Peter's Christmas Pageant

Happy New Year folks!

I don't have anything to write about the the New Year, but I would like to share some Christmas songs from Peter and his classmates ( Peter is in the grey sweater and plaid tie ).

Note: The video below is actually too wide to fit on my blog page, so just double-click on the video if you want to see it full-sized on he YouTube page.



Rich

These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ( for more than 22 years )

A few days ago a major blizzard hit the east coast of the USA.  We got at least two feet of snow ( The town right next to us got 30 inches of snow, so we were probably within a few inches of that ), so it was time to get out my old boots and get to work with my snowblower and shovel ( I needed to use the shovel a lot more than I would have liked .  There were still very strong winds the day after the storm.  A lot of the snow you would try to blow away would just blow right back at you. ).  The snow was quite impressive, but I'm not going to include pictures of the snow-scape in this blog post.  I've already posted enough snow pictures in his blog over the last few years.

Instead, I posted a picture of my boots.  My late mother took me to a shoe store to buy these books back in August of 1988.  I was about to head off to Cornell University, and my Mom wanted to make sure my feet were properly protected against the harsh Ithaca winters.

Well, more than 22 years later these books are still protecting my feet.  They're still 100% waterproof and my feet have never felt the least bit cold in these boots ( BTW, in case you are wondering were you can get such great boots, I just discovered that this brand of boots ( Northland ) was discontinued in 1998 ).  Now, I certainly don't wear these boot every day ( I only put them on when the weather is really bad ), but regardless of how often I've worn them, it's still rather impressive that these boots have lasted for more than 22 years.

So, their durability makes these boots rather special, but what makes them even more special is that they were a gift from my Mom.  Whenever I put these boots on, it kinda feels like my Mom is still looking out for me all these years later.  I hope these boots can last at least another 22 years, cause it will kind of be a sad day when I finally need to replace them.

Rich

My Excuse

I'm going to try to keep this post relatively short, because at this point I don't think too many people are actually reading this blog regularly.  I wouldn't really blame anyone if they stopped reading my blog, because to be completely honest, I really haven't been bringing a lot to the table lately.  There was a time when I was regularly writing about 10 blog posts a month.  There was a time when I making several YouTube videos a week.  There was even a time when I used to post photos to facebook every once in a while.  Times have certainly changed since back then.

Why is that?

Well, there are a whole bunch of reason, but for now I'll just off one excuse.

As some of you know, I'm a HUGE sports fan.  Prior to September of 2007, the only real "hobbies" I had ever had were watching sports, reading about sports, talking about sports, thinking about sports, playing sports, and listening to sports talk radio.

Starting around mid-September 2007, my favorite baseball team ( The Mets ) began a collapse of historic proportions that cost them 1st place and made them the laughing-stock of the baseball world.  My favorite football team ( The Jets ) was in the midst of a 4-12 season, and my favorite basketball team ( The Knicks ) had completely sucked for about 7 years.

Around that same time, I started making YouTube videos, and I really don't think the timing was a coincidence.  My traditional "hobby" was becoming far too depressing, so I was open to finding a new one.

Well my online hobby has been a lot of fun, and I expect it will bring me a lot of joy in the future, but over the last year, I'm found myself focusing back on sports.  Last January, the Jets made a surprise run to the AFC championship game.  There were playing well enough this year, that I found myself going on a desperate quest to buy an antenna.  They were playing so well, that less than a week ago, they were tied for the best record in football, and they had me dreaming about finally getting to see my football team win the championship.

Well, in the last week, I've watched the Jets lose 45-3 ( !!!!!!! ) and 10-6, and all my dreams of a Jets championship have been dashed for another year ( I've been rooting for my 3 favorite teams for more than 100 combined seasons, and only in one of those seasons did my team win the championship ( and that happened way back in 1986 ). ).

So, I guess it's not surprising that less than 3 hours after the Jets last loss, I found myself writing this blog post.  Does the Jets recent ineptitude mean that I'll be online a lot more in the near future?

Who knows?  After all, after 10 years of sucking to high heaven, the Knicks are now on an 8-game winning streak.

Rich

P.S. So much for making this post short.  I'm not sure if anyone is going to read this, but it was fun to to write again.

Fall Fun

This was a lot easier when I was a little kid.



I expected to hear the sounds of leaves crackling and crunching when I did this.  Instead I heard a faint rustling followed by a thump.

Rich

Everything I never wanted to know about antennas, but I was afraid I would have to ask.

Just a mundane slice of my life ...

On October 16th, my cable system ( Cablevision, a cable company with more than 3 million subscribers in the Northeast USA ) stopped broadcasting the FOX network ( which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp ). News Corp's last contract with Fox ended on October 16th, and there was a big dispute about how much Cablevision would have to pay to carry the FOX network.

This initially wasn't that big a deal to me. These disputes usually only last a few days, and I don't really watch any FOX show regularly these days ( Well, I do love The Simpsons and Family Guy, but they are not really what you might call "appointment viewing" anymore. Considering how many stations show reruns of those shows, if I miss any new episode of The Simpsons or Family Guy, it's only a matter of time before I see it as a rerun on another station ( Plus, there is always Hulu. ). ).

However, I was concerned about one thing; My beloved New York Jets would be playing against the Green Bay Packers on October 31st, and they only network with broadcast rights to that game is FOX. I probably wrote enough about my devotion to the Jets in this post, but I'd just like to reiterate that the Jets have not won a championship in my lifetime ( The last time they even played in the NFL Championship game was when they won the Super Bowl back in January of 1969 ), and watching the Jets win the championship is one of the items on my bucket list of things I want to see before they put me in the ground.

Well, the Jets are still a long way from the Super Bowl, but they are 5-1 this year ( in a 16 game season ) and are among the 3 or 4 teams in the league with the best chance of winning the championship this year. I'm as excited about this team as I've been in many years ( though as a long-suffering Jets fan, I'm still very worried that this team will far apart like all the promising Jets teams have in my lifetime. ), so I'd really hate to miss a game this year.

Anyway, I wasn't too concerned, because Jets games usually are not even broadcasts on the FOX network. The Jets usually only have one game broadcast on the FOX network a year, and I figured things would probably get resolved by October 31th. However, as we started to get closer to October 31st, and the FOX/Cablevision dispute became more contentious, I started to research contingency plans.

I looked into any and all options for watching the game online via a live feed, but I really couldn't find any non-sketchy websites that could guarantee access to the Jets-Packers game. The best option was probably this site, but this company has only existed for a month or so, and is being sued by every major broadcast network. While their 30-day free-trial sounds like a tempting offer, I didn't feel comfortable about giving my credit card number to a new company that might be sued into financial ruin soon. So, I started to research antennas.

FOX is actually a broadcast network, so by law all their programming has to be broadcast for free over the air. However, getting reception via an indoor antenna can be sketchy at times, and as much as I love the Jets, I wasn't going to buy a big outdoor antenna and install it on my roof to watch just one Jets game.

Still, an antenna was really my only option other than unreliable online feeds, so I started to do research. I started to do LOTS of research. This blog post has gotten long enough, so I won't bore you by writing about any technical details, but lets just say I now know a shitload about antennas, far more than I even wanted to know about antennas.

So, after lots of research, I bought a $15 indoor antenna today ( well worth the price, if the thing actually worked ), brought it home, hooked it up to the TV, pointed the antenna in precisely the correct direction ( Google Maps was involved here ), crossed my fingers, and tuned the TV to the correct channel.

Voila!!!! At 6:30 PM on October 30th, FOX was back on my TV! About a year ago, all over the air TV broadcasts in the USA switched from an analog signal to a digital signal. The nice thing about a digital signal, is that you never get the "snow" or "ghosts" you would often get using an indoor antenna to get analog signals. With digital, you either get a perfect picture or no picture at all, and my little $15 dollar precisely-aimed indoor antenna was getting a perfect picture.

I was actually stunned by this. Despite all my preparation and research, I really didn't think the antenna would actually work.

Anyway, the amusing postscript of this story is the following: After watching the baseball World Series on FOX via my antenna all night ( much better than watching it on crappy online feeds), I switched my TV back to my Cablevision cable box input and started channel surfing a bit. After about an hour of surfing ( just before I decided to start working on this blog post ), I discovered that FOX was available on Cablevision again. Apparently, as I was hooking up my antenna, Cablevision and News Corp were resolving their dispute. As far as I can tell from news articles, FOX became available on Cablevision just minutes after I hooked up my antenna.

Well, I guess I've now got 2 ways to watch the Jets tomorrow, though I must say I'm a little disappointed with Cablevision. It seems like they caved a bit in the negotiations with News Corp, which of course will mean higher cable bills soon ( Switching cable providers is a bigger pain in the butt than you might think, because we get our cable TV, internet access, and phone service all though Cablevision. I'm not fan of Cablevision, but I must admit that their internet service is ultra fast. All non-biased reviews indicate that all other internet service providers in our area offer much slower upload/download speeds than Cablevision. I could cancel the Cablevision TV and keep the Internet and phone service, but the price of the Internet and phone service goes WAY up if you do that. ).

Oh well, at least I got a good antenna for situations like this in the future, and I have all this antenna knowledge that I could use if I ever find myself on one of those oh-so-popular antenna-based quiz shows.

Rich

Guest Blogger: My Mom

A few days ago, Michael was going through some of my old books on a bookshelf in our basement. He was fascinated by some of the bigger books ( particularly one that had about 3000 pages ), so I decided to show him my copy of the complete works of Shakespeare ( a book I bought more than 20 years ago ). When I opened this book, I made two discoveries:

1) I found an old ornate envelope which contained a wedding invitation to my parent's wedding, along with a Mass book for their wedding Mass.

While that was certainly cool, I thought the second discovery was cooler.

2) I found the letter below:

This is a letter my mother wrote to her friend Kathy when Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm not sure how this letter got in the Shakespeare book. My guess is that Kathy gave the letter to my Dad after my Mom died ( August 1996 ) and before my Dad moved out of our family home in Queens. I was already married and out of the house by this time, but a lot of my stuff, including my Shakespeare book, was still there. I'm not sure if my Dad put the letter in the book or if I did when I was clearing my stuff out of the old house ( when my Dad sold the Queens house about about 10 years ago ), but I never recalled seeing the letter before, and it was nice to find.

It was nice to see my Mom's handwriting again.

It was nice to "hear" her words again via a letter.

Most of all, it was inspiring to be reminded of what a good person my Mom was. Here she was, suffering from the ovarian cancer that would ultimately kill her, and she took the time to comfort a friend. I think I've accomplished a lot in my life up to this point, but I really hope I can live up to my Mom's example some day. So, without further ado, I'm going to turn the rest of this blog post over to my Mom:

Dear Kathy,

I'm so sorry to hear of your illness. I guess you know I have ovarian cancer. I just want you to know I have met so many women who have breast cancer and are doing great. One woman had the cancer invade her lymph system; that was 14 years ago and I'm glad to say she's happy and very healthy.

Barbara waited two years before she had her breast checked. The tumor was as big as a baseball; it invaded the muscle of her chest. After her operation she was given chemo, then radiation, and then more chemo by pills. This March it will be 13 years and thank God she's doing great. So please don't give up; cancer can be beaten. Keep thinking of all the people who are getting well. I know you must be scared about your treatment. But remember everyone is different; some people don't get sick on chemo. Barbara was expected to get sick and she didn't. She just got a little tired.

I just want you to know we are all praying for you. Let your family's love and your friends help you through this difficult time.

Love,

June

Secret Hugs

My baby doesn't want to hug me anymore.

"My baby" is my youngest son Peter ( 5 years old ). I know it's generally mothers who think of their kids as babies, but I'm a lot more affectionate than a typical Dad, and I think part of me will always feel like my kids are my babies, no matter how old they get.

That's why it kinda hurts a little bit that Peter has decided that he doesn't want to hug and kiss me anymore. His older brother Michael still gives me a goodnight kiss without fail each night, but Peter tells me in no uncertain terms that he only want to hug and kiss Mommy.

Actually, he's made it really clear that he only wants to hug and kiss girls and never wants to hug and kiss boys. Those of you who have seen my YouTube videos know that I'm the last Dad in the world who would teach his kids strict gender rolls or display any attitude that would even hint at homophobia, so I really have no idea where he is getting this attitude from. However, things are what they are. It's really hard to change Peter's mind about anything. He's decided that he won't hug boys, and that mean no hugs for me.

Well, actually, it means no hugs for me as far as Peter can tell.

While Peter doesn't want to hug me, he still likes to do "boy" things like wrestle. So, I'll ask him to wrestle, and the next thing you know we'll have our arms wrapped around each other.

He thinks we're wrestling, ...

... but I know we're hugging. :)

Rich

I wanna be famous

No, I actually don't wanna be famous. I don't exactly want to be a hermit either, but I certainly enjoy my privacy too much to want to be famous. I gave this blog post the title I did because it represents something that really makes me smile. It represents Monday nights with my boys.

Each Monday night, the boys and I sit down to watch their favorite cartoon "Total Drama World Tour", the theme song of which is "I wanna be famous".



"Total Drama World Tour" is the third season of the "Total Drama Island" series, which is basically a satirical cartoon version of "Survivor". I had watched parts of a few episodes during the first two seasons, and while I found the show to be quite clever and entertaining, I never could find the time to commit myself to following an entire season-long story-arch. However, this year I'm fully on board with this show because my kids are fully on board. I can't tell you how much fun it is to sit down with my kids each week to watch something we all truly enjoy ( Of course, we all kind of enjoy it on different levels. Michael loves the fact that it's a competition ( He can't wait to see who gets eliminated each week ), Peter loves the cartoon slapstick, and I love the cartoony stuff, the satirical aspect of the show, and hearing my boys laugh. ). It's not that I don't spend a lot of time with the boys otherwise, but it's just nice that three of us have this special "Daddy and the boys" time each week. I guess we'll eventually have a lot of "guys" time together when they start watching sports with me ( Micheal does sometimes, but he doesn't quite have the attention span for a full game yet ), but for now, watching cartoons together is as good as it gets.

As long as I'm on the subject of TV, I think it's about time that I say a few words about the "LOST" phenomenon. Well, not actually "LOSTt" itself ( which I never actually watched ), but just TV shows in general that have complex plot lines that extend over several seasons. You've got to be a little bit careful with shows like these. It's great when the show plays out to a conclusion ( like "The Fugitive" or "LOST" ), but it REALLY REALLY sucks if you get sucked into a show that winds up getting canceled before there is any resolution. I can't emphasize how much that SUCKS. For those of us who read and loved the Harry Potter series, just think about much it would have sucked if J.K. Rowling had died right before she wrote book 7. That's how much it sucks when a show you love gets canceled before there is any resolution.

You've got to be kind of savvy about which show you choose to follow, plus a little bit lucky. I've been kind of unlucky at times when it come to picking shows. I passed on shows like "LOST" and the new "BattleStar Galactica", but at about this time last year, I got sucked into a show called "FlashForward". "FlashForward" was based on an intriguing concept, but unfortunately, it got canceled after one season. Worse yet, the final episode ended on a cliff-hanger, so it looks like all fans of the show will be left hanging indefinitely.

( Why did it get canceled? Well, it was officially canceled for poor-ratings, but every problem has a root cause, and the root cause of FlashForward's bad ratings can be summed up in 2 words:

Joseph Fiennes

My God, is that man an AWFUL actor. Every time I watch him act, I'm stunned that he could have emerged from the same womb as Ralph Fiennes. As intriguing as the concept of "FlashForward" was, I should have stayed away from that show as soon as I realized that Joseph Fiennes was playing the lead role. That show was doomed from the start. Then again, he did play the title role in a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Or course, I still maintain that "Shakespeare in Love" was by far the wost movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. I'm still stunned that it was even nominated for an Academy Award.

BTW, I have a theory about why "Shakespeare in Love" won the Academy Award. The movie is full of supposedly clever allusions to many of Shakespeare's works. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ( the people who vote for the awards ) is probably full of a lot of poorly educated shallow types who like to think of themselves as great thespians who might someday perform Shakespeare , but who actually are not smart enough to comprehend most of his works. When those people watch "Shakespeare in Love" and are spoon-fed simple allusions to Shakespeare's works, they have the following type of reaction:

"Hey, that's a reference to 'Romeo and Juliet'! I bet most people wouldn't have gotten that reference, but I got it because I'm smart.
. . .
Hey, I think that line is from one of Shakespeare's sonnets! Boy, I am smart! It's great that they made such a smart movie for smart people like me. This is one of the smartest movies I've ever seen. This movie definitely deserves to win the Best Picture award."

Anyway, getting back to be original point this tangent, the people who watched "Shakespeare in Love" were probably also thinking "I can't believe that hack Joseph Fiennes is related to that guy who was in "Schindler's List" and "Quiz Show" ( BTW, I mentioned "Quiz Show" rather than the "The English Patient" because I loved "Quiz Show" and hated "The English Patient" almost as much as "Shakespeare in Love". ). )

Anyway, thus concludes my bashing of all things Joseph Fienness. I think I'm just bitter that he got one of my favorite shows cancels.

However, as upset as I was about the "FlashForward" cancellation, it's not the most disappointing premature-cancellation in my life. Even 14 years after the fact, I'm still upset that "Nowhere Man" was canceled.

To give you an idea of what the premise of "Nowhere Man" was, each episode started with the following monologue from the lead character:

"My name is Thomas Veil, or at least it was. I'm a photographer, I had it all: a wife, Alyson, friends, a career. And in one moment, it was all taken away, all because of a single photograph. I have it; they want it; and they will do anything to get the negative. I'm keeping this diary as proof that these events are real. I know they are... They... have to be."

Sound intriguing? It was to me, and from August 1995 to May 1996 I found myself watching this show religiously. Of course, the show wound up getting canceled after one season. I'll admit that the show had its problems ( It helps if a shows about mysterious conspiracies has at least some level of plausibility and has some logical consistency between episodes. A few episodes of "Nowhere Man" failed on both those counts. ), but the concept of erasing somebody's identity was so interesting that I couldn't help but tune in each week to see how things would turn out.

While it sucked that "Nowhere Man" was canceled fans were not left as badly hanging as the fans of some other canceled shows, because the writer/creator of the show was told that the show was going to be canceled before the final two episodes were produced. Two episodes certainly were not enough time to resolve all the plot elements, but I think the writers did a great job with the final two episodes. I don't want to give too much away ( The complete series is available on DVD, and I highly recommend watching it if you ever get a chance ), but the last scene of the final episode reveals something the makes you see the entire series in an entirely different light ( and fixes some ( but not all ) of the plausibility/consistency issues ). It was a great way to end the series, but it was a bit disappointing.

Anyway, I started writing this post on September 17th, and now I find it's the 28th. I'd better post this baby so I at least have one post for September.

Rich

P.S. Since I started this post, I dipped my toe in The Event. Two episodes so far, both very mediocre. Sure, the show has a lot of mysteries to reveal, but I'm not even sure if I care to know.

P.P.S However, Boardwalk Empire has been awesome so far.

P.P.P.S Just for laughs ...

Visiting my Dad ( a preview )

I've been visiting my Dad in upstate New York for the past few days. I'll definitely be posting a bunch of photos from the trip, but the Internet is REALLY slow up here, so I can only post a few for now. The two photos below are ...

1) Michael milking a cow ( He actually got some milk out! ).

2) A sample of the natural beauty of Letchworth State Park in upstate New York.

Rich

Better late than never

Well, most of the people reading this probably already know this ( or have seen the photos a long time ago via one of the Shutterfly links Ruth occasionally send out ), but as promised in this blog post, I finally posted my 2009 California photos to facebook.

Also, considering that the Summer is almost over, I thought I should probably follow through on my promise to finish telling you about what I did on my Spring vacation. For for those who have already forgotten, the "What I did on my Spring vacation" blog posts consisted of this post, this post ( This one has got LOTS of Cornell photos that I probably won't bother to post on facebook - I refuse to show the natural beauty of Cornell in facebook-photo resolution ) , and this post.

What happened next? Well, the story of the rest of that week, the rest of the Spring, and most of the Summer can be summed up in two words: Six Flags

This year, we decided to graduate from Sesame Place, and get a season pass to Six Flags. So far, we've already made 13 trips to the Six Flags complex near our New Jersey home. Clearly, there are a lot of potential photos to post, and you'll probably see those photos on facebook if I ever find the time and energy ( Which could potentially mean that I'll get around to posting these photos next Summer ).

Anyway, it's getting rather late tonight, but don't be surprised if I post some more stuff soon.

Rich

Are You There Rich? It's Me, Mortality.

I try not to think about death too much.

I particularly try not to think about my own death. The idea of my own death frightens me. I'm not really afraid of the process of death itself, or any pain that might be associated with my death. I'm just afraid of what will happen after I die, or more accurately, what won't happen.

There was a time when I could comfort myself with the thought of an afterlife, but I think that time has passed. I still consider myself to be religious, and I very much want there to be a God and an afterlife, but I'm also a pessimist. I hope there's a God, and I hope's there a place for me in Heaven some day, but I'd be less than honest if I told you I was counting on it. I've discussed my faith in this space before, so if you've been reading this blog you kinda already know that my faith has been on shaky ground for a while now. I think one of the main reasons I've held on to my faith as long as I have ( and still have lots of HOPE that there is an afterlife ), is that I just can't imagine not existing. The idea of not existing really frightens me, so I spend most of my life just pretending that I'll always be around. However, every once in a while something happens that reminds me that I'm not immortal.

This time I was reminded by my glasses, or rather my need to get stronger glasses. I'm getting more far-sighted each year. I'm writing this blog post without my glasses on, but I don't think I'll be able to use a computer without glasses for much longer. I pretty much do all my newspaper and magazine reading with glasses on these days ( I got new reading glasses a week ago, and they make a HUGE difference ), and I'm probably going to start using glasses to write code at work ( I use a relatively large font at work, but I'm beginning to notice some eye strain. ).

So, my new glasses are great and all ( It's really nice to be able to see stuff without straining my eyes ), but they are also a reminder that there are some parts of the aging process I really can't control.

I think I've been fooling myself regarding the aging process for a while now. I've been blessed with a naturally youthful appearance, and I've been luck enough to avoid most of the typical aches and pains of middle age. I've got all my hair, barely any wrinkles, and I work out enough that I'm in far better shape than most 18-year-olds ( Yes, I have balky knees, but my knees have been giving me trouble since I've been 16. Thus, while my occasional knee problems are annoying, they don't really make me feel old ). However, there's really nothing I can do about they fact that my eyeballs are elongating. There's nothing I can do about the fact that whatever tissues were holding my eyes in their original shape are now slowly breaking down. Whether I like it or not, and whether I choose to accept it or not, my body is aging. I've definitely aging, and aging only leads to one thing. The Reaper may be pretty far down the road, but he's definitely coming for me.

OK, I'm not even going to try and gracefully segue from the topic above to a new topic. I'm just going to stop. If I keep writing about *that* topic, I'm going to drive myself nuts. I'll just finish by saying that I love life, and I love my life.

Carpe diem, folks. Carpe diem.

Rich

The Sequence

I gave my 6-old son Michael a sequence problem today. I asked him to give me the next number in the sequence ...

1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ...

He didn't have any problem coming up with the solution to that one. Before I could ask him a more challenging question, he decided to give me a sequence problem of his own. Michael asked me to give him the next number in the sequence below:

8, 7, 9, 5, 13, -3, 29, ...

I didn't find the question above too hard, but I challenge anyone else to find a 6-year old who can solve the puzzle above, much less design a puzzle like the one above.

Rich

Hoop it up

A few happy basketball thoughts while I try to get over the fact that LeBron isn't coming to the New York Knicks ...

About a month ago, we decided to get the boys a basketball hoop. Michael had already taken two basketball classes at the local YMCA, and we figured he'd enjoy a hoop of his own ( Of course, Peter's going to enjoy it too, but he'll probably needs about another year of maturity before he'll be ready to learn how to dribble and shoot. At this point, he gets a little frustrated when he tries to play, and doesn't really take instruction well. ).

Of course, getting the hoop, and getting the hoop ready were two different things. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most mechanical person in the world ( Well, I do understand all the mechanical principals ( After all, I do have a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering ), but I'm really all thumbs when it comes to working with tools. ), so putting this thing together took the bulk of a Saturday ( It also didn't help that the parts in the box didn't match the list of parts in the instructions. I eventually figured out that a 5/16 inch nylock nut was missing from the set of nuts in the box ( There was some completely random nut of a different size in its place. ) After doing some research into what a nylock nut actually was and figuring out where I could get one, I went out and bought the nylock nut the same day.). However, getting that hoop together was definitely worth the effort. Michael was SOOOOO excited when he saw the hoop. He immediately wanted to head outside to play. He stayed outside until he hit 100 shots ( He kept a running count as he hit each shot. ).



Here's Michael with the hoop on the day I put it together ( Note: I set it up at the minimum height of 7.5 feet. It's important to keep the height of the hoop low when kids are first learning. Not only does it help their confidence, but it gets them into the habit of shooting with proper form rather than heaving the ball a basket that's way too high for them to reach easily. Speaking of proper form, take a look at the photo below. ).


I know it's a little bit blurry, but just take a look at that perfect form. Gee, it looks like the guy who taught that kid how to shoot really knew what he was doing.

.

.

.

( Pausing to pat myself on the back repeatedly. )

.

.

.

You can't imagine how gratifying it is to watch your kid enjoy a hoop, a bike, or any other kind of "some assembly required" toy, knowing that your own sweat and effort went into putting the toy together.

It all felt even more gratifying at 6 AM the next morning. Michael crawled into bed next to me and asked when we could go outside to shoot baskets. He's been shooting hoops at every opportunity ever since.

About a week ago, I thought it would be good for his basketball development to play a game with me. Of course, we wouldn't play a real competitive game, but I though it might be good practice for him took take shots and play defense with a least a tiny bit of pressure. So, I had to set up the rules of the game in such a way that we could "compete" to the extent that it wouldn't be completely obvious to him that I was throwing the game ( BTW, whenever either of my sons gets good enough to legitimately beat me at something, it will be one of the proudest days of my life. ). So, I set up the games with the following rules:

1) I couldn't steal the ball from him.

2) I couldn't raise my hands above my shoulders to block any of his shots.

3) I had to make all my baskets on the bounce. Any "shot" of mine wouldn't count unless it hit

the ground first - thus Micheal had ample opportunity to block all my shots.

4) All my shots would be worth 2 points, but Michael could get 3 points for a shot if he was shooting from more than about 5 feet away.

Making baskets on one bounce was actually a little harder than I thought it would be ( It's been more than 20 years since I used to win games of HORSE shooting shots like that. ), so we actually played to a legitimate 0-0 tie for a while. However, I eventually got the hang of hitting bounce shots again, and I found that he really couldn't get his shots off quick enough to keep me from blocking them or severely altering them, even if I didn't raise my hands above my shoulders. So, at that point, I had to engage in the subtle art of throwing a game to your kid without letting your kid know you are throwing the game.

It's not quite as easy as you might think. I imagine the techniques I used were similar to the techniques used by crooked college basketball players involved in the point shaving scandals of the 1950's. You need to miss shots by just a *little* bit, and be just a half-step slow on defense. You need to do just enough to lose the game.

I tried to make the game as close and dramatic as I could. We were playing to 15, and I got the game to the point where I had a 14-12 lead and the ball. I dribbled the ball a few times and then directed a bounce shot directly into Michael chest as he stood just outside the 3 point line. As he turned to take his shoot, I moved towards him and swiped my hand towards his shooting hand a split second after he let his shot go. I then looked up a prayed the shot would go in ...

SWISH! ( Well actually, more like THUNK, BOUNCE, THUNK, BOUNCE, SWISH, but the important thing is that the shot did go in. ).

Michael 15, Daddy 14. Game over, smiles all around. I gave him a high-five and a hug and we headed inside to have some ice cream.

It's nice to be a Dad! :)

Rich

Coming Attractions

Do I really need to write a blog post in June?

I guess so - I'd hate to have the first blank month in my blog archives.

It's just that thing have been really busy at work. I have't had nearly the time I'd like to have with my kids on the weekdays, and I even found myself working about 20 hours from home on a recent weekend. So yeah - free time has been short, and when I decide how to allocate the free time I have, I'm sorry to say that my wonderful blog readers lose out to my wife and kids.

Anyway, things should be better at work in a few weeks or so, and when that time comes, I intend to start writing again. Heck, I've even mused about YouTube videos, though I'm not even sure I remember exactly how to work iMovie anymore.

BTW, YouTube came to mind, because a month or so ago a long-time YouTube subscriber of mine sent me a message asking for some advice about life. I don't know if that person is reading this, but I just can't tell you how nice that made me feel. To think that somebody from YouTube land actually thought enough of me to seek out my advice ( after I pretty much abandoned YouTube ) - well it really made me feel like my videos made a little bit of a difference. It made me feel like I wasn't completely wasting my time by making all those videos. I honestly don't know when I'll find the time and energy again to made videos, but the message that subscriber sent certainly makes it more likely that I'll make videos again.

Anyway, enough with the YouTube tangent, I really started this post to talk about my blog a bit ( You know what? I just went back and changed the word "talk" in the previous sentence to "write", but then I changed it back to "talk", because I really do feel like I'm talking to you folks out there when I write these things. ). I just wanted to give you an idea of the things I might be writing about when I find time to write. In no particular order, I hope to write the following posts soon:

1) It's about time I finished up with my story about "What I did on my Spring Vacation". After all, it's already Summer now, and while nobody probably even cares at this point, I probably should finish off that series of posts.

2) Speaking of things that are overdue, I'd really like to post the photos from my California vacation last year. I actually picked out the photos I wanted to post several months ago and put them in a special folder, but I haven't found the time to post them to facebook will all the appropriate annotations. When I do find time, I'll let you know on this blog.

3) Neil's post on LOST got me thinking about TV shows I really liked that never reached a satisfying conclusion. BTW, I never watched LOST. I tend to have bad luck with TV shows. When I get interested in TV shows with interesting plots that promise to reveal lots of mysteries over a series of years, those shows tend to get canceled in one year.

( Editor's ( that would be me ) Note: I had to stop writing for a moment because a HUGE beetle just tried to crawl up my shorts as I wrote this post. I smashed it rather quickly because I though it my might be a roach ( and I wouldn't want a roach to get away and reproduce ), but when I took a good look at it ( I checked Google images for something that matched its shape ), I came to the conclusion that it was probably a violet ground beetle - that is until I read that violet ground beetles are primarily found in the UK. In any case, it wasn't a roach or a termite, so at least I've got that going for me. BTW, I ate a few bugs today at my company Summer party ( They served bugs as a special delicacy - I'm wearing an official "Eat a Bug Club" sticker on my T-shirt right now ). I wonder if my little beetle friend was trying to get revenge for his brethren. )

4) A Different Kind of Shallow - I'm just going to give you the title of this post, and let you guess about what it might ultimately be about.

Rich

What you talkin' 'bout?

R.I.P. :(

It aint easy

Last Sunday, in the course of a few hours, I experienced the highs and lows of dealing with my son Michael's unique brain.

I've mentioned this before, but in case you didn't know, Michael has been diagnosed with being on the Autism spectrum. It's not a severe case of Autism. He's very high functioning, so a lot of people might not even notice, but as a parent, you can't help but notice - and worry about it.

As a parent, you can't help but notice how different his brain works. Yes, different - definitely different. A few months ago, I watched an HBO movie about an Autistic woman named Temple Grandin. Throughout the movie, Temple's mother would remind her that she was "different - not less". That's certainly true of Michael - his brain is "different" in many wonderful ways, but I also know that we live in a world where people who are "different" are not always accepted. There are times when Michael really amazes me, but there are also times when I'm terrified about the prospect of him getting by in the world. He's going to have trouble adjusting to certain situations. He's inevitably going to be teased. There are inevitably going to be moments when he winds up crying. As a parent, thinking about those moments hurts me to the core.

Anyway, back to Sunday and Michael "unique" brain.

I don't want to perpetuate the "Rain Man"/savant stereotype about Autistic people too much, but those of you who have heard me talk ( brag ) about Michael already know that he has a remarkable analytic mind. All modesty aside, I always considered myself to be really good at Math/Physics, but Michael has natural ability way beyond anything I've ever possessed. While we were playing in the backyard on Sunday, I noticed he was picking up balls of different sizes and dropping them side-by-side ( basically, doing the Galileo Leaning Tower of Pisa Experiment ). I walked over, and Michael asked me a question about potential energy. Given his curiosity, I decided that the time was right to introduce Michael to the concepts of kinetic energy and conservation of energy.

So, I go ahead and explain potential energy, kinetic energy, and conservation of energy ( I tell him all about mgh and one-half m v-squared ), and I illustrate the concept with an example.

I tell Michael that a roller coaster with a 100 foot drop reaches a speed of 50 miles-per-hour ( mph ) at the bottom of the hill ( BTW, the way, I'm ignoring all friction and air resistance in these examples. You may think think that this is over-simplifying things a bit, - but hey - he's only 6 years old! ). I tell him that in order for the roller coaster to go 100 mph at the bottom of the hill, the hill would need to be 400 feet high. I explain that this is because a roller coaster car going 100 mph has 4 times the kinetic energy as a roller coaster car going 50 mph ( because of the velocity-squared relationship ), and that because all the kinetic energy would have been converted from the potential energy at the top of the hill ( remember - no friction ), the hill would need to be 4 times as high to produce the speed of 100 mph ( because potential energy is directly proportional to height ).

Of course, you would think this would be an awful lot to digest for a 6-year old. To be honest, I really didn't think he would understand all of this on the first try, so I gave him a problem to gauge how well he understood the concept. I asked Michael how fast the roller coaster would go at the bottom of the hill if the hill was 900 feet high.

About 5 seconds later Michael told me the roller coaster would be going 150 mph at the bottom of the hill.

I was stunned, and asked him to explain how he arrived at the answer, just to make sure it wasn't just a lucky guess.

Michael quickly explained that 900 is 9 times as great at 100, the square root of 9 is 3, and that 3 times 50 is 150.

Wow, you can't imagine how proud I was at that moment.

It's nice to have those proud moments, because it makes some of the other moments a little bit easier to take.

A few hours later, we were in the house, and Michael was playing a video game on the laptop. At some point the game crashed, and a few seconds later, so did Michael's brain.

I don't think "tantrum" is a strong enough word for what happened. I know tantrums. I threw my share of tantrums as a child ( like the BATMAN tantrum - see item 4 in this post ), and watched my younger brother throw lots of tantrums. What happened with Michael on Sunday, was not simply a tantrum - it was a scary example of what can sometimes be so "unique" about his brain.

The best word I can think of to describe it is "irrational". Of course, 6-year olds can be irrational in general, but Michael's behavior would have been considered irrational for a 3-year-old.

...

I've been sitting here for a few minutes trying to decide how to describe this, but in all honesty, words escape me right now. It kinda reminded me of one of the night terrors Michael used to have when he was younger. There was a lot of physical thrashing involved, there was really nothing we could do or say to console him, and he most definitely did not want to be touched. It's rather heartbreaking when you want to hug your crying child, and he responds by kicking at you and swinging his arm at you. When he has tantrums like this, we actually get quite afraid that he might hurt himself. Once when he was 3, he had a tantrum like this, and intentionally ran headfirst into a wall. I know it was intentional, because about 30 seconds after he did it the first time, he wrenched himself out of my arms and ran headfirst into the wall again before I could stop him ( After that, I just laid my whole body down on top of him to keep him in one spot. He spent the next 30 minutes struggling to get out from under me, until he finally exhausted himself and fell asleep. ).

Thankfully, his tantrum on Sunday wasn't that bad ( he's come a long way in the last 3 years ), but it still scared me a lot nonetheless. Not only did he not want to be touched, but he wanted to get "far far away" ( his words ) from us. The next thing we knew, he was running out of the front door of our house. I ran out after him, terrified about what he might do to himself. He had stopped about 10 feet from our front steps. I walked towards him slowly, hoping to grab him before he started to run away again, He backpedaled into driveway, and next thing I knew, he started sprinting down the driveway towards the street. I sprinted as fast as my balky knee would take me ( the knee is still all "spongy" from my personal-best run ) and screamed out "STOP! DON'T YOU DARE RUN INTO THE STREET!" so loud that I think the entire neighborhood heard me. Michael did stop, and before he could move again, I grabbed him. Of course, he didn't want to go down without a fight, but despite his kicking and screaming, I soon had him back in the house. He still insisted on being "far way" from us, but we convinced him that his room far enough away. Thankfully, he managed to calm himself down, and 30 minutes later he was back to being the happy boy that he usually is.

So, yeah - it an't easy. I love my boys, but it's never easy

Rich

Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

Last Friday, while checking news articles during lunch, I noticed a story about Wrigley Field. The content of that article really isn't relevant to this post, but what is relevant is that the article got me thinking about the North Side of Chicago ( where Wrigley Field is located - I took a road trip there 11 years ago ). Thinking about the North Side of Chicago got me thinking about the South Side of Chicago, which immediately made the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" start playing in my head ( The song starts with the lines "The South Side of Chicago / is the baddest part of town. / And if you go there / you better just beware / of a man named Leroy Brown. " ).



"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is one of those songs the will always be ingrained in my memory, because I probably listened to it about 100 times in the backseat of the family car when I was a young child. My parents were both born in the 40's ( Dad in 1943 and Mom in 1947 ), and as such, they were among the first generation of parents to really pass Rock n' Roll music down to their kids. My parents pretty much always had the radio on when they drove, and it was always playing the most popular music of the day ( Actually, whether my Mom or Dad was driving, I think my Mom pretty much controlled the radio. Back in the 60's my Mom was one of these screaming teenage girls you would see at Beatles concerts ( She was at one of the Beatles groundbreaking Shea Stadium concerts ) ).

I think there's something special about the memories we develop as a young child. We see the world differently as children, so reflecting on those memories gives us a perspective other memories can't. I think that music makes special memories too. I think almost all of us have our own personal "soundtrack of our lives". We all have memories of special songs which we associate with key moments in our lives. So, with that in mind, I think there's something extra special about the music we associate with our childhood. After thinking a bit about "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", I started to reflect upon the songs that really caught my attention when I would listen to music in the back seat of my parents' car in the early to mid 70's. I quickly jotted down the first 10 songs that came to my mind. Those 10 songs ( in no particular order ) are ...

American Pie

I said this list would be in no particular order, but I decided to list Don McLean's "America Pie" first, because when I was three years old, I considered this to be my favorite song. I think there's something about the lyrical richness of this song that would enchant just about any small child. Listening to this song was almost like listening to a bedtime story. It was a story I really enjoyed, despite that fact that I had no idea what a levee was, and the song always made me wonder how somebody could possibly drink rye bread.



Saturday in the Park

This may be the best feel-good song of all time. The lyrics by themselves are really feel-good, the music puts you in a good mood as soon as your hear the first few piano notes, and I dare anyone not to crack a smile when the first brass notes play at the 18 second mark. This song ( understandably enough ) seems to be a staple these days at Saturday afternoon baseball games.



Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

This is just a great song by one of the greatest American songwriters ( Burt Bacharach ), though I must admit that it was the lyrics ( by Hal David, Bacharach's long-time collaborator - Burt did the music and Hal did the lyrics ) that enchanted me as a child, despite that fact that a some of them don't make a lot of sense when you really think about it. I mean - I've always loved the image of the "guy whose feet are too big for his bed", but considering that I've never heard that expression in any other context ( Has anyone actually ever complained that his/her feet were too big for a bed? ), I don't think it makes any sense to say "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head. And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed". That being said, those lines still stick in my head all these years later, so I guess it's a great lyric.



Let Em In

I no longer consider this to be my favorite post-Beatles McCartney tune, ( I think I like both "Band on the Run" and "Maybe I'm Amazed", better than this one ), but back when I was a kid it was my favorite. There's something really kid-friendly about the repetitive lyrics, especially the parts where Paul calls out the names of all the relatives.



Cats in the Cradle

This is another one I loved as a kid because of the way it tells a story. Of course, now that I'm an adult with sons of my own, I find this song especially poignant today. This one can still choke me up a bit. This song really is to music what "Field of Dreams" is to movies. Perhaps only men can really "get" this song ( My wife still doesn't understand why "Field of Dreams" makes me cry. I, for my part, have no idea why she cries at the end of "Ghost'. ), but all men pretty much "get" it.



Love Will Keep Us Together

Did "Captain and Tennille" epitomize the the cheesiness of the 70s?
Undeniable.

Is this song incredibly catchy?
Undeniable.



Superstition

If this song doesn't make you move, you just might be dead.



Rich Girl

As a kid, I just loved the line "You can rely on the old man's money". Of course, as a little kid, I had no idea that "old man" meant "father". So every time I heard this song, I envisioned an elderly guy with huge bags of cash.



Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Considering the subject matter of this song, perhaps it's a bit inappropriate that I liked this song so much as a child. Of course, I really had no idea what they were singing about. I just knew a loved the back and forth during the "Will you love me forever / Let me sleep on it" part.



Squeeze Box

OK, so this song is really inappropriate for a child - but I swear when I heard the lines "Mama's got a squeeze box, Daddy never sleeps at night", I thought they were singing about an accordion!



Rich

P.S. I don't know how many responses I'll get to this post, but if you do respond, I'd love to hear your own lists of childhood songs.

40 strikes back.

Just a quick follow-up to my last post. In response to that post, EZ commented ...

"He's just trying to lull you into a false sense of security, so you'll injure something else!!!".

Well, EZ was on to something there. I had to skip my next scheduled run because my left knee felt all "sponge"-y. In fact, it's now been six days since my personal-best-matching run, and my left knee still feel "funny" ( and that's "funny - uh oh", not "funny, ha ha" ). I'm sure it's nothing a few more days of rest won't fix, but I've got to be careful, because the last time I tried to run when my knee felt like this, I hurt my knee so bad that I had to stop running for 2 months, and my knee didn't really feel completely normal until about 18 months after that.

On top of that, my left ankle is aching again, after feeling perfectly fine for more than a month.

Hmm, I guess the speed I need to run to match my personal best time is right at the limit of what my joints can handle. What's odd about this is that for about month prior to running at my personal best speed last Sunday, I had been running at a speed just 0.1 mph slower with no ill effects.

Oh well, at least I reached the goal I had been working towards for 3 years. At least I can say that I was at my best at 40 ( at least for a day ). I'll start running again soon. I'll just need to tread lightly ( both literally and figuratively ) when I do, to make sure I don't get any kind of serious injury.

Rich

I just kicked 40 in the nuts!

Nice try, 40.

You tried your best to keep me down.

You even got your buddies 37, 38, and 39 to gang up on me. Those guys hit hard. They went right for my knees. They put me out of commission for 2 months. It took me about 18 months just to get back to 90% of my old self. As soon as it looked like I had them beat, 39 snuck up on me and whacked me in my left ankle. I was out of commission for another month. I was down, but not out. I wasn't going to let your thugs keep me down for long.

Then, staring on January 15, 2010, you decided to take matters into your own hands. You came at me hard, but I was ready. I backed you into a corner, and started to wear you down. I thought I was going to take you down easy, but you still had a few tricks up your sleeve. I've got to give you credit, those night cramps in my calves were a nice touch. I didn't see those coming. You never really expect to be wake up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in one of your calves, as your calf muscles contract so hard that they practically tear themselves apart. Sure, I'm no stranger to those night cramps. 15, 16, 17, and 18 used to get me with night cramps a lot back in the day, but these days those cramps usually only show up about once or twice a year. I had never gotten those cramps on consecutive nights - until a about a month ago. Left calf one night, and right calf the next. Sure, you had me limping for a while, but that wasn't going to keep me off that treadmill.

Just when I thought I had you beat, you brought on that stomach virus two weeks ago. It's tough to have enough energy to run, when you go a full day without eating any food. It's took all my strength just to drag my ass to the train station the rest of that week ( to get to work ) when I could only get down about one small meal a day. Crap, I lost a lot a weight that week. You were literally wearing me down. When I finally got my appetite back and tried to run on Sunday, April 25th, I found I could only run at my desired pace for about half as long as I wanted to. Still, I knew I was close. If I could just get my strength back, I could take you out. Hell, I promised myself I would take you down one week later. I ran every day over the next week - knees and ankles and calves be damned. I asked my knees/ankles/calves to hold up for me this past week, and they did their part. They got me to Sunday, May 2nd, and at that point it was up to me. At 4 PM that day, it was High Noon on that treadmill. It was me versus you, nose to nose, mano a mano. I looked you in the eye, and didn't blink. You were going down.

Well, you know very well what happened on that treadmill. I matched my personal best time for 2 miles - a time I hadn't run since I just turned 37 - a time I hadn't run since you and your buddies went after my knees, ankles, and calves. You're toast 40. You're dead, and when I set a new personal best time in about a month or so, you are going to be buried.

I hope you've learned your lesson, 40. Don't underestimate me again. You better warn your friends. Tell 41 I'm coming for him. If you run into 50 let him know I've got him in my sights too. Let him know I'll be spending the next 10 years training for our battle. He'd better watch his back.

Rich

P.S. OK. I admit it. Everything above was rather silly and self-centered. If I don't stop patting myself on the back soon, I'm going to wind up pulling a muscle. Buy hey, I'm pretty psyched. There were times when my knees and ankles felt so bad, that I had serious doubts about whether I would ever reach my goal. Perhaps, my knees will give out tomorrow, but at least I got all the way back for one day.

Tooth Fairy

Meet the Mets

I'd like to take a little break from posting about my Spring vacation to share a few photos from last weekend.

Last Thursday, I was watching a Mets game at home, when a commercial announced that there would be a "Mr. Met Dash" after Saturday's game. All kids 12 and under would be allowed to run the bases ( On the same field that the Mets play on! ) after the game. The Mets have been having these promotions a few times a year for the last 15 years or so, but I hadn't taken the kids to a "Mr. Met Dash" yet.

When Michael saw the ad for the "Mr. Mets Dash", he immediately exclaimed "I'm under 12! I could do that!".

It was at that moment that I decided what our family outing would be that Saturday.

The day really turned out to be PERFECT. I imagine it's the kinda thing almost every baseball-loving Dad starts to dream about when he first finds out that his wife is pregnant. It wasn't the first baseball game I've taken the kids to ( It was Michael 5th game and Peter 4th game - BTW, the Mets are now 5-0 in games Michael gone to and 4-0 in games Peter has gone to ( Michael has been at every game Peter has gone to ). Michael's been to 1 game in 2007, 2 games in 2008, 1 game in 2009, and 1 game this year ), but I think it was the nicest ballpark trip we've had as a family. The weather was beautiful, we got there early enough to do all sorts of fun stuff before the game ( Like photos with Mr. Met - see the photo at the top of the post ), the Mets won, Peter is old enough to understand the game at least a little bit now, and the kids got to run the bases after the game! The boys even enjoyed getting to the game. We decided to take commuter trains to the game to avoid traffic and the hassle of getting into and out of the parking lot. One of the boys' favorite TV shows these days is called Dinosaur Train ( Click the link to the left to hear the cool Johnny Cash style theme song! ). The whole time we were on the train, the boys pretended they were on the Dinosaur Train ( Michael kept asking the conductor to say stuff the conductor says on the Dinosour Train show ).

Check the photos below to see how happy Peter and Michael were during the game.




Eventually, the game ended, and we got to go on the field. Of course, I didn't get to run the bases, but as you might be able to tell from the photo below, I may have been more excited than the boys to be on a real major league field. I felt like a little kid. I found myself touching the outfield fences and the warning track dirt, and gawking as we passed the bullpen and the dugouts.


After Michael finished his run, he would up milking his time on the field just a little bit more. There was a reporter interviewing some of the kids that had run the bases. Michael noticed the microphone and the camera, and instead of running back to Ruth and me after he finished, the little ham decided to edge in on the interview. He lingered around as the reporter interviewed some other kids, and as soon as those kids left, he grabbed the mic and started chatting away.

It's kinda amazing when you consider that just 3 years ago, we were still wondering if Michael was ever going to be able to speak well enough to converse with people. He's such a little chatterbox now. :)

Anyway, I posted a few photos of Michael's interview below.





Rich

Part 2 of "What I did on my Spring vacation"

After getting back from Cornell on Tuesday, we went to Medieval Times on Wednesday. In case you're not familiar with Medieval Times ( or it isn't obvious from the name and the photos above ), it's a dinner show ( lunch in our case ) that features Medieval nights, with stuff like jousting and sword fights. To be honest, I can't hear the words "Medieval Times", without thinking of the movie "The Cable Guy". Specifically, I wind up thinking about two Janeane Garofalo scenes:
This scene ( starting at the 20 second point ) ...



... and this scene ( starting at the 2:03 point ) ...



Of course, this is probably due to the fact that I've always been a big fan of Janeane Garofalo ( OK, I've actually always had a bit on a crush on her, as I've mentioned in this blog post and this video ), but I've had a hard time taking Medieval Times times seriously since that movie came out. Well, to be honest, even before that movie came out, I was never a big fan of all that sword and sorcery stuff ( Perhaps this is why I didn't like LOTR that much ). This may come as a shock to some of those I played Dungeons and Dragons with in high school, but I primarily played D&D for the sake of being social ( For some this reason this reminds me of a line from Judd Nelson's character in "The Breakfast Club" ( try to guess which one ) ). I also went to a few Renaissance Fairs with friends, but once again, I was going for the friendship, rather than for all the sword and sorcery stuff.

So, as you might have guessed, the trip to Medieval Times wasn't actually my idea. My aunt had gotten the boys ( and Ruth and me ) tickets to Medieval Times as a Christmas present, and we figured my week off would be a good time to go. In any case, even if I was really into the Medieval Times stuff, I knew I would enjoy it if the kids enjoyed it - and the kids certainly did enjoy it.

Before the show, we got the boys some toys swords. Look how happy Peter was to have a sword ...

Michael also was excited ....

.... which meant it was inevitable that they would have a little sword fight of their own before the show:

I won't bother to post a bunch of generic pictures of the show ( you could find that easily enough on your own if you are interested ), but I will post the picture below just to give you an idea of what the show looked like ( We had front-row seats! ).

As you can see, horses were involved. That was a bit of a problem for me and my allergies. Despite the fact that I took a lot of Claritin before the show, I was having a real hard time breathing by the time it ended. If I hadn't been having so much fun watching the boys react, I probably would have left the show about halfway through.

So, I did watch the show to the end, and all in all I was impressed by the show they put on. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it was impressive to watch the "knights" clang they swords together so hard in "battle" that sparks came of the swords. Interestingly enough, that was the one part of the show that Michael didn't like. It scared him so much that he hid under the table while many of the sword fights took place.


He's a very non-violent kid. :)

However, he got a little bit braver towards the ends, and watched the entire final battle. As a coincidental bonus, the knight that represented our section ( The Black and White Knight ), was the winner that night, so the boys went home really happy.

So, while I don't think I'll be going again ( unless I can bring SCUBA gear, so I can breathe air that doesn't have horse hair in it ), I was glad the boys had a lot of fun.

I know my Aunt occasionally reads this blog, so big thumbs up on the gift, Aunt Barbara!

Rich

The Best Feeling in the World

I've been wanting to blog about something for about a week, but I've been too busy to blog. I'll get back to writing about my Spring vacation in my next post, but first I wanted to write about a specific moment in my day on Friday, April 9th.

I was walking from the train station to my home on Friday evening on particularly dreary day. The weather was cold and windy, I was feeling a little bit under the weather, and things had been really stressful at work. In additional to all that, I was worrying ( perhaps irrationally ) about my mortality. Without going into to details, let's just say I was worrying about "tumors" that had been developing. They turned out not to be "tumors" at all ( I was actually having a pretty bad allergic reaction to something unexpected. The allergic reaction was making my lymph nodes go nuts which led to painful "tumors", some of which were probably abscesses ( according to Ruth ( It's good to have a doctor in the house! ) ). After a week of avoiding the "something" and taking antibiotics and prednisone for a few days, everything cleared up ), but for a while I was worried about the possibility of dying of Cancer ( I'm 40 now, and my Mom was only 42 when she got the cancer that killed her at the age of 49 ).

So, in any case, I was feeling about as down as I could be at that point. However, that all changed when I got my front door.

I could hear them even before I opened the door ....

Michael: Daddy! Daddy's home!

Peter ( from the second floor of the house ): It's Daddy! It's Daddy!

Peter ( running down the steps ): Daddy, Daddy - you're home!

Michael and Peter ( crashing into the other side of the door ): Daddy! Daddy! Daddy's home!

Then, I opened the door, and the hugs started.

The next few seconds were a blur of hugs, but eventually Peter asked me to pick him up. I picked him up, gave him a big hug, and said "I love you Peter!". Peter responded with "I love you too Daddy!".

That, my friends, is the best feeling in the world. All my troubles evaporated when I walked through that door. My troubles evaporate at the end of every workday when I walk through that door. Walking though that door is almost always the best part of my day.

I feel so lucky to be a parent. I wish everyone could experience what it feels like. I don't think I'll every tire of it.

Of course, these moments are a little bit bittersweet at times, because I know my kids won't be so sweet and affectionate forever. However, I'll enjoy it while it lasts, and being around them will always make my heart happy. :)

Rich

P.S. I really hope I get to be a grandparent someday. While some people dream of playing golf or fishing during their retirement, I dream of spending my retirement caring for my grankids. My kids will never have to worry about paying for daycare or a nanny as long as I'm around.