Monday, November 27, 2006
News
It’s been a very busy few weeks. Sorry for not giving you gracious readers an update.
The week of November 12 I was in New Jersey on business. It was a good trip and a lot was accomplished. What made it notable was rather than fly back to Kansas, I drove down to Northern Virginia for my fraternity’s 20-year anniversary. I picked Nora up at the airport and we spent the next 2 days visiting.
The schedule of events included a happy hour on Friday evening, a Mason basketball game (broadcast by ESPN) and a dinner. Over the course of 20 years the fraternity has initiated almost 400 brothers, so there were a lot of people to catch up with. The even had a great showing and I got to catch up with some guys I haven’t seen for 10 or 15 years. Nora knows a lot of the guys I’m friends with (we visit with them regularly) as well as their wives. So she wasn’t too bored. When she had enough for one evening she go back up to our hotel room and relax (the entire weekend’s events were at the hotel).
It took me several days to catch up on sleep; the earliest I went to bed while we were in Northern Virginia was 3:00 am. As part of the prep for the anniversary I volunteered to create the video slideshow showing brothers and events from the last 20 years. In attempt to get ahead of the game, I finished it the weekend before I flew out so I wouldn’t have to deal with it while I was on the road. So much for planning, I got mid-week requests for changes. Grrrr. However, the end result was much better than the original effort and the show was a hit.
Nora and I had our parent/teacher conference with Pierce and Anna’s teacher last week. Both kids are doing very well. We got to hear about their progress and see some of the projects they’ve been working on. Anna’s teacher thinks Anna show’s every sign of being just as bright as her brother (no surprise there). Her favorite school tasks are drawing, washing dishes, and the counting rods. Pierce has really taken to math this year (although reading is still his favorite). He’s begun using the abacus as well as working on subtraction.
We also got to hear a funny story about Pierce. Apparently, several weeks ago, during show and tell, a young girl brought in a pull-toy with a rabbit on the end. When the rabbit was pulled it appeared to hop. The teacher wondered aloud how the rabbit worked, to which Pierce responded, “Well, most probably, the axel is not directly perpendicular to the center of the wheel.” Where he picked up that pearl of wisdom I’ll never know, but the teacher flipped over the toy and Pierce was correct (I’m so proud).
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We had Nora’s parents over for dinner and I deep-fried a turkey. It was a hit (although I don’t think it was as good as the one I made earlier in November). We had lots of food and great conversation. We have some new neighbors that moved in across the street that came over for dessert (and brought a delicious peach pie –when they bought it they thought it was apple). To top off the meal I deep-fried some Twinkies (I got the recipe off the internet). Sadly, rather than coming out a golden batter color, they looked and tasted like the turkey –maybe I should have used different oil…
We finished up the Thanksgiving weekend with a couple of movies. We took Pierce and Anna to see Happy Feet. It’s a beautiful movie that made all of us want to dance but it wasn’t the best. It gets fairly depressing towards the end and I think Pierce and Anna both got bored. On Sunday, Nora’s friend Carrie came over to watch Pierce and Anna so Nora and I could see the new James Bond movie. Good stuff, I highly recommend it. We finished the evening by grilling shish kabobs. Pierce and Anna made their own that consisted of hotdog, tater tots and mini-corn. Ours, of course, were steak, mushroom, tomato, potato, and onion. Mmmmmm. Not bad at all.
-Eric (Dad)
The week of November 12 I was in New Jersey on business. It was a good trip and a lot was accomplished. What made it notable was rather than fly back to Kansas, I drove down to Northern Virginia for my fraternity’s 20-year anniversary. I picked Nora up at the airport and we spent the next 2 days visiting.
The schedule of events included a happy hour on Friday evening, a Mason basketball game (broadcast by ESPN) and a dinner. Over the course of 20 years the fraternity has initiated almost 400 brothers, so there were a lot of people to catch up with. The even had a great showing and I got to catch up with some guys I haven’t seen for 10 or 15 years. Nora knows a lot of the guys I’m friends with (we visit with them regularly) as well as their wives. So she wasn’t too bored. When she had enough for one evening she go back up to our hotel room and relax (the entire weekend’s events were at the hotel).
It took me several days to catch up on sleep; the earliest I went to bed while we were in Northern Virginia was 3:00 am. As part of the prep for the anniversary I volunteered to create the video slideshow showing brothers and events from the last 20 years. In attempt to get ahead of the game, I finished it the weekend before I flew out so I wouldn’t have to deal with it while I was on the road. So much for planning, I got mid-week requests for changes. Grrrr. However, the end result was much better than the original effort and the show was a hit.
Nora and I had our parent/teacher conference with Pierce and Anna’s teacher last week. Both kids are doing very well. We got to hear about their progress and see some of the projects they’ve been working on. Anna’s teacher thinks Anna show’s every sign of being just as bright as her brother (no surprise there). Her favorite school tasks are drawing, washing dishes, and the counting rods. Pierce has really taken to math this year (although reading is still his favorite). He’s begun using the abacus as well as working on subtraction.
We also got to hear a funny story about Pierce. Apparently, several weeks ago, during show and tell, a young girl brought in a pull-toy with a rabbit on the end. When the rabbit was pulled it appeared to hop. The teacher wondered aloud how the rabbit worked, to which Pierce responded, “Well, most probably, the axel is not directly perpendicular to the center of the wheel.” Where he picked up that pearl of wisdom I’ll never know, but the teacher flipped over the toy and Pierce was correct (I’m so proud).
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We had Nora’s parents over for dinner and I deep-fried a turkey. It was a hit (although I don’t think it was as good as the one I made earlier in November). We had lots of food and great conversation. We have some new neighbors that moved in across the street that came over for dessert (and brought a delicious peach pie –when they bought it they thought it was apple). To top off the meal I deep-fried some Twinkies (I got the recipe off the internet). Sadly, rather than coming out a golden batter color, they looked and tasted like the turkey –maybe I should have used different oil…
We finished up the Thanksgiving weekend with a couple of movies. We took Pierce and Anna to see Happy Feet. It’s a beautiful movie that made all of us want to dance but it wasn’t the best. It gets fairly depressing towards the end and I think Pierce and Anna both got bored. On Sunday, Nora’s friend Carrie came over to watch Pierce and Anna so Nora and I could see the new James Bond movie. Good stuff, I highly recommend it. We finished the evening by grilling shish kabobs. Pierce and Anna made their own that consisted of hotdog, tater tots and mini-corn. Ours, of course, were steak, mushroom, tomato, potato, and onion. Mmmmmm. Not bad at all.
-Eric (Dad)
Monday, November 06, 2006
Fraternity
The chapter of Pi Kappa Phi that my friends and I started in college is coming up on its 20th anniversary next week. Nora and I will be going out to it and I've been trading emails with some guys that I haven't kept up with a number of years.
I dug through some scrapbooks and pulled out some pictures from our ten year anniversary. Want to see them? Click the link below to see a video slideshow.
Zeta Epsilon 10 Year Anniversary
-Eric
I dug through some scrapbooks and pulled out some pictures from our ten year anniversary. Want to see them? Click the link below to see a video slideshow.
Zeta Epsilon 10 Year Anniversary
-Eric
Trick or Treat
Halloween evening was fun, but not what I was expecting. Last year Pierce had little interest in trick-or-treating. After a few houses he came back home and helped give out candy. Anna, on the other hand, was a machine. She and I went around the neighborhood for quite awhile and only stopped when I decided it was enough.
Tuesday afternoon Anna fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake up well (read that as grouchy). She didn’t want to wear her costume and she’d only trick-or-treat if “no one can see her). We ditched the idea of her wearing the Scooby Doo outfit and collar, and she only wore the headpiece. Even this only about four houses before Nora brought her home. Anna cried the whole time. So she kept me company and helped me give out treats. Within 30 minutes she was back to her old, happy self but never changed her mind about trick-or-treating. Pierce and Nora were out for at least an hour and his plastic pumpkin was filled to overflowing. He’s been very generous with his candy and has been sharing it with Anna (and me and Nora too –though he may not know it).
We gave out relatively healthy treats this year. Nora stocked us up on mini-Play doh, pencils and erasers, microwave popcorn and lollipops. When Pierce and Anna were done trick-or-treating they each got to pick a treat from our bowl and they both took microwave popcorn (which they chose to eat over the candy they had collected).
We finished the evening with Nora and me giving the two of them our birthday presents (we had held them back from the general pile of gifts at the birthday party). Pierce got a remote control Brum (a car from a British children’s show) and some more model trains for his electric train set. Anna got a remote control Herbie and a makeup kit. All the gifts were “hits” and Nora and I were thrilled with Pierce and Anna’s response to them.
-Eric (Dad)
Tuesday afternoon Anna fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake up well (read that as grouchy). She didn’t want to wear her costume and she’d only trick-or-treat if “no one can see her). We ditched the idea of her wearing the Scooby Doo outfit and collar, and she only wore the headpiece. Even this only about four houses before Nora brought her home. Anna cried the whole time. So she kept me company and helped me give out treats. Within 30 minutes she was back to her old, happy self but never changed her mind about trick-or-treating. Pierce and Nora were out for at least an hour and his plastic pumpkin was filled to overflowing. He’s been very generous with his candy and has been sharing it with Anna (and me and Nora too –though he may not know it).
We gave out relatively healthy treats this year. Nora stocked us up on mini-Play doh, pencils and erasers, microwave popcorn and lollipops. When Pierce and Anna were done trick-or-treating they each got to pick a treat from our bowl and they both took microwave popcorn (which they chose to eat over the candy they had collected).
We finished the evening with Nora and me giving the two of them our birthday presents (we had held them back from the general pile of gifts at the birthday party). Pierce got a remote control Brum (a car from a British children’s show) and some more model trains for his electric train set. Anna got a remote control Herbie and a makeup kit. All the gifts were “hits” and Nora and I were thrilled with Pierce and Anna’s response to them.
-Eric (Dad)
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