More Post-Christmas

Last year, we got the kids a Wii, with a few assorted games that I (being an old fart) haven't felt the slightest temptation to play.

This year, since they've been "OOooo"-ing and "Ahhhh"-ing over "Guitar Hero", we went ahead and got them one - with two "guitars".

Imagine my pleasure when their favorite track is a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune!

Makes me think that somewhere, somehow, Mr. Bad Influence (Professional Division) must have done something right.... Now, if I can just get them to like bagpipes, Bach organ music, and the Moody Blues....

UPDATE: MeelieNoh (The 10-year old) kicked my butt around the block. Twice. I can see I'm gonna have to practice a bit...

Post-Christmas

I'll leave it up to Mrs. OWW to describe the goings-on at my In-Law's, with one exception: Watching Chickie (14) and MeelieNoh (10) open packages and go "Oooo" and "Ahhh" as they got some stuff that they really wanted.

Instead, let's look at one of the sillier things that went on this week - in Seattle.

It seems that a large winter storm dumped large amounts of snow in places that get very little snow. But wait a minute, Seattle has snow removal equipment, right?

Kinda-sorta. The snowplows that they do have (not many) have rubber blades to avoid damaging the roads AND they do not use salt on the roads at all, because.... (wait for it) the run-off would damage Puget Sound - which is a salt-water body of water!

Read the editorial HERE.

In summary, Seattle blew the call. Granted, Seattle doesn't normally have to deal with huge amounts of snow - but the planning should have been in place, and extreme conditions allowed and planned and stocked for.

I live in a hurricane zone, and my local government DOES plan and DOES equip itself to deal with a hurricane's aftermath.

So, Seattle gets a "D" grade for violating the "Five P" principle.

Meanwhile, I'm suffering through mid-seventies temps - why, I even felt moved to turn on my truck's air-conditioning yesterday.... Ò¿Ö

Text Messages

Just got a text message to my cell phone from Chickie (14-year-old daughter) -

"can you come tuck me in?"

I'm in the kitchen. She's in her bedroom, not 30 feet away.

So... what's a big, strong, hero-type Daddy to do?

I go into her bedroom, and, literally, tuck her in.

"Daddy, tell me a story about you and the Navy, please?"

So I tell her about me, Poor Dumb Randy, and The Chief (that would be our Chief Petty Officer).

Keep in mind that PDR and OWW were about 22 at the time. The Chief was a rather ancient 40-something.

PDR and OWW had to carry The Chief back to the ship. And no, alchohol or drugs were not involved. Also not involved was The Captain, nor the Blonde Japanese Go-Go Dancer.

We never should have taken the bet about how many pounds the anchor weighed (not including the anchor chain).

Our Japanese hosts were much amused by the antics of the crazy Eastern Barbarians.... and so was Chickie.

True story... and I'm pleased that Chickie wants to hear my stories about ancient history - and Very Pleased that Chickie, at 14, STILL wants to be "tucked in" by her Dear Old Dad...

Birthdays

In my side of the family, birthdays tend to run together.

My Mom, my two sisters, and I all have our birthdays within a month of each other.

I've carried on that tradition with my middle daughter, Chickie. It makes for a chaotic two days.

Of course, it starts much earlier, like about two weeks earlier.

Below is a text message conversation between Chickie (now 14, as of yesterday) and Moogie (aka "Moooooom!")


Text messaging with Chickie the other morning:


Me: Good morning sunshine! Happy Wednesday. We are half way there!
Her: Yay! Only 10 more days to go!
Me: I still don't have your list. :)
Her: Just an IPOD, and a card.
Me: But what kind? Color pref? Etc.
Her: Blue :)
Me: Yes, blue. But what is the name of the IPOD you want?
Her: Ipod nano, 3rd generation.
Me: Oh, and blue. :)
Her: Yep
Me: Ok, Blue Shuffle, got it.
Her: No. Ipod NANO 3RD GENERATION.
Me: What's that?
Her: What i want for my birthday!
Me: What do you want?
Her: Omg. a blue ipod nano, 3rd generation.
Me: What's that?
Her: Look it up.
Me: Look what up?

For some reason, she wouldn't answer my text messages any more. I wonder why?

So, of course, my bad self had to get in on this. I kept making references to "Shuffle, 2nd Generation, Red" which of course was hidden somewhere in the house (it wasn't).

Drove her freakin' nuts for seven (7) looooong days.

Heh....

What I'm afraid of is that what goes around, comes around.

Today is MY birthday.

I gotta wonder what Chickie has in mind for Me......

Bed-Time Stories

My almost-14-year-old daughter, Chickie, still has a pretty good case of "Hero-Daddy-Worship".

She just poked her head into my office and asked me to "tuck her in", and "tell a story" about when I was young.

I try to dredge up, from the dim mists of memory, stories about how it was, 'way back when, or even not so far back.

I do try to keep them entertaining, albeit with lessons from life.

She seems to like this "tucking-in" routine.

She's a Good Kid, and I'm very pleased with her.

Except when I'm sorely tempted to resort to regular beatings...

She is, after all, 'mostest 14....

Not-so-modern Husbandry

Evidently, I'm a superior sort of fellow - by the standards of days gone by.

142 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I regret to inform you that I'm not always well-turned-out, shaved and in a suit on Sundays, nor am I silent in my sleep. In most other respects I'm quite acceptable, which I put down to my late mother's methods of correction - trust me, gentlemen, a wooden spoon alongside the noggin ensures attention to manners and other matters! Also trust me on this: when Mom decided that Dad had to know about my shortcomings, things were decidedly "bad". This was a rare occurrence, God be praised - Dad let me live.

Mrs. OWW and I have applied the principles above as imparted by our parents. Reports from the parents of our childrens' friends are encouraging - "Delightful", "Very nice", and "No trouble at all" come back to us.

Of course, we are properly shocked, and ask, "What'd you do with our kid?"

TGHIP - The Great Home Improvement Project

'Way back there, OWW got Real Lucky and was offered the opportunity to place a ship of the US Navy into inactive status. This involved shifting Classified Stuff from the ship into the hands of the appropriately cleared Naval Persons, which Persons were accompanied by armed Marines. We had to hump the Classified Stuff down "ladders", which are minimalist staircases, and down to the pier. I kid thee not, bruddah, we had mucho of the Classified Stuff, so there were many trips from Radio I and Radio II down to the pier.

That wasn't the worst.

The worst was paint.

Navy Haze Gray.

On the deck. On the overhead. On the bulkhead. On the mast.

Many, many days of ..... paint.

I hate, despise, and loathe paint.

TGHIP involves flooring. Move the furniture around, rip out the carpet, clean the concrete slab, lay down the plastic sheets as a vapor barrier, lay the planks of Armstrong Heirloom Hickory Laminate - not a problem, just a bit of physical labor.

But, between "rip out the carpet" and "clean the concrete slab" comes the despicable "paint".

Did I mention that I don't like paint?

I managed to skate out of actually painting a wall for thirty-seven freaking years, but now I am painting walls in "Tequila", or "Heron Blue", or "Duet Green", or "Baby Blue Eyes".

I may vomit.

The only reason I don't go into a quiet corner of the back yard and vomit is that Tiny, Bruiser and Ralph (our vicious guard dogs) would probably crowd around, and in Doggie, say "Watcha doin' Dad? Is it fun? Can we do that? You want a lick in the chops, Dad? How's about I wag my tail so hard I fall over? Dad? Dad? Whatcha doin' Dad?"

Gahhh!

I.

Hate.

Paint.

Laptops and Windows Vista, Oh My!

Well, I've been living with Windows Vista Home Premium on the HP/Compaq laptop for about two weeks.

So far, it just works.

Everything looks familiar, although some of the bits and pieces are in different places than they are in XP.

I really Do Not Like Internet Explorer 7 - not because it blows up (it hasn't yet), but because I'm used to Maxthon. Mrs. OWW likes FireFox. As soon as I'm Real Sure that this is a stable system, Maxthon and FireFox are going on, probably next week.

Office 2007 Student 30-day Evaluation edition was pre-loaded. I really dislike it a bunch. Office 2003 is going on, 2007 will be un-installed as soon as I'm sure that won't blow the system to smithereens.

Now, just to annoy you folks in Washington (State or DC), and Minnesota, and Ohio, or even in San Jose, CA, here in SouthEast Jawja, today, December 12th, I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt and sandals, enjoying 80F weather. As I write this, it's 10:15PM, I'm sitting on my deck sneering at my slightly overgrown back yard, and the temp is 68F under clear skies.

Summertime in Jawja is hot and humid (like 90F, 90% humidity), so when a glorious day like this comes along, I just sit there and smiiiiile......

Thanksgiving

Just when things seem to be going Real Smooth, and you're feeling pretty good about it, and you're even ready to brag about it, Life It's Ownself will smack you right in the face with a cold fish.

Last Saturday, Meelie, at 9 our youngest, came down with a stomach bug and was going at both ends, poor baby. Mrs. OWW did the majority of care ("I love you Daddy, but I want MOMMY!"), so of course guess who gets the bug?

Meelie recovers within 24 hours, and is bouncing off the walls like her normal self, and Mrs. OWW is flat on her back when she's not in the facilities and is thoroughly miserable. By Monday the worst is over for her, but she's still feeling very shaky and being Real Cautious about what food she eats.

On Tuesday morning, I'm commenting at work that I haven't taken a sick day for myself in two years, and I'm on a roll, right? By Tuesday evening, about 6 PM, guess who's making an intimate acquaintance with the Porcelain God?

By Wednesday morning, the worst was over, and I was able to go to work, and sorta function without it being obvious that I had a severe death wish - I just wanted to curl up in a corner and die quietly. As soon as I got home I crawled into be and slept like the dead until 4 AM Thursday...

Which was Thanksgiving Day.

Several weeks ago, our neighbors Sharon and Charley, and Lisa and Eric, and a few others decided to do a group Thanksgiving dinner at Sharon and Charley's place (Charley added on an enormous rec room when the house was being built). There were 15 (plus 5 younger children) and tremendous quantities of turkey and all the trimmings, and all of it delicious. I wasn't able to be my usual gluttonous self, but as I said, it was delicious.

Now I've got a Teenager in the House!

Today is one of "those" days - "those" being defined as Very Important Days that you always remember.

Today Chickie went from being a "kid" to being a "teenager".

I've seen flashes of "teenagerness" of course. Clothing style. Hair. Nails. Smart-mouth. Unexpected tears. Maniacal laughter over nothing at all. From happy and smiling to red-hot rage to broken-hearted tears, and back to happy and smiling, all within fifteen bewildering seconds.

And that was just a taste.

I've been through this before, with Katydid, my first girl-child, about twelve years back.

Which brings up a story for me to tell.

We were still living in California, and Katydid was visiting for the weekend (Katydid's Mom and I were divorced many years ago), and we went off to the local supermarket to get some groceries - Katydid, Chickie, and me.

Katydid was carrying Chickie on her hip, and 'round about the time we hit the canned fruit section, this really nice older lady walked up to Katydid (who still had Chickie on her hip), and said "Your baby is beautiful!"

Katydid made me very proud of her that day, and eased my mind considerable, for I was dreading the "teenage years", and all the perils for a young lady.

Katydid replied, very nicely, to the nice older lady, "Thank you. But this is my sister."

Of course the nice older lady wanted to sink right into the floor.

When we got around the corner (into the "Ethnic Foods" section, as I recall), Katydid said to me, very quietly but with great intensity, "Daddy! As if I could be So Stupid!"

Well, Chickie, not so long ago, you made me equally as proud of you.

We were talking about one of your acquaintences here in Georgia, and you said something about her probably going to be an "un-wed teenage mother with no education, no husband, and no life, and NOT like me at all, because she's being an absolute dum-dum!"

On top of all that, Chickie, you are, for the most part, a pretty good kid, mostly, and I love you very much.

There's no doubt in my mind that the coming years will drive me right out of what's left of my alleged mind - but there's a few things I won't have to worry about. Much. I hope.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart. I Love You....

Trash or Treasure?

As part of the GHIP (Great Home Improvement Project), we discovered a big box just chock full of old photographs - some of them over 20 years old. That's "treasure"

To see some of the trash, follow the link above.

Mrs. OWW is going to fire up the Smoking Scanner - and some of the evidence will be posted for all to see.

Incriminating evidence, of course, will be properly disposed of, even assuming that it ever existed in the first place, which it didn't, 'cause I wasn't in Vegas at the time, nor do I have any interest (fiscal or otherwise) in sports memorabilia.

Where's Old Weird Ward and What's He Doing?

Sweatin' my butt off in 90/90 weather, that's what!

The 90/90 refers to 90 F and 90% humidity.

See the whole ugly affair HERE.

The whole thing reminds me, yet again, why I like working in a nice air-conditioned office.