Kiva Loan #5

It's amazing how time has flown since my last post, and it's funny how the last one was a Kiva donation as well. This time I sent my money to Mongolia where Dashdavaa Hurlee will be putting it to use buying more supplies for his grocery store.

Adding another check to my map of countries where my money has gone....

visited 5 states (2.22%)
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Kiva loan #4

My last loan, to a woman raising pigs in the Philippines, was paid back recently so it's time to make another loan via Kiva. So far I've loaned money to four women in Mali who were selling clothing, a group of retailers in Paraguay, the pig farmer in the Philippines, and now a woman's group in Uganda that run a general store.

If you're still unfamiliar with Kiva I recommend taking 5 minutes to get to know them. As I said, I've successfully lent out money three previous times and my money always comes back to me. They're helping people get ahead in life and I find that worthwhile so it's a no-brainer to me.

My lending map is slowly filling up...

helped folks in 4 countries (1.77%)
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Sweet revenge

It's been nine years in the making, but it felt sooooooo good!!!

This was JAM and I at Parent-Child Circus Camp during our next to last class tonight. Yes, tonight was Pie in the Face night for those that wanted to try it out. Me? No, I had no real interest in taking a plate of shaving cream in the kisser, but JAM was all for it and I was more than happy to oblige. See? I'm nothing if not a supportive and compassionate father. Whatever makes 'em happy right?

Yes, I dance around like a goofball, and I'm not sure why my lovely wife let me go out of the house with that outfit on this morning, but you can hopefully excuse my exuberance at getting to smush my kid in the face with a pie. It's a must-do for every parent at least once.

Proud

Earlier tonight was just awesome. My big guy, who we spend wayyyy too much time trying to keep on the straight and narrow, absolutely wowed us twice in one night. First, the spelling bee.

JAM brought home this monster spelling list that was something of a culminating list for 1st and 2nd quarters. 150ish words were on this thing. Some of them I don't think I'd be able to spell without writing them down (I am a man who LOVES SPELL CHECK!!!) It was a daunting list to say the least, especially for a kid who has to work as hard as he does to sit and concentrate on anything not Lego or Star Wars. But he and Wifey studied. And practiced. Hard. For many days. Practiced until words like thoroughbred and ninety nine and handkerchief came out flawlessly without fail.

Then, today was the big day. Actually, it was supposed to be yesterday but they got a one day reprieve from their teacher. For most kids I think that would be a blessing but for our little man it was just another day for the anxiety to build up. He admitted to feeling "real nervous" this morning as he thought about the upcoming event. Did he back down though? Nope. He threw his hat into that purely optional ring (yeah, he could have sat it out if he had wanted, like about half the class decided to do) and he aced that sucka. You heard me - he's one of three finalists from his class now. Got all 13 words he was asked correct. Didn't even pass on a single word. And I'm bragging. And I'm happy to do it.

The finals are tomorrow. The 3 finalists from each 4th grade class. As he said - "8 losers, 1 winner. I better be one of the winners." I didn't say he was the sharpest knife in the drawer, he just spells reel gud. Just like his old man.

So as I sat here tonight watching him absolutely engrossed in his book (with toes on both feet tapping and his left hand playing with his lips, nose, and cheeks - always moving) I was just in awe of this amazing kid. He shows his beautiful head on occasion, like when Wifey posted on FB about yesterday morning when this neverseenbefore kid got up early, all on his own with no grumbling or arguing (a small miracle unto itself), made his bed, came downstairs and made his own lunch.

Then, tonight, was proud moment of the day #2. We all loaded into the van to go see the big science fair backboard viewing thing at his school. They line up all the backboards and present the awards in the gym. It isn't anything formal, just a few hours when parents can walk through and check out all the different projects. In the middle of all the projects on rusting pennies and soda explosions and melting ice there was JAM's, sitting proud with his award taped on, and the smile on his face was priceless. He gave a little fist pump and I gave him a high five and that was it. No running around, no jumping up and down, no hysterics. Another piece of evidence that he's growing more mature every day. Of course I didn't think of taking a picture though. *smacking head* I take pictures of EVERYTHING and I miss that? I'll take one when it comes home for sure but in the moment would have been so much better.

Yup, tonight was a proud night.

Oh how I love thee...

What or who ever you happen to thank for the creation of this here 'verse, there are few things that can truly be praised worldwide. Pizza, Angel Falls, the Grand Canyon, James Cameron (seriously, did you see Avatar? Totally made up for Titanic), the Great Barrier Reef, Firefly... not a whole lot else though. Oh, except for one more thing....

It's strange the things you find at work. I was minding my own business, trolling through our internal social network, checking out blog posts and reading people's bookmarks when I came across this...

Yes folks, it is a handy dandy how to choose a beer chart. Where have you been all my life? Funny as hell and helpful to boot! Especially so considering a certain plan some friends and I are concocting for the Super Bowl party - a beer tournament. 64 beers (maybe 32, we're getting old), bracket style, best beer wins. I'm way more excited than I should be. I understand this and I embrace it. Don't judge me.

Hmmmm... Beer....

How to know you're a geek...

...and/or a moment I never want to forget.

I've embraced my geekdom. Better yet, I should say Gleekdom. I admit it, I love watching Glee. I guess I'm realizing that I never really got over my unfulfilled high school musical potential. Without going into therapy-like detail, there was a legacy for me to live up to in my school - my brother was a high school musical superstar and since it was what I saw it became what I did. I wasn't half bad either. But, I was as socially inept as it comes and I screwed up that scene royally and had to quit everything after my junior year, even though I knew I was good. I was making all-county choirs and leading our school's (kick-ass) choir without even trying but like I said, I drove those relationships into the ground. I told myself leaving was a good thing - I'd never have to deal with those people, and that horrible teacher, again. But truth be told - I missed it once I left. I knew I missed out on a good thing, if only I'd have known how to act.

Wow, getting off the self-pity express now...

So yes, Wifey has successfully gotten me reconnected with my geek self in the form of being hooked on Glee and I'm not one bit ashamed. I mean I'm the one leading the pack trying to get people to join me for our periodic trips to Howl at the Moon (if you don't know what that is you are not even close to cool enough to be reading my space - go fix yourself) so yeah, even after the wanna-be trauma of my high school days I still do enjoy to sing. For her birthday this past weekend (man, I need to post about that party - it was fantastic!) a very nice person got her the Glee Season 1 Soundtrack. It's pretty much been on ever since.

Where's this incredibly off-track/rambling story going? Tonight, as Wifey was putting the little rug-rats into the tub I was being all domestic taking care of the dishes and blasting the Glee on the CD player. I was having a ton of fun, and I'm pretty sure I'd be beaten up in a second if I ever said something like that during a pickup basketball game growing up. Yup, 34 years old, doing dishes and rocking out to pretend teenagers singing the best of the 80's, 90's and today! I ooze cool. Someday I may teach you how.

Unlike what I just mentioned, which I should quickly go get partially lobotomized just so I don't ever have to remember my full descent into geekdom, there was a part of the evening that I don't ever want to forget.... Not wanting the singing goodness to end I threw on the Rent soundtrack after Glee finished. Yeah, I'm a fan. In fact, except for the F'ing Weird song (Tango: Maureen), and the "mooing song" (Over The Moon), I really love to sing to the whole damn soundtrack. With tubby time over, Red came back downstairs just in time for two of my favorites. We rocked out together, dancing all over the kitchen and drumming on everything in sight, including each other, to Today 4 U. Then, I sat on the floor and sang Santa Fe to her. I love that song and sitting there, just the two of us, on the floor of our little kitchen singing together is something I never want to forget.

Singing is good for the soul - and even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket everyone should do it every day.

27 is a lovely number

I won't belabor this. It's probably best to keep it nice and short seeing as how EVERYONE who reads this post will be lumped into the category clearly labeled "hater."

As Wifey will attest, these last few nights have been very stressful, and I had to watch much of the series in fast forward on the DVR because I just couldn't handle all the waiting for the next pitch or to see if Swisher or Tex struck out again.

In the end, it was magic, and the Yanks are back on top where they're supposed to be.

Sending some help to the Philippines

It's Kiva time again and I thought it would be nice to spread some of the help to the land of my bigger girls ancestors - the Philippines. I found this woman raising pigs, she only needed a little bit more money and hey - who hasn't wanted to help out a pig farmer?

Introducing... Elisa Labordo - from Sto Niño, South Cotabato, Philippines. She's almost to her goal, maybe someone here can click over and give her a few bucks? Or, if she's already met her goal by the time you get there please consider giving to someone else. The Kiva experience has been fantastic. They take care of everything, send you updates when parts of your loan get paid back, and let you know when it's time to find a new worthy person looking to make their life better. It's a no brainer to be sure.

Continuing with the mapping of my loans, so far I've donated to folks in Mali, Paraguay and the Philippines

helped 3 states (1.33%)
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It's giving time again

Back in February I made our first loan via the Kiva web site to a group of women in Mali who were buying cloth to resell in local markets. The group has steadily been repaying the loan and I've almost been reimbursed the full $25 initial loan. With only a few dollars remaining on that original loan still owed to me I thought it would be a good time to start another loan. The idea would be to start a new loan when the previous wasn't quite done and eventually I'd have enough left over from each of the previous loans to be able to cover a second loan independently. That's the idea anyway.

Here's the group I've decided to loan to - the Las Mercedes Group. I chose a group with a shorter repayment schedule to speed up the process a little bit to hopefully get that second loan in play sooner.

Adding to the map from my first donation -
Country donated to: Mali, Paraguay

visited 2 states (0.88%)
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Catching up again

Been having a lot of fun with the kids lately, and that feels good. In the past few weeks I've felt like I've been too much out of the picture, between working most of their waking hours, then having so many things to do over the weekend. It pretty much stunk. So I've been very happy these last few days because I've been able to spend a lot more time with my babies.

First, Wifey got to be a big-wig and go to an advanced screening of a new movie - Away We Go - on Wednesday night. While she was off playing with the other special people I took the kids to Lake Artemesia for a walk, a picnic dinner, and hopefully we would see some ducks to feed. We were in luck, because we saw some ducks, geese, turtles, and even a beaver as it swam by. Everyone was so excited when a family of geese came over and enjoyed a TON of white bread for dinner.

And if those pictures didn't do enough to really bring you the whole experience...

Moving on... I had an amazing experience yesterday that allowed me to see a little bit of JAM in his natural environment. :) He invited me to speak at his school's career day and I loved it. I collected some pictures to show the kids some of what we do, then I had this cool activity planned where they were going to build soda straw rockets. We do quite a bit of rocketry work at the Lab so I thought it would be fun if the kids got to experience a little bit of that. I borrowed the activity from a course that we bring to the Lab once in a while, where actual budding rocket scientists take a course on missile design, then they have some fun and build rockets out of straws and shoot them off using this cool launcher connected to a compressor.

I did the activity with the first of the three classes I spoke to, but I quickly found out that there were some problems - the teacher was not ready for such free-wheeling activity in her classroom, she wasn't ready to actually help all that much so it took far longer to complete than it should have, and she had not prepared her students to work cooperatively in pairs because these kids had no idea how to work together at all. Her response? "These aren't really 'sharing' kids." Nice. After that, I realized that we would need a lot more time to do the activity well in the second and third classes (including JAM's), so I bagged it and asked to be invited back where I'll run them through it without such a time crunch. Normally JAM would have been crushed at not having things go according to plan but he had built a couple missiles with me the night before so he took it really well. Without that previous experience, and with his expectation being built up all morning, it would have been a bad situation had we not been able to work together the night before. I was proud of him though, he was great and it was wonderful seeing him in class.

After I was done at his school, I came home and hooked up with Wifey and the two little ones at Wifey's new playgroup at the new playground just down the street. D, C and J actually joined us (which was a great surprise for me as it gave me someone to talk to :) ) and we had lunch and the kids played really well. There was one issue with a swing where a local kid had wrapped it up around the pole on the swingset. Usually you just swing it back the other way and it is all fine again but this one was tied in a knot of some kind. So, D picked me up on his shoulders (yeah, all 215+ pounds of me) and I somehow clambered up onto the top bar where I tried to unwrap this thing without falling and breaking a wrist or a leg.

Witness...



Yup, that's silly 'ol me hoisted 10' above the ground trying to fix the swing. In work clothes nonetheless. *shaking head* Really, it seemed like a good idea at the time. You want to know the kicker of it all though? It didn't work. Turns out it would have required two hands to unknot it and there was no way I was letting go with both hands to make that happen. So, it'll stay that way until the HOA comes to fix it.

Finally, today was fantastic so far. Wifey had another opportunity to go out, this time to a writing workshop down in D.C. so I borrowed the Dab's bike and two wheel bike trailer, we packed a lunch and JAM's bike, and we went back to Lake Artemesia for a bike ride, some playground time, and a picnic lunch. So much fun...

I forgot to pack the camera though so these were all taken with my phone then I emailed them to myself. Don't tell Wifey though, we're one of the few people left in the country without a texting plan so those cost us like $0.25 each. :) But, DAMN! Don't they look amazing together? I hope our friends don't get too mad that our kids are so much cuter than anyone else's. I'm sure they've come to grips with it by now. lol

Off to pick up Wifey from the Metro for a quick trip to IKEA, then some meatballs for dinner, then, maybe if one of them haven't ruined it all with a tantrum of some kind, maybe some Rita's for (as Red would call it) a'zert.

Enjoy them when they happen (long post, sorry)

I'm talking, of course, about those good moments, the ones you wish were happening while someone under the age of nine is screaming or crying or pouting or lying to you. In the past two days, I've had a good dose of the good and the bad, and I'm writing them here to remember them either when things get really good and I need to be taken down a few pegs, or when things turn really bad and I need to remember that yes, I still do love these children.

Start with yesterday. How amazing is it that moods and attitudes can shift in the space of 90 minutes. As I walked in the door yesterday, JAM was upstairs playing by himself (he likes to get a head start on being a reclusive teenager I guess) but Pudge and Red were both in the living room playing. As soon as I walked into the hallway, Red and Pudge both ran (literally ran) over to me and gave me the biggest and most happy hugs I've gotten in a long time. I thought it was my birthday. I felt so welcomed it was fantastic. What a welcome change from the typical situation where someone is crying/screaming about something when I walk in.

But with the good goes the bad right? Call it karma I guess (thank you Jason Lee), things can't ever seem to stay happy around here for long. From my fantastic welcome home greeting, we'll fast forward 90 minutes to after dinner and the end of play time and transition upstairs to bath and bed. The last few nights (weeks) have been a bit chaotic around here, and it was all our fault. As we're desperately trying to get some final things done to the house before Red's party this weekend we've been a bit preoccupied, using all available minutes to get stuff done. For instance, last night after dinner while Wifey was cleaning up the kitchen, I was caulking the new molding in the hallway and the kids were having a blast playing in the living room. Things got a bit out of control, as they are likely to do when no one is really keeping a lid on the excitement, so little miss Red was not in the frame of mind to stop playing when it was finally time to go upstairs. Fast forward again and Red is in bed without bath or book, screaming like a banshee for a solid 30 minutes. Add on top of that poor Pudge not wanting to go to sleep and us having to listen to him cry on and off for about another 90 minutes. Oh yes, good times.

As bad as last night was, tonight was absolutely a different world. Wifey's friend L joined us for dinner and then they stole off to do some shopping for home accessories. I had thought a lot about the issues of last night and figured that the chaotic post-dinner playtime had a lot to do with the difficult transitions we've suffered through these last few nights. So instead of ignoring them in order to get other things done, I kept a close lid on the kid's activities, keeping them to low-key stuff like Legos and books, and what do you know? Red was perfect for the end of play into bath transition. We had an absolutely amazing tub, smooth book time, and while I put Pudge to sleep and JAM took his shower, Red read in her bed. (that was a funny sentence to say out loud. :) ) Pudge actually went down without much of a fuss, I snuggled with Red for a bit then said good night and she went right off to sleep. JAM and I hung out downstairs for a while and the final following thing happened that really capped off quite a nice evening...

Jam and I were talking, and although I honestly can't remember exactly what the subject was it was something where I had to explain something to him. The end result was that after I told him whatever it was he asked how I knew. My standard response to that kind of question? Same as every quality father would say... "because Daddy knows everything." You know, that used to work too. What did I get for my trouble this time? A world-class teenager eye roll and an exasperated "whatever!"

So in true teacher fashion, I turn it into a teachable moment to work on making sure he never develops that absolute blind trust that got me into so much trouble. Seriously, I would believe everyone and everything growing up. Not sure why, I just never questioned much of anything, I just trusted people not to lie or take advantage of me. Yeah, not the greatest idea in retrospect. But to test his thinking, I asked him if there really were people who knew everything in the world. I was glad to hear him say no. There is a long way to go to make sure he knows when to call someone out if they're laying a line of BS at his feet, but it was a start. But, as I continued -

"There are some things that Daddy knows..."
"There are some things that Mommy knows..."
"There are some things that JAM knows..."

Without skipping a beat, you know what he says in the same tone and inflection I had used?

"There are some things that Mommy makes up..."

I promise, I didn't coach him at all. And after I stopped laughing, I told him he was a funny, funny kid. What made it so funny was the truth behind it. Yeah, I'm going to get kicked for this one, but I'll still share. :)

The "inventiveness" of a certain female parental unit around here is quite a well documented phenomena. When telling stories, which if you haven't noticed she is quite fond of, the literal truth sometimes takes a backseat for a certain level of embellishment. But, what truly great storyteller doesn't do that right? Only I found her one of the best shirts of all time a while back. No, I don't have a picture of this one like I do the other, but it really is a perfectly simple plain t-shirt that reads "I make stuff up". Yup, nothing like getting straight to the point. For once.


And last, as if anyone is really reading mess at this point, I realized I never got a picture up of the last shirt I got her... It was her birthday present last year and I never posted about it. I'm a bad blogger. But, here it is... I made it at Cafe Press and it was super easy to use their site. I created the logos in Fireworks and uploaded them and was done in like 10 minutes.

The shirt is there, with a close up of the logos. The quote isn't really a quote so much as a bastardization of a line from "Anchorman," and the logo on the back is her signature from her blog. Not too bad if I do say so myself. Even if I did mess it up on the first try and had to order a replacement with the correct quote on the front. Oh well. And the kicker? Cafe Press told us rather than send the bad one back to them, we should keep the messed up one too. She now has one good one and one messed up one to wear around the house. Funny stuff, but it went a long way to show me how great that company was, and I'll definitely use them again.

If you made it this far, you're either married to me or you have something seriously wrong with you. And you know who you are. Thanks though! :)


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What's for dinner?

Spread the word - the universe's best tasting (and surprisingly, not as bad for you as you might otherwise get*) chicken is on sale tonight!

Oh yes, I do mean !!!!! Or, as a much younger JAM used to call it - Pop-Yes.

Apparently, today is Popeyes Payday. I don't care what they call it, if it means cheap chicken then I'm all for it! That's right, 8 pieces of chicken for $4.99. I... am.... THERE!

Enjoy - just make sure you take a nice hot shower after you're done. That stuff is so greasy it follows you around for a while.

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*Thanks to The Daily Plate for the following little comparison I put together-

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Happy snow day!

What a glorious day! For three years we've been waiting. And not even patiently. I hate the cold. Being cold stinks. If it is going to be cold we should at least get some snow out of it right? Well, today we cashed in. A little bit at least. This was no Rochester snow dump or Minnesota blizzard but around these parts we call 8 inches impressive. (Yes Trillian and Orange, I left that in there for you guys.) School closed for JAM, and work even closed for me (not that I was going in anyway) so we were all cleared for a day of outside family fun.

The start of the day, all nicely undisturbed - I love that. It was even still snowing when these were taken. It didn't stop until about 9:30 or so.

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After breakfast we all suited up and went outside to shovel out. Seriously, it didn't take that long, it was the light and fluffy type snow so no back breaking labor needed. This was Red's and Pudge's first real snow so we were excited for them.

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JAM was lucky enough to find that his friend was over at his Dad's (next door) for the day. He and JAM had a blast playing in the piles as his Dad and I cleared and shoveled out the cars.

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Oh geez, just look at those front teeth. :)

And, no snow day would be complete without the mandatory sledding trip! We all piled into the van and headed down to pick up some friends to head over to the hill behind our community library. Nice sized hill, no jagged rocks, little woods at the end of the run for added excitement. JAM's friend and his Dad joined us near the end, good times were had by all.

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Well, good times were had by everyone except poor Pudge. Poor little man was not enjoying the wind blowing the snow all around. We had parked up at our friends house, then walked down to the library but by the time we got there he was just in hysterics. He looked like he was exhausted and the cold and wind weren't helping one bit. I offered to walk back to the van with him and bring it back hoping he would fall asleep as we were driving around. I had to drive around the block a few times but eventually he passed out. By the time I got back to the parking lot Red had had enough of the wind and wanted to get into the van with Wifey (oh yes, angry and yelling at the wind... good times). As they enjoyed some warming up time and a snack (and Pudge continued to snooze) I got to take a few runs down the hill with JAM.

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Once Red had warmed up and calmed down a bit she and Wifey joined us again for some runs.

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And all of this before lunch!!! So far, a great family day. How could we top it off? Well, what do you need to eat on a cold, snowy winter night? SOUP!!! Yuppers, after both little ones went down for nap I got busy in the kitchen and whipped up a batch of Tortilla Lime Chicken Soup from my brother's recipe. Check out what was waiting for us when we went up to wake up Pudge (who actually fell asleep for a second nap for the first time in a LOOONNNGGGG time - walking around in the snow for about 20 minutes must have just tuckered him right out) -

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Oh, and the soup? Soooooooo good. It came out just perfectly too. Add a few toasted-cheese sandwiches and a nice hot fire in the stove, snow on the ground outside... it just doesn't get any better than that. The kids were all beautifully behaved during dinner, Wifey and I enjoyed our soup (Pudge tore into his and even Red took a bite), and all was good.

Witness...

Recipes available for $23.99 but you'll have to ask my brother first. It may be just too good to share. :)

Let's hear it for perfect days huh? There aren't nearly enough of those to go around so we need to celebrate them when they happen.