Don't Wish, Don't Start, Wishing Only Ruins the Heart

For over a week now I haven't been able to use my computer. I had a lot of advice as to what the problem might be and several people who looked at it but walked away scratching their heads. I took it in to Best Buy to see if the Geek Squad could fix it. I was told that a driver had uninstalled and that all I needed to do was to go home and install the driver. I took it home and Chris turned the computer on to install the driver but we got a blue screen followed by an automatic reboot followed by OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND.

I took it back to the Geeks who informed me that my hard drive had crashed. No, I didn't back up my files. Yes, I lost pictures and everything. Bob, the thoughtful, gave me an external hard drive for Christmas. Just the kind of romantic gift any wife wants. Did I even open the package? No! When Bob was reminding me about this,  I turned the tables and asked him if he had backed up all of his files. Of course, he pulled out his recently updated external hard drive from the fire proof safe. What can I say about a guy who can make a fire with wet wood while it is raining? He is amazing and I need to take a page from his book. But for now I am going to ask John if he can perform a miracle by restoring the files on my damaged disk. I have heard it is possible with the right equipment and the know how. Maybe this can be one of his class projects.

I am now waiting for Sony to send me a recovery disk so that I can go get the computer out of Geek ICU. When that is installed my computer will be like a newborn on the first day with no stored memory or any of the programs that I have installed or downloaded.

I wish I had backed things up on a regular basis. I wish I knew that the trouble I was having was an indication of a crashing hard drive so that I would have backed up my files.

So, it may be a while, if ever, before I get those Washington camping trip pictures on the blog.

Cold Water Tutorial at Saltar's Point

When we first got to Washington it was pretty hot so we decided to take the boys out to Steilacoom to enjoy the beach on the Puget Sound. When John and Joe first got in they were surprised that any body of water could be so cold without chunks of ice floating around in it.



They were about to give up on the swim. But you know, John is a tough Navy guy. He was not going to let the water win without a battle.



But no matter how brave a guy is, he has to get past a certain threshold that keeps a lot of guys out of really cold water.



Once in the water John decided to lead Joe in a workout with team sit-ups.



No workout would be complete without proper push-ups.



After their refreshing swim we watched the trains go by and put pennies on the track for the train to smash the next time it went by. We also picked some delicious blackberries.

Out With The Old, In With The New

Okay, Everyone knows that I am not your biggest Obama fan, but I will have to say OBAMA, OBAMA, OBAMA, while moving both hands and my hips in a circular swinging motion. Yes, we finally got rid of that 16 year old van that has been leaking oil all over the street for the last 4 years thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program.



The boys were just a little sad to be getting rid of such an old friend. Well, really they just posed for this picture so the Previa wouldn't feel so badly about getting crushed. How can you miss a car that every kid has thrown up in at least twice? I can not count how many gallons of soda pop have been spilled over the years. It is a good thing that the Health Department doesn't inspect and condemn cars for unsanitary conditions before they are traded in.


Notice my smile as I get ready to drive the car in for the final trade! Its not as if this has been a bad car through the years. We have had very few mechanical problems. The problem was that everything else on the car was falling apart. I thought that it was pretty bad when the A/C went out, then the heat went out too. The doors didn't always open. That was a problem only when I needed to get in the car. The upholstery was ripping on the driver's seat and the front seat belts had been displaying a troubling sign for a few years saying that if you could read this yellow sign the seat belts might not work properly in crash conditions.


And here is the new beauty! A 2009 Toyota Venza. My precious baby, until she becomes a loud, temperamental, ugly teen. I hope they have a Cash for Clunkers program in 15 or 16 years when I am ready to kick her to the curb.

Maxis Are Back And I'm Not Talkin' Pads

When we went to see Megan up in Michigan we took a little side trip to Chicago just for fun. While there I was surprised at a fashion trend that I saw. I can honestly say that it hasn't been in style since 1971, and that was a pretty brief flash in the pan.


I haven't seen any one in Dallas wearing this style. I think it is because it is so hot here that all of that extra fabric might be a contributing factor to heat stroke. Yet I have seen the new maxis on the current racks at Target.


I just don't see this style doing a lot for anyone. Generally, they are made out of tee shirt fabric and they show every lump and bump, or lack thereof. I remember hearing years ago about a study relating the length of women's dress hemlines to the general state of the economy. The better the economy, the shorter the hemline. So according to this predictor we must think the economy is in the toilet if we are willing to wear maxis. I think we should rebel against the pessimism that would put us in cheap prom dresses! I really don't think the economy is bad enough to put the hemlines back 100 years.


We went to Navy Pier to look around.


We might have stayed there a little longer but no one wanted to see the Shang Hai Circus and the Ferris wheel was broken. But what a great place for some pictures.


We found a large fountain and Joe took off his shirt and shoes and took a few minutes to play. In this picture he is reenacting a scene from the movie Annapolis when the plebes in a company were forced to do push ups in the rain.


One of our favorite things to do in Chicago is to go to the Hershey Store. We like to have the Hersheyiser decorate our cupcake for us. It is worth the extra dollar that you pay.


Joe had to pay his devotion to Lord Vader at the Lego store.


We pulled a surprise twin day on Chris. Joe was so excited to wear the same shirt as Chris. They got so many looks and a few comments. I sure hope no one ever does this to me. But I am definitely considering how I could incorporate this into a good April Fool's Day Joke.


No trip to Chicago would be complete without a visit to Giordonos for Chicago style pizza. Joe has been wanting to try this for a long time so he was pretty happy when we finally took him.

Michigan!

I think one of the reasons Joe likes Chris so much is because Chris will play all out. Joe seems to be on the losing side of this shaving cream wresting match.






I am not sure how Megan and Joe got into a tennis wrestling match but it looks like Megan is winning this one. Joe claims they posed for this but I don't know.

Megan and Chris have been living in a house in the Michigan country-side. One feature of the house is a wheel chair lift which Joe decided was a pretty cool theme park ride. I had to put a stop to it because he couldn't just go up and down the steps he had to go up 7 inches, then down 12 inches, then up 18 inches, then down 4 inches. It was getting annoying and I was afraid he was going to break it. He wasn't too upset about losing his Disneyland Pass because we went to the Ford museum and village in Dearborn.

This is the bus on which Rosa Parks made her famous stand by not giving up her seat.

Just inside the door of a railcar diner was this cigarette machine. I remember all of the cigarette machines around when I was a kid. It is no wonder that almost all of the kids in my sixth grade class were already smoking. Joe will be in sixth grade in the fall and I can't imagine anyone his age buying smokes. Back when dinosaurs walked the earth there would be a sign on the machine saying that no one under 18 was allowed to buy the cigarettes, but a machine can not check for ID so you can guess how effective the control was.

This is the car that JFK was riding in when he was shot. You know, I never wondered what happened to that car.

This is the chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was assasinated. Yes, there is still a blood stain on the chair. Isn't this collection kind of odd? You have to wonder what the curators were thinking.

This was a sign outside a southern plantation home on the museum grounds. I wasn't there but I bet the plantation owner and his kids were working just as long of hours during the harvest. That is the thing about farm work. It is always hard and the harvest has to be done in a timely fashion or the whole crop will be wasted and that might mean starvation for everyone. My dad has a catttle ranch, and even the hay harvest is extemely time sensitve. He works from sun up and into dusk so that he can get his hay in before it gets rained on and he has to sell off his livestock because he has nothing to feed them in the winter. What I am saying is that perhaps the evil slave owners were not so evil, but concerned for the viability of the farm.


When I walked up to this house I almost felt like I had walked into my Grandpa and Grandma Stockam's living room. Then the guide told us that this was the typical home of an African American family in the south during the depression. I had to let her know that a lot of white people were living in similar circumstances. I was starting to get a little peaved that caucasions were being portrayed as the rich over bearing class and that they spent their lives oppressing African Americans.

We found an old fashioned one room school house on the grounds and Joe and I went into our natural roles.

We found a hat shop and somehow Megan talked Joe into posing.

We ate lunch at a cafeteria that tried to serve some authentic old timey recipes. This is a hollowed out bread bowl filled with roast beef, topped with mashed potatoes and then covered with brown gravy. It was pretty good until we got down to the soggy bread. I think a sour dough bread bowl would solve this problem, but I wonder if Lincoln would ever eat anything like that.

This is a letter written by Clyde Barrow, of Bonnie and Clyde. He is praising Ford cars for their get-away ability.

My kids have always been good at walking on stilts so we were able to show off our ability with the old fashioned games and toys in the park of the village.

The Ford Museum and Village had so many displays. If you ever find yourself near Detroit I would reccommend checking it out.

Puzzling Problems for Michael Jackson

I love puzzles. I do a sudoku a day and a crossword once a week. I enjoy putting picture puzzles together with my kids. I really think it is good for a little kid's brain to do picture puzzles. I am also just a little frayed with the constant news releases about Michael Jackson. Have you seen the video being played over and over about how much Michael's two oldest children love their father. The video was taped about 8 years ago. If anyone is as observant as I am you will notice that the puzzle he puts out for his three and four year old children in the video is a 200 piece puzzle. There are a few problems with this. It is kind of like trying to fit a puzzle together when the pieces don't quite fit. Do you take an Exacto knife to the piece and shave it down to fit? No, that would ruin the puzzle's integrity. The same thing goes with the puzzle problems. The puzzle play time is replete with a lack of structural honesty. First, kids that age can't do 200 piece puzzles. Most three and four year-olds enjoy a 12 to 24 piece puzzle. I have seen some really gifted kindergartners do a 50 or 100 piece puzzle. But they have really done a lot of puzzles, and clearly Michael Jackson's kids have not. There are at least 10 adults around in the video, but no one has the sense to notice that the puzzle is age inappropriate. Those poor kids! Additionally, you don't do a large puzzle on the floor, you do it on a table because large puzzles take time and you usually don't finish them in one sitting. If started on the floor then the puzzle would have to be put back in the box for sweeping or vacuuming. You don't even attempt a puzzle from a crushed box, such as the one being shown in the video, because it is painful to know there will be pieces missing even before you start. The only thing those puzzle pieces are good for is to glue on a frame or an ornament as an art project. Any good puzzle person knows these things. You start a puzzle by gathering the straight edges so that you can make the border. Then you look at the picture and gather like colors so that you can maybe start piecing together the picture. What is he doing in the video with his kids? They are scooping the puzzle from the box to the floor and from the floor to the box. They have no strategy. Michael is not asking the question, "What kind of picture will this puzzle make?" Poor Michael, I bet no one ever taught him how to put together a puzzle either.

So why does this bother me? It bothers me because if they are so clearly faking the good time they are having by working a puzzle, what else are they faking? Honestly! It is the lack of integrity I see when putting the Michael Jackson puzzle together. Puzzle people are bothered by these types of things. I would never adjust a puzzle piece to fit into a puzzle and I have a hard time watching others do the false fit.

Okay, if you don't want me to notice these details, the press had better stop showing this type of footage over and over. I always told my teenagers that I am judgmental because I have judgement. Now that I have shared this observation, the next time you see the footage, and you will see the footage if you leave your TV on for five minutes, notice the puzzle and make your own decision.

Camp Muir

Thirteen years ago everyone 10 and up in the Muir family tried a hike up to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier in Washington. Camp Muir is the base camp for assaults on the summit of Rainier. It is a 4 mile hike from Paradise, but gains 4500 feet in that time. You have to cross the Muir Snow field. It is a great thing for the brave to do on a beautiful day. It can be treacherous if there is no visibility. There are crevasses on the perimeter of the snow fields. I was in pretty good shape because I had been jogging 5 miles a day. But I was practically dragging Megan and Jeff up. It is pretty hard to drag people up hill. That gravity thing! We didn't make it. I remember when Megan just sat down and refused to move. I tried to motivate her by telling her that at Camp Muir there was a big party going on and they were barbecuing hot dogs and hamburgers and best of all they had Slurpees. It didn't work! I was pretty disappointed because I felt that I was ready to go, but Bob had to stay with the kids and I did not want to go alone. Remember the treacherous crevasses. Fast forward two years. Bob took Megan and Jeff on a hike to Camp Muir while I stayed in the lodge with John who was 8 years old and Joe who was only about 2 months old. They were gone so long that I contacted the park ranger and was gearing up for a search and rescue. They finally made it back. It just took them a long time but they made it to the camp!

Bob and I are going to Washington this summer with Joe and John. John mentioned to Bob that he would like to make the hike this year. Maybe John is in shape for this but I let that jogging 5 miles a day go a long time ago. It is going to take a minor miracle for me to be in shape enough to do that climb in that altitude. Bob and Joe are going to have to do some training also. Well, I guess it is a good thing that my true age as defined by a quiz I just took on Facebook was 21-30 or else I might be in trouble just thinking about this.

Beat Me Up, Scottie

 

I took this picture of Joe holding our new antenna and told him that I was debating on titling this post Beam Me up Scottie or Earth to Starship Enterprise. His comment was, "Why do you want Scottie to beat you up?" Hence the title. Joe is a Star Wars nerd not a Trekkie.

Well, it doesn't matter, Star Wars or Star Trek, with this antenna we should be able to contact the mother-ship. We started out with smaller antennas for the digital transition but we could never get a great signal and we could never get channel 8, the ABC channel, which is the only channel I watch regularly, if you could call 16 episodes a year of Lost regular. So we tried increasingly larger and larger sizes until we picked up this monstrosity. So much for buying one of those cute little inconspicuous digital antennas. So now I know that we truly are the only people in our neighborhood who refuse to pay for cable or dish. If there were any others like us we would surely know because they certainly could not hide it.

Groom's Cake Ice Cream

Before I came to Texas I had never heard of Groom's Cake. At Texas wedding receptions there are two cakes. One is the traditional white cake with white frosting, painstakingly beautiful and delicate, called the Bride's Cake, and then there is the groom's cake. I know that in other parts of the country where this tradition is alive the groom's cake is kind of a joke. I think on Steel Magnolias the GC was made in the shape of an Armadillo. I have heard that in Hawaii the groom's cake has prunes baked into it so it is more of a fruit cake. But in Texas the GC is a spectacularly rich chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and decked with shaved chocolate and chocolate covered strawberries. It is absolutely to die for! So today when I was in Kroger picking up a few groceries I noticed that Blue Bell had come up with a new flavor of ice cream which has been appropriately named Groom's Cake. It has a chocolate ice cream base(always a good start)with chunks of chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and swirls of strawberry syrup. It tastes as good as the description. Believe me when I say you are going to want to go out and buy yourself a half gallon. I have to apologize to all of you unlucky people who live too far away from Texas to get Blue Bell. But be assured, there is still a lot of room in Texas for when you are ready to move.