May 11, 2008

Mother's Day

Jean gave me a list of plants that she thought Renee might get her for Mother's Day. So after the movie we drove to the local garden store and ran through the list with a helpful employee. We returned home with a banana plant! Jean was surprised, despite the fact that she'd suggested it herself. Turns out she had been thinking about a dwarf house plant, and we brought home a 'bush' that the garden store employee said should reach eight feet in height. The literature says more like fifteen feet. It is planted out back in Jean's garden now. We'll see how it fares in the summer, and the winter.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2008

Easter 2008

In addition to the banner photo of extreeeeeeme closeup action (okay, maybe not that extreme, but Renee was suitably annoyed), you can go to my Flickr account and view the photo set. Note that Renee is carrying a Halloween pumpkin bucket for collecting eggs. This is particularly ironic as she bowed out of trick-or-treating this year by virtue of being too old for that kid stuff. Yet Easter egg hunting took place some four to five months later. This may be the last egg hunt though, as it was somewhat perfunctory. How the little ones grow!

While there are some strange lighting artifacts in a few of the pictures I took, you can nevertheless still get an impression of our new wood floors. I think they're pretty nice.

Posted by dpwakefield at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2007

Christmas Pics are Up

If you want to see them as a set, go to Christmas 2007. Otherwise, just feast your eyes on my personal pick, in the banner for now.

Posted by dpwakefield at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2007

Internet Cat Tax

It's nearing the end of the year and I have to get caught up on my Internet taxes, i.e. posting cat pictures to the Internet. More are available at my Flickr account if you so need...

Posted by dpwakefield at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2007

This House Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us!

That's how it seemed, anyway, for the first few days after we adopted a second cat. After some initial experimentation, we named him Quark, after a difficult to locate subatomic particle. We picked him up last Sunday, and I've been waiting, collecting impressions, before writing up this post.

He's reasonably smart, though perhaps not quite so smart as Chichi. When we got him, he had a bad case of ear mites (one of the worst our vet had seen), but with medicine and ear drops, seems to be improving rapidly. He also has roundworms, but we're treating that as well. We adopted him from another family, and all I can say is, don't they care about their pets? Come on, people!

He's shared family beds most every night, and likes to nest right next to my head, which is fine when he's quiet, but not so good when he's scratching or licking himself. He also likes to announce wake-up call around 5am, which sucks for me. Jean is usually up by then anyway, so when I really need sleep, I retire to the captain's bed in the den and close the door.

As I mentioned, Chichi is currently very jealous, though she's improved greatly from the first day, when she was growling and hissing and following Quark all over the house. Now they actually play, though Chichi plays dominance games and clearly would gut Quark if she still had her claws. She's about twice as big as the little guy, and just wrestles him to the ground. But he keeps coming back for more. I think he'll tire her out eventually. And if that doesn't work, he'll soon grow to at least her size. So the beatings should stop by then.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2007

Updates

Okay, to be fair to Verizon, we got the router within 48 hours. But, this is the second time I've hooked up a router of theirs, and had all web access redirected to the same Verizon web page. It's been over four months since I did this dance, so I had to call tech support again to find out the secret handshake to get their modem to let me onto the internet. This is undocumented anywhere in their shipped manuals, or as far as I can tell, online (though a fat lot of good that would do me if I didn't have internet access). For my future reference (yes, I'll have to remember to echo this to a local file), go to this URL and click on the button presented. I doubt this happens to everyone, but it's happened to me twice. What were they thinking?!?!

As for cable television, we are now using 'limited basic'. I've finished watching the last of the spooled episodes of my regular shows from Comedy Central and The SciFi Channel. I still have a couple of bad made-for-tv movies to go. After that, it's all vanilla.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Short Notes

I can't post from home just now, as our Verizon-branded DSL router just went toes up yesterday. After only four months of service. After a rather crappy switch from Frame Relay to ATM networks. The good news is that the tech I spoke to identified himself as Ivan, who was one of the few who seemed to know what he was doing the last time I rode this merry-go-round. The bad news is that he doesn't control Verizon shipping, so it remains to be seen if the replacement router will arrive via UPS within the 24-48 hours he quoted.

On another note, we're experimenting with reduced cable television. We had 'extended basic' cable, which is analog cable with more stations than we watch. We were paying on the order of $55 per month by the time we got tired of the slowly escalating bills, and stations disappearing into the 'digital cable only' cloud. So now we're subscribing to 'limited basic' cable. For myself, this means giving up Comedy Central (South Park, Drawn Together, and if they ever release a new season, Venture Brothers) and the SciFi Network (mostly Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who [wah!] and the endless string of cheap made-for-SciFi movies). For Jean it mostly means giving up The Daily Show (Comedy Central again). For Renee, it means giving up Animal Planet, and some of the stations that re-run the crime shows she's grown fond of. And that's it.

So we get all the networks that also broadcast locally over the air, and we get tons of shopping channels and public access, that I'll never use. The price quoted on the Comcast site is $8.40, but of course that's before surcharges, taxes and double-speak fees. This next bill will be split across the old and new service, so I won't know what the actual price will be for another billing cycle.

If Comcast does something stupid like removing the limited basic channels from analog ('you need a Comcast set-top box for those channels, for a small monthly rental fee'), then we'll just start looking at one of the satellite packages. Burr uses Dish, and likes it. Or I hear that Verizon is going to start offering IPTV in our area in the next year. Of course, I'm just a little peeved with Verizon right now... Oh! Full Circle!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:52 AM | Comments (2)

October 17, 2007

Burr-day

Saturday was the third time I've gone to a Burr-day party. My friend from work, Burr, turned 51 (I think), and he decided to have another party like his fiftieth, wherein he gathered together a bunch of friends and held a cooking party. Last year's theme was beef (from grain to grass-fed, and more-or-less grocery grade to Wagyu beef).

This year he jumped to the other pole, and the theme was vegetables. He told me that my salsa recipe would be welcome, so I made double batches of both kinds, on the spot. People seemed to like them.

After the meal, we went outside and played Bocce Ball. The last time I can recall playing that was as a youngster in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where one of our neighbors had a cousin from Italy staying the summer. Strange nostalgia there.

Anyway, happy birthday, Burr!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

Achilles' Heel

Renee has an Achilles' Heel. I was balancing the checkbook in the den when I heard the most soul-rending wails from the living room. I ran to Renee, who was sitting on the floor in obvious pain. Good thing her mother is a nurse. All I could do was support her back and ask if I should bring ice.

It seems that she had been sitting cross-legged while knitting, and one of her feet was twisted on top of her other leg. When she went to stretch, it wouldn't straighten out. She had a muscle spasm. She's walking now, although she has to limp, but it took awhile for the spasm to die down, and I really felt helpless.

Thing is, this isn't the first time Renee has had problems with a foot locking up on her. And on at least one of those occasions, I'm pretty sure she'd been sitting with it folded at an odd angle. So I told her that now she has to train herself to never sit like that, since she's obviously predisposed toward cramping painfully when that happens.

Ugh. I'm just glad she's okay.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2007

Birthday

Quick note from work, as I'm still Internet poor at home.

Yesterday was Renee's twelfth birthday! I went to work, but in the evening, we went to John Barleycorn, a McMenamin's pub/restaurant. Renee wanted to go there because they serve Oregon Country Beef, which is grass-fed, and hence lower-risk than the already low risk of mad cow contamination. Jean won't let Renee eat grocery beef (grain fed) because of that risk, so Renee has to go to extra lengths to get a cheeseburger.

Afterwords we went home and opened prezzies. Renee got three books, some earrings inspired by the serotonin molecule, a digitizing pad for her computer artwork, an album from Snow Patrol and a tennis racket. She's been bouncing a ball ever since. I think she was happy with what she got.

Oh, and Chichi was an early present. Another early present her mom gave her, of which I don't approve, is pierced ears, hence the new earring present. I'll just have to live with that sort of thing, I guess.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:28 AM | Comments (1)

May 28, 2007

Celebrations

We celebrated Jean's birthday today. As I was lazy, I took no pictures, so use your imagination.

We ate a Juan Colorado, one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants. Later in the afternoon, we exchanged gifts.

I gave Jean a gold(ish) chain. On Jean's advice I checked at Macy's, but unknowingly walked up to the 'fancy' jewelry counter. I got a rather cold reception when I mentioned my budget. "You want the costume jewelry section." A vague wavey gesture in the general direction of the 'slum' accompanied this. But I succeeded in finding something that I thought looked nice, and Jean seems to like it, so pooh on anonymous sales-thing...

Jean gave me a copy of The Black Swan! Just what I always wanted!

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

Garden Path

The new banner is a sampling of four photos I put up on Flickr showing some of the work Jean's done in the back and side yard installing a stone garden path. I'm not a big yard fan, so I barely even acknowledge it's existence, but I have watched her digging and levelling and generally slaving away to install this, and she should be proud of what she's accomplished. It's already looking nice, and when the ground cover surrounds it, it will be beautiful.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2007

The Cat's Out of the Bag

Ar, ar! Okay, enough with the jokes. Renee has been asking for a kitten for ages. I've been setting conditions centering on her responsibility and maturity. I was finally convinced that she was serious about taking care of a kitten, and did a lot of hunting for candidates. Last weekend, we took one home. Here is Chichi. May she live as long as Kafka and Grendl did.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:28 PM | Comments (2)

April 01, 2007

Polluting My Internet

I agree with Kottke.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2006

Christmas 2006

The new banner photo shows my propensity for fixating on food, captured in a set of holiday gifts from my wife. You can see a small sample of other photos in this photo set. Another favorite of mine is this selection of stocking stuffers, which also accurately reflects my character.

I know my daughter is growing up, when so many of her gifts are items of jewelry and fashion accessories. Anyway, it was a fun holiday. Since I bought Jean a copy of Brain Age, I haven't really played either of my DS games. Seems she's always using it whenever I'm in the mood.

Posted by dpwakefield at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2006

Honors Student

Renee got her grades for her first term at Hazelbrook Middle School. 4.0! And that's counting taking a course in math one year advanced. She has every right to be proud. She's got native smarts, but she's busted her chops working some late evenings to learn and absorb. So now she's an honors student, and I think rightly so.

I told her that she didn't have to be an honors student for me to be proud of her (I really am proud of you, Renee), but she should be justly proud of her accomplishment, since she got there by her own effort. Congratulations, Renee!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2006

Tom's Place

Tom should turn his place into a pub. Or an arcade. I was over to his place for what's turning into a monthly gathering, with a mix of friends I've come to know over the years, mostly met at NOVA. Yesterday evening, it was Alan, Bo & Lisa, Chris & Valeska, Aidee and John Jackson, of all people!

I watched demos of Destroy All Humans 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and of course, the scandalous Lumines Live!.

John Jackson had gone to Anime Expo this summer, as he does every summer, and he brought treats for everyone. He gave me an artbook for Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, but stupid me, I forgot it when I went home. Hopefully Tom will stash it safely for me until next month's shindig.

We went out for Asian, some chain joint with adequate Chinese food. I tried their Kung Pao chicken. Very different from the restaurant in Wilsonville, or Wu's Open Kitchen. Good enough, though.

And when we got back, I also got to see Chris playing Elite Beat Agents, the American adaptation (remake?) of the smash Nintendo DS game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Both are rhythm games, where you use the DS stylus to tap areas of the touch screen in time to the music. I suck at these sorts of games, but I still enjoy them, and I may eventually get a copy. I tried to see if Renee would like one, but while she found it cute, I don't think she had any desire to try it herself.

Lots of game-themed activities then, and lots of fun conversation. Both Tom and Alan got quizzed by me on a science extra-credit project Renee has from school. It's poorly specified, whether due to the teachers' keeping it informal or my daughter flaking, I'm unsure. But the project is to find/make an object which will float in water, neither sinking to the bottom nor floating at the top. This is a fairly delicate balancing act, trying to match the density of water, without over or undershooting. Most of our attempts failed miserably, but a few were at the borderlines (Jean thinks she's gotten the closest, as of today, Sunday, using a saltwater solution in a four-ounce seal-able plastic container). Tom thought it was possible but probably required more than an eleven-year old should be expected to come up with. Alan made some useful suggestions, and if the clock doesn't run out, I'lll try them. But right now, I'm just urging Renee to write up what she's tried and her reasoning behind it. I think that's the real purpose of the experiment, to hone their observational skills and experimental design instincts.

Looking forward to the next bash. For now, it's goodnight!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2006

One More Year

Posting late because there were ISP problems where I host this weblog...

Tuesday night was Halloween, and it was pretty neat. I'd called Renee's friend's mom a few days before and we'd agreed that I'd stop by their house with Renee around 7pm on All Hallow's Eve. So I was at work, working with a coworker on a subtle and annoying bug, saying "I have to get out of here by 6pm at the latest." I figured that would give me plenty of time to get ready.

So it's six o'clock and I go back to my office to gather up my stuff, and my cellphone is vibrating. I rush to pick it up, and the first thing I hear is "are you on your way home? Kaitlin wants to start trick or treating."

"What? I thought we agreed on 7pm?"

"Yeah, but she wants to start now."

So Renee's friend bumped up the timetable, and I just got home, put my work stuff away, switched into my winter jacket, and Renee and I drove on over.

Kaitlin is quite a bit shorter than Renee, and pretty skinny. She was wearing a cat costume. While petite, she's got a surprisingly deep and sonorous voice. We started walking around her neighborhood, and she and Renee are jabbering and cracking jokes the whole time. While the evening was pretty crisp, it wasn't nearly as bitterly cold as last year. Still, Renee's costume included a short skirt, and she refused to wear a jacket, since that would hide her costume, so I'm sure she was courting hypothermia.

We walked away from Kaitlin's home for about half an hour, doing the usual trick or treat drill at every lit house. About then, Kaitlin said, "I think we should be heading back. I don't recognize anything here." I assured her that even though this wasn't my neighborhood, that I felt confident that I could backtrack. So we started back.

On the way we encountered a police car, whose female officer confirmed we were heading in the right direction. She also gave us candy!

Eventually we got back to Kaitlin's house, and Renee and Kaitlin sat around swapping loot while I talked with Kaitlin 's parents. Finally it was back home for Renee and I. Hot showers all around, and end the night.

So I don't know if this will happen again next year, but I'm grateful to have had one more year of Halloween with my daughter.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2006

Halloween

Okay, the event has yet to happen, but Renee spent part of today working on her costume, and Friday evening I called her friend's parents and got the address, so it looks like Halloween is on for Tuesday! Cross your fingers. I'll give a report after the fact.

In the meantime, enjoy last year's banner pumpkin!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2006

Has Halloween Been Saved?

It's probably no secret that my favorite holiday is Halloween. I'm not even sure I can articulate my reasons, though of course a big one has been the nearly decade-long tradition of escorting Renee on her appointed rounds, bilking friendly neighborhood victims out of candy. From the early years when she alternated between fear of all the odd costumes to running up to doors and shouting "I want candy!" to the year when I was little more than an ambulatory freight container, every pocket bulging with her overflow loot, I've enjoyed each and every Halloween night. Dark, cold or warm, raining or not, it's been a joy.

I could see the writing on the wall when she finished fairly early last year, and hardly ever dug into her candy in the ensuing weeks. Earlier this year, we were talking about holidays, and I asked her what she thought. I told her I wouldn't be disappointed if she felt she was too grown up to do trick-or-treating this year (I lied). And she said, yeah, she didn't think she'd be doing it anymore. Oh cruel world!

Remember how I 'failed to mention' Kumoricon to Renee, and she found out about it anyway through her network of friends? That time, it worked to my disadvantage, leading to standing in long lines for hours, though I tried to console myself that this would be a substitute for those lost Halloween nights.

But now, it turns out that one of her buddies has proposed to Renee that they go trick-or-treating together, dressed as anime characters! The details have to be ironed out, and they may fold when her friend finds out that I require they have an adult escort (yeah, I'm gonna let a pair of eleven-year olds wander around a neighborhood after dark unprotected). But maybe it'll happen.

Honestly, as a parent I must require that there be a bodyguard along for the trip. But just as honestly, I hope it's gonna be me.

Posted by dpwakefield at 03:55 PM | Comments (5)

October 14, 2006

Friday

To paraphrase Churchy LaFemme, "Friday the 13th come on a Friday this month!" My left shoulder started hurting, dunno what I lifted wrong, pushed wrong or slept on wrong, but it was bothering me whenever I reached for something the wrong way.

Woke up this morning, and my range of motion is much more restricted, at least without pain. I've been through this once before a year or so ago with my right shoulder. The joint just decides to get all tetchy. Course of treatment, as per Dr. Selby, is to slam it with NSAIDs (basically a lot of Alleve) and after a couple of days begin the gingerly stretching.

As my old high school chum Mike Wendell would say, "defective body, trade it in!"

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

The Long Weekend

Thursday evening I brought home an Xbox 360 and Dead Rising. I played for maybe half an hour or an hour, then tried hooking it up to my network. Simple summary: it doesn't like my network. There's nothing wrong with the ethernet cable; I can use it to hook my laptop up to the router and see the Internet, no problem.

Thinking the problem might be imcompatible firmware / old hardware, I hooked the 360 directly up to the router. I only got slightly further before hitting a wall. On Friday I bought a new router for hardwired network experiments, and the 360 wireless adapter to see if that would work. Friday was spent mostly powering down and up all the hardware in various configurations. The final verdict is that for the time being, I can get the 360 online using the wireless adapter, but not any combo of hardware ethernet. Next Saturday I'm gonna haul the 360 and the router over to Tom's to see if my hardware (in any combination) will work on his network. If not, I'll conclude that the ethernet port on the 360 is defective and take it back. Otherwise, I'll just stick with the wireless adapter.

So to summarize, mostly for my own fault memory:

Friday wasn't spent entirely noodling with my network. I took a lunch break and went to see Crank, the new Jason Statham movie. It's really over the top. Definitely not something I'd recommend seeing with the parents.

I expected that I'd spend Saturday playing Dead Rising and maybe fiddling with the network, but that plan was shot down when one of Renee's friends sent her an online message asking her if she was going to be at Kumoricon. This is an anime convention held in Portland, small by the standards I've gotten used to over the years of attending Anime Expo. I had not planned on going, never have. I chose not to mention it to Renee, as I really didn't want to go. So she got this message and immediately hit me with "can we go, can we go?!?!?"

I told her I'd already blown my allowance for the next three months on my new toys, but she offered to pay her own way with birthday/Christmas money. "Still doesn't pay my way in" I said, but she decided that she'd try to sweet-talk Mom into finding money in the household budget. Since Jean works on Saturday, it was decided that Renee and I would do a single day badge at the convention, and there went my Saturday.

We drove up and got in line around 9:30am, and 2.5 hours later we got our badges. Renee complained the entire time we were in line. I told her "welcome to an authentic anime convention activity." I ran into Chris Arneson, and he said that the Friday night pre-registration line was just as bad. Four people running the registration table, 1800 pre-regs. Seems they are even more disorganized than Anime Expo staff.

The first thing we did on entering was to visit the Dealer's Room. It was tiny compared to Anime Expo, but Renee managed to blow her entire remaining cash in the space of ten minutes (when we went to lunch and I paid for it out of the funds Jean allotted, she said "if there's any money left, we can go back to the Dealer's Room!" I nixed that in a hurry).

We saw the anime music video (AMV) contest, and Renee was just tickled. She especially liked that she got to vote for best videos in various categories. We did a lot of walking around the convention, checking out the costumes. Renee is now convinced that she needs a costume for next year (that's right, next year, I'm committed already). Especially as she met her friends Elaine and Bleu, both dressed to the nines. Bleu was a not-too-elaborate Loli-goth (at twelve years old) and Elaine was some primary-color character I didn't recognize. I didn't see an adult within 50 feet of them any time we ran into them. And they're twelve. Renee better not get any ideas on that count...

Our last activity was to check out a panel. The Kumoricon program was printed out in tiny print in a 2" square booklet, so I had trouble making out what was happening where. But I spotted a panel called "So you want to be a cos-player?" Since Renee was talking about needing a costume for next year (Sakura from Tsubasa -- the older, more romantic version of this character) I suggested we check it out. We stood at the back and listened for half an hour as the young woman up front talked about the various issues in hiding her bosoms so she could pretend to be a boy character. It was only then that I discovered that the name of the panel was "So you want to be a Cross-player?" Fortunately, Renee took the info in stride, deciding that it would help her to play an older and more mature Sakura as well.

We finally went home, and Renee was bubbling and buzzing for the rest of the evening. A more loving child you never met. She thanked me dozens of times for taking her, and she thanked Jean for finding the funding to support the trip.

Sunday was mostly chores, lotsa laundry.

Today, we went to the Japanese Garden. I took scads of pictures, but most of them are uninteresting, out of focus or repetitive. I'll try to cull a few and post them soon. The trip itself was a lot of fun. So now it's off to bed, and back to work tomorrow.

Oh, and Renee is heading to her first day of school on Wednesday. It'll be just a orientation day, but it's a new school, so she's pretty nervous, though she tries not to show it. Fingers crossed!

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:05 PM | Comments (2)

August 27, 2006

Weekend Update

Saturday I went over to Tom's house for a BBQ. I wasn't sure how many folk would be there, so I got to the Beaverton Farmer's Market early and stocked up on ingredients for salsa. As I proposed before, I made four batches: food-processor with cilantro, food-processor without, hand-prepped with cilantro, and hand-prepped without. And a comment to Valeska (Tom, you can forward this, as I don't expect Valeska will see this otherwise): the food-processor recipe and the hand-prep recipe differ in a few ways. They are not identical, but other than texture, I guess I can see how they'd be difficult to differentiate.

The tomatoes themselves were the stars. I walked the whole market sniffing and squeezing, looking for the best tomato for my salsa. In the end, I settled on two varieties at the same stall. I asked the farmer what he thought of each, and he recommended one (Celebration? I can't remember all these cute breed names). I asked if it was too sweet, and he just cut a chunk off one and handed it to me! And boy, howdy, was it ever rich. So I hied myself home, and began the work of cutting, dicing and mincing, using my new favorite, the santoku.

I need to pause here and say that I realize I may be more enthusiastic about the salsa I make than any given friend who eats it. Part of the fun for me is in the assembly. It just tastes better to me when I make it myself from fresh ingredients. I'm afraid I may have bored folks with my 'waxing rhapsodic' on the virtues of these salsa recipes. By the end of the night, the four small tubs of salsa were at most half depleted, and Tom was suggesting I take them home. But I wanted to follow my original plan and just leave them with Tom. I doubt he'll finish it off, even with help from Alan and James and crew...

Anyway, Bo and Lisa, James, Alan, Dan, Valeska (and later Chris) and Tom's card playing friend (sorry Tom, can't remember his name) were there for the festivities, and everybody brought something to eat. So it was a real spread. I ate a burger, but mostly nibbled on and off throughout the evening. Alan's hummus was very tasty. Not to slight any of the other food, I'm just a hummus nut.

After the eats, I spent quite a lot of time downstairs with Alan watching him demo Dead Rising and Ninety-Nine Nights on Tom's Xbox 360. You'll recall that I said that if anything could get me to buy a 360, it'd be Dead Rising. Well, nothing I saw changed my mind. DR is a fun game (with a sick sense of humor), though I expect the key combos will escape me. Alan has a way of making that sort of gameplay seem easy, when it's really not.

I even spent a little time chatting with Adam, who was comfortably ensconced up North, playing Texas Hold'em on Xbox Live when Alan logged on. I don't know if someone with a Silver account (the free version of Xbox Live) can audio-chat with friends, but it's a nice feature.

Around 11pm I decided that I'd better get on home, since I have been trying to assemble a presentation on Design Patterns for work. So anyway, thanks for inviting me, Tom. I hope we can get together again soon!

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:47 PM | Comments (4)

August 14, 2006

The Notebook

This morning I noticed a notebook laying on the floor. On the cover, in my hand, were the words "Computer Prog. I". It was on a stack of drawing materials that Renee has been using to draw 'manga' this summer. Inside the book, again in my hand, was our address in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where Jean and I lived when I got my undergraduate degree, decades ago.

All my old class notes had long since been removed, but the first batch of pages contained notes on photography that Jean had taken while teaching herself to be a better photographer. I don't know if this was while she was doing yearbook work as a teacher in Ohio, or during her stint as an editor for an in-house magazine in Portland, but it was in either case years ago.

So this single notebook has been used in the education of three family members, over the course of decades, and there are still blank pages. I'm tempted to tell Renee to leave a few pages blank in the back for her own child...


Posted by dpwakefield at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2006

Unlucky Moyers

Jean's parents are having a spate of bad luck. After the reunion, they were going to do a car tour of Washington and Oregon, staying at B&B's and hotels along the way. They planned to end their tour this Monday at our house, spend a few days, then head back to Michigan.

Well, early last week they showed up at our doorstep. The hotel they were staying at had lost their reservation. So they spent the night with us, then went on to continue their tour. Then, yesterday, Jean began to worry about the fires in eastern Oregon, as that is where her parents were headed next. And guess what? They had to cut their tour short due to fire! They are here a day early, with pretty cool pictures of fire crawling up hills right next to their car. I'll try to see if Jean's dad can't upload one or two of them to my computer so I can post them here.

Here's hoping that nothing else happens to mess up their itinerary on the way home!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2006

Family Reunion

Jean's family reunion is behind us now. The banner photo is of the gang, in Pike Place Market. This image looks good on my LCD screen, but is too dark on my wife's CRT. Apologies if this is true for you too...

We had a petit deja vu when Jean's parents showed up this evening after their hotel reservations nearby got screwed up. They were planning on showing up next Monday for a few days, after touring Washington and Oregon, and this is still the plan. But for now they have a somewhat less fancy hotel than they may have planned on.

Highlights of the trip:

Pike Place Market, of course. Renee spent forty or fifty dollars on rings and bangles she found among the artisans here. I walked around with her, but bought nothing of my own. I just enjoy people watching. Mind you, if I'd had a place to do kitchen prep, I"d have dropped a bundle on fresh fruit and veggies, yum!

We dined at Elephant and Castle the first night (Friday). Jean's sister Ann tried to coerce Renee into ordering a salad with lettuce, seemingly aghast that my child might not want to eat it. After Ann moved on to other machinations, I assured Renee that I was in her camp. "Lettuce is a waste of space!" Long live spinach!

Saturday included trips to the Experience Music Project (didn't know Jimi Hendrix was a Seattle native, shame on me; also didn't know Quincy Jones was from there, perhaps not so shameful) and the Science Fiction Museum. At EMP, Renee used the interactive exhibits to discover that she likes drums. They are in fact more intricate than simply banging on a noisemaker, and I think she twigged to the notion that this was a real-life DDR rig. Jean was amused when I jumped in right on cue to sing along to "How Many More Times" by Led Zeppelin.

I have to say that I've read a lot of science fiction in my life, so the SF Museum was a lot of fun for me. Moving from exhibit to exhibit, saying "read that, read that, not familiar with that one, read that..." probably got pretty tiring for Renee, but I was tickled.

Saturday night dining was at Pike Pub and Brewery, which is pretty much as you'd expect it. Lottsa concrete, raised ceilings, linoleum and concrete flooring. The food was good, but the acoustics were trying most of the time.

Sunday was a 'free day', and I used my time to hook up with Adam, my "anime pal that's fun to be with!" I've known him for years, after Tom introduced us at Anime Expo. We went to lunch at Gordon Biersch in the Pacific Place mall. The Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry was excellent, as was the Hefeweizen. I forgot how huge those wheat beer glasses get, though!

After lunch we just wandered around downtown Seattle for an hour, then I hooked up with Jean to make sure she got her key (our room got moved on Sunday). Then Adam and I hopped the bus and ran over to Uwajimaya. After searching for some wasabi root and discovering that it was $67/lb. I gave up on that notion, and instead we went into Kinokuniya to look at books, videos and cds. I ended up buying two tankouban for Renee, and again, nothing for myself, although now I wish I'd bought Kamikaze Girls. I had not heard of it when I was in the store, but just today I read a review that made it sound fun. Strange.

Monday we got all packed up and drove ourselves home. The trip home was much faster than the trip up. After unpacking, I decided I needed to decompress, so I went to a movie: Clerks II. Not a family picture! But fun for me, nonethelesss.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:35 PM | Comments (2)

July 18, 2006

Naturalist

This evening I was in the downstairs family room trying to zip through an episode of one of my favorite shows, so I could move on to reformatting the ReplayTV (more on that later) when Jean came down to ask for my scientific opinion. Good luck with that, eh?

Renee got a Butterfly Canopy kit for her birthday. It's a mesh cylinder habitat. You send away for live caterpillars, which arrived in a box that the Post Office left on our porch in the hot sun a week or so ago. Fortunately the little buggers were still alive. They were in a small plastic jar, the bottom of which was filled with some packed food medium, looking a little like light caramel fudge. They ate like the dickens, grew triple or quadruple their original size, and then began their crysalis stage.

A few days passed, with Renee postponing the transfer of the cocoons to the habitat. Turns out she feared damaging them and killing them. Once we explained that leaving them in the tiny jar was a guarantee of certain death, she got moving. So there I was, watching my show, and Jean wanted help deciding how the transfer was supposed to go. I read the directions, and shared how I thought they were to be interpreted.

Time passes, and Renee comes down with the habitat in hand. Stop the show again, march upstairs. All the survivors of the first stage are transferred to the habitat. Three are dangling from a paper disk which Jean pins to the side of the habitat. A fourth has fallen to the bottom of the jar, but the instructions assure us that if we place it gently on a clean napkin at the bottom of the habitat, it will survive. I am skeptical, but we try it anyway. Funny thing. Jean goes searching for a pair of tweezers (at my suggestion) that she can "sacrifice to science". I tell her she should just pour a little hydrogen peroxide on them after the transfer (thinking silently that all I'd do would be to run a little water over the tweezers, or even just rub 'em on my shirt). But she is apparently squeamish about the idea of "butterfly spit".

I thought we had finalized the project, and I returned to my show. However. It turns out that there was no perfect spot in the house from which to hang the habitat. It must be not-too-hot, not-too-cold, not-too-breezy. So I got enlisted to help find the perfect location. In the end, I suggested the den, where I keep my desktop computer. Said den has the window blocked to prevent glare, so it's perfect for snoozing butterflies. Now I have to be careful where I point the fan, but it's only for a few days. Chances are they'll hatch out while we're up in Seattle. Have to remember to shove some fruit into the habitat before we leave...

Then finally I went downstairs and finished off the show, leading to my next post...

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2006

Field Trip

It's the long weekend for me, and so, while Renee was at Willowbrook, an arts and crafts day camp, Jean and I did our own little field trip. We went to the Discovery Museum at the World Forestry Center. We'd been under the impression that this was a general forestry museum, suitable for all ages, but really, it's a kid's museum. In fact, Renee would probably find it a bit too young for her tastes. So the trip served a purpose, as Jean had been thinking of taking Renee there for a mother-daughter trip this summer, and now knows not tot bother.

Once we completed this trip, we went down to Wilsonville to dine at Hunan Kitchen, a restaurant I frequent with some of my work friends. I had my usual Kung Pao Chicken, and Jean had the tangy pork slivers. Good!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

Tween

My little girl is growing up <sniff>. And it's really annoying...

Renee turned 11 today! But there will be no banner photo of the event, as she asked me not to. She said "Dad! Stop doing that! [taking pictures as she unwrapped presents] And don't put a picture up on your weblog!" (doesn't mean something might not show up on my Flickr account sooner or later, though...)

So what does an eleven year-old do? Well, she takes her first flute lesson, apparently. Jean took her to this august event earlier today. The teacher was trying to encourage Renee to blow harder by asking her if she ever got mad at her brother/sister. Renee said she didn't have one. Jean said, "you get mad at me sometimes..." and Renee blew real hard!

In the evening, we all went out to eat at Yeatsy's, an infrequent but favorite spot. Afterwards we went home to unwrap the presents, during which I snapped a few pics, much to Renee's annoyance. She got a 'know thyself' quiz book, which alternately charmed and enraged her. She also got a crystal growing kit, a butterfly ranch and Dance Dance Revolution for the XBox. I expect to get a report tomorrow on her experiences with that.

We postponed the inevitable birthday party until this weekend, so some of her friends could go with her to a local Laser Tag emporium. I'll report on that afterwards.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2006

I Think That I Shall Never See

A tree as pretty as Jean! And yet, she pines for this tree, boughing before it's majesty. Anyway, she wants to plant one in our yard.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2006

School Musical

This time the banner image is from a few weeks ago. Renee's school put on their annual parent trap, er, musical performance, and I attended with camera. As always, my lenses were not really bright enough to stop the action, but I got a few that will give you the idea. Starting with Renee en regalia, marching toward the stage.

As I get around to it, I'll post the handful of salvageable images to my Flickr account. Keep watching the skies!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2006

Sinus Infection

This post is for my own records. I get sinus infections now and then, and therein lies the problem. I think they occur maybe once a year, twice every three years...

So this time I'm noting it. Last Tuesday I took a course of antibiotics for a sinus infection that was being rather stubborn. Feeling mostly better now, but skeptical that it's really all gone. Cross your fingers.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2006

Easter Rap

One of the clues that Jean cooked up for the Easter treasure hunt was written in a faux 'rap' style of verse. Unfortunately, Renee is not all that 'hip to the jive', so she needed visual aids. Jean, with a little coaxing, was happy to oblige. The link is to the slideshow version of the photoset. I recommend setting the interval to around two or three seconds an image. That almost captures the timeframe of the actual performance. If you wish to linger, there is a photo set (for now).

In at least one photo, Jean is clearly on the edge of losing it. In others, she looks less like a dangerous rapper and more like a Popeye impersonator.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

Easter Hunt

This image is not really from this weekend. Jean had a nursing shift Saturday and Sunday, so we celebrated Easter earlier in the week. Renee did the egg hunt, which I think is getting a little beneath her (she skipped Sunday School this weekend because it was primarily an Easter egg hunt "to give the little kids a chance -- I'm too good at it."). But she also does a customized puzzle-driven treasure hunt masterminded by her mother, who each year drafts a chain of clues, each leading to the next, until BOOM! Easter basket!

So I bring to you a snap of the not-so-little one applying her enormous brain to a clue, whilst lounging in the window box...

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2006

Salt the Earth

Follow the linky goodness to see pictures of ... wait for it ... dirt. We have had a ground-based deck behind our house for as long as we owned it. It came with the house, but we're not the backyard party 'n' barbeque types, so it sat idle. One summer we made a half-hearted attempt to waterproof the wood, but our long-term commitment was obviously lacking, so it eventually began to rot. So this week, we had it ripped out.

What'll go there now? Only Jean knows for sure. We're leaning away from edible crops, due to the danger of chemical leeching from the wood that was over it for so long. So decorative plants of some sort. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll be posting another picture... Or maybe sometime next year.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:11 PM | Comments (2)

April 04, 2006

Sprouting

How's this for breaking my recent silence? Remember how I reported that Renee is getting her 'maturity' act together? You should, it was my last post!

So now, Renee has passed another milestone. She is now taller than her mother, by maybe 1/2".

We knew from the various rules of thumb for projected height of children that she'd be about midway between Jean's and my height. She's now begun that journey.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2006

Renee Triumphant

Last conference we had with Renee's teachers (actually Jean usually does these solo) we got bad news. She was hanging out exclusively with the boys in her class, and was excluded from the 'girly-girl' circles. She argued with her teachers, made faces, generally seemed to be having a hard time making the transition to the classical 'next stage'. What is worse, she was telling us everything was fine, just ducky folks. And of course, apparently unaware that we'd hear about it from her teachers...

So we sat her down and had a long talk. We've done that a number of times, and I was despairing of how to impress on her that she was building bad habits for life. This time, we talked earnestly, and I shared an anecdote from work.

It seems that a guy where I work, who is one of their top engineers, was as big of a jerk to everyone else as he was to me. He was combative, agressive and rude in almost every setting. Time passed, and I hadn't worked with him for several years. One day it became clear that I'd need to talk to him about some of his software, and I was quite reluctant to expose myself to such a prat. But I girded myself and went to see him. And he was nice! He was pleasant and helpful, took nearly two hours out of his day to try to nail down my problem. Not once was he in any way rude or snide. I just couldn't figure it out.

Anyway, much later, I was telling one of my work friends about it, and he shared this with me. It seems that the mystery guy was in a meeting with marketing and a couple of customers. When it was done, the marketing guy pulled him aside, and said, "you know, everyone thinks you're an ass." He was stunned. "Really?" He just didn't perceive his 'out front' style as insulting. The marketing guy laid it on the line, and told him that he could get so much more done if he'd just get his attitude under control.

Well, that explained what I had seen. He got this candid and unpleasant insight into how people saw him, and he decided to change it. And he acted.

So I told this story to Renee. I don't claim that this story was the main force for change. Jean also tried in a sincere and heartfelt way to impress on Renee that she was sabotaging her own life. Renee seemed to really listen (for a change). Then in the following days, Jean took Renee in hand, and they went shopping for 'girly-girl' clothes, and worked on hairstyles, and on and on.

Well, Jean got back from another teacher conference today (my excuse for not going this time is that I had a doctor's appointment), and the report was night and day. Renee scored at the extreme high end on state testing in literature, science and math. She has been regularly sitting with the 'girly-girls' during lunch. She talks with them, compliments them on their choice of clothes, and is even asking them out on movie dates. Her teachers were apparently near tears in their happiness with her transformation. She's not currently being combative, and doesn't roll her eyes when given a task she's not happy with. In short, she has remade herself.

So this evening, we entered collective bargaining with her to see what her reward would be. She's getting an extra half-hour on the computer (Neopets!!!) every Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and if her grades hold, a gameboy game.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:16 PM | Comments (2)

March 05, 2006

Introvert

Saturday was a NOVA night, and though Jean's parents were visiting, I just needed some time with my friends. I watched two episodes of Yakitate, excellent as usual, then hung out with Tom, Alan, Bo, Lisa, Chris and Valeska, ping-ponging around the conversations.

Over at the other end of the room, I saw a familiar face. Sam (Samantha) used to attend NOVA meetings several years ago, then disappeared. I was never really in her clique, but I did know her by name, enough to say hi, ask a question now and then, and generally be civil. But never did I know her well enough that my loud obnoxious side came out.

So here she was. I nodded to her, and returned my attention to the show. Later Paul had 'newbies' introduce themselves, and I pointed to her, saying don't forget the oldies. Turns out she's been in England for the last three years, and she was totally macking on the British Accent, London Standard. I gotta know if she's cranking it up on purpose, or if living in England for three years really did saturate her language centers.

In any case, she was there for half the meeting, and even came over and talked with a couple of people nearby. But I didn't once actually talk to her. In retrospect, I feel sort of bad. This is totally natural for me, to hang back when there are people I don't really know. But she comes back after three years, and drops by NOVA, of all places, to get in touch with her past, and there are very few faces from that past. I'm one, and I can't really bring myself to strike up a pleasant conversation.

In all likelihood, I'm overestimating how isolated she may have felt, and I doubt she was hankering to have a conversation with me. I just wish I'd been more civil, since after all, she wasn't a total stranger.

On the brighter side, Alan brought his D200, and while he and I were gabbing about it, cruising photo equipment websites and generally comparing features against the D70 (which I own), I mentioned that I'd read a post on a photography mailing list I subscribe to. In it, the poster responded to the question of why anyone would want to use the multiple exposure feature on the D2X. This poster explained that when one is in the field, say at a trade show, one can set up a tripod, and take multiple exposures of a static subject by moving a single flash around the subject, and generally successfully mimic a set of studio lights.

Well Alan just about hopped out of his seat. The D200 has this feature too, and he immediately started experimenting with it. He and I had both asked the same question, "why would anyone want the multiple exposure feature?" So we were both tickled pink with the explanation, and I especially was admiring the mind which said instead, "how can I use this new feature?"

I'm not particularly good with my camera, and I'm rather lazy about it, but times like this really excite me about the technology and the hobby. That was a very fun part of the evening.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:42 PM | Comments (1)

March 04, 2006

Nuthatch

Renee and her grandfather John Moyer enjoy a moment together with their new birdhouse, which they put together with a kit. There was a bit of debate over which of two birds were more common in our area, chickadees or nuthatches. But this picture convinced us that nuthatches were more prevalent.

Posted by dpwakefield at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2006

Friends

Jean wasn't working this weekend, so I was able to hook up with Tom, Alan and James. Tom's card-playing friend was there when I arrived, but he left before we went out to eat. This is the first time I've eaten at the Racoon Lodge. I had a spicy pork sausage rigatoni, an IPA (India Pale Ale) and sweet potato fries. Yes, I'd eat there again.

The rest of the evening was given over to playing with Alan's new D200, and talking about all the usual geek topics like game consoles, display devices and crappy DRM. I hope I can get together with everyone again soon.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2006

How I Spent My President's Day

Actually it's barely begun, but I kicked it off by getting a filling. This is the second visit, for a matching set, upper and lower. I don't remember doing it, but my dentist told me that I'd bitten down on something hard and cracked the enamel on two lower molars and one upper. So we did the lowers last Monday, with a plasticky epoxy sort of filling, and today we did the upper with a silver amalgam, that I can "take to the grave" as my dentist says.

I'll probably run some gear down to work, but otherwise, I think I'll cook up some chicken curry and wait for the numbness to go away.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Miscellania

While not quite approaching the sparcity of Hanson Kun, I have been remiss in posting of late. So herewith, a few brief tidbits of info:

Posted by dpwakefield at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2006

My External Memory

I was wondering what time it was when I had my last cold, since I'm wrestling with one right now. A quick search of my weblog reveals that it was around the end of October, running into November. I'd never have been able to pin it down that closely without some sort of journal, but at least I could have made myself believe it had been longer than two and a half months between annoying respiratory maladies! It's not uncommon for me to get two colds over the winter, but still...

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

While I have certainly managed to go see a few movies (about which I'll talk in a separate post), and I did have some fun cooking (already mentioned), I don't seem to have managed to fire up my new games once yet. Why?

Well, I've already mentioned that I'm studying Flex and Bison. Just as a matter of scale, the Bison manual is 142 pages long. Somewhat more challenging is What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating Point Arithmetic (1991), a 93 page treatise on machine representation of real numbers. What exactly I am reading it for I won't go into, suffice to say there are unnamed individuals who think that real numbers should be representable exactly in the computer, I mean, what's the big deal, right?

The other distraction is of course family. I've been enjoying time with Jean and Renee, doing the Christmas thing, going to a movie together, playing games (chess and mancala, not video), and just generally hanging out.

Since I elected to use my recreational time to see those movies (and hope to squeeze a couple more in before returning to work), those games will have to wait!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2005

To Play, or Not to Play

I've 'officially' had two new videogames and an old favorite video in my hands since this morning. But did I play them? Nah. I spent the bulk of the day cooking, reading Flex documentation and writing sample Flex specs to test my understanding. When I wasn't doing that, I was herding Renee, trying to keep her from melting into a puddle training virtual dogs to go on the virtual paper. This is not to say that I didn't play at all. The cooking was mostly fun. I need to make Kelly do more of my pot washing, that's all.

Whither Magna Carta? Perhaps tomorrow?

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

First Wave

We got up this morning and emptied our stockings. I'm not going to do a laundry list of every little thing; suffice to say that there were many cute trinkets, and I got a bundle of cash. I really wasn't expecting that, as I had asked for (and received) a food processor this Christmas. Still, Jean surprises me, and leaves me feeling guilty as well. I got her some presents, but didn't go that extra mile this year. Must think of something...

Anyway, this year is somewhat non-routine. Jean is working as a nurse, and she's pulled shifts over the holiday. She worked yesterday, and Renee and I used the time to finish wrapping presents, among all the grocering and other chores. I did the prep work for a dish I'm making today, chicken pot pie. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jean has another shift today. She's leaving for work in an hour. So we decided to save the sub-tree presents for when she returns this evening. I'll probably spend the day cooking, studying Flex and Bison for a work project, and playing Magna Carta, my stocking stuffer to myself...

I'll hold off on posting pictures until the tree gifts have been shredded. Later!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

Behold, Git-san!

I'm too lazy to set up a proper backdrop, but you should be able to figure out the general color scheme of this present from Valeska to Renee, hand crafted with skill and loving care. Thanks, Valeska!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:15 PM | Comments (2)

November 12, 2005

Cold Rounds

So Jean is coming down with a cold now. It's an entirely different prodrome from mine, but she insists it's the same virus, just a different variety. I said it's the same variety, just a different flavor!

Anyway, day fourteen and counting for me, but I'm feeling a lot better. If the full-blown cold, raging at force ten, happened around ten days ago, I'm probably suffering from mild gusts of wind now, around force three. If I don't relapse, I hope to begin working out at the gym on Monday or Wednesday. Wish me luck.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Halloween 2005

Pictured is the pumpkin that Renee and I gutted on Saturday. We put it on the porch to signal our participation in the holiday. Then we promptly went out ourselves to collect ill gotten booty. For a hint of the majesty of Renee's costume, visit my Flickr account...

It was warmer than last year, and drier than the year before. If only I had not had this nasty cold. I was sucking on cough drops the whole time we were out there. Definitely takes some of the fun out of the holiday. I barely managed to get this trickle of photos up before running out of steam. So to wrap this post up, Halloween 2005 was a success, even with coughing. Take that, viral evil!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2005

More Songs About Buildings and Avoiding People

Occasionally I read some epistle on the web bemoaning how technology is alienating us all. One example, the coffee shop that has shut down wi-fi on weekends because too many people were staring at their laptops instead of chatting with each other. Another is the now frequent charge that people using iPods to listen to music in public spaces are antisocial.

Guess what, folks? We were antisocial before the gadgets came along. I hate, hate, being at some public function, where I am sitting quietly enjoying the people watching, only to be approached by some nit who decides to 'rescue' me from my isolation by trying to rope me into some banal conversation. I would use my iPod as a buffer everywhere, except that even I sometimes think it would be inappropriate.

Sitting on a bench outside Renee's school, waiting for a ride, is not one of those occasions, though. I was able to relax and decompress to the soothing sound of Maaya Sakamoto on her singles collection, Hotchpotch. It reminded me of all those times I was standing at the bus stop in Akron, Ohio, listening to Camper van Beethoven on my portable casette player. Of course, then I thrashed about with the music, which served as an even better buffer to human interaction than the headphones.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

Invisible Parent

This evening was a Parent's Night at Renee's school, where you meet your child's teacher(s) and get the buzz on how they do the things they do in the coming school year. It started around 7:20pm, Jean dropped me off at 7:15. She and Renee went back home since it was ostensibly just for parents (how's that supposed to work, if both parents want to come?). I found Renee's desk, and sat down, looking over her textbooks, scoping out the wall decorations, and finally, playing PalmJongg until the other parents settled in and the talk began.

Now understand, by 7pm I'm generally pretty done. My day is over, I'm pondering the day's events, kidding with my wife, and unwinding, in preparation for the next day. So I'm pretty toasted, and endeavoring to take a note now and then when some point comes up that seems important and is not on the preprinted outline, is a major effort. When Mrs. Houtz asks if there are any questions, I'm thinking "no, let's all go home now", but of course there are several questions, none of which interest me. I sit silently, pencil in hand, trying to look engaged.

Finally, it was over, and I'm making my way out of the room, thinking only of calling Jean to come pick me up again. Out of my peripheral vision comes Renee's other teacher, Mrs. Kronsub, hand extended. "Nice to meet you," she says. I reach out, grasp her hand, try to smile, mumble something, then turn around and continue walking. It's really only now that it occurs to me that she may actually have wanted to engage in some sort of social chit-chat. Oops.

So those of you who know me and are secretly wondering if I ever shut up, this is an example of how I always behave around people I don't know. Mr. Introvert. The Invisible Parent.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2005

Nurse Jean

Jean got an offer for a nursing job today! She starts training next Monday. Her shifts will be three days a week, every other week, for starters. Sounds like an interesting if busy place, and she'll be able to practice a variety of skills. I'm very happy for her!

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)

September 12, 2005

Taylor's Gone

We followed all the advice given by the veterinarian, including a quarantine in the laundry room with her litter box for two days. When she was released, she was loving and needy, but within hours I found another piddle puddle on the futon. So now she's back at the no-kill shelter, and there's a smelly futon in the garage.

I'm gonna miss Taylor, but it's plain we're not equipped for a cat anymore.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2005

2.1 Decades

Jean and I celebrate 21 years of marriage today. She's already asleep, Renee is in bed pretending to be, and I'll be retiring soon. How's that for romance? In reality, we'll be dining out Saturday or Sunday, when work and school make no demands of us. So for the record, I'm very happy that I'm still married to Jean, and I hope like hell to get another 21 years out of this relationship.

For the curious, the modern materials associated with this anniversary are nickel and brass. The gem is iolite (huh?).

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)

September 07, 2005

Taylor on Trial

Not quite three months into her tenure with us, Taylor has begun urinating outside her litter box. She seems to choose cushions and comforters, and so far we only have two locations. But this will not be acceptable. We knew it was a risk with a declawed cat, and now we're trying to see if we can train her out of it (unlikely, I suspect). She had a visit to the vet and he gave us some antibiotics in case it was a bladder infection. He also gave us some chemicals to kill the cat urine smell. Jean says we'll go all the way to the stage where we give her medication for anxiety, and if that doesn't work, it's goodbye Taylor.

Renee will surely be crushed, and I'd miss Taylor too, but we're not really the type of family that can comfortably live in a house drenched in cat pee. Wish us luck.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

More Change

Jean tells me Renee (formerly Kelly, change one) now needs glasses (change two). They'll arrive in the next few days. Pretty soon, I'll come home to a daughter named Renee, wearing glasses, with raven hair and a trained parrot on her shoulder!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2005

The Rotary Twelve

It's just a coincidence (I think) that there are twelve people in this photograph. Rotary 12 refers to the cabin where Kelly was bunked while she spent a week at Camp Collins. She's back, and it is in this posting that I initiate her new identity. Her full name is Kelly Renee Wakefield. At camp, she chose her camp nickname to be Renee. I'm told that this is the name she identifies with most. I've agreed to try to remember to call her Renee whenever I speak to her. So far I'm batting maybe .600.

Today's banner is my scan of the 3"X5" snapshot they took of Renee's cabin mates. Counting the councilor, that comes to twelve warm bodies. Bet it got uncomfortable in those bunk beds. Still, better than a sleeping bag on the ground, which is what we had to do in my day! [queue old geezer music...]

And yes, they are wearing face paint. And I'm told there was a pony...

Posted by dpwakefield at 05:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Final Date

Jean and I did what was probably our final date before Kelly returns from camp Saturday. We went over the the Sweetbrier Inn, where my Dad and Bette stayed, and sat in the Jazz Bar. Jean ordered nachos (only so-so) and a non-alcoholic Margarita. I saw that they had Balvenie Scotch, so I ordered a glass. This was the basic Founder's Reserve 10 year old scotch. In September, Tom is going to buy a bottle of the Balvenie Portwood, and circumstances allowing, I'll be there to taste it. So now I know what a basic unflavored scotch from Balvenie tastes like. I should be able to tell whether aging in a used port cask makes the scotch sweeter, fruitier, or is indistinguishable. I'll update you when I know.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2005

Camp Week

Kelly is now safely ensconced at Camp Collins. We dropped her off this afternoon. Jean is uneasy, and sleeping with the phone next to the bed tonight. I'm of course the reckless male, comfortable that the odds are on my side. I'm not oblivious, mind you. I just know that Camp Collins has a good record for child safety, and there are a lot of kids there, many of whom are more risk-taking than Kelly. So when the phone rings, it most likely will not be for us.

In the meantime, it's my job to keep Jean occupied so that her motherly concerns don't gnaw at her too much. Of course, that's hard when I'm at work all day. But we are taking a day off this week to go to the Portland Art Museum and the Lavender Tea House. I'm hoping to convince her to make the trek one evening to Cinetopia, but as it's all the way up in Vancouver, Washington, I don't hold out much hope. Then there's the Jazz Bar at the Sweet Brier Inn, where my Dad and Bette were staying last week. Care to dance, Jean?

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

Travel Never Ends

Last night Jean and I picked out a hotel in Seattle for our long-weekend jaunt, scheduled to begin soon. She wants to scope out the downtown area for activities and hotels to use come the next Moyer family reunion, which she is hosting next summer. We waited too long to have much of a choice of rooms for this trip, but we'll still be able to look at hotels while we're there. We're going to be staying at the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue.

A funny coincidence: I was on the web this morning looking into resources on British Tea Rooms in the area. Tom is having a get together with several of his friends from up North next weekend (oops, I mean early September!), and wanted to include a trip to a teahouse. Since Jean and I had been to a couple of good British ones, I wanted to recommend them as alternatives to the Chinese one he was thinking of, or the Japanese one Alan mentioned. In the course of researching this, I saw mention of many 'British Culture' establishments, and one was mentioned quite fondly by a reviewer: the Elephant and Castle pub. It's location? Inside the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue! So I know one restaurant we'll be researching!

And just for the record:

British Tea Garden
725 SW 10th Avenue
Portland, OR
(503) 221-7817

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:46 PM | Comments (2)

Travel Complete

I got a call from my Dad this evening. He and Bette are both back safe in Michigan, done with their train trip. I expect they'll be packing out in their van sometime soon, but they seemed to enjoy their experiment with the rails.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2005

Back to Routine

We had a nice visit with my Dad and Bette, but all good things must come to an end. I drove them back to the train station, and they are now rolling their way to Minneapolis. Good luck to 'em!

We ate out far too often. I told Jean that I'd like to try more new restaurants that we haven't eaten at before, just not all at once. So other than the occasional post-NOVA foray, it's back to home cooking for awhile!

I think one or two more of the pictures I took may be worth posting. I'll try to get them up on Flickr in the next few days...

Update

I wasn't really happy with most of the indoor shots, so I just put up a couple more from the outdoor series (at Flicker). As usual, I was pretty lazy about taking photographs, so you only get a few, sorry.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:58 PM

July 30, 2005

Reunion

Yesterday I travelled to NW Portland to meet my Dad and Betty at Union Station, a historical landmark of a train station. Parking is pretty sparse immediately next to the station, but I lucked out and found a streetside slot opposite the entrance, with ten minutes to spare before their scheduled arrival. The train ran about five minutes late (sorry Mussolini), but given the recent performance of the airlines, this is trivial.

We took an hour to get back to Tualatin, then after checking them into their hotel, we sat and talked for awhile about how my father lived in Tualatin as a kid. He had an afterschool job as a caddy at the Tualatin Golf Course! Then it was off to find a place to eat. We did the Tualatin Outback restaurant, a place Jean and I have never eaten at despite living in Tualatin for several years. Food was pretty good, but way too much, too late in the day. We dropped the folks off and retired.

Now I'm just waiting to contact them before starting the day. Plans include the Beaverton Farmers Market and grocering, but as for what next, who knows? I don't know when I'll post next, be patient...

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:31 AM

July 06, 2005

NCLEX

While everybody I know pretty much knows this by now, I'll make it official. Jean took her NCLEX test last Wednesday, and found out the following day that she'd passed! In all the confusion of my trip, I forgot to write an entry informing my scant readership. So it's official. Jean is a recognized professional nurse.

Jean, I thank you for all the hard work you've put in, and I'm immensely proud of you!

Posted by dpwakefield at 05:28 PM | Comments (2)

July 05, 2005

The Parks

Did the parks. It's pretty much as you'd expect. Only new thing for me was the Indiana Jones ride, but that was not so special. More fun was the fact that Space Mountain was open! It was in stealth mode, in that the Disney website listed it as closed for renovation, and they were not advertising it in the park. You just had to show up at the ride, and they let you line up. We only got to ride once, since when we came back during the evening, it was closed 'due to technical difficulties'. So we were on their shakedown cruise! Talking to the ride operators, we were told that the official date is supposed to be the 15th.

Dinner was at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, and that was excellent. My meal, from the menu:

Paneed Chicken and Crawfish Cream

"Thinly pounded chicken breast dusted in breadcrumbs, herbs and parmesan cheese, paneed and served with mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and a Lousiana crawfish cream sauce"

Posted by dpwakefield at 11:32 PM | Comments (3)

June 29, 2005

Zippy the Pinhead

Last weekend, Alan took a picture of me using his 17mm Sigma, which if you didn't know, is a very wide angle lens. He was right next to me, man! Hence the pinhead distortion. Okay, yes, I have a prominent sagittal crest, but it's not that pointy!

Anyway, you can see how excited I am to be going to Expo this year!

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:38 PM

June 19, 2005

Four-legged Present

Monday is Kelly's birthday. She'll be ten years old. So what to get her? In addition to the usual pile of wrapped gifts, we decided to get her something wrapped in fur.

So Saturday we piled into the car and drove to C.A.T., or 'the Cat Adoption Team'. It's normally a short drive, under ten minutes. But of course this day, there was an accident blocking our route, and we ended up taking a detour that ran us over ninety minutes. Finally we arrived. The C.A.T. building filled with the aroma of cats. They house around 200 cats at any one time, and my allergies began kicking up almost immediately. We visited with three cats, and took our time getting a feeling for one that would fit in at home. In all, we were there around three hours. We took home a black, one-year old female cat named Taylor.

She's been isolated in the laundry room for twenty-four hours (with frequent visits from Kelly). Tonight we allowed her to roam the house, and Kelly just put her back in the laundry room. Tomorrow she'll get still more time out in the house. Eventually she'll get the run of the place. For now she's visiting on a trial basis. We're watching for two weeks to see if Kelly really takes care of her.

So I am once again a cat owner. Sneeze!

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:08 PM

June 12, 2005

Chuck E. Cheese's

Kelly will be 10 on June 20th. But by then, all her friends will be on their Summer vacations. So we decided to throw a birthday party for her this weekend, to give her friends a chance to see her one more time. We invited 13 kids, and seven showed up, which I think is pretty good given the usual track record around here. The party was at Chuck E. Cheese's, and was the usual chaotic mess. There are no neat anecdotes to relate, so I'll just point you to the Flickr photo set of the party.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:35 PM

Pinning Ceremony Snaps

Well, it took me a couple of days, but I finally put up the snapshots of Jean's Nursing School pinning cerremony. As you can see, there are in fact quite a few people there.

Like all commencement ceremonies, there were many speeches, and some folks felt they had more to say than others. Kelly was about as patient as you could expect. She asked me a few times how long we'd been there, and I finally just started showing her my watch. Since it's stuck on 'military' time, she had to do some subtraction in her head to get the 'real' time. She was peeved at that.

You'll see a picture of a woman at the podium who was reading the personal statements of each nurse as she was pinned. I'm very thankful that she encouraged us to come up and take photographs up close, or I would not have gotten the nicer pictures toward the end of this set.

Once the ceremony was over, we drove home. Jean ordered a pizza, which I picked up, and we settled in for a party. We went downstairs and ate pizza and German Forest cake, while playing Burnout Takedown, a crash and burn car racing game. Kelly is nuts for this game, especially the part where you actually try to score points for causing a mulitcar wreck in an intersection. At the end of the collisions, you get a flyby of the damage, complete with floating dollar-damage signs.

Around 7:30, things were winding down, and Jean, ever the sweetheart, asked me if I wanted to go catch the last of this NOVA meeting. Of course I took her up on it. I got to see Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex (my favorite anime) and work out more plans for my trip to Anime Expo this year. So all in all, Saturday was a busy day.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:21 PM

June 07, 2005

Nurse Jean

Three cheers for Jean! She got her results from today's exam, and she got an A! So now she is officially a graduate. Next step is the NCLEX, but she's covered a tremendous amount of ground, and I'm massively proud of her. And awed. Thanks for all the immense effort, Jean.

Saturday will see her 'pinned'. This is the official ceremony ushering her across the threshhold into a new career. Afterwards we'll be celebrating, Jean, Kelly and I. I think I heard the word 'cake' in there somewhere.

Posted by dpwakefield at 06:50 PM

Looking Good

I had my first eye exam since Fall of 2003 today. Right now my vision is sort of fuzzy due to dilating drops. Driving home was sort of fun. So I'll be working from home for the next few hours, and I thought I would take a moment to write up the exam.

My eyesight has indeed changed with age. I now have 20/20 vision uncorrected. Dr. Lindquist says that while I could benefit from reading glasses in the late evening, they don't make them weak enough for me (0.75)! So good vision. He looked really carefully at my retinas, and says I have healthy neural distribution and rich strong arterial development. His verdict, "don't worry about your eyes for at least the next few years." So it's nice to put that aside for another couple years.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:59 AM

May 21, 2005

Introducing ChaCha!

I should have gotten photos of ChaCha sooner, but I'm lazy. Currently in the banner you can see the new toy animal Kelly has. There is a set of images available at my Flickr account as well.

What sets this toy animal apart from most of Kelly's possessions is that she made this one herself. She's been taking a crochet class at school, and she used her knowledge of the basics (how to make a square, how to make a tube) to create the geometric units that went into this animal. Then she simply drew a couple of pictures and eyeballed her way to this cute little toy. The stuffing is composed of small squares of fabric she painstakingly trimmed out of old shirts I was going to give to Goodwill. So there you have it, a true masterpiece!

Posted by dpwakefield at 03:43 PM

May 15, 2005

Pain

The ultimate humiliation: going to bed feeling fine, and waking up with a wrenched back!

Posted by dpwakefield at 04:07 PM | Comments (2)

April 24, 2005

Ready to Flee the Country

My passport photo, then and now. True, the new 'foil Eagle' watermark sort of obscures my current picture, but you should be able to pick out the salient changes in my features.

A larger version is available at my Flickr account.

The mildly amusing part is that while I've had a passport for the last ten years, I've never used it. Ever. I was almost afraid that they'd refuse to renew my passport because I hadn't used it enough. Of course, my original justification for getting a passport was not to travel, but to have two pieces of photo identification for my GRE exam. Strange, huh?

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:28 PM | Comments (1)

April 21, 2005

Health Watch

For those of you keeping score:

Kelly seems to be fully recovered, not even coughing. Last night she 'forced' me to play Shadow Hearts for nearly an hour, taking her shower and brushing her teeth early to clear the way. So her energy and plotting skills are back to peak!

Jean completed her full twelve hour shift walking the floor with a nurse on Tuesday, and Wednesday showed no ill effects. We both have our fingers crossed for her.

I have pretty much said goodbye to my nasty cold. Except for a couple of days of disturbing 'tight' stomach sensations, I seem to have dodged the gastroenteritits bullet. Fingers crossed and all that, but so far...

I saw Dr. Selby yesterday following up on recurrent issues and getting a blood draw for my annual physical. He seemed utterly tickled that I knew to use the term gastroenteritis, and not the misnomer 'stomach flu'. Pays to have a nurse-in-training in the home!

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:39 AM

April 20, 2005

QOTD

I know who to suck up to, and she is suck-up-to-able.


Anonymous, to protect the innocent...

Posted by dpwakefield at 01:31 PM

April 16, 2005

The Hit Parade

First Kelly with walking pneumonia, then my nasty cold. Now Jean has a virus. Gastroenteritis. She was up all night being sick. I'll do the groceries, but otherwise avoid rubbing shoulders with my fellow man, in case I'm brewing a batch myself. Jean says it's highly contagious, so that's likely. So no NOVA tonight, I'm afraid. Sorry guys.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:22 AM

April 13, 2005

Thump Thump!

This poster is pretty cool, and part of the heartbreaking workload Jean has to endure while working toward her nursing degree!

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:42 PM

April 12, 2005

Back to My Roots

This afternoon I returned to Dr. Lampert's office for a three month checkup on the root canal he performed. He was concerned that the bone surrounding the root had been eroded by bacteria, and wanted to see it after some time had passed. I was very nervous, worried that he'd see further damage and need to do 'something'. He took a pair of x-rays and gave me the verdict.

Unfortunately, the most he was prepared to say was that things had not gotten worse. This is exactly what he hoped for. Apparently, three months is not long enough to see if bone is regrowing in the damaged area. The purpose of this visit was to observe that the damage was arrested. I'm to visit him again in three months, and yet again three months after that. Only then will I know what the verdict is. Fun, huh?

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:12 PM

April 10, 2005

Nami!

Here's a first. I got an email from my longtime penpal, Nami Okamoto! She's pointed me to her email addresses in the past, but I don't think she spends much time on computers, as I never seem to get replies to any email I send her. So imagine my shock when I open my Gmail page today and see an email from her. It's Summer in Japan! Or anyway, it's a sneaky Summer preview in Fukuoka, where she lives. She gave the temperature in Celcius, but it works out to around 77 degrees. I do love that first hand weather report from foreign lands. Good to hear from her in 'real time'.

Posted by dpwakefield at 10:04 AM

Cold

So Kelly seems more or less completely recovered from her walking pneumonia, no fever, very little coughing. As seems appropriate, however, I came down with a nasty cold around the middle of the week which I'd trace directly to her. Now it's Sunday, and I feel as if I'm on the mend. I've got my fingers crossed, since my typical pattern is to bounce back and forth between the sinuses and the lungs a few times before fully recovering. But I feel a little less beat down today than I did yesterday, so I may actually do a few of my weekend chores.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:57 AM

April 01, 2005

Psych!

Just when we thought we were over Kelly's illness, it sprang back. Jean called me at work to check what Kelly's temperature had been this morning. It was normal, and I sent her off to school. But she got home and had a meltdown, and her fever was back. I came home early to go with them to Kelly's doctor. Turns out she has walking pneumonia. According to Dr. Hoffman, it responds well to Zithromax, which is why it beat off the effects of Amoxycillin and made a comeback. So Kelly's on Zithromax now; the regimen is three doses over three days, and then the antibiotic lingers in her body for around ten days, killing off nasty bugs. I've got my fingers vigorously crossed this time.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:49 PM

March 29, 2005

Fever Break

Yesterday and today Kelly's been home sick with a fever, coughing and generally feeling miserable. I have stayed home with her in the morning, working late to compensate while Jean spent the latter part of the day with her. I was going to take her to the doctor tomorrow if her fever hadn't broken, but Jean took her today. She had a cold, and got an ear infection as a result, which was causing the fever. They prescribed amoxycillin, she's had two doses, and her fever is dropping. I'm quite relieved.

Posted by dpwakefield at 09:41 PM

March 27, 2005

Easter 2005

So Kelly once again partook of the homestead ritual, searching for eggs so that we wouldn't have to suffer the odor of orphaned ova in the coming days. She also got to do a treasure hunt, deciphering clues in verse supplied by her own esteemed mother. Here she is after a particularly satisfying discovery.

More candid snaps are available at my Flickr account. Just follow the 'next' links...

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:01 PM

March 18, 2005

A Little Song, A Little Dance...

Yesterday evening was Kelly's annual school musical production. Typically, it lasts about an hour, and has a theme of sorts. This year was Go America, or something like that. I don't know if they buy these programs prepackaged or if they write them themselves, but they are generally pretty cloying. Anyway, Kelly didn't have a speaking part, and her singing was limited to the chorus. She did get a walk-on part as a runway model, and looked quite cute.

I took my camera, and snapped a few pictures, which I'll try to get online in a day or two. I used the kit lens since it is a few stops brighter than my Sigma. Unfortunately, it's about one quarter the zoom length of the Sigma, so Kelly will tend to be 'tiny'. But even with the somewhat brighter lens, my auto-ISO was hitting 1600, so say tiny and noisy. Well, you get what you pay for, and I didn't pay for prime telephoto lenses, lacking the six or eight thousand dollars.

Posted by dpwakefield at 07:30 PM

March 13, 2005

Heartsounds

It's practically summer here. It was, I dunno, sixty five degrees out, with bright sunshine and a mild cool breeze yesterday. I'd already done a bunch of my weekend chores, so I went into the garage, pumped up the tires on my bike, lubed the chain, cleaned the water bottle, and took it out for a spin. I don't like riding on wet roads or in serious cold, so this is the first time for me since last fall. I didn't push myself, instead taking a ride of random turns, discovering (literally) new roads, out by Ibach Park. I even discovered a new garden store, ensconced among trees, with grand opening banners fluttering at the roadside. I didn't bike in, I was enjoying my ride too much, but I'll note for later that it's The Garden Corner.

The routine continued. I got home, put together my food and miscellaneous items for the work week, and drove them down to my office. After working awhile, I arrived home to the smell of apple pie. I grabbed a glass of water, tapped the keyboard of the kitchen computer to check the email, turned around to look at something, I don't even remember what. Because there on the screen, in the list of new emails, was an email from my sister. Title: Dad is in the hospital. I remembered the day my Dad had called my house and told me my Mom had died. My heart jumped, and I sat down immediately to read the email. He had burning pain in his chest, went to the hospital, is on meds. A phone number.

So I called him up. The time between the arrival of the email, 6:09pm and the time I read it, about 6:25pm. Just sheer coincidence that I read it so soon. So the phone rings, I get put through to his room. The short story is that he seems in good spirits, though bored. He has to sit in the hospital room, deal with all the business of nurses coming and going, making it difficult to sleep. He is on an IV of nitroglycerin and heperin, and won't be seeing the specialist until Monday, when he will probably get an angiogram. Depending on the results, he may get a stent. I'll call him again today to try to break up the monotony for him somewhat.

This is one great cosmic joke, as he had only last week broke the news to me that he and his wife Betty were thinking about taking an Amtrak tour of the West which would include a stopover here in Oregon. I was all excited about that, and now this. Of course, my sister Brenda's husband Ted has had heart surgery, my father-in-law has had two stents, my brother-in-law Tom has had four bypasses, so nowadays heart surgery can be practically an outpatient procedure. I still hope to see Dad this summer. It's just a little bit of a shock.

More news as I learn it. And thanks, Brenda, for letting me know so soon, along with the contact number.

Update

I got email from Brenda (my sister), and spoke with my Dad after work, before taking Kelly to her dance class (tonight, Monday). He isn't discharged yet, but he's had his angiogram. One vessel is 20% to 30% occluded, but they don't want to put in a stent. Instead they are changing his prescriptions, and I think reviewing diet and exercise habits. He seemed to think this was not too big a deal, but I still want to encourage him to take action where he has control (diet and exercise). I'll try talking to him again on Sunday.

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:08 AM | Comments (2)

February 26, 2005

President's Day

Now that it's Saturday, I should probably write about what I did on Monday.

As it was a holiday, Kelly had no school, and fortunately my work recognizes President's Day, as Jean had clinicals and couldn't be home. So I stayed home with Kelly. We worked a bit on her school projects (a mystery novel report, and a diorama involving red foxes). I gave Kelly a choice of movies to see and she jumped on Son of the Mask. My, was this a bad movie. The original, with Jim Carrey, was a lot of fun, but Jamie Kennedy has no charisma to speak of, and just couldn't carry it off.

That night, I was tucking Kelly in to bed, and she asked me "did you enjoy the movie, Dad?"

"I really enjoyed seeing the movie with you, Kelly."

(Kelly, not buying it...) "But did you enjoy the movie, Dad?"

So I told her that I enjoyed some parts, with the 'baby mask' and the 'dog mask', but that 'daddy mask' was lame, compared to Jim Carrey. She seemed to accept this.

It's getting tough, when I can't deflect an awkward question with carefully phrased misdirection. Pity me!

Posted by dpwakefield at 08:44 AM | Comments (2)

January 30, 2005

Valley of the Dolls

This is Petal, so named for her floral prin