Last weekend all three girls had their year end gymnastics presentation. I will spare you from the movie files.
It was the first time for 4-year-old Claire. To make it marginally more special, Chris bought a long-stemmed carnation to give to her after the meet.
For pictures afterwards, she constantly waved her hands with the participation trophy in one hand and the flower in the other.
One-by-one the flower sections broke off in the air.
We ended up with 5 short-stemmed pieces.
Katie lost one of her three loose teeth. It is somewhere in the family room. We ahve no idea.
But if Marissa could get away with it, Katie thought she’d try the promissory note too:
My mother-in-law’s cat had a stroke while Claire was playing with her.
Taking Claire to daycare the learning center today, we passed a few Canada Geese in front of a nursing home…
Claire: “‘Not one’ goose is ‘geese.’”
Me, giving positive reinforcement to her understanding of irregular plurals: “Why, yes!”
I continue driving…
Claire: “What is a baby goose called?”
Me, relishing in this teaching moment: “A ‘gosling.’”
We turn the corner at the local high school as kids are crossing the intersection…
Claire: “What is a baby duck called?”
Me: “A ‘duckling.’”
We pass by the middle school and spot a handicap-capable school bus…
Claire: “What’s a little bus called?”
Me, not skipping a beat: “A ‘busling.’”
If Claire has been an especially adventuresome at daycare the learning center, we wipe her down at night before sending her off to bed.
More specifically, Chris tells me to prepare a warm, soapy washcloth and she washes Claire’s face and hands.
I’m really good at this trivial task. I soak the washcloth in really hot water in the master bathroom, so by the time reaches the family room it is still toasty warm.
Chris had a specific request last night. She wanted me to use the Embrace Happiness body wash from a free sample packet she was given recently. It seemed like a silly name, but I dutifully complied.
When the washcloth was presented they, once again, went on about how nice and warm it was. They also remarked how nicely smelling it was.
Now, for those who don’t know me well, I have no sense of smell. But eager to bond with my four-year-old, I asked Claire what it smelled like.
Claire remarked that it smelled “real good.” When I pressed her again, on WHAT it smelled like, her response was a cheerful:
“It smells like PIZZA!”
The wrong place to put a cactus plant?
In the kitchen, three inches directly below a light switch.
When you are in the bathtub with your Dora the Explorer pail and fill it up half full with water then stir the water vigorously in a circular motion until a funnel appears, this weather-like phenomenon is called a “tomato.”
So says my daughter Claire.
Long time readers of this blog know that, due to my domain name, I occasionally get requests for my code from students wishing to pass it off as their own for homework assignments. Usually I just ignore the requests, but once and awhile they get my goat.
Last fall, if some of you remember, I was so annoyed that I did a little googling to determine what university a requester was attending and contacted three of his professors.
I was expecting a least a “thank you for bring this to our attention,” but I got no response. At least not immediately. It turns out one of the professors did read my explanation of the Huffman algorithm I have on the website here. Professor Srinivasan liked it enough to make an interesting proposition.
At first I blew it off, but after mulling it over (while keeping my good friends in the dark), it really is an offer we couldn’t turn down.
I am going to take a sabbatical from my current employer once my current project completes and spend the 2006-2007 school year as a guest lecturer at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering in Tamilnadu, India. I’ll be teaching Introduction to Algorithms and a couple of database courses. We’ll be back in the states next spring.
It seems odd I know, but they’ll get an American instructor (which will help their sudents get software contracts from American companies) and my family gets an opportunity of a lifetime in a foreign country. Between the semesters, we’ll take a side trip to Vietnam and China to visit the girls’ hometowns. We should be able to save on air travel from there.
We haven’t exactly figured out what to do with the cats and fish while we’re gone. There are tons of things to do to prepare between now and the time we leave. After all, it is already APRIL 1ST!
Katie had homework tonight. It was the start of a measuring unit in the math book. She had to write down objects that you use to measure things.
Katie wrote down, in her meticulous handwriting, “R-U-L-E-R.”
Chris suggested “Measuring Cup.” That was a little harder for Katie to spell.
Next was “Tire Gauge.” My wife had to explain the what that measured.
I turned to the ladies on the loveseat and suggested “Brannock Device.”
My wife was not amused.
My refrigerator makes this really loud rattling growl when its compressor starts to cool its contents. Chris and I have been expecting it to die any day now, because it is not a healthy sound. I’ve even got a Best Buy 10% off coupon at the ready under a fridge magnet. I’m just daring it to die.
I’m sure it is waiting until after the coupon expires in two weeks, but in the meantime it is taunting me. The automatic ice maker stopped making ice earlier this week. While I’m definitely a “write-a-check” kinda guy, I figured I’d attempt fixing the ice maker myself because, I’m not about to pay to fix an ice maker in a fridge with an uncertain future. And if I failed, it was another excuse to replace the entire thing.
I dug out the ice maker installation guide from basement. The water line into the back appeared to be in good shape, so I emptied the freezer of food, took out the racks out, and unmounted the ice maker. Behind the ice maker was a little panel with an inlet pipe blocked with solid ice. I could also see, peeking out of the panel, a block of ice behind the back freezer wall where some overflow water had frozen. I had to take apart the freezer back panel before I could take a hair dryer to melt everything.
With the water line restored, I put everything back in place and I wiped up the blood from a cut on my middle finger I received in the process.
The nine-year-old swordfish did not make it back into the freezer.
