I Feel Like I've Now Arrived at Real Dad-hood

As I was saying goodnight and kneeling down to give our daughter a kiss, out-of-the-blue we had this conversation:
E: "Daddy's shiny!"
Me: (Figuring out what she's driving at but probing for clarification) "Shiny where?"
E: (pointing at my forehead) "Right there!"
Me: (thinking she might not see this as much of a bad thing) "Do you like it?"
E: (reassuringly) "Yeah!"

Sweet Venturing Trip (and a sweet bike!)

We toured the Coast Guard's Aids to Navigation station at Tongue Point (thanks Mike!) and I had a good time taking goofy pictures. See all of the Coast Guard's behind-the-scenes secrets here.

Here I Go Again

Today I had lunch with the Golden Princess. Like I said, it's that
cruise ship time of year. The back end of the ship is flat and weird. The website (found at http://www.princess.com/ships/np) only talks about exotic locales like Portugal and the Caribbean . . . not Astoria. Hmmmm. But, it's fun on the site to click the link for the
webcam they have on the ship's bridge, which does show Astoria today.

Michelin PAX part 3

Well, I spoke to the Honda dealer today and the tire was punctured on
the internal sidewall. That makes sense because I couldn't see any
damage in the tread pattern. Even on a typical tire, I know they
consider it a safety hazard to patch the sidewalls. So, I'm feeling
reassured that a flat tire will not always cost me $300 (still closer
to $130 though I bet . . .)

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Michelin PAX part II

So, the good news is that the Honda dealer 60-70 miles away got us in today to fix the flat tire on the van. L spent the better part of the day trying the keep the kids happy there, and they took a field trip over to PetCo to look at animals and also got some lunch.
BUT, they replaced the polycarbonate ring inside the tire, the gel packs, AND the whole tire, for a grand total (including labor) of $316.36. So, while I can see the value in all the stuff I got, it's crazy to think that a flat tire means a full day's time and over $300. Quite a contrast to when my GTI had a nail in the tire and I took it to Les Schwab here locally. They fixed it free in around 30 minutes. So as much as I love the idea of these run-flats . . .
I'll do a little more homework on this as to what the actual damage to the tire was and whether or not it has to be replaced typically. Then I'll channel my ire toward Honda and/or Michelin as necessary.

Today's lunchroom

It's the time of year when cruise ships are stopping in Astoria. So,
I decided to spend lunch with Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas.
The cruisers picked a day that should drive local real estate
higher . . . at least the people who discover Astoria in this fashion
tend to care about their dental health and want to pay me to help.
It's a gorgeous fall day!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Her version of this is cute, and it'll be really fun to show her when she's a teenager. FYI: The shine above her lip is because she insisted on doing the chap stick herself (unusual for an almost-3-year-old :-)
W is in the background saying, "Be careful Mommy!" as he's putting his feet up in the air and flipping over. Think he's been told that once or twice?

Hammin' for the camera

It's interesting to see what kids come up with for the video camera.

Ready to go to the . . . fire station?

She just couldn't quite be herself on camera today . . . with funny results.

You've got a friend . . .

Here's video proof of W's version of this popular song from Toy Story.

The Mixed Blessing of Michelin PAX

Well, it didn't happen for 2 1/2 years . . . but today, having the run-flat Michelin PAX tires on our Odyssey paid off. And, it happened pretty much under the type of circumstance that I was concerned enough about to make me want them on the van. I was already at church, and L was bringing the kids by herself. She'd left her cell phone at home charging, of course. As she was crossing the Young's Bay Bridge she heard a hissing sound and the display in the van said she was running flat and to not exceed 50 miles-per-hour. What's cool, though, is that she didn't have to stop (it would be a bad place for that). And, she would've been mysteriously late for church, making me a bit frantic and inclined to go hunt her down. So, the system worked as promised and we're pleased with that.
Unfortunately, though, there's no place out here on the frontier that has the equipment to fix it. Thus, it's a good thing you can travel up to 125 miles with it flat, because we've gotta go to Longview, WA. Still, it'll be a jarring and patience-testing 60 mile ride at 50 miles-per-hour. I contacted Michelin about it, and if we were truly stranded in the middle of a trip or something they could send technicians out with a new wheel or something. I tried to convince them to do it for us anyway, but they said it could be a few days by the time they've dealt with others who are away from home and stuff. I guess that's a missed opportunity to win my loyalty to Michelin tires for ever and ever. Their loss. So, L gets to go to beautiful Longview. Maybe she can visit the WinCo or something. Wa-hoo!

Fun in Mommy's Bath

W is giving us some good smiles lately. The kids very much enjoy bath time in "mommy's bath" and really want to get in there more often than we'd like.


Silly boy with a bubble head.

How I Became the Alpha Nerd

Well, a few weeks ago, my friend Dean casually mentioned that "Weird Al" Yankovic was playing a show at the Puyallup Fair (word from his wife to my wife is that this was actually premediated months ago). Being an Al fan from way back (and one who still feels compelled to buy each new album he releases) and a veteran of a previous, really-fun "Weird Al" show in Portland, I agreed that I thought it would be a great time and we should go. I made a couple calls and got my old friend Phil (who lives in Puyallup) in on the trip as well as our friend Mike, who Dean and I work with in the Scouts (and who also very much loves Al). Throwing some funds to Ticketmaster generated 4 tickets together in the 31st row, and we all worked it out with our schedules to meet up around 3:30 PM. We three piled in my beloved GTI and had little fuss from traffic on the way up. Dean's wife even sent snacks along. Other than spilled cashews, the trip was accident-free. And, in a bold bid at gaining the status of Alpha Nerd, Dean whipped out his laptop on the way up and educated us (using a Powerpoint presentation) on the history and varieties of the mullet. Also, he brought his GPS. But as you will see, I will also make a bold stab at Alpha Nerd status later in the evening.


Although some of you out on the blogosphere will cringe, the sheer lack of nutrition in our pre-concert fair meal begged a photo. Whether or not it was related to my fish sandwich (putting Al's song "Dare to be Stupid" in action . . .), my guts heartily rebelled a day or two later.


So here's the view from the 31st row. Thanks to Dean's educational material, I would say the guy on the left is alllllmost committing to the mullet. I'm also happy to say that I'm proud to have caught Al's accordion-playing action on the big screen.


Here's Dean (and Phil's ear just behind him). Look how packed the place was! There were probably 50 times as many people at this show as there were when I saw Al at the Roseland Theater in Portland. I guess that's what happens when you have a big hit like "White and Nerdy" (which you can see the video for here.) I could believe this is true because I was surprised how many people around me were laughing at the lyrics for his other songs like they'd never heard them before . . .


Feelin' the joy that only "Weird Al" can bring. So, it wasn't too long after this picture that I'd say I made my bid for Alpha Nerd. One thing Al likes to do is make "interviews" where he'll pose questions to a celebrity that he isn't really in the room with (with often hilarious results, of course). So, one of these conversations with with Michael Stipe, from REM, who Al asked for some song lyrics. Michael replied something like, "Everybody's got a cell phone; it's no big deal" and Al put it to music. So eventually, the show (which ran from about 7:30 to 10) ended and we all cheered enough for an encore. Al and his band re-emerged and he said he knew the song we were all wanting to hear. He then launched into his "Everybody's got a cell phone . . ." song and had us all get our phones out and wave them in the air. It was precious and magical to look around. :-) So, as I'm doing the waving as Al ordered, a lady in front of me turned and excitedly said, "Is that an iPhone?" I said it was and let her touch it and she was really stoked and told her husband. At this moment, having the coolest technology in a sea of nerdery, I became the Alpha Nerd.

My Wife is Brave!

We recently had a large regional church meeting ("Stake Conference" for those of you down with the terminology) in Longview, WA. My wife, L, was asked to be the choir organizer/director and also the chorister for the congregational hymns. (In this picture, they're warming up before the meeting.) So, she got to stand in front of this huge audience likely approaching 1000 people and do her thing. And, they sounded great (not just me saying that). My task, while she performed her responsibilities, was to keep the kids entertained (and contained) for a couple hours. I was very happy to have some help from people nearby, and it worked out fine. Still, I was sort of feeling like I had it hard until the visiting church leader called on her to speak on the spur-of-the-moment. Again, she did a great job. Thus, she is very very brave and I love her lots!


Other rooms in the building also received the broadcast by closed-circuit TV. That way, people with rambunctious youngsters would have someplace to watch where they could be non-disruptive (shout out to DMO, Heffalump, J-Dog, and the crew). Pretty cool idea, and I'm sure we could've easily taken advantage of it had I not had assistance in my pew. Prior to the meeting starting, I walked the kids around the halls a bunch and snapped this picture of one of the TVs as they were calibrating the video (if you're wondering what the groovy frame is for).

Only in (or near) Astoria!

As seen through my windshield (hence the iffy image quality):
I had to laugh (and yes, Sans Auto, feel disgusted) at the HUGE truck pulling the HUGE trailer to haul the itty bitty motorcycle.

Fun with a Photoshop Slideshow

I was asked to make a slideshow for the Court of Honor our Scout troop just had. They went to Camp Pioneer this summer, and although there were a few bumps in the road, I decided to make the slideshow as fun as possible! Having recently acquired Photoshop Elements, I had a good time experimenting with what it can do (it's convincing and all, but Barney was not really there). The video is hosted on YouTube and it's kind of gritty, but you'll get the idea.

A Little Help . . .

My friend put together a survey (presumably to further his scholastic pursuits) and he needs lots of data! Please follow this link and take it:

http://new.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_9tc3S7gjVg29zCc&SVID=Prod

Thanks!

My Kids Say More Things

It was W who coined the term today. He has long been "grandma's mush
bug" to his Grandma J, and I was reminded of that tonight at dinner.
Part of the meal consisted of English muffins, which he emphatically
asked for saying, "want some mush muffin, please!" Thus, W has become
Daddy's little mush muffin.

We also think E is pretty funny. After dinner, we were talking to her
about what our real names are, and when we asked her what Daddy's name
is, without hesitation she replied, "Good Boy!" Smart kid! Also, she
loves to come into the garage to greet me when I pull in. Today, as I
was getting out of the car, she questioned "Did you work on teeth
today?" It's easy to forget she's not even 3 for a couple months
yet . . .

My Kids Say Things

After hangin' out with my sis and her people, we got back to the hotel kinda late. E was asleep and I carried her in through the back door. She woke up and said, "let's go into our hotelling". At church, our Bishop is Houghtaling, and she's obviously crossing the terms. I thought it was pretty funny (and emailed him and he did too) and now I have a cool new verb to use when we're on trips. So, like, the place in the picture above is where we did our hotelling.


The kids were watching Toy Story 2 in the van on the way home from Kent. At the end of the film there's a well-known song by Randy Newman ("You've Got a Friend in Me") that they were singing along with. I found it strangely appropriate that they were munching on nuggets (E) and a burger (W) and saying "You've got a friend in meat. You've got a friennnnnd in meat . . ."

Our Hotel Was Cool

Some pretty pointless ramblings on our hotel stay . . .


So we scored a cheap room at the Radisson through Hotwire. It was a 10-15 minute drive on the freeway down to my sis's, so the commute wasn't too bad. Anyway, the room was an office-type setup, and I thought this desk chair was pretty comfortable. So I looked underneath and found the name so I could look it up. It was a Herman Miller chair, and looking it up revealed I can have one for about a thousand bucks. Yikes! Looks like W had a pretty fance perch from which to eat his banana and grapes.


Yay, energy efficiency! We were impressed by the fact these fluorescents lit right up (ours around the house take some time) and had a nice quality of light.


I'd never seen or used the likes of this showerhead. The water comes through these aim-able flat metal paddles that have little holes in them. It felt great like heavy rain.


The other thing they're all stoked about at the Radisson is having Sleep Number beds. I was excited to try it, and it was (drumroll, please) just OK. The best number I found for me was 45, but even that wasn't especially comfortable. It basically felt like sleeping on a glorified air mattress (that you can let the air in and out of with the remote). Fun to get to try it, anyway.

Maren's Baptism

We headed up to Kent, WA for my niece Maren's baptism. It was a lovely service and I managed to have some proficiency playing the piano. It was really pretty deluxe with a little get-together afterwards. My sis goes all-out.


E with her Grandma J, who she was VERY excited to see.


Grandpa J getting mobbed by the little hooligans. E is trying to turn Grandpa J's head as red as possible.


Does THIS look like a boy who threw up multiple times overnight? It made for loads of fun having our little family all in the same hotel room.