First Day of School

September 07, 2023 by Adam in Ben

Ben started his junior year this morning.  He was cheerful and got himself ready to go with plenty of time to walk down the hill to school, stopping by the neighbor's house to take care of their cat.

Emma and Duncan start in a couple more weeks.  It's strange being down to just one kid in high school.

Burst Eardrum

August 22, 2023 by Adam in Ben

Poor Ben's had a somewhat rough last few weeks.  I took him to urgent care where he was diagnosed with a bad ear infection.  After a few days of antibiotics he was feeling much better, though his other ear got plugged up too.  The second urgent care visit was an "everything is fine - keep taking antibiotics".  Last night was the third visit where he was diagnosed with a ruptured ear drum and given a different type of antibiotics.  Here's hoping that's the last of the visits to urgent care.  I think he mostly feels okay other than not hearing well.  The ear drum should heal by itself and hopefully the new antibiotics kill off whatever rugged bacteria decided to hang out in his ears.

Infection Time

August 15, 2023 by Adam in Ben

Poor Ben had an ear ache that kept getting worse.  He was a trooper for a long while, but yesterday got to the point where he couldn't really do much and we started the Urgent Care journey.  It took a couple hours before we could get seen, so we left and came back. The nurse took a quick look, saw a completely blocked ear canal, and sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics.  Hopefully he starts feeling better today.

I pumped him full of pain meds when we got home and was feeling more hopeful and less in pain, so when I asked him what food sounded good, we ended up making sweet potato hash browns together.  Tasty!

Robot

June 17, 2021 by Adam in Ben

We got a robot for Ben's summer learning experience.  It theoretically comes with one-on-one remote classes, but so far he's figured out how to drive it around the house with a tablet to terrorize the cats.  This morning we woke up to find this note on the dining room table.

The IKEA Effect

May 11, 2021 by Adam in Ben

I've been hanging out with Ben quite a bit with Duncan and Joanna up in Portland.  We went through The Expanse and have started on The Orville.  Apparently I'll be rewatching all the major scifi shows of the last ten years.

He has the smallest of the bedrooms and has always had challenges with storage.  Joanna got him a wardrobe from IKEA, which of course required assembly.  With a little impatience on his part, the living room was turned into an assembly floor.  I provided the muscle, tool organization, and occasional pointers, but otherwise he put it together himself.  I had to explain The IKEA effect, which I suspect drove him onward.  He finally finished it, in an odd corner of the room that doesn't quite fit, but it's majestic anyway.

Fourteen

April 14, 2021 by Adam in Ben

Ben turned fourteen today.  We were trying to figure out what he could do today that he couldn't do yesterday, and apparently it's the minimum age to work in Oregon.  I'll see if the coal mine is hiring.

He's had a lot of changes lately, from surgery a couple weeks ago to the start of hybrid school.  Plus it's just been the two of us and our cat Leia for most of the week.  He's been doing remarkably well, healing nicely, catching up with homework, and really enjoying his two days of in-person education.  He's been watching a lot of science videos and chatting with friends online.  We'll wind down our evenings with The Expanse or some of the news/comedy YouTube shows.

Today will probably be pretty low-key.  I was going to pick up some goodies at Sweet Life and we'll eat sushi in front of the television for dinner.  The weekend will have most of excitement, from family birthdays to an escape room with his cousin Francis and a longtime friend from school.

Mad Science

September 03, 2020 by Adam in Ben

Ben's really been into science lately. He had a great time mixing oil and lye to make soap. Today he's working on making a model rocket. Fortunately he picked up a lab coat work his own money, which he's been earning doing chores around the house.

Ben's Birthday

April 15, 2020 by Adam in Ben

With Ben's birthday yesterday, we have reached peak teenagers and begun the downhill 15 year-long slide of the number of teenagers we'll have in the house.  Six more years to go.

Ben had a good time yesterday - I picked up Emma and the two of them played with his new manual typewriter, whacking on the keys and composing funny business memos.

Dinner was sushi takeout followed by a vast amount of presents and a hearty cake.  It was a fine celebration.

Taming of the Shrew

December 18, 2019 by Adam in Ben

We just got back from Taming of the Shrew, put on at Roosevelt for our entertainment.  While it wasn't as polished as A Midsummer Night's Dream, it was still pretty entertaining.  Ben had a good time and was pretty amusing waving a rubber chicken around (swords weren't allowed).  It was the slapstick comedy version of the play, so it ended with a pie in the face.

First Day of School

September 05, 2019 by Adam in Ben

Ben started their first day of school today.  There was some last minute switching around as they wanted to take a science class first period.  They were also going to walk with a friend to school, but she had to go do announcements early and Ben wasn't quite motivated enough to leap out of bed today.  It's a slightly reduced schedule, which hopefully works out okay.  I think Ben is both nervous and excited - last night was a little rough, but they seemed better this morning.