3/30/12 Reminiscing

The kids and I had fun at dinner tonight, mostly with me telling them stories about them as babies and toddlers.

One story they loved was about one time I was taking video of me and Gabriel, and Julian kept walking over to the camera to play with it (he was just shy of 2). I took this video to show Gabriel's interest in "clock math" -- which interestingly he can't do now -- and unfortunately edited out most of the funny parts with Julian messing with the camera, but they're there. Gabriel and his "clock math" thing are interesting too.

Even better, the kids were so anxious to watch these videos tonight that they all helped clean up the kitchen after dinner -- it was hectic and not exactly "clean," but a whole heck of a lot more fun than usual!

3/30/12

3/28/12 Purple Belt!

Julian had a belt test last Saturday, and yesterday we found out the (very unsurprising news) that he'd passed. He's now a purple belt in Shaolin Kung Fu!

Most important to him, this means he gets to move on to the next weapon level: nunchucks. An instructor told me recently that this brand of Kung Fu is really more a performance art than anything else -- but he doesn't need to know that. It's such a relief to see him working hard and concentrating and (mostly) obeying for once!

3/28/12

3/26/12 Caught up?

New photos and video of our final day of our ski trip this year ("3rd day" below). I spent way too much time writing about it, but it was hard to drag myself away. I liked having my head in that space, being there in the mountains and snow and liberated by gravity. Even though this trip was the most challenging in terms of driving -- chain controls the whole time, lots of ice and snow and poor visibility.

Stormy Drive
1st ski day
2nd ski day
3rd ski day

The details are dull, but do scan the beautiful photos. I just can't take my eyes off the snowy trees....but now, it's time to turn to spring. And maybe try to catch up the past two summer cousin-visit photo books!

3/26/12

3/25/12 Trees!

I met with our new landscaper today to do a design review -- and on the spot said let's go ahead! So she started right away! This meant taking out two diseased trees that have been weighing on me for years.

Before.

After.

It sure looks bare now, but we have grand plans for much better screening plants.

Katrina was pretty sad about the trees getting cut down though.

She didn't even notice that the plastic playhouse was gone. She got over it though -- and we'll be getting lots and lots of new plants. A few new plants were planted today too, but they're small!. It'll take a while for the new landscape to mature.

I had a great time this weekend with Gabriel, doing something fun for work: heatmapping. That is, using free tools to scan for wi-fi networks, and plot points in our house to see where the signals are strong. Gabriel walked all around the house with a laptop, clicking points on a map when he arrived there, then looking at the colors to show where signals were strong and weak. What better thing to keep a geeky kid busy for an afternoon?!

The glow from our great ski weekend has almost worn off unfortunately and it hasn't even been a week. I haven't finished uploading photos or videos or even putting our ski stuff away! I don't see how we'll get back up to the mountains before ski season turns to "spring skiing" -- and I did enough of that during the winter already, so I think it's time to shift my mind from winter to spring for good.

3/25/2012