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It's back to work for me today, though admitt...
May 27, 2008 by Adam in Family
 It's back to work for me today, though admittedly it'll be a short week before the family reunion next weekend. I'll probably spend today fiddling with phones at work again.
Yesterday was very busy but very fun. In the morning Sam helped me mount the percussion cap rifle on the wall. It had been in the family since before the Civil War, so I felt guilty keeping it up on a shelf. I helped Emma print out a bunch of fairies, cut them out, and hang them from the ceiling as party decorations. Finally the magic party hour arrived and the hordes of friends and family swooped in.
 It was great seeing all my sisters in the same room. Sadie made fairy wings for everyone, which ended up being a safety hazard. Jenny was telling us all about her adventures in France, from driving insanely fast to funny stories about waiters. Seraph and I chatted about Steampunk and the impact of world disasters on the price of clothes. I had fun showing off the Audioscope to my dad, and weaseled an offer of help making brass goggles out of him. My mom talked about Ireland and made me wish I had more time to chat with her. Eventually the kids all went down to the play room and screamed and yelled until the party was over.
Emma got quite a bit of loot. I gave her an MP3 player, which she cheerfully blared the Nutcracker from while she did art projects on Yayoe's giant drawing paper. Emma also ended up with a bunch of clothes, so there was the inevitable fashion show after the party.
As the day wound down, we cleaned up and tried to wrangle some tired and cranky kids through their normal routine. Sam was a bit frustrated with the amount of homework he had to do. His Jimmy Carter report is finished, but now he's catching up with his normal math and spelling. Tonight we have fencing, so it'll likely be another busy day.
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We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie to...
May 26, 2008 by Adam in Family
 We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie today, with Sam and Sadie ganging up to make me wear my "costume". Basically I've got a hat Colin gave me years ago that makes me look like Indiana Jones. The rest of the outfit is pretty standard, but the hat is the key. The movie itself was okay, with excellent action sequences and an okay plot. Sam declared at the end that Raiders wasn't about aliens, and I quietly agreed.
The weekend has been very exciting so far, with another day to go. On Saturday Sadie and Greg came over. The kids immediately swarmed them and gave them a tour of the house. I snuck away and returned with canning supplies. We made apple butter and ginger pear marmalade. Even better was making labels for the jam with made-up names like "Yellow Pony Curd". Very fun.
Today the girls decorated for Emma's party, which is sort of turning into a three-way birthday party for Jenny, Sadie, and Emma. As usual, my gifts were thrown together at the last minute, but they're well meaning. I also mowed the lawns, hoping beyond hope that it'll be somehow sunny tomorrow.
As for the rest of the day, I took the kids to the park, helped Emma play Wii Fit, and did a bit of drawing. Sam really got into Wii Fit, playing an hour yesterday and cheerfully saying how sore he was today. Ah, was a fascinating modern world we live in.
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It's that sweet Mocha Friday yet again, my on...
May 23, 2008 by Adam in Family
 It's that sweet Mocha Friday yet again, my one day of indulgence.
The kids were relatively good last night. Emma started to throw a temper tantrum when I told her she couldn't use Jamie's pens. I explained that throwing a fit didn't work and it was better to talk about it. She seemed okay with that and settled down again. We'll see if I can use the whole "logic" approach in the future.
Otherwise Emma was fun to hang out with last night. We drew, played dolls, and ran around outside. Sam dug up an old webcam of mine and made up the "security guard" game. The camera was trained on the big jewel Sadie gave him, and the thief tried to steal it away without being caught. Good times.
It's looking like we're going to have a very exciting weekend. Jamie and I have date night tonight, with Sam and Emma going over to Dave's house. Tomorrow Sadie comes to visit and hopefully make jam. Monday is Emma's bithday. Fun, fun!
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The week has been moving along
May 22, 2008 by Adam in Family
The week has been moving along. I spent yesterday playing with the web-enabled phones that they're installing at RiverBend. It was kinda fun being able to see my phone number and picture on my phone. Today will probably be less play and more work, as I've got a ton of meetings that I need to actually stay awake in.
Jamie and Emma have seemed groggy in the evenings. Mostly Sam and I have been hanging out and visiting. Last night he watched Buffy while I worked on my computer game, then we'd talk about the episode later. I reassured Sam he wouldn't lose his immortal soul if he slept with a girl in high school, though perhaps there were other issues to consider. It's funny that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an icebreaker for having "those" kind of talks about high school, growing up, and good and evil.
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We had a pleasant Saturday, which continued t...
May 18, 2008 by Adam in Family
 We had a pleasant Saturday, which continued to be very hot. After a tasty breakfast, we took the kids up to Hendrick's park where they frolicked in the flowers and chased a turkey around the grounds. We never did figure out why there was a turkey released into the semi-wild, but it gave Sam great entertainment.
Later Sam went to a play date with Chase and Jamie went to help at a garage sale. I took Emma to Michael's to pick up project supplies. She was very good the whole time, quite the contrast from this last week. Afterwards we drew and took it easy.
Jamie made a great salad, out of beets of all things, and we eventually got the kids to bed.
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The Starbucks people gave me a free second sh...
May 16, 2008 by Adam in Family
The Starbucks people gave me a free second shot in my Friday mocha this morning. Already I can sense the Heavens parting and the caffeine angels descending down to fill me with bliss. I'll have to be careful to curb borderline inappropriate humor in my e-mail today.
It was smoking hot last night. I ended up sleeping downstairs as our bedroom was so warm that spontaneous combustion was a real concern. I opened the windows at one point and it didn't feel any cooler outside our house. This morning at seven o'clock I would have cheerfully ran around in shorts and a t-shirt.
I watched the kids last night while Jamie went to eat dinner with Barbara. Emma and I played in the sandbox and got very messy while Sam watched Buffy in the basement.
Emma's having some issues lately, lying and stealing and hitting. While some may think those are admirable traits, it does make living with her occasionally difficult. It sounds like she's picking up some bad behaviors at school, as their teacher wrote a letter to all the parents saying the kids were all acting out. I vaguely remember Sam having a rough spot in preschool, so hopefully this will pass as well.
I'll be glad to put this work week behind me. It's been far too busy, and the move to the new hospital is already generating a ton of work. Unfortunately people keep thinking up more things for us to do, which doesn't help much.
Hopefully I can get the kids outside to play this weekend. With weather this gorgeous, it seems a shame to hide inside the whole time.
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Happy Mother's Day, everyone
May 11, 2008 by Adam in Family
Happy Mother's Day, everyone.
The kids have been a little wild, but we've generally been having a good time. We picked up some art supplies and have been doing strange and mysterious things. I'm working on an odd Steampunk mp3 player. We'll see if it turns out.
I've also been trying to pamper Jamie today, as best I can.
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This morning was far too exciting
May 09, 2008 by Adam in Family
 This morning was far too exciting. Fortunately it's Mocha Friday.
When I woke up this morning, I discovered that this web site was hit with an obscure hack called a SQL injection attack. Even worse, my backups weren't adequate, and had carefully backed up the damaged web site. Fortunately I was able to fix the vulnerability (I think) and clean up the data. I feel like a space cowboy, firing off my six-guns at high-tech banditos.
Fortunately the rest of my life has been calm and pleasant. Yesterday the kids were running around outside having fun, Emma wearing her ballet outfit and bunny ears. The neighbor boy pulled Sam over for some programming consulting. Emma and I made a little box for her stuffed bunny. Sam's gotten into Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is watching a couple episodes a day.
Tomorrow Jamie's off helping a friend with her garage sale. If the weather is nice, I'll try to take the kids outside somewhere. Busy, busy.
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The weekend draws to a close
May 05, 2008 by Adam in Family
 The weekend draws to a close. Emma is asleep. Sam's reading Buffy comics in his room. Jamie better be moving towards bedtime herself, as Emma's been keeping her up at all hours. Bad dreams and growing pains I think.
Friday night John came for a sleepover with Sam. The boys were amazingly good, mostly because we stuck them in separate bedrooms at eight o'clock sharp. The next day we all had a hearty breakfast and I tried to make sure Emma stayed out of the boy's hair. We had a brief break before our second play-date arrived. Sam helped me trim back the butterfly bush so that we could put in Sam's dream shed. We're still not sure what the dream shed will look like, only that it'll take up a lot of room.
Chase came over to play with Sam and I took Emma to the park. Eventually everyone went home and we had a quiet evening.
Sunday began with breakfast and lots of espresso. Sam and I went to Iron Man and thought it was a very good film. Afterwards Jamie made an amazing brunch that we invited Dave, Kirsten, and Josh over for. The scones were to die for.
I took Emma to the Fairy Festival, where she learned about fairies and capitalism. You bought tokens at the front and Emma spend a long while deciding what to spend them on. Eventually she decided on a host of games arranged around a giant Candy Land game board. We waited behind the hordes of moms with their fairy-themed children, finally returning home with a bag of assorted erasers, Slinkies, and bracelets.
Sam, Josh, and Jamie went hiking while Emma and I had quiet time. When they returned, I did a bunch of garden projects. We moved a Japanese maple out of the way and hung up the hammock between two trees. It was an instant hit with the kids. We also tightened up our ancient bench, hopefully staving off disintegration a couple more years.
Tomorrow is back to the daily routine. Hopefully everyone will get some sleep tonight.
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I have an important and weird message for my mom
May 04, 2008 by Adam in Family
I have an important and weird message for my mom.
In order to get linens in Lyons, contact Dominique Muller. Her phone number id 04 7890 8682. Her cell phone is 06 7520 9046.
Jamie handed me a piece of paper with limited instructions, so I hope I got that right.
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It's Mocha Friday, yet again
May 02, 2008 by Adam in Family
 It's Mocha Friday, yet again. I just started sipping away at that delicious treat.
Poor Emma bonked her lip yesterday. Evidently there was a collision between the children and a fall to the floor. I think she's okay now. Last night we continued our grand play pretend story. I think I was a baby deer for awhile, though there were breaks for cereal and drawing quilts. Mostly Emma had problems sleeping last night, getting up with bad dreams repeatedly. Jamie was looking somewhat haggared this morning as she was getting Sam his breakfast and Emma slept in.
The weekend should be somewhat exciting in its own way. Hopefully I can take some kids swimming, though that's getting to be more of a challenge. Sam has two play dates tomorrow, and I'm hoping to go see Iron Man with him on Sunday. I'm hearing very good things about the movie and I'm a sucker for that genre.
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May already! Emma turns five later this mont...
May 01, 2008 by Adam in Family
May already! Emma turns five later this month, plus Sadie visits, plus we have the big family reunion. It's amazing how much seems to be going on these days.
Life's been moving along as normal. My usual day is getting up at 5:30, going to work, coming home to play with the kids, and then doing a short workout and show watching before bed. Lately I've been playing pretend with Emma while Sam plays on the computer. Emma's stories involve me playing a host of characters, from Peter Pan to the school bully. It's sometimes a challenge for me, but I know she likes it so much. Hopefully when she's old she'll remember that I spent many an afternoon pretending I was a pirate, Peter Pan, or some other odd character.
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