Free Day!

The kids came home from school after only two hours this morning because the transformer blew and there was no power.  That’s twice in as many weeks–apparently the area transformer has become a favorite place for squirrels to sacrifice themselves for the sake of letting the kids out of school.  

Kira and ELLIE!  (emphasis added because you have to say it LOUD!) hopped on the Utes for a cold-weather ride.  Herbie still likes it!

Captain Adorable, The Bad-Ass Pirate

Henry:  How do I look, Mom?

Me (without thinking first):  You look adorable.

Henry:  I wasn’t exactly aiming for adorable.

Me:  Ooooh!  I didn’t mean adorable, I meant BAD-ASS!

Henry: I should have settled for adorable.  I’ll bet William Kidd’s mother thought he was adorable, too.

Starting His Day

I shouldn’t wonder how Henry seems to know things that are far beyond his seven-going-on-eight years.  Nothing goes better with his morning decaf latte than The Wall Street Journal.

This morning, he was enthralled with the article concerning how business travelers are using smart phones instead of laptops.  With a dad who travels and uses both iPhone and MacBook, its relevance was obvious to him.

 Last week he came to me with the following bit of insight:  ”Mom, Matt Groening is rich, but he’s not a multi-billionaire like Rupert Murdock, right?  Because he owns the whole Fox network!”  

Um, I don’t know Matt Groening’s net worth, but I can’t argue with that logic.  He throws around comments like that in passing–like a periodic trivia brain dump.  And then he skips off and goes back to playing with his Star Wars characters or reading his collection of Peanuts comics.

The only thing that has changed since he used to sit with his mini decaf latte (yes, he has loved the taste of coffee since he was a baby!) and his Washington Post every morning is that now he can actually read!

What’s Better Than a Ute?

Two Utes!

In the great tradition of passing down an “old” vehicle to a teen-aged driver, I bought a new (2008 Summer Edition) Kona Ute and gave my old one to Kira.  Kira rides to school every day and the Ute can handle the humongous books she has to haul.  Mark also rides, but he’s doing fine on an old Trek I acquired from a Purdue student who was moving back to South America after graduating.

The one thing I wish I could do on the bike is empty the remote library drop box and haul the books down to the library when I work.  I think I found the right bike for the job, though–the Bakfiets!  Mark Stosberg, another biking Hoosier, pinged me recently to show me his family’s use of the bakfiets.  Very intriguing, but I think I’ll actually have to organize the garage before another bike is allowed to join the crowd in there!

Second First Day of School Ever

Mark gets ready to head down the hill to school for his first day as a sophomore.

Unavailable at the time of photo:  Kira.  She took off on foot for school about three hours early.

They Snabsgork Me! They Really Snabsgork Me!

My kids are the best! The “tea and cookies” themed gifts from Emma and Henry are awesome–who knew that they made a corgi-shaped cookie cutter?

From Kiwi: Art, of course. It’s supposed to be for Joe’s and my 20th anniversary this year, but that’s not until November, so she presented it early.

In case you didn’t already know, we met 25 years ago at Indiana University’s Philosophy Institute for high school students. When I was, um, Kiwi’s age.  Twenty years of marriage and four kids later . . . .

Handsome Monk’s present to me was literary: A poem.

These lousy rhymes cannot express
Your careful, loving tenderness.
Nor can English yet spell out
Exactly what you think about
Whenever you hold Henry tight
Or kiss strong, handsome Mark goodnight.
There aren’t yet words for how you feel
When handsome Mark says “What’s the deal?”
Because Gilmore Girls is on;
So handsome Mark begins to yawn,
But Emma watches, entertained
And Kira’s joy is unconstrained
And you watch with them happily
And Mark survives, uncannnily,
To write this poem, saying how
Long sentences, up until now,
Could not express the way that you
Love your kids, and love Mark, too.
Aha! Solutions to expressing
Love in words are now progressing
In my mind! I’ve got it now!
I’ll make new words, and thus allow
The concept of love to be said
Or shouted or whispered or written or read.
These words will include creations such as
Hobdifginsnork and shtobledyras.
Words like zamhoik and lobneiserray
Will soon be the kindest words someone can say.
So this Mothers’ Day, I hope you do
Realize…

..WE ALL SNABSGORK YOU!!!!

(Copyright Handsome Mark Krutulis, 2008 )

Keeping Up With Kiwi

I can’t.  I wish I could!

Speed Video Blogging.

Deviantart.  Be sure to check out “Then and Now and Later”

Blog.

Readin’ and Relaxin’

There’s nothing quite like spending the evening reading–with mom as your foot stool!

Let’s All Go Nuts! Robots! Robots!

Kiwi, Monk and I had a great time this past weekend at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta at the First Overdrive World Competition. What an amazing event.

George Bush 41 was at the opening ceremonies. He described First Overdrive as ” . . . . like the WWF–but for smart people!” He’s right. I have been very impressed with the First organization. Seeing so many different engineering solutions to solve the “problem” (link to PDF is in the middle of the page) and compete is inspiring and just plain awesome.

The Westside Boiler Invasion (Team 461) works twice a week throughout the year, but for six intense weeks, the kids worked from six to nine every night and all day Saturday to design, build and test their robot. They never tired of the process–and even though we didn’t see them much during that time, it was a great experience for them to work so intensely toward a goal. And they kept their grades up, too!

Spending a four day weekend in Atlanta with The Bigs was great for me. It reminded me of what it was like back when they were The Onlys. They are great kids–and the best part is that they actually enjoy hanging around with their mom. We even had a good time at the Braves/Dodgers game on Friday night–but it was funny hearing the team complain about how they’d rather be on their computers than watching a boring baseball game!

Geeks just wanna have fun! Mark’s German welding goggles were a hit–a few of the thousands of kids there had them and sought him out for pictures. World War II Gas Mask Boy wanted a picture, too. There were only a couple of Storm Troupers walking around and one Darth Vader, but there was an entire team dressed up like Waldo (we found them pretty easily).

Dean Kamen, founder of First and inventor of a lot of amazing things including The Segway, gave a speech to the participants which impressed the hell out of me. He emphasized to the kids that the reason corporations and universities are sponsoring their efforts is that they are smart. They are the future innovators who are going to solve problems. In a world which glorifies celebrities and athletes, it’s good to have a place where brainpower is celebrated and rewarded.

And there’s nothing cooler (or geekier–but, hey! Geeks ROCK!) than hearing a cheer go up like “I say ‘Thomas!’ You say ‘Edision!’” “Thomas!” (“Edison!”) “Thomas!” (“Edison!”)

More on Kiwibug’s Blog.

I Wanted an EMO Otter, Not an EMO Otter!

I should have been more specific, I guess.

This is what I get for asking Kiwibug to draw me an EMO Otter for my library! Heh!