Canned Angst

Lost Leader

Thursdays are PomPom practice nights. Thankfully on this stormy night, in lieu of practicing outside a school, the Kindergartners were performing for a nursing home (inside). There are actually three different age groups and they all were to perform.

When Chris got there with the girls, they re-directed the teams to another location. Apparently, the team newsletter had mentioned the wrong address. Oh yeah, and none of the kindergarten coaches had bothered to show up so they were not to perform. A couple of dozen parents, heading back into the rain, were less than pleased.

Shrek 2

Took the family to see Shrek 2 Saturday. Usually I take the older girls to the movie, but since Chris wanted to see this one too, she insisted that we take the entire family to the drive-in. The movie started at 9:05pm, past the bedtime of all the girls, but it wasn't a school night.

Knowing it would be crowded, we packed up the girls, blankets, drinks and lunchables and got there at little after 8pm.

Good thing we did because we were able to get a good spot before it got crowded. The SUV in front of us had two dogs in it, which kept Claire entertained before the movie, but the older girls kept asking how long it was before the movie.

Because we had the minivan we were relegated to the back of the parking lot and the screen was the size of a postage stamp. It was either a bad print or the lamp on the projector was shot, because the picture was dark.

We were close to the consession stand so the line for it snaked across the roadway blocking traffic in front of our car. The cars kept coming (and driving in front of us) until an hour into the movie. A truck in front of us was continually swapping places with another jeep during the movie. One of those vehicles arrived late and this was the only way to put two cars in one spot. They would take turns circling the lot during the movie.

Claire, was stir crazy during the movie and would not sit in either of our laps. She ended up constantly going between the front of the minivan and the back turning on the dome lights. (There are seven in the Odyssey.) Claire stepped on a drink pouch and it squirted everywhere.

It was a good movie though. And I tell ya... I cannot wait to see it.

Flashback

On this humid Thursday night, Chris opted to have me take the girls to their Drill Team practice. With their Spring "competition" over, the next item on their schedule was the Grandview Memorial Day parade. So we practiced marching around an elementary school parking lot. Yeah, I said "we."

The coach, a pretty brusque woman, cajoled the some of the parents to march on the ends of the rows to keep the girls in a straight line. I could say that the delirious memories of the days of playing clarinet in my high school marching band came rushing back. But then I would be lying.

My row of marching kindergarteners, aptly noted by Marissa, was always "squiggly." And after 75 yards of marching Katie declared that she was tired.

Looks like the parade next weekend will be another "growth opportunity."

Everyone's a winner

My older two daughters had their spring Junior Drill Team competition.

Katie is on the far right and Marissa is in the middle background. I got a little teary-eyed because they were so adorable.

The term "Competition" is used lightly. The teams aren't ranked and every team wins something. I think our Hilliard team won the title of "Most Fun" performance. This is good. They've get decades before they have to be as bitter and competitive as their dad.

To Chase a thief

On the drive home from work, Chis called to ask if my Chase Master Card was still in my wallet. She added that the credit card company had just called to report suspicious charges. The card number was used to buy flowers in New York.

This has happened before. While Chris was at work a few years ago, her purse (placed under her desk) was picked during work hours while she was elsewhere. When we got home their was a message to call Chase back. They reported that a washer and dryer were bought with her card on the other end of town.

I don't know how their articial intelligence engine works but it is uncannily accurate.

I've only gotten one false drop and that was with a different card company. While at a conference, my card was refused when I attempted to pay for parking at a hotel. The week before my travel to Atlanta, I had also purchased a computer from North Carolina (Gateway). Such geographically disperse purchases looked unusual on my card. They did call confirm the charges but of course I was not home to answer the phone.

We now warn our credit card company when we will be travelling so it doesn't get canceled while we are on the road. It kinda matters when you travel to atypical places (like, ah, China).

Growing Problem

I got registered mail today. I never get registered mail. The mail carrier delivered a post-it note to me indicating I should come to the post office to pick up the letter.

Even before I picked up the letter, Chris knew who it was from. Other parents of children from Fuling Social Welfare Institute were receiving letters too. When China started to build the dam, there was a sharp increase in the number of abandoned girls in river town of Fuling. The orphanage had to expand. Now after accumulating so many children over the past dozen years or so (98% of the children are never adopted), it needs to expand again.

My 3 bedroom house is 3300 sq ft. I have 5 people in my family. The current children's living area at the Institute is 4 times bigger but they care for 400 children.

The cost of the new complex is around $3M. (I'm sure the 25-acre project would be much, much more than that in the U.S..)Through gifts from Western adopting parents over the past 4 years, they have a third of that already. The local county has donated the land. Since nothing is coming from their federal government, the rest has to come from overseas donations. So we are all getting letters.

I have no way of determining this, but I am curious what the locals think when they see an orphange go from a 2000 sq ft house to a 15,000 sq ft building then to a 100,000 sq ft campus in less than two decades. Is this viewed as progress?

On the streets of Chongqing (the metropolitan city next to village of Fuling), I got the most disapproving glare from an older gentleman when I was carrying my newest family member outside the hotel. Was he disappointed because a Westerner was adopting one of his country's girls or because a Westerner was the only option the baby had? The orphanage director laughed when asked what portion of the children were adopted domestically. Despite the fact that every Chinese adult is aware of the abandonment problem, Chinese couples never consider adoption and, apparently, aren't responsible for supporting their orphanages either.

Perhaps, as long as Chinese parents continue to abandon their children, it should made legal and taxed heavily. At least then, as the orphanages burst at the seams, there will be the resources to care for the girls properly.

This is a test

Using a new moblog tool. It allows me to upload pictures.

Update on Computer problem

I know no one cares about this as much as I do, but here is the continuation of my "broken PDA sync" trevails.

After being escalated to tier two, they asked more questions that I had already answered, and finally told me "Try re-installing the software."

I had tried re-installing the software many times, but I did it one more time just to be able say I did. I didn't work the "N"th time either.

Finally, decided on my own to re-install my Outlook e-mail account. It worked. I wrote back to them: "Nevermind, I solved the problem myself."

We are even

So two weeks after I picked The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for us to see, a movie I loved but Chris hated, she picked up The Statement at Blockbuster. I am vacuous enough to have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly, so it is rare for me not to have heard of a recent movie, but this one from last winter did not ring a bell. It must have been a dud that died quickly in the theaters.

It turned out to be a suspense film without the suspense. Caine played a WWII Nazi collaborator who had been on the lamb for 50 years after killing 7 Jews. They search for him. They find him. No plot twists; no action.

But on the bright side, its now its my turn to pick the next movie.

Canned Response

I love my new PDA, but I am having some problems with one of its PC programs. The Intellisync Lite program updates Microsoft Outlook on the PC from data entered on the PDA. For some reason my PDA notes don't synchronize with my work PC. Attempts to configure it properly cause errors. The software is not written by my PDA manufacturer Sony, but they are supposed to be the technical support for it. Sorta like you have to call Dell even for problems with Microsoft's Windows.

Like most software vendors, both Sony and Intellisync have "Knowledge Database"s where you can search their website for solutions to problems encountered by other users. I searched those first because that sometimes provides instant gratification.

I tried lots of search terms but got no hits, so I crafted an extremely detailed description of the problem and submitted it on Sony's site.

Below is a paraphrased summary of my exchanges with them. Each line is really a separate e-mail spaced, on average, a half day apart.

Me: "Sony, I have a problem that is not on your knowledge database."
Sony: (automated)"We have received your request and we will get back with you."
Sony: "We searched the database and this (link to webpage)is your problem."
Me: "No, that is not my problem. Here's why. Did you read my original question?"
Sony: (automated)"We have received your request and we will get back with you."
Sony: "Sorry. We searched the database and this (link to another webpage)is your problem."
Me: "No, that is not my problem either. Here's why. Did you read my original question?"
Sony: (automated)"We have received your request and we will get back with you."
Sony: "Very Sorry. You'll have to call us to solve your problem."
(Knowing that they wouldn't be able to help, I went onto...)
Me: "Intellisync, I have a problem that is not on your knowledge database. Sony can't help."
Intellisync: (automated)"We have received your request and we will get back with you."
Intellisync: (automated)"We have an answer to your request on our website now."
Intellisync: "We searched the database and this (link to webpage)is your problem."
Me: "No, that is not my problem either. Here's why. Did you read my original question?"
Intellisync: (automated)"We have received your request and we will get back with you."
Intellisync: (automated)"We have an answer to your request on our website now."
Intellisync: "Oh. We'll have someone e-mail you later."

And that was two days ago. Hopefully more to come...

Surreal Movie

My wife and I went out for my birthday last week. We have an unwritten rule that whoever arranges for the babysitter gets to pick the movie. She almost always gets to pick out the movie. The one exception is for birthdays so I, for once, got to pick. I get Entertainment Weekly so I had the chance to over-analyze my options. I chose The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because it got good reviews and I liked some of the screenwriter's previous works (Adaptation and Being John Malkovich). And because it was a movie that I know my wife would never have picked on herself.

Like Kaufman's other movies, it was very surreal. More surreal than the one with the two Nicholas Cage's in it, but not quite as surreal as the one with the dozens of John Malkovich's in it. I got a kick out of it, but Chris thought it was too bizarre. She was especially annoyed with the fact that I was enjoying it.

It is about a couple who decide to have their memories of each other erased after they break up. It was not your typical romantic comedy. Half the movie takes place within the mind of the lead character while he is REM sleep. The "dream state" special effects were great.

I thought the plot was intriguing, but about every ten minutes Chris would turn to me in the theater and give me a glare that telegraphed "why did you subject me to this movie?''

I would recommend the movie, but Chris was ready to have the last two hours of the her life erased after it was over.

Total Trolley

We have 71 channels of cable TV. Four of them run Law and Order continually and five of them are shopping channels. I dislike the idea that I have to pay for the latter channels. I have programmed my remotes to skip them.

Apparently due to the penetration of cable, my local broadcasters no longer have an audience on weekend mornings. All of them were running paid advertising around the noon. Since I haven't blocked my local ABC affiliate (even after their censorship of Ted Koppel), I happened to run across its infomercial for the "Total Trolley." I am not proud to admit that I was mesmerized by the product. Despite the stilted banter, I could not change the channel. The Total Trolley is a combination hand truck/cart/dolly/ladder. A sort of folding Transformer toy for grown men. I even was moved to google them because I wanted to know the price before they were ready to tell me. I had flashbacks of carrying my heavy TV to the repair shop last year. And of lugging 40lb handbell cases to concerts for years. Man, what a cool invention.

Bu I never got to the point of commitment: the half hour passed without me picking up the phone. Even though I don't have a dolly, I just couldn't picture explaining the rash purchase to my wife. Besides, with a house full of vaulted ceilings, I already had three ladders of various sizes in the garage.

For once, wizer heads prevailed. But if it had been WiFi capable, I would have grabbed my VISA.

Dining Fine

Recently, for the first time, Claire made it through dinner at a restaurant. The first few times we took Claire to a restaurant, she would get fussy about the time the food arrived and one of the adults, usually me, would have to wolf down their meal and take Claire to the car and sit with her while the rest of the family would dine in piece. It got old fast.

We then learned to stagger our arrival. Chris would take the older girls to the restaurant first and pick something off the menu for me (Hopefully something I would be in the mood for) and I would arrive with Claire 40 minutes later, just as the food wouldarrive, and we would eat together.

Now we have optimized the process even further. We can get faster service if we go in the middle of the afternoon when the restaurant is not busy (and none of us are hungry). We then all must order the buffet so we all get to eat immediately. If Chris and I take turns watching and queueing then we can prevent little fingers from getting into anything (other than the food). We, of course, feed ourselves last.

We still are rushed, but we get to arrive and leave in the same car at the same time! A small victory.