Happy Halloween to all! Today marks the odd ...

October 31, 2001 by Adam in Family

Happy Halloween to all! Today marks the odd ritual of dressing up and demanding candy from total strangers. I think we'll make a few trips with Sam in costume, then man the door to pass out candy. Supposedly our neighborhood gets hit hard, but fortunately Jamie's dad operates candy vending machines. I think we're pretty well prepared.

Sam's latest obsession is having us ask him Star Wars questions. He can now match most adults in Star Wars trivia, though perhaps not my old buddies Jason and Colin. I got bored yesterday, and switched to The Lord of the Rings. That went over well, so it's okay to ask things like "Who reforged Aragorn's sword?" (Answer: the elves)



It was quite the fun-filled weekend

October 29, 2001 by Adam in Family

It was quite the fun-filled weekend. On Saturday, I went over to my friend Chris' house for a pumpkin carving shindig. I'm starting to tell that I'm getting older - virtually everyone had come with their kids and I spent most of the party talking about parenthood.

Sunday morning we had my mom and Dick come over for a breakfast and watching Sam shindig. Afterwards, it was off to get paint for our new fireplace. I think we ended up going three times - once to pick the color, another to get the paint, and a third to make it darker. Still, it should turn out quite nice.

Last night, we had another pumpkin carving and cookie making party at Seraph and Robbie's house. The only missing family members were my dad and Yayoe - evidently Robbie forgot to call. Oops. There were tons of babies there, crawling and eating about. Isabell is looking like an actual girl these days. Jordan is a huge baby, off the charts in every way. I carved a tiny pumpkin for fun and make a cookie slug. Great fun.



We took Sam to his preschool Halloween party ...

October 26, 2001 by Adam in Family

We took Sam to his preschool Halloween party last night. Zillions of kids running around in strange costumes. A bit overwhelming, but quite fun.

Later that night, Sam started feeling bad and complained of a sore throat. I gave him some pain killers and finally got him to bed around 9 PM. A bit after 10, Sam woke up crying and kept crying for over an hour. He couldn't swallow and obviously felt miserable. Finally, we filled the bathroom up with hot steam for him to breathe, then got him into the bath.

That seemed to do the trick, and he settled down, splashing in the water. We got some more pain killers in him, fed him a bit, and gave him a cough drop. One of the first things he wanted to do after he felt better was to play with his Star Wars Legos. We played a bit, then I left to bed exhausted some time after midnight.

This morning, I'm hanging in there, but mostly due to the Grande Mocha I had this morning.



It's been a pretty quiet week so far

October 25, 2001 by Adam in Family

It's been a pretty quiet week so far. Jamie's busy on the gas fireplace and water heater project. I think we finally got clarity on what we really wanted. We're going for an "instant heat" deal, where the water is heated up when you need it. Unusual, but supposedly pretty good and energy efficient.

Sam amazed us all with his knowledge of Star Wars last night. We were playing Legos, and I became bored, so Darth Vader became a game show host and started pelting Sam with questions. Sam could answer all sorts of weird ones:
Dad: What's the name of the ship Han Solo flew?
Sam: The Millenium Falcon.
Dad: That's . . . ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!

Dad: And now, for the Lego boat, who rescued Luke Skywalker after his hand was cut off?
Sam: Princess Leia
Dad: Princess Leia . . . IS CORRECT!

It went on and on. He wanted me to ask him more questions even when we went swimming last night. My son, the Star Wars idiot savant.



Oops

October 24, 2001 by Adam in Family

Oops. It turns out the NIMDA fix that Yayoe sent off really was a NIMDA fix. Before running it, make sure you really have the virus first. It probably won't hurt to run it, but it's good to check first.



Just a quick warning

October 22, 2001 by Adam in Family

Just a quick warning. It seems that Yayoe accidentally sent out the NIMDA virus to everyone on her e-mailing list. If you opened up an e-mail attachment claiming to be a fix for NIMDA, I recommend you delete it instead of opening it. The tip-off is the subject line in all caps.

Also, here are some free anti-virus tools:
Symantec's NIMDA virus remover
Online virus scanner

Safe computing everyone!



I'm still spending my evenings coughing up a ...

October 21, 2001 by Adam in Family

I'm still spending my evenings coughing up a storm. At night, I take cough syrup and in the morning, I drink a bunch of coffee to shake that blurry feeling. I'm hoping this goes away pretty soon.

We hit Costco yesterday, filling up on supplies. Since the war started, I decided to get a couple weeks of food and water just in case. It's probably more likely that I'll be struck by lightning than I'll actually need it, but it's vaguely entertaining. So, I converted the sauna into a "bomb shelter" and have stocked up on a few megaboxes of cereal, granola bars, and powdered milk. I think I'm living a boys' dream, having my "bomb shelter" next to my "nerd cave". I even have a beautiful woman to serve dinner and raise my children. Er, I hope Jamie doesn't read this . . .

The great conversion to gas and fireplace insert saga continues. We had this decorative arch around the front of the fireplace which was limiting Jamie's insert options. So, muttering under my breath "Hulk just want to SMASH!", I took a hammer to it and bricks went flying. Also, the plaster flowers and cupids have been pried off, mostly intact. I did feel vaguely embarrassed as to where I was putting the screwdriver to pry them off. Oops.



We went to the park last night for a little p...

October 20, 2001 by Adam in Family

We went to the park last night for a little picinic. The skateboarders were in excellent form, and Sam enjoyed watching them. We then pretended we were Luke and Han Solo, running across the desert to the playground. All great fun.

I'm still stick, coughing it up last night. I've given into the dark side and taken cough medicine, which helps greatly, but makes me a bit spacy the next day.

Jamie's doing a great job organizing all the aspects of our conversion to gas heat. It's really complicated, involving a bunch of companies. Hopefully we'll get that in motion fairly soon.



I was out sick yesterday, sniffling and cough...

October 17, 2001 by Adam in Family

I was out sick yesterday, sniffling and coughing my way through the day. Jamie was really great at entertaining Sam, as he wanted to come downstairs to play with Legos with me. Today I'm at work, though I find my mind is somewhat fuzzy from the cough syrup. I drank way too much coffee, but I'm still halfway asleep.

My friend Chris returned from Hawaii, where he and his wife were celebrating their anniversary. Evidently they were delayed 20 hours due to an Anthrax scare. The news seems increasingly crazy these days. I'm happy Sadie's coming back to the states, even if she's on the other side of the country.



Good day yesterday

October 14, 2001 by Adam in Family

Good day yesterday. In the morning, Sam went off with Sue and Dick, while Jamie and I lazed about. I started work on refinishing our old banister in preparation for installation. We later headed out to Thistledown farms and picked up fresh produce. That evening, we had dinner with my dad, Yayoe, and Grandma Dorothy. Always fun to manage a lot of activities with a two-year-old, but we managed.

Unfortunately, the cold that's been going around hit me hard last night. Lots of sniffles this morning. Not quite through the entire box of tissues, but I'm working on it.



Another fine Friday

October 12, 2001 by Adam in Family

Another fine Friday. My body is filled the the brim with a Mocha and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Dorthy Miller's in town, and we'll have dinner with her Saturday night. I'm also hoping to see the Home and Garden show at the fairgrounds, as we're looking to get a gas fireplace insert to heat our house.

Sadie's got a new posting up on her page, asking everyone to vote on whether or not she should spend another term in Botswanana. Voting closes Monday morning, so e-mail her and give your opinion.

It's been crazy following the war news these days. Bombing in Afghanistan, Anthrax scares across the nation, and FBI warnings of another terrorist attack this weekend. Best wishes to all of you reading this.



We've tried hard to minimize projects this we...

October 07, 2001 by Adam in Family

We've tried hard to minimize projects this weekend. With a few exceptions, we've done pretty well. Yesterday we had Jamie's dad, brothers, and Josh come over for football and Chinese food. Mostly I stayed in the nerd cave playing computer games while Josh and Sam fiddled with Legos.

Today we had lunch at Brant and Dave's house and now we're back. I suspect we'll take it easy for the rest of the afternoon. We're all sniffling with the latest cold and Sam's a bit grumpy.



It's Friday morning, and thus a CafT Mocha da...

October 05, 2001 by Adam in Family

It's Friday morning, and thus a CafT Mocha day for me. This week has been fairly quiet, watching Sam in the evenings. Jamie's dad arrives in town tomorrow. I'm slowly getting my computer case done, though it's taking awhile. Work goes well, though busy without Frank.

It's been nice to hear from Sadie from far away Africa. Best wishes to her on her exciting adventures.



October already! The weekend was filled with...

October 01, 2001 by Adam in Family

October already! The weekend was filled with projects - mowing the lawn, putting up shelves, working on my new computer, and much more. Friday night mom and Dick watched Sam while Jamie and I went out for dinner. Very nice and relaxing. Saturday was mostly a work day. Sunday I went to my dad's for computer work, getting much of it done. Sunday night, we had Seraph and Robbie over for dinner. Whew!



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