by bobthewizard on July 24, 2010
So here I am for a long “Boys Weekend”. Just me and the boys.
My wife got a great opportunity to go to New Orleans for a Mommy blogger meet and greet with some other bloggers ( I think she said about 30 or so ) and some promotional folks… Originally I had it planned to just take my normal weekend and watch the kids while she was gone, but about a month ago, my work schedule changed and I had to take some vacation PTO days to cover it. So, this weekend, it’s been all about me and the boys finding stuff to do.
At this point, I’m half way through the weekend. Yesterday was a long day, since I had to be up at 3:30am to take Rhea to the airport. Grandma stayed and watched the kids while I was gone, though that only entailed watching the news because they were sleeping. It was a typical day for us, with some TV time in the morning, with a little Wii tossed in, and then outside time on the play-set, and tending the garden (Rhea’s project).
Unfortunately, my first day was plagued with one big problem I HATE dealing with. One of the twins has a problem knowing when it’s time to go to the bathroom and will stand there and fill his pants up with poop instead of running in to the bathroom. This happened 4 times yesterday (Friday). I’m not sure what the solution for this is, and the last time he did it, I had him running around the house with no pants on. I figured he would hopefully be able to run in and jump on the toilet really quick. Fortunately he didn’t have to go again, so my theory wasn’t put to the test. This morning’s plan was to give him a lot of water to drink, and a bowl of Raisin Bran for breakfast, then have him sit on the pot till he goes. It seems to have worked too, because he did it successfully.
Today, the plan is to work on a project for the garden, then go to the movies. First, with the garden, we’re going to put up some shade cloth over one side of the back yard, and cover some of the plants so they don’t get burned. We have some Cucumbers and Squash growing,
and they are making giant leaves to cover the plants and the vegetables as they grow, and seem to really like the sun. I have several pots of tomatoes growing too,
and they are having trouble with the intense sun in the afternoons, so I’m going to put the tomatoes under the shade cloth. Hopefully that will allow them to grow and flourish, and later, when all the tomatoes start popping out, Rhea is planning to make some home made tomato sauce.
Also today, we’re going to go see a movie. The boys want to see Toy Story 3. That will be fun. I haven’t taken all 3 to a movie before so it will be interesting, but I’m not worried. Should be fun.
Well that’s all for now. I better get going or I’ll never get done with all of the day’s plans.
Note…. We did see the movie and the kids loved it. It was fun while we were there, but getting to and from was a little nerve racking. The kids were in one of their wild moods and I didn’t do so well handling their screaming. But all in all, we had fun. I wonder what the next movie will be…
Also, the shade cloth isn’t installed yet. I had some trouble getting the set up to work like I wanted, so this will be an on going process this week. We’ll get it done though…
by bobthewizard on April 11, 2010
Not long ago, as part of a post, I mentioned helping my 5 year old build a birdhouse. Here’s what I said in my post… “The other day, the five year old asked me to help him build a Playhouse for his brothers and him. He had already started trying to build a frame (four boards nailed together on the corners… heheh) So, I suggested that we start with something a little smaller, like a bird house. That way, he would be successful at building something. He honestly did most of it himself, though I did help keep him cutting the board straight, and the nails in the center of the boards. It came out looking pretty good. When he goes to school, I’m going to mount it in the tree near his bedroom window and hopefully we’ll have a new family move in for the boys to watch.” (See the entire post here) 
After we built the birdhouse, I mounted it on the tree like I had planned, and we waited.
Well, this past weekend, we found a family living in the birdhouse. Anthony was very excited, to say the least. While the kids were out playing in the playground, we noticed that there was a mom and a dad Sparrow flying in and out of the birdhouse. When they would fly in, we could hear babies chirping from inside. Pretty cool!
In the afternoon, I took Anthony with me to find us a bird feeder, too, so we could seed out for them. We did notice that as they fly into the house, they are carrying bugs, though. Probably for the added protein. But we got the seed feeder anyway and hung it by the birdhouse anyway. Anthony even helped me carry the ladder out there and held it for me so it wouldn’t tip.
Anyway… so far this has been a pretty cool experience for him and his brothers. And my wife and I are getting a kick out of watching for them mom and dad while we are sitting watching the kids play. Here are a few pictures I took while watching on the weekend… 
Diving into the hole!
This story was posted on mommy23monkeys.com also, but
from a different point of view.
by bobthewizard on April 6, 2010
Something happened today that kinda set me back…
It’s mostly just a typical day, chasing kids around… doing a couple things around the house before work, etc. Today I had to go in early though, so didn’t get much done. And just before going to work, I check the computer for mail and Facebook. And, today there was a note in Facebook that affected me. I got a note that someone that I worked with several years ago, who helped me in my current job when I first started, passed away overnight.
The think that immediately went through my mind was “man…. when was the last time I talked to him”.…
It made me think a lot today about how casual we get to be about running off to work with a casual good bye, or just a short note in Facebook or Myspace or even a quick text on the phone, never really knowing if it could be the last time you get a chance to talk to those important people.
I mean… Sure we all have busy lives, and we always have so many things to do and places to go. I have too much going on most of the time (from my point of view anyway), and it keeps me from making those extra phone calls that I want to or need to, to family and friends.
And then of course the everyday interaction with immediate family and friends that we all see each day.
Anyway…. I’ll stop rambling now. This is just something I was thinking about today.
I’m going to try and do better.
by bobthewizard on April 6, 2010
by bobthewizard on February 17, 2010
You know, I try to keep this updated… I try to think of cool and witty things, interesting things, some kind of content that I can add that someone will care about. It really doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme though. I only have one person that I know reads it when I post something. So… I’m going to just come here upon occasion and type some random stuff and see what comes out. If you like it, good… if more people see it and decide to comment, good. If I get more spammers, I’ll just delete them. If I get flamers… oh well…
So.. what’s been happening lately? Not much. I’m trying to keep up with life… working every day (they give me a day off once in a while…) Trying to help with the family things, though I’m not sure everyone around me would agree… The other day, the five year old asked me to help him build a Playhouse for his brothers and him. He had already started trying to build a frame (four boards nailed together on the corners… heheh) So, I suggested that we start with something a little smaller, like a bird house. That way, he would be successful at building something. He honestly did most of it himself, though I did help keep him cutting the board straight, and the nails in the center of the boards. It came out looking pretty good. When he goes to school, I’m going to mount it in the tree near his bedroom window and hopefully we’ll have a new family move in for the boys to watch.
Well.. that’s enough for now… no promises on when there will be more content here. I’m not sure how to stay motivated to keep posting or how to change my feeling of not being creative enough.. but I’ll try.
So until next time… I hope you all have a terrific day.
by bobthewizard on December 11, 2009
Nothing much to say… Playing Eve and the corp needs some Ice for our POS operations and for the Carriers for fuel. Also our corp has a Rorqual for our mining ops that can use some of the components of the Ice for the compression process. So… while I’m watching the kids tonight I can set the ship to mine, and walk away for about 13 minutes or so (I’m using a kitchen timer to time it) and come back to start the process over again. Boring but necessary for the good of the Corp. And, Sam Adams is keeping me company.
Until next time…. See ya.
by bobthewizard on November 22, 2009
We went camping this weekend. We drove a couple hours to Gordons Well which is just outside of Yuma, California. We had a great time, I have to say, and we’re planning another trip sometime in January, if things go right.
We met up with my wife’s Aunt and Uncle, Cousins, and my Mother and Father in law, plus a few friends of the family, too. They all left early Friday but we had to leave later in the afternoon. I would have liked to have left in the morning, and normally we would have done that but my wife (mommy23monkeys.com) had some things to do on Friday morning and we had to adjust the schedule. You can see what she was doing at her blog, Mommy23Monkeys.com. And, she has more on the camping trip here.
Because we left late, we got there and had to put our tent up in the dark. But we got it assembled and ready by 6:30pm, and the group went to the family’s traditional dinner at the nearby diner Pair-a-Dice (aka Duners Diner), which the family always does when we are there.
Now, my family doesn’t have any dune toys (quads, Rhino, RZR, etc) but the rest of the family does. So because we left late and got there late, we missed out on the early Friday rides, but the next day (Saturday), we went on a couple and it was a blast, as usual. Saturday we went to Patton, then to Test. I was a passenger in one of the Rhinos on each ride. When we got to Patton, (which I’ll describe as a really big sand dune, and leave it at that) we all tried and tried to climb the Dune with the Rhino and the RZR and found that the sand was really soft and there just wasn’t a way to get up. The quads were able to climb it ok. For me it was quite exciting (especially as a passenger) when you have to stop and turn around to head back down, or in one case just slowly back down the mountain.
Saturday evening, after all the riding, we had a big dinner. Everyone brought something, from a deep fried turkey, to pulled pork for tacos or burritos, plus all the fixin’s. It was quite good. Then we clothed the kids in double layers of pajamas and put them to bed, including mom who was pretty tired too. I sat with the adults for awhile by the campfire. 
This morning (Sunday), before we packed up, we went on one more ride. 
I had my cousin stop at the very top on one of the dunes at Test (sure hope I have that name right) and scooped some of the sand up and I swear it felt almost like water, it is so fine. That’s why the Rhino and Razor can’t climb it. A little rain might change that, and I know that with different wheels, Paddles, they would have been climb to the top, but they weren’t equipped with those… Oh well, that’s ok.. It was great fun anyway.
We had a great time and tonight, at home, when we put the kids in bed, we didn’t hear a sound. They were really tired and happy from the great weekend.
Mom and Me are too…
by bobthewizard on November 20, 2009
Don’t throw those bananas away.
Of course when they are new and fresh, they are the tastiest, but when they start getting old, which they do pretty fast, they aren’t so appealing. Funny thing with bananas… They give off a gas that causes other fruit, including other bananas, to ripen quickly. That part is kinda annoying. I know at my house we usually eat them quickly, with 3 boys in the house, but if they are out for more than a couple of days, they start to get black and no-one wants to eat them.
So… what do you do? Overripe bananas can be made in to Banana Bread, or pudding, or used in pancake batter, or other cool food stuff. I searched online and found quite a few receipes to use overripe bananas for. But I have to tell you, the funniest thing I found is that you can use the banana peel to polish your shoes.
That’s right. Polish your shoes. Funny stuff!
Seems that the Banana contain the key ingredient found in most commercial shoe polish. Potassium. As good as potassium is for your health, it’s good for your shoes, too, it seems. A friend sent me a video that shows how to actually do this, which is pretty obvious if you think about it, but the video is funny, and actually shows you that it does work.
And, just to see for myself, I tested it too. And yes it does work.
The dog wouldn’t stop following me around though. Image that.
Check out the video stuff here. Thanks to lifehacker for this information and link to the great video on How to polish your shoes with a banana.[VideoJug via DIY Life]. They have a lot of good info there. Check it out.
by bobthewizard on November 14, 2009
You know what we’ve been doing lately. On the nights when I’m home, we will sometimes go out and watch the skies just after sunset and we’ll see the ISS (International Space Station) fly overhead. It’s pretty cool. Now of course you don’t see the station like the image above, without a really REALLY good telescope, but to see the station fly over, knowing that that is what it is, is actually pretty exciting. I’ve had my Father-in-law out watching in amazement, my wife looking for it (actually found it one night when I was looking in the opposite direction for it) and of course the kids are excited to see it. I’ve shown the kids the live feeds from NASA of the astronauts in both the Space Shuttle and the ISS so they understand what it is and what’s going on. I’ve also seen some links online for people that have used cameras and telescopes to track the Station across the sky. Here’s one from a TV news station in Tennessee.
Where I live in Southern California, the ISS won’t be visible for another week in the evening. I use a tracking site from NASA, to find sighting opportunities. Southern California is out of luck for the next few days, but tonight (Saturday), the New York area will have an opportunity to see it. Check out the next sighting opportunity in your area and look for it.
by bobthewizard on November 9, 2009
The Circadian Rhythm and Biological Clock.
For the past several months, mine has been off… WAY off. What is the Circadian rhythm? In a nutshell, it is the roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological process in living beings, from animals to plants. And the Biological clock is linked to it. It has an affect on mental and physical functions, from clarity of thought and memory to bodily functions like liver, kidney functions, basic digestive functions, etc. What I’m trying to get across here is that for the past several months, I’ve been working the off shift… the dreaded Grave shift. And, it has basically made me feel terrible. I’ve done it before and it’s been ok, but this time it really affected me.
I don’t know how many of you have experienced this, but I expect that many of you have. Grave shift hours, in my case the hours between 10pm and 6am, are difficult for most people to handle. This can be especially true when you have a family to interact with. I remember years ago, when I was single (and younger also), it didn’t bother me as much. But trying to work effectively, and take care of family issues as well and get enough rest in between isn’t easy.
So I have to say, this is part of the reason there hasn’t been much here lately.
Wiki has some interesting articles on the subject of the Biological clock and Circadian Rhythm. Also there is a good page on the effects of Shift Work. Check it out here: Circadian Rhythm and Shift Work
Now, back to our semi-regular posts. (hopefully, anyway).
and they are making giant leaves to cover the plants and the vegetables as they grow, and seem to really like the sun. I have several pots of tomatoes growing too,
and they are having trouble with the intense sun in the afternoons, so I’m going to put the tomatoes under the shade cloth. Hopefully that will allow them to grow and flourish, and later, when all the tomatoes start popping out, Rhea is planning to make some home made tomato sauce. 
Digg!
