Category: family

Hunting for a Cat With a Chain Saw.

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Ambiguity, the Devil’s Vollyball

No, I have the chain saw, not the cat.

As you are probably aware, one of our cats, Hummus, has gone missing.

We believe that she is hanging with the local feral cats, who use a heavily overgrown area that sits on a space between our back yard, and that of our back yard neighbor. It was created by an easement for phone lines.

So, at a minimum, I needed to clear the heavy growth on the slope leading to our fence, the unused area acts as a sort of a reservoir, hence the use of a chain saw.

It’s so much fun starting a small two stroke motor, let me tell you.

I Can’t F%$#ing Believe that I Said That to My Daughter

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It happened twice in a 24 hour period.

In the 2nd, and somewhat less alarming case, I was driving Natalie to an outing at the mall with her friends, and she needed some money, and I knew that she had money in her cash account, but I was not sure that I needed to go to an ATM, so I handed her my wallet, and asked her to count the cash in it.

And then it hit me, I just asked my teenage daughter to go through my wallet and count my cash.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I handed my daughter my wallet, and I told her to count my money?!?!?

In the 1st instance, we were talking about relationships, and boys, and texting, and we were talking about how some of the kids in her school were making “impolitic” posts to their significant others.

I was trying to impress upon her that “sexting” was a really bad idea, because you never know when pictures like this will end up.

I ended my comments with the statement that, “If she wants to show her breasts to a boyfriend, she should do it in person, and not with a cell phone picture.”

And she looked at me.

And my wife looked at me.

And my son looked at me.

And I realized what I said, and, as a result, I probably looked like a cow that had just stepped on its own udder.

I am so not going to get a trophy for parent of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

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Celebrated by having a turkey dinner with my wife’s mom, aunt, and uncle.

We had a good time, and we discovered that Agave nectar is a good substitute for corn syrup in pecan pie.

This its a good thing, because Sharon, Natalie, and Charlie all have various levels of allergies to corn, but everyone can eat this variant.

I have been off my laptop all day, snag I am not turning it on now.

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How About Some Vacation Pix

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Crater Lake Pix

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The Ashland Shakespeare Festival’s Elizabethan Stage

Click Pix for full size

We went to Ashland, Oregon for my step-mom’s birthday, and sampled their Shakespeare festival and on the way back, we took a detour to Crater Lake.

A good time was had by all.

Here are my vacation pix.

There is a fair amount of duplication for Crater lake, I used continuous mode in an attempt to get panoramic shots that I could stitch together.

The photos really do not do justice to the beauty of Crater lake.

Kids, Don’t Try This at Home

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I guess you file this under, “Why little Timmy didn’t get a Li’l Tyke fuel refinery for the holidays.”

On the was back from the Ashland Shakespeare festival, we decided to stop at Crater Lake.  (It was beautiful, pix to follow)

Unfortunately, as we got to the rim of the caldera, the low fuel warning

went off.

Unfortunately, it’s HARD to find a gas station in the middle of a National Park.

We FINALLY pulled up to a gas station in Dry Creek (I’m not joking here), Oregon.

Unfortunately, their pumps were dry, and the next nearest station was 27 miles away!

The guy at the gas station, Pablo, was very apologetic, and called his sister to see if sure had a Jerry can of gasoline.

I looked around, and communed with my inner McGiver.

I saw some camping supplies, and looked to see of the had any Coleman fuel (also called white gas), which is gasoline without any additives to boost octane our detergent additives.

No such luck.

I checked the automotive section, and there were two bottles of STP, which could be used to run a cart in a pinch, as long as the engine was warm, but that was about a pint, which wasn’t enough.

While we were waiting for his sister to call back, Pablo looked in in the back shed, and found an old can of Coleman fuel about 3/4 full.

So I added the Coleman fuel, and the two cans of STP, and we managed to coast 28 into Idleyld and pick up some fuel.

One of the reasons to add the STP is that, on addition to dealing with potential contaminants in the old fuel, it’s that out had a lot of methanol in it, and so will to boost the fuel’s octane.

So we made it to the airport on time, (I would have posted it then, but this is when the plane started boarding, and then, after flying overnight, we all slept), dropped off the car, and checked in.

Crater Lake pix to follow.

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We Are in Ashland

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The trip was kind of involved.

I neglected to mention that while Sharon and the kids made the flight, I did not.

I had to run back home, because Natalie forgot to bring her back pack, which had her inhaler, so I had to run homeand get it, (Natale will be on the hook for the taxi fare).

What I didn’t mention yesterday was that I DIDN’T make the flight, so I had to fly on another flight.

So we hit the car rental agency late, and then had a 5 hour drive to Ashland.

We got I late last night, at least by our Eastern Time body clocks, and had been up since 4 am.

Tonight, we have singer at a brew pub, and then we see a play.

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My Little Boy is Growing Up!

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We were watching The Science Channel, and Kari Byron, of Mythbusters, was on an ad for LDRS, Large Dangerous Rocket Ships, (basically extreme hobby model rocketry) which she will be hosting.

I turned to Charlie, and said, “She is hawt.”

Then I explained myself. I said, “I have a weakness for read heads.”

Charlie replied, “It must run in the family.”

My little boy is growing up.

And Today Was the Party

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We had a brunch for Charlie’s Bar Mitzvah this morning.

Omelets, waffles, and pancakes, in addition to bagels and lox.  (Plus dessert)

All catered by the dairy restaurant Cocoaccino’s  (their meat companion restaurant Accents Grill did the Shabbos dinner.  Both are highly recommended, and not just because the proprietors son Jeremy is one of Charlie’s best friends)

We also had a DJ, and took some pix with Sharon’s side of the family.

Back to normalcy, and I hit the jungle grass on my front yard afterwards.

Too Pooped to Post

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Today, I participated in the annual local SCA group’s cooking competition.

We got there late, and I had nothing to eat until about 5 pm as a result of us rushing to get there.

Then I spent 4 hours cooking historical recipes under camping conditions in 90° heat and high humidity.

I feel like a hard of elephants stampeded over me, so I’m turning in now.

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Charlie Gets in Touch With His Inner Geek

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Click for full size


Not as bad as I feared.


With the cube, he has a little James Bond thing going on

Saturday evening, we picked up Charlie’s Bar Mitzvah suit after some tailoring.

Well, Charlie really hated the idea of wearing a tie, but he has to wear one, so we got him a normal tie when we bought the suit a week ago.

On Saturday, he said that he wanted to wear a bow-tie.

I told him that I did not know how to tie a bow-tie, and that I had already paid for a tie.

He agreed to pay for the tie out of his own money, and said that he’d learn to tie a bow tie from Youtube.

Sunday morning, we fired up the laptop, and he stood in front of the mirror, and practiced, but he didn’t get it right.

Well, we had a wedding to go to, a three hour trip to Lakewood, NJ, and he practiced, and he taught himself how to wear a bow tie on the way. (We brought the regular tie as a backup)

So, he’s spouts obscure scientific erudition, he does Rubik’s Cube type puzzles, and now he’s wearing a bow tie.

As you can see, I got some action pix (my phone has a rapid fire shooting option) of him doing a one-handed solve.

Gawd.

There is no hope for him.