Tag: scouts

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Everybody’s goin’ off the deep end

A blow-by-blow account of my weekend:

  • Friday morning: arrive at work, unload bike bags, drop off bike at Bike Gallery for repairs next week
  • Friday: work, trip planning & preparation, Max ride to Gateway Transit Center (no bike)
  • Friday evening: Tina and boys pick me up at Gateway TC, dinner at El Sombrero, shopping at Costco, strained right calf walking to checkout line
  • Friday night: organized trip items at home, haircut, Tivo watching
  • Saturday morning: woke up early to finish organizing trip items, discovered that I didn’t have my travel papers, emailed office admin and a co-worker to help retrieve it
  • Saturday morning (continued): packing for camping (Tina had pre-organized) using our new roof rack, meet up with scouts for 9:30 am departure to Beacon Rock
  • Saturday morning (later): Arrive at Beacon Rock @ one hour later, setup camp as rain begins, twisted right ankle stepping in mole hole, helped John setup portable canopy near our tent
  • Saturday: huddled under canopy and cooked occasionally, skipped 1.5 mile hike up Beacon Rock because of rain, calf and ankle – Graham disappointed
  • Saturday evening: enjoyed Boy Scout Campfire including two flag retirements
  • Saturday night: retired early and muddily to bed, slept well despite the loud nearby campsites, awoke twice to urinate, wiped my muddy feet on my pants before getting back in bed
  • Sunday morning: awoke @ 7:00 am, struck camp and packed for home
  • Sunday morning (continued): Breakfast at Charbroil’s in Cascade Locks, drove home
  • Sunday morning (continued): Arrived home, checked email and received missing travel info, showered (while Tina unpacked the car), packed my bags (using this list), cleaned cat box, put out recycling, drove to airport
  • Sunday afternoon: waited at airport and started writing this
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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 1046
Weight lost: 60 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed last week: 40.5
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, CSS Web Design for Dummies by Richard Mansfield
Recent listening: DrugMusic, Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs, John Prine
Recent viewing: Mythbusters, NBA Playoffs First Round, The Simpsons, Medium
Recent playing: Virus 2
Recently accomplished: Groceries, Scout bike ride, camping, paid bills
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, backup Thomas, backup Graham, backup Tina, bank deposit, renew BTA membership, sift through inbox, cat box, mow lawn

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 964
Weight lost: 59 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 5.5
Hours billed last week: 41.5
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, CSS Web Design for Dummies by Richard Mansfield
Recent listening: DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Collision Course by Jay Z with Linkin Park
Recent viewing: NBA Playoffs First Round, Medium, Full House
Recent playing: Virus 2, MotorStorm
Recently accomplished: Recycling, cat box, weeding, learned 10 or more knots, trimmed dead wood from rhodedendrun, hauled gorilla racks from work, shifted junk around in garage
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, backup Thomas, backup Graham, backup Tina, bank deposit, renew BTA membership, sift through inbox, prepare for bike and camping weekend

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Sitting cross-legged on the floor

Last weekend Thomas and Graham competed in the district pinewood derby races. Graham didn’t place, but Thomas came in 3rd in his division. He was actually disappointed at not doing better. There were also a number of other activities that we did in between races, including CO2 rockets. What fun those are!

Graham continues to get seriously into listening to music. Mostly he listens to They Might Be Giants and The Bobs, but he still asks me for a Song of the Day every few days. He’s proud that he has learned the words to many TMBG songs.

Thomas is still very interesting in learning how to program computers. He found a bug in one of the examples in the Logo book I got for him and has decided that fixing the bug will be his first test. He spends a lot of time in his room playing Runescape, an online role-playing game, with his friends. Occasionally, he’ll move over and play his bass for awhile. I love that he does it for enjoyment.

Tina and I have gone back to Phase I of the South Beach diet and have started losing weight again. Last week I lost 4 lbs. and feel confident that I’ll be up to 60 lbs. lost soon. Tina’s already there. We’ve decided we’re not celebrating until we get to 75 lbs.

This weekend Thomas and I were supposed to go camping with his Boy Scout troop, but somebody messed up on the reservations. Instead, they are having three consecutive day camps at a nearby park. The next weekend, Thomas and I are biking out to adjustable dumbbells Oxbow Park with the troop for another weekend of camping. It’s about a 14 mile ride, so it will be interesting to see how all the boys handle it. They’re young so they should be fine.

In a few weeks, Critical Path is moving offices. The new office is just across the street from us.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 726 miles
Weight lost: 57 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed last week: 41
Total mice caught: 15
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Recent listening: Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Corinne Bailey Rae by Corinne Bailey Rae
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, CSI: Miami, Countdown, High Stakes Poker, Academy Awards, Independent Spirit Awards
Recent playing: Donut Games, Tower Blaster
Recently accomplished: Successful Cub Scout presentation (tears were shed, spines were tingled), installed CD burner and USB 2.0 PCI card for Thomas, bought and returned new front bike fender (didn’t fit), moved music to new hard drive
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, hair cut, fix bathroom sink, buy front bike fender, taxes, taxes, backup everyone’s computer

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: n/a
Weight lost: 53 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 7
Hours billed last week: 41
Total mice caught: 13
Current reading: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Says & Expressions by Charles Earle Funk, The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Recent listening: Coverville, DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, Kingdom Hospital, High Stakes Poker, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Donut Games, Elebits
Recently accomplished: Fixed Thomas’ email, helped Tina finish her Cub Scout movie, help Thomas get video on his iPod, fixed DVD player (with Dust Off), test run for Cub Scout movie on projector
Imperative To Do: RMA old Tivo drive, hair cut, fix bathroom sink, buy front bike fender, taxes, move music to new drive, taxes, install CD burner in Thomas’ computer, backup everyone’s computer

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Why not take all of me?

Graham is playing basketball this winter. It’s his first time and he’s a little behind some of the other kids on his team. Still, he’s doing a good job of defending and he’s getting better and better at his offensive skills. Tina has been practicing with him after school which has helped a great deal. He occasionally has problems with physicality – i.e. when somebody bumps him he’s prone to bump back harder than necessary (and the like) – but he’s learning to deal with the frustration and conflict. It’s a really important experience for him, I think. He had a double-header yesterday and really enjoyed himself.

Thomas saved money from Christmas, his birthday and allowance. At first, his goal was to buy a Wii, but that became unnecessary when we got one for Christmas. After weighing his options, he decided he wanted a new iPod. Especially after his friend, Andrew Barton, got an iPod Video. On Monday I ordered a 30 Gb iPod Video via the Apple Developer Hardware Purchase Program, where we get a slight discount. We weren’t expecting to receive it until next week, but it came on Thursday. Thomas has been ecstaticly exploring its many options since it arrived. I helped him download some shows from our Tivo and he’s learned all about the various video formats out there.

Meanwhile, Tina has been furiously working on a ten minute movie for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet tomorrow. She gathered a slew of pictures and a few videos and has set them to music in iMovie. She’s enjoyed it immensely, I think, and has been spending alot of her free time working on it. I think it will be well-received tomorrow night. I borrowed a projector from work to enhance the experience, so we’re all excited to see it.

I’ve been enduring the Oregon winter weather in the morning and evening. The rain seems never-ending at this time of the year, but I’ve been taking the shortest possible routes in order to minimize my exposure to the elements. I took Tina’s advice and bought a balaclava which helps keep my head and neck toasty-warm. Last weekend I accidentally broke my crappy front fender and have been riding fenderless all week. I repaired the crappy fender once before so this time I’m going to get something that will last longer. I need to get it soon, though, because I’m getting tired of the mud that’s flying all over.