The Lindenbergs

Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

On Friday we did an accelerated departure, picking up the kids from school and heading out to Omaha, NE to see my Dad and Mary. The ride went quick and easy. The last couple of trips we've been on Anna's complained of being "car sick", but then does great -I think its a kind of protest.

Dad and Mary are always great to see. I used some of my accumulated Holiday Inn points (I've got a quarter million of them from my time in China) to get a couple of adjoining rooms at a close by Crowne Plaza. Pierce and Anna were very excited that they got their own room with their own beds (they usually double-up in a sleeper sofa).

We've formed a semi-tradition of meeting Dad and Mary at the local Friday's for dinner on Friday night when we arrive. Mac and cheese is the meal of choice for the kids. We were early enough that we were able to go back to the apartment to visit for a few hours. Pierce and Anna both had new toys they were eager to show, we had to keep moving them out of the main "traffic" area so we could move around.

Saturday started off a little cool, but turned nice. After a "only-ok" (and complimentary) breakfast at the hotel we headed out to the Dad's apartment for more visiting. The kids started to get a little stir-crazy (so did I), so we packed the whole group up and headed to a local park. There was a good-sized swing set that the kids, Nora and I used, the we went for a nice long walk. There was a miniature airfield near by that we tried to walk to, but never quite found.

Interestingly, Anna invented the concept of "little peoples". It started with her duck walking around the apartment claiming she was a little people. Of course she got Mary, Nora and myself doing it. Over the weekend it morphed into a whole story line, with a little people driving a miniature airplane at the park and living in a small culvert next to the trail we walked.

Saturday night we went to everyone's favorite for dinner, the Amazing Pizza Machine. We got an earlier start than usual (which was good). Dad, Mary, Anna and Nora went crazy on the ticket games and set a new, personal record -almost 1000 tickets. Pierce forewent the go-carts in favor of air hockey and driving games with me.

Easter morning started a little earlier than Nora and I had anticipated with Pierce and Anna waking up at 2:00 am to find their baskets. It took them about 30 minutes to get settled down and back to sleep. We had brunch at Granite City (Dad and Mary's suggestion and treat). It was extremely good and definitely a go-back.

We got back into town around 5:00 pm and, after a quick feeding of dog, headed over to Nora's parent's house. All the grandkids did an Easter egg hunt with plastic eggs hidden in flower beds, car bumpers, deck rails and more. Nora and Nicole did an egg pass after it was all over and found a significant number of "missed" eggs. Dinner, as always, was very good with lots of good food and conversation. We all bowed out around 7:30 pm -its a school night.

-Eric (Dad)

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2010-03-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

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Pierce's Pinewood Derby - Pictures

2010-01-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

While Pierce and my cars didn't perform particularly well, we had fun. Here's a few pictures from the event along with a few comments on the proceedings.

"I'm cool."" I'm cool too." (and pretty -Eric)

The Ecto-1 (Eric's car), big and bad.

Pierce's car -he named it the "The Worst Car Ever" - it didn't win a singe race. Pierce selected the shape, did the final sanding, picked the paint design and we applied it to the car together.

Chili and hot dog pot luck kept everyone's bellies full.

Anna went for the high vantage point. The judges look over the cars.

Creating a license plate (I think)

Anna and Pierce's buddy Matt. Pierce announces the color guard and recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

Nora and the color guard (our Den) Miles plants the flag.

"How'd I do?"

Mom's from our Den. Miles is crafty too.

Setting up for Pierce's heat.... ...and they're off!

Final standings.

Day of the (Pinewood) Derby

2010-01-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

Well, we showed up...

Pierce's cub scout Pinewood Derby race was today a little after lunch. The pack always does a nice job and the event includes a chili potluck lunch and arts and crafts in addition to the car races. I'd say Pierce's car was one of the more attractive, sleeker looking cars, but it wasn't a performer. Out of 6 heats he came in last 5 times. The last heat he came in 3rd out of 4th.

Of course, he was disappointed. But he took it well. Certainly I valued our time putting the car together. I suggested to Pierce that he could buy me a couple of custom-bits for my drill that are specific to Pinewood cars, as a Father's Day gift so we'll be more competitive next year.

Anna and Pierce both made multiple trips to the dessert table. The brownies were the biggest hit. The geezer heat ran last and, unfortunately, I had to leave for the airport before it was scheduled. The GB Ecto-1 car I entered got a lot of interest (which was fun) and was even raced against a few other cars for giggles. Nora tells me it was even slower than Pierce's car...

-Eric (Dad)

Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby Ecto-1: Geezer (Dad) Division

2010-01-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

My Pierce's cub scout pack has a Pinewood Derby geezer's heat for parents who'd like to participate in the event. He and I spent this weekend building both a car for him, and one for me.

I based the Pinewood Ecto on the new Ecto-1 Christmas ornament. My original plan was to surround the pinewood block with a block of foam then carve and sand the shape. Unfortunately, the polyethylene (housing insulation) I was using tore easily on a razor and/or my palm sander. I did get a basic shape made, but it was pretty rough.

Plan B involved covering the shaped foam with Bondo, then sanding and dremeling to add detail. I built a roof rack from scrap polystyrene and the ladder from a metal coat hanger. Weight became a real issue, the entire car, with nails and wheels, can't exceed 5 ounces and I came in well over 7.

Plan C... dremel out all the insulation leaving the Bondo shell. Then, of course, re-Bondo where the shell was too thin and the foam was exposed. Also had cut cut and sand the pinewood block to about .33 inches tall and cut off the front and back immediately behind the axle holes.

Plan D, give up on weight cuz the car ain't getting any lighter and plan on being disqualified from racing. Hopefully the car is still eligible for creative design or some other non-speed related entry. I tried to dremel out door and window lines, but they were not as straight was I would have liked. Painting was a challenge, the windows are high-gloss black, the body high-gloss white, then the entire car was coated with a high-gloss clear-coat. I used the dremel lines to help cut painters tape for the windows, after they'd been painted black, so I could get good sharp paint lines separating them from the body. I met with just mixed success. I need more practice.

This turned into a rush job -I had to travel for business and had to have it finished in time for the weigh-in -so no front grill or back lights. The paint's a little rough but, for a 2-day build I'm pretty pleased.

-Eric (Dad)

Stuck at the airport - weekend recap.

2010-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

I found out Friday afternoon that I'll be working on a 3-week billable project in New Jersey. My Monday morning 6:30 am flight was canceled (we got socked with fog), and I've been waiting on standby ever since. Worst case scenario is I take a confirmed 5:15 pm flight after waiting around in the airport since 9:30 am...

This weekend was fun. Pierce and I finished his Pinewood derby car. He picked a design last week from a Pinewood Derby book he got about a year ago. Cutting and shaping was done last week with he and I sanding, painting and assembling it on Saturday. Its a good looking car, but I don't think its as fast as the car we made last year (we tested them out on the kitchen floor).

Pierce enjoyed the build, but had to be dragged away from his multitude of other activities to get it done. Pierce's troop has a geezers race for parents and friends who'd also like to race. I asked Nora and Anna if they'd like a car this year, but they demurred. So I made one for myself. Its a replica of the Ecto-1, the car the Ghostbusters drove in the first GB movie. The car started out as a foam shape surrounding the derby wood block. I ultimately covered the foam shape with Bondo to better shape and sand it (as well as prep it for painting). In an effort to reduce weight, I routed out all the foam (leaving the Bondo shell) and cut the pine block to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, the car is still wildly overweight and probably will be disqualified and not allowed to race -but it was fun making it.

Pierce and Anna did Tai Kwan Do a couple of times last week. They both got their first (blue) strip on Wednesday for having memorized their "C" form. Saturday morning met with a lot of protest from Pierce about not wanting to "clutter up" his free day, but once he got to Tai Kwon Do they both had a great time.

Anna and Nora have been aggressively selling girl scout cookies and deliveries were made this weekend. Anna was less-than-keen to get started, but seemed to have a lot of fun once the process started. Nora pre-printed receipts for each of their customers and Anna filled in names and amounts for each delivery. Anna had so much fun with the receipts she made extras to give to Pierce and me. Nora tells me that Anna wanted to explore each house where a delivery was made.

Nora scheduled a cub scout field trip to an art exhibit at the near-by community college. Almost the entire den showed up (which was good), but the exhibit was wildly weird (which I'm not sure was good). There were a lot of abstract, 3-d pieces/sculptures that the kids got a little too close to. The exhibit was essentially empty, so pretty much every guard in the place (politely) followed us. Eventually the kids got the hint...

-Eric (Dad)

Hey, I needed some way to hang it.

2010-01-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

After what, I think, is three years of building Ghostbusters Proton Packs for sale, I kept one for myself (I've posted pictures of it in previous posts). It's been leaning against a chair in my office since we got back from our Halloween night party and I've been contemplating how best to either store or display it.

Hence the birth of another (small) crazy-Eric project: a wall-mount/wall charger. I wanted something more than just straight hooks, I wanted the piece to look cool even if the pack wasn't hanging from it. And, best-case scenario, like it was functional. The build took an afternoon and used a number of resin pieces and defective pulls that can't be sold. The LEDs are non-functional and the hooks are coat hooks from Home Depot (about $5 for the two of them). All-in-all, I'm pleased with the end result.

-Eric (Dad)

and now, just the regular, daily stuff

2010-01-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

My last few postings have been centered either on crazy-Eric projects, or "big" outings with the family. Of course, in real life there's just little things going on...

Anna continues to be our spelling and math guru. She's had me create another tracking log for 20 hours of math work. When she hits the full 20 hours she gets another $20 from your's truly. She absolutely loves to spell -half the time when you ask her a question she responds by spelling the answer. She also has been putting overtime on her Leapster playing math games (and she seems to have a natural propensity for addition and subtraction).

We've been getting blasted by winter weather with sub-zero temperatures and lots of snow and ice so Pierce hasn't been able to do much bike riding (one of his favorite activities). One of our family holiday gifts was the Wii Fit Plus which includes bike riding -Pierce has been asking to play almost daily. Yeah for Wii-initiated exercise! Speaking of the Wii, both Nora and I have been doing our brand-new Biggest Loser Wii game. I highly recommend the game, its well executed and almost like having a personal trainer.

We went to Va. Beach for a few days after Christmas. Due to the high price of airfare, we decided to rent a minivan and drive from Kansas City to Virginia. We wanted to rent a vehicle for two reasons: a newer, more reliable vehicle than the ones we own, and a larger, more comfortable vehicle for a long-distance trek. I'm sure you can probably guess the net result, the rental car broke down in the mountains of Virginia and left us stranded for about 6 hours in the sub-freezing, snowing, rural reaches of the state. Fortunately, it happened when we'd exited the highway for gas, so we had access to food, water, heat and bathrooms. But it wasn't experience I'd care to go through again. After we got to town, we had a great visit with my Mom and both brothers and their families. And the return trip was uneventful (I hope to post some pictures soon).

Pierce and Anna were scheduled to return to school on Thursday, January 7. I played Mr. Mom for the first part of the week (I'm working from home and the kids are pretty self-sufficient), but then we got more snow and the kids got to stay home for all of the week. Aside from a little sledding, fort building, Wii-playing, online Web-Kinz-ing and swimming, it was pretty uneventful ;)

-Eric (Dad)

A little gynastics....

2010-01-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

The kids and I had a day off and I thought it be fun to take them to the local recreation center to burn off some energy in the gymnastics area.

We got there about 10:00 am and the place was packed. Kids were out of school for the holiday and all the parents were looking for something for their kids to do in the cold wet weather we'd been having (little did we know how much colder and snowier it would be getting...).

About lunch time the place cleared out and Pierce and Anna had it virtually themselves. Interestingly, Pierce and Anna's diverged on what they were interested in.

They both played with the "portable" pads, but then Anna spent a lot of time building and playing on "forts" with some of the other kids.

Pierce became very interested in running on the long trampoline and catapulting himself over a barrier.

Anna has always been a big fan of trampolines and is utterly fearless on them. It didn't take long for her to gravitate to a huge trampoline located in the rear of the area.

The recreation center had special, extended gym hours during the holidays, so I'm not sure when we'll be able to make it back again. Both kids had a lot of fun, so I'll definitely plan on taking them again on the next rainy weekend.

-Eric (Dad)

New Camera, New Pictures

2010-01-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

I've been contemplating buying a digital SLR for awhile and finally took the plunge a little before Christmas. For those not familiar with the term, a digital SLR is a high-end digital camera that can take multiple lenses and filters. Unlike small, point-and-shoot digital cameras, a digital SLR can be manually set for focus, aperture settings and so on. A digital SLR also has a very shallow depth of focus, so you can take shots with part of the picture in focus (like the foreground subject) with the rest of the picture out of focus.

I'm still getting the hang of the camera and am still using a lot of the automatic settings, but I'm enjoying the process. Here are some of my early shots...

-Eric (Dad)

Pictures for an annual Ghostbusters calendar

2009-12-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

A reference website I use for building and selling Ghostbuster props puts out a calendar each year (hopefully) and takes submissions from its members. Here are my offerings for 2010:

I was trying for the silkscreen effect used by Andy Warhol. Not my best effort.

Now this one I like. Its based on an Andy Warhol Mickey Mouse print.

...and of course, my favorite. This drawing is a combination of freehand drawing, photo manipulation and graphic effects.

The family does Taekwando

2009-12-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, after a lot of pleading by Anna, Anna and Pierce started taking Taekwando at a school close by. Pierce was initially reluctant, he thought he "wouldn't be good at it". But pretty much fell in love with it from the first class. The teacher is very good and Nora and I have also started taking classes (I do lunchtime classes, Nora goes in the evenings while I put the kids to bed).

Each of us comes at the process a little differently. Anna loves every minute of it and is quite the little social butterfly. Pierce is very studious about picking up what he's being shown, but really likes the last part of class where they play dodge ball. Nora's still warming to the whole process, while she's taken classes from me, wearing a Gui and learning from someone else is a new experience. Josh (the instructor) says she's doing well and has a natural aptitude, but Nora's still finding her comfort zone.

I'm taking back-to-back classes, Judo followed by a mixed belt adult class. The judo's great -very similar to Sambo, a ground discipline I took a few years ago. I'm delighted to find there are more similarities between the style of martial arts I know (Kenpo) and Taikwando, so the transition is not too difficult. Admittedly, I'm almost always sore from the Judo, joint locks and grappling are making me realize I'm a little older than I like to think; both elbows are sore on a regular basis.

I'm hoping Pierce, Anna and Nora will all have pretty new yellow belts soon...

-Eric (Dad)

Another classic Anna quote

2009-12-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

Anna is really blossoming this year -its like her brain's kicked into overdrive.

Last night I was having a grapefruit and was asked how it tasted. I replied good, but a little sour. Anna ran over and grabbed a banana and mid-way through it stated that is wasn't bad but was "a tad sour and not quite ripe yet".

-Eric (Dad)

Jukebox - Finished! (for now)

2009-12-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

I got the Jukebox completed literally an hour before our party started. The top curved piece will eventually have to be pulled, re-sanded and re-painted, but it did the trick for the evening.

Here's the last set of progress pics as well as a few of the finished product...

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a deadend path. I created a curved styrefoam piece for the top of the jukebox with the intention of covering it with Bondo (auto body filler) and sanding it smooth.

I couldn't get the Bondo as smooth as I wanted and decided to go in a different direction. I bought a great little tool for heat cutting styrefoam -I'm sure I'll think of other reasons to use it....

Mostly assembled -I needed to place the drawer cover and do some touchup painting. Originally I wanted to put the front on with hinges so it could swing away and reveal the inner works, but I couldn't get a hinge placement that would clear the curved sides. Much thanks to Nora for holding the front in place while I secured it from the rear.

Ta Da! The bottom inside panel is lined with lights. Nora (and I) want more lights, so I'll run more lighting around the top control surface. Anyone got any other suggestions? I want to put some accent pieces running from front to back along the sides and top. But I'll probably wait until its above 20 degrees outside before I do any more woodworking.

Our little game room... the kids are playing Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

-Eric(Dad)

Another "Crazy-Eric" Project - Jukebox

2009-12-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

This one's still a work in progress. The idea has been simmering on the back-burner since my brother-in-law gave me an old touch-screen monitor. Our street is having it's annual holiday Progressive Dinner this week and I thought it would be fun to have it done and loaded with holiday songs when everyone comes over for desert.

As with almost all crazy Eric projects, the pre-planning is pretty sparse. My complete plans were sketched on a piece of the kids drawing paper. I was looking to design something that would be about chest level and that would minimize the number of cuts I would have to make (I'm not great with a jig saw -straight lines are a challenge).

The dimensions of the cabinet will be 48 x 48 x 60. The sheets of MDF I bought are 48" wide, so I won't need to trim for width (yeah!)

...and now we have a box. I used cheapie firring strips (1x2s). I tried to get the straightest pieces I could find, but there was a little warp in some of them.

The top of the jukebox will be round. I figured the easiest way to go about it was to make a circle with a diameter of 48" and then cut it in half.

Ta Da! It took a while for me to figure out how to attach the curved pieces to the body. Running spacers along the bottom then attaching them to the cross members made it an easy answer and reinforced the frame.

A test fit with the touchscreen monitor and the keyboard drawer. My goal is to have the drawer front hidden as part of the front design. I haven't quite figured out the details, this could be interesting...

Another test fit, I wanted to make sure all the components had sufficient space, wiring had correct pass throughs, etc. The PC is an old Pentium IV with a 6 GB drive. The speaker is a guitar amp I use with a keyboard I have in my office.

There's lots of free software available on the web for emulating a jukebox interface. This is one of the cleaner, more simple ones.

The jukebox will have tubing running up the sides and around the top. I figured 2" PVC would work well for the sides -a couple of jig saw cuts and I have two half pieces. I'm crafting the top piece out of foam to be covered with bondo (auto body putty), sanded and painted. No pics of that piece yet -I haven't made it.

The front panel for the lower section is cut and painted. The two pieces of PVC painted to look like steel and the inset piece for the bottom plate painted. I didn't have a better place to put them, so I used the frame as a drying rack (it was 20 degrees outside and snowing -so the backyard wasn't an option).

Crafting the bevel for the top front to cover the monitor was killer. It will sit at an angle with the top leaning further back than the bottom so that the screen tilts upward. I'm sure there's mathematics that would have helped me calculate the top curve -but that's beyond my high school-level education. I just kept making paper templates until I figured it out.

Getting the bevel seated and secured was key. Then I traced around the back of the monitor and calculated where the screen would fall. Looks easy when its done, but the process took ours. But, all's well that ends well, the bevel is sanded, primed and painted. I routed out the inner cut to have a graduated edge.

A couple of shots of the finished front pieces. The PVC tubing is painted and attached to the bottom plate. The black piece in the center will be used to craft a piece to cover the keyboard drawer and hide the "seams" between the top and bottom plates.

The small piece of PVC (far left) is used as a reference for making the top curved piece (width, height and curvature).

My goal was to "skin" the top of the juke box with a large single sheet across the top. The MDF is fairly thin, but much more rigid than I had anticipated. Getting it to bend was no small feat. In this picture its attached across the top and the box looks like its ready to take flight.

Progress is made in tiny steps. It probably took an hour to get the one side done. I had to brace the jukebox against the garage door and lean against the MDF sheet to pin it down long enough to drill holes and sink the screws. Now the thing looks like it has a stinky armpit...

I tried to countersink all the screws. Unfortunately, I wasn't particularly successful (doing a full lean and driving screws is hard) so the surface won't be quite as shiny smooth as I'd hoped.

All told, I like how its turning out. What do you think, does it look like my sketch?

All primed and pretty. At this point there's about 1.5" of snow outside and the garage is pretty cold....

My efforts, to-date, finished around midnight. I wet-sanded the primer base and applied roughly three coats of high-gloss black paint. The lighting in the garage isn't great, so I need to do a bit more painting in daylight to make sure I have even coverage.

New "Crazy-Eric" Project - Darboard Cabinet

2009-12-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've taken a break from movie prop making and thought I'd try my hand at a couple of other projects. First up, a custom dartboard cabinet for an electronic dartboard my Dad gave me years ago. The board is an odd size so standard cabinets don't fit it. The cabinet is made from a plywood back, a 1" x 2" piece of pine for the sides, and a 11" by 24" pine plank for the doors. Assembly went very fast, just a few hours, but the staining and polyurathaning took forever. Overall I'm pretty pleased and the family's got some good dart playing in this week.

Laid out for staining. The cabinet is flipped over with the back showing. I added a couple of pieces of firring strip (with drilled out holes) to the inside of the doors to hold the darts.

I'm very pleased with the stain. Nora suggested several coats to give it an overall darker look. The wood seems to glow in natural light.

A test fit of the doors on the cabinet.

Hanging the cabinet was mostly an exercise in muscle and patience. There are for wall-anchors drilled into the wall with matching holes in the back of the cabinet. Pierce helped me line up the holes, screws and wall anchors while I one-arm lifted the cabinet.

And there it is, in all its glory. The dartboard is about 15 years old and hasn't been used in about 12 years. Every time we play at least one of the darts explodes or otherwise breaks. Time to buy some new, higher-quality darts...

-Eric (Dad)

Anna Spells

2009-12-01T03:56:00.000-08:00

Anna has become a huge speller. In everyday conversation she incorporates spelling part of what she has to say. Example: "Dad, can we watch a 'm-o-v-i-e'. She actually gets about 90% of the words she spells correct -even if they're not spelled phonetically. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between the words she chooses to spell and the words she's learning to spell in school. She's just figuring it out for herself.

-Eric (Dad)

Ghostbuster Props

2009-11-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been making Ghostbuster packs and kits for the last couple of years, but haven't ever built one for myself. I figured this was the year to change that.

We hit a big party this year, so these pics are literally from where I dropped the equipment when we got home. The pack lost part of the ion arm and the PKE meter lost the display facing -both easy repairs.

The thrower is built from my resin gun kit. I added a hook for hanging it from my belt and it made an incredible difference. Very secure, I didn't have to hold the gun, and made for very easy access when I wanted to show it to someone -or point it at a ghost.

The trap holster is wood -the rivets are non-functional, I'm thinking about molding it so it can be reproduced as a kit. The trap is from my resin kit with a last-minute addition of flashing lights (came from a Dollar Store yo-yo).

The PKE meter was a 2-day build from a lint brush. The wings were originally going to light up, but I couldn't get the wiring to fit (and I had trouble with the electronics). The display has a blinking LED and the wings are functional (they move up and down).

The clippard valves are resin and I find it incredibly difficult to get the transparency-based labels to stay adhered -anyone else have this problem? The LED indicators on the PKE are actually angel hair pasta noodles colored with markers. I lost quite a few of them during the party. I kept the hole in the handle of the PKE (from the original lint brush) and looped a tie strap through it so it can be easily attached to my belt (worked like a charm).

This is the first pack where I haven't rigged my own lights -it uses Proptronix's kit, which I highly recommend.

Anna's Art Work

2009-11-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Anna's imagination was really on fire last night. The two pictures she produced after dinner are probably my two all-time favorites that she's done.

2009-11-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

We went downtown the night of Halloween for a huge costume party. Multiple live bands, costume contests and more -I wish we had started taken pictures sooner -but we'll know better for next year.
Here's the highlights:

This guy had a fantastic costume but seemed to be by himself -I'm not sure how he was able to navigate through the crowds. Interestingly, he did not show up at any of the costume contests.

Nora was fascinated by the Hulk. He definitely had the physique to pull it off, but she was more interested in how he managed not to smear makeup all over everyone...

The girl asked for a picture and Nora thought it was so good she asked to take the same shot with our camera (I have a great wife).

There were quite a few other Ghostbusters at the party. None had the level of gear that I did. All were very gracious and interested in my costume.

All the Sesame Street characters were present but the Bert costume was the best.

The Invisible Man -I can't imagine how uncomfortable that outfit was.

I won a local bar contest (yeah!) which qualified my to compete in the big costume contest. The guy in white is the bar manager and is telling me what will happen next...

I'm queued up to go onstage with the other finalists. The two pirates from Pirates of the Caribean -there costumes were amazing -they looked spot on.

Oh yeah! It's the Kool-Aid guy. Very impressive costume.

The guy's costume was amazing, but the girl's was beyond description. I asked her how she was able to fit into the car, her answer "I slouched wayyyy down".

Bender was very cool. I'm not sure what the underlying structure of the costume was, but the entire surface was silver duct tape.

The guy in the costume didn't speak and I don't think he could see very well. When people were asking for pictures I would grab his elbow and point him towards the camera.

The monkey had some kind of animatronics, it moved independently from the pirate.

My entrance on stage.

Its hard to tell, but the two people on my right are sandals, "flip" and "flop". You can see the toes in the picture.

You can't tell, but the girl is in a "sexy" Ghostbuster contest. She was pretty drunk, but she had a nice smile.

There was an earlier guy in a Staypuft costume that was much better, but no picture (so sad), this guy was with a couple of people in Ghostbuster costumes.

View from above and behind the stage. This was the second band of the night and they were fantastic. I'm guessing there were 10-15 thousand people at the Bash.

Things I do when I should be doing other things

2009-09-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, this project falls under the category of "why"?

I took an old squirt gun and, rather than throw it in the trash, I disassembled it, painted and distressed it, and wired a white LED to the trigger. It took a leisurely evening to get it done.

What movie does it remind you of?

Blanket Chest anyone?

2009-09-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Travel to the Orient has slowed for me (at least for now). I'm able to spend a bit of time with the family (nice) and jump into a few projects. I'm editing video for the wedding we shot in June, building some more Ghostbuster proton packs for sale for Halloween and, at Nora's request, building a Blanket Chest.

I've not built any cabinetry since the bookshelf I made a few years ago. I hunted around on the web to find some pics of different kinds of blanket chests and then created my own plans. The chest took a weekend to build, then Nora and I stained and polyurethaned it together.

What do you think?

-Eric (Dad)

Beijing - Summer Palace

2009-07-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes -I know, its been months since I've posted to the blog. I'm sorry. A thousand lashes with a we noodle. The China project has become all consuming and leaves little time for much else. I promise, I've done a bit more sightseeing and will eventually get more pictures posted from my June adventures. That said, I went to the Summer Palace this morning.

Most of my team is still in the US, so this is the first time I've ventured out on my own. The Summer Palace is on the outskirts of Beijing, so about a 30 minute cab ride. The Summer Palace was built in the late 1700s and razed by the British in the 1850s. Its been rebuilt and restored several times with the last major renovation taking place in the 1980s. What makes the Summer Palace so different from many of the other sights is its relative youth and that its part historic buildings and part historic botanical gardens.

When I started exploring the Summer Palace I was pretty underwhelmed. Many of the buildings are badly in need of paint and quite a few of them are not open to the public. The Summer Palace also covers several square miles so it is very difficult to go from building to building. You get lost among the multitude of paths, trails, trees and ponds. Once I stopped worrying about following a defined path I found I enjoyed the Palace much more.

The north entrance. I got there at 9:00 am (it opens at 8:30) and the place was absolutely crazy.

The first car ever imported into China

This was a massive stage and "makeup" area. One of several throughout the Palace.

A close up of the stage complete with musical instruments. The stage also featured the ability to have running water and fog effects.

Once I started to realize that at least 80% of the Palace is a garden I started to enjoy it.

This scene was surreal. Too pretty to really exist.

This was an interior courtyard for a small building. The buildings on the 2nd floor displayed period furniture. Very detailed -all hand made.

About 70% of the Palace is water. I walked through a courtyard, ducked through a gate and was met by this vision. Unfortunately, pictures don't do it justice. Today is fairly smoggy, so pictures don't come out too great.

I believe this is called the long corridor. It was completely mobbed. The people seated are facing the water. Vendors were hocking Popsicles, grilled corn and other snacks. It smelled good.

The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha towers above the entire palace.

There is a LOT of stair climbing to getup to the tower. About half way up there are move buildings anchored to the side of the hill.

The view from the (almost) top was totally worth it.

Full view of the temple (from the back).

You don't normally associate China with Buddha. But there you go. He was originally covered in Gold, but it seems to be wearing off.

The top most building on the hill houses several Buddha statues. This is the building's exterior, notice all the Buddha's? Most of the lower ones have their heads snapped off. :(

This was by far the largest statue. I'd put him at about 20 feet tall.

I left the temple from the rear and had many, many stairs to go down. After four hours in the hot summer sun, I didn't take nearly as many pictures on the way down. Here's the last view on the way out of the Summer Palace (the rear entrance on the North side):

The Great Wall

2009-05-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posts. I had some technical issues.

A few of my work peers and I were able to take a Sunday morning and hit the Great Wall. My understanding is the Great Wall is about 4000 miles long (though not visible from space -that's an urban myth) but most of the wall is in disrepair. The government has restored a few sections. The two closest to Beijing are Badaling and Mutianyu -with Badaling being the more popular of the two. Mutianyu has a cable car that takes visitors to the top of the wall -its a little more remote so we hired a cab for the day and went out early in the morning. Our timing was great.

The cab ride took us out of the city and on a meandering country highway that passed through several small villages. I'm not sure if the smog continues out to the wall or if there is persistent fog -in any case, the hillside was shrouded in mist.

I'm not historically minded -so I couldn't envision what the Wall might have been like when under siege. But from an architectural standpoint, the Wall is stunning. It is built on the ridgeline of the the mountains and even the effort to get supplies to the location, prior to construction, must have been staggering. We were on the wall for about 90 minutes and for the better part of that time had the wall virtually to ourselves.

Enjoy the pics.

-Eric (Dad)

A large display describing the history of and background of the Wall's construction. Team mate Madhu (pictured) and Kevin comprised our adventurous team.

This section of the wall has a cable car system to get you to where you need to be. I could be wrong, but I think Kevin is too tall.

...and here's are the cable cars. The ride to the top took about 10 minutes. Walking it would have been steep and miserable.

First view of the wall from the cable car

I walked down to the foot of the wall via stairs. This side of the wall faces into China, so it wasn't the side that usually had to be defended. In most places the wall seems to be about two stories high. Pretty imposing when you're at the foot of it.

This is the roof of one of the watch-towers. The stairs leading to it were about 2 feet wide, so a little bit of a squeeze. Not all of the stairs were still there, so you had to pull yourself up. Totally worth the view.

Peek-a-boo

By 9:00 am the wall was getting pretty crowded. I can't imagine what it gets like later in the day.

Work - A big, hairy day (Beijing)

2009-05-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a work day, but for good reasons. Our customer has to shut down their production environment every quarter to allow new programs and modules to be loaded to it without impacting online users. This quiet time lasts for about 5 hours and is non-negotiable. Our team showed up at the office at about 11:30 am and started laying the ground work for all quiet time activities with the actual “green flag” moment starting at 1:00 pm.

For the first hour, our 3-hour Migration-To-Production plan (MTP) was about 40 minutes ahead of schedule. Then we hit snag number 1 and burned an hour –but that’s ok we had a two-hour buffer, right? The net result of the day’s activities was a last minute “hail-Mary” that worked and got our code within the quiet time.

The room we were in was very small, crowded and hot. The cans are of a coffee drink called "Fire".

Literally at the last minute we hit a glitch. It took us 7 hours and 12 minutes to finish the migration. Everyone is watching the very last piece register as valid.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce Writes (pictures)

2009-05-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Pierce was selected as one of 5 students to represent his school at a district young authors conference. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but Nora took some nice pictures. The conference included a speech by a well-known children's author and a presentation of the students selected to represent their school. I'm told Pierce carried himself with confidence and his usual good nature.

Pierce holding his manuscript.

Pierce and Anna - ain't they cute.

Pierce meets the author of a book promoting children's writing

Pierce with the other young writers in the district.

-Eric (Dad)

Beijing - Pictures from the Taxi

2009-04-25T07:55:00.001-07:00

My last day in Beijing was a very busy one, so limited opportunities to take pictures. Most of these pictures were taken from the cab on the way to work. It was a very rainy, misty day, so most of the city was shrouded in fog.

The Crown Plaza lobby. Pretty.

Pictures from the taxi - I'm not sure why those buses are all clustered up.

Pictures from the taxi - If you're not paying attention this looks like a normal mini-van. Look closer, its smaller than a VW bug. There are a lot of these on the road.

This is a small motorized bike that's had a shell added to it. The back is used to transport a passenger; sort of a poor-man's taxi.

Bike's are everywhere in Beijing. This one has two wheels across the back with a small bed for carrying cargo.

Lenovo has an entire campus. This is the building from which I've been working.

At the airport - I had a snack at this small restaurant in the airport. The name of the place is Flavor Tang.

The Beijing airport is massive. This is a small temple and water garden. Look how high the ceiling of the airport is relative to the temple.

...and here's my ride home. It's a Boeing 777 with a 2-5-2 seat configuration. Not the largest plane, but not small by any means.

-Eric (Dad)

Smelt (Beijing)

2009-04-21T15:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry, no pictures today. Work is very busy. The day usually starts at about 6:00 am with a quick scan of email coming from the states to see what interesting surprises have occurred through my night. The day ususally ends with a last team status call at Beijing 10:00 pm (10:00 am EST) and any followup issues.

We got back to the hotel about 8:00 pm last night from the office. Traffice here is always very bad, so the taxi ride can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to cover about 6 miles. I needed to grab a quick dinner, so the part of the team wasn't still working headed to a local underground mall. We ate at a local Japanese restaurant (trust me, you haven't had Japanese food like this in the US).

I ordered "traditional Japanese appetizer) and traditional noodles with scallops. The appetizer was good, but I have no idea what I was eating. Part of it was smelt (a little like anchovies). Head and tail still on of course. I don't think I actually had scallops with my noodles, I'm pretty sure I tasted tentacle. But, it tasted good so I ate it.

-Eric (Dad)

Beijing - An evening on the town

2009-04-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was fun. I had some down time and got to snap a few pics before the team headed off for dinner.

Now that the Volvo Golf classic is winding up the hotel is freeing up some rooms. I was able to upgrade my room and move to the club floor. The love seat is surrounded on three sides by windows. Laundry service is included in the cost of the room.

Me at the front of the hotel. Standing in that position can get you hit by a taxi (no, I'm not kidding).

This is a kariokee bar connecting to my hotel and another hotel on the opposite side. Apparently they also offer "special" messages.

Brian is my new boss and Tony is the most recent addition to our team. This is out from of the Royal Hyatt hotel where we went for authentic Peking Duck.

Here's my team in Beijing. Great, and very tired, people. We haven't been served our meal yet (authentic Peking Duck), but its on its way.

This is how we make Peking Duck.

And here it is. The head is also served for those that care to partake.

Tony and I ordered Shredded Pigs ear and jelly fish. Believe it or not, its really quite good. It tasted a lot like coleslaw. I'd eat it again.

Yup, that's a ducks head on my plate. He looks sad. Don't know why, I ate the brains and some other stuff in there. It was good. Yes, really, I did. Grossed out?

After we got back from dinner we hit the hotel bar for some coffee. Very interesting experience hearing American jazz standards sung with a Chinese accent. Pretty dress.

-Eric (Dad)

Beijing - Saturday - Pictures

2009-04-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Today was still a working day, but didn't require time at the office or in the hotel. I was able to walk around Olympic village while discussing items with my new boss, Brian.

Enjoy the pictures.

-Eric (Dad)

The Bird's Nest (Olympic Stadium) across from the hotel.

This series of buildings is called the Dragon. The head (the tallest building on the left) is an office complex, the middle buildings are a mall, and the tail is a 7-star hotel and restaurant.

The entire Olympic complex is covered in art and sculpture.

Every person who took a picture with this sculpture posed in a different place. This woman picked an interesting place to stand.

You wouldn't believe the number of Chinese people taking a picture of me getting my picture taken. I must be a celebrity....

The Olympic Tower. Its impressive by day but amazing by night -logs of lights. I'll have to try and get a night time picture.

...and this is how they keep the Olympic Tower clean. I'm pretty sure their NOT wearing safety harnesses. Notice the lack of hard hats?

I have no idea why these girls were dressed this way and posing in front of the Bird's Nest, but I thought it was worth a picture.

China - Crowne Plaza (Pictures)

2009-04-17T09:02:00.001-07:00

I'm staying at the Crowne Plaza directly across the street from the Olympic Village (click on any of the pictures in this post to see a larger, high-resolution image).

The Crowne Plaza is a 5 star hotel and exceptionally nice. I called down to the front desk to have some laundry done and they sent someone up to my room to pick it up so quickly that I was still in a state of undress (how embarrassing).

I've been meaning to take a few pictures of the hotel for the last couple of days, but either forget or don't have my camera with me. We worked late tonight and got to the hotel after the sun went down. I thought the night shots would be good so I made the extra effort.

The smog in Beijing isn't as bad as I thought it would be, mostly because we haven't had a really bad day since I've been here. There's always a haze in the air (even at night). The buildings around the hotel are very interesting. Some of the high rises have enormous chinese ideograms on their roofs -I have no idea why.

I took a day time shot of the skyline and you can get a sense of the smog:

The building in the background on the left is shaped like a dragon (view the high resolution version of the picture by clicking on it). It has a 5-story television embedded in the middle). I'm told the local Chinese thinks its pretty ugly but I'm fascinated. I wonder if they let you travel up to the top floor. The amazing thing is that high-rise construction is everywhere. They're putting these buildings up incredibly fast.

If you look between the two buildings on the right you can see the Olympic Stadium (the bird's nest). I'm hoping to take a walk around the village this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a break from work. Come back soon, hopefully I'll have some pictures posted.

-Eric (Dad)

Beijing - Day 2

2009-04-16T05:26:00.001-07:00

I had hoped to be able to chronical my adventures in China in some level of detail, but I suspect the amount I'm going to have to devote to work is going to preclude a lot of that. That said, here's some of my impressions of the Middle Kingdom:

1) You have to be mad to drive here. Imagine the most insane traffic imaginable and multiply it by a billion. Its worse than that. Traffic lights, traffic signs and lanes are mere suggestions. I am not exagerating.

2) The food's not bad. You can go to some pretty exotic restaurants and eat just about anything, but your standard restaurant has good, but fairly innocent food. We had prawns Wednesday night served with the heads still on -but ya just cut'em off and then eat. No big whoop.

3) Olympic Village is staggering. I haven't had a chance to walk around the complex yet, but most of its visible from the hotel. Wow. Makes me wish I'd paid more attention to the Olympics.

4) Its a city. If you ignore the Chinese signs (most of which have English on them), it could be a major US city. Just with more personality.

5) Labor is cheap. They have people that wave traffic on, clear the fountains, monitor the public restrooms. Everyone has a job, but I wouldn't want most of them.

6) Weirdest moment: coming back to the hotel from the office the cab slows at an intersection and a guy shoves his hand through the partially open window and tosses in a couple of business cards for a message parlor. (yes, that kind of message parlor).

-Eric (Dad)

Blogging on the way to China

2009-04-14T05:52:00.001-07:00

Hello regular reader. It’s an interesting time, kid stories are going to dwindle for a little while. The big news is that I’m on a plane to Beijing. I’ve been asked by my company to take over a project for the next four months that involves major travel to China. Currently it looks like I’ll be out of the country for about two weeks, then back home for a week, then back out again. It’s a very exciting opportunity, on a high-visibility, high-risk project.

So, I’ve got a brand new digital camera and I’m hoping to accompany my regular blog entries with pictures of the Middle Kingdom and hopefully some interesting tales of adventure.

But, we do have a little catching up to do. In the last two weeks we’ve had 6 inches of snow and 70 degree weather. Unfortunately, while I would have rather been out playing in the snow with the family I had to finish the final deliverable document for my last project. 67 pages later, a couple of days in Bloomington to make a final presentation, and we can put that project to bed. Just in time to head of to Chicago to get my passport renewed and get a shiny new Chinese Visa.

It took three days.

I’d hoped it wouldn’t take that long, I only had two days worth of clothes with me, so I got to recycle. I got home Friday afternoon, Nora and I picked up my car from the shop (don’t ask, but it was expensive) then we got to spend a little quality time together as a family. I finished the evening by packing a day’s worth of clothes and getting ready to teach my Saturday class for the community college. I also ran up to Wal-Mart and got myself a new PSP and games to play on my scheduled 13-hour airplane trip.

Saturday morning the kids got up early and had breakfast with me before I headed off to teach. We were scheduled to head off to see my Dad and Mary in Omaha when I was done with the class, and Pierce was so excited he was already dressed, shoes on, three bags packed with toys and clothes, and a back pack on. Anna had climbed into bed with us and spent time chatting me up as I was getting ready (and keeping Nora awake….)

We were able to get on the road at about 4:30 pm and made good time to my Dad’s. The kids pretty much know the driving routine: some driving games, a snack and a movie on the portable DVD player. The funny thing was, they wanted to all the activities at the same time AS we were pulling out of the driveway. Nora was kind enough to do the driving, so it was my job to pace the activities to last us through the drive (with a short nap for myself too).

Our favorite family eatery in Nebraska is The Amazing Pizza Machine. Think of a Chuckee Cheese on steroids. Its got a massive buffet with multiple types of pizza and some actual, healthy, choices too. There are multiple dining areas, each with a theme, and all showing classic cartoons on an enlarged movie screen. We’d hoped to meet Dad and Mary there to shave a little time off the drive and get to dinner earlier, but the place is not findable by Garmin (sigh). We got there about 8:00 and the kids were in heaven. It was really a toss-up in determining if they were going to stop watching cartoons and hit the arcade machines or stay put (the dining area was getting ready to close, so the decision was made for us). Of course we all over-ate.

We got Pierce and Anna in bed by about 10:00 and they were out in minutes. Nora and I weren’t far behind them.

Easter morning arrived with the kids’ finding the baskets the Easter Bunny left at the foot of their bed. Each got a DVD (Pierce: Bee Movie; Anna: Madagascar 2), a couple of joke books, and some candy. We broke from tradition this year and did not go out to eat with Dad and Mary, instead having a casual breakfast (and lunch) at their apartment. It was a good decision; we got a lot more “visiting” time than if we’d gone out. The afternoon raced past. Dad and Mary look and sound great. We haven’t seen them since last fall, so both kids have grown quite a bit and we had some catching up to do. Of course, a massive, candy-filled basket was awaiting us. Dad and Mary, with a little inside information from us, had presents waiting for Pierce and Anna.

Pierce, after a year of asking, got an Indiana Jones Troop Truck (a replica toy from the first Indiana Jones movie that he saw in a toy store about a year ago). They don’t make it any more, so Dad had to really hunt around to find one for him. Anna got a tadpole kit –much like a butterfly kit, you send off for the live tadpoles than raise them into adult frogs. She read about the kit in a toy catalog and has been fixated on it for months. According to the reviews my Dad read, the adult frogs can live for several years so this may be a somewhat long-term pet investment.

Much as I hated to do it, we had to get on the road after lunch. This was by far the shortest visit I can remember having with my Dad, but we needed to get back to Kansas for Easter dinner with Nora’s parents (it was also Nora’s Dad’s birthday –Happy Birthday Bill!). Dinner was fun with the kids and their cousins playing all evening. Billy bought a couple of friends from work to join us for dinner. Both are extensive travelers, and coincidentally, one of them has been to Beijing several times for business, so he had a lot of good information to share.

Rather than leaving my car at the airport for weeks, Pierce and Anna spent the night at the grandparent’s house so Nora could take me to the airport this morning. We left on a dark, rainy morning, bleah.

So that brings me to now, more or less…

Other bits of news, Pierce wrote one of 5 essays chosen to represent his entire school in a manuscript contest in the school district (I think I have that right, the details might be a little off). Anna got another haircut (the second in her life), she’s back to a shoulder-length bob. I’ve verified that I will be able to join the family for our week in the Outer Banks in late May/early June (I was considered that my business travel might not make it feasible).

Add another favorite food to Pierce and Anna’s list: beer bread. Anna and Pierce helped Nora make a loaf that we took up to Omaha with us to give to Dad and Mary. Anna has almost filled her reading log and has recorded almost 10 hours of at-home, by herself reading. We’re going to add a page so she can keep going. When she hits 20 hours she’ll have earned the $20 bill taped to her bedroom door.

More news soon.

-Eric (Dad)

Hall of Justice - Finished

2009-04-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, last set of pics. All the building details are complete as is the Trouble Alert and the Conference table. The action figures are about 4.5" tall and they seem quite happy in their new home...

-Dad (Eric)

The Trouble Alert and Conference Table

2009-03-28T05:36:00.001-07:00

I got the Trouble Alert shaped, painted and added the viewscreen and details. Pierce and Anna decided the Hall of Doom should be on the view screen (I think it was a good choice). The interior of the Hall got finished Thursday night. There are very few images of the interior walls posted on the net, so I had to make up most of the details myself. The buttons and controls on the Trouble Alert are also my interpretation.

I started on the conference table this morning. It's polyethelene cut with a razor than shaped with a palm sander. The "globe" on top is half of a superball that Pierce donated (although I didn't ask his consent -he's got a million of the things).

I'm hoping to get the entire Hall complete by the end of the weekend.

More progress on the Hall of Justice

2009-03-24T22:04:00.001-07:00

During lunch and after work (with Anna's help), I was able to add a few more coats of paint to the Hall of Justice and add the windows.

The windows are polystyrene (left over from a Proton Pack build) spray painted with semi-gloss black with a faint mist of blue to make them appear reflective. The last coat of paint on the building is a dusting of gray to make it more like stone.

I also built the Trouble Monitor and painted it gray. Anna and I are going to determine what picture it should show. Still left to do is some more detailing on the outside and, of course, some interior decorations.

Here's the pics:

Projects I shouldn't be doing - The Hall of Justice

2009-03-22T21:53:00.000-07:00

Pierce and Anna are both fans of the old Superfriends TV show (I guess you can figure out who turned them on to that). They have a fair number of superhero action figures and they used to use Anna's doll house as the "Hall of Justice". I always thought it would be pretty easy to make a scale version of the Hall as a neat project and something Pierce and Anna would enjoy. So, for no good reason, I tackled the project this afternoon.

The Hall is made from polyethylene, the same housing insulation material that I used to make a couple of proton packs. All the pieces were cut with a jig saw and the building was assembled with wood glue and sewing pins (for reinforcement). Having started at about 1:30 this afternoon, I'm wrapping up my efforts at about 11:30 pm. Major construction is complete and the Hall has been coated in Modge Podge to help strengthen it and get it ready for painting.

Anna's very excited about the building and "helped" me for a good portion of the afternoon. Here's what it looks like now (the Wonder Woman figures are about 4.5" tall and the building is a little larger than 24" on a side) -click an image to view a larger version:

-Eric (Dad)

Winter on the Farm

2009-03-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

Mahafie farm is about 3 miles from our house. It was built in the 1800s by one of the Olathe settler families and was constructed specifically to act as a stagecoach stop. Nora made arrangements for Pierce's cub scout den to visit the farm last Saturday.

The farm is owned by the City of Olathe and is being restored back to its original structure (it was a private residence up through the 1970s). The farm is usually closed through the winter but was to be open on Saturday specifically for a Winter on the Farm day.

And boy was it. Starting early in the morning we started getting snow. By the time we got in the car to go to Mahafie's there was a good 4 inches on the ground and more coming down. The rest of the cub scout families opted not to come due to the weather, but it was definitely their loss.

The farm is staffed by volunteers all in period costumes. We met a blacksmith, watched the summer kitchen being used to make soap, watched ham and bacon being smoked in the farm's smokehouse, and went down into the farm's cellar to see the evening's meal being prepared in the turn-of-the-century kitchen. Again, due to the weather, we were the only ones at the farm so we got LOTs of individualized attention.

The farm features the only still-operated stage coach in the country, so we got a nice ride. The staff also broke out the sleigh, so we had an opportunity to take a one-horse open sleigh ride around the grounds complete with jingle bells (seriously).

We spent a couple of hours there and I don't imagine we'll ever have such a unique, and individualized, opportunity again.

-Eric (Dad)

End of an Era

2009-03-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

For long-time readers of this blog, you may remember that Pierce got his very first remote control car as a reward for successfully using the potty five times in a row. That car has been around forever, shedding pieces of plastic as its been driven into walls, furniture and pets. But it kept on running.

Until now. The car logged its last mile a couple of weeks ago and Pierce has been keeping it around for sentimental reasons. Over the weekend we convinced him his period of mourning had expired and it was time for the dead car to go to the great garbage dump in the sky.

Pierce was reluctant, but relented. And off to the trash it went. Pierce probably has an additional 5-6 remote control cars (most stored in the basement and rarely seeing the light of day), so this car's demise is no big loss. But, I think I'll miss it anyway. It did represent a significant achievement for our young man.

Speaking of the demise of things. The trainscape Pierce, Anna and I built together has been living under Pierce's bed for a couple of years. It used to get pulled out and played with often, but it has fallen out of favor and Pierce has been asking for track that he can assemble at will. On Sunday we disassembled the trainscape and Pierce is now the proud owner of a box of track, two power transformers, and a huge carton of electric train engines and cars.

-Eric (Dad)

A little of this, a little of that...

2009-02-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

Being on the road so much the last few weeks, I've been missing out on some of the funnier moments with the family. Here's a few odds and ends to bring us up to date:

Before I last went on the road, I bought a web cam to take with me. In the evenings we'd all catch up over web video. Pierce and Anna like the novelty of the experience but it wears off pretty fast. They have a hard time staying still and within range of the camera, so I end up seeing a lot of the top of their heads. I took the Harry Potter book that Anna and I have been reading together at bedtime with me and was able to read it to her from the road (she liked that a lot).

Valentines Day was nice. Nora and the kids were very excited to get the day started, with Pierce and Anna coming into our room early (around 7:30) to give us cards they'd made. Nora picked up on their momentum and started distributing cards and gifts too. Now, of course, my gift to Nora was still in an unwrapped state (I had assumed we'd trade gifts over dinner). No harm done of course, I just grabbed a recently emptied gift bag and put her new jewelry in it...

Nora's parents watched Pierce and Anna while the two of us went out for dinner and a movie. I tried to make reservations about 10 days before Valentine's Day, but I was too late -all the restaurants were fully booked. We ended up having an early dinner at Old Chicago's... not bad at all. We went to see the Liam Neeson flick, 'Taken'. The theater was very full, so we were happy to get decent seats movie just 'ok', nothing light our fire, but Nora andI enjoyed spending time together.

After the movie we went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and some desserts. The store saw a rotating cast of characters coming in for a Valentine's Day coffee and we ended up visiting with many of them. The stand-out couple was a very nice woman married to the biggest whiner Nora and I have ever encountered. It was pretty funny.

Anna's have had several Daisy Scout events over the last 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, Anna seems pretty lukewarm to the whole concept. She's a grudging participant but would rather be spending her time on more self-directed activities. I get the feeling she's not much of an "organized activities" type. But we'll see.

Our local cable provider sponsored a free movie, Bolt, on Saturday morning. We'd seen the movie before, but the kids are both huge fans. Its got enough vehicles to satisfy Pierce and the main characters are a dog, cat and hamster, so Anna was in heaven. The morning included donuts and juice, courtesy of Surewest. I was expecting that we'd have to listen to some type of obnoxious sales pitch and was pleasantly surprised when that was not the case. They had drawings for free Target giftcards and Nintendo Wii's, but no wins for the Lindenberg family. When we got home, Anna spent a considerable amount of time drawing and studying Bolt. She made a huge list of all the Bolt-related items she thought could be manufactured and that she'd like to own.

On Sunday Nora and Anna went to a Daisy Scouts Thinking Day event. While they were gone, Pierce and I went to the Toys and Miniatures Museum. Pierce had been lobbying to go for a few weeks. There's a miniature house, with multiple classic cars as part of the display, that he's very interested in.

Since we had a lot of time and no sense of urgency, Pierce acted as our tour guide. He did a pretty good job with no corner of the museum let undiscovered. The museum is stuffed with classic toys, doll-houses, trains, cars and miniatures dating from more than 200 years ago. We'd been there as a family about a year ago and had all enjoyed the visit.

I'm staring to get calls from brides looking for wedding videography services. So hopefully Nora and I will be good and busy this spring filming weddings. We had a pretty good first year last season, so hopefully we'll do even better this year.

-Eric (Dad)

Bot Mitzvah Weekend

2009-02-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago, my brother Doug and I headed out to Maryland for a cousin's Bot Mitzvah. For those not in the know, a Bot Mitzvah is a Jewish rite of passage for a 13-year old girl. She participates in the conduct of a Sabbath ceremony and reads a passage from the Torah (the Hebrew Old Testament). A Bar Mitzvah is the equivalent effort for a boy.

Howard and his family are a warm, welcoming group that REALLY know how to throw a party. Dad, Doug and I went to Howard's wedding several years ago and it was an amazing shin dig. So our expectations were pretty high -and were completely met.

Friday night was an out-of-town guests dinner at the hotel. It was a relatively small affair with about 50 people. Doug wasn't due in town until Saturday, so I was flying solo. Its the first time I've seen my cousins in several years and it was great to catch up. Everyone seems to be doing well with my cousin John and his wife expecting twins in a couple of months. Andy and Karen were my constant companions for the evening and it was great to catch up with them and their kids.

Saturday morning was the Bot Mitzvah. It was held at a Reconstructionist Temple. I'm not familiar with the Reconstructionist approach to Judaism, so it was an educational adventure. Reconstructism stresses activism in the community, egalitarianism, and an interpretation of Jewish tradition within the context of today's world. The ceremony was a fairly long 3 hours (my butt got tired), but was a very communal and vibrant. Like most churches, the Temple courts new members with a casual atmosphere. I was one of a very few people wearing a suit.

Jessica did a great job during the ceremony. I'm told she's normally shy and reserved. But she really shined during the ceremony. It typically takes three to for years to prepare for a Bot/Bar Mitzvah, and Jessica's effort was clearly visible. She rattled off Hebrew like it was a first language and her family beamed with pride throughout the event.

Saturday was an open afternoon. Doug got in about the same time we got back from services. We took a walk around Bethesda and chatted. The weather was brisk, but not too bad for stroll. Doug and I both suited up for a workout and headed into the hotel gym where we bumped into a John. Again, more socializing...

The Saturday evening dinner was huge. Appetizers included a pasta bar, sushi bar, roaming finger food, and an open bar. Delicious. Howard and Debbie had special decorations made that adorned the reception area. After about an hour the doors to the banquet hall opened. The evening featured not only an MC and DJ, but have a dozen dancers of both genders. The dance floor was dominated by 13-year girls, and a handful of boys, that were Jessica's nearest and dearest friends.

The evening lasted until about midnight. Dinner courses were served intermittently throughout the evening; with salads served around 8:30 and desert and coffee around 11:00.

Howard and family hosted a Sunday brunch at their house. But I was not able to make it -I needed to catch a flight home. Doug, Howard and I managed a workout Sunday morning, than parted ways. I'll have to ask Doug how the brunch was next time I see him; I'm sure it was just as nice as the rest of the evening.

Our side of the family doesn't often have an opportunity to catch up with my Uncle and his side of the family. Hopefully, they'll be another Bat Mitzvah in a few years (the ages work out pretty well). I'm sure it won't be long before we have a few weddings to attend too. Nora and I decided to have me and Doug attend this last event solo -both from a cost management standpoint and so Doug and I could spend some time with the cousins without having to manage kids. We think it was a good decision, but there was a fair amount of disappointment that they weren't there. It would definitely have been fun to have the families get together. We'll try and work that into the plans next time around.

-Eric (Dad)

I'm back -at least for a little while

2009-02-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Wow, January certainly went by quickly. I spent most of the month on the road. Sorry for the lack of posts. Let's catch up...

The big event for the month was Pierce's Pinewood Derby. One of my weekends home I attempted to make three cars. Pierce and I cut, shaped and painted his car. Nora and Anna designed a joint car that I cut and painted. Then I attempted to do a car for myself, but ran out of time -I'll finish it later and hopefully it will be ready for next year's race.

Pierce's entry (number 8)

As I probably mentioned last year, the cars are weighed in about a week before the race and the race officials hold all the cars until the Derby is over. Pierce didn't care, but Anna pitched an unholy fit when her car went into a box (I wasn't there, but Nora tells me that Anna cried, demanded and pleaded to have her car back). At one point she declared "I just don't deal well with boxes."

Nora and Anna's car

Of course, by the time she got home she was right as rain...

The day of the Derby I took Anna to a birthday party at a martial arts studio and was able to stay and watch for a little while. After the party, Anna went for a play date for the rest of the afternoon (we figured this would be easier for all if she wasn't trying to get her car back during the Derby). I got to the derby in time to see Pierce's car race. It did much better that his car from last year, winning one of his three heats.

Heat results

We think the shape and weight distribution of the car was good, but Nora and I didn't have time to spend sanding, shaping and lubricating the wheels. So he probably had too much friction on the axles to consistently win. But, Pierce was delighted with the results, so that's all that matters.

While I was out of town, Nora and Pierce decorated his car using scrap booking materials. The car looked REALLY good. I didn't even recognize it as the one that he and I built. Very unexpectedly, he won the best scout-themed car award.

Pierce with his best-themed car trophy (Pierce has been eating a hot dog -notice the ketchup around his mouth...)

and a picture of the winning team...

Anna and Pierce played with their cars all evening after we finished dinner.

-Eric (Dad)

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T20:11:00.000-08:00

To all of our faithful readers, many happy returns on the New Year.

This year's holiday season was an easy one -no travels (at least not the family, I've been on the road a bit for work).

My Mom came into town in mid-December and stayed with us through most of Hanukkah as well as Christmas. We really enjoyed her visit; its been a couple of years since she was out here last. While she was in town we hit Union Station/Science City, she took the kids out for an afternoon at an inflatable bounce park, ate some genuine BBQ, and did lots of visiting.

Christmas was fun. As usual, we set out milk and cookies for Santa and fresh vegetables (on the porch) for the reindeer. The morning started about 7:00 am after we told Pierce and Anna not to wake us before 7:30 am (Nora ended up waking up early). Santa was exceptionally generous. The big favorites were a massive stuffed white tiger for Anna, and a remote controlled airplane for Pierce. There were also lots of books, DVDs, games and puzzles.

We spent the evening (my Mom included) at Nora's folks house. A most excellent prime rib dinner, lots of the standard Christmas desserts, and lots of good conversation.

New Year's was very low-key with Nora and me staying in this year. A champagne toast, a kiss and lights out. We'd talked about doing something more elaborate, but my travel schedule precluded much in the way of planning. That said, it was a great way to kick-off the new year.

-Eric (Dad)

Ghostbusters

2008-12-17T08:55:00.001-08:00

One of the Ghostbusters fan sites I used as a reference for building proton packs (that I sold during Halloween) is putting together a Ghostbusters art calendar. Considering how useful the site has been, I thought I'd make a contribution:

The picture is entirely hand drawn and took about 20 hours over a week. I did this one as a speed painting. You can watch the whole process condensed to less than 5 minutes right here:

-Eric (Dad)

Superman Returns - Picture

2008-12-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

For those who are not able to view the speed paint video (Dad), here's the final result.

Faces are not my forte, but I'm reasonably happy with the end result. I think the cape is my favorite part.

-Eric (Dad)

Speed Painting - Superman

2008-12-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

For the regular followers of this blog, you may remember I posted a speed painting of Anna about a year ago. It wasn't bad -I certainly learned alot from the experience.

I recently finished a new speed painting based on a publicity still from the movie Superman Returns. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it. It took about 5 hours, over several days, to complete. The entire process has been recorded, sped up and condensed down to about 3 and a half minutes.

Tell me what you think...

-Eric (Dad)

Bagurditz Arcade Machine

2008-12-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

I built this full-featured arcade machine a couple of years ago. It features about 2500 arcade games including all games made up until about 2004.

The machine runs the MAME arcade emulator, and features:

- Two sets of player controls
- A trackball controller
- Internet connectivity with IE Browser
- A DVD player
- About 200 real pinball tables
- All Laserdisc games (including Dragon's Lair and Space Ace)
- A Dance Pad with Dance, Dance, Revolution
- An Atari 2600 emulator and all Atari 2600 games

The machine is named for a sound my daughter kept repeating around the house at about the time I completed it.

I'm thinking about making a second machine that specifically runs all driving and flying games complete with steering wheel, gear shift, and pedals.

Harry Potter Wands - Scratch Built

2008-12-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been contemplating building the kids Harry Potter-style wands ever since I saw a version of them in the SkyMall magazine a couple of months ago. My original plan was to use a dremel tool to carve out a couple of dowel rods to make the wands. I still may, but I found a great website that had instructions for making wands from paper and hot glue.

...and here they are (tell me what you think -click the pictures to view a larger version):

-Eric (Dad)

Josie and Snow

2008-12-02T08:50:00.001-08:00

I don't think I've written much about our dog, Josie. We adopted her from a pet rescue organization when she was probably about 4 years old. She has a very gentle disposition and loves to be petted. Anna adores her, and the feeling is obviously mutual.

Josie was picked up as a stray by the adoption organization, so not much is known about her. When we first got her she was very timid. She's wince if you made sudden moves and would actually have an accident if you tried to wrestle or rough-house with her. She's much better now, she knows she's in a safe and cared-for environment. But we can make some guesses about the environment she must have come from.

One of Josie's "eccentricities" is that she doesn't like to go outside unless:

1) She has to go to the bathroom
2) Someone goes outside with her

The only exception is snow. She seems to love snow. We got our first snow of the season on Sunday and Josie loves snuffling around in it. She's a fairly large dog, but she changes the way she walks when she goes through snow. More of a doggy skip.

Interesting, huh?

-Eric (Dad)

A funny story on the way to Bubbe's house

2008-12-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

Picture this, its about 11:00 at night and the five of us are crammed into my Mom's car driving from the airport to her house. I'm driving with Nora in the passenger seat and my Mom wedged between the kid's two car seats in the back.

The conversation so far has been about our flight and the day in general. A quiet lull breaks up the conversation and, after a few moments of silence, Anna asks, "Dad, when I was born, did the tag on my foot say 'From God' or 'From Jesus'?"

-Eric (Dad)

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T07:03:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Our little clan flew out to Virginia Beach for the long weekend. My youngest brother, Scott, and his family drove up from South Carolina so my Mom had the entire family, with grand kids, all back home (my middle brother, Doug, and his family still live in town).

As visits go, this one was relatively short. We flew into Norfolk on Wednesday, getting into town about 10:30 pm. Thursday was pretty relaxing. My sister-in-law, Stacey, and I hit the gym for a quick workout, then Doug, Scott and I headed to a local park for a round of Frisbee golf. My oldest nephew, Chance, also came and played. For November, the day was bright and warm and we had a great time walking the course.

Unfortunately, I'm having elbow problems, so I was an observer, not a player. I've never seen my brothers play Frisbee golf and I was pretty impressed. Chance, Scott's son, was good; consistently making par. In keeping with Lindenberg tradition, we did not have Turkey as part of our Thanksgiving meal. Instead it was Cornish hen, oven-fried chicken, potato latkes, cranberry relish, corn souffle', and green bean casserole. Mmmmmm.

We did a kids table for Pierce, Anna and Kevin and they seemed to like the setup. Doug's twins, Adam and Derrick ate with us, and they were hilarious. They're almost three and very chatty. Doug was able to extend the evening by giving his kids bathes at my Mom's house so they could stay a little later.

Friday started with another work out, this time with Stacey, Nora and me. After an easy afternoon, Nora and Stacey went shopping, my Mom took all the grand kids bowling, and we three boys went for a bike ride. Again, we got great weather and were able to ride some trails for a couple of hours with just sweatshirts on. As always, we spent the time catching up and telling old stories. We all re-convened at Doug's house for Pizza and salad and more visiting.

All the kids got along very well. Chance was incredibly patient with his much younger cousins and spent a lot of time playing with Kevin. Anna and Kevin were also "two peas in a pod" with Anna frequently deferring to the younger Kevin to lead their activities. Pierce and Derrick hit it off, with Pierce either reading to Derrick, or playing with his toys.

Scott and his family headed back to South Carolina Saturday morning. Scott was anxious to get back, so Stacey and Nora cancelled their shopping plans so Scott's family could get on the road a little earlier. Needless to say, the day was very quiet relative to the prior couple of days. We had tentative plans to hit a children's museum, but instead spent a quiet day in the house with Nora and me tag-team napping. Doug and his family came over for Saturday night dinner. The previous evening I had helped Doug work on his computer to get it back in prime working order, and he brought his laptop over to see if we could tweak it a bit more (unfortunately, the results were somewhat mixed).

Our return flight was an early 6:30 am Sunday morning. With the exception of Pierce, we all slept on the long, first-leg of the flight. For a change, we had the perfect air-travel experience with no significant problems either going to, or returning from, Virginia. Its been years since we've been able to say that.

We got back into town around lunch and the kids and I pretty much hung out. Nora headed of to the store to buy her parents an anniversary gift to an anniversary dinner held for them at Billy's house that (Sunday) night. Billy's family is very warm and friendly and we always enjoy spending time with them. Pierce and Anna spent all the non-eating time playing with their older cousins.

We got home at a decent hour and got Pierce and Anna bathed and in bed early. Then, of course, Nora and I stayed up way too late.

-Eric (Dad)

So, what's new?

2008-11-20T07:57:00.001-08:00

OK, first off, I really need to post some new pics. I think we've got well over 300 pictures on our camera just waiting to be downloaded. I promise, soon...

Nora and I shot another wedding last Saturday. This one was a total trip. The couple was in their 30s and very low-key. The wedding was relaxed and fun -the bride's cousin got an on-line something so he could officiate at their wedding. We haven't started editing the video yet, but should get to it soon.

I did finish the video for the couple we shot last month (Kristin and Chad). They're an extremely nice couple. If you'd like to view their video, point your browser here.

On the home front, things are pretty steady state. Anna's been doing a fair amount of math work in her school -introductions to the ones, tens, hundreds concepts. She's recently warmed to it and the teacher has nice things to say. Nora and I have our parent/teacher meeting scheduled for next week so we'll hear more then.

Pierce still LOVES school. Of course reading comes easy to him. We've been working with him on math -flash cards at night, some "fun" math books. It'll never be his favorite, but he's definitely improving.

Anna's reading skills continue to improve. More than reading, Anna loves to write. She spells everything phonetically and she's come up with some pretty interesting interpretations. She's starting to write books at school complete with illustrations. We also have a "Mad Libs"-style game that we can play as a family. I think its my new favorite activity and the rest of the family likes it too. Its very cool that Anna can play it, but we do have a hard time keeping her focused. She likes the dry-erase aspect of the player cards as much as anything.

I'm getting a break from business travel, which means Nora's getting a break from playing single parent. I think we're both pretty relieved. Nora's been spending a chunk of time getting her jewelry site up to speed (www.beadedbling4U.com) and she should be ready for serious business pretty soon.

I'm also taking a stab at giving the wedding videography (www.editedmemories.com) a face lift. So we should have all kinds of new stuff to show soon.

-Eric (Dad)

No really, we're still here

2008-11-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone-

Sorry for the looong delay in postings. My personal endeavors got a little out of hand and I was running to lay track in front of the train. Please make note:

I'm done constructing proton packs for the season (6 built and sold),

I'm done teaching my PMP Prep class at the community college until next semester (no more 8-hour teaching days on Saturday),

I've almost completed editing the wedding video we shot 3 weeks ago,

We've completed our shoot planning for the wedding we're shooting this Saturday,

At work, we've completed both of the RFP responses and oral presentations I'd been buried in for the last month

I have no business travel schedule planned through the end of the year - in the last 3 weeks I've been to Virginia twice, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and New Hampshire

Phewww. I can sleep again.

All that being said, the family is ticking right along. We had a great Halloween. For costumes; Anna was Daphne (from Scooby Doo) and Pierce was Indiana Jones. After trying on her costume when she got home, Anna cooled off to it a little bit. On successive wearings she would not wear the red-head wig or the neck scarf -so most people thought she was supposed to be a "hippie chick". Pierce LOVED his Indiana Jones costume and frequently put it on after school and wore it around the house until bedtime.

Speaking of which, Pierce has become a HUGE Indiana Jones fan. He's seen parts of the first three movies (Nora and I don't want him to see the more questionable portions of the film). He's read, multiple times, the novelizations of all the movies, and has an extensive set of Indiana Jones Lego sets. He and Anna often create Indiana Jones scenarios using all the toys he has. Since one of my favorite set of movies are the Indy films, I think this is a great development.

We scheduled the kids' birthday party for the weekend after Halloween. After discusson with both Pierce and Anna, we went with a bowling party at Incredi-bowl. I suspect this will be the last year that we can have a shared party for the two of them (I'm sad), but it turned out great. Pierce's cub scout den was invited along with several of Anna's classmates and the kids' cousins, Jackson and Sampson. A few of Anna's invites were not able to make it, but all the boys brought gifts for both she and Pierce -so she made out like a bandit.

The party was held in a party room at the bowling alley and included bowling for everyone, a trip through a lazer maze, cake and soda, and LOTs of present opening. And no cleaning up for Nora and me (yea!).

Anna started horseback riding lessons about 3 weeks ago. Its something she's been lobbying for ever since she was able to participate in Pierce's scouting horseriding activity. We're doing it through the parks and rec department, so its not terribly expensive and Anna loves every minute of it. Her horse's name is Beau. On arrival, she's responsible for brushing the horse and helping put its tack (equipment) on followed by about 30 minutes of riding. The horses are led with each kid (there are 3 of them) posting English-style in their saddles. When they're done riding, the kids lead their mounts back to their stables, remove their equipment, and brush them down.

Anna's on a full-size horse, not a pony, and is completely dwarfed by it. Much like an airplane, a set of stairs is pulled up to the horse in order for her to mount it. Watching her attempt to throw a leg over the saddle is a little like watching a Monthy Python sketch.

Pierce has started fall basketball. Due to my teaching schedule, I haven't been able to attend his practices yet. He seems to be enjoying it and Nora tells me that his skills and focus are much improved over last season. I'm looking forward to attending them in-person this Saturday.

And with that, I think we're mostly caught up.

-Eric (Dad)

Cowboys and Indians

2008-10-19T15:27:00.001-07:00

The parents of one of Anna's classmates invited Nora and me to a themed costume party. The Cowboys and Indians party was last night (Saturday) and was unbelievable. The family lives in an area of Kansas called Leawood, and its definitely one of the more upscale neighborhoods in the area. Their house must have been twice the size of ours -and we're not in a small house.

The party featured multiple open bars, upscale catering including BBQ ribs, chicken, dips, chips and desserts, mmmmmmm. There was a DJ and dance floor, with full lights, and a mechanical bull. I lasted about 10 seconds on the bull and ripped the crotch out of my costume -turns out fake leather has no traction and I slid right off the back of the bull.

Nora dressed as a cowgirl for the event and looked very cute. I do love her in hats. I decided to go the Indian route and made, rather than bought, a costume. I did a little hunting around on the web for genuine outfit ideas, bought some fake leather, and started cutting out pieces to assemble into a costume. With Nora's help on the sewing machine, we got the costume completed in one evening.

Here's the two of us in full costume:

-Eric (Dad)

The Quest - Pizza Hut

2008-10-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

For some unintelligible reason, I've been craving a good-old Pizza Hut pizza served hot in a Pizza Hut restaurant. Pierce picked up on my irrational desire, and on Wednesday night began lobbying for a trip to Pizza Hut.

Here's the catch, I have no idea where a Pizza Hut is. The ones that use to be near us all closed down several years ago. There are several take-out/delivery locations in the area; but they don't meet the current criteria.

So, we jumped in the car and Nora directed us to the last known Pizza Hut location. Which turned out to be closed, with the signs torn down. We then flipped on our Garmen GPS (which the kids have named Lola) and had her direct us to the nearest Pizza Hut (which was 5 miles away).

Of course, it turned out to be a take-out location. Ultimately we punted, and went to Old Chicago.

All this brings about the thought, what happened to Pizza Hut? They used to be the "go-to" pizza destination. I think they were one of the first places to start delivering pizza (about the same time as Dominos). Obviously, people are still going out for Pizza, so at what point did Pizza Hut fail to become the place people wanted to go? and why?

Leave a comment, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

-Eric (Dad)

Yup, another proton pack on eBay

2008-10-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to build and sell Ghostbuster Proton Packs on eBay as fast as I can. I got another one listed on Friday. Here's a video of the pack in action:

You can view the listing at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=130260141253

I've got three more guns made and awaiting electronics, and two packs there are almost done. Hopefully I'll get them on the market before its too late to ship them for Halloween.

-Eric (Dad)

Anna gets a pet fish

2008-10-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

Anna's been lobbying to get a hamster for at least a year. However, Nora and I really have no interest in having one in the house. Last week, Anna came into our room and told us she'd had a dream about having a pet hamster and a pet Beta (fish).

Being a smart aleck, of course I asked her if the hamster lived in the fishbowl too...

Both our kids tend to leave their toys scattered everywhere. One of the more bothersome areas (for me) is that they stack toys all over the furniture in their rooms. I haven't seen the surface of either kids dresser in over a year.

I told Anna that if she wanted a pet fish, I would get her one if she would clear her dresser of all toys, and keep it clear. The dresser would be where we'd put the fish bowl. Anna attempted to counter offer, by suggesting that the fish bowl could be on her night stand or bookshelf. But I insisted that it was the dresser or nothing.

The next morning, after Nora had taken Pierce to school and Anna was hanging out while I worked from home; she can into my office and said she had something to show me. She led me to her bedroom and showed me an immaculate dresser. And, she had actually put all the toys away, not tried to stuff them in a corner or a drawer. I told her we could shop for her fish that evening.

Flash forward a few hours and we head off to PetsMart. Anna carefully considers all the Betas the store has to offer and settles on a blue and red male. With much care, she carried the fish up to the cash register, introduced herself, and allowed me to pay for the fish.

On the drive home we discussed what the newest addition to the house's name would be. Without batting an eye, she announced that the fish's name was to be...

Bait

-Eric (Dad)

Blog back online

2008-09-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

My ISP provider made some changes that made it impossible for me to add new Blog entries. But, we're all better now.

Things are pretty busy at the moment. I started a new job a week ago and having been burning some serious hours.

Also, I'm trying to build and sell as much Ghostbuster stuff as I can before Halloween. Here's a couple of new ones:

Proton Pack (already sold) on eBay

Ghost Trap (currently selling) on eBay

I've got another pack finished but not listed yet, and one about 60% complete. Wish me luck...

Nora and I will be filming a wedding this weekend -our first of the fall season. Should be fun.

Nora started her own online jewelry business: www.beadedbling4u.com. Hopefully she'll have some offerings online soon. She's already several pieces just through word of mouth.

More soon, I promise.

-Eric (Dad)

School

2008-09-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Pierce and have been in school since early August. Pierce has fallen right back into his usual routine -excited and enthusiastic. He's been testing for the Quest program (the gifted program) and Nora and I have an appointment in October to discuss the results.

Pierce's 2nd grade teacher, Christie, is very nice. She's an enthusiastic young woman who's been teaching for about 4 years. Pierce seems to be very fond of her.

Anna is not loving school this year. Unlike last year, we're getting a lot of protests. The school is for "babies" and only has "baby things". Of course, the things the teachers want her to do are too hard. Sigh. This too shall pass...

-Eric (Dad)

A New Proton Pack on eBay

2008-09-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update today. Over the last several weeks I've been gearing up to sell several Ghostbusters Proton Packs on eBay for people looking to have "the" Ghostbusters costume. I've got most parts created to make 10 packs with the 1st one finished yesterday.

You can view the eBay listing at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ghostbusters-Proton-Pack-with-Lights_W0QQitemZ130254280611QQihZ003QQcategoryZ60361QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I think the pack came out really well. Let me know what you think.

-Eric (Dad)

Omaha Weekend

2008-08-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

This blog posting is a little late (sorry Dad).

For the August 16th weekend, we went out to Omaha to see may Dad and his girlfriend (Mary). Despite earlier weather forecasts of dire weather, we had the perfect weekend. The three hour drive to Omaha took close to 3.5 hours -turns out there was a lot of construction on I29. But the ride went relatively quickly and painlessly.

We met for dinner at Friday's (Pierce's suggestion) then spent a few hours at my Dad's apartment catching up. Dad and Mary look great (of course) and seem to be doing well. We wound up fairly early, it was a long day and Nora and I were just as ready for bed as the kids.

Saturday started with breakfast at Dad and Mary's. Mary outdid herself serving pancakes, waffles, fruit, bagels and more. Every spring, Dad plants a variety of flower and produce plants in pots on his back balcony. This year's crop was truly a bumper one. It was like walking into a mini-jungle. Vegetables included peppers, multiple types of tomatoes, and cucumbers (I'm sure I'm forgetting others).

The morning and part of the afternoon were spent at the Henry Doorly Zoo. Its one of the mid-west's largest zoos and draws patrons from all over the country. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time or energy to do the whole zoo. We spent most of our time in the rainforest (Anna's pet interest)

and at the aquarium (which has to be seen to be believed).

After a quick, but expensive lunch, we headed back to Dad's place to do some swimming at their apartment pool. Dad and Mary came out to watch Pierce and Anna swim. Both kids were in their usual top form and really showed off (we're so proud). We ended the day by going to our favorite family-friendly restaurant, The Amazing Pizza Machine.

A bit like a Chuckie Cheese's on steroids (to quote Nora), the Pizza Machine features a decent buffet, arcade games, ticket games, bowling, go carts, bumper cars and more. After we all ~~pigged out~~ ate, Nora took Anna to play ticket games (and boy did she win tickets), and Pierce and I hit the go-carts. The track has cars that accommodate a driver and passenger. Pierce isn't quite tall enough to drive yet, but unlike last time we were there, Pierce was egging me on to go faster. It was a blast. Mary is also a huge fan of the ticket games, and used our visit as an excuse to go crazy. Between her ticket wins, Anna's massive ticket acquisitions, and Pierce's token wins, Pierce and Anna were able to cash out their tickets for the nicest crap we've ever gotten from one of those ticket redemption stores.

Sunday was a shortened day. In the morning, after a quick Burger King breakfast, we headed to the local air force base for an air show. None of us had ever been to one before and this one was massive. It featured planes from almost every era, from bi-planes to stealth fighters. The sky was constantly full of some sort of activity: parachutists, stunt fliers, WWII mustangs, modern-day cargo and surveillance planes. It was definitely a feast for the eyes.

We ended our visit with lunch at Dad and Mary's. Then, with a grocery bag full of tomatoes, we got on the road for home, with a detour to Nora's parents house for a belated birthday dinner for Nora. One of her presents, was an electronic version of Monopoly. Nora, her nephews, her sister-in-law, and Pierce and Anna all played. It was hilarious. I think Pierce was the big winner before we had to wrap up and head for home.

-Eric (Dad)

St. Louis Weekend

2008-08-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

Nora and I took Friday off and piled the family in the car for a long weekend in St. Louis.

A cousin of Nora's was getting married Friday night. The wedding and reception were fairly small and low key. This was the first wedding that Pierce and Anna have been to that they'll actually remember. Both were very excited, mostly at the prospect of getting wedding cake.

The drive from Kansas City is about 4 hours. We used my new Garmin GPS (the kids call it Lola) and it made the drive a snap. Nora, not needing to act as navigator, snoozed and read a book. Pierce and Anna periodically checked our onscreen location to make sure we hadn't gone awry. We arrived at the hotel early enough that we were able to spend about an hour in the pool before getting ready for the wedding.

The wedding was held at a small church and probably set the record for fastest ceremony. I think once it started the entire thing lasted about 10 minutes. The bride's father acted as the videographer and it was fascinating to watch someone else do the type of job Nora and I do. I'm sure they'll enjoy the video he shot for many years to come.

The reception was Pierce and Anna's shining moment; they came to dance. After a reasonably tasty (and late) buffet dinner, the two of them danced with each other and Nora and me. Anna even showed Pierce how to do a slow dance.

Saturday, we headed in to St. Louis proper to see the Arch. Despite the number of times Nora and I have been to St. Louis to see her extended family, we've never made it to the Arch (despite a great deal of begging on my part). I'd have to say the experience surpassed expectations.

The Arch is absolutely beautiful. Its size, graceful curve, mirror-like surface, and twisting, ribbon-like angles are breath-taking. The Arch sits in a park-like setting surrounded by trees and lush grass. To enter the Arch you go underground; which is when you realize that under the park is an entire complex complete with museum, gift shop, movie theater and more. When you buy tickets to go to the top of the Arch, they're time-stamped so you don't have to stand in line. You just show up at your designated time and up you go. Our time was about 45 minutes after our ticket purchase, so we perused the museum. The animatronic characters that recited the history of the 'opening of the west' were the biggest hit with Pierce and Anna.

You get to the top of the Arch by climbing into a small 'pod" that can accommodate up to 5 people -its shaped like a marble and sounds like a roller coaster as you start up the Arch. The pod's elevator-like doors have windows so you can see the inner architecture of the Arch (cool!). The top of the Arch would be almost roomy if it weren't completely crowded with visitors. Its about 8 feet wide with viewing windows on both sides. The Arch is so high the view is reminiscent of that from an airplane. I'm told that you can usually feel the Arch swaying from the winds, but it was completely still while we were up there.

Saturday night we had dinner with Nora's cousins. Grilled burgers, dogs and sausages. They have older boys who generously spent time with Pierce and Anna. We don't see them often and we were all sorry that the evening came to a close so quickly.

Sunday was scheduled for a visit to Grant's Farm (established by the family that founded Bud/Bush beer) and a visit to a classic car museum. Unfortunately, the car museum did not have Sunday hours (oops), but Pierce took the situation with good grace. Grant's Farm is like a petting zoo on steroids and Anna loved every minute of it. The Farm has live elephants with regular shows. There was also a Tram ride with an accompanying history of the farm that took you to the Farm's interior.

Sunday was also Nora's birthday. We celebrated by going to the downtown Hard Rock Cafe for lunch (Nora collects Hard Rock pins). The Cafe is in the St. Louis Union (train) Station. The lunch was pretty good and, at my prompting, the waiter brought Nora an ice cream Sunday. He also had the entire restaurant sing 'I'm a little teapot' to her while she stood on a pedestal and danced (badly) the appropriate moves to the song. I think I almost pooped myself it was so funny.

As an olive branch to Pierce, we went into the Union Station proper and walked through their train exhibit. Honestly, the display was pretty un-impressive. But Pierce enjoyed it.

-Eric (Dad)

Hot, hot, hot

2008-08-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

After a relative cool spell, our Kansas summer is in full swing. This last weekend was in the high 90s and exceptionally humid. Not good outdoor weather.

On Saturday, I spent the day at Pamona Lake windsurfing with a friend. The winds were very light, which worked well for me, but not much good to anyone who's actually proficient at the sport. It was so hot out, even the water was warm. Yuck. But I had a good time.

While I was gone, Pierce and Anna attended a birthday party at our next door neighbors. The party was outside and took place in bathing suits. There was volleyball, a water slide and other water-based activities. Pierce and Anna went with Nora to the store to pick out a birthday present and I think they picked out a good one. We were going to go see Titanic at Theater in the Park Saturday evening, but Nora said it was so unpleasant outside during the party that none of the family had any interest in going. Maybe next year...

Sunday was a mixed bag for us. Pierce was invited to another outdoor/water-based birthday party. After dropping him off, Anna and I went to the pool. Both kids had fun, but the sun was so intense I could practically feel my skin sizzling. Nora was a lot smarter, she and a friend went to a beaded-jewelry class.

On the jewelry front, Nora and Lizz (from across the street) took some pictures of Nora's jewelry in preparation for building a web business for selling some of Nora's pieces. Hopefully we'll have her website up soon. Nora's still trying to settle on the perfect name for her effort. Feel free to respond to this blog with some suggestions.

Pierce and Anna completed their last session of swim lessons last week. Their progress this year, particularly Anna's, has been impressive. Pierce is able to do the butterfly stroke about half-way across our pool. Anna's natural buoyancy prevents her from diving to the bottom of the deeper end of the pool, but she loves swimming underwater.

The weekend before last we had our bi-annual block party. We had a little bit of rain in the midst of the activities, but not enough to seriously hamper the event. Aside from some great food, we had a visit from the fire department (complete with the pumper truck spraying the kids with water), lots of games including an egg toss, balloon toss, shoe toss, and a frozen t-shirt contest (don't ask).

I rigged up our driveway movie screen and setup an arcade game, so people could wander over and play a game of Pacman or Galaga on an 8-foot screen. You can watch a short video of the event by clicking here.

-Eric (Dad)

Cell phones and popcorn

2008-07-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I became aware of video floating around the internet showing cell phones causing kernals of popcorn to pop. I got curious and decided to try the experiment myself. Here's the results:

-Eric (Dad)

Weddings

2008-07-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Nora and I have been pretty busy with our wedding videography business. We had two weddings a week apart from each other. The last one we did, on Saturday night, was so unique I'm sure we'll never, ever, do another one like it.

The bride and groom met at a performing arts school in Chicago and are both actors, performers, musicians and teachers. All their friends from the school came down to be part of the ceremony. The bridal party had over 20 people in it, there was a choral piece early in the ceremony that had the guests clapping along and finished with a thunderous ovation. A second musical number, during the ceremony, included a girl singing and playing guitar accompanied by a harmonacist (followed by a great deal more applause).

The reception was a riotous affair at the Uptown Theater. Starting with a stage entrance of each of the bridal party couples performing some unusual moves (belly bumps, pantomimed spankings). The toasts were tear-laden and heartfelt -and in many cases drunken and indescribable, and ended with a huge performance of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by about a dozen of the wedding participants. It was awesome.

On Thursday I took Pierce and Anna to the pool (Nora was out for the evening with a friend). Shortly before we arrived, there had been an incident at the pool: an eleven-year old boy had a seizure while in the pool and the guard went in to get him and performed first aid. There was no risk of drowning (the guard acted very quickly), but it had the pool closed down for a short time, and an ambulance, fire engine, and police car all made an appearance. As far as I know, the boy is fine.

I kept our kids on the playground until events settled down (there were more than enough parents and spectators involved already). Anna was fascinated by the whole series of events and had lots of questions about the boy, the gurney (the "rolling table" as she called it), and events in general. While I was reluctant to get into the whole idea of seizures, I tried to explain events as best I could.

We did manage to get about an hour's worth of swimming in once everything calmed down. Pierce, Anna and I played a new game: sharks and minnows -where the minnows try to swim across the pool without getting caught by the shark. Minnows caught (tagged) by the shark also become sharks, until there are no minnows left. Then the last minnow caught becomes the shark for the next round. They loved it and insisted that we play again the next time we went to the pool (its a great way for them to continue to improve their swimming skills).

After baths and the usual bedtime routine, Pierce ended the evening by telling me that he thought I was the best Dad in the world. Wow. Talk about walking on cloud 9.

Pierce had second shining moment this weekend. As I've previously mentioned, Pierce and Anna play great together, and many times the form of play is imaginary stories complete with cars, Princesses, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, horses and more. After awhile, Pierce prefers to have some time alone to play his "stories" without involving Anna. On Saturday morning, I heard Anna politely asking Pierce to play with her -Pierce was deeply involved in some sort of car-based story.

I took a break from making breakfast and asked him to allow her to participate in his story with the understanding that she would follow his lead. Pierce certainly had the option of telling me that he preferred to continue play by himself, but very graciously agreed to have Anna join in. I know he's growing bigger, but he's obviously growing more mature too.

Last for this entry, about a week ago I was waking Anna, and remarked that I thought she had grown at least an inch from the day before. Out of curiousity, I had here stand against her height chart. While she might not have grown overnight, she had grown almost 1. 5 inches since we last measured her in February. As she raced to tell Nora the news, Pierce asked to be measured too. Yup, you guessed it, he's also up about 1.5 inches since February. I'm guessing we'll be buying lots of new clothes this fall when school starts.

-Eric (Dad)

Fourth of July Weekend

2008-07-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a fun, and safe, holiday weekend. Ours was pretty good; here's the rundown:

Friday
Ahhh, sleeping in -at least Nora and I did. Pierce and Anna were up pretty early.

We went to the pool for several hours (we had perfect weather), then had dinner with Mike and Lizz across the street. Mike smoked Kielbasas, Brisket, and hot dogs for the kids; then we caravanned out to the Great Mall for the Olathe Fireworks. Pierce and Anna are huge fireworks fans, and this year's display did not disappoint. This was the twins first experience with fireworks and Ella took to them immediately. Alex was a little scared at first, but warmed up to them about half-way through the show. Not bad for a couple of 10-month olds.

Of course we got home pretty late. Both kids fell asleep in the car. About 10 minutes into the ride home Anna said she wished she had brought something soft to lay on, and I told her just to put her head back and close her eyes. She was asleep less than a minute later.

Saturday
Nora and I spent a fair amount of the day cleaning house. I'm happy to report that our carpets, stairs and bathrooms are the cleanest they've been in a long time.

After lunch we went to go see the new Pixar flick, Wall-E. Pierce and Anna were lukewarm on the whole idea, but Nora and I were pretty insistent. I think they both liked the movie "OK", but it wasn't one of their favorites. Nora felt much the same way -it didn't live up to her expectations (based on the previews she'd seen). On the other hand, I loved it. Whether anyone else wants to see it again or not, the DVD is definitely going to become part of our collection.

Saturday evening we went to the library. Pierce checked out an armload of books on cars (surprise!), and Anna got several fiction books on horses. We also checked out the movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang (we'd watched the sequel a couple of months ago). Nora and I enjoyed it (Nora doesn't remember seeing it before), but I think Pierce and Anna found it a little slow. Oh well, so much for sharing my childhood memories...

We also checked out Season 2 of the original Superman series with George Reeves. I remember watching the show when it came on in the afternoons. We watched a couple of episodes and Pierce and Anna are definitely fans.

Sunday
Unfortunately, the downside of having a thriving wedding videography business, is that you ultimately have to spend time editing all that video into something watchable. With the exception of some lawn mowing, I spent most of Sunday editing video from the wedding we shot last week. I'm attempting to use some automated software to speed up the process. I got all the video transferred to my computer and organized by content. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have most of it done. We'll see how much of a "time saver" the software is. I'm cautiously optimistic.

While I did video, Nora and the kids went to the pool for a couple of hours. Pierce and Anna came back brown as berries. This mid-West summer sun just burns right through sun block. Pierce was so excited about a new friend he'd made, he came running into my office buck naked to tell me about it. Apparently there was a three-year old at the pool who likes boats and cars, and the two of them became fast friends.

The highlight of Sunday was in the evening. Sally, one of our neighbors with 13-year old daughter, Natalie, invited Nora and Anna to join them to go see Beauty and the Beast at the our local Theater in the Park. Theater in the Park is an amateur production done under the stars, and is usually a very nice show. All the girls packed picnic dinners and headed out of the house about 6:00 pm. Anna LOVED it. She had vivid descriptions of the story, the set design, everything. Without prompting, she enthusiastically thanked Sally for inviting them to come. Next month's show is "Titanic, the Musical" and I think the whole Lindenberg family will go out for that one.

Taking advantage of the girls absence, Pierce and I went to PowerPlay for the evening. PowerPlay is like a Chuckee Cheese on steroids. It has a dinner buffet, bowling, go-carts, video games, and small amusement park rides.

I was very proud of Pierce. For the first time, he handled his buffet dinner setup by himself; including getting a plate and silverware, serving himself, and getting his meal back to the table without spilling anything. He even went back for seconds, and later on dessert, unaccompanied.

Pierce was able to do a "mini" go-cart by himself with me watching from the sidelines. We played a LOT of racing video games (he's pretty good), and played enough "ticket" games for him to go to the redemption store and pick out a few things for himself. He even bought Anna a pink whistle, which he presented to her on Monday morning (she was very excited).

The only downside of the whole 3-day weekend was how hard it was to get up for work on Monday.

-Eric (Dad)

Branson / Camping

2008-06-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

As usual, things have been on the busy side for me. I just returned from a week of traveling and Nora and I are gearing up for another wedding videography gig this weekend.

Nora dropped my Mom an email and I liked it so much I thought it would make a good blog entry. Nora says...

My employer sent me to a conference in Branson, MO last weekend. He and his family went too. I left Thursday afternoon and Eric and the kids met me there on Saturday. The conference was good, but the free time was even better! The hotel was right on Table Rock Lake, so my boss rented a boat one afternoon and we went out on the lake briefly. The weather turned bad and we had to go back to the docks, but it was fun while it lasted! The hotel had an indoor and an outdoor pool, so we got in plenty of swimming. We also went to the Titanic Museum and the Butterfly Palace.

All this week, Pierce had Cub Scouts Day Camp. He has to be at the school at 8 am to get his ride out to the camp grounds, and I pick him up at school at 4pm. However, on Wednesday, I took the day off to volunteer at Day Camp. It was sunny and hot, but we had a really nice breeze blowing. The theme of camp this year is ‘Spy Cubs’.

On Wed, the boys enjoyed activities such as the ‘egg drop’, archery, water fights, relay races, and a history lesson on spies and spy tactics in WWII. I guess I didn’t drink enough water throughout the day and got dehydrated because I ended up feeling terrible afterwards. About an hour or two before we left for home, I started getting a headache, and as I was driving home, I started feeling slightly nauseous.

I had Pierce take a shower, and then I took a shower when we got home. Pierce was fine, but I called Eric and he picked up Anna and dinner on the way home from work. I decided to lie down on the sofa, hoping I would feel better soon, and I did, but I fell asleep early (we were watching ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as a family and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open). I am so thankful that I did not volunteer all week!

-Eric (Dad)

Corolla 2008

2008-06-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a happy Father's Day. We're glad to be back from our vacation.

The beach trip this year was about as perfect as we would have wished. The house we rented was so nice that, for the first time in the history of these trips, we've decided to rent it again next year. The weather was perfect, hovering in the 70s and 80s for the week. The only time it rained was when I was grilling our dinner on Tuesday, but it passed quickly and, unsurprising to all, I didn't melt.

The house had an enormous backyard and horseshoe pit, the usual basketball hoop, a nice pool, a tiki bar with a running waterfall that cycled into the pool, hot tub, pool table, theater room (complete with projections system and helacious sound system), and lots of room to spread out and relax. The house had wrap-around decks on all levels, so navigating around the house was very easy. The in-house elevator made bringing luggage and groceries to the 1st floor very easy. You can see a better description of the house, and pictures, by clicking here.

While the surf started off pretty lousy, by mid-week Doug and I were able to go out and get some surfing in. By the end of the week the waves were pretty big. Doug was kind enough to trade surfboards with me (for the week) and we both benefited from the trade (his was more "floaty" and forgiving for me; mine was higher performing for him).

Doug and Erin's twins, a little over two now, really came into their own this year. They loved the beach and pool, and enjoyed playing ball and balloons around the house. Anna and Kevin became fast friends and spent most of the week together. Pierce bounced from relative to relative, sometimes spending time with Anna and Kevin, other times hanging out with his older cousin Chance.

Chance brought a new friend to the beach this year, William. William was a little more quiet and reserved than last year's guest, but a very nice addition to the house. He was very good with the younger kids but also enjoyed hanging out with us adults. He and I ended up getting several games of pool in and he and Chance both joined our games of basketball out on the driveway.

As in prior years, Chance brought his PS2 to the house. We hooked it up in the theater room and is was so cool. Guitar Hero has never sounded so good, and all of us spent a lot of time driving and crashing cars on Burnout 3 (Pierce got to be pretty good at it).

The ladies spent a lot of time sipping wine and having quality girl time. I think they set an all-time vacation record for staying up late. One evening Nora came to bed about 4:00 am. How much time can they spend talking about how wonderful we Lindenberg me are? ;) This year my Mom spent a fair amount of time with the Lindenberg wives and she rounded out the group very nicely. I shudder to think what stories she was sharing.

While the women claimed the upstairs breakfast bar area for their girl time, we "men" (including Pierce, Kevin, Chance, William, Anna (yeah, Anna), Doug, Scott and myself) staked out the man cave (the theater room). Along with the video games, the room got a lot of movie usage. We rented "Cloverleaf" (the modern day Godzilla movie). The younger kids hated the ending, but we more "mature" men liked it.

The Corolla 2007 highlight video was shown to our group of vacationers the first night we were all in the house together. For those who didn't see in prior posts, this year's video was structured as a news broadcast with Nora and myself as anchors. The video was a hit and everyone was very complimentary of my efforts (with the help of Nora, both our kids, and the dog). Interestingly, everyone just took it as a given that I was able to digitally create a news studio from which Nora and I broadcast... I was surprised it turned out as well as it did.

My Mom decided this year she'd like to spend individual time with the grand kids that don't live in the Virginia Beach area. Chance was up first and it sounds like they had a good time. I think they spent the afternoon playing putt-putt, but I'm not sure what the entire agenda was. Pierce was next, and he and Mom watched go-cart races (tho Pierce declined participation), played putt-putt, went paddle boating, and hat ice cream. After swearing to my Mom that he wouldn't tell the rest of us that the paddle boat got stranded, he immediately came back to the house and made a general announcement. Interestingly, Mom managed to abrade the skin on her bottom during the paddle boat expedition; so she sat 1-cheeked for the remainder of the vacation.

Though originally interested, Anna decided that she'd rather stay at the house rather than do an "outside" activity with my Mom. They ended up making cookie together. I think my Mom would have liked to have done more, but scaled her expectations back a little when it became apparent that Anna only had a limited appetite for making cookies (I'm sure they'll have more to do next year).

One of the highlights of the trip was our professional photographer session on the beach. Nora organized the effort as a birthday present for my Mom. The ladies worked together to coordinate outfits for all the families, then we met the photographer out on the beach after dinner. The weather was perfect and everyone, including even the small kids, were in a good picture taking mood. The pictures came out great -you can view them by clicking here.

As always, the week flew by; but our Saturday checkout went smoothly (even without Nora's Dad there to help us clean out the kitchen). The weather was un-godly hot, so it made packing up the car pretty miserable. After several hours of getting cleared out, and sweating copiously, we decided to forego our usual stopover at the Corolla Lighthouse and head back to Virginia Beach. Pierce took it with good grace, but extracted a promise that we would go next year.

While our vacation week went by almost flawlessly, our return to Kansas City was pretty bumpy. Our 3.5 hour scheduled flight turned into a 17 hour marathon. The kids and Nora handled the situation without a complaint, which made the whole ordeal much less painful. But if I ever have an opportunity to meet the president of United Airlines I will punch him in the head. I can't believe an airline can be run so incompetently -nuff said.

I hope to have some pictures from our trip posted soon, so come on back and visit our blog again.

-Eric (Dad)

Last Thoughts Before Vacation

2008-05-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Its Thursday evening, about midnight, and we've everything packed and we're almost ready for our early flight out to the east coast early tomorrow morning. I'm in the process of burning last year's vacation DVDs to hand out during our first evening together in the Outer Banks. The effort to get the video together has been close to all consuming. Here's a little taste:

Clocking in at almost an hour, this is by far the longest vacation video I've produced. Nora and the rest of the family were tremendous sports in terms of helping me put it together (and being featured in it).

Labor Day weekend was a blast, but very busy. Saturday Nora and I had a wedding gig (we have a professional wedding videography business, www.editedmemories.com) that lasted almost 13 hours -it was only supposed to be a 6-hour engagement. That being said, we got some great footage of a very nice couple.

Sunday was sunny and warm. After a quick trip to the gym and a pancake lunch, we headed off to the neighborhood pool for a couple of hours. Once we hit the water, it was like no time had passed since we'd last been to the pool. Pierce was a fearless fish around the pool, and Anna, despite her winter-time regression in swimming, came back like gangbusters; she was swimming underwater, treading in the deep end, having tea parties and more.

Labor Day was cold and rainy (we've had a lot of thunderstorms lately -perhaps you've seen it in the news). While the weather crushed our plans for another outing at the pool, it gave all of us a chance to relax and lounge around the house. Or, if you're me, work on the Corolla video some more.

On Tuesday, Nora and Anna headed off for haircuts. This is only Anna's second haircut, and she had quite a bit of length taken off, and she is now the proud owner of bangs. When they got back, Anna ran up the stairs yelling "Do you want to see my bangs?". Its a very nice haircut and Anna definitely feels she looks very different. After showing off her haircut she asked if I was able to recognize her because of her voice.

-Eric (Dad)

Pictures

2008-05-19T17:10:00.001-07:00

I made Cinnamon toast for breakfast this morning (we're out of the cereal that the kids like). Anna liked it so much she wrote me a note:

It says: You are the best with Cinnamon toast. The End. Anna

As I've previously mentioned, I've been working on this year's Corolla video. Its being structured in the form of a newscast. Nora and I were able to shoot some of the green screen footage last night. Here's a look at the digitally modified result:

-Eric (Dad)

Mother's Day Weekend

2008-05-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Another stuffed full weekend....

Friday night Nora and I went out to a Ti (sp?) restuarant for dinner then to a show at American Heartland Theater. The dinner was very good, but I asked for a little too much spice, it was like eating fire. The show was "The Perfect Wedding" and was about a groom waking on the morning of his wedding day next to a woman that was not his fiance. It was a comedy and had Nora and me laughing all evening.

Saturday was a busy one. Pierce had a soccer game Saturday morning, then both kids were invited to two birthday parties. I bowed out of all the activities in order to take advantage of a break in the weather and get the yard work done -it took forever. I also placed a few new listings for our wedding videography business (Edited Memories) and we got several inquiries and a couple of new bookings. (things are shaping up quite nicely). I also bought a slightly used procosumer-level camcorder for our imminent videography engagement. Hopefully it will be arriving this week...

Saturday night we spent relaxing and had a movie night. We watched Ghostbusters 2 with the kids and it was a big hit. The DVD came with a couple of episodes of the animated series (The Real Ghostbusters) that we watched Sunday morning. Anna's favorite character of the animated series is Slimer.

Sunday featured a Mother's Day breakfast in bed. I made scrambled eggs and french toast for the whole family. Then we took the entire ensemble upstairs and all climbed into our king-size bed and had a "picnic". Pierce had made an abundance of Mother's Day gifts for Nora at school including a poem/book/card and a clay teacup and saucer filled with chocolate kisses. The kids had gone shopping for a card with the Grandparents and eagerly gave her a Charlie Brown audio card that they both signed.

Also on Sunday we went to see the new Speed Racer movie. Despite the reviews, we all enjoyed it. There's a little rough language and the beginning of the movie is slow, but the pace picks up quickly and they did a great job of incorporating elements of the cartoon into the movie. I suspect we'll be adding it to our DVD collection when it comes out.

We finished the evening with a great dinner at J. Gilbert's Wood fired Steakhouse. Nora's parents treated us and her brother's family. I'm still stuffed.

-Eric (Dad)

Catching up

2008-05-07T07:34:00.001-07:00

Wow, time keeps racing past -sorry for the delay in a new post.

Things are pretty busy with the Lindenbergs. We had our first driveway movie of the season, completed a weekend cub scout camping trip over the weekend, Nora and I are gearing up for our family Corolla vacation at the end of May, I (Eric) is working with the local community college to start teaching some continuing education classes, Pierce's soccer season is in high gear, we're shooting a professional wedding videography gig in a couple of weeks, and I have built/sold a few more Ghostbuster props on eBay.

Anna is truly growing like a weed. Now that the weather is turning warm we're digging out her warm weather clothes and NOTHING fits. Her cute little Buddha belly is rapidly disappearing -she looks like she's been stretched.

Along with her physical growth, her personality and intelligence is ever expanding. She's completed her first workbook at school which covers both reading and writing and is moving into lessons that cover reading non-phonetic sounds. At bedtime she frequently reads to us (and her enthusiasm for the process is growing). The other day she read me "The Cat in the Hat" with almost no assistance.

Unlike the rest of the family, she's incredibly curious. Any new experience prompts loads of questions (many times the same question repeatedly). Nora and I are really walking the fine line of being responsive to her inquiries, and asking her to stop asking the same questions over and over again ;)

Pierce and soccer are starting to gel. Over the last couple of weeks its like a light bulb went off in his head. His time on the field is far more impressive, with him mixing it up to get the ball, chasing the players up and down the field, and paying far more attention to what's occurring on the field. During the games, Anna and I kick a spare ball around. She's got some natural talent and enthusiasm. It will be interesting to see how she plays during the fall season. Pierce is talking about wanting to play coach-pitch baseball once the soccer season is over (we'll see how that develops; I have my doubts).

Speaking of sports, Pierce and I have been shooting baskets in the driveway. Again, the improvement of last year is amazing. He's shooting from all over the "court" and starting to hit some nice buckets. The other day when we were playing and I indicated I was getting ready to call it quits, he said he'd play on with out me.

A week ago we had our first driveway movie of the season. We showed Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Wererabbit (sp?). Attendance wasn't bad. Some of our regular attendees were not present, but we picked up a new family that's already asking when we'll have our next movie (hopefully next week). We were worried we'd have to cancel due to weather, but the evening stayed dry. Towards the end of the movie a spring chill was in the air and we were all snuggled under blankets. The next showing will probably be "Back to the Future".

We have this Spring's first professional wedding videography gig on May 24. Nora and I have met with the bride and done a church walk through. The church is downtown and is gorgeous. I'm attempting to upgrade some of our recording equipment beforehand, some in the market for some new, pro consumer level cameras -yikes, expensive. Hopefully I'll have everything nailed down by the end of the week. We have a couple of other bookings that should take place in the fall; hopefully we'll get some more interest through the summer. To visit the company's website go to www.editedmemories.com

In an attempt to generate more funds to be spent on video equipment, I've sold a few more Ghostbuster props on eBay (forgive me if I've listed these before):

Proton Wand
Proton Pack Shell

I've got another wand completed and a Ghost Trap done, but I'll hold off on getting them listed until we're back from the beach -I like to have a spare as a reference when I'm making new ones. Hopefully, once we get the more immediate tasks behind us, I'll be able to build up inventory to sell before Halloween.

I've been working on the 2007 Corolla video. We got some great video of the family on the beach, at the pool, and lounging around the house. This year's "presentation" will be done as a mock newscast with Nora and me acting as the news anchors. I'm hoping to have the whole thing complete in a couple of weeks (before we shoot the wedding video).

I can't remember if I previously posted, but I successfully passed the PMI Certification exam and am now a PMP Professional. This designation is the highest level professional certification a project manager can receive and is roughly equivalent to an account getting their CPA certification (but with a much, much smaller commitment in time and money). I found out that the community college (JCCC) where I took my PMP prep class is looking for Project Management class instructors -so I've been in contact with them to teach some classes. I've passed the first round of interviews and am scheduled to teach a "mock" class in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be teaching in the fall.

Pierce's cub scout troop had its Spring family camping trip last weekend. The weather was surprisingly cooperative; Saturday was beautiful and we all enjoyed hiking, structured activities including a scavenger hunt (Nora ran it), a short hike, horseshoes, badminton, kickball, and (after dinner), a campfire with jokes and skits. We crawled into our tent about 9:00 and promptly froze for the rest of the night. None of us got much sleep -do they sell battery operated space heaters?

Sunday was a quick camp breakfast, breakdown of the campsite, then back home. Nora and I met with our Edited Memories customer to do a church walk through around lunch so we had to get everyone cleaned up and out the door. The process was somewhat slowed when we found ticks on Anna and me (yuck). Anna's been asking about tick biology ever since (Why do they suck blood? How do they stick to your skin? Where are there teeth?, etc. She and I have actually looked up ticks on wikipedia to answer most of her questions).

On Monday, we had a quiet evening in with a little movie time. We picked up a copy of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" at the library and it was a HUGE hit with Pierce and Anna (Nora and I liked it too). Pierce was literally on his feet yelling at the TV during some of the more exciting parts. Both kids are lobbying to watch the sequels: Honey, We Blew Up the Kid and Honey, We Shrunk Our Selves.

-Eric (Dad)

Goings On

2008-04-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Anna has a cold. Fortunately not a bad one, but her nose is a little red and irritated. The other night I put a little Vaseline on it to help it heal while she slept and she commented that she thought the Vaseline smelled like ginger. Hmm, I'm impressed that she 1) knows what ginger is, and 2) was able to make such an observation.

Last weekend was cold and we actually had snow flurries (no accumulation). Saturday morning we really boogied to get to Pierce's soccer game only to find out it had been cancelled. Apparently the whole world had checked the league website ahead of time except us. Sigh.

We went to go see "Horton Hears a Who" on Saturday. Anna really liked it; Pierce was ambivalent (the movie doesn't have any cars in it); Nora and I thought it was 'OK'. The graphics are stunning. I'd recommend it as a DVD rental. We did see a preview for the new Speed Racer movie and Pierce and Anna are VERY excited about seeing it when its released next month.

I actually mowed the lawn a week ago. Our grass is getting green and lush. Current cold weather aside, I expect I'll be mowing twice a week in the near future. Also, as relates to house maintenance, our dog has manage to damage multiple pickets in the fence (read "broke them in two"). Looks like I need to do some fence repair.

Nora's been making a lot of jewelry recently, as well as attending jewelry/bead-making classes. She's really created quite a few stunning pieces. She's contemplating creating a web-based business to sell some of her creations.

Nora and I have been working out together 3 times a week for the last month or so. The workouts are going well and we both feel a lot more physically fit. Nora's brought a level of commitment and determination to her workouts that I haven't seen in the past. I'm very proud of her.

Lastly, the selling of Ghostbusters "stuff" on eBay continues to go well. I had two sales last week. You can see them at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130212336572&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=003

and

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130213760611&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=003

I hope to have another pack for sale by the end of the week and I'm working on a ghost trap (here's a reverence photo: http://www.gbfans.com/equipment/reference/12/)

I hope to have mine done by the weekend -so far its coming along quite nicely.

-Eric (Dad)

Another Proton Pack on eBay

2008-04-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

I finished another Proton Pack. This time I built it using thermoformed plastic. I've got three "pulls" created, but only one of them finished. No gun or electronics this time, but I think it looks pretty good. You can take a peek at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130210352097&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003

-Eric (Dad)

Easter with the Lindenbergs

2008-04-01T07:40:00.001-07:00

We went out to see my Dad and Mary for the Easter weekend. The weather was pretty cold, but stayed clear for our drive -so we had little to complain about. It goes without saying that we had a great time. Our weekend mostly consisted of eating, with a little swimming and game playing thrown in.

We got in Friday evening in time for dinner. We went just down the road to Fridays and were seated immediately (which was good), but they had run out of milk, didn't serve non-alcoholic beer, and were out of several of the menu offerings (which was bad). But, we were all so hungry we didn't care.

We stayed at the same Comfort Inn we used for our last visit. They have a great kid's suite that's like a mini-apartment and features a separate room with bunkbeds for the kids. We spent a good few hours Saturday morning at the pool (it was much warmer than last year), and Dad and Mary got to come out and see the kids swim. Pierce's skills in the water have carried over from last summer, but Anna has regressed a little bit. She's been asking to do swim lessons this spring, and I think she's got a good point.

After spending the afternoon at my Dad's apartment, we went to the Incredible Pizza Machine for dinner. The place is like a Chucky Cheese's on steroids (to quote Nora). The food is really good (and plentiful) and the place is packed with video games, rides, skee ball, an indoor go-car track, and bumper cars. Pierce and Anna both won a lot of tickets and made surprisingly good prize choices when they redeemed them. Anna's big pic was a pair of over-size dice that light and flash when thrown. And Pierce, well he got a whoopee cushion ("Mom, would you stand up for a minute? Oh, no reason, just stand up....").

We finished our visit with a very nice Easter brunch. Unfortunately, we mis-timed things a bit. Nora and I tried to get a little food from the hotel's (complimentary) break bar into Pierce and Anna early, so they'd be able to hold out for brunch. But of course they ate a big breakfast and didn't have much of an appetite for the later buffet. No worries though, the rest of us more than made up for their lack of food interest.

We didn't need to hurry home this year, dinner with the Hundelts was scheduled for the following week, so we were able to spend a bit more time visiting and Dad and Mary's home before we hit the road. My Dad has a computer he recently retired in favor of a new one, and he was kind enough to give it to me (to replace the PC in our arcade machine). So we spent some time getting it loaded to the car. I've started getting it setup and it will allow us to play a lot more games than our last PC could handle.

-Eric (Dad)

Moon Marble Company

2008-04-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Pierce's cub scout den had a trip to Moon Marble Company. Of course, we made a family outing of it. Moon Marble Company is located in a little town called Bonner Springs. About 20 minutes outside of where we live, you'd think you were on a different planet. The town is primarily a farming area with a tiny downtown and lots of open spaces.

Moon Marble Company is located in an old warehouse building and specializes in making custom, hand-made marbles. They vary in size from about a tangerine to upwards of a softball with prices running to the $1000s of dollars. They do shows several times a day in an area with bleachers and cameras focused on the work area so everyone can see the amazing work.

But, the marbles they make are just a small part of the experience. Of course they have tons of machine-made marbles of every type and size that they bring in from a manufacturing firm, and they have a full-size marble ring for practicing, BUT, mostly they sell brand-new, retro toys and games. Think of any toy or game you remember from as far back as the 50s-60s and they have it in pristine condition. Bobble heads of the Jetsons and the Flintstones, board and sports games that I'd forgotten all about until I saw them again. It was sooooo cool. Nora and I are talking about going there for a date night (without the kids), just so we can spend more time looking.

Pierce and Anna both enjoyed the field trip. Neither kid is that interested in marbles, but they really enjoyed seeing them made -watching a guy heat up glass until it becomes molten is pretty wild. Like their parents, they liked the toy section the most. As part of the field trip, each kid got to fill and bring home a tube of marbles that the picked from the store's massive collection.

-Eric (Dad)

Spring Break

2008-03-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Pierce and Anna are both on Spring break from school. Anna got out a day earlier than Pierce, but they both been off since Thursday. While Nora's at work, they're staying with Nora's Mom (her Dad is busy at the tax office).

So far, there's no major adventures to report. Their cousins have also been staying with Grandma and they love spending time with them. So they're pretty happy. The last couple of days they took their scooters and spent a lot of time in the nice weather. Course, yesterday it snowed (yeah, that's Kansas weather).

I've completed both my PMI audit and my PMP Prep refresher course at the local community college -so its time to schedule my PMP exam. Wish me luck, I'm planning on scheduling to take it in the next couple of weeks.

Regarding the proton pack effort, I've created 3 complete mold pulls with varying success. One I've painted and temporarily mounted to a motherboard. The process of removing the styrene pulls from the mold tends to tear them, so I have to repair them, and the repairs are not very strong. It ripped again while I was mounting it to the motherboard (sigh). Next time I buy styrene I'll go with a thicker gauge and hopefully have fewer problems.

-Eric (Dad)

Bikes and Soccer

2008-03-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night Pierce had is cub scout den meeting. Anna and I had an opportunity to spend some Daddy/Daughter time together. She decided she'd like to ride her bike to the park. Anna's been riding a two-wheeler with training wheels since last summer. A couple of months ago Pierce got a new bike and she got his, much bigger bike (her knees were hitting the handle bars of her last bike).

While Anna enjoys bike riding, she's usually needed a fair amount of assistance. She may need a little push to get going; assistance with staying on the sidewalk; or just a little parental support. Some time of the last few months a switch inside her must have flipped; she was a bike riding machine. Fast, slow, up hill, down hill; you name it, she did it. She even liked slamming on the brakes and making skid marks on the sidewalk.

Pierce started soccer yesterday (Wednesday). He was very excited to return to his old team. Most of the guys from last fall have returned. He's no longer the youngest kid on the team, which should help with his focus and concentration (at least in principal). Based on the leap forward in Anna's interest and proficiency in biking, I thought I might see similar progress in Pierce over last season. Seems that's not the case. Pierce had a lot of fun at the practice, but he still tends to stand back and let other kids play the game. It'll be interesting to see if that changes over the next few months.

-Eric (Dad)

E-I-E-I-Oops

2008-03-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Walnut Grove had a 1st grade musical last Thursday. All the 1st grade classes have been practicing madly for the last month in preparation. Pierce has continually reminded me not to travel on Thursday, March 6 because he has a show.

Coincidentally, I had another Watch Dog day at his school (I helped out for the day), and got to watch one of their rehearsals. It was hilarious: kids missing lines, facing in the wrong direction, not speaking into the mike. I wouldn't change a thing.

Their music teacher has the patience of a saint and really spent a lot of time and effort choreograpying the show. But the night of the show, the kids were 100% improved over the version that I saw.

The show consisted of about 5 songs revolving around the barnyard and opened with a version of E-I-E-I-O. Pierce had the first lines of the performance: "Hi, I'm Old McDonald and I'm a farmer -can't you tell?". His lines came immediately after the 1st song and Pierce didn't know he was supposed to wait for the applause to stop before he spoke, so I don't think anyone heard him.

Most of the 75 1st graders were dressed as farm animals; Pierce was dressed like a farmer with a plaid shirt, jeans, cowboy hat, and kerchief poking from his pocket. Between songs the kids told (scripted) jokes and every kid had at least a couple of lines in the show.

Anna and the other kids in the audience were encouraged to sit on the floor in front of the stage. From the first note, Anna appeared totally enraptured by the whole performance. Afterwards, when we asked her how she liked it her comment was:

"One of the kids was dressed like a dog -I sure would like a costume like that!"

-Eric (Dad)

Fun Fair

2008-03-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Pierce's school, Walnut Grove, had a fun fair last Saturday. A couple of weeks ago, one of the Moms from Pierce's tiger scout pack (who's one of the event organizers) asked for help. The Moms spent a lot of time working on decorations and games. The Dads were asked to build a pirate ship.

Myself and two other Dads worked on the boat. I guess I came to the party with more experience, so I designed the look and structure of the pirate ship. While the two other Dads built the support frame, I cut out the actual ship. By the end of the 6-hour effort, we had a pirate ship with multiple levels to stand on, a captain's wheel, two masts, cannons, and waves built like a pontoon to support the ship. Then we turned the boat back over to the Moms for painting.

Or so I thought. On Tuesday, our family went back over to work on the boat some more. Nora and I did the majority of the painting, with assistance from Anna and several of the tiger scouts. Anna painted the cannons and some of the ships "copper" decorations. The boys helped me paint the waves. Nora laid down the base coat for the ship, then I painted details like the boards and trim. It was fun to do a project with her.

The pirate ship, complete with kid pirates, was located in the main foyer of the school and was one of the first things you saw as you came into the fun fair. The fair features multiple games, a silent auction, a moon bounce, prizes and food. Pierce came home with a "Build your own robot" kit, and Anna came home with a kit for making stuffed animals. Unfortunately, I had my management class on Saturday, so was only able to join the family at the fair for about an hour. But Nora and the kids spent all 4 hours there, along with Nora's Mom. It sounds like they had a great time.

Nora made several pieces of jewelry to contribute to the fun fair and, at the time that I was there, hers were the only pieces getting bids (cool!). We finished the day with a trip to IHOP for dinner -this month they're serving Green Eggs and Ham.

-Eric (Dad)

Blue and Gold, Fried Chicken, Proton Pack

2008-02-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

We had our parent/teacher conference with Pierce's teacher on Friday. Overall he's doing well -he's at a 4th grade reading level, helpful and polite in class, and few behavioral problems. Unfortunately, he has also inherited most of my school predispositions -he doesn't pay attention in class if the subject doesn't interest him, and he's not a fan of math.

His teacher suggested we work with him on arithmetic to get him moving forward -currently he's one of the last to turn in his assignments. Its surprising, because when he finished kindergarten he had a pretty good grasp on arithmetic and had started multiplication and division. He seems to have regressed a little.

Nora is going to start working with him using flashcards and over the weekend I loaded "Math Blasters" on our arcade machine. Its a terrific program that uses math as the "tool" the hero-character uses to beat the bad guys. After struggling initially, Pierce seems to have fallen in love with the game -so hopefully this will help. Anna's very interested in watching the game, so maybe she'll take a stab at it too.

Pierce's cub scout Blue and Gold banquet was Friday night. Nora and a few of the other Scout Moms spent a lot of time making a "Tiger" cake to donate to the cake raffle. It was by far the most impressive cake of the bunch (it looked like a combination of the Tiger scout insignia and the Pink Panther). It was made from, I think, 6 different round cakes pasted together with icing.

At the banquet Pierce got his official Tiger badge and Nora got a Tiger pin (the pin is a thank you for all the hard work the Mom's put in). We also saw the rest of the pack get their new badges and the Weebloes receive their "Arrow of Light" award. It was a fairly long evening -Anna brought her L-Max with her and it kept her pretty occupied. Ultimately we won one of the cakes in the raffle and Pierce in inadvertently picked the one we were going to get by dragging his stomach across the side of it...

Last week we went to a local Chinese restaurant, Andy's Wok, and it turns out Pierce and Anna both like their fried chicken wings. Pierce and Anna are not usually big chicken eaters, so this came as a surprise to me. In an attempt to capitalize on the situation, Nora made oven-baked fried chicken using Corn Flakes as the "breading". Anna helped Nora with the "shaking and baking" and both kids did some pretty good eating for dinner. So I think we'll be adding that dish to our menu of frequently-served items.

I've been working on creating the master-mold for the thermoform Ghostbuster Proton packs I'm hoping to sell on eBay. The bottom portion, the Cyclotron, got finished Sunday night. With a little luck I'll get the thermoform frame completed this week and be able to cast a couple of molds next weekend. Since I'm already thinking of how I'd like to spend the money I can get for these packs on eBay, I'm hoping this works out well. Stay tuned for pictures of my attempts.

-Eric (Dad)

World of Wheels

2008-02-18T05:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a truncated one for me. I'm taking an 8 hour class on Saturdays. Saturday evening we watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek (The Original Series). Turns out Pierce and Anna like the episode with the planet killer ("The Doomsday Machine") more than the episode with the Tribbles ("Trouble with the Tribbles").

We had snow Saturday night and Sunday morning. It was the kind of snow we've been waiting for, wet and sticky and perfect for snowmen. Instead of going out in it directly, we went downtown for a car show, World of Wheels. It featured the Bumblebee (from the Transformers Movie), and Lightning McQuee (from the Pixar movie "Cars"). It had an amazing number of restored cars from the 1930s all the way to current day. Pierce and Anna both liked the 1982 Delorean (there very familiar with the movie "Back to the Future") and got to see some pristine examples of Pontiac Trans Ams. One of the cars on display was even showing the movie Smokey and the Bandit.

By the time we got home, the weather had turned warmer and the snow was melting rapidly -no snowmen were built.

Over the last few weeks, we've had several family game nights. The two favorite games are Kerplunk! and Twister. When its Pierce and Anna's turn to be the "spinner" they cheat in hopes of letting Nora win.

-Eric (Dad)

The Proton Pack on eBay

2008-02-03T11:12:00.001-08:00

For those who have been keeping abreast of the Proton Pack story, last Sunday I put the pack up for auction. The 7-day auction was more of a rollercoaster than I previously experienced with eBay auctions. Several doofuses tendered bids then retracted them -causing the price to fluctuate wildly. I had a fairly high reserve set, so I wasn't at risk for selling the pack for less than an amount I would be happy with -but I was concerned I would have to re-list it. But... a last minute bidder came in and gave me my price.

What did they pay? I'm not telling, you'll have to look at the listing yourself. Click here to view it.

With that kind of success, I think I'll build another....

-Eric (Dad)

Daddy Daughter Dance and the Pinewood Derby

2008-02-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

Well, another week has come and gone...

Last weekend was Pierce's Pinewood Derby. The good news? Pierce's car rarely lost. The bad? He came in consistently 3rd place. Unlike when I was a scout, the revamped the race so that every kid/car races against every other car on every possible position. That amounts to 12 heats before you even make it to the semi-finals. Strangely, in about 8 of those races, Pierce's car came in 3rd -regardless of track or the other cars he was racing (there were a total of 4 cars in each heat).

Pierce seemed to have a good time and didn't worry much about coming in first. Nora and Anna were able to attend the derby for the first couple of heats before Anna headed off to a birthday party. All the Tiger cubs (first year scouts) were given a participation trophy; so Pierce was ecstatic. Next year I think we'll go nuts with the dry lubricant. The two kids in his den that won consistently had taken their wheels and axels and dowsed them with graphite -so we'll know for the next race.

The birthday party Anna attended was unique. It was for girls only at a place that gave "make-overs" and had a fashion show; complete with stage, runway and karoke. We got some great pictures of Anna in a cocktail dress all made up. She and Nora both had a great time.

Last night (Friday), Anna and I attended a Daddy/Daughter dance sponsered by the Olathe Parks and Recreation. Nora and Anna bought a new dress (that Anna picked out) and Anna bought me a matching tie. She was so excited all this week she kept asking if "tonight was the night I was going to wear my new tie".

The girls attending the dance ranged in age from about 5 to 12. Dinner and dessert was included (catered by Hyvee grocery store). While not good for us, the food was pretty good. Anna seriously wolfed down chicken strips. The dance had a very nice DJ; a woman who interacted with the girls, had contests, gave away prizes and lead dance numbers. The only down side was that she played the music WAY too loud. Anna requested that we go out into the lobby area so that we could get away from the music (I agreed with her). She's indicated that she'd be willing to go to another dance provided the music wasn't so loud. That being said, it was a great way to spend an evening with my daughter. We got to dance together, cheek-to-cheek.

-Eric (Dad)

Dressing Anna

2008-01-22T16:04:00.000-08:00

This morning, after a quick round of karate training, I came home and got Pierce and Anna ready for school. Both kids are at the age that this is a pretty easy task, with Anna needing just a hair more assistance than Pierce.

Its been very cold out this way. I think this morning's temperature was about 18 with a windchill of 0, so I put Anna in her old short-sleeve soccer t-shirt, then layered on a thick, cableknit zipup sweater (with hood). She seemed to like it.

Nora took Pierce to school this morning, so Anna and I had some quality around-the-house time. Then I drove her to school. On the way she read a book to me (one of the books she brought home for homework over the weekend: "Fun with Mud"). She's reading exceptionally well.

When we got to school she proceeded to take of her jacket... and sweater ("I'm getting too hot Dad!"). After reluctant agreement from me, she paraded around the class asking incoming parents and students how they liked her soccer shirt.

If I had known she wasn't going to wear the sweater, I'm pretty sure I would have picked a slightly warmer, long-sleeve shirt...

-Eric (Dad)

Movies

2008-01-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of days, I shared a couple of my favorite movies with Pierce and Anna: Ghostbusters and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.

Ever since I started building the proton pack, Pierce and Anna have been very interested in all things “Ghostbusters”. Last week, VH1 ran a “family-friendly” version which I taped. So Saturday night was movie night with the Ghostbusters. Both kids seemed to enjoy it, though they both were a little bothered by the scene where arms come out of a chair and grab Sigourney Weaver’s character. There favorite part: Pierce – the Ghostbuster car, Anna – all the scenes with Slimer. They’ve asked if they can watch Ghostbusters II another day.

The Wrath of Kahn was a mixed bag. Over Sunday’s lunch we were talking about something (I can’t remember what it was), and the subject of Spock came up. When I mentioned there was a Star Trek movie where Spock died, both Pierce and Anna asked if we could watch it. Anna was very excited about the prospect, but Pierce, one he’d had a chance to think about Spock dying, wasn’t so sure. He chose to watch and read a book at the same time.

While the movie’s not too graphic by today’s standards, there was a lot in there that sparked questions from Anna. The scenes where the “worms” were put in the characters ears (yuck), and the scene where the worm comes back out of Chekov’s ear, accompanied by a little blood (double yuck), the scene on the space station where Captain Kirk is lowering the bodies of the slain station’s personnel down from the ceiling, and the final scene, where Spock died in the radiation-flooded engine chamber were all topics of conversation while we watched. No nightmares resulted, so I guess we’re ok. There is an Anna-submitted request to watch The Search for Spock, where Spock is returned to the land of the living.

The funniest was while we were watching, a Mom/Daughter team came by to drop off Girl Scout cookies (made from real Girl Scouts), Anna invited them in to come and watch the movie with us. She went on to describe the movie’s plot to them, as well as Spock’s pivotal role as an alien and science officer. The look on the Mom’s face was priceless.

We had snow on Thursday and Friday, so Pierce and I got a little sledding in on Saturday morning. I piled up some snow on our “sledding trail” and built up a little ramp. It sent Pierce flying almost every time (I thought it was fun too). Nora and Anna added a new curtain rod and curtains to one of the rooms in Anna’s doll house. A beaded, straightened paperclip, some Anna-cut fabric, and a clue gun and, voila! curtains. I think the process exhausted Nora, but Anna’s ready for more.

Closing out the weekend, Nora and I watched a sci-fi classic: They Live, a John Carpenter film starring the wrestler Roddy Pipper. It fell under the category of “It’s so bad, its bad.” but it was nice as couple time.

-Eric (Dad)

Happy Weekend (Pictures!)

2008-01-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

Between work, business travel, and too many projects, I'm afraid I've been pretty bad about keeping our blog updated. To catch up:

We've been getting a lot of snow this winter. Most of its been on the weekends, so there hasn't been too much missed school or work. And we've been able to enjoy it. We've had multiple sledding expeditions to the local community college (lots of hills). We even found our "super-secret" place, a bowl-shaped depression that allows us to sled in from all sides.

So far, our biggest disappointment has been that every snow has been very dry; great for sledding but not good for snowmen. Anna's been desparate to make a snowman, and I've been wanting to make a new snow car -so we've been a little disappointed. Out of desparation, I used a snow shovel to make big piles of snow to "mold" into stuff. Anna and I made a "sleeping" snowman lying prone on the ground (Anna made the face). Here's a couple of pictures:

I made a quarter-scale version of a convertible coupe. It came out ok, but got destroyed pretty quickly. Here's a few pictures:

With Pierce being in cub scouts (he's a tiger scout) we're approaching our first pinewood derby. Pierce picked a Matchbox car that he really likes as a model for his car. We got a couple of pieces of paper and designed his car together. Then Pierce used his "blueprints" to draw the cut lines on the car. To save time, I used a jigsaw to cut the car, then we both took turns with a hacksaw to add some detail. Pierce had a great time. For safety, he wore leather gloves and safety glasses and he just thought the whole outfit was "cool" (sorry, no pictures).

Finally, I took my brand new dremel (Nora's folks gave it to me for the holidays) and added detail to the car. I got some scrapwood for Pierce and me to practice on (even with me holding his hands and the dremel, I'm still not sure how smart I was to let him handle the tool). Anna and Pierce both, with my help, got to spray paint the car with primer and high gloss black paint. Pierce nailed the wheels on (with a little assistance from me). Here's the final result:

The race is scheduled for next Saturday. Pierce is very excited and "hopes he wins". Having grown up entering blocks of wood painted blue, I figure he's already way ahead of the game. But I'm glad he's got a competitive spirit.

Anna and I added another "piece" to her dollhouse. She's been lobbying for a fireplace for awhile. Much like Pierce's pinewood derby car, she and I got a couple of sheets of paper and designed it together. Its modeled after the fireplace in our home with some adjustments to make it a little easier to cut and build. Anna has named the fireplace (course I've forgotten the name). Its currently painted only with primer. Anna said she'd like to handpaint it, but we haven't gotten there yet. As we (I) was building it, Anna told me not to worry about making the fire or lights for it, that she'd do it herself. Once we got it finished she cut "firesticks" (firewood) and fire out of construction paper. The fireplace place has taken up residence in the dollhouse's attic (her horses have been moved out of the attic to a nearby Nora and Anna-built stable. Here's a few pictures:

I'm still working on listing the Ghostbusters Proton Pack I made on eBay. Lizz and Mike came over and took some fantastic pictures that I'll use in my listing. I'm a little paranoid about listing the pack after Christmas for fear of not getting the kind of bids the packs were getting earlier. Given the amount of effort that went into the pack, I want to try and maximize my price -so we'll see what happens.

Nora's been very dedicated to scrapbooking lately. Her goal has been to get all of our Hatteras/Corolla pictures completed and assembled into a book. Last weekend she pretty much hit the mark. She "claims" that she still has a few pictures she needs to add, but from my perspective the book she's assembled looks fantastic. And here's some pics:

I took the picture of Nora holding the new album right after she got out of bed after a late night of scrapbooking. Doesn't her natural beauty shine through? ;) (thanks hon, your the best).

Like most kids, Anna and Pierce's interests ebb and flow. Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles (Anna), Trains (Pierce) and Legos (all of of us) have been big in our house in January. Here's some of the results:

Nora and I had a nice Friday night out with a couple of friends/neighbors. They had invited us to join them for a movie on a night we had season tickets for a play at American Heartland. We had a couple of complimentary tickets to share, so we counter-offered with those. We had a very nice time with Rita and Tony, but the show was a real stinker. The cheesecake we had afterwards was pretty good though...

-Eric (Dad)

Happy New Year

2008-01-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays and, hopefully, a wonderful New Year to everyone.

Sorry for the long break between postings. For those who know me, you'll probably not be surprised to find out that I've started on one of my projects -it became a bit all consuming. The latest project? A replica of the proton pack used in the Ghostbusters movies for sale on eBay. I should be listing it in the next couple of days. In the mean time, I've created a video on YouTube.com to help showcase the proton pack. You can see here:

Hannucha and Christmas at our house were the usual wonderful holidays. As always, we stayed local, spending Christmas morning together as a family and having Christmas dinner at Nora's parent's house. The kids made out like bandits and Nora and I didn't do too bad either.

Anna has developed a few new interests: Teenage Mutant Nija Turtes and the Virgin Mary. Anna has already asked if she can be Mary for Halloween next year and, when referring to my Dad's girlfriend (Mary), Anna makes sure to clarify that she's referring to the "Mary that didn't die".

We went to visit my Mom in Virginia Beach after Christmas and were able to visit with Doug and his family while there. Unfortunately, my other brother, Scott, came down with the flu and he and his family were not able to come up from South Carolina. A couple of my fraternity brothers were also in Virginia Beach over the holidays and we had a chance to catch up. We had a great day where all the Dads got together, with their respective kids, and spent the afternoon at Mount Trashmore. We had unseasonably warm weather and were actually able to leave our jackets at home during our day out.

As has been mentioned in previous posts, Pierce and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter books at bedtime. We're on book 4, The Goblet of Fire, and Pierce is turning into a real Harry Potter junky. As a family, we've watched the first 3 movies. I was concerned that Pierce and Anna would find them frightening, but that hasn't been the case. Interestingly, whenever Anna started to get "a bit concerned" Pierce would reassure her by telling her the next bit from the book. He pretty much gave away the entire book...

Anna started reading a few months ago and her proficiency level is improving exponentially. She's not quite the enthusiastic reader that Pierce is, but she takes great pride in her in reading to us. Rather than picking up books to read, she likes to sound out signs wherever we go. In the mornings when I'm working with Pierce on his spelling words, Anna requests that I give her words to spell also.

The problem with having such a large span of time pass between postings is that I've forgotten more about the past month than I remember. I'll add more postings as more stuff bubbles to the surface.

-Eric (Dad)

News

2007-12-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

I've been taking a professional certification course a couple of times a week at 3.5 hours each session (excluding homework and class prep time), so my discretionary time has been pretty limited lately. Sorry for the lack of updates.

What's the news...

Pierce and Anna went horseback riding as one of Pierce's scouting activities. On Sunday they groomed the horses, helped saddle them, rode for about 20 minutes and gave the horses treats after they took them back to their stalls. The horses weighed in excess of 1000 lbs and positvely dwarfed the two of them. Anna, unsuprisingly, loved every minute of it and is asking when she can do it again. Pierce enjoyed himself, but says one time was enough for him.

It only took 5 years... the background information. When Pierce was an infant I used to love to doze with him asleep on my chest. Unfortuately, by the time he was about 3 months old he wouldn't do it any more. He was too fidgetly and prefered to be facing out so he could see. Anna was even worse, even as a newborn she wouldn't fall asleep on my chest. Fast forward to present day, last weekend Anna came into our room on Saturday morning and climbed into bed with Nora and me. After a few minutes she layed across my chest, arms draped down my sides, sighed "I love you Dad," and fell asleep. I'm so happy.

Hannucha started on Tuesday evening. Nora shops for appropriate toys throughout the year, so we usually have a "stash" to draw against for gifting occasions, but I decided I would buy the first night's presents. I picked up a pair of walkie-talkies, put batteries in each of them, and wrapped them separately -one for each kid. When Pierce opened his he was very excited and immediately started to re-enact the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is on the moon and calling down to Earth. Before Anna even unwrapped hers she declared, "I don't want a walkie-talkie. I want a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle like I told Santa". She was not very good about hiding her disappointment -needless to say, that particular gift idea blewup in my face.

-Eric (Day)

End of the Sports Seasons

2007-11-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

As already discussed, Anna bowed out of basketball and finished up with soccer a couple of weeks ago.

Pierce had two season-endings last week. Pierce's last soccer game was a week ago with his celebratory party this last Wednesday night. It was held at a local pizza restaurant (one we had not been to), with the whole team in a good-size party room. Pierce and Anna both ate pizza with zest. So much so, that Nora and I ordered a second pizza for ourselves -Pierce and Anna didn't leave us any. Just as the pizza was brought to our table, Anna got sick to her stomach. All four pieces of recently-eaten pizza came right back out.

Nora quickly spirited her off to the bathroom and some very helpful Moms and restaurant staff cleaned up quickly. We were able to stay while Pierce and the rest of the team received their medals. The coach had something nice to say about every single player. Pierce was "always happy at both practices and games." Interestingly, Anna's stomach was back to its cast-iron nature pretty much before we left the restaurant.

Pierce's last basketball practice/game was last Saturday. After 45 minutes of game play, the team was presented with medals and rounds of applause. Pierce said he enjoyed this season, but was glad that it was over. I think we all feel the same way.

-Eric (Dad)

My Melted Shoe

2007-11-19T10:24:00.001-08:00

A couple of weekends ago we had another scouting event. The family-based event was Saturday afternoon and focused on Native Americans. Pierce and Anna, along with the rest of the den, gathered firewood, went on a nature walk, shot (toy) bow-and-arrows, made trail mix, roasted corn and cooked chicken and marshmallows over an open fire (though not all at the same time).

We had beautiful fall weather for the event and the den seemed to have a lot of fun. The corn was fun to watch cook (I was the chef) and was a hit with the adults –not so much the kids. None of the scouts had much of an interest in cooking chicken on skewers over an open fire (it took too long and the end result was just chicken) so we parents did most of that. With the limited number of skewers available, I started wrapping pieces of chicken in foil and placing them among the hot coals. I was feeling pretty clever until when of the scouts asked me why my boot was smoking. Turns out I’d been standing on a hot coal and succeeded in melting the toe off my shoe.

Towards the end of the afternoon we had torched marshmallows just about everywhere. S’mores construction involved lots of kids with flaming sticks and flaming marshmallows. No injuries were reported, but I had visions of us setting the park on fire.

Pierce and Anna weren’t very interested in dinner that evening. Too full of s’mores.

-Eric (Dad)

Anna can read!

2007-11-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Anna's been working on the alphabet and letter sounds at school this year. Last week Nora took out some "beginner" books she'd bought for Pierce at about this age. Anna flipped open several of the books and read them aloud to us -no coaching required. She's now starting to sound out words on packaging and in other places she finds it. She seems to be very enthusiastic about the whole process. The only downside is that we have to discourage Pierce from reading words to her when she's trying to figure them out for herself.

-Eric (Dad)

Birthdays, Halloween and More

2007-11-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe, but our big Birthday month is behind us. Pierce and Anna had their official birthday party last Saturday. Course; before we could get to that, we had to make it through both a basketball practice and soccer game for Pierce (those little legs of his were pretty tired).

The party was held at Build-a-Bear at the mall. Pierce and Anna both got to invite three friends. Both kids are getting to be of the age where the parents are dropping of their kids for the party then picking them up afterwards. It still feels very weird to me. Each kid had an “allowance” to spend. They could pick the critter of their choice from about 25 options including bears, puppies, ghosts, penguins and more. Depending on what they picked, they might have money left for a “voice” to be put in, or clothing. Pierce picked a puppy (he named it Lucky) and Anna picked a ghost (“Pic Pic”). The staff was very nice and everyone spent a lot of time hugging their creations.

We walked across the food court to have a custom made cookie cake and to open gifts. Nora’s parents were there to help and managed to coral a table large enough for our little party. The mall was amazingly busy for 3:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon. I know most malls are suffering from lack of traffic, but you wouldn’t know it from this mall.

Sunday was Anna’s last day of soccer and I think we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. After some initial reluctance, she started off pretty well with the substitute coach. They played a number of skills games that involved the kids running and the coach chasing. The wheels fell of this approach when Anna got scared. She spent most of the rest of practice sitting on the sideline talking about how tired her legs were. She did participate in the intra-team scrimmage for a few minutes, but kept bowing back out. Within the last few minutes Anna got the ball and started driving it down field, right up until tripped over the ball. Yup, back to the sidelines again.

The day before Pierce and Anna’s actual birthday, I spent the day at Pierce’s school as part of the Watch DOGS program. It’s a volunteer program for “father figures”, where you spend a day at the school helping out. You assist in several glasses/grades, walk the grounds and halls as an extra set of eyes, and help keep the lunch room monitored. Of course Pierce was thrilled to have me there, and the first class I assisted in was his. I also got to spend some time with 3rd, 4th and 6th graders. I helped out in a computer class, an art class, learned about ancient Egypt and helped a special needs 6th grader take a quiz. It was a very memorable (and enjoyable) experience. The two most important things I learned during my day were:

1. How incredibly hard our teachers work, and
2. I do not like standing on my feet for 6 hours straight.

Pierce and Anna had their annual checkups yesterday (Thursday), Pierce got his first flu shot (not happy), and Anna got 3 immunizations and a flu shot (2 in each shoulder, very unhappy). We took them out to Dairy Queen for dinner and dessert as a reward for being so brave. Both kids are healthy. Pierce is in the 65% for height and 75% for weight. Anna is 75% for height and 85% for weight. Both passed their eye exam and Pierce did fine on his hearing test. Apparently, Anna’s not hearing lower frequencies well. The doctor’s not too concerned; we’ll test again next year. Anna may just not be paying attention very well during the test.

Halloween was fun. Pierce was a vampire and Anna was Wonder Woman. Both kids got to wear their costumes to school. Nora and I helped out with a party at Anna’s school and it was a blast seeing all those little kids in costume. I ran the bean bag toss game and, of course, got very silly. It started with me moving the bucket so that every toss fell in, to ultimately me putting the bucket on my head and racing around the room trying to catch the bean bags. We had fun. Nora was running a craft and ended up a little frustrated. The class was supposed to be decorating a foam picture frame, but many of the smaller kids were not up to the task of gluing, so Nora was a little overpowered.

In preparation for Halloween, I created a video to be projected in our garage that made it look like the Lindenberg family was doing interesting and impossible things (you can view it below).

Nora and I tried to convince Anna to wear tights and/or a shirt under her skimpy costume, but she wasn’t having any of it. This year Nora stayed home to pass out treats, while I took the kids out for Trick or Treating. We figured after 2 or 4 houses, Anna would determine she was cold and ask us to put some more clothes on her. Nope. Again, we forgot how stubborn she is. She trick or treated for well over an hour with claims that her cape kept her warm. Pierce had enough after we did one street, but Anna was gung ho for more. Ultimately, with the temperature dropping, I told her we’d have to stop if she wouldn’t put on warmer clothes. She decided to stop instead. Several times when we passed our house while we were getting candy, there would be 10 to 20 people standing in the driveway watching the show. The day after Halloween, kids and parents at school were complimenting Nora and Pierce on how much they liked it. Very gratifying.

Hard to believe we’re already in November. I suspect I’ll be deep-frying Turkey for Thanksgiving before I know it.

-Eric (Dad)

Sports Update

2007-10-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Anna's officially retired from basketball. Nora and I disagree who's idea it was to enroll her, but it certainly wasn't Anna's. During her first practice, while she participate without complaint, she kept asking when it would be time to go home. The evening before her second practice she uncategorically declared that she did not want to go to practice, that it was boring and that she did not like it. Nora and I diplomatically (in our opinions) told her we wanted her to try it a couple more times before she quit. On arriving at her second practice Anna simply refused to walk out on the court and join the team. I'm not quite sure how Nora and I could have forgotten how strong willed our girl is. Anyway, she's done.

On the other hand, Anna has enjoyed her first soccer season. Last Sunday was the last "official" practice (we have a rain out makeup session for this coming weekend). After the practice, the team members all received a medal and a juice box. Anna was extremely excited. During the actual practice, she had to be coaxed into participating. But she had some nice runs and almost scored a goal. I think next year, when she's a little older, she'll be one of the stronger players.

Pierce has continued to enjoy both basketball and soccer. Pierce claims he enjoys basketball much more than soccer, and I suspect this may his last season of soccer for awhile. He's had a great coach and a nice group of kids to play with. He's the youngest on the team. While it doesn't show in his size, his attention span and motivation can't match the other boys. Still, he's had fun -he likes the drills at practice more than the games themselves. Last week he played goalie for the first half and was extremely excited. Its his favorite position.

Pierce has two games left (one's a rain out makeup) and we had our last practice last night. With the exception of cub scouts, we should see things slow way down as soon as he's finished. I think we're already for a break from all the activity. Anna's expressed an interest in doing gymnastics again (I think Pierce said he'd like to do it again too). And Pierce has the opportunity to join a year-round swim team through school, which I think he'd really enjoy. So we'll see what develops...

-Eric (Dad)

Camping and Rain

2007-10-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Pierce’s Cub Scout troop had a families camping weekend, the Scoutoree. We borrowed a 6-person tent from Billy (and an extra sleeping bag), met with rest of his den at Pierce’s school, and drove out to an old golf course that’s been converted to a camping site. We got a late start, so setting up the tent was a race against the setting sun (we were successful).

The campground was interesting. With direction from park employees, we all parked on an old fairway, then carried and wheeled our gear to a different fairway to setup camp. Generator powered lights ran up the center of the fairway, along with a string of port-a-potties. There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to where tents were setup, so everyone just grabbed the closest piece of ground. Guestimates were about 900-1000 people camping. The Cub Scout troop occupied one fairway, with a Boy Scout troop occupying a different fairway.

Most of the kids, Pierce and Anna included, ran around playing tag with flashlights. Anna and a couple of boys found a hole to dig in and found a slug. When it was fully dark, all the camp’s attendees attended an evening of presentations. There were skits, Native American dancing, and a ritual flag burning. Unfortunately, none of us could hear a thing. The flag burning took forever. Pierce and Anna both repeatedly asked if we could go back to the tent so that they could, to quote Pierce, “Hit the hay”.

Returning to the tent, Pierce’s den shared cupcakes, then, somehow, I got wrangled into shepparding several of the boys to the edge of the woods for a team “pee” session. Did I mention Pierce pulls his pants down to his ankles before he pees standing up? Several of his den mates had questions about that…

Pierce and Anna were both starting to get colds, so Pierce fell asleep almost immediately. Anna was too interested in the tent and all the kids running around us to settle down. The gas powered lights were turned off about 10:15 and everyone, adults included, went to bed. Anna fell asleep about the same time we did.

Of course, within a couple of hours a thunderstorm blew in and took up residence in the area for about 10 hours. I think we had about 4-6 inches of rain. The thunder and lightening were non-stop. Fortunately, our tent stayed dry and we mostly slept through the night. But many of the campers, especially the kids, couldn’t deal with the thunderstorm and broke camp and left before sun up.

In the morning, while Nora and Anna went to use the bathroom, Pierce and I went to go get the car and bring it back to the tent. Slogging through the pouring rain, when we arrived at the car, the formerly grassy fairway had turned into a giant mud pit. There were countless minivans and Honda Accords stuck. Nora’s SUV made it out with a minimum of trouble, but we weren’t allowed to bring the car back to the camp. More slogging and schlepping of gear ensued. Nora and the kids waited in the car while I broke down the tent (I think I set a speed record). Fortunately, the rain eased while I was getting the tent stowed, but by then it didn’t matter. I don’t think I’ve ever been so wet in my life.

The pack was supposed to have breakfast and activities Saturday morning. I can’t imagine what happened to all the food the pack brought in –someone must have eaten well. We spotted a donut shop on the way home and figured that would serve quite nicely.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce's Challenge

2007-10-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday at basketball practice, Pierce was touching some other kid's head while he waited in line. He didn't mean anything by it (that I can tell), but it was pretty clear the other kid was getting very irritated. From the sidelines I yelled for Pierce to knock it off. He stopped and life moved on. Until school the next day.

Tuesday morning Pierce told Nora that at recess the day before, he'd seen a 2nd grader on the playground whose hair looked soft and he tried to touch it. His reward? The 2nd grader and his friends chased Pierce around the playground for both the morning and afternoon recess periods. Guess we know why Pierce was trying to touch that kid's head on Saturday -you'd think he'd learn. I have to admit, I never imagined anyone would need to be instructed that its inappropriate to try and touch a stranger's head because their hair looks soft...

Pierce didn't want to wear his blue jacket to school because he thought that's how the second graders were identifying him and he didn't want to get chased again. Nora and I thought that might not be the best solution. We talked to him about NOT touching other people, boys or girls, without their permission. We also talked about finding an adult ASAP when a situation occurs that makes him uncomfortable. Then I taught him a technique we teach kids in karate class...

Most aggressors are not accustomed to being confronted. So Pierce and I practiced having him directly address his aggressors. Then we practiced it in the kitchen. The basic steps: face your aggressor and look him directly in the eye. Stand tall, hands at sides, stomp your foot and yell, as loudly as you can, "Stop! I don't like what your doing". The first time Pierce attempted it he looked at the floor, tried to pull his shirt over his knees and wasn't even audible. But a few more tries and he had the trick. Anna watched with great interest over her cereal bowl.

As you can imagine, I was very interested in hearing how school went that day. Nora called me from the car after she picked Pierce up from school, then handed Pierce the phone so he could tell me about it in his own words. Pierce said "They didn't chase me at the first recess, but then they tried to chase me during afternoon recess. I did just what we practiced -they started to chase me and I turned around and yelled 'Stop'. And they left." I asked him if he was scared and he told me "No".

As you can imagine, Nora and I are extremely proud of Pierce. Confrontation is never easy, even as an adult. Hopefully Pierce walked away learning a couple of lessons -1.) Don't touch strangers hair... and 2.) Stand up for yourself.

-Eric (Dad)

Anna's Tooth

2007-10-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

Anna lost her first tooth last Thursday. She was very excited. She's been watching Pierce enviously for the last couple of years as he's lost tooth after tooth. Interestingly, the loose tooth snuck up on us. Anna had a loose top tooth that she got from a soccer collision. Fortunately it tightened back up (we think). Then on Tuesday Anna claimed her bottom tooth was "very, very loose. Loose? It was practically falling over. Anna gave it some serious wiggle time and enjoyed showing it off to anyone (including complete strangers).

When it finally came out, with some assistance from Nora, Anna kept repeating, "My tooth is soooo beautiful". Thursday evening Nora and I went to a wine and cheese party with the other parents of Phoenix Montessori school and after paying the babysitter, had no $1 bills left. So Anna got 3 quarters, two dimes and a nickel from the tooth fairy. She was so excited that the tooth fairy visited she didn't even care about the actual figure -she's telling everyone that she got "One money".

-Eric (Dad_

Fire saftey, Basketball, Soccer, turkey and Parties

2007-10-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

I think this last weekend will go down as one of our busier ones for awhile. Here’s the recap:

Friday
Dinner tuned out to be challenging. Neither kid wanted to stop playing to eat. Anna was so insistent that she was not hungry she didn’t eat anything on her plate and bugged us to be excused. A discussion of Saturday morning’s upcoming basketball practice reduced Anna to tears. She insisted that she didn’t like the game and found it boring and didn’t want to play any more. After dinner, Pierce and Nora went to the library. Anna was on the tired/cranky side, so we stayed home and she played with her dollhouse. When it was time for bed, because she frenetic and clowning around, Anna fell out of the bed -resulting in many tears. She then fell asleep almost immediately.

At the library, Pierce discovered a new set of mystery books, the Box Car Mysteries. He read both books by the end of Saturday (incidentally, by the end of the weekend, he had fourteen bookslips to turn in to his teacher –and that’s just the books we knew he read).

Saturday
True to her word, Anna absolutely refused to participate in basketball practice. Even with me going on the floor with her and the coach coming over to encourage her, she wouldn’t budge an inch (no tears, just complete refusal to participate). Once again proving that when she sets her mind to something, she will not be budged. She’s officially retired from basketball for the season.

Pierce had overlapping soccer and basketball commitments, so we let him choose which he wanted to do. Basketball was his pick. Pierce’s practice went well with some incremental improvement over last week.

After lunch, I took the opportunity to finish a project I started the prior weekend. I had created wooden nameplates to hang in each of the kids rooms. The wood had been cut and sanded, with their names traced onto the fronts, but the routing still needed to be done. Two hours later, with some assistance from Anna (“Look Dad, the sawdust can be snow for my Barbies!”) the project was finished. Nora and I think they came out pretty well. Pierce and Anna are relatively unimpressed.

Pierce and I took the training wheels off Pierce’s bicycle. Within minutes Pierce was riding by himself (I was originally holding on to the seat to keep him steady). Nora managed to capture the whole thing on video. Pierce was very nonplussed about the whole thing. Nora, in her excitement, actually ran to give Pierce a hug and congratulate him without ever turning the video camera off. We have some great footage of her feet while you hear her telling Pierce how proud she is of him.

For dinner we went to a local Chinese restaurant. Pierce and Anna got a little adventurous, with Pierce ordering Crispy Chicken and Anna getting Lo mien noodles. Anna declared the noodles to be her absolute favorite and both kids demolished the Crispy Chicken –Nora and I thought we were going to have to order another serving before their tanks finally registered full.

We finished the day with a driveway movie, Polar Express. Attendance was a little low; the local Catholic school was having an auction that evening that included about half our neighborhood. The weather was very hot and muggy, so it wasn’t the most comfortable showing we’ve had. Just the week prior we’d all been wrapped in blankets and this time we sat and sweated. The heat brought out the bugs. With a little bug spray, most of us survived intact, but Anna got pretty chewed up. She’s covered in red welts.

Sunday
After a leisurely breakfast, our family split up. Pierce and I went to the Annual Fire Safety Week activities at the Olathe fire department that featured hundreds of people, about 20 fire engines, a lifeflight helicopter, free bicycle helmets (we spent about 30 minutes in line), a bicycle challenge course (we brought Pierce’s bike, but with the recently removed training wheels, chose not to have him participate), a demonstration of a truck rollover (complete with body flying out of the moving truck), and three firefighters cutting the roof and doors off a junked car to demonstrate how they free trapped passengers –complete with the use of the “jaws of life”. Pierce was in heaven.

While Pierce and I were watching firefighters, Nora and Anna went to Anna’s soccer practice. Anna was able to get her soccer ball back (another player walked off with it last week when the practice was cut short by rain) and brought a new intensity to her soccer efforts, culminating with her scoring a goal during the practice’s mock game. Anna was extremely pleased with herself.

After about two hours we headed home for a pre-birthday birthday party for Pierce and Anna. We decided to have a small party with relatives and a few adult neighbors prior to the big “kids party” to take place closer to their actual birthday. Pierce rode his scooter around the neighborhood while I got ready to deep-fry a turkey. The weather had been very overcast all day. Concerned that it might rain while the turkey was in the deep fryer, I setup a large, open-sided tent in the backyard and set the turkey fryer underneath it. Sure enough, 4 minutes after I got the turkey in the fryer a major thunderstorm blew through. It ended right as it was time to pull the turkey out.

The dinner and party were a success. We had a loud, busy house. Pierce, Anna and their cousins wrestled with Uncle Billy. Mike and Lizz, Lizz’s mother Carol, and the new twins had an animated conversation with Carrie, Aunt Nicole, and Joanne. Bill adopted Alex (one of the twins) and kept him entertained all evening. Everyone socialized and pigged out, and then we moved on to present opening and cake. There were a lot of very nice presents, but the favorites were: Anna received an animatronic Mumbles the Penguin (from the movie Happy Feet), and Pierce was split between a new HO Steam Locomotive (with real smoke) and a couple of snap-fit model cars that he and his cousin assembled –without assistance.

I had to leave early to consult with the undergrad KU chapter of my fraternity, but got back after everyone had cleaned up and left (wasn’t that great timing?). Then a little bedtime reading with Anna and the day drew to a close.

-Eric (Dad)

Scooters and Bruises

2007-10-04T08:47:00.001-07:00

Since getting his new scooter, Pierce and the kids around the neighborhood are constantly riding scooters. Their favorite game seems to be “Police”, where one or more kids is a criminal and must go to jail behind our fence gate. Since they’ve started playing we’ve seen some pretty horrific crashes. Anna’s taken a new interest in her 3-wheel scooter and also participates as best she can –though she has limited interest for more than a few minutes. Both Pierce and Anna’s shins and elbows look like an alien landscape –lots of bruises, scrapes and Band-Aids.

-Eric (Dad)

Basketball

2007-10-04T08:43:00.001-07:00

Pierce and Anna both started their basketball leagues last Saturday. Anna’s is at 9:00; Pierce’s at 10:00 (fortunately, they’re both in the same location). After a bit of a slow start (Anna was sad because she was lonely), Anna jumped into the activities with both feet. Much like Pierce last year, she’s the youngest on the team, and she’s having some coordination issues with dribbling. Interestingly, she can pass and catch better than anyone else out there. We tend to do a lot of that at home, so it may have rubbed off. Either her techniques off, or she needs a little more upper body strength, because she’s not shooting for the hoop too well. But I’m sure it will come to her. Nora and I are going to buy a smaller basketball for our home court so she can play with us at home.

The difference in Pierce’s play from last year to this is like night and day. Everything’s better: dribbling, shooting, passing, focus and concentration. It was very exciting to see. On the drive out there he was very excited about seeing his basketball “friends”.

We go out to the practices as a family and each kid has an hour to stay entertained while the other plays. Pierce and Anna both brought their L-Maxes and did very well. There are enough other kids in the stands, along with babies, that they’re both constantly visiting. I enjoyed watching both of them, but two hours sitting on a cold metal bleacher is murder. Ouch.

-Eric (Dad)