A Moment of Truth

I was reading a friend's blog recently, and I was admiring their honestly and how much of themselves they were willing to put out there for all to see. I sense some trepidation though as they would always end by telling people that things aren't really so bad, or stating that they just wanted to vent a little. I thought to myself, you don't have to make those statements. It's your blog. You rant about whatever you want and people can judge as they like. If you are willing to share something in such a public forum, you should go all out and not worry about how people will react to it.

Of course, that is also when the hypocrisy fairies came flying in and kicked the high and mighty soapbox out from under me. Who am I to judge others who courageously shared from the dark and lonely corners of their mind? What have I written in this space that is in any way retrospective and let in even a hint of light from those on the outside? Does telling you about what I made for dinner last night or a funny story about my kids really say anything about me?

One thing I do get right about this blog is that it's the perfect extension of me. I live my life like a big card game. If other people are willing to show their hands, then they are the sucker. Me, I'm keeping my cards close to the vest, like knowing all the cards out there will give me some advantage in life. Sometimes all it means is that the pair of queens you're holding will never beat that flush out there. Is that really worth not having anyone really connecting with you and knowing how you are wired?

I'm not sure where I wanted to go with this. Just wanted a splash of honesty in this space somewhere. It's a start, right?

Tomorrow, I'll go back to telling you what I had for dinner.

Baby on the Move

Speaking of time flying. Audrey apparently is going to skip the whole crawling thing like her sisters. She scoots on her tummy now, but as you see in the video below, she has decided 6 months is enough time to start getting up and walking.



Who's going to stop her? Not me...

Time Flies

Got an email from the University of California Alumni Association today inviting me to Homecoming this year. They highlight all sorts of events to commemorate my 10 year anniversary of graduation... holy cow, 10 years?? Has it been 10 years since I left that place?? For some reason the 10 years after high school went by so much slower than the 10 years after college. Guess life happens a lot faster as you get older. Anyway, the weekend of Oct 8th, I will bring the family on campus to soak up the Cal experience. Culminating in a the Homecoming football game between Cal and USC. Think the Bears can win one for me? (am I old enough to be a gipper?)

New toy

New iPhone 3GS, new ways to record my kids doing silly things. Like playing Guitar Hero, complete with 80's rocker side pony tail. They will never cease to invent new ways for me to embarrass my kids for the rest of their lives...



My first YouTube submission! (that I can recall....)

Fun with Food

I saw these from Boing Boing a while back and thought they were cool and my kids would love them. So the other night, when I was at a little lost at what to make for dinner. I found a pack of hot dogs leftover from a recent BBQ and decided to try it out.

It's actually trickier than I thought to thread raw spaghetti through hot dogs. The noodles are pretty brittle. I found that doing a few spaghetti at a time helped a little, but mostly the key is to not worry too much about threading them through perfectly. They'll look fine once cooked.

The other important thing is to cook the noodles for a minute or two longer so the part that is inside the hot dog is cooked all the way too. It's not a big deal. Mixed in with the hot dog, my kids probably didn't even noticed if the spaghetti wasn't cooked all the way.

I ended up cutting between the hot dog segments to make them look more wild. They were a fun meal for the kids. I even brought a few to work the next day as a snack. Fun for all ages!

Budding photographer

From Sara's pictures

As a parent, all I try to do is to provide my children with the opportunity to experience as much as possible, and hopefully somewhere along the line, they discover things that they want to spend more time on. That might mean some 3 month lessons in karate or trumpet lessons, but if you know me at all you know I am just not the pushy parents who makes their kids do anything specific. If they don't spend their summer vacation melting their brains in front of the TV, I am pretty much fine with whatever it is they do instead.

(Just to be clear, I have nothing against TV either. My kids pretty much know all of the Disney channel personalities as well. Everything in moderation. I hate parents who turn their nose up at things like High School Musical and Hannah Montana. Those shows aren't made for you. I'm not expecting you to sing along. I'd much rather have my kids knowing the words to a Jonas Brothers song than shaking their little booties to the latest Lil Wayne single....ok, WAY off topic now)

One of the things Sara has been interested in is taking pictures. If you've been around us you know that we are always taking pictures everywhere we go. Digital cameras are indispensable for us and I guess it naturally made an impression on our kids. Sara always ask to use the camera to take pictures of her own and we started to notice that she does a pretty good job. My sister had an old camera laying around so she gave it to Sara recently and she loves it. She takes it wherever she goes and wants to snap a picture of everything. With all this good work, I decided to help her put some of those pictures up somewhere to share with others. If you are interested, check them out here.

Sara's pictures

Freed from wires, not from cords

I hate wires.

Whenever possible I get the wireless versions of all the gadgets I have around the house. Wireless keyboard and mouse, wireless networks, wireless controllers, wireless extension cords (just kidding about that last one. Would be cool though). I had the good fortune today to get wireless headphones that work with my computer as both headphones(I'm actually listening to them right now) and a headset, my phone as a bluetooth headset, and soon as a wireless headphones for the music on said phone. It's the coolest thing. I'm even giving it a plug (wireless, of course) with the Amazon link.

The downside to all of these avoidance of wires is the box of chargers that I now possess. Wireless still needs electricity, and while better than buying tons of batteries, why can't there be more of a standard chargers that more devices can just share? Having something run out of batteries is a minor annoyance. Rummaging through a box of chargers to find the right one is just plain crazy.