Grumpedy Grumpedy

Today was rainy-ish, cold-ish and very, very blah here in central OH, and, not wanting to have the kids running around outside, we took the younguns to a local mall which has an indoor play area. We got there before all the stores opened so it wasn't too crowded, but the bad behavior of the other kids more than made up for it. Poet and Happy and a lot of little kids kept getting knocked around the play area, cut in front of, and shoved off whatever they were climbing by kids bigger than they were. Now, Amy and I followed our kids around to make sure that they played nice, waited their turns and were gentle with kids smaller than themselves. Where the heck were the parents of these bigger kids? Obviously not worried about what they were doing or how they were behaving, that's for sure. If my kids behaved the way these bigger kids did, they'd have been scolded, put in time out, and or taken home. Am I just being over sensitive because it was my kids this happened to? Or should I have some expectation that parents teach their kids how to behave appropriately and play nice?

Grocery Shopping In Central Ohio

I found something unusual at our local grocery store tonight:

Now, where would you find something like this in a grocery store?

Wonder what the message is here?

Bare Butt!

... well, actually, it's "bear butt." Or maybe "bare bear butt." You get the idea :)

We spent much of the day at the Columbus Zoo. We have passes this year, and have really putting them to good use. The polar bears are this years "hot new exhibit," with viewing above ground and from a new underwater area. We'd been there twice before and both times the bears just lolled around on rocks out of the water. When we got there today, one of the workers had just thrown several toys in the water, and the bears jumped in and were swimming around playing. It was very, very cool.

Today's visit was prompted by the appearance of a little hispanic cartoon girl, who both of the kids love. There was a breakfast meetup, which we skipped, several "drive through the zoo on a golf cart" tours, and several scheduled photo ops where the kids could get their picture taken with the little adventurer. We managed to get in on the last photo op of the day, and, lo and behold, our kids actually didn't freak out, and managed to stand still long enough for us to take a few pictures. They even got to give her a hug and high five. Good times were had by all.

What's the Bald Man Been Up To?

You might have noticed that I really don't talk much about work online. I just think that things can get a little... weird. Well, today, I'm going to go ahead and ignore that, because what I've been working on has been so cool, I really want to share.

I work for a small company called Brand Thunder. We make customized themes for the Firefox and Internet Explorer web browsers. Recently, we completed a project that will not only change the way we create our Firefox themes, it also provides benefits to people who use and develop Personas for Firefox. Original Personas have one background image which is anchored top-right in the browser and cannot repeat. With Personas Interactive, a Persona designer can use multiple images which can be anchored left, right or center, and can be repeated. I think that this creates more interesting experiences for you, the users. With original Personas, designers were required to submit their Personas to Mozilla to be hosted so that persona previewing could be enabled. With Personas Interactive, anyone can host a Personas gallery and grant permission for sites to allow persona previewing, which gives the designer more flexibility, and you the users more places to go to find personas (once this catches on). There's more but you can read more about it at the Personas Interactive website, or on the blog of our Firefox developer here, here, here and here. It's pretty heady stuff, mostly aimed at personas developers, but if you're interested in how it's done and want to give it a go yourself, have a read. If all you want to do is see examples of how things work, I have a very small gallery put together over at my Personas site. Fair warning, I'm no artist, seeing what I've done may make your eyes bleed.

I hope you give our stuff a try. Another fair warning: Brand Thunder's primary revenue source is via our search partners, Bing and Ask. When you install Personas Interactive, Bing Search will be set as the default search engine. Please give Bing a try. It'll help feed the kids...

Give Us This Day...

Lately, our family has been on a bread kick. Amy found this recipe online and it has been a huge hit around here (the actual recipe is a good way down the page, past the whole part about how the author's four-year-old makes the bread). I'd encourage you to give it a try as is. If you're less of a "rustic" type and more of a "make me a gosh-darned sammich" type like me, try the following:

No Knead Bread Recipe - Perfect for Sammiches

Adapted from this recipe, you can read about all the different adaptations her recipe went through to get to where hers currently sits.

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 3/4 Tbsp kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)
• 1-1/2 cups warm water
• butter

The Hardware

• the largest mixing bowl you can find
• a silicone spoon or spatula
• plastic wrap
• bread loaf pan
• cooling rack

The Method

1. Mix all the ingredients in the large mixing bowl. Get as much of the flour incorporated as you can. The dough won't look all smooth like you've probably seen on TV, but that's perfectly OK.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, stuff in a warm dry place for 12-24 hours.
3. Dust a work surface lightly with flour, turn out the dough onto the work surface, and turn the dough over on itself a few times. You're not kneading, just some gentle folding. Don't overdo it.
4. Liberally butter the inside of a bread loaf pan, then dump the dough into the pan. I like to press the dough into the pan to get it more evenly distributed. Let the dough sit for 2 hours.
5. Preheat your oven to 350. Bake the dough for 50-55 minutes.
6. After pulling from the oven, remove the bread from the loaf pan and place on a cooling rack. While still rocket hot, smear butter over the top (yummmm)
7. VERY IMPORTANT Allow the bread to cool for at least an hour, or you may end up killing your bread. No, it won't be easy. Maybe you should go for a drive or something, because the yummy smell will drive you bonkers
8. Slice, butter up, and consume. Or slice, make yourself a gosh-darned sammich, and comsume. Whatever. Just eat it. It's good!

I hope you all enjoy as much as we have.

10 on Tuesday

Hi, Long time no post! A quick recap of life from the couch:

1) Thanks mom for the spontaneous offer to watch the kids overnight. It was a wonderful break and chance to recharge and get some stuff done around the house.

2) Happy's favorite color- blue. I think he likes to say the word.

3) Part of our weekend projects- a "big girl" bed for Poet. She is very proud.

4) Poet's tear duct tubes were removed this morning. Every thing looks fine.

5) Happy is a passionate eater- 5 Q-tips were needed to clean the tomato sauce out of his ear.

6) Our garden this year consists of 2 tomato plants hanging from a topsy turvy ... do they really work?

7) Happy is 18 months this week- where has the time gone?

8) Home grown strawberries- yummy

9) Kona and Sid went for their yearly vet check last week. It is hard to believe they are turning 6 this year.

10) Lost is over- what else is there to watch?

First (?) Sign * I'm Getting Old

Got new glasses on Friday, these were different. Because, you see, I got my first pair of bifocals. Now, I knew it was only a matter of time before I ended up with bifocals, as both of my parents wear them (actually, I think one or the other are technically farther up the multi-focal range). And over the last six months or so, I started to notice that I had to hold things I was reading farther away than I previously did.

All in all, the bifocals aren't too bad. I can see much more clearly near and at distance. I was warned about distortion at the sides of my vision, but so far I haven't seen any. After the first few minutes of "woogyvision," my eyes settled in and I haven't had any problems.

* no, going bald isn't a sign of getting old...

Something You Probably Didn't Know About Amy

My lovely wife is ambiwoobieous *. That is, she can use the woobie (that's the TV remote, for those of you not in the know) with either hand.

I'm so proud.

If you or anyone you know uses ambiwoobieous, you owe me a nickel :P

From the Mouth of a Child

When she was much smaller, Poet really loved her board books, particularly the "peek-a-boo" type. Problem was, she was very hard on them, and would tear off the flaps. Amy solved the problem the same way that any good red-blooded American would: she used duct tape. When Happy got old enough for the "peek-a-boo" board books, he was similarly hard on the flaps. One evening, probably seven or eight months ago, Amy was fixing a book when Poet wandered in. The exchange went something like this:

"Whatcha doing, Mommy?"
"Fixing Happy's book"
"Ooooh...." <long pause> "What's that?" <pointing to the roll of tape>
"Tape"
"Ooooh...."

Little did we know how much of an impact that conversation would have on her.

Back in March, we went to one of our favorite local parks. It's got a pair of baby swings, which the kids love, a pair of big swings, to which Poet is transitioning, and a twin slide, down which the kids race. When we got to the big swings, we saw that someone had wrapped the chains all around the crossbar and the seats were all cattywampus, so we couldn't use them that day.

"What happened?" Poet wanted to know.
"They're broke, Poet."
"Ooooh, broke. Fix it?"
"Well, I can't but someone will soon."
"Ooooh. With tape?"
<boggle/> "Sure, Poet, with tape."
"OK!"

A week or so passed by before we returned to the park again, and the swings had been fixed, a fact which hadn't escaped Poet's notice.

"THEY FIXED IT!"
"Why yes, Poet, they did!"
"WITH TAPE!"
"Yes, Poet, with tape."

Now every time we go to the park, Poet points out to us that they fixed the swings. With tape.

She's so adorable... :)

How Much Does My Wife Rock?

She got me tickets for opening day for my favorite baseball team. That's how much she rocks!

Thanks, Sweetie :)

with sauce?

I know this blog is turning into a story of the kids, but sometimes they are just too cute not share.

The big Christmas gift this year was a toy kitchen. One of the favorite games is having the kids make us some "food" to eat. They enjoy running from their kitchen (in the kitchen) to the living room where we usually sitting.

No matter what we ask for the immediate response from Poet is - with sauce? Heaven forbid if you say no!

Tonight we had:
ravioli, with sauce,
apple pie, with sauce,
soup, with sauce,
bread, with sauce.

It is fun trying to come up with items to add sauce too. Any suggestions?

Taking after Daddy

Poet and Happy, being toddlers, often get distracted by whatever shiny thing happens to cross their field of vision. When this happens, it's really hard to get them to focus on whatever it is that I want them to do. I'll raise my voice to try to get their attention, and sometimes I even have to grab them and physically turn them and/or pull them toward me, and even sometimes that doesn't work. Those of you who have parented toddlers know what I mean, I'm sure.

Tonight at the end of bath time, Amy was trying to prompt Happy that it was time to get it out, but he ignored her, contentedly playing with whatever bath toy had attracted his attention. She tried several times to get his attention, to no avail. Then, completely unprompted, Poet grabs his chin and shouted, "Look at me! LOOK! AT! ME!" Yeah. That'd be something I do and say on a regular basis. Everyone (including Amy and me) collapsed in giggles, but Happy continued playing, so at least I know he wasn't playing favorites...

The Obsession

Need a gift for a 1 or 2 year old?
This book gets a lot of love in our house.











(The only con- it is a paper book - not a board book)

Quote of the day

Over an hour into "nap" time today and the laughing and yelling and sometimes crying is still going on. We finally admit defeat- no nap today. We go into the kids room and ask- Why aren't you napping? Poet responds- " I don't know how".

Tech Company Without the Geeks

Working for a tech company, one should reasonably expect to be surrounded by some small amount of geekdom. Today at work, a few of us were talking about a particularly troublesome project, and I said, "Look, it's not like it's Kobayashi Maru or anything." My co-workers looked at me like I'd grown a second navel in my right cheek. Neither of them had any idea what I was talking about. A couple of hours later, the boss came in and I asked him, "If I said the phrase 'Kobayashi Maru' to you, you'd know what I'm talking about, right?" Nope.

Sigh...

My Personal Insomnia Cure

Meet Bear. He lives in a big, blue house with his friends. Bear is Poet's current fave in the realm of DVD watching. Every night after dinner, she marches into the living room, points at the TV, cocks her head like a sad little puppy, and says "Bear?" Only you know it isn't a question, no sirree, it's a demand. Well, more like a threat: Play Bear for me, or you won't know a moment's peace for the rest of the night. But I digress. This post isn't about Poet, it's about Bear, and his effect on me.

Our routine, once Bear has been demanded, is for me to sit in my seat and start the DVD, then Poet jumps up in my lap while Happy dances in front of the TV. I recline the chair, I hit the play button on the remote... and I'm out. I have no idea why, but for whatever reason, I conk within two minutes of the video starting. No, it's not the chair, or the position, because I sit in the chair often, and even frequently recline. It's Bear. He's magic, I tell you. I've slept through an entire three episode event before, even with Poet getting bored and jumping down, and the kids playing noisily nearby. It's kinda weird, but it's almost worth me buying a TV/DVD combo for the bedroom and putting the darned thing on continual play overnight. Almost, but I don't think Amy would approve...

Thankful

There are moments in our days that sneak in our hearts for us to hold tight. Tonight was one of those moments. I never thought I would hear singing in our houses. We did not know what the cleft or the repair would do to Poet' speech let alone her ability to sing. Well she has been on a singing kick for the last few days- Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman (or Mailman), " Here come the Geese" Ring Around the Rosie, and " What's in the Mail today?" just to name a few.

I love that she sings with passion and dancing, I love that she sings duets with Daddy, I love that she sings to make her brother happy, I love that she sings.

You Know You're Getting Old...

Being a man of a certain age, my annual physicals now include a very... uncomfortable... routine: prostate exam. My first one was yesterday. Yay. I'll not repeat the details here, as this is a family-oriented blog, but I'm certain that a quick perusal of your search engine would give you that information, in the unlikely event that you've been living under a rock. Now, I'm not saying that the experience was even remotely enjoyable. Not at all. However, I will say that it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought it would be. In fact, it's not even the worst medical experience I've had in the last five years. That'd have to go to the tube incident from a few years ago. As opposed to the tube, this procedure was over and done in a matter of seconds. So, here's the PSA for all you men of a certain age out there: just suck it up and get it done. A few seconds of discomfort is a small price to pay for early detection of a potential problem.

Thank you, and God bless America.