleport” to different places. He runs away from home, leaving behind a dad “who wasn’t much of one” and his high school crush. We catch up with him later as he’s living the good life of a wold hopping bank robber, when he’s attacked by someone who knows what he can do and seeks to kill him because of it. Obviously now that he’s in danger it would be a good time to visit the old high school crush and put her in danger too.
Jumper is a fairly interesting concept. The ability to jump is never given a scientific basis – people just seem to be born with it – and the people who hunt jumpers are never given much of a rationale beyond – “You’re an abomination. Only God should have the ability to be all places.” Beyond that the the characters are largely undeveloped and the movie is lacking a certain something I like to call a plot.
At the end of the movie my feeling was that the movie was pretty pointless. There’s no central theme or overall story arc. The story just seems to happen to the character. Oddly enough there’s a pretty prominent actor (Diane Lane) who plays a very minor (in terms of screen time) role. Either a lot of her performance was left on the cutting room floor or she was there for some other reason. That other reason would be sequels. The movie feels almost like a pilot for a TV show and the concept would seem to be good one for a TV show or perhaps a series of movies. Diane Lane’s character delivers one of those obvious “we’ll be making a sequel” lines near the end of the movie and I wouldn’t be surprised if the intention is to bring her back in a bigger role in a future version.
- Effects – pretty good – the locations of course are spectacular
- Action – decent enough
- Plot – virtually non-existant
- Performances – Sam L. Jackson oddly disappoints for some reason. Rachel Bilson is cute which seems to be her character’s main quality, Hayden Christensen does ok in the lead
- Overall: probably a 2 of 5 – worth watching when it hits TNT and you have nothing better to do
My rating: 2.0 stars
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February 12th, 2008
Got an early Valentines/Birthday/Anniversary gift.
And yes, your arm does get sore from playing Wii tennis. Unfortunately I don’t think it counts as a workout.
Of course that puts these on the wishlist:
The new Mario Kart for Wii isn’t out yet. 
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February 6th, 2008
Emma just informed us that “I didn’t want to get my hair wet when I got appetized.”
I suppose we’d all be upset if we were going to be served up before an entrée and had to get our hair wet in the process.
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February 6th, 2008
Winning against a team that everyone hates is even sweeter.
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February 4th, 2008
Parenting is all about hoping for the future “I can’t wait until my kids are able to do …” and glorifying the past “It was so great when my kids …”
During football season (Yay Giants!) I’d glorify the past. Particularly the days when Emma was just a few months old and she and Drew were both napping in the afternoon. Mom and Drew would go upstairs to nap, Emma would fall asleep on my chest and I got to watch the game. Nowadays I very rarely get to watch a show I want to see while the kids are awake (though I think Drew is starting to like Mythbusters).
Of course this is a case of “the good old days” since the reason that Mom was napping along with the kids is that Emma was still getting up in the middle of the night.
For a long time I longed for the days when the kids would be out of diapers. Not that changing them was so horrid but because it was a general hassle. Now I just long for the day when Emma can go to the bathroom without assistance from dear old dad.
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October 31st, 2005
This was our second year at Boo at the Zoo – the National Zoo’s Halloween event. For Emma it was essentially her first time trick-or-treating. Last year she was too little to get even the slightest idea what was going on. She continued that at first – reluctant to put on her costume, a bit put off by the decorations and crowds, etc. Then people started dropping candy (and other treats) into her bag. The wide eyed amazement was fun to watch. By the end of the day it was “Treat?â€. She couldn’t quite get out the whole “Trick or Treat†so she decided to focus on the important part.
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September 13th, 2005
Straight from the “things kids say files†…
Drew and Katie are playing at the playground slide thing ..
(Did you ever notice that there’s no such thing as the plain old fashioned slide anymore – you know the kind that’s just a set of steps that ends in a slide? All the “slides†now are fort like things with multiple stairs and slides and fireman polls, etc. “They didn’t have that when I was a kid.â€)
Katie is at the top of the “fortâ€.
Katie: Oh, no. A dragon is coming. I need someone strong and brave to rescue me.
(I believe she refered to Drew as a prince).
Drew: No, no. Dragons are for Knights!
Katie: Oh, not during the bright daytime?
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September 8th, 2005
I missed the first proposal – by his friend Amelia – but was on the court to witness Andrew’s second marriage proposal. Drew, Philip and Katie – all living on the court and all within about 6 months of each other age wise – are developing into quite the torrid little love triangle. Well as torrid as 3 year olds can get. It’s As the World Turns on China Rose Court.
This particular marriage proposal was quite amusing as it went something like this.
Philip (to Katie): You’re marrying me.
Katie: No! I’m marrying Andrew.
Andrew: No.
I’m not sure whether to be afraid that Drew’s a commitment-phobe or to be proud that he doesn’t want to be tied down just yet. He’s quite the stud.
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May 22nd, 2005
We took Drew (and Emma) to see Dora’s Pirate Adventure – the live musical – at the Warner Theater. Andrew, who had just woken from a nap in the car, was pretty much stunned the entire time. He did seem to enjoy the show, though he spent the entire time on either Mom or Dad’s lap. And of course it got the ringing endorsement from the TiVo raised child, “I want to watch it againâ€.
Emma, true to her nature, danced away for the first half and then spent Act 2 climbing the stairs in the theater and running the halls.
What amazed me most however was my willingness to spend $12 on a Dora flashlight thing. It’s one of those things that I’d ordinarily balk at – having been taught that lesson by my own dad – but something about the circumstances made it seem like a worthwhile expense for a memorable occassion. Drew of course loved it for about 3 1/2 minutes.
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