It's been a while, let's make a Catalog of life.
The last few months have been a swing down and then back up. Tyler was having some trouble in school, in the way that kids his age usually do. He was hitting other kids and not listening well, and so we met with the teachers to see what we could do about it. We ended up trying a lot of things, and some combination worked. Jess spent some time with him in his classroom, we started a chart of good behavior at home that he could use to get Ice Cream on Fridays, and one of the kids that we knew he was having trouble with ended up leaving the class. Something in there helped him out enough that we have not been having nearly so many problems now. He still loses control occasionally, but not too often. And at his age, that's kinda expected. They don't have the neurology to evaluate and hold back an impulse. He's just not set up for it. It would be like expecting him to run a 5k with me. He's just not equipped for it yet. But he's getting better day by day.
In August he heads off to PUBLIC SCHOOL. I'm reserving judgement until I see what it's like. I have a little bit of optimism just because he'll be starting with a few friends he knows from the street, and hopefully that will help him put it in a positive light. But I've heard from parents that have had good experiences with public schools and parents that have had terrible experiences with public schools. It depends a lot on the school, and the district, and especially the teacher. We'll see how he does, and adjust accordingly. That's right, we don't have a plan. We're winging it. That's what parents do. They just make it seem like it's part of the plan with their steady voice and noble bearing. We're panicking inside.
Casey is super cute. She's rounded the corner on Talking and is now interested in parroting a lot of words and picking up new ones as quick as she can. She's even put together a few ideas of her own from different words she knows. She'll probably be an author. She likes to sing, too. We do a pretty adorable rendition of "little boxes". I should record it.
Oh, Mom and Dad got me an Audio Interface for Christmas which allows me to use my fancy microphones to record the kids. I have done so to catalog how goddamn adorable their voices are. I should post up some stuff in podcast form. The audio quality is really nice.
This has also allowed me to start doing "Let's Play" videos with Tyler. I edit them down a bit to just the funny parts, and I do it all in Microsoft Movie Maker (Super low-level stuff) so it's not like I'm planning to burn up the Internet with my new hilarious Content. At least, not right away. But it does make me pretty cool that I can record Mincraft Let's Plays with my kid. I'm a cool dad.
Jess and I hit a rough patch for a while, but we're getting better. I want to have a record of when it happened for to remind myself later.
Jessie's mom lives in Austin now? I guess I don't know when I wrote the last one of these, but having her around for babysitting has been great. Jess and I go out for a lot more dates. We've even been going out to Adult Skate at playland Skate Center. I'm getting pretty good. It's great exercise, too.
On Friday I take Tyler to his first Martial Arts class. It starts out very introductory. Next week we can start attending classes. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited for the exercise as well as doing something fun with Tyler. He tends to not want to try new stuff, though, so it will be an experiment for both of us. Oh, and I'm taking the class too. I'm not missing the opportunity to break stuff with my super strong hands.
Tyler had his birthday, so he's 5. Casey will turn 2 soon. I have been a parent for 5 years. College didn't take this long.
I'm working on painting a big diorama for ReaperCon this year. Which is in October, and that's good, since I'll be painting this thing for a long, long time.
And now it's late and I want to go to bed. So good night, see everyone in another few months.
-N
Showing posts with label Martial Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martial Arts. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Worth One Picture
I wanted to do this blog post with pictures, but I keep being busy at home, so I will replace said pictures with 1000 words. I hear there’s an equivalency there.
Further adventures in home ownership!
Project 1: Killing my lawn.
So I’ve noticed that when you put a brick down on the lawn and wait for a little while, when you come back the place under the brick is just dirt. I’ve also noticed that the grass we have in our lawn is a non-native type, and it is therefore pretty hard to keep it alive during hot, dry summers. So I’m trying to kill my lawn, in stages, and replace the grass with something native and easier to manage. The first step is, of course, killing it.
So I went out and bought a big tarp. It’s currently sitting over a patch of lawn in the backyard that is, already, pretty dead. I’m hoping it will get reduced to just dirt so I can get a bunch of seeds and give them a good watering to see how well the new grass will work out. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Project 2: New bathroom!
So after much soul (read: contractor) searching, Jess and I settled upon a contracting company to redo our bathroom shower. Our current shower is just a one-person stall with a tub next to it and a big ol’ closet that we don’t use on the other side of it. And Jess and I like to shower together. That’s right. I said it. I like seeing my wife naked. *What of it?* Also we go exercising together a lot and often need to shower at the same time anyway. So we’re getting the contractor to come by, tear out the closet and the old shower and give us a new shower that is much larger and has two shower heads. Premium!
Well the price was right and the company seems competent and dedicated, so we’re hoping for the best. They cover all the costs except for tile and the valves (and the glass, but that's later), which are aesthetic things that are probably best left to the customer. So over the past few weeks I’ve learned more about tiles and shower valves than I ever thought I would.
The tile is relatively easy. We went to a place called ‘The Tile Guy’ and looked that their selection of tiles, all of which were a lot less expensive than we would have thought. We weren’t sure which kind we wanted, though, so the guy at the store just let us pluck some tile off the walls and take it home to see which we liked best. Very kind of them. Calculating how many we would need, what with extras for waste and edging and the like, was a bit taxing, but I think we’ve figured it out.
Valves were more odd. For one, Home Depot had *nothing*. I even asked. Just some pipes and replacement handles. Lowes had many more, but nothing in the configuration we (initially) wanted. We were going to have one temperature spot and then a ‘transfer valve’ to put it out to one shower, the other shower, or both. We figured out a better scheme where we would have one temperature valve and two volume control valves so we could turn each head on or off as we saw fit. Well as it turns out that configuration, just with the valves and the handles, was going to run us $700. We could have gone around the corner and bought a couple of full shower sets for like $80 each, but for some reason ordering the parts individually was going to run us a lot higher.
Well I was feeling a little down about that until I went home. Ah, internet. Now that I knew what it was I wanted to buy, It was trivial to find it for much cheaper online. Dramatically so. We decided to change our minds again and just put in two separate shower systems, with temperature and pressure controls on each, and finding and purchasing those valves was a snap, and much cheaper than it would have been at Lowes. (Yes, dad, I’ve already told the contractors, they know.) So now I’m pretty much a professional when it comes to shower valves. Go ahead. Ask me anything.
Project 3: Hockey in Vegas (not a real home project)
Tomorrow (Thursday) Jess and I take off for Sin City once again, for her annual “Hockey tournament and meet up with old hockey friends from LA” gathering. Also it’s nice to visit some of my extended family out there, too. It’s always good fun. I know a lot of them, I get to come to the games, and Its always nice to have a long weekend. I’ll put up pictures as appropriate.
Also…I’m quitting Wing Tsun. I haven’t told my Sifu (teacher) yet, but I will tonight, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this. It’s a few things, but it’s mostly that Wing Tsun is not providing the challenge, or the exercise, that I want out of my martial arts. It’s all cool in practice, and it has its perks, but the main thing you’re trying to train is your sensitivity. Literally the ability of your arms to sense *very* subtle change and respond accordingly. It’s interesting and fun at times, but that’s not really what I want. I want to sweat, I want to hit things. I need a different kind of challenge. There have been other things, too, but Jess helped me decide on this, and so it’s back to the internet to search for another style to try. I’m hoping to find Judo somewhere. I need to learn how to fall. *That’s* a useful day-to-day skill.
Also, I’m losing weight! This whole ‘eating less’ thing seems to be working out for me. Jess tells me she can even tell the difference. When I got back from Xmas break I weighed 230 lbs. I’m currently around 215 most of the time. And I haven’t been that hungry, much, either. I just have to treat food a little differently and it seems like my body will take care of the rest. I want to go running, again, too. I want to see if it feels any different with the equivalent of a young toddler of weight off my knees.
So, yes, that’s the big news, and I’ve clocked in at just over a thousand words so far. There you go. Enjoy my wall of text, peace and hugs to all.
-N
Further adventures in home ownership!
Project 1: Killing my lawn.
So I’ve noticed that when you put a brick down on the lawn and wait for a little while, when you come back the place under the brick is just dirt. I’ve also noticed that the grass we have in our lawn is a non-native type, and it is therefore pretty hard to keep it alive during hot, dry summers. So I’m trying to kill my lawn, in stages, and replace the grass with something native and easier to manage. The first step is, of course, killing it.
So I went out and bought a big tarp. It’s currently sitting over a patch of lawn in the backyard that is, already, pretty dead. I’m hoping it will get reduced to just dirt so I can get a bunch of seeds and give them a good watering to see how well the new grass will work out. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Project 2: New bathroom!
So after much soul (read: contractor) searching, Jess and I settled upon a contracting company to redo our bathroom shower. Our current shower is just a one-person stall with a tub next to it and a big ol’ closet that we don’t use on the other side of it. And Jess and I like to shower together. That’s right. I said it. I like seeing my wife naked. *What of it?* Also we go exercising together a lot and often need to shower at the same time anyway. So we’re getting the contractor to come by, tear out the closet and the old shower and give us a new shower that is much larger and has two shower heads. Premium!
Well the price was right and the company seems competent and dedicated, so we’re hoping for the best. They cover all the costs except for tile and the valves (and the glass, but that's later), which are aesthetic things that are probably best left to the customer. So over the past few weeks I’ve learned more about tiles and shower valves than I ever thought I would.
The tile is relatively easy. We went to a place called ‘The Tile Guy’ and looked that their selection of tiles, all of which were a lot less expensive than we would have thought. We weren’t sure which kind we wanted, though, so the guy at the store just let us pluck some tile off the walls and take it home to see which we liked best. Very kind of them. Calculating how many we would need, what with extras for waste and edging and the like, was a bit taxing, but I think we’ve figured it out.
Valves were more odd. For one, Home Depot had *nothing*. I even asked. Just some pipes and replacement handles. Lowes had many more, but nothing in the configuration we (initially) wanted. We were going to have one temperature spot and then a ‘transfer valve’ to put it out to one shower, the other shower, or both. We figured out a better scheme where we would have one temperature valve and two volume control valves so we could turn each head on or off as we saw fit. Well as it turns out that configuration, just with the valves and the handles, was going to run us $700. We could have gone around the corner and bought a couple of full shower sets for like $80 each, but for some reason ordering the parts individually was going to run us a lot higher.
Well I was feeling a little down about that until I went home. Ah, internet. Now that I knew what it was I wanted to buy, It was trivial to find it for much cheaper online. Dramatically so. We decided to change our minds again and just put in two separate shower systems, with temperature and pressure controls on each, and finding and purchasing those valves was a snap, and much cheaper than it would have been at Lowes. (Yes, dad, I’ve already told the contractors, they know.) So now I’m pretty much a professional when it comes to shower valves. Go ahead. Ask me anything.
Project 3: Hockey in Vegas (not a real home project)
Tomorrow (Thursday) Jess and I take off for Sin City once again, for her annual “Hockey tournament and meet up with old hockey friends from LA” gathering. Also it’s nice to visit some of my extended family out there, too. It’s always good fun. I know a lot of them, I get to come to the games, and Its always nice to have a long weekend. I’ll put up pictures as appropriate.
Also…I’m quitting Wing Tsun. I haven’t told my Sifu (teacher) yet, but I will tonight, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this. It’s a few things, but it’s mostly that Wing Tsun is not providing the challenge, or the exercise, that I want out of my martial arts. It’s all cool in practice, and it has its perks, but the main thing you’re trying to train is your sensitivity. Literally the ability of your arms to sense *very* subtle change and respond accordingly. It’s interesting and fun at times, but that’s not really what I want. I want to sweat, I want to hit things. I need a different kind of challenge. There have been other things, too, but Jess helped me decide on this, and so it’s back to the internet to search for another style to try. I’m hoping to find Judo somewhere. I need to learn how to fall. *That’s* a useful day-to-day skill.
Also, I’m losing weight! This whole ‘eating less’ thing seems to be working out for me. Jess tells me she can even tell the difference. When I got back from Xmas break I weighed 230 lbs. I’m currently around 215 most of the time. And I haven’t been that hungry, much, either. I just have to treat food a little differently and it seems like my body will take care of the rest. I want to go running, again, too. I want to see if it feels any different with the equivalent of a young toddler of weight off my knees.
So, yes, that’s the big news, and I’ve clocked in at just over a thousand words so far. There you go. Enjoy my wall of text, peace and hugs to all.
-N
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wing Tsun
Jess and I just got back from Wing Tsun (remember when she used to be J(5)?) and that class is a lot of fun, let me tell you. We've started learning some exercises we can do around the house. Some alone, and some with each other.
I'm definitely enjoying the sense of re-learning and slowly uncovering all the hidden depths that you start to see when you learn a martial art. That sense that you've started swimming and you can just feel the water below you getting deeper and deeper. Learning that depth is one of my favorite things about martial arts. And the fact that Wing Tsun is making me want to exercise my arms to get better is an indication of how much I like it.
In other exercising news, Jess and I have joined a 24 hour fitness gym near our house. It's pretty big, and it's got a smallish, but long enough, pool where we've been going swiming at lunch. It's good to get back into that daily fitness routine, it's good for my overall health and keeps me awake during the day.
It's also got a heck of a lot of different ways to exercise, so if we ever feel like hitting up the weight machines or dumbells or joining a Yoga class, we can just walk right in. The freedom is a nice touch.
Fitfully yours,
-N
I'm definitely enjoying the sense of re-learning and slowly uncovering all the hidden depths that you start to see when you learn a martial art. That sense that you've started swimming and you can just feel the water below you getting deeper and deeper. Learning that depth is one of my favorite things about martial arts. And the fact that Wing Tsun is making me want to exercise my arms to get better is an indication of how much I like it.
In other exercising news, Jess and I have joined a 24 hour fitness gym near our house. It's pretty big, and it's got a smallish, but long enough, pool where we've been going swiming at lunch. It's good to get back into that daily fitness routine, it's good for my overall health and keeps me awake during the day.
It's also got a heck of a lot of different ways to exercise, so if we ever feel like hitting up the weight machines or dumbells or joining a Yoga class, we can just walk right in. The freedom is a nice touch.
Fitfully yours,
-N
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