It's Finally Here!

Marilyn received an advance copy of her book Vile Things today!
You can pre-order it thru Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Search-Vile-Things-One/dp/0439908884
It'll probably be in the Scholastic Book Fair after November.
The Second book is done and will be on shelves sometime next year. We're hoping it goes to a third or more in the series. $$!!
We will need to travel to exotic lands so she can observe animals up close.
Meanwhile, she is hard at work on her next series: Haunted Histories. Hopefully it'll be out 2010. It takes about 18 months for a book go through "the machine". The writing and artwork are actually faster than what happens after the publisher gets it. It'll be very fun.

I am very proud of her.

My son the dancer!

Photo courtesy of lawrence Kims' blog: http://www.laurencekimblog.com/

Two weeks ago my sister Wendy got married on San Juan Island. The wedding photographer posted some of the photos on his blog. Check them out. Wendy and Brett are the second group down. Joel was the king of the dance floor that night.

Neemo update

After spending 2 nights at the vet's Neemo came home. We have to give him antibiotics for a few more days but he is back to his old self.
The vet wasn't sure why he was sick. The IV and the antibiotics helped.
Today, he woke me up 3 times while I was trying to take a nap because he needed attention or because I wasn't supposed to be napping. So, things are back to normal.
We had to go out of town the day after he came home so he was probably a little disoriented for a day or so. He was very POed with me last night. He sat on my night stand facing away from me while I read. Then slept on my shoulder after I went to sleep, facing away from me. So I guess I have been shunned. I hope I learned my lesson.
I'm glad he's ok. I really am a creature of habit and cats seem to reinforce that. After being on the road for a few days, it's good to be able to fall back into those familiar routines (ruts?).

Neemo

My best buddy, Neemo is in the hospital tonight. He's our cat of 15 years. He has been feeling poorly the last week or so. We thought is was just the heat or fleas, I took him to the vet and they wanted to keep him overnight because he was dehydrated and needed an IV drip and antibiotics.
We knew that something was not right because usually when anyone comes into the house Neemo would run in terror to hide under the bed. But lately, he would just look up from the file cabinet next to my desk where he naps and then just go back to sleeping.
It's hard for me to get to sleep since for the past decade or so, Neemo has at 9pm every night come and meowed in a voice belonging to a much larger cat, at me, telling me it's time for bed. I then spend the next hour or so reading while Neemo makes biscuits on my shoulder. After I go to sleep, Neemo sleeps on top of me. Five minutes before the alarm goes off, he is meowing and pushing on my face to wake up. We're still working on the idea of weekends, but he means well...
We couldn't bring him home tonight because he's not eating. He has always been a fussy eater, but the vet wanted to make sure he was ok. Hopefully, he'll be well enough to come home tomorrow.
We really are cat people. The rhythm of our house revolve around their whims. I feel a little lost.

Here's a picture Marilyn drew of Neemo and a photo of him when he brought me a mouse at 3 am(I was so proud)!

Marilyn's book got reviewed

This is Marilyn's toy book. You can check it out at http://thetoymaker.com/
She's had millions of her toys downloaded by people all over the world. It's pretty cool to see her be able to touch that many people's lives in a positive way.

George Carlin 1937-2008

I grew up listening to George Carlin records. I was introduced to them by a friend who had an older brother and he would let us listen to his records--they were much cooler than ours. My sister Val and I would memorize some of the cleaner routines and repeat them at the dinner table. Everyone one would laugh till it hurt. We thought his drug humor was funny even though we did "get" all of the joke.

Through George Carlin I got interested in all sorts of other comedians and writers. Every time I use the word "stuff" I think about his riff on "stuff".

Earlier this year, we rented his last HBO special from net flicks and thought we'd watch it as a family. We talked to our son before and prepped him for the language part; none of this is repeatable at school. That many swear words just got boring.
I enjoyed his observations and his message that we need to not take things for granted, but the swearing got old fast. Maybe I'm getting old?

Here's the wikipedia link for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_carlin

Grooming gone bad

Most days I am so proud of my child.  

Then this evening he was combing his hair and somehow GOT HIS COMB STUCK IN HIS HAIR!  How does this happen?

Maybe we're just crappy parents for letting him use something so obviously dangerous without appropriate supervision.  

Oh well, here's one more thing for those future therapy sessions....

That's my boy!

Bathroom Hell update

I insulated the walls, put up the wonderboard, got the tile on the floor (except for the hole, which is waiting for the plumber) and the tile on the walls, painted the walls and and put the light fixture up.  Yesterday, we put the new clawfoot tub in.  

All that's left is having the plumber connect the drain and put the valves on and patch the hole.  Then I can grout the tile, and hook up the sink, tub and toilet.  Then again, the fixtures for the tub, and the whole sink have yet to arrive.... 

I have some trim tiles too but I'm hoping i can finish that this week.

Maybe by this weekend?

Bathroom Hell!

What's better than having a water leak in one bathroom?  Having a water leak in both bathrooms!

We noticed some water staining along the base boards and near the tub drain in our big (?) bathroom at the end of the hall.  We had been planning to do a remodel for some time but want to wait till we could afford it etc...  Oh, well.

I pulled up one of the base boards and found mold of various colors.  So, that lead to cutting out some of the wainscoting, which lead to a total bathroom re-do.  After I got the wall boards off we found that the shower pan in the other bathroom is leaking as well!  Wonderful.

We also found that our tub drain was cracked below the slab and needed to be replaced!

This calls for a real plumber, so we call a friend of a friend who is real good/cheap and he makes a big hole in the floor, cuts out the old drain then tells us he has to go out of town for a week or two!

This projects is approaching the point where it is cheaper and easier to just burn the house down and start over.

The good news is I am off-track (since I work through the summer I get to take time off thru the year) all next week so I am going to be able to work on the bathroom.  

My district has "spring break" in April so I can work on the other bathroom then.  Oh-boy!

Then again is is very therapeutic for me.

Cub Scouting

Two weeks ago, I took my cub scouts SCUBA diving!
Sports Chalet has a program called "Discover SCUBA". It's a free 2 hr. intro to diving.
4 boys, another dad and I went. It was great! I used to dive years ago and have forgotten how much fun it was.
Also, for Joel it was very exciting. We've been doing swim lessons for years with little signs of improvement. Finally I bought him a mask and snorkel and had him try it. He took to it right away, with no fear or hesitation whatsoever.
The pool at Sport Chalet went from 4' to 13'. Joel was the only one of the cubs to go to the bottom of the 13'. He spent an hour underwater and we had to drag him out of the pool when it was over.
Several of the other boys were "non swimmers" but they were still able to play around underwater. It was very exciting for all of us!

I want this job!

I saw this on Dark Roasted Blend.
So, how does one get a job doing this?

17 and counting

Yesterday Marilyn and I celebrated our 17th anniversery. Who have thunk it?
I hadn't done anything for 17 years, except maybe college...
I can't imagin having a better life. Like Mike Scott says "Woman of the hearthfire, you're the harbor of my soul" ("Bang on the ear" by the Waterboys)

One of my all time favorite songs is John Hiatt's "Have a little faith in me". It sort of sums up the last 17 or so years:

When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me

And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try
And have a little faith in me
And

Chorus:
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me

When your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darlin
From a whisper start
To have a little faith in me

And when your backs against the wall
Just turn around and you will see
I will catch, I will catch your fall baby
Just have a little faith in me


Well, Ive been loving you for such a long time girl
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
cause for us there is no end
And all you gotta do is have a little faith in me
I said I will hold you up, I will hold you up
Your love gives me strength enough
So have a little faith in me

My friend Kit Creely

Today I went to the wake of an old family friend. Kit Creely passed away on June 12th of heart failure.
I had known Kit since JR. Hi. His daughter Anne was a friend and my sister and Anne's sister were friends. My mom is really close to the family and sees them quite often.
It's funny how good it felt to be in their house again after so many years. I am sorry that it was because Kit was gone.
He was one of those people I always ejoyed talking to. Even in my asshole-youth phase. He was an adult that was easy to talk to.
Kit was a third generation book seller until Crown books ran his little book store ot of business. He also loved airplanes and flying. When I graduated from flight school, he was one of the people I wanted to stop by in my new flight suit with aviator wings on it, because I knew he would understand and think it cool.
I had forgotten how special Anne was too. She was my friend when very few people would be. And she was greating everyone at the wake and making sure everyone
I'm sad for them.
I'm sad for me too.

Jinkies! My wife Rocks!

My wife had lunch today with Bob Singer. He's the guy who drew The Flintsones, Jonny Quest and Scooby Doo among others.
He drew for Marilyn a picture of Velma for me.
I always had kind of a thing for Velma; this explanes a lot ....

Painting Party

Last weekend the cubscouts had a painting party.
Around the corner from our house is a little old lady who can't quite keep her house up. It was painted yellow, light green, dark green, blue, brown and white. And not in a good way either. Plus, she has nine million (or so) boxes and tubs stacked up around the house. Needless to say the city was not happy with this and was sending her nastygrams. So, the cubscouts of Pack 373 went over and painted her house. It was great for the boys. They got to learn how to roll and spray paint, plus we did something nice for someone.
The strange thing is that she has junk piled up inside the house to the point that you couldn't walk through any of the rooms (that we could see through the windows) and that her water doesn't work.
We hooked up with the Lions Club and they have donated several dumpsters and the head of the sanitation district has been fixing up her yard for her on his own time.
The ammount of stuff piled up makes me nervous.
Here's a good link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers

Computer Using Educators

I forgot to mention this; Last weekend I was in Palm Springs presenting at the Computer Using Educators conference.
I presented a 3 hour class on using digital ca,eras in the classroom, which i've done for a few years now. I also presented a NEW idea I've had: "Staff Development That Doesn't Suck". Most teacher professional development is painful.
Anyhow, PS was good. My family came along and played in the pool while I yakked.
I still have to submitt my per diem stuff and I am not looking forward to that talk with my boss..."yes, boss, I did spend my daily $15 on dinner. Yes, the whole $15, no the beer on the reciept is not mine..."
Next year, i plan to expand my talk to 2 hours. I focused mostly on planning and I want to look at better presentation skills and classroom stuff.
We'll see.

Thanks to the cicus hall of fame for the cool photo!

Early birthday!

Being the most spoiled man in the world, I got an early birthday present! My birthday isn't for another 2 weeks, but a couple weeks ago my wife bought me a new guitar. (my latest Mr. Toad-like mania) She wanted me to have a "real grown-up guitar". It's a Gretsch 5120. I got Vintage Orange for the cool retro vibe. It has a great sound and feels really nice to play (once I got rid of the extra heavy store strings). The tone is amazing. This is the first hollow body I've played and I am hooked.
Marilyn has said my playing has already gotten better just in the last 2 weeks.
I am so jazzed. I started playing guitar again about 6months ago after a hiatus of 20 years or so. It's a good de-stressor after work and a good mental puzzle for me.
The past year or so I have been listening to mostly jazz and instrumental rock; except of course for Cheap Trick and Bowling for Soup. The reason is since I am in classrooms all day long; I don't want to hear words on the way home in the truck. Most of the instrumental stuff I listen to is Surf-Rock. I've never surfed but don't see that as an impediment. At least not yet.
I've been learning a few of the classics: Having An Average Weekend, Pipeline and Apache as well as a couple things by Django. I just started lessons because I want to learn to read music as well as unlearn the bad habits I have. I will keep you posted.

Beakman!

This last weekend the Waters family went out to see "Beakman Live". It was great! If yo get a chance--GO!
Beakman does a great show on Science, making it fun and easily absorbed.
Marilyn and I were both picked to go up on stage and "help out". I realize I'm going all fan-boy.....
Paul Zaloom (Beakman) teaches the way we should. I think it's important to instill a sense of "ooh" and "ahh", especially when you talk about science. Kids need to see the wonder of discovery; otherwise they will stop asking questions.
After the show, I asked Mr. Zaloom how we could get teachers to teach more like him? He replied "Get rid of standardized testing". Ahmen.
Heres' some links:
http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/kids/beakmansworld/index.html
http://www.paulzaloom.com/index2.html

Nursed back to health

Over the weekend Joel and I went quad riding. It was great! The weather was bright and clear, in the mid 70's. However, I had a small boo-boo and sortta' dislocated my hip a little.
When I got home, Marilyn yanked on it for me and it popped back in. I felt lot's better. I also had a vicodin and a nap. Fortunately, I had Joel and several stuffed dogs and Neemo the cat to look after me.
I am loved, by several species.

Xmas decorations

This year, our street is having a house decoration contest. What was supposed to be a good-natured way of adding some holiday spirit has turned in to an all out rage-in-the-cage battle.
I think it was rigged.
We tied for 4th with our next door neighbor, who we think should have won. She had a very cool display. One house is rumoured to have had live animals in their manger scene....
Anyhow, here's ours: