Regular Life

By the time these words reach the Internet, our house will have been invaded by Canadians, and while the “print” is still fresh we’ll have loaded up those hosers in our van to go retrieve the vegetarians from their morning flight.

Ours will be a full house all weekend, and I expect my online activity to fall drastically. If it doesn’t, then something has gone terribly wrong.

It’s Blogfathers II: The Wifely Edition (working title). You may remember that about a year ago I finally met in person two guys — Simon and Moksha Gren — with whom I had become friends solely online, and then later a tiny bit over the telephone. Two years this went on.

For the first meeting, we converged on St. Louis at Moksha Gren’s home and met his wonderful wife and daughter briefly before sending them on their merry way. It was a men’s weekend extraordinaire, well-documented (or at least thoroughly recounted) in five posts.

Now we take our next step, by including the wives on the fun. Yes, our focus will shift a bit to things more appropriate for male and female. Not to sound sexist, but even when physically capable, most women I’ve met have no interest in climbing through a seemingly innumerable series of tunnels made of concrete and steel. Same goes for some grown men I’ve met. I just happen to “click” better with guys who do.

This weekend promises to be just as much fun as the first — on a slightly different plane. Although Shannon has spent time on the phone with Simon’s wife (the only one I have yet to meet) and has said, “Hi,” on a webcam session, she hasn’t met any of them in person. She’s a bit nervous, but also giddy with anticipation.

We have a few definite plans — one a surprise for our guests — and plenty of time for just winging it. Whatever we do, there will be fun.

I have no doubt you’ll see and hear more about it here after I’ve had time to recover.

(continue on to the first day)

(Click to enlarge and sharpen)

I didn’t even know the little guy was there while I snapped shot after shot of this scene. The clouds moved quickly that day and the spotlight changed constantly. Plus, sometimes when you’re lying prostrate on a forest trail, certain things go unnoticed. If you’re lying prostate, then you have serious problems.

This reminds me of a joke I read the other day while waiting for a haircut. Police are interviewing a turtle after he’s been robbed by two snails. He pokes his head out of his shell and answers, “I don’t know, officer, it all happened so fast.”

I took this on my scouting trip to the nearby train dam, which shows more of my reward for wandering.

Sometimes a walk with a child is just what the soul needs. The bird sounds help, too.

While visiting family over Memorial Day weekend, Benjamin and I lit out Sunday morning for a nearby Tulsa city park. The air was dry, the breeze was light, and the sun shone down just hot enough to make us appreciate the shady spots.

The birds sounded glad to be alive and were busy impressing, defending, and maybe even making small talk. Benjamin was his usual talkative self.

Use headphones or earbuds to let the clips below surround you in exactly what I heard (and hear what makes a binaural recording superior to mere stereo).

You might feel like you’re walking right alongside Benjamin. His mother and grandmother come up on the right in one clip, coincidentally about the same time a blue jay gets annoyed.

It sounds corny, but closing your eyes enhances the listening experience.

(click any image to enlarge and any play button to listen)

continue reading…

Don’t let what anyone says fool you. Nice, considerate teenagers do exist.

On Saturday, the teens who came over to the family compound brought an Xbox 360. They had a variety of games ranging from barely appropriate for little kids to perhaps not appropriate for anybody. They settled on something that still didn’t thrill me, but it was only a little more violent than LittleBigPlanet (which isn’t very at all). I made some offhand remark about how every game they had was based on fighting.

It didn’t matter much, because Benjamin spent much more time playing outside and in with his 11-year-old cousin.

The next day the same boys came over, but this time they brought the Nintendo Wii. “We figured this would be better for the little kids,” one of them said. I rifled through the stack of games, and I would have let my son play all but one. That game, the boys made sure they didn’t play while little eyes were watching.

These are my wife’s young cousins, with whom I’ve built the tradition of seeing a holiday weekend movie for the last several years. Somehow they’re turning out okay despite spending time with me.

It seems I rarely see people in real life fitting stereotypes, so things like this shouldn’t surprise me anymore.

(click to enlarge)

At a recent birthday party, my son gets thrown into a sea of foam cubes. That guy better watch out for cubes fighting back.

I don’t usually post about television because it seems counterproductive for bloggers to encourage eyeballs to look at anything besides a computer screen. I would post about what I’m reading, but I’m reading three different books right now, so I have to wait until I finish at least one.

There are a few shows I watch regularly and a few I’ve just tried. I thought it would be fun to find out what others think of them (if they even watch them at all). Below I open for discussion or dismissal: “Castle,” “Dollhouse,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Office,” “Lost,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Heroes,” “Firefly,” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Current Shows

Castle

This is a very entertaining show, primarily because of the lead male, Nathan Fillion. He plays Castle, a murder thriller author who gets himself assigned as a chief detective’s “partner” for research on his next novel, but ends up helping with the cases. I have heard it compared to “Murder She Wrote,” but I never watched that show. It also features a nice look at Castle’s single father home life, where he has a teenage daughter and a has-been actress mother. All the acting is strong, but Fillion definitely makes this one. Suggestion: Watch it. When: This fall, 10/9 Central on ABC. Or see a few shows free at the Castle website.

continue reading…

Click to enlarge.

This is the first photo taken with my mobile phone that I’ve ever displayed anywhere besides its tiny screen.

I recently bought a memory card for the phone, so now I can actually do something with the photos. Not sure that’s a good thing, but it’s handy in a pinch because it’s the one device I always have.

Yes, I know there are other ways to share photos from a mobile phone, but remember, we’re talking about a company-provided phone on a restricted plan. I suppose I should be glad, especially right now, that my employer doesn’t throw away money on unlimited plans for everybody.

Okay, you twisted my arm. Here’s the second one, which I currently use as my phone’s background picture:

continue reading…

Sometimes with all the technology we possess, we forget what fun a simple wagon can be. Kids keep us mindful of that. Then, of course, I use all the technology at my disposal to make a short music video of the event.

The original clips are of low quality, from Shannon’s point-and-shoot digital camera, but the song is a fun track from the LittleBigPlanet game soundtrack.

continue reading…

About a week ago a co-worker gave me an espresso machine. Apparently part of her wedding package was a shiny new one.

She brought the old machine over to my cubicle and gave me a quick rundown on how to work it. I paid attention, but without anything written down, knew I might forget something.

It is a Krups, the same brand as a coffee grinder given to me by another co-worker way back in 1997. Honestly, I don’t ask for these things. Somehow it just comes up in conversation that they have something they don’t want and I end up with it.

So, there I was, with a matching set of two items perfectly suited for making a great cup of espresso. I ground some decaf beans, bought recently from a local coffee roaster, and put in the grounds basket the amount I was pretty sure my co-worker recommended. Ditto with the water.

I tightened down the water reservoir’s screw-on lid (to hold in the pressure, of course), put my large coffee mug in the path of the drip, and pushed the “on” button.

In about three minutes, the machine started a long exhale that crescendoed to a loud, steamy finish. I had forgone the frothing of milk; I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with all the newness when relying strictly on rushed verbal directions. Denied passage through the steam wand, the excess vapor forced its way out in clouds from the top of the filter basket.

The resulting cup tasted weak and, frankly, worse than office coffee. I tried regular beans, full caff. Nope. I experimented with more grounds, less water, and steaming of the milk, but nothing helped much. I’m accustomed to doctoring up my cup of joe, but even my years of experience with milk and sugar couldn’t help that stuff.

Then I found out about tamping. It’s a technical term used by baristas the world over, a key factor in “pulling a shot,” as they say.*

By the time you read this I will have tried again, this time with about 30lbs of pressure for tamping.

* terminology and tips gleaned from espressoguy.com

I absently check my e-mail at home and in comes a message from someone I’ve neither seen nor spoken to in nearly 20 years (long before I had e-mail).

I don’t know how yet because we haven’t had a chance to talk, but he stumbled upon my blog and happens to live within 15 miles of where I do. He gave me his mobile number and said he’s going to be at a restaurant Friday night within a mile of where I work (less than half that as the crow flies), and his e-mail signature indicates he’s some sort of executive for the company that manages that one and several others.

So, here I am, after amassing 213 friends on Facebook, about 200 of whom I could lose again and never notice, when out of nowhere drops the one guy my old friends and I ask about every time we’re together.

Completely by accident he found me and within hours of when this posts I’ll see him. Maybe I’ll get some answers to the mystery that’s been plaguing us all these years.