Happy Halloween

Pretty active trick or treating in the neighborhood this evening. Lots princesses, super heroes, pirates, and of course witches. Not to mention, our engineer, fireman, and butterfly ballerina. The kids made out on candy pretty well and were excited about sharing with Mommy and Daddy ;-) We were giving away bags of pretzels :-( and didn't have too many takers. There was also some hubbub with police and animal control going on while we were going around the block. Apparently about 20 minutes before we got out a neighborhood pitbull atacked 2 people and a dog on our block. Looks like the dog will be OK, not sure about the status of the people. I'm sure we'll get the full story tomorrow. 

Battling Birthdays

Karen and I had split duty today with the boys invited to one party and Faith to another. I took on the boys at a fire truck themed party. Don't look too long for Reuben, he didn't want to be the picture. Karen had Faith at the party at Cox farm.

Tiring Them Out

Today Karen and I went to wedding for a friend I work with. That meant that the kids were going to be alone with a new babysitter for a long while. So I attempted to tire them out early this morning so they would nap and behave for the new sitter. Turned out I must have done a good job. They all took naps and they were pretty good with the sitter. We'll see how good when the sitter responds to our request for another job for my holiday party; good probably equal yes, not so good probably equals no. The wedding was very nice. 

Three Year Old Logic

Putting the boys to bed always involves a little competition between the two on picking the story book to read. Sometimes we settle on two, a short book and a long book. So tonight Jacob wanted to hear the Dirigible book again, while Reuben wanted a particular truck book. With the Dirigible book being a pretty long read, I asked how long the truck book was. Jacob quickly responded, "40 inches, so it's not that long." Who could argue with that!  

The Stubborn Dirigible

This was my favorite book as a kid. My father got this book from his 1st grade teacher, around 1940. The book was published in 1935 (copyright in 1931) and from what I can gather it was only printed for a short while and is now somewhat of a collectors item. I asked my Dad about it recently because I wanted to start reading it to the boys. 'Lo and behold, he found it. Its in pretty bad shape, but I taped it up pretty good so it at least stays together. Tonight I read it to the boys and they enjoyed the story, though its a tad long for them without many pictures. It was the second time I read it to Jacob; the first was about 2 weeks ago. He remembered the story well, telling me that he wanted to switch seats with Reuben when the storm came. Now that I have the book I have photographed the pages and put them in a pdf file to preserve the story. I think the copyright protection would have expired in 1959, unless it was renewed. Then it would expire in 2026, but I don't know how to check whether it was renewed or not; its definitely out of print. The book actually contains 2 more stories, one about a runaway elevator and the other about a boat that went to school. Both I also remember fondly. Those will be next to be preserved.

The Perfect Meal

My friend at work brewed his own beer and gave me bottle. Tonite I finally tried it with a nice bowl of spaghetti. A great meal and the beer was quite good. I overhead some talking about the beer earlier today that didn't sound so positive. So, I was pleasantly surprised that it was very good. One thing I noticed was that I thought it actually tasted better than it smelled. Maybe that says something for my tastebuds; who knows. 

Dancing Kids

Kids dancing to Thriller at Halloween party. Faith really gets it on towards the end.

Seeing Double... Or Triple

Parents of multiples had their Halloween party today. The kids had lots of fun.

I Left My Heart In SF - Not!

I'm still in California. Spent today in Sacramento and then drove back to SF for a very early flight tomorrow morning. My hotel accomodations continue to improve. Wednesday I stayed at a pretty nice Holiday Inn. Tonite, I'm at the Westin at SFO and it is nice with a very comfy bed. While checking in, the lobby was filled with partying teenage lesbians; no joke. Unfortunately most of them had thicker five o'clock shadows than me. One yelled to the whole a lobby about a party in her room - free alcohol and naked twister. On the way from Sacramento to SF, we stopped in Fisherman's Wharf in the city for dinner. Had a great meal at a place called Scoma's.

The ladybug are back

They were swarming everywhere today. This is just one small corner of the house at 4:30 pm. It was much worse about 3 hours earlier - karen  

California Dreamin'

I thought I was dreaming, but it turns out, I'm really back in California. Tonite I'm Sunnyvale staying a decent motel on El Camino. I'll be out here all week. Sounds like the kids had a good visit with Grandma and Grandpa, who leave tomorrow morning. Faith is feeling well, but her nose is running like mad. Dr. said that it was not normal following the surgery so he has changed her antibiotic. Hopefully, it will control I guess the probable infection. The good thing is that Faith is as cheerful as always. For my best news of the week, I am no longer winless in my fantasy football league. It looked like it was going to be easy win for me going into the 2nd half of tonite's game, but.... my competitor had the Bear's defense who in the last quarter exploded for touchdowns and interceptions that almost cost me my win.

Grandma & Grandpa Are Back

Grandma & Grandpa are in town. They came Wednesday evening to help out while faith is recuperating. As you can see below, she's doing fine. The below photo was taking about 7 hours after the surgery. Here is Grandpa playing with the boys with a great toy they have called Gears, Gears, Gears.  

Adenoidectomy

Faith had an adenoidectomy this morning. All was successful. She was very good and everything went well. She is now sleeping in her bed at home. Here we are in the kids waiting area. The whole procedure was probably 20 minutes or less. She was out for maybe 30 minutes. 

Solidarity

Yesterday Jacob was put in time out. A minute later Karen came back to check on him; Faith and Reuben had joined Jacob in timeout. Next, they are going to picket the White House. Free Tibet! 

Dinner in the Sukkah

Monday night was the pre-school dinner in the sukkah. Reuben and Jacob contributed to the decorations. Reuben told me he made a banana and Jacob said he made an orange. Those fruits may be the ones hangng in the picture below. Both Reuben and Jacob ate very well. Macaroni & cheese, challah, and some juice. Faith didn't eat much dinner, but we still let her have a cookie. Sorry about the picture quality. I forgot my camera, so these are from the phone.