Regular Life

This is all over the news and everybody knows about it, but this would not be a personal journal, a record of my life, if I didn’t comment on Hurricane Katrina.
It’s just awful. All those people displaced, many mourning their losses, or unsure whether loved ones survived. Pets left for what their owners thought would [...]

At lunch yesterday as I munched on my canned tuna, Zesta saltines, and baby carrots, I for once paid attention to the television in the break room. Hurricane Katrina was on her miserable march up Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving little room for stupidity. Yet CNN had an innumerable supply of reporters, borrowed and their own, [...]

This weekend, I managed to install two more of our ceiling fans. Living pretty much anywhere in Texas without fans is not recommended. The second one went in Ben’s room, and after I finished it, he looked up and said, “Ben’s san.”
Now, Ben doesn’t use the”f” sound yet. Instead, he uses the “s.” I said [...]

Oops. What I meant was watching the sun rise as Benjamin plays in the sand. Thanks to jim for pointing out that it would be hard to see the sun set over the ocean while on the east coast.
Another thing… I took the two pictures below, before and after getting our new HDTV. That’s the [...]

We’re loading Ben into an airplane for his first flight, up to Baltimore. Then we’ll take a short drive to Queenstown, MD to visit the other in-laws. Yes, I have in-laws there, too. Divorce gives the benefit of two sets. We’ll spend some time on their boat on Chesapeake Bay, where I’m hoping we’ll go [...]

When I was playing with Ben in his room this weekend, I asked him if he could go get a car (which was in the living room). He said, “Yes,” and then as he stood up he looked at me, held out his balled-up hand toward me and said, “Wye back.” I could tell this [...]

We had a misadventure with our minivan repair. It’s fixed now, and it looks good. Here’s from a post I made on a blog I no longer use, back when we first had it “repaired” by somebody who turned out to be pretty much a hack. You won’t be surprised after reading this.
He was drilling [...]

Just got this from a co-worker and had to share it. Richmond, Virginia’s Henrico County school district decided to sell a bunch of laptops for $50, and it turned into a mob scene, with one guy using a folding chair to swat line breakers like flies. Folks, they are four-year-old Apple iBooks used and carried [...]

Stop that. This is a family blog.
For our anniversary, we went to a place called Studio Movie Grill. Notice that they do not add the pretentious “e” on the end. I like that. My wife found out about it from a Mom’s Club member. It is a movie theater with several screens, on which patrons [...]

Shannon’s first weekend without Ben…
I took Ben to Arkansas this weekend for my cousin’s 30th birthday party and to see family he had not seen since Easter. It was his first time away from his Mommy for more than one night, and the latter has happened only once. It was strange to be somewhere with [...]