A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Snow leopard gave us a great show
No pictures were allowed during our night hike so I cannot show the beauty of the snow leopard. As we approached, she stalked us and our instructors’/guides’ flash lights would catch a glimpse of her peeking out. One of our guides used to feed this particular snow leopard so as she began talking the animal pranced to up to the cage to be as close as possible. She holds her super fluffy tail in her mouth and twirls as if to say, "isn’t it beautiful!"
Wolves howling and lions roaring very cool.
Of course, with the interstate so close, you also hear the roar of traffic.
Nothing is wrong with the video. It should be black. I made it with a Canon PowerShot A95 and didn’t know how to record only sound.
Pictures are being posted to http://flickr.com/photos/mccaughan
Wedding at the gorillas tonight. Scouts having to tiptoe by ultra quietly.
Update: It was actually at the bears and the reception was at the tent in Kids Cove. Thanks to their music, we were able to rock around the clock while learning about condors. I can think of 1000 other places I would want to get married other than the zoo. I’m quite pleased with Guns N Garters in Gatlinburg! Note that the picture (larger view) shows Baskin N Robbins which is a great place for a small, intimate reception.
Bear video and another bear video (both of these are from the following day).
We have arrived at the zoo safely.
Some parents were already at Gate 1. Turns out some Girls Scouts have laid claim to the Audubon Society building from the 1800s so we will be at Tiger Tops (Gate 9). Tiger Tops is one of the original zoo buildings that was a small restuarant which patrons could enter and "eat at the zoo" without ever entering the zoo. Gate 9 requires an escort so we are to pile 20 scouts, 5 adults, and their related gear into the 4 cars that will be staying. Physics doesn’t allow such miracles so all parents are allowed into Gate 9 to drop off then the parents not staying are let back out with a footnote that pickup will be at the main entrance not Gate 1. No one mentions needing a 7am exodus.
After getting out of the car, Noah and Phillip walk within 6 feet of a rabbit without noticing and scare it away. Bad omen?
East bound flows. I 40 west is a parking lot!
Just now made the interstate. What day is this!
The boys are stuck in traffic trying to get to the interstate. East bound looks good.
Tonight I get the pleasure of taking 25 cub scouts to the Zoo to spend the night. Two years ago Cathy took the girlscouts. Noah may be just a little excited; at 8am, he asked, "when are we leaving?" This trip sounds really fun!
Noah actually went with the girlscouts when he was 8 years old but had a 1 hour long nose bleed and was picked up early. Hopefully we won’t repeat that tonight.
Tonight’s den meeting was a blast! I really enjoy watching the scouts have a good time. We made 2 liter bottle rockets! They worked great.
We used this design (may have to view it via Google Cache). Another good link and a variation (check out the launch mechanism on that one!). You can even add a parachute. I want to build the pvc launch pad.
So how do you react when your 9 year old child disappears for 2.5 hours? You know he went to a friend’s house but he didn’t come home on time and you are certain of his location because the friend’s house appears empty.
So he returns home and you try to remain calm but long ago the emotions built yup and you want to give him what for! But you hold it together while he describes that he went to another friend’s house; a friend you don’t know and who’s parents you’ve never met.
Simple rule at our house: Let us know where you are. That is, if you change houses, tell us; call, shout, come home first, send a smoke signal but let us know and make sure we got the message.
Here is where parenting becomes art. At the moment a child stands before you and like wet clay on a table, he begs to be molded. At this time, a child that was self-initiated to find himself something positive to do with his time waits to see if you teardown his self-confidence and instill the seeds of doubt with regard to making his own choices. So do you 1) yell and scold or 2) tell him "good job" and ask that he call home next time. Sometimes, with emotions churning, it is hard to do the latter and so wrong to do the former.
Time to wake the doughnuts.
Dad: "How were your TCAPs?"
Sarah: "Boring!"
Dad: "I know they were boring. How did you do?"
Sarah: "I don’t know. They don’t tell us."
Dad: "How do you feel like you did? Good. Bad. Questions were hard. Made you think."
Sarah: "I don’t know"
Dad: WWASD
Mom: "Noah, can Granny and Granddaddy come to your graduation?"
Noah, confused: "Did they come to graduation?"
Mom: "Can they come to graduation?"
Noah, still confused: "We haven’t had graduation yet."
Mom: "CAN!"
Noah: *blink* *blink*
Dad: "Noah. _Can_ Granny and Granddaddy come to graduation?"
Noah: "I don’t know if they can."
Dad, shouting: "Do you want them to come?!"
Dad, regrouping: WWASD WWASD…
So, I read about the DS Download Station and thought it to be a good idea. It is "try before you buy" for DS games. I walk into Best Buy and the employees are confused. Finally we get one in the know and we stand in front of an endcap of games. There is a tiny sign with instructions. Apparently the wireless equipment is buried inside the endcap (they should make this a little more obvious). So, you turn on your DS and wirelessly connect to, um, the endcap and get a selection of games. You choose one and it begins downloading. As long as you don’t walk more than 15 feet from the endcap you get the game. Once it is 100% downloaded you can walk away and play the game until you power off the DS or twelve hours elapses.
The only downside is that right now they only offer 7 games for trial. I love the concept! Noah has been playing the game we downloaded last night all day long. No more spending $50 to find out that they don’t like the game.
Update:The XBox 360 also allows for downloading demos at the store.
Years ago my cooking skills were improving. I was toying with more gourmet type means and decorating my plates with garnishes to coordinate with the table center piece. Enter the children. I’m reduced to mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly, and hamburgers. Ketchup goes on everything.
We further complicate things with the children’s eating habits. Tommy is a 15 year old garbage disposal that doesn’t eat spinnach. Sarah is a 12 year old wannabe vegetarian. Noah is a 9 year old carnivore. Amy is a 3 year old wannabe Sarah (that is, she would eat anything and still tries but adores her siste so much that she copies Sarah). Evan is a 10 month old breastfeeder that so far eats almost anything places in his mouth (including all the things Amy has fed him: Cheatoes, peanut butter, jelly, poptarts, yogurt, chocolate, etc.), except when he’s sick.
I thought eating habits were improving. For awhile he was trying new things. In the past he would make this huge production about gagging and having to chase down the miscule sampling that we would let him get away with trying. For instance, we allowed him a single grain of rice and he spent nearly a minute acting like he was going to throw up. One day his progress suddenly reversed. Instead of trying new things, foods to which he had grown accustomed suddenly started dropping off the menu. Jelly became evil so PBJs became just peanut butter sandwiches. The staple green bean, the one vegetable I could get everyone to eat, became a gagging fight to get down; now he gets a single green bean on every plate and won’t touch it. Noah eats no, zero, zilch vegetables.
This week breakfast changed. Noah has reduced his breakfast to a single slice of toast with cinnamon sugar on it. I have no words. I hope he grows out of this.
