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Happy Thanksgiving
November 29, 2013 by Adam in Family
 It was a quiet and pleasant Thanksgiving. I started out at the crack of dawn, working away at home. I built interfaces, made web pages, and had a couple nice emails from coworkers thanking me for what I've done. It was quite productive.
Duncan and Berry convinced Joanna to make a real Thanksgiving meal, so they went off to the store and then played football (aka soccer) with some friends. I invited my mom and Bob over for nibbles. I watched the rest of IP Man while I ran, then watched in awe as Joanna made an elaborate Thanksgiving meal in a short period of time.
 Dinner was tasty, especially the pumpkin pie and sweet potato casserole. I stuffed myself and had a couple glasses of cider. Emma kept chatting away over IM to both Duncan and I. It was nice to have around in spirit, if not body.
I also spent a couple hours playing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which is a fun little pirate game. I don't quite have my own ship yet, but I look forward to teaching my crew assorted sea chanties. Yes, it's a feature.
I look forward to getting Sam and Emma tomorrow. We completely forgot about her half birthday, so we plan on remedying that shortly. We missed pizza and Mythbusters, so I think we'll do that Sunday. There's some homework both kids have, so it won't be all fun and games. Maybe just mostly fun and games.
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Thanksgiving Eve
November 28, 2013 by Adam in Family
I worked from home today, keeping an eye on Sam and Emma and generally getting things done. Sam is on the mend finally, eschewing pain pills and eating a decent if soft meal. Sam was perky enough to play Planetary Annihilation with me, which was mutually entertaining. He and Emma went to their mom's after lunch, leaving me to work away and occasionally entertain the smaller kids.
Joanna's still getting over her cold, though not nearly as bad as Sam. She's going out tonight for her music thing at church. Tomorrow should be pretty quiet. I'm working. Joanna and the little kids are puttering about. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
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Lazy Monday
November 25, 2013 by Adam in Family
Today is Joanna and I's "bonus" anniversary, not the date of our wedding, but the date we got together. She's got her sexy voice today, a side effect of all the colds we've been passing around.
Sam continues to be pretty sick. I think the virus is gone, but his poor throat got pretty destroyed over the last few days. We took the other kids to get their flu vaccination, but he stayed home. He's been mostly sitting around and managing his pain medicine. Hopefully he can eat real food in a day or two, though his birthday pizza meal is uncertain.
Yesterday was mostly quiet. At one point the three younger kids were running around in footy pajamas with the superpower of sleep. It was quite amusing.
We're going off to Cosmic Pizza tonight. We're promised drawing classes and music, which we decided sounded superfun.
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Frosty Sunday
November 24, 2013 by Adam in Family
Sam continues to be pretty sick, but I hope he's finally on the mend. He spent much of yesterday at his mom's house watching 80's movies and getting a painkiller schedule sorted out. He's been eating a little today and seems more coherent. After watching Guns, Germs, and Steel on Netflix for a couple hours, he went back to bed.
Emma and Berry have put in a lot of play time together, and the three of us went to the library yesterday. Duncan stayed up until 1 a.m. while at his friends' house, returning wonky and being pretty weepy for the rest of the day. We kept him home from a birthday party, which was disappointing to him, but seemed prudent.
I'm feeling a little tired and achy myself. Hopefully I can get a little rest in today.
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Sick Sam Mocha Friday
November 22, 2013 by Adam in Family
 Sam has a 102.7 fever this morning - it's his third day, so I'm taking him in. I'm thinking strep throat perhaps, though we'll see what the doctor says. He's been so miserable and last night I finally decided that he wasn't going to get better on his own. Poor guy. I'm not sure when a mocha will occur - I'm sacrificing my caffeine for my son's happiness.
I worked from home yesterday, keeping an eye on him until Jamie picked him up late in the morning for a few hours. Around one, Joanna and I went to Emma's school for her harvest lunch. She seemed very enthusiastic to see us all. It was cool seeing her in her own environment.
Duncan and Berry have been relatively cheerful. Berry did some amazing anime style art yesterday, collecting everyone's comments and writing it next to the picture. She was also working away on her dad's Christmas present, which turned out quite well.
It's also been crazy cold lately, frost on the cars and children bundled up. I'll have to take Sam out into the cold this morning. Unfortunately I can't carry him around, like I did on another cold winter day nearly 15 years ago to get his jaundice checked out. Hopefully he'll be back to his usual cheerful self before Thanksgiving.
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Whirlwind Weekend
November 18, 2013 by Adam in Family
 It was a full weekend, with not too much scurrying about. I fixed the plumbing issue our sink experienced, topped off the car's coolant in a vague attempt to deal with a non-starting issue. Otherwise the kids were kept alive and entertained for three more days.
Friday was odd - my car wouldn't start. I eventually tried again, gave it a bunch of gas, and it fired up. The problem went away entirely. I took it to the mechanic who read the diagnostic, which had a code not in the database. I googled it and found it was an issue with the "swivel valve". In any case, my coolant was a little low so I filled it up and hope to start the car again today.
I had both kids Friday night as Jamie was assisting her family in Portland. Saturday morning made for a crepe filled breakfast, with lots of at-home play time. I made a mask of Emma's face out of plaster bandages, which she was very patient for. Joanna was under the weather, so I took everyone but Sam to the library. Duncan had Rob and Nick over, and I took Sam and Emma to the basement to play until I was exhausted. The day wrapped up with Bang Goes the Theory and pizza.
Sunday started with more tasty breakfast. Sam and I worked on homework. Emma played Minecraft with her friends. Jamie returned to town to take them both to lunch. In the afternoon we met with Yayoe to listen to a storyteller. She was quite good, and the kids had lots of questions for her. The day wound down with more play time and dinner.
I left out the boring parts, like the endless loads of laundry, dishes, and cleaning up. That's a given when the horde is assembled. Tonight should be quieter now that we're back into the school routine.
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Mocha Friday
November 15, 2013 by Adam in Family
It's the usual noisy, happy Friday morning. Emma and Joanna are discussing OBOB books. Emma's burning through one about talking dogs. She's got the obsessively reading gene for sure.
It's been a pleasant week in general. Work has been low-key, busy without being overwhelming. Joanna got her first real paycheck from her new business, along with a second contract. She's busy networking away when she's not moving kids about, volunteering at school, or doing work.
Thanksgiving and Christmas plans are slowly coming together. I'm going to do my best to take off as much time as possible when my sisters are in town. I'll probably take off a few days around Thanksgiving, though we're not having Thanksgiving dinner until Saturday. Between ex-spouses and football games, that was the best time we could manage.
I'm looking forward to the weekend, which hopefully will be adequately lazy. Emma wants to do a plaster mask, and we usually make a library run. There's storytelling on Sunday and I suspect I'll need to do a little plumbing in there too.
Oh, and a mocha awaits me when I get to work. That's always a treat.
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Exploding Bathrooms
November 13, 2013 by Adam in Family
I was in the middle of making my lunch this morning when a panicked Joanna called out for me. "The sink's gone crazy!" Contemplating the mental health of our bathroom fixtures, I rushed upstairs to find the hose to the sink spraying everywhere. I turned it off and we proceeded to throw towels everywhere and try to salvage what we could.
Duncan claims to be deathly ill this morning, an ever-shifting list of symptoms. I fear I've grown somewhat heartless as the years have passed. If blood isn't spraying, vomiting hasn't occurred recently, and there's no fever, I send them off to school.
Life is never boring.
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Three Day Weekend
November 12, 2013 by Adam in Family
The three day weekends just keep coming. More are appearing next month. It's like the kids hardly work at all.
I went to Duncan and Berry's parent teacher conferences were Friday. They're both doing quite well. Friday night was pretty quiet, and Joanna and I went out to listen to music and eat pizza at the Granary.
Emma, Duncan, and I did a library run on Saturday, with our traditional pizza that night. Sunday was really low-key, as was today. We managed an adventure to Hendrick's park, followed by Humble Bagel. Somewhere in there we melted gnome faces, played in the basement, and generally messed around.
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Mocha Friday
November 08, 2013 by Adam in Family
  It's the usual madhouse here, briefly quiet as everyone sleeps. I got up early, stressing more than I should. You'd think I would have figured out by now that things work themselves out.
The kids are doing well these days. Sam declared once again that he likes his classes and actually wishes they were longer. Emma got so excited by her oral report she was assigned yesterday that she immediately started putting together a presentation in PowerPoint. I think it helped that she chose the Zelda video games for her topic.
Duncan and Berry have been out of school for a couple days. Poor Duncan has been pretty wonky and seemingly under the weather. Berry has been relatively cheerful and goofy. Last night she was giving Sam and I pig noses while he did homework and I did dishes.
I may have to wait a while for my mocha, as Duncan and Berry both have parent teacher conferences this morning. Maybe I can get Emma to make me one at home, as she's quite good.
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Perking Up
November 06, 2013 by Adam in Family
I was pretty sick yesterday, returning from work after my usual mocha and painkillers did nothing. Fortunately I perked right up and had a very accomplished day after a brief nap.
The kids are out of school for big chunks of the month. Duncan and Berry have the next five days off. Sam and Emma have Monday. Thanksgiving week is all off for both of them - I think I'll try to work as little as possible that week. Hopefully we can get them to do some vaguely educational things while they're out of school.
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Daylight Wacky Time
November 04, 2013 by Adam in Family
It's 7:26 at the moment, but the kids seem to think it's crazy late. They were up at the crack of dawn due to daylight savings time, though were relatively normal all day. Only around dinner time did everyone get a little wonky. Fortunately this only happens twice a year.
It was a relatively relaxing weekend. We had Emma on Friday, and got the news that Sam's midterm grades are all A's except for a single B in math. We were all impressed. Since Emma had no school, Joanna picked up Emma to have lunch with the little kids. At the book fair, Joanna got Emma the latest Adventure Time, which Emma has been cheerfully reading. Friday night ended with Downton Abbey, always a nice little treat.
 Saturday after crepes I took the kids to the library, somehow ordering way too many bagels. Emma and I worked in the garden while Joanna took Berry to a birthday party at Skate World. Apparently she did quite well and had a good time. Joanna reported they removed much of the carpeting, which I think made it less horrible. Sam appeared, everyone came home, and we did our traditional pizza and Bang Goes the Theory.
Sunday began crazy early. I played some Terraria with the kids, cleaned a virus off of Duncan's computer, and worked on crepes and dutch babies for breakfast, along with bacon, sausages, and veggie sausages. Joanna disappeared with the kids to church, leaving Sam, Emma, and I to play Creationary and charades. Emma wanted to hang out with her mom, so she vanished for a couple hours. Sam and I played GTA 4 and drove motorcycles through the subways.
Lunch came, Joanna dropped off kids, and returned to judge a talent contest. I took the kids to the park where Sam and I timed runs on the snake. Berry dug holes in the sand. Emma played on the swing. Duncan broke chestnuts.
We came back home to chocolate milk, snacks, and hanging out for the rest of the day. There was drawing, reading, video games, and lots of dishes and laundry on my part. Now it's bedtime, and I'm wrapping it up, pretty tuckered.
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Dress Up Mocha Friday
November 01, 2013 by Adam in Family
 We had a good time Trick or Treating last night. Everyone but Sam wandered around a few blocks, dodging the huge hordes of children that were out. We left a bowl of candy with a webcam and sign saying to take only one as the NSA was watching them. Amazingly there was candy left when we returned.
Duncan, Berry, and Joanna went off to a friends' house and Emma and I returned home. Emma did a great job answering the door, organizing her candy in between. We had so many kids that we ran out of candy and had to break out the weird toys left over from Duncan's birthday party. We handed out invisible ink and fortune telling fish. The Pop Rocks were a huge hit and went quickly.
Eventually everyone returned and we had a handful of toys left. We turned off the lights and went to bed.
 
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